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Less than thirty minutes after they’d stopped for breakfast, Lauren ordered Tomáš to pull over. He could tell by the urgency in her tone that she was not joking. He complied, getting over as quickly as he safely could. The SUV hadn’t even come to a stop before she flung the door open and leapt out, barely making it to the grass before she puked. She hadn’t been sick in over twenty-four hours, but her record was now over.
By the time the Gendarmerie pulled up behind them, she was doubled over, leaning on the side of the car. Tomáš came around and put a hand on her back. He had a bottle of water in his other hand. He pressed it against the back of her neck. It was cool and felt good on her skin. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. Lauren straightened and glanced up at the trees. She felt her face turn to stone as she locked eyes with the spectral images she found there.
Tomáš turned. “What?”
The shadowy figure that reminded Lauren of the vampiric Dr. Masa stood in the dark place amongst the trees; eyes glowing red, like flickering flame, in the dim light. Around the fallen one a demonic entourage gathered. They seemed to rise from the ground; multiplying exponentially as their forces seemed to swell. Larger demonic entities backed Enlil up. Their eyes glowed as their master’s did.
She knew then the Gates of Hell had been flung open wide. These were the minions of the Dark One. Hellhounds, wendigo, succubae, horned reapers, ogres, Chupacabra, banshee, and many more creatures she had no names for, stood prepared to take on all-comers. Smaller orders of beings made the ground crawl; beetles, worms, maggots writhing on the damp surface around the edge of the forest created a deafening cacophony of mutterings. The reek of rot and brimstone made her stomach churn.
“He’s here ...” she said in a voice that was icy cold.
Tomáš turned again, scanning the tree line. He didn’t seem to see the danger or sense the threat.
* * *
With no warning Lauren found herself standing on the top of a high mountain. Cold air buffeted her flesh like icy needles as the wind tore at her hair. The monster she’d encountered in Zuzu’s kitchen had her by the arm. His claws burned her flesh, and she writhed, trying to free herself. She felt dizzy, disoriented. Her stomach churned, incensed by that same nauseating stench of the foul serpent.
But Enlil let her go. He moved in a slow, slinking circle around her. The tail she hadn’t remembered or noticed before drug along the rocky rise. She struggled to move away, but her feet held fast, not responding to her panic. “Do you see all the kingdoms of the world and their glory? Do you see these things the All-Father has made? While my brethren have been cast aside and forgotten, he has allowed you to reside in a place I have been denied; a place that was given to me! A place that was made for me!” The Dark One’s voice was angry, deep; bone chilling. Lauren couldn’t move. Couldn’t respond. She couldn’t cry out. Tears hovered in the corners of her eyes as if frozen; unable to fall to her cheeks. “All this I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Lauren felt the fluttering of wings at her shoulder, as a comforting hand came to her elbow. The demon’s hold on her released. “Resist him, sister. Remain firm in your faith in the All-Father. The Devil is a deceiver. He feeds on fear and chaos. War is his great buffet; an altar of gluttony.” Michael’s voice found her ear as a whisper. “His power lies in bringing death. After death comes judgment.”
“Bow before me.” Enlil turned. If he saw her brother behind her, he gave no sign.
“Resist,” Michael urged; his voice barely above a whisper.
“Bow!” Enlil roared. “Prostrate yourself at my feet!”
“Resist.”
“I will not.” Her voice came out strong; her words resolute. “You have no dominion here.”
* * *
“What is it?” Bertram asked, moving behind her to peer over her shoulder.
“Lauren? What did you see?” The detective moved to block her from any danger that might present itself. Her frightened eyes lifted to his as he caught her arms to keep her from falling backwards. That dizzying sense of displacement made the world spin around her. “Was it the same thing you saw outside my mother’s home?”
She moved past him, pushing him aside as she fell to her hands and knees and vomited again. Her body heaved again, and again, before she came up sputtering and spitting. Tomáš took the bottle of water from the cup holder in the car. He opened it, handing it to her. She rinsed her mouth and spat again. Bertram offered her a hand up. Tomáš caught the other arm when her knees threatened to fail.
A sense of urgency seemed to overtake the detective. “Come on.” Tomáš led her back to the car. “We need to keep moving. We need to get to the church in Slovenia.”
“Can you make it?” Bertram asked.
Lauren nodded. Her gaze went to Simon who stood by the Gendarmeries’ car. His gaze went to the trees, and he seemed to have a wicked smile on his face. For a moment she thought perhaps he saw the army of Enlil, too. He turned, realizing she was looking at him and scowled at her. Kovač gave her a nudge. She let them help her back into the car and lay the seat back, closing her eyes. “Keep going.”
“We’ll meet you there,” Bertram said, turning to the others. “Brothers, she saw something. Lucifer himself may be here. We need to try and stop him here if we can. Get our equipment.”
That was the last Lauren heard before Tomáš closed the car door. He rushed around to the other side and got in, making sure they both had their seatbelts buckled before he checked his mirrors and drove off.
When Lauren finally got the courage to open her eyes, certain her stomach had settled, she glanced over at the speedometer. He was going nearly 200 kilometers per hour. She swallowed hard, raising the back of her chair. Tomáš glanced over at her cautiously.
“I’m better,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “But your color is still a bit off.”
“I’m fine.” She swallowed hard, turning her gaze to the road. “At least it’s not raining.”
“For now,” he said, pointing towards dark clouds off to their right. “Storms are coming.”
“Oh, brother,” she groaned.
“I’m hoping I can get ahead of it,” he said.
There was a long period of silence as the detective kept his focus on the road, moving in and out of traffic, increasing speed as he took the outside lane.
“Have you been to Slovenia?” Lauren asked so she didn’t have to talk about what had just happened. In truth, she wasn’t sure what had happened. If Enlil was the deceiver, he could have made her imagine the whole thing, right?
“Yes,” he said. “I studied there ... before.”
“Before?”
“Before I was a police officer,” he said. “Before I made detective.”
Lauren didn’t need to ask but felt compelled. Judy had been correct. It was his story to tell. Lauren wondered if he would tell it; if he could. “Was that when you were studying to be a priest?”
“Yes, I came to study Theology,” he answered, but offered nothing more. Lauren allowed the silence to fill the void between them and didn’t prod. She closed her eyes and tried to fight off the replay running in the back of her mind’s eye. Nearly five miles down the road, he spoke again. His voice remained deep, almost haunting. “My faith was tested, and ... it failed me ... maybe I failed it. I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry.” Lauren wasn’t sure what else to say.
“I was gone from home when my mother needed me most.”
“What could you have done?” Lauren asked.
“I could have been there,” he said. “My father was shot, and I know I couldn’t have stopped it ... couldn’t have saved him, but ... maybe I could have been there for my mother when she needed me. Maybe I could have prayed with my father before he went to work that day. Maybe ...” He stopped, his voice cutting off as he focused his full attention on the road. “I wasn’t there when my mother was killed either. Maybe I could have ...”
“No, you weren’t there ... but I was,” Lauren said. “And ... even I couldn’t save her.”
* * *
Enlil stood, in human form on the bridge as cars whizzed past below. Humans were always in such a hurry; as if time really meant anything. The Dark One knew time was a concept their simple brains could not comprehend. To them, it was linear. A one-way road with no turnarounds.
He could sense the presence of that insufferable woman; the Chosen One, as the car neared, even at the break-neck speed it traveled. He wasn’t sure where they were going, but he intended to find out. All he needed to do was plant a seed. A seed that would grow into a hunger that would gnaw on even the strongest soul and take his quarry where he could extract the information he needed. Then he would have time to plan his attack and then he could get his spells. Once all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, he would make his move. Just one thought was all he needed . He planted a seed in the woman’s mind ... hunger.
* * *
“Pull over!” Lauren ordered.
“I can’t.” There was a large box van running alongside them as Kovač tried to pass.
Lauren didn’t hesitate. She rolled down the window and stuck her head out. Tires squealed behind them as cars swerved to avoid the shower of vomit. She had no control to prevent it as she got sick again ... and again.
The look on Tomáš’ face when she finally collapsed back in her seat and reached for the bottle of water was nothing short of horror. She rinsed her mouth, then leaned out the window again to spit. “You’re going to need a car-wash.”
His lip curled up as he glanced back over her shoulder at the passenger side of the SUV. He’d never had anyone puke out of the window at nearly 200 kilometers per hour, but the cars behind them were running their windshield wipers, which gave him an indication of the impact of such an event.
“I need petrol soon too,” he said.
“I’d kill for a cheeseburger right now.” Lauren sighed dreamily.
“Really?” He glanced at his violated back windows and cringed. “Now you want a cheeseburger?”
“Well, that was the last of breakfast ...” she said, looking at him coyly.
“What guarantee do I have I won’t end up with a burger and fries on the side of my car?”
“I did ask you to pull over ...” she said sheepishly.
“Co ve jménu ... Zabíjíš mě.” He swore under his breath. With reluctance in his voice, he added, “I know a place ...”
* * *
“Did you have fun at the birthday party?” Tima asked when the boys came racing back into the house.
“They had a great time!” Ahmose fell into the sofa. “Wish I could bottle up all their energy. I’m exhausted.”
Tima lay down her book as the boys ran around, jumping and chattering about all the fun things they did at the party.
“Slow down!” Tima beamed. It was good to see Henry happy again. John Carter seemed to feed off his brother’s enthusiasm. “Tell me about the cake.”
“We had fondant cake,” Henry said. “No frosting. Have you ever had fondant cake, Auntie? And it had smashed up figs in it. I never had figs in a cake.”
“Did you like it?”
“I yoved it!” John Carter enthused. “I yoved fondant cake.”
“It was very good,” Henry said. “I had two pieces.”
“He did, too,” Ahmose sighed.
“And did Braheem like his present?”
“They played with the LEGO sets we got him for hours,” Ahmose said, closing her eyes. “I told them we’d go get some more LEGOs tomorrow.”
“I yike yegos,” John Carter said. “I made a wocket.”
“You do like your rockets.” Tima beamed.
Henry climbed up in her lap, leaning on the edge of the sofa. “That was a really good party, Auntie Tima.”
“I’m glad you had a good time, sweet boy,” she said.
“What are you reading?” He picked up her book and inspected it.
“Your daddy loaned it to me,” she said.
“This is a good book.” Henry nodded. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of Daddy’s favorites. Mine, too.”
“Did your daddy read it to you? Or did your momma?”
“I read it all by myself,” Henry said.
“You did?” She knew she shouldn’t be surprised. Lauren intended to home school the boys. Henry was just old enough to start kindergarten. “All by yourself?” She hadn’t waited. She’d been teaching them as they became interested in things. They were both curious and bright.
“Yes, ma’am.” Henry opened up the book and began to read.
“Well, look at you,” Tima praised him.
“I think digital watches are a pretty neat idea too,” Henry said, in reference to the passage he just read. “Daddy says when I’m ten I can have a digital watch.”
“Ten? Why ten?” Tima asked.
Henry shrugged. “I dunno.”
“I overheard you reading Where the Wild Things Are to your brother last night and thought maybe you had it memorized. I didn’t realize what a proficient reader you were.”
“I want to read every book in the Library of Congress,” Henry said.
“That’s over five million books, Henry.” Tima shook her head impressed more and more with her student’s family. “And the number is growing every day.”
Rowan set an excellent example for his boys. He scored an A on every assignment and every test. It was hard not to give him extra credit for his hard work. He had a work-ethic unlike any student she’d ever had. If anyone could achieve that goal, it would be Henry. He was just like his father.
“I would have read all the books in the Library of Alexandria, but they had a fire,” Henry said.
“How do you know about the fire?”
“Momma is still mad about it.”
“Still?” Fatima laughed out loud. This child was a wonder.
“It’s all Julius Caesar’s fault.”
“Henry, do you know how long ago that was?”
“I know it was before my momma was born.” He yawned.
John Carter, curled up in Ahmose’s lap, was drifting off. Ahmose was, too.
“Yes, it was much longer before that,” Tima said. “But we’re not sure who burned it down. You know that, right?”
“I do,” he said. “But Mommy blames Caesar.”
“I think,” Tima began. “It was Caliph Omar.”
“Who’s that?”
“He was the chief of the Muslim army who took the city of Alexandria in 640 AD. When he learned the city had a library with all of the knowledge of mankind within, his generals asked for instructions. Caliph Omar said, they will either contradict the Quran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, which makes them superfluous.”
“That means it’s extra,” Henry said. “I know that word. It’s my favorite big word.”
“Yes, it does,” she said. “So, he ordered all the books to be destroyed. Some even said it took over six months to burn them all.”
“I love books.” Henry sighed. “It makes me sad that someone would burn them.”
“Me too, sweet boy.” She kissed his head.
“That’s why my momma needs to find the Devil’s book,” Henry said. “Some of the books that were destroyed are in it.”
Fatima’s brow lifted. “How do you know that?”
“I looked at it,” he said.
“Did you see it on the internet?” she asked. “Did your dad show you?”
Henry yawned but didn’t answer. Instead, he curled up into her and sighed heavily. Fatima decided the boy was done talking about it. He’d had a long day. “Do you want to read some more, or shall I read to you?”
Henry read until his eyelids began to grow heavy. Tima took over and read until he was sound asleep. She might regret later letting him nap so late, but he clearly needed it. She glanced over and found Ahmose and John Carter both sound asleep.