Keeley Thomson (Book 4): Demon Trap (19 page)

Her blade work wasn't exactly elegant, but she was moving fast enough that she scored some hits, even as she knew that it was nearly impossible to catch someone in an off space like they were in. At least if they could think, or had free will. Resetting, she tried to grab them again, ready to fight if they had another buddy, or if Malphius came back. That didn't happen, but they weren't exactly as helpless as all that, tossing something at her as they fled away from her, stepping off the line suddenly.

At first she didn't get what it was, until it exploded, right there on the inroads. The force pushed her back, but Greater Demons were a bit sticky on the roads, meaning they tended to stay in place when pushed on. She wasn't any different from the others that way, so the fragments from the small round sphere stuck in her skin, driving inside her flesh. It would have hurt, except for the fact that she was already killing all the pain anyway. Her left eye was gone though, or at least she was blind on that side. It was
annoying
, but a clever enough trick.

Not magical either. It had been a fragmentation grenade.

"I need to get some of those for my new stash." The words weren't as clear as all that, because of her half destroyed mouth. That was going to make eating fun, while she healed, wasn't it?

She didn't go back in the house, limping to her other place instead. True, Darla might be able to help her more, but it was pretty clear that her sister actually had plans at work, and might not even be home at the moment. Rebekah, Balthias and the others would be. They could get her something to eat while she looked into healing.

It was harder to get all the way there than it should have been, meaning she was pretty injured. It was bad enough that she put the blades back in their places, just so she wouldn't have to try and move the extra weight with her. It was a little easier then, but when she tried to get off the road, the silver shimmer around her felt harder to move than normal.
That
was because she was passing out. It was a bit of a shock, but she didn't let it happen, wondering why it even was. She didn't seem to be bleeding overly or anything, and while her energy reserves were being stressed, they weren't gone or...

"Duh, Keels, think.
Poison
."

She started working on that too, which was hard, since, after a while she realized that it wasn't that at all, it was radiation. The grenade hadn't been anything normal then. It had something strange in it, like uranium. Whoever that had been had actually thrown a
nuke
at her?

That got a smile. It was the wrong kind of nuclear weapon for her to be proud of surviving, but the idea was a good one. It would keep weakening her, until she got the pieces out of her body. Even a little sliver of it would wear at her, until she finally couldn't fight enough anymore and died.

Stumbling into her other living room, she nearly fell. There were beings there, sitting on the sofa. Oddly enough Fram got to her first, and assessed the whole situation.

"Get food. All of it. We'll need more. Some kind of bomb went off."

Looking at him she didn't bother trying to smile. Half her skin was off and dangling around her chin anyway. Speaking wouldn't work either, so she nodded once and moved to the couch, and closed her eyes, so she could focus. It took a splitting of her attention, half of it given over to healing, so she wouldn't die instantly and the other part going into using magic to push out the radioactive components. It was harder than it sounded like, but she was able to pick up on people talking around her. Finally Clara came over and poured something down her throat. There was a sweet taste to it, but other than that she couldn't tell overly what it was. Her nose wasn't up to smelling anything at the moment really and she didn't have enough attention left to try and guess by the texture.

After a while she did nothing but that, swallowing when something was placed in her mouth, healing and then trying to drive every last particle from her body. After a long time, hours at least, Darla and Finias both showed up, Fram looking... A bit frantic, to tell the truth.

"Techie... She's expelling radioactive bits. Someone really did a number on her. We need to contain those. I don't have anything for it here. I've been moving them away from the others, but that's all I can do without instructions."

"Really? I wonder what happened? Keeley, can you keep going?"

That was a stupid question. She either could, or she
died
. Right now she was on the downward road too. Dying. It wasn't a fun thought, but the honest answer was that she doubted she could keep going long enough to get everything. The only way involved more food than they were giving her. A lot more, and her figuring out some way to increase the rate of healing.

"Hand." It probably sounded strange, but what the hell? If she lived she could use the hand to find her new little playmate, and if not, then the sliced off thing could be buried with her. "Other door."

Looking at Bal got him to leave and come back with it, along with the semi-automatic pistol that was still in the grip.

"Good." It sounded strange and mushy, still lacking lips. "More food." She was going to try for please, but decided on muttering the word faster, instead. It worked at least. They were pushing things into her mouth nearly constantly after that.

The day faded into Christmas Eve, though just the early hours. She kept working. One little bit at a time, wondering why Darla hadn't gotten her some kind of helpful machine or device there already. After all that was her thing, right?

No joy there though, so she just worked and didn't let up, even as she weakened, the radiation poisoning making her just as sick and uncomfortable as anyone else would have been, before they died. Darla did one thing though, leaving and coming back with a pair of very heavy looking gloves and a lead box. It gave them somewhere to put the things that she was getting out of her body at least.

Keeley didn't want to seem whiny, but it was too close really. Even as she got the last of the several hundred slivers of material out of her body, she nearly folded, her system just giving out under the stress of it all. It was better after that though, since, by continuing to eat and heal, she was able to really start getting better then.

More food came, and fast enough her stomach actually got over full, since she wasn't able to digest things for energy fast enough. She started to pull from the world around her, like she'd been practicing, but still had to have food. There were pounds of flesh to replace, after all. Once that was finally done and she had lips again, if a bit pink and raw feeling, she took a deep breath and tried to find the information she needed. Some was in her internal library. For instance, the Lesser Demon Malphius. The Greed Demon. He was easy to bribe into almost any kind of work, but not a huge threat to her. Not alone.

The Greater Demon though, that wasn't anyone that she recognized at all.

Describing the whole thing out loud, she looked at first Darla, then Fram.

"Sound like anyone you know? Military style gear, using a handgun, old enough to fake being Zack, but not careful enough to get all the energy signatures exactly right. Like the initial observation had happened at a distance. Or something. From the Inroads, probably. It's what I would do, if I were watching the human line walker." Except of course, that she wouldn't do it that way at all, since just shaking his hand would tell her almost everything she'd need to know. Not that he was a baby Demon too, but the rest of it was all right there. Either they hadn't thought they'd need that much attention to detail, or they thought she wasn't going to be able to tell.

There were more possibilities though, which meant that the situation was too complicated yet, to actually know what was most likely. They could have been forbidden to do that, or the whole thing might have been nothing more than a distraction at all. Why that would be, Keeley couldn't tell yet.

Her sister brushed an errant blonde lock from her eyes, the gentle curl making it spring back almost instantly.

"No one that sounds familiar in particular. Meaning that it could be any of two dozen of the younger Demons. None of the old ones would have tried it that way. If they were working for themselves, or for someone else, is a cipher for the moment as well. They'll be missing a hand for a bit yet, but I know that I'd seek food and shelter, if I were injured like that. That explosive was excellent though. Only a few would think of something like that and actually try to carry it out. In most situations it would backfire and hit the user too. I don't know, but I can put a word in with some people and check to see who's most likely. I don't think we can count on any real help here from higher up. Whoever it was, they're clearly a Greater Demon and one that has you in their sights. I'd guess a friend of Xenses, but being a trainee, you and I will have to handle this ourselves." She grinned and looked at the Barb seeming on her old boyfriend. "Well, you too Fram, since Keels has you by the short and curlies. I've never heard of that being done before, but I'm almost certain that if you're her slave, that would just be considered part of her powers." She didn't pat her little sister on the shoulder, but she did wink.

It was friendly, but meant to be playful. She really didn't seem all that worried though, for some reason.

After a few seconds, Keeley took a breath and asked why that was.

"Are you
joking
? A Greater Demon and a Lesser Demon ambushed you with no warning, and you handed them their asses. Yes, you nearly died, but
close
doesn't count. In a similar attack a good half of the full grown Demons would have died in the first seconds, but you took their element of surprise and gave it back to them with interest. Between this and Fram, I think that you can pretty much rest assured that no one sane will be coming for you again."

"Which just leaves the insane ones?" Keeley smiled, already knowing the answer.

Fram crossed his thin cheerleader arms and shook his head.

"Or those that have no choice. Just because you've passed the tests so far, that doesn't mean the event is over. Get lazy and die."

The funny thing there was that Fram didn't seem to be requesting she
do
that, even if it had to seem fair from his perspective, but was instead suggesting she actively resist that state. Since her dying would leave him free again, she had to wonder at it, didn't she?

Chapter ten

There was something in the words that Fram had used that worked into her brain on a level that almost never happened anymore. It was a thing from the deepest part of herself, a niggling sense that she was missing something. That was, of course, possible. Only a fool, or insane Greater Demon, would think they were infallible. In fact that was one of the major kinds of crazy that her kind could have. They either didn't see reality for what it was, totally, or they thought that they
couldn't
be wrong, if they had all the information.

Except that never happened. No one had all the data. Not ever.

Keeley couldn't place her finger on what was bothering her though, which started to drive her to distraction, which would be a very bad plan. Instead she set the whole thing aside, and kept healing. Passed test or not, she needed to be at a hundred percent.

It was also true that she needed to live her life at the same time. So far, all of her attackers had been remarkably kind, in that they weren't lashing out at anyone else in her life. That was remarkably focused too. Yes, it could have been that she was just that good and they didn't ever have a chance, or, and this was far more likely, someone had told them to expect a standard baby Demon and they hadn't all been concerned about using tricks or distractions against her.

That was something though, wasn't it?

Even Xenses had tried to do that, when they'd fought the one time. He'd killed her human father, and tossed the head to her, right before attacking. This time no one had done anything even remotely like that. Instead it was like they were just pushing her, using head on attacks, each one getting more dangerous and powerful than the last. If so, it was kind of a stupid way to do things.

Just overwhelming her once would do it after all.

It was like they really
were
testing her. Seeing what she could take, maybe?

The idea still wasn't coming to her cleanly, so she healed and ate more, drew power from the world around her and stored that, just so that if another attack came she'd have a small shot. It was getting to be clear that she needed a lot more than she had on her. The sword was good, but if her enemies were bringing in nuclear dirty bombs and Lesser Demons, she was going to have to take steps.

The problem there, was that she didn't have anything ready at all.

As soon as Clara brought her what had to be the last bit of food in the old, but much improved and very nicely decorated house, she made up her mind. She was going to have to make some calls. After all, who did she know that had guns, or might know where to get them?

Only one name came to mind. Well, two, but Darla would have to be dealt with for more expensive weapons. What Keeley needed to do was diversify and that had to include some good old regular firearms. Even the last attacker had brought them to the game. It would have worked better if the attack had come from further off, but she'd caught on early enough that the fake Zack didn't have a chance to set anything up. Malphius had hit her with a mailbox, which came from a neighbor's house. That meant something, didn't it?

That the Lesser Demon hadn't come in armed himself, but had just grabbed something on the fly?

She called Roy first, at home. The call didn't take long, since he wasn't there, but she left a message with his wife. They were decently close now, after all.

That done, she looked around her second living space, which seemed very festive, and realized something. She was short a slave. Fram was there, sitting right by her in fact, looking like Barb would have, if she were getting ready for a casual party. There was a cute fuzzy sweater and a black skirt with pale white hose on underneath. They ended just at the edge of the skirt though, which was being slightly more slutty seeming than the girl had really been, when she was Xenses.