High Stakes

•VI•

"Lucien?!?!"

The sound of Helsie's voice roused Lucien out of a sleep so deep that it bordered on comatose. The light in the room flickered on, and Lucien groaned at both the pain in his eyes and throughout his aching joints as he raised an arm to shield them.

"Helsie?" he asked, his voice groggy with sleep and whatever substances still remained in his system. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?!?!" Helsie shrieked. "Would you like to explain to me why you've been missing for over a week, and when I finally get word of where you are, I find you in bed with a fucking demon?!?!"

"A what?" Lucien asked confusedly.

But when his glassy-eyed gaze followed to where Helsie was pointing, he soon saw the demon in question lying in the bed beside him, both arms folded behind his head and a quite amused smirk plastered all over his face.

Lucien uttered a curse as he sprang up from the mattress, immediately regretting the decision as a wave of dizziness nearly took his feet out from under him. He clenched his eyes closed at the dull throbbing in his temples, each aching pulse through his skull mirroring the rapid beat of his heart. The demon chuckled softly as Lucien leaned his arms down against the bed to try to steady himself and fight off the rush of nausea that followed.

"Your little Stray passed out downstairs," Malcore said to Helsie, still grinning as though he were thoroughly enjoying the entire situation. "I had to carry him back to his room. But don't worry, I never touched him - as tempting as it was. I decided it was best to stay close just in case he began to choke on his own vomit."

His head turned towards Lucien, still dazed and trying wholeheartedly to remember anything from the previous night.

"You're welcome, by the way."

"Yeah. Great. Thanks for that," Helsie snapped, marching across the room to grab Lucien by the elbow. "Get your stuff together, Lucien. I'm taking you home. Joni has been worried sick about you."

The mention of Joni's name drove a dagger straight through Lucien's already pounding heart. It was the same sharp pain he'd felt repeatedly since the moment he'd left the cabin, and one of the reasons he'd been trying so very hard to numb himself these past few days. But the copious amounts of Venom and alcohol he'd consumed while at The Pit could no longer shield him from the reality that was now standing by his side.

"How did you even find me?" Lucien asked, irritated by the sudden realization that he would now have to face the consequences of his actions much sooner than he had anticipated.

"What, like it was hard?!?!" Helsie said, gripping his arm a bit tighter. "You do a lot of stupid shit, Lucien, but at least your tendency to run and hide from it afterwards is predictable. I can't wait to hear what you did this time."

The dagger that was already firmly lodged in Lucien's chest twisted. Helsie seemed to notice the hurt that flashed in his eyes as she let out an annoyed sigh. "If you really must know, Charlotte called me."

"I'm sorry, Lucy," a meek voice suddenly spoke from the doorway, and all three of them turned to find Charlotte's petite form standing just outside of it. "I was worried about you."

Lucien's shock over the fact that Charlotte had sold him out was overshadowed by his guilt around the reasons she had done it. He was well aware that his behavior over the last few days had been irrational, at best.

Within minutes of arriving at The Pit, he had dragged Charlotte to one of the rooms upstairs and fucked her ruthlessly, directly against the wall, not bothering to remove any more of their clothes than necessary. She'd barely even had enough time to close the door behind them. It was as if he were desperately trying to prove to himself that he was capable of feeling the same kind of desire that had been sparked in that cabin with anyone else.