Saint of Sinners (12 page)

Do you think it’s an animal?

“I don’t know.” I tried to dig deeper, focus the feeling, figure out what they were saying. “You’re the only one I can mind speak with. It’s so weird.” Like something echoing down a long corridor, the words blurred into nonsense.

It came a third time. I closed my eyes and asked,
Who are you? What do you want?
I focused on the sound until my head hurt.

Please help me! Make him stop! He said you would help…

Who said I would help?
Something hummed along the connection and I could almost feel where it was coming from.

Make him stop!
I didn’t know whether the voice had heard me or not.

I opened my eyes and stood. “I think I can follow the voice.”

Where?
Mew-Mew asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” I shut my eyes, searching along the connection. The voice kept calling for help as I pulled on my power.
There, take me there, to the voice,
I thought. A lurch and a shift, and I was somewhere else.

I opened my eyes to see a man leaning over a curled body, hitting it over and over. The voice echoed in my head now, still pleading.

“Stop!” I shot a hand out and froze the man as he came down for another blow.

“What the hell?” He tried to move and I flung him into the wall. He landed with a grunt and sat blinking for a few seconds.

I hurried over to the victim hunched on the floor. “Can you get up?” I touched his shoulder gently. The voice in my head stopped.

Behind me, the man demanded, “Who the hell are you? How the hell did you get in my house?”

I turned to find him getting to his feet. “Sit the fuck down.” I slammed him into the wall again, and it took some control not to kill him. He didn’t look like my father, but he had the same tone in his voice.

The victim turned and I saw it was a kid a little younger than me. “What’s going on? Who are you?” he asked. He had a nasty purple bruise on the side of his face, and I bet there were at least half a dozen more scattered on his body.

“I… heard you. You were calling for help.”

The kid sat up fast and winced. “Holy crap, are you him?”

“Him who?”

The kid opened his mouth, but an angry growl caught my attention. Daddy was getting to his feet and looked like he wanted to do the same damage to me as he had to Junior. I knocked his legs out from under him and he went crashing to the floor.

Junior stumbled to his feet, using a nearby chair for support. “You’re the Antichrist.”

“
What
?”

“Tim said you would help me. Oh my God, you’re
real
.”

“Who the fuck is Tim?” I asked.

Once again, we were interrupted by Daddy getting up. “I don’t know what the hell you are, but I’m gonna make you sor—”

From ten feet away, I lifted my hand and choked him. I didn’t want him to keep interrupting. It would be so easy to increase the pressure, crush his windpipe, and kill him, but my time playing normal had taught me a lot about restraint and control. So I just squeezed while his face got redder and redder.

“What are you doing? You’re gonna kill him.” I couldn’t tell if Junior was more worried or hopeful.

“Not gonna kill him, just gonna knock him out.”

The asshole grabbed at his throat, trying to pull away hands that weren’t there. I kept up the pressure until his eyes rolled back and he slumped, then I dropped him.

“So who is Tim and why did he say I would help you?”

Junior stared at me.

We went to his room since I thought it might calm him down a little if he wasn’t in the same room as his unconscious father. It took him a moment to stop staring and give me a straight answer. “Tim is the kid I met in the group home. He said you saved him, killed his parents.”

Most of the kids I’d saved that night had been young, but there was one old enough to really understand what was going on. “The kid with the black eye.”

“What?” Junior asked.

“His parents locked him in his room and I got him out before I burned the house down.”

Junior gaped at me again. “It really is you. The Antichrist. He said if we prayed to you, you’d save us.”

Lightbulb. “So that’s what you were doing when your dad was beating you?”

Junior nodded. “I thought it was crazy, but it’s not like praying to God ever did anything. Holy crap, it really worked!”

“It did.” I was almost as surprised as he was. “You prayed, and I heard you. I followed your prayer right to you.” I shook my head. “So your dad beats you a lot?”

Junior nodded. “It’s gotten a lot worse since he found out I was gay.” He flinched. “That doesn’t make you mad, does it? I mean, if you’re the
Anti
christ, then you’d be for everything the Christians are against, right?”

“It doesn’t quite work that way, but I definitely don’t have a problem with you being gay. Hearing that makes me want to hit your dad a few more times.” Gay-bashing asshole. “Which reminds me, I left a mess out there. I think you should call the cops and report your dad beating you. Just say some guy showed up and beat your dad. Don’t tell them who I am or they’ll just think you’re crazy. Your dad saw me, he’ll back up your story. I don’t think he’d want to lie and say
you
did that to him, although you never know.” I wondered what he would do in that situation.

“Maybe they’ll finally take me away for good this time. I’d rather be at the group home.”

“When you get there, pray for me again. I want to talk to Tim.”

“They’re gonna flip when they see you, especially the ones that thought Tim was nuts.” He reached out, like he wanted to touch me. “You’re really real, aren’t you?”

I stepped closer so he could touch my arm. “Flesh and blood, just like you. I’m half human.” Junior ran a hand along my arm while I wondered about this new twist. Then I thought of something. “Hey, Tim doesn’t sacrifice cats or anything, does he?”

Junior snorted. “Are you kidding? He asked if he could volunteer at the Humane Society. He said you told him to save cats.”

“Damn right I did.” At least I didn’t have to worry about that. I needed to talk to Tim and his friends, though, and make sure I could set them straight. I wasn’t sure how I felt about them worshipping me, but I couldn’t blame Junior for praying to me while his dad beat him. If the other kids thought I could save them from abuse, did I want to turn them down? If I was their one hope for protection, could I really say no just because the idea of having worshippers made me uncomfortable?

***

I got the call again later that night. It wasn’t as intense as it had been earlier, but it was more clear than what I’d felt during gym class. It was harder to find the line leading me to him, but after a few minutes I got a lock on it. I teleported into the middle of a bedroom with three beds and a crowd of teenagers. All of them gasped and most of them took a step back, staring at me.

I turned to find Junior and said, “You called?”

He grinned. “See, I told you.”

Next to him was Tim, and it was indeed the kid I’d rescued from his parents’ house the night after Halloween. He looked better without the black eye. “I’m doing what you told me. I’m trying to save cats. I feed the strays in the neighborhood. I tried to volunteer for the Humane Society, but they turned me down.” He stared at me, then his eyes flicked down. “Should I… kneel or something?”

“No, you don’t need to do that. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Is this a trick?” one of the girls asked.

“No, no trick.” I turned to look at her and glanced at some of the other kids. There were a dozen of them crowding the small bedroom. “Are
all
of you worshipping me?”

One kid snorted. “No. You’re not a god. This is crazy. Gods don’t exist.”

“I’m half god and half human. Gods do exist.”

“Tim said you’re the son of the devil, so that means you’re evil.”

Some of the kids inched toward the door. “I’m not evil. Do you remember the weird eclipse this summer? The one that made everyone freak out until some scientists came up with a bullshit explanation about an asteroid passing close to Earth?” They nodded. “Well, that was Satan trying to take over the world. I stopped him. I fought him and I saved the world, and that was
after
I’d saved the world twice already.”

“And he saved me from my parents,” Tim said.

“And me,” Junior said.

“How’d things go, by the way?” I asked him. “Did your dad back up your story?”

Junior nodded. “He said some stranger came in and beat him up. He tried to say you were the one that beat me too, but I told the police it was him and that you saved me. It sounds like they might take me away for good this time.” He smiled.

“You really expect us to believe this shit?” the doubter asked.

“You just watched me teleport into the room. You want more proof?” Fire was a bad idea, so I looked around for something to freeze. One of the little nightstands had a can of Pepsi sitting on it. I reached a hand out and in two seconds it was covered in ice. Most of them gasped, and one boy ran out of the room. I hoped he wasn’t going to find an adult, because I had more to talk about.

I looked around at the remaining kids. “Look, here’s the deal. I don’t want to waste more time proving things to you. Tim and… what’s your name?”

“Andre,” the kid I’d been calling Junior said.

“Andre,” I repeated to help me remember. “They’re telling the truth. I have some of the powers of a god, and I found out today that if you pray to me I can hear you. I’m not really comfortable with the idea of you worshipping me. Everyone who worshipped me before has been a Satanist, and they treated me like Daddy’s little boy. I love cats, I don’t want the world to end, and if I find out you’re doing evil shit in my name, I’m gonna be pissed. Just ask Tim why I killed his parents.”

“Because they sacrificed a cat, and he spared me because I didn’t help them,” Tim said. I guess he’d taken me literally.

“So if you don’t want us to worship you, what should we do?” Andre asked. “I prayed to God all the time and he never did anything. I prayed to you once and you came and kicked my dad’s ass.”

“Jehovah is a jerk, but there are plenty of other gods you can worship.”

“Will they show up like you did?” Andre asked.

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“I’d rather pray to someone I know is going to show up,” Tim said.

“I don’t want to be your god.” Despite the giant ego inflation it would give me.

“But what if we need help?” Andre practically made puppy-dog eyes at me.

“Fine, if you really need help, you can pray to me. But don’t go praying for every little thing. Just if you seriously need help.” Looking at Tim and Andre, I was afraid I was looking at my own little evangelists. I hoped I was wrong. “And when you do, don’t give me any fancy titles. My name is Alex, just call me that.”

“Alex.” Tim smiled. “It sounds so normal.”

“I
am
normal. Well, at least I try to be. I go to high school, I have friends, I watch movies and play video games, just like you guys.”

“My grandma
did
say video games were from the devil,” one boy said, and someone else snickered.

“A game is a game, but evil exists in the real world. What Andre’s father did to him, that’s evil.” I looked around at the group. There was less fear and skepticism in their expressions. “Were all you guys abused?”

A girl with long blond hair shrugged. “Abused, orphaned… unwanted.”

“Well, how about this—be good to each other. No matter what people did to you out there, you can take care of each other here. Friends make a huge difference. We’d all like to have parents that love us, but that doesn’t always happen.” And sometimes you kill them for the way they treated you. “We can’t choose our parents, but we can choose our friends.”

Someone muttered, “After-school special.”

I looked at him, a skinny kid with messy dark hair. The kids closest to him shifted away, maybe afraid of what I’d do.

“Yeah, it sounds cheesy. So what? It’s still true.”

The doubter, the one who’d challenged me earlier, moved closer to me. “So you’re the Antichrist. You’re supposed to be all charming and shit, so how do we know you aren’t just charming us? Tricking us into following you?”

“I told you already, I don’t want you to follow me or worship me. And as for being the Antichrist, I didn’t get to pick my parents any more than any of you did. I have free will, so I chose to save the world instead of destroying it.”

“Prove it.”

I stared at him for a moment, thinking of what kind of proof I could offer. Drag him to Asgard and have Odin vouch for me? Ask the Morrigan to show up and tell him about how I pulled Excalibur from the stone and prevented Ragnarok with it? Then I shook my head. Why did I care what this guy thought? “No. I’m not gonna waste my time trying to prove anything to you. Believe whatever the fuck you want.”

Andre shoved him. “Don’t talk to him like that.”

I put my arm between them as the doubter moved to retaliate. “Knock it off. If you guys fight over believing in me or not, so help me, I will kick both your asses.” I’d had believers for one day and they were already defending the faith. No wonder Joshua wanted to keep his identity a secret.

Chapter 15

It happened again while I was making out with Hayley on the couch. The almost-words tugged at me, full of urgency. Still, I was tempted to ignore the prayer because I didn’t want to stop kissing her. I had my hand up her shirt and was about to take off her bra. But I reminded myself I’d told them to pray only if it was a real emergency. I couldn’t let a kid get beaten up because I was too busy making out.

Sighing, I pulled away. “Sorry, I have to go. Duty calls.” The voice got louder, more desperate.

“What?” Her lips were swollen from kissing and it made me want to kiss them again.

“Demigod stuff. Someone is praying for help.” I stepped off the couch and rearranged my clothes. I’d given her a short version of what happened with Andre and the conversation with the kids in the group home. To be honest, I’d toned down the worst of it. She still didn’t know about what I’d done the day after Halloween. Letting her know I was the Antichrist was enough. She seemed like she’d accepted that, but I didn’t know if she could accept the dark part of me. The rage, the vengeance, the killer.