Six months and two weeks, if she was being specific.The magic had taken longer to solidify than it usually did with most bargains.
Skye had tried to negotiate Remi down from his many demands because the more someone asked for, the more devil magic was needed to make it happen, and the less profit, in the form of Earth-walking privileges, Skye would walk away with.
Remi’s bargain had taken two weeks to take root because Skye promised him more than she’d ever given any soulless.
She could probably have made a better deal.Whittled him down on the streaming numbers a little more, but she’d be risking him walking away entirely if she pushed too hard.
Remi distracting her with his fingers and those ice-blue eyes darkening with lust had nothing to do with it.She still got five years of Earth-walking privileges, so she wasn’t upset.
Zara flung her long black hair over her shoulder and clapped.Her bracelets clinked and clacked together.“I have the best idea!We should celebrate your five years of freedom tonight!”
“You just want an excuse to party.”
Zara shrugged.“And since when do younotwant to party?Come on.Laurie and I haven’t seen you for, like, ever.”
Skye, Zara, and Laurie were the closest thing to friends and lovers that demons who were incapable of such things could be.
They had one another’s demonic loyalty, but the last time Skye saw Laurie, she’d been reminded that loyalty stopped where selfish interest began.
It shouldn’t have surprised her.It was the demon way.
And itdidn’t.
She didn’t experience human feelings like the sting of betrayal, so when Laurie lied to her face, she kept her face blank and didn’t reveal that she knew he was a lying, sneaking thief.The acidic burn that flooded through her was only her anger.
Afterward, she became so busy hunting Remi’s soul that she hadn’t thought about him since.
“I don’t know,” Skye hedged.
Zara pouted and then looked around.“Where are we going anyway?And why are we driving there?”
“I have another deal to make,” she said under her breath, hoping Zara wouldn’t hear her.
“Why?You have five years!Okay, see, you need to come back to Hell.Laurie, you, and I will lock ourselves up for a few weeks and fuck each other silly.You obviously need it.You’ve gone nutso.Why are you working when you could be enjoying your freedom?”
Skye chewed on her lip.She’d been asking herself the same question.Most demons used their manipulation skills to weasel their way out of anything and everything they didn’t want to do—including work.Which made what Skye was currently doing really fucking weird.
She didn’t have an explanation for it.She’d lived soul-to-soul for so long, only getting a few months of freedom here and there, that she didn’t know what to do with herself.
Typically, she’d spend it partying and fucking and getting trashed with random people she barely knew.It wasn’t hard to find a good time.Her music industry connections were good for more than just exposure to souls ripe for the taking.
But five years?Five years?
What the hell was she supposed to do with all that time off?
She avoided thinking about it by finding her next lead.It’d been a piece of cake compared to Remi.
Skye decided to answer Zara’s second question instead.“I’d rather drive than sift.”
“Yeah, but if you’d sifted, we wouldn’t be sitting in this traffic.”
“I like driving.”
“You like playing human, you mean,” Zara said.
Skye scoffed.“Yeah, right.”
Zara and Laurie loved to tease Skye about preferring Earth over Hell, but there was no contest.There was just so much more trouble to get up to here.
