Page 57 of Sin and Salvation

By the time I was done puking, my eyes had adjusted enough to the dim light to take in my surroundings.

I was in an empty room. No windows, one door. Someone had laid me on a cot, with no blankets or pillow. Above me, the light fixture flickered on and off, the source of the wavering I’d seen when I’d first opened my eyes.

I had never seen a room like this before. Fear rose in me and I clamped down on it hard, determined not to panic.

Instead, I focused on sitting all the way up without blacking out. It took several minutes; waves of darkness washed across my vision as each tiny movement made my skull pound.

I was breathing heavily and had broken out in a cold sweat by the time I managed to swing my legs to the floor. I was so exhausted, ridden with pain, that I didn’t even jump when the lock rattled in the door across from me.

It swung open silently, and in the bright lights of the hall beyond, at first all I saw was several shadowed silhouettes.

Then they entered. My stomach roiled again.

Two bodyguards closed the door, taking up their stations on either side of it. But Maxime glided across the tiled floor, stopping several feet away from me with his hands clasped behind his back.

He was a patrician demon; his dark, expensive suit was tailored to his short, stocky frame. Gray hair was swept back around a pair of curling black horns.

But it was the look of disappointment and barely-concealed rage in his pale blue eyes that made me want to be sick all over again.

“Well, well, Venus. You led us quite a chase.” His deep voice rang through the room, echoing in my splitting head. “But you should have known it wouldn’t last forever.”

“I did... in fact… believe that,” I gasped out. By the Devil, every word felt like it was being scraped from the depths of my soul and forced past my lips.

“Well… I’m not surprised. You always did harbor such strange optimism.” Maxime was unable to hold still for longer than thirty seconds, always brimming with frenetic energy; he turned and began pacing back and forth, though he never took his eyes off me. “I think that this time, we will need to undergo more rigorous training. Clearly I have spoiled you. Some time spent in these cells—say, a year or so—should make your headstrong tendencies a little more malleable.”

A year. He was going to keep me caged in this empty little room for ayear… and I suddenly knew where we were.

The basement of Giraud Tower. I had never been allowed down here on my own.

“I think you’ll find that I’m less malleable than ever, dickhead,” I growled. The bubbling, white-hot force of my anger drove back some of the pain and sickness.

“Of course.” Maxime waved a hand, looking more like an affable politician than a demon discussing how best to break me. “I smelled those heathens on you the moment my men brought you in. Breaking the mate bond is never desirable, naturally… it usually ends in madness.” He turned a thin smile on me. “So we will rip the bandaid off, so to speak, and get it over with quickly. Even mad, your power can serve a purpose. By this time tomorrow, your precious Black Hearts will be nothing but corpses in a smoldering ruin, and we will see if your mind goes with them.”

“What?” I tried to ask, but the word got stuck in my throat, along with all of my air. My lungs seemed to shrivel up in my chest.

“Your so-calledmatesaren’t quite as sharp as they believe.” Maxime paused, eyes glittering as he looked down at me. “Betrayed by one of their own dealers… how pitiful. I now possess the greater part of their armaments, along with enough explosives to bring down their whole sordid club. By the way, my dear, you looked quite fetching on that stage. If your sanity remains intact through tomorrow, perhaps I will install a little pole for you in my office. It would be good to remind you of your place in my hierarchy… as meat.”

I really was going to be sick all over again, but I did my best to swallow the acid taste creeping up the back of my throat. “How… how are you going to do it?”

Maxime had me in his power right now, but with his bloated ego, he forgot one thing: I knew him, as well. I knew every little thing that made him tick, and one thing he absolutely couldn’t resist was the opportunity to boast.

Just because I was caged now, didn’t mean I would be caged forever.

“I bought myself a little investment. A warehouse in Hybris Plaza.” Maxime unclasped his hands, already warming up to get into the flow of his monologue, and I blinked. I vaguely remembered something Gian had said about Hybris Plaza, and that Maxime was planning another casino. “My cover story was that it was for another business venture, but as a matter of fact, I wanted it for what wasbeneaththe warehouse.”

I nodded, sending a spike of pain down my neck.

“Sewer tunnels, Venus. The warehouse is openly connected to the other side of the city. My men are placing explosives below Club Onyx as we speak, and your idiotic mates have no idea. In fact… they’re not even looking for you.”

My stomach dropped, although… it couldn’t be true. There was no way that was true.

Maxime’s smile widened, knowing he’d struck a point. “Does that hurt your feelings, dear? They’ve been chasing after Gian all day, determined to get their money’s worth out of him. You were only ever a footnote in their plans. Silly, stupid female. I treated you like a queen. You lived better than most of the high caste females of the Houses. And you gave it all up, to let yourself be used up and tossed aside.”

I couldn’t believe it, and yet… I knew Maxime’s tells. If he was lying, he would’ve been fussing with his collar or tie.

His hands were at his sides, his eyes clear and focused. He wasn’t lying.

My men weren’t looking for me. They were looking for Gian.

---