by Sara DeHaven
Varga had to be tiring too, especially with his wound. The bloodstain had crept partway down the front of his left trouser leg, shining wetly in the pale moonlight that had emerged from behind the clouds. But he had the advantage of the strength his demon lent him, and he looked focused and ready.
In what she had watched so far, it seemed to her that the two men were fairly evenly matched, with Daniel having perhaps a slight edge. But if Varga kept throwing demonic fire at Daniel, he wasn't going to last much longer. Demonic energy was intense and difficult to ward against, and that wasn't even taking into account the potentially destabilizing influence of demonic energy on Daniel.
Just as the thought came to her, more fire surged from Marton's hands. Again, Daniel shielded, and to his credit, the shield was bigger this time, but it snuffed out again quickly, almost too quickly. Varga saw his advantage, and cast again. Again Daniel shielded, grimacing with effort this time. He had to get off the defensive. Another bolt of flame flew out, and Daniel danced back several steps this time, shield smaller still. Varga was winning. This time, Bree was sure of it. After sparing a glance for the still riveted Franchesca, Bree again gathered her energy to call Gelsenim.
Daniel beat her to it. "Gelsenim, I call you! Gelsenim, I command you!" he shouted hoarsely.
Gelsenim appeared almost instantly, in his human form. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but Daniel commanded, "Possess me," and immediately, the demon dissolved into smoke and entered Daniel's body.
Varga cast at Daniel again, but Daniel's shield was bigger this time. What's more, he moved several steps toward Varga.
"Yes!" Bree whispered, then put her hand over her mouth. She looked around at Leander, and saw that he was watching the duel as well. He hadn't made any move to interfere, at least not yet. She turned her attention back to the clearing and saw that Franchesca had inched closer to the action.
"Do you feel it, Daniel?" Franchesca said loudly. "Do you feel the rush of power with the possession? This is how it's supposed to be."
Daniel had managed to cast while Franchesca was talking, and Varga was thrown off balance, but he quickly threw fire back at Daniel.
"You and Marton should be working together," Franchesca continued, taking another step forward, toward Daniel. "You should be talking this out. You should give Marton a chance to tell you what he's working toward."
Bree sent her Reader sense delicately toward Franchesca, tuning it for detection of spells to see if there was something besides words she was throwing at Daniel. So far, she couldn't distinguish anything, but she didn't like the way Franchesca was moving in on him. She saw Daniel shoot a quick glance at Franchesca, tracking where she was. Good, he was suspicious.
The demonic fire from Varga's last casting evaporated, and Daniel threw the same back at Varga. It was, if anything, a larger blast than what Varga had thrown at Daniel, but Varga's shield was up immediately, and it didn't look like Varga, in spite of his injury, was struggling to cast it. She started to fret again about the time the duel was taking. Those powered had to be close enough to see the duel now, which meant they were close enough to interfere.
Giving into a wild impulse to trust Leander, she turned again towards him, put a hand on his shoulder, and pushed up on her toes to whisper close to his ear. "I think some of the local Keltoi are here. It may be good if they watch, but I'm afraid they're here to help Marton. Would you please go talk to them, find out what they're up to?"
In what seemed like a stretch of hours, Leander hesitated, then he replied so quietly that she had to strain to hear him. "Only if you promise not to interfere while I'm gone."
Hope leapt up inside of her. Maybe he really was on her side. Maybe she’d been wrong to try to divert him. She nodded, counting on the dark to hide any other non-verbal tells that might show she was lying. She couldn't promise not to interfere.
Leander frowned, then he grabbed her shoulders with both hands, pulled her closer, kissed her hard on the mouth, then left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Leander's attention was split between scanning for the powered both he and Bree had sensed and fury with himself for leaving the duel. He was supposed to be Marton's ace in the hole. But in that brief moment when Bree had begged him to go, a plan, an excuse had blossomed, fully formed, in his head. He pictured how he would explain it to Marton, how he'd been certain Marton was winning and had wanted to make sure Thorvaldson hadn't brought reinforcements. All lies, of course, but at least he wouldn't have to play the part with Bree that Marton had written for him. Because he'd spent most of the last day dreading the look on Bree's face when she found out he'd been lying to her, that he'd betrayed her.
But now that he'd given into the urge to leave, he could imagine how badly his excuses would go over with Marton. And now he had to deal with whatever idiot Keltoi thought they could interfere in an action Marton Varga had planned. Of course, for all he knew, Marton hadn't told him everything, and he'd arranged for other reinforcements.
It took him only a few minutes of quick walking to come upon the group approaching. Right away, he could make out the silver hair of Howard Scanlon. Walking by his side was a tall black woman. He remembered her from his briefing with Marton before he'd taken this job. Her name was Destry. She'd been the bodyguard of the previous clan chief, Carson. By some mysterious series of power plays, she'd ended up lead of Scanlon's team, in spite of her failure to protect Carson from Franchesca, who had killed him when she was on a demon possessed bender.
Leander moved out of the shadow of the tree he was under, out where the others could see him, hands in the air.
"Mr. Rayne. I presume you must be here with Marton," Scanlon said quietly. There were three other men with him in addition to Destry, and they all looked like security types, one big, beefy and wearing a suit, a shorter Asian man with a suspicious squint, and a tall, balding blond guy.
"Yes, I'm here with Marton, and I need to get back to him. Is he expecting you? Because if he isn't, I suggest you save whatever business you have with him for another time. He's not going to be thrilled about being interrupted."
"His business and mine intersect at this juncture, which is why I've been keeping tabs on him. The job I gave you to do is a big part of why I'm here." A flash of light, coming from behind Leander, briefly illuminated Scanlon's granite expression. He was not happy. "He's dueling with Thorvaldson now, isn't he? My people passed word to me that Thorvaldson issued a formal challenge on Marton."
"And if he is?" Leander asked, crossing his arms.
"Well, that all depends on what you managed to find out about the death of my son. I trust you didn't forget that I had hired you for that purpose?"
Leander's mouth went dry. What to tell Scanlon? From the moment he'd found out Bree had killed Scanlon's son, he'd known he didn't want to tell Scanlon. It wasn't like she'd done it on purpose and deserved to be taken out. If Scanlon knew, he'd kill her in a heartbeat. Not that there wasn't a risk that Marton would kill her, given his plans for her, but Leander felt like there was still room to maneuver, still a chance that Bree could make it out of all this alive. "It was Thorvaldson," he said. "Thorvaldson killed your son in battle."
It was a big risk, getting Scanlon pissed off at Thorvaldson. Marton was trying to take Thorvaldson, not kill him, and now Scanlon would want Thorvaldson dead. He tried again to dissuade Scanlon. "Look, Marton still wants that spell from Thorvaldson. Once he has it, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to hand Thorvaldson over to you."
Scanlon's jaw moved as if he were grinding his teeth, a motion Leander read as a mixture of anger and nerves. "That is between me and your clan chief," he replied. "I believe it's in my best interests to monitor the outcome of this duel." He raised a hand to his team, and they all moved forward.
Leander realized there was no stopping Scanlon at this point. "Just keep your distance, all right? I don't want Marton distracted."
Scanlon ignored him and kept walking. Leander gave up on influencing Sc
anlon further and trotted back through the trees to where he'd left Bree. He could only hope that Thorvaldson hadn't managed to kill Marton by now. Of course, in some ways, that would solve a problem for Leander. He wasn't sure he was still on Marton's good side, and that was a dangerous state of affairs. But Marton was also his meal ticket. And, if Leander were honest with himself, he knew he had some twisted attachment to Marton, still had some perverse desire to please him and rebel from him in equal measure. On balance, he wanted Marton to live.
Bree was breathless with tension and indecision. The battle had continued to surge back and forth, first Daniel appearing to have the upper hand, then Varga. A couple of times it had looked to her like Varga was holding back, but that didn't seem to be the case now. The amount of energy being thrown around, now that both were possessed, made her teeth ache and her whole body thrum. She kept thinking she heard the other group approaching.
She was in a terrible dilemma. She could see that Daniel was tiring, and worse, she could see the orange light of demonic possession growing in his eyes. His movements had a sharp quality that was foreign to him. It appeared Gelsenim was more and more in control. She very much feared Daniel's restraining structure couldn't hold up under extended possession.
And then there was the question of whether or not Gelsenim would come to her if she called him. He'd warned her that the amount of magical energy and violence likely to be present at the duel would be hard for him to resist. Would the experience of trying to help Daniel kill Varga make him lose some of that coherence, that sense of self he seemed to be developing with her? If he was drunk on violence and killing intent, and he did come to her, would she be able to control him? She didn't dare call him to her while Daniel was using him, but she had no real hope of helping Daniel at a key moment if she didn't have the demon on board.
Over and over she readied a freeze spell, though she doubted any freeze spell she could come up with on her own would stand more than an instant against the combined power of Varga and his demon. Her Demonsense was clear in informing her Varga's demon was very powerful, probably the equal of Gelsenim. What was more, Varga seemed to be more in control of his demon than Daniel was of Gelsenim. His movements, his expressions had stayed stable, and the orange spark of possession had faded from his eyes. If her Demonsense hadn't been telling her different, she would have thought Varga was no longer possessed. She had to wonder if Marton was like her in his compatibility with demons, and if that were the case, he might not be negatively affected by the possession.
Daniel had just sprung to his feet with impossible speed, light pouring from his hands, when Bree heard a rustle behind her. She whirled to see Leander coming up. He put a hand on her shoulder and leaned close to her. "There are five Keltoi coming, too many for me to take them on."
"Any chance you can help me put up a ward if they try to go after Daniel?" Bree whispered back.
"I can try," Leander replied softly.
She turned her attention back to the duel. Marton staggered backwards, then he was down. Green shield energy wavered and sparked in front of him. His shield was weakening. Daniel walked toward him, face twisted in a fierce expression of exultation.
Bree's feelings veered from hope to fear. That was not an expression she'd ever seen on Daniel. The demon was very much uppermost right now. She started to think ahead to what she would do if Daniel won but lost the will to order Gelsenim out. She felt Leander's hand grip her arm, then he started dragging her forward, towards the duel. "Leander! What are you doing?" she whispered harshly.
Leander's face was set, and he didn't look at her. She had the fleeting hope that he must have some plan, some way to help make sure Daniel finished the job, but then he pulled a gun out of his pocket with his other hand. Her dragged her out into the clearing, jerked her to a stop and put the gun against her head. "Thorvaldson!" he shouted. "Stop right there!"
Daniel spared a swift glance their way, and his expression morphed from focused and intent to one of frozen horror. His eyes sought Bree's, and the connection between them flared to sharp, brilliant life. His lips shaped the word No. Bree felt the gun press harder just behind her temple.
"I mean it Thorvaldson. Another step and I pull the trigger!"
Daniel stopped. The light coming from his hands changed from gold to blue as he switched his energy to shielding.
Belatedly, Bree began to struggle in Leander's grasp. What a fool she'd been to trust him, even for a moment. The shame of her drastic mistake poured through her in a hot wave.
But somehow, she couldn't believe Leander would really shoot her. She pulled against him with all her strength, twisting in his grasp and kicking out at him. The gun slipped from her head, but with a hard jerk and a deftly place hook of her ankle, Leander shoved her to the ground on her side, one knee pressing against her thigh above the knee, trapping her legs, and he got the gun positioned against her temple.
"Let her go!" Daniel commanded, and immediately, and the force of his binder energy was so great that Bree felt as if she were somehow trying to let her own self go. Leander's grip loosened. She heaved against him, then the sound of a gun going off right in her ear deafened her. Daniel had neglected to tell Leander not to shoot her.
It took a shocked moment for her to register that she wasn't hurt. And in that moment, Varga got to his feet, and Franchesca went him, steadying him with a hand on his arm.
Bree managed to push Leander off of her, but he spun on his knees and moved in front of her, gun pointed at her face, one hand raised. The energy of a ward rose between her and Leander and Daniel. Leander was warding against further binding. Bree doubted he could hold Daniel off for long, but it would only take a moment to shoot her, and now she realized he just might do it. She tried to catch Leander's eyes, but he wasn't looking at her, he was looking at Daniel, who was clearly furious. "Just hold it right there! I'm not going to miss this time."
Swiftly, Bree called on her will energy, energy that had been poised and ready to use throughout the duel. She flicked her hand in Leander's direction and mouthed, freeze.
And freeze he did, his eyes wide, mouth half open. The trouble was, Daniel wouldn't know Leander was frozen. She opened her mouth to tell him when she heard Varga shout, "Thorvaldson, I bind you to my will. Drop your shield!"
Daniel's hands started to lower, his shield to waver, but then he frowned, and the shield solidified again. "You'll have to do better than that, Varga." And it sounded like Daniel, with almost no buzz of demon in his voice. For right now, Daniel was back in control.
"I'll have Leander shoot Bree. So this time I'm asking. Lower your shield."
Before Daniel could make any response, four men and a woman came forward into the dim light cast by Daniel's shield. This was the group Bree had felt coming. Dear God, it was over. She and Daniel would never be able to win against so many.
"What is this, Marton?" the grey haired, distinguished looking man at the fore said lightly. "A duel? In my territory?"
"Thorvaldson registered the duel with your people, Scanlon," Varga replied coldly,
Scanlon? The Keltoi clan chief, the father of the man she'd killed?
"But here's the problem with that. I have prior claim on Thorvaldson," Scanlon replied.
"What prior claim?" Varga asked, wiping at his bleeding mouth with the cuff of his shirt.
"He killed my son. I have the right of vengeance." There was something about the way Scanlon said the words that sounded formal, as if he were citing some kind of code. Why did Scanlon think Daniel had done it? Of course, Daniel had been there at the time, and he was a more obvious threat than Bree.
Daniel was still, shield in place, apparently assessing the situation. Bree herself couldn't think of a single thing she could do to positively affect things. If she could get Leander to pull down his ward, she could throw some freeze spells around, but doubtless once she got the first one off, they'd be on to her and retaliating.
Varga lifted his hand and glanced down a
t his wound briefly, then said to Franchesca, "Spell it off." Franchesca hitched her dress up over her knees and knelt in front of Varga. Her hand wove in a small, circling pattern over the injury as Varga replied to Scanlon. "There are bigger plans afoot than one person's vengeance, you know that."
"We are allies, it's true," Scanlon replied, "but in this matter, I'm afraid I must insist."
Bree's mind had continued to work furiously, and she went with the only plan she could come up with. She had to free Daniel to move. "Daniel, I've frozen Leander!" she shouted. For a split second, Leander's eyes flickered toward Daniel. The freeze spell was already wearing off! Bree lunged for Leander's gun. As soon as she touched it, the freeze spell evaporated completely. She got a glimpse of gold light, felt a wave of force slam against the ward Leander had raised. Daniel at work, no doubt, but why was he focusing his efforts on Leander's ward?
Bree grabbed for Leander's wrist, but he pulled away too quickly for her to get a purchase. Desperately, she swiped at the gun, trying to knock it out of his hand. She made contact. It hurt like hell, but she didn't succeed in knocking it loose. She tried to cast freeze again, but her concentration was off. Leander raised the gun at her again. His mouth was set in a hard line, but his eyes spoke of anguish. He would threaten her to get leverage on Daniel, and he might even shoot her at Varga's command, but he wouldn't shoot her out of hand.
Bree risked a glance at Daniel. He was engaged with Varga again, but had moved closer to where Bree faced off with Leander. He was casting one spell after another, and Varga was on the defensive. Daniel wavered on his feet, and Bree knew he had to be just about out of power.
