A woman crying in the audience suddenly stands and the man beside her tries to pull her back down.
“Please,” she pleads, wiping her face like a child. “Please spare my daughter, Shepherd. She didn’t know. We can—we can teach her the ways of God.”
Shepherd raises his eyes and stares with a piercing glare before spitting, “Isn’t that what you should have been doing all along, Shelly?”
She flinches but stands her ground. “I’m-I’m sorry.”
“I’m tired of the excuses. I’m tired of people thinking that this isn’t life or death. We were spared the evil outside these walls for a reason. We were given a gift, and now I’m supposed to go easy? I don’t think so. God didn’t go easy on the fornicators that now wander this world as the undead. Did he?” Shepherd screams, gesticulating wildly.
The mother sniffles and her daughter wails from the front beside the boys who stand quietly, although I think I spy a few tears on the face of the one to the right, barely old enough to have facial hair.
Surely someone will intervene. They can’t stand by when it’s just these babies, but when I glance around, I see that these people have no intention of saying a damn thing, and it’s written all over their fearful faces. Dear God, someone has to have the balls to do something, right?
“Enough,” Shepherd says, slicing his hands through the air. “David, take them.”
The mother drops to her knees and cries out when David steps forward and grips the boys by the arms before leading them back to a room. The girls are next, and they don’t put up a fight while I sag in my seat, shame burning a hole in my stomach because I’m too afraid to say anything.
I’m letting this happen just like every other asshole here because I’m fucking petrified of the consequences. Fuck.
The man kneels before his wife and forces her back into the chair because the weak-ass fucker has no intention of saving his child. My lip curls when he continues to shush his wife, even as Shepherd moves on with his sermon.
Today we get a lesson about why fornication is a sin that is not condoned by God and how Shepherd is just special enough to be the one to tell us what God’s will is. I’m beginning to think that the sanctity of marriage isn’t the bigger picture, just Shepherd’s need for control.
As I sit there and stare at him, my stomach aching with hate, I clench my fists and focus on the pulse pounding in my wrist. I’m so overcome with rage that I miss the closing of the sermon, only coming to as everyone stands to leave.
It’s unusually quiet when we exit the building, and the heaviness of what we just witnessed hangs over my head. Thankfully, I’m still expected to rest, so I set off in that direction briskly, hoping to escape speaking to anyone in my current state.
I’m not sure I could unglue my jaw long enough to speak in any case. Besides, I feel helpless and scared and ashamed, and the feral emotions have me backed into a corner.
I’m just closing the door on my new home when I hear someone call my name and crack it slightly. I see Cole striding up the sidewalk. Stepping back, I move away as he enters and shuts the door behind him before leaning against it.
I avoid his gaze and the tension lining his body, thick in the air between us, until he shifts on his feet and crosses his arms over his chest, saying quietly, “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.”
My fists fly before I can temper myself, and I lunge forward, striking his chest mindlessly as he opens his arms and pulls me in. I’m sobbing, the harsh sound escaping my mouth like a wild animal, and Cole wraps me up in his arms and squeezes me tight.
“I know, baby, I know. It will be okay. It’s okay. I know.”
It’s only after I have no more energy left that I lose the fight and slump into him, muttering, “It’s not going to be okay, Cole.”
His arms tighten around me before he leans down and picks me up, carrying me further into the house and sitting down on the couch. Exhausted, I rest my head against his chest and listen to the steady thrum of his heartbeat below my ear before I say dully, “He’s going to kill them.”
“I know,” he says, exhaling heavily.
“There’s nothing we can do, is there?” I ask as a tear escapes and drips down my face.
“No, baby. Not yet. But I will find a way. I promise,” he says fiercely, and I pull back to look into his eyes.
They gleam with resolve in the low light before they soften as he stares at me, and with a slight smile, he cups my face before running his thumb over my lower lip. Pausing under the caress, I search his expression, his eyes shining with an emotion I can’t define, but I’m no longer able to resist, and I lean in. As soon as I do, he pulls me closer and presses his lips to mine, and I open on a moan when he strokes his tongue inside.
The kiss isn’t sweet but wild as we clutch each other desperately and come together with a need born out of fear.
“Cole,” I breathe, breaking away with a whimper when his hand smooths down my back and he clutches my ass.
“Yes, baby?” he groans and I shift until I’m straddling him.
He grabs my hips and pulls me back and forth over his erection. I tip my head back as pleasure surges in my core, bucking my hips.
“So beautiful,” he says, gazing at me through lidded eyes.