The Darkest Night Read Online Free PDF

the middle of some sphericanum versus talyan silliness.”
    “Almost as bad, in its way, as the tenebraeternum.” A dark note of mourning colored the angel-woman’s voice. “The host and the league should both know better. The tenebrae demons are just evil.”
    Bella’s throat tightened. “So true.”
    “But Mr. Fane is a good man. Angels are, of course, but the man is good too. Strict and stern, sometimes, and uncompromising on occasion, and maybe a little humorless…”
    Bella remembered the sound of his laughter as she climaxed. “Where is the good part?”
    “I’m getting there. Just wait a second… He has pretty blue eyes. Celestial even.”
    “No wonder I couldn’t turn him away.”
    “Turn him away from what?”
    Bella’s cheeks burned again. “I mean I couldn’t say no to passing his message along.”
    “Little messenger girl,” Nanette said. “Like the angel at Christmas, bringing words to the waiting.”
    Not like that at all.
    She stayed a little longer when Nanette asked if she’d be willing to walk through the halls. “Some of our residents don’t have many visitors, and, well, sometimes if they see someone, they can tell themselves it’s family.”
    Bella agreed, but only because she was amused an angelic possessed would be so adept with this lie. Maybe that’s why it was called a white lie.
    Most of the residents were more interested in the angel on the TV than the one in their midst, but they all had coos for Nanette and a few “hello, dears” for Bella.
    “Such lovely hair,” said one of the old ladies. “Pretty as a poinsettia.”
    Bella touched the ridiculously wayward mass. “Thank you, ma’am.”
    From behind her came a gruff scolding. “Tempting the devil. More devils every day.”
    “Pastor Littlejohn,” Nanette said reprovingly. “We don’t talk that way here.”
    “I’ll talk as I like. I preached it for forty years. If I don’t keep an eye out for the devil, who will?”
    Bella angled her face, tracking the age-roughened voice. “Maybe it’s time to let someone else take up the fight.”
    “Who? I thought I knew everything before, but I didn’t know what to look for. Now I do.” His voice rose, taking on the cadences of the pulpit. “They are in the shadows when we look away. They are in the darkness and the freezing cold. They are in us!”
    Nanette shushed him. “There are no demons here. And it’s winter in Chicago, so of course it’s cold and dark.”
    The pastor’s tone sharpened. “You are too innocent to see them, but I see them all around—”
    Bella interrupted his tirade. “The demons should be home for the holidays, shouldn’t they? They could be roasting their chestnuts in hellfire and singing carols backward.”
    Nanette coughed.
    After a moment, the old man grunted. “You watch yourself, missy. Nothing a demon likes more than a disbeliever.”
    “So I’ve heard. Just keep watching, Pastor.”
    Nanette urged her away. “Sera visits every week, but she can’t let him see her or he screams for hours. We don’t know if it’s his preaching or his dementia, but he sees the teshuva demon threaded through her soul.”
    “He doesn’t see the demon. He sees the reflection of it in her eyes. Tell her to wear polarizing sunglasses when she’s with him and they’ll be fine.”
    Nanette’s footsteps stopped, then pattered to catch up as Bella moved toward the front door. “Really? I’ve never heard such a thing. How did you know?”
    Bella shrugged. “I’ve screamed once or twice myself.”
    Nanette buzzed her out after offering to call a cab, which Bella graciously and without further explanation refused. The angel-woman followed her out onto the porch. “Sera said she’d be coming by for Christmas. I’ll tell her to bring sunglasses for her and Archer. And I’ll let her know you wanted to speak with her.”
    That hadn’t exactly been what she’d said, Bella reflected. The female talya who had been a thanatologist