Devil's Kiss

Sixteen

Sam banged on the front door of the rectory, growing more frustrated with each knock. He walked around to the rear. The back door was open, early morning sunlight streaming into the kitchen, the light picking up the faint dusty track footprints on the tile floor. Sam cautiously stepped inside. The dirty footprints led to Father Dubois's living room. The smell of death hung in the small room. Something else, too. Something Sam could not quite identify. Then he had it: it was a musty odor. But more than that, it was a smell of something he had smelled many times in Korea: graves that had been disturbed. But why would that smell be in Michael's house? Unless—?

Sam stepped around the footprints in the kitchen and walked into the living room, knowing what he would find. He was not shocked to discover Dubois dead on the floor. The old priest d known it was coming—somehow. Sam stood for a long silent moment, looking down at the body of his friend. The priest lay sprawled on the floor, his face twisted in horrible pain, eyes wide and staring. At nothing. A long stake protruded from his chest. The room stank of blood.

And that musty smell.

Sam spoke a silent prayer for Dubois, then picked up the phone and gave the operator the number of the City Police, knowing everything he said would be monitored.

"Jimmy? Get over to the rectory as quickly as possible. Father Dubois is dead."

He then called Tony, telling him what had happened. The doctor said he'd be right over.

The operator laughed.

Sam sat down in a chair, waiting. He had to force himself to remember that the grotesque thing on the floor was merely an empty shell; Dubois was not in this room. He was home with his God—home, at last.

"You fought a good fight, friend," Sam whispered. "Now rest forever in the arms of God."

"Sam?" Jimmy's voice echoed through the home.

"In here, Jimmy. Watch those footprints on the floor."

"I see them." He got his first look at Dubois and gagged for a moment, before control took over.

The body of Dubois seemed to sigh in death as gas escaped him.

Tony walked in. He looked at Dubois, crossed himself, then knelt down by the body. "Dead about ten or twelve hours, I'd guess. Give or take a couple of hours."

"What is that smell?" Jimmy asked. "Not the blood—the other one."

"The Undead," Sam said.

Eyes swung toward him; disbelieving eyes. Eyes mirroring dread and horror. Jimmy stuttered, "The—the Undead, Sam?"

"How many graves have been broken into the past two months, Jimmy?"

"Couple of dozen, I guess. Maybe more." The realization of what the minister was saying struck a hammer blow. "You mean—?"

"Yes."

"But why would they do this?" Tony pointed to the remains of Dubois. "Like this!?"

"Because they were ordered to do it." Sam rose from his chair and got a blanket from the closet. He pulled the stake from Dubois's chest, grunting with the effort. He tossed the bloody piece of wood to one side then covered the priest with the blanket.

"What do we do with him?" Tony asked.

"We can't take him to Glower's; he's one of Them. I won't have Michael's body defiled. I'll take care of it myself."

"I'll help you," Tony volunteered.

"How many city cops can you trust, Jimmy?"

"None. They're all wearing medallions."

"Watch your back, boy," Sam warned him.

"Yes, sir," the young acting-Chief said. "I'll swing by and take a look at Chester's and Miles'." He left, walking slowly out the back door, his shoulders hunched, as if expecting a blow from behind.

Tony looked at the blanket-covered body of Father Dubois. "What do we do with him, Sam? Where can we bury him where They won't find him?"

"We don't bury him," Sam said. "We burn him."

Black smoke spiralled upward from the makeshift funeral pyre at the city dump. The gas-soaked wood upon which Dubois lay burst into flames. In minutes, the priest was gone.

The doctor shuddered in the heat of the Nebraska morning and the flames from the dying pyre. "What an ignoble way for a good man to have to go," he bitterly observed, then looked at Sam. "I'm scared, Sam."

"So am I, Tony. So am I."

But the doctor looked at the preacher and thought: No, you're not, preacher. I believe you're looking forward to this fight.

Sam met his gaze. "Go on home, Tony. Get your gear together. Boots, canteens, blankets, guns—the whole bit."

He nodded his agreement. "Miles and Doris have asked me to stay with them."

"That's good. Everything pops day after tomorrow."

"And—?"

"We win or we lose. And God have mercy on us if we lose."

After dropping Tony off at his car at the rectory, Sam drove the streets of town. Very few stores were open. No one walked the streets except young people. They were brazen, rude, and profane.

Then he saw Jane Ann walking on the sidewalk, followed by several young men.

Sam gunned the pickup, reaching her a moment before the young men. They were hulking, sneering, and half drunk. Sam threw open the door on the passenger side. "Get in here!" he snapped. "Have you lost your mind, Janey?"

She slid in beside him, fear on her face.

"Hey, preacher!" a young punk called. "You gonna get you some of that pussy?"

A deadly calm overcame the minister; a killing mood crept into his brain. He got out of the truck, walked up to the young man, and hit him, a low, vicious right to the stomach, about one inch above the belt buckle. When the punk doubled up in agony, Sam savagely brought his right knee up into the young man's face. There was grim satisfaction on Sam's face as he heard teeth shatter and the jaw break under the impact. The punk dropped to the sidewalk, his face ruined. Sam resisted an impulse to kick him in the balls; to finish him as he had been taught to do. Brutally, he shoved the other punks out of his way, sending one sprawling into the gutter, hoping they would try to start something with him.

They did not.

I have to remember, he thought, that I am a minister.

It seemed to Sam he was reminding himself of that fact more and more each day.

"I'm sorry, Sam," Jane Ann said, as he pulled away from the curb and the drunken, once profane, and now silent and stunned young men. "I just wanted to get out of the house. I didn't know it would be this bad." She looked at Sam in a different light, now, after having witnessed another side of the man. She loved him even more.

He told her about Father Dubois. Tears sprang into her eyes, multicoloring the violet.

"And we can't run?" she asked.

"No." He glanced at her. "All right—let me show you."

They spent the next hour driving about that section of Fork, attempting to get out. It was useless; impossible, as Sam had told them all it would be. He could feel her fear growing. This section of Fork—thousands of square miles, dotted with more than two hundred small lakes—was sealed off tight.

"A wreck is blocking the road just ahead," sheriff's deputies told them, smiling as they spoke, their eyes dead.

"A bridge is being worked on," a highway patrolman informed him, smiling as he lied.

"This county road is closed temporarily," a highway department worker told them.

"The dam at Cottonwood Creek is leaking," a game and fishery man told them. "Sorry, but you can't get through."

"Too bad," a cowboy said, his eyes drifting down to Jane Ann's crotch, outlined through her jeans. He licked his lips. He stopped his tongue-play when his eyes lifted to meet Sam's cold stare.

"This range is closed to traffic."

"Why?" Jane Ann challenged.

"Just carry your little ass on, lady!"

Sam's was the only civilian vehicle on any road they drove.

As they drove, Sam could sense Jane Ann was on the ragged side of hysteria. "Settle down," he told her. "Just accept the facts and prepare yourself for the fight ahead of us."

"I am frightened," she admitted. "It was, I don't know—kind of a game, I guess, up to now. Now I'm really scared."

"We're going to make it, Janey. You have to believe that."

"I do believe it, when I'm with you." When he not reply, she said, "You're the first minister I've ever seen with a tattoo. Why a rose, Sam?"

He chuckled. "I was sixteen years old and drunk. I'd just run away from a foster home. Made it to California and was working part-time in L. A. I passed a tattoo shop one night, saw a picture of this in the window, liked it, and went in.

She touched the red rose on his thick forearm, fingers cool on his skin. She rubbed the outline of the petals. "Sam?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Michelle is gone."

"Believe me, I know."

"Why don't you stop the truck, Sam? Right up there by that grove of trees."

He slowed, then braked, pulling off the dirt road, knowing it was wrong, knowing what was coming, but unable to help himself. Truthfully, he did not want to help himself, he admitted. He cut the engine and they sat for a time in silence.

"There is a little creek over there," she pointed across a small field to a clump of trees. "I used to play there as a child. It's very lovely, very peaceful."

"Jane Ann—"

"All that junk in the back, Sam—do you have a blanket back there?"

"Jane Ann—"

"Never mind. I'll see for myself." She got out of the cab and rummaged around the gear until she found a blanket. She tossed it in the cab, beside him.

Sam looked at the blanket, a woeful look in his eyes. "Jane Ann, I—"

"Now, you listen to me, Sam Balon." She stood outside the truck, her eyes locked with his. "I'm tired of dillydallying around this. I don't know how much time we have, so I'm going to have to take the lead in this thing. I love you, Sam. There! I've said it. I—Love—You," she carefully enunciated each word. "And I know, beyond any doubt, that you love me." She walked around the truck and opened the door to the driver's side. "So get the blanket and come on."

There was an aching in his groin, and his heart

was pounding like a kid on his first date, but he got the blanket and followed her. He was not so love-struck that he forgot his .45, however, or extra clips.

As they walked across the small field, Sam kept reminding himself: You're a minister, Sam. This is wrong!

But he kept walking.

They walked in silence to the creek and the of the trees.

It was peaceful, he thought, as Jane Ann took the blanket from him, tugging it away from his grasp. "Sam! Turn loose!"

She spread the blanket on the cool earth beside the tiny creek. She bent over, smoothing out the blanket, and her jeans stretched tight across her rump.

Sam felt as though there was a walnut lodged in throat. Sweat beaded his forehead. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, his fists balled hard.

"Open your eyes, Sam," Jane Ann said. "For heaven's sake! I'm not going to rape you." She giggled. "However, that is a thought."

She sat down on the blanket, drawing her knees under her chin, arms locked around her shins. "Sit down, Sam. Make yourself comfortable. We're going to be here for a while."

The minister mumbled something under his breath. He felt as though he were fourteen again, looking for the first time at a naked woman. He remembered that moment very well. An older woman—all of eighteen, and the sister of a friend—had asked Sam if he'd like to take a walk in the woods. Sam's life had never been the same after that hour in the bushes with—what was her name? He couldn't remember.

Standing by the creek, looking down at Jane Ann, Sam felt like a fool. He also felt like gathering her up in his arms and climbing a tree with her—among other things. He wondered what his father would have done in this situation?

"My boy," his father had told him, just a few months before his death, "the flesh is very weak. Remember that."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked.

"It means, Sam, keep it in your pants if at all possible. You're a big, good-looking boy, and you're going to be a handsome man. I've seen the way you look at girls," he smiled. "And the way the girls look at you." He sighed. "I suppose you come by it naturally, though. I was not exactly pure at heart as a young man."

Two weeks later, Sam was caught in the back seat of his father's car with a cheerleader—an elder's daughter. And they were not studying the Bible lesson for Sunday School. The elder left Sam's father's church in a huff, the daughter was sent away to school, and Sam got a licking he still remembered.

Smiling in remembrance, Sam sat down on the blanket beside Jane Ann; a respectful distance from her. She laughed at him. It was the first time he'd heard her laugh in days.

"Sam?" she touched his arm. "There is no guarantee we'll come out of this alive, is there?"

"No," he said gently, thinking: You might, but I won't.

"Then, why don't they just come on and do whatever it is they plan to do?

"The time is not right, Janey. Besides, it's a game to them."

She was silent for a time, staring at the tiny in front of them. A bird sang in the tree above them. Not a bird indigenous to this area, but neither of them noticed.

"Do you love me, Sam?"

"Yes," he spoke softly, and felt a great weight lifted from him. His heart was light. "Yes, I do. I think I have for a long time."

He thought of Father Dubois's statement, that they must produce a son. Again, he wondered why Dubois had said it.

Jane Ann lay back on the blanket. Sam forced himself to look straight ahead, knowing that if he looked at her, all his principles, all his morals, and his hard put-upon noble thoughts were going to go flying away.

Peripheral vision saw her unbuttoning her shirt. Damn! he swore. Forgive me, Lord.

"Sam?" she whispered.

"It's not right, Janey." His eyes were fixed straight ahead. I should get up and walk away, he told himself. But he remained on the blanket.

"It isn't wrong, either, Sam."

"How can you say that?" he swung his head and knew he'd made a big mistake.

She lay on the blanket, her shirt unbuttoned to the waist, the shirttails pulled out. She wore no bra.

Oh, Lord! Sam silently groaned, his heart thumping, his throat dry, and his groin aching.

The "Song of Solomon" rushed into his head. The two breasts are like two young roses that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

"I can say it because it's true, Sam. Your marriage to Michelle was unHoly, and you know that, now. She's gone—really, she never was. And we might be all out of time." She tugged at his arm and he slipped down beside her.

Forgive me, Lord, he silently spoke to Him.

"I love you, Sam," she whispered, her lips wet. "And I want you." She pulled his head to her breast, and his mouth found the nipple, his big hand resting on her bare stomach.

Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: the belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.

Her hand fumbled with his belt buckle as his mouth found hers. "Take off your gun belt, Sam," she said. "I'm really not that dangerous."

Pistol on the ground beside them, she touched him, and his heart pounded.

They were naked in the shade of the cotton-woods, and the tiny creek murmured words of love, the babbling mingled with their words.

Above them, the bird sang a curious song.

"Sam!" she cried out as he entered her.

Her bare leg rested on his thigh, her dampness

pressing against his hip. Her face was pushed against his shoulder. Breathing had softened, evened, slowed.

"What we did was a sin, Janey."

"I remember you saying our God is a forgiving God."

"If we ask for it, and, I believe, if we mean it when we do."

"Well, there is one way we can get back in His favor," she smiled against his skin.

"I'd like to know how," he replied glumly.

"You're a minister, aren't you?"

He raised up on one elbow. "Of course, I am!"

"Well—marry us, then."

He blinked. "Here? Now? Janey, that's crazy!"

"Why? You love me, don't you?"

"Y7es. I—ah—uh—told you that about two dozen times a—uh—few minutes ago."

"There is no other minister around to do the job, is there? In Fork; this part of Fork, I mean?"

"That's right."

"We can't get out to find one to marry us, can we?"

"Uh—no."

"Then we're like Adam and Eve, aren't we?"

"Janey! Not quite."

She grinned. "Keep it simple, Sam. Something of Genesis, perhaps."

"Genesis?" He thought for a moment, then smiled. "All right." He quoted from chapter two, verses 23 and 25.

"I think that is very appropriate," she touched his face. "When you consider the circumstances."

And they were not ashamed.

"You and Jane Ann did WHAT?" Chester shouted.

"Oh, I think that's wonderful," Doris said.

"But, Sam?" Wade had a perplexed look on his face. "Who married you?"

"I did," Sam said.

"But—but—" Chester stuttered.

"Be quiet, dear," Faye shushed him. "I think it's wonderful."

"I think it's against the law!" Doctor King frowned.

"What law?" Jane Ann put an end to that line of reasoning. "Where?"

No one had anything to say about that, since God mentioned nothing about blood tests, licenses, or waiting periods when He laid down His rules.

"It was really a very simple ceremony," Jane Ann smiled.

"It must have been," Doris observed. "There are still a few blades of grass in your hair. Not to mention a twig or two," she added dryly.

"A bird sang—uh—above us," Jane Ann blushed.

"Basic accoutrements for any marriage," Miles smiled, stepping forward to shake Sam's hand. "Congratulations, friend."

"I'll gather my things," Jane Ann said. "I want us to go home."

Sam sobered. "We've got about thirty-six hours before—it all breaks loose." He glanced at Chester. "Have you got everything ready to go?"

"Everything is done, Sam. While you and Janey were—ah," he smiled, "getting married, 1 stripped the store."

'Strip is a good choice of words," Doris smiled, picking another blade of grass out of Jane Ann's hair.

Miles frowned; Faye giggled; Wade shook his head; and Sam turned red in the face. "We've got provisions for a full ten days," Chester continued, "and extra gas is stored around this part of Fork; just about anywhere you want to look. That's no problem."

Sam looked at Wade. "You and Anita staying here tonight?"

"We thought it best."

"Tony? You're staying with Miles and Doris?" The doctor nodded.

"Jimmy said Peter could move in with him. All right," Sam looked around. "When you go home tonight, lock all your windows and doors. Pull the drapes. Keep as much religious paraphernalia in sight as possible. Place open Bibles around the house. Each of you take some Holy Water, and wear your crosses."

"That didn't help Father Dubois or Father Haskell," Chester pointed out.

"No," Sam admitted, "It didn't. And I don't know why. But I, for one, am not going to take chances."

As Sam and Jane Ann stood on the front porch at Chester's, Jimmy pulled into the drive. After he recovered from his shock of their marriage, he said, "It's strange—no one is moving in town. A few young people, that's all." He looked at Sam and Jane Ann. "Who married you?"

"I did," Sam answered.

The young cop frowned, smiled, then nodded, keeping his many questions to himself.

"Are the kids still drinking?" Sam asked.

"Drunk, you mean! I stopped picking them up about an hour ago. If I put them in the lockup, my own men would turn them loose. If I took them home, their parents would laugh at me. Then Addison told me to leave them alone; said they weren't hurting anyone or anything. Sam, I can't get through to the Highway Patrol; can't get through to any law enforcement agency, anywhere. We're cut off—stuck! I'm going to turn in my badge, just as soon as I figure out who to turn it in to. I can't enforce the law—what's the use of wearing it?"

Sam thought of Jimmy's girl. "Have you seen Judy lately?"

The young man's smile was sad and bitter. "Oh, yes, Sam. Saw her this morning. Just before she checked into the hotel with David Vanderwerf, Paul Smiley, and George Deschin. I understand they had quite a party." He spat on the ground." She took them all on—so I'm told."

Wade had stepped out on the porch, listening. "You think it's wise to turn in your badge?"

"I don't think it makes any difference," Sam answered for Jimmy. "In a matter of hours we're all going to be participants in the biggest blood bath to ever hit this state. A badge is not going to make any difference, one way or the other."

Jimmy shuddered as he thought of what lay before them. Wade's face was pale. Sam was totally calm. Jimmy removed the badge from his shirt. "I'll go get Peter. We'll get our gear together."

"Try to stay calm, Jimmy," Sam urged him.

Jane Ann stood in the doorway of Michelle's room, her lips pursed in disgust. She shook her head at the filth. "I've never seen anything like his. What are you going to do with all this?"

"Leave it. We don't have that many hours to spend in this house. Why bother with it?"

She walked to the painting, staring at it. "It's evil!" Picking up a long fingernail file from the dresser, she ripped the painting to shreds, hacking at it until it was no longer recognizable.

Marching to the kitchen, Jane Ann found a large bag and stuffed Michelle's Satanic possesions into it, along with what was left of the picture. She carried the bulging bag out to the back yard, dumping it into the garbage can.

Neighbors watched from their windows, their eyes wild with hate.

Sam had watched her with mild amusement. When she returned, he asked, "You feel better, now?"

"Some," she returned the smile. Her smile faded as she looked outside. The sunlight was beginning to wane. Night was slowly creeping upon the town.

She walked to him, putting her arms around him, pressing close to him. "Tell me everything will be all right."

He stroked her hair. "I wish I could," he replied honestly. "But I'm afraid I'd be telling you a lie."

Night fell heavily on the prairie town, shadowing the lighted streets, deepening the gloom of alleys and back yards, bringing with the darkness an almost tangible aura of evil. The streets were murky. Red-rimmed eyes looked out from dark windows, heavy breathing could be heard. An occasional snarl ripped from once-human throats, and savagery began to stalk the town.

At full dark, a gang of drunken teenagers smashed the back door of a drug store and helped themselves to a selection of narcotics, washing down the highs and lows with raw whiskey. Patrolman Vickers of the Whitfield Police Department watched them stagger down the street. He chuckled as he touched the medallion around his neck, then laughed and drove away into the night.

Fifteen minutes later, he sat in his patrol car and watched an elderly woman walk her dog. Vickers took his .38 from his holster, took careful aim, and shot the old woman in the head. The slug tore through her brain, blowing away part of her face. She sprawled in a front yard. The dog ran away into the night, barking its joy at being set free.

Vickers laughed wickedly and drove away.

He did not see the huge Beast shuffle out of the darkness, dragging the old woman into the shadows, where others of his kind waited, lips wet with drool. Their teeth flashed a dull, slick yellow as they feasted on the still-warm flesh.

Ruth Cash heard something prowling in her back yard. Fear made her heart pound in her chest. Those teenagers were back. They circled her house, calling out from the night, telling her what they were going to do to her. She had called the police and the sheriff's department, but no one came to help her. Now her phone wasn't working.

An attractive woman of forty, a widow for ten years, Ruth stepped out on the back porch. "You boys better get away from here!" she yelled. "I'll call your parents!"

They laughed at her from the darkness, and the taunting, jeering chilled her as they shouted filth at her.

'"You're all dirty!" she screamed. "I'm going to call the police." She began to weep. "Dear God," she whispered, calling on Him for the first time in years. "What is happening in this town?"

She backed away, off the porch, into the kitchen.

"Help me. Please help me."

The young men came at her, knocking her down, dragging her into the living room. They stripped her, spread her legs, pinning her to the floor. Ruth watched as one young man removed his jeans, exposing himself, his hardness leaping free.

"What is she?" a teenager asked. "How come she ain't one of us or Them?"

"She ain't nothing," was the reply.

Then they raped her.

They took turns with her, in all positions. Ruth screamed her pain and outrage as they sodomized her. But no one came to help her. They beat her, forcing her to engage in oral sex with them.

And the night wore on, painfully. Ruth lay sobbing on the carpet, bruised, aching, and humiliated.

"Reckon she can still breed?" she heard a young man ask.

"I don't see why not," another replied. "We'll take her to Them."

Hours later, Ruth's sanity had left her, as had her former shape. Mercifully, she had fainted when the young men had dumped her over the fence at Tyson's Lake—and she got her first glimpse of the Beasts. She had regained consciousness to find herself on her knees, a Beast mating with her, his organ driving deep inside her, his fangs biting her on the neck.

She now squatted deep inside the earth. Her body was covered with coarse, thick hair. She mumbled and snarled and growled, and the others seemed to understand her, and she them. She had no recollection of her former life. No remembrance of the God she had once loved, then had forsaken after her husband died, for a belief in nothing. Dimly, as a female Beast, she understood she was going to breed new life in a few months. There were several young Beasts crawling around on the earth floor of the cave. And Ruth was happy.

"I don't like it," the young woman said, "Honey, we haven't seen one person in over an hour. No one. It's spooky!" she moved closer to her husband, placing a hand on his leg.

They had been married less than a week. It was their honeymoon.

"Aw, don't be scared," he tried to reassure her. "Besides, this is the only road for miles. We'd have to go a hundred miles out of our way to get to the main highway if we didn't take this country road through—what is the name of this county? Fork. Sure is a big county."

"Okay," she sighed, looking around, making certain all the doors were locked. "But I don't like it—just remember that."

"Yes, dear," he smiled.

Ten minutes later, a patrol car pulled them over, its flashing lights turning the highway red.

"You were speeding," she told her husband in an accusing voice.

"Get out of the car!" the deputy told them.

"Me, too?" the young bride asked.

"You, too."

Outside their car, headlights and flashing red lights almost blinding them, the young couple did not see the men rush them until it was too late. The young husband was beaten into unconsciousness with saps, then shot through the head at close range, his brains splattering on the blacktop as his head bounced from the impact of heavy slugs.

The woman screamed herself into hysteria as the possessed lawmen ripped off her clothing, forcing her to stand naked in the glare of the headlights.

"Look at them tits," one laughed, pinching her nipples, rigid from cold and fear.

They raped her and tossed her into the caged back seat, with her dead husband.

They drove to Tyson's Lake.

And the Beasts were pleased this night. Two fresh females, both of them breeders, in one night. The Beasts feasted on the dead newlywed, and then the leader mounted the bride.

The young woman screamed her fear and revulsion as the Beast mounted her. In moments, though, she began to moan and snarl, her body beginning the rapid transformation from human to Beast.

After a time, she sat on the rocky floor of the cave with what had once been Ruth Cash, speaking in a language of mumbles and snarls and guttural lashings.

And they were content.