Removing his head from the crook between my neck and shoulder, he reared back and his eyes met mine. “Delilah, you truly are the most beautiful creature on this earth. I have never wanted a woman like I have wanted you…” He sighed and rubbed his cheek against mine. “This face… this beautiful face drives me to insanity.”

“Brother Micah! We must proceed!” I searched for the source of the voice and saw my father gathering planks of wood.

“I will miss this face, Delilah,” Micah said quietly and pulled himself out of me, only to grasp my legs and pin them down straight, tying around my ankles. I instinctively tried to move my arms, but they were raised above my head, tied to a long piece of wood.

I was on a stake… I was bound to a stake!

I immediately began to struggle as my father piled wood at my feet.

By fire you shall burn. By boiling blood you shall be purified of your sin! Brother Judah’s words suddenly made sense. They were to burn me as a witch!

Brother Micah secured my legs, then set to helping my father.

Panic at my situation hit me and I shouted out in frustration, unable to free myself from my restraints. “Please!” I begged.

The pain from my back made me delirious, the burned skin on my torso raw and agonizing. I was thirsty, my mouth dry from lack of fluids. I searched the surrounding area, but there was nothing in sight, just field upon field, a vast blanket of green and a small truck parked at the bottom of the hill that must have brought us out here to this secluded spot.

Taking a match from a small linen sack, my father lit the flint at the bottom of the stake, and I watched the logs ignite slowly, a small flame beginning to lick at the wood.

“No, please!” I shouted as I began to feel heat at my feet.

Brother Micah and my father dropped to their knees, eyes closed, and held their hands up to the Lord.

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

“They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

Scripture slipped from their lips. Matthew, Revelation, Thessalonians…

They were conversing with the Lord, too lost in the rapture of Glossolalia to hear my cries.

The flames grew higher and any hope of me being saved from this horrid death departed.

I closed my eyes and prayed it would be quick.

Chapter Twenty

Ky

“Ready?”

Smiler turned to AK and began unscrewing the fuse box to break the electric current running through the fence.

The rest of us—Me, Styx, Flame, Cowboy, and Hush—sat back waiting, but I was fuckin’ desperate to get inside.

AK and Smiler hadn’t been fuckin’ lying; this place was a damn military stronghold. Walls, fences, and lookouts stationed everywhere. So far, two guards had been taken down, one by Styx and one by me. The fuckers hadn’t even heard us coming, making it just perfect to surprise their stupid asses, slugging a bullet right between the eyes, the suppressors on our Uzis not making a damn sound.

“In!” Smiler whispered, throwing the door of the fuse box on the ground. Taking his Uzi, he shot the fuckin’ thing to pieces.

Taking the butt of his gun, AK tested the fence—nothing.

Hush stepped forward with the wire cutters, ripping enough of the huge fence to allow us through.

One by one we passed through the row of fences into a fuck-off great field. Sticking to the line of trees, AK guided us into the woods.

“What now?” Cowboy asked.

“We head north,” Smiler answered. “The blueprints showed most of the buildings in that direction.”

“You lead. We’ll follow,” Styx signed, and we moved out.

Sticking to the cover of the dark woods, we’d traveled a couple of miles when the sound of voices caught my attention.

Freezing, I held up my hand, the brothers stopping dead in their tracks. I listened harder as all eyes fell on me. “You hear that shit?” I hushed out.

AK frowned. “There’s nothing out here. Fields and shit.”

The voices got louder, and stepping back, following the direction of the sounds, I saw what looked like flames not too far in the distance.

“Looks like a fire,” I said, and the brothers gathered to look. “Why the fuck would there be a fire all the way out here?”

AK turned to Smiler. “We need to check this shit out. The blueprints could’a been wrong.”

But then a scream so loud cut through the strange low murmurs, a scream that sent ice through my veins. My chest grew tight, and when I heard it again, I set off running, ignoring my brothers behind me. That voice… that fuckin’ voice…

When it sounded again, I had no doubt who it fuckin’ belonged to.

LILAH!

Pushing my legs as fast as they could go, I aimed for the flames, that creepy deep murmuring becoming clearer. It didn’t take me long to realize it was that fuckin’ strange-ass Bible talk shit that Lilah did.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I glanced round to see Styx and Flame on my trail. Flame’s face was lit with excitement, Styx’s with concern.

Raising my Uzi at Lilah’s screams, I finally broke through the trees and froze.

Two men were flat on the ground, rolling around and babbling a language no fucker could understand… in front of a fire… a stake… a fuckin’ stake with a naked Lilah… screaming… in pain.

“Lilah!” I shouted, tearing forward, hearing Flame’s angry roar and curses stringing from my brothers’ mouths.

The men on the floor didn’t even concern me. Lilah, all I could fuckin’ see was Lilah, flames licking up a pile of wood, almost at her feet.

Looking around, I saw Cowboy and Hush fuckin’ paling at the sight. “Cowboy, Hush! You’re with me!”

Both brothers followed me toward the pyre. Lilah’s eyes were shut, a damn crucifix burned into her naked torso. She was beat, bloodied. I scanned down her body as Hush and Cowboy ran behind the stake and, one on either side, began slicing off the rope around her wrists and feet.

Knowing Cowboy and Hush had the ropes, I started kicking at the wood around her feet. AK and Smiler joined me until a path had cleared enough for me to get through to my woman.