Page 47 of Beast: Part Two

“Yeah, I’m good.” He replaces his blade in his holster.

Priest makes a call to the cleaning crew as we head out of the apartment.

When we make it back downstairs to the lobby, Priest stops me right as we walk outside.

“I know you want to know why I didn’t let you kill Watson.”

I scratched my chin. Until now, I didn’t want to think about it.

He goes on to say. “That thing in your head, do you trust it enough to let it roam free yet?”

I look away from him. “No.”

“Did it come out while we were standing in the kitchen?”

“Yes.”

Priest nods. “We’re going to figure this out, Beast. First, we’re going to handle this EO shit, and then we’re going to get your mother’s voice back.”

I dip my chin to my chest as if I’m agreeing, but deep down I know it’s a lost cause. There is only one way to silence the demon.

It laughs in my head. “You’re too pussy to ever do that. Don’t make idle threats, Gabriel.”

“Come on,” Priest says tapping my arm. “Let’s go grab Zel and get out of here.”

As he turns, a familiar whistling sound hits my ears. I shove Priest to the side and step back. An arrow comes flying and landing in the concrete where Priest was once standing.

“Archer,” I shout. “Seth, get to the truck.” I don’t have time to check and see if he listens, because I take off for the lobby of the apartment building. I’m a little too late as an arrow narrowly misses my arm, cutting into my flesh.

A second after I’m under the awning of the apartment, Priest joins me.

“Fuck, that came out of nowhere,” he says checking my shoulder.

“I’m good,” I tell him. “Zel, do you have sights on Archer?”

“No, he’s on top of the building. He had to be waiting there since we got here. He hasn’t been in any of the cars that pulled up.”

“We are getting swamped out here,” Maksim shouts. Glancing back toward the truck, I can see the many arrows puncturing the vehicle.

“You said he’s on our roof?” I ask Zel.

“Yeah, I think so.”

Turning around, I stomp back into the building.

“Beast, where are you going?” Priest shouts.

I don’t answer as I stop the first person I see. “Where is your maintenance elevator?” I growl.

The man carrying his small dog shakes as he points around the corner. I march off leaving him there. I find the elevator and climb in. Pulling my gun out of my back holster, I take the safety off. As soon as the doors open, I step off ready to fire. However, I don’t see anything. The top of the building is open except for a few large air conditioner units. I use the first one as a shield as I peak around the other side of the building. That’s when I spot Archer.

He came in after us. Many other priests tried to duplicate the magic that Priest had. There were so many blind recruits the year after Hawk came in, it was crazy. However, most failed because they couldn’t understand the real reason we were as successful as we were. It had nothing to do with our gifts but more to do with the man that raised us.

Archer is blind in one eye, but he turned out to be a decent recruit unlike most others they brought in. He’s nowhere near as talented as Hawk though.

Archer’s back is to me as he rapidly fires off one arrow after another. It reminds me of one of the superheroes my son likes.

Before I can aim my gun, Archer turns around with an arrow docked and fires straight at me. I duck behind the metal unit before I get hit.

---