The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “I stopped caring about disappointing you a long time ago,” I said.

  “Here to kill me?” She laughed and touched her chest. “Or try to, at least. You know this is a trap. Becky didn’t actually hit me and I’m not hurt in the slightest. I’m bait.”

  I shrugged as Tink and Caleb flanked me, moving toward her bed, spell and sword at the ready. I flicked hellfire to life in the palm of my hand. “Not a great trap. See you in the next life.”

  The man sitting next to her smiled and lifted a hand toward us. “Hikari, you may leave now. You served your purpose admirably. Thank you.” My attention flicked to him. I recognized him just a moment after Caleb flicked his sword with speed I’d only seen him use when his life was in immediate danger. The edge of the blade halted six inches from the man’s face. “Please put your weapons away. I will not allow you to kill her. Anna, you can stop preparing your spell. I have wards in place already.”

  Hikari flipped the covers off and slid off the bed. She was fully clothed and didn’t seem injured, just as she had said. “I’ll report back to regional headquarters, Grandmaster. Thank you.” I extinguished my hellfire as she walked by me. Before opening the door, she whispered over her shoulder at me, “Better luck next time, sweetheart.”

  “Grandmaster,” I repeated as she closed the door behind her. This was definitely in the running for the most dangerous trap I’d ever walked into. “Grandmaster Nathan Kane.”

  “Marquis Isaiah Bright. It is an honor to meet you. Dominion Caleb DeMarco, likewise. Adept Annabell Glass, charmed.”

  Caleb slowly lowered his sword and made it vanish into whatever place angels kept their weapons. “Seems like we underestimated our importance,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “I honestly didn’t expect the head of the Eternal Conclave himself to oversee our deaths.”

  “It’s nice to have your ego stroked, isn’t it?” I asked. The angel grinned.

  “Your deaths?” Kane chuckled. “No, no, you misunderstand. I’m not going to kill you. This is merely an excuse for us to have a chat.”

  “Chat with this,” Tink snapped. Magic swirled around us and I dropped to the ground. None of my muscles responded to my commands. Twin thumps next to me told me Tink and Caleb were also dealing with whatever defensive magic he had cooked up. I ran through some mental patterns Tink had taught me to try to break magical control, but they were completely ineffective. I ran through them again with a rising sense of fear as I realized I couldn’t feel anything below my neck.

  “No, it isn’t any form of control, Isaiah,” Kane said. I tried to aim my eyes in his direction, but my neck was at an odd angle and I couldn’t correct it. “I simply disconnected some of your spinal cord. Now, I understand suddenly becoming a quadriplegic is uncomfortable. I assure you, if any of you attack me again, the condition will become quite permanent. Do I have your word you’ll resist any further temptation?”

  “Sure, you have my word,” I said. Fighting overwhelming odds head on wasn’t my style. Sensation abruptly returned and every muscle twitched and complained. It took me a few moments to recover from the onslaught of pins and needles and stand up. Kane never said a word or took his dark eyes off me.

  “So, to what do we owe this honor?” Caleb asked as he stood up.

  “I’ve heard a great many things about the three of you,” he replied. “I’m trying to determine whether your great victories come from skill or luck.”

  “I don’t know what great victories you’re talking about,” I said, “but I think our reputation’s just a little exaggerated. It’s mostly luck. We’re really not too important in the grand scheme of things.”

  “Gatekeepers,” Kane said. I tensed. “Please don’t take me for a fool, Isaiah. Your actions caused the world a great deal of distress, you know. The Pyongyang Massacre did not sit well with anyone. We spent a great deal of resources to make sure the collapse of the regime did not completely destabilize the region.”

  “Which only benefitted you,” I pointed out.

  “It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, true. Now, why don’t you sit down and make yourselves comfortable?”

  Caleb shuffled his feet. “Why don’t we just skip the fake friendly chit-chat and get right to the part where we politely refuse to do whatever you’re going to ask us and walk out.”

  “There’s nothing keeping you from walking out now,” Kane said. He raised a finger before I could say something witty. “Of course, if you do leave before we have a chance to talk, it will annoy me, and I will take my annoyance out on everyone in this hospital.”

  “The hospital? Are you fucking joking?” Tink snapped at him. “Only terrorists and psychopaths kill doctors. What is wrong with you? Why are you so comfortable with murdering innocent people?”

  Kane fixed his eyes on her. “There are billions of humans, Anna. Tens of billions of humans have lived and died. Very few are worth my time and consideration. Fewer yet have actual value. And to date, I have only found one who is truly irreplaceable.”

  “Yourself, of course,” I said.

  “Of course. I have no moral compunctions regarding the deaths of a few hundred people who are of no use to me. And before you attempt to argue it, none of them are part of the Conclave, and the odds of any of them being useful to me on any reasonable timescale is as close to zero as to not spend any time considering.” He folded his hands in his lap. “I was very careful to construct this scenario before you arrived. So, shall we talk?”

  I stepped to the side and flopped down in a chair. The leader of the Conclave was a psychopath. That explained a great many things. “What’s to stop you from killing us and whoever else you feel like when we’re done talking? You’re not exactly known for honoring your arrangements.”

  He waved a hand dismissively. “I require you to deliver my message to your respective leadership. Your status is high enough your people can’t simply ignore you, but not high enough to make it more worthwhile to kill you outright. As for Anna, she is useless, but killing her would likely cause both of you to attempt to kill me in return, which would be unfortunate for all of us. At this moment, all three of you are most useful to me alive.”

  “Useless?” she sputtered.

  “Shut up and sit down,” I said, provoking a sharp glare and a pulse of fury through our bond. “We’ve been outplayed for sure this time. I like staying alive, so let’s just keep this nice and civil.”

  “Very wise,” Kane murmured.

  Caleb remained on his feet. “You’ll forgive me if I choose not to sit.”

  “Of course.” The grandmaster mage offered us a smile. “Your reputations, of course, precede you. My files are full of wild and unbelievable stories of what you’ve done. It’s unlikely all of those stories are true, but it’s also unlikely all of them are false. You don’t show any signs of unnatural skill or intelligence, but you’re not fools either. Where does that leave you?”

  “Where do you think?” I asked.

  “I believe you have been exceedingly fortunate to be in the right places at the right times. Even unremarkable talent can tilt the scales when it is applied at the right moment.”

  “Sounds about right,” I said. “Now let me ask you a question. What’s the deal, Nate? Why’d you start this? We’ve coexisted for millennia. Why pick this fight with us now?”

  He didn’t react to my goading. “Quite simply, this is our world, and you are not part of it. Your exile here is not our problem. Five hundred years does not give you a claim on our world, not against a hundred thousand years of human life.”

  “I get it, and I get you feel like we’ve been doing you dirty for a long time now.” I crossed my arms and leaned back. He knew enough about our history to spot bullshit. I’d have to be careful. “But like I said, why now? We’re finally in the process of getting off your world. Exile is over. Isn’t the problem solved? All you have to do is be patient and we’ll be out of here.”

  �
�Your people have dragged their feet.”

  “It takes time to prepare for a hostile environment,” I replied. “Maybe your files don’t include this, but Hell isn’t like anything on Earth. The soil doesn’t have the same nutrients, so we can’t just buy seeds and plant them. They die, almost all of them. The survivors can’t compete with native plants. Our sun is different, so chlorophyll from Earth isn’t as efficient. The atmosphere is harsher too.” At this point, both Tink and Caleb were listening intently. “I’m not even counting how wild our weather gets. Sure, we can cultivate native plants and hunt native animals, but we’d need to re-learn what’s edible and what isn’t. It’s been a long time since our people have lived there.”

  He leaned toward me and for the first time, I heard a note of anger in his voice. “Allow me to be frank. That is not our problem. Your inability to survive on your world is not our problem. Your parasitic reliance on humanity is not our problem. Your survival is not our problem, nor our concern.”

  “A cold sentiment toward another sentient race,” Caleb commented.

  “Why should we care?” Kane asked. I frowned and glanced at Caleb, but his focus was completely on the mage. “An honest answer, Caleb DeMarco. Is there a single reason we should care about your races? More importantly, why should I, myself, care?”

  Caleb was slow to answer. “Both the Choir and Host have done horrible things to your people. I believe we all agree. However, not everything has been negative for your people. Angelic and demonic influence led to significant advances for humanity. The longevity of our races gave a sort of continuity to human knowledge before the proliferation of information storage. Our people may have children with each other, which shows a very strange, unexpected genetic kinship between our races. We are people, just as you are. Perhaps only distant cousins, but people nonetheless.”

  Kane shook his head. “You misunderstand me. Your races have provided benefits to us, yes, but we never asked for or wanted your assistance. The crossbreeding is interesting in a scientific sense, but it never should have happened in the first place. I reject the assumption the human race owes you anything.”

  “I did not mean to imply a debt,” Caleb said. “In fact, I would say our races are in humanity’s debt, not the other way around. Is war truly the best way to call such a debt due?”

  “You are a strange angel.” Kane stroked his chin. “I didn’t think any of your people would consider yourselves in our debt. What of yours, Isaiah?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think there’s debt in either direction. We’ve been influenced by humanity, humanity’s been influenced by us. If you’re upset about the exile, shouldn’t you be more upset at who exiled us? We didn’t ask for it either.”

  “Consider this, Nathan. What would humanity be without our influences?” Caleb asked.

  It was now Kane’s turn to be slow to answer. “Different. But ultimately, human. Distinctly and purely human.” I tried not to shudder at the conviction in his tone.

  “Do you also reject the concept of mutual cooperation between our people?” Caleb persisted.

  “Does the dog cooperate with the flea?” Kane shot back. “Your races have taken from us, continue to take from us, and anything you give back is incidental to your own selfish motives. There is no basis for mutual cooperation while your races consider themselves superior to humanity. Don’t pretend to be the victims here. Your so-called exile to our world only benefitted your people. Abundant resources. Technology. Knowledge. A world not scarred and twisted by your wars. A naïve race of humans to control and rule over.”

  “We never sought to rule your people,” Caleb said. I almost called him out, but Kane didn’t need any more ammunition. “And we have certainly never considered ourselves superior.”

  “You do.” Tink had been quiet up until this moment. “Sorry, Caleb, but he’s right. Everything you ever did to hide yourselves from humanity was to protect us, as if we’re children and you’re the adults in the room. Hell, the Horsemen said so, straight up. Maybe it’s not deliberate on your part, but you look down on us, and we know it. We’re not worthy to chart our own course. Even you two do it with me sometimes.”

  “Are you saying he’s right?” I asked. The thought of her siding with the Conclave caused my stomach to twist. Losing her would be like losing part of myself.

  “Hell and fuck no,” she said. Her finger pointed squarely at Kane. “You’re a megalomaniac and delusional enough to think you can speak for all of humanity. Well guess what, you don’t speak for me. Yeah, the angels and demons have fucked with us, but they’re people too. I used to hate demons with every bit of my being, but now I’ve met bunches of them, and they’re just like us. Some are good people, some aren’t. Same with angels. The demon’s right, no one owes anyone a goddamn thing. We can let the past go and make a new start right now. We can learn to cooperate and combine all of our strengths. Who knows what we can accomplish together?”

  “No one knows,” Kane said. “It’s immaterial, though, Anna. We will advance and progress with or without them, but only without them will we advance as humans.”

  “So it’s a matter of pride?” she shot back. “Human pride?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Don’t you feel a sense of pride when you accomplish something on your own? There is nothing so exhilarating. How would you feel if you received help you didn’t ask for, didn’t want, didn’t need? The victory becomes hollow. I want humanity to come together and feel proud of our accomplishments. Is that so wrong?”

  She shook her head. “So the ends justify the means?”

  I sighed. “You’re a great big ball of fucked up, Nate, but I get where you’re coming from. You were the smart kid in the back of the class who knew every answer but never got called on. The other kids were louder so they got the attention you wanted. Maybe they picked on you too, I don’t know. I think went through a lot of your life with no one listening to you, even though you’re damn sure you have all the answers. You resent everyone, especially the ones who talked over you, because you think they were wrong. Now you have the chance to correct them and you’re making sure to rub their nose in every single mistake they’ve made.”

  Kane turned to me. “Do you have a point?”

  “Three of them. First, I agree, we’ve fucked up. We didn’t treat humanity with enough respect and that’s our mistake. You have made it very clear. There’s a lot of bad blood right now, but there’s still a chance. We can work together to right past wrongs, rather than get thousands of people killed because you’re so intent on punishing us for our mistakes.”

  He didn’t change expression. In fact, he looked slightly bored. “And?”

  “Second, you know we’re Gatekeepers, so you know we dealt with the Horsemen. They told us specifically that humanity is a bridge between angels and demons. We’re meant to work together.”

  “Our people have the right to seek their own destiny.”

  “Third, you’re making a rookie mistake.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re so convinced you’re right, you never checked your basic assumptions. The Pact wasn’t intended to protect humanity from us. It was intended to protect us from humanity. It was intended to prevent exactly the sort of situation we’re in right now. Listen to me, Nate. None of this is necessary. We can step back and work this out. If you want us to leave humanity alone, we will. It doesn’t need a war to happen.”

  “You will take this proposal to your leaders,” Kane said, his tone flat and commanding. “I offer both Host and Choir the following terms of surrender. First, each and every angel and demon must register with the Eternal Conclave, regardless of age, sex, or location. Second, they must surrender all of their material assets to the Eternal Conclave, aside from the bare necessities required for life and dignity. Third, they must agree to provide any requested services to the Eternal Conclave. In exchange, the Eternal Conclave shall allow all angels and demons to remain living on Earth. Any who wish to depart for Hea
ven or Hell may do so, with only the clothes on their back, and they shall never be allowed to return. These are the terms and they are not negotiable. To show our good faith, we shall unilaterally declare a cease-fire for three days for your people to deliberate. If you do not agree to these terms, we shall resume offensive operations, and you will not find us as generous in the future.”

  “You want us to be your slaves,” I said. “I guess I was just wasting my breath there. Good to know you’re just a tyrant looking for a lower class to oppress.”

  “We have been oppressed by your people for long enough,” Kane said, a broad smile crossing his face. “It’s long past time for that injustice to be addressed, and how better to do it than by turning the tables?”

  I stood up and stretched. “Anything else? I’ll gladly take these terms back to the High Council. They could use a good laugh.”

  “I can also assure you the Seraphic Council will reject those terms,” Caleb added.

  “That is not my problem,” Kane said as he also rose from his seat. “That is a problem for you to deal with.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “This is an outrage! How can you stand before us and declare you are content to be enslaved by humanity?” The High Prince of House Amon’s face was red, and not just because he was in his demonic form. He slammed his fist down on his stone table, which actually cracked. I winced. “Shall I call you a coward and unfit to lead your House, High Prince of Beelzebub?”

  “Content?” Beelzebub stood and slapped his hands down on his table. “How dare you imply such a thing!”

  “You just said you were willing to consider the Conclave’s terms! We all know what their terms mean and what they imply!”