Page 70 of Deal with the Devil

“I know what it means, Amelia. I run a casino and an entire underground empire, I know what fucking MILF stands for,” he huffed, whirling from her. Amelia snickered to herself, standing still with her back to the door like the goodand badpet she was. Knox was fuming, cheeks burning as Zavros climbed the steps with Kyle strapped to his side.Sans a leg.“There you are! Finally, now, show me where the book is, and for every hour you fuck with me or run me around on a goose chase, I’ll take another chunk from you, got it?”

Kyle whimpered, clutching onto Zavros as the ogre strutted down the hall. Knox snatched up Amelia’s arm and half dragged his pet down the hall. She stopped snickering when he growled in her ear, “Keep it up, pet.”

The only thing that cooled his fury was the subtle lick of her lips as she ducked her head. She looped her arm through his and stormed at his pace through the employee part of the casino.

Chapter Twenty-eight:

Amelia

Amelia sat in Knox’slap for the journey through the streets. He demanded it with his eyes when they slid into the car. She wasn’t sure what his game was, but she wasn’t going to say no to sitting in his lap. Zavros sat with Kyle in a headlock the whole ride through the city toward where Kyle said to start. Knox situated Amelia close to his chest and draped her arms around him. It took her far longer than she would like to realize that she made it difficult to target him in the car. Glaring down at him, she hissed under her breath. “Trying to ensure I get stabbed first?”

“Remember our deal?” he cocked a brow up at her. Amelia scowled.You can’t be hurt while the deal is still strong.

“So, you’re using me as a meat shield? Getting stabbed still hurts,” she snarled into his ear.

“I can assure you, I know,” he snickered, kissing her cheek. “I did warn you; guys like me get stabbed in cars all the time. Just know if you do get stabbed, I’ll make it up to you.”

Amelia hummed with wicked delight, “Does that mean you’ll crawl for me?”

He bit down onto her throat, causing her to tense up and freeze. His fangs threatened to break the skin before relaxing down to regular teeth. Knox kissed the growing bruise before whispering. “I said I’d make it up to you, not hand you the reigns, pet.”

Amelia chuckled to herself, enjoying the ease that their flirting did to the tension in the air. The whole day they’d been on pins and needles, she’d worried her Knox wouldn’t survive it. Declan was a priority. Destroying him and putting Penny back in her life was her personal mission…but the gravity of the situation was enough to choke her. She nuzzled her face against his, watching the city whizz past them.When Declan’s dead and gone then…maybe he’ll sleep fully at night.

The car slowed and Amelia sat up straight again. Knox tapped her backside, alerting her to the driver coming around their side. As the door opened, she stepped out into the inky black. Night fell over King’s Fall and left her drenched in its inky abyss. Knox stepped out behind her, sliding an arm to the small of her back.

“Where to now?” Knox smirked to Kyle who raised a shaking hand through the trees. “Of course.”

“Of course?” Amelia rolled her eyes, “For those of us who don’t know the vampire, why ‘of course’?”

“Declan’s unmarked grave,” Knox huffed, leading the way to the edge of the haunted forest. Amelia bemoaned her ankles as her heels sank into the soft soil. She considered taking her heels off, given how well her feet survived the last time she ran through the trees barefoot. However, she kept them on as Knox made it clear they weren’t slowing down.And those fuckers took a good seven minutes to put on, damn side buckle.No one understood what it was like trying to put on an outside ankle buckle when one’s tits get in the way. It’s like fighting a kraken in the sea or a minotaur in a maze, foolish and damn near impossible.

She clung onto his waist with one arm and swatted away branches with the other. As the group descended into the thick, inky night, Knox snapped his fingers. A golden bulb of light drifted ahead of them and exploded into a million will-o-wisps. Glittering magic danced in the air over their heads. Amelia smiled, reaching out and poking one. It floated away from her like a firm bubble.

It took nearly an hour of walking before they came across a clearing in the trees. Just big enough for three people shoulder-to-shoulder and a legless Kyle to hobble to the center. At the center of the patch of grass and moss was a pile of loose soil.

“And he was sure no one would mess with it here? There’s no way!” Zavros huffed, scanning the trees around them.

Kyle, for his part, did lead them to the book. And Knox knew he was a risk. So, when the slimy weasel dropped to the ground, kicked off the dirt with his one good leg, and let out a howl as an alarm to nearby spawn, Knox couldn’t be too terribly angry. He knew Kyle would do what he could to get away. A swarm of red eyes filled the trees around them. His golden magic was snuffed out as a horde of bodies stumbled toward him from all directions.

“Mother fucker!” Amelia shrieked, booking it across the clearing.

Knox

Knox couldn’t stop heras she bulldozed through the trees after Kyle. He clutched a leather suitcase to his chest, clearly the book tucked away safely.

“A trap,” Zavros groaned, “I should have brought more bullets.”

Knox stomped the end of his cane against the ground, making his magic explode back to life. A few of the spawn hissed in response, their writhing bodies sizzling. They were humanoid but there were no closer to human than a naked mole rat is close to a guinea pig. Bodies pulled like taffy, all arms and legs and a foot of torso. Their flesh was bleached of life and color, practically transparent and painted over their lack of muscle. Gnarled fingers and snapping jaws lunged at him from the trees. Knox swung without hesitation, his cane braining one of them.

“Should I run after her?” Zavros fired off a bullet that splintered into four, ripping apart one of their attackers.

“Will be mighty hard in our current predicament.” Knox ground his teeth together as he wrangled with one of the ghouls. They lunged over the bar of his cane he had pressed to their throat. Claws grabbed Knox by the horns, and he snarled. The lights snuffed out again. “That’s it.”

Like a blast of light, his mouth dropped open and a ray of purple cut through the night sky. The creature in front of him screamed in terror as it melted. Knox aimed his magic aroundthe clearing, knocking trees and ghouls until Zavros snatched him by the back of the shirt. The ogre charged away from the horde of creatures, sizzling and screaming, and led them free of the clearing moments before the trees caved in. Their crack, snap, and crunch sounds filled the forest for only a moment before it was terrifying quiet.

Knox panted for air scanning the dark for Amelia. Zavros crouched down, clearing straining his ears for any movement. The second they heard a grunt and a scuffling of leaves, they both burst into action. Zavros bound through the air, his thick boots crunching all things beneath him. Knox summoned one last burst of light, knowing he didn’t have much left to summon. If they went out again, that was it.

Zavros and the fiend stopped inches from Amelia holding a book over Kyle’s head. He screamed, doing all he could to fight her off. His face was broken in, lips busted, and teeth scattered around them. Knox saw the blood dripping off Amelia’s fists as she shoved the book closer to his head.

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