Tortured: Book Three of the Jason and Azazel Trilogy by V. J. Chambers

hands. "It doesn't matter how
they feel about you, Jason. I love you."

He put his arms around me and pulled me in close to him. "Eventually,
everyone thinks it, though," he said. "Anton. Hallam. They all start
thinking that I'm—that I'm evil."

"Jason . . ." But hadn't I wondered this? Hadn't I thought this?
"There isn't such a thing," I said. "I don't believe . . ."
And I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to comfort him, so I just
kissed him.  

As our lips met, I wished as hard as I could that we had some kind of help.
That people supported us. That we didn't have to struggle
endlessly against everyone in the world. If only there
was someplace where people really just . . . cared about us.

He kissed me back hungrily, like he was trying to find comfort in my lips. I
opened my mouth to him, letting the sweetness of his tongue into my mouth. I
felt like we were drowning in each other, like there was nothing left in the
world that either of us had besides each other. And we kissed like that until Jude
stirred behind us.

"Could you start hitting me again?" Jude said, his voice raspy. "Because watching you two make out like
that is really a lot worse than when you were just beating me up."

Jason and I stepped back from each other.  

"Still got it bad for my big brother, huh?" said Jude. "You
know, Azazel, they say it's hard for women to leave men who scare them."

"Jude, don't," I said.

"Did you know she told me that once, Jase? She said you scared her,"
Jude continued. He licked his bruised lips.

"Shut up, Jude," I said. He was making things worse. Maybe he'd been
listening to our conversation. Maybe he knew that he was pushing Jason's
buttons.  

"I don't get it, honestly," said Jude. "I mean the guy's a
jealous freak. He's killed as many people as Jack the Ripper. What do you see
in him?"

I wrenched the gun in Jason's hands away from him and strode over to Jude. I
put the gun in his face. "Shut  
up
, Jude," I said.  

"Come on," he said. "Why don't you just tell him how you really
feel about me?" Jude smiled.

I flipped the safety off the gun. "Listen to me, Jude," I said, my voice flat. "If you say one more thing, I will
blow your head off. All that stuff you're saying about Jason . . . We're the
same, Jason and me. Okay? So, don't push me. Don't push Jason." I looked
into Jude's eyes. "Nod if you understand."

Jude didn't move for a second, but then he nodded.  

I noticed something, next to Jude on the ground. I knelt to pick it up. It was
a leather-bound book. I opened it. Handwritten writing filled the pages. A journal of some kind? I held it up. "Jason, you know
what this is?"

Jason shrugged.

"That's mine," Jude said.

"I told you not to talk, didn't I?" I asked him, gesturing with the
gun.

Jude pressed his lips together firmly, but he glared at me, clearly angry.

I stood up, putting the safety back on the gun and handing it back to Jason.
"We'll gag him," I said. "We'll gag him, and we'll make sure
he's tied up really tight. And we'll leave him here until we can talk about
what we're going to do. Okay?"

Jason looked down at the gun and then over at Jude. He nodded.
"Okay."
    * * *
    As I was falling asleep that night, I thought about
what had happened. I thought about what Jason had said to me, about everyone
coming to the conclusion that he was evil. He was right. His mentor Anton had
found out that Jason was Edgar Weem's twisted creation and decided to kill
Jason. Hallam, under the direction of Edgar Weem, had been ready to kill Jason
if he thought that Jason's violence was getting out of control. Every member of
his family had been ready to kill him. Were all of these people wrong? Was
there something dark within Jason? And if there were, what should I do?

If I hadn't found Jason tonight, and he'd gone ahead and killed Jude, I would
have felt horrified. So much of what Jason had done already horrified me. But
tying someone up, beating him bloody, and then putting a bullet in his