The other friar looked around. "I see nothing out of order. What was its nature?"
"Evil."
The other man"s brow furrowed. "Evil? Here? Surely you are mistaken, Brother."
"I must be," Parry agreed.
"Now you are lying," Lilah said.
She had scored again. "That is, I saw a figure of a woman, an evil figure," Parry said. "A-a demoness."
The other friar looked at him with concern. "I fear you have a problem, Brother."
"I fear I do," Parry agreed.
"But the cross will banish the vision." The friar brought out his silver cross.
"Yes," Parry agreed, relieved. He brought out his own and swept it through the region where Lilah stood. She vanished without a sound.
"Gone now?" the other inquired.
"Gone," Parry agreed. "I thank you, Brother."
"We are all troubled on occasion by doubts and bad memories," the other said. "But our Lord Jesus is proof against them all."
"Yes!" Parry agreed fervently. He walked with the other back to the buildings. But he remained in doubt, knowing that his own doubts and bad notions had not been abolished by his faith in Jesus. The fault, he knew, was not in Jesus but in himself; his faith was flawed.
When he was alone in his chamber, Jolie appeared. "Oh, that was horrible!" she exclaimed. "I couldn"t come out while she was with you!"
"You saw the-the apparition?" he asked, startled.
"Lilah the demoness. Of course. The aura of h.e.l.l surrounded her. Oh, Parry, what does she want with you?"
"She said she was sent to corrupt me."
"She can"t corrupt you! You are a good man, and a Dominican friar. You are proof against evil."
"Not necessarily," Lilah said, appearing. In that instant, Jolie faded.
Parry fetched out his cross. "Begone, demoness!" he cried, thrusting it at her. Lilah vanished.
Jolie reappeared. "What an infernal creature!" she exclaimed. "I cannot co-exist with her!"
"The cross banishes her," Parry said. "I will use it until she gives up this hara.s.sment."
"But why should she come for you now?" Then she reconsidered. "The scourge! Lucifer has ascertained your part in foiling that!"
"You"ve got it, ghost," Lilah agreed, her appearance causing Jolie"s disappearance.
"Begone!" Parry cried, jabbing the cross at her. She clicked out of sight.
Jolie reappeared. "You foiled Lucifer, and now he is angry. He has sent his minion to wreak vengeance on you."
"He can"t touch me, or you," Parry said. "We are secure in the bosom of Jesus."
"That"s what you think, hypocrite!" Lilah exclaimed.
Parry lifted the cross. The demoness retreated to the farthest comer of the chamber.
"No, don"t drive her out yet," Jolie said, reappearing translucently. "Find out how she thinks she can do it."
Parry looked from one to the other. "You can co-exist after all?"
"She is fundamentally good; I am fundamentally evil," Lilah said. "We co-exist; we are merely unable to be close to each other."
"Then what of me?" he asked.
"You are mortal."
"That makes a difference?"
"That makes the difference. Good and evil co-exist in all mortals. It is the struggle between the two that makes mortality what it is. Mortality is the battleground. You know that, Parry; you have studied evil more than any other living man."
Parry nodded. He did know it; he just had not been thinking coherently. "How is it that you are able to come here, to the order dedicated to the eradication of evil?"
"Dedicated to the eradication of heresy." Lilah said. "The distinction is significant."
She was entirely too sharp! "To corrupt me," he continued. "How can you hope to do that?"
"Because you have planted the seed of evil in yourself. I am here to make it grow. Without that seed, I would be powerless against you. The corruption had to start within yourself."
"What corruption?" Jolie demanded.
The demoness eyed her knowingly. "You should know, pretty spirit! You started it."
"The loving!" Jolie cried, stricken.
"The s.e.x," Lilah said. "To love is holy, if it is of a good person or good cause. But to tempt a man into sinful s.e.x-"
"Oh!" Jolie"s exclamation was pure anguish as she faded out.
"She could not have done it had I not cooperated!" Parry said. "She is good; she meant no harm!"
"True, Parry," Lilah said, advancing. "She is good; she meant no harm. In addition, she is beyond adjustment of her balance; it was set at the time of her death. But you are mortal; you knew it was sinful, yet you did it, and did it with sinful joy. Two nights, each a multiple effort." She glanced sidelong at him. "A surprising performance, considering your mortal age. And then-"
"Enough!" he cried, lifting the cross.
"Do you use the cross to banish the truth?" Lilah asked as she retreated.
Parry turned, found his bed, and sat down on it, hard. It was the truth. He had done wrong, knowingly.
The demoness advanced again, unchallenged. "But it was not the sin that made the opening, for the mortal flesh is ever weak. Had you succ.u.mbed, and repented, and confessed, and done proper penance, you would have been absolved, and this too you well know. The opening was made by your decision to conceal your weakness. When, knowingly, you failed to seek absolution, you practiced deliberate deception. And that, my dear mortal, provided my Lord Lucifer His wedge against your soul."
Her truths were hammering at his mind. He had done it; he had practiced deceit, which was a lie. That lie had put him into the power of the Lord of Lies.
"I must seek absolution now," he said.
"And give up all you have gained, discrediting yourself, your monastery, and indeed the Dominican Order?" the demoness asked derisively. "I think not."
"Better that than the lie!" he cried.
"And that is another lie," Lilah said.
Again, she was devastatingly accurate! He knew he could not do that to his work or his order. He could not throw away thirty years of his campaign against evil, at a single stroke discrediting everything. He was locked into his lie, because of the enormous cost of its expiation.
"Lucifer is having his way with me," Parry said brokenly.
"You flatter yourself, mortal," Lilah said. "Lucifer has not yet begun to have His way with you. This is only the opening. Have you any notion how angry He is with you?"
Parry recovered a portion of his humor. "I daresay you will inform me, demoness."
"After the scourge failed, my Lord made a thorough investigation. He discovered that not only had an obscure Dominican friar almost single-handedly foiled His greatest ploy, that same friar had wreaked mischief throughout his career. Right here, virtually under Lucifer"s nose, this friar had plotted with angelic cunning, and sown a harvest of good that very nearly canceled my Lord"s activities of the past half century. Lord Bofort, the heretics, the conversion of His wolves and bats-thirty years of mischief. One lone friar! My Lord has not before been this angry in this same half century. All the fires of h.e.l.l were enhanced for several infernal nights. That is why He deliberated long, pondering suitable retribution against this insolent mortal. That is why He finally decided on the worst of all the routes available. The one that was appropriate for this case."
She leaned forward, so as to speak almost in his ear. "That is why He sent me to corrupt you."
Parry glanced up at her-and found his nose almost in a cleavage such as he had not imagined in thirty years. Lilah"s outfit had changed; she now wore a tight bodice open at the top.
"Get away from me, harlot!" he exclaimed, almost spitting into that awesome channel.
"Make me, mortal!" she taunted him.
He jerked the cross up, aiming for the center of her body. But she was gone.
Jolie reappeared. "Oh, Parry, what have I done!" she wailed.
"You did nothing blameworthy," he snapped, "I committed the sin!"
"But I enabled it! Oh, Parry, I wanted you so much! I knew it was wrong, but-"
"It was not wrong of itself. We are married. But my decision to cover it up, to go on as if it hadn"t happened-Oh, Jolie, I made a sin of what had been natural! What a price I must now pay!"
"But what can she do, actually?" Jolie asked, taking faint heart. "No one else can see her or hear her, and your cross banishes her; if you just don"t listen to her-"
"That"s right, ghost-girl," Lilah said, reappearing across the room. "Just don"t listen to me-or look at me-and you cannot be corrupted. Your lie only opened the way; it did not complete the course."
Parry glanced directly at her, about to make a sharp retort. But it was stifled unspoken.
This time the demoness was naked. Lusciously so. Her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s did not sag in the manner of most mortal b.r.e.a.s.t.s; they were erect and proud. Her belly did not protrude; it was almost flat, just slightly rounded. Her hips flared in a manner that- "d.a.m.n," Parry muttered, wrenching his gaze away.
"You are learning the language," Lilah said.
He ripped the cross from its chain and threw it at her. The demoness faded. The cross struck the wall and fell to the floor.
Parry felt a pang of guilt and remorse. That was no way to treat the cross!
Lilah reappeared, immediately before him, still naked. "You treat your silly icon the way you treat your silly order: with contempt," she said.
"Get out, sp.a.w.n of Lucifer!" he cried.
"I told you before. Parry: you have to make me." She put her hands on her hips, her legs well spread, and inhaled.
He swept his hand up. But he no longer held the cross. His fingers struck her in the crotch, which was furry and warm. He had expected her to vanish before his hand swept through that region. For a moment, he was too appalled to move.
She snapped her legs together, pinning his hand. "Well, now, that is more like it, lover! I thought you would be more reticent at first."
He yanked his hand back, but she remained clamped; he only succeeded in drawing her more closely in to him. She fell toward him, smiling, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swinging close to his face.
"d.a.m.n you!" he repeated.
"Yes, lover, I am d.a.m.ned," she breathed. "And you will be too, when you accept me." She caught a hand behind his head and pushed his face forward, into her bosom.
Parry was not so far addled as to compound his error. "Bless you!" he exclaimed. Abruptly she was gone. He was left hunched forward, one hand extended.
There was a knock at the door. "Brother Grief!" a friar called. "Are you all right? I heard you cry out."
"A bad dream," Parry called back, hastening to get up, cross the chamber, and pick up his fallen cross.
"Every lie you tell brings you closer to h.e.l.l."
Parry froze, then realized that it was not the friar but the demoness who had reappeared across the room. Yet again, she had him dead to rights. But how could he tell the truth?
"Very well," the friar said, and departed.
Now Parry advanced on the demoness, cross extended. "You are the sp.a.w.n of h.e.l.l indeed!" he said, keeping his voice low. "But you shall not remain in my presence."
"Parry, you don"t seem to understand. I have been sent to corrupt you, and that I shall do. I think we have an excellent beginning."
"You can"t corrupt a man who doesn"t want to be corrupted!"
"True, Parry. I am certainly in luck."
"Your tricks and wiles will not work! I shall drive you away until you stay away." He reached her and stabbed with the cross.
She vanished. "Parry, why don"t you put down that thing and give me a chance?" Lilah asked from the far side of the chamber. "I can be very nice, and the soul of discretion." He stalked her again, cross extended. She vanished again. "For example, in bed," she said. He turned to see her lying on his bed, her legs spread invitingly. "Set it down over there, and come to me here, and I will show you how obliging I can be." She ran her hands down her torso suggestively.
Parry found himself reacting. He was a friar, but he was also a man, and not yet so old as to be beyond awareness of the flesh, as recent events had shown. He realized now that much of the reason he had endured celibacy was that he had never been truly tempted. The moment Jolie had a.s.sumed mortal semblance, he had succ.u.mbed, and now this demoness was arousing him despite his efforts to banish her.
"What do I have to do to be rid of you?" he asked.