Dark Hearts

Part V

The Demon

The entire building was ablaze, he could hear the sirens wailing in the distance and yet he saw not a single firefighter, Templars really know how to do their job.

His suit was ruined, so was his human body; all bloody and battered, with bullets here and there, most of them went right through him and some were still there inside his flesh, he could feel them, moving inside and burning him like acid, those "holy" bullets were a pain in the ass, his friends told him, but it was the first time he was actually shot by them.

He heard someone moving; a young woman, blonde and her leg seemed broken, but she was still alive, she crawled to her gun, so weak, so pathetic, Azazel approached her, slowly like he usually does, but this time he was forced to walk this slow as there was a bullet in his thigh and another one in his knee, she was inches away from the gun when he stomped it with his boot and she couldn't get his feet off it.

"Look around you, little girl" she did as she was told. It was a massacre; a dozen bodies around her, half of them were the team that came in to take him down, but he knew they would come for him and he set a trap for them, they killed his demons with ease though, normal demons were very sensitive to Templars' weapons. He leaned down to take a closer look at his last kill for the night, she was a beautiful woman, probably a fresh Templar from the fear he saw in her eyes, but underneath the fear, the dust and blood, she was good to look at, if he was a human he would have been probably wooed. It was one of his weaknesses; to toy with someone before he kills them, he didn't know that even though this one seemed weak and broken she would somehow be his downfall, Catherine was so fragile back then, but her mind was filled with Templars' nonsense.

"Tell me now" he began "all your friends failed and yet you think you can succeed? What is driving you, little girl? Faith? Hope? A vision of a better world?" He finished sarcastically.

"Fuck you, demon" she spat at him.

"Ooh" he coiled back like a serpent glimpsing fire "didn't the Templars teach you it's bad to curse" he smiled "you can go to hell for that" he laughed a little and stopped when he saw her lips moving, she was muttering something under her breath, something he couldn't hear, his eyes narrowed and he leaned again closer, trying to hear the words, then suddenly his blood boiled more, as if the bullets inside him exploded and spread some sort of poison inside the human flesh he wore, the veins in his head exploded over and over again, his healing made it worse, he placed both his hands on his head trying to contain the pain but it was too much, he reeled few steps back and fell on his knees, Catherine took the gun, slowly trying to get herself back up on that broken leg of hers, her voice rose higher and higher, she didn't speak English, it was Latin; she was performing an exorcism, she was not a paladin she was a priestess, he underestimated his prey, and she made him pay for it, she was finally up, she approached him, pulling her leg heavily behind her, she pointed the gun at his head and Azazel thought that was it, but then the Latin words stopped bounding his head and he opened his eyes and saw the woman who he thought was fragile and broken now standing tall and fearless before him.

"You don't deserve a quick death" she said coldly and for a moment Azazel was afraid, a little girl scared him, he tried to shake it off and get up, she shot him in both legs and both arms, he was too weak now and he fell on his back without resistance, he gave a cry of pain and tried to move his limbs but they were numb, Catherine then threw herself on him, knee first to the stomach and her gun pressing on his forehead, it was still hot from the four shots she fired at him, but it wasn't as painful as the new bullets inside him now.

"I'm going to enjoy this" she said and then began saying Latin again. This time Azazel felt no pain and went to deep sleep.

She kept him in some cellar for the next couple of weeks. At first, he didn't know what was happening, as he was chained in a chair for a few days and locked inside a holy circle; making him paralyzed. Then she showed up with her leg splinted and this frightening sharp look on her face and he knew; she wasn't planning to kill him; not just yet. Days passed and at the end of each passing day she showed up and tortured him, she peeled off his skin with a hunting knife that had a holy spell on it, made him drink holy water, sometimes just shot him so she can make him scream, he lost track of time; of how long he was held there, tortured by this woman, he understood her anger; it wasn't just frustration over the death of her partner and team; it was also the deaths of the warlock's wife and daughter. Sometimes he felt she just did it to blow off some steam, like hitting a punching bag; but her punching bag was bleeding, and he was angry.