Allison Brennan - Carnal Sin

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 portal-out of the trap or the demon would be able to move freely back and forth. Out of the trap, it would be unstoppable, but its lust for Grant-its craving for his soul-would keep the damned creature occupied. And she also needed to get Grant out of harm’s way before Lust finished with him.

Wendy rushed toward her as she moved to the trap. At the same time, from the corner of her eye she saw Rafe, an odd look on his face, jump up from behind the first pew and run up the aisle, leaping up the five stairs to the altar with one stride.

No! No! She pictured the demon throwing him across the church, just as had happened to Peter, her first love. The lover she’d killed when a demon possessed her seven years ago. She would not lose Rafe that way. She wouldn’t lose Rafe!

But he didn’t even acknowledge or look at her. He was focused solely on Grant. What was wrong with him?

In Moira’s hesitation, Wendy hit her hard in the lower back. The excruciating pain brought her to her knees.

“I will not let you ruin this for me!”

“The demon”-Moira took a deep breath, blinking back tears while pushing the pain from intolerable to barely manageable-“will kill you.”

“You know nothing about the underworld!”

“I know more than you.”

Moira pulled the gun from her waistband and rolled over. Wendy held a knife above her chest. Moira lowered the barrel and shot Wendy in first one calf, then the other. She didn’t want to kill anyone, but she had to get Wendy out of the picture.

Wendy collapsed with a scream, a hand on each calf. One of the bullets had skimmed her, but the other went in deep.

“You fucking bitch!”

The gunfire halted Rafe just as he was about to foolishly leap into the circle. He looked at Moira, as if seeing her for the first time.

“Moira!”

Whatever had gotten into him was gone. Thank God. She didn’t have time to ask him what his plan had been, because it simply couldn’t have been smart. Not if it involved rushing a demon. Moira raced to his side. “Are you okay? What were you doing?”

He said, “Julie took-I’ll explain later, okay?” He glanced at the demon who was sliding up and down Grant’s agonized body. “Did you see how the demon used the chalice?”

“Hell, yeah. We need to melt it immediately. We can’t use it as a trap. I have no idea how to contain the demon and it broke the spell Wendy had bound it with.”

“Then what are we going to trap the demon with?”

Anything holy and pure would slow it down .

Suddenly, Moira had a thought. “I know. The baptismal font.”

“This isn’t a Catholic church.”

“But it was . Jackson is one of us; he’s going to keep tradition. In fact, Jackson kept everything in the original church, except the crucifix. The font has a cover. It’s in the sanctuary. Do you have holy water?”