The demon that now referred to itself as Steven stared at Cheung across the conference table. Refusing to show the thing any chinks in his armor, Cheung stared back with a polite smile. The body the demon possessed was not as formidable in appearance as when he had first done business with it, but Cheung was no fool. He knew that in spite of the deterioration beginning to take place in the physical body, the strength of the demon within was as powerful as ever. As a matter of fact, out of the much larger group he’d started out with, Cheung only had four associates that still had the balls to be anywhere near it or its cohorts. Those four stood in position behind him even now, fully armed and ready to give their lives for the man that fed their families.

“Show me what you have,” the demon said to him.

Its voice grated on his ears, and the stench was ungodly, but Cheung just gave it a polite nod. Reaching inside his suit jacket, he pulled out the folded piece of paper where he had written the coordinates. Laying it out flat on the table between them, he smoothed it out and turned it around for the demon to see. “My people tell me that they have set eyes upon that which you are looking for, and can guarantee its existence,” he said in Mandarin. He knew the thing would understand him. It spoke and understood all languages.

The demon, Steven, leaned forward in its chair to better see what was written on there. The two on either side of it did the same. Cheung didn’t ask where the rest of them were. He was certain he didn’t really want to know.

“I know this area. This area is full of human families.” Steven looked up at Cheung with watery yellow eyes. “This is in a house?”

“According to my informants, yes.”

Steven leaned back in his chair, pulling the paper closer to him as he did so. “And you trust these informants?”

“I do. They know what will happen to them if this information is false.” It was one of the reasons why there were now only four others that would come with Cheung to these meetings. They had all seen with their own eyes what the demons were capable of when displeased.

“If it is indeed there, this will be the third clue,” Steven said. “Is there any more information on where the fourth clue would be?”

Cheung debated what to say. He didn’t want to be misleading. To send these things on a wild goose chase would not bode well for him, or anyone close to him, for that matter. He settled on honesty. He found throughout his dealings with this group that it did no good to lie. “I may have a lead, but I don’t want to reveal anything just yet until I am certain that it is not a false one. I would rather wait until I have something concrete to tell you. I should have something for you at our next meeting.”

The demon’s mind crept into his own, feeling around with slimy fingers, testing the truth of his words. Satisfied that Cheung was being forthright, it pulled out of his thoughts with a sensation of wet string being threaded through a needle. Pushing back its chair, it stood, and the two on either side of it did the same.

“See that you do,” it ordered. “As you can see, we are running out of time.”

Cheung looked over the emaciated frame of the vampire body it possessed. “You can count on it.”

Remaining exactly where he was until it was confirmed that the demons had left the building and were gone, Cheung loosened his tie and allowed himself to take a deep breath. His men sat down around him.

No one spoke. There was no need. Theoretically, they all knew what was going to happen if the demons succeeded in finding what they were looking for. And they all knew what it was they sought through the clues: blood. Specifically, their blood. The blood that had been drained from their bodies when they were forced back into hell hundreds or thousands of years ago. If they found that blood, they would be able to re-animate their original forms that once ruled over earth, and will be able to do so once again.

It would mean the end of the world as they knew it.

But Cheung had seen early on the opportunity that presented itself for him and his people by working with the demons. Although he knew better than to believe the promises it made—for as everyone knows, evil lies more often than not—the chances of him and his people surviving the demon’s reign would improve greatly if they were on its good side.

It wasn’t a great chance. But he would take what he could get. And maybe, just maybe, if he were very careful, he would survive the mayhem about to come.