weren't for the fact that it reassured them. I helped kill the demons that circled our borders, but I didn't give sermons on Sunday like Zach, or go door to door like Kais to check on families and the injured and the women who cared for abandoned children. From what I could tell, Zach and Kais were pretty lenient on some of the old traditional sins. How could any of us judge each other for being angry with God? We were an abandoned flock. And the three of us held the group together with protection and listening ears and understanding more than the structure of a faith that had failed us.
"If anyone was going to hear anything, it'd be you or Kai," I said, shrugging.
I turned and looked around the church. It was an old beast of a building that we'd found when we moved our community out of the city and into rural Massachusetts three years ago. Half the stained glass was broken, repaired with old windows, and one of the men had done his best to restore the large crucifix hanging high behind the dias. It was a half-hearted replica of the parish I'd led in Boston before I'd stepped down.
"Even the two of us…it's not a coincidence, Stav," Zach said, drawing my gaze back to him.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and rocked back on my heels. I regretted the confession. I'd marred the one good thing in my life from the past two weeks, the past year.
It came pre-tainted, you just didn't want to see it.
"What are you thinking?" I asked, but my thoughts were already turning in an ugly direction.
"It was strange enough before. Too…specific, explicit. I've never had sex," Zach whispered, and I tried to fight my smile.
This poor kid. Like he thought it was a secret. If he weren't so good with the flock, so good at killing the fucking demons, I would've tried to talk him out of his collar to go out and live a little. As much as he could at least, in this half-world. There were a couple girls his age in the community, and a couple of women a little older, who absolutely panted up at him when he gave sermons. There was me too, although I wasn’t sure if he’d want to hear that.
"But for the both of us? It's gotta be a demon, right?"
I sighed and let my head fall back on my shoulders, staring up at the stone arches of the ceiling. "Well in that case it's my favorite fucking demon, yet," I said. I groaned and rolled my head, wincing at the crack, the bite of tangled muscles pulling. "We gotta tell Kais, don't we?"
Zach was quiet and when I looked at him again, the blush was evident on his cheeks. "Can you…can you do it without me? Or just…introduce the idea without me? Like when it's my turn to patrol?"
I scoffed at him. "You were eager enough to wring the details out of me! Fine, sure. Your shift is next anyway." I shook my head and started to walk away.
"Stav! Do you think…does that mean…she's coming?"
I swallowed and glared at the open doors of the church, vicious sunlight pouring through, stretching across wood pews and stone tile to just barely reach my toes.
"I don't think we're gonna be lucky enough to face a demon that looks like that, Zach," I said. "But just be ready, in case."
It would be a shame though, to have to kill a creature as beautiful as that. I hoped Kais would be faster.
I skipped the confessional for the next conversation, pulling Kais to the far side of the diner we used as a cafeteria for the community. He sat across from me, easy going at first, laughing at the plain questions I posed at the start. Was he having vivid sexual dreams? Regularly? Same girl every time?
By the time I got to the eyes he was upright and stiff, that cool brown skin turned almost ghostly white and faintly green.
I nodded, that was enough confirmation. We'd skip the specifics this time.
"Zach too," I said and Kais' eyes widened a fraction. "You hear anything from the flock?"
That was more my nickname for the community. I knew it pissed Kais off a little, but it was fun to piss Kais off a little. He got this twitch under his left eye as he tried to laugh through his irritation.
"Nothing," he said. "Got a couple adulterous thoughts last week, but