Heretics book 3 - The Apocryphile Press

pulling him into her lap. “Holy cow, Randy, what the hell
have you been up to?” she whispered, kissing the top of his
head.
She realized she was cradling his body like an unholy
pieta, surrounded by the instruments of demons, feeling like
the bull’s-eye of a target that the demonic host could not
miss. She brushed her brother’s stringy hair out of his long,
horsy face. Indeed, they had not missed. She said a brief
prayer to the Goddess and rocked him until she heard the
sirens approach and the thundering boots of paramedics on
the stairs.
:: 6 ::
THE KINGDOM :: 41
The demon had chosen the hard way. Richard knew he
would. They always did. The possessed man’s throat opened
and the demon emitted a scream that made all of them
wince. “You!” It pointed the man’s bony finger at Richard,
“You have no authority....”
“I exorcise you, Most Unclean Spirit! Invading Enemy! In
the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Be uprooted and
expelled from this Creature of God....”
“You separate yourselves from the True Church because
you are willful, and sinful, your appetite for sin overcomes
you and will be your undoing, false-priests....” The demon
had become unexpectedly articulate, which meant he was
scared. Richard knew they were on the right track.
“What’s the next stage, Mikael?” Terry asked.
“Breakpoint? The battle of wills....”
“Yup. We’re there.”
Richard shook the aspergill at the possessed, raining him
with holy water as he intoned, “He who commands you is
he who ordered you to be thrown down from Heaven into