Betrayal in Elysium [malexmale]

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

I hurried back to Inferi to find Jahlia.

Please, please tell me Cain was just teasing me again. I knew this was what he wanted. He wanted me to be frantic and terrified. He liked watching me run around. He was a sadistic bastard that tormented me by taking everyone, and everything, away from me.

I used the paper that Jahlia had given me with her number and address on it to find her on the other side of Inferi. She lived in a very small, rundown apartment that was owned by a haggard old man that I recognized as one of Wind Storm's previous servants.

Wind Storm had been the sick pervert that owned Dorean before we did. I had never liked the man. He had been a pompous asswipe that would have kissed Malachi's left buttcheek if Malachi asked him. His servants were no matter, but one look at my murderous glare and the little shit cowered behind his counter, giving me Jahlia's room number. I went straight to it, breathing hard, heart hammering so hard against the inside of my chest that it burned.

I didn't love Jahlia.

I didn't know what love was anymore.

But she was a kindred spirit to me. I was drawn to her wisdom and her company. She was one of the first best friends I'd made in a long time, one that I got along with well and accepted my offbeat sense of humor.

I was honestly terrified of what I would see when I knocked on her door. Would she even answer it? What if she was lying in there, dead? What if what Cain had said was true and she was cut apart in there? I swallowed against the bile that threatened to rise into my mouth like acidic saliva. I held my breath, hearing footsteps on the other side of the door before it came open and Jahlia stood in the doorway, wearing a sleek black dress that hugged her curvy figure perfectly, long legs disappearing into a pair of sexy hooker boots. Her curly black hair was perfectly done up in a glossy ponytail with glitter sprayed over it to match her sparkling dark eyeshadow and eyeliner around her mystical green eyes.

"You're alive." I managed. Jahlia blinked, confused for a moment, before a frown worked itself onto her face.

"But Mimi isn't." She deadpanned. I hesitated at that. Part of me wanted to honestly blurt out that I didn't care about the other girl. I'd almost forgotten her name, if Jahlia hadn't mentioned her so many times last night. However, despite her calm expression, I could see the sorrow that haunted her emerald eyes and just grimaced. Jahlia stepped aside and let me into her rundown apartment.

It was a single room apartment, aside from the tiny bathroom that was more like a closet. It didn't even have a shower or tub in it. The tub was sitting in a far corner of the living room slash bedroom slash kitchen. A small fridge sat on a box labeled "clothes", sitting near a ratty sofa that pulled out into a bed. I tried not to grimace at the sight of it. Thank the gods I actually had a room, I realized, before turning as Jahlia shut the door, sighing in frustration.

"I take it Cain went after Mimi, thinking she was me." She said. I didn't comment, because she was right and she knew it. When I didn't answer, she frowned further as she went to the fridge and took out a couple of beers, handing me one that I was hesitant to take. My stomach still felt queasy after last night and the scare Cain gave me was making me feel like Jell-O.

"What happened?" I asked, pretending to be interested in the other prostitute. Jahlia cocked a brow at me as she took a swig of beer, leaning back on a busted old counter where the sink was, filled with her old clothes soaking in weird smelling soap.

"I dunno. You tell me. I come home and have to hear from my morning client that apparently Mimi was found dead outside the bar last night. She was cut open and her intestines were tied around her neck." She explained. Her voice didn't waver even once, but the glimmer in her eyes didn't fade, which succeeded in sparking a bit of foreign guilt in me.