CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

~jason~

“You should watch yourself,” said Imri, sitting in the passenger side of the truck.

I was driving over a barely-there dirt road in the fields. The truck bumped and leapt over stones and humps in the road. On either side of us, the grass grew tall. I had turned off my earpiece because listening to everyone talk was making it too hard to concentrate on driving. “I’m doing the best I can, considering there’s not actually anything here but a path.”

Imri laughed. “No, I don’t mean with the driving. I mean with Azazel and Jude.”

“What?”

“There’s some kind of tension there. I don’t know exactly what it is, but you should be careful. I had a friend once. We both loved the same girl. It was a strain on all of our relationships.”

“Jude doesn’t…” Of course, that wasn’t true, was it? I had always been convinced that Jude had feelings for Azazel. It was her that always insisted that he didn’t. And maybe she was blind to it. “Anyway, Azazel doesn’t—” I shot a look at him. “How do you know who we are, anyway?”

“I’ve been watching you for some time,” he said. “Since you were a small boy. I used to be quite connected to the Sons of the Rising Sun. They were useful for some of my purposes. And Mary and I both felt it was necessary that we kept certain truths about the immortals from them. They were simply too powerful. We worried that they’d use the knowledge for evil.”

“The immortals,” I said. “You mean the Nephilim.”

“Is that what you consider yourself? Half-angel?” He laughed, a deep, rich sound.

I felt flustered. Why wasn’t he afraid of me? I’d captured his family. I’d shot his daughter in the leg. I had all the cards here. And yet, he was laughing at me. “Or half-god or something. Maybe. We don’t know. It’s only a theory. What do you know, anyway? You capture my kind. Exploit them.”

“I do nothing of the sort, Jason. You’ve got things all wrong. What Mary and I do is very different from the other people you hunt. True, I am not an immortal, and I only get my ability to heal from Mary, but the others are truly vampires, as you call them, stealing what they want violently. It’s different when things are freely given.”

“What do you do that’s so different?”

“We don’t sell the blood. It is a gift we bestow. And we don’t steal the blood. An immortal must give it freely as well.”

I looked at him sidelong. “Really?” If that was true, then all of the people we’d killed weren’t like the assholes that had locked us up. Instead, they were people like Azazel, who drank from those who donated blood to them. Damn it. I knew the vampire thing was going to be morally questionable. I should never have gotten involved in the first place. I’d been running around slaughtering innocent people for days now.

“Really.”

Would he lie to me? Maybe it was some kind of play for mercy. “Doesn’t change anything. I’ll still kill your whole family if you don’t cooperate.”

He sighed. “That’s not why I’m telling you this, Jason. Honestly, everything’s gotten out of control. You see, I’ve always known you were immortal. It was rather funny, I thought, that your parents went to all this trouble to create you in the first place, and they never realized that the unique combination of their genes was going to produce an immortal. I was worried at first, but Mary said that the Sons would interpret your immortality as part of your abilities as the Rising Sun.”

“It was,” I said. “That was different than this. Or at least, it was different right after the solar flare.” I found it all very confusing and weird. It made my head hurt, and I tried not to think about it too much. My life was very weird, and it just kept getting weirder.

“Yes, during the blackout, there was a lot more power on earth. It was primal and unchecked, and within you, it was magnified. But most of it seems to have receded again, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “We lost our powers to Kieran and Eve.”

“Right,” he said. “And they conveniently disappeared, didn’t they?”

I knew we’d had something to do with that, but I didn’t see how. If we’d stopped them, we’d done it while we were in a coma. A coma that I was often convinced we should never have woken from.

“We watched you through all of it. We watched when you and Azazel destroyed the Sons. We watched you decimate the landscape after the blackout. We watched you in Jasontown. But you were no threat to us, and you seemed ignorant of what you were. There was no need for us to interfere.”

“And you’re interfering now?”

“Well, I didn’t get the chance. Once it became clear to me what you were doing, I wanted to approach you and propose that we work together. Our objectives are actually quite similar. But I didn’t, not right away, because I was wary about how violent and unstable you are. Everything you become involved in is eventually destroyed, and the people around you are often casualties.”

I felt a little offended, even though I could see how he was right. Things did tend to go that way with Azazel and me. “Who says we’d want to work with you, anyway?”

“Ah, yes. Things aren’t shaping up the way I had hoped. For one thing, you began killing people who work for me. People who are only spreading the blood of life to our far-flung disciples. We are not accustomed to death, you see. We are immortal. What you’ve done… well, they are clamoring for your blood. I ordered Grace captured to try to appease them, but that seems to have backfired, because you’ve killed even more of us. So much death, Jason. It’s appalling, as I’m sure you can see.”

“You shouldn’t have captured Grace.”

“You shouldn’t have killed my workers.”

“What do you mean, your workers?”

“I’ve kept tabs on you, and it seems that you execute anyone that you think is trafficking the blood of immortals. But my people were not selling it, nor had they taken it by force. You didn’t take the time to find that out before you killed them.”

I grimaced. So that was what Azazel and the others had been up to. They’d been killing willy nilly, assuming that anyone who had blood deserved death. I could see Imri’s point. Really, we’d started this mess, and he was only retaliating. From that perspective, Grace’s capture was minor compared to all of his people we’d killed.

However, there wasn’t much that I could do about it now. Those people were dead, and nothing I could do would bring them back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. But things are the way they are now, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it. So, it really changes nothing. I still have to get Grace back.”

He sighed. “I thought you might say that.”

“What would appease your people?” I said. “Would it be anything short of the death of one of us? I can’t agree to that.”

“Perhaps you could do us a favor,” said Imri.

“What kind of favor?” I said.

“Turn here.” Imri pointed.

There was a fork in the road ahead, two small paths worming their way through the fields. I turned the truck. Almost immediately, a barn came into view. It was painted bright red, and it looked cheery and well cared for. “Is that where Grace is?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Imri. “We’ve converted this barn into apartments, and it’s actually quite cozy. You needn’t worry that she’s been mistreated.”

I parked the truck in front of the barn and got out. “Show me where she is.”

Imri got out of the truck as well. “This favor I’m speaking of.”

“Oh,” I said. “Right. What?”

Imri walked ahead of me. “As you know, there are those out there who capture immortals and drain their blood for sale. Both you and I want those people to be stopped, even killed. They are abominations, treating a sacred gift like a product.”

A sacred gift, huh? He sure acted strangely about the blood. “What’s so sacred about it?”

He turned back to look at me. “Oh, Jason, there is so much you don’t know. But allow me to explain the favor first, will you?”

“Whatever,” I said.

He went to the door of the barn, took a key out of his pocket, and opened it. “There is only one large conglomerate left in the United States since you took down Bartholomew and Anita, but they are quite powerful.”

“We’ve been looking for them,” I said. “I mean, I think that’s what Boone has been up to. I’ve actually been a little out of the loop.”

“I know where they are,” said Imri. “As a favor to me, and a show of good faith, if you and your people were to kill the man at the head of it, effectively dismantling their operation, then I think I could convince my people that we were even. You see, not only is that man profiting from the blood of immortals, he also did me and my people and injury. He killed someone I cared about. If you were to dispatch the head of the conglomerate, my people would be satisfied.”

I chuckled. “So, you spend all this time telling me how horrible it is that I kill people, but the minute you get the chance, you ask me to kill for you. And for revenge, of all things. You can’t kill him yourself, is that it?”

“You and your people are uniquely suited to the task.” Imri led me up a set of narrow steps. “My people are not trained for such things.”

Of course they weren’t. The hypocrisy of it. It made me sick.

Imri opened a door at the top of the steps.

“Jason?” said a voice from within.

“Grace?”

She bounded out of the room, throwing her arms around me. I hugged her back.

“You came. I knew you guys would come get me,” she said.

I reached up to switch my earpiece back on. “Guys, I’ve got Grace. She’s safe.”

* * *

 

Boone instructed me to take her back to his hotel immediately. I agreed. Until we had Grace off the property, it didn’t make sense to give up our hostages. That meant, however, that I had to keep Imri with me. So the three of us sat in the cab of the truck, Grace in the middle. It was a little bit of a squeeze.

As I pulled away from the barn, Imri peered around Grace. “Well, Jason? About the favor?”

“No,” I said.

“No?”

“You want me to risk my people and go into some dangerous situation just to make it right? I won’t do that.”

Imri sighed. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“I am too.”

Boone’s voice interrupted me over the earpiece. He wanted to talk to Grace, so I gave her my cell phone, and I watched her blush several shades of pink as she talked to him. There wasn’t much on her side of the conversation, really, and I couldn’t imagine what Boone was saying.

Imri didn’t speak again for the rest of the ride.

Boone was waiting for us in the parking lot. I pulled the truck up, and Grace dropped my phone onto the seat and scrambled out, pushing me out in front of her.

I kept an eye on Imri while I went over to speak to Boone.

But the minute Boone saw Grace, she was in his arms, and they were kissing. Like not-the-kind-of-thing-you-want-to-see-in-public kissing. I found myself feeling embarrassed and looking away. Whatever issues Boone was having before about being with Grace, he seemed to be over them.

Eventually, I cleared my throat. “Um, Boone, we still have hostages.”

“You can handle that,” he told me. “Don’t bother us, okay? I’m turning off my earpiece, I’m turning off my phone. Consider Grace and I indisposed.”

Right. Definitely over the issues, then.

I watched as they went back into the hotel, arm in arm.

Then I got back in the truck. “All right, Imri, let’s get you back to your family and put this whole thing to bed.”

That was when I realized that Imri had my cell phone.

I took it from him. “What did you do?”

Imri smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Jason. I’d really hoped you’d voluntarily do that favor for me.”

Stupid. I was an idiot. I should have watched that phone. When Grace dropped it in the car, why hadn’t I picked it up? “Who did you call?”

“I have some men who’ve been instructed to capture your son if I send them the proper text. I’ve just done that.”

My son? Chance. “What do you mean, capture?”

“He won’t be harmed, Jason. I promise you. I won’t shoot him in the leg.”

I felt like the air in the truck was getting thicker, like it was sticking to my lungs. He had Chance?

“Now I suppose we’re even,” said Imri. “I have your son. You have my children. It seems we might be at a bit of an impasse.”

I swallowed, trying to catch my breath. I didn’t know what to do. I felt helpless and terrified. Chance was only a little boy. A very little boy. I’d worked so hard to keep him out of all of this. And now he was being captured—

Wait. All I was going on here was Imri’s word. “How do I know you actually have him?”

Imri held out his hand. “Can I see the phone again?”

“No,” I said. I didn’t want him to have it. Who knows what other horrible things he could order done if he had a phone in his hand. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

“Fine,” said Imri. “Text ‘proof’ to the last number I texted.”

I did as he said.

Nothing happened. I stared at him across the cab. I was shaking. He was calm. He’d been too calm this whole time. I really didn’t like this guy.

“You’re bluffing,” I said to him. “You’re making it all up. I’m not doing what you say.”

“You’d like that to be true, I know. But it isn’t.”

The phone vibrated in my hands, emitting the little noise it made when it got a text. I clicked on the notification that popped up. It was a picture.

Chance, tied up. His brown eyes were full of terror. There was duct tape over his tiny mouth.

My grip tightened on the phone. Anger surged up inside my body, hot and liquid. I clenched my teeth. I wanted to rip Imri to pieces, tear out his organs. How dare he do this to Chance? To my Chance?

“So, you’ll do it, then?” said Imri. “You’ll kill the leader of the conglomerate that sells blood?”

“Don’t have much choice, do I?” I slammed the keys to the truck back into the ignition.

* * *

 

~azazel~

“He’s got Chance,” said Jason’s voice in my ear.

“What?” I said. “How could he have Chance?”

“He knows everything about us,” Jason said. “He’s been watching for a long time.”

“Yeah, well, Mary here is crazy,” I said. “She thinks she’s doing the work of Jesus.” I’d shut out everything the woman said after she had made that pronouncement. The lady was clearly off her rocker. Maybe they were running some kind of weird blood cult out here. I didn’t want to know.

“Jesus?” Jason let out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t think about it. I can only think…” He sighed. “I think we fucked up bad here, Azazel.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“I don’t think these people are the bad guys,” he said. “I think we killed a bunch of people who didn’t deserve it.”

I chewed on my lip. “Must be Tuesday.”

“It’s not funny. I don’t know what he’s going to do to Chance.”

“Jason, I didn’t mean—”

“Look, just let them go. Take guns off his family and get out of the house. I’ll meet you guys at the contingency spot, all right?”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked him. “If we leave the hostages, then we lose leverage. What can we use to stop him from hurting Chance?”

“I already shot his little girl,” said Jason. “I don’t think if we shoot more of them, it’s really going to ensure Chance’s safety. No, I don’t want to piss him off any further. Get out of there, okay?”

“Copy that,” I said into the earpiece.

Jude eyed me across the room. He’d heard all of it.

“Well, let’s get out of here,” I said to him.

“You’re leaving?” said Mary.

I put my gun into its holster. “Consider yourselves free.”

* * *

 

When we got to the contingency spot, where our getaway van was parked, Jason was already there.

I ran to him and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”

Jude patted Jason on the back. “We’ll get Chance back, all right?”

Jason pulled away from both of us. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. The guy he wants us to take down apparently spends all his time heavily guarded.”

“What? He wants to take someone down?”

Jason laughed bitterly. “Oh, yeah, he was very annoyed with our violence. And eager to use it for his own revenge.”

“Revenge?”

“This guy killed someone he cared about. He wants us to kill the guy, and once it’s done, I get Chance back. That’s the deal. I had to take it. I didn’t have any other option, did I?”

“No,” I said.

Jason ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe it’s punishment. Maybe it’s karma. For all the bad shit I’ve done recently?”

“The world doesn’t work like that,” I said.

“You can’t know that,” said Jason. “But the thing that’s bad, that’s really bad, is thinking that Chance is suffering for what I did. Me.” He tapped himself on the chest, and his face twisted.

“We’ll get him back. He isn’t going to suffer. We can kill this guy. That’s what we’re good at.”

“Yeah, the guy is the head of a big time blood ring,” said Jason. “I guess it’s even our job.”

* * *

 

“Wait, are you sure he’s okay?” I asked Jason as we walked up the hall in the hotel. “He’s not answering his earpiece, his phone’s going straight to voicemail.”

“Trust me, he’s fine,” said Jason. “If it were anyone besides my six-year-old child, I’d leave him and Grace alone.”

“You would?” I said.

“I would,” said Jason, halting in front of the door to Boone’s hotel room.

I scrunched up my nose, confused.

Jude cleared his throat.

And then I got it. “Oh, you mean, they’re—”

“Open up!” Jason rapped on the door.

There was nothing for a second, then a muffled voice yelled, “Go away!”

Jason knocked again. “Can’t do that. Sorry. You better open the door.”

Nothing.

Then the door opened, and Boone was standing there, shirtless, his hair mussed. He looked annoyed.

“Sorry, man,” said Jason.

“Yeah, sorry,” said Jude.

“You guys are asswipes, you know that?” said Boone.

“Your mothers suck cocks in hell!” came Grace’s voice.

“They’ve got Chance,” I said.

Boone’s expression changed. “Seriously?”

“Why do you think we’re here?” said Jason.

“Shit.” Boone slammed the door in our faces.

“Hey,” I said. “What the hell was that?”

The door swung back open. Boone was completely dressed now.

We stepped into the hotel room. One side looked identical to the way it had looked the day before. There were open laptops all over the bed. The covers on the other bed had been hastily thrown up.

Boone scratched the back of his head. “So, um, they have Chance?”

Grace poked her head out of the bathroom. “How’d they get Chance?”

“You dropped the phone in the truck cab,” said Jason, “and I didn’t pay any attention. Imri got it, and he sent a message to his people.”

Grace came out of the bathroom. Her shirt was on inside out. “It’s my fault?”

“No,” said Jason. “After everything you’ve been through? It’s my fault.”

“It’s my fault,” said Boone. “The stuff I was saying to Grace over the phone probably made her distracted.”

Grace blushed. “Yeah, that was a little distracting.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter whose fault it was,” I said. “It happened. And now we’ve got a guy to kill if we want Chance back.”

Jude gestured to his shirt. “Grace, your shirt…”

She looked down. “Shit.” She threw herself back into the bathroom.

I elbowed Jude. “Why’d you have to point it out?”

“She would have noticed later, and she would have been even more embarrassed,” said Jude.

Boone stared down at the carpet. “You know, my day was going really well until you guys showed up again.”

Jason slapped him on the back. “There’ll be time for all of that later. Right now, we need you to do some hacking.” He gestured at the computers. “Gaston Fleming. Find out who he is and where he lives.”

Boone shot him a look.

“Please,” said Jason. It was his turn to look at the carpet.

Grace came out of the bathroom. Her face was beet red. “So, let’s save Chance, huh?”

I rubbed my forehead. Awkward. Really awkward.

* * *

 

“Actually, this is good,” Boone was saying, holding the laptop as he paced in the hotel room.

“How is it good?” said Grace.

“Uh, because this is the guy we were looking for? He’s running the blood ring. We take him down, and we’ll be doing what we wanted to do all along. It’s like this whole Grace-being-captured-thing was just a sideline distraction and now we’re back on track with our main mission. I mean, you know, aside from kidnapping Chance, this Imri guy is kinda on our side.”

Jason was sitting at a desk, resting his head in his hands. “Yeah, he said something like that. He wanted me to agree to do it just to make up for all of his people that we killed.”

“Well, you should have,” said Boone. “Because I bet we all would have been up for it.”

I glared at Boone. “Jason did what he thought was best.”

“Right,” Jason muttered. “I keep forgetting that you guys just go out and kill people for fun.”

“We do not,” I said.

“Sometimes we kind of do,” said Jude.

“I know I don’t have any room to talk,” Jason muttered. “I don’t know how many people I’ve killed since Grace went missing.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s try to focus here. Chance is in danger. We have to kill Gaston or whatever.”

Jason looked at me. “It’s only that I’m confused about everything. If he’d asked you to do this for him, as a favor, would you have said yes?”

I shrugged. “I really don’t know.”

“If I’d said yes, Chance would be fine,” said Jason. “But because the idea of killing a guy as a favor made me uncomfortable, I put Chance in danger.”

“Jason, stop,” I said. “Let me sum it all up for you, huh? You think you’re the worst person to ever walk the earth, and you’re guilty about it, blah, blah, blah. Who cares?”

Jason’s jaw twitched.

“I care,” said Jude. “I don’t want to kill people.”

“I know where Fleming is,” said Boone.

We all turned to him eagerly. “You do?”

“Virginia,” said Boone. “He has a big mansion there, and I only found out, because I managed to dig up his name on a receipt to a catering company.”

“A catering company?”

“Yeah,” said Boone. “See, he’s having a big party, and he’s hired this company to make the food and serve it, and there will be a lot of people going in and out of his house. The party’s the best bet. We can use it to get in and get close to him.”

“When’s the party?” said Jason.

“Tomorrow,” said Boone. “We have just enough time to pack up and get to Virginia. At which point, we’re all getting separate hotel rooms. Clear?”