"What kind of club?" Jade asked, eyeing each of them like they were about to sell her organs for store credit.
Oz's grin went brighter, the kind of grin that belonged on a billboard over a strip mall. "The usual. Drinks. Dancing. A little gambling. Bad decisions you can pretend were character development." He winked at her. "Come on, Jade. Live a little."
"Zoe said the entrance is around back. There's stairs to the basement." Levi added casually.
Jade's shoulders dipped. Fine. Whatever. If she was going to lose everything anyway, she might as well spend a few hours being loud and stupid.
"Alright," she muttered, and immediately regretted giving Oz a victory. He was on her arm instantly, warm leather jacket brushing against her skin, the heavy chain on bicep clinking when he moved. Oz tugged her along excitedly.
Outside, the night had teeth. Cool air hit Jade's damp face and made her more aware of how gross she still looked. She pulled at her sleeve uncomfortably, regretting all over agreeing to go with them.
Zeth noticed. "Before we go down there, we should fix you up."
Jade stopped in the alley and blinked at him. "Fix me up how?"
Levi gave her a side-eye like she'd just asked him to knit her a sweater. "With a bathroom. Soap. Paper towels."
Oz clicked his tongue and patted the inside of his jacket with exaggerated confidence. "Lucky for you, Sleeping Beauty, I come prepared."
Jade glared. "I don't want some slutty outfit you carry around as a consolation prize."
"Right now, Jade, you look like you crawled out of a tragedy." Oz smiled, like this was a kindness. "You don't have a choice."
Jade opened her mouth to insult him properly, but Oz was already holding out a small gift bag from somewhere that definitely shouldn't have been able to hold it. He set it into her hands with theatrical flair.
Jade stared at it, than to Oz, then back to the bag. "Oz… why do you just have this?"
Oz's grin turned smug. "I like giving gifts. Always have something on hand." He shrugs. "Never know when you might need to sweep some sleeping beauty off their feet."
Zeth offered her a sympathetic look. "Just use the dress. Ignore the jewelry, and, whatever else might be in that bag."
Inside the bag: a black dress. Simple, soft fabric, not flashy. A pair of tights. And, because Oz could not help himself, a tiny velvet pouch with a bracelet that looked expensive enough to make her stomach twist. Jade let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. It was surprisingly PG, for Oz.
Jade looked back at the three men waiting on her choice. A part of her wanted to throw the entire bag into the alley and run. The other part, didn't want to be the crying snot-girl in a packed club. She was nodding before she realized it.
Levi smiled. "Good, lets get you into the bathroom then."
At the alley entrance, Zeth yanked the heavy steel door open like it weighed nothing.
A bouncer on the other side jumped so hard Jade thought his soul might evacuate through his mouth. His eyes went wide and he shouted, "No! Not again!"
Then he fled. Just… straight up bolted. Gone.
The three demons stared into the empty doorway. Jade stared too.
Oz's grin widened. "Well. That's encouraging."
Zeth tilted his head. "We've definitely found the right place."
Oz tugs her arm gently and Jade allows him to lead her down the dark metal stairs mindlessly. If not for his hold on her, she'd surely trip over herself as the lack of light and silence in the tiny stairwell closed in on her.
The bar's back hall smelled like mop water and cheap cologne. Jade was marched to the women's restroom like she was being escorted to trial. Zeth hovered near the door with his hands in his pockets, clearly uncomfortable with the concept of gendered spaces. Levi stayed outside, impatient and silent.
Oz leaned against the hallway wall, casual and dangerous in the way only someone who never worried about consequences could be. "Don't take too long, Jade. The night is young and the sinners are thirsty."
She flipped him off and slammed the bathroom door. Under the harsh fluorescent light, the damage was worse than she'd thought. Her eyes were puffy. Her hair was a tangled wreck. Her shirt… yeah. She didn't even want to catalog that.
Jade braced both hands on the sink and stared at her reflection.
Get a grip.
She scrubbed her face with cold water until her skin stung, wiped off mascara she hadn't even realized had run, and yanked her hair back with a paper-thin elastic she found shoved behind a soap dispenser like it had been waiting for someone desperate. The dress slipped over her head easily. Black. Plain. It made her look less like a disaster and more like a person who chose to be dramatic.
When she stepped back into the hall, Levi's eyes flicked over her once, quick and clinical, like he was assessing a weapon.
Zeth's face softened when he saw her. "Better."
Oz's smile sharpened like he'd been waiting for his favorite toy to be unboxed. "There she is. Much better."
Levi turned toward the back door. "Let's go."
The second stairwell was narrow, industrial, all metal and darkness. The sound of bass grew heavier with each step, vibrating through the handrail. By the time they reached the door at the bottom, Jade could feel the beat in her teeth.
Oz pushed the door open. The music hit her like a physical thing. Beats vibrating through her body as the noise welcomes her and chased away her thoughts.
A wall of sound, lights, bodies. Heat. Sweat. Perfume. The sharp bite of alcohol. The low haze of cigarette smoke lingering over the casino machines in the back like the room had been marinating in vice for years. On either side of them, catwalks stretched out and across the edges of the room,.
Jade stopped dead.
This wasn't a "small town bar basement." This was a full underground club: a dance floor lit in shifting squares, like a giant glowing grid under people's feet. A neon bar off to one side. Slot machines and gambling tables in the back. Catwalks along the walls where cages hung, strippers danced above the crowd inside them like trapped glitter. And the music wasn't just a DJ. There was a stage.
Live instruments, pounding and raw. A voice cut through the bass, smoky and bored at the same time, like the singer didn't even have to try to own the room. The crowd loved it anyway. They screamed, hands up, drinks spilling.
Jade's eyes snagged on the stage for half a second, then her brain slid right past it because everything else was too much. Levi immediately disappeared into the crowd with the efficiency of someone who could survive a battlefield. Zeth drifted toward the slot machines like a curious kid being released into a toy store.
Oz stayed. Of course he stayed. He turned to Jade, his eyes bright. "Well?" he asked, like he'd personally built the place. "What do you want to do?"
Jade swallowed hard, trying to steady herself. The lights were hypnotic. The music was loud enough to drown thoughts. Maybe that was exactly what she needed.
"I've never danced," she admitted, the words tasting stupid on her tongue.
Oz's expression shifted into something softer, almost genuine. "Then we fix that." He pulled her into the crowd before she could change her mind.
The dance floor was chaos with rhythm. It was lit up with large square lights that people danced over. Jade was mesmerized by the glow for a moment. The lights dimmed and flashed in rhythm with the music and Jade soon found she was no longer thinking about anything.
At first Jade just swayed awkwardly, arms stiff, shoulders tense. She felt every pair of eyes even when none were actually on her. Oz circled her like he was guiding prey toward a trap, except his hands were warm and he moved like he belonged here.
Oz chuckled, her obvious lack of dance skills was almost cute. Zoe had briefly explained Jade's antisocial lifestyle and just for a moment, Oz felt sorry for her. Although he knew they had brought her here as bait, he suddenly found he was now more interested in showing her how to have fun.
Oz takes her hand, spinning her into him and catching the small of her back. He dips her down then up again and spins her away before quickly pulling her back. Jade, for the first time in what felt like weeks, begins to laugh. Oz grinned like he'd won.
"There," he said in her ear. "That wasn't so painful, was it?"
Jade's cheeks heated against her will from feeling his hot breath so close to her neck. Jades eyes catch one of the strippers in the cage and she mimics the dance the woman is performing. She wanted anything else to focus on than the sudden unexpected heat between her and Oz.
She raises her arms above her head, spinning her hands at the wrist. She moves her whole body as though she were a snake, dipping down to the floor and slithering back up again. Her arms fall as she drags them down her sides before back up to her head, flipping her hair as she raises them again. It felt stupid for exactly two seconds. Then it felt good. Like her body remembered it could be alive.
Oz's gaze sharpened. The beat changed. Deeper. Slower. The crowd moved differently, bodies pressing closer, breath and perfume and heat. He moved closer, hands finding her waist, guiding her into the rhythm. Jade let him, not because she wanted him but because she wanted the escape. She wanted the noise to swallow the panic and the sadness and the fear of going back to empty silence.
Oz drags a hand down her back, caressing her gently in tender spots before moving his hands elsewhere over her body. More than once Oz had to remind himself that Jade was his soon to be Queen and he could not let his urges take control. Jade turns to face him, placing her arms around his neck and gazed up at him longingly. Oz knew that look; it was the look of a woman who was ready to be taken.
Oz's whole presence changed, like the playboy mask was still there but something underneath it was waking up. Hunger. The kind he lived on. Oz froze for the smallest heartbeat before he presses a hand to her cheek and runs his thumb over her lips. Her lips were so soft, like the delicate petals of a freshly bloomed lily.
Oz gazes into her eyes. They were soft, innocent, and entrancing and in that moment, Oz could no longer find reason to hold himself back. He watched her eyes, like he saw the flicker of someone else there.
Jade's breath hitched, more startled than aroused. Her mind flashed with Aamon's warmth, Aamon's hands, Aamon's mouth on hers. Oz's jaw tightened and he leaned in anyway. His mouth hovered near hers. His breath was warm, sweet with alcohol and something sharper.
For a moment, Oz's control actually wavered. Not in a cute way. In a dangerous way. Like he forgot the plan, forgot the room, forgot everything except the fact that Jade was here and soft and human and staring at him like she was waiting to be taken. Jade's body went tense.
His fingers flexed at her waist, pulling her closer, possessively. His urges no longer contained, and just when he's ready to take her innocents, another women catches his attention past her shoulder.
A woman in a tight red dress stood at the edge of the floor, dancing alone like she owned the air but clearly has her focus on Oz. The tight red dress the woman wears highlights every curve of her body; she runs her hands over her breasts that beg for Oz to come and play.
She locked eyes with Oz and blows a kiss from bright red lips towards Oz before gesturing for him to join her with a becoming finger.
Oz's face split into a grin so bright it looked almost manic.
He spun Jade outward with practiced ease. Jade waited for him to pull her back. He didn't. His hand slipped from hers and he was gone, already sliding through the crowd toward red dress and easy hunger.
Jade stood there with her arm still raised, fingers open like she'd dropped something precious. For half a second she didn't understand what had happened. Then the music hit again. The lights flashed.
Panic starts to creep into Jades mind as her chest tightened. The air felt too hot. Too thick. People pressed in from every side, jostling her about like a pinball. Suddenly the music that had given her escape moments ago now felt threatening. The flashing lights and crowded space closed in on her and she felt trapped. She spun in place, clasping her hands over her ears.
Oz was gone. Zeth was gone. Levi was gone. And suddenly the club wasn't fun anymore. It was a trap full of strangers.
The bass still punched through her bones. Someone laughed too close. Someone spilled a drink down her arm. Jade shut her eyes tight and was just about to scream when she felt a hand pull her arm. Firm. Unquestioning.
Jade jolted forward as she was pulled through the crowd. A gap opened. Noise dulled a fraction. The neon bar came into view. And then she was pushed down onto a stool. Jade reflexively pulls away from the man. He lets her arm go and holds up his hand in a sign of peace.
She turned, expecting Levi. Expecting Zeth. Even expecting Oz, grinning like this was all some stupid game.
Instead, she faced a stranger.
A man in a black beanie pulled low, shaggy hair with green-tipped ends spilling out from under it like he couldn't be bothered to tame it. Piercings. Torn jacket that looked like it had survived a dumpster fire. A gray shirt with the sleeves ripped off. Bandages on his cheek like he'd been in a fight and didn't care enough to hide it.
He held up both hands slowly, palms open.
"Easy," he said, voice low and lazy. "I don't mean you any harm."
He slid a glass toward her across the bar. It looked like dark syrup.
Jade recoiled. "No. Thanks. I don't like hard liquor."
The stranger didn't even look at her. His gaze stayed fixed on the wall of bottles like he was bored enough to die. "It's root beer."
Jade stared at the glass. Then at him. "Oh," she said, feeling stupid. "Sorry."
He shrugged one shoulder, still not facing her fully. "You looked like you were about to fold in half out there."
Jade swallowed and wrapped both hands around the glass like it was an anchor. The stranger finally turned his head slightly, just enough for her to catch his eyes. Deep gray-blue. Too sharp for the lazy posture. Too aware. Jade felt the hairs on her arms lift.
She tried for a polite laugh. "I thought maybe, you were with the guys I came with. Since you, uh… saved me."
His mouth curled on one side. Not quite a smile. "You're a mess," he said, like it was an observation, not an insult.
Jade ran a hand through her hair, mortified. "Sorry."
He leaned in suddenly, close enough that she froze. He inhaled near her shoulder like he was scenting her. Jade's body locked, every old instinct screaming at her to shove him away.
He pulled back with a look of mild annoyance. "You don't smell like you're a mess."
Jade blinked, confused and unsettled. Was that a compliment? A threat? Something else entirely?
"I should go find my friends," she said quickly, setting the glass down and sliding off the stool. The stranger's hand shot out and caught her wrist. Not hard enough to bruise. Just firm enough that she couldn't pretend it was accidental. Jade's breath hitched.
"You haven't touched your drink," he said. "Rude." His eyes flicked down to the stool in a tiny nod.
Jade stared at his hand on her wrist, then up into his eyes. Fear crawled up her spine. Regret slammed into her like a door. Why had she agreed to come down here? Where were the others? Why did it suddenly feel like she'd been handed off to something worse than the crowd?
The stranger's voice dropped, calm and cold. "Please," he said, and it didn't sound like a request. "Sit. You're making me nervous."
Jade swallowed, heart pounding. All she had to do was yank her wrist free and run. Surely he was too slow to catch her.
…Right?