by Sara DeHaven
Leander rubbed her shoulder. “I can imagine it’s hard when you’re used to a safer life.”
She shifted beneath his arm as she turned to look up at him. His eyes were adjusting to the dark and he could just make out her expression. She looked sad as she said, “Spoken like one who isn’t used to a safer life.”
Leander shrugged and answered honestly. “I’m still surprised when I do feel safe. I can’t seem to stop preparing for trouble.”
“Is that why you’re so calm right now?”
“I think it’s easier for me to be calm when I feel like I have someone to take care of.”
“I know what you mean,” she answered. He felt her relaxing a little, and she shifted, nestling closer as she looked out into the dark. “When I was trying to help out at the riots, I was scared the whole time, but really focused as well. Having a job to do, trying to help, it made me a stronger person, stronger than I thought I could be. Tonight, though, I didn’t feel strong at all. I completely panicked. It’s a miracle I didn’t get shot.”
“It worries me that you’re involved in all this. It seems to me that it’s Daniel that’s gotten you into it. It’s the only explanation I can come up with. He’s up to his ears in something major, and he’s pulled you in with him. What do the Keltoi want with him anyway?”
Bree sighed, and he felt her melt against him. It was a kind of surrender, and Leander felt a rush of anticipation in spite of his weariness and the distracting pain from his earlier battering at Franchesca’s hands.
“You’ve already guessed most of it, so I might as well tell you the rest,” Bree said. “You remember I told you about doing research on demons with Daniel. Well, he's a Demon Master, a high power one, and a Binder as well. The reason he was able to make Keeper, and avoid detection by the Ecclesias is that he has managed to perfect a hiding spell. You may know that’s something no one has been able to do before. It hasn’t been possible to hide the forbidden talents from Readers. The Keltoi want Daniel because they want the spell. They went after him last year, kidnapped Hunter to get his cooperation, but we were able to get Hunter away without Daniel getting captured.” She paused, looked away as if she were thinking hard, then looked up at him. The limited light still made it hard for him to read her, but her body had shifted a little toward him, and there was an angle to her mouth that made him think she had decided to trust him. "We’re not really sure why they’ve left him alone since. I think they’re biding their time until they think they can get another good shot at him. The thing is, he’s so incredibly high power in so many talents that he’s not easy to take down. And I imagine if they were to get him, he would be hard to break. I think it’s a puzzle they haven’t solved yet, how to get the spell out of him.”
So close, he was so close to getting what he needed from her. His weariness, his pain, retreated to the back of his mind, and he swiftly considered and rejected several ways to direct the conversation, finally settling on, “How on earth does he manage a spell that has to be on all the time? Who has that much energy?”
“You’d think that it would take a ton of energy, wouldn’t you? And he has plenty to burn, but from what he tells me, the spell isn’t too bad in terms of energy usage. It’s something he has to renew every couple of days. There’s this bracelet he wears, some kind of rune inscribed rock that he uses as a focus, or maybe it’s even part of the spell, I’m not sure. I know there are a ton of complicated parts to getting the spell up and running, but once it is, it’s fairly simple to renew it. But I'm almost convinced there's a problem with it. I think it’s having a negative affect on him.”
Leander’s budding excitement died away. She didn’t know how the spell worked, not in any detail. It was more information than he had before, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough to satisfy Marton. Still, if there was some trouble with the spell, that could be important information. “What kind of negative effect?” he asked.
“It’s kind of hard to explain, and to be honest, I have no idea if everyone would have this effect or if it’s something peculiar to Daniel. But basically, it looks like him cutting off such a big part of himself for so long has done something to his psyche, or maybe to his neurological structure, if there’s any difference between the two. It’s created a kind of rift inside of him, and it makes him unstable. He’s been getting worse and worse. The demon I work with, Gelsenim, says he’s seen this kind of thing before. He calls it 'being divided,' and he says that once Daniel breaks, he’ll basically be some kind of psychopath.” She shuddered. “It scares me, someone with his abilities being unstable. But you have to understand, I think Daniel is basically good. In fact, he’s almost too good, too altruistic, too ready to put himself at risk for other people.”
Leander stayed quiet. He could hear in her voice that she was working something out as she spoke.
“You know, I think that’s part of the problem," she continued, voice so soft now that Leander had to lean closer to hear. "He really is divided. He only ever allows himself to be good, to be better than good. Everything else is locked away along with his Demon Master and Binder talents.”
“So what’s making him worse?”
“A combination of things. I think part of it is the increased demon contact. He’d done demon research on his own before, but less frequently. And maybe some of its time. Maybe he’s just been doing the hiding spell for too long. Some of it seems to be me,” she concluded in a tiny voice.
“How can it be you?” Leander asked, shaking her shoulder very gently.
She hesitated, and Leander waited in some suspense. God, don't let her clam up now. He had to suppress a sigh of relief when she finally went on.
“You read it right, at the party. Daniel does still have feelings for me. I gather he hasn’t allowed himself to have those kinds of feelings for anyone in years. He seems to react particularly badly to any threat to me.”
“I can understand that,” Leander murmured. “It’s our most basic fear, isn’t it? Losing someone we love?”
Bree took in a sharp breath, and Leander thought for a moment that he’d blown it. He’d thrown her off track with that comment, and she was shutting down.
But she continued, all in a rush. “That’s it, isn’t it? God, I know that one, I know it too well. When Seth died, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I shut down completely, for almost two years. I hid out, hid away from everything, most especially from using my powers. Daniel was the one who snapped me out of it, helped me get my confidence back. Now he’s afraid of losing me, and I’m afraid of losing him.” She covered her face with her hands, and her voice came out muffled. “Oh God, what am I going to do? How am I going to stop him?”
Leander tightened his grip on her shoulder, trying to convey support. It was surprisingly hard to encourage her to continue. He didn’t want to hear her confession of love for Daniel Thorvaldson. The anger he’d felt earlier started to creep back in, but he tried to repress it. She was in distress, which would make her Reader sense come up automatically. After their last encounter, Leander couldn't be entirely sure she couldn't read him, at least to some degree. “How are you going to stop what?” he asked gently.
“He’s hell bent on going after Marton Varga. He wants to go up against him in a duel. He says that’s the only way to put down Varga without igniting a full out war with the Keltoi, and since the Keepers think it’s Varga behind the bombings, behind the whole demon war, he thinks if he puts Varga down, he stops the whole thing.” She dropped her hands, and Leander could make out the glint of tears on her face. “But this is the Keltoi we’re talking about. What are the chances Varga would really face him one on one? That he wouldn’t bring back up?” She turned to him, face desperate. “What do you think? You said you know Marton, you’ve been with the Keltoi. Am I right?”
Jesus, Daniel against Marton? Half of him wanted to see that show, and the other half wanted to start out for South America, immediately. What would Marton want him to say here? There wasn't en
ough time to think it through, so he went with the truth. “I can’t be certain,” he said carefully, “but there is a chance Marton would agree to a straight up duel with Daniel. In the Keltoi, there’s a definite hierarchy, and it’s based on power. You have to be very high power to get to the top and hold your position as clan chief. You can’t show weakness. There’s always someone angling for your place. There’s a political element to becoming clan chief, and sometimes it happens peacefully. But more often, it happens by duel, and duels of that kind are usually to the death. Marton hasn’t had to fight many of them because he’s so high power that not many have been willing to take him on. And he’s a vicious fighter. I’ve never seen his equal in battle Casting. Although I’m betting Daniel could give him a run for his money.”
“So you think Daniel might be right? That Varga can’t refuse a duel or he’d lose face?”
“I don’t think he’d refuse, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he’d have a fail safe of some kind in place.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Daniel!” she said passionately. “But he won’t listen, and he’s cutting me out of the whole thing. He's planning to go in alone, and he doesn’t care if he gets killed. He figures he’s going to go divided anyway, so he might as well try to take Varga down with him.”
So she really did love Thorvaldson. He could read it in her voice. He realized that he’d known it, but hadn’t wanted to know it. More fool he. He forced himself to continue on. “Is that such a bad thing, Bree? If what you’re saying is true, maybe Marton needs to be put down.”
“That’s the hell of it,” she replied bitterly. “He’s right to go after Varga, and maybe he’s the only one who could do it successfully. So how can it be right for me to stop him? What are all our abilities for if not to help other people? To make the world a better place?”
“You do realize not everyone views power in that way?” he asked sardonically. It just slipped out, and Leander regretted it as soon as he’d said it. She looked up at him and, to his great surprise, she lifted a hand and caressed his cheek. “You think you’re so hard,” she said softly, seriously, “but you’re not. Why are you here, Leander?”
He put his hand over hers, holding it against his cheek. “I think you know why I’m here,” he whispered.
“I wish,” Bree began, gazing up at him, into his eyes, and Leander found himself holding his breath, waiting for what she would say.
She dropped her eyes, and her hand slipped out from under his, falling into her lap. “I wish things weren’t so complicated. And I’d like to say I wish I weren’t involved in all this, but I’d be lying. In the end, I asked to be involved because I don’t truly have it in me to keep standing by, doing nothing. I know you probably think that’s stupid.”
“It’s idealistic, which is only stupid if it gets you killed.” Leander forced himself to get back to the point. “Just what are you planning, Bree? Are you going to try to stop Daniel?”
“I don’t think I can stop him,” she replied tensely. “So I have to help him. And I have to do it in a way that he doesn’t know I’m involved. If he survives, if we survive, then we’ll have to see if there is something to be done about this whole divided thing before it breaks him.”
“What do you think will help with that?”
“I have a theory, and I think it’s a good one. I think there’s a way to use psychic healing to mend the divide, but it’s dangerous. When I tried it before, it nearly drained me dry. I’ve never come that close before to overdoing it and getting myself killed. I don’t think I truly realized how risky it was. But Daniel knows, and he won’t let me try it. He says I’m too much of an amateur at this kind of thing, and he’s right. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn.”
“I don’t like the sound of this, Bree. I think Daniel may be right on this one. Healers are particularly prone to overdoing it. I know they sometimes die of it because they can’t stop themselves from trying to complete a healing. Surely there are some high power Healers out there who would be a better choice.”
“I know I don't have much in the way of Healer talent, but I've able to do a lot with him already. No one else would know him like I know him,” she protested. “They haven’t been there when he’s started dividing. I have. I know what it feels like, what to look for. And besides, who else could we trust not to turn him in to the Ecclesias?”
“Do you love him that much, that you’d risk your life for him?” Leander asked as neutrally as he could.
“I guess I do,” she answered quietly, wonderingly.
It hurt. He was surprised at how much it hurt. And as always with him, the hurt was followed by anger. He didn’t want this, didn’t want anyone to have that kind of power over him, not ever again. He had to play this out and get the hell away from her. He absolutely could not afford to care about a mark like this, it was fucking with his judgment. “So when is this all supposed to go down, Daniel going after Marton?” he asked.
“I don’t know for sure. Part of the problem is that we don’t know where he is. Daniel wants to try a finder spell. Apparently, Varga is with Daniel’s ex, Franchesca. He thought he could get a link through that, but finder spells are tough, and there's a good chance it won't work.”
Leander calculated rapidly. Maybe there was a way to turn this to Marton’s advantage. It was clear he wasn’t going to be able to get the hiding spell from Bree. They were going to have to take Thorvaldson after all, maybe drug him, get the information out of him that way. Given how much Marton was pressuring him, there wasn't time to do more. And if he could work this so that Marton was forewarned, Marton could set it up to be certain he came out on top. Maybe there was a way to play on Thorvaldson’s instability. If Bree could be brought into it, and Thorvaldson thought she might get killed, it might undo him. Surely Thorvaldson would be vulnerable under those circumstances, and Marton could be more certain of being able to take him. It would all have to be done carefully. It had to look like Marton won fairly.
“You know, I could probably help with that. I told you I know Marton. I’ve been out of the Keltoi for a long time now, but I still have a few contacts in that world. I might be able to locate him for you, help Daniel get the drop on him.”
“Wouldn’t that be risky for you?” Bree asked uncertainly.
Leander shrugged. “Not very, not if I’m careful.”
“If Daniel could get the drop on Marton, I know that would help. If Marton knows he’s coming, he’ll be prepared with back up. That’s what we want to avoid.”
“It sounds to me like you’re planning on helping Daniel without his knowing it. Is that fair to Marton?”
“I think Marton gave up his right to fairness when he set up those bombings,” Bree replied heatedly.
"Are you so sure he's behind it?"
That seemed to pull her up a bit. "Daniel seems pretty convinced, and there's apparently some Keeper intel pointing that way. We also asked Gelsenim to try to help us find out. And besides, I’m not saying I’d be helping Daniel in battle. From the way he described it, to avoid triggering some kind of campaign of reprisals from the Keltoi, it has to be a fair duel. I just want him to have back up if it’s not fair.”
“I suppose I understand,” he said, feigning reluctance. “But I don’t have to like it."
“Just think about the good we’ll be doing, Leander. This could be the biggest thing either of us is ever involved with, something that could affect thousands of people. Isn’t that worth a little risk?”
“Not to you,” he answered, and he found he almost meant it. He tried to draw harder on that, in case she was reading him, draw on the part of him that did care about her. It was hard with so many plans whirling through his brain. He made himself look at her, take her hand. “I don’t want to risk you.”
“Oh Leander,” she sighed. “I wish I weren’t such a mess. I know I’ve been giving you mixed signals. Apparently I really excel at that. But I’m not doing it on purpose. Maybe
if I weren’t so tied up in knots about Daniel...”
“So you do care about me, just a little?” he asked with a pained smile.
“More than a little,” she answered seriously. He hesitated, considering the best play, then lowered his lips to hers, kissing her softly. She stilled, then her lips parted, just slightly, and he took the implied invitation, deepening the kiss. A part of him felt it all the way down to his toes. Another part was standing back and watching, calculating the effect, judging when it had gone on long enough, finding that place where he would leave her wanting more rather than leave her feeling guilty about having given in to a need for comfort.
He pulled back, not having to fake his reluctance. “I can live with that, Bree. I know things are unclear with you and Daniel, and I don’t mean to get in the middle of that, though obviously I have trouble stopping myself from doing just that. I do want you to know that I’m still here. I’m not saying I’ll wait forever.” He gave a short, hard laugh. “I think you know me well enough to know I’d be lying. I’m not that selfless. But I’ll wait for a while. At least until after this thing goes down with Daniel and Marton. How’s that for fair?”
“It’s more than fair, more than I should ask. You really have been there for me, Leander, more than I deserve. I don’t think I’ve treated you very well.”
“I think you’ve been straight with me, as straight as you can be and still protect Daniel. I respect that. And,” he continued, dropping her hand and getting to his feet, “I think it would be best if I got going. I only have so much self control, you know.”
“Do you think it’s safe for you to go out there?” she asked anxiously, rising to her feet as well.
“I’m sure the shooter gave up and went home for now. He’d know there was no way you’d leave your house again tonight. And there’s been no sign of an attempted break in. I’m sure it’s like I told you, he’s not likely to come after you here. But I’m worried he could take another crack at you when you leave the house again. Probably not in broad daylight, but you never know.”