Read Online The Merciless II by Danielle Vega - Free Book Online

says.
    Everyone around me reaches for the Bibles hanging from the shelves on the back of the rows in front of us, but I’m distracted by the altar boy. He hovers just behind Father Marcus, his face all hard lines and sharp angles.He looks like he was carved from stone. Shadows pool in the dips and curves of his skin, elongating his nose and chin, and making his eyes look deeper than they should. A small wooden cross hangs from a leather cord around his neck. He rubs it with his thumb while Father Marcus speaks.
    â€œSofia,” Leena whispers, poking me in the ribs. She has her Bible spread out between us, offering to share. I tear my eyes away from the altar boy and try to follow along.
    â€œFor everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” Father Marcus reads, “comes not from the Father, but from the world.”
    Father Marcus looks up from his Bible and stares over our heads with a glassy, unfocused look. He lets the silence hang. Then he licks his thin lips and turns the page, the sound echoing off the walls.
    â€œThe lust of the eyes comes not from the Father, but from the world ,” he repeats, louder this time. “Here, John is warning you about beauty and lust and sex —”
    Sutton giggles. She tries to cover it with a cough, but she’s too late. Father Marcus fixes his gaze on her, fury etched across his ancient face. Sutton stares at her knees, her face going pale. The energy in the room changes. Students shift in their pews. No one dares to make a noise.
    Father Marcus clears his throat and tears his eyes away from Sutton. “John is warning you that these things were created not by God, but by the world. To tempt you. Desire is a temptation. Want of any kind is a temptation. Do not love the world, or anything in the world , John writes. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them .”
    I glance away from Father Marcus at the same moment that the altar boy turns toward the audience. His eyes lock on mine.
    Shaggy black hair hangs over his forehead and ears, just past needing a haircut. Two thick eyebrows arc over his eyes, giving him the look of someone who’s always on the verge of laughing.
    I don’t realize I’ve stopped breathing until the air around me turns hazy. Sutton was right. The altar boys here are hot. The boy cocks one of his amazing eyebrows. It changes his entire face. Now he looks boy-next-door cute. The kind of guy who teases you when he likes you.
    â€œLeena,” I whisper. She glances up from her Bible. I nod at the altar boy. “Who’s that?”
    â€œOh.” Leena reddens and glances down at her lap, a smile twisting her lips. “That’s Jude, the guy I was telling you about. I think I just caught him looking at me. Did you see?”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    O nly a total bitch would go after Jude .
    Sutton’s warning echoes in my head. I didn’t even know who he was, I remind myself. I didn’t mean to stare at him.
    I make my way alone to my first class of the day. St. Mary’s is a maze. The hallways twist around one another and dead-end at strange places. Stairways seem to appear out of nowhere, and the light is so dim that I can barely see two feet in front of me. I get the feeling that whoever built this school wanted the students to get lost.
    Once you’re at St. Mary’s, you never escape  . . .
    â€œStop it,” I mutter to myself, pushing Sutton’s creepy warning out of my head. A crow flies past the window, its shadow stretching long across the hall. A shrieking laugh booms from inside a classroom and then cuts off as a door slams.
    I wander down wrong hallways twice before finally digging out the map Leena sketched for me. She went over my schedule after Mass and drew little stars on all my classes. I have a strange thought as I stare down at the paper—what if Leena intentionally drew the stars in the