I watched Brother Judah step toward them and signal something to Brother Micah. Brother Micah reached into his tunic and pulled out a firearm and opened fire on the six men who captured me, their bodies ripping apart with bullets and blood as they hit the ground—dead.
I screamed as I watched the men fall one by one. Brother Luke wrapped his hand over my mouth. “Hush, Rapunzel whore! Those men were sinners and deserved to die. It was God’s will.”
Prophet Cain stood beside us, his face blank, but I caught a slight tightening of his eyes, showing me that the execution of the men may have bothered him. Brother Judah and Micah caught up with us.
“Inform Landry the men have been disposed of and he will receive the payment within the hour,” Brother Judah told Brother Micah.
Brother Micah nodded and ran ahead into the forest but stopped to glance back and ask, “My lord, with permission, I would like to be the elder appointed to the Cursed Delilah. I would like to continue where Brother Noah left off.”
No, no, no!
My eyes darted to Prophet Cain, who watched me, his eyes narrowed. He waited to reply, like he was mulling it over in his head. I was begging him with my eyes to say no, but Brother Judah moved beside him.
“Brother, She is a Cursed. Prophet David’s revelation said that she must have an elder to instruct her salvation. Brother Micah is an elder. You have to let him take this role.”
My father, Brother Luke and Brother Micah watched on with curious stares and I could see that Brother Judah was uneasy with Prophet Cain’s delay in his answer.
Judah whispered something into Prophet Cain’s ear and the prophet glanced to me then cast his eyes down. Eventually, he waved his hand at Brother Micah. “Agreed, Micah. She needs to be purified. You shall be her ward.”
Brother Micah sighed in gratitude. When he looked at me, he smiled. “Thank you, Master. I will devote all of my time to her salvation.”
My legs grew weak and my head became dizzy. No! Brother Micah would continue where Brother Noah left off. Brother Micah would be my ward. He would be taking me in the Lord’s Sharings… No, no! I could not… I did not want him to touch me.
Fear took hold and I attempted to flee, but Brother Luke’s and my father’s hands stayed strong.
“No! Please!” I begged.
Prophet Cain was suddenly before me.
“Enough!” he demanded, then took a deep breath, causing my cries to halt in my throat. “You are back with your people now, Delilah. Do you not wish for your soul to be saved? This is the only way. Can you not see that?”
As I stared at Prophet Cain, I could see the sincerity and belief in his eyes.
“Prophet Cain, do not pander to her. It is her innate evil trying to seduce you,” my father said and I felt as though I had been stabbed in my back. Prophet Cain raised his hand to stop his protest.
“Well, do you?” Prophet Cain pushed. “Do you wish to continue living with a damned soul or do you want to join with the Lord? Be released from your evil, tempting bonds and be free?”
A shuddering breath escaped me and I nodded. Because I did. I wanted more than anything for my soul to be free. I wanted a man to want me for me and not my looks. My heart swelled with hope as I thought of my biggest wish… for Ky to love me, not the blond hair, the eyes, and my mouth… I wanted him to want me without the bewitching spell he was under.
“Yes,” I whispered to Prophet Cain. “I wish for my Satan-spawned soul to be saved.”
Prophet Cain nodded, triumph in his brown eyes. “Then you shall be as a woman should. You shall be obedient, meek, and submissive. And you shall abide by Brother Micah’s instruction and strive to rid yourself of Satan’s sin.”
*****
It was like nothing I could ever have imagined. People and buildings were scattered everywhere. Tall structures, farmland, and houses were everywhere. As far as the eye could see.
If Prophet David’s commune was a small village, New Zion was a vast city.
If the elders and disciples from Prophet David’s commune were guards, the thousands of men keeping vigil at the boundaries of New Zion were an army.
It became clear that what I had been raised in dwelled in the past. This very organized, very opulent New Zion was carrying my people forward.
Prophet Cain was preparing the Lord’s chosen ones for the apocalypse.
As Brother Luke and my father carried me through the line of trees into the commune, the place became abuzz. People, both tall and short, fat and thin, young and old, stood to see me, gawking, eyes tight, mouths dropped as I was carted through the backdrop of their chores.
Whisperings drifted from their mouths on the breeze and met my ears.
“Look! A Cursed! I have heard the stories, but never seen one in the flesh.”
Mothers would hold back their teenage sons. “Do not look into her eyes, my son. She will tempt you. She will give over your soul to Satan after seducing you with her looks.”
Older members scowled in my direction, holding out their hands to the heavens in a bid to save my soul. All the time, Prophet Cain walked beside me, proud of his capture, blessing his followers, smiling as they all fawned and threw themselves at his feet. They were praising the Lord and speaking in tongues, prostrate on the ground.
As I remembered my old home, a sense of emptiness filled me. I was confused. This was what I had always wanted, to be at one with my people and to be saved from my innate seductive ways. I wanted to live in peace in the commune, away from the sinful outside world, away from the denizens of Satan that occupied the lands. And I wanted to live under the stern hand of the Lord’s prophet. I wanted to be saved when the end of days came, to be embraced by the Lord and to live forever at his side in Heaven.
But as I was dragged through my people—my people who looked upon me with disgust or even abject fear—I felt like a stranger, an alien to this hallowed ground. I realized on the outside, I was never judged or forced to be someone I was not. Nobody wanted to change me; rather, they wanted me to be happy—Ky, Mae, Styx, AK, Cowboy, Hush, even Viking. They wanted me to feel at home. All the time I thought they had been trying to corrupt me. A part of me now questioned my previously unshakeable beliefs.
I had never felt so lonely in my life as I did right now. Never more confused. I had wanted to come back to my people and the prophet, but now that I was here, I yearned to be wrapped in the arms of my Ky. And that was the sad truth. I thought of that devastatingly handsome, protective, yet sinful man as my own. He had taken a piece of my tainted soul… of my heart… and made him a part of me. He was in my every cell, my conscience. He was simply part of me.
Lowering my head in sadness I could not dispel and uninterested in seeing my people’s continuing disapproving glares, I stared at the long green grass rushing below my feet, until that green grass turned into gray cobbled stone, until that cobbled stone turned into the hardwood flooring of my new quarters.
Brother Luke and my father came to an abrupt stop in a sparse room and threw me down onto a bed. I hit the soft mattress and struggled to sit, showing my obedience to the elders.
As I lifted my heavy eyes, I witnessed Brother Luke and my father staring down at me. They were side by side, both had aged considerably. Both gray in hair, now showcasing lines on their faces that had not been there when I was a child. They had both put on weight. My father’s eyes had a slight milky tint to them, obscuring the brightness of the blue they once were.
Brother Luke shook his head and placed an arm around my father’s shoulders. “Well, Isaiah, we could not have been more right. This… harlot is most certainly a Cursed. Those large eyes, that sumptuous mouth. She is alluring beyond measure. In fact, I am fighting against the urge to join with her as we speak.”
A frightened cry escaped my lips and I scurried back on the bed.
Brother Luke shook his head and cussed. “I must leave before I fall,” was all he said, fleeing the room and closing the door.
My father still st
arted at me, and I could not help but think of all the times he snuck into my bed as a child, scooping me in his arms and stroking at my skin. Could not help but think of all the times he sat me on his lap, locking all my other siblings out of the room, running his fingers through my hair. And I could not help but think of the time he told me to cleanse with him in the bath, where he had taken my hands and—
My eyes snapped to my father’s and a wave of anger engulfed me. His eyebrows rose, clearly catching my change of expression, as I whispered, “What kind of father makes his six-year-old daughter touch him… intimately? What kind of father strokes his daughter in salacious ways?”
My father’s eyes widened in shock at my words and all color drained from his face. “How dare you?” he hissed, but I shook my head, praying the threatening tears in my eyes did not tumble down my cheeks.
“How. Dare. You!” I repeated his words with a strength in my voice I did not expect. “You made a pure relationship dirty. What you did to me was wrong and unclean!”
With a rage-fuelled snarl, my father leapt forward and backhanded me across my cheek, my mouth instantly filling with blood. I held his gaze as he snapped, “You truly are evil, Beelzebub! You tempted me, came into my dreams, and warped my mind to think of only you, of taking you as only a man should take a woman.”
My fists clenched with frustration in my bound hands. “No, Father, I did not. You were wrong. You made me think the way you treated me was as any father should treat their child. But I have learned that it was not! It was sinful… morally wrong!”
My father’s face flushed with crimson and, retreating from the room, he announced, “I am eager for Micah to begin his exorcism of your evil. That demon, that wicked evilness living inside you must be cast out of your soul once and for all. Failing that, Delilah, you shall pass on to the next life for the Lord to judge you, just as your mother did for sleeping with Satan and creating you!”
This time blood seeped from my face, and I began to involuntarily shake. “My… my mother?” I asked, and I saw the triumph clearly expressed in my father’s expression.
Gripping the doorknob, his eyes flared. “Your mother was tried and found guilty of witchcraft and dwelling with the Dark Lord. She welcomed Satan into her bed, and her joining with him produced you. She was found guilty of heresy and paid the ultimate price. She is now burning in hell for all eternity.”
He opened the door and glanced back. “You may have left this commune once, Delilah, but there will be no escape for you again. New Zion is a fortress, a stronghold keeping the Lord’s people safe from the malevolent evildoers beyond our great gates. You are a Cursed and, as such, you belong here with us for the sake of your own salvation. It will not be long before the Lord will return for us all. Prophet Cain reveals it is so, and when he does, you had better pray Brother Micah has been successful in purifying your tainted core.”
As the door slammed shut, I shook with fear. The ropes were burning my skin, tightly bound around my wrists and feet. Casting a glance round the room, nothing felt familiar. These quarters were nicer than I had been raised in with Bella, Mae, and Maddie. The walls were a shade of off-white; there were gauze curtains at the long, wide windows and cherry wood flooring beneath my feet. I felt like a prisoner trapped in a cell of luxury.
Curling up on the white linen that covered the bed, I let the tears fall. And fall they did. I was so confused, so torn. I wanted Mae and Maddie. I wanted to talk to them, to laugh with them, but above all… I wanted Ky. I cursed myself for running to the river tonight after we made love, after he declared his love for me. I cursed myself for not fighting my captors harder. For not screaming, alerting the Hangmen to my presence. But even now as I lay here on this strange bed, in this strange room, in this new and strange commune, daggers plunged into my heart. I loved Ky, and that love was pure, unguarded, but his love was a ruse, a spell, the consequence of what I was… and would always be?
As hard as it was for me to accept, I knew being here amongst my kind, my people… my saviors… was the place I had to be. As much as my heart broke second by second, I must be here in New Zion… I had to be saved from sin. Only then would I know if Ky truly could love the lost girl underneath.
Chapter Seventeen
Ky
Standing at the front of the compound, I pulled out a smoke and took a long sweet drag as I watched the back gate like a motherfucking hawk.
Reaching into my jeans pocket, I checked the time on my cell. Four hours had gone by, four fucking hours since those pointy-hooted bastards took my woman and we had no idea where. Tank’s fascist friend was scheduled anytime with intel, and as soon as we got what we wanted, I was gonna rip some fuckers apart, tear off their limbs, and club them with the fuckers. I may be some pretty boy good-looking bastard, but I was a good-looking bastard with zero remorse and a distinct lack of shitting morals.
A cough sounded beside me, and I saw Styx. He pulled out a smoke, lit up, and stood watching the gate with me.
“Y-you good?” he asked, blowing out his smoke and taking another long drag.
“I’ll be better when this Klan deserter gets here and tells me where they took my bitch.”
Styx nodded and we listened to the silent road, not a soul this far out on this country road in the middle of nowhere Austin. I checked my cell again; only five minutes had passed by.
Fuck.
I couldn’t settle, couldn’t deal with this shit. What if those fuckers were raping my bitch? What if they were taking her over and over, loving her screaming, getting hard off her fear… Or what if they’d killed her? What if all they wanted to do was send a message to the Hangmen, send one of our bitches to the boatman just to piss us the fuck off?
Did they want a war? Did they want our turf? Were they planning to trade in guns? Drugs?
“Y-y-you’re th-thinking too m-much, brother,” Styx stuttered. “D-don’t fuckin’ go th-there.”
Running my hand though my long hair, I threw my cherry to the ground and lit up another cancer stick. “Then tell me what the fuck to think, brother. Because right the fuck now, I’m going insane. They’ve got my woman, Styx, my motherfuckin’ woman. I ain’t loved a woman my whole life except my momma and my sister. I never thought I’d take an old lady. Thought you, Tank, and Bull were just pussy-whipped motherfuckers who’d made the wrong choice by giving up the pussy we get strutting through this place.”
I took another drag, feeling Styx watch me, and added, “I fuck like a damn god, lick clits like a fuckin’ sex toy, and can fuck for hours, Styx, hours. You know our old men were cunts, but I always agreed with them on one thing. Pussies are to be licked good, fucked hard—never worshipped. But fuck, man, Lilah, my fuckin’ innocent and crazy pilgrim blonde, knocked all that shit outta the park. Hell, build me a fuckin’ shrine to that bitch and I’ll worship it. She’s fuckin’ bewitched me, Styx, and it ain’t just those looks. It’s just out and out her.” My back hit the wall and I thought my chest was going to explode with the pressure tearing my sternum apart.
Styx leaned against the opposite wall, and I could see in his expression the brother was hurting too, for me, for his woman, hell, for the club. Those three crazy bitches had wormed their way into all the brothers’ hearts.
Staring at the gate, my vision blurred, and I said, “For the first time in my sorry twenty-seven years on this godforsaken Earth, I care about something more than the club, the freedom of the road, and my brothers. Now some fucker may have ripped it all apart, before me and my old lady gotta chance to get going.”
Styx raised his eyebrow. “O-old l-l-lady?”
My eyes snapped open when I realized what I’d just said. My gaze slammed to Styx’s and it was like the brother could see right through me. “Yeah… fuck!” I rasped out. “She is, Styx. I want Li, all of her, in my bed, on my bike, in my motherfuckin’ heart. Shit, I’ve joined your lost-my-bollocks-to-a-bitch ranks!” I tried to joke, but fuckin’ fear for Lilah took away any humor.
 
; Styx flicked his smoke to the ground and took three steps forward to stand right in front of me. I looked up to my brother’s—my best friend’s—eyes, and clearly seeing the devastation written on my face, he wrapped his hand around my head and pulled me to his chest.
I fuckin’ nearly broke like a pussy.
Pushing me back, Styx cupped my cheeks and let go of me only to sign, “I fuckin’ asked you to watch Lilah so you could get to know her for more than her looks. I saw the way you looked at the bitch and I saw the way she looked at you too. I saw the spark but knew you were too much of a fuckin’ whore to want her for more than a fuck. I couldn’t let you do that to her, brother.”
“So what the fuck changed?” I asked.
He shrugged and rubbed at his jaw before signing, “Thought if I threw you together, you’d get on board quick. And you did, brother; that bitch had you wrapped around her finger in no time, just like Mae had me. But when you gave up the club pussy you used to fuck so much and you’re fucked-up orgies came to an end, I knew Lilah was it for you. And I want all that I have with Mae for you, Ky. You deserve to be with a good woman. In this life, a good woman by your side and on the back of your bike changes everything when shit gets rough. Believe me, Mae’s my fuckin’ lifeline in this cesspool we live in. She’s fuckin’ everything.”
Tears blurred my eyes, and I gripped Styx’s cut. “I need her back, prez. Ain’t sure what I’ll do if she’s lost. I’m changed; she’s changed me. I’m under her damn spell and I sure as shit don’t wanna get out.”
Styx sighed and held my wrist. “I-I-I pr-promise. We’re g-gonna get her b-b-back.”
My head dipped and I sucked in a huge breath when, suddenly, the roar of a Harley’s engine came barreling down the road.
“Incoming!” the prospect shouted and began opening up the gate. Seconds later, three bikes pulled up: Tank, Bull, and what I assumed was our new protective custody knight of the Ku Klux fuckin’ Klan.