The bloody carnage around me reminded me of the hotel in Florence, except this was far, far worse. I stood in the entrance to the student house, my stomach churning as I took in vague impressions of bodies and blood and gore spread across the open-plan living area. I swayed slightly on my feet, and Euriel reached out and slipped his arm around my shoulders, steadying me. I leaned against him gratefully, hoping my knees wouldn’t give way. Cas talked quietly to Deliah in the middle of the room. They wore the blue plastic feet protectors that the police in Florence had worn, but there were no police here. Not yet, anyway.
“How did Concordia find out about this before the police?” I murmured to Euriel, trying to avoid looking at the sickening view in front of us. Bottles and plastic cups lay everywhere, and a large stereo had been thumping away loudly in the corner when we had arrived, though Deliah had turned it off after stepping through the door. The deafening beats had clearly concealed the screams the night before.
“They, the Concordia, have mortality empaths—sensitive beings who can feel when death occurs. Normally it’s faint, too faint to detect a simple murder or someone dying of natural causes, for example, but in large numbers in one location, it’s easier to pick up on. Sudden and violent deaths give off more energy as well, so they are particularly useful for discovering situations like this one. If they can sense these events and get there before any human witnesses, they can determine whether the deaths were of human or supernatural doing.” He stared out into the room, seeming unaffected, but there was a tightness about his mouth that implied he felt stronger about this than he was letting on.
“And this was supernatural?” I asked, looking back into the space.
Euriel gave a brief nod. “When I said human, I mean events like terrorist attacks, train or aeroplane crashes, that kind of thing. Humans aren’t capable…” He gestured to a body close to us. A man, probably not much younger than myself, was flat on his back on the floor. His chin was tipped back so I couldn’t see his face, and I was thankful for that. His ribs had been torn open and pulled apart to reveal the internal organs like someone had opened him up—opened him up and inserted a blender. I swallowed and turned my face into Euriel’s chest while I tried to steel myself against the stench. I took a couple of deep breaths, concentrating on the warm, heady scent of Euriel’s skin, like incense and fruit and fresh air. After a moment, I was able to turn back around, but Euriel’s arm stayed firmly around me—I told myself it was probably in case I felt light-headed again.
“Cassiel said each of them have been opened up like this, and judging by the spray patterns on the walls and floor, it seems they were alive when it happened,” Euriel explained, swallowing hard.
“But why?” I whispered, my eyes travelling over the twenty or so bodies I could see. Some party.
“You’re not going to like this, but I think they were merely a food source,” Deliah answered as she moved towards us, stepping carefully over another body in her path. I stared at her in horror, and she nodded. “I was trying to keep this from you. I’m sorry, I didn’t think you needed any more trauma just yet after the last few months. But Cassiel felt you needed to know what was going on. Both of you,” she added, raising her eyes to Euriel. He nodded stiffly.
“A food source? For what?” I stared at her, aghast.
“Shemyaza.” It was the first time someone had spoken his name around me in the past several weeks, and I was starting to understand why.
“Shemyaza did this?” I gazed around the room, the sickness building inside me again. I forced it down, trying to imagine my sweet Amadi ripping open someone’s rib cage. I shuddered. No wonder Alex hadn’t shown up when they’d called him this morning.
Deliah nodded, watching me intently. I guess she was waiting for me to freak out. “When a demon possesses a human being, they can only inhabit that body for a certain amount of time before it starts to break down.”
“But Amadi isn’t a human, he’s a demon. Shouldn’t that buy him more time?”
“Yes, it should, and I think it has. It’s been a few weeks since Amadi was possessed by Shemyaza, and I think he’s proving to be a useful host. I think the feedings are to keep him strong. Pre-emptive rather than reactive.” Deliah glanced around the room, her face unreadable as she surveyed the carnage.
Cas stood muttering into his phone in the hallway, and as my eyes met his, he sent a small, sad smile my way. I couldn’t begin to imagine how much this had shaken him up, let alone Alex. My heart felt like it was being torn apart, and I had only known the man for a few short months. We needed him back. I needed him back.
I looked at Euriel and Deliah. I had noticed Deliah wasn’t quite as subservient towards Euriel as Hargreaves had been, and I had the feeling Euriel had noticed too, though he was being perfectly civil towards her.
“Feedings? As in plural? This has happened before?” Euriel turned his golden eyes to her, but she didn’t blink.
“This will be the fourth occurrence, though the numbers are much higher this time.”
Euriel nodded. “He’s getting hungrier.”
“Wait, feedings? You mean… God, do you mean he’s eaten…” I gaped around me in even more horror than before, my mind registering what they were saying and absorbing details I hadn’t wanted to take in previously. The chunks of flesh ripped from bare legs and arms, and the opened ribs that seemed to have no discernible internal organs. My stomach heaved, and I bit my lip, trying not to retch.
“I’m sorry, Faith. I hadn’t wanted you to see this just yet. It’s only been a few weeks since the cathedral, and neither of you have been up and about for more than a couple of days. You should both still be resting.” Deliah laid her hand on my arm in concern, and I smiled weakly at her, still trying to quell my roiling stomach.
“I couldn’t stay in bed anymore. I needed to get up and help. We need to find Amadi.” I stared around me. “Deliah, why would he be… eating people?”
“Even a demonic body such as Amadi’s will start to fall apart under the demands of possession, and a being as strong as Shemyaza will be tearing through Amadi’s cells at an alarming rate. He can rebuild the body as he goes, keep it strong and healthy for some time, but he needs human flesh, blood, and bone to do it. He’ll be able to possess Amadi for a while longer if he keeps feeding like this, though eventually the body will break down completely and Shemyaza will need a new host.”
“Amadi will die?” There was a tremor in my voice, and to my surprise, Euriel reached out and laced his slender fingers through mine. I squeezed them gently in appreciation.
Deliah sighed. “His body will, yes. His soul, I don’t know. You might have to prepare yourself, Faith. Amadi’s soul might have already succumbed.”
I reached up and rubbed my eyes. “You’re telling me Amadi might already be gone? But wait, I thought demons didn’t have souls.”
“Everyone has a soul, even demons,” Euriel said softly. “But if someone were to participate in absolute evil for a prolonged time, fully and willingly consenting to that evil, then the soul is eroded away, leaving only evil behind. Over time, any vestige of divine knowledge, any memory of having been human or divine, fades away, and you are left with creatures such as those you encountered in the forest in Germany.”
“Those were people?” My mouth dropped open.
Euriel bit his lip. “Possibly. Human, maybe. Angels, unlikely. My kind tend to last longer and keep our intelligence, even if we have fallen to evil.” I glanced at Cas, but Euriel shook his head. “I don’t mean fallen in that sense. Cassiel has turned away from God, committed acts of betrayal and continues to do so by denying what he is and his creator, but even I can admit he is not evil. He does what he does out of a misplaced belief that he knows better than God and that what he is doing is right. How long he can continue without God’s light in his heart, I have no idea. I believe without that light, that blessing, his heart will eventually corrupt, and he will turn to evil, but that may take many more millennia and may not even happen before the End of Days. I have hope for him though. As stubborn as he is, he still wants to do good, and he can, therefore, still be saved.”
“And Amadi?”
I met his golden eyes with my own, and he sighed. “I cannot say. He is strong, and his heart is in the right place. The goodness in him is strong, but again, he does not have God’s light in his heart to help him fight off the monster that now dwells inside him. How could he not succumb to the evil of this being?”
“And if he does succumb, what then?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer, and Euriel looked at Deliah before responding.
“If the body has perished, and the soul has withered away, there is only the corrupted part left, and it often resides on earth as a dark energy you humans refer to as ghosts. They are frequently responsible for luring humans into accidents, or infecting them with darkness and causing them to commit atrocious acts. These occurrences are a big part of what the Concordia deals with on a daily basis. They are more common than we’d like, especially in these times.”
“What if he leaves Amadi before his body dies?”
“Then if the soul has departed, but the evil remains in a living shell, he would become a cacodaemon. The body becomes twisted like the mind, and all humanity and sanity fades, leaving what you humans would normally think of as a demon—creatures of horror desiring only to torture and rape and corrupt.” My eyes widened as I looked at him, and he squeezed my hand gently.
“Faith, we will try everything we can to get Amadi back, but you need to face the possibility that we may not be able to save him. Shemyaza has already shown that he cannot be allowed to exist here on Earth. We need to send him back to Sheol and protect the innocent people that live here. If that means killing Amadi, that will be the cost of saving lives,” Deliah reasoned, looking sympathetic, but her eyes were hard, and I knew she would always put the safety of the human race before her agents.
I shook my head hard, as though to shake away the image of my gentle Amadi as some evil creature. “No, Amadi won’t give in. He’s good. We just need to find him and get that thing out of him, and he’ll be fine. He wouldn’t give into evil, I know him.”
Deliah put her hand on my shoulder. “Faith, Amadi is a good man, but there is only so much the mind can experience before it snaps. Everyone has their limits, even him. If he is still there inside, he will see and experience every single thing Shemyaza does with his body. We could save him, and he might be just as bad as Shemyaza by that point.”
I looked around the room, trying to envision Amadi watching himself tear open innocent people, feed on their flesh, hear the screams, and feel the blood on his hands and face. An image came to mind of him trapped in a cage, screaming and beating on the bars as he watched himself torture and kill, and then it flashed to him standing in front of me, his head turning slowly to reveal silver eyes and blood streaming from his mouth as he reached for me. I turned, released Euriel’s hand, and ran from the house.
I straightened up behind the huge, commercial bins at the back of the student housing, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. I was missing the tasty, generous breakfasts Amadi had made us, and the cornflakes hadn’t really filled much of the space in my stomach this morning. It hadn’t taken long for them to reappear, and after that, it had just been dry heaving as my body reacted to everything it had seen and heard in the building next to me. Spitting onto the mess on the ground in the most out of the way corner I could find, I grabbed a couple of old newspapers out of an overflowing bin and covered it.
I moved a little way down the alley, leaning against the wall and taking some long, slow breaths of fresh air. The dizziness and nausea had finally subsided, though I still felt a little shaken.
“Make this quick, I have places to be.” Euriel’s voice came from around the corner. I frowned, then realised he must have come out of the back door.
“O-Of course, my lord, it was just… I… er…” The thin, nasally voice was almost familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
Euriel released a frustrated sigh, and I heard a slight rustle. “For your trouble.” My eyes widened. The high and mighty Euriel was actually bribing someone. I moved closer to the wall and edged forward so I could hear better.
“Thank you, my lord, just… if it gets out that I helped you, I could lose my job.”
“Your job is not important. What matters is that you have served your creator. Now, tell me what you have managed to find out for me.”
“The name you gave me, Phanuel, I managed to find some records dating back twenty or so years. You were right, he had been in touch with the Concordia.”
I held my breath. Euriel was investigating Phanuel. That wasn’t good. If he looked too far into that, he might find out about me, and Cas was right. Euriel did seem to be warming up to me, since he practically died to save my life, but I still couldn’t trust him with my secret. I knew his faith was so strong he’d give me up in a heartbeat. My mind flashed back to the gaping wound in the earth Shemyaza had crawled from and the horrific prison he’d escaped, and my insides roiled again.
“In regard to what?” Euriel’s tone was like steel.
“I haven’t been able to find that out yet. The only reference I’ve found is that he got in contact to try to learn about a recent investigation the Concordia had been involved in, but it’s strange…” The nasally voice trailed off.
“I don’t need dramatics. What was the investigation?”
“Yes, sorry, my lord. Well, the strange thing is that there was no relevant investigation. None that I can find records for, however, I managed to find discrepancies in the accounts that suggest that the Concordia had definitely been involved in something around that time.”
“Someone has removed the files for the investigation. Someone who didn’t want the investigation to be known about. But who?” Euriel mused.
“I can’t say, my lord, only that it must have been someone fairly high up with that level of security.”
“Hargreaves. Or Phanuel, for that matter. Hargreaves might have been possessed already, or he might not. Either way, it would make sense that he removed the files, but why? What was the investigation about, and why would he need evidence of it removed?”
“I-I’m not sure, my lord.”
“Find out,” Euriel snapped at him.
“But…”
“An angel came to earth without orders or permission. He enquired about an investigation that there are no records for, then disappeared, showing up twenty years later having at some point possessed a high-ranking member of the Concordia. I need to know why, and I need to know why he either needed to know about this investigation or why Hargreaves concealed evidence of it from him. There is something serious happening here, some major cover-up, and I need to know what it is. Find out more and report back to me when you have something.”
“But, my lord…”
“I will obviously reimburse you for your time, and it will be at a higher rate seeing as I am asking you to do some actual detective work. You’re dismissed.”
“Um… Yes, my lord, thank you.” I listened until the footsteps faded away before taking a breath and walking casually around the corner of the building. Euriel whirled around at my appearance.
“Faith, what are you doing here?” His eyes darkened. “I thought you’d left.”
I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and wrapped my arm around my stomach. “No, I, er, didn’t get that far.” I swallowed visibly and reached out to lean against the wall. Euriel’s suspicious look vanished, and he was at my side in an instant.
“Are you okay?” He slipped his arm around my waist to steady me. “You look really pale. Do you need me to get someone? Or take you to the hospital?”
The concern in his voice warmed me but also made me feel terribly guilty. “No, no, I’ll be fine. Just, er… in there, it was a bit much.”
He nodded and pulled me in to hug me. I let him, though I marvelled at the change in him over the last couple of weeks.
“Euriel?”
“Yes, Faith?”
I pulled back slightly. “I just, I thought you weren’t supposed to, you know… physical touch and all.”
He looked down at me, his strange eyes gazing into my own in a way that made me feel breathless. “I thought about what you said, about how touch can make people feel better. I realised I was, how do you say it on earth? Talking the walk, but not—no, wait…”
I grinned. “Talking the talk, but not walking the walk?”
He smiled. “Exactly. Touch is a simple way I can comfort and reassure. Resisting its use because of my concern was selfish and serving my own interests rather than the needs of others.”
I watched him, smiling knowingly. “Uh-huh, and it’s got nothing to do with the fact you quite like being hugged yourself?”
“I, er… Well, I…” He looked uncomfortable and his arms slipped away from me.
I laughed and smacked him gently on the arm. “Euriel, I’m messing with you.”
A look of relief came over his face. “Right, yes, human humour. Sorry.”
I slipped my arms around his waist. “But you don’t mind hugs so much anymore?”
He looked down at me and smiled. “I’ll admit that when they are from you, I find them quite pleasant.”
I opened my mouth to reply with some witty comment but hesitated when I saw his eyes drop to my mouth. Out of habit, I ran the tip of my tongue over my lips, and his eyes darkened. We were already standing quite close, and as he leaned forward the tiniest amount, my breasts pressed against his hard chest. I felt him take a breath.
“Faith? You out here?” Cas’s voice snapped us both back to reality as he came around the corner, and Euriel stepped back, the spell broken.
