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“
Dang it!” he raged, clamping a hand over his wound. Nathan worked his way to the front door of the house and knocked it in with a single, well placed kick. He leapt into the house to find a man with a smoking rifle clutched in a white knuckled grip. The man spun, trying to get a bead on his opponent with the weapon.

Nathan put a bullet into the man’s stomach and a second one into his left arm, the impact causing the man to fling his rifle across the room. The home owner sank to his knees in a whimpering heap as a wet, red spot swelled on his shirt. He grasped the window sill, trying to stay on his feet. “Who are you?” the man wheezed and slumped to the floor.

Nathan walked to squat near him. “My name is Nathan Star. I’m here with Reaper’s Valley’s new sheriff, O’Rouke. Why did you fire on us?”

“
Lost two men earlier tonight to some kind of thing that looked like a man, but wasn’t. It slaughtered all my horses in the field and then set into the ones in the barn. What was I suppose to do when I saw a posse riding onto my land with guns in their hands?” Robert’s voice grew weaker and more strained. “Didn’t know who you were,” he rasped with his last breath.

Nathan caught his body as he fell forward and then eased it to the floor. Brushing Robert’s eyes closed with the tips of his fingers, Nathan said a prayer for his soul. A once beautiful woman, her dress soaked with blood, lay several feet deeper into the room beside the corpse of the teenager he’d shot. A mixture of pity, anger and guilt kept Nathan kneeling over the man’s body as O’Rouke busted into the house with his Colt at the ready. Louis followed him, appearing terribly out of place.

Nathan glanced at O’Rouke. “You can put your gun away. They’re all dead.”

The sheriff took in the death around him. “Fools,” he muttered. “We just wanted help.”

Nathan stood. “Is a man a fool to fight in defense of his home and family?”

His words struck O’Rouke like a blow to the face and the sheriff bit his lip.

“
This is really bad,” Louis said to no one in particular.

Nathan moved by him as he headed for the front door. “Yes,” Nathan nodded, “it is.”

Twenty-Two

“
Lee,” the man in white whispered into Lori’s ear. “That’s my name.”

His head slipped to her bare and freckled breasts once more as his forked tongue, more than a foot long, lapped at her nipples. Lori shuddered as its cold coarseness, but laid still. Her body ached from the fury and passion of his thrusts. He’d taken her four times so far, and not every violation had occured in the bruised area between her thighs.

She whimpered as he laughed. “What?” he feigned shock, “You want more? You’re one hungry little whore. Or perhaps, I am just that good?” He sat on the edge of the bed. “I do believe I’ll keep you for myself, but you’ll have to wait for another romp, my dear. I have something I simply must attend to.” Lee stood and motioned for the small pack of demons, who’d come inside the bedroom to watch their exertions, to follow him as he left the room.

As he closed the door after him, Lori lay on her back, bleeding onto the bed’s sheets. She was out of tears and her voice was nearly gone from screaming, which had only seemed to urge him on to more depraved sexual acts. Sometimes, the things he’d done to her were so terrible or hurt so much, she’d couldn’t stop from screaming no matter how hard she tried.

She attempted to roll over onto her side, but the strength required to perform the action wasn’t there. She couldn’t endure his “affections” again. Lori rested, trying to gather enough energy to get up. Her throat burned and felt scratched down its length. She gagged at the thought of what caused the feeling. As the memory of his penetrating violence floated through her mind, she almost vomited.

Terrified she would drown in her own sickness, she struggled to calm her stomach and turned her mind to finding a way to take her life before he returned. She knew suicide was a sin, but so was almost everything else she’d done in her life. Surely God would understand this one.

Hell would be a relief compared to Lee’s touch on her skin and his probing, tearing fingers inside her. If she could just make it to her night table, where she kept a straight razor—just in case any of her normal clients ever tried something she didn’t want to do or got a bit too forceful in their loving.

She was under no delusion that she could hurt Lee in any real way, much less kill him—but if she could reach it, she could set herself free from the nightmare she was trapped in.

She tried again to get up and failed as pain shot through her midsection from the effort. Lori fell back onto the bed. The best she could do was to pull the stained and bloody sheets over her naked body and turn to God for the first time she could remember since she’d been a child. She begged for death to come and take her from this place.

***

Lee clapped his hands together rapidly as he stood at the top of the stairs leading to the saloon’s second floor.

“
Come, my children!” he summoned the horde of demons below. Excited shrieks punctuated the air as the creatures laid back their heads and yipped their pleasure like a pack of frenzied coyotes. “There’s work to be done before you’re free!”

Twenty-Three

Nathan sat on the steps of the Presley’s porch while O’Rourke scavenged what weapons and ammo he could find.Louis pushed his glasses up his nose and walked over to the man dressed in black. “May I sit with you?” he asked.

Nathan shrugged. “Last I heard, this was a free country.”

Louis placed himself on the steps beside Nathan and took his pocket watch from his jacket. He held it up to his companion. Its hands had stopped ticking. “Now, I suppose this watch could’ve gotten broken dozens of times tonight, but something tells me it didn’t. It should have been dawn hours ago.”

“
Noticed that, did you? Would you like a gold star for your discovery?” Nathan asked sarcastically.

“
No, but I would like an explanation. I have never heard of a demon who had the power to blot out the sun.”

“
He’s not one demon,” Nathan admitted with a sigh.

“
I think it’s time you fessed up,” Louis stated. “I have pieced a few things together, but I’d like to hear the whole truth from you.”

Nathan appeared tired and beaten as he turned to Louis. “He calls himself Lee today, but he’s had many names over the centuries. You would know him best by the name Legion. He’s a swarm of hellspawn, compressed into a single form. No demon can truly bring on the end of days—only God can choose the time of his son’s return. Legion believes he can, though.”

“
Wait, this is the thing Jesus cast out into the pigs?”

“
Yes,” Nathan nodded. “Ever since those pigs drowned, he’s been locked in a single body. He hops from host to host like a disease. He believes that if he can free all the pieces that make up his whole on this earth, the world will become so much like Hell that he can force God’s hand. All he’s really going to do is take the human race to the edge of extinction and have a lot of fun doing it.”

“
So those creatures...” Louis prodded.

“
Yes, they’re pieces of him possessing whoever they can. He can even add souls to the numbers that compose him. If the host’s spirit is weak enough to be turned into a demon, their tainted spirit joins his. If one of them bites you or breaks your skin with its nails, their evil infects you like a plague. The sin inside you becomes alive and you become just another part of him.”

“
Lord have mercy on us,” Louis prayed.

“
And as you have noticed, the possessed are lesser demons than Legion, but they’re still demons. They are faster, stronger and more difficult to kill than a normal man or woman would be. Usually, it takes a lot of damage or a shot to the head to stop one of them,” Nathan added.

“
So the last time he tried to force the end of days was in Highwater? That’s why everyone died there?”

“
That was my fault.” Nathan sighed. “I failed to get to him before he released his taint. When I did reach him, I hurt him bad enough to make him run. Then I spent days cleaning up the mess he had made, freeing all those poor souls his pieces had taken over. That was only the first time he’d tried to carry out his plan. I caught up with him again a few days ago and almost died trying to destroy him. I barely made it into Reaper’s Valley alive and I knew he’d be after me.”

“
So you’re like some sort of holy warrior, tasked by God to stop him?” Louis asked.

Nathan shook his head. “No, I was one of them, but not a part of him.” The confusion plastered across Louis’ face must have been obvious because Nathan went on to explain. “I was possessed by another demon who was jealous of Legion and wanted to win the Morning Lord’s favor by showing him up. The demon that possessed me was named Baalon. He was not as strong as Legion, but he was more cunning. He only failed because God saw it fit to take him out from the game and put the fate of humanity in my hands, I suppose. That’s why I was after Legion in Highwater. Not because I was some kind of saint, but because I was caught up in the politics of the demons themselves. ”

Louis stared at him in awe. Nathan continued, “A man of God named Father Paige spotted Baalon as soon as he entered Highwater and managed to round up enough help to capture him for an exorcism. He was able to cast the demon from me, but Legion walked free while they wasted their time with me and Baalon. ”

He took a deep, ragged breath, then continued. “When Baalon was exorcized from my body, I discovered I was changed physically from the demon’s presence within me for such a long time as it had chased Legion across the country. I was faster and stronger, too. As soon as the demon was out of me, I hit my knees and tried to get right with God. I swore I would find Legion and stop him. I mean, knowing what I knew, what else could I do? You see, part of Baalon’s knowledge and memories stayed with me. I was the only man alive who knew what Legion was planning.”

“
Is that why you wear black?” Louis asked, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose again.

Nathan nodded. “We’re all tainted by sin from the moment we’re born. That’s just the way things are. I wear black because I know and accept my faults. Legion wears white as a smack in the face of the Lord. Demons are fallen angels and they can be as beautiful and as alluring as the stars in the heavens if they choose to be.”

“
And you really think we can stop him?” Louis held his breath, waiting for a response.

“
Anything is possible, so long as it’s God will.” Nathan got to his feet with refreshed confidence and a new surge of energy. “Thank you, Louis,” he said, a rare smile stretching across his face. “I needed this talk.”

Louis gave him a weak smile in return. “I don’t know. I think I might have been better off without it.”

Nathan chuckled.

“
Where’s O’Rouke?” Louis asked, looking around and seeing no sign of the sheriff.

Twenty-Four

Lee led his children from the saloon to find an unexpected surprise waiting for him. In the middle of the street stood a young woman in a tattered, torn and bloodied dress with shoulder length brown hair and a bold look of determination on her face. Around her lay three piles of ash. One of his children sat a few feet from her, grasping a leg which appeared to have been shattered by a well placed bullet. The young woman held a cross in one hand and a still smoking Colt revolver in the other. “You killed my pa,” she hissed.

Lee touched her mind with his own, copying all the knowledge of who she was and her memories, so he would be able to manipulate her more easily if the need arose. “Ah, what have we here, a virgin with a crucifix? Is it Christmas already?” He licked his lips and smiled. “Come now, Beth, what do you really hope to accomplish here? Your Colt is empty and that little gun in your pocket is as useless as your misplaced faith. Besides,” Lee laughed, “your father isn’t dead. He’s right over there.”

Beth turned and peered into the ranks of the foul things as they poured from the saloon and encircled her.

“
Pa?” Beth said weakly as the demon that was once her father moved closer. The muscles of his thick arms rippled under his flesh, more powerful than ever. Gone were the eyes that had looked into her own so many times over the years with love and kindness, their gentleness replaced by shining yellow orbs of hatred and hunger. There was nothing human left about them and their unholy glow made Beth feel sick to her stomach.

Her pa took another step forward, and then sprang at her like a cat pouncing on its prey. Beth swung the cross in her hand up to meet him. He landed on top of her, shoving her into the dirt, as the cross touched his leathery flesh. A cry of fear and hurt exploded from his lungs as he burst into flames.

Beth screamed, too, as the flames spread over. She was trapped beneath his burning bulk with no means of escape. She lay in the street on fire, long after his body had flashed to ash. Beth howled and begged for help as she rolled about, trying to extinguish her flaming dress and hair. The man in white laughed long and hard, as did his children. They watched her die a slow and agonizing death in front of them, their fevered howls chorusing through the air.

When she finally lay still, Lee tipped his small, white hat to her corpse, and then turned his attention back to the matter at hand. One man still lived in Reaper’s Valley and his soul cried out to Lee. The pastor’s faith needed to be stomped out and his soul devoured. Lee motioned for his children to follow him and set out at a brisk pace for the church which rested just beyond the edge of the town.