I make no move to step forward, not yet. My hope is that Audra's perceptions are still dead on.
“You ruin lives, Lucas. You are a father-fucking faggot from the wrong side of the tracks.” Lloyd sneers at me, his blonde hair hanging stringy in his face. The pain of his words slides right past me. He knows about my past, but it doesn't matter. I am not a victim, not anymore. “Aliyah had good grades, money, promise. You stole that from her.”
“How so?” I ask, because I need to buy time and well, monsters love to have their brains picked. Like anyone might care what they think. Demons are selfish creatures. I keep my hands tucked in my pockets, clutching my knife.
“She was pregnant, you stupid fuck. Jesus, you dumb as a board, motherfucker? She got her scholarship pulled from that nice Christian school my daddy picked out.” Lloyd's nostrils flare and he unbuttons his pants. His limp dick flops into view and my vision starts to flicker. I'm this close to charging him. Can I get him before he gets a shot off? I don't know, and I'm not sure I can risk that, but I will not allow him to hurt Robbie anymore than he already has. “She bawled her eyes out and cursed your name. Her whole last day she spent sobbing in her room and wishing you were dead.”
I don't know if his words are true, but I don't care. My eyes scan the woods around me, hoping for a glimpse of Audra's red head. She could shoot Lloyd and this would all be over. I force myself to remain still. Even if Lloyd is telling the truth, I know Aliyah didn't mean any of that. If she had told me, I would've done whatever it took to make her happy, to make things right between us. I'll do the same with Robbie. If right means letting her go, that's what I'll do. It's what I tried to do already. But right now, I'm feeling selfish. Maybe, just maybe …
Lloyd says something else, but I'm so wrapped up in myself that I miss it. When he grabs his dick with his free hand and starts to take a piss on Roberta Carrell, I snap into two pieces. Luke falls away and waits for Lucas to shred himself into pieces.
I'm moving across the campsite before I realize it. Lloyd takes aim and fires at Robbie, but somewhere nearby, another gunshot goes off and his arm moves with the motion of a bullet, spraying the window of the car with blood and sending his own shot wild. It hits the dirt near a barbeque and falls from his hand when my body slams into his.
Lloyd swings at me with his right arm and manages to connect a fist with my head, but it doesn't matter, my knife is in my hand and moving towards him at a speed too fast to follow. This time, I'm aiming for his throat instead of his gut.
With a howl of rage, he manages to block me and the blade cuts into Lloyd's arm.
“Lucas, move!” Audra's shouting, but I can't extricate myself from the devil's grip. I'm too caught up in it now. The knife slips from my fingers, and it's like I've been stripped clean, I freeze up and Lloyd gets another hit in, punching me right in the stomach. I double over and his knee hits my chin, sending me crashing into the dirt in front of him. Before I can even think to let Audra take a shot, I grab the man who created my monsters around the legs and drag him down with me.
We roll in the dirt, clawing and scratching and biting, like real beasts, like animals. In the background, I'm vaguely aware of Audra Holiday lifting Robbie to her feet.
I manage to get Lloyd pinned underneath me and sit atop his chest, staring down at his face. My fist comes back and I take a hit, crushing his nose beneath my knuckles. And then I do it again, and it feels so good I howl with violent rage. I'm mumbling and screaming, but I have no idea what the hell I'm saying. My fists take turns pummeling the shit out of this monster's face, grinding his features into a bloody lump that suits his personality a whole hell of a lot better than the battered rich boy gone wrong look he had going on before. I grit my teeth so hard that my entire head starts to ring with a migraine.
“Lucas!” Audra calls again, and I pause just long enough to catch the knife in midair. All around me, the green of the trees spins and turns into a blur, melting with the blue of the sky above and the brown of the dirt below. I flick the blade from the pocketknife and feel the answering cry of rage from my father's only remaining heirloom. It's as if a darkness twice as black as my own is being channeled into me, vibrating down my arm and into my hand. “Do it, Lucas. Make that motherfucker pay.”
I lick the blade and let my head fall back. In my ears, demons howl a song of triumph and pain. This is it. I've saved the girl I … I've saved Robbie and I can avenge Aliyah, both in one shot.
“Luke!”
The voice that breaks through mine isn't Audra's.
It's Robbie's.
I ignore her and lean forward, pressing the blade against Lloyd's throat.