Dalthan struck the reeling [Swindler] with a flying tackle that bore them both to the ground. The scrawny mage hit the floor on his back with most of the thief’s weight planted squarely on his chest. While Zaplixel desperately wheezed to replace the wind Dal had knocked from his lungs, the [Rogue] wasted no time scrambling atop the older man to pin him to the ground. With a knee to either side of Zap’s chest, the thief rose to a sitting position while he straddled the weakly flailing mage. He heard a shriek coming from somewhere deeper in the room, but his attention was wholly focused on the asshole prick beneath him.

“Wait!” Zap gasped, struggling to catch his breath. “I thought you said we were even after you cut off my fucking finger!”

Dalthan tilted his head as if deliberating over the wizard’s case. Like an unhappy judge, he shook his head curtly and moved to draw the dagger that waited at his hip. “Yeah, I changed my mind when I saw your face. I want more than a finger to even the scales. I think I’ll take a hand this time and we’ll see if that makes me feel better.”

Zap’s pale blue eyes widened and his struggle to escape the thief’s clutches grew noticeably more desperate.

Dalthan used one hand to fend off the mage’s ineffectual strikes while he tugged his long knife free.

Before it could clear the leather sheath, Dal felt a firm hand with exceptionally long nails settle on his shoulder. The thief tried to ignore it, but the rapidly increasing pressure of its grip made him feel like his collarbone might shatter at any second. Still swatting at Zap’s flailing hands, the [Rogue] spared a glance over his shoulder to see who was interrupting his moment of revenge.

Standing behind him, swathed in a loose-fitting black robe, was a [Red Dragon] in human form. Polly’s slitted eyes gleamed with an intensity that made Dal’s blood run cold despite the room growing hotter by the second.

“There will be no bloodshed here,” the proprietress said. Like a boa constrictor inexorably clamping down on its prey, her hand continued to tighten as she spoke. “I don’t know who that man is, but there are rules, Dalthan. You can settle your grudge somewhere else.”

The thief grits his teeth against the steadily increasing pain, barely noticing Belial and Agadeem enter the rapidly filling room. “I thought this place was the Hub of Evil. Why the fuck are there so many rules?”

“Because if there weren’t, I’d have cut your tongue out by now.” The answer came from the old woman that hobbled into the room with the help of the gnarled stick in her hand. The [Witch-Queen] walked around the two men, her back hunched and her thin lips drawn into a disdainful frown. When she spoke, her voice rasped through the room like a night wind blowing across an empty graveyard. “It’s a shame someone hasn’t already done it. Maybe we should rectify that problem after you answer my questions.”

Dalthan scowled, unconsciously flinching away from the steadily increasing pressure on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, you greasy-haired skeleton. I’ll go over there and rectify you just as soon as I relieve this fucker of a hand.”

Belial, The Lady of Strife and Shadow, stepped between them to break the venomous glare the two had been sharing. The sway of her hip as she moved and the way her red dress slithered across her sumptuous flesh drew his eyes away from the old crone. Dalthan found himself moistening his suddenly dry lips when the drow’s glittering ruby eyes settled upon him.

“You know you can’t do that, Aunt Aga.” Smooth as satin and warm as a forbidden kiss, Belial’s tone was the opposite of Agadeem’s brittle voice. “I think you already crossed the line with your stunt back at the cottage.”

Whatever Agadeem mumbled in reply was lost to him when the Zaplixel spoke up. “Do you know who that is?”

Dal tilted his head down, noticing for the first time that the wizard had gone limp beneath him. He grudgingly let his dagger slide back into its sheath, the motion immediately followed by the relaxing of the inexplicably powerful hand on his shoulder. Free of the eye-watering pain, the thief followed Zap’s gaze to where the wizard’s pale blue eyes were focused on the [Witch-Queen]. The [Rogue]’s eyes flickered between the two for several seconds before he replied.

“At a guess, I’d say the last woman to willingly touch your dick.” The thief continued as Zap’s gaze snapped back toward him. “Don’t keep looking at her floppy tits. You’re making the whole room feel awkward.”

“What?” Zaplixel’s bushy brows rose, giving birth to a series of deep wrinkles that crisscrossed his bald head. “No, you fucking moron! That’s Agadeem! The [Witch-Queen]!” The wizard began to struggle, renewing his attempt to dislodge the rogue. “And she was the last person to touch my dick!”

The furious [Swindler] flung a hand to the side to indicate the bed set against the far wall. Though it lacked the elaborate decorations of the bed in the previous room, it was considerably cleaner. And slightly less occupied. Instead of a trio of disgusting deviants, this one held a single elven woman with blue eyes and hair the color of corn silk.

At Zaplixel’s outburst, every head in the room turned to look at the woman on the bed who’s covered herself with a thin blue sheet. A long, pregnant moment passed before the elf lifted a slender shoulder, exposing an expanse of pale skin the color of polished alabaster.

“I wouldn’t call it willing,” the woman said. “He paid me for the service.”

All eyes returned to Zaplixel who was visibly withering beneath the attention.

“And there we have it,” Dalthan said, rising to his feet with a satisfied smile. He might not have gotten one of the prick’s hands, but he’d settle for a nice, generous slice of his self-esteem.

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Dal had never imagined a lizard rolling their eyes, but that’s exactly what Polly did before turning her attention back to the woman on the bed. “That’ll be all, Lorna. I’ll have someone fetch you when we’re done with the room.”

The blonde elf nodded and unceremoniously tossed the sheet aside. Lorna was naked as the day she was born and Dalthan couldn’t help admiring the way her body moved as she gathered up her clothes and crossed the room. She’d obviously spent a lot of time working on her figure, so it would have been rude to ignore her.

After watching the sway of her ass until she stepped through the door, Dalthan turned back to see the [Witch-Queen] smirking at him and the [Archpriestess] tapping the toe of her boot with her arms crossed against her chest. Sensing something amiss, the rogue’s emerald eyes flickered from one woman to the other.

“What?” The [Rogue] asked, feeling a strange chill creeping up his spine.

“They’re waiting for you to finish asserting dominance, Human Dalthan.” Vex’s vibrating croak rose from his shadow. A heartbeat later, the blue slaad emerged from the darkness to the accompaniment of Zap’s scream as the wizard crab walked backward across the floor to put distance between himself and the hulking murder frog.

“What the fuck is that?!” Zap yelled when his back struck the far wall.

Dalthan rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you’ve never seen a murderous abomination before. I know for a fact you were on an adventure with Keysha earlier today.”

Belial’s eyes narrowed, the twist of her lips becoming an even more severe frown. “Rude,” she said simply.

“But not untrue,” Zaplixel conceded, proving once again that the prick had no sense of loyalty.

A certain blue slaad refused to be distracted by the byplay. “You must finish your domination, Human Dalthan. I will help because his skinny arms look very crispy.” The massive frog wiggled its long, clawed fingers in anticipation.

But before it could take one lumbering step toward the terrified mage, Polly spoke up, causing waves of heat to wash over the room as if an invisible bonfire blazed somewhere just out of sight.

“I said no blood. I will be most cross with the collective if I have to inform the slaadi that one of their kin has forgotten how to respect the will of their betters.” The [Red Dragon] hadn’t moved, but Dal could see fine tendrils of black smoke slithering across the floor like a nest of vipers that’d been disturbed by a clumsy foot.

The slaad immediately stilled. Its coal-black eyes reluctantly turned away from the [Swindler] to address Dalthan. “We will have to postpone the dominance. But next time! Next time we will bathe in his blood and enjoy the snap of his bones beneath our teeth!”

Vex punctuated its pep talk with a painfully solid clap of its heavy hand against the shoulder Polly had nearly broken. The thief did well to hide a wince, even going so far as to offer the dangerous abomination a strained smile and a thumbs up. “You got it. The last time I bathed in blood was when one of the girls down at the Silver Fin didn’t tell me she was on her per-”

“As amusing as all this is,” Agadeem broke in. Her scratchy voice clawed at his eardrums like a rat gnawing a hole through a block of cheese. “Why don’t we get back to the business at hand? We all have more important places to be.” The [Witch-Queen]’s golden eyes slid across the [Rogue] in a dismissive glance. “Most of us do, anyway.”

“Hey, lady, I know you’re getting forgetful in your old age, but let me remind you that you're here chasing me.” The acid in the thief’s reply could have etched steel. “So you’re welcome to march your wrinkly ass right back to your musty cottage.”

Belial seemed to be on the verge of trying to play mediator again, but Polly beat her to it.

“Look, boy, you may not like the witch, but she’s right. We’ve all got other things to be doing. Even you. Did you tell me that the reason you ended up here was to find somewhere to sleep?” Polly shifted, digging into a pocket of the robes she wore. The movement nearly sent her loose garment sliding to the floor, yet it inexplicably clung to her body as if through force of will alone. Unconcerned with her near costume malfunction, the [Red Dragon] lifted a long-stemmed pipe to her lips to take a long draw.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” she said after exhaling a long plume of azure smoke that held an aroma that Dal had never encountered before. “If you answer Agadeem’s questions, I’ll let you stay here tonight. For free.”

Dalthan felt strangely at peace with the idea of spending an evening at The Pleasure Palace. Some part of him argued that it felt wrong to just give in to the witch’s pushy attitude. But the longer he breathed in the strange smoke that was steadily filling the room, the harder it grew to hold on to his anger. It was like trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

He couldn’t even remember why he wanted to be angry in the first place. Isn’t that just a waste of energy? Everything would be so much easier if they could all work together for a common cause. Like feeding the hungry. Or getting him laid.

Eager to share his new epiphany, he turned to Vex only to find the murder frog carefully examining his large, clawed hands as if he’d never seen them before. Zap was, likewise, no help. The old prick was slumped down and snoring against the far wall.

Next on his list was Belial. She, at least, seemed to pay attention when he turned toward her. “I think that’s enough, Polly.” The voluptuous dark elf said with a shake of her head.

Dalthan’s brows furrowed a feeling that brought a child-like giggle bubbling up past his lips. After wiggling his forehead for several seconds, he finally remembered what he was going to ask. “Enough of what?”

“I think she’s right,” the witch said, completely ignoring him and the concerned look Belial was flashing his way. “Much more and he’ll end up passed out like the other one.”

“Suit yourself,” Polly said. Her voice slid across his skin like a shower of warm sand. “But I’m not chasing this asshole down again. Do you hear me? He’s your responsibility now. I’ve cleared the room next door. Use it and then see yourselves out. He can stay here and sleep it off.”

“I may stay with him,” Belial said as she stepped forward and hooked her arm around his. “He has a way of disappearing and I’d rather not have to explain to Ancev that I lost him. Again.”

The sway of her long, white hair drew his attention like a brightly colored candy catching the eye of an excited child. Dal lifted a hand, lightly brushing his fingers through those luxurious white locks, much to Belial’s bemusement.

“So soft,” the rogue said with his typical eloquence.

“Yes,” Agadeem said dryly with a shake of her head. The old woman shuffled her way toward the door. As she walked by them, Belial began to follow, half dragging Dalthan with her.

“Let us plumb the sordid depths of the boy’s memory,” the witch muttered. “I can’t wait to hear the profound wisdom locked away in his sleazy little mind.”