Page 64 of Shadow of Death
“No. You’ve been fooled. You’ve been lied to,” Amy told him as she shook her head and touched his face gently. “Murder is wrong. Taking the lives of others is wrong.”
“But their sins could be cleansed.”
“No. Believe me, please. The true commandment is ‘thou shalt not kill.’ And none of us is to judge others. None of us is without sin. I don’t want to kill you, and there is no reason for you to die. How old are you? Twenty? Twenty-one?”
He frowned. “Twenty,” he told her.
“You have your whole life ahead of you. A beautiful life. Please believe me, you’ve been listening to the wrong people. And Carey is alive, right? Because you couldn’t kill her. When it came down to it and you looked at another life—at a young woman, terrified and crying and desperate—you couldn’t do it. Because in your heart, you know. Murder is wrong, and it is not something that God—in any religion—asks us to do. Cold-blooded murder is wrong. ‘Thou shalt not kill,’” she repeated.
He started sobbing again.
He didn’t need to answer her about Carey. Hunter walked back into the room. “Cops are calling an ambulance—I reached Andy already. Carey needs a hospital—he hit her with the stun gun—but she’s going to be okay.” He hunkered down by Carey and the young man. “You didn’t kill her because you’re a good man at heart. You were supposed to and you did zap her, but you couldn’t slice her throat or her heart. And you sure as hell couldn’t drink any blood.”
“No, he couldn’t,” Amy agreed. “Because somewhere down deep inside, he knew he wouldn’t be cleansing her of her sins. He knew one of the main commandments was not to kill. We need to help him.”
The young man shook his head, looking from one of them to the other. “No, no, you don’t understand. I am marked. They will know I have the Devil’s mark. They will hunt and hunt and...they will do so much...worse.”
“Worse—like cut out your heart to drink your blood? And, hmm, you were one of them who failed, and they would make it the most heinous torture in the world to saveyou, of course,” Hunter said.
The man stared at him, confused.
“But that’s not going to happen,” Hunter said flatly. “Because we’re not going to let them get anywhere near you.”
“You can’t stop them—” the man began.
“Oh, yes. We can,” Hunter assured him. “And we will.”
“We’re going to need your help. But we will keep you safe. You don’t need to die. You’re just a kid, really. Believe me, please. Look at me and trust in me. We will help you.”
He nodded and hung his head down.
“What happened to the agent in the car?” Amy asked softly.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I didn’t kill him. I just hit him with the stun gun. Then they took him in the van.”
“Who are they and where is the van going?” Hunter asked.
“They? Oh, Larry took him. He’s one of the true archangel’s trusted lieutenants. You see, Michael the Archangel is going to lead the battle when Armageddon comes.”
Amy glanced at Hunter. Mateus had supposedly been the archangel—or one of several archangels?
“I believe the archangel is dead,” Amy said quietly.
He shook his head. “No, the spirit of the greatest warrior angel, Michael, can enter different men. He can be several great leaders, great warriors, at the same time. We honor and we obey, because it was a kindness to take on the sins—”
“What’syourname?” Amy asked.
“Ian,” he said. “Ian. Ian McCormick.”
“Ian, just here, just now, today, you’re seeing you were led far astray. Please, think. You couldn’t kill. This was a test, I believe.”
“They’ll see,” Ian said miserably. “They’ll see that I failed. They will say I am marked. I am marked by the Devil, and I wasn’t good enough to deserve the Rapture. I wasn’t good enough to take on the sins of another.”
“But you know in your heart no one can take on the sins of another,” Amy said firmly.
“I just—I just couldn’t kill. I failed.”
“No, Ian, you didn’t fail. You triumphed. Because no man can take on the sins of another. You followed God’s great commandment—you didn’t kill.”
