On Tenterhooks (51 page)

Chapter
4
4

In his left
hand,
Preacher
carried his weather-beaten Bible
.
In his right, he carried a
long
, coiled
bullwhip
.
The handle
was
a
human bone, bleached and
jarring next to the
blackness
of his clothes
.
Even from this distance, Steve could make out the massive thorns that covered the bullwhip’s length
.

Steve’s gaze was fixated on the whip, so he didn’t see the other figures emerging from the forest until Abby
whimpered
at his side
.
T
wo massive creatures moved to flank Preacher
.
The
beasts
each stood eight feet tall, with shaggy, mottled coats of brown fur
.
They walked on two legs, yet
their bodies looked like that of a
grizzly bear
.
They had massive arms, shaven to the elbows and adorned with scars
carved
into
symbols
—
squiggles within circles, jagged
geometric patterns
.
They flexed tremendous paws
,
tipped with talons that Steve knew could
shred
the
simple
wooden
walls of the house
like yesterday’s newspaper
.

“That must be the help Biker warned us about,” said Martin
.
“My God
,
they are huge.”

 
Their necks were short
and
full of massive sinew. They each had long, wild manes of
jet-black
hair that sprou
ted unkempt in all directions
.
On
the
top of
each of
their
heads,
there was
a massi
ve rack of short, thick antlers
adorned with gold rings and baubles. The antlers were not symmetrical
or graceful like those of a deer or an elk
.
These antlers
looked like
tools
for hunting and killing.
The tips were black with dried blood
, and many of the
points
were
broken off
.
The beasts
had filed or groomed
the antlers
according to some foreign plan
.

“Do you think a bullet would even slow them down?”
Veronica
whispered. She released the safety on her pistol without taking her eyes off the trio outside the window.

 
“They look sorta like ursataurs
—
half bear, half bull,” Abby whispered. “We studied stuff like this in
mythology
.
Never imagined they existed
.
And right now, I
really
wish they didn’t.” Her voice quivered.

Each
of the
ursataurs
bore a giant golden ring in
its
snout, which moved up and down with the rhythm of their heavy breathing.
Long snouts full of gray, snapping teeth sat below
giant, lum
inous eyes of solid black
that were
deep and full of hatred
.
As they stared at the house, Steve was certain that they could see into him, into his blood
.
And he knew that they were hungry.

Abby sensed it too.

“
Go for the eyes
,
Veronica
.”
Her voice spoke with a quiet confidence, despite the fear in her face
.
“Aim for their eyes.”

Steve turned to look at
Abby
.
She was trembling,
and
her eyes were large and alert, watering as she forced back tears of terror
.
She was a child
.
She gripped her hunting knife and held it close to her
,
like a little girl clings to a doll for comfort. Steve was almost old enough to be her father
,
and now in this moment huddled at the grimy window, he understood why Jack had been so protective of his family. Now Abby was his family, along with
Veronica
and Martin.

Protect them. Protect them. Protect them. Protect them
.

It was his silent mantra and a prayer to God to steady him for the imminent confrontation.

“Are you sure, Abby?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

Trembling aside, there was an absolute confidence in her face that Steve couldn’t deny.

“Okay,
Veronica
, y
ou heard the lady.”

Veronica
nodded.

The
ursataurs
stood a foot behind Preacher, each to one side. They stomped and pawed at the ground with massive, cloven hooves, snorting and tearing through
grass at the edge of the lawn.
They were
poised, waiting for Preacher to give
an
order
.

Preacher looked
toward
the house, smiling, and held up his left hand, Bible aloft.

“Come, children of my Lord!” he shouted in a
singsong
voice
.
“Come forth into the light and the heat that
will cleanse your souls!
”

He lowered his Bible and stared at the house, still smiling. No one moved
.
Steve held his breath.
Preacher waited, as if he expected the front door to open and
then
to
see
them
come out
without argument
.
After a moment of calm,
he
raised the bullwhip in his right hand and once again
addressed the house.

“Dear children of my Lor
d!
” he
shouted
.
“D
o not deny the power before you!”

He
released the coiled
whip
, letting its length drop to the ground
.

“
Release yourselves
into the warm embrace of
my
Lord, now, before I am compelled to
SEEK YOU OUT
!”

His voice
dove
with
the deep bass of a foghorn
.
Steve felt the
power of
words
penetrate
and jar
his bones, like the vibration of an electrical shock
.

Preacher pulled the whip back with
a
sideways flick of his wrist
.
The wind whistled through its barbs as i
t rocketed through the air
,
and he spun it around his body.

WUUUUU
. WUUUU. WUUUU. WUUUUU.

He pulled the whip back
,
and it snapped in the air in front of where he stood at the edge of the clearing.

T
ISH!

He
cracked the whip in the air in front of him
again
, four times, in the direction of the house
.

WUU-
T
ISH! WUU-
T
ISH! WUU-
T
ISH! WUU-
T
ISH!

Each time he snapped his wrist
,
the whip
whistled and snapped, reverberating through the trees of
the silent forest around him with a shower of sparks where it struck the air.
He lowered the whip and once more looked
toward
the house.

“
First, a
single lash for the impertinent whore
who denied her mother!”

Veronica
felt the familiar clammy sweat on her neck and the shortness of breath
.
The panic attack was coming
.
She
lowered the gun as she
fought to maintain control
.
She breathed in deep through her nose and exhaled
raggedly
through her mouth.

“She chose a path of
m
aterial gain
,
never to know the comfort of a true love of family.
She is
repugnant and corrupt, unfit to live
!
I shall rend the flesh of her womb
!”

W
U
U-
T
ISH!

He cracked the whip
,
and it struck the ground, sing
e
ing the weeds
so
that
they
popped with sparks and smoke. The group was silent, huddling around the window.
Veronica
continued her h
eavy b
reathing,
taking
in large gulps of air to calm
her racing heart
.

“Perhaps then, first I shall bestow a
pair of lashes
on the simpleton drug peddler
.”

Martin felt the turning of his stomach
.
It was as if Preacher was reaching into his body and
grasping
hold
of his innards
and rolling them between
his bony white fingers. It was excruciating
,
but Martin refused to yield
.
He swayed for a moment
,
but remained on his feet out of sheer will.

“
His life of uninspired weakness and complacency cost him his mate
.
And his naiveté cost him the life of his undisciplined offspring! He deserves nothing more than to grovel at my feet, forever
.
And so I shall sever his gangly legs at the knees!”

WUU
-
T
ISH!

The whip struck the ground again, setting the small brush ablaze
.
Martin
refused to
acknowledge Preacher’s threats.
Once the whip hit the ground, the pain in his stomach abated.

No one inside the cabin spoke
.
Teeth
gritted and floorboards creaked. T
hey
tensed,
ready to defend.

“Or let us end this simply, with a lash for the lack of a man whom you call a leader!
”

Steve felt Preacher
’s
voice in his head
.
The words reverberated
into a cacophonic gibberish that faded over time into a hiss of background noise, bubbling like an excited audience before the curtain opens.

“
His doubts and childish reliance on the gossamer wings of faith
have
led you, all of you, to your own undoing! I shall gouge the flesh from his neck and watch his lifeblood gurgle into the dust at my feet!”

WU
U
-
T
ISH!