Demonsense (Demonsense series Book 1) (11 page)

She realized Daniel did not want Javier to know about the amulet. She wanted to reach up and button her shirt another button, but that would only draw attention to it. Instead, she crossed her arms and leaned up against the breakfast bar, shifting her weight enough that the amulet slid to one side inside her shirt and out of sight. The realization flashed through her mind that she had just chosen sides.
 

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said, pleased to hear that her voice sounded confident. “I was just wanting to check in, see about the status of the case, and answer any questions you might have about last night.”

There was a sneaky satisfaction in seeing how uncomfortable Javier appeared at the sight of her. She'd read his energy spike at her entrance, and he avoided her eyes. “Ah Bree, yes. I was just finishing with Mr. Thorvaldson here, so you’re not interrupting,” Javier replied politely, but his tells were flashing repressed embarrassment. Bree saw that Javier knew she could read his discomfort, and knew that she knew that he knew. Sometimes dealing with other Readers was ridiculously complicated.
 

“Mr. Thorvaldson, thank you for your assistance in this matter,” Javier said. “I fully understand that you're retired, and there should be no need to call on you further."

The two men did not shake hands. Daniel leaned in close to Bree on his way out and said quietly, “I’ll be in back with Steve and Hunter. They kept Hunter home from school today.” Bree nodded, and turned back to Javier. She had taken the moment of distraction in their finishing up to surreptitiously button another button on her blouse, and felt more confident that the amulet was hidden.

“Bree, I understand you were here last night and sensed a demon. Can you tell me more about that?” Javier began. He officiously shuffled the pile of papers in front of him on the counter, then reached for a pen to take notes.

“I can’t tell you much, really. I could sense one, medium-strong in power. It was blocked by the protective spell I threw up. Not that I’m so hot at defensive spells. I didn’t recognize its energy signature or anything. Honestly, Javier, that’s about all I know. Things were crazy, and I didn’t have time or space to read more.”

“And how, in your opinion, did Mr. Thorvaldson manage to drive the group outside away?” Javier fully met her eyes for the first time, and she knew he was reading her. She remembered he was much better at reading energy than tells, but she had to be
very
careful to tell the truth as much as possible.

“Well, he was a Keeper back east, at least that’s what Kevin told me. Retired or something, but not for long, so I suspect his skills were still pretty fresh. I think he managed to convince them they weren’t going to get in and might as well give up for the time being.” There, technically all true. She waited for Javier’s response, realizing for the second time that day that she was taking Daniel’s side, wondering if it was because of the gift of the amulet, wondering if the gift was itself intended to manipulate her to do just that. Or maybe it was just her libido talking. The way her breath had caught when he stood close to her a moment ago wiped out her hope that the Binder thing had completely turned her off to him.

“That jibes with what he said,” Javier replied cautiously. "However, there are, of course, cases where Keepers go over to the Keltoi. There's a lot of money to be made in organized crime. Keeper salaries are a pittance in comparison to what even lower ranking Keltoi members can make."

For a moment, Javier's suspicion made Bree pause. Could that be the reason Daniel left the Keepers? But then she shook her head. "Doesn't he come from one of those old, rich powered families back east? I'm not sure he needs the money that badly."

"And yet he doesn't strike me as being completely honest in his reasons for leaving the Keepers."
 

Careful
. "I don't really know all his reasons for leaving the Keepers. I only just met him."

Javier's dark eyes regarded her a moment longer, and he was reading her so hard that she could feel the energy of it like sticky fog clinging to her head. She concentrated intently on the truth of what she had just said. She
didn't
know all his reasons. The silence between them stretched uncomfortably.
 

"I have ways of checking into Mr. Thorvaldson's retirement," Javier finally said, and Bree had to work at blocking out the dismay his statement caused her. She doubted she had succeeded, because Javier flashed a small, knowing smile.

“So what do
you
think this is about?” Bree asked, hoping to get his attention off of her.

Javier shook his head. “Hard to say at this point. Although I will say Mr. Thorvaldson gave a very complete report of his attempts to, shall we say, retire without complications. The Keltoi are generally only loosely allied, clan to clan, so any trouble he had with them in Boston is actually not that likely to cause him trouble here. And I’m afraid that the less likely it looks the group last night were after him, the more likely it seems they were after Hunter. There've been some very ugly incidences of adoptions gone wrong when powered children are involved. And there are even cases of the kidnapping of powered children who are unrelated to the kidnappers. It's usually Keltoi in such cases. It's a form of underground, illegal adoption by those powered who want powered children. Of course, it's possible that this isn't about Mr. Thorvaldson or about Hunter. Are you in some kind of trouble?” He gave her a hard look.

Here at least Bree could feel confident. She outlined for him her lack of power working activity since Seth's death. It felt strange to be talking to him, but also good to have something specific to say. He already knew almost everything there was to know about her power work before Seth died, so there was no need to go over that.

“You know there are reports of demons coming after exorcists later. They seem to have some memory of time in bodies they have inhabited,” Javier said, looking down at notes he was taking rather than at her.
 

“But why would Keltoi be involved in that case?”

Javier sighed. “Yes, exactly. Which is why I’m going to need to find out what I can about Hunter’s adoption.”

“You’ll be stationing Keepers here until you find out more?” Bree asked. She couldn't keep a challenging note out of her voice.

“Of course,” Javier answered coolly.
 
“For the next couple of days, at least, while the investigation goes forward.”

Bree managed to get away from Javier soon after. Neither of them mentioned the past, which was fine with her, so the meeting was less painful than she had anticipated. Still, she got the distinct impression that while he largely believed Daniel’s story, neither was he letting go of considering him potentially in danger, or even potentially complicit, which probably meant drawing more attention than Daniel was comfortable with. He had hinted he would be calling the Keeper Association in Boston to check up on Daniel, and who knew where that might lead.

She went back to Hunter’s room, where Hunter was playing Connect Four with Kevin. Bree sat on the bed next to Daniel after she had greeted Hunter and provided the required amount of enthusiasm for the fact that Hunter was currently beating Kevin. Hunter dug inside his shirt, and pulled out a silver disc on a cord. "See Bree? Daniel made me this necklace in case I get lost. All I have to do is hold it, say the words and he can find me anywhere."

"And what are the words?" Kevin prompted.

"By wind, I call Daniel!"

"By wind and by will, I call Daniel Thorvaldson," Kevin corrected.
 

"I know, Daddy." He focused back on the game, and Daniel asked her to come speak with him out in the hall.
 

“Look, I’m sorry about that in there,” he began. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot with Ortiz. It’s just that if he saw the amulet, and you told him where you got it, there would be even more questions about last night. And honestly, I’ll do what I can to help Kevin, but I just want to stay out of official Keeper channels on this.”

Bree suddenly felt foolish for having gone along with covering up the amulet. She didn’t want Daniel thinking she was going to be part of hiding what he was. And the minute that crossed her mind, she felt a fool again, because that was exactly what she was doing. She wasn’t marching in there to tell Javier that Daniel was a Binder, had somehow become a Keeper while being a Binder, which was against the law.
 

There he stood, looking at her diffidently, a shy, flustered look, so at odds with the power and control he’d shown last night. If she was to trust her Reader sense at all, she had to conclude that he didn't mean her any harm, in spite of that hint of darkness in his energy signature. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t end up doing harm. She’d seen the side of him that seemed vulnerable and basically kind, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have another side. And it wasn't as if she had never misjudged someone, in spite of her Reader sense. Readers were only human, were subject to the same preconceptions and emotional reactions as anyone else, they just had more information to screw themselves up with. She was frustrated with the whole dilemma and said, ungraciously, “Fine. However you want to handle it.”

“I’m going to head home now,” he continued, looking at his shoes now. “I’ve been here all morning, and it looks to me like the, um, suggestion I planted last night has held. There’s been no more trouble. And three high powered Keepers ought to be able to handle the kind of thing that happened last night. I’m more worried about what’s going to happen if their investigation doesn’t lead to any resolution. They can’t keep this level of manpower going for long.”

“Have you thought that maybe if they’re after you, you shouldn’t be here at the house?”

“Yes, I have thought of it, which is why I’m not moving in for the duration,” he replied.

“I wonder what help I’d be if I stick around,” Bree admitted. “You know, I just charged in there like I was going to go to war with Javier, like I had to make him protect Hunter. I think it’s because I feel like I’m not really of any use on that score.”

“Oh, I don’t know, you were pretty good in a fight last night,” Daniel replied, humor creeping into his voice.

“I'm really not much of a Caster,” she responded.

“No, really, you called up a good protection spell with almost no time to prepare.”

“Well, in any case, I find myself wishing I knew more defensive magic. Most of my Caster training was focused on exorcism spells, apart from some very basic self defense.”

“You know, I might be able to teach you a couple of things,” he replied, meeting her eyes at last, with that mix of intensity and shyness you saw when someone was asking you for a date. She told herself she was probably imagining things, and pushed her own rush of excitement-tinged embarrassment aside. She had more important things to focus on. Under the circumstances, learning some more defensive casting was appealing, particularly when she thought about the fact that Keepers were unlikely to be posted at the house indefinitely. She couldn't be comfortable with the idea of there being no guard on Hunter until the mystery of what the Keltoi had been after was solved.
 

Of course, Daniel wasn’t really her first choice of instructor in defensive magic, what with the Binder issue still an unresolved part of the equation in how she felt about him, but she didn’t personally know anyone else in his league except maybe Javier. She'd conceded last night that Daniel didn't appear an immanent risk regarding using his Binder talent irresponsibly, so all that was stopping her was her own superstitious dread of Binders.
 

After an awkward moment of silence while Bree considered, she said slowly, “That’s probably a good idea. Look, I’m planning to stay here for the day, but I’m going to take the next couple of days off from work, so tomorrow or Wednesday would be good.”

“How about tomorrow afternoon at my place, say around three? I have a workroom set up upstairs where we could practice.”

Say no
, part of her said, the part that had been hiding out, grieving, yes, but using her grief as a shield against the big scary world, her world, where demons lived. “You’re on,” Bree replied, with more courage than she thought she had.

Warren Justice felt his demon surge with hostility as Jim Scanlon said, for the fourth time, “Jesus Christ, are they ever going to leave?” They’d been staked out down the street from the Daniel Thorvaldson's house for over three hours, and a woman had gone in about ten minutes ago. They were hoping that meant the pair of them would leave to go someplace, but there was no sign of movement from the house. The plan was to wait until the place was empty, then call in the other two Keltoi sitting on their asses in the coffee shop down the street, and see if they could break the house wards and do a search for some spell Scanlon wanted.
 

Justice knew that if he didn’t have his demon on board, there would be no way the four of them could break those wards, but with it, there was a chance. He felt the demon stir again, and a wave of heat, boredom and hunger passed through him.
 

He was always hungry, and it didn’t matter how much he ate or what he ate. His eyes felt hot with lust, the lust to take in, to see more, to perceive more. He was always running his fingers along things he walked by, and when he was sitting, his hands roamed restlessly across his clothes, his face, his hair. Strangely, his sense of hearing was the only thing that seemed unaffected by this hunger for sensation. He didn’t like music anymore, any kind of music. It irritated him to the point of violence. He had broken Scanlon’s car stereo with his fist because the bastard wouldn’t turn it off when Justice told him to. Scanlon had started to whine about it, but the demon showed his face, and Scanlon had given him a scared look and shut up.
 

He found himself thinking about the Keeper again, how maybe he could take him by surprise if he was with some woman who distracted him. Maybe he could go for the woman and get control of the Keeper that way. He knew that wasn’t Scanlon’s plan, and Scanlon was paying him, but the demon didn’t care about money. It liked dominance, and fear, and death.