“Don’t go out there, Rachel,” he whispered, the clear tracks of tears showing strongly on his rust-dusted face. “Please, don’t go out there. Stay here. Ceri said the samples were here on holy ground. You don’t need to go anywhere else. Promise me. Just promise me you won’t leave this room.”

Fear made a lump at my core, and I nodded. I’d stay here. “Where are the samples?” I said, turning to see Trent running his hand over the woodwork as if he was looking for a secret panel. The yellow foam on the windows seemed to soak up the light. My breath hissed in and Trent froze at the sound of nails. Something was crawling on the outside of the glass.

“My God,” I said, retreating to the altar to put my back against it as I looked up. “Trent, do you have any weapons? Like a gun?”

He looked at me in disgust. “You’re here to protect me,” he said as he closed the distance between us and stood beside me. “You didn’t bring a weapon?”

“Yeah, I brought a weapon,” I snapped as I brought my splat gun out and aimed it at the ceiling where the sounds were coming from. “I just thought that since you’re a freaking murderer you might have a gun, too. God, Trent, please tell me you brought one?”

Jaw clenched, he shook his head no, but he touched a wide side pocket in his jumpsuit for reassurance. He might not have a gun, but he had something. Fine. Mr. Kalamack had a secret weapon he didn’t want to share. I hoped he wouldn’t have to use it. Heart pounding, I watched the yellow foam and tried to slow my breathing. How were we going to do this while under attack? If I set a circle for protection, real demons would be all over us.

“Jenks?” I called out when a new scrabbling started from the other side of the church. Shit, there were two out there now. “Can you hear a hard drive or anything? Ceri said they stored everything by computer. We need to do this fast.”

Face gray, Jenks rose up on a thin sparkle of gold that took on an amber tint. It was almost as if the red glow from outside was seeping in. “I’ll look.”

He darted off, and hands sweating, I tracked the sound of that second set of nails as it traveled over the ceiling to where the first was digging. The first seven uglies through would be taking a nap, but unless they were cannibals and ate their dead, there were probably going to be a lot more surface demons coming at us than I had sleepy charms for.