by Sara DeHaven
Daniel leaned back and ran a hand through his hair, in a gesture that spoke to Bree of frustration. His hair already had a tendency to stick up, and he’d just made it worse. “You know I don’t believe in Hell, Kevin.”
“Ah, yes, the ‘other dimensional beings’ theory,” Kevin replied with amusement.
“And I’m not sure I even buy the idea they're that unchanging. We’re relying on history with that notion, and historic documents are notoriously difficult to evaluate, given the context issues, the translation difficulties…”
“But demons really are predictable,” Bree weighed in. “At least that’s been my experience. They like to feed on negative emotional energy, and they create negativity so they can have more of what they like. That’s basically all they want.”
“Yes, but wouldn’t you say they have personalities?” Daniel replied, brows raised in question, expression becoming animated.
Kevin groaned. “Do we have to debate the existential demonology questions tonight? I know you Thorvaldson, you can keep this up for hours. Let’s just stick to the subject at hand, shall we?”
Bree was disappointed at Kevin’s putting the kibosh on the debate, which she was starting to enjoy. She reached up and started playing with the end of her ponytail, which was draped over one shoulder, and reminded herself that her plan was to tell Kevin what she knew and hope he and Daniel would take it from there, leaving her out of it.
As Kevin and Daniel argued over what was and wasn’t included in ‘the subject at hand,’ Bree finally acknowledged to herself that she probably was ready to start working at least a little power again. To her surprise, she hadn’t had any nightmares or other ill effects from clearing Daniel's taint, and the repeated images of the botched exorcism on Jeremy had calmed down too. She was awfully quick to be persuaded by Dion once he had a case to offer that sounded easy enough to begin with, and she'd had her interest well and truly piqued by the question of a new type of demon or demon talent. She’d thought of little else in the last couple of days, if one didn’t count thinking about Daniel Thorvaldson, which Bree was working hard not to count. On the other hand, she didn’t want to get drawn back into full out exorcism work, at least not now, and maybe not ever if she could get away with it.
“Look,” Bree finally interrupted, even though she could see that now Kevin was enjoying the argument as well. “I think the main question is really what we should do with the information. We can continue to speculate all we want in the meantime, but don’t you think this should go to the Ecclesias, just in case it’s important?”
She saw Kevin glance quickly at Daniel, and something unspoken passed between them.
“I do think that would be a good idea,” Kevin said, with seeming reluctance.
“Well, I don’t see where I would need to be involved directly,” Daniel said, voice gone cool. Bree saw his nostrils flare slightly, and his mouth had tightened again. Her Reader sense spontaneously flared up at these signs of anger.
“Daniel, the Ecclesias out here is not like it is back home.”
“I was just the subject, Kevin, they’ll really just need to hear from Bree,” Daniel interrupted, obviously trying not to sound annoyed.
Kevin didn’t answer, and Bree looked over at him and saw his face had gone tense. “What is it?” she asked.
“Someone just touched the house wards." All three closed their eyes for a moment, the better to focus their various talents to try to read what might be going on. “There it is again,” Kevin said.
“I feel it,” Bree said nervously. "In fact, I feel a lot of people out there. Six of them. They feel, not quite hostile, but like they don't mean well."
“It felt like an exploratory hit,” Daniel said.
Suddenly, all the windows in the house rattled in their frames. “What the hell was that?” Bree exclaimed, as Steve called from the bathroom, “Kevin? Was that an earthquake?”
Kevin was on his feet, facing the window on the street side of the house, and Daniel was already beside him, arms raised to his sides, lips moving in a working. “What’s he doing?” Bree whispered, coming up behind Kevin.
“He’s backing up my wards. Someone is trying to take them down by force, and that cannot be good.” He joined Daniel in the same posture.
Again, the windows rattled. Steve hurried into the living room, Hunter in his arms, wrapped in a towel, brown hair still wet from his bath. “I think we’re having an earthquake! Aren’t we supposed to get under a table or something?”
“It’s not an earthquake,” Bree replied tensely. “This is powered business. Take Hunter to his room and lock the door.” She pushed Steve back toward the hall to the bedrooms, already regretting the frightened look on Hunter’s face. She made sure Steve had done what she said, then dashed back into the living room as another jolt hit. Kevin was kneeling on the floor, gasping like he’d just run miles. Daniel was still on his feet, body rigid. Desperately, Bree joined him, knowing her warding skills weren’t in the same league as Kevin’s or Daniel’s, but knowing she had to try. Anything attempting to break house wards was nothing she wanted to allow inside.
She let her Reader sense enter the wards, and immediately felt an intense pressure against them. She read the energy as mostly human, but her Demonsense picked up demonic power as well, in someone possessed. At that realization, Bree’s heart lurched in her chest. A demon, right outside, and a strong one. Bad enough to believe that strangers were trying to break into the house. Now they had to contend with a monster as well.
She began adding energy to the house wards, tried to weave it in carefully and not disturb Kevin’s or Daniel’s working. But she could feel the wards failing even as she worked. They needed more people on their side, and they didn’t have them. She frantically tried to call to mind some of her rusty defensive spells, had just formulated her intention, visualized a blue wall of water and started saying the words when the wards failed.
She saw Daniel stagger out of the corner of her eye. Her Demonsense was a terrifying jangle all along her nerves as she finished her spell and cast it before the house. She barely had time to draw in a breath before she felt the demon come in contact with her spell. Her skin crawled, and she felt the demon’s rage, sensed it trying to apply brute force to the defensive spell. It was holding.
But it wasn’t enough. There was only one demon, but she could feel energy from all the people out there, and the air was alive with spells. She glanced at Daniel, saw he was gesturing rapidly, but with great precision. She felt energy building around him, and to her Reader sense, he was limned with light. She couldn’t imagine a spell one person could cast that could defend against so many powered. She could only pray he had something in his Keeper arsenal that would do the trick. He glanced her way and said tightly, "Drop your spell."
She obeyed, and felt a surge of energy from him directed outwards, something complex, fierce and dark. And then, right behind it, a stronger pulse of magic, huge and even darker. It felt for a moment like the universe was holding its breath, then the force outside dissolved. Bree cast out her senses, and she felt the powered outside, including the demon possessed one, retreating. Kevin staggered to his feet and she saw him gesture to re-set the wards. She didn’t know how he had it in him, but she felt the wards go back up.
Daniel gasped and leaned forward, head bowed, hands on his knees. Bree could hear her own harsh breathing. She felt light headed.
"I'll go check on Steve and Hunter," Kevin said, and disappeared down the hall. Bree swayed on her feet as she cast her Reader sense and Demonsense out as far as they would go. The attackers were definitely gone now.
Kevin reappeared, saying, "They're okay. Hunter's a little shook up, but Steve is reading to him. We figured going ahead with the usual routine was best." He collapsed onto the couch. Bree walked carefully over and joined him. Her Reader sense was still fully activated by the stress of what had just happened, and she didn't have the energy to shut it down. They both regarded Daniel bla
nkly across the room. Finally, Kevin managed to choke out, “Okay, I’ll know if they attack the wards again. But Daniel, please. Did you see what that was?”
Daniel straightened slowly, looking as if he was trying to keep his balance, and turned to face them. “One demon, embodied. A lot of powered, six altogether, as Bree thought. As far as I can tell, no one I know.”
“No one you know,” Kevin repeated, anger creeping into his voice. “Tell me, Daniel, why would people like that come to my house? I’m a goddamned computer programmer!”
A shadow of pain crossed Daniel’s face, but he sounded relatively calm as he answered, “I realize I’m the only one here likely to attract that brand of attention. But I’ve never done Keeper work out here, not even a little side work. I don’t have a single Keeper contact in Seattle. So I don’t see how I could possibly be involved in this kind of local trouble. I’ve only been here two weeks,” he concluded a little plaintively.
“Can you be sure something from back east didn’t follow you here?” Kevin asked, scowling.
Every one of Daniels’ tells were screaming to Bree of tension and distress as he said, voice low, “Kevin, you do not seriously think I would show up at your house if I thought for one minute that some trouble from home had followed me here?”
Kevin let his breath out in a whoosh, face falling. “Oh, I guess not. Not that, anyway,” he said cryptically. “But really, Daniel, what else could it be?”
Daniel’s eyes flashed to Bree. “Oh no, nothing to do with me,” Bree answered his look. “I’ve just done exorcisms, taint clearings and the like. And until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t done a real working in a year and a half, not since… not since my husband Seth passed away,” she forced herself to finish.
“Look, there are only so many possibilities. To break wards I set would take a good number of people, or several true high powered. The first thing that jumps to my mind is the Keltoi,” Kevin said.
“Or the Ecclesias,” Daniel shot back.
“Now you’re being paranoid,” Kevin answered shortly.
“Am I?” Daniel replied, and another long look passed between them.
“Okay, wait,” Bree broke in. “Why on earth would it be the Ecclesias? They’d just send a couple of Keepers out if one of us had broken some law. The forced entry thing just doesn’t make any sense for the Ecclesias.”
Neither of the men answered her, and she caught tells that both men were dismissing her argument and did think it could have been the Ecclesias. It was a very sobering thought. Somehow worse than if it had been the Keltoi. That she could understand. That was organized crime of the powered kind, too often allied with demons, and who knew what they were capable of. The Ecclesias could be medieval in its politics and at rare times draconian in its penalties, but it was the law when it came to the powered. She thought of the Ecclesias, ultimately, as a force for good. The idea that they would try to forcibly enter someone’s house, bringing in someone possessed, threw all she knew about the Ecclesias into doubt.
“Think about it,” Daniel said, as he threw himself down into a chair, long legs sprawled out in front of him. “The only reason to try to force an entry rather than opting to try to trick your way past the wards with an invitation would be if you expected to be recognized and opposed in getting what you want.”
“Daniel,” Bree said slowly, thinking out loud, “who or what would you recognize on sight?”
“Keltoi I knew from experience or from Keeper bulletins,” he replied. “Some Ecclesias, though I’ve never met any of the local Ecclesias.”
“And wouldn’t you know a particular demon if it was one you encountered before?”
“Maybe, but the greater risk is probably that I’d recognize a particular person. In any case, regardless of who or what it was, there’s only two people in the house a group of powered might want that I can think of, unless Bree has something in her past that’s coming after her. And that would be me or Hunter.”
Kevin was shaking his head.
“Kevin, why is it that you had full, high level house wards activated?” Daniel asked, leaning forward, hands clasped between his knees. “Those kind of wards aren’t just meant for normals bent on stealing your stereo. And what do you know about Hunter’s birth parents?”
There was a long silence before Kevin answered. "All I know is his mother was a young powered woman who didn’t know or didn’t report in the paperwork anything about the father. But the girl, she was Keltoi. So I've always kind of worried that she or the father might try to track Hunter down someday.”
Bree felt a little stab of shock about Kevin's revelation that Hunter's biological mother was Keltoi. He'd never told her that. But she couldn’t focus on the new information. She was distracted by nervously scanning for any other attempts at intrusion. “I hate to be doom and gloom here, but are we safe? I mean, how do we know whoever that was isn’t just recouping some energy so they can try again?”
“They’re gone. They won’t try again tonight, and probably not for another couple of days,” Daniel replied tersely.
“How would you know that?” Bree questioned him.
Again, Daniel and Kevin exchanged a long look, and suddenly, finally, it clicked into place. “What you did at the end, what I felt after the wards failed. You did a binding.”
“A binding is just another form of casting…” Daniel began quickly.
“You did it without any preparation, and without using any power object I could see," Bree interrupted. "And the only way that’s possible is if you’re a Binder.” The rumors Kevin had hinted at, why the Ecclesias might be something Daniel wanted to avoid, made sense now. She felt a crawling sensation up her back just at the word Binder. Ever since she knew what being powered was, she had feared Binders. Someone with extremely strong will energy, and with a special talent for penetrating the energy field and psyche of another, who could take your will and force you to do anything. Anything. It was magic so dark it was utterly terrifying.
Kevin weighed in quickly, turning slightly to face Bree and putting a hand on her knee. “I’ve known about Daniel’s Binder abilities for years, and I’ve chosen not to turn him over to the Ecclesias because I’ve had a lot of chances to observe what kind of person he is, how he uses his powers. I don’t agree with his choices in every case,” and at that, he shot Daniel a dour look, “but I’ve never seen him misuse his Binder talent. I just plain trust that he can handle it, at least for now."
"Yes, but..." Bree started to interrupt, but Kevin plowed on. "In the end, it comes down to whether you trust your own read of Daniel. You're an exceptional Reader. Don't you think you'd know if he was some out of control Binder ready to hit us all with some mind control? And at the end of the day, would you rather Daniel let those people in? What if they were after Hunter?”
And there was the rub. If she were honest with herself, she knew that if she had Binder talent, she wouldn't hesitate for a second to use it to protect Hunter.
Daniel seemed to read her thoughtful silence as doubt. "Look Bree, I don't even think of myself as a Binder. I have some abilities in that direction. You could say I have that power. But I don’t choose to use it, except very rarely in self defense or defense of others, and even then, it's very much a last resort.”
Bree crossed her arms across her chest, feeling chilled and uneasy. As much as she saw Daniel's and Kevin's point, she felt compelled to play devil's advocate, if only to work through her own profoundly mixed feelings. "I get that tonight, I would have done the same in your shoes. I'm familiar with the argument that it's not the power itself that's bad, it's how you use it.
"But surely you know, you may start out thinking you'll only use it for self defense, but that's all too likely to change. You know Binding is an addictive power. At first, you talk yourself into thinking you're doing it for some good reason, but pretty soon, it's just a rationalization to force people to do what you want. Why do you think Keepers vet every person who runs for political
office for Binder talent? We've seen what happens in other countries where they don't have a strong enough Keeper force to prevent Binders from taking over."
"I'm not arguing that there aren't serious problems with Binder power," Daniel rejoined. "In most cases, it is dangerous, and it's warranted to shut down the power in those that have it to any great degree. But you have to use it for it to get the best of you, and I don't use mine. I can count the number of times I've used it on one hand, including tonight. And like Kevin said, you've read me. Do I read dark powered to you?"
Bree hesitated to say what she was thinking in response. There were ethics to using Reader talent. What you perceived on a reading wasn't shared with anyone but the subject without their permission unless you had a damned good reason. And she had read some darkness in Daniel's energy. It had never come completely clear for her if it was related to the demon taint, depression, or something else.
Still, on reflection, she could say with some confidence that he hadn't read truly dark powered to her, so she answered, "No, I wouldn't call you dark powered." Daniel stirred at that, and she hazarded a look at him, in part to test her own feelings. Knowing someone was a Binder was just so… creepy. So much of being powered was a more subtle, a more gentle use of energy. How could you ever interact normally with someone who could turn you into a zombie practically with the wave of a hand?
Looking at Daniel now, she had a sense of dread warring with gratitude, along with a big dollop of speculation about how handy it would be to have a Binder on their side, particularly if it turned out the attack tonight had something to do with Hunter's biological parents trying to get him back. A fierce surge of protectiveness welled up in her at the thought. It was hard to imagine something she wouldn't do to prevent harm to Hunter. So how could she judge Daniel for using what Binder abilities he possessed to do the same?
She did wonder how she had missed his Binder talent on her read of him. Then a greater mystery occurred to her. She turned to face Daniel directly. "How is it that you became a Keeper if you have Binder talent?"
