Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (15 page)

The kid never had a chance. Without moving out of his relaxed posture, Daniel twitched the fingers of his right hand, and the boy staggered and fell to the ground.
 
Another flicker of Daniel’s fingers, and the boy was clutching at his eyes.
 

“What the fuck?” he cried.
 

“Sand in your eyes?” Daniel enquired, not quite managing to hide his satisfaction at putting the boy in his place.
 

One of the other boys growled, “Back off, dude,” and stalked towards Daniel.

Daniel held his hand up again, said, “I’m backing off. I don’t want any trouble.”

It might have worked if the influence of demon kind weren’t so heavy in the air, stimulating aggression. The boy, another Hispanic kid, this one taller, with long hair and a bad case of acne, charged Daniel, fist raised. Daniel dodged the punch easily, took the boy’s extended wrist, and used the kid’s own momentum to pull him past and plant him hard in the sand.
 

One of the other boys came at Daniel from behind, and in a move far less subtle than Daniel had managed, cast a dizziness spell. His aim was off, and spell barely glanced against Daniel, who recovered his balance quickly.

 
Daniel was already half turned around when the boy barreled into him, shoving hard. Daniel almost went down, but he managed to pivot out of the boy’s reach, one hand in the sand, the other extended in a throwing motion. The boy attacking him froze just long enough for Daniel to push back up to his feet.

By now, the sight stop spell was wearing off, and the boy on the ground was shaking his head and blinking his eyes hard. In the meantime, a small crowd had formed around the fight. As Bree glanced around, she saw a circle of avid faces, only a few registering concern or fear. She was having a hard time figuring out how to cast in a manner that would both help Daniel and not be too obvious. Practicing with Daniel in his work room was clearly far simpler than a real life battle. She clearly needed to practice in a group setting so she could get some idea what to do with several opponents at once.
 

Both she and Daniel also had to be careful to have little to no physical contact with the possessed, for fear the demon might try to jump bodies. Their personal wards would protect them to a degree, but if the demon was big enough, the wards would not be enough to save them.
 

There was only a brief pause as the boys worked up their courage to come at Daniel again. He wasn’t all that physically intimidating, but there was an air of confidence, and a readiness to his posture that indicated he wasn’t afraid. How nice for him. Bree was more than afraid, she was freaking terrified.
 

The three boys still on their feet rushed Daniel all at once. In a flurry of moves, Daniel dodged, pushed, put out a foot to trip, and added a telekinetic shove to leave all three boys on their butts or on their faces in the sand. There were cat calls and a roar of approval from the surrounding crowd. Bree heard one girl cry, “Go ninja guy!”
 

Demonic energy rose as the demons possessing two of the kids became enraged and surged to the forefront. She had the strong feeling that if she and Daniel didn’t put these boys down, fast, more people were going to pitch in, if only to see what Daniel could do. So in the pause in the action where the boys got back to their feet, including the one that had been blinded earlier, Bree stepped up beside Daniel. “We’d better end this fast,” she told him.
 

“Then it won’t be subtle,” Daniel warned.
 

Bree glanced around again. “Lesser of two evils,” she offered, stomach clenching at the looks of rage being sent her way by the advancing boys.
 

Daniel nodded without looking at her. “I’ll take the demon boys, you focus on the other two.”

She didn’t have time to respond. As the heftier of the kids reached out to grab at her, she cast a dizziness spell at him, putting a foot out at the same time so it might look like she had tripped him. He stumbled past her, grabbed at his head and fell down. There was no time to congratulate herself, as the tall boy got hold of her right arm, and his fist struck out at her face. In mid-motion, his eyes widened in surprise and stayed there as his body froze.
 

Bree seized the opportunity to shove him, and he went down. She turned to see Daniel grinning at her. The two possessed boys were down as well, one on his side, the other on his face. Daniel strode forward, and touched the shoulder of the larger boy Bree had put down, for all the world looking as if he were checking to see if the kid was okay.
 
And maybe he was. But Bree could tell by the stiffening of the kid’s face that Daniel had also hit him with a heavy duty freeze spell. As she looked around, she realized he had done the same to the other three.
 

Daniel stood up and came over to Bree, glancing around quickly to assess for further trouble. He leaned in and spoke in her ear. “That’ll hold them for a bit. I think we should get out of here before we attract any more attention.”

As he pulled back, Bree saw his expression. He was still smiling a bit, and his eyes were bright with a combination of excitement and satisfaction. “You’re enjoying this,” she accused.

“Maybe just a little,” he admitted. “Come on.” He took her arm, and pushed his way through the crowd of onlookers, who gave way readily at first, then less so as they got into that section of the crowd that hadn’t witnessed the fight. They finally made it out to an area that was less dense. “Where’s Kevin?” Daniel asked, dropping her arm and looking around alertly for further trouble.

“I sent him to look for a cop. Now I’m not sure that was the right move. I was just hoping we could prevent a major fight without having to do any casting.”

Daniel was scanning the crowd alertly. “Things are only going to get crazier with this much demonic energy floating around. I don’t see how we’re going to be able to avoid casting if we have any hope of keeping a lid on things. Besides, people don’t want to think they saw something unexplainable, something supernatural. I’ve seen that be the case over and over in dealing with normals. Try to be subtle, but don't let that preoccupy you too much."

“I can see your point, but the whole thing makes me nervous. I’ve never cast in front of normals before. In fact, I’m amazed that I’m casting offensive spells at all.”
 

“Admit it, it’s fun.” Daniel’s grin was infectious, and she smiled back in spite of herself.

“There you are,” Kevin called, and Bree turned to see him trotting towards them.
 
“I never could find a cop,” he said as he came up, a little breathless.” When I couldn’t find one quickly, I figured the whole thing might already be over, and tried to make my way back to where I saw you before. I assume it was you two who put the freeze on those boys I saw?”

“He did,” Bree replied, nodding at Daniel.

“I should be appalled at your lack of discretion, but I’m not,” Kevin admitted. “It’s getting pretty out of control here.”

“Well, then, back into the fray,” Daniel responded, heading back towards the crowd.

Kevin came up to walk beside Bree. “He’s enjoying this,” Kevin muttered.

“I know, that’s what I said!” Bree responded.
 

They wove through the crowd, and it didn’t take long to find more trouble. Bree felt the demonic energy signature up ahead, a whole cluster, and had to swallow hard to push down the resulting nausea. She could will it away if she concentrated, but she had too much else to focus on.
 

At first, all she could see was a group of boys jumping up and down. There was a boom box rumbling out a persistent bass line, and she thought maybe the boys were dancing. But as they pushed closer, she could feel the combination of aggressive and sexual energy, wound about with a miasma of demonic energy, and she knew in her gut that something worse than dancing was going on.
 

She and Kevin followed in Daniel’s path as he deftly pushed his way to the center with little surges of telekinetic and warding energy to clear the way. In the middle of the crowd of shouting boys were two girls, neither of whom looked a day over thirteen, dancing with their tops off, small breasts bared to the cold night, their faces distant and glazed. Both were possessed, smaller demons, but obviously large enough to take control.
 
Daniel strode without hesitation into the middle of the circle. He bent down as he went, scooping up the tops and coats the girls had dropped to the ground. The girls looked slack jawed and startled as he shoved the bundled clothes at their chests. They both grabbed the bundles reflexively. There was a howl of outrage from the watching boys, and Bree felt the hot swell of Kevin gather his warding energy, ready to employ it if necessary.
 

Bree got her dizziness spell ready. Freeze was a better spell, but she wasn’t always consistent with it. She could see Daniel’s lips moving as he spoke with the girls. She felt a brief surge of Demon Master energy, and both girls stumbled as the demons left their bodies. The demons must not have been too big, because both girls were still upright, if a little unsteady. He put a hand lightly on each of the shoulders, got them facing the same direction, and started marching them out of the center of the circle.
 
The watching boys shouted their disapproval and surged forward. Daniel whirled around to face them, and was immediately lost to Bree’s sight. She tried to push towards him, as did Kevin. Kevin raised a physical ward close around them both, and while it buffered them from the pushing and shoving, it didn’t help them get closer to Daniel.
 

Almost immediately, they were pushed forcefully backward as whatever Daniel was doing to defend himself caused the people in front of them to stagger and fall. Kevin had a hand on her arm to help her stay upright. Bree was frantic to get to Daniel, but while they tried, she and Kevin couldn’t find a way through the crowd. And while the ward was protecting them from harm, she couldn’t cast through one that strong.
 

“Maybe we should retreat and try to find a better angle in,” she shouted in Kevin’s ear. He nodded, pulled her around and bulled his way through the edges of the crowd.
 

They emerged near one of the bonfires. She was just starting to feel able to breath again when her Demonsense sent a wash of sick alarm through her. She risked closing her eyes to narrow her focus, and felt a locking in sensation as she pinpointed the possessed kid. She opened her eyes to see a mixed race boy, perhaps eighteen, with close cut, dark curly hair, and he had another boy down on the ground and was punching him in the face, a terrible grimace of pleasure on his face.
 

Bree was struck from behind, and went down herself. Someone half fell on top of her, then bounced off. She heard a terrible scream, and turned to see a girl get pushed into the fire.
 

She frantically tried to shove herself to her feet to go to the girl’s rescue, but two boys got there first. They hauled the girl out, but her clothes and hair were on fire. “Dump her in the water!” she heard someone screaming.

 
Before Bree could do anything more, she was knocked over again. She’d already been tense, but now she was feeling truly panicked. Her thoughts were racing so fast that she could barely register one before the next rushed in. What if someone didn’t think to dump the girl in the sand to put out the flames? Where was Daniel? And where was Kevin? They’d gotten separated in all the pushing and shoving. She realized she didn't feel his ward around her any more. She wasn’t going to be able to physically remove the possessed boy on her own.

She managed to get back to her feet, and almost as soon as she did so, she locked eyes with the possessed boy. His mouth was bloody, and he smiled at her, a flicker of orange demon light in his eyes. Some demons could perceive powered even if they weren’t good at reading the energy signature in any detail, and the demon possessing the boy had clearly picked her out of the crowd. A memory flashed across her mind of Gelsenim telling her that demons were likely to be more attracted to her now that she’d been such a compatible host to him. Not to mention stories she’d heard of Demon Masters attracting demons. She might not have to seek out possessed in this crowd. They’d be drawn to her.
 

The possessed boy moved toward her, making a quick gesture across his chest with one hand. Before Bree could even consciously think it through, she had a defensive shield up and was deflecting the energy of the spell.
 

Unfortunately, it was redirected onto the person standing next to her, who flew backwards, landing perilously close to the fire. The possessed Caster across from her looked momentarily disappointed, and Bree scrambled to her left, away from the fire.
 
Another boy was pushed briefly between her and her opponent, and Bree took that opportunity to prepare an offensive spell of her own. With a bowling motion, she sent it toward the possessed boy once she had a clear shot again and saw with satisfaction that he was unprepared. It was a muscle weakening spell, and he slid bonelessly to his knees.
 

Bree moved quickly toward him, meaning to hit him with the freeze spell she’d been working on with Daniel, but he recovered faster than she would have believed possible. He lunged up at her, grappling with her.
 

Bree was thrown off her balance, and in a moment she was down, the boy straddling her with his hands around her throat. Her mind frantically tried to think of a spell to throw him off of her, but she couldn’t seem to focus. She scrabbled uselessly at his wrists and bucked against him. The boy's mouth was dripping blood onto her face, and his teeth were red with it. Bree started to feel faint. Her eyes darted around, looking for Kevin, Daniel, a cop, any kind of help, and there was no one to be found. Everywhere around her, people were fighting, swearing, screaming.