Skye sighed.Relief replaced her anger and that weird nauseous feeling.Shewasn’thaving human feelings.She was just experiencing a very normal range of demon motivations.
Skye got dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and one of her mother’s vintage t-shirts while Zara told them how she convinced Liam and Ollie to touch each other.Skye bit her tongue to hold back from scolding her again.Maybe she was a little over the top with warning her friends away from the band.It was just her greed.She wanted her band focused on the music and the tour.
And, okay, envy too.
Laurie had been right.Envy had sunk its teeth into her last night as she watched Jillian hang all over Remi, but that hadn’t been all of it.
Dancing with Laurie, fucking him, waking up next to him in bed—that was normal, familiar, right.
Remi had clearly been trying to piss her off, flaunting Jillian in front of her, and Skye wasn’t in the mood to watch.She just wanted to feel apathetically normal again instead of the toxic combination of demon motivations the Remi inspired in her.
Skye flung out her hair and applied her lip gloss in the vanity mirror before turning to the demons lounging in bed together.
Zara’s head was resting on Laurie’s chest, and his fingers were playing with her hair as they both whispered to each other.Skye had an out-of-body moment.A human encountering the sight would think they were in love.
Last year at this time, before Skye had caught Laurie stealing her mother’s journal, before she’d set her sights on Remi’s soul, she would have crawled in bed next to them.
It wasn’t love that kept the three of them together.It was familiarity and gluttony and greed for each other’s time.They weren’t monogamous, but they were possessive.
Human love always seemed so transactional and based on following a social contract with rules and reciprocity that looked both boring and tedious.
Zara’s and Laurie’s friendship was easy in a way humans would never understand.They were either around or not.When they were, they fulfilled a physical need for sex or for mischief or for each other, but it would never be love.
Human love was selfless.And Skye, Laurie, and Zara were out for themselves, first and foremost.
Skye shook her head to dislodge her pointless inner ramblings.“I’m leaving.No sifting in today.We’re on the tour bus for like sixteen hours, and you two showing up will just stir the pot.”
Zara waved a dismissive hand, not opening her eyes.Laurie didn’t look at her but nodded nonetheless.
Skye rolled her eyes.Yeah, demons were selfish and self-involved.
She sifted to the tour bus, but before she could open the latch to let herself in the door, her phone rang.She answered it, and the venue manager at the next show started going off on her.She paced outside the bus for a bit, letting him wear himself out.“He can be a showman and entertain the crowd, but if your singer climbs the equipment and hangs from the balcony, it voids our insurance policy, so if anyone gets hurt, it’s on the venue, and you better believe we’ll sue the shit out of the band if it comes to that.Got it?”
“Uh huh,” Skye answered, checking the time on her phone.They needed to get going.She hiked up the tour bus stairs.Larry nodded his greeting from the driver’s seat.She covered the bottom of the phone and asked him, “Who are we missing?”
“They’re all here, sweetie.”
She smiled.“Thank you, Larry,” she whispered.
“Are you even listening?”the venue manager barked.She rubbed her forehead, balancing the phone between her shoulder and ear.“Yeah, I’m with him right now.I’ll tell him.”
The engine started up as Skye walked down the narrow hall and hung up the phone.The door to the back room was closed, and Ollie was passed out on the couch.Key of Atlas’s drummer sat next to him, a headset on and controller in hand.
Skye groaned inwardly.She’d forgotten the opening band’s tour bus had gotten a flat, and they were bunking together on the way to the next city where they’d pick up the replacement bus.
Skye checked the bunks and found West and Liam sleeping in two of them and Key of Atlas’s guitarist and bassist in the other two.Which just left…
Levi walked out of the bathroom and shouldered past Skye, not bothering to acknowledge her existence.Okay, so she had two singers pissed at her, but they could both take their little drama queen acts and shove them.Skye ignored Levi as he messed around in the kitchen.She sat at the table and pulled out her laptop, verifying the next show’s accommodations.She could triple check these details, and they’d still blow up on her, but the work kept her mind busy.
A few hours in, the door to the back room opened.A feminine giggle yanked Skye out of her budgetary considerations.
Remi walked out, holding hands with Jillian.
Levi and Skye watched them as they made coffee in the kitchen.
“So we’re bringing groupies on the bus now?”Levi grumbled.
Remi turned and eyed Levi.“My bus.My tour.I’ll bring whoever the fuck I want.”
