Raphael (Deadly Virtues #1)(85)

Movement from behind Father Murray caught Raphael’s attention. He never averted his eyes. But when he saw long dark hair and dark eyes close in on the priest, Raphael attacked. Reaching to his waistband, Raphael pulled out his knife, and in one swift swipe he castrated Father Murray, his severed dick falling to the floor onto which Raphael’s blood, sweat, and cum had once dripped. Father Murray screamed and dropped Maria, but Sela was there to catch her.

Raphael’s vision shivered with darkness. Grabbing Father Murray by his hair, he dragged him across the room and slammed him against the wall. Teeth bared, he wrapped his hands around Father Murray’s neck. Raphael snarled in the priest’s face as he squeezed. Father Murray clawed at Raphael’s arms. But Raphael wasn’t aware of anything except Father Murray’s slowing pulse and his mouth gaping, trying to gasp for breath. Breath that Raphael was stealing, coveting as his own. He squeezed harder and harder, watching Father Murray’s face turn from red to blue. His brown eyes bulged and his hands grew weak, his body growing heavy.

Raphael didn’t speak as he drained the priest of life. He didn’t think of all that had been done to him as a child. He just relished the sensation of imminent death coming to an abusive cunt who deserved it. Raphael’s fingers were iron as he squeezed for the final time, feeling Father Murray’s trachea crush and his bones snap under Raphael’s incredible force.

Father Murray’s eyes were locked on Raphael, his head distorted to the side. Raphael threw back his head and screamed. He roared out every fucked-up thing that the priest had done to him. What he had done to Maria—

Maria.

Raphael dropped Father Murray’s body to the ground. Blood spurting from his groin pooled beneath him. Raphael moved to Sela and took Maria from his hands. Raphael saw his other brothers watching, all except Gabriel. Uriel began to pour gasoline on the floor.

“We need to leave,” Sela said. Raphael held Maria close to his chest. He grabbed a towel from a hook outside the torture room and wrapped it around her, then he raced for the door, following his brothers to the exit. But just as they reached the final hallway, a gunshot sounded.

Diel hit the floor.

Fear at seeing his brother torn down caused dread to cut through Raphael’s body like a bolt of lightning. He spun around to see Father Quinn. The exit lay just beyond where he stood. Father Quinn’s eyes were filled with thunder.

“Demons,” he snarled in their direction. Diel lifted his head, blood seeping from his shoulder. But the brother laughed a hysterical laugh. He stuck his finger into the hole, pulled out the bullet, and flicked it at the priest’s feet. Diel sucked the blood from his finger, leaving a stain around his mouth.

“I didn’t think it would be possible for you to become more evil, but here you are, before my very eyes, demons in the flesh.” Father Quinn raised his gun again. Raphael and his brothers did the same, but the priest froze, his face still with shock. As the priest dropped to the ground, Raphael saw Gabriel standing behind him, a knife in his hand. A knife coated in blood. Father Quinn’s gun clattered to the floor. Bara kicked it out of his reach. The old man’s eyes filled with horror.

Ignoring the priest scurrying along the floor, Raphael moved for the exit, Maria tightly in his arms. Uriel poured the final can of gasoline in the hallway and all over Father Quinn. Raphael flinched at the heavy smell. His brothers stopped on the threshold of Purgatory, and he surveyed their childhood hell for the last time. This time there was nothing left in him to feel. Father Murray was dead, and the place was about to be an inferno.

Bara lifted his flame thrower. “Shall I?”

Raphael nodded. But just as Bara went to light the gasoline and set the place ablaze, Gabriel held out his hand. “Wait.” Gabriel walked to Father Quinn. The old man looked into Gabriel’s eyes, pure hatred in his stare.

“You,” Father Quinn spat. “The worst of them all.”

“You tried to ruin our lives. You tried to tear us down and make us into nothing.” Gabriel took a long inhale. “But you only made us stronger.”

“You are killers. Murderers. One day soon, you will be punished by God.”

“That may be true,” Gabriel said. “But at least we won’t have to explain why we raped innocent little kids in His name.” Gabriel got to his feet, hovering over the high priest bleeding, on his knees. “You’re a sinner of the worst kind. The most un-Christian Christian I’ve ever met.”

Gabriel walked to the exit, his brothers standing by and waiting for him to lead them home. They were a true brotherhood, unlike the cunts in this damned place.

“You have no idea of the wrath that is coming your way,” Father Quinn hissed.

Gabriel stared at the priest, pulled a box of matches from his pocket, and lit one. Meeting the high priest’s widening gaze, Gabriel smiled, but it was anything but holy. “Go to hell, Father.” Gabriel flicked the match to the floor, igniting the gasoline into a raging line of fire. The Fallen walked from Purgatory, locking the door for the final time.

Smoke and the stench of burning flesh followed them as they fled across the fields to the waiting vans. As Raphael crawled into the back of the van, he cradled Maria into his body. Her blue eyes looked into his, and even through her insufferable pain, she smiled.

His chest had never felt so warm.





Chapter Fifteen