dead, and Ishida off the rails, that left only my father and me to offer any resistance to whatever Stepanov had planned.
“Spoken by someone who hasn’t had his dick wet in years,” Maldonado sneered at my father, his face twisted in disgust as though my dad was somehow less because he didn’t take advantage of the women at his disposal.
“What I do in my private time, and with whom, is none of your business, Maldonado.” The tone my father used was full of power, his multicolored gaze—one blue eye, one green, a trait he hadn’t developed until his death stare emerged—flashing like dangerous lightning. Maldonado glared, but refused to look my father in the eye. I wanted to smile smugly, but kept my expression one of boredom.
“Which do you choose?” Rahal interjected, not caring much about the pissing match going on across the table. His brown eyes were fastened on the simpering girl exuding all the confidence and sex appeal, the two practically eye fucking across the room. “I’ll take your leftovers. This time.”
The muscle in my jaw jumped while I tried not to grind my teeth together. Sloshing the rest of my whiskey against the crystal, I tipped it to my lips, downed the drink in one long gulp, and set the empty glass onto the wooden table before pushing my chair back. “You’re right. It’s been too long since I’ve had a woman. But why settle for one when I can have two?”
“You can have all three, my boy, if they all suit.” Stepanov wore a small, wicked smile, obviously seeing the displeasure on my dad’s face. My father might be a basilisk, but Stepanov was the real snake. He thrived on sowing discord and malcontent. His hand crept up the thigh of the woman in his lap while I stood and sauntered across the room. I couldn’t stand to watch anymore, and if these girls were my ticket out of this room, I’d take it.
“I think Rahal already has his eye on the blonde. Who am I to get in the way of his good time?” The question was rhetorical, and as much as my stomach turned to acid at the thought, the woman seemed ready and willing to be his plaything. The other two girls? Not so much.
“Ladies.” I inclined my head at the two girls, both who were around my age. Neither was willing to look into my eyes, the reputation of my alter preceding me—though I didn’t have the death stare my father did. “After you.” I motioned toward the exit, and they both went skittering off back through the door from whence they came.
Ishida side-stepped the girls, letting them pass before entering the room. “Finally moving on, Joshua?” he simpered. “I wonder what your precious Phoenix would think of your betrayal.”
“My betrayal?” I spat, letting all my hatred for Ishida bleed into my voice, the emotion easily covering my true feelings for Nix. “You know I have been released from my bid and thus any fealty to the Phoenix deserter who fooled us all.” I stepped into his personal space and stared down the celestial Kitsune, motioning with my hands as I spoke. “I have sworn my allegiance to this Council, the very one I have dedicated my life to serving from a young age. Need I remind you that I share the throne, same as you? That I have proven my loyalty to the Council time and time again? What more do you need to see from me before you are as pleased as the rest of the Council with my place among you?”
“You forget, boy” —venom dripped from the word— “that I was there—” Ishida’s eyes were crazed as he vibrated with virulent energy.
“When?” I taunted. “Where?” I knew full well Ishida had spun his narrative over Nix’s involvement in Ahmya’s death, one that made Nix the attacker and the murderer. According to Ishida, he’d stumbled on the entire affair only to view the moment Nix incinerated his daughter to nothing more than ash on the wind. The large crater left in the forest that he couldn’t cover up or hide was explained away as his reaction to grief and a hopeful retaliation against Nix, though he claimed she was already gone by the time it careened from the heavens, her mission accomplished and her competition destroyed. A tale he’d conveniently left me out of so I wouldn’t be questioned about the events of the day.
The only person in the Lodge