Page 74 of Deal with the Devil

“That’s what I pay for therapy for, pet.” He lowered his arms to kiss her forehead before slipping from between her legs. Denver’s hooves clacked against the floor as he clearly rushed to look away. Amelia sat up, staring at the door. The book she was supposed to be able to withhold was taunting her from the office.

If she couldn’t learn to control it, she would never be able to use it to bite Declan.

“I’m not going to be able to conquer the book, Knox.”

“Of course you can, you were close to doing it now and you controlled it with Kyle.” He cocked his head to the side, offering her a hand. She slid to her feet, finding Knox put back together again. “You did so to kill Kyle.”

“The bookwanted to kill Kyle.” She eyed him, unsure how to describe the feeling. When the book came to her in the woods, itwanted to eat Kyle. It wanted her to capture his head in between the pages and squish his skull like it was her jaw it was between. It made her feel like she could sink her teeth into him.

However, that, just then…that wasn’t a mutual desire. That was her trying her hardest to force the book to do what she wanted, and it laughing in her face. It wanted to show her how easy she was to manipulate. Even while her fiend was five inches deep with his tail and his teeth around her jugular, it was still able to steal her mind.

What if it didn’t want to kill Declan.

“Then, we’ll convince it to kill Declan,” Knox murmured against her temple. She didn’t even realize he’d pressed his lips against her skin till he ripped her attention from the door.

Ah, yes, convince the eldritch tome of madness to kill the man who freed it from the library…that’ll work.

Amelia couldn’t explain why she knew the book would fight her on it. She didn’t know how she knew it didn’t like Declan but it also didn’t want to kill Declan like it did Kyle.

Amelia slipped away from Knox, heading for the room. “I need a shower and to scrub my skin off.”

“I’ll be to bed shortly,” he promised, leaving her with a sweet touch to her shoulder. Amelia touched her fingers to the warm spot on her flesh as she disappeared into the bedroom, then into the bath.Purposely ignoring the eyes staring back at her in the mirror some things you just can’t deal with just yet.Her eldritch awakening was something for the morning after a good night’s sleep. If only the book would let her.

Chapter Thirty:

Knox

Knox stared at herthrough the doorway, his heart slowed to a sluggish thump in his chest.The book is going to eat her alive.He wasn’t sure how he was going to make it better, because this was nothing one of his spells or deals or contracts could fix. That book was beyond anything he could protect her from. And it seemed it intended to take all of her to use. He’d been in that space with her, seeing spinning lights and her eyes roll back in her head. Knox would never forget the sound of her teeth chattering as she begged him to close it. Her skin turned blue around the lips. Then with the sound of his voice, she was ripped back to reality.Humans were never meant to handle such horrors.

If she was going to use the book to defeat Declan, she couldn’t be as soft as a human. And it was cruel to think as his pet was the strongest human he’d ever met. She was sturdy, a fighter; it was the only reason she was able to even hold the book. Pure grit, she fought tooth and nail. But it wouldn’t be enough.

Unfortunately, Knox didn’t have the time to figure it out.

For a man with seven backup plans for his backup plans…he never planned for the front door to his estate to fly open and the foyer to fill with bats.

Screams bounced off the walls as Gael burst out of her spare room. Her ghoulish fingers wrapped around her skull as she fought off the call of her sire. Knox froze in the doorway to his bedroom, staring at the spawn transforming before his eyes, unable to do a thing. If he went for Amelia, Gael could follow him into the room.

If he went for the book, then Amelia was defenseless.

If he went to cover Penny and Brayden, both cowering in their doorway, Gael could get to them first.

The world froze.

“KNOX ZRAZDUEL…”

He turned his head ever so slightly to the stairs. Declan’s voice boomed up the steps. Straight out of his nightmares, the same sharp, deep voice booming around as if it rattled Declan’s very bones. Knox blocked his doorway, staring at a swarm of bats coming up the steps. Gael shrieked, blood trickling down her cheeks. She begged, ‘no-no-no-no’, as she scrambled away from him.

“There you are.”

Maybe Knox should have let Amelia invite Declan for coffee and murder, maybe he would have been better prepared. Knox stepped out of his doorway, putting himself between the person forming at the top of his stairs and the hallway full of his wards. Knox made his whole empire on the ashes of Declan’s. Built his entire business on the promise of revenge and a better life for Declan’s victims.

He wasn’t a scared little teen, hung by his toes in the dungeon of a strange casino.

Knox wasn’t afraid of Declan anymore…but he was afraid for the people he swore to protect.

Declan lumbered out of the hazy mist at the top of his stairs. A six-and-a-half-foot figure made of rotten flesh and fangs too big for his face. Hair drenched in blood and ichor clung to his lumpy scalp in stringy clumps. Hollowed eyes sunk into his face and half his jaw exposed by clawed open skin.

Knox stepped closer to Declan, smirking. “Now…don’t tell me you didn’t get on the wrong side of a particular Lord Commander.”

---