The final gateway.Something about the phrasing suggested that it wasn’t only the last portal in the sequence — it was the most important one.
“What makes that portal special?”Caleb asked.
For the first time since he entered the room, Vinea’s mask of confidence slipped just the slightest bit.In that brief moment, Caleb caught a glimpse of something that might have been anticipation mixed with genuine uncertainty.
“That gateway will be large enough to accommodate entities that haven’t walked this plane since before the human race learned to make fire,” the demon lord said, his quiet tone somehow far more ominous than a loud declaration would have been.“Powers that make even someone like me look like a minor nuisance.”
Entities that made a lord of Hell look puny.Caleb didn’t want to think about what that might mean, but his mind helpfully supplied images of a few unsettling things he’d glimpsed in the deepest parts of Hell during his unwilling residency there.Ancient beings that existed at the very foundations of reality, creatures so old and powerful that they reshaped the laws of physics through their mere presence.
If something like that crossed over to Earth….
“Having second thoughts, nephew?”Vinea asked, having apparently noticed his reaction.“I will remind you that the ritual will proceed with or without your cooperation.Your willing involvement simply makes everything simpler.”
The threat was delivered with the demon lord’s usual urbane courtesy, but Caleb could hear the steel beneath the silk.Vinea was confident that Caleb would ultimately cooperate…but he was also prepared to drain his blood by force if necessary.
Which meant the sabotage Caleb had been weaving into the ritual framework was his only real weapon.
“No second thoughts,” Caleb said coolly.“I’m just trying to understand the full picture.”
“Wise of you.”Vinea rose from his chair, which dissolved back into nothingness as soon as he stood.“Knowledge is power, after all.And you’ll need every advantage you can get if you hope to survive what’s coming.”
The casual admission that Caleb might not survive the ritual should have been terrifying.Instead, it was almost a relief.If Vinea hadn’t been certain that his primary source of demon blood would live through the process, then the demon lord had probably built in redundancies and backup plans.
Which meant there were other targets, other sources of the mixed heritage that could power the portal network.
Other quarter demons.
But how was that possible when all the other quarter demons were safely locked away in Hell?
“Who else?”Caleb demanded, not caring how rough his voice sounded.“If something happens to me, who’s your backup plan?”
Vinea’s smile was all pointed teeth.“Why, your lovely Ms.Dunne, of course.Her abilities have been growing quite dramatically since her little adventure in Laughlin.I suspect her blood might be even more potent than yours.”
The demon lord might as well have punched Caleb right in the gut, considering how breathless…how helpless…those words made him feel.Sure, he’d known Delia’s psychic abilities had been expanding over the past few weeks, or he wouldn’t have been able to maintain any kind of bond with her, tenuous as it seemed at the moment.
“Delia doesn’t have any demon blood,” he said.Somehow, his voice stayed level, although he couldn’t be sure that Vinea hadn’t noticed some other physical reaction to that threatening comment— maybe just the slightest widening of his eyes, or a momentary increase in his body heat.
After all, demons’ senses were far sharper than those of ordinary humans.
“Perhaps not,” Vinea replied, “but she’s something equally rare — a mortal whose psychic potential has been awakened by exposure to interdimensional energy.That sort of person doesn’t come along very often, so in some ways, that makes her even more valuable than a quarter demon, since there are seven of you and only one of her.”The demon lord began to walk around the small room, his footsteps silent, even though the leather soles of his expensive Italian lace-ups should have been clacking on the hard concrete floor.
His explanation made a horrible kind of sense.During the incident in Laughlin, Delia had been exposed to massive amounts of supernatural energy, first from the Colorado River guardian network, and then by the portal the demon masquerading as August Sellers had partly opened.If that exposure had changed her on some deep level that no one suspected….
“You’re not touching her,” Caleb said, and this time he didn’t bother to hide the fury in his voice.
“Oh, I don’t intend to,” Vinea replied, looking singularly unruffled.“As long as you fulfill your role in tonight’s festivities, Ms.Dunne will be perfectly safe.It’s only if something unfortunate were to happen to you that we’d need to explore…well, let’s just call them alternative arrangements.”
Another threat wrapped in silk, but this one sounded all too sincere.Vinea would use Delia’s blood to power his ritual without a moment’s hesitation if Caleb failed to cooperate.
Which meant the sabotage he’d been planning had to be subtle enough to avoid detection but still serious enough to bring down the entire operation.That was a balancing act even a high-wire artist might think about twice.
No pressure.
“I understand,” Caleb said, and he meant it.He understood exactly what was at stake…and exactly what he had to do.
Vinea nodded, apparently satisfied that his message had been received.“Excellent.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some final preparations to oversee.The catering alone for tonight’s gathering is quite complex — we’re expecting representatives from seven different circles of Hell once the portal has been opened, and their dietary requirements are somewhat specialized.”
Caleb really didn’t want to think about that.Technically, demons didn’t need to eat, which was a good thing, since there was no food or water in Hell.One simply existed without any sort of bodily functions at all.That had been yet another horrifying element of the whole ghastly experience, of knowing that he looked just like his old self but that certain parts of his biology had been put on hold.He’d lost weight during those two years, but at a much slower rate than would have been normal, considering his zero caloric intake.
