Deal with the Devil

20. Chapter nineteen

Chapter nineteen:

Knox

TW: Extreme rotten food, Emesis/Violent throwing up in this chapter, Poisoning, bugs

They retired to his office. Hellen fixed his busted lip and left Amelia to tend to his bruised ego. Now that Gael was subdued, Hellen returned to put the girl to bed. Knox sank into his office chair, tossing back a glass of champagne before raking his fingers through his hair. Amelia sat on the edge of his desk, staring into her champagne flute.

“What’s hitting you the worst?” he murmured.

“She’s so young,” Amelia breathed.

“She was on her way back from a concert when her friends ditched her.” Knox found sand filling his mouth as retelling the story.

Flashes from his youth returned with a vengeance. Not only had he spoken to Amelia about the witch…but about Declan. He didn’t say much, but the sting didn’t ease up. Declan’s fingers wrapped around his throat, pinning his tiny frame to a wall. The horrid scent of rot and decay on his teeth as he descended into madness.

Then he was ripped through a portal. Long fingers, spindly and gnarled with age, claws like talons wrapped around him and wrenched him out of Declan’s grasp. The screams that filled Knox’s ears were muffled till they were gone. Instead, the sound was replaced with a gurgling cauldron and crackling fireplace. The scent of hot cast iron, freshly dried herbs and spices, dusty laundry, and something musky he couldn’t quite place filled his nostrils. Knox twisted and turned, finding himself in a bundle of fabrics and pillows inside a massive, wooden cabin. It swayed as if it were on the sea before settling. The wood groaned as the door pulled open and an old crone stepped inside.

Hello little one…into the pot you go.

Knox blinked away the memory, instead focusing on the woman perched on his desk. She took a small sip, eyes pinned to the crystal panes showing the illusion of central park.

“The Lord Commander visited me a few weeks ago, asking about Rick. Said someone reported him missing, his employer…but Rick wasn’t employed. So…now that makes more sense. His vampire friend probably reported him missing.”

Knox put a hand to her knee and squeezed. She warmed, glancing down at him sweetly. Knox slipped to his feet cupping a hand to her cheek. “It’s not much, but if you’d like, we can go do something else. There’s a whole casino I have access to, or, if you’d like something different, there is a job I was asked to do.”

“A job? You?” She snorted.

“I work,” he scoffed.

“Yeah, my nerves,” Amelia chuckled, rolling her eyes. Knox grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look at him. She smirked, setting her champagne flute down.

“I would be very careful misbehaving, pet,” he warned, watching the mischief flit across her gaze. She was thinking about it. Thinking about speaking against him, about getting her just desserts. However, just as she opened her naughty lips to get her ass in trouble, the door opened. Knox smirked to himself, knowing she swallowed something rather brattish and turned a blistered tomato red as she twisted. Buttons sauntered inside with a silver platter.

“Ah, thank you!” Amelia beamed, pushing herself off the desk. The raccoon decorated waitress placed the platter down on the desk and bowed to them. She didn’t ask any other questions, instead, striding out of the office as fast as she entered.

Knox scooped the lid off the platter and revealed raspberry and chocolate tarts. Amelia grabbed one and bit into one instantly. Watching her enjoy the tart and round his desk, Knox immediately glanced to the shelf across from him. Her books were on display. Amelia stopped before them and plucked one of them up. There was a sweet smile curling on her lips as she opened it up to see her signature. Their gazes locked as she peeked up at him from the shelf.

“I told you, I’m a fan,” he breathed.

Amelia set the book back precisely where she grabbed it. “You know, it never gets less strange. It’s almost an out of body feeling to see your book on someone’s shelf, to see them write nice things about it online. On the way to my signing, two teenagers stopped me to get signatures and a picture with me. It’s…it’s never normal, it’s almost always jarring. My agent says to get used to it, but I don’t think I ever will.”

Knox took up his tart and brought it to his lips.

Something was wrong.

The scent was raspberry, but there was something under it. Something distinctly arcane. Knox froze, staring down at the dessert in his palm. Waving a hand over the top of it, it glistened with a shimmering dust. Something rotten wafted up into his nose as he brushed the shimmer off. His eyes widened as he dropped a moldy, maggot-filled pastry onto the tray. As if the whole plate knew the jig was up, they all dropped the illusion as the one he dropped slapped against the silver.

Knox lurched around the desk, finding Amelia already dropping the pastry into the trash and spitting up into the can. He brushed her hair back as she put a hand to the wall and heaved. Dry soil and worms fell out of her mouth as she vomited up more of the pastry. A roach fell off her tongue and Amelia shrieked. Stumbling back, wiping her tongue, his pet lost her sanity. A reasonable response.

He already had his speaking stone out the second he realized the trick played on him. “Bring me Buttons and the pastry chef, now!”

His door flew open as Amelia screamed louder moments before vomiting onto his floor. Knox rushed to her side, but she was already on her hands and knees. An eyeball tumbled out of her throat onto the hard wood. It rolled around in the soil and ichor covering the floor. Knox knelt beside her, rubbing her back as she worked all the rotten necromancy out of her system.

“What,” she heaved, “the fuck!” Amelia gagged, a gurgling sound filling her mouth before she wretched forward. Damp soil, blood, and ichor spilled from her mouth. His human groaned, “Was that?”

“There are still some rats in my organization, it seems,” he growled, raking her hair back and snapping a ponytail in place with a simple summon spell. He grabbed his speaking stone and barked, “Hellen! My office!”

“I’m already on my way!” She bellowed through the rock before the door was thrown open. Hellen, covered in a layer of sweat and panting for air, came scrambling to the pair on the floor. Fuchsia mist and the sweet smell of cherries covered the pair as Hellen cast healing charm after cleansing spell. Soon, Amelia stopped heaving and only black drool dribbled from her mouth.

“Hellen, what was that?” Knox cupped Amelia’s chin and brought his pet’s face toward him. He wiped her lips off with a handkerchief.

“Looked like a sickening spell, nothing harmful, but no less disgusting and traumatizing.” Hellen took Amelia’s face from Knox and shoved an uncapped water bottle into Amelia’s lips. “Gargle, swish, and spit.”

Hellen wrenched the trashcan closer as Amelia filled her cheeks with water. She gargled, gagged, and tossed all the water in her mouth into the trash. Hellen made Amelia do it three times before the sickness was gone from her mouth.

“Where is Buttons?” Knox snarled.

“Boss!” Zavros came screeching to a halt in Knox’s doorway.

“Don’t tell me.” Knox scrunched his whole face in anger. “No, please, tell me.”

“Gael’s gone.”

Knox’s heart sank into his feet. “What!”

“Pastry cook’s dead, gutted. We found her in the walk-in cooler stuffed behind the frozen pie crust. Buttons is gone and she took Gael with her.”

Knox roared, snapping to his feet, “ Find them! ”

The room rumbled with his command, storming around Hellen to the doors. He glanced over his shoulder at Hellen and Amelia. “It was a distraction, it’s what that was!”

Hellen’s eyes widened as Knox snatched his cane and pointed it at her. The pink fiend put her hands up, eyeballing his cane with worry. “Knox.”

“Knox,” Amelia wheezed for air, clutching her stomach.

“Hellen, I want you to swear upon the contract you struck with me that you aren’t a part of this.” Knox stepped one step closer, the tip of his cane pointed at the center of her chest. Hellen’s hands trembled as she froze in place. “ Swear it! ”

“I swear it!” She shrieked. Her left hand glowed with black veins as the contract, long ago sunken into her skin, came to the forefront. Fear filled the air, and he felt it sink into him. Disgusted, horrified cold sensations rolled around in his stomach as he involuntarily devoured the fear coming out of Hellen.

He dropped the cane to the floor, groaning as he leaned over it. “I’m sorry, old friend.”

“I know,” Hellen whimpered, hands dropping. “Knox, you know if I had wanted to hurt you…”

“I know,” He stepped back toward the door, barely keeping his soul attached to his body. Realistically he knew. Deep down in his soul, he knew if Hellen had wanted to hurt him—let alone kill him—she wouldn’t have toyed with him like this. Hellen’s M.O. wasn’t a long, slow, drawn-out taunt. She was swift, merciless, and precise. He’d found her, hands covered in blood, looming over a corpse that never saw her coming.

Desperate times…once upon a time…when it was kill or be killed, Hellen didn’t hesitate.

“So don’t you ever fucking threaten me like that again.” Hellen trembled as she slowly climbed to her feet.

“I won’t,” Knox swore, his own hands glowing in tandem with hers. Their contract was mended in that moment. Hellen swearing to never harm him in exchange that he would never harm her. They’d never needed that addendum before…but then again, no one had ever infiltrated Knox’s world like this. He didn’t know who to trust anymore.

“I’m going to go see what other bodies might be lingering. It’s safe to say…Buttons works for our vampire friend.”

“She’s worked for me for years,” Knox murmured.

Silence filled the office for a moment.

“So, either she was bought recently…” Hellen swallowed audibly.

“Or this has been a long time coming.” Knox straightened, storming to Amelia’s side and offering a hand. She took it weakly. He felt sympathetic for her, and he’d feel bad about being rough later, but Knox couldn’t let her stay in the casino another moment. There was no telling if there was a secondary plot to snatch her as well. “You’re going home.”

“What? And leave you here by yourself?” Amelia wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “No way.”

“Amelia,” he warned.

“What if sending me home by myself is what they want?” Amelia cocked a brow.

Knox’s left eye twitched. She had a point. With a snarl, he ripped around and stormed toward the door. He held it open for Hellen and glared at Amelia. “Fine, but if it gets worse, you go through a one-way portal home, am I understood?”

He saw the fight in her face, but it flickered to understanding. With a sigh, she nodded. Knox took her hand and ripped her through the door. They stormed down the halls. Everyone was buzzing back and forth. Knox felt the world slow down for them. Waves of people rushed past them, but the pair walked at half speed. The casino was a flutter, screams falling on muffled ears as they reached the hall where Gael was meant to be. A massive hole where the door once was, steaming and crusted with necromantic energy.

What has happened to his empire? Knox looked around the halls, finding the two guards as parts littered across the ground. Hellen was holding the head of one of them, staring in horror at the trail of blood.

“Knox?” Amelia breathed in his ear.

“Has anyone found them?” Knox held up his stone.

“No sir, they broke out through the employee exit.” Zavros’s voice filled the rock.

Knox opened a portal beside him with an arm circle, tapping his cane against the purple film. It lit up with hissing magic, ripping open the air to his left. Into the middle of the haunted forest, he led Amelia and him and closed the portal.

“What are we doing out here?” Amelia glanced around the trees; eyebrows furrowed.

“Something I can’t do in the city proper. I’m not supposed to do it at all within city limits…but Lord Blightwood will have to forgive me.” Knox handed Amelia his cane. Stepping away from her, a purple flame erupted around him in a circle. Lines exploded to life and the area filled with magic. Amelia clutched the cane to her chest, eyes hardened on the horizon around them. Dead leaves and branches turned to ash, floating up into the air around them.

Soon everything was covered in a purple mist as Knox summoned a new portal. Like claws against thick fabric, a hole in the air formed before him. Trees nearby shriveled up and caved in. Nothing but blackened husks as he fed his magic with the very life around them. Amelia met his gaze once, eyebrows nearly up to her blue hair.

“I did warn you…I’m not all contracts.” With a snap of his arm to the right, the air was ripped open fully. Like seeing into the kitchen window of a familiar witch’s hut. An evil cackle filled his ears. She stepped into view, his old crone. Eyes a putrid yellow, teeth rotten, and gums a puss-filled green, the Witch of the Woods stepped through the haze toward the portal.

“ Knox, sweet child… what do I owe the pleasure?” Her vision melted away to a beautiful woman. Long, flowing onyx tendrils, a fitted bodice with satin fabric around her shapely body, and a belt full of potion bottles, his maker leaned into the portal like a windowpane and leaned her chin onto her palm.

“I want Buttons’ eyes.” Knox nodded to the shelf behind Persephone, the Witch of the Woods, a god of the nightmare realm.

“Mmm, and what do I get in exchange for them? Your eyes?” She booped his nose sweetly.

“I’ll feed on her soul, shortly after I take back her eyes.”

Persephone grew in the windowsill. Body elongated, taking up the full space of the cabin in the woods, hunching to fit within the frame. Face pulled long, cheeks hollow, and eyes sunken in, she became ghoulish and paler than death. “ A deal. ”

She plucked the jar filled with two floating eyes and handed it through the portal. Her hand grew thrice between her realm of Nightmares and King’s Fall. The jar was dropped softly into his hands before the spindly fingers slipped back through the portal. Madness swam in his maker’s eyes as she watched him through the steadily closing portal. The last image was of her unblinking, yellow eyes with swirling irises.

Amelia stumbled to the edge of his magic flames. “Knox, what are you doing now?”

“You wanted to stay by my side,” he barked, glancing up from the jar in his hands. A glass orb with a simple, tin lid that screwed on. Inside were two round eyeballs with long, gory stems that floated in the nearly milky water. He brought the jar up so it could see him. So that Buttons could see him. “This is what it means to be mine, Amelia Armstrong. This is what I’m capable of.”

He slammed the jar down to the forest floor. A scream ripped through the trees. Buttons appeared in a burst of plum flames at his feet. Her eyes back in her eye sockets. Knox loomed over her as she scrambled about inside his spell circle. The flames went out around him with a hiss. She scrambled, hand over foot, away from him.

“I wanted you to watch me devour you, seemed only fitting as you’ve been watching me.” He raised a singular brow.

Buttons stammered, mouth flapping open and shut. “Sir, I never meant to hurt you.”

“I scraped you off Declan’s floor. I put salve on your wounds and fed you, put a roof over your head, let you work whatever you wanted to…and this is how my generosity is thanked?”

Buttons blinked her eyes for the first time in an eternity. Climbing to her feet, legs and hands trembling. “Generous? You think any of this was generous? You think yourself so much better than him, that you’re doing me a favor?”

Knox stepped forward, encroaching on her. “I am better than him.”

“You’re a monster.” Buttons reached up toward her eyes. Knox batted her hands away, knocking her back to the ground. She sank against the leaves, seething with her teeth bared. “Go ahead, eat me like you do everything that gets in your way. But he’s coming for you, and when he gets everything you robbed from him back, he’ll feast on your flesh. I hope he keeps you alive long enough to feel it.”

Well…isn’t…this…interesting.

Knox crouched down, grabbing Buttons by the throat. “I’d like to see him try.”

And Knox devoured his waitress.