Page 155 of Devil's Deal

Czeslawa spits in my face and struggles. She turns out to be much stronger than she looks. I resist, but she still rolls us until I’m pinned underneath her, her cold, slimy hand on my throat, feeling my pulse.

But she makes a mistake and doesn’t restrain my wrists. I clench my hand into a fist and punch her face. There is a wet crunch just when pain explodes in my knuckles. Her nose is broken and my hand hurts like hell.

She shrieks, and I throw her off, scrambling to my feet. To hell with it. I’m done with this, and if the devil insists on following me around, he might as well be of use.

“Woland, I’m in danger.”

“I know.” His voice comes from the direction of a tall birch tree nearby, where he suddenly appears, leaning nonchalantly against the trunk. “I’m having a good time watching this. Continue.”

Czeslawa charges at me, and I manage to grab her arm and twist while she scratches me with the other. Her bones break, frail as they are, and she howls from pain and fury. I let go and retreat, blood trickling down my arm.

“You’re just going to watch?” I ask him, irritated.

Czeslawa straightens, brushing filthy, unkempt hair from her face. There is a loud snap and a crunch as her broken bones fall back into place. Her arm is fixed, and she bares her teeth at me. I crouch to pick up a stick, but it’s rotten, and when I hit her with it, it crumbles. She grabs my arm and sinks her teeth into it. I howl from pain and bash her head with my fist until she lets go, lurching back, my blood dripping from her chin.

“You’re an atrocious fighter, Jaga,” Woland says with amusement.

“Then give me a fucking hand,” I growl.

The upir licks her chops with loud smacking sounds, and Woland laughs.

“You keep refusing my protection. I decided to respect your wishes, darling. Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Then why are you here?” I growl, picking up a sturdier branch while Czeslawa is still occupied with licking my blood off herself.

“Because I like a good show.”

I heft the branch in my hands. Heavy. I know I can’t swing it fast, so I will have to time it just right. Czeslawa snarls, more animal than a person now, and charges at me. I raise the branch in both hands, leaving my body completely exposed. When she’s almost on me, I swing with as much force as I can muster.

The branch falls right on top of her head, bashing her skull in. She crumples to the ground, twitching, but I know she’s not dead.

Woland claps, and I snarl at him the same way Czeslawa just snarled at me. He laughs.

“You did it. And without my help, too.”

“This isn’t over,” I mutter, assessing the upir at my feet.

Yes, I brought her down, but by her own admission, she followed my trail. If I don’t deal with her once and for all, she’ll keep coming, and since Woland refuses to deal with her for me, that means I’ll have to fight her every night.

I suppose I could just let her drink my blood until Woland rescues me, but I am too proud for that. No, I need to end this now.

I take a deep breath and turn to him. He comes closer, towering above me. His mouth is curled in an expectant smirk, like he knows I’m going to ask him for help.

“Could you please lend me an ax or a knife?” I ask, steeling my voice to be polite but not wheedling.

I hate asking him for a favor, but the prospect of being woken by Czeslawa every night is even more hateful than being in Woland’s debt.

He snorts. “I can’t give you a knife, poppy girl. You’d use it against me.”

I release an impatient breath, looking around for anything else I can use to chop Czeslawa’s head off. I think back to my pack of supplies with longing. I miss that silver knife Wiosna left me, mostly because yes, I’d love to stab Woland right now.

“Why do you even care?” I ask him, bending low to pick up a stone. I throw it away. Too small. “You showed me a knife can’t hurt you.”

He snaps his fingers, and a nice, jagged rock that will fit perfectly in my palm comes flying. I grudgingly snatch it from the air and grip it as I kneel by the upir’s head.

“A knife can’t kill me,” he says with amusement. “But I never said it can’t hurt me. Besides, there are various ways to harm a person. Do you think my heart won’t hurt when you try to kill me? Do you think it won’t break when you drown yourself to avoid me?”

The note of amusement fades from his voice, replaced by something hard and angry. I look up, startled, and find his eyes trained on me with vicious intensity. We stare at each other, the tip of his tail twitching.

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