by Sara DeHaven
The water was calm and black, lapping the shoreline in gentle waves. Daniel was standing with his back to it, having lured the girl well away from the crowd. “I see you, demon,” Daniel was saying as Bree approached. He was totally focused on the girl and Bree didn’t know if he’d seen her approach. She wondered if Daniel might take the risk of just ordering the demon out when she heard Dion’s voice raised somewhere behind her, shouting, “I said you ought to be ashamed of yourself, beating on a girl like that!” Bree saw Daniel’s eyes flicker as he registered the familiar voice. Well, there went that easy option.
How about another one of those nifty paralyzing spells? she suggested to Gelsenim.
I am happy to assist, he replied smoothly.
Bree approached the girl slowly from behind. The girl was saying, “It’s mine, give it back to me! I want…”
Bree froze when the girl stopped talking, but it was too late. The girl jerked around and saw Bree just before she got close enough to touch the girl. “Keep away from me!” the girl screeched, tripping back a few steps towards Daniel, then turned to face him again. “Don’t you touch me either, I’ll call the cops!”
“Nice try, demon, but I know just how unlikely that is,” Daniel replied as he shoved the gun into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back. Then he raised his hands sharply, palms forward to either side of him, and Bree felt a ward go up around all three of them. The girl’s head jerked back and forth as she tried to keep both Bree and Daniel in her sights. Bree decided against trying to touch the girl, opting instead for raising the ritual energy for an exorcism. “Mother Mary, hear my prayer,” she intoned aloud, and started pacing a circle around the girl. She felt Gelsenim stir uneasily inside her.
Are you going to be able to help me with this or not? she asked him.
It does not harm me to hear these words when we are merged, but I don’t like them. They bring bad memories.
Sorry, buster, it’s got to be done. So yes or no, can you help me raise the energy, or should I do it on my own?
I will help.
Bree put her intention, her power into the prayer. “Holy Mary, help this young woman fight evil, help her to resist the power of the Adversary.” She felt her power flow into the words, forming a shape in the air around her, a cloud of energy waiting to be directed.
“Sky Father, I call you, Thor, I call you,” Daniel was chanting on the opposite side.
“What are you people talking about?” the girl said, starting to sound more frightened than angry. It felt like the demon was receding inside her, and that was not what they wanted at this stage. Daniel must have thought the same thing, because he said, “You can’t hide, demon, I feel you. And I know you, we've battled before. I know your name. You are Habakku.”
The girl emitted a shockingly loud scream in response. Bree glanced around in concern. She didn’t want someone trying to come to the girl’s rescue. Fortunately, although she could see a large group milling around fairly nearby, no one seemed to be moving towards them. She continued walking a circle around the girl, praying aloud, helping to raise the energy. As she paced, she worked her daypack off her back, unzipped it, and got out her bottle of holy water and vial of salt once again. She continued to work at completing the ritual circle for Daniel.
He was engaging with the demon now, who was hurling the usual threats of death and dismemberment, so she was unprepared when the girl turned and lunged towards her, crashing into her. She knocked Bree down, then ran past her, only to slam into the ward Bree had raised. Bree felt the impact in the air as the girl hit the ward. Even the strongest wards couldn’t stand up long to physical resistance. The girl hurled herself against it several more times before Daniel reached her and hauled her physically away from them.
Bree’s breath caught in her throat. Please don’t let the demon get into him, she prayed. But something even worse happened. The girl’s hand darted around behind Daniel and she came up holding the gun. She thumbed off the safety, and before Bree could even blink, the sound of the gun firing split the night.
Daniel spun and hit the ground, and the girl turned quickly to face Bree, gun held out. Bree instinctively dodged to her left as the gun went off again.
Cast quickly! Gelsenim roared in her mind.
Faster than she thought possible, Bree formed and cast the muscle weakening spell. The girl’s arm dropped, and she visibly wavered, but recovered her balance. Bree wanted to run, all her instincts were screaming at her to get away, but if she did, the girl might kill Daniel, if she hadn’t already. Her whole body was electric with the fear that he was dead.
This one is strong, you must put more power into the spell, Gelsenim prodded. The girl was raising the gun again, and Bree tried to do as Gelsenim said. She cast a dizziness spell this time, picturing it as a tiny tornado whirling into the girl, and she shoved power into it. The spell shot out of her hands and the possessed girl spun around and fell to the ground.
Daniel lunged at the girl from a half prone position, hand shooting out to grab for the gun. Another gunshot rang out, but Daniel got the gun away from the girl so quickly that Bree thought he might not have been shot after all.
With demon enhanced reflexes, the girl scrambled to her feet and came at Bree again. Bree tried to dodge, but she couldn’t get a good purchase in the sand. The girl slammed into her hard enough to send her flying backwards into the water, which could only mean that the wards were down. The shock of cold was intense. By the time she'd shaken the water out of her eyes, the girl was standing in front of her with the gun trained on her. Bree had no idea how she’d managed to get the gun back from Daniel.
“I do not like Exorcists,” the girl said in the demon’s voice.
Bree had just enough time to think, I’m going to die, for the second time that night when Daniel’s voice rang out, “Demon, I command you! Depart!”
Bree felt a whiplash of force, and the girl crumpled to the sand.
Daniel strode toward her and held a hand, hauling her out of the water, getting his own feet wet in the process. He let go of her quickly, and looking down at her said, breathing hard, “Is it Gelsenim?”
“Yes,” Bree told him. He went ahead and put an arm around her. She was shivering like crazy, partly from the cold and wet, partly in after reaction to all the stress. As they both turned and waded out of the water, Bree saw a sight that made her feel, if possible, colder. Dion was standing at the edge of the crowd, looking at them. And next to him was Javier Ortiz.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Gelsenim, please, please leave. If Javier senses you in me I’m in big trouble.
Promise me you will call me again, the demon said stubbornly.
I promise, I promise! Bree replied desperately, and to her huge relief, she felt the demon leave her.
Unfortunately, he took what little warmth was left in her body with him. Daniel had let go of her to check on the girl and retrieve the gun. Dion and Javier approached, looking grim. If they’d seen what had just happened, or worse, if they had actually felt Daniel use Demon Master energy, the jig was up.
Dion came up to her and said, “You’re all wet. We’ve got to get you warm, pronto. Any injuries for either of you?”
Bree’s hand went involuntarily to her throat, and Dion put a careful finger on her chin, lifting it and peering closely at her. “It’s hard to see in this light, but it looks like some bruising is starting. Did someone choke you?”
“Yes, one of the possessed kids got hold of me, but I managed to exorcise the demon on that one.”
Daniel arrived at her side as she spoke and said, “We just finished with the girl. She’s conscious, but groggy. She said she did have some friends here, but who knows if any are nearby enough to help her.” He sounded smooth and calm to Bree’s ears, but Javier was a Reader, and by the look on his face, he was reading Daniel.
“Yes, we saw the end of the exorcism. If you want to call it that,” he said harshly.
“Yeah, I know, it was
pretty quick and dirty, but fortunately, Bree had already raised most of the energy. I was able to take it over and get it finished,” Daniel replied, deliberately misunderstanding Javier. He held out the gun to Javier and added, “Maybe you want to hand this over to a police officer.” There was a tension in the tableaux of the two men facing each other, Daniel with the gun, Javier across from him unmoving, with a severe, suspicious look on his face.
“I’m serious about getting you warm, Bree,” Dion interrupted firmly, although he was looking at Daniel searchingly as he spoke. “Things are starting to die down. As long as nothing’s broken and you can walk, I think you should get into a car with the heater full up, and preferably with a blanket around you as soon as possible.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Daniel promised. He put his arm around her and started them moving.
Javier grabbed Daniel by the shoulder as he tried to move past and said, “This isn’t finished, Thorvaldson.”
“It is for now,” Daniel replied tersely with a sharp look at Javier. Javier dropped his hand, and she and Daniel walked on. Bree expected Javier to object, but he let them go. Her teeth were chattering so hard now it was hard to talk. “Where’s Kevin?” she managed to get out.
“I don’t know, but we should head back to the car right away. Dion’s right, we’ve got to get you warm. I’d say it’s gotten down into the low forties out here. We can call him when we get to the car.”
He led them around the edges of the crowd, which was clearly starting to disperse. Daniel kept the pace brisk, but it didn’t seem to warm Bree.
Fortunately, Kevin was waiting for them at the car. Daniel dug into his pants pocket and threw the keys at him. “Can you drive? My feet are blocks of ice. They got wet when I got Bree out of the water.”
“Are you both okay?” Kevin asked as he unlocked the car door.
“Bree’s going to get hypothermic if we can’t warm her up soon. That water was icy cold. I’ll get in back with her, try to help her get warm.” Daniel opened the door for Bree, then told her, “Here, let’s start with getting this coat off, it’s soaked.” He pulled it off her, helped her get her wet sweater off over her head, then tossed both on top of the car. He shimmied out of his black leather jacket and put it around her shoulders, then motioned her into the car. He put her wet things in the trunk, then climbed in next to her. Kevin started the car and got it moving.
Daniel pulled his own sweater off over his head. “Here,” he said, “get out of your wet shirt and put this on. “I’ll close my eyes,” he prompted as she hesitated.
“Okay.” Her whole body was shuddering. It was awkward to get the wet things off in the limited confines of the car, but she finally managed it. Once she’d gotten the sweater on, she said, “You can open your eyes.”
“There you go,” Daniel said soothingly. “Now, tell you what, I’m just going to lean back here, like this, and you just lean up against me and I’ll put the coat on over you.” With quite a bit of squirming, they managed to arrange themselves as he suggested. Bree had her shoulder tucked up under his arm, head on his shoulder, with most of her front pressed against his. He shuffled the coat on over her, and put an arm around her back and held her in close. Her wet legs were entwined with his dry ones. “I’m getting you wet,” she protested weakly.
“Not much,” he reassured her. He started rubbing her shoulder, arm and back briskly. Bree tried to relax into it, tried to tell her body to stop shivering.
“Heat’s coming on now,” Kevin reassured them from the front seat. “Hopefully you’ll start to feel it back there in a minute.”
Gradually, Bree’s shivering became less intense, and reduced to periodic waves. Her legs were still cold, but she started to feel warmth sinking into her from Daniel’s body. She was enjoying the contact with him. She’d had a hard night, and it felt like an unbelievable luxury to be held close. It had been a very, very long time since someone had held her. A big sigh escaped her, and she felt herself relaxing into him further. “There you go,” he murmured, “that’s it.” The thought that she and Daniel were supposed to be on the outs floated past her mind like a lazily swimming fish, but she couldn’t seem to worry about that right now. She was starting to feel very pleasantly cozy and drifty when Kevin said, “I’m sorry I lost you in the crowd, Bree. I found I was able to do the most good by just putting on the parent voice and telling kids to break it up and go home. I think I ran into a couple of the possessed ones, they were impossible to reach, and I got punched a couple of times, but I came out of it okay, apart from being a little freaked out at some of the disturbing things I saw. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much physical violence before, not in person.”
Bree tensed again as a vision of the girl with her hair on fire intruded. Daniel squeezed her shoulder as he said, “I don’t think I have either. I’m very much afraid that some kids got seriously hurt, in spite of our efforts. The influence of that many demons in one place is incredibly destabilizing.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if some kids got killed,” Kevin answered grimly. “But I’ve got to say, in spite of how awful it was, I’m glad I got called in on this. It felt to me like one of those situations where every little bit helps. If I managed to prevent even one kid from getting hurt, then it was worth it.”
“Now you know why I liked being a Keeper,” Daniel replied, voice almost too soft to hear.
“Bree was amazing,” Kevin babbled on. “She managed an exorcism without a second, and I saw her pull of some offensive spells as well.”
“Yeah, about that,” Daniel said speculatively.
“I had to call him, that first possessed kid was strangling me,” Bree protested.
“Did you call that demon? Without any back up?” Kevin asked, voice rising.
Bree started shivering a little again at Kevin’s tone. She wasn’t all the way warm yet. “Kevin, it was that or be killed. And besides, Gelsenim was good as gold. He did nothing but help me. Not that he didn’t have a few unsavory suggestions, but he never tried to take over at all. And he left when I asked him, although…”
“Although what?” Daniel prompted.
“Although I had to promise him I’d call him again to get him to leave when Javier and Dion showed up.”
“That’s less than ideal. You don’t want him to start dictating terms.”
“Do you think Javier sensed that you were possessed?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t think so. There was so much demonic energy flying around, I doubt he could tell at that distance, and besides, Gelsenim got out fast, as soon as I saw Javier. But I’m worried that he saw Daniel master a demon.”
Kevin groaned. “Damn it, I knew that would happen, I just knew it!”
“Well, I could hardly let that possessed girl shoot Bree, could I?” Daniel rejoined.
“I still don’t understand why she didn’t manage to shoot you,” Bree put in. “She was pointing the gun right at you when I heard it go off.”
“Just a combination of bad aim and good luck on my part. I didn’t have time to ward.”
“Did Javier see anything?” Kevin asked anxiously.
Daniel didn’t answer, so Bree said, “He implied that he did. Daniel played it off as a sloppy exorcism, done on the fly.”
“I don’t think he was close enough to be sure, but it’s pretty clear he has his suspicions. You know he had me checked out last year. He has to know I’ve been called up on suspicion of Demon Master talent before.” Daniel shifted slightly, trying to get a bit more comfortable, and Bree shifted with him.
“Well, you managed to pass with the Ecclesias in Boston, didn’t you?” she asked.
“My hiding spell was equal to the Readers they had. If Javier does take this to the Ecclesias, as long as they just call me, I don’t think there will be a problem.”
Bree started to relax when the full import of what he’d just said struck her. “Oh no. You think they might call me.”
“And you won’t be able t
o get away with lying to a high power Reader,” Kevin said bleakly. "Not like Daniel can with his hiding spell."
“Back in Boston, no one knew I was a Demon Master or Binder," Daniel said. "And none of the Keepers they called in to testify could definitely confirm I’d used one of the forbidden gifts. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence, but nothing they could make stick. I held out for another six months after that, but the atmosphere of suspicion wasn’t doing my team any good, or me either. I finally had to throw in the towel.” Daniel’s voice hardened. “I never should have told you. Told any of you. If the Ecclesias thinks you knew and didn’t report me, there will be consequences.”
Bree wriggled away from him a bit so she could look up at him. “Daniel, that’s ridiculous. You didn’t tell me, I figured it out. And besides, what about our research?”
“I could have continued on doing it alone, as I’ve always done.”
“Yeah, and you could have continued on getting demon burned,” Bree retorted. “Look, we all knew we were taking a chance working with you on this. You think Bruce and Sophie and Kevin and I haven’t thought about this? We obviously all concluded that you were right in wanting to understand the demons more and that we could trust you not to use your power in a bad way.”
“So you thought you could trust me,” Daniel replied, voice low and ironic.
Bree felt tired and defeated. She didn’t have the energy to deal with Daniel’s hurt feelings, and she didn’t know what to say to him in any case. The whole issue of trust with him was so insanely multi-layered and complicated that she couldn’t begin to sort it all out tonight.
