Mind Games

by Jana Oliver

  Just like me.

  Though she rejoiced that he was home early, she couldn’t help but wonder why. Had he finished his studies ahead of schedule, or was it because of what was going on with the trappers? She suspected it was the latter, and that made her nervous.

  It was only later, when Beck joined her in bed, that she asked him what was wrong. He didn’t answer right away, just held her close and stroked her hair like he was trying to memorize every strand.

  “Nothing is wrong,” he replied. “So much is right, it scares me. I realize how easy it would be to lose it all.”

  “We’re together. That’s all that matters.”

  “I know. I love you,” he replied. “That will never change.”

  Then Beck kissed her, and from the power of that kiss and his urgent touch, she knew sleep wasn’t going to come anytime soon.

  “I dreamed of you every night,” he whispered in her ear as he stroked her. “Of what it would be like to make love to you.”

  “Tell me what it was like,” she said.

  “No. No more dreams. Tonight, this is for real.”

  *~*~*

  Riley woke to the warmth of her guy sleeping next to her, and that brought a lazy smile at the memory of their lovemaking. It had been as passionate and satisfying as it had been in Scotland. And even before that. They were lovers, both in body and in spirit. All her concerns about whether things were still good between them had been needless worrying.

  She turned her head to check the clock on the nightstand. A little after three in the morning. What had woken her?

  “I like being home,” Beck murmured, tightening his grip on her. “For a lot of reasons, not just the main one.”

  “Being warm?”

  “Yup, that’s one of them. Then there’s the other one.”

  “You are such a guy.”

  “I didn’t hear you complainin’ about that earlier.”

  Before she could answer, her cell phone rang.

  “Yer kiddin’ me,” Beck mumbled.

  She rolled away from him and answered the call.

  “Riley? It’s Jackson. I just got a report of a Three running around Piedmont Park. Kurt’s working with me tonight, and I’d like to take him out to trap it. We need some backup. You up for that?”

  “Oh . . . ” she yawned. “Okay, sure. I’ll be there in a few.” She placed the phone back on the nightstand and yawned again.

  “You didn’t say you were on call,” Beck said, sitting up.

  “Sorry, I forgot. You sort of distracted me.”

  “Let me guess. You scheduled yer time off for when I was plannin’ to be home, and I screwed up those plans.”

  “You got it.” She leaned over and kissed him. “I am not complaining.”

  Riley rose and stretched. As she began pulling on her trapping clothes, Beck dug around in the closet and found an old pair of jeans and a heavy shirt.

  “You can stay here,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Nope. I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Who you trappin’ with tonight?”

  “Jackson. He’s got one of my apprentices with him. We’ve been switching the newbies around between a few of us, trying to show them different trapping techniques.”

  “Smart.”

  By the time Riley reached the front door, coat on and backpack in hand, Beck had pulled his own trapping bag from the front closet. He added a few spheres and chose one of the steel pipes he favored. In his jeans, leather coat, and baseball cap, he looked just like the trapper she remembered.

  “You sure you want to come with me? You have to be really tired.”

  “I haven’t trapped in a couple months. Wouldn’t miss this for anythin’.”

  “Okay, your call. I got the bait, so let’s go kick some demon butt, Backwoods Boy.”

  “Yer on, Princess.”

  *~*~*

  As she drove north from Beck’s house, the traffic was light. In a few hours that would change, but right now it was deserted, except for a few brave souls out doing lord knew what.

  When she looked over, she found Beck dozing against the window, which meant he was totally exhausted but not about to let her out on her own. That protective behavior alternately annoyed her and made her love him even more.

  He still hadn’t given her a good explanation for why he was home early. But she hadn’t told him about Lucifer yet, so they were even in the secrets department.

  When she pulled her car up next to Jackson’s pickup, Beck woke with a mighty yawn. Gear in hand, they set off for the two trappers waiting for them by the park’s entry gate. Riley gave Kurt a nod and he returned it, but she could see he was spooked. After that Five in Demon Central, she couldn’t blame him.

  Jackson grinned. “Is that you, Mile High?”

  “Sure is.”

  Riley knew Beck didn’t like the nickname, but what else would they call him, when his first name was Denver? The two masters slapped each other on the back, then did a little play rough-housing.

  Guys. They’re so weird.

  “I didn’t know you were back in town,” Jackson said, still smiling broadly.

  “Just got in a few hours ago. You, dude, are why I’m not in bed cuddlin’ with my pretty lady.”

  The master shook his head. “Hey, blame the damned demons.”

  “Speaking of which, where are they?” Riley asked, keen to get this run completed.

  Jackson pointed toward the nearly two-hundred-acre park. “Somewhere out there.”

  She groaned.

  “Hey, Kurt. How’s it goin’?” Beck asked.

  “Good, I guess. Welcome home.” They shook hands.

  “You’ll be fine tonight. Stick close to us and do whatever these two tell you. I’m just ridin’ shotgun on this one.”

  Riley smiled to herself. Beck had always been supportive of the apprentices, but now she could hear the confidence in his voice. The strength. His time in Scotland had taken the raw essence of a good man and made him even stronger.

  She pulled out a bag of bait, tossed it at Beck, then removed one of the Holy Water spheres. “I’m ready. You guys done gossiping?”

  “Somebody’s crabby tonight,” Jackson said.

  “Not my fault. I did my best to put a smile on her face,” Beck replied.

  Muttering under her breath, Riley walked to the gate. She pushed on it and it swung open. “So where’s the guard?”

  “He said he was going to take a long break. If he’s smart, he’s hiding somewhere. That’s what I’d do if I were him,” Jackson replied. “You taking lead on this?”

  “I thought you were,” she said. The whole point had been for Jackson to show Kurt some of his trapping strategies.

  “Go for it,” he said. “Since I pulled you out of bed, you might as well have all the fun.” And she’d get a bigger cut of the trapping fee.

  Riley gave in. “Okay, Kurt, you’re with me. These guys will watch our backs.”

  As she and her apprentice set off, Jackson and Beck fell in step on either side of them. Fortunately, the moon provided adequate light for them to see their way.

  “Remember when I said that the Threes are leaving Demon Central, going farther north?” she said. “This is a good example of why clearing Five Points is a bad idea.”

  “I’d think it would be easier to hunt them down there because there are fewer places to hide,” Kurt replied.

  “It is, but demons are creatures of habit. Get them out of their natural habitat and they become unpredictable.”

  “Much like humans,” Jackson added.

  He had a point.

  “So once we find this thing, tell me how you’re going to trap it.”

  Kurt took a deep breath, his voice indicating his nervousness. “Once I see it, I wait until one of you guys
tosses the bait to distract it. While it’s eating, I try to hit it with a Holy Water sphere.”

  “What if you miss?”

  “If I have time, I throw another one.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “I use my steel pipe to keep it from ripping me up while one of you hits it with a sphere,” he replied.

  “Which is why you always have a backup with you,” Beck said. “Right, Riley?”

  He just had to go there.

  Riley grimaced at the memory. “Totally right. Never try to trap one of these things on your own, or your chances of dying go up dramatically. Like nearly one hundred percent. I speak from experience.”

  Kurt stared at her. “For serious?”

  “Yup.”

  “Did you trap it?”

  “Yup. Then two losers stole the demon from me. I almost died and had nothing to show for it.”

  “What if I don’t know it’s a Three until I get to the location?”

  “Then step away and call for help,” Jackson said. “For instance, like tonight. We got far too much ground out here to search without extra pairs of eyes.”

  Kurt fell silent now, but Riley swore she could hear his mind churning, working through all he’d been told.

  As they searched, Beck and Jackson chatted back and forth, but she tuned them out, listening for anything that would help her locate the Gastro-Fiend. And she failed.

  *~*~*

  An hour later they’d circled back toward where they’d started, cold and annoyed. Riley felt bad for Kurt, who had gotten himself all nerved up for this run, and now it looked like it was a bust.

  “Where is the damned thing?” Jackson muttered.

  “Probably in bed. Like we should be,” Beck said.

  Where did demons sleep in a park? There weren’t any holes.

  Was it possible to use what Ayden had taught her to find the demon?

  Couldn’t hurt to try.

  “Give me a second, guys,” she said, halting. Riley closed her eyes and attempted to pick up any of the threads around her. Initially all she could feel was Beck’s bright blue. Then she slowly expanded outward and found Jackson’s muted green and Kurt’s pale orange.

  So why can’t I find the Three? She cast her mind out farther. There was so much here, what with all the visitors leaving a little bit of themselves behind. She concentrated, looking for the stronger threats, and encountered some light lavender. Then she felt it: a sludge of muddy black, like thick oil. Something that made her cold to touch it.

  Demon.

  Riley homed in on the thing to her right. Pointing at a grove of trees, she said, “I think it’s over there.”

  “You know that how?” Beck asked. At her frown, he added, “Not dissin’ you, just askin’.”

  “Ah . . . just feels like a good place for it to be?” she said, knowing that sounded lame.

  “Look, Riley, if you’re using magic to locate a demon, I’m not going to complain,” Jackson said. “Whatever gets the damned job done, you know?”

  But she really wasn’t using magic, nothing like what she and Mort were doing during her lessons. Instead, she was just “listening” to what was already there. Tapping into it.

  “It’s not magic. It’s . . . I just sense stuff now.”

  “Ayden teach you that?” Beck asked.

  Riley nodded. “She said everyone can do it, but we just don’t bother.”

  “Sounds cool to me,” Kurt said.

  It wouldn’t sound that way to some of the other trappers, but these guys didn’t care, so Riley set off toward the copse of trees where the thread seemed strongest. Hopefully she wasn’t making a fool of herself.

  That, Beck hadn’t expected. He knew Riley’s abilities were changing, what with the lessons with the magical folks, but to have her “sense” where a demon was? That was spooky. And damned useful, if she could pull it off.

  A quick glance at Jackson told Beck that his fellow trapper wasn’t as weirded out by this as he was. Probably because Jackson didn’t know how twitchy this would make the National Guild and the Vatican. If they found out about it.

  Riley stopped suddenly. “I lost it,” she grumbled. “I could feel it, and then it was gone.”

  “Well, just means we do it the old-fashioned way,” Beck said, making sure not to sound critical.

  “You sure you’re up to trapping, Beck? I mean, with all that fancy book learning you’ve been doing?” Jackson said.

  Beck would have taken offense at that if he hadn’t heard the jesting tone. “I figure it’ll all come back to me about the time a Three sizes me up for a meal.”

  “Amen to that,” Jackson replied.

  They had just entered the copse when Riley came to a halt. “Guys . . . ” she said. “I can feel it. It’s really close.”

  “I’m not seein’ it,” Beck said.

  Then she looked up, into the trees. “Oh, crap.”

  He followed her gaze and saw the bright-red eyes. “It’s above us. Back off real slow, people,” he said quietly.

  As they did, the demon leapt out of the tree and landed nimbly on the ground. Then it howled.

  Damned if she wasn’t right. This one was a mature Grade Three, with those double rows of teeth, all lean and muscled.

  “They live in trees?” Kurt asked, eyes wide.

  “Not usually, but since we’ve moved them out of the holes, they’re learning new tactics,” Riley explained. She looked at the apprentice. “You can do it. Just wait until the bait is thrown, okay?”

  Kurt nodded weakly. “It’s way bigger than I thought. Those claws are wicked.”

  He’s starting to panic. “Its weakness is Holy Water, so you’ll be fine.”

  “Blackthorne’s daughter!” the thing bellowed, flailing its arms.

  “I hate it when they do that,” she said.

  The instant Beck moved, the fiend’s interest shifted. For a moment, he thought it was because of the chicken entrails he carried.

  The Three hissed. “Trapperrr! Killer of Divines.”

  “Yup, that would be me. How’s Lucifer these days? Still hatin’ on you fiends?”

  The demon growled at the mention of its master’s name. “Chew yourrrr bones!” it shouted back.

  “These guys really need a new script,” Jackson said, stepping forward with a Holy Water sphere in hand.

  “Here we go,” Beck said.

  He tossed the bag of chicken so it landed in front and to the left of the thing. The beast ignored it, which had to be a first. Its nostrils twitched and then it howled again.

  Kurt’s sphere came close, but fell short. When Jackson threw his, the fiend ducked and rolled out of the way.

  “What is this thing, a damned acrobat?” the master asked.

  Beck pulled out his steel pipe. “Then it’s gonna be the hard way, demon. Trust me, I’m not in the mood for this kinda—”

  Twin howls came from behind them. Beck whirled around. “We got two more. Close ranks, people. Riley, call for backup.”

  “It’ll take them too long to get here.”

  “Yeah, but at least they’ll find enough of us left to bury,” Jackson said grimly.

  “I . . . I . . . ” Kurt began in a stammer. “I thought they didn’t work together.”

  “They usually don’t,” Jackson said. “Except when they do. Like now.”

  “Stay in the middle of us. We’ll keep them from gettin’ too close,” Beck said, knowing the guy had to be freaking out.

  With a shaking hand, the apprentice extracted another sphere from his pack. “I’m good.”

  No, yer not, but at least you got guts.

  “Welcome home, Beck,” Jackson said sourly.

  “Yeah, tell me about it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Riley s
tared at the two new demons. Something about them wasn’t right. Before she could determine exactly what was bothering her, the first fiend began its run toward them. Knowing Jackson would deal with it, she ignored it and kept an eye on the newcomers.

  Just as the first demon closed in, the other two howled and headed her way. She threw a Holy Water sphere and it hit the closest fiend. But instead of breaking, the sphere went right through it and the demon promptly vanished.

  What the . . . ?

  She heard a shout and then an “All right, Kurt!”

  “Good throw!” Jackson called out. The apprentice’s sphere must have taken down their Three.

  “Riley!” Beck called out, and she turned in time to find a fiend launching itself at her. She swung at it with her steel pipe and hit nothing but air. When she dodged to the side to keep it from hooking her with its claws, it was gone, just like the other one.

  “What the hell was that?” Beck said.

  The only demon remaining was the one that Jackson and Kurt had secured in one of the steel mesh bags, still unconscious from the effects of the Holy Water.

  An eerie silence fell around them.

  Her breath coming in short pants, Riley closed her eyes.

  There. It was the lavender thread, growing fainter by the second as its owner retreated from their location. Did that person have anything to do with the demons? Or was this disappearing act something new in Lucifer’s arsenal?

  Riley looked back at Kurt, who was high-fiving with Jackson, elated at capturing his first Gastro-Fiend. She remembered how that felt.

  “Good job!” she said. “You kept your cool. Not easy to do.”

  The young man smiled. “Took three spheres, though.”

  “You’ll get better, trust me,” Jackson said. “Especially when you’re the one paying for them.”

  The apprentice looked around. “What happened to the other fiends?”

  “They vanished,” she replied.

  When Jackson’s eyes met hers, she saw the concern, but it was Beck who asked the question.

  “So tell me, when did demons learn how to disappear?”