Calix tipped back a shot of Elysia and continued scanning the Sanctuary crowd. He hadn’t wanted to leave Ava’s side, but duty had called, and he didn’t want to let it fall on his brothers’ shoulders. Someone had to man the club while Gavin searched for Denya.

Calix knew all too well how maddening the unknowns could be. How a man could search for someone, night after night, and wake with the singular ambition to do it all over again. How, against all of the odds and possibilities stacking up against him, he could cling to one thread of hope and push himself to keep trying.

Calix had been there. And he was damn sure not planning to be in that position again.

Ordinarily, he’d tuck himself inside his office and watch the crowd of club-goers from the digital monitor on his desk. But if the gorilla-faced bastard dared to step into his club again, Calix wanted to be the first on his ass. Not a chance in all of Obsidius would he let anyone take Ava from him again.

He watched. Waited. Kept himself on alert, knowing the chances of that bastard showing up were slim.

“Don’t see you much, down in the trenches, Boss.” The voice from behind prompted Calix to turn on his stool until facing Pat, the bartender, who pushed another shot in front of him. “What’s the occasion?”

“Keeping an eye on things,” Calix said, tossing back the amber liquor. A bitter warmth slid down his throat, and Calix squinted his eyes as he downed the last of the Elysia.

“Shit I’ve seen go down in this club, I think you’d need an army to keep the peace sometimes.”

With a smirk, Calix nudged the shot glass back toward Pat and glanced over his shoulder at the relatively calm throng of scantily-clad females, and the males who studied their every curve. “Seems quiet tonight.”

“Don’t jinx it. For fucks sake, I slept a total of two hours last night. Can’t deal with demon bullshit.”

“How do you keep this all under wraps, Pat?” Calix gestured toward the variety of supes in the crowd. “I mean, humans talk. You’ve got barbecues, poker night, church on Sunday. How the hell do you go day to day without slipping up and saying something?”

“What, demon shit? It’s easy. I have an aversion to being considered crazy.”

A chuckle burst from Calix’s chest, and he gave a nod. “This shit is definitely crazy train material.”

“My mother asks how work is going. I tell her it’s boring. All I do is serve drinks to sorry saps looking to avoid going home to their wives. If she knew that I served a Saevious demon last week? She’d be asking the priest to perform an exorcism on me.”

Another bout of laughter pushed back Calix’s thoughts from earlier, and for the first time, he realized he could relax and enjoy a simple conversation. For months, he’d been preoccupied. Years, really, because prior to Ava running off, he’d had her brother Ryke to contend with. Only recently could he let his mind go blank and enjoy the moment.

“I got an order to take care of. Chat later, boss.” Pat knocked the bar-top and made his way to the opposite end, toward a young blonde sitting with two brunettes.

All three sets of eyes riveted on Calix, and a flash slipped behind his eyes, paralyzing him in his seat. In the visual, the two brunettes ate each other out, while the blonde sucked him off.

Fuck, stop it. Stop it.

Calix shook his head, horrified that he could even fantasize such a thing, when the love of his life waited for him back at the mansion.

Pinned to the bed. One female feeding him her tits. Another licking her asshole from behind. The blonde riding him.

Christ! He thumped his temple with the heel of his hand and clamped his eyes shut. Unfortunately, the visuals had already taken hold, and Calix’s body responded with the urge to act on them.

A tremble moved through his muscles, as the blonde made her way toward him with both girls in tow.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Molten lava crawled through his veins with every step they took closer, his dick so hard in his pants, he damn near wanted to cry. He hated his body’s reaction. Wanted to tear the urge right the fuck out of his gut and walk away from the three beautiful females, but he couldn’t. Every muscle remained locked up in a state of paralysis.

A unison of moans. Calix fucking a brunette from behind, while she buries her face in the blonde’s pussy.

No, no, no. With every fantasy, the urge grew stronger. The thirst ready to drive him mad.

“Hello, handsome.” The blonde leaned in, dangerously close to his ear, her breath fanning his sensitive skin. “My friends and I were looking for a quiet place to eat some pussy. Know where we might find one?”

Jaw clenched, Calix willed himself not to answer, but when the words, “My office,” slid past his lips, he knew he was fucked.

“That sounds perfect. You’re welcome to watch us.”

He wanted to tear her voice-box out and tell her no, but instead, he rose up from the barstool, his legs on autopilot as they carried him to the elevator.

Don’t do this, the sane part of him argued, but the urges had become stronger than Calix’s resistance. He’d gotten some relief with Ava, but the incubi required sex. And because he’d denied himself it for so long, his body had begun to commandeer his mind.

The moment they stepped inside the elevator, the blonde and one of the brunettes backed themselves in the corner, and only the slurping sound of their wet kisses could be heard above the gears of the elevator. The second brunette stood beside Calix, a smile stretching the bright red lipstick across her face, and her hand drifted inside his buttoned down shirt. “I like having a fourth. Sometimes, I feel left out, the way those two go at each other.” Her lips were at Calix’s ear before he could utter a protest—as if he could, at all—and she licked the shell of it. “You should hear Nadia scream when she comes. So fucking hot.”

A shudder rippled down his spine at the thought. He didn’t want it to. He wanted only to imagine Ava’s face, steeped in ecstasy that he’d brought her, but he could damned near hear the blonde crying out, her voice drowned by his own grunts, as he fucked one of the girls while watching her climax.

Head swelling with the agony of debate, his body reveled in the pleasures to come. He’d fuck them a thousand ways before the night’s end. Three times the relief, all at once. Each of them would be more sated than they’d ever been in their lives, if they survived, and he’d have the torment of going back to Ava, knowing he’d betrayed her. That he’d completely destroyed her trust, however uncontrollable it was. She’d never understand the complex nature of his body’s needs, and how it could take over his mind, if Calix tried to stop it.

He’d reached the point of madness without even knowing.

Somehow Calix envisioned the stage as something more dramatic. He’d never dreamed that he’d be fine one moment and desperately clinging to restraint the next.

Starvation was funny sometimes.

At the ding of the elevator, the doors opened onto the office wing of the club, and Calix led the three females down the hall. A strange sensation moved through him, something dark and carnal. He closed his eyes, and behind his lids, more fantasies played out like a bad movie.

Blood. Screams. Lifeless eyes staring back at him.

His body shook as he reached his office, and Calix gripped the doorframe for support. The small measure of control he’d clung to had begun to thin, on the verge of snapping away.

“Are you okay, babe?” The blonde set a hand on his arm, and against all of his instincts roaring inside his head to throw her against the wall and fuck the life right out of her, he clenched his teeth.

“Get. Out of here.”

“But you said—”

“Now! You want to die tonight? Get the fuck out!” Heat blazed across his skin as his incubus itched to break free, to take its natural form and hunt for food. Branches of red danced across his skin, while the demon inside of him pushed through his flesh. “Go!”

All three girls backed away and twisted on a dead run toward the elevators.

His senses piqued. A cold bite of excitement struck his muscles like a snake pumping wicked venom through his veins.

The chase.

It enticed him.

Calix’s nails dug into the wall as he struggled to hold on, to keep from going after the girls.

The urge took over.

He pounded down the corridor, amused by their screams that echoed throughout the hallway. How he couldn’t wait to hear them scream beneath him.

The blonde jabbed a finger against the elevator button. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!”

“Hurry! Nadia, hurry!” The brunette screamed.

When the elevator opened, all three girls piled in.

Calix pushed speed from his legs, watching the light dim as the doors closed.

He ran faster.

Determined to catch them, he dove headfirst as the doors made their final click, and the cold slam at the top of his head zinged down into his spine and nose, filling his sinuses with the warm tingle of pain.

He fell back onto the floor, and as he stared up at the rafters in the ceiling, they blurred and sharpened, then blurred completely out of focus again.