The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  Naturally, the first thing Hikari said when I rejoined her was, “So, did you enjoy your pleasant interlude with Anna?”

  I gave it a count of three before responding. “Becky, too. Bet you didn’t see that coming.”

  “No, I didn’t,” she said. “But I’ve seen the way you stare at her chest.”

  “It’s worth the look.”

  “You’ve never stared at mine like that.”

  I glared at her. “Do you want me to?”

  “Not especially.” A tiny smile curled the corners of her lips. “But it would be nice to be appreciated once in a while.”

  “Don’t start.”

  “Start what, dear?”

  “I’m really not in the mood for veiled accusations.”

  Her smile vanished. “Oh, so you’d rather hear them openly?”

  “This isn’t the time to dredge up all of our dirty laundry,” I said. “I won’t get into a fight with you in public, especially not here and now. If you feel like you can’t resist, you’re going to have to find another ride home, because I will walk right out on you.”

  She patted my arm, though the smile didn’t reappear. “You’re perfectly right, Isaiah. We can save it for another time.”

  Both of us looked up as Becky approached. “Hikari,” she rumbled. “Nice to see you again.”

  “And nice to see the three of you again,” Hikari replied.

  “The three of me? Have you been drinking?”

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Just ignore her, Becky. She’s pissed off but trying to maintain some sort of social decorum.”

  “I don’t need you to explain my actions.”

  “I don’t need you to be acting this way in the first place.”

  Becky sighed and put her hands on our shoulders, just like she had done to Tink and me a few minutes earlier. “Look. Bright, I love you like a little brother, all right? You’ve saved my life enough times I’ve lost count. Hikari, I like you and all, but you’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. Ever since the two of you got serious, he’s turned into a timid little pussy-whipped bitch. He has had to walk on eggshells for over a year now, just out of fear of pissing you off. That’s no way to live, let alone have a relationship. You should be ashamed of yourself for doing this to him. How in the world can you say you love someone you’re trying to control like this?”

  Hikari’s mouth moved, but no words came out. I would have found it funny, except I was relatively certain I was doing the same thing. Becky’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “Bright, if you ever need a place to hide out, you let me know. No questions asked. Well, maybe one or two. I love gossip as much as the next girl, you know.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” I managed to say.

  “Good, good. I am going to talk with Caleb. If I have to come over here again, it will be much less pleasant for either of you.” She let go of my shoulder and turned to walk away. I looked at Hikari. Her expression was unreadable, but her fists were clenched and I could see a vein pulsing in her neck. She didn’t look at me, simply turned her back and strode toward the exit.

  I took a seat and closed my eyes. It was nice to have someone tell Hikari off to her face, but I had been told off just as much as she had. Becky was right, of course. I was more afraid of pissing Hikari off than anything else. Whatever love I had once held for her was crushed under that fear. “I really need an exit strategy,” I muttered to myself.

  “Are you finally going to dump that bitch?” whispered a voice in my ear.

  “Shut up, Kibs.”

  “Speaking for everyone else, it’s about time. Also, Opheran’s less than a minute away. You have a place to meet him?”

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  I drifted toward where Caleb and Tink stood, talking with Becky. Lionel managed to place himself between where I was and where I wanted to be. I eyed him and he gave me a pleasant smile. “Miss Becky doesn’t appreciate being disturbed when speaking with friends she hasn’t seen in a while, especially under the circumstances.”

  “Even though I’m one of those friends?”

  “You had your turn.”

  I barely refrained from causing an incident and took a few quick steps away. “Kibs,” I said. “I need you to get a message over to Tink and Caleb.”

  “Not sure Caleb’s included,” he whispered back to me.

  “He’s included.”

  “Isaiah?” I turned around, looked down. Jase’s wife stood before me, small and gray-haired, her face lined but somehow peaceful. “Jason spoke a lot about you. I wanted to thank you again for coming.”

  “It’s my pleasure and honor to be here for him,” I said.

  “I know this may sound slightly strange,” she said, “but I was wondering if another one of Jason’s friends was going to attend? His nickname was ‘Kibs’. I understood that they met through you?”

  I swallowed hard. “Did you ever meet Kibs?”

  She lifted a hand to her mouth to hide a smile. “I believe I did. He’s rather on the short side, isn’t he?”

  “Short? What the hell?” The whisper in my ear was just a bit on the petulant side.

  “He’s actually here, right now,” I said. “Though you may not catch sight of him, he’s around. Trust me on that.”

  “Of course,” she said. “And there’s another friend I’d heard of, but never met. Opheran, I believe he said?”

  I cleared my throat. “Yes, he’s on the way as well. Mrs. Pruitt, Caleb said you didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know about my husband’s interactions with angels and demons and one stubborn halfblood?” She smiled at me, tears suddenly standing in her eyes. “He shared so much with me. Maybe it was too much. I didn’t understand everything he said, and to be frank, I didn’t want to. All I knew was that he was involved in things that were unbelievable, out of this world. He told me not to worry, to pretend not to know. He didn’t want me involved. Tell me, Isaiah. Did this happen because of what he knew?”

  I looked around, saw Caleb gazing in my direction, but no one else. “I’m not sure how much you should know, if anything at all.”

  “Please,” she said softly.

  I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to break the heart of a little old lady by telling her that her husband had been murdered in cold blood by a demented angel trying to serve twisted justice on their senior deacon. But when I looked into her eyes, I couldn’t lie, and I couldn’t tell her nothing. “Mrs. Pruitt, your husband was murdered,” I said quietly. Her hands lifted to her mouth. “He was killed by someone who was trying to hurt both Caleb and myself. I don’t want to tell you anything else, for fear that they’ll try to do the same to you. But, I will tell you we’re going to stop him. That, I promise you.”

  She nodded slowly and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I suspected something was strange when they told me what had happened to him.”

  I nodded. “It’s a flimsy story.”

  The front doors opened and I saw Opheran step through, followed by a gaggle of minor House nobles. Someone had definitely ordered the House to show the flag today. After the nobles, there came a series of extremely serious looking individuals, drawing the attention of every human in the room. At the tail end, another figure entered, and I stiffened to full attention. “What is it?” Mrs. Pruitt asked me.

  “That’s our High Prince,” I said quietly.

  “I take it this was unexpected?”

  “I had no idea,” I said. “I can’t remember the last time a High Prince has gone out in public like this.”

  A swarm of House agents immediately walked toward Caleb, but a gesture from Opheran dispersed them. Becky strode toward Opheran and the two of them exchanged a strong wrist clasp, followed by a back-slapping hug. I didn’t quite know how to take that. Harax, on the other hand, was making a beeline for Caleb, who looked as if he was going to pop his wings free and flee the scene. “Should I do something about this?” Mrs. Pruitt asked me.

&
nbsp; “I don’t think so. Is there a private room here?”

  “Upstairs, for use of the family,” she said. “Please, feel free.”

  “Kibs, can you get word out?”

  “Sure thing.” Watching Tink flinch and then redden as Kibs whispered something in her ear was amusing. Caleb and Becky flinched too, but not so visibly. “Hikari’s gone,” Kibs whispered a few moments later. “Not sure, but I think your car is too.”

  I sighed and walked upstairs. Hitching a ride would be no problem, but I half-suspected that I’d never see that car again. I entered the room that was clearly marked for the Pruitt family and waited. Caleb and Tink entered first, Becky following them. “Bright, what is the story here?” she asked.

  “Kibs?” I asked. “Why Becky?”

  “Why not?” The imp phased into view and blew her a kiss. “I figure you’ll need her help from here on out.”

  “Why not, indeed,” I said. The door opened and Opheran walked in, closing it behind him. “Good afternoon, my Prince. Is the High Prince joining us?”

  “No,” Opheran said. “He merely wanted to pay his respects to the family. I think he also wanted to get out one last time.”

  “One last time?” I asked.

  Opheran nodded and looked around the room. “The information I’m about to tell you hasn’t been made public knowledge yet.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Tink said.

  The Prince shook his head. “Early this morning, the Choir struck two strongholds of House Belphagor in China, as well as a House Leviathan training base in Russia. Early reports say that our losses were heavy and all three sites were completely lost. There are also unconfirmed reports that a House Lucifer location in Canada was hit as well, possibly the one where their new High Prince was located.”

  “The ninety-eight days aren’t up yet, are they?” Tink asked.

  “No,” I said, a sinking feeling dragging my stomach down. “There’s a few days left until the end of their ultimatum.”

  “The Choir doesn’t feel the need to hold to their word against the Host,” Caleb said quietly. “The Choir’s word is good to no one except the Choir.”

  “Those dirty sons of bitches!” Tink snarled.

  “That’s the way the Choir operates against those they consider their inferiors.”

  Opheran nodded slowly. “Isaiah, you’re going to need to leave here as soon as possible and find some place to hide. We are declaring a full state of emergency for the entire Host. As far as we know, the Second Celestial War has just begun.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  * * *

  “This is both the most and least civilized war I’ve ever heard of,” Tink said. She stretched her legs and put her feet up on the coffee table. “The media has no idea what’s going on, but hearing about all the disasters and assassinations and terrorist attacks makes me wonder if anyone else is putting the big picture together.”

  “If anyone starts to, someone from the Choir or Host will make sure to plant a suggestion in their head,” I said.

  She snorted. “Leave the stupid humans out of it, right?”

  “Would you prefer they get into it?”

  “No, not after hearing things about the war right from Opheran’s lips,” she said. “The assault on House Lucifer’s command post last week made me want to throw up.”

  “I can’t say that I was sad to hear that Julentain bought it, but Lucifer having lost most of its command structure isn’t a good thing. The Choir’s strategy has been solid. They hit each House just hard enough to make sure we were convinced we’d get hit harder, then focused on the weakest link.”

  “Do you think there’s any way House Lucifer’s going to make it through this in one piece?” she asked.

  “Do you care?”

  She scowled at me. “I guess I do in some abstract manner.”

  I scowled right back at her. “You’re pretty damn curious about the state of the war, when you’d probably like to see demons get wiped off the face of your world.”

  “Oh fuck off, demon. I’m not stupid. After seeing what the Choir’s done, I think I finally buy the theory that you’re mostly the recipient of bad publicity. You’ve got shitheads like Azriphel and Deshavin, sure, but the Choir’s got people like Victor, and it’s not like humanity hasn’t had its own share of horrible people.”

  I lifted my hands in the air. “She gets it! She gets it!”

  The knife came out and I jumped over the back of the couch. She snorted and put it away as I backed up further. “Don’t let go to your head.”

  I shook my head as I returned to my seat, keeping an eye on her and that knife. The war had been playing out for two weeks now. As she had said, the world at large was unaware of it, but being on Prince Opheran’s staff gave us perspective. Unfortunately, it was a perspective that was fully aware of the atrocities the Choir was quietly committing. The assault on the House Lucifer command post had been marked by no quarter given, with the Lucifer civilian staff murdered out of hand. High Prince Julentain had given a good account of himself by all reports, even to the very end. He had fought alone, one by one against the Choir, until he finally fell, at which point his body was cut to pieces, desecrated with angelic purity, and his head taken as a prize.

  Our House had been fortunate so far, if you could call anyone fortunate in a war. Aside from the first strike at our holdings, we had been untouched. Once Opheran had realized that the Choir was leaving us alone, he authorized lightning strikes through our portal network. Operating on a platoon and cell structure, our people had stuck many pins and needles into the Choir. In private, I suspected that Opheran was planning for the inevitable moment when our own command structure was compromised.

  “Have you heard anything from Hikari?”

  “Ah, the other war in progress?” I asked.

  “Things that bad?”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since the funeral. If we were still living together, I suspect I would have come home to a stripped apartment.”

  “Not even a phone call?”

  “I tried,” I said, walking over to the window to look outside. “Her phone’s been disconnected. We don’t have any intelligence assets to spare either, not to look for one silly mage.”

  Tink snorted. “Demon, you don’t think you’d be able to find a silly mage if she really didn’t want to be found, do you? She is a ranking master, remember.”

  “Not going to argue the point, but we don’t even have the luxury of looking at the moment. What would I do if we found her? Hey, Hikari, I spent all this effort looking for you just to tell you we’re over and done with, even if I do somehow end up surviving this ridiculous war.”

  When Tink didn’t respond to that, I turned away from the window to see her staring at me with an expression I didn’t recognize. “You mean it, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Which part?”

  “All of it.”

  “Yes. Becky was right. I’ve got better things to be terrified of than pissing off my girlfriend, especially when she just goes around looking for excuses to be pissed off.”

  She raised her hands in the air. “He gets it! He gets it!”

  I grinned, and then the room intercom buzzed. Both of us tensed. Opheran always knocked. The last time the intercom had buzzed, it was a field officer bringing me word that one of my cousins had been killed in action. I walked to the door and pressed the button. “This is Bright.”

  “Apologies for disturbing you, Baronet, but we have an unorthodox visitor here asking for you. Under the circumstances, I thought it best to verify.”

  I frowned and looked over at Tink, who shrugged. “Who is it?”

  “The Choirboy, Caleb DeMarco,” the voice said, not bothering to hide its disgust. “He’s here under a flag of truce. Prince Opheran has standing orders to respect the flag from him and only him, unless you say otherwise. What are your orders?”

  “Send him up,” I said, then let go of the button. “I haven’t
heard from him since the funeral, either. Wonder why he’d risk coming here?”

  “Maybe he’s defecting,” Tink suggested.

  I looked at her and shook my head. “It takes a certain type of person to betray their entire race. I don’t think Caleb’s got it, no matter how he feels about what the Choir is doing.”

  “There is precedent,” Tink pointed out. “Caleb certainly has reason to question his faith, so to speak.”

  “But if he does give in, that means Victor was right all along.”

  Any further discussion was cut off by a knock on the door. I opened the door slowly, revealing Caleb standing in his Choir uniform, flanked by two nervous Asmodeus troopers. His eyes were sunken and dull, his expression frozen into an expressionless mask. “Come on in,” I said.

  “Thank you.” As he stepped inside, I gestured for the troopers to vanish, and closed the door before they could argue. Turning around, I watched him walk across the hotel room to the window and stand there. He didn’t say anything.

  “Caleb? What’s wrong?” I wanted to ask as well, but I let Tink take the lead.

  He spoke without turning around. “I came to say goodbye.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to join the war.” Tink’s voice was flat. I saw her knife jump into her hand and I stepped to her side, ready to grab her arm.

  “Don’t insult me, Anna. I don’t plan on taking up arms against the Host.”

  “Then what exactly are you going to do?”

  “I have two goals,” he said. “I have to save my people. They’re being misled into committing atrocities. It’s my responsibility to pull them back from the brink, to stop them from becoming the monsters they believe the Host is.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “And I must kill Victor.” He turned around, his eyes flashing silver. “In the name of God, I must end his life before he can ruin this world.”

  “We’re going with you,” Tink said.

  “No.”

  “You can’t stop us.”