Shift

TEN.1

Kayden had never been to California before, but for some reason, the entire city of Los Angeles rubbed her the wrong way. The palm trees that lined the road looked unnatural, as if they had been transplanted from some tropical island and thrust into the concrete sidewalks. The cars that pressed against them in heavy traffic were too perfect, boasting fancy paint jobs, glossy exteriors, and convertible roofs. And the people visually reeked of fake tans, Crest Whitening strips, and peroxide.

Of course, she knew that the main reason Los Angeles seemed so terrible at the moment was because she was crammed in the backseat of a small rental car with luggage pressed up against her in nearly all directions.

"Here we are," Celery announced from the front seat, turning the wheel sharply to the left.

Kayden peered out her window. They had pulled into a lengthy driveway of what looked like an expensive prom venue. The building wasn't too tall—four floors perhaps—but it was big, occupying a large acre of land. Grecian columns framed a set of French doors, and the bright green lawn was parted with a stone path lined by white flowers. A large sign perched in the lawn read "Le Lieu" in golden script.

"The loo?" Blaze said, leaning over Kayden's shoulder and making her feel even more claustrophobic. "Why would they name something like this the bathroom?"

"The Place," Helio translated with a groan from a seat over. "Someone needs to stop playing with illusions and crack open a language book. It's French."

Lexi turned around from the passenger seat, looking genuinely surprised. Her blond hair spiraled down past her shoulder as she tilted her head. "I didn't know you spoke French!"

Helio grinned broadly. "And Latin, Italian, and a touch of German, ma petite fleur." Lexi's face turned bright red and Kayden banged her head against the car window.

When they entered Le Lieu, Celery flashed a small golden invitation to a teenager working the concierge desk and they were directed down the hall and into a large ballroom.

The first thing Kayden noticed when she entered was just how overwhelmingly male the room was. Despite the size, the ballroom was packed with hundreds of men, each of them wearing expensive black suits and tapping their shoes impatiently on the wood floors. She tried to find a woman in the mix, but the females were conspicuously absent. For a moment, she wondered if she was in the right place, and she fiddled with the sleeves of Blaze's oversized jacket self-consciously.

Thankfully, the men didn't even give her a second glance. Their gazes were locked onto a raised dais on the other end of the room where a rectangular table and four empty chairs stood. It reminded Kayden of the one time she had gone to a rock concert, and how thousands of impatient fans kept staring at the stage, hoping for a sign of life as the minutes ticked by to show time.

As if on cue, a small side door creaked open.

"They're coming in now," Blaze said, and without saying anything else, he began pressing his way through the crowd to get to the front.

Kayden followed him, excusing herself as she jostled against the men in the room. Now people were glaring at her, but she was fairly certain it wasn't because of her gender.

Three men and one woman filed in through the side door, climbed up the small set of stairs, and took their places at the table. Each carried a small stack of papers and was accompanied by several burly men dressed in black: bodyguards.

"Good afternoon," one of the Congregation members—an older man with thinning white hair and glasses—addressed to the crowd. "Settle down please." Kayden stopped trying to press her way to the front. Blaze was several people ahead of her, and she had lost sight of Celery entirely, but Helio and Lexi were just behind her.