Page 86 of Brimstone Bound
‘You didn’t see Becky and Tom that night, did you? You went to the church with a knife, a knife from our own kitchen. And you used that knife to slit my throat. You killed me. You fuckingkilledme.’
Myriad emotions flitted across his face, then his jaw tightened and his shoulders straightened. ‘How could I have killed you, Emma? Clearly, you’re going crazy. You don’t look dead to me.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘you didn’t expect that, did you? You didn’t expect me to rise again.’ I laughed coldly. ‘You thought you’d made a mistake, didn’t you? You thought that maybe, in the heat of the moment, you’d killed some other poor woman.’
‘The pressure of work is obviously getting to you.’ His calm expression was infuriating. ‘Let me call a doctor. We need to get you some help.’ He took a step towards me.
I leapt up. ‘Don’t come any closer,’ I snarled.
Jeremy held up his palms. ‘Emma, I don’t know what’s going on with you right now but—’
‘Fuck off. Just fuck off.’ Then another thought occurred to me. ‘When you came to me at Supe Squad, when we sat down together and you reached into your jacket, that wasn’t an engagement ring you were going for. It was another knife. You were going to try again. If Lukas hadn’t interrupted us, you’d have stabbed me again.’ I gazed at him in horror. ‘Why? Why did you do it?’
He folded his arms. The sudden switch from panicked confusion to pure ice in his eyes was genuinely terrifying. ‘I’m hardly the only one around here with some explaining to do. Youweredead, Emma. I made sure of it.’ He moved closer. ‘What the fuck are you? Are you one of them? Are you a vampire?’ he sneered. ‘I knew there was something wrong with you. I knew you weren’t right.’
‘Just tell me why,’ I whispered.
Jeremy snorted. ‘The question you have to ask yourself isn’twhy, it’s why not. Do you really think I want a girlfriend who’s in the police? Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get you to do something else with your life, instead of running around playing cops and robbers like a child? It’s always been about you, never about me and my feelings. When you wouldn’t deign to come out with me and see my friends, I knew enough was enough. It’s not my fault –Itried to make things work. But you,’ he exhaled heavily, ‘youwouldn’t listen to me. You always have to do things your way. And all I hear from people is how brave you are. How clever.’
He put on a nasty voice. ‘ “Emma is so wonderful”,’ he mimicked. He glared at me. ‘Well, you’re not wonderful enough or clever enough or brave enough to stop yourself from getting attacked.’
‘You’re telling me that you slit my throat to teach me a lesson? Because you didn’t like my job? And because I wanted to stay home one night instead of going out? Why didn’t you just break up with me?’
‘Because,’ he spat, ‘then it would bepoor Emma.I’d be the bastard who wasn’t man enough to cope with your job. People would say I was sexist, that I wanted to hold you back.’
‘That’s exactly what you were trying to do!’ I yelled.
Jeremy took another step towards me. He was less than two feet away. ‘I wanted what was best for both of us, but you wouldn’t see that.’ He tutted. ‘Yes, I could have broken up with you, but if you died – if you were killed on the job – it would be so much better for me. Instead of feeling sorry for you, people would feel sorry for me. They’d look after me, help me. For a change, it wouldn’t be all about you. Frankly, Emma, if you’d stayed dead, it would have been better for both of us.’
He was psychotic. ‘How?’ I asked, utterly aghast. ‘How do you figure that?’
‘You’ve never been right in the head. Blame it on your parents’ death, or on the fact that you’re a freak.’ He shrugged. ‘Who knows for sure? I could have looked after you and made everything right, but you wouldn’t let me. Really, Emma, this is all your fault.’
‘You’re nuts,’ I whispered.
Jeremy pursed his lips. ‘Yes,’ he said, as if considering the idea for the first time, ‘perhaps I am.’ Then he lunged at me.
His first punch caught me on the side of my head. I reeled, the swiftness of his attack catching me unawares. I stayed on my feet – but only just. Jeremy didn’t waste any time. He came at me again. I raised my hands instinctively to protect my head, so he drove an elbow into my stomach.
‘I’ll be more careful this time,’ he said conversationally. ‘This time, I’ll cut off your head and burn your body. You won’t come back from that. This time you’ll stay dead, whatever manner of freak you are.’
I doubled over, gasping from the pain and struggling for breath. My fingers scrabbled around, searching for something – anything – that I could use to defend myself. My fingertips brushed against cold steel. The crossbow. It was still on the floor.
Jeremy’s hands wrapped around my throat and he started squeezing. I grabbed the crossbow, my fingers curling round it. Then I swung it as hard as I could onto the back of his head. He released me instantly and collapsed to the floor.
I backed away, breathing hard.
‘You bitch,’ he hissed. ‘You absolute bitch.’
I spun round and ran for the kitchen. The knife was lying where I’d left it. I picked it up, gripping the plastic handle and brandishing it in his direction. ‘Stay where you are!’
He staggered to his feet. Blood was dripping down from the side of his head. ‘Make me.’
‘Jeremy…’
‘I can work with this,’ he said in a morbidly cheerful tone. ‘It’s good that you hit me. I was planning to make it appear like someone broke in, but now I’m thinking I can say that you succumbed to the pressures of your job and the death of your boss. You went completely nuts and attacked me! I’ll still be the innocent, wronged party.’ He sucked on his bottom lip. ‘It can work.’
‘It’ll never work.’ I shook my head. ‘Jeremy, the police aren’t stupid. They’ll know this was you.’
