knees, the once familiar ritual now so foreign to him. The belt wrapping around his hand he knew
well, but he didn’t feel any comfort for what was to come.
He was angry and afraid.
He didn’t want to do this.
“Lord o’God, please forgive Your lost child, Obadiah Penuel Snod, for all of his sins,” Sanguis began
the prayer. “Forgive him for how he has sinned against You and allowed himself to be a whore for the
most unholy of beasts. Forgive him for allowing his heart and mind to be corrupted, for letting him be
filled with the vampire’s disgusting poison...”
Every word turned Snod’s stomach, bile rising up into the back of his mouth. It wasn’t true. None of it
was true.
“He will repent immediately in blood and with flesh,” Sanguis went on. “He seeks to walk in Your
light again. Please allow him to be forgiven...”
“How many?” Snod croaked miserably, bowing his head in submission.
“That all depends, my son,” Sanguis sighed. “Did you do as I asked? Were you able to learn the name
of that fiend’s Maker?”
Snod flinched, the leather creaking in his hand. The spell was beginning to fade, saying breathlessly,
“How many lashes, Father... how many?”
“The name,” Sanguis repeated sharply, all of the kindness vanishing from his voice in an instant. “Tell
me! Did you learn it!”
“Yes,” Snod panted. “I did... but tell me, Father. I need to be forgiven, don’t I? How many lashes will
it take?”
“The name, you insolent child!” Sanguis roared furiously. “Give me the name or I will cast your soul
into eternal damnation! You will never see the light of our Father’s Holy Kingdom, you ungrateful
blaspheming sodomite!”
Snod’s upper lip twitched, sneering, “No.”
“Pardon?” Sanguis hissed.
“No,” Snod said more fiercely. “I will never say it. I won’t.”
“A hundred lashes,” Sanguis spat, “and a hundred more for your insubordination, you disgusting fiend.
Flay yourself until I tell you to stop! Begin now!”
A horrible howl tore itself out of Snod’s throat, his hand rising up before he could think better of it,
