12. XII
XII
Echo
“ I sn’t it… Echo ?” Aster snapped. My mind jolted back to reality.
I stood guard behind her as she occupied the seat at the head of the long conference table. We were in her ostentatious penthouse apartment, her decked-out office housing all the leaders of Vice. She’d scheduled a debrief meeting since she couldn’t venture out in Serpents Row herself—a position I fought for due to the threat of Ludus Maximus and the unknown variable, Khaos.
Her spine snapped straight and legs crossed as she spun in her swivel chair towards me, red-painted lips tilted into a frown.
Shit, what are they talking about? Some enhancer Variant drug? Missing block kids? The underworld in upheaval? Which one?
I took a stab in the dark. “Yesss?”
Aster’s expression hardened into granite. “Leave us,” she announced to the room as her beady eyes remained on me.
Sudo—the last person to depart—spared me a sympathetic glance as she closed the door behind her, which caused the temperature to plummet to below freezing.
“What’s going on?” Aster asked, her tone fed up with nil room for negotiation.
I shook my head, unwilling to speak in case a roar escaped instead. I was hanging on by the thinnest piece of thread, the constant imprint of her tattooed into my brain.
I couldn’t eat, couldn’t think, regret and grief consuming my every waking moment—hell, every unconscious moment as well. Her entire entity haunted my dreams… Or were they nightmares? I honestly couldn’t tell anymore.
Aster sighed, uncrossing her legs, and stood. “Go and get your dick sucked or something. Your distractions are pissing me off. Clear your head—both of them. And when you’re back to normal, that’s when you can come back. For now, you’re taking a break.”
My eyes widened. I’d never taken a break—ever. Not since I was initiated into Vice. “I don’t need a?—”
“This isn’t a request, it’s an order, Echo. Whatever the fuck is going on with you, fix it ,” she said with a savage glare.
She departed, leaving me to rile in my misery. My fists clenched, desperate to escape my haunted reality.
How the fuck do I free myself from this possession? How do I exorcise this ghost?
Sudo awaited me in the elevator, and as the doors lapsed shut, she said, “I have a new girl in training. More than enthusiastic about displaying her oral skills—specifically requesting to practice on you.”
My shoulders rolled back. “Why the fuck are you telling me?”
Her eyes widened. I’d never denied a proposition before, and with my track record, the available pool to choose from was dwindling smaller.
Aster’s previous request filtered through. Fix it. With an internal shudder, my voice steeled. “Take me to her.”
What’s the old saying? To get over someone, you’ve got to get under someone else.
I stood in the centre of a refurbished ranch-style room at Playhouse, a petite blonde thing on her knees before me. She stroked my length through the material of my pants, cowboy boots the only attire she wore.
My spine tingled with the anticipated pleasure, and a smirk pulled my mouth as my dick hardened—it wasn’t broken after all.
Since the trauma from my devil of a first crush, commitment was a word scored from my vocabulary. Anyone getting involved with me already knew the score—I eat when I want, drink what I want, fuck whoever I want.
Who could ever want for more?
I was living the blissed dream life. The only thing missing was my revenge on that woman who betrayed and attempted to ruin my life years before.
Then, out of nowhere, this appetising, killer candy girl waltzed into my world, demanding I enter her orbit and remain there. Her memory had mocked me by deflating my cock at every turn since.
Proven by exhibit A; the blonde before me began playing with her tits, the motion eliciting a seductive groan. “Mm, I’ve heard so much about you, Echo. I want to know what all the women are talking about when they say they’ve never felt pleasure like yours. I’ve been waiting, begging to see you.”
Yeah, I had a reputation, and a good one at that. I could usually make a woman come in two seconds flat without laying a finger on her, my Variant doing all the work without any heavy lifting from me. It was a courtesy I gave them all—a transactional exchange where I found momentary release in return.
However, her words triggered an irritant sensation to slither over my flesh, and when she reached for my waistband, I shuffled backward, her touch falling away with a confused expression.
You always know how much a girl likes you by how she sucks your dick. I couldn’t get that dead girl out of my head purely because of the fact that she’d refused. Not one female had previously denied. Surely, that’s the reason I went bareback with her? Her denial was a factor that I’d never considered to be an aphrodisiac.
Nevertheless, in the moment, my libido had turned to ash as fast as it had ignited. All I wanted was to be able to come without the use of my fucking hand.
Without explanation, I turned for the door and stalked through Playhouse, looking for the one other person who had any association with my ghost.
I pounded a solid fist against Remi’s door. I didn’t know why it was locked. He was between appointments, so he should’ve been there.
After a minute too long, the lock unlatched, Remi blocking the entryway with a solid blue arm. “I’m with a client. Can I help you?”
I was about to comment on his snarky tone, but I was flabbergasted at his stained skin. “Why are you painted…like that?”
“I’m. With. A. Client,” he said exaggeratingly like I was an imbecile, which immediately had me on edge. I wasn’t in the mood to be challenged.
“It isn’t in the books, so kick them the fuck out. I’m here to talk, and I’m not leaving.”
Remi huffed, then slammed the door in my face.
This bitch better ?—
The door swung wide, a hunched figure with a silk dressing gown waddling past, straw-like black hair tied into a high ponytail. Before I could take a glimpse at her downturned face, Remi called for me.
“You requested to see me?”
I waltzed into the middle of his room, loads of galaxy-themed crap littered throughout.
What type of freaky alien shit is this chick into?
He cleared his throat which regained my attention. “Hmm. You had a client in here? That no one knew about?”
Remi dismissively waved a hand, raiding his lolly stash. “Her appointment went over by fifteen minutes?—”
I arched a sceptical brow. “Fifteen minutes with Trove is expensive. Are you skimping money on the side?”
Remi paused, slowly turning to face me once more. “No charge. We were finished. She’s slow and needed a couple more minutes to get herself together.”
He was hiding something. His time was way too valuable to piss away with some random person who wasn’t paying for it.
“After that shitshow with Oakview, you should be toeing the fucking line, Remi.” He nodded like a bobblehead, the jerky motion more than telling. “You did do that, didn’t you? Off Mayor Oakview?”
Remi panicked and shoved a piece of gum in his mouth, the whiff of sweetened aroma hitting me directly in the face.
I advanced like a crazed lunatic, my hand clasping tight round his neck. “That gum. Where’d you get it ? ” Is that me talking? I couldn’t even recognise my own damn voice .
He coughed and splattered until I released him, and he crumpled to the floor. I looked down at him with all the venom in my gaze, chest heaving with impatience.
Remi stammered before answering. “A gift…from one of my clients.”
“Who? When?”
“The opening of my show, not even a week ago. I haven’t seen her since,” he rasped, swirling silver eyes narrowing in my direction, almost accusing.
“And Oakview? THE TRUTH!” My Variant unintentionally burst out of me. “The amount of shit I had to do to clean that fucking mess up, Remi… You owe me. What happened to him?”
“It was her—the one you questioned me about. She was protecting me… She killed him.”
I lunged, but he managed to slip out of reach, skittering to the opposite side of the room.
“You’re going to tell me what you know. Right fucking now,” I said, teetering on the very precipice of using my ability to turn his brain to complete mush in that pretty skull of his.
He blinked, expression falling. “She goes by Spencer. I don’t know her real name or anything else of substance, I swear. We mainly talked about random shit, and I taught her a few special tricks of my own.”
Spencer. My ghost has a name.
“Were you together?” I asked, fingers trembling to reattach themselves to his throat until he stopped breathing.
“Not the way you think. She was my friend— only a friend… But what was she to you, Echo?” His tone was sharp, the strike as harsh and severe as any whip.
I staggered back at his scathing words, spine colliding with his shelf of treasures, multiple pieces scattering to the ground—including all his candy. I haphazardly collected the mess and stormed for the exit, the bowl and all latched tightly in my hand.
I’d scoured the entire damn city for those sweets and had come up empty time and again. To know she gifted some to Remi… My insides churned with bitter jealousy.
She belonged to me. That smell belonged to me. This taste belonged to fucking me.
Before I could slam the door, I flicked a glance over my shoulder, stare penetrating Remi and his dumbstruck face.
“Spit that gum out of your mouth, and if I ever see you chewing that shit again, I’ll rip your motherfucking tongue out.”