“Pike!” I yelled.
“Stay back,” he shouted with a hand out to try and hold me back. “They might be armed.”
I stopped and watched as he leapt over debris and grabbed the man driving the motorcycle. He was a big bearded biker with tattoos covering his arms. He was bleeding through his dirty tank top.
Pike lunged at him, grabbed his shirt, and yanked his face close to his.
“What have you done?” he asked.
The man tried to speak but was close to unconsciousness.
“Who are you?” Pike asked.
The man’s beard was full of blood and spit. He tried to answer but he couldn’t get a word out.
“Leave him alone!” came a woman’s voice from behind us.
I turned to see a girl dressed in all black, charcoal colored jeans and t-shirt. Her hair was long and brown with streaks of red in it. Her makeup was a mess and her face was soiled with road dust.
“They shot him!” she yelled.
Behind her several members of the security team were limping down the road. It seemed they were helping someone stand. They were. One of them was injured and was losing a lot of blood.
We were under attack. Security had shot the biker. The strange woman reached Pike and started pummeling his back with closed fists.
“Get off him!” she yelled.
I was young and I was naïve but I was also courageous. No woman would hit my man. I charged at her and smashed an open palm into her face. With a fist full of her hair I yanked her stupid ass to the floor and kicked her.
“Bitch!” I yelled.
I don’t remember any other words that came out of my mouth but I know I was shouting. I was so mad, instantly furious, like I’d been waiting my whole life to go crazy on this tramp. It was almost like I’d blacked out but with my fists swinging.
Then I was pulled off her. Dominic gripped one arm and Lauren the other.
“Jessica, what is wrong with you?” Lauren yelled.
“They’re attacking us!” I replied.
“They’re not. Get them inside,” Cutty, one of the security officers, said. “It wasn’t them. The Venenum attacked when they were coming up the mountain, trying to steal this woman. We tried to hold them off but Johnny took one in the leg and the big fella, he…he took one in the chest.”
I shook my arms free and collapsed to the ground where I sat staring at the woman I’d attacked. She was innocent. And the man…the big ape, he was innocent? He was a victim?
I got up and left. I stormed away from the church.
“Jessica!” Dominic yelled.
“Leave me alone,” I said. “I need to be alone.”
I didn’t know where to go but I didn’t want to go home. I couldn’t face Dominic right now. I couldn’t face anyone. I’d lost it out there. Something was wrong with me. I wanted to hurt that woman and I don’t know why.
I needed to be alone.
No, I didn’t. I needed Pike. I flipped out because of him. I’d envied the way he sprang into action. The way he’d immediately started barking orders with the intention of protecting us all. The way he ran at the big man and grabbed him, unaware of whether or not the big burly biker was armed. He didn’t care. He did what had to be done.
Then she hit him. And I hit her.
I pushed my way into the suitor cabin and sat down. I lit a candle and sat there. It was dark and I was alone. I looked down at the floor and remembered my first time with Dominic. I was a virgin. I hadn’t had sex, not real sex, until that night. And I hadn’t stopped thinking of sex ever since.