His Name Is Legion

by Michael Todd

  She turned back around, tugging on her mini-skirt, her waist tiny in the black lace corset with a twisting black ribbon laced up the back. “Of course, My Lord.”

  After she disappeared, Lucifer turned toward Baal. “I want to ask you something, Baal. You have shown a, let’s say, affinity to walking beside the less intelligent demons of hell, but you somehow stay out of the major ambushes. Is there a reason you don’t pair with a superior type of demon?”

  Baal’s broad black-scaled brow creased and his lips puckered. “I suppose you could say it’s because I don’t wish to be personally involved in unsanctioned attacks, although I do offer wisdom and advice to any of my fellow lost souls. What type of brother in hell would I be if I did not? Sometimes it gets a bit complicated, but usually, it’s the dumb ones who ask for advice. Only after attempting and failing on their own, of course.”

  Mania came back out with an armful of tools, three equally burdened servants walking quickly behind her. She reached the table and Lucifer swiped his hand, moving all the food to the end. Baal put his hands up as a bowl of marinated sloth toes whizzed by him, spilling some of the juice in his lap. Mania dropped the pile of torture implements in front of them, followed by the three servants.

  Lucifer selected a four-pronged device, each prong sharpened to a glistening point. He ran his tongue over his fangs and put the device to his teeth, picking them. “Were you loyal to Beelzebub? Or Moloch before him? Or T’Chezz before him? Were you loyal to those who made decisions that ended with them disappearing into the void of nothingness? If so, does that send you down the same path, or do you have some nefarious plan, something that pushes you to get rid of the weak and climb toward the strong?”

  Baal showed no sign of fear. He knew the spiked nut clamp Mania was playing with was a form of intimidation, and though part of him was intimidated, he could not show his weakness. He had played the game long enough to know better. “No, My Lord. I am only, and have only ever been, loyal to you.”

  Lucifer scanned him for a moment, still picking his teeth. A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. “We’ll see about that…”

  2

  Brock tucked his arm tightly around Katie’s waist and pulled her close to his body. With his other hand, he smoothed down the wild, wind-swept hairs on the top of her head. His hand moved slowly down her cheek and cupped the side of her face. Their eyes stayed locked as he pulled her toward him, tilting his head to the side. His lips opened, pushing against hers as he deeply penetrated her mouth with his tongue. The kiss was hot and breathy, more passionate than either of them had shown in a public place before.

  Katie couldn’t help but close her eyes, pressing her body into his, the air catching in her lungs and fluttering with the adrenaline beginning to simmer wildly in her chest. When he pulled his face from hers she kept hers in place, her eyes closed for another couple of moments. Lifting her hand to her lips, she shuddered, wanting more, but knowing that was not the course her day was taking.

  After a few moments she cleared her throat and opened her eyes, her pupils a glistening blue and slowly changing back to normal. “That was intense.”

  Brock chuckled, releasing his grip on her and putting unwanted inches between them. “I figured it would be good to start lingering when I say goodbye. Get in those last few minutes.”

  Katie’s hand reached up almost without her control, and she rubbed her thumb across his bottom lip. The sound of a soldier walking past made her jump, dropping her hand back to her side. “So, where are you headed, again?”

  Brock groaned, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Back to Bahrain. I will be taking several soldiers back with me to assist. We have to start working faster, although I’m not completely sure how that will be possible. We already kill ourselves out there, but more hands may help move the process along. You’re going back to New York?”

  Katie nodded, looking down at the ground and kicking small lava stones across it with her boot. “Yeah. Me and Pandora and Juntto. I know Angie wants Juntto back. He wants his YouTube career back, and Pandora and I have some business to attend to with the local police. I think we have cleared this area well enough to leave it in the hands of the Brazilian soldiers.”

  Brock’s eyes scanned the area. “Yeah. I think most of the American soldiers and the others from across the globe are going to be heading out in the next couple of days as well. Everyone needs to get back to their forts and continue fighting off the small-time demons that are a huge thorn in our sides. Hopefully, with that big guy gone, things will quiet down for a while.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, we will see. We always seem to get our hopes up, but nothing ever happens the way we want it to.”

  Brock scoffed. “I know, tell me about it. I think maybe when we are done with the walls and forts, I’ll come spend some time in New York if it’s possible.”

  Katie’s cheeks burned, but she pushed down her old nervousness when it came to boys. “That would be nice. You know you’re always welcome, and there are so many things we didn’t get to do during the times that you have been able to come. To be honest with you, I would really like to take you on a date. Like a full-on date.”

  Brock gawked. “Oh, yeah? Like a real date? Will you buy me a corsage for when we fight the demons in the city?”

  Katie chuckled. “First of all, yes on the corsage. A yellow lily would really compliment your eyes.”

  They both laughed.

  “Secondly, I am not talking about a mercenary date,” she explained, running her finger down the front of his shirt. “I am talking about an honest-to-God real date with candles and food. Something out of the house, and maybe, just maybe, a kiss at the end of the night. But definitely no fighting demons, no chasing Leviathans, and no exorcising anyone. That is the kind of thing I reserve for date number six.”

  Brock bit his bottom lip and reached out, pulling her close to him again. “Six? Wow. I was hoping to get to second base before we even left for the date.”

  Katie shrugged. “You know me. Taking things slow is my motto.”

  They both smiled broadly and began to lean in for another kiss. Pandora was walking past them and stopped, getting in close to their faces. “You know, you guys have time for a quickie. You would have to make it a real quickie. Like no nonsense, pants down, bend over, go to town, but at least you won’t have to continue to torture each other like this. Remember, Brock, she’s an angel now, not a demon. They don’t make handcuffs covered in golden prayers, although they should. Might make them a lot less grumpy.”

  Katie lifted an eyebrow as she and Brock pulled apart. Her eyes shifted from Pandora to Brock, and she shook her finger in Pandora’s direction. “Also, speaking of that date…”

  Brock was blinking wildly at Pandora’s words. “Mmhmm.”

  Katie smacked her lips. “One that doesn’t involve Pandora, either.”

  Pandora’s huge smile quickly faded to a pout. “Rude. Come on, get your ass together. We have a plane to board so we can get back home and you can go back into Emo, unpleasant Katie.”

  They both watched her walk off, smacking one of the soldiers on the ass as she passed.

  Pandora put her arms up. “And…recovered. You can’t hold me down, bitch. You can’t hold me down.”

  The plane seemed like a five-star resort compared to how they had been spending their time for the last few days. Everything was sparkling clean. There were donuts, milk, and coffee waiting for them after takeoff, and the seats felt like feathers plucked from their own wings. Immediately all three of them, Katie, Pandora, and Juntto, put their feet up and tried their best to relax. For Juntto, it was pretty easy. He had spent centuries witnessing, and often participating in, the mass deaths of entire countries. It was different for Katie, though; the initial look on Isabella’s face still figured in the visions in her head.

  Her body was relaxed, but as usual, with the world the way it was, and her responsibilities looming in the background, her mind
was on overdrive. She was just starting to get used to it. In the past, Pandora had slowed it down for her, but at that moment, she did not feel like dealing with Pandora’s constant snarky banter inside her head. At least with her in her own seat, Katie could combat it.

  Juntto, however, had just laid back and was enjoying the ride. He had pulled out a notebook and a pen and was jotting ideas down in it. The flight attendant walked up with a Cherry Coke in a glass with ice. Juntto glanced up, his eyes going wide as he reached up and took it from her. “I got bored a couple of weeks ago and found myself in a bowling alley. They had Cherry Coke, so I tried it with crinkle fries dipped in mustard and a huge pretzel. It is pretty much my favorite thing now.”

  The attendant smiled kindly, her face clear and smooth, but the creases beside her eyes showed her age. “Don’t you just love the simple things? I mean, who doesn’t adore a lavishly prepared meal, but those little quirks? Those are the things that make you let go of things for a little while.”

  Juntto put down his feet and sat up. “Yes. Yes. That’s exactly it. And this dimension has so many things like that. They seem strange at first, but in the end, they aren’t. I didn’t even bowl while I was there. They don’t make bowling balls big enough to be comfortable for me as a frost giant, and I hadn’t shifted. No matter who I shift into, though, it’s like throwing a paper ball down a hallway. So light. Anyway, I went back and started planning for the next cooking show.”

  The attendant pointed at him. “That’s right, Cooking with Juntto. I heard you made some amazing cookies on there.”

  Juntto crossed his arms with a pleased smile. “You have to make sure when you go online to follow me on Insta and smash that Subscribe button. I need more followers, for sure.”

  The attendant thought for a moment. “Have you been promoting on social media? I swear, you can sell anything on there if you hype it enough. Like the Fyre Festival. I won’t lie, though, seeing all those pissed-off little rich kids with cheese and bread for lunch on a deserted island made me a little giddy on the inside.”

  Juntto laughed. “I heard about that. How ridiculous can you be? I don’t understand it, not in the least. But then again, I make food for a living. I don’t put together festivals, or in Ja Rule’s case, put together a broken-down FEMA site.”

  Pandora smirked, turning her head from Juntto to Katie, who was staring out the window. She knew that look on her face, and she knew who she was thinking about. She unbuckled her seatbelt and dove right into Katie. With a groan, Katie’s arms lifted and then dropped back to the armrests.

  I’ve said this a thousand times: you need to tell me before you jump into my body, Pandora.

  Pandora sniffed. Well, you were over here daydreaming about Brock, so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I just strolled in to try to shift your thoughts.

  Katie got comfortable again. Why do I need to shift my thoughts?

  Because it’s getting serious with the guy, Pandora replied.

  Katie pursed her lips, watching the small patch of ice on the outside of the window begin to spread across the glass. I guess it is, but what am I supposed to do? I care about him. I want to spend more time with him, and putting it out of my mind is really not an option.

  Pandora faked a gagging sound, but Katie didn’t respond. With a sigh, Pandora switched her tone to a somewhat more serious one. You have a crazy-busy life. I just don’t want to see you get hurt because you want it one way, but that is not the reality of this world.

  Katie reached up, tracing the ice with her finger. Who knows? Maybe dealing with Beelzebub on a very public stage will teach the fucking demons to stay in their lane. I mean, how many huge asshole overlords do we have to kill before they stop coming after us? Not to mention that our response times and angel powers just keep getting better. Seriously, maybe this will free up some of our time.

  Pandora scoffed. Not too fucking likely. But what do we do now? I mean, usually we don’t even have time between shit shows to have our milk and cookies, but this one seems pretty quiet.

  Katie shrugged. I don’t know, exactly. No one has called. I know the station and the NYC cops could use our help, but that’s tiny stuff. I think at this point, I am going to rely on my angelic powers to lead me where I need to go.

  And if demons come back like they did before?

  Katie shut the sliding cover on her window and grabbed her glass of wine. I’ll be ready. And if they do come back, they better hope to God that I am not armed.

  Normally the wind in the desert would blow the sand up one side of the base and down the other. There was a constant stream of dry grains pelting the eyes, noses, and throats of everyone there. On that evening, though, the sand stayed put. It was wet enough from the drifting and fluttering snowstorm that had passed across the desert that there was no way it was going to shift and whirl like usual. It might have been really close to March at that point, but someone had forgotten to tell the weather gods that.

  Stephanie pushed open the doors to the barracks and walked out, her breath steaming up and over her head like she was smoking a cigar. She put her clipboard between her knees, and with shaking hands and chattering teeth, she zipped up her winter coat and pulled the collar up on each side. Straightening up and shoving one hand in her pocket, she gazed at the small fluttering flakes that drifted toward her. One landed on her nose and she smiled, seeing the shimmering ice crisp melt quickly.

  The flapping of a piece of tarp caught her attention, and she made her way over to her garden. She had been told that the winters in the desert were unpredictable, sometimes not sputtering out until May. She didn’t believe them, however, and even though she’d lived in Vegas for a long time, paying attention to the desert weather patterns had never made its way onto her daily list of things to do. She was more of a test-the-weather-when-you-walk-out-the-front-door kind of gal.

  She knelt and tucked the piece of tarp back into the winter cover. She wanted to make sure that the plants survived if such a thing actually happened. Plus, the sheets were designed to keep the frost out in the early spring.

  A soldier walked up and stood straight at attention. Stephanie glanced up, putting her hand on her knee and standing as she grunted through her words. “Nice evening, huh?”

  The soldier’s eyes shifted to her, and he smiled. “It’s a bit nippy for my taste.”

  Stephanie chuckled, waving her finger. “At ease. I called you over because I want you to snatch up four of your best guys to do something out here. It’s supposed to drop down in the teens tonight. I need you guys to double-check anything that could be affected by a freeze. I’m talking water lines, septic, the well—just about anything that could be a catastrophic event for the base. We don’t need to be worrying about that stuff if we happen to find ourselves in the middle of an incursion. Let’s not shut the base down because we were too focused to remember the basics of taking care of things.”

  The soldier nodded, his hands behind his back. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Stephanie pulled the hood over her head and squinted, the snow hitting her face. “Good. I’ll be on in Comms if you need me.”

  When the soldier left, she scanned down her to-do list, finding the next thing to be checking in on was Timothy and all of the systems that were up and running, and any complications he might be anticipating. Heading into the main building, she could feel the bitter cold windburn on her cheeks simmering in the warmth of the hallways. She walked to Timothy’s computer dungeon and slid her keycard through, opening the door.

  “Well, howdy, sister lady,” Timothy said, moving his chair over and clicking one of the buttons. “You look like you just walked out of a snow-covered hellscape.”

  Stephanie chuckled, unzipping her coat. “Yeah, definitely not a blizzard, but weird for here. I just wanted to come in and check on the incursion data.”

  Timothy swung around in his rolling chair and typed wildly on the keyboard. “If I had known it was going to be a windy, snowy hell, I would have pulled out my
vintage fur jacket and pranced across the base catching snow in my fur.”

  The screen changed, but it was relatively quiet. Stephanie walked up and looked at it. “Looks like you could be prancing anywhere you wanted, with as quiet as this shit is.”

  Timothy put his hands out. “This isn’t abnormal, not right after a big incursion—especially with the girls killing yet another major demon. Just enjoy the winter wonderland for now, and we’ll keep an eye on it. Before we know it, it will be so hot in this bowl of hell, we will wish it would be cold.”

  Stephanie smirked. “So you would take sunny beach against hell frozen over? Check. I grew up between SoCal and Las Vegas, so hot was the norm for me.”

  Timothy crossed his arms. “Mmm, girl, I grew up in Montana. They have snow that snows there. I came out here and lost fifty pounds just by taking the snow gear off. Though I do have to admit, there are times that I miss it. Then I remember the whole hat thing, the knit cap, and realize that world was not for the fashion-forward.”

  Stephanie laughed as she sat down in a chair. “When it’s cold, I don’t give two shits. I just want to be warm, hobo-style or not.”

  Timothy smirked and glanced up at the cooking show on the television. He opened his mouth to inquire about Sean, but before he could say a word, the door opened and Calvin walked through. Timothy hid his sigh, not wanting to talk with someone else in the room. He figured that Sean and his security clearance could be discussed later. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere, and he couldn’t really screw up anything where he was right now. He was pretty much not allowed near anything important.

  It was a slap in the face to Sean, but it was what it was.

  3

  The time just seemed to keep passing. Katie and Pandora spent weeks in New York doing small jobs, but nothing crazy or life-threatening, at least to Katie. On the one hand, she really enjoyed the downtime; on the other, she feared she was getting out of practice. Pandora was feeling it too, and as preparation to their trip back to the base, Katie had to help her pack her bag. She kept forgetting her underwear, although Katie had a hard time believing it wasn’t intentional.