Page 9 of Bond of Passion

Chapter 2

“Okay, ladies! It’s time to celebraaaate!”

Music blared, lights strobed and flashed, and male strippers exploded out from behind a curtain on the stage in front of Deja.

“Man, I love ladies’ night!” Deja’s Sora demon classmate and friend, Ronnie, raised her glass of bubbly, her crimson fingers and black-painted nails wrapped around the stem. “And graduation night. Let’s party, girls!”

A chorus of cheers rose as the twelve graduates of Underworld General Hospital’s nursing school, Class 7.04, downed their celebratory champagne.

Ronnie finished first. With a flourish, she stuck the flute onto her right horn and then used her tail to snare another from the nearby tray of full glasses. “One more of these suckers, and I’m going to join that guy right there.” She pointed to a totally ripped vampire kneeling at the edge of the stage and thrusting his hips at another classmate, Tonya. “Imma climb right into his thong.”

That was the difference between human and demon strip clubs. At demon clubs, you could touch. Lick. Suck. Whatever you wanted. Right there on stage.

“Don’t overdo it,” Tonya warned. “You don’t want to be hungover on our first day of work tomorrow.”

No, definitely not. The Seminus demons who ran Underworld General made it clear that, in exchange for free medical schooling, you were expected to show up for work on time and in good condition. And since getting close to one particular UG employee was key to her future plans, Deja wasn’t going to screw up by going in late or sick on her very first day.

Too much was riding on this job.

Chelanne, a svelte redhead with the lispy accent of her reptilian Gnarll demon people, came up behind Deja and wrapped her arms around her in a brief hug. “I’m ssso excited about work tomorrow. Did you get your assssignment?”

Deja nodded. “I drew second shift in the Emergency Department.”

“Ssseriously?” Chelanne squealed in delight. “It’sss what you wanted! I told you they gave the top graduate in the classss their pick of duty ssstationsss.”

Heat skimmed across Deja’s cheeks at the compliment. She’d worked hard to be at the top of her class, and not just because the ED was the choicest assignment. It was also where she’d most likely run into first responders. Paramedics.

Like Tavin.

“Where will you be working?”

Chelannegrinned. “I drew maternity. My sssecond choice after ED.”

“Ooh, that’s a good one. I think I’ll request maternity for my second rotation.” All new nurses were required to work in five different departments or disciplines before settling on a specialty and/or further schooling. They could also decide against a specialty and work on a rotating basis wherever the hospital or its London clinic needed their general skills.

Originally, Deja hadn’t thought much about choosing a career path. Her goal after being returned to a physical body following a decade in literal Hell had been to get a job at UG in order to seduce the bastard who had killed her and return the favor. She hadn’t thought about much beyond that.

But attending nursing school had altered her trajectory. First of all, she’d liked it. She’d truly enjoyed learning about medicine. And as she’d worked toward graduation, she’d grown to love her friends. She’d never really had any in her previous life.

As a Neethul living among her people, she’d been an outcast. A weirdo. The cowardly wuss who tried to save lives instead of taking them in the most painful and lingering ways possible.

No one had wanted to hang out with her, which had worked out fine since she couldn’t stomach any of them, either. She’d kept to herself as much as possible, going out into public only when forced by her parents or her duties. They’d constantly shoved her at suitable males, hoping one of them would take her off their hands. She’d been an embarrassment, and on days like this, she could almost think that Tavin had done her a favor by putting her out of that misery and giving her a second chance to be happy in another life.

Then she remembered that she’d loved him with all her heart, and he’d betrayed her in the worst way.

With her gray skin and silver hair, she might no longer look like a Neethul, but deep inside, the Neethul desire for violent revenge flowed like a swollen river.

She would kill Tavin. And she would also keep her job and her friends when it was over. That was The Plan, and she would stick to it.

“Come on,” Ronnie shouted over the roar of the music. “Let’s get on stage. Everyone is up there already!”

Yup, most of her graduating class was on the stage, gyrating against the half-dozen hard-bodied dancers, one of whom was female. Rowen and Eileen were all over that one.

“See the male on the left?” Ronnie asked. “The one with the sexy hooves? I’m going to pour honey on every inch of his body.”

She licked her lips and reached for the squeeze bottle of spiced honey at the front of the stage. In addition to other bottled condiments like blood and brain jelly, there were various pastes and powders one could apply to the entertainer of choice.

“I’ll pass—”