Page 31 of Greed

“I already did.”

“You could always visit Hell again. I know a number of demons that would be happy to make sure you’re never in need of sex,” I said, hoping she’d take the hint. I didn’t want a relationship. I didn’t even want a regular sexual partner. There was a reason I lived the way I did. The friendship between Skye, Neven, and myself had started a long time ago, and I should have never let it turn into something more. That was my mistake. I didn’t make them often, but allowing her to call us fuck friends, to put a label on us, was most certainly up there.

“You know I don’t like going there often. It does nothing for my complexion and doesn’t have the same food choices. Humans have a flare for cooking, and the demons in Hell could learn a thing or two from them.” She was moving around, and then I heard the sound of water as a shower was flicked on. “I could send you a photo of the naughty things I’m going to be doing in the shower very soon. There are some very interesting positions I’ve wanted to try.”

“As I mentioned, I have a prior engagement.”

There was a dramatic sigh. “What are you doing tonight that makes it hard for us to get together later?” she asked, her voice dripping with irritation.

The tone prickled my anger. She was a demon and lucky that I paid her any attention at all. The decades of friendship would mean nothing to me if she continued to press.

“Skye, remember who you are speaking to in that tone. Maybe I have made a mistake allowing you to run amuck with whatever you want and treat me like I’m some toy boyfriend, but make no mistake, I am not.”

“No, I, umm…” she stammered.

“Would you like me to send you back to the hole you were pulled from?” I could hear a heavy swallow and her breathing pick up through the line. I wouldn’t really put her back in the Pit of Despair unless she forced me to do it.

“Whatever, Ri, you’re so bloody fickle sometimes.”

I rolled my eyes. “I have to go.”

I hung up the phone and stuffed the thing in my pocket as I marched toward the Valkyrie.

The drive to Minetta’s home didn’t take very long. It helped that traffic was light with vacationers out of the city, and the area she lived in was a less wealthy part of town. I didn’t take vacations, not in the way that humans did. The laying around on a hot beach with fake coconut smelling oil coating their skin reminded me of pigs getting ready to be placed on a spit. Going to Hell was still work. It had its partying moments, but that wasn’t why I went.

I sat in the car for a long time, wondering why I was even here. My finger tapped on the top of the steering wheel as I thought. Had I not just been thinking that I didn’t want a relationship, and I certainly didn’t want one with a human? What kind of life would that be even if I did want one? A mere fifty years would be the best that we’d get.

I started the car getting ready to drive away, but a shadow moved around inside the dimly lit home, and I couldn’t drive away without speaking to her at least once more. Even if it was to confirm what I already knew, which was I didn’t want anything from her and for her to stay away from me.

Pushing open the door of the car, I stepped out into the humid night and marched for the beige shoebox home with the blood-red door. I pounded on the wood surface and did so again when she didn’t move fast enough.

“What?” A man glared at me as he pulled open the door. I stared at the male human, my eyes traveling up and down his body. This human was the equivalent of a flea hitching a ride on a fly as it ate a pile of shit. Not exactly what I expected to find. “Who the fuck are you?” He gripped both sides of the door frame and flexed his arms like that might actually make him look intimidating.

My eyebrow rose at his words. “I’d ask you the same question. Is this the residence of Minetta Johnson?”

“And what is it to you if it is?” The human male said.

It was obvious he felt threatened as he stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest, his stance widening as if trying to warn me off from the house or the other occupant. No one kept me from anything that was mine or what I wanted, and even though this girl wasn’t in either category, I still didn’t take kindly to being told no.

I narrowed my eyes at the man, my ability reaching out to search his mind and soul to give me the best picture of who was before me.

“Tell me are you sleeping with her? I mean, is she really into a sloth, like you,” I asked, not able to picture this selfish man with the woman I’d met.

I shouldn’t care, but a thread of jealousy lanced its way through my psyche and proceeded to mount the monkey bars in the back of my mind. I didn’t like this man, and I certainly didn’t want him near Minetta. If I needed to remove him, I would.

“What the fuck did you just say to me, asshole? You can’t come here with your fancy three-piece suit and think you can talk to me like that,” the man yelled. It was a complete overreaction and spoke once more to his rising insecurity.

“Just go get Minetta, please. I need to speak to her. I don’t have time for a cock comparison. It’s trivial. Besides, I already know that my wallet and dick are larger,” I said and straightened the sleeve on my suit jacket. My hand reacted at the first flicker of movement. The fist had been coming for my face, but I easily caught it and squeezed hard. A yell came from the pathetic human as the bones loudly crunched.

He began to crumple to his knees, but I kept him upright enough to push him back so I could step inside the home. I was done with trying to do the civilized thing and reached out with my mind to search the home, but only found this swamp thing of a man to be here.

“Where is Minetta?” I felt the distinct touch of his mind as my ability seeped deeper into the dark recesses of his brain to pull the answers I sought forward.

He grabbed his head with his free hand as he fought the pain of my abrupt intrusion. It would do no good, though, and his mouth began to spew the answers like a geyser.

“Minetta went to visit her mother.”

“And where does her mother live?” I asked.