The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “But in a good way.”

  Tink hushed us. “It’s starting. Shut up.”

  Seven of the eight seats of the table were filled, each House having brought an aide who stood behind their representative. Nathan Kane was alone at the head. “Our representative is Duke Shalbaz,” Opheran announced to the call. “He has authorization to negotiate a peaceful resolution between the Host and the Conclave, if it is their true intention.”

  On the screen, Kane stood. “Good afternoon, esteemed colleagues of the Infernal Host. I greet you, representatives of Houses Amon, Leviathan, Belphagor, Asmodeus, Mammon, and Beelzebub. I also greet the Malefic Consortium. Lastly, I greet House Lucifer in absentia. It is my hope we accomplish great things today.”

  The House Belphagor representative stood. I recognized him immediately. “I am High Prince Zenoth of House Belphagor, and I speak for the Host this day. Allow me to introduce our representatives.”

  While he went around the table, I unmuted the call. “My Prince, Belphagor sent their High Prince?”

  “They did, against my strong advice,” Opheran replied.

  I muted the phone again and shook my head. “Belphagor made a bad decision.”

  “What do you mean?” Becky asked.

  “Because we’re pretty sure every demon in that room is going to die today,” Tink replied. “The Conclave’s already caused trouble. Shit, they instigated the war with the angels a couple years ago.”

  “But what do they want?”

  “Hopefully we find out today,” I said.

  Kane stood again. “Thank you, High Prince Zenoth. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Nathan Kane, Grandmaster of the Eternal Conclave. I am the eighteenth Grandmaster of our organization and have held my current position since 2001.”

  I looked to Tink. “Is Grandmaster his rank as a mage, or a title?”

  “Both, I think.”

  He continued speaking. “I shall proceed with the agenda of this summit. Forgive my lack of formality. Our purpose for gathering today is to expedite the return of the Host to its native realm. In other words, we are looking to send you back to Hell in a hurry.” I couldn’t help but snicker. There were smiles and laughs all around. “The Eternal Conclave will freely contribute its resources to this cause.”

  “Forgive me for interrupting, Grandmaster Kane.” High Prince Zenoth rose again. “It was our belief we would negotiate assistance from your Conclave, not simply receive it. While we appreciate your generosity, allow me to be blunt. You’ve already created distrust and hostility between our people. What’s the catch?”

  Kane smiled, a smile large enough to be visible on the shitty camera. “The catch, High Prince Zenoth, is that we shall expedite your Host’s departure from this world by reducing the number of demons requiring evacuation.”

  There was a moment of silence as his words sunk in. In the blink of an eye, demons shifted to their native forms, and before I could blink again, each one slumped to the ground. Zenoth stood an extra couple of seconds before toppling backwards. Kane sat at the head of the table. If he had moved or cast a spell, I had completely missed it. The bastard was fast.

  “I called it,” I said. “I fucking called it.”

  “You did,” Tink agreed.

  Kane looked directly to the camera. “Greetings, citizens of Earth. You have just witnessed the beginning of our liberation. For thousands of years, creatures calling themselves angels and demons have manipulated humanity. For centuries, they have taken advantage of our weaknesses, they have murdered us at their whim, they have started wars and toppled governments for their sick amusement, and they have seized power rightfully belonging to us. Today, we shall rise and declare with one united voice: No longer!”

  “He’s not completely wrong,” Tink observed.

  “The feed from the camera has gone public, my Prince!” called an unfamiliar voice. “They recorded it and they’re playing it from the beginning! It’s being picked up by all major channels!”

  “The Eternal Conclave has spent hundreds of years studying our enemy and learning how to fight them. My fellow citizens of Earth, magic runs in all of our veins, and each and every one of you can learn how to use it. Yes, magic. This is what allows us to face our enemies on equal footing. Today, the Eternal Conclave shall open its doors and begin teaching magic to all who wish to learn.”

  He paused and his tone dropped to a deep, threatening bass. “To the angels and demons watching, beware. Today marks the beginning of the end for you. We know who you are. We know where to find you. We know the blood in your veins is not red. Today, you shall learn to fear the Eternal Conclave. Today, you shall learn to fear humanity. Today, our war of liberation begins.”

  The camera feed flickered to a static symbol. I recognized the new sigil on the screen as the unfamiliar flag I’d seen next to Kane. The central symbol of Earth was similar to the flag of the United Nations, but it was blood red on a stark white background. Instead of olive branches, there were crossed swords behind the Earth. Below, a banner showed words in Latin. “Potentia est in sanguinem,” I read.

  “In blood lies power,” Tink said. “The Conclave has their very own flag. How cute.”

  “Baron Bright, are you still on the line?” Opheran’s voice rang out through my phone. I flinched. He was using his business tone.

  “I’m here,” I said. “So, we’re at war again?”

  “We are,” he confirmed. “As this line contains a majority of our House Council, I affirm quorum. I understand this is unorthodox, but so is this situation. Does anyone oppose?” Silence. “Good. Baron Isaiah Bright, you are a halfblood, but you have shown great loyalty to our House through your service. Your advice regarding humanity and their magic has always been an asset. Today it seems more important than ever. With this in mind, I name you my special advisor, and I bestow the title and responsibility of Marquis on you. You will report directly to me. Do any oppose this?”

  I opened my mouth and Tink punched me. Opheran continued after the briefest of pauses. “Good. Marquis Bright, I give you the authority to act independently to discover as much as you can about this Eternal Conclave. Provide updates as often as possible. House Intelligence will support you with any available assets.”

  “My Prince, what of our search for House Lucifer?” I asked.

  “The search is no longer a priority. Continue to coordinate with House Leviathan, but your first priority is to assist with our war efforts.”

  “Yes, my Prince.”

  “Good.” Opheran paused. The silence stretched on for a few moments before he spoke again. “As the High Prince of House Asmodeus, I hereby declare we are in a state of war with the Eternal Conclave. As of today, it is now open season on human mages.”

  “You can’t do that!” Tink burst out. “Didn’t you hear what Kane just said? They’re going to train anyone and everyone to use magic! You’re declaring open season on all humans!”

  “My Prince, she raises a valid argument. All members of the Eternal Conclave may be mages, but not all mages are necessarily part of the Conclave,” I said.

  Several other voices on the line spoke up at the same time, reducing it to garble. I could sense Tink’s tension. We didn’t even have a good way to detect who was a mage and who wasn’t, and I knew some of our Dukes didn’t have any scruples about killing humans out of hand.

  “Then what can we do?” Opheran roared, silencing all other voices. “If we do not fight back, we will die, one by one!”

  “There is one solution that comes to mind,” said another unfamiliar voice on the line. “Immediate withdrawal to Camp Asmodeus.”

  Camp Asmodeus was our headquarters in Hell. A contingent of House demons was working on building a city there, but it was years away from completion. The wreckage of our world and its natural ruggedness made it difficult to support any significant number of demons without support from Earth. The portal network would still let us raid and bring thro
ugh supplies, but scheduled deliveries could be too dangerous to continue. Another unfamiliar voice spoke up as I considered the idea. “My Prince, we cannot simply surrender our possessions and positions to humans! Running away to Hell will leave us as nothing but savages!”

  “Better to be a living savage than dead on Earth!”

  “Enough,” Opheran growled. “Unilateral retreat is not an option. We will not abandon our brethren. House Asmodeus will see as many demons to safety as we can.”

  “Then what shall we do, my Prince?”

  “We will execute Plan Mallorca.”

  “The hell is Plan Mallorca?” Tink whispered.

  I looked to Kalil, who brought it up on screen before I asked. Plan Mallorca was a contingency strategy for an orderly withdrawal to Hell in the absence of central authority. Our Dukes had orders to consolidate our people within their regions for mutual defense, and to retreat non-combatants to Hell as soon as possible. Lower ranks had similar orders on a smaller scale, moving down in a cell system.

  I frowned and leaned toward the phone. “My Prince, this plan assumes the loss of central leadership in the House. Do you anticipate something happening to you?”

  “Yes,” Opheran said. “It is reasonable to assume the Conclave knows who I am and where I am. I’m sure they’re already on the way.”

  A chill went down my spine. As he had said yesterday, he wasn’t planning to win. “You should be the first to go to Hell, then,” Tink said. “Get yourself to safety so you can coordinate the war from a safe place.”

  “I’m no coward, Anna. I won’t ask my House to take risks I won’t take myself.”

  “It’s not cowardice when you know you’re going to die if you just sit there and wait for it!”

  “You never let me get away with that,” I mumbled.

  “Shut up, demon,” she snapped at me. “Opheran, this plan of yours sucks. You’re dividing responsibility in the face of the enemy, and you’re clustering your people? Mages can cast a spell on a group almost as easily as on a single person. You’re going to get a lot of your people killed.”

  I winced. The Dukes were probably having a collective fit. Opheran grumbled something in demonic before replying to her. “Anna, a mage cannot kill a group of demons so easily.”

  “You just saw it happen!”

  “Then what would you suggest?” he asked. “You are a mage. What would be the most effective defense against mages?”

  I looked to Tink and she nodded to me to take over. “We can’t group up anywhere on Earth. Move Council meetings at Camp Asmodeus. Have our people retreat in small groups at irregular times on short notice, taking as much with them as they can. Food, supplies, anything of value. As long as we have communications, we can stay coordinated.”

  “As long as we continue to trust the imps,” Opheran said. I looked at Kalil. His eyebrows rose in surprise, making me glad I wasn’t the only one surprised. Our High Prince was skeptical of the Consortium. Bad sign.

  “Then all we need to do is lie low until we get an order to move to Camp Asmodeus,” I finished. “If anyone’s attacked, retreat to the Camp immediately.”

  “This is cowardice,” snarled one of the unfamiliar voices. “My Prince, we are House Asmodeus! We know humans the best of all Houses. We cannot simply react to them. We must act and force them to the defensive!”

  “How are you going to force them to do anything?” I asked.

  “Simple, halfblood. Mages are as susceptible to our suggestions as any other human, yes?”

  I shook my head. “Yes, but spells exist to detect suggestions and prevent them from taking hold. My partner has been able to create simple wards against mental effects on her own. If she’s done it, the Conclave’s done it too.”

  “Even so, a light suggestion to known mages to discover their comrades will provide us with targets.”

  I wanted to argue, but Opheran cut me off. “Assume any mages declaring themselves publicly will be protected from suggestion. Can we discover mages who are not public?”

  “That is the purpose of House Intelligence and our special advisor, is it not?” The speaker sounded all too pleased with himself.

  Another unfamiliar voice spoke up. “Our special advisor seems to be all too human at times like this.” Her voice was sickly sweet.

  “I don’t want to kill innocents,” I snapped.

  “They will have no such restraint,” she snapped back.

  “Enough.” Opheran’s tone was back to business. “I have made a decision. We shall incorporate both plans of action. Orders regarding an orderly retreat to Camp Asmodeus will go out within the hour, and I will withdraw personally to coordinate our war efforts. Marquis Bright, you will coordinate with House Intelligence to assist them in identifying Conclave mages, and House Intelligence will provide those as targets to our military forces. Minimize collateral damage, but the safety of our people is the priority. If a thousand humans must die so one demon may live, so be it.”

  Tink drew herself up, but I tapped the mute button before she could rail against Opheran’s order. “That’s as good as we’re going to get,” I said quietly.

  “A lot of innocent people are going to get killed!”

  I nodded. “The Conclave started this war. The blood is on their hands.”

  Chapter Six

  I didn’t get much sleep for the next week. Our map of the world showing House Lucifer activity had Conclave pins added to it as well. The Conclave pins outnumbered the Lucifer pins after the second day and overwhelmed them after the third. Kalil and I sent out update after update, targeting known mages and exploring their connections even as they did the same to us.

  Each time someone knocked on the front door, everyone in the house froze. The Conclave had to know where we were. The fact they hadn’t attacked yet had me on edge. Tink spent her free time adding new wards to the house defenses. Whenever they did come for us, they’d have some work to do just to step foot on her property.

  Whenever I stepped away from the table, I found myself drawn to the news. Congress had passed a resolution declaring the country to be at war with both the Host and Choir. The President mobilized the National Guard. The media talked about martial law. Videos of soldiers firing at shadowy figures surfaced and neither Tink nor I could tell if the shadows were illusionary or real.

  Outside of the US, the reaction varied only slightly. More religious countries openly declared inquisitions and investigated all supernatural claims. Totalitarian regimes didn’t bother with declarations of war or inquisitions, they simply ordered all of their citizens to submit to a blood test. The Conclave wasn’t dumb. There was a simple way to determine if someone was human or not, and they spread it to the world.

  More telling, the media never showed a single atrocity inflicted by humans, only atrocities they attributed to demons or occasionally angels. Any influence we had on the media had been systematically wiped out on the first day. There had been a few declarations of neutrality at the beginning of the week, but their positions changed within days as the public called for our blood. Even the Swiss, traditionally neutral, shut their doors. There wasn’t a single safe haven on Earth for us now.

  “I think the arrogance of most demons has been shaken by now,” I said one evening.

  “You think? I kept telling you to never underestimate us.” Tink was hugging her knees and staring at the TV.

  “I know better,” I said. “The rest of them don’t.”

  Grace was sitting next to her sister. She put a hand on Tink’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll get through this.”

  “I don’t understand why the Conclave is doing this.” Tink looked to me, her eyes sunken and dark. “Tell me, why are they acting as horribly as any demon? They don’t care about all the innocents accused and murdered out of hand. They don’t care about collateral damage. They don’t care about businesses, governments, and organizations collapsing. They just don’t seem to care. Why?” />
  “I wish I knew for sure,” I said. The TV showed another report, showing a purported attack on a National Guard airbase. Hellfire streaked through the sky and struck the ground with eye-searing brightness. This one was probably real. “But I can make a solid guess. Kane sees the chance to be the one to save humanity from this collapse.”

  “That’s horrible. He’s the one starting the collapse!”

  “Not in the eyes of the masses.”

  Tink shuddered. “I still can’t understand why.”

  “Can’t, or won’t? He wants power.”

  “I know, but why?” She let go of her knees and bounced to her feet. “Look at all the shit he’s triggered! Why? Does he really think having power is worth all of this death and destruction?”

  I looked up at her as she clenched her fists. “Everyone thinks they’re acting for the best of reasons. Whatever his reasons are, he thinks this is worth it.”

  “So he doesn’t value human lives?”

  “Maybe he does,” Grace said quietly. We both looked at her. “That might be even scarier.”

  Before I could give her idea any deep consideration, a light knock on the front door snapped my attention away. Tink’s knife was already in her hand. “Wards didn’t detect any Conclave magic,” she said. “And that wasn’t loud enough to be Becky.”

  I nodded and headed for the door, transforming one finger into a claw in case I needed hellfire in a hurry. Peering through the peephole, I let out a sigh of relief as I recognized the woman standing on the porch, one hand on her hip. “Just Kyla,” I called as I opened the door for her. “Come on in.”

  “Just Kyla?” she repeated as she brushed against me. “I’m almost hurt, dear Isaiah. Or do you prefer Marquis now?”

  “Just Zay,” I said. “Please, just Zay. I never asked for a promotion.”

  She smiled and leaned in. “Remember, now you outrank me, so you can command me. You could order me to do anything you wanted. Anything at all.”

  I cleared my throat and forced my blood to flow evenly throughout my body instead of pooling in any one particular area. “What brings you here today, Baroness? It’s dangerous to be by yourself right now.”