turn her head and peek back at the group of men as Sydney had done.
None of them were praying. All of them were looking around at the girls. She met the gaze of the balding man sitting at the end of a pew and the look on his face was so openly lascivious that Kandace drew back, turning quickly, a shiver racing up her spine. He’d looked at her as though she were naked.
Religious Guild? They didn’t seem very godly to her.
They seemed like nasty old men there to gawk at the “bad” girls.
“Gentlemen, if you’d like to give a blessing to our girls, we would welcome it,” Ms. Wykes said. “Girls, bow your heads.” Kandace obeyed along with the others, and heard the men stand and then saw their legs—all clad in the same exact suit pants so none could be separated from the other—begin walking in front of the pews where the girls sat, heads bowed. Kandace’s eyes followed them, trying to determine who was who without lifting her head. But with their identical clothing, and not having seen these men before, she simply couldn’t tell. Last time she’d taken the opportunity to catnap. Now she was wide awake. Now she was paying attention.
A man sidestepped through the narrow pew in front of her, placing his hand on her head and then allowing his hand to graze her cheek as he pulled away. Kandace closed her eyes and held herself completely still, resisting the urge to wipe her face as if she could somehow erase his touch. Resisting the urge to raise her head and glare at him. To see who he was.
One of the faceless men had put his hand on her head the first time too. She’d barely noticed.
This wasn’t right. Something was very wrong here.
No other men “blessed” her. She didn’t think they were really there for that. She saw the other men walk through the aisles, laying a hand on one girl’s head. Like a chosen one. Most of the girls had their eyes closed in prayer. God, these men were walking around as though the chapel was a whorehouse and they were choosing their evening entertainment.
Kandace thought of the bruises on her arm, the headaches, the strange dreams.
Bile rose in her throat.
No. No, surely not.
How could it be that one of them had . . . touched her and she didn’t remember it? They’d been told they were sinners, there to atone for those sins, sitting in a classroom for hours a day listening to Biblical teachings about purity. Instead, they’d been led to the slaughter . . . given birth control pills . . . Oh God.
She felt a headache coming on now as a burst of fear traveled from her chest to her limbs. The incense was suddenly overwhelming, clogging her brain and making her feel ill.
This was all wrong.
Her mind spun through the service, through the communion of wafers and wine, the certainty that the men of the Guild were there for reasons that had little to do with a religious event growing by the moment. When it was over, she was barely controlling the shaking of her body. She’d been touched. She’d been selected.
They filed out of the chapel and followed the teachers back to Lilith House where they again congregated in the dining room. The rest of the girls appeared giddy with anticipation for the dessert they were about to be allowed.
She had to give it to Lilith House. They’d turned a group of former alcohol and drug abusers into young women who were practically dancing with excitement over a serving of sugar.
Good work, Lilith House. A plus.
How quickly they’d been stripped of who they were with fear, isolation, and deprivation.
And if that were the sole purpose of Lilith House, maybe Kandace could even give them credit for their success, even though their methods were brutal and inhumane.
Maybe brutal was the only thing that would work on girls like them.
Perhaps inhumane was the only thing that truly got their attention.
But she had a deep, dark feeling that Lilith House’s reform methods weren’t the only thing Kandace and the other girls had to worry about, not the only thing they had to survive.
Not even the only reason they were there.
No, something more depraved was going on than she ever could have imagined when she’d stepped through the doors of this place.
Several waitstaff entered the room carrying trays of sweets. A delighted murmur rose among the girls as they began