Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

Lucier to take the driver’s seat and hopped in. The older boy got in back, curled into a ball, and went to sleep. The little girl sat on her daddy’s lap and cuddled her father and younger brother . A bomb wouldn’t wake the little boy .
    “Drive,” Seth said. “Go back to Maia’s apartment the way we came. As long as I’m here, you’ll be safe.”
    Lucier turned the cart around. “What happens next?”
    “I’ll fly you out of here, but it won’t be easy.”
    “You know I’ll find this place and bring back the FBI, don’t you?”
    Seth didn’t say anything for a long moment. “It really was a noble idea in the beginning,” he mused, “but something went wrong. What do they say? Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He drew a breath.
    “ Y ou went along,” Lucier said.
    Looking straight ahead, Seth Crane was a master of silence , but oh how his silence spoke volumes. His daughter squirmed in his arms, and he planted a kiss in the midst of her blonde curls.
    “My father is a formidable man, Lieutenant, and my mother is in thrall to all he offer s . It’s not a complicated structure. My siblings and I were taught to love and to pleasure. We were instructed to read the great books of the world, to learn philosophy and metaphysics. Those higher planes of learning were the gods we worshiped.”
    Lucier wondered whether love and pleasuring went on within the household, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t want to know. “ W hen did Satan enter into it?”
    “ Satan was presented no differently than other gods in other religions. ” Seth pointed. “ Turn here . ”
    Lucier pulled up to the back door and stopped .
    “ How can I explain something I grew up with and believed in? Were we all brainwashed? Were you brainwashed in the religion you grew up with? Somehow I doubt you see it that way, any more than I did. I still believe in much of what I’ve been taught ―love, beauty, intellectual pursuit . ” He shrugged. “ Hedonistic? Probably, but n o one discard s the teachings of a lifetime easily .”
    Unless his whole family is wiped out in one ho rrific moment .
    “Like I said, the noble experiment went terribly wrong.” Seth handed the young boy to Lucier, then leaned over his seat to wake Phillip. The boy got up without question and followed the two men into the house and to Maia’s door. She took Leo from Lucier, kissed his cheek, and laid him on the bed; Seth did the same with Iris.
    Maia went to Phillip. He pulled back, and she leaned down and put her hands on his shoulders. “Would you like to leave here, son?” she asked. Tears filled his eyes and he nodded.
    Seth crouched by Maia’s side. “Phillip, I know you’re sleepy, but I’m going to ask you a question, and it’s important you answer truthfully. You don’t have to name names, but I’d li ke you to say yes or no. Okay?”
    Phillip nodded . He rubbed his eyes and yawned.
    Lucier noticed the boy hadn’t spoken one word since Seth brought him out of the dormitory. Phillip did seem reserved for a boy his age, and Luci er began to understand Maia’s concern.
    Seth fingered through Phillip’s hair and gently held the back of his head. “Has anyone here touched you or done anything to you in an inappropriate way?”
    T he boy’s chin quivered. He stood with his arms rigid at his side s , avoiding eye contact with Seth . He neither moved nor looked for solace to either of his parents when he started to cry. I n fact, he backed away from his father , who reached out for him.
    Seth swallowed hard, and his jaw tighten ed in concert with a fiercely pulsing vein in his temple. He pulled the distressed child to him and wrapped him in his arms. Maia sat in semi - shock with the back of her hand across her mouth.
    “Let’s get to the plane,” Seth said. “I’ll get to the bottom of this when I return .”
    “You’re coming back?” Maia asked. “Now that you know, how could you?”
    “Like you, Maia, I’m a little late coming to the party. There are other kids here. I need to find out who’s doing what and why. What’s more important, who knows, and why they’ ve let it continue .”
    “Don’t forget the stolen babies,” Diana said.
    Seth met her gaze . “I haven’t.”
    “I’m coming back with you,” Lucier said. “With the authorities.”
    Seth fixed his eyes on Lucier and nodded.
    Lucier checked his watch. Four a.m. They’d never get to the plane before the sky turned light. “Anyone at