Page 52 of Spit

Sev double-parked on the street outside of an apartment block, and before I could open my mouth to chastise him, he rolled his eyes and stepped out of the car. Arlo got out of the back seat, and before I could open my car door, Sev was there, doing it for me.

A valet raced from the building, clothed in a red uniform that made him look a bit like a dancing monkey. A stench washed over me, and I held back the urge to gag. I recognized the smell—Shax demon.

Unlike the demon in the bar back in the ninth ward, this Shax demon didn’t have flaky skin. However, it was bumpy enough to distort several of his features, as if he had tried to take human form but couldn’t get the details right. Sev handed the demon his keys before stepping onto the sidewalk. The doorman opened the door, another shax demon, and we got in the elevator.

“What is the deal with Shax demons?” I wondered. “I thought humans were the servants here, but you have demons doing menial jobs to?”

“No one likes shax demons,” Sev said. “They like to hang out in envy because their main food source is leviathan skins.”

“That posed more questions than answered, but okay,” I replied. “Is this Mars’s apartment building?”

“Nice, isn’t it?” Sev nudged me. “You should see my home. I have these rather fetching statues of my own pen—”

“Penthouse.” Arlo declared, pressing the button.

“You live with Legion, Arlo?” I asked.

Arlo nodded stiffly. “He helps me keep a modicum of control.”

I had nothing to say to that, so I stayed silent as we rode the elevator to the top floor. The doors opened with a swish and a ding.

Legion’s home, with its marble and vast spaces, drew images of Greek temples to the forefront of my mind. Still, Mars’s apartment seemed the opposite—an exercise in maximalism.

The walls were carpeted in several places in lucid purple, but the floors were hardwood. Giant frames of portraits hung every few feet, each one various angles of the same redheaded man. A wide green eye. The shadow cast from long eyelashes. A brooding pout over the shoulder.

“Woah.” My eyes widened.

Arlo’s lips thinned. “I must say, the décor leaves a lot to be desired.”

We moved through the hallway into the apartment. The air was stale and cold. No one had been by in days.

Sev danced on ahead, clearly at home.

“That’s a giant statue of a cock.” I blinked when we rounded the corner. Sev leaned against the head like he didn’t have a care in the world. “I thought you said this was Envy’s home?”

Sev chuckled. “It’s actually an unnaturally large mushroom cast in stone.”

“It’s a cock.” I replied dryly.

Sev shrugged, rubbing his hand over the capped head. “Its an ode to the forest. “

“It has veins!” I threw my hands up in exasperation.

“A symbol of life and nature.” Sev’s face was solemn.

“He’s messing with me, right?” I turned to Arlo.

Arlo didn’t say a word but lifted two fingers and held them very closely as if to say ‘a little bit’.

“What are we looking for?” I rolled my eyes and strode through the nearest door. “If Mars liked to go to the auction house often, maybe someone wanted an artifact? Maybe he knew something or posed a threat to someone?”

Arlo bent down and unfastened his suitcase, pulling out a small device the size of his hand. I recognized it as a bug sweeper. He began scanning the room. “Envy is a rather easy sector to police, all things considered. The thefts are the most prominent issue, but it is the nature of the sin.” Arlo commented lightly, frowning at the device.

“Could he have stolen something?” I wondered, eying the purple shag that seemed to cloak every wall in the apartment.

“Mars is too good a thief to get caught.” Sev beamed as he walked over to the television. “He likes to record himself. There might be footage of the women he went home with from the bar?”

“You think?” I approached the couch and sat down as Sev fiddled with the remote. The couch was white leather with matching fur cushions. The Steward of Envy had pulled his entire décor from the seventies.

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