Page 49 of The White Rider
Dice had Isaiah in a headlock, and my father was turning a weird shade of purple. The demons had been forming this protective circle around Isaiah, but he had clearly witnessed me destroying his ability to summon more and the Horsemen slaughtering them. Isaiah tried to make a run for it, probably to some secret bunker that would be much harder for us to get into.
Honestly, if he was smart, he would have done that in the first place. He had used that first drawing I did as his playbook. This Harbinger thing was looking up. I certainly knew what I would do if I were some evil Antichrist trying to unleash Satan on the world, and it wasn’t this. I’d build me some angel-proof bunker and get damn cozy in it if I knew the Horsemen were coming for me. That drawing petrified me when I saw it and realized how happy it made him. Now, I was grateful for it because he had stupidly used it to make it easier to get to him.
If you could call my bleeding body, the stack of dead Bubbas outside the door, and all these not sexy demons easy that is.
I hid behind the Horsemen while they handled demons that tried to rush us. Leif cut Isaiah with his sword, but he didn’t kill him. He started painting something on the wall in Isaiah’s blood… because that’s not creepy at all.
When he closed the circle, it started glowing white, and apulsesurged through the room. Whatever it was, it gave me this huge shot of energy. Everything that got drained out of me from those sigils on the way to the Oval Office seemed to have returned tenfold. And those cuts all over my body seemed to hurt less.
It also seemed to weaken the demons the way the other sigils weakened us. Unfortunately, Isaiah had angel blood, too, and it gave him a boost. He started to struggle with renewed vigor. Yeah, it was pretty much over for him, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.
Dice yanked him back so hard his feet flew off the floor. Isaiah’s eyes bugged out.
“Want to hit him, Speedy?”
Yeah, I totally did. Asher, Leif, and Aeron were taking care of the demons. I wanted to take out a little aggression on the man who raised me and the one thing in here I could actually hurt withSmurfette.
“I should have killed you when I got my hands on you again,” Isaiah gasped. “I should have brought you here and given you to a Bubba until you realized your place and started drawing for me again.”
I jammed Smurfette into his gut as hard as I could and knocked all the air out of his lungs. He wheezed. I probably cracked a rib or something, hopefully a bone fragment had punctured hislung. I was trying to make it hurt. It was getting easier to hear him because the piercing demon shrieks were dying down thanks to the Horsemen.
“The sad thing is, if you had actually been a decent father, you wouldn’t have had to do any of that. I probably would have drunk your Kool-Aid like those sad pandas who think you’re the new Jesus. I would have helped you willingly if I believed in you, but you were such a fuck douche in every way that mattered as a father, that I didn’t!”
“Your problem is that I spoiled you. You never accepted your place. We created you to be a tool, just like I was. Do you think my father coddled me? Do you think it would be acceptable for him if I ran and didn’t do what they created me for? We made you to be a tool of the apocalypse. What a failure you turned out to be.”
I nodded to Dice. I didn’t even have to say it out loud. He flung Isaiah to his knees in front of me. I didn’t hesitate. I brought Smurfette down onto his skull as hard as I could. Even when his skull was cracked open, I didn't stop.
I hit him again for my stolen childhood, then for my missing memories. I beat him for all those people that had died or been turned into Rage Heads because of him. I hit him again for all those poor women he had tortured in that cathedral to placate his Bubbas.
I didn’t want tostophitting him. It pissed me off, and it was like I was finally being allowed to vent about it.
I felt two strong arms wrap around my waist and gently pry me away from his mangledcorpse.
“It’s over, Ariel. He’s dead, and the demons are gone. We aren’t done yet. We still need to round up everyone outside. They will have heard the gunshots and be getting ready to storm the place.”
I grunted and leaned into his chest.
“Can’t we just let them in here to see the burned demon sigil and dead demons everywhere?”
“Not even that is going to work,” Leif said. “They’ll turn him into a martyr who died protecting them from demons.”
Aeron grabbed me and yanked me away from Leif.
“I’m sorry. If there weren’t so many of them and there wasn’t so much at stake, those demons never would have touched you.”
I was suddenly surrounded by this massive Horseman hug. Even Asher joined in. They were all kissing my wounds and trying to comfort me. They were taking it personally that I got hurt, and they didn’t need to. I was a part of this team now, and we were all needed to do this. They didn’t have to let me be the one to kill my father, but they could have used the extra set of hands this time.
“It’s okay they got me. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore, and he's dead now, that’s the main thing.”
They were all kissing me at once. We were filthy and covered in our blood and demon blood. My father’s dead body wasright there.Still, I was kissing them back. I guess that fucking painting was going to come true after all.
Asher stopped kissing me first and pulled me away from the others.
“The painting officially came to pass. All she painted was us kissing. This isn’t over yet. Any minute, all those Bubbas could storm in here with guns, and the President is on the floor with half his brains soaking into the rug. We shoulddefinitelyhave an orgy later, but now is not the time.”
I touched Asher’s cheek.
“I love it when you talk dirty to me. Let’s go round up some Bubbas and free their Marthas. I’m totally on board with an orgy later once we get cleaned up.”
