Lilah Morgan stood before her client James Adamson and inhaled nervously as he looked over the demon that she had brought to him with a critical eye. Adamson had not been happy when she had last seen him and she had paid dearly for it. Now sources from her firm had informed her (and him no doubt) that the Angel Investigations team had indeed killed the Brillcrall demon and Lilah's apprehension grew. She hoped this demon would be adequate for Adamson to finish his ritual before time ran out. The things some men do for politics Lilah thought with wry amusement.
"He looks dangerous enough," Adamson muttered to himself more than anyone else. "Are you sure he's harder to kill than the Brillcrall demon?"
"Brillcralls are pathetic in comparison to my might," the demon growled. "I am Adamon...a Garlok demon and I..."
"Did I ask you to speak beast?" Adamson snapped furiously. He whirled and glared at Lilah, who had the decency to look mildly apologetic. "Can you assure me personally that he will do as I ask, and remain loyal only to me?"
"You want me to speak on his behalf?" Lilah was slightly confused. Adamson's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I am your client Ms. Morgan and if I hire him for this task, thus he becomes your client as well. I don't take risks on people who don't have as much to lose as I do. I know for a fact that you do. So tell me, would you trust this demon to be loyal to me and my cause if given the right incentive?"
"I would." Lilah said firmly. She had done her homework this time and knew that this particular breed of demon valued loyalty to the person who hired them above all else. They were largely mercenaries, and to the best of her knowledge possessed neither soul, nor moral compunction as a hindrance. They were also a damn sight harder to kill than the Brillcrall demon had been.
"Good," he replied lightly. He turned back to Adamon. "Let's get some ground rules straight beast. I don't care what your name is, or what you are. I don't care what sort of powers you possess, or how hard it is to kill you. All I care about is two things. Number one is that you are loyal to my cause and you work only for me when you are in my employ. No taking jobs on the side. Number two is that you don't ask any questions about anything I may ask you to do, no matter how horrendous. You do the job to my satisfaction and you get paid, it's that simple. Do we have a deal?"
Adamon nodded and Adamson turned away from the demon, satisfied with the answer.
"You have done well," he said to Lilah in a tone that suggested he had expected otherwise from her. "Luckily I haven't lost too much time. The mission may still be a success."
"I am glad to hear it." Lilah replied with a small sigh of relief. "What, may I ask do you plan to do to Angel and his flunkies?"
"Do you think yourself that far into my good graces that you may dare to ask me questions that I expressly forbid this beast to ask?" Adamson shot out angrily. Lilah recoiled slightly, but stood her ground after the outburst.
"I'm simply curious because of all the trouble they have caused not only me, but Wolfram and Hart as well. I have a special place of hatred in my heart reserved for the vampire and anything particularly diabolic that you can think of that wouldn't kill him would make my day to hear of it." Lilah shrugged after she spoke, indicating that a lack of an answer on Adamson's part was of no particular consequence.
Despite himself, Adamson smiled.
"The fact that you hate the vampire so fervently is cause alone for me to trust you." He glanced at the demon. "Perhaps I will tell you later, but first I need to set my new charge to his first task. I will assume you have nothing against spilling the blood of innocents?"
"It's one of my favourite past times." Adamon replied with a hungry snarl. Adamson smiled. This one would do nicely.
"Good. My plan requires a large sum of innocent blood, but at different intervals. My last demon the Brillcrall, killed twelve children at a daycare center in a small town in Sunnydale. I made the mistake of assuming that if it happened elsewhere, it could not be traced to me, but the Brillcrall was idiot enough to allow a slayer to follow him and that alone has caused me more difficulty than I need right now. This ritual however requires even more blood spilt in its name, but children must not be the target this time. Come closer beast and listen to your first duty...."