Chapter 22
“W e will be arriving in Philadelphia in about thirty minutes, sir.”
Emerson looked up from his notebook and smiled at his steward. “Thank you, Yale. Seeing the family this week?”
His steward nodded. “Yes, sir. And thank you again for the generous time off.”
“Nothing to thank me for. I’m not traveling for a few months, so...”
“Yes, but paid leave is...generous.”
“Honestly, think nothing of it,” he said, the matter closed.
With Petra in Philadelphia and the main concerns of his overseas businesses handled, he was largely free to put all his energies into wooing their girl.
He was behind, well, not as behind as Kendrix was, given the man’s proclivities, but he needed to step it up.
Gods below, he never thought he would be in this situation, certainly not three years ago when he had found that passage about the pact...
“Now this is fucking interesting.”
Emerson walked into his living room, book in hand. They had a few hours before the annual blood sacrifice, and it was rare they were all together otherwise, but after seeing the entry in the diary, he needed to show his brothers.
Jack and Rix looked up to him as he plopped down on the wingback chair across from the rest.
"What's interesting?" Finn was cleaning his mask in his usual chair by the fire.
“Well, I was going through my dad’s old journal,” he began with a grin. “I mean there’s some wild shit in there, as you know. But this...apparently there’s like this, dad says ‘pact’? An old tradition where a woman is given a choice, become a willing sacrifice and endure, or death.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Jack asked. “What? She just walks in and says, ‘hi, I’ll let you willingly torture me?’ Who does that?”
“Well, no, it’s not like that.” Emerson frowned.
When he had found the journal, half hidden behind a bookshelf in his own bedroom, he had been fascinated by learning about his father, and his father’s group’s life.
Their sacrifices were involved and he had felt closer to him just knowing they were on the same path.
..except for his own mother, who was mentioned several times in the journal, then.
..wasn’t, but that was farther down the pages.
He flipped pages and started reading. “Amelia Robinson could have been the one,” he began.
“Beautiful, sexy, and she ticked the boxes...or so we thought. She had found interest in all six of us, and after a long discussion we decided to ask her...fill her in on everything, because she could be the one.”
"Wait, they told an outsider?" Easton's jaw dropped. "And what does he mean, she was interested in all six of them? Weren't they all with your mothers at that point?"
"Does he explain the pact?" Finn spoke over Easton's confusion.
“Kinda?” Emerson said and moved more pages.
“Okay, it says here, ‘A female of grace, bred for both pain and pleasure, will beguile those that worship, bringing more to the well everlasting.’ So under that it says he did research on the subject, and it turns out back in the day there was the option of a pact, where one woman would become the conduit, a sort of balance as the sacrifice, where pain and pleasure are indivisible. Basically, a woman that could take the pain and convert it to pleasure would feed He Who Sleeps.” He looked to Easton.
“I don’t actually know when this was written, if it was before we were born, or during our childhood. ”
"Of course he couldn't just write it in plain fucking English," Carter snorted. "But it does sound fun. Imagine getting to fuck some chick with all our perverted kinks two nights a year. Normally we have to pay for the specialist shit."
"Wait, this was a thing they offered the people they killed?" Finn tried to clarify. "Fuck all of us and get hurt doing it, or die? And they thought this woman might take them up on it?"
“Apparently. I mean...” He started reading again.
“Apparently this Amelia was dating all of them...” he read through.
“And they gave her the option. She apparently freaked, then decided that while she enjoyed fucking them all, she wasn’t into the secondary.
..” he looked up. “It is written like they treated her like a girlfriend...odd, right? I mean are we allowed to do that?”
"I doubt it," Easton said at the same time as Finn shrugged.
"Things were different back then. Maybe they had an arrangement with her to service the needs that Carter here pays for.
" He nudged Carter with a grin. "Perhaps she was a submissive of some sort.
Who knows? But it's interesting that it said it was in place of the killing.
Does it say what happened to this Amelia chick? "
“They sacrificed her two nights later,” he offered. “She said no, they had no reason not to go forward with what they planned...death or not.” He pulled a face. “Imagine that. A woman that actually would take both sides of it?” He chuckled.
“No such fucking thing,” Rix offered. “There is not woman in the world that could handle what the seven of us do.”
"We have to start offering it," Carter said to a chorus of groans from the others. "Oh, come on! It's tradition! Don't you want to see the look on their faces when they try to think it through? It's going to be funny as fuck!"
"It's not supposed to be funny," Easton said with a prim tone. "We're here to serve the Dark God."
"Nothing stopping us enjoying it, though, brother," Carter said cheerfully. "Who doesn't like to play with the food a little?"
"You're sick," Finn snorted. "I love it."
“Agreed,” Rix said, with a savage grin. The man loved any sort of game.
“I’m in,” Jack offered.
Emerson shrugged. Either way the sacrifice would be done.
Who cared if they fucked with the woman’s head a little beforehand?
She was just bones and meat anyway, energy to feed him.
They rarely knew anything about their victims past their names.
..their conversations with them nothing past them begging. So this would be interesting.
"Let's do it," Finn decided. "It's tradition, after all. What could go wrong?"
“Speaking of chicks... We ready?” Jack asked
Rix nodded. “No change in her routine. Easy snatch. House is ready and so is the courtyard.”
Emerson grinned. He might be the least psychotic of the group but he relished these two days.
“Well then, let’s saddle up, yeah? We have much to do and only a small amount of time to do it.
” He let his thoughts wander to the possibility of a woman like that.
Their fathers thought they had found her, but were wrong, and it was clear that it was an option.
..why had things changed? Didn’t really matter, they knew what needed to be done, and it would happen.
For the good of He Who Sleeps.
And now look at them. Three years in to a pact with a woman of worth. It was heady. Originally they had been joking with her, of course, and never thought she would say yes, but when she did...it was like a switch had been flicked.
Their two nights that year had been...brutal for her.
Literally with no idea what it was they were stepping into, they faked it well, and she endured everything they did to her, and there was some freaky shit going on simply because they could, but she had walked out on her own two feet.
Afterwards it was a mad scramble to find the priests and figure out what the fuck they were actually doing, and what, if anything, could fuck with their sacrifice.
“Hello?” Emerson called as they walked into the courtyard of the Grecian villa that housed the Oranari, their Order’s scholar priests.
Three men dressed in black robes with silver symbols around the hem filed out of a set of double doors, and stopped just past the stone arches. The bowed their heads.
“They Who Sacrifice,” they greeted them. “Welcome.”
They had made their way to Greece, the seven of them intent on speaking to someone that might have insight on what they just did, and what it meant for their future.
“How can we be of service?” the one in the center asked, his voice deep, but quiet.
"As we mentioned on the phone, a sacrifice accepted the pact and we were woefully unprepared," Finn said respectfully.
"We are hoping you can teach us the traditional ways so that we are better prepared when our sacrifice returns to us next year.
" He paused, uncertain. "She does return to us next year. ..?"
“He is pleased...but He could be generous,” the one on the left said. “A clock set in motion.”
The one on the right lifted his hand. “Come, we will explain...”
They followed the three Oranari into the inner sanctum, a room with floor-to-ceiling books, with several long tables and stations in the center. They were the three heads of their Monastic order, but there were several adepts and lower brothers that were in residence, but they rarely saw visitors.
“The female,” the one in the center began. “She took the pact, willingly, yes? No coercion?”
"Yes," Finn replied. "The choice was offered, explained and accepted, inasmuch as we knew what to offer, anyway. We only had loose terms from an old document we found."
“And where did you find this information?” the high Oranari asked. “The pact isn’t something that is...common knowledge.
“My father’s journal,” Emerson offered.
“Seems they missed one,” the third said with what sounded like amusement in his voice. Emerson arched a brow.
“Missed one?”
They waved him off. “She agreed to two nights, to endure?” they asked as one. Damn it, that was weird.
“Yes,” Jack offered to them. “And she did.”
“And she is unspoiled as of now.”
Emerson nodded. “Yes.”
“Then what is it you wish to know? As with everything, you are They Who Sacrifice, and we can answer a question for each of you. Be mindful.”