Destroyer of Worlds Read Free Page A

loft space. The computer
seemed to take forever to come up; when it finally did, John
hurriedly hit the flashing icon of an incoming call.
    Caleb’s familiar face filled the screen. His
long hair hung out of its braid, forming a gorgeous curtain over
his shoulders and chest. He still wore his elk hide and kevlar
coat, and although his eyes looked tired, he managed a smile, at
least. The blank wall behind him gave away nothing about his
location.
    “ Caleb, hey,” John said, grinning
despite all the worry and fear. Goddess, it was good to see him.
“How are you?”
    “ Great!” Caleb said brightly. “They’re
treating me really well. Like staying in a four star
hotel.”
    “ Oh. Really?” He’d expected surliness,
or anger, or even bitter blame. Not this odd, perky cheerfulness.
“Well…that’s good.”
    “ Yeah, it is. Forsyth says I’ll have to
do some simple tests starting tomorrow and running through Friday,
nothing big. And Saturday morning, they’ll exorcise Gray and send
me back to Charleston. We can have dinner together, if you
want.”
    What the hell? Were doppelgängers real, and
had one replaced Caleb? Because no way would the Caleb he knew be
so blithely trusting of SPECTR.
    Which meant something had gone wrong.
    “ I’m looking forward to it,” John said,
even as his pulse started to race. “I miss you.”
    “ Same here.” For a second, the mask
slipped. “I can’t wait for this to be over.”
    Was that the problem? John hadn’t exorcised
Gray yet. Did Caleb think Forsyth’s exorcism was the only hope he
had left? Or had John’s first instinct been right, and something
had gone awry?
    But what? If Forsyth knew how to exorcise
Gray, he should have damned well said something earlier, true. But
he was still part of SPECTR. Still one of the good guys. John might
not be happy about the call Forsyth had made to haul Caleb in, or
about the fact Gray’s life hung in the balance, but it didn’t
change the basic facts.
    “ I know,” John said. “I know you never
asked for this. You’ve been really brave.”
    Surprised flickered across Caleb’s face, then
vanished. “Not much choice,” he said ruefully. “It looks like I’ve
got to go now. I probably won’t have time to call again.”
    “ I understand.” Damn it.
    Caleb’s mouth twitched into a sad smile.
“John? I love you.”
    He swallowed against the painful
constriction in his throat. “I love you, too.” Both of you.
    “ Goodbye,” Caleb said quietly. Then the
final image of him froze on the screen, and a soft beep informed
John the connection had been cut.
    * * *
    Caleb shrugged off his heavy jacket and hung
it in the closet, beside the creepy row of identical shirts and
pants. He couldn’t smell the lycanthrope in here; wherever the
thing had gone, at least he wouldn’t have to put up with Gray
drooling on the sheets.
    “ I do not drool.
Much.”
    Caleb sat down at the small desk and stared
at the art supplies. Nice to know SPECTR had been stalking him like
an insane ex-boyfriend. Too bad he couldn’t exactly get a
restraining order.
    “ Will we see John
again?”
    Caleb closed his eyes, feeling the
slice of pain deep inside, thin and insidious as a paper cut which
wouldn’t stop bleeding. I don’t
know.
    “ You do not think
so.”
    No. I don’t. Because even if he somehow escaped, even if these moths could
exorcise him, what next? Assuming he didn’t end up in prison, John
would never forgive him for letting an NHE—letting
Gray—go.
    So yeah, tonight had been goodbye. The final
farewell, the one they wouldn’t come back from.
    “ It is not right. It should
not…not end like this.” Grief and bewildered pain
because, despite having God-only-knew how many lifetimes worth of
memories gleaned from the corpses he’d inhabited, Gray still
managed to be naïve. He’d only dimly understood mortal sorrow and
mortal betrayal, until accidentally possessing Caleb.
    Now, he knew them all too well.
    I know. I’m