A Demon's Song

by E. C. Land

  My father doesn’t say anything. No that wasn’t his style when it came to my punishments. He preferred to just do what he felt like.

  “I brought you something I know you’ll remember all too well.” This is the only thing my father states moving around my shaking form, dropping a sack directly next to me.

  At the sight of that sack, I knew what he had in mind. Kneeling in front of me, Lawrence pulls the string opening the top, and grins. Standing, he lifts his foot and slams it into my chest sending me to my back. Picking up the sack, he tilts it pouring all the scorpions onto my stomach.

  Screams of terror spill from my lips as the scorpions sting me with telson releasing its venom into my body.

  Oh God.

  My mind goes blank at the sound of my father’s cackling. I blank out the sheer agonizing pain from the scorpions.

  This is the end for me and there’s no stopping what’s to come.

  I don’t know how much time passes, but finally my father kicks the last of the scorpions off my body.

  “Do you want me to get her the antidote?” Lawrence asks, I’m assuming to Terry. I don’t bother thinking of this man as my father anymore. He doesn’t deserve the title, never did in the first place. I should have called him my sperm donor.

  “Yes, if I decide to allow her to live, don’t need her dying from scorpion venom,” Terry snickers, maliciously.

  Why are they doing this to me?

  Couldn’t they just move on with their lives.

  I give a weak cry at the pinch in my neck.

  “My turn now,” Terry announces, his venomous voice coming closer.

  I don’t bother opening my eyes to know when he’s directly next to me. “You would have been a beautiful wife to have on my arm,” he states, a finger running along my cheek. “Now if you survive, you’ll be nothing but a breeder for the cause.”

  With a hand on both arms, Terry yanks me up off the ground, my eyes open slightly to see where he was taking me. I hadn’t noticed the water when we got here. Then again, I didn’t really get a chance to pay much attention. All I knew was we were in the woods somewhere with a cabin close by.

  “Time to drown the sins,” Terry declares, marching directly into the water. I try to sink my feet in to keep him from taking me any further but between my body being weak and his brute strength he dragged me into the water. He pulled me until the water was well over my waist.

  “Please don’t do this,” I beg, tears streaming down my cheeks.

  “No can do, bitch. The sins must be drowned from your body,” he chuckles and before I have a chance to respond or take a breath, my body is pushed under the water.

  Lifting my hands, I try to claw at Terry’s hands as he forces me to stay under the water. My lungs begin to burn as they fill with the murky water, arms become weaker and my mind begins to cloud and everything goes dark as I hear a loud commotion from somewhere not too far away but it’s too late for me.

  I only wish I’d gotten to tell Hunter I loved him and give Huntson one last kiss.

  Light surrounds me, blinding me.

  “Where am I?” I ask aloud.

  “You’re where I like to call the in between,” a girl’s voice answers.

  Turning quickly in the direction of the voice, I find a beautiful girl who looks remarkably like Hunter. Same eyes and even the quirk in her lip as she smiles at me.

  “Who are you?”

  “You know who I am, as I know who you are,” the girl states.

  “Hailey?” This can’t be right, she died a long time ago. That’s what Hunter said.

  “That’s me and I can see you’re confused. I get it, I was the same way when I died, only I didn’t have a choice, you do.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask furrowing my brows as I stare at this little girl.

  “Means my brother is with you right now. He needs you, more than you’ll ever know,” Hailey murmurs, a tear glistening in her eyes.

  “He’s here? I don’t see him. How can he be with me and I not see him?” Confused by all of this, I run a hand through my hair finding it not wet but dry, glancing down I notice I’m not in my wet clothes but a beautiful sundress.

  “I know this is all difficult for you Annslee, but as you’re here with me, he’s with your body fighting to get you to come back to him. Question is do you want to go back to him or go to where you’ll have peace?”

  “There wouldn’t be peace for me without Hunter or Huntson,” I whisper, closing my eyes shaking my head.

  “That’s what I thought. Now you must go back to him, but know the baby you’ve lost, I will take care of and we will be watching over you both, along with my beautiful nephew. Please tell my brother, I’m proud of him for never allowing the demons to take full control of him. Also, that I’m happy he finally found his peace in you. Keep giving that to him. He deserves to feel that for the rest of his life,” Hailey says, smiling sadly.

  “But wait, so much is being said, I don’t understand. My baby? I’m not pregnant.”

  “You would have found out in another week or so, it was still early. The venom of the scorpions was too much for the baby on top of you drowning,” Hailey whispers quietly stepping up to me, taking my hand in hers. “Right now, it’s all confusing, I know, but please trust me when I say everything will be okay.”

  Tears are spilling down my cheeks.

  “Can I go back to Hunter now?” I ask.

  “It’s your choice, Annslee,” she says nodding and vanishes before I can ask her how to get back to Hunter.

  Closing my eyes, I dream up Hunter’s face as I feel my body being jerked and my mind goes blank once again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Hunter

  Hours passed by as we roared down the highway, making our way toward where Annslee was, for the last hour the dot for her phone had not moved. I’d attached my own phone to a cell holder I had gotten a while back and forgotten until earlier. I stopped long enough to set it up. My brothers didn’t say a word to me about me doing this.

  I only hoped Annslee was where her phone was. It fuckin’ sucks relying on a phone to find my woman. I swear to God when I get her back, I’ll never let her out of my sight again.

  Following the directions on my phone, it’s brought us all the way to Lake Gaston, North Carolina.

  Fuckin’ hell, what the hell would they bring her here for?

  Glancing over to Lex, who was riding next to me, he shakes his head. Guess he knew what I was wondering. Sometimes the four of us have a way of knowing what’s in each other’s heads.

  I’d been surprised when Twister and Horse didn’t object when I took the lead as we rode together. So, when he’d come up on my other side and motioned for us to slow, I did as he ordered, pulling to a stop on the side of a backroad. Glancing down at the dot on the screen of my phone it seems so close yet so far away. Putting the kickstand down, I pull my helmet off and climb off the back of my bike.

  “We still have a bit before we get to where Annslee’s phone is but with it being such a wooded area we go through on foot,” Twister orders.

  I get why he chose for us to go the rest of the way on foot, but I still want nothing more than to get to Annslee as fast as I possibly can. Then again, whatever they have planned for my woman could end up being escalated quicker than they plan.

  My gut tightens at the idea of what they could be doing to her right now. I hate the fact I’m not with her. If I could trade with her in a heartbeat I would, to take whatever it was she was going through. I’d seen the scars on her body. The faint marks that scatter her torso. I never asked what they were from, but I can only imagine.

  “Let’s move quickly, we’re not far. There’s a cabin about half a mile away and the lake is pretty much behind it,” Gadget declares, his face bowed as he stares at his phone.

  “Right, let’s get this done. I’m fuckin’ tired of the women in our lives getting fuckin’ hurt by some sick bastard or another,” Burner snarls.

&n
bsp; Nodding, I start moving toward the woods.

  Hang on Annslee, I’m coming for you.

  “You hear that?” I murmur quietly to Tanner as we make our way closer to the cabin. You could see it not far from where we were now.

  “Yeah, I hear it,” Tanner grumbles, taking another step forward.

  It sounded like water splashing, then it dawned on me.

  Fuck, they’re in the lake.

  Screw moving quietly anymore.

  Taking off, I sprint the rest of the way through the woods, my brothers cursing and following me, not bothering to stop me.

  Rounding the cabin, I stop at a man standing there grinning like a loony tune. My gaze goes past him and my heart plummets at what I’m seeing. Pushing myself further, I jump into the water and make my way with a quick pace to the man holding Annslee’s form under water.

  Getting close enough, I jump knocking the fucker back away from my woman. Burner and Hades move past me to the asshole, I can only assume is Terry Nelson or Lawrence Richmond. Either way I didn’t care. Right then I needed to see to Annslee. Scooping her into my arms I immediately know she’s not breathing.

  Fuckin’ hell. This shit can’t be happening. I can’t lose her. Not now. She’s my everything. I hadn’t gotten the chance to tell her exactly how much she meant to me. How I used to dream of finding her without meaning to, in my dreams I always had her in my arms one way or another. My favorite dream of her is stopping to help her when her car breaks down and taking her home where I consume her all night long. I didn’t care in my dreams she was mine and I finally got her in real life. Acknowledge what I felt for her, yet I didn’t get to tell her the complete depths of my feelings for her.

  If there were a God, he needed to answer my prayers for once in my life and not take the woman who holds my heart from me.

  Or our son. He doesn’t deserve to go his entire life without his mother. Not after only having her for less than two years of his life.

  “Come on get her up here,” Dragon demands coming toward me as I carry my woman. Getting to the edge of the lake, Dragon takes her from me in order to lay her in the grass.

  “Brother, watch out for scorpions, I’ve just crushed two with my boot,” Gadget calls out from several feet ahead.

  “Fuck, one of you get down here and make sure none get near us. Hunt, I want you to breathe into Annslee’s mouth as I do the compressions,” Dragon commands.

  “Yeah,” I mutter. The two of us work together to perform CPR on Annslee. “Come on Dimples, come back to me,” I growl, demanding her prone body to do something, anything.

  Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Annslee coughs sucking in a breath, rolling her to her side I hold her as she spits water out of her mouth.

  Thank fuck.

  Fuckin’ hell. Thank you for bringing her back to me.

  “That’s it, Annslee, get it out,” Dragon states from in front of her as I hold her head in my lap stroking her hair with one hand and patting her back with the other. “Fuck, what are all these marks on her stomach?” he rasps furiously.

  “I’m betting scorpion stings,” Lex stated, holding a sack up in one of his hands. “Found this up there near the old man, had a couple more scorpions in it. My guess, he let some loose on Annslee and those bitches are venomous.”

  “Fuck. Call the prospect, get him here. We need to get Annslee to the closest hospital asap,” Dragon commanded as I gently lift Annslee’s head off my lap, stand and lift her into my arms.

  “Cage is already at the cabin, Twister called him in. He’s also getting a U-Haul truck for transport. We’re taking these two assholes back to the shed for later on,” Badger snarls, his gaze zeroed in on my woman. “There’s a blanket in the back of the cage. She needs to be covered.

  Nodding, I don’t speak. My throat is too fuckin’ tight to even try.

  “It’ll be okay, brother. She’ll pull through,” Dragon grumbles from next to me as I carry Annslee up the bank toward the cage waiting for us.

  “Yeah,” I rasp, my voice thick as molasses.

  Let’s just hope we didn’t get her breathing again only to lose her to scorpion venom.

  “Are you sure?” I ask, anguish filling me at the thought of my woman losing our child. Sitting next to her as she sleeps, in the middle of the hospital bed, the doctor stands at the end of the bed and gives me the news.

  Annslee was going to be okay. They wanted to keep her overnight for observation, it sucked though to find out we were pregnant only to find out she’d lost it all the same.

  Swear to God when I get my hands on her father and Terry Nelson, I am going to kill them with my bare fists for doing this to my woman.

  “Yes, sir, I’m sorry, due to the stings, and drowning it was too much for the embryo to sustain.” At mention of the baby being called an embryo, I narrow my eyes on the doctor who needs to show some more compassion and not call our child by something so impersonal.

  “You can leave,” Chaz snarls, stepping in front of me before I snap at the doctor.

  “I’ll be back to check on her later,” the doctor declared apprehensively.

  “No, you won’t, you can send another doctor in here who will show a bit of compassion for my brother and his ol’ lady,” Horse sneers, glaring at the doctor causing him to visibly gulp in fear.

  Nodding, the doctor hightails it out of the hospital room.

  “It’s gonna be okay, Hunt. We’re all here for you all,” Rage says gravelly from across the bed. I’m sure he’s remembering the loss of his own child when he found out Cleo had lost him. They’d decided to give theirs a name in memory.

  “Thanks, mean it. We couldn’t do this without you all,” I rasp, turning my focus back to Annslee.

  She looked so pale against the white sheets. Yet she couldn’t be any more beautiful to me knowing she was alive, and I’d get to spend another day with her.

  “You ready for this, Hunt?” Twister asks, standing outside the shed at the clubhouse. It’s been two days since they discharged Annslee from the hospital. The first day, I refused to leave her side.

  Annslee, Huntson, and I spent the day secluded in mine and my woman’s room where I held them close while we watched movies together. I also held my woman as she told me about her crazy dream, but I believed it to be true what she dreamt. Speaking to my sister and she promised to look after our baby we lost.

  Today being the second day since she came home, Mackenzie, Alexis, and Bethany kicked me out of my own room and locked the door demanding to spend time alone with Annslee. I didn’t fight this knowing the four of them needed this.

  I’d decided to come to the clubhouse and deal with getting rid of the wasted space breathing air in the shed.

  “Yeah, Prez, I’m good to do this. I need to do this,” I say, nodding to Twister.

  “Alright then, let’s get this done, the rest the club is already in there waiting,” Twister grins.

  Grinning myself, I follow him into the shed for the first time and take in the men hanging from grappling hooks in the middle of the shed by their shoulder blades.

  Quirking a brow, I glance around the room.

  “What can I say, I felt it was worthy of them hanging this way,” Thorn shrugs and several others chuckle, I merely grin.

  “By chance do we have any of those scorpions from the lake?” I ask.

  “Yep,” Hades states, stepping forward holding a jar containing two scorpions. “These are the only two I found. Then again I stopped looking after I found these.”

  Sweet.

  Grabbing the jar from Hades, I grin from ear to ear, knowing exactly what I wanted to do with these. “Can someone grab the duct tape?” I ask as I turn to the two men staring at me through narrowed slits.

  “You got it,” Burner mutters.

  “Who wants to help pry their mouths open?”

  “I got the forceps,” Dragon sneers, stepping forward.

  Nodding, we all go about getting into position. I wasn’t wo
rried about the scorpions stinging me. I’d looked up how to pick one up without that happening. Reaching into the jar, I don’t say a word as I pull the first one out and glance into Lawrence’s eyes while Dragon pries the man’s mouth open.

  Once it’s open, I shove the scorpion in his mouth and step aside for Burner to place the tape over his lips. “Gorilla tape, gotta love it,” he snickers.

  Stepping over to Terry, we do the same only this time, after the tape is in place, I hand the jar off, draw my fist back, and slam it into Terry’s stomach.

  “Enjoy hell, motherfucker. For trying to take my woman away from me I hope you die a slow death hanging like a deer ready to be skinned. Let the venom take affect and know this is the end. For you and your minion next to you. Know Annslee won in the end and will go on being happy,” I snarl.

  Turning away from the two men, I’m met by each and every member of the Devil’s Riot including Chaz, Tanner, and Lex.

  Who knew when we were growing up this would become our lives? As much as I don’t want to admit it, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

  Demons Among Us will continue but we’ll be doing it as part of a large family. One who listens to a demon’s song.

  Epilogue

  Annslee

  Two years later

  Holding onto Huntson’s hand, I step out onto the back patio with a smile larger than ever at the sight in front of me. The yard is decorated with red roses scattered, showing me the path to take me to the man of my dreams.

  See today’s my wedding day and I’m officially becoming Hunter’s in every way possible.

  In attendance we have all of our family from the Satan’s Keepers, to all of the Devil’s Riot MC, even Dean, his wife, Mitch, and Kit-Kat. I finally got what I always wanted two years ago and I couldn’t be happier.

  Family.