Jack's Back ((Ascension: Book 2)) Read Free Page A

dream-creature abominations materialized, they'd all be found out and the government would have them executed (because of what they'd done last year to those poor military guards at the facility).
    So she home schooled Jessie the best she could and just hoped every day for a change of fortunes.
    For his part, Jessie seemed to have adjusted well enough, although he had taken a distinct disliking to his father. She didn't understand that because Luke was a good man despite his quirky flaws, and he seemed to genuinely care for his son.
    Maybe Jessie was acting out because he felt like Luke had abandoned him at birth, but that was unfair. Luke didn't even know he existed until a little over a year ago. Jessie's mom was the one at fault. She'd performed the ritual that made Jessie special, failed to inform the father of the child, and then when things got scary with the boy, she simply abandoned him; she didn't have the moxy to finish what she'd started. (Child services then picked him up and it soon became apparent that he was unique. That's when the government stepped in and that's when she and Luke got involved.)
    Jessie's mom caused all of his pain, not Luke. She deserved his ire.
    Emotions are a funny thing, she thought, especially at such a young age.
    She wandered through the silent house, pausing at the kitchen window to watch one of Luke's devout followers walk past. He was patrolling the house as a lookout for approaching government agents. It sure seemed to her like they'd left one prison (the underground government facility) for a new, self imposed prison.
    She turned the TV on, watched a game show. She wept as quietly as she could, careful not to let Jessie hear her.

Jack remembers...a little
     
    Jack's memories started to come back to him, but each one seared his brain, and he fought to cast them off before they did too much damage or caused him too much pain.
    He had been tricked by Lucifer. Lucifer had used him to escape his hellish prison, then he threw Jack inside so that God wouldn't get suspicious. Apparently God checks in on hell from time to time to see that all souls are present.
    But according to the plan as explained to Jack, it wasn't supposed to go that way. Lucifer was supposed to just come along for the ride, inside Jack's body. They were supposed to be two drivers of the same car (with neither of them stuck in hell). For various reasons related to his hatred of God, Jack was fine with sharing his body with the soul of God's nemesis. But that's not what happened. He'd been played for a fool and tossed into the pits of hell like a piece of garbage.
    Lucifer had stolen his ident ity and he guessed that he'd also assumed his life since then. Did that mean he was with Jessie and Melanie? Had he killed them already? That thought brought a wave of fury with it and Jack snarled. He felt his horn nubs tingle.
    The spider scurried off into another room for safety.
    The spider had found them an abandoned home to hole up in as Jack got used to the earth again. The earth seemed foreign to him like how old childhood memories always come crashing down when you revisit a place where you grew up. Didn't that house used to be bigger. Didn't the park used to be more colorful and have more vibrant scents? Wasn't my second grade teacher twice as tall, with the scowl of a demon?
    Apparently all memories were lies. That was how Jack felt right then.
    The earth was drab, lacking any of the luster he remembered. Maybe it was because he'd spent the past year untouched by all things mortal? Or maybe he'd put it on a pedestal where it didn't belong in the first place.
    Maybe he didn't respect earth anymore because he'd called hell his home for the past year.
    He just couldn't remember any details. That was probably a good thing because those memories were almost certainly poisonous, maybe even deadly.
    Jack tilted his head up and sniffed the air. He looked all around; God was still in command, he knew. So why hadn't Lucifer