A Deafening Silence In Heaven by Thomas E. Sniegoski Read Free Book Online Page A

him, the troubles that he’d just related appearing to have taken their physical toll upon the divine creature.
    “It is for the good of us all.”
    Simeon smiled. “Of course it is,” he said. “That’s what a loving God is all about.”
    Tired of the angel, and wanting to think further about the situation, Simeon ordered Satquiel away.
    Needing another brandy, he rose from his chair, approaching the bar in one of the room’s other corners to help himself.
    “Did you hear?” Simeon asked as he poured.
    He looked toward the patch of darkness where the angel’s attention had been drawn earlier. The black moved like liquid, and a shape, followed by three others, emerged to join him in the study.
    Constantin Malatesta stood just outside the shadow, while Simeon’s three demon lackeys moved to the opposite side of the room.
    “The sound was a bit distorted within the shadow,” the Keeper agent of the Vatican said. “Did he actually say that God is ready to forgive Lucifer?”
    Simeon could not help himself and began to giggle. No matter how long he lived this wretched existence, the unexpected happenings of the day never ceased to amaze him.
    “He did,” the forever man answered, taking a sip from his fresh glass of brandy.
    “Perhaps there’s hope for us all, then,” Malatesta said, suddenly doubling over in pain as the thing that lived inside of him—the Larva—again tested the constraints of his body.
    “Hope isn’t something that the infernal really care to hear about,” Simeon told him.
    Beleeze, Dorian, and Robert watched in amusement as the Vatican sorcerer struggled with the diabolical entity that had possessed him since childhood. Simeon’s demonic helpers didn’t really care for the newest addition to their dysfunctional family and enjoyed his suffering whenever possible.
    Malatesta slowly straightened and from the look upon his face Simeon could see that the Larva had once again regained a modicum of control.
    “Personally I’ve always believed hope to be overrated,” the Vatican magick user said, his words tainted by the malevolence of the demonic parasite. “It’s so easily taken away.”
    The Larva smiled behind the mask of Constantin Malatesta.
    “So here’s the question,” Simeon then proposed, the wheels inside his mind spinning even faster, tossing off sparks of fire that only served to ignite more thoughts on the situation. “How do we best use this to our advantage?”

CHAPTER FOUR
    S omething moved in the sky above the ruins in the distance.
    It writhed like smoke, rising up from the crumbled citadels and towers, but it did not drift as smoke would upon the heavy winds that moved across the bleak desert landscape. It collected en masse, like a swarm of locusts, flying over the desert, heading toward the mountain.
    “We need to get out of sight,” the demon dog announced.
    Samson’s son was instantly on the move, the dog right behind him, using his large paws to pull down the tent.
    “Must have been another scout we didn’t see. We’ll head to the caves and hold up there until the Filthies get tired of looking for us,” the dog said, his paws far more dexterous than Remy would have believed.
    Filthies.
    The word exploded in his brain, images like jagged pieces of shrapnel tearing through soft tissue, memories flowing like blood as he turned his eyes to the dark, living cloud spreading over the desert toward them.
    Remy blinked away the nightmarish vision to see the great demon beast staring inquisitively.
    “What the fuck is wrong with you?” the beast asked.
    “Those are angels,” he said, squinting his eyes, now able to see the twisted mockeries of something once divine as they approached, their disease-ridden wings beating the dust-filled air. “What happened to them?”
    The dog stiffened as he stared at him.
    “What do you mean, what happened to them?” the demon hound asked gruffly. “
This
happened to them.” The dog looked around at their blighted