Page 59 of Deal with the Devil

Chapter Twenty-three:

Knox

“Knox, come quick. Rick’snot dead.”

He ripped a portal open and Zavros, Hellen, and Knox stepped through it into the bank parking lot. Rage, fear, irritation, pain, all of it surged within him as he stepped out into a gruesome scene. Penny on the asphalt, away from the corpse at Knox’s feet, struggling to hold onto something. Doug was wrestling a half-alive Rick back down the ground. Amelia was nowhere to be seen.

Zavros jumped to help Doug keep the corpse pinned to the ground, Hellen rushing to Penny’s side.

“He’s alive!” Knox roared, storming up to the corpse. He stopped as he saw the splatter of his blood around the wheel well of a car. An Amelia-shaped spot between the blood was left untouched while there were bits everywhere else. “Where’s Amelia?”

“She ran after the driver,” Penny cried out, “Knox, you gotta stop her.”

He was stuck. Did he stay to figure out what was going on with Rick and how pieces of him were crawling back only to be rippedoff and chucked away by Doug or Penny. Or did he chase after Amelia. He knew where his heart was going.

“Knox!” Penny shrieked. “The Enforcers are on their way. You need to stop Amelia!”

“From what?” He leapt over Rick’s thrashing corpse, rushing across the parking lot.

“She’s gonna kill that driver, you gotta stop her.” Penny jerked an arm out toward the sidewalk. Knox followed a trail of blood shoe marks across the concrete. He launched after them, hunting her down for the second time by the scent of her fear. This was different…she wasn’t afraid of him this time. She was angry, he could taste it in the air. Amelia was furious and afraid and hurt. It washed over him like a tidal wave as he ran through the city block.

The blood eventually dried up, but her taste didn’t. He followed it like a blood hound until he rounded a corner and found Amelia on top of a man Knox hired three years ago. She swung, one fist after the other, sobbing as she broke his face in. Knox lurched forward, grabbing her by the arms. His lover thrashed in his arms. “No! Put me down!”

“Amelia,” he exhaled, grabbing her by the sweaty wrists and restraining her. She was strong. Amelia ripped out of his arms once, but he grabbed her before she could pummel the dead man again. She’d smashed away all the bones in his face. His throat was clearly throttled. Amelia was feral. Her fingers were coated in blood and viscera. Tears cut tracks through the stains on her face. Her feet kicked out as if to strike him and missed.

Knox pinned her to the alley wall. She heaved for air, struggling to get free. Knox bellowed, “Maevin!”

Like he were made of shadow, his elf melted out of the wall and stepped into the alleyway. “Knox—oh.”

A shadowy wall of magic went up around them and the alley was blocked off. Anyone who would want to enter would beconvinced by their own mind it wasn’t important. The noise they made was muffled in a second, and by the next, silenced completely. Maevin crept forward, inspecting the corpse on the ground. “What happened?”

“He betrayed us! He locked me in that car and left me for Rick!” Amelia stopped struggling. Her body trembled as the shock set in. Knox cupped her face, forcing her to look at him.

“Pet.”

“He locked me in that car, Knox, I just wanted to talk to him. He told me he’d rather die than talk.”

“Amelia,” he warned, and her mouth snapped shut. “I want you to breathe for me.”

“Knox, I didn’t mean to kill him, I just could—”

“I don’t give a shit that you killed him, Amelia. I can replace traitorous drivers. I can’t replace you. So, you will do what I ask for once, and you will breathe.” He watched her tension melt away as her bottom lip quivered. She took a shaky breath in. He nodded with approval. Amelia let it out, her exhale giving away to a broken blubbering. He stroked her cheeks, smearing her hot tears with the cold blood. She shook like a leaf in a tornado. Her very bones vibrated as she sank back against the brick wall.

“Yes, Sir,” she murmured.

“Good.” He brought her face forward and kissed her sloppy forehead. She tasted of ichor and iron. He didn’t care. Even as it burned away, the necromantic power pulsing through him cleansing the filth off his lips, he lingered there till she was still. “Why. Are. You. In. The. City?”

His jaw snapped with every word.

“I thought The Lord Commander called. He asked to talk to us about the case. However, when I called him back to tell him we were in the city, it wasn’t him. And Penny needed to help her boss at work, and I didn’t want her to lose her job. I didn’t wanthim to come sniffing around and get you in trouble. I thought they wouldn’t attack us in the daylight or in a crowded place.”

Knox wasn’t angry. Not at her and not at Penny. They couldn’t know fully how bad this was. They didn’tknowDeclan. They couldn’t understand.How could they? Only those who survived Declan knew what he was like.

However, Knox was furious.

“Boss, he’s dead-dead,” Maevin whispered.

“Get rid of the evidence. Rick’s bloody enough, that’ll explain the shape she’s in.” Knox pulled away from his lover and glanced at his right-hand elf. Maevin nodded before snapping his fingers. Ash colored tendrils of smoke slithered out of the walls and crawled over the body. It hissed and bubbled and popped. The flesh melted away, leaving nothing but bones at first, before they too were eaten. As the body disintegrated, the bones giving away with loud cracks, Knox returned his attention to Amelia.

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