The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  “Do you?” Hikari asked.

  I shrugged. “It’s a question of surprise. Once the Choir starts watching for your surprises, it’ll be much harder to kill them. Or us, for that matter.”

  “You can’t watch everyone, everywhere, all the time,” she pointed out.

  “Neither can human mages,” I said.

  She grunted, then tilted her head. “I think they’re about to try something new.”

  Something new for the angels was another bull rush. Once again, Caleb and Opheran dispatched their vanguard, but it was obvious to me that they were starting to slow down. The angels facing them seemed tougher as well. This didn’t appear to pose a significant problem. Opheran simply drew himself up even taller, manifested hellfire in each clawed palm, and thrust a lance of the yellow-green flame all the way through the sanctuary doors into the foyer. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out it was visible from the street. The angels fell back once again without even trying to force their way through the gap.

  “I must remember to be properly thankful to my congregation for their faith,” Jase said. “The hellfire that Prince Opheran is flinging about with wild abandon doesn’t seem to be affecting the structure at all. In fact, I’d say the most damage is from your little trick with the pew, Anna.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

  “Oh, so you apologize to him for destruction of property?” I asked.

  She scowled at me. “What property of yours have I destroyed?”

  “I’ve lost multiple cars and apartments while I’ve known you.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking and you know it, demon.”

  Hikari cleared her throat. “They are working on your wards, Anna.”

  “I know,” Tink said. “They’ll pop the nested force frost one next, and then the electrogravitic ward will come into play. If they’re not careful, that one will also give them some nasty chemical burns.”

  “Oh my,” Jase said quietly.

  “So, how does it feel to be labeled a heretic?” I asked him.

  The pastor shrugged. “I find myself in rare company. To my knowledge, I am the only human branded as a heretic by the supernatural equivalent of the Inquisition to date. I suppose I should be flattered. I would be, if I wasn’t aware of what would happen if they caught me.”

  “Yes, Victor has a certain taste for such acts,” I said.

  “Don’t judge him too harshly, Isaiah,” Jase said. “He believes in the righteousness of what he’s doing.”

  “And if I believed in murdering anyone who disagreed with me, you wouldn’t judge me too harshly?” I shook my head. “Jase, there is such a thing as evil.”

  “The demon should know,” Tink muttered.

  “I understand that,” Jase said. “But there is a difference between simple cold-blooded murder and what Victor does. He believes that what he’s doing is the right thing to save his people.”

  “Save his people? They’re trying to obliterate mine!”

  “Don’t you understand?” The pastor’s eyes met mine. “The Choir fears the Host, Isaiah. They’ve never understood the schism that split your race.”

  “And they want to destroy what they don’t understand?” I snorted. “I can’t speak for every demon, but we don’t want to fight them. We just want them to leave us alone.”

  “They can’t,” Jase said. “If they do, they admit that you were right.”

  “Fuck them.”

  “Language, Isaiah.”

  “Sorry, Jase, but I won’t take that one back. If they’re willing to kill every last one of us just to salve their pride, then there really isn’t any way to resolve this except to break them,” I said. “Break them by any means necessary.”

  “You’re going a little far afield there, demon,” Tink said.

  “The girl who declared war on House Lucifer is trying to tell me I’m going over the top? I don’t think so.”

  “Zay,” Hikari said. “I don’t like this.”

  “Don’t like what?”

  “They’re about to do something unorthodox.”

  “Unorthodox from an angelic perspective, or from our perspective?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said, and a window shattered as something came flying through it. I didn’t catch a perfect glimpse of it, but it looked like a bottle with a flaming rag stuck in it. It hit the far side of the sanctuary and promptly burst into flame. As if that had only been a test, another three Molotovs came arcing in through different windows. The sanctuary began to fill with smoke and I realized that the odds had just turned against us. “We need an exit plan,” I said, trying to make myself heard above the crackling of the flames.

  “Well, we can either go that way,” Hikari said, pointing at the front door, “or that way,” pointing at the side door. “Either way, there are quite a few angels in the way.”

  “What about out through the broken windows?” I asked, just as an angel dropped in through one of those windows. “Scratch that. Can’t you just put the fires out?”

  “That depends,” Tink said, flexing her fingers. “Do you want the fire out, or do you want to fight off the angels that’ll be dropping in? I don’t think we can do both.”

  Another angel dropped in, this one holding a Molotov. He looked toward us, grinned, and chucked it sidearm directly at us. One of the mages, maybe both, immediately threw force spells at it. I spun around, just in time. The crack and sudden wash of heat told me that the bottle had shattered instead of being flung back at them. “Could you please be a little more careful with glass?”

  “Zay, you’re sort of on fire,” Hikari said.

  “That would be sort of your fault,” I said as I fully transformed into my demonic form. My shirt being on fire was no longer an issue, though it was comfortably warm. “So, what sort of exit do you suggest now that everything’s on fire?”

  Another crash of breaking glass foretold another arrival into the sanctuary, but this one wasn’t an angel. Instead, it was a demon, his eyes glowing green and balls of hellfire already clutched in his hands. “Prince Opheran! We are under heavy assault!” he called out.

  “Extract the humans at all costs!” Opheran shouted.

  At that point, everything began to go sideways. Victor must have gotten pissed off. The building shook as if someone had grabbed it by the foundations, and the fires left by the Molotovs suddenly jumped and flared. Thick black smoke began pouring off of the flames even as more angels and demons dropped into the sanctuary. Even my demonic vision couldn’t see clearly through the smoke and I heard Jase start coughing. “We need to get out of here,” I said. “Hikari, can you stay with Jase? Keep a shield around you two?”

  “I’ll try,” she said.

  “What are we doing, demon?” Tink asked.

  “I’m considering using an amplified force blast to open a hole for us to get out,” I said. “There’s something wrong with the structure now. I think every bit of sanctuary this place has is gone.”

  “Caleb assured me the building would hold up to any demonic siege,” Jase said, a little unsteadily. “I don’t know what happened.”

  “No time for investigations,” I said. “Can we do it, Tink?”

  Whatever answer she had was cut short as an angel loomed through the smoke, a short sword glittering in his hand. I stepped between him and Jase, manifesting a whip of hellfire in my hands. The angel stepped forward but stumbled. I flicked the whip toward his throat and let go. The hellfire coiled around his neck. When he dropped his sword to claw at his throat, I kicked him squarely in the stomach. He fell back into the smoke and vanished from sight.

  With him gone, I turned to see Tink drop as an angel backhanded her. He advanced and took one more step toward Jase and Hikari, but I was already in motion. I sunk my claws into his side and pushed hellfire from my fingertips. The angel staggered away, leaving scorched purity on the tips of my claws. I flicked them in his direction and snarled. “You all right, Tink?”

  She bo
unced to her feet and wiped blood away from her mouth. “I’m fine.”

  Another figure loomed through the smoke, but this time it was a demonic form. “Asmodeus?” I called. The figure raised a clawed hand before vanishing back into the brawl. “This is ridiculous. I can’t see a damn thing. For all I know, Caleb or Opheran are two steps away.”

  “If we take an amplified shot, we’re taking a big friendly fire risk,” Tink said. “Damn. I can’t believe I just said that killing demons would be friendly fire. What have you done to me, demon?”

  “Can’t we just shoot out the back wall?” I asked.

  We looked back toward where Hikari and Jase were. They weren’t there. There was only smoke. “This complicates things,” Tink said.

  “No shit,” I said. “Can’t we clear this smoke?”

  “Sure. Give me two minutes to work up a windstorm of that magnitude. Never mind what it’ll do with all that fire. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s getting hot in here.”

  “Going to take off all your clothes?”

  “Is that all you can think of at a time like this?”

  “I have a reputation to uphold as a member of House Asmodeus,” I said. “Let’s worry about the stripping later, though. I vote we find our way to a wall and make a gigantic hole in it.”

  “I think that’s the best idea you’ve had all day.”

  We clawed our way through the dense smoke, Tink alternating between resting a hand on my back and clutching my arm. If she let go, I spun around. Twice, it was due to an angel showing up. Another time, a demon fell in with us for a few steps and then vanished again.

  “This place isn’t this large,” Tink said as we took another few steps. “I swear we’re going in circles, or going through the entrance.”

  “And the pews seem to be missing,” I said.

  “I assume they’ve been flung around.”

  The floor shook under our feet and I heard a crash from our left. There was a shout of pain. I led Tink in that direction and nearly stumbled over the body. It was a demon, his features contorted in pain, the cause of death being that the side of his head was caved in. “Maybe someone hit him with a pew?” I asked.

  Tink shrugged. “Someone has good aim to do that through this smoke.”

  “Or he just had really bad luck. I really want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

  “That makes two of us.” We continued in the same general direction and within a couple of steps, found a wall. “Not sure what wall this is,” she said.

  “Let’s wreck it and move on,” I said, offering her my hand. She sliced my palm with her knife and drew a rune on the wall in both blood and ichor. We knelt next to the wall as she worked, ignoring the crashes and yells behind us. She slapped the rune, then flattened against the wall, a few steps away from the rune. I mirrored her actions on the opposite side.

  The explosion threw me sideways and away from the wall. I scrambled to my feet and met Tink at the hole in the wall. The hole was almost large enough for her to walk through without ducking. On a count of two, we peered through the hole. Instead of daylight, we simply saw more smoke, and a few pairs of legs standing around. “Well, shit,” I said. “That’s the kitchen.”

  “That’s a lot of angels in there,” Tink said as we both backed away.

  “That means the other wall is on the other side,” I said.

  “That’s brilliant, demon. I’m so glad I keep you around.”

  I grabbed her hand, sighted across the room as best I could, and led her on a headlong charge to the opposite wall. We ran into one of the pews, jumped over it, circled around a patch of fire, and nearly caught the attention of a pair of burly angels. Three demons jumped them before they could orient on us. A burning pew sailed through the air above us. Tink started coughing as the smoke grew even thicker. Jase’s insurance was probably not going to cover this sort of damage.

  “There’s the wall,” she rasped. “Give me some ichor.”

  We repeated the process, standing further away from the rune this time. This time it didn’t bowl me over, and daylight shone in through the hole. Tink dove through without even checking for hostile angels, and I scrambled after her. A gout of smoke followed and a shout rang out from behind us.

  In front of us stood a line of demons, hellfire sparking in their palms. “Clear!” shouted the one in the center. Though he looked a little the worse for wear, Kalil had survived the ambush outside. “Get the mage clear, Asmodeus!”

  I grabbed Tink’s hand again and pulled her sideways. Even as we did, an angel dove feet first through the hole after us. A half dozen spikes of hellfire impaled him and he dropped to the ground.

  “What’s the status?” I called out as Tink proceeded to cough her lungs out. “Where are the others?”

  Kalil jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Caleb was sitting calmly on the ground with purity weeping from a rather large slice across his abdomen. He lifted a hand in greeting as our eyes met, but didn’t rise, since that would likely result in parts of him sliding out. “That looks like it hurts,” I said.

  “It hurt more at the time it was delivered,” he said. “I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

  “Make sure he doesn’t strain himself,” I said to Kalil. “We don’t want him to leak anywhere important, if you know what I mean.” The demons around Caleb were at least three long strides from him and all of them looked like they’d rather be twice as far away.

  “Something’s happening in there!” roared another demonic voice. I turned to the building. Smoke was pouring out of the windows, but I still didn’t hear any sirens. A roaring explosion from the front of the building belched even more dark smoke into the air. We couldn’t keep it hidden from the nearby humans much longer.

  A pair of heavy clawed feet hit the ground where Tink and I had blown the hole through the side of the building. Opheran burst through the smoke and took in all of us with a single gaze. “Who’s still inside?” he shouted.

  “Hikari and Jase,” I shouted back to him. “I told them to stick together!”

  “Clear! Clear the entrance!” I looked past Opheran at the emergency exit we had created as Hikari came staggering out, holding her left arm tightly. Her shirt was sprayed with red.

  “Hikari!” I sprinted past Opheran to her. She turned toward me, staggered slightly, and nearly collapsed into my arms. “What happened? Where’s Jase?”

  “We got separated,” she whispered. “Angel took me by surprise. Might have been Victor. Didn’t get a clear look.”

  “Victor,” I said. “Did he get a hold of Jase?”

  “I don’t know.” She winced and sagged against me.

  “Other side of the building, move!” The demons behind us that had been covering the hole suddenly lifted into the air and winged over the building, Opheran in the lead. I started to follow them, but Hikari was still clutching me. I quickly hoisted her into my arms. I looked over my shoulder just before we turned the corner to see Caleb slowly getting to his feet and carefully following us, his arm still pressed to his stomach. Shouts rang out ahead of us and I picked up the pace, Tink right on my heels.

  On the far side of the building, in a field where Jase and I had walked several times, there was a ring of demons surrounding someone. As we closed in on the circle, I could hear Opheran’s deep voice echoing out. “Safe passage for your survivors is acceptable. We didn’t come here to fight you.”

  “Good. Let them go. Now.”

  “That’s Victor’s voice,” Tink said. “What’s going on?”

  “I think I know,” I said. As we joined the ring, my worst fears were confirmed. Victor and Jase stood in the middle of the ring. Victor’s wings were spread slightly, his scimitars were both in hand, and both of them were pressed to Jase’s neck. “Ah, Victor, the ever-sore loser.”

  “I should thank you for this opportunity, halfbreed,” Victor snapped back. “Granted this isn’t exactly the way I had imagined it, but such are the spoils of war.”


  “I was fairly certain that the Choir had given us close to a hundred days,” I said. “I guess we can’t trust you angels after all. How surprising.”

  “There are those of us who think this war is a mistake,” Victor said. I raised an eyebrow. “I advocated that we should just start killing you in the streets with no warning.”

  “Aren’t you just a sweetheart.”

  “Don’t make me angry, halfbreed. I twitch when I’m angry.”

  “You twitch when you’re happy too, if my scars are any indication.”

  “Isaiah,” Jase said. “I know this is a difficult thing for you, but I’d appreciate it if you don’t make him twitch.”

  “Sorry, Jase.”

  “What else do you want, Victor?” Opheran asked. “Your men are leaving now. Is there anything else you’d like?”

  “His head?” He lifted his chin toward me.

  “You had your chance,” I said.

  “I suppose I did.” He laughed. “My own safe passage. Back off. Step back. I can’t be responsible for what happens if you don’t.”

  “Let’s give him some room,” Opheran said. “Three steps back. Fair enough?”

  “Four.”

  “Four it is.” We all stepped back four steps and waited. Victor didn’t move, just slowly spun in place, making sure he had plenty of room. “What else, Victor?”

  “Don’t get impatient, dear Prince,” Victor said. “I’m going to stretch my wings out. I want you all to put out that hellfire now. As you can see, it’s not like I’m going to be able to take you all out with a single spinning assault.”

  “Do as he says,” Opheran said. The sparks of hellfire went out.

  “Victor, what did you intend to accomplish with this?” I turned my head as Caleb joined the circle next to me. His hands were still pressed tightly to his stomach. “There’s no reason to attack a church. You’re Internal Security, you’re meant to police the threats within the Choir, not look for human heretics.”