EVEN FROM HERE, Seven could feel the bass of the music vibrating through her dingy hotel room via the open window. The air was alive with electricity from the city beyond, so much so that it prickled against her skin like static, causing the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.

  She smoothed down her dress one final time and stared at herself in the mirror. No matter how hard Seven tried, she couldn't quite seem to quell the growing feeling of dread that coiled tightly in the pit of her stomach.

The girl before her was eerily familiar and yet all together foreign, her mess dark hair was a work of art in itself, and the way her dress clung tightly to her hips was enough to make the devil himself fall to his knees before her.
—But yet her eyes were wide and afeared of what was yet to come, she was a perfect portrait of dread.

  A scandalously low neckline revealed a sinful amount of skin, and the necklace that hung solemnly at her clavicle looked as though it were divinely inspired by the dress.

  She couldn't look away from the necklace, not even despite the knot in her chest, though she didn't quite know why.

  Nothing really made sense anymore, Seven thought disdainfully, but after tonight, she hoped things would become a little more clear. —For tonight she would kill a Sin.

• • •

A CHILL HAD began to settle over the night air, and once outside the bass of the music multiplied by ten. Seven cast her gaze up to revered Knott Mansion, cast scarlet by the spot lights and hallowed by the moon.

She was greeted at the gates by two guards, one of which raised an thick eyebrow at her, "Invitation?"

Shooting him a sickly sweet smile Seven pulled the relevant envelope from her purse and waited anxiously for him to check it. It should work, she thought, for only last night she had stolen it off a man in a bar and spent all of today trying reverse the enchantments on the damn thing.

After a minute he looked up, "Lady Sadem?"

Seven nodded to the false name of her allias and he signalled to the second guard who swung open the wrought iron gates with a grandiose gesture. "—Go on through."

  From inside the deep booming was so loud it made Seven's head spin as she made her way through the thick mesh of bodies by the door to the sanctity of the halls where the chaos was only slightly less so. Dipping into the nearest bathroom and locking the door behind her she began searching in her clutch.

—Much like all things in the wizard of world, the small black bag was enchanted to conceal a multitude of sins without bulking its size. It took a minute, but eventually she found what she was looking for, pulling out the wicked-looking dagger and hitching her dress as to fasten the blade to her garter.

Allowing herself one last moment alone, Seven took a shaky breath and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear before rejoining the party.

She headed straight to the bar where she lay in wait, taking a brightly coloured cocktail off the tray of a passing waiter.
It was only a matter of time before he came to her, she thought, —the self proclaimed 'King of Lust,' a man known throughout the land for not only being the leader of the most promiscuous and morally ambiguous of the factions, but also for his otherworldly parties.

Seven sipped her cocktail, the taste of a well made 'Screaming Orgasm' exploding across her tongue as she scanned the crowd and despite the what must've been hundreds of people present it didn't take her long to find her target.

Leaning back against the bar and resting her weight on her elbows Seven took her time to fully appreciate him. He was every bit as beautiful as the tales foretold.

A silk shirt the colour of fine wine and forbidden kisses hung loosely from his chest, buttons already undone to just below his heart, revealing a hint of sinfully thick muscle. Two girls clung to either side of him, practically sat on top of the man in the booth across the hall, their greedy hands roaming every inch of him, not that he seemed to mind, except the focus of his attention was elsewhere.

  Seven raised the last of the glasses contents to her lips, as she caught his eye and he shamelessly held her gaze, a strange look coming over him.

  A smirk tugged at the corners of Seven's lips, and just like that she had him hopelessly ensnared. He had already fallen directly into her trap.
   Slowly setting down the empty glass, Seven pushed away from the bar, never once breaking eye contact with him as she walked in step with the bass of the music, watching as his face settled into a mask of borderline blasphemy. They didn't need words to communicate as she raised an eyebrow at him in challenge.

  That was all it took to have the King of Lust rise to his feet, heartbroken females falling off of him as he began to trail behind her like a predator stalking prey.

Seven didn't have to turn to feel his presence close by as she began to ascend the wide stair case that curled like a serpent around a marble pillar to the second floor. Seven didn't know where she was going exactly, but if she was going to do this, it needed to be somewhere private, somewhere they wouldn't be disturbed.

A warm hand circled around her wrist the moment she reached the summit. "You know you're not supposed to be up here, little bird."

She turned and bit her lip, waiting to see if Lust's eyes would follow the movement. He didn't disappoint, and she smiled, before answering, "—And why exactly is that?"

Hungry eyes flickered over her posture before coming back to her face, a boyish smirk toying at the corner of his lips. "—Because I said so."

"Oh right." Seven hummed, watching all manor of thoughts cross his face as she leaned a little closer. "—And who exactly are you?"

Letting out a humourless laugh Lust raised a hand to her cheek, his face looking harsh beneath the flashing lights as he dragged his thumb across her bottom lip. "...Don't pretend darling, you know damn well who I am."

"...I don't think I do" Seven murmured coyly, "—Maybe you should show me."

  He continued to watch her approvingly for a moment, as if she was a riddle he couldn't quite decipher. It was strange seeing him in the flesh, she thought, the same raven haired man she had seen so many times plastered on posters across the districts after the war, along with the faces of five of the other leaders, all except one. —No one alive knew the true face of Wrath.

  He stood there for a second longer before something inside him snapped and Seven was suddenly dragged up the final stairs and down the hall to an empty room. Lust's eyes were fierce as he shoved her up against the wall, and Seven tried her best to quell the involuntary shiver that crawled down her spine.

He didn't need to speak to signal what he wanted, his reputation proceeded him, he wasn't named Lust for nothing.

  Without warning he smashed his body against hers, and in turn she dove at his mouth. Rough hands grabbing her behind the knees as he lifted her against the wall, pushing himself firmly between her thighs. Seven wrapped her legs around his waist and rolled her hips against him, moaning as he grabbed her hair and pulled her head to the side, biting and sucking his way down her throat.

Lust bucked his hips against her, balling his fists in Seven's dress and hitching it up to her waist, and she gasped at the shocking sensations he was drawing from her body. —A warm hand gripped her backside, his mouth sucking on her collarbone hard enough to leave marks.

  A ragged gasp escaped Seven as she broke from his lips, but he grabbed the back of her neck, pulling Seven forward to ravage her mouth again. All the while her fingers slowly making their way to her thigh, silently unsheathing the dagger from her garter.

  Entirely unaware, he dug his fingers into her thighs, pressing himself tightly between her legs as their tongues fought for dominance.

  Lust broke away from the kiss, staring at Seven in shock with eyes that were wide and fearful as with a stuttering breath his gaze slowly made it's way to the hilt of the dagger protruding from his chest.

  He made no sound, even if he tried he wouldn't have been able to as his legs gave way and fell to his knees before her, eyes screaming a terror that words never could.
—Only a single scarlet tear crawled from the corner of his lip as seven Sins became six.

***
QOTD-What do you think so far? Any thoughts or theories?