The Awakening (The Judas Curse Book 1)

by Angella Graff

  “One of them?” Ben asked in a sharp tone.

  “She’s an active vessel,” Greg said softly. “I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, and there’s not a lot I can do to convince you, but I’m just asking you to humor me and listen to what I have to say at my office.”

  Ben hesitated. Now that he’d spoken to the detective, now that someone had used logic and reason, he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue on the path he was on. “Look, Greg, I’m sure you have your reasons for believing what you do but-”

  “I’m asking for a few minutes and I will prove to you I’m telling the truth. Yes, there can be perfectly scientific, reasonable answers for all of this. In fact, I have proof of that in the form of genetics and DNA evidence. However, it’s not as simple as the mind tricking the body into thinking it has Christ’s wounds.” Greg’s voice was desperate, pleading, and Ben decided it couldn’t hurt to accompany the doctor.

  “Fine,” he said and pounded back the last of his drink. “I’m agreeing on the terms that if I’m not convinced, you guys are on your own. I plan to work with Detective Horvath on this case no matter what I see, but if you can’t convince me, I’m washing my hands of your madness.”

  “Deal,” Greg said, and the finality in Greg’s voice gave Ben a slight chill.

  They walked out to the parking lot and Greg got into the driver’s seat. His office was a fair distance from the hotel, back over the bridge to the main land, and by the time they pulled into the hospital parking lot, the liquor in Ben’s system had run out of power and he was sober and his head was aching.

  “Evening,” Greg said to the security guards as he and Ben walked through the front doors. Greg swiped his badge at the elevator doors and they opened for him. It was a short ride up to his office, and as they passed the patient hallways, Ben felt a little chill.

  He knew the John Doe wasn’t there anymore, but it didn’t erase the memory of touching that man, and the things that happened after. Ben knew he’d probably never be sure what happened to him, and that, deep down, bothered him.

  Greg’s office was locked and dark, and when he flipped the switch, soft yellow lamps flared to life. It was soothing, which Ben found fitting for the office of a neurologist. This was more of a patient office with a front desk, a waiting room and a few areas where Greg could do patient consults.

  They bypassed all of that, however, at Greg’s lead, and eventually went into the very back, where Greg’s windowless office sat. Ben found it a bit bizarre to have his office in the very back, cramped and quiet, but he didn’t question it.

  “Please shut the door,” Greg said as Ben followed the doctor inside.

  Ben complied and shrugged his coat off. The office was kept at a near sweltering temperature, and he was immediately sweating. “Why is it so hot in here?”

  “I tell people it’s to save power,” Greg said as he rummaged through his desk for something. “However, it’s because the portal responds better to a certain air temperature.”

  “Jesus,” Ben muttered.

  “Not in this room,” Greg said with a wry grin. He had a small bottle of something clenched in his hand, and he screwed the top off. “Now, this might freak you out a little, and for that I apologize. Asclepius already knows about you, so don’t think he’s got some sort of awesome power to read your mind or your past. We’ve had many a discussion about you.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Ben demanded.

  Greg cleared his throat and took a swig of whatever was in the bottle. He grimaced and put the bottle back in the desk drawer. “Ben, I’m about to go unconscious and when I sit up, the Greek god, Asclepius is going to be inside of my body.” Greg’s voice started to slur a bit. “I’ll explain the logistics of it, if he doesn’t, when I wake up.”

  Walking around the desk, Greg stumbled a bit as he approached the bookshelf. His eyes were drooping now, his gestures a little sloppy. He felt around the underside of the shelf and suddenly there was a popping sound, a lot like a wine cork being popped for the first time, and the shelf slid to the side.

  Greg gave it a shove and beyond the shelf, through a small doorway, was a very black room. Tiny specks of light, like flickering candles, lay beyond, but they weren’t powerful enough to illuminate what was in the room. Greg took a step inside and flipped a switch.

  Standing in the doorway, but afraid to step in, Greg saw several small lamps flare to life, bathing the room in a very yellow glow. The walls inside were stone, and images were painted in a sort of white, chalky substance. There was an altar in the back, a table covered in a bright, gold cloth and a figure sat atop, surrounded by small tea-light candles.

  Greg looked back at Ben, his eyes practically closed, and then he walked to the altar. He pushed a couple of the burning candles in front of the statue and then fell to his knees. He kept himself steady with one hand on the altar table, and slowly, he sank all the way to the floor.

  “Greg?” Ben called out.

  Greg’s hand fluttered up for a moment, and then dropped, heavy, at his side. Ben started to panic. He wasn’t sure what Ben had taken, but whatever it was, it wasn’t water. His chest rose and fell, but his breathing became hitched and Ben realized that Greg was probably dying.

  Rushing into the room, Ben fell to his knees, his hand searching for Greg’s pulse in his neck. It took him a moment, but he found it, too-slow but there, beating a rhythm against Greg’s feverish skin.

  Greg’s breathing wasn’t stopping, but it was impossibly slow, and his skin had turned a dangerous pale. Ben fumbled for his phone, preparing to call 911 when a hand suddenly closed over his wrist, so tight that Ben cried out and dropped the phone onto the floor.

  Ben looked down and saw Greg’s eyes open, wide and staring, his skin no longer pale, and his breathing rapid. Ben tried to pull away, but Greg had ahold of him tight, as he sat up and stared Ben in the eyes.

  “Don’t do that,” Greg said, his voice suddenly lower, and the accent stranger. “No police are necessary.”

  “Greg… are you okay?”

  Greg smiled and gave a rather chilling chuckle, shaking his head and finally releasing Ben’s wrist. “Did he think he was being funny, having me come down here without telling you what he was about to do?”

  Ben involuntarily backed up as Greg’s eyes suddenly flashed. Exactly like Ben had seen in the hospital the night before. “What the hell is going on?”

  “You look absolutely petrified,” Greg said and he stood up, stretching his arms upwards, his back arcing deeply. “I’m not going to kill you, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

  “Good to know,” Ben heard himself say, though his responses for the moment were almost completely involuntary. He stood up, taking another couple of steps away from Greg. His hand reached to his waist, feeling his gun, but he didn’t draw it.

  “That would only kill Greg,” the doctor said as he walked a slow circle around the room. He looked at the candles lining the floors with mild interest, and then turned his attention back to Ben. “It would be a shame for you to kill my vessel, he’s a good man, and a better doctor.”

  “So you’re…you’re Asclepius?” Ben stammered, not quite believing it, but still having no idea what was going on.

  He gave a little bow, his grin wry and cheeky, and as he righted, he winked at Ben. “You don’t believe me.”

  “No,” Ben answered honestly.

  “Greg warned me you wouldn’t be interested in the truth, and that’s fine. The fewer people who know about us, the better. The more attention we get, the more people will start to notice that some of you humans are different.”

  “Like my sister?” Ben asked, feeling braver now that the creature before him in Greg’s body didn’t seem so dangerous.

  Asclepius’s eyes narrowed. “He warned you, did he?”

  “He said she was in danger,” Ben replied with a shrug. He didn’t realize he’d still been backing up until he hit the wall with his elbow. Ben forced himself to sta
y still, crossing his arms and keeping eye contact with the supposed god. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  Asclepius threw his head back and laughed. “As though you would have a choice. You’re a strong man, Ben, but you’re just a man, and you can’t touch our world. If they want your sister, they’ll take her.”

  “They?”

  “The others, the ones who took that man, Judas, who is human and yet possesses powers from the ancient ones. They’ve taken him, and you’ll be lucky to get him back in one piece.”

  “Do you know where he is?” Ben asked quickly, hoping he might be able to get some answers out of this thing, whatever he was.

  Asclepius looked at Ben, his face a mask of boredom. Eventually, he shrugged and shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. My list of contacts is frightfully short. I’m not exactly favored among my kind, those of us left, anyway. They’re not very keen on the idea of having to borrow the bodies of unconscious humans to have a drink or a fuck.”

  Ben grimaced. “Great. So you can’t help me.”

  “I’ve gotten you a contact, and that should be enough.”

  “A contact?”

  “Stella Horvath,” Asclepius said with a smile, spreading his arms out. “You see, we may not be able to touch you, but we can manipulate you. That old satire of a devil and an angel on your shoulder pulling you in different directions? Not so far off from what we do. I’ve pushed her along your way, and I believe she’ll help you find that missing demi-god.”

  “Is she one of you?” Ben asked suddenly, remembering what Greg had said. “Is she a… a vessel, or whatever?”

  Asclepius smiled, but didn’t respond. He pushed past Ben, suddenly, walking into the office. There was a small, locked cabinet in the back of the room, and with a small tap on the top, the cabinet popped open. Reaching in, he pulled out a rather large, glass bottle filled with a reddish brown liquid.

  Pouring himself a drink, the self-proclaimed Greek god, sat down behind Greg’s desk, kicked his feet up and smiled at Ben, who was still standing in the doorway of the altar room, looking very confused.

  “I’m going to be in here a while,” Asclepius said, waving his hand up and down his body, “you may as well have a seat.”

  Ben slowly walked over to the nearest chair, sitting on the edge, completely unable to relax. “So… so this is what you wanted to show me, then? You drinking brandy and making your eyes glow?”

  “I forgot human eyes did that when we’re inside,” Asclepius said, cocking his head to the side. “I should try and remember that more often.”

  “What do you do when you’re… er… inside Greg’s body?”

  “That depends,” he said with a shrug and tipped the contents of the glass down his throat in one, smooth swallow. “If I’m in the body for my own purposes, it’s usually to have sex, drink liquor and taste food. Often, though, I’m here for Greg. When he’s working on a patient that requires more than he’s capable of giving, I take over.”

  “I see,” Ben said slowly, crossing his arms.

  “Look, Ben, I’m not here to frighten you, or even convince you that what you’re seeing is real. In fact, it’s better that way. It’s better you think that Greg is just some poor schizophrenic, genius doctor who has no idea that he’s transforming into this every so often. The more you believe, the more vulnerable you’ll be come, especially considering your background.”

  “My background?”

  “Your god-sire, if you will, though I’ve always found that term to be absolutely ridiculous.”

  “So who might that be?” Ben asked.

  Asclepius grinned again, in a way that told Ben there would be no answer. “Can you drive, Ben?”

  Ben quirked an eyebrow. “Uh, yes. Why?”

  Suddenly keys came flying at Ben’s face, and he caught them just before they made contact. Asclepius was on his feet and standing in the doorway at a speed Ben hadn’t been able to see. “I’m hungry, let’s go out.”

  Twenty-nine

  “So… my brother hasn’t punched you or threatened to, has he?” Abby asked a few hours after Greg and Ben had gone.

  Mark and Abby had eaten dinner, and were now sitting in front of an overly-priced in-room movie on the bed, each with a glass of wine. They had avoided any topic involving their current situation, including the stress Ben was putting on everyone to just let the entire thing go.

  He looked over at Abby for a moment before he answered her. “He hasn’t threatened to punch me, no,” he said with a slight chuckle. “He has threatened my person should anything happen to you, but that’s to be expected.”

  “He’s being an ass,” she said, gulping down her wine. Abby still hadn’t spoken a word to Ben since their argument in the early afternoon, and it became clear to Mark now that she wasn’t any less angry now that time had passed. “No one asked him to come here to help.”

  “That’s not strictly true,” Mark said slowly. “Greg asked him to come here, and after he got here, I asked him to stay and help.”

  Abby’s eyes widened. “Why? Why would you ask the pompous detective, who doesn’t believe a word you’re saying, to help you?”

  “Because we may need him,” Mark said with a shrug. “Right now we’ve gotten nowhere in our search for Yehuda, Greg has a contact that knows nothing, and two detectives are likely interested in arresting the both of us for kidnapping, not to mention for breaking in to a hospital. We could use your brother on our side.”

  “What makes you think he’s not just going to turn you in and drag me back to San Fran?” Abby spat.

  “Trust,” Mark said simply. He refilled her wine, from what was left of the second bottle the hotel had provided them as a check-in gift. “I trust that he’s not going to… what’s that phrase people use, throw us under the bus?”

  “Yeah,” Abby said with a slight laugh.

  “I trust he’s not going to throw us under the bus. I can’t guarantee it, but he’s your brother and above all else, he loves you. Besides, Abby, I’m not asking him to believe me, I’m just asking him to help me.”

  “So how are we going to find Yehuda, then?” she asked after taking a few sips. “I mean, we have no leads, that Greg guy is weird and pretty much no help, and my brother can’t exactly call in favors to help a couple of suspects.”

  “What I could really use is access to information. Obviously Greg has contacts to those beings, whatever they are. They might have heard something about who took Yehuda,” Mark said with a shrug.

  “Do you really think Greg is a… whatever? Greek god?”

  “I’ve always hesitated in using the term god or gods, but frankly Abby, you’re asking a person who has been walking the earth for two-thousand years. With that in mind, yes, I do believe Greg is a ‘whatever.’ If they go by Greek gods, so be it. Greg is human, but he’s got part of something else in him, too. It was with us today, for a brief moment, when we were sitting around talking with your brother. It was suddenly inside of him, I could see it, like he suddenly flashed to life, and then he spoke, and was gone.”

  “Really?” Abby asked with wide eyes. “I didn’t notice anything different.”

  “I suspected not,” Mark said with a shrug. He finished his own wine, his head a bit fuzzy, but in with everything going on, that was a good thing. “I don’t really know how powerful they are, or how much influence they have on humans, but they’re definitely there.”

  Abby stood up off the bed and went to the window. “So are they everywhere? I mean, how many people have them? How many people are them?”

  Mark walked up behind her, gazing down at the parking lot where people were milling about after their luxurious dinner at the resort. “I think it would be hard to say. They’re good at cloaking themselves, and from what Greg was saying, they need an unconscious body. It’s likely why they took those people at the hospital, the ones from your brother’s case.”

  “Do you think one of them took Yehuda?” Abby asked, turning her head to lo
ok at Mark.

  Mark shook his head. “I don’t think they can, not us. But I’m starting to think they’re responsible for his disappearance.”

  Suddenly, the door to their suite flew open, and a rather inebriated Greg waltzed through. He had an open bottle of wine in one hand, and half of a massive chocolate chip cookie in the other. He was wearing loose-fitting work-out bottoms and a stretched-out grey jersey sweater that hung nearly to his knees. His hair was a mess, his face pink from the alcohol, and behind him trailed a frazzled Ben.

  “Evening you two. Are we interrupting any sort of sexual activity?” Greg asked, and took a long pull from the wine bottle.

  Mark frowned at Ben, who was standing behind Greg, arms crossed, head shaking. “Er, no, we were just talking.”

  “That’s a bit dull, don’t you think? Huge hotel suite, copious amounts of sexual tension hanging in the air, the fuddy duddies out for the evening,” he said, waving the wine bottle between himself and Ben. “No sex? Not even a little?”

  “Er… no,” Mark replied with a deep frown. “What’s going on?” Mark looked at Ben, and then again back at Greg. It took him a moment, but eventually he noticed it, the light, shining out that no human would be able to see, but Mark could. “Ah,” he eventually said.

  “Well done, Saint Mark. My name is Asclepius.” He walked over, dropping the cookie on the counter and extended a crumb-covered hand at Mark.

  “I’m not Saint Mark,” Mark replied, flustered, but taking the extended hand anyway. “And it’s nice to meet you, Asclepius.”

  Asclepius threw a little wink Abby’s way, while she stood at the window, looking a mixture of horrified and curious. He dropped onto the plush hotel room sofa and set the nearly empty bottle of wine on the floor. “You can call me Greg, if that makes things easier, though believe me, I’m not him. I never really bothered to come up with a nickname. Never really seemed a point, seeing as I was never really in this body to socialize. I mean, a quick one-night stand, one doesn’t really need to exchange names, do they? Besides, I’ve always preferred my name. Humans gave it to me, we have no need for names when we’re not attached to Earth, but it grew on me.”