Page 55 of Sin and Salvation

“Go to sleep, Venus.” Aeron settled his hand on my hip. “When you wake up, we’ll still be here.”

I smiled at him, but I was already exhausted and wrung out from what they’d done, and sleep was about to hit me hard. “Yes, you will be.”

It was the first time I’d ever gone to sleep truly believing that.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Now that I was mated by the demons and hellhound, I didn’t want to leave the penthouse for weeks. I no longer felt like an intruder; once the mate bond was settled, everything smelled like it belonged to me, too.

My natural scent should’ve been a muddle now that I possessed the scents of all three of the guys, but somehow it worked, becoming an almost mouthwateringly delicious scent that made me want to stay as close to them as possible. I would be minding my own business and suddenly catch a whiff that had me craving them.

Those smells carried over to everything in the penthouse. Since I was theirs, their rooms now smelled like ‘mine’. I curled up in Aeron’s bed, stretching luxuriously, completely at home in it.

Unfortunately, there was too much to do to stay nested in my mates’ beds all day.

Crow had gotten word from Gian that the shipment of weapons had been dropped in the usual location, wherever that was. But the Black Hearts didn’t take claims at face value, especially from slimy dealers like Gian.

Which meant we needed to ride out today to check it out.

I exchanged my comfortable nudity for a skirt, black bra, and mesh top, along with a pair of high tops, letting out a sad sigh as I dressed. Maybe we could take a small vacation once Maxime was out of our lives, and I could spend the whole time on top of one of my mates.

The guys hovered around me protectively as we took the elevator down to the ground floor. The club had been cleaned up since the previous day; even the bullet holes in the walls were being patched over. There was no sign of the bodies I’d left behind.

I supposed they were now out in a landfill outside city limits. The thought sent a disgusted shiver down my spine, and was immediately followed by wondering what had happened to Rastus.

That was one thought I pushed away in a hurry. Even if he’d ended up on the bottom of Lake Calleis, I could go the rest of my life without knowing.

All that mattered was that he was finally gone. I never had to think about him again if I didn’t want to.

Outside of Club Onyx, the streets were a swarm of black leather and roaring bikes. The Black Hearts looked to Crow, who climbed astride his bike. “The usual place,” he said, and I climbed onto a bike behind Zane.

It was going to be a hell of a time trying to divide my time between all three of my mates; both Crow and Aeron glanced over as I wrapped my arms around Zane’s waist.

“You get your turn next,” I said to Aeron. “If you’re going to have one mate, you need to learn to share.”

He chuckled, reaching over to trail his fingers along my thigh. “That’s a tall order, sugar tits.”

I rolled my eyes, blushing a little, but none of the MC members around dared to make fun of me for that. No matter whether I was a stripper or not, I was Crow’s mate, which meant I was completely off-limits for teasing unless I invited it.

At one point I would, but not today. Not when we needed to be serious; there was too much to be done, and a lot of our plans rested on Gian’s word.

The MC headed out, riding towards the farthest reaches of their side of the city. I even glimpsed Lake Calleis in the distance between skyscrapers, a flat, glittering expanse of aqua blue. It was impossible to look at a sight like that and remind myself that there were probably countless bodies on the lake bottom, something so pretty that concealed something terrible.

Perhaps Lake Calleis was just a larger metaphor for Concordia as a whole. I loved my city, but there was no denying that beneath the glitz and glitter, the core of it was rotten.

Once Maxime was displaced and the Black Hearts ruled it all, we could cut that rot away and build a city where no one would dare to traffic demons against their will.

The sight of Lake Calleis vanished as we headed through the downtown and into the industrial district. Here, everything was concrete and metal; barbed wire fences surrounded plain warehouses.

The one we were heading to was close to the edge of Lake Calleis, now in sight once more. The roars of the bikes echoed over the lake’s still surface as the Black Hearts pulled up in front of a gray warehouse, an enormous, sprawling complex.

I was off the bike as soon as Zane stopped, approaching the doors with my mates. An enormous metal padlock held the doors shut, which Crow picked up and muttered a few words over.

He must’ve paid an arm and a leg for a lock enchanted by a spell. Demons who worked that kind of magic didn’t come cheap.

It clicked apart and fell into his hand, and he and Zane rolled the doors open. The spit dried in my mouth as the sunlight illuminated the warehouse’s contents.

Several Black Hearts members were patrolling inside, each armed with black rifles. They nodded to Crow, resuming their duties instantly.

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