Read Under the Rose for Free Online Page B

They threatened to drown me, they threatened to rape me—”
    “And this somehow endeared them to you?” he asked.
    “Well, no, not as such but—”
    “Look—uh, Glow Girl, or whatever part you’re supposed to be playing—this isn’t really my type of gig, okay?”
    “Then why did you accept the tap?”
    “Jungle fever?” he suggested.
    Well, Kurtz, welcome to a whole new heart of darkness. “Look, I didn’t think it was my thing, either.” And my enemies would agree with that. “But it’s been—”
    “Get out while you still can, man,” interrupted Graverobber. “Before any vows are taken. I wish I had. These cats don’t have the same cachet they used to.” He leaned against the wall. “Word is, the endowment’s drying up as well.”
    Like Mr. Greek-shipping-heir Graverobber needed any extra dough! “Back off,” I hissed. I turned to Howard. “As you can see, we’d really love some new blood in the brotherhood.”
    “As you can see,” Graverobber echoed, “the word ‘brotherhood’ is a bit of a misnomer.”
    “Both literally and figuratively. You two are at each other’s throats.” Howard shook his head. “I don’t have time for this drama. I’ve got MCATs to study for.” And with that, he turned and walked out the front door.
    Everyone stood and stared with their mouths open. I turned to Poe. “What do we do now?”
    “Same thing I did last year. Go beg.”
    “Me? I didn’t even start the fire. Where’s his big sib?” Weren’t there any other patriarchs on campus, or were we only blessed with this creep?
    “Cutting up cadavers at Berkeley,” Poe said flatly. “Oaths of loyalty clearly don’t cross the Continental Divide.”
    Oh, for Persephone’s sake! I grabbed Graverobber’s arm and yanked him after me in pursuit of our stray straggler.
    “Howard!” I cried, as we sprinted down the steps and through the (open) gate. “Come back! Let’s talk about this.”
    A bunch of freshmen at High Street Gate gave us weird looks, so Nikolos grabbed Howard’s elbow and pulled him into the alley next to the tomb leading to the sculpture garden. Once we were well hidden by building shadow and the drooping branches of a willow, I pushed back my hood. “Look here,” I said. “You accepted the tap. We put you on the list we sent out to all the patriarchs. You’re in. How can you go back on it now?”
    “That was April.” He shrugged. “I’ve had a long summer to think it over, and with all of my commitments right now, I don’t know how much I can devote to you people.”
    But he hadn’t decided that until he’d gotten inside and took a good look at us. Why did I have to be the one begging this jerk to come back? I didn’t care how many third-world children he’d inoculated.
    I elbowed Nikolos, and he sighed, but rallied. “Your commitments? You’re the one senior on campus who’s still involved in activities? Can you not spare a little time for us? We will definitely make it worth your while.”
    Howard chuckled. “A little? You’re a senior, right? Totally new to all of this. You don’t know how much time we’re talking about.” He began ticking things off on his fingers. “I’m a freshmen counselor, I’m doing my biochem thesis, I’m on the board at the Jewish Students Center, and I volunteer at a lab downtown a few nights a week. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was inside that tomb that I realized how much more those things matter to me than a bunch of strangers in weird costumes.”
    “We don’t always wear the costumes,” I pointed out, to little avail. We wouldn’t always be strangers, either.
    “Look, sweetheart, I know the guy who was grooming me to fill his spot in Rose & Grave, and he was a mess last year. Something happened where he almost lost his place in school…. I didn’t get the details.”
    “So you think you’ll avoid that by denying us?” Nikolos asked.
    “Getting out before I get in too deep sounds good to me,” Howard