V.J. Chambers - Jason&Azazel Apocalypse 01 (6 page)

Lucy and I got started with our session. She had me close my eyes and lean back in the chair.

She began to speak in a soothing voice, telling me to relax and think of a warm, dark, empty
place. This was how all the sessions started. Apparently, in order to master my power,
visualization was very important. Grounding myself in an imagined space provided my mind a
space to work from. Or something.

I did as she asked, immersing myself in warmth and darkness. There was nothing there, not even
my body. Everything was dark and warm and comfortable. I felt, like usual, that I might go to
sleep.

“I’ve been telling you to imagine your power filling this space,” said Lucy’s voice, velvety and
comforting, floating into my dark warmth, “and it hasn’t been working. Today, instead, I’d like
you to imagine that there is a container in the room. You can make it look however you’d like.”

I imagined a huge glass bottle in the middle of my dark space.

“The container has a cap or a lid,” continued Lucy.

I imagined the glass bottle capped tightly.

“Inside this container,” said Lucy, “is your power. You’ve put it all inside the container. Now,
you need to let it out, by opening the cap or lid.”

Oh, what the heck? Nothing ever happened anyway. I imagined popping the cap off the glass
bottle.

“When you open the container, your power rushes out.”

My power looked like soda in my imagination. It foamed over the lid and spilled out into the
darkness.

I felt an odd tingling feeling in my stomach. It was as if the warmth from the dark space I was
imagining was spilling out into my body. The tingling began to spread over my torso, into my
limbs. It flowed up my spine, bubbling like Coca-Cola, and I felt it nudge the back of my brain.

“I feel something,” I gasped to Lucy.

“So do I,” said Lucy. “You’ve done it. You’ve released your power!”

She sounded excited. I was too. “What should I do?” I asked.

“Slowly open your eyes,” she said, “and see if you can still feel it when you do.”

I eased my eyelids open. Lucy was sitting across from me in one of her chairs. The room looked
exactly the same. But suddenly, I could feel Lucy’s brain. I couldn’t read her thoughts or
anything like that, but I could get a sense of what she wanted. Right now, more than anything,
she wanted me to be able to use my powers. Cool! “I can feel it,” I told her. “I can feel you too.

What you’re focused on right now.”

“Good,” said Lucy. “See if you can stretch out further, beyond this room.”

I imagined my power as a bubbling liquid, spreading out through the building. I couldn’t make
out individuals, but I could feel the divergent desires of many, many minds. Suddenly, it seemed
easy. I could…make everyone want to dance the mambo!

Lucy stood up and began to undulate her hips. Ha! I was doing it! I was controlling her. I got up
out of my chair and ran to the door. Flinging it open, I looked down the hall. Everywhere,
everyone was dancing the mambo. No way! This was fabulous.

My head felt bubbly, like the power was dancing around inside my brain. It was surging,
growing more powerful by the second. The things I could do with power like this! Geez. I
could—

Make them all stab each other,
whispered a ghostly voice from inside my head. I pictured it for a
second. All of the people in the office wielding whatever weapon they could find. Scissors. Pens.

Pencils. Letter openers. Blood would be everywhere, soaking into Lucy’s shag carpet…

The people weren’t mambo dancing anymore. Now, they were stalking out of their cubicles,
heading towards each other, their faces ugly.

No. I didn’t want this. I stuffed the power down, pulling it together and shoving it back inside the
glass bottle. I slammed the cap back on.

Everyone shook themselves and went back to their desks. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Lucy called to me from inside her office.

I turned to her. “Are we sure that my using this power is a good idea?” I asked.

Chapter Four

Kieran found me in the out building of the church, which apparently wasn’t being used for anything. It was piled with junk that Hallam and Marlena’s group must have moved from the church. Desks, computers, phones. Once I think it might have been the church’s office. I had crawled underneath one of the desks in the room and was clutching my knees to my chest, concentrating on not crying.

Kieran found me in five minutes. He sat down next to me on the floor.

I glared at him. “Go away.”

He studied his fingernails. “I get that you might not want me to come and talk to you, after what you said to me last night. But Hallam and Marlena are upset too.”

“No one needs to talk to me,” I said. If I talked, I might burst into tears. I’d never cried in front of Kieran. Before the thing had happened between us, Kieran had just been one of the guys. I did my best not to show weakness in front of them. Now, I was acting like a little girl. I hated it.

“Hey, it’s really understandable. This is a stressful situation for you. Having to see Jason again must have been pretty disturbing.”

“It’s not about that.” What was it about, anyway?

“Everyone’s stressed out. Sometimes I have a hard time too.”

God. I didn’t want Kieran to sympathize with me. Kieran was half the problem anyway. If I’d never gotten drunk with him, half of my problems wouldn’t exist. Yes. That was good. If I just got angry, I could keep back the tears. “You have no idea what’s going on with me,” I said.

“I don’t. I wish you’d tell me.”

I crawled out from under the desk and got to my feet. I looked down at him. “Do you? Do you really?”

He stood up too. “Really,” he said. “I want us to be friends.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Okay.” Kieran took a step back. “Look, I don’t know why you hate me so much. You seemed to like me fine before. If I’d known that having sex with you would make everything so weird, I never would have done it.”

“It’s not just the sex.” I mean, it was because of the sex, but I could love ‘em and leave ‘em. I wasn’t weak.

“Sure, whatever. I’m sick of this junior high crap, though. We had sex; it was fun; it didn’t mean anything. Let’s get over it.” He started out of the building.

I jammed my hands in my pockets. Good. He was leaving. That’s what I wanted.

I don’t know why I called after him. “I want to get over it, but I can’t.”

He stopped and looked at me. “What’s that mean?”

I walked over to him. I didn’t want to yell this across a room. “I’m late,” I said.

“For what?” He looked puzzled.

“My period,” I said, “is late.”

Kieran didn’t say anything. His eyes widened. His adam’s apple bobbed. He took a huge, shuddering breath.

I stepped around him and walked out of the out building, back towards the church.

Kieran caught up with me in a few minutes. He stopped me and turned me around to face him.

“We used a condom,” he said.

I shrugged. “I think it was old. And they don’t always work anyway.”

He shook his head. “This can’t be happening.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. I kept walking back to the church. Kieran didn’t stop me again.

* * *

The rest of the day was tense. Hallam didn’t want to talk to me. Marlena was with Hallam.

Kieran avoided me. I spent the day with two members of the group who were hunting. I tried to get some information from them about where the scouting party (including Lily and the grimoire) might have gone. They gave me a basic idea of the layout of Columbus, Kentucky, which was a very small town. Most of the houses in and around it were abandoned. They figured that most of the locals had joined Jason. Jason was apparently camped out in Columbus-Belmont park, some historic memorial to a battle in the Civil War. The abandoned houses were most likely the places the scouting party would have hit.

Eventually, they made me stop talking, because they said I was scaring the animals away. It was probably a good thing that I did, because shortly after that, someone shot a deer. That was a lot of meat. It was too bad we no longer had refrigerators, because there was no way we’d be able to eat all of it before it went bad.

I didn’t stick around long enough to watch the guys gut and clean the meat. Too gross. Ugh.

I helped with cooking dinner again and with cleaning up afterwards. There was no laughing and chattering during our evening meal that day, only silence. Everyone seemed grim or angry.

I headed back to my sleeping area shortly after eating. I hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after my dream last night, and I felt pretty tired. The odds were good I’d have another nightmare tonight, but maybe if I went to bed early, I’d get in a few more hours. One of the guys who I’d been hunting with was already in the room when I walked in. His name was Gus, I thought.

I said hi and made my way through the partitions to my own little area.

He called after me, “Is what Hallam says true?”

I ducked back out from behind the hanging sheets. “About what?”

He looked a little embarrassed. “About being able to influence all the people in the park. Making them jump in the river or something.”

Great. I wished Hallam hadn’t been so forthcoming about my abilities to everyone else. “I don’t like doing that kind of thing,” I said. “It’s all death and destruction and blood and—” How could I make him understand that so much of my life had been swallowed by violence? How could I make him understand that I just didn’t want to hurt people anymore?

“But you’d be able to get the others back,” he said.

I sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I told Hallam that.”

He bit his lip. “It’s just that one of the people in the scouting party is my wife. They sent back her finger and…” His face twisted. He looked like he might start crying.

I lowered my head. “I’m sorry.”

“If there was anything you could do, I beg you, please, do it,” he said. There were tears in his voice.

I wouldn’t look at him. It would be too much. I already felt guilty enough. “You don’t understand,” I managed. “It’s destructive. It’s wrong. I can’t hurt all those people.”

“Please,” he repeated, sounding so empty and hollow.

I darted back into my sleeping area. I didn’t say anything else to him, but I heard him sobbing. I hated hearing men cry. I’d heard too much of it ever since the lights had gone out. I just yanked the covers over my head and tried not to listen.

Exhaustion claimed me, and I fell asleep.

The dreams were waiting.

I sat on a plush couch, piled with silks and velvets. I was surrounded by opulence: elaborate paintings framed with gold, dangling crystal chandeliers, thick soft carpeting, and expensive furniture. Servants came in and out of the room, bearing trays laden with fruits and meats. I felt like an Egyptian queen as I lounged there. All that was missing were men in loincloths fanning me with huge leaves.

Instead, Jason appeared behind my couch. I smiled up at him. He looked just as beautiful as he always did. “Hello, love,” I said.

He leaned over the back of the couch and kissed me, long and deep. I wanted to pull him down on top of me and run my hands over his body, but he pulled away after the kiss, stroking my forehead. He crossed the room to another couch and settled on it.

“Darling,” he said, “we have prisoners to deal with.”

I sighed. “More of them?” I pouted.

“Yes,” said Jason, “well, it’s hard work ruling the world.”

He was so right. It was. Oh, how we suffered. I caught his eyes with my own and we shared an empathetic look. Only we understood what this was like.

“Well,” I said, “bring them in.”

Jason waved his hand carelessly at the servants.

A door on the other side of the room opened and several guards escorted two men inside. The men were dirty and grizzled. They were chained hand and foot. They had scabs and scars crisscrossing their hands and faces. Still, there was a look of determination in their eyes, a fire. I smiled at Jason. Between the two of us, we’d put that fire out. It was what we did best.

The men were forced to their knees in front of us.

One of the guards stepped forward. “These men are members of the Resistance, your Worship.

They have committed crimes of treason against your empire.”

Jason raised his eyebrows. He addressed the prisoners. “The punishment for such crimes is death. Are you aware of this?”

The men stared straight ahead, refusing to answer.

“Your emperor has asked you a question,” I said. “Answer him.”

They were stonily silent.

I narrowed my eyes, sending a tendril of magic across the room towards the men. At once, they grimaced in pain. “Answer your emperor,” I repeated.

“Yes,” one of the men replied, but he still didn’t look defeated. He still looked angry. We’d break him, though. Of course we would.

Jason smiled at me in thanks. “We can kill you one of two ways,” he said. “The first way is quick. It will be over in seconds. The pain will not last. The second is long and excruciating. You will feel more pain than you thought possible and it will go on for quite some time, until your body cannot handle it.” Jason paused. “I’m sure you would prefer to die the first way. And we can arrange that. All we need to know is the location of the Resistance base. Where are the Resistance leaders?”

“We’ll never tell you that,” said one of the men.

I smiled. “Oh good. I was hoping they’d pick the second option. It’s so much more fun.”

Jason reached his hand across the arm of the couch. I did the same. “So was I, my love,” he said.

“So was I.”

Our fingers brushed. Our hands met and clasped. The power danced through us, like electric current on wire. We turned to the two men. The power burst from us. They writhed and screamed and bled and hurt.