plight, but you're not getting this back until I'm satisfied there's nothing in it that can help Nina,” Jared said, shoving it under his arm.
Kim took a step forward. “We had a deal.”
“I haven't forgotten that,” Jared answered.
Father Francis came in with the first aid kit, taking quick steps. “I'm afraid it wasn't where I thought it would be….” he said, trailing off.
“Jared!” Bex yelled. “They're coming!”
“Oh my God,” Kim whispered, her eyes slowly rising to the ceiling.
A deafening boom surrounded St. Anne's. Every window burst inward, covering the ground with shards of colored glass. Jared took me to the floor, covering me with his body.
Even after the explosion, it sounded as if a tornado was hovering above the church.
“Not in the House of the Lord!” Father Francis yelled over the noise, his arms extended to the sky.
The priest was lifted high in the air by an invisible assailant, his legs kicking until he was blown back, smashing into the beautiful mural high above the stage. Pieces of the painting came down with him when he fell to the floor.
Bex rolled into the aisle, and then took off toward the priest, so fast his body was a blur. He took Father Francis, limp and lifeless, into his arms.
The wind rushing through the broken windows blew Bex's platinum hair wildly as he felt for a pulse on the priest's neck.
“He's alive!” Bex called.
Another explosion shook the building, and pieces of the ceiling fell in large chunks onto the pews, sending sheet rock and plaster into the air.
“We have to move!” Jared yelled, pulling me to my feet.
The large wooden door blew open, forcing another strong pulse of wind across the room. Had Jared not kept his arms around me, I would have fallen over.
I held my hand to my face to shield it from the blast. When I lowered it, Shax was standing in the doorway.
He wore an all-black suit, shirt and tie, matching his cold, obsidian eyes. A small smirk was on his face. He was finally ready to fight.
Jared stood his ground, positioned in front of me. Claire stood on the other side, guarding her Taleh.
Shax looked to each side of the church in dramatic fashion. “Where is your Samuel now, Jared?”
“He's around,” Jared said, his body rigid.
“I'm afraid you've made yet another mistake, and Heaven won't intervene this time.”
Two shadows that had been lurking behind Shax came into view under the dim light of the church. Isaac and Donovan stood on each side of their demonic master, their expressions anxious and ready. They had come to murder us all.
Jared shifted. “Isaac, listen to me. You don't have to do this.”
“Shut up,” Donovan said.
“I don't want you to die,” Jared continued, “but if he comes near her, I'll kill him.”
Isaac smiled. “Not if I kill her, first. And I will.”
“You're outnumbered,” Claire said, her small yet frightening voice somehow carrying across the room.
Shax grinned, and the long, clawed hands and feet of the night filtered into the room, covering the walls and ceiling. I looked above me, seeing grotesquely malformed bodies of demonic minions scale the crumbling rafters.
The smell of burnt flesh and sulfur was overwhelming, and I could feel bile rise in my throat. Shax's servants weren't screeching this time, but making strange, excited cooing and whistling noises, waiting for the order to attack.
“Give me the book,” Shax hissed.
“No,” Jared said, tossing the leather bound pages to Kim.
“I dare you to come and get it, though,” Kim smiled.
Shax slowly turned his head to Isaac, and then Isaac's smirk turned into a satisfied grin. He pushed the far pew with both hands, slamming it into the pew before it, creating a domino effect. As the heavy benches toppled over and blew forward with the speed of a freight train, Jared and Claire reacted, jumping to the other side with Ryan and I in tow.
Kim simply side-stepped to the center aisle, remaining calm as thousands of pounds of wood narrowly missed her body.
“You're going to have to do better than that,” Kim said.
Isaac leaped the hundred yards to Kim's position, and then wrapped on hand around her throat, lifting her off the ground. “I'm not a demon. You can't control me.”
With a grunt, Isaac threw Kim back, but Bex moved quick, catching her before she collided with the podium. The demons concentrated in the area closest to Kim scattered, afraid of being too close.
Bex looked Kim in the eyes, and after she acknowledged that she was okay, he scrambled to his feet, taking off full speed, slamming into Isaac. When they collided, a loud crack echoed throughout the cathedral.
My human eyes couldn't make out who was hitting who, until Bex hit Isaac so hard that his body sailed across the air, and he landed in the exact spot he started, next to Shax.
“It's like people tennis,” Ryan said, in awe. “Everyone keeps flying across the room.”
Isaac wasn't about to quit. He engaged Bex again, but this time Isaac got the upper hand. Bex was on the ground, and after the second time Isaac landed a blow that would have been fatal to a human, Jared's arm tensed.
“Do something!” I said.
“I can't leave you,” he said. “If I take my attention off of you for a second, they'll attack.”
Donovan walked down the center aisle with purpose, dodging the falling chunks of ceiling. Claire pulled out her firearm, aiming right at his face. Isaac's attention was distracted, then, and Bex head-butted Isaac, and then threw him against Donovan. They both slid across the floor.
Isaac stood, pulled out his gun, and aimed directly at Ryan.
“No!” Claire said, throwing herself in front of him.
Ryan and Claire were face to face when Isaac's gun discharged. Claire's body jerked twice as it was hit, and Ryan's horrified expression matched hers.
Stunned, Claire looked down, and then turned to Jared. “They went through me.”
Claire and Ryan fell to their knees at the same time, and Jared rushed to his sisters side. He pulled me with him, and I fell to my knees just behind him.
Ryan's head fell back, and he coughed, blood spraying up and spattering across his cheek.
“Oh, God, no!” Jared cried, pulling off his shirt and wadding it up, pressing it against Ryan's wounds.
Isaac's maniacal laugh seemed to be all around us. “I always wanted to see that smug smile wiped off your face, Claire.”
Bex glanced at the bloody scene, and then focused on Isaac, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He lowered his chin, then, and his expression morphed into something one might see from a demon rather than an angel.
Claire looked up at her brother, expressionless. “End this.”
Horrified, I watched Claire tend to Ryan's wounds, but within moments, Jared pulled me to my feet.
He took my hand in one of his, and then pulled out his side arm with the other. He pointed it directly at Isaac, shooting one round after another, walking toward him as he fired, forcing me to follow.
Isaac jerked with each hit, stumbling backward. “You son-of-a-bitch!” Jared screamed, his eyebrows and lips pulled in so tight, the skin around them was white.
“Jared!” Bex cried, but it was too late.
Donovan had his gun to Jared's temple. “I suppose it'll take you a while to heal from this one,” Donovan said.
An abrupt blast resounded in the room, and Donovan fell to his knees, finally falling over, succumbing to the bullet hole I had just shot into his brain.
