Wednesday 11th  November

"Pull over, I'm going to be sick."

"Do not pull over this car," Ash ordered.

Ben ignored the demon and swerved the car onto the hard shoulder, stopping abruptly. John leaned behind him, pulled at the handle and pushed open the door. Becca lurched out of the car and promptly emptied the contents of her stomach onto the asphalt with a splash. Ben was next out of the car, leaving the engine still running. He grabbed hold of her to stop her falling, pulling her hair back, off her face. She spewed again until all she was left weak and dry heaving.

"Get her back in the car," shouted Ash. "We need to keep moving," he warned, his eyes searching out into the night. Rain drops fell heavily, illuminated by the beams of the car's headlights.

"She isn't ready, just give her a minute."

"She doesn't have a bloody minute, get it?"

Ben turned back at Ash. "I don't get any of this."

"Rebecca, we do need to go. You must get back in to the car." John was leaning out of the car door.

"Please, just give me a minute," she pleaded, her voice sore and cracked. "Ben, I need air."

Ben let go of her hair and placed his arm around her shoulders. "Okay, let's walk a little."

She could hear Ash cursing in response, while John tried to remonstrate with him.

"What is happening, Ben?" She barely remembered a thing, having been comfortable cocooned in unconsciousness for most of their journey.

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Where are we?"

"South. Just off the M25, heading towards Kent."

"Kent! How long have I been out of it?" She tried thinking back to the last thing she remembered, but nothing concrete would form in her mind. She remembered heat, light and dark.

"A couple of hours."

"Where are we going?"

"No idea. They've barely uttered two words and have ignored all of my questions so far. All I've been told is that they have to get you to safety."

Safety. Since when had travelling with a demon ever been considered safe?

"I am not getting back in that car with ... him."

"Listen, I have no idea who or what he is, but I have known your uncle for a long time. I might not like him, but I do trust him. If he thinks you are in danger, we should probably believe him."

"I am not getting back in that car." Becca pulled away from Ben, taking several steps back.

"Hurry, please," John called to them.

"No." Little by little her nausea abated and she felt some strength returning.

"Becca, " John pleaded.

He had never called her that before. Never shortened her name and he had never called to her in a tone like that. She shivered. "No," she repeated and took two more steps back. The air was frigid, her breaths, fast and shallow. Her hair now hung limply, her clothes soaking.

"Get in the car." Ash appeared from out of nowhere, making both of them jump.

"Stay away from me."

The demon rolled his eyes. "Stubborn just like your mother."

Becca surged forward. "Don't you mention her, don't you dare."

Ash wiped her spittle from his cheek. "Have you any idea how bloody inconvenient this whole thing is to me? Trust me when I say, I wish you weren't her daughter. To be honest, my life would be a whole lot easier if I'd never laid eyes on you, but to save your ass, I just sacrificed min..."

"Enough!" John had now left the dry confines of the car and came to other side of Ben. "Becca, you are frightened, you are hurt, and you have been lied to for most of your life, but please believe me when I tell you that, he...," he said, pointing at Ash, "is your only chance right now. He has done the most despicable things to you, but you need him, more than you realise."

"But, but, he killed ..." Her voice broke and she couldn't even say the name.

John took a step forward, then another, until he was standing directly before her.

"I know, Becca, I abhor everything about him, but you need to hear this." He closed the final gap and whispered into her ear. "Your mother loved him. I'm pretty sure in his own way he loved her and he made a promise to her that he would never hurt you. Now he knows who you really are, I am pretty sure he will honour that promise."

"Thanks for filling in the blanks, John, but I am quite capable of dealing with this myself. Becca, you have two choices. Accept my help or face The Seven..." He corrected himself. "The Six."

"Who the hell are...?" Ben asked, but soon shut up in the glare of Ash.

"The Seven were the demons of the royal court of the underworld. They run things down there, so to speak. I just incinerated one of them to save your neck, so now there are six. And they are pissed. Big time."

Becca looked to Ben, whose open mouth resembled a fly catcher. She then looked to John hoping to see a look of incredulity. She didn't get one.

"It's true, Becca. All of it." John reached out and touched her arm.

The ground beneath her felt tissue-thin and she the world she knew was caving in around her, suffocating her, driving out the light, replacing it with darkness.

"Listen," the demon said in a mildly softer tone. "You aren't the first person to fall into their crosshairs..." He kicked out a stone. It flew across the layby and pinged against the rear bumper of the car. "But you are different and they now know that. Very soon, they will have the entire underworld looking for you, if they haven't already.

Exhaustion and terror overwhelmed her. She slumped forward into John, who struggled to gain a grip of her as her legs gave out.

"Ben," he called, "help me."

If Becca was having a job believing all of this, Ben looked like he finding it even harder. "Err... yes, err...sorry." He came forward and helped raise Becca to her feet.

"Let's get you back in the car and get you warm."

Too cold and weak to fight, she allowed them to lead her back to the car. The smell of vomit hung heavily in the air.

Once inside the car, Ben turned on the heater. The fan in the old car was noisy but effective and soon she could feel warmth upon her cheeks. Her fingers tingled uncomfortably.

"Your mother would want you to be safe, Becca,"

Becca turned her head. Looking like he'd been poured into the car, his huge frame squashed into the passenger seat, Becca made eye contact with Ash and only now for the first time did she really see him. The disguises were long gone, replaced with a being that looked in essence, human, but was at the same time nothing close. His unusual crescent-shaped eyes registered her scrutiny. His pupils, so dark they almost looked like black holes to another dimension, grew larger until none of the silvery-white sclera was visible. Unable to hold eye contact any longer, she continued her examination, running down his long pinched nose, to the thinnest of lips, and onto his jaw which had a sharp angular quality to it, reminding her of the cuts in a diamond. In the dim light given off by the car's dashboard, his skin also seemed to have a faint reptilian appearance- mosaic-like in pattern, yet smooth and stretched taut.

Interrupting her scrutiny, he continued. "If they find you they won't just take your soul. They will kill you and kill anyone you have left to care about. And even then it won't be over. Without a soul they will claim you and ..."

"She's heard enough, Ashmadalak." John pulled at her seatbelt, placing it over her body before fixing it with a loud click. "Ben, are you okay to drive?"

Becca looked to the poor boy who had been inadvertently dragged into her living nightmare. She could see his body shaking, his hands clutched tightly on the steering wheel.

"I think so." His voice said otherwise.

"Very well, stay on here for another thirty minutes or so. I'll tell you when to turn."

As the car ate up the miles, Becca looked out of the side window to the east. The night wasn't as dark as it had been, and she could see a lighter inky-blue sky to the east. She longed to see the sun, to feel its warmth on her cheek, for the light to banish the dark world she had fallen headfirst into.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly.

"We are going to an old priory where we can stay the night, while I arrange safe passage to France tomorrow."

"France? I don't even have a passport."

"Don't worry that will be taken care of once we arrive."

"But I don't want to go to France?"

"We won't be staying in France, just passing through."

"To where?"

John looked briefly at Ashmadalak. "I can't say. Not right now."

The demons face contorted into a grin. "Very wise indeed."

"We can't just leave like that. I have school, I have friends..." She glanced over to Ben and saw him looking back at her in the rear view mirror.

"Becca." From the front passenger seat, John turned and took hold of her hand. "This isn't something that can be solved overnight. They are never going to stop looking for you now."

"But why? Why am I so damn important to them, surely this isn't just about revenge for him killing one of them?

She heard the demon lightly sigh. "You are correct. This isn't just about revenge. Your soul possesses the most potent form of energy I have ever encountered, as Lucifer found out too."

Becca's heart fluttered in her chest. This was the name of stories, movies and folklore. It wasn't supposed to be a real name.

"Lucifer?" Her voice squeaked.

Ashmadalak nodded. "The one and only- the demon of pride."

Becca blinked rapidly.

"The Seven were the most powerful demons that have ever been. I thought using your soul energy would subdue him and reduce him to nothing but a powerless waif. I didn't expect I would obliterate him."

"You took some of my soul and used it to kill a demon?" She glanced over at Ben again. His eyes mirrored the fear that was clawing inside her.

"Yes, and you have enough energy inside you to wipe the remaining Six from all existence. You are the second biggest threat they have ever faced. They have no choice but to hunt you down."

"That is why, Becca.." John interrupted, "that we have to keep you safe."

"But that isn't the only reason, is it John?" Ashmadalak asked, quietly, slyly.

"She has heard enough, Ashmadalak. We can discuss this later."

The demon clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

"What other reason?" Becca asked. She brushed John's hand away and turned to the demon. "Tell me."

"She wants to know John. She needs to know."

"It's too soon, it's too much for h..."

"Tell me." Becca reached across and placed her hand on the top of the demon's own, which rested on his knee. The demon flinched.

"At the very least, they will want your energy so it can never be used against them. But more importantly, they could potentially use your energy to rise up and take down the gates of heaven."

Becca burst out laughing. She couldn't help herself. She wasn't sure if it was what the demon had said or the stupid earnest expression on his face. The laughing went on too long and turned to rasping sobs that stole her breath, yet oddly, her eyes refused to release a single tear.

"I think you've said enough," John interrupted. "Now isn't the time for a discussion of this magnitude." There was an edge to his voice.

The car fell silent, as it ate up the miles along the M2. Becca's head swum with a thousand questions, yet she couldn't form any of them into a single sentence, so she looked out of the side window, watching the sky brighten in the east. John was studying a road map, illuminated by a side bulb above his head and the demon had closed his eyes; anyone watching, might have assumed he was asleep. Ben kept the car at a steady seventy miles per hour, occasionally drifting across the three lanes to overtake slower vehicles. Soon the M2, became the A2 and they had just passed by the outskirts of Canterbury.

"Take the next exit, Ben," John directed.

At the next junction, Ben steered the car up the slip road to a T-junction.

"Take the next two right turns."

The ever lightening sky began to reveal the gloriously leafy Kent countryside before them. As the journey went on, the roads got smaller, the hedgerows grew higher and tall trees loomed above them. The occasional rabbit would run out in front of them, risking life and limb just to cross to the other side of the road.

"Pull over just here," John said as they turned a bend, stopping just before an old farm track on their left, its entrance blocked by a loosely hung, three bar metal gate. Grass grew up at the base of the gate showing it hadn't been opened in a while.

"Back in a minute." John climbed out of the car. He fiddled with a rusted chain which held the gate closed against a wooden post until it fell away. He then pulled the gate outwards revealing a field overrun with long grasses and wild flowers, their petals closed, due to the early hour. In the middle of the field was a narrow gravel track, pockmarked with divots and puddles from the nights downpour. John gestured to Ben to drive in. As the car edged forward, the suspension bounced the occupants around. With the gate closed behind him, John re-joined them and told Ben to follow the track that went around the edge of the field, before disappearing into a copse of trees ahead.

"You won't be able to go much farther."

Becca wasn't quite sure who John was talking to but she hoped he meant the demon and not Ben.

"Neither will you, Ben."

Her heart sunk.

Once into the woodland, the surface of the track changed to small, level concrete road. They drove on for a few minutes until they approached a large wooden gate, some ten feet high, set within a large red-brick wall.

"We'll walk from here."

The car stopped, John and the demon got out. Becca though, felt glued to the warm brown fabric of the rear seat. Ben seemed to be having much the same problem. He removed his seatbelt and turned to face her.

"You need to get back, your mum will be getting worried when she wakes up and finds you not there."

"It's fine, I can stay for a little longer."

"No," Becca shook her head. "My life is in danger and every minute you're with me, so is yours and that of your family. You have to go."

"But..."

"But nothing." She unfastened her seat belt and moved forward in the chair and kissed him gently, on the cheek."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Becca, I..."

She rested her forehead against his cheek. "Bye."

Pushing the sorrow deep, deep down, she opened the car door and stepped out, not daring to turn around, willing him to restart the engine and drive away. The car, though, remained quiet.

"Could I have a word with Becca? Alone."

John took his hand off the handle of the giant gate, turned around and sized up the demon.

"Make it quick."

The demon moved to one side and Becca reluctantly followed. "What?" she asked, unable to hide her disgust.

In the increasing light of day and in the light of everything that had happened, the demon now looked less like the towering, malevolent creature she was used to. Here, he seemed somewhat smaller, meeker even.

"I have something for you." He reached inside the pocket of the long black leather coat he was wearing and pulled out a photo.

"Your mum gave me this," he said and held it out to her.

After some silent deliberation, she took hold of the picture.

The sky was now light enough for her to make out the image of her and her mother. It was a picture she had never seen before and now thanks to the fire back at the vicarage, the only picture she had left.

"Don't think too harshly of her, Becca. She did love your father very much."

Becca wiped away a tear with her free hand.

"I was sent to destroy her and many people think I succeeded, but your mum and I knew differently. We had something that could never be quantified or explained. It was the real deal and not a product of magic or power, that some might like you to believe." He looked over to John, then back again. "But her feelings for me, paled in comparison to the love she had for you. Never ever forget that."

Becca took in a deep breath, contemplating the hundreds of questions she wanted to ask him, but it was too late. She looked up from the picture to find he had disappeared.

"Ben, drive carefully and remember what I told you on the way here," John shouted as he pulled open the large gate. Becca looked to John, puzzled. They must have had more of a conversation than Ben had admitted to while she was out cold, given that John had barely spoken during the entire journey she was conscious for.

Becca locked eyes with ben. For a moment she couldn't think, breathe or move and just lost herself in his gaze.

"Becca, it's time."

Ben made a move to get out of the car. Becca raised her hand to stop him, smiled and fled into the garden beyond the gates, which closed behind her with a heavy bang.

As John walked off ahead of her, Becca waited a while for the car engine to roar into life. The car idled for a minute or so and then she heard it reverse, turn and drive off back up the track, the engine noise fading to a distant hum. When the sound had gone completely, she set off at a run to catch up with John as he strode towards the imposing stone house ahead.