Page 24 of One Hell of a Deal

His voice is muffled through his hands. “I gave up too easily. I should have tried harder.”

“Stop this,” I say firmly, and he slides his hands down to reveal his puffy, bloodshot eyes. I move closer to him and throw my arms around him. “This is not how I want to spend my last hours. I just want to be happy and snuggle with the man I love.”

His body tightens under my embrace. “You love me? Like, really love me?”

I’m confused because I thought it was obvious. I thought he knew. “Of course I do. And I feel as though you love me too, and that’s enough for me.”

“Ihavefallen in love with you, Daph,” he says quietly. “That just makes this all so much worse. I don’t want you to go. You’ve brought me back to life, and I don’t want to be without you.”

“Everything will be fine,” I say. “I don’t want to leave, but I am lucky that I got to experience any of this at all.”

“Lucky?” he scoffs. “This doesn’t feel lucky to me.”

I place a hand on his cheek and he leans into it, turning me to butter. “Yes. Lucky. But enough of all of this.”

He nods and drags the back of his hand across his eyes. “Is there anything special you want to do tomorrow? We have to leave before sunrise the next day, if we are to make it to the portal on time.”

“How about we stay in and make love all day?” I snuggle into his shoulder.

“And order all of your favorite foods?” he asks, his voice strong again.

“Sounds like the perfect last day to me,” I say. “In fact, I think we should start now. Race you to the shower?”

I pop off the couch, and he grabs at my waist, almost securing me, but I slip through and sprint for the bathroom.

“Cheater!” he yells, running to catch up. “You will pay for that.”

Reaching the bathroom, a split second before him, my eyes blacken as I turn to him, panting a raspy growl. “I wouldn’t mind a good spanking.”

A hungry smile creeps onto his face. “Oh, one of these kinds of nights. I like this kind.”

My heart pounds in excitement as I allow my dark side to stay and play. I’m about to give him a night he will never forget.

Chapter Twenty: Max

I can’t believe I am doing this.

The hardest thing I have ever done was to kiss her goodbye. And I was careful not to wake her, because I knew she would try to stop me, as I quietly snuck out of the apartment, knowing I would never see her again.

I didn’t sleep at all. I spent the night fighting with myself about whether or not I could do this. But I could find no other option. I cannot let her return to suffer hell for a hundred years. Love has given me the courage to do whatever I can to keep her safe.

And now, I am drained. Almost twenty hours in a car alone can make a man crazy. I don’t regret my decision to try to take her place, but I’ve been worrying about all of the details. I’ve left a note with clear instructions for her on how to pull money from my bank account, and I’ve prepaid the apartment rent for two years. She will need to figure out how to create an identity andhow to organize some phony documents, and I’m nervous she won’t be able to figure that out.

I don’t even know if this is going to work. I love her with my whole heart. I love her enough to sacrifice my own life so that she can live hers. It wouldn’t be worth it to continue my journey without her beside me. But I am filled with dread about the possibility that the theologian was wrong. If an act of love won't save her, then she will be hunted down by the hellhounds for not being at the portal.

I try not to picture her waking up to realize that I am gone, and what I am doing. I know she will be furious with me. I keep glancing in my review mirror, subconsciously checking to see if she is in the car behind me, trying to catch up and stop me, even though I know the idea is ludicrous. She is smart, but I don’t think she would know how to catch a bus or hire a driver, and even if she did figure it all out, it would take time.

Exhausted, I finally pull into a spot in front of the run-down, blue-lit bar and turn off the rental car. It’s just after midnight, so I have a few hours before I can summon the temporary demon I am to replace. I reach inside the glovebox with shaky hands and retrieve the small tin of summoning items. I put it together in such a rush that I want to verify I have everything in there that needs to be there. I’ve only done this once before.

I chuckle. I never thought I would summon a demon once in my life, much less twice. I finger through the tin contents, grateful I had leftovers from my first summoning. I don’t think I would have been able to do this otherwise. I wouldn’t know where to find a black cat’s bone on such short notice. I didn’t keep them for future plans either; I just hadn’t gotten around to throwing them away yet. Thank God.

There was only a pinch of graveyard dirt left in the little baggie I had. I considered stopping along the way to get more, but I didn’t want to risk being late. I hope it’s enough. For my photo, I found an old driver's license and chucked that in there. I suppose I could have used my current one if I had to. God knows I won't need it anymore. The only thing missing is the yarrow flowers, which are conveniently growing all around the intersection. I doubt that is a coincidence.

I blow out a trembling breath. “Everything is set, Max. You can do this.”

I close my eyes and picture Daphne again. She is smiling and walking through the park. She is happy. She won't waste this gift. Giving my life for hers is easy to justify. I’ve been floating through for years, going through the motions, making money, avoiding connections, or feeling any emotions. Life should be so much more than being on autopilot all the time. Daphne has such a zest for life. She deserves to experience it all. The world is a better place with her in it, which is something I could never say for myself.

This is my chance to add value to the world by making sure that she stays in it. I really hope this works. And if it does, I hope she can move through the pain of what I have done.

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