“What’s wrong with you?” Tavak asked quietly.
“Nothing,” Dravka bit out before going to the door himself and swinging it open.
His head craned out but the hallway was empty. The brothel beyond it was completely silent, though at that time, he usually heard Valerie speaking on the phone, ordering food from Restaurant Row just in case their clients preferred to eat when they arrived.
“I’m going to check on Valerie,” Dravka announced.
“Why?” Ravu asked, but his question faded as Dravka strode from the Cluster.
It was a risk. If Madame Allegria happened to be there and found him wandering the halls, punishment would surely follow. But Dravka didn’t care. Something was wrong. Valerie was upset about something and Dravka intended to find out what.
He navigated his way from the only hallway that led to the Cluster and jogged down four flights of winding stairs until he reached the lobby. A beautiful, glimmering chandelier revealed that Valerie wasn’t present in her usual place behind the mahogany desk. The lobby was empty and echoing.
Dravka frowned and his gaze turned to the single door to the right of the lobby. He strode over to it, his gut churning just looking at it. He tried the handle and it swung open, revealing a darkened stairwell that led to the basement.
He blew out a rough breath through his nostrils and descended quickly, anger and unease mingling within him. The fact that Madame Allegria made Valerie live down here…right next to the room where she—
Veki. No, he wouldn’t think of it now.
When he reached the bottom of the steps, he only kept his gaze on the door at the end of the short hallway. Underneath it, he saw a crack of light peeking through.
He knocked shortly, once, before opening the door.
“Val—”
Her rough, surprised inhale met him first as his eyes adjusted to the light. Then he swallowed, thick, a muscle in his jaw jumping when he saw she was dressing.
She was facing a small wardrobe, clad in nothing but the underwear human females wore to conceal their sex. His gaze caught on her breasts, unbound, and exposed.
Lust and desire and longing and guilt hit him hard, all at once, making his mind spin as his palm squeezed the handle of the door. Her breasts were small but full, her nipples taut and pebbled. Her belly was smooth, leading to slim hips. The band of her underwear was white, a mesh-like material covering her there.
Only a few candles were lit inside the small room and the warm glow bounced off her skin as she clamored for the pink dress pooled at her feet, lifting it to cover her nude front.
“What—” she gasped, “what are you doing down here?”
Dravka, for more than a brief moment, couldn’t seem to make his tongue work. Though he’d seen countless human women naked, through he’d been intimately acquainted with their bodies, never had he been rendered speechless.
And Valerie wasn’t even fully naked.
“Vauk,” he rasped, his eyes darting to her own. “I—”
She swung so that her back was to him, hurrying to slip into a bra that she’d been in the process of putting on.
And all the blood seemed to drain from his body. Without realizing it, Dravka stepped into the small room. It was small enough, smaller than his own bedroom, that he only had to take a few steps until he was standing behind her.
Valerie froze when his fingers reached forward to touch the scars across her back.
He hadn’t seen her back in almost four years. He’d last seen it when it had been bloodied and whipped. Khiva had found her after Madame Allegria left her, but it had been Dravka that had tended to most of her wounds.
Familiar fury and hatred and regret swarmed him. Valerie shivered under his touch, meeting his gaze over her shoulder briefly before she turned and hurriedly finished dressing.
Dravka’s hand fell away but there was a thick tension in the small room, the only sound being that of Valerie frantically dressing.
Only when she was wearing a black dress, one with capped sleeves and fitted to her slim form, did she turn to face him.
Though…she wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.
Her face was caked in cosmetics, the kind that Madame Allegria wore on a daily basis. Her face looked blurry. Not real. The color across her cheeks was too bright, the red on her lips too distracting.
