Necessary Evil

by Donald Hanley

“That’s still creepy,” Melissa said, shaking her head.

  Mrs. Kendricks cleared her throat. “Well, at least that’s taken care of,” she said. “Now we just have to figure out how to keep Lilith from, um –” She searched for the right words.

  “Killing me?” I suggested. Mrs. Kendricks winced but she nodded apologetically.

  “Dara, how long do you think it would take Lilith to convince another demon lord to come after the Stone?”

  “Who can say?” Daraxandriel replied, letting her shoulders rise and fall. “She needs must overcome their rightful fear of our Dread Lord, yet the lords of Hell are naught if not ambitious. They will flock to her call.”

  “They’ll stop listening to her if we just kill everybody she sends,” Susie predicted, flicking her wand to punctuate her point. “She’ll have to give up sooner or later.”

  “Killing demons is a lot harder than you think,” Prescott argued. “We barely defeated Bellaxragor and we took an incredible risk doing that.” He gave Mrs. Kendricks an accusing look, which she ignored.

  “Maybe the others will be pushovers,” Susie countered. “Dara, who’s the most powerful demon lord in Hell?”

  “My Dread Lord, certes,” Daraxandriel replied, as if she wondered why there would be any debate about that.

  “Okay, so if he’s a ten,” Susie raised her hand up as high as she could reach, “and an imp is a one,” she dropped it to knee level, “what would Bellagragargle be?”

  “Bellaxragor,” Prescott corrected her.

  “Whatever.”

  Daraxandriel frowned as she considered that and finally held her hand at chin level. “Six, prayhap?” she said hesitantly. “The powers of demon lords are so varied, ‘tis hard to compare them.”

  “Bellaxragor was just happenstance,” Mrs. Kendricks pointed out. “Lilith didn’t choose him, she just used him because he happened to be there. Surely she’ll find someone stronger next time.”

  “But it’ll take her longer to talk them into it, won’t it?” Stacy argued. “They have more to lose if something goes wrong.”

  “Maybe she’ll go for quantity over quality and send a thousand imps after Peter instead,” Susie suggested hopefully. She flicked her wand at the trees lining the property. “Fuge, fuge, fuge!” None of the trees ran for their lives or vanished in a sulphurous puff of smoke.

  “One imp or ten thousand,” Daraxandriel shook her head, “it matters not. None have the strength to wrest the Stone from its rightful owner. ‘Twould require a demon lord puissant enough to slay Peter Simon Collins with a single stroke and claim the Stone ere it revives him.”

  Olivia reappeared at my elbow, her tangibility restored once more. “Aren’t there any stronger witches you can call?” she asked worriedly. “Someone who can actually beat a demon lord? I mean, you’re a demon hunter, aren’t you?” she asked Prescott. “There have to be others like you, right?”

  “Of course,” he frowned. “Agent Shelby and Agent Singh will be here tomorrow.”

  “Are they better than you?” Susie asked pointedly. Prescott’s frown deepened but he shook his head. “So who is?”

  “Agent Morgan,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll contact her and see how soon she can get here.”

  “What’s she doing in England anyway?” I asked. “The FBI doesn’t have jurisdiction there.”

  “She’s there as a consultant, that’s all. Our counterparts in London have a bit of a mystery on their hands, I gather, but I don’t know the details. In any event,” Prescott went on, “there’s not much we can do until tomorrow. Once the rest of the team is here, we’ll assess the situation and come up with a plan of action.”

  “While the rest of us do what, exactly?” Mrs. Prescott asked him, her eyes narrowing.

  “Well, nothing,” he said, surprised. “Just stay put and we’ll take care of it. That’s what we do.”

  “I’m not just going to stand aside and watch while people I care about are in danger!”

  “There’s nothing you can do, Arial,” he argued. “You’ll just be putting yourself at risk for no reason.”

  “Oh, really?” she said coldly. “And what about Bellaxragor, hmm? Should we have just stood aside and let him kill Peter?”

  “He did kill Peter!”

  “And we killed him. Or would you rather he wiped out the entire town while your team got its act together?”

  Prescott blew out his breath in frustration. “That’s not the same and you know it.”

  “It is the same! We don’t know when and where Lilith is going to attack next. We have to be ready! All of us,” she insisted, sweeping her arm around, “not just you.”

  “You’re not trained demon hunters,” he argued. “You could die.”

  “So could you. We’re witches, Ryan,” she said quietly. “This is what witches do.”

  He shook his head doggedly. “I lost you eighteen years ago, Arial. I don’t want to lose you again.”

  She took a step back, looking shocked. “Is that what this is about? You feel guilty about leaving me so now you want to pack me up in bubble wrap to keep me safe?”

  “No, I just meant –”

  “You broke my heart, Ryan,” she told him tightly. “I moved on when you didn’t come back and I built a good life for myself. I raised our –” She caught herself just in time. “I raised my daughter to be strong and proud and independent. I’m teaching the other girls in the coven to be the same. I don’t need you to protect me anymore. I just thought we could –” Her voice caught in her throat and she shook her head vehemently. “Excuse me,” she whispered. She hurried to the back door and banged her way into the house.

  “Arial, wait!” Prescott tried to follow her but Stacy blocked his way.

  “I think you’ve said enough, Agent Prescott,” she said coldly. “Maybe you should leave.”

  For a moment, it looked as though Prescott was going to push her aside, but he bit back his retort and slapped his thigh in frustration. He turned on his heel and stalked away around the corner of the house, snatching up Merlin as he passed. A few moments later, I heard the roar of the SUV’s engine and the squeal of its tires as he left. Stacy let her breath out slowly and threw the rest of us an embarrassed look before disappearing into the house after her mother.

  Susie was the first one to break the awkward silence. “So what’s the plan, then?” she asked. “I want to hunt demons. Fuge, fuge, fuge.” She attacked the empty chairs this time, with no discernable results.

  “We should go,” I sighed. “They have a few things they need to work out.”

  “No kidding,” Melissa muttered. “And I thought our relationship was complicated.”

  We hiked around the house to the front and I unlocked the van with the key fob. Susie immediately shouted “Shotgun!” and raced for the passenger door. Melissa pelted after her but she was still wearing her heels from work and Susie beat her easily, jumping in and slamming the door in her face. Melissa thumped her fist on the window in frustration and grudgingly climbed into the middle row behind the driver’s seat.

  “Are they always that competitive?” Olivia wondered.

  “It’s just force of habit. Nobody wants to sit in the back of the Mustang.”

  “That’s for sure,” she grumbled. Daraxandriel claimed the other middle seat before she could make her move, though, relegating her to the back row again. At least she had plenty of room back there.

  I climbed in behind the wheel and started up the van. “Buckle up, everyone.” I shifted into gear, checking the mirrors automatically, and then I did a double-take. A small furry shape with baleful yellow eyes was sitting on the sidewalk behind us. “Did Agent Prescott leave Merlin behind?” I asked doubtfully.

  Everyone else craned their necks to see. “Prayhap Sir Prescott left him here to keep watch over Dame Kendricks’ abode,” Daraxandriel suggested.

  “Mrs. Kendricks doesn’t need to be guarded,” I argued. “Her whole house is warded against demons.”
>
  Olivia knelt on the seat to look out the back window. “He’s not watching the house,” she said uneasily. “He’s watching us.”

  “Should we take him with us?” Melissa asked.

  “Easier said than done,” I warned her. “Cats and demons don’t get along very well.”

  “Or ghosts,” Olivia chimed in.

  “Or ghosts,” I agreed. “Somebody send a text to Mrs. Kendricks and let her know. No, on second thought, send it to Stacy. Mrs. Kendricks has enough on her mind right now.” Melissa nodded somberly and pulled out her phone. “Hopefully she can get him inside before someone reports him to the animal shelter.” I lifted my foot from the brake to pull away from the curb and then slammed it down again as a frightening thought occurred to me. I twisted around in my seat. “Oh my God!” I gasped. “Is he wearing a collar?”

  “I’m on it!” Susie flung her door open and leapt out into the street with her wand raised, ready to strike. She sprinted around to the rear of the van and then slowed, looking around with a puzzled expression. She turned in a full circle and even peered under the van, but she finally shrugged helplessly. “It’s gone,” she reported, lowering her wand in disappointment.

  “Does anyone see it anywhere?” I asked anxiously. Everyone scanned the area but no black cats were to be found anywhere. “Where did it go?”

  “You think that was another imp?” Melissa asked worriedly. “Was it spying on Mrs. Kendricks?”

  I shook my head. “Demons can’t see her house. Right?” I asked Daraxandriel.

  “Her wards are excellent” she agreed. “All I perceive here is barren land. And yet –”

  “What?”

  “We did bring Lilixandriel here that first night when she arrived,” she reminded me. “She knows of this place, even if it is hidden from her sight. Mayhap she set the imp here to discover our intent.”

  “Or maybe it followed us from our house,” Susie suggested, climbing back in beside me.

  “You killed that one,” I argued.

  “There could have been two of them,” she pointed out. “Lilith knows where we live too.”

  I mouthed a word I wasn’t supposed to say in polite company. “That’s not good. Mrs. Kendricks and Stacy can protect themselves. Mom and Dad can’t.”

  “We can protect them,” Susie insisted, waggling her wand.

  “It’s too risky. At the very least, I don’t want to have to explain to them that magic is real and demons are trying to kill me.” I gnawed the end of my thumb while I contemplated our options. There weren’t many, frankly. We had no way to know what Lilixandriel was planning to do next. All we could do is wait to see what she did and hope we could fend off whatever creature she sent after me. I repeated the forbidden word, a bit more forcefully this time.

  “Lilith says that people who resort to profanity have already lost the argument,” Susie said tartly.

  “This really isn’t a good time to be quoting her, Susie,” I retorted. “All right, let’s go.” I pulled away from the curb and made a U-turn. “I’m going to drop Susie and Olivia at the house and pick up a few things. I can bring you home afterwards, Melissa, and then Dara and I will find someplace to hole up for a while until we sort this out.” This excellent and well-considered plan was greeted with chilly silence. “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re going to dump us at home so you can shack up with Dara?” Melissa asked incredulously.

  “I’m not shacking up with her,” I told her tersely. “Lilith’s after us, not you. She’ll be too busy looking for us to bother you.”

  “How are we supposed to protect you if you’re not there?” Susie asked. “Fuge, fuge.” The air vents in the dash bore the brunt of her attack this time.

  “You guys aren’t strong enough to fight her,” I argued.

  “Neither are you!” Melissa countered. “You don’t have any powers at all and what can Dara do? Bargain for their souls?” Daraxandriel looked irked at her unflattering description but she didn’t contradict it.

  I have powers, I wanted to tell her, but Amy wouldn’t let me. “Dara can take us into the shadowed paths if we run into trouble,” I pointed out, “and I have the Philosopher’s Stone to keep me alive. I don’t need to be worrying about you while we’re trying to figure out how to stop Lilith.”

  “The shadowed paths are perilous for humans,” Daraxandriel warned me ominously. “Thy very sanity would be at risk.”

  “I’m willing to –”

  “I have the best wards of anybody around here,” Susie interrupted. “I’m not afraid of a little demon lord.”

  “That’s great, but –”

  “And if we’re with you,” Melissa jumped in, “we can use the Philosopher’s Stone to crank up our spells like we did at the library. I killed Bellagrog or whatever, remember?”

  “Yes, but –”

  “I’m already dead,” Olivia pointed out. “It doesn’t matter if they kill me again. Although I’d rather they didn’t,” she added.

  “Oh my God.” I wanted to rub my temples but I needed my hands to steer. “This isn’t a debate, people. You’re staying behind where it’s safe.”

  The silence stretched out even longer this time. “Isn’t that exactly what Agent Prescott said to Mrs. Kendricks?” Melissa asked coldly.

  “It’s completely different,” I insisted, except it wasn’t. I was trying to protect them because I still thought of them as teenage girls. But Susie had an astonishing array of magical skills at her command and absolutely no compunctions about using them, Amy supposedly turned Melissa back into Melisandre even if she didn’t realize it yet, and Olivia was in no danger whatsoever. We were safer together and a whole lot stronger. “You’re right,” I sighed.

  “Apology accepted,” Melissa told me smugly, although I didn’t recall actually apologizing. “So what’s the new and improved plan?”

  I mulled that over for another block or two. I still wanted to make sure Mom and Dad were okay but we couldn’t stay there for long. Finding a place where five people could hang out for a couple of days wasn’t going to be easy, though. Mrs. Kendricks’ house didn’t have enough bedrooms and I couldn’t afford to rent hotel rooms for everyone.

  “Can we get into your new apartment?” I asked Melissa. “Lilith doesn’t know where that is, right?”

  “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I – I mean we – don’t move in until Saturday. They’re still doing the cleanup from the last tenant and besides, there’s no furniture. Or curtains. Or AC. Or food –”

  “I get the picture, thanks. Anyone have any friends with a lot of spare bedrooms?”

  “Well, there’s my house,” she said tentatively. “We have a lot of empty space since Mother moved out.”

  “I wasn’t serious about that,” I told her. “We don’t want to put anyone’s family at risk. I’m sure your father wouldn’t appreciate us battling demons in the foyer.”

  “No, he wouldn’t,” she sighed. “He’s mad enough about the car.”

  “Well, let’s table that for now. Worse comes to worst, we can grab a couple of tents and sleeping bags and camp out somewhere.” I was unenthusiastic about that option but one had to make sacrifices when battling the Apocalypse. “Susie, bring all your witch stuff just in case we need it. Oh! How fast can you make Melissa a wardstone?” If nothing else, that would keep Amy from tampering with her again.

  “Wardstones are obsolete,” Susie declared with a sniff. “I have a much better solution now. See?” She held out her hand to me with her fingers spread. I looked for rings or tattoos or anything else that might hold a warding spell but her hand was unadorned and perfectly normal.

  “What exactly am I looking at?” I asked. She wiggled her fingers impatiently. “I don’t see anything.”

  She made a rude noise in the back of her throat as she rolled her eyes. “What do you think, Melissa?”

  Melissa peered at her hand. “You mean your nail polish?” she asked doubtfully.

&nb
sp; “See? She gets it.” Susie held up her hand to admire the pink glitter coating her nails. “It’s like wearing ten wardstones without the risk of losing any of them. Twenty, if you do your toes too.”

  “Seriously?” I asked incredulously. “Those are wardstones?”

  “Not wardstones, ward ... polish, or something. I guess I should come up with a better name,” she mused. “Do you think Dad will help me with the patent?”

  “So can you do Melissa tonight?” I pressed.

  “Sure, I have all the stuff. She just needs to pick a color. I have lime, carnation, fuchsia –”

  “You two can sort that out when we get home. Everyone needs to pack up a change of clothes, maybe two. Toothbrush and whatnot too.” If we needed more than that, we would probably be in too much trouble to care. “Don’t forget your phones and chargers. Dara, bring your laptop and I’ll bring mine, just in case we need them.” Access to the Internet was as essential as food and water as far as I was concerned, if not more so.

  “Certes,” Daraxandriel said absently, gazing thoughtfully out the window. I wondered if she was looking for imps.

  “My wand is still in your car,” Melissa reminded me. “All my other magic stuff is at home.”

  “That’ll be our next stop.”

  “I don’t have anything to bring,” Olivia noted from the back.

  “That’s okay,” I assured her. “We need to travel light anyway. Anything else that anyone can think of?”

  “What are you going to tell your parents?” Melissa asked. “Aren’t they going to wonder what’s going on?”

  “Definitely,” I sighed. “I guess we’re having another sleepover.”

  “I used to love sleepovers,” Olivia said wistfully, “before I got sick. Except –”

  “Except what?”

  “Momma says that boys and girls can’t be left unsupervised, especially at night. That just leads to temptation and, you know, things.”

  Melissa gave her an incredulous look. “What century did you die in, exactly?”

  “It’s true!” Olivia insisted. “Boys can’t control their lusts.”

  “Peter doesn’t seem to have any trouble with that,” Melissa grumbled, favoring me with a sideways glare.