Judgement and Wrath

5

As a child of the Mississippi Delta lands, Dantalion had been raised on the myths and legends surrounding haunted groves and magical ceremonies performed by High Priestesses of Voodoo. Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Vodou or West African Vodun in its generic form, had all appealed to the fertile mind of a child with too much time on his hands. From an early age he had eagerly grasped at tales of spells and enchantment, of living dead men, and ritual sacrifice. But in his early teens, he left all that nonsense behind. He turned his attention to other legends, in particular a story everyone knows, though their take on the Fall from Grace was normally mired in the dogma preached by the Church.

How could this impressionable youth not seize on the notion of angels, when his alabaster skin and ice-blue eyes had singled him out and set him above all the other human cattle? His earliest recollection had been of his momma cooing that he was her little angel. They were fond memories. Next came the bullies at school stripping him to see if his wings had been cut down to stumps, then beating the shit out of him when their suspicions had proved wrong. They were fond memories too, which confirmed in his mind that he was better than them. Encouraged him to embrace the reality. The Fallen did not have wings. They were seared from their backs when God cast them into the flames of Hell.

In the subdued darkness of his hotel room in the SoBe district of Miami Beach, Dantalion was not concerned about the stares he received in day-to-day life. In this enlightened age, people were more sensitive to the feelings of others. Still, people passing him in the street couldn't help the involuntary flicker of their eyes as they tried to probe beneath his coverings, seeking out what the hell he was.

They were ignorant of his condition. Most assumed that he was an albino, but that was not the case. Vitiligo is an acquired disorder distinguished by patches of depigmented skin. Ordinarily people with vitiligo lack melanin in the epidermis, and form patches of milky- or chalky-white skin. In extreme cases — as in Dantalion's — the hair and retina of the eye are also affected. Various treatments are available, but in cases where depigmentation affects more than half of the body, a bleaching agent named monobenzone is applied to the normal skin to match it with the paler areas. It is not usually debilitating, but the skin can become more sensitive to the sun. Occasionally, dermatitis can be a side effect of the treatment. As long as he remained covered he was in no danger, and thankfully it was only patches on his hands and face that required hydrocortisone creams. Ingestion of immuno-modulating drugs also formed a necessary precaution, though the risk to his bone density was a potential and serious side effect he could do without.

In this room, though, with the dimmer switch turned to its lowest setting, he felt at peace. He was stripped to the waist, his body faintly luminous against the darkness. He had disdained his dark glasses in order to see what he was writing in his book.

He had people to kill.

He was confident in his abilities.

When he chose to kill, there was only one outcome.

He was so confident that he'd already assigned the numbers. Two new figures he jotted down. They were for starters; there were always others he could add if he so wished.