Corrupt: A Supernatural Thriller (Legend Hunters Book 1)

by JL Terra

  He couldn’t lead his enemies to the people he cared about. It was the reason Taya had taken Mei in the first place. Why she’d raised the child, instead of Ben. He hadn’t even considered giving her to an orphanage or up for adoption. Not when he’d found her, pink cheeked and squalling in a dirty alley. Discarded amongst the trash. He’d known then that this girl was a force to be reckoned with.

  And she was.

  Ben walked out of the hospital and headed down the street. Two blocks over, he hailed a cab and gave the driver an address on the south side of town. He got out and walked inside the hotel there, down the hall, and out a rear exit. Crossed the street and stood at a bus stop.

  There, he made a call on the cell phone he’d bought. After this he was going to have to toss it. Get a new one. No trace.

  He’d thought he was safe before, and they had still found him. Tied him up, drugged him. And for what? To pull up his memories—the golem’s memories. So were they trying to find it to destroy it or…did they want to control it?

  Ben wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. But he was going to have to.

  The phone continued to ring. Was she even there?

  Grant would come around in time. They were brothers. Grant didn’t understand much about Ben’s world, and what he’d learned he evidently didn’t like, so his gut reaction had been to make the people he loved safe. They had a problem over how his brother went about that, but Ben didn’t fault him for it.

  Taya knew what she was doing. Remy had a support system. Mei was with Daire.

  That left Ben to figure out who this “Teacher” was that Elaine had mentioned. And what he wanted. The man might have information on the golem he could use.

  How to sever the connection.

  If it would kill him.

  What the golem would do, now that it had no master.

  Remy finally answered the phone. “Pintero’s Pizza palace. We toss ‘em, they’re awesome.”

  “Two specials, extra mushrooms.”

  “One moment.” She hung up.

  Thirty seconds later, the phone rang. “Hey.”

  “This is a secure line.”

  “Good,” Ben said. “Are you safe?”

  “I’m at—”

  “Don’t tell me.” No matter how secure the line was, they had to be careful. He needed both her and Shadrach, which meant Remy had to stay safe otherwise the sniper would walk. Ben had promised the man that wouldn’t happen. And yeah, he couldn’t control every outcome, but it wouldn’t stop him from trying.

  “Okay.” She sighed, chastised.

  “Sorry.” Still, he couldn’t have her give anything away over the phone. “I just need an update, Rem. Everything you have on that Elaine woman.” Lucky shot. “Or Ted Tiller, or the ‘Teacher’ they mentioned.”

  “I’ve been digging.” Remy paused. “Only, this time I won’t ask you to meet me with the information. I can leave it somewhere, give you the address. Okay?”

  “Its fine, Remy.”

  “Daire got hurt. You all had to face down that thing.”

  “It’s a golem.”

  “It… really?” Keys clacked as her fingers flew over her keyboard. “Wow. But it looks like you?”

  “I don’t understand it. But I talked to it and that’s what it called itself.”

  “I can find out more. I’ve been reading the pages you sent me from Roger’s journal, but I’ll put this on the list. I’ll tie it all together,” she said. “I will. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  “I know.” A bus showed up, and Ben climbed aboard.

  The driver sniffed. “I don’t want no trouble.”

  Ben figured he looked as rough as he felt. He also smelled. “No trouble.” He moved to a seat away from the other passengers. “I want Elaine and the Teacher. And Ted Tiller.” He glanced at the older woman and the two teens on the bus with him. “Roger Stilson is out, but I need to know if he left any notes that might help us.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now tell me what you found out about the people who...” He let that hang, just in case someone overheard.

  “Not much about the ‘Teacher’. I don’t even know who he is. If he’s their leader, he buries himself under layers of security. All the houses and cars are registered under their names. Elaine pays the mortgage out of a trust on that mansion where they were holding you. I’m looking into all of it.”

  “Explains why she stayed behind to talk to the police,” Ben said. “Who is she?”

  “Graduated from Johns Hopkins. Her specialties are genetic abnormalities. She’s done a lot of work with babies, cutting-edge stuff.”

  Then she took time off to pump Ben with drugs and make him recall things he’d never lived. “Good for her.”

  “I know. Doesn’t help us figure out why they needed you.”

  “Revenge.” He said the word low under his breath, but she heard him.

  “For what you did?”

  What it did.

  Ben got off the bus. He walked two blocks south and found a car to steal from a Walmart parking lot. “The golem killed Elaine’s mother. For some reason she sees me as culpable, or at least an accessory.”

  Remy was quiet for a minute. Before he could fill the silence she said, “Looks like it’s painted mostly as a mindless creature. Does what it’s told, either by instructions…or, in some cases, a scroll placed in its mouth.”

  “I don’t think this one has a scroll.” He hadn’t seen one in his memories. “Roger had me recite words. Charlota did the same.”

  “Who?”

  “Charlota Katzova. She summoned the creature during World War Two.”

  “Why would she…”

  “She was a Jew, in Prague.”

  “Oh. I know why.” Remy sighed. “An instrument of vengeance. Created to protect Jews from threats.”

  Ben said, “Mei told me Roger couldn’t bind the golem to her because she isn’t my daughter.”

  “She isn’t?”

  Ben ignored her, processing it all. “The life is in the blood.”

  There was so much he didn’t know. That he would have to wait to figure out. But how much would the wait cost him?

  “If you think about things on a genetic…” Her voice trailed off.

  “What is it?”

  “A ping,” she said. “Ted Tiller just used his fake credit card to check into a hotel in Virginia Beach.”

  Chapter 35

  Charlottesville, VA. Sunday, 21:15hrs EDT

  Mei leaned against the wall in the hospital, right outside the room where Daire lay in a coma. Stupid man. He’d tried to protect her, and where had that gotten him? She should have known another man she cared for would end up destroyed because of her.

  Not wanting to consider again her long-held belief that she could very well be cursed, Mei pushed off the wall. She had enough problems presently without adding supposition to it. Live your life. Do your job. If she held to those things, she could keep it together. Now with her mom gone, and her not-dad off fixing his own issues, it was harder to keep those thoughts at bay.

  The golem was after her. Right now he kept his distance, biding his time until he deemed it right. She would have sworn she’d seen him out the corner of her eye a few times. Now she was just annoyed. Let him come—she still had a hand left to play.

  Or she would, as soon as Remy got here.

  The golem wanted to kill her, but all he’d achieved in this toying with her for the last several hours was to make her angry.

  That was bad. When she was angry, things never turned out well.

  Mei glanced down the hall one way, then the other. Which direction would he reveal himself next? She hadn’t eaten in hours, too wary of being in an elevator or in the stairwell, where he could pop out and touch her. Poison her with whatever had infected Daire. She wasn’t going to go out that way. Not if she could help it.

  “Mei!”

  She spun around. Cursed herself for allowing her thoughts to distract her. R
emy strode down the hall in her red Converse sneakers. That ugly man shirt and loose jeans hid the fact she was way too skinny. The woman needed some muscle mass or she was going to wilt. Tell that to Remy, though.

  Beside Remy was Grant. Mei gritted her teeth. At least he had the decency to look guilty. He’d better feel bad.

  When Remy got within six feet, she held out her hand and a chain dangled from it. “It was right where you said it was.”

  Mei took the medallion from her. “Thank you.” It had been a wild goose chase, trying to find it when she’d only half believed she’d seen her mom drop it in the parking lot in the dark.

  “What is that?”

  Mei backed up a step from Grant. It wasn’t a retreat, just a strategic maneuver. He wasn’t going to get his hands on her ticket to get her mom out of CIA custody. Assuming the golem didn’t find and kill her in the process. She lifted her chin, not hiding how she currently felt about Ben’s brother. Not her uncle. That wasn’t a relationship she was interested in. “It’s an old necklace with Hebrew writing on it.”

  Grant shot her a look. “Why do I feel like it’s way more than that, and you just don’t want me to know?”

  “Because you’re smarter than I’d have given you credit for?”

  “You misjudged me? I didn’t think you did that kind of thing.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t.” Which meant it was a purposeful slight.

  Remy glanced between them. “O-kay. So I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but we have stuff to talk about.”

  Mei stowed the medallion in her pocket. “What’s up?”

  “Ben got me access to Ted Tiller’s phone. I’m in the process of combing through everything on it, but if I get a location for wherever these people moved their base of operations to…” Her voice trailed off, and she bit her lip. “Ben’s going to need help. I don’t want him going there alone. I already had to watch them take him away from us once. I don’t want it to happen again.”

  “Ben can take care of himself,” Grant said. “He’s stubborn that way.”

  Mei wanted to punch him. “So you’re going to let him walk into a wolf den by himself. Because he’s stubborn? I thought you guys looked out for each other, or does that only work when it’s John or Nate—or you—who needs help? Not Ben.” She laced her tone with sarcasm and said, “Never Ben.”

  Grant tried to backpedal, but she held out a hand. Turned to Remy. “As soon as you know, you tell me. I’m there.” She paused to think for a second. “Actually, if you could give me a heads up before you tell him, that would be better. I’ll get there before him, so he won’t have to go in there alone.”

  “Why are you so sure you’re going to actually be able to help?” Grant shifted his shoulders. He seemed to hesitate and question everything, even the simple act of committing to a shrug. “You’ll be on your own. Those people took Ben, and that thing—”

  “The golem.” Both she and Remy said it at the same time. But no one smiled. Remy said, “You owe me a soda.”

  Mei added that to the list of things she didn’t understand about these people. She would never feel like a full part of the team. She shifted to face Grant. “I’m confident because of this.” Holding up the medallion, she said, “I’m going to get my mom back, and we’re going to help Ben. Her and I. Together.”

  “And that gives you confidence?”

  “Have you met my mom?”

  Grant just sighed.

  “Yes, that’s right. You have. When the CIA took her back into custody, because you led them right to her.”

  “She went AWOL from her mission.”

  Mei got in his face. “To save your brother. But you can’t see that, because you’re too busy trying to save yourself while your brother is revenge killed for a bunch of murders he didn’t commit.”

  Grant moved. “That’s not—”

  Remy spoke over him before Mei could retaliate. “Should I call Shadrach back? He and Malachi could help.” She paused. “I don’t want to drop the new guy in the middle of whatever this mess is, but maybe we don’t have much choice.”

  Mei shook her head. “If you can keep him out, do it. Shadrach will understand why when he sees Ben.”

  Grant said, “What do you mean?”

  “The black lines. His veins, they’re spreading. They’re up his neck now. All over his hands.”

  “Veins?” He looked shocked, as though he knew something. But he didn’t tell her what it was.

  “You didn’t see it at the park? Maybe you were too busy handing my mom over to the CIA.” Mei bit her lip hard enough it distracted her. “The golem is infecting your brother. Its life force takes from Ben and gives back. It’s an exchange, but Ben gets the raw end of the deal. Yes, it extends his life in unnatural ways.

  “Like a person could be older, but not look it?” Grant asked. “Enough to lie about their age?”

  Was that supposed to make sense to her? “It’s also poisoning him, Grant. If we don’t sever the connection between the golem and Ben before he’s too far gone, I don’t know what we’re going to be left with.” Mei paused. “It won’t be the friend, father, or brother that any of us know.”

  “He has been different lately,” Remy said. “It’s probably been getting worse for weeks.”

  “Ever since Roger realized the end was coming and sped up the timetable. Every time the golem kills, it takes away a little more of Ben’s humanity. There have been multiple kills in the last few weeks.”

  Grant gaped. “You’re talking about…”

  “Magic?” She lifted her hands. “I don’t think it is. But it’s certainly something otherworldly. It was created by a Jewish Rabbi. He was supposed to have had mystical powers. Who knows what he imbued the golem with?”

  “This is crazy talk.” Grant shook his head. “There’s no way—”

  “Get over it. Your brother needs help, and if you’ll actually come through for him, he might get to live. We all have to pull together, otherwise Ben will be lost to us.”

  Grant was still shaking his head. They didn’t have time for him to process. He could unravel it all later, on his own.

  “Whether you believe it or not, this is happening.”

  Remy nodded. “Biologically speaking, they have a kind of symbiotic relationship. One can’t exist without the other. And if that’s true, then separating them will be difficult.”

  “And painful,” Mei said. “Probably deadly.”

  Remy studied her.

  “Roger did it years ago. He…disconnected it from Charlota Katzova and tied it to Ben. He wanted to do that again, and connect it with me, but I wasn’t right. I didn’t have the right blood.” Mei sucked in a choppy breath. “I don’t know how.”

  “I need to go and…” Remy’s words trailed off, her scientist brain already spinning behind her big green eyes.

  “Figure this out, Rem.” Mei called out as she strode away. Remy waved, once, over her shoulder. It was dangerous for her to be alone, as it was for all of them, but she had Dauntless.

  Mei shifted again and faced down Grant. “I know what I’m talking about.”

  “While I’ve been left in the dark at every stage of this,” he fired back. “So when one of their people approached me, I bought their line. I knew just enough to believe them when they suggested containing Ben was the best course of action. Do you understand what that does to me? I bought what they sold me, because no one bothered to tell me that my brother had been paired with some evil thing.”

  “You’ve known about it for longer than I have. Yet you did nothing.”

  “I have not. How could I?”

  “You brother was abducted and went missing for two weeks. You didn’t wonder what it was about?”

  “We were just glad to have him back. No one talked about it. What was the point when he didn’t even remember?”

  Mei almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “You could have found out. You could have tried.”

  “Fine.” He fl
ung his hands up then let them drop to his sides. “I’m a loser who doesn’t care. You’re the only one in this family who cares about other people.”

  Mei moved closer to him and spoke low in his face. “We’re not family.” She stepped away. “Stay with Daire. Though, he’s probably going to die anyway. He actually tried to help.”

  Grant called after her down the hall. “Where are you going?”

  Mei glanced back over her shoulder and waived the medallion at him. “To fix this.”

  She pushed away all the frustration, the anger, the fear. Shoved it all into a corner of her mind. The way she’d done when Roger tied her to that bed. I won’t be helpless.

  Mei found an empty room and shut the door behind her. She pulled out the medallion, wondering if she should ask her mom’s God to help this work. He was entwined in every part of this, as she was. Maybe he had a vested interest in what that Rabbi had done. The destruction it had caused.

  Mei swiped the tear from her cheek. She held the medallion tight in her fingers and began to recite the words Roger had used to command the golem. Mei might not have been right much—always wrong—but she had been prepared. Maybe this one thing she could fix. For the first time she would be able to feel good about herself.

  A curtain rustled.

  She glanced up. Gasped. Nearly dropped the medallion as she scooted away.

  Her back hit the wall.

  The golem’s skin was clear, no trace of the black veins poisoning Ben. She lifted her chin. “You don’t get to be fine while he is destroyed.”

  She picked up where she left off. Recited the Hebrew words as though she’d been born speaking the language. Not an easy feat, but she’d studied, turned herself into knots making sure she would get it right when the time came.

  It took a step toward her.

  She chanted louder.

  It stopped. Cocked its head.

  The action cut through her. Another tear tracked its way down her cheek. This thing was going to pay for making her cry.

  “You think to command me?”

  She kept going. Nothing but the purity of complete resolution infusing her with the energy to face it down. To be vulnerable simply for the chance to help Ben.