by Stacy Gail
“Oh-kay, that’s officially enough.” Keeping a well-trained eye on his guest, Gideon pushed to his feet. “It’s a shame your childhood sucked as much as it did, and I swear, you have my sympathies. But the big bag of blame you’re toting around should be placed on your old man’s doorstep, not my father’s. And no offense, but I really do have better—not to mention less-crazy—things to do than sit here and debate the possible existence of mythical beings—”
“They’re not mythical. I know that, and so do you.”
“I know you need help, and I can understand that better than most. I know some good people in the field who can help you work through the traumas you’ve suf—”
“Shut up.” The sudden fury that twisted Vargas’s peaceful face was nothing short of incendiary as he too rocketed to his feet, whipping his coat off as he went. “Don’t you pretend I’m insane when I know you saw that woman, that—that thing take the fire into herself.” There was a riot police-grade stun gun in his hand and something that looked like an IED strapped to his chest. “I know you saw the abomination. I know, because I saw you as I rained the fire down on her in the hope of burning her to death.”
And with that, Vargas aimed the stun gun at Gideon’s chest and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Sixteen
Through the glass, Sara caught a glimpse of Father Vargas’s head snapping in her direction a scant second before she threw the French doors open, and his reaction confirmed that he could sense her as easily as she did him. The savage violence that made her finger twitch on the trigger of the semi-automatic pistol she’d leveled at Vargas was mirrored in a bared-teeth smile that the Joker would have been proud of.
No doubt about it. They were unnatural-born enemies.
The acrid whiff of ozone curdled the air even as thousands of volts of electricity flowing through the stun gun’s wires knocked Gideon off his feet. It took every ounce of strength Sara possessed to not run to him, instead keeping her gaze laser-locked on the man who had ceased being a priest somewhere along the way and was now nothing more than a gasoline bomb with legs.
“Lose the weapon, or he becomes nothing more than a pile of ash.” The red flash in the depths of Vargas’s eyes was back, stronger than ever. He curled his free hand around what looked to be the bomb’s detonator pin while his grin slid another inch into the realm of crazy. “As you can see, I prepared this just for you, Sara Savitch.”
“How thoughtful.” She calculated his distance from Gideon and cursed a silent blue streak before she slid the gun’s safety in place and dropped it. A gasoline bomb was one thing they hadn’t counted on. “There’s just one problem, Father. With that type of bomb design, the only person you’re guaranteed of killing is you, not us.”
“I’m not worried.”
She stared at the IED strapped to his waist. “I find that surprising.”
“Even though you are an abomination, I still have faith in your connection with the son of Mandeville.” He kicked Gideon in the ankle as if he were nothing more than road kill. “When I saw how cozy you two were earlier, I realized putting him in danger was the perfect way to trap you. Once I detonate my surprise package, I know you’ll suck up the flames before they can damage him. Of course you’ll inadvertently save me as well, but in doing so you’ll endanger yourself, won’t you? The way I understand it, if you absorb any more fire in your weakened condition, you’ll die. Isn’t that right?”
“I was just a little girl when your father passed away,” she said, hoping to distract him from her obvious Achilles’ heel. “I had nothing to do with that event. Why target me now?”
“I have been tasked with the holy mission of wiping your kind off the face of the earth.” With his face filled with an incandescent hatred, it was hard for Sara to believe she had ever fallen for his serene façade. “You, your father...all of you. I was told I was left alive as a child for a reason. I’d been chosen to bear witness to the continued existence of the Nephilim for the sole purpose of ending you, and I won’t stop until every last one of you is gone.”
“You were told?” She slid a foot sideways, trying to position herself more to his flank. If she could just get within kicking distance... “I see. Who told you? God?”
His eyes glittered ominously. “What, do you think I’m crazy?”
Bingo. “I’m trying not to judge.”
“I am nothing more than a humble tool to whom God would never speak. Instead He sent me an emissary who explained all that I had witnessed as a child. He then tested my strength to see if I could be used as a weapon against you and your kind. With every test I passed, I was brought another step closer to you. This moment is my reward.”
“You’re talking about the transplant patients, aren’t you?” A cold and terrible horror gripped her as she saw the hideous simplicity of the plan. Her father’s gut instinct had been right on target. “They were your so-called tests. I’m curious—how did you find them?”
“You’d be surprised how the power of the clergy opens doors that are shut for others. There’s already a program in place within my church that mediates relations between families who have donated the organs of loved ones and the recipients. I had been keeping an eye on Noah Mandeville, because at the time I’d believed he was one of the chosen people protected by the sons of God. I’d even gone so far as to request a transfer to Dallas so that I could be closer to him. When he became ill I actually prayed for him, can you imagine? Then he received his second chance at life, and that’s when God sent His emissary to me. That’s where I began my journey.”
“And your first step in that journey was to sell your soul.” Which explained the flash of red deep within Father Vargas’s eyes. She’d have to make a special note that a bartered soul still held the telltale sign of demonic taint...if she could get out of this without going up in a puff of smoke. “You and your emissary put your heads together and realized Noah was the one path that could lead you to the person who saved him fifteen years ago—my father. Right?”
Vargas nodded. “I knew who Mandeville was, but I didn’t know the name of the abomination who saved him. The only solution was to make that abomination come to me. To do that, I had to tailor-make a threat big enough that would require this hellish being’s services once again, as well as make me—a local specialist in ancient religions—an invaluable asset to the official investigation.”
Sara couldn’t help but be impressed with the priest’s forethought. “Well played, Father Vargas. You even made the FBI dance to your tune.”
Vargas actually smiled. “One does one’s humble best.”
“Too bad your best included killing five innocent people who had just been given a new lease on life.”
For the first time the hint of red in his eyes flickered, and she noted an unpleasant sheen of sweat beading his brow. “Their sacrifice in this war against your kind will give them all the kingdom of heaven.”
“I’m thinking they probably would have preferred several decades more of life before getting that whole kingdom thing.”
Vargas’s jolt of shock at Gideon’s crystal-clear voice was so comical Sara almost laughed. The real satisfaction, though, came when he looked down at Gideon only to find a Beretta M9 staring back at him.
“Just so you know,” Gideon went on conversationally from his position on the floor, “during field training I consistently earned the highest score in marksmanship, so do us all a favor, Father Psycho. Don’t twitch.”
Vargas couldn’t seem to stop goggling. “What are you doing with a gun? You’re a doctor.”
“And you’re wearing a collar and a bomb. We all have our contradictions.”
That didn’t seem to penetrate. “I don’t understand. You should be unconscious. That’s how it worked with all the others...”
“Latex-backed body armor is standard issue at Lynchpin. It can withstand high-velocity projectiles, shrapnel and any type of electrical stunning devices on the market today,” Sara said, reaching behind her
back to where her spare 9mm kept her clip-point combat knife company. Gideon rolled to his feet once she had Vargas covered, and she could see in the man’s tainted eyes that he knew his control of the situation was now a done deal. “In case you haven’t already figured it out, we had our suspicions about you before you approached Gideon with this meeting. Suspicions that were strong enough for us to take precautions.”
“We were hoping you’d be able to shed light on a few mysteries,” Gideon added. “Like who was with you during your game of Molotov cocktail toss? I know I saw two people there that night.”
Vargas’s face tightened in a malevolent glower. “My eyes were opened by an emissary sent to me from heaven. He knew what the Nephilim had put me through. He knew how to draw them out. Like me, he’ll stop at nothing to complete the righteous cause of eradicating your accursed brethren from the human world. He’s been with me every step of the way.”
“You said you’ve sold your soul.” Sara looked into his eyes, those red-flash eyes that looked like camera flare without the camera. She would have pitied him if he weren’t so full of hate. “You’re supposed to be a man of the cloth, Father Vargas. Didn’t it occur to you that a true emissary of God would never want you to put your soul on the line by killing innocent people?”
Again Vargas scowled, but this time there was a grim resignation to it that spoke volumes. “Look, the fact is I made a deal to get this far. But I know I can get out of it.”
“So you knew what you were really doing. Deep down, you knew.” There was no hope for him now.
“God will pardon me if I can destroy you and your kind, don’t you get that? He hates your very existence, you abomination.”
“I thought you said God didn’t talk to you which, by the way, has been the one and only not-crazy thing you’ve said so far tonight,” Gideon put in, ever helpful. “Could this whole God-pardoning-you thing just be a misguided assumption on your part?”
Vargas’s grimace deepened. “Shut up.”
“This person, this emissary,” Sara said before Gideon could turn the screws tighter. “Why don’t you tell us who he is, Father? We might be able to help you get your soul back.”
“He’ll come for you.” The distress trickled from Vargas’s face as though the thought gave him immeasurable peace. “Look how close he got to you by using me as his tool. And even if he doesn’t try for you again, he’ll get one of the others scattered throughout the world. You’re not the only Nephilim he’s targeting. There are many on his list. Many.”
“Who is he?” Sara stepped closer, while a sudden stab of fear for her own kind kicked her internal heat into high gear. “Who sent you?”
“I have to be strong.” With the heat mushrooming inside the room Vargas was sweating again, his gaze turning inward as he looked down at the hand clutching the detonator pin. “I know I made a deal, but I need to make sure I don’t lose my soul now. I know I can keep it if I can just destroy one of you Nephilim. God will understand and forgive the deal I made. He’ll forgive all that I’ve had to do, as long as I can eliminate one of you in His name.”
“Don’t, Father.” Gideon brought the gun up, his shooter’s stance military-perfect, his face suddenly stone-cold. “Seriously. Don’t.”
“Fire really can kill you, can’t it, Burning One?” With the absolute certainty of the insane, he smiled at her. “I didn’t believe it when I was told that, but I believe it now. It’s a beautiful irony, knowing you’ll be eaten alive by the very thing you control.”
Sara took another step forward, the heat from her rolling through the room like a tidal wave. “Damn you, you sick twist, who is hunting us?”
“Go to hell,” he said simply, and lunged toward Sara even as he began to pull the pin.
A single shot exploded to her left. Vargas spun away with the force of the bullet’s impact, a fine spray of blood turning the air red. Gideon pounced on him before Sara registered what had happened, then removed the unexploded, gasoline-filled device from around Father Vargas’s middle.
“One thing is for sure,” Gideon muttered as he checked for a pulse on Vargas’s neck. “This crazy bastard’s Nephilim-hunting days are over.”
* * *
It was almost two in the morning by the time Agent Tuttle and his cohorts left Lynchpin’s conference room, a copy of the surveillance video from Gideon’s house in hand, along with official statements from Gideon, Sara and William. For his part, William had arrived on the scene just in time to see Antonio Vargas’s final act of desperation, then called for an ambulance and police backup. Gideon’s single shot to Vargas’s head had already been labeled as justified under both Texas and federal law, and no charges were expected. For now, the Feds were content to quietly put the whole business to bed and pretend they had no real connection to the mad serial killer they had once trusted as their go-to expert.
“I still say you should have let me tweak the audio,” Macbeth complained as Sara gathered up her notes. “Doesn’t it freak anyone out that Agent Tuttle heard Vargas babbling on about Nephilim?”
“Not in the least, kid.” William rose to his feet and stretched. “Both Sara and Gideon did a superlative job in avoiding any concrete affirmation that such beings exist. All they did was play along with a very disturbed man, with Gideon adding just the right touch of disbelief to make it all the more believable.” He clapped Gideon on the shoulder before heading for the door. “It wasn’t a pretty ending, but our client is safe along with the one last remaining transplant patient, and Antonio Vargas will never kill again. This is one case Lynchpin can put down in the ‘win’ column.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sara murmured as her father, Marcel, Carter and Macbeth headed out, leaving her alone with Gideon. “It’s hard to call this a win when I’m left with more questions than answers, not to mention this terrible knot in my gut.”
“I know this wasn’t the ideal way to end things.” With a rough sigh, Gideon reached out and rolled her chair over to nudge up against his, swiveling it so that she faced him. “It’s not perfect and not every loose end is tied up, but you’ve got to understand something—there was no way I was going to let that bastard unleash any more fire. At all costs I had to stop him, and if I had to do it all again I’d play it the exact same way. He’s dead and gone, and you’re safe. That’s all I care about.”
A smile peeked through her preoccupied frown, and she laced her fingers with his. “I must admit, it was nice knowing you had my back. The question is, are you okay?”
Gideon had the grace to not play dumb, instead tilting his head thoughtfully. “Lying inert on the floor while you fed enough rope to Vargas so he could hang himself was tough, but this time I knew I was in a position of strength. This time, I could fight back. And I did,” he added, leaning over their respective armrests to nuzzle her lips with his. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m genuinely heartsick at the loss of life. But I’m not going to lie—I’ll never regret protecting what is most important to me.”
“Most important?” The words echoed like a miracle through her mind, and she searched his eyes for some kind of clue. “Are...um. You’re talking about me, right? I mean...sorry, I don’t want to assume—”
“Sara.” With a half-smile he rested a finger on her lips to stem the torrent of gibberish. “You’re always so self-contained and capable, I keep forgetting that personal relationships are still pretty much an unknown quantity to you. Yes, my courageous angel of fire,” he added when she grimaced. “You are the most important thing in my life, because you have my heart. I fell in love with you from the first moment I saw you. Thoughts of you kept me sane through the darkest period of my life, and you’ve found a way to make me whole again. I can’t remember how I lived without you, and I don’t want to try to go on living without you now. So, yeah. You’re not just important to me. You’re the center of my universe.”
A breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding huffed out of her. The knot in her stomach vanished, along with e
very cloud on her horizon. Gideon loved her. That was all that mattered. “I love you too,” she said in a rush, because those words had been clamoring to get out since his going-away party. “I seriously, crazily love you. I never thought I could love anyone the way I love you. I never thought I’d love anyone, period. Then I met you and I finally understood what I was missing in life. I was missing...everything.” She brought the hand she held to her lips, while her chest clenched with so much emotion it almost hurt. “Thank you for bringing me everything.”
“My Sara. Thank you for not giving up on me.” His smile was piercingly sweet, free of the darkness that had tried so hard to claim him. In his eyes she saw what she’d first glimpsed in him—hope, strength and a boundless zest for life. “I promise I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you never regret it.”
Her heart catapulted into the stratosphere at the possibility of a forever kind of future, but the crush of reality slammed her back to earth. “Gideon, that sounds wonderful, but no one understands the situation better than me. There’s a hunter out there, and this hunter...it can’t be a human. Or if it is, he’s possessed by something that’s not human. Whoever Vargas was working with had enough clout to barter for that man’s soul.”
“This isn’t exactly a newsflash.” His fingers tightened on hers as if he feared she might slip away then and there. “I don’t see what that has to do with us.”
“My life isn’t normal. I know you get that, but I want you to know that I’d understand if you want to look for an exit at some point later on. I have no idea what the future holds.”
“No one knows that, Sara. In that respect, we’re like every other couple slogging through life together.”
