Page 5 of Baking and Angels

Agent Archon patted the air with her hands as if to saycalm down. “Possession?” she asked her partner.

“It’s not unprecedented. I did this case study in school where the victim believed they were—”

“Later,” Agent Archon hissed, then turned once more to Rafferty, gently lowering his proffered hands with a light touch. “Sir, I don’t know what you’ve been through… whatbothof you have been through, but…”

This was infuriating. “Iamthe demon you seek! Do with me what you will!” Rafferty repeated. He thrust his hands toward the agent again. “I am responsible for the man Yosef’s death. I am the one who attempted to corrupt this good woman, Helena, in order to acquire her soul. I am the monster you need to destroy to save yourselves. Cut my head off, burn me at the stake, I don’t care, but youmusttake me into yourcustody.”

Agent Archon’s partner squatted down onto one knee in front of Rafferty, smiling kindly. “Sir, you don’t have a trace of demonic energy about you,” she insisted, showing him the screen of her device as if he would have any idea what the wavy line in its viewer would mean. “I know this is confusing, but we’re going to help you. Ipromise.”

Huffing, Agent Archon pulled a cellphone out of her pocket. “I’m going to call for an intervention team all the same.” Then she looked to Helena. “If you want to call a lawyer, now would bethe time.”

“So, we’re not under arrest?” Helena asked, with tentative hope.

“I would speak to your lawyer first,” the agent replied, moving across the porch to speak intoher phone.

“Right. Right.” Helena nodded as she moved away to find her own mobile phone, only to pull up short remembering she had left it atthe venue.

Rafferty’s mind spun. What was happening here?

“Sir, I am going to ask you to get up off the floor,” the second agent coaxed, gesturing for Rafferty to risewith her.

“You need to destroy me! Before it’s too late! I am the one who summoned the demonVassago!”

“Rafferty! Stop! Please,” Helena begged, putting her own hand over his mouth to emphasize stopping him.

“It’s alright, he doesn’t know what he is saying. You’re not under arrest, we’re going to get you help,” the agent assured. “Sir… I know you think you’re a demon, but if that were the case, we would be reading demonic energy from you, and there isnothing.”

“Wait, Sophia,” Agent Archon interjected, pressing her phone to her shoulder. “If he were possessed, therewouldbe a trace of some demonic energy. Right? And you said you are readingnothing?”

“Well, I…” Agent Sophia—at last she had a name—hesitated, not knowing how to respond.

“Go to the kitchen!” the former demon barked, pointing the way. “If it is evidence you require, it is there you shallfind it.”

“Rafferty, shut up!” Helena begged, clearly terrified. “Officers… or agents… I mean… please. We can explain allof this.”

But Agent Archon seemed to be at the end of her tether. She bolted past the kneeling man, heading for the swinging door that led to the kitchen.

The agent swung open the door and stared down at the kitchen floor. “Agent Sophia! We have a summoning circle.”

Chapter 3

I am Completely

Human

“Yes, he’s completely human,” the doctor said, flipping his stethoscope over his head to lie across the back of his neck before slipping his gloved hands into his pockets.

“You’re sure?” Agent Archonstressed.

“Look, I have run every test known. I even got his bloodwork back already since demonic anything is the only way to get high priority around here,” he grumbled with the air of an old complaint. “He is a healthy, fairly average human male, approximately in his mid-twenties. When did you say you were born again?”

“In the time of King Louis the XIV,” Rafferty answered obediently, feeling uncomfortable under the paper sheet and the strange paper shirt that opened to the front they had asked him to wear. He had every intention of complying withanythingthat was asked of him, but he had not imagined this. “Why aren’t you simply running me through with holy weapons and being done with it? Or attempting to burn me at the stake?” hemuttered.

Agent Archon and the doctor both looked at him with neutral faces and pity in their eyes.

The doctor sighed. “Whatever is wrong with him, it is definitely mental. Considering there is no trace of demonic power, it could be something as simple as PTSD due to stress. You saw a man’s head bitten off, correct?” the doctor asked.

“Yes,” Rafferty conceded. While it had not been the worst thing he had ever witnessed, it was the most recent.

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