Page 8 of The Devil of London

“You’re missed here, Aderyn,” Khair called from behind me. I’d just spun to tell him I’d missed him as well, but the elevator doors were already closed, sealing me in the hallway.

Sighing, I turned back around and started forward. Something moved to my left, and when I glanced toward it, I found Merikh leaning against the pillar, staring at me as if I were something he wanted to devour.

“Hello, little bird.” His soothing, seductive tone brought back memories of him guarding me, among other ones.

Merikh was Nasir’s enforcer and right-hand man, and he did not bother wasting words. He’d barely spoken when we’d met, and throughout our time stuck together, he’d said nothing he didn’t mean. I’d known the moment I’d first peered into his emerald-jeweled gaze that he’d figured out every way to end my life if Nasir ordered it. He was a skilled killer who excelled at making unwanted people vanish.

“Hello, Shadow,” I whispered, watching as he pushed from the pillar and slowly sauntered toward me. “I’ve missed you.” It wasn’t a lie. Merikh had always been gentle with me, and the first time Nasir brought me to Saffron Manor, Merikh had stared at me with such emotion that it had terrified me.

“Did you?” he asked with a tilt of his head as he stopped before me. “It’s irrelevant. He forbade women from wandering the halls alone. There’re ravenous beasts lurking in the shadows.” Merikh kept pace with me as I started down the vacant hallway. His fingers brushed mine, which caused fluttering to stir in my abdomen. With Merikh, there was a familiarity that I’d never understood. As if we’d known one another in a past life. I’d asked him once, but he’d merely smiled and walked away. “He knows you’re here. Don’t anger him, little bird. Nasir has been plagued with visitors, and more are en route to discuss the new arrangements he has put into place. The Gathering of the Lords is upon us once more. You know how he gets when they arrive.”

“Is that what everyone thinks? That I’m so bitter that I’ve returned solely to piss the king off?” I asked with resentment filling my voice.

“You are bitter, but I can’t say it’s not warranted.” Entering the main room, I peered around with curiosity as Lana Del Rey’s “Gods and Monsters” began playing. “I asked him not to put the pictures up,” Merikh whispered. “He’s waiting for you.” Merikh left me standing in the entrance to the red room of hell.

Paintings lined the walls of the large, crimson red room, and while none exposed the subject’s face, I knew they were frozen moments of my time with Nasir. The one of me at Nasir’s feet was being ogled by a group of men who were discussing it as if it was the Mona Lisa.

Nasir had sexually tortured me for what felt like days, never letting me find release, and had then placed me on stage. Someone had fucked me from behind as Nasir sat in front of me and watched. Every gasp I’d expelled had enraged him further, until he’d brutalized my throat and used a glass phallus on me, making sure I knew I was still only his plaything. In the last three hundred years, this was the second and last time he had allowed someone to fuck me.

Dragging my attention from the paintings, I stepped farther into the room. Like the main club, this one had neon signs that read: “If I can’t have love, I want power,” “Pain, pleasure, and sins are some of my favorite things,” “When you’ve lost the one who’s everything to you, you’ve nothing left to lose,” and “Will you rot with me, Love?”

Beneath the last one, which read: “Fuck it, why not?” sat a large bar with cages on top of it. In the cages hanging above the bar, naked women danced to the sultry song playing. Others danced on top of the bar where men watched from stools. Throughout the room, there were rounded stages for dancers to perform on as well. Booths for privacy lined the walls, and a large throne sat at the front of the room, which no one dared get close enough to.

I felt the heavy weight of his stare before I found him, the man of every fantasy I’d ever had or would ever have. When I did, the world stopped spinning and everything went silent around me. Khaos was dressed in a crisp, white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his forearms. He’d gotten dark tattoos that began at his fingernails and moved up his arms to vanish beneath the crisp sleeves.

Khaos was in a booth with a woman seated across from him. She twirled her hair around her finger while speaking to a man who stood beside her. Khaos wasn’t listening as his thumb drifted over the condensation collecting on his glass. The rings he wore were forged from the black platinum swords hunters used, and reminded him of the hunters he’d killed throughout years. Rising from his seat, he pulled on the suit jacket and said something to the couple before heading toward me.

My fingers tingled with the need to touch him, and I curled my hands into fists, fighting the urge. Khaos was both savior and villain in my tale. He had protected me from the abuse of my father, but I’d traded one devil for another. He’d shown me what love could be, then told me I’d never experience true love. When I became restless to explore the world without him, he’d imprisoned me inside his bedroom. Now I’d sought him out, once again, to ask for his help, which I’d known would be dangerous.

I’d almost reached him in the middle of the room when a hand grabbed my arm, jerking me into a rubbery body. The stench of sweat, stale cigar smoke, and whiskey assaulted my senses as someone gripped my chin in a chubby hand. Wild, hazel eyes slid over my face before he spoke, sending nausea churning in my belly at the scent of garlic and unbrushed teeth.

“Pretty little slut,” he cooed in a heavily accented tone.

“Unhand me, now,” I warned, knowing Khaos was right behind him.

“Shut the fuck up. If I wanted you to speak, I would tell you to do so.” The man gripped my jaw harder, which caused a gasp to slip from my throat.

“Unless you wish to discover the fastest way to hell, I’d listen to her.” Khaos’s tone was low, lethal, and filled with promise. The asshole didn’t appear to recognize the owner of the voice speaking, because if he had, he wouldn’t have continued.

“Find your own whore, asshole. This one is going to cry so prettily for me. Aren’t you—” Blood exploded from his lips as the sharp end of a double-edged dagger pushed from them. His scream of agony came out as more of a wet gurgle, but it was loud enough to draw attention. The moment they noticed Khaos, they shuffled backward to a safe distance.

“I don’t recall sending you an invitation to enter my club,” Khaos growled, and his eyes promised to punish me for the slight.

“There was an issue today inside my store.”

“Did you cause it?” he asked pointedly. Before I could reply, he placed his fingers under my chin, lifting my face to the red lights. “Who was stupid enough to put their hands on you, Aderyn?” Khaos’s touch sent lust rushing through my brain and shut down all coherent thought. The raw, animalistic pull of his powerful presence caused warmth to rush through me as I remained silent, staring into the cyan-colored depths that threatened to devour my soul. “I asked you a question. I expect an answer.” The man moaned, even as two men grabbed him and removed him from the room.

“Besides the asshole you just stabbed?” I smarted off, which had his eyes narrowing to angry slits.

“That wasn’t an answer,” he warned.

Shaking free from the spell he held over me, I pulled back from his hold and told myself I’d been so naïve to think he’d ever miss me as much as I’d missed him.

“No, I didn’t cause it. I’m uncertain of who he was, but he seemed new to town. Tall, tattooed, and spoke fluent Norwegian. I was hoping we could speak without so many eyes on us?” I asked as butterflies waged war in my stomach.

“Take him to the other room. I’ll deal with him in a moment,” Khaos ordered before pulling a white cloth from his pocket and using it to dab away the blood splatter on my cheek and chest. My breathing grew labored as he cleaned away the crimson stain from my cleavage. “Have a seat at the bar. I will join you there in a moment.”

Then he left me standing in the middle of the floor alone, and I chided myself for being dumbstruck by the sight of my eternal tormentor. Feeling ridiculous, I made my way toward the bar, only to startle and duck my head at the thunderous sound of a gunshot. Not one other person appeared concerned, and I decided this really was hell. I slid into a chair at the bar and pulled out my phone to shoot off a message to Cameron, letting him know that I’d been delayed, but I’d be there tonight.

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