by Sara DeHaven
She passed his pigeon, and he sent the bird on ahead again. His second look at her face was a little more reassuring. She was smiling softly. That was more like it. Leander was so involved in trying to see Bree’s expression that he didn’t see the gang of young men approaching her. It took only an instant for them to get hold of her and start dragging her off into the alley.
Leander froze in indecision. He had the impulse to go after Bree, to save her. But he hadn’t packed a gun. And while he was high power at Casting, he seldom had occasion to use offensive spells. Him against five were not good odds. He sent the pigeon after them into the alley, and focused his will more strongly on the bird, trying to see what he could of the situation. Were they just going to rob her? Or were they going to rape her?
What he read gave him serious pause. He could just barely pick it up, but there was a distortion to the movements of three of the young men that spoke strongly of demon possession. That settled it. He was not going in alone against three possessed. A number that high spoke to him of Keltoi. That meant at least some of the young men were powered as well.
Leander was surprised at how upset that made him. He would have liked to go to Bree’s rescue. It would have taken him miles towards his goal of gaining her trust. And he found that he didn’t really want her to be hurt. Which led him straight into another dilemma. He needed her for his mission. He wasn’t going to get to Thorvaldson without her. He couldn’t afford for her to be killed. “Shit!” he snarled under his breath, and took off at a run for his apartment, and the weapons he had stored there.
Bree was about to be raped, she knew it. She tried to remember what she’d heard about self defense in these situations and made a fruitless attempt to stomp on the instep of the big one. She got his toes and he only huffed in annoyance. She opened her mouth to try to bite his hand, but he felt her do it, and ground his hand harder against her, making it impossible to get a grip with her teeth. She had a feeling these boys were Keltoi, maybe the children of Keltoi, though maybe old enough to formally join the business side themselves.
“Just think how much you’re going to enjoy this, bitch,” the blonde said, leaning over her as the one of the twins took over from the big one in holding her arm. She felt the hand over her mouth loosen and drew breath to scream, but before she could get out a sound, a piece of cloth was shoved into her mouth. She tried to spit it out, but before she could make any headway, it was tied into place with a bandana. She’d never tried to raise power for an exorcism without invoking the prayers and spells out loud. And she didn’t have a ghost of a chance of exorcising three demons, even if she could speak. She’d managed to do an exorcism by force once, but it had killed the subject, something she still felt a great deal of shame about, although she hadn’t intended it
The blonde one was pulling at the button on her pants. She tried to kick him, but the other two had her up against the wall of the building now, and she couldn’t get her leg back far enough to get any force behind it. She connected, though, and the blonde paused in his assault on her pants long enough to slap her viciously across the face. “Stop it, bitch,” he growled.
It hurt like hell, but it also made her angry. God damn it, she was not going to let herself be raped by a herd of Keltoi boys. It finally, belatedly, occurred to her that she was not without offensive magic, thanks to Daniel’s teaching. He’d made her learn it without any verbal invocation. That was the upside. The downside was that she hadn’t yet managed any telekinetic spells, as least without Gelsenim’s help. Daniel was convinced she could do it, had told her at this point it was more that she didn’t believe she could do it.
But she didn’t think she had the focus right now to try something that difficult. She’d have to work with the spells she did have, those that subtly affected an opponent’s mind and body. She closed her eyes as the blonde one pulled at her zipper and visualized his fingers stiffening and turning to ice, and sent a channel of power into the image. The guy stopped working at her button and swore in annoyance. She shifted focus to the hands of the two holding her arms, imagined the strength draining out of them like water, and threw the spell. Then she jerked with all her might forward and to one side, trying to break free without having to bowl over the guy in front of her. It almost worked. She got her arms free for a moment, and the blonde staggered as she plowed into his side, but he managed to body check her with his shoulder, and Carrot Top and Twin One managed to get hold of her again.
“I think the bitch is powered,” Carrot Top spat out.
“Not powered enough,” Blondie snarled. He slapped her again, and her head was ringing, but Bree forced herself to focus. She was going to have to use more power, go for some stronger spells. That meant she’d have limited chances to get away. The more a spell affected the physical world, the more energy it took. And there was always a limit to a powered person’s energy.
She pushed all that aside and visualized all the muscles in Carrot Top and Twin One going weak. She pushed the casting into their bodies with as much force as she could muster. Then she did the same to Blondie. She made the same move she had before, and this time it worked. She broke free and knocked over Blondie. Unfortunately, that left Big Boy and Twin Two. She managed to duck Big Boy’s grab at her, but Twin Two was faster. He hooked an arm around her waist as she tried to get by, and as he touched her, all the force went out of her muscles and she collapsed onto the ground. He’d used the same muscle weakening spell on her. He let her fall and moved to stand over her, grinning a hateful grin at her, the demon in him clear in his expression.
Her Demonsense was beating danger, danger, danger into her, and she struggled to block it out. She couldn’t use her hand to focus her cast, but she mentally threw a dizziness spell at Twin Two, and he swayed, then staggered, bracing himself on the wall of one of the buildings lining the alley. It was enough to break his concentration, and Bree felt the strength return to her body. She pushed off hard with one hand on the wet, gritty pavement of the alley, but before she could lever herself all the way up, Big Boy kicked her in the side, rolling her over onto her stomach.
In a panic, not at all sure it would work, she formulated a blindness spell and cast it wide, trying to get all five of them at once. It must have worked, because she heard several cries of protest, and she didn’t get another kick. She got up on her hands and knees, much more slowly than she would have liked, and levered herself onto her feet. She started running without even looking to see where her opponents were. It cost her. She was tackled from behind, went down so fast she could barely register what was happening. She heard Blondie’s voice in her ear. “Got you now, bitch.”
Leander’s hands were actually shaking as he tried to get the key into the lock of his apartment building. Jesus, what was wrong with him, he was totally losing his cool. He sprinted up the stairs, wrestled with his keys one more time, and dashed into the bedroom, digging into his night table drawer for his gun, a Walther P99. He checked to be sure it was in double action mode, then slid it into his coat pocket. Then he dug his switchblade out of the top dresser drawer and put that in the other pocket. He paused then, focusing on the spelled bird. He saw one of the guys assaulting Bree suddenly stagger. Aha, the woman had some offensive spells. Good girl! he thought fiercely. With any luck, she might get away without him having to risk battle. He left his apartment at a run without locking it, then nearly went back to do so, swore, and continued on out the door.
Bree was face down in the alley. Blondie had a hand on the back of her neck, and was pulling at her pants with the other hand. She was finding it hard to breathe with the gag in her mouth and was starting to feel light headed. She tried to call Gelsenim, but just as she focused on the summons, one of the boys kicked her in the head. The whole world spun, then went black. She was still conscious, but barely. She couldn’t seem to put any thoughts together. For a moment, all she could register was pain and nausea.
Blondie was having a hard time with her pants. They fit pretty sn
ugly, and he couldn’t get them off without dealing with the button and zipper. Bree's vision began to clear, and now she could hear what her assailants were saying. The other four were gathered around, egging Blondie on as he let go of her neck so he could flip her over. She reflexively kicked at him, without conscious thought or planning. She connected, but then he managed to grab one of her legs, and Big Boy and Carrot Top moved in to help. The Twins got behind her and got hold of her wrists. She should try again to call Gelsenim, or try a telekinetic spell on her own.
With a split second to decide, she opted for the later. She put all of her anger and outrage into the spell, and pushed with all her energetic might at Blondie’s chest. To her immense satisfaction, he flew back away from her, hard, sailed six feet and slammed head first into the wall of the building behind him. Feeling giddy with power, she did the same to Carrot Top and Big Boy, and they went flying as well. With a guttural snarl, she threw the last of her quickly fading energy and the two holding her arms. She couldn’t see what happened, but she felt them let go. She scrambled to her feet and started running back toward the street, stripping off the bandana and pulling the other fabric out of her mouth as she went. She heard swearing behind her, and she risked a quick glance back. All five of the young men were nearly on their feet. Bree tried to put on a burst of speed, and ran straight into Leander.
Bree came out of the alley at a run. She was looking back over her shoulder, and didn’t see Leander, so she plowed right into him. He managed to catch her without going down. She gave a little scream before she registered that it was him.
“Run!” she gasped.
He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her with him back down hill, down towards Yesler where there was sure to be some traffic, some people around. They didn’t try to speak as they ran. Leander could hear the sound of pursuit at first, but once they hit Yesler, it stopped. For good measure, they kept running until they got all the way down to First and around the corner. Bree stumbled to a halt, clutching her side, and Leander got his first good look at her. Her lip was bleeding where it had split and one whole side of her face looked red. Her clothes were wet and filthy, and her face was tense with pain. “Were you assaulted? Are you hurt? Should I take you to the hospital?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. My head and my side hurts where they kicked me, and I got hit a few times, but I can breathe. I can walk. I guess I don’t need the hospital. A friend of mine is an paramedic. If I could call him…”
“Look, my place is just a couple of blocks away. I’d like to get you off the street, and we can check you out for injuries, decide what to do next.”
“Okay,” Bree said faintly. Leander took her by the hand and led her at a walk down the street two more blocks, then just around the corner to his building entrance on Jackson. He got her up the two flights of stairs, and opened the door for her into his loft. Bree got a couple of steps into the living room, then stood uncertainly, a blank look on her face. She was probably in shock. Leander considered her dirty clothes, and steered her to the steel and vinyl chairs around his small dining room table. He pulled one out for her, and she sat down gingerly. He crouched down in front of her and looked closely at her eyes, checking to see that her pupils were evenly dilated, and they were. “Can I?” he inquired, holding his hands over her head, asking permission to examine her. She nodded numbly, and he gently ran his hands over her head, through her hair, checking for any major bumps. There was a small one of the left side. “Well, you’ve got a knot there, but it’s not too big so far,” he murmured. He looked more closely at her face. It was swelling up all along the right side. Whoever had hit her had been left handed. The side of her chin was scraped on that side too. She still had a hand pressed to her ribs, and that concerned him.
“Let’s try to get your coat off and have a look at your side,” he told her. She let him move around behind her and ease her coat down off her shoulders. She hissed in pain as she had to raise her right arm to get the sleeve off. Carefully, he lifted up her shirt, all the way up to the bra line, and saw a big bruise was already starting. Gently, he ran his fingers along the ribs there. Bree flinched away from him involuntarily. “Sorry,” he said. “I think your ribs may be injured. I don’t feel anything obviously sticking out, so hopefully they’re not broken, but I’m no expert.”
“Dion will know,” Bree said. “I need to call him.”
“Where’s your phone?”
Bree looked around her in confusion. “Where’s my purse?”
“I don’t think you had it when I ran into you.”
“It’s probably still in the alley.”
“Here’s my phone, use this,” Leander replied. It was in the same pocket as his knife, and he had to be careful when pulling it out not to bring the knife with it. Fortunately, Bree was so out of it, she didn’t notice the bit of fumbling that involved. She took the phone from him, dialed the number, and had a brief conversation with her friend. She paused to ask Leander for his address. Leander noticed Bree told her friend that she’d been mugged. She did not mention that she’d nearly been raped. He imagined it might be too awful for Bree to say out loud. She shut the phone and handed it back to him, seeming to really see him for the first time. “What were you doing there anyway? How did you know I needed help?” she asked.
Leander shrugged. “Would you believe me if I said I had a feeling? I got halfway home and decided it was stupid not to insist I walk you back to your car. But you hadn’t told me where you were parked, so I just started heading in the direction I'd last see you moving, heading south from Rolly’s. I was just telling myself I was an idiot, that you were probably long gone, when you ran into me.” He took care to read her as he spoke. She seemed to believe him, though she might question his story when she was less overwhelmed. She had started to shake, no doubt a belated reaction, or maybe just shock. He went to his bedroom and brought back a blanket, and arranged it around her. Then he pulled up another chair across from her. What he was about to say was risky, but it was in character for him to say it, so he did. “I think I should call the police. It might not be too late for those guys to be apprehended.”
Bree nodded, and Leander’s heart sank. It was important for him to avoid getting on any official map. The more invisible his presence here in this city, the better. He’d have to go on record as a witness, have his identity on record. He considered whether to do a binding on Bree to convince her not to call the police. He was only a low power Binder, but it might take only a subtle spell to get her cooperation. On the other hand, she might be able to tell that she was being bound. As he hesitated, Bree suddenly said, “Wait, no. No, don’t call the police. Leander, those boys were Keltoi, and three of them were possessed. If I go to the police and accuse them of assault and they know I’m the accuser, then I get known by the Keltoi. I’ve managed to stay mostly off their radar so far, and I can’t afford to get on it. You know normal law enforcement wouldn’t have a hope of protecting me from them if they wanted payback. Which they would.”
“Well, that really bites,” Leander replied, hiding his relief.
“It’s not fair, is it?” she responded, her voice going shaky. “They get to do that to me, and they get no consequences. It makes me so angry.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. Leander’s nearly atrophied empathy gave an unexpected stir. He tried to repress it, but then it triggered a series of memories, memories he’d worked hard to keep out of consciousness. He knew what it was like to be sexually assaulted. He’d been on the streets from the age of thirteen, and a pretty boy like him had not had an easy time of it. He shuddered involuntarily, his stomach twisting in revulsion.
He got up on the excuse of getting them both some water and tried to get a grip on himself. He felt a flash of resentment that he was being forced to relive those memories. At the same time, he really was experiencing some fellow feeling with Bree. She didn’t deserve that to happen to her, any more than he had, at least as a kid. He’d done things since to deserve wors
e, he reflected darkly, but pushed that thought aside as well. He had work to do here. He needed to focus on Bree, on helping her. This was his chance to get an in with her.
She’d gotten the tears back under control when he handed her the water. She took several deep sips, then put the glass down and asked him, eyes dark and tired, “Can I take a shower?”
He crouched down in front of her again and regarded her solemnly. “Bree, did those guys rape you?” he asked as gently as he knew how.
She shook her head, but tears filled her eyes again. “They tried,” she whispered. “They tried, but I stopped them.”
He patted her knee. “That you did, and don’t you forget it. I didn’t do a damn thing to help, you got yourself out of there on your own. Which is impressive, by the way. I assume you were able to do some casting.”
“Some,” she said, then her voice got stronger. “Quite a lot, actually, more than I knew I could do. I managed my first telekinetic spell, which surprised the hell out of me.”
