Page 18 of Judas

She waited for Judas to place the small earpiece in his left ear before they exited the car.

If Judas could use the moment as a silent reprimand and protest, she could too. She felt an obligation to be here for her father in a way that would guide him to better things. She could stand here today but tomorrow explain to him why she would never attend something of this sort again and neither should he. Today, she would gather evidence and tomorrow she would present her case whether he wanted to hear it or not.

Judas refused to have Eliza on the stage with her father but took up a post behind him with another of his staff, Bobby. They would run point allowing Travis, an extremely large former linebacker for the Texans football team to stand at Eliza's side. He knew she didn't want to be a part of this nonsense, but he also didn't want to place her in any further risk. He just couldn't bear the thought. She protested but a promise to worship her body later finally got her to obey.

Judas felt the ever familiar pull of resistance as he listened to the empty platitudes of these modern day false prophets. One after another they stood at the microphone and listed off all the reasons God himself had called them to stand before this crowd and save them from a‘woke’and sinful future as Americans. Their words were full of hate and thinly veiled racism. They didn’t come right out and say the quiet part out loud, but they tiptoed so close to the line that Judas had to use every ounce of self-control in his highly trained body just to avoid wincing at their words.

In his many lifetimes, Judas had heard similar speeches and watched entire generations of people fall under persecution. First, it was the brand new and evolving Christian sects thatwere vilified by a very pagan Roman Empire. Then, during the fourth crusade, and while Judas was living as a small farmer outside of Rome, Pope Innocent III declared Jews were a threat to society and would be moved to segregated areas away from Christians. It seemed whoever was in charge at the time gained their power by oppressing someone else and Judas watched it all. The poor, the infirm, the disabled, homosexuals, the Roma, the Jews. He saw the hatefulness of history. The rhetoric from the powerful was the same, it was just wrapped in another country's flag.

The crowd itself wasn’t any better.

They chanted hateful words and rhymes meant to denigrate anyone who was different from them. They were gullible people raised to believe that their prejudices and backward thinking had value and rich and powerful people, like Paul actually cared about them. With every promise of a ‘Godly America’ they screamed amen not even remotely realizing the irony of claiming to follow a religion based on the opposite of what they believed.

Yesh would hate every second of this, of that, Judas had no doubt. He would bow his head and likely shed angry tears for the things being spoken here in his name. He might even kick over the microphone. He would stand up against them and they would tear him apart just as the Romans had. This wasn’t new. It was nothing more than a repetition of history. This was hate for nothing, all of it based on a bastardization of who Yesh was. He was an immigrant himself and every single one of these degenerates would probably demand he be deported if he showed up on their doorstep today, all of them guilty of the sin of being inhospitable. Judas looked toward the ground to hide his rueful laugh. Their savior was exactly who they proudly proclaimed unbridled hate and disgust for.

In the short seconds it took him to glanced up, things were beginning to worsen. While the crowd in and of itself was arowdy bunch, a group of protesters had assembled along the edges of the gathering. This group in no way carried the same energy. Their signs asked for tolerance and love. They yelled out demands for respect for their fellow man regardless of skin color or country of origin. They truly wanted nothing but peace, but their presence only further ignited the chaos already in attendance. Mere moments passed before Judas heard the back and forth arguments of the crowd growing out of control. Normally, this would be just another day. He was no stranger to rebellion or revolt. Somehow, though, today felt different, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight.

His eyes slid over to Eliza standing behind the scenes and fear clenched his gut. He wanted to scoop her up, throw her over his shoulder and get her the hell out of here. He wanted to carry her far away from all this nonsense. He just wanted to disappear with her and to live their lives together in peace.

Judas sucked in a sharp breath. The immense weight and magnitude of that last thought startled him. He’d known he was getting in over his head with the beautiful blonde who smiled back at him, but he had no idea how out of control those feelings were truly becoming. His mind worked to wrap itself around the immense need he suddenly had for her. How could he so deeply desire Eliza when he has lived all these centuries without that heartfelt pull?

He had become so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the change in the air around him. It was only when the churning crowd pushed through the barrier in front of Eliza, shoving her backward, as Travis caught her, that he realized a fight had broken out between the crowd and the protesters. His heart clenched at the sight. He mentally reprimanded his lapse in vigilance as he jumped into action.

He grabbed Paul first, not wasting any time to be polite, latching his fingers around his suit's collar. He yanked the wide-eyed man from his stunned stupor and towards the edge of the stage. The stage itself was becoming unstable as the crowd pushed and pulled against its infrastructure. Paul didn't even hesitate with the floor beginning to wobble and sway beneath his feet, just following along while gasping at the crowd churning into a frenzy before his eyes.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs off the stage, Eliza’s terrified face met Judas’s protective gaze. He handed Paul to the linebacker before wrapping his arm around Eliza's waist, pulling her along with him as he led them all to safety. All the while, one sentence echoed in his mind.

You should have been paying attention.

You should have been paying attention.

You should have been paying attention.

Bodies jostled around them, bumping them along their journey. Expletives and slurs hurled through the air. Judas didn’t know for certain if the words were meant as attacks against him personally, but he knew that he would feel responsible if anything happened to Eliza. Of course, his job demanded his protection of Paul above all, but Judas knew that Paul put himself here in this mess. Paul helped add to the rhetoric that stirred the violence unfolding before them. Paul was responsible for his own well being in this situation, but Eliza…

She was better than all of this. She deserved nothing but a safe departure from a scene she wanted nothing to do with. She deserved complete protection and Judas delivered. While he continued to lead their small contingent through the crowd to the parking lot, Judas tucked Eliza into the curve of his body. Nothing was going to happen to her today, of that he was completely sure.

But someone decided to test that resolve.

A man wearing a homemade t-shirt sporting a sharpie design proclaiming 'Make America White Again'rushed the group from the sidelines and latched his greedy fingers around Eliza's arm. She cried out in pain as the man pulled her away from her guardian. Judas turned toward her bellow and locked eyes with the would-be assailant.

"Just where do you think you're going with her, goat fucker? She's definitely one of ours," the man drawled while leering down at Eliza.

Rage and disbelief bloomed to life in Judas and he moved to tear the tiny minded man to shreds. Without a word, Judas faced the man, everything left his mind, except his desire to remove this man's hate-fueled existence. Towering over him, Judas wrapped one hand tightly around the man's throat and lifted him from the ground. The man's shock caused him to let go and Eliza stumbled away from the fight.

Looking deeply into the man's eyes, Judas growled, "You will never put your hands on a woman without her permission ever again or I will personally find you and break every bone in your body. Do you understand me?"

"Sir!" Travis yelled, his hand clutched gently around Eliza.

The man managed a nod and Judas dropped him to the ground. The man crumbled at Judas's feet and crawled away. Turning back toward Eliza, Judas saw his team had swept both her and Paul into the outskirts of what had become an all out brawl. The shoving from both groups quickly turned into fists being thrown and people covered in blood. It was full on war and Judas was getting swept away in the chaos.

Just a few feet from the barricade, Judas felt a sharp pain in his lower back. He turned just in time to catch a large fist to his left eye. His stoked anger turned to fury as Judas grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and drove his fist into his nose. The man screamed in pain and blood spewed in all directions as hepinballed off others in the crowd before collapsing in a heap on the asphalt.

His earpiece crackled and Bobby's voice boomed, "Sir, we've got the packages out of the hot zone."

Still fuming, Judas pushed his way out of the crowd and hopped over the barrier. He wiped at the last of a small trickle of blood from his quickly healing cheek as he jogged toward Eliza and Paul. Pulling Eliza to his side and wrapping his other arm around Paul's shoulders, they scuttled back to the vehicles. When he determined they were a safe distance, Judas let his grip on the pair loosen. Travis tucked Paul inside while Bobby slid behind the wheel as Judas and Eliza watched his cowardly retreat in awe.

Now locked safely inside his vehicle, Paul cracked the window yelling out to the pair watching him in silence, “Thanks for the quick escape there, Jude. And for keeping my Betsy safe! I’ll see you both in the morning. Gotta get out of here before those ANTIFA bastards get any crazier!”

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