Page 64 of Death Deals

“I didn’t know what I was when I made the deal,” I replied. “I didn’t know about any of this. Cut me some slack.”

He stopped abruptly, a thought coming to him. “Please don’t tell me you made the deal for me—for the information about Amon.”

“No, not you.”

I turned to Kay.

She gasped. “M-Me?”

“I needed a way to save you. I took his information about the demon cure in exchange for a peck of a kiss. He said that’s all he needed. I thought he was just a pervert or something.”

“And so she unknowingly signed her name on the dotted line,” Sean joined in.

“Oh, Jade,” Kay began with a frown. “You shouldn’t have done that for me.”

Cole continued to pace about the room. “You’re right, she really shouldn’t have.”

“We were running out of time. If I hadn’t, we would have never known we needed Xaver’s blood to save you, not your own. The cure would have failed. You would’ve been killed,” I told her.

“Okay, so let me summarize this so I can make sure I have all the details.” Arianna began to draw an invisible map with her finger in the air. “An original sin demon named Monnie wants to drag Jade to Hell because of a deal she made about a year ago to save Kay with one really bad kiss? Did I get that right?”

“That’s the basics, yeah,” I replied.

“And now we have to find a way to break the contract before that happens,” she said.

Cole ceased his pacing, but the conflict in his expression remained. “Which means killing the demon. Greed, of all demons. That won’t be easy.”

“I rather not involve you all in this mess,” I said. “I made the deal. I need to fix it.”

“The vampires are behind you in this already,” Andre said, touching my arm. “You have our help.”

“And mine.” Eli stepped forward. “As always.”

“And mine,” Kay said with a nervous smile.

Sean smacked Cole’s arm. He grumbled. “I do owe you for what happened with Azrael and for telling me about Amon.”

“That means we’re in,” Sean clarified. “Looks like you can’t get rid of us yet.”

Kay turned to Arianna, the only one left in the group to respond.

She huffed a laugh. “Are you kidding me? This is just starting to get good. I’m sooo in.”

A smile tugged at my lips. As much as I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, it was comforting to know I wasn’t alone in this. Especially when I’d been taking so much on my shoulders as it was. There were times I thought the weight of it would crush me.

“Sean-e-boy, time check,” Arianna called to him.

Unamused, Sean gave her a deadpan look. “Twelve-o-two. We’re officially in the new year.”

Past midnight and nothing had happened. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?

“At least we can say we’re starting this one with a bang,” Arianna said to the room.

No one seemed as excited about the upcoming fight with a demon as her, but I appreciated the enthusiasm. It reminded me of Marla.

“Someone needs to fill Simon in,” Cole said and peered at Eli.

Wait, Simon? My old mentor, Simon?

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