Darla blinked.
After about fifteen seconds she grinned, a more honest looking thing, with no trick implied at all.
“Good job Keels. Cut me right off there. I’ll lend you the tools then. I also have a book that might help that I can lend. You don’t really have anything worth an invisible box, not yet. Not other than a deal, and really, you should never sell yourself that short. No one should, but most people aren’t that careful and as Finias was just pointing out, you seem stronger in that way than most of us do at your age.” She took a bite of soft white bread, cut thick off the loaf, with a nice golden brown crust on it, slathered with sticky honey butter. She didn’t speak until after she swallowed nearly ten seconds later.
“Basically that means that, at least for now, you may want to specialize in deals. I’ve never heard of anyone really doing that as well as you are, to tell the truth. Not very interesting as a hobby though, so you might want to branch out a bit.”
Keeley nodded and kept eating.
It was interesting to hear, and kind of made sense, that making deals might be a little easier for her than others. Not because she was just that cool, but she’d been grabbing people up almost casually, where everyone else around her was both careful about it, and seemed to make a bigger deal of it.
So a special power? Sort of.
Also a major trap if she wasn’t careful. She was finally getting to a point where she wasn’t hungry at least, though she cleaned her plate anyway.
“OK, special hiding space it is. Now I just have to get my parents out of the house long enough to do the work. May I borrow that book first, so I know what to plan for?” That could make a difference, right? She’d need supplies and to learn how to do the work correctly, so it wouldn’t be too shoddy. Her mom would notice that.
Finias got up and moved to the door without saying goodbye, turning to add only one thing at the door.
“Miss Thomson?” He said, clearly pretending to be Dan again.
“You might want to do something to get word of your free events out to the individual schools, if you want anyone to show up at them. It would make Coretechs look, not bad, but less than optimal, if no one attends, short notice or not. Perhaps you could give away money or something of value? People do enjoy free cash.”
Then he left, a tiny smile on his face. She didn’t speak until she heard his car take off down the street, an almost subliminal hum, softer than a refrigerator running in the other room. She nibbled on the last of her bread, the loaf gone now, between the two of them. Darla’s hand was already healed though, having managed it far more quickly than Keeley had the other day. It made sense that learning to heal very quickly would be not only useful, but probably mandatory. She’d need to push harder there next time she got hurt.
Darla jumped up and ran around the table to where she sat, a rush faster than human by far, and grabbed Keeley up into a hug.
“Oh! That was wonderful Keeley! Just a little more polish and I wouldn’t know you weren’t at least a few hundred years old.” The embrace tightened just a little, warm, and not crushing, but almost as if meant to convey meaning. What that was Keeley didn’t know, but until told, she’d just make sure to be on best behavior.
Ready to move too. Focusing she increased her speed, not as much as she had earlier, because that would take too much energy, but enough to make her three or four times faster, she did the same with strength. Really, she kind of needed to try that one out. The speed thing worked, but did that translate to strength at all? Going around pretending it did without testing it was stupid.
“What makes you think I’m not?” She said keeping her mind on the idea as strongly as she could, it was pretty complex and she felt herself losing the idea a few times, but in the main it felt right.
“I mean that too… what about me, other than the fact you know it to be true, is causing you to think I’m not that old?”
That earned a pretty white toothed smile from Darla, one that was followed by a very close examination of Keeley. She could almost feel the Demon’s eyes scouring her skin. It took an act of will to not flinch away, then a bit of control to keep herself feeling calm. Darla was her sister, mentor and friend, but the regard of a being like her was a powerful thing and instinctually she rebelled against it. Almost wanting to hide.
After five minutes she nodded.
“Right now you’re doing well enough. You hesitate though. Most of the truly old beings of the world don’t. Do anything enough and you lose the need to think about it. Since you don’t have that kind of time in yet, you’ll need to plan things out in advance when you can, or learn to pretend that your pauses are done on purpose, an act to throw people and beings off? That could work. Pretend to be an old being, trying to pretend to be a young one.” The dishes were packed up then, the food gone, and taken to the kitchen to be washed. Darla had a machine for it, but used it to sanitize the things after washing by hand, so that had to be done too. The only thing that didn’t go in was the cast Iron, which just got wiped down really well, rinsed with warm water and then treated with oil after it was dried.
After ten minutes Darla started talking again.
“Also you need some bigger projects going on. Maybe a business or two. Right now you seem a little bit too dependent on others. It can be taken as an act, certainly, but most of the truly old will have flaws in such a pretense. You could take over that catering concern, or if you want to be nice about it, aid them in expanding enough to attract just a bit of attention. Possibly help Ginger York take over her real estate agency? It’s cheaper to do that than it is to fund building a new concern yourself. I’ll leave you to figure out how to go about that exactly, but it really shouldn’t be difficult for you. You’re nearly a hundred years old after all. Hardly need big sis to hold your hand anymore, do you? We did a great job hiding the fact of your existence from everyone. Time for you to come out into the world though, proven as you are.” The words were said with a warmth that would have made Keeley blush, if they had been real. Instead fear ripped through her.
It wasn’t hers at least.
Just Balthias, her pet Lesser Demon. Keeley decided she liked that better than “slave”. Friend sounded a bit too trusting. The Yorks could be her friends, maybe Clara and Glen would meet that level too, eventually. Balthias she needed to treat far more carefully. She felt him before he appeared, by nearly a half minute, walking the in roads as he was. His intent was clear though, he meant to come to her.
“Incoming.” She said, fighting for calm instantly, so that he’d never see her taken by surprise. It would be hard to fake. The being spewed terror around like it was free or something. Which for him it was.
He could hide that part of himself, she knew, but hadn’t ordered him to do that around her. It made for a handy early warning system, didn’t it? Besides, admitting she felt it would look weak to him. Darla nodded and stood, waiting.
She didn’t trust Balthias either. He had a deal with Keeley, one that, as pointed out earlier, couldn’t be easily broken. He couldn’t even just kill her to try. Technically he could kill himself, and she could release him from the bond, or maybe just make it seem like that at any rate, never calling on him. She probably would, eventually. In the mean time she just needed to keep him busy and relatively happy, so that when he eventually could be sent on his way he wouldn’t try to destroy her.
She didn’t get to her feet, just shifted her attention to where she thought he’d appear. She was off by nearly ten feet, so Keeley glanced over at him as smoothly as possible, as if she’d meant to do it, rather than just being wrong. Darla had gotten it right, of course. Next time she’d double check with where she was looking first.
“Mistress of Souls, I bring news as commanded of impending harm, potentially, to one of your vassals.” The Lesser Demon bowed low, making his head go all the way down to six feet off the ground, not it’s normal nine. The horns looked slightly whiter today, and so did its teeth. The skin was more red, she noticed and the fur on the shoulders and back more black.
She got it without having to say anything. The being was made of energy and intent. All the Christians of the world having created it to punish them, to keep them in check. The sum of their hidden fears, perversions and desires rolled into one happy package. There were hundreds of the things, at least as far as Keeley could tell from the information she had. Tulpas, Darla had called them. Incredibly powerful in this case, thanks to all that belief put into the idea.
Only now it was reshaping, to look like she wanted it too, on a subconscious level. It was better. He smelled nicer too. Like a clean dog, rather than a musk ox or whatever he’d been going for before.
“Darla’s vassals. Mine are different people. What’s the situation?” She spoke quickly, just in case it was actually important. It probably was, but not too dire. If it had been an actual attack, Balthias would have protected her friends physically. Those were his orders, and darn the fallout from a giant Demon looking thing showing up.
“It is Eve. She seeks her revenge for the death of Roberto. She has acquired a human weapon and seeks to retaliate against those of the blue devils on her own. She has followed a likely one to his domicile and waits now to deliver death. I did not have orders to aid her in this, so I came as instructed.”
Keeley nodded.
“Good job, do you have the address? The street location where she’s at? We should drive I think. We likely have some time.” It was all Keeley could do not to gibber, but Darla nodded.
The alternative was “sending” Darla, which could work out too, since Eve really was one of her people. Keeley could claim that part wasn’t her job. Which it wasn’t. Or they could take the in roads, except that she couldn’t. It would probably make her look a little young if she failed or had to hedge to often there, so she needed a reason for traveling in other ways.
Darla laughed, a low chuckle.
“Ah, Eve. Well, not the role I have planned for her exactly, but it shows courage. If she kills this human, I’ll simply move her into another line of work. That might be worth it. Set her up as an assassin perhaps? Yes, let’s drive and see if she is a destroyer of life or not.” The voice had gone slightly bored. As if it really was just as good of an idea.
That couldn’t be true though. Darla didn’t need a fugitive killer, or even a traumatized girl, running around fearing capture. Marrying her off would work better in the long run. Maybe to Gary, if he wasn’t going to just come out as gay openly? Probably not though. The guy had only been bothering to hide that from his father, the homophobe.
That was done now.
Being jumped by gay bashers while with your boyfriend tended to put things right out in the open.
Before she could yell, “quickly to the demonmobile”, Darla had started toward the garage door. Keeley followed, calling for Balthias to give the address.
“I… must confess I did not look at such signs, intent as I was on my task, please…” The huge thing sounded scared and humble, as if expecting punishment for it.
“Can you lead us there as we drive? You’ll need to stay invisible to the humans while you do.”
The huge form bowed just a little, but still seemed terrified. Like she was scary? She grinned, a small and dark thing, as if she intended harm if he failed her. Just to see what would happen.
“I can, Mistress of Souls.”
That would work then. They took Darla’s little red sports car, a pretty little convertible which made her look good, but didn’t have the convenience of a large vehicle. Or the personal value of Frieda. This car didn’t even have a name yet. The feeling was that it was disposable, just something to help her play the part of Darla Gibson, cheerleader. A prop.
Emergency or not, the blond didn’t drive any differently than normal, following all the traffic laws perfectly, not speeding even a little, following Balthias as he ran, hoofed feet making thunderous clomping sounds on the pavement ahead of them. If it was hard for him to run at over thirty miles per hour, it didn’t show at all. He was pretty good about not losing them though, stopping to all the lights, after the first two, understanding that Darla was serious about letting the situation have a chance to play out.
It took half an hour to find the house, the Lesser Demon not making any wrong turns, but having to figure out how to get around a few sets of houses. Eve had gone over fences the first time, so naturally Balthias did too. He pointed to where Eve rested, lying on her stomach under a bush, to avoid being seen. It was dark enough for that at least. People moved inside the house, visible through the windows. Now it was Darla’s play, Because Keeley had no clue what to do here.
Well, one clue.
“Balthias, you did a great job, as a reward, would you please think of something that you would like, or like to do? It won’t be your freedom yet, but some small treat that might be within reason? Let me know when you have it and we’ll see about getting that for you.”
The Lesser Demon just stared at her for a long time.
“There is one thing.” His voice sounded foreboding.
Keeley damped her emotions all the way, ready to try and allow him some horror or perversion that a human wouldn’t even think of. That being the case she wasn’t shocked at all when he spoke, even though she should have been.
“There is a cliff, on an island that I like to go to at times, to watch the sun set over the world. If I could see that again someday, it would be rewarding.” He clearly didn’t think it was going to be allowed however, from the way he hunched his shoulders and looked down. As if it might just be used against him somehow.
Darla snickered, which got Keeley to make a face at her.
“Stop baiting my pet Darla. Just because you don’t have one yet, that doesn’t mean you should mock Balthias. That’s a fine reward and within reason. Yes, you may go to that place to watch the sunset, one time, as long as it does not interfere with my business in any way. No tricks or loopholes. Do you wish to go now, or would you prefer to continue your duties guarding the others? Darla and I will watch Eve for the time being.”