Read Online Demon Lord 6: Garnet Tongue Goddess by Morgan Blayde - Free Book Online

get bad before they totally go to hell.”
    “Caine, what are you, some kind of ninja?”
    I smiled.  She thought I’d just faded in, not realizing the butterfly had tuned her to me.  “Don’t try to figure it out, just go with it.  Lead on.  I’ll be right behind you, where it’s safe.”
    She gave me an uncertain look, but moved on, leading the way across a brown weedy lawn.  At a right angle to the back of the school, a small building jutted out.  It was white brick and two-story with ten-foot, stained-glass windows, and a steeple on a peaked roof.  We approached the chapel’s side door, climbing three stairs.  Christie needed no key, just the flashlight in her hand which threw out a strong, white beam.  She turned the door latch and entered. 
    Inside, the light of a crescent moon spilled past a gap in the roof where a number of boards had fallen in.  The cavernous space held half-rotting pews waiting in silent ranks on either side of a center aisle.  A dusty, hardwood floor showed evidence of recent traffic. The air was dusty as well. To the right, leading back into the school, the far wall had double doors that were nailed shut from the inside. The way we’d used seemed to be the only avenue in or out.  
    Christie moved toward the front, left corner of the chapel, bypassing the raised stage and its lonely pulpit. I’d been in graveyards and other consecrated places. There was no sanctity left here. Instead, I sensed a slumbering darkness, the echo of ancient evil. Something bad had happened here, leaving behind a curdled aura.
    An open doorway revealed a hallway. We took the hallway, and it turned right, into another. Floorboards creaked under our weight. “You guys did check these floors? We’re not going to fall through, right?”
    Christie said, “It’s safe, probably.  Knock on wood.”  She wrapped knuckles on a wall. The sound echoed ahead of us.
    Another board creaked beneath my steel-toed boots.  “Okay, if I fall through and break my neck I’m never going to speak to you again.”  I wasn’t really that worried.  Being half dragon, half slayer, I had more than human strength, heightened reflexes, and I tended to heal rather quickly.  Fear of damage didn’t hinder me as it did humans.
    In the middle of the hallway, an open door revealed stairs leading to the basement.  We went downstairs. The flashlight beam splashed across concrete flooring and walls. There were cracks in the foundation from water damage. Overhead, the large wooden crossbeams and wooden boards smelled of dampness and mold.  I thought a loud sneeze might bring them down.
    Christie went forward until she was directly under the chapel’s center.  A wall stood there. The basement seemed to be half the size of the chapel above, however, a four-foot hole in that wall disproved this theory. Fallen bricks littered the floor. The debris revealed what had once been a hidden space.
    “How cliché,” I said. “Bodies behind a wall?”
    “Old bodies,” Christie said. “From the personal possessions and the clothing, these people have been here for about a hundred years.  A very cold case.”
    Having left a lot of bodies lying around in my time, I knew a little about forensics.  I pushed past Christie and peered through the hole.  The place had aired out a little but still smelled of decay.  The wall beyond the bodies was brick, possibly protecting yet another secret space.  I’d have to look into that.
    She offered me the flashlight. 
    I waved it off.  My inner dragon trotted out of the back shadows of my mind, using my eyes to see with.  The darkness shifted into a silver-gray wash with greenish highlights.  I counted five bodies in rotting clothes.  From the tilt of the pelvic bones, these were all girls.  Skeletal damage—especially necks that had been bitten through—indicated violent deaths.
    I saw a body gripping a ceremonial dagger.  The metal was discolored and pitted, as if it had been