Jingle Hells Read Free Page B

on my face.
    “And who exactly are the Erelim?”
    At my question, two things happened at once.
The cat sank into a crouch, the hair on its back doing another
mullet impression, and Delilah gave a little squeak of alarm,
clapping a hand over my mouth.
    Her eyes darted around the room and up at
the ceiling as if she expected the second coming. “You must not say
the name out loud,” she whispered.
    Removing her hand from my face, I fought the
urge to roll my eyes. “Why?”
    Her big-eyed gaze refocused on me and
changed into a look of disbelief. “You don’t know?”
    I shook my head, and the cat zipped under my
desk like it was a bomb shelter.
    Delilah closed her eyes and bowed her head.
“God help us.”
     

 
     
    Chapter Three: Angels and
Demons
     
    Immaculate Conception Church towered over
me, dueling spirals pointing at the stars in the clear December
heavens like arrows bound for glory. A chorus of high, thin voices
singing hymns carried through the stone and mortar walls. Stained
class windows glowed from inside with angels and apostles chatting
in frozen mosaics. To my right, Mary stared down serenely at a baby
in a straw-lined crib. It was all so…heavenly, I shuddered under my
wool pea coat.
    As I stared at the enormous wooden doors at
the top of the stairs, I took the first step and considered the
odds of a reformed Devil-worshipper breaching them without
repercussion.
    Not a chance in hell, the little voice in my
head warned.
    Repercussions or not, I was on a mission.
Besides my quest to straighten out Samson and Delilah’s debacle, my
sister Emilia’s possession weighed heavy on my mind. My run-in with
Gabriel at Halloween had made me aware there was more going on in
the world of angels and demons than any witch should stick her
pentagram in. Emilia’s overnight right turn from a harm-none,
peasant-skirted Wiccan to a blood-lusting, Gucci-clad Devil
worshiper was hard to ignore. While I admired her new designer
wardrobe, I was a little concerned about her soul.
    Yeah, go figure. Me, the one who couldn’t
wait to offer mine up to the Devil on a silver platter, was now
worried about the woman who stole him from me. Sisters. Yeesh.
    And since I had a new understanding of the
way some angels worked, I was concerned about Delilah as well.
Maybe she was telling the truth, maybe not. Either way, I wanted to
know who the Erelim were and why their reputation was the heavenly
equivalent to the earthly Godfather.
    Tonight I was at Immaculate Conception to
talk to an expert. Father Leonard promised to see me after choir
practice.
    Propelling myself up another step, I heard a
low growl coming from the manger scene. A bristling wolf strode out
from behind Mary and Joseph and galloped up the stairs, stopping at
my eye-level. He was beautiful, his blue-black hair catching the
light from the windows above.
    I should have been terrified. Instead, a
warm sensation flooded my senses, like someone pouring liquid
chocolate over me. Everything in my body responded. My eyes closed,
my nostrils flared, my nipples tightened. The goose bumps on my
skin disappeared and luscious heat rose in their place. I swayed on
the steps, letting the voices of the choir inside lift me off the
ground.
    And then that little voice inside my head
said, hel-lo, sin, and the world of enchantment crashed down around
me.
    I opened my eyes and glared at Lucifer in
his wolfy sheep’s clothing. “What are you doing here?”
    He bared his teeth, the canine fangs twice
as long as a normal wolf’s. I’d seen them before. Felt them nipping
the sensitive skin on my thighs and buried in the vein of my neck
during my vampire-fetish phase. They didn’t scare me. In fact,
certain body parts zinged remembering those delirious nights.
    Trying to knock sense into my parts, I
stomped my feet on the sidewalk. “You cannot stop me from going
inside this church.”
    The wolf paced the stairs, his strides
confident and eloquent, just like the more human