Chapter Fourteen
Mel
The ladies’ restrooms at Siren’s Supernatural Strip Club were even weirder than the rest of the establishment. The room was spacious, lined in black floral wallpaper with white marble sinks and pink velvet furniture placed in front of the stalls. While all that was somewhat normal, it was the blue and red stained glass windows mounted over the sinks, bathing the space in a colorful depiction of Christ that created theuniqueatmosphere.
The second I stepped inside, the heady scent of sex hit me. Grunts from the last stall pulled my attention where I saw two sets of feet. The woman’s feet were clad in PVC heels so tall they made my clumsy ass twitch just looked at them, and a set of black biker boots was enough for me to piece together what was going on in there.
Blood flooded beneath my cheeks, and I moved to look away, but something else caught my attention. I stepped closer, examining the woman’s exposed skin just a little closer.
My heart just about bottomed out, seeing the scaly flesh of her calves the color of blood wrapped in the shoes’ black ribbons.
The dancers are succubi. That’s what Lucifer had said. Hearing it was one thing. Seeing it was another. I flung myself into the stall furthest from them and emptied my stomach into the toilet.
This was all too much.
With the combination of grunts and moans and wrenching, I didn’t notice another person entering the restroom until there was a knock at my stall.
“Occupied,” I managed to croak, clutching onto the bowl for dear life.
“Melanie,” a familiar, warm voice sounded on the other side of the door. I turned to see Gabe’s polished oxfords standing in front of the stall.
“Fuck off, Gabriel,” I spat, wiping my mouth off on my arm.
“Come on, Mel. Open the door. You’ve had a long night. Let me take you home. We can forget any of this ever happened.”
His voice was soft, comforting like a blanket. How I wanted to take him up on his offer, to go back to normal and pretend that tonight never happened. To pretend that I didn’t know what he was or that he’d been lying to me all these years.
But I couldn’t do that. Gabriel wasn’t so much a comfort to me now that I knew he hadn’t protected me and watched after me all these years because he loved me. It was because it was hisjob.
“Is it true? What you said about Lucifer is true. He really is the devil, isn’t he?”
What ensued was a silence that felt like it spanned eternity, made awkward only by the shrill sounds of a woman climaxing a few toilets down. There was the jingle of a belt being latched back into place, the hushed giggles of the woman, the scuff of boots and then the slam of the door as they made their exit, leaving Gabe and me alone.
“It’s true,” he whispered after several more blistering moments.
“So angel shifters really are a thing? Heaven is real?” My throat constricted. “And Hell— That’s real too?”
“Yes. But neither place is anything like what humans envision. Well, except for Dante Alighieri. HisInfernowas surprisingly accurate on some accounts.”
“And you’re one of them.”
Silence.
The faint thud of the club’s music filled my entire body, its rhythmic beat steadying my racing pulse. Still on my knees before the toilet, as if in prayer, I lifted my eyes to the top of the stained glass window where Christ’s eyes could be seen, looking down at me in the stall.
A whole new world had been opened up to me tonight. One that I wasn’t supposed to have stumbled into.
“Tell me the truth, Gabriel.”
More silence.
“Fuckingsaysomething.”
“Melanie…” The pitch of his voice changed to something I’d never heard before. Almost like he was pleading with me. The door moved on its hinges as he pressed his hands against it and slid to his knees. We were now kneeling before one another, with only the stall door between us. “There is so much you aren’t supposed to know. But there is one thing you have to understand. Idolove you.”
“Because you were told to love me. Because it’s your job.”
“I’ve always loved you, it’s true. But over the years, the love of a guardian turned into more. So much more. I burn for you, Mel. My lust for you is sinful and depraved, and I claimed your body for myself, and that was a sin.” His voice turned raw and raspy. “And I’d do it again. That’s what terrifies me most. Because if we’re caught, I could lose you. I could lose—” Whatever it was, Gabe couldn’t finish the sentence like he couldn’t say it out loud.
