I shook my head and got out of the booth. “Stay here.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Itook slow measured steps across the diner, taking my time examining the eatery for impending danger as well as the couple sitting at the table in back. Both were fit with the builds of long-distance runners. Lines of age gathered at the corners of their eyes. Deep-set lines framed the woman’s mouth. The untrained eye might place them in their early forties, but I’d put them somewhere in their fifties. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a braid that dropped just past her shoulders. The man’s black hair softly curled over his forehead. Gray crept up his sideburns streaking into his hair. I recognized the utilitarian, tactical cuts of their black, form-fitting clothes.
To everyone else, the couple might have seemed perfectly normal, but immediately I recognized them as panthers sitting amongst unsuspecting, grazing antelope. They’d done well to keep out of my sight until they’d chosen to reveal themselves.
When I reached their table, I stood for several long moments.
“Please sit,” the man gestured toward the chair in front of me when he saw I wasn’t going to make the first move. The woman’s eyes were sharp and overly familiar with my face, like I was a long-lost friend she was pleased to see.
“You are from the Order of Veritas,” I said, still not moving.
“How did you know?” The woman asked, pride in her voice, like I had pleased her.
“The stitching on your sleeve.” A small white circle with a cross in it was stitched at the wrist of their left sleeves. Anyone else would have thought it was a clothes brand insignia. But my Master had educated me on the five Orders. This was the first time I’d met anyone from outside my own Order.
“Very good.” the man smiled, revealing perfect white teeth in a way that would disarm most people. He was no doubt aware of this effect.
“And you are from the Order of Luxis,” the woman supplied. “Please sit. We wish to speak with you. I am Regina and this is Phillip.”
I glanced over my shoulder, still unsure.
“Your friends will be fine,” Phillip reassured. “We mean them no harm.”
Friends. What a strange concept, but I guessed that was what Travis and Emma were becoming. Perhaps the more fitting word was companions. Either way, I’d never spent this much time with civilians. All the same, I didn’t care to have my back to them or the door, so I pulled out the chair and placed it at an awkward angle so I could keep them in my peripheral sight.
We sat for several long minutes, not speaking or moving. It would appear we were waiting, but it was a meeting of predators. We assessed and observed each other as if able to read the weaknesses and strengths of the opposing party.
Regina broke the silence first. “We’ve been following your trail since you defeated the Crib.”
It took all my will to not visibly react. My Masters warned me against the deceit of the other Orders. I needed to stay calm, alert, and detached from whatever they tried to infect me with.
She continued in a hushed voice. “It was all over the news. The media is trying to rationalize the scene as escaped zoo animals who ravaged each other to death, but we all know at this table that those were demons who should have never made it to this plane.”
I hadn’t bothered to look at the few television sets since we arrived at the diner. My job was to protect, not to clean up. Most of the spirits disappeared leaving only their victims as evidence. Demons were a rarity and usually appeared one at a time, not in a pack. The Crib were only the third demonic entity I’d encountered on earth, though I was schooled in demonology enough to identify what they were. In the other two incidents, I had left the carcasses to the elements to erode with time.
“What do you want?” I asked, wanting to cut to their point.
Phillip reached over to cover Regina’s hand. They were wearing matching silver wedding bands. Celtic-like knots encircled each ring; low-level power humming off them. They must be sigils from their Order, fueled by belief and observance.
Phillip said, “We couldn’t know for sure before, but now we are. We know you are the one we have been searching for all these years.”
Regina said, “You see, twenty-four-years ago, our baby was stolen from our Temple.”
Phillip’s distinguished jaw line flexed as he clenched his teeth. “We suspected the Order of Luxis. We even stormed their Temple to search for our missing child, but we never found him.”
My stomach churned as I continued to grow more uneasy.
“Then one of our Elder prophets had a vision. He told us the fall of the dark children would herald our son’s return and that is when we would find our child again.”
Regina’s hand flipped over to squeeze Phillip’s, and her smile was full of hope and excitement. “Well?” Regina asked after several long minutes passed and I did not respond.
I leaned in, and they mirrored my movement to hear my quiet, steady words. “I am very sorry disappoint you, but I am not your son.”
Regina’s smile faltered while Phillip continued to study me with those intense green eyes. He looked at me as though he were reading a book, but I knew he wasn’t reading me correctly at all. Not the way Emma did. He was only seeing what he wanted. Phillip said, “The Order of Luxis stole you from us. They were in such violent disagreement with our Order, they sought to punish us.”
Their sincerity made them all the more treacherous. Perhaps they’d been fed these lies from a higher power at Veritas and believed it themselves.
