The Devil's Favourite Obsession

Cixi shifted slightly on the couch beside Cassian. Her fingers slowly tightened around the edge of the cushion. A cold tightness settled in her stomach as she imagined being handed over to those men after they had already lost their left hands.

Would they take them with them immediately or only after getting treated by a doctor?

Would they let them go home until they were healed, or would they keep them in the same basement waiting for their end day to arrive?

Cixi worried profoundly for her friends. She had the immortal curse, but Lily and Marion didn’t. And the thought of her friends made her throat dry.

She pressed her tongue sharply against the inside of her cheek, desperately trying to steady her erratic breathing.

Turning her head slowly, afraid that any sudden movement might draw the Cassian executioners’ attention, she found Lily and Marion standing stiffly behind the sofa, firmly held by the elite mafia guards, unable to escape even if they tried.

They looked more overwhelmingly terrified than ever.

Lily’s face was chalk-white, fresh tears streaming quietly down her cheeks. Marion was trembling so noticeably that Cixi could actually hear her teeth chattering.

Their wide, horrified eyes locked instantly onto Cixi, screaming frantically for a miraculous way out before they fell permanently into Binge’s bloody hands.

Cixi shifted her frightened gaze back to Cassian, whose breathtaking side profile was a stark contrast to his cruel nature.

Then why hadn’t he punished her when she barged into his execution room? she wondered wildly.

Why hadn’t he punished her for aggressively biting his lip and drawing blood? Or for demanding more spankings like a drunken lunatic?

Instead of ordering his elite men to cut off her hands for disrespecting him, he had simply asked her to send an application letter with self-degrading pictures.

’Will I ever understand him?’ She asked herself silently, her fingers spasming painfully against the leather couch.

There was absolutely no way to tell. Cassian’s mind was an impenetrable black box of violence. She concluded.

In the meantime, the lead intruder, Binge, shifted his massive weight nervously, sweat dripping down his temple, showing that he was not as confident as he pretended to be. He clearly hadn’t expected the confrontation to escalate to immediate dismemberment.

”Cassian, have you forgotten our good business deal?” Binge challenged, his voice tight, lacking the usual booming authority he carried in his own territory. ”It was a simple mistake. Are you really ready to jeopardise a profitable alliance because you couldn’t look away from one mishap?”

”Mishap?” Cassian repeated softly. He leaned back, making himself even more comfortable, but there was nothing remotely reassuring about the way his eyes darkened. His smile resembled a final gesture before sacrificing someone. ”A single mishap, and your life is forfeit!”

Cixi stiffened abruptly at his chilling words. Was he referring to the terrace incident when he was nearly assassinated?

She couldn’t quite decipher his feelings—was he disappointed for failing to protect himself, or angry about being unable to kill the shooter that night?

”Even God gives a third chance, Cassian,” Binge argued desperately, practically begging. He rubbed his sweating palms violently against his expensive trousers. ”My people are loyal to you. And you know that. But shouldn’t these women be punished as well? Or do you have a weak heart simply because they are women?”

”I am no god. I am merely a devil,” Cassian stated smoothly without taking any offence. ”And devils do not accept apologies. They require a pound of flesh. In this case, six left hands. Talk about yourself, Binge. Leave the women out of it.”

Cixi frantically scanned the green walls surrounding them. ’What mentally sick place is this?’ she thought, fully convinced that all the odour they saw was dedicated to a blood-soaked torture chamber. The claustrophobia was physically choking her.

Once she is out of this place, she will run to the police station and inform Officer Bill about the location. The man would definitely get an incredible promotion after busting into a place like that.

The fact that she was actually planning to inform a human cop before even figuring out how to save herself and her two best friends proved that the staggering stress was officially making her go entirely cuckoo.

”You can’t be fucking kidding me, Cassian!” Binge suddenly shouted, losing his careful composure. He threw his massive arms up in pure frustration. ”We were catching these women as per standard underworld protocol! I made a mistake, I agree! I should have known you were here! But taking a fucking hand for barging in? Ask for something else, or I swear to Christ I’ll take this matter straight to the council! Let’s see how they feel about you crippling allied mobs!”

Cassian’s dark eyes instantly narrowed, and the lethal glare that crossed his handsome face for a devastating fraction of a second could have frozen Hell itself. He studied Binge for a long, calculating moment, subtly nodding his head as if he were patiently listening to a voice nobody else in the room could hear.

”I will give you two weeks to find out exactly who tried to kill me on the long bridge,” Cassian offered him a choice. ”The exact names. The exact addresses. And the exact bank accounts that funded the hit.”

Binge froze for a moment, his eyes widening in total disbelief. ”The bridge? Cassian, nobody knows who orchestrated that! The trail is cold!”

”And if you do not return with a righteous name before those fourteen days expire,” Cassian continued, completely ignoring Binge’s frantic protest, ”I will not simply take six hands. I will personally take both. From the wrist down.”

Cassian offered the impossible deal not because he possessed a single ounce of fear regarding the High Council. He didn’t have time to deal with them.. not yet atleast.

The bridge attackers somehow remained completely hidden from Cassian’s vast, infinitely resourced network, and something felt dreadfully amiss.

Usually, Cassian found out the delicate information long before any assassins were even hired by his enemies. Now, using a desperate mobster frantically trying to keep his own hands to do the dirty work was a highly efficient, ruthless strategy.

”I... I will find out!” Binge replied without missing a beat. The stakes had just catastrophically shifted. It wasn’t just a handful of expendable foot soldiers on the line anymore. It was his own hands.

Cassian gave a short, dismissive nod, sealing the dangerous deal in blood and absolute fear.

”Now that the issue is fully settled, I would like to take the three females with me,” Binge demanded boldly, thrusting his thick chin forward. He pointed a heavily scarred finger directly at Marion’s face, then at Lily, and then at Cixi.