Tears and hands clouded Charlotte’s vision.  She felt someone by her side, the weight of hands on her shoulders.  A strong, calming someone trying to soothe her pain away but it was not enough to sit next to her.  No, the angel needed to be held and the man was happy to oblige.  It was the deep voice that brought recognition; it was her so-called friend’s brother.  The friend who was currently upstairs with the father of her baby.  Fresh tears soaked the fabric of his shirt, small delicate fingers clutching desperately at his shirt.<br/><br/>It took some time but the pretty angel ran out of tears.  Her small body still shaking with the force of emotions coursing through her, she extricated her head from under his.  Tears glistened in her eyelashes and made her eyes sparkle like gemstones.  Emeralds.<br/><br/>I like that his eyes are green.  He seems strong.<br/><br/>A violent shiver down her spine and a tightening of her fingers on the fabric of his tear-soaked garment, blonde head tipping ever so slightly.  Not Raker, no.  Raker liked Kell.  The man who was betraying her at this very moment.  Lotte did not want to hear Raker; it was best he stay hidden behind the seductress for now.<br/><br/>So many words and thoughts raced through the damaged little mind yet something stopped her from revealing what she had seen in that office.  Something whispered in her ear not to tell Carlton what was happening to his beloved sister.  Not yet.  Save that for the right time.<br/><br/>“Carlton,” she whispered his name so sweetly, so innocently, “your promise means so much to me.  Will you stay with me?  Will you keep me safe?”  She had no way of knowing what she was asking of him, how he might interpret her simple questions.<br/><br/>Innocent eyes searched his face.  Soft fingers rose to float between them for seconds before gently tracing the contours of his face - across his forehead, his temple, across his cheek and along his nose, his jaw, then his lips.  It was his lips that gave her pause.  So different than Kell’s.<br/><br/>Kell.  The only man who’s lips had ever touched hers.  The only man who had ever been<i>inside</i>her.  No, not inside Charlotte.  Inside the oracle.<br/><br/>Charlotte wanted a kiss.  Charlotte wanted to feel warm lips on hers.  Her lips, not the oracle.<br/><br/>The first two fingers of her hand hovered over his lips before dropping to her lap.  A pink flush rose to her cheeks, her eyes dropping to the hands in her lap.<br/><br/>Pretty Tess did not care that Charlotte appeared as if out of nowhere.  To the woman on her hands and knees, all that mattered was the spell that he was weaving with his fingers.  She was his new doll, his new toy.  She was his puppet, his hand moving her head where he wanted it and where it should be.  Facing the door or pushed to the floor, it didn’t matter.<br/><br/>What did matter was the personal initiation into the ritual, the way he stabbed her with the same cock he used in the oracle.  The same power he shared with the blonde, he now shared with her.  Tess wanted the voices, she wanted to know that magnificent power surging through her.  She wanted to share words with the man behind her, fucking her.<br/><br/>He asked it of her.  He wanted her to share her purpose.  He<i>demanded</i>it from her.<br/><br/>She would tell him anything.  Anything to keep him from stopping.<br/><br/>“My ambition is to make you love me, to save Charlotte from this place, to save people from you.”  A particularly sharp inhale released in a shaky moan.  “Save me from myself.  Please…”<br/><br/>See how willingly she revealed her secrets?  She could not hold back from this man.  Even if she wanted to, why would she?  At this moment, Tess knew.  She knew why so many people gave themselves freely to this man and his religion and she willingly surrendered herself to the frenzied ecstasy.