by Sara DeHaven
Fortunately, Kevin saved her from having to make up some sort of response by bringing up an excellent point. “So is there any kind of spell you know that could help in the event that Bree or I do get called in to the Ecclesias to testify? Anything that could fool a high power Reader?”
Bree felt the change in Daniel’s body as he considered. He’d gone rigid a moment ago, but she felt the tension gradually leave his muscles as his mind focused on the dilemma. He was silent a long time, and even began to absentmindedly rub her shoulder again. Bree closed her eyes and let herself relax into him.
“Maybe,” Daniel finally said aloud. “I may have something that could work. I've done some experiments related to adapting my hiding spell for that purpose. But I've never had a chance to test them out in any serious way.”
“Well, you better work on it fast. Who knows how quickly Javier will move on this. Of course, if we’re lucky, he’ll have too much fallout from the riot and whatever else comes next to worry about it.”
“You don’t know Javier if you think that,” Bree said reluctantly. She hated to say anything that would worry all of them more than they already were, but she had to be realistic. “He’s very serious about the law and order thing, and he’s the kind of guy who’s a bulldog about it. He won’t let it go until he’s satisfied one way or the other.”
“But Kevin may be right that we have a little time to work with. If all that’s been happening is the start of a war, everyone in the powered community will be preoccupied for some time to come.”
“What pisses me off is that investigating you again would be a distraction from the larger problem,” Kevin said. “Surely they have better things to do than to go after a guy who’s done nothing but good with his power.”
Daniel was silent in response, and Bree thought he was caught up in mentally reviewing the ways he had not always used his power for the best. Bree had seen a few occasions of that herself. Under the right kind of stress, he could crack, had cracked. He’d even used his Binder power on her. Though it did seem important that he hadn't cracked tonight. So many demons, so much stress, and he hadn't cracked. Maybe something about being in his old Keeper role steadied him.
There was silence in the car for the rest of the drive to Bree’s as each of them was tired and lost in their own thoughts. Kevin pulled up to her house, and Bree reluctantly untangled herself from Daniel and sat up. Daniel went to get her wet things from the trunk, then walked her to her door. She unwarded it, and he insisted on going in before her to make sure everything was safe. She appreciated it even though she had no rational reason to expect trouble. If she was honest with herself, she knew she was still shaken up from the events of the night and a part of her was wishing Daniel would stay with her, preferably in her bed, in spite of all that was raw and unresolved between them. But he didn’t offer, and she didn’t ask. To her surprise, he turned toward her at the door as he was leaving and gave her a long, gentle hug goodbye, kissed her on the forehead, then left without speaking.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bree slept in the next morning and was still feeling a little hazy when Kevin called to ask if she still wanted to get together at Daniel’s for the trial possession.
She was achy all over, and her throat in particular hurt, but on consideration, her energy levels weren’t bad. And truth to tell, after Gelsenim had been so helpful and cooperative last night, she was dreading the idea less than she had been. Not to mention that Daniel hadn't seemed negatively affected by all the demon contact during the riot. She still felt some caution about him, but she was starting to think the incident at the exorcism had been some kind of fluke. Putting all that together, she decided it still seemed worth the risk. “Let’s go ahead, if everyone else is willing,” she told him.
“Well, I ate like a horse last night and again this morning, and I’m actually feeling pretty good,” Kevin told her. “I’ll call the others to be sure, and let you know.”
He let her go, and she got carefully to her feet from where she’d been sitting at her dining room table. She’d just finished a rather substantial breakfast herself of eggs scrambled up with some red pepper and garlic, some soy sausage, and two pieces of toast. As she was carrying her plate back to the kitchen, Hanroi leapt out at her and attacked her calves with his paws. It startled her, causing her to tip her plate and drop fork, knife and the crumbs onto the floor. “Hanroi, damn it!” Bree exclaimed.
The kitten danced around batting at the silverware and her hands as she cleaned up. For the hundredth time, Bree thought about finding another Cat Master in the city to teach her how to use her supposed Cat Master abilities. She was getting nowhere on her own with training Hanroi to stop these cat commando raids on her. Not that it wasn’t a little bit cute, she admitted as he rolled onto his back and squirmed, pawing for the hand that was picking at the larger crumbs on the floor. She gave his head a rub, then forged on with her day.
After she’d showered and was facing her closet, she realized she felt drawn to clothes that felt bright and spring-like, the antithesis of demon kind. After dressing in a pair of light green cords and a coral shirt and sweater, she regarded herself in the full length mirror on the inside of her closet door. She looked fine except for the angry bruises on her throat, so she went back to her dresser and came up with a fringed cotton scarf to wrap around her neck. She fussed with it a bit until the bruises were covered, then glanced at the clock on her bedside table and saw that she was running late. She grabbed up her daypack from last night, which she’d never unpacked, and headed out the door, which involved some fancy footwork to keep the cat inside.
The others were sitting in Daniel’s living room with cups of tea in their hands when she arrived. Daniel offered her some, but she declined, wanting to get down to work as soon as possible. Sophie moved towards Bruce on the couch to make room for her, and she sat down. Kevin was in the only other chair, so Daniel stood, arms crossed in front of him as he opened the discussion of what they had planned.
“So, we’re planning a trial possession today. I think we all know our roles from when we worked together before on helping Bree learn to call smaller demons. In some ways, today will be less dangerous than that because Gelsenim will likely be very cooperative at first. Where we’ve sometimes run into trouble is getting him to leave. Bruce, Sophie, I’m not sure if you’ve heard what happened the last time Bree and I encountered him here. He tried to possess her by force, and somehow, came up with enough power that I had a hard time controlling him, a far harder time than I’ve had before.”
Bruce nodded his head, and Sophie said, “We’d heard.”
“On the other hand, when he possessed me last night, he left fairly readily,” Bree offered.
“Yes, but he extracted a promise from you to call him again, which isn’t exactly being fully cooperative,” Daniel countered seriously.
Bree shrugged. “Let’s face it, he’s basically unpredictable. He’s been cooperative and relatively meek and mild before, and he’s been very threatening and confrontational and outright scary before. Right now, he seems to be trying to please me in an effort to convince me to allow him to possess me more. But I don’t trust it. For one thing, what happens if I decide after a couple of trials that we’ve learned all we can from him and I don’t want him to possess me again?”
“Scary thought,” Kevin said, leaning back and lacing his hands over his belly.
“Frankly, I’d been hoping we could get you to the point where you could dismiss demons on your own before we allowed a trial possession,” Daniel said, looking directly at Bree for the first time.
“We don’t know if that’s ever going to happen,” she answered. “It may be that what I have isn’t exactly Demon Master talent. Maybe it’s more like what you thought before, a variation on Exorcist talent.”
“I wasn’t able to dismiss demons at first either,” Daniel replied. “There’s still hope you can learn to do it.”
“We all take awhile to come into o
ur talents, Cat Master,” Bruce teased, leaning over to look at Bree.
“What I want to be clear on is what the main focus is for today,” Sophie interjected. “What are we trying to learn?”
“Among other things, why Gelsenim isn’t feeling hunger when he possesses Bree. If there were some way for the demons to be satisfied without inciting violence, maybe we could co-exist with them. And, as always, we’re looking for some clue to how we can close the doorway between our worlds. If we knew more about where they come from, how they’re getting through, maybe we’d discover a way to be quit of them once and for all.”
“Amen,” said Kevin with feeling.
“And there’s, um, maybe one other thing,” Bree said, looking at Daniel, eyebrows raised in question. They hadn’t actually discussed how much to tell the others about his energy problem. She’d kept it to herself all these months, and didn’t want to reveal it if he wasn’t ready. She gave him a look, and said, "You know, that read thing."
Somewhat to her surprise, Daniel nodded at her to continue.
“When I do a deep read of Daniel, I keep coming up with this strange energy signature. It seems a lot like taint, in the sense that there’s some echo of demonic energy to it, but my Demonsense says it’s not taint. It’s kind of like the energy reading you get with people using dark magic, but it’s not quite like that. It doesn't quite feel like true demon burn either. And it seems to have something like a life of it’s own. When we did the exorcism for Father Steuban, we’re pretty sure this part triggered Daniel to drop his wards and allow a possession.”
“So why are we not calling that taint?” Kevin asked. His demeanor told Bree Daniel had already told Kevin about the brief possession incident.
“It’s really hard to put into words,” Bree reflected. “But the idea Daniel and I had was for me to read Daniel during the possession and see what Gelsenim makes of it. We figure he’s been around for millennia, maybe he’s seen something like it before.”
“I hate to be the naysayer here, but I didn’t think demons were that smart. I mean, I know Gelsenim will talk and actually make a certain amount of sense, but I never got the impression that demons were some font of knowledge and wisdom,” Bruce said, leaning back and crossing his ankle over his knee. He sounded calm, but Bree knew him well enough to know how uneasy he was.
“Gelsenim is somewhat unique in my experience,” Daniel admitted. “He’s the highest level of demon, and by his own report, he was once joined in some kind of symbiotic relationship with a species he refers to as the Seldenai. Supposedly, he and the other demons that old didn’t require intense, negative emotional energy to live when that was the case. He’s said that demons born out of taint in our world are lesser beings in some way. They don’t seem to have the same level of intelligence and communication ability as the older demons, and they’re generally not as powerful.”
“I’ve never really been clear on the whole taint thing and how demons come from it. Isn’t taint just the energy residue of a demon after a person has contact with one?” Sophie asked.
It was Kevin who answered that one. “Apparently, taint is essentially a part of a demon that can grow by feeding on human energy until it becomes sentient. That’s how we think new demons are made. And once they’re made, they seem to be basically immortal.”
Daniel uncrossed his arms and moved to perch on the arm of Kevin’s chair. “I’m guessing that new demons were made much the same way when the demons were joined with the Seldenai. But I suspect that on some basic energy level, we’re not truly compatible with demons. That’s why they’re always hungry. Somehow our energy, even the intense emotional energy produced by fear and violence, is never quite enough.”
“Except for me,” Bree said in a small voice. “My energy is compatible with demons.” Sophie gave her a compassionate look and reached over to take her hand. “Honey, there’s nothing wrong with you, you’re not secretly some kind of evil person. You don’t have a mean bone in your body.” Bruce snorted, and Sophie shot him a glare and amended, “Well, everybody loses their temper sometimes, but you're never cruel.”
“I honestly don’t think that Bree is compatible with Gelsenim because there’s something wrong with her,” Daniel said, although to Bree’s ears, he might have sounded more certain than he did. “I think it’s something of a fluke, but it may be the key to something important. Anyway, are we all on the same page here? Are we ready to go?”
They all agreed and moved upstairs to Daniel’s workroom. Sophie was in charge of creating a ritual sacred space. She and Bruce were Wiccans, and Sophie primarily invoked the Goddess as she moved around in a circle with fire, water, and an athame, a ritual knife. There was something about sacred space that helped to contain demons. The absolute ideal was to make a sacred space outdoors, but in the rainy Pacific Northwest, that was not always practical. Kevin raised a ward outside the sacred circle. His job was to be the safety net, keeping the demon from leaving the room. Bruce was there primarily to help read Bree at the end of the experiment. He wasn’t as strong a Reader as Daniel, but he’d known Bree longer and was more familiar with her energy. And besides, he had a steadiness, an unflappability that was essential for grounding the rest of them. Sophie had some modest Healer talent to add to Daniel's if anyone got hurt.
Once the circle and wards were ready, Kevin raised a second ward between the rest of them and Bree. This allowed Daniel to focus on questioning Gelsenim and forcing him to leave if that became necessary.
Bree stood alone in the center, feeling decidedly vulnerable. The others were patient as she took some time to center herself. She kept to a regular meditation practice, as did most powered. It took a great deal of mental focus to pull off magic of any kind, and meditation had the dual purposes of developing that focus and making the practitioner better able to enter a state of mental and emotional calm. Bree was not able to entirely still the nervous unease at the pit of her stomach, but she felt focused enough to begin fairly quickly. Resolutely, she focused her will energy on that wavelength that was possibly Demon Master talent, possibly something else, and intoned, “Gelsenim, I call you! Gelsenim, I command you!”
Bree felt a folding of the energy in the room to one side of her. She was starting to get familiar with the sensation of the doorway between the worlds opening, something she’d never really been able to sense, never tried to sense before. Gelsenim formed quickly before her, coalescing from an orange-red cloud of damp air into his human form. He was taller than she remembered him being before, though she supposed there was no reason for him to be consistent on that score. He had chosen to present himself in what her mind insisted on calling a tweed hunting outfit, though she had certainly never personally seen such a thing. There was a crispness to his form, a definition that had been lacking before, and his eyes were less unnerving than usual. He had managed to make them blue, though with an orange spark to them. And his energy in the room was far less nauseatingly negative than it usually was. He had clearly pulled out all the stops to try to come across as non-threatening as possible. He smiled a roguish smile at her and said, “You rang?”
Almost, she was amused. She firmly reminded herself that she was facing an ancient evil, and replied, “I see you're making an effort to be less offensive. I thank you for it.”
The demon inclined his head. A lock of blond hair fell artfully across his brow as he did so, and he pushed it back with one hand. “I strive to please you, my host.”
“You seem in an awfully good mood,” Bree said suspiciously.
Gelsenim shrugged. “I fed well last night, when we were joined. It calms me. It gives me more control.”
“Control of what?”
“My essence, what you call my energy. I am learning which parts distress you, and it is easier to hold those parts back when I am well fed.”
“How long after you have, ah, fed, can you stay in control?”
“Not for very long. Perhaps two of your days? Three?”
&nb
sp; Bree’s heart sank. She’d had some kind of hope that feeding the demon by allowing it possession time would calm it far longer than that. She supposed she’d had a half-formed vision of infrequent donations, something like giving blood, that might keep demons quiescent. She certainly couldn’t feature allowing herself to be possessed by a demon every two or three days. If she was a Demon Master, she wouldn’t stay sane and in control long at that rate.
As she was reflecting on all this, Daniel spoke. He was standing across from her so they could signal each other easily. “Do you suppose a longer possession time would hold you longer?”
The demon moved slightly so he could see Daniel if he turned his head. His expression changed, in a very human-like manner, to one of caution. “A possession usually lasts days or weeks. It appeases the hunger for perhaps two days for every four or five days of possession time. With this host, with Bree, I am more satisfied. I don’t know yet how much a longer possession time would hold me with her.” He turned back to Bree. “But I would very much like to try and see,” he concluded.
There was an almost sexual overtone to his tone and look, and the energy in the room shifted, making Bree decidedly uneasy. “I'm willing to let you try. That’s why we’re here today. But I need to protect myself as well. I need to make sure I’m not harmed by the possession. Keep in mind that you have some influence over what happens here. If you stay cooperative like you were last night, I’ll be more willing to allow you in again. But I can’t allow you to stay melded with me for long this time. I’m not sure yet how long I can go until I do sustain some harm from it.”
“I don’t think it will harm you,” Gelsenim replied. He took a step closer, and a look of longing came over his face. Bree regarded him steadily, forcing herself to really tune in to what she was seeing and feeling.