Invidia

He got across safely and was somewhat disappointed. He frowned, “that was anticlimactic,” he muttered, he looked back over at Invidia across the space between them and shrugged at her. 

Invidia blinked to the other side, “Want me to talk you back to the other side and we can try it again?” Her eyebrows bounced up and down with excitement. “Whatya say? huh? I can even fray the wire a little bit.” 

Rachel looked over at her. “Drinks? W-What… why would we celebrate this? It was kinda terrifying and I almost died. Someone did die actually.” She said softly. “I wouldn’t want to celebrate my first kill… even if it was needed and I had no choice.” 

“You humans,” Invidia shook her head with a giggle. “You’re still alive. Celebrate that. Duh. Do humans ever need a reason to drink anyway? Like seriously...”

Rachel shook her head. “I know what it is. It’s not like that’s what he has always been though. I’ve never taken the life of anything until now. If you don’t mind, just let me have a moment to process this all, please.” She said softly clearing her throat with a deep breath to follow.  

“Fine, take your moment,” Invidia sighed with annoyance, “But hurry it up. We need to celebrate! Drinks are on me!”

“No glory to those who play it safe,” he agreed with a grin.  “Why don’t you tell me what you think my style is?”

She tapped her bottom lip and took a moment to think, “Mhmm,” She gave him a sideways glance before making up her mind, “You seem to be the black out drunk type. You must get in all sorts of trouble once you take to the bottle, huh?”

His eyebrow quirked, did she just check him out? He couldn’t say he minded if that was the case. He didn’t look back at her though, he was more interested in the idea he might die plummeting to the ground. He shrugged “I don’t know,” he said, “how about you surprise me.” He gave her a quick grin before taking a running start, grabbing onto the zip line handle. He was an athlete throughout high school, a runner and a swimmer, he had a pretty good take off if he had to say so himself, but would it be enough to get him across the gorge?

Invidia shrugged. “You really do like to be reckless, huh?” Trusting a demon with your life was probably the single most irresponsible thing anyone in Crossroads could do. They were typically self-serving, especially Invidia. 

She watched him launch across the vast expanse. Her nerves were standing on edge as he sped across. Odds were that if he were to drop to his death, she would save him. She envied death. It always took the fun ones. The least she could do was deprive it of this one a little while longer. 

Ella smiled, happy to have a friend, but unsure of what this girl was, she was a little scared. “Are they there now?”

“Of course they are,” Invidia crossed her arms over her chest, “want to go meet them?” She nodded her head with gleeful enthusiasm. 

He took her hand, “not into hiking or something?”

“I’m the Demon of Envy, do I seem like the type that would enjoy wasting her time hiking?” She took his hands and in a blink of an eye they were at the zip line.

“They can be.”  He took the phone back, inspecting it quickly before setting it down among his papers.  “But being careful isn’t really my style.”

“No one ever took what they wanted being careful, right?” Invidia leaned against the table, playing on her cuteness factor. “So, handsome, what is your style?”

He looked out the window and grinned, they wasted a lot of time driving if she could teleport, “no reason,” he said, he looked back at her and pointed at an oncoming parking lot, “the start of the path into the woods is up there, the trees are too dense to drive so we’ll have to leave the car here.”

“We can blink up there,” Invidia jerked the wheel quickly and skidded the car into a pseudo-parking spot along hte tree line, “I just wanted to see your car. Then you offered to let me drive. That was fun,” Invidia offered a hand, “but it’s done. Let’s get up there already.”

Ella took the girl’s hand, a little confused on why she had to shake hands, but accepted it. “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome!” Invidia pulled out her phone and texted her second in command. “The Green Room is where we hang. You should come by and meet everyone. I’ll hook you up with a vampire, too.”

She seemed disappointed, “I appreciate it,” he said, he spotted the trees getting closer ahead. “Hey…can you teleport and stuff?”

”Yup,” Invidia made a popping noise as she finished the word. “That’s pretty standard for demons, ya know? Why?”

Ella didn’t know what this woman meant by crew, but it couldn’t be that bad if it meant she would get help… “What d-do I have to do to j-join your crew? Because I-I’m in.”

“Just... shake my hand,” Invidia held out her cute petite hand with her cheerleader grin wide and bright.

“Oh hey it’s pink,” he said, “but yeah, no, don’t use it. I mean, you can do what you want but like I said earlier, I don’t really find endangering other people fun.”

“Right,” She stuffed it back into her bag, “only putting yourself in life-threatening situations.” If she had to forgo killing random people to watch a human put his life at risk, she would. Well, at least for the time being. Live action grand theft auto sounded like something her crew could make into a competition later.