Lucas: #3 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) by Madison Stevens

was usually one to go out with his men instead of waiting behind. He epitomized leading from the front.
    “What are you going to do?” Lucas asked.
    Rem looked up at him, a slight smile on his face. His deep green eyes flickered.
    “We need a diversion, so I’m going to create a diversion. I think it’s time I had a little chat with Mother Anassa.”
     
    * * *
     
    Courtney looked around the strange room. Row after row of beds lined it, with, judging by the linen, only about a dozen filled of the forty or so beds.
    Several of the white-robed women smiled at her, but it was a strange sort of smile, unnerving and unnatural, like the kind you might see on a mannequin.
    A few of the women whispered behind their hands, and she knew from experience that they were as fake as they seemed.
    She wanted to snort. Everyone in town disliked her and talked behind her back, and now these women seemed to as well. She doubted they cared about Dave, so she wondered what their problem was.
    The woman in the bed next to her stared shyly, and Taylor offered a small smile in return.
    She was a small woman with short black hair and pale skin. Her red cupid bow lips stood out against her pale skin along with her pale green eyes.
    “Hi. I’m Taylor,” she said to the woman as she sat down on the bed. She had to be there for the entire night anyway. Maybe if she could at least make a single friendly acquaintance, the time would go faster.
    The small woman gave another smile. “Jade,” she said shyly.
    “So what’s the deal around here?”
    The women from before were having a hard time hiding their contempt for her.
    Jade’s gaze followed where she Taylor was looking.
    “Don’t mind them,” she whispered. “They’re just mad because you don’t seem to be affected by the room. I think they are kind of jealous. It may mean you’re special.”
    Taylor frowned. The room?
    “You mean where there was that humming thing?”
    Jade nodded and stared at her with admiration.
    “It didn’t make you feel funny? Like you could just forget where you were?”
    Taylor frowned. She hadn’t felt that way at all. Instead she’d found it annoying. She thought that was the whole point.
    She opened her mouth to say so, but the older woman, who she’d learned was named Kay, stepped into the room. She openly eyed Taylor.
    “It’s time for your nap and then devotionals,” the woman said.
    Taylor choked on the laugh that threatened to bubble up. Nap? She hadn’t been told to take a nap since she was in preschool, and even then the teacher had a hell of a time getting her to do so.
    She watched in shock as the other women laid down on their beds and made themselves ready for the nap.
    “Ms. Mills,” Kay said and stepped over to where she sat. “I assume you’re happy with the money and the new delivery deal?”
    She gave Taylor a hard stare as if to dare her to even try anything.
    Taylor sighed. She had signed up for this, and the money would be enough to keep the ranch. One night. That’s all she had to make it. All she needed to do was to think of the whole thing as if she were at camp. Sometimes you just had to buckle down and take a damn nap.

Chapter Sixteen
     
     
    Lucas crawled through the narrow space behind Sergius. The air ducts had been the easiest way to get in, but he knew it wouldn’t do them any good if she had already been moved to the little shed that connected to the Azilians’ more secure underground facility.
    Sergius assured him that she wouldn’t have been moved yet. They had been tracking the movements of the Azilians carefully.
    Once a day they moved the women over to the underground compound and then brought them back exactly an hour later like clockwork.
    Every action the cult performed at the compound seemed to be on a tight and predictable schedule. Also, not once had they actually seen one of the women hurt.
    Those women, though, all seemed to be full members of the cult. Considering the cult’s leader had