The Mark of Cain (53 page)

“Hara? Will you come with me for a second?” Father
Carroll asked. Suddenly, these men and their guns clicked into place.

“These are the men taking me wherever you’re
planning on hiding me?”

Father Carroll threw an accusing look at Tracker.
Track just shrugged and said, “I already told you how I feel about all this.”

She could feel a fight coming in the air. The
pressure was heightening with every moment that the tension mounted. To stop it
all, she cleared her throat.

“Don’t
I
get a say in this?” she said as she
loosed herself from Inac’s gentle grip.

After a few moments, Tracker asked, “What would
you
like to do, Hara?”

“Well…as I see it, why should I go with
any
of you? I mean, my fiancé’s really Cain and plans to murder me, and you, Father
Carroll, have lied to me my entire life.”

“We’ve only done that to protect you,” he said with
sorry eyes.

“No. You did it for selfish reasons. You’ve done it
so that I can fulfill your stupid prophecy. Well guess what? I’m nobody
special. I’m just a normal human girl that you put your faith in. Don’t you see
how wrong that is? Your faith should be in the Holy Trinity, not a young girl
who will make mistakes as big as I have,” she said, glancing at Inac. He looked
so defeated and depressed that she just wanted to kiss him. The fire and
strength in him that made him, well,
him
, was absent. He almost looked
deflated. Like a shriveled balloon complete with stretch marks and saggy spots
to show how full of air it had once been. It was really sad….

Would she ever get over this man? She thought not.
He had created the perfect character to win her heart. And once someone had
your heart, you could never get it back. Not really.

Turning back to the three men in the doorway, she
said, “So that’s why I’m saying get out of my face to all of you. I’m going to
go back to my life at school.”

“But he’ll kill you!” Father Carroll cried.

Lifting her chin high until she probably appeared
ready for battle, she said, “Then that’s God’s plan for me. Now if you’ll all
please leave me alone, I’m tired and want to go to bed.”

Nobody moved an inch so she gave them all a look
full of that new hate she had been filled with earlier. It had dissipated with
her tears, but she figured that she could pretend for a few seconds.

It worked. They all began to walk out.

“Oh, and Inac?” she called as he made it to the
door. He turned around, a hope in his eyes that tied a knot around her heart
and squeezed it tight until she felt it would burst from the pressure. “I
expect you to be gone when I wake up. And please, I don’t want to see you
again, so can you not come to the club anymore?”

He nodded, the hope shattering just as her heart
was. “At least let me leave you the jet to get back….”

She shook her head. “I’ll find a way home myself.”

He gave her a despondent half-smile and left.
Tracker was almost through the door when he turned back to her.

“Do you hate me, too?” he asked like that little
puppy he embodied so well.

“No,” she said with her own small smile. “You were
brought into this. And probably not by choice.”

“Not by choice at all,” he agreed.

“And you’ve been following orders.”

“Until tonight when I broke them all.” He looked
down at his feet—at the tennis shoes that she kept wishing he’d replace because
they were falling apart. When he did this, it always meant that he wanted to
say something but wasn’t sure whether or not he should.

“Go ahead, Track. What do you want to say?”

“He really does love you, you know,” he said to his
feet.

She couldn’t breathe past the lump in her throat. “No—”

“Yes!” Track said, his voice rising as his eyes did
until he was looking her in the eye. “You don’t know what being with you has
done to him. He now has nightmares about the things he’s done. They make him
throw up. Plus, you don’t know what’s happened to make him hate….”

She sat down on her bed. Patting the blanket next to
her, she said, “Why don’t you tell me? Tell me
everything
. I think I’ve
earned it.”

As he took his place beside her, his hands clasped
in his lap as though he was trying to make himself as small as possible, he
whispered, “I’ll tell you what I know about what brought him to war with God.
But everything else I know comes from The Order so I don’t know how much of it
I can believe.”

“And what makes you think that ‘Inac’ wasn’t lying?”

“I just know.” And Tracker truly believed it. He
believed it so much that she felt she should at least hear him out and make her
own conclusions.

Putting a hand on one of his, she took in a breath,
bracing herself for what was to come. “Okay. Start.”

“Well, it all started with the curse….”

***

Inac stared at the sleek silver cell phone on his
coffee table. A part of him kept hoping that it would ring and Hara would be on
the other line. When a week passed and she still hadn’t called, he knew they
were really over. Still, it wasn’t until a miserable month had passed before he
could admit that they were done. He didn’t know why he cared…he was probably
just upset that he hadn’t corrupted her as far as he could have. On the other
hand, he’d been able to do so further than he’d thought he would be able to.
That was proven by how violent she had become when she’d found out the truth
about him. In any case, it would have to do.

“Santoni, we need to make plans. I’m tired of Hara,”
Inac said into his phone, pulling at his fresh beard—he hadn’t done more for
his hygiene than basic showers for the past month.

“When and how would you like me to get rid of her?”
his man’s deep voice asked.

Inac sighed. “I don’t care when. You look at her schedule
and choose when. But how; I want you to shoot her in the chest. Don’t mar her
face.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And let me know before it goes down. I want to
watch. I have to see it work this time.”

“Yes, sir. I think Saturday when she gets off work
will work nicely. The parking lot will be dark and empty. Besides, it will be
the first day of a new year.”

“Signifying a new year starting right?”

“Something like that.”

“Okay. New Year’s Day. The police and EMS will be
busy with all the drunks. She’ll be dead for sure before they can get to her.”

“And then you’ll win, sir.”

“Yes. And then I’ll win.” So why did he feel like
he’d already lost?

***

No matter how much Hara had tried to go back to her
life before Inac, she couldn’t. How could she when she wasn’t the same person?
She wasn’t the future nun who went to mass a few times a week and thought
“gosh” was a swear word. She thought she’d be better after the holidays, but
Christmas had been horrible. She’d spent it lying in her bed, crying over Inac.
Poor Crystal had invited her home with her, and Hara had gone with her, but she
hadn’t left the bedroom the entire time.

She knew that Crystal was worried about her. But
Crystal didn’t know how worried she really should be. She just thought that
Hara had found out that Inac was an assassin for the government—Tracker’s idea
of a believable story—and not that he was really Cain and wanted to kill
her
.

“Hara,” Crystal had said in an attempt to soothe
her. “At least he’s working for
us
. He’s one of the good guys killing the
bad guys.”

“He’s still killing. Assassins don’t have any
conscience.
Inac
has no conscience. I can’t be with someone who takes
pleasure in killing another living soul.”

And that had ended Crystal’s attempts to make her
feel better. Hara
definitely
hadn’t told her about finally sleeping with
Inac the day before she’d dumped him. She was worried that, if she did, Crystal
would never stop trying to cheer her up at the same time that she’d really be
thinking about how Hara had joined the Slut Club—which Crystal would
undoubtedly be the president of had there really been one.

Besides, Hara had been doing better the past few
days—at least she was able to leave her bedroom—until New Year’s Eve had
arrived. Working in a club full of couples ringing in the New Year
was…difficult, to say the least. All around her, people were laughing and
kissing, making plans with each other for the coming year.

The countdown was the worst, but at least Tracker
was there to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He had been an incredible
friend the past month, always there and willing to talk and to listen. He had
also made her understand and pity Inac—about all the pain he’d gone through. He
was seriously one messed up individual. She prayed for him and his soul every
morning and night…not to mention about a zillion other times throughout the
day.

“Well, I’m out of here,” she said when she was
finished cleaning.

“Okay. Are you sure you’re okay to be alone? I can
cancel on Ji,” Crystal offered.

“I’m fine. I’m just going to go home and get some
sleep. I’ll see you tonight at work,” she said, faking a brave smile for her
friend.

“Okay.”

After hugging Crystal goodbye, Hara walked out into
the cold, black, lonely morning.

***

Inac stood in the shadows across the street from the
club, the perfect place to get a flawless view of Hara’s demise. He was a very
patient person after all his years of hunting and could sit still in one
position for days if he had to. When Hara finally came into sight he perked up,
all of his senses reaching to their fullest. This was it; the culmination of
five hundred years.

He could see Santoni moving toward Hara, his custom
nine millimeter beginning to rise, the barrel glinting off the light as he
walked closer. Hara didn’t yet know the danger she was in. She was just getting
her keys ready as though this was the same as every other day. She looked so
pretty in a pastel blue cardigan thrown over her black spandex spaghetti-strap
mini-dress—an odd uniform for a club, but one that brought them plenty of
patrons.

Santoni was close enough for Hara to spot him. When
she did, she stopped dead in her tracks, the jangle of her keys ceasing their
echo through the otherwise silent morning. She didn’t look scared, though. Just
sad. Sad and disappointed. Like she was disappointed in Inac for going through
with this.

A wave of guilt washed over him. He couldn’t
do
this
. Not to her. Not to Hara.

He began running toward them from the other side of
the street, yelling, “No! Stop! Don’t do it!” But they didn’t hear him. Or, if
they did, they didn’t pay any attention to him. He was only halfway across the
street when the gun went off, the blast reverberating off the buildings and
street, echoing over and over again in his mind.

He stopped dead as another shot rang out, followed
by another, and another…. Hara put a slender hand to her chest before falling
to her knees. Soon she’d fall the rest of the way, but he wanted to protect her
from getting hurt any worse than she already was so he surged forward, pushing
Santoni out of the way.

***

Through the stabbing pain, Hara heard Inac’s voice
yell at the same moment as she felt warm arms cradling her, catching her as she
fell, “Didn’t you hear me?! I told you no!”

“Sir?” she heard another voice say. It probably
belonged to the big man….

Then Inac’s voice said, “Get out of here! Get away!”

Hara looked up at Inac as he turned his face to
hers. He looked so sad, but what she really noticed was how different he looked
than “her Inac.” His cleft chin was covered in a thick, short beard, and his
usually shaved head looked as unkempt as the rest of him. But what she noticed
the most was the self-hatred and sadness in his eyes. He just looked so old. So
old and tired….

It was difficult for her to breathe. Her chest felt
heavy through the burning pains that were shooting through her entire torso.

“Hara…I’m…I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…” he said as he
rubbed something warm that tasted of pennies from the corners of her mouth with
his bare hands.

She gave him a small smile as she looked up at the
man she loved so fiercely that she would be more than happy to die for. If her
death would make him happy, then she gladly went to it.

“I forgive you,” she whispered with some difficulty.

“Shh. Don’t speak, Hara. You’ll be fine. Don’t
worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” But she knew he was lying. And she
had something she needed to tell him before she went….