Page 46

46

The Fire-Hot Flesh

NYX

I couldn’t be seen in the lobby of the hotel. Instead, Christina and I descended to the fourth floor, then left the elevator to sneak out the fire escape. Faraway voices and car horns filled the night, the familiar sounds of the ever-bustling city.

I had expected Christina to run away from me the second we were free. But she didn’t. When I made no move to come with her down the metal stairs, her face broke out with panic. “You’re not coming?”

I shrugged. “It’s a tempting idea. But…”

“You won’t leave them.”

I glanced down at my boots. “I’ve tried, believe me.”

“Well. Try harder.” She stepped closer to me, her dark eyes full of a plea. “They’re dangerous. I have been around plenty of dangerous men in my life. But them?” She pointed upward, to the penthouse in the sky. “Whatever the fuck that was up there, girl, you need to get out.”

Defense struck up my spine like a lit match. “Coming from the twelve-year-old I found selling herself to an old man who likes gun play.”

She straightened, her glare clouding over with something I was all too familiar with. Rage—the guard dog that charged once a boundary had been crossed. “I’m nineteen, thank you very much. My business is my business—I never pulled you into it. You quite literally ripped me from my life and into yours. Well, the winged one did. I think I’m entitled to a small opinion, given the shit I was forced to witness!”

My brows jumped. Once again, I had the mind to incinerate her. But the urge melted as her immutable defiance won me over.

The truth was, I respected her.

“Go, Christina,” I whispered.

She hesitated. Glanced down the stairs, then back to me. “Come with me.”

I can’t. I didn’t say the words but felt them etch themselves all over my face.

“Come on, Nyx. It’s your birthday , isn’t it?”

I scoffed. “Not anymore.”

“The night is still young. Come with me. Let’s go dance ! Have some fun. After everything that just went down, you deserve a break.”

“What? No way. I can’t. I…”

“Why? You have to hurry back to those two psychos? Girl. Get real. Fuck those guys. Let’s party.”

Party.

I glanced back up at the daunting hotel.

Goddess knew it was an insane, rash idea.

“Fuck it,” I said, and she squealed with excitement.

I didn’t hide behind a glamour, either. Fucking let them come for me .

We strutted down the city streets until we came across a mortal club called Electric Avenue. Even from a ways away, we could hear the bass pumping, and Christina grabbed my hand and didn’t let me hesitate.

Which was fine because I needed a drink.

The place was absolutely lit, giving Celestial clubs a run for their money. Hot, sweaty bodies were packed together on the enormous dance floor, house music shaking the walls. Neon hanging lights provided a colorful, psychedelic environment. The over-stimulation was exactly what I needed to drown out the roaring thoughts polluting my mind.

Brothers.

Seven fucking hells.

We shoved our way to the bar, where I instantly snagged the bartender’s gaze with mine. “ A bottle of your finest vodka, free of charge .”

The pretty blonde nodded robotically and obeyed.

When I turned back to Christina and passed her the bottle, she was gaping at me.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“You can mind control people, too?”

I smirked, grabbing her hand and towing her into the belly of the mob.

We drank, we danced, and we watched people riot. Christina was good company. She kept up with me easily, handling her liquor like a fucking champ. She snapped at any guy who got too close to us. She reminded me of the friends I’d had back home before I’d Emerged. Nostalgia bloomed in my belly, endearing her to me.

Mortals were so…what was the word? Spirited?

Not all of them—not most of them. But some—some of them were diamonds in the rough. So wonderfully fearless and unbound, like the girl in front of me now. She had a spark in her dark eyes. A lust for life and chaos and danger.

I wanted to keep her.

“You called me an Underworlder when we first met,” I said to her, leaning in so she could hear me. The music was pounding, voices upon voices around us challenging it. “You’re so unfazed by everything. How do you know about magic?”

She moved in closer to hear me. A peculiar smile grew over her lips as her gaze swept around us, landing finally on me. “People aren’t as clueless as you probably think. Honestly, I’m not special. It’s almost common knowledge these days. Especially after that video that went viral a month ago…The digital age and all that. You can’t hide much anymore.”

I frowned, curious. “Common knowledge?”

“Well.” Christina shrugged and snatched the bottle from me. She took an impressive slam. Her face twisted with the burn of it. Once she recovered, she said, “My friend brought me to this exclusive party in Hollywood a while back. She promised we’d find many high-paying clients there, as long as I was okay with ‘darker tastes’. I had no idea at the time that meant their tastes would be blood .” She laughed humorlessly and tapped a finger to her throat.

“Vampires?” I guessed, shocked.

“We’re supposed to call them Underworlders, but yes.”

“And you thought I was one of them?”

She shoved the bottle back into my hands and waved hers about in exasperation. “Sorry! They’re the type of freaks I’m used to. Though, I had heard of your kind before. My friend calls you the fallen angels.”

“Well, your friend sounds like a brat, and you should probably dump them if they’re bringing you to places with vampires.” I took a sip of vodka, growing pensive. “How long have you been a sex worker, Christina?”

Her cheeks clouded with a deep blush. “Only a year.”

“And what, pray tell, led you down such a path?”

Her expression darkened. “How about you tell me what led you down your path? You have no right to judge me. I have been around all kinds of different men and monsters, but you and yours take the cake, I fear.”

My lips popped open to spar, but then I only laughed. “You are probably right.”

“Oh, I am. Trust me.”

“But I’m not judging!” I insisted. “I have nothing against sex workers… You’re just so young, dude. And that situation with the guy on the roof didn’t exactly seem consensual.”

“It was, though. He was a twisted fucker but I consented to his little game. We had a written contract and everything. I take my work seriously, okay? I’m careful. And I…I honestly prefer clients like him. The fear, the danger, the pain—it’s exhilarating. It’s better than lying under some vanilla idiot who’s crying about his ex-wife or an old pervert who wants me to wear pigtails and call him Daddy.”

My eyes blew wide. What a peculiar girl.

“I think you’re my favorite mortal I’ve ever met.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. “You’re just drunk.”

I wanted to ask her more about her experiences with vampires, but I was interrupted by someone stumbling into me. I turned furiously to find a feminine-looking dude with bleached blond hair and makeup fiercer than mine.

We looked each other up and down, taking in each other’s dark eyes and tanned skin.

“Oh hey, twin!” he cried excitedly. “Girl, your hair is to die for! It’s fucking flawless, oh my God.” He grabbed a lock of it between his immaculately manicured fingers. “Which salon do you go to?”

“My hair? Oh, it’s natural.”

His face warped with disbelief. “This icy perfection is natural ?”

I beamed. “Yup.”

His brows knitted together skeptically. “But your eyebrows are dark. Babe, don’t gatekeep! Please! Who’s your stylist?”

“I’m serious!” I professed, my head and stomach warm with liquor. “This is my real color. It’s because I’m not really human—I’m a magical star-person.” My hand rose between us, my fingers lighting up like candlewicks. “See?”

The guy’s jaw dropped, horror filling his eyes. “Oh—you—what!”

“Don’t mind my friend!” Christina shrieked, stepping in between the stranger and me. “She’s an illusionist—and she’s drunk!”

The mortal girl towed me through the crowd, away from the shocked-looking twink who gawped after us until we were out of sight.

“What the hell was that!” Christina hissed.

I hiccuped. “What? I thought you said magic was common knowledge.”

“Shit! Not that common, girl!”

“Oh,” I muttered stupidly. “Oops.”

She stared at me with a straight face for several seconds. Then she burst into a fit of laughter. I watched her, not getting the joke.

“Nyx, you’re fucking awesome, I love you.”

I blinked.

Now I was even more confused. I regarded her, cocking my head to the side.

No one had ever said anything like that to me before.

“Jeez! Why so serious?” Christina straightened, searching my face as the light in her gaze fizzled out.

I started to speak but quickly trailed off when I noticed her eyes freeze on something over my shoulder. Fear struck across her face like lightning.

I turned my neck to follow where she was looking. A man stuck out of the crowd right away. Dark hair slicked back, middle-aged, and cruel eyes pinned to his narrow face. Clad in all-black clothing, sleek and expensive. The watch on his wrist cost a small fortune. He was glaring right at us—at Christina.

A fire lit in my belly.

“Who is that?” I demanded, not taking my eyes off him.

“No one,” she answered, too quickly. Her fingers snaked around my wrist, and she began tugging me away, through the mass of hot bodies.

“Christina! Who is that!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Solaris’s words filled my mind. “The girl was being trafficked .”

“Let’s fucking go back. I’ll burn him alive!”

“Just drop it, would you! Let’s get out of here.”

Fuck. She wasn’t going to budge. Nothing she’d told me about herself so far added up to anything good. A nineteen-year-old sex worker who’d been consistently subjected to violent men and literal vampires?

The way she hardly ever flinched at the most destructive magic—that was alarming.

What the hell had she seen that desensitized her to this extent?

An instinct so fucking potent and protective ignited within me. I yanked her to a stop, breathing hard as I made her look at me. “You—” A hiccup cut me off. I recovered quickly. “You should stay with me. I can protect you.”

She snorted. “Are you going to keep me as a slave after all, witchy-woo?”

“No,” I insisted. “It’s not like that.”

“Even if it wasn’t, that earthquake guy will kill me if he ever sees me again.”

“I can handle Jed. All you did was try and protect me, and honestly, they’ll both respect that. You’ll be safe with me.”

She bit her lip. The way she was nervously scanning our surroundings was not lost on me. “Okay.”

The smile that slithered across my mouth was of pure triumph. “Good. Now, let’s go get something to eat, then go home.”

She quirked a brow. “ Home ?”

I gave her a wry look. “You know what I mean.”

A hand appeared on her shoulder, and she was yanked backward. “There you are!” the slicked-back hair man growled. “You really thought you’d get away with your bullshit, didn’t you, Chrissy?”

“Get your hand off of her!” I howled, grabbing her wrist and thrusting her behind me.

The man’s dark eyes glared into my soul before he took in my wild silver hair and gold tattoos. By the look on his face, I could tell he knew what I was. He didn’t seem to care, though. His expression was nothing less than dismissive as he looked back at Christina. “You are coming with me, Chrissy. And you will pay back every fucking penny you stole.”

“Hey,” I snapped, drawing his attention back to me. “ Leave her alone and get the fuck out of this club .”

He blinked at me, but his gaze stayed clear. Then he sneered.

My Compulsion wasn’t working on him. Just like the guy on the rooftop. What in the seven hells?

“Out of my way, witch .” He lunged forward to grab her, and I fucking lost it.

My hand swiped the air. Gold fire engulfed him.

The cacophony of screams that erupted rattled my brain and electrocuted my heart. I watched him burn, his mouth gaping, his skin turning white before it crumbled from his bones.

Mayhem took over the club, and everyone was screaming, desperately charging for the exit.

Despite the pandemonium, I felt like the world was going by in slow motion.

Pressure on my arm drew my attention. Christina was holding onto me for dear life, her eyes wide as saucers. “What did you do?”

The panic in her eyes was like a shot of adrenaline straight into my chest. I laced my fingers with hers and shouted, “Come on!”

I shot a blast of kinetic power that cleared a path through the stampede of people. And we fucking ran, the scent of burning flesh and clothes scorching my nostrils.

We broke out onto the street and kept running.

We ran until the orchestra of chaos was nothing but muted, muffled cries in the background of an otherwise beautiful night. I finally let go of her hand as we both fought to catch our breaths. I leaned against the wall of a building, watching as she gathered herself. The horror wasn’t leaving her eyes.

I barked a laugh. “You should see your face.”

She stared at me, incredulous. “Nyx. Are you serious?”

“What? He was an asshole. Solaris said you were being trafficked. I did you a fa—”

“That was Dominic Rivera .”

I grimaced. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

She shook her head, pacing back and forth. “You don’t understand. He—they—he was my old boss and he knows about your kind. Him and his men are extremely powerful people, Nyx. If his brothers find out what you’ve done—”

“I’m not scared of mortal men,” I snarled, offended that she would even entertain the idea.

“They are not your average ‘mortals’!”

I opened my mouth to spar. Before the words could make it off my tongue, I thought about the man who shot me. The mortal man who had a gun loaded with bullets that almost killed me .

My heart knocked ominously against my ribs as my brows lowered. “What in the seven hells are you a part of, Christina?”

She breathed hard, shaking her head.

“Tell me!” I demanded.

“I left all that shit behind, okay! But when I first got into the industry, I worked for Dominic. This was back in New York. It was great at first but when his true colors started coming out, and I started to realize who he really was, I split! Me and a couple other girls, we got out and came here to LA. I’ve been on my own for half a year, working for myself. I make all my clients pay cash and I have no digital footprint, but he found me somehow.”

I gaped at her, gobsmacked. “So when Solaris found you…?”

“Dominic had me, yes. But I was fine. I would have—”

A new voice rang out, cutting her off—a voice I recognized. My spine steeled with alarm, and I instantly cast my glamour in place. Christina yelped in surprise, and I hissed at her to shut up. “It’s a glamour!” I explained quickly, grabbing her hand and pulling her along the sidewalk and then dipping into a dark alley.

A group of guys from Veneficus were blundering down the street. Led by none other than Jasper Lovett, a third-year fireling. Seeing them gave me a shock, even through my drunkenness.

Then, a wicked idea came to me.

I knew Jasper had access to portal magic. He and Jed had been buddies once upon a time.

I ducked into an alley, yanking Christina with me, and pinned us to the wall as I waited for them to pass.

“Don’t say a word,” I instructed. “Trust me.”

Her eyes were wide, but she nodded anyway.

Jasper could never have seen it coming. The unexpected tug of my kinetic power latched onto his spine like a parasite. Ripping him from his group of friends, who were too busy laughing and bullshitting to notice. I worked with rapid speed—the fucker had no time to cry out.

I flicked my wrist, dislodging his staff from his right hand, sending it flying into the brick wall. He was struggling against my kinetic hold now, but I barely felt it as I dragged him to the back of the alley and then pressed my heel to his chest.

He looked up at me in unguarded confusion.

I sank deeper into the despicable urge, a slight grin tugging at the edge of my lips. Fuck it .

I dismantled my glamour, letting him see who he was really up against.

His expression morphed from confusion to alarm to pure fear. “Nyx Morningstar.”

“In the fire-hot flesh,” I mused, checking my nails as I kept him trapped. The boot on his chest was just for show, of course. My real strength was magic, and he had nothing to use against me since his precious little staff was thirty feet away in a puddle of piss.

Jasper was, as most Celestials were, strikingly beautiful. Golden hair, starry eyes. Some deep, hidden part of me felt bad for this. For dragging him like trash through this musty alley where I was most definitely going to dehumanize him and send him back to his buddies with his tail between his legs. Separating him from his staff was a dick move, but then again, he should have been on guard.

“What do you want?” he asked, trying to sound unfazed, even though I could feel his heart slamming against my foot.

“Just a simple little favor,” I promised sweetly. “I want you to give me your portal globe, darling.”

“What? I don’t have a—”

I pressed my heel harder into his chest. “Save the lies. Don’t make me break bones, Jasper.”

“Are you serious!” he wheezed. “I don’t—”

I cocked my head sharply to the side, forcing his pinky finger to snap. He started to cry out, but I curled my fingers inward and had his windpipe collapsing in on itself. “Do I look like I’m joking? I won’t ask again.”

I let him struggle a moment longer before relenting on his throat. He sucked in a wild breath, his eyes bugging at me.

I took a breath and steeled myself. “I’ll pay you back someday. But that day’s not today. Give me your portal globe.”

“I don’t have a portal globe!”

I sighed, growing bored of this tedious affair. I splayed my fingers, then curled them inward again, snapping his wrist.

Jasper wailed.

“I know you have the means to portal,” I drawled. “Give it up now or I’ll turn you into a pretzel.”

“I don’t have a portal globe ,” he panted, desperate. “In my left pocket, there’s a selenite stylus. You have to ignite it and draw the anywhere rune in the air. It takes practice, and skill, you—”

I was already bent down, rooting through his pocket. Found the sharp stick of selenite, as long as my palm. A portal stylus? I’d heard of them, but I didn’t know the first thing about drawing a rune in the air, or what the ‘anywhere’ one would even look like.

“Tell me how to do it— exactly ,” I ordered, keeping my foot on his chest. It was getting harder to hold him under telekinesis. Focusing on portal magic had my etheric grip on him slipping. “What does the rune look like?”

“Fuck!” Jasper cried. “Gods, you’re insane! Let me go and I’ll tell you!”

“You’re right. I am insane. I’m also riddled with trust issues. You can tell me from down there. As soon as you do, I’ll be gone.”

He breathed hard, my foot rising and falling with his chest.

“Fuck, fine.” His face was red and strained. “You have to connect with the stylus. Light it up with your magic. When it ignites, use it like a pen. The rune is a circle, with a thin figure eight in the middle, complete with a sharp vertical line slicing down the front. All in one swift motion—you have to make sure it’s written in one movement or it won’t work.”

Using the selenite, I mimicked what he said, doing a practice run. “Like this?”

He nodded, desperate to be free from me. “Yes. Envision where you want to go and draw that. That’s all. Now, let me go!”

I held up the selenite, admiring its pale beauty, zeroing all my focus on it. Sooner than I expected, I felt the clasp . My magic connected with it. The crystal lit up with white-gold power, the end of it slightly aflame. I took my foot off Jasper’s chest and darted away from him.

My heart was pounding; I was afraid he was going to try and charge me. But he didn’t. All I saw from my peripheral vision was Jasper standing up, staying rooted in place. Just watching me.

And I didn’t waste a fucking second. I waved my hand, the stylus leaving streaks of magic in the air.

I gasped. It was working .

I didn’t understand why it was easy—why it felt natural as I drew the rune. It flowed from my hand as if I’d done it a thousand times. The dark alley lit up with whirling light.

“Come on, Christina!”

The mortal girl was staring at me as if I had just butchered a small village.

“Oh, it was just some harmless fun! Come on!”

She did not dare to disobey me, the poor dear. I hadn’t meant to frighten her, but part of me was glad she was finally rightfully affected by something. She scurried over to me and I grabbed her hand, yanking her through the portal with me.