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For a list of all the Devil’s Pact Chapters and other stories click here

This is a revised version of the story that I published on Smashword starting back in 2014. It is rewritten with much-added material. However, I did have to age up some of the characters so no one is underage in this version.

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Click here for Demonic Passions, Chapter 6.

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Cast of Characters

Warlocks

Mark Glassner — Mary Sullivan

Sex Slaves “The Sluts”

Alison — Desiree Fitzsimmons — Xiu — Korina— Violet — Lillian — Chastity (deceased) — Karen (deceased) — Jessica St. Pierre — April

Servants

Samnag “Sam” (Holy Vizier) — Candy (Sam’s Girlfriend) — Dr. Willow WolfTail — 51 (Chief Bodyguard) — Rachel — Leah (Chauffeur) — Jacob — Monique — Lize — Lynda (Pilot) — Joslyn (Pilot)

The Living Church

Daisy & Rose Cunningham (High Priestesses)

Demons

Lucifer — Lilith — Marduk — Molech

The Cult of Lilith

Lana — Chantelle — Babylon — Crystal — Starlight — Nurse Thamina — Fiona — Tir (monster) — Lamia (Monster) — Cora (monster) — Ziki (monster)

Sisters of Mary Magdalene

Mother Superior Maryām — Archangel Gabriel — Dominion Ramiel (Angel) — Doug Allard — Tina Allard — Azrael (Angel)

The Patriots

Agent Noel Heinrich, FBI (Former Slut) — Wyatt Kirby

Other

Antsy (Mark’s Sister) — Alice — Sandy (Mark’s Mother) — Sean (Mary’s Father) — Tiffany (Mary’s Mother, Sister Theodora Mariam) — Shannon (Mary’s Older Sister) — Missy (Mary’s Younger Sister) — George (Shannon’s Fiance)— Damien (Missy’s Boyfriend) — Avialle (Antsy’s Girlfriend) — Craig Erikson (Mayor of Seattle)

Chapter One

The first crisis to challenge the Tyrants was the demoness, Lilith. The Whore of Babylon had made her nest in the City of Seattle, breeding scores of her foul children. They were the monsters of old who haunted mankind before the Flood. Our stories and legends abound with the memories of these vile and loathsome creatures. Though their names have been lost to modern memory, and eons have passed since they stalked the world, mankind’s primal fear of them has never diminished: Thu’ban, Lamia, Tzavua, Alukah, Dever, Lamassu, Re’em, Mazikeen, Dabbat, Tzelanit, Agas, Pazuzu, Tir, Manticore, Dimme.

—excerpt from The History of the Tyrants’ Theocracy, by Tina Allard

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013 – Lana Paquet-Holub – Seattle, WA

“They are here,” Lilith calmly told me as Zuzu’s screeching howl faded away. “You know what to do?”

Ice water flowed through my veins. Mark was here. I wanted to sick up. “I… yes,” I stammered, trying to focus. I had a job to do. I had to make the portal. “I’m ready.”

Gunfire erupted outside. I jumped.

“Go!” Lilith shouted.

I raced through the halls past the panicked women and their monstrous daughters. The humans stared at me in fear, clutching the younger monsters to them. The older daughters flexed their various inhuman weapons, ready to fight for their divine Mother.

“To the basement!” I shouted at the women, reminding them what to do. “Go! This isn’t a drill! We’re evacuating!”

I surged forward, but the women trembled in shock.

“Get out of the way!” I howled. Finally, they moved as I barreled through them. “Hurry, follow me. To the basement! To safety!”

“Priestess Lana!” the women gasped, scooping up their frightened, monstrous daughters, cradling the children already grown from infancy into children on the verge of adolescence.

Many of Lilith’s children were still too young to fight, the latest batch only born yesterday. More than a hundred of them, the largest group yet birthed. But Mark’s attack came too soon. We just needed another day or two, and maybe we would have had a chance to hold the warehouse. I pushed through the crowd, forcing my way down the last stairs into the musty basement.

“Chantelle!” I shouted in relief.

My wife smiled at me as she drew a portal with a bronze knife, struggling to saw open a hole in the Veil. I picked up one of the bronze knives laid out on the table. I jabbed it into the air, screaming the word of the spell. My knife bit into the fabric of reality. I sawed open my own portal to the shadows, my heart hammering in fear. Dusky-skinned Thamina arrived a minute later, pushing through the growing crowd of frightened women.

Gunfire and roars howled from above.

“Hurry!” I shouted at Thamina as she took up a bronze knife.

Only three of us here could create portals. As Thamina started hers, I finished mine. A hole in the fabric of reality opening into the misty shadows. The deathly fog pressed against the opening, striking it and rolling up an invisible barrier preventing death from leaking out into the living.

“Stay close!” I yelled as women and young monsters pushed through it.

Chantelle finished drawing her portal at the same time as Thamina. My wife was always so slow at it for some reason. We were fleeing to Africa, to a tiny village in the Congo where more of Lilith’s daughters waited to be born. It was so galling. There were five villages in the Congo, nearly a thousand women just days away from birthing Lilith an army.

We were so damned close!

* * *

Fiona Cavanagh

My phone’s alarm went off, beeping incessantly and dragging me up from the depths of sleep.

“Fuck,” I muttered. I swiped off the alarm.

4:30 AM. Too fucking early.

This was the third time tonight I had to wake up and check on Mayor Erikson. He should still be asleep. He never caused any problems, far too under Lamia’s spell to resist at this point. But Lilith wanted him watched. She didn’t believe in leaving things to chance. And we needed him just for a little longer.

Even if he was a man. He ruled Seattle for us, letting us get the resources we needed to build Lilith’s empire. We were just days away from our attack. Then Mark Glassner would pay for ever making Thamina and me his slaves. My wife and I would never be under his domination again.

Never!

I stood up, stretched, and padded out into the hallways. My feet slapped on the hardwood floor of the man’s house. I scratched an itch on my side. I reached his bedroom, opened the door and saw the Mayor of Seattle sleeping peacefully alone. I stifled a yawn and turned to stumbled back to my room and get another hour or so of blessed sleep.

A splintering crash echoed through the house.

I froze. My heart beat faster. What was that?

More sounds. Heavy footsteps. Panic surged through me. My head whipped around as a clammy hand seized my guts. I didn’t know what to do. What was going on? The door burst open before me. I squeaked at the sight of a soldier. I turned and ran.

Something struck me from behind.

“Fuck!” I gasped, hitting the floor hard.

I struggled to stand. Then a booted foot slammed down between my shoulder blades. I gasped, the breath exploding from my lungs. Weight pressed down on me. The black barrel of a gun aimed down at me. He captured me. Terror squeezed my heart with a powerful fist until I was sure my poor organ would be crushed to a pulp. My greatest fear had happened.

I was at Mark’s mercy again.

* * *

Mark Glassner

The monster, Lilith’s daughter, fell from the sky. She landed amid my soldiers, U.S. Army Rangers, bowling them over. The thing stood tall and thickly muscled, built like a bull. The monstrosity had red-feathered wings folded almost gracefully behind her back. Her foot lashed out, slamming into a ranger’s chest. With a sickening crunch, he toppled backward and flopped like a fish on the deck of a boat.

“Fuck!” I shouted. “Fire! Fire, damn you!”

The rangers’ training took over. They fired their M4 carbines at the monster. Red sprouted about the bullish woman from the bullet wounds. For a moment, the brute looked like she could take the punishment, the bullets only minor irritation. And maybe only a few were, but as she stepped forward, dozens and dozens pricked her skin. Lead poured into her flesh, a hundred bee stings. She staggered, the little wounds adding up, and collapsed into a great heap.

I glanced back at Mary, her face white with shock.

“Keller, Baxter, breach that door!” a lieutenant barked. “Don’t just stand around with your dicks in your hand! Move, rangers!”

Two rangers blinked, shook off their shock, and sprinted for the warehouse’s door. Inside, Lilith had bred with human women to birth her monstrous daughters. My forces encircled it. As dawn approached, we would liberate Seattle from her foul grip and capture the bitch.

The Devil’s plans to escape the Abyss would fail if Lilith never died. We would keep her safe, imprisoned, for eternity.

The two rangers were followed by four others. One pulled out a breaching charge, a rectangle made of duct tape and plastic explosives. He prepared to slap it on the door when the entire metal wall of the warehouse exploded outwards. Twisted aluminum siding slammed the ranger with the explosives to the ground, burying him beneath it. A hulking woman, ten feet tall, strode through the carnage, a thick piece of lumber clutched in one hand like a club.

“Mark!” Mary gasped in horror.

Keller dived to the ground as she swung the club at him. I rushed forward, summoning my celestial blade. Gunfire erupted in the night as other monsters joined the fray, pouring out of the hole. My blood pumped wildly through my veins. I raised my sword to hack at the legs of the giantess. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. She turned, her club swinging in a deadly, quick arc right at my chest.

“Shit!” I snarled. How did she swing it that fast?

I tried to stop my charge, digging my feet into the damp asphalt. My boots slid across the ground, my momentum carrying me right into the club. The attack slammed into my conjured armor’s breastplate. Wood snapped and metal crunched as I flew back in a spray of splinters. I grunted, landing hard, and rolled to a clinking stop. I coughed, struggling to catch my breath.

“Mark!” the giantess roared, a deep bass that somehow was feminine as it rattled my skull. She threw down the ruined stump of her club. “Mother will love me the most if I bring her your head!”

Her hands clenched. I swallowed, struggling to stand. I could almost feel that monstrous hand about my throat, squeezing until my head popped off. I wouldn’t let that happen.

Bullets struck her. Small, red wounds appeared. The rangers may as well have been firing paintballs because the hulking giantess didn’t even feel them. She threw one soldier aside as he tried to stab her with a knife, his body crashing into a dumpster with a meaty crunch. She stomped towards me as I struggled to rise. Someone stepped before me, facing the giantess as fierce as a tiger protecting her cub, wreathed in bright fire.

Mary.

“That’s my husband, bitch!” she snarled.

The flames dancing around Mary rushed to her fist, forming a bonfire blazing as bright as the sun. Harsh light painted the monster. Mary drew back her arm and snapped it forward like she was throwing a baseball.

Instead, she threw a miniature sun.

The giantess screamed in pain as the ball of fire smote her chest and burned through her flesh. The monster staggered, a smoking hole left between her tits. She stood dumbfounded for a moment, then slowly, like a tree snapping before a powerful wind, toppled backward and landed with a resounding crash.

“Mother,” she croaked, her arm reaching into the air before she shuddered and went limp.

“You okay, Mark?” Mary asked, bending over me, her green eyes so bright.

“Yeah,” I wheezed, my monk powers healing my cracked ribs.

Mary grabbed my arm, helping to pull me to my feet.

Monsters attacked the rangers from all directions. Chaos boiled around us. A woman whipped her hair, every strand a different hue, around her. The hair slashed in deadly arcs at the rangers, severing one’s arm. Another monster had one normal eye and one that bulged yellow. That eye fired some sort of energy that knocked a ranger off his feet. A grenade landed at the yellow-eyed monster’s feet, detonating and tearing her body apart. A sinuous woman, completely hairless, somehow dodged the gunfire as she rushed forward, a forked tongue flicking from her lips.

“Damn,” I muttered, struggling to think what to do. “How did you throw the fire?”

“I don’t know, I just did!” Mary’s eyes widened. “Summon the dead, Mark!” Then she sent a gust of wind at the serpent-woman with a hissing word. The monster couldn’t dodge the wind. She tumbled hard into the side of the building. The serpent writhed and undulated before righting herself.

“Tsamalev!” I cried. Energy poured out of me, drawn from the vast reserves I possessed.

Silver mist sprung up, swirling into sixteen figures. Chasity, Karen, and the dead bodyguards. Even in death they served us. They appeared clad in shining, silver armor and wielding mirror-bright weapons. Some had swords, others guns. Excited grins graced their beautiful faces.

“Master!” Chasity greeted with a bow, her blue eyes twinkling with excitement. Then she turned and threw herself into the fray. A silver-clad warrior, a Valkyrie, eager for the fight. Her blonde hair streamed behind her as she led her sisters into battle.

I was right on her heels. I could feel the drain of the summoning spell, so I tapped all the souls bound to me, sharing the load between dozens and dozens of people. My golden sword flashed. I severed the rainbow-haired monster’s head. Then I led the counterattack on the serpent woman. Rangers followed, firing at the sinuous woman.

She hissed at me, twisting her body to avoid the gunshots, and launched herself at me, uncoiling like a spring. I set my shoulder, and barreled into her chest. Her legs wrapped around my body like a writhing serpent, squeezing me impossibly hard. My magical armor cracked beneath her constricting grip. I drew on Molech’s flames.

The air filled with the reek of sizzling flesh. The serpent-woman hissed in pain and fell to the ground a smoking ruin.

Mary sent another monster tumbling with a blast of wind. Three rangers fell on the beast with flashing bayonets, stabbing over and over. I glanced around, looking for the next monster to fight. The ghosts streamed into the warehouse, pursuing Lilith’s children as they retreated. Only half of the rangers still stood, the other half lying dead or dying on the street.

“Go!” Mary shouted, bending down beside a fallen soldier and cradling his guts. “I’ll take care of the wounded!”

“You were magnificent!” I shouted before leading my remaining men into the gaping hole the giantess made in the warehouse.

Makeshift walls of plywood covered in red felt formed a hallway that led off in both directions. Inhuman roars and growls echoed from all directions. Muffled gunfire came from the other three groups of rangers breaching the warehouse. The building trembled and creaked like it protested the violence happening around it. A clapping boom rattled the floor, bringing more groaning protests from the building’s metal frame.

“Chasity!” I shouted as I surveyed the warehouse.

“Master,” she answered, stepping through a wall. “This place is a warren.”

“Where is Lilith?”

“Basement. 63 and 01 were unsummoned down there. 30 and I were forced to retreat. There’s a strong group of her daughters guarding three portals that her followers are fleeing through.”

“Fuck! Into the shadow?”

She nodded.

“Which way?” I asked.

Chasity pointed to her right when the shadows behind her suddenly moved. A shaft of darkness formed into a spear and pierced Chasity’s chest. She gave a startled blink and then dissolved into silvery mist, her soul sent back to the Abyss.

For a moment, everything became still and silent as the rangers and I gaped. Then the shadows writhed, filling the hallway with lancing darkness. They came from every direction, stabbing and slicing.

One knifed at me. I turned. It scraped across my breastplate, leaving gouges in the golden metal. Other lancing shadows found flesh. One struck a ranger, slicing through his body armor like it was wax paper. He fell in a lifeless heap to the ground.

I jumped from the frenzied shadows. Soldiers fired blindly as the darkness slashed at them. Every shadow could suddenly become lethal, slicing at you, even the one you cast. I dodged another attack while a blade of umber went through the rifle and arm of a soldier, severing both as easily as a scissor cutting paper.

Anger boiled through me. The fucking shadows cut my men to bloody ribbons.

I had to do something. But all I could do was dance and dodge, slashing at the darkness stabbing at me from all directions. My armor rang, the celestial gold turning aside the ephemeral attacks. The armor, created by my heavenly powers, resisted for now. But every attack weakened it.

A knife of shadows arced at my face. I pivoted and slashed a black tendril with my golden blade. White light flashed at the contact of my sword and the tentacle. For a moment, I spotted a small woman crouching in the corner, skin black as midnight, flinching in pain from the radiance.

“There!” I barked, pointing at the monster. “Everything you got!”

The retreating rangers stopped, turned, and unleashed a barrage of gunfire where I pointed.

The shadows convulsed and then snapped back to normal as automatic fire raked the corner. The midnight-skinned monster fell forward in a pool of inky blood. No one spoke except the man clutching his severed arm, gasping in agony. We just stared in horror at the dead monster. Fear gleamed in the soldiers’ eyes.

How could regular men fight a being that used the very shadows they cast as weapons?

I had to inspire them. “They are dangerous,” I snarled. “But you fight with a god. We have miracles upon our side.”

I bent down next to the wounded ranger and spoke the spell’s words. A scarlet light enveloped him as I healed him. When the scarlet faded, the solder clutched at his newly grown arm, staring in amazement.

“Thank you, my Lord!” he gasped, flexing his fingers and staring at his bare arm, his sleeve ending where the shadow had sliced through it.

“Miracles,” a soldier muttered, his eyes wide.

“The Living God fights with us,” another said as I bent down and healed another ranger.

“Our weapons killed the bitch,” snarled a third.”

“That’s right,” I said, rising, the other soldiers dead, bled out from severed arteries. “I have given you the power, the strength to fight the demons who threaten our world! You are at the forefront of this battle. Rangers lead the way!”

“All the way!” they roared back, invigorated.

“My Lord!” a man yelled. Three more rangers ran up, battered and singed.

“You’re from the southeast corner?” I asked.

“Yes, we’re the only survivors,” he gasped. Only three out of thirty-three survived? Fuck! “There’s this thing breathing fire and—”

Gunshots cracked nearby, echoing down from where the new soldiers came from. Two of the ghosts fired down the hallway, fiery-red light bathing their silver armor. Black smoke rolled around the top of the hallway and billowed out of the massive hole the giantess had left. Yellow-orange fire engulfed the two ghosts.

The summoning failed, the two ghosts sent back to the Abyss.

“Fuck!” someone cursed.

Mary’s panicked thought screamed in my mind: Mark, the building’s on fire! Get out of there!

Flames licked at the temporary walls, greedily devouring the felt and plywood like a pig at the trough, voracious and indiscriminate about what it consumed. I coughed, the smoke stinging my eyes. “The basement!” I yelled. “That way! I’ll deal with the monster!”

“Shit! Yes, sir!” a ranger snarled. He and ten or so soldiers raced behind him, heading to stop Lilith.

A woman strode around the corner, the flames harmlessly caressing her legs like cats rubbing affectionately against their mistress. Her dark skin glowed orange in the firelight. She possessed no hair on her body, her head smooth and round, exotically beautiful. Her eyes glowed gold, pupils narrow like a cat’s.

“Mark Glassner,” she hissed, mouth full of pointed teeth. Smoke issued from her mouth and nostrils. Flames burned at the back of her throat, rising out of her gullet to dance along the roof of her mouth. A smile creased her blackened lips. “You shall burn in fires so hot your flesh shall melt and your bones crack. I shall suck the marrow from them.”

She inhaled deeply.

I had to stop her from killing any more of my soldiers. I had to protect my men. I led them into this mess. I owed them. This was my responsibility. I had made a choice that night in June. I made a Pact with the Devil, and all of this was the fallout.

I gripped my sword, swallowed my fear, and stared down this fire-breathing she-beast.

She exhaled pure fire, the air dancing from the blistering heat.

I summoned Molech’s flames, armoring myself in my own fire, and rushed into the inferno. Orange, red, and yellow engulfed me. A crackling roar filled my ears. Her rage pressed against my fire, seeking to broil me. Every second it grew hotter and hotter; my skin felt raw, peeling like old paint exposed to the sun for years. I kept running. I couldn’t stop. I had to reach the monster before her flames overcame my power.

And then the flames vanished. I could see again. She stood two steps away, her golden eyes widening in stunned surprise.

First step.

She inhaled.

Molech’s flames flickered feebly on my skin, my protection about to die out.

Second step.

Her dark arm raised up to ward off my slicing sword.

I swung.

A stream of red flame exhaled from her mouth. My sword cleaved through her arm and down into her chest. Fire exploded in my face. She screamed. I reeled back, pain engulfing my face. Everything became oranges.

I howled, thrown back. I landed hard on my side. Pain burned across the left side of my head. It hurt worse than a sunburn or touching a hot stove. I breathed in and my lungs screamed in agony. I must have inhaled some flames.

Goddamn it burned!

“Master!” a woman cried out. Cold hands grabbed me.

“Karen,” I groaned at the concerned face of my dead slut. I fought to think past the burning pain.

“You need to get out of here, Master!” she cried. She hauled me to my feet. I leaned against her spectral body.

Fire consumed the entire hallway. Black smoke ran thick along the ceiling, undulating like waves rippling across the surface of a pool of oil. Every breath I took choked with fume. The pain in my lungs threatened to topple me. A loud crash boomed as a flaming support battered through the ceiling and across the hallway.

Fear beat in my chest. I couldn’t tell which way to go; the smoke was so thick.

“Basement,” I croaked. I had to catch Lilith.

Karen led the way, unaffected by the smoke. I gagged and coughed, struggling to breathe as the ghost led me through the inferno. I stumbled, tripping over debris. My face felt like it still burned, still slowly, and painfully, being consumed. Was this what Hell would feel like? My nerves screamed in agony. Every time I grunted, the flesh of my face cracked like old leather.

Finally Karen brought me to metal stairs; cold air rushed up from the basement.

It was sweet and clean. And so wonderfully cool!

“Shoot her!” a muffled voice yelled as we descended the stairs and gunshots fired. Who was that? The pain made it hard to think. “C’mon, rangers! Get your shit together and hit the bitch!”

Right, the men I had sent down to the basement. I stumbled faster down the stairs, the pain fading as adrenaline poured into me. The Gift supplied a surge of energy that kept my battered body moving. At the base of the stairs, a fire door was propped open. Lights flooded the dark stairwell from a room made of cinder-block walls.

I stepped into the chaos of battle.

The ten rangers fired at a fierce, leonine woman as she nimbly twisted around their bullets. She spat something black. It streaked across the room, striking an Asian soldier in the throat. A spine, like a porcupine’s, jutted from his neck. He fell to the ground, convulsing and frothing at the mouth.

Beyond the leonine woman, Lilith and Lana stood before a portal that opened into the mists of the shadow, urging a small group of children—no, too many of those children looked abnormal; they were young monsters, Lilith’s spawn—and women through the hole into the Shadows. The demoness looked as beautiful as ever, her silver hair falling in a mussed tumble about her large, perfect breasts that seemed to defy gravity.

“Lilith!” I roared, ignoring the pain in my face, the feeling of burned flesh cracking. White-hot hatred consumed my mind. She killed my Karen. My anger drove all other considerations from my mind.

She had to die.

Fuck the consequences!

Lilith turned to face me, her sneer vanishing as I sprinted across the basement. I had a clear shot at her. My blood pounded through me, an incessant, rage-filled beat demanding that I cut the bitch in half. I hungered to see her blood drip from my sword. I bellowed out a primal scream, my battle-cry. Fear paled the demoness’ face. She turned, grasping a woman and throwing her to the ground in her haste to reach the portal.

Exultation soared through me. Lilith was too far from the portal. She reacted too late, and I moved too fast. The Gift and adrenaline powered me, gifting me a burst of speed. Nothing could stop me. I would avenge Karen and rescue Lana and Chantelle from her foul grasp. I raised my sword above my head, Lilith within my reach. Nothing could stop me from cutting the bitch from stem to stern.

Except Karen.

“No, Master!” she cried, grasping my hands, halting my sword before it could find Lilith’s flesh.

The bitch fled through the portal.

“No!” I roared, twisting about to stare at Karen. “Why? She killed you! Why did you save her?”

“A darkness comes,” she whispered, staring at me with her gray eyes. I flinched beneath the weight of her words.

A darkness? Lucifer. I almost summoned the Devil before we were ready. I paled, my knees suddenly weak, the pain of my burned flesh crashing into me. I stumbled. Everything would have been ruined by my rage. Everything.

“Thank you,” I whispered. She smiled at me.

“Cora!” Lana shouted. The leonine woman barreled past me before I could react and swing my sword. She scooped up Lana in her arms and leaped through the portal. It wavered, like a mirage, then vanished.

A loud groan shuddered through the building. Debris crashed to the ground above, shaking the foundations. The warehouse was collapsing as the fire consumed it. We had only moments to escape before we died.

* * *

Lilith

An hour later, I still shook from my brush with death.

My body wouldn’t stop trembling. My weak flesh quivering at the memory of Mark charging me in his angelic armor, that terrible, gleaming sword held high and thirsting for my powers. I hated how I quaked with fear. I tried to shrug it off, reminding myself that I was a Goddess, and he was only a slug. A worm. A piece of filth to be scraped off my sandals after I crushed him beneath my heel.

But he wielded a Priest’s Sword and came within heartbeats of slaying my vessel.

I could not afford to die. I could not afford to be cast back into the Abyss, bereft of my powers.

I shuddered again.

Sent back with no powers, like Molech had been.

I could feel Molech’s power in Mark when he charged me with that damned weapon. He had the Gift, and any demons felled by his blade would lose all the power they’d accumulated before their souls would be cast back into the Abyss. They’d be as weak as any newly-dead human, left to the mercy of all the lesser demons they’d trodden upon.

It would be decidedly unpleasant.

A grin split my lips. Molech must be learning that lesson right now. All those he tortured over the eons would be more than glad to share their affections with the former demon prince. For a moment, my fear vanished beneath gloating amusement.

And then I froze, my eyes widening in realization. Mark had Molech’s powers. Instead of just dissipating them, Mark had instead absorbed them. How? Was it a side-effect of him being a Shaman? Mark wasn’t just a Priest, he was also a Warlock, and that always caused unanticipated effects.

“Mother, we’re ready,” Tir said, interrupting my thoughts.

I glanced at my daughter, her head cocked to the side like a curious bird, her sapphire eyes wide and shining. She perched at the edge of the Cedar Creek Watershed next to her birth mother, the dusky-skinned Thamina. The Arab woman looked sick with worry for her wife. Fiona was either dead or captured. Otherwise, she’d have rendezvoused with us. Beyond Thamina crouched another of my daughters. Vera was sickly-looking with paper-thin skin.

“Begin,” I ordered.

Tir vomited something black into the watershed while Vera opened her wrist and thick, clumpy blood oozed out into the water. Both of my daughters could spread disease. For weeks, the pair had worked on this plague. They engineered it, tested it. Something new. Something to reshape the world into something better.

I smiled as they polluted the reservoir. The Cedar Creek Watershed provided the majority of the water to the city of Seattle. In just a few hours, half the city would be infected by my weapon. An attack to shake the world.

Mark may have driven me from my demesne, but I would reclaim it.

“How potent is it?” I asked Tir.

“Mother, we did not have time to finish it,” Tir hedged. “It’s highly communicable and should kill roughly 33% of the men infected.”

I smiled, staring off at the distant city of Seattle. Soft light bathed the city as the sun rose over the Cascade Mountains behind us. “That’s more than enough to distract Mark.”

To be continued…

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