Glass Hearts

7

Jeremy returns home after giving Jim and Lance the information on where to find the fighting and dying gang members.

Rosa meets him at the door, "Did your hunting go well then?" She asks nervously.

"Yes, mistress. It went very well." Jeremy replies making sure that she knows that he still hasn't forgiven her.

"Please, Jeremy, don't do this. I have no intentions of taking over the bond, just like you made me a promise before you knew the truth." Rosa pleads her case.

"But there is one glaring difference between us Rosa, I was straight forward and up front with things. You knew that you were stronger from the beginning and instead of allowing me to know the truth you hid it. Not just from me but from your coven leader, and the court judges. This could be considered breaking the treaty as well for what you did." Jeremy replies harshly. He would never take it to that extreme. He accepted his punishment and he won't cavil about things now. But he can't trust Rosa either.

He brushes past her and goes to his room. Normally he'd stay up and watch some TV or read, but he couldn't stomach being around Rosa any more that night. Once alone he allows the pain of her betrayal to play out. She really was no better than the demons of hell. At least with them he knew not to trust. Although he thinks he can trust Jim and Lance, maybe.

"I messed up, Jeremy," Rosa says when he comes out of his room the next day.

"Yeah, I know," That's all he says as he once more brushes past her.

"Look, everything I told you yesterday is the truth. I didn't lie about any of it. I want this bonding to work out just like you do, I'd like for us to be friends." Rosa says almost desperately to him as she corners him before he leaves the house.

"Well you see, Rosa, once there is a lie between two people, one can never be sure if the words are true or not. At the court you intentionally hid your true strength. You hid it not just from me, but from your coven leader, and the court. Had I known that you had such strength I wouldn't have tied myself to you. I wanted a binding of equals. We will never be equals, Rosa, by the time I'm your equal you very likely will have found a way to increase your power once more."

"But I don't want to force you in the binding, Jeremy. You don't believe me, I know. How can I prove myself to you?"

"I don't know." Just then there is a knock at the door. "But you might want to figure out how you are going to fix things with Verruca." Jeremy opens the door and invites the witch and her bound demon, Jim, in.

"Jim, did you have any trouble finding the location of the fight last night?" Jeremy asks.

"No, and thank you. Lance and I haven't fed so well for some time. By the amount of dead already on the field I take it you also fed well?" Jim asks solicitously.

"Yes, it was very satisfying, I must say." Jeremy looks over at the two witches, "perhaps it would be better to leave them alone just now?" Jim nods his assent.

"Mistress, do I have your permission to withdraw?" Jeremy asks with a leaden voice.

Rosa turns from her staring contest with Verruca and with hurt eyes replies, "Yes, of course. You need not ask me for permission, Jeremy, this is your home."

"But you are my mistress," Jeremy says back. And Rosa acts like she'd been slapped.

"I see that things haven't gotten better for you, sorry Jeremy. When Lance called to tell us, I couldn't believe it. I would have never believed it possible, to tell the honest truth. Witches want people to know how strong they are. It's a way to keep pests away from them." Jeremy snorts his approval of the term. Pests being anyone of lower standing that want to prove themselves.

"If Kira had known she would have had her killed or ejected from the community," Jim says thoughtfully. "It's quite possible that she learned to hide it to keep herself safe and has just gotten so used to hiding it that she forgot..." Jim lets his voice taper off at Jeremy's shake of his head.

"No, she knew precisely what she was doing. She only told me after she slipped and admitted to making a warding around the house. The wardings are higher magic than she supposedly is able to perform. When I confronted her about it, that's when she finally admitted it to me.

"She was playing me the whole time, Jim. Letting me tell her how much I wanted this to be a bonding of equals and that I'd never force my wishes on her, when the whole time she was stronger than me and always will be. She's no better than a demon, untrustworthy. Hell you and Lance are more trustworthy than she is." Jeremy's tone is bitter and caustic.

"Gee, thanks, Jeremy." Jim says sarcastically in the silence.

Jeremy sighs and runs his hand through his hair, "Sorry. You and Lance though, are exceptions rather than the rule and you know it."

"Yeah, I know. I still am amazed at what Lance was willing to do for me. Some how my brother got corrupted by a healthy dose of conscience. It's unhealthy I tell you, but it serves him well with his relationship with Leann. I know things look bad right now, but you should have seen how it was when Verruca and I were first bonded. Hell, when Lance and Leann were first bonded I was begging Lance to let me kill her to put her out of her misery because he didn't want to be around her. None of us had good starts to our bonding, if you both work towards it I'm sure that you will be able to overcome the difficulties."

Jeremy snorts derisively, "Yeah, like you have. I know that you and Verruca still are barely speaking with each other. Just what the hell did you do to piss her off so spectacularly anyway?"

"I spent a century avoiding her and her infatuation with me, then once we were bonded I became jealous and kissed her. She smacked me so hard I was still bruised a week later." Jim replies unselfconsciously. Jeremy stares at him.

"You sex demons, I don't understand you at all." Jeremy is really confused.

Jim smiles deprecatingly, "When it comes to Verruca I don't understand myself. I wanted nothing more than to be as far away from her as I could get, but once the bond was made I wanted her more than I've ever wanted anyone. She wasn't pleased by the about face." Jim rubs his cheek still feeling the phantom pain from the slap months ago.

"What about Lance and Leann? I have to tell you that Leann's boy scares the shite out of me," Jeremy gives a shudder.

"Lance is absolutely besotted with Leann, but it wasn't easy with them at first either. When we found out she was a witch, well I never want to go through that again." Jim gives a shudder from remembered horror. "As for Leann's child, he gives everyone the creeps. He is damn powerful and can do far more than he should at his age. My suggestion is to stay as far away from him as you can. That's what I do and it's hard when I'm over there almost every other day. I swear Leann tries to get me to babysit all the time." He shudders again. The truth of that child and his power would send Jeremy running to the court, and the court would have the child killed. Or at least try to. Between the child, Leann and Lance, Jim doesn't think the court would have a chance. He just wished he didn't know the truth about the child either.