In the Arms of the Beast

by K. A. Merikan

  Fox nodded with a grim expression. “I want to at least feel like I’m trying to do something.”

  Joker nudged him, grinning wolfishly. “And our prospect will be cannon fodder.”

  Jake ignored the two men arguing. “Maybe we could at least wait for Shadow to come back. He can see the flow of Baal’s energy. It would have been an asset.”

  Even the mention of Shadow had Rev pushing the other way. “He knows shit. His brain’s the size of a pea. I say we do what we decided on earlier. And why not kill two birds with one stone and make this Nick’s initiation.”

  Joker knocked on the table. “I’m in. Nothing’s gonna happen if we cut one branch. At the end of the day, it’s just a tree.”

  Laurent’s silence struck Beast as unusual, but he was glad his plan had gone down well overall. He glanced at Joker and Fox, who still eyed one another over crumbs of bread they’d all eaten with the chowder.

  “I think this would make a decent trial for Nick. He’d have to follow orders even when they don’t make sense to him. That’s the first thing a prospect needs to learn,” Beast said.

  Fox rubbed his forehead, as if he were trying to smoothen out his early wrinkles. “I don’t know. What if he does something stupid?”

  Rev snorted. “You vouched for him. You gotta accept he’s no kid anymore.”

  Knight slid his feet off the table. “I say that’s way safer than having him mule something for us or get into the middle of a gunfight like I had during my initiation with the club.”

  Laurent stood up, his chest expanding as he inhaled a large gulp of air. “Who would be the best person to look after Marcel when we go?”

  Beast stiffened. “Oh… Laurent, just the club members are going. Since it’s gonna be a trial for Nick and all that,” he said, though most of all he wanted Laurent and Marcel as far away from the trees as humanly possible.

  “So just club members?” Laurent asked as if Beast hadn’t already said that.

  Nao pulled on his arm. “We could watch the new season of The Houseboys of New York.”

  Beast cleared his throat. “We’ll go in an hour’s time. Rev, Fox, you’re staying at the clubhouse. Can’t leave it unguarded at such a tense time.”

  Fox’s brows shot up. “What? But it’s Nick’s—”

  “That’s exactly why you’re staying.”

  “Can’t have him get performance anxiety in front of Daddy,” Joker said with a grin, and managed to use his plate to shield himself from the piece of damp bread Fox sent his way.

  Elliot whispered something into Knight’s ear, but from the looks of it, the plan was settled, no one had serious objections, and in an hour’s time, they would be able to find out if the monster of a tree was any match for a chainsaw.

  Beast used a napkin to clean his mouth, finished his soda, and walked out of the room, holding the door for Laurent, who picked up Marcel from a chair in the corner and followed him into the hallway.

  Beast hated when Laurent got argumentative in public, but his silence was ominous. They walked next to each other toward their apartment, and it took quite a few minutes for Laurent to speak.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  Beast had already suspected this was coming, but his shoulders still hunched under the weight of Laurent’s disapproval. “Why?” he asked, stopping by a window that overlooked the woods surrounding the clubhouse, and offered a view on the clearing where Theodore’s ghost had tried to do what they were to do tonight—attempt to stop Baal—and had gotten killed for it. Then again, Beast’s life had never been devoid of risk. Maybe he was numb to it at this point.

  Laurent met Beast’s gaze head-on despite the difference in their size. “Because we don’t know what we’re dealing with. Why rush into it, when Magpie is working on the matter as well? And why make it Nick’s initiation? So that I can’t go?”

  Beast frowned. “What? This isn’t about you,” he said, even though in his mind it absolutely was.

  “I might have stayed silent, just like you asked, but I do not appreciate this at all. Do you not care for my council?”

  Beast took a deep breath and squeezed Laurent’s shoulders. “I appreciate it that you waited to say this in private. And I do want to hear your opinion. But that doesn’t mean I’ll agree with you.”

  Laurent sucked on his bottom lip, nose twitching. “It’s hard for me to accept this, but I’d rather know where you are than to be kept in the dark, so thank you for including me.”

  Wow. That was positively unexpected. Maybe they really were getting somewhere. Talking like on those couple therapy demonstration videos. No accusations. No generalizations. Just honesty.

  Beast smiled and cradled Laurent’s face to kiss him. “You just need to trust that I’ll do the thing I believe is best for my family. Can you do that?”

  Judging by his sullen expression, it would be a struggle for Laurent, but he didn’t back away from the peck. “Only if you promise to be careful.”

  Beast sighed and slid his hands down Laurent’s arms. He didn’t want to explicitly mention his pact with Baal and risk being listened to again without Vars around, but he trusted that Laurent would understand what he meant anyway. “I promise we’ll be safe.”

  Laurent swallowed, and the intensity of his gaze burned holes in Beast’s heart. “But if any assistance is needed, I will have my phone with me.”

  “Make sure Fox is always around you and Marcel. Just in case,” Beast said, and slid his hands into the back pockets of Laurent’s jeans, savoring the warmth of his body in preparation of what was to come.

  Chapter 13 - Beast

  The tree they chose was the most distant from the clubhouse. Away from roads and people’s houses, it was tucked into a dip in the ground between hills, and so remote they had to leave their bikes behind and all hop onto the bed of the pickup truck, which cast a bright white light on the dark scenery.

  The vehicle rolled over uneven ground, its wheels dipping into holes as it maneuvered its way between bushes and rocks. Beast chose to be in the back with most of his men instead of sitting in the cab with Vars, because he wanted to keep an eye on Nick.

  Seventeen, with a mop of ginger hair he wore over his face to cover a constellation of pimples, he seemed like a kid to Beast, but maybe that was only because he’d seen Nick grow up. Fox had been patched in just three years ago, but back when they’d all first met him, Nick had been an unruly thirteen-year old. Since then, he’d gone through a serious growth spurt, and there was no denying he was a young man in the making.

  Hell, Beast himself had prospected at sixteen. Growing up in the clubhouse, he’d been accustomed to the Kings of Hell MC dealings by that time. He’d considered himself an adult. Nick wasn’t even all that many years younger than Laurent who, while cute, was most definitely a man in his own right. Nick was a good kid, but having to follow orders without question wasn’t what drew him to the Kings of Hell. Only time could tell how he would take to the less glamorous side of club life.

  Back in the day, when Beast had been an arrogant young man, who could get away with a lot on his good looks, he hated doing what others told him to. He’d even considered quitting altogether and following his then boyfriend to Hollywood where Derek had had grand plans of stardom as an actor. But after the accident that had left Beast’s skin badly burned, Derek had drifted away, while the club stood by him. Even King, though that had all been for show.

  Beast got patched in as a member as soon as he could ride his motorcycle again. He remembered the endless months of rehab with that one light at the end of the tunnel. It had given him something to look forward to in the darkest days of his entire life. Now the club was his life.

  Fox often complained about his son’s unwillingness to study harder, but Nick wasn’t stupid. He was just not made for school and the kind of learning it offered. Instead, Nick needed a strong hand and the authority of someone who wasn’t his dad. Everyone had to learn rules at some point, but high scho
ol teachers weren’t exactly equipped to handle Nick’s tendencies to be a violent shit. If strength was what Nick respected, the club members could sure as hell be the role models he needed.

  Unless he fucked up tonight, Nick would become their brother one day, the same way the club would be Marcel’s family—an extended network of uncles and aunts. Beast’s kid would grow up with the club as his rock, and maybe one day he would want to become a member himself.

  When King had still been alive, Beast was always pushed to the sidelines despite sharing a strong bond with the other members. Now, with Laurent at his side, the prez patch on his chest, and a kid on the way, the dedication he felt for the club wasn’t just about belonging. He not only had to, but wanted to build the club so that it prospered and provided for everyone. It would be there for the generations to come, an anchor and a place to call home under the umbrella of freedom where rules of regular society didn’t always prevail.

  But for that to happen, they needed to survive Baal’s plans and lock him away forever.

  “If you live with us, you gotta earn your keep,” Beast said to Nick, who instantly sat up.

  “Yeah, for sure. I’ve been pulling plenty all-nighters with Jake this past month.”

  Jake nodded. “He’s showing dedication.”

  Knight knew where Beast was going with this. “And he’ll be working even harder if he wants to stick around.”

  Nick frowned, trying to keep himself straight, despite the vehicle constantly shifting on uneven ground. “I don’t know what my dad’s been saying, but I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “But can you keep your mouth shut when it matters?” Beast asked as they slowed, approaching the clearing where the tree grew out of damp black moss.

  “I can keep secrets.”

  Knight patted Nick’s back. “You’re gonna have to prove it.”

  “I can’t exactly prove it yet, because keeping secrets means you wouldn’t know that I’m keeping them. ‘Cause they’re secrets.”

  Joker barked out a laugh. “What a smartass!”

  Beast grabbed the edge of the bed of the pickup as it stumbled over a large rock. “Knight means that you’ll have to do as we say without asking why, and keep your mouth shut about what happens here tonight.”

  Nick might have stopped breathing altogether. He finally understood that this was more than just an errand. That it could be what brought him a step closer to that coveted Prospect status. “You can count on me.”

  His chest was working faster now, and even in the low light Beast noticed the muscles of the boy’s arms tightening. Since Nick had no idea about the real issue the club was up against, he was surely convinced that there would be blood where they were going. That he’d have to deliver a beating in their name. Threaten someone. Beast believed Nick could do all that, but would he stay as calm if he knew the truth? They would have to find out the hard way.

  In the pale glow of the moon, the slope had an eerie enough appearance to send shivers down Beast’s spine, and his brain transformed the mundane into something out of the ordinary. Each small tree was a masked man watching their passage, each pair of eyes glinting in the dark—a spy about to alarm Baal to the upcoming danger. They were out of the demon’s jurisdiction, and for all he knew, he had no guardianship over the land around the trees the same way he had over the club grounds, but their friends and families were back there. Vulnerable to the creature’s wrath.

  He sank into his own thoughts, ignoring the bottle of liquor Joker had started to pass around, and focused on the fact that if Baal even found out what happened tonight, he wouldn’t know who hurt his trees. Was it still risky? Yes. But they couldn’t just wait for someone else’s actions any longer.

  He stiffened when the truck came to an abrupt halt, which sent him into the side of the bed, but he couldn’t allow himself to hesitate.

  He didn’t even need to look back to know Nick watched his every move, eager to be a part of whatever was going on. It made sense. He had no school friends to speak of, and hovered around the club like a pup in need of a nipple.

  But when he stood and took in the sight before him, his stomach plummeted so rapidly he needed to force himself to remain steady. Since he’d last seen it, Baal’s tree had grown as if the soil was soaked with steroids. It towered over the trees around it, black and exuding its own warmth, alive with the blood offered by Knight, and the sinful power Beast himself provided.

  His mouth was dry and bitter.

  “Whoa!” Nick jumped off the truck bed while the others opened the box containing chainsaws and axes.

  Whoa indeed. A droplet of sweat rolled down Beast’s back when his feet touched the ground. It pulsed. Faintly enough, but the rhythmic tremors were there, already penetrating the surrounding area like the roots that would soon be strong enough to crack the world open. Fog hung in the air, not thick enough to make moving around uncomfortable, but its white clouds crept behind the bushes and trees, dispersing the light of the truck.

  If he hadn’t known the thing was only months old, he’d have assumed it’s been growing here for centuries to reach a size so grand. With a girth close to that of their sofa, and branches that stretched wide above the trunk in an attempt to obscure the sky and steal the sunlight from the surrounding flora, it was by far the largest of Baal’s trees. The one Knight always visited for feedings was very much like a regular oak, but this? One could carve a hideout inside that thing.

  Knight stepped next to Beast, and it was unsettling to hear his trembling exhale. “Shit. How did it get this—?”

  “Yeah,” Beast said, wishing he hadn’t rejected the offer of liquor. He reached out to Joker, and as soon as the flask was in his hand, he let whisky burn his tongue in a sequence of gulps.

  Nick rubbed his face, staring at the tree, but trying not to show how impressive he found its size. “What can I do?”

  Vars jumped out of the truck and joined them, scratching his gray beard. “Where do we even start?”

  Joker took the flask from Beast and finished the liquor before grabbing an axe from the box. “At the lowest branch?”

  Nick cleared his throat and spun around, backing away toward the tree. And as idiotic as that was, for a moment Beast feared the immobile behemoth would come to life and eat the boy with a mouth hiding in that ridiculously wide trunk.

  “Look, guys, I know I’m new and all, but I need to know. Are we burying someone? ‘Cause I’m down with anything, but I wanna know.” He sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air. The headlights illuminated him with a bright glow, but it was impossible to tell if his pallor was due to fear or the cool shade of the lamps.

  Jake punched his arm. “You don’t get to ask questions yet! You’re here to do what you’re told, or you’re not going to get that vest.”

  Knight snorted. “That’s starting well. Shall we get the gear off the truck?” he asked Beast, who nodded, wishing to be done with all this as soon as possible.

  “All you need to know, Nick, is that tonight, we will try to cut as many branches off this tree as we can. You don’t ask why, and you don’t tell any outsiders,” Beast said, passing out thick gloves.

  Nick cocked his head. “Huh? Why are we doing it in the middle of the night then if it’s just cutting branches off a tree in the middle of nowhere?”

  Joker smacked the back of his head, and the hit must have been much harder than Jake’s, because Nick stifled a groan. “What did we say? No questions.”

  No matter how much Beast wanted to get on with it, the clouds of vapor coming rapidly out of Nick’s mouth made him wonder if they shouldn’t have invested in hazmat suits. Now that he saw the godawful thing, it was clear they would truly need specialist equipment, even if only to cut this tree down, but the urge to weaken the strange plant became even more pressing.

  Nick put on the gloves as if it were a race, but the others weren’t in a rush, with some of the guys sharing a new flask, which had appeared out of nowhere. Beast could tell it
was about to be a long night, but he decided to let everyone work at their own pace. He went back to the bed of the truck but frowned when he noticed that one of the axes, that had just been there, was missing.

  Nick’s voice was loud enough to penetrate the low voices of the club members. “As many branches as possible? Who cuts most wins?”

  Beast’s chest went tight, and he looked out from behind the vehicle. His blood felt erratic, as if his pulse synchronised with the beat thudding against the soles of his feet from underground. He spotted Nick in the white light the moment the axe hit the base of a branch as thick at his waist. For half a second, Beast was left breathless, as the throbbing under their feat intensified.

  Nothing happened.

  Beast leaned against the side of their vehicle, exhaling slowly, but then Nick ripped the blade out of the wood.

  Red fluid exploded out of the broken bark as if the boy hadn’t buried the axe into a tree but into a living man’s chest, and the moment it sprayed him, white vapor surrounded Nick’s hunched form with a low hiss.

  He screamed before anyone reached him, and Beast couldn’t have run faster despite fear lodging itself in his heart.

  “Get it off me! Get it off me!” Nick wheezed out as if his lungs were about to collapse. When he dropped to the moss, the tree still bled.

  Vars grabbed Nick’s legs and dragged him away from danger, and Beast froze as if flames were once again about to engulf his skin.

  “No one else approach! Pass me water!” Vars yelled, frantically removing Nick’s clothes.

  Beast’s first instinct was to move the boy to the car, but Vars was right. Whatever the substance inside this thing was, it wouldn’t have helped Nick if more of them suffered any damage. Vars at least would regenerate.

  Nick’s screams were getting faint, as if he were drifting off from the pain, but it was a low, rumbly noise that made everyone’s blood freeze. The tree growled like a manticore woken from slumber. Its blood still drizzled down the trunk, resulting in more sour-smelling vapor, but Beast no longer cared and stormed toward Nick, who shook violently, his body arching as if he were in the final stages of a lockjaw infection. His hoodie was already off, and when Beast approached he saw it all—the boy’s features twisting with the pain of the burn, and the acidic sap producing white foam as it ate through purple-red flesh.