Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) by Straight, Nancy (management books to read .TXT) 📕

shenanigans. I could see in her eyes that my explanation was about as believable as Gnomes roaming around the front yard pulling weeds. Rather than trying to convince her specifically or everyone in general of the truthfulness of my revelation, I decided it would be better to just keep talking. Even if they didn’t believe me, the more I told them the better it felt.

“I was somehow suspended while my body was in a coma. Remember how the doctors told you there was no medical reason for me to be comatose? I was somehow held by this thing. I had met Rewsna a few weeks before the attack. She is telepathic. We had communicated over great distances before the bear incident. While I was in the coma, I called out to her, and it wasn’t until Rewsna answered me that I knew I was still alive.” I looked to Rewsna and she waved at everyone in the living room. “When she answered me, she told me I wasn’t dead, and I needed to break free from the Beast. I fought to break free and woke up. When I did, I inadvertently took a part of the Beast with me.”

I glanced at Wanda again and could see she wasn’t buying any of it. She wouldn’t make eye contact with me, but I could tell from the way she looked away and stared out the window she believed this all to be a great big waste of time and an enormous load of crap. Refusing to stop, I knew I needed to provide a little proof, so I continued with, “He used to have the ability of sight, where he could decide he wanted to see what someone was doing and could see them. That’s the power I took from him. Over the last several days I’ve been watching him. I saw him interview each and every one of you.”

This caught Wanda’s attention, and she finally made eye contact with me again. “Wanda, he found you volunteering at a homeless shelter. You wanted to help him, so you took him into an office and shut the door behind you. When he asked you the last time you’d seen me, you said two months ago. You didn’t even know that I was out of the nursing home or awake. You told him you thought of me as a daughter and you would never forgive yourself for letting the shooting in the restaurant go down the way it did. If the shooter hadn’t shot at the kid, you had a knife in your boot. You would’ve slit his throat if you could have just gotten close enough.”

Wanda gasped and her eyes grew wide briefly then went back to normal when she dismissed my vision by saying, “You could have planted a wire on him and heard all of that.”

I nodded in agreement but followed with, “The office had three desks pushed together in a modified triangle, last year’s calendar was hanging on the wall, and there was a mousetrap behind a filing Cabinet. There’s no way I could have heard that on a wire, right?”

“I don’t know, Lauren. Maybe you had one of those cameras on him or something? What do you want from me? What do you want from all of us? If we’re just here to hear stories, I’ve got a lot of work to get done, and I’m leaving.”

Council members in the kitchen perked up, and I could feel the tension in the air. I knew this wouldn’t be easy to accept if I were on the receiving end. I would probably have the same reaction. I tried a different approach, “The truth is Wanda, I feel a lot the same about you. You are the toughest woman I’ve ever known, and I always kind of wanted to be like you.” My eyes left Wanda and went to all my family and friends, “Tonight I did something stupid. Up until today the Beast wasn’t targeting any of you, but I tried to kill him. I thought that if I killed him, I could have my life back. Unfortunately, all I really did was piss him off. He called to tell me all bets were off and that your blood would be on my hands. I couldn’t let him do to any of you what he tried to do to me. So yes, I do know I sound like a lunatic, yes I know that this seems about as likely as monkeys flying out of my butt. I wanted to try to save you all from him, even if it means that for the rest of your lives you think I’m certifiably crazy.”

A strong voice resonated saying, “We believe you.” Seth stood up, looked at Amanda and continued, “That thing tried to attack us in our home tonight. He would have, too. He changed into a wolf right in front of us. The police showed up just in time to shoot him. He took off bleeding, but what Lauren is saying is the truth. It was Samael that came to our door, and Samael somehow picked our lock and let himself into the house. He told us that he intended to kill us because Lauren tried to ambush him tonight. Right before the police showed up, he changed from a man into a wolf. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.” He looked to Amanda, who said nothing but made no effort to discount anything he had just said. “So why is he trying to kill us? Why did he try to kill you?”

Wanda crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, “This is bullshit. What have you people been smoking anyway? I’m outta here.”

I took a step in Wanda’s direction. “You can’t leave. I’m not saying you have to believe me, but there’s more. Just hear me out. When I’m done, if you still think I’m full of crap, I promise no one will try to stop you.”

“The Beast uses