DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) by J Kiefer (best novels in english TXT) 📕

God, she is beautiful, he thought. He regretted that he had not seen it sooner.

“Jared,” she sobbed, her tears falling onto his face. “Please don’t leave me. Not now, not when we finally found each other.”

Jared’s eyes rolled back into his head and convulsed one last time and went limp in her arms. Steve came barreling through the door. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Dana with her head down holding Jared’s lifeless body in her lap. Her face was contorted into such a look of anguish, that even his dark heart was moved. She looked up at him shattered by grief and let out a guttural wail of pain. Dana held Jared’s head in her hands and rocked back and forth and wept. It was not a girly or cinematic movie cry, but a hard and ugly heartbroken cry.

Steve really was sad that this had to happen. He never wanted to kill his brother, but Jared had forced his hand. It had told him he would have to, but he had never really believed It. In the end, It was right. It was always right.

He sighed and moved closer to Dana. He put his hands on her shoulder and knelt beside her and his brother’s body. Sirens wailed in the distance and first responders would arrive soon. He did not worry that he would be caught; It always made sure he wasn’t. The only wild card that he could think of was Dana. What did she know? What had she heard or seen? Had Jared managed to warn her before he died?

“Dana,” he said, “I know this is hard, but did Jared say anything before he... before he passed away?”

She did not look at him when he spoke, but kept her face close to Jared’s. They sat there quietly for what seemed to Steve to be an eternity. The paramedics came around from the street out front, directed by bystanders to the alley. One EMT bent down to check the girl Steve had killed, while the other came over to where Dana was still holding Jared’s body. Steve stood and went over to him. They talked quietly and then walked over to where Dana was sitting holding the body.

He bent down and put his hand on her shoulder. “Dana honey, the paramedics need to take him.”

She shook her head and pulled him closer. “No. Not yet.”

Steve sighed and looked up at the waiting paramedic. He turned back to her and tried again. “Dana. We need to let the paramedics see if there is anything they can do.”

She looked up at him with tear-stained eyes, pleading. She knew she had to let go, but she couldn’t. How could this have happened? It was so unfair; he had finally seen her, had finally loved her. After all these years, he loved her, and now, he was gone.

She held on to him for a few minutes longer, before finally releasing him to the paramedics. She felt hollow inside, as they took him from her and checked his vitals. Steve reached down and gently lifted her up off the ground.

As he led her away, she saw the paramedics shaking their heads and checking their watches. Dana had been to enough crime scenes to know what that meant; they were recording time of death. One paramedic walked over with a large black sheet and handed it to the man who’d been checking his watch. He laid it over Jared’s lifeless body, and with that, Dana knew he was gone.

Twenty-Six

It was late and the normally swamped city streets were barren of any semblance of human activity. But not dead. Night was when the nocturnal denizens of the metropolis came out to play. These were the creatures, both human and otherwise, who wandered the streets at night, as either predator or prey. They all stayed safely hidden in the shadows, watching as the Musketeer made his way toward the club where Jared had been murdered.

The area around the club was quieter than it should have been, and he noticed that the entire region was closed off by yellow crime scene tape. The scent of death and tragedy hung heavy in the air, keeping most creatures away. The Musketeer, however, reveled in the glorious aroma.

Rishut glowed brightly as the Musketeer ducked under the police tape and made his way down the small alley to where the violence had taken place. Two outlines, one of a man’s body and one of a woman’s, were drawn out on the pavement and bloodstains were still visible in many places. He bent down and touched the ground, feeling for the spiritual echo that had been created by the severity of the violence. He smirked, his nightmare black eyes darkening as the reflection of the tragic events that had taken place here played out before him. He ignored the death of the woman since she was of no consequence to him and fixated on the point where Steve had plunged his knife into Jared’s body.

“Oh, what sweet irony,” he murmured as he watched Jared’s body fall to the ground. “I knew this would be interesting, but I never imagined that it would be so amusing. Oh, Tzedakah, you are black-hearted.”

He started to rise when he saw Dana’s specter come rushing to Jared’s side. “Oh, what is this?” He stopped in his tracks as he observed her weeping and holding him as he died. The echo of Jared vainly trying to tell Dana about Steve. Dana bursting into tears, unable to save the man she loved. The futility of it all was sweeter than the sweetest of wines.

The Musketeer was so entranced by the scene, he did not notice his blade glowing brighter. By the time the warning registered, it was too late. He turned in time to see a fiery blade surge toward his head, and just barely got his own blade up to