Page 34 of Make Me Wild (Rich Demons of Darkwood 3)

I jumped when she suddenly threw herself to the ground, thrashing and pulling at the thick grass like she was having some type of seizure, her wails filling the air around her.

"Okay. We’re getting the fuck out of here," Stellan murmured, trying to reach for my hand again. I was frozen, watching in fascination as the woman fell apart in front of me. What on earth did she think my father had done to get this level of obsession and devotion?

"Did he give you a message for us? Did he ask you to continue his work?" a man called out from nearby.

Fuck. This guy had crept way too close when I was paying attention to the circus act in front of me, standing just a few feet away now, his gaze manic and crazed.

"I —" my words got stuck in my throat when his gaze flicked towards Stellan, ice-cold rage crossing his face.

"You!" he seethed. "You defiled her."

Stellan and I looked at each other, both of us wondering what the hell he was talking about—and which bathroom he was referencing. Since that seemed to be a thing with us as of late. There were options to choose from.

"You turned the Demon's daughter into a whore," he called out, taking a threatening step toward us.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my stomach clenching in horror.

“You’ve been spreading your legs, betraying your legacy. The Demon devoted his life to maintaining your purity, and you've thrown it all away. We saw you!."

"Devoted his life to maintaining my purity?" I repeated incredulously. What the hell was he talking about? The Demon had been a controlling bastard, especially when it came to my virginity, but that was a whole new level of daddy issues.

I felt a little numb about the prospect of there being a sex tape out there of me. Not that I judged anyone who went that route, but it had never been a kink I’d been interested in exploring.

It especially hadn't been my thing to have this group of lunatics watch.

"I need to get a copy of that tape," Stellan muttered next to me. “Cain’s going to kill me.” I resisted the urge to elbow him, just in case that was taken as the call for violence by the group.

"We're just gonna leave now. But I'll give my father your best regards. He's assured me he’s forgiven me for my sins," I said piously, not that I knew what that sounded like. But I’d just given it my best effort.

“You should come with us, so we can cleanse you,” the crazy man said, taking another step toward us.

I held my hands up in front of me beseechingly, trying to mentally calculate how good our odds were against this many of them. And winning a fight with them was bound to get police attention. That was all I needed, for “The Demon’s Daughter” to be in a headline with his cult.

"No cleansing necessary," I said. The Demon always had a way with his followers. They hung on his every word, treating it like fact and not demented opinion. He had always been so fucking persuasive.

It was a gift he had not passed on as evidenced by the fact that I’d just been recently stuffed in a trunk because I couldn’t convince Stellan I hadn’t helped murder his sister, and the man in front of us that had just taken another step toward us. The crowd began shouting things at us then.

“Whore!"

"Tell us his plan!"

"Slut!"

“Traitor!”

Their screams filled the air. We were losing control quickly—or at least things were getting out of hand, since I didn’t think we’d ever had control in the first place. My ice cream fell to the ground as the man pulled a pencil-thin knife from his belt loop. I cringed when I immediately recognized it as a ritual knife. They would all have something similar; it was what they used to sacrifice their blood for their rituals. Obviously you couldn’t pay homage to a serial killer named "the Demon" without such bloodletting.

Regardless, the presence of fifteen of those knives was going to make things much more complicated. My pocket knife wasn't going to do much against them.

So much for laying low.

Just then, Stellan’s hand slipped under his jacket and he pulled out a gun, casually holding it in his hands like he was showing it to the crowd instead of threatening them with it.

I froze, sure that one of the psychos would be pulling out a gun any second now too.

Surprisingly though, no one reached for one. Instead, they stared at Stellan bitterly, with faces promising retribution.

Stellan grabbed my arm and started to back away, making sure we were still facing them the entire time.

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