“BABY! NO!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Twenty minutes earlier…

Ky

I walked into the bar, my brothers all celebrating. Pussy was everywhere, club sluts making their play for the brothers, some already taken.

Taking a smoke from my cut’s pocket, I put it in my mouth, lit the end, took a long fucking drag.

Pushing brothers outta the way, I made my way to the bar, Vike pinning some fat frizzy-haired slut over a table, fuckin’ the mewling bitch up the ass.

Ignoring the fucking ugly scene, I hammered on the countertop, Prospect taking out a glass. I shook my head. The prospect frowned. “Just pass the fuckin’ bottle!” I snapped, feeling like a fucking alien in my own skin.

All I kept seeing was my bitch on that stake on fire. Seeing Smiler cleaning up those fucking lash marks taking up all of her back… and that crucifix forever burned into her skin.

But more than all that, it was Lilah’s numbness, her fucking indifference to everything, that was bothering me. Her dull blue eyes staring off into space at nothing, her pale skin, and fucking silence. It was killing me.

She’d been raped. My fucking woman had been raped. I couldn’t get that image out of my head. I wanted to take a damn blade and slice it from my brain.

A whistle cut through Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.” and I saw Styx, Cowboy, Hush, Smiler, and AK sitting on a couch. Mae was on Styx’s lap, her face tucked into his neck as he took in a smoke, a full bottle of Beam in his hand.

My prez and best friend was staring at me. He and my brothers surrounding him cutting a fucking miserable picture, reflecting how I felt. I walked over to them, knocking back my Jack, then taking drags of my smoke.

Tank and Bull were off to the side of the room with Beauty and Letti, the lot of them staring at me as I passed.

None of them fucking knew what this was like… Not even Styx had his woman raped and tortured. None of them knew what this fucking hell was like.

Seeing some hang-around and his ugly slut sitting on the chair next to the couch, I dabbed my stub out on his head, gripped her hair, and tossed her rancid ass on the floor.

Turning to the wannabe biker that probably rode a red sports bike, I leaned down and said, “You have two seconds to get the fuck outta my seat before I slit your throat.” The guy didn’t waste no time and, ignoring the slut on the floor, hightailed it outta the club entirely.

Slumping down, I stared at the flames roaring in the fire across the room. I could feel my brothers’ stares, but I just kept draining my Jack, the bourbon taking away some of the damn ache in my chest.

“How’s Lilah, brother?”

Tearing my eyes away from the fire, I glanced to the couch to see the question came from Cowboy. Pulling out another smoke, I lit the stick and filled up my lungs.

Mae lifted her head from Styx’s shoulder, her eyes red from crying. Her fucking wolf eyes met mine, but I turned away and stared at the fire again.

No matter what I said to Li, she didn’t respond. The only bitch I’d ever loved and she wouldn’t respond. What the fuck did I do? Did she blame me? Did she fucking blame me for being taken?

Rage filled me again when I thought of how she nearly died. Those cult-fucks nearly took her from me. I couldn’t fucking bear it.

A whistle sounded again and I whipped my head to face Styx. His dark features were tight and, placing his Beam on the table before him, he signed, “She’ll get through it. We’ll get her through it.”

Seeing those words play on Styx’s hands made my stomach sink. Placing my smoke between my lips, I balanced the Jack between my legs and signed back, “She’s changed. She ain’t the same Lilah. Something in her’s switched off.”

“Ky.” Someone called my name, but I was too busy staring at Styx.

“Ky…” Someone tried again, but my hands were running down my face. I was fucking losing it.

“KY!” someone shouted, the voice causing someone to cut off the music.

“WHAT?” I screamed back, throwing the bottle of Jack to the floor, the liquor smashing on the wood.

Cowboy, Hush, and AK were on their feet, Smiler the one that shouted.

Lilah?

Jumping off the chair, Styx and Mae joined me as we watched Lilah, dressed in that bloodied white tunic from that disciple, by the fire, staring into the mirror, gripping her hair in one hand and a fuck-off sharp blade in the other.

Her right hand lifted in the air, braced to strike.

“BABY! NO!” I boomed out just as her hand hammered down, the blade slicing off a fuckload of her dripping wet hair.

Whipping around to face us, Lilah’s blue eyes were huge, tears pouring down her cheeks.

She didn’t stop; instead, she kept hacking off her hair. I tried to rush forward, but she held out the blade, aimed it right at my fucking chest.

“Do not stop me! For it must be done!” she hissed, and I backed up, hands in the air.

Bottom lip trembling, Lilah carried on cutting off section by section of her hair until only a few inches of blond remained on her head.

“Baby,” I whispered, hearing Mae crying in Styx’s arms beside me, as if in pain.

Her blue gaze met mine. “It must be done, Ky. To set you free, it must be done. No more spells… no more spells.”

Lilah backed closed to the fire, the blade rising in her hand. With her free hand, she lifted the sleeves of the tunic, her eyes glazing over.

“And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils.”