“Great,” I said dismissively, “now let’s get back to these demons.”
“Y’all don’t want to talk about demons,” the woman said. “You do realize that these so called demons gain power from mortal beings saying their names? It’s how they persist despite the lack of a physical body. And if they get a hold of a physical body, that isn’t good for anyone. So the less talk of these demons the better. Let’s talk more about your coven. Max is also from Ladoga, right? And even though you two are close in age, you didn’t know each other existed until you were adults? That is very interesting.”
“That is interesting,” Roy said. “Is there a witchy reason for that?”
“Fate is a witchy thing,” the woman explained. “It can seem that there is one big force we call fate that has a silent hand in the lives of all thinking beings, but in reality there are many fates overseen by Wyrds. Wyrds are witchkin who serve as conduits of fate and their combined efforts weave into the complex tapestry that is existence and the future.”
I could see that both Valeria and Roy were very intrigued by all this talk of fate and wyrds, and I hated to spoil the track that we were on, but you can’t just mention demons as fundamental forces and expect me to move on from it so easily.
“Will you tell me about at least one of these demons before we move on from it completely,” I asked.
“Wesley, you are like a dog with a bone,” Valeria said. “If the lady says we shouldn’t talk about it, then I think we should let it go. I don’t need any demons terrorizing us, we have enough on our plate already.”
Valeria is beautiful and I could tell that she was getting angry because I like the way she looks when she’s angry but trying not to overreact; she relaxes her face and smiles but her eyes are tense and her eyebrows slant.
I looked at Valeria and shrugged my shoulder, “I had to ask, babe.”
“Fine,” the woman said. “I know that Wes isn’t the type to let something like this go. I’ll assure you Valeria that this demon isn’t one to worry about, and I won’t even tell you his name. We will call him Lord Cockroach. My understanding of demons is that at one point in history, they were beings of our reality, not necessarily from Earth, but definitely a sentient being from a civilization of this universe. So a demon could exist who is an ancient Earther, or from a civilization that Earthers have never encountered.”
“You say Earther?” Roy interrupted. “I prefer it to Earthling.”
“It’s the default to me,” the woman continued, “since the first time I saw it in a book. Anyway, Lord Cockroach was humanoid with grotesque limbs and other features of a cockroach. He had long antennae and beady bug eyes, and a shell on his back that housed wings. I served as the medium at a seance in Mt. Airy some time back. It was a Halloween party and they thought it would be a fun time to summon a demon in the dark. So I did, and most of them thought that it was parlor tricks, including the man who I will call Thurston. But as Thurston’s family learned shortly after the seance, Lord Cockroach was very real and eager to return to the land of the living.”
“You’d heard of this demon before the seance?” I asked.
“No. I had never laid eyes on a demon before that seance and I was taught never to summon one unless you know about its powers and you know how to protect yourself against them. It didn’t go well, but that was my fault for underestimating the magic present at that saence. It was supposed to just be fun, I was using my real magic to make things shake or whatever, but one of the kids had studied something and chanted something, and poof, Lord Cockroach. I knew that we had summoned a demon because the smell in the room was almost unbearable. A few of the family members threw up. It was dark, but Cockroach was there, like there was a fire underneath him. He didn’t say anything, but he reached out to Thurston with his roach arm and Thurston’s motionless as he touches his head, and then he disappeared.”
“Thurston?” Roy asked.
“Lord Cockroach. He appeared for a split second, then I got my money, blessed myself, and got the hell out of there. The presence of that thing, it was so unnatural, unlike anything I had ever encountered.”
“How did you know he was called Lord Cockroach?” I asked.
“I found out a few years later when Thurston tracked me down. This was a very rich family, though I probably don’t have to say that because they hired a witch for a private seance in their house, but Thurston had money. So when he showed up at my job looking like I did, I assumed that he was on drugs or something. He had bruises all over his body. He was in a bad way and they threw him out of the bar where I worked at the time. I found him outside and he was crying. He begged me to get rid of the roaches. ‘I see them everywhere,’ he said, ‘they climb on me, they infest every house I buy. And I can’t kill them. When I try, they just disappear. It’s Lord Cockroach, the demon from the seance.” Apparently the demon spoke to him after he bought his third house that was overrun with unkillable roaches and he said that he would leave Thurston alone if he gave him a soul that he had created, which means that he wanted Thurston to sacrifice his child. I didn’t think I could help him, but I only say the name Lord Cockroach because Thurston managed to get rid of him for good. He paid for me and a priest to do another seance and the priest did some magic that was above my ability at the time. It was a scary experience, and honestly, I think I’m done talking about it.”
I definitely wanted to know more about Thurston and Lord Cockroach, but I knew that it would be rude to press her. Besides, she had mentioned a priest doing magic, and I was curious about the dynamics of a witch and a priest teaming up to take on a demon.
“I would much rather talk about the magic using priest,” the woman said, like she could read my mind. “Or, the magic that people use unknowingly and inadvertently, like how your coven operates.”
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