AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s nervous. Stressed.” He tapped his fingers against his arm, staring off in thought. “He’s still volatile, but he’s let me get away with some things I wouldn’t have expected him to.”
“Maybe he’s finally warming up to your charming personality.”
Leon snorted. “Oh, sure. It’s only taken him a few decades. No, something is going on. Marcus’s murder getting so much attention might have him on edge.” He gulped down the last of his beer, setting down the cup heavily. “Enough about the old bastard. What about you? Hunting again?”
“I’ve got a new target,” I said. “I’m getting close to wrapping it up.” An utter lie: this bargain and all its difficulties was far from over, but that was embarrassing to say. Made it sound like I didn’t know what I was doing, like I was a rookie taking desperate, difficult deals.
He smirked. “A difficult one, eh?”
“She’ll be fun...if she doesn’t kill me first.”
“And you scold me for getting the least bit interested in a human.” He shook his head. “Here you are trying to make bargains with humans who mightkillyou.”
“I like things that might kill me. I like things thattryto kill me. You, for example.”
He scoffed. “I never tried to kill you.”
“Bullshit, you tried to kill me! Multiple times!”
“You’re being dramatic.Consensuallygettingcloseto killing you doesn’t count.”
“I can list off all the times you’ve tried to kill me, starting with France —”
“That doesn’t count either. I killed anything that got near me back then. You just made the mistake of getting near me.”
I rolled my eyes and held up a second finger. “The incident in Toronto.”
“That was your own fault.”
A third finger. “New York. Outside that club.”
He paused. “That...I wasn’treallytrying.” I raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. “If I was really trying, you’d be dead.”
“I would not. You can’t kill me.”
He got up from the table. “I need a joint if I’m going to keep up this argument.”
I joined him. “I’ve got three. Outside we go.”
His eyes lingered on the woman as we passed her. And the fool said it was merely a curiosity. I’d known Leon far too long to mistake that look formerely acuriosity.
I just hoped when all this was done, he could pursue whatever curiosity he wanted. Juniper and I were aligned in that, at least — we’d both gladly see the Hadleighs die.
16
There was something about cold air and marijuana that immediately made me feel at ease. The herb humans grew on Earth was nothing in comparison to the plants back in Hell — they smelled similar despite their effects being minimal. But there was something deeply nostalgic in it. Smoking reminded me of looking over Hell’s Black Sea from the onyx cliffs high above, lounging the day away.
That was before I’d started soul-hunting seriously; once I picked that up, I spent most of my time on Earth searching for my next target.
“Been back home recently?” Leon said, as if on cue. He longed for Hell so desperately that it ate away at him. He’d spent so many years cut off from everything that made a demon’s life worth living. The freedom of Hell, the pleasure of its cities, the beauty of its wilderness — I missed it myself, but I could return whenever I wished. Leon didn’t have that choice.
“Been a while,” I said. “Probably about a decade since I last went back.”
“Mm.” He took a long drag on the joint and passed it back to me, his eyes darting behind me as he exhaled. “Well, well, well. We’ve got curious ears trying to listen.”
I snapped my head back. Raelynn, the tiny woman from inside the bar, was standing on the corner outside, doing a terrible job of pretending she wasn’t interested in what we were doing. I chuckled, shaking my head.
“Shall we have a little fun with her?” Leon said. The hunger in his voice was unmistakable: I recognized the lust in his tone. It wasn’t even directed at me, and I still got a little chill. Leon had always been a vicious playmate, one of the few I’d had who could challenge my threshold for pain.
