1 - LEXI - SEX CULT

— I heard it’s some kind of sex cult — the girl in black says to the one in red.

The line to get into Nox Trium — the city’s hottest new night spot — almost wraps around the corner, and while I wait for my best friend, Brinna, I tune into the conversation of two girls in front of me.

— A friend told me that her friend was never the same after she started hanging out with them — she goes on. — My friend thinks they stole her soul.

I shake my head to myself. How can people be so superstitious?

— What I heard is they hole up in a room and share women — Red chimes in, instantly catching my attention. — Not that I’d mind being passed around between those two… Look at him, in that leather jacket…

My gaze follows hers to the small black metal door of the club, where a massive bouncer lets only women through. But it’s not the bouncer they’re staring at.

Light jeans, a brown leather jacket. Sun-browned skin, dark hair brushing his jaw. His neck is thick, his jawline… devastatingly masculine.

I nearly forget to breathe just looking at him.

But there’s something… off… about him. The beauty pulls me in, yet a strange unease curls tight inside me, prickling the back of my neck and my arms with goosebumps.

Then he slips out of sight, and the bouncer waves a few more girls inside.

I shove the image of that man out of my head. Damn it, Brinna, birthday or not, you didn’t have to be this late…

And then it happens.

A car screeches to a stop in front of the club, tires screaming against asphalt.

My eyes snap to it just as the passenger window rolls down.

Under the soft glow of the neon sign, the barrel of a gun glints.

Aimed… at me.

In a split second, one single thought: I’m going to die. Alone. Just like I grew up.

The shots crack through the street. Sharp. Two.

Instinct takes over. My body twists, arm flying up to shield my face. The car tears away as fast as it appeared, vanishing around the corner.

And then I feel it — searing heat slicing across my skin. Before I can even name the pain, the bouncer and strangers crowd around me, questions flying.

My gaze follows the path of the burn, and I finally see why they’re panicked. I’m bleeding.

Ruby-red liquid streams hot and thick down my arm, dripping from my fingers onto the pavement.

My stomach lurches, my knees buckle, and darkness closes in, swallowing both my vision and my strength.

And then nothing.

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— Hey… wake up… — A man’s voice,so calm it almost sounds angelic, calls to me as I feel a touch against my cheek.

I blink my eyes open, and the first thing I see are chocolate-brown irises staring into mine. I blink again, and by reflex my body pushes upright.

I’m on a black leather couch, in what looks like a small library. Kneeling on the floor in front of me is the man — and for a moment, my breath catches.

My shoulders lock tight.

It’s him.

— You were hurt, but you’re fine now — he says, his voice sliding over me, stroking my skin.

My gaze drops to my arm. Gauze wrapped in strips of tape covers the spot that had been burning before.

— What is this place? — I’m still dazed.

 — The club’s office. I brought you here when you fainted. Do you feel okay?

— Yes. I pass out when I see blood… I’ve always been that way.

He tips his mouth into the most ironic — and the most hypnotic—half-smile I’ve ever seen.

— You faint at the sight of blood? How… interesting.

My eyes lock on that smile, and before I realize it, I’m holding my breath again. I force myself out of the strange trance gripping my mind.

— Did I get shot? Why would someone do that to me?

— Just a graze. They were aiming at me. I was heading back to the door and stopped too close to you.

— And why would anyone be shooting at you?

He shrugs, casual, but his eyes never leave mine.

— Maybe I stepped on a few toes with the opening of the club. Competition’s fierce… this city’s full of mobsters.

— I’m Samiel. — He extends his hand. — My friends call me Sami.

When our fingers touch, his heat invades my skin, and a simple handshake feels… far too intimate for a stranger. Indecent. But in the most delicious way.

I can’t stop staring at him, caught by the shape of his lips.

— Beautiful… — I clear my throat. — Your… name.

He arches a brow and smiles, like he knows exactly the embarrassing effect he has on me.

— Now’s the part where you tell me yours.

A rush of shame floods through me, sharp and sudden.

— Alexia — I say firmly. — Lexi.

— Come, Lexi. There’s someone I want you to meet. — His voice dances over every syllable, and butterflies rise from the pit of my stomach all the way to the back of my neck. My whole body reacts to his presence.

We walk down a dim hallway, apparently on the floor above the club — I can still hear the music pulsing below. The corridor ends at a rough wooden staircase, and when we climb it, an anteroom opens with a set of leather sofas.

But it isn’t the furniture that freezes me where I stand — leaving me utterly stunned.

Right in front of me, two men and a woman are tangled in a threesome so raw, so explicit, I can’t even move.

— Wait here. I’ll be back. — Samiel slips through another door, vanishing from sight.

I can’t answer.

The woman is caught between them — her mouth completely buried on one man’s hardness while the other takes her from behind, driving into her so hard it rocks all three of them. They’re drenched in sweat, their faces so lost in pleasure that for a moment I wonder if they’re high on something.

Heat floods between my thighs, slick enough I swear it could slide down my legs. Every thrust, every movement, hits me like it’s happening to my own body. My pulse races. I can’t look away.

I rub my hands up and down my arms, trying to calm the relentless shivers. They see me too, but don’t care that I’m watching.

— Do you like it? — The voice comes low and hot, right behind me.

I turn, and Samiel is there, his eyes darkened with a gleam I hadn’t seen before. I’d been so lost in the scene, I didn’t even hear him return.

— No — I lie. — It’s vulgar.

He only smiles.

— Come on. He’s not here.

I follow him, my cheeks and neck burning with… I don’t even know what. And then my gaze drops to my hand, where the bandage is gone. I must’ve ripped it off without even noticing.

I look at the spot where the wound should be and…

What?

Where there should be a long graze from a bullet… there’s nothing.