Gabriella was furious, and she let Vaughn know it.
“How dare you kidnap me and my son,” she said with barely controlled rage as she paced the small bedroom that was her prison. “Where is he? I want to see him. You have no right to treat us like this.”
Vaughn listened to her with an impassive face, but said nothing.
Frustrated by the billionaire’s lack of response, and trembling with anger, Gabriella glared at the man she had once found intriguing. Suddenly, she raised her hands to her mouth and called out in a loud voice, “Joshua, this is your mother. Please, answer me if you can hear me.”
When no response was forthcoming, she cried out again.
This time she screamed at the top of her voice and her son’s name rolled off her tongue in an anguished—rather than a defiant—cry.
The four walls echoed her heart-wrenching plea, but there was no other sound except the dying wail of her own trembling voice.
Overcome by a sense of utter hopelessness, and unable to rein in the emotions she had so far kept in check, Gabriella did what she had promised herself for the past two days she wouldn’t do—she broke down and cried. Oh, Lord, she thought as sobs racked her body, whatever happens to me, please don’t let anything bad happen to my son. He’s only a child—”
“Are you finished?” Vaughn’s words were as harsh as the look on his face.
Gabriella stopped crying and dried the remnant of her tears with the back of her hand, then faced her tormentor with new-found resolve. She resolved not let Vaughn see her in such a state again—no matter how bad things got.
“I’m just getting started. As long as there is a breath in my body, I will fight you.”
Vaughn sighed and shook his head. “You still don’t understand, do you? You have no choice,” he said, as if he was correcting an errant child. “If you continue to refuse my generous offer, I will simply take what I want. And you have no idea what that means.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
“An eternity of torment—”
Seeing the wickedness in Vaughn’s ebony eyes and hearing the malevolence in his raspy voice almost caused Gabriella to falter. Oddly, however, instead of crumbling under his attack, her resolve grew stronger. She knew in her heart that if she weakened now, and gave in to this man’s grotesque demands, she would be making the one choice that would torment her for eternity.
“You’re wrong about my not having a choice,” she said defiantly as she squared her shoulders and straightened her posture, “just as you were wrong about Paul, and my father, when you said that I shouldn’t expect any help from them. There’s no way either one of them will let you get away with this atrocity.”
Vaughn’s harsh laughter caused Gabriella to shudder. “Time will tell, my dear. Time will tell.” With that cryptic remark, he left the room abruptly and locked the door behind him.
Suddenly drained, Gabriella walked over to the bed and collapsed face down on it, then cradled her head in her arms.
What was she going to do? A madman wanted to sacrifice her son to some bizarre deity in a blood ritual that he said would bring him to the pinnacle of power. Not only did he want her to acquiesce in his insane demand that she willingly give up her son to him for such a demonic purpose, but he also wanted her by his side as his mistress to rule and reign with him once the sacrifice was completed.
Vaughn hadn’t even made any attempt at pretense about wanting her as his wife.
He said it wasn’t necessary for his purposes that they be married.
In fact, he’d said that it was better that they remain simply lovers.
When she’d informed him she had a husband whom she loved deeply his eyes had glazed over as he said, “Circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, Gabriella”
Although that had only been two days ago, it felt like more.
Vaughn had allowed her to see Joshua and had given her repeated reassurances that her son would be well taken care of by Antonio, whom she was also surprised to see.
Then, he’d surprised her with his request that she have dinner with him.
As it had been when she’d first met him seven years earlier, when he’d sponsored her first one-woman art show at Antonio Raphaelo’s well-known Washington gallery, she’d ignored the trepidation she felt, intrigued by his charismatic and persuasive demeanor.
During dinner he had described in meticulous detail his demented plan for world domination. The more he’d talked, the more horrified she became.
When he’d told her that he believed he was the resurrected Prince of Tyre spoken about by the prophet Ezekiel, and why he had chosen David McDaniel to be his prophet, it was all she could do to keep from falling out of her chair.
Finally, he’d finished by telling her that all he needed to set the final chain of events in motion was a blood sacrifice of a human being.
Specifically, her son, Joshua.
Stunned and sickened by his grotesque vision, she’d muttered a weak, “I—I don’t understand.”
“Joshua is the first-born son of a first-born son. That’s what makes his blood special.”
“You’re insane.”
“Am I? The scriptures you revere so much are quite clear. Your God commands that all the firstborn, whether of man or beast, be consecrated to him. Once, it was a common practice to sacrifice the firstborn of both man and beast.”
“God never commanded that the firstborn of man be sacrificed,” she’d retorted. “He specifically instructed His people to abstain from the sacrificial shedding of human blood.”
“What about the king of Moab?” Vaughn smiled triumphantly. “The Moabites were descended from the son whom Lot’s eldest daughter bore to him after the destruction of Sodom. There came a time when they were losing a war with the king of Edom, the king of Israel, and King Jehoshaphat. The king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son as a burnt offering to Chemosh. According to the Moabite stone, it was because of this sacrifice that the king of Moab was successful in his revolt.”
“What are you talking about?”
“An ancient stele of black basalt discovered by a German missionary near the ancient city of Dibon, a town located in what is now eastern Jordan.”
“And this god—Chemosh. I suppose you think he has more power than the Creator of Heaven and Earth?”
Vaughn’s demeanor and voice changed abruptly. “You dare mock me? You have no idea of my power. I have toppled civilizations because they displeased me—”
That was when she realized she was in way over her head.
Gabriella trembled with the memory of her bizarre conversation with Vaughn and his demonic plans for Joshua.
How was she ever going to get the two of them out of this mess?
She sighed heavily and her eyelids fluttered as exhaustion and fear overcame her will to fight. Finally, she slipped into a fitful sleep, whispering her son’s name as a prayer to the Lord.
• • •
Joshua was frightened.
He was lying in a strange bed, in a strange place, and it was dark.
Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.
He wished his mother would come and get him and take him home.
It had been two days since he had seen her. He had asked the man who had brought him his food about his mother, but Antonio had not told him anything.
Now, he realized there was nothing he could do except wait.
And pray.
He knew how to do that all right. Yeah, he thought. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to pray that God will make everything better.
As he prayed, the small room gradually filled with a shimmering, silken white light.
Joshua heard an odd rustling sound and opened his eyes, then gasped.
There was a man standing at the foot of the bed. He was so tall his head nearly touched the ceiling!
“Hello, Joshua,” said the man ablaze with light. “My name is Yuri.”
Joshua sat up in the bed. “Are you the one God told me about on my birthday?”
Yuri smiled. “Yes, I am.”
“Are you an angel?”
Yuri nodded.
Joshua frowned. “Wait a minute. You don’t have any wings.”
Yuri laughed loudly and Joshua was shocked. His laughter sounded like music!
“Tell me Joshua, have you ever met an angel before?’
Joshua shook his head.
“Then how do you know what we’re supposed to look like?”
Joshua shrugged. “Are you here to rescue me and my mom?”
“No, I’m not. But, I am here to teach you a very special song. Do you know what a seraph is?”
Joshua mumbled, “I think so.”
“Then you must know that seraphim are very special angels.”
“Are you one?”
“No, I’m not one of the seraphim. Seraphim have wings.”
“They do?”
“As a matter of fact, they each have three pairs of wings.”
“How come?”
“With the first set, they cover their faces as a token of humility. With the second, they cover their feet, as a sign of respect. And with the third—”
“They fly!”
“Very good, Joshua.”
Suddenly sleepy, Joshua closed his eyes.
“Joshua?”
“Uh, uh.”
“You mustn’t go to sleep just yet. You need to listen to me very carefully.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” he replied groggily.
“I’m going to sing my special song to you now. I want you to memorize the words. They are very powerful. When you sing them, nothing can harm you. Do you understand?”
“I think so.”
“Now listen carefully, and repeat after me:
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of
hosts;
The whole earth is full of His
glory!”
“That’s easy.”
“Okay. Let’s sing it together.”
And they did.
Only it sounded like an entire choir was singing instead of just the two of them.
“Wow, that was neat,” Joshua said excitedly, suddenly very much awake. “Can we do it again?”
Yuri smiled. “Of course—”
The light around Yuri pulsed as the two of them sang, and it filled every nook and cranny of the room. It was as if the sun had risen in the middle of the night.
The smell of frankincense also permeated the entire room.
Yuri finally called a halt to their singing after they’d repeated the verses a dozen times.
“Do we have to stop? I’m having a lot of fun.”
“I’m afraid so, Josh.”
“Hey, how did you know I was here? And how come you know my name?”
Yuri laughed a final time. “We angels know lots of things.” The light around him began to fade and he said, “Remember the song Joshua. It’s my special gift to you.”
With that, he was gone.
Joshua stared at the foot of his bed for several minutes, then laid back down.
He fell asleep as the words of the new song he’d been taught slowly faded from his lips.