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“Of course, Carl. She will never know.” His shoulders relaxed at my dark voice and his expression softened to a dreamy relief.
“Last night was”—He looked from me back to the bed to the naked woman now on her knees—“incredible.”
She winked at him, sending him back into his panicked escape. His pale face became as pink as a pig's backside. He pulled the rest of his clothing into his chest and scooted past Sitri and me. His eyes stopped on each of us for a moment before he headed to the elevator, not daring to look back again.
Sitri huffed his amusement and swung his attention back to the woman on the bed. “By chance, do you know how to tend bar?”
She giggled and brought a knuckle to wedge between her teeth, “Sorry. Not my specialty.”
“Pity,” he returned.
“Give me an hour and I’ll meet you at The Deacon,” I told him before he nodded and disappeared into the void.
I turned back to my remaining bedmate from the evening. She was pulling her dress up her body and settled the straps on her shoulders. I went to the end of the bed to sit and put my shoes on when she leaned down and kissed me softly on the cheek.
“Thanks for the wild night, handsome,” she said, fingering the straps of her high heels and leaving without a second glance.
The door closed and the void swallowed me up. A moment later, my living room appeared around me. The windows were full of sunlight and the view of the ocean. The kitchen table was laden with my winnings from last night, including the glass tumbler that was alight with the blue flame of my new soul. Her father would be a useful component to a plan I had been ruminating on for years.
Whether Orobas knew it or not, he had given me the key to a fortune I had been thirsting over.
Being a prince of Hell granted me the gift to inflict ferocious greed upon the human race, but the power over legions of lesser demons and a few millennia of bartering human souls was fruitless and ash on my tongue.
I wanted to grip all of creation in my hands and squeeze until the pulp seeped through my fists.
I had the ability to instill greed, need, and covetousness in others, but their selfishness would not gain me my truest desires. It all had to be done in small steps.
In my other demonic brothers’ endeavors, they were free from any strings that bound them to the influences they produced. They also lacked the drive to dominate.
They weren’t greed incarnate.
I didn’t only have the urge to have it all. I had the itch over my skin and bones to grab anything and everything that I could and mark it as my own. The constant frenzy for more was what captivated me—just like the flesh of humans and demons captivated my brothers.
The seven us crowned in princely duty had been given unique battles to contend with. Becoming the embodiment of a sin was a power unmatched by any other angel or lesser demon.
But there was a fallback to every one of our abilities.
Orobas, Prince of Gluttony, could not and would not ever be sated of his cravings, no matter how much he indulged. Though he could give mortals of all their luscious worldly wants, he was doomed to seek out anyone or anything to feed his hunger until time stopped.
We were not so different in that way. It was why we got along and gravitated to one another.
Sitri, however, had found a way around the curse that was incidental to his throne—if he didn’t drown himself in his own misery.
He was once potent enough to bring down kingdoms. To inspire lords and ladies to place seeking pleasure and lust over their duties. They would offer him all their riches for just a small dose of his favor.
I’d always admired him for the ease with which he used the most carnal of human desires to build his empire. While he focused on his businesses in Los Angeles, his reach was global. Every major city was a mainline to Sitri’s pockets and consistently equipped him with more souls tempted by the sins of the flesh.
It had finally dawned on me that if I was going to use my own gift to bring me the world, I would need to appeal to the masses. I could not do that myself. There would be too many questions about my agelessness and murky paper trail. And Lucifer would never allow me to reign on Earth as he did in Hell or our Father did in Heaven. But with a human puppet to dance in front of the camera and use for my platform as a headpiece, I could finally be suffused with the power and influence I desperately needed.
I shifted the dancing flame in the glass and watched the base bloom and wilt with the movements of air around it.
Evie’s father would be a fine puppet, and what better way to get close to Harris than to get his daughter in my pocket?
4
EVIE
“Evie! Over here!” Rhomi was standing at a table inside the coffee shop. She had sent me a text that she was there early, but I was also running early.
