I mean, sure, no matter where you ended up, you were sure to find a dealer without too much effort. But it was nice to have that off the agenda.
While I was thinking about that, Nova was either trying to shake some life back into her legs and butt or doing a happy jig. And looking at it made a smile tug at my lips.
I didn't understand this woman's impact on me.
I'd never understood the humans' idea of someone's joy being infectious. Maybe that was because demons were, by nature, selfish creatures. If a situation didn't directly bring us joy, we couldn't feel it.
But, somehow, I could feel it watching Nova celebrate her freedom.
Maybe because I'd been the one to free her. That made more sense than the alternative. If that was the case, it was a selfish emotion because I was celebrating my success too.
It was the only thing that worked with my nature.
"Can we celebrate with something really gross?" she asked, shocking me out of my thoughts.
"You're gonna want to explain yourself, or my mind is going to go somewhere you probably don't want it going," I warned her, watching as she rolled her eyes at me.
"I meant fast food. Like really cheap, greasy fast food."
"Bat would want that for you," I told her, smiling when she let out a snorting laugh. "Sure. We can get you anything you want. And I'm gonna get some whiskey. And we can toast to your first night of freedom in years."
"Yes!" she said, smiling huge. "Freedom. I never thought it was possible," she declared. "And it only was because of you," she added, suddenly turning and charging at me, then throwing herself at me, arms going tight around me, holding on with everything in her.
The fucked up part?
My arms went around her too.
Squeezing.
And there was a weird, warm sensation in my chest, something I'd never felt before. Something I liked too much. Something I couldn't let myself get used to.
"Ugh, Drex," Nova said in a strained voice. "I don't know about you, but, ah, humans, we need to, you know, breathe.
"Right," I agreed, realizing I was practically crushing the woman, and releasing her. "Get your ass back on, so we can find a place to crash, and get on with the celebrating."
With that, we drove another forty minutes to find a town big enough to actually have someplace to stay.
And, well, it made the hotel seem like a nice place since the closest thing we could find was a motel in a semi-decent area.
I'd suggested we keep driving, but Nova had enough of the bike for the day. And I couldn't exactly blame her. I loved to ride, and even I was sick of the fucking thing.
And, hey, the place was clean enough, and the TV wasn't a fishbowl. I'd been in worse places.
Nova, a little more accustomed to the finer things in life, had requested I pick up some bleach and scrub brushes before she touched anything in the bathroom.
She didn't complain, though. I'd expected her to. I didn't know as much about the bloodsuckers as I probably should have, but I did know the fuckers were fancy. They lived in mansions and wore designer shit and stayed in the finest of places. In turn, their thralls did as well.
Nova had gone from dirt poor to living large to a motel in the middle of nowhere with a questionably clean bathroom and a comforter she'd immediately stripped off the bed with her fingertips.
Yet she didn't talk shit about it. She didn't gripe or look uncomfortable.
"What?" she asked a while later, catching me staring at her as she took her bleach and water mixture she'd scrubbed the bathroom with and was wiping down the rest of the room.
"You don't miss it?" I asked.
"Miss what?"
"The fancy shit. Egyptian cotton sheets and plush rugs and rooms that are cleaned by staff."
"Okay, I'm not going to lie," she said, giving me a grave look. "I am really, really going to miss the sheets," she said, breaking out into a grin. "But no. Everything there was attached to my inability to leave. So, yes, having things clean was nice. But doing the cleaning myself is kind of fun too. I've never cleaned a room before. I'm a grown-ass woman who's never truly taken care of herself before. I think I am going to enjoy learning how to do it."
"Do you have a plan?" I asked, feeling a twisting sensation in my gut that I didn't quite recognize. All I could say was that it was uncomfortable. And that it had something to do with me envisioning a future for Nova. One that almost certainly I would have nothing to do with.
"I...don't," she admitted, grimacing. "I never thought I would have this opportunity. So I never let myself even fantasize about what I would do if I had it. I guess I will need a job. That should be fun. You know, seeing as I have no skills or job history. Or any of my vital paperwork I would need to get a job or bank account or file taxes."