𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑠.
GOOD GIRL

•••

"I did." He nodded, that wicked grin unfaltering on his mouth. "Gluttony's liquor doesn't suit everyone."

I sat up onto my knees, my lungs constricting in on themselves with rage.

His face blanketed over in a mask of seriousness. "I just changed you. I didn't see anything." Frowning, he cleared his throat, "Or try to see anything, for that matter."

"I can take care of myself."

He let out a strangled noise from the back of his throat. "I didn't say you couldn't. But watch yourself around here." His eyes travelled to the pillow in my lap. "You'll find your senses heightened and when we offer you help, do not take it as an insult."

His voice was stern and cold as if any slip of a mistake would send me tumbling down into the arms of the Seraphic. Those cold, pale arms.

"Okay. I won't."

His smirk returned, curving through the plumpness of his lips. "We're quite set in stone around here but they've agreed to have breakfast when everyone arrives."

The realisation that I was soon going to be in a court full of dangers struck once again: the Virtues and the Ophidians.

Shadows befell around him and only smoke rivetted in his absence as he disappeared.

I dropped down into the cushioning mattress, sighing to myself. My eyes travelled to where the sunlight had escaped the darkness of the curtain and I rose to pull the fabric apart.

Only, it wasn't a sun.

There were nine.

Each one with a brightness to compel another. They were arranged over the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical arc and I stood, gaping in awe until the glow became blinding.

I drew the curtains shut again, a hint of wonder bordering my mind. Flashes of white light continued to dance before my eyes as I located the bathroom behind a door of cold marble. It stretched out before me in a marvel. I ran my palm over the golden lion embossed into the bath, the metal sending cool races up my arms.

Within seconds, I had the water running, my clothes forgotten in a heap by my feet. The water hugged every inch of my skin as I lowered myself in, letting the warmth soak into my skin.

My eyes fell shut and I willed calmness into my limbs. They remained tense as I tried to reimagined the flashes of images I'd seen, each figure looming behind my eyelids for split second. And then they drifted away, fogging into a mist of darkness. I felt my forehead knit together with focus as I conjured the images out from the depth of my memory once again.

Colours began to shift—the forest green of Greed, Gluttony's blinding ambers, the crimson hue of Wrath, the warmth of Envy's blue, the pink lure of Sloth and—and Beast, the golden shade of Lust.

I jerked, my eyes still shut as the air began to leave my lungs.

The door burst open, clanging into the high walls with a harsh shove. A muffled noise of alarm rippled through the water and into my ears. I felt my grasp on the edge of the bathtub tighten.

My hands splashed in the water and I let out a startled yelp, rising above the surface of the water.

"Are you fucking insane?"

In one clean motion, I was lifted out of the bathtub, the silken sheets of the bed once again supple beneath me.

I shivered from the lack of the water's warmth and Beast wrapped another shred of silk over my shoulders. I tugged the fabric closer, covering my naked form.

The golds in his eyes were intensified—raging and angry.

"What were you doing?" he growled.

I responded with silence.

He dropped down onto the bed, grasping the back of my neck lightly. The heat of his fingers spread through my skin, crawling down my spine in a sensuous wave.

"Look at me."

I kept my sights down, my chest still aching.

"Look at me, love." He tilted my face up with a finger to my chin.

His touch calmed the blur of the image in my head. It became clearer with every blink until I felt trails of moisture cling to my cheeks. Tears. My tears.

"I'm sorry," I made out. "I'm sorry."

He watched me silently, cursing lowly as I began to shiver. He began to move but I grasped onto his arm, not caring that immense strength now flowed through my veins.

"It hurt, didn't it? I heard your screams," a sob tore through the rest of my words.

They'd been turned from humans to destructive creatures. They'd been torn, limb to limb.

They'd cried out from the pain—they'd been scarred, formed and reformed.

I traced a light finger over the scar embossed over his eyebrow and he flinched as if he could still feel where that first blow had hit him.

"Who did it?" I asked. "Who turned you?"

"The Seraphics," he answered coldly. "They control the order of our realms, who lives, who's transformed, everything."

"Why?" It was all I could say.

"They're the law and order. But it's not all bad around here."

His hold on the back of my neck tightened for a split second before he let go altogether. He wiped his thumb over my cheeks and I almost gasped at the heat of his contact, the same wildfire that he had lit in me the first time we'd met rekindling in my core.

"Get used to it," he said lowly. "Every single one of your senses are going to be heightened and the longer you spend here, the stronger they'll get."

"Like what?" I asked, my breath catching in my throat.

"Like your strength," he traced an absentminded touch up my arm, "your feelings, your lust, and every other sin my siblings can evoke in you."

"I'll try," I whispered, wary of the closeness of his lips over mine.

"That's a good girl."

•••

Dangerous didn't cover it. The Ophidians were poison incarnate. A hissing followed in their steps, like the whisperings of a snake. Their long hair was almost transparent as it brushed the floor behind them, tinted with the pale green of a serpent's hyde.

One of them was of the deepest shade of green—her skin was almost nightly, a slight leafy shift to the hue.

Like her twin, the other was also green but she was—she was almost translucent. Both of them seemed to glow beneath the light of the Unholy Court, their glare pinned hard to me.

"You," the translucent one pointed a long, sharp nail at me, "stink of my magic."

"Yes. That." Glutunoey set down her fork, motioning for the twins to take a seat. "I gave them all some of my wine, last night."

A forked tongue darted out of her lips as she outstretched a hand forward. Her hand was smooth and dry, her scales rippling beneath my fingers.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Nadine and this," she threw a graceful hand to her darker sister, "is my sister Silsela."

Silsela gave me a simple jerk of her chin before she settled opposite me, her sister seated beside her.

I hadn't even touched the food on my plate. The scent warmed my chest and had hunger clawing angrily within my stomach but I couldn't bring myself to eat.

The Virtues weren't here yet. I had a feeling that even though they were the opposite of the Sins in their morals, they'd be just as wicked in their semblances.

As if sensing my nerves, Beast placed his hand over mine beneath the table.

I hadn't the will to pull away and nor did I want to. I locked my hand tighter around his. If Beast was the only strand of sanity I could hold onto, then so be it.

Even if he had used me. And yet the mere reminder had me tightening my grasp until my knuckles whitened. He snarled in pain, lowering his head to my ear.

"Ouch, Pandora."

"Sorry. I guess you have some things that you need to get used to as well."

He cocked his head. "Like?"

"Like this." I felt my strength crunch through my bones until my fingers formed a vice around his.

I let out a startled breath when he grabbed mine with just as much power.

"Trust me, I'll get used to it. But I'm curious to see what you're new found strength would be like in bed."

I didn't dare miss a beat. "I'd strangle you. In fact, I'd very much like to."

He let out a low chuckle. "Kinky."

I felt a soft smile tug at my lips—a teasing Beast was a lot easier to deal with than a pained one. As if I'd imprinted the image of his agony and despair to memory, it appeared before my eyes as a reminder of what the Sins had been through.

Those Serpahics didn't know what was coming for them.

•••

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Love,
Laila.