Chapter Five
The Other One
Lilith's penthouse. Later that morning.
She did not take him to the throne room.
After he knelt-after he pressed his forehead to the carpet and felt her bare foot rest briefly on the back of his neck in acknowledgment-she led him through another hidden door. This hallway was narrower. Darker. The air smelled different here. Faintly of sweat. Faintly of sex. Faintly of something floral trying and failing to cover both.
"Someone lives back here," Marcus said. It was not a question.
Lilith did not answer. She simply walked.
The hallway ended in a door without a handle. She pressed her palm flat against its surface. The wood groaned-an old sound, a tired sound-and swung inward.
The room beyond was small.
A mattress on the floor. White sheets, rumpled. A single pillow. A wooden chair with a silk robe draped over its back. No windows. No photographs. No books. Just bare stone walls and a bronze bowl on the floor, identical to the one in the entrance corridor.
And a woman.
She knelt in the corner, naked, facing the wall. Her back was a map of scars-not from violence, Marcus realized. From fingernails. Deep crescents raked into her shoulder blades, her spine, the curve of her hips. Some were old, faded to silver. Others were fresh, scabbed pink.
"Kaelen," Lilith said.
The woman turned.
She was beautiful in the way a hunting knife is beautiful. Lean. Muscular. Her face was sharp-boned, her eyes a pale blue that seemed almost colorless in the dim light. Her hair was cropped short, bleached almost white. And her mouth-Marcus noticed her mouth immediately. Full lips. Slightly swollen. The same rawness he could feel on his own tongue.
She looked at Lilith first. Devotion. Hunger. Fear.
Then she looked at Marcus.
And her expression did not change.
"New one?" Kaelen's voice was low. Hoarse. As if she had been screaming recently. Or moaning.
"Investigative journalist," Lilith said, circling behind Marcus. Her hand landed on his shoulder. Squeezed lightly. "He came to expose me. Now he kneels."
Kaelen's pale eyes moved over Marcus's body-his rumpled clothes, his swollen lips, the red marks on his neck where Lilith's nails had grazed him the night before. She did not seem jealous. She did not seem threatened. She seemed tired.
"They all kneel eventually," Kaelen said. "Some faster than others."
Marcus bristled. "I'm not-"
"You are." Kaelen stood. She was taller than him. And completely unashamed of her nakedness. Her breasts were small, her stomach flat, her thighs thick with muscle. Between her legs, she was bare-shaved or naturally hairless, he could not tell. "You have the look. The same look I had six years ago. The same look the artist had. The same look the billionaire had." She stepped closer. Her scent was different from Lilith's. Cleaner. Sadder. "You think you're still fighting. You're not. You just haven't accepted it yet."
Marcus looked at Lilith.
She was watching the exchange with quiet amusement, her hand still on his shoulder.
"You keep them in a cell," he said.
"A room," Lilith corrected. "Kaelen prefers it this way. She feels safest when the door is closed."
"Is that true?" Marcus asked Kaelen.
The blonde woman held his gaze for a long moment. Then she smiled. It was not a happy smile.
"Do you know what it's like," Kaelen said softly, "to serve someone who has tasted every part of you? Who knows exactly how much pressure to apply with her teeth? Who can make you come just by whispering in your ear?" She tilted her head. "Do you know what it's like to realize that no one else will ever satisfy you again? That you would rather kneel in a windowless room for the rest of your life than spend one more night pretending that normal sex is enough?"
Marcus said nothing.
"Last night," Kaelen continued, "she sent me away. Told me to wait here. I heard you through the wall. The way you moaned. The way you begged." Her smile widened. "You sounded just like me. Six years ago. The first time she let me taste her."
Marcus's face burned.
Lilith squeezed his shoulder again. Gently. Almost kindly.
"Kaelen is my oldest living servant," Lilith said. "Six years. Most burn out after two or three. But she is... special." She looked at Kaelen with something that might have been pride. "She endures."
"I endure because you let me," Kaelen said quietly. Her eyes dropped to the floor. "Thank you, Goddess."
Lilith nodded. Then she turned Marcus to face her fully.
"Do you see now? This is not a prison. This is a home. For people who have nowhere else to go. For people whose hunger matches mine." She reached up and touched his cheek. "You could have this. Peace. Purpose. A reason to wake up in the morning that does not involve chasing stories that will never love you back."
Marcus looked at Kaelen again.
She had returned to her corner. She was kneeling again, facing the wall, her back straight, her hands resting on her thighs. Waiting. Always waiting.
That could be me, he thought.
The terror of it should have made him run.
Instead, it made him stay.
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End of Chapter Five