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“You’re a demon who works for the church? You expect me to believe that? Is the church secretly evil, then?” She wouldn’t be surprised with how her week was going.
“No. I love God.” The demoness sighed and held her simple gold cross with one hand and reached out to take Maggie’s with her other. The look in the woman’s eyes was one of earnest sincerity.
She could be faking it. She is a demon.
“We don’t know anything more about God than your kind does. And we search for Him and His love all the same. Hell and Heaven aren’t so different. Angels and demons are siblings, not enemies.” She smiled. “And you should be just as frightened of them as you are of us.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be evil?”
“Define ‘evil.’” Ally shrugged. “We represent one half of the soul. Angels represent the other. One side needs to exist for the other to be there. Doesn’t make it evil. And it doesn’t mean we have any sort of inherent ill-will toward humans.” She opened a bag of mini cookies and held one out to Algernon. The little rat couldn’t resist. He hopped up onto the arm of the chair and reached for it. “An angel is just as likely to smite you out of righteous nonsense as a demon is to hurt you. Most of us enjoy humans. You’re much more reasonable.”
“Does—does the church know?” She glanced between Rinaldo and Ally.
“The higher-ups do.” Rinaldo downed his glass of wine and gestured for another. “She keeps it hidden from most people. They might not understand.”
“Not sure I do. Dead rats, necromancers, and now demons.” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Sure. Why not. Fuck it.”
Ally laughed. “I do really like you.” She smiled down at Algernon. “And aren’t you the cutest?” She petted the rat, scratching him gently on the head. “We have a few creatures like this deep in the vaults. We let them roam free. We aren’t heartless, Maggie. We really are trying our best to do what’s right.”
“Even you. A demon.”
“Even me.”
“I met Ally a decade ago,” Rinaldo began, looking out the window as if he didn’t want to watch them while he told the story. “She was working as a missionary at a church in Africa. Helping people—honestly helping them. I was there to perform an exorcism on a young child in a neighboring town. When I saw her, I saw her aura. I knew what she was. I had a choice. I could stop her because she was a demon. And it would be the only reason I would be doing it. Because she was one of the most generous, most loving sisters who lived there. It felt wrong. It felt…I don’t know. Discriminatory. I couldn’t do it.”
“What about the possession?”
“Turned out to be schizophrenia. She had nothing to do with it.” Rinaldo smiled sadly. “I did ask.”
“A few times.” Ally chuckled.
“I asked her to join the Order. She agreed. I told the Bishop it was so I could keep an eye on her. It started off being true. But now I’d trust her with my life. And have on more than one occasion.”
“It’s still so hard to believe.” She looked down at Algernon. “But maybe that’s okay. I won’t say anything to anybody.”
“Thank you, Maggie.” Ally smiled gently. “I hope this trip gives you some answers. I hope what we’re going to show you might help you remember your past.”
“I’m not sure if I want to remember it. That’s the problem.” She fought the urge to fidget. She forced herself to take a deep breath and relax. “I get the real feeling that it was something terrible, and maybe dangerous.”
“Then we’ll help you face it down.” The demoness’s expression shone with compassion. “That’s what friends are for. Right?”
It’d be nice to have friends. Even if they were a demoness, an exorcist, and a whatever-the-undead-fuck she was. She managed to smile back at Ally. “Yeah.”
Friends.
Her life had taken a step to the left of reality. Things had become more colorful, more bizarre, and definitely more freakish. Just a few days ago she was sitting in a coffee shop, doodling in a sketchbook, lamenting how bored she was being a lunatic.
She wasn’t bored anymore.
And she wasn’t alone.
It could be worse.
She downed the rest of her second drink. Oh, yeah, she was going to be a little drunk in a half an hour when everything hit her. “I think I’m going to take you up on that shower and change of clothes.”
“Fantastic. There are also a few cabins back there. I set up number two for you. We’ll wake you up when we land.”
How a demoness managed to be so perky, she had no idea. But Ally looked like she was just made out of butterflies and rainbows. Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth—how did I know how to do that?—she called Algernon over to her hand. The rat hopped up onto her shoulder and nuzzled into her hair, bony butt sticking out of the curtain of brown and neon orange tendrils.
Rinaldo pulled a deck of cards out of a drawer. “Hearts?” he said to Ally as he started to shuffle.
Maggie walked away, smiling faintly. They were an odd pair. She wondered if there was something going on between them, or if they were just friends. Maybe she was just being a silly romantic.
She found the cabin labeled with a number two and stepped inside. There were several pairs of clothes in stacks on the bed. Most were black, some had skulls on them, and there was even a hoodie. It was both nice and creepy that they knew what she liked. Gently scooping up Algernon and putting him down on her pillow, she scratched the rat on the head. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He curled up into a ball then flopped onto his side, clearly comfortable.
With a shake of her head, she walked from the room to find the shower.
It could be worse.
