Page 4 of Noire Moon
Although in this light, it makes it hard to see anything at all and I’m sure that is completely intentional.
“You dropped something.” The woman’s voice is husky and captivating, and sure enough, when I follow her gaze to thefloor, I see a small black card with gold embossing on the front. I hadn’t even noticed whatever escaped my pocket, and I immediately crouch down, doing my best not to flash everyone in the line behind me. Reaching out, I snatch up whatever it is because something in this woman’s demeanor could compel me to obey anything she said without a second thought.
But my tight throat already knows before I pick it up. My unsteady grip turns it over slowly.
The second one this week.
Another tarot card left for me to find.
Death.
Chapter 2
I’d shrugged off the first card I found as some sort of weird prank when I discovered it inside my wallet a few days ago. That time, it was the golden Devil card winking at me when I went to pay for my groceries.
The card I’m currently holding in my hands matches that first one, and my skin crawls. How the fuck did that get in my pocket?
“Death.” The woman muses. Something sounds playful in her voice, and I have a sudden, overwhelming urge to listen to my instincts, to turn tail and flee. However, before I can do anything, I’m being pressed forward by the group of girls surrounding me, and my eyes struggle to adjust to just how very inky black the air is inside. As we pass through the imposing doors with large gold snakes eating their own tails adorning the wood, my heel catches, and I stumble forward in the murkiness. Immediately colliding against an immovable figure with a force that successfully punches the air from my lungs.
Solid muscle and expensive suit material are suddenly beneath my fingers. Meanwhile, I’m still clutching the tarot card inside one fist. That skull embossed in gold foil stares back at me as I swallow heavily and simply cannot move—seemingly frozenin place for a breathless moment—all while the faint smell of citrus and wood fills my senses. Goddammit, it’s exactly the kind of masculine scent that tempts my body to respond immediately.
A gruff voice comes at me out of the dark from another direction, not the figure I’ve found myself pressed up against, however, and I almost shriek when a range of bands are shoved under my nose. The act is followed by a clipped command.
“Choose your poison, girl.”
I don’t even know what type of wristband I reach out and grab. Is that a bad thing? Fuck it, what are the odds I’ll even be noticed amongst the beautiful girls crowded around me anyway?
In the time it takes to rashly scoop up one of the offered choices, doing so without thinking or concentrating on the options, the man I stumbled into vanishes, seemingly into thin air.
“Isn’t this incredible, P?” I hear Rita’s voice at my side, and my eyes slowly adjust to the dim candlelight.
While I slip the clear band over my wrist, securing it in place, I take a second to suck in a shaky breath and look around. We’re in a cavernous foyer that appears to be mostly polished marble finishes and heavy-set dark wood.
“It’s quite something, alright,” I hear myself saying. But my eyes are busy trying to look back, to seek out a last possible glimpse of whoever that was I bumped into. My body is still buzzing beneath my skin just from that momentary brush against his muscled chest, except, of course, all I see is ominous shadows and the group we’ve entered through the doors with.
It’d be foolish of me to expect anyone here tonight to glance my way. What am I even imagining might happen here? So, I quickly tuck the tarot card back into my pocket and brace myself for whatever this fright-night, sex-fest might hold in store.
“We have to wait here for a moment until they let us in.” Cora is on my other side, and I hate the fact I can’t prevent myselffrom throwing all caution to the wind, daring one last glance over my shoulder while being led further into the foyer.
That’s when I see him.
Clearer this time.
At this distance, now that my eyes have adjusted, I can take in more details.
He’s standing just behind the doorway, half-hidden in the shadows. From what I can see he makes the man who took Rita’s ticket look like a lanky teenager in comparison to his broad shoulders and height.
His skull mask is slightly different, with a streak of gold splattered down the side like it has come from the blood of a God, shimmering and opulent, instead of the ruby red of us mere mortals.
My pulse quickens as my eyes connect with the sight that should terrify me, considering where we are and the rumors surrounding this place.
He’s looking right at me from behind the hollowed-out, deadened eyes of his mask.
Rita’s grip tightens on my elbow, and she screech-whispers in my ear. “Bitch, that one is totally into you.”
She’s wrong, of course.
“Don’t be a dick. You can’t tell anything with those creepy masks on.” I try to shrug it off. Only, my body can tell. It heats beneath his gaze as if it knows exactly how closely he’s watching me from behind that disguise.
