“Put him on the phone? I can’t get him off the ceiling. I don’t care if Luc is raining fire and brimstone on the whole damn planet, get your butt over here. Now.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She’d already hung up.
Luc rose, ran a hand through this hair and tugged on a pair of tight leather motorcycle pants. “Trouble in paradise?”
I set down the phone, swallowed my very female reaction to the sight. Tan chest, tight pants, bare feet. I wanted to jump him. Again.
My mouth dry and fingers trembling, I forced myself to remember Liddy. I grabbed Luc’s sweater out of his hands before he could put it on and yanked it over my head.
A slow grin lifted one corner of his mouth and he touched my cheek. I was so gone.
I turned my head to kiss his fingers as they drifted past. “Trouble in paradise. Story of my life.”
Chapter Fifteen – Do A Little Dance, Make A Little Love…
Sell Your Soul Tonight
Keisha's house was jumping. Music blared. Champagne flowed. A disco ball in the shape of a skull hung from the living room ceiling and threw multicolored lights over the faces of the partiers. Most of them were people I recognized, but there were groups I didn’t. Probably neighbors or guests her friends had brought along.
Members of Keisha’s coven and members of Witches Anonymous mingled with each other in various corners. Couples danced in the center. My sister Emilia sat beside Mikayla at the breakfast bar, Em reading tarot cards.
As I cut through the crowd, I ran into Cephiel sharing a glass of champagne with Marcia. Their heads were tipped toward one another and they appeared to be sharing an intimate joke as well. When he saw me, the wide smile on Ceph’s face disappeared. Marcia’s smile turned into a grimace.
Whatevs. Ignoring them, I moved on. Gabriel, former archangel and present pain-in-my-ass, mixed drinks at the temporary bar along the far wall. Two people sat across from him and I recognized the brown hair and broad shoulders of my ex-boyfriend, Adam. Next to him was a redheaded female whose beauty could stop traffic.
Great. Adam and Eve. I started to do an about-face and hunt down Keisha when I noticed the way they were hunched in a serious discussion with Gabriel. Gabe glanced up, saw me watching, and immediately pulled away from the other two and pretended to be busy drying a couple of martini glasses. Adam and Eve shared a look, and then, not so discreetly glanced over their shoulders at me. Adam's face was filled with guilt. Eve’s, with satisfaction.
What were they up to?
A new song came on and two women rushed by me to get to the center of the living room. “I love this song,” one of them said. “I love this guy,” her friend replied, pointing.
I didn't need to see Zayfeer to know they were talking about him. Forgetting about Adam and Eve and whatever they were cooking up with Gabriel, I found the angel in question doing a Travolta move center stage. A crowd gathered around him, clapping and cheering him on. The crowd included Liddy, her face rosy and flushed, her eyes sparkling with a mix of lust and happiness.
Watching her, I couldn't help but smile. Rare to see such carefree enjoyment on Liddy’s face. Had she ever been in lust before? Probably, but as I well knew, falling for a fallen angel took lust to a whole new level.
“Thank God you’re here.” Keisha, complete in a cheesy New Year’s Eve paper hat and laughing skull earrings, handed me a glass of bubbly. “Where's Luc?”
Accepting the glass, but not feeling any urge to drink, I watched Zayfeer’s performance. “He hates my hybrid. Refuses to ride in it. He'll shimmer in if he decides to come.”
“At least you can take care of that damned angel.” Keisha gave a toss of her head and looked down her nose at me. “And Luc better come. My parties are legendary.”
Especially when the Devil was her guest. Voodoo practitioners, witches (ex- or not) and humans got a rush from hanging around him.
I felt eyes on me and glanced over at Mikayla and Emilia. Mikayla lifted a hand and waved. I waved back, noticing for the first time how much she favored Emilia. Especially tonight with her hair down. Funny, that. “Yeah, well, John Travolta called. He wants his Saturday Night Fever disco ball back.”
Keisha rolled her eyes. “The disco ball was your angel's doing.”
Zayfeer wowed the crowd with more moves. Another cheer went up when he grabbed Liddy by the hand and twirled her around.
“Quite a show,” I said. “Liddy seems smitten.”
“You need to take out that trash. Gabriel says that angel is trouble.”
This from the archangel who'd tried to become a god by wiping out humanity. “All angels are trouble. Why did you invite Adam and Eve?”