“What of the missing clerics? Do they have anything in common?” I inquired.
He hesitated before nodding. “They’re all young women between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-five.”
My jaw dropped. “You sent a twenty-two-year-old to perform an exorcism alone?!” I exclaimed, flabbergasted.
He instantly stiffened, his face taking on a stubborn and defensive expression. “They’re all very strong and powerful clerics!”
“What they are isgone, you fool! What in the Nine Hells kind of circus are you running here?” I demanded, fuming.
“This is not a circus!” he countered, outraged. “We’ve been operating like this for over three decades, and everything was just fine until this year.”
Despite the anger burning in my gut at his carelessness, he still had a point—not that it made any of this okay. There was a reason we always sent our people out in pairs.
“What mitigation measures have you taken since these incidents began?”
He stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders to release some of the tension building there. “We have increased the exorcism preparations, adopted more powerful containment spells, and all the clerics use a greater number of protections before meeting with any possession victim.”
“But you’re still sending them out solo,” I said with disbelief, not even bothering to make it a question as the answer was obvious.
“We have no choice!” Ewan replied in a tone that hinted that I was being completely unfair and unreasonable. “There are too many cases. We would never be able to get around to all of them in a timely fashion if we sent out our people in pairs.”
“What you’re doing is reckless. It is better to have one good exorcism with two clerics than a failed one with a single Inquisitor who ends up missing. At this rate, you will soon have no one left. And I can promise you that the Curia will not send you more bodies to sacrifice with your careless approach.”
“I’m not being careless! We’ve been dealt a bad hand, and I’m doing the best that I can with what I have,” he snapped.
“Then you should have been honest and asked for help,” I retorted without any sympathy. “The Curia will expect a detailed report on all the failures your Sanctum has faced, the list of missing clerics with a report explaining what occurred, and details about the previously possessed victims and their families.”
He pinched his lips and gave me a stiff nod. I derived no pleasure from berating people. Although in the current circumstances I had greater authority, I wasn’t one to throwmy weight around. However, I hated incompetence with a vengeance, especially when displayed by leadership and even more so if it caused the death of or brought harm to the people in their care. This man clearly seemed out of his depth.
“What’s your current status?” I asked.
The Prefect cleared his throat and averted his eyes, instantly setting all my senses on high alert.
“One of our clerics is late,” Ewan confessed uneasily.
“Late?” I echoed, my voice dangerously low.
“Sister Sienna went to perform an exorcism this morning. She should have returned by now. But we haven’t heard back from her.”
I fisted my hands in my lap while fighting the urge to bitch slap the idiot.
“Did you send anyone to inquire as to her whereabouts?”
“We are going to, but first, I want to get a better understanding of the situation,” he replied, lifting his chin with a hint of defiance.
“What do you mean by that?”
“The victim’s parents are in the next room with Sister Vivian Shaw. She’s one of our most experienced exorcists. She’s currently gathering as much information as she can about Elliot Seki, their twenty-five-year-old son, who Sienna went to exorcise.”
“Take me to them,” I demanded.
He opened his mouth as if to argue, but a single look at my face made it clear not to try my patience any further. The Prefect pinched his lips again, gave me a stiff nod, then rose to his feet. He gestured for me to follow as he circled around his desk and headed for the door. I complied, letting him lead me to a small meeting room a couple of doors down from his office.
He knocked and opened without waiting for an invitation. My eyes widened when I spotted the parents who appeared to bein their early forties. That made them extremely young to have such an old son.
“Prefect?” a young Inquisitor said questioningly upon seeing us enter.
She seemed to be a couple of years shy of thirty, which made me question how she could possibly be one of their most experienced exorcists. Blonde, with large blue eyes, she had the type of slender body that would make any woman drool with envy. But her extremely prominent nose, made even more imposing by her thin lips, cheated her out of any claim to beauty.
