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  Draken pointed to a nearby, monstrous twenty-foot Druid stone. It immediately exploded as if detonated by TNT, fragments of rock showering down.

  Next, Draken gestured to one of his cult members. The now terrified man rose up into the air. Draken motioned again and the man rotated slowly, a sick yellow light glowing from within his chest. The light grew brighter and brighter. The man looked down, let out a piercing scream and burst apart into bloody oblivion.

  This was more frightening than the cult members had ever anticipated. Were they next? They dashed in every direction.

  Eve, however, was still trapped.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Trey dashed to the Fourth Nail still embedded in the megalith where O’Brien had met his fate. He used a hand-sized stone to bash it free. Holding it tightly, he dashed into the pandemonium.

  He weaved his way through the fleeing cult members to Eve’s side. Using the same rock, he bashed away at the chains that bound her.

  The loud pounding attracted Draken’s attention. Now, more demon than man, he whipped his head around. He screeched with fury, and hurled a blazing fireball. The blazing ball hit Trey, but somehow dissolved without harming him. Trey, after all, was still protected by the Fourth Nail.

  Eve, however, was not. “Hurry!” she pleaded.

  “Trust me, I’m hurrying!” Trey raised the rock again and smashed down with all of his strength. Sparks and rock fragments flew in every direction. One link broke off, but the chain was still intact.

  Draken was overcome with fury. Like a shape-shifter, he twisted and contorted, changing into a large and hideous, monstrous silver Demon.

  The Demon stood fifteen feet tall, its body composed of molten silver.

  But Draken wasn’t the only one morphing. One of the cult members jerked suddenly, his body spasming as if something had entered him. Possessed him. His shocked face contorted into that of a demon. His arms and legs stretched into blackened limbs, and great leathery wings blossomed onto his mottled back. The demon opened its mouth wide and hissed. It leaped into the air, taking flight.

  One by one, all of Draken’s remaining cult members morphed into shrieking demons. They took flight, darting in and out of the Druid stones.

  The Demon that was once Draken bellowed loudly, its mouth opening impossibly wide, jaws unhinged. Taking huge strides, it rushed toward Trey and Eve, as if to devour them. Eve shrieked.

  Trey smashed the rock down one last time and the chain broke free. Eve rolled off the altar and together, they dashed off. The Demon was right behind them, its huge jaws snapping shut at their heels.

  “Split up!” Trey panted. Eve ran off to the right as Trey continued down the center of the massive ring of stones.

  With the Demon right behind him, Trey suddenly stopped running, realizing the futility of it. He turned and faced the Demon. He held the Fourth Nail up like a crucifix.

  The Demon roared, its mouth open wide. Poisonous saliva dripped from its black gums. Trey stood his ground bravely, even though the Fourth Nail looked downright inadequate compared to the fearsome creature looming before him.

  “C’mon, you big silver asshole,” Trey dared it.

  The Demon was cautious of the Fourth Nail. It circled Trey carefully, snorting steam, leaving behind charred footprints in the grass. Trey faithfully held the Fourth Nail up before the nasty creature.

  “Does this make you nervous?” he taunted. “C’mon! Give me your best shot!”

  The Demon suddenly spun around. Its long, scaly tail whipped Trey, hurling him to the side, where Trey slammed into a heavy megalith. The Fourth Nail flew out of Trey’s grip, sailing out onto the grass.

  Trey sat up, his vision blurred from the blow. Blood poured from a deep head wound. His vision still blurred, he counted three of the hideous Demons.

  He shook his head again, trying to get his bearings. “As if one wasn’t bad enough,” he muttered.

  The other winged demons detected the absence of the Fourth Nail and they sped through the air down toward him. Foreseeing his demise, Trey got up and stumbled forward. Still disoriented, he found himself pressed against a stone wall. He searched for Eve and found her not far away.

  “Eve!” he shouted, pointing. “The Nail, Eve! Look for the Nail!”

  She frowned then nodded. She picked up a dropped torch and headed to where Trey had gestured, her eyes sweeping the ground, searching for the Fourth Nail. “Where the hell is it?” she asked aloud.

  Trey lured the Demon away from Eve by running back into the center of the stones. The Demon turned and followed him.

  Entering the circle, Trey spied some abandoned weapons. He grabbed a rifle, turned back to the Demon and fired. The bullets impacted the Demon’s molten flesh but did little damage; indeed, they seemed to melt upon impact.

  Trey next turned the weapon onto the dive-bombing creatures from above. The bullets still did no harm, but they at least caused the flying demons to veer away.

  Eve searched with the torch desperately. Finally, she bent down, and triumphantly held up the Fourth Nail. “Got you!” She glanced over and watched as the Demon slowly stalked Trey. Instead of coming to his aid though, she turned aside, toward one of the Druid stones.

  Trey dodged the Demon that was once Senator Preston Draken until the thief was finally pinned against a massive stone megalith. He took aim with the rifle...nothing.

  It didn’t matter; the weapon was useless anyway. He hurled it at the evil creature. The rifle burst into flames before it even reached the Demon, Satan.

  Trey realized he was out of options. No place to run, no place to hide. No chance of killing this supernatural being. As the Demon raised its clawed hand for a final blow, Trey made the sign of the Cross and closed his eyes.

  “Hey, asshole!” Trey had never heard such beautiful words. It was Eve. “Up here, you ugly bastard!”

  Eve stood at the top of the tallest Druid megalith. Her hair billowed in the wind. The Demon and Eve were now at about the same level. Eve flipped the Fourth Nail over and held it like a dagger.

  Trey watched as she cocked her arm back, ready to throw it. And then, he saw her hesitate.

  “Throw it, Eve!” he called. But he saw the smoldering silver creature’s reflection in Eve’s beautiful eyes, and for the first time, Trey was truly scared.

  Eve listened, infatuated, as a hissing, seductive voice whispered in her ears. Trey wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to have fully escaped the curse of the Coins. The voice belonged to Draken.

  “Join us,” he told her again, “and the Coins will be yours, too.”

  Now really worried for Eve, Trey dashed behind the megalith and began climbing. He reached the top of the stone just as the Demon moved closer to Eve, poison dripping from its stinking black mouth. The sky above was dark with a swirling vortex of screeching, winged demons. Wind pummeled Trey, but he stood tall.

  “Give me the Nail, Eve!” Trey shouted above the turmoil.

  But the Demon that had been Draken seductively spoke to her telepathically: “Kill him, Eve. Kill him, for he stands between you and the Coins.”

  Eve’s pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks. The Demon stepped closer to her. Lightning flashed again in the sky above.

  Trey moved toward her, struggling to keep his balance in the great wind. “Whatever he’s telling you, Eve, fight it. He will destroy you. He’s already destroyed himself.”

  Eve glanced back at Trey. Silver fire blazed in her eyes. The corners of her lips raised in a snarl.

  “Kill him!” the Demon commanded.

  Eve closed her eyes. Her long hair blew wildly in the wind. When she looked at Trey again, her demeanor had changed completely. She looked like a frightened girl. “Trey!” she shouted, an edge of terror in her voice. “Please, help me fight it, Trey!”

  Trey moved closer to her. Suddenly, she lashed out at him, plunging the Fourth Nail toward his heart.

  He caught her wrist in mid-flight. She struggled with him like a woman pos
sessed, her eyes lit with hatred and fire.

  He caught her arms and held her. She looked up at him, now filled with horror and fury, but also shame. Finally, she dropped the Fourth Nail, which clattered to the stone.

  The Demon screeched and slashed with its claw, hurling Eve off the megalith. She landed hard on the grass below.

  Trey grabbed the Fourth Nail and rolled sideways just as the Demon’s fist pulverized the rock beside him. The Druid stone shuddered from the brute force, cracking and splintering beneath Trey’s feet.

  The Demon reached back, ready for a final blow. Trey dashed across the crumbling rock. Raising the Nail high, he leaped out into space—and plunged it deep into the molten heart of the Demon.

  The creature shrieked, clawing at its chest. Flames erupted around the head of the Fourth Nail, spreading quickly. Soon, the flames of the Fourth Nail engulfed the Demon entirely.

  Trey tumbled to the ground. The creature melted before his very eyes. Molten silver flowed down into the ground, disappearing into the earth. All that was left were the charred remains of Senator Draken...and the scattered thirty silver coins.

  The smaller, flying demons stopped in mid-flight, bursting into flames. They dropped out of the sky like burning meteors, leaving behind tendrils of smoke.

  Trey ran to Eve, kneeling down. He put his ear to her chest. Relief came over him; she was still breathing. Her heart was still beating.

  He stroked her hair.

  She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “I betrayed you. I’m so sorry, Trey.”

  Trey Jordan held Eve Friday close. “Hush,” he told her gently. “It’s okay now. It’s over.”

  She buried her face into his chest and wept.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Trey and Eve sat together in a small waiting room in the Vatican. Eve had a butterfly bandage on her temple. Trey’s bruised face was almost healed. They waited calmly, holding hands.

  A door opened and Camerlengo stepped through. “His Holiness will see you now.”

  The office of the most powerful religious figure in the world was ornately adorned, a sight most have never seen. The Pope himself, dressed in a pristine white robe, gazed out his massive window overlooking Saint Peter’s Square.

  Franzini gestured for them to sit before the Pope’s ornamental desk. They seated themselves quietly in the comfortable wingback chairs. Both were humbled in the presence of the Holy Father. Trey, the master thief, was particularly nervous.

  The Pope turned to them. He spoke with a heavy accent. “We appreciate your help. Both of you.”

  The couple merely nodded.

  “I trust they have been adequately reimbursed?” His Holiness asked of Camerlengo.

  Camerlengo nodded. “The money has been deposited in an American bank for Miss Friday, and in a rather obscure Swiss account for Mr. Jordan. As they requested.”

  Trey gave his lopsided grin to the Pope and shrugged.

  The Pope told them, “We now have the Judas Coins in our possession. They are secured in our safest of vaults. But...” he held their gaze rigidly, “there is still one small matter left.”

  Trey and Eve looked at each other, tense.

  “We have only twenty-nine coins. Where is the thirtieth?”

  “Well, sir...Your Holiness...” Trey stuttered. “The final coin appears to have been, uh, misplaced.”

  Eve put a hand on Trey’s arm. “Let me,” she said.

  She explained. After the Demon was destroyed, she and Trey took one of the speedboats back to civilization. They drove the boat slowly, exhausted from the horrific experience. They were both leaning out over the railing of the boat. Eve had held the thirtieth Coin just over the edge reluctantly. Finally, after years of dealing with her own inner demons, she tossed the Coin into the loch. Trey hugged her as they watched the Coin flash down through the water, see-sawing as it sank to the sandy bottom, where it glittered. Immediately, silt washed over it, half-burying the Coin.

  His Holiness listened to her story without interruption, eyes closed. When Eve finished, the room was utterly silent. She held Trey’s hand tightly.

  Finally, the Pope opened his eyes. “Then we pray we never see it again.”

  “Yes, Father,” Eve answered humbly.

  The Pope nodded to them both, smiling. Then he turned from them, looking out his great window again.

  Camerlengo addressed Trey. “Now, Mr. Jordan, would you like to see your father? You have fulfilled your end of the agreement.”

  Trey sucked in some air, let it out slowly. Eve took his hand once again and squeezed it in her own.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Trey told the Italian.

  * * *

  They were in a stretch limo. Trey put his arm around Eve. She snuggled close and kissed him.

  “I thought you didn’t kiss thieves,” Trey said through the kiss.

  “I’ll make an exception this time.”

  They kissed again, but Eve suddenly frowned and pulled away. She probed inside his jacket. She brought out an ornate, golden cross. Clearly, he’d stolen it from the Vatican.

  Trey smiled mischievously and shrugged. “For good luck.”

  Eve shook her head in disbelief. “So, what are you going to say to your father after all of these years?”

  Trey turned and stared out the window. He set his jaw firmly. “I’m going to tell him to get ready.”

  “For what?”

  “To go home.”

  * * *

  Deep in thought, the Pope shuffled along the Vatican hallways with his cane. Suddenly, he paused and peered up at the wall. He saw the faint outline of the missing cross. He frowned. Then the frown turned to a smile. He said a prayer for the thief and continued down the hall.

  * * *

  A key turned a rusted lock. Tumblers fell into place. A pale hand turned a lever, and pushed the heavy door open. It groaned on its ancient hinges. Water dripped somewhere nearby.

  The dim light revealed an old man lying on a cot. The man sat up slowly, blinking hard. He stared at a tall man silhouetted in the door who loomed over him like a specter from a nightmare, his face hideously formed.

  But this was just the old man’s perception, the result of years of imprisonment. The man in the doorway reached up and removed a black gas mask. Trey Jordan faced his father.

  “Are you ready, Father?” Trey asked simply.

  “I thought you’d never come,” Damon Jordan replied.

  Trey laughed and tossed his father a similar gas mask. In the background, sirens began wailing, and lights flashed everywhere. A voice blared something in Italian over a sound system. Trey looked at his watch. “We should hurry, Pops. We have reservations tonight at eight. Best Italian bistro in town.”

  Damon Jordan donned the mask. Together, he and his son left the cell, stepping over the slumped bodies of the unconscious prison guards. A smoky haze drifted in the air, spewing from various canisters.

  Neither man so much as looked back as they dashed off through an arched doorway, away from the howling sirens and flashing lights.

  * * *

  It was night, and the waters of Loch Endes were still and glassy. Far beneath the surface, a large silver trout swam, looking for food. Suddenly, a glittering light attracted the fish. It snapped its tail once, twice, then swallowed the Coin whole. The trout flipped its tail again and disappeared into the murky darkness.

  The End

  ~~~~~

  The adventures continue in:

  Lost Eden: An Adventure Novel

  by J.R. Rain and Elizabeth Basque

  A kidnapped child.

  The Dead Sea scrolls.

  The epic search for the Garden of Eden.

  Available now!

  Amazon Kindle * Amazon UK * Paperback * Audio

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  The Lost Ark

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  A missing professor.

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  The archaeological discovery of a lifetime.
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  Temple of the Jaguar

  by J.R. Rain and Aiden James

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  About the Author:

  J.R. Rain is an ex-private investigator who now writes full-time in the Pacific Northwest. He lives in a small house on a small island with his small dog, Sadie, who has more energy than Robin Williams.

  Please visit him at www.jrrain.com.

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