GAME ON - GoM 2

4

Father Jason welcomed them to his little house behind the church. At the living room, they found a tall man in priest suit inspecting the titles on the bookshelf, his back to the door. Alex didn't need to see his face to know this was the man from her dream—the 'face without a name,' as the Skagit Elder had called him. And when he turned around to greet them, his translucent eyes met hers first, as he flashed his nice smile.

"Sooner than expected," he said as they shook hands, only for her to hear.

She arched her eyebrows. There was something about him. The way he held her hand a heartbeat longer than necessary and looked straight into her eyes. It made her feel awkwardly exposed.

Graham arrived last, right in time to take the last seat available. Father Jason insisted in playing perfect host, and brought six-packs and peanuts to the coffee table. When they were all settled, all eyes turned to Alex.

She set her jaw. Why would they expect her to speak? She'd come looking for information, just like them. But she'd called on this meeting, after all, so it was sort of obvious that they waited for her to get it started. So she cleared her throat.

"Guys, we're in big trouble. Father Thames and Bormstone here will fill us in. All I know is that we've got demons here in town, and they've already taken at least one victim." She looked at Graham. "Alice. Today I spent a couple of hours with her rightfully-pissed-off ghost. Markus killed her." Graham sat up. "But there's more to him. Bormstone?"

"Wait!" said Graham. "What d'you mean, he killed her? You sure?"

Harry let Alex reply, making a mental note about how nobody had even blinked at the word 'demons', but the Sheriff had reacted right away at the murder bit.

"He says Alice's in Seattle, taking care of her mom," said Claire. "But Al called her sister a while ago. Alice hasn't been to Seattle for months."

"Her ghost shows her throat was slit open," Alex said. "Swearing Markus did it—both to silence her and drink her blood. Also, the ghost is wearing a night robe, so she wasn't killed on the street."

Father Jason tried to speak, but he was too shocked to do it.

"That's all you have?"

Harry added a line to his mental note: the Sheriff hadn't blinked at the 'ghost' bit either. What kind of people lived in this godforsaken town?

"Yes, Dave, but it doesn't matter anyway. Markus' place is three steps outside your jurisdiction. Tell me about attention to details."

"And there's no body. Not even a missing person report," said Ollie.

Father Jason finally found his voice. "And you know what this is all about?" he asked Harry.

The hunter nodded. "Yes, but I think Father Thames can explain it better."

Thames smiled. "Please, it's Gregory." He sipped his beer and leaned forward. "Okay, this is gonna take a while. So please, feel free to cut me off whenever you need to ask anything or go to the toilet."

The others managed quick smiles at his words.

So Thames explained. He spoke in a conversational way, as if commenting on a movie. But his eyes kept turning to Alex, as if checking whether she was paying attention, and if she understood what he said.

"No matter what we believe, it's a fact that Heaven and Hell exist. Hell's ruled by the most powerful among demons, a former archangel we Catholics call Lucifer. He's got a few trusted wingmen to have his ranks do his bidding. The most powerful among them is Askaroth, Duke of Hell, and he's in charge of Lucifer's most ambitious plan ever since the Fall: opening the gates of Hell to break it loose on earth and take the world over." He paused to let the others take his words in. "You see, they're immortal—unless somebody's got the strength and the skill to kill them—so they're in no hurry. Askaroth's been working on this for the last six-hundred years, give or take. So far, he's focused on getting rid of any obstacle to make sure nothing will blast his big plan when he sets it in motion."

Thames paused again. Father Jason took advantage of the break to bring more snacks, with Claire's help. Thames went on when they were done.

"By the end of the Dark Age, a secret order of monks found out that Askaroth has at least one weakness. They left no record as to what it could be, but they crafted weapons to fight it: six crosses, all of them built from the same consecrated wood and holding the same holy power to obliterate Lucifer's deputy. As you can imagine, Askaroth soon learned about them and set out to destroy them. It took him four-hundred years, because every cross was harder to destroy than the last. The monks built them with an alchemic link between them, so when one of them was destroyed, its power transferred to the remaining crosses."

"Meaning the last one would have the power of all six together," said Alex.

Thames nodded. "Exactly. And now it's too powerful for Askaroth to destroy."

Graham narrowed his eyes. "Wait. Now you're using present tense."

Claire sat up, excited. "Does it mean the last cross still exists?"