Now

New York City

"Mona, how's life in the big apple? How's Shaun?"

Mona smiled tiredly as she looked into the computer screen, to see Lucy's image drinking a cup of coffee.

"It's just me, Sayid and Shaun, who is fine. Where's Priest?"

"He's… busy. Why, you miss him?"

"You know how it is, you spend nine months with a guy who keeps staring at your ass and you get used to it. Al-Sheikh says hi."

"You've talked to him?"

"Yeah, he pulled O'Brien to go undercover as Gump again. He wasn't pleased to know where you were, but didn't tell us to pull the plug either.

"I'm sending the Intel right now." Said Mona, pressing a few buttons on the keyboard, "There weren't many called Father Karras. But the one I guess is in your interest is Damien George Karras, Jesuit Priest with a degree in psychology, died a suicide in 1973, the year McNeil moved away.

"There's another man of the cloth you may want to look into; Father Lancaster Montgomery Merrin, also a Jesuit, died from a heart attack on the exact same night as Karras. It might be a coincidence, but you should look into it."

"I'll do that. Where did they die?"

"Nowhere near McNeil at the time, but if this is a cover up, then that is to be expected."

"Right. How are the others, how is surveillance going?"

"We've set up rotating two-man shifts. Shaun and I take two hours shifts for twelve hours and then Eel and Sayid take over. All is quiet in the big apple."

"Did Barnes get in touch?"

"Couple of times, he's been following McNeil, but nothing so far."

"Alright, then. Places to go, people to meet. I hope to back by Friday."

Georgetown, Washington

Priest staggered out of the bathroom, looking tired and glum, wiping his mouth with a towel.

"Who the hell were you talking to?" asked Priest in a raspy voice.

"I was talking to Mona." Said Lucy, shutting the laptop on the table.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm dying." Priest said and tossed the towel aside. Lucy noticed that it was covered with thick crimson.

"You're vomiting blood."

"Yeah." Said Priest as he sat down, "I'm trying not to think about it. Please tell me you ordered coffee."

"I ordered us some coffee." Said Lucy as she headed to the other side of the hotel room where a cart with a fresh pot of coffee and a few mugs on top of it. Lucy poured into two mugs and brought them over, handing Priest one and placing one beside her on the table. She sat down and watched as Priest took a sip and seemed to liven up a bit, then said in his usual voice as if nothing was wrong,

"So, what do we got?"

"McNeil moved to that house in early of Seventy-Three, shortly following her parents divorce. A few months later, she moved out, less than a month after Karras and Merrin died seemingly unrelated deaths. Thos are the facts." Said Lucy as she turned the laptop so he could see the reports.

"A little over twenty years later, the league has the house mystically cleansed, presumably shortly after Josephine recruited McNeil. They've been grooming her to be the first female president since then, they wanted her path to the presidency to be clear, and so erased all her skeletons out of existence. The question is; what happened in seventy-three in that house that would jeopardize her candidacy, and what does Karras have anything to do with it?"

"It was the seventies, man; people were getting into all kind of weird and kinky shit."

"There has to be more to it."

"Satanic rites, maybe?"

"Doesn't explain the priest."

"Heh, you'd be surprised. Look, I have a few friends in the occult intelligence community. I can give them a call."

"I though the government put out a contract on your head."

"That was forty years ago."

"I don't think there's a statute of limitation on treason. Also, you crippled a man who now runs the New York branch of the League."

"Killing several of your superior officers and then assist in uncovering war crimes committed by your government is hardly treason. The first is frowned upon, though. What leads do we have?"

"All Karras and Merrin's associates of the time are long gone, dead or missing."

"Good. We can go home."

"There is something we can do."

"And?"

"Well, it's a bit out of the box."

Some weeks later

Caracas, Venezuela

Kennedy Reynolds took a long look at the woman standing before her, she was of her late thirties, fair skinned, of average height and somewhat plump. She wore glasses with a black rectangular rim and a dark gray suit with high heeled shoes, her blond hair was raised in a bun and she held an expensive leather purse at her side.

Kennedy knew wealth all her life, and she recognized it in this woman, but that wasn't all. There was something else about her, she seemed like a woman adept to making things go her way. She's shown up less than three minutes ago at her hotel suite at the Hyatt and claiming she had an offer to make her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get your name." asked Kennedy as she secured her robe around her waist.

"My name is Diana Burnwood." Said the woman in Received Pronunciation English, "I represent parties with use of a woman of your talents."

"A woman of my talents? The talent to make great guacamole or the talent for fashion coordination? What are you talking about?"

"We know that you're a slayer, Miss Reynolds."

Kennedy put an amused smile she had grown used to putting on, and said,

"Excuse me, a what?"

Burnwood smiled confidently, recognizing the attempt.

"May I come in?"

Kennedy hesitated, but knew refusal only meant corroborating what the Englishwoman suspected; she stepped aside and gestured in approval.

"Thanks." Said Diana as she walked in, "There's no use denying it, Miss Reynolds. We've already talked with your associates in Scotland."

"I don't have Scottish associates."

"Slayer central, is the name I believe your people call it. A compound set up in a castle in the highlands, dedicated to tracking and monitoring demonic events across the globe and neutralizing them as they become problematic.

"I've spoken with the people in charge, Miss Summers and Mister Harris. We've arrived at an agreement."

"Lady, I don't know who the hell-"

"They told me the codeword I needed to prove I had clearance. The codeword is 'Anyanaka'."

Kennedy sat down on luscious sofa and ushered for Diana to do the same.

"Alright, so you're legit. What do you want?"

"I represent Westenra and Stoker, a Maryland based securities service. We have a bit of situation that, as aforementioned, requires your talents. According to our agreement with your associates, we will provide funding in the amount of four million dollars to your operation in return for your services."

"What kind of situation?"

"There is a woman whom we believe is committing corporate espionage for one of our client companies." Said Diana as she took out an envelope out of her purse and handed it to Kennedy. Kennedy opened it, finding a few pictures inside of a young, attractive blond woman.

"This is her?"

"Yes. We need you to keep a close eye on her, and find out who her contacts are and report back to us."

"And why does this require my services?"

"Because, Miss Reynolds, this woman in a vampire."

Now

Georgetown, Washington

"I heard a few a few silly ideas in my time." Priest mused as he dragged bloodied fingers on the brownstone wall, drawing a semi circle of crimson on the wall of the ally behind the townhouse at an hour shy of dawn.

"If you have a better idea, let's hear it." Said Lucy, chewing a mouthful of salt and leaves as she sat on the ground in the lotus position, facing the semi circle.

"Hey, I'm just saying; I heard some dumb shit in my time. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"What are you worried about?"

"My blood. How do you know it'll work, what if it needs to be human blood, I mean regular human blood?"

"Hemoglobin is hemoglobin, Priest. I've done this before with chicken's blood and it worked."

"Alright, then." Said Priest as he stepped back and sat down on the footsteps, "What do I do?"

"I'm going to channel Karras' spirit; I'll speak in his voice. You will ask him all you need, just keep them short and simple. Try and start with a few easy ones like 'Where were you born?' or something. It'll make the spirit more cooperative."

"And how do I get it to go away?"

"Just tell him, and be gentle about it."

"Okay, that sounds easy enough."

"Good…." Said Lucy as she closed her eyes, "Now be quiet for a little while."

Priest did as she bade and remained silent for a few minutes, paying all his attention to Lucy as she closed her eyes and attempted to tap into the ethereal. He could hear as her breath wavered between quickening and slowing, she'd stopped chewing and swallowed the contents of her mouth.

Suddenly, her breath took an entirely different steady pace, and an inaudible throaty rumble did Priest hear. Priest was certain that Lucy had crossed the threshold.

"Lucy?" asked Priest in discomfort.

There was no answer; Lucy kept sitting in that serene posture, facing the wall with her eyes closed.

Priest's eyes narrowed, and through gritted teeth, Priest asked,

"Karras?"

Lucy drew a breath and the answered with a forlorn and deep voice, "Yes."

Priest got up from where he sat. The whole ordeal was unsavory to him, Priest knew and practiced a share of magic in his time and had seen his share of séances and black masses in the past, but he'd never gotten used to those encounters and they always left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Tell me your first name."

"Damien."

"In what year were you born?"

"1940."

"Where?"

"Long Island."

"And where did you die?"

"Here."

"How?"

"I fell. I crushed my neck."

"Karras…" started Priest as he crouched down next to Lucy, "Something bad happened here. Didn't it?"

"Yes."

"Something to a girl called Regan?"

"...Yes."

"What was it?"

"Something…unholy."

"Rrrright. Simple questions." Mumbled Priest as he ran a hand through his hair, "Who did it to her?"

"He."

"And who, pray tell, is he?"

"It was he."

"For fuck…. Was it Regan's mother?"

"No."

"Was it one of her relatives?"

"No."

"Was it one of Regan's mother's friends?"

"No."

"Was it a man?"

"No."

"So it was a woman?"

"No."

Priest's frustration started to grow with the last answer. He'd been on edge for the past couple of weeks, having lost his appetite for blood and growing worn from his months of insomnia. He stood up and turned away from Lucy's body.

"You knew Father Merrin?"

"I knew Father Merrin."

"He died on the same night you did, was it in this house?"

"Yes."

"How did he die?"

"Heart attack."

"You said that you fell to your death. Was it by accident?"

"It was my own doing."

"What were the two of you doing there?"

"We were trying to flush it out."

"Flush what?"

"He."

"Who is he? Say his name."

"I…I can't."

"Why did you kill yourself, Karras?"

"I wasn't strong enough… Not against he."

"Right, he. Funny how we keep arriving at this juncture. Tell me his name, Karas, tell me his name."

"I…"

"SAY IT!"

"I can't….. I can't…"

Priest scowled, ran a hand through his hair in frustration and then growled,

"Alright, Karras. You can go away now."

"...I can't."

"Yeah, you already said that. You're as useless as an asshole on my elbow. Be gone, now. You may leave, spirit."

The spirit inhabiting Lucy fell silent, Priest waited for Lucy to say something or get up, but she did nothing.

"Come on, Lucy. It's almost sun-up, we need to get moving."

Twenty seconds passed while Priest waited impatiently, he clapped his hands inches away from Lucy's face, barking,

"Lucy, snap out of it!"

During his outburst, Priest drew breath, and caught a whiff of the faint smell of sulfur. Slowly, Lucy turned to face Priest and looked up at him with a smile of endless wickedness.

It was then that Priest truly regretted everything.

R&R

Next Chapter

Priest gets an unexpected guest who might be able to help with his predicament.