PART 4:

There was a knock on her door at a perfectly ungodly hour in the morning, and Rosette Christopher chose to steadily ignore it in favor of burrowing deeper under her covers. The pounding noise increased and was followed by a tenor voice asking her to “get her ass up, we’ve got a case.”

“Go ‘way,” she mumbled through her pillow.

The door swung open. Boot steps tromped across the hardwood floor and a large pair of hands dove beneath the sheets and grabbed a hold of her bare ankles.

“If you don’t get up right now, I’ll be forced to drag you out,” the tenor voice added.

Rosette kicked futilely and mumbled something unintelligible.

“Fine.”

The hands yanked hard and Rosette lurched into the air. She squealed in fear as the ceiling got much closer than she would have liked—but a pair of arms wrapped behind her shoulders and under her knees. Golden eyes looked down at her and a sharp smile was her first unsettling image of the morning.

“’Morning,” Chrno greeted.

Rosette thumped a fist as hard as she could against his solid chest—covered now by a shirt that fit him and a thick brown woolen coat. “You jerk,” she declared.

Chrno set her on her feet and continued grinning. “Like I said, we’ve got a case. The library has a new addition, and it isn’t a book.”

Suddenly forty-five percent more awake than she was a second ago, Rosette darted to her closet and pulled out her Militia uniform. “Any more information, Sherlock?”

He automatically turned his back to her so she could have some privacy as she dressed. “Yes, the janitor called it in and mentioned something about the smell of gardenias masking a sulfuric odor. I think we’re dealing with a succubus here.”

Up to eighty percent now. “What, in a library?”

She turned around just in time to see him shrug. “I dunno—maybe some stupid librarian read something aloud that he wasn’t supposed to. Or maybe it was the janitor.”

Rosette adjusted her wimple and tugged on her partner’s arm. “Well let’s get shakin’, bacon!” she announced and ran flat-footed out of her room. Still grinning, Chrno followed her out to the car.

The sun had yet to rise even as the Magdalene Order exorcists arrived at the library. In her groggy stupor, Rosette had managed such a pleasant driving pace that Chrno was considering the idea of asking Sister Kate to get them cases this early in the morning all the time.

“Jeepers, I’m so hungry…”

Maybe not.

He socked her in the arm and grinned sideways at her. “Focus, kiddo. We’ve got work to do.”

Rosette curled her upper lip at him and rubbed at the bruising part of her arm.

Chrno was halfway up the stairs already. “You are far too awake for six in the morning, bucko!” Rosette shouted.

He merely waved back at her. Rosette groaned and forced herself to follow. “There are a lot of stairs here,” she complained.

Chrno had doubled back and twined his arm through hers. “Come on,” he growled affectionately. They took the steps two at a time. They had to knock on the door once they came to it—as it was well before opening hours.

The massive wooden door creaked open a bit to reveal a genial-looking old woman with white hair and half-moon glasses peeked out from between the giant planks of wood. “You from the Magdalene Order?” she whispered.

Rosette shot Chrno a dry look. “Yes ma’am, I’m Sister Rosette and this is my assistant, Chrno. We understand you’re in need of an exorcism.”

The old woman opened the door a tad more and waved them inside.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s smelly and hiding out in the east wing. It saw me and said some things I don’t feel comfortable repeating,” she blushed deep purple and fumbled with her glasses and hair.

Chrno raised a placating hand and smiled softly. “Don’t worry. We spoke with your janitor and his description gave us a clear idea of what we’re dealing with.”

The librarian adjusted her glasses and stepped back until she hit one of the desks positioned at the entrance to the library. “T-that’s good, I suppose. Knowledge is a powerful force in itself… Do I need to be here? I mean, would you prefer I left?”

Rosette smiled disarmingly and shook her head negatively. “It’s fine if you stay. But I would ask that you remain in the lobby for now until we’ve dealt with it.”

“Where’s the janitor that called us?” Chrno asked.

The old woman pointed a fidgety hand behind the desk. “He’s under there. Hasn’t moved since he ran under there this morning.”

“You might want to stay there with him,” Rosette added.

The old bitty practically scrambled to where her ancient, arthritis-gnarled finger pointed and disappeared from sight. Rosette clicked the safety off on her gun and nodded to her partner. He nodded back and pulled out his sword from a sheath that concealed it beneath his coat.

The pair of exorcists moved further into the stacks.

By the time they reached the section filled with classical literature, Chrno felt something bristle along the edges of his perception. He stopped midway and brought his free hand out to halt Rosette. “Back corner… It’s getting stronger off of something.”

Rosette slowly moved her left hand to cup the butt of her handgun. “Something or someone?”

Chrno concentrated.

“You’re right. There’s another worker back there.”

They were both whispering.

“Did you bring any extra sacred rounds with that sword of yours?”

Chrno patted the pouch that was strapped to his thigh. ‘Six clips. You?”

“Same. Two of them are gospel rounds.”

“Aces,” Chrno grinned.

They kept on walking—boots sounding like hooves against the hardwood instead of the delicate cat paws both exorcists wished they were. Rosette passed each corner before Chrno—gun at the ready. As she passed the last tall stack of books in the east wing, the breath whooshed out of her lungs and she backed up against her partner.

“Found it,” she murmured.

Chrno peered through a gap in the books and saw what she glimpsed.

It was a succubus. She sat astride the lap of another librarian—grinding away on his pelvis and pressing the unfortunate man’s skull so hard into the floor that Chrno’s sharp ears could hear his bones cracking against the hardwood.

They were still in the summoning circle.

“Shit,” Chrno hissed and tightened his grip on the sword handle. “Rosette…”

“Get her attention. I can’t shoot until she steps outside those runes.”

Her voice was shaking. He dropped one reassuring hand on her shoulder and stepped into full view of the succubus.

Instead of shouting, Chrno focused on the succubus’ growing Astral aura and slammed his own energy into it with a low growl.

Startled, the succubus drove her clawed hand against the librarian’s head one last time. It split apart like a watermelon and sprayed all kinds of gore against several irreplaceable first edition books. “Sinner,” she hissed—baring a knot of sharp yellowed fangs. Her sickly green irises were set against black sclera.

The succubus stood from her perch against the dead man’s groin and dripped some of the most vile bodily fluids on the chalk of the summoning circle. The drawing smudged and broke the summoning circle. Before the odor of sulfur and gardenias managed to waft within smelling distance, Chrno did something he hadn’t thought he’d be able to do since his time in Pandemonium. He shut his nostrils.

“Rosette! SHOOT!”

She swung out from behind his back and unloaded an entire clip of sacred rounds into the demon’s torso. Chrno finished the job with a quick swing of his sword—destroying another set of first edition books with a spray of arterial blood that covered both devil and nun before the succubus exploded into a cloud of odiferous ash.

Chrno spat something foul out of his mouth and allowed his nostrils to relax back open.

“Chrno?”

He looked back at his friend and shuddered. Her face was covered in blood. Chrno dropped his sword and wiped at her nose and mouth with his sleeve before cleaning up the rest of her face as best he could. “Rosette, did you breath any of that in?”

She spat the same way he had and shuddered. “Might have.”

“We need to get you cleaned up now.”

“Gotta call Sister Kate… Clean up crew…”

“In a minute, Rosette—bathroom first.”

He put his sword away and tried to lead her back down the hallway.

Chrno wrung out the blue and white wimple one last time before using it to gently remove as much gore from Rosette’s face and arms as he could. The rest of her had been sufficiently covered up enough that she’d be safe enough once she got to a hot bath.

Her militia uniform was done for.

“Rosette?”

“I think I’m okay,” she answered. “That’s never happened before. And it smelled awful. How could you stand it?”

Chrno shrugged and idly wiped at his own face with the soft cloth. “I shut my nose,” he said.

Curious, Rosette peered up his nostrils. “What, like eyelids or something?”

Chrno grinned and offered a demonstration.

“Ew! You’ve got nostril-lids!”

She certainly sounded like she was feeling okay. But Chrno was still worried. “Seriously, Rosette. You Jake?”

“After I pour hot water all over myself and use three bars of soap I’ll be aces. You could use a good scrub yourself. Your hair is…” she made a face again. “I mean… UGH!”

He tugged her soppy wimple back on her head and wrinkled his nose. “I know. But first—”

“We call Sister Kate and tell her what happened. Then we use wire brushes on ourselves. Let’s boogie, Chrno. You call, I’ll drive—we’ll save time that way.”

“Good idea.”

TBC

Author’s Note: I’m so incredibly sorry for the wait, I’ve been a bit busy lately and my mind jumps around from fandom to fandom like a kangaroo with ADD. Thank you for reading!