The Demon Deception by Mark Harritt

her eyes betrayed the truth of
his statement. She leaned back, the hard edges of her face
softening. “Point taken. One question before we start.”
    “Okay, shoot.”
    “Did you enjoy killing the twelve women of
the coven? That’s brazen, even for you.”
    He put down the coffee cup, “That offense, I
put at your feet. Those women already made their decision. They
murdered, and were willing to murder again. I’ve lost my taste for
trying to rescue those who don’t want to be.”
    She smiled, the seductress once again, “What
if I told you that one of those women was a police officer. She was
investigating the disappearances of children in the area. She
infiltrated the ‘coven’ to discover who had stolen the children.
She was about to blow the whistle on everybody down there. You
killed an innocent woman.”
    It was his turn to smile, “You mean Detective
Gaffigan, who was paid by the mafia to turn a blind eye to their
operations. The same one who helped them kill a transvestite hooker
that knew about her activities with various organized crime
members?”
    The smile disappeared from her face. She knew
she had been outmaneuvered.
    He spoke, “Now, can we get down to
business?”
    She looked at her manicure, seemingly
unaffected, and nodded.
    “Something new has occurred. There’s going to
be an incursion.”
    “Incursion? What do you mean? An incursion of
what?”
    “From another reality.”
    He sipped his coffee. She had forgotten hers
completely. The conversation had taken an interesting turn and
intrigued her, “Continue.”
    “Our masters are jealous masters. They vie
against each other, but they brook no interference from
interlopers.”
    Her face stayed non-committal, “Fascinating.
I’ve heard rumors about this happening before.”
    It was his turn to show interest, “Really,
when?”
    She shrugged, “I’m not sure. Before you were
alive, certainly. Before I proved my worth to the Master.” She
inhaled, her chest expanding deliciously, “And what is this to us?
Why am I here?”
    He didn’t like what he was about to say any
more than he thought she would.
    “We have different strengths. Yours are the
ways of magic, the use of demonic powers, subtle treason. Mine are
the ways of the warrior, tactics, strategy; the use of weapons
against the monsters your master has created.” He paused, not
wishing to say what he was about to say, then continued, “Our
bosses wish for us to combine our strengths. They want us to work
together.”
    She stared at him, and then began laughing.
Her feminine laugh made the restaurant patrons look towards her
again, the sexual tension rising in the restaurant. She laughed for
a good, long time, “Oh, that’s rich. We’ve been circling each other
for millennia, two dogs vying for the same bone. Now, they want us
to work together? That’s foolish.”
    He wasn’t enjoying this at all. The entire
restaurant was watching them. He understood the reasons that had
been presented to him, but he knew that she would use every
opportunity to attack him, to betray him. It was her nature. There
was nothing he could do about the situation, however. He would have
to play frog to the scorpion. He was trapped in this swim across
the river.
    “Evidently, everybody else is busy.” He held
up a hand to stop the question on her tongue, “And no, I don’t know
what they’re busy with.” He put the hand back down on the table,
“There is no one, or no higher beings that are available to deal
with the situation, as it is. They want us to deal with it, our
past beside the point.”
    Her laugh tinkled across the restaurant
again, “And when is this supposed to occur? If they’ve decided
this, did they tell you where or when we should work against this
‘incursion’?”
    Eli nodded, “yes, I know the place, and,
approximately, the time. I don’t know who all is involved, or the
magnitude of the response that’s needed to contain it.”
    She put her finger in the coffee,