Club Emerald

I walked as fast as my legs could carry me through the dingy back alleys of the skeleton quarter.

I’d always thought of myself as lucky. Given what I’d been through, I should’ve been dead in a ditch by now.

But it seemed that since I’d decided to steal from the Dobrzyckas, my luck had run out.

Maybe destiny had decided to royally screw me, or maybe I was cursed, but either way, my options weren’t looking good.

I paused in front of the green glow of the neon sign to the Dragon Dance, a strip club. It reminded me of Loch’s and Hael’s entrancing eyes and how drawn I was to them.

Like a moth to an emerald-green flame.

I didn’t know what caused my reactions to them, but it downright terrified me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I almost dropped it in a puddle as I pulled it out with shaky hands.

Dominic

Hey pretty lady

Dominic

A little bird told me some news about ya

Dominic

Sounds like u made some new friends?

Maddie

I don’t know what ur talking about dom

Dominic

No?

Dominic

Bc I heard u got a new internship with the Dobrzycka brothers

Maddie

What do u want dom?

Dominic

The watch was a bust

Dominic

U gotta make it up to me

Maddie

I told u i’m done

Dominic

Ur done when I say ur done bitch

Dominic

Besides, u got nothin to worry about

Dominic

It’s just one last job…

Dominic

We’re hitting Club Emerald

***

The second I got back to the residential center, I ran to Harry’s room, praying that he and Darshan would be together.

“What’s going on, Maddie?” Harry asked, startled as I burst into the room.

“No time to explain. Grab your bug-out bag. We need to leave.”

Neither of them questioned me, trusting that I wouldn’t be pushing like this unless it was absolutely necessary.

The three of us ran down the stairs and were almost out the door, ready to escape Requiem City once and for all, when a voice stopped us in our tracks.

“Maaaaaads,” droned Dominic, strolling up to the center. “Goin’ somewhere, are we?”

His thugs stood behind him, arms crossed, looking like they were itching to hand out an ass-kicking.

“What the hell do you want, Dominic?” I asked, seething.

“Now, that’s no way to speak to the fella who taught you everything. The fella you almost just got arrested. Is it?”

He nodded to one of his thugs, who walked forward and slammed his fist into Darshan’s stomach. Darshan bowed over in pain, and I cried out, furious.

“You son of a—”

“Want me to do the same to this kid?” Dominic asked, nodding to Harry. “Doesn’t cost me a goddamn thing. Unlike you. You cost me a lot, Mads.”

“Okay,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “Just leave them alone, will you? I’ll do whatever you say.”

Dominic waited a second and then nodded to his thugs. They backed off, and Harry and Darshan scurried back into the center.

“Glad you’re changing your tune,” Dominic said. “Just in time too, ’cause we got big plans tonight. You’re going to make up for our losses with the watch. At Club Emerald.”

~You’ve got to be kidding.~

Club Emerald was the biggest club in Requiem City—and it just so happened to be owned by the Dobrzyckas.

Easiest place to get caught and end up with your hand cut off.

I shook my head. “C’mon, Dom. There’s gotta be another way for me to pay you back.”

“I’ve tried playing nice, letting you do it your way. How did that work out? Tell me.”

“But Club Emerald’s a shitshow!”

“Yeah, a shitshow that attracts the richest of the rich. And one broad in particular. A little lady I think you know. What’s her name again, Darren?”

The one guy who didn’t really look like he belonged in Dominic’s posse, Darren, more punk than wannabe gangster, rolled his eyes.

“Dom, could we skip the theatrics?” he asked.

“Fine, I’ll say it. It’s Adara. Fucking. Dobrzycka.”

I cursed inwardly at the glee in Dominic’s eyes. I already knew the scheme he had in mind.

“Turns out Adara’s got a thing for our boy Darren here,” Dom continued. “A good distraction, right? And considering you’ve proven so adept at robbing that family, hell, why not give it another go? Take something we can actually sell.”

“Really inspired plan,” I muttered. “One problem: in what world is any bouncer gonna let your ugly ass into Club Emerald?”

He reached out his hand and stroked my hair.

~Ew.~

“Look, Mads,” he said quietly. “You’re gonna do this. You owe me, remember. And not just cash. I taught you everything you know. So put on something sexy and be outside in five. Or we’ll find your little blind buddy and the scaredy-cat and do some damage that they can’t come back from. Square?”

I clenched my teeth but nodded.

“Atta girl.” He smiled, lightly patting my cheek.

***

Harry

You gonna be ok, mads?

Harry

Should we tell elle?

Maddie

Like elle would do shit to help

Maddie

Turning on my share-location

Maddie

Just in case u need to find me

Maddie

In case things get weird

Harry

U think it will?

Maddie

I know it

***

Club Emerald was a five-story warehouse-turned-nightclub in one of the dirtiest, grungiest corners of Requiem City. Just how the clientele liked it.

I’d heard the rumors.

Sex parties for the one percent were common here. But the really kinky shit they saved for the back rooms, where only one percent of the one percent were invited.

I’d stayed away from sex so far, kinky or not, but the mystery behind it all, I’ll admit, got my spine tingling.

Dominic parked in an illegal spot, and we poured out of the car.

Darren and I got out last. He was skinny as a stick, covered in black tats, and punk as they came.

Darren, I had to admit, wasn’t as bad as the rest of Dominic’s gang, mostly keeping to himself and only turning to violence when directly ordered by Dom.

I nodded toward Dominic ahead, who was pumping himself up, chugging what was left of a forty. “How’d you, uh, become friends with Dom?”

“Calling us friends is a stretch, Madeline.”

~Madeline? That’s…odd that he would know my name.~

“So why…”

“Self-preservation. Plus, he supplies me with a ton of ~overhead~. That shit is ~fire~.”

Overhead? That explained a lot. Overhead was the drug-of-choice among teenagers these days, a nasty little cocktail of uppers, downers, and whatever else.

Judging by Darren’s twitchy hands, he wasn’t just a casual user.

“Why are you using that stuff?”

“Helps with the depression.”

He leaned closer. “If you feel unsafe in there, just let me know, all right? I got your back.”

“I’m a big girl. I got it. But, uh, thanks?”

He placed his hand on my arm, holding me back. He glanced at Dom, then back at me. “I’m serious, Madeline. Stay safe. You don’t want to get on the Dobrzyckas’ bad side.”

I nodded my understanding. Realizing you had an ally in an unlikely place was always good. But then Dominic waved me over.

I walked over hesitantly.

He looked like he’d dipped in his own stash of overhead, and I was cautious. Sober Dominic was a natural disaster; high Dominic was the freaking apocalypse.

“Listen here,” he said, grinning too big. “You keep that skinny ass close to me all night, got it? I’m gonna tell you what to do once we’re in.”

We approached the bouncer, skipping the line, Darren whispering in his ear.

“He’s in with Adara.” Dominic smiled. “Lucky us.”

With a nod from the bouncer, we stepped inside Club Emerald. Raised platforms, green lasers, thumping bass. Hordes of sweaty, scantily clad girls and guys lurching around, high out of their goddamn minds.

The place lived up to its reputation, all right.

Pickpocketing Adara was the last thing I should be doing, given my agreement with her brothers. I wondered if, in the crowds of people, I could give Dominic the slip.

“Mads,” he said, pulling me close. “Let’s have a little fun before we fuck over Adara, yeah? Pick out a rich asshole. Dance his face off. I’ll do the rest.”

“Dom, you think we can just stick to the—”

“Did I fucking ask?”

The drug was making him edgier, more aggressive. I saw the glint of an idea spark in his eyes, and he quickly fished into his pocket for something.

“Here,” he said. “This’ll help.”

He brought a little spray bottle up to my nostril and, before I could stop him, hit me straight to the face with a dose of overhead.

~Oh.~

~Just… Oh.~

I’d never been high in my life. Never wanted it. Never liked to take the edge off. Had to keep a clear mind if I was thieving. But now?

I could feel my throat closing, my surroundings blurring, my body burning hot one second, freezing cold the next.

I wanted to punch the son of a bitch in his face, but I just felt…powerless.

“Just ride the wave, baby,” Dominic cooed. “Now, go find a fucker and shake that ass.”

Without a word of complaint, my body started to move.

A little voice in the corner of my mind screamed to stop being so compliant, but I felt drowsy and sleepy and completely unable to control my movements.

I found a suit and started grinding on him. He seemed to like it, because he pulled me even closer.

Faintly, I saw a hand slip into his pocket as Dominic did his work. Then, a second later, Dominic grabbed my arm and threw me to the next guy in the crowd. And then the next. And the next.

I started to see things—impossible things—in the midst of this depravity.

Faces in the crowd melting into monstrous masks of horror. Fangs for teeth. Pitch-black eyes. A tail growing from the ass of one gyrating girl.

Everywhere I turned, I was surrounded by the fantastical. By monsters.

I remembered those stories again.

Stories about the Requiem Mountains. And I wondered, even in this hazy state, if there was some truth to them.

~It’s just the drugs.~

But was it? Or was I finally seeing into another dimension that, until now, had always been closed?

I tried to shut out the horrors, but the drug was doing a number on me. Finally, Dominic spotted Adara dancing with Darren and pulled me off the dance floor.

Adara had purple spray hair and an awful wannabe punk vibe. Funny how the rich always liked to play poor.

“All right, baby.” Dominic smiled. “It’s time. We’re gonna steal whatever Adara’s got in that purse, understand? Something good this time. Something I can actually sell.”

I wanted to scream. Dominic was going to feed me to the sharks.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

My feet felt so heavy.

My tongue, numb.

My hands, someone else’s.

But that was when I saw them. A pair of emerald-green eyes I’d seen before. A mouth smoking a pipe without a light.

Adara wasn’t the only Dobrzycka in the club…

Because there, in front of me, was Loch.

And he was watching me.

I gasped as his eyes burned into mine, the green practically glowing in the dim light of the club.

My body burned, but this time, it wasn’t from the drug. No, it was because of Loch, and I was powerless to stop it.