by Sara DeHaven
She reminded herself that since she’d met Daniel, she’d been feeling for the first time in her life that maybe she was equal to dealing with what came her way. Part of it was learning more casting from him, especially the battle spells. There was no doubt that was empowering. But part of it was his faith in her. He didn’t see her as weak or fragile, the way she was used to seeing herself, at least in terms of her ability to cope with exorcisms and demon kind. She’d always found those experiences intensely disturbing and, especially after Seth died, as something she wasn’t good at handling. Daniel just saw her as needing more skills, more practice.
And God knew she’d been getting a lot of practice lately. She was damned lucky she knew some Healers, or she’d be in far worse shape than she was. If she were honest with herself, she had to admit that a part of her had liked helping out the Keepers last night. She’d had to think on her feet, and she’d done better as at casting than she’d ever thought she’d be capable of. “I can cast. I can fight,” she said softly, trying out the idea. Was she, on some level, capable of being a fighter? The kind of person who overcame their fear and fought back? It wasn’t that she thought she was some kind of total weakling. But she wasn’t used to seeing herself as someone truly able to defend herself, let alone others. “I can fight,” she said again, louder, and found she liked the sound of that.
She'd been thinking ever since she was in the shower at Leander's about why she hadn't called Gelsenim tonight when those Keltoi boys were assaulting her. She wasn't entirely sure, although her most convincing theory was that so many of her previous interactions with Gelsenim had involved him threatening sexual violence, especially the time he'd possessed Daniel. Likely she had instinctively not trusted him in that kind of situation. She had to admit that she was, in the end, glad of her choice even if it hadn't been the most intelligent one. Leander was right, she'd gotten herself out of that situation with her own abilities.
Unfortunately, hot on the heels of that pleasant feeling came the thought that maybe she'd finally developed her casting skills only to lose them. And that was the least of what she'd have to face if the Ecclesias asked her point blank if Daniel was a Demon Master or a Binder. Or if they asked her if she was a Demon Master. And what would she say? Daniel kept telling her she didn't really read like a Demon Master, but she could call demons. Controlling them was clearly another matter.
At the end of the day, she'd been willing to risk her sanity, and even Daniel's, to continue the demon research, knowing the demon contact could only hasten the day they both succumbed to Demon Master instability. But she had never thought it would be this soon. Even if what was happening to Daniel wasn't exactly the usual Demon Master instability, it sounded from what Gelsenim had said that it could be even worse.
She felt the urge to pull the covers over her head, both literally and figuratively, but resisted it. She had fought tonight, had fought at the Alki riot. And she knew she was a very long way from being done fighting, so she had better buck up.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bree made herself go to work the next day since she knew she had only three massage clients, though she knew she wouldn’t be at her best. She was still sore, even after Dion’s healing, and she had to be extra careful with her posture as she worked. She was too hot in the scarf she’d put on to hide the bruises that were still on her throat, and she had to work harder than usual at focusing on her work. She was grateful to end her day with one of her regulars, a longshoreman with a bad back who loved to regale her with stories of his grandchildren’s wondrous feats of intelligence and humor, sparing her the need to make conversation of her own.
After finishing with that last client, she was more centered. That was the gift in doing the work she did. The office itself was soothing, and having to be so fully in the present, feeling the structure of the muscles and tendons under her hands, reading tells to give her an extra level of insight into where tension was being held in the body, all this served to slow her down, bring her into a sense of peace.
As she finished cleaning up her office, it occurred to her that she needed to talk to Daniel. In spite of all that had happened to her yesterday, she'd been worried about him. She'd woken that morning to find Kevin had left her a message last night letting her know he'd spoken with Daniel, that he was shaken, but stable. Still, she wanted to hear his voice, to see him so she could judge for herself. As she pulled out her phone, she paused, considering whether going to see him alone was safe. She decided she trusted his ability to self assess on it to some degree and trusted her own ability to read from his energy and tells even more.
And given what Dion had said about being called up by the Ecclesias, she thought she'd better call him sooner rather than later. She dialed his number. Might as well get this over with. His phone rang long enough that her worry spiked. Just as she was composing a voice mail message in her head, he finally answered, sounding a little breathless. “Hello?”
“Daniel, it’s Bree. Listen, I just got off work, and since I’m nearby, I thought I’d call and see if you might be available to talk. I mean, that is, if you're up for it."
There was a long silence before he said, "I think that'd be okay. Okay as in safe. Have you had dinner yet?”
“I had a break before my last client and ate something then, so I’m good,” she answered.
“Come on over then. I’ll put on some tea. What kind would you like?”
Daniel had a thing for tea, so she knew she had a lot of options. Although having something with caffeine was tempting, given her nagging feeling of tiredness, she didn’t want anything that might make her more hyped up after she had finally gotten calm. “How about some of that flower tea, whatever you call it. The stuff that tastes like peaches.”
“The Peach Momotaro. Yeah, I have some of that left.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in about ten.”
Daniel’s place was only a few blocks away, but it was raining softly, and she didn’t feel like a walk, so she drove over. She spent the brief drive telling herself Daniel wouldn't have let her come over if there was any immediate danger. He'd sounded perfectly normal, and besides, she'd promised him when they started up the demon research again that she'd monitor him for demon burn, and she needed to see him to do that.
He seemed calm to her as he greeted her at the door and took her wet coat. Given how freaked out he was when she’d last seen him, she found his demeanor surprising, in spite of how he'd sounded on the phone. She'd been braced to find him looking grim.
She followed him back to his kitchen and settled into one of the chairs at the round wood table while he poured out the tea. She appreciatively inhaled the delicate, fruity aroma as she held the cup in both hands, enjoying the warmth, and took a careful first sip. “Wow,” she sighed, “I love this stuff. Where do you get it?”
“There’s a tea store in Ballard I go to,” Daniel answered. “I’ll pick you up some next time I go if you like.”
“That’d be great,” Bree replied. She watched him surreptitiously as he took a drink from his own cup. He looked good. His hair was damp from a recent shower, and it looked like he'd just shaved. He was lacking the edgy sense to his energy that he sometimes got when things weren't good between them, and he read in control, if a little nervous. It’s the good twin, she told herself wryly. This was the guy she pretty damn crazy for. She took another sip of her tea and reflected wistfully that it would be nice to be able to just sit here with Daniel and have a normal conversation. But that’s not what she was here for.
"You seem good. I was worried after yesterday. You were going to meditate..." she trailed off helplessly. How did one tactfully say, 'So, have you lost your mind and turned evil since we last met'?
He gave her a wry look over the top of his cup as he took a sip, as if he'd read her mind. "No crazy people here today. No promises about tomorrow though."
She couldn't help but smile a little at that.
"No, seriously, it took awhile, but the me
ditation really helped me pull it together. I slept well, and I felt surprisingly normal when I woke up." Some tea sloshed out of his cup as put it down, and he wiped at the spill with the arm of his shirt. "I got a call from an Ecclesias representative. She asked me quite a few questions about the riot, and that seemed to go okay. The good news is they didn't set a date for a hearing yet. The guy that called didn't say as much, but I suspect that the riot the other night has gone a ways towards convincing them this may be a demon war, which means the Ecclesias will be very busy making plans and marshaling resources."
Bree huffed out a sigh of relief. "Well, thank heaven for small favors. Any further thoughts about how on earth I'm going to get away with lying to an Ecclesias Reader?"
"Yeah, I have been thinking about that,” Daniel assured her. “I have a couple of ideas, but they’re things I need to try out with you. Of course, ideally, we’d have another Reader of tells to help test it out. But obviously, neither of us knows one we can trust.”
Bree thought briefly of Leander. She liked him, but didn’t know him well enough to trust him with this kind of information. And besides, she knew Daniel would never go for it. “I guess we’ll just have to do the best we can. Your being able to read on the energy level will definitely help. I know if I’m looking for a lie, it’s only partly tells I’m reading. I’m also looking at shifts in base and will energy. You can do that, right?”
Daniel smiled a little smugly. “Oh yes, I can do that.”
“Of course you can, the mighty Thorvaldson can do anything,” Bree said, nudging his foot with her toe under the table, tone teasing.
“Hey, you know I'm basically stunning. What can I say?” he replied with his smile turned wicked, and a frisson of energy shot straight through Bree, stirring up butterflies in her stomach. Enough of that, Bree told herself sternly. It wouldn’t do to get too relaxed around Daniel. She deliberately reminded herself he had laid a binding on her yesterday. It worked. She felt instantly much less likely to jump into his lap and start kissing him. “Well, I hope you’re good enough to help me fool what’s likely to be a world class Reader.”
“It’s not like they can read minds, you know.” He took another sip of tea.
The voice of guilt in Bree’s head told her this would be a good time to reveal that for her, with a deep read, she came pretty damn close to reading minds. Before she could decide if she had the guts to do it, he went on.
“They’re likely to do a deep read on me to try to see if I have Demon Master talent, but I doubt they’ll do the same to you.”
“So you think they’ll just ask me some questions?”
“They’re likely to be pretty direct ones. A lot of the Keepers I worked with got dragged in last time I went through this, and they asked them point blank if they had knowledge that I was a Demon Master.”
“And they were able to say no, right? I won’t be able to say that.”
“Exactly. The trick will be to work a spell that allows your energy shifts to look on the surface like they're supposed to. Ideally, the spell would only come online when you were asked those kinds of specific questions about me. Otherwise, I’d have to come up with some kind of more general masking spell, more like the one I use to hide the Demon Master and Binder powers. But I’m afraid if it’s too general, you’ll read like you’re hiding something.”
Bree thought again of Leander. “You know, I had coffee with Leander Rayne last night, and I tried to read him, like you told me to. In fact, he asked me to read him himself. It was the weirdest thing. It was like my Reader sense just sort of slid off of him. I could get bits and pieces, but it wouldn’t fall into a pattern. I wonder if you could do something like that, something that prevents the energy from falling into a pattern.”
A disapproving look cross Daniel’s face when she mentioned Leander, then he schooled his features into a more neutral expression. “That’s an interesting angle.” He considered some more, and said, “No, I’m afraid that would stand out too much. I know when I tried to read Rayne, it was a jarring sensation. We don’t want that to be what the Ecclesias experiences when they try to read you.” He paused, then regarded her directly. “About Rayne. The reason I tried to read him at the party was because he felt off to me. I don’t know if it’s spell he’s using to avoid a read…”
“He’s not,” Bree interrupted. “At least that’s what he told me. He said he was born that way. And I didn’t sense a spell.”
“Even a good Reader can’t sense certain spells, which is precisely what we’re counting on at the Ecclesias hearing. Look, Bree, all I’m saying is, be careful. I’ve encountered a lot of dark magic users in my life, and he feels like one to me.”
“Well he doesn’t to me,” Bree said stubbornly. She was thinking about how kind Leander had been after her attack. It was hard to reconcile that with what Daniel was saying. Naturally Daniel had loads more experience at that kind of thing that she did, but she had to factor in the possibility that he wasn’t going to be the most objective observer when it came to Leander. Even apart from the fact that he’d shown some interest in her at the party, Leander was the kind of handsome, confident guy that other men often resented. Bree decided she would make up her own mind about Leander.
Daniel must have seen something of that in her face because he said coolly, “Hey, your life, your decision. I said my piece.” He sat back in his chair and regarded her seriously. “You know, you could save yourself. I’ve even been thinking that's the best course. All you would have to do would be to tell the Ecclesias that you saw me use Demon Master power at the riot. There's a very good chance they'd be thrown enough by it that they wouldn't think to ask if you knew before. They'd be very surprised that I'd actually succeeded at developing a hiding spell."
Without even having to think about it, Bree shook her head. “No, absolutely not. I won’t hang you out to dry when I have responsibility here too. I’ve known for months, and haven’t done a thing about it.”
“Although you’ve thought about it,” Daniel said softly.
“Although I’ve thought about it,” she agreed reluctantly.
There was a too-long silence for a moment before Daniel went on. “The other option is for me to make a run for it. I don’t think I’m being watched, and I’d guess they have their hands too full to make coming after me a top priority.”
“You know, if Javier was sure, really sure he sensed Demon Master energy from you, there wouldn’t be this delay, no matter what else was going on, would there?”
Daniel scratched his cheek. “I don’t think so. I know I was taken into custody by two Ecclesias members within hours of my using Demon Master talent at an exorcism last time. My partner was down, and it was one of those situations where I had to take the risk. Another Keeper saw it, one I hadn’t worked with before. I think she made the call as soon as the demon was gone.”
“Don’t you see? That means there’s hope. If we can find a way for me to cover for you, they won't be able to do anything."
“I hate to break it to you, but powered have been trying to come up with effective lying spells probably since the beginning of time. I’ve never heard of one that’s completely Reader proof, at least not proof against a high power Reader.”
“Then I guess we better get to work. No time like the present, eh?” Bree answered him. She brought up her Reader sense and watched him closely to see how he'd respond to that.
"I'm up for it as long as we take it slow," he replied.
"Well that's a first. It's always me who wants to take it slow."
He took a final long swallow of his tea and stood up. "I'll admit I was humbled after what happened yesterday. But I think as long as we keep demons out of it, I'll be okay. And I'll let you know the minute I feel anything off."
Bree followed him upstairs to his workroom. Two lamps were already lit, and he must have turned the heat up as soon as he knew she was coming, because it was nice and toasty inside. He knew she ran colder than him, and he’d
taken to cranking the heat when she was coming over to practice casting with him.
Without thinking about it, Bree unwound the scarf from around her neck. As she tossed it on the work table and turned back to face him, Daniel’s eyes went straight to the bruises there. “Why haven’t you had those healed?” he asked with concern.
“I forgot to have Dion do it when I saw him last night. I wanted him to focus on my ribs and my face so I could work today.”
“Why, what happened to your ribs and your face?”
Bree belatedly realized Daniel would have had no way to know about the attempted rape last night. Quickly, clinically, she ran through the events.
His jaw tightened in anger as she spoke. “My god, that’s terrible,” he said. “What the hell was Rayne thinking, to let you walk back to your car alone at night?”
“It wasn’t really night yet. And it was a Sunday, for god’s sake. Not exactly a rowdy time in Pioneer Square.”
"Yeah, but it's a bad neighborhood, right? He leaned against the table, arms crossed, brow stormy.
“Depends on the time of day. Leander had an appointment to get to, and I really didn’t think it was dangerous. And anyway, why are you blaming Leander?”
“I’m not blaming him for you being attacked, I’m blaming him for being a selfish prick. What was so important he couldn’t take five minutes to see you safely to your car?”
“I’m the one who told him not to,” Bree argued.
He pushed off against the table and paced over to the window. “Things are just going all to hell,” he said, voice tight. “The whole situation. The increase in possessions, the riot, possessions of kids. Kids who should be going to movies, angling for dates, not forming rape gangs. The Keltoi are insane to allow possessions of their young people. It’s completely fucking insane!”
