Chapter 1 - The Book

It all started with a book.

It didn’t look terribly out of place–it was a book store after all–and Andi’s eyes just slid right over it at first. But something drew them back.

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NaNoWriMo 2013 - Computational Demonology

Yup, I’m doing it again. And this time, I’m doing it while finishing my PhD, working a full time job, and adapting to life two thousand miles away from where I was born. Should be interesting. 😄

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Confession - Day 74

163 - al-Eizariya

PRESENT DAY

…and licked my face.

It was such a surprising yet so absolutely doggy thing to do that I barked out a laugh; I just couldn’t help it.

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Confession - Day 73

159 - al-Eizariya

PRESENT DAY I could see the two of them struggling for control, each trying to force the Cup from the other.

So far as I knew, Lazarus was still mostly human–albeit able to appear and disappear in a most unsettling manner. Mr. Average on the other hand… not so much. He definitely had something going on in the supernatural department.

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Confession - Day 72

156 - al-Eizariya

PRESENT DAY Why did he want the three of us?

For some reason he had gotten it in his head that we would be the perfect bait to lure Lazarus to him.

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Confession - Day 71

154 - Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO I threw myself at not-Alex’s side. I doubted that it would do any good, but there had to be some hope–although I knew in my heart of hearts that there was none for John. I could see the blood. I could see how still he was. I knew that he was dead. Again, if he had been telling the truth. Not that that mattered any more.

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Confession - Day 70

151 - Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO Running into a thick white fog to help a self-proclaimed dead man fight off his once brother turned demon wasn’t exactly the most intelligent thing that I’d ever done. Truth be told, I had no idea what I was even going to do once I got in there, but I knew that I had to try something.

For Amanda, if nothing else.

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Confession - Day 69

149 - Not Rome

PRESENT DAY The instant I saw the all together too average man, I could feel my heartbeat speeding up and mouth mouth drying out. My body was preparing to fight, remembering all to well the last time I’d been in his pretense.

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Confession - Day 68

146 - Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO My cry was in vain. The fire extinguished passed through the air as if it were just that–air. There was a muted flash of light from right in front of me and a sound like popcorn popping. A heartbeat later and both were gone. The flash hadn’t been bright but nevertheless it was more than enough to bring my hands instinctively to my face. When my vision cleared, I saw that the carefully placed gemstones had moved. Several had jumped, leaving tiny black smudges, almost like burn marks. At least three of them appeared to have cracked into several smaller pieces while one of the quartz crystals–the one closest to me–had been reduced to little more than a pile of dust.

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Confession - Day 67

144 - Baghdad

SEVERAL YEARS AGO The sound in such an enclose space was deafening. I’d thought that I knew what to expect, but there’s really nothing that can prepare you for something like that.

Within moments, my ears were ringing, seconds after that, the world took on a muted quality.

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