Page 69 of Dark Souls

“Oh, shit yeah.” I placed it in his hand, then rummaged through my bag. “Then where’s mine—” I froze.Ah, motherfucker. My phone and my favourite dagger were still in the locker. With my wig, yellow contacts and Tamara’s membership card left behind with my infuriating soulmate, I had no way back in to retrieve them. “Fuck!”

“What is it?”

“My phone. My baby. They are still in the lockers!”

“Your baby?” Sienna asked, slightly amused.

“My favourite dagger. Solid silver, six-inch blade, hidden wooden spike under an embellished leather handle.” I was close to tears.

Sienna whistled low, shaking her head as her face scrunched with pain. She got it. She was a knife fanatic herself. “That sucks. But we can’t risk you going back in again. I had a SIA tracker placed on your phone which also works as a disabler and will stop it from working so at least that won’t be an issue. They won’t be able to hack into it. Although they will probably try to contact the member that you pretended to be tonight.”

Doubtful. Very doubtful indeed. My heart twisted as I thought of Red’s soulless eyes as he told me she was dead because of him. Heathen murdered her, the very man I was trying to help by going to this event tonight. Did he kill her just to give me her card? The thought made bile rise in my throat.

“You really aren’t looking too good, Ilaria. Let’s get you home.” Raiden opened the back door of his car for me and I didn’t argue, crawling into the warm space and pulling my knees up to my chin. The ache in my chest intensified as the car rumbled to a start and drove us further away from the city. Away from Red.

‘But this gives us the perfect opportunity to see him again! We can demand our dagger back.’Rue’s voice cracked with pathetic hope as I squeezed my eyes shut.

‘He can keep the goddamn dagger. He can use it to stab himself for all I care.’

‘You don’t mean that! He wants us. I know he does. We were getting through to him at one point. We can’t give up.’

I blocked her out. One voice in my head screaming for me to turn the car around was more than enough.

“You sure you’re alright?” I opened my eyes to see Raiden’s silver discs staring at me with concern in the rear-view mirror.

I gave him a bright smile, hoping it was convincing enough that he’d leave me be. “Yeah. Never better.”

Count To Five

Groaning,Iblinkedagainstthe pounding in my head and lifted my arm sluggishly to cover my eyes. Urgh. Why does this never get any easier? You’d think I’d be used to the sensation of being summoned from the void and given back control of my body once more after years of this shit, but no. It still hurts like a motherfucker every time.

Ice cold water pelted my face as I spluttered from the shock and struggled for a breath until it ended. I sat bolt upright on the dirty floor and hissed through my fangs as I wiped my eyes with my talons.

“Apologies for the rude awakening, but I’m not feeling in a particularly friendly mood,” The Devil said calmly as he dropped the hose from his grip and stepped closer to me. I remained sitting, legs apart as I lowered my head to my chest and started to chuckle silently, my shoulders shaking.

“Yet you still apologised. You really need to up your villainous game. Such an amateur,” I taunted, earning me a powerful boot in the face. I fell back on the ground as I tasted my own blood in my mouth but continued to laugh, knowing how much it pissed him off when I didn’t fight back. What would be the point? I’d already clocked the ritual chalk circle around me and the flickering candles that kept me in a magical bind. Unless he broke it, there was no way out of this invisible prison and even if there was, that sigil around his neck protected him from any harm coming to him.

He crouched down just behind the outer line of my prison and clasped his hands together over his knees, bouncing on his heels a little as he looked me over suspiciously. “You disappoint me greatly, Heathen. You are supposed to be the most powerful killing machine. A weapon with no morals. Yet, you’re turning soft.”

I forced myself up to a sitting position again to stare into those crystal blue eyes. A twisted smile formed on my face as I fantasised about pinning him down and plucking those pretty eyeballs out of his skull before forcing him to swallow them. Soft my ass.

“Must be all that tender love and care you give me,” I replied sarcastically as his eyes narrowed. He really was radiating all kinds of pissed off. Yet, for the life of me, I had no idea what I was supposed to have done.

He stood up, walking methodically around the circle with his polished shoes. I loathed his style. Always in designer suits and polished shoes that he thought gave him righteousness and authority. To the outside world, he wanted them to think he was the good guy. The family man. The protector. The hero. It was the reason he kept his name out of the Club and let Luka and me do all the dirty work. He didn’t want to taint his perfect image. It was all a lie. That was the problem with greed. Once you had a taste of power, a taste of wealth, a taste of darkness, you’d do just about anything to keep it.

“When I give you an order, I expect that order to be fulfilled.”

“I am well aware.”

He paused, working his jaw as he gave me a disapproving glare. “Then tell me why you didn’t kill Tamara Rosen after I commanded it.”

I frowned. “The fae? I did—” I froze. Shit. Snow. She’d used the fae’s identity to get into the club. I knew there was a slim possibility that someone might spot her entry on the system even though she was supposed to have her membership revoked, but I thought that someone would be Luka. Not The Devil. He never checked the systems. He had no need to. As long as he got his money the club earned each month and used me for his crimes, he was happy.

My heart started thundering and I clenched my claws to avoid them shaking with worry for Ilaria. I knew this was too risky. I knew I should never have let her go to that event. If he’d done anything to her, so much as touched a hair on her head—

“Don’t lie to me, Heathen. How does a dead woman walk into an Underground event?” he growled.Wait.I glanced up and stared into his furious eyes. He didn’t know it was Ilaria. He thought it was Tamara. I breathed out a sigh of relief as my shoulders slouched.

“I thought I did. I guess I didn’t stick around long enough to check she was really dead,” I answered with a nonchalant shrug of my shoulders.

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