Infernal Father of Mine (38 page)

Ryland grunted. "Your average ordinary lycan
pays more attention to pack politics than what goes on at the top."
He shrugged. "Even so, you put a powerful enough alpha in charge,
and people obey."

"You really think there's an alpha the packs
would unite under?" Dad said. "He'd have to be one hell of a
guy."

"Ain't but one I can think of," Ryland said.
"He went lone wolf a long time ago, and he hates politics, so I
don't see him getting involved. I'm getting back into the game so I
can bring him over to our side."

Elyssa appeared at my side. "It's time to suit
up. The squads joining us for the church operation just arrived and
are waiting in the arch room. They brought our camouflage
armor."

Mom and the others had finished making a scene
about Stacey's delicate condition and headed downstairs. Dad and I
looked at each other, shrugged, and followed along with the other
men.

The omniarch portal was open. Through it, I saw
neat rows of Templars jogging from the Obsidian Arch at the Three
Sisters and lining up in formation. Every soldier wore black
Nightingale armor which covered them from head to toe. They looked
like ninjas in skin-tight material, but a lot cooler. Each Templar
also wore a red armband enchanted with a friend or foe spell, a
precaution they took to differentiate themselves from Synod
Templars.

Elyssa handed me a belt of dark gray cloth. I
raised an eyebrow. "Isn't Nightingale armor usually
black?"

"Camouflage isn't standard issue," she
said.

I lifted my shirt and fastened the cloth around
my bare waist. It felt light and silky to the touch. I pressed a
finger to the lower seam and the cloth extended down my legs and
over my feet beneath my jeans and shoes. Touching the top seam
caused it to cover my torso, forming a crew neck at my
throat.

Elyssa took off her civilian clothes, revealing
toned curves beneath her armor.

"Nightingale armor is the next best thing to
yoga pants." I leered and waggled my eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes and graced me with a kiss.
"Keep your mind on the business at hand, Casanova."

I saluted. "You got it, hot stuff."

Mom and Dad put on their armor beneath their
clothes.

"Lose the clothes," Elyssa said. "Otherwise the
camouflage is pointless."

Mom smiled shyly and took off her dress. Dad
dropped his slacks and unbuttoned his shirt. I felt my face grow
warm even though I knew the armor concealed them beneath the
clothes. There was something very uncomfortable about seeing the
two of them in such form-fitting outfits. A lopsided smile slid
over Dad's face, giving the impression none of this fazed him one
little bit. Judging from all the sideways looks he gave Mom, I
could tell she affected him in ways he didn't want to
admit.

She looked up at him with demure eyes. "Thank
you for helping us, David."

"Ah, it's no biggie," he said with a casual
flick of the hand.

Elyssa stepped inside the silver ring
surrounding the omniarch and closed the portal leading to the Three
Sisters. She consulted an image on her phone. It showed the view of
the Exorcist church from the roof of a nearby building. She closed
her eyes for an instant, and a new portal flickered into place with
the same view visible through it. My girlfriend motioned us
through.

Ryland stepped in after us. "My people are
already patrolling the streets around the church," he said, and
headed toward the stairwell door on the roof. "I'm going to join
them."

"Good luck, Ryland."

He winked. "You too, cowboy." He went through
the door.

Adam and Shelton came through the portal a
second later and joined our group.

A familiar Templar approached Elyssa. I
realized he was the same one who'd led a special ops division and
helped in the capture of Maulin Kassus. Hutchins nodded at me.
"Good to see you again, Mr. Slade."

"Same to you." I shook his hand. "I feel better
about the odds already, knowing you and your men are on the
job."

"What's the sitrep?" Elyssa asked.

Hutchins pointed out the rooftops of several
nearby buildings. "Every angle and approach is covered. We've been
monitoring the building for the past twenty minutes and have
detected no signs of Exorcists outside."

"Any occupants?" Elyssa asked.

"Unknown. The windows are covered from the
inside, and the building is protected against thermal spells or
infrared equipment." He cast an almost admiring look toward the
church. "The Exorcists take their security very
seriously."

"Has Beta reported in?"

He nodded. "The rear entrance is secure. No
OPFOR vehicles present."

It took me a moment to remember that OPFOR
stood for opposing force, a term the Templars used generically to
indicate their adversaries.

"We should get started on the shield," Adam
said. "I hope it won't take long, but, well, best laid plans and
all that."

"Agreed," Elyssa said. "Carry on,
Hutchins."

He nodded. "Good luck in the Gloom."

We made our way downstairs and took several
side alleys to covertly make our way to a thin belt of trees at the
rear of the Exorcist church. Elyssa greeted the Beta Squad leader
for a brief report.

"We removed detection wards from the rear
perimeter," a Templar Arcane said in answer to one of Elyssa's
questions. "Everything is clear up to the back door. No resistance
or signs of life."

Elyssa turned to Adam. "You may
proceed."

We went to the edge of the trees and stepped
through a neatly sliced hole in the iron fence around the parking
lot. The group jogged to the rear door.

Adam took out his arcphone and held it close to
the door. He whistled. "Wow, this is a nasty shield. It'll knock
you out if you touch it. Looks like someone threw this spell
together a few hours ago."

"Thank goodness I didn't touch it when I was
here earlier," Elyssa said.

Shelton scanned the door with his arcphone and
grunted. "Amateurs. The shield ain't bad, but they should've used
separate wards instead of combining them all into one big messy
spell."

"Will that make this easier?" I
asked.

"It should. It's hard to optimize spell code
when you combine several functions together." He shoved the
arcphone back in his pocket. "Messy code means more exploits in the
matrix."

"Here's hoping." Adam flicked through a list of
spells programmed into his arcphone and activated one named
Spell Cracker 5.2
. A timer began counting the seconds while
a wide beam of light swept up and down the door, revealing an azure
glow in the spots it highlighted. He released the arcphone, leaving
it hovering in the air just before the door. "Now, we
wait."

Elyssa made a signal with her hands, and a
squad—presumably Gamma—emerged from the trees bordering the iron
fence around the parking lot and took positions near the door. I
counted a dozen silent figures, each clad in standard-issue black
Nightingale armor.

She looked up at the cross-shaped holes, as if
expecting an attack at any minute. "I don't know why they haven't
responded unless they abandoned the church."

"Do you really think they'd leave it?" I
asked.

She shrugged. "I haven't been back since the
first time. Maybe their guard is down."

"Or, it's an ambush."

"I've already considered the possibility. We'll
have to be ready for anything."

Adam's phone beeped. He raised an eyebrow.
"Wow, that was fast."

"Yeah, thanks to the contributions I made to
your spell." Shelton flashed a self-assured smile.

Adam chuckled. "You go on thinking that,
buddy." He snatched the hovering phone and read what looked like a
report log. "Whoever spliced this crappy shield spell together left
tons of exploits." He flourished a hand toward the door. "I believe
the Templars can take over from here."

Elyssa motioned toward one of the Templars. The
masculine figure knelt in front of the door and produced a set of
lock picks. I looked at Shelton. "Can't you pick the lock with your
wand?"

He snorted. "How many times I gotta tell you it
ain't as easy as it looks?"

It didn't take the Templar long to click open
the lock. He twisted the handle, and opened the thick iron door to
reveal the hallway into the sanctuary. Without a word, he and the
other Templars filed through, vanishing inside. Elyssa held up a
fist.

"Does that mean to wait?" I asked.

She threw me a disapproving look. "You still
haven't memorized the hand signals."

"He's a terrible student," Shelton said with a
laugh.

Dad peered inside the door. "I'd like to burn
this place to the ground after we're finished here."

"I can't believe Montjoy is still after you,"
Mom said, eyes full of concern.

"The man has a one-track mind." Dad smirked.
"But, he makes life interesting sometimes."

She frowned. "As usual, you and I have far
different definitions of interesting."

Elyssa touched a finger to her ear and nodded.
"Gamma gave the all clear. Let's proceed."

We walked inside. A glowball hovered high above
even the massive chandeliers, casting the sanctuary in a pale light
that almost made it seem not as spooky as before. The cages where
they'd kept the possessed inmates were empty. Rows upon rows of
pews ran the length of the large rectangular sanctuary. Icons of
mosaic glass ringed the domed ceiling. I assumed they represented
religious figures—which ones I couldn't say since my family wasn't
exactly the church-going type. About fifty feet up, a thick wide
ledge ran along the walls. Statues of angels with bowed heads were
spaced along it.

The place looked abandoned.

"Something doesn't feel right," Elyssa said,
looking around the empty church. "Why would they leave it
completely unguarded?"

The light from the glowball hit a nearby angel
from the side, casting a long shadow against the wall. I was just
about to turn away from the angel, when I realized something odd
about the shadow. Instead of one head, it had two. I felt my eyes
widen as I realized the angel on the other side of the apse was
also casting dual shadows.

I turned to ask Elyssa if Templars had taken
positions up on the ledge when I saw a shadowy figure behind one
angel raise a staff.

"Watch out!" I yelled just as a spear of light
slammed into a nearby Templar, throwing him across the
room.

I jerked Elyssa behind a stone column as
another deadly spell blasted a divot in the stone floor where she'd
been standing.

"It seems only death will remove you from this
world, Mr. Slade," said Montjoy from somewhere above us. "And I
will be the one to do it."

"Montjoy, when I kill you, I plan to mount your
head over the fireplace," Dad hollered back.

"Subdue him!" Montjoy shouted.

Elyssa took out her phone. "We need more troops
in here now!"

I peeked from behind cover. "You were right.
It's an ambush."

My girlfriend's eyes went wide. She flicked her
wrist. A silver blade blurred through the air and slammed into a
hooded figure as it emerged from the space behind an angel on the
ledge above and across from us. A man cried out and plummeted over
the side, his body bouncing off the pew below.

"Secret passageways behind the angels if I had
to guess." Elyssa threw another knife. Her target on the ledge
brandished a staff. An azure shield sprang up, deflecting the
blade.

A bolt of white light speared past my head and
gouged a hole in the stone column behind me. Elyssa and I dove in
opposite directions as more spells blew stone to dust. Elyssa's arm
blurred. Knives flashed in all directions. Two more Exorcists
screamed and fell from the ledge. A man bellowed in agony. I turned
my head toward the sound in time to see jagged bolts of magical
energy tearing a Templar's armor to shreds. Bloody mist sprayed
from exposed flesh.

I ran toward Elyssa. A blast threw me to the
side. I crashed into the hard stone of a support column.

More yells and shouts erupted. Another Templar
went down as one of the stone angels fell from the ledge and
crushed him. I saw Shelton and Adam near the front of the apse.
Shelton roared and sent a meteor of fire slamming into the ledge.
The stone collapsed, sending hooded figures screaming to their
deaths. Their bodies thudded into the floor far below. As if that
wasn't enough, tons of stone and debris landed on them. Mom and Dad
stood back-to-back, fending off a flurry of spells.

Something slammed me in the back and threw me
headlong into the pews. Heat washed over my skin even through the
Nightingale armor. The pew to my right exploded into splinters. I
rolled, ignoring the burning pain in my back, and dodged several
more lances of searing light. Another explosion sent me tumbling to
the side. I scrambled to my feet and dove toward an alcove, seeking
some cover from the enemies above.