I was determined I would have it again.
A knock sounded on the door and Bella walked inside. Ruth and Rider came next. Ruth smiled and came over to me. “Bella and Rider told me the instructions the hospital doctor gave about your after-care.” She wrapped her arm around me. “I will not let anything happen to you or your baby. You have my word.”
“Thank you,” I hushed out. A car horn sounded outside.
“They’re here,” Rider announced. Styx kissed Charon, Mae, then left the house. Ruth took my bag. I followed her and Bella outside. AK jumped out of the van. Viking followed him. Viking rounded the van and a huge smile splayed on his face when he saw Sister Ruth. She seemed to hesitate at the sight of him.
“Sister Ruth,” Viking acknowledged. He rushed over to take the bag from her hand. “Allow let me take your bag.” I heard Sister Ruth sigh. She was dressed in jeans and a white linen shirt. Her brown hair flowed down her back. She was beautiful and it was easy to see where Rider got his good looks. Viking deposited the bag in the back and came to open the side door. “M’lady,” he bowed slightly to Sister Ruth. “Madds.” Ruth helped me climb into the van and then into my seat. Sister Ruth sat beside me, and Bella sat with Rider immediately behind us.
“Solomon and Samson are staying with your sisters. Styx has ordered them to stay here, altogether. Zane is staying too. Everyone else is coming. Those fuckers aren’t gonna know what hit them when we fucking rain down on them,” AK said. But I heard the rest of the sentence hang silently in the air … as long as Flame and Asher are still alive.
Through the window I watched the Hangmen form a ‘V’ with their bikes, then pull out slowly onto the back road. “Tell me if you feel any discomfort,” Ruth said beside me. “If you feel faint or lightheaded.” She gave me a reassuring smile. “I know, in theory, we should be back in the space of a day, but I have brought my kit just in case this takes longer.” It was why Mae had packed me a bag. None of us knew what we are walking into. The Hangmen were used to this way of life on the road, I was not.
“So, Sister Ruth,” Viking said, turning in the passenger seat to look our way. She met his gaze. His eyes roamed over her and he smiled wide. “Tell me about yourself. I want to know everything.” The air became strained in the back of the van. The four of us, including Ruth, knew what her entire life had been like. It had been hell, as it had been for us all who came from The Order. AK punched Viking in the arm. He was with Phebe. He must have known the memories that question conjured up.
“Not the fuck now, Vike,” AK hissed.
“Okay, okay,” Viking conceded, holding up in hands. But he turned to Sister Ruth one more time. “Just one more question, then I’ll shut up.”
“Okay?” Sister Ruth said demurely, eyes narrowed.
“Do you like the taste of pineapple?”
Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the back of the van and prayed. I had not prayed for so long. Not with specific purpose. But right now, I prayed hard to God that He sheltered Asher and Flame in his arms and kept them safe until I got to them. Because I desperately needed to get to them, to Flame. He would be okay as long as I was by his side. He had to be. There was no other option. My fingers found my wedding ring and I held my left hand over my heart.
I am coming, Flame. I am coming to bring you home.
Chapter Seven
Flame
I wrestled my bike to a stop, tires skidding on the wet mud. My breathing was hard, but all I could focus on was the smoke rising above the trees. Black fucking smoke filled up the sky. Smiler told me I’d see it and to follow it. Ash pulled up beside me, out of breath from the ride. “That them?”
My hands were shaking as I held the handles of my bike. It was them. It was fucking them. I didn’t know what they looked like, but I saw featureless faces in my head screaming, as I plunged my knives deep into their chests. I didn’t look into people’s eyes. Fucking hated seeing their eyes. But I’d stare these fuckers down. I’d bare my teeth as I twisted my blades in their guts, and I’d watch them die… slowly.
“Flame? Is it them?” I nodded to my brother.
This was where Smiler had directed me, to the middle of fucking nowhere. I cut my engine and pulled out my knives, never taking my eyes off the smoke. I felt the flames thickening my blood, scalding my flesh, preparing for the fucking evil I was about to bring down on these cunts. I hissed and clenched my teeth at the feeling of my pulse slamming in my neck and my fuck-ton of scars aching with the fucking need to kill. I had to kill. I had to tear the fuckers apart for what they’d done to Maddie. My stomach dropped and a fucking dagger of pain cut through my chest.
I’d left her. I’d fucking left her in the hospital. But I had to kill these assholes. They’d hurt Maddie. They’d hurt the baby. I wouldn’t let anyone fucking hurt the baby… not again.
“Flame?” Ash whispered. My attention snapped to him. “What’s the plan? You need to tell me.”
“Kill them,” I ordered, as I got off my bike. “Kill them all.”
I started marching through the forest, the long grass wrapping around my legs. Ash ran to catch up. I stopped when I saw a gun in Ash’s hands. “No fucking guns,” I spat and knocked it from Ash’s grip. It hit the ground with a thud. “Knives,” I demanded. “Only fucking knives.” Ash pulled a way too fucking small knife from his jacket. “No!” I reached into my cut and pulled out one of my German blades. “This one.” I stared at the rising smoke, tasting the blood I’d soon spill. “Kill them up close. Look the fuckers in the eyes. Make them scream as you sink the blade into their skulls. Make it painful. Make it last. They hurt Maddie. They don’t fuck with what’s mine.”
“Okay,” Ash said. I thought I heard his voice crack. I didn’t know why that would happen. He was here to kill, just like me. He’d killed before. He’d liked it. I went to move forward, but my feet stopped, and my head ticked to the side when a thought started throbbing in my temple. “Don’t get hurt,” I said to Ash, when I pictured him getting stabbed in my mind. The pain in my chest was back again at the thought of Ash being hurt. I fucking hated that pain. It made it too fucking hard to breathe.
“I won’t, Flame. I can do this. I can take them out for Maddie.”
“Good.” I pushed forward toward the smoke still rising above the trees. I followed it. Smiler had told me to be quiet. That he’d seen three of them camping their RV’s in this forest. That’s all the intel he’d gathered.
Behind me Ash’s feet snapped a twig. It only made my blood rush faster through my muscles. Burning my skin. The twig sounded just like a bone breaking. Bones I was about to fucking snap and bend until the cunts screamed. My muscles twitched harder in excitement the closer we got.
I reached the edge of the clearing and heard music playing. I smelled smoke and burning meat. The smoke. The black smoke led me to the camp. It looked like the smoke coming from the Hangmen’s burning clubhouse. The smoke that had been in Maddie’s lungs. Our baby’s lungs. It was smoke that nearly killed them. That these fuckers had brought to our compound’s door.
“Flame! Flame!” Ash whispered. “Wait! Don’t run straight in! AK said never do that!” But I didn’t listen to him. I couldn’t because I saw red as one of the fuckers left his RV and walked into the clearing. Snarling, I lifted my blade and threw it out of the trees, straight into the cunt’s thigh. He screamed out in pain and dropped to the ground clutching his bleeding leg.
I ran. I fucking sprinted toward him, new blade in hand. Dropping down over where he stood, I plunged my knife into his chest. I stabbed the fucker over and over again until his blood sprayed my face and slipped into my mouth. I tasted his blood—it tasted like death. I was gonna deliver him to the boatman. I needed to make sure he died, no fucking coins on his eyes.
“For Maddie,” I hissed, as I rammed my blade into the side of his neck. He choked on his blood. His blue eyes stared up at mine. I heard voices and gunshots. Heard fucking gun safeties being unlat
ched and raised voices, but I didn’t stop. The fucker underneath me tried to push me off with the last of his strength, but I kept stabbing, sinking my blade into his flesh until I started chipping at bone. Until his flesh fell away, and his eyes went still. “You tried to kill her. You need to die. You need to fucking die!”
“Flame!”
The asshole beneath me was watching me. His blue eyes frozen on mine. I hated meeting eyes. Even dead, I fucking hated this fucker meeting my eyes. Lifting my blade, I slammed it in his left eye. My cock hardened seeing the eye split in two. “Die. Die. Die!” I growled, as I stabbed at his now-empty eye socket.
“Flame!” I distantly heard my name called. I had to kill him. I had to make sure he wouldn’t harm Maddie and the baby ever again. “FLAME! Help me!” My hand froze and I closed my eyes when Ash’s voice cut through the fog in my head.
Ash… Ash…!
I snapped my head up and searched for Ash. I froze when I found him. Some cunt had hold of him, arm around his neck. He had a motherfucking gun to Ash’s head. I jumped to my feet. My skin was wet. The blood. My cock twitched when I saw I was wet with an enemy’s blood. “Flame…” Ash’s voice cut out as he tried to speak, it cracked like it had in the forest. That pain in my chest I fucking hated was back. “Help me,” he whispered. His fucking bloodied bottom lip trembled.
“Let him go,” I warned, rolling my neck, holding the handles of my blades tighter. I was gonna fucking kill the bastard that held him. I was gonna tear him the fuck apart for touching my brother. My anger grew and grew, the flames in my blood grew hotter and hotter when I saw blood coming from Ash’s mouth, when one of his cheeks started swelling. I fucking looked into Ash’s black eyes. I didn’t know why they looked the way they did. But my stomach clenched. They looked different. They were wider than normal. His pupils were dilated. It made me wanna go and rip him from the fucker’s arms and stab the bastard in the neck.
“Let him go,” I spat, as I licked along my knife. It still had the blood and slivers of bone on the steel from the asshole on the ground. He was dead. One of them was dead. Now, I needed to kill them all. All of them had to die for hurting Maddie and the baby.
And now Ash. Now they had hurt Ash…
“Put the fucking knives down,” the asshole holding Ash said. I heard movement from behind me. I tightened my grip on my blades, ready to attack. The asshole pressed his gun harder against Ash’s head. Ash closed his eyes. He looked dead. Like that, my brother looked fucking dead!
“LET HIM THE FUCK GO!” I roared. Someone moved behind me again. I turned, ready to slice into them, cut their skull in two. Then I froze. I stopped when something fisted my lungs. My fucking lungs wouldn’t work. The flames in my blood began to roar, fucking roar and burn me from inside.
A snake. No… he had a fucking snake…
The cunt in front of me had a gun at my face. But he had a snake around his neck. A snake, just like… just like… you’re evil, Josiah. The devil lives in your heart, demons run thick in your blood…
My fucking chest began to cave in and my hands shook. Shook so fucking bad I dropped my blades to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe! The snakes hissed. My blood began to run too fast in my veins. It was the evil, the demons inside my soul calling to the snake. You see, Josiah, you see how the devil’s own recognizes the blackness in your soul. This is proof. Proof that you are evil. That you condemn everything and everyone you touch. That the flames of hell run thickly in your veins. My poppa smiled. I didn’t know why he was smiling. You’re retarded. A heathen. An agent of evil that we will take down. My poppa nodded to Pastor Hughes. Do what you must. They brought the snakes forward, and the snakes sunk their teeth into my flesh…
“What’s the matter, asshole? You don’t like snakes?” I tried to get up, but my body was fucking burning, keeping me down. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe!
“Flame! What’s wrong? What the fuck is wrong?!” I turned my head to Ash. His face was pale as he looked at me. I had to help him. I had to get that cunt from behind my brother. Ash was trying to get to me, kicking his legs and trying to wrestle from his captor’s hold. No... He couldn’t come to me. The flames, the demons… they would get him. I would fucking do something to cause him pain. I couldn’t hurt him too. Mama, Isaiah, Maddie, the baby… I couldn’t hurt Ash too. “Flame! FLAME!” Ash’s voice cracked. I was on my hands and knees. I didn’t remember getting on my hands and knees. I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t fucking get up! “FLAME!”
A gunshot burst around us. The fucker who held Ash held his gun in the air. He flicked his chin to someone. Ash wasn’t moving now. He was a fucking statue. I tried to push up off the ground, but the flames held me down, like ropes around tied around my limbs. Like I was being tied to the hospital bed. Someone grabbed my hair and ripped my head back. I saw the snake’s dark eyes and mouth before my face. I tried to move the fuck away, but I couldn’t fucking move! “Fucker’s scared of snakes.” The cunt laughed. I couldn’t take my attention off the snake.
“Tie them up. Fuckers killed Jackson. Need to teach them a lesson.” Someone pulled me across the clearing, my paralyzed legs dragging along the ground. I smelled the smoke from the fire. Then I saw the flames. The bright orange and red flames climbing up to the sky. I heard the snake hiss. My fucking body started convulsing. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes, Pastor Hughes’s voice stabbed at my brain, speaking words from the bible, many different verses as he put the snakes on my skin. They slid over my skin, then sank their teeth into my flesh. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died…
I gritted my teeth as I felt something being tied around my hands and feet. As something was wrapped around my chest and thighs. All I saw were the snakes climbing over me in Church. All I heard was my poppa’s and Pastor Hughes’s voices as they spoke scripture over me.
Please, Poppa, I don’t wanna be evil. I wanna be good. I didn’t mean to hurt mama. I didn’t mean to kill her and send her away. I didn’t want her to die. I never wanted her to die. Please, Poppa… please…
“Flame? Flame! Who are you talking to? What’s wrong? Flame!” I rolled my head to the side. My brother was tied to a tree next to me. He looked across the clearing. “Flame, what the fuck? Look. They have a bitch in a cage. Naked. Christ, Flame. Her fucking mouth is sewn together. Who the fuck are these people?”
“I didn’t mean to kill you, Isaiah,” I whispered to him and my vision blurred. My cheeks felt wet. “You were crying and you wanted me to hold you.” I tried to look at my hands, but they were tied up. That was good. With them tied, the flames wouldn’t be able to get to him again. I didn’t want to kill Isaiah. Not again. Somehow, I had him back with me. I wouldn’t hurt him again. Isaiah was free from flames and evil. He wasn’t like me. He didn’t have demons in his blood. He was good. That must have been why he was back beside me. With me now.
“Flame…” my brother’s voice shook. “You’re scaring me. You’re fucking scaring me. We have to get out of this place. We have to fight back.” I tried to clear my eyes. But when I did, we were back in the cellar. No. We were in the Church. I saw Pastor Hughes and poppa coming towards us. My heart started thudding when I saw the snakes in their hands. They had three. Three snakes. I didn’t want them on my skin. I felt the flames, the evil writhed under my flesh. Suddenly, Poppa and Pastor Hughes were in front of me. “Please, Poppa,” I cried and felt my throat grow too thick to swallow. “I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll stop being a retard. I’ll stop being evil.”
“Poppa? What the fuck are you talking about, Flame? Poppa’s dead!”
“Leave him the fuck alone! Don’t touch him. Don’t you dare fucking touch him!” I said when they looked at my brother.
But Poppa and Pastor Hughes only laughed. There was another man behind them. He was here with the snakes; he’d brought them to me. To check if
I was still evil. To see if I still had demons in my blood. I didn’t want to be evil anymore. I wanted my poppa to know I was good. Then maybe God would stop me being retarded, if he knew I was good. Maybe he’d help me understand people. Maybe I wouldn’t be different. If He knew I was good, the devil would leave me alone.
I froze when Pastor Hughes brought the snakes before me. “What the fuck? Who the hell is this cunt? Fucking psycho who’s scared of snakes?” He laughed. “What’s with all the cuts on his skin?” He reached out and touched my chest. I clenched my jaw so tight it made my teeth ache. I didn’t like to be touched. People only hurt me when they touched me. Or I hurt them.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me! The flames. The fucking flames! I need to let them out. I need to cut them out. They need to be released.”
“Flame. Be quiet!” Isaiah shouted from beside me. I’d never heard his voice before. He’d died before he could speak.
“Cut them out? Flames need to be released?” Poppa said, laughing. He lifted a knife. My cock got hard the minute I saw the blade. I hissed and tried to move, to hold my cock. He liked me to release myself. He liked me to bend over so he could release himself inside me. It hurt. But that was the devil, he said. The devil fighting the honest people of God who were trying to help me. If he pushed himself inside me, then maybe he wouldn’t do it to Isaiah. But I was trapped. I couldn’t move.
“What the fuck! He’s hard. Sick fucker’s gonna come just at the sight of the blade.”
Poppa got closer with the blade. I watched the knife as it pressed to my skin. The minute Poppa pushed down and broke the skin, my cock started throbbing. Poppa… Poppa always made the evil come out of me. In the cellar. He came into the cellar and made me better with his holy seed. He helped me release the evil too. He was trying to save my soul.