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

He sank into his own thoughts, ignoring the bottle of liquor Joker had started to pass around, and focused on the fact that if Baal even found out what happened tonight, he wouldn’t know who hurt his trees. Was it still risky? Yes. But they couldn’t just wait for someone else’s actions any longer.

He stiffened when the truck came to an abrupt halt, which sent him into the side of the bed, but he couldn’t allow himself to hesitate.

He didn’t even need to look back to know Nick watched his every move, eager to be a part of whatever was going on. It made sense. He had no school friends to speak of, and hovered around the club like a pup in need of a nipple.

But when he stood and took in the sight before him, his stomach plummeted so rapidly he needed to force himself to remain steady. Since he’d last seen it, Baal’s tree had grown as if the soil was soaked with steroids. It towered over the trees around it, black and exuding its own warmth, alive with the blood offered by Knight, and the sinful power Beast himself provided.

His mouth was dry and bitter.

“Whoa!” Nick jumped off the truck bed while the others opened the box containing chainsaws and axes.

Whoa indeed. A droplet of sweat rolled down Beast’s back when his feet touched the ground. It pulsed. Faintly enough, but the rhythmic tremors were there, already penetrating the surrounding area like the roots that would soon be strong enough to crack the world open. Fog hung in the air, not thick enough to make moving around uncomfortable, but its white clouds crept behind the bushes and trees, dispersing the light of the truck.

If he hadn’t known the thing was only months old, he’d have assumed it’s been growing here for centuries to reach a size so grand. With a girth close to that of their sofa, and branches that stretched wide above the trunk in an attempt to obscure the sky and steal the sunlight from the surrounding flora, it was by far the largest of Baal’s trees. The one Knight always visited for feedings was very much like a regular oak, but this? One could carve a hideout inside that thing.

Knight stepped next to Beast, and it was unsettling to hear his trembling exhale. “Shit. How did it get this—?”

“Yeah,” Beast said, wishing he hadn’t rejected the offer of liquor. He reached out to Joker, and as soon as the flask was in his hand, he let whisky burn his tongue in a sequence of gulps.

Nick rubbed his face, staring at the tree, but trying not to show how impressive he found its size. “What can I do?”

Vars jumped out of the truck and joined them, scratching his gray beard. “Where do we even start?”

Joker took the flask from Beast and finished the liquor before grabbing an axe from the box. “At the lowest branch?”

Nick cleared his throat and spun around, backing away toward the tree. And as idiotic as that was, for a moment Beast feared the immobile behemoth would come to life and eat the boy with a mouth hiding in that ridiculously wide trunk.

“Look, guys, I know I’m new and all, but I need to know. Are we burying someone? ‘Cause I’m down with anything, but I wanna know.” He sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air. The headlights illuminated him with a bright glow, but it was impossible to tell if his pallor was due to fear or the cool shade of the lamps.

Jake punched his arm. “You don’t get to ask questions yet! You’re here to do what you’re told, or you’re not going to get that vest.”

Knight snorted. “That’s starting well. Shall we get the gear off the truck?” he asked Beast, who nodded, wishing to be done with all this as soon as possible.

“All you need to know, Nick, is that tonight, we will try to cut as many branches off this tree as we can. You don’t ask why, and you don’t tell any outsiders,” Beast said, passing out thick gloves.

Nick cocked his head. “Huh? Why are we doing it in the middle of the night then if it’s just cutting branches off a tree in the middle of nowhere?”

Joker smacked the back of his head, and the hit must have been much harder than Jake’s, because Nick stifled a groan. “What did we say? No questions.”

No matter how much Beast wanted to get on with it, the clouds of vapor coming rapidly out of Nick’s mouth made him wonder if they shouldn’t have invested in hazmat suits. Now that he saw the godawful thing, it was clear they would truly need specialist equipment, even if only to cut this tree down, but the urge to weaken the strange plant became even more pressing.