by Vic Tyler
She was setting me up from the start.
It was so obvious. It was so fucking obvious, and I missed it.
Kitty crosses a leg sensually over herself as she turns onto her hands and knees, shimmying her naked ass in the air.
Peering over her shoulder, she purrs, “Tell me again, Damien. Who’s punishing who?”
My fist wraps around her hair and violently pulls back until her back arches sharply, eliciting a delighted scream from her.
Goddammit. God–fucking–dammit.
She’s fucking asking for it, so I’ll give her what she fucking wants.
Yanking open that chest she brought — she knew this would happen — so hard that it tips over and spills all its contents, I snatch the things I’m looking for.
As I keep a tight grip on her hair, I toss each of the items onto the bed.
Kitty vibrates with excitement, moaning loudly in her fake Adriana voice when I shove the inhumanely long and thick black dildo into her wet pussy. It slides in painlessly, but I don’t care because my target is taking her ass for myself.
I leave the bottle of lube on the ground, and all that’s going to help my cock squeeze into her unprepared asshole is the drying juices of her arousal on the condom still on my cock — hard from the anger pumping through my veins instead of desire.
Reining her in by her hair, I shove my thick length into her clenched hole. She groans through gritted teeth as I force myself inside her in two thrusts, and that’s only because I could feel the condom threatening to snap when I don’t give it any relenting room to adjust to her dry channel.
“Fuck,” she grits.
“That’s right, bitch,” I growl, tying her arms behind her back.
Her shrieks of laughter are cut short when I wrap another piece of rope around her neck and yank tight, choking the sound.
“I prefer your hands,” she rasps with a strained giggle.
My grip tightens, and I have to force myself to calm down so I don’t do anything I’ll regret.
I’ve never hated Kitty more than I do right now.
Her choked scream sounds pained, and it only fuels my rage as I pound unforgivingly into her.
I’m nowhere close to coming, and my lust is laced with hatred and anger, swirling in one huge fucking mess inside me.
I should’ve known. It’s my fault for falling such a stupid trick.
A tiny part of me knows I can’t even really blame fucked–up Kitty for it when she lives for this shit — when it’s exactly what gets her off — but the rest of me wants to, so I’ll fucking punish her like she goddamn wants.
Except I know that she’s right.
I’m punishing myself.
Every time she gets close, I stop, tightening my grip on her hair or yanking the rope tighter around her throat.
Her ass is bright red from my hands striking it over and over again. Her voice is raw as she gasps for breaths, barely getting the opportunity to speak, and that’s how I want it. I don’t want to hear this fucking succubus’s voice.
“Bet Adriana likes this too,” she rasps with a delirious, deranged giggle.
I pull her hair, and her breath cuts short from her painfully outstretched neck. “Don’t you dare say her fucking name.”
“Then you say it, Damien.” Her gaspy laughs are choppy but gleeful. “Say it. Say her name.”
Slamming her head into the sheets, I fuck her fast and hard, and I’m pretty sure the condom is torn by now, but I don’t stop.
I already know that coming is going to be the worst release I’ve felt and that I’m going to feel like killing myself after, but I push myself there because I need it.
I deserve it.
Because all I can think about is fucking Adriana’s ass with her pussy plugged and her hair in my hands.
Imagining her screaming with ecstasy, wanting her to find pleasure in my depraved need to dominate and inflict pain.
I don’t make the mistake of saying her name aloud again, but I chant it in my head.
Adriana.
Yes, Adriana.
Fuck, Adriana.
Adriana, such a good fucking girl.
My good fucking girl.
My orgasm crashes into me like a plane wreck and destroys something inside me.
Any goodwill, any pure intentions, any hope for salvation I had left.
Ecstasy electrocutes every nerve in my body, and I’m clenching and flexing and shaking violently with how hard I’m coming, my seed gushing out wave after wave.
When I come down, my ragged breathing accompanies the guttural grunts punching through my chest. I’m soaked in sweat, only standing because my knees are digging into the bed frame to hold myself up.
I wish I were the devil to be able to enjoy how good my body feels, but all I want is to die in this moment, and the discrepancy is driving me mad.
My body thrums with forced pleasure, my chest is splitting from the horror, and my head wars between the two.
Kitty is collapsed on the bed, spent in her own wracking orgasm, and I indelicately pull myself out of her and push the shredded condom off my cock and onto the floor, my cum dripping a line from her protracted asshole over the bed, the floor, between my feet.
With quaking legs, I nearly collapse when I bend to pull my pants up. Without another look, I head straight for the door.
I’m not sure where I’ll sleep tonight, but I don’t care. I just can’t be here.
I don’t look back, and my voice is hoarse and harsh when I say my last piece to Kitty.
“We’re done.”
She doesn’t move or respond, and I slam the door behind me.
chapter thirty-four
Kaden waves to me from the other side of the gate.
As I jog up to him, my eyebrows lift when I see the lone man balancing three big boxes of Magnolia Bakery easily on one hand.
His motorcycle is right behind him, and a little bit of relief eases the tension in my shoulders.
So he really meant it when he said he won’t be staying. Is this what they call honor among thieves? Or maybe a code between murderers?
“Happy birthday, Adriana,” he says cheerfully. “Am I the first one to say it?”
I shake my head with a weak smile. Everyone at the party cheered the words once the clock struck midnight, so he’s pretty behind.
And then, there was Damien…
Taking a deep breath, I try to show him how appreciative I am. “Thanks for the cupcakes and everything.”
“My pleasure.” He cocks his head towards the security station with a teasing sparkle in his eyes. “Are you going to make me stand out here with these cupcakes? I mean, I know everyone doesn’t like me, but hey, I’m here to warm ‘em up and capture their heart.”
He winks, and I quirk a smile before going to the guard.
During the year he was here, Kaden and I spent some time together — hanging out and playing around. Not super often since I couldn’t help being on edge around him because of what West showed me.
But at the same time, it was hard to keep my guard up because he was always so cheerful and nice. It blows my mind to think that he’s ever murdered anyone, let alone is a highly wanted serial killer.
After I explain that Kaden came to drop some treats off, the young man manning the guard station glances at him, and a look of recognition passes his face. He’s one of the newer deviants who got stuck on one of the least popular rounds of securing the gates.
I mean, it’s pretty boring when nothing ever happens.
He nods at our visitor and buzzes open the door to the meeting room.
“Ah, the cold treatment.” He looks around the bare room. “I guess I can’t ask to accompany you for a walk around the grounds one last time, can I?” He smiles wistfully with a tinge of loneliness and sadness that surprises me. “Don’t know the next time I’ll be back here.”
Guilt creeps through when I see the boxes he’s holding in his hands. It really is a sweet gesture, but isn’
t he supposed to meet everyone else soon?
“What about the meeting?” I ask, cautiously.
West, Damien, and Turan left before I woke up, which was probably because the meeting’s being held here in the western faction, so they’re technically the hosts.
“Right. Gotta make sure they have their daily dose of Kaden Eurus.” He winks. “Don’t want to be breaking any hearts now. Not yet anyway.” Kaden looks at his watch. “Well, I have about ten minutes before anyone’s going to hunt me down.”
My teeth gnaw on my lip. Ah, well, I’ll be with him, and the place is littered with more than capable people if Kaden does anything, but I don’t know why he would.
I shrug. “Okay.”
When I give the OK to the guard, he immediately buzzes us back into the complex. I can’t help feeling a little uneasy and glance up at the camera, where I know Jura’s watching from the attic.
“Ah,” Kaden sighs when we step inside the complex. “Home sweet home.”
I look curiously at him before glancing around. “‘Home’? Here?”
I mean, he did seem like he fit in well during the year he was here, but still, it was only a year…
Maybe I shouldn’t judge.
He looks sheepish. “What can I say? I caught on after West and Damien, I guess. I don’t think they like me very much though.”
Returning his abashed grin, I feel slightly bad that he seems so lonely.
I guess we’re lucky in the western faction that we’re so close to each other.
Maybe if Kaden was freely accepted here, he could change his ways too.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Only because of the cupcakes though,” I joke.
He laughs, and it’s hard to imagine that Kaden doesn’t always have people around him. He really does seem like such a good guy.
“You know,” he says as we enter through the front entrance of the mansion. “I never understood what people meant by ‘home is where the heart is’ until I came here.”
“Oh.” My chest tingles warmly. I’m glad he feels so at ease here, and it gives me hope that everyone else feels that way too. “What makes this place different from the eastern faction?”
I jump slightly when I feel his hand clap around my shoulder, and he squeezes me against his body in a tight hug.
His smile brightens widely. “You, Adriana. You’re the heart of this place.”
chapter thirty-five
Sunlight pours in from all around the windowed dome of the Windrose, glazing the veined white marble flooring with glowing light.
The large square table in the middle is glossy and dark, carved with intricate designs along the edges, with pristine leather armchairs on each side.
It looks divine. A room fit for heaven where devils will sit and plan for the continued demise of the world.
Sitting on one side of the table, West steeples his extravagantly adorned ringed hands over the wool vest of his three–piece suit stretching over his tautly round belly.
It seems like he’s gained even more weight. Is it because Adriana makes pastries for him, and he eats everything she gives him?
It’s hard to believe he’d endanger a fit, fighting body just to appease a pseudo–daughter figure.
I still can’t wrap my head around it.
It seems like an Adriana thing to do — asking him to adopt her.
But I can’t believe that he agreed. Even if it is an act.
My throat tightens when I think about what’ll happen after she’s sent away.
She’d never forgive me just because of a technicality of my promise, but she doesn’t understand the scope of danger she’s in. She doesn’t understand what this means for all of us.
But at least she won’t have to see it. She can go on remembering West for all he’s done for her. As the father she thinks he is.
My gaze slides to the spot where everything changed.
A little less than five years ago, a girl snuck into one of the most dangerous criminal organizations to beg for justice — offering everything she had, prepared to die for her cause.
Who could’ve guessed that she would willing walk into the underworld to share her warmth, her light, and her spring with those who stole lives, dealt death, reaped souls, and profited from sin?
Even Persephone wasn’t so brave to do it on her own accord.
Or naive.
The loud clanging of the grand doors in the wooden entrance jolts my attention.
In a matter of seconds, Cardinal Northridge strides into the room, flanked by two of the northern Twelve, Giorgio Boreas and Phan Boreas.
I nod in greeting to both of them, whom I’d gotten to know over the past year.
The visiting Cardinal looks to me with a smirk.
“How does it feel to be back in your home territory, boy?” North’s gaze glides to West, boring into him. “And I thought you would’ve been dead by now.”
West chuckles. “Starting the day with insults, Northridge?”
The short woman bares her teeth in a challenging grin. “You lost your position once your representative stepped into my territory, Westlake.”
As Cardinal of the northern regions of North America, North controls all of Canada and a fair portion of the Midwestern states in America.
Possessing all of East’s ruthless drive for power and West’s practicality and fair judgment, she’s as close to an elder in Venti as one can get.
The most respected and feared Cardinal.
Part of the reason also being that she seems immortal, not looking a day over fifty years old but no one alive can say for certain how long she’s been the Cardinal.
But her age and looks are deceiving if anyone is foolish enough to question whether she can maintain the power of her position.
What she lacks in brute force, she makes up entirely for in cunning and wiliness. She uses her body more efficiently than Isla does, and that’s saying something.
In a matter of minutes, Cardinal Southwick arrives with his Twelve. And a few minutes later, the last Cardinal arrives.
The air in the room immediately tightens with palpable tension when everyone watches East saunter in arrogantly, flanked by his men. Luciano on his right. And on his left…
Shiva.
Everyone watches as East takes his seat. And I’m pretty sure we’re all thinking the same thing.
Regardless of whether it’d be considered insolent or not, I ask coolly, “Kaden called in for a sick day?”
Settling in his high–back chair, East smirks. “Kaden is currently on an assignment. Taking care of an important matter that only he can accomplish.”
Giorgio cracks his knuckles loudly as he bares his teeth in a bestial smile. “Too bad. I was looking forward to a bloodbath today.”
The huge smile on East’s face isn’t reassuring as his gaze slides to North and West. “How touching to see that Kaden is so well–received. He’ll be thrilled to know how much all of you miss him. I’ll tell him to bring a welcoming gift for when you all see him next.”
An uneasy feeling churns my insides, but like the rest of them, I keep my expression impassive.
It’s not unusual for the Twelve members to switch around every so often for the annual meeting, but it seems like everyone was under the impression that Kaden would be here without question.
When Turan shifts next to me, slightly covering their view of me, I slip into my pocket and type out a quick message to Kitty and Jura.
Me
Kaden MIA
Hopefully it’s just a bad feeling and nothing else.
chapter thirty-six
In less than a minute, Jura stalks down the stairs, skipping some of the steps entirely with his long stride. Although his expression is neutral, he’s on high–alert and noticeably unhappy.
Uh oh.
As soon as he’s at the bottom of the stairs, Jura stares hard at Kaden, not even looking at me.
The intensity of his glare is enough to keep us planted in front
of the main entrance, just barely having taken a step in.
“What are you doing here?”
Kaden looks innocently at him, holding up the boxes in his hands. “Just came by to wish Adriana a happy birthday.”
A muscle in Jura’s jaw ticks, and he doesn’t come any closer. “Why aren’t you at the meeting?”
The line in his shoulders is tense, and the slightest tick in his fingers motions for me to move away.
But before I can, Kaden slings his arms across my shoulders and shrugs nonchalantly. “It starts at nine.”
“You should be with your Cardinal,” Jura snarls.
My heart starts racing nervously as I start to panic.
I’ve never seen Jura like this — on edge and bristling with hypervigilance.
This is what The Spider must be like, the man that earned his place in the western faction’s Twelve.
With the way he and Kaden are acting, it’s like they’re about to fight.
But it’s just Kaden. He’s one of them… Isn’t he?
The blond man chuckles. “Goody two shoes as always, Jura. I bet you’ve got no plans to contend for the Cardinalship.”
“Leave, Eurus,” he says coldly.
Jura stiffens when Kaden squeezes me tight and lays his head on mine. His grip doesn’t hurt, but strangely, it feels threatening.
“I came here for Adriana, and we’re just going to take a short walk around the grounds,” Kaden says smoothly, smiling at me. “Unless you want me to leave?”
I swallow a hard knot in my throat as my eyes slide to the ground. “Sorry, Kaden, I think it’s best if you go.”
He sighs in disappointment.
And it’s only when we’re already at a standstill that I realize what happened.
Jura’s pointing his gun at Kaden, his eyes blazing with fury.
The cold metal digging into my temple sends a shiver down my spine.
“Put the gun down, Jura,” Kaden says calmly.
My throat pinches, the reality of the situation crashing down on me all at once.