Chapter 10
Chapter ten
The Ballroom
Kenji
A melodic song filled the ballroom as the band played along the side. Each musician was clear in the light.
A tall man in a sharp white suit held his trumpet at his side and did not play. The saxophone player in a green suit stood the same way, his instrument lowered, eyes half-lidded but focused.
Both of them were listening to the musician at the center—a woman in a fitted gold dress with a violin tucked beneath her chin.
Her bow moved slowly across the strings, drawing out a soft, aching melody that stretched through the room.
The sound was smooth, controlled, and emotional, each note carried heart-aching emotion.
I recognized the song immediately, “In the Mood for Love.”
Next to her, a woman dressed in red sat at the piano, her fingers moving lightly across the keys, supporting the violin with quiet, steady notes.
Behind them, the drummer in blue pants and silver suspenders kept time with gentle taps on the cymbals, barely touching the snare, and letting the melody lead.
The female bass player stood tall with her upright bass, plucking each string in slow, deliberate pulls that gave the song its weight.
But that wasn’t what had us all in a daze.
Tora. . .you’ve outdone yourself.
My gaze went straight to the ceiling the moment I stepped through the doors.
Above the marble floor, a massive black and gold dragon’s claw split the architecture open.
Its total shimmering scaled arm reached roughly thirty feet from the ceiling breach to the tips of its talons. Even across the room, I could see these large individual diamond-shaped scales. The color of obsidian, yet mirror-bright.
Each gold talon looked like fire trapped in glass and was curved in a lethal arc, eight or nine feet long.
They tapered into razor points that touched the polished marble floor.
And the five talons spanned nearly eighteen feet, wide enough to walk between, but also to cage the entire length of the long table beneath.
The base of it, where the claw tore through the ceiling, held the violence.
Cracked plaster framed the entry point in jagged edges, reinforced with sculpted metal that mimicked destruction mid-impact. Gold bled outward into the fractures, frozen in time, as if heat had surged through the structure at the exact moment of penetration.
The ceiling around it bowed inward, pulled toward the claw's grip because the building itself had yielded.
It felt alive.
It felt anchored above me.
It felt so real that for one breath, I believed that a dragon crouched on the roof and had driven its claw straight through the structure to seize what belonged to it. And now the limb remained lodged there, embedded deep, caught between the act of taking and the refusal to release.
I almost told everyone to grab their guns so the beast wouldn’t get us.
Speechless.
I was absolutely fucking speechless.
She’s put Korin on my roof. What sort of. . .imagination does my Tiger have?
I stopped walking and just. . .stood there with my mouth open.
Nyomi grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ll return your ballroom to its original look. I just wanted—”
“No.”
She blinked. “What?”
“We’re keeping it.”
Reo snickered on the side.
I took in the claw some more and could almost feel the otherworldliness of it pressing down from above. The imagined body coiled over the roofline. The heat of breath that never reached the ballroom. The tension in tendons that held the claw in place, ready to tighten.
If it closed, it would take everything beneath it.
And beneath it, she had placed that table.
A lacquered black runway for at least twenty people to sit, stretched directly under the cage of talons. Every chair aligned with intention. Every seat placed within the reach of those curved points.
Sitting at that table meant sitting beneath the predator, and I couldn’t wait to experience it.
Gold-rimmed charger plates and crystal glasses waited at each setting.
A huge chandelier hung from the dragon claw’s palm, gold-veined and trembling gently as if the dragon above were breathing.
Fuck. . .
This sudden and unwelcome pressure built behind my eyes. I blinked hard twice and willed whatever emotion was trying to creep up back down into the dark place where my beast kept what it couldn't afford to feel.
Toma screamed, "This is insane! That’s us! The Claws!!"
The rest of the Claws had been frozen just like me, but now they were thawing and slowly reacting.
Hiro's mouth had fallen open, displaying those diamond fangs. He had his cane lifted halfway, as if he had been about to tap the floor and forgotten to move. “I can’t believe you built this for us. I can’t fucking believe it.”
The twins had gone silent in a way that was far more telling than their usual fragmented chorus. One's hand had found the other's shoulder, while that twin held his brother's wrist.
Kaede and Daisuke exchanged stunned glances.
My Tora.
This was a perfect moment, if not for the slave kneeling by her side. At least he’d kept that three feet of distance, yet his gaze remained on her feet and it unsettled me.
I can’t fucking wait until he’s gone. I should have killed him.
Nyomi's voice pulled me back to the moment. “Hiro, what are you doing?!”
I looked in that direction.
Hiro had already dropped his cane and taken off his fur coat. He was now stepping toward that massive claw in those heeled boots.
One of the twins picked up the coat and cane.
Nyomi's voice sharpened. "Hiro?"
"I need to touch it."
Rushing forward, Toma nodded his head. “And then we’ll climb it.”
“What?” Nyomi let go of my hand and headed forward. The slave quickened his crawling. She shook her head. “Hey! You are not climbing that claw."
The rest of the Claws hurried forward.
Kaede unbuttoned his jacket. “I bet I can reach the top first!"
“No way!” Daisuke shoved him to the side. “Everyone knows that I’m the best climber.”
“You’re not.”
Nyomi raised her voice. "No one is climbing this!"
I grinned.
My Tora was still learning.
She’d put a large structure in a room full of overgrown boys who had spent their entire lives learning how to kill things, of course they would want to climb it.
Even more. . .I yearned to climb it too.
The violin carried the melody in slow, steady pulls, each note stretching just a little longer than expected before easing into the next. The sound achingly curved through the ballroom.
The piano followed close behind and the bass remained low and steady.
"Toma." She pointed one finger at him. "Put your boots back on. What the fuck?”
Toma blinked. “It can hold us.”
“I don’t think so and besides we are having a party.” She continued forward as all the Claws began to gather around one huge talon, slowly kicking off boots and shoes. “Unless you want to stop the party right here.”
That got the reaction she wanted.
They all paused from taking off their shoes.
She pointed to the Claws. “If this is all you want for your surprise, I’ll head up to my bedroom, read a book, and go to sleep.”
Hiro frowned. “You know we want to see all of your surprises.”
“Then, fucking put your pimp coat back on and act like a grown man.”
Hiro widened his eyes. “Pimp coat?”
She gestured to all of them. “No fucking climbing.”
A few frowned, but they all nodded.
“Like seriously.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I even had to tell you all this.”
“Of course you have to tell us this.” Hiro pointed up at it. “We really like it!”
She held out her hands. “That doesn’t mean you begin to climb it.”
“Actually, it does.” Hiro smirked.
“Regardless. . .thank you, Tora.” Daisuke slipped his boots back on. “This is so cool.”
One of the twins raised his hand.
She leaned her head to the side. “Yes.”
The other twin spoke, “Can we climb the claw after the party?”
She scowled. “I don’t want you to break anything like your legs or arms.”
The twins laughed.
Hiro snorted.
“Whatever.” She shrugged. “You all can climb the damn claw after everyone is out of the ballroom, just in case it all falls down from your weight and crashes to the floor.”
Kaede bowed. “We got it, boss.”
I blinked.
She did too and then cleared her throat. “Well. . .good.”
Did they just fucking promote her?
“Alright then, Nyomi. We won’t climb it.” Now directly under the claw, Hiro lifted his head up and gazed at it. “Just give us time to take it all in. This is a lot. It’s a masterpiece, Nyomi. A fucking cock-hardening masterpiece.”
Toma nodded. “I’m definitely hard.”
“Alright. Alright.” Nyomi held up her hands. “We don’t need to know all of that. Remember. The Claws are going to be gentlemen tonight.”
Toma snickered. “Gentlemen?”
Kaede chuckled. “Oh sure. We can do that.”
“No way,” Daisuke whispered.
Meanwhile, pure excitement shimmered in Hiro’s eyes. Honestly, I hadn’t seen that look on his face since before Nura had passed.
It made my heart twist and warm all at the same time.
I dropped my gaze to the marble between my shoes. I held it there until I could lift my head again without showing what my Tiger had just done to me.
Thank you, Tora.
Still standing by the doorway, I scanned the rest of the space.
Beyond the claw, there were smaller tables spread outward in careful spacing, round, intimate, built for quieter conversations and softer laughter. Tall vases held orchids and black roses. Branches of gilded bamboo rose from the centerpieces.
The scent of the room wrapped around me, amber and plum from my Tiger's presence, bright citrus from the florals, savory warmth from the food that was soon to come.
The Great Gatsby had stepped into my island mansion and bowed to my Tora.
My eyes tracked further along the ceiling. Along two full sides of the ballroom, massive draping poured from the rafters to the floor. Black silk threaded with gold shimmer. They hung in heavy folds, concealing sections of the room the way a magician hid the final trick.
I narrowed my eyes.
What else have you built, Tora?
I walked forward.