“Elsbeth, save me the trouble of coming in after you and I will spare your family!” he roars to the sky.
She jumps in Hunter’s arms, and looks at the faces of those she has come to love. She will not sacrifice them to save herself.
“Elsbeth, he cannot cross the circle,” Polly tells her, hoping she is right. They form a circle around her, Hunter, Elsbeth, Ruby, Ronnie, Polly, and Jake join hands and Ronnie begins to pray.
“Asa sends his regards, Elsbeth. Do you miss him?” he asks laughing in a deep voice. A red flame erupts from his clawed hand, exploding like a bomb it crashes through the window of the church. Fire bursts against the back wall. Ruby quickly breaks away from the circle throwing water on the flames.
“I promise we will have fun together. Come out and play, little mouse!” he calls again. “You smell so good; I can taste you from here!” The demon laughs as another bomb explodes through what remains of the roof. Flames drop down on top of the people inside causing them to jump apart. When the demon closes in on the church, he walks into Hunter’s trap and screeches when the spikes are triggered. They fly out of the ground puncturing into his neck, legs and arms. He rips the spikes out of his body, and then tosses them on the ground.
“Surely you can do better than that!!” demon rages and detonates the church roof and windows with bomb after bomb of fireballs.
Backed into the four corners of the church, they hear the demon call for Elsbeth again. She freezes as she looks at the sanctuary around her burning in demonic flames. Hunter is speaking to her, Ruby and Ronnie are stomping out flames and Jake is helping Polly who was burned in the attack. Not seeing a way out, she steps forward.
“I will come to you.” Everyone freezes as Elsbeth makes a break for the door. She throws open the door and looks at the creature waiting for her. “Promise you will not hurt them.” Jake’s scream of rage is heard echoing through the night as Elsbeth steps out of the safety of the circle. The demon throws his head back in ecstasy, as he tastes her fear in the air. When she starts to walk towards him, he whips out the tentacle sinking its hooks into Elsbeth’s neck.
In her mind, Elsbeth hears Asa’s voice saying, “You are mine again!” Jerking her towards him, he laughs as she screams in agony. Hunter and Jake burst from the church as a holy beam of light shines on Elsbeth from above. Rocketing from the sky in a furious blaze, the Archangel Simeon detonates the earth beneath his feet. Raining debris, he slices off the arm of the demon attached to Elsbeth. As he pulls Elsbeth into the safety of his arms, his light brown eyes glare at the Keeper as she returns. Enraged, he leaps to the sky leaving those below to face their fate.
The poison seeps through her system and Elsbeth reaches up caressing his face in wonder. As she smiles, she surrenders to the blessed darkness again.
Elina watches stunned as the angel drops in and saves Elsbeth. She was just about to step in and destroy the demon when the angel came. “Malach,” she thinks, “I need your help. An angel just took Elsbeth. I think it was Simeon and I have no way of tracking them.” She trusts him to help her she turns back to the task at hand.
Hope fills Elinas soul as she drops down in front of Hunter and Jake. When she looks at the bleeding demon, she smiles before rendering him immobile. Yes, she thinks! This is what I was hoping for. Hunter screams for Elsbeth, and Elina looks at him saying, “He will not harm her. He came to save her Hunter. It will be okay. Help me get this thing inside.”
“Inside?” Jake says furious, “I’m going to kill him!” Jake moves forward.
“No! I need to question him Jake.” Elina says stopping him. “We need to know what he knows.” With a quick glance, she sees Ronnie and Ruby come out of the church. Ronnie moves to help Jake drag the demon inside.
“How will we tie it down?” Jake asks as they struggle to pull him inside the church. They drag his massive, bleeding form over the entrance of the church, they drop his bare muscular legs, and Hunter takes a closer look. It has the face of a bat, with pointy ears, sharp teeth and enormous muscular arm and legs.
“It smells awful!” Ruby says gasping for air.
Elina knows what she has to do would be best done alone. “Aunt Polly, I need you to take the others and go back to the house. We will have to figure out what to do about Elsbeth when I am finished here.” Polly gladly leads Ruby away, while Ronnie, Jake and Hunter stay to help.
“I am not leaving you alone with that thing.” Ronnie states.
She looks at Jake when she hears him say, “Don’t even think about it Elina!”
Throwing up her hands, she looks at Hunter, “You do not have to stay, Hunter. I can handle this on my own.”
Hunter looks at the thing that almost took Elsbeth; he wants to see what secrets it holds. “I think if anyone should be here, it should be me. After all, I will be going after the father of them all. Any insight I can get may help me defeat him.”
“Alright, let’s do this, then.” Jake says walking up to the monster and kicking him in the face. Elina releases her mind hold, keeping his body frozen. The demon growls at Jake, and smiles baring broken, bloody teeth. His pointy black tongue snakes out, licking the blood off his
