Page 60 of Deal with the Devil

“I’m so sorry.”

“You’re not breathing,” he warned.

“Yes, Sir.” She nodded vigorously, returning to her shaking inhales and exhales. He pulled her into his arms and engulfed her. Blood soaked into his suit and left him sticky. However, he wouldn’t pull away for anything. Not as she clung to him and pressed her face into his chest. “I’m so sorry, Knox.”

“I know, pet.” He kissed the top of her hair. “I didn’t tell you about Declan yet, not all of it. And I will…you’re alright. We’ll get you home, cleaned up, okay?”

“Hey, boss?” Zavros’ worried voice came over the speaking stone in his pocket. “Enforcers are here, what do you want me to tell them?”

Knox pulled the rock out of his pocket and sighed, “The truth. Tell them Declan Vorhalis is alive, an infected vampire, and is killing people to try and ruin my business. Tell them if they care about people’s lives, they’ll purge the world of Rick Calhoon, orwhoever he really is, and they’ll burn everyone they find dead by Declan. Did they catch that?”

“Loud and clear, Mr. Zrazduel. Might I have you come by the council building to make a formal statement?” The familiar, grumbling voice of Aravis Blightwood filled the speaking stone.

“Absolutely,” he huffed, glancing down at Amelia. “Tomorrow morning. Right now, I need to tend to my family, get them back to safety.”

“Hmm, well then, tomorrow morning, bright and early.” The sounds of Aravis sending Penny, Zavros, Doug, and Hellen home filled the crackling stone. Knox wasn’t sure if Aravis believed him. He was more likely to just follow them home than to wait for Knox to answer then. The fiend was more than amicable to that. As long as he got Amelia and Penny home.

“Zavros, please escort the widow Calhoon home. Ensure Doug and Hellen come with you, I want a family meeting. Inform them they will be paid overtime for all their effort.” Knox stuffed the stone in his pocket at the sound of Zavros replying with ‘you got it boss’.

Knox glanced back at Maevin who was dusting the ground with a box of some powdery substance. As it hit the ground, it crackled before turning invisible. Eventually, it stopped crackling and Maevin stopped pouring it out, rubbing any leftover residue into the concrete with the toe of his boot. Finally, with a nod, Maevin put the powder back in his trench coat pocket. “We’re clear, our driver was never here.”

“Good, let’s go home.” Knox ripped open a portal on the opposite wall and nodded for Maevin to lead the way. He had to coax Amelia to move her legs. After she was moving, she practically bolted through the portal onto the other end.

His feral, stab first and ask questions later, lover was now on the other end of murder. With Rick, it had been personal.This was anger…and when it’s anger, the scar it leaves behind is expansive.

As Knox stepped into the foyer, he found Denver frozen, almost touching Amelia, but afraid to break the woman standing before him. When he glanced up, he opened his mouth to speak but Knox waved it off. “I want everyone gathered together and brought in for a family dinner. Maevin has a special concoction for drinks. Anyone who refuses is walked to the cellar and held for questioning, am I understood?”

Denver furrowed his brows, “You’re not…this concoction isn’t going to kill them?”

“No,” Maevin sighed, pulling a satin sack from inside his heavy coat. “It’s a truth serum.”

“Oh! Then, yes, absolutely, sir. Maevin, feel free to whip up a batch of drinks, I’ll rally the staff.” Denver nodded vigorously before giving Amelia a sympathetic smile. The bloodied woman stumbled past him, through the foyer, and to the stairs. Every single staff member that weaved in and out of the foyer stopped dead in their tracks at the sight. Amelia hung her head and climbed the steps. Denver whispered, “Sir, is Ms. Armstrong okay?”

“No, but she’ll be okay.” Knox bowed his head to the centaur before following Amelia up the steps. “I’ll be back down shortly.”

Amelia got to the room first but was hovering over the tub when Knox slid the door shut behind him. She was sobbing while peeling the clothes off her arms and legs. The fiend tiptoed closer, watching her dutifully stumble to the standing shower and rinse off the gore covering her body. Clumps of flesh and sinew coated the drain as she scrubbed it off her body. The tile was splattered with crimson.

“Amelia?” He stood inside the door, watching her.

“I’m breathing,” she croaked, glancing up from her dirtied toes. “I promise I’m breathing. It’s just…I never…I thought I wasbetter. I thought I wouldn’t do that again. I just wanted to stop him. No, that’s a lie. I wanted to kill him. But I told myself I could hold back. Dad taught me better than to unleash like that. But the driver just…kept…laughing.”

Knox pulled off his dirtied trench coat and peeled his ruined button down off his chest. Inch by inch, piece by piece he disrobed till he could join her in the shower. Amelia trembled now, but it wasn’t shock. He cupped her chin and brought her to look up at him. Fear permeated the air. It tickled his tongue and coaxed him, begging him to take a gulp.

She’s afraid of herself.

“Have you killed someone before?” He spoke in a soft, raspy voice.

“You saw me stab Rick in the neck,” she retorted, ripping her chin away. He snatched it back and forced her to look at him once more. Amelia’s lower lip quivered.She knows better than to resist me.Knox traced her lower lip with the pad of his thumb. A soft, puff of air brushed down the back of his knuckles before she spoke again. “I lost it once…really lost it...when I was a kid. We were at a championship tournament, in Tritus. The city over next? We were in a hotel, and the kid I took down came for my neck in one of the hallways. I don’t remember what he said…I just remember blinking and his face was caved in and my dad was screaming at me to stop. They dragged me off him.”

Knox furrowed his brows, “How did that get pushed under the rug?”

“Dad pulled a few strings. I worked community service and the Tritus enforcers didn’t mention that a six-year-old girl broke all the bones in some kid’s face…I don’t… I never found out if he died, or just needed severe healing. So, I just assumed he was dead.”

“You…you were six?” Knox blurted out.

“I got a broken leg from the encounter.”

“Where you learned to write,” he exhaled, suddenly seeing everything clearly now.

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