Page 6 of Soul Redeemed
“I swear to the Gods, I won’t hurt you.”
“You’ll take only what you need to get right again.”
“You have my word.”
“I’m only doing this because you’re hot. You realize that, right?”
“Sure.” Her grip on his hand prompted Calix to follow the female through the crowd, down a dark corridor to a staircase. His whole damn body came alive at the thought that he’d soon be looking at what his mind could take as a lifelike image of Ava. She’d be as much flesh and blood as his brain could possibly project, and considering Calix had nearly every piece of her committed to memory, it’d be like staring at the real thing.
Beyond a heavy door, the girl led him deeper into the basement of the building, where the pipes radiated heat that left a damp humidity clinging to the air and the stench of mold assaulted Calix’s nose.
“What’s your name?” he asked, taking in the tight skirt that clung to her curves. Not even that could trample the excitement that he’d soon see Ava.
A quick glance over her shoulder, and Calix just caught the roll of her eyes. “Does it matter? I’m not your fantasy, right?”
“You read my mind.”
“This female must be something special for you to go through all this trouble. Nephilim, huh? That sucks.”
“How so?”
“’Least I chose to be this way.” Hands on her hips, she came to a stop at the back corner of the basement, where a couch, empty bottles of Elysia, a sleeping bag, and a pair of Beats were scattered around.
“You live down here?”
“No, I come down here to knit when I’m feeling particularly crafty. Yeah, I live down here. Temporarily, until I find my own place.”
“Camped out in the basement of a nightclub owned by the Fallen? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were hiding out.”
Ignoring his comment, she nodded toward the couch. “Get comfy. I’m only an observer. If you want, I can give you privacy, but it’d be no different than you making up the fantasy in your own head. Or I can embody her and it’ll be more real.”
“I want you to embody her.” Fortunately, embodiment only happened within the fantasy, so she’d essentially be commandeering the thoughts that Ava might have in the scene. It’d be Ava’s body. Ava’s face. But the girl would be something like a puppet master, pulling the strings. As long as she didn’t destroy it by saying something un-Ava-like, it’d be damned close to the real deal. “No talking, all right?”
“No talking. Now lose the clothes, pretty boy.”
Unclasping his jeans, Calix watched her light up a cigarette. “So, what’d you do?”
“For what?”
“You said you chose this life. What’d you do?”
Drawing in a long inhale, her eye squinted, before she blew the smoke off to the side. “Secrets. I gave them away to the wrong person.”
“What kind of secrets?”
“They wouldn’t be called secrets if I told you, would they?”
“You already gave them away, so what does it matter?” He tossed the jeans onto the couch and unbuttoned his shirt.
“I have certain gifts. I trusted someone I shouldn’t have. Now, unless you want me to record you jacking off and upload that to a porn site, no more questions. Capisce?”
Calix was surprised she’d offered as much as she had, which told him she happened to be one of those chatty females—something that could very well annihilate the whole experience he sought.
“Gods of sin, what the hell are you dealing in fantasy for?” Her gaze roved his body from where she stood with the cigarette dangling at her fingertips. “A body like that, you could feed yourself for the next millennia. Bitches would kill for that.”
“Please. No talking, okay?”
“Rightio. It’ll be a thousand argentumus. Paid upfront.” Her chin lifted as it should have, asking that much from him. Argentumus, the currency of Obsidius, essentially equated to souls paid to the underworld.
