The bastard had been waiting for him. He’d shot him.
Adrian saw spots in front of his eyes, and knew he didn’t have much time.
He rested against a tree, smelled the blood seeping from his side. He must return to Eden. He needed Curtis’s healing power, and the power of his sacrosancts. They would be able to pick the pellets from his side and nurse him back to health.
While he rested, catching his breath, he thought about his old friend Doug. The man who’d betrayed him, who faked his love and duty, who’d stolen Adrian’s plaything. The younger girls were his to do with as he saw fit, and while he understood the necessity of the Reasoning, he didn’t particularly enjoy his job with them. He was all about the chase, the challenge, finding the right look then ripping them from their lives to please his mistress, who wanted girls in her own image to be Eden’s daughters.
Curtis’s love was more important than any tenet in the Book, or what little morality he’d been taught. When he brought the unclean ones to her, he was rewarded with a week of freedom, freedom to roam, to fulfill his base urges, to steal life from the unsuspecting.
He’d lived for those moments.
Things were going so well.
And then his old friend, the one they’d made the bargain with, the one they’d promised to leave alone, had to torpedo their lives and ruin everything.
He would kill him all over again if he could, wrap his arms around his neck and squeeze until his limbs splayed out like a spider pinned to a board, his arms pummeling Adrian’s chest, heels against his thighs, as the life left him.
How far the mighty had fallen.
He pushed off the tree, worked his way through the woods, back to his car. He gave it a quick look and it appeared undisturbed. He fumbled with the keys, realized he was light-headed. He got the door open and sat heavily.
He needed to go now, or he’d be too weak to make the two-hour drive.
Two hours to the love of his people, the gentle hands of his mistress, and then they’d make their plan.
He pulled out onto Highway 29 too fast, the tires scrabbling in the scree until they gained purchase on the pavement, and drove north, letting his mind wander where it would.
*
It was a week before Christmas, 2001. Adrian had spent a week waiting every night at the Tombs, a bar he knew Doug liked to frequent back in the day. He’d kept an eye on his old friend since he’d returned to northern Virginia after his stint in the military. He’d gone to college, and landed a job with the Fairfax County Police. Through all of that, Doug was predictable. He returned to his old haunts on a regular basis, almost as if he were looking for something. Or someone.
Curtis had decided she needed Doug, and it was Adrian’s duty to bring him into the fold.
Doug walked through the doors at eleven, already drunk, a blonde wearing a postage-stamp-sized dress on his arm. He’d grown over the years, filled out, was broad and tall and handsome. Not as big as Adrian, of course; few were. But the marines and the police had done a good job of turning Doug from a boy to a man. The way Curtis had done for Adrian.
He let his old friend get a beer, dance a bit and stick his tongue down the blonde’s throat a few times before he approached. He went slowly and gently; he knew his size alarmed people. That and the look of reckless fury simmering in his eyes. He had become the fiery sword in the years since they parted. He had the power now.
Doug saw him coming. His eyes opened wide, then he was in his old friend’s arms, slapping him on the back.
“Where the hell have you been all these years? You dropped out of school and no one heard from you.”
“Around. How are you, Doug?”
“Good, good. This is...” He paused and the girl supplied her name, which Adrian didn’t hear. He was too focused on Doug. On how he was going to recruit him. He didn’t want to bring Doug in kicking and screaming. He wanted him to see the joy and beauty Eden had to offer, and want to be a part of them.
Adrian leaned in, shouted in Doug’s ear, “Let’s get out of here. It’s too loud to think.”
“Sure, okay. Let me get rid of this chick. I’ll meet you outside in ten.”
It had been a night to remember. Drunk on beer and life and happiness at seeing his old friend, Doug was willing to talk honestly and openly about things Adrian never thought he would. Like his time overseas, about how he became disillusioned with the political agenda, saw where they were headed, right into another big war, and decided to come home and finish college. He thought being a cop would satisfy him. But there was something still missing from his life.
And when Adrian told him about Eden, about the love and acceptance and journey he’d been on, Doug was genuinely happy for him. He hadn’t wanted to come home with Adrian, but said maybe another time.