Page 79 of Shadows of the Soul

I stood and spun to face him. “It’s far from over, but we won this battle.”

He frowned, and his gaze bored into my skull. My secrets were once again my own. Any barrier he’d managed to wear down, I’d re-erected with extra protection. Nothing was getting through this sucker. I wrapped my mind up in a super thick condom and I was on the pill. Okay, bad analogy, but you get my drift.

“I’ll go fetch the broom,” Maggie said, running from the basement.

“I didn’t think we were getting a show and an exorcism,” Lenson said, smirking at Dave.

I sucked in a breath. I was exhausted, but I needed to feel the sun on my face after facing that kind of evil.

“There’s nothing more we can do today. I’ll be upstairs,” I said.

Hudson took a step toward me. “I’ll come.”

I put my hand out. “No, I need some space.”

He huffed and ran a hand through his hair. He wanted to interrogate me about the things Bune had said. I wanted to pick apart some things myself, but with my grandmother.

I headed out the door, up the stairs, and through the house. I swung open the back door and sucked in a lungful of fresh Louisiana air as I stepped outside and closed my eyes, letting the sun warm my face.

“Cora Roberts in the flesh, color me honored, my dear. Now be an angel and take a seat. We have things to discuss.”

My head snapped to the left and I found none other than the Satanic priest, Stephen Proctor, lounging in on my porch swing. Why me?

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

There’s a fox in my henhouse.

When dealing with satanic priests, one must proceed with caution—no sudden movements, no acting like prey—so a lot like handling Hudson. I’m doomed. However, he wasn’t here to kill me. If Lucifer wanted me dead, I’d be dead. But the second I died, that portal would snap closed. I was safe, relatively speaking.

I folded myself into the seat next to Stephen. He was handsome, in an overly pretty kind of way. Dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin, long limbs tucked into a sharp suit. Too clean, too groomed—like a Calvin Klein ad campaign.

“Your roses are making a mess of my house, Stephen,” I stated as a fat droplet of blood clung to the bloom hanging from the porch.

The petal shuddered in the breeze and released its crimson fruit onto the floor. Another rose instantly sprouted from the blood.

Stephen smiled. “Ah, I see your grandmother has made the link. No matter. I’m no demon, Cora, you can’t banish me from this plane. It’s my own, after all.”

“For now.”

He sighed. “Don’t bore me with tales of religion. We both know there’s a Heaven and a Hell. I don’t need to hear the Ten Commandments to know which realm I am destined for. While the destinations and characters are real, religion is a man-made mass illusion, fed by the fear that every act will be judged and weighed.”

I turned to face him. “Won’t it?”

“You know better.”

“Religion at its core is about living a good life, being compassionate, kind, generous. It considers human vices and makes room for them. The part you speak of was written by men to keep women in line and rule over leaders of nations. We’ve come a long way since then.”

“Yet as your race stands on the precipice of war, you worry they will cast you out of this fabricated religion.”

I inclined my head. “No, I worry that humankind will think religion is specifically for them, and them alone. It will give the haters fuel, that we are abominations that need to be eradicated. History has proven the few influence the masses.”

He stretched his arms out, like he was welcoming my conclusion. “And so we have a quandary. Your grandmother needs to be stopped.”

Huh, this was an angle I hadn’t expected. Stephen Proctor was here because of the blood magic and the Lucifer mess he was entangled with, not because of the political wrangling of the supernaturals. What was I missing? Was this linked to the deal Bune spoke of with my grandmother? Ugh, so many unanswered questions.

“My grandmother has legions of elementals and is poised to have a landmark treaty signed between the three factions. If that happens, it will take an act of god to stop her.”

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