Free Infernal Father of Mine by John Corwin Page A

blonde hair and fair skin emerged. She closed
her eyes and faced the sun, as if enjoying the feel of it against
her face. The doors slammed shut behind her.
    "Holy fricasseed frog burgers," Shelton said.
"She looks just like Nightliss."
    Elyssa knew the face all too well. The blonde
woman had once wiped her memories and tried to use her against
Justin. Only Nightliss had been able to restore what the blonde
woman had taken. Fear chilled her heart while anger tightened her
jaw. "Daelissa."
    "She looks so cute," Bella said. "I hate to
think someone hell-bent on world domination looks like
that."
    "She can be so sweet," Ivy said. "She isn't all
bad."
    "I, for one, ain't gonna find out," Shelton
said with a shudder.
    An old woman in ragged clothes staggering
drunkenly down the sidewalk bumped into Daelissa. The angel's
serene features contorted into disgust and rage. Brilliant light
flashed. Elyssa blinked sunspots from her vision. The homeless
woman was gone. In her place lay a heap of ashes on the sidewalk.
Daelissa snapped her fingers, and a black stretched limousine
pulled around the corner of the church and stopped. A young man
hustled from the front passenger seat and opened the rear door for
the Seraphim to climb inside.
    "Should we follow her?" Shelton said. "Or check
out the church?"
    Elyssa looked at the limo as it pulled away.
"Can you use a tracking spell?"
    He shook his head. "It's a secure limo like the
ones the Conroys use, protected against tracking
spells."
    "We don't have transportation," Bella said. "I
could hotwire a car."
    "Following Daelissa is dangerous," Shelton
said. "Even if we do, it'll probably get us all killed like that
poor bag lady."
    "She is very tricky," Ivy said. "I tried to
follow her a few times to see where she lived, and she caught me
every time."
    "You didn't have to worry about incineration,"
Shelton said, eyeing the swirling ashes on the sidewalk across the
way.
    "She would hurt me sometimes," Ivy said, a sad
look on her face. "Daelissa told me pain was the only way to learn
my lessons."
    The limo turned a corner at the end of the
street and vanished.
    "I'm actually a little disappointed," Shelton
said. "I'd expected her to fly away on a cloud of light or
something more dramatic."
    "She might be powerful as hell, but she doesn't
have access to unlimited power," Elyssa said. "Even Seraphim have
their limits."
    "Tell you what," he said. "I'll wait until I'm
sure she's all tuckered out before making a move against
her."
    "I'm going to check out the church," Elyssa
said. "Everyone wait here."
    She jogged across the road and up the stairs to
the church. Something seemed off about the way the door shimmered
in the sunlight. In fact, the sun seemed to reflect off of
something just in front of the door. She found a twig on the ground
and tossed it. It bounced off thin air just inches from the door. A shield spell. She didn't dare tamper with it. That left
the windows. Jumping behind the brown-leafed hedge, she went to the
closest stained glass window and tested it the same way. This time,
the branch touched the window. Steadying herself, she drove her
elbow into the glass. The material absorbed the blow and shot her
elbow away from the window so hard, she stumbled into the
bushes.
    It's just like the enchanted glass
on the mansion.
    This had to be the right place to find the
Exorcists. It was too well protected to be anything else. Elyssa
wasn't ready to give up just yet. She ran down the side of the
church and vaulted a tall iron fence guarding the parking lot.
There was no sign of the vans used in the abduction, but that
didn't mean anything. This place might have a secret garage, or
this might not be the only place the Exorcists took their
victims.
    She tested the back door with a bit of gravel
and found it too was shielded. Grunting in frustration, she turned
to head back across the street when the hairs on the back of her
neck spiked. She dove sideways and felt a whoosh of air brush