Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (28 page)

"Yeah, I have been thinking about that,” Daniel assured her. “I have a couple of ideas, but they’re things I need to try out with you. Of course, ideally, we’d have another Reader of tells to help test it out. But obviously, neither of us knows one we can trust.”
 

Bree thought briefly of Leander. She liked him, but didn’t know him well enough to trust him with this kind of information. And besides, she knew Daniel would never go for it. “I guess we’ll just have to do the best we can. Your being able to read on the energy level will definitely help. I know if I’m looking for a lie, it’s only partly tells I’m reading. I’m also looking at shifts in base and will energy. You can do that, right?”

Daniel smiled a little smugly. “Oh yes, I can do that.”

“Of course you can, the mighty Thorvaldson can do anything,” Bree said, nudging his foot with her toe under the table, tone teasing.
 

“Hey, you know I'm basically stunning. What can I say?” he replied with his smile turned wicked, and a frisson of energy shot straight through Bree, stirring up butterflies in her stomach.
Enough of that,
Bree told herself sternly. It wouldn’t do to get too relaxed around Daniel. She deliberately reminded herself he had laid a binding on her yesterday. It worked. She felt instantly much less likely to jump into his lap and start kissing him. “Well, I hope you’re good enough to help me fool what’s likely to be a world class Reader.”

“It’s not like they can read minds, you know.” He took another sip of tea.

The voice of guilt in Bree’s head told her this would be a good time to reveal that for her, with a deep read, she came pretty damn close to reading minds. Before she could decide if she had the guts to do it, he went on.
 

“They’re likely to do a deep read on me to try to see if I have Demon Master talent, but I doubt they’ll do the same to you.”

“So you think they’ll just ask me some questions?”

“They’re likely to be pretty direct ones. A lot of the Keepers I worked with got dragged in last time I went through this, and they asked them point blank if they had knowledge that I was a Demon Master.”

“And they were able to say no, right? I won’t be able to say that.”
 

“Exactly. The trick will be to work a spell that allows your energy shifts to look on the surface like they're supposed to. Ideally, the spell would only come online when you were asked those kinds of specific questions about me. Otherwise, I’d have to come up with some kind of more general masking spell, more like the one I use to hide the Demon Master and Binder powers. But I’m afraid if it’s too general, you’ll read like you’re hiding something.”
 

Bree thought again of Leander. “You know, I had coffee with Leander Rayne last night, and I tried to read him, like you told me to. In fact, he asked me to read him himself. It was the weirdest thing. It was like my Reader sense just sort of slid off of him. I could get bits and pieces, but it wouldn’t fall into a pattern. I wonder if you could do something like that, something that prevents the energy from falling into a pattern.”

A disapproving look cross Daniel’s face when she mentioned Leander, then he schooled his features into a more neutral expression. “That’s an interesting angle.” He considered some more, and said, “No, I’m afraid that would stand out too much. I know when I tried to read Rayne, it was a jarring sensation. We don’t want that to be what the Ecclesias experiences when they try to read you.” He paused, then regarded her directly. “About Rayne. The reason I tried to read him at the party was because he felt off to me. I don’t know if it’s spell he’s using to avoid a read…”

“He’s not,” Bree interrupted. “At least that’s what he told me. He said he was born that way. And I didn’t sense a spell.”

“Even a good Reader can’t sense certain spells, which is precisely what we’re counting on at the Ecclesias hearing. Look, Bree, all I’m saying is, be careful. I’ve encountered a lot of dark magic users in my life, and he feels like one to me.”

“Well he doesn’t to me,” Bree said stubbornly. She was thinking about how kind Leander had been after her attack. It was hard to reconcile that with what Daniel was saying. Naturally Daniel had loads more experience at that kind of thing that she did, but she had to factor in the possibility that he wasn’t going to be the most objective observer when it came to Leander. Even apart from the fact that he’d shown some interest in her at the party, Leander was the kind of handsome, confident guy that other men often resented. Bree decided she would make up her own mind about Leander.
 

Daniel must have seen something of that in her face because he said coolly, “Hey, your life, your decision. I said my piece.” He sat back in his chair and regarded her seriously. “You know, you could save yourself. I’ve even been thinking that's the best course. All you would have to do would be to tell the Ecclesias that you saw me use Demon Master power at the riot. There's a very good chance they'd be thrown enough by it that they wouldn't think to ask if you knew before. They'd be very surprised that I'd actually succeeded at developing a hiding spell."
 

Without even having to think about it, Bree shook her head. “No, absolutely not. I won’t hang you out to dry when I have responsibility here too. I’ve known for months, and haven’t done a thing about it.”

“Although you’ve thought about it,” Daniel said softly.

“Although I’ve thought about it,” she agreed reluctantly.
 

There was a too-long silence for a moment before Daniel went on. “The other option is for me to make a run for it. I don’t think I’m being watched, and I’d guess they have their hands too full to make coming after me a top priority.”

“You know, if Javier was sure, really sure he sensed Demon Master energy from you, there wouldn’t be this delay, no matter what else was going on, would there?”
 

Daniel scratched his cheek. “I don’t think so. I know I was taken into custody by two Ecclesias members within hours of my using Demon Master talent at an exorcism last time. My partner was down, and it was one of those situations where I had to take the risk. Another Keeper saw it, one I hadn’t worked with before. I think she made the call as soon as the demon was gone.”

“Don’t you see? That means there’s hope. If we can find a way for me to cover for you, they won't be able to do anything."

“I hate to break it to you, but powered have been trying to come up with effective lying spells probably since the beginning of time. I’ve never heard of one that’s completely Reader proof, at least not proof against a high power Reader.”

“Then I guess we better get to work. No time like the present, eh?” Bree answered him. She brought up her Reader sense and watched him closely to see how he'd respond to that.

"I'm up for it as long as we take it slow," he replied.

"Well that's a first. It's always me who wants to take it slow."

He took a final long swallow of his tea and stood up. "I'll admit I was humbled after what happened yesterday. But I think as long as we keep demons out of it, I'll be okay. And I'll let you know the minute I feel anything off."

Bree followed him upstairs to his workroom. Two lamps were already lit, and he must have turned the heat up as soon as he knew she was coming, because it was nice and toasty inside. He knew she ran colder than him, and he’d taken to cranking the heat when she was coming over to practice casting with him.
 

Without thinking about it, Bree unwound the scarf from around her neck. As she tossed it on the work table and turned back to face him, Daniel’s eyes went straight to the bruises there. “Why haven’t you had those healed?” he asked with concern.

“I forgot to have Dion do it when I saw him last night. I wanted him to focus on my ribs and my face so I could work today.”

“Why, what happened to your ribs and your face?”

Bree belatedly realized Daniel would have had no way to know about the attempted rape last night. Quickly, clinically, she ran through the events.
 

His jaw tightened in anger as she spoke. “My god, that’s terrible,” he said. “What the hell was Rayne thinking, to let you walk back to your car alone at night?”

“It wasn’t really night yet. And it was a Sunday, for god’s sake. Not exactly a rowdy time in Pioneer Square.”

"Yeah, but it's a bad neighborhood, right? He leaned against the table, arms crossed, brow stormy.

“Depends on the time of day. Leander had an appointment to get to, and I really didn’t think it was dangerous. And anyway, why are you blaming Leander?”
 

“I’m not blaming him for you being attacked, I’m blaming him for being a selfish prick. What was so important he couldn’t take five minutes to see you safely to your car?”

“I’m the one who told him not to,” Bree argued.

He pushed off against the table and paced over to the window. “Things are just going all to hell,” he said, voice tight. “The whole situation. The increase in possessions, the riot, possessions of kids. Kids who should be going to movies, angling for dates, not forming rape gangs. The Keltoi are insane to allow possessions of their young people. It’s completely fucking insane!”
 

The air turned thick with Daniel’s anger. Bree saw he was trying to contain it, saw it in the tension in his back, in his breathing. As usual, her Reader sense had snapped on as soon as she perceived his anger. He read dark to her. He turned and walked back over to her. She took at involuntary step back when he paused in front of her.
 

“I’ll find those little jerks and teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget,” he growled.

“Daniel, you know that’s the wrong approach,” Bree replied, voice shakier than she’d hoped. She wanted to sound sure, confident, but he was unnerving her.

“How is it the wrong approach? I’m not going to beat them up, not that they don’t deserve it. But I can take away their demons and give them a taste of what it’s like to be afraid.”
 

“The Keltoi have been leaving us both alone since what happened last fall. We need to stay off their radar, you yourself have said it.” She tried to make her voice more soothing. She couldn’t help but think about what Gelsenim had said, about how Daniel could snap at any time. But she hadn't seriously thought it would happen without more demon contact.

He ran a restless hand through his hair. “If this is a demon war, we’re not going to be able to avoid the Keltoi. We’re going to have to fight, or more people are going to get hurt. We’re both going to be called on again, probably many times, before this is all over. Staying under the radar isn’t an option anymore.”

“Look, it’s not that I don’t like the idea of those guys getting a taste of their own medicine. How could I not? But how does that really fix anything?”

A series of expressions chased across Daniel’s face, from anger, to worry, to anguish. He turned away from her and said, voice full of gravel, “I can’t stand the thought of you being hurt like that. It makes me want to kill someone.”
 

His fists clenched, and Bree could see he was trembling with suppressed emotion. His energy was a jagged whirl of white hot anger and despair, and she winced at the power of it.
 

“My god,” he whispered, “I really do want to kill someone.”
 

Bree’s fear skyrocketed. She heard the truth in his voice, felt it in his energy, in the air around them. If those boys who’d attacked her were in the room right now, Bree thought Daniel might be capable of killing them in anger. Maybe she ought to be enjoying that on some level, but it just made her feel sick. “I don’t think you really mean that,” she offered weakly. She knew it wasn’t true, but she had to say something calming. She glanced towards the door, calculating how quickly she could make it there in case things started to spin out of control.
 

He turned and faced her. “Oh, I do mean it. That’s the hell of it, because it makes me no better than they are.” His voice was shaky now, but the anger hadn’t decreased. He closed his eyes for a moment, in what appeared an effort to gather himself, but they quickly snapped open again, dark coals in his pale face. “What I’m really feeling right now,” he told her, “is the urge to call a demon. I want to call it and let it fill me, and ride the rage right out of here and go after those little Keltoi bastards. It feels so, so….
 
right.”
 

“It’s not right. It’s not,” Bree told him, making herself move toward him and look right into his eyes. She had to reach him, because if he was talking about calling a demon, something was most definitely wrong.
 

“Then why does it feel so right?” Daniel asked her. He sounded genuinely puzzled, almost like a child. It was a bizarre shift in tone, and she found that almost more frightening than the anger that had come before.
 

“It feels right because you’re not yourself right now,” she told him. She put a hand on his shoulder, hoping the connection would calm him. There was a spike of intense discomfort, much like she felt when her Demonsense encountered a demon.
 

“You know, I’m always trying to convince you to trust me, but I don’t really trust myself. How do you or I know that this isn’t the real me?” Daniel said, almost conversationally.
 

She would have thought he was calming if she wasn’t touching him and reading his energy. It seemed to be moving faster and faster, going darker and darker. “Maybe it’s some part of you, Daniel, but we all have a dark side, don’t we? We all get angry, we all get upset if someone we care about is hurt.”

“But we all don’t want to kill someone, do we?” he asked. “Did you want to kill Jim Scanlon?”

Bree didn’t like to think about that night, the night she’d killed the Keltoi who was Hunter’s biological father. “No,” she answered truthfully, “I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“Maybe Gelsenim is right. Maybe I am going divided like the Seldenai he talked about. Because I've never truly wanted to kill someone before, not even when I’ve had to. But right now, I want to. I mean it Bree, I want to.” He raised a hand and it came to rest on her shoulder, gripping hard. Bree had the immediate conviction that she needed to get out, now. And that's when his energy shifted completely to the dark.