The only thing better than the sun on Nyalla’s skin was the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the rocky shore.

“This is the most incredible vacation ever,” she told the demon who sunbathed by her side.

“It’s not a vacation,” Terrelle corrected. “It’s a job. We’re here to do a job.”

“I know that. But this is a beautiful island, and I like combining vacation with work.”

Besides, it wasn’t really work if she loved the job, was it? Doing these things for Sam, the Iblis, the imp that was like a foster mother to her, was pretty much a dream job. Nyalla was a sidekick, a right-hand woman. Sam might send her off on what the imp felt were easy, non-risky tasks, but this one must be a tiny bit risky if she’d sent two demons with her. Yes, Terrelle was a Noodle, an information demon, and not very good at fighting, but she would be useful if the Gormand intended to screw them over by giving them a fake. And Snip…well he was a Low, but so very loyal. Sam had promised him a vacation here among the humans in payment for his very valuable assistance in Hel. He couldn’t be that helpless if he’d been of valuable assistance in Hel, could he? Besides, he was sweet, and kind of cute, and Nyalla really like him in the same way she liked the overly friendly ugly dogs at the animal shelter.

“Why aren’t we over with the humans at the beaches by the high-rise hotels?” Terrelle complained. “The ones with tiki bars? The ones with actual sand instead of rocks? The ones with all the actual sunbathers.”

“Because I like this beach better.”

Terrelle was right. All the tourists were on the other side of the island where calm aqua waters lapped white sands, and both casinos and cantinas were only a skip away. They, on the other hand, were sunbathing on the side of the island with four wheelers and Jeeps, with wild goats, cacti, and lighthouses, with shipwrecks claimed over the centuries by an angry sea. Aruba was kind and gentle on the west shore, wild and fierce on the east, as conflicted as Jekyll and Hyde.

And Nyalla had always had a soft spot for Hyde.

Something wet splashed onto her stomach, like a drop of rain. Nyalla shoved her sunglasses upward into her hair and opened her eyes.

“Hello, Snip.”

The demon had proclaimed earlier that he’d had enough bathing in the sun, and left to go chase the wild goats and throw rocks at the tour buses driving up the road to the lighthouse. And now he’d returned to stand over the pair of them, ogling. And drooling. Nyalla brushed the spit off her abdomen and sat upright.

“Snip! Go drool over Terrelle. I’m trying to get a tan here.”

“I don’t want him drooling over me,” Terrelle said.

“Terrelle has a bathing suit on. You don’t. I like naked humans better than demons wearing tiny scraps of cloth.”

The Noodle made a disgusted noise. “Great. Even the Low rejects me. I’m never going to get laid, not by a human or demon.”

“I’m not going to get laid either,” Snip whined.

Nyalla ignored the Low. “Terrelle, don’t be silly. That man at the sailboat rental place was very interested in having sex with you, as was the man running the towel cabana and the woman at the hotel check-in desk.”

“That woman was just being friendly, the towel man can’t get it up, and the sailboat man wanted me to pay him. Don’t think I haven’t tried.”

Poor thing. “The right one will come along, Terrelle. Just wait and see.”

“I don’t want the right one,” she wailed. “I just want to fuck somebody. And I’m tired of waiting.”

“I’m never going to get laid,” Snip complained once more.

“Let’s get the item from the Gormand, then we’ll all get laid. And drink margaritas and go scuba diving.”

Snip wrinkled his pointy nose. “I don’t want to go scuba diving. Can I get laid twice instead?”

Nyalla reclined back down on the warm rocks and closed her eyes. She had more important things to do than procure sexual partners for the two demons who were supposed to be guarding her.

“Speaking of the Gormand, when are we meeting him?” Terrelle asked.

“He’s supposed to let us know. We’ll finalize arrangements, then get what we came for in the next three days at the latest. With any luck, you both will be enjoying a consensual sexual partner of your choice directly after while I go on one of those cool dive excursions I read about at the concierge desk.”

“Three days?” Snip wailed. “I don’t think I can wait three days.”

“Well then I guess you need to hustle and get your game on,” Nyalla teased. “Start hanging out at the beachfront bars and the casinos. It’s One Happy Island, so someone somewhere is going to want to get naked with you, Snip.”

“What about you, Nyalla?” Terrelle asked. “You should have sex, too. It’s good for you. Like eating kale and doing Pilates.”

Sex was better than kale and Pilates. It was better than just about anything. “I’ll have sex once I find the right man.” And hopefully this time he would actually be the right one. There had been a whole string of wrong ones. Maybe if she gave up searching for the right one and begun to just enjoy the wrong ones, she’d be happier.

Terrelle sighed. “How about we grab a Benjamin and pay the sailboat man? You can go first, and I’ll get sloppy seconds.”

The information demon’s voice faded into the background as something drifted across her senses. Nyalla opened her eyes and frowned. There it was. Again something right at the edge of her awareness. “Do either of you see anyone nearby?”

Snip spun around in a circle.

Terrelle squinted up at the sky. “No. Maybe over near the lighthouse, but that’s a mile or so away.”

That was too far. She sensed someone, a demon, nearby. Actually she sensed three demons, and there were only two beside her. This was supposed to be an easy assignment, just collect an item from a demon in exchange for another item, but Nyalla had learned never to assume anything involving demons would go as planned. And there definitely were three demons nearby.

“Can you demons do invisibility?” she asked.

Snip laughed. “Not without a very expensive magical device created by a sorcerer.”

Then that would be a ‘yes’. Nyalla sat up, sliding her sunglasses down. It could be their contact, checking up on them as a precaution before their meeting. It could be a rival looking to steal the item from them. It could be some pervert looking to get laid who liked staring at sunbathing women — kind of like Snip.

Less than two years ago she would have been driven into a panic by the presence of an unknown demon, even a Low like Snip. How things had changed. Being able to see into the hearts of those around her, sensing their motivations, and sometimes their thoughts, gave her confidence. Snip was a pervert, but he was strangely honest for a demon. And Terrelle was far more interested in learning new things, discovering all the world had to offer, than anything else…well, anything except sex evidently.

This demon…he seemed lonely, isolated, rigidly in control. He was trying to hide what she suspected was an immense power, but he wasn’t projecting anything that might make her fear for her safety. It was the undercurrent of loneliness that hit her hardest — a longing that was so ancient it had become a part of him, hidden deep but always there.

“Problem?” the Noodle’s voice was casual, but Nyalla was suddenly aware that as bookish as Terrelle was, she was still a demon and capable of defending her if needed.

“No. At least not yet. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s a problem.” Nyalla’s fingers curled around the stick of wood in her purse. This gave her as much of a feeling of security as the two demons by her side. Her thumb rubbed against the wood, feeling the sharp edge of a gem and the indentation of the carved runes. A human girl needed weapons, and she would have been a fool to sunbathe out here without ensuring that if they were attacked, she could do more than cower behind a rock.

“We’ll protect you, Nyalla,” Snip announced, puffing his chest out. “Nothing is going to happen to you on our watch.”

She smiled. As demons went, Snip was pretty awesome.

Her purse beeped, and with some reluctance, Nyalla let go of the wand and pulled the phone out of the bag instead. It was the text she’d been waiting for.

“Hey Snip? Can you run up to the lighthouse and meet another Low? He supposedly has the information on our mission.”

Snip saluted. “Yes, ma’am.” He took off, stubby little legs churning with inhuman speed. In ten minutes he was back, his abnormally long tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted.

“Here. The Low is waiting for your response.” Snip passed her a scroll, sealed with some sticky substance that wasn’t entirely wax. Nyalla flicked it off with a finger and unrolled the parchment, reading it carefully before rolling it up again. It was a letter of introduction, a way of assuring her that the Gormand she was dealing with was legit, and that he did in fact have the item she was sent to retrieve. The scroll included the demon’s sigil, and the one of the angel who was the authenticator of the item. It was real. It had to be real for an angel to sign off on it.

“Thanks. And the exchange? Will he have the artifact at our meeting tomorrow night?”

Snip did an odd little dance, hopping from one foot to another while staring a good six inches above the top of her head. He wasn’t looking at her breasts. That’s how she knew that something was wrong.

“The Gormand won’t discuss that with another demon present. He wants to meet with the ambassador…ambassadoress…yeah, you alone tomorrow night, then after that he’ll make arrangements for the exchange.”

Nyalla bit back a smile. It wasn’t uncommon for demons to pull rank like this. They were so status conscious. A human wouldn’t rank high in their hierarchy, but a human who was the sort-of adopted daughter of the Iblis, of the Ha-Satan — that was another thing entirely. Even so, there was no way she was going to be there alone. Snip and Terrelle might not be the toughest demons in Hel, but their job was to defend her. She wasn’t a fool. She’d never been a fool, even when she was a slave to the elves in Hel. Staying alive as a human without any innate magical skills had required a lot of passive-aggressive manipulation. As had staying out of the way of fists, claws, and teeth.

“Where and when do we meet him tomorrow night?”

“At seven in the evening at the Hooters.”

Hooters. She was on a beautiful Caribbean island and the guy wanted to meet at Hooters. Demons.

“Tell him seven at Charlie’s instead.”

“Carlos and Charlies?” Terrelle asked. “I thought they closed.”

“No, Charlie’s in San Nicolas.”

Snip’s brow furrowed, which created a bushy black unibrow across his forehead. “Where?”

Nyalla stood to pull on her tank top and shorts. “Tell him to Google it.” Snip nodded and took off running to give the other Low her response.

She’d eventually get what she’d been sent to retrieve. Not that she was in any hurry. Of all the places to do a clandestine meeting with demons, Aruba was the best. If this guy stalled a few more days, she might be able to get in more than a couple of dives and both Terrelle and Snip might be able to complete their quest for sexual encounters.

“Are we going tomorrow night, too?” Terrelle asked, gathering up her cover-up and bag.

“Absolutely. I’m not meeting with this Gormand alone, no matter what he says. Besides, this place is on my to-do list of places to go. We’ll get fish or maybe steak, and some beers. You guys can hit on the employees and patrons while I talk with this demon.”

Terrelle stood, brushing the dirt from her legs. “I’ll score some fun later, once the Gormand leaves. I’m not about to be distracted by jiggly boobs or big cocks while you’re meeting with a greed demon. And I’ll make sure Snip does the same.”

And that’s why Terrelle was along. She had more common sense than most demons, and Nyalla knew she could count on her. And Snip too, as long as he managed to focus. The pair of them headed across the rocky beach, and Nyalla looked at Snip up by the lighthouse. As soon as he was done, they’d head back to the hotel.

Her toes curled around the rocks as she hopped across them barefoot toward the four wheelers. It felt good to be without shoes again. It felt good to be occasionally naked again. It was the one thing she missed about her life in Hel, the casual attitude toward nudity. The rest…well, the rest of those memories she was happy to bury. Who cared how horrible the first eighteen years of her life had been if the remaining sixty or so were like a sunny day in Aruba?

* * *

Gabriel watched from the water, as the human woman and the Noodle walked away, their bodies swaying as they hopped across the rocky shore. It was just as Nils had said, although Gabriel couldn’t imagine why the Iblis would have sent a human to guard the Noodle during the exchange. Perhaps the woman had great magic. Perhaps she was a sorcerer? Although if that were the case, why bother to send that little drooling Low?

It didn’t matter. They were just the trail of food bits that would led him to the Gormand, and from the Gormand to Tura. Watching these three, as incredibly dull as it was, hadn’t been a waste of time. The Low had clearly brought information back to the Noodle and the human in the form of a scroll. If only this dratted side of the island didn’t have loud, pounding surf and high winds that blocked even his angelic ability to hear their speech, then he would have been able to figure out what the scroll said from their conversation. Instead he’d just need to keep following them until they led him to the Gormand.

Or…maybe not. If he could get his hands on the scroll, he’d be able to arrive at the meeting place ahead of time and grab the Gormand. With a little bit of persuasion, Gabriel was certain he could get the greed demon to give up the location of the rebel angel he was seeking.

And then Tura would be his. Finally. Well, the rebel would be his to turn over to the Ruling Council for judgement and punishment.

Waiting in the water, Gabriel watched the Low demon race away, his human form barely masking the repulsive being beneath. The woman and the information demon climbed onto four wheelers and kicked them to life, gunning them along the dirt trail toward the lighthouse where the Low had gone. Gabriel rose from the water and assumed a human form before walking to where the woman had been lying on the rocks. Then he knelt down to retrieve the reddish brown bit of wax, sap, and blood that had sealed the scroll.

Blood. Blood from a Gormand. He looked up to watch the two ride off, the human’s braid flying behind her as the four-wheeler hopped a hill and vanished down the other side. Something had fallen from the scroll that was sticking out of her bag, something bright that glistened with an unnatural light. Gabriel hurried, breaking into a run.

It lay on the ground, white and gold as it shimmered in the sunlight. A tiny feather — an angel feather. The feather of a traitor.

The woman and the demon on the four-wheelers appeared once again in the distance, climbing the hill to the road that circled the lighthouse and led along the ocean to the resorts and high-rise hotels. These three clearly had the information he needed, and with a quick search of their rooms to find the scroll, he’d be one step closer to vengeance.