"Yeah, and I don't eat at anyone's table I don't know."
One corner of his mouth lifted in bitter amusement. "You're wise to think that."
"I also know nothing comes without strings." Fang jerked his chin toward the table. "What's the price of that food?"
"I would say it's a gift to ease my conscience for leaving you here so long when you didn't belong, but I have no conscience and honestly don't give a shit how much you've suffered."
"Then why do you corral the demons to protect the human world?"
Thorn let out a long-suffering sigh as if irritated that Fang had brought the subject up. "So apparently I do have a conscience after all. Damned thing that. I keep denying it, but it won't go away. However, that's not the point. On Mardi Gras night, a few hundred demons were let loose from Kalosis. Ever heard of it?"
"No."
Thorn shrugged. "In short it's the Atlantean hell realm. The demons ate a couple of my men and I now find myself rather shorthanded in New Orleans." He opened his mouth as if he were shocked. "Oh, wait! That's where you're from . . . now do you see?"
"You want me to help gather them."
"Not exactly. More you're to help keep tabs on them and if they step over the line, you bring them back over it . . . or kill them."
"And if I refuse?"
Thorn gestured toward the door where the outside winds howled. "You're free to leave my hall and fend for yourself anytime you want to."
The idea of leaving was less than appealing, but Thorn knew that as much as Fang did. "If I stay?"
"We'll help your girlfriend and her brother hunt down those Daimons and set you free from here."
Fang wasn't quite sold on this. There had to be more than what he was relaying. There had to be. "With all your powers, it seems to me you could recruit hundreds of people to do this. Why do you want me?"
Thorn laughed. "There is a certain breed, a certain tiny handful of people who can do what we do and not get slaughtered three seconds out the gate. It's not about fighting skills or even survival. It's about character."
Fang scoffed at the mere idea. "I have no character."
Thorn sobered as he closed the distance between them. Those ice blue eyes cut through him as if Thorn was looking deep into his soul and psyche. "There you're wrong, wolf. You have loyalty and courage. Unrivaled. Two things that are damn near impossible to find. Have you any idea how many people would have allowed Aimee to die rather than offer up their soul to save her? That, my friend, is the rare, rare quality that I can't teach anyone. You either have it or you don't. And you happen to have it in spades. That ability to sacrifice yourself for someone else. Priceless."
It didn't feel priceless. At times it felt more like a curse.
Thorn held his hand out to him. "So will you join me?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Of course you do. I would never impose on your free will."
Funny, it didn't feel that way. There didn't seem to be much choice in this at all. He took Thorn's hand into his. "You keep Aimee safe and I'll give you my soul."
Thorn's pupils flashed red so fast that for a moment, Fang thought he might have imagined it. His features stone, he released Fang's hand. "Boy, I need to teach you to take those words out of your vocabulary. Believe me, they're not child's play and neither is what you're about to join."
Dev?"
He pulled Aimee behind him as he faced the demons coming out of the shadows. "We need to get out of here." He shoved her toward the street.
Aimee started to run, but didn't make it far before another demon cut her off. She tried to flash and couldn't. "Dev? Can you get us out of here?"
"That power appears broken."
She put her back against Dev's as the demons drew so close, she could smell the sulphur on them. "What's going on here?"
"I have no idea. But they don't look like happy demons."