Page 26 of Demon's Desire
Star paused her tugging on Onyx’s hair. “Jade has such a cool style, and she does commissions.”
“Really?”
Jade’s cheeks turned pink. “Yeah, it’s nothing much. I sell stuff online, like avatars and illustrations of people’s OC’s. I don’t do many. I’ve only been doing commission for a few months.”
Angel held her hand out in front of Onyx. “Give me your phone and I’ll show you.”
“No.” Jade batted Angel’s hand away. “Don’t. They aren’t that good.”
“Yes, they are,” Angel said firmly. “Especially your originalwork.”
“I’d love to see.” Onyx genuinely would. His favorite thing about his job was meeting artists, and he didn’t hold onto pretentious ideas about some people being more worth his time than others. There were so many talented people out there, and Onyx preferred showcasing the ones who didn’t already benefit from connections in the industry.
“Okay, if you want to see, I’ll show you. Give me your phone.” Jade took Onyx’s phone and brought up a website. “I get commissions through social media and have an account showcasing my digital style that’s linked under my contact page, but this shows more of my other work.” She passed the phone back.
Onyx scrolled through the gallery showing a mix of line drawings and acrylic paintings, all of the human form, mostly women. There was so much emotion in each piece, especially the ones with two or more people. It was like getting a glimpse of various lovers at different stages of their relationships.
“These are stunning.”
“Thank you,” Jade breathed.
Onyx extracted his wallet and fished out a business card. “Why don’t you send me a message, and we can meet at the gallery. I’d love to see some of these in person if that’s all right with you?”
Jade took the card. “Fuck, really? I mean, sorry, thank you. I’d love that.”
Onyx grinned, feeling a lot better than he had upstairs. Humans were his happy place. This right here was what mattered in life. Magical beings’ priorities were too often lofty and stomach-churningly self-important.
After chatting idly for a while longer, they had to vacate the private room.
“Thanks for a great time,” Onyx said as they reentered the main club.
“Come back and we can do it again sometime.” Star blew him a kiss and sauntered over to a group of men standing near the bar.
“Yeah, see you around.” Angel looped her arm through Jade’s and pulled her away.
“Making friends?”
Onyx spun to find Nico smirking at him. Onyx’s tense muscles loosened, and the hollow feeling that had been following him around seemed to fade. “I always make friends. Everyone loves me.”
The witch raised his brows. “Is that what you were doing upstairs, getting everyone to love you?”
Onyx didn’t need the magic world’s affection. “I don’t spend a lot of time with vampires. They don’t count. I was talking about people who matter.Theyall like me.”
“I see.” Nico’s expression turned shrewd, like he really did see. “And what about witches?”
Onyx’s pulse sped up. “Depends. I won’t hold being a witch against Harper.”
Nico laughed, and Onyx’s fire sparked inside him, the sound annoyingly beautiful. “Just Harper? I see how it is.”
Onyx scowled, hiding the smile threatening to break free. “Aren’t you busy with Rowan?”
“No.” Nico shoved his hands in his pockets. “I figured I’d see if you wanted to go playWorld’s End?”
Onyx’s heart leapt. What was wrong with him? He hadn’t expected Nico to come find him and hated being so glad to see him. All his reactions to Nico were baffling. He’d gotten under Onyx’s skin in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.
“I never said I wanted to play your little game.”
“Oh, I know. But that doesn’t mean you don’t want to. Come on, I’m sure Ollie would love it if you played with him sometime.”
