Avenger of Sins (SPECTR Series 3, #6)

Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

Several weeks later, Caleb steered the black SUV off of I-95 in Savannah, onto a side street. John sat in the passenger seat, staring pensively out the window, while Night lurked in the back as usual. Zahira was still busy with the Armaros clean-up, but she hoped to rejoin them soon.

Night and Gray were still hunting together, though how much longer she would hang around, Caleb couldn’t guess. Things seemed to be working between the two drakul for now, but Night could always get bored and wander off. If so, he had every intention of keeping quiet about it for as long as possible. Give her a head start to get away from SPECTR.

Kaniyar had her excuses for setting them up, of course she did. All along, she’d intended for them to be not only the distraction that would let her forces get inside the compound, but her excuse for raiding it in the first place. After all, she claimed, she’d just been acting as necessary to save an agent of the federal government from an organization summoning demons in violation of both national and international law. With Harlow’s wrong-doing recorded and exposed, his Pentagon ties immediately distanced themselves. No one wanted to appear as if they were siding with Armaros over the Department of Justice.

Kaniyar even had an excuse as to why she hadn’t let them in on her plan. She’d assumed—wrongly, as it turned out—that Harlow would have an empath on hand for any questioning, if they were taken captive. An empath couldn’t tell if Caleb was lying, but John would be an open book.

In terms of cold calculations, it made sense. One could easily argue the human cost was far smaller than allowing Harlow’s experiments to continue.

Assuming someone else didn’t take up the mantle and start afresh, somewhere far away from the Armaros compound.

“Mortal foolishness,” Gray said with disgust. “Why do humans insist on inviting demons into them? In the five thousand years I have walked the earth, they have never learned this simple lesson.”

We’re really into committing the same mistakes over and over again, Caleb replied. Besides, if they didn’t, you wouldn’t have anything to eat.

“This is true.”

For the moment, Harlow was out on bond awaiting trial. Jo was in jail, but her lawyer was sending statements to the press alleging illegal human experimentation within SPECTR. Harlow’s name had already come up, and there were rumors she might get a deal in exchange for testifying against him.

But who knew. It was early days, and Harlow was a rich man with powerful friends.

At least they’d all survived. Well, not Ryan, but everyone Caleb personally cared about. Though when they’d seen John possessed…

Gray growled at the memory. The moment had been horrifying, confusing, enraging. How dare some demon do such a thing?

John had to do something. We were incapacitated, and none of us knew Kaniyar was on her way.

“That does not mean I have to like it.”

“Does any of this feel familiar to you?” Caleb asked John as they drove along the tree-lined streets. “I don’t think we came this way last year—not like we were here long enough to really explore the city, and you were still pretty beat up from Charleston.”

John frowned a little. “I don’t know. Maybe? Or maybe my mind is just deceiving itself.”

As they got closer to their destination, John began to fidget. When they turned onto a street with small working-class houses along either side, he bit his lip and looked worried.

Caleb reached over and took his hand. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”

John swallowed hard. “What if she doesn’t want to see me? It’s been so long; she must think I’m dead. What if coming here makes things worse for her?”

The GPS beeped to let them know they’d arrived. Caleb parked along the street rather than in the driveway, shut off the car, and turned to John.

“I don’t think it will go that way,” he said. “But if it does, we’ll be right here with you.”

“I know.” John gave him a small smile, followed by a distracted kiss. “I just need to suck it up and go ring the doorbell.”

“Want us to come with you?”

“Not yet.”

Caleb watched John climb out of the car and walk up the sidewalk to the house. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt, maybe trying to look as normal as possible. Or maybe he’d just wanted to be comfortable.

John rang the bell and stepped back. After a few seconds, the door swung open, and Caleb got a look at the woman who lived in the house. Even from a distance, he could see the family resemblance, from her dark hair streaked with gray, to her vividly blue eyes.

Thanks to Gray’s enhanced hearing, Caleb had no trouble overhearing her say, “Yes?” She frowned, as if she thought she should recognize John but didn’t quite.

“Darlene Low? Dolly?” John cleared his throat. “It’s, uh, me. Jonathan. Your son.”

Her eyes went wide, and one hand flew to her mouth. Then she flung her arms around him.

Caleb watched as they wept together; John said something, but it was muffled in her hair. After a few minutes, Dolly took a step back into her house, drawing John with her. The door closed behind them.

Gray stirred, not entirely certain when it came to human relations and uneasy about the closed door. “Should we go after him?”

No. Let them have their reunion. It’s been a long time coming. He’ll come get us when he’s ready.

“But he will be all right?”

“Yeah,” Caleb said aloud. “I think he will be.”

That evening, as the last light of the sun clung to the sky, John walked through the historic district with Caleb and Gray by his side. He felt…he wasn’t sure, exactly. Exhausted, overwhelmed, happy, sad, angry, all of it tangled in a ball in his chest.

She’d recognized him in an instant, his mother. “I always knew I’d see you again,” she’d said, crying into his shoulder.

He’d told her…not everything, not yet. But she’d seen the news coverage of Jo’s allegations, and had broken down crying again when he told her he’d been taken away to be another test subject. He explained his memories had been lost until recently, which was why he hadn’t come before now.

“I know you would have if you could,” she’d said, patting his hand.

As for her, a few lucky breaks had given her the opportunity to get out of poverty. Now she was a community organizer working to help the city’s many poor and unhoused. She’d done so much good, even after everything that had happened to her, and he was so very proud.

They’d go back tomorrow and visit her some more, maybe help her with her work if there was anything useful they could do. Technically he was on leave, and he hadn’t yet told her he’d be returning to SPECTR despite all it had done to their family.

Because Kaniyar wasn’t just going to let Gray walk away and settle down to have a quiet life among mortals.

In the depths of February, few people were out, except for the ghost tours which were as much a part of Savannah as the vampire tours were a part of New Orleans. Caleb paused to listen to a guide’s patter as they passed by, then shook his head. “I could do better than that.”

“Maybe you should hire on.”

Caleb snorted. “Hmm, considering how my last gig ended, I think I’ll pass. Besides, Kaniyar probably isn’t going to let us stay long enough to bother with a job.”

Night was back at their hotel, gone dormant and waiting until Gray returned to hunt. Savannah had any number of old cemeteries, and if the local SPECTR office kept those cleared of ghouls, there were always the swamps beyond where anything might lurk. If nothing else, the two drakul would be happy and fed while they were here.

At last, they reached their destination: the terracotta fountain outside of The Cotton Exchange building, with the statue of a winged lion standing proudly at one end of the pool. The water was cut off this time of year, but in the dying sunlight the lion gleamed red as blood.

John stopped by the statue. “This is where it all began. Where SPECTR agents saved me from that lycanthrope, then betrayed me to the Center.”

“I’m sorry.” Caleb leaned against the edge of the fountain. “We’ll find a way to get free, somehow.”

John didn’t reply, only took Caleb’s hand. Caleb squeezed his fingers, then changed the subject. “So, what name are you going to use going forward?”

“Shit, I don’t know.” He sighed. “Every legal document I have says ‘John Starkweather’ on it. ‘John’ is fine, it’s close enough, but if I want to change my last name back to Low I’m going to have to jump through some hoops. And I’m willing to, but it’s just one more damned reminder of what happened, you know?”

“True.” Caleb let his hand drop and cocked his head contemplatively. “Hmm, you know, there is another way you could change your last name.”

John frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

He caught a whiff of petrichor; Gray was just on the border of manifesting, apparently wanting to be a part of the conversation. Caleb slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small box. “I think John Gris has a nice sound to it, don’t you?” he asked, opening the box to reveal a plain gold band.

John put his hand to his mouth, feeling tears springing to his eyes. “Y-Yes,” he said, a smile threatening to split his face. “It really does.”

Caleb grinned, then pulled him close, and they kissed before the fountain as the darkness drew in.

The adventures of John, Caleb, and Gray will conclude in SPECTR Series 4.