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Chapter 7

Alicia

I take a few more minutes to breathe before I slide into my role for the evening. Red isn’t my color, but at least today I’ll blend in.

“Well, that was quite the scene to watch.” I cringe and slowly turn to see Lady Red standing behind me.

“Indeed.” I mumble and turn away from her again to look out into the club.

“Why you let that little kitten snag your man is beyond me. I never knew you to be so easy beaten, Alicia.” She says with a smirk on her face.

Without the glamor she wears, you would be able to see the large scar running in a jagged line from the corner of the right side of her mouth downward. It is a moment of times past when all of us had been enemies. Coming to this place meant putting those things aside for survival, but the animosity is clear in every small word and tightening in our bodies. Lady Red and I had been the furthest thing from friends before we came here, but now we have to coexist as if the past never existed. We are forbidden from truly harming each other, but the occasional threat and accidental incident haven’t been totally irradiated.

We all owe a debt and if one of us removes another, Wendel would take it as a loss of something owed to him. The guilty party would go through intense pain and torture until they are driven to madness for their transgression and, as you might guess…going mad is a step close to death. Except Wendel would not grant them such a thing. They will be left in a purgatory of pain and suffering for eternity.

So, as you can imagine, no one wanted to break that rule.

“Things are different now.” I tell her and roll my eyes when a customer walks past and eyes us appreciatively.

“Yummy. Tonight is going to be fun. You should enjoy yourself for once, little Alicia. You could use a good workout to loosen you up. You used to be so much more fun.” She fake pouts and slips her arm through mine, leading me onto the main floor.

“I have plenty of bedroom entertainment without the extra incentive.” I remind her.

She chuckles. “Ah yes, how can I forget your little harem? A small group, but I suppose there aren’t as many choices as there were back home. Too bad none of them can fill my needs or I would be so much happier. No, I have to settle with the dullness of these humans. They don’t taste half as sweet.”

I want to pull my arm out of her grip and leave before she gets around to asking me for what she really wants.

“I’ll take your word for it.” I say, unamused by her games.

“Or you can have a taste.” She wraps her hand around the neck of someone passing by us and pulls the poor unsuspecting man into a passionate kiss.

He groans and wraps his hands on her waist. She releases him and I spot a bit of red along his bottom lip. His eyes are dark with lust and he pops his tongue out to lick his lower lip, but Lady Red stops him by using her tongue to clean it.

“Thanks sugar.” She says before waving him away.

He smiles crookedly and saunters off like he’s hot shit. Pathetic.

“How about it?” Lady Red asks pulling my arm so that I’m facing her. “Or will you offer something to get rid of the fowl taste on my tongue?”

She reaches out and runs a long red fingernail down the side of my neck.

“Just do it.” I say through gritted teeth.

It’s not like I can refuse her, anyway.

She smiles. “So accommodating.” That’s the last thing she says before her mouth is on my neck and the familiar shot of pain goes through me, making my knees buckle.

There is a tug against my skin and an audible gulp before she detaches herself from me and licks her lips clean. “Delicious. Thanks for the appetizer, little Alicia. See you at my show.”

She finally lets me go and saunters off through the crowd with an extra sway in her hips. I scowl at her back and maybe throw up an obscene gesture too, for good measure.

“Hey pretty girl, what are you doing here?”

I close my eyes and curse all my bad luck that he of all people appears when I’m already at my wits end with everyone in this damn place.

“What do you want, Cree?” I ask, turning to face him with my arms crossed over my chest.

Sure, I was teasing him earlier, but I’m in a fowl mood now.

He likes his lips while his eyes move over my scantly dressed body. “You teased me so bad earlier that I can’t think of anything else but your tight body in that black lace number. Now this. You’re giving me a lot to imagine about when I’m alone.”

I tilt my head and give him an unimpressed look. “Don’t you have Delilah to help with that?”

He pouts. “She has been cranky lately, and it’s no fun. Now you…you were always fun.”

He moves closer so what I can feel the warmth coming off of him. There is a slight sheen to his bare chest that is made even more clear when the red lights around us glisten against his skin. He looks sinful, just like the rest of us, but he’s one sin I can’t make again.

“We have this conversation all the time, Cree. You chose her.” I point out yet again.

“Nothing is set in stone, Alicia.” I hate how he purrs my name.

It gives me flash backs of us together, and then I get hot all over. Why does my body still react to him? Because I’m no better than Lady Red. I’m a feeder…a life force thief.

“Cree…please.” I act tough, but my body betrays me no matter how much I remind it we can’t have everything.

No matter how good it looks…

“I miss you whispering that in my ear, Alicia.” He whispers against my ear before licking along the side of my neck.

Then he’s gone, leaving me feeling hot all over and with none of my guys around to ease the ache inside me.

“Hey Alice! Are you going to sit on your ass all day?” That voice acts like ice water on the heat Cree had stirred up.

I scowl at Otto. “Why are you here?” I hiss at him.

He smirks. “Boss wants a few of us here after the…incident.”

“Oh yeah? How do we know it wasn’t one of you who did it? Maybe you being here is worse.” I say, giving him a humorless fake smile.

Now he’s the one scowling. “Fuck off. Get your ass to your station or the Boss won’t be happy. He’ll be here tonight after all.”

That has my smile falling and dread rushing through me. Wendell was coming here? Fuck. That’s not good.

“Whatever, Oyster Boy.” I wave him off, but he grabs my wrist and squeezes it tight enough that I wince.

I glance around, but no one seems to notice us. “I don’t like your attitude, Alice. Maybe I should teach you to behave.”

The urge to vomit all over him is strong, but I manage to keep everything firmly in my stomach. I pull my wrist out of his bony hands and rub the abused area.

“Never touch me, and I wouldn’t go near that tiny limb if you threatened my life.” I say before rushing past him, weaving through the growing crowd of partygoers.

When I reach my station at the entrance to the club, one of the flower girls stands to offer me my seat. “Thank god you’re here. I didn’t think I could handle watching another woman locking lips with Dorian.” She makes a playful gag sound before jogging off.

I snicker at her lack of interest in our bouncer. He isn’t to everyone’s taste, but these women seem to like what he’s offering. Another woman has locked lips with him when I take a seat near the podium, where we stamp their hands before they enter the club. The giggling girl and her friends are laughing and teasing her when they reach me and I hold the stamp up, waiting for them to notice me. When they do, I look less than amused, and that ends with the smiling and giggling quickly. They hold their hands out to me and I dutifully place the red stamp on their hand that quickly disappears.

They walk past just as Dorian lets out a groan and nearly falls over. There are some shocked sounds just before I see a petite woman looking down at him with a triumphant look. That’s amusing enough, but then I see him, and I know that tonight will not be like any other night here at The Wonderland Club.

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