Remi didn’t realize he’d started walking until he was already in front of her.
She produced a gold cigarette case.Upon opening, the lid sparked with white and blue fire.The mysterious woman thrust it forward, and Remi wordlessly took a cigarette as if under a trance.
“Need a light?”she asked.Her voice was a little husky.A little familiar.
Remi nodded mechanically.He wanted to step to the side so the streetlights weren’t blinding him.He wanted to see her face, but he was frozen in place.
Holding the cigarette between his fingers, Remi brought it to his mouth and leaned toward the woman.
She flicked a lighter—no, not a lighter—she wasn’t holding anything.She’d snapped her fingers, and flame had appeared from her pointer and middle finger, but that wasn’t what was holding Remi captive.
The flame between them illuminated the woman’s face.
It washer.
Recognition and phantom lust tingled down his spine.The cigarette lit from his gasping inhale.
She smiled, the same rebel smile that had transfixed him in his dreams.Firelight flickered against the silver of her horseshoe septum piercing.
He blew smoke out of the side of his mouth.“You’re her.The girl from my dreams,” he said, his voice thick.
She leaned in, her hand cupping the back of his and pulling his cigarette toward her mouth.She took a drag and then hummed, unsurprised by his admission.“Are you sure they weren’t nightmares?”
Smoke from the cigarette curled between them.She blinked, and her irises changed from brown to red.The black-taloned tips of her wings peeked up from behind her shoulders.Horns sprouted from her head.
“The only nightmarish part was that I had to wake up,” he said.
She laughed, and it was a beautiful, intoxicating music.
He wrapped his lips around the filter of the cigarette and inhaled, just so he could put his lips where hers had been.
She stepped closer.He tried not to moan at the press of her breasts against his chest.If he angled his hips, she’d know exactly how much he wanted her, but the tilt of her lips into a little smirk told him she already knew.
His arm dropped, the cigarette falling into a puddle.
She grabbed both sides of the collar of his sleeveless denim jacket and pulled him in.Putting her lips near his ear, she asked, “Do you want to know a secret, Remi?”
The way she said his name was smooth and luxurious, like black velvet and dark honey.
“Yeah,” he breathed out.His hands found her waist, trailed up the middle of her back, and brushed along the base of her silky wings.
“I’m going to make you a rock star,” she said, and flames consumed them both.
Chapter Three
TheflamesofHellwarmed Skye’s skin, familiar yet suffocating, as she sifted herself and Remi out of the Earthly plane.
Remi stumbled back as they magically rematerialized in her bedroom.“Where are we?”he asked, his eyes wide as he turned in place, taking in the large canopy bed with black silk sheets, the blood-red walls, and dark mahogany furniture.Firelight illuminated every inch of the room.
Skye liked to lean into the human stereotypes of her kind.It made their reactions more fun.
“Welcome to Hell,” Skye said with a wave of her hand.
Remi’s gaze jerked to her.“Hell?We’re really in Hell?This is—you are?”He kept stuttering half-formed questions.
Skye forced her inviting and friendly smile to remain in place, despite her disdain that wanted to melt it away.
She always became impatient with this part of making a bargain.When the shock took over and everything became real for her prey.She hated dealing with a human’s emotions.They were unpredictable and messy.Sticky and disgusting.Things like fear and grief and insecurity had no logic or sense.They were amorphous things that couldn’t be contained or reasoned with.
