23 | Zeph
“I’m not sure where I expected us to end today, but I didn’t think we’d wind up here,” Ro yells in my ear over the thumping bass of the club.
We’re back at Second Circle, where Silver is supposed to be meeting Ember again. This fucking place is a nightmare, and it’s about to burst my eardrums. I don’t know how anyone can stand it. The smell of sweat and booze and perfume is almost enough to make me gag. But no one else seems to give a shit. They’re all gyrating and practically fucking each other on the dance floor.
And that’s not including the people who are actually fucking at the edges of the rooms. Or the vamps chowing down on their prey in the next room. My skin crawls at the thought and I’m tempted to say ‘fuck this shit’ and head home.
But I don’t.
There’s one thing, one person, stopping me from leaving.
The damn enigmatic little witch who has me wrapped around her pinkie. She’s currently doing the rounds, trying to absorb as many types of power as she can while people have their guards down. She’s looking for a way of freeing those people from being stuck as living statues while she waits for Ember to show.
Who knew that sex clubs would be a place where people use a ton of their magic? Not me. I figured they’d be too distracted. But Silver dragged us down here, saying that she’d never had to fight her magic so hard as when she came here for the first time.
It’s not the first place we’ve headed to today either. After spending hours trying every technique we could think of to break the trapped people free, we eventually persuaded Silver to take a break.
We headed straight to a flea market under a bridge close to the edge of town, which was nasty. Pretty sure I saw a bunch of rats chowing down on something as we passed one of the filthy alleyways. But Silver knew her way around. As well as being somewhere people use a bunch of their magic without realizing, it was also a good place for eavesdropping on conversation, trying to find out if Simpson and his cronies had owned up to their part in creating the living sculptures.
I mean, from what Ember said, it’s clear they’re the ones behind it. What’s surprising is that they haven’t come right out to claim ownership of the living statues.
There’s also every chance that whoever cast the spell is feeling pretty damn pleased right about now, and they might want to go somewhere to celebrate.
“I hate this place,” I grumble. I’m trying hard to ignore all the half-naked bodies in front of me, keeping my gaze laser-focused on Silver as she makes her way through the crowd.
“Huh, I’m surprised,” Ro says. “Thought you might be into it, considering you woke up with someone’s hand on your ass this morning. I figured you’d fit right in.”
I glare at him. “That was your hand, asshole. Again. Your unwelcome paw touching my ass.”
He just shrugs and grins, entirely unrepentant, and I shake my head at him.
“You think she’s all right?” he yells in my ear.
“I think she’s working herself to exhaustion again, and she’s gonna need to take a break before she passes out on the floor,” I reply.
No fucking way am I letting that happen. On this floor especially. I can’t imagine how many bodily fluids are stomped into the laminate.
“You think it’s going to work? That she’ll find a solution here?”
I shake my head, focusing on our witch as she winds through the crowd. She’s not exactly dressed the same as everyone else here—in jeans and a t-shirt, just like the rest of us—while the rest of the room is practically naked. But that doesn’t stop the lecherous gazes running over her.
It’s a true test of my control. I can feel something bubbling up inside me and I’m about five minutes from going full caveman on her ass and throwing her over my shoulder.
Maybe we should try it. I reckon Silver might be into getting flung around like a rag-doll. It wouldn’t be too difficult to prop her up against a wall and bury my tongue between her legs.
... fuck. And now I’m getting hard.
This place is messing with my head.
“How long do we give her before we pull her out?” Ro asks. We’ve already been here almost an hour, and I was fit to leave after all of a minute had passed.
I slump back against the wall beside Rook who is standing stony-faced with his arms folded. Hanna stands beside him, looking bored as sin.
“She’ll keep going forever if we let her,” I say.
“Dude, you make her sound like a toddler, not a grown woman.”
Seeing Ember the other week seriously did a number on Silver. I’m pretty sure she’s been feeling guilty ever since, even though she hasn’t done a single thing wrong. Her heart’s too fucking big for her not to take this on as another thing resting on her shoulders. And I hate seeing her upset like this. It makes me want to put my fist through a wall.
But she’ll prioritize finding a solution to help those people over everything else, including her own health.
She’s so damn used to working alone, she just gets on with things and the rest of us are left standing around with our thumbs up our asses.
“Silver learned pretty young. You gotta keep moving or you die,” Rook says in his gravelly as hell voice. It’s hard to make him out over the music and... all the moaning.
Fuck.
I hate this place.
Seems I’m not the only one, either.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t want to see another bare ass or jiggling tits. It’s making me kinda nauseous, man,” Ro moans.
Hanna snorts. “Guess you’re a one ass and tits kind of guy now.” She then stretches her arms above her head, glancing over at Silver again. “Look, guys, we’re gonna head out. We’ll do some more research at home, see if we can find any answers.”
“Take care of her,” Rook grunts, nodding in Silver’s direction.
A few minutes after they’ve headed out, our witch finally returns to the corner where Ro and I have been skulking like a couple of party poopers.
“Any luck, sweetheart?” Ro asks.
She’s not smiling, so I’m pretty sure I know the answer.
“Not so much. I think I can see in the dark now, but I don’t think I’ve picked up anything useful. And Ember’s not turned up. I’ve tried messaging him, but he’s ignoring me.” She sighs and leans against my side as I tuck her into my body. “No one’s even thinking about the statues or the vamps, either. I’d say this was a bust. Everyone’s too horny or distracted to care. Or maybe the word about the statues hasn’t spread that widely yet.”
“Speaking of horny and distracted—”
“Dude.” I elbow Ro in the gut.
“What?” He widens his eyes, all innocent. “Silver needs a break and a distraction. And I need some brain bleach, so I don’t have to be haunted by that guy”s hairy ass cheeks when I close my eyes.”
Silver laughs, and the sound sends my gut flip-flopping like a land-bound fish. “We should head upstairs and talk to Dante, anyway.”
“Sure,” Ro says. “And if our clothes fall off on the way, then we’ll just have to deal with how the cards fall.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Pretty sure that’s not a saying.”
We make our way through the throngs of people, and as soon as we step out of the main section of the club, we all breathe a little easier. My ears ring as we walk into the quiet of the employees only section and the stairs leading to Dante’s office.
“Hanna and Rook headed out?” Silver asks.
I grunt and wrap my arm around her waist, letting the contact ground me against the chaos that’s running through my insides right now. “Yep.”
“They’re headed straight home, right? Hanna’s not going to try out her plan of locking the doors to the vamp mansion and setting the place on fire, is she?”
“She’s got Rook with her.” Hopefully that’s enough. There was a long conversation earlier where Silver had to persuade her sister that it wouldn’t end well if she murdered a bunch of vamps in cold blood, no matter how much they deserve it.
Silver sighs and leans into me and I can’t help pressing a kiss to the top of her head and breathing in her scent. It’s like stepping into a fucking meadow in comparison to the stench of sweat and sex I’ve been breathing in for the past hour.
“She doesn’t seem to understand that you and I got our asses kicked when it was just us against Simpson. We can’t go in all guns blazing. We need a plan.”
She sighs again, and my insides knot up so tight it’s almost painful. Fuck. I wish we could fix this for her.
I wish her brother wasn’t an idiot and hadn’t gotten mixed up with those fucking vamps.
And I wish we could stop the vamps before they do anything worse.
I guess I’m not the only one feeling hopeless and wracking my damn brain for ideas about how to make Silver feel better. We’re almost at Dante’s office when Ro glances at me and a shit-eating grin spreads across his face.
“Sooo Z, how close are you feeling to your new bestie?”
“Not interested,” I growl, knowing exactly where his mind has gone.
Silver needs a distraction, sure. And I might not hate the vamp anymore. I might even like him—just a little—enough to not want to choke him out or push him out the nearest window. But that doesn’t mean I’m about to get my cock out in front of him.
I’ve only managed to get through the past hour, standing six feet from a bunch of vamps sucking on their prey’s necks, because I had Silver to distract me. But the thought of being vulnerable in front of a vamp makes my insides riot.
No fucking way.
“Maybe you might want to watch then, man?” Ro asks, then lowering his voice so Silver can’t hear, he adds, “She needs something, dude. And call me emotionally stunted, but I can’t think of anything else that might get her out of her head for a while.”
He gives a little eyebrow wiggle and pinches my cheek—thankfully, this time it’s the one on my face.
I let out a long breath, unknotting my shoulders. Fuck, he’s right.
This isn’t about me. It’s time to take care of Silver. And we’re both fucking useless in comforting her.
But we can try to make her feel good and hope that’s enough.
Ten minutes later and I’m somewhere I never expected to be. Inside a vamp’s bedroom, sitting in an armchair in the corner, with my body facing the oversized bed. Not a coffin, which is kinda how I would have pegged Dante before we started getting to know each other.
I know, I know, clichéd stereotypes. He’s just a regular guy. Yadda yadda. Except he happens to have been around a lot longer than any of the rest of us.
Dante stands in front of Silver, tipping up her chin and looking into her eyes before murmuring words I can’t quite hear. He then kisses her long and hard and she moans into his mouth before pulling back to speak.
“Yes. Yep. I want that. Downstairs made me feel all kinds of gross, and I need to see you naked right now.”
“Me too,” Ro says. “Fucking hated it. I don’t want to see another naked woman that isn’t you in my life, sweetheart.”
I rumble an agreement. I might not be willing to get naked and vulnerable in front of the vamp, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in how this whole dynamic plays out. I’ve never seen him let his guard down properly. Plus, Ro’s like an over-exuberant puppy at the best of times, but especially when he’s fucking Silver. It’s like he totally loses his head over her.
“Clothes off, Silver. You too, mage,” Dante orders as soon as the door closes.
My eyebrows shoot up. Huh, so the vamp wants to take control of this situation. Interesting.
The fact my hackles don’t instantly go up is a surprise to me. I would have expected him ordering Silver about to rub me up the wrong way. But Silver looks at him with wide, guileless eyes as she strips off her clothes with no further prompting. It’s clear she trusts him completely. And that soothes something in me. The feral part that wants to tear most people apart settles.
Ro must have already briefed the vamp before they came up here, since he seems all in for sharing Silver.
“Now, we’re going to make you feel good, angel. Those pretty tits look like they need some attention. Can you do that, Roscoe?”
“Yep. Sure. I’m ready.” Ro’s eager as fuck, tearing his own clothes off with zero shame and then tugging Silver onto the bed as he crawls up beside her. He then kisses her like the world’s about to end and he wants her taste to be the last thing he experiences.
I don’t blame him.
Ro’s then kissing along her neck and down her collarbone while she lets out a little whimper.
“I’m going to taste this sweet pussy now and I want you to soak my face, Silver,” Dante murmurs. “Your smell is intoxicating.”
“You do smell fucking amazing,” Ro adds. “I want to wake up every morning with my face in your pussy.”
My cock stiffens as Dante tugs on Silver’s ankles, pulling them apart and causing her to let out a little surprised squeak. He then goes to his knees at the edge of the bed and buries his face in her delicious cunt.
She lets out a moan, which elongates into one long noise as Roscoe sucks on her perfect tits, drawing her nipples into his mouth.
Dante then nips at her thigh and she lets out another whimper, writhing around and clutching the bedding in her fists.
My cock is hard as iron in my pants. It’s uncomfortable as fuck and I spread my legs wide, palming my dick through the material. It’s not much of a relief so I unzip my pants and wrap my hand around my rock-hard cock.
Shit. I’ve never been all that into watching in the past. But this is hot as fuck.
“Your tits are amazing. You’re amazing.” Roscoe’s voice is muffled against Silver’s flesh.
Dante lets out a wild noise and seems to redouble his efforts, devouring Silver’s pussy like it’s his life’s purpose. He buries two fingers inside her and starts to fuck her with them, the room filling with the sound of her wetness.
Fuuuuck. I don’t think I can stand this. I need to bury myself inside her.
Ro keeps on plucking at one nipple while he laps at the other one. Silver reaches out to palm his cock and he groans.
Dante nips at her clit again. “Are you going to come for us, Silver? Come all over my tongue and then again while Roscoe fucks your throat while I fill this pussy with come.”
“Oh fuck. Y-yes. Y-you’re too damn good at that,” she moans.
Shit. I think I might come in my pants.
Then Silver looks Ro in the eye, her eyes flicking to Dante and then finally to me. Her mouth opens on a silent scream as she jerks and writhes helplessly as she comes.
It’s hot as fuck.
“Fuck, sweetheart. I’m so wound up,” Ro pants. “I’m gonna last about two seconds with your mouth on me.”
My heart pounds. I can’t sit here and watch while she gets royally railed.
Shoving myself to my feet, I stride for the door.