Chapter 3
“So, what’s up with Micah?” Nick asked Steven as they pulled into the parking lot beside the church and parked in between two of the busses.
“Micah and Quinn got in their usual fight about who makes the rules and Micah left to blow off some steam.” Steven answered as he got out of the car. He still thought it was funny that all the jaguars drove… you guessed it… jaguars. “Hell, they taught each other how to fight, so decking each other is no big deal.”
“Then why hasn’t he come back?” Nick pointed out.
“That is the question isn’t it,” Steven sighed. “Quinn thinks Micah ran off but I know better.”
“What makes you so sure?” Nick asked curiously.
“Because Alicia had only been home a couple weeks before he disappeared. Micah had been counting the days for when he could bring her home. Even when Nathaniel was alive, it was Micah who acted more like a father to her. He’d never just up and leave now that she’s home.” He shrugged and added, “Or if he did decide to abandon the family, then he’d at least take her with him.”
Nick nodded wondering if the vampires were responsible for Micah’s vanishing act. Somehow that really didn’t sound like a good thing, so for Micah’s sake Nick hoped Micah had just lost his temper and hadn’t found it yet. He’d ask Alicia more questions tomorrow.
Steven looked up at the huge church with all its intricate carvings and statues. The fact that it looked like it had been imported from Rome spoke of the money the sinful humans that graced its door must have. The extremely rich were the most sinful, that’s why they made such a show of their religion.
The truth was this place is where the Mayor of the city came to shake hands and exchange money with the mafia every Sunday just after mass. So the question he’d been asking himself was… why had that girl been here alone in the middle of the night?
The church was mostly dark except for a couple of windows that still showed light on the second floor. From what he remembered, that was probably the office area. He wondered if the priest he’d left safely in the closet actually lived here. It was something he’d never thought to assume until now. The Catholics were a dedicated lot, he’d give them that.
He’d already filled Nick in on what happened the other night… well most of it anyway. There was no way in hell he was going to recap the choir boy robe incident. Shaking his head, Steven pulled on the front door expecting it to be locked but sadly, it swung open.
“Not very smart,” Nick frowned as he pulled the bone-handled knife from his sleeve and slipped inside. “You’d think after what happened the other night, they’d start locking the doors.”
“Maybe like the saying goes… it’s always open,” Steven shrugged but entered cautiously. “Or maybe the old priest is expecting company.”
“I repeat, not very smart,” Nick snapped knowing they weren’t the only paranormal creatures within the building. “I smell humans upstairs but there’s something else here and I doubt it came for confession.”
“I’ll go make sure the priest is safe. If you find vampires, be smart and leave them alone until we call for backup.” Steven made his way up stairs leaving Nick to make his own decision.
Nick nodded and started looking for the basement of the church. Usually the worse the monsters were… the further underground they liked to be. He didn’t bother hiding as he investigated because the enemy could see in the dark just as well as he could.
Finding the door labeled ‘basement’, Nick opened it and quickly descended the stairs. He wrinkled his nose at the dank, damp smell and sneezed. He’d always hated basements.
Steven was doing the same thing upstairs, opening doors and peering in as he passed them. Seeing the light filtering in under the door of the same office from the other night, he knocked this time. He could smell the scent beyond the door and knew the old man was alone.
“Is that you, Jewel?” the old voice came.
Steven took a quick step back when the door swung open… him and the priest coming face to face. The kind old face with the soft expression slowly changed, his eyes going wide as his lips parted. Steven put his hand out knowing what was coming next, and he wasn’t disappointed when the priest tried to slam the door in his face.
Pushing against the door, Steven entered the room letting the old man’s weight on the door shut it behind him. Swinging around, he grabbed the weapon that came next and tossed it across the room getting annoyed. “I told you last time, I’m not a vampire.”
“I woke up in the closet.” The priest reminded him as he backed up against his desk. Steven sighed as he watched the old man’s hands rummage across the desk obviously trying to find another weapon. He cocked an eyebrow seeing his fingers wrap around a heavy-duty stapler.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Steven informed him. “But if you don’t let go of that stapler, you’ll be waking up in that closet again.” He nodded thankfully when the man slowly released it and stood to his full height, which was lacking compared to his.
“I have a feeling you didn’t come here to confess.” Fear could still be heard in the old man’s voice.
“Oh father, I know I have sinned,” Steven smirked but seeing the joke wasn’t shared he grabbed a chair and turned it around noticing the man flinch at the fast movement. He refrained from rolling his eyes and straddled the chair, laying his arms across the low back. “Does it not count that I am part of the reason you’re still alive? If I hadn’t gotten you out of the way, you might not be on the side of the angels anymore.”
“How did you…” the priest suddenly looked older as he walked behind his desk and sat down heavily. “When I came to, I went downstairs and found strangers cleaning up. The mess… I stayed hidden. They were so quick and quiet about it. You could do all that?”
“Would you believe me if I told you we had an angel on our side?” When the man raised his chin and gave him a hard look Steven continued, “My friend and I are here to make sure the church is still clean.”
“You think there are more?” the priest rubbed his face.
“I know there are more. Question is, are they here?” Steven stood up knowing he’d left Nick alone for too long already. His friend was known for being fearless and that made him nervous. “We don’t want a repeat occurrence of the other night.”
The priest eyed him closely as if looking for a lie. Finally, the older man sighed and nodded his head, “Okay, for some reason I believe you. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. Do what you must.”
“Hopefully, this time we won't find any… demons and you can stay awake if you promise to stay in here.” He remembered what the priest said when he’d opened the door. “Are you expecting someone?”
“Yes, she was supposed to come the other night, but…” he jerked his thumb toward the closet. “She called an hour ago saying she was on her way.”
Steven felt his pulse rate jump. “There was a girl here the other night and I need to talk to her… blond hair, beautiful. Do you know her?”
“Jewel?” the priest asked. “Sure, I’m supposed to marry her.”
“What!” Steven said a little too loudly then growled, “Since when do old priests marry young girls?”
“You’re a bright one,” the priest shook his head then hardened his resolve. “Not to me… and it’s not your business anyway. You leave that child alone. She has enough problems with the monsters she already knows. Don’t go dragging her into a demon war.”
Steven frowned not liking how that sounded. He’d bet money the priest had been about to say mobsters not monsters. He didn’t care for either breed, having to deal with his own share of mobsters. They liked to hang out at Night Light because it was one of the classier nightclubs in town. It helps you relax when your lower class clientele can’t afford to get through the doors.
He’d been slowly running them off for years and whenever there was a problem, something always came up and they’d move away or vanish altogether. Irish mob, Italian mob, Russian mob, IRA members, ex-KGB, Yakuza, and even rumored members of the fabled Illuminati… Steven didn’t give a damn. They were all cut from the same cloth as far as he was concerned. But sometimes it didn’t hurt to have a few on your side.
“Call her and tell her not to come here tonight.” He pushed the phone closer to the old man and crossed his arms waiting to make sure the priest did as he asked.
The old man’s lips thinned. If he called her house and her father answered, Jewel would be in big trouble and possibly wind up face down in an alley somewhere. Him being a priest probably wouldn’t save him either. “She’s not coming,” he said hesitantly, then repeated more firmly as he looked at the clock on the wall. “She would have been here by now if she was.”
Steven felt the disappointment of not seeing her and the satisfaction of knowing she was safe collide somewhere in his chest. Needing a distraction, he stood up and set the chair back the way he had found it. “I’ll be back to let you know when we’re done.”
“Wait!” the priest called when Steven opened the door. “If you should see her…”
“I’ll send her right to you,” Steven promised and walked out.
Closing the door, Steven shook his head and started down the hall. This floor was clean and he needed to catch up with Nick before something went down. Going downstairs, he looked around but couldn’t see Nick anywhere.
“All right, where in the hell did you go?” Steven muttered and started looking behind the closed doors.
He found the basement door ajar and could have slapped himself when he realized Nick’s train of thought. “Dark places, underground… DUH!”
Making sure to create a lot of noise, Steven descended the stairs and wrinkled his nose at the damp heat. “Damn it stinks down here.”
He approached another open door and stepped through. Nick was standing in front of the boiler with its door wide open and poking around at something in the fire with an iron rod.
“Find something?” Steven asked.
In answer, Nick removed the iron from the fire with the burnt remains of a skull dangling from the end by its eye socket. “I think it’s safe to say that some of the humans on the missing person’s roster won't be found any time soon.”
“I think this church is a normal place for some of the local mafia to do their business.” Steven elaborated.
“In a Catholic church?” Nick demanded. “Isn’t anything sacred anymore?”
Steven shrugged, “Kind of like the saying goes, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
Nick dropped the skull back into the boiler and shut the door. “Or in our case, fur and kittens.”
The two men snorted in amusement before Steven sobered a bit. “Okay, we really need to get serious.”
They separated, each one searching a different side of the large room until Steven saw something behind one of the huge garbage cans full of wooden planks. “Hey Nick, give me a hand with this.”
Nick approached and helped Steven move the can aside just enough to get a good look, which wasn’t very far. A small, cramped tunnel had been carved out of the stone and straight out into the earth. The darkness was absolute and the two felines had difficulty seeing inside.
“Might as well check it out,” Nick stated and moved forward to squeeze his thin frame into the opening.
Steven reached out and grabbed hold of Nick’s arm and shook his head. “No, we go back and let Warren and Quinn in on what we found. One cougar is missing and, in my opinion, that’s one cougar too many. I don’t want to add a jaguar to the list, too.”
“Aw gee,” Nick smiled and wrapped his arms tightly around a shocked Steven. “You...” he gave an exaggerated sniffle and continued in a wavering voice. “You really do care.”
Steven frantically pushed Nick off of him, sending the jaguar against the wall. “Moron,” he muttered while Nick was laughing. “Let’s get out of here.”
By the time they reached the top of the stairs, Steven was convinced Nick had lost his mind somewhere along the road. The church was deathly quiet and Steven looked toward the hall that led to the upstairs office where the priest was waiting.
“Hang here for a minute,” Steven said. “I need to go talk to the priest.”
Nick shrugged and leaned against one of the pews to wait.
“Hello, Steven.” A voice came out of nowhere.
Nick jumped and Steven cried out in surprise before tripping over his own feet and falling down. Nick blinked when a man with dark hair stepped out of the shadows grinning madly down at Steven.
“Damn it, Dean!” Steven yelled as he pushed himself off the floor. “Stop trying to scare the shit out of me.”
Dean smirked and leaned against one of the pillars next to the pews and crossed his arms over his chest. “Unfortunately I don’t have to try.”
“Screw you!” Steven growled. “I’m going to talk to the priest, I’ll be back.”
“Make sure you return the choir robe you borrowed.” Dean teased him. “I’d hate to see some poor boy not able to dress for church.”
Steven froze when Dean said those words and spun around to glare at the fallen.
“Choir robe?” Nick asked and lifted his eyebrows almost to his hairline. “You wore a choir robe?”
“I shifted, it was an emergency. I had to save this girl from being drained by a fucking vampire,” Steven defended.
“Yeah,” Dean chirped. “The very same girl you got your ass beat in front of.”
“Like you’ve never gotten your ass beat,” Steven shot back.
Dean stopped and thought for a moment. “No, I haven’t gotten my ass beat but it has been pounded.”
“Argh!” Steven roared, throwing his arms in the air and stalking down another hall.
Nick looked over at Dean, “Any idea where he’s hidden the robe?”
“Under his bed,” Dean answered.
Nick smirked, “Perfect blackmail material, thank you.”
“Sure thing, I like watching him squirm… that and he seems to think I’m constantly going to kick his ass or something.”
“Sadist,” Nick said with a chuckle.
“I’m a fallen,” Dean said. “We don’t have much to keep us entertained.”
Steven approached the priest’s office door and raised his hand to knock when he heard voices on the other side. One he recognized as the priest, the other was female. Lowering his hand, he pressed his ear closer to the door so he could listen.
Jewel paced back and forth trying to stay focused but it was hard. The first thing that came to her mind when she walked into the office was when she’d been attacked by vampires and seen a naked man or shifter… whatever he was. She just spent the last five minutes answering the priest’s questions about the other night but right now she had bigger problems than that.
“You shouldn’t be sneaking around in the middle of the night,” the priest said. “It’s dangerous. What if your father or your betrothed catches you?”
Jewel marched straight up to his desk and practically slammed her palm down on it. “No, they are the ones making it dangerous… climbing out my own window and sneaking past the armed guards that are keeping me prisoner and trying to sneak back in without getting caught.”
“Your father is just trying to protect you.” He tried to calm her down but knew what she was saying was true. Her father was in here every week confessing… washing the blood from his hands and conscience.
“No, he’s trying to force me to marry his business partner to pay back a debt! A debt I had nothing to do with. Isn’t there a law against slavery in this country?”
“But when you and Anthony came in here for the meeting, you said you loved him with all your heart.” The priest pointed out. “That is not the type of thing you should lie about. It’s a disgrace in the eyes of God.”
“Yes well, the two body guards standing behind our chairs… do you remember them? The one behind me was digging the barrel of his gun into my back. I could never love an egotistical heavy-handed barbarian like Anthony. He promised to kill me and my father if I don’t go through with the wedding. And earlier tonight, when I tried to tell father that I didn’t want anything to do with Anthony, he smacked me so hard that I know where the stars are located now, because I could count them.”
Both Jewel and the priest were startled when the office door flew open so hard it banged the wall making several pictures and a gold-plated cross fall.
Steven stood in the doorway glaring at the two of them. However, the darkening bruise on Jewel’s cheek made Steven see red. “You both need to come with me.”
Jewel’s knees felt weak seeing the mystery man still alive. She had thought about him being killed by vampires so many times since running from him. Several times she’d even regretted running to the point of tears. Now that she could breathe easier, she wanted to scream.
Why was it every time she came to talk to the priest in confidence, they had an emergency? She was less afraid of this shifter than she was of her gun toting fiancé and until she heard fire alarms or saw a fang face, she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Not this time,” Jewel informed him crossing her arms over her chest.
“I can’t just leave the church unattended,” the old man started but Steven quickly cut him off.
He took deliberate strides closer to the desk as he spoke, “Have you made a deal with the devil and decided to feed your parish to the vampires? Is it you burning their bodies in your boiler room?” When the priest just opened his mouth but didn’t say anything Steven continued, “Or is it the sinners you preach to that have committed mass murder in your basement and dug a tunnel to escape through?”
“Oh my,” the old man gave Steven a grim look. “If I leave the church, how long will it be until I can return?”
“Give me your cell number. I’ll call you within a couple hours. Do not come back until we give the all clear.” He sighed knowing he’d won the argument when the old man started rifling through his drawers getting things he deemed important enough to take with him.
Jewel tried to remain perfectly calm while edging her way toward the still open door. Freedom… why was it she always found herself running from mad men?
“Don’t make me chase you,” Steven gritted out as he jerked his head to the side and locked his gaze on her. “I said he could go home… not you.”
Jewel’s lips parted as she froze in mid motion. How dare he give her an order? She gritted her teeth realizing she’d obeyed him anyway. She raised her chin up a notch in defiance as she came to a conclusion. The moment she got away, she would keep running… from all of them, including her father.
“What are you going to do with her?” the priest demanded indignantly.
“I’m going to do what you can’t do… keep her safe,” Steven yelled not wanting to fight about this. The bruise on Jewel’s face had quite literally shattered his nerves and he’d be damned if he was going to send her back to the man that did it.
“I don’t need another protector,” Jewel turned to leave but stopped short seeing two dangerous-looking men blocking the doorway.
Dean had felt Steven’s distress all the way down the stairs and now that he was looking at the girl who was causing it, he could see why. Reading her soul, he caught a fleeting glance of the elusive angel of death.
“You’re wrong.” He moved so fast, even the two shifters in the room missed it. “You do need a protector.”
Jewel stifled a scream when the man’s palm pressed against her sore cheek and his eyes turned the color of mercury. The cold hand that had been clinched around her heart with icy fingers for so long melted. Suddenly, she was reminded of feelings she had forgotten existed… warmth, safety… love.
The priest leaned back against his desk when the shadow of wings sprung out from the man’s back, flickered brilliantly, then disappeared.
“I’ll be downstairs,” Dean stated as the wind rushed in to fill up the space he vanished from.
Steven didn’t know why Dean had chosen that moment to reveal his power but he was glad the fallen had done it. Jewel’s cheek was healed and the priest looked like he’d just seen the light.
“We need to leave… now,” Nick said from the doorway.
Steven grabbed Jewel’s hand and started for the door, glad the shock had taken the fight right out of her for the moment.
“Wait,” the priest called, making Steven and Nick stop to look back at him. “Was that…?” he faltered, pointing at the spot where Dean had stood moments before.
Steven smiled genuinely at the excitement in the old priest’s eyes. “Yeah… it was.”
The priest smiled when Steven and Nick left the room with Jewel in tow. He nodded once and began gathering the tools he would need. In his mind, God was preparing the earth for His return.
Steven and Nick stepped out of the church but Steven pulled Jewel to a stop so he could glance up at the office window. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the office light go out.
“Looks like the old geezer is taking your advice,” Nick said.
Steven shook his head, “More like he saw Dean for what he was and is having some kind of religious experience. He gave me his phone number, I’ll call him when the coast is clear.”
“I don’t think a couple hours will be enough time,” Nick informed him.
“It is what it is.” Steven responded. “Right now, let’s get back to the club so we can give the news to Warren and Quinn.”
Dean sat on the roof of the cathedral and smiled down at the trio as they left the church behind. He’d given Steven all the help he could but the calming spell he had put on the girl wouldn’t last forever. He could feel the darkness under the building starting to mount as the vampires began emerging from their tunnel.
Unlike those from the other night, these were being influenced by something even darker, more sinister, than Dean had ever encountered.
Dean frowned wondering why he hadn’t sensed it when they cleaned out the first group that had taken residence here. This influence was very old and very powerful. As suddenly as he sensed it, the darkness was gone and only the vampire presence could be felt.
The fallen gained access back into the church to check up on the old man and make sure he got out alive.
