Page 36 of Ruthless Legacy

“Come forward,” he orders, and Archer gives me a nudge in the back until I find myself slowly walking towards him until I reach the centre of the circle. “Tonight, we initiate a new Ace. Tonight, we welcome her into the fold, and as part of our family.”

I take a step back when I see him reach behind him and pull out a knife. What the fuck!

“Eliza Alderman, do you accept your place in this society? Do you pledge your loyalty above all others to those who stand in this room with you?”

“Yes,” I say hesitantly, looking around the room at the silent figures.

“Do you accept that the laws of the society are absolute and must be obeyed at all times? That any order given by an elder will be obeyed without question?”

“Err, I…yeah,” I say, the hesitancy in my tone clear. I didn’t know shit about their laws, so let’s hope there was nothing in them I should be worried about. Should Archer have given me a club rule book to read before I signed up for this shit?

“Do you swear you will abide by the society’s rules and traditions and that you are one with your brethren?”

“Yes,” I say, my voice barely a whisper.

“Then step forward, child and take your oath in blood.”

I hesitate, and I can feel the eyes of everyone in the room on me. I take an unsteady step forward and gulp when he steps closer to me with a knife in his hand.

“Eliza Alderman, you are now a member of this society.” He moves towards me and the cold knife glints against the candlelight, making my heart stutter in my chest. I feel like time stands still as his arm nears my body.

“Blood of my blood. Kin of kin. For now, and always,” the man chants and everyone in the room repeats it after him as he slices the knife across my thumb, causing me to hiss in pain. He then slices his thumb and wipes his lips with his bloodied finger. For a minute I stand there staring, before I realise he is waiting for me to do the same. With a shaky hand, I run my thumb along my bottom and top lip. I try to veer away from him when he takes me by my arms and leans down and presses his bloodied, stiff lips against mine. Then he hands the knife over to the next masked man, who cuts his thumb, and he leans down and kisses me. This continues until every member present in the room has drawn blood and put their lips to mine. I do a double take when Vee is before me, placing her lips to mine. She winks as she pulls away. I falter even more when I find my grandfather standing before me with the bloodied knife in his hand. He looks at me with such pride and satisfaction when he leans down and presses a quick, firm kiss to my lips. The last one to step up and take the knife is Archer. When he steps forward, the man who conducted the ceremony holds the knife out to him.

Archer slices it across his palm, but instead of reaching for my hand, he squeezes his fist over a silver goblet, and I watch with morbid fascination as his blood drips into the cup. When he does reach for my hand it’s to slice across my palm and draw blood. He holds it over the cup and squeezes my fist until my blood pools and falls into the cup. He takes the cup and places it to his lips and takes a drink before offering it out to me. I hesitate. I mean, I’m not really down for drinking anyone’s blood, not even my own. Archers’ dark eyes burn into mine in warning, so with an internal eye roll I take the cup and drink. I didn’t know there was also red wine in the cup, so I’m relieved that I can’t actually taste or notice the blood.

“Mea per sanguinem,” Archer says and everyone in the room repeats the words back to him.

The older man who resides over the whole thing holds the palm of his hand out to me and resting there is a key, much like the one Archer used to enter the building with. I reach out and tentatively take the key, closing my bloodied palm around it. “Welcome to the Aces, Eliza Alderman.”

Everyone in the room breaks into applause and then the dimmed lights resume their brightness, and everyone breaks off and resumes socialising and drinking like the strange ceremony didn’t just happen.

“Well, that was weird as fuck!” I exclaim, letting out a breath of relief that it is over. I really don’t have a clue what I’ve signed up for here, but my grandfather is here, and he wouldn’t let me be involved in anything dangerous or sinister, right?

Archer grasps my hand in his and gently tugs me from the room. As we pass another tray of champagne, I grab a glass, bringing it with me. I need the alcohol tonight to help me process things.

“Where are we going?” I ask him.

“Wait and see,” he replies as we climb a staircase up to the higher floor. He guides me through various rooms until he reaches a door that he unlocks with a key. I’m surprised to find that it leads outside to a stone staircase that leads onto the roof of the old building.

I falter in my steps. There’s a terrace up here. The night sky is so clear from here. The stars shine brightly, not a cloud in the sky. Fairy lights line the edge of the roof.

“It’s beautiful up here,” I say as I wander further on to the roof and gaze up at the stars. When I stop and look back, Archer is standing with his hands in his pockets, watching me.

“What?” I ask him with a tilt of my head. Why is he looking at me like that? He stalks towards me, and I’m frozen in place as he descends on me. When he reaches me, he cups the back of my neck and tips my head back until I meet his eyes.

“What is it about you?” he asks me as he searches my face for some kind of answer. Before I can ask him what the hell he is going on about, his lips crash down on mine, and I forget everything else but the feel of his mouth against mine. I whimper, leaning into him, and kiss him back with fervent need.

Archer walks us backwards until he stumbles back onto a stone bench. He lifts my legs so that I am on his lap, my thighs either side of him. He holds me tightly as he devours me, and I can’t get enough. I want more. I want to be closer to him. He reaches behind me unzipping my dress. I should stop him. I should say no, but when he runs his hands up my thighs and bunches my dress up to my waist and then up and over my head, I make no protest. My bra quickly follows until I’m on his lap in nothing more than my black lace thong. When he pulls his mouth from mine, I whimper in protest, and he shushes me as he trails soft kisses down my neck, and he finds a pebbled nipple. I run my fingers through his hair as he licks and nips at my breast.

“Why didn’t you kiss me like all the others?” I ask breathlessly, as he worships my skin.

“That was you swearing your allegiance to me. You’re my initiate,” he explains as his fingers trail between my legs.

“My allegiance to you? Are you kidding me?” I hiss as he sinks a finger inside of me.

“Oh, but I’m not Scarlet. In the eyes of this society, you are mine. That ceremony you just took part in where you drank our blood. That was you making yourself mine.”

“I’ll never be yours Savage,” I hiss in protest as my hips ride his fingers.

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