The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) by J.M. Parry

you make the wrong choice, everything I have
worked the last two hundred years to accomplish will
disappear.”
    Kait stood up. She wanted to leave. She
wanted to go back to her hotel room but she suspected it wouldn't
be that simple. “So, what are you going to do?”
    Christa looked up at Kait and narrowed her
dark eyes. “God has made me his Gospel of Pandemonium, and I will
do whatever it takes to spread his word.” She pulled a tablet
computer out of her desk. “Join me or face the consequences.”
    Tapping the power button, Christa slid the
tablet across the desk. Kait picked it up. It flickered to life.
The screen displayed a camera feed from outside One Metropolitan
Square. Police cars surrounded the building. Cops were stationed
around the vehicles. They crouched behind their vehicles and hid
behind open doors, guns drawn.
    One man stood away from cover, near the back
of the blockade. He was tall and he wore a long, tan coat. He had a
shock of brown hair. Even from the distant camera feed, Kait could
see that there was something odd about his face. The upper left
side of his face was swollen. His left eye was pale and
ghostly.
    “ That's Grant L'Enfant, isn't it?” Kait asked, pointing at
the eerie figure.
    Christa nodded. “The chief of police
himself. The government knows you're here, and they're willing to
start a war.”
    “ They're just going to attack the building?”
    “ It's happened before.”
    “ And people die?”
    “ It is unavoidable.”
    As if on cue, Kait noticed movement on the
corner of the screen, inside the building. There were people
mobilizing to fight the police if they decided to storm One
Metropolitan Square. Some of them were well dressed, in flashy
suits and well groomed. But others wore jeans and t-shirts, sweat
pants and St. Louis Cardinals jerseys. They were disorganized, but
they all had something in common: these men and women were members
of the Obshina. They were organized crime—gangsters led by their
boss and Gospel Thomas Kemp.
    Kait stared at the battle lines as they
formed up on either side of the building. She could hardly believe
what she was seeing. All of these people—Obshina and police
alike—were ready to give their lives for their Gospels. “Why do
they follow you?” she asked.
    Christa looked at Kait in disbelief. “You do
not even understand that? You are more dangerous than I
believed.”
    “ I guess you have to tell me.”
    Picking up the tablet computer, Christa sat on the desk
across from Kait. “The Gospels are not just immortal, we have
another...power. We speak with the vox dei , the Voice of God.”
    “ ...and?”
    “ When we speak, mortals listen. They are compelled to follow
us. We can manipulate them. Guide them. And if we must, we can use
them to whatever end we desire.”
    Kait leaned over. She felt like she was
going to be sick. Her stomach lurched and threatened to betray her
as she realized what she'd done.
    This was why everyone was so eager to help
her. The Gospels were capable of mind control. They could bend the
will of regular men and women, forcing them to obey their
wishes.
    It was why Paul Gordon pulled her out of
anesthesia and risked his job to free her from Mayor Levin. It was
why Spencer Smith took her money, but dutifully returned it. It was
why he betrayed his wife to succumb to her desire. Ultimately, it
was the reason he was dead.
    “ But I never spoke,” Kait said. “I don't think I asked
anyone for help...” She couldn't remember what she said to Spencer
before her fall, but she'd never explicitly ordered him to assist
her today.
    “ You don't have to,” Christa explained.
“They want to follow us. God is dead and they want something to
believe in. We give them meaning and they believe in
us. ”
    “ No... No, it can't be...”
    Christa tried to comfort her. She placed her
hand on Kait's shoulder. “This is why you have to choose, Miss
Selias. You must have an ideology. You must have a gospel to
spread.