Jake shrugged. “I also think drawing attention to ourselves right now wouldn’t be the best policy. There are five of those trees, and the local paper wrote about some biologists coming to Brecon because of them. If we overstep, there’s gonna be a shitstorm coming our way before we finish the job with all of them.”
Beast chewed on his lip. “I think going with Magpie’s suggestion and making the removal semi-legal is the best course of action. He’ll get us some heavy machinery, so that we don’t have to risk our hides by getting too close.”
“We could still see if we can remove a couple of branches on our own after midnight,” Knight suggested.
The vote went through unanimously, and Beast was glad to progress to more mundane topics. The trees were a priority, but that didn’t mean all the other club activities ceased. Lizzy had complained about a broken speaker at his last concert, and a whole new crew of builders would be coming to work on another part of the building that had been burned two months ago.
The cell phone vibrated again, but Beast just pretended it wasn’t happening. “Now, the last thing we need to discuss. Fox’s boy wants to prospect. He doesn’t need much introduction. You all know him. You all know he’s clean. But just to be formal, Fox, are you vouching for Nick?”
Fox stood and placed both his palms on the tabletop. “That’s his only interest. He wants to be a part of what we’re doing, not just as a hangaround but as a member. I’ve lost hope that he’ll finish high school, but he is smart and dedicated when he puts his mind to it. He needs discipline, so if you all agree to give him a chance, don’t hold back and teach him how tough life can be. He needs to learn the hard way being a patch isn’t all booze and orgies,” he said and sat down to the sound of snickering.
“Who’s in favor?” Beast asked, raising his own hand, and everyone else followed his lead. When the verdict came through, Fox went limp in his chair, as if he’d actually wondered how the vote would go.
Beast slammed his hand on the table three times and got up. “Jake, prepare that prospect cut, will you?” he said before shaking Fox’s hand.
Jake nodded with a grin. “We need the fresh blood.”
And they needed all the help they could get from people they trusted. Jake had stepped up, and he’d taken a big load off Beast’s shoulders by dealing with party preparations. Beast still had the burden of making sure their illegal activity stayed hidden, but at least he could delegate.
Jake was perfect for it. The friendly all-American face of the club. His cut and bike added a flavor of danger to his presence but it caused excitement rather than fear. Vars would surely offer his help too, as well as Joker, who was always up for crazy party ideas. If Beast was to deal with the trees and his future role as a father, he needed to pass on some responsibilities that were his. After all, it didn’t matter who did the job as long as it was getting done.
Beast left the meetings room, already dreaming of a moment to himself. One whistle was enough to make Hound follow. There was way too much on his mind, and ten, maybe fifteen minutes of peace were a necessity if he was to be functional for the rest of the day. The sound of hurried footsteps following him was like another brick landing on his back, but he knew his duties and turned around.
“How’s Elliot?” he asked Knight, pushing away any demands his friend had.
Knight stalled. “He’s… doing okay. Just needs lots of help. It’s something else I wanted to ask about. My sister, Lana, she’s been having boyfriend trouble. Can she move in for a while? She won’t be any trouble.”
Beast exhaled. He knew Lana as a nice enough person, and since in his experience ‘boyfriend trouble’ more often than not meant domestic violence, he nodded. “Yeah, fine, but you need to deal with it. Or have one of the girls prepare a room for her.”
Knight smiled and scratched Hound behind the floppy ear. “Maybe you and Laurent will learn a thing or two from her.”
Beast frowned. “What?”
“The baby I told you about, my newest nephew? It’s hers.”
“Are you saying she’s coming here with a baby?”
Knight shrugged. “The house is big enough.”
And not suitable for babies. Then again, there was one on the way, so perhaps Lana’s stay could serve as a test-drive of the whole thing.
“Fine. Just make sure she’s away from the party area.”
They exchanged a couple more words, but Beast’s heart wasn’t in it. He needed his peace. Just a moment without anyone nagging h—
The damn phone buzzed again, so much so that it made Hound whine and push his nose at the vibrating pocket. This time Beast aggressively took the cell phone out, intent on switching it off, but Mr. Magpie’s name on the screen made him stop. He took a deep breath and picked up the call.
What could it be? Had Magpie come to an agreement with the local government? Did he find out something from some strange ancient book?
“Beast speaking,” he said, slowing his pace.
“Finally! There I was thinking you were ignoring me on purpose,” Magpie said in a cheerful manner. Whatever intel he could offer, it had to be good.
“I was taking a shower,” he lied, looking out of the window, at the tall trees bathed in warm afternoon sunlight. It would have been a shame if all of that beauty ceased to exist. If there was something that had always brought him peace before Laurent, it was nature. He couldn’t wait to go on a long camping trip, but it would never happen if the world didn’t survive what was coming.
“You didn’t answer any of my emails either.”
Beast frowned. “E-mails? When did you send those?”
“In the past two hours or so.”
Beast rubbed the base of his nose but remained civil. “I don’t work at the desk all day. What are they about? Can you say on the phone?”
Magpie gave a short laugh. “Oh, it’s just a few pictures. I had three interior designers come up with creative ideas for the baby’s room. The color options aren’t clear yet, but I think that steel blue and green would work best for a little boy.”
Beast stopped, watching his dog sniff an empty bottle at the end of the corridor. The hell?
“Plans? Colors? What? Since when is it your problem how I arrange my kid’s room?”
“I imagine you are busy with other matters, so I thought I’d offer my assistance,” Magpie said plainly, leaving Beast to resume his walk with more vigor to work off the growing anger. At least Hound seemed happy with the aggressive pace, as he jumped in place, yelped and went on with his tail wagging.
Beast exhaled, counting to three in silence before he spoke. “Look, I’m happy you’re excited for us, but Marcel is our child. Mine and Laurent’s. I’m sure Laurent would be upset if he found out you were doing this behind his back. You know he’s very particular,” he said, choosing to push it all onto his husband, though the last thing Beast’s son needed was a fancypants room. Kids needed to be content with simple things if they were to survive this harsh world.
Besides, he already had more connections with demons, or however those entities could be called, and didn’t need one sticking their nose into his child’s life. Because it was happening. Beast would have a child, and the sooner he accepted that fact the better.
He stopped when he realized he’d said the name ‘Marcel’ for the first time, and he’d even pronounced the ‘r’ in that silly French way Laurent did.
“Oh? ‘Marcel’? You haven’t told me you’ve named the child. Maybe it was a little hasty of me, but I thought you would have named him in my honor, and already ordered bedding with the ‘JM’ monogram.” He sounded so disappointed Beast could hardly process what he was hearing.
“Look, we value what you did for us, but this is excessive. What does JM even stand for?”
“Jasper Mercier. But luckily, with ‘M’ it could also stand for Magpie. Isn’t that a lovely coincidence? I would even call it destiny if I believed in such a thing.”
“Your name is ‘Jasper’?�
� Beast frowned so hard his forehead hurt. As least the sky bridge wasn’t far, and it was a place so rarely visited by anyone but Gray and Shadow that maybe he could get some peace there once he finished this ridiculous call.
Magpie laughed. “Did you think me an entity without one? Or that I go by one name, like Liberace?”
“No… I just… it doesn’t matter. The point is that Marcel doesn’t need monograms on his bedding or towels.”
“Perhaps I should commission an M&M’s cake to celebrate his Christening?” Magpie fantasized as if he weren’t listening to Beast at all. “Do you get it? The candy shares his initials.”
“Jasper. You need to be less hands on, all right? Laurent will be upset if this continues.”
There was long silence on the other side of the line, and Beast rather enjoyed it. He reached the sky bridge, leaned against the chipped window sill and took in the vast land that belonged to him. And to Baal.
Magpie sighed. “I will consider it. But please talk to Laurent on my behalf. He isn’t very good at texting.”
Beast hummed. “Sure. I will,” he lied.
“All right then. I suppose, we should start addressing each other with our given names now that we’re so closely bonded. Have a good day, Kai,” Magpie said and hung up, leaving Beast stunned.
“What the hell?” he mumbled, instantly scowling when he saw an unread message from Jake. Was he to have no peace at all on this godforsaken day?
He answered in their code about where to store the weed for the party. He’d been taken aback when Laurent questioned him about the club’s future, but in truth, he would have loved a two week break from it all.
Beast looked to the stretch of forest greenery, only to scowl when he spotted Laurent getting out of Elliot’s car on a stretch of road running along the clubhouse. Didn’t Elliot have a broken wrist? How was he to drive Laurent anywhere? Or the egg for that matter.
It had grown so much in the weeks since its creation Laurent had started using a larger backpack to keep it around at all times, because it wouldn’t even fit in the old one anymore. Comparing to the size of a heavily pregnant woman’s stomach, the egg wasn’t hatching any time soon, so there was still time to deal with all necessities, but he’d already began making arrangements. As Laurent’s close friend, Nao had volunteered to pretend being the birth mother. It was kind of ironic, since she’d been vocal about not wanting kids, but at least they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone challenging their custody in the future.
Beast’s heart sank when he noticed that Elliot wasn’t the man behind the wheel. Sure, letting Laurent drive seemed like a nice enough gesture, but Beast still remembered that time in winter when Laurent skidded, making a full circle in the middle of the road and took it so badly he’d needed a day off from driver training. And a hug. And hot chocolate with a whole pack of marshmallows.
The way the car kept coming to an abrupt stop was a telltale sign of Laurent driving, and Beast felt his guts twisting. He was positive Laurent was safe enough on club grounds, but Marcel was still growing inside his shell, and none of them had the vaguest idea about the toughness of that material.
“So fucking reckless,” Beast hissed and whistled at Hound, heading toward Gray’s apartment on the other side of the sky bridge. He intended to go down the stairs and leave the building via the club gym, but the unusual silence made him stop. He was already missing the usual patter of padded feet and claws hitting the floor, but when Hound let out a low growl behind him, Beast’s hand reached under his vest, to the holster.
When he spun around, ready to take on the man sneaking up on him, the dog was hunched over, his teeth bared as he stared at emptiness, and Beast let his hand drop by his side. The bristling hair on Hound’s back left him confused, but when Beast studied him in more detail, he spotted the glint of reflective glass next to one of the windows. Realization came with the whiff of smoke, but before Beast could have called Hound to his side, flames burst from the floor, creating a wall of fire that obscured the corridor Beast had earlier come through.
He screamed out Hound’s name but when the heat of the flames breathed into his face, the mangled skin covering his left side tightened, already recoiling from something that could inflict further damage. He stumbled back when smoke erupted from the piece of glass he’d previously noticed, filling the air with fumes so thick Beast could feel them leaving tar down his throat.
Even his bones screamed in fear that had been burnt into his flesh when he’d lost his mother, his good looks, and the man he used to be. But despite the flames licking their way down the sides of the skywalk and covering the windows with soot, he could still breathe. There was still a way out. Perhaps if he crashed through the window, he’d end up with broken bones, maybe a few more burns, but his body had been through so much and lived that this couldn’t be the end.
He was about to charge into the glass when the fumes thickened, pulling back to gather in one place despite there being no breeze to cause this. Beast took in the smell of sulphur, but once he saw the smoke form a tall humanoid shape with twisted horns, he felt relief. None of this was real. Baal could not influence the real world without making pacts, which meant all this was only an illusion.
Still, when he spoke, his voice didn’t have the strength he wished it had. “What do you want?”
When Baal took a step forward, he left behind a dusty cloud, but Beast had seen this monstrous creature so many times that neither the clawed feet nor the cracked skin seeping what looked like lava made him freeze anymore. His body reacted with fear—feet stuck to the floor and his heartbeat fast—but his mind was clear. This horrifying display meant one thing—Baal was unsure of his fate.
But regardless of the pleasure Beast took from that realization, when the demon uncovered his long, stake-shaped canines jammed into his jaws too tightly, Beast’s heart almost stopped. The long hands reached toward him, each one large enough to crush his skull. “Don’t play games with me, Beast of Kings of Hell. You will find yourself losing.”
Damp sweat beaded on Beast’s back, but he kept himself steady. “What do you mean?”
Baal let out a cackle that sent sparks flying all too close to Beast. “The pact. You’re too busy with other things to give me what I need.”
“It’ll be taken care of.”
Baal’s eyes were bright, like molten iron at the peak of its temperature, and Beast found himself stepping back when the monster leaned forward so they were eye to eye. “Only that’s not the real issue, is it, mortal? You are trying to play both sides.”
A shudder went down Beast’s spine when he remembered Laurent telling him they’d been overheard. Not to mention that some members might not have been cautious enough with their words either.
“We only asked him for a child. It has nothing to do with you.”
Baal opened his mouth, but when Beast thought the creature was about to bite off his head as if he were a gingerbread man, Baal’s entire form withdrew, levitating over the floor. The trail of smoke it left behind twisted in the air, but before Beast could as much as breathe freely again, he saw Laurent standing in front of him. Identical to the way he’d looked in the morning when Beast had left their apartment. He wore the same clothes, and none of the sexy beauty spots on his face were out of place.
In one hand, Laurent was holding the egg.
Baal let out a hum that sounded like the echo from a pit of snakes and towered over Laurent.
“Beast?” Laurent asked, and the way his face tensed with worry had Beast itching to step forward even though he knew it was only smoke and mirrors. Literally.
Laurent’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he let out a small yelp when Baal’s hand trailed down his chest, leaving behind a diagonal line of ripped fabric and blood. Intestines dropped to the floor at Laurent’s feet, but Baal wasn’t done yet and sank his claws into the newly uncovered bone at the front of Laurent’s chest. It cracked apart, as if Baal were snapping dried branchlets of a tree, and revea
led the beating heart left without protection.
Beast’s throat was stuck, but when he moved toward this illusory vision, the uncovered innards went up in flames. Laurent’s lips trembled, twisting in pain. “Please, protect Marcel,” was all he said before the fire consumed it all, sending black smoke through his ears, nose, and lips. Laurent’s body was now dried out like a mummified corpse, and within the blink of an eye, his arm snapped, sending the egg to the floor.
Beast screamed but was too far away. The shell smashed into a thousand pieces, and all that was left was his engagement ring in a puddle of egg white and ruby dust.
Something clawed at Beast’s chest, and he had to force air into his lungs to speak. “This is just an illusion. I know this and you know it,” he shouted at Baal with hands balled into fists. Even though the real Laurent was safe outside, his blood itched for revenge, for Baal’s neck to snap like the fake Laurent’s breastbone had.
Baal grinned and shoved away the remains, which instantly turned into a cloud of dust. “Now. Don’t think yourself safe, mortal. There are many people in this house at all hours. And desperate people do desperate things.”
Beast’s blood went cold, and this time he had no answer to the threat. That much was true. Baal’s powers weren’t limited to the destruction of the world. He could use them to make sure his plans came to fruition. And he could make pacts with any of the guests that the club received for orgies and parties that were required by Beast’s own pact.
They were fucked.
Baal nodded. “I can see we understand each other. The choice is yours,” he said before dispersing. The flames became see-through soon after, revealing Hound’s form curled up in the corner where he must have hidden from the illusory fire.
Beast stumbled to the windowsill and cursed at the sight of a small pocket mirror someone must have left there by accident. He turned it face-down and walked Hound’s way on soft legs. “It’s fine boy. It wasn’t real,” he said, scooting down when his dog crawled toward him with a whine.
In the Arms of the Beast Page 11