“—then you go pressing ya flabby lips against my woman’s sienna-red skin as if I’m just gon’ stand here and be all right with that too—”
“Lucas, he can’t breathe,” Stormy said calmly.
“There’s only so much a man can stand, Stormy; you know I’m already on edge, got women grinding on you in titty bars, got vibrators being pushed up my ass, and for truth I don’t know how I feel about liking it, now I gotta go out to the farm and deal with those rotten motherfuckers when all I want to do is lay in bed and hold you but he—”
Garret’s head fell forward.
“Lucas, he’s passing out!” Merlee said, punching her brother in the arm.
“I’m right here,” Stormy said. “You can continue crushing Garret or you can simply let him go and hold me like you want to.” She opened her arms. “I’m right here.”
Lucas grunted and side-eyed her. She knew it was coming and shook her head to dissuade him. He smiled and dropped Garret like a sack of sand, stepped over his prone body and lifted her up in a gentler embrace, nuzzling the side of her neck.
Merlee kneeled down and helped sit Garret upright. “You’re okay, baby, just breathe slow now.”
“I was only trying to love on him, welcome him into the family and such, but sometimes things don’t translate how I intend them to.”
And there it was. The man lied for no good reason and didn’t care that everyone knew. “I wanted to do right by him, Sienna Red, which is more than he can say for me, how was I to know he was weaker than a newborn calf? What he got anyway, Merlee Jean, some kind of wasting disease?”
“This is not funny, Lucas, you could have killed him!” Merlee yelled as she helped Garret stand.
Lucas placed Stormy on her feet and faced the pair.
“I’ve watched over you your whole life, Merleena Jean Beaumont, let you put pigtails in my hair and makeup on my face when the grands wouldn’t get you that Doll-Me-Up doll, took you to the library nearly every weekend for a year straight so you could learn your fill about caring for animals, made Frank Herman eat horseshit when he broke your heart in the eighth grade, taught you to drive a car, taught you how to protect yourself… All I’ve ever wanted was you to be happy, but as much as you love him, as much as I like him, it’s hard for me to respect a man who don’t have the balls to come to me and ask for your hand in marriage, prove to me that he’s willing to do all that and more for the honor of being your husband.”
“He’s right,” Garret said before Merlee could protest. “I should’ve asked for his blessing a long time ago, I just didn’t want to be told no and lose the chance of spending the rest of my life with the only woman I’ve ever wanted to make my wife. Lucas, I promise you here and now, it’ll be my life’s mission to be the best husband your sister could ask for. Do I have your blessing?”
“Shit no, I’ll see you in your grave before I let you marry my sister.”
Merlee and Garret looked devastated. Stormy couldn’t believe Lucas could be so heartless. Then he grinned. “Just fucking with you, cousin. Truth is, you’d ’a been long dead if I thought you couldn’t make Merlee happy. It was just the principle of the thing, yeah?”
Garret looked relieved. “Yeah. And thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet,” Lucas said. “You betray my sister in any way and deathwillyou part, and I’ll be death, parting you right down the middle. Now may you both have a lifetime of happiness.” He left them standing there to wash his hands and fix his plate.
Stormy felt wrung out and they hadn’t even made it to the farm. She prayed that a meal shared with people he loved and who loved him was enough to sustain him through the next family reunion.
In her heart of hearts, she believed that neither of them was truly ready for what was to come.
Chapter 11
Inside the sleeves of his newly washed robe, Cornelius gripped the sharp edges of his elbows, fingernails gouging flesh to distract from the way his heart beat in rhythms of fear. Head down to cloak his distress, he took measured steps into the bar, praying that he displayed the same sense of purpose and gratitude he’d felt when Mama had given him permission to move freely about the mountain as long as he didn’t attempt to leave. He’d spent the day being out in nature and in his room reading the Bible provided to him, only coming into the bar for meals. He’d been confident in his decision to become the spiritual leader to the people on the mountain, so he’d given his word not to flee.
Now he wished he hadn’t.
They all turned to looked at him when he stepped into the room. Unlike earlier in the day when there was only Mama, Terry, Lynx, and the consort Sabrina, now the black-haired and gray-eyed demons were there with the female fallen.
“Now is theperfecttime to come get me. School goes on break soon and Mrs. Jace has most of my things packed, and I’m ready to go hunting with Zeus and Cizan, and…and,andI want to see my new room.” A child on the laptop monitor was speaking, unaware of his presence in the room. The child, no more than seven or eight years, was beautiful, a paler-skinned version of Sabrina.
The consort looked down at the screen and shook her head, smiling. “Zeus and I will be there soon, baby girl. Tell Mrs. Jace I’ll give her a call in the morning, okay? We love you.”
“Love you, too,” the precocious child yelled before blowing a kiss.
The consort ended the video transmission.
He could not allow a child to be brought here; he hadn’t begun the process of exorcising the demons from their hosts, nor placing the others firmly in the hands of the Lord. To bring an innocent here before his work was completed was to be a party to the corruption of that poor child’s soul.
He had communed with grace all day, opening his mind and soul so that he could receive clarity on ways to begin the work of cleansing the mountain of evil and converting those here into warriors for the Lord. Clarity had not come, and now he understood why. It was indeed ego that led him to believe his purpose was to save the fallen, but God had stepped in and shown him that His highest purpose was for Cornelius to save the child.
