Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) (11 page)

The rest...

Well, Tarsus hadn't been wrong
there. The trick really would be locating and taking out The Rage first. The
rest of them would be harder. Not more dangerous, but looking at a map she
already
knew where he had to be living. In Kiev. It was the only place to have a sudden
war break out in the last months. Chances were that he was still right there
too. At least no one had suddenly come to their senses and tried to deescalate
anything.

Opening her eyes, she remembered
what it felt like to be very awake, and then got on the computer, since she had
a lot of work to do, and didn't know if she had much time left for it.

It took nearly two full days and
nights to get her new home ready to live in. That didn't mean professionally
decorated and ready for guests. No, she found herself being pleased that she
had a little house, with power, water and computer access. It was remote, too,
being just on the edge of where she could get real cable internet, instead of
paying more for less, by going with satellite.

Even at that she'd had to pay
extra to get the workers in without her being there. For some reason each of
the companies seemed to think it was perfectly fine for her to camp in her own
living room for two weeks before bothering to even think about sending someone
out. That didn't work for her, since she needed a base of operations that
didn't have all her friends and their families living just down the street. In
that way, where she was, just outside of Sparks, was perfect. The location
itself sat on roughly three thousand acres of land. It had been put together by
purchasing twenty large properties next to each other, though there was a gap
in it on the northern edge, where someone else owned things. That didn't matter
too much, as far as she was concerned. This was her territory, so if a Greater
Demon came along, she could tell them to take a hike.

If the person that had the rights
to that portion was annoying to her, well, she'd either deal with it, like
everyone else, or she could get them to sell. It shouldn't be that hard,
really, if she applied herself. It was the third day, in the morning, that she
loaded up Misty and drove to her new place. She'd been to it before, so wasn't
shocked at the end of the twelve hour trip. It wasn't a mansion, by any means.

In fact, as she pulled into the
long gravel driveway, it looked a bit dowdy and run down. The house hadn't been
loved in a long time, and was a dusty white, with peeling yellow trim on it,
the paint flaking off in several places. This region didn't get a lot of rain,
but it was enough, if it were used correctly. The fact was though that whoever
had once lived here hadn't bothered with anything like that. There was no
garden, just a flat expanse of dirt that had long grass on it, only part of it
being green, even this time of year, in the early summer.

The inside was no nicer, having
holes in the walls in several places, where portions had been removed, looking
for drugs, most likely. That whoever had lived here wasn't into the whole idea
of responsible... anything, was simply apparent. She wasn't whining about it,
however, since that was why she'd gotten a really good deal on the place. The
septic system worked, and the well was producing potable water. It would pay to
put in some solar and wind energy collection units, but that could wait a few
weeks, while she handled the other things, she decided.

Like getting a bed, and fixing
the walls.

That was the first course of
action, naturally. She wanted to fix and paint the place, inside and out, and
then redo the flooring, and get some furniture in. It wouldn't be enough to
impress any of her own kind, but that wasn't the point. She just wanted the
place to look real. Like she planned to live there for a long while. Since she
did
,
getting things in order would be a good starting place.

That meant, since it was still
early evening, only about six-thirty, she needed to get into Sparks, and see
about the materials she wanted. Which, since she wasn't a moron, meant
unloading everything she'd brought with her first. There was a lot that was
needed, since she didn't actually own some things that would help. Like...
anything for the kitchen. She'd need a new stove. A fridge too and... Pretty
much everything else. According to the internet there was a Home Depot around,
so that would have to be her first stop. Plasterboard, something to cut it
with, hammers, nails, paint, gear for that...

She planned it all out as she
drove, wondering how exactly she was going to get it all back in Misty, who was
a good car, but small, as far as hauling things like eight by four feet wide
materials went. Rather than fret over the idea, she just located the correct
place, and parked, walking inside and stopping at the first cashier she saw,
who was in a nice orange vest, but looked to be a bit tired.

The lady was Hispanic, had on far
too much makeup for her current job, and still managed to smile at her when she
walked up.

"Hello! How are you today?
Do you need help finding anything?"

Keeley nodded, not in agreement,
but because most people would instantly feel more helpful if they saw a person
appearing to do that. It would work even if she were telling the woman to go
and screw herself in the drill department. In this case, it worked better
though, since she wasn't being an unreasonable harpy about anything.

"I could use some help, to
tell the truth. I just bought a house, but it needs some work. I can do that
part, but I need a lot of things, and can't get it there. Do you have delivery
here?" She didn't know if that was even a real thing, but the woman looked
at her funny, for about half a second and then nodded back.

"Sure do! I... Let me get
the Assistant Manager over here, he can help you with that..." If she were
troubled about anything, the lady, Claudia, if her tag wasn't lying about that,
didn't let it show past the first funny glance her way.

That would be her looks, of
course. She didn't just look like a high school girl, but a pretty and rather
helpless one. The skinny kind that had always been handed everything, so didn't
know how the world worked. The man that came when called seemed to think that
same thing, and kept asking her if she knew what she wanted. In a patronizing
way, even as she got him to help her load up several carts and get things
underway. What he didn't do was ask if she had the funds to pay for things,
which...

Well, she understood the
reasoning there, didn't she? Either she did, in which case trying to call her
on it would be a very poor plan, or she didn't which meant he and a few other
people would waste an hour or two following her around. She got new appliances
too, and set up a delivery of composite stone countertop material. She knew the
size she wanted off the top of her head, and could, she assured Glen, the
Assistant Manager, install it all herself. It took a while to get it all ready,
but the truck that came for the delivery was actually there in time to help her
offload everything when she got back. They even offered to help her get it
inside, since she was tiny and appeared to be alone.

That got her to smile, and lie, since
she didn't really want the men thinking that coming back for a rape party was a
good plan. They were hers to guard, after all, and while none of them felt that
creepy, they were all young and drank often enough that it showed on their
bodies. Two were lean still, but just starting to fade into that early thirties
plumping around the middle. Except that they looked to be in their mid-twenties,
which meant they didn't exercise outside of work a lot. The last man was a bit
older, and had nice stocky shoulders, but a gut on him that matched the growing
double chin. That didn't mean physically weak, or even that he didn't think
that the attractive young girl wouldn't find him to be the same way. At least
subconsciously. He'd used to be good looking enough, and it took time for
people to let those old ideas fade, even after their bodies started to change
on them.

It was there in his body
language. He oriented toward her, his hips thrust out, sucking his middle in at
the same time. His thumbs were in his belt loops, and his fingers pointed
toward his crotch, making a little triangle that practically screamed 'look at
how sexy I am!' to anyone watching. That wasn't unusual at all, but he also
seemed to understand that cute teen girls didn't normally want slightly thick
looking older men, outside of movies. To that end he was polite, rather than
trying to flirt with her, and acted concerned about leaving things outside,
rather than like he really wanted to get on her good side.

She passed out a twenty dollar
tip to each of them, and got a number to call,
from
each of them, since
the older man decided that her tipping them that much meant she was loaded,
house and car aside, and the other two just wanted to have sex with her. They
looked pretty average, but she decided to keep that in mind. Not for the sex,
but for future people to work with in the area. The older man was about average
in intelligence, but that could be enough, for some things. They took off a few
minutes later, which meant she could get back into town herself, and do a full
shopping trip. Food was going to be mainly out of packages for a while, but
she'd make do.

It all took time, but by midnight
she had most of the major internal damage fixed, and started in on getting the
place ready for painting. That meant stopping to eat every two or three hours,
but the entire place looked all right, having the first coat on it, by six.

By noon she needed more supplies,
and food, so made another trip into her new area. She'd need to drive it all
and get a good feel for what she had to work with, she knew. Not that she had
the time for that yet.

So, by going back and forth the
five miles into town, over and again, and working fast, using magic to slow
time around her and speed her motions up by several times, she was decently
ready to bury her head and just get things done. It took all of the week that
she'd projected it would, even going at it constantly, without rest or taking
time off for distractions.

That meant that on Thursday
evening, a full week and a half after she'd gotten out of school, she was ready
enough for Darla and Zack to visit. She didn't get that however, since the people
that came, unannounced, were unknown to her.

Or, she realized, as she felt
them on the lines, heading toward her position, not so much beings that she
didn't recognize, but ones that she'd simply never met before.

Smiling, she waited outside for
the first to step out, about fifty feet from her front door, at the end of the
walkway. It was very polite of the man, who held a small piece of leather in
his left hand, and didn't look at her for a long time, making notations on it
in ink.

"Cartographer." She
said the words softly, but he nodded, working the whole time. When he finally
reoriented on her, his face lit up a bit. Smiling.

"Ah! The Mistress of Souls?
Good, I
did
find the right place. The others should be right behind me
then. I provided directions for them. Call me William, please." He didn't
approach, just tucking the leather bit away, after blowing on it.

His face was a bit round, and
smooth, making him look about twenty-five or so. He had body fat, or the
appearance of it, but didn't let any of it hang off too much, which meant that,
given his real bulk, a whole lot of it was muscle. There was a sense of power
to him, disguised by his doughy form. That was a good idea, since people always
underestimated the chubby. The ugly too, which was what she was thinking when
the next man walked out of a temporary node. It glowed in a single pulse,
making a less than pretty red rent in the air. Like a tear in space, not a
smooth iris opening up like she used.

This one, The Vile, was doing
everything he could to live up to his name, it was clear. Or nearly everything.
He glanced at William, and smiled, or at least seemed to be doing that with the
half of his lips that were still there, the others seeming to have rotted off.
His face was pocked, and had open sores all over it, and a reek came from his
direction that made her eyes start to water, even as she killed off her sense
of smell to avoid retching openly.

"Vile." She gave a
small bow, since, like it or not, she was in charge here. It was her territory,
and more than that, she was the one stuck with getting them to behave. Somehow.

It was a thing that the new man
seemed to not have a problem with either, since he just gave her a look that
seemed apprising, not combative. Insane or not. It was something to keep in
mind, she knew. Just being insane didn't mean that the being in front of her
was wrong, no matter what anyone said. In fact, he seemed to be able to get
along with the Cartographer well enough.

"Mistress of Souls. Thank
you for agreeing to see to this for me. I hope that it isn't too great an
inconvenience for you? I'm certain that we can work something out. We should
have already, but... Well, you'll see. Shortly." He looked behind him, as
a lovely woman seemed to step out of the lines. It was done smoothly, but with
a flare of magical energy that showed most of it was being done just to make
things look good. If it had been Zack coming, it would have seemed very much
the same way, Keeley knew. At least on the surface.
He
wouldn't have
wasted anything though. In that way Zachary, the Baby Demon, was simply a
thousand times better than the woman that came through the lines just then.

She was nice enough looking, in a
Mediterranean peasant looking way. Her face was a bit square, and her hips were
wide, which was done to make sex easier, as well as signal what her goal was,
no doubt. Her nipples were erect, and very dark. The see through white top she
wore allowed that to be seen instantly enough. Her skin was an even and dark
color, and she had brown eyes that were nearly black, also meant to suggest
interest to anyone seeing her. It was as if her entire being was focused on one
task, gaining amorous attention. Even the size of her breasts were nearly
perfect for that. A double D cup. Big enough to attract constant attention, and
small enough not to be in the way too much when doing something about it.