“My thirtieth birthday is coming up.” She pointed her sword at her sister in a quasi-menacing manner. “And don’t give me the lecture Dad did, about being immortal and waiting for five hundred years or some shit. Sex looks fun, and I’m missing out.”
“Missing out?” Aleka barked out a bitter laugh. “Sex is overrated.”
“Really? Even with a Seminus demon?”
Suddenly fascinated by the selection of truncheons and maces next to the axes, Aleka drifted over. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Liar.” Scotty followed her sister, refusing to give her an escape route on this topic. “You can deny it all you want, but I know you hooked up with Sabre.”
Aleka halted mid-step and wheeled around, her pale cheeks burning with outrage.
Ooh, there was definitely a juicy story here.
“What did he say to you?” she demanded.
Scotty paused dramatically, mostly to watch her sister squirm. She blinked a lot when she was anxious.
“He didn’t say anything,” she finally said. “He doesn’t need to. Everyone saw you leave Aunt Limos’s party with him.”
“I told you before, we didn’t leave together. He left first.” Aleka huffed in annoyance. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Nothing happened. So, drop it.”
“Come on, sis,” Scotty begged. She, Mace, and Blade had spent weeks trying to figure out what had gone down that night. Aleka and Sabre had flirted all day, putting their heads together as they laughed at private jokes, exchanging sneaky touches, and eye-fucking each other when they thought no one was looking. The sultry Hawaiian air between them had practically sizzled with erotic energy. “You can tell me. Obviously,somethinghappened, because you both get all grumpy and evasive when the subject comes up.”
“Well,” Aleka said, pivoting crisply back to the weapon racks, “maybe you shouldn’t bring it up, then.”
Hmm. Probably not going to happen. Scotty was way too nosy. She wanted the dirt. All of it. Must have been juicy to make Aleka and Sabre miss the event that had rained their grandmother’s blood down on the party.
“If you want to know what sex with a Sem is like,” Aleka continued, as she perused the top row of close-range weapons, “I’m sure Mace or Blade would be happy to show you.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. And deep down, she was still a little bitter about that. She’d told Aleka that she didn’t want to be a thirty-year-old virgin, but really, it was more about moving on with her life. Maybe finally being with a guy would make her quit pining for what she couldn’t have.
“I told you. We all swore an oath to protect our friendship and our team. I can’t sleep with either of them. Also, you really should choose a longer weapon. Try a spear or a halberd. And something small you can throw.”
Ignoring Scotty, Aleka ran her finger over the worn wooden handle of a war hammer. Long or short, she preferred crushing weapons over slicing and penetrating ones.
“They don’t cause as much blood,” she’d once said.
To which their father had answered,“It depends on what you hit and how hard you strike it. Once, I knocked a guy’s head clean off with nothing but a tree branch. Crushed it like an egg. And you should have seen the geyser—”
Aleka had retched. She’d always had a weak stomach.
“I know about the oath,” Aleka said. “But come on. It was a verbal oath, not a magical one. You can break it anytime. And you’re trying to tell me that neither of them hasevermade a move on you? Really? Not even Mace?” As if to make a point, she lifted the spiked mace off its hook. “That guy will nail anything with a pulse. And honestly, I doubt a lack of a pulse is a deal-breaker.”
Scotty scowled. People always misjudged Mace. Yeah, he could be an egotistical playboy with absolutely no filter, but he was also generous, loyal, and reliable. If he said he had your back, he did. One hundred percent.
Scotty would enjoy kicking Aleka’s ass in Mace’s name today.
“They’re honorable males,” she shot back. “If they make a promise, they keep it.”
“Take it easy, sis.” Aleka held up her hands, the mace in one fist. “I didn’t say they weren’t honorable. But theyarelust demons. They need sex a gazillion times a day, or they’ll die. I’m just a little shocked thattheir instincts have never overridden their brains around you.”
Her sister made a good case, and Scotty had probably overreacted, but she’d always been protective of her teammates. Besides, it wasn’t as if Aleka had any room to talk, given that their evil grandmother was a succubus.
“You’repart sex demon,” Scotty pointed out, still a little irritated by her sister’slack of a pulsecomment. “Do you have problems controllingyourinstincts?”
“No. Do you?”
Scotty frowned. She’d never really thought about it. She was what she was, and the why of it didn’t matter. She lived in the now, didn’t need backstories, didn’t care about history. Which was funny, because her sister was the opposite. Obsessed with history, backstories, and getting answers to all the questions that came with them.
