Sacrifice Me: The Darkness (Episode 3)

By Sarra Cannon

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Sarra Cannon

eISBN: 978-1-62421-027-3

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover Design by Robin Ludwig Design, Inc.
http://gobookcoverdesign.com/

Editing Services by Janet Bessey at Dragonfly Editing
http://dragonflyediting.blogspot.com/

Formatting by Dead River Books
http://www.deadriverbooks.com/

Find Sarra Cannon on the web!

http://www.sarracannon.com

The shot burned going down.

The heat started on my lips and flowed across my
tongue, down my throat, spreading through my body like wildfire. I
closed my eyes, drinking in the sensation of being lit up from the
inside out. An intense energy filled me from head to toe, its power
putting me on the edge of control, as if one more drop would have
been too much.

“Good, right?” Lyla asked, smiling.

I opened my eyes and the entire room looked
different. The light that flowed through the glass tubes running
across the ceiling seemed brighter. The music seemed louder. Every
wisp of air across my skin made me shiver. I felt it travel into my
body and become a part of me.

“I never felt anything like it,” I
said, my voice unsteady. It was different from the plain Red Dragon
shot I’d had the other night on my birthday. This was
intensified. I was less fuzzy and more awake. On fire.

I felt sexy.

Lyla flipped a switch near the base of the iron
cage and the door swung open. “Climb up,” she said.

I gripped the bars and pulled myself into the cage
with almost no effort. I had more raw energy flowing through me than
I could ever remember in my whole life.

Lyla closed me inside. “Now all you have to
do is dance,” she said with a giggle. “I’ll come
get you when it’s time for a break. Do you smoke?”

I shook my head, having a hard time concentrating
on what she was saying. It was like sensory overload.

“Okay, well, you can come outside with us
when it’s time or you can go back to the break room or
whatever,” she said. “See you in a few hours. Have fun.”

She winked, then made her way to a similar cage on
the other side of the room.

The doors to the club must have opened, because
there were suddenly all these people moving onto the dance floor and
standing in line at the bar. A few minutes ago the place was nearly
empty and just like that, it was packed.

If they were selling these homemade potions
instead of liquor, it was no wonder there were so many people here.
Damn.

I briefly wondered if anything going on in this
place was even legal and how in the hell they had managed to stay
open this long without getting into trouble. But my mind couldn’t
focus on the question long enough to worry about it.

My body wanted to move.

At first, I was hyper-aware of my body. I judged
every movement. Was I doing this right? Did I look okay? But then the
music consumed me. It swallowed me whole, the beat controlling the
beat of my own heart. I couldn’t fight it anymore. I let go,
not thinking about how I looked or who was watching me. I just let my
body move the way it wanted. I had never felt so free in my life.

Hours must have gone by like that and not once did
the energy from the shot let up. Sweat coated the back of my neck and
the skin on my arms. My hair caressed my face and shoulders. I could
have danced forever.

But then, the dark feeling from the other night
was back. It was like being sucked into a black hole. Or maybe more
like having a thick, heavy black cloak thrown over my body, covering
me in a veil of fear.

I reached out and grabbed hold of the iron bars,
for the first time really looking through the crowd. He was here.
Whoever had been watching me that first night was back, and his eyes
were locked on me.

I turned around in the cage, searching for a pair
of eyes staring back at me, but no matter how hard I looked, I
couldn’t find him.

As long as I was having fun, the potion that
flowed through my system felt good. It gave me energy and made me
feel sexy and beautiful. But adding in that taste of fear was like an
amplified version of the worst panic I’d ever felt. I suddenly
couldn’t breathe.

I turned my attention to the bar, searching for
Rend. He had somehow sensed this darkness before. Did he sense it
now?

He wasn’t behind the bar, though, and I
couldn’t find him anywhere in the crowd. Was he behind the
black curtain with his friends?

I knew I would look stupid rushing into their
private room with fear written all over my face. And I didn’t
want to give Azure the satisfaction of seeing me freaking out.

I glanced over and was relieved to see that she
wasn’t paying any attention to me. If I totally lost it,
though, she’d see it. Everyone would. They would think I was
crazy.

I had to pull myself together.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to focus on
the music. Whoever was out there in the darkness was just watching
me. They couldn’t touch me here in this cage in front of
everyone. As long as I worked for Rend, they couldn’t hurt me.

After a few minutes, I was able to push the dark
feeling to the edge of my consciousness and focus on the music again.
Still, all sense of freedom was gone now. I was in survival mode,
which was much more like my normal state of being. Instead of giving
myself up to the potion running through my veins, I was fighting
against it.

When Lyla finally came to tell me it was time for
us to go on a break, I nearly jumped out of the cage and kissed her
on the mouth. I wanted to get out of there and off display for a
while.

“You doing okay?” she asked as we
pushed through the crowd and made our way through the front doors and
out on the street. “You don’t look like you’re
having fun.”

I bit my lower lip. Should I tell her about the
strange feeling? She seemed cool, but Azure had seemed fine at first
too. I didn’t want her telling everyone the new girl had some
panic attack over nothing.

“Do you ever get the feeling someone is
watching you?” I asked.

She laughed. “Everyone is watching you,”
she said. “It’s part of the job.”

“No, that’s not exactly what I meant,”
I said, trying to figure out how to put words to the feeling. “I’m
talking about someone… specific. Someone dark.”

Evil. The word was on the tip of my tongue, but I
didn’t dare speak it.

She lit a cigarette and took a long drag. “Did
someone talk to you? Try to get inside your head? You have to just
ignore those guys. They’re harmless, really. No one would dare
lay a hand on one of Rend’s girls,” she said. A smile
crept across her features. “Not without permission, anyway.”