V.J. Chambers - Jason&Azazel Apocalypse 01 (2 page)

“No,” said Marlena. “He’s still here. He still wants to see you.” She paused and looked over her shoulder at me.

I cringed again. I’d been dreading this ever since Georgia. I didn’t want to see Jason. I didn’t want to see him at all. “That’s not the only reason I came,” I said. “You told headquarters something about the Key of Asher.”

We stepped up onto the platform that used to contain the pulpit.

“Sure,” said Marlena, “and you can talk to Lily about that after you see him.” She stopped at a door at the back of the platform, her hand on the knob. She looked at me, and then she cast her eyes down on the floor. “He’s different.”

“We haven’t seen him in years,” I said. What did she expect? Or did she think I’d kicked him out of the house for no reason? He wasn’t different, anyway. He’d always been that way. He’d just gotten worse at hiding it.

Marlena turned the knob and opened the door. “Well, if anyone can get through to him, it’s you.”

She smiled at me.

It was my turn to look away. Get through to him? Whatever.

We walked out of the sanctuary and into a dim hallway. A little bit of light streamed through two open doors on either side of the hall. Inside one, I could see rows and rows of stockpiled ammunition. Guns were hanging on the walls. Inside the other, a group of people were crowded around a radio.

“So that’s still the plan, then?” Kieran asked. “We want to recruit him? We want Azazel to convince him to join us?”

“Of course that’s the plan,” said Marlena. “What else would we want to do with him?” She waved into the room with the radio. “Hallam!”

Hallam’s shaggy head looked up. When he saw me, his face lit up. “Azazel, you’re here!” He broke away from the others, dusting off his hands. He looked older. His face had more lines.

He’d grown a full beard and mustache. There was a streak of gray in his beard.

Still, I was glad to see him. Hallam had been lots of things over the years: a guy I was terrified was going to kill me, the overbearing father figure I’d never wanted, and overall, a good friend.

He was British too. I also dug his accent. He hugged me even tighter than Marlena had, nearly crushing my ribs. I oomphed as he released me, trying to catch my breath to introduce Kieran again, but Hallam was already pumping his hand. “Kieran, I presume?”

Kieran smiled. “Azazel didn’t tell me this was going to be like a family reunion.” He grinned, looking annoyingly attractive again. “Actually, she hasn’t been talking to me much lately at all.”

I glared at him. “Should I see Jason now? Is there any reason to wait? Anything I should know?”

The sooner I got this ridiculous mission out of the way, the sooner Kieran and I could get back to Georgia. Hopefully, I could get us reassigned to separate units, and I’d never have to see him again.

Hallam shoved his hands in his pockets. “You don’t want to rest after your drive?”

“Rest?” I repeated. I laughed. I guess I sounded a little bitter. “I haven’t really had a chance to rest in six months. I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.”

Hallam nodded. “He’s been tied up in the back room for days. He and a bunch of the locals have been giving us problems ever since we arrived. After we captured him, and he saw me, he’s been asking to see you.”

“I didn’t want to tie him up,” Marlena said, pleading with me to understand.

“He and his little group injured a member of our party,” Hallam said. “We had no choice.”

“It doesn’t bother me that he’s tied up,” I said. But it did, a little. Not because I cared if he was uncomfortable, but because it didn’t make any sense. Jason had broken out of a maximum security holding cell in England. There was no reason for him to stay tied up in a church in Kentucky. No reason at all. I swallowed. “Take me to him.”

Hallam sighed. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

Hallam pulled some keys out of his pocket. They jangled as he walked down to the end of the hall and opened up one of the rooms. All four of us went inside.

The room had a smashed piano in one corner, and stacks of bent folding chairs in another. There was one window, high up on the far wall. It was still intact. It was closed. The room was stifling.

Jason was against another wall, his arms tied above his head. The rope was secured against a coat rack that was bolted into the wall. He wore a ragged t-shirt that clung to his muscular chest and a pair of cut-off jeans. He was sweating and his dark hair was pasted against his forehead.

His eyes were closed.

Marlena reached for my hand and squeezed it. I let her, but the scene didn’t bother me. Well, okay, it did. But not because I felt bad for Jason. I didn’t give a flying fuck what happened to Jason anymore. It only bothered me because I was seeing him, and I really didn’t want to have to look at him again. I pulled my hand away.

“Hi babe,” said Jason without opening his eyes.

Oooh. So I was supposed to be impressed that he knew I was here without actually seeing me?

Big deal. I crossed my arms over my chest.

Jason opened his eyes. He caught my eyes with his own. I clenched my teeth. He looked the same. “Didn’t you miss me? I missed you,” he said.

“Somehow, I’ve soldiered on without you,” I said. I wanted to leave. I wanted to run out of the room and never look at him again. But they wanted me to try to get him on “our side.” So I’d try.

“I want to talk to Azazel alone,” said Jason, stretching his arms as best he could.

“Jason,” said Marlena, her voice cracking. Jason and Marlena had known each other since they were kids. I’d heard him once refer to Marlena as the big sister he’d never had. It was killing her to see him like this. “We just want to help you.”

“Just Azazel,” Jason repeated.

“No can do,” said Kieran, from behind me. He stepped forward, touching me on the shoulder.

“They sent me here to protect you.”

I stepped away from Kieran, shying away from his touch.

“They sent
you
to protect her from
me
?” Jason laughed. “They really underestimate me, don’t they?”

Kieran’s eyes darkened. “I’m not leaving her alone with you.”

“What is he? Your idea of a rebound?” Jason grinned. His skin crinkled a little around his eyes.

It never used to do that. It looked good on him.

I shook myself. Don’t find Jason attractive, I told myself. Think of Jason in that car garage that night, with the body just a few feet away from him. Think of Jason telling you it was an accident, as if that made it all better. “It’s been years, Jason. I’m past the rebound stage. Kieran and I work together. That is all.”

“Yeah? Well, he doesn’t look at you like a co-worker,” Jason smirked. He wriggled against the ropes that held him. I could see that they were a little loose. Damn it. He’d be out of them in two seconds. Hallam knew Jason. Hallam had trained Jason. How could Hallam be so stupid? “I only want to talk to Azazel.”

I turned to Kieran. “It’s okay. I can handle him.”

Hallam nodded. “She can. She’s talked him down from worse.”

Kieran didn’t look happy about it, but he nodded once curtly and headed out the door.

Hallam put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll be right outside if you need us.”

I nodded, pulling my pistol out of its holster inside my shorts. “I’ve got a gun.”

They left. Marlena looked like she might start sobbing. I shut the door after them. I didn’t turn around right away. I just stood, facing the door, staring down at the gun in my hand. I thought about turning quickly, before he had a chance to see what I was doing, and squeezing the trigger three times in succession. My aim wouldn’t be good the first time, because I was turning, so I might miss. He’d have a chance to get free of the ropes. He’d go for the window, maybe, or the door. But he didn’t have cover, and he wasn’t armed. I could get him in the chest, I was sure.

Maybe the head. And he deserved to die. He did. But…

I flashed on his arms around me while I was screaming, awakening from a nightmare. I thought of his deep voice, his gentle hands. I thought of how much he seemed to care about me then. I couldn’t do it. Not all of him deserved to die. There was a part of Jason that was worth keeping alive. I just wasn’t sure how deep he’d buried that part.

“You look beautiful.” His voice was husky. “I had forgotten how beautiful you are.”

I turned around, bringing up the gun. “Shut up,” I growled.

He laughed. “Damn. You were always so sexy with a firearm. I’m getting all hot and bothered.”

I reholstered the gun. “What gives, Jason? We both know you could be out of here in five minutes. Why the charade? Why stay tied up here?”

Jason laughed again. He slid his hands out of the ropes, easy as pie. Standing, he massaged his wrists. “I wanted to see you. You always hang up on me when I try to call.”

He hadn’t called in over a year. Part of that time, he couldn’t, because no one really had phones anymore. Not on the east coast, anyway. For a few days after the blackout, the landlines had worked, until the generators in the stations went down or the people manning the phone companies had run screaming for home. Very few people even had landline phones anymore, though, anyway. At least half the cell phone service went out the instant the solar flare hit. It must have knocked out some satellites in space. Everyone else’s cell phones stopped working as soon as they couldn’t recharge them.

But before the lights went out, he did call me. Usually once every few months. It didn’t matter if I changed my number. He always found me. “Well, I’m here now. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Jason crossed the distance between us in three steps. I started to take a step back from him, but before I could move, I was in his arms. He pulled me tight against him, one hand on the small of my back and the other tangling itself in my hair. I had forgotten what it felt like when he touched me. His caresses were white hot, searing into me. I didn’t fight it. I was consumed by the sensation. His lips pressed against mine, and I opened my mouth to him, letting his tongue probe me. Fireworks exploded at the end of all my nerves. I melded my body against his, my arms going around him, exploring the sculpted perfection of his back, his shoulders. Ah, God. Jason.

And then I pushed him away.

He was startled, so I threw him off balance. He tried to step backwards to correct his loss of center, but he stumbled and thumped to the floor on his backside. I had my gun out again, trained on him.

He held up his hands in surrender.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I said.

“Right. Because I could tell how much you hated it.”

I decided to ignore his sarcasm. I was angry. “You and a bunch of locals kept Hallam’s group from getting west because you wanted to make out with me? Seriously?”

“No,” said Jason. “I stayed tied up in this room, because I wanted to talk to you. I wasn’t planning on trying to kiss you.” He took a deep, labored breath and shifted his gaze to the ceiling. “Can I stand up?”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Are you going to shoot me?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

He lowered his hands. His voice went low and intimate. “I don’t think you’ll shoot me.”

“I might,” I said. “I’m not seventeen years old anymore, Jason. You can’t charm me that easily.”

His eyes raked my body appraisingly, taking in every nuance. “Yeah. You’re not seventeen.”

I half-wanted to shoot him just for that. “
What
do you want?”

“I’ve only ever wanted you.”

“That’s not true. You used to want to be a normal guy. You used to want to have normal experiences, to live in a John Hughes movie.”

“I’m not normal,” he replied. “And in case you missed the memo, it’s the freaking apocalypse.

The lights went out. There is no normal.”

“It’s normal out west,” I said, teeth clenched. My arms were starting to shake. I lowered my gun so Jason wouldn’t see, but I didn’t put it away. I hated it when he started talking about how he wasn’t normal. It was his excuse for everything, and it wasn’t enough. Not anymore. I was through forgiving him.

“If it’s normal out west,” Jason said, “then why haven’t they sent any rescue teams to help us?

Where’s the freaking Red Cross?”

“The Red Cross’ Administrative Headquarters was in D.C.,” I said. But he was right. It didn’t make sense. Even if the east coast had no power, and most companies were based there, why hadn’t the rest of the entire United States responded to the crisis? Why hadn’t other countries responded to the crisis? We couldn’t communicate with anyone. We didn’t know.

“There’s no reason to go west,” Jason said. “All I want is for your precious Order of the Fly to pack up and get the hell out of here.”

“How can you say there’s no reason to go west?” I asked. “We need help. People are dying. If you’d seen the things I’ve seen, you’d realize that.”

Jason shrugged. “How can you be sure the people out west even want to help us? It’s the freaking Bible belt. Face it, Azazel, when your precious Order of the Fly took over the government, all of the people out there hated it.”

“Maybe they’re trying to help. Maybe they can’t. But whatever is happening, we know they had power. Right after the outage. We have to get across the river. And you and your little goons are blocking us.”

Jason stood up. He walked over to the broken piano and began to plunk some of the keys. They didn’t make any noise. “Here in Kentucky most people weren’t crazy about the Order of the Fly either.”

“Columbus was liberal,” I said. “They got that Democratic candidate here—”

“Because it’s a poor state, and they needed federal funding. Not because they agreed with the OF’s agenda on religious freedom.” He looked at me. “Understand, I don’t care if they want to use magic, and they want to promote the rights of Wiccans and pagans. I never cared about that, you know that. But I’m not letting anyone go west.”

He wasn’t? Why did he care? “Why not?”

Jason crossed the room to me and took my hand. I pulled it away. He let his own hand dangle in the air for a few seconds and then he dropped it. “Things are good here. Now.”

“What? Things are not good. There’s no electricity. It’s chaos.”