Chapter Two

Abel

Despite the crowds, I keep her in my sights. I need to keep focused; she already has me too distracted, but the tingles of anticipation keep my eyes shifting back to her every time she is revealed by another light. I must be sure she is right for us; mistakes are not acceptable. I won’t let us become the men who came before us.

The stab of his spiny elbow in my gut knocks me into focus as I pass my current customers over to Kai. I raise my brows at him as he rises to his tiptoes to speak to me discreetly.

“You’re distracted.”

Kai’s lilting words tease, his breath tickling across the shell of my ear and sending shivers down my body. He isn’t complaining per say. Just a reminder to do my job properly, we can’t afford to get sloppy with consent forms.

Tonight, it is just me and Kai on shift, the other two won’t be far though, lurking in the shadows, just in case. Like every October, we are all on edge. We have all faced the real horrors of this world, seen they exist. Kai more than the rest of us.

I get back into my swing, not letting her distract me, giving punters their forms, examining them on their return. Then I pass them off to Kai. It doesn’t escape my notice that his own interest is on the woman that moves steadily our way with her group of friends. A lopsided grin pulls at my lips as he catches my eye, and he shrugs, giving me a wink.

Excitement flows from her group in noisy chatter and laughter but rising above them all is her glee that rings out into the night. A lyrical melody that pinpoints her when she repeats the words that will change her fate for this entire event.

“I told you already, nothing in this place could scare me.”

A challenge, a gauntlet she doesn’t know she has thrown down at a monster's feet.

My fingers itch, tracing the edges of the papers in front of me, a decision to be made. I look at Kai, and I know his thoughts the instant my eyes meet his. A thirst sparks there, a need much like mine, but one more hungry, more volatile than my own.

It’s why I am left to make the choice, because they can’t be trusted.

It’s been too long since we had a chance to play.

The make-up smeared on my face doesn’t cover the salacious smile that curls my lips as she draws up to the counter with each sway of her hips. A taunting echo of her words whispers into my mind. Begging me to prove her wrong.

Handing her friends their forms, they pay me no mind as they begin their completion of them, laughing and joking with one another. I leave her until last. My eyes can’t help but tear up and down her curving body, drinking her in. I lick my lips, tasting the chalky residue of the paint. I couldn’t care less if it smudges, it always becomes more contorted and twisted throughout the night. With each blur of the lines, my true monster comes out to play.

Her face flushes so beautifully, yet she stands there full of confidence. Remains in place, boldly staring back at me watching as my tongue traces my lips. I can’t help the dark chuckle from my throat as her eyebrows raise.

“I’m not scared of you. Are you done?”

The sarcasm rolling from her tongue has my smile widening. I wonder if she’s as fascinated by me, as I am with her. By the end of tonight, perhaps she will be.

This woman is temptation personified.

There’s no sense of fear there. Freedom shines bright in her eyes. No sense of the darkness that me and my chosen family have fallen prey to, stares back in those pretty grey irises. I wonder, after tonight, if that will change.

I don’t think it will. That is what makes my decision so much easier.

The consent form I pull out from inside the desk drawer is for her and her alone. One so much more detailed than those from the standard pile that sits on the counter. With much darker promises that can be fulfilled. For us, and for her. Her eyes barely leave mine as she signs the form. She hasn’t read a word, but she’s accepted all the same.

Perfect.

She’ll be scared tonight.

She wanted the extreme experience, but she’ll be getting a lot more than she bargained for. By the end of the night, we’ll have her begging for more.