Devilish Deal by Jenna Wolfhart

15

My blood crackled in my ears like static. Az dropped my hand and pushed up from his chair while my eyes followed his every move. This was…unexpected. He’d been dead set on forcing me to remain in the contract, and now he was offering up a way out as if it meant nothing at all.

Annoyingly, I didn’t jump to my feet and accept. An hour ago, I would have. But an hour ago, I’d had no idea there was a group of supernaturals out there, sacrificing humans to…what, exactly?

“What are the sacrifices for?” I whispered.

“Ah.” Caim nodded. “Good question. And I don’t think you’re going to like the answer.”

“They’re for Lucifer.” Valac lifted his gaze from the table. The silver in his eyes looked like glowing bullets, and there was an emptiness in him that made my soul shake.

“Lucifer,” I repeated. “The same Lucifer you’re hiding from.”

“We’re not hiding from Lucifer,” Stolas corrected. “He knows exactly where we are. We just don’t want him to find out that we’re trying to help people instead of corrupt them. You see, he wants us to send more souls to Hell. It’s getting too empty for his liking.”

“Right, of course,” I said as if that wasn’t one of the craziest things I’d ever heard in my life. How had I gone from feeding pancakes to a pigeon to this?

“So, now you understand our dilemma.” Caim ran a hand through his midnight hair. “If you want to walk away from this, no hard feelings. But it’ll suck for us. We’ll need to find another human to replace you if we want to get Az inside that ball, and it’ll look a little sus.”

“Az never dates anyone,” Stolas added. “To go from one girlfriend to the next in a span of a week…”

“Not to mention you’re currently living with him,” Valac said so softly that I almost couldn’t hear him over my pounding heart.

I closed my eyes. “I need a minute to think.”

The demons all fell silent. I wasn’t seriously considering this, was I? Serena and I had just been talking about convincing Az to destroy my contract. And here was the perfect opportunity. I hadn’t even needed to convince him. He’d offered. All I would have to do was say the word, and I’d be free.

Free from all this danger and supernatural insanity. I’d move back in with Serena and continue my life as a drifter. Drink mugs of wine in front of the TV every night. Better than the alternative. Death by demon.

But…these guys clearly needed my help. I was Az’s ticket into this horrendous sacrificial party. If I walked away from this, he might not get an invitation, and the murders would continue another year. Could I really let twenty people die because I was too afraid?

Fuck.I couldn’t. Sometimes, I really hated being me.

When I flipped open my eyes, I found four demons staring at me. I jumped a little and glared when Caim cracked a grin.

“Honestly, you guys are creepy sometimes,” I muttered.

“That’s rich, coming from a human,” Caim replied with a chuckle.

I glowered at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Will you two stop flirting?” Az asked in a voice as hard as steel. Shadows rippled across his jaw.

“We’re not flirting,” I said quickly, although I didn’t know why I felt the need to correct him. What did he care? He’d warned me away from Caim, but that was before I knew the truth about them. He’d clearly been worried I’d find out the truth. Now, I knew everything. So, what was the big deal?

Technically, I was very much single.

“Nevermind all that.” Caim eagerly leaned forward. “What did you decide, Mia?”

“I’ll stay.” My voice sounded alien to my own ears. I’d decided not to run away from this, but it was hard to believe I’d said it out loud. This was totally idiotic, right? Serena was going to lose her damn mind.

Az sat up a little straighter, clearly surprised by my answer. “Let me get this straight. You don’t want me to rip up our contract.”

“No,” I met his gaze and swallowed hard. There was a glint of appreciation in his eye, a softness that I wasn’t sure I really wanted to see. A good in him that betrayed my earlier impression. And as that good burrowed its way into my skin, I wanted to claw it out. It was easier to think of him as an asshole demon who wanted to steal my soul. Then, I could ignore the way his touch made me feel.

Not that his touch made me feel any certain way, thank you very much.

He was just hot, okay?

A slow, delicious smile spread across his lips. It was the kind of smile that could melt most women’s panties. Not mine though. I was definitely one hundred percent immune. That little tickle down there just meant I had to pee.

“Mia,” he murmured. “You have just made me a very happy man.”

Flames engulfed my face. I cleared my throat and cast my gaze around to find anything that was not his wicked face. I turned to Caim, who wore a knowing smirk. Like he could see exactly what I was thinking. Or maybe I was just reading too much into things.

“I think this means I’ve earned a bonus,” I finally said, turning back to Az. “You know, for the added danger aspect.”

“Sure.” Still smiling, he leaned back in his chair, his arms folded over his pristine black suit. “You can get a bonus. If you help us with something else.”

“Something else?” My heart flipped. “I’m not sure I want to know.”

His smile suddenly died, and shadows collected in his eyes. “We need to stop this killer, once and for all,” he said with a nod to Caim. “Show her the thing.”

Stolas let out a grunt, shaking his head.

“The thing?” I asked slowly, watching Caim jump up from his chair. He strode over to a wall where a thick black curtain hung over the windows. Only…when he pulled the curtain back, I saw it didn’t block windows at all. It covered a massive map. Like, twice as tall as me both ways. Manhattan’s famous grid stretched out across it, drowning in scribbles. String connected multicolored pins to each other. It kind of looked like something a serial killer would have in his dungeon.

“Meet the map,” Caim said proudly as he gestured at it.

“That’s deranged.” Still, I popped up from the chair and trailed over to it. The pins obviously represented the murders. I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. But not all of them made sense. I pointed at a few pins clustered together in the Lower East Side. “What are these for? I thought he only killed here in Hell’s Kitchen.”

“There have been some other murders downtown,” Az said quietly. “Over in Queens, too. The cops haven’t linked them, but we have. There are plenty of similarities. Every single victim has been a supernatural.”

“This is…” I quickly counted the pins and whirled toward him, my heart hammering my ribs. “At least a hundred deaths. How long has this been going on?”

“Over a year,” Valac said through gritted teeth as he joined us at the map. “We’ve tried dozens of times to catch this guy, but he’s like butter through our fingers. He always vanishes into thin air.”

“That’s what he did tonight,” I breathed. “As soon as he heard the sirens, he just…disappeared. Poof. He was gone. I thought maybe I was imagining things.”

Az spoke up from the table. “You didn’t imagine anything. He can hide himself somehow. We don’t know if he’s travelling through shadows, cloaking himself, or something else entirely. Either way, he’s proven impossible to catch.”

I jerked toward him. “He said you’ve never gone after him before.”

“Usually, we are much more discrete. We don’t want him to know what we’re doing in here. Tonight was the first time we came face-to-face.”

Valac edged closer, his hollow, silver-white eyes staring at the map. “We cannot be as bold as we’d like, most of the time. Lucifer would not want us stopping this killer.”

I nodded. There was still so much I didn’t understand, but it felt like I’d been invited into a secret club. One that hunted killers. If this whole thing wasn’t seriously dangerous, it might be a little exciting. Of course, it was also probably illegal. I had no doubt what these demons would do with the murderer once they caught him. Would they give him up to the human cops for a fair and honest trial? Not a chance in hell.

Could I really risk getting caught up in this? Would these demons throw me to the proverbial wolves after I’d helped them? What if we got caught?

I closed my eyes. “So, this extra thing you need help with. It’s catching a supernatural serial killer. Isn’t it?”

“That’s right.” Stolas rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “He’ll try coming after you again. Why don’t we let him?”

My stomach dropped to my toes. Slowly, I peeled open my eyes and whirled on all four of them. Caim jumped back with a laugh, holding up his hands in surrender while Valac continued to watch me with that really intense stare of his. Stolas kept one hand latched on my shoulder as if trying to anchor me in place. A calmness settled over me even as my heart yearned to break free of my ribcage. I shot him a glare. Was he using demon voodoo on me?

“You want me to be bait for you,” I said to Az, who still remained seated, drumming his fingers on the table.” Twice.”

“Yes,” three of them said in unison. Az remained silent, watching me.

“And you aren’t at all worried the killer will succeed in his little quest? You said he’s smoke. What if he just teleports in, stabs me, and then teleports out?”

“I don’t think his power works that way,” Valac said quietly. “Or he would have already used that technique to kill. He only shadows away to avoid being caught, which makes us believe that his abilities are limited in some way. Most powers are.”

“Right. Uh huh. Of course.” I glanced at each of them in turn before throwing up my hands. “You really want me to do this, don’t you?”

“You’re welcome to say no,” Az murmured.

His voice slithered along my skin like a caress, and I fought the urge to shudder. Even with the others in the room, it felt like it was just me and him. The overhead lights seemed to dim. My breath stilled in my lungs. Heat pulsed between us as our gazes locked. We were on a date, I suddenly remembered. We’d danced. We’d had wine. And now here we were. A demon asking a girl to help him bait a supernatural serial killer.

“Fine,” I breathed. “I’ll be your stupid bait.”