Page 53 of Deal with the Devil

Amelia nodded, trembling as the exhaustion crashed over her body. “Yes, Sir.”

He grinned from pointy, purple ear to ear, “That’s a good pet. Now, let’s get you home. Buttons lost track of Gael in the woods before I summoned her, so, likely, we’re not in a great spot to be caught with our pants down.”

“What!” she barked, slapping him hard on the chest. “Then why the fuck did you—”

He gave her a stare that meant for her to hush and berate him later. Amelia grumbled, pouting and crossing her arms as he summoned one last portal. Begrudgingly, she stepped through and immediately dropped into the backseat of his vehicle. Knox followed swiftly after, having tucked himself back in his pants. He told his driver to take them home before he made a series of quick calls on his phone. Amelia tried to listen to them, but her mind kept wandering back to the woods.

Buttons had called him a monster… and said ‘when he’…which meant the vampire that hunted them knew Knox…and likely the vampire was that Declan person who kept coming back up.

Amelia wanted to ask who Declan was…but if she was being honest, she’d had about as much truth as she could handle for one day. Instead, she wanted a bath, a long nap, and maybe to cuddle up with Brayden and Penny as they screamed at each other over a video game.

Chapter Twenty-one:

Knox

Sitting back in hisoffice, spinning a knife around his finger. It was a hunter’s knife, thick handle, ring on the end, thin blade with serrated edge. It normally sat in his desk, at the very back. He’d cleaned it several hundred times…trying to get the sight of his blood off of it. Nothing works. When he looked at it, he still saw his plum-colored blood dribbling down it onto Declan’s fist.

Buttons showed him one thing…Declan was alive. That son of a bitch was alive and out for his blood again.

Declan was his infected vampire. He saw the puss-filled pustules, the fangs like daggers, the hollow of his eyes as he loomed over her. He’d hunted her down at her home, tied her up over her days off, and broke her like he did everyone.

Once upon a time, Declan was a very pretty elf. Tall, broad shouldered with slender hips, cheekbones like carved marble, and flowing, platinum blond hair that sparkled in the sunshine. He used to wear pinstripe suits and shiny shoes. He had brown eyes like melted chocolate and a debonair smile; it’s how he charmed his way into the good graces of the council. Thecouncilwoman over business never took one sniff at his casino or his large estate outside the city, never asked a single question. Declan was once a very delightful businessman.

Oh, how the tables have turned. The image of Declan burned into Button’s mind, and now Knox’s, was decrepit. His face was sunken in, pockets of boils and puss leaving large craters in his skin. The only teeth in his mouth were the fangs, the rest of his teeth were either blackened or gone. His eyes were at the bottom of deep wells for eye sockets, the skin a sickly yellow. Inky and green veins lined his elongated arms and legs. He continuously hunched over Buttons, spitting at her as he spoke.

“Traitor!”he barked. Declan was deranged, muttering to himself and fiddling with his clawed fingers as he paced.

“He’s supposed to be dead,” Knox growled, chucking the knife across his office. It sank into the hard wood walls like it were made of soft butter. Knox inhaled sharply through his nose, letting it out in a long, infuriated breath.

Declanshouldbe dead. Knox killed him years ago. Sank that very knife into his chest and left him to bleed out in the forest floor.

“Knox?” Maevin whispered, knocking against the door frame.

Knox snapped his fingers and the knife returned to his hands. Maevin put his hands up only to sigh with relief as Knox chucked the knife again, sinking it into a different spot on the wall. The fiend stared, dead eyed, at the wall as he replayed Buttons’ memories over…and over…and over again. Buttons went to work, smiled at customers, laughed with coworkers, grabbed food, and went home. Wash, rinse, repeat, she would spend her days off sleeping in, listening to music, walking the parks, all mundane…all avoiding life. This was not the person he thought he hired. This was not the woman he thought he scraped off the floor.

“I did this all for you! You promised me that you’d be with me!”Buttons’ words replayed in his ears. “I stayedfor you.”

“Knox?”

He finally blinked away from the spot on the wall to his best friend and colleague. “She was working for him the whole time.”

“What?” Maevin’s face fell into an expression of horror as he quickly scrambled into a seat across from Knox. “She’s worked for us for years.”

“And she spent every day waiting for him to come back because he swore he would come back for her.” Knox shivered with disgust as memories of Buttons, real name Havlaina, draped across Declan’s chest. Naked in his bed, sweet nothings whispered into her ear. Knox growled audibly as he summoned the knife back and stabbed it into his desk. “It was all a lie. Everything he ever did was a lie. He led that poor girl into thinking he cared, that he’d help her and all he did was play her. She was his pawn and she never even…”

He trailed off, pulling away from his desk.

Maybe I shouldn’t have killed her.The nagging thought never left. He’d been so angry, he didn’t even consider maybe she could be forgiven.Could she had ever see reason? I’ll never know.Knox would never know if he could have convinced her to know the truth. Declan used her. Declan abused her love for him. And then he left her for dead.

“But he did come back,” Maevin whispered.

“Not for her.” Knox looked up from his hands. “He came back to kill me. That’s the only reason he’s here. Buttons, Kyle, Rick, maybe even Sandy…he didn’t come back to help them, he came back and used them again…just like he used to—they’re-they’re-they’re nothing but pawns to him!”

Knox was shaking with rage as he snapped to his feet. Maevin patted down the air with his hands. “I should go get Amelia.”

“What? No!” Knox barked.

“Oooooh-kay? Is there trouble in paradise?” Maevin cocked a brow.

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