18 Beelzebub
Beelzebub
Nothing ever felt like enough.
Food. Sex. Noise. Attention. Whatever the fuck caught my interest, I wanted more of it.
That was the problem with being Gluttony.
Satisfaction didn’t shut anything off. Half the time it only made the hunger worse because once I knew how good something could feel, taste, sound, or fucking look, I wanted another hit.
Then another.
Then one more because apparently I had no concept of quitting while I was ahead.
Dante knew that better than anyone, which was probably why the asshole had stationed me at Pink Flamingo.
The club was excess wrapped in neon. Expensive liquor flowed behind the bar all night, sugary cocktails sweated over tabletops, and plates of greasy food moved through the crowd while perfume, sweat, and sex clung to the air.
Bodies packed the dance floor until there was barely room to move, people spent money they didn’t have, drank past the point of good judgment, and kept reaching for whatever came next.
It should have been torture.
Sometimes it was.
Most nights, I actually liked it.
Working security meant I got the noise and the crowd without having to drown myself in either. I could watch people gorge themselves on whatever vice they had chosen for the night and practice not joining them. Dante called that control.
I called it being surrounded by everything good and told not to fucking touch it.
Still, bouncing wasn’t half as bad as I had expected.
Except for the occasional entitled little shit who walked into the club like he owned the place.
Tonight’s problem had barely made it past twenty-one if I had to guess, his smug smile and constant winks toward one of the VIP tables telling me he thought the rope was decorative.
I had already pushed him back twice, once with a hand against his chest and the second time with a warning that should have been obvious enough.
Apparently not.
The night dragged on, mostly uneventful, while he worked his way through one drink after another and tried to charm a group of bridesmaids settled inside the section I was guarding. Every time I looked over, he was closer than before.
I caught him trying to duck beneath the rope and hooked two fingers into the back of his shirt before he made it through.
“No.”
He stumbled backward and twisted around. “Come on, man.”
“No.”
“I know them.”
One of the bridesmaids shook her head so hard her veil nearly slipped off. I looked back at him. “Apparently they don’t know you.” A few people nearby laughed, and his face tightened before he finally backed off when I pointed toward the main floor.
I signaled one of the other bouncers to keep an eye on him, hoping that would be enough to end it. Part of me hoped it wouldn’t, and that was the shit I hated admitting.
The club fed every appetite I had, including the ugly ones. Adrenaline felt good. Fear smelled good. Watching some asshole realize he had finally pushed too far scratched an itch that standing beside a velvet rope never could. The trick was stopping once I got that first taste.
A crash cut through the music, and my head snapped toward the sound. Glass glittered across the floor near the VIP section, and there he was again. Same kid.
Only now he was drunk off his ass and holding half a broken wine bottle like a weapon while another bouncer blocked him from getting closer to the bride. She had backed toward the booth, her friends crowding around her as he shouted something I couldn’t hear over the music.
I was already moving before anyone called my name. It wasn’t anger dragging me across the room. The sight of him gripping that broken bottle sent adrenaline straight through me, strong enough that every other sensation in the room faded beneath it.
I wanted the confrontation. I wanted the second his confidence cracked, the fear that followed, and the moment I finally felt him give.
“Yo, Zel, take five. I got this one.”
Marcus stepped into my path and nodded toward the kid. I should have let him. That was what Dante wanted, to recognize the urge, step away from it, and to not consume every opportunity just because it was sitting in front of me.
I looked past Marcus just as the kid shoved at the other bouncer. My restraint lasted approximately half a second. “Nah. I got him.”
“Zel.”
I was already moving. I crossed the remaining distance and caught the kid by the throat before he had time to swing the bottle. His back hit the nearest wall, my fingers tightening just enough to make him drop it.
The broken glass hit the floor, and his bravado disappeared almost immediately.
There it was, that moment when his pupils widened and his pulse jumped beneath my palm.
The sharp smell of fear cut through the liquor rolling off him, and something inside me settled for one perfect fucking second before I wanted more.
“Thought you knew them,” I said.
His hands closed around my wrist. “Man, I’m sorry.”
Terror flooded his expression and I wanted more of that too. “Thought the rules didn’t apply to you.”
“I said I’m sorry.”
His knees buckled as the people around us went quieter despite the music still pounding through the club. I could feel the shift spreading outward, that dangerous pull in my essence catching on every appetite already sitting inside the room.
The kid’s fear deepened while the people watching leaned in, waiting to see what happened next. Someone nearby laughed too loudly, and a woman at the edge of the crowd pressed closer to the man beside her, her attention locked on us while he dragged her against him.
More. That was what Gluttony did. It didn’t create desire out of nowhere. It found the want already there and whispered that whatever someone had wasn’t enough yet. Another drink. Another kiss. Another bite. Another second watching some asshole beg.
The kid sagged farther in my grip. “Please.”
The word scraped against something hungry inside me, and my fingers tightened. I didn’t need to hurt him. Hearing him plead felt good, and the second it felt good, I wanted to hear it again.
“Zel.”
Someone grabbed my shoulder, but I shrugged them off without looking. The kid whimpered, and fuck, that sound was even better. Two strong arms hooked beneath mine and ripped me backward before I could chase it.
I snarled, fighting the hold as the crowd broke apart around us. Whoever had me didn’t bother arguing. They dragged my ass through the nearest staff door and out into the cool night air, where my back hit the brick wall hard enough to knock some of the hunger loose.
I surged forward again, but a familiar pressure slammed me back against the wall. Pride. I knew who had me before I properly focused on his face. Luc always felt too controlled, even when he was fucking furious.
“Get your shit together,” he snapped.
I bared my teeth at him. “Let go.”
Another presence moved into the alley beside him, carrying the kind of energy that always made everyone else seem a little more willing to fight. Wrath.
I laughed once, breathless and still riding the edge of the rush. “Morningstars. Been a while.”
Nick leaned against the wall a few feet away like he hadn’t just helped drag me outside. “You looked busy.”
“I had it handled.”
Luc glanced toward the door behind us, his grip tightening in the front of my shirt. “You had a twenty-one-year-old begging on his knees while half the club was about to start losing their fucking minds.”
“He deserved it.”
“That isn’t the point,” Nick spat out.
“It usually is.” Luc’s grip tightened in the front of my shirt, but instead of pissing me off, the resistance scratched at another part of my appetite.
There was something satisfying about pushing against someone strong enough to push back, especially when Luc had always been so fucking controlled about everything.
I could have kept going too, turned this into another thing to indulge in until one of us finally gave, but I forced myself to drag in a slow breath instead.
That was when something sweet slipped beneath the lingering smell of alcohol, sweat, and garbage from the alley.
My attention shifted so quickly that Luc must have felt it.
His grip loosened a fraction as I breathed in again, trying to figure out where the scent was coming from.
It was sweet without being cloying, warm underneath with something darker threaded through it that made the first breath nowhere near enough.
I took another before I realized I was doing it, the hunger that had been fixed on the asshole inside redirecting itself so completely that I barely remembered why Luc had dragged me outside in the first place.
“What the fuck is that?”
Nick straightened from where he’d been leaning against the wall, a slow grin spreading across his face. Luc didn’t answer at all, which should have told me everything I needed to know.
I followed the scent toward the mouth of the alley and finally noticed the woman standing a few feet away from us.
Golden-brown skin glowed beneath the shitty light spilling from above the back door, long dark braids falling over her shoulders and framing a face that had my attention snagging on one feature after another.
She was curvy, fucking gorgeous, and somehow smaller than both Morningstars without looking remotely swallowed up between them. Then her silver eyes met mine and held.
Well, fuck.
The scent had made me curious. Seeing her made the hunger worse.
She watched me with the same open interest, gaze traveling over me slowly enough that I felt every second of it.
There wasn’t any fear in her expression despite the fact that she had apparently walked up while Luc had me pinned against a brick wall.
Mostly, she looked curious, and something about that made me want to close the distance just to see what she’d do.
I wanted to hear her talk. Wanted to get close enough to figure out whether that impossible scent was coming from her skin or something deeper. My attention caught briefly on her mouth and stayed there long enough for the thought of tasting her to settle somewhere dangerous.
One taste probably wouldn’t be enough.
That was usually my problem.
I pushed away from the wall and took a step toward her, only for Luc’s palm to land hard against the center of my chest.
“No.”
I looked down at his hand and then back at the woman. “Who is she?”
Nick laughed under his breath, entirely too entertained by whatever the fuck was happening, while Luc looked like he was reconsidering every decision that had led to the three of us standing in this alley.
The woman’s mouth curved.
“Ari.”
Even her voice did something to me. Soft enough to make me want her to keep talking, but there was an edge beneath it that didn’t match the angelic scent tangled up with everything darker surrounding her.
I let my gaze travel over her once more, slower this time. “Ari.”
Her smile widened like she liked the way I said it. Then she tipped her head, studying me with enough interest that another pulse of hunger rolled through my chest.
“And you must be Gluttony.”
I grinned. “Beelzebub. Zel if you like me.”
Nick made a disgusted noise somewhere beside us, but Ari laughed, and that was significantly more interesting.
I wanted to hear that again too.