Page 56 of Deadmen's Captive

A small smile spread across her face at my words and she nodded. “Okay.”

I reached over, taking her hand on the tabletop. Her skin was soft, warm. I rubbed my thumb in soothing circles over her knuckles. “Bast might seem cold and indifferent, but once you get to know him, you’ll see that it’s all an act, the pressure on him right now, to do well at school and to excel within the club, it’s immense, and your revelation on induction night really threw him.”

“And Nate?”

I sighed. “Nate is… Nate is fucked up. But he’d never do anything to hurt you,” I added hastily. Not unless it was consensual, I added in my head.

“Do you ever regret it? Joining the Club?"

I looked at her, wondering how much to say. Regret wasn't the right word for it. The Club... Hades... Bast and Nate, they were my life. My family.

"No," I said finally. "Not for a second."

She seemed surprised by that.

"Why? If it puts so much pressure on you all, why not just quit?"

The question hung in the air between us, heavy and loaded. Telling her the truth would only scare her more. But lying... that wasn't an option either.

"Because despite everything... I've found something in the Deadmen that I've never had before," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. "A purpose. A brotherhood."

"Power," she added softly.

"Yes," I agreed. "Power too. It’s not all bad, and once this year's over, you can walk away Paige, but Bast, Nate and I - we’ll move up into the Syndicate to take our places, or we’ll fail."

“What happens if you fail?”

“You get excommunicated,” I said after a moment, sitting back as the waiter appeared with our pizzas. I was thankful for the interruption and the distraction as Paige began to slice her pizza. Excommunication was how it was worded, but the Syndicate didn’t mess about. If you pissed them off, you were cut up, not cut off. I didn’t want to scare her though. The Syndicate would have nothing to do with her, unless she seriously crossed them, and I couldn’t see how innocent little Paige would even start to do that, she was safe from them, and the DeathKnights would keep it that way.

Chapter Twenty Four

PAIGE

“Damon Salvatore, for one!”

I shook my head at Kate, and rolled over onto my back staring up at my ceiling.

“Who’s he?

She turned onto her front looking at me with such an expression of shock and horror that I giggled.

“He’s in the Vampire Diaries! Brooding hot bad boy. He’s the one everyone swoons over.”

I rolled my eyes. “He's fictional.”

“It doesn’t matter, Paige I’m telling you, bad boys are the ones every girl wants. And you have some major bad boy action going on here.”

I had confided in Kate as to what had happened the night of the ball, as she’d been in a panic the next day when I hadn’t turned up till ten in the morning, still dressed in my goddess costume. I’d told her it had been some initiation thing for the club, and I’d been taken to a secret party, and then fallen asleep in one of the spare rooms and been brought back to the dorms by Bast the next day. I’d left out the minor details of the five orgasms I’d had during that time, especially the public ones. There were things even girls didn’t need to talk about, and although I was sure she wouldn’t, a tiny part of me was worried she’d judge me for it, or the guys. I found myself feeling strangely protective of them. Having spent time with them, I was now convinced they hadn’t realised I was completely unaware of what was going on, and they’d all been trying to make it up to me since. There hadn’t been any more orgasms since then though, and I wasn’t sure whether I was glad about that or disappointed.

“They aren’t really bad boys though, are they?” I asked, toying with the picture of Snoopy on the front of my fleecy pyjama top. It was Saturday and we were having a lazy morning, so neither of us were dressed yet. Kate had brought orange juice and pastries the day before, so it had been a nice start to the morning.

“They definitely have the vibe,” Kate argued. “Though maybe not Tristan.”

“What vibe? They’re entitled rich boys, Kate. The only thing dark about them so far is the colour of their armani suits.”

"Armani suits and secrets, don't forget those," she quipped, reaching out for her cooling coffee on the bedside table. "All those secret societies, secret parties, secret initiations. That's pretty dark if you ask me."

I sighed heavily, clutching my pillow closer to my chest. "Yeah, I guess you're right about the secrets. But that doesn't make them bad. Just... mysterious."

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