Chapter 2

Zagan

I DOUBLE-CHECKED MY REFLECTION to make sure everything was still in place. Black hair tousled with a section in the front pushed back, long-sleeved shirt pushed up to the elbows with the top three buttons undone, demon eyes and horns on full display.

“Tonight’s going to be a good night,” I said, smiling at my own reflection, my fang-like canines glistening.

“Damn right it is,” Dante agreed.

His tall and wide build filled the doorway of my dressing room. He was in his show clothes, too—black leather pants, no shirt, and silver bands wrapped around his dark flame-tattooed biceps. His black eyes with their red vertical slit for a pupil met my matching ones in the mirror, taking stock of my appearance. His black horns, only slightly larger than my own, pointed straight into the air on either side of his head.

Dante tossed me a bottled water and waved for me to follow. “Get your slutty ass out here. There’s a large crowd outside. I’m ready to find tonight’s meal.”

I caught the water with one black-clawed hand and smiled at his mischievous tone. Of course, I shared his eagerness. It had been three days since the last time I fucked, and now I was famished . My dick twitched in my pants at the thought of sinking into soft, wet folds later tonight.

“I still think you’re an idiot for going so long without fucking,” Dante scoffed.

I chuckled. “Makes it even better when I finally get a taste.”

Despite my nature, I loved abstaining from any sort of sexual release for a couple days before each of our concerts. I felt it added a certain sensual, angry edge to my voice while I performed, and the fans went wild over it. According to the tabloids, when I sang with my deep, rich, smooth voice, it felt like I was teasing and making love to the listener without even touching them.

It was a laughable statement considering what I was. The irony of it always gave me and the other guys of Sinners Do It Better a good laugh, because while we wore our demonic forms on stage, humans thought it was a mere costume. Little did they know, we were the real fucking deal.

Dante and I waltzed into the backstage lounge where Perseus, Xander, and Coldin waited.

“Ready to scope out our options?” I asked, licking my lips and the piercings there in anticipation.

“Hell, yes!” Xander hollered. His ribbed horns jutted out of his head, which had been freshly shaved on one side with the rest of his black hair flopping over the other half. His black septum piercing glinted in the light against his pale skin, which would be ghostly if not for all the ink covering it, and his gold eyes glinted with a certain glee.

The five of us made our way to a section that had been blocked off for us along a set of windows that overlooked the gates of the stadium we were playing at this weekend. Sure enough, hundreds of fans were already piling up outside, waiting to be let in. Excited screams filled the air, and my body vibrated with the energy of it all. I couldn’t wait to get on stage and have all that intensity directed right at me.

“Shit,” Perseus said, raking a hand through his golden curls, careful to pass through his pointed black horns. The shoulder-length strands flopped back into his red-slitted eyes, which tracked our dark-cladded fans outside. “So many gorgeous souls out there.”

“I bet they’re delicious,” Xander said with a salacious smirk, draping his arm over Coldin’s shoulder.

The stoic demon made no response to Xander’s remark and continued to stare blankly at the unsuspecting humans below with his nearly solid black eyes. Orange flames flickered in the depths of those voids. Since his demonic eyes couldn’t be explained as contacts like the rest of ours, our drummer wore a black and white skull mask during our performances, hiding his eyes behind the empty black eye sockets of the mask. Slits had been cut in the top of the mask for his large, ram-like horns.

I leaned a shoulder against the window pane and scanned the sea of people. I couldn’t see everyone from here, and this wasn’t even a dent in the number of people set to arrive, considering we’d sold out the entire place. Still, we only had so much time to pick our snacks before we had to get backstage for final preps. So with limited time, we looked over who was already here, and the choices were plenty.

Beautiful men and women dolled up in blacks, purples, deep reds, greens, and blues stood around outside. People of all shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds were here, offering a variety of flavors for later. Just looking at all of them made my fists clench and my mouth dry with hunger.

But also with desperation.

With centuries of seduction and sex under my belt, it was getting slightly harder to feel the thrill of it. I loved having a new body to try every night, and the excitement of each fuck was everything an Incubus like me could want. But every so often, there was another feeling that followed each high of a successful seduction. Almost like something was missing. It left me wanting something new—which was weird, considering each person and scenario I took to bed was always different from the last.

“Found my pick,” Xander announced with his gold gaze locked on someone out there. He patted Coldin’s chest where his hand rested, still draped around the demon’s shoulder. “Want the one with pigtails next to mine?”

Coldin shrugged and ran a finger along the black ring of his labret piercing, uncaring about his partner nor the unruly brown hair falling into his eyes. “Whatever.”

Perseus chuckled and shook his head. “You never care, do you? Not unless it’s your next victim .” Perseus turned back to the humans and announced, “I’ll take that other one that seems to be hanging out with pigtails and goth boy.”

Our manager, Leo, came over and jotted down their picks to take with him to the gates. He’d wait there with special VIP tickets to give our meals and anyone they came with—tickets that would get them access to the Airbnb we were staying at.

When Leo died and got sentenced in the afterlife, he’d fallen under my command. He now worked for our band, and I made sure to run the little bastard ragged. In his human life, he’d decided to be a piece of shit who raped women, so as penance, he was stuck serving us and watching us get to fuck every sort of beauty out there but never being able to do so himself. For all eternity.

Having finished what they came to do, Xander, Coldin, and Perseus left. Dante stayed next to me, taking his time to choose, as per usual. I’d been taking just as long as he did these days, trying to find that taste of something extra exciting.

“See anyone that piques your interest yet?” Dante asked.

I made a non-committal sound and downed some water while I continued to look. There was a whole lot of skin to see with how our fans—the Sinners, as they liked to call themselves—dressed. I loved it. Humans were so beautiful and delicious to look at, and the more I could see of their bodies, the better.

But it wasn’t catching my eye tonight.

No. Tonight, I wanted a challenge. Someone who didn’t see me, the guy flooding their minds as they fucked themselves senseless while alone at night. I wanted the chase . I wanted to put real effort in convincing someone to spread their legs and let me in. I wanted—

My breath caught. I straightened a hair and leaned closer to the window.

Two girls hovered to the side of the crowd. While both were beautiful, my attention zeroed in on the shorter, thicker of the two. Fishnet tights covered her legs, which disappeared into a black, pleated skirt, and hanging around her torso was one of our band t-shirts. Her long brown hair was curled, and half of it was pulled back and secured with a big black bow. She fidgeted with the shirt she wore while her big brown eyes looked nervously around her. Her friend was tugging on her with a wide grin as she bounced on her feet. The brunette offered a smile that, even from this distance, seemed cautious.

Timid.

Unsure.

Like a bird that wanted to fly but was too scared to take that first leap.

I’d bet when she did leap off the branch, though, she was hot, eager, and a great fuck.

The shy ones usually were.

She glanced up at the building, most likely just to take in the magnitude of the scene, and somehow, her eyes locked on mine. I raised a brow at her in silent question. What would the little birdy do? Scream and pant from having the Zagan make eye contact with her? Flash me her tits? Yell for everyone else to look up here to see me, too?

Her eyes widened, and a blush swept over her cheeks. She quickly averted her gaze and ducked her head.

My lip curled up. “Perfect.”

“Find one?” Dante and my manager asked at the same time.

“Yeah.” I pointed her out and described her for Leo to jot down.

Dante gave a low whistle and said, “Jot me down for the friend she’s with.” He nudged me and added, “Maybe we can have a foursome.”

I looked back out the window at the girl I’d picked. She didn’t glance back up here to sneak another peek of me. Instead, she kept her back to the window like she was too afraid to catch my eye again. My groin ached anew as I pictured fisting my hand into the hair around her bow, shoving her forward so she had to expose that ass beneath the skirt, and plowing into it until tears covered those rosy cheeks.

“Nahh,” I finally replied. “My little bird is probably the type to only want one partner at a time. If I’m wrong, though, maybe we will.”

Dante scoffed. “Fucking lame.”

I slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Not necessarily. It just means I get her all to myself, and I’m willing to bet, she’s a freak when she’s like that.” My dick twitched in my pants again, and I smiled, thinking about what was to come. “ Definitely gonna be a good dinner tonight.”