My guess was the former.
And as a cop in a city as messed up as this one, it turns out her job was an interesting topic to discuss.
She tucked a strand of hair, almost perfectly straight, behind her ear as it came loose from her ponytail. Nikki was fighting a losing battle trying to keep her hair up. The tie had slipped too far down, and while it could be tightened, I don’t think her fingers could manage the fiddly task with how many drinks she’d been putting away. I wished she’d give up and let her hair fallwild and free to match her mood.
“Nothing to say there, hot stuff?” she prompted me, rousing me from my musings.
Taking a swig of my beer, my smirk was still firmly in place. It was practically my dominant expression by now, amused by humanity and life on the surface as I was. It was nice to feel comfortable here like I never did in Hell. “Nothing much to say to respond to that.”
“Don’t you want to return the compliment?”
“Did you only compliment me to get one in return?”
“No…” she emphasized the word by slamming her glass down on the table, “… but it would be gentlemanly to return the compliment.”
“You have a very fuckable mouth.”
She laughed, drinking again. “Not much of a gentleman, are you?”
“Not that I’ve been told.”
“Fine, I’m not looking for a gentleman.”
“What are you looking for?”
She shrugged. “I don’t want to think about today. I just want to forget until tomorrow.”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“I return to my job, my life, and have to consider the implications of his death.”
Should I ask her whose?
She was watching me. “A coworker, if you must know.”
Her lip lifted, revealing perfect teeth, her sneer perfectly matching the scorn in her tone. My, wasn’t she an open book? She wasn’t bothering to hide her hatred for someone, even on the day of their funeral.
But her reaction did beg me to say, “Doesn’t sound like you were too fond of the guy.”
“I wasn’t. He was a crooked cop.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. “So why are you here drinking your sorrows away over someone you didn’t like?”
“I’m not sad about his death, but I’m certain the person who was responsible was also accountable for my father’s murder. It just brought up a lot of stuff, okay?”
She was challenging me to push further, but this wasn’t a line of questioning I wanted to pursue. Besides the fact she had made it clear she didn’t want to talk about it, I was here for a good time, just like her.
I held up my hands. “I’ll ask nothing more about it.”
She smiled, the frown melting away. “Good, thank you.”
My head tilted slightly to the side while I watched her. Humans were fascinating, and it had been several months since I’d decided to take up permanent residence on Earth. There weren’t many of us who made the move permanent compared to the total population of demons, but if humans knew how many demons there were on the surface, they’d be disturbed.
No doubt they’d be disturbed by even one.
Although Nuno seems to have found a human who stuck around even after she saw him for what he truly was. But the fear on her face when she witnessed him beginning the change—his eyes yellowing and skin a map of black and bright red—isn’t something I took pleasure in.
When I wanted people to be afraid of me,thenI’d take pleasure in it.
