The Deal Read Online Free PDF Page A

a strange way helped to
re-enforce that for now I was still very much alive.
    Raising my hand above the comatose man’s head,
I was about to bring it down hard on his exposed forehead like a
hammer, but I stopped in mid-motion when the heart monitor suddenly
started to beep more and more frequently as the old man’s heartbeat
began to rise and rise.
    He was waking up. Suddenly all the
anticipation and fear from earlier that evening came washing back
over me again as it had done when I first broke into Mancini’s
apartment.
    Even though he and his expensive
lover had been laying sleeping I had been feeling even more
unsettled than usual because of what I was about to do, and of course after my little deal brokering session with the horned one
down below it all made sense why I had been feeling that way after
all. I wasn’t here to take away the life of another human but a
demon, something that I thought had never existed in any kind of
reality.
    ‘ You didn’t think I was going to
let you take me back to him this easily did you?’ When Argatol
spoke his voice was low and growling like a wild animal, but it
also sounded old.
    Old? No that was wrong, it sounded
ancient. In a way, that made sense, since he and his
master had been kicking around since the beginning of
time.
    From under the cover, he raised
his right hand towards me, clasped in his fist was the butt of a
gun I recognized all too well.
    It was my own. Now I knew why it
had not been on the front seat as I expected. When the two vehicles
collided and Mr. Wannabe demon lord in the bed had
been sent hurtling through my windshield he must have had enough
time to reach out and grab it.
    I may have the ability to punch like a God,
well at least while the bullet was in my grip, but I was pretty
certain my eternal life part of the deal had not been finalized
yet. I was going to need to buy time while I thought of a way to
get that gun from him.
    ‘ This is pretty puny for a big
shot hell beast like you.’ I said, staring straight at the barrel
of my own revolver.
    ‘ I have lived for countless
centuries. I have conquered lands, men, and woman, alike. I
am not the puny one.’ Said Argotal. I could sense his rising
resentment of me already and I had not even struck a
blow.
    ‘ Yet here you are, lying in a
hospital bed with a hole in your head. Doesn’t seem like something
I would expect a demon such as you to have to go through.’ I was
starting to feel more confident now, even though he was still
holding the gun I felt like I was gaining ground on him.
    I watched as he raised his free hand up
towards the slab of skin that was once his forehead. He slowly
peeled it back until it was lying flat against his skull once more,
albeit it was going to need some stitching if he wanted it to ever
stay in place.
    Once the demon in an old man’s body could see
again, his black eyes were staring straight at me, trying to probe
my very soul for something, anything, that would break my armour
and allow him to reduce me to a jabbering wreck before he finally
put me out of my misery with my own gun.
    ‘ It is a small indignity I must
suffer to keep this pathetic shell.’
    ‘ Yeah, I forgot you don’t have the
same kind of power as your boss.’ It wasn’t until I spoke those
words, that I realized one could actually hit a nerve with a demon.
As it turns out they were rather sensitive creatures in their own
way.
    ‘ He’s not my boss.’ Spat Argatol.
There was no mistaking the venom in his voice now. ‘I’m the one who
feeds him the souls that give him his very power and I get nothing
but scraps from his table.’
    ‘ Ah, you’re the jealous type. I always thought it was
Death who handled the grunt work of getting souls from this world
to the next.’ I couldn’t help but smile, even though I knew I was
only stoking the flames of his anger.
    ‘ Death is nothing but a nomad
soul, unwelcome and unwanted by any of the Gods.’
    ‘ Seriously? I thought his job
would