In the Arms of the Beast

by K. A. Merikan

  The substance had already chewed through Vars’s gloves, and by the time Jake ran over carrying a large canister of water, flesh was receding from his fingers and showing glimpses of bone underneath.

  “Shit. Oh shit,” Joker muttered at Beast’s side, but there was little any of them could do.

  Knight was already calling Doc, but Nick wouldn’t live to see any medical help if they couldn’t stop the substance from doing further damage. Beast grabbed the canister from Jake’s hands and leaned down to slowly pour the clean water over Nick’s injuries.

  “Everyone stay back,” he commanded, fearing what could happen if any of the droplets sprayed the others, but he’d been the one to push for this in the first place. If anyone deserved to take a hit, it was him. It was his responsibility, and he’d fucked up.

  Nick was still shaking, and his face shone with sweat, but at least the ugly wounds and bubbles forming under skin were cleaned of the foam. The raw flesh left behind looked as if it had been mauled by a grizzly bear that dipped its teeth in tar.

  Beast could barely think by the time he used the remaining water to get the sap off Vars’s burnt hands, Nick’s breathing evened out. The flesh inside the open wound was darkening at an alarming pace until it turned black, but at least the burning no longer progressed.

  The empty container dropped from Beast’s hand, and he helplessly looked between Nick and the tree, which wasn’t even bleeding sap anymore. That was the scope of what they’d achieved at the cost of a prospect’s life-changing injuries—a tiny scratch in the bark.

  “Hell,” he uttered, resting his hands on his hips as he watched his men. He had no fucking idea what they would tell Fox.

  Joker’s face was stone-serious. “The hospital’s not an option.”

  Beast gritted his teeth. “Shut the hell up. We’ll do what we need to help him!”

  Joker had the nerve to roll his eyes, but Beast let it go and ignored him.

  Knight poked Beast’s arm. “Doc will be there in fifteen. Let’s step on it.”

  Vars was breathing hard, and kept clenching his damaged hands again and again. “This isn’t good at all,” he said, as if that much wasn’t obvious already.

  “Jake, help me carry him. There might still be some residue on Vars’s hands,” Beast said. He could have lifted Nick himself, but he didn’t want to risk hurting the boy further.

  The party atmosphere from earlier had dispersed, replaced by the kind of silence that only accompanied serious loss. It reminded Beast of the mood during that first club meeting following King’s death, before everyone had found out what had really been going on behind the scenes. Nick wasn’t dead, but none of them could predict the consequences of this, and while the boy had hot-headedly attacked the branch, Beast hadn’t warned him what they were up against. He couldn’t have without revealing more dangerous truths about the club, but perhaps he should have made Nick beat someone up to prove his loyalty, after all. Anything but this.

  Joker slowly backed the truck away from the tree, but the vehicle gained speed as soon as they reached the dirt road. Beast held Nick still to minimize the constant rattling in the bed of the pickup. No matter how much his body recoiled at the imaginary burn of acid, if whatever was left on Nick’s body hurt Beast, he’d earned it.

  When he looked up, his gaze met Knight’s. Neither knew what to say.

  At the other end of the bed, Jake kneeled next to Vars. The light on top of the driver’s cabin was directed ahead, but its glow was enough to show Jake slicing his arm open and offering Vars his blood to drink.

  Beast had been told what it took for Vars to regenerate, but seeing him latch on to his lover’s forearm with the desperation of a man on the verge of dying from thirst was still disturbing. Beast focused on Nick, constantly checking his pulse or leaning down to listen to his faint, irregular breathing.

  Nick was on the cusp of adulthood—just a boy, no matter how cocky, and now his life could be changed forever. He could still be at risk of dying, falling into a coma, or even being taken to the Other Side, for all they knew. And it was all Beast’s fault.

  Others had expressed their doubts, but he was bullheaded enough to believe that if they simply pushed on with enough force, they could crush any enemy in their path. Nick was the one suffering, he’d been the one to fearlessly lead the charge, but it could have been either of them. At least, whatever splashed him hadn’t touched the face, so he wouldn’t be disfigured the way Beast had been.

  If Nick survived this.

  Beast felt sick when he thought back to the way they’d riled Nick up. The boy had been dying to prove himself. In a situation they knew so little about, they should have let him ask some questions, not teased him. After all, they knew Nick was no undercover cop, they knew his pedigree, and his willingness to be a part of their family. He should have never been made to feel like proving himself was a matter of life and death.

  By the time they parked in front of the clubhouse, Doc was already there, but so were Rev, Fox, and Laurent. For the briefest moment, Beast wanted to excuse himself with some bullshit and leave the explaining to his VP, but he couldn’t do that. Nick was hurt on his watch, and he deserved all the abuse hurled his way.

  He jumped off the truck and stopped Fox from going any farther with a gentle push to his chest. His vision narrowed to his friend’s face, to the eyes widening in panic.

  “Nick had an accident,” he said softly, his voice sounding hollow and creating an echo in his head.

  “Accident? What— You were supposed to cut fucking branches. How did he—?” Fox’s words died as he looked past Beast, to see his teenage son carried off the vehicle by Joker and Knight. Nick was still unconscious, and the wound that consumed the right part of his chest and neck? It was black as if it had been used for a fire pit.

  He called out to Nick and pushed past Beast with a roar. The following minutes were a blur. The doc had Nick taken to one of the guest rooms, and then insisted that everyone else stay outside, which once more left Beast facing his own guilt and Fox.

  “What am I gonna tell Violet? He’s still her little boy. She will skin me alive!” Fox yelled, pushing at Beast, and with Nick hurt, Beast felt too guilty to fight back.

  “Nick wanted to go,” Jake mumbled, putting his hands into his pockets, his gaze blank.

  Beast swallowed. “I’m sorry this happened. There wasn’t anything we could do.”

  Fox hissed and swung his arm so abruptly it knocked a bottle off a side table and sent it crashing to the floor. “I knew it. I told you this was a bad idea, but you pushed, and I felt I had to agree so that nobody could accuse me of protecting Nick. It’s your fault!”

  Beast didn’t know how to deflect those accusations, because they were true.

  Laurent had been quiet, and stayed on the edges of Beast’s peripheral vision since they’d come back, but now he stepped forward, facing a much taller Fox. “No one could have predicted this. There is risk involved in anything that concerns Baal and the Other Side.”

  “You weren’t there!” Fox roared with so much aggression Beast was ready to step in between them, but Laurent remained still.

  “And you weren’t either. Why would you assume Beast endangered Nick recklessly? We all make choices and have to live with them. As a seventeen-year-old man, Nick is more than capable of handling himself.”

  Beast cleared his throat. Laurent’s support was like an invitation to step out of the shadows. “Laurent is right. We were still preparing for action when Nick decided to cut the tree on his own. We didn’t have time to stop him. I’m not saying he’s guilty for trying to make a good impression on his first job, but it was an accident, brother.”

  Knight stepped closer and stood on Laurent’s other side. “It’s like he says. He will get through this, but you can’t see him as a kid anymore. He’s on his way to being one of us, and we all take risks every day. You know that as well as me.”

  Fox hissed and spun around, cradling his head in
both hands. “She didn’t want him to join. Maybe we should have waited until he was eighteen.”

  Vars spoke from his spot on the floor. His face had a gray sheen, and the dark circles under his eyes made him appear not only exhausted but years older. “There’s no point of these what-if’s. What’s done is done.”

  That fueled Fox’s fire once more. “Says the guy who will regenerate! We don’t even know what this tree shit does!”

  At least now Fox’s attention was focused on someone else than Beast. Laurent stole that second to grab Beast’s hand and mouth: “are you okay?” The worry in his eyes was so touching Beast squeezed his hand back and nodded. He’d anticipated an ‘I told you so’. The support he’d gotten in front of others when he knew Laurent hadn’t approved of this trip in the first place soothed him more than a whole bottle of whisky could have. Even if there still was a tough conversation ahead, in this moment of sadness Laurent was on his side.

  When the door opened, all the arguments ceased at once.

  “How is he?” Fox asked, going rigid as if he were close to tackling Doc in order to get past him.

  Doc cleaned his forehead with a tissue. He looked so normal nobody would have guessed he provided after-hours services to the local biker gang. Beast bet neither of his grandchildren knew what kind of activity paid for their Christmas gifts.

  “He’s… he seems all right for now, which is surprising considering this wound looks like some kind of chemical burn,” Doc said, resting his hands on his hips. “Do I want to know what happened to him?”

  Beast shook his head. “Is he gonna recover?”

  Doc scowled. “I don’t want to make any promises, but his blood pressure, pulse, and reflexes are normal. He woke up soon after I locked you out. I hooked him up to an IV, but my advice is bed rest, painkillers, and hydration. I’ll come back tomorrow after I’m done at the practice.”

  "I'm fine," Nick rasped, and that was all Fox needed to charge inside.

  Beast nodded at Doc and patted his shoulder before entering the room.

  Nick tried to rise but fell right back, panting.

  “Don’t move, for fuck’s sake!” Fox hissed, but grabbed Nick’s hand. “What did I tell you? Think before acting!”

  Beast rubbed his face to look away from the scorched flesh for just a second. Nick’s skin reminded Beast of Baal’s flaky black body, only instead of glowing fire from between cracks, Nick’s flesh seeped blood.

  Would he be facing Fox’s dilemma one day? Wanting Marcel to grow up and be his own man, yet desperately trying to protect him at the same time?

  “It doesn’t even hurt that much,” Nick boasted, even though his panting and the sheen on his face told a different story. “But what the fuck? What is that tree?”

  Jake nudged Beast’s shoulder and discreetly passed him the cut they’d had ready for Nick.

  “You’ll find out in due time. Now get some rest. It’s an order from your prez,” Beast said, showing Nick the back of his new cut, with the prospect patch already in place. “You’re officially in.”

  Knight ruffled Nick’s hair. “You did good.”

  Nick’s smile was so wide it had no place on the face of a man whose neck and arm were scorched black, and the sight of it pushed a speck of dust into Beast’s eye. Here was a young man who lived for the club already and would prove himself worthy.

  Nick gasped, reaching out for the cut, and Beast didn’t even have the heart to tease him about it. “I thought I fucked up.”

  Beast sighed. “Wait for explicit orders next time. You’re too reckless, but you’ll learn. I’ll make sure of that,” he said, and gently squeezed Nick’s healthy arm.

  Fox still sent Beast a grim stare that scorched like the sap of the demonic tree, so after a few more exchanges, Beast left the room. Laurent stood outside, but Beast shook his head.

  “I’ll be back soon. I need to clear my head.”

  Laurent gave his hand a kiss, but let go without a word. They would need to talk, but right now Beast wanted to be alone with this failure. For no one to see him or bother him. Not even Baal.

  So as soon as he escaped the clutches of responsibility, he rushed for the garages, got on his Harley, and drove off. Without a purpose, without a place to go to, he could focus on the road itself, not on getting from A to B.

  Thoughts got trapped under his helmet, but those he wouldn’t be able to escape, even in his sleep. Nick’s injury wasn’t technically his fault, but he’d made the call and pushed them all to failure.

  Chapter 14 - Laurent

  Within the span of the following two weeks, the egg doubled in size and was getting increasingly heavy. Since Laurent refused to let it out of his sight, Beast insisted they get a stroller, and Laurent was touched by how much Beast worried about him carrying too much weight on his back all the time.

  It sometimes felt like it had been a lifetime since Laurent arrived in 2017, not a year. So much had changed since, and he couldn’t believe how clueless he’d been about all the aspects of modernity. And now? Here he was, with a smart phone in his pocket, a pair of corrective glasses on his nose, sitting in a mechanical vehicle with his husband, and a child on the way. Maybe he didn’t have a driver’s licence just yet, but he did know how to drive a car, if push came to shove. For now, he left the steering wheel to Beast, especially that he’d been a more careful driver since Marcel arrived in their lives.

  “Maybe we should additionally secure it with bubble wrap. Just in case,” Beast said.

  Laurent smiled. “Oh yes! I love bubble wrap. Wonder if Marcel will take after me and enjoy popping it. Just imagine what kind of mischief he will be getting up to with a father like you.”

  Beast’s lips quirked, but his gaze briefly drifted to the rearview mirror to check on Marcel in the backseat. “I’m starting to wonder what he’s gonna look like when he hatches. I mean, the egg’s already larger than a newborn.”

  Laurent looked back as well. “Hm. Maybe there are a lot of fluids in there. We can’t tell. Wait, Beast. What if we pull over and you hold it against the sun? Do you think we could see through the shell?”

  Beast snorted. “No. Of course not. I was just wondering if the child we get will really be… you know, a baby.”

  It took Laurent a couple of heartbeats to understand Beast’s meaning. “Surely it will. We’re buying items for a newborn. I will have a word with Magpie if he is born older than that.”

  Beast shook his head. “As if that’s going to change anything. But on the upside we wouldn’t have to endure sleepless nights if he came out as a toddler.”

  Laurent couldn’t believe his ears. “Would he be born with the body of a two-year old yet the mind of a baby? No, no. I will not accept that.”

  “Maybe you can tell that to Mr. Magpie later. I heard he finally sent us something for the trees. We should succeed with the right equipment.”

  Nick was recovering unnaturally fast, but Laurent still cringed at the memory of his blackened skin, and was close to going mad with worry every time he imagined Beast in his place. His husband had already been through so much and didn’t deserve further pain, even though he’d been too hotheaded in his actions.

  “Will Magpie take care of the trees for us?”

  Beast swallowed, his gaze darting briefly to a hill on the side of the road, and Laurent understood. They were passing one of those monstrous spawns of the devil, and he wished he could have Marcel in his arms until it was all over.

  “I hope so, because two weeks ago I fucked up hard. It can’t happen again,” Beast said once they drove into a stretch of woodland that would lead them to the clubhouse.

  “Is Fox speaking to you yet?”

  Beast sighed. “Only if he has to, but Nick will be fine soon. I hope we can all bury the hatchet, because we have more pressing issues to worry about.” He was silent for a couple of moments, but then his hand found Laurent’s and squeezed it. “I think once all this is over, we should go somewhere together. Relax in p
eace and quiet. I want you to myself, with no distractions.”

  Laurent’s heart melted when he looked at his husband. No one would have believed the amount of tenderness hidden under the twisted scars and tattoos placed there to obscure his vulnerability. “Aw. Beast… Remember our first camping trip?”

  Beast’s grin was so wide that for once he seemed carefree, which was a state Laurent barely saw him in these days. “Of course. Do you want to do that? Spend a week under the sky? I could teach you how to fish.”

  Laurent relaxed into the seat when he thought back to their first wonderful time alone. For once, he’d been free of any obligation, with the most wonderful man at his side and no one to disturb their happiness. He remembered waking up to the tent partially open and seeing Beast’s naked form dive into the serene waters of a lake while rays of sunlight played with the canvas of his patterned skin.

  “Do not misunderstand me, I love what the modern world has to offer, but there’s something about being in nature, away from all this hustle and bustle that calms me down. It’s so very familiar. If it wasn’t for the camping equipment, I could have forgotten what year it was when I sat by the campfire with you.”

  “Have you camped in your own time? Maybe you could show me how it was done back then? We could go really low-tech,” Beast said, sliding his free hand up Laurent’s arm to rest it on his nape.

  Laurent let out a laugh. “I wasn’t exactly a trapper, my love. But sometimes, when we travelled with Mr. Barnave, we would sleep in our wagon and eat out in the wilderness. But it was nothing as pleasant as enjoying nature for leisure the way I did with you. When my eyes started failing me, being in the outdoors became so dangerous.” He was bitterly reminded of the fact that it was thanks to Baal’s intervention that he now lived in times when his eyes could have been rescued with very little discomfort. But that again brought his mind to Magpie and their child. “Do you think Marcel will enjoy spending time in nature with us? Though I’m afraid that’s a question for years to come. We couldn’t possibly take him away from civilization right after he hatches, could we?”