The Priest's Fire (Heinous Crimes Unit Book 2), page 8
She wanted him this time. What did she have planned? Was she going to serve him up as another sacrifice for her God?
More importantly, what did Luke want to do about it?
Luke got into bed that night and waited for the Priestess to arrive. He wore a robe and rested on top of his comforter, staring straight up at the ceiling as he listened for her. He didn’t strain to hear everything happening around him. He easily picked up the smallest noise, even from outside the house. She’d been following him for a week, but today was the closest she’d gotten to him.
He had no alarm system in his house, perhaps his most egregious sign of arrogance. Luke wondered if she planned to disarm any alarms, or if she would improvise on arriving. She wouldn’t need to work hard to find him. He was excited at the opportunity.
At twelve-thirty, Luke heard her. The sound was faint, even for his ears, but he knew she was scaling the fence outside. A strong woman, just as the video showed. He’d heard no car pass, which was curious, but he figured there would be time to understand how she had traveled later.
He remained in bed, losing her for a second as she ran across the lawn.
Then she was there again, at his back door. He had left it unlocked, and the smart girl turned the knob before trying to break in.
It opened easily.
Luke listened as she made her way through the house, checking each of the rooms for signs of her prize. Then the moon cast her shadow across his room.
Luke saw her nearly perfectly, his night vision more like a jungle cat’s than a human’s.
How well can you see? he wondered.
The Priestess didn’t reach for the light switch. She didn’t move at all as she looked at him.
“Yuh-You’re awake?”
Luke smiled, the moonlight gleaming off his teeth. “Yes.”
“You were waiting on me?”
“Yes.”
She turned her face and looked out his bedroom window, seeing the vast expanse of his lawn. He knew she was considering running. She hadn’t figured Luke would be ready. After a second, she looked back at him.
Luke watched her come, impressed with her speed and strength. He let himself fall into the Priestess’ darkness without a cry.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tommy looked across the floor at Luke’s office. He glanced at his watch, then returned to staring at the empty room.
It was noon and Luke was nowhere to be seen.
Tommy stepped out of his own office and took the corridor down to Christian, not bothering to knock as he entered.
“Have you heard from Luke?”
Christian, for maybe the first time, wasn’t staring at his screen with the intensity it would take to crack Russia’s nuclear arsenal. He sat with his chair turned around, looking out the office window. They were only on the third floor, but it wasn’t the worst view in the world.
“Luke? He’s not in his office?” Christian said, not turning around.
“No, genius. That’s why I’m down here. Has he called you?”
Christian shook his head.
“He’s not answering his phone.”
Christian didn’t move.
“Hello? Earth to Christian? Are you listening to me at all?”
Finally, the kid swiveled his chair. “Alice is your girlfriend, right?”
“What? What are you talking about? I’m saying Luke isn’t here and he isn’t answering his phone. Why are you asking about Alice?”
“How did you know she was your girlfriend, like when it first happened?”
Tommy stepped farther into the office and closed the door behind him. “Hey, man. Are you okay?”
Christian nodded.
“Then if that’s true, I need you to focus on what I’m saying. We need to go to Luke’s house and see where the hell he is.”
“Okay,” Christian said. He stood up, grabbed his jacket, and walked past Tommy.
“The hell?” Tommy whispered as Christian left the office. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Christian with such a carefree attitude, especially not with a possible problem arising. Sure, Luke being late to work wasn’t the advent of World War III, but it also wasn’t something that happened. It wasn't like him to not answer his cell either.
Tommy didn’t like it.
He followed Christian to the elevator and stepped in beside him. Other people were riding down as well, so Tommy remained quiet until they stepped off and exited the building.
“What’s going on with you?”
“I think I might have a girlfriend,” Christian said.
Tommy stopped, a smile coming over his face despite Luke’s absence. “You serious? Someone wants to date you?”
“She kissed me.”
“Jesus. What’s her name?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Let me hear it,” Tommy said.
“It’s Veronica.”
“Lopez?”
Christian nodded.
Tommy stared for a few more seconds and then started walking to his car. “You’re right. I don’t believe it.”
They both climbed into Tommy’s vehicle and he started toward Luke’s house.
“So she kissed you, huh?”
“Yeah, on Friday.”
“Have you called her since?”
Christian shook his head.
“You’re kidding.”
“No. We don’t call each other until Friday afternoon.”
“Oh, dear God,” Tommy said, unable to stop smiling. “Was that your first kiss?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “That changes things. You need to call her as soon as possible. You don’t kiss a woman and then go a whole weekend without communicating with her. It sends the signal that you’re not interested.” He looked at Christian. Terror had grown across his face like a weed. “Hey, calm down. If she’s into you enough to kiss you, then she’s gotta know you’re a weird guy. I’m sure she knows you like her. I’d just give her a call tonight if I were you.”
They arrived at Luke’s house about twenty minutes later. The gate was closed, so Tommy rolled his window down and pressed the buzzer.
No answer.
“I don’t feel good about this,” he said. He looked at Christian, the kid finally focusing on something other than his new girlfriend.
“Me either,” Christian said.
Tommy left the keys in the car and stepped out. Christian followed from the passenger’s side. Tommy saw no movement inside the home, and the curtains were all open, giving him a good view of the interior. Luke was nowhere to be seen.
“We need to get inside,” Christian said.
“What are you thinking?” Tommy trusted the kid’s instincts, perhaps even more than Luke’s. Certainly more than his own, and he trusted himself a whole hell of a lot. Right now, his instincts said something was very wrong here.
“His car’s gone.” Christian pointed at the empty driveway.
Tommy stepped forward and pulled on the gate. It was a single structure that slid in only one direction. There wasn’t a split in the middle where the two might have been able to squeeze through. The gate didn’t move at all.
“All right, I’m going to pull my car up. We’ll get on the front bumper and I’ll shove you over the top. I’ll come after.”
They did as he suggested, and Tommy landed hard on the other side of the fence, rattling his knees. He was too heavy for these acrobatics.
“You need to exercise more,” Christian said without looking at him.
“I had to throw your ass over.”
They went to the front door, but they didn’t even have to twist the knob. It stood slightly ajar. Tommy said nothing, but flipped the latch on his holster and pulled his gun out.
Christian did the same.
They walked through the house, clearing each room, neither saying anything. If Luke was here, he would know who was in his house. If anyone else had entered, then Tommy didn’t want to alert them.
The two reached Luke’s room.
Tommy pulled his cellphone out, and without thinking, dialed 9-1-1.
“This is Special Agent Thomas Phillips with the FBI. We have a missing agent, Luke Titan. House location: 1946 Trinity Lane.”
He listened as the dispatcher asked questions, staring at the dried blood across Luke’s white pillowcase.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Luke opened his eyes. He’d been conscious for some time, but his head hurt and he had known light would intensify the pain.
The Priestess had arrived, and she deserved an audience.
He was in the same metal prison where Ryan Goleen had met his end.
A woman stood in front of Luke. Her hair was long and scraggly. She was a skinny thing. Luke hadn’t forgotten how easily she scaled his fence the previous night. Skinny she may be, but lacking muscle she wasn’t. Her eyes were brown. She wore a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans that looked like she needed another twenty pounds just to hold them up.
“A pleasure, I’m sure,” Luke said. He didn’t wince, though the overhead light caused pain to flare inside his head.
“Huh-how did you know I would be there last night?” the woman asked, her lips barely moving as she spoke, like if she opened her mouth too wide, all her words might simply spill out, leaving her unable to speak.
“I saw you watching me.”
“When?”
“Quite a few times, actually. I’d venture to say all of them.”
The Priestess said nothing as she stood in front of Luke. She stared at him as if measuring his words for their weight in truth.
“Thuh-thuh-there’s something wrong with you,” she said after a moment.
“Isn’t that true for all of us?”
The woman shook her head, but Luke knew she wasn’t answering him. She saw Luke, but that shake was for her. She stared for another second and then turned around. She pulled open the metal door easily, enough for her to bend and slip underneath it. Luke watched as it closed. He heard a lock hit home outside.
He didn’t make a single noise, just closed his eyes again to block out the bright lights from above.
This was going to be very, very interesting.
Lucy didn’t go home.
She walked to the car that she’d driven here, the one that had been sitting in Titan’s driveway. She’d taken it last night after throwing him in the trunk. Hers was parked in a ditch off a main road five miles away from Titan’s house. Lucy had thought she might have to carry the man back, but she’d ended up taking his car instead.
A dangerous move if someone were to have seen it, but Lucy couldn’t worry about that right now. She was too concerned with Luke Titan.
Lucy sat on the hood of the hundred-thousand-dollar car with no thought of its value.
The man inside the storage unit was very different than she’d expected. Lucy wasn’t sure exactly what to do, only that she didn’t like being around him. Lucy had never been frightened of anyone in this life, besides her father. When he’d died, Lucy had no need to fear anyone anymore. Everything he’d taught her had stuck. God was the only one deserving of fear.
Yet, when she looked at the man inside the storage unit, she felt fear.
Real and horrible, like with her father when she was younger. Fear that the man could hurt her in indescribable ways. Perhaps even ways that would damn her eternal soul, however silly that sounded. She’d given her soul to Christ and no one could take it from Him.
Yet, she didn’t want to go back in there.
Was he the Devil, or a demon? If so, what was Lucy supposed to do?
She closed her eyes and ground her teeth together until her jaw creaked.
God wasn’t answering. He shared not a single word of what her next steps should be.
Lucy was alone with the Devil. She couldn’t stop, couldn’t let that evil thing keep her from her purpose, which was to bring Christian Windsor forward.
No wonder this evil creature had taken glory from Christian. He’d been trying to steal glory from God on high since the dawn of time.
“Give me the strength to do what needs to be done. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
She stood back from the car and pulled the padlock key from her pocket. Lucy walked back to the storage unit and went inside, intent on sacrificing this demon for her Lord and her soon-to-be-savior, Christian.
“That was fast,” Luke said.
“Hush, serpent.”
Luke wanted to smile but knew that would be foolish.
“Christian Windsor, is he the Second Coming?”
“Get thee behind me, Satan,” the woman said. She moved past Luke’s chair, but he didn’t turn to look at her as she grabbed something.
“What do you plan to do with me?”
“What the Lord was too gracious to do five thousand years ago.”
The Priestess laid a bag down ten feet in front of Luke, then went behind him again. She dragged a long piece of wood across the floor, laid it next to the bag, then went back to the well of gifts resting at the back of the unit.
She brought another piece of wood forward, followed by a bucket, and then a large sack of cement mix.
“Oh, that’s good,” Luke said, seriously impressed. “You strung Mr. Goleen up, but you’re actually going to crucify me. Is that right?”
“Something like that, serpent. But, you won’t go as my Lord did. I think I’ll crucify you upside down.”
“You truly are your master’s servant,” Luke said.
“We are all the Lord’s servants.” The woman bent over the bag, pulling out tools. Clearly, she had thought this through. She pulled out twelve-inch metal nails, as well as a large hammer.
“You’ll want to be careful not to split the wood when you put those in,” Luke said. “It might be more difficult than you imagine. How are you planning on going about it?”
She said nothing.
“It would be easiest if you were to nail the wood together, then with the cross lying inside the bucket, harden the cement. You can nail me to it after. I promise not to struggle.”
The Priestess looked up, her eyebrows twitching rapidly and her mouth twisted in an awful snarl. “Sh-shut your mouth, or I’ll cut your tongue out.”
Luke nodded and remained silent as the woman placed one piece of wood over the other.
“If you go through with this right now, you’ll waste a grand opportunity,” he said as she lifted the hammer above the nail. She stopped mid-swing but didn’t look at him. “What better way could you honor Christian, than to have his mother watch my death?”
Slowly, the Priestess tilted her face up. Her eyebrows were still and her lips pressed into a thin line.
“I can tell you where she lives, and you can bring her here. She can witness what you’re doing for her son.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Christian stood in Luke’s bedroom as FBI techs worked around him. Tommy was in the living room, answering questions for investigators. They would come to him next, Christian knew, and he didn’t want to consider the answers he’d have for them.
It’s not the Priest, he thought as he stared at one of the techs slowly removing the pillow from its case. The blood covering it was curved like a smile as if it was laughing at him with dark, red lipstick.
It’s not the Priest.
Six months ago felt like a lifetime, yet Christian was realizing how foolish he’d been. How foolish they had all been, acting as though the nightmare was over just because the murders stopped. He’d gone on with his life, ignoring everything that had happened. Ignoring the promise he made to a grieving woman. Ignoring the fact that he could no longer venture inside his mansion because he was too goddamn scared.
Luke and Tommy had gone along with it because the cases kept coming in.
Christian had gone along with it because he couldn’t stand the truth. Someone was murdering people because of him.
Maybe his mother was right. Maybe that didn’t make him guilty. But facts were still facts, and Luke’s blood now shouted them from that pillowcase.
“Christian?” Tommy called. He was standing next to a young, black man. “This is Agent Bench. He’ll be working with us on this.”
“Call me Perry,” the agent said. “Can we talk for a few minutes?”
Christian nodded and walked out of Luke’s bedroom.
They went to the living room and sat on separate couches. Christian had sat here countless times with Luke. Not now, though.
“I want to let you know that this is personal for me,” Perry said. “I don’t know Dr. Titan, but that doesn’t matter. He’s one of us.”
Christian nodded, hearing the man but not caring what he said.
“When was your last conversation with Dr. Titan?”
“Last Friday.”
“Do you mind recounting what was said?”
Christian went through the questions on autopilot, his mind feeding him answers.
Finally, the agent stood and shook his hand, then walked off. Christian stared at the coffee table. He didn’t look up when Tommy approached and sat next to him.
“I’ve heard of Bench. He’s a solid agent. I just got off the phone with Waverly. He’s mobilizing everything within his power. We’ll find him.”
“Six months ago,” Christian told him, not entirely sure where he’d finish but knowing it was important to tell someone, “I went into my mansion. I wanted to look at the Priest. Understand him and what he wanted. Something was waiting for me, though. Something foreign. There shouldn’t be anything in there, Tommy. Not in my head, not in that place. I haven’t gone back in, and the murders stopped so I haven’t needed to use it since.”
Tommy was quiet. Christian understood that Tommy didn’t fully grasp what he was saying. Hell, maybe Christian didn’t, either.
“I don’t want to go back in there now, but that room is waiting for me. The voice, too. Whatever it is, it’s still there.”
“Christian,” Tommy said, “I need you to be a little more concise with what you’re saying. It’s not making much sense.”
