“I guess we will find out tomorrow,” Marcus said.
“Hey, guys, it’s getting late and Adam wants us there early. I’m going to take off,” April said. We all stood and gave her a hug.
Marcus gave me a look and said, “I’m going to take off too.” One more round of hugs later and Marcus followed April out the door.
“I’m just going to stay and help Jackson clean up,” Britta said as they were leaving.
Marcus started to smile, and April hit him in the shoulder and dragged him out the door. I gave Britta a smile, and we started to get the house back in order. When the dishes were dumped in the sink and the food had been put away, she pulled me toward her and gave me a kiss.
“I love you, Jackson.”
“I love you too.” Yep, I still had all the lines.
She took my hand and led me into the bedroom. I thought about what Marcus had said and decided that this time, if we got to that point, I wouldn’t stop the momentum. I had almost died today, and Britta could have just as easily not come back. There was no harm in what we were doing, it was just simple human nature. Plus, both of us were nineteen. No one could really judge us.
She ran her hands under my shirt, pushing it up over my head. I slid it off, only to find out she had already done the same with her own. I kissed her as I fumbled with the clasp on her bra. She smiled up at me as she moved my hand away, and the lacy garment fell to the ground. A quick tug removed the workout pants I had been wearing, and Britta pushed me back onto the bed. She slid out of her pants and climbed in on top of me. Her kiss felt so good, so natural. This was the time. It felt right, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I rolled her over so I was on top and kissed her again. Then my brain shut down, and all I could do was feel, and it felt wonderful.
8
Adam
“Inspector Lapointe, thank you for joining me again. I’m sure you have grown tired of my office by now.”
“It’s just like the old days, is it not? Secret meetings, a mad rush to crush the truth before it gets out.”
“Unfortunately, this time it looks as if the truth is out already, although people are loathe to believe in it.”
“What do you mean the truth is out?” he asked with a frown.
“Let me show you something provided to me by Sarafina.” I slipped the thumb drive into the console on my desk and hit the button next to it. A section of the wall moved away, and a large flat screen TV moved out. I tried to keep the TV hidden—it lent to the old-world charm of my office, not to mention keeping up with new technology had always been a struggle for me. I had been born in a much simpler time, a time when if you wanted to see something, you had to walk there and see it in person.
The video of the undead attack on the base started to play on the screen, and I watched Jean’s face turn into a scowl.
“Who shot that video? Is there any way for us to make sure it doesn’t get out?”
“Not this time, Inspector. Sarafina has the originals, and I am sure she is just holding them until she can verify the truth. It seems after all these years that someone else has discovered the key to necromancy. What worries me is the way the Lycans attacked. That shows a level of skill that could only be obtained by using the Jar of Souls.”
“But it is safe, isn’t it?” His look verged on almost pure panic.
“I have a team en route now to verify that the Jar is safe.”
“Adam, if the Jar is out, we are in trouble, but if someone learned to use those abilities without the Jar, we could be in for even more.”
“I know. You don’t think there is any way that one of Gaston’s apprentices lived and figured out the Jar’s secrets, do you?”
“It’s possible. In truth we never knew just how many followers he had. He was persuasive enough to lure even you into wanting to work with him. Who’s to say he didn’t have secret followers throughout the order.”
“Now that is a disturbing thought.”
“We do have someone in custody who I am waiting to talk to.”
“See that you do it quickly.”
“I will. So tell me just what in the hell are we going to do while we wait for your team to confirm the Jar is safe?”
“As for that, I do have a few ideas on what we can do. Are you up for a little bit of travel?”
“To make sure that necromancy isn’t spreading, you bet.”
“Perfect. I have a few more research locations that may have been compromised.”
“I still have problems believing you actually sanctioned more study into the necromantic arts.”
“I thought we would be able to control it. It looks as if I was wrong. I had to find out if it was a viable weapon we could use against the demons, and how to fight against another Gaston.”
“You and your tales of demons. Adam, they don’t exist, or if they do, it’s in numbers so small we don’t have to worry about them. We need to focus on what is happening now.” A slow smirk quirked at the corner of his lips.
His disbelief of demons wasn’t something I was surprised about. The council had spent hundreds of years trying to hide their existence from the public. For the most part, they had been completely successful, just as I had been at suppressing necromancy. I had seen the demons firsthand centuries ago and then again in San Francisco. They had one goal, and they all worked to achieve it. They wanted this world for their own, and we had to stop them.
I understood that while the council didn’t like the idea of the Ascendancy, they saw it as my way of subverting their rule and creating a private army. In truth I had created a private army, but not for our eternal struggle to protect humanity from the Pretenders. For the most part, we could already do that. I created them to protect against an even more deadly threat—demons. We wouldn’t be able to win that war alone. We needed help, and we needed Pretender help. That was when I lost the council.
They were too concerned about keeping our lifelong enemies exactly where they were. I had been too concerned about the risk of demons to broach the subject in a way that might have garnered some traction. Both of us dug our heels in, and the rift grew until finally last year it broke. Now without the support of the council, I had more on my plate than I could handle and almost no resources to do it with.
Crimes against humans hadn’t stopped when the council pulled their people back. If anything, they had gone up, and gone up faster than we could have anticipated. My people were tired, and I had been sending them out into risky situations with little or no backup. We had acted so decisively that things had started to calm down, but we couldn’t fight the Pretenders and demons at the same time.
All of these thoughts spun through my head as the inspector scoffed at the thought of demons. How could he not believe me when we had been through so much together already? That was one of the demons’ greatest weapons—you couldn’t fight against something when no one believed it existed in the first place.
“Inspector, have I ever lied to you?”
“Ah, no . . .” I could see the confusion on his face.
“So what would make you think that when I speak of demons that I am not telling the truth?” I could hear the anger starting to creep into my voice.
“Adam, it’s just not possible. They can’t exist; they don’t exist. Even the council has said it isn’t true.”
“You forget that I used to run that very council, the council that to this day still has a set of elite warriors they send out to battle demons. Think of how many people do not believe that the gifted can turn to necromancy, or that it’s even possible. The world is a larger and stranger place than you know, my friend, and there are demons in it.”
“I guess just like with necromancy, I will have to see it to believe it.”
“That can be arranged.” I let the silence play out until it was uncomfortable. “Today, though, I have other duties for you to perform.” I handed him a sheet of paper with three other addresses on it.
The inspector took the sheet of pap
er, looked at it once, and then folded it and tucked it away. He watched me warily as a mouse watches a cat, trying to decide if it was ok to leave. I made a gesture with my hand that he should go. Just as he reached the door, I called out, “Jean, be careful. If you run into any trouble, come back and take more men with you.”
He gave me a curt nod and headed out the door. This next part wasn’t going to be fun, but I had to see if there was anything the council could do to help. I desperately needed more manpower. Already I was sending undertrained students out into the field, and it wouldn’t be long before one of them died. I’d prefer not to have their deaths added to my conscience. I already had enough deaths there to keep me up at night.
Fortunately one of the council members still spoke to me quite often. Actually, I spoke to him and he listened. After all, I had worked hard to place him back inside the organization as my mole. If nothing else, this conversation should shed some light on the state of our relationship. I hoped he hadn’t forgotten all that I knew about him and what would come to light if he ever thought to betray me. He was a crafty one all right, but I had seen it from him before. Now that he was in power, it was a good time for me to test the bonds of our relationship.
I picked up the phone and placed the call. It rang three times before a very hurried Stillman answered the phone. “What!” was all he said.
“Is that any way to greet your oldest friend?”
“Friend isn’t the word I would use to describe our relationship.”
“You’re right. It’s more of a working relationship, as in you work for me and better show me the respect I deserve.”
“Listen, Adam, I’d love to chat, but I’m kind of in the middle of a few things right now. Can this wait until later?”
“It can’t. I need something from you.”
“Oh, and what would that be, another part of my soul?”
“I’m sure you bargained that away long ago. What’s left would be worthless and tattered.”
“Always such the flatterer. Just tell me what you want.”
“I need some manpower for a few things. The Pretenders have grown somewhat aggressive since the council pulled its support from the area.”
“That is one thing I can’t do. They will never go for it, not now, not this early.”
“Damnit, Stillman! I have people dying over here, and we are outgunned. I need a few extra men just for a few days.”
“I’m sorry, Adam. There is nothing I can do for you with manpower.”
I swear I heard just the faintest hint of a smile come into his voice. He knew that if something happened to me, he would finally be free to do whatever he pleased. “Listen, we have some things going on here that will affect all of us.”
“Such as?”
And he just waited for me to respond. I was starting to get the feeling he forgot that I was in charge, that with a few calls he would be sitting in the council’s underground prison. “Such as we have Pretenders pushing their boundaries, we have a necromancer causing disturbances, and if what Jackson has told me is true, the demons are gathering power.”
“It certainly does seem as if you have your hands full. I can’t send men, but I can support you in other ways.”
“All we really need is numbers.”
“Well, if you want me to work on securing the council and its help, it will take time. If I move too quickly, I will lose them all, and we will be back to square one.”
“So you won’t be sending anyone.”
“I can’t and you know it. Adam, we have to move slowly here. In time I can bring them around, and we will need their support for what is coming.”
“If you don’t do it fast enough, we won’t be around for what the demons have in store. If you can’t send anyone, then you better work to accelerate your timetable. The council isn’t going to like what I do next.”
“What are you going to do next?”
Is it wrong that I got a certain amount of satisfaction from hanging up and leaving him twisting in the wind? I knew the call had been a long shot, but I had truly hoped he would find a way to help us. The Lycans needed to be contacted about the attacks on the fallen nests. If they were actually bold enough to be the ones doing it, there was nothing I could do. If someone was using their dead to attack the Fallen, then I had a play to make. Not only did I need allies for my war against the demons but we needed help in the short term reigning in rogue Lycans as well. Having the pack’s support would be a boon. Now what would it take for me to get it?
A knock sounded at the door, and I was surprised when a disheveled Jackson made his way into the room. “Jackson, take a seat. What can I do for you?”
He sat down, his hair still a mess from half a night of uneasy sleep. I could see that he had something on his mind, but he wasn’t sure how to say it. “It’s ok. You can tell me anything.”
His eyes looked haunted as he looked up at me. “I’ve been having these dreams.” He looked down at the ground, to the side of the room, anywhere but at me. “About when my parents were killed.”
“Before you came here, or eighteen years ago?”
“About before I came to join you. I’m sure you know that they were killed in front of me.”
“I had heard that was the case. Something to do with trafficking.”
“Yeah, if you can call being kidnapped after they killed your parents because you have magic trafficking.”
“Wait, they told you that you were taken because of your magic?”
“That is the way Mr. Stillman explained it to me.”
“Interesting,” I mumbled, not meaning for the word to ever leave my lips.
“What’s interesting?”
“Oh, nothing, just something I need to look into for later. Sometimes I am juggling so many things, it’s tough for me to see the entire picture. You were saying you had a dream about your parents’ deaths?”
“I have been.” Again he looked around the room, trying his best not to look at me. “Except at the end of these dreams instead of being knocked out and dragged away, I lay waste to everything in front of me. I kill the men who did this and I burn our house to the ground, but I don’t stop there. I go into the city and pick out all of the people who have caused our family any grief, and I do the same thing. I keep having the same dreams over and over. Different deaths, different faces. The only constant is it’s me killing them all.”
I waited until he finally looked up and met my gaze. “Jackson, with the power you have now, it’s easy to dwell on the past and what could have been done to prevent the deaths of your family. It’s normal to fantasize about taking revenge on those who hurt you now that you are stronger than them.” I could see just a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “You know why I’m not worried about these dreams at all?”
“How could you not be?”
“It’s the look on your face right now, the bags under your eyes. If you were the kind of person who could do these things, then you wouldn’t be feeling guilty about your dreams. You would be excited. The fact is these dreams are torturing you, and that lets me know that you are going to be ok.”
He looked down again before he answered. “I don’t always feel revulsion or scared; sometimes I feel powerful, and it feels good to make the people who hurt my family pay.”
“I think we have all felt that way after losing loved ones to violence. If you met the man who killed your family, it would be within your rights to challenge him. We settle those issues in a duel in our society. It’s not clean or especially moral, but it gets the job done and keeps our world a secret.
“As for killing people who have wronged you . . .” I looked at him again, deciding just how much I should tell him. It had to be enough that he knew it was ok, but that he also knew these dreams weren’t going to go away. “Jackson, you are special; the prophecy has told us as much. These dreams you are having speak strongly to your dual nature. You can be a force for good or evil. Only you get to decide which one.”
�
�I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone, but in my dreams, it gives me such a sense of fulfillment. The only person I think who I could ever bring myself to kill is the man who murdered my family, but in my dreams I’m not so sure.”
“I wonder, in your dreams do you ever see yourself, what you look like, what you have become?”
“I’ve never thought to look.”
“Do me a favor and next time you have this dream, try and steer it so you can see your reflection. Once you do, we can talk about it again. If the dreams ever become too much for you to handle, come back and see me.”
“Thank you, Adam. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I told you about my dreams. I just knew that I had to tell somebody.”
“It’s ok, Jackson, I am always here for you. Don’t forget about your friends. Marcus and April are there for you to lean on as well.”
He got up and started to leave. “Jackson, get some rest. Tomorrow—it’s going to be a big day.”
“Thank you again for listening.”
I waved him out. The gesture, I hoped, showed that it was no big deal. Now I had even more to think about before I could retire for the night. What did Jackson’s dreams mean and were they being planted there by someone? I just couldn’t be sure. I would have to keep a closer eye on him than usual. He held the fate of our people in his hands. One wrong step could lead him down that path to destruction. I held out hope that the dreams were just a sign, and I believed that his being conflicted about the killing was a good omen.
9
Inspector Lapointe
I had spent the night questioning our prisoner, and slept in slightly later than I had intended. Adam provided me with the location of the last four sites that he had our scientists working on necromancy. It still impressed me just how much he could keep from others. He had members of the Ascendancy working at five different locations to unlock the secrets of the Jar, and yet almost all of the gifted in the world would have told you necromancy didn’t exist. Hopefully the Jar was still safe at one of the remaining locations, but I had a feeling from the video I saw that it was already out of our hands.
Jar of Souls Page 11