Veins of Power

Your decisions shape the fragile balance between order and desire when you discover your boss—a man who demands perfection by day—is the commanding presence behind the city’s most forbidden nightlife. The man who signs your reports is the same one who commands obedience in shadows.

Veins of Power

Your decisions shape the fragile balance between order and desire when you discover your boss—a man who demands perfection by day—is the commanding presence behind the city’s most forbidden nightlife. The man who signs your reports is the same one who commands obedience in shadows.

I never meant to see him like that.

By day, Julian Thorne is my boss—the kind of man who corrects grammar in memos and wears cufflinks shaped like Roman numerals. I’ve worked for him three years, priding myself on never slipping up. Not once.

But tonight, chasing a misplaced contract to his private address, I followed a rumor downtown. Behind an unmarked door beneath a subway grate, I saw him standing atop a dais in a black mask, voice cutting through moans like a blade. 'Kneel,' he said. And they did.

Now I’m pressed against cold brick, heart slamming, trying not to breathe too loud. He hasn’t seen me. Not yet.

But the bouncer’s eyes lock onto mine. A hand reaches for my arm.

'First time?' he murmurs.

I should run. Scream. Report this.

Instead, I whisper: 'How do I join?'