I'd made the most of the opportunity to meet forty-eight women. Not all of them were suitable candidates for soul retrieval such as my confused 'wife', but I'd secured a good twenty numbers, which meant I should get down my quota a little more. The final show was on Friday evening and so that night following the end of tour party I could visit a ton of women and sleep all weekend. After that we were in the studio, but hopefully I'd be able to negotiate some free time with the lads so I could do another glut.
A crazy idea came into my head then. If I managed to get my souls done within a few days each week. Like really piled them up, then maybe I could date Erica on a couple of other days? I'd need a few big sleeps, but…
I sighed. Who was I kidding? There was no time for monster sleeps, not with our band schedule and as if a woman would be okay dating me, while believing that on other nights I was whoring myself around.
As much as it pained me, I was going to have to be cruel to be kind with Erica, and let her go. I’d seen Tobias from The Seven look at her on more than one occasion, so I knew other men were interested. He couldn't have her. He was a shifter and unless he declared she was his mate, there was no way I was allowing him to use her for sex.
Said the man who slept with thousands of women, in and out of their dreams.
"How'd it go?" Rex came up to me, and I saw the other doors open and Roman and Noah began wandering over in our direction.
"Yeah, went okay. Only one real crazy, but she was an old lady, so not too bad. Can't bite when they have no teeth."
"The only crazy in my room was Freya. Every time someone flirted with me, she bared her teeth. Anyone would have thought she was a wolf shifter, not me. I'm glad I can escape her now. Fancy a nightcap in my room?"
"Erm, about that." I looked at the rest of the band shifty-eyed. "We might be going to Sheol now to party."
"Say what? I'm tuckered and all ready for laying on my sofa with a bottle of scotch." Roman complained.
"Erica said her and Freya were going to Sheol. I can't risk Don getting his hands on her. So where they go, we go." I insisted.
"You should have just made her a better offer. She'd have stayed at the hotel then." Roman whined some more.
"Goat boy. I like this woman, catch up. I'm not screwing her like one of my quota. So I'm going to the club to make sure she's okay. You lot don't want to come, I'll go on my own."
"Yeah, cos you're amazing at handling Don." Rex sighed.
"Good, I'm glad we're all agreed. I'll sort transport." I told them all.
Noah called Stacey. "Hey, sweetheart. Change of plans, we're off to Sheol with the band, Erica and Freya. Yeah, you can ask Harley if you like."
Roman chuntered something that sounded like a sarcastic, "Oh yippee."
And that was it. We were going to Sheol.
No one would know from looking at the place that six floors down on the seventh level was the seventh dimension of Hell. The office and lair of Abaddon, destroyer and collector of souls. He traded the ones he got whole and fed off the ones I collected for him.
As he had eyes all over the club, mainly via security cameras, I had no doubt that I'd be spotted soon, but while I could get away with it, I was determined to enjoy myself and hit the dance floor. And although not thirty minutes earlier I'd said I needed to somehow let Erica go, I decided it could wait until tomorrow, or even more kindly I convinced myself, I could wait until her and Freya were going back home after their week with us.
Erica had got changed into a short black dress that dipped at the front in a V. It didn't show much of her cleavage, but even the hint of what was underneath made my cock twitch. I looked at Freya's top, a black one with rips, she was wearing with leather trousers. "Is that your work?" I chided Rex. "Got a bit careless with the claws?"
"You're hilarious." He shoved me in the arm. "She wore that in the room and kept getting 'itches' that meant she showed me as much of the bare flesh underneath as possible."
"And your response was?"
"I asked her if she needed an antihistamine."
"Cruel, wolf. Cruel."
Freya looked over and winked in his direction. "She needs spraying with a hosepipe or something. Nothing puts her off."
"So make her dreams come true and then tell her there's no future in it."
"And you said I was cruel."
"I'm going to have to let Erica go." I sighed.
Noah spoke. I hadn't even known he was there.
"I'm sorry, Zak. We'll find a way, I'm sure. You really like this woman then? Do you think your feelings are grow—"
"Evening, gentlemen." We turned to see Aaron. Noah sighed. "The fun police have arrived."
"Drinks are on the house, courtesy of the Boss. He says to let you know it's an unexpected pleasure that you're here tonight and he'll probably see you later." Aaron told me.
"Your boss is here?" A female voice piped up and all I could think was, 'Oh shit'. I turned around to see Erica staring at me.
"I guess that makes sense. Owning a club. Good cover for the business. Probably runs a drug cartel from here too, right?"
The others stepped away as I moved nearer to Erica. "No. They just meant my ex-boss. I used to bartend here."
"Really?" Erica said, "Wow. I thought I'd researched all your past, but I never knew that." Her lips had thinned slightly. "At least if the bar's busy later, I can ask you to nip behind and fix me a drink."
There was a challenge there and I knew it. She didn't believe me. I was so sick of my life and so sick of the lies, but I was part demon and it came with the territory. It's just that the human part of me felt guilty as hell.
"Shall we all go dance?" I shouted to desperately change the subject.
As we all piled on the floor, what had been just boring generic club music suddenly switched up and Coño by Puri featuring Jason Derulo came on. The sexy swing-your-hips tune meant that Erica and Freya were suddenly raising their hands above their hands and gyrating their bodies in time and I had to use everything within me, every last ounce of strength, to stop myself from picking Erica up, wrapping her legs around my waist and fucking her in the middle of the dance floor. Instead, I left the floor, went to the bar and asked for a double scotch on the rocks which I poured straight down my throat.
Aaron appeared at my side. "The Boss wants to see you." He nodded over to the lift. Sighing, I got off the bar stool where I'd been planning on staying the rest of the night and headed down to Don's office.
I walked in to see him and he stood behind his desk. "Come closer, Zak. Let me see you a little better." His voice sounded like insects skittering up a ceramic tile.
"Everything okay, Boss?"
"You tell me, Zak." He said, a finger on his chin scratching absentmindedly. "Only I can see two females on the dance floor who keep looking your way and yet you actually moved away from them instead of towards them."
"Oh that's two people connected with the band. Special guests. I can't go there." I told him.