by P. S. Power
Mrs. Gibson was the owner of one of the largest tech firms in the U.S. Cortechs. Eve Benson might know her granddaughter well enough for a meeting or two to slide, but the tabloids might just pick up on the idea that there was something wrong, if they were going out together. Getting together to discuss where Darla had gone was a better plan. The woman had raised her granddaughter after all, as far as the press knew, so it was natural for her to be concerned, now and then.
Eve settled into working for the day, ready to fight the whole time. If one Demon had come for her, there could be a reprise, or even a different one coming to visit her, just to mess with her head. Nothing like that happened though. The only person that came in for hours was Kenneth.
He smiled at her, his face thin, and young looking. Really, he was cute, in an average kind of way. Good skin, toned, and about fourteen looking. Really, he could date Ginger in public, and no one would ever think twice about it. That he was closer to four hundred, or more, was kind of clear to her however.
“Miss Benson! I haven’t seen you here for months. Then, I haven’t been in, so I guess the fault there lies with me. I do hear good things about your work lately. I trust that all is well?” He paused and then shook his head a little. “I heard, from a friend of mine, that there might have been some trouble earlier? Is that right?”
She made up a bottle of blood for him, the good Human kind, which was what he always got, and spoke slowly.
“There was. A Greater Demon, claiming to be The Vile. Did your friend happen to mention which one it really was?” She passed the ceramic mug of warmed blood to him, letting her cool fingers touch his.
There was a tingle, as all her information passed from her being to his. A copy of it, at least.
The boy, who wasn’t much smaller than she was, smiled. It really was cute.
“I have some thoughts on the matter, but no, I wasn’t told, outright. An oversight, I’m certain. I doubt that it was The Vile however. He’s rather busy doing other things at the moment. As for me, I actually came to see if you knew where The Technician is. She’s missing.”
Eve nearly mentioned that she’d just talked to her on the phone, but if the Greater Demon in front of her had all her info, then he knew that already.
“So, who was that on the phone?”
Kenneth smiled at her, like she was going to get a gold star, his voice shifted a little though, as he exhaled.
“Finias, her father, is filling in for her, in case whoever took her comes back. If she was taken.” The boy slugged the blood he didn’t need back, and pulled a hundred dollar bill, sliding it across the counter toward her slowly.
She took it and rang the transaction up, using her in store discount. That got a nod of appreciation, but no comment. That was good, because now she was worried for real.
Darla was missing?
What was she supposed to do about it? Other than hand this being’s change back to him. She did it smoothly, that being part of her job, and waited for him to leave, or tell her something.
So he just stood there, forcing her to think.
“I see. I’m going in tonight. I don’t know that I can do anything you can’t but I’ll try to sniff around.” Possibly in a literal fashion. Vampires did have good noses. Maybe it would work.
“Very well. We should go on that date, sometime. After this is resolved, I mean. I’m Tarsus, by the way. The Librarian. It’s rare to meet one that has the potential that you do, so young, Snowflake.”
“Don’t call me Snowflake.” It was just a reaction to the word, which she kind of hated, and she wasn’t even looking at him, worried for her friend.
Tarsus, who she decided to refer to as Kenneth for the time being, took two very deliberate steps back.
“I fear the name has already stuck. You are The Snowflake now. Sorry. I, personally would blame The Bold. He’s been going around for three weeks, telling everyone that will listen about you. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was smitten.”There was a long look, and a slow head shake. “That’s a turn of phrase, by the way. He is quite taken with you. That might be a thing you can use against him. Briefly. Once.”
Then, without explaining anything more than that, the being left, just vanishing in the air.
Eve washed the mug.
Then worried for hours, about her friend.
Chapter sixteen
Eve ran home, to get her spare pair of shoes, wearing the magical ones that Darla had made for her. The thing with those wasn’t that they made her faster, though it was the point behind them. No, they just hurt if you stop, always sliding the scale, so that it was worse to quit moving through the horrid pain that speed required, than to keep going.
So she got there fast, and kept the things on, packing a knapsack with her regular, if secondary, pair of running gear, and a change of clothing, since it could come up. Actually, even with her friend missing like she was, Eve decided to get into something different first, so she wouldn’t end up ruining the rest of Kait’s clothing. As it was, she owed her new socks. The ones she had on weren’t fit for anything now.
Then she ran, going to the city she once called home, at speeds that would have boggled her own mind if she could have thought clearly enough to appreciate that kind of thing. Trying to get every bit of speed she could out of the process she pulled, pushed and hit objects as she passed, hurling herself through the world in a way that she never had before.
Not that there would be anything that she, a mere Vampire, could do.
Unless…
She didn’t let herself think about it, once the idea came into her mind. That was hard to do, since thoughts were persistent that way. It was like not thinking about a pink elephant once suggested you don’t do that. Except she could actually do that, by focusing on the world, and what she was doing at the time. Right now that was running, or at least moving faster than was physically possible, really.
On Darla’s doorstep, she stopped, standing there for a while, waiting for the sense of white to fade a little from the edges of her vision. It took longer than she liked, but when the fine wooden door opened, showing an older woman, with only a passing resemblance to Darla, Eve was able to speak, and not sound like she was going to cry.
She went in first, and thought at the man, in case someone was listening to them. He was a telepath, and famous for it. If it was really him. She didn’t have a single good way to check that though, so was going to have to take it on faith. Not that doing that kind of thing made total sense to her. She needed to act like it was him though, until she knew for certain. That was all.
Finias. Mind Taker?
There was a tilt of the steel gray colored head, and the woman’s blue eyes sparkled just a bit.
“Exactly. I wasn’t certain you’d understand what the issue was. We should be safe to talk here however.” It was eerie, because the man, who she knew mainly as either an older guy that seemed ready to go sleep in a doorway, or a rather hunky guy in his early forties, sounded exactly like Mrs. Gibson.
Not thinking all the words in her head first, Eve explained.
“A Greater Demon came in to work, and said Darla was missing. I didn’t know him. I mean I recognized the form he was wearing, from having come in a few times before, but not that he was one of you guys. Tarsus? The Librarian? There was also an attack, or I guess a fight, earlier in the day. That one claimed to be The Vile, and was pretty gross, to back the claim up. Also he threw lust at me, when he needed to escape. I don’t know enough to say that’s normal or not, but… It wasn’t much of a fight.” She explained it all, not knowing why, but quickly, since they needed to get to Darla, and where she was if it was possible.
The thing there was that Finias clearly had no more clue than she did.
“I was supposed to have a meeting with her about Fram, two days ago. She didn’t make it, so I investigated. I don’t know how aware you are of what’s been going on?”
She didn’t think about it, waiting for him to te
ll her, since it had to be plain to the man that she wouldn’t know that much at all. Finally he gave her a look that seemed to say something. Like he was impressed.
“I don’t suppose I could touch you?”
Eve held her hand out, and waited for him to drain her life’s experience from her, which wouldn’t take too long, given that she wasn’t all the old. It did tickle, and after a moment he seemed satisfied and took the old woman’s hand off her arm.
“Good. I wasn’t sure for a minute, that you weren’t one of us. You managed to suppress your thoughts very well, for one so young. You might want to keep that in mind, if you’re going to keep playing with my sort of being. We’re all giant jerks, by the way. Definitely not worth spending time with. Not that I won’t take your help finding my daughter. I’ve done everything I can think of. I checked for pocket realities, hidden spaces, signs of attack, and a thousand other things. There isn’t a lot. I tried to track her too. She seemed to be here, moved around the room, starting from the stairs, and moving to the sofa.” Finias pointed as he spoke, using the old woman’s mouth for it. Even standing like her.
The stairs were in the center of the wall, and had an iron railing on the left hand side, as you faced it. The whole room was covered in a very light colored carpet that she would have called white once, but now saw as very different. It had a cream feel to it, but was made with different fibers, some bright white, a few tan, or eggshell. There were footprints in the fibers, but only one set. Eve could make out where someone had sat on it too, a few days before. It was Darla’s normal spot though, so that wouldn’t be a big stretch. The point was, no one else had been there. Not physically, unless they were floating?
There had been a time when even thinking something like that would have seemed stupid, but now, well, she could do it. Could she truly write that one off for others, too?
The prints, a much lighter set, moved from where they were, across the room, to where the strange blue and green piece of art used to sit. Now there was just a dust ring. It was very, very faint, since Darla wasn’t going to let a lot of that kind of stuff build up in her house, was she? Following her eyes, Finias moved his finger.
“Right. She got up, suddenly it seems, and moved over to here. It was some kind of magical object, but I don’t know what it did. She never told me.”
Eve nearly didn’t either, but it might be important. Of course, he might be some other Greater Demon fooling her into giving that information, too. Or, just as possibly, actually be Finias, Darla’s father, and still trying to use her for some reason.
As a wise man had told her once, Greater Demon’s were all jerks.
Even her friends had to be considered that. It had been meant as a warning, she didn’t doubt. Probably not against himself, but could she write that off? If she did the wrong thing, it might cost Darla her life. If she wasn’t just off hanging out and getting laid somewhere.
“It’s a super-massive bomb. Basically designed to take out about half the country if anyone ever gets the upper hand on her. It being gone could mean thousands of things though, from her taking it in for emergency servicing, to setting it up in Fram’s underwear drawer, as a present. Probably not that one though, since I’m going to kill him in a couple of days. How many presents does he need?” She said it like it was big news, and Finias wouldn’t know it. Which he might, or might not.
From there she padded back toward the side door, since that was the way the trail went, and entered the really nice underground garage. If the declaration that Darla had a bomb that huge on her was a big deal, the other Greater Demon didn’t let it show. Her face was nearly as blank as Eve’s, actually.
The garage wasn’t empty. In fact Darla’s little red convertible was right there, looking shiny and new. It wasn’t, being at least ten years old, but it was perfect enough that Eve felt jealous. Until she remembered that the reason she didn’t have one herself was all about not being allowed to use a car, rather than being poor. She could get one, it would just have to sit in a garage, like this one was.
Still, she checked the back seat, in case there was a tied up Darla in it. The idea was pretty ridiculous, but she did it anyway, then searched the whole room. As she got to the large tool box Finias started to stiffen, just the tiniest bit. It was too small to hold a Darla though, wasn’t it? Only three feet by two, by two.
Inside the shiny red metal box on wheels was a lot of really normal looking stuff. Wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers and the like. All with matching yellow handles. The only thing out of place was a medallion that had inlaid semi-precious gems in it. There was writing too, in the copper that made up the disk. Symbols anyway.
Sumerian, she was willing to bet. The thing didn’t hum with power or magic though. It was less active that way then the surrounding tools, to be honest. That was weird, so she didn’t touch the thing at all, not letting herself even think about it.
It seemed to be enough to hide the information, which wasn’t right, was it? The Mind Taker wasn’t called that because he was easily beaten by sophomoric mediation skills, was he? That didn’t seem right at all. Meaning that either this being was so distracted by having a missing daughter that he was falling down on the job, which no Greater Demon would do, or it wasn’t him.
So, who was with her, looking like Mrs. Gibson, and pretending to be Finias?
She kept looking around the room, and using her other senses, but didn’t find anything. The trail stopped at the box. Probably with that medallion, whatever it was. Finally she went back toward it, and waved her hand in that direction.
“She’s in there. I don’t know how, but… Yeah. That’s where she is.”
Then programming her shoes for a bit of speed she’d never considered before, Eve moved in to fight, rushing the older woman as hard and fast as she could, not able to see much, through the agony. With a move that she felt decently proud of she wrapped the crook of her left arm over the front of the old, but shockingly strong, neck. That was turned into a leg toss with a sharp, but single, step. Then she tensed, and made it happen. The old woman whipped through the air at speeds that whoever this was couldn’t match. If it really was Finias, it was going to lead to some pretty tense parties, later.
If she was invited that was.
As the feet hit the floor, the sensible blue pumps slapping the green stained concrete, Eve pushed on the top of the head, the forehead really, as it neared her own waist, falling in what seemed to be super slow motion. Then she kneed up with her right leg, into the back of the neck, several times.
It took all her strength, but she twisted, pulled, and did it all so fast that the head finally came off. She dropped it, realizing that even for a Greater Demon, that might mean being dead.
A sense of panic came over her then, because if she’d just killed Keeley and Darla’s dad, that wasn’t going to be a good thing, was it? What calmed her was something very different though. Her friend was trapped, in a box. A medallion, which was probably going to turn out to be a Demon trap.
She had no way to get her out, either, did she?
For a second, Eve wondered if breaking it would work? Just ripping the metal in two? The thing there was that she doubted the real strength or power would be in the thing itself. No, it was going to be in the magic that made it.
She could do magic. Eve could, she reminded herself, stab at things with a scalpel, too. That didn’t make her a surgeon. To the best of her knowledge she didn’t even know any surgeons. The closest thing she had to a Greater Demon though, was right there next to her. Dead.
Making a face, she stared for a moment, then took a deep breath.
“Fine, then, you know what I need to, so… Why don’t you tell me?” It was whispered, being an insane thing to say to a corpse. Still, as she’d just pointed out to herself, she had magic too, right?
She got the head into place, and then made a face. How could she fix this? Losing your head was a pretty serious thing for most people. She could heal herself, and could
see, after a fashion, how she might use energy to heal another person, basically feeding them life energy with a general instruction to do that, but that didn’t bring someone back from the dead. Unless they weren’t really gone?
If anyone was going to pull bullshit like that, it would be a Greater Demon, wouldn’t it?
Eve sat there, using all her focus to try and do something useful. The being didn’t just heal, but she managed to get the flesh to kind of pull back together in places. A lot of that was actually done using direct telekinesis, not healing at all. There was a lot of blood loss, but using her mind, and doing something she hadn’t known was possible, she got the red liquid to leave the floor and trickle back into the old looking woman. It happened slowly at first, but it was visible.
She kept going, well past the time she figured it was a lost cause. After all, killing Finias was a death sentence for her, she didn’t doubt. Probably any of the other ones, too. What she really needed was Darla’s magical time machine thing. If she was in a trap though, then this one here was going to be needed to help her get at that, weren’t they?
Eve jumped when the gasp came, hours of hopeless feeling work later. It was wet, raspy and pained, but after half a minute the other person did it again, then started to breathe, all on their own.
“Food…” It wasn’t a demand, but Eve knew that one. Greater Demons needed a lot of energy to get things done, most of the time. Healing was no exception. If they couldn’t get it, their life would be pretty hard.
“Not until you tell me how to open the Demon trap. Tell me that, and help me get Darla free, and I’ll get you that food. Not until.”
She really expected a big argument, but the old woman complied, instantly.
“Touch center. Add power.”
Eve thought she could do that, but it also had to be a trap, didn’t it?
“Fine, I’m using your hand though. Are you sure you want me to do that?”
