Page 30

Ivy

I couldn’t stop staring at the thin, oddly detailed snake wrapped around my right wrist. The dark ink actually blinked up at me with slitted, snake eyes.

I shuddered. Snakes were not my ideal…anything.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t like the slithering creatures.

They weirded me out, and it was hard to tell which ones were venomous or not.

Thea, on the other hand, for whatever reason, liked them.

Maybe she’s some sort of snake freak , I thought, as Damon wrapped his fingers around mine. With how large he was, his hand easily enveloped mine. And I was no small, dainty thing, either. Especially where my hands were involved.

There was something oddly nice about standing beside someone who would so easily be able to throw me around. Now, Elias certainly could. And I knew the others were pretty strong—Maeve did have that vampire strength on her side.

But Damon looked it.

I shook my head of those thoughts, forcefully shoving them aside as the demon dragged me from the dressing room and into the bar.

My stomach tightened uncomfortably as I took in the change of scene on the stage.

Damon managed to cover most of my view, but there were chains involved this time. Lots of them. Maybe a cage?

Before I could stare in morbid curiosity, Damon moved me towards an empty booth in the back of the club. He managed to angle me away from the other demons gathered around us.

“I want you to sit on my lap. Keep your back to the stage,” he instructed, sliding into the booth.

I glanced between him and the table attached to it. “I think you underestimate the size of both of us. There is no way I’m getting between you and the table.”

But as the words left my lips, the table split into two smaller cocktail tables either side of his body. “Is that better?”

I blinked at the pair and shook my head. “Great,” I muttered, moving to stand in front of him. He kept his eyes locked on mine, holding his hands out for me.

Play the game , I reminded myself. This literally means nothing.

Still, I felt icky climbing onto his lap, straddling his hips so my core was nestled right against his…bulge. But the male didn’t even blink. There was no reaction other th an for him to bring his arms around me, so I was forced to sit flush against his chest.

“There are demons watching us,” he whispered, brushing his fingers down the length of my spine.

I shuddered, electricity running down my arms at the touch.

“Pretend you are enjoying my company. Remember: sex is our currency here. Pleasure is what we barter. And keep an eye out for anyone who appears to not care.”

I gritted my teeth and slowly turned my head in the direction of another booth.

There were several demons sitting there, all in different stages of undress.

They were definitely taking the whole ‘pleasure’ thing seriously, because they were helping each other out.

There were hands between thighs, tails working dicks, and a whole lot more.

I tore my eyes away and shook my head. “I literally have no idea what to do,” I hissed, digging my fingers into his shoulders as the creatures on the stage cried out.

“I don’t know how to pretend. And why do I need to keep an eye out for someone who doesn’t care?

” From what I could tell, there were plenty caring too much.

“Then treat me as if you would a suitor,” he whispered. “There are creatures at the bar. Watch them.”

My eyes strayed to the row of bar stools behind him.

“What am I looking for?” Irritation burned a path from my stomach to my throat as I chanced another look around.

Shadows thickened the exterior walls where more booths sat—occupied, from what I could tell based on the magic coming from their direction.

The bar was full, and the patrons, like everyone else, were helping themselves to the pleasure thickening the room.

All except two .

They watched with dark stares, but they didn’t whip out dicks or touch themselves. They were dressed in suits, but their faces were on display, and they weren’t demons.

Both were mages; one elemental, and the other mirror, if their magical signatures were right.

I tore my eyes from them to meet Damon’s stare. “The two mages behind us,” I whispered. “They aren’t doing anything.”

“There should be lights beside them,” he murmured, gripping my hips sharply. “They measure whether the demons around you have paid enough for your time. Whether you have paid the price for being here. Are their lights on?”

I swallowed hard, glancing up again. “No,” I replied carefully. I only noticed then that the other tables had blinking lights, and so did the demons at the bar. But the two mages were dark.

Damon simply cocked his head, smirk turning into a smile. “They don’t care.”

A shiver rolled down my spine. “And they’re my gift?”

My mind raced. Especially with the knowledge that Dante could be in the Underworld making a deal with the demon king, I wondered if Mistress had delivered me his messengers.

Damon smoothed a hand up my spine, the other remaining on my hip. “Mages rarely spend time down here.”

I bit my lip as I tore my eyes from the demon holding me.

I glanced back up at the mages with new eyes.

Now that I knew what to look for, I felt it: the wrongness of their magic.

It trickled through the space, corruptive in the way it radiated from them.

They even held themselves like they were better than the demons—untouchable.

“If you want them,” Damon whispered in my ear, “go take them. ”

My eyes narrowed on the mages as I crawled off Damon’s lap. He rose like a dark entity behind me as I stalked towards the pair, whose eyes were locked on whatever played out on the stage. The giant demon remained one step behind me as I came to a stop.

“You have two seconds to decide who you’re more loyal to,” I said, keeping my voice low. Dark eyes snapped to me and widened. My magic rose beneath my skin, electrifying and pulsing with a different kind of need.

A need to destroy something.

The elemental mage opened his mouth; he smelled like rain, so that gave me a pretty good indication of his power. The other smelled…stale. Like he’d refused to shower before coming here.

My nose crinkled as I raised my hand. “Choose.”

Their eyes flickered up to Damon; I mean, I thought I was a pretty imposing person, but the demon had them palling with fear.

“He’s not here,” the elemental said, voice stammering. “He left. Decided it wasn’t worth it.”

Damon growled, and I felt it against my back, his anger palpable.

The elemental mage gulped. “He left us here to keep an eye on things. Said he has what he needs to keep going.”

I frowned. “And what does he have?”

Those wide eyes flickered between me and the demon behind me. “A fraction of your magic. I think. We don’t know much, we promise. We?—”

The mirror mage struck the elemental with a dagger before we could do anything. The blade went into the elemental’s heart, and the male fell in a heap. The moaning and cries of pleasure ceased for only a moment.

“Fuck you, bitch,” the mirror mage spat, before pulling something from his pocket .

I tried to grab his hand, but he tossed the small pill into his mouth and swallowed it with clear pride.

It didn’t take long for it to work. His dark eyes rolled back, and he slumped sideways into the demon beside him, who had been so busy watching the stage, that he hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on beside him.

Damon yanked me away from the bodies, but I felt cold. No, annoyed. Frustrated. Because two more were dead thanks to Dante and his manipulations, and they hadn’t revealed anything I didn’t already know.

Except for the power thing . That was something I didn’t understand, but I tucked it away.

The giant demon didn’t care. Shadows enveloped the pair until there was nothing left of them, no sign they’d even been there. Even their magical signatures dimmed with their deaths and departures.

“What are you doing?” I asked, as he drew me towards our booth. Eyes turned to us, tension thickening the air.

Damon grunted as he resumed his earlier position, but he didn’t give me much choice as he drew me onto his lap again.

“Now, we wait for it to end,” he replied, hands on my hips, bulge against my core.

Anger flared deep in my stomach; a burning inferno that made me pause. Did this male even want to escape? He knew who I was, so what did he get out of this situation?

I moved in closer until our chests touched. Damon’s nostrils flared, pupil’s dilating. Heart pounding, I brought my hands around his thick neck; the tendons strained as he watched every move I made.

“I’m done playing games, Damon,” I hissed, lips close to his ear.

The brief touch sparked electricity that rolled down my spine, and I sucked in a breath at the familiarity of the feeling.

“I’d wager that the Mistress won’t hurt my mates—she won’t risk it.

The last time anyone tried to harm them, they died. And my magic will protect them.”

The hands at my hips brought me flush against him. I grunted at the feel of him; of the hard lines of his chest, the ridges in his pants. The snake on my wrist wound up my forearm so its head rested against the top of my hand, its tail on my elbow.

Something else slithered up my leg where the silk dress had risen, but I forced myself not to look down. “Why are you here, Damon?”

I wasn’t sure what it was about this question—a question I’d asked so many times already—that finally made him consider answering.

His eyes didn’t leave mine, but he pursed his lips as he thought.

It took all my power not to strangle him with my bare hands—or with my power.

Maeve’s claws, or Elias’s strength, could have helped me get the point across, but I doubted either would give me the results I desperately wanted.