The Stars Never Rise

The cop’s boots clomped behind me, and then the door closed. Deacon Bennett sank into the chair she’d pulled out, and suddenly I was at eye level with the woman—the demon—who ran New Temperance. Who represented my hometown on a national level. Who’d threatened to burn my sister alive.

“You’ve become a national vexation, Nina Kane. A cankerous sore on the face of this good town.” Bennett leaned back in her chair, her embroidered bell sleeves hanging low as she crossed her arms over the front of her cassock. “Perhaps if your assassin playmates hadn’t dragged New Temperance into the national spotlight, we could have kept you under wraps, but it’s too late for that now, so no, we will not have the pleasure of ‘dealing’ with you here. Your sister, however…She remains under my sole authority.”

“She has nothing to do with this. Would I be wasting my breath if I ask you to let her go?”

“Both your breath and my time.” Deacon Bennett cleared her throat and sat straighter, as if for an official pronouncement. “After a thorough examination of your sister, the Church has determined that though she is guilty of several very egregious sins, she is not possessed. Naturally, she’s eager to demonstrate the purity of her soul, so that there can be no doubt that she was neither involved with nor aware of your demonic exploits.”

I understood from her tone and bearing that I was hearing the official statement of my sister’s fate, almost exactly as it would be broadcast on the news the next morning.

“Melanie will be joining the Church to atone for her sins. She will make a public pledge in the morning, and we will expedite her ordination, for obvious reasons. She’ll be branded before the sun goes down tomorrow night.” Bennett’s brows rose almost imperceptibly, and she leaned forward a little in her chair. “How soon she is consecrated, however, will depend on what you tell me in the next few minutes.”

“And by consecrated, you mean possessed.” Was the deacon saying I could delay, but not prevent, my sister’s possession? If I stood no chance of protecting Mellie’s soul, why on earth would Bennett expect me to cooperate? “We both know you’re a demon.” I studied her reaction for any sign of surprise. I found none.

“And we both know your mother was a breeder—the cockroach of our species, content to crawl around in the dark rather than commit to the cause and live in the light.”

What cause? I frowned, searching for meaning in an unfamiliar phrase. Was she claiming the Church had some higher purpose? Had the demons begun to believe their own propaganda?

“So let’s concentrate on what I don’t know,” she continued, while the gears in my head ground conjecture into mental sawdust. “Will your sister be an assassin?”

That was Bennett’s second use of the term. “Is that what you call exorcists?”

Her brows rose over cold, dark eyes. “It’s what you are.”

“Why does it matter whether or not Melanie’s an exorcist if you’re going to possess her anyway?” Then, suddenly, I understood why my information would only affect how soon my sister was possessed.

I was bred to be my mother’s next body. She’d specifically sought out an exorcist to be my father so that she would—she’d hoped—give birth to an exorcist, which implied that she’d wanted to possess an exorcist. Presumably because we were stronger and faster than the rest of our species. But only after we were triggered.

“If you possess her before she’s triggered, she’ll never be an exorcist.” My guess held the confidence of certainty. “Whoever gets her won’t get super speed or strength.”

“Nor the ability to burn her enemies from their human husks.” Bennett’s eyes practically flashed with greed in anticipation of such a skill.

“You want her for yourself, don’t you? And I’m guessing Umbra will let you have her if you hand me over peacefully?” Which would mean forgoing my public execution and her chance to show the world that a seventeen-year-old “demon” hadn’t gotten the better of the deacon of New Temperance. “But you’re only willing to make that deal if Mellie’s body will be a step up from what you’re wearing now.” I glanced pointedly at her aging human shell.

Otherwise, the loss of her position and her power as a deacon would mean little.

“Will she?” The demon leaned forward to study me through narrowed eyes.

“How am I supposed to know that?”