Chapter 22
“Are we ready?” Professor Tiggs asked as he walked into the room and stopped in his tracks.
“Holy shit,” he said as he looked at the men standing there in the makeup his students had created.
“Damn,” he said as he shook his head and walked around all the ghoulie characters.
He stopped before Lucius and shook his head.
“What?” Luc growled.
“Have you seen yourself yet?”
“No, Starr wouldn’t let any of us see ourselves.”
“Well, it’s extremely impressive. Let’s get down there to see if you can fit into the coffin like that.
” They followed him out, with Luc bringing up the rear.
He looked at the wall clock and breathed easier when he realized that Lilith should be there any minute, since she had to go over to her house after work to meet with the insurance adjuster.
She had reassured him several times that she would be there by a certain time.
Since they’d been together, she’d never let him down.
He reached up and rubbed his sternum and jerked when his hand was slapped.
“What the hell, Starr?”
“Stop messing with my paint job. It’s bad enough you wouldn’t shave your chest for this, but with you constantly rubbing that spot it will wear away. Do you need an antacid or something?”
“No, it’s just that something doesn’t feel right.” He shrugged when the men stopped and stared at him, then he waved them forward. “Let’s get this shit over with. I need a beer.” He shook his head to dispel his misgivings. “It should work out.”
*****
Prospect Joey, what he was known by the club, swore as he saw the clock on the dash of his truck and pushed the gas pedal harder, propelling him to go ten miles over the posted speed limit.
His entire day had been a shit storm. I guess he could call it Murphy’s Law, because if something could have happened, it did.
It started with his truck getting a flat tire on the way to work, thankfully he had a good spare and was able to change it in under twenty minutes.
Once he got to work, his boss yelled at him for being late.
When Joey only rolled the tire to him, he shook his head and walked away.
Then a customer screamed at him for taking too long to do an oil change.
After that, whenever he picked up a tool, he dropped it.
His lunch was never delivered with the rest of the orders, and the final straw was when his boss told him to go get a tow, and he didn’t even make it out of the parking lot when it ran out of gas.
Frustrated beyond measure, he went to the person who had parked the vehicle not an hour before, and screamed at him. When Chad had laughed in his face, Joey lost it and pushed him. By the time their boss broke them up, they were rolling on the ground with fists flying.
When the boss tried to ask Chad what happened, Joey, told him in no uncertain terms that he was going to tell his story first. He knew how Chad would say it was all Joey’s fault.
Chad had been doing it all his life. Joey didn’t know if working for his father, and having his older brother as a co-worker would be feasible for much longer.
When Joey had told him that Chad hadn’t filled up the tow truck before he parked it, Joey felt relief when his father, Steve, turned on Chad and chewed him out.
It made him feel even better, when Chad was told to clock out and take the next three days off.
Apparently, Chad had messed up one too many times and their father was giving him time off to think about whether he wanted to continue working there.
Because of the fight, and having to fill the truck with diesel, and the person needing a tow was forty-five minutes away, that put Joey behind.
Now, he was hurrying as fast as he could to get to the club house for the rehearsal of the Halloween Bash.
Not that he was going to be a character, he was only a prospect, after all, but he could be there to keep the peace.
As he slammed on the brakes to enter the parking lot, he fishtailed, and smiled when he saw that Lilith had parked in her usual spot.
He parked in the next row, and he reached over for his leather jacket, he climbed out of his truck, and saw something that turned his blood cold.
Three people emerged from the edge of the woods surrounding the parking lot and converged on Lilith.
One of them, Joey saw it was a woman with dark blonde hair, hit her in the arm.
As Lilith started to fall, a man wrapped his arms around her, and covered her mouth with a rag.
The third person, another woman, he recognized, but before he could say or do anything, she ran to him and hit him square in the face with a rock.
He dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks, feeling blood gush from his face.
Joey moaned as he came to, and tried to frown, but was in instant pain.
For the life of him, he couldn’t remember how he got on the ground.
It took several minutes for his head to clear, and when he finally sat up, and leaned against the tire of his truck, he looked around, trying to remember what had happened.
As soon as he spotted Lilith’s car several yards away, it all came back to him.
He reached out and grabbed his leather vest and ran toward the entrance to the bar, swinging the vest on as he ran.
As soon as he entered, he saw the bar was practically empty, which didn’t jive with all the vehicles in the lot outside. That’s when he remembered why he was there. On a dead run through the place, he slammed into the kitchen, ignoring the gasps, and people calling for him to stop.
He reached up to push the door open to the new building and screamed in pain. That was how he entered the room. He saw everyone, and because he didn’t know what else to do, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “LUCIFER!”
Everyone turned to look at him, but he ignored him.
He needed the man he called out to. When everyone tried to get him to stop, he shoved them out of his way.
His actions might not allow him to ever go further than a prospect with the Hell’s Coffin motorcycle club, but what he had to say was more important than that right now.
“What the hell?” Satan himself cried out as he approached Joey.
He immediately crossed himself, though he wasn’t religious at all, and would later deny he had ever done that.
“Joey, what happened to you?” Lucifer, dressed as Satan gripped his shoulders and steadied the younger man.
He looked over and nodded when a bottle of water was produced.
“It’s Lilith,” Joey said after downing the entire bottle of water.
“I was late getting here, and when I arrived, Lilith was getting out of her car. I called out to her, but three people came out of the woods and attacked her.” When it looked like Lucifer was going to take off, Joey reached out to stop him, then screamed in pain.
That was when everyone realized he had a broken arm.
He cradled it to his waist and used his other hand to wipe his nose, he didn’t realize it came away bloody.
“What happened to you?” Luc asked the younger man. From the looks of him, he went ten rounds with a prize fighter, and knew as much as he wanted to shake the other man, he had him to gather his thoughts.
“This isn’t important now, but I was late leaving work, which made me late getting here.” Joey began and looked around wildly. That was when he noticed everyone was made up.
“Where’s Gator?”
“Here,” a man with alligator makeup on came forward.
“You’re going to want to check the security cameras.
This happened twenty minutes ago, maybe thirty, I don’t know how long I was knocked out for.
Anyway, I pulled in, and Lilith was getting out of her car.
I called out to her, she looked up, and three people came out of the woods.
” He looked around wildly, then locked his eyes on Lucifer.
“It was two women and a man. One of the women, I could have sworn it was Ann, the bartender that used to work here. Anyway, she ran up behind Lilith and punched her in the arm. Lilith started to fall, but a man wrapped his arms around her from behind and put a rag over her face. I started forward, but then Brenda,” he looked around and found Starr.
“The woman who was on your team, she came running toward me, no words, but she had something in her hand and smashed me in the face. I went down. I don’t know if I broke my arm in my fall, or they did something to me when I was out.
I came to, then ran in here to get you.”
“Where was Lilith parked?” Lucifer demanded.
“Her usual spot.” Joey nodded as the men left, and he was left in the care of Starr, Misty, the ladies of the club, and Professor Tiggs and his brother.
“LUCIUS!” Starr cried as they hit the door, and there was a pile up of bodies as everyone stopped so he could turn around.
“Cops?”
“Yes, and an ambulance,” Lucius answered, and turned and ran through the kitchen.
He hit the stairs to the patch room, taking them three at a time.
Thankfully, Bandit had his key out already, and it only took seconds to unlock the door so they could enter.
Five minutes later, they stood there, staring at the screen, watched everything as Joey described it.
“What’s next?” Gator, the Enforcer of the club asked. Before anyone could say anything, they all froze when a small buzz started on everyone’s phone. Lucius turned and gave everyone an evil grin.
“Now we hunt,” he said, and looked at Bandit. “I have that right, correct?”
“Yes, they are on private property now. It’s posted, and you have every right to protect what you own.”
Lucius nodded, walked over to a wall, punched in a code, and swung open both doors.
He reached in and grabbed several weapons, checking them and getting extra ammunition.
He looked at Bandit. “Better tell your people we’re armed.
” He nodded between the men and the open weapons cabinet.
“Arm up,” he said, and headed toward the door.
He made it all the way to the outside of where the two buildings met, and looked up when he heard a noise.
“What are you doing?” Starr asked as she ran out of the door. She had seen him armed with a rifle through the window.
“They crossed the property line, we’re going after them. Did you call it in?”
“I did, they said at least thirty minutes.”
“Okay,” Luc nodded as the others joined him and then turned to his sister. “Stay put. Do. Not. Follow. Us.”
“She won’t,” Professor Tiggs said as he joined Starr and other regular customers and fellow bikers on the porch.
With Bandit by his side, they walked into the woods, and went looking for Lilith.
What Lucius didn’t know, and wouldn’t find out until later, that the fifty extra people in the bar, fellow bikers and the bar’s regulars fell into step behind the last Hell’s Coffin club member.
*****
“What do we do now?” Sally asked Michael as they laid Lilith out on an old piece of wood.
When Michael started cutting off Lilith’s clothes, Sally became extremely jealous.
“You are not going to fuck her!” She screamed when his hand came up and across her face.
The hit was so powerful, Sally landed on her ass several feet away.
“No, you bitch, I’m not. I’m going to make sure she goes back where she belongs. I’m going to carve a pentagon on her stomach, raise the demons from hell, and send her where she belongs. If you can’t stand the sight of blood, then maybe you need to leave.”
Sally reached up, wiped the blood off her cut lip, and glared at him. “You could have told me, you didn’t have to cut her fucking clothes off.”
“Swear at me one more time, and you’ll be joining her.” Michael glared at her, and then pulled a small pocket knife from his pocket.
“Wait,” Brenda said as she held out her hand to stop him.
When he turned his ire onto her, she held up her hands, but didn’t back off.
“I agree with your plan, but if it doesn’t work, and we get caught, we don’t want the charges of assault against us.
If you cut her, that’s what it will be. I don’t know this bitch, but I have a feeling she would press charges against us. ”
“She will,” Sally said as she looked down at Lilith with a sneer.
“She thinks her shit doesn’t stink.” She looked at her former friend with a sneer.
“As much as I want to help you cut her, Michael, I believe Brenda may be right on this.” She looked up and nodded when Brenda produced several red candles with the flames glowing.
It took some time, but the three of them were able to make a bright red pentagram on Lilith’s torso.
Once it was completed, the women stepped back, holding the burning candles, and Michael went to Lilith’s head.
He raised his arms above his own head, closed his eyes, and chanted quietly.
After about two minutes, the chant became louder, and the women joined in.
With his eyes still closed, he nodded and as the women continued to chant, he spoke, “Fallen angel, Lucifer, I call for you to come get this night demon and bring her back into your fold.” Before he could say anything else, he opened his eyes, screamed at the top of his lungs, and fell backward, but not before emptying his bladder and bowels at the sight before him, hitting his head when he landed.