“If you don’t believe me, more innocent people will die.”
Jake straightened up.Gabriel was talking about the recent murders! Did he have something to do with them?
Little fingers of unease began caressing the back of his neck.
Jake made no move to turn the tape off, however.
Just a few more minutes,he told himself.
“Remember the story I told you a few weeks ago?” Gabriel was saying. “About the Beginning? About the Nightshades and the world before the coming of man? You’ve got to believe me Sam when I swear to you that it was all true! Every word of it!
“And now it is up to you to take up the fight.
“I am the last of the Elders, the last of my people. We were a brave and noble race, but when I am gone we will exist no more. We will pass out of this world, and only a faint echo of our glorious times will remain, meager memories that your people believe are nothing more than myths and legends.”
Time-out here!Jake thought, frowning.Nightshades? Elders? What is he talking about? It sounded as if the old guy didn’t think he was human, which was completely absurd. Had the guy gone completely off his rocker?
“As I told you before, millions died in the Great War between our two races. When it was over, only a handful from each side survived. A few of us cried out for peace between our two peoples. They believed the Elders and the Nightshades could exist together, side by side in harmony, working to rebuild a world we’d come close to destroying in our greed. But others among us, myself included, disagreed.” The old man’s fist clenched, and his voice rang with remembered pain. He shook his hand in the air. “White-hot hatred burned in our hearts, and in our minds there was only rage. We swore we would obtain vengeance for our dead or die ourselves in the attempt.”
Despite himself, Jake was moved by the man’s impassioned words, even as his mind sought to deny their authenticity. It was clear that Gabriel believed what he was saying to be the truth.
He watched as the old man lowered his fist and stared at it, as if surprised to find it there. Jake could see small red half-moons in his palm where his nails had pressed savagely against the tender flesh of his palm when Gabriel uncurled his fingers.
Gabriel went on, but the passion was gone as swiftly as it had come. His voice was now little better than a whisper and thick with the knowledge of choices made in error.
“We hunted each other through the ages, neither side gaining the upper hand. Hiding from the humans who had grown in number and spread their own civilization across the globe, we continued our war in the shadows. Savage clashes occurred whenever we met. We fought, and fought, and fought some more, until there were too few of us for it to matter any longer. Yet still we continued. We knew nothing else by then; the fight consumed us, body, mind, and soul. In the end, it became our only reason to live.
“It continued that way for centuries, until only two of us remained. Myself, and a Nightshade by the name of Moloch.”
Gabriel’s eyes burned with fanaticism. “He tried to flee, to escape my wrath, but I was better than he. I tracked him relentlessly, never tiring in my chase. I had the conscience of an entire race on my shoulders, and I swore to myself that I would not fail, that they would not have died in vain. Moloch would pay for his crimes. Victory would be ours at last!
“The chase led me here, to Harrington Falls, which at that time was nothing more than a small, pioneer settlement. Moloch had taken refuge in the home of a human, a man who sought to harness the ‘Powers of Darkness,’ as he called them, for his own evil ends. I confronted the Nightshade there and the battle was intense. The fighting between us went on for days, and many times it had me on the brink of defeat. Each time I would recall the faces of all those who had fallen before me and my strength would be renewed, until I could turn the situation to my advantage.
“In the end, it was Moloch who was defeated.
“It was then that I made my greatest mistake. As he lay there at my feet, awaiting the final blow that would send him into the darkness forever, I found I couldn’t finish what I’d begun. For decades, destroying him had been the sole purpose of my life, the very reason for my continued existence. When I thought of what it would be like to live without that burden, all I could envision was a bleak life, living without the company of my people. Even the world was something I no longer recognized, Man was everywhere; the last, wild sacred places dwindling by the day. In that moment of triumph, I realized the irony of my existence.
“If I destroyed him, I would in fact be destroying myself as well.
“Despite my loneliness, I did not want to die.
“In the end, I compromised. I used the last of my powers to rob him of his physical existence, imprisoning the rest of his being, his soul if you will, inside a void, a sphere of nothingness. That was in turn sealed inside a stone likeness of him that his human ally, Sebastian Blake, had fashioned. I sealed the statue and its precious contents away in a place where I thought it would never be found while the townspeople were sending Blake on to his last reward.
“I was no longer the Hunter. I was the Guardian. Once again, I had a purpose in my life, a reason to continue.
“Decades passed and the beast remained locked in its cell. It had lost its body, but its mind still functioned; it was helpless, trapped with only its thoughts for companions for all eternity. I hoped it would eventually lose its mind, but not before it suffered long and hard for what it and its kind had done.
“Such was the nature of my vengeance.” Gabriel’s voice rose once more. “I was a fool! The years passed. I roamed the world as one of you, pretending to be an ordinary human, hiding my true identity. Nightly I would let my consciousness return here to check on my captive, to ensure that all was well with Moloch’s confinement. In time I grew overconfident. My visits became weekly, then monthly, and before long entire decades would pass before I would return. I was enjoying life as a human, crude though it was in comparison to our world, and sought the kind of pleasures from life that I had missed in my earlier years because of the war.
“My people have much longer life cycles than your own, and so I watched generations pass me by while I remained as I was and always had been, young and strong. Eventually, time caught up with me and took its toll. Our lives may be longer than yours, but we are every bit as mortal in the end.
“Knowing my death wasn’t far in the future, I returned here to live out the last of my days.
“That’s when it happened.
“Moloch escaped.”
Jake was staring at the screen with his jaw hanging wide, absolutely astounded at what he was hearing.Everything the old man said was bullshit, but what bullshit it was! The best part of it all was the fact that Gabriel believed it all. Every word. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice.
Gabriel went on. “I am too old to fight him as I once did. My body is weary, and my power wanes. If you are watching this, then you know I was too weak to defend myself and the war is at last over. But you are young. You have the power of truth and righteousness on your side, as I had so long ago. You can defeat him!
“He has killed several times already and will no doubt kill again and again unless he is stopped. You must find him and destroy him once and for all. You must succeed where I have failed.”
The old man’s face took on a look of chagrin, as if he were begging for forgiveness. “I wish I had more time to teach you what I know. But I waited too long, hoping against hope that I would be strong enough to finish the deed. How wrong I was! I can tell you this; he has gained new abilities since his release, abilities even I am uncertain of. But he has gained a weakness as well. He requires blood to remain corporeal, or the sorcery he used to release himself will be undone. Do not repeat the mistakes I have made, my young friend. Remember, when he comes, he will come on night’s velvet wings. Watch for him. Find him and destroy him. The fate of your world now hangs in the balance.”