The Twin Dragons Series: Requiem City

MADDIE

All I could see was fire.

Ever since that encounter with the Dobrzycka brothers, fire was everywhere. In my head, under my skin, even penetrating my deepest, darkest thoughts.

The second I got back to the community center, I ran to Harry’s room, praying that he and Darshan would be together.

“What’s going on, Maddie?” Harry asked, startled as I burst into the room.

“No time to explain. C’mon.”

We ran down the stairs and were halfway out the door, ready to escape Requiem City once and for all, when I heard the last voice in the world I wanted to hear.

“Maaaaaads,” droned Dominic, strolling up to the boarding school. “Goin’ somewhere, are we?”

His thugs stood behind him, arms crossed, looking like they were itching to hand out an ass-kicking. They all wore black tees, sagging jeans, and chains for belts.

Thought they were oh so cool. It always took effort on my part not to laugh in their lameass faces.

“What the hell do you want, Dominic?” I asked, seething.

“Now, that’s no way to speak to the fella who taught you everything. The fella you almost just got arrested. Is it?”

He nodded to one of his thugs, who turned and slammed his fist into Darshan’s stomach. Darshan bowed over in pain, and I cried out, furious.

“You sonofa—”

“Want me to do the same to this kid?” Dominic asked, nodding to Harry. “Doesn’t cost me a goddamn thing. Unlike you. You cost me a lot, Mads.”

“Okay,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “Just leave them alone, will you? I’ll do whatever you say.”

Dominic waited a second and then nodded to his thugs. They let Darshan and Harry go, and my friends scurried back into the center.

“Glad you’re changing your tune,” Dominic said. “Just in time too ’cause we got big plans tonight. You’re going to make up for our losses with the watch. At Club Emerald.”

You’ve got to be kidding.

The biggest club in Requiem City—which just so happened to be owned by the Dobrzyckas.

Easiest place to get caught and end up with your hand cut off. I tried shaking my head.

“C’mon, Dom. There’s gotta be another way for me to pay you back.”

“No, no. I’ve tried playing nice. Letting you do it your way. How has that worked out for us? Tell me.”

“But Club Emerald’s a shitshow!”

“Yeah, a shitshow that attracts the richest of the rich. And one broad in particular. A little lady I think you know. What’s her name again, Darren?”

The one guy who didn’t really look like he belonged in Dominic’s posse, Darren, more punk than wannabe gangster, rolled his eyes.

“Dom, could we skip the theatrics?” he asked.

“Fine, I’ll say it. It’s Adara. Fucking. Dobrzycka.”

I saw the glee in Dominic’s watery eyes and cursed inwardly. I could see the scheme he had in mind already.

“Turns out Adara’s got a thing for our boy Darren here,” Dom continued. “A good distraction, right? And considering you’ve proven so adept at robbing that family, hell, why not give it another go? Take something we can actually sell.”

“Really inspired plan,” I muttered. “One problem: in what world is any bouncer gonna let your ugly ass into Club Emerald?”

Dominic's boys laughed at that. He raised a shaking fist. And they stopped on command. That fist, I thought, was about to go straight into my face. Dominic didn’t like being mocked in front of his gang.

But instead, he let the fist relax into an open palm and stroked my hair.

Ew.

“Look, Mads,” he said quietly. “You’re gonna do this. You owe me, remember. And not just cash. I taught you everything you know. So go put on something sexy and be outside in five. Or we’ll find your little blind buddy and the scaredy-cat and do some damage that they can’t come back from. Square?”

I clenched my teeth but nodded.

“Atta girl.” He smiled, lightly patting my cheek. “Now, c’mon. Let’s make it a night to remember.”

***

Club Emerald was a five-story warehouse-turned-nightclub in one of the dirtiest, grungiest corners of Requiem City. That was just how the clientele liked it.

I’d heard the rumors.

Sex parties for the one percent were common here. But the really kinky shit they saved for the back rooms, where only one percent of the one percent were invited.

I wasn’t much of a sexual deviant myself, but the mystery behind all of it, I’ll admit, got my spine tingling a little bit. Call it morbid curiosity, all right?

I couldn’t believe this was how I was spending my last night of freedom. Who knew if I’d be able to escape with Darshan and Harry in time now. Now that the Dobrzyckas wanted me to themselves.

As Dominic parked in an illegal spot, we poured out of the car and approached the club.

Darren and I got out last. He was skinny as a stick, covered in black tats, and punk as they came. Must be Adara’s type…

He noticed my look and smirked. “You’re wondering why me and Adara?”

“Just surprises me, I guess.”

“She likes to slum it with street boys. Thinks they add to her ‘edge.’”

We both snorted at that.

Darren, I had to admit, wasn’t as bad as the rest of Dominic’s gang. I wondered how he’d even ended up rolling with them. I nodded to Dominic ahead, pumping himself up, chugging what was left of a 40.

“How’d you, uh, become friends with Dom?”

“Calling us friends is a stretch, Madeline.”

He knows my name? That was surprising.

“So why…”

“Self-preservation. If anyone can understand that, in Requiem City, I figure it would be you. Oh yeah, and he supplies me with a ton of overhead, of course. That shit is ~fire.~”

Overhead? That was disappointing. That was the drug-of-choice among teenagers these days, a nasty little cocktail of uppers, downers, and whatever else.

Judging by Darren’s twitchy hands, he wasn’t just a casual user.

“Why are you using that stuff?”

“Helps with the depression.”

I noticed his arms were covered in healed gashes and ugly scars. He leaned closer.

“Anyway. If you ever feel unsafe in there, just let me know, all right? I got your back.”

“I’m a big girl. I got it. But, uh, thanks?”

Realizing you had an ally in an unlikely place was always good. But then Dominic waved me over. His pupils were already beginning to dilate.

Looked like he’d put some overhead in his 40 and had been steadily getting high for the past half an hour. I walked over hesitantly.

If a sober Dominic was a natural disaster, high Dominic was the freaking apocalypse.

“Listen here,” he said, grinning too big. “You keep that skinny ass close to me all night, got it? I’m gonna tell you what to do once we’re in.”

We approached the bouncer, skipping the line, Darren whispering into his ear.

“He’s in with Adara.” Dominic smiled. “Lucky us.”

Then, with a nod from the bouncer, we stepped inside Club Emerald. Raised platforms, green lasers, thumping bass. Hordes of sweaty, scantily-clad girls and guys lurching around, high out of their goddamn minds.

The place lived up to its reputation, all right.

Pickpocketing Adara was the last thing I should be doing, given my agreement with her brothers. I wondered if, in the crowds of people, I could give Dominic here the slip.

“Mads,” he said, pulling me close. “Let’s have a little fun before we fuck over Adara, yeah? Pick out a rich asshole. Dance his face off. I’ll do the rest.”

“Dom, you think we can just stick to the—”

“Did I fucking ask?”

The drug was getting him edgier, more aggressive. I saw the glint of an idea spark in his eyes, and he quickly fished into his pocket for something.

“Here,” he said. “This’ll help.”

He brought a little spray bottle up to my nostril and, before I could stop him, hit me straight to the face with a dose of overhead.

Oh.

Just… Oh.

I’d never been high in my life. Never wanted it. Never liked to take the edge off. Had to keep a clear mind if I was thieving. But now?

I could feel my throat closing, my surroundings blurring, my body burning hot one second, freezing cold the next.

I wanted to punch the sonofabitch in his face, but I just felt...powerless.

“Just ride the wave, baby,” Dominic cooed. “Now, go find a fucker and shake that ass.”

Without a word of complaint, my body started to move.

A little voice in the corner of my mind screamed to stop being so compliant, but I felt drowsy and sleepy and completely unable to control my movements.

I found a suit and started grinding on him. He seemed to like what he was seeing. Because he pulled me even closer.

Faintly, I saw a hand slip into his pocket as Dominic did his work. Then, a second later, Dominic grabbed my arm and threw me to the next guy in the crowd. We kept this up for I don’t even know how long.

I started to see things—impossible things—in the midst of this depravity.

Faces in the crowd melting into monstrous masks of horror. Fangs for teeth. Pitch-black eyes. A tail growing from the ass of one gyrating girl.

Like everywhere I turned, I was surrounded by the fantastical. By monsters.

I remembered those stories again.

Stories about the Requiem Mountains. And I wondered, even in this hazy state, if there was some truth to them.

It’s just the drugs.

But was it? Or was I finally seeing into another dimension that, until now, had always been closed?

I tried to shut out the horrors, but the drug was doing a number on me. Finally, Dominic spotted Adara and Darren, dancing together, and pulled me over.

Adara had purple spray hair and an awful wannabe punk vibe. Funny how the rich always liked to play poor. I guess we were pretty trendy, huh?

“All right, baby.” Dominic smiled. “It’s time. We’re gonna steal whatever Adara’s got in that purse, understand? Something good this time. Something I can actually sell.”

I wanted to scream. Dominic was going to feed me to the sharks.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

My feet felt so heavy.

My tongue, numb.

My hands, someone else’s.

But that was when I saw them. A pair of emerald-green eyes I’d seen before. A mouth smoking a pipe without a light.

Adara wasn’t the only Dobrzycka in the club…

Because there, in front of me, was Loch.

And he was watching me.