Cruel Seduction (Underground Kings 2)

Yeah, I can’t believe what I am seeing either.

The pentagram is painted black and a dead goat, sheep, and a bull’s head sits along the bottom of it. Torches are lit along the sides of the stage. People are kneeling by the pentagram and chanting to it.

“I say we take a few out right now.” Owen aims his gun through the trees and kills all four kneeling at the pentagram. The bullet goes right through their skulls and they still seem to be in a bowed position, so our cover isn’t blown.

“Put me down! No! I don’t want this. It’s rape! It’s insanity! Put me fucking down! I hate you!”

Gabriella’s voice has me whipping my head to the side and seeing her being carried out on a throne of some sort. Her feet are bound along with her wrists and the gown she wears is completely see-through. I can see her tits, and I grip the knife in my hand until I shake with anger. I am going to kill every single one of those fuckers.

And she has another bruise on her cheek.

They lower her onto the stage, and no one notices the dead bodies bowing at the pentagram. Two men lift her from the throne and my girl kicks, screams, and bites, but it doesn’t matter; they cuff her to the stage, spread eagle.

I stab the tree with my knife, finding it difficult to breathe. I can’t go into a fight with emotion. I need to calm down.

“Family. Coven. My dearest friends,” Kendrick’s voice comes from the balcony of his room. He slowly walks down the steps as he speaks. “Thank you for joining me on this momentous occasion. We have a special treat in store for our god. A sacrifice I’ve been grooming for seven years. A virgin of Mediterranean descent. She will give us the power we have been craving.”

Everyone cheered as Kendrick came to the bottom of the steps. He wasn’t wearing a black robe. He wore a white one. The cloth matched her gown. I remembered what Zeke said about Kendrick taking her first, hoping to ‘spill’ the first of her virgin blood before the others took her.

“She will ascend, and once our god accepts her soul and we bathe in her purity, we will be immortal,” he shouts to the sky.

“Oh, wow. Your brother is off his fucking rocker,” Owen says. “He thinks he will be immortal… That’s a new level of crazy.”

There are too many people surrounding the stage now for Owen to take anyone out without being noticed.

“You have about three minutes before the moon is at its fullest. I’m assuming that’s when the ceremony will begin. You need to get your ass in gear,” Heaven states in the earpiece.

“Ready?” Owen aims.

“Fire.”

Owen pulls the trigger as fast as he can, bodies hitting the ground one by one. Five hit the ground before people understand what is going on and start to scatter.

“No! Don’t run! This is a test. Remain vigilant,” Kendrick runs toward the stage and starts to undo his pants.

Owen and I run out from the trees, and I have my knife at the ready, shoving it into the soft skin of the sick individual’s stomach. A few people try to fight me off, stopping me from getting to Kendrick as he lifts Gabriella’s gown to take her.

During all of this, somehow the fucker is able to get an erection.

“You cannot stop him! It is meant to be. The book says so!” one of his followers tackle me to the ground, but the knife slides into his chest like butter.

Jaxon and Grayson are handling the other cult members on their own, and Owen shoots anyone who dares come close to him.

Which leaves me to deal with my brother.

I hop on stage and sheath my knife, pulling out my gun instead. “Let her go, Kendrick.”

He twists his head back, and the way his hair falls across his forehead and the desperate gleam he has in his eyes along with madness, I know my brother isn’t in there anymore.

“No, this needs to happen! I’ve waited too long for this. She’s mine.”

“She’s no virgin. I took it. She’s mine. What do your rules say about that?”

Kendrick stares at Gabriella, and she spits in his face.

“Your ritual wouldn’t have worked. Step away.”

“No, you’re lying,” Kendrick says, hovering over her.