Page 94 of Virgin Sacrifice

I slid off the island, taking a couple of slow, cautious steps before coming to a halt about two feet in front of him. “Boo!” I said with a fiendish leer and was rewarded with the sight of the blood draining from his face as he stumbled backward over his feet to put some distance between us.

“Fuck, man,” he muttered, wiping a hand over his face with disbelief. He backed up against the sink before starting to edge his way along the counter in a vain attempt to try and escape me.

If I wanted him dead, I could have killed him before he took another step. I was bored now, but luckily for him, I had much better things to do than end his likely noxious excuse of a life.

Taking my chips, I ignored the now blubbering mess creeping along the perimeter of the kitchen trying to escape me, and I headed back toward the front of the house, chips still in hand.

Before I had even made it a couple of steps down the hall, I was confronted with a blonde girl lurching out of one of the side rooms, rushing toward a potted plant just in front of me. I sidestepped her as she began to hurl into the plant, only narrowly avoiding a splatter of vomit on my shiny new loafers. Some things were just never the same after getting blood or other bodily fluids on them. Italian leather was one of them.

Shrieking peals of laughter rang out from the room that the blonde had just exited, and I poked my head in curiously.

The scene before me was a raging sea of chaos, revelry, and bile—Dionysus would be proud. Nearly half the room was tripping their minds out, girls batting at the air like cats while others giggled to no one in particular, and a boy in the corner licked the wallpaper voraciously. The other half looked exactly like the guy from the kitchen and the blonde in the hall—ass up, head down, vomiting.

Interesting.

Sure, there was a handful of students in better shape who were trying against hope to corral their friends, but by-and-large most of the party appeared to have been drugged . . . or poisoned. Either way, it was an unexpected but not unwelcome turn of events.

Bobbing and weaving through the stupefied masses, I made my way back to the front house. I was on the hunt for one very specific student body. One that was petite and curvy with the most delicious-looking warm brown skin that I had ever seen.

Alas, my Starbright was nowhere to be found.

Feeling put out, I followed the music into the living room where I spotted Alister sulking away in a corner, staring coldly at the various people around him as if their very existence was a personal insult to him.

The crowd up here was in notably better shape. The occasional dancer was peeling away from the crowd clutching their stomachs or chasing colors on the wall, but most of the partygoers seemed content to boogie the night away without a care in the world.

Finding a clear stretch of hardwood floor, I took a couple of nimble steps before sliding across it to Ali’s side, stopping just short of the broody baby with a flourish. “Why so glum, chum?”

The corner of his left eye twitched, and I wondered if he would take a swing at me right there. Lucian said no killing, which meant that maiming was still on the table.

“She’s not here,” he ground out, and all sense of mirth left me.

“What do you mean?” I said through a tight smile as I stood up straight, tossing the now-empty bag of chips to the side.

“She’s not here,” he repeated.

I knew Luz had come to this party. I had followed her and the redhead here myself. “Then where the fuck did she go?” I hissed.

Ali said nothing, his chest heaving with rage. He didn’t have to. It had been my job to keep tabs on Luz tonight, and now she was missing and at least half the party had been drugged.

“Where’s the redhead?” If anyone knew where my Starbright was, it was that one. She was practically attached to her hip.

Ali jerked his head toward the corner, where a large group of girls was still dancing, oblivious to the party collapsing into disarray around them. I quickly zeroed in on the auburn locks of Luz’s friend and started cutting my way through the crowd, hands shoved deep into my pockets to resist the temptation to start cutting out the answers I needed. As best I could tell Luz cared for this girl, and I suspected it would put me at a disadvantage if I carved her up.

“You, redhead,” I barked as soon as I was near her, the ice in my voice carrying above the music. Everyone around immediately stopped and turned to face me warily, Luz’s friend included.

“Oh,” she squeaked at the sight of me as she reached back to grab the hand of the woman standing behind her, shielding her from me at the same time.

Maybe it would have impressed someone else, but I had no patience for such sentimentality. They would all die tonight if Luz had been hurt.

“Where is she?” I snapped.

For a moment she just stood there, looking like a fish as she opened and closed her mouth in silence before choking out, “Wha— Who?”

“Luz!” I said, fisting my hands tightly in my pockets.

The redhead’s eyes widened in fear that I couldn’t even enjoy at this moment.

“She—uh—went . . .” she began to stammer. The woman behind her watched on with fear evident in her eyes before something shifted in her and she stepped forward.

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