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I popped up, not offering him a hand. He didn’t need one anyway.
“Genevieve, you’ve got it, my friend.” Her friend now. Great. “Combining that with the battle cast, you’ll be dynamite. Let’s say we go for a test run tonight.”
I found it difficult to maintain my pissy attitude with Kat’s enthusiasm filling up the room.
“What kind of test run?” I asked, handing her the dagger.
“You know, let’s go hunt some demons, get you in a fight, see what happens.”
“Is this the way demon hunters train?”
“Yes,” two demon hunters replied in unison. I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not going to that damn Dungeon place.”
“I wouldn’t take you back there anyway,” Jude admitted, making me wonder at the statement. “We’ll go somewhere easy, where lower demons hang out. Tartarus.”
I frowned. “Wait, that place I first met you at? In the business district?”
Jude nodded. I felt sort of stupid, realizing now he wasn’t there just checking me out that night, but actually hunting his usual prey.
“I think the name of the place makes them feel more at home. I’ve never gone there without catching a demon or two.”
“Sounds good,” said Kat, walking toward the door. I followed with Jude behind me. “I’ll meet you guys there at about nine o’clock.”
“Shouldn’t I have a weapon?”
Kat stopped and leaned down in the hallway. “Here, take these,” she said, unstrapping the sheath from her left leg.
“No,” interrupted Jude. “I’ll have something that suits her better. Go on in.”
He gestured toward one of the closed doors next to the hall bathroom. As I walked in, Kat touched his arm.
“Jude, can I talk to you for a minute?”
He waved for me to enter the room and followed Kat farther down the hall. I heard her say “speaking of George,” then I was lost in the splendor around me.
A wall-to-wall showcase gleamed with sharpened stainless steel crafted in a forgotten age. I didn’t need an appraisal to know these weapons weren’t made in the here and now. Some were roughly made, some finely so.
Artisans of old must’ve forged the one like a medieval war sword with a thick blade and handle-less hilt. There was another, seemingly as ancient—a long, thin saber with an ornate T-handle embedded with red jewels. Were they rubies? There was a set of powerful blades with simple hilts. Square Crusader-like crosses circled the tips. The metal didn’t glint like the others. Possibly iron.
How old was he?
I practically choked when my eyes slid to the last case where a four-foot-long claymore stretched the entire length of the blue-velvet-backed case. My dad’s all-time favorite movie wasHighlander. I’d watched the hero Connor MacLeod decapitate his enemies with the long Scottish sword a hundred times. The mere thought of Jude wielding such a monster made me shiver.
I faced away from the wall, realizing the room held antiques of every kind. On a small mahogany writing desk stood an ivory vase painted with the goddess Artemis on the hunt; the finish crackled with age. A feathered quill pen stood in a pewter rose-shaped inkwell. The gray feathers were frayed from use, the hollow quill worn smooth from the hand that had held it.
Were these relics of Jude’s past he could not part with? What sentimental attachment could he have to these things? Had he written love letters with this quill? To Kat or some other woman?
I moved around the desk, past a huge ornate armoire to the wall behind. And my heart stopped beating altogether.
I stared into a painting of a midnight pool where a golden goddess floated in death. Garments spread wide like an angel’s wings. Pale wrists bound at her waist. Yellow hair fanned in a rippling halo. I could almost hear the water lapping, trying to pull her down. Her expression–no fear, no pain. Only tranquility touched the unblemished perfection of her ethereal face. A luminescent aura shrouded her in death, promising the peace she so deserved in the afterlife. No eternal darkness for this fair maid. Above the pool, hovering in shadow, stood a guilty figure, the executioner, fleeing the scene.
I had no idea tears streamed down my face until Jude appeared silently at my side.
“What is this?” I asked.
I barely noticed he’d changed into a dark blue T-shirt and his leather jacket.
