Page 69 of Sincerely, Butterfly

“Don’t hate me, man, but I’m on Wesley’s side with this one,” Sylas says.

Jasper’s eyes snap open. “What the fuck?”

“Hear me out.” He raises his hands. “I’m not saying I want to leave. But this means something different to you than it does to us. You do this because you want to make your father proud. You were pulled into this new reality of ours in a much different way than we were. Your father even found ways around their messed-up rules to have the life he wanted. We could have done the same, we could have someone else take our place. But we can’t. Because there's no one left. I don’t have any uncles or cousins to take my place. The only person I have is Callie, and women aren’t allowed positions of power. Not that I’d let her join anyway.” Sylas grumbles.

“And the only person I have is my father. No fucking way I’d give that bastard his power back.” I mutter. I’d rather kill the man myself with my own bare hands. Still might do that anyway.

“I can’t believe you two right now. Of all the fucking times to tell me that everything we’ve been working towards is something you don’t want.” Jasper is the one to start to pace, running his hands over his face. “Fuck!”

“Breathe.” Sylas steps in front of him. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re still keeping our positions in the Brotherhood. We would never give them up. It’s too dangerous to lose that kind of hold we have on not only other members but the people of New Orleans. It would be stupid to even think about leaving. There would be so many people who would try to swoop in and ruin us. We’re not talking about leaving. We’re saying that it’s okay to not follow every rule to a T because how the fuck are they going to know? We play it smart, play it safe. And if anything, if someone asks for a name, we forge one.” Sylas shrugs.

“You’re both not getting it,” Jasper snaps. “Forget the fact that she didn’t sign it. It’s the fact that she is running around New Orleans knowing some very fucking important information with no means to keep her mouth shut.”

“That’s not entirely true," I tell him. “She knows what the consequences are if she opens her mouth. Death. It would take a really stupid person not to know that. We don’t need a contract to scare her into keeping her mouth shut.”

“What if she’s working for someone?” Jasper asks. “What if she was placed there to gain information for one of our rival families?”

“She could have been,” Sylas says. “But I doubt it. There's no guarantee she would have been picked from all the other girls.”

“Want to know what I think?" I ask.

“No.” Jasper snips.

I ignore him. “I think she was a very curious girl who wanted to know what really goes down on ritual nights. She heard the whispers, the rumors, and wanted to find out for herself.”

“Why the fuck would anyone want to do that?” Jasper asks. “The whole point of these women wanting to volunteer is the hope of some big life-changing reward. While there's been no definite proof of that outcome, due to the contracts, it’s not a secret that people can see for their own eyes the kind of changes these women end up going through. They want to experience it for themselves. She clearly didn’t.”

“Could just be a kinky bitch who wants to get her rocks off by a group of powerful men and let them do whatever they want to her body.” Sylas chuckles. “You damn well know there's a lot of women out there who are little freaks like that. We’ve fucked over what, a hundred of them? And what we did to that girl tonight doesn’t even come close to the things we normally do.”

“If that's the case…” I smirk. “Girl got the shit end of the stick. If she really was a freak, she should have just sought us out here."

“Maybe she did.” Sylas shrugs. “And we turned her down. So she found another way. Whatever her reasons for being here tonight, to put herself in the position to be used like she was, the fact is, we don’t know. She’s gone. We can do our best to keep looking, to find all the security feeds in the surrounding area. Other than that, there's no point in stressing out over it unless we have a reason to.”

“This is fucking bullshit.” Jasper sneers. “From now on, we make them sign it before the ritual.”

“I’m down with that. Not sure why we don’t make them do that already,” Sylas says.

“It’s because we need to make sure they are genuinely volunteering. That they’re under the illusion that they do not benefit from this. That it’s all their free will because they want to offer their body to the gods. Their blood to feed him and his followers. Her purity to allow them to take as their own.”

“That's bullshit.” I chuckle. “They’re all just a bunch of money-hungry bitches who probably held on to their virginity just for the chance to make bank selling it to the likes of us.”

“It doesn’t matter why or what they believe. It’s what was taught to us. Who are we to change it?” Jasper asks.

“Ah, we’re literally the leaders of this whole organization. Half the members from the generation before our fathers are all dying off. We can change things to benefit us. If we play it smart, do it slowly with the new members who come within the Brotherhood over the next few years, by the time all of the current members are replaced, no one will know for sure what the original history of this cult is.” Sylas says.

“Because that's what this is,” I tell him. “It’s a cult. And being leaders of said cult, we can change things, make the rules. Hell, it was our great-grandpappies who founded this whole thing. Who says we can’t do what we want with it?”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Jasper says. “You’re going too far. It’s too big of a risk.”

“Right.” I snort. “Forgot you were not a risk taker, Mr. Wet Blanket.”

“I’m done with this.” Jasper starts to take off his robe. “I’m going to look into seeing if I can find her. I’ll let you know if there's any information.”

He turns around and starts heading for the cemetery exit.

“Well, tonight was an eventful night.” Sylas looks over at him with a big grin. “Not going to lie, tonight's sacrifice was different.”

I nod my head slowly, my eyes flicking back over to Jasper’s retreating back. “I felt it too.”