Beautiful Lies (Dark Secret Society 2)

I’d only come back out when I had myself firmly under control.

And Sully had just kept acting like nothing had happened between us at all the night before. Maybe he hadn’t even remembered saying those things. They were all still there in vivid, neon color in my head, but maybe the drug acted differently on everyone.

He’d been effectively ignoring me ever since. Even though I couldn’t help contorting my body and flashing my ass in my tight shorts in his face a bunch during all those sweaty aerobics I was doing.

He just turned the other direction in bed, yanked a pillow over his head, and told me to put in some damn earbuds so he wouldn’t have to listen to Britney Spears and Lady Gaga on blast five hours a day.

Then he thought when I climbed into bed with him at night he could just reach for me?

Uh… that would be a big no, buddy.

He’d just slept the entire day away, completely ignored me, then thought he could get with me because I happened to be a warm body in bed beside his lazy ass?

Nope.

Just because I was in this place didn’t mean I’d never heard of a little thing called self-respect, thank you very much.

But now that we were walking down the stairs towards the unknown, me completely in the buff and him stark naked too, I wanted to reach out and grab his hand.

They’d brought a suit for him like always.

He’d stared me in the eye and tossed it on the ground, stepped on it, and yanked off all his underclothes till he was as naked as me, then nodded towards the door when it was time for us to go.

And I’d fallen a little in love with the bastard.

When we both came into view of the Elders naked as the day we were born, I didn’t miss the raised eyebrows. One man outright glared.

Not that Sully gave a fuck.

He just stood there in the full-naked glory that the good Lord gave him and smirked at all of them.

I started to get a nervous buzz in my tummy, and not the good kind.

There was some sort of… something in the air of the room.

Anticipation.

There was anticipation in the air.

Because while yes, some of the men were looking away from me, more of them were looking my direction. And grinning.

They were not grinning in a nice way.

Now I really wanted to reach out and grab Sully’s hand.

But what would that accomplish? It would be a sign of weakness in front of vultures.

And he couldn’t protect me.

Hadn’t the branding shown me that?

I was here for a reason. Oh God, I was here for a reason. My family needed me. My family needed me.

I repeated it over and over in my head like a mantra as my entire body started to tremble in fear. I wasn’t sure I believed in God, but I prayed for him to protect me anyway. Do what Sully cannot, I prayed. Please protect me. Save me from these evil men.

Just then, two women appeared at the door. They were naked, too. With beautiful make-up, perfectly shiny, blown out hair.

Southern belle sirens.

“Take her and prepare her,” one of the men said. An Elder, I was sure.

The women nodded like little puppets and approached me. No. My entire body stiffened as alarm bells rang in my head.

“Where are you taking her?” Sully asked, a slight note of alarm in his voice, too. He’d seen my body go rigid.

“It’s none of your concern,” said one Elder haughtily as another answered, “To prepare her for the Trial.”

Sully looked toward a man in the corner. “Montgomery?”

The only other young one. Sully’s friend. I looked toward him too, like he might be my salvation. He didn’t look happy, but he nodded. “It’s just a ceremony. It’s fine.”

Sully’s eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded too.

I dropped my eyes to the floor.

His friend was a liar.

Or ignorant.

I hoped for Sully’s sake that Montgomery was just ignorant.

And I also hated the man for not protecting me.

Because whatever they had planned for me was not going to be fine, I knew it deep down in my guts. I was not safe.

But I’d survived their Fox Hunt.

I’d survived their brand.

For my family, I would survive anything.

I turned away from Sully. I had a bad habit of not being able to hide my truth from him, and if he saw the truth of what I was facing, whatever evil it was, I feared he would tear down this manor.

But I had a family to think of… particularly my little sister. My dear, dear sister who needed me more now than ever before.

And her life was worth everything.

So, I walked to the sirens, the painted witches with angels faces, and I let them lead me through the door to what would no doubt be a new level of hell.