“Stephen,” Kilian said wearily. This was not the place for Stephen’s irreverence.
His mother dropped her crucifix. “Stevie? Little Stevie Nguyen?”
Stephen leaned to the side and gave her a finger wave. “Hi, Mrs. Kildare.”
“Oh Lord.” Her hands fluttered near her neck. “Oh, child. When I heard what your mother had done...” She swept past Kilian and caught Stephen in a huge hug. Stephen gave Kilian a desperate look that begged for help, but Kilian could only stand to one side. He didn’t want to be jealous of Stephen, but it was pretty fucking hard.
His mother sounded tearful. “I am so sorry that I didn’t realize how insane that woman was. She is burning in hell for what she did.”
“So you hug the actual demon and not me,” Kilian mumbled.
His mother studied him warily. “What?”
“Me. I still have the demon. The government hasn’t been able to get it out,” Stephen explained. “So your son is grumpy because you’re calling him a demon while hugging someone who has an actual demon shoved into the spaces between his cells.”
She backed up so fast that she lost her balance and Kilian caught her with a hand under her arm. “He hasn’t lost himself to the demon; Stephen is safe,” Kilian promised. “However, he’s still a troublemaker.” Kilian glared at him, but Stephen was immune to disapproval. He leaned against the frame of the door looking totally at ease now that Kilian’s mother wasn’t hugging him.
“But the demon?” his mother asked in a whisper.
“Oh, it's still in here,” Stephen said with disturbing cheer. “The people we work for are trying to figure out how to banish it, but Mom didn’t leave a lot of hints about its origins, either that or the demon burned all the hints, that's possible.” Stephen shrugged, his whole demeanor as casual as if he’d been discussing the weather. Hell, Kilian’s father got more animated on the subject of snowfall.
His mother pressed her lips together and wiped her hands on her apron. “I had no idea she was such an evil woman.”
“That's okay because I didn’t have any idea you were such an evil woman,” Stephen returned.
Kilian snapped, “Stephen!” At the same time Kilian's mother exclaimed. “How dare you!”
“I pretty muchdodare. I figure the truth is the best way to annoy people, and I assume you remember how much I like annoying people.” He offered an irreverent grin.
“Stephen,” Kilian’s voice was dark with warning.
“What?” Stephen put on a mask of excessive innocence. “She's accusing you of being evil, being demonic. As someone who is actually demonic, no matter how involuntarily, I’m offended for you.”
His mother found her voice quickly. “Kilian chose to become what he is now,” she snapped. “You were a child manipulated by an evil mother. Kilian chose to give up on life. We begged him not to. We begged him to come home. He turned his back on us.” With the last part, her voice grew thready with pain, and guilt crawled through Kilian’s belly. The woman had her own supernatural power of guilt; however, Kilian had made the best decision for himself.
“You begged me to crawl home with a broken body so that I could be an invalid the rest of my life.” If there was a hell, it would look exactly like this—repeating the same argument for all eternity.
Her hands landed on her hips. “There is nothing wrong with carrying the burdens that God has chosen to give you. Your father and I would have helped you through it.”
Kilian had no idea whether she was trying to make him feel guilty for choosing to be a vampire or for refusing to allow his elderly parents to martyr themselves. Kilian was a large man, and they couldn’t have carried his paralyzed body, not without paying the price with their own health. However, saying as much would have led down a worn path in their argument, so Kilian tried a new tactic. “I couldn’t come home to you lecturing me about how I should be grateful to piss in a plastic bag and spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.”
His mother straightened and narrowed her eyes. “Many people with disabilities have full, enriching lives. The Lord was trying to lead you down a new path, and you chose to disregard him and put your own judgment first.” Her words forced Kilian to lock his legs before they buckled. Normally, he controlled his physical aversion to Christian symbols better, but he still felt weak. Stephen rested his hand on Kilian’s back, and the warmth bolstered his defenses.
However, his mother kept right on talking—accusing. “Worse, you chose to take power that you had no right to, power that is irreverent in the face of Christ's sacrifice. The power that runs through you is demonic.”
“If anything, the power that runs through me comes from Jesus Christ himself!” Kilian ignored the way his guts turned to fire as he used that name. No Judas vamp had any illusion about the Christian God approving of them, but he would not let his mother insult him to his face. More importantly, his mother would never help him unless she got over this illusion that Judas vamps were demonic.
Her mouth hung open, and she pressed her hand to the base of her throat as though protecting the vulnerable spot. “How dare you profane the name of our Lord.”
“The power that runs through me was stolen, so the first Judas vamps were bad guys. But they stole from Judas Iscariot, and he was human. Any power he carried came from your God. So does that not mean that any power I have comes from that divine source?” Kilian had deployed an argument that struck his mother speechless. Shocking. Of course, he had also shot himself in the foot when it came to getting help. They should leave now and jump a train. The trains always slowed through town and both he and Stephen were stronger than mundanes. They could make it work.
And if that limited their ability to retreat if the Army cornered them... well, they’d have to deal with that. He wished he had a better plan, but Stephen hadn’t considered strategic escape routes or resources when he’d teleported them back to their hometown.
His mother found her voice, although it came out little more than a whisper. “The Devil speaks with a sweet poison and a pleasant sin. I will not believe your words, demon, no matter how attractive you make them.”
Kilian sighed. “I'm your son, not a demon. I took the vampire’s offer for the same reason that I joined the Rangers. I wanted to save people.” As a teen, Kilian had explained some variation on this goal using words like hypocritical and sanctimonious. He avoided those particular adjectives this time around, even if he was thinking them. “I have dedicated my life to saving people like Stephen before witches like Susan can kill them.”
“Which is why witches should not live among us. You cling to supernatural powers, but these powers are not for us as humans to possess. The Bible forbids it.”
