I whimpered when he reached for my wrist, pulling me up with a power greater than my father's, except he wasn't trying to hurt me.
What did I see? After the last ten minutes, my brain struggled to make sense of anything coming in through my eyes.
The giant was smiling, firm lips set in a strong, square jaw, but those eyes did all the talking. They pierced right through me, bright and brown and blinding, the eyes the Prophet should've had if he weren't just a doped up figurehead.
He looked a lot like the way I imagined the warriors in scripture. Warriors, or else the soldiers I'd heard about. What little slipped through to Beacon Grove about the outside world said the great beyond was filled with trained killers, men who slaughtered other sinners to prop up their own impure society.
Was this man a soldier? A policeman? Where was his badge?
“Let's go. You're fucking perfect.”
Strange words to say to a woman you've just rescued. I didn't think about them as he led me toward his sleek black car, wrapping me in a blanket he pulled from the trunk.
Guiding me into the backseat, he laid me down, making sure the blanket was wrapped tight to help stem the rain and blood dribbling down my shoulders.
I had no clue where I was heading or who I was with. Just then, I didn't give a damn. I couldn't care. My father had beaten it out of me, and this man had beaten him in turn, destroying my whole dark world.
A current pulsed through my brain the instant I laid down, and it flickered out just as fast. The Prophet was right about one thing: the darkness was hungry, and I fell straight into it.
II: Desperate Measures (Evan)
I needed a fucking miracle.
If I didn't find a woman for Borzia, and soon, I was fucked. Really, my son Ty was in a world of pain, but if they started on my boy, he'd end up just like Jenny.
Jenny...Jesus, I'm sorry.
I slapped the steering wheel, navigating my Lexus into the woods. I couldn't think about her again.
When I got our kid home safe, then I could mourn. Until then, I had to focus on one thing and one thing only: find a woman. Break her. Extinguish this curse I'd brought down on my head forever.
Until Ty was safe¸ I couldn't afford mercy. And I sure as shit couldn't afford thinking about another woman as anything except a fucking commodity.
I didn't drive into Beacon Grove seeking a slave. If I wanted to be brutally fucking honest, I was heading through there to spin my wheels, to push back the horrible decision one more day.
Everybody who lived nearby knew about the weird cult in the forest. Hell, I'd taken the shortcut through there enough times to know you didn't fuck with those assholes. They were as creepy as they were savvy with dickhead lawyers and brute force.
The cult was always kicking up a shitstorm in the local press. There was always some bullshit story about people trying to win back their brainwashed relatives, or else turf wars where their territory ended and normal land started.
I stayed out of it. Didn't have a damned dog in the fight until I saw the poor girl in the rain.
My blood went from glacial to raging hot in less than a second. I screeched to a halt and hit the pavement before I could think about anything else.
It was her blood that did it. After the shit I'd seen, I never wanted to see a helpless woman bleed out again. No goddamned way was I gonna sit and watch while my brain choked on bad memories.
She was screaming and bleeding when I caught up with the nasty looking bastard nailing her with his belt. Fuck, she could've been my niece, maybe my own daughter if I were ten years older. Right now, she was a helpless angel and I'd had it up to here with seeing innocents savaged while I held my fucking dick like a fool.
Innocents you killed, Evan. The voice spoke inside my head with Jenny's voice, and I shut it out.
I had to shut it up. I needed to silence everything and let my fists do the talking.
Picking up that motherfucker and slamming him against his shitty truck over and over, 'til I heard his vertebrae snap, was a damned good start. I couldn't hear her razzing me from beyond the grave while he was screaming out his last breaths.
Couldn't feel shit except the storm in my blood, and I welcomed it.
I was still fucking shaking when his body hit the ground. The wolf howling for blood in my head only went silent when I heard the girl crying at my feet.
Fuck.
I couldn't just leave her like this. I hesitated, staring up through the indifferent trees high above us, wondering if this was the twisted miracle I'd asked for.
Of course. Whoever the fuck is up there, they never make it easy, do they?
Fair enough. I was the last man on earth who deserved it fucking easy after what I'd done.
In one jerk, I hauled her up, pressing her close. Fuck me again.
She looked young – real young – like not even old enough to drink. Nearly stopped me in my tracks. I looked closer, really studying her. Okay, she was young, but she was old enough.