I floated effortlessly as cold water lapped gently against me. Low mournful sounds echoed in the distance as my head bobbed under the surface. I couldn't open my eyes, nor could I move. I was drifting idly with a soft current. I was at the mercy of the water as it carried me. For a moment, I felt as if I should panic, but mostly I felt exhausted and decided I couldn't be bothered.

   Something bumped underneath me, jarring me back to consciousness just as my mind was beginning to drift to darkness. I listened to the sounds growing and then slowly fading around me as the gentle rocking of the current pulled me into unconsciousness once more. Exhaustion demanded all of my attention.

   The room was dark, but I knew I was in Ezra's room. A window had been left open, allowing the deep scent of pine to permeate the room. I could feel, not just hear or smell the heavily wooded forest teeming with life in the darkness around me.

   I had been sleeping curled in a fetal position. Every part of my body felt bruised and heavy. I didn't try to move. Ezra was also curled, mirroring my position on the other side of the bed, watching me. I felt no rush to speak as Ezra's eyes drifted across my face. I watched his breathing, slow and calm. Time passed, unnoticed and insignificant. It was a long time before I finally spoke.

    "Did you have to kill Curtis Pope?"

    "Yes."

   Every line of his face appeared perfect to me. His skin, a golden bronze framed across fine chiseled bone, spread to his full mouth and thick eyelashes. It was the face of a man who had murdered, unrepentantly. There was no denying it— I loved him. Whether it was Ezra or Azrael didn't change anything.

    "He was hunting you. He had to die."

    "The women he killed... was that any different than what you did?"

    "No," he said calmly. "I was much worse. I will do anything, kill anyone to keep you safe. And I won't regret any of it."

   I wondered how many years of immortal life we have to live before death is all that matters.

   "You were Azrael."

   He nodded. "Ezraeil, Azrin, Izrael, Azryel, Ozryel." He pronounced each name differently. "I think, at first, they called me by that name because it was the worst name they could give me... naming me after an angel of evil and destruction. It was appropriate. Over the years it wasn't just a comparison, I was Azrael."

   Ezra closed his eyes for a moment. "For all I know maybe I created the legend of Azrael, or maybe it was already known, and I simply picked up the mask."

   I felt weak. "When did it start?"

   He shook his head. "I don't know, not exactly. At first, it was just slavers. I could never stay in any single place more than a few years, so I was always wandering, alone. I was a man without people or property, so it was acceptable to capture me as a slave. I was easy prey." He shrugged. "As long as there has been plenty of food and cities, there has been slavery. With cities came ruthlessness and brutality that never existed." 

   I didn't understand. What did sustenance have to do with it? When I asked he frowned before he answered, "When you have more food than you can eat, you have leisure time. With hunters and gatherers, before we had agriculture, everyone needed to spend all their time working together to survive. Agriculture created an overabundance of food which led to the creation of towns and cities. Suddenly much larger populations could live in a small area."

   This made sense.

    "Cities and leisure time helped create class systems. Fewer and fewer people, who either couldn't or didn't want to do the labor, held most of power and money. I didn't know what a slave was until the first time I saw a city. It was the next logical step." He thought quietly for a moment. "That was also the first time I tasted bread. Bland, tasteless stuff. Bread changed the world."

    "So you killed the slavers?"

    "At first, it was just the ones who attacked me. Then I killed slavers any time I saw them whether they attacked me or not. Then I killed the owners. Eventually, I targeted any town that had slaves, which was just about everywhere. I killed entire towns, villages, everyone.... including the slaves."

   That was what I had seen. I wanted to ask why, but I stopped myself. I knew I couldn't because there wasn't an answer. I couldn't apply sense and logic to it because the world didn't operate that way. It didn't today, and it certainly didn't then. Evil must have smiled to itself on the day it created slavery, I thought. Nothing strips humanity away better than it does, for the slave as much as the slaver.

    "Why did you stop?"

   "Nothing I did, whether I killed or not, made any difference. I guess I was tired of being angry all the time." He exhaled sharply. "The last time was when I was traveling through Sparta to Italy. I had begun hearing about a growing city there that had established a republic. I wanted to see if it was any better than Athens. Cities without Kings seemed strange and promising."

    "Rome?" I mouthed. He nodded. "Was it better?"

   He shook his head, "No," then asked me, "Do you know what the crypteia was?" I shook my head. I had no idea. "Spartans were ferocious warriors. Fighting and dying for Sparta was all that mattered. The only ambition was to be a warrior, which is exactly what I was."

   Naturally. Any Avati, with their strength and speed, would have been formidable in battle. Ezra must have been, quite literally, worshiped by them.

    "Young boys began training in the agoge when they were seven years old. When they were around twenty, the best warriors began the crypteia. They were given a knife and sent out at night to kill as many helots as they could find."

   "Helots?"

    "A serf race that served them," he answered in an obvious tone as if I were acting deliberately slow.

    "Demaratus, one of the kings, wanted me to stay in Sparta and fight for him. When I refused, he tried to force me. So on the night of the crypteia, while they were hunting the helots, I was hunting them. All of them. Then I killed everyone in the barracks... grown men, children... a few women. Demaratus respected me enough then to allow me to go on my way. I'd had enough of my life after that."

    "You've still killed, though?"

    "Yes," he nodded. "But when I needed to, not because I wanted to. When someone tries to hurt me or someone I care about." There was tension in his voice and a trace of alarm.

   He didn't try to hide any of the ugliness, and I respected him for that. I lifted my hand, reaching toward his lying between us on the bed and slowly linked my fingers with his. My arms ached, and my movement was slow and sluggish.

   Show me something beautiful. His skin was warm against my cold fingers.

   The leaves and heads of the thick grains bobbed and undulated around me like waves gently rolling across the ocean surface. The air smelled dry and crisp. There was a freshness to the air I'd never experienced before, trees scattered around the field casting deep shadows across the ground. Behind me, I heard water bubbling, and a child giggled. I turned toward the sound and watched two young boys, I assumed they were boys, chasing each other. Each was trying to lift the other off the ground without being lifted himself.

   In the distance, women were standing in a stream, bathing, naked from the waist up and had some sort of thin woven cloth draped around their hips. They were chatting casually with each other. Curious, I stepped closer to them to hear what they were saying. I spotted an empty space in the tall grasses and edge closer to it. Ezra was lying on his back with his eyes closed. His right arm was on the ground, arched over his head, and the other was resting on his stomach. Like the women, he was bare-chested. He was wearing loose-fitting pants made of the same thin cloth that came just below his knees. His hair was long and spilt out beneath his head, and a short thick beard blanketed his jaw. He seemed to be resting or sleeping.

   I heard rustling in the grass and more giggling nearby. I watched one of the boys run toward Ezra and leap over his sleeping body quickly followed by the second boy. The boys whispered to each other and ran to jump over Ezra a second time. Ezra shifted slightly, pulled his arm closer to his head and smiled.

   It was enough.

   The vision slowly faded. I stayed still with my fingers locked with Ezra's and my eyes closed. I could live with the Ezra of the past because I knew, without a moment of doubt, I couldn't live without Ezra of the present. My muscles relaxed, urging me toward sleep. I surrendered to it almost immediately. 

   I opened my eyes one last time and looked at Ezra watching me with that same slight smile from the vision. "I love you more than I believed possible in this world."

   Detective Aguirre arrived just as a security guard was making his way toward the parking lot. Several buildings such as this one were being constructed all over the city. It was located close to the Rose Quarter, and its view of the river made it a valuable property. A patrol car was parked on the other end of the lot.

    "You the detective?" the guard asked expectantly.

   Aguirre nodded. "What do we have here?" he gestured toward the half-completed building. The guard shrugged, "Not much; some vandalism and a little blood. Not much reason to call you down here. Wouldn't have called at all if it weren't for the blood. But the other officer said you'd want to see it. Make it fast, would ya? The contractor wants to get his men back in there right away. And I need to get back to my office." He coughed lightly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "Ninth floor," he mumbled as he punched the screen.

   Aguirre pulled his sunglasses off and inserted them into their protective case before slipping them into his jacket pocket. He stopped as he approached the doorway and looked down at a large steel metal door leading to a stairway that had nearly been ripped from the wall. He frowned as he stepped around it. Officer Bauer peered over the edge of the railing as he climbed.

    "Please tell me you didn't drag me up here for a joke," he told her as he reached the top, trying to force himself to breathe normally. Nine fights of stairs left him more winded than he wanted to admit.

    "Oh, it's not a joke, but it is not exactly much of a crime scene either," She shrugged before turning to lead him into a large open area. The space, largely empty and open from end to end with only steel and concrete posts scattered throughout, looked sad and vulnerable. There were a few coils of wire dangling like branches from the ceiling and stacks of wood studs were piled near the edge of the building. Brown and green leaves fluttered and swirled across the hard, barren floor. Bauer pointed to a small section of wall constructed from concrete blocks connecting to the enclosed stairwell. Aguirre scowled as he walked over to it. So far, he didn't see much reason to be here.

   His scowl disappeared as he read the message. It was the same as the Pope case. A bizarrely cryptic biblical quote with the same handwriting, only this time it looked to be written with a black sharpie. He glanced around him at the ground. There was no body this time, just some blood a few feet away.

    "Has the blood been sampled to see if it's human?" he asked. His voice sounded hollow as it echoed lightly across the concrete but faded quickly once it reached the open air. He suddenly felt wistful at the sound. The vulnerability of the place had vanished. The sunlight and breeze ushered an earthy scent through the air. He found himself wishing they wouldn't erect walls, but leave it open instead.

    "No, hard to justify the expense over a case of vandalism since there isn't enough to be fatal," she answered. "It's your call. Do you want them to test it?"

   He wanted to answer yes immediately but stopped; if it turned out to be nothing, he'd take an endless amount of shit over it. "Yes," he finally answered. If he didn't have the blood tested, it would bother him. He looked up at the ceiling. "No security cameras." That would be too good to be true.

    "No," Bauer answered. "Just one down in the parking lot." Aguirre looked at her in surprise. He hadn't noticed it. "The parking lot is private property, so a security company monitors the feed."

   He smiled and thanked her as he walked back down the stairs. With luck, the guard would still be there.

Aguirre sat in front of a massive security monitor. He bent to insert a thumb drive into the side of the computer and clicked on the video feed from the construction site. The company monitored many buildings throughout the Portland area and wasn't able to offer much information about the site. He shook his head and sighed. It seemed he could always count on people to put in the least amount of effort into their jobs. The guard hadn't even wanted to stay as Aguirre reviewed the footage, but simply pointed to the collection of thumb drives and left.

   The screen showed a grainy image of an empty parking lot and the lower three stories of the front of the building. Aguirre watched the blank screen for a few minutes before fast-forwarding the feed. Eventually, a red sedan pulled into view and parked. He observed a small woman step out of the car and walk to the trunk. He froze in shock and a small amount of excitement when she reached into the boot and effortlessly lifted a body over her right shoulder. With her left hand, the woman swung a backpack over her other shoulder.

   The body looked like a woman dressed in jeans and a long white hooded t-shirt with a wide blue stripe down the arms. Long hair draped and swayed with the shifting movement while her arms hung past her abductor's knees. The first woman was so tiny he could hardly believe she was able to carry the body, let alone make it look so graceful.

   She carried the girl toward the building and reached into her back pocket to pull out a key. Aguirre waited and watched several more minutes before forwarding the streaming image again. The sun had set, casting a darkening grey across the screen. Glowing spheres of electric light winked to life suddenly. Aguirre scanned each corner of the video feed looking for any activity but found nothing.

   Suddenly an SUV sped across the screen, and a figure jumped out the driver's side without stopping or turning off the engine. Aguirre hadn't realized it, but he was creeping closer and closer to the screen as the seconds passed. He pulled back as he realized he was perched on the very edge of the chair. The dark figure raced across the pavement to the door. He tried to turn the knob and stepped back. It must have been locked.

   Aguirre tensed, and he nearly stood up when he saw the figure step forward to rip the door from its frame and bending it down as if it were made of foil. He reversed the feed and watched again, holding his breath. He watched it a third time before allowing the stream to continue. Next, a light-haired figure stepped from the passenger side and raced into the building. Seconds passed slowly, then suddenly the video feed flashed nearly white. All the electric lights pulsed, glowing brighter and hotter, casting a golden halo across the screen before eventually dimming back to their natural state.

   Minutes ticked by. He didn't risk fast-forwarding the feed but watched and waited. Finally, he saw the dark figure come around the building from the back, carrying the body toward the SUV. He leaned closer to the screen. It was definitely a woman he was taking, but he couldn't tell if she was alive or not. He set the woman into the passenger seat before driving away. More than fifteen minutes passed before he finally gave in to temptation and fast-forward the footage. Eventually, the second man left the building and drove away in the small woman's car.

   Aguirre watched to the end of the night's footage for the first woman to reemerge. She never did. What the hell had he been watching? It hardly seemed real or possible. He shook his head, confused, troubled, and terribly excited.

   He frowned. The long hooded t-shirt was familiar, and he didn't like where his thoughts were taking him. He remembered where he had recently seen it. Aguirre turned to make sure the door to the office was closed and listened for footsteps. Then he reached into a box on the shelf and grabbed an unused thumb drive. He inserted it next to the first drive and transferred a copy of the footage to it. Then he quickly slipped the copied drive into his pocket before walking out the door.

Uh oh.

TEASER: "What an extraordinarily useful talent you have," he said almost with longing. "I shall enjoy watching what comes next."