Evil is... (Once a Demon Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  Taking her hand, picking up what the kid wanted, Keeley shrugged. It was different, though not something that wasn’t possible at all. Just not really inside the rules that had been set.

  There was a listing of powers in the flow of things, instead of just cosmetic changes.

  Snorting, Keeley rolled her eyes.

  “I can’t make it so you can fly or have super strength. If you want to do those things, you’ll have to figure out how on your own. Here’s a hint; you can actually do it. On the… We can do some of the other things?” She tried to seem supportive about that part. After all, no one else would bother to give her super human abilities either. Not without great cost for the gifts.

  Which made sense to her, now that she’d worked out how easy it was to do. If she even hinted at starting that kind of thing, a load of Greater Demons would come down on her instantly, she didn’t doubt. Not just for making a new threat, but due to her ability to take them all as slaves, if she produced an army that was unstoppably powerful.

  Even if the old rules were changing, she didn't think for a moment that it wouldn’t be happening if she stepped too far out of line. It had nearly taken place once already with her, simply for being too good at enslaving the minds of other demons. A group that wasn’t large at all. She could take thousands or more regular people and change them all in days or weeks now. If she just did it with the people in the room, no one would be able to stop her, she didn't doubt.

  Thankfully she wasn’t that evil. She never had been. After all, it would lead to the destruction of the world, as often as not, if she tried it.

  The girl smiled a bit and nodded at her. Fifteen glowing seconds later, this time with a more girly pink and white light, she stood back. The work done was actually decent.

  The kid hadn’t asked to be made a ten or anything, just pretty enough that she wouldn’t be a pariah at school. Being cool that way, Keeley had made her a rather cute seven, with a lean face, lavender eyes and long honey blonde hair. The coloration was different, though the face was the same, simply without the roundness from her treatments. The cancer was gone as well.

  Inside, a few other fixes had taken place, which would help her out a bit. She wouldn’t get cancer again, for instance. Ever. Really, it would be hard for her to be poisoned and being made ill would be out of the question for any known virus or bacteria. The big thing was that Sandra Nevins wasn’t getting sick again.

  The long hair and slightly more symmetrical features had her father holding the kid, which meant the rest of them backed away. The man seemed pleased, if not amazed. Given that he was hoping for a miracle, that probably seemed off, to the others. She got it. After all, if he acted like everything was fixed and it wasn’t, then his daughter’s hopes might be raised too high.

  Still, he wasn’t an idiot, and after a moment moved forward, his own hand out to shake.

  “Thank you! This is nothing short of amazing. We should… The other kids here.”

  Living Proof looked away then, as if that couldn’t happen at all. They had Keeley there for a single day, and even if they’d really been paying her that million dollar each for the work, it wasn’t enough to get her back in the future. Not even if she wasn’t a demon any longer.

  Rather than tell him no, she smiled and pumped his hand a few times, then held it, not taking in his life story. Enough crept in for her to know that he wasn’t particularly special in any way. Not good enough to copy his ways, or skilled in any field more than other memories she had in the library. He also wasn’t evil enough to be interesting. His big crimes had been fairly small things, mainly done decades before. Oh, he cheated on his taxes and jaywalked with the best of them. Things that were probably healthy for a person to do, since it allowed them the illusion of being free at times. Even if they truly weren’t.

  She simply nodded.

  “We’re out of time for today. After these two get checked out and released, I can come back and do some of the others? Tyler, Rebekah and Scotty are paying for it all, so that isn’t a problem. Well, until they run out of funds. Really, you all need to get a new album ready, given that.”

  She managed to sound playful, which most of the room seemed to get. Nathaniel, kind of hesitantly, moved in again, angling for a hug. He still looked ridiculous in the outfit he had on, though it had been tied in the front. Mainly due to the fact that he was bulging there enough to show, even with the loose hospital gown. Not that he was turned on at the moment. He also wasn’t going to be porn worthy in particular, later on in life.

  Going around making all the guys like that seemed like a poor plan to her. It was enough of a difference though and his body had a different, firmer and more robust, shape to it. She knew that, since the boy moved in to hold her, pressing himself against her well enough that even Sandra got what he was going for.

  On the promising side, he didn't linger too long in the move. She moved back and he let go of her to do that, easily enough. Keeley nodded at him.

  “You two need blood tests, I bet. X-rays and all that. Give me a call if I missed anything? Or, well, Call Ty here.” That way she wouldn’t be giving her number to the boy. Not that he’d actually call her for a date.

  His mind was just high enough functioning to work out that if she could do what she had, a lot more would be possible. Sandra was a bit slower than that, while still being in the normal mental range for a Human being.

  Living Proof collectively got to have a go at being hugged and fondled, though Nathaniel did come around for a second session with her. He also did the same thing with Rebekah, which made sense, given the Vampire was better looking than she was, at the moment. The parents did the same thing, if more politely, as did the two nurses that had come in to watch the whole thing. One of them was nearly panicked, realizing that they had seven more kids there that could have been helped. Other patients as well.

  It didn’t take clever mind reading for Keeley to work that out, since the lady simply said the words out loud. A thing that had Scotty lying for her.

  “There are limits to what she can do. It’s a lot, true but her personal energy isn’t infinite. Doing this will have to be paid for, in more than cash. There’s a reason we had to select only the children here today…” He sounded sad about the whole thing and stilled his body motions enough that it didn’t seem like he was going to be flying away or anything.

  The plump, brownish red-haired nurse, who was in pink scrubs, sighed. Then nodded, instead of insisting they stand and deliver, because the ill people of the world needed it.

  “You can come again? Even if you can only do one or two each time, if this works out…” The kids were being taken from the room, back to their own spaces, for blood draws and other testing. They moved easily now, instead of like they were dragging themselves around by force of will.

  She nodded.

  “Get with Tyler on it? I work at the CoN, at the Sparks Embassy. At least for the time being. He can work out things like that for us. Schedules and all that.” In short, she didn't really want to be bothered with ten thousand healing sessions a year. It wasn’t that interesting. Great practice and really, she wasn’t using so much energy that she had to stop just then. A nice meal or two would be good, since it had taken power from her. A thing that she was managing with a good eye toward efficiency, if only in a few skill sets.

  Dead or not, Tyler was animated, funny and good looking, so managed to distract the plump, decently busty, nurse. She was a bit older than he was, lacking a ring on her finger or an indentation that showed where one should be. In short, she was single and if she played her cards right could probably get Tyler to take her out. He looked too young for her, while actually not being too far off at all, in real years.

  The dead could rot, but they didn’t age.

  Ten minutes later they were in the car, a nice enough limo, heading back toward the Sparks Embassy. It wasn’t that far away, only being about ten miles or so from the hospital. At first no one spoke, until Rebeka
h did it. Then her words were rather playful.

  “So… Nathaniel seems like a likely one, doesn’t he? I don’t read minds, but I’m pretty certain I know what was on his. At least after he was changed. That was… Different. Less, um…” She waved her hands a bit, trying to find a way to express what she wanted. “I mean, Sam and Mara were left looking really nice. Like they could be in movies. All of the people today were mainly left okay, pretty much just looking like themselves…”

  Keeley got the general idea.

  “Really, it isn’t always a great thing to be too good looking. I mean, it’s helpful in certain ways, sure. It can also make you a target. Looking nice, without taking it too far is better in most cases. With Mara and Sam it was a bit different. I was being paid for the work. To leave them high end that way.” She hadn’t really spoken about that a lot the night before. “Darla paid for it. A million each, for real.”

  She was willing to explain, but everyone there had actually met Darla before. Some of them many times. Scotty looked a bit troubled by the news, even if no one else did.

  “She did? Why? Is her plan to use them or… I don’t know, enslave them?”

  Keeley shrugged.

  “I don’t know. Truthfully, I think this is just her way of making amends for not helping them earlier. Not that she really could have. The old rules were hard that way. We’re making the new ones up, so it isn’t risk free for the kids. Still, my guess is that anyone messing with them will probably be regular human beings, since the rest would know that taking on Darla is a poor plan. Especially since it would also mean facing the rest of us if anyone hurt them. I mean, clearly, they’re our people now, too.” It would happen eventually.

  Standing out too much got attention in life. Mara and Sam were going to both look rather young for a very long time as well, unless she retouched up the work, later.

  The hospital kids and the others she’d changed as well. Eventually they’d start to age again, but in looks it was going to take some time. Meaning she needed to make a note of who she’d worked on, so she could get to them in a few years for a touch up. It was annoying, but work, even when well done, often made more to do.

  Then, instead of going on about healing work, or even making cosmetic changes for other people they knew, Tyler changed the topic.

  “We have a new album to put up soon. It’s a bit edgier than the other stuff. Not so much that we don’t sound like ourselves singing it. Steve and I did most of the writing. His work is a bit harder now, since his change. Good though, I think. You should come and listen to it, before we hit the studio.”

  Nodding, she simply agreed. After all, she was their manager. Also their record label and the person that got most of the money from their work. They were well paid for it. She didn’t stint them so much it wasn’t worth doing or anything along those lines. She still got more than any one of them did for their singing and touring efforts.

  Which was important as well.

  “You need to go on tour. A limited one, since you can’t be away from the Coalition for that much time, I don’t think.” The truth was, while she could put the whole thing together, she really didn’t know off the top of her head if Tyler could be spared yet.

  There was a simple head shake in response.

  “Gregory and Fram can handle things now. At least as long as I show up occasionally as a figure head. The rest of the staff does most of the day to day work now. Half our emergencies are farmed out to Kait Swanson, in Vancouver. Acting as go-between between the Humans and other groups isn’t really that hard. We get maybe two calls a week, which are mainly handled by explaining things over the phone. People know what to do, so it isn’t that much work for me personally, any more. I was thinking that I might… You know, move on, soon.”

  She nodded, since the man had been doing the job for about six years, so far. It wasn’t a horribly long time or anything, but the whole project had been put into place as a way to placate his mother. Ann. An insane Greater Demon that was old enough she wasn’t really pushed around by anyone. She also wasn’t really insane. Not now that the rules had changed.

  Keeley had actually chatted with her a few times in the last months. The woman had become very nearly reasonable and friendly. Not just with her, either. With pretty close to everyone.

  So her baby boy having an important job wasn’t going to mean that much to her. No, the real trick for the time being was that the Coalition of Nations was the heart of the Sparks Embassy. A project that she’d put together, herself. Even if only a handful of people realized how much of the work on it had been her doing.

  Tyler leaving too soon could, potentially, ruin what she’d done. Then, so could his staying in place too long. It was a balancing act of political and personal forces.

  Still, she didn't have a right to tell him what to do. She wasn’t paying him after all. He wasn’t her slave, either. Just a being that she’d worked with on some projects. Keeping all that in mind, trying not to feel annoyed by the whole thing, she nodded.

  “You should hold out for four more years or so. By then the whole embassy system can be made stable enough to last without you. Who are you grooming to be your replacement? Greg Samson? Or Kait? Both are solid choices.”

  There was a pause then and a tiny head shake.

  “Um… No, really, I was thinking we’d put Fram in. He does good work and knows the ropes there as well as I do.”

  What went unsaid would be the important part of things. Fram was, or had been, a Greater Demon. One considered insane the whole time that she’d known him. Affably so, but incapable of holding himself in when it came to raising his social position. A weakness that had gotten him beaten by at least one or two others of their kind per year.

  Except that the whole thing had been an incredible act, the whole time. Not just in her lifetime, either. For over a hundred and twenty years the man had been pretending to be a half bumbling fool, using that as a cover for a long and incredibly complicated plan that no one had ever bothered to explain to her. He wasn’t Fram, The Bold, at all.

  No, he was actually Lanchias The Clever. The third member of the Greater Demon ruling council. At least as much of one that they’d had.

  Keeley wasn’t certain, but she kind of thought that his clever plan had been to make it so Greater Demons weren’t that any longer. A thing that had, recently, started to come into being. If that was the case, then she wasn’t going to get in his way if he wanted to be head of the CoN for a while. It might be a trick, of course.

  Fram was an idiot, except for the fact that he never truly had been. Tricking Greater Demons for decades at a time wasn’t an easy or simple thing to do. Neither was manipulating them for one’s own ends. There was a reason why they’d bargained for everything, instead of trying to trick one another. It was just far too hard to make happen most of the time.

  Grinning, suddenly, Keeley shook her head a bit.

  “Okay. That’s up to you, of course. There are problems there. Still you have four years to fix them. Just make everyone okay on the idea of working with an ex-Greater Demon. Easy as pie.”

  Scotty covered his fangs with an open palm, hiding his laughter at the idea. Rebekah smiled, her Human looking face seeming sweet at the moment. It was heart shaped and her dark hair had natural curl to it. She barely looked like anything other than that at all.

  Her energy was still the pink of a Vampire, if you could see it, rather than Human red or Mage silver. Thinking about it for a moment, Keeley realized that it wouldn’t be impossible at all to make her into a full Human being again. Not that she was planning to do that with anyone. It would be too frightening to that sort of being to find out suddenly that others could take their entire identity away in a few moments of fairly simple effort.

  Worse, it could be done to anyone. Even other Greater Demons. That one probably wouldn’t hold long term, unless their minds were crippled so much that recovery wasn’t possible. After all, if she’d been changed into a Human be
ing, even one with an average intelligence level, inside a few years she’d be back to her old self. The rest of her people could manage that as well, if not better. They all knew too much to be held in a form that didn't work for them.

  For someone like a Vampire, even an old and powerful one, it would be harder. Someone like Bey, who was one of the greatest of his kind, might be able to work out how to regain what he had. Probably by being turned again, from the same line that he was in. Then his well-aged mentality and toughness would be turned into a formidable force, since he knew how to do that kind of thing.

  Many of the others would be left in dire straits, if they were altered too much, against their will. It was another reason for her to hold to her current lie. That she could only change cosmetic things in people. A clear falsehood, though one that most Humans and other groups would buy, easily enough. Her own people… Well, the clues she’d gotten there indicated that all of them had similar powers that way, or could, as long as they worked out how to do the work.

  That meant, over the last several thousand years, that they either hadn’t done that kind of thing by choice, or someone had stopped those that tried. Given everything that would probably have been Tarsus, the Librarian. He’d been their leader, more or less. Even for the insane ones that liked to claim no one was their master.

  She smiled then, since none of what she was working out was, in any way, important to her life at the moment. As long as the others knew that she wasn’t going to be changing the power balance of the world too much, they probably wouldn’t bother caring. Even healing the sick, mainly for free, was fine. As long as she had some kind of plan in place to limit things.

  Not that getting with a few of the others and running her plans past them wasn’t a good idea. A thing that, until recently, would have been a sign of weakness. At least for someone as young as she was. Even now, she was planning to do that kind of thing carefully, starting with people she knew weren’t complete tools all the time.