But he couldn’t.
He wasn’t sure what was worse… his body unable to shift because of some stupid amulet or the knowledge that even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to kill him.
The invisible bonds of a curse, a curse he was born with, were heavy. He felt them every single day. They might be concealed to everyone around him, but to him, some days they were all he could see. Even when he tried to ignore them, he felt their pressure; he felt them squeeze. It was as if they wanted to wring out every last drop of humanity he had so he would become an empty shell—a robot. A controllable being.
But Riley would never allow himself to be controlled.
So he turned himself hard—cold. He learned how to turn off his emotion so he didn’t have to feel and he did things… just enough to keep the evil at bay… to keep him satisfied.
But this time he wanted more.
He watched the dark surf turned red from the moon. He watched as it lapped against the dock, coming in rougher and rougher with each passing moment. And then there was the wave… It crested high, it rolled closer with a threatening roar and just when he thought it was going to crash overhead, it split in two and out stepped his controller… his puppeteer.
Beelzebub.
He stepped onto the dock and the wave dissolved and the ocean went back to what it was before, erasing all evidence of his dramatic entrance.
“You’ve been hiding from me,” he intoned.
“If I had been hiding, you wouldn’t have found me.”
“Don’t talk to me that way!” he screamed. It was basically his natural tone.
Riley resisted the urge to laugh. He wouldn’t kill him. Not today anyway. He wanted something. As long as Riley was useful, he would remain alive.
“What do you want?” he asked, like he was bored.
“I want the Treasure Map,” Beelzebub snarled. “Something you failed to deliver the last time I sent you looking.”
“That’s because you put a woman in charge. She was too busy killing people and trying to prove herself to you to actually do what you wanted.”
“Then you should’ve killed her!” he roared.
“Didn’t have to.” For once, someone else did the dirty work.
“You underestimated that boy… the young one. He’s the one who has my Map!”
Riley tried not to react. But this was an interesting turn of events. “Who?”
“You know who! The young hellhound, the one with the girl. The girl who is mine!”
So he staked a claim on the girl and Sam had the Map? That kid was as good as dead.
So why don’t you take it from him?”
“I have contained him. But the girl… she’s been a problem. She hides it and she wears a key that only she can use to open the scroll.”
Riley wasn’t sure what it meant that Sam had been “contained,” but he didn’t bother to ask. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Go there. Entrust yourself to the girl. Steal the scroll.”
“No.
“What did you say to me?!” he screeched.
He didn’t bother to repeat the word; he heard just fine.
“Need I remind you that you are bound to do my bidding?”
Anger and rage swirled inside Riley. He was tired of doing his bidding. Before he was even born, his grandfather bargained away his life for a woman.
“Maybe you need a reminder of my power? A vision of what could befall you?”
Riley yawned.
He heard a struggle behind him and he turned. Casey was being brought across the dock, two demons practically dragging him as he fought. He could see the sweat upon his forehead and the tremor in his muscles. He looked at Riley, confusion clear in his eyes. He couldn’t change and didn’t know why. His body was weakened by a force he couldn’t see and he was scared.
Part of Riley felt bad for him, but the other part was already detaching from the unfolding scene.
“Riley,” Casey called, relief in his voice. Until he looked past me at Beelzebub.
“Agree to my terms,” Beelzebub said, spreading his hands wide like he was offering me a deal.
“No.”
Just like that, Casey was tossed into the sea. Riley saw the fins circling, stalking. Then he heard his screams as the sharks began to bite. Before they could make him their dinner, Casey’s body was lifted out of the water, his blood dripping, drop by drop, and mixing with the blood moon’s rays.
He looked at Riley, half unconscious, and mouthed the words “help me.”
He looked away.
Then out of the sea, a swarm of flies rose, like a swarming army of death, and they covered Casey’s body, every single inch of him until Riley could no longer see his stare.
He screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed.
Then the flies carried him into the ocean, where the water once again buried the secret of his death.
“Get me that scroll, or this awaits you, only your death will linger…”
Riley stared at Beelzebub, Lord of Flies, Prince of Demons, and knew true hate. He wasn’t really sure if he hated him or himself. Beelzebub’s eyes narrowed and his lips curved, and Riley turned away.
“If you get me the scroll, I will release you from the curse.”
Riley turned back.
He smiled a toothy smile of perfectly straight, white teeth. “No more visits like this, no more chores, no more killing, no more bidding. You will be free.”
Riley knew he shouldn’t make a deal with him. It’s how his grandfather died; it’s how he was born cursed. But even just the thought of freedom…
He made the deal.
I felt my body slam up against the wall and my head snapped back. My eyes struggled to focus and I looked up at blazing silver.
“What the hell did you just do to me?”
“It was you.” I gasped. “You took the scroll.”
“Were you in my head?” Riley asked, his voice low and mean.
“I trusted you.”
“What did you see?”
Images of flies and sharks swam before my eyes. “I saw Casey.”
Riley’s eyes actually lost some heat at the mention of his dead roommate. Maybe he felt bad about that, after all. But then I remembered how he just looked away when Casey asked for help.
“How?” I asked, straightening from the wall. “How did you get the scroll?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does,” I said, determined, and stepped toward him with my hand out. He slapped it away like it was a live wire.