hands. She used a finger to push a wisp of hair back from her face and then began, very theatrically, to strip her leather gloves – slowly, oh so slowly – finger by finger from her hands. It was one of the most erotic acts Vanka had ever seen performed and its effect on the men in the room was electric: every eye was fixed on her. The girl was a born show-woman.
This done, she stretched out her naked hands to Crowley, inviting him to take them in his. Like a man in a trance, he did as he was bade. Immediately Vanka stood up and positioned himself behind Ella, lifting his hands and placing one on each side of her head, his fingertips touching her brows. She let out a low moan. ‘Mah, mah, ah am in communion wit a most powerful soul. Hum, hum, Your Holiness, sah, yous a strong, strong houngan, full of mucho de vitality and de manly essences. Wooo-whee… yous make mah little heart go pit-apat.’
Brilliant.
‘Mambo Laveau,’ crooned Vanka, ‘I command you to journey to the Other Side, to commune with the Spirit World. Are you ready to do this?’
‘Yeeesss, ah is.’
Ella began slowly to roll her head. Gradually the tempo of the rolling increased and as her head rolled so too did the volume of the low moan she was emitting. Suddenly she slumped back in her chair and began to shake, her body quivering in a most extraordinarily exciting fashion. Vanka tore his attention away from the girl’s trembling bosom and back to the job in hand.
‘I am here.’
Even Vanka was startled by the voice that Ella managed to find within her. There was nothing cod-NoirVillian about this accent: it was perfectly enunciated Anglo spoken in an amazingly deep voice. It was certainly not the sort of voice that one would believe could emanate from a girl, even one as tall as Ella. It drew astonished gasps from the SS guards, and out of the corner of his eye Vanka saw Clement raise a grubby hand to make the protective sign of the Valknut across his chest.
‘Who calls me from across the Abyss?’ groaned Ella. ‘Who is the one who disturbs the peace and tranquillity of Aiwass?’
From his long experience in running seances Vanka knew that no matter what happened, no matter how confused events became, no matter what surprises presented themselves, it was vital for the psychic to remain aloof and confident throughout. But even Vanka couldn’t prevent his eyes widening when he heard what Ella said: where the girl was conjuring all this nonsense from he had no idea.
But his reaction was as nothing compared to the effect her words had on Crowley. Even as the name Aiwass was uttered it seemed that the mask of arrogance that decked his face crumbled.
‘Aiwass?’ he muttered.
Again Ella rolled her head but now when she spoke it was as though the words were being unwillingly wrung out of her, as though the uttering of each reluctant syllable was a trial. ‘Yeeeess. I am Aiwass: Minister to Hoor- par-kraat, Keeper of the Great Seal of Horus the Child, and Guardian Angel to those who seek to take up the burden of Truth. I am the One Who Sees.’
‘What do you see?’ asked Crowley in a hoarse voice.
‘That Which Is Yet to Come.’ There was a silence as Ella seemed to struggle with the Spirit possessing her. ‘Who calls Aiwass from the Realm of Shadows?’
‘I call you,’ came the stuttered reply. ‘Aleister Crowley calls you.’
‘I know you, Crowley!’ Ella uttered the name as a strangled scream. There was an immediate shuffling of feet as her SS audience backed away. ‘Behold,’ she gasped as her voice sank so low that it was no more than a whisper. ‘I am your Guardian Angel, sent to guide you on the path of Unification.’ Once again her voice mutated; now the vowels were clipped and ill-pronounced but powerful nevertheless, projecting the animal force of the woman to the corners of the room. ‘Oooooooh… I have been sent from the World Beyond to guide you and to teach you. Heed me. Follow me and I will show you the Way, show you the Way to enlightenment and to resurrection. I hold the keys to the doors which seal the Demi-Monde from the Spirit World.’ More head-rolling, which Vanka thought was a little excessive. ‘You, Aleister Crowley, are destined to lead the Chosen to the Ark of the Reborn, to guide the Children of the Second Coming.’
From somewhere to the side of the room there was a solemn ‘amen’: the SS audience was really getting into the spirit – the Spirits – of what was happening in the room. Ella’s voice rose higher and spittle glistened on her lips.
‘Reject asceticism, let what you will be the whole of the law. Do nothing that restricts you or confines you. Through your guidance, the Demi-Monde will merge with the Spirit World, with the World of Shadows. You have that power in your hand. You have the Spirit Maiden. You have the Daemon.’
‘The Daemon?’ uttered an incredulous Crowley.
‘Yeeeeessssss… the Daemon. You have her in your power but yet you do not know all her secrets. She remains mute and unyielding. She is the great enigma. But I, Aiwass, will help you. It is the will of the Spirits that you understand all. Ask your questions.’
‘What is the Daemon’s name?’
‘She calls herself… she calls herself… Norma.’
An astonished gasp from Crowley.
‘Beware: she is of the highest level. She sits at the left hand of Loki himself. Beware of this Daemon for she is a succubus, sent to trick and deceive. In the Spirit World she is known as Naamah and is one of the most powerful of all the Daemons. Guard her well, Crowley, but do not harm her lest her consort, the fearsome Daemon Asmodai, journeys from the Darkness to take revenge.’ Ella’s voice was now so low as to be almost inaudible. Vanka found himself having to lean forward to better hear what she said.
By the Spirits, she’s good.
‘I, Aiwass, have been sent to guide and protect you. I must commune with Naamah and I must make her cower before your wisdom and your strength. Then and only then will all her secrets be yours.’
‘What secrets?’
‘I know she is the daughter of a Daemon possessed of much power. He is a Daemon who calls himself “the President”. He is powerful, but know you this, Crowley, there are ways in which he can be made your servant, there are ways he can be made to do your bidding. We must tease these secrets from the Daemon… secrets that will allow you to control the Spirit World.’
‘What are these secrets?’ Crowley urged.
‘Ooooooh… the veil between the Spirit World and the Demi-Monde closes… my strength… fails… summon me… again…’ And with that Ella slumped forward across the table as though unconscious.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant: always leave the mark gagging for more.
‘The Spirit Aiwass has gone, Your Holiness,’ said Vanka as he gently pulled Ella back into her seat. ‘It must have been a most potent Spirit the mambo Laveau was communing with to have drained her so quickly.’
‘Oh, it was, it was.’ Crowley slowly withdrew his hands from Ella’s grip. Then he too sat back in his chair, a look of stunned incredulity on his face. ‘That was remarkable, Mephisto. Your PsyChick is a woman of profound ability. I used all my powers to block her but still she penetrated my psychic defences.’
He twisted around on his chair and signalled that he wanted – needed – a drink. It took the downing of three large glasses of Solution before the colour returned to his cheeks and the confidence into his voice. ‘I wish your PsyChick to have a sitting with a Daemon.’
‘A Daemon?’ Even Vanka couldn’t keep a tremble of apprehension out of his voice. Daemons were meant to be terrible, hideous things that came to the Demi-Monde from out of the darkest depths of Hel.
‘We have captured a particularly powerful Daemon and I wish to use the mambo Laveau’s powers to discover all the Daemon’s secrets and concealments.’
‘Then I must ask the mambo Laveau if she believes her powers to be sufficient to deal with such a mighty Spirit.’
Hearing her cue, Ella mumbled, ‘Water.’
Remarkably it was Archie Clement who played waiter. The sight of an SS colonel waiting on a Shade was one, Vanka decided, that would live with him for a very long time. Ella drained the glass and refreshed, she raised her head and stared in an unfocused sort of way at Crowley. ‘Oh my, yo set me de most mighty of challenges, Your Highness, sah. De Daemons have de great powers and to conquer dem ah must call on all de Spirits to aid me. Man, ah’ll have to call on de Great Lord Bondye to help me and to do dat, Your Holiness, ah must commune wit de
