Page 50 of Death Deals

“Legs wider. Bend the knees—not that much. Good.” With his guidance, I began hitting the bag as he held it firmly in place. “Faster, Jade. Come on, now. You know how quick those vamps are. You gotta be faster.”

“I don’t remember you putting up much of a fight in the club,” I teased him. “Actually, I found you hiding by the stage.”

“I was way out of my league there,” he said. “They ripped a guy’s throat out with their bare hands.”

I knew what he meant.

“Why didn’t you go home like Andre told you?” I asked.

He scoffed. “Ha! Your big bad boyfriend? Yeah, I’m not one to follow someone’s orders.”

No wonder we were friends.

“And besides,” he went on. “I wasn’t going to just leave you here with Dracula and his league of the undead. Not after everything you did for me.”

My chest warmed. Even though my memories of him were limited, my soul recognized him. Missed him. And it was nice to have someone from that lost part of my life. Someone to just shoot the shit with, yet who understood my ever-crazy personality.

“Switch sides,” he instructed, and I did. After a few more good hits, he said, “So, what’s up with that guy anyway?Andre.” He faked a posh, French accent when saying his name.

“Honestly, I really don’t know. I’m still trying to figure him out.” Sweat beaded on my forehead and my muscles were beginning to burn. In a good way.

“So not a boyfriend?” he asked. “He definitely wants to fuck you though.”

My hands dropped, and I looked at him in disbelief. “Ricky! Jesus Christ.”

“What? As a guy, I know these things.”

As a girl he’d tried to make a move onmanytimes, I knew it, too. But I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“He’s helping me with a little demon problem I have, and I was helping him with his vampire one,” I said.

“Was helping? So, you managed to fix it? Even after letting Cornelius go?”

I spun and kicked out with my boot. The bag swayed despite Ricky’s hold on it. “Good job,” he added. “Want to move to more hand-to-hand stuff?”

I nodded. We stepped further onto the mats and faced each other, crouched low.

“Right after you left, we were attacked by the Omaris. They brought us into the theater. Met the queen—this tall, beautiful Amazon woman—and a skip and a jump later, they let us go. Oh, and invited us to some New Year’s party they throw every year.”

Of course, I was omitting all the good parts, but he didn’t need to know the details.

“Ready?” he asked. Before I could respond, he ran at me. I dropped, rolling out of the way. Then, I swiped out my leg, catching him behind the knee. He landed sideways on the mat with a hardoomph.

Standing, I held out a hand to help him up. He took it. “Looks like you learned some new tricks, too,” he said.

“Had to, especially when facing Hell creatures.”

He frowned and walked over to a duffle bag. He must have run home to grab it before coming back to the hotel. Opening the zipper, he pulled out two water bottles. He tossed me one. “Now that the vampire problem is looking better, what about this demon thing? What’s that about?”

“There’s one gunning for my soul. You know, the typical stuff.” I twisted off the top and took a swig, only to spit it out the moment the stench of old socks hit my nose. “Bleh! When was the last time you threw that bag in the wash, Ricky?”

“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad,” he protested.

“It’s pretty bad.”

He shrugged, unbothered by it, and took another gulp from his bottle. I, on the other hand, closed mine and tossed it aside.

Ricky glanced at the man on the treadmill, who was still running to whatever played in his earphones. But when he spoke again, he made sure to lower his voice. Just in case. “A demon coming for your soul… How will you get out of something like that?”

---