The Stars Never Rise

I sucked in a deep breath, steeling my nerves. Steadying my hands. I could think of only one way to avoid having to shoot anyone. One way that Melanie, Finn, and I could all emerge intact. So I double-checked the safety on the gun and slid it into my waistband, then waited until the consecrated cop stood with his back to the glass door.

When he was as close as I could expect him to come, I shoved the door open and pressed my glowing left hand to the center of the possessed cop’s back.

Air hissed as he inhaled sharply, and everyone turned to look.

The human politicians gasped, and all three of the human cops drew guns with barrels that looked stretched because of the built-in noise suppressors. But the demon that hung from the fire in my palm could only convulse as his life force was burned from his stolen body. In front of a live audience.

“Shoot to wound!” Deacon Bennett shouted, and as flames devoured my hand, I looked over the frying monster’s shoulder to see the demonic politician staring at me in mounting fury.

The cops blinked, obviously unwilling to look away from the threat—me. “What’s she doing? What’s happening?” the one on the left demanded, and every human in the room looked tense and near panic while they waited for the answer. That was when I realized they could see the glow. The flames from my hand were shining all the way through the consecrated cop hanging from my palm.

“Aim for her leg!” Bennett ordered.

“I’m doing my job!” I had to shout to be heard as I answered the question the deacon had ignored. “He’s possessed. I’m an exorcist. This is what a real exorcism looks like.” I paused to let that sink in, hoping that seeing really was believing. “This is the real purifying flame!”

For a moment, silence reigned, except for the soft crackle of the demon’s skin and clothes. Then the glow began to fade from my hand, and the dead cop thunked to the floor at my feet. Everyone stared at me, guns raised, eyes wide. Two jaws hung open. I searched their expressions for disbelief, but found only utter shock—the inevitable result of a brutal awakening.

I kept my arm extended, fingers spread, so they could see the last of the light—the reflection of my soul—as it receded into me.

“Any questions?”

For a moment, no one spoke. No one moved. Then one of the cops cleared his throat. “Captain Mitchell was possessed?” His focus dropped to the body still smoking at my feet, then quickly found my face again.

“Yes. As is every single consecrated member of the Unified Church.”

“She’s lying,” Bennett said. “She’s not an exorcist, she’s a demon, and she just killed an innocent man with some kind of demonic power!”

“Deacon Bennett is possessed.” I said it softly. Clearly. “Her sleeves are embroidered, her body is occupied, and her soul is being devoured as we speak. The demon inside her is scared, and it will say anything to protect itself.”

“Lies!” Bennett hissed. “She is the only demon here. The Church has declared her anathema. Shoot her in the leg!” When no one obeyed, the deacon turned on them in fury. “It is your sacred duty to follow my orders!”

I spread my arms slowly to keep from startling the men with guns, and my heart raced as I invited them to aim for my chest. “If you’re going to shoot me, why not just kill me?”

Two of the three adjusted their aim, pointing their guns at my heart. The third aimed at my head, while my pulse pounded in my throat.

“No!” Bennett shouted. “Wait for the exorcists. If you kill her, you’ll release the demon.”

All three lowered their aim, and I swallowed a groan. She was using the facts against me, and suddenly I realized she’d probably been manipulating people with their own beliefs since long before my grandparents were even born. I couldn’t convince my fellow humans that their revered leader was a demon. I would have to show them the truth—I would have to make her show them.

I took another deep breath and thought of Mellie, bound to the concrete on her knees, hungry and terrified. Then I lunged at the cop closest to the deacon.

His eyes went wide and he raised his aim. Bennett let loose an inhuman roar and sprang at him, blurring across my vision in order to protect me, because she couldn’t deliver a dead exorcist to Umbra. I’d expected her to snatch his gun with demonic speed and strength, but the reality was much more violent.

Blood arced over the front of my coat, spraying my chin with warm droplets. My focus dulled beneath a red haze and I froze, stunned.

Gasps echoed all around me. I blinked blood from my eyes, and Bennett’s form came into focus, bent over a body on the ground. Blood pooled beneath her, flowing around the soles of her shoes, soaking into the tails of her cassock. She looked up at me and hissed like an angry cat, but I hardly saw the lips curled back from her teeth or the inhuman gleam in her eyes.

I could only look at the man I’d just sacrificed to expose the deacon. He lay dead on the ground, blood still pouring through the gaping hole in his throat. He’d died so fast he never had a chance to drop his gun.