Page 34 of Kings of Desire
With timid steps, I reached the front door and after saying many prayers and graces, I decided to knock, though the instant my hand made contact with the wooden door, it came wide open.
Fear - I had no fear any longer since I was transferring from anxiety to numbness, stunned and terrified at the same time, expecting everything and anything to happen. Nothing was tying itself together as what I was anticipating to find when I first got in the cab, did not reflect what I discovered here. They were entirely two different things.
The place was remarkable, and at the same time so unusually dark, filling the air with an atmosphere of mystery but also with a warmth in which you could easily lose yourself.
Shaking my head to try and escape the trance, I followed the guards’ instructions and climbed the mahogany stairs, going straight up.
The first floor appeared to be endless, with rooms displayed on each side of a twisted hallway. There was definitely a wing B to this building, maybe even C, D who knows how many more. Yet, somehow I knew exactly where I needed to be as a small glimmer of light made its way from underneath the door to the lobby.
That was it, just needed to drag my feet and find out what Pleasure was really waiting for me.
Nudging the door to open, I found myself in the middle of a place I knew I would fall in love with at first sight. Warm and dark, very similar to the main lobby, though this particular room was a star that shone in the middle of the night.
Red flames were dancing in a black marble fireplace while hundreds of candles were leading the way towards two glass doors. The balcony. But I delayed following them. I couldn’t do it before I got to take a look at the Victorian black sofa, and the extra-size holstered bed that completed the room. If you could even call it just a room since it was the size of an apartment.
The place was spellbound and I was about to meet the enchanter.
Little did I know that there was no chance he would fall behind his newly gained nickname.
My sight ran to the glass door, taking a peek outside and realizing on spot why Laura’s words couldn’t exactly leave my mindThe girls that took his Pleasures seemed to have fallen in love with him.Why wouldn’t they, and how could someone even prevent it when an angel with eyes of a demonwas to be the company through the night?
Slipping my body between the glass doors, I stepped outside to meet my target. Or was I the real target in this case?
‘Hello, I hope that I’m in the right place,’ it took everything inside me to speak as I was falling under a spell, looking at the fawn strands of hair bathing in the moonlight.
‘That remains to be seen,’ the man almost ignored me, turning his attention to an apple he held in his hands, which he was trying to peal.
Just what I needed, another one with a temper, but strangely he didn’t seem to raise a snapback reaction from me, as another emotion was potentially growing.
Sympathy.
A glint of madness intertwining with something so beautiful and yet so broken flickered in his pure black eyes, reflecting the ultimate void yet also the whole universe at the same time.
I had to take a step closer as nothing in this world could make me stay away, and when I said I take all human emotion upon me I wasn’t kidding since, by the time I reached his side, even if I didn’t know him, I was drowning in his silent pain.
‘We’re so high that we could almost reach the sky,’ I noticed, taking a step closer to the ledge and seeing nothing more around us. We were so high that I could see the clouds, while the toxic smog engulfing the city was left behind somewhere below us.
‘The Hills as everyone calls them used to be part of a mountain range which eroded over the centuries. We’re currently standing on the highest ground that’s left. The closest and the furthest from divinity.’ The words of a man that knew exactly what he was talking about. ‘And you? Where doyoustand?’
‘Down there,’ I took a step to reach the railing ‘Body and mind.’ It was no use hiding from him as his eyes were leaving me no room for obscuring the truth. No matter what lies I would have fabricated, he would know.
I glanced downwards, at the bottomless pit, seeing nothing but darkness as we were standing at the edge of our world.
‘Maybe you need a miracle,’ in an instant I felt his presence behind me, colder than the night’s air. ‘But miracles don’t exist,’ the strange vibe or his words made me turn to face him only to discover myself standing face to face with the blade of his knife ‘Do they?’
The metal was closing into the collar of my shirt, making my body vibrate with the insane rhythm of my heart.
One reckless gesture and it would be the end of me!
‘No, they don’t,’ I breathed, but not before I swallowed the lump in my throat so that I could speak. ‘What are you doing?’ I was looking straight at the knife that was tracing a line on my shirt yet without damaging the material.
‘You are mine for the night. Or am I mistaken?’ The path of his blade didn’t stop but continued in a straight line to the center of my chest.
‘I’m pretty sure that Vanya has rules about this. And penalties,’ I tried to threaten him, indirectly, but only managed to raise a dark grin to spread on his lips.
‘Look around you. Do you think I would be afraid of wasting any sum of money?’
And he was right, in those seconds I was just a name on a document, even when it would come to Vanya. A nice cheque would make my whole existence vanish from all archive files, wiping me off completely from the face of the earth.
