Page 82 of The Wickedness of Man

Father reached into another drawer, then pulled a paper out and slid it across the desk at me with his long claws. My weapons requisitions sheet.

Fuck.

“Whose signature is that at the bottom,” he spat, “authorizing a prototype weapon not even known to the archdiocese, as well as a holy water dispersal bomb? Read it!”

My jaw clenched, as if threatening to rebel, but I pulled the paper closer, stared at my name written neatly; assuredly, at the bottom. “S.I. Harrold Benedict.”

“Do you have any idea what you could have done?!” Father screamed, slamming his hands on the desk. His spittle flecked over me, and the shout forced me to rock back onto my heels, nearly losing my footing. “Because you had your head so far up your fucking ass, you nearly fucked plans I’ve been making since before you were goddamn born!”

I didn’t meet his gaze, just stared down at the paper. “Father, the succubus?—”

“Bah,” Father interjected, settling back into his seat. “I can retrieve her any time I like.”

At this, I finally snapped my head over to him. “Then why has she been free for all of these decades, if you were so capable?—”

“Because I needed her right where she was. Just like Caleb.”

I scoffed at him. “I selected Caleb?—”

“You choose him for every mission that could get him killed, you simpering asshole,” Father snapped. “You think I haven’t figured that out yet?”

The blood draining from my face, I shook my head. “That’s not true. He was perfect for this role, which is why I?—”

“Which is whyIselected him for it,” Father interjected, voice oddly calm. “Thank God Himself at least one of my children is capable.”

I couldn’t find anything to say to this; I knew my face would show my irritation; my fury.

“Sir,” Jax tried, but I raised my hand to silence him.

“You yourself told us, Father,” I snapped, “that if we are not useful to the organization—to the Church—that we are only useful as examples, correct? Even had Jax give us that ghoulish demonstration in the chapel before our graduation. You yourself issued the edict that we were to hunt and trap the succubus Carmilla de Mornay. You gaveno rulesas to how you wanted it done, apart from the fact that it was one shot, and one shot only. Caleb was the ideal bait, and as afailed cambion, whether ornot he is your child, he has proved that he was not worthy of the dark gift you and I share. Therefore, he is only fit to serveas an example. So, I used him to do the only thing he’s ever been good at in his life: Being a reckless fuck boy.”

“That’s correct,” Father agreed. “Your argument is salient, calm, and rational. Very well put, Harrold. It’s probably the most insightful thing you’ve ever said.”

I straightened in surprise, breathing hard. I had never heard anything evenremotelyclose to a compliment and quite frankly, didn’t know what to do with it.

With a savage grin, he said, “But you’re still an ignorant little know-nothing shit. Where is the girl? The one he spotted outside the doctor’s office?”

I struggled to speak for a moment, jaw wagging open and closed before I shouted, “The girl?! Therewas nogirl! It was a hallucination—a trick of the demon—are you quite mad?!”

“Oh, I don’t know, let’s use our heads for a moment, shall we? What’s more likely? That the demon was able to conjure an image real enough to inspire Caleb—one of the best hunters the organization has ever created—to put theentire operationat risk, or that Carmilla drew him therebyusing a real girl? Caleb would have only acted if he sensed a real threat because he knows how to do his fucking job and does it right—andthatis why you will never surpass him.”

I looked back at Jax, my mouth open. Could there have been… an actual girl? Had I overlooked the possibility and been wrong about it? We knew she’d drugged his beer, but we didn’t know what it might do to him?—

Slam!

I jumped and looked up to find Father’s open palm against the wood of his desk.

“You’re the agent who came up with this scheme, correct? The one in charge of executing it? If so, don’t look to him; look to me and answer,child.”

I stuck my chin up; I was so livid I knew the red in my own eyes would be showing. “She was a hallucination. Mercy confirmed that he’d lain with a succubus—not a human woman.”

“You are as blind as you are stupid. The nun—bring her to me.”

I reached out with the speed and ferocity of a snake and grabbed hold of Mercy by the upper arm and flung her at his desk. She stumbled across the divide and sprawled on top of the solid wood top. Father grabbed her and flipped her onto her back, then pulled her veil up over her head. He looked at the bindings over her eyes and mouth andclickedhis tongue at me in dismay.

“Oh Harrold. This is just… look at her! You’ve been starving this girl. If you have to resort to binding her with holy water-soaked thread to keep control, then perhaps we need to have a conversation about whether or not you should be issued one at all.”

I bristled, knowing that although I had come into this room with the upper handliterallyin my grasp, Father had turned things around on me so skillfully that I was trembling to keep myself from fully devolving into my demonic form. The last thing I needed was to reveal just how much he’d gotten under my skin.

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