Number of the Beast (Paladin Cycle, Book One) (35 page)

“
Maybe I can have her
committed for testing and they can figure out what’s wrong with
her.”

“
That might be
best.”

Shane straightened. “I’m
going to grab a drink then we’ll ride. I need to clear my
head.”

The trailer’s door flung
open. Scooter dashed down the walkway, waving a large knife.
“You’re wrong! She’s not crazy. Tobias is real and he sent her this
dagger.”

Shane clutched his
brother’s arm and took the blade. “Where’d this come from?” The
name TOBIAS was emblazoned into the handle.

“
Abe gave it to her.
Tobias is real.”

Shane hurled the dagger across the
yard. Abe was constantly filling Amy’s head with heebie jeebie
mumbo bullshit.

# # #

Atticus kept his stance
against the man dressed in black.

The stranger took a drink
and smacked his lips. “Good stuff.”

“
I’ll take your word on
that, sir.”

The stranger lifted the
bottle and swished the clear liquid. “Aren’t you
curious?”

“
Name.”

“
Most call it water,” the
strange said. “Some know it as H20. I just know it as boring as
fuck, but the side effects sure beat that of a fifth of Tequila.”
He gave a nod. “Sober now seven years, four weeks and three
days.”

Atticus shook his head,
sheathed his sword. “I have no time. Good day.” He turned and
strode toward the street, away from the shadows of the alleyway. A
loud wet noise immediately followed by a brief but high-pitched
squeal made Atticus whirl around.

The man had placed a heavy
boot over the remains of the fugitive worm. “How goes the hunt for
the Beast?” asked the man before casually taking another sip from
the bottle.

“
What do you know of the
Beast?”

“
Come with me, Atticus.
I’ve got something to show you.”

“
Are a Seeker?”

“
Name’s Howard. Now come
step inside my van and let me show you something that will interest
you a great deal.”

Atticus followed the man
down to a cul-de-sac at the end of the street. An unmarked black
van was parked in the gravel lot.

The man threw open the
back doors to reveal the interior. It resembled a cluttered office
with a desk, lamp and coffee pot. Papers were scattered across the
desk and more papers and charts were stuck to the side of the van,
even on the tinted windows.

“
After I learned that
Rourn had passed from this world I began re-examining the
astrological signs.” Howard pointed at a chart on the van wall. It
was divided into several dozen slices with a secondary circle in
the center of the main circle. “And I have discovered something
that the Templar Courts missed seventeen years ago. Rourn and you
were born the same night at almost precisely the same time. You
were born under the sign of Champions when the sun, Mercury and
Earth aligned.”

“
That’s correct,” Atticus
said. “All according to the prophecies of when the Twin warriors
were to be born.”

“
I studied yours and
Rourn’s birth and the alignments of that night. You were born
moments after Rourn, right as the sun, Mercury and Earth perfectly
aligned. Rourn was born exactly one minute too early to have been
born under the sign of the Champion.”

“
That’s ridiculous! One
minute should not change Rourn’s status as my Twin.”

“
Not true,” Howard said.
“Even a minute earlier or later would have changed the legitimacy
of the birth.”

“
Then who is my
Twin?”

“
I asked myself that same
question. And so I studied another person’s date of birth. Someone
who was born twenty-seven years ago. And I discovered that the day
he was born there was also an alignment of the sun, Mercury and
Earth.”

“
A person born
twenty-seven years ago? What in carnations compelled you to look at
this person?”

“
Because he is a Paladin
and also my son. His name is Shane Baker and he lives right here in
Buckeye.”

“
Impossible! How can he be
a Paladin if he is not a member of an order?”

“
Because I defected with
my family. I wanted him and my other children to grow up like
normal all-American kids.”

Rourn was not Atticus’
twin. His twin was not even a member of the Order. He hadn’t been
trained by the wisest of elders. He was an outsider who knew
nothing of their cause, of their culture, of their
values.

Atticus gave the charts on the van’s
wall a cursory glance before his attention returned to Howard.
“Have you been inside that house?”

“
Negative. I’m only
authorized to watch from a distance and report back. You’re the
field operative.”  

Atticus huffed. “They only sent me as
a one-man reconnaissance team. They won’t let me slay the Beast
alone, only track him to his haven.”  

“
Yeah?” Howard quirked an
eyebrow. “But they gave you that fancy sword and a pretty pendant
to wear around your neck. Me? I’m a washed-up Dick Tracy living in
a rundown van.”  

“
How did you find out
about the murder here?”

“
It’s my job to follow
bread crumbs from a comfy vantage point. After you reported back
that an adult female was missing from the last crime scene I did
some digging. The missing woman’s name is Lynn Renee Rice. And that
house was occupied by her mother. Look here.” Howard pointed at his
computer screen, clicked a few buttons and several high-quality
images of a woman were on the screen. She was on a motorcycle
racing down the street; she was standing on the doorsteps of the
house; she was leaving the scene with fresh blood caked all over
her body.

“
That’s the Female,”
Atticus thought aloud.

“
That’s right.”

“
Inside the house, there
was a message written in blood: Die Beloved Die.”  

Howard looked to the
computer monitor. “A threat against something or someone...a
‘Beloved’ one.” He typed.

“
What are you doing?”
Atticus asked.  

“
I am Googling ‘Beloved’.”
 After a few seconds, he said, “My God. Beloved is associated
with the name Amy, from Latin origins.”

“
Why is that
alarming?”

“
Because,” Howard said,
looking Atticus in the face. “She is Shane’s girlfriend.”
 

“
The female Beast wishes
to kill this Amy?” Atticus asked.

“
It appears that way.
Maybe they know that Shane is of Paladin lineage and want to kill
her as an act of warning against all Paladins.”  

“
Do you know where I can
find Amy?”  

“
Of course,” Howard said.
“She was called in to work the late shift at Roxy’s this evening.”
 

“
Then I must go
immediately.” Atticus dashed from the van.  

“
Atticus!”  Howard
called after him. “Do not tell my son about me.”  

Atticus nodded before jumping into his
car. “Roxy’s,” he said.

The GPS lit up: “Roxy’s Bus Stop
Diner.”

Amy had been working for hours, her
feet numb, her back burning with twinges, but she had given service
with a genuine smile.

Tobias would have Shane’s strong will,
integrity, and strength. Tobias would have her passion and
patience.

Amy rounded the corner and dumped
dishes into a bin under the counter. She rinsed her
hands.

Carmen pushed the glass
against the Sprite tab on the soda machine. “If mini-Amy’s got your
looks and Shane’s temper, she’ll break all the boys’ hearts and
burn down this town before she’s two.”

Amy laughed. “I know.” She
glimpsed her purse under the stainless steel counter. The pee stick
peeked from the side pocket, a faint but discernible plus
sign.

Tobias was real.

Carmen reached for another
glass and began filling it with Diet Coke. “Please tell me you
don’t intend to paint your nursery in Pepto pink.”

“
Shane would have a
conniption.”

“
Finally. Something me and
the gringo can agree on.”

Smirking, Amy gave her a
sidelong look. “He wouldn’t go for it because I’m having a
boy.”

“
I suppose some
superstition told you that.” Carmen took a steak knife from the
utensil rack. She pulled at the collar of Amy’s T-shirt, readying
to drop the knife between her breasts.

Amy elbowed her. ”You’re
supposed to drop a coin not a knife. If the coin rolls to the floor
it’s a girl. If it gets caught in the underclothing, it’s a
boy.”

Shrugging, Carmen trayed
her drinks. “Fresh out of coins.”

“
Seven!” Charlie set a
plate topped with the special, shepherd’s pie, under the warmer.
The old, black man gave Amy a wink. “Mighty nice to hear about your
news, Miss Wintry.”

“
Thanks.”

A couple of roughneck
hunters with their young sons took up a booth on her side of the
diner. Mike “Cowboy” Bullock had stopped in on his way to the Bull.
As usual he’d worn his white cowboy. He set it on a table near the
door. She’d not seen him since he’d given her a lift
home.

Mike twirled one end of
his handlebar mustache with a toothpick. “Howdy there, Miss Wintry.
I hear you’re getting hitched to that no-good Shane.”

“
He finally roped me
in.”

Mike pointed the tooth
pick at her. “You tell Shane if he ever gets out of line I’m gonna
tell everyone how him and Birch’s Plan C went awry in
Laredo.”

Amy
shivered at the memory of Shane and Jamie ending up stoned and
naked in a Mexican jail, all while trying to smuggle tequila over
the border. She had asked what the heck they had been thinking and
they’d said, as if rehearsed:
We wanted
the worm!

“
I think they’ve moved on
to Plan H.”

Mike chuckled, his beer gut
rumbled.

A young man entered the
diner. A good-sized gash in the calf of his green leather pants
revealed slim but muscular legs. Long red hair, pulled into a
ponytail stretched to the center of his back. A narrow leather
carrying case protruded from his hip and past his knees.

Carmen said, “He’s all
yours. You still owe me for waiting on the last freak that came in
here.”

“
That was three weeks ago
and I was only working ‘cause Valerie called in.”

Valerie, sitting at a
nearby table crunching on pork rinds, piped up, “Sorry ‘bout that,
Amy. I was sick as a dog that morning. My break is over so I can
get this one.”

The Beast draws
near.

Amy flinched. With Vicky, sharing her
psyche was easy but with Tobias, his gruff and abrupt intrusions
could be quite alarming.

“
He’s coming
now?”

Carmen looked at her.
“‘He’s already here.” Carmen nodded at the guy in
leather.

The strange guy approached. His
intense gaze moved from Carmen to Amy.

“
I think you are the one I
seek,” he said. His eyes met hers—a penetrating stare.

Or maybe he was looking at
someone behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. Only Charlie
cooking. Turning her focus back to the stranger, she found herself
still under his scrutinizing gaze. Nervously, she tucked a strand
of hair behind her ear.

I must leave to prepare
for battle.

The stranger said, “Tell
me your name.”

She willed her racing heart to calm,
lest she die from a heart attack before the Beast even had a chance
at her.

Dear God in heaven. Was this strange
man the Beast? He was the man she was to fear? She let out a
nervous laugh. Couldn’t be. He was just a teenager, for crying out
loud.

“
You have a strange aura
about you,” he said. “You must be of Paladin lineage.”

“
Um. No. I don’t think so.
None of my family came from France.”

“
I do not speak of those
Paladins,” the boy said firmly. “I speak of the ancient lineage of
holy warriors that have protected this world since the fall of
Sodom and Gomorrah.”

“
Yeah, still doesn’t ring
a bell.”

“
I see it in your aura
right there.” He pointed at her belly. “Blazing ghost! A most
powerful strength is within you.”

Carmen put down her tray
of hot food. “Alright. Run along crazy
aura person.”

He brushed Carmen’s hand
aside. “Be gone wench!” He snatched Amy by the wrist.

“
No you did not,” Carmen
snapped.

Chairs scraped along the wood floor as
three gentleman, two hunters and Mike, stood.

“
Amy? Carmen?” Mike said,
“Everything alright?”

Unable to look away from
the stranger’s intense gaze, Amy said, “I’m not sure.”

The stranger kissed the
top of her hand and bowed. When he looked up, he said, “Your name,
it means ‘The Beloved’.” He sounded as if he’d just discovered the
fountain of youth and was ready to bathe in the waters.