Chapter 17
Seventeen
With that, I traveled to the humansphere to find myself someone who could exorcise an angel from the body of a demon. And I knew just the man. A friendly neighborhood priest with an insane phobia of demons, specifically me, was exactly who I needed right now.
Dani’s old neighborhood was just as I remembered. When you had been alive for centuries, even the biggest changes in the neighborhood tended to seem small.
The church was a bland wooden building, but the sun gleaming over the horizon gave it a golden glow. It reminded me of the hills in my and Raphaela’s backyard when we had lived together in Heaven.
I didn’t try to disguise myself like I usually did in the humansphere. This idiot could tell who I was with or without the horns.
Before I entered the church, I glanced up at the cross and smirked. They thought that symbol kept demons away. If anything, the crosses, especially the once without holy power, did nothing but burn us slightly. Nothing fatal.
I walked into the church, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the cross, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
The priest stood at the altar, holding one of those god-awful books. When I walked in and the doors shut behind me, he glanced in my direction.
The book in his hand shook, and he grabbed the cross that was around his neck. “Be gracious to everyone here, oh Lord. Cleanse us of the Devil!”
People gasped at his sudden outburst and followed his gaze. The church turned into a frenzy. All of the sinners stared at me, fearing that I was there for them.
“The Devil! The Devil!”
Some grabbed their children’s hands and sprinted with them out the door.
Others flailed their arms in the air, looking like absolute idiots.
And my personal favorites were the ones who dropped to their knees with tears streaming down their faces, crying—praying—that they’d be better next time.
To give them one more chance. Just one more. They’d make it better.
But everyone knew that once a sinner, always a sinner.
Step after step, I walked down the center aisle toward him. He gazed at me with wide eyes, whispering prayers and trying to curse me away.
I waved at him. “Look, that’s not going to work on me.”
He stood in front of the altar, trying to summon all of the courage he had in God. “I will not let you take this church from me. God protects it and he—”
I waved at the man again and took the wine that he had placed on the altar, sipping it. “I’m not here to kill you or to take your precious little church.”
“You speak unholy lies!”
I chuckled and tipped my glass. “This isn’t half bad.” I walked over to the plush red chair under the cross and sat on it, crossing my legs. “Now, I would like to chat with you.”
“I don’t make deals with the Devil.”
“You will if I tell you that I have an angel in my head who refuses to leave me alone.”
His eyes widened. “An angel?” He shook his head. “Why would such a beautiful, holy creature be inside of you?”
“Ex-lover”—I rolled my eyes—“who keeps bothering me. I think she’s jealous that I’ve been with a few other demons lately, and”—I winked—“a Kakosengel.”
“A Kakosengel?” He shook his head. “No such thing exists.”
I chuckled. “Your book doesn’t talk about the devilish relationships between angels and demons?” I smirked. “They can’t seem to stay away from us.”
“You lie!”
“Do I?”
“You lie in the house of God!”
“Look, I’ve come to ask for you to take her out.”
He paused, as if he didn’t believe a word I was saying, then shook his head. “I’ve never done it.”
“Isn’t this what that ghoul would want? Think about him and how much this angel in me is suffering.”
He pinched the cross between his fingers, the tips turning white, and bowed his head. Then, with a swift nod, he rushed into another room and brought back another book. He flipped through the pages and picked up his holy water.
He looked right into my eyes. “For you, my holy angel, to end your suffering.”
He dipped his fingers into the water and flicked them at me. I closed my eyes as they began burning and spit the water out on my lip.
I stood and shook my head. “You know what? I’ll find someone else.”
Again, he flicked me with that burning fucking water, and Raphaela appeared before me at my feet.
“Lucifer,” she said. “Lucifer … please don’t do this to me. I can’t live without you.”
He flicked more water at my face, mumbling something.
Raphaela struggled at my feet. “Lucifer.” She grabbed my ankle. “Lucifer.” Her voice was soft.
For a moment, I almost—almost—stopped the priest.
“I still love you. I always will. Always, always, always.” A tear fell from one of her perfect eyes. “Until death do us part. Don’t you remember our vows to each other?”
And that was when I snapped.
“Don’t you remember me fucking Eros in our bed?
Don’t you remember you cast me out? Don’t you remember shaming me when that ghoul tore off my wings and thrust me into Hell?
Why didn’t you come find me then? Where were your vows then?
Eros followed me to Hell, and now he and Dani—the hybrid you’re so jealous of—are mine. ”
I knew she was just a figment of my imagination and that I was yelling at nothingness. I knew I hadn’t needed to come here to confront her, but it had to be here, at the place we had met, the place we had taken our vows—the church.
“They will never love you the way I can.”
“You were my first love, Raphaela, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be my last.”
Her brows furrowed angrily. “Selfish! Disgusting! Sinful! What you’re participating in is sinful! You will never ever love truly again.” She shook her head. “And that’s what makes me so disappointed in you.”
“You enjoyed watching me sin.”
She pursed her lips together, not having a fucking comeback for the truth.
With one last flick of the priest’s fingers, which were drenched in holy water, Raphaela was gone.
He threw more water on me, and I smacked the cup of holy water out of his hand, making it fall onto the ground.
He stumbled back. “I felt the power of an angel. She was here.”
“Nobody was here.”
It had been a figment of my fucking imagination.