Faith of the Divine Inferno by Leslie Thompson (e textbook reader txt) 📕

had emerged from the blood bath and swore to butcher the men who had killed them.
I cornered the assassins some weeks later, and they begged for their worthless lives. They told me that they had merely slayed demons in the name of their God and that they were guiltless of any sin. I was disgusted by their cowardice and bloodlust, and I spent several hours carving them up. Then to make sure the rest of the cult got my point, I left their mutilated bodies hanging by their entrails from the pillars of the public baths.
For centuries after, I hunted the Conservatoris and killed them whenever I found them. I left each corpse in the same manner as I had left the first at the baths so that my enemy always knew who was hunting them. Finally, the group disbanded when I decapitated their leaders and left their heads on spikes all over Paris. The remaining members disappeared within the ranks of the Templar knighthood and most of them were killed off during the Crusades. I was contented with that, and I left them to time and their fates.
Now they were allied with the Children of Orpheus and demanding that I suffer their protection. I remember how they do things and how long they hold grudges. The last thing I needed right now was to end up in a plastic bag somewhere wondering how I was going to get my bits and pieces back together.
My ugly thoughts were clear on my face and I saw the nurse’s eyes go wide with fear as she quickly moved out of my reach. “Who are the members of the Conservatoris now?” I demanded coldly. “And why are the Children of Orpheus in league with them?”
“You’ve already met them,” the nurse stammered. “They are the uniformed men the Vatican sent to help us.” She was speaking of the big, blond clones in their black and white uniforms. I knew that they were part of something insidious; I simply hadn’t bothered to imagine what it was.
“The Vatican sent them.” I repeated with disgust. “Since when does the Pope employ assassin cults?”
The Catholics were guilty of a lot of things, but they had always stayed clear of the obsessively homicidal lunatic set. Involvement with those types destroyed their beloved Plausible Deniability. Maybe the Catholics have managed to tame the Conservatoris through time and faith. The promises of Heaven or the consequences of Hell can be very powerful things in the right hands. With any luck, they would behave themselves and I won’t have to start piling up the corpses again.
“I really don’t know when the Pope started hiring assassin cults. I’m Methodist.” The nurse replied chuckling. “All I know is that a few years back, the Great Bard decided that the supernatural stuff was getting too dangerous, and he applied to the Archbishop of the Atlanta Diocese for help. Last year, the Conservatoris arrived with a letter of introduction and they’ve been here ever since. The only time one of them has been violent is when you bit Oscar’s ear off and he shot you.” She said that last part like she thought it was funny. What a bitch.
“I do not need protection from anyone, especially from the Conservatoris,” I snapped and returned to my search for the exit.
“I don’t think they’re going to give you a choice in light of recent developments.”
“Oh yeah? What developments are those?”
“You and Detective Shaw have clearly been attacked by a demonic entity that has a purpose for you, and will not leave you alone until it has achieved its goal. There have been reports that creatures from the Unseelie Court have infested the city and are causing trouble. There is more demonic activity taking place near the Old Decatur Cemetery and it is drawing the attention of the local police force. Four members of the Children have been assaulted by the Immortal Church of God, and three have been killed. The Great Bard has ordered everyone out of the field and back to the safe house for debriefing by the Conservatoris.” While she had recited her gossip with gleeful relish, I had managed to walk out of the infirmary with her without her noticing.
The hallway damn near stretched into forever, and it was wide enough to allow four people to walk side by side. The doors were placed in an eclectic manner that defied the rules of reasonable architecture. Even the floor didn’t make sense. It went from glossy hardwood to rich, colorful mosaics, then rickety rough boards and cheap, cracked linoleum. The longer we walked the weirder it got and soon there were windows showing brick walls and doors held stairways to nowhere. I had no idea that all of this was inside the confines of the building. How do they hide it all?
“Is everything okay?” the nurse asked. She looked entirely too amused by my confusion.
“Where are we and how the hell do I get out of here?” There was no point in denying that I was confused, she already knew.
Smug, the nurse walked to a door at the end of the hallway and opened it. “This will take you upstairs to the main floor. A pair of Conservatoris is waiting to take you to your room to get ready for the cleansing. Try not to bite any of them.”
“Smart ass,” I growled and bumped the woman with my shoulder as I passed her. Gasping with surprise, she staggered and had to grab the door to keep from falling over.
The nurse gave me a scathing harrumph and slammed the door closed, leaving me in total darkness. Unperturbed, I climbed the stairs in the dark, using my hand on the rail for guidance. The door at the top opened at my approach, and I was momentarily blinded by the sudden bright light. With a yelp, I was yanked out of the stair well and hauled across the floor to stand next to a hulking blond man.
His blocky face was flat and emotionless, but I know barely repressed rage when I see it. The cloned blonde’s blue eyes burned with it until they seemed to glow with fury. And the cause of his fury was not hard to guess at either. He had a wad of bandages taped to one side of his head so that his hair stuck out in awkward tufts.
“Hello Oscar,” I said smiling cheerfully. “How’s your ear?”
I said it to get on his nerves and it worked better than I hoped. Oscar bared his teeth in a vicious snarl and wapped me up side my head. I rubbed the offending spot and gave the man a reproachful look. I didn’t make a move to retaliate. The big lug nut wanted nothing more than to beat me up, and I would give him the excuse to do so if I hit him back. It was much more fun to get under his skin and work his last nerve by simply pouting. So I did that.
Seconds before I was certain Oscar’s brain was going to shoot out of his one good ear, one of his brothers intervened and put a stop to it. The fellow was an exact copy of One Ear in every way but personality. This one wore a wry grin and he slouched as if he understood that he was thuggish and he wished he could be someone else. He was still intimidating, but in a cheerful, schleppy kind of way.
The Newcomer shooed Oscar off with a casual wave of his hand, which of course pissed him off even more. He ground his teeth hard until it sounded like they cracked, and then stalked out of the room.
“I understand that you are called Rebecca Calden for the time being. My name is Arnold and I’ll be in charge of your security detail.” Arnold’s face warmed with a friendly smile as he offered me a hand that I stubbornly ignored.
“I don’t need or want anything from the Conservatoris,” I snapped. “Go away.”
“I don’t blame you for the malice you feel toward our order.” Arnold paused to let me snort in contempt. “And I agree that you were given just cause. Rest assured that the order’s time as mindless heathens and terrorists have long since passed, and that we have taken strict vows of honor and chastity unto God. Allow bygones to be bygones and I’m sure we can begin a partnership that will prove beneficial to us both.” Arnold smiled at me to show how sincere he was. I didn’t believe it.
“There is too much rape and murder in your history for you to hide behind religion now,” I said coldly. “It was in the name of Jesus Christ that your cult thought that it had the right to slaughter innocent people.”
“We are aware that our predecessors’ madness destroyed their faith. But our faith is stronger than the ravages of bloodlust and vengeance,” Arnold said firmly. “I do not question God’s plan.”
“Maybe you should start,” I snapped back, “because the ones who came before you didn’t question it either. They assumed that they knew what He wanted and acted blindly on it. That is how they could go so wrong so fast.”
“Your bloody history is far longer than our own.” Arnold didn’t like that my pagan mind had passed so much judgment over him. To him, I am less than he is because I have not bought into the notion of a one true god, as if polytheism is the single trait of a sub-human.
“True. But I never tried to defend it by calling my actions divine providence.” Oooh, that one stung him. If I keep this up, Arnold was going to cry. I might get out of the Conservatoris’ protective custody yet.
Arnold drew up to his full height and puffed up his barrel chest in outrage. He closed his eyes, held his breath and counted to ten, eight times. As he was turning blue, he released the breath in a rush and then nearly passed out from his fight for control. “We can settle our differences later. I will take you to see Detective Shaw, and you may wait in his room until we are ready to begin the debriefing. If you will please come with me, I will take you to him.”
Arnold stormed off without making sure I followed. I considered running for the front door instead, but I found that I couldn’t. Shaw kept sticking his neck out for me, and it seemed poor gratitude to leave him in the hands of half-cocked maniacs. So I followed Arnold up the stairs. I did take my sweet damn time doing it though. What would the Conservatoris do if they decided that I had feelings for the mortal?


Chapter 23

Arnold roughly shoved me into Shaw’s room with a hand between my shoulder blades. I had heckled him mercilessly as we walked to the living quarters from the foyer, assailing him with the gruesome details of ancient misdeeds of the Conservatoris and letting him know I thought he had a nice, tight butt. That