Welsh Road (The Depravity Chronicles) (33 page)

“Really? Damn.
For supposedly bright kids, you’re awfully dense.” Nina kicked Constantine in
the side, and then laughed. “If you fired a bullet through the man’s head, do
you think that a little bump is going to off him?”

While everyone
was processing what had just happened, and as Anish attempted to break the
immobilization spell that held them in place, Nina danced around the room
humming. She grabbed the small cauldron from the altar, along with an athame.
Once she had these items in tow, Nina gracefully pranced to where Jena was
standing.

No matter how
intensely she struggled, Jena could not physically break Nina’s spell. Once she
was standing in front of Jena, Nina grabbed her forearm, taking the athame and
slicing her palm. She then squeezed Jena’s hand to force the blood to flow.
Nina held the cauldron under Jena’s hand, collecting a significant amount of
blood. Nina returned to the altar, putting the cauldron back on the table. She
then knelt down and retrieved four additional small cauldrons, along with another
four athames. Throughout her tasks, Nina hummed happily, occasionally
pirouetting and giggling.

“Your turn,” she
said to Simon, bleeding him so that she could add his blood to the new
cauldron. Nina repeated this process with Anna, Matthew, and finally Anish.
When she finished, there were five cauldrons at the altar. Only Sam and Trevor
were spared from having to contribute their blood to the ritual.

“I guess my
blood is spoiled,” Trevor said.

“No, not
spoiled,” Nina said. “Just the same as your mother’s. I only need one.”

“Then I guess
it’s my blood that’s spoiled,” Sam said.

“Yeah, you
are
pretty insignificant,” Nina said, looking Sam up and down.

“That cuts
deep,” Sam mocked.

“Keep it up,
boy, and I
will
cut you deep,” Nina warned. “The only reason you’re
alive is because I need witnesses.”

“What do you
think I am? A notary public?” Sam asked.

“If I could
move, I’d totally high five you on that one,” Trevor said.

Nina spun around
and cracked both Sam and Trevor with small black spheres of energy. Though they
remained standing, apparently frozen in place, a red knot quickly formed on their
foreheads.

“Keep talking,
boys, and next time I’ll crush your nuts,” Nina said with a wide grin.

Needless to say,
Sam and Trevor kept their mouths shut tight.

“This isn’t
going to work, whatever you have planned,” Anish promised.

“Do you know
what she’s doing?” Matthew asked.

“No, he
doesn’t,” Nina answered. “And yes, it most certainly
will
work. You’ll
see.”

“What makes you
so sure?” Anish asked, challenging her.

“Because I’ve
been preparing this for nearly five centuries,” Nina said with a shrug. “I’ve
had to wait for just the right ingredients. Do you know how exceedingly rare it
is to locate a Nephilim?”

“Finally, we
talk about the elephant in the room,” Anna said. “What the Christ is a
Nephilim?” She often felt inadequate around her team, being a novice at all
things supernatural.

“Don’t you read
your Bible, Anna?” Nina asked. “Bad, bad Christian.”

“Do you know
what it is?” Anna asked Sam. She figured if anyone else would be ignorant of
such things, it would be Sam.

“Actually, I
don’t,” Sam confessed.

“Good. It’s nice
to know I’m not alone here.”

“You’re never
alone, Anna,” Matthew promised.

“Oh, my!” Nina
exclaimed. “Do we have another love triangle here?”

“I’m married,”
Sam answered.

“I’m a priest,”
Matthew said.

“I’m an idiot,”
Anna added, making Nina laugh.

“Actually,
Sheriff, I don’t think you’re an idiot,” Nina said, still chuckling.

“Oh, I feel so
much better now that I have your vote of confidence,” Anna said.

“Such wicked
tongues you Blackwoods have,” Nina said. “Perhaps I should cut them out? I’m
sure a few tongues would not affect my spell too greatly.”

“You know that’s
not true,” Anish snapped.

“Perhaps, but
they
don’t know that.” Nina clapped her hands together, excited to continue with
the ritual.

“Would someone
please tell me what the hell a Nephilim is?” Anna demanded. “I’ve been sitting
here trying to figure out who – or what – Simon’s father is, and how that
impacts Simon’s 18
^th
birthday.”

“He’s lying,”
Simon snapped.

“Yes, I’m sure
he is,” Anna answered. “But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

Trevor cleared
his throat, as if preparing for an important monologue. “A Nephilim is the
offspring of an angel and a human. So, apparently, Constantine would have us
believe that he is a freaking angel.”

“A
Fallen
freaking angel,” Simon added.

“Details,” Nina
said, waving a hand dismissively.

“A Fallen
angel,” Anna said thoughtfully. She was attempting to process what seemed
impossible to process. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. “Wait, angels can
reproduce?”

“Apparently so,”
Sam said, not sure if he should laugh or repent. Then everyone looked at
Matthew.

“It’s true. In
the Hebrew Bible, it speaks of angels and humans having relations, you know, in
the biblical sense. The sons of God and the daughters of men coming together to
create an entirely new species. The result of these unions, the offspring, is called
Nephilim. It has been the focus of much theological debate. Some scholars have
described Nephilim as giants in early Canaan, while others have called them
members of a superhuman race.”

“Boring,” Nina
said, faking a yawn. “Obviously, Simon here is not a giant. Unless of course he
has a giant…”

“Alrighty then,”
Anna broke in. “This is too surreal, people. I almost wish we were under the
Brickton mansion hunting demons. This is too freaking weird.”

Simon closed his
eyes, trying to control his breathing. “Anish, do you think this is possible?
Have you known of any such creature in existence? I mean, dependable sources
that prove to you that it’s real?”

Anish looked as
though he were debating what to say, which made Simon’s spirit sink. He knew
what Anish was going to say.

“I’m afraid so, Simon,”
Anish answered. “But that does not mean…”

Simon didn’t
seem to accept what was happening. “How is he alive? I shot him in the
head
.
And you saw how Nina summoned him…”

“I’m so over
this,” Nina complained. She picked up the microphone again. “In summary, ladies
and gentlemen…Simon, your daddy is a Fallen angel. You can’t kill them with
bullets, dumbass. Jena, you’re a witch and your mamma lied to you your whole
life. She now lies lifeless on the floor, courtesy of yours truly. As for the
rest of you, I don’t give a shit. Now, if you people don’t shut the hell up I
will immobilize your tongues.”

Nina waited a
moment, and when she was satisfied that no one would interrupt her again, she
continued.

“Let’s see
here…” Nina said thoughtfully as she held up a piece of paper. It was clearly
papyrus, looking ancient and just like the ones used at the crime scenes.

Anna blinked in
surprise, having forgotten all about the four victims who had been hanging from
those trees. “What about the other rituals? In the woods?”

“What about
them? I took what I needed from them. The rest of it was pure artistry. Wasn’t
it simply breathtaking?”

“It can
certainly take your breath away, as in knocking the wind out of you,” Anna
replied, shaking her head.

“So you’re
saying that those sickening displays of violence, those four innocent lives,
that was all for show?” Matthew asked. “The message on the papyrus, the makeshift
rock altars, the hyssop, all of that evidence pointing to the Red Heifer
ritual…none of that was real?

“Nope,” Nina
said, howling with laughter and glee. She was quite pleased with herself, which
Anna figured was a regular occurrence. “You
are
a bright one, aren’t
you, priest? Since you impressed me with your quick wit, I shall reward you by
providing an answer to your verbose inquiries and suppositions. The truth is
quite simple. Are you ready? Drum roll, please!”

Everyone waited,
actually curious about what Nina was going to say. It was obvious that Nina was
thoroughly enjoying the attention.

“None of it was
real,” she finally said.

“None of it?”
Anna repeated, baffled.

“Damn you’re
annoying,” Nina spat as she turned back to Matthew. “The deaths were real, of
course.” Nina scratched her head, as if trying to remember exactly what she had
done to her victims.

Anna was surprised
that Nina was actually engaging them in conversation. But then again,
sociopaths often like to brag about their accomplishments.

 “I shall say
this, and then no more freebies. I need to return to my
current
art project,”
Nina giggled, her expression bright and giddy. “I killed four teenagers because
it fit in nicely with the superstitions about Welsh Road. As for the shrines,
or altars, that was all bullshit. Suspending them from trees in positions of
prayer was simply the best time I’ve had in many decades. You get bored when
you’ve lived as long as I have.”

“You’re
rambling,” Matthew said. “This tangent isn’t exactly the answer I was hoping
for.”

“Well aren’t you
demanding,” Nina snapped. “You will find out soon enough what purposes those
four kids served. Now shut your mouths.”

“I have one more
question,” Matthew interjected. 

“Back to the
grind,” Nina said cheerfully, ignoring Matthew’s request. “Where was I? Ah,
yes. The blood of a witch. Check. The blood of a Nephilim. Check. The blood of
a Shaman. Check. The blood of a priest. Check. The blood of a Guardian. Check.
We’re good to go!”

“Guardian?” Anna
asked. “How am I a Guardian? Because I’m a mother? A sheriff? Those are pretty
loose interpretations.”

“You guys are
so
clueless about your ancestry,” Nina said, not looking up from her archaic
grocery list.

“I know plenty,”
Anna growled. “I traced our genealogy all the way back to the 11
^th
century. Ancestry.com works wonders.”

Nina looked at
Trevor. “Is your mother always this dumb?”

“No, just on
Saturdays,” Trevor laughed.

“Asshole,” Nina
spat. “Anywho, I need to grab a few things. Be good.” And with that, Nina
twirled her way out of the living room.

A few moments
passed before anyone spoke.

“Are you okay,
honey?” Anna asked Simon.

“No, I’m not
even remotely close to being okay,” he answered. “But we’ll deal with that
later. Anish, can you figure out how to get us out of this? Jena?”

“I wish,” Jena
said. “I need to get my hands on that talisman. I’m not sure what will happen,
but my mom seemed to think that it would make a pretty significant difference
in our fight with that crazy bitch.”

“I’ve exhausted
my mental list of spells to undo this,” Anish said. “But I’m up against several
hundred years of experience. Perhaps if we can wake Constantine, he may be able
to help us.”

“Why would he
help us?” Trevor asked. “I mean, we all know that Fallen angels are demons,
right?”

“What?” Anna
asked, worried and confused…again.

“There’s a fine
line there, Trevor,” Matthew said.

“Well, if he’s a
good angel, I would really
hate to meet a bad one,” Anna said. “Or, you
know, an angel demon or whatever. Wasn’t the Wendigo a demon?”

“Not really,”
Anish said. “An evil, non-human spirit.”

“Screw this,”
Anna said. “I don’t need to know the academics of this, nor do I want to. We
just need to focus on how to get the hell out of here.”

“Agreed,” Sam
said.

Just then, Nina
returned to the altar with a handful of animal organs, including hearts,
kidneys, eyeballs, and a host of other stomach-turning innards. She danced into
the kitchen and returned with a massive soup ladle. Behind the table that held
the cauldrons, directly under the vines between the marble columns, was an open
fire pit with several large branches of wood. Closing her eyes and murmuring
under her breath, Nina ignited the wood and large flames erupted from the pit.

“Kind of
dangerous to have a fire pit under vines and in front of a tree trunk, don’t
you think?” Matthew asked.

“It’s not that
kind of fire,” Nina said.

Anna shook her
head. “Like I said, don’t wanna know.”

At this point,
the last phases of the ritual officially began. Nina opened a box that was
sitting on the floor, and one by one lifted four human hearts and set them on
an empty table on the opposite side of the fire. She lifted each heart above
her head, chanting in what sounded like Hebrew. As she spoke, she laid each
heart into its own cauldron.