Dark Souls

The Underground

Ilaria

I have never been one for clubbing. The music is never to my taste and I would rather dance alone in my underwear to punk rock than frolic against sweaty bodies on a dance floor. And then there was the whole touching thing. For some reason, you put a bunch of strangers in a dark room with blaring music, throw a little alcohol in the mix, and suddenly it is socially acceptable to grope a person’s body as if you have the right. Yeah. No thanks. I’m good. Maybe just buying a human sub for the night was the new way to go. I was trying to be open-minded. Experience new things. And I had never experienced anything like this before.

Giving the human male that was currently sitting obediently at my feet the side-eye, I shuffled a little uncomfortably in my seat. I felt ridiculous holding the leather leash that was attached to the collar around his neck like a owner with their dog. It was the only thing he was wearing other than the PVC pants that did not leave much to the imagination.

Lacey found the whole ordeal thoroughly entertaining. She hadn’t stopped giggling since we sat down. She’d settled on a black-haired male, athletically built with eager eyes. He was wearing a leather harness over his chest and not much else. Lia’s guy, on the other hand, was wearing a full gimp mask, covering his face with a zip across his mouth.

“Why does mine have a leash?” I shouted over the music.

“So he can’t run away.” Lacey’s laughter grew louder at the look on my face. I turned to stare at the man.

“You are here willingly, right? If I unhook this leash, would you be allowed to run away?”

He nodded, but the excitement in his eyes told me he would most definitely stay put. My gaze drifted down to the throbbing pulse in his neck. My fangs tingled. Dammit, I was hungry. How did this exactly work? Did I have to ask his permission?

“So, what now? Do I just bite him?” I directed my question to the two girls. Lacey shrugged her shoulders, still unable to pull herself together and have a serious conversation.

“If you want. You own him for the night. You can do whatever you like with him now,” Lia answered.

“I don’t own him! He’s a person, not an object.”

“He’s a vein to drink. A d**k to ride. Or a mouth to taste. That’s all,” she snapped back, unzipping her human’s mask and pulling him to her so they locked lips. My nose wrinkled in disgust as they started tongue f*cking each other’s mouths. When they broke away, Lia made a point of zipping the mouth on his mask shut again. She was such an assh*le. “See?”

“Can he even breathe under there?” Lacey asked, leaning forward to study the leather mask.

“He can breathe fine. Honestly, you two need to stop acting like the good girls you were raised to be and start being bad. Trust me, it's so much more fun.”

I grumbled, turning away to scan the club in the hope that it might give me some insight into how to behave in this place. Big mistake. Everywhere I looked, vampires were either feeding on humans, or f*cking them. Those at the bar were having conversations while the human they had chosen knelt at their feet or ran their hands up and down their bodies. In the booths, there was a lot of moaning and groaning happening. And on the dance floor…nothing was too nasty. Damn, so no one here has heard of the word discreet.

My anxiety heightened at the thought of feeding from this man in public. Of letting my inhibitions go and just taking my pleasure without any shame. What if people recognised me? I am the daughter of the King and Queen of all supernaturals for Christ's sake. I would die of humiliation if my parents were told I was seen dry-humping some leashed, leather-bondaged human as I drank from him in front of a whole club full of vampires. No amount of blood was worth that mortification.

There must be somewhere more private we could go? Surely not everyone was an exhibitionist in this place? I caught sight of two huge vampires wearing dark suits and aggressive frowns standing in front of a black curtained door.

“Hey, what’s through there? Are there private rooms?” I asked, annoyed I was having to speak directly to Lia but she seemed to have been here before and knew a lot more than Lacey.

Her gaze followed my finger and she frowned, shaking her head. “No. That area is for members only.”

“What do you mean? I thought this whole club was invite-only?”

“The main area is, yeah. But through those curtains is only for members of an exclusive club. The Underground.”

“The Underground?” What the hell was that? I’d never even heard of it before.

“Seriously?” Lia huffed, her eyes rolling when both Lacey and I looked clueless. “The Underground is a restricted members-only club for the most depraved and f*cked up supernaturals. Literally, anything goes. There is no moral code, no kink too taboo, no act too shocking. It’s basically the supernatural version of the mafia on steroids, if you get me?”

How did I not know about this? Did my parents know about this? Of course they did. They must know. I immediately went to pull out my phone and text one of my brothers or Neve and then remembered I couldn’t. No phones in the Heroux realm along with their stupid rule of no vampires either.

“How do you become a member?” I asked, my blood-thirst just a constant ache now that I had something more intriguing to grasp my attention.

Lia scoffed. “Why? Thinking of joining?”

“Just answer the question, Lia,” I snapped.

“I don’t know,” Lia reluctantly admitted. “It’s locked tight. Rumours are that once you're in, you can never get out. Unless you leave in a body bag. And there seems to be only one rule. Never talk about it. No one even knows a member of The Underground. They obviously know each other but they don’t speak about it on the outside. It’s like a code.”

“Who runs it?”

Lia shrugged again. “I’m not a member, am I? So, how the hell would I know?”

Realising I was wasting my time, badgering her for information that she didn’t have, I moved my attention back towards the bouncers. I needed to get closer so I could read their minds. See if there was a way in.

Standing up, forgetting all about my human on a leash, I started moving towards them until my arm was yanked back by the strain of the man not moving fast enough.

“s**t. Sorry!” I completely forgot he was there! He followed behind me as I approached. In a moment of madness, I decided to just act as if I knew what the hell I was doing and had every right to walk past them. Both their arms shot out, grabbing me by the shoulder and pushing me back. Rue hissed in my mind.

“Where do you think you’re going?” One of them drawled in a thick-accented voice.

“I'm a member of The Underground,” I said with conviction, staring deep into their red eyes. They weren’t even trying to hide their vampire sides with their fangs hanging over their lips.

“Prove it,” the other commanded. s**t. Was there a code word? Or a membership card?

I tried reading their minds but their inner thoughts were spoken in their native languages. French? And the other Russian perhaps?

“Didn’t think so,” he smirked. “Turn around little girl and go back to your party.”

I made one last ditch attempt. Perhaps using my name would make a difference. “You are speaking to a Romano. You better watch your f*cking mouth, assh*le.”

A flicker of surprise crossed his harsh features and a look passed between them both. They straightened their spines, clearly a little unsure now but still holding their ground. “No proof. No entry.”

Shooting them with one hellfire glare, I turned abruptly and walked away with frustration. That riled me up even more. Like I mentioned before, I didn’t like being told no. Feeling my restraint snap, I yanked the leash in my fist until my human blood bag’s neck was forced forward into my hand and slammed him up against the wall. Rue was feral now and demanding to come to the surface.

I allowed my eyes to adjust as the red haze clouded my vision and my fangs snapped down from my gums. Fear swarmed the man’s eyes but before he could say a word, my fangs sunk deep into his neck and I closed my eyes, moaning as I let Rue take over. The euphoria that hit was as good as any orgasm as his warm blood trickled down my throat like silk and my hunger slowly ebbed away, making way for the insatiable arousal that took its place.

I ripped my head back from his neck, his blood dripping down my chin and met his brown eyes that were no longer scared but full of desire. When done for pleasure and not punishment, I’d heard being fed from was a high like no other and he sure looked like he’d been enjoying it. The long bulge in his leather pants was a dead giveaway as he panted rapidly.

“F*ck, that was amazing. Will you do it again? There are private rooms just over there,” he pleaded. Rue was firmly in control right now, which was always dangerous but she was in a naughty mood rather than a deadly one, so I tried to relax and go with whatever she had in mind. Lifting the leash over our shoulder with confidence, we walked our human straight towards another curtained door that had a vacancy sign above it.

As soon as we were in the isolation of four small walls, I shoved his chest so he fell back on the chair and straddled his waist. Grinding up against his erection, I sunk my teeth into the other side of his neck and started feeding again. It was hard not to get carried away with the frenzy of the environment. The booming music vibrated beneath us, causing ripples of pleasure through our bodies and the musky scent of s*x and blood filled the air. My fingers threaded into his blonde hair, tugging aggressively to expose more of his neck to me. My mind took me somewhere else. To the man in the back of the bar with dangerous eyes. Heat coiled in my core and I moaned louder. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be having s*x with this stranger in two seconds flat.

Forcing some control, I stopped feeding and wiped the blood from my chin. The man stared up into my eyes but I looked away quickly. I didn’t want to hear his thoughts and break this fantasy. As sick as it was, I wanted to pretend this was someone else for a little bit longer.

Surprising me, the man suddenly turned in the chair, swapping our positions as he lowered himself to his knees.

“Let me please you. I promise I won’t stop until I make you come.” He started unbuttoning my leather trousers and I hesitated, at war with what I knew I shouldn’t do but also what I wanted to do. F*ck it. Who was I to deny myself an orgasm? I wouldn’t have s*x with him. But if he wanted to—

Oh.

All thoughts ceased the moment his tongue found my clit. He hooked my legs over his shoulders and I dropped my head back in ecstasy as he went to work on keeping to his promise. A soft moan left my lips as I gripped the seat of the chair with my hands, my spine arching with pleasure.

I was so lost in the moment, I didn’t notice the curtain open. I didn’t hear someone enter. But the sickly sound of a neck snapping was hard to miss. My eyes slammed open as I lifted my head to see the human drop to the side of me, his neck twisted unnaturally. Dead. A shocked gasp left my lips as my heart flipped in my chest. And then I glanced up at the man standing before me. At the clean-cut image of Harry Gould except his eyes weren’t brown. They were entirely jet-black. Brooding. Dark. Dangerous.

Heart Thief.

“I guess you found me, Snow.”