Demonsense (Demonsense series Book 1) (33 page)

“I think you have more power than you know, or frankly, than you want,” Daniel replied. He was less angry now, but he wasn’t soft either. “And you’re hardly a coward, I think you proved that last night, multiple times. As for the exorcism, I wasn’t there, so I can’t be sure what happened. But I do know that the best Exorcists have a power akin to that of a Demon Master. They may not be able to call a demon, or have full command of one, but they have such a fine ability to sense demonic energy and direct it that they can control demons to some degree. There’s such a taboo about being a Demon Master that Exorcists don’t like to think of it in those terms, but it’s true.”

Even as Bree acknowledged that Daniel was likely right, she felt queasy at the thought that some ability of hers might run so close to the line of Demon Master talent. Maybe it ought to increase her sense of safety, but instead, it made her feel contaminated. “We’re getting off the subject,” she finally responded, battling to put her unease aside, and trying to be less reactive, think more clearly about what Daniel had said. “You want to call Gelsenim and get him to look for Hunter. And yeah, you’re right, that scares me. I’m feeling like I’ve had enough of demons. But I guess I'm desperate enough to find Hunter that I'm willing to hear you out. Go ahead and tell me how that would work. Don’t demons have all kinds of limitations when they’re disembodied?”

Daniel spoke quickly in response. “Most do, but the stronger, higher level demons have some way of traveling in whatever realm they normally inhabit and listening in to our space at specific locations. So Gelsenim’s abilities make him a good spy. The trick is to command him with the right restrictions that I don’t leave loopholes for him to twist it in some evil way.”

"Why have I never heard about this? It seems incredibly risky, trying to get a demon that strong to do something that specific."

"It's a Keltoi technique, used by Demon Masters. So I'm not surprised you've never heard of it. I came across it a number of times in my work as Keeper, and I can assure you, it works. It may not always net you exactly the information you're looking for, though. Demons have a tendency to either not really understand what you want, or else they twist the command in some way and bring you information you don't need just as a way to mess with you."

"Have you done it before?"

"No. I was tempted a couple of times, but no. Though you may have a hard time believing it, I really do try not to use my Demon Master talent."

Now that her initial defensive resistance was waning, Bree had to admit the technique sounded somewhat promising. “Is this more likely to be of help than a finder spell?”
 

He sat back a little in his chair. “A really good finder spell, one with enough complexity to work around some of the ways the Keltoi might be able to block it may have a better chance. But it would take a long time to prepare and cast, at least a day, and probably two. And to do the best possible job, I’d need to get to my house for supplies. Calling Gelsenim is something I can do now.”

Damn
the man, why did he always have to be so logical? Bree drank some coffee, which had gone cool during their argument, buttered her toast and took a bite as she gave herself time to take in what Daniel had said.
 

He got up for what had to be at least his third cup of coffee, which Bree couldn’t help feeling was a mistake in his ragged, jumpy condition. He gave her cup a warm up shot while he had the coffee pot in hand, then started cleaning up his breakfast dishes. She couldn’t help but appreciate a man who did dishes when he was stressed, although she was half braced for him to break something, given how clumsy he tended to be. She was also grateful that he was giving her time to calm down and think. She barely tasted her cold toast as she did just that. She made herself take some more Ibuprofen now that she had some food in her. He had just sat back down again when she said, “Okay, if we do this, there are some problems. First off, how could we hide what we’re doing from Joe? If he can clear taint, he’s got Demonsense.”

“I can hide Gelsenim’s presence for a short time if I have to. It’s rather like the hiding spell I use on myself. It’s what I used when I would call demons on my own, when I first started researching all this.”

“You’re really kind of scary, you know that?” Bree responded, eyes wide.
 

She’d been going for humor, partly to draw attention away from the bout of vulnerability she’d just displayed, but Daniel seemed to be fresh out, because he didn’t crack a smile. “It’s a logical extension of the hiding spell.”

“We won’t have an outside Warder if it’s just you and I,” Bree continued on, subdued. “If you have to concentrate on maintaining wards and on mastering the demon, it’ll likely be a strain.”

“I’ve done it before,” Daniel responded shortly.

“Yes, and having done it before, you decided you needed monitoring, and I’m it. So let me monitor. I need to read you before I’ll agree to this.”

Daniel’s expression closed down even further. His whole posture said “No” but he took a careful breath and said, “All right, but can we avoid a deep read? There’s been a lot, I mean with what happened last night, I…” he stumbled to a stop, then started over. “A lot that touches on my personal life is up for me right now. I know reading isn’t mind reading, but a deep read comes pretty close. I need a little privacy right now. It’s not my usual way to open up on that level with someone I don’t know well. It’s not that I don’t…”

“I understand,” Bree interjected. He didn't want her to know his feelings about Franchesca. The thought gave her pain, but she pushed her reaction aside. “I mostly just need to see what effects the possession and the taint from last night had on your base energy. I wish I had more clarity about what I’m looking for, but the way I’ve conceptualized the monitoring, I’m looking to see if you still feel like you. I’ve got to figure that if your mind is breaking down the way they say happens for Demon Masters, I’d feel the difference in your base energy. I can try to make it fast, and I’ll do my best to target just the read of your base.”
 

Daniel nodded, but couldn’t seem to meet her eyes.
 

“Okay then, why don’t we both go meditate, then I'll do the reading. If that checks out, I suppose we look for a moment when Joe is either out of the house again or occupied with something.”

“Agreed,” Daniel replied, then banished the sound stop spell with a gesture, and left the table to go back upstairs to the room where he’d slept. Bree watched him go with feelings so mixed she hardly had names for all of them.
 

Chapter 17

After
finishing breakfast, Bree did some meditation, then checked in again with Joe, who was in charge of getting updates about Hunter.
 

"Sorry to say, they haven't found hide nor hair of him yet," Joe told her. He had sad eyes, and he looked tired. Bree wondered how all this might be affecting him. Based on the room she'd slept in, he had a son himself. And she imagined it wasn’t easy to retire as a Keeper, especially in the same city where you had served. There were never enough Keepers or Exorcists, it seemed, so there was always pressure to pitch in.
 

"Keepers aren't sending anyone here to guard you two, since it looks like the Keltoi don't know you're here," he continued. "I've done a sweep twice, and there's no one around, not even normals. It's a risk, but Ortiz thinks it best to keep all available Keepers out looking for the boy, at least this morning."

"No argument from me," Bree replied.

"Well, all you got is me, so I'll keep patrolling. You two ought to try to get some more sleep. You won't be much help with all this until your power is back up. And I doubt it is. You both still look done in, and you
feel
done in."

"I know, you're right. But you will wake us if there's any news?"

"You can count on it."

 
Bree looked at the ground as she continued. She hated lying. "I had nightmares last night about the demon we encountered. Is there any chance you have a crucifix and some holy water, or any other exorcism supplies that I can have nearby? It would just make me feel more secure."

"Yeah, I can arrange that." He came back in a moment with a powder blue make-up case and handed it over to her, saying gruffly, “It was my wife’s exorcist kit. She passed last year.”
 

"My husband passed as well, year before last," Bree told him. She felt that rush of relief she’d felt since Seth’s death whenever she encountered someone else who’d lost their partner. It felt soothing in some strange way to know someone else really understood what it was like.
 

Joe nodded and patted her shoulder. "You try to get some rest."

Bree thanked him and headed back upstairs. She found Daniel waiting for her in her room. He was sitting on the bed, and he regarded her gravely as she came in. Like her, he seemed to have benefited from meditation. She could read right away that he was more composed. And in turn, Bree found she could look at him without imagining his features shifting to those of the demon’s. He just looked like Daniel, worn around the edges, but strong, capable, and defended in some indefinable way.
 

Bree put down the kit and sat down next to him on the bed, one knee pulled up so she could face him, and he moved to do the same. “Joe’s outside, patrolling,” she said. “I don’t know for how long. He knows we need more sleep, so unless there’s some big breaking news, he probably won’t come up and bother us for awhile.”
 

Daniel merely nodded, then got up to do a quick warding and a sound stop spell. As he sat back down next to her, she took a deep breath, and continued, “Look, just so we’re clear, I want your agreement that if, after I read you, I don’t think you’re in shape to do a big working, you won’t run off and try to call Gelsenim on your own. You’ll wait, get some rest, then let me read you again.”

After a telling hesitation, he replied, “Okay, I can agree to that. But Bree, just remember that as long as my base energy and will energy are in reasonable shape, I can do this thing. I’ve mastered demons under battle conditions, on my own, with no help. A short working is not going to be that dangerous.”

“It’d better be a short working. I don’t think my nerves could take a long one.” She leaned forward a bit and reached for the buttons of his shirt without thinking, then pulled up short in embarrassment. A tiny smile ghosted across Daniel’s lips, and he reached for the buttons himself. The soft, chamois cloth shirt was rumpled and gave off a mild odor of sweat. Bree imagined he was probably longing for clean clothes as much as she was.
 

As Daniel bared his chest for her read, and she placed her hand against him, she felt an inconvenient flash of desire.
For God’s sake
, she thought to herself,
what does it take to beat this attraction out of you?
She took refuge in closing her eyes and focusing on the read. She was careful to be true to her word, and went only for an energy read. Neither his base or will energies were as high as they’d been last night before they called Gelsenim at Bruce and Sophie's, but they weren’t bad. In fact, Daniel with relatively low energy read as strong as most people who were the picture of health. She put out her Demonsense, and while he read as someone recently tainted or possessed, he clearly wasn’t either at present. With a certain disappointment, she opened her eyes and ended the read, returning her hand to her lap. “You read relatively strong,” she admitted. She pulled her other leg up onto the bed, then crossed both of them, fluffing her dress out to fully cover herself, and faced him as he buttoned up his shirt. “I didn’t read any more than I said I would. But Daniel, there was something amiss on the deep read last night.”

He stopped in mid-button, and looked up at her, eyebrows raised in surprise.

She tucked her hair behind her ears and said, “I know, I let you go ahead. Your energy seemed strong enough, although you did seem to go through it pretty fast. But there was just a kind of darkness in your base energy, something growing…” she trailed off uncertainly.

“But not taint?” he prompted.

She shook her head. “No, not taint. I’m having trouble describing it in words. There are always dark areas on a read. I think they’re basically a person’s issues, unresolved grief or guilt, what have you. This was like that, but also different. Or maybe because you’re so high powered, even your issues read stronger. I’m not sure. But I do know it was worse after you’d called Gelsenim. I would be very surprised if it wasn’t worse still today. The real weakness in this whole monitoring idea is how inexperienced I am. It’s not like I’ve ever read a Demon Master who was getting demon burned and losing his mind. All I can do is look for changes. And have you stop if you’re changing too much. I’d like to do a deep read and see if that’s the case.”

“Do I seem to you like I’m starting to lose my mind?’ Daniel asked mildly.

“Well you aren’t yourself, that’s for sure.”

“Neither are you,” he returned with a small smile, which took some of the sting out of his words. “Look, I think at this point, Hunter comes first. Even if you did the read and found this darkness streak is worse, unless I’ve actually started to seem erratic to you, I would want to move forward on this. If that's not the case, let’s just do this thing and get it over with.”

There was something in his tone that told her he wasn’t looking forward to calling the demon any more than she was, and that settled her. She knew Demon Masters became addicted to calling the demons, and there was no eagerness to be read in any of his tells.
 

Realizing she was out of excuses to delay further, and reminding herself sternly that at least this was something she could do to help Hunter, she said “Fair enough. Let's get started.” She got off the bed, grabbed up the exorcist kit and backed as far away from Daniel as she could get in the moderate sized bedroom. She opened up the kit and found familiar items: A fine silver crucifix on a delicate chain, holy water in an old Tresor perfume bottle, a small blue leather Bible, and a few dried wands of lavender. She riffled through the Bible until she found one of her favorite passages for use in exorcisms, then loosened the top on the holy water bottle. She still had her own crucifix on from last night, so she left the one in the kit alone. Daniel raised the ward, and she stayed inside it so she could perform an exorcism if she had to. Then he spent several minutes casting the masking spell for demonic energy he'd mentioned earlier. Finally, he stood quietly, then without any of the ritual of last night, he shouted, “Gelsenim, I call you! Gelsenim, I command you!”