Chapter Ten – Ezekiel
Some men took glee in inflicting pain upon others. Some took a dark, twisted enjoyment in ending another man’s life. I did neither; I simply did what I had to do in order to get them to talk, or to clean up messes. I did not kill for fun, and that was why I never thought twice about it.
Cleaning up the body and getting rid of the body parts was a necessary evil. I’d found out that the Serpents did not know who Atlas was. It wasn’t that they would all die for him before telling his identity; it’s that they simply did not know, so there was not a secret to tell.
Over the years, I’d lost track of how many men I’d ended, how many lives had been snuffed out because of me. After coming to Cypress, my hands had been mostly clean. There were plenty of others in this city who would fulfill the quota of death and chaos other than me.
And then Giselle Santos stumbled into town with her father.
I didn’t know whether I wanted her to stay, for her father to get that Black Hand position, or if I wanted her to go. She was… I could no longer lie. She was the most alluring temptation there ever was. Never before had I faced such delicious sin.
For she was. She was a sin of mine. I shouldn’t want her. To desire her went against what I should be, who I tried to be—but that was the thing, wasn’t it? I was never a normal priest. My morals were not totally aligned with the church’s. I did what I had to in order to keep my flock safe, and the very moment I’d spotted Giselle, I’d known.
I had to protect her. This city and its machinations would be her ruin if she wasn’t careful.
I did a lot of praying. After that first night, when we’d… come together, after I’d showed her the Serpent I still had, I couldn’t get the girl out of my mind. When I slept, during my waking hours; it didn’t matter. It was all Giselle. She was like me, and yet she was so, so different at the same time.
Our families had failed us. I’d found someone who helped me see who I truly was, and if I had to be that person for Giselle, I would. I would take on the mentor role. I would be her Bogeyman, just as the Bogeyman had been a role model for me.
The days of the week passed, and Giselle kept coming for some sparring. I was easy with her; we moved slow due to her weakened midsection. Her reaction times were getting better though, and I looked forward to seeing her at her best. Her true best, not the best she’d shown me in the forest that night, when I’d gone to return her golden cross. She was a fighter that let her emotions take over, which could be beneficial in certain situations, but often it merely blinded you, as it had done to her.
During those nights, I’d managed to keep my hands to myself. Mostly. It grew harder and harder to be near her and not think of the way she’d moved beneath me, not picture how she’d looked, disheveled and sweaty, vulnerable and fiery. The very definition of beautiful. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it time and time again, even during the day. She was… how could I explain?
The soft curves on her body. The feminine moans that had come from her while I was inside of her. Her hands on me, her mouth on mine. Never before had there been a more perfect night.
Or a more sinful night. We’d desecrated the church, the altar, and now every time I stood there, staring at the statue of Jesus Christ on the cross, I couldn’t get Giselle out of my mind. She’d taken up a permanent residency there, and nothing I could do would change that. She made me weak in areas I used to be strong. Never before had another woman made me feel so… so…
Alive.
That’s what it was. Giselle made me feel alive, something I hadn’t truly felt in years. For so long, I’d simply been here, a shepherd to those who’d needed me, a kind and supportive voice to those who needed it. I’d never lived for myself. Becoming a priest; it had been my way of reaching out to protect the lost, the ones who could not lift a finger to protect themselves. I knew there was good in the world, and that good needed protection from the evil.
And sometimes you had to match evil with its own brand. To overcome the bad, you had to be just as bad. I never claimed to be a good man, and I never would be. That time had come and gone, the world never once relenting in its chaos.
The hour was late. Not so late that I was expecting Giselle yet, but late enough that I’d started to do my nightly duties around the church. Did a little cleaning, this and that. I wasn’t expecting someone to come bursting in through the doors, but that’s exactly what happened.
Someone lumbered inside the church, not taking care to be quiet in doing so, and I set down the broom I was using, walking out of the alcove I was cleaning to see what it was, who it was. My instincts told me more Serpents had arrived, but the very moment I spotted the person walking down the main aisle of the church, I was proven wrong.
It wasn’t a Serpent. It was Giselle, and she looked absolutely pissed off, her beautiful face twisted in fury, her hands, clad in black gloves, clenched into hard fists. Her feet took her directly to the front of the church, to the place where we’d united all those days ago.
Something inside tugged at me. I didn’t like seeing her upset, and I could only wonder what it was that had gotten her so riled up. Giselle might claim she’d been living life as a zombie these last three years, but the girl still had fire. Her fuse was short, and once it was lit, there was no stopping the explosion that came after.
“You’re here early,” I spoke as I approached her. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, her blond hair bouncing as she did so. Without saying a word, she went to the nearest pew and collapsed, her shoulders hunching.
Luckily, there was no one else in the church. I went to lock the main doors to ensure our privacy, and then I returned to her side, sliding into the pew beside her, my thigh resting against hers. Of course, I knew I shouldn’t touch her, but like I’d mentioned before: Giselle made me weak. So weak it felt futile to fight it.
“Tell me what happened,” I said, noting her continued silence. It was so unlike her; usually she spouted off whatever was in her mind when she was with me. She never held back. It was something I could respect.
This… the way she was acting right now riled up the beast inside of me, made him want to break free of his cage and rain down pain onto whoever had caused her to be like this.
Giselle didn’t look at me. She stared at her hands, at the gloves, and then she worked on pulling them off, setting them on the empty space on the pew to her other side. Her fingers flexed, and I saw she wasn’t wearing a ring. She’d told me earlier in the week that Luca had dropped off a rather sizeable ring, and that he’d hardly spoken to her as he’d done so. She’d also told me just why he was acting that way.
The coward. If I was in his position, I would do everything in my power to make sure Giselle was okay. I would be her comfort. She could always come to me with her problems, and I would sit and listen every night.
“I spoke with Luca today,” she whispered, her voice barely able to contain the emotion she felt. “He apologized for how he’s acted.”
“And did you forgive him?”