Infernal Revelation : Collected Episodes 1-4 (9781311980007) (19 page)

Her irritation melted when she saw how
terrified he was. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Oh, shit is so fucked," he said. "Look,
everything has hit the fan. I called the others and told them to
meet us at the Spot."

"What's this about, Gideon?"

He jerked his head, looking up and down the
street. "Look it's, ah... fuck, I can't even think of the words.
Come on, Lily, please, let's just get down there. I'm feeling
really, uh... really..."

"Exposed?"

"Yeah, exposed. I had a fight with Bill
and... fuck, it's bad."

She felt herself go cold. "Did... did you
kill him?"

"No, it's worse."

"Worse? How could it be worse?"

His voice was ragged, wheedling. "Please? I
need to get off the street."

Something in his tone got Lily moving, and
she set off without another word. Gideon followed along behind her,
and the way he kept looking around, darting from shadow to shadow,
was rubbing her nerves raw. She found herself straining her own
senses, listening for engines, peering down side-streets for
headlights. She could hear, somewhere in the distance, cars
rumbling along the dark streets of Laton. With her enhanced senses,
they could have been anywhere in town.

Barny was squatting near the beginnings of a
bonfire when they arrived, and Delilah was leaning against her dirt
bike.

"Where's Jessie?" Gideon asked.

"Fuck if I know," Barny said. "What's the
big news, big guy?"

"Fuck it, I can't wait," Gideon said.

Delilah ran to meet him, and the pair
embraced. "What's wrong?"

"Everything." He was shaking when he stepped
from the girl. "I've fucked everything up."

Barny stood, menace in his posture. "The
fuck did you do?"

"No." Gideon looked towards town, then back
towards the fire. "Shit was fucked before that. More fucked than we
even knew."

Barny walked towards him. "Out with it, tub
of shit."

"I really don't have time for your bitch
mouth right now, fucker!" His voice cracked halfway through, and he
moved towards Barny, fists clenched.

Lily stepped between them. "Easy. Calm down,
Gideon. Tell us what happened."

Gideon sat heavily on a railroad tie. "Okay.
Fuck. Okay, I was going home to grab my shit. Hadn't been there in
days, right?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Fat-ass has been sleeping in the culvert
and behind the school," Barny said.

"What? Why?"

"When things get rough, I don't like to go
home. Sometimes I crash in Delilah's basement."

Lily turned towards Barny. "And you
knew?"

"Easy, woman. Laton isn't the fucking
wilderness. He wants to camp out, it's none of my business."

"Okay, shit, that's not important," Gideon
said, standing. "Look, I went home, and Bill's waiting for me. With
his shotgun."

"What?" Lily asked.

"Oh, shit," Barny said.

"Gideon!" Delilah gasped. "Are you
okay?"

"Nuh nuh nuh nuh!" Gideon waved his hands.
"That's not the point. Listen. Guys. He fucking knew."

"What?" Lily asked. "What did he know?"

"He fucking
knew
. About me. About all
of us. Our gifts. That we're not human."

"He knew?" Barny asked.

Gideon nodded. "We fought. I hurt him. I
don't know how bad. But bad."

Lily turned away, staring back at the town,
a chill running through her body, trying to understand what it was
she was hearing. Somehow Sheriff Cermak knew about them, what they
were. How had he found out? Why had he kept it quiet?

Delilah spoke up. "He's not the only one who
knows. They all do."

Lily turned her head. "What?"

"They all know. Our foster parents. The
upper echelons of the Church."

Delilah's words weren't complicated, but
somehow Lily was having difficulty processing what exactly they
meant. "What do you mean, they know?"

"I was looking into our adoption records
earlier, and I found another set. Hidden in the town's intranet.
Way different from the official available certificates." Delilah
stepped next to Gideon and slipped an arm around his. "Gives our
birthplace as Polvorin. Signed and witnessed by our parents and
Reverend Carter."

Lily felt faint, and leaned against Barny's
truck. Her legs didn't feel capable of supporting her.

"Even our names are different." Delilah
walked over to stand beside her. "Not all of them. Mine and
Gideon's names are the same. The rest of yours... yours is Lilith.
Barny is Barnabas."

"The fuck kind of name is Barnabas?" Barny
asked.

"It's Biblical." Jessie walked out of the
darkness and into the fire's range. "It means 'son of the prophet.'
My birth name is Jezebel."

"Jessie," Lily said.

"How did you know?" Delilah asked.

"I've always known." She had that far off
look again, tinged with sorrow.

"From your visions?" Gideon asked.

"No," She walked to the bonfire. "Father
told me. My foster-father."

"He did?" Lily asked. "When?"

"When I was young. When the visions started.
He explained it to me. Who we are, what we are."

"You didn't think this was something the
rest of us might have liked to know?" Barny asked, hostility naked
in his voice.

She turned to him, eyes wide. "Oh, I
couldn't!"

Delilah stepped to the girl and took a hold
of her hand. "Jessie. Sweetie. Please. Tell us what your father
told you."

Jessie turned back to the fire, a small
smile at her lips. "He told me that I was special. That I was born
with more than my share of original sin. So I would have to be
good, extra good, to make up for it. That I would have to work
extra hard to earn myself a place in heaven."

Lily felt, for a moment, physically
nauseated. "He said that to you?"

"When I was little. After my illness. He
said that if I wasn't the best I could be, that the bad men would
come and take me away."

"No wonder you're so fucked up," Barny said,
without his usual mockery.

"Barny!" Lily turned on him, furious.

"No, seriously, can you blame her? Being
told that she was defective? Evil? Can you imagine how fucked up
that would make you?" He pointed at her. "Well shit, no need to
imagine it, because there you have it."

Gideon scowled. "Knock it off."

Jessie put her hand on Gideon's shoulder.
"It's okay. No, even if your parents didn't tell you, they pushed
you. Didn't they?"

Lily thought back to the way her parents had
always encouraged her, been supportive of her, been concerned about
every up and down in her life. She'd always thought it was just
because they'd loved her, and had wanted the best for her. She
almost collapsed next to the truck, head in her hands, trying not
to puke.

"The only direction Bill ever pushed me was
away," Gideon said. "That makes its own sick sense."

Jessie turned to Barny. "He didn't tell me
about the rest of you, I'm sorry. I knew there were others out
there -- the visions showed me as much -- but I didn't know who
until I saw Lily in one of them. She told me about the rest of
you."

"Why didn't you tell us then?" Lily
asked.

"Maybe I should have," Jessie said.

"Ya think?" Barny said, turning back to his
bonfire, stoking the flames with an errant branch.

"There's more."

Lily stood again. "What's more?"

"I overheard our fathers talking to the
Sheriff."

"When was this?"

"Right before Gideon called. They were
talking about him."

"Great," Gideon said.

"Why?" Barny asked.

"Probably because I just beat the shit out
of my dad."

Barny stared at Gideon for a moment, then
dropped his eyes back to Jessie.

"They know that our gifts have started to
awaken," Jessie said. "But they don't know how much we've
discovered, or that Melchizedek has contacted us."

"What else did they say?" Lily asked.

"Most of it didn't make sense," Jessie said.
"My dad was sad. Yours was scared. The Sheriff was angry. They said
that Bob knew what was happening -- Reverend Carter, I think -- and
that he was sending a man named Porter to take care of things."

Barny folded his arms. "Porter? Porter
who?"

"I don't know. When Deacon Baker found out,
he got very scared and ran out of the house."

"I don't like the sound of that," Gideon
said.

"We should ask Melchizedek," Delilah said.
"Maybe he knows."

Lily bit her lip. "Can you go get him?"

Delilah walked to her bike. "Give me twenty
minutes. If he's still at the desert shack, I'll bring him
back."

Lily turned back to face the intermittent
lights of Laton twinkling in the distance, a dull headache
beginning just behind her eyes. Her parents knew. They knew, all
this time, that she was more and less than human. They'd kept this
from her, this most-important secret, lying about her adoption,
lying about who knows what else.

And their love, was that a lie? Was this all
some horrendous duty to them, like it seemed to be to Jessie's
parents?

They'd raised her. They'd never treated her
like a monster, like the Sheriff treated Gideon. They'd never held
her at a distance, like poor Delilah's parents did. She couldn't
believe it was all an act. Not when Jessie had described her
father's reaction to this Porter. She couldn't believe he didn't
care, that they didn't love her. And even now, he was coming home,
terrified, and would discover her gone.

She pulled her phone out of her jeans
pocket. Maybe she should call him.

Even so, they'd kept so much from her. How
could she trust them?

She put her phone away.

CHAPTER TWO

Porter walked through
the desert at a steady pace, a tall figure, blurry and indistinct,
alone in a long tan coat and wide-brimmed hat. He could have driven
to Laton easily enough, but the night was clear and the weather was
nice, and it wouldn't have saved him any time.

He liked those still places between human
habitation, rare as they were. Gave a feller time to have a think,
should the need arise. Let him feel a sense of connection to the
world that he no longer felt to his fellow man.

From his own perspective he strode across
the salt flats and scrub lands at a leisurely pace, a pleasant
mosey with purpose but no great hurry. He could go faster, had he a
mind to. Great many things he could do, had he a mind to, but he
was in no great rush to get on with the task at hand.

Not that he found it distasteful, though he
could see how some might. Just that it was getting rarer and rarer
that Reverend Carter sent him out, and he wanted to enjoy the
feeling of his hair spread out behind him as each step took him
towards his goal.

On Porter's feet, any boots were
seven-league.

All too soon the lights of Laton came into
view on the horizon. Porter sighed and stooped, putting a hand into
the sand, letting it run through his fingers, feeling each
individual grain against the skin of his palm. Maybe, if he got
this wrapped up quickly, he could take the long way home and visit
the Gulf. Been a while since he'd felt the surf around his
ankles.

***

When Melchizedek
arrived it was in a swarm of black shadow that, when it departed,
left the pale teen, Delilah, and her bike in their midst. Lily felt
a sense of strange relief at his arrival.

"Jesus," Barny said, tossing his cigarette
into the bonfire.

Lily stood and walked towards them. "Delilah
brought you up to speed?"

"Yes."Melchizedek spoke rapidly. "We need to
get out of here. Now."

"Porter is that dangerous?"

Melchizedek turned towards the desert.
"Porter is... I don't know. He's not one of us, but he's not
human."

"What is he?" Delilah asked.

"Dangerous. Deadly. He was with the men who
took me out when I was like you. He was the reason they captured
me."

"No," Delilah said.
"What
is
he?"

"I don't know. Something else. He's fast.
Faster than I am. Strong, too."

"How strong?" Gideon asked.

"I threw a motorcycle at him," Melchizedek
said. "He caught it single-handedly."

"Shit," Gideon said.

"And he's armed. Guns. Lots of guns. I don't
even know where he keeps them all."

"So we run," Delilah said.

"We need to come up with a plan," Lily said.
"Melchizedek couldn't take him on alone, but if we work
together--"

"Gideon and I were planning on leaving,"
Delilah said. "To El Paso."

"What?" Lily asked. "When?"

"Tonight. I was going to tell you, but this
doesn't change our plans."

"It's a good plan," Melchizedek said. "You
should all leave. Split up, so it's harder for him to track you
down."

"We can't just
leave
," Lily said. "Laton
is our home."

"Weren't you listening?" Barny said. "Our
parents are behind all of this. Or at least complicit. There's no
such thing as home."

"I have to at least try!" Lily turned on
him. "Maybe it's different for you, maybe your parents don't care,
maybe you don't have a real family, but I do."

"Lily--" Delilah said quietly.

"No, I know I do. My parents love me. They
couldn't fake that."

"Good for you." Gideon's voice was flat, his
eyes narrow.

Lily reached out towards him. "Oh, God, no,
Gideon, I didn't mean--"

"I know what you meant." Gideon's face was
grim. "And you're right."

"Gideon--"

"No, you're right. I don't have anything
left here. Neither does Delilah. We're going to El Paso."

"Run then," Barny said. "I'm not letting
some asshole chase me out of town. Not my parents, not the Sheriff,
not this asshole Porter."