Page 6 of Death Deals

“Unfortunately.”

He huffed a laugh at that. “I feel the same way.”

“It’s safe to assume most people do.”

With a smile, he waved his hand, telling me to go on, and rested his ankle on his opposite leg.

“I’m in a bit of a jam,” I said and glanced down at my body still tied to the bed. “Even more so than now, if you could believe it.”

His brows lifted. “Oh?”

There it was. That had grabbed his interest.

“I was tricked by a demon. An original sin demon, Greed. Now I have a week—well, less now—until the new year—to find a way out of it. Or he’s going to drag me to Hell and make me part of his harem.”

Sounded like a really fucked up episode ofJerry Springerwhen I said it aloud.

“That does seem like quite a problem,” he said, his French accent swirling around every word.

“I’m chock-full of them.”

He sighed. “It seems, I am as well.” Uncrossing his legs, he sat more forward in his chair. “And I think we can help each other out here.”

Butterflies filled my stomach as my mind went somewhere naughty yet again.

Uh oh.

“What do you mean?” I choked out.

“The only way to get out of a demon contract is to kill the demon who made the deal, and if what you say is true and it is Greed, then you’ll need help.” He paused, gaze roaming over my face.

“And your problem?” I asked, cautiously.

“I am trying to make peace between the three families.”

I balked. He wasn’t serious, right? That had to be a joke.

“As in the three vampire families who have been at war since their existence? Pretty much the dawn of time?”

He nodded.

The longer I stared at him waiting for theJ/Kmoment to appear on his face, the more serious he got.

“Bullshit,” I said. Didn’t believe that for a second. This had to be some underhanded way to overtake the other two. Use me as their weapon. That seemed more plausible.

Anger flashed across his features. “Excuse me?”

“I call bullshit,” I repeated. “The Perez, DeMonte, and Omari families have been at each other’s throats forever—”

“Exactly,” he replied sharply and stood. “And that’s why I’m determined to stop it.”

When I didn’t answer right away, he continued, “We’ve been killing each other for so long, we don’t even remember why we’re doing so, and frankly, I’m tired. I’ve lost too many people to the senseless fight.”

His face fell, pain transforming his expression.

I rubbed my lips together as I considered what he was proposing. It still sounded like a lot of hullabaloo to me, but he was right about one thing. I did need help if I was going to get out of Monnie’s deal. And since there was no way to contact Eli, I may have to use Andre and his vampires. My time limit didn’t leave me with many other options.

Still, I didn’t want to get involved in this vampire feud.

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