Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Syke
With Hailey and Otis out for the day, I decided to head to the demon district to feed. I didn’t feel hungry, which should have been concerning, but I wanted to get it out of the way before I did.
Infernus operated nearly twenty-four seven, as it was part nightclub, part sex club, and part demon buffet, so it wasn’t all that unusual for there to be a line around the block at two in the afternoon.
Astion was on the door, and he lifted his chin at me. “Syke,” he grunted.
“Astion,” I greeted and headed into the darkness, despite the sun being high in the sky.
It was slightly less packed than at night, but the people here at this hour were usually the most desperate.
The scent of it was thick, almost cloying in the air.
Normally, I would prowl toward the dance floor and pick my meal, but instead, I headed to the bar.
I was surprised to see Kirz there this early, making cocktails.
Her eyes lit up when she saw me. “Syke, I thought the rumors must have been true.”
“Rumors?” I asked. She slid me my usual across the bar, and I handed her a twenty, waving that she should keep the change.
“That you’d been sent back to hell for pissing off Archangel Michael.”
I smirked at her. “Yet here I am.” There was one rule among demon kind. Information was the real currency, and you didn’t give it away for free. I winked and headed to the dance floor.
I danced to some weird EDM mix of a human country song, and the dancers around me began to gravitate closer.
I could feel their lust and fear in equal measures, but instead of making me feel full, I felt a little gross.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t actually hungry, and I was just trying to force myself to feed.
I swayed to the music a little longer, not accepting any of the fluttering lashes or outright cunt flashes being cast my way. Finally, I moved off the floor. Maybe I was broken. I found a dark corner with a tabletop and scared off a few humans who were sitting there. I wasn’t alone for long though.
Vander joined me, setting his drink down beside mine. I was surprised to see him at this time of day, but he didn’t seem surprised to see me at all. Interesting.
I lifted my chin. “Vander. Early in the day for you.”
“Working lunch,” he replied, lifting his drink. “Why are you here? Not enjoying bonded bliss?” he teased.
I looked him dead in the eye—again, not something common among demon kind. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Frowning at me, Vander eventually shook his head and raised his glass. “To true love, or some such shit.”
I raised my glass, not arguing with him on the semantics of whether or not what I had with Hailey could be considered anything as pure as true love.
“I’m glad I caught you actually,” he said, like he hadn’t come here to find me.
You never knew who was listening. “I heard a fascinating rumor the other day that might interest you, though obviously it’s just gossip.
You know what demons are like.” He paused as a human in a thong and fishnets and nothing else danced up to our table.
He indicated with his finger for her to spin, and she did, sashaying in a circle, but her heart-shaped ass did nothing for me anymore.
Obviously it didn’t do anything for Vander either, because he shooed her away and continued.
“The humans are getting a little riled up, especially the hate groups. Humans only, the kingdom, and the preservers of humanity movement. Their weekly secret meetings have almost doubled in size, and if they managed to get past their own egos and join together, then they might actually be a real problem for us.”
“So I’ve heard.” Louis said his alpha had suggested as much. I sucked my teeth, the slight points slicing my tongue. “Hailey has nothing to do with them.”
Rolling his eyes, Vander threw back the rest of his drink. “Surprisingly, despite your one-track mind these days, I’m uninterested in your human consort.” I tried to read between the lines of what he was telling me. “The rumors suggest one of ours is stirring them up.”
I didn’t act surprised. It was exactly what a demon would do.
Most of us weren’t good guys. We fed off impure emotions like rage, lust, avarice, and greed like society was a hotpot, but most of us weren’t stupid enough to act against the arches and their very strict decrees regarding creature hate groups.
Wanted to start a gang? Have at it. Wanted to sell drugs in elementary schools?
Probably okay too, but you might be pushing the boundaries.
Riling up hate groups brought down heat from the other creatures, and some of them were powerful enough to make our lives difficult.
Shaking my head, I looked out over the crowd. “I’ll keep an ear to the ground, because that’s bad for business for all of us.”
“A rogue demon means bloodshed, Syke. I don’t have to tell you that.”
I nodded and watched the crowd. Bad news for all of us, but it certainly explained some things, like who was going to pay in blood for hurting Hailey.
* * *
When I shadow walked back to Hailey’s home—my home—Eric, Ilyas, and Louis were trying to build a grill in the backyard. All the pieces were spread around the lawn, and so far, the only thing that had been constructed were the wheels.
“I went to college, for fuck’s sake. How can these instructions be incomprehensible? Is this part A or part G? Why would they choose that font for the instructions?” Eric complained.
Ilyas was perched on the railing of the back deck, his wings hanging down behind him. He looked amused, a beer in his hand and a smirk on his face. A six pack sat on the rail beside him, and he wordlessly handed me one.
“Have they been at it long?”
“An hour. They got it mostly assembled but put something on backwards and had to take it apart again.”
We watched in silence for a little longer, Louis periodically sending accusing looks in our direction. I liked this new facet of our lives. It chased off the loneliness and ennui that was beginning to dog my steps like my shadows.
“Where did that screw go?” Eric asked, patting around his knees and then around Louis’s.
I spied it on the edge of the deck, and I picked it up with my shadows and handed it to them.
Eric took it from my shadow and smiled at me, his eyes hot.
With the exception of Louis and Hailey’s bonding, everyone had taken a big step back from the physical side of this thing we were creating.
Everyone needed to find their footing in our new normal, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to fuck them on every available surface of the house.
“Do you worry that the Creature Oversight Committee is going to disband the team when they find out about this?” Ilyas asked softly, and I shrugged.
“Throw out the whole team because we’re eating dinner together every night and fucking on the regular?
I don’t think so. We’d be a nightmare to replace.
” Otis alone came with a shit ton of experience, and I knew if the council threw us out, Otis would follow, despite not officially being part of the clan.
I raised an eyebrow. “Besides, I heard a rumor at the club, and I think the Creature Oversight Committee is going to have their hands full for a while.”
I told Ilyas what Vander said, and he frowned, the rumbling sound in his chest like thunder in the distance. That was how I knew he was pissed. “Seems like we have a lead. Any guesses which demon it might be?”
You could throw a dart and hit a demon who would benefit from a horde of riled humans for power, to feed, or maybe even just to cause chaos, because that was just what we did.
The sound of Otis’s truck pulling into the driveway had me straightening from the railing. Hailey was home. I looked over at Ilyas, my jaw clenched tight. “I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”