Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
T illy had fought her damnedest but the four of them had managed to lay and bind her on the altar. Her hands were tied to a shackle above her head, ankles bound together and secured.
Her belly had been bared and marked with large symbols in some kind of animal blood.
Avery had his sacrificial blade poised just above her while one of the hooded figures led the others in a gloomy incantation under the glow of candlelight.
Hit with one more violent contraction twisting her insides, Tilly moaned against the tape—going insane with terror—horrified that she’d either die under the knife or in childbirth.
A loud crash suddenly echoed around them. Everyone flinched, her captors momentarily paused reciting the spell, and Avery dropped the knife down by his side.
“Where the fuck is she?” a deep and powerful voice boomed throughout the church.
Oh dear god, Cass. Tilly turned her face toward the aisle.
She had to be dreaming.
It couldn’t be him. No, it could be.
“Get your hands off her, you motherfucker.”
Cass was actually here. He strode down the aisle, the dark candles illuminating him like a vengeful angel coming to her rescue.
Tears of relief welled behind her eyelids before another intense contraction tore into her. She let out a muffled scream as she twisted against her bonds.
“Till!” Cass choked on her name as he reached the sanctuary. A low growl emerged from his throat to see that her shirt had been pushed up to expose her belly. “What the fuck have you done to her?”
“Stop it right there, St-Amand,” Avery shouted, his dagger poised high, ready to butcher her. “Devin, don’t stop the mass. Keep reading!”
Devin hesitated but gripped the lectern and started reading again.
Avery barely had a chance to raise the blade higher before Cass leaped into the air and tackled him. He dropped the knife at the impact, and the edge nicked the bare skin along her waist in its fall.
She yelped with pain yet twisted on the table to see Cass and Avery rolling in front of the altar, the three henchmen completely petrified.
“Fuck! Keep reading, Devin,” Avery screamed before being slammed back on the ground by Cass with a punch to his jaw.
“I invoke you, Moloch, Prince of Hell, Breath of the Deep Fire.” Devin continued with the spell while Sammy searched the floor for the sacrificial knife.
“Here! Got it.” Sammy grabbed the blade in his fist before adding his voice to reply to Devin and the other supplicant’s summons. “Behold the purest flesh! Behold the sweetest blood!”
Avery screamed as Cass sank his fangs into his throat.
Tilly twisted and turned on the table to try to get free, her blood from the superficial cut trickling on the red altar cloth.
“Do it, Second Sons!” Avery managed to croak. “Finish the sacrifice.”
“Hear me, Moloch. You ravenous creator.” Devin rubbed his forehead with nervousness. “You who endanger and destroy all.”
Sammy approached the altar with the knife, and she pleaded at him with her eyes.
Brian was at his side, scared senseless, but continuing with the ritual. “Consume the sacrifice, oh Father. In your fiery jaws.”
The steel blade of the dagger trembled in Sammy’s hands beside her. She wanted to scream her terror but all she could do was sob against the tape.
And just like that, it was over.
Cass vaulted over the altar, caught the henchmen by their throats, and brought them both to the ground. His jaw bloody with Avery’s blood, he jabbed them hard in the face, one after the other, rendering them nearly unconscious by the blows. He scooped up the knife before turning to Devin.
But Devin was not done.
“Oh Father, oh Prince!” he screamed frantically. “I invoke thee.”
“Stop!” Cass held the blade in front of him. “Or I’ll use this on you .”
Devin grabbed his spell book, stooped over himself, and cravenly retreated away from the lectern.
“I’ve got you, mon amour .” Cass cut the bonds of her wrists. Intense relief flooded her as he busied himself with the twine at her ankles. “I’ve got you.”
She ripped the tape from her mouth, sat up straight on the altar and placed her hoody over her bleeding belly while Cass wrapped her firmly in his arms.
“I’m okay,” she breathed, overwhelmed by her near-death and the crash of adrenaline. She tensed as another contraction took over her body.
“I love you, sweetheart.” He placed a fervent kiss on top of her head and hugged her tighter. “You have no idea how much.”
Her heartbeat and breathing regulating, she gazed up at his handsome face and got lost in his dark eyes.
Her heart was about to confess how much she too loved him when a blood-curdling scream echoed beside them.
“Oh god.” One of the cronies on the floor, Brian, slowly stood, his eyes like saucers as he stared beyond them and the altar. “He’s here!”
“Oh shit.” Devin was clutching his spell book with a look of horror.
“Fuck me.” Cass scooped her from the altar and stepped backward toward the pews.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.
A rush of fear slammed into her, and she screamed.
A huge monstrous being of leathery skin had unfolded himself in front of the wide black cloth Brian had hung over the church art before starting the black mass. The horrific being’s head bore large bovine horns and a massive pustulant snout. His eyes were red and filled with malevolence.
“Who has called upon me,” the monster bellowed in a cavernous tone. He swiveled his head back and forth, looking down upon them.
Avery stirred on the floor, his throat a bloody mess, and managed to get up. “We did,” he shouted, attempting to be brave while Devin inched closer and kneeled on the floor a few feet at his side. “ We are the Second Sons, and we summoned you.”
Sammy and Brian remained frozen with fear.
“Fucking idiots.” Cass continued to inch backward with his grip steady around Tilly.
Her heart pounded like mad as she stared in shock at the demon, unable to believe her eyes. Her spilled blood on the altar had been enough to have brought forth this abomination.
“And you shall be thanked in the underworld,” Moloch boomed. The demon brought his giant, scaly hands to his side. “May you forever rest in my shadow.”
“We thank you, oh Moloch, oh Father.” Avery stood proud in front of the beast.
The monster rested his malevolent gaze upon the Second Son. He lifted his massive leg and stomped his cloven hoof on top of Devin, leaving the student a mass of flesh and misshapen broken bones.
Avery barely had a chance to gasp when Moloch inhaled deeply and blew a thick fiery breath over him.
The blaze charred him on contact, turning the Second Sons’ leader into a pile of black sooty bones that collapsed into dust.
Dear Lord. Tilly repressed a cry. She had cursed her captor to this gruesome fate. And this was it.
“Oh fuck.” Sammy shook himself while Brian started to weep.
Cass swiveled and bolted into a run, Tilly holding him tight by the neck.
“Where’s that unborn baby!” The church trembled with each of Moloch’s steps.
They had almost reached the entrance of the church when she heard the monster take a deep breath again. She hid her face in Cass’s shoulder, preparing herself for the worst.
But Cass turned back to face Moloch, dropped Tilly on her feet, and thrust a palm at the daemon.
“Vahrasth hyenthx!”
The blast of demon fire hit the protection sphere Cass had summoned and spread wide around them, leaving them unharmed.
In her peripheral, she saw Brian and Sammy reach the side door and escape the burning church just in time. It was now just Tilly and Cass, alone facing the monster.
“I want my sacrifice,” Moloch proclaimed, saliva dripping from his thick crimson lips. “I want the unborn baby that was promised to me.”
Cass pulled her in close, before letting her go. The magical protection sphere remained steadily raised in front of the huge demon. “Go. I’ll hold him while you get out of here.”
“No!” she pleaded, horrified. She couldn’t leave him here. With nothing but fangs and a little bit of magic to defend himself.
A spasm hit her belly again and she folded on herself, holding her stomach with a yelp. Another contraction.
“Tilly, go!” His voice was strained as he briefly turned his gaze away from the demon to take one last desperate look at her. “Please.”
“Cass,” she shrieked. “I’m in labor.”