Money exchanged hands on Level Greed and backs turned to the scene below. Some scowled while others smiled victoriously. The elite couldn’t be bothered with the loss of life.
It was literally below them.
“It’s not polite to stare, sweetness.”
Nyx startled and cursed. She had let her guard down, too lost in the battle below to track the men behind her.Fucking idiot, she scolded.
“Blood lust is not impolite,” she rebounded. “It’s expected.”
“Feisty little thing.” Cupid smiled.
“I like it.” Teddy licked his lips as if he could already taste her on his tongue.
She winked at them and turned back to the female celebrating her win. Nyx couldn’t wrap her mind around what she’d witnessed, and it made her blood curdle. A pit arena full of rage and bloodlust, and a balcony full of spectators gallivanting their riches and betting on lives like they were livestock.
What had this world come to?
When the elevator went dark and Level Greed was hidden, Nyx took the moment of obscurity to collect her features and steel her spine as the elevator hummed. She was going to have to bolt when the doors opened, and quickly.
Seconds later the glass box illuminated with sensual pink light and the sight was a punch to the gut. She hoped the men behind her mistook her heavy exhale for longing rather than the shock and total dread making her heart race. Heat rose to her cheeks as the elevatordingedand opened its doors.
“Welcome to Lust, sweetness.”
She’d been in the bath for what felt like hours waving her pruney fingers under the water and trying to find peace in the feeling. What feeling, she didn’t know exactly. Maybe the tickle of flowing water between her fingers. Or, perhaps, it was the way the fragrant bath oils moved back and forth with every stroke of her palm. Regardless, she was happy to live in the moment, for the next could be her last. Xia recalled pieces of the conversation she’d heard through the vent a mere hour ago.
“Where is the song? Do you have it?
“Of course I fucking have it,” the Devil retorted.
Her tone was low and deadly when she responded, “Do. Better. This isn’t enough. This doesn’t work without her. I cannot hold him without her song and we are not finished.”
Xia pondered those words over and over until she’d analyzed every letter.
What she knew– the Devil was holding her captive to collect her song. He and the mystery woman were using the drugging properties of her chaos to hold someone in an unconscious trance. What she didn’t know, however, was the identity of the mystery woman and the victim of her song.
They had to be strong, whoever they were. To be dosed with her song and not given the antivenom that only she contained, the daemon would be dead. Her song would bleed them dry to fill the well of her power. Of this much, she was certain.
So who was strong enough to receive large quantities of her chaos and, rather than die, maintain a sedative state?
Chaos, a voice whispered.Brooks.
Xia sat up with a sigh and hugged her knees to ease the anxiety squeezing her chest. The more she contemplated the situation, the tighter its grip became. The ominous feeling grew with every passing hour as the air thickened around her. She didn’t know what the Devil was up to, but she did know him.
Xia knew that he was worse when he was angry. He took more than necessary from her and, when she thought she had nothing left to give, he took more greedily. She knew that he would be bitter after the meeting with his mistress. Resentful. His rage would know no bounds.
And who better to take it out on than the cause of his embarrassment?
When she overheard the conversation through the vent, his torture had been limitless. He constructed nightmares built atop her regrets, fears, weaknesses, but worst of all, he’d built them atop her shame. And still, it hadn’t been enough to please whoever held his leash. It was only a matter of time before he made his way back to her to prove a point. If his mistress wanted more, the Devil would serve it on a bloody platter.
A crash disrupted the calm as a raging scream pierced the silence. “Where the fuck are you, Siren?”
Xia’s pulse raced as she buried her head between shaking knees and fisted handfuls of hair. Panicked sobs wracked her frame, worsening with each footfall outside the door. She didn’t look up when he broke through. Xia didn’t have the courage to stare death in the face. She wasn’t brave enough to help her sisters, and she was no longer desperate enough to help herself.
He stopped in the doorframe and the weight of his stare burned between her shoulder blades. “Get up,” he growled. She couldn’t move. Fear locked her limbs in place as her silent sobs turned to desperate wails. “I said get up, you fucking whore!” Her screams battled his malevolent roar.
In two quick steps, he reached her side, knotted his fist into her hair, and jerked her from the tub. Xia’s scalp flamed as each follicle held on for dear life, the pain unbearable. The Devil pulled her face to his and she shriveled under the hate in his stare.
“This is all your fucking fault.”
