Chapter 23 #2
That seemed to bolster him. “Good, I’m glad. I hope you’re happy out here, Jules. And I hope the Sentinels and the paladins aren’t enemies for long.”
“Me, too. Give Daniel my best.”
“I’ll do that.” His face twisted with unhappiness. “I better go. Give ‘em hell when they come.”
Julian nodded, unable to speak past the lump in his throat. With one last, painful smile, like he was committing the moment to memory, Nicolas turned and jogged away, leaving as quickly as he’d come.
Julian ached, and the only thing that assuaged the hurt was when he leaned against Valac, who wrapped his arms around him immediately.
“We should go talk to the others.” The words were muffled against Valac’s chest. His eyes burned, and he scrubbed his face on Valac’s black sweater. “They need to know about this.”
“In a moment,” Valac said, stroking a hand up and down Julian’s back. “Once you’re calm.”
Valac was right, he wasn’t calm. How could he be calm when he’d just been told the paladins were coming for him again?
They’d torn his life apart once already.
Couldn’t that be enough? Did they have to keep coming for him until he was dead—or they were?
He’d never wanted to go to war with them, but they were leaving him no choice.
Was he ready to take up arms against the guild who raised him? He was going to find out.
It was a testament to how well the Sentinels knew him when he and Valac walked through the front door of the Rink and Nathan immediately blurted, “Oh no, what happened?”
That got everyone else’s attention, and Julian wondered what exactly his face was doing, because they all looked various shades of alarmed.
“I’m fine,” he said, and beside him, Valac harrumphed. He amended, “I’m physically fine. But we need to talk.”
“Is this a conversation that we’ll need alcohol to get through?” Talon asked wearily from the snack bar.
Julian paused in consideration. “No.” They probably didn’t want to be impaired while they decided what to do about the paladins. The demons were going to be bloodthirsty enough. The Sentinels, at least, needed to be level-headed.
They sat in the circle of secondhand furniture in the corner. Julian flopped down beside Angela, who patted his knee in commiseration while the rest of them settled around them.
“Okay, lay it on us,” Luke said from an armchair. Malachi sat on the floor between his legs, and Luke gently twirled a lock of his glossy black hair around one finger.
Valac also sat on the floor, beside Julian, and curled a big hand around his ankle. Shadows wrapped up his calf beneath the hem of his jeans, like he needed to both physically and metaphysically make sure Julian didn’t go anywhere.
Julian explained Nicolas’s arrival and his warning. He shared what Nic told him about Sloan checking people’s apartments and belongings for signs of dissent and that he’d gone back to the guild in the hope of salvaging what good remained there.
“I always liked him,” Nathan said. “I hope his optimism doesn’t come back to bite him. You did the right thing by telling them they can come here if they need help. We wouldn’t turn them away.”
Julian smiled. The confirmation was nice to hear but unnecessary. He knew these guys well enough to know as much already. They’d never turn away someone who needed help.
“What do we do about the paladins?” Alex asked, with his elbows on his knees and a hard stare aimed at the floor.
“Kill them all, I think,” Talon said glibly.
“Protest, I protest,” Nathan said automatically.
“I know, I know,” Talon said, waving a dismissive hand, “they’re not all bad, they’ve been indoctrinated, they’re no different than us, blah blah blah.”
Nathan straightened in indignation, opening his mouth.
“Some of them deserve a chance to step away,” Julian interrupted, suspecting this was an argument they’d had before. “Like Nic and Danny.”
“I could ask a sin eater to accompany me to the surface,” Valac suddenly said.
The reaction from the other demons was telling. Talon’s eyes gleamed. Shadrach leaned forward while Malachi and Wolf sat back. Storm’s head tilted, brows rising in consideration. Whatever it was, it was a big deal.
Julian looked between them. “A what now?”
“A type of demon,” Talon said. “One the guild probably knows nothing about, because they usually reside in Hell, feeding on the wrongdoings of human souls. They’re not fans of the surface.”
“And they cannot pass for human,” Valac said. “Any sin eater who ventured to the surface would be confined to the shadows.”
“But they would be able to weed out the rotten fruit,” Talon said.
Valac looked up at Julian. “It feasts on only sinners. They can usually be found in the Pit, gorging themselves on the souls there. But here on the surface, a sin eater would target only the sinful. A sin eater would seek out and destroy any paladins guilty of true wrongdoing and allow the innocent to live. One alone wouldn’t be able to kill all the paladins, but it could certainly help thin their numbers—and help us determine the righteous from the sinful. ”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Julian said. “What kinds of sins are we talking about here? Are there, like, degrees of sin? Because we’re all sinners, right?
We’re human beings. That’s the whole schtick.
Everybody sins. Drinking too much, cutting somebody off in line, cheating on a spouse, theft.
Where’s the line? If you bring one of these things here, will it kill us for the drinking and—” he tugged his earlobe self-consciously, suddenly aware of everyone’s eyes on him, “—y’know, general debauchery and stuff? ”
Malachi’s mouth twitched.
It was Talon who patiently said, “No. Sin eaters go after the most malicious. Those who intentionally hurt others and enjoy it. They don’t care about petty sins like drinking and sex and cutting people off in line.”
“You could say it less scathingly,” Julian muttered, and Angela snorted out a laugh.
“Be less naive, then,” Talon retorted, albeit with good humor.
Alex laughed, then, sitting back and tugging Talon’s hand over to kiss his knuckles. “Be nice.”
“The sin eater will only go after those most deserving,” Valac promised, his thumb stroking Julian’s ankle. “None of you will be in any danger. Neither will your friends nor the other truly good people of the guild.”
“Including children, right?” He thought as much, but he wanted to hear it explicitly stated.
Talon rolled his eyes. “No children will be harmed in the destroying of the hypocritical guild. You have my word.”
“I don’t know how much that’s actually worth,” Julian quipped, and Talon sneered, his eyes twinkling with real mirth. He was prickly and sarcastic, but he seemed to enjoy when people fired back.
Alex looked like he was fighting a smile. “Harming children would upset me.”
Talon gestured toward him as though to say, ‘see?’
Right. None of these demons would do anything to upset their people.
Sitting adjacent to him, Ira was quiet, his head tilted thoughtfully as the conversation ebbed and flowed around him. Julian nudged his shoe with his own to get his attention.
“You’ve been quiet,” he said. “What do you think?”
Ira’s brow furrowed. “What does a sin eater look like, exactly?”
Wolf, Malachi, and Storm looked at each other with shrugs. One side of Shadrach’s lip curled, and he bobbed his head from side to side in a so-so manner. Talon looked thoughtful, and it was Valac who actually replied.
“Their skin is black like coal. They’re tall—”
“As tall as you?” Julian asked.
Valac smiled. “No, but close to Wolf, I think. The ones I’ve seen wear cloaks with deep hoods, and the only thing visible underneath are their glowing eyes. I can’t say for sure what else. I’ve never seen one of their faces.”
Ira’s brows had risen during Valac’s description. “Huh.”
“What?” Julian asked.
Ira blinked, coming back to himself. “Uh, a sin eater would be helpful.”
Talon’s eyes narrowed. “Please do not tell me some paladin is going to fall for a fucking sin eater.”
Ira pressed his lips together. “Okay. I won’t tell you that.”
Talon didn’t look amused, but his glare had the rest of them fighting laughter.
“Tal, it’s a good thing,” Alex said. “It means we know we’ll have more allies.”
“Putting a sin eater in the room with the rest of us is going to be like…” Shadrach paused, shaking his head as he tried to come up with an example, “putting Tarzan in a room with a bunch of college grads.”
Isaac snorted out a laugh. “What?”
“Don’t laugh, I’m serious!” Shadrach said, and Julian noticed Talon and Valac were nodding in agreement.
“It might behave a little more like an intelligent creature, but it’s still very much a monster at heart.
This is a creature who’s never been to the surface, ever.
What little it might know about Earth, it’s learned by consuming the sins of the damned.
You might loosely consider it an ally, but don’t expect it to be like the rest of us. ”
Julian looked at Ira, whose expression gave nothing away. He was more open about his visions here than any prophet Julian had ever met at the guild, but he still kept a lot to himself. It was probably for the best. If they knew too much, they might accidentally ruin things.
“But it’s what’s meant to happen,” Julian guessed, and Ira met his eyes. “Right?”
Ira smiled serenely. “That’s right.”
Nathan blew out a breath, pushing his fingers through his short, chestnut hair. “We’re really doing this? Going after the guild? Dismantling it piece by piece?”
Julian looked from human to human. The demons didn’t care, didn’t feel the gravity of this decision the way they did. Once they started down this path, there was no going back. War could not be undone.
“They aren’t giving us a choice,” Alex said. “It wasn’t enough to banish us. They’ve tried to kill everyone in this room. They’ll keep coming, no matter what we do.”
“What do we do about the guys coming for Julian?” Luke asked. “We can’t let them catch him by surprise.”
Isaac, with a dark, calculating look, asked, “How long would it take to get a sin eater here?”
Julian’s stomach twisted into a knot. Valac would have to be the one to go into Hell and get the sin eater. He’d said he didn’t mind if Valac traveled back and forth, but the idea of being left alone again when the paladins were hunting him had panic clawing up his throat.
“A few days, if I move quickly,” Valac said. “Getting to Astaroth took longer, because his is a remote location. Getting to a sin eater in the Pit would be a much faster trip.”
“What’s your plan, killer?” Shadrach asked Isaac.
“We’ve got the old In Extremis location just sitting there. If we dress it up like it’s still the bar, let Julian be seen heading there, we can draw the paladins in.”
“You want to use my human as bait?” Valac growled.
“It’s not a bad plan,” Julian said, though he didn’t like it. “They’re already looking for me.” What better way to lead them into a trap?
“And we’ll have your back,” Isaac said.
Valac straightened, a dangerous growl rattling out of him as he turned to meet Julian’s eyes. “You don’t make a move until I’ve returned with the sin eater.”
Julian’s mouth was dry, and it was a relief to agree. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to.”
Valac didn’t seem assuaged. His hand grasped Julian’s ankle tightly. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you. The last time I left, they nearly killed you.”
“Yeah,” Julian agreed glumly. “But I was alone then. I’m not alone now, and they don’t know where I’m staying. They know about the Rink, so as long as I avoid this place while you’re gone—or at least avoid being seen outside—I’ll be safe.”
“We’ll keep an eye on him,” Nathan offered. “He’s right; he won’t be alone again. This isn’t just his fight. It’s ours, too. We’ll have each other’s backs.”