Interlogue 3

Alecto sat in a well-lit room in a richly furnished penthouse suite atop a large casino in Las Vegas. With him were four other demons. They sat in a circle, each on a comfortable, armed chair. In the middle of the circle was a six-sided table with two nude female succubi atop it. They pleasured each other for the demons to watch while they discussed business. One chair remained unoccupied, and the five demons waited for the sixth member of their party to arrive before delving fully into the matters at hand.

All of the room’s occupants were dressed superbly. This was standard procedure for demons of high rank, especially when meeting in a formal setting on the mortal plane. Alecto wore white pants, a long white tunic, and a black ascot. Malathazar had dressed less formally in his black pants, green shirt, no tie, and open collar. The three demonesses all wore stunning dresses or suits which matched or even exceeded the fashion of the males.

None of the demons in the room were beings Alecto would consider friends. Certainly not Malathazar, with whom he’d been coordinating the efforts to sway the Nexus. While Alecto retained his title of Overlord of Special Projects, Malathazar was Obsessive Overlord of North America and eyed Alecto’s position jealously. That was part of the nature of demons. While unhealthy competition was routinely fostered between them by their superiors, friendships, even camaraderie, were not.

One demoness, Gallaven, the Supreme Possessive Overlady, checked her watch. “He’s late. I suggest we start.”

Hallistar and Fesha, the two other demonesses, also nodded. Alecto stood and dimmed the windows until the sunlight was but a memory. Everyone would feel more comfortable in the darkness. Malathazar visibly relaxed, and the two succubi went at each other with even more fervor.

“The purpose of this meeting,” Alecto began, “is to discuss the two potential Nexuses. While things with Marcia ‘Marcy’ Dawson progress smoothly, we have seen little movement with Jade Seymour. We need to discuss tactics. Hence, I’ve gathered each of you here because you offer unique insight into ways to lead Jade down a more agreeable path to achieve our aims. Increased pressure from the top is coming down on Malathazar and me, so we want to start seeing results.”

“What’s the point if we still don’t know which is the Nexus?” Gallaven asked. “We may very well be doing all this work for nothing!”

Alecto smiled at Gallaven’s foolish question. “Every soul won over to our side is worth the effort.”

“But so many resources spent on one soul who is not the Nexus may mean several hundred more getting away from us! Marcia is already showing signs that we may possess her one day. Can you imagine it? A Nexus we can fully possess? The possibilities would be endless.”

Malathazar rolled his eyes and went back to watching the succubi pleasure each other. “So few souls are ever truly able to accept possession. I wouldn’t put my chips on that bet.”

Gallaven was responsible for all of the Possessives in the world. There were fewer Possessive demons than any other kind, but they wielded great power. They could control a person so far down the path of darkness that their body and spirit were willing to accept external control to align his or herself with the will of Lucifer. The irony of that scenario was that so many people often rejected the path of righteousness because they felt it was too controlling or restrictive.

Indeed, one of the great skills a Persuasive had to have was the ability to convince people to walk down the dark path without realizing it. A slow walk into rebellion against the light was far more preferable to a jog or sprint because the more signs of darkness people saw, the more repugnant the darkness became to their nature. A slow, gradual desensitization was generally more successful.

“Malathazar,” Alecto said, “what is the latest information on Jade’s progress?”

“Actually,” Malathazar answered, eyes flickering back and forth repeatedly between Alecto and the succubi, “I invited Fesha for that purpose. She’s our Obsessive Overseer in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. She’s more equipped with the latest information than I am.”

Fesha straightened her golden gown, which shone brilliantly against her onyx skin and matched her golden irises perfectly. “We do believe we’ve found a lever to move Jade. Her father and mother are having marital problems. Her mother is suspicious of her father committing adultery, though she is not yet certain of it. He is indeed cheating on her, and the problem is much worse than she realizes. He’s sleeping with prostitutes and has contracted gonorrhea, although he doesn’t know it.”

“How does that affect Jade?” Malathazar asked.

Alecto swallowed the biting remark he wanted to say and instead measured his tone. “You don’t think the dissolution of Jade’s parents’ marriage and the breakdown of her family will negatively affect her?”

Malathazar spread his palms in an open gesture. “Simply asking a question.”

Fesha spoke again. “We in analytics believe rocking Jade’s foundational core, her bedrock of the family institution, will send her into a tailspin. She’s already shown signs of struggling to deal with the stresses of academic rigors. Last semester, she compromised her values and performed a sexual favor on a professor to improve her grade. Now she’s dealing with that decision’s fallout. The Persuasives’ work on her father and mother has been excellent.”

With that, Fesha gave a nod of respect to Hallister, Malathazar’s counterpart in the Persuasives department.

“All of this is good,” Alecto said, “but we have also asked you to keep eyes and ears open for a rogue element. Has anyone found more information related to this?”

An uncomfortable stir rippled through the four other attendees of the meeting.

Alecto sighed. “Lucifer put me in charge of this project partly because of my ability to sense anomalies in the matrix of the Nexus. There is a flaw in the pattern. Something different than what existed with previous Nexuses.”