Reign of Evil

CHAPTER 8

The wind howled as it buffeted Sassy’s home. She’d sensed something impending in the minutes after the boys from Section 9 had left. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it was like a psychic buildup of magnificent proportions. The pressure inside her head was so high her ears kept popping. At 11:00 PM she’d decided to move downstairs into the basement to her safe room. She cast as many protection spells as she could, with the limited time and resources she had. Luckily, she’d planned for the possibility of this day long ago and had her spells and protections in place. The only question was what was coming and how strong it would be.

She lit her candles and began to read from Liber Al vel Legus, the Book of Law. The Fraternitas Saturni had adopted Aleister Crowley’s book as their foundation, but upon obtaining higher levels they were provided greater insights. Now as a Thirty-First Degree Magister Templarus, virtually everything was available to her, but at the moment the words of the Egyptian goddess Nuit, Goddess of the Night Sky, comforted her and she allowed herself to be lost in them.

Sassy had more enemies than most successful witches. Never mind that she’d stolen her knowledge of the Fraterni Saturni. What had always been a men’s club had unknowingly allowed a woman to infiltrate their temple. Her adopted father, who was one of the early temple masters, had reveled in the idea that a woman might learn the secrets and felt that it was a much-needed balance to the preponderance of male magic. He’d continued her education on his own until his death ten years ago. But in doing so, he’d lost all of his friends, been forced to flee Germany with his stepdaughter, and had to cut himself off from the astral plain, lest he be discovered and the Cull Teams come in search of Sassy.

Above her the house began to rattle.

Then the rattle became as loud as a freight train.

She began to scream a spell of protection, invoking Bes. She imagined the protector of mothers and children wearing the Armor of Anhur, fire and damnation pouring from her eyes into the face of Sassy’s unseen enemy.

The noise became so great it obliterated all thought and reason until her own words were sucked from her before she could even form them.