The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (23 page)

“Don’t feel guilty Keira, you didn’t know, in fact, not many do.” I nodded so he let go of my chin.

“Does Bill know?” I asked this and his response answered more than just one of my questions.

“Yes.”

“You knew didn’t you…that he was going to die that day?” I asked referring to when Bill was shot in the back of the head. Jared’s reply shocked me.

“Who do you think tipped Jack McCall off?” I was mortified by this response and started stepping back. How could he do that?!

“How could you…” He took only one step towards me and said

“He didn’t know it at the time but he was in the first stages of Cholera. He would have been dead soon anyway and I needed him sound of mind to accept my offer, not vomiting and shitting all over himself in a bed somewhere dying of thirst.” Ok so the way he said it did make being shot in the back of the head sound a much more appealing way to die.

“Ok, so you’ve made your point.” And yes, he very much did with that disgusting mental image of how people died back then if suffering from that particular disease.

“I thought so.”

“Umm…” I started to say something before he could walk off again and his shoulders slumped and he muttered a curse to himself.

“Just one more question.”

“Of course there is.” He commented dryly, one I ignored.

“Why do you call him Jim?”

“Because his real name is James Butler Hickok and because it is my way of showing respect for a soul I own.”           

After this shed load of bombshells about a man I didn’t really know but had saved my life, we walked over to Jared’s men all stood around their bikes. I recognised a few of them from the battle we were all involved in last year and it was a weird thought to have. So much had happened since then and just like history was repeating itself we had come full circle. Only now I was the one who was supposedly dead and soon Draven would be told as much with the evidence of my hair and message used as proof of the fact. I didn’t know what Draven would do when he woke, if that hadn’t already happened but I could only hope he would read my letter and understand the reasons I did what I had no other choice but to do.

He of all people should understand the lengths some people would go to for love. I had once thought that pain, suffering and hatred had been the strongest emotion a person would act upon but after all we had been through together I now knew differently…

Love conquered it all.

“Are we gettin’ a wiggle on or what?” Bill said pulling me from my thoughts. Bill was looking at us both stood slightly away from everyone else. I gave him a little smile and as soon as he saw it he gave me a nod as if this was all he needed. It was a sweet gesture and I was starting to grow a soft spot for my new friend.       

“Head up!” Jared said before catching a small helmet and stuffing it down on my head.

“You did that just to shut me up, didn’t you?” I said lifting the visor so I could speak again.

“Well we wouldn’t want this pretty little head of yours to get hurt now would we human.” Orthrus said just before he started his engine.

“Cut giving her shit, Orth!” Jared said scolding his brother.

“Ignore him.” He added turning back to me and squeezing my hand for encouragement.

“You still remember how to ride one of these things right?” Jared asked Bill as he led me round to what I gathered was his own bike.

“Don’t make me clip your horns Big Bug, I ain’t n
o
Cultus Corncracker!” Bill said getting irate putting his hands on his hips and making his long jacket flare out at the sides.

“Weren’t you Hell bent for 50 years?” One of the other men asked and I gathered this meant the length of time he was imprisoned for.

“50 years?”
I whispered to myself in disbelief.

“53 but who’s countin’.” Bill said like it was nothing. I was beginning to notice that Bill was completely different around other guys than when we were alone and I put this down to old fashioned manners, ones that obviously didn’t count around his fellow men.

Jared nodded to one of his men and in less than a minute he was wheeling a new motorbike in front of Bill making him whistle.

“Well it ain’t no Crowbait that’s for dang sure!” I didn’t know what a Crowbait was and so was surprised when it was Orthrus who leant closer to me over his bike and shouted over the engine,

“A Crowbait is a shit horse.”

“Ah.” Was all I could manage from shock that he had spoken normally to me. Bill's ride at first glance looked like what I can only guess was a Harley type bike. But it was clear to see it was custom made and no expense spared. There wasn't the normal lavish chrome work and fancy glossy paint but instead rich shiny brass and copper.

The bike looked like it was made from parts of an old fancy steam engine. In fact it wouldn't be hard to believe that it could run on coal and I wondered if it had a steam whistle in place of the horn! It most definitely went with his ‘Steampunk look’ that was for ‘Dang’ sure.

“Are you jesting with me Big Bug?” Bill said nodding to the name and I bent at the waist to see what he was looking at.

“Annie?” I read out the name hand painted on his bike’s tank and Bill smoothed his hand over it like it was his baby.

“Well I knew you always wanted to ride her.” Jared said making everyone laugh and Bill just tipped up his hat at him and winked, mounting his Annie.

“Then let’s go for a ride and see if I can break her in.”

“Am I missing something here?” I asked looking back to Bill’s Big Bug.  

“He had a thing for Annie Oakley. Now get on Kitten, time to crash a party.” Jared said and all at once the men mounted their bikes and started up in a chorus of roaring engines.

“Annie Oakley as in the cowgirl?” Jared didn’t answer me he just patted his seat as a way to get me to hurry my butt up.

“What bike is this?” I asked as I cocked my leg over the leather seat to his sexy looking black bike. 

“Now this beautiful girl here is my Triumph Rocket III Roadster and no, before you ask I don’t have any pansy ass name for her, now in the words of my lawman here ‘get a wiggle on darlin’.” I laughed, did what I was told and Jared shouted,

“Hellbeasts, roll out!” 

Chapter 66 

This Is What I Am Packin’

On the road we certainly were a sight to be seen and I had to feel sorry for all the people who tried to take pictures of us as we rode past. We just seemed to leave a stream of people all looking at their broken phones in utter amazement and confusion as to why it had happened.

I must say I did slightly let it all go to my head as most would, because I gotta tell ya, being on the back of Jared’s bike and riding with his posse made you feel dangerously invincible! Most of the time everyone gave us a wide berth even on the motorways. I did feel a bit bad at one point when driving through a town and one of the mothers dragged her child inside as if there was going to be some kind of shootout. People slammed doors and shops’ signs were suddenly closed for the day.

But I suppose putting myself in their shoes and looking at it as an outsider these were all wise decisions to make. It wasn’t as though I could even say that if they knew them better they wouldn’t react this way but this was most definitely not the case. Because let’s face it, if people had seen half of the shit I had seen then they would be moving to the wilderness and learning how to survive on berries just to hide.

I heard Jared saying something as we slowed down about the dickheads behind us and I braved turning my head to see a black Range Rover behind us with tinted windows trying to cut them up so it would split the group. I saw one of Jared’s men trying to motion the driver to pass them all but he washaving none of it
.
Orthrus outright gave him the finger and this was when he chose to make his move. He cut us up on the slip road, enough to make Bill, Orthrus and another of Jared’s men have no choice but to swerve so they wouldn’t get knocked down.

The car passed Jared, me and two others of Jared’s men giving us the wanker signs as they passed. I felt Jared’s growl vibrate through him as I had my arms around his waist and was holding on for dear life. They then sped off no doubt thinking this was the end of their fun, what they didn’t get was it had only just started for the ones they had pissed off…And one thing was for certain, they had pissed off the worst type of wrong people you could imagine.

They mustn’t have known this road as it wasn’t long until we were all faced with a set of traffic lights. The two lanes were filled with our bikes on one side and on the other was the blacked out 4x4. Bill came up alongside me and Jared at the front and for a hopeful second I thought the idiots next to us would get ignored. If I’d have had the opportunity I might had done the whole ‘it’s better to ignore them’ speech. Although one look at how angry the guys were and I think I might have skipped it seeing as I had witnessed first-hand what these guys all changed into.

“Hey, nice hat asshole, what you packing under that jacket, a BB gun?” The guy said to the right of us in the passenger’s side after rolling down his window. He looked like some punk ass rapper wannabe with pasty white skin and a bad attitude. You could see the car obviously had people in the back as well, as he turned in his seat to seek the praise of laughter from his asshole friends.

“Jim…” Jared said his name as a warning when he heard him growl. Bill didn’t look at them, he just continued with eyes in front but I noticed his hands on the handlebars gripped them tighter until the leather on his gloves looked strained.

“Hey and look at the pussy we got over here lads, great pair of tits on her!”

“Oh shit.”

“Fuck yeah.”

“Here we go.” All three comments came at the same time in response to Bill finding his limit. The idiot that had made the comment had his head turned once more to his friends and didn’t see as Bill kicked down his stand and tilted his bike to rest. The asshole had just turned his head back around and started wagging his tongue between his two fingers to mimic oral sex when he found himself being dragged out of the car window.

The skinny guy twisted and kicked out his legs screaming about being let go. Bill calmly dropped him to the floor and pulled out one of his guns pointing at the guy’s head.

“This is what I am packing.” Bill said looking down the length of his gun to see the petrified guy nearly choke on his own tongue through fear. I looked up to see all the other guys scrabbling to get out of the car to help their friend, obviously not spotting the gun till it was too late. They all approached Bill and without even looking at them Bill pulled his other gun and shot off three rounds.

“Holy shit.” I said when seeing that without a single glance their way, Bill had shot one guys phone from his hand, another guy’s joint from his mouth and the furthest guy’s baseball cap clean off. The guy on the floor saw all this and quickly peed himself as he started begging for his life. His friends had all run away shouting for help like they were being chased by the wrath of God.

“Pppp…please man, don’t kill me, I didn’t mean nothing by the bitch…Oh god!” This turned out to be a mistake because he started to cry again when Bill cocked back the hammer at the reference to me being called a bitch.

“I think you owe the little lady an apology prairie coal.” Bill said and the guy looked confused to what he called him.

“He means horse shit, now get on with it asswipe!
”
Orthrus shouted leaning back in the saddle of his bike with his massive arms crossed.

“Shit yeah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, totally…please man let me go!” The guy pleaded for his life and Bill gave it another few painful seconds before he flipped his gun on his finger and back in the holster. He didn’t say another word, just got back on his bike and started it back up again. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a card.

“Jim.”

“Can’t have them botherin’ any other of these good folks now can we?” Bill said nodding to the queue of cars behind us, in response to Jared’s warning. Then he flicked the card through the window of the black Range Rover and suddenly flames ignited from inside the car.

“Shit man!” The guy said scrabbling up and half tripping up thanks to having his trousers falling down his legs due to the questionable fashion guys chose when fastening their belts half way down their backsides. I didn’t get it and I was thinking after today and showing everyone his batman underpants that neither was he.

We all rode off with the sight of black smoke bellowing behind us from leather and rubber burning and a queue of cars too afraid to move…oh and not to forget a half-naked tosser that had wet himself!

After that I was happy to report there were no more incidents to speak of and other than a sore bum and strangely enough achy abs we were arriving at Witley court just as the sun had started to go down. We had only been on the ride for just over an hour but I was really looking forward to the second the bike stopped so I could hop off. Although there was a strong possibility I would be walking like John Wayne with a saddle stuck in between my legs minus a horse…it wasn’t going to be a sexy swagger by any means!

We all pulled into a car park and it must have been the front entrance to the park as last time we had pulled right up to the house. The wheels all crunched on the gravel making even more of an impact to our arrival. I was glad to see no one was around and the opening times as we passed the front entrance told me everywhere was long ago closed. The time of year threw you off what time it was with the sun going down much later, as it must have been getting on for nine o’ clock. I was more than happy about this fact as I think the sight of a gang of bikers, a blonde girl and a guy looking like Paul Newmandressed a
s
Butch Cassidy would have been a worrying sight for anyone.

And even more so considering the sign on the door stated clearly this was an English heritage tourist site which meant lots of families and retired folk with possible bad tickers…not really a place you want to chance scaring people. But if there was ever a Kodak moment it would have been now with us all walking through the gift shop after the locked door was clicked open. And even more so walking up the pretty garden paths that led to what the signs told us was the main house.

It would have reminded me of a rock band MTV video if we all had guitars, microphones and half naked girls dotted about the place. Let’s put it this way, we definitely needed heavy rock music playing in the background as it was one of those moments in movies where you’re excited about the good guys turning up to kick bad guy ass! I think the only thing we were missing was one of the dudes at my side cracking his knuckles and one of them pumping a shotgun with one hand. Of course in my case it was more likely them turning into giant dogs and Bill tipping his top hat at the bad guys before he shot them. Either way if it meant that bitch was gonna get it then it would be worth watching on the big screen!

We all turned a corner and saw a beautiful lake that looked so picturesque with the sun going down.

“Aww that’s so pretty.” I said forgetting my bad ass companions and the fact they would give two hoots about the way the trees reflected back in the shimmering water.

“That’s nice princess, oohand look over there, a perfect place for me to dump a couple of bodies that won’t be found till next spring.
”
Orthrus said coming next to me and pointing towards a dark patch in the surrounding plant life. I looked back over my shoulder at him, stretching my neck and he winked at me and smacked my butt as he walked past.

“Damn mutt.”
I grumbled and I heard his booming laughter that was similar to his brothers.

“I heard that little girl.” He shouted back and I carried on turning my gaze from the lake and back to where I could shoot daggers from my eyes at his back.

“I know you could!” It wasn’t my finest come back of the decade but it was better than my first option which was a rock to the back of the head.

“You coming, sweet cheeks?” One of Jared’s men asked as he passed me. He had a rounder face which made him look kind and jolly. He wasn’t over weight but he had a slight beer gut on him that actually suited his stocky frame. He had brownish green eyes that smiled even without his lips doing the same.

“Don’t you take any notice of Orth, he’s a cocky shit.” I smiled at him as we walked side by side and he was one of the ones that had said ‘oh shit’ when Bill had gotten off his bike. This told me two thigs, one he had been around longer than fifty years and two he knew Bill as well as the rest of them.

“The name’s Chase and before you say, it’s not because I chase cars or cats or any other crap dogs chase because they’re mental!” I laughed and it was nice for once not having to look up too far at one of them. He seemed to be only about four inches taller than me which was unusual for these guys because I had thought you weren’t allowed in the club unless you were over six foot!

“Keira.” I told him my name and he burst out laughing, which was a cute chuckle that was almost like a hiccupping noise.

“I know sweetheart, everyone and their preacher knows who you are in my world.” This made me blush and he nudged me side on.

“Stop flirting with the chick and hurry your ass up, lover.” The other guy who said that was taller than Chase but just as wide. Because even though height obviously wasn’t a factor anymore the muscle mass definitely was. Wait…did he say lover?

“That’s Otto, my husband.” I coughed and snorted at the same time and it was one of those moments where you really wished you could be cool. But jeez, I wasn’t going to deny it was a shock. Not that I had any problem with it as I believe marriage was for love not gender. But I just hadn’t been expecting it.

“Smooth.” He said laughing again and taking the micky out of me and he so had a right to. In the end I just nudged him sideways back and we both continued walking grinning.

It didn’t take us long to reach the house and it was very clear there was a party going on but wait…

“This is the wrong place, isn’t it?” The one called Otto looked back at me and was clearly amused.

“Come on Kitten, I think we’d better get you to the fountain, but let’s head round the side so we’re not seen.” Jared said taking my arm and leading me off once we got through the gate.

“But…but…” I tried to make sense of it all as only this afternoon I was here and it was still a ruin not the palace it looked now. The once stone shell was filled with not only the sound of hundreds of people in full swing of a party but also floors, ceilings, windows and a roof.

“How is this possible?” I asked looking round at a glimpse of the beautiful furnishing inside.

“For some of my kind creating something like this is nothing more than a thought and something they could do in their sleep.” I found what he was telling me incredible as I walked past the massive windows that each showed exquisite and lavish chandeliers hanging down and sparking in the candle light.

“My sister Libby would love this.” I said mentioning my sister for the first time with anyone but the Dravens.

“The interior designer?” Jared said and I was shocked he knew who she was.

“Now the mother after Ella was born.” I corrected him and I didn’t know why I did but it was strange feeling to be so at ease talking about my sweetheart niece.

“Ella?” He asked with a frown I couldn’t understand. I was about to answer him when something caught my eye as the fountain came into view. The whole back of the house was lit up by paper lanterns lining the pathways and massive flames burning away at the centres of various naked sculptures that were involved in different sexual acts. Like one male statue was chained by his hands behind his back and had a ball gag in his mouth. It was all made of metal and the bodies all had holes in so the fire inside could be seen. They were incredible but weird at the same time. Some were dressed with metal tutus and Santa hats that even had little bells attached.