“No. But I got the sense he’s young. There’s a lot of anger and hate, and Judas is just beginning. There was a glimpse of other targets. Does anyone have pictures of Drake’s family? He had images of women in his head, and one was Phoenix.”
“Here.” Nun pulled them up on her phone.
I nodded. “That’s them. He’s interested in that one.” I pointed to the blonde.
“Jodie Michaelson, a famous actress. She’s married to that actor who was in Road Fury.”
“Judas was really into her. I got a sense of sleaze from him and hot lust where Jodie is concerned. And Judas empathises with, but loathes, that one,” I said, pointing to the second oldest daughter and the youngest.
“That’s Serenity Michaelson, a bona fide whacko. She cut a guy’s dick off and shoved it down his throat, leaving his ball sacks to hang down his jaw,” Sapphire stated, and my eyes widened.
“Holy crap, where do we sign that bitch up?” I demanded. Sapphire laughed softly.
“Not the first time Serenity’s rumoured to have done it either. There’re a lot of rumours about her. She’s a fuckin’ famous model, but she apparently has a split personality she’ll drift into if threatened. Lowdown is, Serenity has ended several lives, and Rage has cleared up her messes,” Sparrow said.
“Veep,” I acknowledged as she sat down on my bed. Sparrow held out a cup of hot chocolate, and I sniffed. “Oh, nice.”
“Did you learn anything else?” Stitch asked.
“He lost someone in the war, and he’s targeting that at Drake. Rather than deal with the grief and mourning, he’s channelling it into hate. That’s fuelling him. If he loses that foundation, he’ll implode and take everyone out that he can. His type of power will reach out and destroy whoever’s close. It won’t matter to Judas if they’re linked or not; he’ll take everybody with him.”
“Great. Sounds a real peach,” Stitch drawled.
“Yeah. But now Judas has me to focus on, and although he pulled back in a blink, he’s curious.”
Sapphire shot me a worried look. “You need to be careful.”
“He’s no worse than anyone we’ve faced before. Just furtheralong. It’s a good job Phoenix reached out when she did, because if she hadn’t, he’d have killed hundreds before coming to my attention,” I said.
“Well, you stick with Stitch. If he attacks without warning, at least she’s there to heal any damage,” Sapphire ordered.
“Okay,” I agreed, acknowledging the order. Nobody disobeyed her. Not even me, who’d been with her since we were children.
Chapter Four.
Phoenix
We should have been alert, but we weren’t. It had been three days since Judas had last attacked Drake, and Belladonna had chased him off.
Drake and I had relaxed our guard, and now we were going to pay the price. As we walked across the Royal Harlots parking lot late afternoon, Drake suddenly collapsed, clutching his head. A scream ripped from me as I saw his ears trickle blood.
Drake fell on his back, dug his feet into the ground and arched off it. Yells came from inside the clubhouse as women burst out of it. Staggering behind them was Belladonna, being guided by a woman I didn’t recognise. Drake howled in agony, with such intensity I swear he ruptured his throat.
Drake drummed his heels as his back nearly broke with the contortion of his body. He collapsed to the ground, blood trickling from his nose. Drake made small whimpers of sheer pain as his head lolled about. Before my eyes, Drake was being attacked by an invisible force, and I couldn’t save him.
“Shore Belladonna!” Sparrow snapped as she gazed at Nun.
“Get Stitch!” Belladonna cried. “Judas is causing a brain bleed in Drake!”
A woman clapped a hand to Belladonna’s arm, then to Nun’s. “Let loose that anger, Nun,” she ordered.
Nun laughed, and the Royal Harlot, Poker, grimaced, but suddenly Belladonna shot upright, her eyes narrowed and turned white. “Enjoy the headache, you little prick,” she snarled and focused. An evil grin crossed her lips as she straightened.
“Heal him,” she said to Stitch, who dropped to her knees and gripped Drake’s head. Drake was barely breathing as Poker dragged Nun over and clasped her arm while holding onto Stitch. Stitch’s eyes turned white as Belladonna’s had, and then her hands began to glow a faint blue.
“What the fuck?” I whispered, stunned.
Belladonna sauntered over, crouched, and peered at me. “Drake’s gonna be okay. While we didn’t know the timing, we expected Judas to make an attempt. The fact that I smacked him back so quickly and powerfully is going to leave him with a psychic headache.”
