DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) by J Kiefer (best classic books to read TXT) 📗

Steve’s smile widened into a harsh grin. “Just Jared, I’m afraid.”

She shook her head and walked away. He watched her go, his thoughts racing.

Then she yelled over her shoulder, “Hey, don’t leave town. We may have a few more questions for you.”

“Am I a suspect or something?” he asked nonchalantly.

She didn’t even bother replying. It was obvious Dana was toying with him to see if he would give anything away. He smiled wickedly. Yes, it was definitely time to find out what she knew.

Thirty-Five

The horde of attackers got heavier as people piled on him. Strangely he still felt neither pain nor the pressure of being crushed. Despite the grasping fingers trying to hold his head down, Jared turned toward the hotel door. He could not see Jeremy, but heard a fight coming from the room. At least Jeremy was still alive. Someone had got Jared’s hand and was attempting to pry open his fist and remove the sword, but his grip held firm.

“Don’t worry. As long as our connection is strong, nothing can separate us,” Tzedakah spoke into his mind.

“That’s good to know,” he said through grunts. “I guess me throwing you into a lake like Excalibur is out of the question, then?”

He managed to get one arm free of the bodies and grabbed a middle-aged blonde woman by her hair. Too hard. Her head whipped back and her neck snapped from the force. She flipped end over end, skipping off the ground like a pebble on water. Her body flopped over, her head bent and facing him, her eyes fixed and lifeless.

Jared gritted his teeth in frustration and anger. His dark eyes saw everything about the woman who now lay dead. She was a schoolteacher with two children, a good person who had tried her best to live her life helping others. He had not intended to kill her, and his heart ached at the thought of her children growing up without their mother. As he continued to look at her, he saw that the red stain melted and fade away.

So, killing them removed the influence of the stain, but it would be murder. No, killing them was not an option. Even Tzedakah agreed they needed to find another way. Jeremy was running out of time and he had to get these people off him quickly so they could regroup and figure out their next move. He gritted his teeth in frustration and reached inside himself, allowing his connection to Tzedakah to get stronger. Doing so was hard for him, because the more he allowed the sword in, the more he felt like he was losing himself.

As soon as he opened his consciousness to Tzedakah, its power surged through him. The blade in his grip burned with a bright blue fire. He growled through his teeth and let out a guttural roar, as he slowly muscled his way to his feet.

Bright blue surges of energy swept out from him, tossing off the people clinging him. One man stubbornly hung on his neck, refusing to let go, somehow managing to ignore the energy that jolted through his body. Jared reached up with his free hand, grabbed the man by his shirt, and hurled him to the side. He struck a parked car, denting the door, and went limp.

Jared ran to the motel room where he knew Jeremy was still fighting. Just before he reached the doorway, he heard Jeremy yell something unintelligible and a brilliant blast of intense light exploded from the opening. Instinctively Jared put his arm up to shield his eyes from the bright light. As soon as the light subsided, three men and two women came stumbling out of the door. They seemed to be dazed and staggered confusedly, blinking and rubbing their eyes from the shock.

A disheveled Jeremy casually walked out of the door as the disoriented people stumbled away. He plucked at one of the sleeves of his coat. “I know. I know!” he said out loud. “I know I should have done that sooner, but I was distracted by the demon zombies trying to rip my face off. Anyway, not to tell You how to do Your job, but if You had intervened sooner, my favorite coat would not have gotten ripped. Oh haha, very funny.”

He walked over to where a surprised Jared stood. “That’ll only stop them temporarily, so we really should get out of here before they recover, or their boss shows up.”

Jared cocked his head and looked at Jeremy. His spirit appeared to be merged with God Himself, and it was so bright that it actually hurt his eyes to look at him. As he watched, the energy slowly faded until it was nothing more than an aura of residual power shrouding him.

“What was that?”

Jeremy stuck a finger through the large tear in his coat and wiggled it. “My favorite coat, with a hole in it! It’s not like I have the money to just go around buying coats all the time.”

“Jeremy,” he snapped. “Stop worrying about the coat and answer my question.”

Sighing, Jeremy left his torn jacket alone for the moment. “A light burst. It’s what usually happens when God or an angel shows up. Too bad their boss was not in that room; he most likely would’ve been fried and this whole mess would be over. Of course, that would just be too easy, wouldn’t it?” This last statement was directed at the sky. “Well, one good thing came of it. The ones that were touched by the light will not be able to be taken over again. So that’s something, anyway.”

A loud roar bellowed from directly above them and reverberated through them like a shock wave. About thirty feet up, a large shadow darker than the night sky hovered in the air. Jared could see that the tendrils of spiritual power were coming from it. Some of the tendrils had been severed, but enough remained connected to be a concern.