Page 28 of The Devil and His Sparrow

“It was good to meet you,” I said to Gemma as Iyla and I stood to leave.

“Will you come see me again?” she asked with hope climbing her face.

I smiled. “I think I can make that happen.”

Iyla hugged her sister, and I noticed that she held on a little longer than others might’ve. Gemma was important to her, that much was obvious. I mean, she could’ve asked me for anything when our bond formed—still could—but all she wanted was to save her sister.

“I think that went well,” I said to Iyla as we climbed into her car. “Gemma didn’t seem to have any poor side effects to the blood.”

“I just hope it makes her better.” Iyla stared at the brick building like a part of her was still in there instead of here in this car.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

Her head slowly turned my way, like she’d just remembered I was here. “Ready for what?”

I cocked a brow at her. “To go have sex.”

That amusing red flooded her face once more, and her hands clenched tightly in her lap. “I-I—Um—”

Silence filled the space between us. I knew that she was probably wracked with nerves since she was new to sex. So I gave her a second to gather herself. I didn’t know what was going through her head, but, even so, I never expected her to say, “I don’t like it.”

The sudden rush of her voice amid the quiet made my ears ring, and maybe that contributed to my confusion when I asked, “Don’t like what?”

She chewed on her lip and looked away from me. “Sex. It … It wasn’t good. No offense, but it was awful.”

I nearly fell over. My mind stalled out, and I stared at her, frozen in my seat. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. What happened before was great. But when you—” she made a jab gesture with her fingers. “That was horrible. I thought you were supposed to be a sex professional or something.”

You have got to be shitting me.

My brain couldn’t seem to compute what she was saying. I’d never been so offended in my life. And I’d been here for a millennium. Awful, sex, and me didn’t belong in the same sentence.

“That doesn’t count,” I argued quickly, trying to defend my Incubus honor. “I was working with false information. I didn’t know the full story of what I was dealing with.”

She scoffed and buckled her seatbelt. “Sounds like an excuse to me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You know what. Fine. I’ll make you eat those words.”

She wanted to taunt me and my skill? Challenge fucking accepted.

Chapter 9

Iyla

WE PULLED INTO A LONG driveway that was lined with pine trees, which offered a sense of seclusion for the home Zagan was directing me to. Zagan suggested we go back to my apartment, but I quickly dismissed the idea. My mom was known for making unexpected house calls, and it would be just my luck for her to show up while Zagan was in my apartment. Or worse, while he and I were in the middle of having sex. So we came to his place.

“I didn’t know you lived in Tennessee,” I said as my car crawled along the driveway.

“I didn’t before this morning,” he replied, the perfect picture of ease—tattooed arms draped over the console and door arm rest, head leaned back on the seat, and his mouth relaxed.

Meanwhile, it felt like a swarm of bees were buzzing around my insides.

“I bought this place before popping into your apartment,” he explained. “I was living in New York like the rest of the band, but seeing as how I can only get what I need from you now, I’ll be in Tennessee often. So I pulled a couple strings to get this place purchased and ready today.”

I glanced at him with both a sense of amazement and envy. It must be nice to have powers or whatever it was that let him make things happen for himself. If I could do that …

I shook my head to dismiss the thought since there was no point dwelling on something that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

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