Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) (9 page)

Howard moved to the foot of the bed and tapped Lester’s foot.  Lester did not respond right away so Howard tapped harder.  Lester’s eyelids fluttered before he opened his eyes.  Howard stepped back, directly under the light fixture, and pulled hi
s
hood back from his head.  When Lester’s eyes adjusted to the light, they opened wide in shock briefly before being replaced with an arrogant stare.

Something in the way the man narrowed his beady eyes made Howard bristle, blistering with rage.  How a contemptible man like Lester possessed the audacity to regard a man like himself, a man of God, with such scorn, was beyond him.

Howard swallowed back the anger that arose within him and spoke.  “I’m here to ask you some questions about the night you were attacked,” he said levelly.

Lester’s upper lip lifted into a snarl and he spat, “I didn’t tell the cops shit and
you don’t look like no cop, so why would I tell your Fred
dy fuckin’ Krueger ass anything?
  Unless I’m dreaming, then I’m
i
n deep shit,” he said and laughed a twisted laugh.  The laughter caused him to grimace immediately, his face twisting in pain.  Howard couldn’t help but allow a thin smile to touch his lips.

“Do you think mocking a man who has been near fatally
injured and disfigured amusing?
”
Howard lectured in a booming voice.

Impervious to Howard’s scolding, Lester smirked and said, “I have a question.”

“Yes,” Howard replied impatiently.  “Go on.”

“Where’s your
claws and
red striped sweater?
” Lester taunted then laughed before cringing in pain. 

Tired of the man’s insolence, Howard approached the side of the bed
and handcuffed Lester’
s free hand to the bedrail.  He did not concern himself with the other as it had
been wrapped in a cast from shoulder to wrist
.  With both of Lester’s hands immobilized, Howard
shoved a rag in
hi
s mouth so quickly
the injured man
did not have time to react.  He then grabbed Lester’s arm, the one protected by a cast, and
slammed it against the bedrail
.  Lester tried to howl out in pain, but the cloth in his mouth muffled the sound. 

“Now,” Howard began.  “I am going to remove the cloth from your mouth and you’re going to tell me what I want to know, or things are going to become very unpleasant for you.”  Howard removed the rag, sure that his threat had been sufficient.

“Who the fuck are you?” Lester demanded.

“I am a servant of the Lord, and I need to know who did this to you.”

“Okay, I get that you’re a fucking nut job, really I do, but I’m still not tellin’ you shit.”

Howard, undaunted by Lester’s words, shoved the rag back into his mouth.  He reached into his coat pocket and retrieved a scalpel.
  The blade was long and deadly sharp and gleamed when
it caught the light of the
overhead
fixture
,
flashing
just before
he
slashed at Lester’
s stomach.  I
n one quick motion
, the instrument sliced through his gown and flesh
.  The
cut made a wide
wound just below his navel,
wide
and deep.  But not so deep that it caused immediate death. 
Ruby-red blood spilled from the gash
immediately
and began
collecting near
his groin.

Lester’s eyes grew wide and his face contorted in anguish.  He tried to scream, but the gag prevented the sound from leaving his throat.

“It seems as though you have a rather serious injury, Lester,” Howard said calmly.

Lester began to thrash wildly searching for the call button near his bed, desperate to alert a nurse or doctor.
  But twisting caused the blood to flow faster
soaking
his gown from the waist down
and falling to the mattress below
.

“
Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Howard warned and pointed to the expanding
pool at Lester’s lap.

Lester could not respond, but the desperation in his eyes conveyed every sentiment he wished to convey. 

“Such a pity, you with this gaping wound in a hospital full of doctors and nurses who could help
.  Of course, they’d need to get here in time to save you,” Howard paused and allowed for the gravity of his words to sink in.  “And I could arrange for that
,
if
you tell me what I need to know.”

The bleeding man nodded eagerly.  Howard issued a final warning before removing the rag.  “If you scream or disrespect me, you will die from that wound; make no mistake about it.”

Lester glanced at the lower portion of the mattress he rested upon, now saturated with his blood.  His brows knit
ted
together in worry and he bobbed his head up and down.  Howard removed the cloth from his mouth.

“Now tell me who did this to you,” Howard ordered him.

“A teenage girl,” Lester said hurriedly.  “My friend and I jumped her and her friend in the alley, just wanted to have some fun with them
.”

“You were going to sexually assault them,” Howard said evenly.

“Whatever,” Lester dismissed.  “Anyway, it never happened.  One of the girls, she changed.  One minute she was scared shitless, then she went dead calm.  Next thing I know, I’m flying across the alley and getting slammed into a brick wall.  After I hit the wall, a force pulled me away then slammed me into it again.  That’s the last thing I remember.  When I woke up, Rick was dead and I couldn’t move.”

The
“
force
” that
Lester
had
referred to confirmed that dark
powers
had been at work in the alleyway the night of the incident,
powers
darker than the ones that lurked inside of Lester.

“What did she look like?” Howard asked.

“Brown hair, dark eyes, maybe eighteen and fucking hot,” Lester answered.

“What was her name?”

“I don’t know.”

“What was her friend’s name?’

“It wasn’t a date, man.  I don’t know.  Are you going to help me now? I told you all I know.  I’m getting dizzy here.”

Lester’s words had confirmed what Howard had sensed all along.  The Sola had been in the alley, had maimed one of the men and killed the other.  And she remained nearby.  He needed to find her and kill her before
she got away, b
ut not before resolving matters with Lester Vice.

He looked at the bleeding man and spoke.  “You are a wicked and foolish man,” he charged.  “In that alley, you actually attempted to rape a soldier of the devil.”  Howard trained his gaze on Lester who looked unbothered by his words.  “And no one is coming for you,” he said then shoved the rag back inside his mouth. 

Lester’s eyes widened in horror for a second time, but a look of arrogance never replaced it as it had earlier.  Howard stared long and hard at him, at the panicked look etching his features.  He wondered how many times Lester had caused others to make the exact face he made now.  A swell of satisfaction jolted through his core and he realized that his decision to purge the world of an awful man like Lester was the right one.  God would have wanted it. 

Howard Kane walked out of room four-hundred-twenty-eight on the fourth floor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Hospital and ordered his men to block anyone from entering Lester Vice’s room for at least half an hour.  Lester would bleed to death, a slow and painful death
deserving of a being as despicable as he
.  But Howard
did not feel remorse for his death.  Instead, he
took hope in the fact that he had done work God would approve of
, that his Maker would have had him carry out the task eventually
;
he’d simply taken the initiative and done it sooner.  H
e had
rid the e
arth of one more sinner.

Chapter 7

Hours
had passed since Arianna had called for Desmond in the woods, and in those
hours
her thoughts had continually returned to their discussion, to his words. 
He had attempted to explain away his disregard for Lily by saying his mission was to protect
her
, and only her, the Sola.  That hadn’t been what she’d wanted to hear.  She
’d
wanted to hear that her friend was okay, to have her worries allayed and questions answered.  Yet, s
he had left their meeting with more questions than she’d arrived with, questions that nagged at her brain. 

She needed answers. And if Desmond did not have them, she would find out for herself.  After a night of restless sleep, she awoke and
decided she would ask Luke for yet another favor. 
She would ask him to go with her to Rockdale, back to the town she’d fled with her mother less than a month ago. 
With all the help he’d given her already, she felt like an ingrate asking again.  Of course, he had offered to repair her motorcycle, as well as taking her to school each morning until the work was finished.  But she had accepted.
Accepting help had been foreign to her then, was foreign to her still.  Though she liked Luke and he seemed more than willing to help, motivated by his own unique set of reasons, she did not like feeling indebted to anyone.  A thin smile touched her lips as she recalled Luke telling her he was helping in hopes of someday bedding her.  He had been blunt, almost to the point of offense, yet completely charming all at once.  Yes, she liked him.  And he liked her. 

After showering and dressing, Arianna waited outside her trailer
.  Before long, s
he heard the faint rumble of Luke’s pickup truck.  Within seconds, it came into sight
then wheezed to a stop in front of her porch
. 
She noticed that Stephanie was not with him and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry, Miss Personality will not be joining us today,” he said as he climbed out of the driver’s side.  He walked around the front of the truck and opened the door for her.

“Not giving up on the whole wooing thing, huh?” she teased.

“Not until I get what I’m after,” he said and patted her backside playfully.

He shut the door and rounded the truck then climbed behind the steering wheel.

“Is Stephanie all right?” she asked and tried to mask her concern.

“No need to worry about her,” he said picking up on her worry.  “
I’m sure that the stick up her butt bothers her some days.”

He laughed at his own joke and she smiled.

“Seriously, she’s okay, right?”

“Yes Arianna.  She’s fine.  Just has a cold, that’s all.”

“Oh good,” Arianna blurted accidentally
.

“Well, not so much for her, I’m guessing,” he said and quirked a dark brow at her.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” she began.

“I think you did mean it,” he kidded.  “I think you’ve been trying to get me alone for a while to, you know, have your way with me.  You probably even planted a sick person’s snotty tissue in her purse, all part of your elaborate plot to claim my virtue.
” He’d used a feminine, sugary S
outhern accent she didn’t know he could possible produce with his deep voice as he’d said
claim my virtue
and she laughed out loud.  She laughed so hard, tears sprung from her eyes.

“Hey, it’s
not
that funny,” he pretended to pout. 

She found a rumpled tissue in her purse and was about to blot her eyes with it when she paused.  “Should I be worried about this tissue?” she asked him.

“No, why?”

“With the rash of snotty tissue dropping
s
, I just want to be sure I’m not a target,” she said and started laughing again.

“What?” he asked with mock indignation.  “Are you suggesting it was
me
who planted the snot bomb?  Little ole me?” he finished with his accent again.

Arianna laughed so hard her sides ached.  She doubled over clutching her stomach and could not compose herself until they were n
earing the driveway of Herald Fa
lls High School.  It had felt good to laugh, to truly let go, even if just for a few minutes.  Luke had a knack for making her forget her problems, for making her laugh; for making her happy. 

“Let’s take a road trip together, you and me.  Let’s skip school for a day and go to Rockdale,” she heard herself say and couldn’t believe the words had actually fallen from her lips.

Luke slid her a glance, his silver eyes dancing with delight.

“What’s in Rockdale?” he asked casually.