Saint of Sinners (16 page)

“Sit down, Alex,” Satan said, his tone exactly the same one he used right before he started hitting me.

That snapped me out of it. “Fuck you.”

He stood up, and I flashed on all the times he’d beaten me. Not this time. I called up fire and threw a fireball at him. He brought his hand up and the fire disappeared inches from him. The principal screamed and stumbled back from his desk.

Satan glared at me. “So you want this the hard way?” An invisible hand wrapped around my throat, choking me.

I grabbed at it, panicked power flooding me, and I used it to shove hard. The hand let go and I sucked in a breath. I reached for Animus, but of course she wasn’t there. She was at home, miles from here.

Satan growled and shoved with both hands. I slammed into the door and it resisted for a few seconds, but Satan kept pushing and the door broke with a huge snap. I flew through it, the sharp edges cutting my back and arms. I hit the ground in the outer office, the breath knocked out of me. I scrambled to my feet as he came after me.

Around me, administrators screamed. Again I thought about teleporting, but a little voice pointed out that I’d be running. Did I want to keep running away from him my whole life?

He threw a fireball at me and I blocked it with a fireball of my own. “Fuck you! You have to ruin
everything
, don’t you?”

“Me?” He laughed bitterly. “You ruined my plans. You’re denying your destiny.”

“
Fuck
destiny!” I summoned my claws and ran at him. If I was thinking, I probably would’ve tried something that didn’t get me quite so close to him. I slashed at him and he leaned back as my claws whipped past his nose. He punched me in the gut and I stumbled back. Shit, I wanted Animus so bad. I needed her.

Still catching my breath, I hurled a chair at him with my power and it slammed into the wall, just missing him. One of the broken pieces crashed into his back, but it only made him flinch. “I was so patient this time, waiting for you to come back to me.”

Now people were running, screaming, rushing out into the hall. I smelled burning and realized the carpet and part of the reception desk were on fire. “You thought I’d come back? You’re fucking nuts.”

“After you killed your worshippers and your mother, I thought you’d see things my way.”

Something crashed into my legs and I fell. Before I realized I was on the floor he was looming over me, kicking me. “You know rage, the rage I felt for Jehovah. You know the satisfaction of killing. The joy of taking control of your life.” He punctuated each sentence with a kick.

I needed to get away, but I wasn’t going to run. I pictured the hallway outside. Teleporting was so much easier now than it had been the last time we fought. It was hard to concentrate with him kicking me, but I held on to the image just long enough. The carpet under me disappeared and then I was on the hard ground outside. I climbed to my feet, wincing at the pain in my ribs and stomach.

Inside the office, behind the glass walls, Satan growled and glanced around, wondering where I’d gone. When he turned and spotted me, I gave him a double middle finger.

Panicked people still ran out of the office through the door on my left. The fire alarm blared to life. I tried to reach for Animus, wondering if she could hear me and come from that far away. We were connected, so it was possible. I briefly considered asking Mew-Mew to bring her for me, but I didn’t want him anywhere near Satan.

My father glared and ran straight through the glass wall. I ducked and covered my face as glass flew everywhere. A few small pieces of glass hit me and then my father slammed into me, knocking me against the wall. I lashed out, fire bursting from me. The flare was bright enough to hurt my eyes and I heard a crash. I blinked spots from my vision and saw Satan lying in broken glass. I’d thrown him into a section of the wall.

Kids started to fill the hallway, probably wondering if the alarm was a drill or for real. I glanced down the hall and met several shocked glances. “Not this way!” I threw up a wall of ice, blocking them from where we were fighting. They’d have to go the other way to get out.

I pulled a table through the broken hole in the glass wall and slammed it onto my father. “You fucking ruined everything! Why can’t you fucking leave me alone!”

The table shattered, sending bits everywhere. I shielded my face and brought up a wall of fire in case he tried to rush me again. The sprinklers started up, weakening my fire but not putting it out. My father glared at me over it.

“This isn’t where you belong. This is just a game, and I’ve let you play it long enough.” He reached through the fire and pulled back with a curse. “You’ve gotten much stronger.”

“I’ve been practicing.” Ice came up from the floor, covering half his body. I lunged, passing through my fire unharmed, and slashed him across the face. My claws left bright red furrows along his face and I grinned. I was hurting him. Everything I did hurt him, even if it was only a little.

His hands were still free and he backhanded me hard enough to send me sprawling. Ice cracked as I stumbled to my feet. He was breaking loose, and the wounds on his face were closing as I watched. I tried to summon Animus again, but the twinge I felt was so faint it might have been my imagination.

At the other end of the hall, the way not blocked by ice, a few kids gathered, staring in shock while others pushed their way past, screaming. I pulled water from the air and formed them into wicked shards of ice. I threw a dozen at Satan, who was still freeing his feet.

Part of me assumed he’d get out of the way in time, so I was shocked when the ice sank into him. He yelled, full of pain and rage as half the shards buried themselves in his flesh. Fire engulfed him for a second and when it passed all the ice had melted, but the wounds still showed.

I tensed as he glanced around the chaos we’d created, but he only said, “I think my work here is done for now. I’ll give you some time to think about where you belong.” With another flare of fire, he was gone.

Half the office was burning, and the wall behind me too. Panting, my heart racing, I waited a few seconds to see if he was coming back. I couldn’t trust that this wasn’t some kind of trick. When nothing else happened I made myself calm down a little.

I couldn’t let the fire keep spreading, so I reached out and took a moment to get in tune with it. Then I closed my fist and the fire went out. Nothing but smoke remained.

The noise and screaming from farther down the hall now included shocked murmurs, kids asking each other if they’d just seen that. I stared at the burnt remains of the office and tried not to think about what it meant.

I turned and melted the wall of ice, which was already thinning under the sprinklers. There were only a handful of kids down that way, most of them staring at where the wall used to be. Then their focus shifted to me. I looked from them to the larger group at the other end. I saw some kids from my classes and my math teacher.

The water was soaking me and the fire was gone, so now it was just annoying. I reached up and closed my eyes, trying to feel for the sprinkler system. Much less complicated than ATMs. I found the mechanism to shut it off and the water stopped. I turned the alarm off, too. The silence was very loud.

“I wanted to make sure nobody got hurt,” I told the crowd. “The fire is gone. You’re safe now.” And the life I’d worked so hard for was gone. No way could I pretend this never happened. Too many people had seen what I’d done. I swallowed to keep tears back. I didn’t want to walk through those kids to get outside. Then I remembered I didn’t have to. The secret was already out, so why not teleport?

In the next moment I was standing in my apartment, dripping on the carpet. I looked over at Animus on the wall. If only I’d had her, I could’ve done some real damage to my father. “You fucking bastard. You ruined everything.”

Then I did cry.

Chapter 19

I went to visit Stefan, meeting him in a cemetery like we always used to. He listened patiently as I vented to him about what Satan had done and how everything was ruined now.

Stefan said, “I’m kind of surprised he didn’t do it sooner.”

“Me, too, actually. He said after I killed Mom and Ken and all those Satanists, he thought I’d see things his way. He still thinks I’m going to wake up one day and decide to be evil.” I wonder how much he’d like it if I suggested one day he’d wake up and beg Jehovah for forgiveness.

“So what are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. I guess school is over.” I paced between headstones, wanting to break something.

“Could you try starting over somewhere else?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to.” It wouldn’t be the same without Hayley and Casey and everyone else. Oh, God, Hayley. I’d probably lost her too. “And besides, he’d probably do it again.”

“You’re usually not so defeatist.”

“I know, but that’s when I know there’s something I can fight. I can’t
fight
people to make them forget what they saw.” And my little mind trick wasn’t strong enough to erase even one person’s memory, let alone hundreds of students and dozens of staff.

“You can fight your father.”

I snorted. “If I’m lucky enough that he doesn’t kill me or drag me to Hell, then what? I fight him to a draw like the last two times and he keeps coming back.” But I thought of Animus. What would’ve happened if I’d had my sword? Could I have done some serious damage? I hardly dared to think it but… was there a way for me to kill my father?

Stefan leaned against a large marble cross. “Not that I want you to put yourself in danger, but… this doesn’t sound like you. You don’t give up. You stopped Ragnarok twice and then fought your dad on the damn
moon
.”

“I had you guys to help me.”

“But it was your idea. And we can help you fight your dad.”

I shook my head violently. “Fuck no. I don’t want you or anyone else putting yourselves at risk.”

“We fought him before.”

“Yeah, and Elliot almost died. No way.”

After a moment he said, “You’re still scared of him.”

“Fucking right, I am. He’s the devil, a god. I’m half mortal. Maybe I can squeak by in a fight with him, but only if he decides he’s had enough. If he really wants to kill me, nothing’s going to stop him.”

“He tried to kill you on the moon, and instead you sent him running.”

“I got lucky.” I scuffed my toe in a patch of dirt.

“Maybe, but that was before all the training you’ve had. You’re
much
stronger than you were last summer.”

I’d been able to cut off his arm with Animus, and if he hadn’t run away I might’ve done more damage. What if I’d stabbed him in the heart? Cut off his head? And Stefan was right, that was before I’d had training. I hadn’t even known what I was doing with my sword. “You’re putting crazy ideas in my head.”

“Just repaying the favor.” He smirked.

I laughed. “Fair enough. I think I need more time, though. More training. If I’m really going to take on my father, I need to be as strong as possible.”

“You, being patient?”

“More like cautious.” Or cowardly.

***

Later I called Joshua to ask him why the exorcism hadn’t worked.

“I didn’t even think about someone using my blessing that way until you told me about it.” Joshua was quiet for a moment. “It worked in your apartment, but not at school…” A slight rustling as he shifted on his bed. “Oh, maybe it’s because school is a public place?”

“Maybe. But does that mean I’m not protected at all when I’m there?”

“I think the blessing
did
still work. You said you weren’t hurt too badly. I think it helped to keep you safe.”

Considering how every other fight with Satan had gone, he was probably right. “So your blessing protected me, but I can’t exorcise him from public places?”

“I could ask my father to make sure.”

“Yeah, please.” I wasn’t so sure he’d give me an answer, but it was worth a try.

Joshua called back half an hour later. “We were right. Demons can’t be exorcised from public places, not without a lot of holy power. He said the blessing wasn’t strong enough for that.”

“Thanks for checking.” Great. Something else to worry about.

***

I skipped school and didn’t leave my apartment. The truth was, I was afraid my dad would come for me again, and I didn’t want to leave the protection of the spell scrolls. I’d thought all the training I’d had would make me more confident, but knowing that exorcising didn’t work anymore made me regress into the same coward I’d always been when it came to my dad.

Hayley kept calling and texting. Casey and my other friends, too. I texted them back to tell them I was okay, nothing more. Mew-Mew did what he could to comfort me, but I was miserable. The life I’d built as a human, the one I’d worked so hard to protect all these months, gone in a few minutes because my fucking father wanted to fuck it up.

I did my best to zone out in front of the TV. Even slaughtering people in first-person shooters couldn’t cheer me up.

You can’t just stay here. You have to do something,
Mew-Mew said.

“I don’t know what to do.” I wished I wasn’t such a fucking coward. I wished I was brave enough to go out and challenge my father to a fight, this time with Animus. In the heat of the moment I could stand up to him because it was either that or curl up and take a beating. But going out and getting into a fight when I didn’t have to was different.

Instead of doing anything useful, I moped. That lasted until the second day. In the afternoon, Hayley came to my door and started pounding, demanding I open up and talk to her.

I looked over at Mew-Mew.
Let her in,
he said, his head tilted.

If I didn’t, the neighbors were gonna get pissed at the noise. I suppose I had to talk to her sometime, so I might as well get it over with. Would she still want me after what I’d done? Damn it, we’d just patched things up, I didn’t want to lose her. Could we do a long-distance relationship? It wouldn’t be that hard since I could teleport.