Page 25 of Deal with the Devil

“He wasn’t employed!” Amelia snapped. Yet, the Lord Commander was already facing away from her and headed away into the setting sun.His employer?He couldn’t elaborate more? Who the fuck?Amelia stormed up the driveway and into the house.

It didn’t matter, nothing could be proven. If his body was anywhere, it was in the dead cabin in the middle of the forbiddenforest. Something ought to have eaten him already let alone the rot alone…Rick was never going to be found.

Chapter nine:

Knox

It had been aweek. A whole other week of practically ramming his head into the wall. The elf girl, Gael, was fourteen and currently staying in a heavily guarded room down in the employees only area. They’d only recently gotten her out of a fugue state long enough for her to answer her name. Then, she went right back to being a zombie. It freaked the guards out, so they kept the doors shut and there were no windows. Hellen had been in and out of that room every day. The open wounds were stitched up and healed, but there was something holding her back from talking.

Until the next Friday, when she woke up screaming and Knox heard her from his office. The guards held their wands and swords at the ready, pointed at the door. Knox opened it and found Hellen already inside, attempting to hold down the girl.

“Please, please, Gael, you need to relax.” Hellen held her down with fuchsia rays of light. The fledgling hissed and snapped, clawing at the light. Knox stepped inside and the guards ripped the door shut behind him. He would have been pissed if he hadn’t told them to do that exactly last week.

Then, like Hellen pushed the fledgling through a sieve and filtered out the beast, the girl returned. Gael lay against the bed, staring up at her with wide eyes. Knox stumbled forward, “What’d you do?”

“I suppressed the infection. Her sire, whoever they are, is very sick, and it’s what’s causing the freak outs. Do you understand what I’m telling you Gael? The vampire who bit you is trying to forcibly control you, and it’s causing your body immense harm because they’re sick, and they’re making you sick.”

Gael hiccupped, her lip quivering. “I understand.”

“Now that I know my suppression works, you’ll be free of them for a few hours a day, but it’s not a guarantee. Once your sire realizes, there’s a chance they’ll get stronger or do worse. So, I need you to help me find them.”

Hellen glanced up from Gael to Knox. He pulled out a chair and sat beside her bed. Gael’s green, dead eyes flopped in his direction. She was covered in sweat and paler than moonlight. He folded his hands in his lap. “Hey little one.”

“Hey,” she croaked.

“My name is Knox.” He leaned over his lap, fingers knotted between his knees. “Can you tell me about the person who bit you?”

Gael’s eyes watered as she gasped for air. “I don’t know who he was, I just…I just…”

“Why don’t you start at the beginning? How did you get bit?” He wasn’t one for tears and waterworks. Not that he didn’t sympathize. Gael was in pain and too young to understand. But, he couldn’t let his emotions get tangled in her plight. That’s how he got sloppy, and she needed him sharp. If he was ever going to rid himself of this problem and fix hers, he needed to be merciless.

“I wasn’t supposed to go,” she groaned, flopping back against the bed. “It was a concert. My friends and I were supposed towalk back home but we got into a stupid argument. They ditched me and I was so close to home, so I just walked. But I stumbled over this foot next to a dumpster. I thought it was a homeless person and turned to apologize. I saw him, not his face but his body. He was hunched over another person. He was all snorting and huffing and chowing down on this guy who looked like he worked at the diner nearby. The man didn’t even look at me. I don’t know when the slimy guy showed up, but he hit me in the head. I dropped to the ground and suddenly there was this sharp pain in my neck. The slimy guy was begging the other guy to stop, saying they’d get caught. But the vampire…he said it wasn’t enough, he needed more. I thought he was killing me. I just kept staring at the dead guy, chewed up like corn on the cob, whole chunks of him missing. Then I woke up in slimy guys basement.”

Knox nodded, allowing her to sob and Hellen to tend to her suffering. It seemed Gael was just an unfortunate bystander. A person at the wrong place at the right moment. Their hungry, infected vampire was starving, apparently.

“Can you tell me anything about him? Anything at all, his body, his smell…anything.” Knox glanced up from his lap to Gael.

“He was so skinny.”

“How so?” Knox cocked his head to the side.

“I almost got away. The guy stopped feeding from me and I thought I could just crawl away. He grabbed me and I tried to fight him, but I was too weak. I felt his bones, Mr. Knox. Like his skin was painted over his skeleton. And I can still hear his voice, saying it’s not enough. I…I can hear him so clearly.” The haunted look on her face was familiar. Knox wore the same face long ago. In some moments, he bet he’d still catch it in the mirror. The face of someone replaying the horrors of their life like a film before their eyes.

“If I got ahold of him, could you tell me if that’s his voice?” Knox cocked a brow, watching her.

She steeled her expression, looking him dead in the eyes. “Get him to growl, and I’d know it anywhere.”

“You’re in luck, little one,” he smirked, tossing her a cheeky wink. “Getting people so pissed they growl is a specialty of mine.”

Gael giggled weakly before her composure broke again. Knox turned to Hellen who sat on the side of the bed, stroking the poor girl’s back. Hellen sighed, “I tried curing her, but she was infected too long ago, it’s taken root…she’s a full vampire.”

“Full?” Knox grimaced.

“Not like, fully awakened, but she’s a vampire. It would take divine intervention to change her now and unfortunately, I’m out of stock of miracles.” Hellen flashed him a weak, pity filled smile. She nodded toward the door and they both stood. Addressing Gael, she spoke sweetly. “I’m going to have them bring you some blood. I know you didn’t want to drink what they gave you, but you’ve got to get your strength up. It’s easier for him to control you when you’re weak.”

Gael nodded stiffly, turning over in her bed, and shivering beneath the blankets. Poor thing was robbed of her life. Knox hated keeping her from her family, but he wasn’t about to thrust a fledgling into society while some infected, starved vampire had access to her mind.

They stepped outside the door and another healer passed them into the room with two sippy cups full of blood. Hellen sighed, as the pair watched outside the door as the healer brought the cups to Gael. The girl took one and nodded at the nightstand for the other. The other healer bowed and exited the room without a word. Hellen waited till the door was closed before she spoke, “Most vampires, when they create a new babe, they sire the fledgling until they can control the feeding. Themind control between a sire and their fledgling is supposed to be a phase. Just like training wheels, in case they go berserk or have a bad reaction. But, not all sires are good, and not all fledglings are lucky.”

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