A spike
in men’s deaths in coastal North Carolina.
Where the Catholic Church’s American arm of the Segreto once
headquartered. Where Alex and Lilith had
fought.
Coincidence. Has to be.
But what
if it wasn’t?
Lena ran
out of patience when a law firm’s ad aired.
She gave up on waiting for the news and sat down at her computer. Moments later, she scrolled through a news
website of the area.
The
dozens of deaths were spread over three adjoining counties; Pamlico, Carteret,
and mostly Craven, which sat between the other two. To someone well versed in the ways and means
of succubi attacks, Lena felt pretty confident that was exactly what she was
looking at, especially since the victims were mostly young and middle-aged
men.
What
chilled her most wasn’t the evidence of demonic attacks, however. Another headline on a sidebar caught Lena’s
eye: Church Burns to the Ground. Her heart pounding, she clicked the story.
St. George’s Catholic Church
in Havelock is being deemed a complete loss following Tuesday’s fire
that destroyed the chapel, the attached orphanage, and the private
school on the grounds. Fire Marshall
John Huffman has concluded the
cause was arson and says, “It’s a miracle no one was killed.”
“Oh
shit,” Lena breathed. It was the church
that had once housed the original Segreto, the entity once tasked with
destroying demonkind on Earth. The place
her mother had called home for most of the first half of her life.
“Maybe
it’s just a member of demonkind. A
retaliation, the family of someone who that Segreto killed,” she said, unaware
she spoke out loud to herself. Her own
aunt whom Lena was named for had been slaughtered by the Segreto. It had caused no end of distrust between Alex
and Colwyn when they first met.
The
pictures showed the blackened brick shells of buildings that surrounded the
still-standing playground. Alex had been
raised in that orphanage. She’d taken
communion in that church. Had fought
their war until they excommunicated her for using witchcraft. Then Lilith had shown up, prompting the
Segreto to reinstate Alex so that she could fight off mankind’s bitterest
enemy. In the end, Lilith had wiped the
original Segreto out, leaving Alex as the sole survivor. With Colwyn, Alex had formed a new Segreto,
one made up of humans and good demi-demons, the kind that didn’t cause
suffering in order to feed on it.
One
picture, that of the church’s white-paneled lighted sign, froze Lena. She could scarcely breathe as she stared at
the words painted on it. She’d seen dark
brown stains like those that made up the message before, and a quick glance at
the caption beneath the photo confirmed her suspicions. Officials had not yet confirmed whether the
dried blood used to write the terse command was animal or human.
Lena
stared at the four words that ran in streaks down the sign that would have been
lit at night to invite the public to come worship. Now it spoke a furious demand, and Lena had
no doubt as to whose words it spoke.
Even as she reached for the phone on the nearby table, she couldn’t tear
her gaze away. She dialed by feel, her
fingertips unerringly pressing the numbers on the handset despite the tremor
that seized them.
When her
father’s deep voice came on the line, a comforting rumble that had always
soothed her, Lena still stared at the words.
She knew that as long as she drew breath on this Earth, she would never
forget how the letters looked. They
dripped, obscene and angry, bloody like the mind that had birthed them. The hateful order would be as if branded on
her brain for all eternity, freezing her heart whenever it came to mind.
In all
capital letters, like a feral scream it read, SEGRETO GIVE ME ALEX.
Through
numb lips Lena whispered into the phone, “Dad?
You and Mom need to come home right now.”
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