Chapter 14 Orfeo
Orfeo
We reach the back entrance to Hades House, and I know this peaceful time between us has come to an end. Even though we have moments of discontent, Diantha has remained charmed by me. I know that will not be the case after tonight.
Either she agrees to this plan and we enter into an emotional pressure cooker. Or she will be so angry she never speaks to me again.
Diantha reaches for the door handle and I close my fingers around her wrist. I feel that pretty pulse, powerful and quickened like a hummingbird’s wings. “Wait.”
She looks at me. In her high heels, we are almost the same height. Long, dark lashes frame her eyes, and even narrowed, they give away her age. I take her face in my hands and memorize her features. The slope of her nose, the pout of her lips, the angle of her cheekbone.
Just in case.
I bring my fingers to the underside of her jaw. Her skin is like ice beneath mine.
So much will be said tonight. For a moment, I want to feel our silence.
Diantha follows directions superbly.
When Leo meets us in the narrow hallway on the other side of the door, she gives him a cold nod, then threads her fingers with mine, squares her shoulders, and follows him into Alfo’s office, dragging me behind her like a designer lapdog.
Leo announces our arrival, and Alfo gives him a long look of hatred before dismissing the other gangsters in his office and waving us in.
Diantha sweeps into the room, a vision in black. The fabric of her dress catches the air and shows off the length of her legs as she settles into the chair opposite Alfo. She displays no signs of weakness; not even a quiver of an eyelash.
I take my place at her shoulder. “Thank you for meeting me tonight,” I say.
“I wanted to introduce you to someone who I think can help cast a protective spell on the club. After Kat was almost killed last night, there have been rumors spreading around campus and town. We need to get ahead of that, sir. I believe Diantha is our solution.”
Alfo’s stiff, overly Botoxed eyebrows attempt a jump to his artificial hairline. “You brought a witch into my club?”
“No, sir. Diantha, tell them, darling.”
She carefully crosses one leg over the other, letting the black fabric spill away from the decadent curve of her thighs.
Muscular, thick, and tan, they are perhaps our greatest weapon.
“I have no idea what I am. My mother was a clairvoyant and a psychic, but she…she is gone. She could cast simple spells—mostly protection over an item.” She shrugs.
“Orfeo says he sees my magic. I don’t know how to do anything, but I can try. ”
Nisos pushes off the wall and lets out a laugh. “How fucking foolish do you think we are, bloodsucker?”
His vitriol catches me off guard, and for a moment all I can do is blink. “Excuse me?”
“Trying to buy good faith with your owner by bringing a fucking witch in here? A witch who doesn’t even know magic?” Nis laughs, but there’s nothing in his eyes. His skin looks waxy and tight, and his teeth appear more rotten than usual. “What are the odds.”
Diantha’s lip twitches, and I quickly rest a hand on her shoulder.
“You must need to get your eyes checked,” I say calmly. “Look at this woman. She radiates magic. Her aura is electric. She doesn’t know if she can, but we can tell.”
Leo steps forward and leans down, whispering something into Alfo’s ear.
He doesn’t immediately shove Leo away. Instead, he locks his eyes on Diantha’s breasts and runs his thick, gray tongue over his bottom lip and veneers. His breathing is loud and labored. He’s so fucked up on booze and drugs he’s having a hard time keeping up his human facade.
Leo steps back and Alfo grabs the remote control, shutting off the TV that’s been warbling behind him. We are pitched into an uncomfortable silence.
“I can smell it,” he says. “I can smell her magic and her stupidity.” I cast my eyes downward and catch Diantha’s jaw clicking with suppressed rage. “Do you know any others like yourself? Are you in a fucking coven?”
She shakes her head. “No coven. I know a kitchen witch but…I mean, I love her. I’m just not sure she has a real gift for spell work, and we are definitely not in a coven.”
Leo keeps his mouth twisted into an impassive line, strong arms crossed over his chest. “She’s telling the truth,” he says quietly. “There’s no scent of betrayal.”
Alfo grunts. “And how do I know you won’t turn on me?”
“Ostensibly,” she says slowly, eyes scanning from demon face to demon face, “you’ll pay me or something? I’m not going to do this out of altruism. If I agree, it’s because I like fucking Orfeo and he asked me to…and because you will give me something.”
I press my lips together, hiding a smile. Brilliant, brilliant girl.
“Of course,” Alfo snarls, cracking his knuckles. “What do you want then? Your memory wiped? A smaller nose? Not bigger tits, I hope.” He grins, leaning toward her. “Because they are immaculate.”
Diantha quirks a brow. “What about twenty thousand dollars?”
“Money?” He laughs. “All you want is money, little girl?”
“I would love money, or”—she shrugs—“access to the catacombs.”
Alfo scoops up some cocaine from his desk with his cigarette filter before placing it in his mouth. “Fine.”
She frowns. “Fine?”
“Fine. If you can do it. And I don’t want you coming here ever again.
If you want to practice, take that shit across the fucking river to New Jersey.
Twenty thousand, not a cent more. I want you to protect us from the police and the fucking townies.
” He turns his gaze on me. “If I catch even a whiff of witchcraft on you, I will remove your testicles myself, you fucking Italian prick. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
Diantha uncrosses her legs and slides forward in her chair. The fabric falls higher, revealing her shapely thighs all the way up to the crease at her hip. “It’s a deal.”
For a moment, I worry she might extend a hand. I stay ready on the balls of my feet to grab her arm. But she doesn’t.
“Goodbye, Alfo,” she coos.
He snaps his fingers and Nisos scurries over with his wineglass. “Get the fuck out of my face.”
Diantha takes my hand and leads us from the office, but once we’re far enough away from the brightly lit service corridor and kitchen, I take the lead and pull her off into a shadowy corner of a side room.
Rhythmic music rattles the walls while green lights flash around us, but as far as I can see, we’re in here alone.
“We did it,” she whispers, grinning in a way I’ve never seen before. Like a light has been turned on behind her eyes. “We fucking did it!”
I slide my hands around her waist, drawing her close. I breathe in her scent, thick with the musk of her pride, her excitement—and, undeniably, her arousal. “You were unbelievable,” I whisper. “Incredibile. A force.”
“He said yes.” She laughs, resting her forehead against mine for a moment before pulling away and pushing her fingers into her hair. “He actually agreed to twenty thousand dollars. Fuck.”
“No celebrating yet.” I raise my brows. “There’s more, and I don’t want you to get your hopes up. This is not going to be easy.”
She takes my face in her hands. “Thank you, Orfeo.” She drags her fingers up over my jaw then down my chest, etching an icy path across my skin.
She coaxes my need for her the same way the moon pulls the tides.
Her fingers land on the top button of my suit jacket, teasing me as she hooks and unhooks it through the hole. “I trust you.”
“Good,” I whisper, dipping my nose to graze the length of her neck.
When I straighten, I find her staring up at me through her dark lashes. “Whose dress is this? I think it’s enchanted. I feel invincible,” she says.
“Who cares?” I back us up slowly until her spine meets the wall. I tilt her face into the light. “It’s yours now. This fabric was made to be draped over your body.”
She hums, dragging her knuckles down my chest. “You’re a charmer.”
“Again with this? You think I am so disingenuous.” I tut. “Why would I lie?”
“Because you want to kiss me,” she teases, that mischievous light back in her eyes.
“And? So? I don’t need lies. You feel this?” I take her hand and press it over my heart. It thuds hard enough that my chest rises and falls under her hand. “This is what you do to me.”
Her breath catches between her lips. “Your heart beats?”
“No, not usually. Not like this.” I bring her hand to my mouth, kissing each of her fingers. I take my time, working my lips down the curve of her palm until my teeth are flush against her wrist. I trace her vein with the tip of my tongue and watch her chest hitch.
Her breathing is shallow and quick, her nipples tightening underneath the thin fabric of her dress. Her pulse thumps harder, and I let my eyes fall shut in that anticipatory ecstasy. I know her blood must taste divine if just her scent has me this affected.
“Kiss me,” she whispers, lifting her chin. “Please.”
All the noise and the chaos of the club fades away; all my worries, my fears, stay suspended in time.
In this moment, this moment in a life where my sense of time has been decimated and warped, stretches into perfection.
And if everything I endured under Paolo and under Alfo, all the pain and monotony, led me to this…
Well, it was worth it.
I collapse the space between us, and when Diantha leans up and presses her pillow-soft mouth to mine, I am human again.
I am twenty-eight years old and my life is a single moment in this unending universe, and I taste freedom on her tongue.
Sweet like cherries, crackling like electricity.
Hunger throbs through me, racing down my chest, mixing with emotion, and I harden against her.
Not because I want to drink her blood, but because I want to kiss her.
I haven’t fed in hours and all I want to do is kiss her.