“Can I join you?”
“Kalon Barnes, as I live and breathe,” I greeted him. “How are you?”
“I’m good, Angel. Heard about your trouble. You good?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” I assured him. I showed him my wings. “See, I have wings to prove it.”
Kalon laughed as he pointed to the kitchen. “Beer’s inside, want one?”
Glancing back at the pony scene, I nodded. “Yes, yes I do.” I followed him into the kitchen, the multiple folding doors pushed wide, which left the whole side of the house open and provided shade from the Arizona heat.
“Can angels drink beer?” Kalon asked me before he handed me one.
“Can Devils buy ponies?”
He squinted at me in confusion. “What?”
“Ignore me.” I gave a light laugh. “It’s the heat.”
“So, I wanted to talk to you,” Kalon started, “about agents.”
My beer was suddenly no longer interesting. “I’m listening,” I told him.
As he told me about his current agent, and I made noncommittal nods and noises, I found that my attention kept returning to Onyx, who was playing with his goddaughter in the sun. Cooper was there too, but I only had eyes for Onyx. I needed to stop mooning over him and move on.
I turned my attention back to Kalon and listened to his woes. After what felt like an hour, I turned to look back into the party, and I noticed Onyx was gone. Where was he? I could see Coop but not Onyx. Did he leave?
“What do you think?” Kalon asked me, touching my arm, snapping my attention back to him. Thank God for sunglasses.
I scratched my head. What the hell had he just asked me? “I think . . . it’s a lot to process.”
The derisory snort as an arm reached past me and pulled a beer from the bucket made me tense. I didn’t relax when Onyx uncapped the beer and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“He wants to know if he ditches his agent, will you replace him?” Onyx told me, pulling me back into his body. “You should think about it,” he told me, making me instantly bristle. I didn’t need his advice on who I couldsign.
“I didn’t say that, exactly,” Kalon protested.
“He also wants to fuck you,” Onyx continued as he pressed the cold bottle against my neck, causing me to flinch. “On that, I say not a chance.”
“Really?” I turned to look up at him. “Nowyou want to have a say?”
“I’ll leave you two to it. Um, Angel—”
“She’ll call,” Onyx told him as he kept his eyes on mine. “For the agent job, nothing else.”
“Got it,” Kalon muttered as he walked away.
“Rude.”
“He was, complete dick,” Onyx agreed. “You’re right, don’t call.”
“You can’t do that,” I said as I pulled free. “You don’t get to make a claim like that.”
“Yes, I do.” His gaze traveled down my body. “I can stake you if I like.”
“A vampire joke? Are you kidding me?” I placed the bottle of beer down and turned away from him. “Go back to your unicorn; that’s the only mythical creature here.”
Walking quickly through the house, I tried to remember the way back to my room. Chrissy’s house was huge. Through sheer luck, I recognized the bedding and, later, my luggage. I tried to shake off the wings, but Chrissy had helped me with getting them on, and I was scared that Chrissy might need to help me get them off.
