Delilah Recovered **2017 Watty Winner**

chapter seventeen

Faye led Delilah down the hallway. They stopped at a glossy red door with a knocker shaped as two intertwined fish. Faye pulled out a black stain blindfold from her jean jacket. Delilah could feel the bile churning in her stomach creeping up her throat. She inhaled sharply hoping she could keep it down.

"Turn around," she ordered holding up the blindfold.

Delilah jumped back. She didn't sign up for blindfolds. A dry heave tried to escape, she began to cough and sounded like a rabid barking dog.

Faye reached out and took her hand. "Look this is seriously messed up on all levels. You got thrown into this world and now you have to give this life over to virtual strangers."

Delilah's stomach seized and she threw up on Faye's high tops. "I'm so sorry," she said, wiping the vomit from her mouth with the back of her hand.

Pulling out a bandana from her back pocket, she wiped Delilah's face. "Nothing bad is going to happen to you in there." She looked Delilah in the eye. "I promise you on my car-broiled blacken dead soul."

Delilah's hands were shaking. She reached out for the blindfold and put it over her eyes. Faye tightened it. "Let's do this."

The door knocker reverberated throughout the hallway and rattled inside Delilah's chest. Her mouth was so dry. She squeezed Faye's hand as she led her into the sanctuary. The marble floor was cool against her bare feet.

"We're going up three stairs," Faye whispered, slowly guiding her up the steps. Once they were at the top. Faye took her shoulders and moved her body, "See ya on the other side."

Delilah's knees were trembling.

"Who will stand as her Benefactor?" The voice echoing through the sanctuary belonged to Tabitha Anthea.

A painful silence followed. Delilah willed herself not to pass out. Her heart drumming in a steady beat against her chest. Was Jonathan going to leave her hanging?

She could hear the door grind open. "I will," Jonathan called out and Delilah let out the breath she was holding.

"We must descend," a chorus sang out to her left. "In order to ascend," another chorus to her right replied. Their lyrical voices filling the room.

"Hey, there," Jonathan whispered in her ear as he removed the blindfold from her eyes.

Delilah blinked back the bright spotlight that was focused on her face. She scanned the room, it was filled with people from every nationality. Their bright beaming faces smiling up at her. The women in the same white dress Delilah wore. The men had on white short-sleeved button-down shirts with pointy military collars buttoned up to their necks and kilts.

Above their heads floated a massive Cathedral ceiling painted with light blue and cotton candy clouds that continued to swirl toward infinity as cherubs drifted among them. The beauty of it made her dizzy.

Standing at the altar under a large golden arch covered in white silk with images of a sword, fleur-de-lis, a rose, two intertwined fish, and a swan hand-painted on it was Tabitha Anthea.

"Jonathan Augustus Berwick, will you stand as Benefactor for Delilah Jehanne D'Arc." She said handing a sharp blade and a goblet to Jonathan.

"It was decided by the sky."

"You alone will be responsible for training and guiding her soul from this day forward. What say you?"

"It was decided by the stars."

"In doing so, you agree to live the remainder of your days until your last breath in service to her. What say you?"

"It was decided by the coven."

"The unification now begins," Tabitha Anthea instructed.

Delilah watched the man standing closest to the altar held out his hand as Jonathan ran the blade over his palm and squeezed blood into the goblet. The entire coven, one by one pressed their blood into the chalice while chanting "We must descend, in order to ascend."

The sound of their chanting was a lullaby lulling her into a hypnotic state. She barely registered Jonathan handing Tabitha Anthea the blood-filled goblet. In one deft movement, he ran the icy blade over her meaty palm and pressed her blood into it. Quickly he tied her hand with a linen cloth. He handed Delilah the knife and presented his hand as an offering. Awakened from her trance, her hands trembling as she attempted to slice open his palm. Until finally he forced his hand into the blade raking it over the sharp edge drawing his own blood.

Tabitha Anthea mixed the blood in the chalice. Then dipped her thumb into it and pressed onto Delilah's forehead, "May your inner eye always see the truth."

Repeating the movement, this time she imprinted her bloody thumbprint on Delilah's heart. "May your heart know valor and charity."

"The blood of your blood is now mine, the blood of my blood is now yours," Tabitha Anthea said, as she brought the goblet to her mouth and took a sip from it.

She offered the goblet to Jonathan, he took a taste leaving a small trace of blood on his lips. Jonathan handed Delilah the goblet. For a moment, she had a vision of drinking it and spewing witch blood over the entire coven like a possessed demon.

Seeing her hesitation, he said softly, "Just take a small sip. It's really more for show than anything else."

Delilah knew exactly what she had to do, what was expected of her, as the goblet touched her lips and the copper penny smell filled her senses. The coven chanting, "Honor, honesty, and mercy." She took a long pull letting the slick oily blood run down the back of her throat.

Jonathan removed the goblet from her hands, "You're a total bad-ass. Now stop it before you get sick." Jonathan said, setting the goblet down and wiping the blood from her lips.