Trembling(80)

"He said, 'No, Hallam, I think I've created a monstrosity.'



"I told him he was insane. I'd spent years with Jason. He wasn't monstrous in any way.



"Weem began to give me examples of things. He pointed out the work Jason and I had done for the Sons. Violent work. He said that Jason had taken pleasure in it. I denied that. Jason hadn't. I said that I'd never even witnessed Jason taking another human life.



"Weem said that Jason had killed members of the Sons in New Jersey. He told me how efficient it was. He said Jason's work was the work of a trained assassin, one who has killed many times. He hinted that I might not know how many people Jason had killed or when.



"I still didn't believe him, and I said so.



"He said that finally, there was the fact that Jason had killed his mentor, Anton.



"I was appalled. 'You people killed Anton,' I said. After all, it was that action which had been the impetus for my leaving the Sons. I couldn't believe he would pin the event on Jason. It was low, I thought. Low and ridiculous. And I couldn’t figure what it was Weem wanted to accomplish by lying to me in this way.



"Weem shook his head. He insisted that Jason had actually killed Anton. And he could prove it."



I interrupted Hallam. "He could prove it?" I said. "But Jason didn't do that. There's no way. He loved Anton."



Hallam sighed. "This isn't a good time for me to be explaining this to you," he said. "We should wait. Later, when you're calmer—"



I silenced him with a look. "I'll never be calmer than I am now."



He nodded once. "He had a video, Azazel."



"He faked it!" I said.



Hallam shook his head. "I don't think so. Faking a video is a pretty tricky business. No, I'm sure it was Jason in the video. It was a security video. Grainy and black and white, but very convincing. If you could have seen it . . . Jason and Anton were clearly arguing. They were shouting at each other. There wasn't any sound, but I could tell they were both upset. Then Jason pulled out a gun and shot Anton. Over and over. And the expression on his face . . . Azazel, I've seen that expression. The first time I saw it was at that sorority house. He was just unloading his gun into Anton and he was . . . Azazel, he was smiling. Smiling.



"After, Jason stood over Anton for a long time. He crouched over the body. He started crying. But, there's no doubt in my mind that he killed Anton.



"After I saw the video, I was completely stunned. Weem told me that he was frightened about what he'd unleashed on the world. He said he was more than happy to sever the ties the Sons had with Jason. He wanted to wash his hands of the entire business. But he asked me to watch Jason. To see if this kind of behavior continued. To see if Jason was dangerous. And that's what I've been doing.



"I know you're hurting right now, but I think this was for the best," Hallam said to me. "I think that there was a side to Jason that maybe neither of us knew about. There was a part of him—a violent, dark part. It was starting to surface within him. All the fighting he was doing in Bradenton. It was just a matter of time before it got worse. After he killed Sutherland, I was worried that I was going to have to do something. Stop Jason somehow."



"Sutherland's alive," I said to Hallam.



"What?" Hallam said, looking genuinely confused.



"I saw him," I said. "At Father Gerald's rectory."



Hallam's look of confusion switched to a look of alarm. "Sutherland was with Father Gerald?"



"Yes," I said.



Hallam furrowed his brow. "It doesn't make sense. Why would Jason leave Sutherland alive?"



"He wasn't what you said he was," I said. "That's why. He wasn't violent or evil or dark. Sutherland knew that. He showed me emails he intercepted from the Sons. I'm Kali. Jason was Shiva. He was the good one. I was the dark one." I stroked Jason's face. "You were all wrong. All of you."



I leaned close to Jason. "I'm sorry," I said to him. "I'm so sorry. I love you. I love you forever."



Things had to be dealt with. I couldn't sit here forever, cradling Jason's dead body, listening to Hallam's stories. Instead, I had to get moving. My captors might be out of the way, but the Sons were here, Weem was still alive, and Sutherland was still out there. From the look on Hallam's face, that wasn't a good thing.



Tenderly, I pressed my lips against Jason's, for what I knew would be the last time. I had to leave him, let him go. If nothing else, I had to make sure that everyone understood that he wasn't what they thought he was. Not a monster. Not the man who would enslave the world. Just Jason. My Jason.