Deal with the Devil

29. Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-eight:

Amelia

Amelia sat in Knox’s lap for the journey through the streets. He demanded it with his eyes when they slid into the car. She wasn’t sure what his game was, but she wasn’t going to say no to sitting in his lap. Zavros sat with Kyle in a headlock the whole ride through the city toward where Kyle said to start. Knox situated Amelia close to his chest and draped her arms around him. It took her far longer than she would like to realize that she made it difficult to target him in the car. Glaring down at him, she hissed under her breath. “Trying to ensure I get stabbed first?”

“Remember our deal?” he cocked a brow up at her. Amelia scowled. You can’t be hurt while the deal is still strong.

“So, you’re using me as a meat shield? Getting stabbed still hurts,” she snarled into his ear.

“I can assure you, I know,” he snickered, kissing her cheek. “I did warn you; guys like me get stabbed in cars all the time. Just know if you do get stabbed, I’ll make it up to you.”

Amelia hummed with wicked delight, “Does that mean you’ll crawl for me?”

He bit down onto her throat, causing her to tense up and freeze. His fangs threatened to break the skin before relaxing down to regular teeth. Knox kissed the growing bruise before whispering. “I said I’d make it up to you, not hand you the reigns, pet.”

Amelia chuckled to herself, enjoying the ease that their flirting did to the tension in the air. The whole day they’d been on pins and needles, she’d worried her Knox wouldn’t survive it. Declan was a priority. Destroying him and putting Penny back in her life was her personal mission…but the gravity of the situation was enough to choke her. She nuzzled her face against his, watching the city whizz past them. When Declan’s dead and gone then…maybe he’ll sleep fully at night.

The car slowed and Amelia sat up straight again. Knox tapped her backside, alerting her to the driver coming around their side. As the door opened, she stepped out into the inky black. Night fell over King’s Fall and left her drenched in its inky abyss. Knox stepped out behind her, sliding an arm to the small of her back.

“Where to now?” Knox smirked to Kyle who raised a shaking hand through the trees. “Of course.”

“Of course?” Amelia rolled her eyes, “For those of us who don’t know the vampire, why ‘of course’?”

“Declan’s unmarked grave,” Knox huffed, leading the way to the edge of the haunted forest. Amelia bemoaned her ankles as her heels sank into the soft soil. She considered taking her heels off, given how well her feet survived the last time she ran through the trees barefoot. However, she kept them on as Knox made it clear they weren’t slowing down. And those fuckers took a good seven minutes to put on, damn side buckle. No one understood what it was like trying to put on an outside ankle buckle when one’s tits get in the way. It’s like fighting a kraken in the sea or a minotaur in a maze, foolish and damn near impossible.

She clung onto his waist with one arm and swatted away branches with the other. As the group descended into the thick, inky night, Knox snapped his fingers. A golden bulb of light drifted ahead of them and exploded into a million will-o-wisps. Glittering magic danced in the air over their heads. Amelia smiled, reaching out and poking one. It floated away from her like a firm bubble.

It took nearly an hour of walking before they came across a clearing in the trees. Just big enough for three people shoulder-to-shoulder and a legless Kyle to hobble to the center. At the center of the patch of grass and moss was a pile of loose soil.

“And he was sure no one would mess with it here? There’s no way!” Zavros huffed, scanning the trees around them.

Kyle, for his part, did lead them to the book. And Knox knew he was a risk. So, when the slimy weasel dropped to the ground, kicked off the dirt with his one good leg, and let out a howl as an alarm to nearby spawn, Knox couldn’t be too terribly angry. He knew Kyle would do what he could to get away. A swarm of red eyes filled the trees around them. His golden magic was snuffed out as a horde of bodies stumbled toward him from all directions.

“Mother fucker!” Amelia shrieked, booking it across the clearing.

Knox

Knox couldn’t stop her as she bulldozed through the trees after Kyle. He clutched a leather suitcase to his chest, clearly the book tucked away safely.

“A trap,” Zavros groaned, “I should have brought more bullets.”

Knox stomped the end of his cane against the ground, making his magic explode back to life. A few of the spawn hissed in response, their writhing bodies sizzling. They were humanoid but there were no closer to human than a naked mole rat is close to a guinea pig. Bodies pulled like taffy, all arms and legs and a foot of torso. Their flesh was bleached of life and color, practically transparent and painted over their lack of muscle. Gnarled fingers and snapping jaws lunged at him from the trees. Knox swung without hesitation, his cane braining one of them.

“Should I run after her?” Zavros fired off a bullet that splintered into four, ripping apart one of their attackers.

“Will be mighty hard in our current predicament.” Knox ground his teeth together as he wrangled with one of the ghouls. They lunged over the bar of his cane he had pressed to their throat. Claws grabbed Knox by the horns, and he snarled. The lights snuffed out again. “That’s it.”

Like a blast of light, his mouth dropped open and a ray of purple cut through the night sky. The creature in front of him screamed in terror as it melted. Knox aimed his magic around the clearing, knocking trees and ghouls until Zavros snatched him by the back of the shirt. The ogre charged away from the horde of creatures, sizzling and screaming, and led them free of the clearing moments before the trees caved in. Their crack, snap, and crunch sounds filled the forest for only a moment before it was terrifying quiet.

Knox panted for air scanning the dark for Amelia. Zavros crouched down, clearing straining his ears for any movement. The second they heard a grunt and a scuffling of leaves, they both burst into action. Zavros bound through the air, his thick boots crunching all things beneath him. Knox summoned one last burst of light, knowing he didn’t have much left to summon. If they went out again, that was it.

Zavros and the fiend stopped inches from Amelia holding a book over Kyle’s head. He screamed, doing all he could to fight her off. His face was broken in, lips busted, and teeth scattered around them. Knox saw the blood dripping off Amelia’s fists as she shoved the book closer to his head.

It was a massive tome bound in skin. Stitches oozed with some clear, foamy liquid as three eyes opened on the front of it. Swirling voids of yellow and orange stared back at Knox as he studied the tome Amelia bared down on Kyle. Teeth, crooked, yellow, and stuck in inky gums lined the edge of the book as pages fluttered in its maw. Drool hung down from its open mouth like a beast spotting a buffet.

“Mmmfhmm!” Kyle’s words were muffled and mangled as Knox realized his jaw was crushed inward. Amelia snarled, pushing harder.

“Zavros—”

Before Knox could give the order, Amelia barked, “No!”

Both men held back as she grunted, putting all her weight on her arms. Kyle held the book open by the dripping edges, careful of its teeth, tears and snot streaming down his mangled face. Amelia cried out louder, “No one else can touch it.”

“And…how do you know this?” Knox tiptoed to the other side of her.

“ Don’t ask me questions I can’t answer right now, Knox! ” she growled, Kyle’s arms quaking with force.

“Well then…Zavros, shoot Kyle in the arm.”

“Fine by me!” Kyle’s muffled screams were cut off as Zavros whipped out his whirling, copper firearm and shot a single round bullet into the bookie’s arm. Kyle’s arm gave in, and Amelia buried his face into the pages. The book screamed out much like a fox does in the woods—far too human to be natural. Knox and Zavros immediately covered their ears, stumbling away from Amelia and the book. However, in the blink of an eye, Amelia was clutching the book to her chest and Kyle lay dormant on the ground…headless.

“Are…are we gonna talk about how the book ate his head?” Zavros blurted out, motioning at the corpse.

“It has teeth,” Amelia huffed breathlessly.

“For the love of…” Zavros trailed off, stomping away from the fiend and his bookworm. Knox let him go. It’s been a day.

Knox waited till Amelia’s cheeks cooled off and she had gotten enough air in her lungs. But not a moment later. “Amelia…why do you know no one else can touch the book?”

His blue-haired, round faced, beautiful pet turned to face him slowly. Her arms were wrapped around the book, stroking it like a cat. It purred and left Knox unsettled. She swallowed loudly before she shrugged. “It told me.”

“It… told you? ” He cocked a brow.

“Well, not like it can talk -talk, but yes. Look, Kyle was running for his life as best he could, I chased him down. We got to fighting and the briefcase burst open. It lunged for him first and I just sort of…grabbed it and it told me that no one else can touch the book. It called me the Librarian or something in a super spooky voice.”

Fuck me. Knox groaned, eyes rolling in his head. Of course. “Well, I called it,” he grumbled under his breath.

“What?” Amelia eyed him. Knox didn’t answer, snatching up the briefcase and holding it open. Amelia glanced down at the book before looking up at him defiantly.

“Amelia,” he warned. She pouted, hugging the book tighter. “Amelia, put the fucking book in the briefcase.”

“Why?” She begrudgingly set the book onto the leather seconds before Knox snapped it shut. He locked it tight and then handed it back to her. She gasped, blinking rapidly as if awoken from a dream.

“Because if it bites me, we’re fucked, now…let’s go before more of Declan’s creations come out of the woodwork.”

“Literally,” Amelia snorted. Knox glared at her out of principle as she giggled to herself. It was smoothed over as she looped an arm through his, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Now what?”

Knox stopped to glance at Kyle’s body with interest. His flesh had already begun to fall off the bone, leaving nothing but a mess of rotting fat and dusty bones. “The book will kill Declan.”

“Well, that’s what he gets for sticking his nose in the wrong book, am I right?”

Knox ripped his arm from hers and slapped his palm as hard as he could against her left ass cheek. Amelia yelped, cackling loudly after as she rubbed her backside. Knox couldn’t hide the proud smirk curling on his lips as he purred, “Keep it up, pet.”

“Fuckin’ ow,” Amelia whined as he dragged her through the trees. There was a mischievous glee on her face as she looked around. “You know…”

“No,” he laughed, tapping her backside for good measure. She winced. “Normally I’d indulge in your favorite activity, but this time I’m telling you not to run. If the book gets loose and I’m caught pants down, balls deep in you, we’ll never make it out of here.”

She huffed, pouting just as she always did when she was denied. Just like she had that first night…in the kitchen…legs trembling, cheeks flushed, bottom lip jutted out. Knox’s heart fluttered as he tugged her close. Except, this time when he purred in her ear, she didn’t try to fight him. She was his now. He nipped on her ear lobe softly. “Such a good, obedient pet.”

Amelia snorted, rolling her eyes…even went so far as to playfully bat at his chest…but she was his. Leaning into his touch and walking side by side with him. They both peeked up as they heard someone clearing their throat. Zavros was a good ten feet away, waiting on the path toward the car. They closed the distance before noticing he wasn’t alone.

“Gael?”

“Hi, Mr. Zrazduel, Ms. Armstrong,” the lanky teen grimaced, hugging herself. Her face was covered in blood and her clothes were barely held together around her body. “Uh…can I stay with you? I…I kinda ate my friends.”

Zavros stared at Knox incredulously, as if begging him not to agree.

“Of course. Zavros, get her in the car. We’ll call Hellen on the way there.” Knox shot his security an apologetic look. Zavros took a deep breath, clearly accepting his fate, before motioning for Gael to follow him to the town car. Knox and Amelia spared a look before the fiend turned off the lights in the woods. Best to let the dark devour the dead things left behind. Besides, they had much bigger things to worry about…the first being how he was going to kill Declan, second being how does one keep an eldritch tome that eats people in one’s house, and then third was how to keep Gael fed.