10. Chapter 10
Chapter ten
A s Judas and Eliza pulled into the parking lot next to the courthouse, a dark cloud descending over their earlier lust induced joy. A large crowd had already begun to assemble on the surrounding sidewalk and around the raised platform on the lawn. Eliza let out a long sigh taking in the signs in the rally-goer's hands. Things like Deport All Illegals , Build the Wall , and Stop Immigration , Stop the Invasion printed in red, white, and blue on homemade poster boards and custom printed banners. She didn’t want to be seen here, at all. She wanted to crawl into the floorboard of this car and not come out until Judas had returned her home safely.
Judas surveyed the crowd, as well, and was instantly on high alert. Crowds gathered for tenuous issues such as this could be volatile and it seemed wrong to bring Eliza right into the middle of such an event, but he also felt that his presence was exactly what these people needed to be exposed to here. He wanted them to have to look into the face of a man they claim to hate, while they screamed their taunts and threats.
Judas glanced toward Eliza in the passenger seat, “There's a lot of anger in that group.”
Eliza cringed in acknowledgment of the truth, “Yeah, this is not the sort of event I want my dad to be associated with. I definitely don’t want to be associated with it myself.”
“Well,” Judas said with a sigh, “He’s here already and waiting for us.”
Judas pointed out the window to her father, standing by his own vehicle waving wildly at them, two of his bodyguards flanked mere inches from his side. Eliza held the bridge of her nose with two fingers and closed her eyes. Seeing her father more excited than a toddler with a stolen bag of candy, was fundamentally in opposition to everything Eliza believed in and was, honestly, mind bending. The moral implications of standing behind this man that represented everything she wasn’t made Eliza feel as though her karma was going to take a serious hit after this.
She turned to Judas, placing a hand over his, "We shouldn't be here. Dad and the others can manage this one on their own if he really feels like this is where he needs to be. I can't take part in this and you shouldn't be expected to."
Judas nodded and placed a hand over hers, "Trust me when I say that this is not where I would ever want to spend my day but running is exactly what these kinds of people want. They see my skin and they want to intimidate me. I won't give them that. I've faced far more danger, I assure you. I will stand up there on that stage and let them see me doing my job in spite of their hate. They want to call themselves children of God while they hate me for being different, yet the man they call their savior looked like me. I won't give them the satisfaction. Let them look at my face while they spew their hate."
His words touched Eliza in a part of her soul that made her admiration for him bloom into a shining beacon. She smiled solemnly toward him, "Okay. Let's do this."
She waited for Judas to place the small earpiece in his left ear before they exited the car.
If Judas could use the moment as a silent reprimand and protest, she could too. She felt an obligation to be here for her father in a way that would guide him to better things. She could stand here today but tomorrow explain to him why she would never attend something of this sort again and neither should he. Today, she would gather evidence and tomorrow she would present her case whether he wanted to hear it or not.
Judas refused to have Eliza on the stage with her father but took up a post behind him with another of his staff, Bobby. They would run point allowing Travis, an extremely large former linebacker for the Texans football team to stand at Eliza's side. He knew she didn't want to be a part of this nonsense, but he also didn't want to place her in any further risk. He just couldn't bear the thought. She protested but a promise to worship her body later finally got her to obey.
Judas felt the ever familiar pull of resistance as he listened to the empty platitudes of these modern day false prophets. One after another they stood at the microphone and listed off all the reasons God himself had called them to stand before this crowd and save them from a ‘woke’ and sinful future as Americans. Their words were full of hate and thinly veiled racism. They didn’t come right out and say the quiet part out loud, but they tiptoed so close to the line that Judas had to use every ounce of self-control in his highly trained body just to avoid wincing at their words.
In his many lifetimes, Judas had heard similar speeches and watched entire generations of people fall under persecution. First, it was the brand new and evolving Christian sects that were vilified by a very pagan Roman Empire. Then, during the fourth crusade, and while Judas was living as a small farmer outside of Rome, Pope Innocent III declared Jews were a threat to society and would be moved to segregated areas away from Christians. It seemed whoever was in charge at the time gained their power by oppressing someone else and Judas watched it all. The poor, the infirm, the disabled, homosexuals, the Roma, the Jews. He saw the hatefulness of history. The rhetoric from the powerful was the same, it was just wrapped in another country's flag.
The crowd itself wasn’t any better.
They chanted hateful words and rhymes meant to denigrate anyone who was different from them. They were gullible people raised to believe that their prejudices and backward thinking had value and rich and powerful people, like Paul actually cared about them. With every promise of a ‘ Godly America ’ they screamed amen not even remotely realizing the irony of claiming to follow a religion based on the opposite of what they believed.
Yesh would hate every second of this, of that, Judas had no doubt. He would bow his head and likely shed angry tears for the things being spoken here in his name. He might even kick over the microphone. He would stand up against them and they would tear him apart just as the Romans had. This wasn’t new. It was nothing more than a repetition of history. This was hate for nothing, all of it based on a bastardization of who Yesh was. He was an immigrant himself and every single one of these degenerates would probably demand he be deported if he showed up on their doorstep today, all of them guilty of the sin of being inhospitable. Judas looked toward the ground to hide his rueful laugh. Their savior was exactly who they proudly proclaimed unbridled hate and disgust for.
In the short seconds it took him to glanced up, things were beginning to worsen. While the crowd in and of itself was a rowdy bunch, a group of protesters had assembled along the edges of the gathering. This group in no way carried the same energy. Their signs asked for tolerance and love. They yelled out demands for respect for their fellow man regardless of skin color or country of origin. They truly wanted nothing but peace, but their presence only further ignited the chaos already in attendance. Mere moments passed before Judas heard the back and forth arguments of the crowd growing out of control. Normally, this would be just another day. He was no stranger to rebellion or revolt. Somehow, though, today felt different, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight.
His eyes slid over to Eliza standing behind the scenes and fear clenched his gut. He wanted to scoop her up, throw her over his shoulder and get her the hell out of here. He wanted to carry her far away from all this nonsense. He just wanted to disappear with her and to live their lives together in peace.
Judas sucked in a sharp breath. The immense weight and magnitude of that last thought startled him. He’d known he was getting in over his head with the beautiful blonde who smiled back at him, but he had no idea how out of control those feelings were truly becoming. His mind worked to wrap itself around the immense need he suddenly had for her. How could he so deeply desire Eliza when he has lived all these centuries without that heartfelt pull?
He had become so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the change in the air around him. It was only when the churning crowd pushed through the barrier in front of Eliza, shoving her backward, as Travis caught her, that he realized a fight had broken out between the crowd and the protesters. His heart clenched at the sight. He mentally reprimanded his lapse in vigilance as he jumped into action.
He grabbed Paul first, not wasting any time to be polite, latching his fingers around his suit's collar. He yanked the wide- eyed man from his stunned stupor and towards the edge of the stage. The stage itself was becoming unstable as the crowd pushed and pulled against its infrastructure. Paul didn't even hesitate with the floor beginning to wobble and sway beneath his feet, just following along while gasping at the crowd churning into a frenzy before his eyes.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs off the stage, Eliza’s terrified face met Judas’s protective gaze. He handed Paul to the linebacker before wrapping his arm around Eliza's waist, pulling her along with him as he led them all to safety. All the while, one sentence echoed in his mind.
You should have been paying attention.
You should have been paying attention.
You should have been paying attention.
Bodies jostled around them, bumping them along their journey. Expletives and slurs hurled through the air. Judas didn’t know for certain if the words were meant as attacks against him personally, but he knew that he would feel responsible if anything happened to Eliza. Of course, his job demanded his protection of Paul above all, but Judas knew that Paul put himself here in this mess. Paul helped add to the rhetoric that stirred the violence unfolding before them. Paul was responsible for his own well being in this situation, but Eliza…
She was better than all of this. She deserved nothing but a safe departure from a scene she wanted nothing to do with. She deserved complete protection and Judas delivered. While he continued to lead their small contingent through the crowd to the parking lot, Judas tucked Eliza into the curve of his body. Nothing was going to happen to her today, of that he was completely sure.
But someone decided to test that resolve.
A man wearing a homemade t-shirt sporting a sharpie design proclaiming ' Make America White Again' rushed the group from the sidelines and latched his greedy fingers around Eliza's arm. She cried out in pain as the man pulled her away from her guardian. Judas turned toward her bellow and locked eyes with the would-be assailant.
"Just where do you think you're going with her, goat fucker? She's definitely one of ours," the man drawled while leering down at Eliza.
Rage and disbelief bloomed to life in Judas and he moved to tear the tiny minded man to shreds. Without a word, Judas faced the man, everything left his mind, except his desire to remove this man's hate-fueled existence. Towering over him, Judas wrapped one hand tightly around the man's throat and lifted him from the ground. The man's shock caused him to let go and Eliza stumbled away from the fight.
Looking deeply into the man's eyes, Judas growled, "You will never put your hands on a woman without her permission ever again or I will personally find you and break every bone in your body. Do you understand me?"
"Sir!" Travis yelled, his hand clutched gently around Eliza.
The man managed a nod and Judas dropped him to the ground. The man crumbled at Judas's feet and crawled away. Turning back toward Eliza, Judas saw his team had swept both her and Paul into the outskirts of what had become an all out brawl. The shoving from both groups quickly turned into fists being thrown and people covered in blood. It was full on war and Judas was getting swept away in the chaos.
Just a few feet from the barricade, Judas felt a sharp pain in his lower back. He turned just in time to catch a large fist to his left eye. His stoked anger turned to fury as Judas grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and drove his fist into his nose. The man screamed in pain and blood spewed in all directions as he pinballed off others in the crowd before collapsing in a heap on the asphalt.
His earpiece crackled and Bobby's voice boomed, "Sir, we've got the packages out of the hot zone."
Still fuming, Judas pushed his way out of the crowd and hopped over the barrier. He wiped at the last of a small trickle of blood from his quickly healing cheek as he jogged toward Eliza and Paul. Pulling Eliza to his side and wrapping his other arm around Paul's shoulders, they scuttled back to the vehicles. When he determined they were a safe distance, Judas let his grip on the pair loosen. Travis tucked Paul inside while Bobby slid behind the wheel as Judas and Eliza watched his cowardly retreat in awe.
Now locked safely inside his vehicle, Paul cracked the window yelling out to the pair watching him in silence, “Thanks for the quick escape there, Jude. And for keeping my Betsy safe! I’ll see you both in the morning. Gotta get out of here before those ANTIFA bastards get any crazier!”
Without a moment of hesitation, the man with no conscience pulled out of the lot with a wave. Judas continued to shield Eliza all the way to her car door, shaking his head in disgust.
Leaning against the car, he looked out over the crowd, still violently stirring before him. He watched them hate each other with fists and furious screams. The sight made his gut feel queasy and he instinctively brushed his eye once more, but the area was clean and undamaged. Today could have gone so differently. Judas reminded himself that he couldn’t allow lapses like that one again. He must remain on high alert in these situations or something far worse could happen to Eliza.
And, for the first time in his very long life, he knew that he would not survive that heartbreak.
Most of the car ride back to Eliza's apartment they sat in silence. Judas was still in his own thoughts about how he nearly failed the angel sitting next to him, while Eliza wrestled deeply with her recriminations.
The idea of attending today's rally had disgusted her from the start, but now she fully understood the gravity of what she had done. The shame she felt inside her was daunting and heavy on her soul. She never should have been there. She should have told her father no. That's it.
Holding the distaste for being there inside her while standing on the sidelines felt excusable in the moment, but while walking under Judas's hold as the crowd screamed every filthy word of hate they could dream of at him Eliza's faith in her own decisions had crumbled. She hated herself in those long torturous moments. Nothing about this rally was acceptable. Nothing about her presence there was okay in any way.
She finally had to admit to herself that using her blind support of her father was a cop out for the responsibility she needed to own. She knew it was wrong, yet still, she’d said nothing in the moment. That was what cowards did and Eliza refused to be a coward ever again. She would start from this moment forward by being a loud voice against hate of any kind, but first, she owed something to Judas.
As he parked in front of Eliza's building, she turned to him. She knew she’d hurt him with her inaction today and she would do anything to erase it all. To somehow take it back, but she couldn’t. All she could do was take accountability. He gazed back at her with profound sadness pouring from his deep eyes.
Holding his gaze with her own, Eliza spoke, "Judas, I owe you an apology for today."
Confusion crossed his face and his forehead crinkled, "For what? I don't understand."
For a moment, Eliza dropped her eyes to her feet fidgeting nervously on the floorboard, but then shaking her head she looked him in the eye. He deserved that, "We never should have been at that rally today. I never should have allowed my father to have any of us there. I knew it was wrong, but I still went and I will forever regret that decision. You shouldn't have had to stand there and hear all those terrible things those atrocious people were saying. I understand you're hurt and I just wanted you to know that I’m eternally sorry."
Silence fell between them for a moment and Eliza let it sink its teeth into her. She deserved his silence.
But then his deep laugh filled the car and she stared at him with confusion.
"Oh, dear, wonderful Eliza. No apologies needed. I promise. I know your heart. I know you aren't one of those people and I told you why I stayed. That was my choice." His smile now is warm and he placed a gentle hand on her cheek.
She leaned into his warm palm but then shook off his easy acceptance, "No, Judas. You don't have to do that. I can take the reproach. I promise. I should have put my foot down with Dad and none of us would have been there. I know I deserve any bad feelings you have about it and I can tell you're upset. It's okay, really."
Judas leaned toward her and spoke directly to her pleading eyes, "I'm upset because I was too distracted thinking about you to realize we were in danger until it had already begun. It's my job to do better. I am not upset with you. I am upset with myself."
Hearing how completely selfless this man truly was did things to Eliza that she couldn’t quite understand. The only thing she did know for certain was that she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. Without hesitation, she climbed over the console and into his lap. She straddled him, placing one hand on either side of his beautiful face. He licked his lips as a warm blush rose into his face. As she lowered her mouth to his, and Judas wrapped his arms around her tightly, fusing them together. Their tongues tangled and desire flickered to life inside them.
Short of breath, Eliza leaned back, staring down at him, "Would you like to come inside and wash this awful day off with me?"
Immediate thoughts of water running down her bare skin and seeing her body pressed against the slick shower walls took over his every thought. Without a word, he climbed out of the car with Eliza still on his lap. A squeak of surprise escaped her as he effortlessly threw her over his shoulder and began walking up the stairs with her. She giggled uncontrollably and handed him the keys.