Deal with the Devil

28. Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-seven:

Knox

Knox stepped into his casino, fully expecting Declan to be standing in the lobby. He was prepped to walk into the monster himself immediately. Except, walking into the Casino, Amelia on his arm and guards trailing him…nothing happened. No one picked a fight with the bartender, and no one needed to be thrown out for counting cards…nothing happened. It was alarming how smoothly the day went as he went about his usual process. Zavros and Maevin were hard at work digging around for any information on where Declan was roosting. Gael couldn’t walk in the sun, as far as Knox knew, but Rick had been able…which meant the infection and vampirism wasn’t applied the same. He also wasn’t sure Rick was a vampire anyways, but something much worse .

It wasn’t till about five pm, the sun already setting on his neon lit casino, when he was given a clue. His phone rang and his speaking stone sparked to life. It’s from the Bonesaws. Knox thought it would an appreciative call about his good work with Hurley. The busted man was surely found by now by enforcers or wild animals.

“Zrazduel,” Jessie’s jovial tone filled the receiver. “What fuckin’ timing, eh?”

“What do you mean?” Knox smirked to himself, spinning to face his windowpane. It switched from generic illusion to a street view. Knox searched it like he had every hour, looking for any shifting shadows or infected spawn.

“You delivered to me the same day that I got a nice, juicy rat in my office at the shop.” Knox blinked rapidly as Jessie Bonesaw smirked up into the camera at the top of the doorway. He was arm and arm with someone clearly bound and gagged. “Should I bring them in through the front or the back?”

Knox snickered, plucking up his speaking stone. “Maevin, will you meet Mr. Bonesaw by the loading bay? He’s brought us a very nice present.”

On it.

Knox returned to the call, “Hang a left, Jessie. Maevin will meet you by the loading bay. And…for your generous delivery services, I owe you.”

Jessie wiggled his fuzzy, minotaur eyebrows at the camera as he dragged the human on his forearm away from the front door. Knox hung up the phone before glancing at his pet, peeking up from over the spine of the couch. “Would you like to stay here or interrogate the rat?”

“Hmm, you know, I really am quite tired,” she sighed dramatically, flopping back down onto the couch.

“Really?”

“Of fucking course not!” she roared as she launched up onto her feet. “I’m coming with you.”

“Knew it,” Knox huffed, sliding to his feet.

“Unless you’re ordering me to stay?” She eyed him from the side as if begging him not to.

“I am not.” This interrogation wouldn’t likely get messy. Besides, she’d seemed pleased at his destruction of Hurley that morning, and she wasn’t squeamish to violence. Maybe she was starting to adjust…or maybe she kept thinking it wasn’t as bad as Buttons. Maybe his pet had accepted that sometimes, being the good person doesn’t bring the same reward as was promised.

Fuck being a good person. Knox got results.

She slipped an arm through his. His pet leaned against him, her heels clicking against the hardwood. Knox and Amelia made it to the hall in time to catch Maevin pointing down the hall toward the dungeon while two of his muscle creatures dragged a man through the hall. That was the first time Amelia froze as she watched in concern. “Was…no… that’s not…”

“Who?” Knox cocked a brow.

“That wasn’t Kyle the bookie was it?”

Knox’s blood ran cold as his face scrunched up. “He’s supposed to be dead.”

“Yeah, weird,” Amelia breathed, slipping from his arm and rushing to meet Maevin at the corner of the hall. Knox’s cane clicked against the floor with ire as he met the two at the cross section of the hall. Amelia glanced over her shoulder at him. “That’s Kyle.”

“How is Kyle alive? I thought we burned him?” Knox eyed Maevin.

“We did, seems Kyle’s flameproof…or like Rick, maybe he can put himself back together again?” Maevin cocked a brow. Amelia glared at the massive iron doors that led to the dungeon. Without being told to do so, she stormed across the floor and descended into the dark.

“What did Jessie say?” Knox wheeled to Maevin.

“Said a couple of his mechanics heard Kyle was supposed to be dead, so color them surprised when they stumble into him in a backroom tap house that they were gathering rent money from. And he’s got a teen girl cuffed to his wrist. The second Jessie’s boys go to have a word with him, girl freaks and breaks out. They said she ran in the sunlight, screaming like a banshee the whole way, didn’t stop.”

“Gael, damnit, she’s out in the wild and on her own. At worst, Declan will use her to cause a distraction. At best, she’s shivering and hungry in the woods somewhere. Grab whoever you need and go hunting where Jessie saw her take off. I want her back in her room before sunrise.”

Maevin bowed his head, disappearing into a puff of thick smoke. Knox sighed heavily, following after his pet into the dark. Kyle was alive, Rick was alive, Declan was alive…didn’t anybody die and stay dead in this town?

He stomped down the steps into the dungeon, stopping at the bottom step. Kyle was strapped to a post, staring up at Amelia with wide eyes. In her right hand, struggling to hold it up above her head, was his right arm. It was tugging, like a determined dog had the other end of its rope. She stepped back from him further, Kyle squirming.

“Tell me what he did to you!” Amelia snarled.

“Noneya!” Kyle hissed.

“Is that so?” Knox smirked, clicking his cane against the concrete floors.

Kyle jerked, straining his neck and head to catch sight of Knox. “Knox! Hey! Uh, boss man, I know it’s a bit strange to see my mug again, but you gotta understand—”

“Answer my girl’s question, Kyle, or I’ll test the extent of your regeneration.” Knox stepped down into the dungeon, handing off the cane to another of his men.

“Your? Girl?” Kyle laughed sheepishly, looking up to Amelia then back to Knox. “Look, man, I didn’t know she was your girl.”

“Cut the shit.” Amelia slapped Kyle across the face with his own hand. Knox heard Zavros choke on his own laughter. Knox spared them a disapproving look, but his security was stifling their own laughter by staring at the floor.

“Knox! Please!” Kyle begged.

“That didn’t work the last time, you filthy weasel. Begging won’t save you. Tell me what Declan did to make you this way?” Knox knew the first step to curing Declan of his power and returning him to a slimy, bloody corpse was understanding how he got the power. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll go talk to my new friend the Lord Commander and hear it from Rick. Be smart Kyle and tell me first.”

“Or you’ll what? Kill me?” Kyle tossed his head back into the post, laughing as fat tear drops streaked down his grimy cheeks. “That didn’t work last time.”

“Oh, but now I know you won’t die …” Knox trailed off, stepping up beside Amelia. He released her hold of Kyle’s arm and watched it fly back into place on his shoulder. “Have you ever been killed multiple times and put back together, Kyle? I have.”

Kyle’s frantic laughter died down as he stared up at Knox, eyes wobbling in his own skull. Knox crept closer till he was leaning an inch over Kyle’s body. “Have you ever been ripped apart several times in a row? Beheaded? I can make it painful, and I won’t worry if you don’t answer me at first…because that pain never stops, Kyle. So do yourself a favor, answer me before I have you burned and brought back again just to have you pulled apart.”

Kyle’s lips wavered as he swallowed loudly. “It’s his bite.”

“His bite?” Amelia furrowed her brows.

“We’re just like him, we’re just as hungry, and we’re just as indestructible…I just can’t get him out of my head. He’s always in there, like he’s chewing on my brain. I can feel his fangs like poison. It’s so fucking hot. I felt when you put me in the incinerator, and he made me stay alive the whole time till the incinerator turned off…then I crawled out. Buttons let me out and I was supposed to watch the girl…but there’s something different about the girl. She’s not as infected as us, that’s why she had to be chained up. She kept attacking Declan, so he told me to take her and watch over the book.”

The book . Knox’s hair stood on end like Persephone stood directly behind him. Her long, crone fingers wrapped around his shoulders and tapped impatiently against his collar bone.

Amelia dropped to her knees in front of him. “Why? Why is Gael different?”

“Dunno, but even after he made the book bite her, she still didn’t do everything he said.”

Knox snapped his fingers, both Kyle and Amelia jerked to look up at him. “The book, where is it?”

“What does the book matter?” Amelia blurted out.

“It’s the thing that gave him powers,” Knox sighed nodding for her to stand up. She let Kyle go before climbing to her feet slowly. “It’s important to Persephone, the witch, and likely it’s got some answers in it.”

“Whoa! No! Don’t go fucking near it! Anyone who tries to touch it gets bitten!” Kyle hissed. That’s likely the point. And…if we’re lucky, the very thing we need to kill Declan with. Maybe Persephone said Amelia was the key because she was a book worm. Who better to keep a deadly, eldritch tome under control than an author and bookstore clerk?

“I’m pretty good with bitey things,” Knox rolled his eyes nodding toward his staff. One of them stepped up closer, cracking their knuckles. “Bury him…then pour concrete over him.”

“Whoa! Whoa, wait!” Kyle lurched in his restraints.

“Unless you can tell me where the book or Gael is, there is no reason for me to allow you to stink up my Casino any longer, Kyle.” Knox stepped away from the crack forming in the concrete. Zavros handed him back his cane. Amelia slid up beside him, watching Kyle with mild agitation. The men were opening up the side door from inside the room, pulling out bags of concrete and buckets from the supply closet.

“I can!” Kyle shrieked. “Wait, Knox! I can tell you! I know where the book is! I don’t know where the girl went, but I can sure as shit tell you where the book is!”

Knox stopped, putting up a finger. Amelia whispered under her breath, “Kyle’s not trustworthy, Knox. He’s absolutely lying. He’ll try to slip free the second he gets out of here.”

The fiend nodded, sighing. Unfortunately, that was a risk he needed to take. Knox glanced over his shoulder. “Cut off one of his legs and bury it here. If he’s lying, then we’ll bury him with it!”

His men snickered, one of them pulling out a blade. Knox took ahold of the nape of Amelia’s neck, forcing her eyes forward as they climbed the steps. Kyle’s screams of pain and terror were cut short with a disgusting, wet yelp. Knox pushed open the doors and let Amelia lead the way. They stood out in the hallway, free of the stench of blood and rot.

“Knox, this book, are you sure we need it? Can’t we just do the same thing to Declan? Bury him under concrete?” She eyed him with concern.

“No, he’s a full-fledged vampire, unlike his spawn. As well as being infected, he can turn into mist, summon bats to his location…he’ll be harder to just bury and leave under layers of stone. No, we’ll need the book to kill him.” He put a tender hand over hers. “Earlier, Kyle said he didn’t know you were my girl…any particular reason he looked so worried?”

Amelia sputtered, chuckling mischievously. She tucked a loose strand of blue hair behind her ear. “Oh, well, when I first got down there, he said hey sexy, untie me and I’ll show you a real devil dick or something like that. Then he got a better look at me and said I was the hotter twin but my sister was still a MILF.”

“A MILF?” Knox blurted out, blinking rapidly.

“You know, Mom I’d Like to Fuck?” she scoffed.

“I know what it means, Amelia. I run a casino and an entire underground empire, I know what fucking MILF stands for,” he huffed, whirling from her. Amelia snickered to herself, standing still with her back to the door like the good and bad pet she was. Knox was fuming, cheeks burning as Zavros climbed the steps with Kyle strapped to his side. Sans a leg. “There you are! Finally, now, show me where the book is, and for every hour you fuck with me or run me around on a goose chase, I’ll take another chunk from you, got it?”

Kyle whimpered, clutching onto Zavros as the ogre strutted down the hall. Knox snatched up Amelia’s arm and half dragged his pet down the hall. She stopped snickering when he growled in her ear, “Keep it up, pet.”

The only thing that cooled his fury was the subtle lick of her lips as she ducked her head. She looped her arm through his and stormed at his pace through the employee part of the casino.