Page 34 of The Devil and His Sparrow

We struck a contract—a job—with him, allowing him to run around the human world with us as our drummer, but he had to act as humanly as possible. The contract kept him in check, which meant he couldn’t go around killing people at the drop of a hat. Still, we let him have his fun every so often since his contract only permitted him to kill once a month and when we gave him permission. The guy was only demon. We didn’t feel right, not allowing him his monthly kill, and it was only when his hands and teeth were smeared in blood that he ever smiled.

But that was to be expected of a Letum. They were killers.

“Yes, yes, keep your guards up,” Xander chuckled, and I turned to look at him again. “Wouldn’t want to have only one partner for the next 70 years or however long the bitch lives.” Xander met my gaze with a smirk. “I hope you like the taste of her pleasure since she’s all you get for the foreseeable future.”

Coldin’s eyes opened then, and the human green that he usually wore as a disguise burned away into an endless black with vivid orange flames roaring in the void. “I can kill her for you.”

I held my hand up, my stomach bottoming out with those eyes focused on me. “No need, Coldin. She and I have an arrangement that’s working for now. Plus, we don’t want another suspicious disappearance associated with us. We all know how much riskier it is to kill off humans these days with cameras everywhere and shit. If things change, though, I’ll let you know.”

Coldin sneered, and slowly, the black and orange flames in his eyes swirled and changed back to green.

I rubbed my forehead, getting more annoyed with everything. My lack of inspiration. My new bond. Xander’s forever irritating personality. I was over it all. “If you guys have seen the house, you can leave the same way you came.”

“Zagan,” Dante said, sitting next to me on the couch. He clapped a dark hand on my shoulder. “That’s not all we’re here for, man.”

I glared at him. “I know what you’re really here for. The song isn’t ready.”

“Clearly,” Coldin said, staring blandly at the ash on the ground.

“Leo wanted us to talk to you as your fellow bandmates,” Dante said.

Bandmates. Because none of us were actually friends. Demons didn’t have those, or rather, we didn’t really understand them. Still, out of everyone here, I was admittedly closest with Dante and Perseus. Maybe that was because we were the only Incubi in the group, so we understood each other. Xander and Coldin joined us in our sexual exploits, because what idiot wouldn’t, but they didn’t need sex like the three of us did. It was that sort of understanding that let the three of us get as close as non-friends could be. It was also the only thing that kept me from ripping Dante’s arm out of its socket for touching my damn shoulder.

“We’re not trying to rush you,” Dante continued, “but we need at least one new song. It’s been six months since we’ve put out anything new. We can’t keep performing the same shit. Our fans are loyal as fuck, but we can’t gain more fans or hold onto the hype without something new.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I growled before heaving a defeated sigh. “I’ve been trying, but nothing I write is good these days.”

“Says who?” Perseus asked. “You haven’t even played anything for us.”

“Nothing’s been good enough to even bother showing you.”

“Zagan,” Dante said, squeezing my shoulder. His dark eyes stared right into mine like he was imploring me to listen. “It doesn’t need to be ground breaking. It doesn’t need to be anything but a song that people can enjoy listening to. Stop overthinking and write something.”

Yeah, cause it was that easy to just “write something.” I didn’t half-ass shit. If I was writing a song, I wanted every single one to be my new best. Expectations for myself were already high, and they just seemed to get harder and harder to meet. How could I continue to outdo myself? At some point, there had to be a cap. At least, that’s what everyone else here seemed to believe. They thought we’d given our best songs and now just needed to put out stuff that entertained. Not touched minds. Not spoke to the inner human soul. Just entertained.

That wasn’t good enough for me. Not when music was everything to me. Not when my songs were my mark on this world. Incubi were low ranking demons, and the odds of us having any profound impact on lives was wishful thinking.

I was made to seduce. To fuck. To corrupt people into sinning and doing wicked deeds, all in an effort to lure them to “the dark side.”

At least, that’s what people liked to think of demons. In reality, we were just here for the balance system, to give the impression of right versus wrong, good versus evil, light versus dark. We were the ones who got slapped with the label of “evil” in the coin toss between the higher ups, so that’s what we embraced.

Debauchery.

Chaos.

Living.

I personally didn’t care much about the whole saints and sinners bullshit. It wasn’t important to Incubi and Succubi. We were just tools, kind of like a gateway demon, to aid Hell in meeting their souls quota. Once a human got involved with us, other demons followed, swooping in and drawing them into our darkness. And humans loved it.

After all, people had more fun in the dark.

“Babette’s been asking about you,” Perseus hedged slowly, breaking the tense silence and flicking at the upholstery of the couch. His eyes refused to meet mine, and for good reason. He knew he’d find me glaring at him just for mentioning the Bargainer demon’s name.

“If you’re about to suggest I make a deal with that Bargainer demon, you’re fucking insane,” I bit out through clenched teeth.

Babette. She was a Bargainer demon, and I didn’t fuck with Bargainer demons. They were sly, deceiving little shits, and that particular one had been breathing down my neck about showing her a good time for centuries. I didn’t refuse many partners—especially ones that were as gorgeous as that curvy red-head—but I always refused her. Nothing good could come from getting involved with the likes of her, and Perseus knew this.

His green eyes met mine again, and he shrugged. “She could help with whatever is going on with you. You’ve been off for a while as far as our music goes. Just make a little bargain with her. She can fix whatever the issue is, and we know all she’ll want in return is you.”

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