Keeley Thomson (Book 4): Demon Trap (15 page)

"Well, I should be going." She had to fight to keep her cool again, but didn't let it become a problem. Talking about sex without being afraid of the idea was part of growing up, after all.

Even if it had been far more awkward than she really wanted to put up with, on any given day.

The inroads were empty, but they almost always were so that wasn't a surprise. She came out in front of the building, and walked in with a sense of purpose, as if she belonged there. She wasn't dressed up very nicely at the moment, just in jeans and a t-shirt, but that would be fine for an early morning errand run. Being dressed up and looking ready for a fashion show would call too much attention.

The place she wanted had lights on, but no one was near the front of the store. Not at all. The roll up gate clearly hadn't been down either, since there was no sign of gathered dust on the floor. Even leaving something in place for a few minutes changed the flow of the world around it for hours after it was moved. So that part hadn't been true. Of course, she could hardly blame the woman for that. She didn't know who was coming in after all. If she were a human girl, then acting as normal as possible would be the safest plan.

"Hello?" She called out in a conversational tone, since louder probably wasn't needed. Alede all had really good hearing. Not bat level, but it was good enough that you didn't bother to whisper if any of them were around. Not for their sake.

"Oh! That was quick. Back here. I got the ribbon out. Two ten yard spools should work, right?"

The voice was coming from the back, near the center of the space past the standing clothing racks, was holding very still. It was a strange enough thing that Keeley noticed it. Casting her mind out a bit, using some energy from her stores, she felt the two other beings back there. All Alede. All armed. With guns.

It took about half a second for her to pick apart all the information then, taking it from Valerie's mind. She did indeed know who Keeley was and had heard that she wasn't as old as all that. So she and her fellow mall store workers were planning to take her out, and not in a fun way. That was just so Keeley wouldn't take Kaitlyn as a slave though. It very nearly even made sense, after a fashion. Except for the whole part where she didn't need Kaitlyn as a slave, since the girl would have done what she wanted anyway, just because she was decently nice.

Instead of saying anything, she made herself speed up a lot, and slowed her perception of time. Then, burning a lot of magic to make it happen, she moved onto the inroads, and adjusted just enough, with a single and very tiny step, to be in the back room of the place. The others were as well, but they'd all clustered in the front, actually
in
the door, blocking each other from taking quick action. Because the Alede, while many wonderful things, weren't exactly brilliant fighters.

Moving off the line quickly, she stepped in behind the women. Then, one by one, she took their weapons away from them. She was tempted to take them over, but didn't bother, since they weren't really all that useful to her at this point.

"Hello! Oh, you
do
have the ribbon?" That made her feel better. After all, it meant she wouldn't have to look for it. She held on the guns for the moment, cradling them all in her left arm. With her right hand she picked up the two biggish spools. It was very nearly perfect. "How much do I owe you for it? Fifty?" That was the agreed upon price at least. The women in front of her didn't answer though. The one on the right stepped forward after a few seconds, her face having gone pale and her blonde hair hanging loose down her back.

"I'm in charge here. They didn't..." She stopped but Keeley got the idea anyway. Even without mind reading. It was about what had to happen, wasn't it?

"Well, no harm done. I'm friendly though. Yes, I'm charging Kait for helping her, but notice, all I'm asking for is that she perhaps entertain some friends of mine, sometime in the future. Essentially giving her a few free meals. That's
not
exactly slavery." She also didn't have any need for something like that yet. It could come up though, but it would hardly be a punishment.

They all knew that was the deal though. They just didn't think it could be the whole thing. The rates were too good, and besides,
Greater Demon
. Keeley had to give them that one. In the main she wouldn't want to deal with her either, thinking what they did.

Setting down the three handguns on a folding table required taking several steps, the ribbon going directly next to it. Then she dug into her handbag and pulled out several bills. Two twenties and a single ten. No one really used cash that often anymore, but it made sense for the time being, since she didn't want her card being flagged as being over half the world on any given day. That would have the bank cutting her off, to prevent fraud.

Smiling she held the cash out and walked forward, still ready to move at speeds that these beings just couldn't match. No one tried for her though. They didn't even try to act sexy, which would have been their normal go to move, no doubt. If she weren't her.

There was no begging or pleading though, and Valerie took the bills, shaking more than a bit. After all, she expected to die any moment, even if Keeley was honorable enough to keep to her bargain. She probably
should
have killed them, but the fact was, these women weren't a real threat. Even if they'd shot her, that would have mainly just been an annoyance at this point. At least now that her natural strength and toughness had started to kick in a bit. The fact that they all knew she was young wasn't a great thing though. After all, the party had just been the other day. They'd heard it on the grapevine too, so it wasn't exactly a big secret anymore, was it. Keeley got all that and way more information about sex than she'd ever wanted, from the casual brushing of a finger over Valerie's palm as the cash was slid into place.

Still, for all she was kinky, and had a lot of sex, nothing was truly
that
bad inside of her. She was a good mother even, if a little too devoted to the ruling council. Those people had planned to kill Kaitlyn after all.

"There we go then. Sorry to just dash off like this, but the poinsettias won't get decorated properly without this." The white velvet was under a clear plastic wrapper that crinkled a bit when she took them back up. "We should all get together and have lunch, or something, soon. Have a girls' night out."

Keeley was willing to bet that they wouldn't be calling to confirm the idea, but she left them where they stood, with access to the weapons, if they wanted to try and kill her. They weren't going to get it done if they went for it of course. She was pretty well ready for them, after all.

The brunette in the middle made a face that seemed a bit disgusted. It was aimed at her, but didn't seem to be as personal as all that.

"Not during the Christmas season. Daily twelve hour shifts for the next week, except for the day itself. That's life in retail." For all the world it came out sounding conversational, rather than freaked. The others looked at the incredibly good looking woman, and seemed pretty scared for her though.

Keeley just nodded.

"Sounds pretty intense. Well... here." She dug out a card and handed it over. It said she worked for Coretechs, but had her public information on it, if they needed her for anything. "After that, give me a ring? It never hurts to have friends, and really, it's a lot safer than pulling guns on a Greater Demon. You do all realize that anyone else would have killed you for that, right? I probably should, but I won't this once, since you were confused, and just trying to help out a friend of mine." She meant Kaitlyn, but she really didn't know if they were thinking clearly enough to get it.

When she touched the center woman's hand, it was clear that they'd met before. She was the guy from the basket shop. It was a clever bit of moonlighting really. She could do her duties at the plus sized women's clothing store and also meet a greater cross section of people at the same time. The ten dollars an hour she was being paid wasn't enough to make it worthwhile that way, but the potential contacts were a real draw.

After a few more words, all fairly polite, considering everything, she just left, walking out the way she'd come. Her focus was behind her, since the guns were still there, loaded and ready to shoot at her retreating back. No one moved though. The very pretty Alede just seemed baffled that they were both free,
and
still alive. Once out into the mall proper, the brick tile under her feet decently clean for the kind of place it was, she looked to her right.

There were lights coming from a single shop at that end of things, which she knew to be the Vampires yogurt place. Normally she would have just kept walking, since someone had just tried to kill her after all. It even made sense to do that. On the other hand, letting people get away with things like that had to be handled carefully. If she went and spent a few minutes getting a treat, then no one would think she was running away from the Sucubi. If she just left it would be easier for people to think they might actually worry her. It was odd, but they really
didn't
.

Externally there was no hesitation, she just turned and moved, finding herself walking in to the little, very clean, and brightly colored space not two minutes later. No one was watching her openly, though the man from the knife and sword shop glanced out briefly. Touching his mind showed that he was totally alien, a Kobold, but that he was also just getting ready for his day at the forge, making blades that were far too good for people that weren't going to be using them in actual combat.

In front of her stood Lenore, who stopped working and let a seconds worth of fear leak out of her, even as her face went totally still, hiding her reaction. It was odd for the first impulse of a dead thing to be fright, but Keeley understood it. There wasn't a lot in the world that could really challenge a Vampire openly, one on one. That pure fact of the matter to the decently pretty undead woman in front of her was that the new boogey man had just walked into her shop. It wasn't what she expected on any given day.

"Hi Lenore. Could I get one of those caramel cookie things?" She had the cash for it, so she started to get it out, even though the Vampire didn't move. Or speak. It was a shop after all, but nothing happened for a long time. Finally Keeley shrugged. "I came to get some ribbon, from Valerie at Pretty Plus? She and her people tried to kill me, isn't that silly?"

The single bill, a five, got passed over the counter, leaving it sitting there as the woman schooled her face and nodded once, a very controlled movement that seemed more than a little fake, now that Keeley was concentrating on her.

"I see. How did that end? I didn't hear anything." That was saying something, since she had decent senses that way.

"Well, you know, I paid for the ribbon and made a lunch date. It isn't like they could be a real threat to me. I understand that people think of me as a potential threat, but making friends
is
another way to handle that kind of thing. This tradition where everyone tried to kill the baby Demon is getting a bit old. I'm pretty much going to have to kill the next being that tries, just so everyone knows not to bother. I've been being too nice so far, I think, since all the beings doing it have been a little... I know this will sound wrong, but they've almost been too
cute
to just slaughter." She grinned and looked at the bill, Abe Lincoln had been faced to seem like he was staring at the woman.

It was a bit of a trick, but people acted differently when they were being watched. They were more honest, and likely to do what was normally thought of as the right thing. That could still vary from person to person, sure, but in the main it worked pretty well, even if it was just a picture. In this case it got the woman to start making some food for her. She took her time, but did a very good job of it, creating a thing of art, with fluffy folds of white cream and hot caramel carefully layered as if by a master. Which Lenore was.

If you spent enough time trying to perfect something, you generally got pretty good at it. That fact was what made most of the really old Demons so dangerous really. They weren't more powerful than the new ones, they just knew what to do so well that it was hard to take them by surprise, or get the drop on them.

The treat got handed over without much pause, with a napkin and red plastic spoon that had a very long handle. It was a little cheap looking, but fit the theme of the place.

"There you go." She winced visibly as soon as the words came from her lips, after all, they could be taken as being at least a bit patronizing, if Keeley cared about such things. Instead she took a bite that was mostly caramel and whipped cream.

"Thanks. So, if you could get the word out to people that I'm going to kill the next one that tries to bother me? That would be good. I'd hate to kill any of your friends for instance, or Zack's. I
will
, but then I'll feel all bad about it." She paused and took another bite looking at Lenore the whole time. If it was a movie the audience would think she was coming on to the woman, but that wasn't the case. Not at all.

"Oh, no wait. I really
won't
feel bad about it. Anyway, I'd appreciate you doing that, if you care to." After all, she wasn't begging a favor here. It was a way for the woman to help her own people, if she
wanted
to.

That was all.

The Vampire girl went still again, but finally nodded.

"I'll see what can be done that way, Mistress of Souls."

Keeley didn't correct the usage of the title. After all, it was better to be feared than dead, and right now that was starting to look like the main choice she had in the situation.

Chapter eight

Lenore wasn't servile for the rest of the conversation, but she didn't go out of her way to add anything either. There was a strong undercurrent that said to Keeley that the Vampire was just trying to get through things, and survive the day. It was a bit unfortunate, since they might have been friends if the woman could see her as an actual person, instead of just a threat. It was pretty clear that wouldn't be happening that day though.