Page 78 of Brightness

And that makes you weak.

Ivy gives me strength, but she’s also my greatest weakness.

Three Days Later

It’s nice to be back in Ivy’s good graces. For a second, I thought we were going to be spending the rest of our stay here with her angry at me, but with us fucking on the bank of the bayou, it pulled us back to each other. It’s what we needed. We have got to be united in this. We work better as a team.

Today, though, has me on edge. I’ve had no word from Nycto. For all I know, the club could be fending off an attack right now. So, I’m doing my best to keep Ivy occupied. We’re on the sofa, watching television. I’m wrapped around her, trying to keep her as calm as possible, when the floorboards on the porch outside creek.

Our eyes shoot to the front door.

I ease Ivy off me slowly, not making any sudden movements. “Go to the panic room,” I whisper. “Don’t come out until I come get you.” We both stand silently, and I draw out my gun as she turns with nothing but fear in her eyes. “Go!” I mouth.

Ivy grimaces, then starts running.

Before I even make it to the front door, it bursts open. Men wearing the same white slacks and white shirts my father used to make us wear surge inside, all with guns aimed directly at me. I point mine back, but there’s nothing I can do. There’s way too fucking many of them.

A disciple signals to the others, and they rush me. I grit my teeth as one of them surges forward. I clench my fist and punch him in the face while another yanks my gun from my hand. The others jump me, pulling me over to the kitchen chair. I struggle, trying like hell to fend them off, but they slam me down. I try to fight, but they pull wire ties out of their pockets. I manage to yank one hand free and sock another guy in the face, but he doesn’t even budge—he simply grips my hand, wrenches it behind my back, and ties my wrists together while I growl low.

“Whatever you want, you won’t find it here!” I grunt.

The ringleader chuckles. “We already have.” He waves his hand through the air, and another disciple comes from down the hall, dragging a gagged and bound Ivy behind him. Her eyes are fraught with fear as she tries to fight them off. I thrash about on the chair in an attempt to get to her, but the disciple holds me in place.

She didn’t make it to the panic room.

“Ivy! Get your fucking hands off me. Ivy! Let her go, you fucking brainwashed pieces of shit.” I pummel about, fighting harder than ever, but all it does is make my wrists burn against the tension of the ties. Two men hold me down with every ounce of strength they have, while the disciples laugh.

But everyone stops as a man walks into the bungalow.

All eyes turn.

And I take in the tall figure.

He hasn’t changed at all.

Maybe his hair’s a little grayer.

His wavy hair is to his shoulders. The pronounced mustache over a slightly smaller beard makes him seem like a guy from an old seventies porno movie, but I’m sure the gray hair would make ladies view him as a silver fox. He’s not some ugly fuck, that’s for sure. He has an aura about him that draws people in, and that’s why he’s so fucking deadly.

“Hello, son.”

Scowling, I shake my head. “You stopped being my father the day you tried to turn me into you.”

He walks inside and views the bungalow, his gaze taking everything in. “You mean the day I freed you from your virtue… from your innocence. You need to see, Cade… life is made up of moments, of choices. They define us. You chose that day to be a man. You chose to become… like me. Like all of us. It helped shape who you are now—”

“I’m nothing like you.”

“Nothing? You don’t think women should submit to us? Let me get this straight, son. Out there, in the woods… you didn’t make Ivy submit to you?”

My eyes shift to Ivy. Tears well, then slowly fall over her bottom lids.

Hell. Maybe I am just like him?

“What Ivy and I do is none of your damn business!”

“What Ivy and you had might be none of my business, but it’s over now. Ivy belongs to me. I’m taking her as my offering. She’s young, virile, hardly broken in. Her children will be part of the next generation, seeing as the last was useless at keeping the family tradition going.”

Anger blooms inside me so strong I can barely contain it. I wrestle in my chair again. It moves from side to side on its legs so much that it almost topples over as they start to drag Ivy outside.

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