...Maybe you can hedge a bit here?

You weren't happy with the idea, but it looked like there was only one realistic option here - to summon a demon. It was the riskiest option, but it was also the fastest - and it gave you the most control over the situation. If there was a trap in the protections or negotiations, then you could plan around that possibility; keep a gun and holy objects nearby, be ready to terminate the demon as soon as things looked suspicious, that kind of thing. Ceding that advantage because the summoning itself might be trapped would be foolish.

But that didn't mean you had to be a headstrong idiot rushing into things, either. This wasn't the world's first demon summoning, and until you actually had to act, it wasn't a dangerous misstep if you chose to operate from the premise that the books were reliable. If that premise was flawed, the only thing lost would be time - your most crucial of resources, but one you'd be hopelessly short of regardless if these books were untrustworthy.

So with that logic... You could set up a demon summoning here in your room, and compare the logic of it to that of other demonology texts. It was what you were planning to do already, right? Use this book to verify others, ones that Ms. Devlin wouldn't have edited? It's just that now, you'd also be using their logic to note any potential issues for your experiment. It wouldn't help with any "demon tails" issues, but the core summoning was probably too blatant to sabotage across too many texts... Probably. The protections were definitely the more likely target, right? Unless they were expecting you to expect that.

...As an additional level of protection, you could probably check for stories about likely summonings gone wrong. Between these books and the books you'd pick up, you could reverse-engineer whether it was summoner error, or whether the books themselves were flawed. It wasn't how you were used to researching, but with a focus this narrow and with how many people were probably trying summoning these days, it was a plausible enough idea, right?

"Always remember why you're summoning demons," Ms. Meyers had advised, though. With that in mind, you were getting a bit ahead of yourself; there was no point in building elaborate experiments unless you knew the conclusions mattered. So the real first step here... Should be to start reading the books in detail, to know just what you could do about demons.

Cognizant of the fact that you only have a limited amount of time to study demonology if it's to be useful, and that these books would take several days to go through at a minimum, you decide to take a fairly narrow approach - read through the lower demons and most well-known demons in the species catalogue, trusting that any other texts you're likely to find will likely be fairly "beginner" in nature; read through the protections that seem most straightforward, trusting that they'll be the easiest to test; and of course, cover the actual summoning ritual itself. This wouldn't make you a terribly well-rounded summoner, but it would be a reasonably pared-down education for your specific problem - and you aren't terribly interested in being a summoner to begin with.

You elect to start with reading about the demons first; the description of protections seemed like they were often tied to the type of demon, and you'd be able to make more concrete plans if you had an idea of what you'd be summoning. The results, however, were... Unpleasant.

You remind yourself that this was most certainly a book written by a terrible person hundreds of years ago, and it was likely that her perspective that informed the details she chose to record - the more subjective details regarding demon cock were certainly a consequence, after all. If any of these demons were interested in petting kittens, holding a steady job, or just having a pleasant night with the neighbors, they likely wouldn't have been considered worth mentioning by this anonymous researcher.

But all the same... These demons were, consistently, pretty horrible people. The "nicest" ones were ruthlessly self-interested, happy to buy a farmer's planting seed in return for a loaf of bread, even if they were content to avoid random havoc. The rest would casually destroy lives for a moment's amusement. And the worst? The worst, the book recommended just setting loose in the place you wanted laid low, as their own natural predilections would see widespread destruction without the need for further payment.

Worse, though, was the level of power ascribed to these "low level" demons; a simple Grasping Claw could uncover enough wealth for a summoner to live in comfort for all their days, or a Legitimate Businessman could ensure your store would be the city's most successful; a Hulking Brute was the "match of any of yesteryear's knights", or a Smoldering Grudge could ensure the certain **** of a hated rival; a Vanity's Bane could plague the target of your envy with hideous disfigurements, or an Ego's Prick could ruin your rival's business. Even the most basic of demons could dramatically reshape a person's life, if one was willing to pay the cost.

You flip over to the lust demons in hopes that perhaps the book is exaggerating, but... The description of succubae seems to match what you know of Ms. Devlin. Creatures of supreme beauty, who can twist the lusts of any they behold and warp their entire worldviews. Armed with potent illusions that they generally use to hide their wings, tails, eyes, and red skin. A preference for fulfilling sexual service, including indirectly. About the only thing that you can't immediately confirm is that imbibing a succubae's fluids has a temporary corrosive effect on the soul, eroding their ethics and making them more malleable to any changes a succubus wishes to make.

...Somewhat distressingly, the book's recommendation is that you should never summon a succubus, because of the astonishingly high chance that a succubus will succeed in talking you into something utterly stupid. And, quote, "because their tails just aren't as good as a proper cock anyway". It does make suggestions regarding certain Vanity demons who can offer similar bargains at far less danger, but... That wasn't useful to you, considering you were looking for how to deal with a succubus that was already here.

The book did have some useful insight on that point, at least - just not insight that you could actually apply without making the situation worse. First, and most promising, a succubus relied on lust for most of their tricks; an environment without lust left them little better than an attractive woman. Unfortunately, that was largely meaningless now, because she'd already secured herself a pretty nice position; between her class, and the constant traffic to her office, she would almost always have a bountiful amount of lust to work with. Except maybe if you ambushed her in the hall like Ms. Meyers suggested - something useful if you needed to discuss something with her, not so much for Maya.

Second, like the vast majority of "low-level" demons, a succubus was still pretty straightforward to kill; destruction of the heart or head would do the trick (each of which also made for "valuable reagents" for infernal trade), and if you understand the relative **** described correctly... A good gun or determined blade should do the trick. She was, surprisingly, faster than you, and with better senses... But if you took her by surprise, you could kill her. Except, that would destroy Maya's life as surely as allowing this to continue would - at least, if you were caught.

It crosses your mind that some of these demons could probably take her out, and leave you relatively hidden in the process. Maybe Ms. Meyers would realize, but there was little chance the police or the press would. But the offering necessary for most of those would be... Appalling. Probably a human life, and it would want even more for your actual service - offering Ms. Devlin's parts as reward probably wouldn't be enough on its own.

Plus, that had a distressingly high chance of leaving a different kind of rogue demon on the loose, and honestly... Looking over these descriptions, Ms. Devlin wasn't as bad as, like, 90% of the list. Even the Greed and Gluttony demons, the next most "palatable" categories on the list, left a trail of poverty and misery in their wake. Ms. Devlin... She might literally fuck people to **** if her prey pool became narrow enough, but her desires were a lot more... Manageable. And she used to be a human, right? She probably... Had a better idea as to where she could draw the line.

Even other lust demons, like the Imp... Succubae were one of the more "refined" demons, asking for what they wanted, however much they influenced your answer. Imps... You shudder a bit at the description of that one, which even the anonymous researcher crossed off, writing "Nice looking cock, but I don't want to die trying it".

...No, you were getting off track. Demons were more powerful than you thought, and at least a large portion were more horrible. That much should have been clear from knowing Ms. Devlin. What you needed to learn was how to protect yourself from them.

With that in mind, you turn towards the book on protections.

...Which, honestly, you could half-mistake for the work of some Christian exorcist, much of the time. It was a really nice palette cleanser - at least until it started warning about the difficulty in keeping some forms of protection intact in conjunction with certain forms of offerings. On those kinds of notes, the book also stopped feeling quite so holy.

This book's focus on protections for summoners also, somewhat ironically, made it less useful for your own purposes. Because the book does make passing references to how, say, a room filled with crosses or talismans makes for a useful safe room... At the same time bemoaning the fact that a demonologist can't just walk around covered in crosses without pissing off the demons they're working with. Except, you totally could. You won't, because you don't want to look like you'd just had a mental breakdown. But that kind of solution could work for you; you could start wearing a cross, no problem. But would it need to be a big cross? Worn with sincere devotion? Blessed by an actual priest? Made out of something like silver, or a piece of the original cross?

The book didn't say, and frankly, you weren't willing to make the gamble. Because that kind of solution was also mentioned as being completely useless in other circumstances; hidden crosses weren't a barrier to most demons (though they worked very well against the clairvoyant or phantasmal), and it cautioned that using smaller, easier to move protections often allowed a hostile demon a weak point to break through. A cross suited to wearing on a necklace might help against a demon - or it might just piss the demon off while it tore it off your neck. Or just broke your neck altogether. There were a lot of demons that could take that kind of pain for a few seconds while they dealt with the problem, according to the book - and under the circumstances, it was better to assume Ms. Devlin was one of them until proven otherwise.

For your own personal protection, at least, the book did offer some other solutions; stealing holy water from a priest (you're pretty sure that you could just, like... Ask), grinding down a bar of silver into a powder (they sell those in the stores these days), or finding a... No, you're not repeating that, you're just going to buy your "exotic fragrances" from a normal New Age store since it's not the 18th century anymore. Except, all of these were fairly "active" defenses, for use after you fucked up and your apprentice sicced a demon on you in a shocking betrayal. They weren't of much use if you just wanted to stop Ms. Devlin from fucking with your mind.

On this point, the protections it recommended setting up when summoning were at least a little more useful. Thick lines of salt or argent sand could stop the passage of many forms of demonic magic, while burning a moderate amount of "holy fragrances" would dampen their power without enraging most demons. But... While they were said to be effective against indirect influences, they were woefully flawed for a demon not bound into place, and the stronger protections that would prevent a demon from simply scattering your lines would be exceedingly blatant to use.

And, the book cautions, such static defenses weren't to be relied upon for a prolonged period of time - demons were inherently corruptive influences that would subvert or work around your protections, and it was imperative that you keep negotiations brief before the situation was no longer under your control. Except, these weren't negotiations, and Ms. Devlin could keep Maya for as long as she wanted.

You wonder if maybe blessed oils or something could help, but... The book didn't mention them, at least, and they seemed like they'd be convenient enough to mention. Then again, the book suggested "stealing" holy water. It might just be that it considered acquiring blessed oils to be too unrealistic to mention - and it did say that blessed items in general were both quite effective and quite provocative.

Though... It does cross your mind that these books were written before recent events. With demons freely walking the earth and what looked an awful lot like the Rapture... Were blessings still effective, or had you all been abandoned? Maybe it was a better idea to rely on things that seemed more "innately" pure, just in case. Ms. Meyers probably could have told you, though...

Frustrated, you move on towards sin-specific protections, not holding out much hope... But surprisingly, this portion hadn't been redacted. Though you wouldn't be surprised to find it subverted.

According to the book, "symbols of chastity" and "symbols of pure love" made for an effective ward against most lust demons; a wedding ring worn by a spouse in true love, lilies, veils, a weird rune you don't recognize, even those stupid "purity rings" associated with virginity pledges... So long as it held real meaning and significance to the person using it, it would at least slow a succubus down.

Which, sadly, was frustratingly useless to you. Because as much as you hated evil, "purity" wasn't something you ever gave a hoot about. Taking advantage of others was one thing, but sex in general? It was something to be enjoyed, and if anything, you had always been annoyed that you were left out. Maybe Maya could get some benefit out of this, but you doubted it would be for long enough to hold Ms. Devlin's influence at bay - and if it was, it wouldn't be for long with how she was working on her.

...Come to think of it, maybe that's why this portion had been left alone. Because the odds that someone would turn to these texts to deal with Ms. Devlin, and be a devout enough person to care about such a frustratingly archaic ideal... That was pretty unlikely. Or possibly, this section was just a plausible-sounding lie. Because if the rest of the books were accurate, it's unlikely anyone would notice this portion to be flawed... And there would be precious few opportunities for someone to test it.

Well, that's what the testing was for anyway, right? You shake your doubts off, and skim through the book for anything at all about shaking off demonic influence. It had to have come up at some point, right?

...Except, it didn't, really. The book took a pretty clear stance on the matter; if you came under a demon's sway, either you were already thoroughly screwed, or it wasn't a big enough deal to matter. And, well, you can kind of see it; most people using these books were pretty crummy people. Inspiring them to be more sinful was... Well, not something they'd really care about.

It does make a passing reference to a few things that might help, though; so long as the influence hasn't gone "too deep", meditating in an incense-filled room should help restore a person to their "natural state". Holy water or powdered silver could help disrupt any existent outside influences. Focusing on an item "antithetical to the demon's concept" could help shake off the power of a specific demon. But...

Anything that touched the soul itself instead of just clouding the mind was pretty much a lost cause. And you... Rather suspected that Ms. Devlin was screwing with Maya's soul. Perhaps the book was lying about that?

...And you hate the little whisper in your ear that hopes it isn't, and that certain changes grow more pronounced and lasting... That just the couple of days it will take to find an answer could make you a hero to your new girlfriend. One who might even let you keep Elizabeth on the side, by that point.

Shaking away the bad thoughts, you set this book aside for now, and move towards the last book; actual summoning, the one that should make it easiest to test semi-reliable texts. A glance at the clock suggests that you have about three hours until your date; that shouldn't be any significant issue for you. Glancing at the book again, you settle on Vanity's Bane, a minor envy demon; the offering for that is the cleanest to provide, its power least dangerous to you, and it should be **** to multiple defenses you can keep at hand.

Breathing out, you start reading the ritual in detail, and clearing a space to set it up. It would be foolish and reckless to go through with this just yet, but... You were feeling pretty confident. You didn't have to speak the invocation at the end, and this would help you visualize any notable problems.