The Twin Dragons Series: Requiem City

MADDIE

Loch smirked, looking me up and down.

I was suddenly all too aware of just how little I was wearing.

“Look, Maddie, it’s your new friend,” Dominic sneered. “Why don’t you give him a friendly hello?”

Dominic dug his fingers into my shoulder and tried to push me in Loch’s direction, but I resisted.

The drugs hadn’t taken complete control of me yet, and I wasn’t just going to let Dom use me like a slave.

“Go to hell, Dom,” I spat. “I’m not seducing him for you. If you wanna rob a Dobrzycka so bad, you can spread your own damn legs.”

“I wasn’t asking, you little bitch!” Dominic shoved me into a nearby wall and put his hand around my throat.

With every moment that passed, the overhead took more of a hold, but I was still fighting it.

I’d felt out of control for most of my life.

My parents abandoned me.

I grew up on the streets.

Had to thieve to survive.

But one thing I’d always kept control of was my own body—no easy task for a young girl in Requiem City—and I wasn’t about to lose that tonight.

“You know, Dom, you’re so worried about stealing Loch’s precious jewels…when the jewels you should be worried about are your own.”

I brought my knee up to Dominic’s balls—hard.

His eyes widened as a squeak escaped his lips and he buckled over to the ground.

This was my only chance.

I had to get out of there.

Now.

I stumbled into the dancing crowd, which was so packed that I felt like a pinball, bouncing in every direction with no clear end.

Club Emerald was massive. It’d be easy as hell to get lost forever in this seductive labyrinth of never-ending debauchery, and some people did.

There were countless rumors of people walking into Club Emerald and never leaving.

But the most farfetched rumor of all?

That they were fed to dragons.

The crowd began to get hazy and misshapen again as I thought of them. I knew it was just a hallucination, but green flames started dancing overhead, and I swear I could feel real heat on my face.

It was mesmerizing, and I wanted to stare at them all night…

They reminded me of the Dobrzycka brothers’ eyes.

Pull it together, Maddie!~

I quickly shook off the oncoming high.

Overhead hit you in waves, and I had to get the hell out of here before it hit me again, or I actually would be devoured by the so-called dragon.

I struggled to pull my phone out as flailing elbows swung at me from every direction.

C’mon, Harry, I could really use some help.

Suddenly the sea of bodies around me felt sensual and incredible and nothing else mattered.

Was I going somewhere?

Why would I want to be anywhere but here?

I felt amazing.

I grabbed the hips of the girl next to me, and she grabbed mine, and we swayed to the beat in a feeling of pure bliss.

A boy aggressively grabbed me from behind, but I didn’t fight it.

All I wanted was to be touched.

I didn’t believe in magic, but if I did, this must be what it felt like.

My euphoria quickly drained as I realized it was Dominic holding on to me.

I couldn’t run even if I’d wanted to, but Dominic wasn’t the only reason…

I was suddenly fixated on the pair of emerald-green eyes floating toward me.

LOCH

Her trembling hands.

Her glazed-over eyes.

The rose-red blood dripping from her nose.

She’d been dosed with a helluva lot of overhead and, by the looks of the urchin with his claws dug into her waist, not voluntarily.

When he saw me start to approach, he backed away and faded into the crowd, but I never lost sight of him.

I know his kind.

This amateur thief thinks he’s slick, trying to use Maddie to score on me. But I can see his every move. The way he stalks just outside my peripheral vision—or so he thinks.

I’ll have some fun with this one before picking my teeth with his bones.

The crowd didn’t part for me as it normally would, since everyone was high out of their goddamn minds, but it was easy enough to push my way to Maddie, who was dancing, oblivious to everything but the music.

“Madeline!” I called out, but she just continued swaying.

She was either going to have the best high of her life or end up in the back of an ambulance, and judging by the amount of blood running out of her nose, my money was on the latter.

As I loomed over her, she looked up at me wide-eyed and innocent.

I wiped the blood from her lip and checked her pulse as she gave me a bemused smile.

I didn’t know what it was about this girl that made my skin crawl, but I felt a shiver shoot down my spine.

Something about her was special, but I wasn’t quite sure why…

Just who the hell are you?

MADDIE

I thought he was going to do what all the men in the club were doing—grab me, use me, grope me—but instead, Loch put a gentle hand on my shoulder and turned to consider Dominic, who was lurking several feet behind me.

Still caught in the overhead spell, I began to dance. Thinking that was what Loch wanted. But he held me close, making me still, and all I could do was lean into him.

For warmth.

For comfort.

Almost like I was subconsciously asking for urgent help.

Loch stared at Dominic, trying to slip away into the crowd of dancers. Then looked down into my eyes.

For a second, I felt like I could see a raging fire on his tongue.

Another hallucination?

Must be.

That or he was going to kiss me. After the way he and Hael had treated me earlier, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

But instead, Loch softly wiped my lip with one hand and grabbed my wrist and checked my pulse with the other.

“Madeline,” he said firmly. “Do you know where you are?”

“Yes.”

“Who are you with?”

“Dominic. I’m...I’m sorry.”

I didn’t know why I said it. I just had to. Feeling muted, feeling complacent.

“No, Madeline,” Loch said. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I mumbled, my vision dancing along with the colorful lights.

“What you’re about to see,” he growled.

And with that, Loch took my hand and led me through the crowd.

Where? I had no idea.

But next thing I knew we were at the bar and Loch had his arm around Dominic’s shoulder. Confused and paralyzed, I stared.

Why was Loch smiling? Ordering them a bottle of whiskey? Their biggest bottle?

Loch took the bottle, uncorked it, and handed it to Dominic.

Drink.

Dominic, happy to oblige, held the bottle up and began to chug.

But then Loch held it there firmly. Refusing to let Dominic stop.

Dominic started to sputter, unable to take all the whiskey. In response, Loch grabbed him by the nape of the neck and then shoved the neck of the bottle down Dominic’s throat.

I should have been horrified. But the drug had me staring like a zombie.

All I could do was watch as Loch took Dominic, bottle stuck down his throat, and smashed his head into the bar.

Glass shattered.

Blood was everywhere.

For good measure, Loch took Dominic’s head and slammed it again and again into the shards of glass. Until all that was left was a sea of blood.

Faintly, I could feel other people backing away, screaming. But I didn’t notice. When it was done and Dominic fell like a sack of potatoes to the floor, Loch wiped his hands—are they on fire?—and took mine.

His touch burned but not in a painful way. It was a pleasant sensation. I had no time to process this as Loch led me out of Club Emerald.

Everything began to get hazy, and my body started moving in slow motion.

We were in a car.

No, a building.

An elevator~?

Going up to floor 100. It was a penthouse.

Now I’m in a bed. But whose bed?

I didn’t have time to wonder. Because, as I heard concerned words exchanged and felt a soft blanket slide over me, the drug completely overtook me, and sleep, blessed sleep, made all my worries fade away.

And then there was...nothing.

Nowhere.

Nobody.

I was nobody.