The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “I’m going to die anyways,” the man replied, flopping back down on the floor. “So why not? Fuck you and the goat you rode in on.”

  “We’re not going to kill you,” I said. “Chrissy, listen to me. Tink’s right when she says you get the easy way or the hard way. Either way you’re going to talk to us, but if they force you the hard way, bits and pieces of you are coming with it. You won’t be the same afterwards and you might end up wishing you were dead. I can only think of one mage who deserves their mind ripped apart, and it’s not Kane.”

  Chrissy turned her head, not facing me, but not facing away from me either. “You’re the most dangerous monster of all,” she said. “You’re the monster who looks like a human, talks like a human, even thinks he’s a human, but isn’t human.”

  “I’m half human, remember? Does my other half cancel that out entirely?”

  “We don’t care,” Warren snapped. “It doesn’t matter if your daddy raped some poor little girl who ended up keeping you.”

  “Actually, my dad’s the human and mom’s the demon, and it was very consensual. I have a great relationship with both sides of the family. Reunions can get a little weird though.” He didn’t laugh, but Caleb let out a brief snicker. “But I wasn’t talking to you, pissant. I was talking to Chrissy. You came to us before everything really went down. Tink actually let you hug her, which still shocks me, for the record. Even if you don’t trust me, even if you hate me and think I’m a monster, you know you can trust her. You know she’s doing the right thing.”

  “And now you’re trying to appeal to morality,” Chrissy replied. “You’re even less convincing than Anna.”

  “I’m not appealing to your morals or ethics. I’m appealing to your friendship, your relationship to her, how you know her better than calling her names like your tiny dicked buddy there. Listen to her. Just listen.”

  Chrissy’s head turned back to Tink, who pounced on the chance. “Chrissy, I promise you, I won’t let them kill or hurt you or anything if you work with us. And if I promise, these two promise too, so whoever wants to get to you has to get through all three Gatekeepers first, and that’s a tall fucking order.”

  “It’s actually a short one in your case.”

  “Shut up, demon, I’ll stab your ass off. Chrissy, come on. I give a damn about you, and you know I don’t give a damn about most people. You were always good to me. I’ve missed you. Let me help you here. I promise you, no one’s going to get through us, not even Nathan Kane himself.”

  “Now that’s a tall order,” Warren said with a sneer.

  Chrissy didn’t say anything for a moment. “Do you promise you’ll keep me safe from Nathan?” she asked in a small voice.

  “You bitch!” Warren jumped up and kicked Chrissy in the side before any of us could react. She crumpled sideways and cried out in pain. Before he could kick her again, Tink tapped a rune and electricity arced into him, dropping him the ground with a slight smell of ozone hanging in the air.

  “I’m breaking the circle,” Tink said, giving us half a second to prepare, and then stepped through it and pulled Chrissy out. As soon as she got clear of the circle, she pointed to Caleb. “Cover her. She does anything, you smack her silly. Some mages can draw runes with their fucking tongues.”

  “I’m not going to do anything,” Chrissy said as Caleb stood nearby, sword manifested but pointing at the ground. The House guards near the entrance were also on high alert. “I can barely breathe. Shit. I think he broke a rib.”

  “Demon, help me re-establish the circle.” I walked around and knelt next to her as she retraced the lines she had walked across, then held her knife out toward me. I sliced my hand across it to give her a few drops of ichor. She closed the circuit again and let it power back up. “Now, get her to a seat and I’ll draw one around her there.”

  “I thought you promised me you’d keep me safe?” Chrissy’s breathing was ragged. A broken rib was dangerous for a human. We’d have to make sure there were no other internal injuries. “Anna?”

  Caleb carried her over to the House Asmodeus table and gently placed her on a seat. Tink didn’t respond to the question until she’d completed a quick circle. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe,” she finally said. “But I’m keeping everyone else safe from you, too. If you cast anything, it’s getting mirrored between all four of us.”

  “So I could kill all three of you at the same time?” She smiled. “You’re putting a lot of trust in me.”

  “I don’t think you’d risk defying Kane if you weren’t serious,” Tink said. “That guy pisses me off. He called me useless. Fuck him. But he still sends shivers down my spine.”

  “You met him? And you’re still alive?”

  “Yeah. Long story.” Tink looked like she was about to launch into it, but then the chamber door opened, scattering the guards. The Princes of Amon, Leviathan, and Asmodeus filed in, followed by various advisors.

  When Opheran saw us sitting at the table, he stopped short. “It appears we have a guest,” he noted. “Last I saw, she was resting inside the circle you were drawing.”

  “She’s my guest,” Tink announced. “She’s agreed to help us willingly, so she’s not going to get her mind fucked with. I gave her my word.”

  The Princes of the other Houses smiled and chuckled, but Opheran nodded. “House Asmodeus will abide by your sworn word. She is your responsibility.”

  I caught a smirk from the High Prince of Leviathan as he sat down and a frown from his junior Prince, but the two Princes of House Amon seemed more thoughtful. Opheran sat down right next to Chrissy, who seemed a little tense about his proximity. “I am High Prince Opheran of House Asmodeus,” he introduced himself. “I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

  “Christina Peters, master mage previously of the Eternal Conclave, now a freelance mage,” she replied. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”

  “So polite,” Opheran murmured as I sat on his opposite side. “I’m unsure I’ve heard this story, Isaiah.”

  “It’s part of the Azriphel epic.”

  “Ah.”

  House Leviathan’s High Prince knocked on his table. “Let’s proceed with this. By now, the other Houses know and will be arriving soon. If we want to get information before they interfere, we must go quickly. Is it agreed this prisoner is the collective prisoner of our three Houses equally, none more than the others, and we shall question him as a group?”

  “House Amon agrees.”

  “House Asmodeus agrees.”

  Caleb was standing behind Chrissy. When he cleared his throat, attention snapped to him. “Forgive me, but the Choir did play a part in this operation.”

  “Perhaps we should send the Choirboy out,” suggested the Amon High Prince. “We don’t want to offend his innocent eyes.”

  “Offense? Far be it,” Caleb replied. “The prisoner offered insult to my very person. My only request is for him to be released into the custody of the Choir after you’ve finished questioning him.” He smiled pleasantly. “We may have ways of extracting additional information from him.”

  I shuddered. Sometimes, I forgot my friend was an old, old veteran of the First Celestial War. He’d seen and done things I didn’t want to know about. His statement provoked a dark chuckle from the High Prince of Amon. “I forgot who I was speaking to for a moment. I see no issue with the Choir’s request.”

  “Nor do we,” said Leviathan.

  “Let it be agreed, then,” Opheran said. “Alas, the prisoner seems to be incapable of communicating at the moment. Anna, is there something you can do to wake him?”

  She stepped away from our table and touched a rune on the outer ring of the circle. Magic infused the circle and he was starting to sit up by the time she sat back down. “Fucking traitors,” he growled, looking around the chamber until he spotted our table. “I hope you both die slow.”

  “Prisoner, I am the High Prince of House Amon of the Infernal Host. I
offer you once, the choice to cooperate and answer our questions. No harm shall come to you if you agree.” Their High Prince stood and stared down the man in the circle.

  “House Amon can suck my dick.” He flipped off their table.

  “Prisoner, I am the High Prince of House Leviathan of the Infernal Host. I offer you twice, the choice to cooperate and answer our questions. Your safety is assured if you agree.” House Leviathan’s High Prince rose as well.

  “House Leviathan can suck my ass.” He repeated his gesture.

  Opheran stood. “Prisoner, I am the High Prince of House Asmodeus of the Infernal Host. I offer you thrice, the choice to cooperate and answer our questions.” He smiled widely. “Please refuse.”

  “Of course I refuse. Fuck every last one of you.” He made sure to give everyone in the room the finger, pacing around the circle as he did. “I’ll die before giving you monsters any answers.”

  “Shall we, my Princes?” Opheran asked. “Three times was he asked, and three times did he refuse.”

  “I shall enjoy breaking him.” The High Prince of Amon vaulted over his table, losing his human form in the process, his second Prince following. “Come, my Princes. We don’t have much time.”

  Opheran and the Leviathans stood, all of them approaching the circle, all of them transforming into their demonic forms. Warren retreated to the circle of the circle, his hands clenched at his sides, his head swiveling back and forth. I would have bet on him pissing his pants at the approach of five enormously powerful demons in their true forms, except he probably didn’t have a lot left in his bladder. “I’m not even in the circle and I’m a little intimidated,” Tink said.

  “I’m terrified,” Chrissy said. Caleb remained silent. I silently agreed with Chrissy.

  Several seconds passed in silence. The man’s eyes widened and he spun around. “Not that easy,” he said. “I’m not as weak as you think.”

  “Of course not, Warren Blackburn,” Opheran said. “We were simply exploring your limits. This is where we begin.”

  The mage screamed in response, a raw howl of agony torn straight from his chest. He grabbed his head and dropped to the floor as if he had been clotheslined. The Princes turned away and walked back to their seats, but he kept screaming, a fresh ripping shriek tearing out with every breath, even after they sat. “What did you do to him?” Tink whispered in one of the lulls. I looked over to see both her and Chrissy gone pale. Even Caleb looked a little lighter.

  “The collective suggestion of five demons of our stature is not one to take lightly,” Opheran said. “He resists our suggestion and suffers. Obedience will be rewarded. If his will is as strong as he claimed, it may take a few minutes for him to break.”

  “Will it kill him if he resists long enough?” Chrissy asked.

  Opheran shrugged. “Probably not, but his voice will go first. If that happens, we’ll heal his throat and let him go on.”

  “That’s torture!”

  Opheran didn’t even blink at her outburst. “Three times he was offered mercy, and three times did he refuse. Our traditions then allowed us the freedom to act as we see fit. We need what’s in his mind, and we need it now. If we had more time, perhaps we could break him more slowly and less painfully.” He gave Chrissy a smile full of sharp teeth. “Though after what your Conclave did, I suspect we would still do this.”

  “Please, stop!” Words were barely coherent through his screams. “No! I won’t talk!” Another shriek of pain burst through.

  “He breaks,” observed House Amon. “Speak with us, human, and the pain will stop. Give us information, and you shall feel pleasure. Lie to us, and the pain you feel now will seem slight.”

  It took another pair of screaming fits before he sat up, panting for breath, sweat soaking his entire body. “I’ll talk,” he rasped. “Please.”

  “Are you certain?” House Amon asked.

  “Yes!”

  “You won’t lie to us?”

  “No!”

  Their High Prince leaned forward. “Do not test us, human. If you knowingly lie to us, you will regret it. Do you understand?”

  He swallowed hard. “Can I ask something first?”

  “Go on.”

  “Are you going to kill me?”

  “No.” House Amon leaned back and waved a hand lazily back and forth. “You will be held as a prisoner of war until it ends, one way or the other.”

  “As long as you keep me here,” he rasped, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. “I can’t ever go home. Not while Grandmaster Kane lives.”

  I turned my head to look at Chrissy. She was trembling in her seat. They were both terrified of Kane, as much as they were terrified of dying, maybe more. “Very well,” House Amon said. “Tell us what your role in the Conclave is and how it relates to the war.”

  “I am a teacher of practical magic. I don’t have a direct role in the war.” He winced and shook his head. “Unless so ordered,” he added.

  “What did you do with the prisoners held in your school?” asked the High Prince of Leviathan.

  The mage looked down at the ground. “We questioned them.”

  “Forcefully.”

  “Yes. We tortured them. Like you’re doing to me.”

  “And?”

  He hesitated before answering. “We used them in training for practical spellcasting.”

  “As targets?”

  “As demonstrations.”

  “Did you, personally, raise your hand against helpless members of my House?”

  “Yes.” I couldn’t sense a single bit of remorse in his response.

  The High Prince of Leviathan stood, fists clenched. “Dominion, I regret our agreement. Giving him to your people is far too good for him.”

  Caleb nodded. “I understand what you mean. We can discuss his eventual disposition later. Perhaps we can negotiate an acceptable compromise.”

  “That would be appreciated.” The High Prince sat back down. “You are fortunate, human. The cruelty of angels is the least of what you deserve.”

  Opheran stood next. “Is what was done to them the standard disposition of prisoners taken by your Conclave?”

  “For the most part, yes. If we don’t think they have any information of use, we skip the questioning part.”

  “Is there a record of prisoners your forces have taken?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you have access to it?”

  “Yes, some of it. I haven’t looked in a couple of days. The headmaster took care of the logistics. I just checked to see when we would be getting new prisoners in since it would affect my class scheduling.”

  Opheran leaned forward, putting his weight on the table. “Think carefully on your records. Do you hold prisoners from each House?”

  “I think so?”

  “How many Houses are there?”

  The man frowned. “Seven? Why ask me?”

  Opheran sat back down and gestured toward Amon. While their Prince asked questions, he leaned toward me. “They have prisoners from House Lucifer.”

  “Hopefully whatever records they have can help us track down where they’re being held.”

  House Leviathan stood. I cursed myself for completely missing Amon’s questions. “Where does Nathan Kane command from?”

  “The headquarters of the Eternal Conclave.” Sweat beaded up on the man’s forehead.

  “Don’t be evasive,” snapped Leviathan. “Where is the headquarters?”

  “The last I heard, he was in Juneau, Alaska.”

  “That’s where the Conclave’s headquarters is?”

  The mage shook his head and winced. “Grandmaster Kane is the Conclave. The headquarters is wherever he is. I certainly don’t know where he goes or what he does. I don’t know if anyone does.”

  “Interesting,” Leviathan said, gesturing to our table.

  One of the guards at the doorway stepped forward. “My Princes, the Pr
inces of Houses Mammon, Beelzebub, and Belphagor have arrived in Camp Asmodeus.”

  “Delay them as long as possible,” Opheran ordered. He turned back to the prisoner. “Your prisoner records. Do you track names and titles of your prisoners?”

  “Where they’re given, yes,” he replied.

  “Do you have prisoners of the nobility of each House?”

  He frowned. Long seconds ticked on while he thought. “I can’t remember clearly, but no, I think we only have nobles of five or six of the Houses.”

  Opheran slumped back into his chair, just as the doors of the chamber burst open. The Princes of the other Houses stormed in, shouting all together, an incoherent barrage of threats and epithets. While they shouted, Chrissy leaned forward. “He’s wrong,” she said, just loud enough for our table to hear.

  “What do you mean?” Opheran asked.

  “We do have noble prisoners of each House. I know it for a fact.”

  “Even of House Lucifer?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know this?”

  She turned her head and met my eyes. Her entire body tensed and I could see rage in her eyes. “Azriphel is still alive.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Tink hissed as Chrissy’s words sunk in. “I hit him full force with an amplified spell after we all got blown into Purgatory. It should have been more than enough to kill him. What the fuck.”

  The realization hit me as Chrissy’s eyes drilled into me. “You know he’s alive because the suggestion’s still in effect,” I said. “He placed a suggestion for you to kill me.”

  “It’s been in effect for years.” She looked away and turned in her chair so she didn’t have to see me. “I had heard rumors after I woke up. A high-ranking demon imprisoned in one of our most secure facilities. He was being used for information, experiments, studies. I made the connection myself, long before they told me explicitly. Zay, I hate you. I can’t help but hate you. I want you to die, I want to kill you, even though I know it’s his influence, not my own. A demonic suggestion lasts forever, doesn’t it?”

  I looked to Opheran. “My Prince, how long would the power of a strong Duke such as Azriphel last? I never thought a suggestion could last for so many years with such strength.” I was kicking myself for missing all the signs. The mere existence of the suggestion implied he was still alive. None of us had thought Chrissy survived the collapse of my old apartment building. If we had found her years ago, and discovered the suggestion still affecting her, things would be so much different right now.