Dark Seduction Read Free Page A

grab Chastity, startled to find she was no longer there. He looked along the alley, but couldn’t see her.
    He scratched his head and shivered as he remembered the albino man and his cohorts disappearing in a similar fashion.
    Footsteps echoed in the distance.
    Chastity? He opened his mouth to shout, but the two police officers ran around the corner. In the gloom, they looked unnatural, composed of darkness. Visibly shaking, Zen tumbled through the door and slammed it shut. He scratched around the frame, found a bolt and threw it across, relieved that he could shut them out.
    He leaned against the door, wheezing. Sweat coated his body, making him feel uncomfortable. On the other side, he heard the police officers. Although hard to discern, it sounded as though they were sniffing the door. Zen frowned.
    As he caught his breath, he looked around, but it was too dark to see anything. He wasn’t going to venture back through the door, not while the police were on the other side, so he took a few tentative steps into the room, hoping to find another way out, his hands feeling for obstructions.
    He noticed a faint light in the distance, and he headed towards it. The ground felt slippery so he proceeded with caution. He took a breath, coughed; the air smelled fetid, like rotting vegetation or meat. Thick enough to chew, the aroma made him feel slightly sick. The ground didn’t help. Unreliable, it swayed as he stepped on it, like uneven flagstones.
    The light grew brighter, flickering and dancing across walls that seemed to twist and turn.
    “So you’ve made it.”
    The voice made Zen jump and he spun around to trace the source. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a flame and he turned towards it, mesmerised as it grew brighter, seeming to hover unnaturally in the air.
    “Who’s there?”
    The flame flickered like a serpent’s tongue. “Have you forgotten so soon?”
    “Forgotten what? What is this? Who are you?”
    “The bet.” The albino man stepped into the light and grinned.
    Zen swirled around, his heart pumping, fingers tingling. Not waiting around to find out what was going on, he ran in the opposite direction, but another light flared in his path and the albino man’s large partner appeared, his face bathed in the flame’s glow. Zen skidded to a halt and changed direction, but another flame flared and the bald headed man with the scars appeared. The odds didn’t look good.
    Zen clenched his fists, breath hitched in his throat.
    He couldn’t believe it. The card players had found him, although he had the gut feeling that he’d never been lost.

CHAPTER 3
     
    “Okay, what the fuck’s going on? What the hell is this place?” Zen tried to make his voice sound calmer than he felt but his heart was racing and a spear of ice penetrated his abdomen.
    “We want to lay out the rules of the bet,” the albino man said.
    “Bet. Are you stupid? You don’t really expect me to put my life up as a stake. And where the hell am I?”
    The albino man glared at Zen. “This is the place of dreams and nightmares. If people are willing to pay the price, they find us, or we find them. You accepted the bet. There’s no going back.”
    “You didn’t think I really meant it. Whatever it is, you can forget it. I’ll pay you the money back.”
    “Do you like pain?”
    Zen spat on the ground. “You can’t scare me. Bigger men than you have tried.”
    The albino man laughed. “I see you like having your body pierced. Perhaps if I show you some of the body modifications we’ve performed.” He clicked his fingers, creating a dry sound like snapping bone, and a figure materialised out of the dark.
    Zen bit his tongue and strained his eyes to make anything out. He didn’t know how they’d found him, but whatever they threatened him with, they couldn’t force him to do anything he didn’t want to.
    The figure stepped into the wan light of the candle and Zen almost choked.
    Naked, hideous stapled wounds were all