Page 2 of Demon Dating Service
Tog flopped onto the floor, his massive weight shaking the entire house. “This isn’t another one of your attempts to get us to paint the siding or replace the windows, is it?”
Azroth rubbed one eye, trying not to grit his teeth. “While some non-magical home maintenance would be nice, no, I’m not trying to trick you into something like that.”
“We could take a class. Like yoga. Or maybe tai chi,” Mullmag suggested.
“Pass,” Bath’tuk grumbled. “Sounds boring.”
“What about painting? Pottery?” Mullmag pressed.
“I don’t think this is a class kind of group, Mull,” Azroth cut in, stopping Bath’tuk’s eventual turn to violence. “We need something we can stretch for several weeks or even months. Preferably in-house for Annod, since he can’t hold a human form for too long.” Not one of them could pass for a human in their natural form, but when necessary, they could shift into a temporary human form. Not all of them could hold that shift for long periods of time, though. For Annod, it was a matter of minutes.
“You know,” Ogos drawled as he cheated by searching through the stack of cards for a black seven, “the nearby university will reconvene its classes in a couple of weeks.”
“So?” Tog pouted.
“All the college students will be returning to town. They’re poor and always searching for a cheap place to live close to campus. And our house is a short walk for them. Very enticing. We could rent out the attic,” Ogos continued.
Azroth tented his fingers in front of his face, his long nails clicking softly together. “Interesting. We haven’t had any kind of live-in prey.”
“We can take turns scaring the student!” Mull shouted, waving four of their spider limbs in the air above their head.
“Yes, that would be the idea,” Azroth agreed.
“But we’d need to set up rules,” Annod interjected. “We’d have to take turns. We can’t all scare the student at once, or the game would be over immediately.”
“True. We’ll draw lots to see what order we go in and set up a calendar.”
“Also, no physical harm of any kind. That’ll end the game too quickly,” Ogos added.
“Agreed. We’ll draw up ground rules we all have to abide by. If you break the rules, you lose your day to scare the human.We just need to find the perfect human to be our new tenant.” Azroth smiled, a gleam entering his red eyes as all manner of nightmares and creepy plans swirled in his head. This was going to be more entertaining than he’d initially expected when he’d come up with the notion of a house project. They hadn’t had a chance to really concentrate their skills on a single human in a long time.
Azroth shot up from his seat and threw out his wings before settling them around his shoulders again, causing all the demons to jump except for Ogos. The bastard didn’t even look up from his solitaire. “I will set about creating a room-for-rent ad. I will also send the crows to scout for the perfect prey.”
This was going to be so much fun.
Chapter 1
Watchful Crows
LUKE
“Making any progress?”
Luke jumped, knocking his glasses half off his face and fumbling with his phone. He barely caught it before it could crash into the sidewalk. His heart pounding in his throat, he clutched his precious phone to his chest and thanked whatever shred of luck he had left that it hadn’t shattered. He didn’t have the funds to fix a broken screen, let alone an entire phone.
When his hands stopped shaking, he resettled his glasses on his nose and turned his head to gaze at the young woman who’d flopped next to him onto the bench, dropping her backpack and a sack of fast food at her feet. Harper hooked a strand of purple hair behind her ear and grinned at him as if she had no clue as to the disaster she’d nearly caused. The smell of grease and salt wafted through the air, chasing away the crisp scent of cut grass. He used to crave fast food like any twentysomething with an unstoppable metabolism, but since he’d begun working at Burger Hut four days a week, fries and burgers had lost their allure.
“You’re going to need to be more specific. Are you talking about my progress with my classes, my research, finding a better-paying job, or finding a place to live?” Luke ticked off each item on his fingers.
Harper paused in the process of bending to dig through her bag of food and winced. “Actually, I was talking about Matteo.”
Just the mention of his name made Luke’s entire body relax and turn gooey like the inside of a chocolate lava cake. Matteo Zito with the perfect hair, so black it almost had blue highlights. Matteo with the flawless olive complexion and the warmest brown eyes anyone had ever seen. Matteo with the perfect smile and sexy voice that held the slightest accent, which had a special way of frying Luke’s brain every time he was lucky enough to hear the man speak.
His friend’s low chuckle and the crinkle of the paper bag kick-started his brain. He blinked and looked to see her peeling the protective wax paper away from a grilled chicken wrap. Of course, his stomach chose that moment to gurgle in complaint. It hadn’t beenthatlong since he’d last eaten.
“I’ve got two more wraps in the bag, along with some fries, if you’re interested,” Harper said prior to taking a bite.
“Sorry,” Luke mumbled as he reached into the bag to snag a wrap. The poor grad student routine was getting old. Of course, the poor undergraduate student routine had preceded it. Actually, he’d just been poor his entire life, constantly scraping by, never having enough and being saved by friends like Harper, who always had a spare twenty or some extra food to share when his bank account was empty.