Suffer, she scoffed. All she ever did was fucking suffer. She lay on the same spot on the bathroom floor as she did every time he left her to knit the pieces back together. Weak, her sisters had called her. Content to be a fly on the wall and cower at the first sign of conflict. Cold fury iced her veins unlike any she’d ever felt as her chaos slithered the surface. She was tired of being weak.
Helpless.
Useless.
Xia shattered the barrier between her heart and the monster she kept locked in its depths. She let rise the nature of her chaos as she stood from the floor. Frost settled over her heart and she lost herself to the fury and cruelty in which her monster basked.
Something took control of her then. Something she only faced when she screamed at the black sky and pulled blood from the sea. Her broken bones melded, corded muscle mended, and her water-logged chest expelled every drop as Xia stepped from the body of the woman and into the skin of the monster.
Her kindhearted nature whispered protests.See reason, it begged.This isn’t you.
But the darkness was all consuming. Xia’s gentle soul tucked itself into the arms of the monster, and all she had left was rage.
Teddy placed a hand on her lower back and urged her forward. She was hesitant to go but put one foot in front of the other. She wouldn't let them see her tremble.
Nyx stepped into the large foyer and assessed her surroundings. Plush body-sized cushions were strewn about the floor, large couches and duvets sprinkled here and there, and a pleasure bar was situated in the corner. Sheer floor-to-ceiling curtains were placed strategically to allow privacy when desired.
Not that anyone here cared to use them. Nyx couldn’t look anywhere without seeing a man stroking himself or a face buried in between someone's thighs. Gagged moans drew her attention to a pair of men, one reclined on a couch while the other was on his knees taking as much cock as he could handle to the back of his throat.
Nyx looked away, cheeks blazing. She prayed to whoeverwould listen that her blush would resemble heated desire rather than innocence. Women danced on raised platforms and in gilded cages hanging from the ceiling. Some were dressed in decorative fabrics that covered just enough to tease while others were naked and adorned with shiny jewels accentuating their assets.
Cupid took Nyx’s hand and pulled her from the gala of flesh and toward the shadowed outskirts. Sleek black doors lined the outside walls with men in black suits interspersed between each of them.
“Where are you taking me?” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the groans and music. She’d be damned if she leaned in close enough to whisper. Encouraging these assholes more than necessary was not on the agenda.
“To get some privacy, baby,” Cupid drawled with a wink. He approached the nearest Club Hel bouncer and leaned in close, gesturing to their group. With a quick nod, the man scanned his badge to the control panel on the wall. The door next to him lifted swiftly and disappeared through the ceiling. Only the best of technology for the patrons of Club Hel.
Panic settled in her limbs. Nyx needed to shake the assholes before she was forced into a private room with the four of them. She grabbed Teddy by the ear, pulled him to her level, and licked the outer rim slowly.
“I'm going to the ladies' room to freshen up. Grab me a drink, big boy, and find somewhere comfy. I’m riding you first.” She bit the lobe and sucked the sting away. Teddy jeered and smacked her ass, and she was glad no one could see her eye roll. With a quick kiss on his cheek, Nyx sauntered away with the hopes of finding a bathroom to hide in. She needed a minute to think about her next moves.
The small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, paranoia quickening her pulse. Someone was watching her.
Nyx grabbed a passing server by the arm and leaned in to ask, “Where are the bathrooms?”
The Club Hel employee pointed to the opposite corner and yelled over the music, “The first hall on the right. The ladies' room is the second door.”
“Thanks.” Nyx followed his direction and kept her pace nice and even. She didn’t want whoever was watching to know that she’d caught on to their attention. A good thief was aware of her surroundings and played the underdog.
She shouldered through dancing bodies and avoided grabbing hands while trying to adjust her vision to the magenta light. Saccharine perfume permeated the air and she hoped to Zeus that it was body spray and not opium. She couldn’t afford to lose her wits.
“Come back home, okay, Nini?”Evangeline’s voice drifted through the mayhem in her mind and Nyx’s stomach clenched. If she fumbled, Evie would starve.
Nyx caught sight of a clearer walkway and relief nearly forced her to her knees. It was short lived, however, when she saw the length of the line of women waiting for the bathroom.
“Just fucking great,” Nyx murmured. So much for taking a minute to get her shit together.
Nyx reluctantly joined the line and threw a paranoid glance over her shoulder. She didn’t know who was watching her, but seriously hoped it wasn’t one of those pig-faced motherfuckers she walked in with. She hated standing still for too long. Like a rabbit ripe for slaughter.
She wiped her sweaty palms onto her sequined dress and decided she was tired of fucking waiting. Nyx pushed past the women in front of her with hushed apologies and ignored the dirty looks tossed in her direction.
“I’m just going to squeeze past you–” She nudged past a woman in a skimpy pink sequin dress with an awful brownwig and smeared eye makeup. Her breath screamed opium and ambrosia.
“Watch where you’re fucking going.” The woman shoved Nyx in the shoulder, her face contorted in a drugged rage.
Nyx stumbled across the hallway. Her heeled shoes caught on the carpet and her back hit the wall hard enough to force the breath from her lungs.
She had only a moment's notice before a familiar feeling of vertigo crept up her spine. A rush of magic burst through her veins crackling like electricity as Nyx threw her head back toward the sky. White glazed her eyes as she was thrown into a vision.
