by Sara DeHaven
It worked, but her vision went black and she stumbled and went down on one knee. How did the man still have that much strength in him, after the duel? He really was as strong as Daniel. She had to hurry. If she had to cast freeze again, she might pass out.
She got back to her feet, braced the branch against the ground and kicked down on it, hard. It snapped, leaving a raggedly pointed end. Bree gripped it in both hands, moved next to Varga, and placed it on the left side of his chest, over where she thought his heart would be. She'd have to shove it in as hard as she could. But did she have the strength to get it into his body? And did she have the courage to even try?
His mouth twitched, just a little. It was now or never.
And then she made the mistake of looking at Varga's eyes. In the dim light, there was something to their shape, and their expression, that looked just like Daniel. She tried to think of the images from the bombing, of Kevin lying bleeding on the sidewalk, but she kept seeing Daniel in the angles of his face. Her sweat slicked hands gripped harder on the branch.
Do you wish me to take control of you, my host? Gelsenim asked, voice reluctant. It was that very reluctance that made her pause. She thought of Gelsenim as he'd been when last she called him. He'd said he wasn't feeling any violent impulses. Now she was preparing to bring those old impulses to the surface. She was going to force him to corrupt himself further because she was too cowardly to kill Varga on her own.
I have done much harm. Is one more murder so important?
Murder. She was about to murder someone. She couldn't bring herself to have Gelsenim take control and do it. Hadn't she been fighting her whole adult life against just this kind of thing, demons possessing people and making them do terrible things? And if she murdered someone, in cold blood, how was she any better than Varga?
She couldn't do it. She couldn't kill the man lying helpless at her feet. She didn't have it in her.
I would do it for you, my host, Gelsenim said softly.
And that decided her. She couldn't have Gelsenim do it either.
She bent over and said, right into Varga's face, "I beat you, Varga. If this were a formal challenge, I'd have the right to all your clan holdings. I want you to remember that. And remember what I said about Daniel. That hiding spell you're so excited over drove him insane."
His lips twitched again, and Bree realized that if she wasn't going to kill him, she had better run.
It is dangerous to leave Varga alive. You should have let me kill him.
I couldn't do that to you, Bree replied, hand pressed to her chest. Her heart was hurting again. She suspected it had never stopped, but she'd been too distracted there for a bit to notice it.
I'm not certain my virtue is worth protecting. Gelsenim took human form and reached out, took the branch from her and tossed it aside. "But it is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me.” He picked her up and Bree looked at Varga over his shoulder. His hands were twitching again.
"You better hurry, he's coming around," she said. She put her arms around Gelsenim’s neck and let her head fall against his chest. He carried her in the direction of her car, where she'd parked it in the neighborhood bordering on the park, and after a few strides, broke into a run.
"I don't know what's right anymore, Gelsenim," she said tiredly. Her chest seemed to be hurting more, not less, and she was more tired than her limited use of magic would explain. It had to be the results of the attack on her heart that were affecting her. She wondered, weakly, if she’d had a heart attack. She felt a powerful need to close her eyes, and she did. She gradually registered that she was crying, even though she'd thought she was numb. She dreaded what she would feel once she had the energy to really beat herself up over her choices.
She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, Gelsenim was lowering her into the passenger seat of her car. "Oh no you don't. You are not driving my car."
"It is a perfectly simple task. I have driven a car while in possession of a host many times. It cannot be much different." He pulled the seat belt across her, and she noticed for the first time that he'd manifested wearing black, presumably the better to blend into the shadows. He shut the car door, went around the back of the car, then got in on the driver's side and put the keys in the ignition.
"Put on your seatbelt," Bree prompted sleepily.
"I suspect I could reform this body into a non-injured form were we to get into an accident," Gelsenim replied, but he did as she asked. "I will take you to the home of your friend Sophie. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes, thank you." Bree fell asleep again, and then Sophie was there, pulling open the car door. She heard Gelsenim explain what Varga had done to her, the attack on her heart.
"We're taking you to the emergency room," Sophie told her as she stood up from where she had bent over Bree to examine her. "Bruce, how about you drive? I'm not sure, ah, Gelsenim should be driving."
"Oh God, do I really have to go to the hospital?" Bree asked weakly.
"When it comes to possible damage to your heart, yes, you have to," Sophie said firmly. She shut the door, and got in back, while Bruce got into the driver seat and started the car.
I have let go of my physical body, Gelsenim said inside her head. Your friends appear to find my physical presence alarming.
Thanks, she sent back tiredly.
"So is what Gelsenim told us right? Daniel went divided?"
"Bruce, this isn't the time for questions," Sophie chided.
"Yes, he really went divided," Bree answered anyway. "Franchesca got in his head and did something to him to push him over the edge. But it's really my fault. It's all my fault."
"Shh, sweetie, enough," Sophie told her. "You've been through a lot. Just let us take care of you for now. We can talk about all this later."
Bree got quick service in the E.R. when Sophie announced she'd had a heart attack. Bree thought guiltily that it might not be true, and worried she might be jumping the line in front of someone who might be in more immediate need, but Sophie insisted. Her EKG was abnormal, that much Bree registered of what the doctor told her, but it wasn't quite consistent with a heart attack either. She was admitted for further testing, and both Sophie and Bruce stayed with her. Gelsenim left quite reluctantly once she was settled into a room and wanted to sleep again. She promised to call him again the next day.
The rest of the night was a blur. Bree slept between EKGs, blood tests, and visits from the nurse to check her vitals. Bruce left in the morning to go feed Hanroi for her, and Sophie went down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. That was when Kevin showed up.
He was still in the hospital, and Steve wheeled him up to Bree's floor in a wheelchair. Kevin was looking more like himself. His color was much better, his glasses were back on, and while he looked thinner somehow, he also looked much more alert than the last time Bree had seen him.
"Hon, why don't you go join Sophie for breakfast?" Kevin told Steve.
"I get it. Time for the powered pow wow," Steve replied. He kissed Bree on the forehead and gave a jaunty wave as he left the room.
"He keeps trying to be cheerful," Kevin told Bree apologetically. "He's looking to make up for all our doom and gloom." He wheeled forward a little so he could take her hand. "Bruce gave me the basics, but I'd like to hear from you what happened to Daniel, if you're up to telling me."
Bree released Kevin's hand and looked away. Meeting Kevin's eyes while confessing how badly her miscalculations had hurt Daniel was impossible. The feeling of shame was the only feeling to break through the numbness she’d felt since awakening that morning.
"It was almost exactly as Gelsenim predicted," she told him woodenly. "There was some sudden, major shift, and it was like he had no conscience. He killed a man without a thought. I'm pretty sure it was Jim Scanlon's father, so he would have been Hunter's biological grandfather. And his energy went dark, completely dark. The closest thing to that I know about is getting demon burned, but that takes time, and not everyone ends up complet
ely dark powered with that. Crazy maybe, but not always evil. But this..." She shuddered. "Do you think he always had that in him? All along?"
Kevin took the time to consider it seriously, then shook his head. "Not like you mean, no. I don't think he had a side to him that was evil, or without a conscience, not more than there is in anyone. I think he has a lot of anger, a lot of hurt, and a lot of self-hatred. And let's face it, there is some innate darkness to Demon Master and Binder energies. Maybe there's been some negative effect on him of all the years of blocking just those abilities."
"That's what I've been thinking, that the hiding spell has had a bad effect on him. But to go so far wrong, so quickly, it's just bizarre."
"We're in new territory here. That's always been Daniel's genius, to come up with completely novel solutions. And there's always a risk in that."
"But Daniel told me not to come, he told me it could make him unstable. If only I hadn't been there..." Bree rejoined.
Kevin sighed and settled back tiredly in his chair. "There's been risk in every choice we've made in all of this. It was a risk for us to get involved in helping the Keepers with the riots. It was a risk for Daniel to take on Varga. All the demon research has been a risk. Daniel was never one to shy away from taking chances, and honestly, Bree, it's been good to see you more willing to take a few yourself. I don't think it's really in you to hide out the way you did after Seth's death. You're more of a take action person." Bree crossed her arms over her stomach and looked away, but Kevin continued on. "I'm heartsick over Daniel, but you can't expect me to judge you for something I would have done myself if I'd been able. It was arrogant, and crazy, and just plain suicidal for Daniel to take on Varga without any back-up plan."
There was a span of silence while Bree took in what Kevin had said. "There was a moment at the end when I thought I saw him in there, saw the real Daniel," Bree finally said. "He looked right at me, and I could swear that, just for an instant, he was there."
"So maybe he's not completely lost," Kevin replied, voice a little choked. He'd clearly been working hard at sounding calm for Bree's sake, but his true emotions about the situation were leaking out now.
"I have to believe that, Kevin, I just have to," Bree said wearily.
"So you do care for him?"
"Care for him?" Bree let out a harsh, hopeless laugh. "I love him, Kevin. I've fought it, but I'm done fighting it. Ironic, isn't it? Now that there's no way I can have him, I admit that I love him. It's just my style to be that stupidly self defeating, isn't it?"
"It's not self defeating if it turns out Daniel is still salvageable. I know you had some ideas on how to heal the divide in him, and that he wouldn't let you try it. Maybe that's still possible."
"In one thing he was right," Bree admitted. "I don't really have much experience in using Reader talent in healing work."
"So consult an expert. I know a few I could send you to."
"And tell them what? I want to repair a Binder and Demon Master who's gone rogue?"
"You don't have to tell them anything you don't want to," Kevin said firmly. "All they'd have to know is that you want to further your studies."
"Fair point. The trouble is, all that will take time. And what I've been thinking is, what will Daniel be like if I can bring him back to his old self after he's spent time doing God knows what in the state he's in? Who else is he going to kill in the meantime? What will Varga and Franchesca have him doing? You know how hard he is on himself already. Maybe I can heal the divide, but I don't know if that will come even a little way toward healing Daniel, if you see what I mean."
Kevin frowned. "I see what you mean all too well. And I can't help but wonder if Daniel would even want you to try. He told me you nearly got yourself killed when you tried before."
"I suppose he was probably right to refuse me until I get more training," Bree admitted reluctantly. "And I will get more. I don't want to die trying, trust me. But all this supposes I can even get access to him if I do think I have a fair shot at healing the divide. How am I supposed to locate him? There's no guarantee I'll even be able to find Daniel, wherever they're keeping him."
"One thing at a time, Bree, one thing at a time," Kevin soothed. "We both need to heal up and find our feet again. I'll do whatever I can to help you, but on one condition."
"Which is?"
"That you don't hare off to L.A. without a plan that has some hope of you getting out alive. It's possible I've already lost one friend to those Keltoi fuckers, I don't want to lose two."
Bree just looked at him.
"Bree..." Kevin's tone turned chiding. "What are you thinking?"
Something in Bree went hard, hard like iron. "I'm thinking it's my responsibility to fix this. I've been running from responsibility since I did my first exorcism, since I first found out that being powered wasn't just fun and games. That's over now." She looked past Kevin, at something in her own mind. "I don't care what it takes, Kevin. I don't care what I have to do, what I have to be to make it happen. I am done fucking around." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Gelsenim, I call you! Gelsenim, I command you!"
"What are you doing?" Kevin sputtered as orange smoke poured into the room and coalesced into Gelsenim in his human form. The demon loomed over the hospital bed, blue eyes locked on Bree and burning with intensity. "I have missed you, my host, and I have been worried about you. Even these few hours apart have pained me."
"Possess me, Gelsenim."
The demon hesitated, a calculating gleam in his eyes. "For how long, my host? I have served you as best as I can. Do I not deserve a longer possession?"
"Bree, I really don't think you're in the kind of shape..." Kevin tried to interrupt.
"As long as you like, as long as we're not around powered with Demonsense," Bree answered evenly. "But you must help me get Daniel back. You must do whatever I ask, and you must resist any other powered calling you, especially Daniel. Those are my terms."
"Agreed," the demon said shortly, and his form vanished instantly.
She took a hard, sharp breath as felt the hot rush of power and vitality enter her. She looked at Kevin defiantly. "Don't try to talk me out of this."
"You're grieving and in shock. You're not thinking straight," Kevin replied sharply. "You don't know what an extended possession will do to you."
"You think I have a hope in hell of taking on Varga and his crew without Gelsenim? And that's what I'm going to have to do to get Daniel back. I'm going to need every last bit of help Gelsenim can give me, and he can give me a lot, in more ways than you realize."
"You could not be sounding more like a Demon Master if you tried," Kevin replied. His voice was angry, but his face was tired.
"I'll get him back, Kevin," she said, conviction ringing in her voice like cathedral bells. Her body had turned rigid, her hands clutched the edge of the sheet in a white knuckled grip. "One way or another, I will get him back."
The End
Afterword
Thanks for reading Demon Master. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review online wherever you purchased the book. Reviews help readers find books and encourage authors to spend even more of their all too fleeting time on planet Earth writing. Otherwise, please invent immortality so I will have forever to write everything I want to write as well as do all the other cool stuff life has to offer. To get information on upcoming books, sign up for the newsletter or to contact me, check out my website at saradehaven.com
Look for Demon Mate, Book 3 of the Demonsense series, coming out December 2015
About the Author
Sara DeHaven has been writing since she was eight years old, starting with the short story "The Demon of Detroit." That first impulse to write Urban Fantasy never really waned, probably because she's always been convinced magical powers ought to exist in the here and now, starting with teleportation. If she could teleport, she'd be in a small bakery in Colmar, France for breakfast, that place in Istanbul where you can look
out the window and watch men get a shave and a haircut for lunch, and the impossible to ever find again tiny cicchetti place in the maze that is Venice for dinner. In addition to travel, she enjoys reading, gardening, hiking and trolling craigslist while pretending to be a DIY type person. Her day job is terribly serious (and mysterious - if you knew what it was, she'd have to kill you), so writing fantasy is the perfect complement. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and extremely naughty cat.
Acknowledgements
Thanks ever so much to my wonderful friends and beta readers, Kim Zimring and Julia Kay. And thanks also to my brother Paul, a writer himself, who never stopped encouraging me even though he’s not remotely interested in genre fiction.
And thanks must go to my husband Mike, who miraculously doesn’t pout when I’m glued to the computer in a writing trance for hours at a time. On the weekend. He’s a saint. Thanks also to my cat Josephine, who, equally miraculously, consented to be trained to sit on my feet, not on my computer, when I’m on the couch writing. You are a very bad cat, but you got that one right.
