The Demon Deception (20 page)

“Should I be worried?” she asked, her
expression indicating that she was far from worried.

Sam shook his head, “No, not yet. Not on this
mission.”

She thought about it, “And after?”

Sam didn’t say anything, he just smiled. The
mask was back. That mask took away the large, irascible young man.
In his place, death incarnate appeared. It had one hell of an
effect on Lilith. Her eyes grew wide, and her face and body grew
very still. Lazarus knew that there wasn’t a whole lot that could
put fear into Lilith. She was a predator, who hunted and killed
where she chose. Right now, though, she looked like a deer caught
in the headlights, and the semi was fast approaching.

Sam leaned back, and once again, the death
mask was gone and the handsome, young man was back. He let go of
Lilith’s hand. She unconsciously moved back out of his reach.

“So, you got luggage?” he asked. She nodded
and pointed towards the porch. Sam walked past her to grab the
bags. She watched this force of nature move up to the porch and
grab two duffle bags. Sam took them to the van, opened up the back,
and put them in. He walked past her again to the porch to grab two
rolling suitcases.

She watched him as he walked from the van to
the porch and back. She wasn’t sure how to handle Sam. Men adored
her, lusted after her, and desired her. With Sam though, there was
none of that. It was as if she didn’t exist at all, let alone as a
desirable, sexual, sensual, woman. He was the first that was able
to completely shut her out. She was intrigued. Lazarus cleared his
throat. She turned back towards him, the spell broken.

She looked over at Lazarus. She even had an
effect on Lazarus. She knew it. She could see it in his face and
his body language when he was around her. Her body was a memory
that his couldn’t forget. Lazarus could shut her out. His physical
and psychological responses had been pushed down as far into his
psyche as possible, buried under two thousand years of active
animosity towards her. The memories were still there, though. He
would never be able to push that aside.

Sam walked past with the two suitcases, and
put them into the back of the van. He walked back to Lilith and
Lazarus, “Is that all of your luggage?”

Lilith didn’t try the seduction again. Her
body language had changed completely, knowing that her attempts to
seduce were wasted. Instead, she was all business, “Yeah, that’s
everything.”

Lazarus spread his hands, “I thought there
was someone else with you?”

She looked around, back at the house, and
nodded, “Yes, she’s on her way. She’s in the house, saying goodbye
to her parents.”

“Her parents? How old is she?”

Lilith turned to look at him. She had a
coquettish smile on her face, “Don’t worry, my protégé is not a
child.”

Lazarus scowled. He didn’t know what Lilith
had planned. He knew that she would use any weakness against them.
He was lucky that Sam was stoic, Spartan in outlook. With Sam on
his team, they could handle almost anything. He knew Lilith though.
Her style was indirect. She would give options, ones that would
lead them down the wrong path if chosen incorrectly. This point
seemed to be confirmed when the door opened.

The door opened and Lilith’s protégé walked
out. She backed out, as she talked to her parents. Which was fine.
Lazarus could honestly say she looked as good walking away as she
did walking towards them. She had honey blond hair pulled back into
a French braid. She was in her early twenties. Where Lilith was all
punk, she was the all American girl. She was around five feet
seven, about one hundred thirty pounds, definitely taller and maybe
heavier than Lazarus. She was lean, but with a figure that men
would definitely notice. She was dressed in blue jeans, and an old
style bomber jacket with World War Two Flying Tiger patches on it.
She had on Converse All Star high tops in red and white. She
turned, and smiled at them, white teeth against tanned skin. The
clouds disappeared as her smile lit up the day. Her parents stepped
out on the porch behind her.

“Here now, you’re not going without a hug and
a kiss, girl,” her father said.

The young woman turned and gave them both
hugs and kisses. Her mother turned to Lilith, “You need to come up
here as well. You’re not going away without telling us
goodbye.”

Lilith’s mask was firmly in place when she
sprang up the steps. She hugged the mother, “Don’t worry, Maggie,
I’ll take good care of her.”

The father tried to look stern, and failed,
“you’d better take care of her. I’m counting on you.”

As the three women talked on the steps, the
father walked down and introduced himself to Lazarus and Sam, hand
out to shake, “hello, my name is Clive.”

Lazarus took the hand, “Hi, my name is Eli
Bethany, and this is my friend Sam Diabo.” Lazarus heard a slight
accent in Clive’s speech, but he couldn’t quite place it.

Clive took Sam’s hand and shook it as well,
though he seemed concerned about the large man in front of him,
“You take good care of my little girl, okay. Ordinarily I would be
dead set against this, but since Lilith vouches for you, I’m
willing to let Darcy go. I understand you’re only going to be gone
for a few days?”

Lazarus nodded, “Yes, she’ll be back to you
in about five days. Not too long. A quick road trip down to
Arizona, and then we’ll be back.” Lazarus appraised the man in
front of him, “Clive’s an unusual name around here.”

Clive nodded, “Yes, I’m a transplant. I’m
originally from Chicago, where my parents settled. I met Maggie
there at the University of Chicago, and we came back to her home.
But my family’s actually from Bermuda. I spent my summers down
there.”

“Don’t tell them too many boring stories,
Clive,” Darcy said from the porch. Clive turned to see Darcy and
Lilith start down the steps. Darcy skipped down the steps and
walked towards them with a youthful, coltish grace. Lazarus could
see the beautiful woman that she was going to grow into. Darcy
hugged her father as she passed him. Clive returned the hug, and
then walked back up the steps to his wife, and put his arm around
her waist. Darcy stopped in front of Lazarus, and eagerly held her
hand out in an unassuming, almost childish angle, fingers pointed
down towards the ground, “Hi, my name’s Darcy.”

Lazarus held his hand out, and took hers,
trying to stifle the urge to bend and kiss her hand. He lost. He
took her hand and gently turned it to kiss it across the knuckles,
“Enchanté.”

Her eyes grew big, and the smile on her face
turned shy. From the steps, Clive said, “That will be quite enough
of that, thank you.”

Lazarus straightened and smiled at her
father, “As you wish.”

Lilith completed the introductions, “Darcy,
this is Eli. Eli, this is Darcy. Darcy, the hulking mountain behind
Eli is Sam. Sam, this is Darcy.”

Lazarus leaned back, and watched as Sam moved
forward to shake Darcy’s hand. Sam took her hand, and stammered,
“Ah, nice to meet you.” Darcy’s face grew still as she took in the
stark, good looks of Sam Diabo.

Lazarus looked at Sam and Darcy, and saw the
expressions on their faces. He looked over at Lilith. Lilith looked
like the cat that ate the canary. Lazarus tipped his head towards
her, “Touché.”

Lilith turned and grabbed Darcy’s arm, and
walked her to the van. They chattered like high school BFFs.

Sam followed, and Lazarus leaned forward and
put his hand in the center of Sam’s shoulders as he walked behind
him. Sam looked back at him.

“Close your mouth, you’re going to attract
flies.”

Sam opened his mouth to reply, thought for a
second, looking a little muddled. He looked at Lilith and Darcy
climbing into the back seat of the van. A sheepish expression
crowded the befuddled look off of his face, “Ah, hell, she
manipulated me like I was a three year old child.”

Lazarus nodded, “Yep, that’s what she does.
She looks for an opening, and then exploits it.” He slapped the
side of Sam’s arm with the back of his hand, “Don’t worry, I fell
right into that trap as well. Darcy is quite disarming.”

Sam nodded, suddenly very aware of how easily
his armor had been penetrated by the shy smile of a young woman.
The look disappeared, “I wonder how far along the path she is.”

Lazarus shook his head, “There’s no way to
know right now. I guess we’ll find out, as we spend more time with
her.”

Emotion struggled across Sam’s face, “Do you
think we can save her?”

Lazarus thought about it, “I don’t know.
Lilith called her protégé, so that’s a very tough call.”

They walked over to the van. Sam peeled
around the front. They opened the doors, and sat down.

“So, where do we go now?” Lilith asked, to
the sound of shutting doors.

Lazarus turned around in his seat as Sam
started the van, “Well, we have to drive to Amarillo. We have a
meet out there to pick up some more munitions.”

“Munitions?” Darcy asked.

Lazarus glanced at Darcy, and then looked
back at Lilith, “How much have you told her?”

Lilith patted Darcy’s hand, “I’ve told her
everything about our mission. I didn’t explain your particular
method of operations though.”

Darcy looked confused, “method? I thought
they used magic, like we do.”

Lazarus shook his head, “No, we don’t use
magic. That’s her specialty,” he nodded towards Lilith. Then he
pointed at Sam using his chin, “We’re a little more hands on. We
have some weapons in the back to use, and we plan on picking up a
few more along the way.”

Darcy’s nose wrinkled, “You mean, like
guns?”

Lazarus nodded, “Yes, guns.”

Darcy frowned, “Guns are dangerous.”

He looked at her, “And magic isn’t?”

Darcy looked confused, and looked at Lilith.
Lilith smiled, “No, magic isn’t dangerous, not the way we do it.”
She took Darcy’s hand in hers, and folded both her hands around it.
Darcy smiled and looked back at Lazarus. Lazarus studied the two.
The dynamics between them would be interesting to figure out. Darcy
seemed to be innocent of the world at large, an ingénue. He didn’t
know if she was truly an innocent, or if she was playing a
part.

He nodded at her, “My associate and I don’t
have your skills. We have to rely on something a little less
esoteric to conduct our operations.” He smiled at her, “So we use
weapons. We use knives, swords, handguns, shotguns, and
rifles.”

Lazarus snapped his fingers, turned around,
opened the glove box and pulled out a holstered Glock 17 with spare
magazines. He turned back to Lilith, “Here’s the pistol you
requested. Glock 17 in 9mm with three magazines.”

Lilith leaned forward, and took the pistol
and magazines from Lazarus. She leaned back and put them into her
purse. Darcy watched the gun pass from Lazarus to Lilith, at first
with dismay on her face, and then with disdain. She frowned. Lilith
noticed. She patted Darcy’s hands with her right hand, “We’ll talk
about it later.” Lilith’s eyelids dropped slightly, indicating the
point that he had just won.

“
Touché,”
he thought to himself,
“One point for the good guys.”

Lilith continued, “It’s always good to have a
backup plan. You never know what’s going to happen.”

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

They stopped in Oklahoma City for lunch. It
was a little bit early when they got there, but it wasn’t too much
of a problem, and they were seated pretty quickly. Darcy and Lilith
sat on one side of the booth, and Sam and Lazarus sat on the other.
The waitress came and they all ordered drinks. Ten minutes later,
they ordered their entrée’.

Lazarus decided to use the time to find out
more about Darcy, “Your parents seem very nice.”

Darcy’s cheeks colored, “Thank you, but they
aren’t my parents. They’re my aunt and uncle.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.
That
explains why she called them Maggie and Clive, instead of mom and
dad,”
he thought.

Darcy smiled at him, “Don’t worry, most
people make that mistake. I lost my parents at a very young age,
and Aunt Maggie, my mom’s sister, and her husband, my Uncle Clive,
came back to Tulsa to raise me.” She had a faraway look in her eyes
when she talked about her parents.

Lazarus’ eyes clouded in sympathy, “I’m
sorry. Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

She shrugged, “No, I don’t mind. Nobody
really knows. They just, sort of disappeared. I was very young when
it happened.”

“Disappeared?”

“Yes. They were there when I went to sleep,
and when I woke up, I couldn’t find them. The neighbors found me
wandering outside asking for mom and dad.”

“I’m sorry, I seem to be bringing up all
sorts of bad memories.”

“It’s okay.”

Lilith leaned forward and patted Darcy’s
hand. She looked over at Lazarus, “Don’t worry, Eli, I’ve explained
a lot of things to Darcy about you.”

“Really, like what?”

Darcy looked at him, this time straight in
the eyes, “I hear that you don’t like witches.”

“Maybe. Most witches that I’ve met have been
involved in some terrible things.”

“Lilith told me that you hunt covens, and
kill witches.”

“I have,” he replied.

“How can you do that to people that are just
trying to practice their religion?”

“Because their religion involves the ritual
killing of innocent children.”

Darcy was taken aback by this pronouncement.
She glanced at Lilith. She wasn’t expecting Lazarus to be so open
about what he had done. She was expecting prevarication, not
corroboration. Lazarus could tell that she wasn’t expecting to hear
that witches were killing children, either. Lazarus doubted that
Lilith had told her the complete truth. More than likely, Lilith
had colored the information to paint Lazarus in a very bad light.
Evidently, what Lilith had been telling her had led her to make
some conclusions about Lazarus that were probably not true. Darcy
looked over to Sam, who confirmed by nodding his head in agreement
with Lazarus.