Page 69 of Deal with the Devil

“Answer my girl’s question, Kyle, or I’ll test the extent of your regeneration.” Knox stepped down into the dungeon, handing off the cane to another of his men.

“Your? Girl?” Kyle laughed sheepishly, looking up to Amelia then back to Knox. “Look, man, I didn’t know she was your girl.”

“Cut the shit.” Amelia slapped Kyle across the face with his own hand. Knox heard Zavros choke on his own laughter. Knox spared them a disapproving look, but his security was stifling their own laughter by staring at the floor.

“Knox! Please!” Kyle begged.

“That didn’t work the last time, you filthy weasel. Begging won’t save you. Tell me what Declan did to make you this way?” Knox knew the first step to curing Declan of his power and returning him to a slimy, bloody corpse was understanding how he got the power. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll go talk to my new friend the Lord Commander and hear it from Rick. Be smart Kyle and tell me first.”

“Or you’ll what? Kill me?” Kyle tossed his head back into the post, laughing as fat tear drops streaked down his grimy cheeks. “That didn’t work last time.”

“Oh, but now I know you won’tdie…” Knox trailed off, stepping up beside Amelia. He released her hold of Kyle’s arm and watched it fly back into place on his shoulder. “Have you ever been killed multiple times and put back together, Kyle? I have.”

Kyle’s frantic laughter died down as he stared up at Knox, eyes wobbling in his own skull. Knox crept closer till he was leaning an inch over Kyle’s body. “Have you ever been ripped apart several times in a row? Beheaded? I can make it painful, and I won’t worry if you don’t answer me at first…because that pain never stops, Kyle. So do yourself a favor, answer me before I have you burned and brought back again just to have you pulled apart.”

Kyle’s lips wavered as he swallowed loudly. “It’s his bite.”

“His bite?” Amelia furrowed her brows.

“We’re just like him, we’re just as hungry, and we’re just as indestructible…I just can’t get him out of my head. He’s always in there, like he’s chewing on my brain. I can feel his fangs like poison. It’s so fucking hot. I felt when you put me in the incinerator, and he made me stay alive the whole time till the incinerator turned off…then I crawled out. Buttons let me out and I was supposed to watch the girl…but there’s somethingdifferent about the girl. She’s not as infected as us, that’s why she had to be chained up. She kept attacking Declan, so he told me to take her and watch over the book.”

The book. Knox’s hair stood on end like Persephone stood directly behind him. Her long, crone fingers wrapped around his shoulders and tapped impatiently against his collar bone.

Amelia dropped to her knees in front of him. “Why? Why is Gael different?”

“Dunno, but even after he made the book bite her, she still didn’t do everything he said.”

Knox snapped his fingers, both Kyle and Amelia jerked to look up at him. “The book, where is it?”

“What does the book matter?” Amelia blurted out.

“It’s the thing that gave him powers,” Knox sighed nodding for her to stand up. She let Kyle go before climbing to her feet slowly. “It’s important to Persephone, the witch, and likely it’s got some answers in it.”

“Whoa! No! Don’t go fucking near it! Anyone who tries to touch it gets bitten!” Kyle hissed.That’s likely the point. And…if we’re lucky, the very thing we need to kill Declan with.Maybe Persephone said Amelia was the key because she was a book worm. Who better to keep a deadly, eldritch tome under control than an author and bookstore clerk?

“I’m pretty good with bitey things,” Knox rolled his eyes nodding toward his staff. One of them stepped up closer, cracking their knuckles. “Bury him…then pour concrete over him.”

“Whoa! Whoa, wait!” Kyle lurched in his restraints.

“Unless you can tell me where the book or Gael is, there is no reason for me to allow you to stink up my Casino any longer, Kyle.” Knox stepped away from the crack forming in the concrete. Zavros handed him back his cane. Amelia slid up beside him, watching Kyle with mild agitation. The men wereopening up the side door from inside the room, pulling out bags of concrete and buckets from the supply closet.

“I can!” Kyle shrieked. “Wait, Knox! I can tell you! I know where the book is! I don’t know where the girl went, but I can sure as shit tell you where the book is!”

Knox stopped, putting up a finger. Amelia whispered under her breath, “Kyle’s not trustworthy, Knox. He’s absolutely lying. He’ll try to slip free the second he gets out of here.”

The fiend nodded, sighing.Unfortunately, that was a risk he needed to take.Knox glanced over his shoulder. “Cut off one of his legs and bury it here. If he’s lying, then we’ll bury him with it!”

His men snickered, one of them pulling out a blade. Knox took ahold of the nape of Amelia’s neck, forcing her eyes forward as they climbed the steps. Kyle’s screams of pain and terror were cut short with a disgusting, wet yelp. Knox pushed open the doors and let Amelia lead the way. They stood out in the hallway, free of the stench of blood and rot.

“Knox, this book, are you sure we need it? Can’t we just do the same thing to Declan? Bury him under concrete?” She eyed him with concern.

“No, he’s a full-fledged vampire, unlike his spawn. As well as being infected, he can turn into mist, summon bats to his location…he’ll be harder to just bury and leave under layers of stone. No, we’ll need the book to kill him.” He put a tender hand over hers. “Earlier, Kyle said he didn’t know you were my girl…any particular reason he looked so worried?”

Amelia sputtered, chuckling mischievously. She tucked a loose strand of blue hair behind her ear. “Oh, well, when I first got down there, he said hey sexy, untie me and I’ll show you a real devil dick or something like that. Then he got a better look at me and said I was the hotter twin but my sister was still a MILF.”

“A MILF?” Knox blurted out, blinking rapidly.

“You know, Mom I’d Like to Fuck?” she scoffed.

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