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 frozen in 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 myself from 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.

Goosebumps dance along my bare arms.

Just as quickly as I lock eyes with the mysterious man, we’re being jostled on all sides as the crowd begins to shuffle forward, and when I lose the battle with my willpower a final time, allowing myself to sneak a final look back… he’s not there.

Oh, well. My rational mind has confirmed exactly what I thought, besides, I’ve got more pressing concerns.

Like getting through whatever horrors lie in store for us. Added to the prospect of sex hanging in the air, it all weaves together to form a powerful elixir, whipping the crowd into a frenzy of emotion.

“Welcome, all who dare join our sordid adventure of pleasure.” A woman in a black latex harness and another of those eerie skeletal masks is standing at the foot of the staircase. “As you have all completed the required paperwork and submitted your forms online as per your ticketed entry, you will know no one is permitted access tonight without having given their consent to whatever might occur once you pass beyond this point.” The woman meets each of our eyes. She’s studying our reactions to this reminder that, yes, indeed, we have given written, explicit permission to anything and for anything to occur that corresponds with our band of choice.

“Your safe word for this evening is Moonlight . Remember to use it only if absolutely necessary. Any person who does so will be immediately removed from the premises, and not permitted to return.”

We all dutifully nod in unison. This woman exudes serious Domme energy. Suddenly this shit just got very real, and I’m clutching Rita’s fingers so hard I might snap them.

“Then enter at your own peril.” She steps aside and unclips a black velvet rope to allow us to pass.

Before we’ve even taken one step up the sweeping staircase, we hear blood-curdling screams coming from the floor above us. On the other side of the landing, at the top of the long flight of stairs, there is a thunderous banging noise.

My fight-or-flight instinct goes haywire. Flight is the overwhelming sensation my body wants to indulge. So, instead, I make a pathetic noise and continue to crush Rita’s hand.

I’m not sure what I expected, but my imagination has gone into overdrive at the prospect of what might lurk up ahead. The unknown can be the most terrifying place to linger.

“You know people go missing every year when they host this event.” One of the glamazons giggles.

“It’s just a cover for their initiations.” Another replies.

“Or their murders.” Cora is still right beside me.

“Suspected, but not proven.” Rita chides. But she’s squeezing my hand just as tight in return. “The Noire Moon is supposedly one of their most important nights of the year, although what for, other than fantastic fucking and premium dick, I couldn’t say. You ready for the part that will get your blood pumping, babe?”

I’m struggling to breathe, let alone reply. Murder and secret societies and events where you might get cornered by a masked stranger… or better yet, abducted and never seen again?

What the actual fuck am I doing here?

This surely must be a fever dream. Any minute now, I’ll wake up with a thud when I roll out of bed and hit the drafty floorboards of my cramped bedroom.

The stairs beneath my heeled boots are shiny marble that glitters in the flickering candlelight lining the dark walls. Ornate vintage mirrors are scattered everywhere and give eerie shadowed reflections of our group as we inch our way toward the upper landing.

A rumble directly overhead makes one of the chandeliers clatter and chink. Then, more piercing screams echo through from the upper floors somewhere deep in the heart of the mansion.

“Christ.” I chew the inside of my mouth and watch with trepidation as we crest the final step. A plush red carpet extends in front of us, leading into a complex assortment of tall mirrors, and there’s a faint red glow from the ceiling, turning us all an eerie shade of crimson.

“Oh my god, I love a hall of mirrors. It’s so creepy, but so kinky.” One of the girls drags two of the others off toward what must be the beginning of the mirror maze. But they’ve barely made it ten paces when black-masked figures burst out of the shadows.

They rush at us from both sides, and we all scream. Gloved hands grab roughly as the light overhead starts to strobe, plunging us into darkness for rapid, short bursts. It’s only in the glimpses of light, as red flashes allow my vision to return for less than a second at a time. One blink, I see nothing, and the next, a skull face looms right in front of me.

One hand reaches out and grabs me by the front of my throat, while another wraps around me from behind.

Oh my fucking god, there are two of them.

The one at my back slides his fingers beneath the waistband of my skirt for just a second, but even though the action is merely a brief glimpse, that provides more than enough time for my pussy to react to both of their possessive and threatening holds on my body.

My mouth drops open, and my stomach falls through the floor, but then the next second, the red light returns to the eerie glow as the strobe cuts out, and with it, the skull face in front of me has vanished into thin air. So is the figure I didn’t see who covered my spine.

That’s when I realized. Most of the girls we were with have vanished.

It’s only Rita and Cora left huddled beside me.

We all have our hands over our mouths and sound like we’ve just run a marathon. I’m the cliche of shaking in my boots right now.

“Holy fuck. That was intense.” Rita breathes a little unsteadily but laughs at the same time. “Looks like we’re on our own from here, bitches.”

We can’t even hear anyone else, so who the fuck knows where those men just took the rest of the glamazons to. A shudder runs through me that they could so easily pluck multiple people out of thin air like that.

“Let’s go this way.” Cora points toward a doorway off to one side, heading away from the mirrors. None of us mind avoiding that particular space now that we’ve seen what happened to the others who barely stepped a foot inside.

As we approach the doorway we find ourselves walking into a room that looks like some kind of grand ballroom. The entire hall is lit with candles on free-standing high candelabras, and from somewhere close by, discordant piano music plays.

It’s eerie and fucking brilliantly atmospheric. Whoever puts these events together is a master of theatrics. I’ll give them that.

“So tell me why we all thought this was a good idea again?” I laugh nervously. Darting my eyes around in anticipation of another ambush, but nothing comes.

But I can feel eyes on me the whole way.

“We’re definitely being watched.” Rita shivers, sounding more than a little delighted by the thought. “And that is precisely why we’re here, remember.”

We cross through the ballroom, the three of us forming a tight bunch as if that might possibly protect us until we find doors at the far end of the ballroom leading us into a narrow hallway.

This space is only wide enough for us to walk through in a single file and has been draped on all sides with black fabric. Gusts of air make the material billow around us as we start to move along the narrow passage.

Cora is ahead of me, and Rita is behind. We’re all holding hands like a linked chain, and our breaths are shallow, frantic gusts.

There is no doubt something is coming, and nervous tension crowds us so thickly you could slice the air in two.

Rita almost jumps on my back and screams in my ear.

“Oh god. Something grabbed me.”

Just as I try to crane my head and look, Cora lurches to one side, frantically batting away a gloved hand reaching out from behind the black cloth.

I’m caught by the ankle and nearly climb the walls, only to be surrounded by more hands clutching at me, trying to pull at my limbs and my clothes from the other side.

“Go!” Rita shrieks, and that’s all it takes to have us bolting forward.

We’re running blindly now. Half stumbling as the passageway seems to go on forever and more of the disembodied hands continue to reach out in an effort to snatch at our legs and arms.

Finally, we tumble into a stairwell. Black carved wooden steps wind up in a spiral staircase.

“Keep moving. I’m not going back through there.” I push at Cora, and she clutches her chest. Nodding in agreement.

“I feel like my heart is about to explode.” Rita wheezes behind me.

We climb to the next floor, and I try to make a mental note of the fact we’re now on at least the third floor. But other than that, I have no idea what part of the mansion we might be in.

The staircase exits into a large foyer with eerie white sheets draped over what appears to be furniture, but in all honesty, it could be concealing all sorts of horrors. As I spin in place, trying to figure out which way might be the best to go, my adrenaline begins to spike again.

From only a few feet away, a clanking of chains starts up, and we bunch together. Each of us blindly reaches out to clasp hands, because whatever it is, it’s moving.

“Can you see a way out?” Rita whispers. Cora makes a whimpering noise, and the chains get louder, followed by a thumping and dragging noise against the floorboards.

I’m trying to look for a door we can bolt out of when I catch a reflection in the mirror. A quick movement that draws my eye even though I don’t want to look. I don’t want to see what lurks there, but I can’t stop myself. The scream doesn’t even leave my throat when my eyes lock on another man in a skull mask in the reflection, silently tilting his head to one side while standing right behind us.

“Oh my god.” We all make panicky noises and scamper backward to get away from him. He’s running heavy chains through his hands that I’m certain are coated in dried blood.

“There’s a door.” Cora tugs on my arm, and we’re running again. The welcome sight of an exit is only a momentary wash of relief.

We burst through, only to descend into pitch black.

It’s so silent in here I can hear the blood rushing in my ears. Like being locked in a sound-proofed box.

The door slams shut behind us as soon as we step inside whatever this room might be.

Oh god. Oh fuck. Goosebumps erupt all over my body as I try to squint and see if I can make out anything, but I can’t even see my hand in front of my own face. Added to that, the sound in here feels deadened.

Almost certainly a padded room.

Or cell.

Fear crawls through me. I want to get out of this particular space as quickly as possible.

It’s only then that my panicky breathing isn’t being echoed by the others. I realize I can’t feel my friends beside me.

“Rita?” I hiss into the darkness.

Nothing.

My heart lurches into my throat.

“Cora?” My voice cracks. I already know she isn’t here either.

That’s when my stomach curls at the realization someone else has been in here and taken my friends without me even noticing.

They could be here, standing two inches from me right now, and I wouldn’t even know.

I wrap my arms around myself. What do I do now? Is this the part where I disappear? Or is this the part where I get my orgasm? Because right now, I’m terrified, but not in a horny way.

I’m genuinely feeling shit scared.

Something brushes my upper arm, and I scream.