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I pause to take a breath, shifting to get comfortable, and Azrael waits as I gather the courage to go on.
“I tried to tell him we needed to take a break,” I continue, recalling how I felt that night, the dread in my gut as I worked up the nerve to tell him. “I thought it was best to do it in person. But when Caleb picked me up, he told me he wanted to take me somewhere special. I figured it was just another date. So, when he pulled up in front of a church, I was completely blindsided.”
“In New Orleans?” Azrael asks.
“Yes.” I swallow. “It looked harmless enough on the outside, I guess. But you know how I feel about that stuff.”
“I do,” he answers quietly, rubbing circles into my back.
“I had a gut feeling right away,” I admit. “But I ignored it. I went in anyway, even though everything inside me was screaming not to.”
I fall quiet for a moment, squeezing my eyes shut as a shiver racks my body.
“What happened inside?” Azrael asks.
“He took me to the room where they do the baptisms,” I explain. “There was a little pool with stairs. At first, I stupidly thought he wanted to swim or something, though it was way too small for that. But he led me over to the water, and I could tell as soon as he turned to face me, something had changed. His eyes were darker, and his voice was completely different. It was like he had ripped off a mask, and too late, I realized he’d been putting on an act the entire time.”
Azrael draws me closer, adjusting my body so that I’m settled onto his lap, head resting against his shoulder. He can see my face now, but the thought isn’t as terrifying as I thought it might be. I’m lost to the memory, eyes glazed as I stare at the wall, forcing the words out.
“He said he wanted to baptize me,” I croak. “It totally freaked me out, and I told him I wanted to leave. But the minute I turned around, he yanked me back. The violence of it startled me, and at first, I wondered if I was making it seem worse than it was in my head. I’d never known him to be cruel, and I just couldn’t make sense of it. But he showed me who he really was then. He told me I needed to be purified. That I was a sinner. A devil-worshipper. He kept saying it over and over, and I tried to fight him off, but he started manhandling me and tearing at my clothes. He was trying to get me naked.”
A tear slips from my eye, followed by another, and I feel Azrael wiping them away, but he doesn’t interrupt me as I rush to get the rest out.
“I bit his arm, and that really pissed him off. That was when he first hit me. It stunned me, and I just froze for a minute. But it didn’t stop there. He started beating me at that point, and I think he was getting off on the violence just as much as he was getting off on the thought of forcing himself on me. When I finally got my limbs to cooperate again, it was already too late. He had my skirt ripped off, and he was unbuckling his belt as he dunked my head into the water. I don’t think, at that point, he even cared if I was dead or alive. He planned to fuck me either way.”
“Jesus,” Azrael growls.
“I was terrified, and I don’t know how long I was under, but I knew I would die. My lungs burned, everything hurt, and I was starting to give up. And then I heard Elizabeth’s voice. She was telling me to fight. To channel her. I didn’t think I could. I didn’t even know how. But then I felt something… like a sudden surge of adrenaline, and I remembered my ring.
“Maybe it was her telling me to use it. I don’t know. But I just know I stopped fighting at that point, and Caleb loosened his grip, and that’s when I surprised him. I thrust my head back into his face, and I think I broke his nose. He let me go long enough for me to draw air and fight back. I managed to pull myself up and slash at his face. I wasn’t expecting the ring to do that much damage, but it fileted his skin wide open, and it went right through his eye.
“There was blood everywhere, dripping onto me, into the pool. He stumbled back, clutching his face, and I just ran. I don’t know how I even made it out. He’d beaten me so badly I could only go one block before I collapsed. Someone on the street called the police, and that was it. That’s the last thing I remember before I woke up in the hospital.”
