Gadus lifted her eyebrow.
“No sacrifice.”
“Oh we don’t need one. We are just negotiating. First, summon me, then we’ll bind the deal.”
“You want to take me through the summoning bit?”
Gadus turned and waved her hand. There, burned in the marble wall were the summoning words. She turned back and grinned. “It’s very simple, even an idiot can do it.”
Bridgeton thought this was his cue and opened his mouth to speak. Father Santos stuffed the retrieved altar cloth in it.
Jesse closed his eyes and listened for the voice which reminded him of the words Father Simon had given him. He smiled and then waved his arm. “Miss Gee, er, Gadus, if you will stand in the middle of the circle. Please.”
The demon did so with a skip in her step. She turned slowly around, her skirts brushing the top of the flooring.
Jesse began to speak. Just before he exchanged his first word, Gadus’s skirt snagged on a sliver of wood. She looked down and noticed for the first time that the floor had been altered. Before she could react, even to shout stop, Jesse had finished.
The cherry wood dissolved into blood, and the edges of the circle rose in a lattice pattern until the circle became a cage. Gadus’s skirts absorbed the blood of the innocents she sacrificed, and the weight of all her wrongdoing pulled her down until she lay prone. The north end of the half-circle cage rose until it was balanced on the south edge. It spun around like a top, increasing its speed until, to the men left in the room, it looked like a solid orb. The orb decreased in size until it was too small to see, and only Cid heard the tiny pop, no louder than a bubble, and the orb was gone.
Jesse looked down through the large hole in the floor and waved at Faye who was teaching a dozen Italians what a high-five was. Daniel rose up through the floor joists and nodded to Father Santos. “Father, may I have the Lord’s supper before you send me on?”
“Yes, my son, it would be my pleasure.”
Daniel’s eyes opened wide as the torn-cloaked woman rose up behind the priest. He opened his mouth to warn him, but just as quick, the woman fell to ash.
Cid stood there with Sariel’s dagger, just inches from Father Santos. “Excuse me, Father, but I may have just sinned?”
Jesse started laughing.
Bridgeton made a noise to get their attention. He was still gagged.
Jesse walked over and removed the altar cloth. “Watch what you say, there is still an acolyte with a hammer around.”
“I was going to thank all of you,” he said. “I’ve been living a half-life since I could remember.”
Father Santos helped Jesse untie Bridgeton. He looked at the crucifix before he handed it back to Cid. “That’s Mia’s. I know because I blessed it for her. How is it that you have it?”
“It gets around. I’m not really sure,” Cid said, not wanting to change focus on the job at hand. “We need to get Father Simon to the hospital.”
“Not yet,” Father Simon said from the doorway. He stood holding on to Murphy who had just set him on his feet. “Stephen carried me down. I was having a conversation with this fellow, and he asked for my help.”
The last acolyte glided into the room and stood before Father Santos. He put his hammer and the four black crystals down in front of the priest. “I have been used as an instrument of evil until today. Today, I followed the farmer’s advice and performed a good deed,” he said.
“For which we are all grateful. Thank you,” Father Santos said. “I will counsel you on what you need to do soon. Please give me a moment to reflect. Father Simon, will you hear my confession?”
“Yes, Father, shall we adjourn to the library? Stephen, if you will carry me, I promise to give you time to skedaddle before we bring the light,” Father Simon said.
“It would be an honor,” Murphy said, lifting up the young priest. “Later, we must exchange battle stories.”
Father Simon winced as he just only stopped a laugh in time. “It would be a pleasure.”
Bridgeton walked over and looked at the congressman’s body. He took off his jacket and covered his face to give the corpse some dignity. “He tried to save us. I hope it will be enough to balance the sins he held.”
“What do you remember of the first time you saw August?” Cid asked Bridgeton.
“I was playing in the yard when this shadow man approached me. He asked if I wanted to play a game…” Bridgeton frowned. “I was never completely alone after that.”
“When this is resolved, you may want to have Father Santos check you over to make sure no residue remains of the negative elemental that was August Atwater.”
“I will. Now I’m trying to think of how to explain my grandfather’s broken neck to the police.”
“There is a very large hole in the floor,” Cid mentioned. “He could have fallen. We have a priest who may have seen it happen.”
“Miss Gee isn’t really gone, is she?” Bridgeton said rubbing his arms.
“No. We can’t kill a heritage demon, but she will have to answer some hard questions with her peers and, most likely, be unable to participate on this plane of existence for some time.”
“Will she come after us?”
“I doubt it. Gadus wasn’t acting out because of revenge. It isn’t in her nature to do so. Demons have a different way of looking at things. She was just negotiating,” Cid said.
“Did she love Arnold?” Bridgeton asked.
“I believe so. But sometimes a hyperactive will to
