Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) (9 page)

Darla snorted at her, and
squeezed her hand, hard enough that she needed to heal it. Something cracked
inside, which was a test, no doubt. Keeley wasn't as tough as a lot of the
other Demons that way. Good with magic though.

"Thirty million, two favors,
each worth fifty if I bail on them."

"Good enough. I'll... Go and
take care of Quince now. I don't suppose you have his phone number?"
Keeley could get it, and probably had it in her own head somewhere, if she
worked it all out. Hally or Eve probably had it, and she'd collected both of
their lives already. That just meant searching... It took a few seconds and
Darla didn't speak, understanding that she'd already handled it.

That portion of things at least.

"So, it will be done by
morning? Transfer the funds tonight?"

Darla tilted her head.

"
After
it's
done." Then she started to drive back toward town, which wasn't far.
"You know, Keels... I think I liked you better when you were kind of
clueless."

That got a nod back, "I
know. Much easier to manipulate that way. Well, everyone grows up sometime,
right?"

Darla shook her head then, but
smiled. It was a dark and knowing thing, not friendly or kind.

"No, not really. Most of our
kind just die before that happens. Be careful. Things are... Well,
normal
for us. So not what they seem. Keep that in mind, or you won't last long, adult
or not."

It was good advice, but Keeley
didn't know if she was going to live long enough to apply it. Probably not,
given everything.

It took a bit to shake off Darla,
since her wonderful sister seemed to still not be certain about who Keels
really was. That... It was a problem in their world. Honestly, there was a good
chance that the blonde with her was someone else as well. The big difference
there was that The Technician could take care of herself and knew it, so she'd
be around eventually given that it was her territory, even if someone tried to
pretend being her for a while.

Her little sister might be simply
tucked out of the way however, if someone were strong enough, or just took her
by surprise. It was very nearly impossible to trick one of their kind, which
just meant the ones good enough to manage it pretty much couldn't be stopped.

So Keeley trying to eat enough
and making hard bargains, which were both things that she'd been told to do a
hundred times over the last few months, seemed out of place now. It could have
been a sign that she wasn't herself. Except of course she was. Really it came
down to the fact that she was scared of dying. Not in an obvious way. There was
no trembling or panicked sounding words. It was a deeper thing than that. One
that started in her gut and crawled all the way to the top of her mind
constantly now.

Tarsus had set her up to die,
even though he didn't really care about that part of things. He just wanted the
world to be saved and honestly figured that they didn't have much more time to
handle things. She could, and probably should let someone else deal with it.
That, however was the real trick to the whole thing, she thought. The Librarian
would let her out of it, but knew that she, being young, idealistic and naive,
would take the task on, even if no one else sane would try it.

That was why her life had been
accelerated. So that she'd be able to make that decision for herself, without
Darla influencing her on it.

Because her sister would have
looked at the situation and told her that she wasn't allowed to risk her life
that way. That no one should ever even try things like that. Especially babies
that still had mentors. Only, now she didn't have that kind of influence over
her.

So, it really was a trap that
way. One that she could get out of, but
wouldn't
, since she was still
too stupid to just kill off her feelings and let everyone around her perish. Yes,
some of them would do it anyway, eventually. Hally, unless something happened,
probably wouldn't live past eighty. Gary was even worse, being suicidal like he
was. Darla had to work to keep him from sinking into a deep depression, and
eventually she'd get bored with the idea. The easy thing to do there would be
to take him as a slave and merely order him to honestly feel happy. That took work
and effort however, and even though he was a friend, Keels didn't know if the
boy was worth that kind of time commitment. Thinking that left her feeling a
bit sad, until she started to shut that down, too.

He wasn't, at that point, a good
investment. He didn't have skills or hobbies that would benefit her or anyone
else in the long run. Worse, his personal habits made him disruptive to the
natural order of the world. Not his being gay, which was fine. No, it was the
fact that he was different from most people, while
also
being smart, and
brave enough that he wouldn't back down. That could have made him a natural
leader, but being as young as he was, it would remain to be seen as to how well
he did in that regard. He'd been an indifferent student and hadn't planned for
college. It wasn't a lack of intelligence, just that his interests, what he was
conscientious about, were too different. Sports, and martial arts for self
protection.

Gary was then, in short, not
really ready for the world.

Still, she was being a bit dark
and decided to dump that on Zack, just bringing up the idea with him. They had
time, if they wanted to bring the boy back around, after all.

Darla however kept watching her,
even as she politely made her excuses, several times. Finally she just glared
at the older Demon and snorted at her.

"I'm
me
, okay? I just
have some things to get done. Here... Let me..." She'd gotten them both
back to her house and sank onto the sofa, making it creak again. That should
have been a sign right there, since she hadn't been trying to do that, but her
sister wouldn't be able to count on that. A good faker, was, by definition,
good
.

Instead of snarking again, she
closed her eyes, ignoring the world around her, trying to work out what she'd
really need. It was possible to form a connection at a distance for a Deal.
Darla had managed taking Becky over the phone, in a normal conversation. That
was really due to telepathy though, which was... A thing that Keeley could do
too. She was even decent at it, if the truth were told.

She found Quince with her mind,
the ancient Durg resting on his bed, at home with his parents in the
background. The people that had been hired to take him in. Worry and a bit of
anger slid off his thoughts, going over everything that he'd been doing. How at
each turn, he hit dead ends as far as finding what had happened to his
brothers. It ate at him. He'd heard some rumors of a Greater Demon called The
Bold, and figured that one for being the likely attacker. A fearsome beast that
even went after other Greater Demons.

It was hard to keep a straight
face, but she managed it, not wanting to be insulting, even at a distance. Fram
did actually
do
that. The only thing there was that he normally
lost
when he tried. It was just that he had a blind spot that made him think that
being thought of highly by his peers meant something. It didn't. That lack of
understanding was why he was insane. Other than that he wasn't a bad sort of
being, just a bit... Limited in one direction. It got him noticed.

It was clear that Quince wasn't
up on who was doing what however. Not even that he lived in the territory of The
Technician. It wasn't that hard to find things like that out, but it would
require actually asking around for a while, which wasn't a thing that
schoolboys had a lot of time for. So he'd done a lot of divining, trying to
find out what he could in the entrails of animals. It didn't work on Greater
Demons, but there were patterns left, that showed where things were
missing
.

Like the ones that he'd found
around the school. There had to be one of her kind all over things to make it
work out as it had, according to what he'd seen in the entrails. That was why
The Bold
must
be one of the Teachers, if not the Principal. He was
tempted to go after the man that night, just in case. If he were wrong, it
would be a shame, but an acceptable loss. If he was right, well, a surprise
attack would be the only thing that might work.

He was a powerful fighter, and a
warrior that knew his skills very well, having practiced them since before Humans
regularly farmed the land. That didn't make him the equal of a Greater Demon
however. If he gave that kind of being even a half warning, it would be too
much and he'd fail. All he had to do was get up, and go.

He started to, as Keeley formed a
link with him, sending the idea of a Deal to his mind. A bargain that he
couldn't refuse, since it was her doing it. All he had to do was stand up, and
that would be the agreement to be her slave. Forever. If she'd been working in
words, she might have been a bit more gentle than that. His thoughts however
responded to her, which showed that what she was doing was working. That it
could work. He also stopped moving suddenly, refusing, at least for a moment,
to get up.

She focused, and sent a single
thought to him then.

'Stand
.'

He rose with a shocking speed,
which allowed her to feel the link between them sink home. Then, because it was
the hard part, she gave him orders instantly, using her mind for it, instead of
words, which was all she'd ever tried before.

'You will obey Keeley in all
things. You cannot lie to her, or struggle against her. You will allow no loophole
in your thinking, serving her only.'

Then without moving or opening
her eyes, she went over that several times with different variations of the
phrasing. He responded to it pretty well, but she really didn't want to make
mistakes. Her first grab had been too clumsy for instance. If that had been a
powerful being of her own kind, it would have likely ended with her own death,
even being seven miles away like she was.

Opening her eyes, she winked at
Darla and then patted her leg as the girl raised her eyebrows in return.

"There, I have him. Quince.
Kevin now. Do you want me to have him do something, to prove that I'm me?"
No one else could have grabbed a person like that, she didn't think. Not that
quickly. It had only taken about four minutes, which wasn't that shabby. Also
too slow, for what she needed to become. A good start, anyway.

"Have him call me
on..." She pulled out a cell phone and brought the number up for Keeley to
see. "That line. Don't say the words out loud."

It took about a minute, but a
totally different phone rang and had to be pulled out of her shirt pocket. It
was a tiny thing, but she nodded when she glanced at who was calling.

"Quince? How good to hear
from you! What can I do for you this evening?"

They chatted for a bit, and with
only a slight bit of mental pressure, the boy invited himself over for a visit.
There was no real reason for it, but he assured them that he'd be there by ten.
Alone. He knew that Keeley was there, since Darla had mentioned it. At that
point, he got pretty excited.

"I... Don't know, Quince. I
guess that Keeley
is
free for the evening, come to think of it. Are you
just using me to get to her, or are you hoping for a three way?"

That got a laugh that could be
heard at a distance, and a polite denial of both things. After a bit she got
off the device and looked at her sister.

"Impressive. Unless of
course he realized what you tried to do and is just planning to come and kill
you. What do you think the odds are?" There was a darkness to the words,
but no distrust in the matter, which was heartening to see, after an evening of
shifty glances.

"About fifty-fifty? I've
never done this before, and I could have messed it up. So, let's... Actually,
that gives us about three hours. I need to go shopping. You can come, or... I
don't know, meet me back here then?"

"That second one. I need to
actually check in with Zack. I don't get out of being his babysitter just
because things get a tiny bit complicated. I also seem to need to transfer some
funds around." Which was a sign that the other Demon really thought that
Keels had pulled it off. She hoped that was the case.

The trip to the store was pretty
boring. Even loading up four full carts of food, and making two trips to
different places, she didn't really have more than enough for a few days. Two,
if she actually ate like she needed to.

She did that when she got in,
making enough food for a small family to get fat on, then doing it again, twice
more before Darla came in, at just before the stated arrival time. She could
feel Quince coming, walking on foot, approaching the house as if it were a
perfectly normal evening. That link meant that, if nothing else, she truly had
him enslaved. What it didn't mean was that her commands had been received
completely. She hoped that was the case, but reached into the space around her
and checked her weapons again.

It was, technically a pocket
universe. The second one that she'd built, since Tarsus had helpfully broken
her first one, while beating her about like a sock puppet. This one was a bit
bigger, and carried more gear inside of it. For instance, she had six swords
and knives now, instead of two. Nearly a dozen guns and a rocket launcher were
near her left hand, and behind her she had a small room filled with things that
might be of use at some point. If by small she counted a space about the size
of the house she was in. There was food there, for instance, which was nearly
as much as she'd gotten that night. She needed to increase that. That, and make
certain she had enough water put by as well.