Chapter Seventeen

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Cyrus' POV

It was time to take Theo to church.

It had been an interesting week with my new pet demon. The first two days had been rather rocky, with a lot of adjustments. Then he had to make me shower with him, which changed the dynamic entirely. Then he caught on to my 'temptress and traitorous' ways, which caused Theo to ice me out.

Which my mom had caught on to. One time, after dinner, she smiled at me and said, "He's finally starting to act normal, huh?"

Which basically meant Theo was not acting normal for Theo.

"You have to go," I demanded.

Theo sat on my bed, staring at the wall. He'd had a difficult time making eye contact for the past few days, apparently still angry at me for caring about humankind. Oh boohoo.

"I do not," he said sullenly. "I refuse to walk into the home of my arch-nemesis and rival, Jesus Christ."

Nina snickered in her bedroom and I tried not to sigh. This house had walls that were way too thin.

"It's not his home!" I protested. "I have never seen him there. Which was normal for a while, but in this past week I've learned that it's fully possible to actually see Jesus in person."

"It's not time for him to return yet," Theo said casually, as if rattling off facts the Bible predicted and religious folks desperately awaited was his typical Sunday morning. "He won't come in your lifetime. Your great-grandchildren's lifetime, maybe."

I was kind of bummed to learn that I'd never meet Jesus.

"Why couldn't it be Jesus that found me?" I wondered. "Instead of a cranky baby demon antichrist."

Theo scowled and glared at me. "Why couldn't I have found a human who wasn't a brainwashed Catholic temptress traitor?"

So much for that two day stint of sexually-driven chemistry that we'd had going on.

"You have to go," I repeated. "My mom says so. And she's the one putting a roof over your head and feeding you, so you have to."

Theo stared sullenly at the wall again. "I should erase the spells and let Aamon have his way with you."

"No thanks! Now c'mon, we need to find you a tie."

Theo did not like the tie. He tugged at it all the way to church, grumbling under his breath and glaring out the car window. "I'm going to draw the Satanic cross on the window," he informed.

"No, Theo honey, you aren't," Mom said with an edge to her voice.

Theo did the smart thing and shut his pie hole.

Nina didn't have that ability. She twirled her hair around and turned around in the front seat to nod to Theo. "Dude, same. I hate church, it's so boring. Mom, if homeless weirdo doesn't want to go, we shouldn't."

"I don't care if it's boring," Theo growled. "I'm disinterested in sharing oxygen with worshippers of God's son, my arch-nemesis."

"Dude, like, that too," Nina chirped.

"We are going to church, period." Mom's anger level was obviously increasing, which wasn't good for me. If Theo thought his dad was Satan, he'd had yet to see my mom angry. Honestly, my mom angry would probably scare Satan himself.

We all huddled in the pews and I watched in horror as Theo picked up a Bible and a pen. He started scribbling in another language, so I grabbed the Bible and glared. He picked up another one and continued.

"Mom," I whined. "Theo's writing in the Bible in a demonic language."

"Do not tattle," Theo mumbled, continuing his writing.

Somehow, we managed to get through most of the service without too much of a fuss. Except Theo kept rolling his eyes and grumbling, which brought us some looks from people around us. When it was time for the Eucharist, he stayed seated as instructed. I got up to the front, where I looked back to see if Theo was obeying.

Weirdly enough, Theo wasn't doing anything disruptive. However, I caught the eye of an entirely different problematic person.

Aamon was in the back row, smoking a cigarette and wearing sunglasses. These demons were ridiculous.

I wanted to be angry, but most of me was nervous. I took the body and blood of Christ like a good little Catholic and made my way back to Theo.

"Aamon is here," I said though clenched teeth.

Theo's eyebrows rose. "Oh? Maybe he's interested in hearing the words of the Lord."

Theo was not going to be helpful.

I waited until the service was over before jumping up and fully planning on confronting a psychotic demon. However, I was stopped by the most powerful of forces.

The attention of an old lady.

Mrs. Almeida, my second-grade teacher, grabbed me by the arm and gasped. "Oh, Cyrus! It's so good to see you, I didn't get to grab you after last week's service. How is your summer vacation going? I can't believe it's already August. You're going into your senior year of high school, aren't you? Wow, it feels like it was just two days ago that you were..."

I turned her out and tried desperately to find Aamon, but he'd disappeared into the crowd. Mom waved and said, "We'll meet you outside, okay honey?"

I gritted my teeth and turned back to her. "Yeah, I know right! Pretty soon it'll be college applications," I mumbled out the typical things.

"What do you want to go to college for, do you think?"

Ugh. I hated all the anxiety-inducing questions that adults loved to ask, as if I had any idea what I wanted to do with my life at eighteen.

After what felt like a million years, I finally escaped with a hug and a wave. I shoved my way through the billions of old people that were crowding around and making brunch plans.

And the second I got outside, my stomach dropped. My mom was talking to Aamon. I couldn't see Aamon's expression, but Mom looked horrified. I watched long enough to watch him hand her a piece of paper.

Where the hell was Theo?

I scanned the crowd and didn't find him. I didn't care if Aamon killed me, I was not going to sit around while he threatened my mom.

"Mom!" I yelled. "Who are you talking to?"

Mom jolted and looked a little bewildered. "Nobody, honey!" With a grimace, Aamon backed away and was gone in a blink. Mom didn't seem to notice that. "Just a newcomer to church."

It was kind of hard to tell if she actually believed that, or if she knew something was wrong with Aamon. She looked a little pale, honestly. My stomach sunk at the idea of Aamon doing anything to hurt her; didn't demons have powerful spells or something?

"Where the fu—heck is Theo?" I growled, looking around.

Mom shrugged a little. "I think he said something about dumping out holy water. Honestly, honey, that boy is crazy."

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