Dark Need by Clarissa Wild

Chapter 2

April

Weeks ago

A blindfold is rippedoff my head. For the first time in days, I can finally see again, and the sunlight is making me blink like crazy.

Someone shoves me in the back.

“Move.”

I start walking, but I have no idea where. In front of me, I can make out the vague silhouette of a house. But not just any house. A giant mansion that makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

When I try to turn to see who pushed me, two hands palm my back and shove me forward again.

“Keep moving,” the man growls.

Behind me, I can hear three cars drive away. One of which has an engine that sounds the same as the car I was just in for what felt like hours. The only stops we made were for a quick pee in the bushes. Food was given during the trip, but my stomach still growls. The adrenaline raging through my veins stops me from thinking about it, though.

I haven’t been this nervous since I was first taken.

Since I was plucked out of a gathering of The Family at a venue and brought to the Holy Land.

The cult where I’ve been a prisoner for months.

It all sounds so strange in my head, like a made-up story you tell kids, but it was true. And it all happened to me.

But the people at the Holy Land, The Family, they didn’t want me anymore.

I was disobedient.

Difficult.

And now I’m here, stepping into the halls of this giant mansion, wondering what it is that I did to deserve all of this.

Who else is going to force me to work?

To undress in front of everyone?

Grinding my teeth, I step forward, glancing sideways at the others who are with me. Two girls, one looking terrified beyond belief, the other lonesome, quiet, and reserved.

“Stop,” the man behind us says, and we all listen to him even though I don’t know why.

Maybe we were all trained not to disobey.

After all … there are always consequences.

A man appears at the top of the stairs, a smug smile resting on his handsome face. He briefly runs his fingers through his dark hair, a hint of evil settling in his eyes. My skin erupts into goose bumps as his eyes bore into mine while he walks down the stairs.

But I refuse to look away.

“Ladies …” the guy says as he takes the final step and opens his arms like he’s welcoming us. “My name is Eli. Welcome to the House of Sin.”

What the fuck?

My brows furrow. “House of Sin?”

I clutch my modest dress tight, wondering if I should just try to run and see if I can get away. But a dozen guards are lined up at each door, waiting for us to react.

One of them steps out from the shadows, but that man, Eli, holds up his hand. “No need to intervene.”

Intervene? In what?

Did he really think I would try to fight them off?

The guard nods, his gaze threatening as he throws me a look, and it makes me gulp. This place is just as dangerous as the Holy Land. I don’t think I should mess with them, even if all of this is sickening to say the least.

Eli focuses his attention on the rest of the girls. “This is your new home now.”

“Home?” the middle girl murmurs. “But I already have one. Where is my grandpa?”

So I’m not the only one who was stolen.

“Perhaps you only thought you had a home,” Eli answers, gazing at her with a fire burning in his eyes.

What is he getting at?

He starts pacing up and down the hallway in front of us in a way that commands attention. “Any of you know why you’re here?”

Well, I can guess.

I mean, cults apparently don’t like girls who refuse to submit. Who refuse to bow down and follow the rules. Who refuse to sacrifice their morals for the greater good of the cult.

But I don’t care. And I don’t care to answer this guy either.

When no one answers, he continues. “You’re here because your parents, grandparents, or the one in charge of your upbringing or education didn’t think you were capable of being saved. You’ve messed up so badly that they looked at me and begged me to fix you.”

Of course. Of course, The Family thought I was broken. What a surprise.

“Fix me? But I’m not broken,” the middle girl murmurs, shaking her head. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Your grandparents sent you off, didn’t they? After a big fight when you destroyed their most prized … possessions,” Eli says. When the girl’s eyes widen, he smiles deviously in a way that makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Yes, I know all about your misbehavior.”

How would he know? Unless someone she knew told him.

Does he know what I did too?

If so, this House of Sin and The Family are working together.

Yikes.

“So what is this place then?” the same girl asks.

Eli rubs his lips together. “Think of this place as a sort of moment of re-education.”

“Re-education?” I balk. I can’t stop myself. Not when this bullshit is coming from his mouth. “What kind of nonsense—”

“Silence!” one of his guards growls at me, and his anger immediately makes me shut my mouth again.

I know when to speak up and when to stay quiet when someone gives me that look. I’ve experienced enough pain already.

“You’re the one who came from The Family, didn’t you?”

My pupils dilate.

So he knows. That means they really did mean to send me here. And this man will not care the least bit that I was a captive in a cult.

His eyes narrow. “Thought so.”

“I had a life before that cult,” I say, trying to play on his emotions.

“I know you did,” he says, not looking the least bit surprised. “But your time there is over. What matters is the here and now, and you need to learn how to control yourself so you can live a fulfilling life.”

Of course. It’s all the same. It doesn’t matter if I’m here or at the Holy Land. They’re all cults in my eyes when they keep people as prisoners.

“What will happen to me after then? Will you ship me off too?” I spit.

He cocks his head. “I guess that depends on your behavior and what you manage to learn during your time here.”

My behavior?

A pfft leaves my mouth, and I look away with folded arms, sighing out loud.

He really has a god complex.

And he sure seems like the one in power too, which means I can’t push beyond a certain line if I don’t want to risk getting hurt. And I definitely don’t want any more of that. I had my fair share when I was still with The Family.

Still, I can’t help wanting to know more about my prison. “So what is this then? Are you a part of that Family cult too?”

“Not a part, no,” he replies, the look on his face suddenly softer. “More of an extension.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” the middle girl mutters, her body quaking even more when Eli approaches her.

He grabs her chin and forces her to look up at him. “You’ll understand soon enough.”

When he releases her, she goes right back into her shell.

He takes in a breath. “You will all be staying here for the time being.”

“Why?” I ask, wanting to know what the meaning of all of this is. “Why was I brought here? Am I going to be forced to marry here too?”

He smiles. He actually smiles. “You ended up here because there was no other choice. This is the last stop. For all of you.” He looks at all three of us, even the one who has remained silent all this time. “This is where your sins stop.”

“Sins?” the middle girl mutters, taking the word right out of my mouth.

I didn’t commit any sin.

Sure, I may have kept a man at the Holy Land at bay, but he was trying to hit on me, and I didn’t want any of that.

In fact, I never wanted any of it at all.

The only reason I was at that venue was to hear them talk about their love for God. Because I needed guidance. Because I thought what I needed was a new family.

But it was the worst mistake of my life.

Eli pauses, focusing all his attention on that one girl. He stands before her and leans in, making her cower. “No one is without sin.”

* * *

Present

Adrenaline rushesthrough my body as I sprint up the stairs, momentarily forgetting where I am. When I step out onto that grass, I almost want to go to my knees and touch it with my bare hands. Almost like I’m grateful to be alive.

But then Soren places a hand on my shoulder and reminds me that I’m being followed by an almost literal giant who won’t ever let me escape his grasp.

“Let’s go,” he says with his gruff voice, and we go toward a fence on the left side of the house. A small opening is right in front of us with only two guards in front of it. There must be cameras watching this gate as well. But why are we going in this direction when there’s a front gate too?

As I glance behind me, the other women pour out of the house along with the guards accompanying them to the garage, and my heart does a little jump. They’re leaving too, but I’m the only one being separated. Why?

“Where are they being taken?” I ask Soren.

He glances at the women over his shoulder and then returns his attention toward the fence up ahead.

“Somewhere else,” he replies briskly.

“Where? And why am I being singled out?”

“ENOUGH!” He’s spun on his heels so quickly that I stop breathing as he stares into my soul, his muscles practically bursting out of his clothes.

I don’t move an inch until the rage disappears from his face, and he’s turned back around again. Asking too many questions apparently gets under his skin. I’ll make a mental note of that. You never know when that kind of information comes in handy.

Soren marches up to the fence and barks at the guards standing in front of it. “Open it.”

The guards look confused. “But Tobias told us—”

“Eli’s orders,” Soren interrupts, glaring at them with so much tenacity that one of them begins to sweat.

The other one tugs at his collar and quickly unlocks the door. “Yes, sir.”

Soren barges through without a second thought, and I traipse past the guards without throwing them a single glance, afraid they might hoist me back inside and tell me I need to stay here. But then the moment passes as I step outside the gates and out of the prison they tried to cage me in. I can smell the freedom, taste it on my lips. The scent of trees and living grass entering my nostrils fills me with excitement … and also something else.

Dread.

Dread for what’s to come beyond these grounds.

Because I still don’t know where we’re headed and whether I’ll manage to ever get out of this man’s grasp.

I look around at all the beautiful greenery here, wondering where the hell we even are. The only road is the one at the front gate, but we’re not going in that direction, so I have no clue what his plan is. Does he intend to just take me into the forest and leave me there? Or is this some kind of trap I’ve just fallen straight into? What if this is all just some elaborate game to make me confess my sins like they do with the other girls?

I shudder at the thought of all the pain this man could inflict … or worse, the ways he could use his body to make me yield. His muscles could overpower a woman within a second, and I’d be useless to fight him off. Even looking at him now makes me hyper-aware of the fact that he could turn around and snatch me up at any moment to do whatever he pleases with me. The mere thought makes me clench my thighs.

God, I don’t even know why I’m thinking about this.

I won’t know what his plans are until we’re there, and even then, I doubt he’ll tell me exactly what he’s planning until it’s too late for me to run. He’s got me right where he wants me—alone, afraid, and confused—and I don’t like it one bit. It reminds me too much of the place where I used to be.

I shiver and close my eyes for a second, pushing the memories out.

I’m in the here and now, stuck in yet another prison of another man’s making, and I need to find a way out.

I should be running, fighting, kicking, screaming. Even if I don’t escape, maybe the other women will hear me, and I can inspire them to do the same.

But the fear of being captured immobilizes me to the point that it covers my skin in a sheen of sweat and makes the bile rise to my throat. I can’t. I fucking don’t even have it in me to try, and I hate it.

Maybe I am a wimp. Maybe I’m not the girl I thought I was.

But I have to try.

I have to.

My feet stop moving.

I stay put in the grass, completely frozen against the soil as I stare down at my feet that refuse to listen to this man’s commands when he tells me to follow.

Because I know I am outside of the house. I know I’m free to go.

I should be.

I didn’t do anything wrong.

The rustling in front of me stops, and when I look up, Soren turns around and glares at me with that same penetrative stare he gave the guards, and it burns like fire straight into my chest. He starts walking toward me, each step of his burly feet making my heart thump faster until he’s right in front of me, and I can’t look away anymore.

The feet of a giant stand before me, and my knees quake as my eyes peer up slowly to his darkened gaze as he towers over me.

For a few seconds, we look at each other in the middle of the forest surrounding the house, the only sound being the air brushing through the branches of the trees.

“Follow,” he says, his eyes narrowing like it’s a threat.

But what is he going to do to me? He’s obviously not going to lock me up in that dungeon we just passed through, so what else does he have planned for me? Either way, I don’t stand to lose much by standing my ground.

So I cross my arms and plant my feet firmly. “I’m not going with you until you tell me where we’re going.”

His eyes twitch again, but he just continues to stare at me.

“What is going on? You’re going to take me to my next prison camp, right?” I ask, realizing that none of this may be what I thought it meant. “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”

He snorts and rubs his chin like it’s funny or something.

Suddenly, his face turns dark again. The lightheartedness vanished like my own resolve just now.

“No.”

I’m caught off guard by his sudden answer. “Well, I refuse to move another step until you tell me why I’m not being set free right now.”

Typically, it doesn’t take me this long to rebel, but something about this man just makes me want to keep my mouth shut. Especially when he bends over like he does now, with his hands against his firm waist, his nostrils flaring as he looks down at me like I’m a petulant child in need of a scolding.

One word spoken with such a low, gravelly voice is enough to make goose bumps scatter on my skin. “Fine.”

Suddenly, he puts his hands on my waist and lifts me, taking me by surprise. My squeal is muffled by my lungs when they are squished as he throws me over his shoulder and starts walking.

And as he turns around, he growls, “Have it your way.”