Chapter 3
“Get up,” I said, nudging the new guy from where he’d fallen asleep on his sofa.
“Hmm?—oh.” He grunted, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. “Oh, goodness, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“Your name is Lennox, right?” I crouched to a squat before him. “Look at me, Lennox. I need you to hear me.”
His eyelashes were short and tangled, and the dark half-moons beneath them made him look sickly.
“Life is going to be very difficult for you here. I’m going to tell you something that I wish someone had told me.”
He blinked hard.
“You will not survive by following the rules.”
His throat bobbed as he stared back at me, all young and helpless.
“But you cannot get caught breaking them, either. They do not do second chances. Do you understand?”
He nodded. “I think so.”
I peeked over my shoulder and slipped the three coins from Terrek into his palm, curling his fingers around them. “These are yours.”
His big brown eyes widened even more as he gaped down at them. “Where did you get—?”
“Shh, doesn’t matter. You’re to spend them on food and nothing else, are we clear? It’s not much, but it will buy you time. Now, listen up because this is important.”
He sat up taller.
“In the dressing room, you’ll find a sack. It’s made to look like a sandbag weighing down a stool, but it’s actually filled with rice. Don’t make a habit out of it, but if you ever find yourself in a pinch, go grab a cup. Make sure no one sees you. It’s gotten me through some tough moments.”
He nodded excitedly.
“You didn’t hear that from me. And no one sees you do it.”
“I understand.” He showed all his big teeth in a hopeful smile that further melted my overtaxed heart as he brushed his fingers over the pitiful coins in his palm. “You’re some kind of an angel in disguise then?”
I supposed he meant it figuratively. Angels went extinct during the Great War, but I wasn’t convinced they ever existed in the first place.
How was there ever a creature so benevolent as to risk their lives delivering messages and prayers to the gods?
It was ludicrous to think anyone cared that much about human prayers.
But it also wasn’t the first time someone had made that comparison, and it wouldn’t be the last. It said more about how disparaged and hopeless people were than anything about me personally.
“Incoming V,” someone shouted.
Lennox and I both twisted toward the front door as all the people on their lounges who weren’t already too drained from a lover sat up a little taller.
“Oh, this is perfect,” I said, nudging Lennox’s knee. “Get up. Whoever that is, you’re going to take them upstairs. Maybe you’ll even get a contract out of them.”
His eyebrows lifted. “A contract? Me?”
“Not if you don’t stand up.” I hauled him up by his elbow. “Come on.”
Contracts were the best-case scenario. They typically lasted a month. A whole month where you got to live in a vultus’s home, eating full meals, sleeping in a real bed. All you had to do was keep them fed.
“They’re not going to pick me, Feloré, I’m telling you,” Lennox said, a little weak on his knees as he stood. “They never pick me. I don’t know how to get noticed, let alone score a contract.”
“When he walks in, you march right up to him and introduce yourself. Tell him you’re horny as hell and that he has a nice face. You want to sit on it.”
He blinked, eyes wide. “You want me to say that to them?”
I shrugged, considering it. “Well, it doesn’t have to be exactly that. Make it your own.”
“But that’s not submissive. I thought they liked submissiveness.”
“You can’t submissively sit on his face?”
“Well.” He scratched his temple like he was thinking about it. “But I thought it was against the rules to talk to them first. I thought we were supposed to let them choose us.”
“What did I say about the rules?”
He studied the walls like he was thinking about it. “That I won’t—”
“Survive if you follow them,” I finished. “Learn how to break them gracefully, and don’t get caught.”
He chewed his lower lip, brown eyes scanning my face. Then he sighed, almost in defeat. “But that’s easy for you to say. Oh, just tell them you’re horny. Sit on their face. But I look like this, and you look like that.”
“It’s not about how you look. They find attraction in all kinds of things.”
It was true. They could barely even distinguish the difference between a human man and woman. Sexuality was as flexible as a contortionist for them.
Lennox gave me a placating smile. “And that is what people who look like you say to people who look like me.”
In all fairness, it wasn’t without warrant. I had an unusual appearance for a human, and most demons seemed intrigued by it, but likely just because it was so different from them.
My hair was a jarring crimson red with an even more jarring single white streak in the front that I’d been born with.
My mother used to say it was as if the gods striped it with a paintbrush.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough to make blending in impossible, the irises of my eyes were so pale blue that when the sun hit them, they looked more silver than anything. Almost like they were made of pearl.
But it really wasn’t about that. They saw profound beauty in every body type, every walk of life, and every supposed ‘flaw’. It was one of their few redeeming qualities.
The brass bell on the front door jingled, and the door opened, inviting in a wet breeze, a few scattered leaves, and two vultae.
They must’ve been passing through town as they wore riding leathers, and their long coats were wet and soiled from the rain. They exchanged eager glances between each other as they warmed their hands, surveying the buffet of bodies before them, all half-naked and ready.
Jaxlyn manifested from his study to greet them, his smile forced as he shot a warning side-eye toward all the concubines to sit up taller and try to look sexy. That was the ongoing direction. At any point, someone was saying: Sit up. Sit the fuck up, come on. Try to look sexy.
“There’s two, even better,” I said, swatting Lennox’s chest. “Tell them you’ll take them both at once.”
His eyes rounded. “What—?”
“It’s the best of both worlds. It’ll help your numbers for your quota, and it’ll save them money, which they’ll love.”
“Feloré,” he said, gaping like I was mad. “Two at once will kill me.”
“Oh, please, you’ll be fine. You’ll sleep it off in eight hours. Drink lots of water. Some wake-berry juice. Now go before they choose someone else.”
He stared at them for a beat, as if in contemplation, then back at me.
“You won’t know if you don’t try,” I said, nudging him forward. “Look how hungry they are. They’re already twitching.”
Both of them shuddered as they made their way through the lounge chairs decorated with humans, nodding as they pretended to listen to Jaxlyn drone on about whatever nonsense he was spewing.
They didn’t care about the history of the brothel as they dragged their fingertips over the upholstery of the lounge chairs, smiling down at the humans, twitching even more when the humans smiled back.
I squeezed his bony shoulders from behind, and I could feel it. His fear. His scarce confidence from a lifetime of oppression.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it, Lennox,” I whispered into his ear, “I know you’re scared, but you are going to make it. You’re going to survive. I’m here for you.”
His chest expanded with a breath, and I could feel his worry loosen. Just a bit. “You are?”
“Yes. You’re more capable than you think.”
He hesitated. “I… I am?”
“I know it in my heart to be true,” I said, nodding. “Now, all you have to do is try. And have hope it’ll all work out. Do you have hope?”
He was staring vacantly at them, but his voice was a determined whisper as he said, “Yes.”
I smiled softly. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go get them.”
He gulped, then nodded as he started forward.
“Oh, and hey, one more thing.”
He twisted back, hopeful to receive another nugget of wisdom. “Yes?”
I grinned. Hell wasn’t hell without a little twisted humor. “Remember to have fun while you’re getting railed.”