CHAPTER 2
Revelator decided to see where his injuries were while his gracious host conducted her indentured servitude. All her little sarcastic hints hid a world of pain and made him wonder over her short experience in their town. He didn’t come in it often to really know many people and now he wished he did. Whether or not he was some kind of preacher kept nagging at his memory. It seemed right and yet not.
Naked in the mirror felt as natural as having a third head, making him wonder more about himself. He turned and froze at seeing thick chunks of dark black. He angled himself more. That wasn’t bruises. It was a tattoo. Seemed like wings maybe. Starting at his shoulders and ending at his lower buttocks. He spotted something that looked like words, unable to make it out. Who the hell was he?
He refocused on locating injuries and made out one at his lower back that wasn’t part of the tattoo. There were about five others not as bad and if he wanted to heal quick—and he did—he’d take that soak with the salts. Hopefully while he did, he’d remember the password to his phone. He knew just enough to know he needed to remember everything. He hoped nobody was in trouble. But there was something in his memories bearing urgency.
The woman’s many oddities returned to him as he lay in the hot water. Cherie. She wasn’t from there. Did she know her name meant darling in French? She was torn in two by demons in her past. That one time he touched her while she fed him revealed demons from several events involving sex. He’d released her, not wanting that kind of private information without asking. But it was enough to explain her sarcasm and anger. From the sounds of it, the demons were forever tormenting her attempts at ordering her steps. He could help with that.
“Do you want me to wash your clothes?” she called from outside the door.
He angled his head, considering. “I don’t have anything else.”
“I have a robe you can use till they’re done. It’s gender neutral. You don’t have to if you prefer not to.”
He found it almost comical how she had three conversations at one time, never giving him a chance to address the first before moving to the next. “I can wash them,” he said. “Leave the robe near the door, please.”
“Yes sir, I can do that. I don’t want to hurry you but as soon as you’re done, I’ll use the tub to get right to it,” she said, telling him she didn’t understand him. “I don’t have a washing machine yet, but it was the very next item on my list of things to get. I use the laundry mat if you’re wondering and have no problems whatsoever doing it.” Only she did have problems with it and argued with those demons that convinced her everybody else had a problem with it too. He did have issues with it, but not the judgmental kind. He’d let her wash his clothes only because she seemed to need to. Guilt for hitting him with her car if he had to guess.
Once he had the black terrycloth robe on, he stepped out the bathroom, noticing right away she’d removed the feminine articles he’d pretended not to see earlier. The way his body responded to them had him really curious over his memories. If he was a preacher, he didn’t seem to be the kind that avoided women. And as far as he could tell, he didn’t think that wrong. Unless she belonged to another. Which…she didn’t seem to.
She entered the room and seemed to hit an invisible wall, turning away from him. “You’re done, okay,” she said, making him look down to be sure he was covered. He was.
“I left the clothes in the bathroom. I can wash them if you need me to.”
“Actually,” she said, seeming to force herself to face him with one of her captivating smiles. “My landlord is coming, and I’ll wait till after he leaves.”
He was running out of places to put his eyes with her. Everywhere they landed brought a need to stare, not the least appropriate to want or need to do with this woman who tried to help him. And yet, something in his memories compelled him to do exactly that. Study everything about her. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“Rest,” she said, clasping her hands together. He noticed the bubbly excitement in her and wondered what it was from.
“Do you need help with your…chores?”
“Nope.” She gestured to her bed. “Just rest. Please.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, heading to it. He sat on the bed, and she was there, helping with the pillows. He lay back, letting her do her thing right as his eyes were scarred with the vision of her breasts pushing out the top of her bra.
She gasped and closed the gap in her shirt with a hand, hurrying out before he could even sputter out an apology. Now his dick was hard. Was this the kind of man he was? Unable to control himself around women who’d experienced sexual abuse of some kind? He prayed not. Even as the idea disgusted him, he could think of nothing but her breasts. No matter how much he lectured himself it just remained fixated on that perfect image, never wanting to stop seeing it.
He needed to get out of there and figure out who the hell he was and get back to that life.
****
Revelator dozed off, waking to the sound of Cherie’s laughter. Only there was something off about it. He sat up when the male voice came next, a mumble he couldn’t decipher.
“He’s just a friend, he’s not living here. Just visiting.”
Revelator made his way to the door, listening. They were in the kitchen or living room.
“Well, I’ve looked out for you since you’ve come here, you know that,” the man said.
“Yes sir, and I appreciate that, it’s a very godly thing of you to do.”
He gave a laugh. “Wouldn’t call it all that,” he muttered, his tone raising something in Revelator that pulled at memories. “Just bartering.”
“Which I’m grateful for,” Cherie said. “Please,” she added, the sudden fear in her voice putting fury in his blood.
He yanked the bedroom door open, finding Cherie cornered in her kitchen. He didn’t bother with memories as instincts took over and he gladly let them. “Get your hands off her,” he muttered, surprised to hear calm anywhere in his voice.
The widening of the man’s eyes came with a terrified, “Revelator.”
He knew him?
“The one and the same,” Revelator said, hoping to learn something from him while the urge to dismember him hit.
“I didn’t know it was you here, if I had…”
“You’d what?” he wondered only a foot before the man now.
“I’d…I’d…”
Revelator slammed him into the wall by his neck. “How do you know me, filth?”
He loosened his hold enough so he could speak.
“You…work with the Bishops.”
The Bishops. That name was definitely familiar. “How do you know that?”
His eyes bugged and he realized he was strangling him. He let off a bit, impatiently waiting for him to get enough air to speak. “Everybody knows that…sir.”
Everybody but him and Cherie, it would seem.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Cherie whispered next to him. “Please.”
He held the man’s neck tighter, turning his bloodthirsty gaze to her. “Stupid? Like choke him to death?”
She nodded at him with wide eyes.
“I don’t think that would be stupid at all. If I”d let him go on with you, maybe you wouldn’t either.”
“But you didn’t let him go on.”
His gaze slitted on hers. “Why are you protecting this demon?” Then he realized it. She wasn’t protecting him, she was protecting herself.
“Look, I’ve done things I’m not proud of and I just don’t want anything else on my hands,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes till he needed to touch her and find out all her dirty secrets. Her guilt was filled with demonic lies he needed to call out and destroy.
The man thrashed and clawed at his arm while Revelator lowered his head, considering his options. “I won’t break his neck if you agree to come with me,” he said.
“Come with you? Where?” she whispered.
“Wherever I say,” he said, squeezing the man’s neck harder. “His life is in your hands, Cherie. You come with me, or he dies.”
“Fine, I’ll come, I’ll come!”
He yanked the man off the wall and shoved him toward the door. “Get out.”
He answered with choking sputters as he stumbled to the door. Without looking at Cherie, he knew she was scared of him.
“I told you already you don’t need to fear me,” he gently reminded her.
She nodded a lot and he looked at her. “You know the Bishops?”
She shook her head. “I mean…maybe I do.”
“Pack your things. We’re going to find These Bishops and my memories. And you’ll stay with me until I find out everything you’re running from and then deal with it.”
She shook her head. “You can’t…you can’t do that.”
He turned to her, getting closer than he meant but once he was in that intimate space, there was no escaping it. “I can do it,” he promised quietly. “And I will do it.”
“W-why, why are you doing this? You don’t know me.”
Something in his memories told him he needed to know what her skin felt like. His body had a mind of its own and he watched the back of his finger stroke softly over her cheek. He closed his eyes, tasting the sweetness of her innocence even as darkness clawed to finish shredding it to pieces. “I know enough,” he said, his finger still discovering, moving to her mouth. He pulled back at encountering an evil that put murder in his blood. “Pack for a weekend excursion. In the swamp,” he added, not sure why there, but sure it was a fact.
****
Cherie fought to breathe around her emotions, doing as Revelator said. So that was his actual name? Who in the world was he? What did she get into now?
He protected you.
Right. That’s right. She had to remember that. He was making her go for her own stupid good. A blind man could see she was going in circles, and this was him breaking her out of it.
She remembered how wrong she’d been about everything in her life. Why wouldn’t she be wrong about this? Should she try to escape and just run?
The memory of his finger on her face had her heart racing again. Why oh why did he have to be the cutest man on earth too? That wasn’t helping her at all. That was her weakness. Dreaming the impossible, believing the impossible. Then wondering why she got broken into a million pieces when her dreams turned into nightmares called reality.
She remembered the dream she thought God had given her, to go to Breaux Bridge. What if he was why? The Revelator. What if God sent him to actually help her?
“Let’s go, Cherie,” he called from behind, making her jump.
She turned and he was there, like a fantasy mirage a couple feet before her. She closed her eyes, fighting back her emotions and panic. “I’m…I’m coming, I’m just…”
“Hey,” he said, his deep voice compelling her to look at him. “Have faith.”
His words stole her breath. “I’m scared,” she confessed.
He seemed to stare into her soul then he stepped closer. Her heart tried to beat from her chest as his arms went around her. Just a hug. She allowed his large hand gently pull her head against his chest as the softest French flowed from his lips, soothing her down to her toes.
****
Sahvrin pulled into the gas station, pulling his helmet off then his phone out. Anything? he texted 8-Bit.
His phone rang and he answered it. “Nothing.”
“I swear to fuck, I’m planting a tracker in his ass personally when I find him.”
“I hear you. I’m checking something that came in about an hour ago.”
“Good, thank you. Let me fucking know.”
He didn’t let himself think what could’ve happened to Revelator. The Bat-tie was in four hours, and he couldn’t drive himself crazy with those questions. The man wasn’t the type to do this and that meant he was unable to tell them. The only way that could happen is if he’d been in some kind of accident, or something else. And there had been no accident reports which left the something else.
He finished filling his gas tank and climbed back on Belle Noir, feeling his phone buzz. He looked at the screen, not recognizing the number. Panic shot his finger across the surface. “Hello?”
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said. “Are you a…a Bishop?”
He moved the phone to his other ear, looking around. “Yes, who is this?”
“Do you know a man named Revelator?”
More panic hit him. “I do, who are you?”
“My name is Cherie, I have him with me.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“He wants to talk to you,” he heard her say as Sahvrin’s pulse hammered.
“Hello.”
“Revelator?” Sahvrin climbed off his bike needing to walk.
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
He paused. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“The woman you just talked to hit me with her car. I lost a few memories. I need help.”
“Mon Dieu, where are you, I’m coming for you now.”
“Where are we?” he asked while sheer joy surged through his blood that he was alive and okay.
“Wal-Mart in Breaux Bridge.”
“I’m two minutes from there. What are you in? I’ll meet you there and you can follow me to the Land Dock.”
“The Land Dock,” he muttered, like he might remember it. “We’re in a…”
“Uh, brown Pinto,” she said. “1983. It’s kind of a classic.”
“I heard her,” Bishop said. “Hold tight, I’m on my way. I’m on Belle Noir, my Land Dragon. A motorcycle,” he added, realizing he may not know what that is.
“See you when you get here.”
He hung up and dialed 8-Bit. “Found him, he just called me.”
“What happened?”
“He was hit by a fucking woman and lost some of his memories. She called for him, I’m on my way to him.”
“Be careful.”
“Yeah, they’re at Wal-Mart. Track me.”
“Always.”
Sahvrin tore out of the station, violating the cities noise regulation as he went from zero to sixty from one red light to the other. He got to Wal-Mart, spotting the vehicle parked at the far end of the lot. He stopped a couple parking spaces away to save their ears then shut off Belle Noir and climbed off, removing his helmet.
“Fucking Revelator,” he muttered, watching him slowly climb out of the car. “You look like shit,” Sahvrin said, stopping a couple feet from him before dipping his head to peer in at the woman in the driver seat. “What’s up, everything okay?”
“Ran into some trouble at her house with her landlord.”
Sahvrin realized Revelator didn”t recognize him. Wow. “I’m Sahvrin Wolfgang Bishop. You call me Lil Bishop. You’re the Seer in the Swamp. Any of that ring a bell?”
“Some of it, yes.”
He looked at the woman again, noticing the obvious fear she wore. “What kind of trouble you run into? You know I have your back, whatever you need. We go way back through many fights and wars. I’d take a bullet for you and probably have, same as you. Only you favor knives.”
“Do I,” he muttered, his brilliant blue eyes focused in effort to remember. “I don’t have a knife on me.”
“Where were you when you got hit?”
“On a bicycle. I had a bag with plumbing parts. Zip ties and…pantyhose,” he muttered, making Sahvrin grin at his confusion.
“You were going to the store for Ms. Prejean’s things. You’d gone to her house the day before to check on her as Mah-Mah asked. The only reason I know what the pantyhose is for is because I’ve been tearing the swamp apart trying to find you.”
He eyed him, his gaze hard. “What’s it for?” he asked like it had been eating a hole in his brain.
“To support her cantaloupes. The ones growing on her fence,” he added with a grin, putting his hand on his shoulder. Then he held that same hand in front of him for a handshake. “Do you still see, Revelator?”
Revelator looked at his hand and lowered his own into it. The sight of him closing his eyes with that eerie look and nod relieved Sahvrin to his soul. “I remember you now.” His other hand joined the first, encasing Sahvrin in his seeing prison. “You and your Belle Eveque.” His smile faded. “The Bat-tie is today.” His eyes opened and Sahvrin watched as memories seemed to flood in. “Maggie,” he muttered.
“She’ll be there.”
“She sees.”
Sahvrin nodded. “She does.” Sahvrin regarded the woman in the car who looked ready to run away. “This…Cherie, she doesn’t seem…very happy about something.”
“Because I coerced her into coming with me.”
“You? Coerced?” He almost added a woman but didn’t really want to jog his celibate memories. “What happened?”
“She’s stuck is all. I’m getting her unstuck.”
“That can be a little messy,” Sahvrin fished.
“She saved a man’s life in exchange,” he muttered.
“In exchange for what?”
“For coming with me.”
Sahvrin eyed him, beyond curious with this new Revelator standing before him.
“I should’ve killed him,” he added, like he got the raw end of the deal and wasn’t happy about it. “But there’s something about her.”
This piqued his interest. “Care to share?”
“I’m just not sure about memories. What kind of a man was I before with women?” he asked.
Shit. “Not sure what you mean,” Sahvrin said, hoping to buy a couple vowels into his head while avoiding the celibacy topic.
“I mean…was I the kind of man to…take advantage of a woman when they’re…in a bad way?”
Holy shit. “Uh, you were…the kind of man who did what was right no matter how you felt about things.”
He nodded. “That’s good to hear. Those memories didn’t follow me home, I’m afraid. I don’t like the things I’m thinking about when…seems like the wrong time to think about them.”
Yesssss. “Those kinds of things aren’t very polite,” Sahvrin muttered. “I had the same thoughts for Mah Belle Eveque while she was half crippled.” The relief on his face prompted him to add, “Of course I could see she wanted the same.”
“You could? How?”
“She was craving to know real passion and love, it was hard to miss.”
He was sure he’d miss it, Sahvrin could see. “Care to introduce me? I’m thinking Belle Eveque will love to meet her. Why not invite her to the Bat-tie?”
“She’s coming,” he assured. “She’s mine til’ I say otherwise.”
Holy shit, what did God bury and resurrect in a single damn hour? “Well then…that settles it.”
“I do need help remembering a couple things,” he said.
“Name it.”
He eyed Sahvrin. “Where do I live?”
Sahvrin grinned and patted his shoulder. “In the heart of the swamp. Clever little house,” he added, feeling like he’d be thinking of that maybe.
“It can’t be worse than where she’s coming from.”
“You took pride in building it. I helped,” he reminded, hoping he’d get the best of his memories back. No point in telling him it was just a one room house with no privacy. He’d have to sort that problem out. Or not.
“If you need anything, call that number and I’m there. Doesn’t matter what time it is, you hear?”
He got a solid look from Revelator at that. “You’re a good man,” he said, as if Sahvrin had asked. “I remember us.”
“I’m sure it’ll all come back in no time.”
“How’s Maggie?”
“She’ll be at the Bat-tie. You can see for yourself.”
He nodded.
“Follow me to the Land Dock and I’ll take you and Cherie to your place. You have a boat there I think you can use.”
“Thank you for coming. Glad to be back even if I don’t remember everything.”
Sahvrin gave him a one-armed hug, not caring what it looked like. “Not as glad as I am. I’m sure you know what I thought happened by now.”
He patted him back. “I do, brother. But it didn’t.”