by Reana Malori
“Do they have any leads? Anyone know what happened to him?” he asked casually. While he was sure some of his other victims had been found before, this was the first time someone he knew had information about it.
“No. Not that I know of. It’s just crazy, though. I’ve never heard of anything like it. And the pictures were horrible,” she shuddered as she said the words.
Turning to look at her for a quick second before turning back to the road, “They let you see the pictures of the dead body? Even before the investigation is done?”
“Yeah, I’m the associate DA assigned to the case. I’m working with the police to make sure the person who did this is caught,” she finished. Grabbing his hand, she continued on, “Enough about work. Are you really not going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Nope. It’s a surprise.” Jaidon wasn’t worried about them connecting him to the dead body. He was too smart and there were never any fingerprints left behind. “So, what do you know about the guy who was killed? Maybe he deserved it.”
“Jaidon!” she exclaimed. “You don’t mean that. Do you?”
“Aw, come on, baby. I’m just saying. Sometimes there are bad people in this world and they do horrible things to innocent people. Sometimes even to children. What if this guy was one of those? Maybe he deserved it,” he prodded.
Jaidon knew he was treading on thin ice with his questions, but he wanted to see what she would say.
“Listen, I’m all for making sure the bad guy gets caught. I’m all for making sure the scumbags are handled.” She paused and took in several breaths.
“But…” he pushed.
Glancing at him with a slight smile, she turned to look back out the front window. Her expression and tone had become serious. The smile wiped away from her face.
Turning her gaze toward him, “I don’t know much about this guy. I won’t know much about many of the victims of crime. Other than what’s typed on a two- or three-page police report about their life, or the statements of so-called friends and family. Are there times when I think the bad guy got what they deserved? Yes. If me, or my family…” She stopped talking, took a deep breath, and clenched her lips together before speaking again. “Or someone I loved, was in danger, if the choice was between someone I love and someone else, I would always choose the person I love.”
In the silence that followed, he considered telling her everything. He didn’t want to keep secrets from Kenya, but knew that he had no choice—at least for the moment. So he kept quiet. “Hopefully, you’ll never have to be in that situation.”
Breaking eye contact, she turned her head away to look out the window. She sighed deeply as she thought about his words. “I agree.” Little did he know, she’d already been there.
Lifting her hand to his mouth, he pressed a soft kiss to her skin. “No more talk of work. It’s time for you and me to have some fun. Do things like a regular couple.”
Kenya sat up and looked around them and her face began to light up with joy. “Are we where I think we are?”
“What do you think?” he asked.
“Luray Caverns? You really brought me here? I’ve wanted to come here forever.”
“I know,” he said with a smile.
Her gaze turned toward him and he could see the shine of happiness in her eyes. “You remembered. I wanted so badly to come here when we were in high school.”
“Of course I remembered, Kenya. Everything about you was new and special to me. Every word you said, every dream you had, I remembered them all. Because they were my dreams as well,” he admitted.
He’d never felt as vulnerable with anyone else as he did with Kenya. Well, not since he’d been a young boy seeking a family to love. She made him weak. He should be upset at that knowledge, but he wasn’t. This felt right. Her being by his side was what he needed.
“Thank you, Jaidon,” she whispered. A smile covered her face as she unlocked the door. Pausing, she leaned over to kiss him softly on the lips.
“You’re welcome, baby. Now, come on, let’s go have some fun.”
*****
A few days later, Jaidon watched as Kenya walked into the courtroom with a smile on her face. He was tucked away in the back row of the courtroom and she hadn’t noticed him when she walked in. Good.
He wanted to watch her in action without her realizing he was there. They’d talked about her work, and his, and he was interested in the type of people she had to deal with daily. What would make her leave a cushy role in the District attorney’s office in San Jose, California—Silicon Valley—to come out to Washington, DC and deal with the criminal element that took up residence in the city?
Sure, it was also the mecca of the federal government. Power players came to the city regularly. This was where billion-dollar deals were made over lunch.
But so what? Those deals had nothing to do with the everyday people who lived and worked in the city. The normal families who had to deal with the rising crime statistics, and worry if their sons and daughters would come home each night.
For the longest time, he’d thought the cure for his deformity was a curse. Something that he should be ashamed of. As time went on, he realized his so-called curse, was more akin to a blessing.
He was ridding the world of the bad guys. That was his role. When he was a child, he’d had no one to protect him. No one to stop the hateful things that were done to him. Not until his parents had opened their home to him and done what no one else could do.
What he was doing—what his abilities allowed him to do—was essentially the same. People needed to be protected. Rapists. Murderers. Others who’d done horrible things to people. If he could quietly take care of them, remove them from the world and stop them from doing things to hurt people, then he would. That was noble. It was good.
It just so happened that his good deeds also had a positive effect on him. It made his scars disappear. It made him the sexual focus of women and men alike. Having the face he’d always dreamed of when he was young was his reward for taking out the trash.
Death made him flawless.
He could live with that.
Turning his attention to the scene at the front of the courtroom, he caught sight of the guy sitting in the defendant’s chair and his gaze went hazy for a second.
Hmmmm. That’s interesting, he thought to himself. Maybe he needed to pay a bit more attention to what was going on.
“Your Honor, the defendant, Mr. Christopher, has been charged with eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one charge of manslaughter. The state requests that he be remanded without bail,” Kenya said to the judge sitting on the bench.
Looking over at the defendant, Jaidon noted the smug look of satisfaction on his face as he sat there waiting for the judge’s decision. Something about that guy made his hackles rise. His stomach began to churn and his vision blurred as his other senses heightened.
This usually only happened when he was ready to make another sacrifice. This was too soon. Then again, maybe this guy was just so damn evil, his inner desires were making themselves known. Fuck a time frame or a clock to tell him when a life was ready to be taken.
A tingling sensation in his left hand made him look down and he saw the puckered skin begin to show itself again.
What the fuck?
His mind began to whirl with the possibilities. His burns never reappeared this soon after he’d taken a life. Lifting his gaze, he saw that the judge had denied Kenya’s motion and the defendant was going to be let go on bail. Yes, this was it.
There was a reason why he’d met Kenya again. They needed each other. She was what gave him hope and thoughts of a future. She also would be the entry point for him to gain access to the people for whom this blessing was created.
The possibilities were endless.
“Jaidon? What are you doing here?” Kenya’s voice called out to him and it pulled him out of his haze.
He stood up and gave her a smile, leaning in to give her a light
kiss on the cheek as he quickly shoved his left hand in his pocket so that she didn’t see it. “Hey baby. Turns out, I didn’t have to meet my current client today. I decided to come see you in action. You mentioned last night that you would be in court this morning. I decided to surprise you.”
“Thanks, babe,” she said with a smile. “Although it sucks that you had to see that scumbag go free. I wish…well, it doesn’t matter what I wish,” she said on a sigh as her body seemed to deflate before his eyes.
“Who is that guy? I heard something about assault and manslaughter. What happened?” he pressed.
As he’d stared at the man sitting at the defendant’s desk, he’d seen that his aura was dark and stormy. That alone had put Jaidon on edge. Something wasn’t right with that guy. That Kenya was the one standing in front of the judge trying to get him put away was not sitting well with him at all.
Looking over her shoulder as the guy was handcuffed and taken back to holding while his attorney posted bail, she snarled. Jaidon almost laughed at the shock of seeing Kenya look at anyone with that much loathing. But then he looked closer.
He saw that the colors around her had muted, and had turned dark and gray, with little slivers of lightning passing through. What the hell? He’d only seen that a few times, specifically, with people who were struggling with their own desires to take a life.
“Kenya?” he prodded. He needed to see if she’d break out of it.
Quickly, her colors changed. The darkness faded and he could see her light fighting its way through. That made him stand up and pay attention. Kenya should never have darkness inside of her. That was his role. His plight in life was to hold the dark inside and to handle the darkness of others.
Kenya, on the other hand, was his light. Her acceptance made him whole and gave him peace when he least expected it.
Just as he was about to speak, he felt the change happen, although he’d done nothing to spark it. He knew what that tingle meant. The skin on his hand was smooth again. Something was clearly happening to him, but he didn’t know what.
“Who is that guy and why do you look like you’d gut him if you had a sword handy?” he asked again.
“Someone who allowed his underworld dealings to get a family of five beaten to within an inch of their lives. He’s the scum of the earth and I want him behind bars. Apparently, the city has been after him for years, but nothing ever sticks. He’s like the Teflon man.” She paused and took a deep breath. “But this is it. There’s no way he’s getting away this time.”
Turning his head to look at the door where they’d taken the man, Jaidon smiled in a way that was anything but gleeful.
“C’mere, baby,” he implored. Pulling his hand from his pocket, he wrapped her in his arms.
Lifting his hand up to his gaze, he confirmed that the skin was smooth again. Was this what happened when he was standing in the closet the other day? He needed to figure out what the hell was going on before something happened that he wouldn’t be able to explain.
“Can you take a break?” he asked.
“Yeah, I don’t have to be back for another hour,” she said with a nod of her head.
“Let’s go grab a coffee. I know a place just up the road. We can walk.”
Grabbing her hand, he gently pulled her behind him as he strolled through the courthouse. He needed some fresh air. His scars were returning at odd times, with no warning. He was surrounded by people who were dark and dangerous, which was causing his need for a sacrifice to make itself known.
It was too soon. He finally had someone in his life who could calm him, make him happy, and things were beginning to spiral out of control.
Stopping in his tracks at the thought, he turned to look at Kenya. Was that it? Was her reappearance in his life the catalyst for everything happening to him right now?
“Jaidon, you okay?” she asked, looking up at his face. “You stopped in the middle of the hallway. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, sweetheart,” he said with a detached tone. What about her made things go out of whack?
“Come on.” They walked out of the courthouse and into the fresh air. Taking a deep breath, he attempted to clear the dark desires trying to take hold of him.
Once they were seated at their table, he waited a few moments to pick up the line of questioning again.
“You mentioned this guy has gotten away with a lot. That his lawyers always seem to clear him when he’s been charged. So, what are you going to do about it?” he questioned.
“There’s nothing else for me to do. Except do everything I can to convict him. It’s my job,” she countered with a deep sigh.
He wondered how far he should take this. She didn’t seem like the type to accept the world he lived in. What if she turned away from him? It had only been a little over a week since she’d come back into his life. He would be asking her to take on a lot. He decided on another tactic.
“Tell me again why you decided to come here to DC?” he asked.
With a look of exasperation, she gave him a sideways glance before speaking. “Really, Jaidon?”
“Humor me, baby. Just go with this for a bit.”
Taking a sip of her coffee, she was silent for a moment before answering his question. “I wanted a change. No, I needed it. The life I was leading in San Jose wasn’t for me anymore. It was beginning to change me and I didn’t like who I was becoming.”
Leaning back, he motioned for her to continue when she seemed to pause. “Who were you becoming?”
“Someone who was okay with the bad guy getting away because it served my own interests. If I had a case that allowed for the darkness to be released on the streets again without anyone there to stop it, there were times that I’d allow it.” Her eyes captured his gaze and he could practically see the disappointment she felt. “I was becoming the type of person I didn’t like anymore.”
Knowing he was getting to something important, he continued to push. “What changed?”
Her gaze shifted to his and he could tell his question had hit home. The air around her was muted and dark, colors he was used to seeing, just not when it came to Kenya.
“One night, well, let’s just say I had a wake-up call.”
Sitting up in his seat, Jaidon’s internal alarms started to go haywire. Something happened? She’d been hurt? Threatened?
“Explain,” he demanded harshly.
“Jaidon, I don’t—”
“No. You will tell me what happened to you,” he said in a clipped tone. He would not take no for an answer. There was too much ugliness in the world and he would not allow Kenya to be touched by it. What that meant for the two of them, he didn’t know, but his goal was to protect her. Even if that meant he had to protect her from himself.
“Listen, it’s no big deal. I’m fine, as you can see. But one of the guys who’d been released—by my own actions—came back for me. Somehow, he’d gotten it in his head that by doing my job, as shitty as it may have been, that I somehow welcomed his attentions. He was waiting for me in my home one night after work.”
“Son of a bitch,” he hissed.
“Yeah, well, not anymore,” she said with a steely glint in her eyes.
“Is that right?” he asked, with a slight smile.
“It was either him or me. And there was no way in hell I was going to allow that man to take from me what I wasn’t willing to give. I had no choice.”
“No, I would imagine you didn’t.” He was damn proud of her, but didn’t want to say too much and throw her off. She still had no idea who—or what—he was, and he didn’t want to confuse her.
“Jaidon, I’m sorry you had to find out that way. I’m not the same girl you knew in high school. I’ve killed a man and I’m not sorry. I’ll never be sorry. He deserved it.”
Not sure how to convey to her that he understood, in more ways than she knew, he stayed silent. Kenya sipped her coffee as she looked around the cafe, at anyone and anything, other than him. I
t dawned on him that she was worried. Concerned about what he would think.
Oh, that was precious. Damn, he loved this woman.
“Baby, look at me,” he said into the awkward silence.
As she turned her gaze to him, she tried to give him a small smile. “I just don’t want it to change how you feel about me.”
“Why would it?” he asked.
“Because I’m not innocent anymore. It could just as easily be me standing in front of that judge.”
“Did the police or District attorney’s office blame you for what happened?” he asked. They’d better not have. He’d go out to San Jose and rip out the throats of anyone who’d dared blame her for doing what had to be done.
“No. Actually, they all commended me. They were proud of me being able to defend myself. Thank you for that, by the way,” she said with a tilt of her head.
“You’re welcome. I always knew those after-school lessons I gave you would come in handy one day,” he responded. If only he’d stayed in touch with her. Now he began to blame himself for not being there when she needed him.
“Yeah, I was surprised that I remembered, but then it was like muscle memory. You saved my life and you didn’t even know it.”
“So why do you sound like you blame yourself?
Sighing deeply, she answered. “What if the person who killed that guy is the real me? What if, even after everything I’ve tried to accomplish over the years, the real me is the person who, when given a choice, wouldn’t hesitate to kill a man?”
Jaidon almost didn’t know what to say. His ability to speak had left him. “That’s not who you are.”
“How do you know?” she asked in a ragged voice.
“Because I’ve seen darkness. I’ve experienced it. Hell, I’ve been surrounded by it more than you know. That’s not you. Babe, you’re everything that’s good and right in this world. You bring light to my life. You saved me all those years ago. When everyone else saw a freak, you saw someone worthy of protection and friendship. That’s who you are. That doesn’t change, even when the darkness tries to overtake you.”