Page 47 of Sin and Salvation

“You have to come back now, Venus.” Rastus was practically panting, a frantic look in his eyes. “Please, if I show my fucking face again on that side of town and you’re not with me, he’s going to kill me. Please!”

I let Zane take the paper from my hands, already shaking my head. “I’m not going anywhere near him. I don’t know what you did to end up in this, but if I were you I’d get a train ticket out of Concordia.”

Rastus let out a splutter of laughter. “So you’re just going to let him kill me? Some fucking sister you are.”

I glared back at him, but I was amazed he had the gall to say something like that. “Are you kidding me? Yousoldme to him, Ras. I don’t owe you anything.”

“You tell him, sugar,” Aeron murmured.

“Right, because it was so terrible, living in penthouse apartments and practically having expensive shit thrown at you.” Rastus sneered, an ugly expression on his otherwise handsome face. “If it weren’t for me, you’d still be living in the slums—although it looks to me like you missed it.”

He waved a hand towards me, making his opinion of my new profession clear.

Sickness roiled in my stomach. I’d known for years I would never look at Rastus with anything but disappointment and hatred again, but there was still that small sliver of me that had wanted to mend bridges with my only living blood relative.

That sliver was dead now. Rastus had never looked at me as anything other than a pawn. He held my entire existence in contempt.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me.” My fists balled at my sides involuntarily, nails digging into my palms. “No matter what Maxime threatens, I’m never going back. Not even for your sake. I’ll even give you money for a ticket out of the city—but that’s the last time I ever want to see you, Rastus, do you understand?”

My brother stared at me, a combination of terror for himself and disbelief that I’d turn him down on his face. Then his face twitched.

A faint smirk broke through, spreading wider and wider.

“Well, I was hoping you’d come easy,” he breathed, “But we can do this the hard way as well.”

The words seemed to slip through my mind, my brain refusing to grasp his exact meaning. But the threat was clear.

“What did you do, Rastus?” I asked, feeling Crow suddenly tense at my side.

My question was answered before I’d even finished speaking. Screaming erupted from the other side of the club.

I whirled around, seeing the back exit door kicked open, as demons in dark suits poured through and started firing.

ChapterTwenty-Three

Almost everyone instinctively ducked. I heard Tyri’s high-pitched scream over the chaos, and the demon practically vaulted off her pole, hitting the floor hard and rolling to land under a table.

Zane shoved me behind me, and I heard Rastus cursing in my ear as Brody shoved me further back. “Find cover,” he snapped, and with almost casual arrogance, he slammed his fist into the back of Rastus’s head.

My brother dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks, his limbs jittering and eyes rolling back.

But there was no way I was hiding in the bathroom while Maxime’s cronies tore through my new home. Because of Crow, my power was amplified, a current suddenly rising to the surface and crackling under my skin like electricity.

I touched both Crow and Zane on the back of their necks, reaching up and channeling my power through them. They made small noises, not turning around to look at me as they fired at the intruders.

The taste of their power filled my mind: silvery coolness, crackling embers.

When I reached out to touch Aeron, the coppery taste of blood filtered into my consciousness. He was already shifting, his auburn hair growing dark and fangs snapping.

And as soon as I took my hands away, gasping from the flood of energy that had left me, Brody grabbed me from behind.

I flailed for a moment as the bouncer easily picked me up and deposited me behind him, and Kylaea reached out, wrapping her arms around me.

“Are you crazy?” she whispered, eyes wide with anxiety and fear. “Get the fuck down!”

She dragged me around the corner into the dark entrance hall. Several of the Black Hearts were at the front door, keeping it barricaded.

I dimly realized that I was shaking, adrenaline crashing through me.

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