Chapter 21 Silver
SILVER
We bypassed the queue to get into the club after Cas offered a couple of bills to the bouncer, entering a dimly light modern club set in a gorgeous historical space.
Between the columns and arches, the stained glass and painted ceiling, this could have been Highvale—except our architecture felt modern, recently built, or preserved to look exactly like it had the day it was built, while there was a certain element of decay in the rest of the world.
I would have enjoyed being here for fun. Instead, my eyes took in every nook and cranny, spotting exits, analyzing the space and each person around us.
We were surrounded by a hundred drunk, high, horny young people, swaying to the sound of live music. A beautiful blonde with a raspy whiskey voice sang, entrancing me so much I had to wonder if she had siren blood. Almost everyone had their eyes on her.
“Here you are, doll.”
I blinked, willing myself to look away from the mesmerizing vocalist.
Cas seemed to be the only person completely indifferent to the music, his attention solely on me. It made me defensive.
I levelled a glare at the man as he gallantly handed me a fruity cocktail.
“A porn star martini,” he told me. “Doesn’t that sound delightful?”
I was surprised to watch him sip the same drink, complete with a little parasol. “Most men would go for a scotch.”
He shrugged. “I have nothing to prove.”
His confidence immediately made me think big dick energy. I hated myself for it.
Clearing my throat, I said, “Thanks for the drink—er—darling.”
I borrowed the endearment from Lucian, though it felt weird coming out of my mouth. I was stupidly blushing as if this was my very first time on a bloody fake date for work. I’d done it half a dozen times in the last year, with Gideon, Francois, Barron, Irwin, and even Isla without any problem.
I downed my drink in three big gulps.
“Thirsty, huh?” Cas smirked knowingly.
The dick had figured out that I had a hard time finding a proper retort when he flirted with me, and he was taking full advantage of it. It wasn’t fair, really.
I’d always known beauty was a weapon: my foster mother Demetria used her smiles just as efficiently as her knives.
Even Kleos had been known to bat her lashes to get away with murder.
So did Lucian come to think of it. But none of it had ever worked on me.
I thought I was immune to it, not superficial enough to let physical appearance affect me in any way shape of form.
Being reduced to a bumbling, blushing fool by Cas when he pretended to be attracted to me irritated me almost as much as his cryptic nonsense.
He finished his drink and put it down on the closest side table before taking my hand. “Dance with me.”
He wasn’t asking.
I winced. Kleos had been required to take dancing lessons by her evil stepmother, but Tria and Gray didn’t demand anything like that from me. Before I could tell him that dancing was not on my list of acquired skills, his hand slid low on my back, right at my tailbone, and my brain stopped.
It turned out that no expertise was required to sway from side to side to the sound of the enticing voice. Cas had natural rhythm, and I allowed myself to let him lead.
One song died, melting into the next. During the pose, I bit my lower lip, willing myself to stay present, awake, and not forget that we were here for work.
Cas leaned in, his breath close to my ear. “To your left.”
Right. Cas wasn’t really into me. He was just very good at pretending. We were here for work, no other reason.
I glanced left, immediately spotting what he meant for me to see.
There was a fashionable man, a little older than me, dressed all in white, and with a baseball cap over his brown hair, slipping something in the hand on a scantily clad woman in pink. I caught the shine of the green stone, and sensed the familiar energy.
The pink girl giggled, closing her fist around the stone before moaning in pleasure. I watched her eyes glaze over, pupils dilated.
“That was the good stuff,” she told the dealer, handing him some euros.
“Come to me if you’d like more, darling.”
He started to walk away.
I was half tempted to follow, but Cas’s palm slid a little lower and I sucked in a breath, thoroughly distracted.
“Stop watching so obviously,” he breathed into my ear before pressing his lips to my neck.
My thighs clenched, and to my shame, could feel wetness ruining my panties as my insides were set ablaze.
So, so dangerous.
“We’re here to work,” I hissed low.
“Mmhmm. I intend to work very hard.”
In any other circumstances I would have kicked his balls bloody but we both had a role to play.
I knew he took his this seriously to get under my skin, and I’d get him back for that, damn him, but in the moment, I was completely incapable of resisting the flood of sensations he wrenched from me, his hands moving along my spine, my arms.
“Hé, mon pote?” someone said.
My eyes fluttered open to find a short guy in a red shirt tapping Cas’s shoulder.
“Tu veux quelque chose de sympa pour ta copine?”
My French was rusty, but he was asking if Cas wanted something nice for me.
Cas smiled, his accent absolutely perfect as he replied, “Ouai, qu’est-ce que t’as?”
The dealer chuckled. “Un peu de tout, hein.” He rattled off a long list that could have gotten him arrested ten times over in a country where even weed was illegal.
Cas seemed to hesitate before asking, “T’as quelque chose d’un peu plus magic?”
His eyes “Ah, je vois ce que tu veux.”
He stuck his hand in his pocket and produced one shining seaglass shard, Kleos’s sun and sea energy emanating from it, coated by something else—darker, vibrating with malice.
“?a coute combien?”
Cas retrieved his wallet and paid the man the thirty euros he asked for without argument, before shaking his hand.
I sensed the vibration of magic as their skin touched, and waited until the man was busy with his next deal before whispering, “What did you do to him?”
“Tracking spell. We wouldn’t want to lose our new friend, huh?”
To my shock, I watched him tighten his fist and focus, activating the crystal. I sent him a wary glance.
He was reluctant to let Adrian even touch the crystal last time, let alone actually use it.
“We’re being watched,” he reminded me, with a quick nip at my earlobe.
He had a point, but I hated the thought of getting affected by the unknown entity that had changed the nature of Kleos’s magic.
“Go on. I’ll take care of you.”
I couldn’t even begin to explain what those words did to me. I knew he meant he’d be able to resist the influence and handle whatever it did to me, but after all the touching and flirting and biting my bloody ear, my mind made a U turn and ended in the gutter.
Frustrated about the effect he had on me, I decided enough was enough. I had to take control.
“All right. Take care of me.”
I turned on my heels and pressed back against him. He was so stupidly tall, my arse reached his thigh, and I had to get to my tiptoes to reach his crotch. When I did, I undulated softly, unapologetically. He’d started it, so fuck him.
I was gleefully satisfied to feel him freeze.
Delighted to have recovered a degree of control, I grabbed the hand he clutched the crystal in with mine, bringing it to my chest.
Energy pulsed from it, some of it familiar, the rest concerning but not immediately dangerous.
Oh, boy. This was going to make it hard to focus on work, I could tell.
Whatever spell or curse had been layered onto Kleos’s reserve, it was apparent that its first effect was a stimulant, which explained the pink girl’s moan.
Part of the Guard training included analyzing unfriendly magic cast against us.
I wasn’t capable of doing that by myself, but Kleos’s magic, that she specifically spelled as a shield for me, allowed me a layer of protection.
Tonight, I had a red stone choker pulsing with her uncompromised magic.
I focused on it now, desperately trying to make myself resist the influence of the crystal in Cas’s palm, but the two battled for dominance, filling me with so much power I thought I might burst.
Suddenly, all magic ceased to have any influence on me. I lifted my gaze to Cas, seeing his eyes shine blue as he absorbed the power.
“You like that, huh?” he said, loud enough I knew it was for show.
I might no longer be affected, but I had to pretend to be in order to fit in with the high, horny people around us.
“Mm,” I whined in agreement.
I didn’t even need to fake the lustfulness. The hardness against my arse was obliterating my already drenched panties.
Cas took a fistful of my hair and tugged it back until I looked up to him. “Behave, unless you want me to fuck you right here on the bloody dance floor, doll.”
Fuck. This would have been a hell of a lot easier if I’d been here with Francois, or just about anyone else, even Irwin.
“You wouldn’t,” I said, with something of a challenge in my tone.
“Wouldn’t I?”
I thought I might just end up bent over, dress scrunched up to my waist at any moment, but then the man in white with the baseball cap who’d sold to the pink girl approached us, clearing his throat.
“English, huh?” he asked in a thick accent. “I see you are used to hexed shots?”
I chuckled. “Oh, yeah. We have them all the time.”
“That was a pretty good one, though. Better than the shit we get in London.”
“Well, if you’re interested, zere’s a sale upstairs for more soon. And err—more private quarters to ’ave fun, yes?”
I made myself giggle before purring to Cas, “What do you think, darling?”
“Sounds good to me.”
We followed the man to a door marked private, then up a flight of narrow stairs.
Upstairs had a view of the dance floor and privacy, as promised. The guests allowed here made full use of it. The first thing I saw was a chick with her tits out, bouncing up and down on some guy’s cock on the nearest sofa. My jaw fell open as I watched.
Frankly, I’d seen worse in Highvale. Just a month ago, we were dosed with a lust potion in the air and half of the ballroom ended up fucking in full view of everyone.
I ended up pulling Gideon into a utility cupboard—an event he and I had wordlessly agreed to never mention or repeat.
And the next day, I’d been at Pan’s, being served cocktails that were enough to cause spontaneous orgasms. I ended up begging Ronan for his cock that day.
Every year, during the dyonisia, there were orgies all around town to celebrate the god of wine and madness.
But that was while lust magic was thick in the air, affecting everyone, which removed all awkwardness.
I assumed that these people were all high on magic, too. I suddenly wished I was also —that would have made things less awkward. But I had a job to do, so I was grateful Cas had been able to clear the influence.
Thankfully Cas was less obviously shocked. He wrapped his arm around my waist and dragged me after Baseball Cap, who led us to a free booth.
“Want a drink, friends?” he offered, one gold tooth gleaming through his fake smile.
“Two pornstar martinis, if you would.” Cas offered him a fifty-euro bill.
The man seemed well pleased, clearly glad to see we had money to spare.
When he was gone, Cas pulled me to his lap.
“We should have discussed limits earlier,” he said, not bothering to lower his voice. That sort of conversation was likely standard in places like these. “As we haven’t, we’ll have to stick to simple signals. Tap my thigh twice for pause, three times for stop, yes?”
Fuck. We definitely should have talked about this before. Not that it would have changed our current situation, but I would have been more prepared for it.
I bobbed my head in agreement.
“Good,” Cas drawled. “Now spread your legs for me, doll.”
* The exchange in French:
“Hey, my friend? You want something nice for your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, what do you have?”
“A bit of everything, huh.”
Later, “Do you have something more magical?”
“Ah, I see what you want.”
And then, “How much does it cost?”