Chapter 15 | The Devil of Siren City

THE SECONDS STRETCHED as Candy and Aphrodite waited through several rings.

Candy maintained his curious expression the whole time, blinking his innocent eyes.

Don’t look guilty. Don’t look suspicious.

Don’t give her an inch of rope because she will hang you with it.

“Miss Aphrodite,” Rackham finally answered.

“Captain,” she said.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Candy fought his smirk. He could hear the invisible disdain in his voice, the obvious eye roll on the other side. Rackham hated Aphrodite. He hated everything about Siren City.

Except for Candy.

“I’ve just been informed that you’ve made port,” Aphrodite said with an audible pout. “And you didn’t come to see me.”

Rackham laughed. “Oh, sweetie. It was nothing personal. I was in the city for an hour, no more. Did my boy make it home all right?”

Candy subtly swallowed.

Aphrodite eyed Candy for a moment as the tension in her shoulders loosened. “Yes,” she answered. “I understand you hosted Candy for dinner?”

“That I did. Such a sweet boy.”

Candy almost blushed.

“Well...” She hummed with fake delight. She despised Rackham, too, but not for the same reasons. Rackham played by his own rules. Typically, gods hate that. “Next time, I’ll host you instead. We’ll catch up.”

“Looking forward to it, love.”

Aphrodite hung up. She took a breath and forced it out before regarding Candy again. “My apologies,” she said after a minute. “Can’t be too careful. You can tell your friend that he’s to use official channels from now on if he wants your company.”

“But... ma’am, I don’t normally use channels for my free time.”

“You do now.”

Candy nodded slowly. “Getting scared now,” he said, adding the slightest quiver to his voice. “What’s going on?”

Aphrodite took a step forward and faced Candy. “I’m not sure how to tell you this, Candy, but there are rumors in the lower city. Until we can confirm them, I would prefer you stay close.”

Sympathetic eyes. Relaxed posture. She trusted him now.

Good.

“What kind of rumors?” Candy asked.

She reached out and took Candy’s hands. He tensed up. “Hades may still be alive,” she said.

His stomach clenched in disgust. She couldn’t even be bothered to say his true name. Instead, she hid behind a phantom. A boogeyman. A Devil to pin all their sins on.

Candy parted his lips. “Hades? You mean...” He widened his eyes, still in character. “What? How?”

She squeezed his shaking hands. “We aren’t sure. But Ares’ boy said he saw him by the boardwalk.”

“But you...” He swallowed hard. “You said he was gone.”

“He was.” Aphrodite paused as fear entered her eyes. “He is. It’s probably just a mistake. But until we know for sure—”

“No, how?” Candy took his hands back and stepped away, tapping into the well of pain and anger Aphrodite attempted to fill after that night. She poisoned him against his mentor. Or, at least, she tried. “How is that possible?”

“It’s not. What we did... He couldn’t have survived, Candy. But until we know for sure, Zeus has locked us down. No one goes in or out without his say.”

Well, that’s not good.

“What about Dom?” he asked. “Is he also...?”

“We don’t know,” she answered. “As of right now, we’re focusing on the threat we’re sure of.”

“Then you’re sure? Adrian is—”

“No,” she snapped at the mention of his name. “Candy, the last thing I want to give you is hope. And the last thing you should hope for is that Hades is alive.” Aphrodite closed the gap between them and placed a soft hand on Candy’s cheek. He fought the urge to recoil, instead tilting his face to meet her touch. “You remember what I told you about that night? About... what he was planning to do with you?”

Candy nodded. “Yes.”

“I showed you the records,” she continued, hammering the lie as if she even believed it herself. “Hades was sick. He wanted to make you his slave. We had to do what we did, or else...” She exhales dramatically. “You still believe me, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“He was a monster,” she said. “He and his brother. I won’t let him find you. If he truly is alive, he won’t be for much longer.”

Dammit.

“What are you going to do?” Candy asked.

“Ares is taking care of it. For now, you’ll stay downstairs. In your suite. There’s a good chance Hades will come looking for you, eventually. You’ll be safe here.”

“I’d rather go home.”

Aphrodite blinked.

“I have assignations that require certain... tools,” he added, thinking fast. “I don’t have them here.”

“Then you’ll have to cancel.”

“Ma’am, with all due respect,” he said, eager but calm, “it’s my job.”

Aphrodite ran a finger behind his ear, a subtle reminder of the power she held over him, of the golden hair he once had that now belonged to her. “Then we’ll have one of Ares’ men escort you there and back. Is that satisfactory?”

Candy nodded in agreement, though he was screaming inside. He had to warn Adrian. That task would be considerably more difficult now. But not impossible.

Nothing was impossible in Siren City.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

Aphrodite smiled, barely wrinkling her perfect skin. She leaned forward, and he instinctively bowed to allow her to kiss his forehead. “This will all be over soon, Candy,” she said. “I will keep you safe.”

Bullshit.

This wasn’t about keeping him safe.

He was bait.

Candy left the penthouse, but he couldn’t go far. Aphrodite sent one of her guards with him; a tall, slender but heavily armed man named Brock. A bit overkill, Candy thought, considering he was only going one floor down.

When Brock perched himself outside Candy’s door and stayed there, Candy cursed silently through his peephole. 

Adrian isn’t going to like this.

Candy took out his phone and sent a text.

Thank you.

Almost immediately, he received a reply from Rackham.

Anything for you, pebble.

Candy sighed. He really meant it, too.

Adrian really isn’t going to like this.

I need to ask a favor, he sent.

Candy could practically feel Rackham’s smirk as he read his reply.

I’m listening.

***

Adrian

“You are not Skylar.”

She chuckles, biting her lip as she rolls her hips again. I stiffen, in more ways than one, and fight the intense urge to touch her.

“Not that I blame you,” she says, regarding herself, her body, as if she’s never seen it before. “She is quite beautiful. Petite. Nubile. Little breasts and a tiny waist.” She leans down, bringing her mouth close to mine. “Pouty, kissable lips...”

“Stop,” I say, feeling her warm breath on my skin.

She laughs as she sits up. “She looks at you, too, you know. When you’re not watching, though...” Her brow arches. “You do always seem to be watching her, don’t you?”

“She’s my responsibility.”

“Is that what you tell yourself? Because of your little contract?”

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Did it feel good?” she asks, ignoring the question. “When you saved her from those horrible men? Did it make you hard when she soothed your wounds?”

“Who are you?”

She leans forward again. This time, when her hair falls over her eyes, they’re not Skylar’s bleached blonde locks. They’re red. Red as flames. “I am the one who walks while she sleeps,” she answers.

“Wake her up. Now.”

“No. I’m not ready to go back yet.”

“What do you want?”

“It’s not about what I want...” She touches me again, her hands going lower this time. “What do you want, Adrian?”

I grab her wrist and she cackles. “No.”

“Why not?”

“You are not her.”

“I could be.” She forcefully shakes her head, whipping her hair until it becomes bleached again. “Adrian,” she whimpers, her big eyes full of pain and fear.

“Enough,” I say.

“Stop, please.” She grins. “It hurts.”

I grab her by the shoulders and twist us around, forcing her onto her back. She laughs the whole time, practically purring as I pin her to the bed by the wrists. “I said, that’s enough,” I growl.

Her giggles fade. Her face hardens. “Take her, Adrian,” she says through gritted teeth. “Make her bleed.”

“Skylar.”

She wakes with a gasping breath. I hold her down as she struggles beneath my weight, and her eyes widen with fear once again. “Adrian, what are you doing?!” she says, trying to jerk free.

“Calm down,” I say, fully in control.

“Get off me!”

“Skylar, look around. See where you are.”

She scans the area, seeing it from this angle for the first time, but she nods with recognition. “Your room,” she whispers after a minute.

“That’s right,” I say gently.

“How did I get here?”

“You were sleepwalking. Do you remember?”

“No,” she says, her voice shaking, her eyes shimmering in the dark.

“Breathe, Skylar,” I say. “You’re all right now.”

She tries, but she can only manage half breaths with me on top of her. Looking down, she sees my bare chest, my body pressed between her open thighs. Her eyes flick up. She blushes.

“I’m going to release your hands,” I say.

She nods. I pull away slowly, balancing on my knees beside her. As soon as she can, Skylar pushes off the bed, accidentally bumping into my desk in the rush to get away, to cover herself. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, unable to look at me. “I don’t know why I...”

“Skylar.”

“I have to go.”

She doesn’t stop, bolting into her room across the hall and slamming the door.

I move to rise, then stop after a single step as the tip of my erection brushes against the fabric of my slacks. It’s hard and sensitive, pointed so firmly upward that it’s held in place by the waistband. I don’t dare touch it. I won’t give in and sate the cruel desires it came here for.

I am the one who walks while she sleeps.

Skylar.

What the fuck did you bring here with you?