Here Be Monsters - By M T Murphy Page 0,31
blue eyes looking to me. “Be vigilant and faithful, they are coming.”
“They? They who?” I asked, panic filling my voice.
“The angels. They have been trying to find you but Mammon here has kept you very well hidden.”
“Mammon?”
“I believe you know him as Tyler,” Jamie said calmly. “His demonic name is Mammon, he’s a prince of hell.”
“B-but he’s an angel Jamie, you’re the demon,” I said less than convincingly. Jamie stared at me neither confirming or denying what I believed.
“Rajani don’t listen to him. I don’t expect you to remember the things you learned when you were such a young child,” Tyler said softly next to my ear. “But you know I would never harm you, I’m here to help you and save you from him. There are always false prophets, the ones that try to sway your faith in what you believe.”
“Jani, do you know of your heritage?” Jamie asked.
“What does my heritage have to do with anything?”
“Everything. It’s the only reason they would have accepted the deal they did. It was why, regrettably, Elijah had to come to you and get you to make the deal. It ends and begins with you because of your heritage.”
“Rajani he is trying to fill your head with nonsense,” Tyler said. “You cannot listen to him. You have to be stronger than this.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
Tyler handed me a gun. “Shoot him.”
“What?!” My hands started to shake at the feeling of metal seeming very heaving in my palms
“He’s a demon Rajani,” Tyler’s voice was like smooth velvet against my ear, calm and soothing. “He’s trying to take your soul to Hell. Kill him.”
“I-I can’t.”
“Jani look at me,” Jamie said calmly. “Your heritage, think of your name, the origins of your names. Your grandmother told you when you five what they meant.”
I stiffened at Jamie’s words. He spoke of a memory of my family that I had buried with so many others: The parents that had abandoned me to my grandmother, the grandmother who had died when I was fifteen and the drug addictions that had come as a result.
“She said Rajani was Hindi for death and I was cursed,” I said, my voice shaking slightly.
“It means dark one, but your grandmother was a bit too superstitious,” Jamie said. “Your middle name?
“Eve.”
“Eve means Life or mother of all that lives,” Jamie said. “And then when you were eighteen you had your last name legally changed to what?”
“Aspara.”
“Why?”
“Because it means Goddess.”
“Yes, and all of these things mean what, Tyler?” Jamie asked, his eyes finally lifting to meet Tyler’s gaze.
Tyler didn’t answer. He just snatched the gun from my hands. He took me by the arm and started to lead me away.
Jamie called after us, “The demons come out of hell today, coming to take a soul. They will drag you kicking and screaming down the big, black hole. Are you just going to let him take you away, Jani?”
“Stop, Tyler,” I said, trying to pull my arm away, but he pulled harder. “Tyler, stop. You’re hurting me!”
“I don’t care, shut your mouth or I will cut out your tongue!” he spat. His normally calm, gray eyes turned red as he hissed at me. I froze in place, realizing I had made the worst mistake of my life.
“Then just take me now,” I hissed back at him.
He laughed. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“He knows why,” Tyler said motioning behind us to Jamie.
“Why not?” I demanded again.
“Yea Tyler, why not?” Jamie asked.
Tyler stopped. “Her time isn’t up yet, not for another nineteen hours. If I try to take her now, you’ll take her. You’re an apostle. I know that they’ve given you the juice to harvest her soul if needed. It’s not mine to take yet.”
“Well for a demon you’re not that dumb, I think I’ve been fooled about you guys,” Jamie chuckled. “So what now?”
“Now we wait. I keep her under my watch until your brothers show up, watch the bloodbath that my four-legged friends are going to make of them, and then I take her with me.”
Jamie nodded as he spoke. “You still think you’ll win?”
“Oh, I’m banking on it,” Tyler growled and we started walking again.
“I don’t even get a say in this?” I asked.
“You had a say in this ten years ago. You made your deal and you got clean. Now it’s time to pay up. Lucifer says, ‘hi,’ by the way, can’t wait to see you.”
Tyler’s words made my stomach drop. I was beginning to think I really wasn’t going to get