Moments later, I peeled my eyes open, the room lit by bright industrial blubs and warmed by space heaters, and discovered why Seth had stopped his torture.
Priest stood in the doorway between the two crosses like some violent, vengeful angel all in black, his knife pressed so hard to Tabitha’s neck, blood already flowed down a substantial cut.
A sob broke through my lips as relief punched through me.
Priest was there.
He’d actually found me.
His eyes were dark shadows beneath his brow, making him skeletal and inhuman as he faced off with Seth. Both of them were expressionless, two psychopaths locking horns.
“I should have known you’d come,” Seth said blandly, idly flipping the blood-soaked leather flogger in his hand as he moved out from behind me to face the door and the man looming in it. “If she is an angel, you’ve always been Satan trying to lure her into sin.”
“She’s not Eve; you’re not Adam.”
“No.” Seth smiled then, that classically handsome face creasing beautiful. It still hurt to know I’d been so wildly unaware of his madness. “I’m God’s voice on Earth.”
Priest raised a single brow. “Then in the spirit of fuckin’ delusion, I’m the hands of Death.”
Seth laughed, delighted. “And I suppose you think I won’t hurt you because you have a knife at my wife’s throat.”
In answer, Priest wedged his knife deeper into her neck, making her whimper behind his hand clamped around her mouth.
Seth didn’t even flinch.
“By all means, do what you must. My one true wife is Bea. Really, you’d be doing me a favour.”
Priest blinked once, his mind working fast and hard, then the next second, his blade was slashing across Tabitha’s throat. She collapsed to the ground, hands to her split neck, gargling as she bled out.
Seth didn’t move an inch, his face almost peaceful as he considered Tabby. “You did well in this life, Tabitha. You were a good servant of God.”
Tabby’s eyes were wide with horror as her husband just stared at her. Blood bubbled from between her fingers and seeped from her gaped mouth. Quickly, so quickly, the woman I’d once loved who betrayed me, died on the floor of her husband’s church.
Priest didn’t pause for dramatic effect. His gun was raised, trained on Seth in an instant.
Again, my tormentor seemed unfazed.
Priest couldn’t see the reason, the small person behind me holding a knife to my back.
Seth smiled. “Billy, why don’t you show this man why he won’t shoot me?”
Billy Huxley moved out from the shadow of my body, his knife point still pressed hard to my side. He was trembling, the point of the blade vibrating against my skin, but there was so much resolve in his eyes.
His father was dying.
His mother had been killed.
He was so lost, and unfortunately, Seth had been the one to find him.
When I’d regained consciousness after Seth dragged me back to the chapel from the woods, Billy had been the one tending to my head wound, mopping up the blood with a dirty cloth.
He’d apologized softly, looking haunted but afraid.
Otherwise, he didn’t respond to my attempts to reach him, always looking to Seth for affirmation.
That hurt almost more than the flogging. I felt I’d failed him in letting this happen, that I’d been too wrapped up in my own goings-on to recognize a lost soul when I was faced with one. I had no doubt that he was terrified and clinging to the only stable thing he’d known these past few months, Seth and his God.
Priest stared at the child, jaw flexed, gun still raised.
“It seems we’re at an impasse,” Seth said with glee. “Why don’t you put down the gun?”
Priest cocked his head in consideration, his eyes flicking up to mine.
I didn’t know what to say or do to reassure him. I didn’t want him to drop the gun. I wanted him to shoot Seth in his stupid fucking face, but I also wanted him to spare Billy.
I had no idea what he would do, so I was shocked when he dropped the gun to the packed earth and lifted his hands in surrender.
“Priest!” I shouted as Seth laughed lightly and stepped forward to grab the gun, training it on my man.
Of course, it was too late. Seth leveled Priest’s gun at him calmly. “This is almost too good to be true, but I should have had more faith. God always rewards his disciples.”
He continued to babble on about being the chosen one as he escorted Priest to one side of the room before directing him to spread his arms wide in a gesture of supplication. Priest obeyed every order, his face almost lax, completely placid.
My heart thrummed in my ears.
Where was my ferocious killer? What was his plan?
“Seth, stop,” I cried out, wrenching painfully at my bonds.
He smiled over his shoulder at me as he retrieved a tool kit from one of the pews and plucked out a hammer and nail. “Hush, Bea, I want this corrupt soul to watch as I bring you into the light. Then when you’ve finally been cleansed, you’ll watch as I kill him.”