“Reasonably sure? That’s like reasonable doubt. It’s hardly the answer I wanted to hear.” He stood and went to the window, looking out at the backyard of the fraternity house. His attention snapped to the expansive lawn.

“I want to be absolutely sure before I answer you, Steve,” she said, but he wasn’t paying any attention to her. “I don’t want to confuse the chemistry we have with love.” She touched his arm and for the second time that evening, he jumped at her touch.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” His eyes drifted back to the bizarre scene.

Jennifer followed his gaze. “What is that?”

The fraternity members wore black robes and stood in a pattern that was unrecognizable unless you were looking down on them like they were.

“It’s a pentacle,” Steve answered. “Pentagram,” he corrected with a slight shake of his head.

Bill stood in the center, surrounded by a circle of candles. He was reading from an old leather-bound book, the members repeating his words. Steve recognized the language—Latin, although he had no clue of what was being said. At the end of the incantation, Bill reached into his pocket and pulled out an egg, cracking it into the challis at his feet.

Even from a distance, Steve and Jennifer saw blood run out of the eggshell. Steve pulled her away from the window when Bill looked up, away from the prying eyes of the fraternity, praying no one saw them. He held her to him, pressing his back against the wall next to the window trying to disappear into the shadows. “Jesus.” He looked at her.

Footsteps of the Beta Theta Pi members filtered into the house.

Steve pushed her down on the bed, yanked the straps of her dress over her shoulders and lay on top of her. He buried one hand in her hair and put the other one at her waist tugging a little on the dress, kissing her. His heart hammered in his chest, praying this would be enough to keep the wolves from attacking.

Jennifer seemed to understand the moment his lips found hers, and wrapped one arm around his neck, tugging on his shirt until her hand found skin.

Seconds later, his door swung open. Bill stared at Steve and Jennifer and faltered. “Sorry.” He closed the door on Steve and Jennifer’s surprised faces looking at him from their compromising position.

They came out of the room a few minutes later. “Sorry about that,” Bill said, awkwardly waving his hand toward Steve’s room.

Jennifer blushed, looked down, and then over her shoulder at Steve.

Just the right amount of embarrassment, Steve thought as their eyes met. He glanced back at Bill. “Yeah, well, we’re going to her place, where the doors have locks.” He grinned and winked his good eye at Bill.

Bill’s face fell as he looked between the two of them. The slackness in his features morphed into a hardness Jennifer had never seen before. His eyes narrowed as they landed on Steve.

“It’s all right Billy,” Jennifer said, obviously mistaking the look for over-protectiveness.

Steve knew better. Bill wasn’t being overprotective, he was angry, bordering on rage. He caught the way Bill stared at Jennifer when they walked out of the room. Bill wanted his girl. He put his arm around her, drawing her close—a protective reflex. All the while, his smile never faltered. “I’ll catch you in the morning,” he said, leading Jennifer away.

Chapter 18

Bill watched them leave, his eyes sending imaginary daggers into Steve’s back. The sting of jealousy bloomed to something else altogether. He walked to his room and dialed the familiar number. “Hi Trac,” he said when she picked up.

“Hey, hon,” Tracy said. “You all done with your fraternity stuff?”

“Not quite, we still haven’t finished discussing the initiation rite,” he said. “We just took a quick break and I thought I’d give you a call.” He closed his eyes, feeling guilty for the lie. “I saw Steve and Jen a little while ago, looks like they are heading your way.”

“Will you be over later?” she asked.

“Nah, I think we’re gonna be late,” he said, feeling a measure of relief. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Ok, I love you.”

“Love you too,” he returned the usual salutation and hung up the phone. He crossed the hall to Steve’s room, looking around. There was nothing unusual about the room, or his personal belongings. When he flipped open the notebook, Bill chuckled, amused to see Jennifer’s name doodled all over the first page of the notebook. He flipped through the pages. Steve hadn’t taken a single note from class in the notebook. He started to close it and noticed a loose paper in the front. Ah, he did take notes, Bill thought. He flipped through the empty notebook again.

Fanning the empty pages, he sighed. Just as he began to close it, he saw a small circle of red appear out of the corner of his eye. He opened the notebook again and almost dropped it.

Bring her to me

Bill closed the notebook and then opened it up again. The words were still there. He flipped through the pages and the words leapt from every sheet except the last. Instructions scrawled onto the page while he stared at it. Big, looping script, blood red, described the exact details of the initiation ceremony right down to the rules he was expected to play by. He inhaled sharply as the last two names appeared along with specific commands. This year, his marching orders were very different from the past, and he glanced out the window, thinking of the bloody egg. Goose bumps traveled up his arms as he looked back at the notebook, reading the parameters for this year’s sacrificial rite, shivering.

The penalty for not following through scrolled beneath the instructions and Bill dropped the notebook, stepping back. The air froze in his lungs and his hand flew to his mouth. He stared at the warning, understanding the ramifications if anything went wrong. Snapping his eyes away from the meticulous description of his painful death, he scanned the rest of the instructions. One particular caveat kept his attention and he inhaled, nodding. He could do that. He definitely could do that and so could everyone else in this fraternity. Hell, they’d all be salivating over the thought. “Ok, I’ll do it.”

A small smiley face scribed into the bottom of the page and Bill snorted. The bastard’s fucked up sense of humor. Bill tore the page out, folded the paper, and stuffed it in his pocket. He closed the notebook, replacing it on the desk before he walked out of the room.

Chapter 19

Steve glanced at Jennifer as he pulled the car out of the parking lot, his hands tight on the wheel. His foot ached to floor the pedal and peel out, but he tempered his urge.

“What were they doing?”

Steve shook his head. “I have no idea, but it looked a little like some sort of witchcraft.”

Jennifer started to laugh and stopped with a glare from him.

“Or devil-worship,” he added, putting a sobering spin on everything.

“I can’t believe that,” Jennifer balked. “It could have just been a fraternity ritual.”

Steve glanced at her, communicating his skepticism with in his eyes. “If they were standing in any other pattern, I would agree with you, but a pentacle?” He shook his head and looked back at the road.

“Didn’t the Masons use a pentacle as their symbol?”

Steve glanced at her. “Jen, they were performing a ritual in Latin that ended with the cracking of that egg. We both saw the blood come out of that shell. That has nothing to do with Masons.” Bill’s expression when the blood came out of the eggshell, followed by the look on his face when he saw Jennifer leaving the room, dug under Steve’s skin like a parasite, festering. He didn’t like this new development at all. He drove for a while without saying anything.