Free The Devil You Know by Richard Levesque Page A

trembling, he continued. “I had to make a cup of my hand and
scoop blood out of the bowl while I read from the book. Then I spilled it out
onto the floor, and it…congealed. It spread out and grew and took shape. In a
few minutes it was a man. Most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. I’m still
wondering if I’ve lost my mind.”
    Marie
nodded. “That makes two of us.”
    “You
have to believe me,” he pleaded now. “You have to.”
    Marie
shook her head and took a step toward him, pointing a finger toward his chest.
Her anger was rising, but she managed to keep her voice as hushed as possible.
“You can seriously stand here and tell me that you took a few drops of blood
and read some…mumbo jumbo and created a man? Five of them? Who look better than
any matinee idol ever dreamed? You must think I’m a goddamn idiot.” She
suddenly felt like an idiot for even talking to him, and made a move to turn
away.
    Colin
touched the sleeve of her coat, imploring her to stay. “Please,” he said.
“Please. Just let me finish. That’s all I ask.”
    Marie’s
ire wanted her to move, but there was also a creeping element of curiosity that
wanted her to stay. Incredible as Colin’s story was, the events of Friday night
had also been incredible. The men on the stairs had somehow been too
good-looking, too irresistible. She had felt their pull. It would have been one
thing to find one man like that at a Hollywood party, but five? Trying hard not
to let Colin sense her line of thinking, she nodded, and he went on.
    “I
did the same thing for all five of the incubi. They didn’t look like anyone at
first. Completely non-descript. But Julian knew what they could do. Like I
said, they’d been communicating with him somehow. Julian pointed at Bill
Travers, and one of the things all of a sudden had his face and his voice.
Julian thought it was terribly funny. Then he explained that they could take
whatever form they wanted. He had a movie magazine, flipped through it, and
assigned each of them faces. In a few minutes, we had the men you saw at the
party.”
    “But
they don’t look exactly like movie stars,” Marie protested.
    “Julian’s
idea. He didn’t want them to be exact duplicates, just close enough to draw
women’s attention.”
    Marie
thought about how women had reacted to the men at the party, herself included.
“Well, he was right about that one,” she said.
    “So
you believe me?” His expression was so hopeful that she found it pathetic.
    “I
can’t say,” she said, her anger having abated some. “It doesn’t sound like
anything I’ve ever heard.” At least, like nothing she’d ever heard outside the
pages of Weird Tales , she thought.
“But if you’re lying, you’re damn good at it.”
    “I’m
not lying. I promise.”
    He
lit another cigarette, and this time Marie stayed his hand as he was about to
put the pack away. She needed a cigarette and didn’t want to dig in her purse
for one. “You still haven’t said what happened to Elise,” she said after
lighting up and squinting against the smoke that drifted into her eyes.
    “The
incubi are insatiable,” Colin said. “Julian’s had us taking them out to places where
they could meet women and…seduce them. Places like this.” He looked around at
the courtyard of the Chinese Theater. “At first, Julian had us bring them
prostitutes, but that didn’t do the trick. It seems they prefer women who are a
bit more innocent. Julian would have them deflowering virgins if he could find
a way.” Again he considered the people drifting in and out of the courtyard and
stopping on the sidewalk to gawk at the building’s ornate façade. “In this
town, star struck women and aspiring actresses are the next best thing. And
there’s no shortage of them.” He puffed on his cigarette. “I can’t explain what
happens to the women afterwards, but almost all of them are like your friend.
Just dazed for a while and then back to normal.