part0018

The command center was merely a conference room that would fit ten around the table, with an advanced computer system and several high definition flat screen monitors on the walls. The entire city’s infrastructure was at their fingertips, at least as far as monitoring it went, including CCTV, the power grid, water, public trans, street lights, and other systems.

She started to map out the seventy-three soul eaters on the map system, which was probably not so coincidentally exactly like their mapping system she’d used on her phone and Jacob’s laptop. She decided not to mention it, which seemed the course of wisdom. Regardless, she was already familiar with the application, and mapped things out rather quickly.

As she mapped out the targets, Jessica was assigning them to teams. At first by area so the teams didn’t have to crisscross the city over and over, they all had their own grid as Jessica cut the city into eight different rectangular shapes. That took care of most of them, but the last few groups there was a little crossover to get five assigned to each team.

She’d also met all the humans involved, as well as the teams, so she was keeping an eye on things. Her help would be limited, but it wasn’t unreasonable for her to heal a human from a distance over the life-web, as long as the wound wasn’t mortal or immediate. She also didn’t mention that possibility, since it might make them reckless and overconfident. She couldn’t heal death after all.

Fifteen minutes later, she had it all done, and then there wasn’t anything to do but dispatch, monitor, and worry. Unless the soul eaters moved, but she was fairly sure they could get to all the locations before night fell.

Grant brought her and Allison a cup of coffee.

She could feel his curiosity, and Jessica’s too, but she was disguising it well and pretending to study the screens.

She sighed, “Yes. I’m the first woman, and over a hundred and fifteen thousand years old. What do you want to know?”

He asked, “How is that possible?”

She nodded, “Soul eaters are immortal. Or at least, they’re immune to aging if they feed. I hold the power of all four races, though I don’t use the warlock powers I have, since those would corrupt my soul. I think that’s what Samael hopes for, if I live long enough, and face enough desperate situations, I’ll eventually cross that line and doom myself. Sorry, point is, soul eaters retain their youth and vigor by consuming the life force of others. It’s not actually permanent harm, unless they feed unto death.”

She paused for a second, and then smirked, “And that’s where the succubus and incubus legends come from. Ironically, the soul eaters that choose to live by consuming a lover’s life force in bed during sex to enhance their lovemaking are usually the good ones. Some of the evil sadistic soul eaters do it that way, at first, just to make the betrayal and pain they cause sharper in their victims at the end, but in truth that’s rare.

“It was the church that portrayed the succubae and incubi as evil and demonic, which is why it’s ironic, because on the whole those that feed that way are the good ones who don’t prey on humans at all. They vilified us and called us evil seducers, our mates of course defended us, but were said to be deceived and depraved. Well, I say us, but I was imprisoned during that time.”

Grant asked, “All four races?”

She swallowed, “Well, I kind of got busy with Samael a few times, I was married to him after all. I already told you he deceived me, I was young, naïve, lonely, and scorned. I was pure human in the beginning, but needed those powers imbued to pass along to my magical offspring. Once I realized I’d been deceived, I left and fought against him. The shifters come from me and Uriel. I wasn’t planning to tell you any of this, but I also won’t lie. Be sure you want to know the answer, if you ask the question.”

He nodded slowly, “It’s… hard to credit. But I believe you.”

Then Jessica asked the question she’d been hoping she wouldn’t.

“The races, they’re only born? I know in the legends of werewolves it can be passed on with a bite?”

She frowned, and then exchanged a look with Allison.

Allison said, “There’s a grain of truth in that, but it’s not quite that simple. People can’t be changed against their will, not easily, and it would be impossible for a human to become one of us without our consent. As for how that happens, let’s call it a state secret and leave it at that. It’s something we don’t do as a rule.”

Grant asked, “As a rule?”

She frowned, “There were times long ago when we almost lost, all but a few shifters and myself were wiped out by our enemies. We took human volunteers back then to turn the tide and replenish our numbers, but understand, back then there were no secrets. Until eight hundred years ago every human on earth knew of our existence, and our fight on your behalf. We’ve already mentioned it was the evil of the worst humanity had to offer in the witch hunts and inquisition that forced us underground. Humanity had turned on their protectors, and rather than fight back we disappeared. Or at least, the ones in charge did, the peasants couldn’t fight back, that would’ve gotten them burned at the stake for consorting with demons. It only took a few generations for most humans to consign us to legends and fables.”

She paused a second, “On the good side, human civilization has never been this strong, and our numbers are fairly high right now. That doesn’t mean we are unassailable though, civilizations can fall, especially with a powerful fallen angel on the loose.”

She stopped then, holding back her thoughts that it was inevitable. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a thousand years, but at some point, the tide would turn again.

An agent she’d never seen before slipped into the room, and she whispered urgently to Grant before turning around and leaving.

Grant turned with a frown, and he grabbed a remote off the table. He changed one of the monitors to a twenty-four-hour news station. They watched for a few minutes.

Allison said, “You can say that again.”

On the screen was a video of their last operation, the building had been bugged for video and sound. The video was also obviously cut, and it portrayed the FBI and the shifters with them as killing indiscriminately. There was no way to record emotional attacks, or see witch spells, and there was no footage of the hellfire, or soul eaters attacking with guns or knives. It looked like a slaughter.

Following that, was a brief statement made by Asmodai, who still looked gravely wounded which was either a lie or something he put up with while making the recording. Asmodai talked about his people being viciously gunned down, and attacked without warning, just for existing. Went on about justice, and really laid it on thick.

The pundits and anchors came on then, and they started to question everything. All they had about all this was the word of shifters they didn’t really know at all. Were the others really evil, or being hunted down for merely what they were? One of them even suggested we were racist, and no better than the KKK was. It was… ugly, and it didn’t put them in a good light at all.

Grant was pissed, and she was too.

At least Grant and Jessica looked disgusted, and quite sure. They’d been there after all, and had felt the attacks of the soul eaters, and saw four of their and four supernatural beings consumed by hellfire. They’d also heard threats out of Asmodai’s mouth directly.

Thing was, she knew a lot of people wouldn’t care about the truth, they’ll react negatively and emotionally to the video, and judge them for the deaths and violence. Not all of humans, some would seek out the truth and hear the other side, she just hoped the politicians wouldn’t be one of those to turn a blind eye in misplaced disgust and sympathy for evil dressed up deceptively in innocence.

She sighed, “We’re fighting the tide with violence, and Asmodai is fighting for hearts and minds.”

There were way too many humans now for the soul eaters and perhaps even warlocks to take down easily. Asmodai was trying to turn them against each other, and as far as she could tell based on human nature and the repeating history of the past, he’d succeed if he wasn’t stopped soon and sent back to hell.

Humans would always be split on the subject, some on either side, most in the middle, like any other subject to be judged. That wasn’t the end of the world, not if they could show they were hunting monsters, and the soul eaters wouldn’t be fighting back in the same way. In short, they needed to stop Asmodai, then that whole angle of attack would go away.

Sure, some of humanity would have doubts, but they probably wouldn’t start a civil war over it either. Not without Asmodai there to push their buttons.

Jessica said what she was thinking, “We need to put that asshole down.”

“What can we hit him with, you said you had an idea?”

Jessica nodded, “You said magic requires clarity of thought. We can barrage him with a sonic weapon, it will cause confusion in his mind, and make him feel physically ill.”

She tilted her head, “If he isn’t shielded from it, but it’s worth a try.”

Jessica replied, “That complicates things, but we can also hit him with that drone strike.”

She said, “The fire and heat won’t hurt him, but the concussion and falling building might do a lot of damage.”

Grant asked, “Physical weapons are better?”

She nodded, “If you can hit him.”

Grant grunted, “Maybe an AC-130 then, we can rain down twenty-five-millimeter ammo at a tremendous rate, and maybe a few one hundred and five millimeter, high explosive rounds. Forget the drone strike. After we tear apart the area, we can move in and finish him off if we have to, while using sonics in the hope of suppressing his magic.”

Allison giggled, “That might do it.”

Yeah, it was the might part that bothered her, but if that didn’t work nothing short of a nuke would. Although, she was sure a bullet or sword to the head or heart might work, thing was he was just too fast to get a mortal hit like that in a duel.

Jessica started typing, “I’ll kick that up the chain, I imagine we’ll know tonight, or tomorrow morning by latest.”

Grant nodded, “Of course, we won’t get a go on it if there are civilians in the line of fire, which is a good thing of course. A secondary plan would be sonics, sniper rounds, and finish him off up close if necessary.”

She nodded, “You’ll be the first to know when he’s back in town.”

Jessica asked, “You’re the only one who can feel him like that?”

She replied, “Sort of. The only one on our side, yes. Any warlock would feel any demon’s aura if they were in range, it’s a passive thing.”

They all shifted their focus to the communications equipment and screens, as the teams reached their first assignments and started to take out the soul eaters. She hated not being out there with them, but grudgingly agreed it was the best place for her.

She marked the kills on the screen, as she felt them leave the life-web, and had to update several times as some of them started to move around. She also healed five humans that afternoon, as they cleaned up DC of all enemies. Of course, she expected another wave to be coming in soon, unless Asmodai changed tactics he’d keep doing the same as he fanned the humans into doing something stupid, like turning on themselves.

They really needed to take them all out.

Grant didn’t have any more questions for them, at least not on that day, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he thought of others by tomorrow. Clearly, they were working together and on the same side, which was a good thing, but it was also clear they were there to learn about them. And, their personal opinions being good or not, she knew both Grant and Jessica would turn against them in a heartbeat if they were ordered to do so.