Devilish Deal by Jenna Wolfhart

24

Az paced as I tiptoed into the bedroom to find some clothes. I was not about to have a naked chat about my best friend’s life with a bunch of demons. Serena was out there, in danger. And I was rolling around on a dining table with a Prince of Hell. Idiot!

I shook my head and grimaced as another wave of nausea pounded through me. What had I been thinking? Not much, I grimly thought as I found a comfy t-shirt in my bag. The five or six gin and tonics had gone straight to my head. And my vagina, too, apparently.

How stupid could I possibly be? It clearly hadn’t meant anything, and now we had to survive the next week, save Serena, stop a human sacrifice, and who knew what else. All while knowing that we had seen each other naked. Who was I kidding? We’d done far more than just look.

Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder…had it really been a mistake? He’d opened up to me, and I’d done the same to him. Az understood me in a way I’d never expected. Hell, he was one of the only people in the world to give me a chance. We’d been tiptoeing closer to each other ever since I’d moved in. Maybe…maybe there was something there.

After I tugged on a pair of pajama bottoms, I eased toward the cracked bedroom door. Voices drifted in from the living room.

“Well, that certainly escalated quickly,” Phenex said as he elbowed Az in the ribs.

Az’s jaw rippled as he clenched his teeth. “She’s upset about her friend, and we had a few drinks. One thing led to another, that’s all.”

I paused, heart thumping. Really, I shouldn’t stand here eavesdropping on their conversation, but I couldn’t help myself. They were talking about me and what we’d clearly just done. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell we’d had sex.

“So, it was just a drunken hook-up?” Caim asked with arched brows. “Come on, Az. We’ve all seen the way you look at her.”

“Of course that was all it was.” Az collected the empty glasses from the table and carried them into the kitchen. “She’s a human. I’m a demon. Our worlds can never intertwine. I was having a little fun, and there is nothing more to it than that. Now, can we please move on?”

“Yeah, alright, boss,” Phenex said, shrugging. “If that’s what you want.”

“We have a couple of ideas on how to tackle this ransom note situation,” Caim said, nodding as Az handed him a drink.

With a deep breath, I slithered back into Az’s dark bedroom. My heart pounded, and an unwelcome burning sensation filled my eyes. It was just as I’d thought. A fling. A random hook-up. Something to pass the time. A little fun. Nothing more.

And that was fine.

It wasn’t like I wanted anything more than that from him.

Most of the time, Az annoyed me. I didn’t like him. Hell, I barely tolerated him. And, you know, he’s a demon.

Nodding to myself, I squared my shoulders and pushed out into the living room. The three demons fell silent as soon as I stepped in front of them. “Hi.”

Phenex cleared his throat. “Hi, Mia. I see you, ah…cute pajamas.”

“They have pigeons on them,” Caim said with an amused grin.

“I like pigeons.” I strode across the room and eyeballed them both. “What are you going to do about finding Serena?”

Phenex ran his fingers through his blazing hair. “We have an idea, but I don’t think you’re going to like it very much.”

“Wonderful. What is it?”

“We’ve talked it over. Valac, Stolas, and Bael agreed. They’ve gone back to the club to clean up the mess and see how much of the map we can salvage, but…we’re never going to find the killer like that. If he’s smart, he would have gone somewhere we’d never think to look.”

I folded my arms. “I don’t like any of the words coming out of your mouth.”

Caim clasped Az’s shoulders. “We think we should go through with the trade.”

My stomach bottomed out. Shaking my head, I sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back. I couldn’t have heard him right. No way in hell one of the Legion—Caim especially—would want to toss me at the mercy of a supernatural serial killer who clearly wanted me dead. There had to be another option, one that would end in no one’s death. Not Serena’s. Not mine.

Az would never agree to this. Heart squeezing, I turned to him. His words echoed in my head. I was under his protection, but…what was more important? Saving one human life or saving his Legion from having to go back to Hell and face Lucifer’s wrath?

He’d known me for all of three weeks. He’d known them for centuries.

Fuck.

Maybe it was time to run.

“That’s not an option,” Az said firmly. Inwardly, I sighed. “I’m not handing Mia over to a killer.”

“That’s not what we said,” Caim replied. “We want to set up the trade. If we do it right, we leave with Serena and Mia. And the killer leaves empty-handed.”

“And by empty-handed, we mean he’ll join Vlad where he’s swimming with the fishes.” Phenex waggled his eyebrows at me and grinned.

“You really like talking like a mob boss, don’t you?” I rolled my eyes, but inexplicably, I felt my heart soften. Just a bit. These demons were violent and rash, but they were also trying to save me and Serena. And, you know, all of humanity.

Kind of hard to think of them as evil when I looked at it like that.

Phenex pounded his chest. “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

“You’re too late.” Caim elbowed him, snickering. “Az already did that.”

My entire face flamed. Awkwardly, I coughed and tried to find something to look at that wasn’t Az’s sculpted chest. He still hadn’t put his shirt back on, probably because it and his pants were in ribbons now. The shredded material of his shirt draped over his waist and barely hid his cock. I wasn’t sure why no one but me seemed to notice.

“How can we be sure this will work?” Az asked, changing the subject back to the new plot to stop the murderer. “We already tried to trap him. He’ll likely expect us to try again.”

“We’ll come up with a good plan,” Caim said firmly.

Az folded his arms. “What plan?”

Caim and Phenex exchanged a glance. “Well, we don’t know yet, but we have some time. By tomorrow night, we’ll have something.”

“There’s another thing you need to know, boss,” Phenex added.

“What now?” Az growled.

“You and Mia had a public argument tonight. She stormed off. As far as the supernatural community knows, you’ve broken things off.” Phenex grinned again, but then forced his lips into a frown when Az shot him a glare. “We’re running out of time to get an invite from Lars. If you don’t do something soon, we’ll lose our chance to get into that ball.”

“We don’t have time to worry about this,” I said, throwing up my hands. “We need to focus on finding Serena.”

“We’re going to have to worry about both, darling,” Caim drawled. “You and Az need to have a public date where we know Lars will see you. As soon as possible. Like…tomorrow. While you’re out getting your invite to the ball, we’ll huddle and form a plan for the killer.”

Phenex nodded. “After your date, you can come back to the club, and we’ll fill you in on the plan. We can do both. Easy peasy.”

“This sounds like the opposite of easy peasy,” I said flatly.

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Az finally said. “They’re right. If we don’t get an invite to the Covenant Ball by the end of this week, we aren’t getting one. All of those human lives will end.”

“Fine,” I relented. “On one condition.”

Az frowned. “I’m not sure I want to know.”

“Before we go rushing headfirst into this plan, whatever it ends up being, can we try something else first? Serena’s boyfriend was at the party with her tonight. He was by her side the whole time. If someone took her, maybe he saw who it was.”

Az cocked his head. “You mentioned him before, but I didn’t see him.”

“He was there,” I insisted. “Trust me. He might have stepped away for a moment, but I doubt she would have left the party without telling him. He must have seen something. Maybe he could at least give us the identity of the killer. That would help, right?”

“Maybe,” Caim said, nodding at Phenex. “If the killer is part of the supernatural community, there’ll be an address for him somewhere. If we could find out his name, we might be able to track him down.”

I loosed a breath. “So we could find him that way, instead of trying to set a trap for him again. Like Az said, he isn’t stupid. He’ll expect us to try something during the trade.”

“Okay.” Az nodded. “It’s a deal then. Shall I draw up the contract?”

My heart dropped. “You can’t be serious.”

A little, dimpled smile tickled the corners of his lips. “No, I just wanted to see your reaction.”

“Well, that’s annoying.”

Caim cleared his throat and jerked his head at Phenex. They locked eyes and made a few strange noises before they simultaneously drifted toward the door.

“It’s late. We’ll be going now.” Caim’s hand hovered over the handle before he turned to find me hugging my t-shirt to my chest. “Don’t worry, Mia. We’ll do everything in our power to save your friend.”

I nodded. All I could do was put my trust in them. We were up against a supernatural killer who wanted me dead. My only hope was a Prince of Hell and his five loyal friends. Logically, I knew it was a long-shot that we would win, but my gut told me we’d be able to save Serena and those sacrificial human souls.

As long as Lucifer never found out.