Page 4 of The Sins That Bleed
I open the ornate obsidian door enough for me to slip through. The lounge is strictly off limits to everyone except for Sunny and me. The room is warded with a biometric scanner, thank you technology, to stop any unwanted visitors.
My heels click on the black marble as I make my way toward the elevator that will take me down, the vampire who’d knocked matching my stride in step beside me. He’s a stocky guy, with locs that hang to his waist decorated with golden rings throughout, complimenting his dark complexion.
He’s someone I met a long time ago that deserved a second chance at life, even if he is now technically dead. He was a risk I will never regret. I don’t usually turn many humans, but his purpose for wanting immortality spoke to my gnarled soul and now he’s my most trusted next to Sunny.
“Update me, Zyon.”
There is no need for niceties, we operate like well-practiced dancers.
“There’s been some trouble down on the tenth floor. One of the dancers exes, if the intel I received is correct, has shown up and he’s refusing to leave. He has a weapon and is holding her in a room, which is why it hasn’t been swiftly taken care of by now.”
He has a melodic lilt to his accent that makes him sound calm and friendly, but I know better. We’ve grown close over the years and when he’s not handling business, he’s a relaxed and funny guy. When he’s calm like this, it tells me he’s seething.
Not good news.
“Spill, Zyon, something has you upset.”
“He made her bleed .” I can feel the anger rising from him and it matches the flare of my own at the news.
I pivot at the end of the hall. Instead of heading left to my office, I march right. I’m at the elevator in no time thanks to the speed being a vampire gives me, Zyon on my heels and punching the button for me.
This elevator is purely my own, so I don’t have to wait for the car to arrive. The onyx doors woven with veins of red barely slide open before we’re inside, heading down to the tenth floor.
I’m furious. How dare someone come into my establishment and harm one of my girls. He’ll regret the day he showed up here. I can’t wait to take my time tearing him apart and making him beg for a mercy that won’t come.
We reach the tenth floor and I storm across the glistening floors, careful to go at a human’s pace down here, which is infuriatingly sluggish.
It makes me want to poke my own eyes out.
Speaking of which, I’m grateful for the crimson lighting that blends with my eyes, so nobody knows what colour they are.
Low, erotic music filters through the hidden speakers of the dancers’ lounge where I find those who are supposed to be on stage and performing huddled together with a few of the security team.
I don’t stop as I bark my orders, desperate to get to my girl in danger. “Keep them safe. Nobody comes in or out of this room unless me or Zyon say so, got it? And for fucks sake, get them a gown before the shock settles in.”
Echoes of ‘Yes ma’am’ reach my ears before I’m in the hall leading to the centre of the Cherry Poppers strip club.
“Zyon, get someone on those doors.”
“On it.”
I hear him speaking into the device that allows him to communicate with our security team and it’s only a matter of seconds before two of them are running past us to hold the doors.
The lounge comes into view, the soft cherry-red of the furnishings giving the room a sultry feel, at odds with the reality that someone is currently in danger.
At least they cleared it of patrons. I’m going to have to send them apology gifts and hope it doesn’t harm business once I’ve dealt with this.
“They’re in the peaches room, ma’am.” Zyon confirms and I stride around the circular stage to the fruit named private rooms.
Once in the darkened area of the private rooms, I spot a few of the security team stood on either side of the open door. They throw a look of relief my way now that I’m here to take control of the situation—it must be bad if they need me to deal with it.
My security are tough bastards, hand-picked by me.
I’m hit with the metallic scent of blood. My body lights up but I push the sensation down. I’ve mastered ignoring the call of the divine liquid of life that has the monster within me ready to ravage human flesh, and I’m grateful for it now as I stand in the doorway of the peaches room.
There’s blood everywhere. Shit .
My eyes scan the scene before me, quicker than any humans could, and I notice the splatter over the furniture, walls, and floor.
Angry slashes that look like paint and Sally, my poor dancer who’s caught up in this horrific situation, is on her knees before the peach-coloured couch, the guy I assume is her ex hiding behind her.
Coward.
He presses a long flick-knife into her throat, but it’s already covered in her blood.
Some from her neck but mostly from the wounds all over her where she must have fought him.
Pride rushes through me that she had the balls to stand up for herself, but my rage is stronger—she should have never been put through this ordeal in the first place.
I’ve failed her, but I will make him pay.
“So, you’re the motherfucker that decided today would be a good day to harm one of my dancers, in my establishment?”
His reedy body tenses, holding her closer and pressing the knife deeper into her skin, blood bubbling up and over the blade.
It reminds me of a fonder time, when I took my husband’s life.
“Don’t move, or I’ll kill her!”
He’s not looked at me yet, so I say nothing. Nobody will be dying today except for him, and potentially whoever made the mistake of letting him into my club. I stand unnaturally still and I wait.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The noise of someone’s watch counting down this dramatic scene is the only noise in the room.
“What the fuck? Get them off me!” he shrieks as hundreds of little spiders come crawling out of the couches.
They clamber over his feet and under the hem of his jean-clad leg, under his shirt and to his head, trying to get in his mouth.
He throws himself backward, letting go of Sally before he stands and tries to whack them off him in a frenzy. Nobody else can see them of course, they will think he’s batshit crazy—after all, he did come in here brandishing a knife.
I grab Sally and get her behind me where Zyon can pick her up and get her help, while I concentrate on tormenting this bastard. Her poor heart is thumping a beat too fast for her body.
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing on you.”
My lips curl into a sneer as the spiders instantly vanish.
It takes him a moment to register they’ve gone before he stops trying to smack them off.
He looks at me with pure hatred shining in his beady eyes, or maybe that’s just mine reflected in them because there is nothing I hate more than motherfuckers like him.
Entitled gutter rats thinking they can do what they want without consequence.
“You fucking bitch! Sally’s mine, you give her back to me and nothing will have to happen to you.” His spit flies from his mouth with each word he speaks.
I chuckle at his attempt of a threat before a snarl rips from my throat and I bask in the fall of his face. As it sinks in for him that I am the only threat in this room, and he just sealed his fate.
His eyes dart behind me to the corner of the room, true fear stripping the colour from his pock-marked skin, sweat instantly beading on his forehead at the horrifying sight he sees there.
I hear the clicking sound of pincers coming together as the large black widow I conjured peels itself from the corner of the wall and prepares to strike.
“I don’t think I like your tone; you hurt a member of my family and now you will pay for it.”
He has no time to scream, only a short squeak leaves his mouth as the black widow strikes, biting and paralysing him almost instantly. To anyone else it would look like he passed out, but I know better.
“Good girl,” I coo to Arachne as she crawls back into her corner and shrinks down to a normal size.
She stays hidden with the low lighting but is always on hand for when I need her, my little spy. Of course, she’s not real, not in the physical sense anyway, but I treat her like a pet all the same.
I turn on my heel and step into the hall where the waiting security team is.
“Take him to the basement and secure him, I’ll deal with him later. I want a clean-up crew in the peaches room immediately, and then I want to know how the fuck this happened.”