Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (57 page)

“Hey, I get that all his apparent cooperation could be leading up to some ultimate, nefarious goal. I get he’s a very big, bad demon. On the other hand, maybe something new is happening here. Isn’t that what we’ve been looking for? New information on demons, a new way to understand them?”

Daniel looked at the floor and was silent for a time. There were still traces of tension on his face as he thought. When he finally looked up at her, he appeared uncomfortable, but not angry. “You know, I’m beginning to get how it must have been for you, working with me. I was always pushing the boundaries, wanting to go faster, and you were always worried about safety. What do you suppose has changed here, that we’re on opposite sides of the fence now?”
 

Bree shrugged. “Maybe it’s just that the situation calls for caution, and one of us has to take that role. Maybe it’s just your turn.” Her arms were crossed now too, although the room was perfectly warm.
 

“Do you think it has anything to do with the structure of restraints I’ve put in place? Is it changing me, like Gelsenim says?”
 

“What do you think?”
 

Daniel moved to sit on the edge of the table. It creaked a little as it took his weight. “In a way, I feel more like myself than I have in a long time. But then, there are moments when I can feel a difference. I think it’s when I have stronger emotions. They’re there, they’re recognizable, but it’s like I can only get so activated.”

“And how does that feel to you?” Bree found herself not breathing as she awaited his response.

“Of course I don’t like it.” Impatience colored into his tone. “Who the hell would? But consider that intense emotion, with or without demon contact, seems to be the what’s triggered the break downs I’ve been having.”

“I’ve been thinking that your hiding spell has something to do with it too.”

Daniel had been gently swinging his feet back and forth, but now he stilled. “How so?”
 

She shook her head. “It’s more an intuition than a full fledged theory. But my sense is that you put that hiding spell to work so long ago, and it’s been separating a part of you off for years. That’s a sort of division, isn’t it? And even emotionally, it seems like there’s a division for you. Your Demon Master and Binder talents are nearly your best talents, yet you can’t afford to use or accept them. It just really sucks.”

Daniel snorted. “That’s the understatement of the year.”
 

“But you do see what I mean?” Bree pleaded. She was hoping for some buy-in from him on this.

“On one level, yeah. But the reality is, we don’t actually have any solid information on how this division thing really works, or even if it is the same divided thing Gelsenim describes from the Seldenai. For all we know, I’m just plain susceptible to demon burn, and that’s all this is.”

“But we always come back to how fast it’s happening. That doesn’t really fit from what you told me, what I’ve heard, about demon burn.”

Daniel scratched at his beard stubble. “Okay, let’s just say for the sake of argument that you’re right. My hiding spell, and my issues with not accepting all my talents is at fault. I can’t just stop doing the hiding spell, especially not with the way things are going. If I’m going to take some active part in everything that’s going down, I’m going to be around Keepers. So I have to keep it up. Which means I’m right back to where this whole conversation started. Maybe there are unpleasant side effects to what I’m doing. But it’s the best I’ve got.”
 

She wanted to argue for her idea on a fix again, but it just didn’t seem the moment. They were supposed to be focused on what they could do against the Keltoi. Messing with him now was royally bad timing. So she just nodded. “I can see it appears to be working, and I’m down with just letting it alone for now. Not that I get a vote or anything.”

“You still get a vote,” Daniel replied quietly.
 

Bree was a little flummoxed by that. “Well, good, that’s good,” she stuttered. “So what’s next on your list of ideas?”

“How about we go downstairs where we’ll be more comfortable, and I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking.”

Bree agreed, and soon they were settled on opposite ends of his couch. Bree was in her favorite posture, sitting with her back against the couch arm, feet pulled up against her rear, and Daniel was sitting cross-legged, facing her. “So shoot,” she told him.

“Remember how you told me you’d seen Franchesca? And how we heard that she’s been allied with Marton Varga? I managed to get hold of Javier, and I also checked in with my old partner in Boston. Rumor has it that Varga is the driver of this move toward a demon war. He’s been able to inspire an unusual level of cooperation among Keltoi clans, given they’re often in competition with each other. If Franchesca is here in Seattle, Varga may be as well. One of the things I may be able to do that the local Keepers can’t is perform a finding spell on Franchesca, which might lead us to Varga.”
 

Bree immediately didn’t like the idea, since it might lead to Daniel having contact with Franchesca, but she grudgingly admitted to herself that it might be a good one. “I remember when you did that finding spell on Hunter last year. You actually had some of his hair, didn’t you, from when you made him that locator amulet? Do you still having something like that of Franchesca’s?”
 

“Not exactly,” Daniel admitted. “But I have a couple of things she gave me a long time ago. And the other thing I have is shared genetics with Varga. We may be only distantly related, but blood is one of the best substances to use in finding spells. I’m picturing one focused on Franchesca that also uses some of my blood, which might incline the spell to be drawn to her more if she’s actually with Varga. Like the one I did on Hunter, it will take a couple of days to put together, and there’s probably only a fifty-fifty chance it won't work.”

“Yes, I remember your whole lecture on why finding spells are so hard to do. But you did succeed last time, when Javier was sure you wouldn’t.”
 

“At worst, I’ve lost a couple day’s time. At best, I’m able to provide intelligence that could actually make a difference.”

“What would the Keepers do with that information?”
 

There was such a long pause that Bree couldn’t resist a subtle pass at reading his tells. He was looking down and to the left, there was tension in his neck, and a tightening of his hands on one another where they rested in this lap. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to answer, he was reluctant to answer. He was preparing for her to be angry. Well, she would just have to try hard not to be.
 

“I don’t know how clear this is to most powered, but Keepers typically don’t kill Keltoi except in self defense," Daniel replied. "Maybe that’s a no brainer, because normal cops don’t do it either. But with many Keltoi, incarceration isn’t an option. Either they’re Casters or they have clan mates who are Casters and can get them out. Or they're Demon Masters, and cause all hell to break loose in prisons by causing possessions. And since we can’t kill them out of hand, under the principle that it would make us no better than they are, the best we can do is interfere with their plans. It’s essentially the Cold War model." He shifted his posture so that he had one foot on the floor, his ankle across his knee. "Now, the Ecclesias does sometimes hand down a sentence of execution on powered if they have proven to be a chronic and lethal danger. In those cases, someone on the Ecclesias performs the sentence.”

“So are you saying Marton Varga could be brought to the Ecclesias if he was caught and might be executed?”

“That's one way it could go down, but there's a chance they won't go after him, especially if there's not really solid proof he's behind all this. Look, the Ecclesias can’t just hand down a death sentence without proof. They have to make some effort at justice. There’s a trial of sorts, though it’s not usually as lengthy or complicated as trials in the normal community are. But there still has to be substantial evidence of not just one murder, or conspiracy to murder, but a long series of such crimes that cause social destabilization.”

“If Varga is behind these riots and bombings, he'd certainly meet that criteria," Bree replied.

“That's true. But the trouble is, the execution of a Keltoi clan chief can have significant repercussions. They don’t have the same taboos against killing, with power or without. Killing a high profile Keltoi has been known to start a war in and of itself. If Varga were to be caught, tried and killed, which is a big ‘if’ given his reported level of power, the L.A. clan and the other California clans he's co-opted would very likely go to war against the Ecclesias and the Keepers. So the Ecclesias is going to have an unusually high bar of proof in this case.”
 

“So you want to locate Varga to get proof?"

There was a long pause, and she realized he was about to tell her the thing he thought she was going to object to.

“That's part of it. But the other possibility is that someone not a part of the Keepers or the Ecclesias could go after Varga. If it could be done in such a way that it was obvious that the action wasn’t through official channels, it might not trigger a war.”

“Aw, hell no. You are not going to do a hit on Marton Varga!” Bree exclaimed. Daniel gave her a lock jawed look, but that didn't slow her down. “What were we just saying about how impossible it would be to deliberately kill people?”
 

“It would be difficult to kill innocent people, yes. That’s why we need to be sure he’s not innocent.”
 

“Have you ever killed someone when it wasn’t self defense? Are you even capable of that?”
 

“No, I’ve never killed when it wasn’t self-defense or in defense of another person,” he admitted. “But seriously, Bree, if I challenge Varga directly, and I kill him in battle, you can be sure it will be self defense. He’ll hardly lay down for me to kill him.”
 

Don’t get hysterical, do not get hysterical,
Bree chanted inwardly. It was a tall order. Daniel was talking about sacrificing himself in an effort to stop the war. "What are the chances this guy would even agree to some kind of one on one duel? Why wouldn’t he just agree, then cheat, gang up on you? I’ve got a strong feeling the Keltoi still want you for the hiding spell. They’ve just been biding their time for some reason.”
 

“All the better to get the confrontation over with.”

“But even if you win, you lose because they’ll come after you. You’d have to do it in such a way that it was clear you were doing it solo, unofficially. That means his clan will know who to blame. How are you going to survive an entire Keltoi clan trying to kill you?”
 

“The Keltoi have gone after me before, a number of times. I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Bree considered throttling him for his arrogance. Then she considered, and discarded, any number of further arguments, but finally, a pattern fell into place for her. Her busy little Reader sense had been up and running for the whole argument. “You don’t mean to survive,” she accused.
 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffed. “I’m not suicidal.”
 

All Bree’s admonishments to herself about her temper vanished like so much vapor. “Not suicidal, maybe, but not averse to dying. You’re going to make someone else kill you because you don’t have the guts to do it yourself!”
 

“And would it be such a fucking loss?” Daniel replied, finally showing some real anger of his own.
 

“You said the fix was working!”

His hands clenched and his eyes flashed. “It’s working for now. But you heard what Gelsenim said. What are the chances this fix of mine is going to last? Look, maybe you’ve forgotten what I almost did to you, but I haven’t. I’m not being big-headed when I say if I do completely lose it, if I become one of those completely burned Demon Masters, it’s going to be damned hard to stop me. You certainly won’t be able to, and I know you’ll try, you’ll dive right in with this insane idea of yours that you, a half trained Reader with absolutely no experience at psychic healing, will be able to fix me. What’ll happen is that you’ll get killed. And I’ll be loose in the world. I’ll be worse than Marton Varga, because as far as I can tell, this whole thing is not master minded by a guy who’s insane.”
   

Bree was so overcome with emotion that she threw herself off the couch, and stalked around the room, trying to calm herself enough to be able to think clearly. Daniel stayed put, not looking at her, just frowning as he dealt with whatever this argument was bringing up for him. As a line of thought came to her, she went to stand at the back of the couch, where she could look down at him. “You were able to heal Kevin. You did fine with being around Gelsenim. And as far as I can tell, you’re good and pissed off right now. And nothing’s going wrong. I bet if I read you now, I’d see that the restraint structure is still in place. You’re acting nothing like that night you attacked me. So there’s no reason to jump to the conclusion that the world is better off with you dead.”

“It’s just an idea, okay Bree? I haven’t said I’m going to run right out and try to assassinate anyone.”
 

Her hands landed on her hips. “You just said your death wouldn’t be a loss! That means you’ve been thinking about it. I thought you said you were feeling better, calmer!”
 

Daniel pushed his hands hard into his hair in obvious frustration, then he got to his feet as well, and paced around the couch until he was in front of her. “It’s been a bad fucking day, alright? The world is coming undone all around us. So maybe I’m being inconsistent. Have you considered that I might having mixed feelings about what’s been happening to me? What my chances are? Wouldn’t you be all over the map in my shoes?”
 

All the air went out of Bree's sails at once and her arms dropped bonelessly to her sides. As hard as it had been to watch him struggle all these months, how hard must it have been for him to see his mind unraveling? To feel like he was going to become what he’d spent years of his life fighting against? And that he might kill people he cared for in the process? Just look at how much it had set her back to accidentally kill Jim Scanlon, and he’d been involved in kidnapping Hunter.