Page 21 of The White Rider
And I didn’t understand why these women never questioned it.
The van was mostly quiet on the way back to the motel. The Marthas were pretty much traumatized now that they enduredan angeltelling them how wrong they had been, and the women they had been holding captive were traumatized because, well, they had been tortured. The angels weren’t talking because they were pissed at Asher for flashing his wings.
Asher and I weren’t friends. We wouldn’t exactly have a heart to heart about why he’d done that, but based on the things that had been said, it wasn’t the first time he’d exposed himself to humans.
I didn’t know Asher. He didn’t want me to know him. I knew there were all these stories about humans saying they’d had encounters with angels. Maybe some of that was true, and some of it was just people who took way too many drugs. One of the few times Miss Mabel shared her stash, I got so high, I probably could have sworn I saw an angel that night. She would never tell me who she bought it from, but Miss Mabel always had stellar weed.
I just got this feeling angels weren’t supposed to go around flashing their wings at people. Weren’t they supposed to be these vague burning bushes? At any rate, Dice, Aeron, and Leif were irritated about it. I couldn’t ask in the van because there were too many humans in the back. And I still didn’t trust the Witch and her minions.
“Can you get a message to Chad?” the Witch asked. “Can you let him know I’m alive and show him what you showed me?”
“Who the fuck is Chad?” Aeron grunted. “Aren’t they all Bubba now?”
“Please. Chad is my husband. He’s always treated me well. He’s been preparing for something like this ever since we got married. I thought it was just his eccentricity, then the Rage Heads happened, and World War III broke out. We weren’t far from D.C, so when President Isaiah called on every able-bodied person who could make the trip to his side to do so, we risked it. We believed him.”
“That doesn’t excuse everything you did. I get following your husband here, but no one forced you to torture women into believing what you believe. No one forced you to break women into submitting to men who treated them like property and beat them,” I snapped.
“Damn straight. It doesn’t excuse any of the things you did to us in that cathedral!”
“I thought I was doing the Lord’s work.”
“Trust me, you weren’t,” Asher snapped. “You need to shut the fuck up if you don’t want those women back there to eat you alive. Keep in mind that they are going to be your hosts until we round up your Bubbas and have a trial. The only thing keeping you alive right now is us telling them not to kill you. We aren’t going to be around much longer though, because we’ll be cleaning up the mess all of you made following the Antichrist. So, I’d be careful what you say because we won’t be there to stop them if you piss someone off.”
“Angels are a lot more badass than they taught me in Catholic school,” Daria said. “A whole lot hotter, too.”
I let out a little growl and pointed Smurfette at her.
“Watch it!”
“Okay, I’mdyingto know how the daughter of the Antichrist bagged herself four angels.”
“Three,” Asher and I both said at the same time.
“Four,” Daria said. “Anyone who has spent time around you two knows you’re going to hate fuck.”
“She’s Isaiah’s daughter?” the Witch shrieked.
“In case you aren’t totally on board with him being evil, causing the Rage Mutation, and playing you like a banjo, I could always tell you some horror stories from my childhood.”
“What does that make you, anyway?” Pepper asked.
I felt like a science experiment. It was different, discussing what I was with Aeron, Dice, and Leif. Now, I was mad at Asher for whipping his dick out and announcing what everyone was.
“A very powerful Nephilim you don’t want to fuck with,” Aeron said. “She can handle her shit, but if you even look at her funny, I’ll smite the shit out of you. That goes for you too, Marthas, every single one of you. I was against the whole trial from the start and wanted to kill the lot of you.”
“Enough!” Asher said. “No one is killing them. And I mean it. If you shoot your mouth off and the women you tortured do end up killing you, I’m not putting them on trial. We’re at base camp. Dice and Leif, help me get these women somewhere we can hold them. I’m not letting Aeron back in my monument unless he showers. He insists on taking the Nephilim with him, so he’ll be awhile.”
Dice and Leif both grumped.
“We were going to hop in the shower with them,” Dice said.
“No.You two are going to do your damned jobs! You can play later.”
“Not with you in the Washington Monument refusing to get on board,” Leif said.
“This is revolting,” the Witch said. “I don’t want to hear about angels fornicating. This vehicle reeks. Just take us wherever it is that you’re going to take us.”
Aeron turned around in his seat and glared at the Witch.
