The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  The third archon spun in agitated circles. “There are reports that multiple Choir holdings have been attacked by unknown forces. Reports of casualties are still filtering in. The Choir is calling for the Chairman to immediately report with all available information!”

  A third imp phased into view. “Chairman, the Council is demanding your immediate presence, as well as that of Baronet Isaiah Bright.”

  “Initial report?”

  The imp paused, swallowed hard. Other archons and imps were starting to phase in, all bearing their own reports, no doubt. Caleb and Tink were listening silently. As the imp started to speak, a chill ran down my spine. “Initial reports indicate that the Choir was attacked by human mages. In at least one of those attacks, there was unauthorized usage of hellfire amplification magic.”

  Chapter Eight

  * * *

  The imps escorted me to a nearby motel, one of the more interesting places where hourly rates were prominently advertised and housekeeping services were not. Instead of paying at the front desk, they simply led me right to a room, unlocked the door, and told me to walk into the bathroom. I followed their instructions and found myself in Purgatory.

  I was instantly on guard. Souls in Purgatory were not consistently friendly toward the living. The fact that the imps had brought me here meant that I needed to cover some ground in a hurry. Two imps phased into view, hanging right over my shoulders. They triangulated a path and I followed their directions through the featureless mists, counting my steps. I made it to eighty-seven before the mists cleared and I found myself face to face with a demon in his native form. Hellfire snapped between his fingers.

  I held up my hands as the imps appeared just behind me. “Easy there.”

  “Identify yourself,” he rumbled. His features were flat, teeth pointed, long arms and legs. He was most likely House Leviathan, though it had been a long time since I had met one of them. If this was House Leviathan territory, I was a long way from home. Their main sphere of influence was southeast Asia.

  “Isaiah Bright, Baronet of House Asmodeus,” I said.

  He sized me up. “You are the halfblood Lord of Heaven.”

  “I’m not really used to that title yet,” I admitted.

  He laughed and the hellfire vanished. “The Council is expecting you.”

  I forced myself to smile and walked past him, only staggering slightly. If he meant the High Council, I was just a little out of place. The High Princes of each House, various other dignitaries, the Chairman of the Consortium, all sorts of demons would be there, now including one halfblood with a ludicrous title. Another Leviathan guard waved me on to a closed door, reached out and opened it. I took a step in.

  The first reaction was silence. Dozens of eyes tracked me through a dimly lit chamber. The presence of so many demons set my ichor on edge, threatening to overwhelm my human side. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, settling myself. Working with Prince Opheran had raised my resistance. Even a Prince would find it difficult to force my control.

  I opened my eyes and took a step in from the door, unsure of where I needed to go, and was summarily saved by a familiar figure. Opheran strode toward me with his hand outstretched. “Isaiah, thank you for joining us.”

  “My Prince,” I said, shaking his hand. “I am here to serve.”

  He gave me a quick smile and guided me toward another figure who was vaguely familiar, but who I had never met before. “My Prince, I present to you Baronet Isaiah Bright, my aide for this meeting.”

  “High Prince Harax.” I dropped to one knee. Even I knew the protocol required when a simple low ranking halfblood met the ruler of one’s House: abject submission.

  “Baronet,” Harax said. His voice was a quiet baritone, almost inaudible over the murmur of other voices in the room. The rumor had it that High Prince Harax had an injury to his throat, caused in a fight against a Cherub or Seraph, which rendered him incapable of raising his voice. I didn’t give a lot of credence to the rumor of the injury, but it was well established that he let Opheran do all of the yelling. “Your reputation precedes you, young halfblood.”

  I remained on my knee, eyes averted. “My reputation pales in comparison to yours.”

  He laughed. “By Lucifer’s snarled chest hair, I should hope not. I certainly hadn’t conquered Heaven at your age, nor had I fought and defeated two Dukes of House Lucifer, nor opened the Gates of Purgatory.”

  My cheeks burned. “I had a great deal of help with all of those.”

  “But you were the center of events, Isaiah.” Harax tapped my shoulder and I looked up at him. His face was only slightly lined, giving him the appearance of a human in his mid-thirties, but I knew that he had been a contemporary of Lucifer himself. Harax was the blood brother of Asmodeus himself, taking the reins of the House after Asmodeus’s death during the Celestial War. “Audacity and strength are not the only measures of a demon, you know.”

  “Isaiah, I asked for you to be present here as my aide,” Opheran said, taking a seat at Harax’s right. He gestured to the empty chair at his right. “The Council will want to know more about human magic, and you may be the foremost authority at this time.”

  “Me? No one’s bothered to research human magic during the last five hundred years?” I moved to the seat he had indicated and shook my head. “My Prince, I don’t know a hell of a lot about human magic. How am I an expert?”

  “As you said, no one’s bothered to research human magic.” Opheran shrugged. “The proper study of demons is demons, and so forth. Their magic is so much less powerful than ours, so what could we learn from them?”

  “The events of the past two years have started to change that misconception,” Harax said. “Even then, there simply are not many demons interested in anything aside from amplification, and with that restricted by the Pact, we have a great deal of theory and little practice.”

  “Your girlfriend and your partner are both human mages of some skill,” Opheran continued. “You have more first-hand observations of human magic than any of us here. That alone makes your information valuable.”

  A sharp rap from the front of the room caught our attention. A tall demon, his thin face studiously blank, was pounding his knuckles against his table. “This meeting of the High Council of the Infernal Host is hereby called to order. As host, House Leviathan reminds all present that we are still considered to be in conflict with the forces of the Angelic Choir and that all present are bound to secrecy concerning what will be discussed at this meeting, upon pain of treason and death. As the situation bringing us together today is urgent, House Leviathan moves to expedite due ceremony and consider the roll to be called. Do any oppose?”

  I looked around the room. Three demons sat at each of seven tables, with an eighth table vacant. I wondered if that table was symbolic of the Prince of Princes. I recognized the delegations of each of the Houses, our old allies in Houses Beelzebub and Mammon, my old enemies in House Lucifer and House Amon, the solid presence of House Belphagor, and the looming presence of House Leviathan at the head.

  Not one demon spoke and the tall Leviathan nodded sharply. “Let the record show that due ceremony has been observed with the full consent of those present. The reason for this meeting, my Princes, is that reports indicate that an unknown party has attacked elements of the Angelic Choir. The reports indicate that there were twenty-eight attacks around the world, launching simultaneously, and all of them were successful in eliminating their targets.”

  “All of them?” snapped one of the Princes representing House Amon. “Forgive me, but are you suggesting that the Choir was defeated in detail?”

  “That is what has been reported to us,” the Leviathan stated.

  “Unbelievable. The Consortium must have made a mistake.”

  I raised a hand, unsure of the protocol. The Prince of House Leviathan spotted me, eyes narrowing, then nodded. “Do you have something to say regarding this information, Baronet?”

  “I do,” I sai
d, rising to my feet. “If I may?”

  “You are given leave to speak, Baronet Isaiah Bright.” The Prince’s eyes glittered in the dimly lit room. “Lord of Heaven.”

  I bowed my head. “I thank you, but that is not my only title that has bearing upon this situation. The most pertinent title at this time is Gatekeeper. As I am sure you all know, today was the day the Second Horseman arrived to accept my command. The Chairmen of both the Consortium and Syndicate were present as witnesses, as per mutual agreement.” I swallowed hard. “Upon the Horseman’s departure, an archon arrived with word that multiple Choir holdings had been attacked. The Chairman probably has more information at this point, but I can at least verify that the Syndicate received a similar report.”

  “Baronet, the Second Horseman is War, is it not?” The speaker came from the House Lucifer table. That demon was on his feet, his eyes glowing dull red even in his human form. “Did you bring this war upon them, halfbreed?”

  “No, I did not,” I said.

  “What is the war you began?”

  “I refused to do so,” I said. “When I told the Horseman so, he declared that one would be chosen for me.”

  “I find that unlikely.”

  “The Chairman of the Consortium will verify that,” I said.

  The Prince of House Leviathan rapped his knuckles on the table again, cutting off the Lucifer before he could respond. “The Council will refrain from this line of questioning at this time. This is not an inquisition into the actions of the Baronet.”

  I sat back down and glanced at Opheran. “At this time?”

  “Axes to grind,” he murmured. “You should know.”

  I sighed and turned my attention back to the head of the chamber, where an imp had appeared at the shoulder of the Leviathan. He nodded and announced, “The Chairman shall be here shortly with a complete report of the situation. I am assured that it will be extremely enlightening.”

  Harax leaned forward. “Isaiah, you are prepared to reveal all that you know of human magic?”

  “Yes, my Prince. Again, though, my knowledge is limited.”

  “I understand. I hope it is enough.”

  Before I could question that, the Chairman made his appearance, settling to stand upon the empty eighth table. “Gentlemen of the Council, I have a report to make of the highest priority. Based upon information gathered from our own agents and professional contacts in the Syndicate, there has been a major coordinated assault upon the forces of the Angelic Choir, taking place roughly thirty minutes ago. This is a preliminary report and is subject to change as further information is acquired.”

  “The Council respectfully requests the Chairman of the Consortium to provide information,” the Leviathan stated.

  The Chairman straightened his tie, brushed at his shoulders, then cleared his throat. “Attacks took place in eighteen different cities across the world, targeting a total of twenty-nine members of the Angelic Choir. The locations range from New York City to Tokyo, Johannesburg to Moscow. The attacks were coordinated to take place at the same time. While this is not especially difficult to accomplish, there are two points to consider here. First, the Choir was taken completely by surprise. Second, the attacks were one hundred percent successful.”

  “Completely successful?” The Amon Prince who had spoken earlier rose to his feet. “Is this verified?”

  “That is one part of this report that has no doubt in it whatsoever. Every witness, every confirmation came back with the same report. That is why I delayed making this report in order to receive additional confirmation. Quite frankly, I found it equally unbelievable.”

  “What sort of attacks were they?”

  The Chairman paused and shook his head. “As ridiculous as it sounds, the attacks were direct assaults and assassinations on various members of the Choir.”

  The Prince of House Leviathan immediately stood. “Allow me to interrupt your report, Chairman. My Princes, please verify at this time that no one has given orders to assault the Choir by any means, and that none of you have knowledge of any planned attacks.”

  Each High Prince stood in turn, disavowing orders and knowledge, until it came to House Lucifer. Both of their Princes stood, then glared at each other until one sat back down. “My Princes, due to the current situation within our House, we cannot verify that members of House Lucifer were uninvolved. No such orders were given, though.”

  “Trouble,” Opheran muttered.

  “So noted. Please continue, Chairman. What losses did the Choir sustain?”

  “The attacks were primarily targeted at their middle ranks. Of the twenty-nine confirmed casualties, twenty-three were from the second sphere. Eight were Powers, nine were Virtues, and six were Dominions. There were also two Principalities and three Archangels slain.” I nodded slowly as they read the list. The Choir had three levels of ranks, a sphere as they termed it. The third sphere made up the lowest ranks, the Angels, the Archangels, and the Principalities. The mage attacks had targeted the second sphere, the Powers, Virtues, and Dominions, which was around the same level as shooting bunches of supervisors and middle managers, leaving the rank and file out of touch with their immediate superiors.

  It also illustrated why the attack wasn’t something that a demon had planned. The Choir had no problems with lines of authority. If it was a human organization, the Choir would be thrown into at least a little bit of chaos. As it stood, it just stood to get the higher ranked angels more directly involved.

  “Forgive me, Chairman, but those only add up to twenty-eight, and you said there were twenty-nine members targeted,” said a Prince of Beelzebub.

  The Chairman nodded. “The twenty-ninth confirmed casualty was Throne Jordan of the Choir’s South American Command.”

  Murmurs broke out around the room, and gazes occasionally flashed in my direction. I knew why. In the Choir, Thrones were part of their first sphere and filled a similar role to that of a demonic Duke. I had a certain reputation for fighting Dukes. The defeat and death of a Duke or a Throne was not a common occurrence.

  “Chairman, as we have established, the Host is not party to these attacks, at least in any verifiable way,” said the Leviathan Prince. “Who is responsible?”

  “As far as we can tell, the attack was made by a worldwide group of human magic-users.”

  “Humans? Ridiculous!”

  “No human could do such a thing!”

  “Humans involving themselves in our affairs?”

  I stood up as the head table endured another knuckle-pounding. The increasingly strident arguments around the chamber ignored the pounding. I transformed one of my fingernails to a claw, drew blood from my left palm, and started tracing a simple rune. I hung one above my left shoulder, then another above my right, and then triggered the effect. Both of the runes started pulsing eye-searing neon red, complete with alarm klaxon sound effects that I had lifted from various sci-fi movies. Attention focused to me nearly immediately, at which point I squelched the runes but left them hanging over my shoulders just in case I needed to attract even more attention. “My apologies, my Princes, but apparently there is a misconception or two regarding human magic. If I may?”

  The Leviathan Prince shrugged. “Please do.”

  “The first common misconception is that human magic is weak. This has been debunked rather thoroughly in recent times, and can easily be demonstrated to be false right here and now.”

  “The strength you are referring to is due to the amplification effect!” shouted one of the House Lucifer Princes. “Without that, Duke Azriphel would still-”

  I had already sketched another rune in the air and flicked it toward him. His rising volume fell to a distant whisper. He slammed his hands on the table and made to vault over it, but the other representatives of his House grabbed him before he could get any further. I flicked the rune away and shrugged. “Human magic has something that our magic simply does not have: versatility. The magic inherent in our ichor, as with angelic purity, al
lows us to harness an elemental force or energy. Hellfire is our preferred manifestation, of course. Ichor also provides us with our physical edge, making us seem invincible to anything a mere human can throw at us. It takes a very powerful impact to pierce our skin or break our bones, and even then, if we know it’s coming, we can actively reinforce our body against the threat.”

  “We know what our bodies can withstand, and we know what human technology can and cannot do,” growled one of the Amon representatives. “What can their magic do that technology cannot?”

  “Their magic, properly utilized, can leverage physics in ways that their technology cannot. Gravitational manipulation, electromagnetic forces, these concepts allow them to use simple objects as weapons lethal even to a demon or angel. For example, they could drop a quarter from the second floor of a building, guide its flight, and accelerate it past the speed of sound in the few feet before contacting the top of your skull. You would have no warning. Even if you survived the initial impact, it would likely incapacitate you with the shock, and a second coin could easily follow.

  “Human magic can also provide detailed illusions that can easily fool the unwary. Again, while we are far tougher than humans are, being struck by a train or crushed by something you never saw coming could kill even a strong demon. All it takes is a human mage making you think the train has pulled up to the station a few seconds before it actually does and you find yourself on the track. They could even easily fool the driver into not seeing you.”

  “The Baronet’s characterization of how human magic could be used is accurate and borne out by the reports we have received,” the Chairman rasped. “Of the twenty-nine members of the Choir slain, twenty of them were for all purposes instantly killed when their heads exploded. Witnesses for sixteen of those indicated that they saw a flashing streak or afterimage, and in every case, there were reports of thunder. The other four seem to have been traps or not in public. Of the remaining nine, eight of those were suspicious accidents.”