Heart Recaptured (Hades Hangmen 2)

Flicking out his German blade, Styx walked to the disciple, hovered over his chest, and began carving a huge H in his chest—his signature Hangmen mark. He then did the same to Lilah’s old man.

Prophet fuckin’ Cain would take one look and know who killed his pedo men. But I’m guessing the rat-brother would’ve known anyway. He had to know if he attacked us, a whole load of that prophesied evil he preached about so much would be dumped on his holy fuckin’ shoulders.

War was coming. Not right now… but it was coming soon, and I’d be fuckin’ ready.

“Let’s go,” Styx signed. Wiping the blood from his blade on the dried grass, he tucked it back into his boot. I scooped Lilah up in my arms, the blood from her injuries seeping through the tunic. Even in this state, she was so fuckin’ stunning my chest literally ached at how much I’d missed her. But fuck, what those bastards had put her through, her stunning body hacked up.

Styx’s hand planted on my shoulder. “We’ll get our fuckin’ revenge later. Get your mind on your bitch and let me worry about the rest.”

Flame joined us, wiping the blood from his hands on his leathers, the brother seeming calmer, and we ran for the fence.

A gasp stopped us mid-step. When we turned as one, a redheaded bitch was staring at us, pure fear etched on her face. She’d run over the hill from the direction of the base.

AK stepped forward and she stumbled back in fear, whimpering when she saw the two bodies on the floor. “No!” she hushed out, her cry silencing her voice. “You… you are the demons Prophet Cain warned of. A living army of Hades that wear black leather and kill our people without remorse. You rid us of our pure souls and send them straight to Hell.”

“Fuck! Look at that. We’re even famous in the motherfuckin’ Garden of Eden!” Hush said dryly, not a damn bit of humor on his face.

“Shit!” AK spat and met eyes with Styx. “I ain’t into killing women, but we can’t leave her to go running back to chief Jesus freak.”

Styx ran his hand down his face.

The bitch tore her gaze from the two corpses on the ground, then set her sights on Lilah. “Is she alive?” she whispered, and her face seemed to crumple in fear. But not outta fear of us, but outta fear for Lilah.

Frowning, I held Lilah tighter and studied the pilgrim redhead. “Why the fuck do you care?”

Getting to her feet, her huge green eyes roved over my brothers, and she said, “She… she is my sister.”

“She ain’t got no sisters in this shithole. Her sisters are out there, away from this fucked-up pedo hell and under Hades’s protection.”

Her eyes grew huge at the mention of Hades, but she quickly pulled her shit together and started shaking her head. “No… I am her blood. I am her sister, Phebe.” She lifted her shaking hand and pointed to the old guy on the floor, drowning in his own blood. “That… he was our father… You killed our father.”

AK pounded forward and gripped her arm, putting the barrel of his gun to her head. “He was a fuckin’ pedo and deserved to meet the boatman. And now you will too. You shouldn’t have come looking, pretty girl. Now you gotta die.”

“No, please!” she cried. “I was coming to help my sister. The things they did to her tonight… my people… Lord! I cannot bear it. Her screams are burnished into my mind. Her blood spatter from the stripes is all I can see…”

My stomach rolled at her words and the shittin’ devastation in her voice. I gripped my woman even tighter in my arms and studied the redhead. She didn’t look like Lilah, nowhere near as gorgeous, but she was kinda pretty, and she clearly cared for my woman.

“You must take her,” she said to me, ignoring AK. “You must take her away and never let them get her again. Protect her…”

AK met my eyes over her head, and I nodded, telling him not to kill her. Christ! I was becoming a pussy of late.

AK flicked off the safety of his 9mm and put his mouth to Phebe’s ear. “Listen, bitch, we’re gonna tie you up so you can’t go running back to Prophet Dumb-fuck and tell him we were here. Yeah, you getting that through your fucked-up little brain?”

Phebe’s eyes closed, and I could see her hands shaking, but she nodded. “Just… just please get her away and safe. Next time, the elders will not fail to kill her, truly.”

AK, casting a confused glance to me, marched the bitch toward a tree set off to the side of the pyre, halting when the bitch dug her heels in the dirt and politely asked, “Can I say good-bye to her?”

I jerked my chin at AK. He wrenched the redhead toward me, and I saw the tears falling down her pale cheeks. Slowly reaching out, she ran the back of her hand gently over Lilah’s face and said, “Her life has not been easy. I used to pray she had been taken to a better place, but we were always told stories of the Cursed and their schoolings. And when I saw her again, I knew her life had been one of misery and pain.” The bitch welled up with tears and hushed out, “Be at peace, my Rebekah. Be happy. We shall meet again someday, whether in this life or the next.”

As she dropped her hand, I said, “What did you call her?”

Phebe glanced back up at me and nervously said, “R-Rebekah. Her birth name was Rebekah. But they took her from me, from our home, as a young child and they renamed her Delilah, a temptress’s name, a name fit for a Cursed Woman of Eve.” The bitch’s eyes fell on Li and she said, “They said she was evil. They killed her mother by fire for joining with Satan and producing a child of sin with Hades himself. They gave her to the prophet to be schooled and saved… but even then, she was always my little Rebekah.