Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 3

A soft sigh puffed through my lips as Jesse spoke the words I had been expecting.

"I should have known Malick would get to at least one of you; was way too much to hope we'd actually beaten him. But you? You're insane if you think I'd ever willingly trust that weasel of a demon. He can wait for me all he wants, but I have more important things to do."

"He can't be beaten, Rayne, don't you see that? I am lucky he saw fit to choose me, that he saw something in me and knew that I was his best choice to aid his cause. You need to listen to reason, Rayne, see sense. Be on the winning side for once. Come and see Malick with me, don't you owe me that much?"

Really? He was trying to play the emotional blackmail angle? Admittedly yes, there may have been a time when that would have worked on me, but now? A whole lot had changed, I had changed, and not just physically. Those human emotions I had struggled with for so long - while a whole lot more extreme and changeable now - weren't conflicted and confusing any more. Everything felt much more ordered, focused, and there was no way I would let Jesse twit me around his little finger, not when Malick so obviously had him firmly under his thumb.

"Oh cut the crap, Jesse. You think you're special? That Malick sees something new and promising in you? You know what he really sees?"

I moved closer until there was barely a glimmer of air between us. The smile melted from his face as he met my eyes in the darkness, taking in the coldness that I knew radiated from their depths. He no longer had to look down to meet my gaze as I more than matched him in height, and for the first time I felt his confidence wither like a flower in the heat of Hell.

"He sees weakness. You aren't special, Jesse, you were just the easiest target. New, inexperienced, no real power. There are no great plans for you. Malick will use you up and then toss you aside once you're no longer useful."

The vindictiveness in my tone surprised even me. None of this was his fault. In fact, if it hadn't been for me, he would never have been mixed up in this mess in the first place. I couldn't blame him, not the real Jesse, the one who wasn't Malick's new favourite toy. If I could, then I would get that Jesse back, but I knew that there were much more important matters at stake and that his life now was barely a blip on the radar.

I backed off a little, tried to soften the aggressiveness in my face, and shook my head.

"You go and worship Malick all you like. But I didn't go through all of this to bow down to him. You go tell him that. Now, excuse me, but I've got bigger fish to fry than him and his over inflated ambitions."

Without waiting for a reply I made to push past Jesse, pausing only for a moment to add, without looking back. "For what it's worth, I am sorry for everything that has happened to you. There's nothing I can do to change it now, but there are some things around here that I can change."

I fully expected him to let me go, that he would go running straight back to Malick having failed to move me emotionally into helping him. Then the old demon would cook up some more drastic plan to force me onto his side. So it made me physically jump when Jesse reached out and grabbed my arm.