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CHAPTER TWO:
DAY FORTY-FIVE

Trevor Black awoke to the sound of blood pounding against his brain at the same pace the rain pounded against his window. The digicell vibrating incessantly on the side table seemed to be a chainsaw that had begun to cut through his sanity. Hesitation was his first response. Curiosity was his second. He picked up the digicell and flipped it open.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. This is Black.”

“Oh and I have, Brother Black. I have,” the voice of Pendragon rasped through the digicell. “And there is no law beyond it, don’t you agree?”

Trevor reached for the function button on his digicell that would begin a traceroute on the line.

“Don’t touch that,” the man said forcefully enough to make him jump and look around in expectation of seeing Pendragon in the room with him. “I would just be beside myself if I had to take a bite out of the sweet little piece of the Caliph’s pie because your hand strayed to close to the digicell traceroute.”

Trevor moved his thumb away from the button.

“So answer the question. Is there any law beyond Do what thou wilt?” The voice was demanding yet taunting. It had begun to take on an air of playfulness that made Trevor sick at his stomach. This monster was using The Book of the Law to justify his actions.

“No. There is no law beyond it. Though I do believe that you have mistaken your Will for some kind of jihad against the New Templaric. When you have no understanding of your true Will then it is a bit more difficult to claim protection under the Law.”

“And if I tell you that I do know my true Will and that the tapestry that I have laid before you is part of that Will?” There seemed to be a genuine quality about the question, as if he really believed that somehow slaughtering these people was within his Will. “What then?”

Trevor paused before answering, his voice calm. “Then I would have to say that you are mistaken in your Will and,” he paused again, “that the Areopagus has a facility that can assist you in readjusting your way of thinking and direct you to find...”

“Direct me!” Pendragon screamed through the digicell. “You would presume to know how to direct me to find my true Will?” The control was completely gone in his voice. “How dare you!”

“But…” Trevor tried to interrupt.

“No. You listen to me now. You have only seen the window covering of my Will. Now I will draw back that curtain and show you the true design of this Incarnation of mine. From here on out I will show you and the entire fucking regime how to really live by the literal Law of the Aeon. Thank Nuit that you slept last night while I worked. Your next piece of my puzzle is in the Chapterhouse District.” Then in a low sinister tone, he added, “Enjoy the art of the whore.”

The digicell went dead.

The art of the whore? Trevor sat there on the edge of the bed and blankly stared at the digicell. In the Chapterhouse District? He racked his brain to no avail.

Trevor knew that somewhere there were dead people, slaughtered like cattle and left to be packaged by the Order of Kadosch and placed into deep freeze before being thawed out and examined. But he still needed a shower.

In the shower, he went through all the names of the various Chapterhouses that he could remember. There were the obvious ones – Thoth, Crowley, Tahuti, Hadit, Coph Nia, Scarlet Woman. The brick hit him in the back of the head as he thought it. The Scarlet Woman Chapterhouse. It was the only “whore” in the whole district.

He ran his body through the spray of the water quickly and hurried out of the shower with a few remaining soap trails running down his back. He dried off and threw on his clothes. On the way out the door he grabbed his gun next to the door.

The rain was heavy and Trevor tried hard not to miss the turn onto Kelly and Hirsig. The combination of wet streets, blinding rain and the idiot from the office on his phone that insisted the Scarlet Woman Chapterhouse was on Kelly and Thoth not Kelly and Hirsig almost created a perfect scenario for disaster. At the last moment, the little voice on the digicell chirped in that Trevor had been right all along and that it was indeed on Kelly and Hirsig. In fact, at that moment he saw the looming pillars that had made this particular Chapterhouse famous in this city.

Trevor parked outside the main gate and ran up the concrete path to the front door. Once under the porch of the building he noticed that the door was slightly open. He took out his gun and pushed open the door. There was an acrid smell just beyond the opening as if something had pealed away the flesh from a corpse and then set it on fire from the inside.

He stepped through the door. The odor was stronger now.

Shadows surrounded Trevor as stood in the center of the great atrium of the Scarlet Woman Chapterhouse. What small light came through the high windows at the top of the domed room was ghosted by the darkness of the harsh rain outside. The effect was eerie and calming at the same time. A small silver of light issued from a door at the far side of the atrium and Trevor could see that there was something on the floor near that door. It was too far to make out distinctly. He moved slowly toward the object.

He arrived at a horrible scene. On the floor was a frog. Or what looked like a frog. Trevor bent down to examine the object. It was a frog nailed to a piece of wood that was attached to another. Crucified, he thought. The frog was taking its last breaths of air and attempting to stay alive in its torturous position. It was impossible at best and Trevor watched it gasp one last time before it stopped. Dead. On the floor, next to the crucified frog in small letters was the word “Crowley’s” written in what appeared to be blood. He shook his head and thought, And? It was a known fact that the Prophet had crucified a frog after dubbing it “Jesus.” So it was a bad imitation. He looked at the door from where the light entered the atrium and stood up.

The door was no more than four feet away and Trevor bridged that distance in two strides. He opened the door and stepped into the room. What he saw made him sick.

The room was dark except for the light that shown down on the three crucified men. Each one had been tortured; that much was immediately obvious from the wounds into their bodies. Each one had Liber OZ, signed and numbered, posted above their head on their respective cross of death. But the one in the center was different. Blood was still streaming down the dead man’s cheeks from the spaces where his eyes had been. They had been crudely obliterated.

Pecked out, thought Trevor.

He noticed that under each man was a lit candle. The cross on which each was hung had been short enough that the feet of each man were close enough to the candle to begin to burn the flesh off of the soles of their feet. The smell had been burning flesh, and the thought made Trevor even sicker at his stomach. He turned to face the wall and saw the light switch for the room.

Trevor reached out and flipped up the switch. The lights came on and flooded the room with a brilliant white light. It was almost blinding at that moment. Trevor turned around to take another look at the gruesome scene in the light and was horrified to see that which had not been apparent in the darkness. In huge letters across the floor of the entire room was a word that appeared to be written in blood: Mine.

The room began to spin a little and he reached out to steady himself against the wall. The sound of the door opening further caught his ear and he raised his gun towards the door. An investigator pushed his head into the room and took a deep breath at the scene. Then he saw Trevor and jumped back slightly. Raising his hand to Trevor he motioned for him to follow.

Outside in the atrium again, Trevor saw that there were close to a dozen Kadosch investigators rummaging around the various corners of the room. The seemingly ever-present Grand Inquisitor Commander was standing in the center of it all with her hands on her hips staring at him.

The sound of her anger overwhelmed him before the words could even register in his brain. She even dispensed with the formal greeting. “Why in the name of the Prophet did you not wait for your backup?” She was yelling at him in what seemed to be escalating volume. He did not respond immediately. Trevor sensed that anything out of his mouth would provoke an interruption and more verbal whiplash.

She looked at him with what seemed to be a bitter victory in her eyes. It was like she finally had something for which she had waited so long to accomplish. But there was silence between them for a moment and the only sound was the movement of animosity between them.

The Grand Inquisitor Commander broke the moment with four words that rang like a cemetery bell in his mind: “You’re suspended without pay.” Then she turned and walked out the atrium door and into the rain.

Trevor stood there for a moment stunned. He knew what she had just said, but it did not register in his head quite the same. Surely she did not mean that. This was his case. He ran after her.

“But this is my case, Your Grace.” She was still standing on the edge of the Chapterhouse porch and looking out into the gardens that surrounded the place. “You can’t just remove me from it. The Caliph himself put me under special oath for this.”

“I will deal with the Caliph personally. And I can take you off of any case I deem you unfit to continue.”

“Unfit,” he interjected. “Unfit?”

“You know the Order’s policy. Kadosch investigators do not enter a scene of a crime or possible crime in progress without backup. Doing so instigates disciplinary action. This is my action.” She stood there in her usual stance, hands in her pockets, staring at whatever – or whomever – her opponent happened to be at the moment. She then added the final touch. “At least I didn’t call for a Grand Tribunal hearing.”

The Grand Inquisitor Commander turned and looked back out over the gardens.

Trevor stood there for a moment and then walked down the steps and out onto the path toward the road. The rain splattered down on him though he seemed to take no notice of it. The water ran through his hair and into his eyes. He shook his head and began to head to his car.

“Trevor?” The Grand Inquisitor Commander spoke almost too softly for him to hear. It was odd to hear her sound so timid.

He turned back toward her, wiping the rain from his face. “Yes, Your Grace?”

“Did you know who that man was in the center?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Z. Baphomet, Most Wise Sovereign of the Scarlet Woman Chapterhouse.”

She spoke still in that soft tone that was unnerving to him. “But did you really know who he was?”

Trevor shook his head in a lack of understanding.

She spoke before he could ask. “He was my ex-husband. He was a good man. And he didn’t deserve this.”

Trevor looked at her in a different manner for a moment and saw a woman bitterly hurt by a terrible event. The vestige of her position erased in that instant.

“Your Grace. You have my sympathy to your loss.” He bowed to her, water pouring over his shoulders, and then turned and walked away.

Once in his car, Trevor sat and stared at the rain pounding against his windshield as the blood pounded against the inside of his skull. He fought the temptation to go back and argue this out with the Grand Inquisitor Commander. His sense of pride and the knowledge of her loss held him in check. There was so much here. He had been on this case for the entire duration of the murders. The murderer was in regular contact with only him. He had been through forty-four grueling days of carnage. And now this. He needed a drink.

Trevor started the car and drove away from the Chapterhouse.

As he approached the small store where he frequented to buy his favorite brand of Rum, he wondered if the location of the store so close to the Parliament of Guilds was coincidence. Probably not since this store had the largest alcohol selection in the entire city. Trevor had been in one of the Parliament’s meetings before. It was a madhouse. It was beyond him how the Pontiffs of the Areopagus ever thought they could control such bickering children.

Trevor pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of the store. He got out and stood there looking at the majestic building that housed the Parliament of Guilds. The gothic structure was almost a rival to the old Christian-era Notre Dame Cathedral. He still thought it was a shame that the New Templaric had obtained enough power in the French government to have it torn down. It was said that France would be the next to join the Theocracy. Most likely Great Britain after that. He had to wonder if the St. Paul’s Cathedral would be the next one torn down. What a sad day that would be.

He shook himself from his admiration of the building and his private thoughts of the destruction of pre-Thelemic architecture to enter the store. He heard the Rum calling his name.

Trevor was exiting the store with his new bottle in hand when his digicell began to vibrate. Not only did he not want to answer it, but he was especially not interested in talking to either of the two people that currently dominated his time; Rebecca and Pendragon. And, of course, it just had to be one of them.

“Do what thou wilt shall…”

“Haven’t we already established that Law?” The voice of Pendragon echoed thought the phone as if he was in a large room of marble. “Why do you feel the need to announce it so. To force it down each person’s throat as if it was the infallible rule. If ‘Do what thou wilt’ is truly the Law, then it stands to reason that each person should be free to do their Will no matter how unthelemic someone else might think it is.”

Trevor took the opportunity of the pause in the speech to interject, as well as to get into his car. “But we all know that there are consequences that have to be met with every action. And there are some concepts that no matter how free you are to believe them are merely unthelemic by virtue of their condemnation in the Holy Book. Take your ‘art of the whore’ for instance. There are consequences most extreme for the murder of a Most Wise Sovereign. It may truly be your will to have ended his life, but the consequences of that is your death as well. That would simply go against the overriding will to live that each of us possesses.”

“Black, you almost make me think you have convinced yourself. But I hear it in your voice that you didn’t like the irony of my tapestry in the Chapterhouse?” Pendragon taunted him. There was that damned playfulness in his voice again that made Trevor think that maybe he was just insane.

“I got your irony, though I don’t necessarily understand it. But I am no longer associated with this case. You will have to find someone new to call with your little game.”

The sound of contained rage in Pendragon’s voice was noticeable to Trevor but he doubted that anyone who had not heard it before would recognize it as such. “What? What do you mean you are no longer associated with this. You are in this up to your neck and you will never be separated from it.”

“As of less than an hour ago I was suspended without pay from the Order of Kadosch. I am sure that a hearing of the Order ethics board will be called and I will be restored to my position. But I seriously doubt it will be anytime before you finish this rampage of insanity.”

Trevor started the car and left the parking lot headed back to his apartment. It was not all that far away and he needed a drink if he was to continue this conversation.

“It must be that fuckin’ woman. That Inquisitor that runs around my work like she thinks she can understand it. Like she can figure it out without a clue. Fuckin’ bitch.” He sounded out of control. Trevor had a mental intuition of something very bad about to happen.

“Look. It’s not like you can’t funnel information through me.” Trevor struggled to maintain some control over the conversation. “I can make sure that the Order knows where you have…” He paused and thought before continuing, “…arranged the next piece of your tapestry. Then they can do all the investigative work to…” Again he paused, “…to figure out how we can all best help you accomplish your Will without having to hurt anyone else.” He knew that was not enough, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

“Fuck you. And her. All of you.” The line went dead.

Trevor immediately dialed the Commandery. One of the assistant investigators answered the phone. He asked to speak to the Grand Inquisitor Commander and was placed on hold. A moment later she was on the digicell.

He explained quickly the conversation that had occurred and warned that he felt she should have complete and around the clock protection for a while. She listened. She thanked him. She hung up. Once again Trevor held a digicell with only a dial tone.

Trevor went through the intersection next to his apartment building and turned into the garage. As he pulled into his parking space and stopped, the impact of all that happened during the day slammed him head on. He beat his hands against the steering wheel in frustration. Then he got out of the car.

He walked through the door and began to ascend the stairs to the second floor. The bottle of Rum under his arm reminded him that this day would be over as well. Maybe with a little luck it would be over soon. Trevor reached the top of the staircase and turned the corner to head for his door. He looked up and saw a man sticking something to his door. Instantly he knew both the man and the item on his door. Pendragon. Liber OZ.

“Hey,” he shouted at the man and broke into a run toward him.

The man began to run in the opposite direction. As he passed his door, Trevor reached for his gun and dropped the bottle of Rum. The sound of breaking class was muffled only by the sound of the feet of two men, one in pursuit of the other. As he began to aim his pistol at the back of Pendragon’s back, the pursued stopped and turned to face him. Pendragon had a gun in his hand and Trevor saw the flash from the barrel and recoiled from the splinters that flew at the side of his head from the wall to his right.

Pendragon turned around again and fled back down the hall. By the time Trevor had regained his balance and began to pursue him again, he had reached the end of the hall and climbed out the window onto the fire escape. Trevor fired a shot that shattered the window. Shards of glass rained down on Pendragon’s back and shoulders. Both men continued to run. Pendragon began his descent down the fire escape and Trevor continued to close the distance between him and the window.

Trevor reached the window and quickly surveyed his possibilities. Then he scrambled through the window and began to follow Pendragon down the fire escape. By the time, he reached the second twist Pendragon had reached the ground and stopped to look up for a moment.

“Give it up, man. Give it up.” And then he fired another shot at Trevor and began to flee down the alley.

Trevor did not flinch when the bullet struck near him this time. He kept moving down the fire escape and finally jumped onto the ground. He began to run after Pendragon. He raised his gun and fired at the man in front of him again. He saw shards of brick fly off the side of the building in front of Pendragon and the man dodged to one side to avoid being hit.

The digicell in his pocket began to vibrate and he opened it with his free hand while continuing to chase his adversary.

“Whoever this is, call the Commandery and request backup behind my apartment. That’s the corner of Germer and Breeze” He snapped the digicell shut and shoved it back in his pocket. He could only hope that the backup would arrive in time.

Pendragon cut to the right down another alley and disappeared from view. Trevor spun around the corner and slipped on an oily patch in the water soaked pavement. He felt the skin rip along with the fabric of his slacks. It seemed that a portion of his arm was joining the injury list as well. Pain racked him as he slid to a stop up against the brick wall of the building that was behind his and formed one side of this alley.

Trevor picked himself up and began to run down the alley again. The sound of sirens suddenly pricked his ears and he knew that the Kadosch was on their way. At the far end of the alley he saw Pendragon stop and turn around for a moment to look at him before once again disappearing around the corner. Trevor tried to pick up speed to gain on the street ahead. He saw on of the Order’s cars pass in front of him headed in the direction Pendragon had turned. He hoped that they had seen him and were in pursuit.

He reached the space between the buildings at the end of the alley and realized that his lungs hurt. He stopped and panted for air for a moment and looked in both directions. To the right was nothing. The direction of the car and the runner was empty. To the left he could see three more cars parked in the intersection and the investigators standing talking to each other. The Kadosch chopper was approaching from the same direction and gaining on his location. He watched as it passed over him and to his right.

Trevor went left and walked to the intersection.

The conversation when he arrived was excited but not positive. The ground unit had no spotted the man, but the air unit caught sight of him as he crossed over the intersection of Breeze and Motta. But they lost him again when he entered the building. They never saw him come out, but a second ground unit searched the building and came up empty-handed. The investigators were discussing the possible exits and routes of escape from that area over a map laid across one of the car’s hood. Trevor stared at them for a moment before one of the investigators noticed him.

“Black,” he exclaimed! The other investigators turned around. He caught himself and registered a serious look on his face. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” He then bowed his head just slightly.

“Love is the law, love under will,” Trevor responded with a tired sound in his voice. “What is the status of the pursuit?”

“In progress,” said another investigator. “Ground units are tracking each possible escape route.”

Forget it,” Trevor said. “Call them back to the Commandery. Pendragon’s gone. I know that much. Just get a unit up to my apartment and try to scan for prints. I didn’t notice him wearing gloves, but things happened so quickly…” He paused. “Well, I just want to be sure that we aren’t overlooking anything.”

“Yes sir,” was the reply.

Trevor turned back around and found the he was standing face-to-face with the Grand Inquisitor Commander. It seemed she always turned up at the Pendragon fiascoes no matter how minor or major the circumstances. This time she was not alone. Two investigators accompanied her. It seemed she had taken his advice about being alone for a while.

“Your Grace,” He said. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

“Love is the law, love under will.” She responded in almost complete monotone. “Why call off a search when you know this man is in the area? Why call off a search for which you had no authority to call in the first place?”

She held up her hand when he tried to speak and cut him off. She continued to berate him even if it did seem a bit more kind than usual. “I don’t care to hear your response. Go home. We will clean this up and get back to work.”

She turned to walk to back toward a second group of investigators that had begun to congregate beside another vehicle. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at him and said, “Oh, and I will have a team up at your place in a bit to look around.” Then she walked off.

Trevor watched her walk away for a moment and then turned back to the investigators around him. He shook his head and began to walk back toward his apartment building. He stared at the ground as he walked. He felt at a loss to explain the recent events. It felt as if he had somehow missed something in the past weeks. As he approached the entrance to the building, he looked up and saw that Rebecca was standing in the doorway waiting for him. She was smiling.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” he said to her. He smiled back at her with a weary look of relief and sadness.

“Love is the law, love under will, baby.”

“Come on inside. It’s been a long day and I really would like to get some dinner.” He took her hand and playfully spun her around to head inside with him.

In the hall Rebecca nudge him and asked, “How about we just order out tonight?”

“Like what?”

She thought for a moment as they continued to walk toward his door. The conversation halted for a moment as she saw the copy of Liber OZ on his door. She seemed to have a relieved look on her face when she noticed that there was no signature or number on the paper. Trevor opened the door and they went inside.

Trevor threw his coat on the couch and walked over to the bar to make a drink. He still had a little bit of Rum left in the cabinet and he could always have a delivery man stop and pick him up a bottle on the way over.

“So you thought of dinner yet,” he asked with a half mocking tone.

“Thai,” was the response from the kitchen. He had not even seen her go into the other room, but her voice sounded like she was rummaging through his refrigerator.

“Great. I will jump online and order some. Same thing as usual?”

She responded with a positive sound as she walked back through the door with a cracker in her mouth.

After Trevor finished ordering dinner, he sat down next to Rebecca and put his head on her shoulder. It felt good to merely sit in silence for a while. He felt so much better when the world around him just stopped moving for an evening.

They must have sat there for thirty minutes. Rebecca just holding his head and staring out the window into the evening, and him just laying there only to rise up on occasion to take drink of his Rum and Coke.

Finally, Trevor got up to make himself another drink and a knock at the door sounded at the same time. Rebecca got up to answer the door. It was the man with the food. She paid the man as Trevor was pouring himself the second drink of the evening.

As they sat and ate, Trevor began to tell Rebecca about his day. She shook her head when he started and hushed him.

“I don’t want to hear about it tonight,” she said. “Tonight is just for us. Forget everything else and let us just be together.”

He tried to interrupt her and she held up her hand at him to keep him quiet. “There is not a lot of time that we get to just be alone with each other without having your work interfere with us. I would like to just have one night that is just us. Can we do that?”

Trevor could do nothing but nod at her and smile. She was right. He did not have a lot of time for her and she was so good to him during this time of stress. He knew that there was definitely something between them that kept them together. She could depart at any time, but she never did.

They finished eating and Trevor worked to clean up the plates and pour himself another drink. He turned around to find that Rebecca was gone. He heard her in the back room and noticed the flickering of candlelight coming from the doorway. He set down his glass and walked to the room. Rebecca was standing in the doorway in a blouse. Her small trimmed pubic hair glistening in the light of the candles. She motioned for him and he followed.

She sat down on the bed and motioned for him to sit beside her. Trevor took a step toward her and began to lower himself onto the bed when she reached out and took his hand, forcefully but gently, and ran her fingers through his hair. As he knelt beside her and drew in a kiss from her lips, the sweetness of nectar penetrated his lips as her tongue entered his mouth to fondle his own, the taste of the flavored oil that covered her lips tantalized him to want more and to pull her closer into their embrace. There was a rush of movement and her fingers worked deftly as they pulled off his shirt and began to run through the light hair on his chest before he could even begin to fumble with the buttons of her blouse. As Trevor opened her blouse, her lips grazed his chest and he felt her wet lips surround his left nipple.

Trevor was standing before her as she sat there touching his chest. He held the back of her neck and kissed her forehead, her eyebrows, her eyes, her cheeks, and her neck. He massaged her shoulders, kissing them and bending down to touch her breasts. She suddenly lifted her head and pushed his body from her, holding him at a small distance from her. Her hands moved softly along the top of his pants and she slowly began to pull them off as she put her face close to the noticeable bulge and teased him with her breath. Trevor stripped her of the blouse and tossed it on the floor next to the bed as Rebecca lay back on the bed and waited.

He stopped for a moment and reached into his side table to pull out a small jar of oil. He dripped just a little of it on the mound between her thighs. He watched as it ran down between the folds of skin. He began to gently massage the mound and outer lips of her womanhood. She moaned with a low sound that he could feel through the tips of his fingers. Trevor worked his fingers around the flesh, gently squeezing the outer lips between his thumb and index finger. He slid his fingers up and down the entire length of each of her lips. He massaged each side separately and then together with both hands. Rebecca’s body began to move passionately under his strokes. He moved his hands back toward the center and began to gently stroke her clitoris with clockwise and counter-clockwise circles. A heavy sigh, almost a small scream, erupted from her mouth.

As he continued to gently squeeze her clit between his thumb and index fingers. Suddenly he began to see the Light start to descend from the top of her head. Trevor watched it as it worked it way down her body. The light was of a brilliant white, almost like the Sun in many ways, but something almost like a shadow at the same time. Rebecca began to writhe under the influence of this energy.

Slowly, Trevor inserted his middle finger into her. The wetness that engulfed his finger was hot and smooth. It ran down the back of his hand. He moved it around, exploring a little within the depths of her mystery. He watched as the light began to slow its descent and began to pool around her heart. Trevor twisted his finger around and began to rub lightly on the inner mound that he found opposite her outer mound where his other hand was still carefully making circles around her soft nub of flesh.

The light began to move again and Trevor felt that there was a corresponding energy that was filling his chest and moving out toward his hands. He increased the speed and pressure just enough to send Rebecca into waves of sound and motion under his caresses.

Then he heard it. A soft, almost whisper of a plea from her. “Stop.” He knew that she could hold that energy field right at the moment of balance. Almost to the point of completing the energy pillar they had been creating. He could never quite keep it himself, but she could maintain that level of ecstasy for hours.

He pulled his fingers out of her and sat back for a moment and watched as her breathing slowed and her eyes fluttered open to reveal the blue ocean of pleasure and a love that she held for him.  Then she sat up and playfully pushed him back across the end of the bed.

Working with these energies was not something that just gave him an instant erection. He felt it come and go as he worked with her. But when she started to pull the energy from him, he was rock solid for it all.

She rolled him over and sat on his ass. Rebecca rubbed his shoulders and worked out some knots that had formed since the last time they had worked like this together. She traced lines across his back and then retraced them with a pattern of massage that felt like something was walking across his back with vibrating feet. She continued to rub him down. He felt the oil drop down onto his lower back as she worked the muscles there and down into the top of his ass. She moved back and began to rub each buttock with both hands and the tension seemed to be lifting. The day was fading from his mind.

Then she rolled him over again. He watched as she dropped a little oil on her hands and rubbed his chest. She played with his nipples as he had hers. She playfully licked on them and watched them stiffen up under her wet tongue. He felt the wet lips between her thighs up against his belly and the heat poured into his body. His reached up and grabbed the back of her head and pulled her close. He kissed her, reaching deeply into her mouth with his own. They felt locked together for an eternity before she pushed him away and rolled off of his to sit beside his naked form.

Rebecca bent over him and kissed his cock. Then she began to massage the shaft with her left hand. She would vary the speed and pressure as he felt her hand pull against the skin and send already small shocks of desire through him. She gently squeezed and stroked from the base to the tip and then and slide off. Rebecca massaged the head, shaft and base of his penis.

Trevor’s erection was throbbing at this point and he suddenly felt the white light begin to fill his skull. It was a burning sensation. He could see that Rebecca saw it too. He felt it descend into his face and neck, then down into his chest. It began to slow around his mid-stomach when he felt her hand find the spot midway between his balls and ass. She gently pushed inward and Trevor felt the pressure deep inside him. He rocketed him into near ejaculation. The pleasure was intense and he felt like he was going to pass out.

Rebecca continued to stroke his cock in a regular pattern and the combination of the intensity between his legs was pulling the white light back down from its previous stopping point. He could feel it dropping down to his belly and almost to the base of his shaft. His cock was rigid, motionless, and silent. She leaning over him and brushed her hair against the underside of his testicles. The sensation, the shivers of almost pure pain that were released up his spine were intense, but he held on to the energy. As she began to raise her head back up, she kissed his inner thighs and gently licked the trail back up between his legs.

Then Rebecca moved her other hand to brush against the flesh surrounding his testicles and firmly held them as her mouth began to breathe such a hot breath against them. Her tongue began a slow, torturous crawl up his shaft to under the ridge of his cockhead. Her tongue circled his shaft and the moist touch of her lips created an involuntary jump of his rod and it slipped suddenly into her mouth. She seemed a little surprised, but took the rest of the shaft into her mouth and carefully lowered her whole mouth down upon it. It seemed like an eternity of pleasure had gone by as he closed his eyes and felt her work her lips around his cock. She slid up and down the shaft until it was in a continued state of reflex. He felt the urge to release and she obviously felt it too. She lifted her head and removed him from her mouth, holding his manhood in her hands with a tenderness that was unbearable.

Then he felt her mount him. Rebecca buried the entire shaft inside her and a gasp escaped them both at the same time. The feeling of being united in this way was something always passionate after they had worked through the light with each other.

Trevor moved himself lower to position himself with enough leverage to enter her slowly. His cock was still raging, throbbing, rushing to enter that palace of passionate releases that was between her legs. As the head of his shaft reached the entrance, he stopped to merely touch her lips. He held himself and rubbed his manhood along the sides of her lips, letting the wetness of her pussy run over the top and create a glistening coat of moisture. He spread her lips slightly with his fingers and slipped his now wet length into her slit. But he stopped again once the swollen head of it was inside, the shaft never reaching its fullness of length inside her. Her legs came up to surround him, to encompass his waist. Her hips tried to move close to him to force him deeper inside, but he held her down and kept her fast against the bed. He moved slightly, entering only a little more inside her and then slipped his cock back out to merely have his cock head inside her. He kept doing this until the begging in her eyes demand satisfaction. He plunged in one stroke the fullness of his cock inside her and felt it reach the back of her to completion. Her hips rose and thrust even harder against him and he was not sure if there was even more of him to go inside her or more of her to take him. He slid back out and continued to thrust into her with a desire to impale her completely.

He felt the pressure again in his balls and the explosions within her became stronger and more intense. He released inside her. The explosion of his juices inside her was answered with the tightening of her hole around the shaft and the pain of her muscles encompassing his cock with such strength seem to be a pleasure not to be found in all of Eden. The light that had been brought out of each of them lit the room with what seemed like daylight and the glow of warmth encompassed them.

He held her for a moment, not wanting to let her off of him. She collapsed back into his arms and let him slide out naturally. They held each other for what seemed like hours basking in the light that had engulfed them both at the end.

Then she was asleep. Trevor watched her as she slept. He breathing making that slow rhythmic beat to which he matched his own even while awake. He touched the back of her head, cupping it in his hands. She moaned softly and rolled back a little into him.

The digicell began to vibrate on the side table. He looked at the clock. It was 1:14am. Who in the name of… He picked up the digicell and opened it.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

The voice on the other end greeted him back and continued speaking for a moment. Trevor listened with an intense feeling of anxiety in his stomach. The speaker continued and at the last, Trevor shook his head and closed the digicell. He sat there on the edge of the bed with a look of sad horror on his face. He looked over at Rebecca and reach out to touch her back. She shifted a bit and mumbled at him.

“Honey,” he said softly. “I will be back later. Work calls.”

Trevor threw on his clothes and shoes without even bothering to tuck in his shirt or tie his shoes. He walked out to his car, got in and drove out of the garage and out towards the outer city.

The rain had begun to slack off and die. Of course, after two days of rain it was about time that it stop for a while. It seemed that his ears had this residual pounding from listening to the rain for all that time. The Commandery was in front of him against and he swiped his hand across the scanner and the gate opened. As he drove into the underground parking area, Trevor saw that there was much more activity going on than was normal for this time of the morning. It looked as if the entire Commandery had been placed on alert. He saw the Caliph’s car parked alongside the main underground entrance and his two revolutionaries were standing by an open back door talking to someone inside that he could not see. His only guess was that it was the Caliph himself again.

Trevor parked his car in his normal spot and got out. He walked toward the entrance and was waved over to the Caliph’s car by the taller of the two revolutionaries. Trevor had been right in his guess. Sitting in the back seat was the Caliph.

“Get in.” The Caliph was not a man to mince words. Trevor knew this, but it struck him as just an obvious fact every time he had ever been around the man.

Trevor went around the back of the car. He opened the door and stepped into the car. Within the interior of the vehicle was the Caliph, one of the revolutionaries that had entered the car about the same time as Trevor, and a Pontiff of the Areopagus. Trevor had never met a Pontiff in all his years in the Order of Kadosch. This was unexpected.

The look of surprise that registered across his face must have been apparent to everyone in the car. The Caliph gave a low chuckle and then stopped.

“It is not my intent to make light of this morning’s tragedy. It seems that many in this city have never seen past the walls of the Areopagus. It is still surprising to me.”

Trevor nodded his head and kept silent.

The Caliph motioned to the driver and the car pulled out and left the Commandery garage. Trevor watched him carefully. He stared out the window into the morning darkness and seemed to be lost in a thought. It was almost as if he was at a loss of words.

The Pontiff broke the silence. “Have you seen the report, Trevor?”

Trevor shook his head. “No. I received a call that said the Grand Inquisitor Commander was dead and that I was being summoned to the Commandery.  Nothing more has been said.”

The Caliph looked grave as he turned toward Trevor. “The Commander was murdered. It is obvious that it was Pendragon again. I suspect that after spending the last half-hour reading through reports that this was his retaliation against her for your suspension. And as you will see, it was brutal. The initial report states that she was alive and coherent for the majority of what happened to her. It is inhuman.”

The Caliph stopped and returned to looking out the car window. He murmured just loud enough for the other passengers to hear, “And this monster has my little girl.”

Trevor sat in silence for the rest of the ride to the Grand Inquisitor Commander’s home. It was a spacious estate and the peaceful groves that lined the eastern side of the area gave a very natural feel to an otherwise urban setting. The lights from the emergency vehicles flashed against the trees, the surrounding walls, and the stone exterior of the house. Overall it was a haze of an eerie blue and blood red.

Trevor stepped out of the car along with the other passengers. He waited until the Caliph had motioned for them all to follow him into the house. They did.

The house reeked of death. The air was arid and rotten. Lights had been turned on, but it was obvious that there had been candles burning before they came on. As they walked through to one of the back rooms, he could see that the wax had burned down to spill over on to the tables in some parts of the house. Investigators scurried around into the different rooms trying to ensure that every clue possible might be found. Plastic bags full of evidence were stacked in cardboard boxes along the walls of the hall.

Trevor followed the men down the hall and into a large back room. By the look of the room, it was obviously the Grand Inquisitor Commander’s temple. Large curtains hung from the corners and the Tau shaped throne was off to one side. The Commander was apparently a member of the old Order as well. He suddenly wondered if she wore a ring of the Order.

Then he stopped at the scene before him and all thought and sound was removed from him by some act of invisible force.

Trevor had never seen quite so much blood. He had been exposed to some of the more horrible crimes in the city during his ten years in the Kadosch, and the murders of the previous morning had been horrible and bloody. The blood before him was not splattered around the room. There was no effort to make words in the blood. There was no attempt to even desecrate the temple with the blood. It was just there. All over the floor. One huge pool of blood surrounding a torturous sight. This was desecration enough.

The Commander had been stripped and strapped to the floor. The straps were nailed to the ground holding her limbs tight. The straps had been placed about six to eight inches apart from each other. It was almost like one large black venetian blind on the floor. Her body was left in a motionless state, unable to move much more than fingers and toes. However, between each strap there was a red line. From those lines was the source of the blood. Each leg, each arm, her torso, and her chest had all been severed cleanly between the straps leaving each piece strapped in place but separated from the whole. The cuts had been made with such brutal force that each place the blade met the floor there was a deep groove in the wood. The sword, apparently her own ritual sword judging by the empty place on the wall between two daggers, had been used. It was still between the two severed pieces of her face and throat which had been sliced vertically in half rather than the horizontal pattern of the rest of her body.

Trevor turned from the sight and caught sight of the Liber OZ posted on the wall. The number “97” splattered on it. Facing the Caliph he asked, “You say she was alive for most of this? “

The Caliph nodded his head. “The report so far is that is seems he worked his way from the outside of her extremities and inward, ending with the slice across her breasts and the face wound.”

The Caliph followed Trevor out of the room.

“This cannot be allowed to continue. This man must be found and he must be dealt with.”

Trevor turned and faced the man. “This man, this monster has managed to stay exactly one step ahead of the entire Order of Kadosch. He has made fools out of every technique we use to investigate crime. The only reason we have known about most of these crimes is the fact that he usually call me to gloat over his latest work.”

He could feel the blood rushing to his face. He wanted to yell that he and the entire team had been working to do everything possible to avoid such a circumstance as this. He wanted to impress upon this man that this woman, who had it in for even him, was someone that someone else loved. It was not just about the Caliph’s daughter. He wanted to go back into the room and point at her and scream that it was not his fault. But he held his tongue.

The Caliph looked at him for a moment and then nodded his head slowly.

“You’ll do.” Then he turned and walked away leaving Trevor and the Pontiff and the revolutionary standing in the hall just outside the room of horror.

“What did he mean by that?” Trevor looked at the Pontiff first and then at the revolutionary. “I’ll do?”

The Pontiff smiled through the frown and tried to look as if he was making a bad situation better. “He means that you are to be elevated to the status of Grand Inquisitor Commander. The Commandery is yours now.”

“But…” Trevor began.

“I know it’s a horrible way to be promoted, but someone has to maintain this investigation. The Caliph feels that it should be you. It seems the Areopagus agrees as well. We have all been following this case with interest as to how we should rule over this creature once he is apprehended and brought before us and the Tribunal for judgment. You are somewhat of a notable figure in all this.”

Trevor paused at this and said nothing.

“Now go home,” the Pontiff continued. “You are not officially back with the Kadosch until you appear before the Aeropagus tomorrow morning.”

“Yes sir,” Trevor replied. He felt like a zombie walking around in a daze. He looked outside and wondered how this would all end.

And then it started to rain again.