The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “I’m still technically in the Conclave. Well, until she reports back, at least. Wonder if they’ll give me formal notice. Certified mail or something.”

  She still wasn’t meeting my eye. “There’s more, isn’t there?” I asked quietly.

  “Grace.”

  I nodded. She’d agree to the Conclave’s terms to use and abuse me to keep her sister alive. Chrissy confronting us was a message. “It could be worse, you know. They could have confronted us at your house, blown the front door down, and stormed the castle. It happens everywhere I happen to live ever since I met you. How many doors have I gone through?”

  “I have an emergency fund set aside just for replacement doors.”

  “Good thinking.”

  We didn’t talk any further until we boarded the train and started moving safely out of the city. I didn’t know what was on her mind, but all I could wonder was why the Eternal Conclave was acting now. Both the Infernal Host and the Angelic Choir had lost thousands in the recent war. My uncle had always told me to kick a man when they’re down until they stop moving, and his principle applied to greater conflicts as well. If the Conclave hadn’t kicked us until now, why had they waited?

  “We’re in their crosshairs, demon.” I blinked and looked over at Tink. “But why’d they wait so long?”

  “I was wondering the same sort of thing,” I said. She scowled. “But in larger terms. Why’d they wait so long after the war to make this move? Knocking us out right after the Second War would have been easy.”

  She bit her lip, then her eyes narrowed. “Power, demon. There’s been a huge power vacuum ever since the war. The angels lost nearly a quarter of their entire population. Demons lost about the same, right?” I shrugged. None of the Houses would admit the full extent of the damage, but I suspected our average losses were worse than the Choir’s. “So the Conclave moved in and took control of territory, corporations, organizations, governments, you name it. They must have finished consolidating their gains. Now they’re going to push for more.”

  “I still don’t understand why, though,” I said. “Both Choir and Host are working on moving our people back home.”

  “Working on it is generous where your people are concerned.” I rolled my eyes, but she was right. The Houses were deadlocked on how to deal with humanity and our exodus from Earth. The Choir was moving right along, but they were a bunch of authoritarian nitwits who followed their leadership blindly and obediently. “I don’t understand why you don’t just uproot and go. We’d be so much better off.”

  “You saw the damage the war did,” I said. “Imagine if every last demon and angel just fucked right off. Can you imagine the massive power vacuum left behind? It’d be at least three times larger. Do you really want a third world war? Someone’s going to start it, and it’s not like human governments are overly stable right now.”

  “Arrogant much, demon?” She glared at me. “You’re not very important in the great scheme of things.”

  “Do you really understand how much of this world has demonic or angelic influence?” I asked. “Name a major corporation. Probably has an angel or demon on the board of directors. Maybe more than one. Governments too. I know Asmodeus has at least a couple of people in Congress.” She huffed, but let the point pass. “And it’s not like we can take everything with us. I guess in theory we could buy construction equipment or whatever else we needed and bring it to Hell with us, but then we’re tied into a long term trade agreement with Earth.”

  “Which would be beneficial for both parties,” she pointed out.

  “What exactly do we have to trade?” I countered. “And who’s going to trade with us? We’re demons, remember? A couple thousand years of bad press doesn’t disappear in a couple of years, especially with the Conclave pulling a stunt like this.”

  She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “This shit hurts my head, demon. Why do people need to make everything so much harder than it needs to be?”

  “I’ll make sure to ask Opheran tomorrow.”

  Chapter Two

  I held back a laugh as Kibs phased into sight behind Tink and promptly grabbed her ass. She yelped, jumped half a foot in the air, and came down with her knife out. Kibs had already phased back out and reappeared on her coffee table. “God dammit, imp, I’m going to tear your wings off and make you eat them,” she snarled.

  “Hey, sweetcheeks, if Zay gets to smack that, I get a turn too. Don’t be stingy.” The foot-tall imp grinned at me and adjusted his tie. “I wish I could spend more time watching over you and less time playing courier bitch for the Chairman. Sneaking peeks in the shower is what I live for.”

  “At least you’re not stuck in the courtroom anymore,” I said. “And I don’t get to smack her ass. See? I have both hands.”

  “That doesn’t mean shit. You can regenerate.”

  Tink stalked over and planted herself in her favorite chair. “You never change. You’d figure with all the bullshit going down right now, you’d act a little more serious, but no, all you want is a piece of ass.”

  If I hadn’t been watching him, I would have missed the vicious snarl crossing the imp’s face. “Sweetcheeks, I have to enjoy it while it lasts. Every time I smack your ass might be the last these days.”

  “Good,” Tink snapped, but I could feel a pang of surprise and almost disappointment through our bond.

  I frowned and leaned back. I had warned Opheran to watch the news last night. The media hadn’t disappointed us. Times Square wasn’t the only massacre. The mages had staged their attacks in a dozen major cities across the world, the worst of which was in Kyoto, Japan. At least two hundred had died, including multiple classes of high schoolers on trips. While the world tried to figure out what extremist group to blame this time, the Eternal Conclave made its first public statement.

  In a press release, they’d announced the existence of angels and demons. They called us invaders. They named names. They named organizations. They brought a website up to let the world know who wasn’t human. Humanity, being what it was, reacted with an impressive display of rioting and lynching. While bodies weren’t swinging from streetlights yet, tomorrow would be a different story.

  Tink turned the TV on while I considered what Kibs was implying. The first thing we saw was a body hanging limply from a street light. I sighed. No one ever lost money betting on humanity being awful. “I bet she isn’t even a demon,” she said.

  “Probably not,” I said. “Just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Humanity’s tendency to turn on itself has always surprised me.”

  “We have history, demon. People are scared. Scared people do fucked up things.”

  “Demons too,” Kibs said. “Today’s High Council meeting is going to be fucked up in a fun sort of way, Zay. Word is there’s going to be a vote for formally dissolving House Lucifer, and it’s likely to pass. Four tentatively in favor.”

  “How does that even work?” Tink asked. “Why would you dissolve their House?”

  “While they exist, all of their assets are in limbo,” I said. “And they have some very interesting and useful assets. Plus, it’ll break the deadlock on the Council. If a House doesn’t cast a vote, we count it as a vote against whatever’s on the table. Right now, we’re splitting three and three on most things, so no one can advance an agenda, which is why we can’t get our shit together regarding moving back to Hell. Each House is doing their own thing.”

  “Except now, some of the Houses seem to be realigning,” Kibs said.

  “So if House Lucifer is dissolved, we’re in a straight deadlock, but then the Consortium will step in and cast tiebreaker votes,” I finished. Giving the imps the final say didn’t strike me as the best idea. “No offense, Kibs, but I don’t think that’s a good outcome for us. Your people don’t exactly have the same goals as the Houses.”

  “What a shock, the servant race has a different agenda than their masters.” The imp’s mouth twisted in a
nother snarl.

  I closed my mouth. Apparently, I had touched a nerve. “So if the vote to dissolve goes through, then what?” Tink asked.

  “It has to go to the Choir for ratification,” I said. “Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous, but each House is a direct signatory to the Pact, so removing one means amending the Pact, which means the angels have to say yes. They get an equal number of votes as we do under the theory they might split, but in reality they vote in a bloc.” In the past, I would have assumed the angels would have told us to piss up a rope just for fun. Today, they’d probably agree to the amendment. It didn’t matter to them, and they had more important shit to deal with right now.

  “Your politics are weird, demon.”

  “No kidding.” I looked at Kibs. “Opheran wants me at this one?”

  “Sure does,” he said. “Ready to go?”

  I nodded and the imp fluttered toward a wall, pulling open a swirling portal. Tink hadn’t been happy about her home having a portal available, but Opheran had paid her off and reassured her only imps could open it. I stepped through the portal and found myself in a field of flowers.

  “Bless you,” Kibs said just as I sneezed.

  “Thanks, and that’s weird of you to say.”

  “Isn’t it?” He sounded pleased with himself. “Hang on, second portal is coming up.”

  I didn’t ask why, but double portals weren’t normal outside of wartime. The Council probably wanted high security with the threat of the Eternal Conclave. Another swirling portal flicked open and I stepped through.

  Two burly demons with House Amon facial scars guarded a door a few paces ahead of me. They were huge enough to be intimidating without being in their fully demonic form. Both lit hellfire as I stepped through. “Identify yourself.”

  I held my hands up, palms out, as Kibs flew through and the portal closed behind us. “Baron Isaiah Bright of House Asmodeus.”

  They exchanged looks and put out their hellfire. “The most infamous halfblood,” one rumbled. “You’re expected. Go on in.”

  “Thank you.” I walked into the Council chamber, Kibs fluttering after me before heading toward the Consortium contingent. I spotted Opheran lifting a hand in greeting and joined him at the House Asmodeus table.

  “Good afternoon, Isaiah.” High Prince Opheran’s human form was as close to aesthetic perfection as we could get. These days his hair was a little grayer and his face was a little more lined, but he was still very vital and very dangerous.

  I sketched a bow to him before sitting. “My Prince, I live only to serve you and our illustrious House.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Isaiah.”

  “I’d like to point out your hair is turning a most brilliant shade of silver. It’s very becoming on you. The ladies must love it.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Isaiah,” he repeated. “I don’t know how Harax dealt with this and kept his sanity. I thought life was hard when I was only the Prince. I had no idea what I was getting in to.”

  “He did have you to delegate tasks to,” I pointed out. “You haven’t named a second Prince yet, and you don’t delegate a lot to the Dukes.” He stared at me and I shook my head. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m nowhere near your level of power, competence, or wisdom.”

  “Wisdom.” He growled the word. “If you are going to make a comment about wisdom relating to age, I will remove your lips and tongue for this meeting.”

  I smoothly transitioned away from making a comment along those lines. “Word is House Lucifer is on the chopping block.”

  “Indeed. What are your thoughts?”

  “It’s pointless and dangerous, my Prince. The imps have their own agenda and we’re probably not a part of it. I don’t like giving them the power to direct the path of the Host. Why should we? What are the other Houses thinking?”

  “The other Houses are thinking of the potential power they can gain through dividing Lucifer’s assets and survivors.” Opheran smiled thinly. “The Consortium must have sweetened the pot enough to overcome House Belphegor’s inertia. I wonder what they promised.”

  “I wonder why they never approached us,” I said.

  “They did,” Opheran said. “Their offer was frankly insulting.”

  “Interesting,” I said. Did the imps have something against our House? I filed that question away to ask Kibs later.

  “I found it interesting as well. I want you to talk to Kyla. Get us some information on which way Leviathan is leaning and why. If they stand with the other Houses, I need to know why we’ve been singled out.”

  I smirked. “Still playing matchmaker?”

  “I’ve never heard you complain.”

  He had a point. I stood and walked toward the Leviathan table until she noticed me. Kyla rose from her seat and we drifted toward an unoccupied corner. She was a sultry sort, almost a succubus like my mom, which wasn’t a common trait among Leviathans. She did have some human blood in her lineage, though. My dad was human, making me a first generation halfblood. She was second or third generation. I wasn’t entirely sure how far removed her human heritage was. After the events of the Second War, some Houses had decided to take humans a little more seriously, which I thought was long overdue. Kyla was my counterpart in her House.

  “A pleasure to see you again, Zay.” Her violet eyes were positively smoldering. “What brings you over to talk to me again?”

  “Do I need an excuse to say hello and flirt outrageously with my favorite Leviathan?” I asked.

  “No, but you’ve never come to see me outside of Council meetings. I’ve asked you several times. I might start thinking you’re just not into me. Maybe you’re not into older women, hmm?”

  “You do live on the other side of the world,” I pointed out.

  “You do have money,” she countered. “And there’s this thing called the portal network.”

  “I know, but I don’t have time. Opheran keeps me far too busy.”

  She pouted for a moment, but gave me a smile. “Alas, such is life. So, what are we conspiring about today, my favorite Asmodeus?”

  “The vote to dissolve House Lucifer.”

  Her smile fell away and she shook her head. “What a crock of shit. Our Princes are still considering the motion, but we’re not thrilled with setting a precedent of this nature. Breaking deadlocks with a vote to dissolve a House? How would Asmodeus react if you were formally dissolved with the Consortium casting the deciding vote?”

  “We’d probably fight to the death,” I said. “Well, the full demons would. I’d probably just crawl into a hole until the whole thing blew over.”

  “Such rugged self-preservation,” she murmured.

  “But yes, that’s a good point,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. We’re simply concerned the imps don’t have the same agenda as we do. They’re still in the servant-master mindset and they resent us.”

  “Are they wrong?” she asked.

  “Not entirely,” I said. “It doesn’t mean we should give them the power to fuck us over on a whim. Did they make Leviathan an offer?”

  “The Consortium?” She looked over her shoulder at her table. “To my knowledge, yes, but it was declined. They didn’t seem to be interested in gaining our support.”

  “We had the same experience. Maybe our Houses were just the least likely to give them support.”

  “Perhaps. What shall we advise our Princes?”

  I glanced back at Opheran, who was deep in conversation with a demon from House Intelligence. “Amon is chairing this session?”

  She nodded. “They’ll probably be the ones to make the proposal.”

  “Does it seem odd to you that Lucifer’s longest allies are so hungry to tear them apart?”

  “Amon doesn’t tolerate weakness.”

  “I’m going to advise House Asmodeus to vote against the motion,” I said. “We would appreciate House Leviathan’s support.”

  “It seems
strange, yet intriguing, to be in bed with House Asmodeus,” she said, licking her lips. “But yes, I believe I can guarantee House Leviathan’s support in this matter.”

  “Why thank you, my dear Baroness.”

  “Of course, my dear Baron.” She lifted her hand and I took it, placing a light kiss on her knuckles. Both of us had raised our voices, drawing just a touch of attention, absolutely purposeful. Our Houses working together was not a common occurrence.

  “Do make the time to visit, won’t you?” she asked as she squeezed my hand. “I promise you, the entertainment and accommodations will be worth your time.”

  “I’m sure they would be,” I said. She squeezed my hand again before slowly drawing hers free. “Though with the current state of world affairs, I’m not sure either of us will have any free time.”

  “Humans,” she said with a sigh. “I understand. Stay in touch.”

  I returned to my table and Opheran grinned up at me. The House Intelligence demon nodded to me and stepped back into the shadows. “Have you set up a rendezvous with the Baroness yet?”

  “My Prince, House Leviathan will support our opposition to the dissolution of House Lucifer,” I said. “And no, I haven’t, though she’s made it very clear she’d welcome it.”

  “I thought as much. Leviathan’s pride wouldn’t let them turn power over to the imps.”

  “Not just that,” I said. “They don’t want to set a precedent where Houses can be dissolved by a simple vote.”

  Opheran frowned for a moment, but then nodded. “I see.”

  “It does feel strange to be on the same side as Leviathan,” I said.

  “Isaiah, consider this.” Opheran turned to me as I sat next to him. “You are a member of this House’s nobility. Kyla is of equal rank, and she has human ancestry as well. I cannot and will not command you to do so, but I strongly encourage you to consider formally courting her. A potential alliance would strengthen both of our Houses.”