by Lund, S. E.
I smile even though I feel more like crying.
"Well, it's time to go." Before he stands up to go, I turn to him, reach out and touch his arm.
"Be careful." I can’t hide the fear in my voice. "I wish you hadn't told me. I won't be able to sleep now." Then he pulls me into his arms, buries his face in my neck. I can’t help but respond, my arms slipping around him, tears in my eyes. His mouth is next to my ear.
"It should be me," he says, his voice so quiet I’m not sure if I hear him right.
He pulls back, looks at my face. Rubs my cheek with his thumb.
"It should be you what?"
He stands and leaves, stopping in the office for a few moments before leaving the apartment. I sit with my head in my hands, fighting my emotions, unable to understand what he meant. When I regain control, I rise and go to the bathroom.
On my way back, Vasily’s waiting for me by the bed. He hands me an envelope.
"What's this?"
"Boss said to give it to you after he left."
"Thanks." I switch on the lamp beside my bed and open the envelope. Inside is a small slip of paper folded in half. I spread it out.
On my hands and knees.
J.
Chapter 33
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Oscar Wilde
I WAKE TO MY CELLPHONE RINGING instead of my alarm. Four a.m. I've barely even been asleep. I grab the phone from my nightstand, my heart already thumping in alarm. The call display reads, O'Neil, Ed.
"Hello?"
Ed speaks on the other end, his voice rushed. "Sorry to call you so late, but we need you in here, right now. Something happened, and, well, you'll see when you get in."
"OK," I say, my brain barely functional. "Should I get Julien?"
"Eve, Vasily knows about this. Just come down and meet me as soon as you're ready. I'm outside waiting."
The line goes dead.
I rush around the room, dressing on the run, and then go to the bathroom where I give my teeth a hasty brush and rake a comb through my long messy hair before clipping it up in a makeshift bun. I glanced in the mirror at my face. I look tired with dark circles under my eyes. Makeup would help to make me look presentable but there's no time.
I go out to the living area to find Vasily there, his face ashen. He holds out my coat.
"What is it, Vasily?"
He shakes his head. I take my coat and shoulder bag.
"Just go. O'Neil is outside waiting for you. Now is test, Eve. I hope you pass."
"Tell me!" I say, but he shakes his head and opens the door.
I follow him down and out to the street where Ed waits in the car. I get in and watch Vasily as we drive off. He looks scared and his expression makes me terrified. My first thought is that Soren's killed Michel.
"What is it? Is it Michel?"
Ed shakes his head. "Julien. He's in custody. We caught him with a dead body and he's now a suspect in the case."
"What?" A rush of adrenaline goes through me. "That's crazy! It's Soren, Ed. I already told you. I felt him, I know it's Soren!"
"Nope," Ed says, shaking his head. "Caught him red-handed. An adept dead, head not sawed off yet though so we caught him before he was finished."
We drive in silence, me trying to figure out what Soren's doing.
"Ed, this is some kind of diversion. It's meant to keep us from focusing on Soren. I'm sure Julien didn't do it. I've touched him and I never saw anything like his involvement in the case."
"You weren't trying. You have to really look for kills, to see them. They don't just come to you unless you look."
We arrive at the Foster Building and Ed leads me inside to the elevator.
"We got a tip that a man was down by the waterfront carrying something that looked like a body. We sent an operative who was able to immobilize the suspect, who turned out to be Julien. He killed a priest who was also an adept and was carrying the body to the shore."
"But all the others were decapitated before they were dumped. This isn't the right MO. The killer – Soren – drained and decapitated and then transported them to the dump sites."
Ed leads me down the hall to a small basement observation room with a window that looks into another larger room. In the center is an old boiler emitting a warm red glow from the inferno in its interior. A hooded figure sits on a huge wooden chair while a guard shackles him and another man attaches an I.V. The chair looks like one of those old electric chairs I'd seen in movies – Old Sparky.
"This is another test, right?" I say, doubt filling me. "You want to see how gullible I am."
"No, this is real, Eve."
"What's the man doing to him?"
"That's filled with colloidal silver. If Julien tries anything, we can activate the drip and he'll be immobilized in a matter of moments."
"Will it kill him?"
Ed shakes his head. "Nope, just give him a hell of a hangover."
I can see that it's Julien despite the hood. He's wearing the same Navy Seal t-shirt and cammo pants he wore the first day in the warehouse. Silver chains circle his ankles and silver clamps hold his arms in place on the wide armrests. I watch from the shadows, my palms sweaty, my pulse elevated.
"I need you to read him," Ed says. "Witness his kills. I want you to really explore his memories to see if he was involved in these latest murders. This last one in particular. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he's not being very cooperative. If he were innocent I expect he'd be all too happy to explain what he was doing at the waterfront with a dead body."
"He's been compelled," I say, my stomach already tightening in anticipation. "Just like you've been. Both of you. Don't you see, Ed? Soren did this. He set all this up."
"Just give it a try," Ed says as if he doesn't hear me. "Besides, you're all we have. We're under higher security due to a threat against Adepts and there's no one who can come it at the last moment and assist. It's you or nothing."
While they prepare Julien, I sit on a chair and try to regain control over my rapidly beating heart. After a few deep breaths, I'm starting to feel a bit better, although my stomach is still tense.
"Are you ready?" Ed lays a hand on my shoulder as if giving me strength. "I wouldn't ask you to do this under normal circumstances. Besides the fact you know him, we don't normally use Adepts on cases for the first six months while they train, but we have no other options."
"There isn't anyone else you can use?"
"Nope. You're it. If he's guilty," Ed says, "he'll try to intimidate you, threaten you, try to play with your mind when you read him, convince you to lie. You don't have to take long – just see if you can find one unsanctioned kill that's part of this case, even if it isn't this current murder. Catch him killing any one of them. That's all we need to start the process. You can find more and document them later."
"How will I know if they're unsanctioned?"
"You'll know. When a kill is sanctioned, there's documents to sign and an inspection of the corpse to make sure the kill was clean."
I nod and my hands shake just a bit. "I think you're making a mistake."
"If Terri thinks you're up to it," Ed says, "you're up to it. She's the expert."
I glance at the I.V. "Is that really necessary? He's not going to hurt me."
"It is necessary. It acts in seconds. One move to hurt you and he'll be immobilized. He knows there's no escape for him."
Ed passes me a clipboard. On the top is a bold title 'Oath of Office'.
"You'll have to read this out loud and I'll witness. Once you read it, you'll be bound to it. You have to agree to faithfully report what you see when you witness his kills, revealing those that are unsanctioned so we can begin prosecution. If you don't, you'll be charged with treason and put in prison for an undetermined time – or executed if the treason is considered high."
"Why would I lie?"
"People have chosen sides. Even some humans have sided with vampires if you can
believe it. They want vampires to be rulers." He shakes his head. "It's like a drug with them. They see vampires as god-like and want something to worship."
"People worship vampires?"
"Believe it. They have an underground cult following."
I swallow hard and read the oath of office out loud, my throat constricting so much that I can barely speak. I sign, indicating that I understand the penalties for lying. I try to smile and hand it back to him. He witnesses the form.
"Might as well jump right in," he says. "You can talk while you read him. We'll record everything and you can add to it later."
Ed goes into the other room and nods to the guard, who removes the earphones and hood.
"He has color in his cheeks," I say to Ed when he returns.
"Recently fed on whole human blood and a whole human's worth. There wasn't time for it to dissipate. Takes a few hours."
As I wait for guards to finish removing the hood and earphones, sadness fills me. Soren has manipulated everyone and is probably now laughing.
Julien sits behind a heavy oak table, a two-way mirror on the wall across from him, a video camera in a corner of the ceiling taping everything. Dried blood speckles his chin, marring the otherwise perfect strong jaw and symmetrical features. Finally, Ed escorts me into the room and Julien turns to face me.
"You must be joking." He turns away as if in disgust then glares at Ed. "You can't use her as my witness for God's sake. She's never done one case. Besides, we're intimate. That breaks the ethics rules. Can't Western send someone?"
My cheeks burn when he mentions our intimacy.
Ed turns to me and shakes his head. "Suspects don't get to choose their interrogators."
"Interrogator my ass." Julien glances away. "She's nothing more than a girl."
Ed shrugs. "This girl could have killed Michel in the dojo if she'd had a stake. The depth of her gift is all that matters. You said yourself that hers is very deep despite her age."
Julien says nothing, turning away as if he can't bear to even look at me. I focus on the notes Ed has given me. Before administering the test, I'm required to take a verbal statement from Julien, to get him to confess.
"Tell me what happened," I say, trying to keep my voice neutral. "What were you doing with the body?"
"Oh, that?" he says, his eyes narrowing. "Just a little lunch." He lunges forward just enough to make the cuffs jangle on his ankles. I flinch, hurt that he's treating me like this. The guard steps forward, ready to activate the hypodermic, but Ed holds his hand up. "Don't give the bastard what he wants." The guard backs off.
Julien smiles, but his eyes gave lie to it.
"How old are you, Eve? Twenty? Are they so desperate for talent that they're sending neophytes in to do adult work now?"
"I'm old enough." I frown. He knows how old I am. Why is he acting like this? Is this a performance? Did Soren compel him to act this way?
Ed speaks over the intercom. "You know how old she is."
"How many of us will you destroy during your career," he says and leans forward, "because you will destroy us. Even if you don't put the stake in them yourself, their deaths will be on your hands. You'll have taken away the gift of immortality from vampires with decades, centuries, maybe even millennia of experience. That's an awful burden, Eve. It will weigh on your conscience." He sits back, his eyes on me. “Superior beings. You’ll help destroy them.”
I shrug, not having really had time to think about it.
"I thought you supported the Council."
"Obviously, you didn’t know me as well as you thought."
I say nothing, my hands gripping the chair's armrests. His words make me warm, my face flushing in embarrassment. He's right. I obviously didn’t know him. I thought he was honorable. He's really just a predator. I fight to regain control, biting the inside of my cheek until I taste blood, using the pain to focus.
I take in a deep breath and try to shift back to him.
"Tell me about the kills. Why did you kill the priest?"
"Hypocrisy."
"What do you mean?"
After a moment, he shrugs. "This is a waste of time." He turns away. "I'm guilty. Just read me and get it over with."
I write his words down in my notes.
"I need you to confess to one kill publicly if you want your sentence reduced."
"I killed them all. How's that?"
"No, I need one kill detailed. A confession."
"Fuck the confession. I'm no longer Catholic and you're not a priest." He turns and faces me directly. "Come on, executioner. Read me and get this farce over with. I'm bored."
"Why are you being so nasty to me?"
"That's the wrong question," he says. "You should ask why was I so nice to you before?"
I shake my head, not knowing what he means. Was his friendly demeanor when we first met just an act?
He leans closer.
"I'll tell you something," he says, his voice conspiratorial. "Don't ever think that any vampire is your friend, Eve. None of us. The truth is, no matter how we act, or how nice we behave, we want to kill you, all of you. We're nasty motherfuckers. We are psychopaths. All of us. That’s why we’ll win. That’s why Dominion is inevitable."
I take in a deep breath and close my file, my mind registering shock, my body numb. I approach him, and when I do, the guard moves closer, holding out the mechanism in case Julien makes a threatening move. I look into Julien's eyes before I touch him, afraid now of what I'll see in his mind. He smiles as if he relishes the prospect of my touch, but for just a second, his lips betray him and his smile falters.
I touch the bare skin above his wrist on the arm not attached to the IV, and for a moment, all I feel is cool flesh. Then, a falling sensation overtakes me and the rest of the world, the room, my own flesh, disappears into the distance. I see his recent kills – dozens, one after the other as if he's assembled them on purpose just to show me how many. In the few seconds that I'm able to focus on each one, I know they're all either pardoned or sanctioned kills, done in the service of the Council. There are witnesses, there are documents signed and stamped. Inspections completed. Even the latest kill – the young priest – was Council-approved. A dour faced human stamped a letter. The beheading hadn't happened yet, but was meant to mimic the real killer.
Julien is a killer and enjoys each one, relishing in his victim's blood. But he isn't the killer. He isn't the River Man.
When I try to pull away to proclaim his innocence of the charges against him, to attest that his kills are all just, he twists his hand and is able to grasp mine before the guard can react. In those few seconds before the guard depresses the switch to trigger the flow of liquid silver, Julien pleads with me in his mind.
Find me guilty.
I hear it in my mind, just a whisper, but his voice is pleading.
I fight against such an idea. He is a killer, a contract killer working for the Council, an infiltrator as he said to me in Virginia. His kills are all sanctioned. He wants me to find him guilty but I don’t know why.
The guard steps forward and I pull myself momentarily out of contact with Julien's mind.
"Don't!" I shout as he starts to depress the lever to releases the flow of the colloidal silver. "I'm fine." The guard steps back and glances at Ed, who nods.
Then Julien's other memories overwhelm me, moments and times beyond his kills, carnal memories of his lust for the women he's loved, their bodies entwined. I try to catch my breath, sorting through the darkness of his mind as he chases down his targets and takes them out, one by one and the erotic scenes I happen on. When he feeds, I feel his bloodlust as if it's my own, the beating of the victim's heart so loud in his head, the warmth of the victim's body against his coldness, the coppery taste of blood acting like an aphrodisiac. Soon, sex and death blended into one mélange until I can't separate them and my mind rebels.
Julien, a warrior who sees the horror of the coming war between vampires and humans and refuses to acc
ept it, who changed allegiance and now kills to ensure the continued existence of the Council. Who takes life with pleasure, without fear or care, feeding on his victims, feasting on them. Every kill justified and in service of the greater good. He wants me to trust him. To lie. I haven't found a reason for it; he presents no evidence to explain it when our minds touch, and so I have to decide and fast.
I breathe in a ragged breath. "He's guilty."
Finally, the guard pries Julien's fingers away from mine and I step back, tripping into Ed who rushes in to help me. I almost collapse as my own senses rush back to fill the gap when Julien and I part minds. Overwhelmed, I bend over, head between my knees, on the verge of passing out. Ed sits me down and then strikes Julien across the face with so much force that I can hear bone breaking.
"Son of a fucking bitch," he shouts and bends over at the waist, rubbing his knuckles, which are stained with blood. "I forgot how indestructible you bloodsuckers are."
Julien turns his face back, and I notice there's blood on his lips. "Is that your blood or mine?" He licks the corners of his mouth. "Oh, it's yours," he says and smiles. "Thanks for the snack."
Ed makes a fist again. "I'm going to enjoy pulling the plug on you, you traitorous sonofabitch. You had us all sucked in. What a expert liar you are."
"My pleasure, but really," Julien says and the menace in his voice sends a chill down my spine, "you're being too kind."
I pick up my notebook and pen from where they fell, my hands still shaking as I try to grasp what I've just done. I've broken my oath of office within moments of taking it. I've lied about Julien's innocence – at his request, but it's still a lie. I search his face for something, but he won't look at me. His eyes are fixed on Ed.
"The truth is," Julien says, his voice mocking. "You were too accepting of what I said. You wanted to crack the case so badly you ignored those little red flags, that nagging doubt you felt at me being so willing to help in Michel's place."
"Let that be a lesson to you," Ed says and points to me. "It takes a while to become a battle-hardened skeptic. Just remember to keep your guard up. Guys like him," he says and gestures towards Julien, "are adept at assessing a mortal's weaknesses and then exploiting them to get what they want. Pure psychopaths."
