Sacrifices Read Online Free PDF

salvation.
    In his salvation, you will find yours.
    He hadn’t written all of them, though. Genevieve had been there, had in fact been an integral part of performing the ritual, and she’d heard the whole thing. Sobell had left off Karyn’s first line:
    You seek life, one reprieve from the abyss, the other escape.
    It wasn’t hard to guess what was going on there. Belial wanted out of Hell permanently, Sobell wanted to stop Hell claiming him, as it had poor Hector. Genevieve wonderedhow much time he had left. How much more tinkering around with occult forces he’d be able to perform before his time was up. Could you get an extension on that? Was such a thing even possible?
    â€œSure. St. Sebastian’s holy toenail. Or whatever,” Genevieve said.
    Sobell gave her an annoyed look, then turned his attention to Tran. “I don’t suppose you’ve had any luck with the local bottom-feeders on that score?”
    â€œI would have told you,” she said.
    â€œWell, if they won’t help us, we’ll have to see what else we can shake loose from this damnable prophecy. ‘Here in this Gomorrah.’ Are we all still agreed that that means Los Angeles?” Sobell began.
    â€œI don’t have anything else,” Genevieve said.
    â€œIt does,” Belial said. He hadn’t eaten anything that hadn’t come from the 7-Eleven on the corner, but his breath still boiled out in clouds of rot.
“Surely. It must.”
    â€œGrand. ‘Valley of the garden,’ then.”
    â€œLots of gardens around here,” Genevieve said.
    â€œNot a few valleys, either. San Fernando Valley. Elysian Valley. The entire damn Los Angeles River Valley, for that matter. Or maybe something more localized? Julia, could I trouble you to find us a map somewhere?”
    Tran frowned, but she grabbed her purse and left.
    â€œAny other ideas with respect to location?” Sobell asked.
    Genevieve shrugged. “I don’t know. What else do you know about St. Sebastian?”
    â€œIn Catholic imagery, he is almost always depicted as tied to a tree and filled full of arrows. Indeed, that’s how we got this far.”
    â€œUm . . . okay. That’s not too helpful. What else?”
    â€œPrecious little, actually. Patron saint of . . . Hmm. No, that’s gone, if I ever knew it.”
    Belial’s lips twitched. He leaned over the scrawled notes on the table, rocking back and forth, eyes darting over the words again and again. Twice he paused, opened his mouth, and then resumed rocking. If he had anything to contribute other than aroma, it wasn’t forthcoming.
    The air-conditioning kicked on, sending a draft of cold air down Genevieve’s neck. She took a step back.
    â€œIf the local merchants have struck out, it could be a Catholic thing,” Sobell ventured.
    Genevieve crossed her arms. Too much AC in here. Ninety degrees outside, and she wished she had a coat. “There have to be hundreds of Catholic churches in L.A.”
    â€œHundreds of churches is quite a step forward from millions of houses, office buildings, prisons, and, for that matter, drainage ditches, bridges, and culverts.”
    â€œIt’ll still take forever to search, especially if you can’t be seen in public.”
    â€œPerhaps the map will help narrow things down.”
    Genevieve wished for her phone again, her
real
phone, not the piece-of-crap burner she was relying on now. They’d ditched it on the grounds that it could be tracked—and Sobell’s and Tran’s phones as well—and those were solid grounds, but it was still damn frustrating. “When Tran gets back, send her out for a laptop or something, huh? Somewhere in this building there’s gotta be Wi-Fi we can hop on.”
    â€œBe patient,” Sobell said. His hands shook as he put them in his pockets.

Chapter 3
    â€œI’m worried about this, guys,” Anna said.