The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “Of course.”

  “And you have a plan for victory, right?”

  “I am not planning to win this war, Isaiah.” Opheran suddenly sounded old and cold. “Not so soon after the last one. I am planning to lose as gracefully and painlessly as possible.”

  I shivered and exchanged another look with Tink. The High Prince was several steps ahead of me once again. He knew we were going to be at war again. He knew we had no chance of winning against the combined forces of the Eternal Conclave and humanity at large. He knew our best chance of survival was to minimize losses, just like our methods in the recent war against the angels. “What’s our first step?”

  “Your assessment agrees with mine. I will designate a Duke to represent the House.”

  I ran through the list of Dukes in my head. “I can’t think of any who are dumb enough to fall for this.”

  “I’ll offer them the vacant Prince’s position upon their return.”

  Tink snorted. “They’ll risk almost certain death for a promotion?”

  “Of course they will,” I said. “It’s their only chance of advancement and gaining power right now. Are you going to tell them that part, my Prince?”

  “No.”

  “Which of them will you offer it to?”

  “All of them.”

  I shook my head. The traditional command structure of the House had a High Prince, a Prince, and a council of Dukes who controlled various smaller regions or domains. Right now, we were short a half dozen Dukes already, as well as the Prince, and Opheran hadn’t been filling the empty places. “My Prince, forgive me, but are you sure we can lose-“

  “Lose a Duke? Do you believe any of them are someone we cannot afford to lose?” Opheran’s voice was still cold. “Isaiah, you are not fully aware of the value of our Dukes, are you? The rank of Duke is the most dangerous and least valuable within our House’s nobility. They are easily expendable and easily replaceable. Many demons aspire to the rank, and their aspirations and ambitions end there. Harax taught me a valuable lesson when I was a young Duke. That’s where many of my scars come from. Dukes are expendable because there is no shortage of applicants to the position, yet few of them have higher ambitions unless it falls into their lap. Each of them will think the risk is low compared to the reward.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Tink said.

  “Isn’t it? Other Princes keep their Houses stable by making sure the Dukes compete between themselves to keep each other in check. Harax kept our House stable by promoting those among the nobility who would do the least damage, and gave them as little power as possible, and as little incentive to compete with each other as we could get away with. Now our Council is full of unambitious incompetents.”

  “Why haven’t you changed the method, then? You’ve been the High Prince for almost two years now,” she asked. I bit my tongue. “Don’t you have the power to make these sweeping changes?”

  “Anna, you are human, and you have no comprehension of the responsibilities I have.” Opheran’s voice thawed slightly. “Harax centralized authority in our House. He and I held the true power. Now Harax is gone and I have to determine who to entrust with actual responsibility. Isaiah is one of those, but I can’t very well bring him from Baron to Duke in one motion, can I? The Council would rise against me and they would be perfectly justified.”

  “I’d prefer to stay a Baron, thank you,” I said. “Or you can revoke the title and let me fade into the rank and file again. I’d prefer that even more.”

  “But to return to the original question, any one of our Dukes is worth losing,” Opheran said. “And I can then use the losses as an excuse to promote some prospects. To answer further, Anna, a year or two is no time at all to demons. A decade may be enough time to make a sincere determination of a demon’s true character. Are they ambitious? Are they audacious? Are they responsible and competent? These are not simple questions to answer.”

  “This is too much realpolitik for me,” I said.

  “Even more so, once I can stack the House Council with those who are competent and loyal to me, things will proceed quicker. Two of the old guard Dukes need to fall first. One will fall when I designate them as our envoy to the summit, and I’m sure at least one will die to the Conclave in the war to come.”

  I winced. “Are you sure you should be telling me this, my Prince? I am just a Baron, remember.”

  “Are you, Marquis Isaiah Bright?”

  “You didn’t just accidentally skip a rank, did you? I always thought Count had a nicer ring to it.”

  “I did not. After the anticipated death of the Duke at the hands of the Eternal Conclave, I will declare you as a special advisor, not just a limited advisor when it comes to human magic. I will not accept less than a Marquis for such a position. As you will be outside the chain of command for the Dukes, I expect few complaints, especially considering the circumstances. You will be attached to House Intelligence for logistical reasons, but will hold neither rank nor authority within their organization.”

  “I’d really like to decline the honor.”

  “I will kill you if you do.”

  I shivered again. He sounded very serious. “Then I reluctantly accept the honor in advance. Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Because I can rely on you.” The phone beeped and I realized he had hung up.

  “Rely on you?” Tink snorted.

  “I know. He’s crazy, right?”

  She looked over at me and scowled. “Are you stupid, demon? It’s about time he realized you’re actually reliable.”

  “You must have used too much blood for those spells, Tink. You’re saying nice things about me.”

  Her scowl deepened as she looked to the road ahead. “It’s been long enough I can say a few good things about you and mean them. Just take the compliment and shut the fuck up for a while.”

  Chapter Five

  Over my morning coffee, I watched the local news with a bit of satisfaction. The trap had worked. Reporters were on scene talking about how fire had engulfed the construction site overnight, but stumbling over explaining why the fire had green flames. While they speculated about either a gas leak or some odd construction materials, I checked their website to see if there were any reported injuries. The police had found two trespassers are the site, both with severe burns. They were currently in critical condition. I smiled. Two mages down, only thousands to go.

  “Morning, Zay.” Grace sat down on the other side of the couch. We’d taken to enjoying our coffee together from time to time while her sister slept in. “Don’t usually see you watching the news.”

  “Sometimes you learn things.”

  She watched the commentators make some wild guesses about what the trespassers were doing at the site. The current leading theory seemed to be about stealing copper wire. “Did you two have anything to do with the fire?”

  “Yeah. We set a trap for any Conclave mages keeping an eye on us. They’ll think twice before sticking their noses in again.” I held a hand up as she frowned at me. “And yes, we took precautions to make sure it would only trigger on mages or late at night when no one was around.”

  She breathed out and gave me a half-smile. “Oh, yes, a demon with morals. I keep forgetting.”

  “Halfblood.”

  “Whatever.”

  I rolled my eyes and tossed her the remote. “If you see your sister first, let her know I’m in the situation room.”

  She nodded and I met Kalil at the map table. His face was drawn and dark circles drooped under his eyes. “Did you sleep?” I asked him.

  “A couple of hours. I spent most of the night cross checking Leviathan’s data.” He gestured at the table. The number of pins had doubled. “Still have a couple more hours of work to do, but I think we have enough to start deploying intelligence assets in earnest.”

  I nodded and examined the map more closely. “I’d say start from the biggest clusters, right? Looks
like the majority of their assets were in eastern Europe, mostly around Krakow and scattered through the Balkans.”

  He pointed to Canada. “I agree, but around Toronto as well. Many suspected sightings. It could mean someone who’s very good at staying in cover.”

  “It could also mean false sightings,” I said.

  “It could, but I have a gut feeling we should check it out.”

  “We’ll go, then. I trust your gut.” He smiled and inclined his head. “What do we have for resources?”

  He started going down the list of House Intelligence assets at our disposal. About halfway through, Tink wandered into the room, her eyes drooping and her hair pulled back into a sleepy ponytail. She didn’t say anything, just stalked around the map while Kalil read off the list. He didn’t even miss a beat when she leaned in over his shoulder. “To summarize, we have four primary intelligence teams and twice as many solo agents available right now. My recommendation would be to send teams to Poland, Albania, and western Canada. Hold our fourth team in reserve.”

  “I agree,” I said. “Let’s have some of our solo agents head to Hungary, Greece, and the Ukraine. My gut tells me most Lucifers wouldn’t have gone too far from their primary holdings.”

  “What about Leviathan’s people?” Tink asked. Kalil and I frowned at each other. “What?”

  “We’ll have to ask Kyla when she gets here,” I said. “I can’t give orders to them directly, only make suggestions. She has the final call on her people. Speaking of people, Kalil, go ahead and send out the teams like you described, over my signature. Make sure Opheran’s aware.”

  “Yes, Baron,” he said.

  While he turned to his laptop, Tink stood next to me. “When’s all the shit supposed to go down?”

  “Which shit?”

  “The summit.”

  I shrugged. “Sometime today, I presume.”

  “You presume correctly,” said a raspy voice from thin air. The Chairman and Kibs abruptly phased into view over the table. Kalil stopped typing and quietly closed the laptop. “The meeting is at noon. Grandmaster Kane requested the Host meet him at the United Nations in New York. Setting up a meeting of this nature on such short notice at such an important location was unexpected.” Noon was less than a half hour away. If the Conclave was capable of surprising the imps, it didn’t bode well for the rest of us.

  “I’m surprised to see you here, Chairman,” I said. “But thanks for the information.”

  “Don’t thank me. Opheran requested you watch.” The Chairman turned to Kalil. “We’ll have a live feed from their meeting chamber. You’ll be able to stream it.”

  “Does the Conclave know about this?” I asked.

  The Chairman shrugged. “They didn’t prohibit it, nor did we ask.” He floated over to Kalil with a flap of his wings and pulled an imp-sized business card out of his suit. “This is the site, and the login and password. Good day, Baron.”

  I wanted to ask more, but the elder imp phased out before I could. Kibs floated down to sit on the table. “Shit, Zay, I’m surprised you’re not going. Aren’t you the man when it comes to demon-human relations?”

  “Opheran’s sending a Duke,” I said. “A lowly Baron would be insulting, wouldn’t it?”

  “Like humans give a shit. A demon’s a demon. Right, sweetcheeks?”

  Tink rolled her eyes. “Most of the time.”

  A heavy knock sounded at the front door. Tink frowned as we heard Grace greet someone. “That’s too heavy to be Kyla, unless her new liaison is a tank,” she said.

  “I’ll go check,” I said. As I turned the corner away from the situation room, I got a face full of tits, which was never something to complain about. I bounced back and looked up at the owner of said tits. “Becky?”

  “Bright,” she rumbled as she grabbed my shirt and pulled me up on my toes. “Rick Neilson told me you were at his work site yesterday. Not to work, just to look around. Called in a favor. There was a fire last night. Witnesses said green flames. Sounds like hellfire. Two trespassers burned. Almost killed. The police are asking questions. I have a feeling all of these events are connected. Am I wrong?”

  “You’re not wrong,” I said. Her grip tightened. “Sorry! Shit, let me breathe so I can explain.”

  “You know I love you like a brother, but you also know our family does not appreciate the attention of law enforcement.” Her grip slackened enough to let me inhale again. “So, explain.”

  I gave her the summary. Her hand dropped to her side and she shook her head. “I probably should have contacted you first,” I said. “But I didn’t want to bother you. I know how busy you are. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m never too busy for you and Anna. Especially Anna.”

  Tink repressed a shudder I could feel through our bond. “You know how I feel about that, Becky.”

  “You’ll come around. Now, Bright, what are you going to do to make up for this?” She smiled broadly down at me.

  I looked over my shoulder. She was a good friend, but if I owed her something, her family could call in the debt, and I didn’t want to owe anything to an organized crime family. “Kalil, I’d like you to meet Rebekah Silvatini, heiress of the Silvatini Construction Company. Becky, this is Kalil, of House Asmodeus Intelligence.”

  “Charmed,” Kalil said.

  “Likewise,” Becky replied.

  “So, Kalil, how about we add a line of credit to our expense account for Silvatini. They’ll need replacement equipment and remediation for the damage at the construction site, and it just so happens we have an infrastructure grant or something along those lines available. Right?” I looked up to Becky. “Sound good?”

  “Money doesn’t solve everything,” she said. “But it’ll do for now. I will calculate the losses and send an invoice.”

  “It’s the best we can do right now,” I said.

  She sniffed and walked around me to peer at the map. “It seems you are quite busy. Good morning, Kibs. How are you?”

  The imp offered a hand to Becky, who shook it with a couple of fingers. “Miss Becky, good to see you again. I can’t complain, aside from complaining about Zay being a dumbass as usual.”

  “I understand the feeling.” She tapped on the map. “So, does this have anything to do with the public announcement from the Eternal Conclave? Are you in the middle of everything again, Zay?”

  “You could say that,” I said. This was an interesting opportunity. Becky knew about angels, demons, and magic. She had even dabbled in magic a few times herself. “So, what’s the word on the street? How do people feel about what the Conclave had to say?”

  She shrugged. “Shit’s tense.”

  “Tense?”

  “A lot of people don’t believe or give a damn unless they’ve met one, but no one’s really sure if they have. Paranoia. The smart ones know it doesn’t matter if the guy across the table bleeds red, green, or blue. The dumb ones are terrified. You know how we are.”

  “Fuck that,” Tink snapped. “It does matter. Angels and demons aren’t human, they don’t react like humans, they don’t think like humans. They’re different and if you act like they’re just another regular person, you’re going to get fucked over.”

  I looked over to Kalil. His fingers were flying across the laptop keyboard, obviously not listening to the conversation. “While I’d love to argue about this, I don’t think we have time.”

  “Not starting an argument,” Tink said. “You’re different, demon. I don’t mean better or worse, just different. Most of the time.”

  I let her comment go this time. “Kalil, can you connect the laptop to the TV so we can all watch the summit without crowding around a tiny screen?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  Becky frowned as he unplugged the laptop and headed for the living room. “Summit?”

  “Nathan Kane’s hosting a summit meeting between him and the seven Houses of the Host today,” I said. Her frown turned to
confusion and I clarified. “The leader of the Eternal Conclave. He says they want to help us as we try to get back home.”

  “Which we think is bullshit,” Tink added as we filed into the living room. “Especially after they threatened me.”

  Becky sat on one end of the couch and cracked her knuckles. “Threats are not cool, Anna. I have some free time coming up. Perhaps I’ll have some of my connections look into this problem of yours.”

  “I don’t think your connections have any pull with the Conclave,” Tink said. “But thanks. I appreciate the thought.”

  “The stream is coming up,” Kalil said. He backed away as we all turned our attention to the TV. The video was a bit choppy and grainy, but we could clearly see an octagonal table with most of the seats filled. Two flags flanked the largest seat at the head of the table. One was the UN flag, but the other one was an unfamiliar white flag with some red symbol in the center, obscured by the folds.

  The screen flickered with static, and when it cleared, Nathan Kane stood next to the head chair. I leaned forward. He didn’t seem tall or particularly striking. He wore a suit and conservative tie and looked just like any mid-fifties executive I’d ever seen. I’d pass him on the street without a second glance. Mages of his level probably cultivated a neutral look very carefully.

  My phone buzzed with Opheran’s unique tone. “Yes, my Prince?”

  “You are watching this, Baron?”

  “I am, my Prince.” I frowned. If he was addressing me by rank, other high-ranking demons were probably present on the call. “I’m here with Kalil, Tink, and Becky Silvatini.”

  “Excellent. I have brought you into this conference call for your insights into human magic. I am pleased at your foresight to have trustworthy human advisors with you.” I repressed a chuckle. “Please set your phone on speaker, but mute it unless addressed or have something essential to add.”

  “As you command,” I said.

  “Opheran sounds weird,” Becky commented. “Too formal.”

  “He can’t be familiar with me in front of a bunch of other demons. I already stand out too much.”