Page 10 of Sin and Salvation

I blinked as the guys brought me into a hallway. There was an elevator to the right, but they bypassed it, walking towards a red door.

The thump of the club’s music reverberated through the place as they kicked the door open, revealing an office.

Crow carefully set me on a couch, slipping off a leather jacket and wrapping it around me. Aeron knelt to inspect my feet.

He finally looked up at me, his green eyes unreadable. “How fucking far did you walk, again?”

“Ran,” I said shortly, feeling no small amount of confusion. I was a freshly-hired stripper. What were they doing, treating me like some sort of precious object that had to be carried around? “From… from Argent Drive.”

I named a different street than the one Giraud Tower was on. It was of a similar distance, but not enough to make alarm bells ring for them.

I sucked in a breath as Zane popped open a medical kit and poured a stinging liquid over my feet.

“You’re from the House of Lust.” Zane said it without inflection, but there was no point in dissembling. Like his golden eyes, my pink hair gave me away as a member of that House.

“Yes.”

He carefully wiped away the liquid when it was done bubbling. “And you’re a succubus.”

My breath caught in my throat. “How…”

“Your horn shape, and the latent energy spike I’ve been feeling since you walked in.” Zane raised an eyebrow. “Do you have any idea how valuable you are?”

I shook my head slowly. I knew I was valuable, certainly; after all, my own brother Rastus had used me to pay his debts. I was valuable enough that I hadn’t wanted to expose my hair and horns during my flight.

But how far that value went… I didn’t know exactly.

“We’ll just say you’re lucky you found us, instead of someone else finding you.” Aeron unrolled bandages as he spoke. “And we can’t keep calling you sugar, either. What’s your name?”

Ah, the moment of truth.

I could’ve given them a pseudonym, but despite their rough edges, they were looking out for me. Zane didn’t seem to care that my blood was literally on his hands as he worked on bandaging my feet. And Crow had never looked away, watching carefully as the VP worked on me.

“Venus,” I finally said, wanting to give them some small measure of truth. “Venus Amatoré.”

“Amatoré… I’ve never heard of that bloodline, but it doesn’t matter.” Zane finished tucking the ends of the bandage in. “You’re not even running your power amplification right now, are you?”

I shook my head.

“Fuck. Not even trying, and it’s still strong enough to pick up on.” He looked up at Crow. “We’ve got a treasure here, prez.”

Crow’s warm fingers landed on my shoulders, and a tremble went through me.

Maybe I hadn’t escaped. Maybe I’d just escaped one trap and jumped right into another.

That’s what I got for being blindly optimistic.

“Why are you here?” Crow asked. I looked up at him, and now I was afraid to say anything too close to the truth.

So I gave him as much as I could without selling myself out.

“I’m in a bad situation back home,” I said. “I was forced into an engagement, and my fiancé is… he’s abusive. Badly.” I didn’t have to pretend to fake the shiver of fear that went through me. “There was no other way out and I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

Fury had flashed through Zane’s eyes as I spoke, and a hint of guilt gnawed at me.

But it was true enough. I had been forcefully given to Maxime, and though he wasn’t my fiancé, he was as good as.

“You don’t have to go back,” Zane said roughly. “This is our territory.”

---