Page 16 of Semblance

Elizabeth looked bewildered. “Excuse me?” she asked.

“Answer my question,” Shadow said. “When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?”

“Yes?”

“Unacceptable,” Shadow said as he moved onto the next girl, a young Asian woman with long curly hair and almond colored skin.

“Rise,” Shadow said as he gently touched the beautiful girl’s shoulder. The contact was like a magnetic force that bonded to the woman’s curvy body and she rose to her feet effortlessly.

“I’m Elena Zhao,” she said. “I am the daughter of Yuen Xi Zhao and heiress to the Zhao shipping corporation, the most powerful business entity in all of the East. My father’s fortune is worth well over one hundred and fifty billion U.S. dollars and for the Zhao and Tremaine family to merge together would create an everlasting dynasty of wealth and power. However wealth is only a fraction of what I can offer you. I am skilled in the arts of pleasure, taught to me by the exotic mistresses of rich and powerful men. I can pleasure you in ways that you never thought possible…” she paused and smiled wickedly. “I will stimulate all five of your senses. You will feel my sensuous touch upon your body, taste the sweetness of my skin, hear the cries of pleasure as we unite together as one, smell the scent of our lust, and see every act I perform with only the intentions of fulfilling your deepest desires.”

Shadow stared at her for a moment before finally replying.

“You trained yourself to be a whore.”

The look of shock on the perfect little Asian princess’s face was priceless. I let loose a snort, which caused the woman to the right of me—a snooty blonde in a white swan-decorated mask—to turn around and shoot me an angry glance with disapproving eyes.

Once again, I was thankful for my golden mask, which hid my childish grin.

“It was him,” I whispered, pointing to a large bellied man standing on the other side of me, who was fixated on the spectacle. The swan woman shrugged and turned her attention back to Shadow, who had already moved onto the third prospect.

He took one glance at her and immediately shook his head.

“You’re better off staying where you are,” he said. “I don’t want to breathe the same oxygen as you, unless I wish to decimate my brain cells.”

This guy was turning out to be a real dick.

“You’re going to have to make a decision,” Calisto said frowning. “You’ll have to choose your lady tonight.”

“All three of these women are a disappointment,” Shadow said. “I can’t allow any of them to share the Tremaine name.”

The spectators erupted into whispers and I was surprised that there was genuine concern that Shadow had spurned all three women.

“What’s the big deal?” I asked the swan woman. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea. Why can’t Shadow go back to the pond and cast in another line?”

“The ritual of selecting the first lady of the Midnight Society is both a historic and sacred event,” she replied. “On the twenty-third birthday of every society’s leader, they have to choose their soul mate, a woman worthy to inherit their powerful family name. It’s a tradition that’s been kept since the dawn of our organization almost two hundred years ago.” And then she gave me a disdainful stare. “I don’t care how good your music is or how closed your legs are, you don’t deserve to be here.”

“Thanks for making me feel welcome,” I scowled.

The swan woman ignored my sarcasm and began complaining aloud to no one in particular. “What a cluster fuck tonight has been. But what else can you expect from Shadow. He’s reckless and disrespectful when it comes to sacred traditions of the Midnight Society.”

“Well can you blame him?” I asked. “You folks are practically forcing him into an arranged marriage.”

“Those three women are the best that the Midnight Society has to offer,” the swan woman replied. “They were handpicked by the Council of Seven and for Shadow to insult all three is a slap in the face to our organization and the family name’s of those women. Shadow made three powerful enemies tonight.”

“So why’s he your leader then, if he’s such a shit disturber?”

“It’s in his blood. He was born into it.”

“Give me a break,” I said. “This is America. The idea of kings and queens is a foolish fantasy. Is democracy dead in this little Midnight clubhouse of yours?”

I had received some dirty looks in my days but the one that Swan Girl gave me then was straight from the bowels of the filthiest sewer ever seen.

“Sometimes, we need people to make decisions for us,” she spat. “People in general, especially the lower class like you, are too stupid to make the right choices.”

This girl was really getting on my nerves. Justin told me once that swans, despite their beauty, had the heart of the devil and now I agreed with him.

I was about to unleash a verbal assault on swan woman but I suddenly noticed that everyone’s attention was focused on me.

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