son?”
“Julian … Father, I’m sure.” A blatant manipulation, but I’m sure he appreciated the gesture. “Computers are the future. Everything will be computerized in the next twenty years, so think about us having the best, the fastest computers around. What will that do for the Sicarii?”
“Who attacked us?”
I licked my lips nervously but kept my voice steady. “My guess is the tech baron we stole the drive from. Only he has the kind of money to trace the theft to us. Whoever the attackers were, most likely mercenaries, they are dead now.”
“I’ll be in New York in a couple of hours. Meet me at my suite.”
“Yes, sir.”
Click. I sat there in the General Manager’s office for a good minute until the annoying drone of the dial tone shook me out of my reverie. Julian was coming and that could mean one of two things: a) My ass was about to be turned into a lace doily or b) He wanted to commend me on a job well done. a) would give me a quick disappearing act while option b) allowed me to live a few years longer.
I sure hoped it was option b), because this was one meeting I could not afford to miss.
Pages and pages of crisp white paper slipped through fingers numbed with shock. Jude had murdered a man! I looked at him sleeping peacefully on the bed, lips parted slightly. All these years I hadn’t seen him as a person who could actually kill someone. Granted Dr. Gillan had been a slimy little toad, but crushing his throat and leaving him to choke to death? And enjoying it?
Who was the man whose story was recorded on these pages? Arrogant, cocky, cold and manipulative … not the person I traveled with. Was that what he used to be, or what he now hid beneath a veneer of friendship?
I knelt and began to pray, not just for my soul, but for my friend’s as well. God had led me to Jude, I knew it like I knew the faces of the men I served with in the Iraqi desert, my brothers born of trial and blood. Therefore I would trust in God and my instincts to help me lead Jude/Olivier upon the path of righteousness.
But that didn’t preclude keeping a close eye on him.
Chapter Ten
Jude
Showering came only after I used Avoidance, which, to me, smelled like hospital disinfectant. For a while the spell would mask my presence from … well, everyone, but a lifetime of casting Avoidance every time I feared contact with water looked daunting. Something would have to be done about the Primal Water Julian possessed.
My Cabo Wabo t-shirt was a loss, so I made do with a dark gray, skintight, long-sleeved Henley. Mike still wore his dog collar and black duds, looking as if he hadn’t gone to sleep at all. Which made me realize he probably hadn’t; instead he had most likely read more of my memoirs. From the covert glances he shot my way, I thought I knew which part he’d just finished.
Damn.
How did you talk to your best friend about a man like Gillan and the contemptuous ease with which you ended his life? Could Mike understand? Would he? Hell, it’s been years and I still didn’t quite understand, and I was there!
“Mike,” I began.
He held up a hand. “Not now, Jude.” The look he gave me held buckets of disquiet. “I have to sort some things out for myself, okay?”
“Okay, man. Whatever you need.” If he needed time, time he would get.
Mike held up the silvery crucifix that had dispelled the demon, twisting it to and fro in the harsh light of the room. Sighing, he placed the chain around his neck and let the crucifix dangle to rest between his pecs.
“Where to now, Jude?”
I rubbed my chin. “We go to see Leslie Winchester.”
His icy blue eyes grew wide. “Leslie Winchester? The Leslie Winchester?”
“That would be her.”
“ Cinnamon Relic Leslie Winchester, one of the greatest rock bands of all time Leslie Winchester?”
“Yes, that Leslie Winchester?”
He sat down abruptly on the corner of his rock-hard bed. I hoped he didn’t have hemorrhoids. “I used
“Julian … Father, I’m sure.” A blatant manipulation, but I’m sure he appreciated the gesture. “Computers are the future. Everything will be computerized in the next twenty years, so think about us having the best, the fastest computers around. What will that do for the Sicarii?”
“Who attacked us?”
I licked my lips nervously but kept my voice steady. “My guess is the tech baron we stole the drive from. Only he has the kind of money to trace the theft to us. Whoever the attackers were, most likely mercenaries, they are dead now.”
“I’ll be in New York in a couple of hours. Meet me at my suite.”
“Yes, sir.”
Click. I sat there in the General Manager’s office for a good minute until the annoying drone of the dial tone shook me out of my reverie. Julian was coming and that could mean one of two things: a) My ass was about to be turned into a lace doily or b) He wanted to commend me on a job well done. a) would give me a quick disappearing act while option b) allowed me to live a few years longer.
I sure hoped it was option b), because this was one meeting I could not afford to miss.
Pages and pages of crisp white paper slipped through fingers numbed with shock. Jude had murdered a man! I looked at him sleeping peacefully on the bed, lips parted slightly. All these years I hadn’t seen him as a person who could actually kill someone. Granted Dr. Gillan had been a slimy little toad, but crushing his throat and leaving him to choke to death? And enjoying it?
Who was the man whose story was recorded on these pages? Arrogant, cocky, cold and manipulative … not the person I traveled with. Was that what he used to be, or what he now hid beneath a veneer of friendship?
I knelt and began to pray, not just for my soul, but for my friend’s as well. God had led me to Jude, I knew it like I knew the faces of the men I served with in the Iraqi desert, my brothers born of trial and blood. Therefore I would trust in God and my instincts to help me lead Jude/Olivier upon the path of righteousness.
But that didn’t preclude keeping a close eye on him.
Chapter Ten
Jude
Showering came only after I used Avoidance, which, to me, smelled like hospital disinfectant. For a while the spell would mask my presence from … well, everyone, but a lifetime of casting Avoidance every time I feared contact with water looked daunting. Something would have to be done about the Primal Water Julian possessed.
My Cabo Wabo t-shirt was a loss, so I made do with a dark gray, skintight, long-sleeved Henley. Mike still wore his dog collar and black duds, looking as if he hadn’t gone to sleep at all. Which made me realize he probably hadn’t; instead he had most likely read more of my memoirs. From the covert glances he shot my way, I thought I knew which part he’d just finished.
Damn.
How did you talk to your best friend about a man like Gillan and the contemptuous ease with which you ended his life? Could Mike understand? Would he? Hell, it’s been years and I still didn’t quite understand, and I was there!
“Mike,” I began.
He held up a hand. “Not now, Jude.” The look he gave me held buckets of disquiet. “I have to sort some things out for myself, okay?”
“Okay, man. Whatever you need.” If he needed time, time he would get.
Mike held up the silvery crucifix that had dispelled the demon, twisting it to and fro in the harsh light of the room. Sighing, he placed the chain around his neck and let the crucifix dangle to rest between his pecs.
“Where to now, Jude?”
I rubbed my chin. “We go to see Leslie Winchester.”
His icy blue eyes grew wide. “Leslie Winchester? The Leslie Winchester?”
“That would be her.”
“ Cinnamon Relic Leslie Winchester, one of the greatest rock bands of all time Leslie Winchester?”
“Yes, that Leslie Winchester?”
He sat down abruptly on the corner of his rock-hard bed. I hoped he didn’t have hemorrhoids. “I used
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