The Thrill Of Your Love

Chapter Thirty Six

Alice was sat in Primo's office, her eyes scanning the chaotic spread of books on demonology that covered his desk, some in Latin, some in English- but none of it made any sense to her anyway. The smell of hundreds of plants that filled the space drifted up her nostrils as she watched Primo pace back and forth, flicking through the books trying to find something.

"I've been trying to figure out why Richard is stuck in the void ever since we brought Terzo back." Primo began, adjusting his reading glasses. "I don't doubt Terzo's ability to carry out the banishing ritual; he was trained by the best, like all of us."

"So what went wrong then?" Alice's brows were furrowed, fiddling with her own hands trying to distract herself.

"I think Richard has gone against the number one rule." He sighed, sitting back down. "He summoned too many ghouls for personal use, and then used those ghouls to summon a demon."

"A demon Primo I-" Alice looked baffled.

"Si...wait. Elizabeth! That's it!" Primo's eyes widened as he suddenly pieced everything together. "She was never...Satanas, why didn't I realise this earlier?!"

"Woah- wait- Primo it's too early for this...slow down." Alice muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. "Realise what earlier?"

"Richard...he is a clever man, I'll give him that." He shook his head, mumbling to himself. "But he's destroying this institution." He frantically flicked through the yellowed pages, trying to find the page he was looking for. "The Emeritus bloodline goes back thousands of generations and we're born to do this role. There's no such thing as overthrowing the Emeritus name unless it comes from within the family, if we don't consider somebody capable." He explained. "He's an imposter...he's trying to bring us and our ministry down."

"What the fuck." Alice pinched the bridge of her nose. "How is it that this entire situation gets more fucked by the day." She spat, looking up to see Primo's face contorted with worry. "What? What do we have to do?" Alice gulped, realising she wasn't going to like this.

"You need to go back. You need to kill Elizabeth in the void, destroy the demon in the underworld that's controlling her on Earth."

"What?" Alice's cheeks lost all colour.

"The reason Richard tried so hard for him to marry her and Terzo was to get to him, directly. She's a demon, Alice. Shes not a human being...he's using her as a vessel. You're the biggest barrier between Richard and Terzo- you've proven you're stronger. So now that we know what's happening, they're not going to try and hide it anymore. Because everyone will soon figure out Terzo was resurrected because of a failed ritual, so they're going to act quickly before too many catch on to what Richard's trying to do. And that means...you're next Alice."

Before Alice could respond, the sound of Terzo singing drifted in from outside, a light knock following. He entered, clad in his silk dressing gown and slippers, with a big smile on his tired face.

"Ah, cara mia! There you are! Have you been hiding from me eh?" He teased, wrapping his arms around Alice from behind. "I've been looking for you everywhere." He planted a series of pecking kisses against her neck teasingly with dramatic smooching sounds.

"Stop, Terzo." Alice pushed him away. "This is serious."

"Alice?" Terzo's smile faded, replaced by a frown. "What's wrong, my love?"

"I-" Alice turned to Primo, her voice trembling. "Tell him."

"Terzo we've been trying to figure out what's going on...why Alice is having these vivid dream." Primo sighed. "Richard is still trying to overthrow you, all of us. And he's using black magic to do so." He hesitated before continuing, looking at Terzo's furrowed brows. "Elizabeth was never real...she's a demon he's using. And Alice has to go to the void to kill it."