Page 5

“I assume you got my message,” Seb said. “And you didn’t cry to Zodiac about how terrible I am. Aren’t you a package of short, blond and interesting.”

I wasn’t that short. “How do you know I didn’t tell him?”

“Because he’s here, looking for his bitch, when you and I both know she’s no longer with us.” He sauntered toward a couch and reclined into it, vanishing his wings as he sat. Sipping his drink, he drew his long white hair over his shoulder and twirled a long lock between his fingers, while his tail twitched.

“You killed her then. You admit it?”

“So?”

I swallowed and took a few steps forward, so I wasn’t loitering by the door like the scared little mouse he believed me to be. “If Zee finds out⁠—”

“He won’t do a fucking thing.” Seb grinned, revealing small, sharp, triangular teeth. “You seem to be confused, Adam Vex. Cherise was mine, to fuck and fuck-up as I liked, and it just so fucking happened, I liked very much to kill her. Oh”—he frowned—“does that upset your little human feelings? Poor fucking you. What I do with my property is none of your fucking business, fuck face.” He pointed at me. “You better fucking learn real quick who the boss is around here.”

“You own the demons in Razorsedge—all of them?” A TV screen built into the cabinet on the back wall caught my eye. Split eight ways, the footage showed live images from multiple viewpoints around the club—the main stage area was there, and so were a few smaller rooms—clearly watching the demons inside performing their duties.

I blinked away. Seb had probably watched Zee in those rooms, and a spiky part of my insides definitely did not like that thought.

Zee had accused me of being jealous after he’d fed from unsuspecting guests in our lounge, and I’d denied it. But here, now, in Zee’s world, it wasn’t the sex I was jealous of, but how Sebastien knew Zee like I didn’t. I’d had six months of Zee’s life, Sebastien had years.

He breathed in, and eyed me as though wondering if I was worth the air his next words would expel. “Fuck off, Adam Vex.” He leaned forward, and his pale blue eyes narrowed. “Fuck all the way off to your happy little hotel, and don’t come back. You’ve had your fun. It’s fucking over. Zodiac is mine. He’s always been mine.” He stood, discarded his drink on a side table, and strutted toward me. “Will always be mine.” His wings shimmered back into the visible spectrum and opened wide, doubling his size.

He pointed at the cupboards along the back wall. “I got a contract says I own every inch of him. And you”—he poked me in the chest, jolting me back—“are nothing, fucknuts. You’re not even demon bait. You’re cum-slush I scrape off my shoe. Now get. The fuck. Out.”

I looked up, and up—since he was really tall. He was probably used to people cowering by now, but I’d endured far worse than someone like him.

Zee had told me, when we’d both been sloshed on the hotel roof, that he couldn’t leave Sebastien because of a contract. Tom Collins’s concoction had likely loosened his tongue. Deals were sacred to Lost Ones, which meant contracts were too.

That contract was why Zee didn’t stand up to Sebastien, and it would be the way out of this.

“I’ll buy his contract,” I blurted.

Sebastien’s laugh filled the apartment. He backed away a few steps, to get a better view. “The fuck? You can’t afford him.”

“Try me.” He didn’t need to know I had five bucks in my bank account. I’d get the money. Somehow.

“He’s priceless. Not even your billionaire vampire daddy can afford Zodiac.” Folding his arms, Seb smirked. “I’ll never sell.”

Ugh, this . . . demon. I was starting to understand how Gideon Cain must have felt at being denied the one thing he wanted most in the world. There had to be a way. Contracts could be broken, but to find its weakness I’d need to see it. Sebastien would never show me. He had no reason to. But Zee might.

“You have nothing to bargain with. You have no claim over him.” Seb pulled an overly dramatic sad face. “Poor baby human. That shit you’re feeling inside is your pathetic heart breaking. I can smell it on you. You reek of self-pity, loneliness, and humanity. Now, nice chat, but you’re boring and I’m busy. Ciao, bitch.”

He turned, and strutted off to collect his phone from a side counter.

There had to be something I could do to show Sebastien I wasn’t what he thought—what everyone thought. Enough to make him back off Zee and think twice about taking me on. But I’d already revealed too much to the vampires, and Gideon Cain. Perhaps it was better to back off and speak with Zee, if he’d even discuss his contract. He never liked to talk about Razorsedge. At least, not with me. But things had changed.

“Still here?” Sebastien purred, grin stretching. “Hm, what about a deal? Get on your knees, suck my enormous dick, and beg me to void Zodiac’s contract, and I might consider it?”

I chuckled in disbelief. Did he think I was really that foolish? “Considering it means nothing.”

“Oh, then you’re not opposed to the idea—just the terms?”

I wasn’t going to suck his dick. But there had to be something I could say or do to make him think twice about crossing me . . . Some parting gift. How could I hurt someone like him? Someone who didn’t care about anything?

There wasn’t much to go on. His suite was luxurious, and five times the size of my room at the hotel. He had everything he could ever want or need at his fingertips.

Although . . . there was one thing he didn’t have. “You know. If you were nicer, you wouldn’t need contracts to make them work for you.”

Seb blinked, and coughed a laugh. “What?”