Deep Redemption (Hades Hangmen Book 4) (27 page)

Phebe reached for my arm. “No one is gathered there at present. The congregation are loading guns into vehicles and are preparing everything for the attack, on the farthest side of the commune.”

I felt a flicker of hope. “Stay away, do you hear me? Wait here. Don’t come to the plain. The Hangmen will be coming through this way. They were coming for the guards and Judah. Take off your headdress and show them who you are. Ky, Lilah’s husband, is coming. He knows who you are, what you look like. They will protect you.”

Phebe’s eyes closed with relief. “Thank you,” she whispered.

I moved to walk away. Phebe began talking to the child, soothing her. I turned around. “Phebe?” Phebe looked at me. “Leave her in there and tell her to be quiet. No matter what, tell her to be silent. If something happens . . . ” I let that hang in the air.

“To me,” she finished.

“I will return for her. Or Sister Ruth will. I’ll make sure she is freed. Somehow. I promise.”

Phebe nodded, and as she glanced down at the little girl in the cell, I saw the love she had for her, the affection. I also knew she was trying to save her in place of Lilah. She was saving this child, almost the mirror image of the one she, in her eyes, had failed.

“What’s her name?” I found myself asking.

A smile stretched on Phebe’s face. “Grace,” Phebe said, reverence in her tone. “Her name is Grace.”

“I’ll be back for you and Grace. But try to get to Ky first. If we’re lucky, you’ll be back with your sister by tonight. As will Grace.”

With that, I raced up the hill, staying tucked into the line of trees. When the Great Plain came into sight, I saw that Phebe had been right. It was deserted. The public cells were on the far side. Checking no one was around, I darted over the manicured grass. I didn’t have time to circle the perimeter first. Too much time had already been wasted.

I ran as fast as I could, my chest blowing out as I pushed myself to the limit until I arrived at the cells. My stomach fell when I saw my friends sitting inside.

“Cain . . . ” Sister Ruth’s head rolled to face in my direction. She was badly beaten and was struggling to move. Something about seeing this sweet woman in this much pain tore a fucking lethal amount rage from me.

“Ruth,” I whispered back.

Sister Ruth tried to smile, but her lips were too broken.

Solomon shuffled painfully to the steel bars. He was black and blue. “We failed, Cain. Samson and I managed to cut the fence while the ceremony was happening, but this morning, Judah’s guards came for you and caught us. We had no choice but to own up. I showed them the hole in the fence you used yesterday, but kept the one you used today a secret.” He dropped his head. “I am so sorry. I failed you. I came here for one reason, and I failed.”

“No,” I argued. “You didn’t. I got out. Bella is safe and the Hangmen are coming. I’m just so fucking sorry y’all got hurt.”

“You got her out. That is all that matters,” Stephen said and gave a deep sigh of relief.

I nodded my head. “But we need to get you out. I need help getting the innocent out. We’ll need to stage a distraction or something, smoke out the guards. When the Hangmen come in . . . they’re coming to kill.”

Sister Ruth’s face paled. I searched around the cell for a key . . . for something to help me break the lock. “I need a key,” I said hurriedly.

“In the guard’s house,” Solomon said and pointed to a small hut hidden in the trees.

“I’ll be back.” I stood to move toward the hut . . . and I knew I’d fucked up. I felt the cold steel of a gun barrel press against my temple.

Whoever held the gun to my head moved in front of me—Brother Luke. Fucking Brother Luke.

I bared my teeth as I stared the fucker down. Then I felt another gun press into my back . . . and another press into my ribs.

“Looks like you are surrounded,” Brother Luke said. He tensed, and I knew who was coming.

Not giving a shit about the guns, I turned. Judah was pounding toward us, vicious eyes zeroed on me. I thought I had seen my brother pissed before, but I realized that he could actually go up another gear, or two. I had never seen Judah this angry.

Judah walked straight up to me and slammed his fist across my face. My head tipped back a fraction, but Judah was shit in a fight. There was no strength behind the punch.

“You are a traitor!” He ran his gaze over my leathers. “Here you are, once again dressed in the devil’s men’s attire.” He stepped closer. “You took our only chance at salvation from me. You are as much a devil’s whore as she is . . . as all of them!”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I laughed right in Judah’s red face. But I quickly dropped my humor, and spat, “It’s all fucking false! All of it was created so our uncle could fuck kids, brother! There was no pilgrimage to Israel! There was no revelation given within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre! There is no Order, no quest for salvation . . . in fact, I’m pretty fucking sure that with everything we’ve done, we’ve all got a fucking one-way ticket to hell!”

Judah’s eyes widened. “You lie,” he snarled, spitting as his frustration poured from his tense lips. “You carry the serpent’s tongue! You are weak and have been possessed!”

“Wake up!” I roared. Judah stepped back. “Wake the fuck up! You ain’t no prophet! And we know you haven’t received one damn revelation from God, you lying sack of shit!” Judah’s face paled, and I felt the guards tense around me. They stared at Judah with worried frowns.

“You’re a joke, brother.” I went on. “We all are. And we all deserve to rot in hell for eternity for what we’ve done! We deserve to die for dragging innocent people down with us!” I sucked in a sharp breath. “They are coming, Judah. The Hangmen will be here in less than two hours and they will kill us all . . . all of us that run this sick fucking place of hell! We need to get the innocent out now. If there’s one thing we can do to try and rectify what we’ve done, it’s spare the innocent lives and finally set them free. They don’t deserve this! By meeting the Hangmen in a war, you’re only sealing their fates. They’ll die . . . they will all be slaughtered like pigs!”

Judah practically shook with anger, but I could see his brain was working overtime. I just wasn’t sure what the fuck he was thinking. Judah stepped back, then back again, and said, “You are right about one thing. And so wrong about another.”

A strange calmness suddenly came over my twin. That scared me more than his anger. Judah was never calm. He was reactive, explosive. This wasn’t fucking right. The way he was acting wasn’t fucking right!

“Judah,” I said coldly, but Brother Luke and the other guards moved their guns closer to my body.

Judah held up his hands, his eyes crazed. “You
are
wrong. I
am
the prophet! I feel it in my veins. I can feel God within me! I am the truth, the way and the light! The messiah of this time!” I closed my eyes in exasperation. Because I knew Judah truly believed that.

He was too far gone. His delusion was too strong to make him see sense.

“But you were also
so
right.” My eyes snapped open at his dark tone. Judah clicked his fingers at his guards and pointed to the cell.

“NO,” I shouted, trying to fight off the guards. But the blunt end of a gun slammed into my temple, causing me to see stars. Another swiped me across the face, and one in the ribs. I swung out my arms, trying to fight free. But before I knew it, the cell door was opened and I was pushed inside. I scrambled on my knees and slammed my shoulder into the steel bars; they didn’t budge.

“Judah!” I screamed, but my brother just stood there, watching me with a haunting, calm stare. “
JUDAH!
”

He stepped forward and met my eyes. “You were right about our people’s fates being sealed, brother. God told me, many weeks ago, what to do if the devil’s men prevailed. I
always
had another plan. God spoke to me, and I did as he told me. I prepared us well, just in case. The Lord would never let me—his shining light—
ever
fail. And now the moment has arrived.”

I froze, energy draining from me as he began to walk away. “What do you mean by that? What have you got prepared?” I asked to his retreating back, panic lacing my words. His guards followed. “Judah! What do you fucking mean by that?”

But Judah and the guards simply walked away. I sat back on the hard floor, looking at my friends. “What is he doing? What the fuck is he doing? The Hangmen will be here soon. They’ll open fire. They’ll kill everyone.”

My friends said nothing; they were as clueless as I. But as minutes passed in silence, I could a feel a shift in the air. An ominous feeling built and built in my stomach until it became a tidal wave of dread. I couldn’t get Judah’s too-calm eyes from my head. I had never seen that from him before. Something had snapped in him.

He was going to do something terrible . . . I just knew it.

The crackling sounds of the speakers coming to life echoed around the empty plain. Judah’s voice came powering through, and my heart dropped to the floor. “People of The Order! Drop what you are doing and gather in the Great Plain. Move quickly! Gather all the children; send word to your friends. I repeat, all are to gather in the Great Plain. I have received a new revelation from the Lord. And we must hurry, our very salvation depends on it!” Tinny prayer music began drifting from the speakers.

In seconds, people began filtering into the grassy field. They were on the other side of the land from us. I tried to shout, to get their attention, but my voice could not be heard over the music. My hand gripped onto the bars as I watched the guards and the elders of the commune approach the plain, dragging carts in their wake. My eyes narrowed. The carts were loaded with large barrels.

Stephen, Ruth, Solomon and Samson joined me at the gates. “What the hell are they?” I asked, as more carts were wheeled in. More barrels, then boxes of something that I couldn’t see.

“I have no idea,” Stephen said. “They look like barrels of wine.”

“He is holding a communion?” Samson asked. “He is breaking bread and wine?”

I shook my head. I had no idea why he would hold a communion with the Hangmen attack so close.

Dozens upon dozens of people began to fill the vast space. The guards swarmed around them like vultures, shouting at them to sit down. Children began crying; fear, like a perfect storm, swept among the masses. The guards aimed their guns at the people who showed too much panic or questioned what was happening.

I didn’t know how much time passed. It felt like only minutes before the entire commune was sitting on the grass before us. The heat was stifling. Babies cried and children wailed. The adults were praying in earnest, rocking back and forth, as the guards, dressed all in black, fired warning shots into the air. The fear was palpable . . . and all I could do was sit and watch.

Judah walked to the platform that was permanently in the field. He held a microphone in his hand. As before, a creepy stillness fell over him . . . then he began to preach . . .

“People of The Order,” Judah began. He held a hand up in the air, and like they always did, the people fell silent. It was eerie to watch as they all stared at him, hanging on his every word. Their gazes were fixed upon him . . . and I saw it. I saw, in full technicolor, the absolute power he had over them that I had never owned. His tone of voice was magnetizing, and the way his eyes ran over each and every row of believers seemed to connect with them all on a personal level.

Up on that stage, he
was
their messiah.

“They will do anything he wants them to,” I whispered. I watched my twin step to the side of the stage, hundreds of eager eyes following his every movement.

“The Lord had, many weeks ago, revealed to us that we were to take on the devil’s men in a holy war. It was a task we have prepared for for weeks . . . ” He paused, then said, “But today I received a new message. An important one . . . one that will save all our souls without facing down the demons.”

My eyes narrowed as he dropped his head. When he raised it again, he motioned to the guards and elders. My stomach dropped when I saw them remove the tops of the barrels and open the sealed boxes.

“Can you see what is in them?” Stephen asked. I craned my neck to see.

“Syringes,” I said in confusion. I looked to Ruth and Stephen. “Why would they have syringes and wine?”

No one spoke. So we kept watching. We watched as the most dedicated women and men were gathered and sent to the carts. They began to fill the syringes with the deep red wine that was in the barrels. The men and women gathered the syringes in baskets and began handing them out to the adults sitting on the grass. The children watched on in curiosity, reaching for the syringes.

Judah watched with a proud smile on his face. But I didn’t like the look of that smile. Nothing about this was reassuring. I was so fucking lost.

“What’s so important about those damn syringes?” I hissed. Panic took hold of me as the guards and elders formed a barrier around the people. They made a fucking wall. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steel bars of the door.

Judah took the mic again. “The Lord singled each and every one of you—
us
—out. Only
you
, the truly blessed, chose the right path in this world filled with evil and sin. The Lord has seen how we have obeyed him these past few weeks, and he is proud.” Judah’s face took on a concerned expression. “But we have also battled the devil in the process. A mighty adversary. Some of our most faithful members were corrupted and pulled under Satan’s control. And the prophecy ensuring our salvation was thwarted by a demon in disguise . . . a person I trusted with my life.” My stomach fell; he was talking about me.