Quinn studied the sky for a moment, making sure there was not a cloud in sight. Shadows like many creatures of darkness were weak against light. The last thing they would need today was an errant cloud blocking the sun at an inopportune moment. They had said clear skies, and for now she could only hope that there wasn't a sudden shower or anything that blocked the sun.
Once she was certain that they at least had a few hours to do make their way through the small town, she turns to Joe who pushes a case towards her. She tilts her head in his direction as she opens the case and looks at the pistols, a gift from her grandfather. She traces the intricate design on it before picking it up feeling the heft, before sliding it into the holster on her belt, adjusting her white coat. She would need easy access.
Shadows weren't the most lethal of creatures, they didn't quite hunt, they didn't need to feed like that. They simply waited for an unsuspecting victim, before they moved. From those that had survived, they described contact with a shadow as painfully chilly, draining their strength. Which made their current location even more troubling.
Shadows didn't just appear in Louisiana. They would be noticed, quickly and exterminated. She didn't want to amp her team up, but something—something didn't quite feel right.
"We should talk to the R&D guys, about building some sort of light bomb, you know bigger than a flash bang. Just drop it on a town," Sam grumbled.
"It won't solve our problem," Mercedes pointed out. "Light doesn't travel through walls. Pantries? Fridges, under the oven. A light bomb would never reach there."
"Hurry up," Quinn ordered. "This might take all day, and we need to do it while the sun is still up." She immediately regretted bringing such a small team. But her team had other cases to work on and these were just shadows. With Mercedes staying in the command center to monitor the thermal imaging of the surrounding areas, she was hoping they'd be done by lunch.
"Ready," Joe said as he finished preparing his shotguns. He was strapped with a few flashbangs as well.
Quinn turned to Sam who gave her a nod. She can't help but raise a brow, they didn't need assault rifles, and Sam was better with pistols anyway. But she doesn't say anything. These Shadows had managed to repel the Baton Rouge Templar's and they were some of the best in America. "Come on then. We'll cross the barrier and do a quick check in with Mercedes."
Mercedes hummed and looked at the imaging. "The church first, and then the school, those seem to be the worst hit areas."
"Really the church?" Joe frowned and turned to look at Quinn.
"Small place like this, there's probably a cemetery it makes sense. Someone probably cheaped out on the purification rituals," Sam said patting Joe on the back firmly.
"That's not what I—" Joe began before sighing and shaking his head.
She understood Joe's apprehension just fine, but they had a job to do. She nods towards one of the Baton Rouge Templars who is patrolling the cordoned off area and he waves them through.
~ O ~
Quinn stopped and studied the skeleton that looked like it was draped upside down on the church stairs, like the person had fallen face first into the ground. She'd seen corpses before even skeletons, but nothing quite like this. She immediately holds her hand up causing Sam and Joe to stop.
"That's the third skeleton Quinn, what the fuck is going on?" Sam muttered to her.
"Shadows don't do this," Joe stretched. Dead bodies, but it looked like the flesh had been stripped off the bodies, the organs were missing as well something had feasted on these beings.
Quinn motions for a flash bang and catches the one that Joe tosses to her. Her staff was hidden in her jacket, and it was a last resort. "Careful," she mumbles to them. She takes a closer look at the sky for a moment before turning her attention back to the skeleton. There was no shadow. It should be casting a shadow. Quinn touched her earpiece, "Mercedes are you seeing something? Is anything moving?"
There was a pause a long pause, 'No, I don't see anything moving, maybe the air conditioning was on Quinn cause that building is warming up now. And I don't see anything on the camera's either.'
"That's not—" Sam began only for Quinn to place her fingers to her lips. He frowns as he watches as Quinn grabs a flashlight that she had brought along with her and kneels down flicking the light on, something dark darts quickly sliding underneath the heavy church doors causing him to take a step back. "The fuck?"
Joe flicks his eyes towards his own shadow, before checking Quinn and Sam's. "Perhaps Mercedes should meet us here? It might be—"
Quinn pressed her finger to her lips, flicking her eyes to the building. It was quite possible this was just a false alarm but if it wasn't this—thing whatever it was showed some sentience and if it could understand them, then stating their plans out loud was simply the worst possible thing that they could do.
She turns to look at the church for a moment, the intelligent thing to do would be to withdraw and simply burn this place to the ground and sanctify the land once they were done. It wasn't as if the government and the Templar's didn't have a fund for that but it would be a blemish on her record, they were shadows after-all. People would begin to question her meteoric rise through the ranks.
Sam backs away for a moment, "Guys?"
Quinn narrowed her eyes and turned to look at Sam, who pointed at the church.
"Where's the shadow?" Joe whispered also backing up, his gun out and pointed at the building.
Quinn turned to follow their gaze, reaching into her coat pocket and resting her hand on her trusty staff, she could feel the familiar hum of power, she was not much of an exorcist but both her grandfather and her aunt had insisted that she learn at least a few exorcism chants. Still it didn't matter they were out in broad daylight. "Psallite Domino; tunc, fideles animae, invoque nomen eius cum gratiarum actione." Quin began keeping her voice steady, hitting the right cadence immediately.
"Since when can you—" Sam began turning to Quinn in shock only to stop when darkness began to slowly make its way through open cracks in the church.
"Dominus exercituum nobiscum est; noster Deus Jacob refugium." Quinn continued, the muscles in her arm tensing slowly. It's like water, falling to the ground, pooling into a puddle of dark inky blackness on the steps of the doorway.
Her words must have had some effect because the darkness begins to ripple, slowly at first, before the surface breaks into little mounds, before collapsing on itself. After a second it pulls back trying to slide back into the church.
"Colles conflatur sicut cera a facie Domini, a facie Domini omnis terra!" Quinn pulls out her staff immediately as the shadow suddenly lunges towards her. Immediately the area around her lights up and she catches Sam and Joe diving in behind her as the light smashes against the darkness, disintegrating some of it. It's not a victory but she at least knows—
A scream cuts through the air, distracting her thoughts for a moment as she turns her head, and she almost wishes she hadn't.
Joe's foot had been caught just outside the encirclement of her Holy Light Shield and the darkness had swarmed around the limb, causing Joe to thrash about.
"Sam." Quinn barked as Sam drops his weapons and grabs the sword that's currently on her hip. It had been a last-minute edition, and she'd never been so glad as to the fact that she took it. A shadow's touch was supposed to be cold, it was supposed to be painful, but she'd seen Joe take some punishment in past missions and it looked nothing like this.
Sam for his credit didn't hesitate to unsheathe the sword and raise it above his head and bring down with a sickening thud in the middle of Joe's shin. There is blood spatter, and more screaming from Joe who is still thrashing about but he takes careful aim again and brings the sword down again and again hacking away at the limb until he separates it from Joe's body, he drops the sword as Joe finally goes limp and drags him towards Quinn. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
They're surrounded by all sides and for the first time in a long time she feels panicked. She'd faced a revenant before, it had kicked her ass and nearly killed her but this was the first time, she was truly afraid. This wasn't a shadow, and the Baton Rouge Templar's hadn't given them the full story. She should have been far more wary. She keeps her hand firmly on her staff, she needed to make sure that it didn't overwhelm them or they'd all die.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
"Sam!" Quinn barks causing him to look over at her and meet her eyes. "We're going to need to escape. To do that I'm going to use the rest of the energy in the staff to create a sort of flash bomb. You're going to put Joe on your shoulders and we're going to run like hell. Do not stop until we're free. Do not look back, do not do anything but keep moving forward. Do you understand."
"I—" Sam began. He was unsure if they could even outrun the damn thing. That wasn't a shadow.
"Do you understand?" Quinn repeated.
"Yes," Sam answered, his hesitation gone. He moves to pick up Joe, slinging him over his shoulder and trying not to grimace at the blood that was currently gushing down the front of his shirt from Joe's severed leg. "Ready."
Quinn exhaled slowly, part of doing an exorcism was keeping calm, it was doing the best to be calm, a skipped word could doom them all. If they survived this, then she was going to brush on her exorcism skills. Or make sure she dragged Mercedes around with them for every mission. "Nam, etsi ambulavero in medio umbræ mortis, non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es. Virga tua, et baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata sunt!" With that Quinn raised her staff again and slammed it down again, causing the light to grow blindingly bright repelling the darkness which immediately withdrew from the area.
"Run!" Sam barked out immediately taking off.
Quinn turned immediately and began to run stopping to grab her sword and spotting a bone foot, a splash of blood where it had once been attached to Joe, she had hoped that maybe they could save the limb but there would be none of that, and she immediately takes off before the shadow can regroup long enough to follow them.
It had stripped not only the flesh from his bones but the shadow had also eaten through several pieces of warded clothing, like it was nothing. She'd heard piranhas could strip the flesh off bone in seconds and that is exactly what had happened. This wasn't a mere shadow.
But that information was neither here nor there, all that mattered was busting her ass back to the cordon and getting Joe to Mercedes and getting him the emergency care that he needed.
