Page 43 of The Morning Star
And now I was imagining Uri getting busy with Leethu, which was a far more stimulating scenario than thinking about the succubus blowing Dar. I hoped Gregory was in the mood when I got back tonight.
“So what’s our plan here?” Dar asked. “Please don’t let it involve me crawling around on this filthy floor and hiding under something.”
“Like a rat?” I teased. “No, I want you and Leethu outside, around the perimeter. Just like I was originally going to have you do. I’m facing this guy one-on-one, but I want you guys nearby in case he somehow tries to get away.”
In reality, I didn’t want Dar and Leethu to hear what Caramort might say to me. I’d not told them both that Caramort was working with an Ancient claiming to be Samael, and besides that, if there was something specific, something hurtful, I didn’t want it getting out into the open. I couldn’t trust that Leethu might not share something with Uriel if it affected the archangel directly. And I couldn’t trust Dar at all. The demon was a horrible gossip. He wouldn’t just tell Asta, he’d tell everyone in a ten-block radius, as well as put it up on the internet.
Dar and Leethu went outside, Leethu making sure to coat the place with enough pheromones that I felt like I was in the middle of an orgy. Once they were safely out I sat down and waited. And wondered if I had enough time to quickly rub one out before Caramort got here. Probably not. After a few minutes of practicing my intimidating posture, I gave up and sat down to play video games on my phone.
Caramort walked into the old granary with a big shit-eating grin on his face only to jerk to a stop and look around the empty space eagerly. Then his gaze landed on me.
“The bitch set me up.”
Yes. Yes, she did.
I purposely ignored him as I paused the Age of Zombies game I was playing on my phone. I’d just scored a Zombie T.rex and was in the middle of battle, but I was pretty sure this guy wouldn’t stand there and wait while I finished killing the undead.
“I’m getting pretty good at this, you know.” I stood and shoved my phone in my back pocket, letting my newly-revealed wings brush the filthy ground. “Good at killing zombies. Good at tracking down demons who piss me off.”
He looked at my wings, then at my empty hands. I hadn’t summoned the sword yet, but it was clear this guy realized I could have it in hand and mid-swing before he was halfway across the room.
“What exactly did I do to piss you off?”
Caramort was holding back and talking rather than just attacking me or trying to make a run for it. It made me wonder how much of a warmonger the guy really was. Most of the mid-level ones could barely form a coherent sentence and tended to talk with their claws and fangs. It was only the higher-up warmongers who seemed to get the whole strategy thing. Either way, I’d need to be careful with this guy.
“You cannot participate in any operation that massacres angels or humans,” I told him. “Even if the killing is not directly by your hand, you cannot be actively involved in plots to murder humans or angels.”
“Why not? They sure as hell don’t have any problems killing us.”
“They are not allowed to do that either. Unless a demon is slaughtering humans, they are not to be killed. Any other infraction, anything that does not pose an immediate risk of mass human casualties, is to be brought to me to handle.” In theory. Who knows what the Grigori were doing after the change in policy? With seven enforcers dead, I couldn’t see them being reasonable and lenient when confronted with any demon.
“Right. What they’re allowed to do and what actually happens are two different things.” Caramort sneered. “They’ll lie. They’ll make up any excuse to kill us. It’s us or them. It always has been and it always will be.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets and took a step closer. “No, it’s us and them. Working together. And anyone who doesn’t get with that program, whether they’re angel or demon, is a problem. I hear you’re a problem, Caramort. That’s why I’m here.”
His expression turned carefully blank. “You don’t even sound like a demon anymore. You sure as fuck don’t sound like an Iblis should. Since when is there this ‘us’ shit? Since when do we do what the angels want?”
“Since both sides decided compromise was preferable to death.” I took a few more steps and came to a stop roughly six feet from him, my hands still in my pockets. It was close enough to show I was confident in my ability to take him with lightning speed if I had to, but far enough that I had a few seconds to get my hands out of my pockets and get my sword.
I hoped.
“I’m working toward a situation where we get to come and go from Hel as we please and enjoy what this world has to offer, but if we want that, we need to play nice with the angels. That means no bounties on their wings. No joining up with Ancients who have a kill-everything-and-salt-the-earth philosophy.”
He sneered. “How about instead we just kill all the angels and do whatever the fuck we want? There’s more of us. We can take ’em. We don’t need to play nice. They hate us. We hate them. Let’s just settle this once and for all.”
“Oh, and that worked out so well for us two-and-a-half-million years ago?” I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t wait for his response. “We’ve got the numbers, but in general they’re more powerful. Plus, once we start a war with them, any compromise negotiations will be knocked right off the table. We lose and half of us are dead with the surviving half locked in Hel even tighter than before. They could take down the gates, and we’d never get out.”
“We won’t lose.”
I pulled a hand from my pocket and motioned for him to go on. “You sound pretty confident about this considering you’re a mid-level demon with an army of fifty.”
“It’s not just my household. There’s more. We’ve got a powerful Ancient supporting us, the real Iblis, not some peacemaking, angel-fucking imp with a sword. We’re going to wipe the angels off the face of the planet. He says last time the fight was in Aaru where evidently they all fought without bodies or something. This time the fight will be here and we have the advantage because we’re used to being in physical form and they’re not.”
“What about the humans? You think they’re just going to sit on the sidelines, eat popcorn, and watch while angels and demons destroy their cities? While they become side casualties of a war that isn’t theirs?” I shoved my hand back in my pocket and tried to look like I was planning on nothing more than a conversation with Caramort. I was hoping he’d come to agree with my reasoning, but the reality was that we were gonna end up fighting. But I needed information before I most likely ended up killing this guy. But I hoped could convince him to switch sides. I needed more demons on my side. I needed all of Hel behind me, and if I had to do it one demon at a time, I would.
Caramort looked confused at my question. “What about the humans? They’ll either support us, or not. And if not, then they better stay out of the way. The angels love them so much, maybe we’ll use them as bait in a trap. It’s not like they’re a threat or anything. They’re just humans.”
Moron. “If you haven’t noticed, they’ve got some impressive weaponry right now, and we’re not indestructible. Plus, they’re all over this world like fucking ants. Talk about a numbers game. There might be more demons than angels, but humans outnumber us like a hundred thousand to one.”
