Beast, Part Two (The Church #5)

Family Ties

Chapter two

Beast

T he sound of the clock ticking is the only noise in the all-white waiting room inside Doc’s make-shift hospital inside his house. His home is a brick Tudor-style house. He transformed the entire basement into a hospital, while the upstairs remained his regular living space.

Glancing down at the blood covering my hands, I shut my eyes and take a deep breath.

“Break the blind one’s neck, and then slit the throat of the old guy,” the deep voice in my head whispers.

Fisting my hands at my temple I fight to get the sinister voice back in its box. Despite coming back from that dark place back at home, I can’t seem to shake the voice now. I never thought I’d miss the sound of mother’s voice. But I’d much rather hear her than this one.

“Hey, you alright?”

I open my eyes at the sound of Hawk’s question. I’m no longer sitting across from him as I was moments ago. Now, I’m standing in front of him with my hands clenched at my sides.

The deep voice laughs in my head. I take as many steps as I can away from my brother. My heart is pounding in my chest. I don’t miss the look of concern on Hawk’s face.

“Have a seat, Kid,” Priest says. “Doc will let us know something in a few.”

Before he finishes speaking, I’m shaking my head no. I need to get out of here and put as much distance as I can between myself and my family. At least until I get a handle on the voice in my head.

“I need fresh air,” I lie as I turn to walk out the door heading back outside.

“Beast, sit,” Priest demands.

I blink, and when I open my eyes, I have Priest pressed against the wall with one hand around his neck and my blade pointed at his chin. Hawk is at my shoulder trying to pull me away. I don’t even recall moving.

“Let me out, Gabriel,” the sinister voice pleads.

Pushing away from Priest I shut my eyes and focus on breathing. In through my nose, out through my mouth. The same way I learned as a kid in the training program.

“Where are you, mother?” I call out to the now silent voice.

“Mother’s not here anymore,” the other voice taunts.

I slam the palm of my hand against my forehead. “Get the fuck out of my head,” I growl.

Sudden movement behind me has me looking over my shoulder.

“Everything alright?” Lucien asks, as he scans the room thoroughly.

“Yeah, everything is fine,” Priest answers rubbing at his neck.

Hawk looks over to me, tilting his head to the side. “Are you good, brother?”

I nod before I answer out loud. “I’m good.”

“Liar.” The word is followed by laughter.

Just then, Zel, Many, and Albany walk into the room.

“Where’s Gabe?” I ask immediately. I need him to keep me sane. His presence silences the voice in my head.

“We have him situated upstairs. He’s watching one of the Spiderman movies. I already have Iron Man loaded to play next. He’s good,” Zel explains.

I nod, thankful for their help. Albany walks over to Priest. She touches his reddening neck. He shakes his head at her and whispers something that I can’t hear. My face heats and shame turns my gut.

When Priest looks to me, I look away. My gaze focused on the white plain walls.

“How are we looking on surveillance?” Priest asks Lucien.

Doc’s place was already secure, but when we got here, Lucien added a little more protection. Technically, we are still on Church property considering Doc is a working member of the Church.

“I have every camera in a 20-mile radius working for me,” he looks down at the tablet in his hands. “So far, nothing looks out of place.”

“Alright, the place is locked down, my grandson is entertained, and Summer is in Doc’s care, it’s time to regroup,” Priest says taking a seat. “First, Beast, I want to know what happened? How did we get here?”

Sighing, I run my hands through my hair. “It started five years ago. I got a menu about a John Doe. Turns out he was an ex-agent. He called himself Gambler.”

Priest’s eyes narrow. “I’ve heard of him. He went rogue when I was still a young Deacon. What does he have to do with anything?”

I quickly explain the conversation I had with Gambler and the information I got from him. I tell them how I tracked Jason Averil and how it led me to Timothy Smith. And how that ultimately led me to Corbyn.

“So let me get this straight. The Church has been taking hits for rich assholes?” Zel asks sounding disgusted.

“Yes,” I sigh.

The room goes silent. They are all reflecting. I don’t blame them. Learning that information messed with my head as well.

I took pride in what I was doing. Knowing that I was killing people that deserved it, helped sate the evil inside me. However, finding out that I may have killed an innocent person just for the personal gain of an entitled prick, makes me feel like the vile demon mother always said I was.

“So, you think this Corbyn guy is god?” Albany asks, folding her arms over her chest.

“I have a feeling this god isn’t just one person. Any of you heard of the Royal Crown?”

“I have,” Albany says. “Hawk, you should remember them too. It’s how you found out about Heimlich’s experiment and his daughter.”

Hawk leans up in his seat. “I remember. Brooklyn and I went to the club the night they had that secret meeting.”

“The Royal Crown is a dangerous organization,” Albany goes on to say. “Some of the most powerful men and women in the world run that group.”

“Not only that group,” I add. “But I think the Church as well.”

Silence fills the room once again. After looking over all that I’d discovered recently, I had come to the conclusion that the Royal Crown was the hands behind the Church. I knew they had enough power to have the Church kill for them. That alone was enough to make me believe they were behind everything.

However, the most convincing part was how they all referred to the members of the Church. They thought of us as puppets. Just mindless pawns that could easily be moved around. It was in the way Timothy spoke to me about his transaction with the Church. It was as if we were discussing a business deal. He had a healthy amount of respect in his tone, but no true fear.

The other leading factor was my encounter with Boris and Blue Eyes. Not long after killing those two, I got the call from Maksim and then the attack on Summer.

“How much power are we talking?” Hawk asks, breaking the silence in the room.

“The type to get an excommunication order put on us,” Priest replies instead of me.

“I think my searching for them and killing a few of their members pissed them off.”

“A bit of advice, be careful when you kick a hornet’s nest, when they swarm, they attack everyone around you.” Maksim’s words play back in my head.

“I should’ve listened.”

“Sorry about that,” I say, ducking my head. “I risked your lives, and that wasn’t my intention.”

“You failed,” the sinister voice in my head says. “But I can help you. Set me free.”

A soft touch on my shoulder has me looking up into Priest’s gray eyes. “Don’t start feeling sorry for yourself. This isn’t all on you. We’ve had to be on this group’s list for a while. And you didn’t do anything any of us wouldn’t have done.”

“He’s right, Beast. None of us blame you,” Lucien adds.

“They are liars. Kill them all.”

I swallow and nod my head, hoping to drown out the voice.

“Well, what now?” Albany asks. “Trying to hide all of us forever is going to be difficult. Lucien is good, but he’s not that good.”

In this we all agreed. However, I wasn’t worried about that decision. I had my own plans. I was going to make sure that they all survived this, and it very well might be the last thing I do.

Before anyone can answer, Lucien’s tablet sounds an alarm. Everyone jumps to their feet. Lucien scans the screen in his hands.

“Who the hell is this?” He asks, before flipping the tablet around.

Leaning against a sleek black car not far from Doc’s house is a man with dark brown hair. He’s wearing shades and a long sleeve white shirt. He’s holding up a sign that reads; Hello Beastie.

I nearly snarl as I push away from the wall and head to the door.

“Where are you going?” Someone asks behind me.

I don’t answer as I rush out of Doc’s place. I reach the street just in time to find Maksim leaning up from the car. I’m on him faster than I’ve ever moved before. I have him pinned against the trunk of his car; my hands fisted in the collar of his shirt.

“Easy, Beastie. I’m not your enemy,” he says in that accented voice.

“If you’re not the enemy, then who are you?” Priest questions. I don’t take my eyes off Maksim or the smirk on his face.

“My brother,” I growl, snatching the shades off his face.

Just as I suspected, he has the exact same eyes as I do. The day I mentioned Gabe not having my eyes, Maksim told me not to worry, most don’t. That’s when I knew he was connected to me in some way. Although all the others I’ve met including, Victoria, Yohan, Boris, and Blue Eyes, all have different physical characteristics, there were some very familiar features, height, being one. Considering they all considered themselves siblings, I put the pieces together.

“Wait, Colleen had another kid?” Lucien asks.

I let go of Maksim, putting space between us. He’s right, he isn’t my enemy. In fact, if not for his warning, I wouldn’t have known to get to Summer.

The moment I think her name, I get a pain in my chest that has me rubbing the area as if I’ve been shot there.

Her smile and those freckles that scatter over her nose pop in my head. I reminisce on the last image I have of her before everything went to shit. She was standing at the stove wearing my shirt, fixing my favorite food. She looked at me and her brow dipped. “Everything okay?” her soft voice had asked.

“I fucking need you, Summer,” I whisper to myself.

“No, Beastie and I do not share the same mother,” Maksim replies to Lucien getting my attention back.

“I would like to tell you all about it, if we could just go inside. It’s not safe out in the open like this. We are all wanted men, are we not?”

“He’s right, Priest.” Zel says.

It’s then I notice they all have their guns out and aimed at Maksim.

“What do you say, Beast. Can we trust him?”

I look to Maksim after Priest’s question. I don’t really know him, but my gut hardly ever steers me wrong. For the past few months, Maksim has done nothing but help me. Even in the beginning, he warned me to take care of my loose ends. And if I remember correctly when the PI was telling me about the benefactor, he told me that the benefactor wanted him to watch over Summer. He said that Summer was the benefactor’s sister-n-law. At the time I chalked his words up to the benefactor lying to the PI. However, now that I think about it, he wasn’t. He did hire him to find Summer and keep her safe.

Turning back to Priest, I answer, “Yeah, he’s good.”

Maksim dips his chin at me. He then pops the trunk of his car and pulls out two duffle bags. We all head back into the waiting room at Doc’s.

“How is she?” Maksim asks as soon as he takes a seat inside.

“We still don’t know yet. Doc has been in there working on her since we got here.” Hawk answers.

Maksim looks at me solemnly. “Yohan took the shot. When I called you, I was trying to get to him before he did it. I might have injured him, but he’s not dead.”

The full image of Yohan pops into my head. I think back on all his details, from the caramel color of his skin to his hazel eyes, his curly hair, even the smirk on his face the last time I saw him. I categorize it all, because once I get my hands on him, he will never look that way again.

“Start talking,” Priest says, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the wall.

Maksim sighs and leans back in his chair. “Corbyn got the idea from the Church.”

“Who is Corbyn?” Zel asks.

“Elliot Corbyn,” Maksim replies.

“Wait, the same Elliot Corbyn that owns one of the largest international investment companies in the world?” Lucien asks.

“Yes, Elliot Corbyn is Beast’s father. He’s also the father of myself and twenty others. There are only eleven of us left, not including Beast. Well, nine now since little brother took two of them out at the club.” He tips his head to me. “Nice work, by the way. I’ve always hated Boris and Freddy.”

I don’t respond.

“Why so many kids?” Zel asks, bringing the conversation back to the topic. “Was he trying to start an army?”

Hawk and Many laugh at Zel’s joke, but I don’t.

“Yes,” I answer for Maksim.

From everything I remember about the two I met at the club along with Victoria and Yohan, they were all well trained. Almost as well trained as me and my brothers. And they were loyal to Corbyn. As if he were their very own Pope.

“Corbyn really underestimated your intelligence.” Maksim smiles at me before continuing. “Like I said, he got the idea from the Church. When he was younger, he went on a spree, dropping his sperm off in any woman that was willing and able. Once the babies were born, he swooped in and took us the moment we were no longer dependent on our mothers.

“From the time I was three years old, I was trained to be a killer. He raised us to be his own personal bodyguards. He stripped us of our identities and brainwashed us, turning us into mindless, loyal drones. Many of my siblings have laid down their lives for our father.”

“It sounds like a cult,” Albany says.

Maksim nods. “Oh it is. Thankfully, I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid and started to see Corbyn for what he truly is, a narcissistic psychopath.”

One would think hearing about their father for the first time would elicit some type of emotion. However, I felt nothing hearing about Corbyn. If I’d died and never knew who my real father was, I wouldn’t have cared.

“What got you off the mind control juice?” Lucien asks the question that was on my mind as well.

I’ve met the others. The way they speak of Corbyn is like hero worship. As if he’s some god or something. Even when Maksim and I first started communicating, I noticed that even though he was warning me against the “bad guys” he was still protecting them. The loyalty to Corbyn runs deep. So, what changed?

“Four months of the worse torture you can think of.” The darkness that clouds Maksim’s face tells a very dark story. One I know all too well. Whatever he went through in those four months pushed him to the point of almost breaking.

“I was captured by one of my father’s enemies. Daily they took me out of my cell to…” he pauses before clearing his throat. “Play with me. Thankfully, I was able to escape.”

No one needs further description of what play means. We’ve seen and done some terrible things for information.

“Why change your loyalty?” I ask. “If you were able to escape and go back to Corbyn, why go rogue?”

“I survived,” he says. “The rule is, if you are captured, we are supposed to end ourselves. Because I didn’t die, he felt I betrayed him. I was sentenced to three years in lockdown.”

“Lockdown?” Zel asks.

“It’s similar to what Beast had to do for those five years. But imagine a small pit dug into the earth that is only wide enough to lie down in. No sunlight and only a hole to shit and piss in. Twice a day you’d be fed bread and water. I refuse to be locked down, so I broke out.”

“And then you found Beast?” Priest asks. “Why?”

A slow smile spreads across Maksim’s face. “Little brother has always intrigued me. Corbyn would often mention the son that got away. He often pits us against you by telling us of your accolades and our failures. He made you our enemy without us ever meeting you.

“When I left, I went in search for you. At first, I thought I’d kill the chosen son and find favor with Corbyn again. But the more I discovered about you—about all of you—I realized I didn’t want to go back to Corbyn.”

The room goes silent. I look at Priest, and he’s watching me closely. I can’t understand the look on his face. My emotional Rolodex is no use to me right now. Does he want to know how I feel about this? I’m not even sure how I feel yet. Right now, I’m numb.

“I have a question for you,” Maksim says to Priest. He leans up in his seat placing his elbows on his knees. “It has always interested me how you were able to get to Beast before Corbyn. How did you do it?”

There is a second of hesitation before Priest speaks. “When I was a kid, I broke into the Church headquarters. They had just come and recruited my little brother. I wanted to know more about the organization, and admittedly, I wanted in.”

This is the first time any of us have heard the story of how Priest came into the Church. I always thought they recruited him the same way they recruited us.

"I made it all the way to the top floor of the building before they caught me."

“You broke into one of the most secure buildings in NYC? How old were you?” Hawk asks.

“Ten,” Priest replies with a grin. “When I reached the top floor, I stumbled upon something I should never have seen." The Pope was bent over his desk, with who I later realized was a well-known judge behind him. Let’s just say they were getting really acquainted with each other.”

“Oh shit,” Lucien blurts. “That’s how you found favor with the Church?”

Priest grins. “The Judge had just been appointed an associate justice on the supreme court by a very conservative republican president. The judge himself had a very public stance against homosexuality. His entire platform was based off him being a devout Christian and family man. If I were to have exposed him, well it wouldn’t have ended well.”

“Why not just kill you?” I ask. “You knew their secret. It would have been easier.”

Priest nods. “I’m pretty sure it crossed their minds, but the judge wanted to know how I got up there. I explained it to him, and I told him that I didn’t give a shit who took what up the ass, I just wanted to know how I could join their organization.”

“I could see a young Priest saying that.” Zel laughs. My brothers join in.

“Both the judge and the Pope took a liking to me.” Priest continues. “The judge told me if I vowed to never tell a soul what I saw, he would make sure I made it into the organization. The rest was history. I did favors for him and the Pope throughout my time as Deacon. One of those favors was when I was sent to kill Fem’s mother.”

I knew this story. It’s why I was trying to keep the information from Albany as long as possible.

“Turns out,” she says to me. “He killed the wrong person, and my mother is still alive.” Now that’s news.

“How does this relate to you getting my brother before Corbyn?” Maksim asks, bringing us back to the original topic.

“Well, while I was recruiting my first class, I got a call from that judge. He told me he had a location for a recruit. Someone I needed to get to fast. He told me about Gabriel Taylor. The only reason I think this Corbyn guy didn’t find Beast is because he didn’t know of Colleen’s mental issues. After she got pregnant is when she came off her meds. She went completely off her rockers and ended up moving off the grid with Gabriel. Corbyn wouldn’t have known where to find her.”

“Who is this judge?” Maksim asks. “How did he know about Gabriel?”

“His name is Robert Shelton, and he is who I need to talk to in order to figure out how we got this excommunication order.”

Maksim shakes his head. “Well, I’ll be damned. All this time, the answer was under his nose.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

He grins. “Robert Shelton’s real name is Robert Anderson Corbyn. He changed his name when his mother remarried, breaking ties with the Corbyn men. He’s your uncle, Beastie.”

“Did you know that?” Lucien asks Priest.

We all turn to a shocked looking Priest.

“No. He never told me how he knew you. He just told me that you needed me.”

Maksim stands to his feet. “We need to get to Robert. If Corbyn finds out that he has ties to you, he will kill him. And if we’re going to get your names cleared, we’re going to need him.”

Priest pulls out his phone, I’m assuming to call Robert. However, the white door to Doc’s operating room opens. I immediately push away from the wall to face Doc. The room grows silent. I hold my breath as I wait for the short man with bushy eyebrows to speak.

Doc removes his gloves and sighs. “She’s a very lucky woman. Had that bullet traveled a little further down she would’ve been gone.”

“Thank goodness,” Albany gasps, placing her hand on her chest.

Someone pats my shoulder, but I don’t turn to look and see who. My heart is racing in my chest and my head fills with white noise. She’s alive. My Summer is alive.

“We’re going to keep her here for a few days,” Doc goes on to say. “She’s going to need some blood, so if anyone has A or O type blood, we could really use a donation.”

“I’m A+,” Zel volunteers. “I can donate.”

“Me too,” Albany adds.

“As can I,” Priest says.

I look down at my hands feeling inadequate. Not even my blood is useful to her.

“If everything goes smoothly, she should be back on her feet in a week or two.”

“Thank you, Doc. We appreciate this,” Priest walks over and shakes Doc’s hand.

“Can I see her?” I ask.

Doc looks to Priest, who subtly nods his head.

“Right this way,” Doc steps back, allowing me access to the door.

Before I can take a step forward, Priest steps in front of me. His eyes narrow as he searches my face.

“The moment you step in that room, shit’s going to get real again. Quiet your head,” he warns.

I dip my chin and walk around him. I needed to see her. Pushing the door open, I enter another stark white room. This one looks like what I imagine an operating room would resemble. Two bright lights shine over her body on the table. Large machines surround the bed. Discarded on the floor are bloody cloths.

I walk over to Summer’s body lying on the table. The two dark-haired females that helped Doc with the surgery smile at me. A blanket covers Summer’s body. She looks pale, her golden-brown skin looks dull. But most importantly, her chest is rising and falling underneath the cover.

There is blood smeared on her face. I use my hand to wipe it away.

“They tried to take her from you, Gabriel. We should kill them all. Everyone,” the sinister voice says in my head.

“We should,” I mumble.

“Did you say something?” One of the females in the room asks.

“There’s a knife right there. Cut out her heart and watch as she bleeds out. Just like Summer bled out.”

I don’t realize my hand is on the scalpel until the bite of the blade digs into my palm.

“Oh my goodness, you’re bleeding,” the woman closest to me says.

I toss the blade back down on the metal tray, causing a clanking sound. Once again, I lost control to the monster in my head. I have to get out of here. I have to get away.

The voice in my head laughs as I quickly make my way out of the operating room. The moment I step back out into the waiting room, all eyes turn to me and silence fills the space.

“Beast, are you okay?” Albany asks.

I don’t respond. Instead, I turn and run for the door. The shouting of my name behind me doesn’t stop me or slow me down. I run for their lives.