Page 122 of Hell Breaks Loose

So many people are going to get laid tonight.

Something I would normally not give a second thought to, but it reminds me so much of Ora, her old life of sexual parties and freedom. What initially drew me into a different way of thinking, a totally different life.

And there she is, smiling as our eyes meet across the dancefloor, a beautiful young man behind her dancing, his hand around her waist, teasing into the band of her pants.

While Alaya sucks on her neck.

Good for her.

But that’s my cue to exit stage left…

Because I refuse to let anything get under my skin tonight. Unless it’s Gavin or Tell sliding inside me.

One look at both of them says they have the same idea as we hustle off to our cabin.

24

ANGEL

Flashes of her face rip through my head, over and over again.

Her voice. Her eyes.

Blue gray. Tugging at something at the back of my mind.

Her scent.

The woman in the black dress. The black bride.

She assaults the edges of my memories, hammering into my heart with a pain I cannot understand.

Seeing her in danger tore at the control asserting itself over my mind to obey my mistress, my Matron. I’ve never felt such powerful forces, contradicting one another, like they’re vying for my very soul.

Shaking my head, I try to focus on the task at hand. My orders.

But ever since the battle, since she killed the man named Marco, she’s been distant, drifting in that fugue that I have seen come over her.

It’s worse now.

And there’s nothing I can do to help her. I’m not even sure I actually want to.

Not that I have a choice.

Thankfully, things are easier that way.

The mobster’s mansion is ours now. Another place to tear apart, to ransack.

Maybe we’ll stay here for a night.

If she lets us.

Whatever the Herald asks. Whatever Matron wants.

Gathering up the stragglers from the battle, throwing the dead into a hideous, horrifying heap, I trudge through the destroyed decorations, visions of the scenes colliding out of order, music ringing in a dissonant cacophony in my head.

It reminds me of another time. One stage.

Lights shining down, music cueing me to move…

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