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Normally when I summoned demons to the house intentionally, I used Jerome’s game room, which was self-contained within the middle of the house. It had one entrance and one exit and no windows. However, this many people, plus a demon, would make it incredibly crowded. I decided to use my kitchen instead. I put coffee on, because life is better with caffeine, and then I told everyone to take a seat while I raided my fridge for leftovers. I am a good cook, but I’m not just lazy about magic, so I had several containers of takeout in the fridge. I pulled them out and set all of them out on the island. Among the leftovers were some pasta from Giovanni’s, part of a leftover Philly from PepperJax’s, chicken enchiladas with a side of rice, and a partial container of cheese dip. While pulling out the leftovers, I also pulled out the meatloaf I made a few nights ago. I used the excuse I worked late hours to avoid making dinner most nights, but I did force myself to cook two or three nights a week to give Jerome a break from takeout and fast food. Albeit, with Jerome both magical and in puberty, keeping leftovers in our house was almost impossible. He could pack away the food. All of these leftovers except the meatloaf were from my partially eaten meals, not Jerome’s.
The coffee pot finished brewing and I poured cups for everyone who wanted one. I then put the sugar bowl, liquid creamer, and powder creamer on the table, and looked to see if I had any donuts or bagels or something to offer my guests. I did not, but I looked through the cabinets anyway. I finally found a partial bag of Oreos and a partial bag of Chips Ahoy chewy chocolate chip cookies and added those to the table. Demons weren’t fond of cookies for some reason, but my guests could munch on them.
“Soleil, stop stalling,” Magda said from her spot at the table. “I know you dread intentionally summoning demons, but this is the most protected house in the metro area where demons are concerned.” I sighed—I was stalling. I didn’t like to intentionally summon demons, they always wanted something in return, hence the food offering. However, I wasn’t sure I had anything left that demons liked. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they were incredibly fond of pizza, and I was out, I didn’t even have one of those super cheap Totino’s frozen pizzas I could offer. Jerome dug out his cell phone and looked at the time.
“It’s almost 11, I can call Cassanova’s and get a pizza for delivery or pickup, if Magda would portal travel there and back,” Jerome told me. “Since it’s us, they would probably take the order now, even though they aren’t technically open yet.”
“What’s with the pizza?” Miguel asked.
“Demons work on a barter system. If we want information, the demon we summon is going to want something in return. If we have to summon multiple demons, we’ll need multiple items to barter, or we need something they really like and they really like pizza. The better the items we have to barter with, the better the information we’ll get,” Jerome told him.
“Do you barter with the imps that bring you messages?” Miguel asked Magda.
“Yes, I keep pizza hot pockets at the office for them.”
“I don’t even have any hot pockets,” I admitted. “But for a fully-loaded Cassanova pizza that they can share, we’d struggle to get the demon we summon to stop giving us information.”
“Oh,” Miguel said.
“I’ll get the food from Cassanova’s if you call it in,” Magda told Jerome.
“Order several pizzas, some cheesy breadsticks, and at least one shareable pasta order,” I told Jerome.
“Don’t worry about feeding us,” Miguel said.
“She isn’t,” Magda smiled. “When we needed information about the cambion situation she sent ten large pizzas across the divide and the hell princes were lining up to talk to us. That was totally a demonic order.” Magda smiled as she said the last two words. Jerome called and sure enough, even though it was a quarter to 11, Cassanova’s took our order for six large pizzas, three of them complete meats, one cheese, and two supremes. He also ordered a large pepperoni, a rotini pizza bake pasta with extra pepperoni, two orders of cheese sticks, and two orders of cheesy garlic bread. Then he added a couple of two-liter sodas to it. Demons also like soda. “I might need someone to go with me to carry all of that,” Magda said. Jerome stood up and walked through the kitchen to the garage and grabbed some reusable insulated bags made by a company that specialized in bags. He set three of them on the table; two of them were specifically for carrying casseroles but would hold three large pizza boxes stacked on top of each other.
“I’ll go with you,” Jerome said. He looked at the bags and decided to grab one more, probably for the two-liter bottles of soda.
“I can also go,” Penelope offered.
“Great, they said twenty-five minutes or so,” Jerome told her. “I put it on our account,” he informed me. I nodded. I had a tab at Cassanova’s; we’d opened it last year while dealing with the cambion issue and then kept it open to start the imp messaging system for the AESPCA until they took over the food payments for the imps a few months ago.
“This makes me feel better,” I admitted. “For a large Cassanova’s pizza, most of the hell princes would turn over copies of every bargain they’ve struck since the beginning of time. We’ll get good information out of the demons we summon. However, just to give you some prep, demons do not deal with time. When Glees told us there was a mass summoning attempt, he used the word ‘recently.’ So that could mean yesterday or last month or seven months ago. If you try to get specific times out of them, they will just stare at you blankly. Also, I don’t summon their spirits, like what happens when someone becomes possessed, when I summon, they come across body and spirit. This means they will not be see-through or hazy or anything like that. They will be as physically tangible as anyone else in the room. If they don’t like you, they’ll let you know and if you ask them stupid questions, they will let you know. I will do most of the questioning because they can’t lie to me. They can, however, lie to you and everyone else in the room. The worst they can do with me is be vague, but they also know they don’t get rewarded for vague information that isn’t helpful.”
“Also, they are surprisingly polite,” Magda said, checking her watch. “It shocked me the first time I spoke with one. Since they are incredibly polite, they expect us to be polite in return. Don’t issue ultimatums or hollow threats, in other words.”
“I have one more piece of advice,” Penelope said, pursing her lips. “Demons are demons by nature, not choice. Soleil isn’t wrong, they are dangerous, but they also can’t do anything about it. Most of them don’t actually want to be demons and eventually everyone in this room will end up as a demon. It’s hard to hold a shifter accountable for what they do in shifted form; the same is true of demons. So don’t be mean to them just because they are demons.”
“Okay,” Miguel nodded at both Magda and Penelope. “You’re going to wait until the pizza gets here before you summon one, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Oh, one last thing, demons also don’t do well with identifying people. They know me when I summon them, but they may not know much about the person summoning them for the home invasions. They may give us a first name, what kind of supernatural they are, and some minor physical attributes, but they aren’t going to know it’s Joan Spratt who lives in a shoe and has so many children she doesn’t know what to do. So don’t expect that kind of response, even if we find the demon they are actually using for the possessions during the robberies.”
“I understand, I think,” Miguel said. “Will you think less of me if I tell you this is making me nervous?”
“No, it’s a demon. You should be nervous, and it makes me think better of you,” I told him with a thin smile.
“Time,” Magda stood and after a moment a portal opened that she, Jerome, and Penelope stepped through. They left it open, and we could see Cassanova’s parking lot from my kitchen. It was not yet busy, although in an hour finding a parking spot anywhere near the building, let alone in the parking lot, would be a miracle. Cassanova’s had the best pizza in the St. Louis metro area. It got meat delivered fresh from The Hill, an old-style Italian meat market in the older part of St. Louis City. They also got fresh cheese made here in the city by local dairy farmers delivered every couple of days. Cassanova’s has been in business for more than two hundred and sixty years. Pizza was considered Italian peasant food, and over the years they had added other foods deemed peasant food from all over the world to their menu—like French onion soup, shchi, and blood pudding, and peasant food had never been so tasty as it was from Cassanova’s.
The group returned in six minutes, arms and bags full. I cleared the leftovers off the island, throwing most of them away, and had them place the new food on the counter. We unpacked it and opened all the lids while seats were rearranged around the table, so they could see the demon I was about to summon. I spent close to a minute in internal debate about who to summon. They needed to be strong enough that they would have information, but hell princes and some dukes and duchesses were actually too big to fit inside my house. In the demon world, size mattered; demons increased in size in direct relation to their power. Smaller demons had less power and usually less information. I settled on the demon I knew would give me the most information simply because he found me entertaining and summoned Dantalian.
“If it isn’t everyone’s favorite exorcist,” Dantalian purred as he materialized in the kitchen. Dantalian was an incubus, a sex demon. However, he’d stopped offering to give me sex power after I introduced him to pizza.
“We need some information,” I said, gesturing to the others.
“Well, I know Jerome, but who are your friends?” Dantalian asked, as he flicked his gaze from the people sitting around the table to the island covered in food. We watched as his nostrils flared. “It must be serious, if this is part of the exchange,” he said, his voice husky.
“It is. You’ve met Magda the Red before, the other two are her colleagues Penelope and Miguel. Glees told me there was an attempted mass summoning recently. I’m hoping you have more information about that, as well as some strange possessions that have been going on.”
“Ah, the potion summonings that end at sunrise,” Dantalian replied, his eyes never leaving the pizza.
“Yes, you may eat while we talk,” I told him, and he picked up a plate and a piece of pizza. He finally looked at me and then at the table.
“Is everyone going to freak out if I ask to sit and eat this?” Dantalian asked me.
“No,” I told him. “You are welcome to take a seat and enjoy the food while we talk.”
“Thank you, Exorcist, by all means, feel free to join me. I don’t want to hog all the food or be rude and eat in front of everyone,” Dantalian said, and Jerome got up and grabbed a slice of supreme pizza from the same box Dantalian had. After a few moments, Magda did the same. Miguel sat as if frozen in place. I heard Magda whisper the word “polite” as she walked around Miguel to her seat. Since I had heard it, I knew Dantalian had heard it.
“This must be your first time in the presence of any demon,” Dantalian said to Miguel, without any of the flirting tease to his tone that his words normally carried. “I trust Soleil to have briefed you and assure you that I pose no threat to you at this moment. I am always willing to help for a nominal fee, and Soleil has paid that fee with this delicious pizza. So, which would you like to discuss first, the mass summoning attempt or the potion summonings?” I was about to answer when I realized Dantalian was looking at Miguel and waiting for his answer.
“Soleil informed me you could lie to me, but not her, and so I should let her ask most of the questions,” Miguel answered, finding his voice.
“Ah, that is technically true. But I suspect she summoned me because she knew with pizza in the equation I wouldn’t lie,” Dantalian said. “She will know if I lie. So, it’s your choice. I know more about the potion summonings than the mass summoning attempt.”
“Why do you know more about the potion summonings?” I asked.
“Because they are using them to summon incubi and succubi,” Dantalian said. “Ashtaroth said the recipe for the potion was old, he hadn’t seen it used in a long time. But it is effective, and the possession always ends after the sun rises. So far, they have only summoned lesser incubi and succubi; Ashtaroth says they can’t use it to summon a powerful demon. He also says if you send him one of those pizzas, he’ll tell you who originally created the spell.” I touched one of the boxes of pizza that was still intact, and it disappeared from the counter. I then touched one of the boxes of cheese sticks, and it disappeared. “The spell was originally created by Xerxes, the original Xerxes, not the new one.” I wondered if I should have informed Miguel that demons are in constant communication with their sires and Ashtaroth was Dantalian’s. The hell prince was able to hear our conversation as well as Dantalian’s answers.
“How did this group get their hands on the potion recipe, do you know?” I asked Dantalian.
“My sire does not know but suggests saving one of these pizzas and asking Leviathan,” Dantalian answered. “You have finally broken the connective spell.”
“What?” I asked, blinking at him.
“Some time ago, I told you there was a spell connecting you and Jerome to something, and I didn’t think it was healthy. You have finally broken it,” Dantalian said.
“Wait, that’s what you were talking about?” Jerome asked the demon.
“Yes,” Dantalian said.
“We didn’t understand what you were talking about,” I admitted. “This morning it was discovered there was a book recording all my thoughts. Jerome was able to sever the spell that connected me to it.”
“That is a scary proposition, especially if they have done the same to Jerome.” Dantalian cocked his head. “Connecting Jerome to a book that records his thoughts seems like a great way to rediscover ancient spells and potion recipes.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“Indeed. You may not need to give a pizza to Leviathan after all.” Dantalian stood up and grabbed another slice of pizza. “The people who have the recipe want power. The impression from the demons they have summoned is that they don’t possess any themselves, except what they have in bottles. Judging by your face, you’ve already discovered that for yourself. Fine, I will offer something you may not know—it’s not a single person. It’s a group.”
“Okay, what about the mass summoning attempt?” I asked.
“That was a disaster. They attempted to mix multiple individual summoning potions into one and have it consumed by the earth,” Dantalian replied, as he began chewing his second slice of pizza.
“Why the Earth?” I asked, looking at Jerome, who was on his second slice of pizza as well. Jerome shrugged in response.
“It was a summoning potion, not a possession potion,” Dantalian said.
“They’re the same thing,” I said.
“Are they?” Dantalian asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What is the point of summoning if...” I blinked. I had just summoned a demon and did not intend for it to possess anyone.
“Exactly,” Dantalian replied. “You are very smart when you aren’t pretending to be stupid, Exorcist. You know most of this already. You summon without causing possession, why? To talk and get information—is it impossible someone else would want to do the same? Someone without your powers and without your understanding of Demonation. Of course, it is. The question is why do they want the information they are seeking? Sadly, I can’t point you in that direction.”
“So, they tried a mass summoning and poured the potion onto the ground, hoping demons would spring from it, but they didn’t,” I said.
“Yes.” Dantalian nodded. “However, they are also comfortable causing possession to get what they want, as the demons they have summoned have been summoned with a purpose, to allow people into a home to grab a magical item. They’ve also asked the demon to identify the magic item for them. I know of at least one possession, a succubus named Bellatra, who was told to identify a magical item but did not find one. I recommend summoning her as well as going to see Leviathan.”
“And the incidents of possession are related to the mass summoning attempt?” I asked.
“Yes, same group of people.” Dantalian nodded in confirmation.
“I think you deserve to take one of these pizzas back with you. I appreciate your assistance,” I told the demon.
“I am always willing to lend my expertise when there is pizza involved, but realistically Exorcist, you didn’t need me to reveal this to you, you would have thought of it yourself at some point,” Dantalian told me as he stood shoving the last of the second slice of pizza into his mouth. He immediately followed it with the third slice he’d taken but not yet eaten. I sent him and one of the pizzas back across the divide.
“Do you know Bellatra?” Miguel asked.
“No, but I have her name and that’s all I need to summon her,” I told him. “Of course, as a succubus, she will have partaken in the spoils her sire earned.”
“Uh,” Miguel said.
“She means she’s sent stuff to Ashtaroth, and she has no doubt Ashtaroth shared some of it with his demons,” Magda clarified.
“Yeah, she once sent Ashtaroth thirty large pizzas. Bellatra has had it before and probably loved it,” Jerome told Miguel. “Pizza is like demon catnip.”
“I will have to go to Leviathan to speak to him, he doesn’t have demons like the other hell princes, and I don’t want to summon a dragon or hellhound to the house, but we can summon Bellatra,” I said, and a small female demon appeared in my kitchen.
Demons are colorful. Succubi are pink and incubi are red in their true forms. Bellatra was bright pink with blue and pink irises and had dark hair, which was unusual as very few demons, even succubi, had hair. It was a sign she was still very young. She moved a few steps away from me, as some demons do when I summon them for the first time. I took a step toward her, and she took another step backward and held up her hands. Fan-fucking-tabulous. Shit, I should have waited. I re-summoned Dantalian. The demon duke appeared next to me with a smile.
“She’s afraid of me,” I told Dantalian.
“Not surprising,” Dantalian said.
“So, this will go better if you’re here,” I told him. Dantalian began speaking in demon to the smaller succubus. I spoke demon but didn’t really pay attention. Dantalian was an advocate for demon/exorcist relations for Ashtaroth’s minions. I had no doubt he was soothing the succubus and reassuring her I hadn’t summoned her to kill her. After a few minutes of them talking in quiet, hushed tones, Dantalian managed to convince Bellatra to step up toward the pizza. She watched me out of the corner of her eye as Dantalian handed her a plate and encouraged her to get some pizza. It was obvious she wanted it, but also obvious she didn’t trust me not to kill her as she grabbed it. In her defense, I had destroyed a few demon spirits, which meant true death for them. But I hadn’t done it for a long time, and I had immediately regretted every death once I learned demons were reincarnations of supernatural souls. Had I known that earlier in my life, I would never have destroyed any of them, regardless of whether I had reason to. Many demons feared me for my ability to control them in the Stygian, and I had shown off that power by making Belial prostrate himself at my feet.
“Ashtaroth and Dantalian say you want to know about the summoning to identify a magical object,” Bellatra said after a few moments.
“Yes, but please sit down and enjoy the pizza. You have nothing to fear from us, we just want information and I believe in paying for it. You may eat as much of the pizza, cheese sticks, garlic bread, or pasta as you want,” I told her in a soothing voice. Bellatra did not speak English, another indicator that she was young. However, Jerome had already cast a spell to translate her speech from demon to English for everyone else in the room. It translated what I said to Bellatra for them as well.
“And if you tell them everything you know, she may allow you take some of the pizza back to the Stygian with you, to either enjoy later or share with friends,” Dantalian added as he took a seat at the table between Penelope and Bellatra.
“It was my first summoning and possession,” Bellatra said. “The magic used for it made me obey the person who summoned me to take possession of the old lady. While her body hosted my spirit, I was told I had to find all magical items in the house and identify them for my summoner. I could not find any magic in the house, except for what the lady had. The man didn’t have any and neither did any of their stuff. When my summoner came back, it was dark out and he shouted at me for a long time for failing to find the items he wanted. He called me names and told me I was useless, then he forced the woman I was inside to drink another potion and another demon joined me inside her. But the second demon was not one of my brethren; it had a different sire, a mean sire. That demon walked the lady around the entire house and found nothing either. The summoner yelled at that demon too, and the demon cursed him, saying he would get revenge. Then we were both stuck there in her body until the sun rose. I was scared the other demon, who was bigger than me, might hurt me. It didn’t, it just ignored me and then disappeared a moment or two before me. I don’t know who the demon was, but he was big and scary.”
“Bellatra, are you positive it swore to get revenge and issued a curse?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“Yes,” Bellatra said, her eyes widening, “I felt the magic in the words.”
“Thank you. Would you like to take an entire pizza back with you?” I asked her. She nodded slowly. “Absolutely,” I said, and asked which pizza she wanted. She pointed and I sent one of the meat pizzas back with her, and then thanked Dantalian again and sent him back too.
“Can you find the demon who cursed the summoner?” Magda asked me.
“I’m not sure, but Bellatra said the demon had a mean sire. I’m guessing that is either Belial or Beelzebub. It’s a place to start, although we will have to go through proper channels to talk to either of them.” I summoned a dozen imps and sent them with messages and pizza to ask the hell princes about the curse and summoning.
“You have to use imps to talk to some of the hell princes?” Miguel asked.
“Well, Belial wants my soul and Beelzebub wants Jerome, so imps are the safest way to discuss things with them,” I responded. It took about five minutes for Belial to send one of the imps back with a message for me saying he did know the demon in question. It was one of his, and I could have the name in exchange for his favorite food. I sent the pasta dish over and gave the imp another slice of pizza. An imp is about twelve inches tall, so it sat on the floor eating the pizza because I didn’t have a chair it could comfortably get into. A second imp returned and whispered a name to me. I gave that imp a slice of pizza and it joined the first on the floor to eat. Slowly all twelve imps returned, and I gave each of them a slice of cheese pizza—imps oddly don’t like any toppings beyond cheese. Jerome had been smart enough to have them cut the cheese pizza into thirty squares, so I had plenty for the imps, who couldn’t eat as much as a demon.
“We have a name. We have two options. I can send imps, which is the better option, or I can summon it and we can deal with it,” I said to the group.
“Is this demon different than the others you summoned?” Miguel asked.
“Yes, he’s one of Belial’s demons and that’s always iffy.”
“How so?” he asked.
“Belial’s demons are awful,” Jerome replied. “We have protection from curses and such, but still...” He shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. It will be scary, and the interaction will not be as calm and civil as it was with Dantalian and Bellatra.”
“Unfortunately, I think we need to hear it directly from the demon,” Magda said with a groan.
“Yeah, fuck,” I sighed, and walked over to stand by Jerome on the other side of the island. I shook my head and summoned the demon. Belial’s demons are green. He was snarling as he materialized in the kitchen and immediately ran for us. He hit an invisible wall that prevented him from coming closer than the island, and the snarling increased to include some dribbling foam.
“What do you want, Exorcist!” he shouted at me.
“I want to know about the person you cursed. While we talk, you have to stay on that side, but you can have pizza.” He was about to swear at me when he realized I wasn’t kidding about the pizza, and it was accessible to him. He took a piece and shoved all of it into his mouth. “You took possession of a woman recently and during your inhabitation, you cursed the person who summoned you. I need to know what you cursed the summoner with and what you know about him.”
“I know he was non-magical. I cursed him to die a painful, horrible, violent death,” the demon snarled, and grabbed another slice of pizza. “Let me guess, you want me to lift the curse?”
“No. In order to ensure the curse comes about, you had to mark him somehow. I want to know how and use it to track him down myself.”
”Yes, I did, and the curse has already been carried out; it happened soon after I cast it.“ The demon, who I remembered was named Marvarelle, told me. I considered asking how the person had died, but chances were the demon didn’t care enough to know. I sighed.
“Take a couple of pieces of pizza back with you, I appreciate the information. I just need you to clarify one thing; you referred to the summoner as non-magical. Did you mean he was human, or was he a supernatural that had weak magic?” I asked.
“He had weak magic, he could have been human or supernatural. His potion was weak, and he was weak,” Mavarelle told me. Then he grabbed two slices of pizza, and I sent him back to the Stygian. Miguel began to protest, but Magda told him the demon probably didn’t know how the curse had been carried out. He wouldn’t have cared about the details, just that it had happened. Miguel sat down with a look of shock on his face.