“And he’s wearing Fenrir’s collar.”
“That is not what I mean,” Cipher continues. “Leeches, they do not get to be Ascendants without a cost, Vesper. They do not make it there without making a few deals. I cannot tell who might own this Leech, and you would do well to stay away from him. He had to do terrible things, even by Dross standards, to reach Tier Five.”
I study Stryker, taking in his short white-blonde hair and his corded muscles. He watches me study him, a slow grin spreading across his face. “Ah, good ole Cipher is warning you about me then,” he says, amused. He leans in closer. “Did he tell you how many players I drained to live? Did he tell you about the decaying wake I left behind me?”
“For someone with intentions of getting in my pants, you certainly are saying the wrong things right now,” I say, staring at him. “And you’re awfully confident for someone wearing a collar with their powers muted.”
He smirks. “When I get this collar off—and I will get it off—I’m going to enjoy bending you over the nearest surface, slamming inside you, and sinking my teeth into your neck, Beastie,” he purrs. He leans in and it takes everything in me not to lean away, to maintain my control. His lips press against my jaw, a single, lingering kiss that makes me tense. “Think of me when you fuck one of the other ones,” he whispers. “Know that I would enjoy watching. Know that I’ll be envious. Know that I would do anything to be in their place.”
And then he stands and heads to the bar in the other part of the hotel, leaving me there to slowly become aware of just how fucking wet I am between my thighs.
Fucking bastard.
CHAPTER62
VESPER
I’m exhausted. My body is starting to drag as I move around the Half-Moon Hotel bar area. But none of that matters when I catch Locke’s eye from across the room.
He’s sitting with Stevie, the Ophanim talking animatedly about something called Fashion Week. But as Stevie talks to him, his eyes are on me. When he catches me looking, the corner of his lips curve and he tilts his head toward me. I smile back, some soft thing in my chest melting at the small action. We’ve been through so much together in the last month. It was necessary for survival, but at any point, one of us could have chosen to leave the other behind. We didn’t have to stick together.
Now I can’t imagine this place without him.
We’ve been dancing around our attraction to each other for a while now. Part of me thinks it could be a bad idea to let those feelings fester. Ultimately, it’s Dox’s voice in my head that reminds me that caring for people isn’t a weakness. Despite Dross doing a number on all of us, despite loyalty truly being a weakness in many ways, it’s a strength in the ways that matter. You’re never alone. You have someone to help. You can lean on them when you’re hurting.
Locke has become that. I’m not sure I can lean on Havoc yet, and Stryker, well I definitely can’t trust him. Cipher is here, but he’s trapped by his coding a lot of time and he isn’t physically here. Locke, I know I can ask him for anything and he’d do his best to accommodate.
I’d kiss you right now, but these lips touched hers. I need to scrub the layers off before I press them to yours.
He’d said those words to me after he’d killed Madam Polly. Those words are now burned into my memory. Remembering them now, I lick my suddenly dry lips, and Locke’s eyes follow the movement. His eyes flick back up to mine, and I watch as he stands mid-sentence.
“Sorry, Steve,” Locke tells the Ophanim. “I need to do something.”
“Whatever, Lockey Poo,” Stevie grumbles and floats off to talk to someone else about his interests.
Locke strides slowly toward me, his hands in his pockets. He stops half a meter in front of me, his eyes tracing my face.
“Hey,” he says, smiling at me.
“Hey,” I reply, tilting my head back to look up at him.
We stare at each other for a few long moments, silent, as if neither one of us knows how to proceed. I’m tired still, but staring up at him like this, desire flickering in his eyes, I’ve never felt more energized.
“So . . .” I start, deciding that maybe I need to be the first one to say it. “About that kiss?”
His lips part. “Yeah? I do owe you one, don’t I?”
“You do,” I reply.
He looks around. “Right here?”
Know that I would enjoy watching.
I glance around and find Stryker already watching from a place at the bar, a crystal glass in his hand that he clenches tightly. I raise my brow at him and then look around the bar again. Havoc is sitting in a dark corner, alone and away from everyone else. His eyes, too, focus on me and Locke, but he doesn’t give anything away in his expression. I look back up at Locke and shrug.
“Why not?”
Svetlana scuttles across my shoulder and leaps onto the small cocktail table we’re sitting at. “That is my cue to have a drink,” she says, laughing. “I shall keep the Warden company.”
