“What can I get for you, beautiful?” Fiore asked.
Simi smiled at the demon who always flirted with her. Fiore made no attempt to hide the fact that he was most interested in the Simi. Brave considering akri or Rik-rik would gut him if they ever saw it. “Gimme one of them pretty Shirley drinks, please. Extra cherries!”
Fiore laughed, then went to get her drink.
Simi turned around to scan the bar full of dancers. Cocking her head, she frowned as she saw Thorny’s son with a group of demons she didn’t know.
Tall and blond, E.T. tended to stand out even in a crowd. ’Course he looked a lot like his daddy. Eerily so at times, only he didn’t have the same sadness in his eyes that Thorny did.
“Here you go, Simi.”
Thanking Fiore, she took her drink and headed for E.T. and his group of friends.
As soon as he saw her approaching, he stopped laughing and cursed under his breath. Well that didn’t make her happy.
Really?
“E?” she asked.
He tried to shoosh through the crowd.
Now that was just plain ole rude and honestly, it made her angry! Aggravated, she teleported in front of him so that she could cut his path off.
“What are you doing?” Simi asked, tsking at him before she took a sip of her drink through the little red straw.
“I’m out with my friends, Simi. What are you doing here?”
“Dancing in my brother’s bar where I frequent a lot.” Simi glanced over to the dark demons who smelled like they’d just come out of Azmodea. “Why you hanging with lowlifes? I know your mama done taught you better than this.”
“They’re good friends, Simi.” He tried to move past her.
Simi cut him off again. “E …”
“Stop, Simi. I know what I’m doing.”
She arched a brow at his defiant tone. “Why you being so mean to the Simi?”
He had the decency to look sheepish and well he should for yelling at her like that when all she was trying to do was watch after him. “I’m not trying to be mean. I just don’t feel like I belong. You could never understand.”
“Of course I understand. You have any idea how many centuries I was the only Charonte in the human world? But you definitely don’t belong with them riffraff.” She cut a meaningful stare at the demons.
“Who you calling riffraff?” One of the demons sidled up to her.
Simi pushed him away daintily. “You, smelly demon. Why aren’t you in your hole where you belong?”
E.T. pulled him back. “Don’t pick a fight with Simi. It won’t end well for you.”
He raked an arrogant look over her body. “I’m not afraid of a Charonte.”
“Then you’re just terminally stupid, given the fact that her brother owns this club full of them.”
Simi gasped at the sound of Thorn’s deep voice cutting over the music as he appeared behind her.
E.T. cursed again. “What are you doing here, Thorn?”
He swept his gaze over the ones with E.T. and shook his head. “Visiting. And I think it’s time for your friends to leave.”
“I like my friends and I have no wish for them to go.”
