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They were not to aid a deel for a perceived offense They were to bring their grievances before the Heavenly High Council

Since Thane’s escape froo, he and his boys had done everything but aid a creature of the dark He wasn’t sure why they had been given this chance

If they failed to correct their behavior, their sins would eventually catch up to the hie He hat the demons had made him

Stars twinkled all around hi He’d chosen brick-and-mortar rather than a cloud, for he’d suspected toothe cloud to produce all s Plus, clouds were expensive While he could afford one, and could have chosen to live separately froh to know that he, too, would have taken advantage

Two doorere accessible from the roof One led to the club itself, and the other to his private chauards stood at attention on either side of both He nodded to the pair in front of his personal entrance, and they moved aside A lide open

The slow burind of music echoed fro room, where Bjorn and Xerxes waited Both reclined in plush velvet chairs and sipped at their drinks of choice

Thane stopped at the wet bar and poured hiainst the ence, he thought as he scanned the roos, queens, immortals and even hulossy shine Couches and chairs draped in luxurious fabrics, each a different jewel tone The rarest of rugs, chandeliers dripping with precious ge the human yet?" Bjorn asked He was, perhaps, one of the ilded with all that gold, his eyes like a mosaic of the most expensive of amethysts, sapphires, emeralds and tourmaline

But Thane remembered a time when the warrior had not looked so pretty Their captors had chained Thane to the filthy floor of their cell and strung Bjorn up above hi days, those same demons had peeled the skin froe the flesh Blood had rained upon Thane in a continuous flow, soaking him

Oh, how the warrior had screas had deflated and his throat had been nothing but pulp The de, pretending to be Bjorn while perfor all kinds of lewd acts

Xerxes had been chained to the wall across from them, his stomach pressed into the stone, his ars pried apart He was forced to listen to everything that was done to his friends, but unable to see it And maybe that orse He’d never knohat happened around his were done to him

The horror of his time in that cell had wiped all color fro him as white asthe irises red

None of them ever spoke of their incarceration and torture, but Thane knew just how his friends really were After every fight, Bjorn spiraled out of control After every sexual encounter, Xerxes vo

Thane had learned to ehts," Bjorn said The spiral from this last battle hadn’t yet hit him…but it would It always did

"Feed hiested "He’ll respond, I promise"

They’d asked him a question, hadn’t they…about Zacharel and the human, he recalled "What do you think?" he at last replied "Zacharel was in his office, writing a report about so Our performance, most likely"

"Think he’ll ever thaw?" Bjorn asked

Thane shuddered "Let’s hope not"

Xerxes rubbed the scars on his neck Everyone assumed his i like a poorly put together puzzle, but the truth was, his body was sie he constantly inflicted

"I killed sixteen demons at the institution," he said This was one of the only topics of conversation he enjoyed

"Twenty-three," Bjorn said, a thread of darkness in his tone

Thane added his tally in his head--he never forgot a kill "Only nineteen for ht in his expression "I win"

Xerxes flipped him off

"Such a sore loser" Thane tsked "And now a babysitter, too So where is the fallen you’ve been tasked with guarding? You haven’t "

He saw a flare of panic in those crimson eyes, quickly masked "He’s chained in my room"

The panic nearly broke Thane’s heart, for he knew Xerxes would never willingly hold anyone but a de to do with him?"

"I…don’t… Buy a cloud, I suppose Keep him locked there"

"I do not recommend that, my friend If you think he’s able to care for hiuilt wouldn’t let him