She nodded, relenting at last. “It’s a church.”
“Ah, I see.”
I thanked her for the information and offered her a short stack of fresh bills, which she pocketed enthusiastically. We parted ways with a handshake and a loose promise to meet up again in the future.
“What’s your friend’s name?” I asked.
“Julio Ramírez. Nicaraguan. He has a scar.” She drew a line from the corner of her mouth to her earlobe.
I nodded, committing the name to memory. I checked my watch. We had a couple hours yet before this rendezvous. Enough time to grab a bite to eat.
“ARE YOU HUNGRY?”
We were sitting in my car in the parking lot adjacent to Our Lady of Virtue with a clear view of its entrance. I’d placed sensors at the back and side entry points of the establishment that would alert my phone if anyone entered or exited. Nothing yet. We’d been waiting for nearly an hour already, and I worried Julio might not show.
“A little bit,” you said and picked at the frayed end of your shirt.
We hadn’t had time for a bloodmeal. Now it was nearing midnight, and I didn’t want to test your willpower. “We’ll go hunting after this.”
You nodded, zeroing in on my forearm where you’d fed the night before. The mark was hardly visible, which was too bad for I rather liked the reminder. I’d gladly offer my blood again, but with your appetite, it wasn’t sustainable. You had to get comfortable feeding from strangers.
“Why would your contact be coming to a church at this hour?” you asked. I’d told you there was a man we needed to interrogate, but I didn’t tell you his occupation or the nature of this visit. I supposed I was still trying to protect your innocence.
“Our contact is a sex worker, and I believe his client is a man of the clergy.”
“A priest?” you asked, abhorred.
“The demands of the church are quite stringent,” I said.
“Is that why my parents wouldn’t let me be an altar boy?”
“Yes. Persons in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, in particular, are drawn to our energies.” I’d had to guard Lucian closely for the same reason when we were young, until he began using it as a lure for his own personal gain.
“That’s… fucking wrong.”
In theory, it made sense to deny oneself carnal pleasure when trying to reach a higher spiritual plane, but willpower was fallible and those in positions of power often abused it.
“Is that him?” you asked. I glanced up to see a man walking toward the entrance of the church. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but he matched the description Vivie had given me.
“I believe so. Let’s give them a few minutes, then we’ll go inside.”
You sighed in disappointment. “It’s like, you grow up believing in all these good, pure things, and then as you get older, they just crumble right before your eyes.”
Were we still talking about religion?
“We tried to shield you,” I said. “But morality is a spectrum, dependent on any given circumstance. No one is all good.” You looked at me as if I was the exception. “Not even me, Vincent.”
Especially not me.
“Let’s go,” I said before I made any more confessions.
Inside the church, I did a sweep of the area, including the altar where I ducked behind the pulpit to make sure nothing suspicious was lurking there. We were the receiving room’s only inhabitants, so I assumed our contact was in one of the anterior rooms with his client. I checked my phone again—no movement there. I’d give Julio another five minutes before venturing into the back.
You genuflected at the head of the aisle and, arriving at the altar, crossed yourself again and kissed your gold charm. I’d been named godfather at your baptism and attended your confirmation to the Catholic Church when you were a child. Though I’d seen you trace the shape of the cross countless times during prayer, I recalled then how irreligious you’d been in your last life. By raising you in the Catholic faith, Xavier had given you another god to worship, as was surely his intention.
At that moment the young man, Julio, emerged from an arched alcove at the side of the altar and headed toward the center aisle. I stepped into his pathway and blocked his retreat.
“Pray with me,” I said and led him to the second pew where you currently knelt.
