Power by Theresa Jones Page B

“David, I was raised Catholic. I know that story.”
    “Well, I am sorry if I am going too slow for you.” The sarcasm dripped from his words. Now I could add smart ass to his list of qualities. “As I was saying. This obviously infuriated Lucifer, who then built up his army in an attempt to rule the earth and take souls away from God. He and six other demons came to earth, one for each of the seven deadly sins, to start an uprising against God and anything good.” He paused, giving me a look that dared me to make any more dismissive comments.
    So far the story was making sense though, so I nodded, hoping he would continue.
    “Lucifer and his followers impregnated seven human women. Though it is not important, it is said that each woman died in childbirth, a horrible, painfully slow death. The first written record of these demons was published in 1589 by Peter Binsfeld, who was part of the Order. Though at that time, they believed the descendants of the demons were merely witches or warlocks.
    “Each demon had a prominent evil. Lucifer – the leader, and worst of them all – had the evil of pride. Anyone we know of who has descended from him has been almost purely evil, and usually very powerful. The next two powerful demons were Amon, whose evil was anger, and Mammon, whose evil was greed. Almost all of the Rising has descended from one of these three demons.”
    Thankfully he paused again, I shifted slightly, to readjust my position and stretch my aching back. And this time I had a question. I remembered hearing that term once before and wondered, “What is ‘the rising’?”
    I noticed at that moment, when he was looking right into my eyes, that his eyes were the same rich green as when he had entered the Compound. No longer the hazel eyes that I had grown accustomed to, they were a deep emerald that seemed to bore straight into my mind. I wondered how long they had been like that. How could I not have noticed the change? Staring at him like that I was drawn into how handsome he was. Ha! Handsome didn’t even begin to cover it. He was gorgeous! His tan skin, with the tousled hair, and those eyes – either green or hazel, both were… I tried to focus. I had asked a question, I needed the answer.
    “The Rising is the opposite of what we are. It is composed of those who have descended from the demons I am telling you about. Damien is currently the leader of the Rising.” Just hearing his name brought back the memories, the hate, the smell, the pain . I shook the feeling from me. And I nodded to show my understanding.
    He continued, “The four others were Leviathan, whose evil was envy, Beelzebub – gluttony, Belphegor – sloth, and Asmedeous – lust. These four have ruined the way society sees so many things and have played up evil, however, they are not usually the ones we have to worry about.”
    We didn’t have to worry about them? I might have a made a face. They were demons just the same. Surely something should be done about all of them. David looked down in his lap and took a deep breath. I must have been his worst student ever.
    ***David***
    I consider myself a calm and decent man, but Allison just gets under my skin and drives me crazy. There she was, sitting not more than a few inches in front of me as I am telling her about the evil in the world and she has this expression on her face – like she thinks it is not important that we have to go up against this real evil on a nearly daily basis.
    I dropped my head; it was hard for me to accept how difficult it was for me to look at her. She was beautiful, but that wasn’t all. It had been years since I have had any feelings other than friendship for a woman. But seeing her, being around her, was doing things to me I never thought would happen. Unfortunately for me, they were also feelings I couldn’t allow myself to feel. I took a deep breath, hoping my blood would stop trying to boil over. I needed to get away. “So, are you thirsty or