Carnal Sin

smoky. Then the smoke began to leach from the glass into the cup below. It flowed out of the cup and filled the space within the trap.

Wendy had used the chalice as a portal-not to Hell, but into the trap-in order to fulfill the agreement she’d made with Lust for Grant’s soul. Now the demon was contained in the spirit trap, but so was Grant.

While Wendy was enraptured by the transforming demon, Moira ran across the altar, searching for the door. No, no, no-shit!

“Wendy!” Pam shouted. “It’s O’Donnell!”

Wendy first glanced behind her toward Rafe, not knowing where Moira was. Moira sprung the latch and jumped inside the sanctuary. It was a long, narrow room filled with boxes, crosses, some chairs, and several remnants from the previous church, including an old baptismal font. She found a whole array of weapons on the shelf next to the door and grabbed two knives similar to her own. Now wasn’t the time to try something new.

She also saw a Glock and briefly wondered whether it was Grant Nelson’s. She grabbed that, too, and stuffed it in her pocket.

The sanctuary shook violently. Supplies crashed down around her and she fled.

Wendy grabbed her as soon as she emerged, but Moira was prepared. She elbowed Wendy, then spun around and kicked her in the stomach, propelling herself with her momentum until she was several feet out of Wendy’s reach.

Grant cried out in pained surprise, and Moira glanced at the trap. She needed to get him out of there, but the demon was swirling around, beginning to take form.

Pam stood outside the circle, staring at the darkly glowing clouds. A deep rumbling built within the church, growing louder until it sounded like a thousand bats in flight. The thick mist took shape and solidified into the form of a stunning woman.

“Wendy-what’s happening?” Pam asked.

Wendy stared at the demon, an odd smile on her face. “We did it!”

“Did what?” Moira shouted. “You don’t understand what this thing is!” Moira saw the demon beneath the skin; in its shiny eyes she saw the fires of Hell.

Wendy looked almost giddy. “Yes! I do! I gave the demon life! It doesn’t need a human body anymore.”

Moira wanted to smack the witch. “You did nothing! That’s what it is-that is the demon Lust!”

Wendy turned to her, eyes narrow. “You’re jealous because I have far more power than you and your pathetic mother!”

Pam was staring, unable to take her eyes away from the beautiful creature walking slowly around the circle.

The demon stopped and looked at Pam, who was only a couple of feet from the edge. In a seductive voice, she asked, “Are you scared of me?”

Pam said nothing.

“Pamela, tell me the truth, do I scare you?”

Obviously terrified, Pam shook her head no.

The demon raised her elegant hands, palms up and out, and released a wave of unseen energy that pushed Pam across the church with such force that her body slammed the building’s far corner, a hundred feet away, causing the plaster to crack. Pam’s body hung there for just a second, embedded in the wall, before it dropped unmoving to the floor.

Wendy stared, wide-eyed and stunned.

Moira assessed the situation. Wendy wasn’t surprised at the demon taking corporeal form, but she hadn’t expected the demon to kill Pam. Why had she thought they were safe?

Moira remembered Nicole’s comments about paying back her sister. Being used and manipulated. She pushed that with Wendy.

“Nicole betrayed you,” Moira told her, knife out. “She’s safe from this demon. She was in the protective circle two weeks ago when Lust was summoned. Nicole wants you dead. You have to help stop this insanity!”

Wendy laughed, her eyes wild. “I’m not falling for your tricks. That’s an old one, divide and conquer.”

Moira glanced over to where Rafe had been trapped against the wall-but he was gone. Where was he? Then she caught a glimpse of movement, low, between the pews.

She had to neutralize Wendy or she could do nothing to help Grant. She glanced over and saw that the demon was looking at Grant with pure lust-lust to kill.

“You’re mine, darling,” it said to him.

“Julie,” Grant moaned. “Where’s Julie?”

The demon grew frustrated. “I’m far more beautiful. Far more powerful than her.”

Lust sounded jealous. Did Lust need Grant to want her? Craig Monroe, George Erickson-they had acted on their lust, and she’d stolen their souls.

But how had the demon changed the game? It was trapped-Moira shot a glance to the chalice in front of Grant. The demon could use the portal to possess any of them, or escape the trap. And if the demon succeeded in killing Grant, it would be freed.

Keep fighting, Grant. It’ll buy us time.

The demon grabbed him by the throat and kissed him as her body slowly moved up and down in a seductive lap dance. Its shimmering golden hair moved as if on its own. A scream from deep in Grant’s chest sent chills up Moira’s spine.

Grant turned his head away and the demon growled. It turned toward Julie’s body and made the unconscious woman stand.

“You want her? This weak vessel? This human? You are a pathetic man.”

Moira couldn’t let Julie die the way Pam just had. She began an exorcism that Rafe had been teaching her-the one he’d used in Santa Louisa on the demon Envy. It hadn’t stopped Envy, but it had slowed it down. She prayed it would work on Lust.

“Avertet mala inimicis meis in veritate tua-”

At the sound of her voice, the demon turned to her with a scowl. “It is you. You are a problem.”

She felt her body rise from the floor. She shouted, “Avertet mala inimicis meis in veritate tua disperde illos! Voluntarie sacrificabo tibi confitebor nomini tuo Domine quoniam bonum!”

Fury twisted Lust’s expression as Moira broke the demon’s hold on her, just for a moment. But that was enough time to pull the holy water from her pocket and squirt it at the demon.

Steam rose from its skin where the droplets of blessed water hit. Lust hissed in annoyance more than agony. From past experience, Moira knew it wouldn’t stop the demon, but anything holy and pure would weaken it. With its full power, she’d never be able to stop it.

She glanced around the church but didn’t see Rafe or Nina. Jeff Johnston had regained consciousness and had crawled weakly to hide between the pews.

The demon’s voice had Moira focusing on the danger at hand. It said to Grant, “You are mine. I broke the spell; I will break you all!” Lust sat on his lap.

What did Lust mean about the spell being broken? The demon had to be talking about the ritual where Wendy and Pam sent it into the chalice so it could breach the reverse spirit trap.

She whirled around and shouted to Wendy, “Who gave you that ritual? Who taught you how to use the chalice to violate the trap?”

Wendy had regained her feet after Moira knocked her down. She was holding her stomach, and Moira suspected she’d cracked a rib.

“Dammit, Wendy! This is important or you’re going to die.”

“I’m not going to die!”

“Who gave you the fucking spell?”

Wendy refused to answer, but her eyes flickered toward the trap. Dammit, the demon had used the witch and Wendy hadn’t even suspected it.

But her sister Nicole had.

Moira had no idea how they were going to trap the demon, but she knew she had to get that chalice-the