The Mark of Cain

by A D Seeley

  “You look well,” Father Carroll said when it was finally his turn.

  “Thank you,” she said with an enthusiastic grin. “You do, too.”

  She loved how, no matter how much things changed, Father Carroll and the other priests and nuns never would. They would still wear their black gowns with the white collars. And, above their clothes, they would always have the same beautiful rosaries and wooden crosses. The priests would age, their hair becoming silver like Father Carroll’s was now, but each nun’s hair would always be hidden under what the younger kids liked to call “their funny hats,” their age only visible in the deepening of the lines in their makeup-free faces.

  “So where is this friend of yours?” he asked, looking over her head.

  Ignoring how thin Father Carroll was becoming, as well as the smell of age that was stronger than it had been when she’d come out last spring, she turned around. But the front door was closed. “He must be outside with Tracker tending to the bags….”

  “He?” Father Carroll asked, surprise opening his drooping eyes until he appeared years younger.

  She lightly pat his arm draped with the black cloth she was accustomed to. “Yes. But don’t worry. You’ll love him.”

  She pretended not to notice the worried glance between Father Carroll and Sister Kelly, the pugnacious head nun.

  The door creaked open and Tracker walked in followed closely by Inac. She hadn’t ever realized just how tall Inac was until he was standing here. He looked like a giant among them. She’d always known that he had to duck getting through her front door, but seeing him only barely clear their massive door was different.

  “Inac!” she called, waving him over. “Come here. I want you to meet some people.”

  He set down the bags and walked through the now silent sea of children gaping up at him in awe. As he walked, he scrunched up his long sleeves out of nervousness, showing his tattooed arm. That was something these kids had never seen before, or at least most of them. They were all kept so absolutely sheltered here….

  When Inac reached her, he set a possessive arm around her waist, almost daring them to say something. It was obvious that, with it, he was saying that he was hers, and she was his.

  “This is Inac Adamson, my fiancé,” she said, lifting her ring to show Father Carroll and Sister Kelly. They both looked stunned…if not a little nauseous.

  “Nice to meet you,” Inac said, offering his hand to a ghostly pale Father Carroll. Inac seemed to be gloating. He was probably just proud to be her fiancé.

  “Father? Are you all right?” Hara asked. She couldn’t help but notice that all of the priests and nuns were crossing themselves before the nuns began praying with their rosaries. Maybe Inac had been right. Maybe they couldn’t get past what his family had done.

  Father Carroll didn’t take Inac’s hand. Instead, he looked at Tracker, accusing him with his eyes. She didn’t know what was going on, but she worried that the old man was going to have a heart attack. As someone brought him a chair, she couldn’t help but notice Inac’s “I told you so” glare.

  Once Father Carroll was sitting and had taken a sip of water from a glass one of the nuns had handed him, he rearranged his silver tufts of hair and looked up at Inac.

  “What are you doing here? You aren’t welcome here.”

  Inac looked around at the frightened children and hissed, “Do you really want to do this in front of them?”

  “Don’t act as though you have a soul.” Again, everyone crossed themselves.

  “Look, I’m just here because Hara wanted me to see where she grew up after her family was killed in the fire. I don’t want anybody here to get hurt.”

  It was an odd thing to say and, for some reason, it only angered Father Carroll.

  “You don’t want anybody hurt? That is all you desire,” he said with such malice that Hara couldn’t help but inhale sharply.

  Inac didn’t get angry. Instead, he turned to Hara with eyes that screamed of his annoyance. “I should go,” he whispered to her.

  She threw her arms around him like any of these orphans would to their deceased parents if they could see them once more, pressing her cheek to his chest. “No. Please? Inac, you promised. You swore that you wouldn’t leave me!”

  He pulled her face away, holding it delicately in his hands as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

  “Baby, please don’t cry. I just…I can’t stay. Believe me, the last thing I want to do right now is leave you. But I can’t stay.”

  “Why not?” she sniffled.

  “Would you really want to stay somewhere where the people cross themselves and pray to their rosary every time you come near? It’s like they’re trying to ward off Satan.”

  “I’d stay if you were there,” she whimpered.

  He lightly chucked her under the chin and smiled, though she noticed that it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s where you’re stronger than me.” He kissed her then. A good kiss. It was him trying to give her something to get by with until she went back home to Los Angeles.

  She ignored the snickering of the children. “Please, Inac? Please stay for me?” She batted her eyelashes, giving him an expression that she hoped would make him cave.

  She saw the smile finally reach his eyes as they sparkled with both love and guilt. “Hara…that isn’t fair,” he said before giving her kiss after kiss after kiss—it was like he couldn’t stop kissing her because, once he did, then he would have to leave. With each descent of his mouth, it was concreted in her mind that she was going to win. But she didn’t want him miserable while here….

  Once Inac stopped kissing her, she turned to Father Carroll and said, “Look, I know that his ancestors did a lot of horrible things, but Inac’s different. Yes, he’s done things he’s not proud of, but that was who he was before. I’ve seen his heart and soul, and they’re beautiful. He has so much love deep inside of him. And he shows that to me. He respects me. So, if you want me in your life, you’ll have to accept all of me. And that means that you’ll have to accept Inac.”

  Father Carroll stood and shuffled to Inac, reluctantly offering his wizened, old liver-spotted hand to the much taller man. Inac looked dazed as he took it, which again, with how small Father Carroll’s large hand was in Inac’s even larger one, had her contemplating just how tall Inac really was. With the handshake, she started crying again; this time from joy.

  “Come. Let’s get you settled in your rooms before dinner,” Father Carroll said.

  “We brought boxes full of games and toys,” she said as they started walking down the long hallway that led to the living quarters. “They’re in the SUV parked outside that Inac rented.”

  “We’ll get those later as well. Sister Kelly, can you show Hara and…and…”—it was like he couldn’t say Inac’s name—“…and her fiancé to their rooms? I’m going to show Tracker which one he’ll be staying in.”

  She nodded and they split up. Hara already knew where they were going but decided to pretend like she didn’t. As they walked, she silently prayed that they would accept Inac. He just looked so sad….

  ***

  Tracker wasn’t looking forward to the interrogation he knew he was about to receive. Like any of this had anything to do with him….

  “And this is your room, Mr. Thomas,” Father Carroll said. As soon as they were both in it, he closed the door and rounded on Tracker. “Why didn’t you tell us that he’d found her?!”

  Tracker tried to play at nonchalance, shrugging. “Sampson knows. It’s his job to report to you guys, not mine.”

  “So why hasn’t he?” he asked, his eyes narrowing into fine slits. Father Carroll was peeved.

  “Because he made a deal with Inac. One he thinks we’ll win. And I happen to agree with him, so get off my back.”

  “What kind of deal? He has no authority to do so.”

  “Inac gave him that authority.”

  “Stop saying his name!” Father Carroll cried, crossing h
imself yet again.

  “You know what I’ve learned from all of this? It’s that if you show disapproval, Hara will run straight to Inac.”

  Looking slightly calmer, Father Carroll asked, “How do you mean?”

  “She overheard me and Sampson talking about how Inac was going to kill her. We were planning on how to kidnap her. You know? The contingency plan?”

  “Yes. And? She doesn’t seem to know anything about that.”

  “Well that’s because she ran to him. Asking him to protect her from crazy old us. He was gonna take her away with him, but instead made the deal. He made her forget about it to give us a chance at winning. Sampson gave in because he has faith in Hara. Just to let you know, any time somebody says something bad about Inac, she runs straight to him. They’re in love.”

  “Yes. She did seem rather fond—”

  “No,” he said, interrupting the Father. “They’re in love. He loves her too.”

  “He couldn’t possibly—”

  “He does. He didn’t have to come here. In fact, it risks his winning, as well as shows The Order where he is. He came only because she wanted him to and it was really important to her. As long as he loves her, he won’t kill her. I wouldn’t give them any reason to break up if you want her to live. Besides, he’s actually done a lot of good lately. He was the one who got Iran to become an ally of the United States.”

  “For selfish purposes only.”

  “So? Who cares if it keeps people from getting killed? He’s changed. I don’t think he realizes it yet, but he has. I even respect him now.”

  Tracker then went on to tell Father Carroll everything that had occurred since Inac had come into Hara’s life. He didn’t leave anything out. Not even about Inac bragging about how far he’d gotten with Hara sexually. During the entire story, Father Carroll just sat there, his expression grim.

  When all was said, Father Carroll stood up, saying, “Well, it sounds like we better make him feel welcome for Hara’s sake.”

  And that’s what everything always boiled down to. She might not always like it or want it, but everything They did was for her.

  Chapter Thirty

  ***

  Inac really hadn’t expected things to go the way they had gone. Especially when he’d found himself with his feelings hurt. He had to keep reminding himself that his feelings weren’t hurt, it was the character he was playing who got a pang deep down every time the priests and nuns crossed themselves and prayed around him.

  Inac’s room here in the orphanage was smaller than his closet back home. It was almost completely bare, with the only furniture being a simple twin bed set along one of the long walls and a small dresser on the other. Above the dresser was a beautifully carved wooden sculpture of Christ on the cross. Not wanting to see that all weekend, he threw one of his shirts over it.

  “Hey,” Hara’s voice said from behind him.

  He turned around, giving her his best smile despite his lowly thoughts. “Hey yourself.”

  “So, sorry about all that drama,” she said as she slowly meandered in. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

  He shrugged. “I did. I’m actually surprised they didn’t try to perform an exorcism on me.”

  “Oh that,” she said, waving it off. “That’s not until tonight after the kids have all gone to bed.” He heard her words, but it was her gaze that chased away any vestiges of unease being at the orphanage had stirred within him.

  “Is that right?” he asked, opening his arms so she would walk into them.

  “Mm-hmm,” she said, breathing out as she did just that.

  “So how far away is your room?” he asked into her hair a few breaths later.

  “Just around the corner and down a few doors. They gave me the room I grew up in.”

  “You didn’t sleep in the same wing as the other girls?” Sister Kelly might not have even glanced at him, but Hara had explained what each part of the building was used for as they’d made their way to their rooms—dropping him off first. The nun probably didn’t want Inac aware of where he could find Hara….

  “Nope. I never figured out why, but I was always treated differently than the other kids. They even made sure that I was never adopted.”

  “What makes you think that?” he asked, pulling away to unpack as she sat on his bed, smoothing the thin, quilted navy comforter as she did so, which meant that she wasn’t as at ease as she was pretending to be.

  “They never let potential parents meet me. You should’ve seen when I decided to leave here. They acted as though the outside world was so dangerous,” she said, rolling her eyes and clasping her fidgety hands in her lap. Lifting her chin, she added, “They were always too overprotective. But I’m not as fragile as I look. Someday, I hope they’ll see that.”

  “I’m sure they did today.”

  Her chin and voice dropped when she replied with a sad, “Maybe….”

  Inac watched her for a minute, trying to figure out what she was so nervous and sad about. There were so many possibilities…. Usually, he would have been able to figure it out, but just now he had his own issues to push away.

  Turning back to his job of transferring his folded clothes from his luggage to the dresser, he cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, I’m glad you weren’t ever adopted.”

  He glanced at her and saw that her brows were furrowed.

  “Why?” she asked.

  He closed the dresser drawer, done unpacking. He then turned to her as he leaned back against it.

  “Because what would the chances be that we still would have met?” he asked. “Both our roads had to happen the way they did for us to be together.”

  “I never thought about that. I guess I’m glad too, then.” She thought for a moment, the wheels turning, before she brightened and said, “However, if my family had never died in the first place, I still could have ended up working at the club.”

  But he wouldn’t have been there…. His life would be so different if he hadn’t relaxed after thinking that his obsession had come to a resolution. He couldn’t say that, though. Instead he only made a noise of agreement.

  “Whatever the case, at least we’re together,” he finally said, walking the few steps over to her. He kissed her then, using her to comfort him. He could already feel his past attempting to surface in this place surrounded with the story of his fall from grace….

  “Inac?” she asked, sounding concerned and bringing him back to the moment.

  “I’m okay.” He flashed his most dazzling smile. She obviously didn’t believe it, though, because her expression ruffled further. Instead of allowing her time to think too much on it, he held his arm out to her and said, “Come on, babe. We’ll be late for dinner.”

  She took his offered arm without saying a word, and he couldn’t help but be thankful that she knew not to question him further.

  Dinner for the adults and older children was only slightly better than the macaroni the younger kids had. It consisted of some cheap kind of darkish mystery meat in gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn. Father Carroll only had a thick beefy stew and bread, instead of the full meal the other adults partook of. Inac could tell with the first bite why the younger kids had normal food; it was because this would have been spit out within moments. Nobody else seemed to mind it much, but Inac was used to eating the best of the best, not cheap meat slathered with too much salt—his restaurants used it minimally.

  “This is interesting,” he said, loud enough for all the adults to hear. “What is it?”

  Hara smiled at him, obviously not catching the disdain in his tone. “Pork chops. They’re our cook’s specialty.”

  Inac looked down at his plate, unable to keep his lip from curling in disgust. If this was her specialty, then how bad was everything else going to taste? Maybe he should offer to take care of the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.

  “Really?” he asked, trying to appear as pleasant as possible. The food was just too damn salty for his tastes—mod
ern humans used way too much of the spice. Maybe the food wouldn’t be so bad with a pound less of the stuff. As he spooned up the horrible salt-gravy and watched it fall like a dark waterfall to his plate, Inac quietly recited, “’But his wife looked back to the city behind her, to the wealth and splendor that she loved and feared to never have again. And when she did, because of the true desires of her heart, she became a pillar of salt.’”

  “Excuse me?” asked Father Carroll.

  Inac glanced up at him, the ancient shrewd eyes challenging Inac for dominance. “Lot’s wife,” Inac explained. “She became a pillar of salt. You know, when they fled from Sodom?”

  “Yes, I’m familiar with the story. And the scripture,” he said, his frown deepening until Inac was sure it would touch his toes. “You recited it incorrectly.”

  Inac studied the priest for a moment, trying to figure him out. It wasn’t difficult. The man was a zealot. And the only way to truly get to him and the other zealots around him would be to sow doubt in their souls. He glanced at Hara. Whatever he did to play with the priest, she couldn’t notice….

  “Did I?” Inac asked, a serious expression on his face and a large grin in his mind. “I think that I know the Bible better than you could ever know it. Did you know that, just like our historical accounts, most every scriptural reference has been changed over the years until it barely resembles its original form?”

  Father Carroll’s frown deepened even further, if that was possible. Inac thought he knew why. As a member of The Order, Father Carroll would know the true history of the world and how far off it was from the history the world knew. And still, he must know that even then, what he knew was still far from accurate….

  “Do you know what one of my favorite passages is?” Inac asked, lying because he cared very little for the scripture in his mind and was only bringing it up to faze the “good” Father. “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”