Demonsense (Demonsense series Book 1) (45 page)

"I'm pretty sure Daniel means to call the Keepers in if he does get a locate," Bree said doubtfully. "I know Javier told you before they didn't want you there when they try to retrieve Hunter."

"That horseshit about how we'd be too emotional and do something stupid? I bought that at first, but Steve and I aren't idiots. There's no reason we can't be on hand, and maybe I can even help. I can ward, for Christ's sake. That's not worth nothing."

"How about this. How about you guys come here but stay downstairs, or nearby. Daniel doesn't need any distractions while he's finishing the spell. He's been..." She stopped, uncertain how much to say.

"He's been what?" Kevin prompted.

"Nothing," Bree replied. "It's not important now." She didn't want to worry him with what had happened last night. And she didn't want to tell him about her own doubts that the spell would work. There was a grim set to Daniel's expression the last time she'd asked him how it was going.
 

"I'll text when we get there," Kevin told her, then signed off.

Daniel continued to do better with taking breaks as he proceeded with the last phase of the spell, including a quick trip downstairs to get some water from the Sound. By a little after one, he said, “There’s only one part to go, the last piece of binding it all together. That will take the most energy by far, so I’m going to take one last break, then go for it.”

Knowing he was so close to being done, Bree broached the subject she’d been worrying about off and on but hadn’t quite had the guts to bring up before now.

“Look, Daniel, there’s something I need to ask, something I need to know.”

He looked at her enquiringly.

“So if this works, if the finder spell gives us a locate on Hunter and we can try to go get him, I need to know that he’ll come first.”

His brows drew together. “What do you mean?”

“I know you’re hoping there’s some way to get Franchesca free of the Keltoi. I know you believe that on some level, she’s serious about that. But I’ve seen how crazy things can get. I have to know that your first objective is to get Hunter out of there. He’s a child, and she’s an adult. She has to come second.”

Daniel’s expression had grown progressively more shuttered as she spoke, and when he replied, his voice was flat. “Of course Hunter comes first. That’s not a problem.”

“Okay, I just needed to know that.” Great, she had just offended him, probably messed with his concentration as well. And if she were honest with herself, she knew his assurance on the matter didn’t completely ease her concern. There was a way Franchesca got to him, a way she understood him and could manipulate him that scared her. He was already so close to the edge in terms of his control.
 

Although the plan was to call in the Keepers once they got a locate, she wasn’t sure she trusted Daniel to stay out of the action. While he was vulnerable to loss of control, he was the most high powered person she’d ever met or even heard of, and he might be needed.

After ten minutes spent lying down with his eyes closed, Daniel got up and sat down on the other bed, arranging all the objects he'd spelled. His nervousness showed in the way he kept making minute adjustments to their position. Finally, he seemed satisfied. He carefully placed a tourist map of Seattle that Bree had snatched from the lobby directly in front of him. He shifted until he was sitting more comfortably. Then he said, “Wish me luck,” and smiled at her for the first time in what felt like days.

“Good luck,” she replied, smiling back, then sent up a quick prayer to Mary for success, and one to St. Jude just for Daniel. She was praying a lot these days, which wasn't like her, but the situation seemed to call for it.

Daniel took a deep breath. “Bind together, seek together, find together,” he intoned, then repeated the phrase as he went around the circle, touching the objects in turn. Bree felt only a whisper of power in the air, like the faint whiff of floral smell on an early spring day. It built to more of a low hum she felt at the base of her spine, then to a sense of vibration in the air. She opened her Reader sense, taking care to keep it in receiving mode only, curious to see what the spell felt like on that level.
 

The complexity of it was more obvious then. There were at least twenty different types of energy. She had the sensation of flavors and colors wildly swirling, then settling into intricate, interlocking layers. As each connection fell into place, the energy built exponentially. She forced herself to breathe slowly as all the hair on her body stood up. There was a flare of pressure against her eardrums, then the bed beneath her began to shake. She started to worry about what the normals in the rooms nearby were feeling.
 

Another surge in energy took Bree's breath away, and all the light bulbs in the room exploded. The window rattled in its frame, and the gas fire in the fireplace blazed up, sending out a fierce wave of heat. The pressure against her Reader sense was almost unbearable.

"Seek him, find him, seek him, find him," Daniel chanted, his voice rising with each repetition. "Seek him now, find him now, seek him now, find him now."
 

Another wave of pressure moved through the room, and Bree felt the structure of the spell slip and start to shake apart. She had the impulse to reach out energetically, try to stabilize it, but she knew it'd do more harm than good. Daniel's eyes narrowed, and his whole body tensed. The spell wobbled like a top losing its spin. He reached out and put his hand over the ring that he had worked first, then the water, the last of the spell elements, and it felt like reality itself was bending as he adjusted the magical energy of each to push against the flow of the spell towards chaos.
 

Her hair snapped to the left like a flag in a hard wind, and all the plates and utensils left over from lunch hurled through the air in the same direction and crashed against the wall. The spell seemed to go in a counter tilt, and the very air warped in response. Bree didn't see how Daniel could possibly keep the whole thing from flying apart at this point. His eyes met hers, his expression strained and desperate, and she didn't know how, but she knew what he was asking her to do. It was crazy dangerous, but she had to do it. She scrambled off her bed and onto his, and knelt next to him. He thrust a hand out, and she gripped it, hard, then opened herself up completely, let her base energy flow out of her and into him.

He pulled so hard that her vision went dark. Her Reader sense was still open, and she felt how he ran her energy through his body, not so much absorbing the energy as transforming it. Then it flew out of him like a net of tiny, burning lines of force that settled over the top of the spell, sank into it, and pulled it into alignment in one swift motion.
 

Then Daniel's voice rang out. "Seek him now, find him now, Hunter Thomas Whitman-Vilchek!”

Chapter 24

Hunter
flinched as Destry sat down on the other end of the couch. Jim was gone finding an apartment for them and Hunter was nervous with him gone. Destry didn't look at him, just pulled a laptop off the coffee table and put it on her lap. He'd asked earlier if he could play a game on it, but Destry said no.
 

The only other person in the room was Justice, the man that was in the car the night Jim and Franchesca took him. He looked like he might be sick. His skin was yellow and he fell asleep a bunch of times until Destry yelled at him. He thought that Destry and Justice were supposed to be watching him, or maybe guarding that man Carson, who was in his office. Hunter was mad at Jim for not letting him go home, but still, he was scared with Jim gone. He was getting hungry, and he wasn’t sure it was okay to ask for something to eat.
 

Finally, Jim came back, and he brought some McDonalds. He told Hunter he'd found a place, but he had to get permission from Carson to take Hunter there. Hunter didn’t really like the idea of going away with Jim, but he didn’t want to stay at the office either.

“How’re you doing, Justice?” Jim said to the sick guy. “It’s good to see you back.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m fine,” Justice replied.
 

“So what’s the schedule? When can I get in to see Carson?”
 

Destry answered him. “He’s on the phone right now, and I think he’s due to have a meeting with Ms. Gambrini. She’s supposed to be here in about ten minutes.”

Hunter had figured out that Ms. Gambrini was that mean lady, Franchesca. He wasn’t happy to hear she was coming over.
 

She showed up a few minutes later, taking off her raincoat as she came in. She was wearing black pants, high heels, and a dark pink sweater. “Destry, Justice, Scanlon. Is Carson ready for me?” she asked.

“I’ll tell him you’ve arrived.” Destry went over to Carson’s office, knocked on the door, then stuck her head in and told him Franchesca was there. Hunter tried to scoot down farther into the corner of the couch so Franchesca wouldn’t notice him, but it didn’t work. She handed her coat to Justice, and sat down on one of the chairs across from the couch and looked at Hunter. At first, her face was serious, and Hunter looked away. He got a weird, creepy feeling from her, and he didn’t like her looking at him. But after awhile, it made him too worried not to see what she was doing. When he looked back, she smiled at him, and said, “How would you like to see Daniel? I was thinking we might take a ride later and go see him, so he can tell your parents that you’re with your real father and you’re doing fine.”

I don’t want to be with my real father
, Hunter wanted to tell her, but he was afraid to say anything.

“Has another meet been set up?” Jim asked her.

“Carson and I are about to do that now,” Franchesca replied.

“Look, I know you have to take Hunter, but I want your word that you won’t give him over to Thorvaldson. He’s my son,” Jim told Franchesca.
 

“You know I can’t promise that.” Franchesca sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. “This is no longer my operation to run, as your employer has made abundantly clear. However, I can tell you that if we can’t take Daniel tonight, you better start thinking about getting out of state.”

“Move out of state? Why would I want to do that?” Jim asked.

“Because if we don’t take Daniel, you can bet he and his Keeper friends will be coming after you, personally. And that, my friend, is not something you want to have happen. So you better think hard about how important it is to you to keep your son.”

“I have more support here than you seem to think,” Jim answered her, scowling.

“If you mean your father and his connections, that’s not going to help you in this case. Oh, you might get some help short term, but one thing I know about Daniel is how obsessive he can be." Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glittered as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I’m not sure if it’s registered with you yet, but he’s a Demon Master and a Binder, as well as the best Caster I’ve ever seen. If he decides to come after you, you won’t be able to hide for long if you stick around here. You certainly can’t take him on as you are now, and even if you’d allow a possession, that wouldn't save you.”

“Oh come on, the guy's a Keeper, it’s not like he’s going to kill me. Worse case scenario, he just takes the kid back.”

“You are seriously mistaken if you think Daniel Thorvaldson is incapable of killing a man in anger,” Franchesca said, her voice going cold. “Go ahead and do a little research. See if you can find out why he left the Keepers. See if you can uncover some of the rumors. And let me tell you, whatever the rumors are, I can guarantee you the reality is worse.”

“If he’s so bad ass, why didn’t he join the Keltoi?” Jim argued.

Franchesca leaned forward a little. “Oh, he likes to think he’s not like us, but that’s just an ego saving delusion on his part. You told me yourself you thought he was dangerous, that it would take a large group to bring him down, and that was after you nearly got the best of him twice. Ask yourself why you think that.”

Jim got quiet. Hunter wasn’t really that sure what Franchesca was talking about. Mostly, he was thinking about what she said about being able to see Daniel. Wouldn’t Daniel be able to save him if he knew where Hunter was? Wasn’t that why he’d given Hunter the locator amulet? He looked at Franchesca’s purse. That's where she'd put his amulet when she took it away from him. She had it right by her.
 

Carson came out of his office and called to Franchesca. She stood up, picked up her purse and they went back into his office together. Hunter sagged in disappointment. Now he couldn't get his amulet.
 

Jim didn’t talk to Hunter after that, just sat there fiddling with his phone. Destry was still working on her laptop, and Justice stood looking out the window.
 

After a minute, Hunter decided to get up and look out the window too. Sometimes, one of the adults would stop him from doing that, but sometimes they didn’t. He was careful to keep his distance from Justice. There wasn’t really anything to see down there, just the side of another building, a sidewalk, and some cloudy sky. It was cold by the window, but Hunter was too bored to care.
 

He breathed on the glass to fog it up, then drew a picture of a house. Little drops of water formed on the picture and ran down the glass in lines. He watched for a moment, then erased the picture with his sweater sleeve and blew on the glass again. He was going to draw a dog. He’d been trying to get his Dads to get him one, but they said no, Papa was allergic to them. He erased one unsatisfactory attempt and was trying again when Justice came up to him.

“What you drawing?” he asked in a quiet voice. Hunter looked up, weighing the husky, bearded man next to him. He wasn't smiling, but Hunter got the feeling that maybe the man was trying to be nice, so he answered him.

“A dog.”

“What kind of a dog?”
 

Hunter shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Justice watched him for a moment, then he blew on the window in front of him and made a picture. Hunter looked over curiously, and Justice said, “What do you think?”