Page 55 of The Monster's Mate

“But of course, I know you, Lucifer’s Daughter,” he says. “I’ve been hunting you a very long time. Too long. You should have been taken care of years ago when you left the home, but you disappeared, didn’t you?”

The only reason why I wasn’t “taken care of” was because I’d gotten away. And if I don’t get out now, he’ll finish the job.

We both pause for a brief moment, taking in the distance from where we stand to the door, then one of us twitches, and I go sailing toward it.

He catches me in an instant, his fingers digging into my arms as he spins me around to face him. “It’s not that easy, you little bitch. You ruined my whole fucking career, you and Isabel, the spiteful whore.”

“How did I ruin your career?” I gasp.

“Don’t pretend you weren’t in on the plan for her and her daughter coming to Earth to announce I was the father.”

“You would have been an awful president anyway,” I sneer. “I’m glad you were taken out.”

He drags me out of the church, and we stumble through the backyard. At the end of a downward slope, where the shackles and wooden pedestal where River was once whipped, where Skiden and I once talked, are two waiting men dressed in robes.

“Here,” he says to them. One is old, wispy white hairs around his head, his eyes sunken like a mummy. The other is heavyset, his belly spread full under his robe. He wears a moustache and it’s darker than the rest of his hair.

“You were supposed to bring River’s mother,” he says. “This Isabel that you said cleans the church.”

“Isabel decided to live with the aliens on that planet. I bring you the next best thing. River’ssister.”

Oh, my God. Did I hear what I think I heard? Did he call me… River’s sister? My ears are ringing and I try to think back to when she visited and I thought she seemed familiar. At the time, I thought it was because of her similarities to Isabel but maybe she had some to me and I didn’t notice?

Our black hair.

Our round foreheads—obviously inherited from Duke.

And I should have known. Isabel was impregnated by one of her father’s friends. I should have known which friend it was but I was so wrapped up in the hideousness of Isabel losing her baby that it’s all I focused on.

I recover from my shock to see the dark-headed man narrows his gaze, taking me in fully. Studying my features… then he narrows his eyes at Duke.

“You’ll have to willingly present her. Father to daughter. That’s how it’s done here. If all goes as planned, we’ll take you to our east commune when things die down within a month and you’ll be able to hide out there. No questions asked.”

“And you,” the older man says, turning to me and grabbing my upper arm as he yanks me to him, “will do as we say.”

He’s surprisingly strong for someone who looks so frail.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Duke smirks, and leaves me in the hands of these two. Just turns and walks down the path toward the communal housing. Someone must be allowing him to stay with them, then?

“I say we mark her face like River’s—except this time we complete the job,” the first one says.

“Donald,” the older one says. “Restrain yourself. I know you want revenge on River but we have grumbling from the people over that mark.”

“She was my daughter and I had every right to mark her—”

“We both know that. However, meeting those aliens made us look like the bad guys instead of simply the ones who were punishing a disobedient maiden. River was beautiful and when she returned? She looked horrific. Like one of them. Tattoos covering her face to replace the scar! As if she preferred that look. And to choose to stay with those monsters? People are still whispering about why she would choose them over us. They hush when we’re present, but we can’t always be present, can we?”

So their control over the people in the commune is starting to slip.

“Why would our people trust aliens over their own?” Donald asks.

The older man—the prophet—shrugs. “Because they fed them? Offered them a presence that night when they returned? Pretended to want to get to know them? Who knows what sheep are thinking.” And he leans into Donald. “And it’s up to us to herd them. To show them the proper way and this girl”—he eyes me thoughtfully— “will do it.”

“You can’t kidnap a woman and hold her here,” I say.

“Can’t we? No one knows you exist, right? River was put into a basket and sailed into our commune. Where were you at that time?”

Safe with my mother for two years. Two years is all I got with her.

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