Page 19 of The White Rider
“Stop her! Why are you just standing there?!”
Okay, that noise needed to stop. She was going to burst my eardrum. I ripped my ropes off and punched her in the face. Bitch went down! I forgot how much it hurt to punch someone right in the nose, but fuck, was it ever satisfying. Leif tossed me Smurfette, and I assumed the position.
There was an entire stampede of shrieking Marthas, all wearing way too much makeup, bum rushing us and trying to get to the door. The women they had restrained had perked up now that they realized we were here to rescue them. Daria’s friend was cheering her on as she pummeled the Witch’s face.
They were screaming for the Bubbas to save them and rushing for the door. Where the fuck was Asher? I turned around, and he was blocking the door with this massive bow and arrow. He looked magnificent.
“Don’t test me. I’m an excellent shot.”
“What do you want? We’re all good women!”
“I’d say those women you’ve chained up and beaten would say otherwise,” I snorted.
“We’re teaching them a lesson. We’re trying tosavethem. The Rapture is coming, and President Isaiah is going to lead us all to Heaven. We will leave them behind if they don’t learn how things are now.”
We didn’t plan this. It was risking everything. Everyone knew the willing Marthas were crazy and wouldn’t believe them, but the women from the resistance saw everything. Asher was furious. His wings sprung open from his back, and he started glowing a little. Every single Martha gasped and fell to their knees.
“Do you know my father personally? Because I can tell you, in no uncertain terms, that he did NOT send Isaiah to save you all. Isaiah is enemy number one in Heaven. My father is wrathful and his temper is immense, but you humans like to commit atrocities and claim he told you to. My father wouldn’t sanction what you are doing to these women. He would find it offensive.”
“Shit. Here he goes again,” Dice muttered, mopping his hand across his face.
“Asher, how many times do we have to talk about doing this in front of humans?” Leif said.
Asher had done this before? I guess I could see if I was an angel and people were continually doing nasty shit and blaming my father, I’d want to clarify a few things, too. Except my father wastheAntichrist, and he’d done a bunch of terrible shit. I’d scream his sins from the highest mountain.
The Marthas on the floor looked totally terrified of Asher. I would be, too, if I’d done the shit they had, and he was standing there glowing with a big ass bow aimed at me.
“I’m not drunk or high. They’ve barely been feeding us or giving us water, but I don’t think I’m delirious. Is that a fucking angel?” a chained women said.
I had no idea where Asher was planning on going with this, since he was just standing there with his wings out. The Marthas weren’t fighting or trying to escape anymore. They were hysterically crying because they realized the level of shit they were in.
“Are… are you going to… smite us?” one of them gasped betweensobs.
“You certainly deserve it!” Dice snapped. “Someone go get those women untied. My brother doesn’t want to smite you. He intends to put you on trial, before the entire country, for crimes against humanity. You’ll face a judge on Earth, then a divine one when you die for the shit you pulled while following Isaiah.”
“But we thought the Rapture was coming! All the signs were there. What else could all of this be?” they sobbed.
I didn’t think Leif had a single mean bone in his body, apart from when he gave Aeron a hard time, but he was glaring at these women with pure hatred in his eyes.
“If you’ve studied end times lore, then you'd know there’s a certain key figure that brings everything about. He’s known to be charming in everything written about him. Care to guess who your second coming of Jesusreallyis?”
“I’ve met Jesus. He would hate everything you stand for,” Dice said.
One of the Marthas raised her head and was staring pretty hard at Dice. He looked exactly the same as when I first met him. His red mohawk was spiked up high, and he only had on leather trousers and chicken suspenders.
“You’rean angel too? You don’t look like an angel.”
Oh, wow. That Martha seriously went there with the Horseman of War. Dice did his own thing and didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought, but I knew he would take offense if someone insulted him who couldn’t tell the Antichrist from Jesus.
“So help me, if I unfurl my wings, Iwillsmite you. What exactly do you think angels look like?”
“Big and beautiful with long blond hair. Like him,” she stammered, pointing at Asher.
“Holy shit. You have a white supremacist version of angels in your head, and I can’t even. Is it going to irreparably wound your fragile little psyche when I tell you there are dark-skinned angels too?”
“You don’t have to be rude.”
“You tortured women to get them ready for abusive men because you thought the Antichrist was Jesus. You just told my brother, who was created by God himself, that he doesn’t look like your preconceived notion of an angel. The only reason you aren’t dead right now is that we want to do things right when we are rebuilding the world. You’re lucky rudeness is the only thing you’re getting,” Leif snapped.
