Page 54 of SIN Bone Deep

“Goals?” Dawson drawled. “Beyond always beating Laurie at pool?”

“Mmm,” Mal’s smile was a tight press of lips. “Other than beating Laurie at pool. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?”

“That’s easy,” Laurie grinned. “On a yacht somewhere warm, where the water is brilliant blue, with a gorgeous supermodel – no, make that two, actually. Two gorgeous twins,” his grin was predatory and his eyes gleamed as he nodded to Dawson who was smirking in approval. “Twin supermodels who have no gag reflexes and live on cum.”

“Hardly original,” Mal raised his eyebrows. “But it’s a classic for a reason. How do you think you’ll get your dream?” He asked him.

Laurie’s eyes were shadowed, and he gave a bit of a shrug as he looked away, but Dawson guffawed and nudged him. “He’s pouting,” Dawson told them. “Because daddy-dearest isn’t happy. Last years’ results weren’t up to par - ”

“Mainly because we partied when we should have been in class,” Laurie muttered, disgruntled.

“Whatever. My dad doesn’t care as long as I scrape a pass. A degree is a degree after all, and that’s all I need to start with the family business,” Dawson was smug.

“A pass won’t get me into law school,” Laurie was irritable. “Or at least not the right one.”

“Daddy will pay for your entry, why are you worried?” Dawson sneered.

“If I want to get into politics, we can’t grease my way into law school,” Laurie pointed out tightly. “That’s the sort of thing the media will dig up in no time and use against me.”

“And what about you?” Mal had enough material, I realized, to strike a deal with Laurie, and so shifted his attention to Dawson, searching for the other man’s weakness to exploit. I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. It felt wrong to sit by while Mal used the guise of friendship to broker deals for souls, but I wasn’t a fool and knew that was the nature of demons – and that Mal would have a quota to fill which if unmet, would see him punished for failure.

I didn’t want that, either.

“What do you most desire?” Mal prompted Dawson. “What do you want in five year’s time?”

“I don’t know,” Dawson loaded a cracker with meat and cheese and popped it whole into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “I mean, I’m rich. Handsome. Talented,” he preened a little. “What more does a guy need?”

“A beautiful woman? Or a man?” Mal suggested.

Dawson’s eyes flicked to me, and I wondered for a moment if we were about to have a repeat of the grocery store, if feeding on Mal had worn off already. I didn’t feel hungry. It was very weird to think of living my life deciding whether or not I could be around other people depending on whether I was hungry and horny…

“I guess that would be nice,” Dawson agreed. “But they sort of come along on their own when you have money and looks.”

“I’d like to be powerful,” Fleur said quietly.

Mal looked at her and raised his eyebrow. “Powerful? In what way?”

She flushed and gave a slightly awkward shrug. “I mean… Men are powerful. You’re asking Laurie and Dawson what they want, and they don’t think of power, because they expect it. It’s normal for them. If you’re a rich, handsome man, from an influential family, you automatically become powerful. You hire and fire people at will, you get the best tables when you go somewhere, you get the promotion, someone calls you sir and serves you coffee. But if you’re a woman, if you’re rich and beautiful and from an influential family, you’re not powerful. You’re a part of a man’s power. Men get to have you. It's rarely the other way around, and I guarantee you the women who are powerful, had to shed blood to be there.”

“Feminist bull crap,” Laurie said in disgust.

“Fine. I want hot twin men and a yacht somewhere sunny,” her lip curled in half a sneer.

“You don’t really,” Laurie’s posture changed, sitting upright and straight-backed. He did not like the direction of the conversation or Fleur’s attitude. “You’re just being a bitch.”

“So, I’m a bitch if I want the same things as you do?” She had baited the trap and he’d stepped into it, and she seized upon his comment with relish that revealed a long-buried resentment.

Mal leaned back against me, thoroughly enjoying how riled up the two of them had become. I could all but see him plotting the deals he would make with them. Laurie would pass with flying colors and get into the law school of his choice apparently on his own merit, and Fleur would get power, in whatever form she desired.

In the shadows of a tree, a man in a cloak watched us. My heart leaped into my throat. Ender. In his grim reaper form, faded and almost lost to sight, the light just picking out the smooth gleam of skull, the curl of horn, and the flames within his eyes. The humans would not see him – could not see him through the veil. I did not doubt that he had deliberately revealed himself to me, wanting to be seen.

And then he was gone.

“Nyx?” Mal drew my attention back to him. His expression was sharp, and his eyes went from me to the tree. He had not seen Ender, but he had seen my distraction, and that the tree had been the focus of it. He was smart enough to add one-to-one and come up with two.

“Sorry,” I said to him, trying to dismiss his concerns. “There was a bird that caught my eye. What were you all saying?”

“What type of bird?” Mal asked.

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