Page 2 of Prince of Demons
“Hey!” the shout was out of her throat and past her lips before she could think to stop herself.
The demon turned to look at her over his shoulder. “Yeah?”
“I…” Her mouth was dry as she stared at him. Never in a million years had she thought she’d do this. But Larry was sick now, and in her gut she knew there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to try to stop her family from crumbling apart.
If he died, there wouldn’t be anything left to live for anyway.
“I want to make a deal with you.”
The horned man arched an eyebrow, slowly turning all the way back around to face her. His fully black eyes crept over her face. “A deal?”
Georgia quickly bobbed her head in a nod, before she could change her mind. Every instinct in her screamed to run at the calculating look in his slightly narrowed gaze. “That’s what your kind does, isn’t it? Make deals?”
A small smile with no warmth tugged on his lip. He crossed his arms over his chest and walked back toward her, every step slow and measured. “I suppose that depends. What kind am I?”
“Demon,” she croaked, her throat tight as he stopped in front of her. “You’re a demon. And I want to make a deal with you.”
His eyes turned laser sharp then, head tilted back as he took her in from head to toe. “Well, well. And what do you have to trade?”
“My… my soul?” she whispered. “Isn’t that your price?”
He cracked a grin then, wide and unpleasant, but thoroughly amused. “Not exactly the kind of business I’m in, darling.”
“Oh.” Georgia frowned, taken aback by this twist in the conversation. It wasn’t that she was an expert on the subject, but all the religious scripture she’d found said demons fed on mortal souls. “I thought—isn’t that why you hang around the hospital? To trade the souls of grieving relatives in exchange for their loved ones’ lives?”
The demon snorted. “Nope. That’s a few steps above my pay grade, I’m afraid.”
“Then why do you work here?” she asked, confusion winning out over fear.
“Easy access to organs,” he said with a shrug. “And juices. Eyeballs. That sorta thing. Plus, the benefits aren’t bad.”
Georgia blinked, every small hair on her body standing on end as horror crept back through the confusion. “O-oh. Okay. Nevermind.” She made to push past him, but he brought a hand up to her arm, stopping her before she could.
“Don’t flee, little mouse. Just because I don’t want your soul doesn’t mean we can’t find another bargain.”
She suppressed a shudder at his touch and forced herself to look up into his eyes. “What do you have in mind?”
“Well,” he drawled, letting his gaze rest on her throat for a beat. “I like blood. And bile.”
“You work in a hospital,” she said. “Surely there’s plenty of supply?”
“You’d think,” he said with a grimace, finally letting go of her arm. She immediately took a step back, putting a foot’s distance between them. “But as lax as they are with checking everyone gets buried with their liver, getting to the blood bank’s a right nightmare. Every ounce is accounted for.”
“Oh… right,” she said, somewhat off kilter by his relaxed mention of harvesting organs from corpses. “So you want… to bite me?”
“I could,” he said, flashing her that disturbing smile again. “But if I do, you ain’t getting back up again, and that would put an end to my blood supply, now wouldn’t it?”
“Uh…?”
The demon tossed his head in the direction of the hospital for her to follow, then began walking back toward the building again. “From what you were saying before, it sounds like someone you love is sick, and you want a bit of magic to make them all better, hmm?”
Georgia stumbled after him, her legs taking a millisecond to obey. “Yes. My brother.”
“Well, darling, that sort of power doesn’t come easy. Or cheap.” He shot her a meaningful look as they passed through the sliding doors, and the noises from the busy hospital intruded on the surreal conversation, surrounding them in an obscene cocoon of normality. “Tell me what room your brother is in and I’ll bring a contract with me after my shift tonight. But a fair warning—once you sign it, there’s no going back.”
2
Georgia
