"You wanna go to that party at Rachel Kline's next weekend?" he asked.
"God," I said. "I'm not sure if I ever want to drink again."
Jude laughed. "I've heard that before."
"Hey!" I said. "I don't drink that much."
"You can hold your own, girl," said Jude, with a touch of admiration.
I rolled my eyes. "I just like to have fun. Is that so wrong?"
"You are fun," said Jude. "That's why I like you so much."
I'd always been such a goody-goody back in West Virginia. Now that I was free, I was able to make my own decisions. Hallam thought I was a teenage alcoholic, but then, Hallam didn't have a very high opinion of me. I was over-sexed. I drank too much. I didn't study enough. He was like the father I never wanted. Sometimes, I thought about packing up and moving to New Jersey to live with my grandmother. She had custody of my younger brother, Chance. But I didn't really think that Jason would be welcome, and there was no way I'd go anywhere without Jason. So I put up with Hallam, because I had to.
"Well, Jude," I said, "you're kind of fun, yourself."
"Kind of?" he said. "I am a blast, and you love it."
I laughed. Jude was a blast.
"So, party, then?" he asked.
"Maybe," I said. "I'll ask Jason if he wants to come. He might have to work, though."
Jude raised his eyebrows.
"Jason can come, right?"
"Keep him on a leash. He can't beat anybody else up."
I sighed. "I can't believe he did that."
"He was protecting you," said Jude. "It's sweet and all, and I understand, but didn't he get in a fight at school last week?"
"Yeah," I said, inwardly groaning. Jason had anger issues. "Speaking of Jason, where the hell is he?" He was at least ten minutes late.
"Call him," said Jude.
"I'll give him another minute or two," I said. "You don't have to wait if you don't want."
"Are you kidding? Of course I'm going to wait with you. I wouldn't let you sit outside the theater by yourself."
"Thanks," I said. But I remembered that earlier that day Jason had called Jude a jerk, and I wondered if it was a good idea for Jude to be there when Jason pulled up.
I scolded myself. It wasn't like Jason just started punching people for no reason. He had to be provoked. The guy he'd beat up last week at school for instance, had been threatening some poor freshman girl and being really vulgar. To Jason's credit, he hadn't started the fight. He'd asked the guy to cut it out. The guy had started swinging. It was just really stupid to try to fight Jason. Jason was too good at beating people up.
"Maybe I will call him," I said to Jude. I got my phone out of my purse and selected Jason's name out of my recently dialed log. Holding the phone up to my ear, I waited while it rang.
Jason picked up. "Azazel," he said.
"Hey," I said. "Are you coming to pick me up?"
"Crap," he said. "What time is it?"
I told him.
"I'm sorry," he said. "We've got a little situation here."
My heart started to race. A situation? It was the Sons, wasn't it? What had happened? "What?" I said, serious now.
"It's Lilith," he said.
Chapter Two
To: Edgar Weem
From: Renegade Son
Subject: Monthly update
Edgar,
Not much has changed. Jason is still behaving violently. He's been badly beating several other boys in the area, both at school and work. He's still completely and utterly devoted to Azazel.
I look for other tell-tale signs, but he seems like a normal kid otherwise. Nothing else to report.
Hallam
The last time I saw my best friend Lilith, she was wearing a silk black robe and explaining to me that everyone in my entire town (including her) was a Satanist. She was telling me that my parents, my principal, and my teachers all thought that I was the Vessel of Azazel and that I was supposed to kill Jason for the greater good. The time that I'd seen her before that, I'd found out that she'd been sleeping with my then-boyfriend Toby for years. I wasn't really on speaking terms with Lilith anymore.
But there she was, sitting in the living room of our apartment in Florida, looking pretty much the same as she had months ago. Her hair was still red. Her boobs were still gigantic. And she didn't look the least bit sorry.
Standing in the doorway with Jason, I glowered at her. I'd wanted him to fill me in on the way home, but I hadn't really given him the chance to talk, because I'd spent the entire ride ranting about how I couldn't believe that Lilith had the nerve to show up at my house. If Lilith was expecting some kind of tear-filled, happy reunion with me, she had another thing coming.