V.J. Chambers - Jason&Azazel Apocalypse 01 Read online

  The Stillness in the Air

  Book One of the Jason and Azazel Apocalypse Trilogy

  The electricity went out months ago, all over the east coast. Due to her special powers, Azazel is employed by the government to help keep the peace as civilization crumbles around them.

  Azazel, Hallam, and Marlena lead a rag tag group on a mission to get west and get help, but there’s someone in the way.

  Jason.

  He says he still loves Azazel.

  But she can’t ever love him again.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am indebted to the help of many people in the writing and editing of this book. Firstly, a huge thank you to Cindy Slayden, a resident of Columbus, Kentucky, for helping me with a little firsthand knowledge of the town. I’m sure I’ve screwed up a thousand things, however. They are my errors, not hers.

  Additionally, an enormous thank you to my wonderful beta readers who read a draft of the book and helped me clean up errors. Thank you so much Stacy Wallace Benefiel, Melinda Desy, and Raina Tash. I am forever grateful.

  Thanks go out to my followers on Facebook for reading daily updates on word count, offering help and encouragement, and just being awesome in general.

  Finally, I’d be lost without Aaron Lennox, who lives with my craziness while I’m writing, and is always patient, sweet, and beautiful.

  This book contains strong language, violent situations, and some adult content. While it is a sequel to a young adult trilogy, the characters are several years older and behave like twenty-two-year-olds. As always, minors are encouraged to seek out parental guidance when choosing reading material.

  Before…

  October 2012

  I picked at a piece of lint on my sleeve, evading the question. “There was a guy,” I said. “I haven’t seen him in a few years.”

  The counselor nodded, leaning forward. “It didn’t work out?” she asked.

  I pushed my hair away from my forehead. She couldn’t possibly understand how painful it was to talk about this. “We were teenagers, you know? It was that kind of crazy, silly sort of thing you think is love when you’re seventeen. But…”

  “It wasn’t love?”

  “He was violent,” I said. “Not to me. He was always nice to me, but he’d get really angry sometimes, and he’d kind of go crazy.” I paused. “Actually, that’s not true. He wasn’t always nice to me. There was this one time. One time, he almost killed me.”

  “So it was an abusive relationship?”

  No! Well. “It was…it was just intense. I did things when I was with him. Things I didn’t think I’d ever do. I still sometimes remember those things. Dream about them. I had a sort of problem with alcohol for a while. It was just better to get away from him. To get away from all of it. You know?”

  “And there hasn’t been anyone since?”

  I shrugged, not looking up. “I’ve dated a couple guys. But…as screwed up as it sounds, being with them, it’s like…it’s boring. There’s no spark, you know?”

  “It’s common for women who are abused to feel an excitement, to miss the adrenaline of the relationship, even though they know they were being hurt.”

  The counselor didn’t know what she was talking about. And she was getting me off track. “Look, I didn’t come here to talk to you about my relationships. I just heard that I could get prescriptions through the college for free. And that’s all. I’ve been taking this pill for years. Will you give me the pills or not?”

  “I just think it’s possible, from what you’ve told me, that these pills are cutting you off from your emotions. Clearly, at the time they were prescribed, you were in a state where you weren’t functioning. But it’s clear that you don’t have the same kind of trauma in your life. Maybe it’s time to face yourself again.”

  “No,” I said. “No, that’s not it. Not at all.” I needed the pills to stop me from being able to influence people with my mind. But if I told her that, she’d think I was nuts. “Never mind. You’re obviously not going to help me.”

  “You have to talk about this to someone. If it’s not me, then please tell me you have a friend or a family member—”

  “Everyone in my family is dead,” I bit out. “And no, this isn’t something I ever want to talk about. Mostly, I just want to pretend it never happened.”

  Which wasn’t easy. Things that Jason and I had done had pretty much permanently screwed up the world. When I’d used my powers to convince all of the Sons to commit suicide, I’d effectively killed off three quarters of the U. S. government. Now the government belonged to a bunch of Wiccan tree-worshippers—The Order of the Fly. I’d given up hope that things would ever go back to the way they used to be. I got up out of the chair, ready to leave.

  “I’ll write you the prescription,” said the counselor.

  “You will?” I said. That was great. That was awesome. I sat back down. “Thanks.”

  “But I have to say that I wish you’d make some appointments with me. Maybe twice a month. To talk about this. I think you need to process what happened to you.”

  That was the last thing I needed. “I’ll think about it,” I told her.

  She smiled. “You do that.”

  I watched as she scribbled on her prescription pad, wondering why I hadn’t just lied to her. I could have easily have just said, “No, I’m not in a relationship. No, I haven’t had any serious issues with relationships. I just want to focus on school right now.” Why had I opened up to her?

  I knew it was stupid to open up to psychiatrists. They never understood. They never really believed me.

  I’d only come here for pills. Hallam and Marlena might be working for the government these days and since the government was overrun by the Order of the Fly, they might think it was practically criminal to suppress one’s magical talents, but I didn’t care.

  The counselor ripped the prescription off of her pad and handed it to me.

  “Thanks,” I said. As long as I had the pills, I didn’t have any powers. That was the way I liked it.

  The lights in the office abruptly switched off, along with the hum of the fan overhead. The room went dark. I blinked, trying to force my eyes to adjust. I could barely make out the face of the counselor, who was frowning. “Was there a storm?” she muttered. “Maybe something just tripped a breaker.”

  I shrugged. We both stepped out of her office and into the hallway outside, which was just as dark. The college counselor’s office was in the lower level of the freshman dormitory, and above me, I could hear whooping. Freshmen seemed to think anything at all was an excuse for impromptu parties. I’m sure they were all hoping the lights stayed out. It would probably mean cancelled classes.

  I said my goodbyes to the counselor and made my way through the hallway to the lobby of the counselor’s office. A student work study was on her cell phone behind the desk, babbling excitedly, “My laptop’s got a battery, and I’m looking at it on the internet. The power’s out all over the state. We’re gonna be out of class for sure!”

  I rolled my eyes. Predictable.

  Outside, the sky was blue and clear. No storm. Not even a cloud. There were faint imprints of purple and pink dancing over the horizon. I squinted. What? Aurora borealis? In New Jersey?

  During the afternoon?

  What was going on?

  Chapter One

  April 2013

  Kieran slammed the door of the beat-up Subaru we’d been driving. “So this Jason guy was like your high school sweetheart or something?”

  I stepped out of the car myself, stretching. It had been a long car ride. I took a look around. We were standing in fro
nt of a church, which looked a little worse for wear. It had a high bell tower, which looked proper and picturesque, but the addition on the back of the building stuck out like tennis shoes on a prom queen. “Sort of,” I said. “There wasn’t much about it that was sweet, though.”

  The Kentucky air was warm, but we knew that since we’d been driving with the windows down the whole way. I peeled my shirt away from my back. It was stuck there with sweat. The car we had was equipped for air conditioning, but using the a/c was a complete waste of gas, and it wasn’t like we had easy access to gasoline these days.

  “Right.” Kieran stepped over the trailer on the back of the Subaru and opened the trunk. We’d been dragging a motorboat with us all the way from Georgia. “He’s psychotic or something.”

  Psychotic? That was putting it a little strongly.

  Kieran handed me my bag. I didn’t know why he was suddenly so talkative anyway. We’d barely said anything to each other on the eight-hour drive to Columbus, Kentucky. Things between Kieran and me were a little awkward.

  I took my duffle and slung it over my shoulder. “He’s not psychotic. Not exactly.”

  Kieran shoved his shoulder-length sandy hair behind his ears and grinned. “He tried to kill you, didn’t he?”

  Only once. And he hadn’t exactly been himself during that moment. Of course, I guess Jason’s sense of self was a lot different than what I’d originally thought it was. Especially these days. I shrugged. Was there any point fighting about it? “He’s kind of psychotic, I guess.”

  Kieran lifted his own duffle out of the trunk. He half-grinned.

  Damn it. Why did he have to be so freaking gorgeous? It would be a lot easier if he weren’t. Of course, if he weren’t beautiful, things wouldn’t be awkward, because I never would have—

  “Azazel!”

  I looked up, looking for the person who was yelling my name. Marlena was at the door to the church, just under the tower. She was grinning.

  I hiked my bag up on my shoulder and strode toward her. “Marlena, it’s so good to see you.”

  She met me three steps away from the door and enfolded me in a tight hug. “I know,” she said into my shoulder. “It’s been too long.” Marlena was black and British. I loved the lilting sound of her accent. And she was the closest thing I had to an older sister or a mother figure. I’d missed her.

  She released me, and I stepped back to present Kieran. “This is Kieran.”

  “Your bodyguard?”

  “Her partner,” said Kieran, offering her his hand.

  She shook it, raising an eyebrow. “Partner?” She smiled at me, mischief dancing in her eyes.

  Kieran winked at me.

  I cringed. “Not like that,” I said. It had only been once. And I’d been drunk. And… I wanted to change the subject. “Where’s your husband, the man in charge?”

  “Hallam’s inside. He’s fiddling with the radio. It’s down again.” Marlena motioned us inside.

  Inside the church, it was darker, despite the fact that the windows, originally stained glass, were all busted out. The air was much warmer, even though a breeze fluttered through the broken glass. I tried to remember what air conditioning felt like, or what electric lights looked like. It had been over six months since I’d experienced either.

  “We got the transmission that you were coming,” Marlena continued, walking us into the sanctuary, “but it went down the next day, and we haven’t been able to get it back up.” The sanctuary still looked like a church. There were plush pews lining the rectangular room. Most of them were covered with sheets, blankets, and pillows. Apparently, people were sleeping in here.

  The front of the room no longer contained a pulpit, however. A few drums containing gasoline were stacked against the wall and several pallets of bottled water. I knew the look of the provisions well. They came straight from the Order of the Fly emergency shipments.

  Marlena walked through the aisle between the pews, heading straight back through the church.

  We followed.

  “Has the situation changed?” Kieran asked. “Anything we should know about that headquarters couldn’t tell us?”

  “No,” said Marlena. “He’s still here. He still wants to see you.” She paused and looked over her shoulder at me.

  I cringed again. I’d been dreading this ever since Georgia. I didn’t want to see Jason. I didn’t want to see him at all. “That’s not the only reason I came,” I said. “You told headquarters something about the Key of Asher.”

  We stepped up onto the platform that used to contain the pulpit.

  “Sure,” said Marlena, “and you can talk to Lily about that after you see him.” She stopped at a door at the back of the platform, her hand on the knob. She looked at me, and then she cast her eyes down on the floor. “He’s different.”

  “We haven’t seen him in years,” I said. What did she expect? Or did she think I’d kicked him out of the house for no reason? He wasn’t different, anyway. He’d always been that way. He’d just gotten worse at hiding it.

  Marlena turned the knob and opened the door. “Well, if anyone can get through to him, it’s you.”

  She smiled at me.

  It was my turn to look away. Get through to him? Whatever.

  We walked out of the sanctuary and into a dim hallway. A little bit of light streamed through two open doors on either side of the hall. Inside one, I could see rows and rows of stockpiled ammunition. Guns were hanging on the walls. Inside the other, a group of people were crowded around a radio.

  “So that’s still the plan, then?” Kieran asked. “We want to recruit him? We want Azazel to convince him to join us?”

  “Of course that’s the plan,” said Marlena. “What else would we want to do with him?” She waved into the room with the radio. “Hallam!”

  Hallam’s shaggy head looked up. When he saw me, his face lit up. “Azazel, you’re here!” He broke away from the others, dusting off his hands. He looked older. His face had more lines.

  He’d grown a full beard and mustache. There was a streak of gray in his beard.

  Still, I was glad to see him. Hallam had been lots of things over the years: a guy I was terrified was going to kill me, the overbearing father figure I’d never wanted, and overall, a good friend.

  He was British too. I also dug his accent. He hugged me even tighter than Marlena had, nearly crushing my ribs. I oomphed as he released me, trying to catch my breath to introduce Kieran again, but Hallam was already pumping his hand. “Kieran, I presume?”

  Kieran smiled. “Azazel didn’t tell me this was going to be like a family reunion.” He grinned, looking annoyingly attractive again. “Actually, she hasn’t been talking to me much lately at all.”

  I glared at him. “Should I see Jason now? Is there any reason to wait? Anything I should know?”

  The sooner I got this ridiculous mission out of the way, the sooner Kieran and I could get back to Georgia. Hopefully, I could get us reassigned to separate units, and I’d never have to see him again.

  Hallam shoved his hands in his pockets. “You don’t want to rest after your drive?”

  “Rest?” I repeated. I laughed. I guess I sounded a little bitter. “I haven’t really had a chance to rest in six months. I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.”

  Hallam nodded. “He’s been tied up in the back room for days. He and a bunch of the locals have been giving us problems ever since we arrived. After we captured him, and he saw me, he’s been asking to see you.”

  “I didn’t want to tie him up,” Marlena said, pleading with me to understand.

  “He and his little group injured a member of our party,” Hallam said. “We had no choice.”

  “It doesn’t bother me that he’s tied up,” I said. But it did, a little. Not because I cared if he was uncomfortable, but because it didn’t make any sense. Jason had broken out of a maximum security holding cell in England. There was no reason for him to stay tied up in a church in Kentucky.
No reason at all. I swallowed. “Take me to him.”

  Hallam sighed. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Hallam pulled some keys out of his pocket. They jangled as he walked down to the end of the hall and opened up one of the rooms. All four of us went inside.

  The room had a smashed piano in one corner, and stacks of bent folding chairs in another. There was one window, high up on the far wall. It was still intact. It was closed. The room was stifling.

  Jason was against another wall, his arms tied above his head. The rope was secured against a coat rack that was bolted into the wall. He wore a ragged t-shirt that clung to his muscular chest and a pair of cut-off jeans. He was sweating and his dark hair was pasted against his forehead.

  His eyes were closed.

  Marlena reached for my hand and squeezed it. I let her, but the scene didn’t bother me. Well, okay, it did. But not because I felt bad for Jason. I didn’t give a flying fuck what happened to Jason anymore. It only bothered me because I was seeing him, and I really didn’t want to have to look at him again. I pulled my hand away.

  “Hi babe,” said Jason without opening his eyes.

  Oooh. So I was supposed to be impressed that he knew I was here without actually seeing me?

  Big deal. I crossed my arms over my chest.

  Jason opened his eyes. He caught my eyes with his own. I clenched my teeth. He looked the same. “Didn’t you miss me? I missed you,” he said.

  “Somehow, I’ve soldiered on without you,” I said. I wanted to leave. I wanted to run out of the room and never look at him again. But they wanted me to try to get him on “our side.” So I’d try.

  “I want to talk to Azazel alone,” said Jason, stretching his arms as best he could.

  “Jason,” said Marlena, her voice cracking. Jason and Marlena had known each other since they were kids. I’d heard him once refer to Marlena as the big sister he’d never had. It was killing her to see him like this. “We just want to help you.”