because people are shitty and steal from churches.”
“Not all of them are closed.” I heard the distinct clacking of a keyboard in the background. “Here. There’s one just a few blocks from you, and they’re having a late candle light vigil or something. They started at nine, but if you hurry, you might just catch the priest on his way out.”
“Tay, you’re an angel. Thank you.”
“Well, you do need divine assistance against your demonic betrothed.”
My low laugh felt brittle. “Can you stay on the line?”
“Of course.”
I slung my purse around my shoulder, slipped into an extra pair of flats and carefully slid the window open.
“I tried to attack him with pepper spray,” I whispered as I maneuvered over the windowsill to the fire escape landing on the other side.
“You didn’t!”
I grimaced. “I was panicking. But it didn’t even affect him at all.”
“Oooh! Do you still have it on you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Maybe you can get the priest to bless the spray. I bet it will affect him then.”
“Holy Pepper Spray,” I mused. “The idea has some merit.”
I was at the end of the fire escape, the street looming at what looked like nine feet below me.
“Hold on,” I said to Taylor. “I need to find the drop ladder.”
I’d never had to use a fire escape before, but I knew there had to be a ladder that would slide out and bridge the drop to the ground. I looked around, my heart still beating a frantic rhythm. If my escape took too long, the demon would come after me and find me scrambling down this ladder.
There, fastened to the side of the building, almost invisible in the dark, sat a narrow metal ladder, long enough to reach the ground.
I fumbled for a moment, then found the lever for releasing the ladder. It slid down along the hinges attached to the wall with a frighteningly loud screech.
“Was that the demon?” Taylor asked.
“No,” I grumbled, throwing an anxious glance upward to my bedroom window. “That was a drop ladder in desperate need of lubrication.”
“That’s what he said.”
My snort was totally unladylike. “I’m gonna pack you away while I climb down, okay?”
“Sure.”
Hands clammy, I descended the ladder and let myself fall the short rest of the way to the street. With the drop ladder, it was only a few feet instead of the previous ankle-breaking height.
“All right,” I said as I put my phone back to my ear, “which way, all-knowing one?”
“Left for two blocks, then turn right.”
Without missing a beat, I ran. My trip down the fire escape had taken longer than I was comfortable with, and I had to make sure I was well on my way when the demon noticed I was gone. I didn’t know whether the demon could track me, so the farther away I got before he figured out I had vanished, the better.
Come to think of it, though—he’d found me after twelve years, in a new apartment, a new city. The chance of him not being able to track me were slim, to be honest. My heart pumped overtime, my lungs burned, and not just from the pepper spray. I was running faster than I had in a long time, and my body screamed in protest.
“I should have...exercised...more...” I spat out in between gasping for air.
“Well,” Tay said, “it’s not like you knew you’d one day need a whole lot of sprinting prowess to run from a demon.”
I would if I hadn’t forgotten about the whole deal. Ugh. “I see...the church...”
“Great. Okay, it says here that this vigil or whatever is in the church itself, but you may have to check one of the side entrances if the main door is locked.”
“Thanks,” I wheezed.
Running up the steps to the portal, I forced my legs to keep working for these last few feet. After stumbling to a stop in front of the door, I grabbed the big handle and pulled. It didn’t give.
“It’s locked,” I panted into the phone.
“Google Maps shows a side entrance around the corner. Try that one.”
“Okay.” And off I ran, again.
Down the steps, around the corner. Just...a bit…farther. There.
“I see...the priest... He’s locking…the door...”
“Oh, thank fuck. Go get exorcised, girl. Call me when you can, okay?”
“Of course.” I hung up just as I skidded to a stop next to the priest.
The man startled, his eyes going wide. He had salt-and-pepper hair and wore a simple black outfit with the typical white collar.
I hadn’t been raised Catholic, so I had no personal experience with clergy, and no