Jerk.
Sure it was to use the entrails to divine where the Gatherer was, but still, he couldn’t have bought a live chicken for the purpose? Eve was still traumatized by the death.
It reminded her of something.
“Gary, Quince… Daryl. Have any of you seen Eve? She’s nowhere around this evening, which is a little odd for her.” Keeley hadn’t thought about it, but she really hadn’t seen the girl since they’d all worked on decorating the gym. She might have just gone home, or found a guy to hang out with, or several, since she wasn’t shy about things like that, but someone should have known about it, right?
It was Gary that answered, giving the other two guys a strange and uncomfortable look as he did. As if he’d picked up that their conversation hadn’t been precisely normal. He probably thought it was a weird sex thing. After all, who else went around talking about their Mistress? Sex slaves for sure.
“Nope. She didn’t run any plans by me or anything. Have you asked Darla? They’re probably together.” It was said calmly as if it made sense, which it did, but wasn’t the case.
Obviously.
To her it was obvious. She had Darla right there, but couldn’t explain it to Gary.
“Well, we need to do the drawing, then I’m grabbing Quince and Gary to help with cleaning up all the party sites, after everyone goes home. The goal is to have them all taken care of by morning. You want in on that Daryl? I… was there earlier, to see Principal Givens, so I know about the trouble. It can’t hurt if you and some of the other kids maybe put in some time being helpful for a bit. It may not help either, but…” She really expected him to simply beg off, or try to grab her breasts as they stood there, since he was practically drooling at her now that he’d noticed she was present.
Instead he gave her a creepy look and leaned in, to whisper to her.
“So, you want to spend more time with me? I can do that. We don’t need to pretend to be cleaning though.”
He reached out his right hand and touched her face, it made her skin want to crawl off as the information hit her, the atrocities he’d committed, the way he relished doing evil, and how the Mistress had opened his eyes to what he really was. Her truest love. The Durg was “flirting” with Keeley, but only as an act. There was room in his heart for only one woman now.
Edith Givens. The rest was just make believe for him.
Keeley laughed and grabbed his hand, draining every memory should could from him, trying to find what had allowed Edith to take control of them all. It was more than just some Durgs too. She had at least a dozen people enthralled. Beings.
She’d had Clara and Glen, before Keeley had taken them. At least the older woman had thought so. Hsreth weren’t that easy to mind control however. Durgs were many things, but hard to control wasn’t one of them. It was kind of their thing, actually. Why they made really good soldiers and mercenaries. They just did what you wanted, once you had control of them.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Or back out on the work because there’s no sex in it for you. It will make your school Principal very happy if you’re seen helping out, especially since she had to get the Chief of Police to let you all off without marks on your permanent records or jail time. Honestly I’d have thought you all would jump at the chance to make that up.” She tried to sound like she was wheedling help, which she was, so it worked pretty well.
Daryl made a face and sighed.
“Fine. I’ll get the others that can come, and we’ll work at repairing the mess made. I still think you should take your top off as promised before. The dancers were a nice touch, but it isn’t the same. I don’t know them.”
Gary looked like he was about to hit the guy, so much so that Quince put his hand out to stop him, as Keeley grinned.
“Already did it. In the middle of the road too. You’re telling me you didn’t see? Well, maybe some other time? Too much in one night and I’ll get a bad reputation. I’m kind of new and angling for straight A student rather than town strumpet, in how people see me, so far anyway.”
Daryl gave her a look that promised rape to anyone paying attention, but laughed and patted her arm invasively.
“We’ll be there. Later you and I can entertain other options?” He didn’t mean it though. His only care was for his woman. His heart.
Edith the bitch.
She wasn’t even cute, and had the personality of a honey badger.
The guy left, smoothly. Centuries, thousands of years really, of practice making him very good at it. After a few moments he disappeared into the crowd.
Keeley looked at the others and shrugged. She didn’t want to give anything away, but she needed these two to follow her lead, even if she didn’t really have a clue as to what to do. That part was Darla’s game.
“Alright you two, drawing and then work out how you’ll be apologizing for ditching your dates. Talk about a cold move. Quince, I don’t know you, but Darla deserves better and Gary… Hally is your friend, close to being your very best friend, and you just left her at a dance, as if she didn’t matter. Fix that situation.” Keeley sounded firm, but not angry when she spoke. Bossy though. It was from being such an old Demon and just pretending to be young.
Yep. That would do it.
Neither of the boys said anything, just nodding to her as if it made sense for a girl to call them on their poor behavior toward her friends. Was it that common a thing? If so, she needed to get more friends. Or have more situations where boys needed to be called on things like this involving her.
“Good. Now, let’s gain control over the microphone after this next song and do that drawing. I don’t want to be here all night if I can help it.”
Even though, as it looked, she really would be.
Sigh.
Chapter ten
Instead of some massive fight, or even public argument with the Gatherer, Darla danced through the crowd shaking hands and meeting peoples parents, many of whom were her own employees. Edith followed her, looking bitter about the whole thing as if she should have gotten the credit, not Mrs. Gibson or her multinational giant corporation that had bankrolled the whole thing.
That sense of entitlement was a major problem for the woman, that and the fact that she believed the fact she normally won actually meant that she was just that good. At everything. Her artifacts, devices and borrowed tricks did give her an edge over, say, the Principal of Raintree, but that didn’t make her more worthy or even more skillful in most ways. For instance, she really didn’t drive all that well, but she thought she did.
She thought she was one of the best at it, to tell the truth.
That was one of her prime characteristics, not being that good at things and being unable to see that it wasn’t always other peoples fault when she failed. Thanks to the edges and benefits she’d collected over the years, she so rarely lost that even a minor one really threw her. Hence using an artifact to find Keeley’s vehicle and attacking in anger like she had. She also didn’t really understand what some of the creatures around her were. The combination was leading her into making mistakes. Like getting Rob killed when there was no reason for it.
Just a simple beating wouldn’t have made any difference to the game at all. Even had the whole Raintree team gotten hurt, it just didn’t matter. Without Keeley getting the first string out of the way, they simply would have won. Even going up against Quince, one of their own. The math was simple enough, six was greater than one, and Quince wasn’t the most powerful member of their crew at all. Daryl wasn’t either. No, now that she delved into the depths of things she realized that the most dangerous member of the Wilson High group wasn’t either of them, but was rather someone else.
Some other guy she hadn’t met yet at all. Their leader. Well, goody. Something else to look forward to meeting.
She would have shaken her head, but she really didn’t want to answer any questions just then. It was complicated, but really, what wasn’t any more?
She got the whole group over to Mrs. Gibson, and waved her hand around making quick introductions.
“So, I was thinking that we’d set up some clean-up crews at each location to help out and then I’d do a personal drive around and check in the morning, just to make sure it looks good?”
Everyone acted like that was normal at least, which was good. Everything was starting to drag for her just a tiny bit.
Keeley was about to run out of personal energy she realized, which got her to increase her sense of alertness. It took a lot more work than normal and she noticed a few people staggering. Several collapsed even. Not waiting, Darla took Edith by the arm and started walking away with her and Dan scanned the area with an intensity she hadn’t known existed before that moment. Glen the caterer went down too, getting some of the staff to stumble over, to see if they could help.
It was too hard to think suddenly. She fought for clarity, as people started going down faster on all sides. Dozens of them, then everyone except for Dan, Darla, and for some reason, her. The only beings that could resist this… whatever it was? It wasn’t anything she could smell or taste in the air, and the Gather was down, so it might not be her. Some kind of psychic attack then? She glanced at Darla and Dan closely, ramping up her personal set of Demon tricks. Strength, speed and a sense of age. Importance. Ego too.
Then she watched the half dozen people walking toward them out of the night.
They weren’t Durgs, which she half expected. All of those she knew of, Quince and Daryl, were down. No, these men and women were all dressed in matching black suits with black shirts and ties, along with shiny black men’s shoes. From how pale they all were, Keeley had to guess that these were the Vampires that had come to visit.
It was Darla that strode forward first, laughing as she did.
“Terry. What an interesting entrance. I’d planned to simply meet at your hotel, but since you’ve come all this way, and made a bit of a scene, you must have something interesting planned. I also would have accepted flowers, if this ever comes up again. Perhaps chocolates?” Her matronly smile was all ice and steel, hands held loosely, but clearly ready to throw down.
Clear to Keeley at least. Finias too. He moved slowly toward her, trying to put himself between her and the danger. Sweet of him. Keeley however didn’t need his protection. She hadn’t needed anything like it for decades after all. Not that a nice layer of protection didn’t help, but in this case it would just mark her a target.
She wasn’t. In fact, if these Vampires annoyed her too much, she’d just kill them all. Or enslave them. She might just do that anyway.
The older Demon gave her a look, as if suggesting she was insane, but changed direction and flanked Darla on the far side, spreading out a bit, just in case. Keeley focused until everything around her went still and increases her strength and sense of mental clarity until she couldn’t stand it anymore. Then she tried to go further. Whatever was keeping the people on the ground down was still in effect, making everything that much harder to manage. A cute trick. She’d have to figure it out for herself later.
“Darlene. Oh, wait, it’s Darla in this town? Or Meredith? How do you keep all the aliases separated? I find myself still going by, well, sorry, I suppose I should get to the point then? Before someone else comes and we have to kill them to hide all this?” He was very still while he spoke and the sudden hand gesture he made caused both Dan and Darla to respond, moving away from the Vampire, as if he were throwing something. Keeley, still trying to bluff, took three careful steps forward. It was so fast something in her back popped, and it wasn’t just a pop, it had cracked. One of the vertebrae had broken. She gave a cold smile of her own and focused on healing, knowing it was burning energy faster than she could afford to hold everything right now.
Luckily she wasn’t feeling any of it.
The Vampire actually took a step back… and bowed.
“A new enforcer perhaps? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure? Are you perhaps new?” Bland words were given lie by a sharp gaze.
Keeley stared at the man, finally shaking her head.
“You seriously don’t recall me? And after that wonderful night we shared? A shame. Well, time drags at the best of minds. Let me know when it comes to you. It was a while ago, and I’ll give you a hint, I looked different and you didn’t enjoy it much.” Her smile wasn’t sexual, and didn’t give a lot of hope to the being in front of her that he’d get away alive. Not this time.
That was fine with her, if that was his choice. It would be foolish though, since Darla clearly only had intended a business meeting for them. At least that was all she’d mentioned to her. There was another, far slower hand gesture then, from the man in front and a woman on the right side stood forward a step and focused on Keeley very hard. The sense of disorientation increased. It made her feel sleepy and relaxed. She laughed and pushed herself harder, not slacking off for even a moment.
“No, that won’t work. Now, perhaps you should explain yourself before any unfortunate errors are made?” Now it was her turn to hold still, which she did so well it got the man, the pale blood sucker in front of her, to stare. Most likely finally realizing that she wasn’t some child, or lackey.
“Ah. Direct and to the point then.” He oriented his body, so that he faced only Darla and then he gave an ironic bow.
“To cut to the center then. I have your slave, the one you call Eve, and if you do not deliver the product to us for twenty percent less than bargained for previously, we shall drain her of blood and turn her into one of us, then proceed to abuse her until her form fails, which given everything could take centuries. Honestly we’d probably get bored with it first. Your softness in regards to your vassals is well known, Technician. You have three minutes to make your decision.” Then he bowed again.