Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Reo put a finger to his lips.
She stared at him for a long second. Then her gaze drifted to the guns. Her eyes went wide.
But she didn't scream.
She just stepped back into the room she'd come from and pulled the curtain shut.
Smart woman.
We kept moving.
My heart rate was climbing now. Each corner was a gamble. Every open doorway a potential pair of eyes that would end our invisibility.
The Claws scanned constantly—left, right, ahead, behind—their heads moving in practiced sweeps.
Hiroko whispered from behind us. "Left at the next junction. Then straight for a while. It opens up into—"
"Shh." Hiro raised a fist.
Everyone stopped.
I listened for what he had already heard.
That was the best thing about my brother. Those damn ears were fucking supernatural, catching sound many minutes before a normal person.
All I heard was music, but I didn’t fucking move, until Hiro gave the signal.
We waited, and then the sound came.
Footsteps.
Heavy ones.
Boots coming from around the corner ahead. How the fuck did you hear that over the music, Hiro?
Hiro flattened against the wall. I did the same. The Claws and Hiroko pressed into the shadows on both sides of the hallway, and for a moment we were all just breathing and waiting—a dozen armed men hiding in a brothel like ghosts.
The footsteps got closer.
Then closer.
A security guard rounded the corner. Then another one right behind him. Both were in mid-conversation with each other.
They saw us at the same time we saw them.
The first guard's hand shot to his radio.
I spotted the fox brand on his neck.
Kaede was already moving, closing the distance in three strides silent, low, fast—and drove his palm upward into the first guard's chin.
The man's head snapped back and his teeth cracked together.
Before the sound even registered, Kaede hooked a hand behind his neck and slammed his face into the wall. Bone met concrete. The guard's nose collapsed inward with a wet crunch, and his knees buckled.
The second guard stumbled backward, reaching for his gun.
Kaede didn't give him the chance as he planted one foot on the wall—pushed off it— and launched himself sideways, catching the guard's head between both hands mid-air. The momentum carried them both into the opposite wall, and Kaede used the impact to twist.
Hard.
The crack was sharp.
Final.
The guard's body went limp before they hit the ground.
Kaede landed in a crouch on top of him. He rolled off.
The first guard was still alive—barely. Crawling on the floor with a shattered face, blood pouring from his mouth, one hand still weakly reaching for the radio on his belt.
Kaede stood, walked over, put his boot on the back of the man's neck, and pressed down slow.
The guard twitched once, twice, and then nothing.
Two bodies.
No gunshots.
No sound louder than the bass still thumping through the walls.
Hiro looked at the other Claws. "Kaede’s in the lead for the sword.”
Toma spat on the ground.
A third guard appeared at the far end of the hallway.
Fox brand.
Gun already rising.
Daisuke's arm moved in a blur. His knife left his hand and spun once—a single clean rotation through the red light—and buried itself in the man's throat up to the hilt.
The guard's gun hand dropped. His mouth opened, but the only thing that came out was blood. He staggered sideways into the wall, fingers clawing at the handle in his neck, and then his legs gave out.
He slid down the wall, leaving a dark smear behind him.
“I’m at least in second place for that sword.” Daisuke walked to the body, crouched, and pulled the knife free with a short, sharp tug. He wiped the blade on the dead man's shirt, flipped it once, and slid it back into his belt.
I jerked my chin at the Scales. “Hide them.”
They rushed over, grabbed the three bodies by their collars, dragged them into a dark alcove between two curtained rooms, and shoved the bodies deep into the shadows, stacking them against each other like discarded furniture.
One Scale pulled a heavy curtain across the alcove's entrance. They weren’t invisible, but good enough for now.
"Move." I headed off.
We went left at the junction, just as Hiroko had directed, then straight.
Then, the hallway opened up and the space that unfolded in front of us was massive.
Cavernous.
A sprawling chamber bathed in deep red and amber light. The ceiling disappeared into darkness above. Silk curtains hung from invisible fixtures, some drawn, most open. Low platforms covered in cushions filled the floor in every direction, and on them. . .nude bodies.
Dozens of them.
A fucking orgy.
Hiroko widened her eyes. “Well. . .this is a change I didn’t know about.”
Men and women were intertwined on every surface. Half-lidded eyes rolled back in ecstasy or drug-induced abandon. Their writhing bodies slick with sweat and baby oil. Limbs tangled. Mouths on skin. Hands gripping, pulling, guiding. Teeth biting and grazing. Breasts bobbed. Nipples dripped with cum and saliva.