“Before you guys start,” Stevie began.
Morag’s arm shot up, finger pointing towards the exit. Her eyes never moved. “I’ll get to you later.”
Invulnerable or not, the Beast knew how to take a hint. When the door closed behind him, we were alone.
“Are you alright?”
She laughed. It wasn’t the sound I remembered from happier times. This version sent shivers up and down my spine.
“Really?”
Uh oh.
“You probably expect me to thank you for coming here to rescue me.”
Well…
“Big bad headbanger, rushing to the defence of the helpless damsel.”
I’d never said…
“Truth is, this all happened because of you. Because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.”
A bit of a stretch…
“You couldn’t leave her alone. You were obsessed with the smell of that bitch. You just had to fuck her, didn’t you?”
“It was an enchantment…”
Her hand caught me across the cheek, an aural punctuation mark.
“Shit, John, really? Is that the best you’ve got? What about your friend trying to force himself on me, then smacking me around and bringing me here when I told him to go fuck himself? Was he under an enchantment too?”
I wasn’t used to having to defend myself, to anyone. But I couldn’t walk away from this.
“Blame me if you have to. But I never meant for any of this to happen. I certainly never wanted you to be dragged into it. And I’d rather die than have you get hurt.”
“That can be arranged.”
I nearly took another step back, but I managed to hold my ground.
“Look, everybody has been playing me, all week. Since before we hooked up in Mike’s Tavern last Saturday. Seems to me that everyone around me knew more about what was going on than I did. Christ, you probably did, too.”
This time the slap was on the jaw, slightly less painful but a lot louder. Possibly more deserved.
She shook her head, but her eyes still hadn’t moved.
“How dare you? You bring this shit into my life, then you try to blame me for it? I was doing fine before all of this happened. I was happy. Safe. And not pregnant.”
So she knew already. Good. That changed everything.
I reached out and took her hands. I was surprised when she let me. This could still be fixed.
“Visions of you dance all night in the dark corners of my soul,” I told her.
She smiled. But the fires still raged. “I sometimes wish that I’d devoured your soul when I had the chance.”
“Sometimes I think that you did.”
She nodded. “Sometimes I know that I did.”
We stood inches apart, her hands in mine, our eyes locked. Those windows into another universe of mystery and adventure, pain and pleasure. I lost track of time. And space. We could have been anywhere. Or nowhere. There was only us.
“So this child,” she said, softly, “it needs to learn to dance.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Because,” she continued, “if it’s going to be born amongst the ashes of the bridges you’ve burned, it might as well enjoy it, right?”
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available from www.amazon.com/author/burning
Some of you newer people might be having a hard time following these extracts. That’s because they’re just extracts, in no particular order. Some of them might follow one another for a couple of weeks, depending on what kind of mood I’m in. Then they’ll jump around like epileptic zombies on crack. You can try to cut and paste them into one coherent thread that runs from start to finish. Or you could just buy the fucking book.
Or you could ask me for a free copy. What’s the worst that could happen…?
Till next time. Cheers.
