“I wouldn’t know. My mother says I was born ninety.” Sorcha frowned as she saw a shadow among the trees. “You live here?” she asked Laura.
“Close by. Why?”
Hands on hips, Sorcha saw another golf cart speed by. The occupants all waved at her. “This is an unusual place. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Yeah, I know. I grew up in North Carolina and moved here a few years back when I came down for a conference at the movie studio. I fell in love with it. Are you from Georgia?”
“Not at all.”
Laura tsked. “Watch out in Savannah, then. With your sensitivities, it’s going to test you.”
She wasn’t kidding about that. Sorcha had only been there for less than a week and it’d been hard on her already. “I’ve noticed.”
Luke hung up and walked back to them. “Sorry, Laura. We gotta go.” He glanced at Helly and Sorcha. “We have a more pressing case in Savannah.”
Sorcha arched a brow. “How so?”
“Dead college student. The captain wants us back as soon as we can get there. This is high profile with the news crawling all over it.”
“What about the Dire?” Sorcha asked.
He met Laura’s gaze. “Can you keep an eye out and let me know if you find anything?”
“You know I will, cutie pie. Last thing I need is someone bringing attention to my species. We only need one Dire per region, and I’ve claimed this one as mine.”
Luke inclined his head. “Understood. I’ll be in touch once I find out what’s going on in Savannah.” He gestured in the direction of the Kroger parking lot where they’d left his car. “Shall we, Lady Detective?”
Sorcha had no idea why that gave her a bit of a chill, yet it did. “You know, you’re awfully polite for a demon.”
He led the way along the path. “We’re not all bad. And as Imp noted, I’m technically another species. Demons are their own thing. But they can be quite charming when they want.”
Helly grinned. “He’s right. Charm and perfection are what they’re known for.”
“Really? I always thought it was soul sucking.”
Luke sighed heavily. “Hard to suck someone’s soul when you’re an asshole. And for the record, you can’t take a soul. It has to be given over freely. So demons come in slick and insidious so that they can charm you out of it. As I’m sure you know, people are attracted to shiny.” He cracked a grin at her and threw his head back playfully so that his hair rippled around his shoulders. “It’s why I shine so bright. I like being the candle to the moths.”
Sorcha laughed at his exaggerated teasing. “Now, that’s the kind of arrogance I expect from the son of the devil.”
“Not arrogance. Just truth. We’re not at all like the ghosts you see.”
He was right about that. “True. Ghosts don’t try to possess anyone.”
Luke paused to pin her with a frightening glare. “You don’t know much about demons, do you?”
“Not really. I’ve tried to avoid them as much as possible. But I have definitely dated a few…on accident.”
Passing a look to Helly, he started walking through the woods. “Just like people, they’re not all alike. There are many different races of demons. And a complicated hierarchy.”
That was something she definitely didn’t know. “Really?”
“Yeah. The ones who want to take up residence in others…they’re bottom feeders and are as hated by us as they are by you.”
Huh… She’d have thought they were revered. “Why?”
“Because humans lump us together. Just like there are slimy humans, there are slimy demons. Those bastards make us all look bad.”
And Luke definitely wasn’t slimy. Proven by the fact that he opened the car door and held it for her.
