The Hammer Commission

Published by John Van Stry

Copyright 2013 John Van Stry

Copyright John Van Stry 2013

Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

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Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction created by the author and the author retains all rights to the material in this story.

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The Hammer Commission

“Ah my beloved city,” Jake said to him turning down a narrow street between two large buildings. “And all this trash! This strike is an outrage! The Unions have no pride!”

“Jake,” Mark laughed, “You haven’t lived here in nearly two decades; it’s not your city anymore.”

He snorted, “And you left New York many years ago and swore never to return yet you still call it home. As for me, I plan to return!”

Mark sighed, it was an old argument, Jake's family had had to leave Paris when he was a teenager and forever he had wanted to return and retire here. Mark had left New York because Mark wanted to and had sworn never to live there again, yet was often forced to work there and each time Mark chaffed for the moment he could leave.

But each was home to them in the way that the place you grew up in always was, just Mark hated New York while Jake loved Paris.

Jake checked the address and pulled over to the side. The street had narrowed further here and the buildings become more decrepit.

“Why do these guys always have to live in the shitty part of town,” Mark sighed.

“Because they watch too many of those cheap horror flicks your countrymen write!” Jake laughed.

Mark shook his head and smiled, “Well at least they don’t watch South Park!” and laughed with him. Pulling their coats up they put on their hats. It was raining and cold out, Paris was miserable in the winter Mark thought. Getting out of the car they met at the trunk.

“Standard kits or the heavy artillery?” Mark joked.

“Hmmm, let us see, a twenty-three year old college dropout who has been cooking your so-called ‘free-ench Fur-eyes’ at the local McDonalds. Oh the heavy artillery for sure!” Jake rasped in an exaggerated accent. “If this kid got more than a pocket demon I owe you a dinner at Marseille’s.”

Mark handed him the bag and grabbed the companion one for himself. “As much as I want to eat there, I suspect you won’t be taking me this trip, this idiot is probably using frozen burger patties instead of fresh meat.”

Jake snickered at that and Mark followed him over to the building, it was dark on the street, the rain wasn’t heavy but it made everything slick and the clouds didn’t help with the lighting. There was a staircase down the left side of the building; the entrance they wanted was down there.

“How did the Commission tip to this guy anyways?” Mark asked. He had been skiing on a two day vacation when the report came in. Jake had worked the details while Mark had flown in from Switzerland, so Mark only had the short brief Jake had prepared for him.

“They didn’t say. Just that it was a reliable source.”

“Oh, right!” Mark nodded and smiled to himself, Confessionals were wonderful things.

“Well, might as well get started.” Jake said pulling out a lock gun as Mark pulled out a cross. There was some holy water in the bag too, a few other things useful for dealing with the smaller minor demons. Mark looked up as Jake opened the door and the whole world exploded.

The door blew up into tiny pieces of wooden shrapnel as soon as it was cracked. The blast of heat and ruddy light coming through it was like Dante’s Inferno come to life. And then out strode the biggest devil Mark had ever seen in his life. Seen in person that is. He’d seen the pictures, drawings rather, and he was scared; the pictures did not do it justice, they didn’t convey the all consuming aura of fear, the unnatural way its body bent as it moved, the putrid ichors dripping off its body, and the smell! Nothing could prepare you for that smell.

It grabbed Jake by the body, sinking its six inch long claws in as Jake screamed. Jake sprayed it with holy water, which evaporated like it had hit a plate of white hot steel, hissing as it turned to steam. That only pissed the devil off greater and it grabbed his other side with its other arm, digging it’s claws in further as Mark watched in horror; Jake’s blood already running down its arms and mixing with the rainwater dribbling onto the floor.

“Be gone Devil!” Mark yelled thrusting the cross out at it. “Return to the gates of Hell!”

The cross burned in his hand, and the devil looked at him and snarled. Ripping a chunk out of Jake the devil back handed Mark with a gnarled paw like hand.

Mark flew up into the air and crashed down on to the stairs stunned. The cross was on the ground burning. Crosses were like handguns. If you brought too weak a one to fight the battle, you were dead. But something that needed a more powerful cross than the one Mark had been holding in his hand wasn’t supposed to be possible; they weren’t supposed to be able to get here anymore. Those gates couldn’t be opened now, the pathways couldn’t be made, and something this big could not be pulled through!

Jake stopped screaming and Mark looked up then, the devil had ripped Jake’s head off and was tearing his body to pieces rather single mindedly. The holy water must have really pissed it off.

His wits came back then and Mark realized he would soon be next if he didn’t do something. He started to scramble up the stairs with a groan, feeling like half of his ribs were cracked from the blow, his arm dangerously numb.

He made it to the top of the stairs when he heard it bellow and come after him, its claws clicking on the concrete steps. Mark turned and sprayed the holy water right in its face and it bellowed again, striking him with an open hand, the claws ripping through his trench coat and deep into his skin. Mark flew across the street and slammed into the car, breaking the windows and setting off the alarm. He fell to the ground, stunned.

The devil roared and attacked the car; Mark realized suddenly that it didn’t know what it was, the blinking lights, the siren. Crawling to the back of the car he pushed open the trunk and reached inside for the heavy artillery that he and Jake always carried: The Cross of Saint John.

Mark pulled it out as the demon grabbed him, sinking its claws in as it did, feeling them burn with a terrible pain that seared through his body and deep into his soul. Mark screamed and turning to face the devil he thrust the cross into the thing’s face. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Be gone! Go back into the hell that spawned you!”

The devil screamed then, screamed in what sounded like serious pain and it was just like the old timers had said: The cross lit up with a warm comforting light, the clouds parted and a beam of light came from the heavens. He heard a trumpet and a choral of singing voices and the devil evaporated from the outside in, pinned in place in the center of the bright streaming light as it dropped him to the pavement.

Then it was gone, he felt a brief touch at his side and warmth spread through his body as he fell to the ground and passed out.

Mark came to with the harsh smell of smelling salts under his nose, coughing and gasping for breath. It took him a minute to gather his wits about himself as he finally noticed the Gendarmerie standing before him.

“Damn, I didn’t know they still used that stuff,” he protested weakly and pushing the police officer’s hand away.

“What’s going on here?” The inspector beside him demanded in French.

“Interpol,” Mark gasped and then coughed again. He could feel his ribs grating a little when he did.

“Interpol? Let me see your ID.”

Mark pulled out the badge carefully and showed him his papers. He wasn’t really with Interpol, but they covered for the Commission members these days.

“Call Head Inspector Greaux,” Mark said carefully, his French wasn’t the best, and the broken ribs were making it worse. “And seal the crime scene. Do not let anyone else in, and do not let any of these people go out.” He pointed to the small group of officers one of whom was examining what was left of Jake.

“Do not think to tell me how to run my investigation.” He frowned. “Inspector Greaux? He is aware of this?”

“Just tell him my name...” Mark said and forestalled further conversation by passing out again.

%     %     %     %     %

He kicked in the door and pulled the trigger on his carbine, by the time the door was fully open, he’d have a target, but if he didn’t start shooting now, he’d be dead by then, they moved incredibly fast. It was freaky, to put it mildly, and he was scared shitless, literally. Anything that moved, you shot, and you shot it before it attacked you. He wished he had a sub machine gun, he wished he had more ammo, but the carbine on auto was doing the trick, he’d cleaned out a dozen or so rooms so far and a clip seemed to be enough for a room.

There in the corner, a movement. He turned his gun in that direction and the blossoms of red from his hail of fire, along with bits of bone and brain, showed he had gotten his target. He swept back quickly, hitting the other corner before his clip ran out. Then he quickly reloaded. He didn't have many left now. The next room was empty. So was the one after that. Then he was at the end of the hallway. Up the ladder to the roof they'd entered by, there was no one around, he dropped his pants and shook out the worst of it, lit a signal flare, and prayed.

They almost threw him out of the chopper, when they smelled him, until he put the barrel of his rifle in the mouth of the crew member bitching at him and yelled to get him the hell out of here or he’d kill them all. After that, they were a lot nicer to him, noticing that the gun barrel was hot, and he was covered in blood and gore. When they got back to base he collapsed and was hauled off to the med unit. To say he had completely lost it, would have been an understatement.

Six months later he was holding a medical discharge in his hands, a bunch of medals were pinned to his uniform and no one believed a word that he said. He wasn't so sure he believed it himself.

%     %     %     %     %

When Mark woke up next he was in a hospital, and was rather happy to see a cross on the wall and a nun changing his bandages.

"Where am I Sister?" He groaned, he hadn't had that particular nightmare in a very long time.

"Saint-Étienne-du-Mont," She said in French. "You appear to have lost a lot of blood, though we were unable to find any fresh wounds on you."

Mark nodded, "How long have I been here?"

"Twelve hours. I am to get you ready for mass. They are laying your partner to rest here rather soon."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Sister Ellis-Clark, your doctor, told me it would be best for me not to ask, just that you are in service to the Church and that something went very wrong."

"Wise words." Mark sighed and lay back in the bed as she removed the IV and finished with him.

Giscard, who managed the Paris offices for the Commission came in just as she had finished up.

“Are you ready Mark?”

Mark nodded and turned slowly to get out of the bed. Giscard helped him dress slowly, his body was covered in bruises and his ribs were still taped up.

“They healed all the cuts and left the broken ribs and the bruises. I can’t figure that out, can you?” Mark said to Giscard.

Giscard laughed, “You’re too worldly I bet. If you came out untouched you’d lose any humility that the incident had inspired.”

Mark shivered, “Trust me Giscard, that isn’t going to be happening until long after these bruises have faded, if ever.”

Giscard led Mark from the hospital wing of the Church. People didn’t realize that most Cathedrals and the larger Churches still had small hospitals inside them; people forget there are a lot of really old priests, and those kinds of men can wield a lot of spiritual power. No Church would ever think to have a man like that leave hollowed ground, which is also why so many nuns are trained as nurses and doctors. He was amazed that people just don’t realize what goes on in the Church anymore, did they really think an organization that was the heart of the renaissance and the enlightenment had just faded away?

"What can you tell me about the crime scene?" Mark asked Giscard as he helped him hobble down the corridor.

"They have it sealed now; some regular Church investigators and Inspector Greaux are going over it."

"Our summoner?"

"Very messily dead."

"Figures," Mark sighed as they came to a doorway.

“Here we are,” Giscard said and escorted Mark into the Church from up in the side wings.

Mark looked around as they entered the Church, it was a rather nice one, he'd never been here before. He did what he could to avoid looking at the casket just yet. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to see this. He didn’t even want to hear it. Because once he heard it, saw it, and was here for it he’d have to admit that Jake was dead. He’d have to admit that he saw him get ripped to shreds by a devil that wasn’t even supposed to be able to be summoned anymore.

He’d have to remember that for the last one of these to be summoned Hitler had to sacrifice ten thousand people’s lives under very painful circumstances. And the tens of thousands it had helped kill too. Over a dozen of Jake’s and his predecessors had died trying to slay that thing. If they hadn’t thought to bring the cross...

Mark shivered a bit and finally turned to look at the closed casket sitting on the altar as Giscard steered him into a seat. They had rolled out all the stops for Jake. There was a Cardinal leading two Bishops in the mass. One good thing about the job, the after death benefits were second to none.

And for once he really appreciated it.

"How did we end up with a cardinal and extra bishop at the mass?" Mark asked Giscard softly. "I thought there was only one bishop in Paris?"

"Some sort of conference over at Sorbonne, when they heard what had happened they asked Bishop Santos if they could help."

“What did they say about Jake’s soul?”

“According to Bishop Santos, he’s currently in purgatory, after the mass however he should ascend.”

Mark nodded, Jake was a bit of a partier, to put it politely, but then none of them were very holy men or women, it was a nasty job and sometimes it took hard people to do it. But as long as they were faithful to the job and the Church, and of course didn’t defect to the other side, they were guaranteed one thing: they would not burn in Hell. When you consider what they did, that was a major on the job benefit. Just like they don’t send cops to jail to do hard time.

But they’d still punish you a bit first if you’d earned it. Mark felt Jake was getting off rather lightly considering his preferences for drinking and his occasionally wild behavior.

“Just one day? Jake once told me he thought he was up to a couple hundred years.”

“Well, maybe normally. But when the devil killed Jake, he sent him to Hell. The devil had to be dismissed, and Jake’s remains blessed just to pull him out of there. Fortunately you took care of the dismissing.”

Mark gulped audibly and his head suddenly felt a little dizzy. He almost fell out of the pew but Giscard caught his arm. “How long did they have him?”

“Five or six hours. The Bishop said that Purgatory in this case was more of cooling off period.

Mark thought about that. Hell was a nasty place, souls dissolved there, and he was sure that many of its denizens were just waiting to get their hands on the likes of one of them. Even if for just a couple of hours. He shivered again and turned his attention back to the Mass.

It ran about forty five minutes. There would be another memorial with homilies and all that later back at headquarters, he was sure, where people actually knew him. Very few of the people here really knew what was going on beyond someone apparently special had died. Even in this they still kept a low profile.

The Mass ended then and a stray beam of sunlight hit the casket and Mark saw Jake.

He rose up from it, or rather an image of him did, Mark wouldn’t say ghostly because it was clear, distinct, and in full color. Just somewhat transparent. Jake’s image smiled and looked around and found him. Mark gave a small wave, stunned. Jake waved back and shot him a thumbs up followed by a rather familiar, if rude, gesture and a silent laugh at the expression on Mark’s face.  He disappeared then and Mark just couldn’t deal with it anymore and passed out.

He woke up stretched out in one of the pews, a nun and Giscard, as well as the two Bishops and the Cardinal looking over him. He tried to sit up but Bishop Santos waved him back, “Relax my son, no need to stand on ceremony. Are you feeling okay?”

Mark nodded, “Still a little weak, but I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t exactly expect to see him. I thought the dead weren’t allowed to make final appearances.”

Cardinal Richards smiled, “Normally no, once you’re in Heaven or Hell you stay there. The only exception is someone who is pulled from Hell. Until they enter Heaven they’re back at square one. Your partner did that on purpose of course.”

He shook his head and actually chuckled. He couldn’t believe it, Jake was dead and he was still showing off one last time.

“What was that gesture he made to you?” Bishop Santos asked, “What was the meaning of it?”

Mark reddened slightly it was a pretty rude gesture.

“Don’t think we don’t know the mundane meaning of it my son,” the Cardinal said. “We just want to know why he made it at you.”

“It was a joke of ours, a private one. Whenever we got stuck with a dirty job, one nobody else wanted to do, we'd flip each other off. It sorta means ‘It’s on you now and nobody is going to help you out!’ and without Jake around I guess it is.” Mark said.

There was a little more to it than that of course and now because of that simple flip off of Jake’s Mark had an eerie suspicion that things were only going to get worse. They had been the Churches top team for five years now, and they always got the toughest assignments.

“Sure he wasn’t trying to warn you?”

Mark glanced at him, “What do you mean your Eminence?”

“Just Father, please.”

“Well then Father, what do you mean?”

“Well, if it’s on you, maybe that might mean you’re next as well, couldn’t it my son?”

Mark paled at that. “I sure hope there isn’t one of those things out there with my name on it.”

Cardinal Richards nodded, “That sums it up for all of us as well. You’re flying out with me in the morning. I’ll drop you in Spain at your order’s headquarters, then I’m on to Rome to discuss this with the college.” He looked around at the two Bishops and then back at Mark, “Do you think you can go out to the scene and look around before then? There are no other investigators from the commission here, and before we cleanse the site we’d like to have one of you examine it.”

“Of course Father. If you can find me a driver and let me get my things I’ll leave immediately.” Mark replied. He definitely wanted to get another look at the place before anyone touched the evidence. Maybe he'd be able to figure out just what had happened.

“Excellent. Until later my son,” he blessed Mark then and they all left, except Giscard who helped him get his things and then drove him there personally.

The ‘crime’ scene was mostly untouched. Someone had of course cleaned up the mess on the streets, and the claw marks in the concrete had all been touched up to look like heavy equipment scars instead.

Mark carefully slipped past the yellow tape, and walked down the stairs slowly. It didn’t look so bad in the light of day, and someone had taken the time to wash the blood away. The door was still missing, though someone had thought to hang a piece of heavy black plastic over it to keep out prying eyes. A Gendarmerie stood outside and nodded to Giscard as they made their way inside.

Mark found a couple of detectives there, and immediately recognized Inspector Greaux, he’d done work with the commission in the past which was why Mark had asked for him.

“Inspector Detective Greaux,” Mark said coming up to him.

“Too bad we meet under these circumstances Mark, your partner Jake, he was a good Frenchman, we had always been proud to count him as one of ours.” Inspector Greaux replied shaking hands with both of them.

Mark nodded and looked around. “Where is the circle?”

“It is in the room beyond that doorway.”

“Any sign of the summoner?”

“Yes, we found some pieces; it was that young man who worked at that American food place.”

Mark walked over through the doorway, the door itself was nowhere to be seen, probably shredded like the other one had been. The room itself was small, fifteen feet by twelve. From the heavy wood of the walls Mark guessed it was once some sort of refrigerated room. The floor was stone, worn smooth by ages of use, and the ceiling wood, with a shattered light fixture on it. Also in the room were four heavy duty flashlights pointed towards the ceiling lighting it up. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in blood, and assorted pieces of flesh. A head without any eyes was in the exact center of the room, the exact center of the circle. Mark stuck out his hand and the Inspector handed him a heavy duty flashlight.

“Is that our friend?” Mark asked while shinning the light on the floor, looking for and finding the chalk lines of the circle.

“Yes, that would be him.”

Mark walked around the circle twice, first following the outside line, the wall. Next he followed the inside line, the crucible. Both were smudged, but the smudges were made when the devil had stepped out of it, probably did so out of habit just to make it harder to be called back in. Mark checked the warding points next, they were all fine, the room had been warded rather well, nothing that went on in here would have shown up outside, if anyone had been looking.

Finally Mark went and read the circle’s inscriptions, the summoner had used the Latin for 'door' instead of 'gate' in the inscription, Ostium instead of Porta. For a devil as powerful as that, that would have been all it would have taken. But a pocket demon would have been held. Mark scratched his head, and pulled out his compass. He looked at it and looked at the wards, then he looked at it again.

“Is that north?” Mark asked the Inspector pointing towards the doorway.

“Yes. Is that important?”

“The wards aren’t inline with the Cardinal Points.”

“Is that important?”

“It’s traditional. Anyone who studied the higher texts would have done it that way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Fairly.” Mark looked around the walls slowly, looking at the bloodstains.

“What are you looking for?”

“Not sure, not sure at all. You have pictures of everything, right?”

“Of course.”

Mark handed him his card, “Here’s my email, send me copies please.”

“I will do that Mark,” He took the card and put it in his pocket.

After looking around some more, all Mark could find were some burn marks on the wall, nothing of any meaning. Mark turned back to the floor and looked at all the dried blood. Any foot prints of course had been obliterated by the devil thrashing the summoner.

He left the room then, the Inspector followed and nodded to his partner who went outside leaving the two of them alone.

“The priests who have been here, they are not happy with what has happened, no?” He made it sound more like a statement than a question.

“No. Something isn’t right. He should never have been able to summon what he got.”

“Perhaps he just got lucky? Right?”

“There are six planes of difference from what I bet he wanted, and what he actually got,” Mark said.

“Maybe he mispronounced the name, and got the big brother instead? Yes?”

“Maybe,” Mark said and Detective Greaux’s partner returned at that point with a bunch of priests who started breaking out the holy water, incense braziers, oils, and all the rest of their gear.

“They were waiting until you were done before they cleansed the room.”

“So that guy’s been trapped in hell all this time?” Mark motioned at the remains in the next room and shuddered crossing myself.

“Don’t worry about it,” one of the priests said crossing himself as well, “I doubt our work here will be causing his soul to leave it.”

Mark nodded at the comment. Summoning devils usually earned you a trip there automatically. “Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t at that...”

2

Mark leaned back in the seat on the jet and tried to relax. The Cardinal had questioned him for two additional hours that morning before they left for Spain on what Mark had seen; both that evening, and when Mark had gone back the next day. Cardinal Richards then let Mark ask some questions about what he thought on what had happened there. Apparently the Cardinal remembered the stories from the War himself, though he had been only a child back then.

They were in one of the Church’s private jets, Rome maintained quite the fleet of small aircraft, some things just needed to be transported out of sight of the general public, and as they were diplomatic couriers they did not have to deal with customs. Thankfully this also meant that they could land on a smaller airstrip closer to Mark’s destination. Cardinal Richards told him that he was also picking someone up, which was why he had decided to give him a lift, and then would be on his way to Rome.

Mark didn’t envy him much, the Cardinals weren’t going to like finding out their plans had been upset, there would be a lot of hard work for all of them as they tried to figure out just what had gone wrong. Mark’s job was just to win the battles, their job was to win the war, a set back like this could endanger what up until now everyone had thought was a sure victory.

Sighing he closed his eyes and reclined the seat. Most people should have died from that devil’s attack, but fortunately he wasn’t most people. However it had still pushed his body to its limits.

%     %     %     %     %

“What the hell do you think you’re doing kid?”

“Huh? Cleaning my rifle Sir.”

“It’s Brian and quit ‘sir'ing’ me. You’re not in the army, hell according to your records you haven’t been in the army in a decade.”

“Sorry Si... Brian, guess it’s just a reflex. Everyone is so formal here.”

“Yeah well, that’s the church for you, but we’re not them, got that?”

“Uhh, Yes.”

“Good, now why the hell are you cleaning that rifle?”

“I wanted to be sure it worked tonight,” Mark said innocently.

“As you’re not taking it, isn’t that a moot point?”

“What?” Mark looked shocked.

“Guns are noisy. Also we’re not looking to kill anybody.”

“But, the Father said there is a devil...”

Brian cut him off, “The father, Lord keep him, doesn’t know shit about devils son. Or Demons, or any of the S.N.’s. Now put that away and come over here.”

Mark looked at him hesitantly, but Father Gregory had told him that Brian was an expert and had been doing this for almost sixty years now. And that he should trust him.

So he put the rifle away and came back and sat down across from Brian.

“Okay, see this bag?”

Mark nodded.

“This is your arsenal. We have holy water, we have a cross, we have a bible. Chalk, knife, some incense, a couple of ointments; remember that all of this is blessed by some of the most devout here in the Church, and of course: an artifact.”

“That’s it?” Mark said looking shocked.

“Son, most of the devils aren’t bothered by bullets. Especially not the big ones. And for the little ones you don’t need it. Holy water is our side arm, the cross our rifle, these other things,” Brian gestured to the assorted oils, incense, chalk and other odds and ends, “are hand grenades.”

“What about that?” Mark asked pointing to a rather old looking holy symbol that had a cross incorporated into its design.

“This is the Ma-deuce,” Brian said smiling, “Oh wait, you probably don’t know what that is, think of it as a...”

“I know what a Ma-deuce is,” Mark interrupted.

“Good, cause to a devil, this is their worst nightmare.”

“So why all the other things?” Mark asked gesturing to the table.

“Ever try to shoot a mouse with a machine gun?”

“Waste of bullets.”

“Exactly, and the same principle applies. Waste your ammo and you may run dry.”

“So what about tonight then Si... Brian?”

“Tonight we’re going after a summoner who apparently has been raising small little devils. They’re more annoying than harmful, though they do have a nasty bite. We’re going to take him in, alive of course, destroy his equipment, seize his books, and dismiss anything he might have summoned.”

“What if he has a gun?” Mark asked worried.

“He won’t. Guns are illegal here and carry a pretty stiff penalty. Plus these guys all think that their little summoned monsters are more than powerful enough to stop anyone who would bother them. Remember, they don't know that we even exist, on top of that they’re all pretty delusional, and summoning creatures from hell renders most of them half crazy.”

“What about a taser?”

“Pumping energy into a devil or a demon is never a good idea kid. Not unless you know all about it. Besides, this is a milk run, so don’t worry none. Just remember the prayers Father Gregory taught you, and keep them on your lips.

“Everything will be fine...”

%     %     %     %     %

Mark woke when they landed outside Barcelona, the dream still fresh in his mind. That had been his first time in the field, and to be honest, he enjoyed it. The 'pocket' devils that the guy had raised were no threat really, and the guy himself had been an easy pushover. Over the next year and a half until Brian had retired, Brian had taught him a lot. Brian was pushing eighty at that point; he’d been recruited during World War Two and had seen things he was sure no one would ever see again.

He had died last year of a heart attack and now Mark missed his advice, Brian had always been good at cutting through the noise and seeing directly to the heart of the matter.

Mark stretched as he got out of his seat, feeling stiff and sore all over. Walking off the jet someone he didn’t know met the plane and showed him to a car. He rode in the back as they drove to Manresa and tried to enjoy the sights. He hadn’t been back here in a few years, Jake and he had been that busy. But it didn’t seem that things had changed all that much. Some places just didn’t seem to change no matter how long you were away.

The Abbey of course hadn’t changed at all, the driver pulled around back to avoid the tourists, the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat was always popular with the faithful and it had a rather long and interesting history. Mark could hear the choir singing Salve Regina as he got out of the car; it was truly a beautiful place, rather calm and peaceful. Few people knew of the caves dug into the mountain from beneath the monastery, dug several hundred years ago after Napoleon had come through. Fewer still probably knew about the offices and computers and vaults now back there as well. The order had moved here during the Spanish Inquisition, and stayed ever since. Thankfully none of the inquisitors had been members of the order, the Church still considered that to be a large stain on its past.

He took a little time to visit the chapel in the garden, and also to pay his respects to Saint Ignatius, who had started here. A lot of those who worked for the commission felt an attachment to him; he was the unofficial patron of those who actually worked out in the field. He knew that these things might seem silly to most people, especially these days when so few really believed anymore, and fewer still with all their heart. There were so many skeptics nowadays who would go to great extents to try and prove that none of this was real, that it was all just a fantasy.

But he knew better, he dealt with this for a living after all. He’d seen all sorts of things in his ten years working for the Church, some even before that; he knew the truth. He just had never realized that this particular fight was still going on as strong as it ever had. Sure there were still a few holdouts, some devils they couldn’t get near, and that wasn’t even taking into account the myriad of monsters and other super naturals,  but since the sixties the numbers of the really powerful devils and demons had been dwindling, only a handful were left.

Eventually one of the Monks caught up with him and escorted Mark into Monsignor Flores’ office. Father Flores currently ran the Hammer Commission, his family had been involved with the Commission for centuries now and many of the Flores family were very deeply involved in the activities and workings of the Commission. So it was not uncommon that if a Flores took the vows of the priesthood, that they should end up here. Some thought of it as nepotism, others viewed it as tradition. Considering that two of the greatest leaders in the Commission had been born of the Flores family and several others had served in the field with distinction, he was all for carrying on the tradition. Not that anyone ever asked for his opinion, Mark was the first generation of his family born into the church; his own father had been a protestant.

“Father,” Mark said shaking hands with Father Flores as the Monk withdrew from the office leaving them alone.

“Mark,” Father Flores smiled steering him to a seat and then taking one on the other side of the small table on which someone had set out some tea. “I am very sorry about your partner, Jake was a good man and we shall all miss him.”

“Thank you Father,” Mark replied and took the tea Father Flores offered. Mark sipped and did his best to try and relax. His relationship with Flores had always been a little strained at its best, from the moment they'd first met Mark hadn't liked him much. Flores reminded Mark of the rich privileged kids he'd gone to school with back in NY, the ones who had everything handed to them and thought that made them better than you. Then there was the way Flores always seemed to act around him. Mark suspected that Flores had suspicions about his background; especially the parts Father Gregory had told Flores were secret.

“There will be memorial services this evening just before sunset. I have asked the Choir to perform and everyone to attend. Would you like to say a few words?”

Mark sipped his tea and thought about that. He didn’t care much for public speaking, Jake had always been the one to stand up and speak, Mark tended to just answer questions or fill in any details Jake may have missed, which wasn’t many. But this was for Jake and while Flores would understand if Mark didn’t, others might not.

“I’ll try,” Mark said.

Father Flores nodded, “I understand. Now I read your report, but I was wondering if you could go over it again?”

Mark sighed and nodded and spent the next hour carefully recounting everything that had happened; what he saw, what he knew, what Jake had told him beforehand.

“I never was told where the tip came from Father,” Mark finished up finally.

“A friend of the summoner reported it as part of their penance. As I understand it they confessed to having been involved with the summoner to some degree or other; I am not really sure on that as it is protected. But the priest hearing their confession assigned them to report it to the Church as part of their penance.”

“I’d like to go talk to them.”

“No, I do not think that would be wise right now.” Father Flores told him, “I will send someone else to interview them if you feel it is necessary. But I do not want them to feel guilty for having told the Church about their friend. It is too soon.”

“But don’t we need to know how this happened Father?”

“Oh I am sure we will figure it all out in good time Mark.” Father Flores stood signaling that the interview was over, “but it is so unusual that I do not think this will be happening again. Our scholars think that the demon was not in fact summoned by that young man, but was something left over by the Nazi’s, a trap meant to trigger when the Allies took Paris that failed to work and he just somehow released it unintentionally.”

Mark stood up when the Father had and he shrugged, it did make more sense than anything else he’d heard and he was reluctant to argue with Father Flores. “Well if you say so Father.”

Father Flores nodded and smiled, “I do. It is really the only thing that makes any sense,” he said leading Mark to the door. “I will see you tonight then Mark,” and after shaking Mark’s hand he showed him out of his office.

The next few days passed in a daze for Mark as he tried to wrap his head around what had happened to him, to Jake, and that Jake was dead. He did say a little bit at the memorial service, and everyone did turn out. It was rather lovely overall, and he was sure Jake would have hated every minute of it. He tried to do a little research but the drive wasn’t there; his body was still stiff and sore, something he wasn't used to, and the painkillers left him feeling tired. Three days after his arrival he went down to the infirmary for a physical. Sister Susan Guinarra saw him, she was one of two doctors at the abbey, the infirmary was actually more of a small hospital.

“Sister,” Mark said as she entered the examination room.

“Mark. Please sit on the table, this shouldn’t take long.”

Mark nodded and sat on the examination table, like most people he hated the little open back gowns of course, they were cold.

“I see the bruising has almost completely faded. There will be some scaring, but it looks like it will be rather faint.”

“I don’t understand that Sister.”

“Understand what?” She looked up at him a moment, then returned to checking the scars.

“Why I wasn’t healed perfectly. All the cuts were healed, all the serious wounds, I’d have bled to death otherwise. But why scars? I don’t understand why I’m left with bruises and scars.”

She sat back in the chair and looked at Mark again. “So what you’re wondering is why God only healed you halfway, not completely.”

Mark shrugged, “Well it is an act of God, right? Or at least one of his Angels. Why do only a halfway job?”

“Maybe you should ask a priest?”

“I’m asking you. You’re a doctor; you probably have seen this before. Surely you have already asked about it?”

She nodded, “I have.”

Mark sighed exasperated. Why are nuns always so hard to get answers out of? “Would you mind sharing your answer with me?”

Sister Guinarra laughed, “As I understand it, God and his angels always use the minimum amount of divinity needed to get the job done. Otherwise we might become dependent, and therefore lose our freewill.”

Mark nodded; it made a bit more sense than what Giscard had said to him back in France, freewill was a very important issue with God according to the Church's teachings.

“Now, no more painkillers for you. You’re cleared for limited duty for the next week, after that you can return to full. The ribs look okay and those bruises are mostly gone.”

Mark nodded again. “How is Father Gregory doing by the way?”

Now it was her turn to sigh, “Still the same. Last year Monsignor Flores had some new equipment put in his room, the latest in treatment for comatose patients. But his condition hasn’t changed at all.”

“Would it be okay for me to visit him?”

“Yes. Have a good day Mark.”

She left and Mark got dressed, and then went down the hall to the very last room. Father Gregory had been the one who had recruited him to work for the Commission; he had also been Mark's first teacher here as well as his confessor. Mark had loved him like a father, in many ways Father Gregory had become his father; Mark's own having died while he was still in school. A few years ago he’d had a stroke however and while at first he’d started to improve, he had another one shortly after and had lapsed into a coma. Entering the room Mark looked at all the machines they had inside it, Father Gregory’s head was shaven and there was a skull cap of some kind with wires leading from it to what looked like an ECG.

Father Gregory looked small and fragile in the bed; he was in his nineties now. In his youth he had served in the field for over four decades, including during the war when the last of the great horrors had been called into the world. They all missed his counsel, which would explain why Father Flores was so willing to try any new treatment or technology that came along. Mark especially missed him; few knew all the details of Mark's past as well as Father Gregory, whose advice had always been priceless in helping Mark deal with Father Flores and many of the others around him.

He sat there for a while and just talked about things in general. Mark doubted it made any real difference, but with Jake gone Mark didn’t really have any friends left here at the Abbey anymore and sometimes talking about his problems did help, even if there was no one there to offer advice.

The next morning, with his head not as muddled now that he wasn't taking pain killers anymore, he headed down to the archives.

“Ah, good morning Mark, what can I do for you?”

“Well Father Aimes, I was hoping you could help me with some research.”

Father Aimes smiled and nodded, he was the head archivist of the order and maintained the library of not only the order’s records, but all of the sacred texts and other books and documents kept here as well. “You’ve come to the right place. Now what are you looking for?”

“I don’t rightly know Father, I’m sure you’ve heard what happened to Jake?”

Father Aimes nodded, “A sad end to a good man.”

“I want to know what happened. How does a novice summon a devil that took Hitler ten thousand lives? Something that hasn’t been seen in over half a century?”

Father Aimes looked at him, “So I take it you disagree with the current theory?”

Mark nodded, “I don’t see how one can put a devil on ‘hold’. Especially not one as powerful as that.”

“Just because we don’t understand how it was done, does not mean it can not be done Mark,” Father Aimes told him. “You of all people should understand that.”

“It didn’t know what a car was Father,” Mark told him. “If it had been trapped in this world, stuck in an object or some set of wards, surely it would have known what an automobile was.”

“Hmm, interesting point. Perhaps the summoning was cast years ago and only triggered now?”

“Then why did it wait in the building for us to show?” Mark asked. “It escaped the warding circle on its own. So what held it in that building? If it was a left over Nazi trap, shouldn’t it have rampaged through the city the moment it was released?”

Mark watched as Father Aimes pondered that a minute.

“Now, that is a good question Mark. Come over here and have a seat, let’s see what we can discover.”

Mark leaned back and stretched, it was well past lunch, they’d been pouring over old texts and books for hours. “They really should computerize this you know.”

“They tried,” Father Aimes said motioning to an old terminal on a desk across the room.

“Really? What happened?” Mark said curious.

“Didn’t work.”

“You’re kidding me!”

“Well actually it worked, at first. The old machine we have did okay with it, but when Father Flores had us upgrade to the new machines it wouldn’t work anymore.”

“How so?”

Father Aimes shrugged, “Something about the way the data is stored. Some of the spells and ceremonies can only be recorded on certain media, in certain ways. Of course on paper it worked, so it wasn't until they tried putting them into computers that problems came up."

"So why not keep using the old system?"

"The company that made it is long gone. The technology is no longer manufactured. Brother Stevens in the data center could probably tell you more."

"Huh." Mark said thinking about it. He wondered if maybe there just might be a clue there. Perhaps that kid had tried something using a computer and discovered something no one else knew. "I think I'll look up Brother Stevens next and ask him about it."

"Might as well, we haven't found anything here. I'll keep looking however, I love a good mystery and this one is the best to cross my desk in years."

"Thanks Father," Mark said, "I appreciate it."

"Well it's why I'm here after all. Now, let's go get some lunch."

Mark didn't actually catch up with Brother Stevens right after lunch, instead after Father Aimes and Mark had left the Cafeteria Father Aimes brought him over to one of the break rooms. There were a few of the older priests hanging out there and chatting over coffee and Father Aimes had dragged Mark over to the group and introduced him around. Mark knew a few of them, but most of them he didn't, and he could see by their initial reactions that he still wasn't the most liked of the field agents. Once he really hadn't cared, he had Father Gregory or Jake to field those issues, but now it was just him. So he invested some time in chatting with the priests and socializing.

He had reasons to keep to himself at times, there had been some nasty rumors about him when he'd first joined the Commission and apparently some of them were starting to make the rounds again. At least Father Aimes had no qualms about him and said as much to the others there.

"Mark, right?" Brother Stevens said when he finally got there, it had gotten late, he'd spent a lot of time talking with the other priests in his attempt to show them he was just another member of the team.

"Yes Brother. I was wondering if I could ask a few questions about some things."

"Just call me Stevens, Mark. I don't go in much for titles down here."

Mark nodded, "Father Aimes told me that the new system can't retain holy texts?"

Brother Stevens looked at Mark rather curiously. "Why would you be interested in that? You're a field agent, aren't you?"

Mark tried not to look embarrassed, "I'm investigating a few different angles on the case, and well it just seemed strange to me. Didn't the old system allow it? Any idea why the new one won't?"

Brother Stevens shrugged, "Father Flores believes it has something to do with the manner in which the information is stored. The old system was ancient and used what they call 'core memory'. This new system uses a new type of chip. It's based on electricity while the old one used magnetic fields. Uses more power, but is way faster."

"Father Flores?" Mark asked surprised. "What does he know about computers?"

Brother Stevens laughed, "Flores has a PhD. in computer science and architecture. Man is brilliant; he even designed the new system we use here. No idea why he decided to take the vows and join the Church. Surprised everyone, but you know what they say: The calling can not be denied."

"Huh, didn't know that," Mark said. "I always thought he was just following in the family tradition."

"Oh he is now, I don't doubt that. Word is everyone figured he'd end up in Vatican City working on their mainframe; they have some serious needs for high powered computer scientists over there. But after he'd been there about a year he found his calling and then after joining the priesthood asked to come here to carry on the family tradition.

"The people who work the computers in the Vatican weren't very happy, but the Cardinals were positively thrilled to have another Flores running the Commission again."

Mark nodded at that, "Hard to argue with the Flores name, they are a very impressive lot."

"Kind of surprising to hear that coming from you Mark," Brother Stevens said laughing again. "His dislike of you is pretty well known."

Mark sighed and shrugged, "I admit I had a few rough edges when I first came here, after some of what I'd been through I thought everyone was out to get me and I know I wasn't trusted."

"You killed a vampire. By yourself. That sort of thing makes people nervous."

"Not like I had any choice in the matter, someone had to do it and I was the person on the spot. I just was lucky."

"Howso?"

"My mother is very devout. She gave me a cross to wear years ago. Turns out it had been blessed by a Cardinal."

"Really?" Brother Stevens eyebrows raised. "That was enough to stop a vampire?"

"It slowed him down long enough for me to empty four clips of blessed bullets into him and spray him down with about a gallon of holy water. That tore him up enough that I was able to cut his head off with a machete before he could regenerate his body."

"Huh, hadn't heard about that."

Mark nodded, "Except for Father Gregory I didn't tell anyone else the details of what happened. It wasn't a very powerful vamp, it was still young, and I got a local priest to help me out with holy items. That was how I came to the attention of Father Gregory."

"So you just took a vampire on by yourself?" Brother Stevens looked amazed.

"I didn't know about the Commission back then, and I'd been through some rather nasty stuff as a soldier in Afghanistan. The thing was murdering people; I figured it was my duty." Mark tried not to look too embarrassed. There was more to it than that, but Father Gregory had cautioned him to keep that to himself.

"No wonder why they made you a field agent so quickly. A lot of people thought you were related to the Pope or something!" Brother Stevens said laughing.

"Father Gregory told me once that was how most people got picked back when he got started: they'd look for the survivors. Everyone figured they must have had something going for them, either skill, brains, or just plain luck."

"Well better you than me. I'm scared spitless just from the pictures they show me of some of those monsters!" Brother Stevens looked up at the clock. "Dinner time! Come on up, I'll treat."

Mark was surprised, "Serious?"

"Course! I don't get the chance to talk to any of the field agents often and I actually have a lot of questions I'd really like to ask."

Mark grinned, "Well as long as you’re buying!"

When they got to the cafeteria the people there looked upset and there was a lot of muted talking going on.

"What's wrong Jonathon?" Brother Stevens asked one of the other priests.

"We just got word that another team was attacked in Poland, just to the north of Warsaw. Reports say that they managed to destroy the devil, just barely, but only because they’d brought along a few priests from one of the local churches to help. One of those was able to pull out their artifact in time and dismiss it. But both members of the team and two of the accompanying priests were killed."

“Dammit!” Mark swore. “I told Father Flores that this wasn’t an isolated incident.”

Father Jonathon looked a little pale, “But the power is not there anymore, we know that!”

“Maybe we’re wrong,” Mark said, “maybe something changed. I need to talk with Father Flores.”

“What good will that do?”

“I can’t just sit here doing nothing! I’m a field agent, I belong in the field! Somewhere out there is the answer, or at least a clue. How can you guys figure out what's going on if no one is out there digging for you? We're down to what, one team now?”

He turned and left, going directly to Father Flores office.

When he got there he had to wait, Father Flores was in a meeting. After thirty minutes or so a group of people left the room, no one that Mark recognized, lay people most likely.

“Ah, Mark, what can I do for you my son? Come in please, come in.”

Mark walked in and paced nervously in front of the Father’s desk as he got himself some tea from the side board.

“Tea?”

“No thanks Father,”

“Might help calm you down a bit Mark.”

“No, no I’m fine. I heard about the team in Poland.”

Father Flores sighed and sat down, and took a sip of his tea. “Sit please,” He said with a wave of his hand, “Sit down Mark. Yes, I heard as well, just outside of Warsaw at the old concentration camp in Dzialdowo. There is a memorial there now to the many who died or were killed there. Apparently the site also housed one of the Nazi's arcane weapon groups from the war. Cardinal Ferdinand thinks we are seeing the results of some old Nazi experimental weapon. That the bonds are finally wearing down from age. I’m tended to agree.”

“Wards don’t wear down Father.”

“Normally, no. But the items they are placed on can decay. If these were supposed to be some sort of delayed set off, the wards were probably substandard to start with. They weren’t built to last this long. We know they rolled out a lot of stuff at the end of the war, stuff that they never even got to use.”

“I’m not so sure Father. I want to go to Poland and take a look.”

“And just what would that accomplish Mark?” Father Flores looked over his cup of tea at him, obviously annoyed. “I know you’re upset over losing Jake, and this other incident has everyone rather upset as well. I’m sending out Miles and Burton to check over the scene.”

“But they don’t know what to look for!” Mark protested, “They haven’t been through this!”

“They’re both seasoned and experienced professionals. David Miles has been on duty longer than you I might mention.”

“One year, big deal,” Mark snorted.

“So are you telling me that ‘only you’ can solve this case? If indeed these are even related?” Father Flores said putting down his tea cup and looking at him.

Mark sighed and looked down at the desk top, remembering how he had felt those times in the past when he’d gotten in trouble here. Father Flores and he had butted heads a couple of times early on, to his own shame. Father Gregory had even taken Mark to task for his behavior. “No Father,” Mark said eyes downcast, “I don’t doubt their ability.”

“Look, I understand. You’re still in mourning; it’s been quite a shock. You’ve got a lot of time off coming and it’s not like the world is going to end tomorrow. Take a month off. Go back to your home in the states for a while.”

“Is that an order or a suggestion Father?” Mark asked finally sitting down.

“More of a request. Everyone is supposed to get some off time when they lose a team member or partner, and I know we've been working you very hard the last couple of years. See Marilyn on the way out. I’ll have her set everything up.”

“Yes Father,” Mark said and got up. "Can I at least start looking for a new partner?" He asked as he started for the door.

"I really don't think this would be a good time for that."

"Father," Mark said doing his best to keep his voice down and free of emotion, "it would help me to deal with Jake's death. There had been talk about the two of us training some of the new recruits. I'd like to at least continue with that."

Father Flores sighed, "I'll see what I can do Mark. Now please, go home, get some rest."

Mark nodded and left the room closing the door behind him. Marilyn had a sympathetic look for him and an itinerary already in her hand.

"I have you booked on a commuter flight to Madrid tomorrow morning with a connecting flight to the States after that."

"Thanks Marilyn," he said and taking the paper went back to his room.

Mark shook his head looking out of the window of his room as the sun set outside. He just couldn't believe that they were sending him ‘home’ for some rest and relaxation, in the middle of a crisis! He hadn’t been home in nearly a year, and even then it was only for a few days when he and Jake had passed through Oregon. He had a small condo outside of Portland, the only reason he had even that was because they were required to have a residence.

He should be going to Poland; he needed to go back to Paris. But once again he let Father Flores cow him. He hated doing that, but he had promised Father Gregory that he wouldn't fight with Flores anymore and he always tried to keep his promises.

Still, it felt to him like he was being shuffled off to the side out of the way. He wondered if Flores blamed him for what had happened. He and Jake were the best team the Commission had; they always were put on the tough jobs and had more contacts than anyone else. Or maybe Flores had lost faith in him? Maybe he'd never had much faith in Mark in the first place?

Mark and Jake had worked out a sort of 'Mutt and Jeff' routine over the years, and had stuck to it because it worked for them. Jake was more of the friendly talker with the flashier personality, while Mark was the darker, quieter one who didn't mince words and carried the wrath of God around, and wasn't afraid to use it.

It wasn't exactly 'good cop / bad cop', but then they weren't exactly dealing with criminals either. Devils, demons, monsters, spirits, they didn't deal with people as people dealt with each other, they expected stereotypes. And as long as you fit into ones that they could grasp, it made working with them a lot easier. However Mark wondered, not for the first time, if people in the organization had started to believe the roles.

And then, and then last of all was what Jake had done in the church. Jake probably knew the details of just what had happened, and who was responsible. Devils gloat and Angels can be down right chatty. That little gesture he had flashed was a warning, letting Mark know that he personally was in the shit. That both puzzled and worried him the most, because the dead were not supposed to be able to pass on such personal warnings, there were strict rules that governed the spheres, as well as the war.

But Jake had at the very least bent one, if not broken it all together. Only God or one of the Archangels could allow such a thing to happen, and that worried Mark more than anything.

3

The highway was open and fairly straight. The cars on it might as well be standing still as he raced by them and sped through the night. One joker in a corvette tried to race him, but down two gears and a wide open throttle and the car quickly was lost behind him as one hundred and sixty quickly appeared on the speedometer. By the time they got up to that kind of speed he’d be miles ahead. He never understood why people in cars wanted to race bikes. Stock his bike did one eighty six.

It was definitely no longer stock.

The miles quickly passed by, he was up in the mountains now on highway 26, dealing with the long sweepers and having to downshift and occasionally slow for a few of the tighter corners. In another half hour he’d turn around and head back, eventually descending out of the mountains and back into the small town outside of Portland that he called home. Tomorrow he'd deal with his kids and his family that he hadn't seen in almost a year, but for now it was just him, the bike, and the road as he sped through the mountains.

They all had their little sins, their little vices. This was his.

Suddenly, as he was coming out of a long sweeper the engine went dead.

He swore loudly inside his helmet. The headlight was still on, the oil pressure dropped off, the temperature was normal. There had been no sudden vibration, the engine hadn't coughed, he still had gas.

He checked the kill switch, the fuel petcock, and just as he noticed that the key was still in the 'on' position he saw the lights up ahead on the side of the road: Red and blue. He swore again. He was under a hundred at this point, eighty and slowly losing speed. He squeezed the brakes and pulled in front of the police car and stopped.

He pulled his helmet off and started taking off his jacket.

"Hold it right there," A woman's voice said.

Mark stopped what he was doing. "My wallet is in my pants pocket, I need to get my gear off to get it."

"How do I know you don't have a gun?"

Mark laughed. "I can't even see you and I'm all lit up sitting on a dead bike. Trying to shoot you would be suicide. Besides, the jacket is armored, taking it off makes me even more vulnerable."

"You a cop or something?" She asked.

"Or something." Mark agreed. "Can I take the jacket off?"

"Just don't make any sudden moves."

Mark nodded and took the jacket off slowly, then held it off to the side and dropped it. Next he unzipped his riding pants enough to be able to reach into his back pocket and pull out his wallet.

"Get off the bike slowly."

"Sure, just don't shoot me if I trip over my pants when they fall down around my ankles."

She let him get off, and then get his license out which he handed to her along with his ID card.

"What's this?" She asked after making him stand bent over the hood of her car.

"Diplomatic ID."

"You serious?"

"Yup."

"It says 'Vatican City'".

"That's correct officer. Call it in if you want to."

"I'll do that."

Mark watched as she stepped back from him and called it all in on her radio. Bent over a squad car wasn't the best vantage point, and her uniform with the obvious bullet proof vest underneath didn't help much, but she looked kind of attractive, dark skin, short black hair, and athletic figure.

Suddenly he wondered if someone was trying to set him up on a date? Angels could have a strange sense of humor sometimes and the way his bike shut off wasn't exactly what he'd consider 'natural'. But they had to know he had enough women in his life and didn't want anymore.

"Well Mister Levin. It appears that you're not going to jail tonight," She said walking back over and handing him his ID as he slowly stood up. "Care to tell me just what you're doing up here at two in the morning driving in excess of the posted limit?"

"Only if you tell me what a Clackamas County Sheriff is doing up here at this time of night as well," Mark said smiling and looking at her name tag, "Officer Keen."

The look of mixed embarrassment and anger was easy to make out even sitting on the side of the road at night.

"That is none of your business Mister Levin." She said sharply. "Furthermore, while I may not be able to arrest you, I can and will write you a summons for your excessive speeding."

"You know they'll only dismiss it."

"Maybe your bosses will punish you were mine obviously can not." she said almost growling it out.

Mark shrugged, "Knock yourself out," and walked over to the bike. If it wouldn't run, he'd have to call a tow truck. He pushed the start button and the bike started up without a hitch.

Curious. Putting on his gear he turned and watched Officer Keen as she wrote him up for speeding, then spent another half hour looking over his bike and writing him up for every little thing she could find, which fortunately wasn't too much.

During all this time a State Police car drove by and didn't even stop. Apparently someone wasn't very popular Mark guessed.

"Have a good day and please drive safely," she said when she finally handed him the ticket.

Mark smiled and saluted. Getting on his bike he drove off heading back to his rarely used condo, and as soon as he was out of sight he kicked the speed up a little, though not quite as fast as before. He had something to think about. They wanted him to meet her that was obvious. But why? She definitely was nice looking and appeared to know how to take charge of a situation and use a gun. She hadn't taken any chances with him until she knew he was safe, but then again if she was any good why was she on a punishment detail? And why hadn't the State Trooper stopped? This time of night they were usually looking for an excuse to BS with everyone and anyone.

He'd been here several days now, and out of sheer boredom he'd started working on his bike when he wasn't on the phone to Spain leaning on anyone and everyone he knew to get a new partner. Early this morning he'd called Cardinal Richards and asked for a favor. If that didn't shake things lose he didn't know what would.

When he got home he took the time to wipe the bike down and make sure it was clean and shutting off the tank he drained the bowls on the carbs. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be doing any riding for a while.

He woke to the sound of his phone ringing, groaning he looked at the clock, six a.m., he’d been asleep for maybe two hours.

“Hello?”

“Mark Levin please?”

“Marilyn, it’s six in the morning here,” he grumbled.

“Oh sorry, I forgot. But I thought you might want to hear this immediately.”

“I’m back on active status?”

“Not exactly. However I’ve been told you’ve been cleared for a new partner, and they’re putting a list of candidates together now.”

“Candidates? Does that mean what I think it does?”

“Afraid so, you’re getting a new recruit. They’re even making you do the recruiting.”

Mark sighed, “Well at least it’s something.”

“I was told they’ll have the list of candidates to you by this afternoon.”

“Thanks Marilyn,” Mark said and hung up the phone. A partner was a start at least, he’d have to start calling some of his contacts and finding out what they knew. Right after he went back to sleep.

The very next day Mark was standing in a church in Portland looking at a folder and examining the woman in front of him as she stood at attention staring at the wall behind him and realizing that yes, Father Flores did hate him. He hated Mark a lot.

What made it even worse was that this was the officer who had pulled him over last night and she recognized him just as quickly as he had recognized her.

“You shot your partner?” Mark said looking up at her.

She didn’t reply, just stood there at attention.

“This isn’t the academy, or the military. Now answer my question: You shot your partner?”

“Sorry sir, I didn’t realize that was a question. Yes, I shot my partner. Sir.” She said crisply.

“Care to tell me why?”

“It’s all there in the report Sir,” she was still looking straight ahead.

Mark stood up and got in her face, he had a bad feeling about this and it wasn’t getting any better. “I didn’t ask the freaking report, I asked you!” He yelled it at her.

“He crossed my line of fire during the shoot out Sir, it was an accident, even the review board cleared me.”

“I noticed he hasn’t forgiven you.”

She turned red at that.

“I see you lost your previous partner after a car wreck, care to explain that?”

“Just pure bad luck Sir. A truck lost its load as we were pulling it over.”

Mark glanced at her file jacket again. The local police kept good files he had to admit.

“Five years as a cop and you’ve gone through not only two partners who were medical'ed out, but you lost three others, and have been in trouble more times than I’ve wanted to count while reading through this.” Mark looked back up at her and shook his head.

“Well sir, with all due respect Sir, I’ve been promoted twice.”

“Yes, I see that. Promoted to get you out of one person’s hair and into someone else’s no doubt”

He sighed and walked back to the desk. Judith Keen. There was only one person the ‘recruitment committee’ had chosen, Judith Keen. Originally a Portland cop, twice promoted, twice decorated for bravery and recently farmed out to the Clackamas Sheriff's office on a personnel 'loan'. Her previous assignment was narcotics and she got crossed up with some of the Commission's guys investigating a new trend in drugs used for arcane purposes. For some strange reason they had liked her and apparently keeping her mouth shut was one of her better traits.

It was her or he’d have to wait until they found someone else. And that could be a long time. A very long time.

Time that he didn't have.

“Sir, I resent what you are implying. Does this have anything to do with an actual assignment? Or is this simply payback for giving you a ticket?”

Mark looked up at the ceiling exasperated and started to wonder if Jake was bribing the angels to make his life miserable. It was Hobson’s choice and apparently the folks ‘upstairs’ didn’t want him wasting time trying to get someone else. He now understood just why his bike had died in the mountains.

He looked back at officer Keen. “Then prepare to be resentful for a long time. Now come over here, raise your right hand and put your left one on the bible there."

She blinked at him, “Sir?”

“You’re hired, and it’s ‘Mark’ not ‘Sir’."

Judith walked up to the table and raising her right hand put her left one on the Bible.

"Repeat after me; I Judith Keen do solemnly swear,"

"I Judith Keen, do solemnly swear" she repeated.

Mark continued then, stopping every few words to let her repeat; " to obey the orders of my superiors, protect the weak and the innocent from evil, to combat the works of Satan and the other devils, and protect all that is good and holy, so help me God."

Mark smiled and shook her hand as she finished.

"Welcome aboard. Now go clean up your affairs and be back here as soon as you can today. We have a plane to catch this evening.”

“I see, umm Mark. Where are we going?”

“Paris, I need to do some investigating.”

“Paris? But they told me there’d be training first!” She looked surprised.

“I don’t have time for that and as you’re my new partner, neither do you. Any problems with that?”

She blinked. “What happened to your last partner?”

“He’s dead. Ripped to shreds by a very large devil.” He smiled at the shocked expression on her face. “Now you know how your partners feel. Still in?”

She paled but she nodded and left.

Mark tossed her file in the shredder and sat down behind the desk of the borrowed office he was using. He had talked to one of his connections in the police department; the Commission had connections in all the major police departments of course. The woman he'd talked to, Joyce, had given Mark the off the record run down on his new partner. Judith didn’t have much of a future in the police, no one would partner with her anymore, and word was that her ability to screw things up was legendary already. She even fell off a five story roof once while trying to talk down a suicide.

However her luck apparently was legendary as well. A hay truck just happened to be going by. In downtown Portland of all places. Apparently the driver had been lost. These things weren’t in the official record however because they were either too strange to be true, or just too funny. They all thought she was jinxed and bad luck on top of that as well. She might never get hurt, but the people around her often did.

“So what do you think of her?” Joyce had come in after Judith had left the room.

“That she’ll be the death of me,” He sighed and looked at his watch.

Joyce laughed, “Then why’d you take her?”

“No choice really. I need someone and I need them now.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Mark shook his head, “No it doesn’t, not good at all. At least she seems to have some good luck to offset all the bad.”

“Yes, but it seems to only save her.”

He nodded, “Yes, apparently my boss is hoping she’ll be the death of me as well.”

“You can’t really believe that, can you?”

Mark shrugged, “Somehow I must have managed to piss him off and after seeing this, well there isn’t much else I can believe.”

“You know, I still don’t know exactly what it is you guys do anyway…” Joyce trailed off on the unasked question.

“And you’re not going to either,” Mark smiled at her.

“Super secret government stuff?”

“The less said the better. Well I need to take care of a few personal things myself, then I have a flight to catch. Take care of yourself.”

“You take care of your self,” She said. “It sounds like you’ll be needing it a lot more than I will.”

“There is some truth in that.” Mark said softly.

Of course the flight to Paris got canceled almost as soon as Mark had booked it. The Archdiocese sent a courier over with a local issue that needed to be handled immediately. When Judith got back she found him sitting at the table with papers spread all over.

“Change in plans,” he said.

“What is this?” she asked motioning at the papers on the table.

“Our first job as a team. Apparently someone uncovered a minor devil of some kind or other and we need to get rid of it. Think of it as a training exercise.”

“A demon?” Judith said looking surprised.

“No, a devil.”

“What’s the difference?”

“All devils come from hell. Demons on the other hand can come from many places. They can also be created. Devils can only be summoned, not created. It’s a moot point to the lay people, but in this business it’s a big difference.”

“Just what exactly is this business?”

Mark looked up at her surprised. “No one told you?”

“They just said that I would be working for a Commission that was run by the Catholic Church, that it was prestigious and that it would be a good career move.” Judith sighed then, “Also I needed a job, I knew the PD wasn’t going to be keeping me around much longer, and Mitch, the guy I worked with on that religious case, told me that you guys are an international team that goes around fighting the bad guys and specialized in religious crime.”

Mark nodded. “Actually we deal mostly with people who summon devils or demons, devils or demons that have already been summoned, and evil supernatural creatures. You know devils exist, right?”

“Weeeellll, I know I’ve seen some strange stuff as a cop, and I saw a few strange things working with Mitch and his team. But he said its all small stuff these days, nothing big any more, mostly just wannabe’s and the like.”

Mark nodded, Mitch worked one on the more mundane aspects of the job, dealing with items and drugs and potions used in ceremonies. He wasn’t a demon killer, but Mark wasn’t going to tell her that just yet. Instead he gave her the same speech he had gotten when he’d first joined. The one that had changed his life, for the better he had hoped.

“Okay, some history; in December of fourteen eighty four, Pope Innocent the eighth published a Papal Bull dealing with the pursuit of, and the punishment of witches. This was to deal with an ongoing and spreading problem of witchcraft in Germany. It was less than successful and the members of the team of inquisitors sent to deal with it wrote a book after their return to Rome. It was called The Hammer of Witches, or Malleus Maleficarum and was published in the Church in fourteen eighty six.

“The Hammer of Witches however was incomplete, it dealt with the witches as best as they were able, however it did nothing about the devils and other fell beings the witches summoned or created, or which already existed. Also it was rather crude and a good deal of innocent folk fell afoul of it as well as the guilty. So before his death Innocent signed the decree that formed a commission to study the problem and improve upon the Hammer of Witches, to deal with the devils and the demons in our world, and devise a plan to be rid of them. Pius the third renamed the commission the Hammer Commission in his rather brief reign before his death, and Julius the Second invested a good deal of effort in having the order trained so that they could actually perform the services that they’d been only studying up to then.

“You are now the newest member of the order, also known as the Hammer Commission. As it is primarily an order of lay people, led by members of the Church, you do not take any vows beyond those I gave to you when you signed up. Unless of course you are fully accepted into the order and desire to be a full member, at which time you will swear fealty to the Church as a knight of the Commission.”

Judith took a few moments to digest that. “So what am I now?”

“You’re a neophyte of the order.”

“Are you a full knight?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

“How long until I become a knight? Or is there something I must do? Some test or something?”

“I have no idea,” Mark replied honestly. “It’s different in every case.”

“Isn’t that kind of strange?” She asked him looking puzzled.

He smiled again, thinking of when it had come to him. “Extremely.”

“So we go around torturing witches and killing demons? Is that it?”

“We don’t torture anyone; the inquisitors were never part of our order. Also such crude methods aren’t needed anymore. Mainly we find those people who were once called witches and are now called summoners. We do what we have to, to stop them from summoning anymore, and we get rid of any of what they have summoned.”

“And that’s it?”

“Most of it. We also deal with other paranormal or supernatural beings, when we find them, and sometime function as intermediaries with the same or for those not considered evil.”

“Paranormal beings?” Judith asked looking confused.

“Monsters, spirits, demons, what have you. Some are good, some are bad, some are in between. Not all of the bad guys are allies with Hell, just as all of the good guys aren’t allied with Heaven.”

“So we work for the Catholic Church then?”

Mark shook his head, “Well yes and no, the Catholic Church takes care of us, helps us and pays us. They also provide leadership, support, and training. But a lot of us tend to think of them as just the management, technically you work for them but the reality is you don't really, they're not the ones we ultimately answer to.”

She looked at me a moment, not understanding. “Then who do I work for?”

“The kingdom of Heaven, or if you'd prefer, you work for God. The Church is just the management. Middle management I guess you could say. We have the same boss in the end as the Priests and the Nuns do, and while we may get our orders from those Priests and Nuns in the end we all answer to the same authority, and sometimes that authority will deal with you directly. We’re just in a different division of the same big organization you could say.”

“So how come I’ve never heard of any of this?”

“Because who would believe it?”

4

“So how long has this all been going on?” Judith asked as him as they drove out to Rainier.

“I think fourteen eighty-four was when it got started, but we’re just another group of soldiers on the front lines of a war that stretches back to the initial revolt that Lucifer led against God in Heaven.”

“Revolt?” Judith looked lost.

“Didn’t you pay attention in Sunday school?” Mark laughed.

“Ummm...”

“That’s okay, I didn’t either. Hell exists because one of the Arch-Angels, who was unhappy with his lot in Heaven, revolted against God. There was a war, Lucifer and his supporters lost and they were all cast out of Heaven and down into Hell. Lucifer is now the ‘devil’, or ‘Satan’, the ‘prince of Lies’, or whatever you want to call him.”

“So we’re fighting against him?”

“Not directly, none of us would stand a chance in a direct confrontation, same for a lot of the major demons. But there are rules to this war. Some seem to be by an unwritten agreement, some are due to the laws that govern creation.”

“Why doesn’t God just destroy him? Can’t he do that?”

“Probably,” Mark shrugged.

“So why doesn’t God do that?”

“Because there are other things involved, the biggest is free will. Every person, every being, has to journey either into the light, or the darkness on their own. Free will is the biggest gift that our God ever gave to us, and he does everything he can to continue to protect that gift.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” Judith said after thinking about it for a couple of minutes.

“Few people do I suspect. Oh the Pope and most of the other religious leaders do I'm sure, and some of the scholars probably as well, but all I know is what I’ve been told and I don’t worry myself about the high level strategy, I just accept it and move on.”

“So where exactly are we going?”

“There’s an old movie house of some kind in the town. Abandoned or just in disuse, I’m not sure. But the local parish has heard enough and seen enough that they’re pretty sure there is a devil occupying it. So we get to go in there and root it out and make sure there aren’t any others.”

“Is this safe?”

“Nope. But it sounds like a pretty small guy. Not as small as a pocket demon, but not much bigger.”

“What’s a ‘pocket demon’?”

“Oh, just a slang term for the smallest demon that can be summoned. They’re pretty easy to kill, and any religious item at all will turn one away. Holy water or a simple abjuration will get rid of one.”

“Abjuration?”

“Abjuration: to renounce: ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit I order you back to the pits of Hell!’ Or something similar.”

“That easy?”

“If you’re strong in faith, yes it can be. Otherwise, I suggest you hold up a cross.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good, because we’re almost there. Now let’s see if the directions I got were any good.”

Mark found the place on the second pass around the block, it was boarded up, and someone had drawn a number of crosses and other holy symbols on the boards to try and keep whatever was inside, inside. Probably the priest who had called them in.

He found a spot across the street to park the car and getting out walked around to the trunk. Opening it he got out two small bags and handed one to Judith.

“Okay, follow me. Anything that comes at you, use the cross in the bag. Hold the cross at it and order it to be gone in the name of God.”

“Don’t I get a gun or anything?” Judith asked looking around a little nervously.

“Do you see me carrying one? Now just watch and do what I tell you.”

"Okay."

Mark crossed the street and looked at the door, trying it, he found it was unlocked. "Let's check the outside first, you wait here and I'll go around back."

"What should I say if anyone comes along?"

"Tell them Father Joe sent you to check out the building and just wait for me to come around and I'll deal with it."

Mark did a slow circuit of the building then. All of the windows were boarded up, and the boards had crosses drawn on them. He suspected they'd been blessed as well. The back door was locked, and except for what smelled like a skunk living under the building it looked deserted.

"Okay," he said to Judith as he finished his circuit and came back around to the front. "This should be pretty cut and dried. I'm going to go in and dispel it. You stand in the doorway and block its retreat if it gets around me. Remember what I told you."

Judith nodded silently at him. He noticed she had a death grip on the cross.

"Try to relax."

"Easy for you to say!" he heard her mutter as he opened the door and went inside. Turning to the left he started to slowly work his way through the building. The ground floor was clear, so was the small stage. When he started up the narrow stairs to what was either a projection room, or where they had set up the spot lights he saw something jump down from the balcony, and run for the front door.

He ran down the stairs while pulling his cross out. There were two objects in the hallway one was the devil heading for the door. The other was black and white and definitely wanted nothing to do with the door or the devil.

"Don't let it..." He started and then looking up he noticed two things:

The first was that somehow, Judith had gotten a sawed off shotgun.

The second was that it was pointed in his direction.

He swore.

“I can not believe you did that,” Mark said between clenched teeth as they left the town of Rainier behind them. Judith was driving.

“I said I was sorry!” Judith said trying to be contrite. “But I panicked! It was my first time okay? I’d never seen a devil before.”

“If you had held your cross up and stood your ground instead of screaming like a little girl it would have stayed in the building.”

“I was just shocked okay? Weren’t you scared the first time?”

“Terrified, especially as three of my best buds had just been killed. But I didn’t run off screaming. And just where did you get a shotgun from?” Mark could see why nobody wanted to be Judith’s partner, she just didn’t have bad luck, she didn’t listen very well either.

“Well at least it was only full of rock salt.” Judith said looking embarrassed.

“Have you ever been shot with rock salt?” Mark growled.

“Um no...”

“Why am I not surprised. Turn right at that next intersection.”

“Where are we going?”

“I need to deal with this rock salt you have so graciously peppered me with. I also need to deal with the skunk spray that was the other part of your failure to listen to orders.”

“Look, I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry. At least we got the devil, right?”

“Just drive quickly and stop apologizing. That does not make it better, or okay. Just listen to what I tell you and do what I tell you to. If that had been a larger devil, you’d be the one hurting right now. They don’t scare all that easily.”

Judith sighed and blushed again. “So where are we headed?”

“To my wife’s house.”

“You’re married?” Judith said surprised.

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“In a manner of speaking?”

“It’s complicated. Turn right at the end of the road, then make the first left. Follow it around to the end.”

Judith followed the directions and after going through a gate they ended up at a rather nice looking house that could have been in any suburb, only this one was in the middle of a clearing on the edge of a large stand of timber. Mark reached over and tapped the horn twice, then once and got out of the car.

Judith was surprised when a rather attractive brunette came out of the door, wearing a set of cut-offs and t-shirt. She stopped about ten feet from Mark, standing upwind of him.

“What in the hell happened to you?”

“I got shot with a load of rock salt by my new trainee, and then sprayed by a skunk that caught the rest of the blast,” Mark grumbled. “I need to soak out the salt and get rid of this stink!”

“Yeah, I can see that. Well strip right there, I’ll get the boys to haul a barrel around front for you to soak out the salt while I go find the skunk-off.

“I’m Hope, his favorite.” She said turning to Judith with a smile as Mark swore. “Who are you?”

“I’m Judith.”

“Well unless you want to stare at a stinky bloody naked man I suggest you come inside with me.” Hope said and led the way back to the front door. Judith noticed that Mark wasn’t hesitating and was already down to his underwear.

Blushing Judith looked away and followed Hope into the house.

“Have a seat while I go roust the boys,” Hope said.

As Judith sat down in the living room she heard Hope tell her sons about their dad’s predicament, and what they were to do about it. She was rather surprised when two rather large teenagers hustled by and went outside. Obviously growing up in the country had put some muscle on his sons!

“Okay, can I get you some coffee? Tea? Beer? Soda? Whiskey? Whatever you want, you’re going to be here a while so might as well get comfortable.”

“A beer would be nice,” Judith said with a sigh. “Any idea how long this will take?”

“Getting the salt out probably won’t take more then a twenty minute soak. The skunk stuff will take a bit longer than that. He’ll be fine by the time you leave tomorrow.”

Judith blinked, “Tomorrow?”

Hope grinned a shockingly predatory grin as she came over and handed Judith a beer. “He doesn’t get to leave until I say so. Seeing as he’s been gone nearly a year this time around, you better believe he’s not getting out of here until I have seriously used and abused him!”

Judith blushed furiously at that, but she was also surprised, “You haven’t seen your husband in almost a year?”

Hope nodded and sprawled out on the easy chair across from her. “Usually he doesn’t stay away that long, but I think we were all getting on each other’s nerves and needed the break. Shame about his partner though.”

“Did you know him?”

“Jake?” Hope shook her head, “Nope. Except for Father Gregory you’re the first one from work he’s ever brought around here.”

“Really? That’s... strange.”

Hope laughed, “Not when you think about it. Half the people he works with are priests and the other half are killers. We’re a little ‘unconventional’ here and he thinks the first group has to be protected from us, and that we need to be protected from the second.”

Judith digested that a minute. “So you and Mark have two sons?”

“Two sons, three daughters,” Hope said smiling. “The girls are out right now, you’ll probably get to meet them after dinner.”

Judith was impressed; Hope didn’t look like she’d given birth to one, much less five! Her body was incredibly toned and fit. They talked a little about local subjects after that, Judith wasn’t sure Mark would appreciate her giving his wife the third degree. She was on her third beer when Mark finally came inside, wearing a loose pair of pants. He smelled a bit perfumed, but at least didn’t stink anymore.

He went and got a beer and then joined Hope on the easy chair, Judith was impressed by what she saw, Mark was as built as his two sons were, thought he had what looked like some interesting scars. She was also impressed at how well he and Hope fit together. There was some love there obviously.

“So, Hope tells me we’re staying the night?” Judith asked Mark tentatively.

Mark looked at Hope who nodded and he sighed, he didn't want the people at the Commission finding out about his family, Father Gregory had advised him that the less said the better.

“Yes, we’re staying the night. I’ll need to borrow a car tomorrow; mine probably needs to be cleaned to get the stench out of it from where I was sitting.”

“Clem can drive you into the city. Josh will see about getting the car cleaned.”

“Sounds good. What about dinner woman? I’m starving and I’m sure our guest is too.” He teased.

“Well then you better get to cooking, hadn’t you dear?” Hope said teasing him right back.

“Trying to wear me out before the night even starts? Oh no, you’re helping!”

Judith watched with interest as the two of them engaged in light hearted banter and went and made dinner. It was very, well, different. Up until now Mark had been rather direct and blunt, almost cold. Now he was almost hanging off of Hope and well, playing with her. It was like a whole different person.

Dinner was rather good, steak with a few side dishes. His daughters turned up, all three as lovely as their mother, and of course the two sons. They didn’t chat too much, and after dinner Hope was making it very clear that she wanted to drag Mark off to bed.

“Christine, show Judith to one of the spare rooms and make sure she’d comfortable. Clem, Josh, behave or I’ll box your ears.”

Mark couldn't help but smile as he followed Hope down the hall, he owed her so much and he had been away almost a year this time. After this was over he'd see about spending a few months at home.

%     %     %     %     %

He sighed and looked around. The trees weren’t too dense here, and there wasn’t a lot of underbrush thankfully, it was as good a place as any. So he dropped his pack and started to clear a campsite. It had taken him most of the day to find this spot and he had started out shortly after sunrise. He figured he was probably close to a day’s hike from town, but probably less than that to some of the remote houses or a country store. Oregon may look like all trees, but people lived throughout most of it.

But he was far enough away from anything that he shouldn’t be bothered by anybody. Which was exactly what he wanted.

Over the next couple of days he got a nice little area cleared out, his small tent set up, and a fire pit dug and lined with rocks. He’d found a few good spots to forage for wild fruits and vegetables, and he’d located some game trails. He set up some snares to see if he could catch some small game; the less he had to go into civilization to replenish, the better. He needed to get back to basics for a while, and just trying to keep warm and stay fed was enough for him.

Hope came across him first. Or rather she came across his camp. At first she wondered if it was another illegal pot grower or drug cooker getting set up; her and her sisters had run more than a few of those out of their territories. But nosing around she found nothing at all illegal as she prowled the small campsite. There was a machete, some pots and pans, a few knives and a bundle of what looked like extra clothes. No sign of any guns, though he might have had one on him. She could smell it was a ‘him’ of course. At least he was tidy. They didn’t appreciate hermits much, but if he didn’t cause problems, her and her sisters would tolerate him.

She looked around some more, but when she heard him coming she dashed off quickly into the woods. She settled down to observe him for a while, see what he did, what he was up to. Then she'd go talk to her sisters and see what they had to say.

"Damn!" she swore softly to herself as he came into view, he was young! Cute too! Here she had thought it was some old guy like most hermits she'd run across but not this guy. She'd bet he wasn't even twenty one yet.

“Wow, you’re right, he is cute,” Helena whispered to Hope as the four of them, Her, Hope, and their other two sisters Faith and Charity crouched back a ways from the clearing watching the young man. It was dark, night came fast up here in the hills, and he was cooking something over a small campfire. “How long ago did you find him here?”

“Last week. He wasn’t here last time I scouted the area, but that was more than a month ago.”

“Wonder what he’s hiding from?”

“What makes you think he’s hiding?”

“He waited until nightfall to start his fire and cook. He doesn’t want anyone spotting the smoke.”

“Huh.”

They watched him as he finished his dinner, cleaned up the camp, took care of his toilet, then crawled into his tent and went to bed. They sat and watched a while longer, and then all four of them left to consider what they had seen.

Mark sat outside and looked at the stars. His watch told him he’d gotten about three hour’s of sleep. Last night he’d managed four, but then couldn’t get back to sleep at all. All their faces, he kept seeing them of course, and what happened to them as they... He shuddered then and tried to think better thoughts blanking his mind before the images could set in. He was tired, just so very tired. Maybe he could get another hour of sleep if he just could think of better things.

When Hope had come back around a month later to see if their ‘visitor’ was still around she was rather surprised to see he still was. He’d lost some weight however, and had circles under his eyes.

Hope continued to watch from a distance still hiding from view. When he grabbed a towel and headed off in the direction of the local stream she followed him and watched him bathe. He was definitely starting to get thin and his back was covered in nasty scars that didn’t seem to be fully healed or even healing well. She'd say he was the victim of a recent attack, but she knew he hadn't been attacked by anything since he'd come here.

“I think I’m going to go talk to him tomorrow.” Helena told Hope when she came around again a week later.

“What, half naked? Now I think you’re going to get raped!” Hope teased.

“Hardly,” Helena laughed. “He’s been losing weight. At the rate he’s going he probably won’t last the winter when it comes.”

Hope nodded, “I know, kind of sad. But why talk to him?”

“I want to see if he’s really crazy, find out why he’s here.”

“He’s not one of us Helena.”

“But he’s all we got, maybe all we’ll ever get. I’m not going to let an opportunity like this just pass. Anyway, there are four of us and one of him, I think if we decide to ‘use’ him that should be enough to control him if necessary.

“Stay here, I’ll want you nearby, just in case anything bad happens.”

“Sure Sis.”

%     %     %     %     %

The next morning Mark had another surprise for Judith; there was a second woman at the breakfast table, her hair was more tawny than brunette and she looked a lot like Hope.

“Judith, this is Faith,” Mark said introducing her. He could see the surprise and suspicion in Judith's eyes, he was after all treating Faith the same as he was treating Hope. He was sure she was putting two plus one together and coming up with the correct answer, but dammit this was his home and these were his women.

“Faith got here last night.”

Judith remembered that Hope had said something about ‘unconventional’ and she started to get the picture as the little displays of affection passed from the two women to Mark and back again. When Mark went to the bathroom Faith came over and sat next to her for a minute.

“You take good care of our man, you got that?” Faith said softly. “He told us about yesterday, and I gather you sort of have a history of these kinds of accidents?”

Judith could feel her face turn beat red at that.

“Yes, I can see. Well just remember, we will hunt you down if you get Mark killed. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes ma'am,” Judith whispered back, she had no doubt the woman meant it too. But two women! No wonder he didn’t bring people from the Church around!

5

They made it to the airport with a half hour to spare. Judith traveled light Mark noticed, which was good, having only one bag. He had two, the usual carry on, and a second smaller one with a diplomatic seal on it. That one that they couldn’t search, and because of which it meant they couldn’t search him either. Judith didn’t have the full setup yet and he didn’t know when he would be able to get it for her. He’d done the paperwork before the flight and faxed it in immediately giving Marilyn their itinerary in the hopes of having everything ready when they got to France. Maybe if he got real lucky they’d pick it up at the layover in Atlanta, but these things always took time. So he packed a few extra things for Judith, just in case. He could give them to her when they landed in Paris.

“First class,” she said smiling, “nice.”

“Well we’re traveling on diplomatic papers, or at least I am. So we have to look the part.”

“Do we always travel this well?”

“No, so enjoy it while you can.”

She nodded. “So why are we going to Paris?”

“I have some business there I need to do.”

“Church business?”

“No, this is more personal. However it is related.”

“So what exactly will we be doing?” Judith asked as they settled in.

“Question people; take another look at the evidence. Maybe talk to the summoner’s friends or co-workers.”

“So just basic detective work.”

“Exactly so.”

“I think I can deal with that.” Judith said relaxing into the seat as the plane took off. “I like your wives, do you really have two?”

“Faith threatened you, didn’t she?” he said with a chuckle.

“Yup, that’s when she hinted that there were two of them, course they way you were all acting this morning it wasn’t hard to guess. Isn’t bigamy frowned on?”

“According to the Church they’re more like concubines and while frowned on, in certain cases it is allowed under Church doctrine. Oh I may have to spend some time in purgatory for it, but not much more than that.”

“So, should I be worried?” Judith asked, still joking.

“Of course. Think of it as incentive not to screw up, because now you have skin in the game."

“Are you serious?” She said concerned.

“Very.”

Judith sighed. “Anything else I should know then?”

Mark turned and gave her his best nasty smile, “Actually yes, there are four of them.”

Judith stared back surprised once more and apparently decided that maybe it was a good time to take a nap.

The first sign Mark had that anything was wrong was when the plane shuddered about an hour into the flight. A moment after that someone back in tail screamed as the oxygen masks came down out of the ceiling and the airplane started a steep dive. Mark grabbed a mask, and then grabbed his bag from under the seat and opened it quickly. He tossed one of the bottles of holy water to Judith and a cross as well, then he carefully got out of his seat to see what the problem was.

It was an Aerolyth, a small, but nasty flying devil. And it was attacking people. Aerolyths weren't terribly large, they were about the size of a really big dog. But they had rather large hands with rather nasty claws, which was their primary weapon. They looked a lot like the gargoyles you saw on cathedrals, just with wings, very small teeth, and they were a very plain light grey color.

Letting go of the mask Mark ran at it with the cross yelling for it to be gone as he doused it with holy water. It worked and the aerolyth evaporated in a sudden cloud of slightly toxic and rather oily smoke. That was when he noticed there were two more that had been behind it in the cabin further back among the passengers. They were busy clawing people up as well as the cabin walls. He got those two next, not too difficult as aerolyths weren't the smartest of creatures and didn't notice him until they got hit with the holy water. The only thing that stopped the people from screaming at that point was that they were too busy choking on the noxious fumes left behind, and that was when he noticed the plane was still shuddering and that it was quiet.

Not people quiet, they were still hysterical and making hysterical noises. It was mechanically quiet. They were flying in an MD-90, which had engines that were attached to the tail of the plane and he couldn’t hear them. Looking around Mark noticed there were tears in the airplane's skin, straight through to the outside and that there were a couple of claws sticking through. The devils had not only appeared on the inside, but on the outside as well. He had a suspicion that a devil going through a jet engine was not healthy for the engine as he sprayed more holy water on the claws poking through the aircraft walls and was rewarded with a loud chilling scream as whatever it was let go.

He grabbed a stewardess then and shook her so she’d look at him. “Is the pilot all right? Did any of these get into the cockpit?”

She stared at him a moment then grabbed the interphone off the wall and said something into it. Then looked relieved.

“They’re okay; they’re just dealing with the massive engine failure.”

Mark looked at her and now he was the one feeling panic. While the devils may have scared her, being in a large piece of metal falling out of the sky was definitely scaring him.

“Massive engine failure?” Mark was now the one with the white face.

“Return to your seat please sir, we’ll be landing in a couple of minutes.”

“Don’t you mean crashing?” He gulped, this was not good.

“We got lucky; we’re close enough to make Hill AFB. Now if you’ll get back to your seat sir, I have a job to do.”

Mark nodded dully and did as she said. Judith had watched the whole thing and was looking pale as well. He didn’t know if it was from the devils or the impending crash landing. The stewardess at that point started to get everyone settled and prepared for landing. Several went running towards the back with first aid kits. He had forgotten about the people who’d been clawed up. Hopefully none of them would die.

“What just happened?” Judith asked.

“Something that’s not supposed to be able to happen.” Mark looked at the cross in his hand. It wasn’t glowing or anything, “least not anymore.”

“What?”

“Someone either apported devils directly here to where we were, or worse yet, summoned them here.”

“Why is that worse?”

“Because you need a circle to summon devils these days. Summoning without a circle is limited to only the highest powers.” He leaned across her and looked out the window. “Plus we’re on an airplane.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Devils can’t fly this fast, and to put one on a moving object you have to pick the spot about five seconds before the object gets there. Hitting an airplane in flight is supposed to be impossible.”

“Not anymore.” Judith said stating the obvious.

“No, apparently not.”

He dug through his kit and looked at what was there as the pilot came over the intercom and re-assured everyone that everything was going to be okay as the other passengers took the crash position. The two pistols and the six magazines of blessed silver ammunition were still there. However where there had only been one Interpol badge with one ID, there were now two. That disturbed him. Heaven did not get involved normally without being invoked. There were rules to all of this, even if he didn’t understand most of them. If Heaven was bending rules, then someone else must have just broke one. Heaven never bent or broke a rule first.

He handed the gun, two magazines, the badge and ID to Judith.

“As soon as I’m out of my seat, go to the back of the plane, show them the badge and tell everyone to remain seated until I give the all clear.”

“Where did you get this? You can’t have a gun on a plane!”

“The bullets are silver and blessed; they’ll stop a lesser devil. Do not shoot anything unless the cross doesn’t stop it, understand?”

“And this ID? Where did it come from?”

“Are you listening to me?” He yelled at her and she stopped dead and looked at him.

“Go to the back of the plane and don’t let anyone off until you tell me.” She said.

“Good, now shut up and follow orders, there were some on the outside of the plane, this may not be over yet.”

Judith nodded and as the plane touched down. Mark was out of his seat and he ran up to the stewardess’ station. She started to say something then saw the gun in his hand and quickly shut up.

He showed her the badge, “Interpol. There were some of those things on the outside of the plane. Don’t evacuate the aircraft when we land, let me go out first and make sure it’s safe. Understand?”

She nodded slowly. “May I talk to the pilot?”

“Yes, tell him what went on in the back, tell him what I said, and tell the people in the plane to stay in their seats.”

The plane was slowing now and she grabbed the interphone and started talking into it. Mark loaded his gun and clipped the badge to his jacket. This was not good. He heard her tell them he had a gun, but that he had a badge as well. Mark just hoped there weren’t any trigger happy sky marshals onboard.

When the plane stopped she got on the public address and told people to stay in their seats, and to be calm. It worked for about thirty seconds, which was when he heard a loud metallic noise and then gunfire.

“Oh shit!” Mark cursed and undid the door, triggering the slide and going down it gun held up. There were two of them left, plus one big sucker. They had the rear door ripped off and Judith was shooting the one in the hatch.

“Use the cross Judith!” He yelled and started waving the one he was holding as he ran forward. Things were just going from bad to worse. The Aerolyths could be killed, but that big one would just get annoyed by the bullets. And worse yet he was on top of the plane while Mark was down on the ground.

“Hey, pigface!” He yelled and it turned to look. Mark didn’t know the why of it, but insults, no matter how poor always drew a devil’s attention. So did swearing, fortunately he was good at both.

“You looking for me? You want some of this?” He motioned to himself and stuffed the cross in his back pocket while letting out a few rather crude swear words. “What, you need an invitation scumbag? Why don’t you come down here and get some then? Or you gonna stay up there and cry in fear you little wuss?”

It growled and jumped down to the ground, it was a Daralyth, another flying devil, but an order of magnitude in power over the Aerolyths. Probably here to make sure they did what they were told to and not forget the job, aerolyths were fairly stupid.

But Daralyths were not. Mark had never seen an actual daralyth before, while not as powerful as the monstrosity that had attacked them in Paris, it was something that can quickly kill an unarmed human. It looked exactly like a gargoyle from the top of a cathedral, right down to the large claws, nasty fangs, and ridiculously oversized genitals. Its skin looked like it was made from granite, and it didn't flex like normal skin when it moved, it seemed to just bend rather stiffly making it look even more like stone.

“I will kill you, then the other,” he growled. “Then eat the rest.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mark said backing away from the plane. “All talk no action!”

It jumped at him then, and he pulled the cross back out. “In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, I order thee back to the pits of hell!”

It gave a loud, almost ear piercing shriek, and just as its claws reached him it dissolved in to a cloud of that noxious oily smoke and was gone.

Mark looked back up then to see an Aerolyth fall to the ground. Judith had finally killed the first one and was shooting up the second. Mark turned the cross on the one she was shooting up in the doorway above him and repeated himself and it dissolved into smoke as well.

“Put the gun away Judith!” He ordered and stuck his own in a pocket. He could hear siren’s as a bunch of vehicles approached them. They were on a very long runway of some sort and he could also hear screaming from the inside of the plane.

“And let them get off. I think that’s the last of them.”

He looked back up at her, she had a very wild-eyed look and the slide was locked open on her pistol.

“Judith?” Mark yelled. “Judith!”

She shook her head and stared at him.

“Put it away; tell them to get off the plane. Okay?”

She nodded and ten seconds later all the emergency slides deployed and people started coming off the plane like the devil himself was after them.

Which really wasn’t accurate, because the devil was apparently after him.

A humvee pulled up next to Mark then and an Air Force Sergeant leaned out the door and looked at the body of the first Aerolyth that Judith had shot up as it slowly dissolved.

“What the hell is that?” he asked.

“You honestly don’t want to know.”

He looked at Mark and then looked at his badge. “I’ll take your word for it.”

Mark watched as four more humvee’s pulled up, two stopping on either side of the aircraft. Three more MP’s had piled out of  the one by him and were already corralling the passengers, moving them to the front of the MD-90, well away from the body and out of sight of the damage to the rear of the plane.

“You guys do this kind of work often?” Mark asked the Sergeant. The other humvees were disgorging more MP’s who were also herding passengers.

“Occasionally we get wounded passenger birds putting in, so the crowd control part is pretty standard. Haven’t seen the likes of this before.”

“It needs to be kept secret.”

“Well then you picked the right place to land. Now if you’ll just stand right there until the CO gets here, I’ve got work to do.”

They were thorough, Mark gave them that. As he watched they sorted everyone into groups with the help of the stewardesses. They kept everyone from talking to each other and when the busses came out to pick everyone up he saw that a small group of people were separated even further into vans and a few into ambulances. They knew something had happened on the aircraft and he overheard one of the soldiers tell the crowd that for the purposes of the investigation that they had to separate the witnesses or the lawyers would crucify them in court. That seemed to settle people down rather quickly, people understood courts and lawsuits.

Most of the people on the plane hadn’t seen what happened; they only heard the noise, and the gun shots. Same for the pilots. They were told a nice story about a crazed hijacker who was subdued, but then managed to break free and had to be shot when he grabbed a knife and started stabbing people or something like that.

Of the few that actually saw anything, most of them refused to believe what they had actually seen; even most of those who were injured didn’t believe it. It wasn’t surprising, so many people refused to believe what they saw anymore; if it didn’t fit into their nice little made for TV world their mind just rejected it. Plus the sight of a devil, even a lesser one, can often mess with the mind of the unprepared. It had always been one of their greater powers.

But the four stewardesses, two of the injured, one regular passenger, and the four MP’s who’d gotten there before the Aerolyth had completely dissolved, they knew what they saw and they believed it.

“Okay officer Levin, let me get this straight.”

Mark was sitting in a rather non-descript office decorated with pictures of the base and airplanes that he guessed had flown there. A picture of one of the space shuttles with signatures on it graced the far wall as well. Behind the desk was a full bird colonel, seated next to Mark was Judith who was still looking a bit shaken and was being nice and quiet. The Sergeant from the runway was there as well.

“You were on an airplane when some sort of ‘thing’ attacked it.” The colonel continued, “This thing dissolved on the runway before the eyes of my Sergeant here. I’ve got a crowd of people waiting to be taken back to the airport, and another smaller group you want held back and you’re not telling me why?”

“Yes Sir.”

“And you also have a diplomatic passport, and a sealed diplomatic pouch that I’m not allowed to open, both issued by Rome.”

“Yes Sir,” Mark nodded.

“How does a diplomat end up an officer of Interpol? Isn’t that a bit of a contradiction?”

Mark smiled, “Rome is very small as I’m sure you know Colonel. Some of us have to take on multiple tasks. We do not have the manpower to assign people to be officers as well as to be official representatives to Interpol. So some of us are assigned to double duty. I’m sure if you check you will find that all the documents and badges here are genuine.”

“Oh I’ve already checked, Officer Levin, and the speed with which your status was confirmed was nothing short of amazing. Apparently there are people in the State Department that are familiar with you, though they did not go into detail. Our own intelligence agency here on base however has not been so responsive.”

“So you are not the base Commander then?” He asked surprised.

“No, I am in charge of Base Security. The Base Commander has better things to do than deal with minor issues such as this.”

“I see.” He thought about that for a moment. He needed to call in a debrief team to deal with the people who knew what they had seen. He also needed to get out of here before the next attack came.

“Colonel, I hate to pull rank on you but I’m afraid I must. I demand to see the Base Commander; I demand that he be immediately told of my request. And I feel confident that if you do not tell him of my demands that you will regret it.”

“Colonel Jackson Sir, if I may Sir?” The Sergeant spoke up.

“Yes Sergeant?”

“Colonel, I think that the officer here may have a valid point.”

“Really Sergeant?” The Colonel looked surprised.

“Sir, I have three men talking to the Chaplin right now and to be honest I’m wishing to be over there with them. Whatever that thing was, its momma didn’t grow up here.”

“I see. Dismissed Sergeant, but keep yourself and your men on the Base until further notification.”

“Yes Sir!” The Sergeant saluted and left the room.

The Colonel picked up the phone, “General Torres please.”

Mark sat there with Judith and listened to one side of the conversation, it was brief and to the point.

“Well apparently I’m to do whatever you tell me to do Officer Levin,” Colonel Jackson said as he hung up the phone. “So what would that be?”

“Okay, I need to use a phone; I need you to keep those off the plane who witnessed what happened isolated from everyone until my people can deal with them. And I need a car and to get out of here as fast as possible.”

“I can do better than that. I have an osprey that can fly you anywhere you want.”

He thought about that. “I think that should do.”

“Okay, make your phone call and I’ll go tell the duty crew to warm the bird up.”

“Don’t you have anymore questions?” Judith said finally joining the conversation. Mark guessed the shock had worn off at last.

“Around here when your boss tells you to stop asking questions, we stop asking questions Officer Keen. Now excuse me.”

Mark made the call when the Colonel left and told them where he was, and who to contact and that he wouldn’t be here in ten minutes, so not to try calling him back. They promised they’d have a team on the way within the hour. Twenty minutes later they took off and he told the pilot where to take them. They were now bound for Las Vegas, he just wanted an airport, or anyplace, that had some sort of rental car available.

“Why Vegas?” Judith asked.

“To see the King,” He said thinking that maybe this should have been his first move instead of trying to go to Paris. No one would expect it, even if they knew.

“Don’t you mean the Pope?”

Mark laughed, “I’ve never met the Pope! You won’t ever either most likely. No, if anyone can help right now, it would be the King.”

“The King?” Judith looked confused, “There aren’t any Kings in the US.”

“Oh but there is,” Mark said wondering if he’d be happy or mad to see him. They hadn’t parted on the best of terms the last time Mark had seen him.

“What’s he the king of?”

“Las Vegas.”

6

He dug the official report of what had happened in Paris out of his bag and gave it to Judith to read, it was going to be a long flight, and he settled down for some rest. He told the pilots not to file a flight plan, which they were happy to do surprisingly. Saying something about a ‘license to steal’ or some such.

When they finally got there the pilots put them down at the military part of the airport, and they were able to get a lift from there over to a rental agency where Mark paid cash to avoid any record of the transaction on his credit card. That could too easily be read later by people he probably didn’t want to know that he had come here. Ten minutes later they were in a nice sedan driving down the strip.

He glanced over at Judith as she looked out at the casinos as they turned into a road leading out of downtown Las Vegas. “You know how you watch those movies where the hero always makes a dumb mistake, and you’re saying ‘hey, you idiot! How can you do something that stupid!’ and you say to yourself how you wouldn’t do anything that idiotic?”

Judith nodded and answered “yes” while watching the signs as he drove down the back road, probably wanting to be sure she could remember the way back out of here he guessed

“Well the fact is, you usually know something the hero doesn’t. Or the hero was an idiot but the director wanted to heighten the tension, or maybe the director was an idiot. Hell most people are idiots these days and probably wouldn’t even notice the problem you saw coming.

“Anyway, what it all comes down to is this. We’re dealing with monsters, devils, demons, and things even worse than that. Every time you go to deal with one, or meet one or kill one you should be thinking ‘Hey you idiot! How can you do something that stupid!’” He turned and looked at her a moment before returning his eyes to the road.

“These things are dangerous, even the little ones can kill you if you’re not careful. Any mistake you make could be your last, or conversely, you might do everything right and still find yourself gutted and being eaten by a monstrosity that even H.P. Lovecraft wouldn’t have come up with on his best nights.

“Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“No, not really.” She sighed, “Other then telling me not to fuck up.”

Mark laughed, “Oh you’re going to fuck up, you’re going to fuck up royal, that’s why you’re here. I’ve checked your records, you are without a doubt a first class major league fuck up. You’ve fucked up more things than they wanted to put in your records, you’ve fucked up everything you’ve been involved with since you joined the police force back in Portland, and I suspect you were a first class fuck up even before that!”

Judith turned to him scowling, "Sure I've made a lot of mistakes and had some bad breaks, it wasn’t always my..." She stopped suddenly when she noticed he was pointing a gun at her, a cocked one. She blanched.

“Don’t go telling me it wasn’t your fault or any of that other shit. None of that matters in this business. If it rains, if a cloud covers the sun at the wrong moment, if you flip heads instead of tails, it’s all your fault."

The gun went off with a loud bang, making Judith's ears ring. She blinked and touched her side, looking for the wound. When it came up clean and she noticed she hadn’t been shot, she looked around a little frantically and couldn’t find a bullet hole anywhere. She looked up at him then and noticed he had put the gun away.

“Blank. Wanted to see if you’d piss your pants or not.”

“What!” she yelled at him, “You did that as a joke?”

“Not a joke!” he yelled back, “I had to know.”

“What, if I could be scared?” She was still yelling.

“No," He lowered his own voice back to a conversational level. "I know you can be scared. We all can be scared. I had to know if you’d show it. Do you know why you’re here?”

“Because you needed a new partner and I volunteered!”

“No, because you’re a fuck up and you’re expected to fuck up and get us both killed. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

“Oh please. Don’t give me that shit.”

“Look, I don’t have time to debate it, either start listening to me or when the time comes there won’t be a blank in that gun, understand? I told you what to do on that plane and again you didn’t do it! Instead you wasted a lot of ammo, made a bigger scene than necessary and you were very lucky that Daralyth didn’t decide to come after you.”

Judith looked at him, he glanced at her again and saw the change in her expression as she suddenly realized that he just might do it.  For a moment he looked like a very hard man. Very hard.

“Jake and I were set up; we were both supposed to die. I got lucky, I got away. Do you think whoever set us up isn’t going to try and set you and me up?”

“But the finding in that report said it was a fluke!”

“There are no flukes in this business. We’re on the front lines of a war that’s been waging for tens of thousands of years. They don’t make mistakes. There aren’t any flukes. We’re dealing with Heaven and Hell here, and all that lies in between. You’d better remember that.”

She thought about that a moment. She still found it hard to believe all these things existed. She hadn’t seen a devil before yesterday. He had apparently. Lots of them.

“So what do I do?” She said looking straight ahead out the windshield again. They were in some sort of neighborhood now, though it was obviously a very rich one. It was all estates, trees, and high walls instead of the dry Las Vegas rocks and desert.

“Say your prayers every night, go to church, try to do your best, avoid evil people and evil things. No one expects you to be perfect or not sin, but at least make the effort to live a good life, the Big Boss in the sky likes that – he can forgive you quite a lot as long as you show your faith, believe in him, and make an effort to be a good person.”

“The ‘Big Boss’?” Judith looked a bit bewildered by that.

“Yeah, you know, God? The one who when you get down to it is the one we really work for? This isn’t a fantasy, as much as you might think it is so far. We’re the good guys, we work for Heaven and God, no matter how indirectly. If your faith is strong, you’ll see signs of it. Trust me, you can’t miss it,” he said thinking back to when he’d used the cross and later when he’d had his visitation with Jake in the Church.

“We’re not expected to be perfect or not to sin, this is a rough job and it takes rough people, not the pious or meek. Doing this job is our demonstration of our faith. We’re just expected to keep that faith and as long as you do, you’ll never be abandoned. That’s not to say you won’t suffer or die, and maybe even die horribly...”

Judith felt a little queasy as he said that, thinking about the crime scene photos and his former partner.

“… but God will be there for you.”

She nodded, “Okay, go to church, say my prayers, have faith, be good. That it?”

“No, one other thing, and this is important too so work on this one.”

“What?” She was perplexed by this, it sounded like he was about to give her the secret handshake or something similar.

“Get a sense of style going, and stick to it. Act it, live it, don’t forget it.”

Judith looked at him and laughed nervously in disbelief. “A sense of style? You’re joking right?”

He shook his head and turned into a driveway pulling up to a heavy metal gate. “No, I’m not. Any demon or monster that doesn’t attack you right away is going to want to talk with you, maybe even deal. If they think you’re just another human, they’ll never take you seriously. But if you have a sense of style, like a movie character, Indiana Jones, Charlie Chan, James Bond, and of those, they’ll take you seriously.”

She thought he was still pulling her leg, but he looked deadly serious.

“Why?” was the first thing that came into her mind.

“Think about what you’re dealing with here, myths, monsters, demons, devils, they’re larger than life. If you’re not larger than life as well, you’ll never stand up to them, they’ll laugh at you.”

“So who are you?” She asked curious.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he grinned and rolled down the window, “Indiana Jones. I’m a big Harrison Ford fan. Sometimes I mix in a little Han Solo from Star Wars. Excuse me,” he leaned out the window and pushed the button on the speaker.

“Yes?” came the mechanical reply.

“I’m expected.” He replied.

“Who is it?”

“If you can’t tell by now, I’ve got the wrong place. Go ask your boss.”

“He’s not my boss Mark. Now apologize or I’ll make you sit out there until he opens the game himself.”

“Sorry Janet, but the speaker out here leaves a lot to be desired sound wise.”

“You’re full of it Mark, but I love you anyway. Come in.”

There was a loud click and the gates started to open, Mark put the car in gear and drove in.

“So why are you telling me all this now?” Judith asked concerned.

“Simple, you’re about to meet your first big monster.” He replied driving up the house and stopping under the large carport roof that extended well out from the front door putting all of it into the shade.

“But you said we were going to see a man about some information.” She opened the car door and got out walking around to follow him up to the front door.

“Man, monster, yup, he’s all of that. Probably the most dangerous monster you’ll ever meet if you’re lucky. Just don’t let him throw you, no matter what he does.”

She nodded and straightened up, preparing for the worst.

The door opened and a very striking young man with black hair combed back over his head, wearing dark sun glasses and a rather flashy skin tight white leather jacket and pants came out. The jacket was open almost to the waist, exposing a rather trim and fit chest beneath it.

“Mark, greetings. Please come in, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” he said reaching out and shaking hands with Mark.

“Still doing the show at the Mirage I see?”

“Of course, I have to uphold my reputation after all.” He turned towards Judith then, “Who is your friend?”

“This is Judith, Rafael. And Judith, meet Rafael.”

Rafael took Judith’s hand and gave a little bow, and then said to Judith in the best Elvis voice she’d ever heard: “Welcome darlin’, it’s a pleasure to greet such a lovely young lady such as yourself.”

Judith smiled, “You’re an Elvis impersonator!” She was surprised. No wonder Mark called him the ‘King’ of Las Vegas.

“I’m not just an Elvis impersonator,” Rafael continued in the same voice, “I’m the Elvis impersonator. All hail the King baby!” and he flashed her a very warm smile.

Judith nodded and smiled her best smile back at him; Mark could see she was smitten already.

“Please come in, let’s get out of the heat.” Rafael continued in a more normal voice.

Rafael turned and they followed him in. Mark bringing up the rear, he tried not to laugh as Judith took the time to admire Rafael’s tight leather clad butt.

“Wait here a moment while I go and change,” he told them as he showed them into rather comfortable room.

“Sure,” Mark said walking over and sitting down on the couch set behind a low glass table. The room hadn’t changed much since he’d been here last. Judith sat down on the other end of the couch leaning back into the cushions.

“An Elvis impersonator huh?” she smiled, “Okay, now I know why you call him ‘The King’.”

“He’s not just any impersonator, he’s the one that they measure all the others against. He’s been doing that act for six years now and every other Elvis gig in town has gone out of business because they just can’t measure up. That’s part of why everyone calls him ‘The King of Vegas.’”

“And here I thought I was going to see something scary,” Judith laughed.

“Don’t let his appearance or his act fool you,” Mark warned.

Judith shook her head, she’d seen scary guys before and Rafael didn’t fit that description at all.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Rafael said and came back into the room in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Judith gave him a good look, Rafael’s body was damn near perfect. She wondered how much time he had to spend at the gym to look like that? Well muscled, but still kind of sleek. She noticed his hair was sort of brown now, and he didn’t look that much like Elvis anymore, where before he could have been his twin.

She watched as he sprawled rather sensuously on a large recliner motioning to Mark from the other side of the room, a little smile on his face as he relaxed.

“So what brings you here Mark? And where is Jake?”

“Jake’s dead Rafael.”

Judith started slightly as she noticed that Rafael was suddenly leaning across the table his face inches from Mark’s. She hadn’t even seen him move it had been so fast. He was just there.

“What!” he demanded loudly. “How, where?”

Mark told him the details as Judith watched Rafael. She listened as well, not having heard the whole story herself yet, having only read the report he had given her on the flight from Edwards, but she found Rafael’s body language to be intriguing as she watched. He didn’t move a muscle, he was completely still, focused. When Mark finished Rafael stood up and started to pace back and forth obviously agitated.

“So you’re going to be next, aren’t you?”

Mark nodded, “That’s my suspicion.”

“You can stay here if you want. But I don’t think that’s what brings you here, is it?”

Mark shook his head, “No, I need help.”

Rafael nodded, “Whatever you want, I owe you and I owed Jake.”

“I’m going to need some money, and some information.”

“Money is no problem, but I don’t know what information I can get for you that you can’t get from the Abbey Mark.”

“I trust you; I’m not so sure I trust the Abbey.”

Rafael stopped in mid pace then and turned to face Mark. His whole body shimmered and suddenly there was another man standing there. He looked like Rafael did, but not quite. And then there were the tiger stripes all over his body. It had been a long time since Mark had seen Rafael's true form; he could see Judith's eyes were wide open in surprise.

“You trust me?” Rafael said, “You actually trust me?”

“I have no choice, Jake is dead and my new partner isn’t exactly up to snuff yet. I have to trust someone, and I remember what you were like when we helped you. I’m hoping you haven’t changed over the years.”

Judith felt uncomfortable as Rafael turned to look at her, his eyes those of a hunter. She had the sudden feeling that a large tiger lurked behind those eyes, and that tiger wanted her.

“Partner huh? And here I thought she was a peace offering.” Rafael smiled at Judith as she tried to sink into the couch while nonchalantly moving her hand to the gun under her jacket.

“We were never at war Rafael. Put it back in your pants.”

“Yes but I still remember all those things you said to me, some of them weren’t exactly nice you know.”

Mark could see that Judith was starting to get more uncomfortable; Rafael’s eyes were still locked on hers.

“So I was wrong. Vegas is still standing and we didn’t have to come in here and kill you.”

Rafael laughed, “Not that you would have had much success I fear. I rule here now. This is my city.”

“I don’t doubt that. However if you keep looking at Judith like that I suspect she’s going to shoot you.” Mark chuckled.

Rafael smiled and bowed breaking eye contact, “I’m sorry, just where are my manners?” He looked back up at Judith and winked, “You would be delectable my dear, if you ever should feel the desire, do not hesitate to ask.”

Judith tried not to gape at him as he turned back to Mark.

“I’ll have Janet show you to your rooms, dinner is at eight. In the mean time let me talk to a few people to see what I can hear. We can discuss what you need of me while we eat.”

“Thank you Rafael.”

“Jake would be upset with me if I did not help.” He walked to the door, “Tell your partner the rules, I wouldn’t want her to get hurt by accident.” And he left the room.

Judith looked at Mark, “What the hell was that?”

“He’s a Rakshah. Only one in America. Jake and I helped him get away from his Master and come back to the States.”

Judith shuddered, “That look in his eyes when he focused on me. I can’t believe he thinks I’d actually let him eat me though!”

Mark laughed, “He was teasing you Judith. Besides he doesn’t eat people, well hasn’t yet that I know of. But he definitely wants to get you in bed.”

She blinked, “Sex? With him?”

He nodded, “yup. Rakshah feed off of emotions. Fear, hate, violence, death. That’s what makes them so dangerous and powerful. This one however feeds off of love, sex, and lust. Why else would he live in Sin City?”

“Now I’ve heard of everything.” She sighed shaking her head.

Mark shrugged, “He’s an American, like you and me; far more obsessed with sex than with violence. We took a chance on him, and thank the Lord it paid off, cause once he’s full grown it’d take an army to get him out of here. No one takes on the Rakshah. It’s the only reason the Chinese never invaded India, they got their asses kicked. They're invulnerable to almost any kind of physical damage and most magical damage as well. Even devils fear them.”

“You mean he’s not full grown yet?”

“No, he’s still young by their standards. I have to admit he’s gotten a lot more powerful than I thought he would by now. He’s going to be something when he’s full grown.”

“So what are the rules he was talking about?” She had stood and was looking around the room. It was a fairly comfortable den, dark, yet warm and secure. She noticed a lot of the pictures on the walls were of tigers or nudes. Some were both.

“There are tigers wandering the property and the house. Under no circumstances are you to point a gun at one, no matter what.”

She looked at him “Tigers?”

“Yes, walking free. There would be several in here normally but you’re new so he didn’t want you frightened I guess.”

She nodded warily. “What else?”

“Things can get pretty sexual here at times. Walk away if you don’t like something you see, but don’t interfere.”

“How likely am I to see something?”

He shrugged and then smiled at her, “Depends if you decide to sleep with him I guess.”

“What?!” she glared at him, “How can you suggest that? You just told me he’s a monster!”

He nodded, “I’ve been told he’s fantastic in bed, kind, considerate, loving, kinky as hell, and you’ll feel ecstasy like you’ve never felt before. It’s okay with me if you want to. I’ll drag you away with me when I leave.”

“But you said he was a monster?” Judith was obviously confused by this change of tact by him.

“Oh he is, definitely is. But not all monsters are evil.”

“Have you slept with him?” she was suddenly curious.

“No, not my bag of tea.”

She nodded and Mark could tell she was thinking about it. Then she shuddered a bit and looked back at him.

“Yeah, he does that to you,” Mark said watching her. “Part of his powers, especially as you’re in his den now.”

A young woman entered the room then, and Mark smiled, “Ah Janet, so nice to see you again!”

“Hello Mark,” She said with a smile. “Who’s your friend?”

“Janet, allow me to introduce my new partner Judith Keen. Judith, this is Janet, she’s Rafael’s girlfriend.”

Judith came over and shook Janet’s hand, she was shorter than Judith, with long brunette hair, a very lovely face and a striking figure.

“Judith,” Janet said smiling, “Nice to meet you.”

“Are you ummm...” Judith asked a little nervously.

Janet laughed, “No, I’m human just like you.”

“How did you end up here then?”

“Oh we met when Rafael first came to Vegas. You could say it was love at first sight.”

“More like lust,” Mark said.

Judith winced at that as Janet gave Mark a smack on stomach. “Behave you, or I’ll sic Rafe on you.” She turned back to Judith, “Old sour puss there has forgotten what it’s like to be young and in love,” Janet grinned then, “or how to have fun. Now, follow me please?”

“Of course!” Mark said smiling at Janet. “Lead on.”

“Dinner will be at eight. Dress is entirely up to you, Judith.”

“Thank you,” Judith said.

“As for you Mark,” Janet turned and smiled at him, “A g-string will do!”

“Just for that I’m wearing a suit,” he replied smirking.

“Awww, so much for any eye candy!”

“Sorry Janet, but I’m spoken for. You know that.”

Janet laughed, “A girl can dream, can’t she.”

“You can not expect me to believe that Rafe isn’t enough for you!” He laughed.

“Well I figure he’s going to be entertaining your friend here tonight, so I might as well find my own fun!” Janet said and giggled.

Mark laughed again when he saw Judith’s expression.

“Well let’s get our bags out of the car and get comfortable, hopefully Rafe will have something for us by dinner.”

“So what should I expect at dinner?” Judith asked him as they headed down to the dinning room.

“Well Janet is a wonderful cook; her parents run several five star restaurants in LA.”

“What about Rafael?”

“He tends to let his hair down when, well when Jake and I were here at least he did because we know all about him. I suspect he’ll do the same with you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because only four people in Las Vegas know what I am,” Rafael said coming up behind them as they entered the dinning room. “And three of them are here tonight.”

Judith gave a little jump when Rafael spoke, obviously she hadn’t heard him approach. She turned to look at him and noticed that he was still covered in stripes, well at least the parts of him that she could see were.

“I think a couple of people in the FBI know about you,” Mark said thinking a moment.

“Yes, and one is stationed here, that’s the fourth one. She’s very pretty,” Rafael said with a smirk.

“I don’t want to know,” Mark said.

“She’s supposed to be bait,” Rafael laughed, “Someone thought she’d be able to get on my good side, seduce me, and control me.”

“Too bad that’s my job!” Janet called from the kitchen.

“Exactly,” Rafael said smiling.

“Take your seats, dinner is ready!” Janet called.

“Allow me,” Rafael said to Judith and helped her into her seat. Mark smiled and shook his head. Rafael had definitely set his sights on her.

They didn’t talk much during dinner, and the food was wonderful as always.

“So find out anything for us?” Mark asked after they’d finished eating.

“Not yet. I’ve got a few people looking into it, they’ll call me back in the morning.”

Mark nodded and took a sip of his coffee.

“So, just how did this happen to you?” Judith asked motioning to Rafael’s body.

Rafael smiled, “Naiveté and stupidity.”

“Oh?”

“I was on my summer break from college and I had decided to go to India and bum around for a month or two.” Rafael smiled, “I had a thing for Indian girls back then. I ended up in the mountains, far away from the major towns and villages and didn't listen to the warnings of the locals about avoiding certain places and people.

"So I was enjoying the hospitality of what I thought to be a rich eccentric Indian gentleman, and one moment I'm admiring his collection of tigers and then the next I've been tossed in with them."

Judith gasped, "He threw you in with his tigers?"

Rafael laughed, "I was so stoned I didn't even realize it until the next day. Like I said, stupidity and naiveté."

"So then what?"

"He made me his latest protégé, took me as one of his lovers, and became my Master. The older more powerful Rakshah usually have a couple of young men they've ensnared, sort of how they reproduce. Sadly however mortality is close to one hundred percent."

"Why's that?"

"Because as you get more powerful they start to worry that you might try to kill them and take over their territory. But they're rather possessive so they won't just let you go or toss you out. Fortunately for me however I was able to realize my plight and made my escape one day and took refuge at a Catholic Church I came across."

Mark nodded, “The Church didn’t know what to do with him, so they sent us out to talk to him and deal with everything. He wasn’t evil so we couldn’t kill him, and India wanted him gone as he was an American, so,” Mark shrugged, “We brought him here. Figured he’d fit in fine in Vegas.”

"Ah. So how did you meet Janet?"

Rafael smiled, "Luck mostly. I was looking for a woman to seduce, to feed those hungers that regular food does not. Janet is a very rare woman; her passions and her love are so overwhelming that I could not let her go."

"So you're food?" Judith asked Janet looking rather shocked.

Janet laughed, "Oh hardly, though I do enjoy 'feeding' him!"

Mark was surprised that Rafael actually blushed!

"Janet fulfills a greater role in my life than that. For all of what I have become and what I am, she loves me and accepts that which I must do. I have found that I actually love her as well, I would be lost without her."

"Isn't he such a sweetie?" Janet said smiling.

Mark laughed as this time Judith looked embarrassed. “Monsters need love too Judith.”

“Mark stop being so crass,” Janet said, “Rafael is hardly a monster.”

They talked a while more after that, Rafael telling them about his success as an Elvis impersonator, which he started at first out of a need for money but found he truly enjoyed over time.

Mark excused himself after a while to go outside and relax on the patio while he contemplated his next move.

Several hours later Mark was still sitting outside staring up at the stars, drinking a beer with a couple of tigers curled up around him.

“Want some company?”

“Hey Janet. Judith finally succumb to Rafe’s charms?”

“Oh she did that an hour ago. I figured I’d just let you sit out here and unwind before I came out and joined you. Slide over.”

Mark slid over a bit on the lounge, letting Janet curl up against his side.

“You know, I’ve never asked, are you happy with Rafael?”

Janet sighed and nodded, “Yeah, I am. It’s incredibly intense at times, and it was strange as hell at first. But he is one hell of a man.”

“Monster you mean.”

Janet smacked him. “What is it with you and the whole monster thing?”

“He’s a monster. He’s a big fucking scary monster. And he’s going to get bigger and even more scary. And I brought him here.”

“You and Jake brought him here.”

“No, I did. Jake wanted to kill him. I talked him out of it. Me. I stood up to my organization; this is all on me, all of it.”

Janet looked at him. “Why?”

“Because he was a man once? Because I felt sorry for him? Because I’m an idiot?” He shrugged “Pick one. So yeah, I wanna know, was it worth it? Did I do the right thing?”

“Yes, you did the right thing Mark. He’s a good man; he’s my man, stripes and all.”

“You mean you’re his woman, you don’t own him, he owns you.” He grumbled.

“Same difference Mark. So why so negative? Why are you even here?”

“I’m here because I’m desperate. As for the rest?” He took a long pull on the beer bottle, “I think I’m going to be taking early retirement, the painful and terminal kind.”

“Come to bed.”

“Janet...”

“You can keep your shorts on.”

Mark could feel his face turning red, but he was faithful to his women, they meant everything to him. “Okay.”

%     %     %     %     %

Mark was sitting in camp mending his extra shirt when he heard a surprised gasp. Looking up in surprise he saw a rather attractive blond standing there looking at him.

“Um, Hello?” She said, “What are you doing here?”

Mark could feel his face blushing, she was wearing a pair of shorts, and not a stitch of clothing beyond that, and she was rather nicely endowed. He moved his eyes to her face and tried to control himself, it had been some time since he’d seen a woman. Longer than that since he’d seen a topless one. “I could ask you that myself Miss,” He said, his voice sounding funny in his own ears from lack of use.

“My sister has a cabin off that way,” she said giving a wave, “I thought I’d come up and commune with nature for a while. Now what about you?” Helena asked him with genuine curiosity.

“I... I needed some time to be alone is all.” Mark said a little embarrassed. “Do you always commune topless? Miss?”

Helena laughed, “Oh this?” She gestured to the shorts, “On the really nice days I wear even less.”

Mark almost groaned.

“So you aren’t in trouble with anybody, are you?” Helena asked.

He shook his head, “No Ma'am.”

“My name’s Helena,” she said and walked right up to him sticking out her hand.

Mark jumped to his feet, because sitting there put his face right in front of that magnificent chest so he’d be pretty much staring, and that was just rude. “I’m Mark,” He said shaking hands and doing his best to keep his eyes... elsewhere.

Helena tried not to giggle, he so badly wanted to stare at her body yet he was trying to be polite. “Mark? That’s a nice name. So how long are you going to be camping here?

Mark shrugged, “I don’t know, a while?”

“Okay!” Helena gave him one of her brighter smiles. “Well anyways, I got a lot of walking to do today. See you around?”

Mark shrugged and looked around, “Not like I’m going anywhere.”

“Well I’ll be sure to stop by tomorrow then!” Helena said with a grin and with a little wave turned and walked back the way she had come.

“He was watching your ass like a steak dinner as you left,” Hope teased Helena when they met back up in the woods.

“Poor boy has been up here by himself for what, four, five months now? And yeah, he’s seriously lost some weight. But at least he knows how to behave himself. Wouldn’t even stare at my chest, and you know he wanted to.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Visit him a few more days, see what happens.”

Mark was surprised when the next day, Helena stopped by again. Dressed once again only in those tight cutoff’s.

“So why here?” Helena asked as she came into his small camp and found a place to sit.

Mark blinked, a little overwhelmed. He knew he must look a sight, his clothing was getting a little ragged around the edges and even if he did keep himself clean he wasn’t very well groomed. Helena however was totally unconcerned.

“Because it’s far away from everything.” He told her without thinking about it.

“I see. Why was that important?”

Mark thought about that a minute before answering. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, but he didn’t want to be rude. Or make her think he was crazy and then call the police or somebody to run him off. He frowned. “I just got out of the Army. I, well... it was rough. I don’t like looking at everyone like,” he paused a moment, “like I had to there.”

“Ever kill anyone?” Helena asked curious.

Mark nodded.

“Bothered by it?”

Mark shook his head, “Not really. It’s what happened to my platoon.”

“What happened to them?”

“They got wiped out, I was the sole survivor.” Mark said and put his head in his hands as his mind tried to process the whole event, but it just didn’t seem to make any sense.

Helena sighed; she obviously had triggered some sort of bad memory. “Sorry, I’ll go for now.”

She showed up three more times, not really staying more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time, just talking a little, asking a few questions, or talking about something else.

Two days after her last visit another woman showed up.

“Hey Mark!”

Mark looked up, “Who are you?” he asked surprised. She looked a lot like Helena, but was a little shorter, thinner, and more of a brunette than a blond. She was also only wearing a pair of cutoff’s, and nothing else.

“I’m Helena’s sister Hope.”

“Does she know you’re wearing her shorts?”

Hope shrugged, “No idea.”

“Don’t you girls own any clothes?”

Hope smirked, “We’re nudists, we only put these on because you’re here.”

“So where is Helena?”

“Dealing with her own affairs. She doesn’t live around here actually, she was just visiting and decided to come up here and talk to you. Now it’s my turn.”

Mark nodded and tried to keep his eyes on Hope’s eyes and not her rather lovely chest, or nicely tanned legs. “You have the same eyes as Helena.”

“Yeah, all four of us look pretty similar.”

“Four?”

“Me and my sisters.”

“Oh.”

“So, tell me about yourself.”

Mark blinked, where Helena had been fairly non-intrusive, Hope apparently was very.

“Why?”

“Because I’m curious. Did you grow up around here?”

“Actually, no. I grew up in New York.”

“Oh! I’ve always been curious about big cities! Tell me about it!”

"Sure, have a seat," he said gesturing to one of the logs and then spent the next several days doing just that.

It was nice to have someone to talk to for a change.

%     %     %     %     %

“Sleep well?”

Mark stretched and pushed at the tiger that was curled up on the bed next to him until it rolled over and got off the bed. “Yes actually.” He noticed that Janet wasn’t in the room anymore; it was just him and Rafael, well the two of them and a couple of tigers.

“I hadn’t known about you standing up for me, thanks, I appreciate it.”

“I suspect you know why.”

“Of course.”

“So, what did you find out, anything?”

“Not much. No one is seeing any increase in activity anywhere. So if I was a suspicious man, I’d say someone was targeting your people.”

“But how are they doing it?”

“That’s your department, not mine.”

Mark sighed; he’d hoped for more than this, “I need to go to Paris.”

“I can set you up with a private jet.”

“I, I would like a favor.” Mark had spent the night thinking about this, it wasn’t something he wanted to ask, but he had to.

“Sure, what do you need?”

“If I don’t make it, I’d appreciate it if you let my family move into your territory.”

Rafael looked surprised. “You’d trust me with your women?”

“Rafe, I’ll be dead. I’d rather they were sleeping with you than getting torn apart by some devil and sent to hell.”

“I’ll take care of them. To be honest, I’m surprised; I never pictured you for a family man.”

“Then how did you know?”

“Judith is very curious about you, and it came up during the night.”

Mark nodded, “I’ll have to ask her to keep it quiet. It’s a secret I’d rather be kept secret.”

“I think she understands that now, I told her it wasn’t something she should be sharing.”

“Thanks. So she conscious yet? Able to walk?”

Rafael laughed, “Yes she can walk. She’s actually in the shower right now.”

“She’s a one woman disaster area, you know that right?”

“Yes, it was quite entertaining. You have my sympathies."

"Anything you can do about it?"

"Sadly no, it is not within my powers. Staying for breakfast?”

“Is Janet cooking?”

“Of course!”

“Definitely.”

7

“So where are we going?” Judith asked him, lying back in the seat on the private jet. Rafael had gotten them a rather nice one, not that he was all that surprised. Rafael had not been lying about having consolidated his hold on Las Vegas rather completely.

“Paris, I want to interview a few people.”

“Why does he have tigers roaming the property?” Judith asked sounding a little perturbed.

“Some sort of Rakshah thing. He is a tiger spirit after all.”

“It’s freaky.”

“Actually, I kind of like it.”

“What?”

“I like cats.”

“They’re not cats, they’re tigers!”

“They’re cats; they’re just a little big.”

“Just a little big he says!”

Mark sighed, “Do you have something you want to say?”

Judith blushed, “What makes you say that?”

“Because you sound like you have a problem.”

“What kind of problem could I possibly have?” Judith said a little angrily.

“Guilt. You had a truly great time last night; now you're starting to realize just what Rafael is and you feel guilty about it.”

“And you know this how?”

"Because me and guilt go back a very long way," he sighed.

“Jake?”

“It goes far beyond Jake. Rafael is a monster, yes have no doubts about that, but he’s not evil. Hopefully he never will be. So don’t feel guilty about it. Go to confession if you want, trust me it won’t be the last time you sleep with him, and you’re not the first to feel guilty about it.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Did you sleep with Janet?”

“Eventually,” He noticed her smirk, “but we didn’t do anything.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

He shrugged, “I won’t lie to you, and I expect you not to lie to me.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Not interested. I love my family; it’s really all I need anymore.”

“Then why did you stay away for a year?”

“Demands of the job. Jake and I were the top team; last year was a very busy year.”

“How did you get this job?”

“I killed a vampire.”

“Vampires are real?” Judith’s eyes almost bugged out.

“Everything is real, or at least it used to be. But yes vampires are real.”

“And you killed one? By yourself?”

Mark nodded, looking down at the floor as he spoke. “They’re not as tough as the stories would have you believe, and it was a young one. I just blasted the hell out of him with a sub-machine gun full of blessed bullets, hosed him down with a fire extinguisher full of holy water, and then cut his head off while he was trying to recover from all of that.” He’d told the story so often now he didn’t think twice about not mentioning that his women had been there backing him up. Without them he'd never been able to get past all of the vamp's followers who were guarding him. Also the first time he had dealt with a vampire it had left him a total wreck, so he hadn't been sure he'd be able to do the final kill by himself at the time. Then again that had been a powerful vampire and he was just a green kid fresh out of Army training back then.

“I thought you had to stake them through the heart?”

“That only holds them in place until you cut their head off, or burn their body.”

“Aren’t they super strong, super powerful?”

“Physically they're not all that much stronger than the average weight lifter, and of course during the day they're even weaker. When you live forever, you can afford to save up and buy the best PR men in the business, and since one of them got that idea they've spent a fortune on their image. Their real strength is in their followers; they’re very charismatic and attract low-lifes like flies.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, well they’re pretty sick and sadistic and there are a lot of people who enjoy that kind of thing. Part of why I don’t feel guilty about killing them.

“Anyway, the Church heard about it from the priest I went to, to get the bullets blessed and all that holy water. Which was just as well as somebody had to clean up the mess I left behind. And here I am.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Ten years.”

"Do you enjoy it?"

He looked up at her a little surprised by the question; he hadn't expected it but could see she was serious. "Sometimes I do, other times I hate it. Most of the time it's just a job, yeah it can be a very dangerous job, but it has to be done. Why'd you become a cop?"

Judith smiled, "Because I wanted to help and protect people."

He smiled back, "That's the best reason there is."

She nodded, "My Uncle was a cop. He was a big hero, saved a whole bunch of people from a crazy serial killer. He also took down a guy who tried to shoot up a mall, and a dozen other things."

"Was?"

"He's retired. Lives on a boat in the marina, spends his winters in San Diego."

"Must be tough to live up to that sometimes."

She shrugged, "He told me he was lucky, always in the right place at the right time. Me? Always in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Mark laughed, "Well that ability is what got you this job, so don't knock it."

She frowned at him, "You still think I'm going to get you hurt or something, don't you?

He nodded, "You're going to get me killed. I'm sure of it."

She frowned at him, "Then why am I here? How can we work together if you don't trust me?"

"Oh I trust you, I think after our little discussion in the car that you're going to try very hard and do your very best."

"That doesn't explain why you're willing to have a partner who you are positive will get you killed."

He shrugged, "I needed a partner, and it has been made clear to me that you were the best choice..."

"I was the only choice!"

"Just so. But I've studied your record and while you are bad luck to everyone around you, and while you fall afoul of a lot of it yourself, you always survive unscathed."

"And that helps you how?" She said a little snarkily.

"It doesn't help me at all. But this isn't about me it’s about getting the job done. So while I'm getting ripped to shreds, or whatever fate awaits me," he visibly shuddered as he thought about that, he still hoped he wasn't going to die, but he wasn't going to kid himself, this one might just be the end of him. "I'm convinced that you will be able to do whatever needs to be done to put an end to all of this."

"Oh that's just fucking great," Judith swore.

He laughed, "Could be worse!"

"Yeah, just how?"

"Our roles could be reversed..."

Judith got very quiet for a moment as she thought about that.

"Well as long as we're being honest," she said looking a little embarrassed, "I didn't let him go all the way last night."

Mark looked at her surprised, "Really?"

Judith nodded, "Trust me, I really wanted to, but with everything going on, and his being, well whatever he is, I had to draw a line somewhere. Maybe when I've a better understanding of just what I've gotten myself involved in I will."

"Huh," Mark said.

"What?"

"I'm impressed."

"Finally!" Judith said with a smile.

Finally indeed, Mark thought to himself.

They breezed through customs rather quickly. Mark had put the cash Rafael had given him in the diplomatic pouch so no one would see it. Not that he got searched anyway, but it was best to be safe. The first thing he did was drive to Saint-Étienne-du-Mont and asked to see Bishop Santos.

"Mark! It is good to see you again!"

Mark bowed and kissed his ring, "This is my new partner Judith," he said introducing her while she curtsied and kissed the ring. Obviously she hadn't ignored everything in Sunday school.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Judith."

"Thank you your Eminence," she responded.

"Actually eminence is for cardinals, we Bishops have to make due with 'your Excellency'." Bishop Santos told her, and then laughed when she blushed. "We're not all old and stodgy like the movies portray us."

"Yes your Excellency," she mumbled still embarrassed.

"So Mark, while it is good to see you again, and in much better health than when you were last here, I suspect this is not a social visit?"

"No Father. I was hoping to find out who the tip came from so that I might interview them."

"Hmmm, I see." Bishop Santos said pondering a moment. "There has been some concern over the woman who made the report. Apparently she is rather distraught over the whole affair."

"Girlfriend?"

"No, a neighbor. She lived in the flat next to his."

"I would really appreciate being able to talk to her about this Father. None of this adds up."

"Yes, I had noticed that as well. Cardinal Richards is still in quite a state over the whole affair, as well as what happened in Poland." Bishop Santos paused a moment in thought again.

"I will send her confessor with you, he's a good priest, he's been with the church almost as long as I have. I will have him ask her to talk with you. Perhaps if she sees how important all of this is, she will stop feeling guilty about her choice."

"Why should she feel guilty?" Judith asked. "He was summoning devils, wasn't he?"

"Sadly Judith, while those of us in the Church, and those like you who work for the Church still understand the difference between good and evil, right and wrong; many in society today only see the world in 'shades of gray' as they like to say.

"They have been swayed by the words of people who either don't believe in evil, or who are evil themselves or seek to use the culture of today to lead other people astray."

"It is a sad truth Father," Mark said nodding.

"So, go visit your with your friend, and I will summon Father Otto."

Mark looked up surprised, "Jake's buried here?"

"We felt it best to inter him on holy ground. He's in the vaults below the Cathedral, there is an entrance in the sacristy."

"Thank you your Excellency!" Mark said bowing and kissed the ring again surprising Bishop Santos, "I was afraid that Jake would not be laid to rest in Paris, this was always his home and I know he wanted to be buried here."

"Ah, I see. Well go in peace while I attend to this."

"Umm, is this safe?" Judith asked as they descended into the tombs under the Cathedral.

"Of course it is, we're still on Holy ground," Mark said.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs he found a light switch and turned the lights on. There were a series of halls with placards on the walls, which were made up of three foot by two foot stone panels with inscriptions on them.

"This isn't what I expected," Judith said looking around.

"Most people think it's like the catacombs down here. That place definitely gives most people the creeps. Now, let's find Jake."

Mark went to the little altar and sure enough there was a book next to it, listing who was interred here. Finding Jake's resting place turned out to be fairly easy.

"Jake, this is Judith, your replacement." Mark said when they came to his stone in the crypt. "Though I suspect you already know that. Assuming you're even paying attention to me anymore!"

Judith looked at him a little strangely.

"What?"

"He's dead. Why are you talking to his body?"

"Because I sure as hell can't talk to him. Well I can talk to him, but he can't talk back."

"Is he really in Heaven?"

Mark nodded, "Yes, one of the perks of the job. As long as you keep your faith and never turn away or join the other side, you go to Heaven."

"Nice to know."

"Now if you don't mind I'd like a little private time. You can wait by the altar back there, or go up in the Sacristy."

Judith nodded and left him there.

Mark sighed and looked at the marker carved into the stone that sealed his former partner in. "You know I have half a mind to drag your body out of there and dump your bones in London just to get even with you for dying on me. I'd ask if you have any idea at all how screwed I am, but I suspect you already do." He shook his head, "Still trying to figure out if I should be jealous that you died first. Oh, and sorry for never telling you the full truth about me, or about my wives.

"Anyway, I am completely lost here and to be honest I'm terrified that I'm going to be joining you a lot sooner than later. So here's what I know: That guy didn't summon that devil. Someone else did. Someone who can summon devils into an airplane that is actually moving. And it's only our people being hit, well at least right now.

"Father Flores still hates me, I think his choice for my new partner makes that clear. Rafael had no clues and he was rather upset about your death. I think he had a crush on you or something. Probably that suave French accent.

"So my plan is, interview the person who turned the kid in. Fly to Poland; get whatever information I can there. After that, maybe look up the infamous Mr. Smith, if I can find him, if he's even still alive. Then I'm out of ideas. So I'd really appreciate it if you could like, bribe an angel or something to give me a clue, I'm lost here Jake. Throw me a bone or something, okay?"

Mark made the sign of the cross then, kissed his fingers and patted the marker. "Keep a spot open at the bar for me, I miss you bud." Then he went and found Judith, she was up in the Sacristy waiting for him with a priest he'd never met before.

"This is Father Otto," She said introducing him.

Mark shook hands, "If I may ask a question Father?"

"No, I don't know how an Irishman got a German surname."

"Well now that that's settled, shall we?"

"You have a car?"

"Of course."

"That's good. Can't walk like I used ta'. Gettin' old I guess."

Mark nodded and led them back to where the car was parked, Father Otto was rather talkative. He also seemed to know the history of every house, pub, and shop that they passed.

"Been here long?" Judith asked at one point.

"Nah, only ten years now. But back in the fifties I was assigned here as a young priest. They were still cleaning up after the big one of course. So we priests spent a lot of time in the neighborhoods working with the parishioners and helping them out. Took people a long time to heal from that one. Everyone was so grateful to be alive that mass was always packed. But they were so poor that every spare coin we priests had ended up in the poor box."

"Sounds rough."

"For them it was. We didn't mind not having money, the Church takes care of us, so we can take care of the people. Used to stay up half the night praying for other people's sins because they were working themselves into exhaustion and couldn't pray themselves."

"Praying for other people's sins?"

"It's an old practice in the Church, I don't think most people even know about it anymore. Back from the time when the rich could buy indulgences from the Church."

"How does it work?" Mark was curious, he'd never heard of this one before.

"That house there," Father Otto pointed out. "The Priest would pray in the name of the parishioner, or whoever made the contribution, for forgiveness of their sins, or for whatever boon they were seeking from the Lord. It wasn't banned when indulgences were, so we spent a lot of time praying for their health and welfare, or anything that they asked for help with."

"Do you think it helped?" Judith asked as Mark found a space to park.

"Well it was a smaller world then, so we all figured we would try."

Mark thought about that as they all walked over to the door of the flat they were going to. Priests like Father Otto were the salt of the earth and the backbone of the Church. He had to be close to eighty, but here he was still tending the flock. Just like Father Gregory had been.

Father Otto knocked on the door and after a few minutes a young woman who Mark would have guessed was in her late twenties answered the door.

"Why Father Otto! What brings you here?"

"Allison, this is Mark and Judith, they're lay members of one of our orders that investigates problems such as the one that poor young man was involved in. Could you spare a few minutes to speak to them please?"

"Father, I don't know."

"Miss Allison," Mark said carefully, being tactful wasn't his strong suit, "I understand that you may feel responsible for what happened. Sadly this incident was too far along for any of us to have stopped, that poor young man had already passed before we were able to help him. However there may be others who can still be saved and we must hold out hope for their lives and their souls. Anything you can tell us could help us to save someone else from such a terrible fate."

"He was dead when they got there?" Allison said looking surprised.

"Yes, what he was trying did not work. So now we are looking to see if there are others who need saving."

Mark watched as Allison sighed and slowly nodded, "Yes, you are right. Come in, please. I will tell you what I know."

Mark and Judith sat on a couch in the living room as Allison and Father Otto each sat in one of the two overstuffed chairs in the room. Mark gave the room a cursory look over as Allison settled herself and asked if anyone wanted any tea or coffee.

It was a nice room, fairly tidy, nothing too expensive, but nothing cheap either. Apparently Allison did okay, and had nice taste in art and furniture. Pretty average over all.

“So Allison,” Mark started. “How long had you known,” Mark looked at his notes, “Pierre?”

“Actually he went by the name Peter, he hated Pierre.” Allison said.

“Really?” Mark said and wrote that down.

Allison nodded, “I’d known him for, I guess ten years? His sister and I were friends in school. Which was how we met.”

“I see, are you still friends with his sister then?”

Allison nodded, “Yes, but she lives Madrid now, her company transferred her last year.”

Mark nodded, “So what was your relationship with Peter? That is if you don’t mind me asking?”

Allison blushed Mark noticed, “He had a crush on me, used to come by once every week or so. We’d meet for lunch sometimes, Francis, his sister, was very worried about him. She appreciated my taking time to keep an eye on her little brother.”

“Worried?” Judith asked, “Or was she just trying to set you up with him?”

Allison shook her head, “No, Peter had a girlfriend, or did up until last year. He’d been getting involved in, well involved in things obviously that were bad for him. At first we, Francis and I, thought he’d just gotten involved in that whole ‘Goth’ thing they do in the States. But it was worse than that.”

“How so?” Mark asked.

“He stopped going out, stopped talking to all of his friends, started staying home when he wasn’t working, sleeping days and up all night. From what he told me he was spending all his time on the internet.”

“Doing?” Mark prompted when she paused.

“Researching demons, devils, all of that kind of thing. He was wearing occult symbols and was getting more and more pulled into it. At first I thought he was just being silly or trying to impress someone. But after a while I realized he was serious. That was when I talked to Father Otto here about him.”

She started to cry a little then, Father Otto got out of his chair and kneeled down in front of her chair and took her hands in his and started to comfort her.

“I’m sorry Allison,” Mark apologized.

“It’s.... It’s okay,” She said between soft sobs as she composed herself. “I just don’t know what caused him to change so, so suddenly. He never really came out and said anything about it, but I think he met someone on the internet, someone who convinced him to do this.”

“Is there anything at all you can think of that happened when he started to change? Was he in an accident? Did he go on vacation? Something traumatic in his life?”

Allison took a moment before responding, “I think he broke up with his girlfriend then. Also that was about the time his sister was transferred.”

Mark nodded and wrote that down. He let Judith ask a couple more questions while he thought about what Allison had said. All in all it just sounded like another case of teenaged angst gone bad.

Mark looked at Judith and she shook her head, so he stood, “Well we thank you for your time Allison, we all know this has been hard and you have our sympathies.”

“I just wish I’d spoken up earlier,” Allison said looking up at them. Her misery was clear on her face.

“You didn’t cause any of this, someone else did,” Mark said. “I promise you that we will do every thing that we can to find the person responsible for it.”

“Do you think you can?” She said looking hopeful.

“Of course we will,” Judith said smiling, “It’s what we do.”

They bid her farewell and then waited by the door for a minute as Father Otto talked to her quietly before he got up and joined them outside.

"That's a good woman in there," Father Otto said as they drove back to the Church.

"Too bad she didn't know anything that would have helped us," Mark said. "Oh, I forgot to ask you," he said looking at Judith. "Do you speak French?"

"No, but she wasn't, so no biggie."

Father Otto started to laugh rather loudly.

"What?"

"She was speaking French." Mark said smirking.

"Looks like somebody got the gift of tongues!" Father Otto said still laughing.

"What?!" Judith said looking from one to the other.

"Looks like you just got promoted," Mark said flooring the car and running a red light. "Good thing too. Father, what kind of a devil is that behind us?"

Father Otto turned around in the back seat to look out the rear window. "Well I'll be. Haven't seen one of those since we blessed the catacombs back in fifty-three. It's a subterranean devil. Fast little stinkers. Nasty claws too."

Mark took the next corner hard, sideswiping a taxi in the process as he leaned on the horn. "Is it a minion or a lesser?"

"It’s a lesser devil." Father Otto said pulling a bible out of his robes and taking his cross into his hands.

"It's gaining on us!" Judith warned.

"Turn left onto Rue De Rivoli!" Father Otto said from the backseat. "Tour St. Jacques will be a good place to confront it."

"I don't know where that is Father!" Mark said, sliding the car around another corner as he made the left turn Father Otto told him about.

"Big tower on your right with a park around it. Can't miss it."

Mark nodded and weaved around another taxi, dodged a bus and sideswiped a UPS truck.

"There!" Judith said pointing.

"Okay, I'll lure it off," Mark said. "Judith, you get the holy water and crosses out of the trunk. Father, can you dismiss that thing?"

"I can build a ward to trap it, but it will take a minute or two. Not a young man anymore."

"Brace yourselves!" Mark said and turning up onto the curb drove into the park. Jamming the car in park as he locked the breaks he opened the door and jumped from the car as it came to a stop.

"Yo! Pigface!" He yelled running at the devil and pulling out the small cross he kept in his pocket.

Sure enough it turned right for him.

"Begone devil! Back to the pits of Hell with you!" and he thrust the cross at it.

Unsurprisingly the cross burst into flames, it wasn't one with any serious power and he hadn't expected it to hold. But it did piss the devil off and it followed him as he turned and ran.

He could hear the sirens as he ran around the tower, running straight for a tree. It grabbed his jacket, and he shed it without a thought then jumped as the tree came near and hitting it feet first rebounded from it. The devil however ran right into it with a loud 'smack'. It took a moment to gather its wits and then with a roar chased after him again.

Mark was able to do that three more times until it learned what he was doing. The fourth time it ran into him and sent him sprawling.

"I will eat your flesh human!" It said snarling at him as he scrambled to his feet.

"That's what you all say," he grunted then charged it, ducking under its arms as it tried to grab him and tried to hip check it as he went by.

It was like hitting a brick wall, but he did budge it some. However it raked his back with a clawed hand, shredding his shirt. Four lines of fiery pain scored down his back as he started to run back towards the car.

It hit him again when he was about halfway there. He could see Father Otto was still busy scuffing lines in the dirt as he kneeled there using his shoe which he had taken off as Judith watched in fear.

"Get the artifact!" He yelled as he rolled to his feet and faced the devil.

"Your blood smells strange," the devil said snarling.

"You should talk, short and stupid."

It took another swipe at him and he dodged, taking a step back. He blocked the next one with an arm, and he was sure he felt the bone crack. He slipped a few more attacks before it landed another solid one across his chest, the pain of it making him gasp. But he jumped back and then turned and ran as fast as he could.

The next swipe took his back again, the pain was incredible and he had to call on all that he was to keep from passing out. He could feel the blood running over his skin as he saw the circle in the dirt and jumped into it.

The devil followed and grabbed him by the arms. "Your blood tastes wrong, but I will eat you anyway!" It said, and then suddenly froze in place, immobile.

Mark heard it then; Father Otto was speaking in Latin, flinging holy water on the both of them as he commanded the devil to return to where it came, by itself, and to stay on the lower planes for all of eternity.

He wasn't sure how long it took, but when he finally fell to the ground he almost kissed it.

"Oh my..." Judith started; he was surprised she stopped before she said 'God'. He guessed she had been paying attention after all, but he couldn't get up the breath to laugh.

"Why didn't... you get... the artifact?" He said trying to keep his head clear.

"There wasn't one!" Judith told him. "There weren't even any crosses! Father Otto had to bless the water in my water bottle or we wouldn't have had even that!"

Mark swore, "Go get my jacket." He gasped. "It has my badge in it. The police will be here soon."

Judith nodded and ran off.

"Could you hold this a minute my son?"

Mark looked up from where he was kneeling on the ground, he wasn't sure he could stand yet. Father Otto was holding out his cross, "Sure Father," He said and took it.

"Kiss it."

Mark looked at him strange but kissed the cross, and then making the sign of the cross said, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." He handed the cross back to Father Otto.

"What was that all about?"

"I heard what that devil said. I also saw you get hit three times and not drop dead. What are you Son?"

Mark sighed, "We all have our crosses to bear Father, this one is mine."

"Does the Church know?"

"My Confessor knows, the Cardinals know, and God knows."

"Well it is not my place to question the good Lord's will, you are obviously one of his flock. Now let me tend to those wounds."

8

About an hour and several phone calls later Mark was able to get things sorted out. The French Gendarmeries were helpful as always, once their bosses got engaged. France was one of the countries that had the most experience with devils and demons, so there were a lot of officials in the higher ranks who were always more than happy to cooperate.

They had also been kind enough to call out an ambulance and one of the attendants had been kind enough to bandage his wounds, front and back.

"How's your back?" Judith asked as they hitched a ride back to the Cathedral.

"It'll heal. What I want to know it what happened to the gear in the bags."

"Did you check them when we picked them up?"

Mark frowned, "No, I saw that they were sealed and didn't think twice about it."

"Well inventory screw-up?"

"That's a pretty serious screw up!" Mark grumbled.

"Well at least it wasn't my fault!" she said grinning.

Mark smiled back rather weakly, "There is that."

As soon as they got back he did go to the monsignor's office, and checked with the staff who managed the 'special' supplies.

"A person was here yesterday from Spain." The man working in the office said. "He inspected the bags and took a number of things out of them. Said they weren't needed here."

"You're right, somebody does hate you!" Judith said as they walked out of the office. "So what are we going to do?"

"Well Bishop Santos can get us a couple of blessed crosses that will protect us against the lesser devils, holy water we can get anywhere in the building easily enough. Some of the other items we need I can shop around for, this is Paris. But artifacts are hard to come by. They're carefully guarded and tracked."

"Can't you make an artifact?"

He shook his head no, "It has to come from someone incredibly holy and powerful. Usually a Saint, and always someone who is dead. It is their passing that imbues the item with their power."

"Are you sure we'll need one?"

"If we run into anything serious, it's the only way we'll be able to stop it. We were lucky today that we had an older experienced priest with us who knew what we were dealing with and had the holy power to do something about it. That is not something we can count on."

"Well how hard is it to raise these devils?"

"They're not raised, they're summoned. And it's impossible."

"Doesn't look like it to me!" Judith said scowling, "You said once before that these things happened in the 'old days'. Even Father Otto talked about them, and he made that comment about the world 'being smaller back then'. What did he mean by that?"

Mark stopped and looked around, there was an office that was empty so he pulled her inside and sat on the edge of the desk. All this walking around was making him tired and his back and chest were rather painful under the bandages.

"Okay, since God created the universe the amount of power, call it 'mystical' power, in world has been a constant, okay? Think of it as a big swimming pool of water or something."

"That sounds easy enough."

"Good. Now in order to do anything mystical, from performing a miracle to summoning a devil or demon, it requires a set amount of power, or water, from that pool. That requirement never changes. Say summoning a major devil takes five percent of the water in that pool, while healing your cousin's blindness requires one percent. Still following?"

"Yeah, you use power from the pool to change things, and the costs are set."

"Okay, now the contents of that pool are equally divided to every living person on the planet. So if you want something done, you have to get enough people together to gather that much power. So back when there were only a million people on the planet, everyone had like a ten gallon bucket of that power, so ten people together could make a miracle. A hundred could summon a devil.

"Now as the population increased, everyone got a smaller and smaller share, so now instead of a ten gallon bucket, you have say a cup."

"So now with three billion it takes a million to summon a devil!" Judith exclaimed surprised.

"More like a hundred million, though the one we saw today probably only took twenty or thirty million. But that's why it is impossible. How do you get that many people together to pray for a devil? And without anyone noticing? That is what we're up against."

"Didn't the report say they thought this was something that had been summoned back in the days of the Nazi's and trapped here?"

"Then why are we the only ones finding them? And why are they targeting us in particular instead of running around causing general mayhem? If the Nazi's had left them, they should be trying to kill everyone; not just me and you. And that doesn't even begin to explain what happened on the airplane.

"No, someone is summoning devils that no one should be able to summon and they're going after the Church's teams. I suspect they'll go after the ones from the other religions next, but we're the biggest and the most organized. This has to have been planned."

"Well at least there's only one of them," Judith said frowning.

He blinked surprised. "How do you figure that?"

"Typical criminal behavior. One guy does one crime at a time. If there were more than one of them, they'd be doing several at a time."

"Huh," He said impressed, "I hadn't thought of that."

"Nice to know I can pull my own weight around here!"

"Oh you're not quite there yet!" Mark said with a smile, "But you do seem to be well on your way. Let's go find Bishop Santos and get our gear replaced.

Unfortunately for Mark they were intercepted in the Bishop's office shortly after meeting with him.

"Sir," one of the office staff said to him, "I have a phone call for you from a Father Flores?"

Mark rolled his eyes and the Bishop smiled at him, "Go talk to your superior. I'll see to your things."

"Yes Father."

Mark followed the staff member out of the room to the outer office and picked up the phone at the desk he was brought to. He had been carefully avoiding Flores for several days now.

"Yes Father?"

"What are you doing in Paris Mark?" He could hear the anger in Father Flores voice. "Why are you not back here in Spain?"

"We had an issue on our flight out of the US. This was the best I could do on short notice, so I decided to spend a couple of days asking questions as long as I was here Father."

"I told you not to do that, did I not?"

Mark looked up at the ceiling and tried not to swear, he was glad Father Flores couldn't see the expression on his face. "I asked permission from the Bishop. He thought it would be fine. I did not run off without asking permission."

"May I remind you that Bishop Santos is not your superior? That is my job." Father Flores said rather hotly.

Mark bit his tongue. He really wanted to say something nasty, but he could tell that Father Flores was really angry. Angrier than he could remember, so he questioned a witness, why should he care? "I'm sorry Father," he lied.

"Well I want you to get on the next flight here, understand?"

"As soon as I'm cleared for travel Father."

"Why can't you travel now?" Father Flores demanded.

"I'm wounded. I was attacked by a devil and got clawed up."

"Really?"

Was he being paranoid or did Father Flores suddenly sound pleased?

"Yes Father. I'm bandaged up pretty good from the waist up. I was pretty lucky it seems. I think they're still trying to decide if they want to stitch up the gashes or not."

"Well how soon do you think you can get here? I still haven't met your new recruit and there are a lot of things that have to be taken care of."

"Three days, maybe four." Mark said thinking fast. He didn't want to go back to Spain just yet. There were still a few things he wanted to investigate. "Unless the doctors order me to stay in bed longer."

"Okay. You've got four days, then I want to see you in my office."

"What about the doctors?"

"We have doctors here too. Four days Mark. That's an order!"

"Yes Father." Mark said and hung up the phone.

"Well that didn't sound good." Judith noted from the doorway.

"It wasn't."

"So where can we go but still make it back there in four days?"

"I like the way you think," Mark said smiling. "But right now I need some food and a nap, before I pass out on my feet."

Judith nodded. "I'm surprised you're still upright with those wounds."

"Yeah, me too..."

%     %     %     %     %

Hope showed up almost every day after that, sometimes for a little while, sometimes for hours. Mark found himself telling her all about New York, and himself. The day she showed up completely naked still surprised him though.

Hope laughed at his expression. “I took the shorts back to the cabin last time to be washed, and forgot to bring them with me.”

Mark looked a little confused.

“I leave them hanging in a tree about ten minutes from here. I only put them on when I get close.”

“You walk all the way here naked?”

“Yup. Let’s go down to the stream, you need a bath!”

“Unnn...”

“Mark?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t make me drag you. Bring your dirty clothing, we can wash that too.”

Mark gathered his things, he had gotten used to Hope’s nearly naked state, but she still gave him a hardon half the time. And now she was completely naked. What would he do when he got to the stream?

“And don’t worry about your erection;” Hope teased almost reading his mind, “I’m sure the cold water will deal with that soon enough!”

Mark blushed and tried not to drop anything as he followed her down to the water. He was definitely having a hard time keeping his eyes off of that perfect ass. It had been a long time. A very long time.

Hope’s only comment when he stripped was: “You need to eat more.”

They cleaned the clothes first then got into the water and cleaned themselves.

“Here, let me get your back,” Hope said moving up behind Mark.

“Un, wait...” Mark said worried.

Hope grabbed an arm and steadied him as she examined his back, using the small washcloth and the special camping soap Mark had brought. This was her whole reason for today, she wanted a better look at his wounds that she had noticed when spying on him earlier.

Mark was surprised at the strength of her grip, he had forgotten about his back. After so many months he’d grown used to the dull pain of it.

“What happened?” Hope asked softly as she carefully scrubbed his back. They were claw marks, she’d seen enough of those to know what they looked like, but whatever made them had an odd shaped paw. Not a cat, or a wolf, or even a bear. And they weren’t healing. They looked the same now as when she’d spied them on him almost two months ago.

“I, I’d rather not talk about it.” Mark said softly.

“You got into something really bad, didn’t you?” Hope whispered into his ear, moving against him, pressing her chest into his back.

“Please, don’t.” Mark said closing his eyes. He could feel that sumptuous body pressing against his, her hands were now on his chest, her arms wrapped around him. Cold water or not, he was rather rampant.

“I think I’m going to spend the night,” Hope whispered huskily into his ear.

“I...” Mark sighed and smiled, “I’d like that.”

Mark woke with the birds just before sunrise; Hope was lying beside him, her eyes open and smiling. He hadn’t slept so well without being drugged in a very long time. Then again he hadn’t been laid in a very long time. Hope was a very enthusiastic and demanding lover. She had worn him out more than once last night.

“So tell me about it,” She said leaning forward to give him a kiss.

“It’s not easy to tell,” Mark protested.

“You saw something that scared you and you can’t explain it, am I right?”

Mark started a moment. “How did you know?”

“You’ve all but said it with the way you’ve been acting. Now talk to me.”

“Why?” Mark was curious now, “Why do you want to know?”

“Because you’re my lover, that’s why.” Hope said smiling and started to run her fingers through his hair.

Mark gave a shrug and told her.

"We were out on a routine patrol, when we made contact with what we thought was the enemy. There had been reports of the Taliban in the area and people had been disappearing. So we took off after them.

"We followed them into a building that was built into the side of a large rocky hill. Once inside we got attacked, but we were ready for it and we managed to kill most of them, some escaped deeper inside and our squad leader decided to pursue.

"That was when things started to get freaky.

"The next group we encountered was a group of fanatics. They were hard to put down, and didn't seem to want to stay down. We lost two of our team at that point. Also at that point there was a collapse behind us, so we couldn't retreat the way we had come.

"Two rooms later we got hit again, there were only four of them, but it was bad, real bad. Bullets hardly slowed them, and they were strong, hella strong. The front two guys in the squad had their necks snapped like twigs, and we were all running our guns on full auto by then. I could see they were getting chewed up, but it wasn't enough, there were only five of us left at that point.

"One of them grabbed our sergeant, and holding him tight bit his neck, there was blood everywhere. A second grabbed another guy, Jeff I think, and suddenly a grenade hit the floor, the spoon flying off. Not sure who dropped it, I guess someone wasn't too keen on becoming a vampire. Probably Jeff, he was into those stories.

"I was closest to the door and was able to jump out of the room behind some shelter. After the grenade went off, there was no one left alive. Even the four bad guys were shredded."

Mark paused a moment thinking about it. Until he felt Hope snuggle up to him.

"So was that it then?" She asked.

"No, it was just the start," he sighed. "I gathered up all the ammo I could find, pushed the remains in to the center and tossed a bunch of flares on it to start a fire and grabbing the SAR continued on."

"SAR?"

"Squad automatic rifle. Basically a big ass machine gun.

"I continued to run into people as I went deeper in, but a round or two from the SAR blew most of them away.

"Then I came to the Monster's room. He looked young, I think he was British actually, but he oozed power and one look at his eyes and I just pulled the trigger and ran the entire ammo can into his body. That messed him up good, but it didn't stop him. He came at me then and I dropped the SAR and drew the door breacher and put that to his chest and pulled the trigger.

"Door breacher?"

"Shotgun with special rounds. You use it to blow the hinges off a door, or blow out the locking mechanism. Very nasty at point blank.

Hope nodded.

"That made him pause so I jammed it in his mouth and let him have the rest of the shells that were in it. That blew the top of his head off and he started to flop around on the floor. So I stuck a grenade in his mouth and dove for cover. After that I set fire to the room and grabbing my rifle started trying to get out of there along a different path.

"I'd hoped they'd give up, with their master dead. Boy was I wrong about that. Took me probably another day to get out of there. I had to retrace my steps once to scavenge more ammo from the room where everyone had died. It was like being in a nightmare and not being able to wake up. I kept thinking any moment I'd run into another one of the monsters and die. I think I killed forty or fifty more followers or zombies or something before I was able to find my way out of the maze of tunnels and onto the roof of the building.

"I didn't even realize what had happened to my back until I woke up in the hospital. I'd been stabbed, shot, hit by shrapnel, burned, pissed myself and crapped my pants I don't know how many times.

"It was a month before I could stand to even be in the darkness. Last night was the first night I've slept for more than four hours."

He looked at her as he finished, the look in her eyes surprised him. She was impressed!

“Wow, you survived that?” Hope said eyes wide.

“I don’t even know what ‘that’ was,” Mark said confused once again.

“Helena might, she’s a bit more studied than the rest of us. Might have been a vampire, they can be pretty nasty. But that whole area back there is so old who knows what kind of ancient evils you might stumble on.”

“Vampires don’t exist!” Mark protested, “They’re just stories!”

“Oh?” Hope said and pulled him close and wrapped that wonderfully body of hers around him, “Then how come you found and killed one? You saw what you saw, you did what you did. Proof enough for me.”

“They said I couldn’t have seen what I did. That the combat and the stress bent my mind.”

Hope laughed, “You’re not crazy. I don’t sleep with crazy.” She rubbed her face against his in a curious manner that he found he liked. “Listen,” She continued, “I was born in these mountains, I grew up here, and I have lived most of my life here. The world is old and we are still young. There are many things still hidden out there that people don’t understand. That wound on your back is proof enough that what happened, happened.”

“They said it was some rare sort of infection.”

“Un-huh. It’s rare all right, but that's not an infection. I’ll have to get Helena to look at it.”

“You’re not going to do some freaky Wiccan witch craft thing, are you?” Mark said sounding suspicious.

“No. But why should you care? Modern science has failed, time for something else.”

Mark had to admit she had a point.

She gave him a nuzzle and a little kiss, “I need to go. I’ll talk to my sisters; maybe even bring them by next time.”

Mark blushed as he thought about three more naked women.

Hope laughed, “You can look at them all you want. Now take care of yourself and make sure you eat more. I’ll be back tomorrow night at the latest.”

Mark nodded and watched rather transfixed as she slipped out of his bedroll, left the tent, and then took off at a trot into the woods. He lost sight of her fairly quickly.

%     %     %     %     %

9

"So where are we going now?" Judith asked as they got into the car.

"Poland." Mark said turning on the GPS and programming their destination in it. He was still hurting and tired. Judith would probably have to drive a good deal of it.

"Poland? Where in Poland?"

"Dzialdowo." He said putting the car in gear and leaving the lot.

"Never heard of it. Let me guess, Nazi concentration camp site?"

"Got it in one. It's where the other team was ambushed and killed."

"Why go there?"

"I want to make sure that there really wasn't some old trap that they set off. Concentration camps were devil lairs. They needed all those people to keep Hitler's pet devils and demons fed."

Judith visible shivered at that. "What an asshole. So why the new car?" She said changing the subject.

"Harder to track than a rental would be, and someone is definitely tracking us."

"Oh I understand that! But why a new one?"

"Two reasons. The first is the police won't be surprised a new car isn't registered yet and are more likely not to bother us. Especially if its an expensive one."

"And the other reason?" Judith prompted after a minute.

Mark looked embarrassed. "It's Rafael's money, so I figured why not? I always wanted a Mercedes AMG."

"I'd make some snide comment about 'boys and their toys' but I'm a huge Top Gear UK fan and always wanted to drive one too!" Judith laughed.

"Good, cause once we're out of Paris I want to pick up some food, and then you can drive while I sleep."

"You should have let the doctor look at that you know."

"It would have led to difficulties," Mark told her. "We're on a tight schedule; the GPS puts this trip at fifteen to sixteen hours. Then we may end up driving straight through to Manresa, that'll take a day."

"Well let me see if I can find a food store on this thing," Judith said turning her attention to the GPS. "The sooner I get to drive, the more I'll be enjoying the trip!"

Mark smiled at that, she was finally starting to show some enthusiasm. That was good. He hoped she was a good driver too, he really needed to rest, his back was itching like crazy and he still needed to eat to fuel his body for all the repairs it was making.

When Judith found a place on the GPS he drove straight to it, and after stocking up on a meats, cheeses, an a few liters of water that he could eat and drink while she drove he did just that.

"You got a hollow leg or something?" she said surprised at how much he put away.

"Or something." He yawned and put what was left back in the grocery bag and reclined the seat. "Wake me if anything interesting happens."

"Sure thing!"

"Try not to get too many speeding tickets," he chuckled and closing his eyes quickly fell asleep.

%     %     %     %     %

"So just when were you planning on telling me about yourself, eh my friend?"

Mark blinked, or tried to at least. He was sitting in a bar in Brussels, one of Jake and his favorites. The food was fantastic, the bar maids pretty, the drinks strong, and they had a deal with the owner that let them rent the room above the bar when they were in town.

He looked at Jake, who was sitting across the table from him, he looked completely normal, except of course for the huge white wings sprouting from his back.

"Wings Jake? Really?" Mark said trying not to laugh.

"I happen to like them. They make me look dignified!"

Mark leaned back and looked at him. Damned if he wasn't right.

"Ah, you see, no?"

"This isn't just a dream, is it Jake?"

"Non, it is a slight, how shall I say? A bending of the rules."

"That's not good, is it?"

"Non, not at all. Things have gotten very umm, let us say confused. There are a lot of rules being bent, some even broken; but the broken ones, they are not on our side."

"I hope that's good. So why are you here?"

"Other than to show off my new wings and berate you for not confiding in me?" Jake laughed.

Mark shook his head and smiled, even dead Jake was still Jake. For some reason that made him feel a lot better about things. "Yes, other than that."

"You need an Artifact."

"I know that Jake! Mark grumbled.

"No, you need an Artifact."

"Great, I'll get right on it. But where can I get one?"

"There is a collector in Cologne that has one. Quite illegally it would seem. Your confiscating it for the Church is well within your duties."

"Got an address?"

"Moi? Non. But your GPS on the other hand..."

Mark smiled, "Thanks Jake, you are a lifesaver. They treating you well up there?"

"You will like it when your time comes, trust me on that. Pay my respects to Father Gregory when you see him again."

"Isn't he up there?" Mark said surprised.

"Of course not, he's still alive. You know that Mark!"

Mark nodded chiding himself, "It is easy to forget the rules of the soul sometimes, especially when someone has been in a coma for that long."

"It is a small thing, don't let it eat at you too long," Jake told him. "Well I must be on my way. Tell your lovely wives that I said hello and would love to know how someone as ugly as you found not one, but four such lovely ladies."

Mark laughed, "Until I see you again Jake, I miss you."

"I miss you as well my friend, but do not rush to catch up with me, I am content to wait to see you again, and the longer the better. Oh, and tell your partner, she deserves to know."

"I'll think about it."

"Do not think too long."

%     %     %     %     %

Mark woke up then rather suddenly. "Where are we?"

"Just crossed into Germany about a half hour ago."

"They didn't make you wake me?"

"Eh, flashed the badge, showed yours too, pointed to the bandages. They were quite sympathetic."

"Huh. We need to make a pit stop." He checked the GPS; sure enough there was an address in it now. He changed their destination.

"That's good; I could stand to hit the ladies room. What's that?" She asked noticing as he put the new destination in.

"That's our artifact!" Mark said smiling.

"So, do we call for backup?" Judith asked as they sat out in front of a rather nice looking house in the center of the town.

"Can't, we do that and I'm sure it will get back to Father Flores and he'll be on us like white on rice. Just put your badge on, look serious and follow my lead."

"Guns?"

"Huh, what about them?"

"Should we bring them?"

Mark was about to say no, then stopped and looked at her.

"Nothing says 'Police' like a conspicuous firearm. Stops all sorts of questions with most folks." She said with a smirk.

"Guns," Mark nodded agreeing.

"You don't deal with people much, do you Mark?"

"Normally Jake dealt with people, and I dealt with the monsters."

"Oh, why was that?"

"Cause they like to talk to me."

"Uh-huh. You ever gonna to tell me why that is? Or you gonna to keep dodging that question?"

"You must have been one hell of a cop," Mark said getting out of the car and going around to the trunk.

"Which is why I know when you're dodging the subject." She told him as they got out their holsters and handguns and put them on.

Mark nodded. "Yeah, Jake's kind of pissed I never told him about it. When this is over I'll tell you about it."

"Kind of pissed? What, you been talking to him lately?" Judith said with a smirk.

"Who do you think told me about this place and put it in the GPS?"

Judith blanched slightly. "You're not kidding, are you?"

"Nope. Was nice to see him again, even if it was only in a dream."

"Sounds more like a nightmare, meeting your dead partner again."

Mark shook his head, "Trust me, I'm an expert on nightmares, this was nothing at all like that."

She just nodded and they both walked up to the door then. "Nice house."

"Notice how it's not shoehorned in like the others?"

"Yeah, they've got a little money at least."

Mark pressed the door bell. On the second press it opened.

"Yes? How may I be of service?" A man who was obvious a butler opened the door.

"Interpol," Judith said holding up her badge, "mind if we come in?" and without asking for an answer pushed right by the man surprising him.

Mark was rather surprised too and followed her in.

"Where is Master Fontaine this afternoon?" Judith said.

Mark wondered how she got the name.

"The Master is out of the house, and I must protest, this is highly irregular!"

"Don't worry your head none. Your Master is in possession of some rather expensive stolen property. We're here to retrieve it."

"What? The Master would never..."

"Can it." Judith ordered and Mark was amazed as the Butler shut right up. "We don't know if he knows it is stolen, he may very well be a victim in this. However, we can either recover the object now, keep it nice and quiet and not involve the courts, or the press.

"Or we could go have a talk with the press and the local judge and do this all nice and legal. Of course your Master's name would be dragged through the mud, his career ruined, and you most likely out of a job for failure to insure that certain things be kept quiet. I mean this is part of your duties as a manservant, is it not? Discretion?"

Mark was impressed; Judith quickly backed him into a corner and kept him there while dropping all sorts of hints that she knew who his boss was and just how much trouble he could be in, trouble she was trying to avoid. She had also put her hand on her hip while talking, an almost unconscious display of her holster and the gun in it.

He'd never seen someone so effectively bullied before.

"May I examine your badges again please?"

"Of course." She said handing it over.

"Yours too sir?" He asked Mark after returning hers.

Mark complied.

"Satisfied? Judith asked when he returned Mark's.

"I suspect Master Fontaine will be quite cross when he learns of this."

"Better to be cross in private than to be disgraced in public." She turned to Mark, "Where to?"

"Take us to your Master's private study." Mark said.

"This way. May I ask what you are looking for?"

"It is an antiquity that belongs to the Catholic Church. It has taken us a good many years to track this one down."

The butler frowned. "I'm not sure that I recall any of those in the Master's collection."

"You'd be surprised," Mark said and left it at that.

The study was on the second floor, adjoining the bedroom. Mark looked around as they entered the room, whoever this Fontaine guy was he had a rather impressive collection of renaissance and medieval art and other items. Assuming it was all original and not fakes or forgeries Mark figured there were a couple million euros of antiques in the room. It didn’t take him long to spot what they had come here for, it was a small metal cross hanging on a silver chain. It was actually hanging from a book stand that had a very rare first edition Gutenberg bible on it.

Mark picked it up and crossed himself. It wasn't very fancy, just a basic cross with some simple design work filed into it; but it radiated power, after ten years on the Commission he could actually feel it now. Whoever this cross had belonged to was a very holy and just person; just handling it gave him a sense of peace.

"That's it?" The butler said surprised as Mark picked it up.

"Yes, this is it."

"The Master bought that last week from a street vendor on the square; I believe he paid a euro for it!"

Mark nodded at the butler’s comment, people often thought artifacts were fancy expensive items encrusted with gems and made from gold. They didn't realize that most holy people didn't have a lot of money, and the money they did have they usually spent on doing God's work. Most artifacts looked just as plain as this one.

Mark got out his wallet and pulled out a hundred Euro note. "In that case consider this compensation. Thank you for your help, I will see to it that the cross is returned to its rightful place."

The butler looked relieved, "Now I see why you didn't want to involve official channels. For something as plain as that cross I can understand your desire for discretion.

Judith nodded, "Exactly. Thank you for your help. We'll be on our way now."

"Think his Master will be happy?" Judith asked as they drove off.

"Maybe, depends on if he knew what it was or not. There is a pretty big black market for artifacts, I thought we were going to have to hunt down one of the dealers and raid their private stash. How this one slipped through the cracks is beyond me. How did you know the owner's name?"

"Spotted the mail on the table in the hallway, which was why I pushed in, to get the name."

"You continue to impress Judith."

She grinned. "Still think I'm going to get you killed?"

"Oh, of course. But I'm feeling way more confident of your abilities to do what is necessary while I'm busy expiring."

"You take all of the fun out of everything," she grumbled.

"I'm just trying to get you used to the idea so if it does happen you keep your head in the game and do what's needful."

Judith glanced over at the cross in his hands as she navigated the streets to get them back on the main road. "So, that's it huh? How old is that thing?"

Mark shrugged, "Couple hundred years at least, probably going to take the people back at the Abbey a long time to figure out who it belonged to."

"Well why don't you go back to sleep and chat with your friend, you still look pretty tired and it's a long way to go yet."

"You just don't want to give up driving the car." Mark said with a smirk.

"Of course not! It’s a friggin' AMG! Portland cops don’t make the kind of money it takes to buy one of these! Hey, think you could leave it to me in your will? Seeing as you're so sure you're going to be pushing off soon and all that?"

"I'd rather not encourage you to actually help them." Mark sighed shaking his head and reclining the car seat again.

"Yup, no fun at all..."

10

"Wake up Mark, we're almost there."

Mark yawned and stretched in the seat. The clock on the dash said two a.m.

"Sleep well?"

"Best sleep I've had in a while," He admitted. "Well let's see how it looks," he said and started peeling the bandages off.

"Holy shit!" Judith exclaimed glancing at his skin, where there had been gashes before there was now just pink flesh.

"Watch the road," he warned. "Father Otto was good enough to bless the wounds and pour holy water over them. That definitely helped."

"That's not natural," Judith said scowling as she watched the road.

"Depends on what your definition of natural is," Mark said and started working on the bandages on his back. That was a little more difficult inside the car, "technically its actually completely natural. For me. For you it wouldn't be."

"I'm still waiting for an explanation."

"I'm working up to it, trust me." Mark sighed.

"How about you trust me?" Judith said. "You know all of this mystical shit is kind of hard to take. And suddenly finding out that you're not exactly 'normal', well that isn't easy to take either."

"Yeah, I understand. When Father Gregory recruited me, well he was a bit surprised when I told him. But he told me to keep it a secret, that people wouldn't understand. That there could be issues. I didn't tell Jake for the eight years we were together. Rafael only knows because he's powerful enough now to sense it.

"No one in the order knows, but some like Father Otto have their suspicions."

Judith sighed and hit the wheel lightly with her fist a few times.

"You're a monster, aren't you?" She said after a minute.

"Yeah, I'm a monster."

She swore, "What the fuck is a monster doing working for the Catholic Church?"

Mark shrugged, "I was raised a good Catholic boy. That didn't change when I did. Apparently being a monster doesn't make you evil, that's completely up to you."

"Your wives?"

"Yup, all of them. Course the kids too."

"I'm surprised the Church hasn't killed you!"

"Actually, as long as we don't engage in evil, we're more than welcome."

"So is that how you killed the vampire?"

"Partially. It was easier than the first one of course, that one was while I was still a human."

"You've killed two vampires?" she said surprised.

"Yeah, in a round about way the first one led to me being what I am now."

"And just exactly what are you now?"

Mark smiled, "A werecougar."

"A what?"

"Werecougar. Like a werewolf, only I'm a cougar."

"How did that happen?"

"Hope found me in the woods. After the first vamp I was pretty messed up. I'd retreated into myself and gone hermit, I had a bad wound that the doctors couldn’t fully heal that was slowly killing me. She and her sisters took a liking to me, and bit me."

"Geesh, well don't bite me!"

"Don't worry, doesn't work that way."

"You just said that's what they did to you."

"Oh, I'm not a natural werecreature; I was turned, so I don't have all the powers of someone born that way. I can't turn other people, I'm easier to kill, heal slower, few other things."

"So exactly why did they turn you?"

"Werecreatures can only breed with other weres; and only ones of the same species at that. They needed a male, I was there, they liked me, so one bite later, instant family."

"Sounds kind of cold."

Mark shrugged, "They saved my life. Also Hope and Charity love me, Helena and Faith haven't ever come out and said it, but I think they do as well."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you love them?"

Mark nodded, "With all my being. That's why I do this job. One day they'll be found out, but as they're my family and good Catholics all, the College has promised to protect them."

"The College?"

"The College of Cardinals. They're the ones who pick the Pope."

"So they know?"

"Of course. They were a little worried about my women, but they were all able to join the Church and go through the rituals. Obviously God accepts them, and accepts me. That's all that matters to the Church. Yeah having multiple women is a bit of a no-no, but concubines are allowed under doctrine, so maybe I spend an extra hundred years in purgatory when I die. Still worth it."

"Huh. So you can turn furry and all that?"

"Yup."

"One of those big hulking monsters?"

Mark laughed, "No, that's the movies. I just turn in to a rather large cougar, considering that I'm already a pretty big guy."

"Huh. Give me a few to think about that."

Mark grabbed the shirt he'd left on the back seat and started to put it on. He leaned back and thought about it as he buttoned the shirt up. He still remembered that night rather clearly.

%     %     %     %     %

Mark could hear the crashing sound in the woods, something was running towards the camp, or was something being chased? He grabbed a brand from the fire, and checked his heavy machete, since Afghanistan he always kept that at hand. The cries he was hearing suddenly resolved into the sounds of voices and four nude women charged into the camp, two of whom he recognized immediately, Hope and Helena.

“Grab your pepper spray!” Helena yelled.

“Screw that, run!” Hope said as the girls ran past him and suddenly a large bear entered the camp.

Mark didn’t hesitate a moment, he stood between the girls and the bear and waving the brand around he yelled at it.

The bear gave him a swat, knocking him back, but he rolled with it and came up on his feet and charged the bear as it turned to attack one of the girls. Hitting it on the back of the head with the brand got it’s attention and when it opened its mouth to roar at him he stuffed the brand down it’s throat, kicking at its hind legs the entire time, trying to get it to fall back.

It raked him several times with its claws, but suddenly he was back in the mountains to the north of Kandahar, deep in that cave. Pain was meaningless, all there was, was the fight, survival. He started to try and drive that brand down its throat, banging on it with the hilt of the machete.

The bear was almost screaming from the heat of the brand being shoved down its throat. It stumbled and the kicking at the bear’s knee finally paid off as it fell over.

As soon as it did Mark raised the machete and started chopping and hacking at the bear’s neck. The heavy machete, fueled by the strength of his rage quickly bit deep. It only took him about ten hard hacks to take the bear’s head completely off.

Helena and the others milled around him, looking suitable impressed. Mark stood there catching his breath, his sides were on fire, the bear had cut him up pretty good, and he was covered in blood, both his own and the bear's.

“Damn, you are definitely a keeper,” Helena said, her voice actually purring the words out confusing him.

“What happened?” Mark asked panting.

“Charity is in heat. He’s been trying to nail her for years. Wouldn’t take no for an answer. This time he got violent. We would have killed him ourselves, but he was one tough customer.”

“Huh?” Mark said. Helena came up to him and started undoing this bloody clothing. Hope was helping, and one of the other two were looking at him with a hunger that was rather blatant. He figured that was Charity. “That was a bear.” It sounded stupid when he said it.

“No, that was a werebear. We are werecougars. But there are no males anywhere near. No Toms for us to mate with and breed, just humans.”

“What?”

“There are more monsters in the world than the ones you saw in that cave Mark,” Hope whispered in his ear and then nibbled his ear lobe.

Mark felt fear suddenly. Their eyes had changed; they all had eyes like he had seen on that one cougar that he sometimes saw prowling around outside his camp.

“What, what are you going to do to me?”

“You stud are about to live every male human’s biggest dream. We need a Tom, a male, and it’s going to be you. Charity there is finally going to get those cubs she wants.”

“You want me to breed her?”

“We want you to breed all of us,” Hope told him.

Mark noticed that Helena’s face was changing, mostly her mouth...

“But Human’s can’t breed Weres," Hope continued. "So we’re going to have to make a small change.”

Helena’s mouth opened then and she had a serious set of fangs. Not like the ones those other monsters back in Afghanistan had, these were more animalistic, cat like. He started momentarily when she bit his arm, and held on for a moment, a cold fire flowing into his arm from the bite. Then she released him, her face quickly returning to normal, but that cold fire spread through his body, making him gasp in pain. Pain which spiked rather heavily when it reached the unhealed wounds on his back.

“What, what did you do to me?” He panted in shock.

Helena smiled and took his other arm and started leading him to his tent. “I just made you a werecougar.”

“What?”

“It’ll take an hour or so to be complete, then you can go make Charity happy. But for now my sexy tough Tom, it’s my turn!”

Mark tried to dig in his heels but she was too strong. That and Hope was helping.

“Oh don’t be such a wimp," Helena scolded him. "That mark on your back was from a vampire, it was slowly bleeding the life out of you. You wouldn’t have lasted the winter. Now let me see if my sister was making false claims about you..."

Mark lay on the bedroll panting. It was outside of the tent now. All five of them just couldn’t fit inside his small tent. Helena had her way with him for several hours, not that he wasn’t fully into it himself by then, she was incredibly beautiful after all, before declaring him ‘changed’.

Then Charity had come after him like a woman possessed. Possessed with a need to get bred apparently. He’d spent a very long time doing just that too. He’d lost all track of time, but the girls kept bringing him food, meat mostly, to keep his strength up. Then when Charity had run down Faith had replaced her, but at least she wasn’t in heat.

He got passed around one more time after that and was then finally allowed to sleep.

It looked like early morning now, so he yawned and stretched.

“Ah awake at last,” Helena purred.

“That was... different.” Mark said trying to settle on the right word.

“Yeah well, the rest of us will be going into heat soon now that there is a Male in the mix. So get the rest you can while you can. But for now, let me teach you a few things about your new self."

And then she changed into a cougar right before his eyes.

Then she showed him how to do it too!

It was a day of discovery for him, his body was different now, and the wounds on his back had turned into thin scars, fully healed. By the end of the month he had regained all of the weight he had lost, was a lot stronger than he’d ever been before, and had four very lovely women who seemed rather content to share him in every way.

And best of all, his nightmares had stopped.

%     %     %     %     %

"Damn," Judith said, "Last time I saw a man smile like that was when my brother lost his virginity!"

Mark couldn't help but laugh, "It was memorable. They healed my body and my mind. That's why I haven't let anyone else know about them, or about me. I'll happily die to protect them. So please, don't tell anyone."

"Father Flores doesn't know?"

"Hell no. Sometimes I think he suspects, but I'll never tell him; he hates me enough already."

"Here I thought I had finally figured out why he did. Guess I'll just have to keep on trying. Maybe I'll figure it out when I meet him."

"Just kiss his ass, he likes that."

Judith laughed, "You don't have a very high opinion of him, do you?"

"I don't know. The guy has just had everything handed to him in life. He's like royalty; he comes from a long line of famous Commission leaders and members. And he knows it. Yeah he's smart, probably smarter than me. But humility is one of the traits he's sorely lacking in.

"That and something about the way he smells."

"The way he smells?"

"Its a cat thing," Mark said looking out the window embarrassed.

Judith just shook her head. "Well, we're here," she said pulling into a parking lot. There was a big sign up indicating it was a memorial to the many that had died here.

"Well let’s go look around."

"It's two thirty in the morning!" Judith protested.

"Yup, so no one else will get in the way."

"It's dark out there! You can't see anything."

Mark smiled, "I can see just fine."

"Figures," Judith grumbled.

"I bought a flashlight at the last stop. Take that. Just don't flash it at me; it'll mess with my night vision."

"You got the cross?"

"Yup. Wearing it. Grab the gear. Just in case."

They got out of the car and got their stuff together.

"How many died here?" She asked him.

"I don't know, ten thousand? Twenty? I'm sure the official accounts don't even begin to come close." Mark said leading her into the memorial.

"Strange..."

"What?"

"With all the people who died here, you'd think it would feel more... I don't know, oppressive? Instead it feels very peaceful."

"These places have been heavily blessed, and continue to be blessed. The evil that was done here won't go away for at least a hundred years. So they do what they can to contain it until it slowly fades away."

"Wouldn't a devil disrupt that?"

"Very much so. You'd feel it long before you saw it. Come on; let’s go check the ambush site."

"You know where it was?"

"Yeah, I read the report, saw the pictures. It's over this way."

"So how do you think they're tracking us?"

"Wish I knew. Credit card is my first guess, which is why I got all that cash from Rafe. Also why I don't want to buy an airline ticket. Those get tracked by name as well."

"And when we rented the car back in Paris we had to show them a credit card."

"Exactly. I don't want to make that mistake again." Mark looked around and checked the landmarks. "Well, here we are."

"Someone's already patched the concrete," Judith said flicking her flashlight over the walkway.

"The walls have been repainted too," Mark said pointing to the white building they were standing in front of.

"So where did this thing come from?"

"From inside there," he said pointing.

"Shall we?" Judith asked.

"Of course. You any good at picking locks by the way?"

"I'm a cop Mark."

"I take it that means no?"

Judith laughed, "It means I can do it about as easily as picking my teeth. We get taught all sorts of interesting skills if we want to learn them. Most want to. Never know what might save someone's life."

"Then after you," Mark said motioning.

It took her about a minute to pick the lock, and then they went inside and searched around some more.

"The door is new."

"Yeah I noticed that." Mark said. "I don't see any signs of anything."

"Well they've had a few weeks to clean."

"Yeah." He thought about that a moment, "Let me try something," he said and started to quickly strip his clothes off.

"What the hell are you doing?" Judith hissed at him.

"This!" Mark said as he kicked his pants off and suddenly there was a rather large cougar in the room with her.

"Oh shit!" Judith said, backing away from him.

The cougar just looked at her, made a loud 'yoww' like sound and then tilted its head and rolled its eyes while looking at her.

"Well excuse me!" She said stopping. "You could warn a person first!"

Mark the cougar shrugged and then started to sniff at the floor. He covered a good deal of the room, going back and forth. Eventually he stopped at one spot, turned a circle and then Mark the man was standing there again. Stark naked.

"This is the spot where is showed up."

"How can you tell?"

"Devils leave a pretty foul stench that takes months to wear off. Because it’s from the pits of hell regular cleaning chemicals and methods won't get rid of it."

"Okay. Well let me mark the spot while you go get dressed nature boy."

"Sure. Sorry if I scared you."

"Just put your clothes on."

"So, what do you see on the floor around there?" Mark asked as he was dressing.

Judith played the flashlight along the floor. "Nothing."

"What about the walls?"

"Just memorial stuff, pictures."

"Ceiling?"

"More nothing. What are you looking for?”

“Summoner’s Circle, Wards, any of the things that would indicate it was linked to something already here.”

“Could it have been under the floor?"

"Then it would have appeared beneath the floor and have had to tear through it."

"It wouldn't have appeared above it?"

"Not normally."

"We should go look."

"Fine, give me a minute." Mark said and started stripping again.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you want to crawl through the dirt under the floor?"

Judith shook her head.

"Me neither." He handed her the cross, "You might as well hold on to this, I have to take it off when I change, the chain is too small for my neck and I don't like leaving it on the floor with my clothes."

Judith nodded and put the chain for the relic over her head, wearing the cross like Mark had been.

Mark shifted again and she followed his cougar self out the door and watched as he found an opening and squeezed under the building.

Mark looked around; it was pretty dark, even for him. But he saw nothing, smelt nothing, felt nothing.

Twenty minutes later they were back in the car driving into town.

"So what's our next move?" Judith asked.

"Get a room, get some sleep, then go to the church the team was working out of and ask a lot of questions."

"You know, you look pretty good as an over grown kitty cat," Judith said relaxing in the passenger seat.

"Thanks."

"Guess I'll need to stock up on catnip?"

Mark just sighed.

11

"So who are we looking for?" Judith asked as they pulled up in front of the small church. It was actually fairly close to the site of the former camp, only a mile or two away.

"Father Ryswelski, he was there and survived the attack.”

“That must have been quite a shock for him.”

“Well, you can ask him,” Mark said getting out of the car.

Mark started to walk around to the back of the church.

“Where you going?”

“To the Rectory.” Mark looked at Judith, “Where they live?”

“Oh, hadn’t thought about that.”

Mark shrugged, “Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know at first either.”

They stopped outside the door of what was best described as a small apartment block and Mark knocked on it. After a minute a rather young looking man in a priest’s cassock opened the door.

“Yes?” He said in Polish.

“Father Ryswelski?” Mark asked in English.

“That would be me,” he replied in rather heavily accented English.

“I was hoping to ask a few questions about what happened over at Dzialdowo a couple weeks ago.” Mark said taking out his Church identification and showing it to the Priest. “I’m Mark, this is Judith my partner, we’re investigators for the Church, like Bennett and Claude were.”

Father Ryswelski sighed, “That was a very sad evening. Very sad. But why are you here? Mister’s Miles and Harbaugh were already here asking questions.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know that. I’ll have to find their report when I get back to my office. But as long as I’m here anyways,” Mark said and shrugged.

Father Ryswelski nodded. “Well come in and have a seat,” he said standing out of the way of the entry.

Mark and Judith both went in and Father Ryswelski directed them to a couch by the front window. Mark looked around the room as they sat down, it wasn’t very large, there was a small TV, two couches and one rather worn looking easy chair. The two low tables in the room, were also rather old, but sturdy looking. About the only elaborate item in the room was a rather nice cross hanging on the wall above the TV set. Father Ryswelski obviously did not own much, but that wasn’t really much of a surprise to Mark.

“Tea? Coffee?”

“No thanks Father, we’ll try to make this quick. So what was your first clue something was wrong?”

“There was just a sudden overwhelming feeling of evil that spread through the grounds, one instant it wasn’t there, the next it was. Me and Father Niconski immediately started saying blessings, there are a fair number of old stories about things that suddenly turn up in some of these old camps, but no one thought such things were left anymore.

“Then it burst out of one of the old buildings, made a direct line for Mister’s Norman and Stills and attacked them. It came for Father Niconski next, but I had the presence of mind to pull out the Martyr’s Ring then and dismiss it, but sadly not soon enough for Father Niconski.”

“So it happened quickly, no build up, it was just suddenly there,” Mark said.

“Yes, just like that.”

“Why were you there, and at night?” Judith asked.

“I have no idea. Misters Norman and Stills showed up after dinner, they looked very worried. They said we needed to go out there immediately, that something had gone terribly wrong. But when we got there, they looked confused, said something about looking for a flower.”

“There were flowers all over the place,” Judith said. “You sure about that?”

Father Ryswelski shrugged, “I believe that is what I heard.”

“Did you hear them say anything else out of place?” Mark asked. Why in the world would they be looking for flowers? He thought to himself scratching his head.

“No. Nothing that comes to my mind. They expected something to be there I guess, and it was not. Then out came the devil surprising us all.”

He looked at Judith and shrugged, she shrugged right back.

“Well thanks for your time Father.” Mark said standing up, Judith stood as well, following him.

“You’re welcome, after seeing what happened that night I am happy that there are people like you doing this job, and very glad it is not me.”

The Father followed them to the door to show them out and waved as they left.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask any more questions than that,” Judith said.

He shrugged, “I just wanted to confirm what I already know. That thing wasn’t summoned there.”

“So now what?”

“There’s a Commission office in Warsaw. I guess we go stop in there and see what they can tell us and get caught up on any new events.”

“Do you really think that’s wise?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Won’t they tell your boss?”

“Got a better idea?”

“Call them on your cell phone.”

“I don’t have one,” Mark sighed, “Lost it the other day in that park in Paris.”

“The car has one,” Judith laughed pointing at it as they got into the car.

Mark sighed again, “I must be getting tired. Want to call information for me? I don’t speak Polish.”

“What, you don’t have the gift of tongues?”

“No, but you do. Ask for the number for the office of religious affairs at St. Johns Arch Cathedral in Warsaw.”

Five minutes later Mark was on the phone to an old acquaintance in the offices there.

“John, it’s Mark. I’m looking into Bennett and Claude’s deaths.”

“Ah, I’m not supposed to talk with you, you know.”

“Oh? Why not?” Mark asked surprised.

“Eh, word from the Abbey that you are training a new field agent and are off field assignments for now.”

“Well a phone call hardly qualifies as field work John.”

John laughed on the other end of the phone call, “True, very true. Plus I don’t care much for the dictates of those desk jockeys anyway. What do you need to know?”

“I’m curious as to why they were sent out to Dzialdowo, any idea?”

“Not a one. The call didn’t come from us. The only thing we have going on up there is the monthly blessing.”

“In the report that I got there wasn’t any mention of why they were sent there either.”

“Really? Well that’s strange. I haven’t seen the report myself. Someone slapped a ‘Church Secret’ tag all over it. Did the same for your incident too by the way.”

“Well I was in Spain at the Abbey when I saw it. There were a couple of copies of it floating around.”

“Where are you now?”

“Out getting some air. Have there been any other attacks of late?”

“Miles and Harbaugh got hit, but they were lucky. They’re in the hospital now but they’ll live. However Harbaugh will probably go out on medical retirement and Miles has asked for a leave of absence to recover.”

“When was that?”

“Last night.”

“Shit. Okay. I need to get back to my sick bed. Bye John!”

“Bye.”

"So now what?" Judith asked.

"I have no idea." Mark sighed and shook his head. "It's a twenty four hour drive from here to the Abbey according to the GPS, and we've got three days before Father Flores blows a gasket on me."

“So, head to the Abbey it is.” Judith said.

“Yeah, I guess so...”

It was late and Judith was sleeping in the passenger seat. They'd been on the road for about ten hours at this point and he couldn't stop yawning either.

He knew of a nice little place in Nuremberg that he and Jake used to stop by so he turned the car into the city and headed for it. They might as well sleep in a real bed, not like they were in that much of a rush right now. Plus he could use the time to think about this.

"Where are we?" Judith said waking up as the car stopped for a traffic light.

"Nuremberg. Thought maybe we should spend the night in a room rather than the car. Might as well be comfortable."

"Oh you just can't wait to get your claws into me," Judith laughed while yawning.

"Very funny," Mark dead panned.

Just then the phone on the car rang once, and then stopped.

"What the hell?" Mark said.

"LOOK OUT!"

Mark looked up as Judith yelled and there was a greater demon suddenly in front of them, just like the one he had seen in France.

"Shit!" He yelled and putting the car in reverse floored it, opening up space between him and the devil.

"How did he get here?" Judith asked digging out their kits from the backseat.

"I have no idea."

"Why's he looking around like that?"

"He's confused; it takes them a moment to get their bearings." Mark leaned on the horn then and the devil turned and looked at their car.

"What the hell are you doing?" Judith said shocked.

"If he runs off now, who knows how many people he'll kill before we find him again!" Mark locked the brakes, killed the engine and opened the door. "He needs to be close before you can use the cross to send him back to Hell, so don't start trying to dismiss him until he's right on top of you. Otherwise we may be spending the next month trying to corner him."

"Damn, now you tell me!" Judith jumped out of the car as Mark did; he was waving his arms and yelling at the damned thing. "Want the cross back?" She asked nervously.

Mark pulled out his own cross and charged the devil before it got fully orientated. The weaker cross wouldn't affect it much, more likely it would just make it mad, which was what he wanted. He needed that thing to chase him and not run off.

He needn't have worried however as the moment it saw him it let out a loud scream, a rather unearthly sound that almost froze him in his tracks and which sent the few onlookers still out at this time of night running away in fear. Back peddling quickly he turned to run. He had forgotten how fast they could move, but was quickly reminded as he was hit from behind and sent flying across the street and into a wall.

He heard the snap as he felt his right arm break, as he made contact with the wall. He'd stretched out to try and gain some kind of control over his flight through the air, but he hadn't realized he'd been hit with such force. At least the wall wasn't magical so his arm started healing right away. He rolled to his feet and looked up just in time to see a clawed hand reaching for his head and was able to quickly dodge that.

However he got hit again with a backhand from the devil that lifted him up and threw him over the car and into the middle of the street.

"Keep him in one place!" Judith was yelling at him.

"Oh sure," Mark groaned and tried to crawl around the back of the car, his head was spinning, the backhand had jolted him and he was trying to regain his balance. Something grabbed him by the leg then and picked him up and then swung him back down, onto the ground.

He felt a lot of bones break on that one! The pain was so great he would have screamed if his jaw hadn't been one of them.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be gone devil! Return to the pits of Hell I command you!"

Mark sighed as he heard the sound of trumpets and the grip on his leg was suddenly gone and he fell to the ground. He could feel his bones slowly knitting themselves back together, and as always, it hurt. A lot.

"Mark, Mark," Judith said running up to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live," He groaned, "sadly."

"I thought you said these things were hard to get rid of?"

"I'd like to point out that if I were human I'd be dead right now."

"Oh yeah, forgot. Sorry."

"Without that Cross, we'd both be dead. And that thing focused on me the moment it saw me. It was sent here specifically to kill me. That was why it didn't run amok."

They both heard the phone on the car ring once, then stop.

"Oh my God no..." Mark groaned.

"Get in the car, quick!" Judith yelled and grabbing him under the arm helped drag him to the passenger seat and stuffed him in it enough for him to crawl in the rest of the way as she vaulted the hood and hopped into the driver's seat and fired the engine up. Just as a pair of lesser devils appeared on the hood.

"Same ones as in Paris," Mark noted, still a little dazed.

Judith floored the car then tumbling the two devils to the ground and took off down the street, the doors swinging closed and latching from the force of the acceleration.

"Good, they're following us," She said glancing up in the mirror.

Mark was still trying to compose himself, his body was still healing and he was having trouble focusing. Plus Judith was slamming the car around corners like a deranged stock car driver.

The car shuddered and he heard a loud scrapping followed by the sound of metal shearing. "Don't worry, it'll buff out," Judith mumbled.

Mark tried to fumble for the seat belt but was thrown up against the door. Judith must have hit a straightaway then because he heard the engine open up and growl loudly.

"You okay Mark?" She yelled at him.

"Getting there," Mark groaned as his crushed ankle started to regenerate. That one was going painfully slow, his body was reaching its limit he suspected. One of the problems of having been turned and not born a were. But at least he was alive.

The phone rang again...

"Fuck! Can't you turn that thing off?" Judith yelled at him. Mark took his gun out and put a bullet through the head unit.

"There it’s off!" He yelled.

"Whatever works. We only picked up a third one. I guess they're getting weaker.

"Or moving targets are harder." Mark said panting; his body was suddenly very thirsty so pulling out the holy water he started drinking.

"You can drink that?" Judith said surprised.

"Its water isn't it?" He said still panting. Turning around in the seat he could see the three devils were keeping up with them.

"They're not that far behind us."

"I don't want to lose them," Judith said. "Like you said, we can't let them run amok."

He grabbed the seat tight as she swerved around some traffic then, good thing it was late.

"So what's the plan?"

"Look for an overpass, or better yet a tunnel. Someplace we can stop really fast, group them up, and try to dismiss them all in one shot."

"Think it'll work?"

"Might as well try." Mark said his head clearing. "Give me the cross. They're probably after me still. So at least I can get them in close."

Judith nodded and quickly pulled it over her head with one hand and tossed it to him.

It hit the window then, and shattered it, and went right outside.

"Fuck!" Mark swore and dove out after it, changing forms as he did.

He realized his mistake as soon as he leapt from the car, but he had no choice, they needed that cross! He hit the ground in a tangle of clothing, which thankfully was quickly ripped from his body, the devils all speeding by him as he heard the loud sound of tires squealing as Judith locked up the brakes on the car.

He stopped rolling, but was still sliding, the remaining bits of his clothing being ripped from his cougar form, his claws quickly getting filed down as he tried to dig them in and stop his sliding. He could feel his paw pads turning into chop meat.

He saw a glint of metal; the cross was still sliding as well! Scrambling against his momentum he finally got control of his body and ran to the cross, grabbing it with his mouth as something tackled him.

Or tried to at least, his side got raked but he was able to twist and turn out of it. His cougar body was unnaturally strong and limber, even if he was running on bloody paws right now. He saw the AMG heading back right at him and suddenly he had a lot of sympathy for road kill. Jumping to the left Judith locked the brakes up again and spun the car sideways, hitting the two devils chasing him and sending one of them flying while running over the other.

The other one was still chasing the car then and actually started to attack it, using those strong claws to shed the metal. Judith jumped out then and ran to him, grabbing the cross out of his muzzle. She quickly dismissed all three of them then leaving him a panting bloody mess on the side of the road.

The AMG however had faired much worse. The third devil had pretty much torn it to pieces before Judith had gotten rid of it.

"On my God! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry Mark!" She started babbling.

Mark growled, she kept babbling, he growled louder.

No effect.

He rolled to his feet and screamed then, his paws were healing very slowly.

Judith shut up.

He limped over to the car and nosed at the remaining overnight bag, Judith's apparently, his was nowhere in sight. Judith got the idea and grabbed it and the small pouch holding what was left of Rafael's money. Then he started limping slowly back the way they had come.

Thankfully she was silent.

He found the tattered remains of his jacket. Thankfully his passport, Interpol ID, and badge had survived. But that was it.

"I'm sorry Mark, really. I shouldn't have tossed the cross to you."

"Obviously you were meant to wear it," He said. Or tried to at least. Talking as a cat was pretty much impossible, though he could talk to another werecougar. It was their very own private language. Not one that humans could understand.

"Maybe you're right; let me put it back on."

Mark rolled his eyes and looked up at the stars. It figured. Gift of tongues. He should have known.

"What I really want to know is how it had managed to not only shatter safety glass, but go through it!" he said ending it with a growl.

"I... I hadn't thought about that." Judith said surprised.

"Just like you haven't thought about how you can understand me?"

Judith laughed, "Oh no, I get that, gift of tongues!" She looked around. "Where are we going?"

"Away from that wreck. The police will find it, report it, and note there was no one there. Maybe our enemy will think we're dead."

"Or maybe he'll think we ran away."

"Either one leaves us alone."

"Are you going to change back?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I'm too hurt, too tired, and too weak. But worst of all," He sighed.

"Yes?"

"I don't have any clothes to wear."

Judith started to laugh so hard then that Mark was sorely tempted to commit homicide. Surely they'd understand?

12

When sunrise came they found a small inn off the side of the road. Judith went in and got a room, then opened the window so Mark could jump inside once the coast was clear.

"Order me lots of food when the kitchen opens. Or send out for it." He growled and curling up on the side of the bed he stuck his nose under his tail and passed out.

It was dark outside when he woke back up. Judith was snuggled up against him, face buried in his chest fur with a heavy blanket pulled up over the two of them. He couldn't help himself and started to purr at that point, thinking about his wife Charity. She loved to sleep like this, and he could never refuse her. Heck he couldn't refuse any of them anything.

"Damn that's loud!" Judith said stretching as she rolled on her back yawning.

"You always sleep naked with strange men?" Mark growled.

"Men, no. Big warm furry kitty cats? Why not? They don’t heat this place at night. It was freezing in here." She grinned at him then, "Besides, you already told me you're a devoted husband with no interest in straying."

“Don’t try tempting me or I just might add you to the harem,” he grumbled.

Judith shrugged, "If we weren't partners I might be worried."

Mark nodded, that was also a very good point.

"Let me order some food, then we can clean up and see about finding you some clothing."

When room service came, which was the wife of the man who owned the place, she freaked when she spotted the rather large cougar lying on the floor; there really wasn’t any place to hide in such a small room. It was only Judith flashing her Interpol ID and telling a very strange tale about how Interpol was experimenting with big cats in place of drug dogs because they could climb though the luggage on planes, and through the rafters of warehouses so much easier that stopped her from immediately running off and calling the police.

A second demonstration of just how well 'trained' he was to voice commands seemed to sell her on the idea.

Mark of course glared at her the whole time, and wanted to strangle her all over again when she started to laugh hysterically after the woman had left the room.

At least she had the sense to bury her own head in a pillow as she laughed and saved Mark the trouble.

He had to admit though that Judith was a very convincing liar and had probably missed her calling as a used car salesman. He suspected she could have even put Jake to shame in the whole tall tales category.

“Any idea where we are?” He asked Judith when she stopped laughing.

“Outside some town called ‘Schwabach’. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find a car dealer this late, and I don’t know if we even have the cash left to buy a decent one.”

He looked at the clock, it was after seven. “Well find out where the nearest train station is, we might be able to catch one heading to a main station and switch there.”

“How will that help us?” Judith asked looking a little confused.

Mark tried to smirk; it wasn’t easy as a cougar. “Unlike back home, here there are trains going everywhere. So pick up the phone and ask the concierge.”

Judith did just that, and after chatting with the desk clerk she hung up the phone.

“The train station is on the next block over, and the next train, the one we need to leave on, is in thirty minutes.”

“We better get going then.”

“May I remind you that you’re still a cat and we have no clothes for you?”

Mark swore and sat down on his haunches to think about that a moment. This put his head at her waist and an idea quickly formed.

“Take your belt off, cut it down and put it around my neck to make a convincing collar. Hang my badge off of it, and snag that curtain line over there to make a ‘leash’. We’ll just have to go with the story you told that lady and bluff.”

Judith looked like she wanted to strangle him for a change. “You can’t be serious!”

Mark shrugged and flicked his tail. “Time’s a wasting.”

“This would be easier if you were a wolf,” Judith said gritting her teeth as they left the ticket counter. Her Interpol ID had checked out, so the officers who were called over bought the story, even if they did look skeptical.

Mark’s ‘alerting’ however on a kid with a backpack full of heroin quickly got them out of Judith’s hair.

“Trust me; wolves do not look anything like a dog.”

“We’re just lucky that kid came by...”

Mark tried not to laugh; he wasn’t a big believer in luck.

Especially not as at the next station four police officers got on the train and asked if Judith would be so kind as to use her animal to sweep for drugs?

The end result of that little exercise was six arrests, twenty three citations, and the compliments of the German Railroad system, which gave Judith a free railway pass through to Spain, with first class accommodations when they switched carriages further on.

They got tapped several more times on the trip to do searches, though once they entered Spain they were left alone.

“I feel sorry for whoever has to explain this one!” Judith said smiling as they finally got off the train Barcelona. It was early morning; they’d been on the train almost forty hours.

“That would be you,” Mark laughed, “It’s your name on all those reports.”

Judith swore in a very unladylike manner at that point.

“Oh don’t worry; they’re used to weird stuff from us. Now go buy me some clothes!”

Twenty minutes later then went back inside the stores, only now Mark had some clothes on, to buy something that looked a little more presentable.

“Your taste in men’s clothing is questionable,” Mark said as they went to find a bus to Manresa.

“I thought it looked rather nice on you.”

“I didn’t even know they still made zoot suits,” Mark said shaking his head.

“You just have no style,” Judith teased.

“Oh I have style; I just don’t have the style of a teenager. At least the tie is nice.”

“So are you sure we can catch a bus there?”

“Yup, the Abby at Manresa is a major tourist attraction for any Catholics and many other members of Christian faiths. We can just shuffle in with the rest of the tourists.”

“Well I for one will be happy to sleep in a real bed tonight. They do have real beds right? This isn’t some sort of ‘give up worldly goods’ place, is it?”

Mark snickered, “Far from it. The place is a like a four star hotel. A lot of lay people work there, so they didn’t skimp on the features.”

“Well that’s good; I’m definitely not the monastery type.”

“Neither am I. Ah, there’s the tour bus stop, right where I remembered. Let’s go get some tickets.”

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Judith said after he paid for the tickets and sat down.

“Oh, what’s that?”

“I thought silver burned werecreatures?”

Mark nodded, “It burns the turned ones, like me. The pure bloods, it doesn’t faze them a bit.”

“Well then how come you were able to wear the cross?”

“It’s not silver. Looks like steel to be honest.”

“No, it’s not silver, but the chain is.”

“You know how you have the gift of tongues?”

Judith nodded, “Yes.”

“Well I got immunity to silver. Which is pretty important when you consider how many silver objects, crosses, and other holy symbols there are.”

“I can see how that would be important.”

“Part of why I don’t wear any silver, or even own anything made from it. Gifts can be withdrawn if God or one of his angels feels you need to be punished. Also even though it no longer harms me, it still feels a little strange when I touch it. So I just steer clear of it as much as possible.”

Judith nodded again, “See, that wasn’t that bad.”

Mark looked at her curious.

“Getting information out of you is like trying to interrogate a tweaker on where he hides his drugs.”

Mark shrugged, “Old habits.”

“So where did you grow up? That accent is definitely not west coast.”

“New York, just outside the city.”

“Why’d you leave?”

“My dad died when I was a kid, killed in an accident and didn’t leave us much. Just my mom, my older sister, my younger brother, and me. My sister is gorgeous; she’s a high fashion model and got married to a very rich soap opera TV star when she was twenty. She was on her own before she even graduated high school. My younger brother is a genius; MIT offered him a full ride when he was a sophomore in high school.

“Me? I had nothing going for me, and once I got out of high school food stamps and welfare really wasn’t going to take care of me anymore. So I joined the Army. The whole thing over in Afghanistan was expected to wind down in a year or two, I figured by the time I got out of basic it would be over and I could spend some time saving money and go to college on the GI Bill when I got out.”

“How long were you in?”

“Almost two years. I was in about a year when I got sent to Afghanistan, fresh out of training. Until I ran into that vamp things were going pretty good. Then suddenly three months in the hospital, the last two were more for ‘mental observation’.” Mark shrugged, “then I got med’ed out and that was that.”

“They thought you were crazy?”

“Hell even I thought I was crazy. I rattled around for a while, the nightmares wouldn’t let me sleep much, and I couldn’t believe a lot of what I had seen had really happened. Eventually I just decided to become a hermit and withdraw from life. I’d gotten wounded by the vampire and it wasn’t healing. Vamp wounds can be pretty nasty, they don’t heal by themselves and they slowly drain your life away, as well as your will to live and it was doing a number on me.

“That’s why I love my girls so much. Without them I would have died; a rather nasty death too most likely. Might have even come back as some sort of ghoul. No, they saved me and I owe them everything.”

“Of course their being rather attractive has nothing to do with it,” Judith said smirking slightly.

“Fringe benefit,” Mark said with a smile. “But I was in a seriously bad way.”

“So do you talk to them at all? Your brother or sister?”

“Not really, my sister still spends most of her time either modeling, or traveling, course she’s older now and her husband has moved up to regular TV shows. So if I see them once a year it’s a lot. My brother got married and moved out onto Long Island after he graduated MIT; has a bunch of kids and owns a bio-technology company. He bought my Mom a small house nearby so she can visit.

“I see them about once a year.”

“Your mom doesn’t know about your wives, does she?”

“No,” he sighed.

“The kids?”

He could feel his face blushing.

“Your Mom has grandchildren she doesn’t know about?” Judith almost yelled it at him. “I should smack you upside the head for that one!”

“I don’t know how she’d react, I mean four women, seventeen kids...”

“You have seventeen children? Damn.”

“Well normally child mortality is high in were societies. So we have a lot of kids.”

“After this is over I am calling your wives up and we are all going to drag you to see your Mom and fess up.” Judith said.

“You would too, wouldn’t you?” Mark said surprised.

“No ‘would’ about it. This is going to happen. Bet your Mom thinks there’s something wrong with you.”

“Yeah, after this she’ll know there’s something wrong with me!” Mark grumped.

“No, she’ll just see that you’re an over achiever, that’s all!” Judith said grinning, and then laughed.

“And you wondered why I keep my life a secret.”

“What about Father Gregory?”

Mark smiled, “Now that’s someone I don’t mind talking about. Father Gregory was really quite the man. I really miss him, and his counsel. He was very educated, smartest man I have ever met, smarter than my brother even which is saying something. He was a Jesuit, and he got involved with the Commission as a very young priest. The Commission used to be made up mainly of Priests back when he joined, which was during the war. Problem was most of the Priests weren’t good fighters, and while they had a lot more power than regular people like us, they often didn’t last long enough in a fight to be able to bring it to bear.

“So they started looking for the more rough and tumble type like me or Jake. In the past when they needed muscle, they just went and borrowed it from some nearby noble or King. But things shifted politically during the war and suddenly the Church found itself with a lot less leverage. I know they’re hoping to faze people like us out, some of us do skirt the line of acceptable behavior fairly often.”

“Are you one of those people?”

Mark shook his head, “My worse sins are my cursing and a tendency to drink too much. Yeah, being what I am and having multiple wives or concubines is probably a sin too, but a lot of folks in the bible were allowed to do it and they were okay.

“But we were talking about Father Gregory; he found me in Oregon, the Commission heard about the vamp and its den, it was a pretty big affair being as he had quite a few followers and well, they were all dead now. Someone higher up figured out what went on and asked around the groups who usually deal with those things to find out who was responsible. Of course none of those groups were.”

“There are other groups who do this?”

Mark nodded, “None have been around as long as ours, but a couple of other organized religions and several of the larger governments have them. Anyway, the report about the request I’d made for a couple of gallons of holy water and some blessed silver bullets came to his attention and he flew out to talk to the Priest I had gotten it from. Tracked me down a few weeks later and we had some long and interesting conversations.

“He made a big difference in my life, and helped with a lot of the guilt I was still feeling over the way my life had turned out. He also thought that someone of my abilities would be a boon to the organization and he recruited me into it. You see we told everyone that my gift was my healing ability; Father Gregory said that in a round about way it was true. That helped a lot with explaining certain things. Of course because of that Jake and I got sent on a lot of the more dangerous missions, but it was probably better that way because a lot of people wouldn’t have survived what I did.

“He also mediated a lot of my arguments with Father Flores and taught me to keep my temper around him. I don’t know why I don’t like Flores, or why he doesn’t like me, but Father Gregory definitely kept me from getting tossed several times, as well as stopping me from pounding Father Flores until there was nothing left than a greasy spot on the ground.”

“So what happened to him?”

“He had a real bad stroke, and when it looked like he was finally getting better, he had another one. It bothers me that there’s nothing really that can be done for it, but he’s in his 90’s now and well, it would be better to just let him pass at this point. The doctors are pretty sure he’ll never recover.”

“Looks like our bus is here,” Judith said pointing. “How long is the ride?”

“About an hour. It’s actually a very nice ride, lovely scenery.”

They settled in then and Mark let Judith have the window seat and thought back to when he had first met Father Gregory...

%     %     %     %     %

Mark swore as he felt water across his face and looked up to see who had just squirted him with it; he stopped when he saw it was an older looking man and not one of his kids playing a trick on him.

“What are you doing?” he said wiping his face off.

“Checking you out, what does it look like?”

“Do you always spray water in people’s faces?” Mark said angrily.

“Here catch!”

Mark grabbed some beads that the old man had thrown at him next then stared at them a moment, “That is no way to treat a set of rosary beads! What is your problem old man?”

“One last test, then we can talk.”

“Yeah well you can talk to my back, I don’t do crazy,” he said setting the Rosary beads down and getting up to leave.

At that point the old guy pulled out a rather old looking cross and said a bunch of stuff in Latin. Mark dropped a few bills on the table to pay for his coffee and went to round up the kids and get out of there before anything strange happened.

He didn’t care much for strange anymore.

Two weeks later as he was leaving Church after Sunday Mass the Priest he had gotten the holy water from and which he had asked to bless all those bullets stopped him at the door.

“Mark, if I could have a minute of your time?”

“Sure Father Henry, what’s up?”

“There have been a few, ummm, inquiries as to why you needed all that holy water and those bullets you asked me to bless last month.”

Mark sighed and dropped his head, “I didn’t do anything wrong or evil with it Father, and I asked you not to tell anyone.”

“No, you used it to kill a vampire, didn’t you?”

Mark looked up and groaned. It was the crazy old guy from the coffee shop across the street two weeks ago.

“Allow me to introduce Father Gregory; he flew all the way from Spain to meet you.”

“You’re a priest?” Mark said looking surprised, and a little suspicious. “What was with all the crazy stuff at the coffee shop?”

“Wanted to be sure you weren’t a monster my Son.”

Mark bristled at that, he was a monster these days. “I’m not evil.”

“Well I know that now, but I didn’t know that then. I had to check.”

“Let me guess, Holy water, blessed rosary beads, and an attempt to turn me or something?”

Father Gregory nodded. “Most monsters are territorial; they won’t allow another one in their area. Killing a vampire is a pretty serious undertaking. Few people know they exist, fewer people know how to kill one.”

Mark shrugged, “Overwhelming firepower works really really well. Learned that the first time.”

Father Gregory’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve done this before?”

“When I was in the army in Afghanistan. Damn thing killed my whole squad, I was the only survivor. That time was luck. When I found out about this one, well I wasn’t going to let it go.”

“Excuse us Father Henry,” Father Gregory took Mark’s arm and led him aside, “let’s go someplace where we can talk some more.”

“Let me just tell my kids to wait a bit. Or is this going to take a while?”

“It shouldn’t take too long.”

Mark nodded and went and told the kids to go wait in the car, he’d be out in a little while.

“That’s quite a lot of kids you have there.”

“Well their mother’s aren’t big on Church; I can only get them to come in a few times a year.”

“Yes so many people don’t have faith anymore.” Father Gregory sighed.

“Oh they have faith; they just don’t care much for crowds. To be honest I don’t care much for them either, but I like going to mass. One of the few normal things left in the world it seems these days.”

“So my Son, how did you know there was a vampire here?”

“I came across a young woman who had escaped an attack out in the country. She had fled the city in a terror and wrecked her car not far from my place.”

“Why did you kill it?”

“What was I supposed to do? Leave it alone? I lost eight of my buddies to one of those things, I’m sure it had already killed more than a few here.”

“Well why didn’t you go to the police?”

Mark laughed, “I got a medical discharge from the army for ‘combat related stress’ after I told them some kind of monster had wiped out the squad. The police would have thought I was crazy.

“And if they had tried to take it on? They would have all been killed.”

“Well there are agencies that do deal with these kinds of things, but you’re right. Odds are that the police would have laughed at you and more people would have died.”

“So why are you here then?” Mark was curious now.

“To find out if you might wish to work for one of those agencies. We could use a man like you.”

“Uhhh, I don’t think so Father.”

“Why not? You’re a good Catholic, like you said, you’re not evil, and you’re not afraid to deal with these kinds of things.”

“My past isn’t exactly free of sin father.”

“Well no one’s is my son.”

“It’s worse than that.”

“Oh? How is that?”

“Those are all my children,” Mark said embarrassed.

Father Gregory paused a moment, “I suspected as much. A group marriage?”

“We’re not really married, they just sort of pass me around and take care of me and the children, and well, I give them children and make sure everyone is safe, protected, and fed.”

“I see.”

“It’s complicated, but I love them and they love me. Yeah it’s probably wrong but it’s what they wanted and they pretty much saved my life, so I owe them.” Mark shrugged, “So you can see that I’m not someone you would want.”

“Concubines, while frowned upon are not exactly all that unheard of my son. These things were common in days of old, but they still occur from time to time.” Father Gregory handed Mark a card. “This has the local parish number on it; I’ll be here for another week or so. Please call me, you do seem troubled and maybe I can help ease your mind, I have seen many of these monsters myself, I understand what you went through.”

Mark took the card and thought about that. He also wondered what this Father would say if he knew that the man he was talking to was also a monster.

%     %     %     %     %

“Thinking about your friend?” Judith asked.

“Yeah, the first time we met I thought he was just a crazy old guy. Then I was afraid he might find out what I was.”

“What happened when he did?”

“He was concerned for my spiritual wellbeing. Apparently there have been werecreatures in the church before, not as priests or such, but as followers. As long as they control themselves and don’t kill or bite people they’re accepted, but they’re expected to keep a very low profile.”

“Well you were bit, did that cause any problems?”

“A little, Father Gregory was upset with Helena, the one who bit me, but she told him flat out that she wasn’t going to let me die. So in the end they sort of reached a stalemate over the whole issue and just let it drop.”

“What about our friend Rafael?”

“That one is a bit dicey.” Mark admitted. “He’s not evil, but by his nature he tends to sin quite a bit. But he also tends to do a lot of good to try and make up for the sins that he does. So they’re kind of undecided about him and because he’s considered a monster and not a devil or a demon he’s not high on their priority list.”

“So who deals with the Monsters then?”

“Different government agencies, depending on the situation. We only deal with those situations when we stumble across them, or by request.”

“Does that include Vampires?”

“Vamps are a special situation, because they are always evil, and are affected by holy items.”

“And werecreatures?”

“Weres have a bad reputation, mainly because of one of the werewolf clans that dominated central Europe for a good many years. They were a pretty vicious bunch, and that’s where all the bad stories come from. These days all weres stay hidden as much as possible, and if they find out someone has gone rogue, they’ll hunt them down.”

“Really?” Judith said surprised.

“Think about it, people find out there’s a vicious werewolf or werecat in the area? They’re not just going to be happy with killing one; they’re going to kill every last one they can find. So it’s a matter of survival.”

“Sounds rough.”

“It is. A thousand years ago werecreatures were at the top of the food chain, and pretty much indestructible. Now? Now they’re just looking to survive, and hopefully someday come out of the shadows and gain acceptance.”

Mark laughed then, “Of course I’m rather biased! So, have I satisfied all your questions?”

“For now. So what is Father Flores like?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like him, so anything I say will prejudice you. So keep an open mind.”

“Anything else I need to know?”

“Don’t eat the Thai food unless you have an iron constitution.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“The chef’s a native, and he makes it really hot.”

“I’ll try to remember and try that.”

“It’s your funeral.”

“We’ll see. I happen to love Thai!”

13

“Reporting as ordered Father,” Mark said walking into Father Flores office. “Allow me to introduce Judith Keen, our newest member.” He couldn’t help but notice the look of shock and surprise, followed by what looked like a brief flash of disappointment when Father Flores looked up from his desk and saw him standing there.

“What? Where?” Father Flores looked momentarily flustered, and then composed himself. “We had reports of a rather nasty car crash from the German Federal Police, who recovered a bunch of torn clothes and your wallet! You were presumed dead! What were you doing in Germany?”

“The car I was using got stolen,” Mark said lying rather easily. He was curious as to what Father Flores’ response to that would be. “Did they catch the guys that did it? Any chance of getting my wallet or my things back?”

“You weren’t in the car?” Father Flores looked shocked; Mark found that to be rather strange.

“I just said it was stolen. I had been hoping to take a nice leisurely drive back here, show Judith some of the sights; she loves to drive by the way. I thought a car would be a lot easier on my wounds than one of those small airplane seats. But well,” he shrugged. “It got stolen. My fault really.”

Father Flores looked very disappointed, “Talk to Marilyn about your things,” he sighed still looking just a bit disappointed. Then he looked at Judith who was smiling rather brightly at him.

“Father Flores,” she said, giving a little curtsey and then shaking his hand when he extended it. “It’s so nice to finally meet you!”

“The pleasure is all mine Judith. I’m sorry to hear what you’ve been through; Mark should have known better and just taken an airplane here.”

“Oh it was no big deal; just a spot of bad luck is all. I’ve heard so much about you, I’ve been very interested in finally meeting you!”

“Oh I’m sure I can imagine just what Mister Levin had to say,” Father Flores said giving Mark a nasty look.

“Oh I’m an old enough girl to know jealously when I hear it Father,” Judith said turning on the charm. “You’re really rather handsome as well.”

Mark would swear that Father Flores actually looked embarrassed for a moment.

“Come Judith, have a seat, let’s talk a while. Go over setting up your training now that you’re here.” Father Flores looked up at Mark, “You can go talk to Marilyn about your things, you’re excused.”

Mark nodded surprised and left the room, it only occurred to him then that Judith really was showing a lot of cleavage, and had been bending over quite a bit there. She was almost throwing herself at Father Flores, and the good father seemed to be rather interested.

He didn’t know if he should laugh or be insulted. What was she up to?

“Do you know he tried to blame me for the car getting stolen,” He heard her say as he closed the door behind him. “How was I to know to lock the doors, I thought France was supposed to be a nice safe place.”

The closed door cut off Father Flores reply thankfully.

“Did he really think I was dead?” Mark asked Marilyn who handed him a plastic bag with what looked like a bunch of shredded clothes. He guessed his wallet was in there somewhere.

“I don’t know, he hadn’t ordered a memorial service yet, but then again I’m not sure he was making any plans to.”

“Well at least he didn’t dance a jig,” Mark sighed.

“Only because you didn’t leave a grave for him to dance one on,” Marilyn said with a wink. “Really now Mark, how in the world do you always manage to get him so mad at you?”

Mark shrugged, “I really don’t know, there’s always been something about him that just rubs me the wrong way. He makes my hair want to stand on end.”

“Oh come on now Mark! He’s such a sweet man, how can you say that?”

“I just hope he doesn’t try to jump my new partner’s bones.”

“Mark, he’s a priest! You should know better than that. Unless of course you’re jealous?”

Mark blinked, “huh?”

“She is rather attractive, have you been setting your own sights on her?”

“She’s my partner Marilyn; also she’s not exactly my type.”

“What, you have a problem with dark skin?” Marilyn looked at him a little crossly.

“No, I have a problem with someone who is going to get me killed. She’s bad luck personified. Read her record sometime, she goes through partners like Jake went through girlfriends.”

“Oh don’t be so negative Mark!”

He shrugged, “Let me know what room she gets set up in so I can find her before dinner time. Otherwise I’m going to get a nice hot shower and take a long nap.”

“It’s not even lunch time yet Mark.”

“Hmm, I missed breakfast, maybe I’ll eat first. Thank you Marilyn.”

“You’re welcome.” She said and smiled at him. Mark sometimes wondered if she had a thing for him. Of course he also sometimes wondered if the ‘good Father Flores’ was dipping his wick in that particular well.

Judith wasn't in her room come dinner time, so he went down to the dinning room by himself and was a bit surprised to see her there with Father Flores. She was most definitely kissing up to him alright.

He smiled and said hello to the both of them as he went by, served himself at the buffet and then tracked down Brother Stevens and asked if he could join him.

"Sure thing Mark, pull up a chair. Rumor was we almost lost you there."

Mark nodded setting his plate down as he sat. "Had a couple of bad days."

"Well there sure have been enough of those going around. Right now you're the only active field agent we have left. Joseph and Gregg are gone, Mike's retired and David has pretty much disappeared."

Mark looked up at Stevens, "Disappeared? I heard he took a leave of absence."

"Yeah well, he took it and walked out the door of the hospital and hasn't been heard from or seen since. They've got Interpol trying to track him down, they're afraid he might be dead, or worse yet suicidal."

"Huh, how hard would it be to track him down by his cell phone?" Mark asked thinking about the incident with the one in the car.

"Tried it. He left his phone in the Hospital."

"You already tried it?" Mark said surprised.

"Yeah, Father Flores asked about it, heard that the guys in Interpol do it all the time. Not that hard really," Brother Stevens blushed then, "Well not that hard if you spent your youth in rather slightly disreputable circles."

"Huh," Mark thought about that a moment. "Did he ask you to track anyone else?"

"No, but I don't see why he'd need to now that he's seen me do it once. Remember he is the system architect and head programmer for the Abbey's mainframe."

"Wonder where he finds that time," Mark sighed sarcastically.

"You kidding? He loves doing that stuff," Brother Stevens replied obviously missing Mark's tone of voice. "He goes down there almost every night. It's like its his baby."

"Goes down 'where'?"

"Oh, most of the mainframe's core processing center is in the new sub-basement. Stuff draws a lot of power and they had to sink a well and dig a new room for it and the cooling system, so it would be up close to the water pump. Anyway, the main system consoles are in a room down there."

"I thought you could program a computer from anywhere?"

Brother Stevens nodded, "Yeah, but it's easier to do some things from the system console, it's hard wired into the system and if you make a mistake you won't lose your connection. Also no one goes down there at all, so there aren't any distractions."

"Huh, didn't know that." Mark pondered all of that a moment. "Hey, can you show me how the cell phone tracking thing works?"

"Yeah, sure. Come on down tomorrow before lunch and I'll show you the whole program."

"Thanks!"

The topic of discussion moved on to his new partner after that, unsurprisingly. A couple of other people joined them during the course of dinner as well and they caught Mark up on the local news. Mark was rather pleased to see that people's feelings were still thawing towards him in general now that he was actually talking to them and not having his former partner around monopolizing all the conversations.

He'd never really realized before what a bad idea that had been. He ended up joining several of them in the local pub for a few hours after dinner and had a few beers.

"Father Flores ever come down here at all?" He asked one of the guys later that night.

"Nah, he's a bit to important for that," the Brother, Jacob was his name, replied.

"Important, or self important?" Mark asked a little sarcastically, and realized that maybe he'd had enough alcohol for tonight.

Jacob laughed, "You're not the only one who isn't so impressed with our wonderful leader," and he winked at Mark then. "You're just the only one who was ever dumb enough to tell him to his face!"

Mark blushed, his face going rather hot at that point, but he couldn't help but join in the laughter, Brother Jacob was right after all. He took his leave not long after that and went back to the Abbey and his room. He was a bit surprised to find out that Father Flores actually wasn't all that popular.

Of course when he got back to his room he was rather shocked to find Judith in his bed.

"What in the world are you doing here?" He said loudly.

"Waiting for you, obviously."

"In my bed? Naked no less? Have you no shame woman?!"

"Oh please, give it a rest. Lock the door and come to bed. I need something warm and furry to curl up with."

"What, I'm a stuffed toy now?" Mark said still a bit upset. "What about your new friend?"

"Hey, you told me to kiss up to him. So I did. But that's part of why I'm here. He seriously creeps me out, and after spending the day around him, well I just don't exactly feel that safe all alone."

Mark stood there staring at her for a moment.

"That was an act?" He said after a minute. Alcohol did tend to affect his judgment.

"Yes. Now get in here and I'll tell you what I learned."

Mark nodded and made sure the door was bolted, he'd installed that item years ago just to make sure no one ever came in unexpected while he was in a 'furry' mood. He stripped off his clothes then and changing gave the room a quick inspection and climbed into bed.

"What was that for?"

"Just making sure no one left me any surprises. What are you going to say to Flores about this in the morning?"

"Oh, I'll make up something that puts you in a bad light, don't worry about that!" Judith laughed, making Mark growl.

"Oh give it a rest. He does hate you, you know. But you are far from the only one. I could hear it in his voice as he talked about other people. You just have the honor of being at the top of his list. You have to wonder how someone like him was able to become a priest."

"Family," Mark grumbled.

"Yeah, and he hates them too." Judith sighed as she curled up against him, putting her face in his chest fur again. "I had a big stuffed lion plush as a kid; you are hands down better than he ever was!"

"Thanks I guess. So anything else?"

"He's very receptive to attention from an attractive woman. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to get me in bed yet; I've met his type when I worked as a regular patrolman, he thinks the rules just don't apply to him. He thinks the cardinals are all fools and the Pope is a moron."

"He said that?"

"Not in so many words, but the contempt in his voice is there to hear."

"He say anything about Miles?"

"The other field agent? No, mostly he wanted to talk about himself and asked some questions about you. I'd say that he seemed rather disappointed that you survived Paris, he asked me quite a bit about that attack and your wounds. How serious they were, how long they took to heal. I made sure to tell him about Father Otto's cleansing of the wounds with holy water, and his blessing of them."

"Why?"

"I didn't want him to think your healing abilities were anything but God given."

Mark shrugged and closed his eyes. Technically he felt that all of his abilities were God given. God had created him after all.

%     %     %     %     %

"Mark."

"Afternoon Father," Mark said looking up from the table to see Father Gregory enter the room. He wasn't surprised; he'd heard the old priest walking way down the hallway.

"So what have we learned today?" Father Gregory said sitting down across the table from him.

"Not to argue with Father Flores," Mark said and sighed. He'd been assigned to window cleaning detail. And Kitchen cleaning duty. And several other menial tasks on top of that. He'd also been ordered to read several Holy Scriptures and meditate on their meanings.

"Father Flores comes from a long line of distinguished leaders. He can't help it if he's an asshole."

"I know I need to stop arguing with him Father, I promised you last night that I would stop arguing with him and start minding my manners and showing him respect."

"Yes Mark, I appreciate that and I know you will keep that promise, but maybe you should start thinking about breaking it?"

The dream came to a sudden halt as Mark's conscious mind suddenly snapped to attention. This was not what had happened. Father Gregory never ever cursed or swore, and never once said those things about Father Flores.

"I need to leave Mark, I need to go. I really do." Father Gregory said and got up and left. Mark looked at where he had been sitting at the table, where he had put his hands as he had stood up to leave. There were bloody handprints there.

%     %     %     %     %

Mark woke up like a shot, changing back before he was even fully awake. Putting on his pants and grabbing a t-shirt he ran out of the room leaving a bewildered Judith groggily asking him what was up.

He didn't wait for the elevator, but ran down the three flights of stairs, down the long hallway, and right into the ward where Father Gregory was kept, past a startled night nurse and into his room.

"Are you all right Father?" Mark said panting, looking at his old mentor. Everything looked fine, but something didn't seem quite right. He started searching the room, but couldn't find anything.

"What are you doing?" The night nurse said coming into the room and looking rather angry.

"I had a nightmare," Mark said checking Father Gregory over again. Something was wrong. He could feel it, if he had been in animal form his hackles would be up.

"What happened?" Judith said yawning, coming into the room wearing a bathrobe.

"Somebody had a nightmare," The night nurse said looking more and more upset.

"And...." Judith said walking over to stand by Mark with a questioning look.

"Dreams can receive messages from other worlds." Mark said looking around getting more and more nervous. "They're not always your subconscious; sometimes they're someone in the afterlife or maybe even someone from heaven trying to send you a message."

"Really?" Judith said still only half awake.

"Oh please," the nurse said, "Now get out of here, visiting hours are over!"

Mark wasn't sure exactly what happened next, but the Nurse reached for Judith, who took a step back, which caused her to bump into Mark, making him stumble. At the same time the belt of her bathrobe somehow came off of the robe and dropping free it became tangled in his legs. Suddenly he was falling over, the belt causing him to trip and all he could do was cover his head as he slammed into several of the machines that were attached to Father Gregory's body.

All of which went dead.

"Out! Out!" The nurse yelled and hit the red panic button and started checking the machines that Mark hand fallen into.

Mark crawled out of the way, his head hurt and he could feel something wet on the side of his face.

Judith's face was ashen, and she quickly backed away, grabbing her robe and holding it closed.

"Is he, is he going to be alright?" Mark said wincing as he checked his head with a hand and saw that it came away bloody.

"I don't know, he's not on a respirator, but these other machines are to keep him from having any more seizures."

Of course at that moment Father Gregory suffered what looked like a rather violent seizure and the Nurse let out a very un-ladylike word, as two Nuns, who Mark knew were the local doctors ran into the room.

"What happened?" Doctor Susan asked him.

"I fell," Mark said, "into the machines," and he pointed.

"Lisa, go get the Felbatol, Mary help me hold him down to the bed. Mark grab those restraints over there!"

Mark looked around still a bit dizzy, Doctor Susan looked up at him and shook her head, "Mark sit down before you fall down. You there," She pointed to Judith, "Get me those restraints!"

Judith did as she was told and then taking an extra moment to grab her belt retreated from the room, looking rather embarrassed as it was clear she wasn't wearing anything under the robe which had fallen open while she was getting the restraints.

"Really now Mark," Doctor Susan said shaking her head as she got Father Gregory strapped down and Lisa gave him a shot.

"What?" He was confused; his head wasn't healing as quickly as it should.

"You brought your girlfriend down to the hospital wing?"

"She's not my girlfriend, she's my new partner. Is Father Gregory going to be okay?"

"You're sleeping with your partner?" Her voice took on a very unfriendly tone.

"No, I am not having sex with my partner!" Mark said angrily. "Believe it or not I am not that kind of a guy. Now will Father Gregory be alright?"

"You better not be!" she grumbled. "And I think he will. The machines you hit are only for dealing with his seizures and monitoring his coma. Oh and the new coma treatment stuff they're trying here."

Mark sighed. "Good."

"Why are you here?"

"I had a nightmare. Father Gregory was in it, he had blood on him."

"These people and their dreams," the night nurse, Lisa he guessed, said.

"Mark and Father Gregory are very close Lisa. The good father here is probably the only person who could ever talk sense into the boy. If he had a bad dream, I can not find fault with his running down here."

"I'm not a boy," Mark grumbled.

"Well you sure acted like one back then. Give me a minute to bandage that and then your partner can take you back to your room. If your partner hasn't abandoned you that is."

Mark got to his feet carefully and stumbled out of the room. Judith was still there and did the honors of bandaging his head and then they left while the Doctors were still checking on Father Gregory.

"Keep an eye on him, if his dizziness doesn't clear up, call me. He might have a concussion." The doctor called after them.

“I thought you healed quickly from all injuries.” Judith said taking a second look at the wound when they got back to his room.

“I do,” he said, “Unless it’s from a magical, blessed, or holy weapon.”

“And silver, right?”

“Used to be silver. Remember?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. So maybe they blessed all of his medical equipment?”

Mark shook his head, “I wield holy weapons and sigils, I shouldn’t be hurt by one.”

“Well let’s get you back into your bed. After all of that I need to lay down myself.”

14

"How's the head?"

Mark growled and shook his head a little; he wasn't dizzy anymore at least. Rolling off the bed he landed on his paws and then shifted back. Getting up off the floor and standing he walked over to the mirror above his dresser. The cut had healed, though he had a pretty good sized bruise still. Supposedly he healed faster in his 'monster' or cougar form.

But something about that equipment must have been magical or blessed or something.

"Better," he grunted and walked off to the shower.

Judith was gone when he got out, so getting dressed he decided to head down to the data processing center and see if he could talk to Brother Stevens about cell phone trackers.

When he got there Stevens hadn't shown up yet, but there were a couple of other people there.

"Can I help you?" Asked a young man in a button up shirt, with a pocket protector and glasses who rather completely fit the computer geek stereotype.

"Looking for Brother Stevens, what time does he show up?"

"Could be anytime now. Depends on how much they load him down with in the morning standup meeting."

"Ah," Mark said looking around a bit. "Been working here long?"

"Only a few years. Can I help you with anything?"

He shook his head, "Not really. I'll just wait for Stevens to show up. He had a few things he wanted to show me for my investigation."

"Oh!" The young man brightened up. "Are you a field agent?"

"Yes, I'm Mark Levin. You are?"

"Chad. Chad Stevens."

They shook hands and Mark smiled, "Any relation to Brother Stevens?"

"Yup, he's my Uncle. So what's it like being a field agent?"

"It's just like the old saying goes, ninety-nine percent boredom and one percent sheer terror."

"Is it as rough as they say it is?"

"Up until a month ago I would have said no. Now I'm not so sure." Mark looked at the displays that Chad was sitting at. "What is all this stuff anyway?"

"Mostly it's just data storage. We get a lot of stuff sent to us every four hours from different church, government, and Interpol data centers. We process it after that, run a bunch of different search profiles against it, and see what turns up of interest and just warehouse it after that."

"Who wrote the programs for all of that?"

"A lot of it started off as simple off the shelf software. We've done a lot of work on those packages however to convert it to our own needs. We have a pretty good team of programmers here working on the code."

"That include Father Flores?"

Chad shook his head, "He's a mainframe architecture guy. He works on operating system level stuff exclusively."

"Different world huh?"

"Pretty much, yeah. OS guys really focus on interfaces, threading, system calls, and load balancing. Drop them in a regular program and they can get by, but drop them in a database and lookout! That’s way out of their league."

"Huh, didn't know that."

"Yeah, a lot of the language skills they use are pretty basic, easier on the code base that way, things run smoother and cleaner."

"Not sure I follow that," Mark admitted.

"Well let's say you're logged into the shell," Chad pulled over a keyboard. "At the system level you can run any program you want to run, unless of course it has some sort of higher level security on it. OS guys, they look at a program and figure if you have the rights to run it, you can do anything with it."

"And that's bad?"

"It can be, if someone gets into the wrong account. See if I do a simple listing of the files in this account, you can see I have a number of different things I can run. If I run one," Chad typed in a name of one of the files and a 'hello world' printed out on the screen. "Harmless, right?"

Mark nodded.

"But if I do this," Mark watched as Chad typed 'for i < 10000; i++; run hello' and then hit the enter key. The screen quickly filled up with 'hello world' written over and over again.

"It'll do that ten thousand times now, which isn't much really, but someone does that with a more complicated program and it can bring the entire system to its knees. OS guys, they don't really protect you from that kind of disaster."

"And you guys do?" Mark watched as Chad held down the bottom left hand key and pressed the 'C' key and it all stopped. "What was that?" He asked.

"Oh, control-C, standard kill command. And yeah, in our programs which access huge amounts of data, and processing power, we have to protect against those kinds of things or someone could easily undo months of work with  single key press, or worse yet bring the entire complex to its knees."

"I bet that doesn't make you very popular if that happens."

"No, it doesn't." Chad admitted ruefully, "And I'm the guy who usually has to clean it up."

"Happens that often?"

"More than we would like, maybe once a year."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Mark said spying Brother Stevens entering the room.

"It takes at least a week to fix it, and last time I had to cancel my vacation."

"Ouch."

"Mark!" Brother Stevens said coming over. "What happened to your face?"

"I got tripped accidentally by my new partner and tried to move some heavy equipment with my face," Mark said with half a smile. "So, show me this tracking program?"

"Yeah sure, come on over here." Brother Stevens brought Mark over to another display. "It's a pretty simple program actually. When I set it up I wasn't trying to do anything fancy. Give me a phone number."

Mark gave him the number for his cell phone; they'd gotten him a replacement yesterday that worked with his old number.

Brother Stevens typed in the command name followed by the number. Mark's cell phone rang once, and then a latitude, longitude, and altitude printed out on the screen.

"Huh," Brother Stevens said, "It's not supposed to actually ping the phone. Let me try that again."

Mark watched as Brother Stevens repeated the process and the phone gave one single ring again.

"This is what I get for not testing my work," Brother Stevens said with a sigh. Mark watched as he typed some commands and suddenly there was a whole list of script and commands on the screen. "Ah, there it is! Easy fix."

"Is there any way to know what numbers have been run through this?"

"Yeah, there's a log. Here look."

Mark watched as a list of about forty entries went by.

"Huh, someone's been playing with this, might be time for a password lock."

Mark's eyes scanned down the screen. Sure enough, the number for the Mercedes was on there. Twice.

"Any idea who ran these?"

"Any one in this room could have done it."

"Father Flores?"

"Well yeah, he's got full system access and I did show him how to use it. You think he's been doing all of this?"

Mark shrugged, "Maybe. I wouldn't go putting a password on it just yet. Could you print that page out for me please?"

"Yeah sure."

Mark watched as he entered a print command, and the printer on the desk came on. It was definitely different than his home computer.

When the printer stopped Brother Stevens handed Mark the print out. "Anything else?"

"No," Mark said shaking hands with him. "Thanks for your time, I appreciate it."

Mark left the room and went upstairs and found himself a private spot for a minute and pulling out his cell phone he called the office for religious affairs in Warsaw.

"Bishop's office." Someone said answering the phone.

"John, is that you? It's Mark."

"Oh hi Mark, what's up?"

"Listen, when I called the other night. Did you give my phone number out to anyone?”

“No, oh wait, Father Flores called, said he needed to talk to you and couldn't reach you at the cathedral in Paris and that he didn't have your new cell number. It was still on the caller ID, so I gave it to him."

"And that was it? Nobody else?"

"No, why?"

"Just tracking down some loose ends. That's all. Thanks, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Mark."

He hung up the phone and swore. It couldn't be, it just couldn't be. But if so, then the question was how? And why?

Also this wasn't something he could just accuse Father Flores of. They had too much history and without a lot of proof, no one would ever believe him.

If it really was him.

He knew Flores was an ass, always had. But to sell out to the other side? He found that hard to believe. But like it or not he still had to check it out.

Mark was sitting in the library trying to decide what his next step would be when Judith found him.

"There you are, I've been looking for you all morning."

"What's up?" Mark asked.

"Father Flores wants to see you. He's pretty unhappy about what happened last night."

"Ugh. I was hoping he wouldn't hear about that." Mark said standing up, "What else?"

"How'd you know there was something else?"

"There always is these days."

"He's a bit upset that I spent the night in your room, I told him it wasn't sexual but he didn't believe me. I figure he thinks you forced me or something."

"Well time to go upstairs and face the music. I'm sure he'll be all in a self righteous rage about it."

"Just don't make it worse, with all the crap going on out there right now I know I don't want to have to face any of it alone.

Father Flores was absolutely furious when Mark showed up in his office.

"What do you think you were doing?! You almost destroyed a hundred thousand dollars worth of very rare and very expensive equipment last night! Not to mention you could have killed Father Gregory! You had no right, no right at all to go running in there in the middle of the night and start destroying the very expensive and impossible to replace equipment that is vital to... to his continuing survival!

"If the doctors hadn't assured me that those devices were not harmed, and that Father Gregory's condition is still stable I'd be moving to dismiss you from the Commission as we speak!"

Mark just stood there and kept his mouth shut as Father Flores continued to rant for at least a good five more minutes. Mark was sure everyone outside of the office was getting a good earful, Father Flores was actually yelling at him. Something he'd never once done before.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Father Flores finally demanded.

"It was an accident Father. I tripped."

"You TRIPPED! You expect me to believe that excuse?"

Mark pointed to the still livid bruise on the side of his face, "I hit the equipment with the side of my face sir. If I was trying to destroy your precious devices the last thing I would use to do it would be my head, Sir."

Father Flores glared at him then, for the first time ever Mark could actually see the hate in Flores' eyes. "And just WHAT were you doing in Father Gregory's room at such a late hour of the night? Explain yourself!"

"I'd had a bad dream; I was concerned for Father Gregory's safety, so I ran down there to check on him."

"You ran down there and caused all of this damage because of a dream!" Father Flores returned to shouting again. "A DREAM! What is this, the dark ages? We do not go running off half cocked just because we had a bad dream!

"And just why is your new trainee sleeping in your room? Using your position of authority for the purpose of gaining sexual favors from an innocent young woman is strictly against the rules! As well as those rules regarding fraternization, co-habitation on Abby grounds, and a dozen others!"

"I have not engaged in any sexual acts with Judith."

"You expect me to believe that when the doctor clearly stated that she showed up naked!"

"She wasn't naked, she had a robe on."

"And she wasn't wearing a stitch of undergarments beneath that robe! It was apparent to all that she had hastily donned that to follow you went you ran out of your room like a brainless idiot! Oh I may have been able to forgive what happened with Father Gregory last night, I might have considered letting you off for the near destruction of priceless medical equipment! But this! This has just gone too far! Your shameless debasement of an innocent young trainee, newly assigned to the order!"

"Hey, I wasn't the one who spent all day staring at her tits," Mark said, and then regretted it immediately.

"You know I am just tired of all of this, your behavior, your flouting the rules around here! Your absolute disrespect for my position and my power! Your continued insolence!" Father Flores sat down at his desk and signed a piece of paper, whatever it was obviously he had prepared for this before Mark had even gotten to his office.

"You are hereby suspended from duty indefinitely, I will talk with the Cardinals about what to do with you; hopefully I will be able to talk some sense into them about your continued usefulness. Until then I want you out of the Abby and out of my sight! You are to have no contact with anyone on the Commission, or even anyone from the Church! Do you understand me?"

"Completely Father." Mark said, "For the first time in my life I think I understand you completely."

Mark noticed the expression on Father Flores face got even uglier then. Mark turned and left, leaving Flores yelling at him to get out of his office. Mark could feel it in his bones: Flores really had gone over to the other side.

But how to prove it?

15

"Sorry to hear what happened," Judith said catching up with Mark as he walked down the hallway. "When are you leaving?"

"I'm not."

"What? I just heard him order you out of here, you can't stay!"

"Father Flores has an overblown sense of his own authority." Mark said.

"But he can call the police Mark!"

"Flores doesn't run the Abby, regardless of what he might think. The Hammer Commission are guests here. The Head Abbot is a not very likely to ban me from the grounds. Not at least until I've dealt the Flores."

"What?!" Judith stepped in front of him and stopped, him, looking at him. "What are you talking about?"

"He's evil; he's gone over to the other side."

"How can you say such a thing Mark! That's just your own feelings speaking out!"

"This from the woman who thinks he's a creep and suspects he wants to bed her."

"Yeah well, being a creep is one thing. But being a killer is something else! You need motive, you need opportunity, and you need some proof!"

Mark looked around to be sure no one was listening and pulled her into an empty room. "Here, look at this."

"What is it?"

"It's the log of the program they use here to find out where your cell phone is. Brother Stevens showed it to me. Notice the ones I circled?"

"Yes, what about them?"

"That's the Mercedes' phone number. Notice the time and the dates? Here, look at this map, I circled the coordinates."

Judith looked at it and gasped. "Well that proves that someone here is involved, but still doesn't prove that Father Flores is involved."

He thought about that, suddenly what Father Rywelski had said to them in Poland came to him, and it made sense.

“Listen to this sentence, and tell me what you hear,” He then said ' Vous cherchez Flores '; French for ‘Looking for’ and added the word Flores to the end of the sentence.

“You said ‘looking for flowers’,” Judith said.

“Did I? Did I really? Let me add one word,” and this time he said 'Vous cherchez Père Flores';‘Looking for Father’ followed by Flores.

Judith’s face went pale and she looked shocked. “They weren’t looking for flowers they were looking for something Flores sent them to look for!”

“And the priest speaks English as a second language, probably Spanish as well.”

“So his mind unconsciously translated Flores to flowers. Like I just did! Oh shit.”

“Flores sent them there; he sent them right into an ambush.”

“But, but maybe he had been duped as well? Given false information?”

“He called Warsaw and asked the office there to let him know if they heard anything from us. John told me he wrote our number down when we called; it was on the caller ID. He then emailed it to Flores so he could call us.”

“That could still be a coincidence.”

"Oh? Hold on." Mark took out his cell phone and called the telecom company. "Hello," he said. "My name is Mark Levin, and I'm calling about my other number on this account," he gave them the number then, as well as his account information to verify his identity. "Look, the other night I received a couple of calls to that number, but was unable to answer at the time and I’d like to return them. Can you tell me where those calls came from?”

“Sorry sir,” the operator told him, “the caller hung up after the first ring and it was from another country.”

“So no then? What can you tell me?”

“All we know is the calls came out of Spain, Vodaphone of Spain.”

“Vodaphone of Spain?” Mark repeated and the operator confirmed it again. “Okay, thank you." He hung up.

"I don't think we need to waste anymore time on this, do you?" He asked Judith.

Judith shook her head and sat down in one of the chairs by the desk in the room, burying her head in her hands. “So what do we do Mark? Do we confront him about it? Can we arrest him?”

Mark shook his head, “We need to find out how he’s been doing all of this. He’s still a Flores, his family name and his own reputation will be more than enough to go against anything I say. We need some proof.”

"So where do we start?"

"Well I think I'm going to go down into the sub-basement and check out this room he spends all of his evenings in," Mark said. "You keep an eye on him and keep sucking up. Maybe he'll let something slip."

"I'll try. He was a bit unhappy with me about my being in your room last night."

"Tell him I forced you to, or that I hinted you needed to if you wanted to not get fired. I don't know, make something up. He'll believe anything about me as long as it’s bad. Say whatever you have to say, just keep him up here."

Judith nodded. "Just be careful down there, okay?"

"I will. He only goes down there during the night, so I should be safe."

They went their separate ways then, Mark went back to his room first, to get a few things. Then he headed down into the basements. He prowled around a bit, and eventually had to ask Stevens for directions.

He had to go down another flight of stairs and then was confronted with a locked door. Looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched and that there weren't any cameras present he pulled out the flat bar he had brought down and using the extra strength that he was now blessed with these days he forced the door open. Yeah it wasn't very discrete, but he no longer cared much about that.

Time was what mattered now.

The room was large. Very large. It had a raised floor like the other computer rooms did, but rather than being white and clean it was dimly lit, there were lots of shadows and the lighting in the room had a rather red tint to it.

The machines themselves looked different as well, rather than the clean square boxes in the other rooms, these all had rounded corners, and rounded tops. They were also painted red, not gray or beige and they were not laid out in nice straight rows but rather in a circle with a single large machine in the center. What he assumed was the control room was off to one side, a small room with a single door. He also noticed that there were several displays and terminals spread throughout the room, primarily at what looked like cardinal points.

Pacing around the outside of the circle Mark noticed that each machine had a designation on it, in Latin.

It was a circle! A summoner’s circle! Checking to be sure things were safe he went inside it to check the machine that was sitting in the crucible. It was larger than the rest, but not much, and had a flat top with a pentagram inscribed on it. Using the flash light he had brought along he suddenly understood the reason for the red tinted lighting.

It had been drawn in blood. Even in his human form his nose was sensitive enough to smell that it was human blood.

He swore and went to look at the other machines in the circle. Each of the designators was also in blood. Opening up one of the maintenance panels on one he found the inside of it covered with demonic signs and sigils, all of those drawn in blood as well.

"Son of a bitch," Mark swore. Pulling out his cell phone he took a picture of the insides, and then set the panel back. He moved over to another one and was about to open it up when he heard the click of a hammer being cocked.

Turning around he saw Flores standing there with a gun pointed at him. "Hello Mark. You should have left while you had the chance."

"What is all this?" Mark said motioning around at the machines. "Some sort of automated summoning circle?"

"Why you're not as dumb as you look!" Flores said smiling. "Actually yes it is. I created a giant prayer machine, only it has the ability to simultaneously perform forty million prayers at a time. Quite an achievement if I do say so myself."

"But it's a machine! Machines can’t pray, they’re not human!"

“And that is where your old friend Father Gregory comes in,” Flores said smirking.

“You son of a bitch,” Mark said and took a step forward.

Flores shot him in the right knee; Mark screamed and fell to the floor holding his knee. "Silver bullets. Hope you don't mind?"

"What?" Mark said gritting his teeth. He'd never been shot before and the pain was tremendous.

"Oh I figured out your little secret. I always wondered why your holy items were never silver. Everyone else always went for silver, but not you. Tell me, did Father Gregory know what you really are?"

He shot Mark in the right arm then, making him cry out in pain again.

"Yes," Mark hissed, "Yes he knew. How did you find out?"

"That air head partner of yours. She had fur on her clothes, and when I pressured her about it she finally broke down and admitted it. Said she was terrified of you and slept with you to keep you from hurting or killing her."

Flores shot him again then, hitting his other leg. "She any good in bed? I figure once this is all done I'll make her one of my slaves. I figure it'll be a good way to remember you as I sleep with your woman."

"You really are an evil sick fuck, you know that?" Mark groaned and Flores shot him again.

"You should have run, I had it all planned out. I have a circle and all the proper enchantments laid out at that place in Belgium you and Jake loved so much. I had it all planned out how to pin all of this on you. By the time they figured out differently, it'll be too late of course."

"Sorry to ruin your plans by dying here then." Mark said panting. His blood was starting to make a puddle on the floor.

"Oh no, this just works out all the better. You lured me down here and attacked me. I can prove what you are, and as you won't be alive to argue your side of things no one will think twice. Especially not when the police find all that stuff in your apartment."

Flores shot him again in the stomach then, "I hear gut shot is a terrible way to die," Flores said and laughed.

"Hold it right there!" Judith's voice rang out into the room.

"Judith?" Mark said weakly.

"Ah Judith, thank goodness you're here! Mark attacked me and I was forced to defend myself!"

"Can it asshole. I heard everything you said and got it on tape."

Flores stopped a moment, and then laughed. "You sat there and listened while I killed your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend asshole. I don't date white guys. Much less ones that grow fur. Now drop the gun and move away from his body, or I will shoot you."

"Oh really I don't think you would do that Judith."

"Try me. I let you shoot Mark up, and I like Mark. But they told me they wanted you alive; however they didn't say anything about not having a few bullet holes in you."

"They?"

"I'm a Papal investigator. The real Judith Keen is on a nice Church paid trip to the Bahamas. Now drop the gun and back off or I will shoot."

Mark couldn't believe what he was hearing! But Flores dropped the gun then and backed away from his body.

"I used silver bullets. He's as good as dead."

"Well then at least he doesn't have to look at your ugly mug as he dies." Judith said coming around the machine and stopping next to him. She squatted down keeping Flores in her sights. "How you doing?" She whispered to him.

"I've been better."

"We need to get you out of here."

"Only if you drag me. When is help coming?"

"Oh Shit!" Judith said and fired a shot.

"What happened?" Mark said trying to look around.

"Flores just ducked behind one of the machines."

A shot was fired from across the room and just missed Judith.

"Damn he's got another gun. Now what?"

"Drag me into the room over there and seal the door," Mark said, he could feel his body struggling to heal itself, and two of the bullets had already been forced out and were lying on the floor.

Judith grabbed his arm, the one he wasn't shot in thankfully, and started dragging him to the doorway. Fortunately the floor was smooth, so Judith got him inside quickly and closed the door behind them, bolting it.

"Now what?" Judith said looking around the small office. "Why does this room have bullet proof windows?"

"Because that machine out there is how he's been raising the devils. So you're a Papal investigator? When does the cavalry arrive?"

Judith looked embarrassed. "You actually believed that? I thought you of all people would know better Mark!"

"You lied?"

"Of course I lied! I don't even have a tape recorder on me! So now what?"

Mark looked around. "Help me up into that chair," he said pointing.

Judith helped him up. His knee was still in a lot of pain, but the bleeding had stopped. Same for his other leg. The gut wound however was taking longer to heal.

"Guess you're going to get to see my machine work first hand!" Flores yelled from outside. Mark could see him over by one of the terminals.

"Try to distract him, would you please?"

Judith nodded and opening the door a crack leaned out and fired a couple of shots.

Mark looked at the terminal in front of him. The prompt on it said 'root' whatever that meant. He remembered the listing command that Chad had shown him and typed it. In the listing that came up one of the files was named 'pocketdevil'. So he typed it in and hit return.

An error message displayed on the screen then, it said 'no coordinates'.

Mark swore. "Do you know Flores cell phone number?"

"Nope. Isn't it on your phone though?"

"My phone is outside and I'm not going..." he stopped. He didn't need his phone! He entered the track phone program name followed by his phone number. A latitude, longitude, and altitude displayed on the screen. He retyped the pocketdevil command, followed by the three coordinates and with a small puff of darkness suddenly there was a pocket devil out on the floor. It saw Flores almost immediately and attacked.

Flores swore, and then laughed as he stepped on it. "Is that the best you can do Mark? Here, let me show you a real devil!"

He heard Judith's pistol fire two more times and then stop.

"I'm out of bullets Mark."

Mark started typing the command line over again, with the coordinates. He typed it three times as fast as he could.

"What's happening out there?"

"I think one of them bit him, but he's back at the terminal now."

Mark swore and typed it again and again, as fast as he could. Somewhere there had to be a program for larger devils, but he had neither the time or experience to find it.

"They're distracting him, but you need a lot more of those things Mark. A lot more!"

Mark suddenly remembered the example of this morning; he wondered if it would work? Typing it in quickly he made only one change, he typed in one hundred thousand instead of ten. Then he hit the return key.

"Holy shit!" Judith swore. What did you do?"

"Huh?" Mark looked up. Pocket devils were popping in faster than he could count. And they all went after Flores. He pulled his pistol back out and started shooting at them, while trying to jump up and down on them as they circled him on the floor.

But for every one he killed, a hundred more took its place. The room was starting to fill with them, and buoyed by their numbers they pressed their on attack him. Flores pulled out a cross and tried to dismiss them, but of course nothing happened.

They all swarmed up and started to bite and claw at his entire body then. Mark could hear Flores screaming, he was stilling killing them with his hands and feet, but they were still flowing into the room in greater numbers and blood was starting to fly everywhere. Soon all you could see was the mass of them as they covered Flores’ body and his screams turned to shrieks, and then suddenly stopped all together.

Mark canceled the program and turned to Judith. "Still got the artifact on you?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going out there!" Judith said with a shudder.

"Who said you have to? Just walk up to the glass here and dismiss the lot of them." Mark said leaning back and catching his breath as the last bullet popped out.

"You can do that?" Judith said looking surprised.

"It's a blessing, not a bullet."

"Won't they run upstairs?"

"They can't. It's sacred ground. Probably why Flores had them build a new basement. Couldn't build something this evil on the existing grounds."

Judith nodded and pulling out the cross and called on God to dismiss the devils. A moment later they were all gone.

"Now what?"

"Go get Father Aimes, Brother Stevens, and all the holy water you can carry. Leave the cross with me. We have a lot of blessing to do."

"What about you?"

"I have some personal business to attend to." Mark said getting to his feet rather shakily and taking the cross.

Judith nodded and ran out of the room.

Mark checked the corpse first, it wasn't a pretty sight, and the body was in several pieces now, what was left of it. But he made certain that Flores was dead.

Next he made his way upstairs to the main floor and walked down to the hospital wing.

"Oh my!" The nurse on duty said as she saw him and called out for the Doctors. They caught up with Mark in Father Gregory's room.

"Mark, are you alright? Whose blood it that?" Doctor Susan asked.

"Mine, and I'm okay." He raised the cross and stood over Father Gregory, he wasn’t sure exactly how Flores was using Father Gregory, but possession was a good place to start. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I cast you out foul spirits! Leave this man and never return!" And he sprayed Father Gregory with the Holy Water.

Nothing happened.

"What are you doing Mark?" The Doctor said sounding concerned.

"Righting wrongs."

He turned to the equipment then and sprayed it with holy water; it immediately began to sizzle, turning to steam.

"What the..." Doctor Susan said making the sign of the cross.

"Ah, I see. That explains a few things."

“What?” She asked as Mark blessed the devices then, spraying more holy water on them and causing them to burst into flames.

“Evil weres are hurt by Holy items. Only makes sense that a good were would be hurt by an unholy one,” Mark told her as he watched the devices burn, surprised by the lack of heat as they did.

One of the nurses rushed in then and used a fire extinguisher on them, but they did not stop burning until there was nothing left, leaving only a small scorched spot on the floor.

"What, what was that?" Doctor Susan asked. Both Doctors were in the room now, as well as all the floor nurses.

"Evil. Do we have any more of those machines here?"

"No, it was the only set."

"Doctor!" One of the nurses yelled then, Father Gregory was suddenly gripped by a seizure, only this time he went into cardiac arrest as well.

"Get the crash cart!"

"No," Mark said grabbing Doctor Susan's arm.

"Mark, get out of my way!"

"No. A great evil has been done to him, he's suffered enough. Let him die in peace."

She shook his arm off, "I have my duty to the Church and the Lord. Let me do it. If it's his time, then there is nothing I can do to save him."

Mark sighed and stood back as the nurse came in with the crash cart. He stood there and just prayed until fifteen minutes later the Doctor finally called time of death and started to cover Father Gregory up.

"He was a great man," Mark said bending over to kiss Father Gregory's forehead as the Doctor pulled up the sheet to cover him.

"Yes, he was. What was that machine for?"

"Nothing good, I assure you." He said and left the room.

16

"Cardinals," Mark said bowing as he entered the room, then approaching the Cardinals he knelt and kissed their rings, moving down the line until he had kissed all twelve.

"We appreciate your taking the time out to talk to us Mark," Cardinal Richards said as Mark stood before them.

"It's my duty your Eminences, both to you and the Church which has been so generous to me these many years, even after my affliction."

"We have already heard from your partner Judith, about what happened to the both of you, as well as what you discovered. Brother Stevens has reported to us on the computer systems and what they constituted."

"Is it true that he has taken a vow of silence?" Mark asked curious.

"Yes, he's taken a twenty year vow, he wanted to take a lifetime one, but we were able to talk him down from that. Very stubborn man. He's also being sent to a rather secluded Monastery, again by his own request."

"I told him not to try and examine those machines. I don't know what Flores did to them, but whatever it was, I suspect it was rather... hideous." Mark said looking as unhappy as he felt.

"Brother Stevens felt that it was important that someone determine what happened and how it was done. He gave us his findings and advised us on how to keep such a thing from happening again. Sadly we were forced to agree with him that in order to keep the knowledge he had learned a secret, that it would be best for him to take a vow of silence, so he took it here before us.”

"He's a better man than me, that's for sure," Mark said.

"Do not be so hard on yourself Mark. All of us here are impressed with your service," Cardinal Richards said and the others all nodded in agreement. "You have proven several times that you and those that share your affliction are not evil, any more than any other man may be. This has reminded those of us who help to run the Church that we must minister to their souls the same as we minister to the souls of everyone else.

"But we do have a few questions, for you only."

"Of course your Eminence."

"You have remained quiet on the matter of the equipment in Father Gregory's ward, saying only that it was evil, and causing him harm. This has led many to believe it was there solely as a device to torture the good Father. I take it that this is not the case?"

"No your Eminence, I did not want to commit this to paper, and felt it should be for your ears only. You understand that the machine, in and of itself was incapable of actually generating any spiritual mass, as it was not an actual living and breathing man of the earth?"

The Cardinals all nodded, "Yes, that is why you are here," Cardinal Hertzog said. "Stevens wasn't clear on that connection and told us that you had specifically forbidden him to pursue it."

Mark nodded, "I don't think it wise for any one man to actually know all of how this was done. I'm sure you're all familiar with the old practice of indulgences?" Mark could see them all nod, "Well there is another age old practice, of one being able to say prayers for another. If the one saying them is holy enough."

Mark watched as the realization sunk in, the Cardinals were not stupid men; each of them was a genius in his own right.

"You mean to tell us," A very pale looking Cardinal Richards said, "that Father Gregory was attached to that machine, and it was using him as the medium for the prayers?"

Mark sighed heavily and nodded. "I further suspect that his condition was probably due to some sort of drug or poison Flores had given him. Flores had never liked Father Gregory, and when he called me to his office to suspend me, I realized then that he wasn't worried so much about Father Gregory's wellbeing beyond his ability to continue using him."

"I... I see. That is clearly very disturbing. I think we will have to remove that practice from canon," Cardinal Richards looked at the other members of the group and Mark could see they were all in agreement with that. "Anything else?"

"Not really your Eminences. I have noticed however that I am still on suspension?"

Cardinal Richards nodded. "Yes, we have a bit of problem here, and we'd appreciate your help with it Mark."

He looked at them all a bit confused.

"As of this moment, due to your fast and rather decisive action, only a handful of people outside of this room actually know of Flores’ betrayal. There is some concern among not just those of us here, but among the entire college of Cardinals about news of such betrayal getting out and the effects it may have on the Church."

"As well as the Flores’ name your eminence?" Mark said a little hotly.

"Yes, there are political aspects we must consider as well."

"You're not going to forgive him, are you?" Mark said shocked.

"Mark, we are neither fools, nor are we stupid. There will be no forgiveness, his body will not be buried on hallow or sanctified grounds. Even now as we talk a small team is removing his name from every record that exists. Ten years from now it will be as if he never existed. However in order for that to happen we have to allow him to fade out slowly here."

"So I'm still suspended."

"Yes, but with pay. And no loss in seniority. We've set the term for one year, however a few months from now we will change the official record to read that your suspension was in fact a cover for your being loaned to one of your homeland's investigative agencies."

"What about the others?"

"They have all been in agreement. Having seen the damage that was wrought both here and abroad, no one wants to raise any heroes for the enemy."

Mark bowed his head, "I will do as you wish; I have no desire to ever say anything about him again."

"Excellent. We will also take advantage of your time away to work on educating our numbers here about your affliction, as apparently it was made common knowledge among many in the order by Flores on his last day."

Mark smiled, "I noticed."

"Yes well, at least you don't have to deal with Interpol asking if we have any more of those 'drug sniffing cats'. I mean really Mark! Couldn't you think of something better than that?"

"To be honest I was debating sending them my kids and letting them do it. I bet the pay isn't bad."

"The idea does have some merit. Well you are dismissed; go with our deepest thanks and blessings. You and your family have our best wishes."

Mark bowed and kissed each of the rings in turn.

"Oh, who are you going to choose to run the commission now?"

"We've offered the position to Father Otto, whom you mentioned in your earlier report. He's a good solid man with a first hand understanding of what we face."

Mark nodded and left.

Judith was waiting for him in the hallway.

"So?"

"So I'm off home for awhile. Sort of an extended vacation. The wives will be happy I'm sure."

"Yeah, they told us about that. Sucks."

"Not really, so how's your new partner?"

"Miles? He's not bad. Funny that he turned up in Rome."

Mark shrugged, "Miles isn't stupid. He knew something was up, just not what. So he decided to run to Rome and talk to the Cardinals who oversee the Commission."

"What's the official line on Flores going to be?"

"That he was the last one killed, and that you and I were able to kill the person behind all of this. And that story is being given only to those who need to know, everyone else will just be told that the matter has been resolved. As for those who knew Flores, they are just being told he suffered from heart failure."

Judith nodded. "When are you leaving?"

"I have a taxi waiting outside."

"That was fast!"

Mark shrugged, "I hate long goodbyes, besides, I'll be back."

"Well take care kitty!" Judith said embarrassing him as she gave him a hug. "I'm going to miss my big furry snuggle toy!"

"Better watch out or I'll send one of my sons after you."

"What are you going to tell Rafael about the Mercedes?"

"Nothing. It's mine now." He smiled.

"You mean a pile of scrap metal is yours now!" Judith laughed.

"What, you think I'm stupid? I had it insured!"

Judith laughed loudly at that and with a wave Mark walked out to the courtyard and got in the Taxi and headed off for home.

Afterword

The Hammer Commission is a story that came from a dream I had back in early 2001 while I was away from home for the weekend visiting someone. It was a very detailed and vivid dream, especially both the beginning and the end. Several of my friends, including author Lisanne Norman, told me that it would make a great story and I should write it.

I was even more surprised to find out that there was a whole genre of stories like it.

The problem however is that the story just wouldn’t let me write it, I had tried and failed four separate times, each time putting it back on the shelf for later until finally in March of 2013 I figured it out. By now I had a lot of notes, and several chapters from the previous four failed attempts.

All of which needed to be re-written of course.

So a lot of very late nights followed and I spent four of the five weekends in March writing from seven in the morning to midnight or later, until this time I got it done.

I'd like to thank Chad Glidden for being there, Ellena Clee for her plot advice and editorial assistance, Lisanne Norman for telling me to write it, and my sister Denise Howell for always encouraging me to write.

I hope you all enjoy the story, it’s definitely a different genre than I’ve dealt with prior to this, and there are other stories about the King, Mark, and a few others I’d like to tell some day.

-John Van Stry

vanstry@gmail.com

Rancho Cordova, California.

April 2013