39

I wanted it to feel pressure to make the decision right away. The more chance it got to think the more it could negotiate for. I didn't want it to feel the advantage, I wanted it careless. But unfortunately, you don't get an entity being careless very often. Such was the case here. “Ms Fatelli, I do believe you are looking to sway my decision unduly. I do believe I need time to ponder all the ramifications of the options and the information you have provided me. I will contact you this time tomorrow at your office. I will see you then. Watch your step on the way down, as there's loose material all around.”
I went back down to my car and by a small miracle didn't find it up on blocks and stripped down to a skeleton. Probably the electric shock someone would get without the proper magickal talisman in their pocket. I got back in and drove back over to Larry and Fawn's house to talk a little more about having an entity on our side to cast the spell. I thought it a good idea, I just needed Larry and Fawn to agree with me.
“Are you nuts?!” Larry said to me after I laid out trying to get the Darkness to take me as a conduit. “It will agree and screw you four ways to Sunday. That is just NOT a good idea. It may like the challenge, but if you die, it just goes back to its own world and temporarily loses a conduit to this one, until the next idiot that comes along thinks it's a good idea to play with a power like the Darkness!”
“I'm not playing, I'm trying to correct an accident that happened. I'm responsible!” I shot back at Larry. “No, you're not responsible. That girl made her own deal, and the only thing you did was try to help when no one wanted you to.” Fawn came in at that moment, and looked at the two of us. “Fernie, sit. Larry, go to the work room and play with your toys back there, I'll handle the midget from the black lagoon here.”
I glared at my amazonian sister. Six foot plus of buxom raven-haired womanhood, and in shape enough to turn heads even in a dumpy pair of sweats, which she was in. “You quit riding yourself sis, I mean it. You no more could have stopped her from trying that you could make water run uphill. The only thing here was that she did it under your cute little button nose, and you're upset that she got away with it.” I glared at her and thought about it.
She was right to a point. Megan did make the attempt and made the bargain by her own self. The trouble for me was that I'd shown her how to do it by calling the entity up in the first place. She used the same technique to call it up herself. That was my problem. “Listen up shorty, you keep dwelling on that and you'll pull something really stupid like actually taking that girl's place. You think you need that? I sure as hell don't. We can pull it off. Hell, if you want to ask for help, ask that Cobb. He's really falling all over himself to help.”
“I'm not going to ask Cobb for anything. He's not interested in me, he's interested in something else, and whatever it is I don't want to find out. Something about him has started to really creep me out. He's hungry for something, and maybe it's something to do with me, but after seeing his face, I do not want him to be doing anything for me. He can take his help and walk it of the short end of a high pier!”
Remember what I sad a long time ago about magick and coincidence? Well, I'll say it again. With magick, there are some mighty long coincidences that are not really coincidence. I was telling all about how Cobb creeped me out the last time I saw him, and we got a knock on the front door. Both Fawn and I jumped at the noise. Fawn got up and went over to the kitchen archway. I went to the door. As I reached for the doorknob the knocking started again, and I jerked the door open quickly and Cobb stumbled in surprise.
He composed himself quickly and I saw Fawn put something away out of the corner of my eye. “Ms Fatelli, it has occurred to me that since I am asking you to do this, I should be remiss if I did not lend my abilities to their fullest. So I have decided that I will take part in this endeavor. You can come see me at the usual location tomorrow. I will be expecting a full report of your progress.”
I stood there flabbergasted. He was stepping in to take charge of the whole thing after I had gotten us to a point where it would succeed? He took the silence to be acquiescence, and swept back out the door and into the night. I ran out to to catch him and tear a verbal strip off his back. He was gone before I could take three steps, a slight vacuum was the only thing left behind as he disappeared.
I stormed back into the house. “God damn his little power plays and manipulations, I am NOT going to have that high-handed bastard messing up anything! He is a fuckin' moronic idiotic miserable pompous egomaniac and anything he....” “Fernie STOP!”, Fawn shouted. My rant died in mid voice, and I looked back over at Fawn, and I heard, rather than saw, Larry come out of the work room.