The Forsaken (35 page)

“Where are you!” Jude shouted. “I know you’re close!”

“Temper, temper, Jude. You’ve really got to watch it. Besides, your threats have no effect on me, and personally I don’t think you’ve got the spine to finish me off the way you so heroically intend to.”

“You can’t hurt me anymore,” Jude said with confidence.

“You’re lucky to be so sure of things. If you have everything in your control, then you must be a god. Come on, Jude, I’m literally trembling in my boots. Is that all the ammunition you’ve got,
sonny
?”

Jude’s ear twitched. Enraged, he raced outside into the rain.

“Yeah, we’re connected. But I think you already knew that,” Morgan said.

“I want you to hear me, Morgan. I’m coming for you. I’m coming for blood.”

“Cross your heart? You know, Jude. It’s sad, really. Heartbreaking, even. All this talk and not one mention of your brother. I mean, someone might assume you’ve just…forgotten about the little guy.”

“His name is Kevin.”

“Right, right. Kevin. I alw-ays kind-a liked that name too.” The cell reception was starting to act up. “Such a -ame how -ings turned out.”

Jude blinked as if in slow motion. Maybe he’d wake up soon. As the water dripped down his forehead, trickled down the ridges in his spine, the cold returned to his bones. Horns honked from drivers who nearly clipped him. Standing in the middle of the street absentmindedly was an easy way to get yourself killed, one driver pointed out with an extended middle finger. Seconds later, Jude was hit, knocked over.

Jude limped to his feet and checked his cell. He was amazed the call was still connected. He could hear Morgan on the other side. His breathing was like a moan. Jude shunned the driver and warned him that if he didn’t speed off, he’d be dragged inside wearing cuffs.

The world spun so rapidly. Losing balance. Losing grip. The miracle of being able to still stand. And then, his leg was well. All of a sudden the throbbing ceased.

“Still playing?” Morgan’s voice broke through static. “Like I said, I came tonight, in the open, to give you a gift.”

Jude now knew where Morgan was. He knew instantly. If they were connected spiritually because of Azrael, perhaps certain knowledge connected them as well. He looked up, his vision blurred some by the rain, and saw his enemy. Beside Morgan was a huge clock tower that watched over this side of the city, clanging the time at the beginning of each hour. For a blink, Jude saw him clearly. He saw through him and into him. He’d ascend that brick building and collect his soul.

Jude ended the call and stuffed his cell away. Then Rachel rushed out with the chief and a small army of other officers. The prime suspect of their case was on the other end of the street. Jude glanced back at her once before racing to the bottom of the building. Morgan didn’t move. He was holding something.

Not something,
Jude thought
. Some
one.

The officers surrounded the perimeter. Any other night he might’ve taken a bit of solace from the sound their footsteps made atop the pavement or splashing of reckless raindrops. The beams of red light that climbed the brick wall should’ve calmed his beating heart. But none of it did. There was no solace, no peace. Not if Kevin was being dangled from the roof.

Morgan’s body glowed with red dots. Jude’s eyes turned to blood in his anger, and he prayed none of the shooters got trigger happy and finished what he had to. The target didn’t flinch. Didn’t speak.

“Morgan, what have you done to him! Give him to me!” He jumped to reach the fire escape ladder. But it was no use. He couldn’t grab it. The sound of mocking laughter ripped him apart. He wanted to see Kevin. He wanted to hear his voice.

A jagged lightning bolt lit up the sky. Seconds later, thunder crashed over the fog. Morgan lifted up Kevin’s body for all to see. Traffic had been stopped, the road closed to new traffic. Countless eyes scanned the rooftop. A hush clothed the world.

“He died without you, Jude!” Morgan released the body, and Jude watched fearfully as Kevin descended three stories in a matter of seconds. Upon release of the body, a series of shots fired. Bullets ripped through the air from every direction, but all Jude cared about was Kevin. Focusing on the falling body, he sensed spiritually that not a single bullet had hit its target. Morgan disintegrated in less time than it took a human being to blink. A cloud of dust that traveled in the rain, hidden. It was a trick Jude hadn’t acquired. He tried not to be envious.

Jude caught Kevin and dropped back, smacking his head against the slick sidewalk. Silence was the disease that affected him now more than ever. If he waited long enough, would his brother learn to speak again? Could they, just for a moment, argue about something trivial?

Kevin wasn’t going to move. Not if he had an eternity. Jude fell into that dead white stare and began to cry.

“No!” He frantically checked for a pulse. Other officers crowded around. “Get back. All of you! Don’t touch him. Don’t come any closer!”

“Relax, Foster. We think we got him,” Mike said.

“Got him?” Jude yelled, cradling his brother’s limp head. “Morgan disappeared before you even fired a shot! Don’t you get it? He’s quicker than you. All of you pathetic idiots!”

“How could you tell? I got two officers climbing up to that roof now. My money says he can’t outrun my shooters.”

“My brother is dead because of you.” He shivered. “And because of me.”

Mike scanned Kevin’s wrists. “Those scars didn’t come from either one of us, and you know that.”

“Is that gonna clear your conscience?”

He glanced up at Rachel, once more empty. He wondered if this pain measured up to hers.

“I’m sorry,” she tried, holstering her gun.

Mike’s radio chirped, and Whitney’s detestable cadence pierced through. “They didn’t get him, Chief. He’s gone. I repeat. Suspect is gone.”

Mike cursed under his breath.

“So sure. You were sure about a lot of things, weren’t you,
Chief
?” Jude mocked.

“Don’t do this. It’s not gonna bring him back.”

“You sent him to his death.” Jude rocked his dead brother back and forth, whispering that it would be okay “We all did. We left him with that freak!” And then softly, “
I
left him.”

Mike rubbed his temple and took one step toward Jude. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. If I would’ve known—”

“Save your pity.”

“It’s not pity.”

“We did this.” Jude kept rocking his brother’s limp body. The rain needled into his skin as he repeated, “We did this.”

48

ANIMOSITY AND ANGER INVADED
the lonely department office, along with a still quiet that could cut a human heart.

Jude leaned against the closed door, his clothes soaked and sloppy. His lost eyes spun in no direction, hanging lifeless. There was no calm with this quiet. There was no vindication with this anger. Only regret.

Rachel kept her distance. He’d confirmed his need for space with a multitude of rough words aimed at her and Mike during the last hour. And now, Jude was busy contemplating how long it would take for reality to sink in. The picture of Kevin lying motionless, pale white in his arms, made him want to hurl.

Kevin had been taken out in a black body bag. Like a return to the womb. He’d seen this night in his nightmares—the ones he had in between his memories of Morgan. Though he never thought it might actually come for him, not like this.

“This is life, isn’t it?” Jude mused. “We live, we work our tails off, we say hello to drones we don’t even like. We fight for nothing.” His calculations were dragged out to sea to drown. “Life is just a figment of what we want, where everything we hope for is ripped away from us. We’re not made to be happy. Hell, most of us can’t even feel…anything.”

“Jude, I can imagine what you’re going through,” Rachel offered. “I
know
what you’re going through because I’ve felt the exact same thing.”

Jude and Mike turned toward Rachel.

“It hurts. I lost my father, remember? Nothing I can say, nothing Mike can say, will make that pain leave you.”

He fumed and cracked his neck. All the memories he’d experienced with his brother collided. Like a misguided film reel full of their moments cut short.

“I want to go back, Rachel. I can save him. I’ll watch over him this time. I can stop this.”

“No, you can’t,” Mike said. “We’re here now. No reset button. All we can do is move forward and pray.”

“I never should’ve let you do it. I let it happen. I was the cut in his wrists. I was the key that locked him in that cell.”

“Stop saying that,” Rachel said. “Don’t believe that. It’ll mess with your head. Look, Mike told me your brother had a problem with cutting.”

“Don’t!” Jude replied, smacking the wall. “Don’t talk about him like you have any idea who he was. You don’t. He was
my
brother! I should’ve watched out for him. I didn’t. And now he’s gone.”

“I’ve known you for years,” Mike said forcefully. “And you’re right. I put Kevin in danger in an attempt to draw the bad guy toward us. I told you already, I never meant for this to go down the way it did. I’d spend a lifetime in hell if it meant you’d get your brother back. I mean that. Really, I do.” Mike let go of a tear. “But we must live in the here and now. This is reality. I want this to end. Don’t you want that?”

Jude nodded slowly.

“Then hunt him with us. We need you. Personal miseries aside, Morgan Cross is still out there, and he’s counting on us to stay confused, to stay wounded. There’s nothing more I want to do than to cut his balls off. You get me?”

With a sigh, Jude asked, “How many has he killed?”

“Nineteen, if my memory serves right,” Mike shot back.

Jude shook his head. “No, since he’s come back. In the last week.”

“Counting the hooker, six.”

“You’re right. But that was to frame my brother. A distraction, I think.” Jude checked his cell phone and looked at the digital calendar.

“Where is this goin’?” Mike said.

“I came here tonight to piece it all together. Then Morgan called and threw me off. But it’s coming back. It’s coming back.”

“Elaborate for the rest of the class,” Mike said with a grunt.

“Don’t you get it? Seven. It’s the perfect number. The number of completion.”

“Yeah?” Rachel said.

“Think like him, Rachel. Always a step or two ahead. Seven murders in total. Then his work with me will be complete.” Jude absorbed their puzzled glances. He continued, “Carmichael was the first victim, right? Then Jerome White. That’s two.”

Rachel bit her fingernails, adding, “And the two we found when Jude was away. The apartment kid and Chubb. Plus there’s Dr. Irons.”

“Makes five,” Jude said. “And if what I’m thinking is correct, then we can expect two more bodies.”

“When?” Mike pried.

“My guess is midnight.”

Mike’s eyebrows fell with a long sigh. “You’re confident about this?”

I’m connected to him. Azrael showed me. And I can understand it now, you moron.

“We have nothing left,” Jude said. His breaths were short, his voice fractured and shaky. “Listen to me on this. I’m right. Tomorrow’s Sunday. Morgan may be disturbed, but he
is
obsessed with ritual.”

“And?” Mike barked.

“Well,” Jude began, reminiscing on many of Eliam’s lectures. “It took God six days to create this world. As the story goes, he rested on the seventh. For the last six days, Morgan has been creating his own world. And now it’s time to complete it. What could be more perfect than mocking God himself?”

Mike eased back in his chair, glancing over at Rachel. “All right. You’ve got my attention. And, what, you just got this epiphany out of nowhere?”

“You know how these things sometimes come, Mike. We don’t have time for you to question me. It doesn’t matter how I know it; what matters is that I’m right.”

“Haven’t seen you this sure in some time. Okay. What do
you
think we should do? How can we stop this
completion
? I’ll be damned if this bastard deifies himself on my watch.”

Jude paced the room.

“I don’t suppose his next victim was revealed to you during this supernatural enlightenment.”

“That’s not funny.”

“Well, this is serious, Foster. People’s lives are at stake, and this godforsaken case is giving me hemorrhoids the size of Jupiter. I need a breather. Any idea where Morgan is going to strike next? Come on, think!”

Whatever he tells you, don’t let them come. It won’t end well if they do. Don’t tempt this.

“No,” Jude returned, checking his watch. “But I’m pretty sure we have less than three hours before we add two more bodies to the collection.”

Rachel was across the table, hair knotted. Still, she looked beautiful.

Run from them now. Time is ticking. There are bigger plans for you.

“I need to go,” Jude said all of a sudden. He wiped his face and reached for the door handle.