The music struck Artemus first. It crashed over him in solid waves, a steady, pulsing vibration that made his eardrums throb and his teeth tremble in his jaws. Next came a sultry, suffocating heat that wrapped around his body and brought with it the heady scent of expensive perfume, cigars, and sex. He blinked as his eyes adapted to the low lighting.
They were standing on a narrow mezzanine overlooking a cavernous space. The metal platform extended on either side of them and wrapped halfway around towering cherry wood and purple velvet-paneled walls before ending in stairs that spiraled down into the smoke-wreathed, split-level club below.
Artemus stared.
Men and women in leather outfits that left little to the imagination danced and writhed under colored spotlights inside metal cages on podiums and sunken decks scattered across a backlit, black and white, checkered floor. Some of the enclosures were large and featured live sex and BDSM shows, the multiple male and female partners engaged in the carnal acts seemingly oblivious to the captive audience watching them from islands of shadowy tables and booths framed by the circular bars dotting the space.
It took seeing an elegantly dressed couple rise and strip before climbing inside a cage to join two men for Artemus to realize that the participants were all guests of the club.
“How many?” Serena said.
Artemus glanced at her distractedly. “How many what?”
“Demons,” the mercenary replied.
Artemus observed the ominous shroud of darkness twisting and snaking above the club. He didn’t even have to focus his mind to see it, so thick was the evil clouding the place.
“About a hundred, give or take,” he said quietly.
Serena narrowed her eyes. “We took down about forty of them in Brooklyn. And that was with Nate and Callie too.”
Artemus looked past her to Drake.
Sweat beaded the thief’s forehead and a muscle jumped in his cheek. An echo of something that felt like pain danced through Artemus’s consciousness from the dark-haired man.
Smokey was also staring at Drake.
“You gonna be okay?” Artemus said with a faint frown.
Drake met his gaze, surprise flashing briefly on his face. “I—” he paused and clenched his jaw, “I think so. Let’s just get this over and done with.”
They headed down into the pit.
Dozens of pairs of eyes focused on Serena as she descended the spiral stairs ahead of them, her leisurely pace and cool expression drawing as many curious and admiring gazes as her seductive outfit. Artemus had to hand it to the mercenary. The woman knew how to make an entrance.
Smokey got “oohs” and “aahs” when they stepped onto the crowded floor. Pets were obviously not a normal sight in the BDSM dungeon, something Artemus was grateful for; he didn’t think he could have tolerated it if the sex shows included any form of bestiality. Although the rabbit put on the ultimate show of cuteness with his limpid brown eyes and adorable twitchy nose, the thrum of energy pulsing through him told Artemus he wasn’t exactly happy to be in the presence of so many demons.
Covetous glances followed Artemus and Drake’s own passage through the club as they headed to a bar, the patrons appraising them just as closely as they had Serena and evidently liking what they saw. Artemus masked a shudder at the hunger in their eyes and fought the urge to find the closest shower.
Serena ordered drinks and looked pointedly at Drake. He sighed, slipped his cell out of his back pocket, and tapped it against the bartender’s smart band.
“Would you like to open a tab?” the man asked with a friendly smile.
He was one of the few humans in the club.
“Sure,” Serena said before Drake could utter a reply.
The thief frowned.
Someone touched Artemus’s shoulder in a languid caress. He turned and looked into the face of a beautiful brunette and her movie-star-handsome male companion.
“Hey there,” the woman said with an alluring smile. “You’re new. Wanna play?”
She indicated a cage that had been vacated by two men and a woman who had just finished a loud and unbridled session of intercourse.
Artemus ignored the vile aura surrounding the woman’s partner and pasted a demure smile on his face. “I’m afraid that’s up to my mistress.”
The brunette looked past him to Serena.
“You have an obedient pet,” she murmured, envy underscoring her mild tone.
Serena arched an eyebrow, her expression benevolent. “I trained him well.”
Artemus almost rolled his eyes.
The brunette pursed her lips and stared at Drake. “Is this one off limits too?”
Serena shrugged. “It depends what you want to do with him.”
Drake stiffened slightly.
The brunette walked slowly around the thief, her gaze roaming the hard planes and angles of his body like a starving man eyeing up a feast. “Is he a good sub?”
Serena’s gaze grew hooded for an instant. “He has his moments.”
“Oh,” the brunette’s companion murmured. “He likes to put up a fight?”
Artemus saw the dark coils crowning the man’s head thicken, his interest in Drake piqued. Drake took a slow sip of his drink and met the demon’s stare unflinchingly.
“He does.” Serena glanced at Drake. A lazy smile curved her lips. It never reached her eyes. “In fact, he loves nothing more than being tied down.”
A choked sound escaped Drake. He coughed and wiped his mouth, a warning light dancing briefly in the depths of his dark gaze as he glanced at Serena.
Lust darkened the male demon’s face. He moved until he practically stood toe-to-toe with Drake and studied the thief with a heated expression. “I’d very much like to see that.”
Smokey’s fur quivered where he crouched by Serena’s feet, the small burst of savage energy flashing from him resonating inside Artemus.
Serena shared a guarded glance with Artemus where he’d positioned himself just behind the woman and her companion. This was their chance to isolate one of the demons and question them about Erik Park.
“Sure,” the mercenary murmured with a shrug. “But we like to play privately.” She stepped up to Drake and placed a proprietary hand on his chest. “That’s when he’s at his…loudest.”
Drake stared at her, a muscle jumping in his cheek.
The woman smiled. “We have a private room out back.”
They followed the couple through the club and into one of three corridors that branched off the main floor. The music dwindled as they negotiated a series of twisting, dimly-lit passages. Peep rooms appeared, the clusters of guests gathered in front of the glass walls avidly watching the sex shows beyond while they sipped champagne and nibbled on canapés. They passed velvet-padded doors beyond which moans and cries of pleasure echoed.
The couple’s suite was a sumptuous chamber decked out with all the playthings the BDSM dungeon had to offer, including a red, leather-padded restraining cross and a spanking bench.
The sounds of the club faded when the demon closed the door behind them and twisted the lock.