by N. P. Martin
Lucas has to give it to Virginia. There is no humble life for her. She lives the high life always, refusing to dwell like a hermit in some mountain cave or dark forest somewhere. She is no fucking Yoda, as she once said to Lucas. Neither does she look like Yoda, thankfully. More like Princess Leia. “I need to avail of that fabulously powerful mind of yours,” Lucas says.
“You need to know where Leonard’s guards are again?”
“Not this time. I already know where they are. I need information on someone. A Watcher.”
“A Watcher? You normally steer clear of the demon hunters, Lucas. What has this one done to arouse you.” A sly smile spreads across her perfectly full lips as she reaches over and puts a hand on his inner thigh.
Lucas shakes his head at her. “You should have been a demon, not a Seer.”
“I’d much rather be a dirty angel.” She gives his thigh a slight squeeze before laughing.
“A dirty angel? That would be a good look on you.”
“Wouldn’t it? Maybe I could try it out. You up for some roleplay, Lucas?”
“Maybe next time.”
Virginia shakes her head. “Relax. I’m just fucking with you. But you knew that anyway, didn’t you?”
Lucas just smiles at her.
“Alright,” she says. “What’s this Watcher’s name?”
“Rachel Swanson.”
Virginia raises her eyebrows. “You fucking this Watcher, Lucas?”
“Not likely. She’s in Hell, as you’ll soon know.”
Virginia frowns at him for a second, then her eyes go glassy and she shifts her stare towards the gently rippling water of the pool. Lucas has watched her do this many times, and every time he wishes he could be inside her mind to see what is going on. The kind of power she has, it intrigues him no end. It is power he would have killed for in a former life. “Okay,” she says, seemingly back out of her mild trance state. “Your girl isn’t doing so well in Hell.”
“Who does?” Lucas says. “What level is she on?”
“Burzum. She’s pit fighting against demons and damned souls. She seems to be a real Gladiator. Not long before one of the big wigs takes notice.”
“Who owns her soul?”
“Some demon called Nephilisk. I didn’t see much, but this demon seems like a piece of work. But then again, aren’t you all?”
“Some more than others.”
“I know, honey. Just fucking with you again. You know this Nephilisk character?”
“Vaguely,” Lucas says. He knows enough to know that Nephilisk is a crossroads demon, though things change so quickly in Hell that that information might be incorrect now. “Can you get me more on this demon?”
“Maybe,” Virginia says, sipping her cocktail. “If I go deeper down the rabbit hole. But you know I don’t like getting so close to demons, present company excluded of course.”
“I know. I’ll be forever in your debt if you do though.”
“Are you sure about that?” Her eyes narrow, a slight smile on her lips. “Could you handle fucking me for that long?”
Lucas smiles. “I’ll certainly try.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
While he was seeing the Seer, Lucas asked her if she could give him the exact location of the guards that are hunting him. He finds out they are across the other side of the city, doing some other work for their handler, Leonard. Lucas doesn’t care what kind of work they are doing, but he is grateful the guards don’t have their entire focus on him, at least not yet. They soon would though, which means Lucas has to get his hands on the archangel feather as soon as possible, or else he will have to confront the Grand Duke’s guards himself. He is confident he can wipe them out, but he knows Leonard will send more to replace them straight away, then Lucas will be back to square one again. If things don’t work out, he will have to run again, which he definitely does not want to do.
For a time, Lucas considers swooping in and taking the feather from the demon Krakus and his gang of hellish miscreants himself. Before, he was concerned about ending up on the radar of his enemies in Hell. Leonard is already after him, but Leonard is not the only one that wants Lucas back in Hell for retribution. Lucas crossed many demons in Hell, all of whom would love nothing better than to see him destroyed. Crossing paths with Krakus would surely alert other demons to Lucas’ presence. The last thing he wants is more enemies on his tail. The feather will prevent him from being forcibly taken back to Hell, but there are plenty of other ways his enemies could make life difficult for him here on Earth. Once Leonard realizes that Lucas can’t be brought back to Hell, the old demon would back off. That’s what Lucas is hoping for anyway. If Leonard persists with his vendetta, Lucas will cross that bridge when he comes to it.
The other reason he will not risk stealing the feather from Krakus is because he knows who Krakus serves. The Seer told Lucas that Krakus served under a demon named Tolloch. That made Lucas nervous. Tolloch is as evil as evil gets, equally as powerful as Grand Duke Leonard and not to be trifled with. Obviously it was Tolloch who obtained the feather from the Watcher Facility, which meant Tolloch was somehow in league with the Watchers, or at least the High Council. The Seer couldn’t find much detail on that, which meant Tolloch had gone to a great deal of trouble to keep his activities shielded from prying eyes, like those of a Seer like Virgina McIntyre.
So it is basically up to Frank Swanson to get the feather and deliver it to Lucas. Just in case Frank needs some extra motivation, Lucas paid the Watcher a visit, appearing in Frank’s car as he was driving back to the cabin he lives in on a mountainside outside the city. Lucas explained to Frank that he could get him something valuable in return for the feather. That something of value is the name of the demon who stole Rachel Swanson’s soul. That got Frank’s attention, as Lucas knew it would. Needless to say, the Watcher agreed to the deal. The feather for the information. Lucas then left feeling satisfied that Frank would do all he could to obtain the feather and bring it to him.
A few hours after his meeting with Frank, Lucas is in his suite at the club having just fucked Janice for the second time that day when he gets a phone call from Dimitri.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Lucas says, smiling over at Janice, who is lying naked and sheened in sweat on the bed as she smokes a cigarette.
“Before I tell you that,” Dimitri says. “Let me just say that this phone call isn’t included in that favor you owe me.”
Lucas shakes his head. “What? Why are you calling?”
“I have information, in return for which, you will owe me two favors.”
“I doubt what you have to say is that important, Dimitri, but go on.”
Dimitri chuckles down the line. “Oh, it is.”
A sense of foreboding washes over Lucas. “Go on.”
“It’s Leonard.”
The foreboding turns to anxiety, which isn’t something Lucas normally feels. The only time he ever feels anxious is when his existence is threatened.
“The Grand Duke is here,” Dimitri says, almost seeming to relish the words. “He is here in Mercy City.”
Lucas keeps his cool. “Why should that matter to me?”
“Really? You are going to lie to me again? And here was me thinking we had a good working relationship.”
“We do.”
“So why didn’t you tell me who was after you? Why didn’t you mention it was Leonard?”
“Because I thought if you knew who it was you would refuse to help me.”
“You don’t know me very well, Lucas. This demon is afraid of no one.”
“I’m glad to hear that. So I still have your support when needed?”
“You do. But that big favor you owe me just got bigger.”
The line goes dead and Lucas tosses his phone onto the floor, then slams a fist down on his desk. “Fuck!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The higher up the hierarchy Lucas moved in Hell, the more inevitable it became that he would end up rubbing should
ers with some of the most powerful demons and demigods in the region. Almost as soon as he got the job of running Hell’s intelligence services, Lucas was paid a visit by Grand Duke Leonard. Before that, Lucas had heard of the Grand Duke, but never actually met him in person. It was well known that Leonard liked to reside inside an impenetrable Keep, ruling his particular region of Hell from the shadows, and at a distance. It was also well known that the Grand Duke was once briefly King of Hell until he was dethroned by a craftier demon than him. It tended to work like that in Hell. If you wanted something, you took it, even if you wanted the throne of the King of Hell. As long as you had the power and influence to back you up, you could pretty much do what you wanted. The demon who took the throne from Leonard took a chance, and with a bit of luck on his side, won. If he had lost, that demon would be spending eternity as slime in the pits of Belzaras, which he probably was now doing actually, since he was dethroned himself eventually as well.
When Leonard was dethroned, he fled to Earth with his tail between his legs, mightily pissed off that his reign over Hell was cut so short. When he went to Earth, Leonard set himself up in Romania, calling himself Count Dracul. He lived as royalty, reigning over his lands when he couldn’t do so in Hell. Being a demon, Leonard couldn’t help but bring his own brand of Hell with him. It started with impaling his enemies on the battlefield, earning himself the nickname of Vlad the Impaler. Later, when his bitterness grew even more demented, he decided to take it out on the people of Earth by spreading a vile disease that turned humans into blood craving demons that soon became known as “vampires” by the terrified humans. Leonard himself also became known as Count Dracula. He left Earth to go back to Hell after a few centuries, but not before he had cemented himself in legend and changed the world of Earth forever by leaving his demon spawn behind.
Despite Leonard’s big reputation and the fear he instilled in most Hellions, Lucas remained relaxed when Leonard appeared out of thin air in the room that Lucas worked from at the time, a large room with stone walls, ceiling and floor like almost every room in Hell, the walls lined with yellowing parchments that were inked in blood. In the room’s center there was a black metal desk and chair, piled on top of which were more parchments and a stack of books bound from the skins of damned souls. Lucas was sitting at the desk when Leonard arrived, and would have destroyed a lesser demon for entering the room unannounced the way Leonard did, but as it was Leonard, Lucas merely bowed his head at the dark, cloaked figure. “My Lord Leonard,” Lucas said. “I was not expecting this visit. What can I do for you?”
Leonard pulled his hood back to reveal his face. His skin was milky white and blue veined, his eyes large and glowing an ice blue. The demon’s ears were also large and pointed, his head bald. His two front incisors, long and sharp, pointed down past his lower lip. He stared at Lucas for a long time, his head tilting slightly from side to side, as if he was trying to work out what was inside Lucas. Then Leonard’s facial features seemed to shift and his face took on that of a human man in his sixties, the skin pale and lined, the eyes still blue but no longer glowing, the sharp teeth gone. “Tell me, spy master,” he said eventually in a voice that was used to commanding attention. “What is your name?”
“Lucruceous, my Lord Leonard,” Lucas said, a respectful tone in his voice. Despite the other demon having lost some of his credibility when he was unseated from the throne, he could still wipe Lucas out in the blink of an eye. Lucas knew it would not pay to antagonize him in any way, even though he resented the way Leonard arrogantly swanned into his domain.
“Lucruceous. Are you happy with your station here?”
“Yes.” Lucas wasn’t lying. Given the pain and suffering he went through to get to where he was, he had no complaints.
“So you have no interest in improving your station?”
“What do you mean?” Lucas asked, wondering where Leonard was going with his line of questioning.
A slight smile creased Leonard’s thin lips. Lucas could just imagine the old goat running around Earth, glamoring his victims, spreading his vile disease everywhere he went, like some spoiled child who had had his favorite toy taken away from him. Still, the demon was no different from any other in Hell, nor from Lucas for that matter. Power was the ultimate goal. What else was there?
“Don’t play dumb, demon,” Leonard said. “You know exactly what I’m insinuating.”
Lucas nodded. “You want me to help you get the throne back.”
Leonard glided towards Lucas’ desk so that he was towering over Lucas, his shadow casting down upon him. “I’ll make you a Grand Duke. You would be untouchable.”
“Except from you.”
“Except from me. Do not upset me and you will have nothing to fear.”
Lucas turned the idea over in his head, and even as he did, another idea forced its way in, looming large in his mind, even though he didn’t want it to. “You have a deal,” he said to Leonard.
Much scheming and conniving took place after that first meeting between Lucas and the Grand Duke. They both used every resource they had to form a conspiracy that would unseat the current King from his throne, after which Leonard would take the throne for himself and Lucas would become a Grand Duke of Hell.
But Lucas being Lucas, had other ideas. Despite the epic failure he experienced in Egypt when he tried to become King, he couldn’t bat down the urge he now felt to “go all the way” in Hell and take the throne for himself. It wouldn’t be hard. Just a few minor adjustments in the plan, that’s all it would take. Then he would have all the power he ever wanted. Connected to the Great Adversary--to the very source of Hell’s power--he would be unstoppable. The reason so many Kings had been so easily unseated--including Leonard--was because they did not know how to wield the awesome power of the Adversary. They merely allowed themselves to be controlled by the Great One, not knowing that the Great One only helped and protected and yielded to one who could exert at least some control over it. Lucas knew the dark wellspring of power that sprang from the Adversary. Even before he got to Hell, he had been wielding its power for most of his life, albeit a tiny fraction of that power, but he controlled and channeled it successfully nonetheless thanks to his training in the dark arts. If he took the throne and made the mandatory bonding with the Adversary, he would become so powerful that no demon or any other being could touch him. Not even God.
So when it came time to execute the plan that would allow Leonard to take the throne, Lucas made his covert adjustments and found himself destroying the current King and bonding with the Adversary before Leonard even knew what was happening. It had been so easy. Lucas wondered why he had waited so long.
Lucruceous, the new King of Hell, had Leonard cast down to the Depths before the Grand Duke even knew what was happening. The Depths represented the deepest region of Hell. The blackest. The darkest in every respect. Inmates of the Depths are sealed in stone coffins with little more than inch of space all around them. There, they become the plaything of the Adversary, who reaches inside their heads, infecting them with eternal darkness, forcing the inmates to play out their greatest fears over and over again.
That was Leonard’s fate.
But it was a fate that was short-lived, much to Lucas’ surprise.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lucas is in his office, looking out through the window to the club below. Janice has just left. She wanted to know what to do about the rowdy bunch of suits at the front of the main stage, some of whom were getting a little too hands on with the dancers. The security Lucas hired already warned the suits twice about their behavior. The head bouncer wanted the suits out, but checked with Janice first, as she was manager. Lucas told her to tell the bouncers to continue watching the suits, but they were not to be ejected just yet. They were tipping the girls well. Besides which, the girls could handle a little over exuberance on the part of the clientele. They are well used to it. The suits could stay, for a while at least.
It is difficult for Luca
s to get his mind of the fact that Leonard is on Earth and in town. The old goat sure could hold a grudge. So what if Lucas had screwed the Grand Duke over? It happened in Hell. That’s just how things worked there. For such an old demon, Leonard for some reason couldn’t see that. The bastard took everything way too personally.
Still, that didn’t change the fact that he is hunting Lucas and is right on Lucas’ tail at this point. The personal guards, knowing Lucas’ predilection for the sex industry, would likely search every joint in the Perv District looking for him. It wouldn’t be long before they found him. At that point, Lucas will have no choice but to fight, hopefully with Dimitri’s help. Even so, there is still Leonard. Lucas doubts he can take on the Grand Duke, alone or with Dimitri’s help. Lucas’ only hope is the feather. If he has the feather in his possession, Leonard’s power will not work on him. After that, Lucas will either destroy the Grand Duke, or the Grand Duke will flee. Time will tell.
In the meantime, Lucas finds himself thinking about Frank Swanson. He likes the Watcher, even though they are on opposite sides of the eternal war. Frank is an honest man, and Lucas respects that. He shows no fear towards Lucas either, something which Lucas also finds refreshing. More than that, Lucas finds Frank funny in a grumpy sort of way. He hopes they will remain acquaintances, if not friends, after everything is over.
Once thing Lucas has yet to tell Frank is who the Watcher is going up against. He has no doubt Frank has worked out the Watcher High Council is involved in some kind of conspiracy with demons. Frank is also smart. In fact it seemed like Frank had that worked out from the start anyway, as had Lucas.