Okay. Don’t snap. Let her carry on with her tirade. I was well on the road to getting out of her shitty attempt at securing rope.
Tessa was getting this chair over her head. I wasn’t taking any chances once I was free.
“How do you think our creator feels when you embrace your false love?” she said.
“False love?” This wasn’t going to be easy to sit and listen to.
She moved, but not closer. Just a little to the left. Was she afraid of me? I hoped so.
“The love between you and Dean is not real. It is false. It is not the love of man and woman, of Adam and Eve. For too long now, the world has been tainted with this false love. It is not the natural way of things.”
“Adam and Eve? Seriously? Listen, luv, don’t hide behind God in order to cover up your bigoted shit. That’s not what God’s about. He’s about love and comfort, not ‘Oh, he likes boys, and she like girls’.” She was pissing me off way too much. “God doesn’t care about that stuff.”
She moved closer, near enough for me to make out her features properly. I couldn’t see a weapon in her hand.
“Who are you to know the ways of God, Jake?”
“Who are you?” I countered.
She came at me, slapping me across the face. Blimey! That was some force she’d put into that swing. Then she spat at me, right in my left eye.
“Dirty cow,” I retorted, keeping my eye firmly closed.
She slapped me again. “You repugnant creature of Hellfire! That poor, innocent child has been corrupted by you heathens. Vile heathens! She will need to be saved, to be cleansed of all that you have polluted her mind with.”
Oh, hell to the bollocking no! “Shut your fucking mouth right now. You so much as look at my daughter, I’ll pluck your eyes out and make you eat them before I kill you!”
Another slap. “Devil creature! Bringer of doom!”
“Fuck you! Fuck you!” I thrashed up and down, slamming the chair. My rage gauge had gone from mild to explosive.
She backed off a little, laughing. “Disgusting man. All you do is spread your filth. Look at the world now, because of you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You, Jake Winter, the man who changed everything.”
“Sorry, you’ll need to be clearer. Don’t quite understand the language of bullshit.”
She returned to the shadows of the doorway. “Why? You’re the man who exposed us all to the truth about magic in the world, let all the creatures step out into the limelight.”
“What?”
“You, the man who returned Coldharbour to the consciousness of us all.”
My blood went cold. Despite the books and TV shows made about that city, I’d managed to keep under the radar. I hadn’t appeared in any media, avoiding all of that circus.
“Don’t talk about things you know nothing about,” I said with steel in my tone.
“Oh, I know enough, Jake.”
“No, you don’t.”
“This world is because of you.”
“You’ve got your fucking wires crossed big time.”
“I think not. I know what you are.”
“No, you don’t. You weren’t there, you’re nothing but another Conclave arsehole. God would be appalled by you and yours for sneering at his creations.”
“You—”
“That’s right. God’s creations. You accuse me of going against nature? Supernaturals are natural creatures. Why should they hide in the closest? Who are you to play judge?”
I sat and listened to her heavy breathing, the kind that meant she was deeply insulted by my words. Good. I hope they stung like an army of pissed off wasps.
Now, that would be awesome! An army of wasps to do my bidding. Yes! Such a sweet, sweet picture of her covered in them, my pretties stinging and stinging and stinging as she screamed for mercy.
Finally, she answered. “There is nothing natural or sacred about magic, about a creature who can shift skins at will.”
“No? Oh.” I was almost free. “Well, nobody really cares about your warped views. Whatever bullshit you have planned, it stops here.”
Where was she getting information about me and Coldharbour from? How much did she actually know?
“The pods are because of you.”
“You keep telling yourself that.”
“You forced the hand of that awful council.”
“Shut up. You’re boring.”
A few more minutes and I’d be free. My flesh had gone numb to the rawness of the rubbing rope. Determination to escape in full swing.
“You won’t think I’m so boring when you are removed from this world by holy fire,” she said, “when you beg Our Lord to show you mercy. He is waiting to cast you into eternal damnation.”
There. Free.
“Holy fire, eh? Please. Give me a new one. It’s always the same with you lot. Damnation, devils, fire. Get a life.” I kept hold of the loosened rope, adrenaline pumping through me.
Don’t let her slip a knife in my gut.
I wouldn’t get too close. Maybe the best way would be to run, skip smashing the chair over her head. Running my mouth was actually working, for once, as she hadn’t noticed a thing about my slippery hands. Well, not so slippery. More like dry with a pain that was really gonna make itself known later.
“What life have you got?” I continued with some more verbal onslaught. “Got someone to love?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Ha! What a hypocrite. Come on, spill. Who is it? Parker?”
She didn’t answer.
“Know him, do you?”
“I don’t want to speak with a sinner like you anymore.”
“Oh, but we’re having fun.” She was still firmly in that doorway. Bollocks! What to do. It was clear she was waiting for reinforcements.
“I do not have fun with sinners.”
“Right.”
“Now, we wait in silence.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! There it was, the bloody confirmation bell!
Time to run. I didn’t want to be tied up again.
Just as I was about to lift my arse off the chair and get my sprint on, there was a noise coming from Tessa’s direction.
She
