The Mark of Cain (12 page)

“What are you doing here?” she asked, unable to keep
an edge out of her voice even though she felt herself softening with how hot he
looked. She hadn’t seen him since yelling at him. Not to say that she hadn’t
obsessed
over him, though….

“I wanted to come and say sorry,” he said with a
humble smile. She hadn’t realized that he could feel that emotion.

“Well, now you did,” she said as she pushed past him
to her door. She had to stay strong. It seemed that she always sinned when he
was around. He just
aggravated
her so.

He put a gentle hand around her bicep, shooting fire
into her with it. She was going to collapse into his arms and beg him to kiss
her if she wasn’t careful….

To right herself, she grabbed her cross in one hand
and turned to meet his gaze. If anything could keep her thoughts nice and pure,
it would be her beloved cross.

“Please accept my apology,” he said, holding out a
bundle of pink, freshly picked lilies with his heavily tattooed right arm.
Lilies with dirty roots still attached that also looked strangely familiar….

“Where’d you get those?” she asked suspiciously.

He smiled; that charming wicked grin of his.
“Downstairs.”

She didn’t know why she laughed at him picking the
landlord’s flowers, but she couldn’t help it. Maybe it was because he was so
unapologetic. In any case, it achieved what he’d probably picked them for; she
was no longer angry.

“Thanks,” she said as she took them from him,
holding them out so the dangling roots wouldn’t dirty her clothes and skin.
“I’m sorry too for, well, you know….”

“For acting like a crazed lunatic?” he asked, his
rakish grin widening.

She laughed again. “Yeah. Exactly.”

“That’s okay. I can understand why you would get so
angry.”

“Really?” She looked deep into his eyes. They were
still black, but they sparkled today. At least he finally seemed to be feeling
some emotion….

“Really. I tend to bring out the worst in people.”
How he said it made her wonder if he actually thought that to be a bad thing.
It was like he prided himself in being able to get such a rise out of people.
“So, now that we’ve kissed and made up, how about I take you out to dinner?”

She almost pointed out that they
hadn’t
kissed, but was nervous that he’d take it as an invitation. Actually, now that
she thought about it, she realized that he had probably said it so he
could
kiss her.

Ugh! Why did his personality have to be so up and
down? So today he was sweet and sexy Inac? And after they kissed, he’d be back
to the angry and broody Inac?

“Um…huh?” she asked once she realized that he had
asked her a question. Her mind hadn’t listened past the word “kiss” because
she’d been too busy thinking about just that.

“Dinner? You know? Food?”

“You want to take me out to dinner?” she asked,
trying to make sure that she understood.

He laughed before chucking under her chin with a
finger, sending sizzles throughout her body. “Yeah. I mean, I know you’re
skinny, but you do eat, don’t you?”

“Yeah…?”

“So would you like to accompany me to dinner?”

“Right now?”

“Yeah.” He was laughing at her, which was in turn
charming her.

“Sure…. I mean, no. I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Her brain finally thinking clearly, she said,
“Because I have a lot I have to do. I’ve been trying to do research for a paper
but haven’t been able to turn much up. I have to find
something
or I’ll
have to change my topic, but I
really
wanna do it on the Mokolios.”

His eyes momentarily widened in surprise before he
asked, “You’re doing a paper on the Noseriatif Tremokolios?”

Now was
her
turn to be surprised. “You’ve
heard of them?”

“Yeah. I know a lot about them. More than you’ll
ever find in a book.”

“But how? They’re super secretive.”

He threw her a daredevil smile. “Maybe I am one.”

She pushed his chest lightly—a part of her
registering and beginning to fantasize about how hard it felt under her hand—as
she sarcastically stated, “Yeah. Funny.”

He shrugged, not even flinching in pain though she’d
accidentally pushed close to his gunshot wound. He must be a good healer. She
didn’t know how long it would take to heal from a gunshot wound, but the fact
that she could still see the outline of his bandage under his T-shirt, as well
as she could see a corner of it taped at his neck, told her he still wasn’t all
the way healed yet.

“Okay. Let’s just say that my work tends to be with
members of that particular organization,” he told her.

“Really?” She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Really.”

“But how would you know that they were even a part
of it? I was told that they really like their privacy. They aren’t even on the
Internet
.”

“Well,” he said, rubbing his square jaw, “the
Adamson family has been a part of it since it began. In fact, it was an Adamson
who founded it. Of course, that wasn’t the name back then. It was way before
last names came about. Perhaps you’ve heard of my ancestor? He’s best known as
Sargon of Akkad, or Sargon the Great. He was the first ruler to create a true
empire backed by armies. Or, at least the first to really be known for it.
Really, he took over for an ancestor of
his
, though history doesn’t tell
you that they were related. That particular king was named Lugal-Zage-Si.” With
a proud grin, he added, “But back to the story. When Sargon the Great took over
for Lugal-Zage-Si, he came up with the brilliant idea of the Mokolios. I have
numerous great warriors in my family tree.”

She could tell he wasn’t joking. He wasn’t telling
the whole truth, but he was
mostly
telling the truth.

“Are you really part of it?”

His gaze said yes. His mouth said, “If I told you,
I’d have to kill you.” It was obvious that he was using the clichéd line to get
her to laugh and not take him seriously, but his eyes were serious. Your mouth
could lie; but your eyes couldn’t do so as easily.

“Will you tell me about it?” she asked, unlocking
her door and gesturing inside because she realized that they were still
standing on the stoop.

“Now that depends.”

“On what?”

“On if you’ll let me buy you dinner.”

“But my paper….”

“I’ll order take-out.”

Despite herself, she was intrigued.

“Okay. And you’ll tell me everything?” she said as
they walked into her apartment, Inac being a gentleman by shutting the door
behind them.

“I’ll tell you what I can.”

Once the food had been ordered, they both sat on the
couch. Nervous to be so close to him alone—Crystal wasn’t home—she grabbed a
round decorative pillow that matched the ugly couch and set it in her lap.

“Okay. Start,” she said, hugging the pillow close.

“Where would you like me to begin?” he asked.

“At the beginning. You said that an ancestor of
yours started it?”

“Yes.”

“When? And why?”

“About 2700 B.C. And because it was his way of
getting all leaders answering to him. You see, it’s political in nature. All
sorts of leaders are a part of it. Think of it sort of like the United Nations.
The people in it, representing different countries, all play nice together,” he
said with a sexy grin. With a flippant wave of his hand, he added, “Wars are
discussed. Alliances are made. That sort of thing.”

“But you aren’t a leader of any country. How come
you’re a part of it?”

“An Adamson has been, and will always be, a part of
it.”

“No matter what?”

He nodded.

“Are you going to get in trouble for telling me
about it?”

“Nope. You see, I’m not going to tell you any
secrets or who else is a part of it. You won’t know anything you can’t find out
second-hand with
a lot
of digging. And yes, they are on the Internet. It
just takes more than the half a second Google search,” he added with another
grin.

Too eager for answers now that she was getting some,
she ignored his jibe and asked, “So your ancestor, Sargon the Great, formed it
because he wanted power?”

“More like
craved
it,” he said, momentarily
showing his teeth with a feral grin. “He
had
to have it.”

“My professor said that some of history’s greatest
and most powerful leaders were in charge of it at different points. People like
Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Saladin, and Vlad the Impaler?”

“That’s true. Especially when it came to the
greatest conquerors in history. Most great leaders in history were leaders of
the Mokolios as well, and those who weren’t were usually the leader’s proxy.
The sect was obsessed with power, and power meant war. They’ve done some
amazing things over the years.”

“Like what? What are they responsible for?”

Inac didn’t answer. He seemed to be determining what
he could tell her. He was just opening his mouth to answer when the doorbell
buzzed; their Chinese had arrived. Inac waited until after they’d settled back
onto the couch and were eating their Lo Mein to answer.

After swallowing a bite he’d impressively taken with
chopsticks, Inac said, “The Mokolios are indirectly responsible for the death
of Christ.”

“But that’s
horrible
!” If he was part of a
group that would do that, then maybe Tracker was right about him.

“Is it?” he asked so quietly that it stopped her
internal mutterings. “I mean, is it really? If Christ hadn’t died, Christianity
never would have had staying power. You, as a Christian, Hara, wouldn’t have
the belief that He died for your sins. You wouldn’t have the belief of Him
resurrecting. Christianity never would have made it to the Dark Ages if He
hadn’t become one of the world’s most famous martyrs.”

He was right. She didn’t want to believe that Christ
dying was a good thing, but it really was the basis of her entire life.

Using a fork to move around the noodles—she hadn’t
been able to take a bite yet because she was still in shock from the new
knowledge—she said, “But I doubt they had
altruistic
intentions….”

He smiled before taking another bite.

“You’re right,” he said, “They had revenge in mind.
If they’d known then what would transpire because of it, they never would have
done it.”

“Revenge? What could they have had against Christ?”

“Not Christ.
God
,” he said with a flash of
his teeth as though the very word disgusted him. “It was why they watched for
the supposed ‘coming’ of His son for years. The Herod in the New Testament
wasn’t acting on his own fears, but on the Mokolios’ need for revenge, for it
was their leader who gave Herod his crown. He ruled as the Mokolios’ proxy.
Funny how history never remembers the truth….”

He was making light of the situation, but she had
never heard such a horrible thing in her life and was still in shock.

“But
why
?” she finally blurted out. “What did
God ever do to them?”

“That, I’m not at liberty to discuss. However, I
will tell you that the Mokolios haven’t always been under the helm of a sane
leader. If you accept that, then that will explain a lot of what they did.
Sometimes they didn’t even
have
a reason for the atrocities they
committed.” Again, he said it like he didn’t think it to necessarily be a bad
thing.

She just nodded. He obviously wasn’t going to go
into why they hated God at the time of Christ.

“But God and Christ are the same person, so wouldn’t
they have something against Christ if they had something against God?”

Again, he looked her in the eye. “Are they?” When
she questioned him with her eyes, he added, “The same person?”

“That’s what the Holy Trinity is….”

“That’s only one interpretation of what the Holy
Trinity is. But would Christ really pray to himself on the cross? Would He ask
Himself
to forgive the people crucifying Him? Maybe Christianity has been altered over
the years. Have you ever thought of
that
possibility?”

She didn’t want to think about that right now. They
weren’t here to question her beliefs. They were here to get information for her
paper.

Ignoring his philosophical questions, she asked, “So
how were they indirectly responsible?”

He smiled, like he knew that she was avoiding what
he had asked. “The leader found Judas Iscariot and sensed conflict in the man.
You see, at the time, Judas was hurting for money. He was going to lose
everything he owned and, deep down, he blamed Christ for that since it wasn’t
until he began following Christ that he was bound to lose it all. History
doesn’t teach this little fact, but he had borrowed money from the donations
Christ’s followers had given to pay his debts, and had lost those too. He was
pretty desperate to keep that a secret, but he knew it would come out soon.
That’s when the leader of the Mokolios found him. He just
happened
to
remind Judas of the reward being offered for Christ’s arrest. Judas basically
said that he couldn’t do it because he didn’t want Christ to die if that was
His sentence. The leader then answered something along the lines of, ‘If He is
truly the son of God as He so claims, then no human man could harm Him.’”