Laura said nothing, just raised her eyebrows.
“She’s only ever welcomed you,” he continued, presumably referring to me, “and occasionally called you on your shit.” Definitely referring to me.
“Not her job,” Laura snapped back.
“It by God ought to be someone’s job! Sorry, Tina.”
“It’s fine.” The rest had come in and were glaring en masse at Laura, who should have been less irritated and more afraid. “Understandable.”
“I can’t wait until someone catches you flinching at the Lord’s name on camera,” Laura said.
“You underestimate our resources,” was Sinclair’s cool reply. “And you underestimate our queen, as ever.” In small rooms he always seemed taller than he was, and if Laura wasn’t exactly cowering (she got points for that, if nothing else) she was definitely in his shadow. In all ways. “You think you’re the only person in ten thousand years to try to expose us? This is nothing new. You’re nothing new. There’s not one original thing about you, not a unique thought in your head. Everything about you is a cliché, including this childish resentment you have for your older sister. I’d pity you, Laura, if you warranted it.”
Whoa.
That one must have hurt, because she didn’t engage. Just stared at him for a long moment, then turned to me. “They can’t help you,” she hissed, her mouth turning down, her eyes going narrow. “You like to flaunt your friends—”
“I really don’t.” Where was this coming from? “Having friends isn’t the same as flaunting them.”
“—and pride yourself on complaining you have to do things you don’t like, then shoving those things off on friends and complaining more, for some reason.”
Okay, that did sound like me. But c’mon. Was all this really happening because the Antichrist thought I had a lousy attitude?
“They can’t help you this time; they’ve all got secrets, they’ve all got too much to lose. Didn’t you notice how they didn’t all rush out into the yard with you? Just the one you’ve—the vampire you’ve enslaved with your—your—”
I cut her off, amused in spite of myself. She was neck-deep in a plot to expose and betray me, and she couldn’t say the words. “Are you trying to infer Sinclair’s pussy-whipped?”
“I imply; you infer.”
“Yeah, like I said.”
“Shut up! Don’t you understand what’s happening?”
“Kind of?” Okay, even I wasn’t this dim, but it was doing interesting things to Laura’s blood pressure and, for that reason alone, was worth pursuing. And the others were mercifully silent, except for Marc’s muffled snort (cut short by Tina’s elbow to his ribs).
Laura puffed a hank of perfectly golden hair out of her face with a frustrated blast: pfffttt! “Dick’s a cop, for heaven’s sake; he could have run them off in thirty seconds. But he stayed inside. I out-and-out told Jessica what I was up to; I even offered her and her husband shelter so they could avoid the fallout—they’re only guilty by association, they’re not undead—and she couldn’t be bothered to pass it on. If she had, you wouldn’t be so shocked.” Wait, what? Don’t turn around and glare at Jess, don’t turn around and glare at— “None of them came to your aid; they just cowered inside, hoping you’d fix this and knowing you couldn’t.”
“I’m having trouble following your villain rant. Are you doing this because you think I’m inherently evil, because I have a lousy attitude, because you resent my friends, because you don’t like my friends, because you don’t like your brother-in-law, because you hate your birthright, because you regret tricking me into taking your birthright, or because you think this will win you Daddy’s love?” At her furious silence, I added, “It’s at least one of those, though, right?”
She stood and smoothed her (immaculate) jeans, ready to leave now that she’d ruined my week/month/decade. “You’ve got a nasty way of making morals sound ridiculous.”
I laughed at her. (It was either that or burst into furious tears.) “It’s hilarious that the Antichrist used ‘morals’ and ‘ridiculous’ in the same sentence.”
She was halfway to the door by then but checked and turned at my words. “They’ll see you for what you are, you know. Everyone will. Then they’ll destroy you. Your friends can’t help you. Your father won’t help you. You’ll just have to go to Hell. And stay there forever.”