Allegories of the Tarot (16 page)

“You think I’d tell him about today?” I didn’t have to
fake my sarcastic snort. “He hates Wade already. This would be all he’d need
to—”

“You don’t need to say more.” King held up his hand. You’re
loyal to Mojo Rider, and he says you’re good, and I trust him with my life.”

His locked onto mine, pinning me where I stood. My upper
lip prickled as sweat broke out on it. King smiled, and his eyes drifted lazily
over me, more to let me know he owned me for the day than out of attraction.
“Unless you double cross me, you ain’t got
nothing
to
fear.”

Corman, still on his call, turned a slow circle in the
road, looking all around with a disbelieving expression on his face. A crack of
gunfire echoed through the woods, and Corman dove off the road, stuffing his
phone into his pocket. We all ducked behind the scant cover of the motorcycles.
All of us, except for Wade.
He slipped a sawed-off
shotgun from one of the fiberglass saddlebags on his cycle. I cringed at the
expression in his eyes.
Amusement.
Mischief.
He put one finger to his lips and winked at me. Then, he slipped into the
woods, walking in a half crouch.

I leaned against the motorcycle, wondering if he’d come
back. Our young friendship gave me no indication of the odds. If he didn’t come
back, I’d be stuck with these men. I glanced around me at the dirty faces.
Muscles clenched, I sank against the motorcycle and tried to think of what to
do next. No plan magically presented itself to me. I wondered if a swan dive
into Weeping Woman Creek would break my neck.

By the time I saw Wade dart through the deepening
shadows,
my shoulders were tight enough to throb. I pushed myself
up and strode over to where he met King and Corman. They scowled at me, and I
hunched my shoulders and crossed my arms over my chest but did not retreat. I
caught the last of Corman’s sentence.

“From what Toad says, their house is right through them
woods.”

“Then, they’re the skinny-assed tweakers playing with
guns.” Wade’s eyes sparkled. He was enjoying this. No matter how sorry he was
to involve me, he loved the risk. “They don’t even know we’re here.”

“So that’s the murderers shooting?” Between the stress
and the casual acceptance of the day’s surreal events, I was fed up. Corman and
King turned to sneer at me. I
sneered
right back.
“Don’t look at me that way. This is crazy. How can you act like this is
normal?”

“It ain’t so crazy.” King put his hand on Corman’s arm.
“Ashley’s been trying to get away from us. We told her to go, but she couldn’t
take Justice. She must’ve planned this trip so her brother and his tweaker
friends could ambush them.”

“Only thing, she didn’t realize her tweaker brother done
lost his grip on reality.” Corman said. “Smokes most of what he cooks.” He gave
me a grin just like his father’s. Fear chased away my righteous indignation,
and I shrank back from him.

“I’m guessing he sold her to his friends. Carpet
sharks’ll do shit like that.” King watched me through half-lidded eyes. “You
know, get desperate and sell
out their own
. But, now,
we gonna make things right and you gonna help.”

“I overheard them talking.” Wade told me. “They got
Justice, and they’re waiting for a baby broker to
come
pick up him and pay for him.”

“So, Miss Peri, you going in to get my
grandson.”
King said. “Nobody here knows you, and you can get Justice
out of there safely.”

“No,” I said. “They have guns. They might decide to
shoot me. Or tie me to a tree and rape me to death.”

The cold-eyed monster who’d peeked out of King’s face
all day took over. He jabbed a finger into my chest, hard, and I resisted the
urge to reach up and rub the sore spot.

“You will do this. Mojo here risked his life to save you
and your granny’s life last year. And you’ll do this for me.” He leaned into my
face, so close his sour, cigarette-tinged breath nearly gagged me. “You hear
me?”

I wanted to fight, to claw at his face,
maybe
even bite him. But any fight I started would end badly.
One glance at Wade’s face, full of dark, primitive anger, told me he was ready
to fight for me if I wanted it. That sealed it. I was stuck.

“I’m going in with you,” Wade said.

“What? No you’re not.” Corman narrowed his eyes at Wade.
“Let her go alone.”

“Oh, yes I am.” Wade glared at Corman. “You’re the one
who wanted to bring her into this. I will do everything I can to keep her safe.
And I’ll beat you senseless if you try to stop me.”

When the sky started to darken, we met the chaser van on
a side road. Four club members, including Corman and King, crouched in the back
amidst an arsenal. Wade rode shotgun, and Corman called out directions as I
drove.

The indigo sky and blazing sunset hung over us. Was it
the last beautiful thing I’d see? I didn’t fear death or dying, but I’d never
told my boyfriend “I love you” even though I did, and my grandmother didn’t
need the shock of me dying. If I left the earth this night, it would be with a
heart full of regret over missed opportunities.

I found the turnoff easily enough and drove up to a
turn-of-the-century rock house. A curtain twitched in the window, and nervous
bile stung my throat.
Showtime.

“All right,” King said. “Y’all go on up, tell him you’re
there for the kid.”

“Once he goes to get Justice, we’ll exit the van,”
Corman said. “So be sure to leave the door partially open.”

“Get the kid back to the van and wait for us,” King
said. “I’ll signal if we want you to just go on and meet us back where we left
the others. Understand?”

Wade and I both said we did and glanced at each other.
The fear had left Wade’s face. In its place was the same wild mischief I saw
when we heard the gunshots on the road. I hoped he knew how to keep us from
getting killed.
Because I sure as hell didn’t.
I was
so far out of my
element,
I might as well have been in
a foreign country.

We got out of the van, both of us leaving our doors half
open, and approached the house. The horrific situation had a dreamlike quality.
As we crossed the plank porch, I reminded myself this was really happening. I
knocked while Wade took a position where he couldn’t be seen from the peephole.

A dude so skinny every rib plus his sternum was visible
answered the door. He picked at a nasty scab on his chest and seemed to vibrate
in place. When he realized I was female, his face slipped into a nasty leer.
Wade stepped forward. Then, he turned sullen. “Whatchu want?”

“I’m here for the kid.” I pulled the wad of cash King
gave me from the pocket of my jeans and held it where the man could see it. His
eyes widened, and he licked his lips. Damn, that was easy.

He needed some gank so he could think straight. He’d
promise me anything to get it. I suppressed an eye roll. I had enough of this
shit with my ex-husband to last a lifetime. My impatience took over.

“ Get
the kid,” I said. He
reached for the money, and I shook my head. A guy who’d let his sister be
killed would sell his nephew as many times as he could.

The guy walked away without another word. Footsteps
crunched on the ground behind us, and a warm body pressed against my back.

“What’d he say?” Corman’s hot breath on my ear made me
want to jerk away, but I didn’t dare. The odor of gun oil on whatever he
carried reminded me why I’d do as told.

“He’s getting Justice.” My heart thudded so hard I
thought I’d pass out.

“Fucker,” King snorted from somewhere behind me. “Double
crossing bastard.”

Anticipation spurred the adrenaline until I shook.
Behind me, Corman inhaled deeply. I stood rooted to the spot, too freaked out
to do anything else. After an eternity full of scary thoughts, the door swung
open again. The guy stood before us holding a sleepy-eyed toddler. The kid’s
eyes widened at the sight of his grandfather and uncle, and he grinned and held
out his arms, saying something I couldn’t understand in baby talk.

“Take him.” King shoved me toward the kid, and I did as
he said, ignoring the angry shrieks and wiggling you’d expect from a scared kid
being grabbed by a stranger.

Wade grabbed my arm and yanked me off the porch. Justice
made a high-pitched sound I couldn’t believe came from a human being. He kicked
me so hard it was all I could do to hang on. I wondered if I really wanted kids
after all.

Behind me, the tweaker babbled explanations, his words
running together. I tried not to listen. The first gunshot echoed through the
night air, and his body thudded to the floor. I forced myself to keep my eyes
forward.

“Can you drive? I’m shaking too hard.” I shifted Justice
higher on my hip. His bucking had nearly dislodged him. All I could manage was
getting one foot in front of the other as gunfire and screams played like the
soundtrack of a made-for-TV war flick behind us.

“Yep.
Just get in the passenger
side.” Wade’s calm voice raked over my raw nerves, stinging like acid. I wanted
him to freak out, too, but he wasn’t going to. No telling what he saw or did in
Iraq.

Sitting in the van, Justice’s wails straining my
eardrums, I had no choice but to look at the house. Flames now flickered behind
the windows, and dark figures moved through the flames. Black smoke billowed
out the open front door. Just as the flames grew so bright I thought King and
Corman had fallen prey to their own mess, four silhouettes came from around the
side of the house, carrying armloads of packages. Wade and I both stared
straight ahead as they got into the van.

“Grampy! Did you hear the fireworks?” Justice scrambled
back to his grandfather, his fit forgotten. Without his frightened wails, the
roar of the fire didn’t sound so bad.

“Go,” Corman yelled as flames began to wink through the
house’s roof. Wade drove away, never speeding or showing nervousness, even when
a fire truck sped toward us, its lights flashing.

The atmosphere at the meet-up point was one of
victorious excitement. Sirens still wailed in the not so far distance. Nobody
but me seemed to notice or care.

The club invited Wade and I to join them at an RV park
owned by friends in Blanco County for a party. Wade thanked them but said he
needed to get me back home to my boyfriend.

“That’s right,” Corman said. “You gonna tell Mr. Cop
what you saw tonight?”

“What for?”
Fatigue had eaten
through my fear. I no longer cared what this outlaw did or said to me. I just
wanted sleep. “I’d be in just as deep of shit as you guys.”

Everybody in earshot howled as though I’d told the
funniest joke in the world. Corman never cracked a smile.

“You just keep remembering that.” He leveled his cold
eyes at me, and chill bumps raced over my skin. King clapped Corman on the back
hard enough to set him off balance.

“Get over yourself, boy. She’s a friend of the club now…our
pet freak, just like Mojo Rider there.” King stepped forward and took my hand
again. This time he kissed it, rolling his eyes up to mine and slipped me a
pornographic wink. “You have a good ride home.” To Wade, he said, “Thanks for
making this right.”

Pet freak?
What did that mean?
I glanced at Wade and took note of the way he cast his gaze down. Laughing,
Corman and King walked away from us. Wade visibly relaxed, moving his hand away
from his hip pocket. “Let’s go home.”

We locked eyes, and I knew I wouldn’t ask about the
freak remark. There was a time and a place for everything. It would come up
eventually. I took one last look at the toddler sitting on someone’s
motorcycle. Dressed in a tiny leather jacket and cap, he laughed and clapped,
completely comfortable in this environment.

I wondered what would become of the little boy named
Justice. He had no choice but to grow up one of the Six Gun Revolutionaries.
They’d teach him their customs and rituals, how they evened scores. One day,
he’d be a king of this world, of these people. I doubted he’d handle things
much differently than his uncle and grandfather.

“Do you think that kid got justice today?” I walked with
Wade to his motorcycle. I put my hand on his shoulder and swung my leg over the
bike.

“I think justice is different things to different
people,” Wade said. “Sometimes all you can say
is
you
lived to meet another dawn.”

This day taught me more about Wade than a million
conversations could have. Despite the discomfort and danger of this lifestyle,
I understood the draw.

It was right there in front of me. The road stretching
out before us promised endless possibility. It held invitations of adventure
and romance, the perfume of oil, gasoline, and leather its own kind of
aphrodisiac. Out here with the wind in my face and the thrum of power between
my legs, justice was defined by the moment. Worries about incarceration and
death mattered in another world. And that’s why I let the subject drop and
closed my eyes and let the road roll underneath the tires.

***

Catie Rhodes grew up in the piney woods of East Texas
where there wasn’t much to do other than daydream and make up stories. From
that dark and shadowy world come both her Peri Jean Mace Paranormal Mysteries
and her horror short stories.

Catie is that kid your mother warned you about. She
lies. She cusses. She never washes her hands after petting the dog. And she
still wears checkered Vans.

She lives with her husband and little dog in the
overcrowded and overly noisy Houston, Texas suburbs.

Find out more about her at
catierhodes.com
.

***

THE HANGED MAN

Path of Sacrifice

By Matthew Bryan

Subdued light glinted off the short black horns rising from the
forehead of the demon. He sat, almost lost in the tall-backed, overstuffed arm
chair, waiting. Calm, even features gave no evidence of the turmoil roiling
behind his green-slitted eyes. He barely twitched at the quiet knock on his
chamber door.

He glanced toward the unwanted intrusion then looked over the
room. Everything was as it should
be,
no evidence of
any forbidden contraband visible.
Who
could be at my door this late?
He rose slowly, careful to not make a sound
as he slipped into a crouch toward the locked and barred door. He listened for
a moment, wishing he had put surveillance cameras in the hall when he had done
the rest of his chambers. It was a minor regret on a long list and far from the
greatest, so with a shrug he straightened up and opened the door.

“Quick,” the figure said, slipping past Mkai.

He quickly looked up and down the corridor before quietly closing
the door, locking and barring it again out of habit. He turned to his late
night visitor, allowing a tired smile to form on his lips.

“What is it Fsol?” he said, “And why are you creeping around?”

“You wouldn’t believe what I just found out. I came straight here,
as quickly as I could.” Fsol said, dropping onto the couch. “You’ll understand
why when I tell you what I learned.”

“That sounds ominous. Have you been snooping around where you
shouldn’t again?” Mkai said, resuming his seat. “You know it has become far
more dangerous now with our new queen.”

“Old habits and all that.
I think you’ll
agree that it was worth it,” Fsol said, leaning forward. “I found out why Kalia
has ordered us to Earth.
Why the urgency to corrupt and
convert as many humans as we can.”

He licked his lips, the forked tip appearing for a flash before
disappearing behind jagged fangs. Sweat beaded on scaled skin as Fsol fidgeted
in his seat before sliding to the edge to lean even closer to Mkai.

“She is planning war.
War with Heaven.
She
is determined to succeed where Samael failed.”

Mkai’s heart thudded hard in his chest as he fell back in his
chair.

“War with Heaven?
Is she insane?”
he said, instinct keeping his voice low as he spoke words of treason. “Samael
didn’t even war directly and look at the result. Even those, like us, who didn’t
side directly with
him
were thrown from His Grace. What
does she hope to accomplish?”

“That is what sent me running here old friend.” Fsol said,
excitement stealing over his face. “She has a plan, and I think it might work.”

Samael had a plan
as well.

“What’s her plan? How does she expect to succeed where Samael
failed so drastically?”

“The souls.
She will build an army of the Damned and with
them, invade Heaven. She will tear down the Gates of Heaven and bring us unto
His Light, with the souls of His favorites to lead the way.”

Silence crept across the room as Mkai worked through the news. It
was audacious, but Mkai felt in his bones this plan of Kalia’s would indeed
succeed.
At least in getting us into His
presence, but what’s to stop Him from simply destroying us?
It was a
sobering thought.
His favorites may very
well lead us into Heaven, but could also lead us to oblivion.

“I can see how it may work” he said, choosing his words carefully,
“But I don’t think it will be as easy as that.”

“There is more to her plan but I didn’t catch it,” Fsol said. “They
moved out of range.”

“They?
Who was with her?” Mkai asked. “Where were
they?”

“Her throne room.
I found an old
abandoned passage and it led to a tiny room above her throne. That’s where I
heard everything. And who else but Kalia’s shadow, Lilith.”