“Figuratively.He broke up with me for someone prettier and more agreeable.I imploded.”
“But no one actually burned?”
“It was a metaphor for my emotional pain.No.No one was burned in this story.”She rested her forehead against the window.Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut?
The limo turned in to the circle drive of a brownstone deep within the vampire district.
“There’s no sign,” she said.A wooden panel swung from a hook over the door, displaying a symbol of three overlapping red triangles.“Oh wait.There’s a symbol.What does that mean?”
Silas didn’t answer.Soleil and a man in a dark suit exited the limo and were ushered inside the stone building by three security guards.Meredith strained to see the man’s face, but it was hidden by shadows that clung to him despite Soleil glowing on his arm.
“We’ll have to go inside.”Silas unbuckled his seat belt.
“What is this place?”Meredith asked, squinting at the building.The historical architecture was stunning.Had to be a hundred years old.
“I have no idea.”He climbed from the van and straightened his clothes.
She followed his lead, hooking her arm into his as they rounded the corner together on foot.Silas glanced down at her hand around his elbow.
“To look the part.”
He nodded once.
A man in a black suit stopped them at the door.“Observing or participating?”
A chill coursed through Meredith.She still wasn’t sure what this place was, but with options like that, she could guess.“Observing,” she said quickly.
Silas flashed her a completely confused look.
“That’ll be fifty,” the man said.“Strict confidentiality is enforced.No pictures or recording devices of any kind.There’s a spell on the place, so don’t even try it.”
While Meredith accepted two red wristbands from the man, Silas pulled out his wallet and handed over the cash.Her heart sank.He had no idea what he was in for.She took him by the elbow and led him inside.
“You may not want to see this,” she whispered in his ear.
The dark paneled walls and dim lighting reminded her of a reception hall or maybe a funeral parlor.It had the quality of an ancient castle or the type of old building you would find on Ivy League campuses.High end.Above the fray.Classical music played in the background.Several other guests strode past them in suits and gowns, seeming to know exactly where they were going.
“Do you know what this place is?”
“No.What is it?”he asked.By his expression, he didn’t have a clue.“We’re underdressed, that’s for sure.”
They came to two doors.Most of the guests filtered through the one with a red X carved into the wood.But Meredith tugged him in the opposite direction, to one labeled with a carving of an eye.As she opened the door, an elderly man behind them chuckled and whispered to the woman next to him.
She flashed a little fang and adjusted her fur stole.“Enjoy the show,” she crooned.
Meredith nodded dumbly and ushered Silas up a flight of narrow steps and into a dark room.“Thank the goddess, we’re the only ones up here.”
“Why?What the hell is this place?Why would Soleil come here with that guy?”Silas glanced around the room, taking in the red velvet seats, the floor-to-ceiling observation windows.
“I wasn’t sure at first.I’ve never actually been to one, but you hear things as a woman.”She pointed to the windows.One-way glass like the kind they had in the interrogation room at the station.She could see out, but the people on the other side would only see a mirror.
Silas shuffled to her side, looking stiff.They peered down into a circular room with a narrow padded bench at its center and multiple racks of instruments: floggers, canes, chains, and cuffs.
“It looks like a torture chamber.”
Meredith sighed.“Not torture.Sex.”
Silas whirled to look at her.
