In the Arms of the Beast (Kings of Hell MC 5)

Knight stood stiffly as if his muscles were calcifying. His face was a mask so tense each word he formed looked painful. “She was my sister. She didn’t know what she was up against.”

Beast shook his head and grabbed at his hair. What were they to do? Now that Lana was dead, Baal would get someone else to do his bidding in a never-ending circle of betrayal and death.

Nick appeared as if out of nowhere, rushing to the still body with eyes wide as saucers. “Lana? Who did this?”

Nobody said a thing, but Nick must have spotted the gun in Joker’s hand, because he took two wheezing breaths and tried to land a punch. Joker pulled back and swung the firearm against Nick’s head, knocking him into the dirt.

“Get the fuck out of here, Prospect!” Joker yelled, licking his lips and surely tasting Lana’s blood.

Knight moved, as if the altercation were his cue. With a scream that came all the way from his broken heart, he threw himself at Joker, going for the gun. Joker grabbed Knight’s arm with a snarl, and they wrestled like a bear and a dragon in the white smoke.

A flash of blue light made Beast squeeze his eyes shut, but when he looked at Joker again, the glow was radiating out of his eyes and mouth, as if there was an illuminated icicle buried inside him.

Time stood still.

“No!” Laurent yelled, but the moment Beast saw him run toward Knight and reach for the back of Knight’s vest, all of Beast’s brain power focused on Laurent, and he pulled him back with so much force he picked him up off the ground.

Knight’s hair floated in the smoky air, but he stood firm like a statue with his fingers buried in the flesh of Joker’s neck. Joker choked, went pale, and grabbed Knight’s wrist, pushing at him with the other, but he had no chance.

Knight squeezed the neck, squashing his throat as if it were made of paper, and shoved his elbow at Joker’s chest.

There was no blood this time, but they all saw it. The sigils on Knight’s hands came to life, burning away skin with their blue fire. In that moment, Knight didn’t even appear like himself. A monster had lain dormant inside him, and now was its time to crawl to the surface, turning his host’s eyes into beacons of otherworldly light.

When Joker opened his mouth wide, struggling for breath, Knight pushed his hand down his throat, all the way to the knuckles. It took only a moment, but when he jerked his arm back his hand was no longer empty. There was a little ball at the center of his fist, pulsing with frantic light until he crushed it with his fingers.

Joker dropped dead into the puddle of Lana’s blood.

“What have you done?” Laurent cried, writhing against Beast’s chest like an eel about to strike. “This is no way forward!”

“This was the only way forward,” Knight growled, turning to them with his fists still clenched and glowing. His gaze met Beast’s in a silent challenge, waiting for his president’s verdict.

Beast put Laurent down, but as soon as his husband was free, a punch to the breastbone briefly robbed Beast of breath.

“We could have stopped it!” Laurent yelled, squeezing his hands into fists.

“What if it was your mother?” Knight asked Beast, but kicked Nick who tried to kneel next to Lana. “Don’t touch her! Fuck off!”

Nick let out a childish sob, and sat back in the dirt a few steps away from the bodies.

“Knight? Are you okay? What’s going on? I heard shots,” Elliot cried from somewhere in the thick smoke, but Knight swallowed and shook his head, so Beast spoke for him.

“Go to the car, Elliot. Knight’s fine.”

Laurent covered his face, shaking his head. “What is wrong with you? You were friends! You should have stopped them!” he shouted, directing his anger at Beast.

That was enough. Beast grabbed Laurent’s wrists and pulled him close, lowering his voice as he spoke from the depths of his chest. “It might have been you. A year ago, it might have been you, so shut up.”

Laurent’s lips parted, eyes wide, but the message sank in. He’d also been a rat under Baal’s guidance, but unlike Lana, he’d only had himself to worry about. There was no high horse to jump on.

Tension was palpable in the air, but Beast knew what Laurent needed. He pulled Laurent close, covering him with his arms and pressing his lips to the top of his head.

A dark figure darted to Beast’s side like black lightning, but it wasn’t Baal, or a demon of his making. Shadow stared at them with his faceless head, liquid tar from head to toe. “What are you doing? Stop it. Whatever it is, stop! Your arguing is feeding the tree!” He pointed to the branches above, but it was when he noticed the bodies by his feet that he let out a screech that sounded like ‘no’.