As we exit one of the gardens, we find ourselves on a blocked path. Earlier, we decided that if we stayed outside the buildings and traveled down the slope, we should find the next stairs. But it looks like the exit to the outside has been blocked.
“What do we do?” Moni asks, her bark looking pale white. Chester reaches down and grabs her hand, pulling her close.
“I got ya. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just get on my back and close your eyes. Rez, put a double shield around us,” he says, giving me a pointed look.
Okay then. Chester’s calling the shots.I like how he’s taking responsibility for Moni’s well-being and making sure she’s okay. It’s only because he’s making her feel better that I allow him to boss me around. He’s lucky she’s a walking mood ring and that I can see she’s back to her usual green. Otherwise, I would ensure he couldn’t reproduce that attitude to his offspring.
Chester shifts into his Lemur, wanting to wait until the last minute, and Moni shrinks down to her preferred size and lands on his back. Once he’s double-shielded, he crawls on top of Lynx.
‘How ya doing, Taxi?’I snicker.
Lynx growls and puts a little hop in his step as he walks in front of me.
‘That’s such a cute little butt. Next time, I’ll use a toy on it,’I tease and watch Lynx miss a step, jarring Chester and Moni. Moni squeals and yells at Lynx.
“Watch it, Lynx, or else I’m giving this escort a bad rating on Help!”
“It’s Yelp!, Moni,” JP says, following them.
“Why would I yelp? He’s supposed to be helping me,” she shoots back. I fight the urge to smack myself in the face but just shake my head as I watch for the others to see who’s going to make the next decision.
It’s awkward silence for a moment until I speak up. “Okay, so obviously, we can’t go this way. What are our options?” I start the discussion.
“From what I can remember from the vantage point of the stairs, we can go through this building to the right and cut through, or backtrack and weave through the east garden and cut back over to the west,” Ryker explains as he runs his fingers through his hair.
“How far would you say we still have to go?” Levi asks, pulling back his leather cuff and glancing at his watch.
“We’re at least midway. That maze”—Ryker points back to the maze in the background that we passed a few minutes ago—“was at the halfway mark.”
“Shit,” Levi murmurs under his breath. “No.” He immediately shakes his head. “We don’t have the time to double back. We’ll have to cut through,” he admits with a pinched expression.
“Well then, I guess we have no time to lose.” I reinforce everyone’s shield before taking a step toward the building, but it’s blocked by a shadow. Following the dark shadow up, I’m met with muscle, crossed arms over a broad chest, wide shoulders, shoulder-length hair, and dark brown eyes.
Knots.
I motion for Knots to move, but he just stares at me. “No,” he demands. It’s the first time we’ve purposely interacted since we left Lynx’s parents—if you don’t consider the lame thank you for the hair tie, which I don’t. But his demand that I don’t go first is not something I’d consider talking. This overall approach, I find, is quite annoying, to be honest, and all it makes me want to do is smack him one. But now is not the time nor place, so I arch an eyebrow and nimbly step in front of him and into the building.
The first thing I notice is the setting. I blink my eyes a few times to adjust to the dim lighting, my body slightly shivering as it adapts to the significant change of temperature from outside. The fresh air and sweet floral scents are gone, and the smell of alcohol, sweat, and sex is pungent.
We must be walking into the place from one of the back hallways because it feels and sounds like a club, but the sounds are muffled as if there’s a dampening spell. The hypnotic beat bounces around the small space as I twist my body between stacked unopened boxes with Asmodeus’ seal. I briefly contemplate what’s in the boxes and wonder about prying one open to peek, but soon find myself bobbing along with the music.
We walk into a massive area at least three stories high from where we stand on the outskirts. The place is like a warehouse, with open balconies and levels where people are doing far more than dancing in hanging cages.Shit, I like some porno stars. I honestly could learn a few things from this level.
There’s a bar on our left, booths, and a dance floor to our right, and I pray the exit is straight ahead. But getting there won’t be as easy as walking. I really wish I was a shifter, one that could either fly or crawl on the walls right now, which is exactly what Chester does.
He jumps from Lynx’s back and runs across the bar with Moni on his back, making a bounding leap into the air andgliding across all the gyrating bodies in front of us. JP soon turns to me and has to yell for me to hear that Moni and Chester have made it safe outside.
Relief hits me that at least there’s an outside on the other side of this sex mosh pit and that they are safe. I glance at Knox in his Gryphon form and wonder if he’s rethinking of switching to Slayer. If he has his whips, he could swing out of here already. When we started our journey through Lust, he thought stuffy old Baron would be the best bet to ward off any sexual tension, and even though he was right, Baron wasn’t happy with the parallel.
We are sitting ducks as we watch demons fuck and suck each other around us. Reaper starts to hump the air, and I groan. If Lust is affecting him now, I know this is only going to heat up and become more difficult for everyone the longer we’re here.
Speaking of the devils, we’ve already caught the eyes of some of the participants as a few of the demons push up against my men and make passes. Luckily, their shields hold against their influence, but the guys have to push them off of them, and some are not taking the gentle persuasion of no lightly.
‘Baron. I need you to do me a favor, please.’
‘Anything for my wonderful mate.’
‘Remember you just said that because Knox is going to be pissed. How many people can you fit on your back and fly out of here?’I ask, knowing he can see over the group of demons fucking before us and the door from here.
