Free Balance (The Divine, Book One) by M.R. Forbes Page B

door, and headed out to find a church.
    The
sun had vanished behind dark, heavy clouds, and it started pouring while I
walked. I needed a vessel for the holy water, so I dropped in on a liquor store
and bought the cheapest bottle of wine they had, which I dumped on the pavement
outside. I got into a small argument with a passing vagrant about wasting heat,
and then resumed my hunt for a house of God. When I pushed through the twin
doors of Our Blessed Lady Mary RC Church I was soaked to the bone, the water
dripping off of me creating a slippery mess on the cold marble floors.
    "That
rain's right devilish."
    I had
been hoping to avoid running into a priest, but he was already mopping the
floor when I walked in. He was an older man with short reddish-white hair, a
fair complexion, and a kind smile. He wore the wisdom of age on his face and
the creases around his eyes. Irish, if his accent was any indication.
    "It
sure is Father," I said, not making eye contact. "I'm sorry for the
mess."
    There
was an expanding pool of rainwater gathering at my feet. He looked down at it
and chuckled.
    "Don't
ye worry yerself child,” he said. “Ye look like ye could stand bein' outta the
rain."
    I had
disguised the empty wine bottle as an umbrella. He looked at it, then looked at
me, then looked back at the umbrella.
    "Might've
helped ye a wee bit if ye had used that thing,” he said, a strange look on his
face. “Then again, an empty wine bottle ain't much help in a rainstorm, is
it?"
    He
could see right through my glamour. Were all priests Touched? There was no
point being ambiguous.
    "I
need your help," I told him. "Holy water."
    "What
does someone the likes of you need with holy water?" he asked. "More
like to poison you than heal you crossbreed."
    I had
to know. "How did you know? Are you Touched?"
    He
laughed then, an old, wise, hardened laugh. "I didn't just come out of the
potato field laddie," he said. "And I don't need the blessin’ of a
pure angel to make my eyes work proper. Ye may fool some of ‘em, but I'm a
humble servant of the Lord, and I know me own. Besides laddie, what darn fool
carries an umbrella, but isn’t using it to keep himself dry?"
    Dante
was proving to be a little unreliable when it came to who could and couldn't
sense my true nature. Here was a self-proclaimed plain ordinary mortal, and he
saw right through the glamour, past the blood and lineage, straight through to
the truth.
    "It's
not for me Father," I said. "I have a friend who was injured by a
demon, a Great Were." I didn't know how much he knew, but I figured if he
were familiar with angels and crossbreeds, he would know demons too.
    The
priest rubbed his hand along his chin. "A Great Were eh? That's a nasty beastie to get into a scuffle with. How many seraph were
involved?"
    "Just
one," I told him. "You know about weres?"
    "Aye,
of course I do laddie,” he said. “Always a treat to watch a werewolf movie, and
laugh at how weak they portray those foul creatures ta be .
A Great Were, now that's a hundred times nastier than your nastiest werewolf.
Mean and smart, they are. Did you say one?"
    I
shrugged. "Well, one and a half I guess."
    "Aye,
a half," he said, his tone harsh. "The seraph was injured, and ye’re
here for holy water to heal it?"
    "Is
it so hard to believe father, that I would try to heal an injured angel?"
    My
voice was rising, and he put his finger to his lips to shush me, motioning with
his eyes to the few scattered people kneeling behind the church pews.
    "Actually
boy-o, it is," he said.
    He
grabbed my arm and pulled me off to the left, through a door and into his
private office. He closed the door behind us, then let go of my arm and
reinstated his direct glare. "Look here laddie, it takes at least three
seraph to take down a Great Were on a good day. Ye're saying ye helped one
seraph do it, and not only did ye win, but the angel survived?”
    I
hadn’t known what we were fighting, and now I realized that was probably a