Page 85 of Death Match

This is why you never kiss strangers, boys and girls. You never know if they’re an evil demon gunning for your soul.

I can’t believe I had fallen right into the Greed demon’s hands. Hook, line, and sinker.

“You’re very quiet tonight,” Monnie said. “It’s very unlike you.”

“I have a lot on my mind,” I bit out. “It’s not every day you discover you were tricked by a demon and now your soul is about to be taken in a week’s time.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” he chided. “I think you’ll like an afterlife with me. Our children will be both beautiful and incredibly powerful.”

I stopped, my breath freezing in my lungs. “Our what now?”

The monster underneath the possessed human skin reared up again, revealing a thick brow, pointed ears, and a stretched mouth with too many teeth. I reeled back.

Just as fast as it appeared, it vanished. Instead, his eyes shined a brighter red.

“That’s right. Our children,” he repeated, gaze scanning my face as he spoke. “I offered for you to stand by me and carry my brood before, but you refused. I was willing to call off the deal if you agreed, but you forced me to go about it this way.”

“And what happened to ‘a no’s a no’?” My voice rose with a mixture of disbelief and outrage.

Monnie shrugged his padded shoulder again. Uncaring.

“You’re a sick fuck, you know that, right?”

“I may be, but when this war is over, the veil is no more, and Hell rules all dimensions, I will be on the top of the pyramid. I will rule as king. Even if that means I must take out some of my own kind to do it.”

The king of Hell.

There it was. Monnie’s true motives and intentions.

He wanted to use me and my holy womb to bear his Hellish children and perform a hostile takeover.

True to character for a demon who was greed incarnate.

What I was wondering was why he had given me as much as seven days before our deal was up. Why not take me now? It’d be easier for him.

Of what little I knew of Monnie, I knew it was all about the game. It was part of the thrill. And that little detail was the only thing saving me right now.

Monnie stared out into the darkness, his gaze wistful in his demented daydream. “I can see it now, and it’ll be magnificent…”

“You’re deranged,” I said.

“I’m ambitious,” he countered. “What’s wrong with that?”

So, so many things.

“We’re on the same side, Jade. Don’t you see?” He tapped his cane onto the ground twice to punctuate his point. “You never asked to be an Archangel. You don’t want to fight in this war, and I don’t blame you. It shouldn’t be your fight.”

That all sounded dandy, but itwasmy fight. As an Archangel, I was created for this war. It may scare me shitless that I had to lead in it, but fear had never stopped me before. It wouldn’t now.

“We’re on the same team, Jade,” he said.

I huffed. “I think you’re a little confused.”

“You’ll see. In time.” Monnie held his wrist up as if he was looking at his imaginary watch again. “Oh, but we’ve wasted so much time already chitchatting here. You should be spending this time doing something constructive, you know. Like running.”

“What?” My feet moved backward on their own, the niggling drive to turn around and book it from here overcoming all other thoughts again.

Monnie peeked up, his red eyes flashing with warning. “I’ve given you a head start, Jade.” He tapped the empty spot on his wrist. “Seven days. Tick tock.”

With another hesitant step back, my pulse began to race. He was right. I was wasting time standing in the middle of Fairport’s cemetery. I needed to get away from here, and fast. I had to find a safehouse, get my shit together, and figure out a way out of this deal.

But where to go?

Tilting my head toward the sky, I hoped Monnie had been wrong about Eli no longer being able to find me. I needed him now more than ever.

“Ready?” the demon called, his words rushing with his excitement. “On your mark. Get set.Go.”

I ran.

Seven days. That’s all I had. My countdown had begun.