Luther made a full recovery. A miraculous recovery. Even better, he declined to press charges for the unauthorized healing that saved his life. I even slipped him some money and helped pay for the hospital window, which had immediately appeared on his bill.
Jeeves and I had managed to black out the hospital cameras, and no random video had surfaced of me flailing in mid-air outside his room, so I seemed to be in the clear.
One funny thing I found out later. Mass General freaked out over the security breach and hired Innovex to patch their firewall. So, their new security protocols were installed by the guy who helped me break them in the first place.
The guys sent me a video when they got Luther home, reassuring me that he was okay, and that nobody was going to hold a grudge. Even Veazey, who pulled the camera aside to talk to me solo after the party.
“Calvin got your message, and he’s arranging the trip like you suggested. Two-week company retreat at that place you found in Colorado. Been twenty years since anybody did bible school up there. Let’s hope the site is still holy ground. And let’s hope you can… resolve your situation before they get back.”
“And no,” Veazey said. “I’m not going with them. I’m gonna stay and help you fight. I’ve made up my mind, so don’t waste time arguing. I’m fortifying my place and getting some hardware ready. Call me when you’re ready to start shootin’ back.”
* * *
Lydia was still nagging me about spending all my time in the Zone, but I told her I had a whole training room set up, and it would be foolish to try and recreate it somewhere else.
I spent a full day on the roof of Crazy Henry’s, reading Jacob’s journal, giving myself a crash course in magic circles and demon anatomy. Apparently, the key to killing demons was to disrupt their bodies so much, they couldn’t maintain the magic field they used to maintain their forms on Earth.
It was like popping a bubble, and once you popped that bubble of magic, the demon would discorporate and slowly disappear. They didn’t seem particularly vulnerable to head shots, but the real reason to shoot a demon’s head off was to disable its eyes and ears, so it would just kind of flail around while you destroyed the rest of it.
I set up the shooting range and called Veazey. “Hey, man. You’re right. It’s time to step up this training. Bring a gun.”
I was afraid Veazey would show up with a full truck bed, like last time, but he showed up with a large-frame pistol in a nylon holster. A very expensive gun in a very cheap wrapper.
“Veazey, what is this thing?”
“Traylor ten-millimeter with a grav compensator. Keep the batteries fresh and never fire it without the compensator, or this thing will rip your arm off.”
“Are these bullets?” I asked, shaking a dozen tiny pellets into my hand. “Where’s the propellant?”
“Binary propellant. Two different kinds of gas that mix in the chamber. Expensive and complicated, but this thing hits harder per bullet than any other pistol I have.”
“Hard enough to kill demons?”
“You better hope so. Would be nice if you could make head shots, but I’ve seen you shoot, and that’s gonna be more of a stretch goal for you. Let’s just get you putting bullets roughly within the outline of a demon body to start with.”
“I am not that bad a shot!”
“Yeah, you really are. So, be sure and connect to this sight and use whatever cheater shit they put in those optics for you. You need all the help you can get.”
We spent the afternoon aiming and firing dry, shooting holographic demons.
“Don’t go crazy with that thing,” Veazey said. “Dry fire with it as much as you can. The bullets are just hunks of metal, but that propellant is fucking expensive. I’ve got five mags for you; after that you’ll have to buy your own from my guy.”
“Veazey, how illegal is this thing?”
“Very. It’s not silent, but it’s not loud enough, either so if you get caught with it, it’s not just a possession charge, they’ll think you’re up to something and they’ll drive up your ass with a microscope. It can fool most scanners but do not wave it around.”
“Everything I need to defend myself is illegal. No wonder demons run this town.”
* * *
My shooting would never be good enough for Veazey, but he finally pronounced me “Good enough to not immediately become demon chow,” and set up two chairs for us on the porch.
“You sure Luther’s okay?” I asked. “No side effects, no weird hangover?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Doctors looked him over and said he looked like a teenager inside. Said you even cleared shit out of his arteries for him.”
“So, he forgives me?”
“Tim, if anybody is gonna understand demon shit, it’s him. He knows what you’re up against and he wants you to win. He needs you to win. We all do.”
“But it won’t stop with Luther. I can do stuff to protect you, but your family is in danger. I barely stopped him from hurting your nephew two days ago. Did you move him?”
Veazey nodded. “Yeah. Holy ground, like you said. Staying with my sister’s crazy in-laws in the woods.”
“I’ve got a plan to protect you, but there’s no way to test it. I think this thing I rigged can project a magic circle around a whole house, but I haven’t tested it yet.”
“That’s why you needed those spheres?”
I nodded. “I was able to copy a demon protection circle from one of my ancestors. It’s complicated as fuck, but with modern technology, I should be able to project the image straight down at any diameter I need. I can also paint a circle around your place with a sprayer, but I’ve got to come up with a better solution for Judy.”
“You know that girl’s not gonna do anything you say unless she knows why. You gotta tell her the truth.”
“Oh, fuck no. Judy would flip her shit if she knew I got powers. And if I told her I was in trouble with demons, she would go straight to the cops, no matter what I said. I would go straight into DMA protection and demons would slaughter everybody I know.”
“I’m in your corner, man, but how big a fight are you starting here? Even if you’re bulletproof and can punch like a freight train, you’re still just one guy. Can’t he just send an army of demons and overwhelm you?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Jacob was really clear about this. There is a finite amount of magic in Hell, generated by the suffering of souls in the Lake. Each lord gets a certain amount of it each lunar cycle or something, and has to portion it out to his princes, based on how much he likes them or how useful he thinks they’re gonna be. My bad guy is currently at the bottom of the list after being without a Kovach for so long. That means he has a limited supply of magic for portals and stuff.
“He’s going to have to send small demons in small groups, or one big one at a time. He can’t send an army after me; he can’t afford it. And he doesn’t want to kill me. He wants to scare me, and he thinks scaring me is gonna be easy.
“They think we’re all pussies up here, Veazey. They think the human race is beaten, so for a challenge like this to come from a guy like me? A wizard school dropout who can barely do a pull-up? That’s a direct challenge to his personal honor. He can’t let that stand. His bosses won’t let him farm that out. If I can survive the first few attacks, he’ll have to come up here and deal with me.
“I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m doing this so fast, casting shit I shouldn’t even be able to read yet, I think I can surprise them. I’ve got to humiliate him so badly that his bosses make him come up here, and if I can get him up here, I can kill him.”
* * *
“This demon chick has been living with you since your birthday? How long before you guys banged?”
“About six weeks. I didn’t just lose my mind and jump her, okay? She made herself useful. She helped me, she fought for me. She was… there for me, and she helped me get over a lot of Judy shit.”
“So, you’re banging your demon therapist? If she’s so dangerous, why did you touch her at all? Did she just wear you down?”
“I had to take a chance. This is hard to say, but… After that big one smacked me around, when I saw how big this whole thing was, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to do it. Before I could do anything, I had to convince myself that my soul was worth saving, and that’s what she does. She makes you love her, and she makes you love yourself.
“I had to find the will to save myself, and I couldn’t do it alone. God help me, I couldn’t do it alone. So now I’m playing chicken with a demon who says she loves me. Can I learn enough magic to beat this thing before she consumes me? It’s risky, and it’s gonna be close, but this was the only way.”
“But you weren’t alone, dipshit!” Veazey yelled at me. “One phone call and I would have been right there!”
“I couldn’t put that on you,” I said. “It was selfish of me to bring you in this far, but I couldn’t do this alone, either.”
“You gotta learn when to ask for help, jackass! Help from real people! Stop treating the world like everyone is your dad! Some of us actually give a fuck.”
* * *
“So, what’s it like?” Veazey asked.
“What?”
“The succubus, man! What’s it like?”
“Oh. Oh man, it’s not what you think. Lydia, she… she doesn’t do fantasies. She gives me what I need.”
“Yeah well, I need a redhead with an anime ass and tits bigger than my head. She give you that?”
“No, man. It’s not… it’s not like that. Look, my life has been such a shit-show, all I ever wanted was to have something normal. So that’s what she gives me, most of the time: just simple, sweet, and normal.”
Veazey was absolutely disgusted with me. “Unbelievable. They gave a succubus to the most boring man on Earth.”
“Everybody thinks they get you with shape change tricks and mind control, but that’s not how you corrupt a guy,” I explained. “You want to know what really gets you? They make everything so easy. They never hesitate, and they never say no. They spoil you so fast, and so completely, after the first couple weeks, you can’t even remember what real women are like. And after a few months of this, you start to treat everybody like a demon, like everybody on Earth is just a thing that exists to serve you.
“I didn’t think I could be corrupted like that, until I read their journals and realized most of these guys started just like me. My ancestors were not born evil, they were corrupted by a demon who convinced them they were gods.
“If this was just sex, I could deal with it, but that’s just the beginning. Lydia, she… she makes you fall in love with her, and I got no defense against that. I’ve only been with her for a couple weeks, and I’m already so addicted to her… If she had a whole year to work on me, she could make me do anything. I need you to understand that, because if this plan fails, you may have to take me out.”
“Oh, come on! Don’t even talk like that!”
“I don’t mean you, personally, but some of the guys you served with, they went black box after Dongala, right? And some of those guys are real killers? Snipers and shit? Veazey, if I go full supervillain on you, if you start seeing me on the news, you gotta call one of those guys and tell him what he’s dealing with.”
“We already proved you’re bulletproof, what the fuck is a sniper gonna do?”
“I’m not bulletproof all the time, and if she makes me kill, I’m gonna hate myself. I’m gonna get careless, on purpose. I’ll forget to put my wards up; I’ll walk around naked in front of open windows. I’ll get a fucking convertible and cruise around downtown. If this goes bad, somebody’s gotta stop me, so I don’t wind up with a body count like the guys in that book.”
Veazey stood up and dragged me to my feet. “I don’t ever want to hear you talk like this again. I don’t want to hear this loser shit anymore. You’re gonna fight these things, and you’re gonna win. No other option.”