Shemhazai and Azazel stood across the street from Matthew Younger’s house.
“The Nephilim boy lives here?” Azazel said.
“Yes.”
“This is it, then,” Azazel said with some satisfaction. “The end of our torture.”
Shemhazai was silent.
“Let us do God’s will.”
“And then destroy the Voynich?” Shemhazai asked.
“Yes, then it will be finished.”
“We will be welcomed back into God’s house?”
Azazel nodded. His beard itched, and he reached up to scratch it. His heavy frame made every motion tedious, and he was always sweating. “I, for one, cannot wait to be done with these earthly bodies.”
Shemhazai shifted uncomfortably. He’d been forced to inhabit the first person he’d met after discarding the body he used as the library security guard. Tonight he looked like a young, athletic university student. It had been unavoidable. Shemhazai could live outside a host for only a few minutes; then he would wither and soon disappear. It was part of God’s curse.
“Let’s go,” Shemhazai finally said.
“Wait!” Azazel put a hand in front of Shemhazai’s chest.
The two men watched as a car slowed to a stop in front of the Younger residence. A gray-haired man and a younger, olive-skinned man sat in the car, looking at the house.
“Who is that?” Azazel asked.
Shemhazai squinted. “The librarian priest.” He looked again. “I don’t recognize the other.”
Shemhazai shook his head. “Following up on the boy, I imagine. They aren’t going to just let this go.”
“But we have the book. The boy cannot help them without it.”
“Maybe they don’t know that.”
“Let’s move,” Azazel whispered angrily. “I don’t want to be seen here.”
They started walking away.
“What do we do now?” Shemhazai asked.
“I don’t know. I wanted to do this quietly. I didn’t want the church involved. It’s too complicated if they get in the way.”
“It might be unavoidable.”
“I realize that. I’m prepared to make that decision when it is necessary. Right now, it is not necessary.”
“I agree.”
They kept walking.