Today was turning out to be a pretty good day. Before noon Gerry had fulfilled another contract. As far as contracts went it was an easy one, and he wasn’t complaining. He’d been randomly drawing the contracts from the pile he’d been given at the church. In his eyes, it was just further proof that he was having a good day.

This contract had to deal with a ghost. It was a legitimate poltergeist that hadn’t moved on from Eden to Heaven or Hell. It was an anomaly that happened semi-frequently. One of Hell’s kingdoms didn’t have their claws in the soul yet, and it wasn’t good enough to get into Heaven this time around. It was slotted into the queue for reincarnation, but just wouldn’t let go. It had some unfinished business, and in this contract’s case it was a woman who’d been scorned.

In Gerry’s experience not even death cooled a woman’s fury. In some unlucky bastard’s case, it made it even worse. If he wasn’t a minor magic user in Charlotte’s supernatural community he would have gone the rest of his life thinking he was haunted. He would have been labelled a nut job, and probably ended up in a psych ward. There he would have slit his own throat or hung himself with his bed sheets.

Lucky for him he had Gerry, and Gerry knew how to get rid of ghosts. First off, the small amount of æther from their soul clinging to Eden was repelled by pure iron. Infernal Iron would have destroyed it, along with Divine Steel, but regular old iron did the trick momentarily. One good swipe through the woman dispersed her, and it took a minute to reconstitute.

Next up was salt. Salt formed a boundary that kept the spirit out. Gerry used both the iron and salt to his advantage. He trapped the ghost in an abandoned home and then annoyed it by smashing it into pieces with an iron rod a few dozen times. That got her seriously pissed off and ready for a fight; which allowed Gerry to make a connection between her and Seere’s kingdom.

In Gerry’s opinion, he’d spent too much time on dealing with the city and not enough sending his Lord quality souls. This contract was a chance to kill two birds with one stone.

“What are you doing!?” She’d screeched when she felt the anchor between her and Seere’s realm snap into place.

Gerry didn’t bother answering her as he deftly dodged the chairs she was throwing around with her mild telekinetic abilities. He sent a text and didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds. The ghost screeched as she died – again. Vicky had been standing by with the woman’s dug-up bones for at least an hour.

“I’m sitting out here in the middle of the day, in my school uniform, covered in dirt, all so that you can dispatch one restless spirit.” She bitched, but didn’t decline the offer to help. If she did this, he promised her a small favor.

Flames devoured the poltergeist as her salted bones burned and she was sucked down into Hell.

Gerry shrugged as the metaphysical fire ebbed into nothing.

That had been his morning. Early afternoon had been filled with training and planning. Gerry didn’t need any training. It hadn’t taken him any time at all to master being a martial magician. Grimm needed the training. The hellhound was devilishly cunning and not even remotely stupid, but he was still a very large dog. It took Gerry a few times rubbing Grimm’s nose in his own piss to get it through the big mutt’s head that he needed to go outside to use the bathroom, or at least to the specially designed bathroom that Gerry constructed with the demesne’s growing æther supply. It had also taken a few well-placed smacks on the nose to ensure Grimm didn’t kill everything that entered the apartment.

It had been a disaster when Gerry decided to try pizza for the first time. The elevator operator allowed the pizza delivery boy to bring up the pizza. The poor kid hadn’t even seen Grimm bound across the room before his jaws were around his throat and his head became Grimm’s newest toy. That had earned the hellhound an ass whooping, but from then on Grimm waited for Gerry’s word on whether or not he should kill would-be intruders.

Gerry was also ninety-five percent certain Grimm still had the kid’s head lying around the penthouse somewhere.

That was the early afternoon shenanigans. Late afternoon was turning out to be the best yet. Caroline was free, and Gerry was just bending her over an armchair in his sitting room when he felt a powerful presence at the edge of his demesne. It made him pause mid-thrust, which had the cute call-girl protesting.

“Quiet.” Gerry unsheathed himself and pulled his Chi out to form a shield.

As a precaution, he snapped his fingers and Caroline lost consciousness and slumped back over the armchair. If this was nothing, he’d snap his fingers again and they’d pick up right where they’d left off. If this was something, then her frail – but perfectly proportioned – human body wouldn’t last long.

Gerry didn’t care if he was naked as the day he was first born a human. He’d fought in everything from his birthday suit to the Infernal Iron armor of a knight of Hell. He was ready for anything…except what was standing at the entrance to his demesne.

“Gerry!” Prince Seere passed through the demesne’s defensive perimeter without missing a step. The Infernal Lord was the rightful lord of everything his inferiors possessed, so this was really the Prince’s demesne.

“My Lord,” Gerry immediately went to one knee in submission, and dismissed the shield.

“A clever bit of magic, but it’s weak and mortal.” Seere frowned as he looked around the room.

“It allows me to blend, My Lord. I have gained the humans’ trust and am gradually expanding your kingdom here in Eden.” None of that was a lie. From what Gerry could tell, he’d regained a decent amount of what had been lost with only a small expenditure of resources.

“And you’re enjoying the pleasures of the flesh.” Seere took a deep breath and grinned.

Gerry blanched.

“Don’t worry,” Seere waved aside Gerry’s grave expression. “I don’t hold it against you after being in Hell so long, and certainly not when she has an ass like that.” Walls didn’t mean anything to an Infernal Lord as he admired the view. “But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I have a new task for you. A task that takes priority over everything else you’ve been striving for.”

“A new task, My Lord?” Gerry caught himself before he said anything that sounded like he was questioning the Prince. “I am here to do your will.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Seere smiled and waved his hand.

A manila folder appeared on the polished wooden tabletop. “That’s your mission.”

Gerry got to his feet and went to look at the folder’s contents. “A girl?” The front page was a young woman with tan skin, golden hair, and acne still on her face.

“Not any girl, a Nephilim.”

Gerry frowned at the picture. He knew the angel half-breeds were in the area, but he didn’t have any accurate reports of where any were. If the Prince was able to walk right in here and give him a solid lead said a lot about his current intelligence gathering apparatus. If someone wasn’t screwing someone important, or buying drugs and clubbing he was out of the loop.

He had ideas, but they would take time to implement.

“What is your will, My Lord?”

“Find her, torture her, gather any relevant information, then kill her according to the ceremony listed in the folder.” Prince Seere sounded like he was ordering takeout. “You will not be working alone on this. This is a joint operation between Lucifer and I.” Darkness seemed to grow form the corners of the room as Seere stared Gerry down. “You will not speak to anyone else about the true nature of this mission. Not even your own people. This is to be handled carefully and personally by you and the Dux of Charleston. He has been given permission to enter my territory. Treat him with respect, expect respect from him, and you will both be richly rewarded.”

“Service is reward enough.” Gerry replied.

“Stop kissing my ass, Gerry.” The light returned to the room as Seere smiled. “Just get it done.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Just like that the Lord of Hell left. Gerry wasn’t stupid enough to think that the Prince came all the way up to Eden to just talk with little old him, but it was still an honor to receive a visit; especially since it didn’t seem like he was in trouble.

He was doing such a good job that he was given additional responsibilities. He cautioned as he returned to the unconscious Caroline in the other room.

He snapped his fingers again and she jolted awake. “Why’d you stop?” she whined as she pressed her ass against his growing erection. “Did you fuck me until I passed out again?”

“Yes.” Gerry lied as he spread her legs and reinserted himself.

She squeaked as he went to town on her again. Despite his rapid pounding his heart wasn’t in it. His mind was elsewhere thinking about the other Dux coming to town, the girl he needed to capture, torture, kill, and everything else that would go into an operation aimed at snatching a Nephilim. The half-angels weren’t known for being wimps.

Gerry made sure to catch Caroline when her legs spasmed so hard her knees buckled. They finished shortly after that, and she collapsed right back over the armchair where he’d left her before.

“Clean yourself up.” He walked over to the bathroom to clean himself up. “I’ve got people to see and places to be.”

Grimm was looking back and forth between his master and the human.

KILL?

Gerry shook his head before disappearing into the bathroom where he called all of his lieutenants and told them to meet him at the penthouse for dinner. They needed to bring all of their assets to bear on this mission. Something in Gerry’s gut told him that if this mission went sideways then he’d find himself right back in Hell as a lowly skirmisher all over again.