Page 18 of Dark Souls

“You are here willingly, right? If I unhook this leash, would you be allowed to run away?”

He nodded, but the excitement in his eyes told me he would most definitely stay put. My gaze drifted down to the throbbing pulse in his neck. My fangs tingled. Dammit, I was hungry. How did this exactly work? Did I have to ask his permission?

“So, what now? Do I just bite him?” I directed my question to the two girls. Lacey shrugged her shoulders, still unable to pull herself together and have a serious conversation.

“If you want. You own him for the night. You can do whatever you like with him now,” Lia answered.

“I don’t own him! He’s a person, not an object.”

“He’s a vein to drink. A dick to ride. Or a mouth to taste. That’s all,” she snapped back, unzipping her human’s mask and pulling him to her so they locked lips. My nose wrinkled in disgust as they started tongue fucking each other’s mouths. When they broke away, Lia made a point of zipping the mouth on his mask shut again. She was such an asshole. “See?”

“Can he even breathe under there?” Lacey asked, leaning forward to study the leather mask.

“He can breathe fine. Honestly, you two need to stop acting like the good girls you were raised to be and start being bad. Trust me, it’s so much more fun.”

I grumbled, turning away to scan the club, hoping it might give me some insight into how to behave in this place. Big mistake. Everywhere I looked, vampires were feeding on humans or fucking them. Those at the bar were having conversations while the human they had chosen knelt at their feet or ran their hands up and down their bodies. In the booths, there was a lot of moaning and groaning happening. And on the dancefloor… nothing was too nasty. Damn, so no one here has heard of the word discreet.

My anxiety heightened at the thought of feeding from this man in public. Of letting my inhibitions go and just taking my pleasure with no shame. What if people recognised me? I am the daughter of the King and Queen of all supernaturals, for Christ’s sake. I would die of humiliation if my parents were told I was seen dry humping some leashed human wearing leather bondage as I drank from him in front of an entire club full of vampires. No amount of blood was worth that mortification.

There must be somewhere more private we could go? Surely not everyone was an exhibitionist in this place? I caught sight of two huge vampires wearing dark suits and aggressive frowns standing in front of a black-curtained door.

“Hey, what’s through there? Are there private rooms?” I asked, annoyed I was having to speak directly to Lia but she seemed to have been here before and knew a lot more than Lacey.

Her gaze followed my finger and she frowned, shaking her head. “No. That area is for members only.”

“What do you mean? I thought this club was invite-only?”

“The main area is, yeah. But through those curtains is only for members of an exclusive club.The Underground.”

“The Underground?” What the hell was that? I’d never even heard of it before.

“Seriously?” Lia huffed, her eyes rolling when both Lacey and I looked clueless. “The Undergroundis a restricted members-only club for the most depraved and fucked up supernaturals. Literally, anything goes. There is no moral code, no kink too taboo, no act too shocking. It’s basically the supernatural version of the mafia on steroids.”

How did I not know about this? Did my parents know? Of course they did. They must know. I immediately went to pull out my phone and text one of my brothers or Neve and then remembered I couldn’t. There were no phones in the Heroux realm along with their stupid rule of no vampires.

“How do you become a member?” I asked, my blood thirst just a constant ache now I had something more intriguing to grasp my attention.

Lia scoffed. “Why? Thinking of joining?”

“Just answer the question, Lia,” I snapped.

“I don’t know,” Lia reluctantly admitted. “It’s locked tight. Rumours are that once you’re in, you can never get out. Unless you leave in a body bag. And there seems to be only one rule. Never talk about it. No one even knows a member ofThe Underground. They obviously know each other but they don’t speak about it on the outside. It’s like a code.”

“Who runs it?”

Lia shrugged again. “I’m not a member, am I? So, how the hell would I know?”

Realising I was wasting my time, badgering her for information she didn’t have, I moved my attention back towards the bouncers. I needed to get closer so I could read their minds. See if there was a way in.

Standing up, forgetting all about my human on a leash, I started moving towards them until my arm was yanked back by the strain of the man not moving fast enough.

“Shit. Sorry!” I completely forgot he was there! He followed behind me as I approached. In a moment of madness, I acted as if I knew what the hell I was doing and had every right to walk past them. Both their arms shot out, grabbing me by the shoulder and pushing me back. Rue hissed in my mind.

“Where do you think you’re going?” one of them drawled in a thickly accented voice.

“I’m a member ofThe Underground,” I said with conviction, staring deep into their red eyes. They weren’t even trying to hide their vampire sides with their fangs hanging over their lips.

“Prove it,” the other commanded. Shit. Was there a code word? Or a membership card?

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