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

not thought anything of it, but now it all made sense. He had even minimized the importance of a body disappearing from the morgue as if dead bodies got up and walked away all the time. To his defense, he had warned her not to get involved, but it was too late for that now.

She drew her weapon and turned to Lee. “You got this?”

People were starting to congregate around them, but otherwise, they were keeping their distance. He looked around at the bystanders and then nodded. “Yeah, I can handle this. I will call for EMS and back up. Are you sure you’re going to be okay going off by yourself?”

She had to find out just what was going on and did not have time to wait for help to arrive.

“Yeah,” she said setting her jaw. “I hope anyway.”

She turned and quickly started off in the direction the two perpetrators had fled. Before she had gone far, however, Lee called out to her. “Detective!”

“Yeah?” she responded, impatiently turning around.

“Get that son of a bitch,” he said with a smile.

She smiled back at him and gave him a quick salute before she continued her pursuit.

Forty-Four

Jared finally came to a halt when he crashed into a huge oak tree just on the edge of the river’s waterline. Luckily, his body had come to a stop in a sitting position against the tree trunk. Leaves flitted down around him. Jared did not have time to enjoy them, as his brother came crashing through the tree line.

“Jared,” Tzedakah whispered. “Trust me.”

He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “No. Not if it means killing my brother,” he said.

“You must,” he pleaded. “We are almost out of time.”

Steve reached his brother and bent down so they were face-to-face. He leered at him, revealing a mouth full of teeth elongated into the shape of tiny daggers. His eyes were wild, demonic, and glowing blood-red. His fingernails had extended into vicious claws, which he raked against Jared’s chest.

“I must admit,” he said in a voice more guttural than before. “I was somewhat sad when I was forced to kill you back in New York. Sure, I hate Mom and Dad, but I never held any ill will toward you.”

Jared met his brother’s gaze and glared at him angrily. He wanted to kill him. He wanted Justice, not only for himself, but for all of Steve’s victims. Suddenly, as if he had turned on some kind of switch, he could hear the sentient sword’s voice clearly once again. He realized at that moment, that the more he desired justice for his brother’s victims, the stronger his connection with Tzedakah grew. Tzedakah hated injustice and his brother had become an avatar for everything he despised. By allowing himself to want justice, which required his brother’s death, he was bringing his desires in line with the longings of the sentient sword.

Even so, he could not bring himself to kill his younger brother, no matter how much he deserved it. Strangely, Tzedakah was silent. He could still feel the raw emotion of the sword through their mental link, but he was no longer demanding Steve’s death.

“Why?” Jared asked his brother.

His voice was hollow and ethereal and no longer resembled his former one. It didn’t seem to originate from Jared’s body either, but rose as if from some distant, invisible realm. Steve was confused when he heard it and backed away.

“I have to say, big brother,” he said warily, “this new you is quite frightening. I mean, I am literally becoming a demon from hell, but you—you are a whole new level of terrifying.”

Even though Jared could now hear Tzedakah clearly, he still did not trust him. He did not want to hurt his brother, despite the fact that he was a monster. Deep down in his heart, however, he knew that Tzedakah was right and that his brother had to die.

“You asked me why,” Steve said, lowering his guard and taking a step backward. “Well, I killed you because I was afraid you saw me murder the girl at the show. I knew that even if you wanted to, there was no way you could overlook that. I mean, when we were kids, you couldn’t handle having anything bad on your conscience. There was no way you’d be able to keep quiet about something like that.”

He shrugged and scratched his head with his long nails. “If you were hoping for something more profound, I am sorry. Sure, I was a bit jealous that you were able to move on from Hope’s death and I was not, but that wasn’t why I killed you. Really, it was just wrong place, wrong time.

“Now, if you are asking me why I kill people, well, that is a different matter entirely. Long story short, I hate God for not saving Hope while you all get to live. By killing people, I hurt Him and that makes me happy. Sure, hearing myself say that out loud now makes me realize that I have some pretty deep issues, but at this point, I really don’t care.”

It was at that moment that Dana emerged from the small tree line next to the river. It was nautical twilight so there was just enough light for her to make out that there were two people in front of her, but not enough to see any distinguishing features. She raised her duty weapon and pointed it in the direction of the two men.

“Binghamton police!” she shouted. “Put your hands on your heads and get down on the ground.”

Jared’s eyes went wide and Steve grinned mischievously, as they both recognized her voice. The two brothers stared at each other, neither moving as Dana shouted more commands.

Jared’s connection to Tzedakah was not yet whole, so he was not fast enough to stop his brother when he turned toward Dana. With frightening speed, Steve launched a thin shadow dagger at her while slamming his fist into Jared’s