Chapter 23
Sally and Brenda looked at each other, then to where Michael had looked and screamed in terror at the sight before them.
Standing at Lilith’s feet was Lucifer himself.
Instead of passing out, they tried to run, but were quickly captured, restrained with their hands behind their backs, and because of their screams, someone put a gag over their mouths.
“He alive?” Lucius asked Bandit as he lifted his chin toward the man lying on the ground. No one moved until Bandit checked his neck for a pulse, then he looked up and grinned. “Yep, he’ll probably have one hell of a headache for a few days, but he’s alive.”
Lucius looked around, and nodded in satisfaction when Vampire, both the man with that club name, and dressed as one because of the makeup, removed his cape and draped it over Lilith’s body.
Everyone waited for Bandit to check for her pulse and as soon as he closed his eyes and nodded, Luc jumped to action.
He looked around wildly and saw his entire club there, he pointed to the strikers.
“Run back and get a truck. I’m not waiting for a fucking ambulance.
” When it looked like they would argue, he shook his head.
“We’ll get to the fucking hospital before the ambulance even arrives here.
We’ll meet you at the property line, make sure you have Prospect Joey with you, he’s going to the hospital with us.
” When the three men took off at a dead run back toward the bar, Lucius turned toward Lilith, laying out on a gigantic tree stump, and slowly approached her.
He saw she was out cold, and bent down to kiss her on the side of the mouth.
With his hand on her forehead, he whispered in her ear.
“Hang on, I’m here, we’ll get you to help.
” He reached beneath her and gently lifted her, cradling her in his arms. When he heard something, he turned to stare at the two women.
“I hope you have good lawyers,” was all he said to them, then turned and strode away with Lilith in his arms. Bandit ran up to him, and stuffed something in the back pocket of his leather pants.
“What?”
“It’s a baggie with a cloth in it. Tell the doctors it might be chloroform.”
“Got it,” he said, and realized several people were with him and when he reached the property line, they held the wire up, and before he could climb into the truck Professor Tiggs gently laid another plastic baggie on Lilith’s stomach. He shook his head.
“This was found near Lilith’s car. I assume you’re taking both Lilith and Joey to the hospital?”
“Yes, there are three people back there that will need help from the ambulance when it gets here.”
“Do you know who did this?”
“One of them is Brenda Smith, the second is Ann, or Sally Barclay, and some guy. The guy was calling up Lucifer from Hell, and looked up to see me standing there.” Lucius smiled for the first time, causing Gary to shudder at the evil in his expression.
“Yeah, he shit and pissed himself, screamed like a little fucking girl, and fainted.”
“That’s what the scream was?”
“Yes, and there are plenty of people who recorded everything on their phones. I never laid a hand on either of them. I’m taking Lilith and Joey to the hospital.”
“Good,” Professor Tiggs said, and stood back as everyone got into the truck that came for them, and spun the tires when they left. He looked up and saw Starr standing there. He walked over and put an arm around her shoulders. “It was Brenda and Sally and some guy.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, I feel responsible too.” He sighed and they watched until the taillights of the truck disappeared down the road. “Thankfully, they’re only fifteen minutes away from the hospital.”
“There is that,” Starr said on a sigh, and stood there waiting for the police and ambulance so she could direct them.
*****
“I love this,” Nurse Judy said on a giggle.
“What’s that?” Hawk looked up from the chart he had been signing when she spoke. Two other nurses joined him at the station, and they looked at the woman who spoke in horror.
“It’s so quiet tonight. We’re going to have an easy night.”
She had finished her sentence then thirty seconds later, the doors to the Emergency Room opened and Lucifer walked in, carrying a woman in his arms.
“Holy...” Nurse Judy didn’t get any further as she fainted at the sight coming toward them.
Hawk looked up, grinned, then took in the situation and became serious. He ran forward, barking out orders, and called out, “Bring her in here, Lucifer.” He patted the bed, and watched as Lucius placed Lilith on the bed.
“What happened?” Hawk asked, but frowned when Luc passed him two plastic baggies.
“According to Prospect Joey, Lilith was hit in the arm, that syringe was found near her car, then a guy grabbed her from behind and put something over her face. That’s the rag in the second bag. Bandit thought you could run some tests on them or something.”
“Yeah, he’s right.” Hawk looked up and swore. “What the fuck happened to you?” He saw the condition of Prospect Joey’s face and the way he was cradling his arm to his stomach. Hawk looked at Lucius and his entire persona changed, he wasn’t a member of Hell’s Coffin now, he was a doctor.
“I’ll get these up to the lab now, as long as Lilith is stable, I don’t want to do anything to counteract any drugs she might have been given. I don’t want to go in blind here. She’s safe, I’m going to work on Joey.”
“Do what you have to, but I’m not leaving Lilith’s side.”
“That’s fine,” Hawk said, and turned to Joey, who had been put in the bed beside Lilith. The only thing Hawk did was pass two blankets to Lucius so he could cover Lilith with something besides Vampire’s cape.
“Are there any more coming?”
“Probably,” Luc said as he covered Lilith. “I don’t know about the bitches, but a guy soiled himself and passed out. Bandit said he hit his head, but was still alive.”
“Got it. Can you tell me what the fuck happened?”
“Ask Prospect Joey,” Luc said as he stood on the other side of Lilith so he could watch Hawk work on Joey.
As he worked, and did his exam, Joey gave the entire tale of what happened, and by the time the ambulance arrived with the guy who had kidnapped Lilith, Joey’s face had been cleaned, and both Hawk and Lucius winced at the broken nose, and two black eyes.
He was taken away to have his arm x-rayed, and the lab results had just returned.
“Good, but not good,” Hawk said as he looked at the chart.
“What’s that mean?”
“It means that the drugs weren’t lethal, like in death, but they are knockout drugs.
Chloroform on the rag, that will knock you out, and the syringe is Ketamine.
” He looked at Lucius with a shake of his head.
“Basic horse tranquilizers. It will knock you out. I’m waiting on the blood draw to see how much is in her system.
From my physical exam, I didn’t find any trauma. ”
“What about the cuts on her stomach?”
“What cuts? Oh, that wasn’t blood, it looked like candle wax.”
“Thank god,” Lucius sighed and looked up when he saw Bandit standing there.
Both Lucius and Hawk stepped out into the hall when the EMTs came rushing into the hospital and the guy was yelling and screaming about demons.
The gurney stopped, the guy looked at them, screamed at the top of his lungs like he had in the woods, and proceeded to pass out again.
“What the hell?” Luc asked and looked at Hawk with a scowl when the other guy gripped his arm, and took him to a room down the hall. He turned Luc and pointed.
“Look at yourself,” he said with a smirk.
Luc turned and saw an entire wall of mirrors and he stared in shock at the actual red demon with fangs, horns, and wings staring back at him.
He reached up to stroke his beard, then walked forward and leaned in to inspect his face.
. He turned to Hawk with a gigantic grin. “Damn, Starr did good work.”
“You think?” Hawk chuckled, and they went back out in the hall, and he shook his head when he had to walk through a group of vampires, gargoyles, skeletons, werewolves, and someone that looked like his face had been stitched back on using at least a dozen pieces of different skin.
He heard another scream and looked up as Nurse Judy hit the floor again.
“You guys are going to have to go back to the waiting room,” he told his brothers and they all pointed down the hall.
Luc and Hawk turned and saw a nurse pushing Joey in a wheelchair.
The nurse handed the envelope of x-rays to Hawk, and took Joey back into the room.
When several police officers arrived, Bandit broke off and went to talk to them.
The first thing they did was to walk into the room the man had been taken to and put a set of handcuffs on his wrist, and attached the other one to the bed railing.
“How bad?” Luc asked Joey as he pointed to his arm in a sling.
“No clue, they won’t tell me.”
Everyone turned to Hawk and he slapped the films up on the light board, then winced. “It’s a spiral break.”
“What’s that mean?” Luc asked.
“It means that someone twisted his arm until it broke,” he said, and took Luc’s arm in his and mimicked the motion. He looked at Joey. “Do you know what hit your face?”
“Brenda had a rock in her hand.”
“Ouch,” several of them said, then backed out and went to wait where they were told. They had only stayed long enough to check out on their man to make sure he would survive his injuries.
“Lucius,” a weak voice said, and Luc hurried over to the bed where Lilith lay. “Cool,” she said as she reached up and laid her hand over his beard and red face. “What happened? Where am I?”
“What do you remember?” Bandit asked, and the cop from the break-in at her house was right beside him, both of them taking notes.
She reached up to rub her head, but winced at the pain she felt.
Luc helped her sit up. “I had to meet with the insurance agent at my house after work. They were going to walk through and record the destruction.” When she saw they understood, she reached up and gently rubbed her forehead with a heavy sigh.
“They were late. I thought only one person was coming, but two of them arrived. By late, I mean more than thirty minutes late. I didn’t want to call and ask where they were. ”
“Why not?” the young cop asked.
“Because I didn’t want to piss them off and have them tell me that no damage had been done to my home.
It hadn’t happened to me personally, but I’ve heard it happen to others.
When they finally arrived, I only handed them a copy of the police report and my keys.
I didn’t want to influence them in any way, shape, or form. ”
“That was smart,” Bandit said. “How did it go?”
Lilith shook her head on another sigh, and shrugged.
“No clue, I stayed outside, I couldn’t stand to look at the mess again.
When they came out, they both looked a little green.
Remember, it has been almost three weeks and all that food lay there rotting.
Anyway, they handed me my keys back, and said they’d have their decision by next week.
Oh, they were inside for over an hour. As soon as they left, I left to go to Hell’s Coffin.
I parked in my usual spot, and when I got out, I looked up when Prospect Joey called my name, then I felt a sharp pain in my upper arm, I stumbled, and I woke up here.
” She reached up to rub her arm, and looked around until she spotted Lucius.
“I like the makeup, Starr did a good job.”
“Thank you,” he said as he leaned down and kissed the center of her forehead. He then told her what Joey had told him, and to verify it, the curtain was pulled back and Joey himself stood there with his arm in a cast.
“Thank god,” he said as he saw she was awake. “I thought they had killed you.” They took the next fifteen minutes to tell the police everything, and when they were satisfied, they looked up and saw Starr standing there with a brown paper bag. She walked forward and placed it on the bed.
“The guys came back and told us what happened. I hope you don’t mind, but I went to Luc’s place and got you some clothes.
” They all nodded and stepped out as Lilith got dressed while Hawk said he’d get her discharge papers ready.
She was shortly discharged, and because he could, he took Lilith over to where the man lay, still cuffed to the bed.
“Do you know this guy?” both Lucius and Bandit asked.
Lilith studied the man and shook her head. “Never saw him before in my life. Did he act alone?”
“No,” Lucius sighed. “Brenda Smith and Sally Barclay helped him.”
“Shit,” Lilith whispered, and studied the man with a shake of her head. She laughed evilly when the man opened his eyes, spotted Lucius and screamed like the actual fires of hell were after him.
“Remember this face,” Lucius said as he pointed to his face done up in makeup to look like Lucifer.
“This will be the face you see for the rest of your life.” He took Lilith’s hand, turned on his heel, and the two of them left with their heads held high, but the sounds of deranged screams behind them had them only shaking their heads.