by P. S. Power
Keeley Thomson
Book Four
Demon Trap
P.S. Power
"Just because I love you, don't think you're getting off easy today." The words came out of Darla's mouth with a bit of joy that even Keeley could tell was forced. Not that her sister wasn't quietly also taking joy in the bit of torture she'd devised for her. There were limits though, and the complex device that had been set up was designed to push a certain someone into either finding her true Greater Demon strength, or kill her. Keeley hated dying. It was so messy.
"I know. Again, sorry I made you a slave to my will and forced you to tell me all your secrets." Keeley had to fight a grin, even if the situation was looking pretty dire at the moment. After all, she wasn't truly sorry for it. If she had to, she'd even do it again. That was a big part of the horrendous training she'd been getting for nearly two months. It was designed to make her not want to screw with Darla ever again. Not in the same way, at least.
"Apology accepted, for what it's honestly worth. Now, get ready. I don't particularly want to explain to Sherry how I crushed you under a car for fun." Then without warning, Frieda, what the blonde Greater Demon called her Volkswagen van, started to lower suddenly onto Keeley's waiting palms.
The pain started instantly, of course. That was expected. The device itself temporarily blocked Keeley from using her magic to reinforce her strength, speed, or from using her mind to simply lift the thing off of her. It had to, because she'd managed to use all of those methods the last three times they tried this. This time she wasn't getting out of it that easily, which was terrible, since, without her powers she could only bench press about two hundred pounds. That was good enough to make her one of the best high school athletes in the country, for a girl, in almost any sport, but it wouldn't even slow Frieda really. In fact it wasn't. Not at all.
The weight dropped onto her chest, making ribs crack and pain flare sharply. It was impossible to breathe too, which was much less than fun. Darla just stood back, her arms crossed and face looking cold, and a little self-satisfied.
"Finally. I was worried that I'd missed something and you'd use magic for it again. I suggest you get to pushing. I can't free you from this you know. Another failsafe I built in. No one in the world can. Not in time to save you. Either you lift it yourself, or I need a new sister." She managed to sound pretty glib about it, but there had to be some real worry involved.
Didn't there?
At least unless her sister was blocking that out, so she didn't feel anything. Which was probably the case, Keeley realized as she started to black out from the pain and lack of air. She pushed as hard as she could, but it wasn't enough at all. She was dying.
Keeley really hated that.
Lift. She focused as hard as she could, which was about the only thing she could really do at the moment, and strained. Pressing and focusing on the cold and slightly oily brace, a fine grit from the road pressing into her soft hands, she put everything her body had into it. Fighting to get it away from her chest, even the tiniest bit. At first nothing happened at all.
Then, slowly, just as she started to panic, it moved. Barely. Everything in her body ached, and it was like she was tearing herself apart, but it happened. She could breathe again, the underside of the metal beast a whole half inch off of her chest finally. Then it stopped, her body not able to do any more.
At least she didn't think so. Next to her there was a bright red sneaker to the left, but nothing else showed of her sister, except that she was too far back to be helping. So it was actually her doing it. That was something.
There was a grunt followed by an obvious step back.
"Keep going. When you straighten your arms it will lock in place and you'll be able to heal yourself. Until then you can die doing this. I know it seems harsh, but it has to be done."
Even Keeley knew that, as painful as it was in the moment. If she didn't get her Demon strength going soon, somehow, the others of her own kind would simply kill her. Not in a kind and gentle fashion like dropping a car on her either, most likely. It would probably involve being raped to death. While being flayed alive. At least that seemed likely, since the nice, rational Greater Demons weren't the ones that had it out for her. Most of them liked the fact that she was at least marginally sane and well balanced.
She pushed harder. Where the power came from she couldn't tell, after a bit there was nothing but trying to lift the thing on top of her, the life still leaving her body, if slowly. Agony didn't describe what she was feeling even, her broken body half crushed, her lungs bleeding inside, drowning Keeley on her own blood. The truth was, she didn't have a lot of time left, she realized.
When she got the thing halfway up, a feeling of triumph starting to come across her mind, Darla... Stepped in and put her right foot on the bumper, pressing down, to stop her.
"Now, the next time you feel like making me your slave, I suggest you bring a whip and a leather outfit, because if you take me over like that again, I will kill you. Understood?" To accentuate the point the vehicle started to come back down again, even as Keeley fought desperately to summon the last bit of strength she could find.
There was no air to speak, but when the foot came off of the shiny cream colored van the whole thing shot up suddenly. Meaning that her sister had been cheating, and using her own magical ability to hold her in place as she pressed down. With a clang the thing locked into place, Keeley's arms breaking at the elbows with an audible crack.
"Uhg." She tried to keep the moaning to a minimum, but the collar around her throat, the one that was made of silver metal and brass arcane inlays, fell off, meaning her magic was back. She didn't wait, starting to heal as fast as she could. It was exhausting, but half a minute later she was able to scoot out from under the metal doom above her. "That was not fun."
"No, I know it wasn't. It worked though, at least to get things started for you. Hopefully it will be enough to get things started for you, physically speaking. If I have it right, all you need now, is time and some exercise. All healed yet?" The collar was fished out from under the vehicle and slid back around her neck without waiting to find out if that was the case at all, and a powerful kick sent Keels back under at an odd angle.
Before she could do anything, the world became the underside of the filthy metal again. This time only her right hand was in position for the lifting and the whole process stared over again. She did it though, with only half the internal damages. With one hand the whole thing finally went up enough to lock into place.
The metal around her neck burned, since she was subconsciously trying to use her other powers to do the work. It got hot enough that she could smell the sweet scent of her own flesh cooking. It made her hungry. That was sick of course, but her body had started out the day starving, so what could she expect?
As soon as she could, she pushed out from under again, only to find the burning thing around her neck still and an enraged looking cheerleader trying to crush her head with a sledgehammer. She rolled in time, but before she made it to her feet a red sports shoe's hit her cracked ribcage.
Keeley gasped, pain tearing through her.
"Seriously? We can't have lunch first?"
The answer didn't come in words, but rather a series of blows, each faster than the last. When they hit it was, if not full force, enough to kill the girl that Keeley looked like. A model thin stick figure with decent breasts, that looked fake, and long dark brown hair. If she'd really been a human, the first blow would have destroyed her utterly. That was the point though, that and speed. Greater Demons were tough, or supposed to be. For the last four or five months she'd been using her magic to keep her going, but that wasn't going to
cut it anymore, it didn't seem.
The weapon being held in her right hand, Darla suddenly reversed it, slapping the wooden handle against Keeley's face. It hurt, a burning that meant the skin had torn, but that was just a thing. The fact was it should have sent her teeth onto the gray concrete of the garage floor, but it didn't for some reason. That was a good sign, since it meant she might survive the lesson.
"Fight back. Even now you can't survive the beating I'm about to give you if you don't." Now the words seemed a lot happier though, as the top of the sledge was ripped off and thrown directly at Keeley's mid-section. It didn't hit, but her dodging took her directly into the wooden handle, because, no matter what else, Darla was a very good fighter.
She also wasn't lying about the beating she had planned.
It was a bloody and brutal thing, Keeley not able to block the pain much, her magic held away from her mind for a bit. After about twenty minutes though, her sister relented a little and set the weapon down, resting it against the rack near the door of the place.
"Not bad. Let's get the collar off and you can get a shower. I'll make lunch. You can pay me for your share." The words would have sounded mean to anyone listening, but they weren't meant that way.
In fact making her pay for the food was a compliment. After all, baby Demons were fed for free by their mentors. Only an adult would be expected to pay for herself at each turn. Doing otherwise would start a fight in most cases, being a huge insult. Claiming ownership of them. As her mentor, Darla could have done that, but she just ran a hand quickly along Keeley's neck, took the metal ring in her palm and stepped back quickly, in case an attack came.
Keeley didn't bother. She locked the pain down and healed instead, her body actually shrinking from the amount of energy it took. The ultimate diet, Demon magic. If she could bottle the stuff she'd rule the Western hemisphere just for that effect alone.
"Make lots. I'll write a check." Then she shuffled off to the bathroom for that shower, clothing already in place for her on the low bench next to the sink. It was all stuff Darla had picked for her, so, while it looked great on her when she finally finished scrubbing all the blood out of her hair and dressed, the tight and tiny skirt, the black stockings that ended at her thighs, and brilliant green form fitting blouse didn't leave a lot to the imagination.
Looking in the mirror she knew that she was going to need some make-up. Her face was healed, but was too thin looking by far. She focused, even though she was starving, and pushed some fluid into her cheeks so that she'd look a bit less like a skeleton for the party later. In the moment though she had to eat. Enough to put on at least ten pounds, most of which would have to go into muscle repair.
At least that's what her body was trying to demand of her.
It was a new thing though, and a good one, since it meant that the plan, Darla's little set of tricks, had worked. A little at least. Her strength was kicking in. The speed too.
It was about freaking time.
She tried to flow down the stairs toward the table where they'd be eating, trays of things that didn't need to be cooked at all already setting out for her. She dug in to the protein first. With a spoon, into the container of powdered egg whites that Darla had left out for her. There was other stuff, things that most would have eaten without a second thought, but she felt drawn to the red container, smelling that it actually had what she needed to eat first in it. It took a bit of water to wash it down, but she could feel her body tearing the strands of amino acids apart and turning them directly into skeletal muscle. If she wasn't careful Keeley would end up looking like a body builder.
All lean muscle topped with fake looking breasts. That wasn't exactly what she wanted though, so worked in a large amount of carbs as soon as she finished the first container. There were two cakes and a blueberry pie for that. It was an amount of food that would have seemed insane to any normal person, and she didn't take pleasure in eating it even. It was fuel that she needed so badly that her taste buds actually disengaged on their own. She could barely even perceive what was in her mouth as she mechanically chewed and swallowed.
That meant that she was able to get through most of the food left for her quickly, even the three containers of vegetable shortening. It wasn't flavored, and right now, she didn't care. Her body started using it all so fast that she never even felt full at all, hunger aching within her the whole time, no matter how fast food was tucked into place.
When Darla emerged from the kitchen with a large platter of steaks and pork chops, she didn't bother with the pretense that there would be anything left for her, just setting the whole thing, a very tall heap, in front of her sister with a smile.
"Eat up, we have that party tonight and you can't afford to go in half starved looking." There was a hint of disapproval in her gaze, which got Keeley to stop eating, still hungry or not.
"I agree. You know what works to keep me looking like a real girl and not an anorexic? Not starving me. At least I hear that's the way it works for everyone else. We could give it a try maybe?" She didn't sound bitter about it, since the extra training in shape shifting had proven very useful, and she was even good at it. The fact was though, it took massive physical resources and Darla had been pushing her so hard she hadn't had a chance to build up any kind of reserve at all. It was part of her punishment.
Keeley figured that, in a short thirty or forty years, Darla would forgive her for what she'd done. Maybe. The sad thing there was that her loving big sis was actually being soft and kind to her, by Greater Demon standards. Enough so that the others really would make fun of her if they found out how gentle she was being about it all. Even the nice ones would have killed her for taking them over like she had Darla.
In a way it meant she was loved. It felt nice.
Darla smirked at her and then pointed to the food.
"Eat and stop whining. If you want to have enough energy, I suggest you learn to use that which is around you finally, and stop acting like a child that needs to be lead around by the hand." She waved at the air to her right, then held a single palm up to it. After a few moments, the world warped a bit, much like when a path onto the inroads was being summoned, but different. Energy started to move in toward the delicate hand, and then became one with the Demon, who kept doing it for a while as Keeley ate and watched in silence, trying to figure out how it was done.
It was complicated, requiring a good half dozen complex processes at once.
Darla didn't explain them all, but the demonstration lasted until the last of the meat was gone.
"When you learn to do that, no one will easily be able to starve you again. It isn't a full replacement for food, you'll need that as building blocks for cells still, but it can be stored within you and used to power most of the magic you'll need to use, day to day. Then you pretend not to be a glutton all the time." She made it sound easy, and as if Keeley was expected to whip the trick out on her own at any moment.
Because, of course, she was. Her real age was sixteen, but their lie, the one meant to protect her from the others, involved her pretending to be at least a hundred years old. That was still a kid, as far as her kind was concerned, but it would be enough to keep anyone from just trying to destroy her outright.
Maybe.
Holding up her hand she tried to replicate the process that her sister had just shown. After a moment the warping happened, and the energy flowed. She was even able to move it into her body well enough, and then try and start the six different processes that would let her drink in and store it all. That didn't happen though. She felt a tiny bit better for it, she thought, but it was a failure as far as a usable technique yet. She'd tried it before, several times, and this was the best that Keeley had actually managed yet.
There was a gentle clapping from across the table then. Positive reinforcement for a job not really done at all. It was so obvious Keeley made a face at the cheerleading captain.
Darla was smiling though.
"Good. By tomorrow I ex
pect you to have that down. Unless you plan to spend the night with your new human pet? The Line Walker. That sounds almost like a Greater Demon name, doesn't it? Are you certain he isn't one of us?" The question wasn't just making conversation, even though the woman across the table could have gotten the information herself more directly, with a simple visit to Zack at his store.
"Pretty certain. I could be wrong. Barb showed me that at least some Greater Demons might be able to fool me like that, but I really don't think so. Finias doesn't think he is. Or, if that's the case, he isn't telling me about it at all. I wasn't planning to sleep with him though, since, you know, virgin. Me, not him. He's doing fine that way." She knew that for a fact, having kept tabs on the man since their last meeting. Zack and Lenore the Vampire ambassador were hooking up. Not that the idea bothered Keeley. She liked the man alright, but it was in a friendly manner really. That didn't mean she wouldn't have sex with him if it came up, but she wasn't going to go loopy and fall in love with him either.
Not until after she knew that Xenses was really out of the picture.
That got her to shrug.
"If Zack turns out to be a Greater Demon, then the only thing I can think of here is that he's actually Xenses's child. The one that he thought I was. How that worked I don't know. Maybe he figured that I was Zack? He had him as a child for months and kept him on the inroads the whole time, abusing him horribly. I mean, things that nearly had me tossing my cookies when I picked it up from him. Eating humans, horrible sexual abuse, things that would have had me going after Xenses even if I'd liked him before learning that. Zack is totally insane though, so..." If he were a Demon, then that would mean they'd probably have to kill him in the end. Insane Greater Demons were kind of a risk to the world.
Darla shrugged, a sensual movement that seemed almost like she was getting ready to invite someone to the bedroom. Keeley got the idea, she was subtly threatening her, with rape, because she was still angry over the little deal that they'd had. Her words didn't reflect that though.