Page 54 of Deliver us from Evil

We end up in the living room a second later. His teeth are bared like a wild animal’s. I’m snarling like a beast. We tackle each other, end up on the carpet. I get a blow to his head. He gets a knee to my groin.

And then the gun goes off again.

And this time…

This time thereispain.

It’s vast and it’s endless and fucking magnificent in its abundance.

But that’s not fine, because now I can’t fight anymore. And Gabriel…he’s on his feet. He’s running.

Thank you Jesus.

He’s not running toward the front door. Toward Trinity or my brothers.

The cowardly fuck is running away.

Thank Christ.

I try to cross myself, but my body just lies there.

Body and mind. Two different things entirely.

I’m still here. I’m still conscious. But all I can do is watch and observe—paralyzed as, all around me, the world dissolves into chaos.

Chapter Twenty

Rube

I’ve never felt so torn in my life. My body is being sent in two different directions by a mind suddenly unable to prioritize. But I’m rooted to the spot because this is where Zachary is lying.

We’re in Trinity’s living room, judging from the couches and the dusty television set. But Trinity’s not here. She’s still in the passage by the front door.

That’swhere I want to be.

I caught a glimpse of Gabriel a second before he turned a corner and disappeared toward the back of the house. No doubt escaping through the back door we would have been covering if Cass hadn’t been so fucking impulsive.

That’s where I want to be too.

Instead I’m standing here, watching Zachary’s blood soak into the carpet.

And then Trinity screams, and it’s as if everyone’s minds come back from wherever they’d wandered off to.

“He’s getting away!” Cass says, but he’s running toward Trinity, not Gabriel.

Apollo falls to his knees beside me, inadvertently soaking his jeans in blood. “Is he dead?”

I don’t know.

I just don’t fucking know.

“Call an ambulance,” I tell Apollo.

But now his hands are full of blood because he was trying to stop it running out of the two holes in Zachary’s torso, and that’s freaking him out and he’s gone and frozen up.

“Apollo!”

Brown eyes snap to me. “Yes?”

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