The Demon Beside Me (2 page)

“No limits?” I asked.

“None.”

I rubbed my hands together. “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Now I can indulge in my deepest desires to be a maniacal villain. So, do you think I should aim high and conquer the world all at once, or leave some parts of it free to take over later?”

Four pairs of eyes fixed on me. “Uh, demon,” Tink said, but stopped short. One eyebrow rose.

“That was a joke.”

“Never know with you.”

“Before you make any commands,” Caleb said, “mind if I ask Conquest here a few questions? There’s a lot of things I’m curious about here.”

“All yours.”

The angel smiled. “Thanks. Conquest, when you named us Second and Third, does that mean we will command the next Horseman?”

“No. If the Gatekeeper should die before all of us have fulfilled their terms of the contract, command passes to the Second, and then the Third. The only stipulation is that the command must be made in the presence of all living Gatekeepers.”

“So if Isaiah dies, command passes to me, and then to Anna if I should die?”

“Correct.”

“And what would happen if all three of us die?”

“If all the Gatekeepers should fall, the contract stipulates that the Horsemen shall have dominion over Earth, Heaven, and Hell forever more.”

No one spoke. I considered that idea as the silence wore on. I didn’t imagine that the world would be terribly happy under those conditions. “So, let’s not all die,” I said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Caleb said. “Conquest, what is this contract you refer to? Who bound you in this sort of contract?”

“Who do you think?” Tink snapped before Conquest could reply. “I can only think of two beings who would have the power to bind something like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse into a contract. It’s not as if I can go stick him with my blood and expect to force him into submission like that demon. It had to be either God or Lucifer.”

“Close,” Conquest said. “But not correct.”

“It wasn’t either of them?”

“It was both of them.”

I looked at Caleb. He was stroking his chin, deep in thought, but he looked at me and our gazes locked. I had my own suspicions about the end of the Celestial War. Caleb was one of the seven angels who had fought Lucifer himself, and Lucifer hadn’t fought back. There was something strange about the entire story. Maybe the Horsemen knew some of the missing pieces.

“Why?” Tink asked.

“They did not explain their reasoning to their tools.”

“Who witnessed the contract?”

“The contract stands carved into the stone of the Gates of Ascension. Do you doubt it, Third Gatekeeper?”

I was on my feet before I knew it, responding instinctively to the change in his tone. “Stop. Don’t do that to her.”

“As you command.” His voice was soft again, with no edge as there had been moments before. Tink scowled, but didn’t say anything. Maybe she had caught the change in his voice as well.

“What are the Gates of Ascension?” Caleb asked.

“The Gates of Ascension bar the way to Heaven and Hell, just as the Gates of Purgatory barred the way there.”

I laughed. “So Kibs wasn’t lying to me after all.”

“Nice to know we actually did it right,” Tink muttered.

“Conquest, what are the terms of the contract?” I asked.

“The Gatekeeper must command each of the Horsemen to fulfill their aspect. When all four Horsemen have acted, the Gatekeepers will acquire the keys to the Gates of Ascension. Heaven and Hell will become accessible once more.”

“And if we die in the process, you guys get to rule over everything?”

“That is correct.”

“You must be hoping for our deaths.”

Conquest smiled again. “Perhaps the others are. As for myself, I have little interest in dominion simply being handed to me. The joy is in the doing.”

“Can they work against us?”

“No. My brethren sleep still. Once you have issued your command and I have given you victory, I will return to sleep until the contract is complete. We are forbidden to act against you.”

I scratched my head. “So if you aren’t going to act against us, what sort of threat is there? I mean, it’s not like you’re going to shout out my name as you do whatever it is you do, right?”

“Are you stupid, Zay?” Hikari fixed me with a withering glare. “He’s going to conquer in your name. Don’t you think it’ll be obvious once people start answering to you as their lord and master?”

“I was hoping to be a shadow ruler,” I said. “I’ll set Caleb up as figurehead.”

“No thanks.”

“What about you, Tink? Wouldn’t you like to be sitting on the throne of somewhere or other?”

“The only throne my ass feels comfortable on is the porcelain one in my bathroom,” she snapped. “Are you kidding me? Not on your life.”

I looked back to Conquest. “See what I deal with? Some friends, right?” He remained silent and I sighed. “So, what do you suggest?”

“I am forbidden to offer advice.”

I looked around the room. Caleb, arms folded across his chest, glared at me. Tink scowled at me, as usual. Hikari’s expression was cold. There wasn’t a bit of help available in this room. I thought about calling Becky to see what sort of suggestion she’d make, but she was out of town and I didn’t want to disturb her. Jase wouldn’t be much help either, as he’d probably recommend I simply do nothing. Any demon would probably suggest I just take over everything I possibly could. Most of them would quite happily stab me in the back afterwards. If I had to conquer anything, it had to be something I could hold. With my powers, that was a joke, especially if my friends were all sitting here giving me various versions of the evil eye. “This is a pain in the ass,” I said. “You said there are no limits, Conquest?”

“None.”

“Does it have to be a physical or geographical location, or could it be metaphorical? Like, say I wanted to conquer Hikari’s heart. Could you do that?”

Conquest’s gaze turned to her. “I could. However, it would involve tearing her heart from her chest for you to claim.”

“Let’s not, then.”

“I await your command, Gatekeeper. Simply speak your desire.”

I sighed. “Look, guys, this is sort of silly. What should I do here? I don’t know what to do. I mean, shit, I could take over the United States here and be President of the free world, as they say. What the hell would I do with it? I’m not qualified to lead.”

“You probably wouldn’t be any worse than anyone else sitting in that office,” Tink said. “I suspect half of those assholes in Washington are demons anyways.”

“If you wanted, you could conquer someplace in order to help it,” Caleb suggested.

“Like I just said,” Tink mumbled.

“Like some sub-Saharan country in Africa,” Caleb said, giving Tink a quick glare. “Or some other place where the dictator is brutal. You could take over Cuba. Cuba would be interesting.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “Gorgeous Cuban women at my beck and call? Tempting.”

“No.” Hikari, as expected, was not a fan.

“But-”

“No.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

She shrugged. “Conquer something that no one will care about. Take over a square foot of land in Wyoming or Montana. Own an iceberg in the Antarctic. You can be the Lord of Penguins and Polar Bears.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

“Where’s the fun in shaking up the world?” she asked. “Where’s the fun in ruining thousands or millions of lives for this? What’s the point of this, Conquest? Why does he need to do this?”

“It is to open the Gates of Ascension,” he replied.

“I get that, but why does it involve you? Why do they want to unleash you upon this world? What the hell did we do to you?” Frustration started to leak from every word. “Their old war didn’t involve us, not until they brought humans into it! Even as they died, they wanted to put the screws to us! Why can’t you leave us alone?”

Conquest didn’t respond for at least a minute. When he did speak, his tone was as soft as ever, but there was sympathy in his words. “Humans are the bridge between angels and demons, a rotten, burned, untrusted bridge. We must tear the ruins down so that you may build again. We are the agents of change. This world must change.” His gaze returned to me, and his eyes were dark pits once again. “This world will change.”

I felt his power drawing on me again. I closed my eyes. “Please don’t.”

“My apologies.”

“But what’s in it for humanity?” Hikari demanded. “Why don’t we have a choice in the matter?”

“Because you are as children before their races,” the Horseman said. “Children rarely get to make choices as an adult would.”

“That’s not fair,” she said.

“It is not meant to be fair.”

“But-”

“Enough,” I said. “Hikari, dear heart, I understand your frustration here. I’m half human too, remember?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “Sometimes I forget.”

I let that pass, as usual. “So, Tink thinks I could do the most help at home here. Caleb thinks I should be altruistic and take over some place that needs help. Hikari thinks I should take over nothing. Conquest, how will you do it? How does it actually work?”

“The events for your choice have already been put in place.”

That shut me up for a moment. I spluttered. “You mean you know what I’m going to say?”

“No. I simply know that whatever choice you make, the foundation will already have been laid, and I shall be the catalyst of your conquest.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Well, then, what’s the point if it’s already pre-ordained? How about you go forth and conquer Heaven in my name, then. Maybe that’ll be a little much for-”

“Zay!” Caleb shouted, jumping to his feet.

I shut my mouth, too late.

Conquest was on his feet. I hadn’t seen him move. His body wavered, rippled in the air, and in a brilliant flash of light, a shining white bow appeared in his outstretched hand. A quiver of white-fletched arrows appeared, slung across his back. The coat, shirt, and tie had vanished, replaced with simple scaled armor. White fingerless gloves covered his hands, and his fingers pulled an arrow from the quiver and placed it on the string. He aimed up into my ceiling and let go of the string.

The arrow vanished into the ceiling, leaving no trace of its passage. Instead, the floor trembled and shook. I clutched the arm of the couch and Hikari grabbed my arm. A white light flashed through my window, bright enough to force me to cover my eyes. When the light dimmed, I saw a white horse standing tall and proud in front of me, and Conquest pulling himself up the saddle. “In your name, Gatekeeper,” he said, his voice no longer soft, but a growl that echoed and rattled dishes in the kitchen. In another flash, he was gone, horse and rider vanished through the wall and out into the night sky.

Nothing remained of the Horseman except the memory. I looked at Tink and she shrugged, her eyes wide. Caleb sat down heavily, head in his hands. “I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “But Zay, how could you?”

“I wasn’t expecting him to simply do it!”

“Probably shouldn’t have expected a being like that to understand sarcasm,” Tink said. “Not thinking, just like usual, demon.”

“Give it a rest, Anna,” Hikari said. “There’s no reason to believe that anything like that would happen.”

“He said he didn’t have any limits.”

“It wasn’t a question of limits!”

“Shut up.” The girls fell silent and I bit back any remark I might have made. Caleb was pale, but the veins in his neck were throbbing. “Just shut up, please. Zay, what were you thinking? How am I going to explain this to the Choir? Do you have any idea how they’re going to take this?”

“Is there any way you can avoid telling them?” I asked.

“If I don’t tell them, they will execute me when they find out. How do you expect them not to find out about the conquest of our home?” Caleb drummed his fingers on his knee and sighed. “Even if we don’t tell them, it’s going to be obvious. As soon as the Gates of Ascension open and we return home, it’s going to be yours. And you know what’s going to happen to you once they find out?”

“They’re going to kill me and take it back.”

“They’re going to annihilate you, your friends, me, and probably the entire Host as well. Don’t you realize you just won the Second Celestial War before it even began, and lost the Third?”

“Mom always said I was going to be famous,” I muttered. “Look, Caleb, I’m-”

A white arrow slammed into the coffee table, cutting my apology short. It quivered as if buried in the soft wood, but the arrowhead was easily half an inch above the table. There was a paper tied to the shaft with a white ribbon. I stood and picked up the arrow, untying the ribbon and pulling the paper off the arrow. As soon as the note was in my hands, the arrow itself vanished. “Cute,” Hikari said. “Message for you, sir.”

I forced a smile as I started to read the note aloud. “To the Gatekeeper Isaiah Bright, Lord of Heaven,” it started. “The realm of Heaven is yours. As there are no inhabitants at this time, our casualties are minimal. Your realm awaits merely the opening of the Gates of Ascension for you to take up formal rulership. Included with this note is the symbol of your reign. Rule wisely, Lord Isaiah Bright. Your loyal servant, Conquest.” Folded within the paper was a simple white key with a silver chain. I pulled the key out and held it up to my eye. There were no markings, no symbol, not a thing to distinguish it from any old fashioned key made on Earth.

“That’s it?” Hikari asked.

“Looks like it,” I said, taking the chain and looping it over my head. The chain burned against my skin and I felt magic bite into me. When I looked down, the chain and key were both gone, but I could still feel it within my skin. “Does the key have any meaning to you, Caleb?”

“Not a bit,” he said. “Maybe it would mean something to a higher rank, but I’m not familiar with it.”

“So that’s it?” Tink asked. “Now you’re the ruler of the Choir?”

I laughed. “No, I’m the ruler of Heaven. The Choir is something else entirely. Right, Caleb?”

“That is correct,” he said. “I still don’t know how I’m going to explain this.”

“There’s something written on the back of this note,” Hikari said. “My brother will arrive for his command in sixty-six days. Be prepared, Gatekeeper.”