by Sara DeHaven
“With any luck, I'll be able to drug Daniel at the moment of the exchange," Franchesca said. "He'll be concerned about avoiding any harm coming to the child, so I don't believe he'll start a fight before that. I want enough people with me to have a real chance at getting Daniel if I'm not successful in drugging him.”
“You'll have them. You do realize he'll bring people too,” Carson stood up and gestured to Destry. Destry nodded and pulled a cell phone out of her pocket, and walked out of earshot as she began making calls.
“Or course he will. So we'll have to come up with a location for the meet that grants us some advantage, in case the Keepers manage to equal our numbers."
“Keepers are always paranoid about normals getting hurt,” Mosel put in. “Perhaps a public location would be an advantage for our side?”
“It’s a thought,” Carson covered a yawn with his hand, then replied. “Of course, normals being present will limit our options as well.”
“But it will limit them more.” Franchesca put in. “And I think I have the perfect setting in mind. Tonight is Halloween night. Surely there is some public event or celebration where we could stage the meet?”
“Trolloween,” Destry said crisply, striding back towards the group.
Franchesca glanced at Destry, brows raised.
“It’s an outdoor costume party," Destry replied. "They have it every year on Halloween night, at the big Troll statue that’s under the Aurora Bridge. There’s usually about three or four hundred people there. They sort of mill around, checking out each other’s costumes, then they have drumming and dancing, then a parade through town. It has the advantage of easy access because it’s outside. And if you want a public venue where the demon ridden might fit in…”
“The irony is rather delicious, isn’t it?” Franchesca purred. “And how lovely to have a chance to dress up! I’m liking this plan more and more.”
“A bit of a scuffle might go unnoticed in that kind of setting,” Carson mused, settling down on the arm of one of the chairs. “And if you get a chance at Thorvaldson and can take him quickly, you should be able to pass it off as taking a drunk friend home.”
Mosel joined the conversation. “Worst case scenario, we have to bash a few heads. If we get out of there fast and don’t leave any bodies, it’ll just get chalked up to drunks or gang violence.”
Scanlon figured Mosel wanted a chance at Thorvaldson. It would look good to take down that kind of high power Keeper, and Mosel probably wanted the challenge. Scanlon wasn’t so sure he wanted in. Yeah, they’d nearly got the better of Thorvaldson, but if Scanlon had read it right, that was because Thorvaldson had been surprised by Franchesca's presence, and Franchesca has done well at manipulating him. Clearly, those two had some seriously twisted shit going on between them. This time, Thorvaldson would be more prepared. He wasn't at all sure Franchesca would succeed in drugging Thorvaldson.
Of course, if Thorvaldson hadn’t been Demon Master enough to order the demon he'd called back out of him, he wouldn’t care about getting Hunter back at this point. Carson didn’t know that they’d left Thorvaldson possessed. He thought about trying to get Carson’s attention, remind him that Scanlon might have more to report, but just as quickly, decided against it. He was royally pissed at Carson.
He did want Franchesca to get Thorvaldson tonight, because that was his best chance at being able to keep control of his son. If Franchesca wasn't successful, he had no doubt she'd follow through on her threat to have Hunter possessed again.
Scanlon's mind went in circles, trying to figure some way to get Hunter out of all this without getting permanently on Carson's bad side. But nothing, absolutely nothing came to him.
Chapter 19
Bree felt positively absurd as she looked at herself in the mirror. Apparently the best the Keeper team could do for her costume was a set of white and pink playboy bunny ears and a half mask with a bunny nose and whiskers. She refused to wear the leotard with the powder puff tail that was supposed to go along with the costume. The party was outside, and it was October, for crissakes! She opted for the cream colored sweater that was in the bag of clothes Keeper Chen brought over for her and Daniel, along with the new pair of jeans that fit surprisingly well.
Daniel had been distant and preoccupied with his involvement in the planning for the meet proposed by Franchesca. He approached her just before the Keepers showed up to do a spot of healing on her. While he’d told her it was far from his best talent, her bruises were all far lighter and less painful already, and the swelling on her face was gone. Neither of them spoke of the scene in her room that morning.
Daniel came in as she was regarding herself. He dangled his fox mask in one hand, and had on jeans and a dark orange sweater.
Bree pulled off her mask, and asked, “There was an orange sweater in your bag?"
“Yeah, kind of a coincidence, isn’t it, the fox color? I’m taking that as a good omen." He took a step forward. "Listen, it’s time to go.”
"You don't seem that nervous," Bree said, looking up at him.
"A Keeper action is familiar territory for me," he reminded her. He really did look calm. Calm and distant.
"Well, it's not for me," Bree replied. "I'm not exactly thrilled about a second go round with people who beat me and threatened to kill me."
"I still think you should stay here. I don't like that Franchesca instructed you be at the meet."
"Dressed as a rabbit, no less. With you the fox, and her the eagle. Not exactly being subtle, is she? She wants me to know I'm not in your league, or hers. Not that she's wrong." She rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the tension. "None of that matters, though. Someone should be there that Hunter recognizes. Someone who can help him if he's possessed." She hated even saying the word possessed. It brought up images from that horrible video of Hunter Franchesca had sent via Javier.
Daniel crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "I'll be there. He knows me."
Bree shook her head. "Someone else in case you..." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, and couldn't push away the knowledge that Daniel might be giving himself up to be killed.
"You know this is the right thing for me to do," Daniel said quietly.
"I know! God damn it, this whole thing is insane, and it scares me, but that doesn't matter either. I'm going." Bree pushed past him and started down the stairs. She hoped he didn't see how her hands shook.
Someone had fetched her car from her office, and Daniel insisted on riding along with Bree rather than with one of the Keeper teams. They arrived early, but it was still a challenge to get parking anywhere near the event. They ended up walking a good way, down one of Seattle’s many hills, through the Fremont neighborhood. It had rained most of the day, but had blessedly stopped about an hour before. There was a fitful breeze, and it felt like another storm front was moving in. Jack-o-lanterns glowed on many front porches, and there was a smattering of trick or treaters ushered by their parents.
The distant sound of drums gradually grew louder as they neared the festivities, and as they made their final turn, the Troll was in sight.
The Troll was decorated with glimmering jack-o-lanterns of every size, placed all around and on top of the giant statue, which was tucked under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. Its torso emerged from rock and earth, with a huge nose, scraggly long hair, and one reflective silver eye. One of its hands clutched an actual Volkswagen Beetle. They could see the drummers sitting in a circle, pounding away on a variety of African drums. About a hundred people in costumes had already gathered, some dancing, most just wandering around and chatting. Burning tiki torches were set at intervals in the wide area in front of the statue. While streetlights were on down the street, it was relatively dark under the bridge where the Troll lurked.
Daniel stopped short of the crowd and faced Bree so that he would look like he was talking to her as he scanned the crowd for Keepers and Keltoi. His dark eyes were visible in the holes of his
mask, glinting in the dancing light of the torches, lending him a strangely authentic animal look.
Bree looked around as well, and soon recognized several of the Keepers in costumes they'd discussed earlier in the day. There was Chen, dressed as a Ninja, chatting with another female Keeper in an elaborate, feathered Mardi Gras mask. She was happy to see Caleb Lane on his feet after his brief possession last night. He was decked out as a cowboy, and he had his arm around another Keeper in a cute wood elf costume, complete with pointed ears. They swayed in time to the drums.
Javier, she was shocked to see, was dancing, if you could call jumping up and down like a pogo stick dancing. Well, that was certainly a good disguise for him. In all the years she’d known him, she’d never seen him dance. He was done up as a punk rocker, with a black leather vest leaving nicely muscled arms bare to the cold, torn jeans adorned with large safety pins, heavy black eye make-up, and spiked hair dyed scarlet. She had to admit he looked kind of sexy, and nearly unrecognizable as himself, which was likely the point.
Bree was starting to feel underdressed, although there were others present in street clothes with masks the only concession to costuming. As more people gathered, there was a profusion of fairy wings, glitter and feathers, and some belly dancers who had to be freezing. There were quite a few men in some variation of the Green Man look, with horns and leaves, as well as numerous guys dressed as some kind of animal. Given the event was put on by artists, some of the masks and costumes were stunning. There was a splendid rendition of the elephant headed god Ganesha, and a gorgeous fairy queen in a full length opalescent white and green gown with intricate silver wings, and a sparkling, beribboned headdress.
She and Daniel milled around for a while, scrutinizing the revelers. They settled finally at the outer edge of the crowd as the meet time approached. Daniel draped an arm across her shoulders, pulling her a little closer. She put an arm around his waist automatically, and was acutely aware of where their bodies pressed together.
They swayed together a little in time to the drumming, putting on a show of being a couple. She was surprised that Daniel’s body felt relaxed. It'd seemed to her that he'd tensed up in the car and on the walk down. Bree was about as tightly strung as she thought it was possible for her to be. After a moment, he leaned over and said in her ear, “I’m still not seeing or sensing any of them. You?”
Bree shivered at the intimacy of his warm breath on her ear. “Nothing so far. Not that I can be sure I’d sense any Keltoi that weren’t possessed.”
“Maybe not at a distance, but I’m betting if they got close, you’d know. Dark magic use makes for a dark feel to their energy.”
Almost on cue, Bree’s Demonsense started its unpleasant initial tingling, like tiny spiders crawling under her skin. She stiffened, and Daniel leaned in further. “Did you feel that?” he asked.
Bree shifted closer to him, seeking comfort, and his hand tightened on her shoulder. “Yeah, they’re coming.”
She cast out more carefully, trying to locate numbers, individuals. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw a man with a shaved head in red and orange face paint, black around his eyes, black lips, and horns glued high on his forehead. He sported a devil costume consisting of a red body suit painted in swirls of orange and glittering gold, and a red devil tail. He was about twenty feet away now, and moving toward them. Definitely possessed, that one. It just roiled off of him. Then another, further left, dressed almost identically, though with short blond hair. And there, a third, a shorter Asian man, again in the devil suit, farther out, standing up under the bridge near the level of the Troll’s head. Daniel turned her around to face him, both arms around her waist, as if pulling her close to dance. They moved together, his mouth again by her ear. “Kind of obvious, don’t you think?”
“Why would they do that, dress in such a way that they’re easy to pick out?” she said back, voice as low as she could make it and still be heard.
“I’d say they’re trying to psych us out in some way, putting on a show of force to convince us they have the upper hand. They likely want us to believe it's futile to fight them.”
Over Daniel’s shoulder, she saw two other men and a woman, these three arriving together, each attired as a ghost, their faces painted white. The tattered edges of their costumes fluttered as the breeze picked up. They looked her and Daniel’s way, and Daniel was right: If she felt for their energy, she felt something off, something dark, even though none of those three were possessed. She gradually moved Daniel to face them, then pointed them out. Now that she was facing the opposite direction, she saw three more devils creeping out from behind the Troll, two lower down, one higher up the hill. They moved through the crowd, capering and mugging at people, and Bree heard some nervous sounding squeals and laughter. They were all possessed.
Panic wormed its way into her gut and up her throat. She had never been around that many demon possessed people in her life. Her Demonsense vibrated through her, nearly shaking her bones from her body. None of the demons felt particularly strong, but there were so many! She had to force herself to breathe, and tamped her Demonsense down as far as she could.
Glancing around, it seemed to her there were still slightly more Keepers than Keltoi on hand, but she wasn’t sure it would stay that way. Daniel danced her slowly around in a circle, and she saw the Keepers in the crowd begin to move toward the devils and ghosts. They seemed to be doing a sort of dance as well, the Keepers trying to move naturally toward the Keltoi, and the Keltoi sliding away, trying always to move closer to her and Daniel. At this point, it didn't look like anyone was casting spells.
The tenor of the music started to change, becoming louder, quicker, more driven. The pace of the dancing picked up, and a gust of wind whipped under the bridge, causing people to clutch at their headgear. Most of the people were dancing now, though Bree saw two groups gathering up their children and heading off out of the crowd, going home. She could feel the negative energy from the presence of so many demons still building.
Most normals had a very rudimentary Demonsense, something Bree thought was a survival trait. In close proximity to someone possessed, they felt uneasy, nervous, or unpleasantly over excited. Sometimes their sexual feelings spiked as well. As she looked around, she saw more in the way of bumping and grinding among the couples dancing together, and a mosh pit was forming in front of the Troll. The feel of the crowd was shifting from happy and playful to something darker. Another big gust of wind blew through, and her rabbit ears flapped in it. A young man ran through the crowd and bumped her into Daniel, who staggered a little as he caught her. His fox face seemed to move in the flickering light of the torches, looking suddenly sinister.
Then Bree saw her. Franchesca. She frantically scanned the crowd near her, but there was no sign of Hunter. As she had said she would, Franchesca wore the half mask of an eagle, covered in brown and gold feathers, the yellow beak protruding fiercely in front of her face. Her black hair was pulled back in a sleek braid. She was encased in a brown latex body suit that clung to breasts so round and full that Bree was convinced they were fake. A v-necked opening plunged between her breasts and down to her navel. That latex suit was definitely a sex shop acquisition. A feathered cape was attached all along her shoulders, the backs her arms, and her wrists.
The hulking individual next to her was in a simple gangster outfit, vintage brown suit and a brown fedora, with a straight black eye mask. He carried a toy black machine gun. The devils and the ghosts wove through the crowd all around them. There was Lane and the wood elf, and Chen, herding them away.
“And so we meet again,” Franchesca said as she sauntered up to them.
“Hardly in the way you promised,” Daniel replied. Bree glanced at him. His posture said relaxed and ready, but his focus on Franchesca was intense. “I thought it was just to be the four of us and Hunter.”
“Now, my dear fox, I know you are not so naive. I anticipated you would bring reinforcements of you
r own. There's no need for any violence here. This is a simple business meeting.”
“Simple if your business is the kidnapping of innocent children,” Daniel rejoined.
“Not all children are innocent,” Franchesca returned, voiced hardening.
“That’s just your poor, twisted childhood talking, Chesca,” Daniel sneered.
“And you would know about twisted childhoods, wouldn’t you, Daniel?”
“I’m sure I’ve got issues, but I’m not the one consorting with demons here.”
“Are you not?” Franchesca asked, moving a step closer, voice almost too soft to be heard.
Bree’s mind flashed to Gelsenim, wondering if he had found a way to betray them. She had no time to think about it further, because Daniel was replying.
“Not in the way you do."
“I don't see the difference,” she shot back.
“Different motives makes for a big difference."
“One thing we can agree on, I’m sure, is that the boy belongs back with his parents.”
“Damn right!” Bree broke in. “Where the hell is he? And what kind of monster would posses a child like that? Do you have any idea how traumatized he’s going to be?”
“The child has not been mistreated,” Franchesca began.
“If having a demon possess a child isn’t mistreating him, I don’t know what is!”
“Things could be made worse for him,” Franchesca said coldly.
Daniel put a calming hand on Bree’s arm, but replied in a voice just as cold as Franchesca’s. “If you harm him further in any way, if I see the merest bruise, the merest scratch on him, I will come after you, and I will never stop coming, until I see you dead.”
A chill washed through Bree. He sounded deadly serious. The man with Franchesca must have thought so too, because he shifted uneasily.
Franchesca shrugged in feigned indifference, but Bree could read in the way her weight shifted and her breathing changed that Daniel had thrown her. “There will be no need for that. I agreed to give him up if you hand yourself over to me." Franchesca turned to look behind her and raised her hand in a beckoning gesture. "He’s with his real father, who’s already rather protective of the little tyke.”