Deal with the Devil

10. Chapter nine

Chapter nine:

Knox

It had been a week. A whole other week of practically ramming his head into the wall. The elf girl, Gael, was fourteen and currently staying in a heavily guarded room down in the employees only area. They’d only recently gotten her out of a fugue state long enough for her to answer her name. Then, she went right back to being a zombie. It freaked the guards out, so they kept the doors shut and there were no windows. Hellen had been in and out of that room every day. The open wounds were stitched up and healed, but there was something holding her back from talking.

Until the next Friday, when she woke up screaming and Knox heard her from his office. The guards held their wands and swords at the ready, pointed at the door. Knox opened it and found Hellen already inside, attempting to hold down the girl.

“Please, please, Gael, you need to relax.” Hellen held her down with fuchsia rays of light. The fledgling hissed and snapped, clawing at the light. Knox stepped inside and the guards ripped the door shut behind him. He would have been pissed if he hadn’t told them to do that exactly last week.

Then, like Hellen pushed the fledgling through a sieve and filtered out the beast, the girl returned. Gael lay against the bed, staring up at her with wide eyes. Knox stumbled forward, “What’d you do?”

“I suppressed the infection. Her sire, whoever they are, is very sick, and it’s what’s causing the freak outs. Do you understand what I’m telling you Gael? The vampire who bit you is trying to forcibly control you, and it’s causing your body immense harm because they’re sick, and they’re making you sick.”

Gael hiccupped, her lip quivering. “I understand.”

“Now that I know my suppression works, you’ll be free of them for a few hours a day, but it’s not a guarantee. Once your sire realizes, there’s a chance they’ll get stronger or do worse. So, I need you to help me find them.”

Hellen glanced up from Gael to Knox. He pulled out a chair and sat beside her bed. Gael’s green, dead eyes flopped in his direction. She was covered in sweat and paler than moonlight. He folded his hands in his lap. “Hey little one.”

“Hey,” she croaked.

“My name is Knox.” He leaned over his lap, fingers knotted between his knees. “Can you tell me about the person who bit you?”

Gael’s eyes watered as she gasped for air. “I don’t know who he was, I just…I just…”

“Why don’t you start at the beginning? How did you get bit?” He wasn’t one for tears and waterworks. Not that he didn’t sympathize. Gael was in pain and too young to understand. But, he couldn’t let his emotions get tangled in her plight. That’s how he got sloppy, and she needed him sharp. If he was ever going to rid himself of this problem and fix hers, he needed to be merciless.

“I wasn’t supposed to go,” she groaned, flopping back against the bed. “It was a concert. My friends and I were supposed to walk back home but we got into a stupid argument. They ditched me and I was so close to home, so I just walked. But I stumbled over this foot next to a dumpster. I thought it was a homeless person and turned to apologize. I saw him, not his face but his body. He was hunched over another person. He was all snorting and huffing and chowing down on this guy who looked like he worked at the diner nearby. The man didn’t even look at me. I don’t know when the slimy guy showed up, but he hit me in the head. I dropped to the ground and suddenly there was this sharp pain in my neck. The slimy guy was begging the other guy to stop, saying they’d get caught. But the vampire…he said it wasn’t enough, he needed more. I thought he was killing me. I just kept staring at the dead guy, chewed up like corn on the cob, whole chunks of him missing. Then I woke up in slimy guys basement.”

Knox nodded, allowing her to sob and Hellen to tend to her suffering. It seemed Gael was just an unfortunate bystander. A person at the wrong place at the right moment. Their hungry, infected vampire was starving, apparently.

“Can you tell me anything about him? Anything at all, his body, his smell…anything.” Knox glanced up from his lap to Gael.

“He was so skinny.”

“How so?” Knox cocked his head to the side.

“I almost got away. The guy stopped feeding from me and I thought I could just crawl away. He grabbed me and I tried to fight him, but I was too weak. I felt his bones, Mr. Knox. Like his skin was painted over his skeleton. And I can still hear his voice, saying it’s not enough. I…I can hear him so clearly.” The haunted look on her face was familiar. Knox wore the same face long ago. In some moments, he bet he’d still catch it in the mirror. The face of someone replaying the horrors of their life like a film before their eyes.

“If I got ahold of him, could you tell me if that’s his voice?” Knox cocked a brow, watching her.

She steeled her expression, looking him dead in the eyes. “Get him to growl, and I’d know it anywhere.”

“You’re in luck, little one,” he smirked, tossing her a cheeky wink. “Getting people so pissed they growl is a specialty of mine.”

Gael giggled weakly before her composure broke again. Knox turned to Hellen who sat on the side of the bed, stroking the poor girl’s back. Hellen sighed, “I tried curing her, but she was infected too long ago, it’s taken root…she’s a full vampire.”

“Full?” Knox grimaced.

“Not like, fully awakened, but she’s a vampire. It would take divine intervention to change her now and unfortunately, I’m out of stock of miracles.” Hellen flashed him a weak, pity filled smile. She nodded toward the door and they both stood. Addressing Gael, she spoke sweetly. “I’m going to have them bring you some blood. I know you didn’t want to drink what they gave you, but you’ve got to get your strength up. It’s easier for him to control you when you’re weak.”

Gael nodded stiffly, turning over in her bed, and shivering beneath the blankets. Poor thing was robbed of her life. Knox hated keeping her from her family, but he wasn’t about to thrust a fledgling into society while some infected, starved vampire had access to her mind.

They stepped outside the door and another healer passed them into the room with two sippy cups full of blood. Hellen sighed, as the pair watched outside the door as the healer brought the cups to Gael. The girl took one and nodded at the nightstand for the other. The other healer bowed and exited the room without a word. Hellen waited till the door was closed before she spoke, “Most vampires, when they create a new babe, they sire the fledgling until they can control the feeding. The mind control between a sire and their fledgling is supposed to be a phase. Just like training wheels, in case they go berserk or have a bad reaction. But, not all sires are good, and not all fledglings are lucky.”

Knox stuffed his fists into his biceps while crossing his arms over his chest. They walked slowly down the hall toward his office. “So how do we get her fully awakened? That would be the easiest course of action.”

“A mercy killing would be the easiest course,” Hellen grumbled, shaking her head.

Knox jerked his head in her direction. “We’re not killing a kid just because she got bit.”

“Well, it’s either that or her sire has to bite her a second time, finishing the ritual. Do you really see that bastard, whoever he is, releasing his little plaything from his mind control?” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the girl.

“That’s it? Our only two options?” Knox snapped.

“No, there’s one more…if the fledgling defeats the sire, the old school kill your master trick works every time. But she’s a kid, I don’t see her driving a stake or her hand through his chest and ripping it out. The options aren’t good.” Hellen motioned at his office. “I’ll go ask some of our nighttime friends a few questions, see if there’s a way I don’t know about. But she’s got three options, and I know which option is the least painful for that girl.”

Knox exhaled heavily. “That is a last resort, you hear me? We still need her to figure out who is fucking with my business.”

“I know, I know,” Hellen huffed as she tossed her hands up. The healer stalked away from him, her tail hung low between her legs. He knew Hellen didn’t like the option any more than he did. They didn’t call her the Fiend of Mercy for nothing. She had to put down more people than Knox, and he was the murderer. Hellen would likely try anything and everything to save her, but she was realistic. Knox knew that killing the girl was an option. He would try until there was nothing left before he resorted to mercy killing.

With a heavy heart and feet made of concrete, he lumbered into his office. On his desk was a parchment wrapped box with a note, Denver’s specialty. Knox furrowed his brows, knowing his butler hardly sent anything to the casino when it could wait till Knox got home. For a moment he worried it was someone’s head. Yet, the box wasn’t as drippy as he imagined a bloody head would be. Instead, he dropped into his seat and ripped the box open.

Four paperback books, signed with a thank you note, stared back at him. His heart skipped a beat. Longing, deep and needy, carved into his soul as he slid them across his desk. The thank you note was from the publisher. He hadn’t ordered her paperbacks but had gladly devoured all her ebooks. The note was simple and printed, obviously made with an automatic order.

Thank you for ordering personalized paperbacks from Salamander Press!

However, when he opened the top book, two stickers fell out and Aurora Darkwater was signed upon the title page. The o had a little wave detail in it and the period was a tiny heart with a dagger through it. The signature was a little crude, not smooth or easy with a flick of a wrist. But it was so uniquely Amelia that it stung to look at. A light scent of peonies filled his nose. Like the flower boxes near her porch . The stickers were simple, one was her author logo bearing the same kind of signature, the other a knife through a heart that was dripping blood. He stuffed the stickers in his drawer and left his chair, books in hand. Across from his desk was a bookshelf. He displayed them, covers forward, across the shelf.

It was foolish. But with days as dark as his, he could use all the light he could manage. With her proudly displayed, he stepped back and stared at them. Knox ripped his phone out of his pocket and called Denver.

“Hello, sir, is everything all right?” Denver answered upon the second ring.

“Thank you, Denver, you always seem to know what to get me.” Knox sat on the edge of his desk, still glued to the covers.

“Of course, sir, it’s my pleasure. I do hope they arrived in good condition?”

“Perfect, thank you. Do you happen to know anyone in marketing?” Rubbing his gloves down against his slacks, he peeled his gaze away from the shelf. Amelia haunted his dreams and his mind. Every time he thought he was done thinking of her, she returned. A brush or a touch, it would reel him back in.

“I don’t believe I have anyone in the book world but, let me ask around and I’ll get back to you,” Denver chuckled.

“Thanks.” Knox exhaled heavily. “You’re always a miracle worker.”

“It’s why you hired me. Have a good afternoon, boss, dinner will be ready when you arrive home.”

Denver hung up and left Knox alone in his office. Sat behind his desk, he stared at the window. He hadn’t illusioned it in three days. No time for it. However, he lazily dropped into his seat, locked his door with a snap of his fingers, and activated the window in the same motion. Inside the bookstore, he checked his watch and found it was just about time for her to start her shift. Under the bird’s eye, she walked inside and waved to two employees lounging by the coffee bar.

Amelia Armstrong clocked in, and he watched for a good hour as she moved about the shop.

“This isn’t healthy,” he exhaled, knowing full well he wasn’t going to do a damn thing about it.