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"I'm old enough." I frown. He knows how old I am. Why is he acting like this? Is this a performance? Did Soren compel him to act this way?
Ed speaks over the intercom. "You know how old she is."
"How many of us will you destroy during your career," he says and leans forward, "because you will destroy us. Even if you don't put the stake in them yourself, their deaths will be on your hands. You'll have taken away the gift of immortality from vampires with decades, centuries, maybe even millennia of experience. That's an awful burden, Eve. It will weigh on your conscience." He sits back, his eyes on me. “Superior beings. You’ll help destroy them.”
I shrug, not having really had time to think about it.
"I thought you supported the Council."
"Obviously, you didn’t know me as well as you thought."
I say nothing, my hands gripping the chair's armrests. His words make me warm, my face flushing in embarrassment. He's right. I obviously didn’t know him. I thought he was honorable. He's really just a predator. I fight to regain control, biting the inside of my cheek until I taste blood, using the pain to focus.
I take in a deep breath and try to shift back to him.
"Tell me about the kills. Why did you kill the priest?"
"Hypocrisy."
"What do you mean?"
After a moment, he shrugs. "This is a waste of time." He turns away. "I'm guilty. Just read me and get it over with."
I write his words down in my notes.
"I need you to confess to one kill publicly if you want your sentence reduced."
"I killed them all. How's that?"
"No, I need one kill detailed. A confession."
"Fuck the confession. I'm no longer Catholic and you're not a priest." He turns and faces me directly. "Come on, executioner. Read me and get this farce over with. I'm bored."
"Why are you being so nasty to me?"
"That's the wrong question," he says. "You should ask why was I so nice to you before?"
I shake my head, not knowing what he means. Was his friendly demeanor when we first met just an act?
He leans closer.
"I'll tell you something," he says, his voice conspiratorial. "Don't ever think that any vampire is your friend, Eve. None of us. The truth is, no matter how we act, or how nice we behave, we want to kill you,allof you. We're nasty motherfuckers. We are psychopaths. All of us. That’s why we’ll win. That’s why Dominion is inevitable."
I take in a deep breath and close my file, my mind registering shock, my body numb. I approach him, and when I do, the guard moves closer, holding out the mechanism in case Julien makes a threatening move. I look into Julien's eyes before I touch him, afraid now of what I'll see in his mind. He smiles as if he relishes the prospect of my touch, but for just a second, his lips betray him and his smile falters.
I touch the bare skin above his wrist on the arm not attached to the IV, and for a moment, all I feel is cool flesh. Then, a falling sensation overtakes me and the rest of the world, the room, my own flesh, disappears into the distance. I see his recent kills – dozens, one after the other as if he's assembled them on purpose just to show me how many. In the few seconds that I'm able to focus on each one, I know they're all either pardoned or sanctioned kills, done in the service of the Council. There are witnesses, there are documents signed and stamped. Inspections completed. Even the latest kill – the young priest – was Council-approved. A dour-faced human stamped a letter. The beheading hadn't happened yet, but was meant to mimic the real killer.
Julien is a killer and enjoys each one, relishing in his victim's blood. But he isn'tthekiller. He isn't the River Man.
When I try to pull away to proclaim his innocence of the charges against him, to attest that his kills are all just, he twists his hand and is able to grasp mine before the guard can react. In those few seconds before the guard depresses the switch to trigger the flow of liquid silver, Julien pleads with me in his mind.
Find me guilty.
I hear it in my mind, just a whisper, but his voice is pleading.
I fight against such an idea. Heisa killer, a contract killer working for the Council, an infiltrator as he said to me in Virginia. His kills are all sanctioned. He wants me to find him guilty but I don’t know why.
The guard steps forward and I pull myself momentarily out of contact with Julien's mind.
