The Demon Deception (11 page)

Uriel shook his head.

Lazarus kept pulling at the string, trying to
unravel the mystery, “so, if you don’t have a source, and the boss
didn’t tell you, then you must have known from something that’s
happened in our reality?”

Uriel nodded.

Lazarus knew that these guys had a handle on
everything that happened in this reality. They had all of creation
to worry about, to make sure things were proceeding according to
plan. If they didn’t know about it, it wasn’t happening. Still, to
understand what was happening, if there wasn’t a source outside,
then something here had to have tipped them off. Understanding grew
as he puzzled it out.

“Something has already happened. Something,
or someone from there is already here?”

Uriel shook his head.

Lazarus continued, “Maybe you’re telling me,
they aren’t here, but they have some influence here.”

Uriel nodded.

Lazarus thought about the implications. Not
only did he have to worry about alien beings establishing a beach
head in his reality, he had to worry about Lilith and her group of
evil misfits. Now he had worry about a third entity, a stalking
horse coming at him from an unknown angle.

Lazarus cursed. His life was beginning to
become very complicated. He didn’t like complicated. He preferred
it uncomplicated. He preferred, “There are the evil demons and
their minions. Kill the evil demons and their minions.”
Uncomplicated like that, he could deal with. Hell, he could stumble
along on cruise control when things were that uncomplicated.

Uriel put his hand on Lazarus’ shoulder.

“I shouldn’t curse, I know,” Lazarus laughed,
“I may be immortal, but I’m only human. You put a lot on my
shoulders.”

Uriel reached out for the Crucifix and Star
of David that Lazarus wore on a chain around his neck. As he
touched it, Lazarus looked down. The hand was gone by the time he
looked, and when he looked back up, Uriel was gone. There were two
lingering thoughts. The first was, “You have broad shoulders.” The
second was, “Protect the innocent.”

A wry smile slipped across Lazarus’ face.
Then he frowned, and thought, “This is way above my paygrade. This
is archangel smiting the unholy. If they need me to take care of
this, what other issues are they dealing with?”

Lazarus was worried. He needed to make a few
phone calls.

----------------------------------------------------

They began early the next morning. Sam went
to the parking garage and got his Dodge Ram and drove it over the
night before. They got up, ate breakfast, and packed anything they
hadn’t packed the day before. Sam had his cousin Morgan, a dainty,
lovely woman who didn’t look anything like the lumbering hulk her
cousin was, to come over and take care of Mooch and to watch the
house. She had beautiful, delicate features. The only thing that
linked them as cousins was the dark, thick hair they shared.

Sam began going through the list of things
that Morgan needed to do while he was gone. Then he gave her a
potential date that he would be back. As Sam was talking, Mooch
came over and began rubbing on Morgan’s legs, meowing for a snack.
Morgan picked him up and cooed over him, but Mooch was his own man.
If he wasn’t getting a snack, he wasn’t going to be held. He
wriggled until she put him back down.

“Why do I get that from every man I meet?”
she asked.

Lazarus stepped up, “Because, evidently, the
men you’re dating are idiots.”

Morgan smiled at him, “Well, you might have a
point there.” She looked at Sam, “Where’d you get this guy,
Sam?”

Sam spoke up, “Eli, that’s my cousin, Morgan.
Morgan, this is my friend Eli. Eli and I have done some work
together in the past.”

Sam pointed at Lazarus, “He’s off limits to
you.”

Morgan put her hand on her hip, “Since when
do you have a say in who I do, or who I don’t, go out with?

Sam held his hands up in defense, “All I have
to say about that is one word – Donny. Was I right, or was I
right.”

Morgan crossed her arms, “Okay, you were
right that one time, but that doesn’t mean you get to tell me who I
go out with.”

Sam shook his head, “Oh no, don’t get me
started. How many times have I had to come get you because the
stiff you went out with treated you like garbage? Remember
Dimitri?”

Morgan stomped her foot, “Look, you aren’t my
father, you aren’t my mother, you aren’t my big brother. You don’t
get to tell me anything.”

“No, you’re right. I’m not your father, I’m
not your mother, and I’m not your big brother. I’m the guy that,
night or day, whenever you call, comes to find you,” He put his
hands on her shoulders and pulled her in to his chest, and kissed
her on top of her head. She cuddled in for the big hug.

He pulled away after a minute, “Now, I’m not
going to be in town for a few weeks maybe. If there are any
problems, you go to cousin Bobby, okay? He’ll step in and take care
of you, or, if there’s a problem with the house, he’ll take care of
it for me. I got him on retainer to take care of this stuff,
okay?”

Lazarus enjoyed the byplay between the two
cousins. He stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and kissed it,
gently.

“Oh, wow, and he’s got manners as well.”

Sam shook his head, poked Lazarus, grabbed a
duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder. He turned and walked out
the front door. Lazarus grabbed his duffle, and followed him. He
turned to Morgan, “it was a pleasure meeting you.”

Before Lazarus could make it out the door,
Morgan grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him around to talk to him.
Morgan spoke, just loud enough for Lazarus to hear, “You better
bring him back in one peace, okay? I’ll come lookin’ for you if you
don’t.”

He smiled at her, “I promise.” He closed the
door behind him so that Mooch wouldn’t get out.

Morgan was no dummy. She knew her cousin very
well. Sam would work on the high rises for a while, but then he’d
get that far away look in his eye. He wouldn’t be able to
concentrate, and he’d start talking about the different places he’d
been. Sam loved his life, he loved his family, but sometimes,
Brooklyn closed in on him and became too restrictive. Then he would
leave and do something else for a while. His family understood that
about him. He was a restless soul since the thing with Mikey. They
knew that their Don Quixote had to go out and tilt at windmills
once in a while. They didn’t ask, they just made sure he had a home
to come back to.

Morgan walked over and sat down on the couch.
Mooch hopped up on the couch beside her, and looked at her. She
looked back. Mooch crawled over, began kneading her leg, then
curled up on her lap. He rolled over and exposed his stomach so
that she could rub it.

“Yeah, you little faker. I’m gonna miss him
as well. Just you and me for the next few weeks, huh?”

Outside, Sam slung his duffle into the bed of
the truck. The truck was a crew cab, like most men in the trades
drove. It had a camper over the bed of the truck. Lazarus dropped
his duffle onto the bed as well. Sam closed the camper cover and
locked it. He got behind the wheel of the truck, and unlocked the
passenger door. Lazarus climbed in, and Sam fired up the diesel.
They began the drive out of New York.

Lazarus was sure that he preferred the
prospect of being betrayed by demons to soul eating aliens than
face the horrors of NYC rush hour traffic. Luckily, they were
headed out of the city, and most commuters were driving in, so
things didn’t go as badly as he thought they would. Sam was a pro,
knew the city like the back of his hand, and Lazarus settled back
to watch life in New York pass by.

----------------------------------------------------

The drive to the
Poconos was uneventful. It took longer to get out of New York City
than it did to get there. As they drove, Lazarus thought more about
the visit from Uriel. Sam noticed that there was something on
Lazarus’ mind. He let Lazarus stew for a bit, then asked, “So,
what’s eating you?”

“This, all of this,” he replied.

“What, all of this? Isn’t this what you
do?”

Lazarus shook his head, “Not like this. This
isn’t what I’ve been doing for the last two thousand years.”

Sam shrugged, “I don’t see what the problem
is.”

Lazarus crossed his arms, “Really? How can
you not? This isn’t normal. They ask us to work with demons. And,
from what I was told, we’re using them against something that’s
just as evil. That’s my problem. I don’t see the upside to any of
this.”

“Maybe it’s the idea of an enemy of my enemy
is my friend.”

Lazarus turned to look at Sam, “Good and evil
can never be friends, or even allies. Besides, aren’t you the one
that said we should just kill Lilith and be done with it?”

Sam nodded his head, “Yeah, I did. I admit
that.”

“So what, now you’re okay with working with
Lilith to stop this,” he circled his hand like he was conjuring up
magic, “incursion from another reality?”

Sam took his right hand off the wheel, and
wagged a finger in the air, “Oh no, I’m not okay with any of this.
Not at all. But I do see an upside to the situation.”

Lazarus frowned, “What’s the upside?”

Sam smiled, “First, we’ll know where Lilith
is.”

Lazarus nodded, wondering where Sam’s logic
was going.

Sam continued, “Second, we know that Lilith
is going to try and kill us, yes?”

Lazarus kept quiet and let Sam continue.

“So, we know that she’s probably going to
bring a lot of backup. Because, let’s face it, she isn’t going to
put her ass on the line when it comes down to it.”

Lazarus nodded.

A big smile splayed across Sam’s face, “Which
means that we’ll probably be surrounded, not only by Lilith and her
evil minions, but also by the evil beasties that are going to spill
across from some unholy dimension. That means, it’s you and me,
surrounded by unmitigated evil on all sides,” he glanced at
Lazarus, “yes?”

Lazarus had a bemused look on his face, “And
this is a good thing, how?”

“Are you kidding me? As far as the eye can
see, it’s gonna be targets! Everything is a target. Hell, this is
awesome. Can you imagine how much demonic blood we’re probably
going to spill? Unmitigated, absolute evil concentrated in one
spot, waiting for us to take them out. Talk about a once in a
lifetime opportunity.”

Lazarus was dismayed. He looked at Sam with
concern, “Ah, big guy, I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Are you
okay? Do you have a fever?”

Sam looked over at the expression on Lazarus’
face, and began laughing, tears rolling down his face. He was
laughing so hard that Lazarus was afraid Sam would drive off the
road.

“Oh, man, the look on your face. Oh, that’s
absolutely precious. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of
that face.”

Lazarus shook his head at his friend’s
obvious dementia, “You my friend, are seriously disturbed.”

“What’s the matter, Eli? You don’t like to
laugh anymore?”

“No, it’s not that. I think this thing’s more
complicated than we were initially led to believe.”

Sam frowned, “What, working with a demon to
fight evil from outside the universe isn’t complicated enough?”

Lazarus looked out the side window, at the
countryside, “Evidently not. There might be third party involvement
on this side of the equation.”

Sam’s expression went from humorous to
serious, “What third party?”

“Think about it. How did my guys, the good
guys, know that this was happening?”

Sam shrugged, “All powerful, all
knowing.”

Lazarus shook his head, “No, or, at least
that’s not the intel I’m getting from Uriel.”

A dumbfounded expression look appeared on
Sam’s face. The pickup truck swerved as Sam took his eyes of the
road to look at Lazarus, “Seriously. Are you kidding me? Uriel, an
archangel, came down from heaven, and told you that there was a
third party involved in all of this.”

Lazarus shrugged. He pointed at the road that
Sam was ignoring. Sam got the hint and looked forward.

Sam shook his head in consternation, “Okay, I
get the, ‘Redeemer laid his hands on me and I arose from the dead.’
I can handle that in a somewhat abstract way. But dude, a direct
line to heaven?”

Lazarus waved that away, “It doesn’t happen
often. Last time was a few hundred years ago.”

Sam frowned, “You and I need to have a
serious talk sometime. There are a few things that you and I need
to discuss.”

“Such as?” Lazarus asked.

“Such as the, brought back from the dead,
fought demonic evil for two thousand years, have intimate knowledge
of demons and angels. Hell, you probably know more about the way
the universe works than the Vatican or the people at CERN.”

Lazarus looked away, “Maybe.”

Sam frowned, “In light of what you’re telling
me, I think we should be a bit more circumspect when we go into
check on the first cache.”

Lazarus thought about it, “Yeah, I see your
point. Without knowing anything about this possible third party, we
should be more careful.”

“
And the bad guys just keep piling
on,”
Sam thought for a moment. “Well, there is one upside to
all of this.”

“What’s that?”

“We don’t have to worry about an innocent
being in the way. I was right about that. Seems we’ll have bad guys
360 degrees.”

The conversation subsided. Lazarus was
unhappy as he thought about that last statement,
“There is that
at least.”

----------------------------------------------------

It was just before noon when they got close
to the first site. Sam pulled over at a restaurant. A light mist
was starting to fall.