Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson)
Date: 2014-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

Keeley Thomson:

Demon Bait

P.S. Power

Orange Cat Publishing

Copyright 2014

Table of Contents:

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

Chapter fourteen

Chapter fifteen

Chapter one

The trick, Keeley knew, to defusing a bomb under a car, was to locate it first. Normally that wouldn't be a problem for her, if the thing had been placed by anyone even close to normal. A Human for instance would do the trick pretty well. Even a Lesser Demon would have most likely, not that any of them were all that technologically savvy.

This one however was placed all the way to the center of her car, underneath the thing, meaning whoever had tucked it into place had, for some unknown reason, lifted the whole thing up, probably with one hand, and then connected it to the undercarriage of her little beat up plum and primer colored vehicle with the other. It was, to say the very least, annoying.

So much so that even she, a Greater Demon, nearly missed the cute blond boy waving at her from across the Raintree high school parking lot. It was after the last bell and Keeley, much like the boy that was rather high handedly summoning her to walk over to him, was done for the day. Actually, for the year, since it was finally over.

School, as the old song went, was out for the summer.

"Keeley! Can I talk to you for a second?" Quince, the Captain of the football team, who'd lettered in three sports and always seemed personally impressed with that feat, smiled at her lazily.

As if he weren't getting her to move away from her car, just as it was about to explode.

She sighed and pasted a smile on her lips. The boy was after all, cute, in a healthy and slightly too well muscled way. In a regular Human that might have meant either an obsession with working out, or steroid use, but in his case it was just a subconscious manipulation of his physical form. He wasn't a real boy, after all was said and done. Just a Durg mercenary that had pretended to be one, in order to get his brothers back from an evil woman that had kidnapped and enslaved them all. They were dead now though, Keeley didn't really think he knew that.

She brushed her dark brown hair out of her face, having worn it back in a ponytail for the day, which meant that some of the strands had pulled loose. Or, more exactly, that she'd let that happen, to make herself seem more like a real teen girl. Just like she'd added a few blemishes to her face and hadn't worn makeup that day. That left her looking like a solid eight, rather than the ten that had become normal for her all year long. It wasn't a mistake either. Looking good was helpful at times, but with the Second Crucible upon her, she knew that looking like a hot teen girl wasn't really going to help her for much longer. There was a reason that all the Greater Demon leaders looked like crusty old men all the time.

What that was, she didn't know, but it wasn't lost on her that they all did it.

She jogged over, making herself seem excited by the prospect of the good looking guy talking to her. He wasn't unpleasant really, though Durg, as a race, tended to be a little slow. About like an average Human. Sure, that was a relative thing, since Greater Demons just functioned on a different mental plane most of the time, but it still had his kind being thought a bit less of, by hers. Which, she knew, was foolish. A Durg was at least as dangerous as anyone else could be, unless they were made into a slave. They were strong, fast, and fanatically loyal to their brothers and sisters. Their leaders too, if they had them at the moment. It was why they were among the best mercenaries in history. Once bought, they stayed that way.

"Quince! Or are you going back to Kevin, now that you're done with school? For that matter, didn't you graduate last week? What are you doing here?" Placing a bomb under her car came to mind, which, when she leaned in to give the old creature in front of her a hug, she picked up very clearly.

His life slammed into her, the thousands of years of memories running through her head in an instant. She held it all away from her inner self, just a bit. There was a lot of violence, and more than a little bit of evil involved in his mind. Things done to him, certainly, but mainly things that he'd done. Eating people, raping them, torturing creatures of a hundred kinds.

Cheating on his finals.

She nearly lost it and smiled at that last one, since that, lacking in honor as it was, actually made him feel bad. It was charming however, but she didn't want him to feel like she was making fun of him, so schooled her face without locking down her emotions, and looked into his fairly attractive blue eyes. She could see herself reflected in them, the bright Arizona sun glinting off the moist surface just enough to show that he wasn't looking back at her directly, but at her poor little car. The one that he was about to destroy, trying to get the attention of the Greater Demon that had killed his brothers.

It was so clear that he knew all about what had happened that she nearly sighed. He wasn't totally certain that it had really taken place however. The boy, who was at least four thousand years old, had wondered if this was about a Greater Demon, but couldn't prove it. It really was of course, since her half sister Darla, who was known as The Technician, had slaughtered them all, in retaliation for them killing Rob. A friend of hers. They'd been the tool that had done the work for the Gatherer, and not in control of themselves, but as everyone sane knew, you didn't go up against a Greater Demon if you could help it.

One of the reasons everyone thought that was simply situations like this. Asymmetrical response patterns. In this case a troop of Acadian Apples, powerful mercenaries despite the fruit flavored name, had allowed themselves to be taken as slaves to a Human with a magical device. Their punishment for failing to resist that, and killing in her name, was death. It wasn't fair, or good, but it sent a strong message to everyone that heard about it.

Don't screw around with Darla Gibson.

The boy glanced at her, tension just visible around his eyes, meaning that the blast was close. She stayed relaxed, and didn't let herself be more than a little impressed that Quince, who was a minor celebrity at the school, was there to chat with her.

"I wanted to ask you something..." He stalled, clearly not wanting to involve himself with her too much. The plan was to create a distraction and then watch for atypical reactions. Why he'd picked her car... Well, he knew that one, and now, having gotten his whole lifetime of memories, so did she.

Quince had targeted her, because he didn't think she was the one he was looking for. Keeley was, after all, just a pretty and nice, if slightly nerdy girl that got good grades and had friends on the cheerleading squad. That wasn't the kind of thing that real Demons did, to his way of thinking. No, he figured that the one he wanted was on the staff. In a position of power and influence.

That kind of mistake, letting himself be distracted by what he thought he knew, was part of why his kind were thought of as a little slow, even if they were, otherwise, almost Greater Demons. They had the same base ability set, but were just a bit too lacking to make the cut. Given that most of what made her special had to do with learning and magic, it seemed pretty glaring to Keeley at the moment, but she knew that Quince was probably a lot more like she was than not.

So she smiled at him, letting her mouth quirk a little at the sides and tilting her head, then licked her lips, wetting them as if it were a subconscious move. It worked and for half an instant he noticed that, thinking about other things she might be able, and possibly even willing to do with her mouth.

Then he shook his head slightly, remembering why he was there, glancing at the emptying parking lot.

"I... Would you like to go out some time? I should have asked earlier, but..." He seemed embarrassed, but sounded nearly perfect. A popular and confident boy, awestruck by her loveliness, taking a last second chance to not lose out forever.

If she'd been a real girl, it would have worked pretty well, to tell the whole truth. As it was, if she weren't about to lose her car, she still might have considered the idea. If he'd really meant it. Quince was decent at playing his role, but the truth was he couldn't be bothered most of the time to follow through when it came to sex. It was, she knew, too boring to him, most of the time. Not all Durgs became like that, but he had, over the last millennia. The mercenary played at it well enough, making stupid remarks and ogling the pretty girls on demand, but his heart just wasn't in it, most of the time.

Even with her.

She grinned a little and nodded, since there was no particular reason not to.

"That sounds like fun! Let's do that? Do you need a ride home? I know that Misty isn't the best looking car in the world, but she runs pretty well. I don't think my mom is home right now, if you want to come over?" She was just a bit too casual about saying that, but it was true, since her mother had moved to Washington State about two months before. Going to live in a house provided for her by the Line Walker.

Keeley's nephew, Zack.

That wouldn't have been so bad, but he'd taken all her people away, or was going to. To protect them, true, which was why she hadn't charged in to fight him for them. For a Greater Demon, Zack was actually a sweetie, after all. Not that he wasn't planning on sleeping with all the girls she'd sent in.

Keels knew that one because he'd told her about it. Or, well, he'd promised not to sleep with Hally, since she was Keeley's girlfriend, but he clearly had designs on her mother. More than that, she knew, fearing that they'd already been going at it for a while now. It was the kind of thing that she blocked out, because the concept of her mother sleeping with a guy that she had as well, was icky. Which meant that no matter what she thought of herself, she really needed to grow up a lot. Adults of her kind didn't have emotional issues like that. They certainly didn't play by Human rules. She needed to stop that, and fast.

Not fighting a genuine smile at the ridiculous thought, she started to walk toward her car, getting Quince to put his hand out, stopping her.

"That sounds good, I need to talk to someone first-" There was a sudden pulling on her arm, and Keeley's body whipped around firmly, so that he stood between her and the explosion. The movement started just before the sound hit them, which meant the thing had been timed pretty precisely. It was a dead giveaway, to someone like her, but most people wouldn't be able to get that he'd started moving before anything happened at all.

First there was a boom, and then a lot of white smoke, coming from a canister under Misty. Poor, poor Misty. Everyone in the parking lot stared, except for Quince, who looked around for people acting out of place.

For her part, Keeley yelped.

"Argh!" It was a bit too dramatic, but she hammed it up a bit, letting her eyes go wide. Then she clung to the muscular, young looking Durg and started to hyperventilate. "Misty!"

That was just to make him feel bad, for hurting her car. She didn't care that much, since she could get another pretty easily. Or given the nature of the smoke coming out, possibly just drive home after it cleared. It took thinking about and pulling from the memories that the Greater Demon Tarsus, The Librarian, had gifted her, but she could tell it was just a smoke grenade. If it had been planted correctly, the heat shouldn't be enough to really damage anything. It wouldn't melt metal, and Misty, for all she looked like a piece of trash junker, was practically a high end race car, under the hood. There would be no fuel leaks or anything to set it on fire.

Still, she was a girl, and only sixteen, so tears were in order. That meant thinking about something very sad, to get the right effect. Then, as she focused, increasing the gain on that sense of things using magic, to really hammer the thing home, that moisture came as twin rivulets down her mainly smooth cheeks. It wasn't hard, unfortunately, since she had a lot to choose from. She nearly ran with the most traumatic memory she had, that of being tossed her father's head by Xenses, who as it turned out was her biological brother. Half brother, but since that kind of thing barely mattered to her kind, they didn't count it that way. Charles had been her dad, but not her biological one, even if she'd thought that for most of her life.

She passed on that one though, since Misty, while a good piece of machinery, was still just a device. A tool to use, in order to get things done.

Instead she thought about how much she missed her friends. Eve, Becky, Gary, and even her mother all came up in the mix, as her tears started to flow and she buried her head in Quince's broad chest. She still had Hally, for the day, which she was reminded of when the cute and lightly freckled red-headed girl ran to her, screaming. Or, to be more exact, calling out worriedly.

"Keeley!" It was clear that she didn't see her, shielded by the Durg as she was, so the girl sprinted to the car, looking ready to dive into the smoky disaster to save her. It was very sweet of her, and really sold the idea that Hally wasn't the Demon that Quince was looking for. In fact, even as people came to help, it was pretty clear that no one there was. Even the slightly slow being she held got that. It was framed in his disappointment.

He did rally pretty well, at least.

"I... That doesn't look like a fire. Maybe we can save the car?" That meant he ran off, to get a fire extinguisher, which wouldn't help, Keeley knew. The grenade, or smoke bomb, was already dying down, and the haze had cleared by the time that the boy came back. She jogged over to Hally, her face still tear streaked and grabbed her gently, so that the other girl would know that she was really all right.

That was a bit of a shock, though Keeley didn't let it show. Hally knew that she was fine, and had actually noticed her with Quince, and figured out that pretending she didn't get things was the better plan. As she'd run across the parking lot. It was, frankly, brilliant. Nearly enough that Keeley had to examine her carefully, to make certain she was really herself. It was a Greater Demon thing, taking over other people's lives like that. The best of them could make even someone like her believe the lie, too. That meant looking for any tiny thing wrong, and observing so closely that it became impossible to fool her.

Even being careful, a couple of her people could have managed it. Tarsus for instance, who had it in for her, for some reason. The Rotted too, she was willing to bet. That had come up in conversation with Zack, since the insane female Demon was his girlfriend. Or at least she thought so. It was hard to tell if she was joking about that or not, according to her nephew. Not that it really mattered. Ann was hanging out around him, living at his home and eating his food without paying for it.

If it had been given to her, that would have been an insult that would probably have ended with Zack being dead. Or at least Ann being removed from the world to a point where it would take her centuries to get back home.

For her to just take it... Well that said a lot too, didn't it? It could have been her claiming that she was just that much stronger than Zack, but if she thought that, she wasn't going to be long for the world. Zack had killed Keeley several times, and she was sort of known for being good in a fight. Not the physical part of it, but in not losing. The thing there was that Zack was faster than most. He also didn't hesitate a lot when it came time to kill. He actually liked her, for instance, and had taken her down without so much as blinking.

So Ann was, basically, announcing to the world that she and the Line Walker were a real team. A couple in a way that her kind seldom managed for long. Pretty much married, or as close to it as you could come without a piece of paper to seal the deal.

Wiping her eyes she paid so much attention to Hally that the girl went a little wide eyed about it. It was a subconscious reflex, like her pupils dilating, but it was there and visible if you were watching.

"Are you all right?" The pretty girl, who was dressed in a fairly normal looking t-shirt and jeans that day, the top being pink, looked horrified, but she relaxed when a nod came back in response from Keeley.

"Yeah. I think this is a prank. A smoke bomb? I..." She laid down on the ground and looked under Misty the car, just in case there was a fire, but it was pretty clear that the homemade looking device was finished with its task, and the smoke was really clearing a lot. Quince knelt down, back with the bright red extinguisher, and ready to hit the undercarriage of her vehicle then, the nozzle being tucked in next to her face.

"Don't bother. It was just a lame trick. I don't know why anyone would do that." She looked up, and let her eyes narrow and then took a deep breath. It was pretty clear to her, even to her innocent Keeley persona, what had happened. She thought about it for a second, since she wanted the whole thing to seem right. That meant about five seconds later she stood and pushed Quince back. Gently, making sure he barely moved. Otherwise it would have seemed wrong and possibly given her away. "You jerk! You scared me. I thought that someone had blown up my car!"

There was a pause, since the Durg had to process what was going on. He'd been caught and that could mean a million things, including that she, Keeley, was more than she seemed. After a moment he managed to just shake his head a little, readying a denial, which he changed, halfway through.

"I didn't do anything...." He looked at her and saw that she wasn't buying it and then forced a smile. It was pretty clear that he was bored with the whole project now, since it had clearly failed. Still, alienating Keeley was outside his own act, so he rallied enough to carry on. "I mean, sorry. It was a lot funnier in my head. It won't hurt anything. I made sure of that."

That was true, so she just glared at him and hugged Hally closer, even as the school staff slowly came out. They didn't seem all that happy, but she just looked at the Principal, who was a friend of hers, and shook her head slowly. It took a while for him to get it, but he didn't walk over. Instead he grabbed a few teachers and chuckled.

"Senior prank. We could make a big thing of it, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt this time. Kids, no more of that. School's out for the next three months. Leave and let us not have to worry about you, all right?" He seemed to mean it, which got Quince to fake a laugh and try to hide his head a little, with his bare arms. Pretending that she was going to start hitting him.

"My bad. I guess I need to think first. Sorry Keeley. I really do want to go out with you, sometime. That's why I picked you for this. Stupid, huh?" He did his best to look sheepish, but his face didn't do a good job expressing that sort of thing. It looked calm and a bit bored, which translated to cool, well enough that no one watching thought anything of it.

Except Hally, who moved between them.

"No. She's mine, so back off. I don't really care who knows about it either. We're dating, and if anyone has a problem with it they can go soak their heads."

A few people looked shocked, but then left, pretending not to care about things like that. They did, since Hally and Quince arguing over her was a big deal in their little drama filled lives, but the boy just held his hands out, as if to ward off blows.

"I... Didn't know that. Sorry. I don't suppose you'd both like to go out sometime then? I mean, you both like me, right? At least when I'm not making a fool of myself like this?" There was a wave toward Misty, and he laid on the ground, pulling out the smoking remains of the device that had been put there. It showed Keels that there was no physical way to have attached it without the car being lifted, which a real girl would have never noticed. It was still smoldering and burned his hand, but there was no pain reaction. Durgs didn't do that. Responding like that would be seen as weakness, and not allowed in their society.

Keeley was ready to separate the two, if she had to, or even enslave Quince, because that would make less of a scene, but her girlfriend shrugged a bit, and looked at Keeley over her shoulder.

There was an attractive little head movement, a kind of tilt that spoke volumes, and then the girl shrugged and turned back to the boy.

"Maybe. Gavin broke up with me, since he's going to college next year. That does leave me a boyfriend down, but, and I mean this, if we go out with you, we expect something special. Not just you thinking that we're easy, or whatever you normally do." It was said with a glare that made it seem joking, but the boy reacted as if pleased. Reaching out to read his mind, which was ridiculously easy, Keels could tell that he didn't really care, and wasn't planning to call anytime soon.

Go figure. The ancient being didn't actually want to get them into bed all that badly. It would have been insulting if she cared about things like that. It was a bit strange that Hally had said those words, but it was pretty clear that the girl was trying to be advanced and work things out properly. Like a Greater Demon herself, or at least a real adult in a strange situation. One that had something near an open mind.

After muttering that he had their numbers, which was simply the truth, the boy took off, walking away, not having a car. He could drive, it turned out, but his Human parents, who were people that he'd hired to take him in using about two million dollars in bribe money, hadn't bothered to use a bit of that to provide transportation for him. Instead they spent most of it on drugs and parties, not being all that bright.

They watched the cute looking young man walk away, his jeans shifting over his behind nicely enough that Hally actually stared for a bit, and then got into Misty who started up so quietly that no one noticed it happening.

"Thank god he didn't use a fragmentation grenade. That would have ruined her for sure." Patting the worn and slightly faded black vinyl dashboard gently, she looked over her shoulder into the nearly empty parking lot, and then pulled out carefully.

It was important to drive that way, all the time. That most people drove while thinking about a thousand different things just meant that she had to be even more predictable than most, since things would try to find her, if they could. Normally that wasn't anything too bad. Ghosts however constantly walked in front of her car. She mainly ignored them, which is what she did with Rob, when he stood in front of her vehicle, running right through him as she moved out onto the street. He waved at her, but Hally had actually been his friend, so telling her all about it was probably too much, given the recent excitement.

Instead she just drove, watching the world around her carefully, so that nothing would take her by surprise. Hally, being a sixteen year old Human girl, spoke the whole time, which was pleasant, rather than distracting. A little sad sounding, but that was just about being gone for the summer.

"Camp starts up next week. Zack has someone to be in charge, but I get to have ten girls every two weeks. Cabin Four. I need to come up with a name for it. I was thinking the Woodchucks, but I might go with something a little less scary." She grinned, since it was clear she understood that no one was really all that scared by little furry animals.

Keeley tilted her head, watching the police presence, as one of the officers, Miller, saw her and nodded. They were friends, after a fashion. She took the station cookies about twice a month, or other treats that she made herself, and the man, who loved snicker doodles, remembered that. There was also a little thing where she'd fought three Human men that were attacking a cousin of his, an older woman that Keels knew from church. Gladys. It was mainly the treats however that got the man's attention.

She didn't look away from the road, but thought for a moment and then made a face, knowing that the girl next to her was going to be looking. She always did when speaking to someone.

"How about something tree related? From what I hear about a third of the kids will be Shifters, and you don't want to be insulting to anyone." Not that they were that vain as a group, the Shifters. Some of them might actually be Woodchucks however, and as children it was best not to point out that they were different than everyone else.

That kind of thing could leave scars, which was her real point. Hally, not being a bad person, thought for a second, nodded and agreed instantly.

"The Mighty Oaks?" Then she looked out the window, changing the subject slightly. "I wish I could stay with you. Zack is sweet, but it isn't the same."

"I know. I wish that too. Except for the part where you'd probably die if you tried it. I mean, we don't really know what's coming, but it sounds intense. Darla has pretty much set things up so that she won't have to work, for years, if it comes down to it. Since that's her major hobby, you have to know this is a big deal. So, it's off to Camp Camas for you and Gary. Unless he skates on it, which he'd better not. Going all flaky schoolboy is a poor plan around Zack."

Hally, being smarter than she normally let anyone know about, just nodded.

"Because making a Greater Demon angry with you would be about the worst thing you could do? Except that Zack is really a good person, so... I guess he just wouldn't take Gary seriously? That could limit things for him later, right? Possible business deals or whatever."

"Except that Zack won't really let that happen. I don't know what he has planned for Gary though. I know that Darla lined up a good acting role for Becky already, in a major picture, so that should work pretty well to get her career started that way. Eve..." She looked over at her friend, as if worried, knowing that it wasn't really that big of a deal to her mind. Or it was, but not for the reasons that should have scared her.

Eve wouldn't really be herself, after she became a Vampire. The stated plan was for her to wait a few years, so that she wouldn't look eighteen forever, but Keeley doubted that would happen. Not if she was going to be around supernaturals at an embassy all summer long like the plan had her doing. At a guess that would last about two months, before someone got so close to killing her that one of the Vamps brought her over to make certain that didn't happen. After all, letting Eve die would anger not just her, but also Darla and Zack. It was too big a risk to take. Eve was the kind to rush into trouble too, rather than away from it, so it would happen.

Hally however had been told, by Eve herself, about how little Vampires were raised into somewhat rational adults.

"I... Eve said that they were going to beat and rape her. A lot, probably. Maybe even before she becomes a Vampire. That... Is that right? Can't we, I know that she doesn't want to be weak forever, but... There has to be a better way."

That earned the girl a smile, since it was pretty cute of her to be worried about that part. Zack was too, but he was too far gone to really get that almost no one raised their young that way anymore. You could beat and rape the baby Vamps into submission, of course, and that was the big threat, if they wouldn't mind and follow orders, but the reality of the matter was a lot different, at least with the good ones, like Edom and Lenore. The Vampires that were slated to lead one day, even if they didn't really get that yet.

They would slap an angry young Vampire down, hard, and make threats, but the worst of that would never come, unless the baby just couldn't handle themselves. If the rage and aggression were too much for them to handle, they wouldn't rape them, or even abuse them too much.

That little one would simply die.

"Eve won't have a big problem that way. Her life has taught her a lot about controlling her anger already, but she won't really be her anymore. She'll have to relearn how to be a person, after the change. That normally takes about fifty years for Vampires to really master. Until then... Well, she probably won't really be our friend for a long while. Not the one we've come to know."

That got Hally to make a face, but she didn't say anything until they pulled into the driveway at Keeley's house.

Then she just seemed sad for a while and leaned over, putting her left arm over her friend's shoulder.

"Everything is going to change now, isn't it?" There was a darkness to her words, but Keels grinned, and moved into her enough it was obvious. Even to the neighbor lady watching through her blinds from across the street.

"Yes. It always does though. The trick is to make certain we come out on top, as much as possible."

It might not be, since Tarsus had flat out claimed that she was going to die if she didn't pass the Second Crucible. The fact was however, from her research, that almost no one did make it through. Not their first time. That was why her little friends had to go away.

So that, when she died, it didn't take them out too.

Carefully not mentioning that, she led Hally inside.

They didn't have much time left together, so it made sense to make the most of it.

Chapter two

Just inside the door, two things happened, almost at the same time. She leaned in to kiss Hally as the thing shut, and felt someone moving in behind her on the inroads. That was a thing of magic, which was one of her areas of particular skill. It felt like Zack, which it almost certainly really was, since he was there instantly. They called him the Line Walker, but the truth was that he avoided the lines almost perfectly, compared to most.

It was true teleportation, being instant, not at all like the way she did it. She waited for the knock to come, feeling the man standing there, moving Hally behind her gently and standing to the side herself. People had faked being others around her before, even if that wasn't the real case this time. She could be fooled however, and pretending she couldn't was asking for something very bad to happen.

Still, when the soft thumping came and she opened the plain wooden door, it really did seem to be Zack Hartley standing there, looking slightly bemused and happy about life. That was nice to see, really. At least one of them should get some pleasure from living, right?

"And here he is now." She looked at him closely, trying to pick out if he was really the right being, which he understood instantly. Nodding, he held up his right hand, causing eight full nodes to form right behind him, in a semi-circle. Since no one other than the Line Walker could manage that, she bowed a tiny bit.

"Pretty good. Last time you showed me that you only did six. Of course I can't prove who I am, since someone killed me, and took all my slaves away." She could try for him, of course, but if she were going to do that, she wanted to ambush him, and be far enough away that he didn't know where to find her while she got it locked into place. The last several times she'd tried that had not gone well. For her. It was clear that she needed to learn a few new tricks, if she wanted to survive much longer.

He winked at her, trying to act like he wasn't wondering the same thing about her, or even suspecting that she was about to make a grab for him. If he wasn't then he was too insane to live. She knew he was crazy, having been broken as a child by Xenses, but she really doubted he was that far gone. Smiling at her he bowed back, making it seem formal.

"I've come to get my Hally? Not that we have to leave instantly, but if not, I need to get a snack. I'll pay you for it." This was said to Keeley directly, and she realized it was a good idea. For one thing it would mean that Hally wasn't gone yet.

That kind of sentimental crud was the real reason that she had to leave. If the girl were hurt in front of her, it would disrupt Keels's mind. That could lead to mistakes, or even death for them all. Knowing that, Zack was helping her out, letting her trade all her people for information. He hadn't even insisted on immediate delivery, taking them all as they got ready. Rebekah first, and then Sherry and Eve. Gary and Becky were heading off on a road trip together, which should have them gone for ten days, along with some other friends of theirs. Darla had planned to go along too, but that wasn't going to work too well, what with the Second Crucible going on.

Quince however was planning to go, which should keep them all pretty safe. No muggers or serial killers were going to get them too easily at least. That being the case, she decided not to worry about them for the time being. It would either work out, or she'd be dead, and it wouldn't matter anyway.

"Food it is then. Canned ravioli okay? That and some garlic bread?" She meant it, since that was what she had a lot of, needing to go shopping that evening. It had been nearly a week and she was, without her mom there to do that for her, running out of things to eat.

Rather than suggest she do better than that, Zack just nodded.

"My favorite." The look he gave her seemed to indicate that it really was, and the fact that he still couldn't lie well without using magic, she didn't think, meant that he was actually not just being polite. It really was something he enjoyed, at the very least. That was good.

As she opened the eight large family sized cans she had left, he started melting butter with diced garlic in it, adding just a bit of rosemary and thyme to the mix. Dried herbs, not fresh, but unlike Darla, he didn't complain about the lack, just using what was there.

Hally just sat at the kitchen table, watching them both, seeming nervous. Finally, just as the bread, or at least three of the split loaves, went into the oven under the broiler, she nervously cleared her throat.

"Um, so... Zack." She seemed to have something in mind, which was painfully clear, but what that was, Keeley realized she didn't know, exactly. It was hard for her to miss anything like that, normally, but the whole Second Crucible thing was distracting. That was probably a horrible plan, since she had no clue what was coming at all.

"Yes, Hally?" The tone was very polite and even friendly, with no hint or sexual anything in it. Since the poor guy had been dealing with an increased sex drive for the last four months or so, that was something kind of impressive. It meant he was dampening that response for the girl, or at least not doing that kind of thing in front of Keeley. It was polite, but not strictly needed.

He owned Hally now. By their rules he could have had her bend over the table and have sex right there and Keeley couldn't have done more than leave the room. That, luckily, wasn't his way. He was almost too gentle for one of them, refusing to rape, or enslave anyone and killing only when pushed to it. Not that she went around forcing people that way either, but it was good to know that he was willing to be that careful with her friend, even if it wasn't really about her.

Hally screwed her mouth to the side, making her seem determined and young at the same time.

"What's the plan for the next week? Until the Camp starts? Am I supposed to go and get that ready? I don't know how, but I can try."

He watched the bread under the oven light, not glancing away even for a moment.

"That's a good idea. Hilda is already there, setting up. You'll love her. She's really smart, like you are." He did dart a look at her then and shrugged. "Or, well, about fifty percent smarter than that, being a Trolleinkein. Sweet though, so you should be friends. She's going to help out at the camp, in the admin section." He stopped, giving the Human girl a chance to ask the needed questions, which she did, at exactly the right time.

"Trolleinkein? That's..." She looked at Keeley and then narrowed her eyes a tiny bit, to show she was thinking. "Pretty much Bigfoot, right? Except that the ones you know are all ambassadors, so shave all the time, to help pass as Human?" The words got Zack to actually turn and look at Hally hard for a moment, smiling as he did.

"Okay, fine then, not nearly fifty percent smarter than you are. That's exactly right. Good deduction too. Still, she looks a bit different, being big and strong. If anyone asks about that, tell them that she's a power lifter. She's that too, so you get the idea, it will work. Most won't pay that much attention to what's really going on anyway." He stared into the oven, the clear glass shining more than a little. It had been scrubbed every time it was used since Keeley and her mother had moved in, which kept it looking pretty nice.

After a few seconds he took the bread out, which was evenly golden on the top, and switched it with the other loaves, as the ravioli got stirred gently in the giant pot. The two Demons had to dance around each other to make that happen smoothly, but it worked, since both of them were paying attention, if to different things. Keeley knew that she tended to read magical energies, and Zack looked at the distortions in space that preceded movement.

Together it made them look very smooth and professional. Except for the fact that no one that claimed that title would have let them get away with such a crass meal. Canned pasta... It was good enough however, and had fat, carbs and protein, so what wasn't to love?

Without waiting for Hally to speak again, Zack turned and winked at her.

"Most of the staff is going to be made up of, um, let's call them different people? About half the campers are Human. The Shifters love the idea however, since it will let their kids practice passing in regular society. The mages... Well, they can generally do that already, so it shouldn't be that big of an issue. The biggest problem really is that they're all children. Kids can talk without thinking. A lot. We should come up with something to help them all get around that. Some kind of role playing game, or something? Then if anyone gets confused, it will seem like they're just talking about the game. I'll let you handle that one though, Hally." Zack went back to watching his product in the oven again, and stood very still for a moment. "Lyn is running this for us, and she's good. My grandmother? You'll like her, too. She's, um, you know, like I am? Keeley too?"

That information was news to Keeley and she turned to stare, as the man nodded at her, his face looking younger now, if not that much better looking than it had before. Different however. It was a slow thing, since he clearly hadn't mastered shape changing yet, but it was real enough. He looked a bit like a GQ model now. Not superhumanly good, but as she'd been thinking earlier, that was probably a mistake in the long run. Appearance mattered, but going too far beyond cute started to work against you, didn't it? He also looked a little more Japanese than he had before.

Without waiting for her to comment on the news, he pulled the bread out, and started to get things around as far as plate settings. Without asking he set Hally up too, which was probably not going to happen, Keeley knew. The girl just didn't eat that much, fearing fat too much for her own good. It was part of the social conditioning that all modern girls got, but it wasn't healthy, either physically or mentally.

Zack didn't look at either of them as he spoke.

"Um, I didn't know, until a few months back. About Lyn. Your Aunt Magda." This was said to Keels, she knew, since Hally couldn't fit that bill at all.

"Ah? Interesting? I bet your Grandfather was thrilled to find that out? Or did he know?" That seemed unlikely, since the man wasn't a slave, but Lyn had fooled her totally when they'd met, hadn't she? The lady had seemed like a mage. A healing one at that. It was such a good act that even checking her out had seemed not worth the effort at the time.

"Yeah, he did not like that one. He found out when I was confirming that I was one, too. I need to get around and visit with him again soon, before he has a chance to flip out and start thinking that I'm all evil. Anyway, if you live through the Second Crucible, you should meet her. Darla and her are friends, so you two should get along, too."

Hally looked away, responding to the idea that her friend might well die, but Zack didn't take it back, even though it was clear he noticed it. He also didn't seem to be taking pleasure in his own words. It was just the truth, and his new pet needed to be ready for whatever came.

It was hard to think about the situation that way, but since it was either pet, slave, or girlfriend, she could live with it.

The meal had small talk, and Zack ate most of the food, giving her a nice check for it, which rounded up the cost, but didn't pay for more than that by too much. Unlike her, he probably did his own grocery shopping, so knew what things were worth that way. Not that she had an excuse as far as that went, herself. That kind of information was in her head, if she bothered to look.

After they were done, he stood up and held out a hand for Hally, explaining things as they walked to the front door.

"It's considered rude to go onto the lines in front of someone. The real truth is that it distorts space, and making people walk through the ripples left over can make them sort of seasick. I don't have that problem, but a lot of people can't take it, so it's considered best to set up rifts and nodes outside of a person's home." Then chattering the whole time, they moved to the door at the front of the house. Hally turned and kissed her suddenly, her lips warm and slightly strawberry flavored. It was her lip gloss.

She didn't have bags, having already set up in Washington. Her parents knew what was happening, and that part was taken care of. All that was left was leaving Keeley behind, to face whatever would come. Alone.

That was fair however. Hally couldn't survive what she could, and really, it might not work for Zack either, if he got too close just then. It was a big enough risk for him to take people in like he was. If the wrong Demons went for him, they could all wind up dead. The only good thing there was that Finias and Darla had both suggested that just getting them out of town, under Zack's protection, would be enough. The point was, that as long as she didn't have assets, they couldn't be taken away, by the rules. If those counted in her case. It was, clearly, a set up. She would have wondered who was doing it too, if the man hadn't volunteered the information himself, through several other people.

Tarsus. The Librarian. Pretty much the leader of all the Greater Demons everywhere. Not that it was an impressive number, being that only about five hundred and twenty of them existed. Still, there was no way that she was ready for whatever it was the being had planned. Along with a threat to kill her if she failed, that pretty much guaranteed that she wouldn't be around much longer. True, the man could have been bluffing, or simply playing a prank on her, but that wasn't too likely, was it?

If that was the case, it would have already come to a head, and she'd know the punch line. It did occur to her that Tarsus had to have something other than her simply dying in mind. If he wanted her dead, it would be easiest to kill her himself. So it wasn't that. Not by any normal meaning of the concept. So what did that leave? She thought about it, not for the first time, and ended up back at the same possibilities that she always did.

It was either that he wanted her dead, without angering anyone else too much, like Finias, her father, or Darla, or there was a trick involved. Probably not one meant for her, either. Of course, that could leave an awful lot, if she wanted to be creative about what she considered. The most likely one was that the man wanted her there as a distraction. Possibly bait, in a trap. At the moment she couldn't see one closing around her, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. Did the bait ever really see the bite coming from above?

Really, it probably had to be that second one, or some variation of the same. Finias was an old and powerful Demon in his own right, but no match for Tarsus, head to head. Oh, he might win a fight, but odds were he'd lose, as often as not. Darla, The Technician, was a formidable person, but still young, compared to a being that had to count the passing of centuries by using decimal places. The base unit there being thousand year groups, she was willing to bet.

Tarsus certainly didn't care for her, which included the fact that she wasn't feared either. So that pretty much left either being bait, or something that she couldn't even think of. If it wasn't both at once.

That was one of the bad parts about being a Greater Demon, she realized, as Hally and Zack moved into the node that he'd created. She had the ability to really see reality for what it was, but not all of it at once. She could generally work out what people were doing, if she were able to find all the data she needed, but there was no way to have it all. Not even most of it. That meant, much like a regular person, she was left in the dark, a lot of the time. You had to have facts, to make good choices.

The other side of that was pretty much where her power came from though. When she did get evidence, she could see what it was all about and make it fit, the vast majority of the time. Okay, unless it was a lie or tainted somehow, but other than that, she could see it for what it really was. It gave her a measure of protection against most of life's little mistakes, while still leaving plenty of room for the big ones.

She was just standing there, the door to her home left wide open, looking out into the street, with no one in sight. It was a residential neighborhood, but a quiet one, as far as that went. Families lived there, but they kept to themselves for the most part, and while the older woman across the street did tend to spy on her a lot, that was just curiosity, not anything too judgmental. The woman was bored, not a creep. She had caught Keeley making out with a few people, including Hally, but she wasn't torn up about it, just finding that the new family across the way was more interesting than not.

Before the woman could realize she was there, doing nothing at all, except for missing people, Keels forced herself to remember what it felt like to be alert and peaceful at the same time, and moved back into the place. It wouldn't take too much longer for the lady to realize that she was there alone now, for some reason. Even the flower delivery van hadn't been sitting out front for weeks. Except for her, no one was home. That probably wouldn't work for much longer.

Not because of child protective services, either. It was just that, no matter what happened, Keeley had to leave the area soon. She was living in Darla's territory, and while that was fine for a little kid, the council had named her a full adult already. She'd passed the test for it and everything. Adults didn't live full time in anyone else's area. On the good side, she probably wouldn't have to fight anyone to take theirs, since there really was enough to go around. Some of her people held large expanses of course, but most were content to have their own city.

She needed to work out where in the world she wanted to set up shop, and get on that, no doubt. Really, she needed to get on that one pretty quickly, and buy some land for it, before she dumped the rest of her funds on someone. Her mother seemed the most likely person to do that with, but if she tried that, it would probably make it seem like Zack was just faking being her new owner. So that left people that she either didn't care about, or didn't know. The best situation would be finding someone so trustworthy that they would give it all back when she wanted it later, but short of being her slave, that probably wasn't going to happen. That meant getting the land first, and going from there.

She didn't have to go too far, having a lot of funds for the project already. That, and the internet let her purchase a nice place in Elko County, just outside of Sparks, which was big enough to be worth setting up in, and small enough that no one would want to take it from her. Someone else almost certainly had a claim on both Reno and Las Vegas, but from the set up of the town of Sparks, it was free and clear that way. Still, she decided to check it out, if after she started the transactions on EBay.

That, she did the easy way, by calling up Gregor, The Cleric. He was in charge of North America after all, which meant that he would want to stop problems, if he could. In the main.

She had to wait for four rings, but a kindly voice finally answered. It was long distance, since, in charge of North America or not, his personal territory was in Switzerland. All of the country, if she had that right. He also held Rome, but that place was pretty small and didn't leave him with a lot of resources, she was willing to bet.

"Hello? How may I be of aid to you this fine day?" It was pleasant, but then the Demon generally was. Not that he couldn't be a problem, if she didn't play her cards right.

"Cleric. This is Keeley Thomson." She waited, since the man had to call her by her own title, or at least one of them, or it would be an insult. Then... Well, it would be foolish of her to fight, but it would mark them as enemies. For half a second she wondered about that, but the man spoke without hesitation of note.

"Mistress of Souls. Did you call to set up that date that the Line Walker suggested for us?"

That was the man being either pretty creepy, since he looked like a sixty year old priest most of the time, or it was him actually trying to be friendly. Zack hadn't suggested they date after all, but that the older Demon and her have sex. It was a bit blatant for her, but then, for one of her kind, she was a prude and knew it. That had been Zack's point, though she also knew that Darla had put him up to it. To help her, most likely. She was too young and fragile to be out on her own, and everyone knew it. Oh, she'd passed her test for it, but she kept wondering how that had happened. She should have ended up dead. There was really no other way for that to have gone, but Tarsus had proclaimed himself satisfied with her performance. It was another sign that the Greater Demon hadn't wanted to simply get rid of her. For some reason.

She killed off most of her emotions, except for a slight tingly feeling of lust and appreciation for the being she was talking to. That took an application of magic, but, she noticed, not all that much. Gregor was old and looked it, but he wasn't disgusting about it. The Demon was clean and polite and had really pretty eyes, she suddenly noticed, thinking about them. A nice blue with clear whites, even in his slightly wrinkled face.

"That sounds fun, but wasn't why I called today. We should do that though? Maybe after the Second Crucible, if I live? I hear tell that a certain Librarian is planning to kill me if I fail. Not that I'm complaining, but since that clearly isn't the real situation, I think that I might find a way around the death part. Or not." She couldn't be certain, given that if killing her was needed for the whole thing to work, she'd be dead before her body, or what remained of it, hit the ground.

"Ah? Well, if you've worked that out, not that I'm saying it's correct, perhaps you should see about talking to Tarsus directly? He's in charge of this action, so would be a valuable resource for you to study, or court. As to the other thing, I do think I can spare some time, say in three months?"

"Sounds wonderful. I'll pencil that in, just in case. Now, I was wondering if I could buy the life of the Greater Demon that has the territory around Sparks Nevada from you? I plan to kill them and take it for my own, but you understand, I don't want there to be problems between you and I."

There was a dry sounding chuckle then.

"Very cute! At least you tried to get the information for free, which is darling of you. Let me see here... Sparks... Well, that area stands empty. Do you wish to certify that with me for you right now? There is a small fee, but it's nothing. A few million. Ten, since you tried to trick me. Normally that would be free, but I must keep up appearances."

She nearly winced, then just rolled her eyes. It had been a bit much, trying to do it that way.

"Four million." There was no loss for her, trying to negotiate. It either worked, or it didn't.

"Seven, and one medium sized favor, to be named later. You can reject it, if it's too much for you."

"Five and one medium favor. Same rules."

"Done then, since I don't normally charge anything for the service. Transfer the funds and I'll log that for you."

She stuck out her tongue. Not in a naughty little girl way, but just to stretch it out. It was a bit odd, but the bottom of it had tried to cramp on her, for some reason. Probably nerves, dealing with a being as powerful as the Cleric. He'd invented Christianity, and kept it going for two thousand years, which was impressive. True, he'd also let it become a major pain in the rear for their kind of people, and created a lot of the Lesser Demons in the world, out of the fear of his followers, but problems aside, it was the kind of thing that very few could have done half as well. It was his special ability, she thought. Like hers to make bargains with others.

It took a few minutes for him to get things verified, but they didn't live in the nineteenth century, so half an hour later she officially was in the book as being the owner of Sparks Nevada. Not that she wouldn't have to take it over still. Just having her name on a page in a book, even if it was the book, didn't do that for her. The quickest thing to do would be making the police chief and the city council into her slaves. Only if she could ensure they'd survive, however. Otherwise it would be a waste of time and effort.

"Say, I don't suppose you have a number for Tarsus, do you?"

There was another laugh then, this one a bit louder than before.

"I can do better than that. I have the coordinates to his home, where I believe he is still, for the day, unless his plans changed? Let me give you those. It's in Greece."

She wanted to sigh, but didn't. It would be easier, perhaps, to deal with the being from a distance, but being an adult, even if it was a set up, meant handling things herself and in person, at least part of the time.

"Thanks. I'll get on that one now. So, after all this is over? And you know, if you can look about thirty years younger, that would be good." She smiled about adding that, but the man cleared his throat.

"And here I was just thinking that you'd make a delightful fifty year old."

"All right, I can do that too. See you then? Maybe I mean?" It was less than certain, but she wasn't totally sure that she'd live out the rest of the day.

"Delightful! Yes, I will certainly see you then, Mistress of Souls."

"Cleric." There was a soft click as the line went dead.

She hung up her cell, and then put it away, making sure she had all her weapons with her. Sure, she might not need them, but as certain as she didn't have them, something would come up. She could feel it in her very core.

As soon as she'd checked it all six times, she looked up, and then created a node with a lot of concentration and more than a little magic. Stepping onto the line, she tried to keep the destination in mind and started walking. It was going to take a while, she knew.

A good long while.

Chapter three

The compound was, as Gregor had suggested, both grand and easily identified. It was a walled thing, real stones laid in with a fine mortar between each one to hold the whole thing in place. For all that Greece was noted for its fine white work in that material, this was mainly gray. Subtle shadings of things that showed wear, meaning that the thing had been repaired a lot to keep it looking as good as it did. That, or magic was used.

She had a long time to consider that as she made her way around the barrier on foot. There was, laid into the thing very carefully, a magical shield that made it impossible to pass in the lines. From there the whole thing looked like a giant shining silver block of force. A monolith that wasn't passable in any way. In the real world, it was just a ten foot high and easily climbed looking thing, but no one sane would have gone through all that work just to leave themselves open to casual thieves or attackers with a good pair of climbing shoes.

What it would do to her if she tried it, she didn't know, but given the five layers of arcane symbols faintly glowing inside the stonework, she had to figure that it was something decently serious. At a glance she was going to guess it was a demon trap. One that distorted both space and time, as well as mental properties to lock a being inside, with very few means of escape.

As she rounded the last corner, which took about ten minutes of quick walking, she saw the inside of the place, which had a large expanse of well trimmed grass. Also a hedge maze and four large statues the size of her old house, off to the southern side of the thing. The single level ranch that she'd shared with her mother wasn't huge, but these statues were impressive, size wise. They were all Human men, facing outward in different directions, each being of a different race. Also nude, but she didn't let that bother her for once. They were, clearly, put there in order to distract her thinking, she could tell.

That would have been more unlikely if Tarsus hadn't gotten Gregor to ask her to get Zack to put them into place for him. The idea had, she knew from what the Line Walker had told her, been mainly about setting him up to fail. That would have sent ripples down the line, causing her to be involved in that as well, and probably Gregor. Zack, however, finished it in about five minutes, not even straining. That kind of miscalculation on Tarsus's part was a huge gap, she had to figure. A thing that meant he'd totally misjudged the young man that he'd been trying to manipulate. Unless of course he hadn't, and the whole thing had been about her.

The wrought iron work of the gate was well done. Made by a professional and highly skilled blacksmith, having magic worked into the metal. It was done without visible welds, making the whole thing seem like a single piece of bent iron rod. As far as she could tell, that was simply the case, but if so, whoever did the work had to be almost perfect at it. All the angles that were supposed to, matched perfectly. Humans didn't do that level of work. Even their machines barely managed it. That probably meant it was the work of The Smith. He wasn't a being that Keeley had met yet, but he was legendary for his work. If this was an example of it, she could see why.

It made the grand mansion off in the distance seem poor, which it really wasn't.

Glancing around she looked for some way to signal her arrival. She could have done a lot of things, including forcing the magics of the wall to let her in, or destroying the gate, though that would take work, and waste energy. She could also yell, scream or send up a powerful flare of energy that would be seen by a Greater Demon even through a wall. Or, of course, she realized after half a second, she could just use the intercom off to the left hand side of the thing.

The device looked out of place, being made of plastic and metal, with an old and dated look to the technology. A thing from the early eighties, meant to not last all that long. The years hadn't been kind to the casing, which had cracks and warps to it, as well as UV damage from being outside all the time. When she pressed the ivory colored call button however, there was a gentle buzzing sound from the device, which might mean it worked.

She waited two minutes, and then did it again. On the fifth time she was tempted to just keep it pressed until someone noticed her, but a voice came almost instantly.

"Hello. Sorry about the wait, I was in the other room." The voice was familiar to her. Creepy and dry, which wasn't just her projecting that on to him either.

Tarsus clearly cultivated that tone with her. Why that was, she didn't know.

"This is the Mistress of Souls, Librarian. I was wondering if we could have a little chat about what the hell you think you're doing?" Because some people didn't respond that well to politeness. Not that she was going to give him a chance to do that anyway. Keeley didn't particularly want him as an enemy, since he was too powerful to play with, but since he'd already promised to kill her if she didn't succeed at an unknown and probably nearly impossible task, there wasn't a lot to lose.

"Certainly. I'll be in the front section, near the fountain, outside. Come in. I won't be but a minute." The gate moved on its own, a flare of magical force causing it to swing silently. Smoothly enough that it was eerie, rather than dramatic.

She moved carefully, looking for traps. The thing there was that every few feet, there actually was one. Most were in the earth itself, showing themselves to her internal vision as complex sigils made of energy, too faint to be noticed by most. She was decent with that kind of thing however, so was able to not only see where not to step, but also figure out what each thing would do. There was a good level of variety to it all.

The blue designs were holding back energies that would burst forth creating devastating effects. The green ones warped time and space in interesting and no doubt lethal combinations, and the yellow created illusions.

She just stepped around them all, not wanting to waste the time it would take to defeat them. That meant, about four minutes later, because going carefully had slowed her pace, she was near the front fountain, about twenty feet from the white door that led inside. Not that she was planning to intrude that much. If the minefield that was his front yard was any indication, then the man himself was paranoid enough that anything could be in that place.

She stood, removing even the merest thought of being impatient with the Demon. It wouldn't help, and even getting a bit upset about it would give him a lever to use, if he wanted. Not that doing nothing didn't as well.

After ten more minutes the door swung open, moving inward, and an average looking young man, who seemed to be about twenty, stepped out. He had slightly olive colored skin, and his face was smiling. His brown eyes were so dark they nearly looked black, to match his hair.

Keeley nodded, getting who he was from a thousand little clues.

"Librarian."

The man let his face go slack for a second, as if he hadn't been expected to be caught out that easily. It was, she realized without bothering to think too hard, a trick. Tarsus was many things, but not stupid or lacking in forethought. In fact, he probably knew everything she was about to say, and already had not one, but several plots and plans in place, each designed to get her to do exactly what he wanted.

"Mistress of Souls. So, you have some questions for me? I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to spend with you today, but that's always the danger of just showing up unannounced, isn't it? I do have some few moments, however. Please, ask what you will." He waved a hand at her gently, as if to hurry her along.

She grinned at him, which got the man to clasp his hand to the pocket of his blue jeans on the right hand side. There was a gentle flare of magic then, as he activated whatever was held within. That would be a field designed to stop her from grabbing him as a slave through brute force. It was good to know that he needed something like that, since the one time she'd tried, her attempts had just slid off of the man. Him needing an outside preparation meant that he might not be immune to her that way after all. Or at least he didn't know that for certain, which could still be useful to her.

"What I need to know? How about what my part in all this is supposed to be? It isn't to beat this Second Crucible. That isn't just some excuse to kill me either, or I'd already be dead, wouldn't I? The raw fact is, you don't need an excuse." She looked at the sigils arrayed in the nice lawn and noticed that the magic was already fading. There were hundreds of the things, but they were far from permanent. Not that they'd be gone in a week or two, but a year or so was about what they had in them, if not refreshed. She waved at the things, knowing that Tarsus would understand her meaning. "You set up a mine field, and just recently, but in a way that you had to know I could avoid. That was no more than an obstacle course for me. True that could all be about slowing me down, but how likely is that? No, you have some kind of plan, and are working me to some end. So, instead of coming at me like a jerk, how about you let me in on it, so that I have some minor chance of actually surviving? Yes, it will cost you, but if you try to leave me in the dark or set me up, I'll just walk away and not play. Maybe you can work things around to make me do your bidding anyway, but that will have to make it harder than just communicating, don't you think?"

She waited, not knowing if the man, who was a Greater Demon she reminded himself, would try to kill her then, or enslave her himself. That was the biggest threat really, if he did have a solid plan like that, a hundred levels deep. If there was some reason he wanted her for whatever it was, then holding her mind would be enough to force her to do whatever he needed. Until she killed herself to break the link. Except, unlike Darla, she didn't know how to do that and come back for certain. Well, possibly there was one way, but she hadn't made any arrangements for it yet.

Zack had killed her several times and then caused her to return to life. She might be able to trade with him to do that again. It would need to be set up however, so that, if she were ever taken as a slave, he'd know to do it immediately. She'd do that for him, or Darla, so it might be something they could arrange as a simple reciprocal matter. A pact of beneficial mutual destruction.

The Librarian tilted his now young and not at all sour looking face, and smiled hugely at her. It was charming. Polite and friendly even. So, clearly, part of a trick.

"Can you come in? If we're going to handle this like sensible beings, that is? I have a place we can speak, unworried about listeners." He didn't hold out his hand, exactly, but showed her toward the door with a wave of his left hand, palm up, to show it held no weapons. That was fine, but his right was still placed against the outside of the pocket on the other side. Hard enough that it made his movements stiff and ungainly. That wasn't his normal way of behaving, so she was wary.

Ready to move, or fight. Except of course that she didn't think she'd be able to win if it came to that. Not unless she could take from him whatever was under his hand and shielding him from her. That... Didn't seem like it would be easy.

They walked, watching each other as if ready for the inevitable betrayal. The one that had to come at any moment. Two powerful beings, each knowing that their only possible chance of survival was to strike before the other had a chance to answer in kind. Neither of them took that path however, and Keeley let herself be led to a small room inside the warm and polished looking mansion. The floor was covered with rugs, all matching, and all made with care, holding intricate patterns that flared with power when she stepped on them. Not trapping her, but releasing the scent of a fresh meadow, on an almost subliminal level. A thing that wasn't meant to impress her, but simply to make the being next to her a little more pleased with his long existence.

For his part, he stared at her so closely she wondered where the trick would be. In his words, or a sudden snaring with magic? A simple punch to the head might do it as well. There was, she knew, little enough that she had that would prevent that, so she used just a tiny bit of magic to make it so that, in that moment, there was no concern with the idea. If he killed her, then she, Keeley Thomson, The Mistress of Souls, would simply be gone from the world. That didn't even ripple off of her, at the moment.

It meant that the only nervous seeming one was Tarsus, who was the most powerful of the sane Greater Demons. Or was, at any rate, the one in charge. It wasn't a thing that she'd considered much before, but a stream of information hit her, coming from outside her mind, where the mass of data she held about pretty much everything, rested. The tale there was one that was very different than she might have thought. Tarsus was indeed strong, and very wise, able to beat most of the other Greater Demons, if he had time to prepare for them.

That didn't mean he was the most powerful. In fact, all of the strongest were insane. It was, he believed, part of why they could use such abilities. Even as the plain door to the small dark room opened, he spoke, his voice far more bland than his body language spoke of.

"Exactly, Keeley. I'm much as you are. Those that cannot see reality clearly... Many of them have the ability to warp and stretch the world around them in ways that are truly frightening. Here, let me..." He closed the door behind them, the space inside pitch black for a while, except that light came through a window as soon as the lock clicked into place, showing a very humble hut from the inside.

The bare floor looked to be clean and well swept, but it was made of packed dirt. The furnishings were all made of wood, and if there was metal used in the construction at any point, she was missing it. The light didn't pass through a sheet of glass, or even oiled paper, but was just a hole in the wall. The walls were made of mud, with bits of straw and other things packed into place. It was actually cozy, for all that. Small, but still about a hundred square feet. There was a fireplace that looked to be made of mud too, but was decently modern in construction. Not made of brick, but there were stones in place, and a clever lip that allowed protection from the flame, while letting the heat escape into the rest of the tiny ancient dwelling.

That was what she stood in, she realized. After a moment, examining the place, she could feel the differences in the world around them too. The air was smoky, but still cleaner than what she was used to, for instance. That was a subtle thing, but there. The light through the window was golden in color, and not white. After a moment, she turned to Tarsus, not addressing the fact that she was, clearly, a few thousand years back in time. Probably about ten thousand.

"So, your plan?"

She was met by a skeptical look and silence, with the man's plain but wholesome Greek looking face suddenly seeming a bit less self assured as he glanced around as well. It was clear that he was looking for things that might be out of place. This might be his secret spot, or protected zone, but The Librarian wasn't a fool or mentally lazy. He examined the small room, comparing it, no doubt, to some internal record. Looking for anything that might have shifted since his last appearance there. It was pretty clear that nothing had in particular, since he relaxed, after a fashion. His right hand still clasped to his leg.

Keeley looked at that, and then shrugged.

"It isn't my plan to try and take you over, but you seem to think that I might, once you tell me about this? Or at least want me to believe that's the case for some reason. Why don't we just skip past all of that, and go with the truth? Give me the facts and I promise, I'll try not to be a giant bitch about it all."

He still just looked at her, well past any level that might be considered normal, or even flirtatious. It was into full on psycho staring before he even blinked. Then he let his hand come away from his side. Slowly. Tentatively. It probably meant that he had some other way to stop her from taking him over. Tarsus was too well prepared not to. Too smart to let her not have a chance to prove herself a friend also, it seemed.

Finally he gave her a single nod that had the feeling of a bow, without being one.

"There are four of our kind that are seldom spoken about in polite company. At all, if one is wise. The Rage, The Chaotic, Helmsman and The Void. Each is insane in their own fashion." Stopping he actually reached out for her arm slowly, and held it in his palm. "That makes it sound like a small thing, but know this, Mistress of Souls, they are perhaps the most evil things to have ever existed on this world. Half of all Human and other race problems, murder, rapes, wars, and famines, come from those four, somewhere along the chain of causality. Perhaps more than that. Their personal habits are, as you might guess, nonsensical to beings such as you and I. Which does not mean bad, but not sane by any means. Helmsman is even pleasant to be around. Her powers however will, if left unchecked, eventually lead the world to ruin. The Rage, he wishes to destroy all of reality, and The Chaotic... Well, you get the base idea. You have more information on that in your mental stores, if you wish to look at it, which I suggest you do, when we're done."

She was supposed to work out what that meant, she knew, but lacked more than raw facts and a couple of guesses. Tarsus wouldn't have mentioned these beings if they didn't apply to her, would he? Except, they were all very powerful, and insane. It linked them as a group, after a fashion, as one way to categorize such things.

"And? Do you think that I'm like that? That I'll enslave the world to my will? Or that, if I did, which isn't going to happen by the way, that it would be a worse place than it is already?" It wasn't a new thought. Zack had mentioned the idea to her before, talking about forming a Greater and Lesser Demon Army to do her will, and how that might frighten one such as The Librarian.

Because really, it was a great idea, if not what she had planned exactly.

The being in front of her laughed, however. It seemed to be genuine and almost happy, too. Not that it was hard to fake that kind of thing. She did it nearly daily, herself.

"Not that. Oh, yes, you might be a problem in time, as powerful as your area of gifts makes you, but I agree, you aren't one to hold the world against its will. Even those you took before benefited from being your slave, which is rare. A fine thing too, since I truly was planning to kill you, before you stood before me and chose to fight to the death, rather than allow me to kill Lenore Hawthorn in your stead. That marked you as brave and good, you know. That single act. Of course, it was foolish, but I realized that some other plans I had might be served to have you as a compatriot. I..." There was a fake sigh that he meant to seem that way, and a smile that was nearly a boyish smirk. It was annoying she realized, since it was clear he was trying to charm her. "I think that it's been too long since I've dealt with a being such as you, Keeley. If I may call you that?"

He waited, since it was within her rights to insist he call her by her title. Even if she was way down the list of important Greater Demons so far, and he was right near the top. Still, he wasn't trying to kill her, and that had to count for something.

"Sure. Keels will work too, if we're going to be friends. I can call you Tarsus?" That was a bit of rope for him to hang himself with. If he were going to be a jerk about it, he could request she call him The Librarian or some other title. To her surprise he actually went with that one, after a fashion. It was a strange one however. "Well, that, or you could call me grandpa?"

There was no blinking for a moment and she didn't ask what he meant by that. It was, after all, a simple enough thing. Greater Demons didn't count the Humans in their lineage, not having any other kind of child than their own. Only the men could produce kids and only with Human women. That meant, since her father was Finias, that Tarsus was claiming to be his dad. Given the small numbers of their population, it was probably even true. If he wasn't that, he'd have been her second cousin or great uncle twice removed, no doubt. They were all related, and had to be.

Which was why they didn't go in for family names too much.

"That works. I'll probably stick with Tarsus however, since I don't want all the other Demons to make fun of me. So, my good spirit and easily manipulated ways made you think you could use me for some other project?" She was being a bit grumpy seeming about it, so smiled, knowing that it was probably a lot closer to what he was really thinking than not.

"About that sort of thing. Not nearly as negative however. The good, they do not often live long, among our kind. Indeed, I doubt that you will make it much past a thousand years, unless you endeavor to change greatly. That... Isn't the only mark of worth, however." He winked at her, but it was playful and a little teasing, not smarmy. She would have figured him as botching that kind of thing, but there it was, clean and direct. "This is where I manipulate you... Or would have. Instead, I'll do what you asked and just give you the truth."

Then he took a breath and looked around the very old place they stood in.

"This used to be my home. About seven thousand years ago. It was just about the time that I introduced writing to Mesopotamia. I hadn't really thought humanity would be capable of learning it, you know. They can be surprising, at times."

It was clear that he wanted to stall, for some reason, which meant, given everything, that she didn't really want that to happen, since there weren't a lot of reasons for that kind of thing and the fact of the matter was, a being as far above her as this one doing that probably meant something rather bad for her was in the works. He didn't shift or move, and no magic seemed to be activated either, but there were other ways to influence, or harm, a person.

He spoke again, just as she was about to mention all that.

"Really, we're back in time, in this frozen sliver of the world, at this moment. It was a more... Gentle time, I think, than the modern world, in many ways. Less so as well. In this time, where we stand, you and I, Keeley, we are not Greater Demons, but gods. It might seem a minor distinction, especially to the people around us outside that window, but trust me, it's one that went to the head of many, even if we should have all known better. If it ever comes up, remember that. Our kind, even the sane, can become drawn into the idea of our own powers and abilities. It never works well for us to be considered that way."

She nodded. "I'll try to remember that, if it comes up. Not to be a pain, but you were just about to tell me your horrible idea, in which you pretend to need my help, but it turns out to be a trap or trick that will probably get me killed?"

The other Grater Demon just smiled at her.

"That does cut out most of the middle ground, if you put it that way. So, yes. The point is that I'm very old and over the last several thousand years, I've worked out a way to hold those four, The Rage, The Void, Helmsman and The Chaotic, in a space that I do not think even they will be able to escape from. No one could. The difficulty there is that, if I try to introduce them to this space myself, they may kill me, suspecting something. You however, may be able to grab each of them and enslave them, forcing them into place by their own hands. As you recently learned, you are not perfect at doing that and need to refine your skills. However, working together, I think we can manage this. If you do not do this... Well, I'll find some other way. Perhaps one less certain of success. Safer for you, however. If something isn't done however, given the current state of this world, and the rapid technological alterations made by the Humans, I do not think any of us will survive much longer. Perhaps a few hundred years? We need to remove these four from reality, if we're going to save it."

She thought about that for a while, and just stood there, accessing the data she had about it all. They did seem to be legitimate threats, so this wasn't just Tarsus trying to use her to get at personal enemies or anything like that. Or, it really could be, since he was the one that had put those memories in place, but if so, it had been the plan the whole time. Which was, given who she was dealing with, possible.

"You have a device or magic that will work for this?"

The man smiled and looked around, trying not to give too much away, it seemed.

"There are four books. Portals to a different scheme of things. One in which magic does not work. It simply doesn't function in the spot of the greater world. If they go there, they will be locked in place, made nearly Human, unable to come back, no matter how clever they are about it. They need to read the works, but the sense of power around them and my own handiwork, is too clearly marked on each page for any of them to be fooled that way. Trust me, if I could have just sent the things parcel post, it would already be done. So, will you aid me in this? I won't lie, you really will likely die. On the good side, knowing all of this you stand some small chance that you probably wouldn't have if you didn't. For instance, you don't have to nearly kill yourself failing at the Second Crucible."

She shrugged. "So, you're going to be shocked when I pass that?"

Tarsus, the Greater Demon and clearly a jerk, sighed.

"I truly would be Keeley. Still, I'll give you a few tips, even if it's outside of the rules. The first one is to give most of the others what they want, so they won't feel a need to distrust you too much, while you angle into place with the others. You need to take The Rage first, for best results. The others will think that simply means you're strong, which might even help you be taken seriously."

She could see that, given everything.

"All right. Let's go into what I want then, in return."

Tarsus faked a cough, but was polite about it, putting his arm over his mouth.

"I think I already know that one. I... Have a fifth book. One for Xenses? I know it isn't death, but it makes so much more sense to do it this way. By taking them out of play yet alive, we don't have to worry over the return of their descendent."

It was a bit of a shock to hear, since it wasn't the horrible fate she wanted him to have, but it was clear that the old Demon in front of her was correct. It really did make more sense. At least based on what she knew about the general idea.

"Let's see about this then? Where do we start?"

Tarsus, being who and what he was, actually had a plan.

Chapter four

Not, Keeley reflected as she was leaving, about ten minutes later, walking through the minefield of magic in the front yard, that she was going to live through that plan. It was, at best, a ten percent chance of survival. The thing there was almost funny however. That part, the fact that she wasn't nearly old enough or intimidating to anyone, was the main part of why it could, possibly, work.

It was, she understood, why she'd been given the First Crucible years earlier than anyone else ever had been. Decades, in fact. That normally took place at about seventy to a hundred years old. That counting started from when the Baby Demon woke up, into their power too, not birth. She was, by that accounting, not even a year old, herself. So a true infant, handed the mantle of being a full adult for some unknown reason.

Yes, she'd still passed the test, and as far as she could tell it had been fair enough as to how it was done. Really, if anything Tarsus and the others had piled more crap on top of her than would be normal. That was to prove to everyone that she'd really earned it. Not that it made perfect sense. The insane ones wouldn't care and the good Greater Demons would believe it, as long as it had been done correctly the first time.

Which meant what? After a few seconds, walking out of the front gate without looking back, Keels thought she understood. It had been, not about the others, but herself. They were forcing her to understand that, as unlikely as it had been and still was... As much as she needed to still learn and figure out about the world, Keeley actually and honestly was, within a limited scope, ready to face it. A bit of extra time to get ready wouldn't have hurt her feelings, but she had the basic skills down that she needed for life. She could walk the lines, shape change and work magic. Make deals and even keep herself fed. That she still needed to get a lot better in most of those areas, perhaps all of them, wasn't lost on her. Tarsus had said as much, hadn't he? She'd pretty much lived the last six months relying on her ability to make deals to protect her from the others, but if the four she was supposed to deal with were as powerful and insane as all that, just walking up to them and making a grab would be silly.

Trying to trick them into a bargain or deal wasn't going to work either. That would leave them too much time to figure out how to get around what she was doing. Probably by killing her before she could act. So she needed to basically ambush them all, and do it so fast that they couldn't take her out. Also with enough protections on her that she could last through whatever their tricks were, when the time came. That meant doing a lot of preparation.

While trying to handle the Second Crucible. Tarsus had let her in on what that was going to be, for her at least. Darla was going to be off in Europe, trying to do the same thing, only, as The Librarian had assured her, for real. It seemed that The Technician actually had a real shot at becoming one of their leaders, someday. Keeley did too, or she wouldn't have been given the chance she was. After all, while it wasn't likely, there was a tiny chance that she'd pass. If that happened, she'd be one of the ruling council. Of course, most of the Greater Demons failed to get it done, when their turn came. Older, wiser beings with a lot more real world experience. So, she wasn't going to bother to really try. That was the key, she guessed. On the good side, she'd probably get another chance in a few thousand years.

The Second Crucible was a simple enough idea. There was a problem between a group of Greater Demons, and the person being tested simply had to go in and fix it. They could use anything they wanted to get that done. Bribes, tricks, threats, even stealing everyone's will and making them into slaves. If this had been real, that would have been her best chance, except that in this case, the three that were coming would all know that, and be looking out for it. That meant trying to just give them all what they wanted, while keeping them from trashing the town.

Her town. Sparks.

She stood still, the night sky an even and deep blue-black above her, twilight claiming it as she watched, the first stars just starting to show. A group of boys across the street called out to her in Greek, which after a second she understood. The language wasn't unknown to her, or at least was in the information she had.

"We're heading to the bar, want to come?" It was bold, familiar, and the boy, who was a bit older than she was, seemed to understand that Keeley was an unknown to him. Just pretty enough to get his attention, was all.

"I can't today... Maybe next time?" It never hurt to be polite, and the boy smiled and waved, as he and his friends moved along. It was strange being approached like that on the street, but they were doing it right, not making her feel trapped or cornered. Just asking if she wanted to come play with them. It probably worked on occasion, more often than wolf whistles at any rate. She fixed the boy's face in her memory, knowing that she wasn't likely to see him again. He lived in Tarsus's territory, and she wasn't planning to come back and hang out very often.

Coming up with a payment to Tarsus for the boy was a bit much, considering they didn't even know each other.

It took a moment to step onto the line from there, since there was interference from the wall and the shield that it formed, behind her. Not enough to truly mess her up, but the silver lands were empty when she looked in, and she was able to get back to the states a lot faster, knowing the way. She landed in the front room of her old house. Mainly because all her things were there, and she didn't have any place else to be off to for the evening.

The house felt silent and a bit dusty, so she wiped everything down, in case her mother popped in to visit. Sherry had OCD and would feel a strong desire to clean the whole house if there was even a speck of dirt anywhere. Or, to be more honest, she'd feel a need to do it even if it sparkled, but could fight it if the place was kept up well enough. If Zack was smart he'd have her over to his place a few times a week for a "visit". That, of course probably was the case, since the Line Walker had flat out told her he was going to try and get Sherry into bed. That part was creepy, but she shut the thought down, because like it or not, her mother wasn't hers to worry over for the time being and a bit of consensual sex was far from the worst thing for her.

If it happened, it would be that at least. Zack was a lot of things, but he refused to take slaves or force anyone to have sex. No, he'd work things around so you owed him things, which got him what he wanted for the most part, and he was charming, or at least cute enough to get women to like him. So there wasn't a lot of force involved in his life. Not directed from him toward others. Because of Xenses.

The monster that was his father. Her brother, so Keeley could sort of understand what Zack was feeling there. Not that he owed the man anything, but that he wanted to survive, and didn't think he could do that by fighting with The Defiler head to head. That was probably even true. Still, putting him in a magical world through a book? That probably wouldn't hurt her nephew's feelings. Darla's either, if she explained it correctly. That part would be hard, however.

Her sister wasn't out of control, but had been tortured by Xenses, raped, beaten and... Honestly, Keeley didn't know exactly what all The Defiler had done to her, but it was bad enough that hundreds of years later The Technician still wanted to kill him. Having seen from Zack what had been done to him as a child in the fourteen months or so that Xenses had him, it made sense that neither one of them would be all that thrilled about her new plan to simply remove him from their world. It was safer, and had a better chance of working, if Tarsus could be trusted, but...

Could she do that? Trust a Greater Demon that she didn't know that well? It was pretty clear to her that someone had been getting the insane Greater Demons to play by some rules for a while, making things harder for her and her friends.

Yes, that could be Helmsman, which was what she was supposed to be thinking, given that guidance and making people listen to her was that Demon's main ability. It was the kind of thought that made so much sense that it was simply correct, unless she was being fooled on purpose. Really, it came down to the idea that everything Helmsman said just seemed very reasonable. The problem there was, as with the rest of them, insanity. If she decided that stripping naked and rolling in the snow would be fun, everyone around her would love the idea. It wasn't slavery, since you could resist, but it was hard to do, and most of the time beings didn't know to even try.

That gave her a lot of power in the world. Armies would march on her command and never realize it wasn't their own idea. Whole technological paradigms had been skipped over or ignored, simply because she didn't care for the way they looked.

By all rights she should have been in control of them all, but Greater Demons, once they'd got the idea what was going on, had figured out tricks to get around her ability. It took work, but Keeley started on her own defenses, just sitting on the sofa in the living room, which meant she was right there when a knock came from the front door.

She could feel that it was Darla, now that she wasn't lost in thought. Someone pretending to be her, at the very least. The feeling was right, but she'd been fooled before often enough that she was planning to be careful. The meant opening the door however, which wasn't nearly as cautious as all that. Not doing it would be paranoid however. Unless it really wasn't her, in which case it was just good strategy.

The very good looking blonde girl stood there dressed in a nice dark blue skirt and a white button up the front blouse that had short sleeves. It fit the temperature of the day. It was warm out, having gotten to about eighty. It was going to be more intense in a few weeks, but in early June things weren't that bad to tell the truth. It was warm enough to enjoy, without the humidity that would have made it uncomfortable for most people.

"Keels. I thought that I'd pop in and make sure that you're eating? Have clean clothes and all that?" Darla seemed to be serious about it all, which got Keeley to shrug.

"I need to go shopping for food soon. Tonight, probably. Other than that, I'm good. I... Um... I'm planning to move soon."

That got her sister to come in, not waiting for more information, and shut the door behind her. That was probably due to the uncertainty in her voice, which was, she realized, not needed. She cut the emotion behind it, barely using a touch of power to get it done. Over time she was getting a little better about that sort of thing. It was clear that a lot of the older members of her family didn't waste nearly as much power on things as she did, day to day. That meant they didn't need to eat nearly as much, though she was, she realized, starving.

Darla put a hand on her shoulder, her face looking concerned.

"Are you... Running? I don't know if you can get away from Tarsus. Not that I blame you. I can't believe that he's threatening to kill you if you don't pass the Second Crucible like that. Do you want me to have a talk with him and see what this is really about? I know that I'm not your mentor anymore, but even that..." She didn't go into how weird it was, or need to. It just was.

Keeley took a breath, calmed herself and drew her body upright, making it seem a bit bigger, if a little too thin at the moment. Then she held up one finger, and looked past Darla to the door, as if thinking.

"I went earlier today and spoke to him myself. Since I'm an adult now. He claimed that it was all about motivating me and that he never really intended to kill me when I failed. He said that. When I failed. Which is right, of course, but we had a long talk about having some faith." Which while not the main discussion, had come up. So it was close enough to true that her body language was right for it. "I bought some land in Nevada and registered a territory. Sparks, in case it ever comes up or you want to visit. I'm planning to head out tomorrow and get things set up. One of the places has a little house and the building codes there are pretty lax, so I can set up anything I want, for the most part, without having to bribe too many people. You get the idea, I'm an adult now, and need to have my own place." She'd said it often enough, though now her sister looked...

Scared.

"Is... that a good idea? The Second Crucible is coming and you might..." She stopped and looked around, then leaned in close and whispered, as if that would keep anyone from listening in to them. "You might need my help. I don't know what's coming, but..."

Keeley nodded, which was an abstract thing at the moment. She didn't let herself think however, putting up every shield against mind reading she knew, and making up a new one on the fly, surprising herself. It was just a variation, but by holding her focus on the mental image of the cuneiform word for block, and wrapping it around her entire being in several dimensions, she managed to get it to work, with only a tiny bit of power being added.

Then she whispered back.

"Well, I have to broker a treaty between three Greater Demons that have gotten themselves into a mess. The Vile, The Cartographer and The Lover. It probably won't work, and it seems that they've been going at it for a long time. I get about a week on that one. Before they have instructions to seek me out for it, that is. It takes as long as it does to get it done. So no time limit or anything like that. You however, get to go and deal with some big deal in Europe. So, it won't matter if I'm here or not. We probably didn't even have to send everyone away. Not that we won't be busy." So that, she decided, made uprooting all their people all right, didn't it? She didn't give voice to that, being too sarcastic by far, since she understood what was really going on there.

Zack had decided the point for them, and lacking information, given that Tarsus had flat out lied to him on several points, he'd driven them all toward doing the most protective thing he could. It would have been a bit too much, if it was really just the Second Crucible. Given the idea that she was really doing something else, a thing so stupid that even trying it might just mean she was insane herself, it was actually not that bad of a plan. So whining about it was... Well, probably expected, but ultimately both a waste of time and something that would make her look foolish later. Whining always did, even if you were right. No one remembered that part later, just the annoyance of the moment.

So, she felt a bit conflicted which she showed by smiling and crossing her eyes at her sister, who just seemed a little baffled, if only for the briefest of moments.

"He told you all that? How certain are you that he isn't just lying?" Darla said that as if the idea wouldn't have occurred to Keeley for some reason, which showed an extreme lack of faith. Enough so that it earned the other girl a bit of a glare.

"Of course he was lying. About a lot of things. Most of it was the truth however, I'm willing to bet. For instance, he really is sending you off to Europe to fix a problem for him. As for what I'm doing... Well, you know how that one goes. He's decided that I'm the new special snowflake Demon and he's going to keep spanking me until I fall into line for him. I think it's just a base level conflict that we're going to have. That said, he clearly isn't planning to really get me killed, or I wouldn't have walked away earlier today."

Darla moved into the room like she owned it, since that was the way she always did everything, and took a seat on the sofa, lowering herself carefully enough that the springs inside didn't protest. Keeley did something similar next to her, if not as well. A soft creaking noise came from underneath her, which given the fact that she weighed less than the other girl by about forty pounds probably meant she was being sloppy about that sort of thing.

Not that Darla was fat, since that wasn't the case by any means. She was, if anything, just about perfect. The difference in size was all due to Keeley not eating enough and looking anorexic at the moment. Still. Most people didn't mind, but she really needed to gain some body mass, if she could pull it off.

Tapping Darla on the leg, she stood again, suddenly.

"Hey, let's go and buy out some fast food places? I need to be better about eating." This came with a poke at her hard abs, which didn't show through the shirt she wore, but were pretty close to doing that. Girls weren't supposed to have a six pack. Not unless they were into competitive bodybuilding. It wasn't a look that she wanted for herself at the moment, but would also take eating more, since she lacked about sixty or seventy pounds for that to look real, too.

"Good plan. So, Tarsus?" They moved out to Darla's car going the long way through the garage, since the other girl was covertly running a search pattern, not being certain that her little sis was actually herself. That made sense, given that she rarely enough volunteered to eat like that. It was just that she didn't know what else to do to get ready

Well, there was some research to be done, but she'd want to be alone for most of that. The four she was supposed to be going after... Those were the ones she needed to be careful about. She could, technically ask for help with the real Crucible to come, but that would be cheating. Not that Greater Demons wouldn't do that. Really, she probably needed to find a way to use that information to her advantage, didn't she?

That got her to go still as Darla stopped and touched Misty on the side, since the beat up looking plum and primer beast sat in the garage.

"What happened? She smells like chemicals." That was Darla being polite, most likely, not running off exactly what had happened. She was The Technician after all.

That meant that after a moment of examination, she could probably have rebuilt the smoke bomb that had been used exactly, and pinpoint the location it had been planted as well. Possibly even getting that no one Human would have put it where it was, under the vehicle. Or at least that they would have had to be tiny to make it happen without massive lifts. So basically Maria Gonzales from school might have done it, if she was into explosives like that. Or pranks.

It was humorous, since Darla didn't mention any of that, just waiting for Keeley to explain. It was funny though, thinking about their tiny mutual friend doing things like that.

"Quince. He planted a smoke bomb on her earlier to try and see who'd react incorrectly. The interesting part there is that he knows a Greater Demon is involved, or thinks that's the case, but he hasn't worked out that it might be you. Honestly, he just went after my car because he thinks of me as high profile, but clearly innocent." She grinned and then kept walking, since they had a fast food mission to see about. "Which I am. He seems to think it's someone on the school staff, since they'd be in a position of power there. Of course he missed the other likely candidates, like the Student Body President, or the Captain of the Cheerleading Squad."

The other girl followed along then, using the side door just after Keels did, and jogging forward to get into her unnamed little sports car. It was a convertible, and not the one that she'd used for the last few months, but it was fitting now, given the weather and her recent graduation. It was the sort of thing that rich girls like her had, wasn't it? A gift from her grandmother, to support her in keeping good grades. Not that Darla didn't pull a straight B average in every class she took. On purpose.

Then, she was also running her own multi-national corporation at the same time, and was her own grandmother, while being the captain of the cheerleading team, involved in most of the school special events, and mentoring not one, but two Baby Demons in the last year. That was sort of impressive.

Maybe she deserved the car after all?

They didn't speak until they were on the road, at the second stop light. There was an Arby's down the way and while that wasn't her favorite, it was good enough and they didn't blink much when you ordered twenty sandwiches at a time. Before they pulled in, Darla made a slightly sour face, which was fake, and let it shift into a grimace.

"I guess I need to take care of that then. It's too bad. I kind of liked him. In a hapless puppy dog sort of way. I'll handle that tonight, I guess." She sounded pretty sad about it, so Keeley shrugged.

"Or, you know, ignore him? He might come back later, but he isn't that big of a threat to you. You just graduated, so going off to Europe for a while even fits in with what would be expected. He's going on that road trip with Gary and Becky. If you aren't around and I just move away, then it isn't too likely that he'll figure things out, is it? Or... I suppose I could handle it for you. For a price." She grinned, since there wasn't a lot that she needed from her sister for the time being.

Darla didn't say anything at all for a long time, until they ordered, which she did without asking what Keeley wanted. The design of the order was all about making it look like they were shopping for a party. Because kids went to fast food places to do that, instead of grabbing a few bags of chips from a store? No one would question it however. It took a while but was early enough that there wasn't a big line behind them as they paid the bored looking boy in the window and took their food, checking the bags first to make certain they had it all. They'd been shorted a sandwich, but the kid just made a tight face and got that for them without bothering to spit on it or anything. Being polite about it all helped. Darla being so hot didn't hurt either. She paid for it, using her card.

That could have been a problem, since Keeley was an adult, but her sister didn't mention it until they were on the road again.

"KFC, and then Taco Bell? You can eat some of those while I drive and pick up every other place? Leave a few for me too however, they smell good."

That meant, about an hour later, that they were able to pull off into the groves and park. They weren't the only people there, but the other car, which was also old, had steamy windows. It should have had at least. They could actually see the couple inside pretty clearly. A man and a woman that were both old enough not to be out necking like kids. From the frantic way they were going at it, they were both probably married to someone else and on a time schedule. Darla started eating, not saying too much about anything, until they were into the last very well filled bag of food.

Keeley still needed more, but she'd go shopping later. She had her mom's Costco card, which would make it seem more natural for her to buy in bulk.

"What do you want?" The words came out quietly enough that Keeley nearly said what, as if she didn't know. "I know that you aren't that thrilled with Quince, personally. Taking him as a slave, well, if it isn't that dangerous for him, I suppose it could be done. I could do it, but..." The truth was that Darla wasn't even half as good at that kind of thing as she was. Not even close. She could take the Durg, but if she did, it would be obvious, most likely.

Keeley might be able to do it at a distance, she realized. Durgs weren't hard targets that way, and she could use him for practice. It was a thing to work on, after all. Even Tarsus had agreed there.

"Forty million. That and two large favors, to be named by me later." That got Darla to narrow her eyes at her sister, skeptically.

Keeley understood that at least. Darla always accused her of bargaining like a hippy, but that was starting out asking for a lot. For her anyway. She really didn't enjoy Quince that much. The first thing she was going to do, she decided, was make him change his name. Kevin was fine, but Quince? Yes, she knew it meant Acadian Apple, which was a thing for him, being the name of his old mercenary unit, but it wasn't nearly clever enough not to stand out.

There was a soft clearing of throat as Darla grinned at her.

"Twenty, and one medium favor. I know that this isn't that hard for you. It isn't exactly like you can't have fun with him..." It was a subtle dig, working on the idea that Keeley would be embarrassed, and not bargain as hard, if sex were mentioned. Except that she was ready for that and took those feelings out of play all together.

"Forty, and two large favors, but I'll let you reject them if you want, when the time comes. If you do, then I get a hundred million for each, however." That got the other girl to scowl. Then she took a double wrapped crunch thing from a bag and added a lot of hot sauce to it before answering.

Around a bite she mumble something that was a bit rude. Then finished her food.

"Who are you? Keeley wouldn't ask for that much. Not for this. She'd just blush and tell me it was fine, since she secretly has a crush on Quince anyway, and wants to take him as a man slave." Her hand moved toward the stick shift, casually, which meant that there was, most likely, a weapon there.

Laughing, Keeley took her hand, to stop whatever horrible pain was coming.

"I'm an adult now, right? I can't let anyone walk all over me. Plus... I really don't like him that much. I was thinking that I could set him up somewhere and let him... I don't know, guard something? Maybe Gary. Or Becky. She's going to be famous, right? He can play bodyguard for her." The girl was technically the slave of Darla, but she was currently on loan to Zack. It was confusing and meant to keep her safe, but that was a good enough reason to send her with protection. "We can claim that he came into some money so that Becky won't have to prostitute herself out while waiting for roles to come in. Not too much cash though. We don't want her to just marry him or something stupid like that." It could work, if they wanted to do it.

As long as she didn't have to have the idiot under foot all the time, it would be fine.

Darla snorted at her, and squeezed her hand, hard enough that she needed to heal it. Something cracked inside, which was a test, no doubt. Keeley wasn't as tough as a lot of the other Demons that way. Good with magic though.

"Thirty million, two favors, each worth fifty if I bail on them."

"Good enough. I'll... Go and take care of Quince now. I don't suppose you have his phone number?" Keeley could get it, and probably had it in her own head somewhere, if she worked it all out. Hally or Eve probably had it, and she'd collected both of their lives already. That just meant searching... It took a few seconds and Darla didn't speak, understanding that she'd already handled it.

That portion of things at least.

"So, it will be done by morning? Transfer the funds tonight?"

Darla tilted her head.

"After it's done." Then she started to drive back toward town, which wasn't far. "You know, Keels... I think I liked you better when you were kind of clueless."

That got a nod back, "I know. Much easier to manipulate that way. Well, everyone grows up sometime, right?"

Darla shook her head then, but smiled. It was a dark and knowing thing, not friendly or kind.

"No, not really. Most of our kind just die before that happens. Be careful. Things are... Well, normal for us. So not what they seem. Keep that in mind, or you won't last long, adult or not."

It was good advice, but Keeley didn't know if she was going to live long enough to apply it. Probably not, given everything.

Chapter five

It took a bit to shake off Darla, since her wonderful sister seemed to still not be certain about who Keels really was. That... It was a problem in their world. Honestly, there was a good chance that the blonde with her was someone else as well. The big difference there was that The Technician could take care of herself and knew it, so she'd be around eventually given that it was her territory, even if someone tried to pretend being her for a while.

Her little sister might be simply tucked out of the way however, if someone were strong enough, or just took her by surprise. It was very nearly impossible to trick one of their kind, which just meant the ones good enough to manage it pretty much couldn't be stopped.

So Keeley trying to eat enough and making hard bargains, which were both things that she'd been told to do a hundred times over the last few months, seemed out of place now. It could have been a sign that she wasn't herself. Except of course she was. Really it came down to the fact that she was scared of dying. Not in an obvious way. There was no trembling or panicked sounding words. It was a deeper thing than that. One that started in her gut and crawled all the way to the top of her mind constantly now.

Tarsus had set her up to die, even though he didn't really care about that part of things. He just wanted the world to be saved and honestly figured that they didn't have much more time to handle things. She could, and probably should let someone else deal with it. That, however was the real trick to the whole thing, she thought. The Librarian would let her out of it, but knew that she, being young, idealistic and naive, would take the task on, even if no one else sane would try it.

That was why her life had been accelerated. So that she'd be able to make that decision for herself, without Darla influencing her on it.

Because her sister would have looked at the situation and told her that she wasn't allowed to risk her life that way. That no one should ever even try things like that. Especially babies that still had mentors. Only, now she didn't have that kind of influence over her.

So, it really was a trap that way. One that she could get out of, but wouldn't, since she was still too stupid to just kill off her feelings and let everyone around her perish. Yes, some of them would do it anyway, eventually. Hally, unless something happened, probably wouldn't live past eighty. Gary was even worse, being suicidal like he was. Darla had to work to keep him from sinking into a deep depression, and eventually she'd get bored with the idea. The easy thing to do there would be to take him as a slave and merely order him to honestly feel happy. That took work and effort however, and even though he was a friend, Keels didn't know if the boy was worth that kind of time commitment. Thinking that left her feeling a bit sad, until she started to shut that down, too.

He wasn't, at that point, a good investment. He didn't have skills or hobbies that would benefit her or anyone else in the long run. Worse, his personal habits made him disruptive to the natural order of the world. Not his being gay, which was fine. No, it was the fact that he was different from most people, while also being smart, and brave enough that he wouldn't back down. That could have made him a natural leader, but being as young as he was, it would remain to be seen as to how well he did in that regard. He'd been an indifferent student and hadn't planned for college. It wasn't a lack of intelligence, just that his interests, what he was conscientious about, were too different. Sports, and martial arts for self protection.

Gary was then, in short, not really ready for the world.

Still, she was being a bit dark and decided to dump that on Zack, just bringing up the idea with him. They had time, if they wanted to bring the boy back around, after all.

Darla however kept watching her, even as she politely made her excuses, several times. Finally she just glared at the older Demon and snorted at her.

"I'm me, okay? I just have some things to get done. Here... Let me..." She'd gotten them both back to her house and sank onto the sofa, making it creak again. That should have been a sign right there, since she hadn't been trying to do that, but her sister wouldn't be able to count on that. A good faker, was, by definition, good.

Instead of snarking again, she closed her eyes, ignoring the world around her, trying to work out what she'd really need. It was possible to form a connection at a distance for a Deal. Darla had managed taking Becky over the phone, in a normal conversation. That was really due to telepathy though, which was... A thing that Keeley could do too. She was even decent at it, if the truth were told.

She found Quince with her mind, the ancient Durg resting on his bed, at home with his parents in the background. The people that had been hired to take him in. Worry and a bit of anger slid off his thoughts, going over everything that he'd been doing. How at each turn, he hit dead ends as far as finding what had happened to his brothers. It ate at him. He'd heard some rumors of a Greater Demon called The Bold, and figured that one for being the likely attacker. A fearsome beast that even went after other Greater Demons.

It was hard to keep a straight face, but she managed it, not wanting to be insulting, even at a distance. Fram did actually do that. The only thing there was that he normally lost when he tried. It was just that he had a blind spot that made him think that being thought of highly by his peers meant something. It didn't. That lack of understanding was why he was insane. Other than that he wasn't a bad sort of being, just a bit... Limited in one direction. It got him noticed.

It was clear that Quince wasn't up on who was doing what however. Not even that he lived in the territory of The Technician. It wasn't that hard to find things like that out, but it would require actually asking around for a while, which wasn't a thing that schoolboys had a lot of time for. So he'd done a lot of divining, trying to find out what he could in the entrails of animals. It didn't work on Greater Demons, but there were patterns left, that showed where things were missing.

Like the ones that he'd found around the school. There had to be one of her kind all over things to make it work out as it had, according to what he'd seen in the entrails. That was why The Bold must be one of the Teachers, if not the Principal. He was tempted to go after the man that night, just in case. If he were wrong, it would be a shame, but an acceptable loss. If he was right, well, a surprise attack would be the only thing that might work.

He was a powerful fighter, and a warrior that knew his skills very well, having practiced them since before Humans regularly farmed the land. That didn't make him the equal of a Greater Demon however. If he gave that kind of being even a half warning, it would be too much and he'd fail. All he had to do was get up, and go.

He started to, as Keeley formed a link with him, sending the idea of a Deal to his mind. A bargain that he couldn't refuse, since it was her doing it. All he had to do was stand up, and that would be the agreement to be her slave. Forever. If she'd been working in words, she might have been a bit more gentle than that. His thoughts however responded to her, which showed that what she was doing was working. That it could work. He also stopped moving suddenly, refusing, at least for a moment, to get up.

She focused, and sent a single thought to him then.

'Stand.'

He rose with a shocking speed, which allowed her to feel the link between them sink home. Then, because it was the hard part, she gave him orders instantly, using her mind for it, instead of words, which was all she'd ever tried before.

'You will obey Keeley in all things. You cannot lie to her, or struggle against her. You will allow no loophole in your thinking, serving her only.'

Then without moving or opening her eyes, she went over that several times with different variations of the phrasing. He responded to it pretty well, but she really didn't want to make mistakes. Her first grab had been too clumsy for instance. If that had been a powerful being of her own kind, it would have likely ended with her own death, even being seven miles away like she was.

Opening her eyes, she winked at Darla and then patted her leg as the girl raised her eyebrows in return.

"There, I have him. Quince. Kevin now. Do you want me to have him do something, to prove that I'm me?" No one else could have grabbed a person like that, she didn't think. Not that quickly. It had only taken about four minutes, which wasn't that shabby. Also too slow, for what she needed to become. A good start, anyway.

"Have him call me on..." She pulled out a cell phone and brought the number up for Keeley to see. "That line. Don't say the words out loud."

It took about a minute, but a totally different phone rang and had to be pulled out of her shirt pocket. It was a tiny thing, but she nodded when she glanced at who was calling.

"Quince? How good to hear from you! What can I do for you this evening?"

They chatted for a bit, and with only a slight bit of mental pressure, the boy invited himself over for a visit. There was no real reason for it, but he assured them that he'd be there by ten. Alone. He knew that Keeley was there, since Darla had mentioned it. At that point, he got pretty excited.

"I... Don't know, Quince. I guess that Keeley is free for the evening, come to think of it. Are you just using me to get to her, or are you hoping for a three way?"

That got a laugh that could be heard at a distance, and a polite denial of both things. After a bit she got off the device and looked at her sister.

"Impressive. Unless of course he realized what you tried to do and is just planning to come and kill you. What do you think the odds are?" There was a darkness to the words, but no distrust in the matter, which was heartening to see, after an evening of shifty glances.

"About fifty-fifty? I've never done this before, and I could have messed it up. So, let's... Actually, that gives us about three hours. I need to go shopping. You can come, or... I don't know, meet me back here then?"

"That second one. I need to actually check in with Zack. I don't get out of being his babysitter just because things get a tiny bit complicated. I also seem to need to transfer some funds around." Which was a sign that the other Demon really thought that Keels had pulled it off. She hoped that was the case.

The trip to the store was pretty boring. Even loading up four full carts of food, and making two trips to different places, she didn't really have more than enough for a few days. Two, if she actually ate like she needed to.

She did that when she got in, making enough food for a small family to get fat on, then doing it again, twice more before Darla came in, at just before the stated arrival time. She could feel Quince coming, walking on foot, approaching the house as if it were a perfectly normal evening. That link meant that, if nothing else, she truly had him enslaved. What it didn't mean was that her commands had been received completely. She hoped that was the case, but reached into the space around her and checked her weapons again.

It was, technically a pocket universe. The second one that she'd built, since Tarsus had helpfully broken her first one, while beating her about like a sock puppet. This one was a bit bigger, and carried more gear inside of it. For instance, she had six swords and knives now, instead of two. Nearly a dozen guns and a rocket launcher were near her left hand, and behind her she had a small room filled with things that might be of use at some point. If by small she counted a space about the size of the house she was in. There was food there, for instance, which was nearly as much as she'd gotten that night. She needed to increase that. That, and make certain she had enough water put by as well.

It didn't look like much in there, since everything was invisible, but she could enter the space and find things. There was no need to breathe there, since time didn't exist. It made moving around interesting, but it was doable, using magic. The idea was, if she had to, that Keeley could walk into the space and simply hold still for a time, to avoid an attack or to hide from someone. Like a panic room, if it were portable.

When the knock on the door came, she decided that she was ready, and answered it, trying to smile. Quince didn't have a gun or sword of his own in his hands, so she decided it was a good sign.

"Hi Kevin! Come on in. Would you like something to eat? Or drink?" She said the words as naturally as possible, still ready to move if he came at her. Darla just watched, standing back, a smile on her face.

"Oh, that sounds good. Could I have some water? Please?" That was pretty polite for him, since he'd come from a time that was so long before things like politeness hadn't really been invented yet.

She got a glass for him, and a bag of corn chips to share, putting it all in a bowl. Then had him settle in on the sofa.

"So, Quince..." Keeley looked at him, knowing he was hers, but spoke the words anyway. "You can't lie to me, or fight against me in any way. Right now you're going to be relaxed and can't even think about becoming violent without my permission. Do you understand that?"

"Oh, yes. I understand. Why would I?" He seemed honestly confused, but something inside his eyes hardened just a little bit, and he winced. She hadn't forbidden him from thinking, and even a Durg could eventually understand what was happening. "By my beard! You're the Demon?"

There was no violence, just him looking at her as if to say he still didn't believe it.

"Well, one of them. Not, as you might have guessed, the one that you've been looking for. I'm The Mistress of Souls. Darla is The Technician."

There was an open mouthed look that worked for the young looking man, if not in any way that a thinking person would enjoy. He had nice full lips, and blue eyes, she noticed.

"The Bold?"

Darla shrugged, and moved to pat him on the leg. Then she moved to his hand, the drain of his life's knowledge palpable to Keeley as it happened.

"Fram. Who you knew as Barb? At least the last one. Before that the part was played by Xenses, The Defiler. To answer your questions however, the unasked ones, I was the one that killed your brothers. They killed Rob, who was one of my people, and they did it on my territory. Yes, they'd been ordered to by the Gatherer, Edith to harm one of the Raintree high football team members to ensure a victory for her students, but they chose to take it too far. Worse, they knew they were flouting her intent at the time. She died for that too, by the way. I didn't tell you, since I felt that you might be obligated to try and fight me if I did. I... Actually like you, Quince. So I hired Keeley here to enslave you instead."

Because that would make sense to anyone, ever. Looking over at her sister it was all she could do to not roll her eyes and make little violin noises. It was, naturally, a very well played scene, hitting just the right notes, but the fact was, Quince was more than a little annoying.

Not that Keeley was going to be mean to him. Her job wasn't about that. Not this time. He wasn't wrong, wanting revenge for his family members, after all. That just couldn't be allowed. The fact was, she personally benefited from the idea that no one got away with doing wrong to a Greater Demon. It would make her entire existence easier to manage, since they weren't all that popular for some reason. Sure, it was probably the fact that too many of them were insane killers that would eat your children for a snack, but even that helped to keep a lot of beings in line. Without that reputation, she'd end up having to fight, and kill, a whole lot more than she would otherwise.

Even Quince seemed to understand that. At least inside, where it counted. He didn't tense up, not being allowed to, but she hadn't told him to be polite all the time, so in a very relaxed fashion he told Darla to go and fuck herself.

"Or, if you want, I can do that for you? Not in a way that you'll enjoy however. You killed my brothers... How am I supposed to handle that? I thought we were friends." That was honest enough that he said it while looking at Keeley.

She grinned.

"It's a matter of conflicting world views. Now, don't let this get you down, it's all about you coming to terms with what happened. When you really do, I'll be able to let you go. In the mean time, how would you like a job? One far away from here?"

There was a lot going on inside, including thoughts of killing himself, but that ended when he realized that it would be him attempting to escape, which wasn't allowed. Glaring at her, he nodded, knowing that choice wasn't a thing he had anymore.

Except that he really did. If he refused to do the work, she'd place him somewhere else. There was no reason for her to make his life too hard. It was why she held out hope of being free one day. Yes, he'd have to die to do it, but here, in this one being, was a chance for her to do that without dying herself. Given that it could happen inside a few days or weeks, if he got his thinking around fast enough, she really didn't want him to be too upset with her.

Or worse, her friends. If that happened Darla would kill him.

"I guess?"

"Good! What I want, is for you to watch out for Becky Hoader. Get in good with her. Tell her about how you got a large inheritance from your grandmother, and want to move out to Hollywood. Invite her along. Make it about sex or something, but not so much that she feels trapped. Can you do that?" It might be a little advanced for him to manage, which would mean giving him a lot of help with the storyline, but he seemed to think he could do it on his own.

That meant she was able to simply add a few more explanations, and set up an account for him to use in his own name. It was hard to do at night, but the others were planning to leave the next day, for the Grand Canyon. True, Becky's boyfriend was going along as well, but that relationship was pretty much over anyway. Darla assured them both of that, explaining how she'd been making certain it would end peacefully. It made for an interesting story, but didn't take too long.

By midnight Keeley managed to have everyone out the door, and settled onto the bed in her room, going over all the information she had, about pretty much everyone. It took some time, being that several of the beings she was investigating were older than dirt. In some cases honestly so, given the rate of decay and how such things developed over time. Given the way things broke down and were recaptured by plants and fungi, most topsoil was less than a few hundred years old, even. The very surface layer was less than that in most places, unless the farming practices were just horrible.

She ran the list, going over the easy ones first. The ones she needed to handle for the Second Crucible. The Vile came first, which was a good plan, because he didn't have that name due to proclivities or habits, exactly. The fact was, everything about that particular Greater Demon was simply gag inducing. He smelled, which was on purpose, and covered himself with rotting and festering wounds. It was his own personal take on the world and didn't make sense to her, but the fact was, he enjoyed alienating others.

The Cartographer was more normal, and even sane, which normally would have made things work out well enough, even with one of the nut jobs being involved. Like his title said, he drew maps. Highly advanced ones that could show even a normal person how to transverse to almost any point in space or time. There was a lot of information about that kind of thing in her memories of him, but that was about all that might be considered interesting. He was, for the most part, his single task. He produced maps. Just that. He didn't bicker, or fight a lot, and wasn't prone to irregular emotional ups or downs. How he could end up involved in anything, given that, she didn't know.

The Lover was easier to see that way, since "Lover" was a pretty polite way to speak about her. Her main area of achievement was sex... and related topics. Like the Cartographer, she was driven by that one thing in all areas of existence. It was her defining trait, on a level that had to make it hard to live, day to day. She couldn't do a lot of simple tasks, like shopping or walking down the street, without stopping for sex every few minutes. That was, no doubt, going to make the job at hand nice and easy. Hopefully she'd hold together long enough for the rest of them to come to a conclusion about things. That, or they could try and hold the discussions needed while she had sex. If so, Keeley was going to hire someone to do that part. That, or get her friend Kaitlyn to come in and handle it, since she was a succubus.

The vexing portion was that she simply had no clue what the issue was. That part was hidden from her, and Tarsus hadn't been useful there. Oh, these three might well end up in a war or major blow-up over it, but she wasn't allowed to know what it was, so that she could walk into the meeting room prepared. No, that would make sense, or possibly allow her to actually fix the problem, instead of just making her look young and inept. Not that the whole point wasn't that. It was just a thing to distract the others from what she was really doing.

The Rage was male, and filled with anger at all times. He was so bad that it leaked from him telepathically into various other parts of the world. He lived in a war zone, constantly, since everywhere he went the world devolved into that state, just for him. On the good side he wasn't all that brilliant. Most of the Greater Demons were decent that way, but The Rage couldn't let himself think that much, because it angered him to do so, which gave her a possible edge. On the bad side, he would try to kill her, if they ever met. Even if she didn't give him a reason to.

The Chaotic was pretty much what he or she sounded like. That part was strange, but as a being, it was hard for anyone to know what sex it really was. It didn't have a favorite form either, so it could show up as anything. Leaving disorder in its wake. On purpose, however. Just being near the area of influence was enough to pretty much ensure that everything would go wrong, which was going to make dealing with him, or her, a very interesting task. The very nature of the Demon would seek to block her powers and make certain she messed everything up. Really, it was too dangerous to even think about, so she stopped. Even here, far away from wherever the being lived and worked, it might accidently influence her, if she focused on it too much. She could feel the sinking of the universe around her, tugging in that direction, skewing away from her, for as long as she reviewed the nature of the being. So whatever she did would have to be precise, fast and done well away from it.

She had to move on, and knew the most about Helmsman, who was, as Tarsus had told her, a lady. It was her ability to guide and steer those around her that earned the name. She'd need to be taken at a distance too. Really, they all would, if possible.

That left The Void, who was a male, maybe, but otherwise an unknown. Even as to what he did, or how it happened, there was very little data. She kind of suspected that it might not be that great of a problem really, and wasn't destructive, just the opposite of The Librarian, which made it unpopular and scary to the man. At least he didn't have a big laundry list of wrongs done by the being. If he did, then Tarsus hadn't bothered sharing that with her, at any rate.

It was oddly comforting, she realized. Oh, in a strange and possibly insane way, but still, that counted too.

The first three, the ones for her Crucible, were all older and more powerful than she was, but only one was insane on a level that she couldn't understand, and even that one was noted for mainly being unpleasant, not impossible to deal with. Contrasting them with her real objective allowed her to see it as far more possible, no matter how hard it would really be. These three weren't getting along for a reason, whatever that was. If that was the case, she probably wasn't going to easily fix it for them. Which, naturally, was what the test would have really been about, if it had been honest. Her working with them in a fashion that allowed peace to happen. One way or another. Thankfully, it just didn't matter that much, and she could simply be reasonable and pleasant to them, and let them go their own ways if they wouldn't try to fix things.

The last four, well they were different, weren't they? Three of them were functionally insane and probably amongst the worst that such beings could be. Dangerous and lethal, while not caring to play by any rules but their own, most of the time. The Void... Well, Tarsus had so little information there that the being could be anyone. Even a person she knew, and she might not understand that to be the case at all. He rarely interacted with anyone, and while there was a small chance that he tended to erase himself from history, even that wasn't something anyone knew for certain.

She didn't even have a clue as to how to contact most of them. Especially that last one. It would have to start the next day however, or the one after that, so she could get her new home set up. Invitations would be needed to be sent out. Or at least some kind of reason for her to be in contact with any of these beings. That would take thought. The simple people would also be the ones she didn't really care about. The three that needed to have a problem resolved, whatever it was.

The rest...

Well, Tarsus hadn't been wrong there. The trick really would be locating and taking out The Rage first. The rest of them would be harder. Not more dangerous, but looking at a map she already knew where he had to be living. In Kiev. It was the only place to have a sudden war break out in the last months. Chances were that he was still right there too. At least no one had suddenly come to their senses and tried to deescalate anything.

Opening her eyes, she remembered what it felt like to be very awake, and then got on the computer, since she had a lot of work to do, and didn't know if she had much time left for it.

Chapter six

It took nearly two full days and nights to get her new home ready to live in. That didn't mean professionally decorated and ready for guests. No, she found herself being pleased that she had a little house, with power, water and computer access. It was remote, too, being just on the edge of where she could get real cable internet, instead of paying more for less, by going with satellite.

Even at that she'd had to pay extra to get the workers in without her being there. For some reason each of the companies seemed to think it was perfectly fine for her to camp in her own living room for two weeks before bothering to even think about sending someone out. That didn't work for her, since she needed a base of operations that didn't have all her friends and their families living just down the street. In that way, where she was, just outside of Sparks, was perfect. The location itself sat on roughly three thousand acres of land. It had been put together by purchasing twenty large properties next to each other, though there was a gap in it on the northern edge, where someone else owned things. That didn't matter too much, as far as she was concerned. This was her territory, so if a Greater Demon came along, she could tell them to take a hike.

If the person that had the rights to that portion was annoying to her, well, she'd either deal with it, like everyone else, or she could get them to sell. It shouldn't be that hard, really, if she applied herself. It was the third day, in the morning, that she loaded up Misty and drove to her new place. She'd been to it before, so wasn't shocked at the end of the twelve hour trip. It wasn't a mansion, by any means.

In fact, as she pulled into the long gravel driveway, it looked a bit dowdy and run down. The house hadn't been loved in a long time, and was a dusty white, with peeling yellow trim on it, the paint flaking off in several places. This region didn't get a lot of rain, but it was enough, if it were used correctly. The fact was though that whoever had once lived here hadn't bothered with anything like that. There was no garden, just a flat expanse of dirt that had long grass on it, only part of it being green, even this time of year, in the early summer.

The inside was no nicer, having holes in the walls in several places, where portions had been removed, looking for drugs, most likely. That whoever had lived here wasn't into the whole idea of responsible... anything, was simply apparent. She wasn't whining about it, however, since that was why she'd gotten a really good deal on the place. The septic system worked, and the well was producing potable water. It would pay to put in some solar and wind energy collection units, but that could wait a few weeks, while she handled the other things, she decided.

Like getting a bed, and fixing the walls.

That was the first course of action, naturally. She wanted to fix and paint the place, inside and out, and then redo the flooring, and get some furniture in. It wouldn't be enough to impress any of her own kind, but that wasn't the point. She just wanted the place to look real. Like she planned to live there for a long while. Since she did, getting things in order would be a good starting place.

That meant, since it was still early evening, only about six-thirty, she needed to get into Sparks, and see about the materials she wanted. Which, since she wasn't a moron, meant unloading everything she'd brought with her first. There was a lot that was needed, since she didn't actually own some things that would help. Like... anything for the kitchen. She'd need a new stove. A fridge too and... Pretty much everything else. According to the internet there was a Home Depot around, so that would have to be her first stop. Plasterboard, something to cut it with, hammers, nails, paint, gear for that...

She planned it all out as she drove, wondering how exactly she was going to get it all back in Misty, who was a good car, but small, as far as hauling things like eight by four feet wide materials went. Rather than fret over the idea, she just located the correct place, and parked, walking inside and stopping at the first cashier she saw, who was in a nice orange vest, but looked to be a bit tired.

The lady was Hispanic, had on far too much makeup for her current job, and still managed to smile at her when she walked up.

"Hello! How are you today? Do you need help finding anything?"

Keeley nodded, not in agreement, but because most people would instantly feel more helpful if they saw a person appearing to do that. It would work even if she were telling the woman to go and screw herself in the drill department. In this case, it worked better though, since she wasn't being an unreasonable harpy about anything.

"I could use some help, to tell the truth. I just bought a house, but it needs some work. I can do that part, but I need a lot of things, and can't get it there. Do you have delivery here?" She didn't know if that was even a real thing, but the woman looked at her funny, for about half a second and then nodded back.

"Sure do! I... Let me get the Assistant Manager over here, he can help you with that..." If she were troubled about anything, the lady, Claudia, if her tag wasn't lying about that, didn't let it show past the first funny glance her way.

That would be her looks, of course. She didn't just look like a high school girl, but a pretty and rather helpless one. The skinny kind that had always been handed everything, so didn't know how the world worked. The man that came when called seemed to think that same thing, and kept asking her if she knew what she wanted. In a patronizing way, even as she got him to help her load up several carts and get things underway. What he didn't do was ask if she had the funds to pay for things, which...

Well, she understood the reasoning there, didn't she? Either she did, in which case trying to call her on it would be a very poor plan, or she didn't which meant he and a few other people would waste an hour or two following her around. She got new appliances too, and set up a delivery of composite stone countertop material. She knew the size she wanted off the top of her head, and could, she assured Glen, the Assistant Manager, install it all herself. It took a while to get it all ready, but the truck that came for the delivery was actually there in time to help her offload everything when she got back. They even offered to help her get it inside, since she was tiny and appeared to be alone.

That got her to smile, and lie, since she didn't really want the men thinking that coming back for a rape party was a good plan. They were hers to guard, after all, and while none of them felt that creepy, they were all young and drank often enough that it showed on their bodies. Two were lean still, but just starting to fade into that early thirties plumping around the middle. Except that they looked to be in their mid-twenties, which meant they didn't exercise outside of work a lot. The last man was a bit older, and had nice stocky shoulders, but a gut on him that matched the growing double chin. That didn't mean physically weak, or even that he didn't think that the attractive young girl wouldn't find him to be the same way. At least subconsciously. He'd used to be good looking enough, and it took time for people to let those old ideas fade, even after their bodies started to change on them.

It was there in his body language. He oriented toward her, his hips thrust out, sucking his middle in at the same time. His thumbs were in his belt loops, and his fingers pointed toward his crotch, making a little triangle that practically screamed 'look at how sexy I am!' to anyone watching. That wasn't unusual at all, but he also seemed to understand that cute teen girls didn't normally want slightly thick looking older men, outside of movies. To that end he was polite, rather than trying to flirt with her, and acted concerned about leaving things outside, rather than like he really wanted to get on her good side.

She passed out a twenty dollar tip to each of them, and got a number to call, from each of them, since the older man decided that her tipping them that much meant she was loaded, house and car aside, and the other two just wanted to have sex with her. They looked pretty average, but she decided to keep that in mind. Not for the sex, but for future people to work with in the area. The older man was about average in intelligence, but that could be enough, for some things. They took off a few minutes later, which meant she could get back into town herself, and do a full shopping trip. Food was going to be mainly out of packages for a while, but she'd make do.

It all took time, but by midnight she had most of the major internal damage fixed, and started in on getting the place ready for painting. That meant stopping to eat every two or three hours, but the entire place looked all right, having the first coat on it, by six.

By noon she needed more supplies, and food, so made another trip into her new area. She'd need to drive it all and get a good feel for what she had to work with, she knew. Not that she had the time for that yet.

So, by going back and forth the five miles into town, over and again, and working fast, using magic to slow time around her and speed her motions up by several times, she was decently ready to bury her head and just get things done. It took all of the week that she'd projected it would, even going at it constantly, without rest or taking time off for distractions.

That meant that on Thursday evening, a full week and a half after she'd gotten out of school, she was ready enough for Darla and Zack to visit. She didn't get that however, since the people that came, unannounced, were unknown to her.

Or, she realized, as she felt them on the lines, heading toward her position, not so much beings that she didn't recognize, but ones that she'd simply never met before.

Smiling, she waited outside for the first to step out, about fifty feet from her front door, at the end of the walkway. It was very polite of the man, who held a small piece of leather in his left hand, and didn't look at her for a long time, making notations on it in ink.

"Cartographer." She said the words softly, but he nodded, working the whole time. When he finally reoriented on her, his face lit up a bit. Smiling.

"Ah! The Mistress of Souls? Good, I did find the right place. The others should be right behind me then. I provided directions for them. Call me William, please." He didn't approach, just tucking the leather bit away, after blowing on it.

His face was a bit round, and smooth, making him look about twenty-five or so. He had body fat, or the appearance of it, but didn't let any of it hang off too much, which meant that, given his real bulk, a whole lot of it was muscle. There was a sense of power to him, disguised by his doughy form. That was a good idea, since people always underestimated the chubby. The ugly too, which was what she was thinking when the next man walked out of a temporary node. It glowed in a single pulse, making a less than pretty red rent in the air. Like a tear in space, not a smooth iris opening up like she used.

This one, The Vile, was doing everything he could to live up to his name, it was clear. Or nearly everything. He glanced at William, and smiled, or at least seemed to be doing that with the half of his lips that were still there, the others seeming to have rotted off. His face was pocked, and had open sores all over it, and a reek came from his direction that made her eyes start to water, even as she killed off her sense of smell to avoid retching openly.

"Vile." She gave a small bow, since, like it or not, she was in charge here. It was her territory, and more than that, she was the one stuck with getting them to behave. Somehow.

It was a thing that the new man seemed to not have a problem with either, since he just gave her a look that seemed apprising, not combative. Insane or not. It was something to keep in mind, she knew. Just being insane didn't mean that the being in front of her was wrong, no matter what anyone said. In fact, he seemed to be able to get along with the Cartographer well enough.

"Mistress of Souls. Thank you for agreeing to see to this for me. I hope that it isn't too great an inconvenience for you? I'm certain that we can work something out. We should have already, but... Well, you'll see. Shortly." He looked behind him, as a lovely woman seemed to step out of the lines. It was done smoothly, but with a flare of magical energy that showed most of it was being done just to make things look good. If it had been Zack coming, it would have seemed very much the same way, Keeley knew. At least on the surface. He wouldn't have wasted anything though. In that way Zachary, the Baby Demon, was simply a thousand times better than the woman that came through the lines just then.

She was nice enough looking, in a Mediterranean peasant looking way. Her face was a bit square, and her hips were wide, which was done to make sex easier, as well as signal what her goal was, no doubt. Her nipples were erect, and very dark. The see through white top she wore allowed that to be seen instantly enough. Her skin was an even and dark color, and she had brown eyes that were nearly black, also meant to suggest interest to anyone seeing her. It was as if her entire being was focused on one task, gaining amorous attention. Even the size of her breasts were nearly perfect for that. A double D cup. Big enough to attract constant attention, and small enough not to be in the way too much when doing something about it.

Her black hair was loose and flowing, and she wore a white skirt, with sandals. Those were nice, but seemed like something that could be bought at a shoe shop anywhere in the world. Nothing about the woman spoke of wealth, or even power. Just availability.

"Lover." It came out sounding a bit wrong, but Keeley didn't blush about it. If you picked a name like that, you probably wanted that kind of effect.

"Mistress of Souls." There was no attempt at being pleasant, since she looked over at The Vile and sneered, even as he rather kindly grinned back at her. Oh, sure, it was the kind of thing to make most have nightmares, but the attempt was real enough.

Before she could speak however, Keeley held up her right hand a little, which got them all to look at her. She could have been about to do something, like steal their will, for instance, so they all tensed, just a tiny bit, seeming to relax when she spoke instead.

"I need to be informed as to the nature of the difficulty. We should all strive to deal with this today, or at least not turn whatever it is into a larger problem. If an equitable resolution cannot be found, then I'll personally take whatever the issue is and all valuable or desirable parts of it, and leave you with nothing to fight over. Is that agreeable to you? If so, please don't answer, since my abilities might accidently try to take you over if you do." It was a threat, and one that she followed with a smile. "Which means that you all agree with that? Excellent. The real goal is, however, to have everyone leave here, if not happy, then at least no worse off than you started. Right now, let's go in and have a seat? We can eat something and have some drinks. You can each trade something of comparable value to what you have, later. I'll leave that assessment to you."

She turned, and started to walk inside, wondering which of the three would attack her first. She was being incredibly snooty, by Greater Demon rules and standards. Really, they probably should have all attacked at once, agreeing that whatever they'd been troubled about before was worth less than being rid of her, but no one did more than follow. The Vile came in last, stopping at the door, and suddenly flaring with magic. Rather than an energy blast hitting them, or an increase in stench, the man suddenly transformed. His face became real looking, which was an illusion, held over his true form like a mask, and the odor, when she let herself chance a whiff of him, had turned to a pleasant musk. One that mimicked a popular men's body spray. He seemed normal suddenly, if a bit stiff.

"So that I won't taint your dwelling, Mistress of Souls. May I call you something else? Mistress seems a bit too... Commanding, for the time being." The words from the Vile were well spoken and articulate, holding the air of a well educated person who wasn't in any particular hurry or rush.

"Keeley, or Keels, if you wish? What may I call you?" Vile would work, but that seemed a bit off, too.

There was a long pause, before the man spoke again, sounding a little odd this time. Flattered, rather than too proper.

"I was once called Marcus. Would that serve?"

"Certainly, Marcus. Please all of you, come in. We should..." Keels looked at The Lover and winked, which didn't get a glare back or anything. "Really, perhaps we should have another name for you, too? Not that Lover isn't a fine name."

There was a saucy hair flip, and a flirty look, but the woman didn't say anything until after she sat in the living room, taking one side of the sofa, next to William. Without even a hint of shyness she moved in next to him, almost as if making room for Marcus, who elected to sit in one of the two reclining chairs instead. They were all in a soft cream color, which was probably a mistake, but went very well with the black and green streaked marble tile floor she'd put in.

Finally, the lady, her face looking a bit too directly at Keeley, smiled.

"Emera. Though you, dear, may call me any time." It was a joke, but there was no indication of that on the surface of her being.

"Thank you, Emera. Now, why don't you tell me what the issue is here? Each of you can have a turn at it, if needed, to put your own spin on things. Why doesn't... Marcus, go first?" Her idea there was that The Vile would be the one she needed both to court the most and who would be likely to have a problem with reality. The others were sane, which meant they saw things clearly. That didn't mean they knew it all, but most problems came about when people couldn't understand what really was in the world, and didn't know it.

The man perked up a bit, as William leaned in to listen politely, and Emera crossed her arms across her breasts, pushing them down, locking herself off from whatever was being said. Which meant she clearly didn't think it was real, or at least wanted Keeley to think that of her.

"Thank you, Keeley. I'll attempt to be brief and concise. I contracted The Cartographer to draw up a map to a secret location, where I might hide some valuable possessions, and have them unmolested by others. When I arrived, I found the place already being used, by The Lover. That would have simply been an issue between myself and William, for selling the map twice, against our agreement, but when I went to him, he assured me that the two maps he'd given us were completely different and led to different locations. They do appear to be different, but when The Lover follows hers, it consistently takes her to the location I'd bartered for. We do not know who is responsible for this, or what recompense should be mete out for it." Then he stopped, and looked at the others, who seemed to agree with him, for the most part, about what he'd just said.

They even waited to speak about it. That was really pretty considerate, as far as she was concerned. She'd expected to have to instantly try and stop actual violence. This was nicer. It was almost as if Tarsus hadn't told them to be difficult on purpose or something.

"Emera? Would you like to go next?"

"My experience was similar. I asked for a map, since it takes less work to do that than find my own hiding spots, and the Cartographer is well noted for being trustworthy in such matters. After several days of working on the new site, setting up safeguards and protections, this... Thing, showed up and started claiming that I'd stolen his spot. We fought about it, but ended with it being a draw. Short of bringing others into this matter, there doesn't seem to be a resolution. That paper pusher, Tarsus, suggested that we dump it on you, so that when we took our friends to war over the issue, we had someone to blame other than ourselves. So, here we are!" The honesty rang out in her words, hidden just beneath the ingenuous tone.

"Good idea. Then no one said Tarsus was stupid, did they? So, William, from your perspective?"

That got the being to pause, and then slide his large hand into a small gray pouch on his waist, from the way things inside of it moved when he did that, it was filled with some kind of dust. Given that the man looked like he could bench press the house they were in, it probably wasn't anything normal or regular either. Keeley took it as a warning, and got ready to move, if fighting started.

He merely spoke, calmly, instead.

"I provided each of these others with maps, which are extremely difficult to manufacture, requiring expensive materials and much travel on my part. They are similar, but lead to different locations. I have tested and retested them several times. The one that Vile here, Marcus, has is a set of directions to the location they both have been contesting. The other is to a completely different and very remote spot. Normally I would simply remake the maps for them, but it took several months for each one. The value of my time may not be great to others, but to me it is rather more so. I do not know what to do about it, that anyone else will allow. Now there are hard feelings on both sides, and no one will back down, I fear."

Keeley thought for a few minutes then, going over everything she'd just heard and what it would mean.

The important part wasn't the problem itself, but the underlying issues between the various people. She could tell that, without having to get any more information from them. William had shared that with her openly, and neither of the others had reacted to the idea that he would, so it wasn't some kind of secret. They had friends, on each side, and they thought that their people would back them up in a war, over minor hurt feelings. Given what her real goal was, she was going to bet that there would be four very powerful beings involved here. Or, rather, three.

The Void wouldn't be part of the mix.

After a bit she nodded.

"I see. Okay, so, let's reduce this problem, shall we?" She looked at the others and no one asked what she meant, they just each got ready to fight. Because, clearly, being who she was that would be all about taking them over. It was tempting, to tell the truth, except that then she'd have more pet Demons than she wanted for the time being. She only had two rooms after all.

No one seemed terrified of the idea, but it was clear that each planned to kill her the second they felt even the slightest tickle of energy coming from her direction. Luckily for her, that wasn't part of her plan for the day.

"First, William, will you remake those maps for these two? I think I can show you why there was a problem this time. These two simply use the lines differently, which changes the starting point." Or, to be more than blunt, she could have pointed out that The Lover was barely able to get into the lines, and used more power doing that than was sane, but it would be pointing out a flaw in a person that probably had a lot of powerful and insane friends.

The Cartographer glared at her a little, not seeming all that pleased to hear those words.

"My maps were fine. I gave them what they paid for." It seemed, for a bit, like he was going to have a real problem with the idea.

"Exactly. You aren't to blame here, except that you didn't take into account the fact that your maps are also representations of the beings using them. That created a problem, in this case. True, no one else in existence would think about it either, until it was a problem, but now you know, which is valuable to you, if annoying to find out this way." Without waiting, she glanced at the other two, speaking to Emera first. "You may keep using the location that you've been working with, if you'll trade maps with Marcus? That isn't ideal, and new locations will be coming for you both, but it will give each of you an extra value from this. In exchange, I think that you should each try to come up with some sort of gift for William, for being so kind as to put himself out for you in this, to make certain you're both happy." She sounded very bossy, in that moment. Commanding too, and young, as well as more than a bit idealistic.

Again, she knew that the real problem wasn't these three and their petty disagreement, but the others involved. It was, helpfully enough, Marcus that explained that part to her, so that she wouldn't have to give them the idea that she already understood that portion of things.

"That's a solution. I think that things have already gone too far for sense and reason however. The Chaotic has taken up my part in this and has some small issue with The Lover. A bad breakup in the fifties, I hear? Eighteen-fifties, if I have that right. It's an excuse only, but as any that know him will tell you, The Chaotic does not often follow rules. Anyone's."

That got Emera to grimace.

"On hearing that, I might have possibly made an agreement with The Rage, for protection. It's an understandable thing, don't you agree? They are two of the most imposing of our kind, and can command armies to their whim."

Which left the Helmsman. Keeley half expected The Cartographer to mention that, but he just sighed and shook his head a little. "Neither of them would touch me, of course, since it would be without bearing to this. Except that my... Failure, as you pointed out, is now part of this. I'll see to fixing my portion of things, so that I'm not attacked without cause. I suppose that fixes this, as far as you're concerned, Keeley? It seems that you've rather handily conquered your Second Crucible, doesn't it?"

To her surprise the others stood up, then, speaking softly.

The Lover moved in for a hug, and pushed herself against Keels with a bit more effort than should be needed really. Grinding and rubbing in ways that weren't quite understandable. It was all about sex, but not something natural either. That was, probably, what being The Lover meant however. She was a being, like they all were, of magical extremes.

"Congratulations, if that is a thing you wish for. I failed, you know, when I was tested. I didn't even have to deal with an insane one, like you did. This was well performed." Then she took a step back, and looked at The Vile, as if he were going to say something rude now that he'd pretty much won the day.

He hadn't been in the wrong however, so Keeley could accept that idea. Instead he smiled at her, which looked like he really wanted to convey joy for her. Even pride, though she didn't know why that was.

"Yes, I congratulate you too, Keeley. May I call on you again, in the future? You seem a delightful person. We could perhaps have that meal you mentioned?"

"That would be good. Perhaps... in six days? I still need to get things set up here. Call it, seven in the evening? My time." She had no clue where he lived or worked, but the man seemed to think it was a great idea. He said so, several times at least.

Then, as if there wasn't a massive problem in the offing still, they all left. Like that was going to work for Tarsus. Then again, maybe it would? If she'd actually passed that Second Crucible for some reason, then, like it or not, she may well be the most junior member of the Greater Demon Council, or whatever it was they called it. Which could give her a reason to push her nose into things, if needed. Like stopping a war, or... She didn't know what else, but there would be something, she didn't doubt at all.

Chapter seven

Keeley knew that she needed to get in touch with a few people, mainly to set up how to find The Rage and the others, but decided that seeing to dinner was a good idea first. If she even had meals like that anymore. It was late, so she cooked a lot of meat, mainly steaks and hamburger patties, and made sandwiches for herself. She cheated and used store bought bread and buns, but did have a stove and refrigerator in her nicely renovated kitchen already. She also put on a big pot of potatoes, cutting them up but leaving the skins on, since they were golden, which wasn't too objectionable, and added a few extra calories.

It was nearly enough food for herself, but just as she pulled it all off the stove and had it ready for eating, there was a gentle knock on her front door. She didn't have a lot of neighbors, not within a few miles at least, and while it could have been anyone, she hadn't felt them coming in magically. That didn't mean it wasn't a Greater Demon, of course, just that they hadn't used the lines to get there.

When she opened the door she was a bit shocked anyway, since it was a Vampire standing there. One that she'd never met before. A young looking red-haired girl, who seemed about eighteen or thereabouts, with skin so pale it seemed almost translucent. She wasn't very old, either. About a hundred and fifty at a guess. Old enough to be in charge, but not so much that she held an important position, most likely. Probably the local Proctor for the area, then.

Keeley smiled.

"Hello! I was just about to sit down to dinner, would you like to have something?" She didn't have any blood on hand, but the girl, who only seemed a little older than she was, looked shocked.

"I... No. I was just wondering if I could use your phone? I... My car, broke down, a bit that way?" She pointed off to Keeley's right. It was a good enough reason to go to the only house visible for miles, so Keeley agreed. She had a land line, since that ran out to her place, but the cell reception was a little weak. She got three bars, most of the time, but hadn't wanted to risk it in case something important came up.

"Oh? Well, of course. Please, come in." Her kind didn't need to be invited, in the main, old legends aside, but the Vampires tended to be polite. Or at least that was true once they realized you could kill them with a breath. Their training tended to run toward respect for power greater than their own, in order to keep their rather wild young under control.

"Thank you. I was afraid I'd have to walk all the way into Sparks. I... Don't think I know you, are you new to the area?" She looked around, taking in the set up, which was pretty nice, but not something that screamed multi-millionaire. Putting it up in a week would have, but the lady didn't really know that was the case, Keeley noticed, as she patted the woman's bare arm gently, absorbing her entire life. All of her hopes, dreams and memories taken in a few moments.

It was a scene of horrors and terrors that crossed a bit more time than she'd figured it would. Nearly two hundred years, which meant the lady, Felicia, was able to get up when it was still light out, and even perform some basic duties during the afternoon. Earlier, if she forced herself to act, though that was hard still.

Her eyes were a brown that had a slight hint of orange to them, which was unusual, and probably why she'd been brought over in the first place. A lot of that kind had something slightly unique about them. Strange eyes, and odd hair color, or even just a goofy face. The older ones in particular. It used to be that Vampires needed to hunt and not be noticed, so looking attractive without sending up warning flares was what people looked for in their new generations. Now, with all the movies and books, that had started to shift, to a prettier model. This woman had been attractive enough, when she'd lived, but wasn't even a seven, really. Not without make up and nice clothing, which she didn't have on, being dressed much like Keeley was herself in cheap running shoes, jeans and a t-shirt.

Hers said "The All Vampire Band" on it, and had a group shot in line art drawing, which got Keeley to smile.

"The phone's over here?" The woman hadn't come to attack her, or even to size up the new boss, since she had no clue at all that Keels wasn't just what she seemed. That was the part that had gotten her attention.

After all, a young looking woman that spent money without seeming worried over it, and who had moved into the middle of nowhere... It could be a little suspicious, and might even play in to the profile of a lot of different beings. Vampires being one of them. It was clear however, that she wasn't one of their kind, and seemed Human, so the plan was to just use the phone, pretend to call for help and then leave the girl alone. She was too skinny to make a good meal after all, and that would be breaking the new rules. Not that they'd been voted in yet, but Felecia had been keeping her people in line as far as that went. It meant they mainly ate animals most nights, or disgusting bag blood from the Red Cross, since they had a guy in there that could be bribed. It was making people a bit unhappy, but they all got it.

One of their own was out, had run for a government position and won, and no one had even tried to burn him alive yet. If the Humans could do that, then they might someday be able to see them for who and what they really were. If that happened... Well, on that day, it wouldn't pay to have killed their girlfriends and husbands, and being able to point to how good they all were might just save on some problems.

Keeley had to agree there. Not that everyone would be able to understand that Vampires were real. Even after most learned to tolerate the idea, there would be those that lived in a protected world of delusion, totally ignoring that things were ever anything other than what they seemed. Gary and Hally both knew that such things existed and had been around them for months, and still had to kind of reassure themselves almost every day that they weren't slowly going insane.

Felicia used the phone like an old pro, putting in seven digits, hanging up covertly, and holding the button down so that no dial tone sounded. Then, rather cutely, she started speaking, to no one.

"Hey, Tim? Could you come get me? My piece of junk broke down. You will? Thanks... Oh, out on the nine? I'm just past that house, the white and brown one? No... It used to be white and yellow. The new people here painted. Yeah... I can meet you at my car."

She pretended to listen and then made a face, for Keeley's benefit. Her long hair was something that had come from a bottle as far as color went, but it worked for her. The roots were darker, being a deep brown.

After a bit of silence she pretended to agree, and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I can do that. I'm probably just out of gas. You can bring some? Thanks." Then holding her finger perfectly and using her body to block what was going on, she hung up, and turned around a bit too fast for a Human being. It looked wrong, and made it seem like she was on drugs.

"Thanks again. Sorry about being a bother like this."

"Not at all a problem. Oh, I'm Keeley. Are you sure you can't stay for dinner? Not trying to seem desperate, but I'm new, as you guessed, and haven't met too many people yet." The woman looked at her, and really only saw a thin girl that seemed like she wanted a friend. One pretty enough to possibly be of use, some day.

Keeley pulled it from her mind without much work.

"I... Can't tonight. Tim is coming for me. Maybe we could get together soon? I work during the day, but I should be free tomorrow night? We could get together and do something then, if you want? I know some cool people I could bring. A little square, but not too bad, as long as you don't mind guys trying to look down your top all night. Chris and Evan." That was about half her people and were the two that looked anywhere close to young enough to be out with them. The fun part was that the woman was actually just trying to be nice, and introduce her to some people that, as she'd put it, weren't too bad, really.

"Great! Where should I meet you? I don't know the area too well. Here, let me get you my number." It was clear that the woman didn't particularly want to be saddled with a kid she didn't know, but she also, for some reason, felt sorry for her. Keeley could use that. After all, one of the first things she needed to do in the area was gain a foothold. Not that it was going to be all that difficult. Not with the local leaders just walking up to her door like they were.

It would have amazed her that it had happened, except that it was part of what made Greater Demons what they were. The universe organized around them. The things they needed, the right people, even coincidences, often seemed to simply be drawn to them, no matter where they went. If she'd moved to the center of a desert, then eventually someone important would stop by. Here it was easier, not being that far away from town. The interesting part wasn't that it had happened, but that it hadn't been going on in Arizona. That was going to be thanks to Darla, she supposed. Here Keeley was on her own, and didn't have a stronger, older and more attractive big sister around to cover for her. It was one of the reasons that Greater Demons all led their own lives. So that they could benefit from that effect.

She didn't wink at the woman, but made herself seem a little desperate for attention. A lonely school girl with no one to love her, or care about how she felt. She didn't say the words, and pulled back from it enough that it was pretty clear she didn't really expect Felecia to ever see her again, seeming just a bit sad about it. Not on the surface, but in her body language. The woman got the idea, but pretended not to, since that's what everyone did.

"So, if something comes up, you can give me a call? I should be here... In the evening."

Then she, reluctantly, let the Vampire walk alone into the dark night. It was pitch black where they were, clouds having come in and no street lamps being that far away from everything else. It meant that in the inky blackness, the woman vanished. Not making even a hint of a sound.

Keeley was careful not to say anything however, since she'd be heard a long way off. There weren't a lot of competing sounds to cover it after all. Instead she just ate her meal, which hadn't even gotten cold yet. It was decent, if she did say so herself. Really, she could do better, if she tried, which indicated that she should. Darla had said that more than once. If you knew that you had room to improve something, you should make a point of trying to do it.

That being said, she remade the meal, adding more side courses and making some muffins for dessert. It wasn't the best use of time ever, perhaps, but it meant that, when another knock came on the door, two hours later, she had food ready again. This time she felt them coming. Three of them. All Greater Demons, and on the inroads.

She even recognized them all, or at least thought she did. That could be faked, by the right beings, so Keeley focused, and using as little magic as she could, reached into the space that wasn't there to her left and pulled a high powered handgun into reality. This particular one was a forty-four, and had a lot of kick when fired, which meant she needed to be careful about re-aiming each time she shot someone with it. It was tempting to get a sword for her other hand, but she'd need that one to open the door, unless whoever it was helpfully kicked her door down for her. Since there was a momentary flare of magic, three times in a row, followed by a gentle and polite sounding knock, she just drew energy from the universe through the top of her head, and tried to hold as much of it as possible. It was a complicated pattern and not a thing she really had mastery of, but then, most things weren't.

There was no attempt to hide the hand cannon from the three rather gentle looking beings in front of her when she opened the door. At least they seemed to be who she'd thought, which was a good, but definitely not certain, sign. Gregor, The Cleric, had been the one trying to get her attention. He looked old, but still vigorous, and wore a Catholic priest's black top, complete with white collar. He had round gold framed glasses on and silver hair. That, she noticed, seemed to be thinning on top.

Next him stood Tarsus, looking old and sour again. Thinner and more like a Roman patrician than anything else. He had a long nose, and dark hair, but enough lines on his face to indicate that he was the kind of person that didn't like fun. He even put little frown lines by the side of his mouth, just to cement the idea in the minds of anyone seeing him in public. It worked, after a fashion. The goal was to make people feel afraid of attack, without being blatant about it. She certainly got that sense of things off of him.

He was in a nice gray suit with a black shirt and matching tie. It was a bit too trendy to match his face. She didn't smile at him or anything like that. Just because they were working together, that didn't mean they were friends. Actually, since what he wanted her to do would probably end in her death, really that was kind of the opposite of that.

Behind both of the other men, looking a bit shorter, and so old and worn that he had a permanent stoop, was Finias. The Mind Taker. Her dear old bio-dad. Smiling, she waved at him, wondering what the plan was for the evening.

"Librarian, Cleric, Mind Taker. Would you all like to come in? I just made some food. You can pay me for it." It was the traditional thing to say, and oddly enough, they all seemed pretty pleased to hear it. In unguarded moments she still felt horribly rude saying that to people. Failure to do that though would have probably ended in her own death, so she made sure to never forget.

Gregor clapped his hands together, and then took a deep breath, smelling the air. He held his chin up and smiled at her in a way that seemed genuinely pleased about everything. She wondered for a moment if Zack would be like him, when he grew up. A bit strange, for one of them, but kind enough that she tended to forgive that part of things.

"That sounds delightful, Mistress of Souls. I think we'd all love to join you." There was, if not a bunch of nodding, then at least a mass of bodies moving into her little house. Tarsus looked around blandly, but Finias seemed pleased by the look of things.

"Not bad at all, for a first home. Your own territory, too? At only sixteen. That's very impressive, don't you think, Tarsus?"

Grumpily, the older Demon moved toward the table that was just off of the kitchen area, finding it without having to think about placement, since it was visible from the front door. After he sat, waiting, he spoke, his words as sour as his face.

"You passed the Second Crucible. I was rather shocked to hear about it, to be honest. I at least thought that you'd take them all as part of your Greater Demon army. They all assured me you were most amenable, for one of us. You didn't even threaten to kill them. That's normally the very first move that the children take, when asked to fix things like that. It always makes it harder, but there is a certain logic to it. You're too young to have a continent to oversee, so I imagine that we'll keep you on as an errand girl. Could you pick up my dry cleaning? I have a good place that does a wonderful job, but it's a bit of a commute. It's in the Elth lands?" He smirked, because he wasn't serious.

The Elth didn't do dry cleaning. That was just ridiculous. They did do wonders with magically imbued armor however. She'd met enough of them to pick that up on her own.

She loaded the table with food, glad that she'd over prepared a bit, and made certain that each of the others had a full plate to get them started. Loading her own, she settled into her chair, without speaking. Just waiting for someone to say something that wasn't meant to get a laugh.

That turned out to be Gregor, who did smile about it, but that was all.

"I have word that Darla is also doing well, in her own efforts. That would be amazing, wouldn't it? If both girls managed to pass, in the same short time span? People will think we've rigged the testing for them. I swear we didn't by the way. By all rights what happened here should have been a bloody mess, at the very least. The Vile behaved... Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was smitten. My sources told me that you treated him in a manner that made him feel very welcome. The Lover complained a little, but only because Vile got a date with you, and she didn't."

That got the others to look at him, but not in shock. Finias just nodded at her, gesturing with a piece of soft buttered bread. It was white with a thick golden crust on it. Flaky and perfect. That reminded her to keep eating, since it made her hungry to consider.

Her father winked at her, which seemed less creepy than normal, given how old he seemed at the moment.

"The Cartographer was none too pleased, however. I hear you made quite a bit of work for him? After suggesting that The Lover's inability to enter the lines properly was the real problem. He is the one to hit that way, however. After all, he loves his work, so asking him to do more of it isn't going to cause a long term feud. He did let slip that the others might have created a larger problem?"

Keeley ate some potato salad, which really needed to age first, but wasn't going to get the chance. When she finished her bite she looked at the man directly.

"The Rage and The Chaotic seem to have either been guided or pushed into this otherwise petty difficulty that should have been easily remedied already. I'm planning to send a note, or possibly go visit them both in the next few days and see if they won't see reason." She dead panned the words, and for about ten seconds kept her face bland and still, as Gregor blinked at her. Then she let a grin slip into place.

"Or, you know, I can let you three handle it? Though, The Rage... Would he take offense if I sent a present or two his way? I don't know if it will help, but I really don't want any hard feelings there. The same with The Chaotic. It might not do anything, but you know, when in doubt, send gifts." No one said that as a rule, she didn't believe, but it suddenly made a lot of sense to her.

Tarsus gave her a funny enough look that the other two men were watching him, instead of the fresh and annoying girl like they should have been. That pretty much meant it was on purpose, since she really doubted anyone like him would make that kind of mistake by accident. Some things just didn't happen.

"That might work. It needs to be grand and expensive, as well as suiting his needs of the moment. That will take some research however. The Chaotic is more... Tractable, that way. I'd also suggest not just ringing the doorbell when time comes to deliver it. Yes... That could be of benefit, eventually. If you build a good framework with the others, then most won't be nearly as likely to kill you, when anger flares. It will in time. That's a rule, after all. There is always betrayal, and pettiness to make our lives harder than they should be." It seemed a little bland when he said it, and like he'd really have rather tried to hit her in the jaw than give her advice, no matter how little it cost him.

Which was part of his act, in the moment. She was young, and untried, or barely so, and he was the ancient being that was responsible for her. Though, technically, he wasn't anymore. In fact, he was less responsible for her than for anyone not on the ruling council.

"You know... That reminds me, what do we call our governing body? Does it have a name? It isn't in the memories you gave me, Tarsus. That seems..." She stopped, getting the idea. The Void. Yes, Tarsus, The Librarian could make things hard to find if he wanted, or even leave them out, but there were gaps in the knowledge that she'd been given. Things that even the man himself didn't know. That the name of the governing group wasn't there probably meant that, whoever this Void was, he was actively working to remove the idea from all of their minds. Which had to be annoying to Tarsus. It bugged her a little, and her area of endeavor wasn't defined as all information, from all sources.

For him it had to be like Alzheimer's.

Which would be why the others were simply giving him a funny look, rather than answering.

So she ate, until Gregor spoke again, about five minutes later.

"This is very good, Keeley. Thank you, for providing it."

"Not a problem. So the topic seems to have been derailed. I think we were on gifts for The Rage and Chaotic? Anyone have a starting point? Tarsus, you suggested others too? Who first? I don't want to leave anyone out." That would be bad. Or, depending on what took place, not important in any way.

Some insane Demons would attack and kill over an imagined slight, and others would just not even care for one reason or another. Insane didn't just mean evil all the time. Just like being sane didn't mean good. She was sane, as far as anyone could tell, including herself, but good? That implied that she was a part of Human culture and society, or at least part of some group. She wasn't truly. The closest she came to that was Human, but her morality wasn't theirs. Oh, closer than most of her kind, but that was really just her age showing through. So far she cared enough about people not to want them hurt without reason. If it really came to it, she'd sacrifice a lot of others for her own ends, wouldn't she?

It was very clear to her that, honestly, she would. If she had to kill a person, or ten, or a million, to make things happen, that would be what was done, and she wouldn't have a problem with it later, either. She was the master of how her emotions rolled, which was why she was able to think about presents for Greater Demons that she also planned to try and exile to someplace far away.

While at the same time wondering if that was just a joke, or a trick. Did Tarsus even have the books he'd promised? If he did, would they work against all the beings he wanted taken care of? Ideally they'd be able to check that out first, but she didn't think it would work that way. She couldn't make Xenses vanish without people finding out about it. None of the others either.

What she really needed then, was to go after The Rage from a distance, and hope that if the whole thing failed it did so quietly enough that she wasn't blamed for anything. Because that was a thing that could happen. If it was a trick, a trap or even just done incorrectly, she was so dead it wasn't even funny. Though, if she wanted to be totally honest, it was a bit humorous. She could send the man a giant cake with a magical book in it that would pop out in the hands of a lovely woman. Sure, he'd catch on and come and kill her later, but it was at least the kind of thing to put someone in a party mood.

They spent hours on a list of good people to start courting, most of whom were sane enough to be, if not safe, then not impossible to manage. A few got left off, because they simply wouldn't be of help to her at any point in time. Others... Well, not everyone on the list was exactly nice, which was pointed out several times.

Gregor was the one that did it most often, but the others did too.

"I can't suggest you get involved with The Left Hand. He eats human flesh, and has a very annoying habit of insisting that everyone else should too. He gets most insistent about it, and will slip it into your food stores when you aren't looking. I think he really believes that he's being a good friend in doing so, but white meat or not, it's too salty to go with a good white wine. If you're going to eat Humans you should enjoy the flesh with a nice dark lager. You simply can't plan for that if things are being planted in your kitchen, however."

There was no smile to go with the words, and no one acted sick or disgusted by them. She didn't even, though as far as she knew she'd never consumed that particular delicacy. It probably wasn't that different than pork however. Not even morally, which just went to show how different she was becoming, didn't it? Six months before she would have been offended by that kind of talk, and grossed out by the idea of eating a person. Now the concept of someone pushing her to do it, or slipping it to her was just annoying.

What it meant was a little scary to her, when she thought about it. Not for long, since she shut it down instantly, but she noted the feeling for just a moment, a trickle of fear that would have been a warning to anyone else.

Somewhere along the line, Keeley had stopped being Human, in her own mind. For real, and all the way down. Now the idea of eating a Human was no worse than doing the same thing to a dog, which, to be honest, was no worse than the cows she'd just had for her last two meals. She needed to consume things to survive, and it didn't matter what, or even who, it was, as long as there was a good calorie to nutrient ratio.

That she didn't feel horrible about it left her a bit interested in what had happened to her mind. She knew what had, having been there for the whole thing, but it was suddenly a lot more real to her than it had been even a few minutes prior.

She was a Demon. One that simply didn't have to play by the rules she'd always known. She got up and got the muffins out and passed them around to everyone. They all needed to eat, and they would be paying for it.

Shaking her head, mentally so no one else would notice her doing it without paying particular attention, she made a point of remembering what was suggested. Tarsus didn't do all of it, but she did note that The Void wasn't mentioned by the others either.

There were a lot of reasons why that might be. The main ones were pretty basic though. It was that they had either had all that information wiped from their heads, or, just as likely, that Tarsus really did have something wrong with him, and had done it himself.

If so, that probably meant that he was The Void.

Insane too.

Smiling, she showed them all out, and hid her thoughts better than she should have been able to, given her real age, because letting that slip, even as an idea, would be a quick way to end up dead.

Chapter eight

The next morning was remarkably peaceful for her. Most of the basic house work was finished, though she did kind of want a larger bathtub. It was a waste of water, but would be nice to have around later. In the summer the air there was going to be dry and warm, which wouldn't have to affect her at all, but still, it didn't hurt to have a few small luxuries.

That was a thing she'd never done before, building a bathtub, so she looked up the idea online, before going shopping for anything. It didn't seem all that hard, except that she'd want to build on an extra room for it, to get what she actually wanted. Given that, she decided to simply add a second tub, rather than replace the smaller one she already had.

First however, she decided on setting up a large garden. The area was going into a drought, one that would be fairly consistent over the next hundred and twenty years or so, but no one would fault her that year for having a little bit of green around her place. Given the amount of land she had, putting in low water use trees seemed like a good idea, too. That would take work, and time, but it wasn't like she didn't have it. In potential. Smiling, she turned her mind away from what she had planned. Not that anyone was reading her right then, but if they were, she really didn't want to be ambushed by insane killer Demons. Or any kind, come to think of it.

That gave her things to work on, for the early part of the day. It was riveting, after she decided to make it something she cared about. So, other than a few trips into town for plants and tools, and several meals, she just worked until about seven. When the phone rang she had to suppress a jump, and run inside fast, to get there on the second ring.

"Hello! Keeley here." She could hear the silence coming from the other side of the line. A single breath came, indicating that the person was a Vampire. They had to breathe, in order to speak, like everyone else. From the resonance of the action, it was a female, and a being that wasn't all that huge. She actually knew a couple of people that would fit that bill, but when the voice spoke, it turned out to be Felecia.

Her new BFF.

"Keeley? A few of us here were planning to hit the club later. Would you like to go? It's the Terran 2 LA..." There was hesitancy in her words, which had to do with age, or apparent age at least. It was a specific, but slightly baffled sounding phrasing that led her in to that idea. "I... don't know if you're old enough to get in?"

Keels smiled, but didn't let herself become snarky. After all, it was part of a chain of Vampire clubs, and Felecia was the manager of the place. She kind of knew if Keeley could get in or not.

"That won't be a problem. I don't think so, at least. What time?"

That, it turned out, would be around nine that night, which gave her a little bit of time to get ready. It was, she understood, part of some greater plan of the woman. Probably to have her denied entry to the place, so that she could leave with her and show how friendly and kind she was, as well as impress her with how cool she and her friends were. At least if the T2LA in Sparks was as picky about who got in as the one that her friend Troy worked at in Washington State.

Zack's roommate. It meant she had connections there, after a fashion. Not that getting into a club would be all that hard. She just showered, changed into a nice black spaghetti strap dress with matching shoes, and changed her face to look like she was in her mid-twenties, then altered the shape just a bit, so that she'd look a bit more feminine than normal. Not that she was butch looking, day to day, but being as lean as she was could do that, if she wasn't careful. She took pains not to make herself look unreal however. Zack had actually complained about that to her, a few weeks before.

Saying that it made her look like a videogame character. Not like a real girl at all.

The parking lot was full, since it was a Friday night, and there was a long line out front. It was all made up of Humans, other than her, but she just stood there with the rest, as the large black man at the front door, who wore a rather tight black t-shirt, turned away almost everyone. This, then, was the culling line. A few attractive girls did get in, but for the most part people were just being turned aside. When she got to the front, the man glared at her for about ten seconds.

Then he smiled.

"Well, you have about the right idea. Hot, but not too slutty. I.D.?" That was a good sign, and Keeley didn't bother with faking that, just digging in her bag and handing over her Arizona Drivers license. It said she was sixteen, which got him to make a face, until she reached out mentally and made his mouth work for him.

"All right. No drinking though. We run a legit club here." Then he stepped aside, not thinking about anything for a moment, and let her inside. True, she'd cheated her way in, but as far as he was concerned, he was just being a good guy, and not spoiling her night out too much.

That was what she wanted him to think, after all.

The inside of the place was loud, and there were only six tables in the place, one of which, toward the back, was taken up by five Vampires. One of them was her new buddy, and she had two younger men with her, leaving the others. A man that looked like he was about forty, in a lean and fit way, and a woman that looked an awful lot like her, if in a slightly larger nosed way, with a jaw that was a good bit more square. It made her not as good looking, perhaps, but they really could have pretended to be sisters without causing anyone to not believe them.

Barb, from the Vampire embassy. Keels didn't recognize the man herself, but he was in her memories. The ones that she'd lifted from Lenore, the ambassador there. Her boss, Vaughn. If Keeley understood the power structure correctly, he was basically the Vampires regional director. He handled a five state area, of which, now that she bothered to look at that part of what Lenore knew about the man, included Nevada.

She used magic to increase the focus of her hearing, blocking out the loud and thrumming techno music that played in the background and the fifty odd conversations around her. It was still difficult to manage, since the Vampires all whispered, but it was pretty clear, even from across the room, that the topic of discussion wasn't her, but rather the Line Walker.

Vaughn spoke softly, looking directly at Felecia, his eyes locked with hers. He was in black, and wore a suit that didn't fit the room, and she was in black and white, seeming a bit more like wait staff than the Manager. It was a good sign, since it meant she didn't really think of herself as above everyone else in the place. That showed in her slightly downcast gaze, as she listened.

"We need to ingratiate ourselves to the Line Walker, so each state in the western quarter is being asked to send a person to his new camp. Sparks doesn't have a large community, or an embassy, so this is a great honor being bestowed upon you." There was a smile to go with the words, but it was cold and lacked even the pretence of being real.

The woman across from him actually shook, in fear, if Keeley got the right idea. Yes, it was artifice, but it did send the right idea. She was showing that real worry was on the table. It made sense, given that Zack was a Greater Demon, and the description of the camp was a bit spotty so far, unless this was the tail end of a conversation she just hadn't heard.

Her new pal sucked in air, as the two men with her looked away.

"I... Thank you, for the honor, Vaughn. I don't really have anyone that can be spared right now, however. There are only five of us in town, and Cindy is too young to be sent away. That functionally only leaves me with three others for a city of a hundred thousand. I don't want to give insult to a Demon, but I don't see how I can do that." She was, clearly, trying to make it seem like that was all the Vampires in the whole area, which wasn't true. There were more than that. Not a huge number, but about twenty. It was just that she didn't control those people.

The older Vampire shook his head at her.

"I know it will be hard, but I need you to work with me on this, Felecia. Our debt to the Line Walker is greater than I think you may know. He refuses to take slaves, and has only minimal need for money. The Council has decided to back him in this current project, so we need solid, stable people to go in and see to it. That means you, and your crew here. You've kept strictly to the new standards as far as drinking, and that's rare. Impressive as well. Needed however, for this. Pick someone, and tell them to pack. It will be a minimum of three months work. We need to leave this night."

It was all Keeley could do not to laugh at the man. Barb was clearly biting her tongue too, and not making eye contact with anyone. What she was doing there...

Well, Keeley got that one, directly from her mind. She'd worked with Zack, off and on, and had gotten him to take them there directly as a freebie, so had been included. Probably because Vaughn didn't want to risk being left there. Not that it would have happened that way. The Line Walker was good to his friends and included people and beings in that category that no one else could understand.

Still, if the man would just say the words summer camp, it would have let a lot of angst out of the conversation. Finally, as Felecia tightened her face and seemed ready to argue into the night, Keeley moved in and patted Barb on the back. That got her to jump, but she didn't yelp or anything, even as she understood who was touching her. She did swallow convulsively, and went wide eyed as Felecia half stood.

"Keeley! You got in? I... Well, I was side tracked here. These people are..." It was pretty clear that she didn't have a good lie ready to go. The easiest thing would have been to introduce Vaughn as the regional manager for the club chain, which everyone in their society would have backed, but that didn't seem to pop to her Vampire friend's mind.

That led to a moment of pure silence and confusion, as she pulled a chair over and moved in right beside Barb, not touching her. She looked terrified, but got that under control and backed off all the way down to merely uncomfortable about ten seconds later. No one noticed, except one of the male Vampires. She waved at him playfully, which got him to smile back.

He, clearly, was the fast thinker of the group, since he managed to change the course of things instantly. Lying like a professional.

"Is this your guest for the evening Felecia? She's as lovely as you mentioned. Perhaps you'd like a drink, miss?" It was a bit too formal, but she nodded, which allowed some more time to be bought, while he called for a waitress, who was a perky blonde that scurried over and didn't blink when she asked for a Seven-Up. She was under age, after all, and it wouldn't do to give the place a bad reputation.

While this was taking place Vaughn stepped in, verbally, and introduced himself.

"Hello. I'm Vaughn, a friend of Felecia's. From work, obviously. This is my... Daughter, Barbara. I was just asking Felecia if she knew anyone that could help out at a summer camp. I don't suppose you know anyone?" It was a clever use of what might have been heard, really. Also, it allowed the conversation to be turned back onto her, without seeming too awkward.

"Summer camp?" This came from Felecia, who seemed a little too baffled to really sell the idea, even as Evan, the Vampire that had spoken to her smiled, letting just a hint of fang show. He was good, but not old enough to really hide what he was. Not from someone like her.

Barb finally had enough of the whole thing and turned to Keeley directly, snorting just a bit and looking a tiny bit angry. She was only about fifty, in Vampire years, which meant since her death, and still had to fight to stay in control of her emotions. She actually did pretty well, given how young she was.

"Keeley. I didn't think to see you here. Is there... a problem?" She half growled the words, which got her a hug.

It was a one armed thing, but the rest of the table stared at them, as if either a fight or a make out session where about to take place.

"Nope. Felecia just had some car trouble last night and came by my new house, looking to use the phone. She was kind enough to invite me here tonight. Now, I don't really know any more people that can work at Zack's camp. Especially not Vampires. Have you tried asking Bey?" She spoke to Vaughn directly, as Barb froze, but left her arm over the other girl's shoulder. It looked a little chummy, but she really didn't need them to be terrified of her.

There was a reason that Vaughn was the Regional Director, it seemed, since he picked up the whole idea much faster than anyone else at the table did, except Barb. Oh, not who she was, but that she knew all about the situation. The others seemed to lag behind a bit.

The man himself just grinned at her, charmingly.

"Ask The Bey for ideas as to who we should send along? Or do you mean I should request the killer of the Vampire council himself for the job?" There was a teasing tone, even as the rest of them went wide eyed at the idea. She got that. It would be easy to think that Bey was a bad being, if you didn't know him very well. He was the one that the others in charge sent to handle problems. Like small armies of rogue Vampires and things like that.

"I meant that second one. You're clearly supposed to be doing the rest. It's probably a bit too much for a summer camp, having him in to see to it. He'd do wonderfully however. Out of all the Vampires, he's my favorite. We should invite him here, soon, Felecia. He can stay with me. I have an extra room. It isn't huge, but it should work well enough for him, I think. He isn't pretentious or anything." It was all true, but she might have as well suggested that the President come over for a threesome with her and a Gnome.

Barb managed to speak, which got her looked at a bit coldly by her boss of the evening.

"I suppose I could call him up and ask? I think that you're right, however. It would be a bit too much. Zack mentioned that your friend Hally is going to be a councilor there? And... Was it Gary?"

"Right! I'd pop in and see about that myself, since it sounds fun, but you know, I'm setting up my new territory here." Which got her to look toward the front, as she felt Zack suddenly appear. The others walked the lines, but he... Flowed in them. It was different. Faster for one thing, as well as smoother and with less damage to the world around him. He left minor disruptions as he passed, but most of the others left rents and tears in different places. She did still, though it was clear there was a better way.

She got up and moved a chair over for him, even though it took a few minutes for him to get inside himself. He'd been polite and landed in the parking lot. Probably since she was there, and rushing another Greater Demon in her own territory was a bad plan.

The beings at the table were nicely confused however, which meant that they all stood when Zack got there, given that Vaughn did, and bowed. It was a bit awkward, since Zack just sort of waved back, looking like a kid, and then took the seat next to her, on the far side of Barb, between Keeley and Felecia. She recognized him, it seemed, but that was because Zack was famous, amongst her kind. Like a rock star. A teleporting celebrity that they owed a whole lot of favors.

She got a hug, which was only a tiny bit restrained, given how close they were. She examined his mind, or tried to, only to find it locked up behind a very nice set of shields. Hers was too, so she couldn't exactly fault him on it. Of course, no one would be able to fake what he did on the lines that easily, and it was her territory, so they were pretty certain to both be them.

"Hey Zack! I didn't know you were coming to visit. I hear that the Vampire Council has decided to hit my little town here up for some summer camp help? You probably should have asked me first, but I'll let it slide this once. Maybe you could explain that it's a real thing to Felecia? With kids and kayaking, s'mores and singing? Before she starts hiding all her people and pretending they ran off to join the circus? It sounds like a pretty nice job, really. How will the Vampires there be fed?" She said it like it was a sales pitch, which in a way it was.

Zack was insane, but also sweet, unselfish and probably a better person than she was still. He got the idea however, and took her hand, holding it below the edge of the table. That got stares, since most of the people still hadn't worked out who she was. Or what.

"The place has ten cabins, which will hold up to twelve campers each. We only have about half of that coming in at any given time. Mainly Human, but also Shifters, and a few other kinds of people. There's a lot of integration on the staff too. We do need to keep the kids in the dark about some things, but the councilors and staff all know about who's going to be there. Supernatural beings and situations that might arise that way. They need to, in case the kids have any problems." He smiled at Evan directly, since he looked to be a friendly person, smiling instead of seeming panicked. "As for blood, I have an arrangement for the new kind to be brought in every few days. I don't know if you've gotten to try it yet? I can get some samples..."

None of the Sparks people had, of course. It was hard to get in most areas still, but it made sense to put in their own set-up for harvesting from the local area, given that they wouldn't need all that much for the city there. They could sell the surplus and bring cash in for the lower income people that had to sell their bodies to make extra cash for the week. She'd have to get in touch with Rebekah on that topic. Not that she could have her back yet. Not even as an employee. The Second Crucible may be over for her, but the fact was, she was still in danger. More than was acceptable, day to day.

Not that she got a choice about things like that. For all their power, no Greater Demon should ever get to feeling too comfortable that way. It was always risky, being one of them. More at some points than others, but that didn't take away from the basic facts of the matter.

The rather trendy looking Vampire woman on the far side of Zack seemed to be a bit lost, as did the others. Vaughn hadn't exactly been screaming about how the Line Walker had come to visit them and they'd best pay heed, for one thing. Probably because he knew that these people might just find that a bit too much to handle. They hadn't hidden it either, however, it was a bit unfair of her to expect everyone to have caught on already, but a quick reading of the others at the table told her that only Barbara actually knew everything about the situation.

Keeley turned to her, still holding her gently, as if she wanted to have sex with her. That was... Not impossible. She hated to admit it, but something that Tarsus had told Zack once seemed like it just might be true. Once she'd actually had sex, knowing that she couldn't get pregnant or catch any diseases, it seemed like a lot more fun to her. Even the idea of doing it with a decently attractive Vampire woman wasn't that hard for her to get past. That was odd, really. It wasn't her trying to fight the idea into being or shutting down her personal disgust at the thought, it honestly just seemed like a good plan. Or, more correctly, it felt like one. Barb the Vampire wasn't one of her people. Still Felecia was, and she was nearly as cute.

Turning to the girl under her arm, she spoke softly. Even in the noisy club, she'd hear it all. They were physically too close for her not to.

"You should capitalize on your knowledge, Barb, before everyone else figures it out. I know, you can negotiate with the Line Walker for use of Evan here, at his camp? I'm sure that all present would feel better knowing that you're putting yourself in front of a Greater Demon for them, so that they won't be at risk."

Felecia looked ready to grab her man and run off, but the other man, Mark, seemed relieved by the idea, and Evan only grimaced a little. It wasn't enough to be insulting even, just show minor displeasure with having to go off and do a relatively boring task like that.

"Well, I was a Boy Scout, once upon a time. I think I can dust off my old skills. I'm not good at being up much before noon or so."

Zack tilted his head and nodded at the man.

"You can work nights though? We have a Lesser Demon coming in to help with security. I think he understands that it's about keeping bad things out and not the kids in, but I really do need to double check that. Still, if you can manage being up between, say five and two in the morning? Lead the night time stuff, tell ghost stories and that kind of thing?"

It seemed like a ridiculous topic, but the rest of the table was riveted by the idea. Even Keeley, who'd never gotten to go to camp, herself. Her mother had always wanted to keep her too close for that kind of thing. Plus, honestly enough, it had never really been offered and her parents hadn't tried to actively get rid of her that way. It still had always sounded like fun.

Next to her Barbara, who looked a little less than perfectly happy about being cuddled by her, moved her arm off with a shrug. It wasn't too over done, and sweetly enough she leaned into her a little after it fell from her shoulders, letting everyone know that it wasn't about rejecting her. Or fear. Mainly that last one, no doubt.

She was scared, but held it in pretty well, her face smiling, at first Evan and then Zack.

"Negotiations do sound like a good idea then. So, Zack. My client will need at least one good feeding per day. Human blood, like you offered. The good, expensive kind, too. Unless there's an emergency, in which case animal can be substituted for up to three days. If it's going to happen more than once however, we need to discuss further compensation for the lack." She paused and looked at Evan hard, thinking something dark and a bit broody, which Keeley didn't bother to read from her mind. Luckily, she didn't need to, since the lady wasn't finished yet. "As for sex, no rough stuff. No anal rape or ripping his teeth out for oral, that kind of thing. Unless he does something wrong... but that should be saved for a real punishment, not burning a hotdog over the fire. Not that anyone normally uses that kind of thing for punishment anymore, but Greater Demon... So, you get the theory here? I need to make sure that's off the table."

Evan turned and looked at Zack, still clearly not getting that the Line Walker was a thin slightly Japanese seeming man. A young one, too. He was picking up on the idea that this was about business however, and not a game. Something real, for all that it might not make total sense to him.

"That would be good, if it can be arranged? Maybe for... everyone?" He glanced at Vaughn, who frowned back at him, not wanting to tick Zack off, but the man himself nodded.

"I don't do anything like that anyway, so I can get behind it without any problem. Is three hundred a week enough? I don't want anyone to lose their home or apartment because I'm taking them away from their normal work. It's what I'm offering the kids, but an adult has more responsibilities."

They went back and forth on that one, with Barbara finally working him to five hundred per week, daily feeding and, if it was needed, only beatings or being locked in a coffin as punishment. She didn't take that off the table, Keeley noticed, which was interesting. It was for Evan and the others that would be going however, not Zack. She knew that he wouldn't harm anyone. Possibly to his own detriment, if he had young Vampires around all the tasty kids. They needed to know that he not only could, but would, make sure his charges were protected.

Since harming one of them would have whoever did it killed instantly, that was a good thing to remind everyone of.

When it got to the end of the negotiation, which were pretty in-depth for what was essentially a camp councilors position, Keeley leaned into Barb again, which got her to go silent.

"Remember to pad things, so that you can take your twenty percent fee for this."

That got the Vampire to look at her as if she were insane, which was followed by the rest of them, except Vaughn, who merely chuckled at the idea. Right until Zack waved at her.

"Fifteen percent, but I'll cover it. For each of your people that are coming? A similar deal, but you can renegotiate for any special needs?" They didn't shake on it, but it had that sort of feel to the whole thing.

Everyone went silent as the waitress came, to give Keels her Seven-Up. It had too much ice in it, but she wasn't paying for it, as far as she knew. Not that it would be a problem if she were, or anything. When she walked away, Felecia reached over and touched Zack on the arm, which was just to get his attention. She spoke to him directly, so that he could read her lips, over the loud music.

"Will The Line Walker hold to an agreement you negotiated like this?" She yelled a little, as if he couldn't hear her. Which would be true if he were simply a Human.

He nodded back, smiling.

"Yes. Um, I am the Line Walker? I know you haven't been getting that, but... Hello! That's why it was such a big deal that Barbara here was doing that for you, since I know her from work. We've even dated a few times, so she has an in." It seemed pretty sensible sounding to her, but Felecia acted like it wasn't real, and laughed a bit. Evan didn't, just going wide eyed. Then, after a moment he relaxed and smiled himself.

"So, no beatings unless I really screw up, eating a child for dinner, or that kind of thing?"

That got Barb to wink at him.

"Yep. I'm pretty good, don't you think? Since we worked this part out, we should get on to the next one. Evan, why don't you come with us? Zack can get us to your house, so you can pack?" It was a question and seemed a lot more deferential than her last words had, but Vaughn stood and that got them all to do the same thing.

Even Keeley, since it never paid to be the surly one that refused to go along with the group. Even if you really were that person, you didn't want everyone else to know it, since that would damage your ability to influence them later.

They all traipsed along to the front of the club, where the line was still really long, as people waited for a chance to come in themselves. It didn't seem like a fun way to spend a Friday night, but it did show that the place was popular. That was good to know, since it was in her territory. The more business they had, the better off she'd be.

Zack waved to her, not explaining either how or why he'd come to her new town for a Vampire, and got the others to follow him around the edge of the building. The ones going with him, which left her with Mark and Felecia, who started breathing hard as soon as they left.

"Can you believe that? A Greater Demon at my club? It's bad enough that Vaughn came. I nearly passed out when I heard that. The Line Walker... Here? If I were a few hundred years older I'd write a dirty letter to the council in protest! They know better than to bring this kind of shit down on me."

Then, taking Keeley's hand, she walked back into her place of business. Still not aware of what she really was.

It was very nearly funny.

Chapter nine

On the good side it wasn't that Felecia was a moron or anything. She'd gotten that Keeley knew both Barb and Zack, and had dealt with them awfully comfortably. In fact, she'd even figured out a reason for that. It was wrong, but fit what made sense to her, so she ran with it, even as they moved back into the club, for questioning.

That was the real plan too. A full on grilling. It was cute. At least to her, since the woman didn't have any real way to do that. She wasn't going to beat Keeley or lock her up, for instance. Instead she was planning to try intimidation.

They moved, alone, since Mark was asked to guard the door, into the back office, which had a solid wooden door on it, making it seem like the kind of place that something illegal might well be going on in.

Then the woman with the strange almost orange brown eyes and bottle red hair turned on her, frowning and showing fang. Her eyes did turn red then, without any whites showing, which worked pretty well, Keels had to give her.

"You're what, one of the New Breed? I had word of you going out today, so you're either ancient, or one of them. You move wrong for that. Unless..." She glared, but the timing was a bit off, and she ended the line by going very still, thinking hard. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen." It was true, so she just smiled at the other woman, and waited for her to process that.

She seemed not to believe it.

"Right, you're sixteen. I suppose you know Barbara from school? Or The Line Walker? Who sent you?" She moved in a bit, trying to be menacing. It didn't work too well. She smelled of cloves and a bit of cinnamon, which was a trick some of her kind used to remind people of comfortable times. Vanilla was also popular for that one.

"Sent me? You came to my house. I just live there. I'll admit that I did work you around to going out with me, a bit, but nothing too harsh. Just what you saw me do."

"Um... Sorry?"

Keeley shrugged, since it was going to come out eventually. It was almost always better to do things like that on the terms that you set.

"I live here, in Sparks. This is my territory now. Not that it will interfere too much as far as your business goes, or anything like that. I know Barbara through Zach. I know him, because I'm his Aunt." That was enough information, she thought.

Except that the Vampire was in deep enough denial her eyes moved back to their regular color, ruining the intimidation a lot. Her lips flushed with color too, making them look shining and a bit pink, in the dim fluorescing light. Slightly damp with lip coloring.

For some reason that reminded her of Hally, just for a bit. They didn't look much alike, however.

"His Aunt? I..."

They stood there for a while, and finally furrowing her brow enough that it seemed nearly joking, the woman stepped back, and did her best impression of a person losing their mind. A Vampire doing that, which meant going completely still and not drawing any attention to herself.

"What... Who, are you, Keeley? I don't think I understand?" There was a bit of a lost little girl behind her eyes, but it didn't speak of violence, so that was fine.

"I'm The Mistress of Souls. Greater Demon. This is my new territory, not your club specifically, but this city. What that means for you is... Really, not all that much. I might have some things for you from time to time. Money making opportunities, political help and things like that. On the other hand, I'll be available for you and your friends to come to, if you need anything. For a price, naturally. Tonight however, my best guess is that my sister got Zack to come here to check up on me, and it was just a coincidence that Vaughn wanted to come too."

"Oh." There was an obvious attempt to not lose composure, but no shaking or aggressive movements. "Isn't sixteen a little young to be out on your own?"

That one took her off guard, and she smiled about it.

"That's true. This seems like a good enough place for it, however. I don't really get a choice in the matter. So, the situation here is actually pretty good for you, as long as you don't... You know, freak out? In the main, I think you should tell people that you feel sorry for me and are trying to make sure that I don't fall in with the wrong people. That way you can come around and not have to tell everyone in the world that I'm me. That can get people to act funny, when they find out. Not that they shouldn't, but you get the idea, keeping this between us probably isn't a bad idea." She didn't say deal, but got ready to, and actually back it up, if the Vampire went off the rails.

It was close, she could tell. For one thing, she was starting to breathe heavy, and it didn't seem to be something she was faking up at the moment. Vampires didn't breathe, and had to remind themselves to do it at first. For her to fall that far back into old reflexes probably indicated a fight was about to take place. Except it wasn't. Keeley would take her as a slave first, if she had to.

She managed to get herself under control, and sank to her knees, looking at the floor.

"Mistress."

Keeley put a single palm on the top of the woman's head, resting it there gently, as if she were a pet. It wasn't that far off from the idea she was going for. Except that the parts where she had to feed her and clean up after her were a lot less onerous with a Vampire.

"You may rise. I have some plans for the area, that might be good for you and your people to get in on. First, I think we should set up a blood collection center locally. That will keep your people happier and give them a chance to profit from the whole thing. I can have Rebekah call you tomorrow? Then, I think we need to go over the city council here and make certain they're our kind of people. Good and law abiding, I mean. Or at least not evil. I don't know about you, but I hate having to deal with that kind of person. It's best to stomp them down early, don't you agree? Can you get the other Vampires in the area to switch to either the new blood or animal, like your people have? I hear that alpaca is actually decently tasty, if you can't get Human for a few days. I'll get some in, as soon as I hire someone to watch them. I have the room, finally. So I won't have to just have three of them." She could also just take a slave or two for that, but...

Well, not doing that was stupid, wasn't it? As long as she did it right, they'd be, if not safe, then no worse off than they might be otherwise. She should get a Hsreth in too, to take care of her place. Do the cooking and cleaning. That would take some care, so that she didn't ruin anyone's life. Some good guards... And possibly someone to take care of the building projects for her, since that was going to end up being a lot of beings, and they'd need someplace to stay.

It was a plan, and not a horrible one, though she also needed to get through the next weeks first. It probably wouldn't be happening. It was hard for her to believe that, but there were things that she, as inexperienced as she knew she had to be, just wasn't ready to face. There were even things that no one was. They didn't show up in her memories, but now that she knew what to look for, she wondered if there was a pattern to things that Tarsus hadn't given her? A shape to The Void, whatever that was. Delusion, another Greater Demon, or something else...

Could she find out what pattern it had left behind? Was there one? She didn't know if that would be the case, but she had a starting point. Everything had a name. She had more than one, and so did all the Greater Demons. All of them. Except one. That, and the Council was sort of nameless too, for some unknown reason. They weren't even called anything. No one ran organizations that way, which meant it was an issue. A place to start searching.

Felecia didn't stand up, until Keeley took her hand and pulled gently. Then she kissed the slightly taller woman on the cheek. It was cool, and pale, all hint of freckles being gone, if they'd ever existed. Moving back she touched the other cheek softly.

"I have a lot to do. Most of it has nothing to do with you, or yours, however. Don't let this be a bad thing. We can be friends, if you want." She meant it, but knew that it wouldn't be happening easily. There was too much terror coming from the other woman still. So much that she didn't even bother trying to attack.

"I... Guess. I should probably get back to the club." It hadn't been long, but Keeley got what she meant, it was time for a certain Greater Demon to get out of her hair.

That was a bit rude, since they hadn't hung out at all really, but she just winked at the other woman, then gave her a quick hug.

"I'll go then. We should get together soon though. We have that blood center to set up. Really, what we need to do there is diversify. I'll see about getting those animals in. If we have both Human and fine animal resources, more Vampires will be able to use them, rather than just lying about it and keeping on with their old habits." It wasn't a horrible idea. Vampires were prejudiced against eating animal blood, and some of it was harder to use for energy links, but Alpaca was good. So was horse, but they were harder to work with.

It tasted different, but there had to be ways to spice it up for flavor.

Walking away, she considered the idea, being aware that Felecia was simply trailing behind her, even out to her car, parked well down the street, past some old buildings that looked abandoned.

Looking at them, seeing the broken windows and boarded up doors, she waved at it.

"This used to be some kind of manufacturing center?" She pointed at it and looked closely for signs of what was going on now. That...

The door had tool marks on the right hand side, which meant that someone had removed the padlock that used to be there. Junkies, from the smell coming from within. All poor Humans would eventually use someplace near their own dwelling as a toilet, and whoever was in there had been for a while. There were broken out windows, and several of them weren't covered with anything, but a few were. Two had boards in place on the outside, but several had sheets and blankets put up to keep the light out. Daytime sleeping dens. There were wrappers and cigarette butts near the front and more around the corner, just peeking out from the edge, where someone often stood to watch for... The police, most likely. That reminded her that she needed to gain control over the department as soon as possible. This place too, if it was the local drug den, like it seemed. One of them.

Sparks was big enough to have more than one, and nothing was being produced here. Just sold. As she stood and watched, Felecia suddenly stopping to stare at the front of the place, there was a sound from within. A rather panicked female voice, saying no, several times. She seemed to be decently young. The Vampire grimaced a little, and looked away.

"The dealers, some of them get the runaway girls in there..." Whatever they normally did, it didn't sound all that consensual at the moment.

That Felecia knew about the place just made sense, given that her main business was less than a block away. Keeley shrugged and walked over to the door, a bit interested to find that her new friend came with her, without being asked. That was a better sign than she would have hoped, given that Vampire rules basically told people to mind their own business, most of the time.

They weren't met with a lot of force. In fact, other than a stench that reminded her a bit of The Vile, meaning it needed to be blocked out, no one stirred to notice them. The sounds of the attack, and it was that, she realized, came from the second floor. Jogging a bit and getting ready to fight, slowing time, she found the right room, and simply walked in as two thin and rather seedy looking druggies tried to pull the filth encrusted blue jeans off of a black girl that didn't seem at all interested in being helpful to them. Keeley could see that, given that they kept hitting her for not moving fast enough. At least that was what they said.

"Fuck, bitch! Stop fighting, or I'll knock you the fuck out!" The man that said it, who couldn't have been thirty, and needed a solid shave, moved in to strike the girl, only to find that he fell over sideways first. He'd been standing, but the kick to his load bearing leg made a snapping sound and he went down.

Screaming.

"Fuuuuuck!" The other man had a knife, which Keeley took, not even bothering to slow down time in order to do it. They just weren't all that fast, she realized. Not compared to her. She kicked him too, but in the groin, since the target presented itself pretty clearly.

Then she looked at the black girl, who was far from pretty, but was too young to be hanging out in a crap hole like this one. Too far gone into drugs to free herself just then, and not smart enough to realize that chemicals had to be managed in order to help a person in life.

"Hello! I'm Keeley, and this is Felecia." She waved at the other woman and then sighed a bit, if to herself. There were several things that she could have done, but she knew that playing to her own strength would be for the best. Especially since she needed servants that she wouldn't mind losing, if it came to it. There was too much to get done on her own. True these were a fixer upper project, but a little elbow grease and some water would get them going pretty well, she figured.

She started with the screaming man. He had black hair, the kind that always seemed a bit greasy, unless scrupulous care was taken with it. His t-shirt was too light for the temperature, and filthy. A red and yellow logo on the front proclaimed that he liked a certain kind of beer, which was probably true, given that it was the cheap kind that all the kids liked, for their weekend parties. Keels didn't even try to make a deal with him, just setting the link.

"You're a slave." Then she pointed to his partner and did the same to him. "You too. You, miss... What's your name?"

The dark girl backed up, her zipper undone which let her filthy, once white and now gray, underwear show. It was hard to stay clean, living like these people did. That was clear.

"Simone." She said it defiantly, as if daring Keeley to call her a liar. She wasn't telling the truth, but that wasn't something that she cared about, was it?

"Fine. You're a slave too now. None of you can go against my orders, or try to tell anyone that you're mine. You can never lie to me, or try to escape in any way. Understood?" They did, and even the screaming would be rapist nodded.

Felecia just looked freaked, like it was her turn next.

"Excellent. Now, you... Screamy, what's your name?"

"Um, Francis. Ma'am." It was probably Frank, but she'd told him that lying wasn't allowed, so he went with the whole thing that his mother had given him.

"Francis, your leg doesn't hurt. There's no pain in it now. You'll take it easy on it, but it isn't injured too badly, so treat it like a sprain and you'll be fine."

The other man, Jim, introduced himself immediately, which got her to smile. They might be scum, but now they were hers and while rapists weren't her favorite kind of people to play with, Simone wasn't a friend of hers, so they didn't need to be more than gently corrected.

"Now, let's go and get everyone else? There are what, three more people here?" That was a guess, based on the patterns of foot traffic in the dust outside the door, but Francis nodded and then, limping, led them to a room on the first floor. That had three more drug fiends, or whatever they used to be, and six kids, all on mattresses that were on the floor.

Without a word, Keeley took each of them, practicing telepathic commands, as fast as she could manage them. It wasn't quick enough to beat a demon, but she was getting the basic idea. The real trick was to start out by telling them they couldn't think, and moving from there.

That had them all stopping to stare at her, and Felecia, since the woman was standing right next to her left hand, protectively.

"Everyone, if I could have your attention? You're no longer drug addicts, and can't stand the idea of putting drugs, alcohol or tobacco in your bodies. Right now, I want you to start cleaning this place up. Felecia, if I get you the funds, can you set up the purchase of this place for me? We'll repurpose it for the new blood harvesting operation. These nice people will be your new work force, to make up in part for Evan being gone." Not that a bunch of drugged out losers was going to do a lot for her, but it was a place to start, and Keeley knew, even if they didn't get it yet, they were all former, to that particular state. From that point on they were going to be useful. To her, if no one else.

They'd need a real place to stay, too. It took a bit for her to work all that out with Felecia, but the scared and largely silent Vampire did seem to pick up the idea that she, personally, wasn't being locked into being a slave yet. She didn't seem to understand why, but also didn't want to ask. That fact pretty much took up her entire brain for a while, even as she struggled to pay attention to what Keeley wanted. She really should have negotiated a salary, but if the woman was fine doing some things for her for free, Keeley wasn't going to whine about it.

It was pretty easy to set the new slaves to work, with the understanding that they would rest when needed and eat in the morning. They didn't have a lot of food there, which meant, she didn't doubt, a bothersome shopping trip on her part. There was a nice and mainly empty dumpster out back, so that would work to get them started, since cleaning in there was going to take a while.

Luckily it wasn't too late, so she started in on that, leaving her car, Misty, parked down the street. Felecia practically ran away, to do what she asked, while she pitched in, getting things set up as much as possible. By morning, most of her people sleeping on skuzzy looking pads that they'd brought in from somewhere, she left to get provisions and real cleaning supplies.

That included several trips, since they needed almost everything. New beds too, but she wanted to get them set up someplace else for that part of things, if possible. In the mean time... Well, she could rent someplace for them. A house or two. Or buy them, so that no one would complain about the number of people being tucked inside it.

That kept her busy, for a while, until the next night when she finally went home for a while, to catch a shower and see if anyone was looking for her.

The man that was there just stood on her front doorstep, looking unfamiliar and pleasant enough when she drove up. Turning, he waved to her, in an efficient fashion. There was no car there, and his boots looked a bit dusty, telling her that they'd been walked around in a lot. There was wear on them, and the clothing seemed old, and worn enough that she almost let the whole thing go. There was no hint that this man wasn't what he seemed, except... Something wasn't right. That was strange to her. Very much so.

She was a Greater Demon, and, as she stood in front of the man, something just felt... off. There was no sign of what it was however. He smiled, and his lined face held charm and even a bit of charisma, but not good looks. There was a blue tone to his outfit, but that wasn't important, she didn't think...

It was... That something had just happened to her. Looking down she noticed that her dress was a bit mussed, mainly from working all night, but there was, on her right hip, a faint hint of dirt from the ground under her feet. Like she'd fallen over and landed hard, then brushed it off. Glancing at her right hand, there was just the tiniest bit of dirt there too.

So this was something new. A thing that hadn't happened to her, but had.

Looking at the smiling man, she shook her head.

"No, that won't work. Void, is it? No more of that, thank you." She didn't remember anything happening, but it clearly had. She waited, expecting her world to reset again, but the fellow in front of her nodded, still seeming pleasant about it all.

"Call me Michael. Archangel? You might have heard of me? Forgive my... Meddling, but you rather took exception to this news the last time I gave it to you. That's my fault, it was a horrible delivery. Perhaps this will go better?" He had his hands slightly out, and empty, but was clearly ready to do something to her, if she tried to fight, or possibly even run.

"I... See. You know, I was told that there was no such things as Angels? Or, to be exact, I was led to think that. Are you certain that's what you are?" She didn't go into the fact that it made a lot more sense for him to be, oh, a different kind of Demon, or even an illusion.

No one wanted to hear that they weren't real, she was willing to bet. This man however, whatever he actually turned out to be, seemed fine with that however.

"I know. It's something that's been done in the last years, about the last two hundred, to keep your kind from killing us all. We aren't violent or a threat, but... Well, some of you don't see that. Or do, perhaps, but can't realize that non-violence isn't a thing to fear? Regardless, even if we allow it, your kind have trouble understanding that we exist. When I leave, you won't remember me." The tone was a bit preachy, to be honest, and the man seemed a little dumb.

Then, maybe that's what people like him looked like? Regular people that could wipe everything that had happened from your mind? It was certainly a power at any rate. One that would be hard to beat.

"I'll try to keep that in mind. Do you want something to eat? I was just about to fix something for myself. I have plenty." She paused and then shrugged. "You can pay for it, if you're a Greater Demon, or have it for free if that fits your... Um, angelic rules?" It wasn't like she knew what to think about anything yet, was it? She waited, and watched, but the man just smiled, beatifically.

Like that was a thing? Apparently for people like him it was.

She moved toward him, not planning to do anything, and felt herself pushed away as she closed bodily. The pressure seemed to do the same thing to him, so he skipped back, but it was strange, since she didn't have any information on that kind of thing happening. Not even in the library that Tarsus had given her. Keeley did get to the door however, and once in popped her head back out and winked.

"Come on. I'll get that food. So, I could whip up an angel food cake? Or is that too on the nose?"

"A little bit. Funny though." He seemed to really think that was the case, and smiled at her, then followed, keeping himself at least four feet away all the time. Any closer and the pressure between them started to build.

She made a lot of food, just working for a time, as the man sat in a chair at her kitchen table, and regarded her intensely. Finally she sat too, with a basket of garlic bread, and took a bunch of slices, passing the rest over to the strange person she didn't know. He took a single piece and then pushed it back at her.

"I'm made of celestial energy, not matter, so I don't truly need food. I do love good bread, however." He could eat, it was clear and did so, munching silently for a while. The other energy beings she'd met had been able to eat too, so that wasn't a dead giveaway as to him being something else.

"Me too. So... Not to be rude, but what can I do for you? Did you come to convert me to the faith? If so, you might want to take that up with Gregor, since as far as I know he invented the whole religion thing." She was being a bit snarky, and knew it, but the man didn't seem too upset by the idea.

"Christianity. He came up with the one religion. Or..." He looked at the door and looked at her, his face unfamiliar, but something inside the eyes gave him away then. It was different, but...

"Gregor?" It was a game then? A trick? She smiled, glad that the Greater Demon hadn't decided to keep the game up for too long. It was vexing, being fooled like that. He still seemed totally Human, and didn't start eating any more than he had.

"Not too bad. None of the others have ever made a connection there. Good job, Keeley. Now just put the rest of it together, and I won't have to take the next seven years getting you to believe that I exist."

She thought about it, and understood what he wanted her to say. After all, it was pretty clear, wasn't it?

"You're actually an Angel, and created Christianity, because... It's real?"

There was a slightly funny look and the man in front of her rolled his eyes.

"No, of course not. That doesn't even make sense, Keeley. There are too many religions in the world for that to be the case. We, the Angels, did create the world's religions, at His behest, but that isn't the point. Work the problem, miss. I'm afraid we don't have a lot of time for doubt or recriminations. Incorrect assumptions either. You're missing things and getting them wrong."

She looked at the ceiling, and then cleared her throat.

"All right then... Let me see, the only thing that's changed is... What Tarsus asked me to do? Getting those Greater Demons to read the books he wanted? Except..." She felt slow and her mind was funny, fuzzy and bogged down. "Hey, wait, why can't I touch you? I've done it before? This is some kind of defensive thing?"

"Yes. I am not of the fallen, so it's different." He made a little motion with his hand, a rolling thing that told her to get on with it, along with a friendly expression that told her he wasn't that upset about the side tracking. Before he could go on, Keels crossed her eyes, and then actually made her brain start working again. It was just the shock of finding all of that out.

"And... Tarsus wouldn't need me to do that, would he? That never made much sense. Well, if he were going to just use me for the purpose, but..."

Gregor, or Michael, whichever counted in the moment, nodded.

"Close enough, I don't want you to feel too badly about this, since the vast majority of the others can't comprehend it, not even the smallest portion of it."

Keeley smiled and then looked at the man closely.

"Wait, am I actually an Angel, too? That would explain my good and wholesome ways, compared to the rest of them."

"No, not that one. You're honestly pretty evil. You all are. It's simply that Tarsus has set something in motion that will end reality, if you, or he, carry it out. If you bind evil, everything ends. Creation will be thrown out of balance and it all ceases. Forever."

She nodded, not really seeing it.

"So, what you want then, is for me not to go up against four crazy Greater Demons? I think I can do that one."

Gregor, looking so different from what he normally did, simply shook his head slowly.

"No, Keeley, I... We all, need you to restore the balance. To find all the others of your kind that have been trapped, and set them free."

"Ah." She got up then, since a timer was going off on the stove, and had been. In her extreme focus, she'd missed that. It came back to her now, however.

It made sense. Whatever was happening to her, the trouble she was having thinking at the moment, was part of this being's power, wasn't it? That or a fundamental lack from inside herself.

Still, she wasn't like he was and needed to eat, so got the food and then sat down, taking the nutrients in for a long time.

The whole thing didn't make a lot of sense yet, but that was fine. It was either real, or wasn't, and either way, she was going to find out.

Chapter ten

After consuming as much food as she could for the time being, which didn't mean she was full, or even close, but did mean that she wasn't going to get more without moving, she cleared her throat again. That could work with Humans from North America, but Gregor just looked at her as if she were being cute. She decided to not think of him as anything other than that, and possibly not even that, since it was just possible that someone else was playing her.

Going along with the gag, if it was one, would serve her better than trying to act as if it wasn't real, only to find out that it was, later. To that end she used a cloth napkin to wipe her mouth, buying time to think.

When she spoke it was done gently enough, she thought.

"So... I guess I need to meet with God then, if he's going to claim to be real. I'm not going against my new boss on your say so. Especially since this might not be what it seems. For one thing, why ask me about it? Wouldn't it work better to get Tarsus to handle it? Or even just do it yourself, if you're Gregor?" She watched the nice seeming fellow closely, for clues or hints as to what reality actually was. He just shook his head, slowly.

"I can't help you with part of that. Tarsus is... insane, Keeley. You all are. When presented with the reality of it all, Greater Demons lack the capacity to recall that which is truly divine. I've held a conversation like this with Tarsus a thousand times, or more, and as soon as I leave, he forgets that I was ever there. I could perhaps mask myself and pretend to be one of you, but your kind is no more able to see mine than a Human is to understand your own."

She could feel a bit of that, couldn't she? That muzzy headed feeling to the moment, which was, she knew, very close to being drugged, more than a little too. Just like she could fake being a Human in public and no one would ever guess she wasn't, Gregor here was claiming that her kind felt the same way about his. If this was him, which his careful wording was placing in doubt.

"That... Isn't going to help you a lot then, is it? I can stand down, perhaps, if I know what's going on, but without that information there's almost no way for that to take place. I need this information. Without it then you're out of luck. I don't suppose you have a way to get me up on things? Like introducing a Human to the supernatural, until their mind learns to comprehend it?"

There was no movement for a long time, and finally the Greater Demon shrugged. Except that, she reminded herself, he wasn't one of those. She was, but he was... A different thing? The concept tried to leave her mind, even as she worked out what had to happen so that it wouldn't.

"I'll... Need to be exposed to you, or at least some of your people, for a long time, I think. Without a break. That's been tried before, of course. I bet Tarsus asked to try on your first meeting." He was intelligent and loved information after all. Being unable to see something would warp him pretty well.

It was hard to think about, because she'd really figured herself for being up on reality, but there it was, running through her brain as she sat, staring. Her head really didn't want to let her handle the situation at all. It lent credence to the idea, didn't it? Yes, Gregor here, or Mike, could have been lying to her, in order to string her along, but to what end? Some kind of game to get the insane Greater Demons set free from the traps they were in?

"How many need to be let loose?"

"Over thirty, Keeley. For decades your kind has used this technique. I understand the rationale, but it disturbs the balance too much. So, do you think you can do that for me? Get them all free, so that the Universe won't implode on us all?"

She shook her head, slowly.

"I doubt it. For one thing, if you can do this to me, then why would you need my help? Just go and set them free, yourself. You can touch things when you want to." That had to be the case. If not then it would have been impossible to hide as one of them for any length of time. Just like he should be able to moderate whatever the effect he was having on her did.

That thought, slow and clumsy feeling, got her to snort.

"Which is what you're already doing? This is your version of making it so I might remember things? That doesn't prove that you are who you say. I've seen a lot of beings pretend to be others over the months. You, or at least Gregor, even sort of botched pretending to be Zack once, in order to try and kill me." It was during the First Crucible, and he'd been sent in by Tarsus, but...

"Which wouldn't have worked. Even with a Lesser Demon contracted for it. My kind, for all the fierce reputation, does not kill easily. It's a bit of a trial, pretending to be one of you. We have guilt, and shame, for example. We feel the pain of those we harm, physically and emotionally. That isn't truly why I need your help, however. Keeley, you need to understand, you're the only one young enough that this might work on. Even Zack is too old for it and I fear that I found you too late. Finias found you, but being what he is, sought to protect you from harm. That means I didn't find out until you moved to Arizona, about what you were and your true age. Forgive me for that. If I could have reached you sooner, then this would be far more certain. What I need from you now, however, what I must have from you, is for you to try and remember. When I leave here, when I hide my true face, your very being will cry out to right the imbalance, by forgetting who I am. You must cling to the idea. You must not let yourself fail. Not again." There was a significant look then, and Keeley sighed, looking away from the man in front of her.

"Really now? How many times has it been, then? How often have you come here, asking for me to do this? Two? Three?"

"I've been with you each night since you left your old home. We've had this conversation before, many times now. I was about to simply resign myself to the end of all that was created, but He told me to give you one more chance. I know that there can be no failure, if it is His will. That does not mean it will happen the way I think however. Nor does that mean it will be a thing of comfort and ease for you. There is a plan, and that, in the end, must rule us all. As you are, I and all my kind are also imperfect. There can be only one perfect being... And Elvis passed away, long ago." There was head hanging then, and a quick glance upward at her, to see if she'd picked up the joke.

Rather than grin, being a bit preoccupied, she held up her right hand.

"Wait, so you're saying that Elvis is really gone, too? What else are you going to tell me? I suppose next on your list is that there is no Santa Claus?" She waited then, since she'd seen the tulpa herself, and knew that one for sure. She'd even made the nice list. True that was for being a decently good Greater Demon, but it was still a vote of confidence. She wouldn't be on it again this year, because now she was an adult.

Gregor the apparent Angel, or some other guy that hadn't confirmed she was wrong about that, shook his head slowly, a smile on his lips.

"I regret to inform you of his passing. You knew that one, however. It doesn't take a lot for people to imagine that one of their favorites still walks the world with them. Even my kind has moments like that. We can... Normally, tell the difference. You don't have that issue. Just ones with me and mine. So, do you think you can do it? Can you... remember me? What I am?"

She shrugged, not knowing the answer. If she'd really done this before and had no clue at all, then it probably wasn't happening.

"So, wait, this is some kind of timeless state thing then? Otherwise I would have noticed the missing time, before."

"Correct. We also can't just have you write a note for yourself, since that will be suspected as being false. Changes can be made in the here and now, but even a being such as you might not notice them, if it's too well linked to me or mine. Perhaps you would do better to speak about this with Gregor? If you approach him on the subject, he will not lie to you about it."

She closed her eyes, blocking out the concept of the man being there. Then, without opening them to see if he was really there, she spoke, laying out ideas on an internal grid. It was a blue field, behind her eyelids, that she mentally wrote on, building layers of complexity into it. The triggering key was simple enough. When she saw an opening door, it would be brought back into being. It took a while, and she composed the thing carefully, making sure it was part of her, totally and completely, explaining it all. Even her doubts about the matter, which she told the man in front of her, who seemed hopeful about it anyway. Then... She added in a lot of magic. Her own, signing the feel of the whole thing with her personal power, and then adding another mental note that would remind her to notice that.

It... Almost certainly wouldn't be enough. After all, Angels? Even now, with what seemed to be one directly across from her, she doubted that was something real.

Glancing over the crumb specked table, she thought for a while, and then sighed.

"I don't know if that's enough, but it will have to be, for now. If I can remember, then I'll try to contact you again. Or Gregor, at least. How long have you been him, anyway?" She'd heard what he'd said, but was testing him, to see if he'd lie about it outright.

"Gregor? I'm not him, you should seek him out however, as he is perhaps more able to communicate with you, being what he is now. He's been around for about three thousand years, in his current position... I used to be a much nicer being, do you know that, Keeley? We all were, back then. I mean, my people. The demons that walked the Earth then were fierce, compared to what we have now. It was part of why He instructed the Forgetting. Not just for your kind, but all creatures. So that the beings that were created by thought could be controlled and contained. It was, back in those times, that the gods oft walked the same lands as the mortals. The dark ones, your folk, did their share of damage, but truly, the fears of those that worshiped were the greatest problem. There was no hope, not even a glimmer, for the Humans and others of those days. Until He spoke, and led me to create a format for those that needed to be shepherded into correct living and thought."

"Oh. That didn't always work out so well, did it?" Keeley wondered if the man was capable of getting that, but there was no way to tell from his answer. It was a single wave, as he stood up, to go.

"You should recall, if you can, what the world once was. This is a paradise in many ways. A gift that no one knows they've been given, compared to the Earth that was. I... Wish you luck, in remembering this, Keeley. I truly do. Regardless, we shall meet again. It is His will."

She cleared her throat, and held him in place with a look.

"I bet. Still, even if I can remember all of this, I don't know if I can fix it for you. Tarsus will want those four beings out of the way and... Well, three really, I guess. How do I get around that? I clearly can't just share all of this with Tarsus, since he'll just assume that it means I'm insane. That, or under the influence of another being. Which... Well, that could still be the case. So, unless you have some better suggestion for me than to throw my life away on a whim, maybe you shouldn't get your hopes up too high?"

He moved to the door, his face shifting as he did, the clothing as well. From a man that looked ready to work on a farm to an older priest, with a bald pate, wire rimmed glasses and some gray hair at the edges. It was nearly white, and the face was a bit more round, nearly chubby, and complete with more laugh lines and crow's feet than had been there even a half second before. It certainly wasn't the way she altered her appearance, but it was, she realized, Gregor. The way she knew him. Even the distortions in space were perfect. Except that the top of his head was too bald. She held up her right hand to get him to wait and then closed her eyes again, adding that bit of information to the mental list that would come to her, and added another touch of her own energy, hoping that it would work.

If only because otherwise she'd be left with a blind spot, and not be able to even work on it later. That idea sucked. When she opened her eyes, Gregor slid the door open and then nodded at her.

"You'll need to do battle with them all, Keeley, and simply kill them. If you use Tarsus's method, reality will fold in on itself and die. If you fail him, and do not try, then the man, your own Grandfather, will almost certainly kill you. If however you take each, acting alone as a sign of your strength, destroying them, one by one, then you'll be marked as too powerful for anyone else to bother. Even with your tender years. I have great faith in you, Keeley Thomson. So does He. Else wise He wouldn't have sent me to you for this."

The door shut and she looked away, noticing that the room was a mess. There were crumbs on her table, and she sat there, for a whole moment, before not bothering to see that, and going to get something to eat. It was time and dinner hadn't happened yet.

There was a slight sense that something was going to happen, but nothing did, except for food prep. Then eating, as she listened to the sounds of her home, the world outside not making more than a hiss of a breeze.

"What I need to do, is make plans, for my new slaves." That didn't take long, since she was going with a very general idea for now. First, they were all going to kick their drug habits and get clean. Just because they weren't allowed to do drugs now, that didn't mean they didn't still have junk in their bodies from the last time they'd done something. It could take weeks for them all to adjust. They would, and fast, because they didn't get a say in the matter. In a way it would seem easy to them, though valuable.

Because, simply enough, she was going to order them to think of it that way. For each of them it would be a formative and enlightening event, that made them better people.

True, over half the runaways were probably on milk cartons somewhere, and the rest would have lives to miss them from, but they were, like it or not, straightening up. People would put up with a lot, if someone did that. Being the jerk that sent someone back down the road to drug use wasn't a thing that most halfway decent people wanted for themselves. That meant, after they were clean and renewed, the ones that had a home that was decent, could go back to them. The others would be better off with her.

It was a sad thought really. Some people had lives so bad that the best place for them was being the slave to a Greater Demon? She knew it was only the truth, but for a brief moment she nearly cried. That, thankfully, didn't last long.

In a few hours, she'd need to get back there, and take care of that, then... She didn't wait, just starting right in on baking cookies for the police department there in town. It was going to take a while too, but she'd had practice doing it before and could manage a better than average job, if she tried hard enough.

One thing that had always been nice, living with her mother, was that she had a home office filled with flowers, ribbons and boxes to put things in. Being on her own, Keeley hadn't bothered to pick anything like that up yet, which was an oversight. Presentation counted. In fact, it was more important than almost anything else, to some people.

Fixing that wasn't too hard however, since what she lacked in raw materials, she could make up for in teleportation. After she finished getting things ready. They'd need to cool before boxing, and while it was late, or very early now, being about three in the morning, she had friends that would help her out. Later, when they woke up.

So she buried her head and made ten different kinds of cookies, which given the likely size of her new police force, should be about right for each of them to have one. At least on the day shift. Some would be watching their weight, and others would be greedy, but it should even out.

Being careful to time everything properly, she stepped into the silver world of the inroads at just about six in the morning, knowing that her old Hsreth friend, Clara, would be opening her catering company for the day about then. She had employees, but Hsreth didn't actually sleep, which meant they got a lot of work done, most days. It took a few minutes to find the right location, which wasn't far at all, and being daring, as well as wanting to be a bit dramatic, she stepped in, right behind the woman as she worked at a large stainless steel counter, her hands and fingers moving in a blur that indicated time was being manipulated, if on a subconscious level.

Hsreth could do that, but only in regards to cooking and homemaking. They kept things meticulous at all times, but it didn't really help them protect themselves, if it came to a fight. They tended to try and run away, if they couldn't placate whoever was bothering them.

"Ah!" The curly haired and slightly square formed woman yelled, more in surprise than at her in particular. "What?"

Then, instead of fleeing for her life, she grasped her chest, acting like she was going to have a heart attack. Since that wasn't possible, Keeley winked at her, and then moved in to give the lady, a former slave of hers, a small hug.

"Clara! How are things going? Is everyone treating you well?" Because, as Darla had taught her, you always made certain that everyone you dealt with felt special. So, even on this trip to selfishly get things from her, she needed to present it as primarily being about her friend. So she needed to add that part in, or it would seem a bit strange. "I wanted to make certain that you're doing well, since you were always my favorite."

The woman didn't look skeptical, but she also didn't seem too happy to see her.

"Mistress of Souls. We're doing well here. The whole city is. No more crime than normal, and no strange deaths in the last week. Your mother dropped a line to me the other day, asking if I'd heard from you. I... It's not my place to say." They were friends, Sherry and Clara. Business partners, or at least they had been. So it didn't take a Greater Demon to figure that one out.

"I should get in touch with her soon. The Second Crucible was passed. Well, I did. I haven't heard about Darla yet. She better, or that's going to be pretty embarrassing for her at the next Halloween party, don't you think? Being shown up like that by me, her former apprentice."

That got a small smile, and a nod. "That it would, I do think. She is a formidable Greater Demon however, so I like her odds. Now, what did you really come for? Baking lessons? You could use a bit of work... Not that..."

She smiled and looked around, the whole place just getting ready to actually come alive, with preheating ovens and white walls making it very bright, given the time of day.

"Not this time, but if you have a free day soon, I should get with you on that. I made some cookies for the police force in Sparks, my new territory. I'm planning to go in and grab a bunch of them up today. So, I thought that I'd take treats, to soften the blow. I was thinking pink pastry boxes?" That got Clara to scowl, and then run to the back, calling out questions about how many cookies there were, and if anyone had nut allergies. She didn't know that last one yet, and just said so, because it wasn't a minor point. It would be bad form to grab someone and then let them still suffer from those. They could be fatal to some and she could end them in an instant with a few well placed commands. If she did it right, they'd never even know that she'd done it.

What she got instead of generic pink boxes were shining silver trays. They were made of plastic, but had clear covers on them and along with some real lace were turned into very refined, and not that girly looking, food transport devices. Clara demonstrated how to plate the cookies too, since her thoughts about Keeley's baking were not all that high. She was better than most, but not better than even an average Hsreth that way. Not on presentation either, it seemed.

Still, she accepted the trays, and offered to pay for them, which Clara declined, not wanting to be made into a slave again, for being rude.

"At least market rates for them, plus a bit for showing me what to do? Call it a hundred?"

"Oh, no... That... If we do that, well let's see... Forty-two and change? I'd need to look at the receipts to get closer than that, but somewhere around that mark."

They agreed on fifty then, which was about right, considering it wasn't a retail store. Then, before leaving, she asked for a pad and pen and wrote down her new number for the woman and her son. Glen. He looked like a slightly younger version of her Hsreth friend. Both seemed to be about forty, or possibly fifty, so they normally passed for siblings. They looked too alike for anything else really. All Hsreth did, since they reproduced asexually. It pretty much meant there was only one of them, after a manner of speaking.

"There, if you need anything, don't hesitate to call. I'll try to check in every few weeks, just to make certain all is well. Oh, I don't have anything planned right now, but I'm making some new friends, and might want to have a party in a few weeks? Do you have any open time slots?"

They didn't of course, because it was Clara's Catering and people often booked a year in advance or more just to have them at their events.

"I can simply cancel someone however, if it's needed. How many will the party be for?"

"Oh, I don't know, ten to twenty, at a guess. I'll pay for extra and... You know, what I really want to do is get my own house person. Do you know any Hsreth that would consider working with me? I pay well, and I promise not to make employees into slaves. We can negotiate that, if need be, so they'll know that it's a fact and not just words." She had been planning to simply take one, but a lot of Clara's kind were afraid of Greater Demons. For a reason, but it wouldn't hurt to let Clara at least see her try not to be her greatest fear, first.

"You know, if you aren't too worried about skill level, I have a great niece that's looking for work. She's not seasoned, mind, being only about fifty, but she did call the other day, looking to get in here. I don't have the need right now, and working in a private home is a fine first real job for her, not that she's out in the world. Would you like me to set that up for you? I think that Zack will take her to you, for free even. I... asked the other day, what the rates might be for things like that, and he hugged me. At first I thought he was going to require my body for it, since I can't possibly pay in cash, but then he just chuckled and said that I could go wherever I wanted, at any time. Not that I would, but for my family..."

Keeley didn't mention that Zack shouldn't be that nice to her, unless he was going to get something out of it himself. He might have been angling for that great niece even, if he were smart, which he was, so Keeley asked if she could use the phone there, and made a long distance call to his book store.

She didn't get him, but rather a familiar and rather sultry sounding vixen that made it sound like Keeley could be in for a very good time, if only she'd show up there that day. It was probably true too, since it was a young Alede on the other end. A succubus.

"Hartley and Co. Books. This is Kaitlyn, how may I... serve you today?" It was slutty sounding, more so than the woman normally went with, as if she'd accidently called a phone sex line, rather than a place that sold works of great literature.

"Hi Kait, this is Keeley. I was wondering if Zack was in? I want to make sure that he wasn't angling for the Hsreth that I'm planning to hire for my new place. Speaking of which, when are you coming to visit? If you come I'll let you play with my posse of new slaves... Humans, but all drug addicts. Or at least they were. I should also have some police later today, so that could be promising."

"Oh? Well, that does sound like a nice change. We can get together for a girls night... I'm free... Tuesday and Wednesday this next week. Does that work for you?" There was no asking about what would really be happening, just the instant assumption that she was going to come. It would have been nicer if the girl was doing that because they were pals, but they had a bargain worked out, and while Keeley didn't really need for any of her new Humans to be serviced, she did kind of want to see a friendly and familiar face or two.

"Perfect. Tuesday at seven then? In the evening. Make sure to get a nap first. Now, is Zack around?" It turned out that he wasn't, but she left a message, asking him to call her about it, so that she wasn't sniping his people, if he had designs on the Hsreth woman.

That would be pretty rude, and while it wouldn't start a fight between them, it might just make him a bit miffed at her. In general, that kind of thing needed to be avoided.

That done, she collected another hug from Clara, since the woman was never going to trust her if she were too stand-offish physically, and then gathered the gear she needed for the baked goods. It took a bit of effort to drag the things through the lines with her, but not more than she could handle. About halfway there though, she looked down at the things, and really focused on them. They were plastic and not heavy, but there was drag on the lines from them. She moved almost normally, which... When she looked at the silver glow, didn't make sense. She was filled with bright energy and shone, compared to the things in her hands, which kind of drank energy in this space.

Not a lot of it, and not forever, the stuff making vortex ripples behind her as it moved. It tried to bump out of the line however, as it passed each of the potential portals back to reality. With a bit of focus, she did something a bit strange, and gathered energy from the lines. Not just whatever was there, but the specific vortex ripples that otherwise tried to escape behind her. Then... It was suddenly a lot easier to move. Faster by far.

Feeling, if not smug, then at least kind of proud of herself for working that out on her own, she headed back to Sparks and her new home. Then packed things up, doing it carefully in case Clara ever asked about it, and moved to the front of her little, modest, but now nicely appointed, home. Opening the door, the first load of cookies stacked four high in her hands, she stopped, unable to see suddenly.

It was a large blue glowing magical... Thing. Inside her head, too. At first she nearly threw down the cookies and ran, but something stopped her. A sense of the whole thing being... Right.

Even though the words were completely phony.

They had to be.

Because right there, in front of her, floating behind her eyes so brightly it wasn't easy to ignore, in her own handwriting, was a message.

"Angels are real, and you can't remember them. Get with Gregor... He is one."

Right, because that wasn't going to end up being a trap? The scary part however, was wondering who in the world was good enough to put something that complex in her mind? Worse, they'd made it seem like she'd done it, perfectly. Even using her own magic for it.

That meant whoever was trying to fool her wasn't just better than she was, but so good that...

Really, she wasn't sure that there was even a way to quantify things like that. It was far too great a barrier to wrap her head around.

Chapter eleven

She nearly panicked then, standing in the bright sunlight after she got the front door open. It was a nicely warm day, since June in the area was, but there was a hint of a breeze, and the heat wouldn't be brutal yet, she didn't think. Not in Sparks. The light was clean and bright, and washed away her troubles for long enough that she regained her internal composure, and started making plans.

First... Cookies. It was a bit of a lame way to get into the Police Department, but a young looking girl with food could do it. Even if they didn't want to eat it, fearing poison, or some kind of trick, like all of them having pot in them, it would be enough to get herself in the door. True, she could have just walked in, but it never hurt to seem to have a reason that others could understand. Hence the baked goods and obviously trying to ingratiate herself.

Then she needed to take some slaves, check her new crop of people who would be waking for the day soon at their former drug den... And get in touch with the real Gregor. That part wasn't going to be simple, however. If someone wanted her to do it, then they'd need to have control of the situation, wouldn't they? Or at least think they did. Unless, of course, it was all about something else, like distracting her from her own concerns?

That wasn't too likely, however. Yes, she was tentatively set up to banish some people, if she could do it without dying, but Tarsus wouldn't be setting her up to fail, she didn't think. Not in this. Or... Well, it could all be a trick. That was a major problem working with her own kind, she was beginning to truly understand. They were all a bunch of lying, manipulative, bastards. Even the ones she liked. Even she was, come to think of it.

That normally would have made her feel better, or at least reminded her to have a sense of humor, but at the moment she had to use a bit of her own magical power, which reminded her to draw energy from the reality around her, into the top of her head. Circulating the force derived from that and trying as hard as she could to integrate it. It was far from perfect, but if she did it daily, and made herself really try to do well, it could eventually be worth doing. For the time being all her real power came from what she ate.

Like how most beings did it.

With focus she let herself shield her mind, using several different magical techniques for it, including a rather showy one that caused the air around her to ripple away in what seemed to be heat distortion waves. Most people would miss it, since that wasn't normal, but if they did see it, they'd most likely just rub their eyes. It was a rare Human that could see what was really in front of them and not reject it.

Which... Was in the blue message in her head. That hadn't gone away, and she didn't try to remove it yet. Right there, in her own handwriting, in white letters on a bright blue background that reminded her of a computer monitor, it stated it all pretty directly. Greater Demons couldn't understand Angels and would reject the very idea. It... Well, she didn't think of them as real, did she? That wasn't proof they were, but for the time being, she had to keep an open mind, if it were at all possible.

Then, it also said that Gregor, The Cleric, was that kind of being. That part seemed a little more unlikely, didn't it? Yes, he'd invented the whole Christian religion, but if it were real, she'd see the signs of it, right? She had to think for a while, but it was actually true. If that was a real faith, and not just an imagined construct, then there would be real effects on the world. There simply weren't. That didn't mean there was no god, which was a thought that she'd had more than once before.

At least nothing in her memories told her it wasn't possible. Of course, if Greater Demons just couldn't handle the idea... Well, then Tarsus wouldn't have added a lot that way, would he?

Her mind fairly buzzed, even as she got to the Police Station. She walked the first part of the goodies in, leaving her trunk open, since no one would try to steal cookies from cops. That was insane, and could end up with an accidental shooting. Or so she thought. She wasn't ten feet away when a rather angry and unshaved man reached right in and took a tray of the things, looking ready to run off.

Moron that he was, no doubt. They were literally not twenty feet from a group of armed officers.

"Hey, you." She didn't yell, and smiled when he looked up. "Get all of them, and follow me. It will be worth your while."

"Um..." He didn't start out by telling her to get fucked, or running, so she just winked and turned, walking off, toward where he came from. After a bit there was the sound of the trunk closing, and feet marching behind her. Slightly labored breathing, which seemed a bit off, given that he was decently thin and in-shape looking. Not clean and tidy, but given that he'd probably been locked up all night, that was only to be expected.

Inside the station she expected some problems at first, walking in with a clearly disreputable man, and carrying what might just be thought of as poison laden attack cookies. That was just because no one there knew her yet, naturally. Once they got used to seeing her, once or twice a month, that would go away. Except that this was her territory, and she needed to have firm control over it, fast. There were thousands of ways to do it, but she was the Mistress of Souls, and needed to get that practice Tarsus had suggested in, as well as test her own limits. The greatest number of slaves she'd ever held at once was about ten, which she had at that very moment. It could have been a stress on her system, but magically speaking she didn't even notice a drain from it.

So, smiling a little, she reached out with her mind and tried to see what would happen if she did more than that. A whole lot more. It was probably a bit too ambitious, and unneeded, but she smiled and took everyone in the place, while just standing there, holding her treats. Including the man behind her, since she was nice that way. Then she gave the normal instructions, about how no one was allowed to struggle or plot against her, or tell her a lie. Ever.

She felt the links sink home, one by one, but in such rapid order that it was nearly the same as grabbing a handful of loose ends and tying them all together. Smiling a bit, she found the one she wanted in her mind, which she made glow green, in order to keep it separate from the blue of the rest of the police that were now hers. It got a nifty blue stripe, along the edge of that mental image, so that she could keep track of him. He was a man, which wasn't unexpected, but older than she would have figured. About retirement age, and a bit fat.

She realized that when he bustled out toward her, his face puffy, and with folds along his earlobes, which indicated heart troubles. The Chief of Police for her new city.

"Hello? I see you brought treats? They smell great! I'm Bob Severn. Call me Bob. And you are, miss?" He didn't know that she was his master, of course. He wouldn't, unless she asked him to do something he didn't want to. Except of course that she could do it a bit more smoothly than that, and use mental suggestions with him, so he wouldn't have extra stress over it.

"I'm Keeley. Keeley Thomson. I'm new to the area, so thought I'd make some friends, using bribes. We should find a place for these..." She hefted the trays a bit, which got the man to look at them as if they were filled with gold coins, not bits of flour and sugar. Still, hunger was one of the most attractive and hard to defeat drives for most creatures. It was an innate pursuit that never ended.

Chief Bob loved to eat, too, so it made sense that he'd be interested. He also glanced at the girl holding the things, but didn't pay too much attention to her that way. Enough that it was clear that he enjoyed pretty girls, but not so much that she worried about him being a pedophile. Not that someone thinking she looked pleasant would be that. She wasn't prepubescent. More to the point, for all that her face still looked young, her body had been designed to fit the popular ideal of attractiveness. On purpose. Blaming someone for noticing that was less than fair.

The man in front of her was polite about it and showed her to a counter in the break room, which was loaded up quickly enough, with the trays being left in a long row for people. They'd get the idea, with no need for a note, or anything that crass. They were presentation trays of food, and after the first one was opened, the rest would go in quick order.

In all the trip in to that point had taken ten minutes. Chief Bob smiled at her a lot, as she did the work herself, her new friend Clint holding the silver things behind her. She waited for the boss of the place to motion to him, with a skeptical expression on his slightly dark tan face. The wrinkles were impressive for a working man, even one close to retirement age. She touched his mind and nearly winced when she realized that he was turning seventy the next month, and didn't plan to live for too much longer than that. It was why he'd kept working, even with his health problems. There was just no reason not to.

So, as they all stood in the light blue and white place, the silver trays with their clear covers gleaming on the counter, she turned to him and made a big head gesture toward Clint.

"What was he here for, do you know?" That wasn't the case, of course, since neither man was exactly in the circle of the other. Clint was so low on the crime totem pole that he really didn't get counted as more than a mild annoyance by the force.

A quick call on a cell phone however had all the information they needed, without it being volunteered. It was a bit lazy to call to the front desk, which was about fifty feet away, but whatever worked for the man. He wasn't really up to running even that far, and felt a strange desire to please the girl in front of him. That was the gig after all. Being a slave, at least to one of her kind, meant being their total thrall. This man would do anything she asked of him, and had no choice in the matter. If she insisted that he eat well and perhaps just didn't like sweets anymore, he'd do it without hesitation. In fact, though she'd never tried it herself, it was just possible that if she told him to fix his heart, and even become a bit younger, he'd simply do it. That seemed like a plan then, since she already had this Chief, and didn't need to break in another anytime soon.

The man looked at her, his eyes grandfatherly. At least that's what she saw there. Only a bit of a hint that this man had once been younger and more... randy. That was most old men, so she didn't hold the fact against him.

"It seems like Mr. Howard here had a good time last night at a local watering hole. Came in as drunk and disorderly about three a.m. This is his sixth time in the last four months, so it looks like he's going to be going away for a few days, after the court case, that is."

Keeley looked at the man, who had friendly blue eyes, the whites a bit tinted with age, some red veins showing that he either wasn't a morning person, or had some minor trouble sleeping the night before.

"Oh? Well, he did help out bringing the cookies in. I told him that he'd get a reward if he helped. How about you get those charges dropped? He'll stop drinking and... I don't know, how about he comes in once a week to clean up the parking lot or something? Saturday mornings?"

There was a hesitation from Bob, but then his mouth worked and he started nodding, gently at first.

"I guess that can be arranged, if he's really going to change his ways. How likely is that?" This was addressed to the other man, who rubbed at his face, which needed a shave, and then sighed.

Before he could speak, Keeley focused, touched his thoughts and instructed him to never drink alcohol again. Or do any other drugs, unless prescribed by a doctor or ordered by her. Not that she was planning on a heroin addiction for the guy, but it was always nice to leave the option open.

"I can do it. I need to stop anyway. I guess... I don't know, AA or some bullshit like that?"

The Chief didn't seem impressed, but cleared his throat and then reached out to pat Keeley on the arm.

"He gets one shot, and only because you asked. If this doesn't work, I won't be able to help him again. If it does... Well, locking people up only does so much. The job is about preventing crime. It just almost never works that way."

That got her to nod, since there was a lot of truth to what he was saying. A good police force shouldn't be about jack boots and guns, but about being there for people, and solving problems. That wasn't what took place, or even how they were trained, but it was so obvious that it worked better that even Humans could see it, if they were intelligent enough. That the Police Chief was, made sense. He was from a different era of law enforcement. From a time when being the smart one got you a better job, if you tried hard.

"Great! It won't be a problem, right Clint? Now, I'll be calling you about once a week, to check up on you and make sure things are going well here, Chief. If you have any problems that can be solved by a sixteen year old girl, let me know. Or, even if you don't think that I can do much, since it's part of my plan to be socially active. You never can know when having some extra cookies will help, either." She patted his arm back, getting a soft smile in return.

"That sounds... Unneeded, but I won't say no. Let me get you one of my cards? You too, Clint, if you're working on cleanup for us."

That wasn't a huge problem, since the man didn't have a job, and had nothing else to do most of the time. Even looking for something else was too hard to bother with. Keeley didn't check on that one, since the man muttered it for her benefit without being asked.

He'd worked in a garage, as a mechanic, until the shop had to cut back on manpower. Things in the area were picking back up, but so far no one had been hiring in his field, and other than work in a casino, there wasn't a whole lot for him to be doing just then. Which was a load of garbage, Keeley knew. He was relatively young and healthy, unmarried and while not good looking, no worse than most people. He was a bit of a sad sack sort of man, the kind that always made a big deal out of tiny setbacks, instead of fighting on all the time, to make his way.

Or he had been. Keeley didn't try to be subtle on the way out of the building, just chatting him up openly. So much so that the desk sergeant, who was actually a corporal, chimed in, overhearing them.

"Say, I heard they're hiring over at the Safeway. Stockboys. Not a great place for a grown man, but if you need something, it beats petty theft."

It was clear that Clint didn't like that idea at all, feeling that it was beneath him. Keeley smiled though.

"There you go. Go clean up, and try that. In fact, try everywhere and take what you can find. You can reschedule with Bob, if you need to work on Saturday mornings."

She had to force herself to be interested in the idea, but he'd do it, and try hard to get something. That didn't assure it would work, but if not she could find him a place in about ten minutes. What was the point of having slaves though, if you had to do all the work for them?

It was still early, so she headed to the store herself, picking the larger bargain place that she'd been using, and bought in bulk, filling her car. Then she got over to the former drug nest, thinking about things as she drove. Mainly about the fact that she was, currently, holding seventy-two slaves. Better than that, she didn't feel it. If anything, she felt... Good. Not energized maybe, but no worse than she had with ten. It was as if she could hold an infinite number of them at once. Which was silly, of course. No one could do that, but... A few thousand? That seemed a lot more likely, now than it had before. It was tempting to try, just to see what the limits were.

It wasn't hard to get the rest of the morning chores done then. It cost thousands of dollars, and there was no word about the building that her crack fiends were scrubbing as if their lives depended on it, but that was fine. They had food, and she made a point of easing their withdrawal symptoms for them, healing the damage done, but only with orders. She made sure they all used their own energy for it, and corrected the harm that had been done that way. It would be a bit slower, but save her a lot of personal work.

That in mind she laid in a complex set of things for Chief Bob at the same time, just to see if it would really work. Orders to heal his heart, and then slowly, and with control, begin to undo age, without allowing cancers to happen. It was right there in her memories, the ones from Tarsus, that some slaves had been kept for hundreds of years that way. Even Human ones. Not that a public official would be allowed to do that yet, but in a few years, with the coming anti-aging treatments, it might just work. For that matter he could just claim that he was taking an early test version now, if anyone asked. That, or claim it was a combination of a low-carb diet and Pilates.

There was a lot to do, since it was clear that she was really trying to avoid Gregor, and that whole situation for the moment. That didn't make sense, however, so she forced a fake sigh, rolled her eyes in her rearview mirror and drove home. Then she very carefully stepped out of her car, trying to stay ready for the inevitable attack, and moved directly onto the inroads. The first thing she did was walk around the outside of her house, looking for traps, or tricks that could let others in. It wasn't well warded yet, or anything. For that to work well she needed to have some kind of basic barrier, she thought. It wasn't the only way to do it, but warding the walls of her own home, while sufficient, would put constant magic power buzzing around the place. It might get annoying.

So, for the moment, she searched like a regular person, at least if they had access to the lines, and then very slowly, taking her time, backtracked and searched at least ten unrelated places around her city. Then without warning she suddenly headed off at a run, toward Switzerland. Gregor might have been in charge of North America, but he didn't live there. He was intimately tied to Rome and Vatican City too, but held himself away from those places most of the time as well. His main house, a place that she'd never been to, was far away from there. In the mountains, near a pleasant looking tiny village. She ended up there after about ten minutes of jogging, and decided to walk the place first, even though it was mid-afternoon. It was cute, and had a different sense about it than most places she'd been. Stone buildings and brightly painted shutters that were supposed to remind a person of a long time before. An age that most would think of as simpler. They'd be wrong of course, but it was designed to make you assume that. There weren't even cars in the narrow streets. Just horses and carts.

They probably had lousy internet service, too. It clearly hadn't been fitted with cable anything, as far as she could tell. No one had moved any of the stones in the streets for a long time and there were no lines between buildings. If there were satellites to get things done, they were being well hidden. It was probably that, since Gregor would need to be in touch with people, at least occasionally.

The big house, which was literally at the top of a hill, behind the low city wall, was nice, but not so much so that it seemed like a castle or palace. A big stone house, with a bright red roof. That was all. There was a guard outside the door, and he was dressed in red and yellow, complete with a funny hat, like the Swiss Guard. It wasn't a mistake, since Gregor was so high up in the Catholic Church that things like that were probably pretty normal in his world. The man looked at her closely, lingering on the outfit she wore, since it was rather plain for visiting important people. Jeans and a yellow t-shirt that hugged her middle and strained over her breasts. His eyes mainly lingered there however, and a small smile crossed his lips. It took her a few seconds to get the language down, but by the time he finished ogling her goodies, she had it well enough. It was just a matter of finding the right pattern in the set of memories she held.

"I'm here to see The Cleric. Gregor. Would you pass the word that the Mistress of Souls has come? I would appreciate that, if it is allowed." The man would either get it done or not. If there was a problem... Well, the smart money would run then, because if a Greater Demon didn't have control over their people when confronted by polite beings like her, things were falling apart far too badly for them to deal with one of their own at the moment.

"It will be done. Immediately." The man didn't move, but a thought came from him, a slightly glowing thing that ran in a brilliant blue line into the place behind them. It just traveled through the thick stone of the gray wall. It wasn't visible, not for a Human, or even most beings, but she was good with magic. This particular kind was different, however. Not Demon, naturally, but not Human either. Or anything she knew off the top of her head. Similar to other things, but more... Holy, came to mind as a descriptor. Innocent, and pure. It was telepathy, much like what she'd been using earlier in the day herself, but this was kind and gentle, merely passing information, much like the spoken word would, rather than infiltrating a mind.

Which, as unlikely as it might have seemed, given the note in her head that purported to be from her, probably meant it was Angel magic. At least she was supposed to think that, if it was a trick. Could it be anything else?

That was the hard part. Her world was filled with things that almost had to be out to get her, in very real terms. If there were such beasts as Angels, then they hid themselves away for some reason. Unless, as the message had told her, it was really about her own doubt and inability to manage things, and not that they hid, but that she was... less than perfect that way. If it were the case, the only thing to do would be allowing herself to change and adapt. That might not be easy, however. She felt it already. Her mind wanted to turn from the very thought that such things could be real. She desired to turn away altogether and just run home. Have a big lunch and maybe listen to some music for a while. It had been a while since she'd just sat and done that kind of thing.

That, or go visit her friends. She suddenly missed Hally a lot, and her mother. Even Zack, as weird as that one was. Darla too.

With a focused thought, standing there on the stone stoop, looking at the being in front of her that was possibly some version of an Angel, or a being similar to that but more junior, she clamped all of those feelings down tightly, making herself concentrate on what was going on. Not rejecting it, but watching and waiting for the trick, or trap. It was going to come, she didn't much doubt. After all, no matter what was going on, something was very incorrect in her world, wasn't it? Things didn't get that messed up without help. Not if you were sane and reasonable.

A few moments later the door opened, and Gregor stood there himself, dressed in black slacks, shining shoes and a rather soft looking sweater over a dark blue suit. His eyes shone a bit behind his gold rimmed spectacles, and he smiled when he saw her. Happily. It felt genuine, too. Not like the very well faked things that most of her kind did to approximate that kind of real feeling.

"Mistress of Souls, what a pleasant surprise. Please won't you come in?" He moved to the side of the heavy wooden door, which was plain, but clean and well cared for. The hinges didn't squeak when he closed it gently behind her at least. The inside of the place was...

Oppressive.

It looked fine, being clean, with a lot of exposed wood, but it was a trap. She nearly just started fighting right then, but it was, most likely, too late. No magic was getting in or out, after all. Not her kind. She paused and noticed that some still was, heading directly to Gregor, and hitting his head, as she watched, the whole thing clearer for her suddenly, since most of the noise was gone.

It was telling, if nothing else. He was constantly communicating with someone at a distance. It was impossible to trace where the signal went, but this was more of that well organized and clean magic. The Angel sort.

"Now, not meaning to be rude, at all of course dear, but if you have an issue, I find that dealing with them straight out is often the best way to handle them. Unless you came for a date? Young Zachary did mention something along those lines..."

He'd mentioned sex for them both, flat out, and suggested the same to her, so she could fight against the remnants of her Human upbringing. She wasn't one of them and trying to live like it would end up with her being killed, she knew. Not instantly, but things added up, if you lied to yourself too much. Especially if you were one of her people. It was part of why the insane were so dangerous, she realized. Only one piece of a very large puzzle fell into place, but it felt right.

"I noticed a note in my mind, earlier today. It claimed to be from myself, and was made using what seems to be my own internal magic. As if I did the work. I don't remember making it, which is a little strange. It also says that you were an Angel, the Archangel Michael, to be precise. And that I needed to get in touch with you and check this out." She looked around again, and nodded. Then traced the flow of magic around them with a wave of her hands. "I take it that the Angel part is correct? The magical structures here are... Different. They feel... good. Organized. It's a bit annoying, but I can see it. Most of my magic is being blocked here... I can still feel the links to my slaves, but I can't do anything with them. The information is being choked off?"

The man, who looked a tiny bit befuddled for an instant blinked at her.

"I can assure you that I'm not the Archangel Michael. The very idea is ridiculous." There was no heat to the words, but the statement was too obvious to fool anyone, wasn't it?

"Which one are you then? I'm afraid that I never bothered to learn that kind of thing, being that, you know, I figured the whole idea to be false. God and all that. Maybe you can pass him a note for me? I've kind of been showing up in his church and mouthing things at him for the last few months. It might just be pissing him off. I wouldn't want him to feel mocked."

There was a pause, and then the man walked away, looking at her over his shoulder and talking, so that she'd know to follow.

"Not that I've heard of. As far as I know He thinks of you in pleasant terms. My name, my true name, is Azaziel. One of the fallen, which is why I've learned to lie, and can pretend to be one of your people, Keeley. My guess is, if you don't retain a proper memory of that event, then Michael was the one that approached you. Do you know why? I... know that one actually. It's pretty clear, isn't it? The very fact that you aren't trying to kill me at this moment is why, I would guess. The fallen, and before you ask, no that doesn't mean we rebelled against Him. It simply means that we agreed to be changed to better serve the creatures of the greater world. If we did not, then even those such as yourself could not see or remember us. It is a celestial trait. One put in place centuries ago. Perhaps longer than that. Time does not always run smoothly for my kind, so the truth is that I'm not perfectly certain." He kept walking, and didn't speak again until they were in a small room, that held several soft looking chairs and a fireplace, which wasn't going at the moment, just standing empty. It was rough stone, laid in with grout, but looked nice, in a slightly rustic kind of way.

"So, these things are real and you aren't just screwing with me because I'm the newb?"

Rather than answer instantly, Gregor sat, his body not making a sound as he did.

"Well, it's one or the other, isn't it? It really is the first one, but I'd love to get out of this without a fight, if possible, so if you need to believe something else, I can work with that, too."

Without nodding or moving in any way, she thought about that. It was reasonable, if you were talking to a being that you naturally assumed was incapable of knowing what you really were.

She'd used the same trick herself, once or twice.

Only now she could see just how damned annoying it was.

Chapter twelve

"So... You, and I presume, your kind, have kept yourselves secret from the rest of us because..." She held up a hand and then sighed, getting the basic idea without being told. "Because the rest of us are morons?"

That wasn't really true, but she still fell into the trap of thinking that regular beings that couldn't understand things like that weren't as bright as the others, didn't she? It was more than possible that a few different sorts around the greater world could see Angels too, didn't it? The rare Human that was more than a bit mentally unstable, for instance. It took a lot of work and some genetic gifts, for regular people to be able to understand that anything existed that way. Even if they were raised around them, they'd eventually end up forgetting about it and believing that it was all just a dream, or fantasy world, if they weren't living with strangeness all the time to constantly refresh their thoughts on the matter.

For instance Hally, when she went off to college, would probably forget that her girlfriend was a Greater Demon. Oh, she'd remember the words, but if Keeley wasn't around a lot, she'd eventually imagine that it had all been a game that they'd played, or that Keels was just a bit weird, or narcissistic. It might take years, but it would happen, if things were normal, long enough.

Eve would be fine, since she was going to become a Vampire. Gary...

She was pretty certain that he phoned in most of his beliefs that way already. His life was too stressful for there to be more strangeness in it. So he heard people claiming to be Vampires and figured them to be Humans that liked to drink odd beverages and wear fake fangs. Only, because of everything he'd seen, he also knew that wasn't really true. It was starting to tear him up inside. That was Zack's trouble for now however, not hers. She nodded, getting the basic idea then.

"I can pretend that Angels are real, after a fashion. They don't fit what I know, but if you aren't too... Um, Godly, for me, being nicely presented as you are, then I should be able to remember that we had a conversation, and if nothing else that you said the words. I know that isn't the same as belief, but it's all I can think of for the time being. I'll try to work on that. Condition myself to understand it." She grinned at the rather peaceful looking man and then shook her head a little. "However, if this is a game, fess up now, since if I do that, and you're playing with me, it will pretty much drive me insane. In the short run, if nothing else. Is that the real Second Crucible then? I did kind of think that first one was a bit too easy. So now I have to work out that you're all a bunch of douche nozzles, and get around it? Which you wouldn't admit... if you were really tricking me."

He made a sharp, but not aggressive, pointing gesture at her. "That right there. It's why none of the other Greater Demons have ever managed to understand that we exist. Not since the change was made. The forgetting. The best results any of us have gotten have been high level attacks. We can hold our own in battle, my kind, but it's much closer than I'd like to admit, and on a deep level Greater Demons are simply better at fighting than we are. I can box a mugger, at need, or even slap around some terrorists like I really mean it, but my act falls apart if I have to do too much of that sort of thing. It has, as you will no doubt understand, come up." He looked at the wall of the place and then patted the smooth stone of the wall behind him. "So, in general, I cheat. I live a protected life, much of the time, and keep to myself when possible. When it isn't, I bring back up."

He waited then, because, as she remembered, he'd asked what that other Angel had wanted. It was a strain to think of him that way, but if it was real, then she needed to make herself do it. If not, then she was going to look like a giant clod, but that was always the risk with reality. You had to give it a chance, and at times that meant going in blind.

"Mike, if that's who he really is, suggested that I kill some Greater Demons, rather than allow them to be trapped. Something about a balance? Tarsus has a plan in place. I'm good, personally, not trying either one, if you want the truth, since... You get the idea, I don't really want to die?"

"Oh? Whom? If it's all right to ask?"

She shrugged.

"Well, that's the kicker isn't it? If you're really who and what you say, then... I guess it's fine. If you aren't, or things are much different than I think, then telling you," she looked at him and thought for a bit, not speaking. "Actually, doing that probably won't make a difference at all to the real end game. I may not be able to do anything at all, no matter how hard I try. It's The Rage, The Chaotic and Helmsman. Also The Void, but I have a strange idea that this Mikey fellow, or at least the Angels like him, might be responsible for all the activity attributed to that one."

There was a long pause, and the sitting Demon, or Angel, as the case may turn out to be, made a steeple of his fingers right under his chin. His glasses glinted as he turned his head a bit, thinking, it seemed.

"You can't beat them, singly or as a group. Not quickly. In a few hundred years you may be able to take The Rage. The nature of the others will make that much more difficult. On the good side, for you, I doubt that they would have an easy time returning the favor, either. My guess is that you'd come to a draw each time. Trapping them... In a different local space?" He seemed interested, but it was hard to tell if that was too much attention for the project, or held too great an insight into what was planned for him to have.

"A different reality. One where there is no magic. I don't know more than that, and haven't been given the books yet."

"Ah. Sensible, on Tarsus's part. My personal suggestion is that you tell them both, thank you, no, and let the balance handle things. If God has a plan for this, he can handle it himself. It's very hard to get around that kind of thing, if it's His true will. On the other hand, if he wishes you to handle this, then, as you might have begun to understand, you will. We are all but agents of His efforts, no matter who we believe we are."

She looked at the man, flatly, her mind rebelling against the very idea of there being a real God at all.

"I... pretty much thought that all the religious people were being... Um, morons, actually. Delusional. You're saying it's all true? I'm almost certain that the world isn't six thousand years old, for instance, unless that's a different trick of some kind?" She didn't like how she sounded, which was slow and confused, but Gregor didn't make fun of her about it. In fact he leaned in a little, to show he was more than a bit fascinated by what she was saying.

"Yes and no. Evolution so clearly happened that you'd have to be a fool to ignore the fact. It didn't even take much guidance to achieve, as I understand it. On the other hand, there was a man called Jesus. The son of a carpenter, or more exactly, an architect. It was more like a general contractor back then, than what we have today. He didn't provide any miracles and was no more than a local religious leader at the time. I rather... Embellished the story about seventy years later, so that no one could use the facts against me. So in that way, it was both true and not. The purpose is to instruct people, not for them to take the tale as complete truth. Not that it matters either way, as long as they gain the needed basic form, which underlies the whole thing. Anyway, yes, there are bits of real things in the story. I was tasked with making bits of the plan accessible to the Humans, since the vast majority of them cannot see, or remember, the Host. They are like your kind, in that way. Blind to parts of what is. The idea was to simply get them to not destroy the world, but, as you know, that didn't work too well. In my defense, it isn't simple to work with beings that can't even admit you exist."

She... didn't buy it. Not even for a second. Oh, it was all as logically consistent as what she'd been told over the last months, but it just seemed wrong. Which it would, if her mind was going to constantly try to reject it. Keeley couldn't mentally find a way around the idea either. She could pretend it was real, and act her way through this, maybe even carrying on that way for a time, but in the end, her being, her very self, had to reject it.

Being right wasn't enough to change her thoughts on that idea, was it?

Not yet.

"I sort of got, from both parties, the idea that we either had to control those three, or four, Greater Demons, and get rid of them, or that bad things would happen? At least my mental note mentioned that concept to me."

"No doubt." This sounded just a bit sour, but the Angel shrugged, still looking like he always did. "Because when the totality of what is real is in the balance, go to a mere child to fix it? I'll have a word with Michael, but I wouldn't go hunting The Rage just yet. My guess is that he fears The Librarian. My elder brother Michael, that is. Not The Rage. That one has no room left inside for things as subtle as worry or caution. We should try to work out why Michael feels that way, but things will, ultimately work out. Probably with a lot of us dead, but the totality is very hard to actually destroy, or so I hear."

That was reassuring, if nothing else.

"What does that mean for me? I can't just tell them no, not and expect to live. I can't kill those Greater Demons either, and while I might, possibly, pull off trapping them if I have help, I don't think that visits from your people is a good sign there. Would this Michael guy lie to me? You mentioned that some of you can? The Fallen? I do like the way that sounds. Far more approachable than Archangel, isn't it?"

There was a smile then. A real one, that seemed much lighter than his face had been, even a half moment prior.

"Not him. He is incapable of saying something that is not Truth. With a capital T, meaning from His voice directly. Not even a little. Your note said that I was him? He can't have told you that. What probably happened is that you came up with the idea and he didn't reject it well enough. The effects of the forgetting can be a little disorienting, around his sort. I used to be like that as well. The answer to your question is... no. If he gave you information, it was, as far as he understands it, the truth. It may not be complete, but it won't be a fabrication. It will not be a trick. The difficulty there is that you cannot recall what was said, can you? I can, so let me see about this in your stead. In the mean time, you should try to remember all of this, and perhaps enjoy your new found freedom? Try to be good and all that, for one of your kind at any rate, but being on your own for the first time is exciting, isn't it? How are things going, in your new territory?"

They chatted then, for about half an hour, over plans that she had, some troubles that he wanted to get Zack's help with and a few other things that had little to do with anything Angelic, or even close to being that stupid sounding.

It really did seem silly to her, even as the magic in the place kept her cut off from everything else so totally. Short of being in another dimension that couldn't happen really. Not and let anything through at all. It wasn't a thing in her mental library at any rate. True, it could have been that Gregor had simply worked out a magic that Tarsus didn't know, but nothing else even came close, which was a hint that the whole thing could be real. Not that it was.

Only that it might be.

That was less than perfectly reassuring, but she made herself let go of that bit of things. It either was, or was not, real. For the time being she needed to keep that in mind without simply dismissing the idea. It was more than possible to hold something like that in place, it just wasn't comfortable. Not even for a Greater Demon.

So she spoke about her plans, didn't let herself forget what they were talking about or simply dismiss it, and then looked at Gregor closely, wondering how long he'd been pretending to be one of her kind. Also, how hard that must have been. It was difficult to be a Greater Demon even when you were one. Faking it had to be a pain.

They didn't have food or drink, and it wasn't offered. For her part, she did get hungry, but suppressed the feeling, gathering energy from the world instead, to offset things a bit.

That worked, which was interesting. The basic power of reality was still in force, so whatever was stopping the flow of magic was geared toward her? More or less? After all, it wouldn't be about Keeley directly. That was way more work than would have been required, even to fool her into believing this was real.

Later, nearly two hours after she'd gotten there, she left, just standing, and smiling at Gregor.

"Do I forget all of this on the way out? The way you spoke earlier, it sounded like I might retain it?"

"You will. What you make of it, how you manage to rationalize and reshape it to fit what you want, that's the danger. I think however that we may have finally met the sane Greater Demon that can understand us. If you live long enough, that might help, in the end. Or not. Things are going more or less to plan. So who knows what improvements can be had? You came here for a reason today, Keeley. I have faith that it will be of aid to all, but how that will happen is not for one such as I to guess at. Not as more than idle speculation. He will let us know what should be, when the time comes."

It was cryptic, but she understood the basic idea, even if it was a joke, or trick. He was saying that God, who was real and not just an imaginary friend of his, had things worked out. It was, naturally, a stupid and delusional idea. There was simply no proof. If there was such a being, then she'd see the signs of it, wouldn't she?

"Hey, Gregor... If you see your boss, God, tell him to drop by and visit sometime? We should talk." Not that it would happen, which from the playful smile on the Greater Demon's lips, The Cleric knew as well.

"If it comes up, I'll mention it. Don't hold your breath, as they say. Talk about a busy person..."

That... well, it made sense that God would never show up, and it probably didn't matter anyway. That Keels still had a problem and all of this, which could be a game meant to break her mind or spirit, only made it worse.

Her mission with Tarsus couldn't be cancelled due to Angels, unfortunately, and while simply killing those other Demons might work out all right, she didn't think that she could do that. Except that, once she stepped out of the protected area inside the stone house, the door shutting gently behind her, she thought that perhaps she could. That she thought that even for a moment probably meant she was high on something, like her magical powers flooding back, but there was a real glimmer of an idea forming inside her twisty little mind.

The trick was, well, her ability. Making deals, and bargains.

She couldn't survive if she simply walked up to any of those beings and fought for control. Or, that seemed most likely. The Rage would kill her as fast as Zack had and not be polite about bringing her back. The others would probably take her as she approached, in their own ways. Helmsman turning her into an instant friend and The Chaotic just causing her to mess up so badly she died by her own efforts. There had to be a way however. A trick that would allow her to act faster than they could, and from far enough away.

What if she built a packet of information, holding it in her mind, then shot that, like a bullet, into the minds of the people she took over? It would take a lot of very high level rules layering, like a massive computer program, and she needed to be aware of how close she could get to those Greater Demons before they could be influenced, but if she could do it from far enough away, fast enough, then she could send them wherever she wanted to. Another reality that was accessed through a book, or even just back home, with orders to play nice from then on.

Leaving them safe and alive wasn't the best plan perhaps, and it would take even more care to make certain that they never had a chance to get around her rules, but that was about as good as she could hope for.

On the good side, it would work no matter what she did with them, after they were her slaves. That part was the basic key to removing them from a place they could harm her. Unless their powers were such that they could influence her through the link she built with them? The problem there was that no one in existence knew if that was the case or not. It seemed to her that The Rage, who was essentially just a giant and violent person with anger issues, wouldn't do much to her, unless he was in the same general area.

Even intense and overwhelming rage, if that's what came down the link, should be manageable. She'd just have to assume that it would be many, possibly thousands, of times more intense than she was ready for. That was all. That a killer Demon was the least of what she might face didn't leave her feeling particularly comfy, or relaxed, however.

The Helmsman was, if she had the idea right, a lot like her, in many ways. Influential. Keeley took slaves, which gave her absolute power over particular individuals, but not others. The Helmsman did things in a way that might be resisted by some, like her, but also might not, if they weren't ready to protect against such things before hand. Most beings around her just sort of fell into being a slave, even without a real link set up. They could break free, or be sent away, which allowed release, but it was too close to her own abilities to play games with.

The Chaotic might just ruin everything the instant Keeley connected to him with her mind. Things just went wrong around that Greater Demon, and even a mental line between them might be too close for comfort.

Of course, that had always been the case. There was a chance, perhaps, for her to survive sending them away, and if she were clever, she might take them all, one at a time, and then have them kill themselves without knowing that she was involved, to keep her away from the retribution that would come if they ever suspected they weren't free.

It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Tarsus couldn't just be told that she was seeing Angels all over the place. Or... Could she do that? It was clearly either her being insane, or someone tricking her. Unless it was correct, which there was no way for her to prove, was there? Things had seemed real, as she spoke to Gregor about them, but what if it had all been her losing her mind? That hadn't happened before that anyone knew of. You were either born a crazy Greater Demon, or not. Except for Zack, but he'd been driven mad before he actually woke up as a Demon. So, she didn't know for certain that she wasn't just losing her control.

Her first impulse was to simply run and hide, but the facts spoke against that. She needed to make sure Tarsus wasn't right first. That part was hard, since both sides seemed to think that their way wasn't just the best, but the only way.

That left her where? Lost and alone, unable to even talk to anyone about her troubles. Well, she could go to a few people, but who would understand? Darla? She'd freak, especially if Keeley was right, and not delusional. She really hated Christians after all. Enough so that finding out that anything related, Angels or God, was real might just cause her to spiral into denial. That wasn't a natural state for her, sane and rational, kind of Greater Demon.

Which was a real point. Even the insane of her kind knew, without a doubt, that God didn't exist. Gods, if you counted the various Demons playing make believe, and those that came before who'd done the same, but not the big bearded sky daddy. If someone was clever, and could introduce the idea well enough to them all, might that change things? Say, drive part of the sane Greater Demons over the edge?

No, that could only happen if God honestly existed. Then, if they went into some kind of spin trying to deny it, there could be trouble. They weren't supposed to deny reality. It was a cornerstone of their very beings. If that could be shown to them, that even the sane were doing that, then... Yes, it might just warp a few into having breakdowns. Then the worst portions of evil would have much greater sway over the world.

She walked away, traveling on foot through the quaint little village, the sky being truly dark now. It wasn't that late, but there was no one out and about anymore. The whole place was pitch black, not having streetlights. What looked cute, and old timey, during the day seemed sinister and like a great place for an ambush now.

Given that thought, Keeley used some magic, and forced her way onto the inroads, trying to not be a bully about it starting half way through. Zack did it so smoothly that you hardly noticed it happening at times. She managed not to spray the whole world with power, but it was never as well done as all that. She did think it was a skill that could be learned however.

Half of her mind was alert to threats, and she nearly pulled a sword on the Demon that approached her on the lines, not recognizing him, but whoever it was, the silver form just waved to her and sidestepped, letting her pass without harm. It wasn't impossible to encounter another being on the lines, but she hadn't before when it wasn't an attack. Spying at the very least. Then, how much time had she spent on the lines? Less than a day, all told, so far. It could be simply a factor of her own inexperience with the subject matter, rather than anything else. Regardless the other being had treated her politely enough and not attacked when she passed, so it was a good sign that things like that could simply take place, from time to time.

So, she walked home, across the ocean, the ground always flat and firm under her. It was the way of the inroads. The water was around her, being several feet over her head, making it seem like she traveled most of the way in a tunnel. When she got home some ten minutes later, Keeley just waited in the line, and watched through the portals that gave her a glimpse into the more normal reality outside the silver lands. That was a better name for the place than the inroads, but she was too young to change it quickly. It would have to be used for a long time before it caught on. Even if it was better.

She stopped at home, when she was certain that no one was waiting to kill her, and ate until there was no hunger left, then showered and cleaned up, changing into something casual, but dressy, for visiting. She wore makeup, but didn't over do the whole thing. Her mother wasn't going to be impressed if she looked hot, Keels didn't think. No, she'd care about well fed, and in one piece. It was the point of the trip, to reassure her of that fact, wasn't it? That, or it might just be that Keels wanted to be comforted. This mess of confused ideas was hard to deal with, wasn't it? She felt half mad already and kind of wanted to be told it would be all right. Knowing that about herself, she took a moment to change her mind, holding the Angel data in place, and stripping her feelings about it away.

After all, when the Baby Demon feels something they didn't like... They changed it. That was a saying that she'd heard more than once, and a thing it paid to remember. Having an ability and forgetting to use it was the same as not having that particular talent at all.

Then, without calling first, she went to find everyone else. Her mother first, just to say hi, and then Zack. Darla might still be busy, so a call would be in order, if it could be done. Really, even if it would be difficult, she needed to talk to her sister about things. God, mainly. Angels too. It was an idea that she dreaded, but was only fair. If it was real, her people needed to know. If it wasn't then... Well, what they needed to understand was that she'd lost her mind.

There was also that part of things where she needed to ask if the current BS was the actual Second Crucible, even if her sister wasn't allowed to talk about it. That seemed far more like a real test than some silly dispute over maps, didn't it? Sighing she went, and made a point of spending about half an hour with her mother. It wasn't like they hadn't been together in the last two weeks, so there was no massive greeting, just a hug. It was a girlish thing, since, she noticed, her mother was younger without her around. Not that she was an ancient hag the rest of the time, but she seemed happier now. Relaxed and holding a genuine smile on her face the whole time.

It hadn't been hard to find her, since she was at Zack's house in Vancouver Washington. Cleaning, when Keeley knocked on the door, but again, her mom was doing it happily. Not perfectly either, which was amazing. That, she took from her mother's stream of memories, was all about Zack, who'd really helped her with her OCD. Using magic, and a few psychological tricks.

Sex too. Lots of that. Enough that Keeley had to block it out, since... Mom sex. That wasn't supposed to bug her, given what she was, but she still felt like a little girl, catching her parents "naked hugging" when she opened the door to their bedroom at night. Horrible, disturbing hugging...

Smiling, because that's what people did when they magically shut down disturbing thoughts, at least in her experience, Keeley let it fade from her mind. It was, she realized, part of growing up.

Understanding that at some point, everyone else was just a person too. From her own parents to her third grade teacher. It took most people longer to work that kind of thing out for themselves, and a lot never really made the leap, thinking of most people as more than they were on some level, or less, but she didn't have a lot of time to fix reality, did she? Not if she were going to be shaken up like she had been in the last few days.

Angels... That shouldn't be able to exist. Oh, it wasn't like she knew everything about reality, but there were certain things she'd figured not to be true that... Unless she was losing it, might be.

Her mother losing her mental health problems and finally getting to be happy, that was worth a lot though. More than Keels had ever really counted on, until it happened. Sitting there, seeing a relaxed and happy expression that she knew to be real, she understood something.

They... were never going home again. They couldn't. Not and be happy.

She'd go to her own place and Sherry would live her new life, doing whatever worked for her. For now that was hanging with Zack and his friends, but eventually that would change. Who knew what would be waiting for her? A new business arranging flowers? An international singing career? Not that her mother could sing, but it was something that Keeley still could have arranged if Sherry wanted to try it, and she didn't really doubt that Zack couldn't do the same. That, or modeling. She was old for it, being in her late thirties, but Sherry was still cute and a lot could be done to make an image turn out a given way, if you had the skills. Camera tricks and Photoshop. Or causing her to change shape. Darla had a device that could strip years from a Human's face, for instance.

"What do you have planned?" The words echoing her own thoughts, if in another direction, took her by surprise. It was a sign of how discombobulated she'd become that it could.

"Oh, normal things. I have school to finish. Probably in Sparks, so I can meet up with some new people there. That's my new territory. You'll like it, when you come to visit. Not that you aren't welcome to move there, too, but you seem pretty set here. I'm..." She shook her head, looking at the suddenly more serious face of her mother, who was worried that she wasn't doing the job very well, abandoning her little girl like she had. Of course that wasn't the reality, was it? Keeley had sent her away.

Because as a Greater Demon, she was the one in charge.

"You know what, mom? I'm really proud of you. Things haven't gone smoothly all the time lately, but you really did what you needed to and are... growing. It's good to see."

There was a more somber nod, and Sherry did the expected thing, because related to her or not, the woman was only Human. Keeley simply wasn't. It caused problems to deny what you were. That didn't mean she couldn't grow, herself, however. Did it? Expand, no matter how hard it was, and find a way to understand the world was simply more than she'd thought.

It might mean leaving her old world behind, or it could simply be that she had to learn a few new tricks. One way, or the other, her mother's change had taught her something. Yes, the work for the change had come from The Line Walker, but the alteration to Sherry was still real. In a way that was what Gregor and his phantom of a brother, Mikey the Angel, were doing with her. Showing her that there was more to things than she thought, and urging her to become more than she'd been.

No one had ever said life would be comfortable, had they? If so, that person was dead wrong. Darla had certainly never promised her that. Or Finias. Or... Anyone that she knew. Her dad, Charles, certainly hadn't raised her to assume anything came without earning it. Xenses... While a horrible being that had to be consumed by the universe before she'd feel safe, had delivered that message to her on a level she could never forget. Life, even for the powerful, wasn't fair, and often wasn't even remotely good.

That lesson had come when he'd tossed the head of her Human father to her, behind the building that a Halloween party was being held in. While looking like an attractive high school cheerleader. That one act had blown away a lot of her own preconceived notions, hadn't it? That her father, who was kind of broken inside, was strong, and capable. He had been, even, in his own limited way. Xenses had also shown her that pretty didn't equal good. She'd known that, intellectually, but now she just assumed that looks didn't make a difference. It had become part of her. So has the idea that you could trust your friends. Barb, the cheerleader form of her older brother, had been a person that she trusted, more or less. One of the gang, or at least a person becoming one of them. Now that was all gone, taken away in moments, behind the VFW meeting hall.

Then, he wasn't called The Defiler because he liked to sprinkle blue cheese on his broccoli, was he?

That lesson led to this one, in a curved and warped, but still visible, line. Oh, it was nearly as hard, but having learned that things weren't what they seemed before, suddenly like that, set her up to be able to think about reality not being what she'd thought it was, now. Not that she wasn't going to kill Xenses for what he'd done. In that case, she didn't care what Tarsus had told her. The Demon had to die, and in a way that meant he'd never be able to return. No trap could really assure that. Death could, if she were careful.

That thought shocked her, because she knew that was what she was going to do. What she might have to, in order to feel good about things again. She was going to kill Xenses.

The rest of what other people wanted, well, they could work that out later, if she lived.

Yes, she was desperately clinging to something, anything, that would allow her to carry on, but it had been a long term goal, removing her older brother, so she could see that coming up under stress.

Looking at Sherry, she smiled and then winked, playfully.

"You know, I think I do have some things to do. I can't say what now, but it should be... fun."

Then, after a few more hugs, knowing that her mother didn't need her anymore, she got up and left.

Chapter thirteen

Not that her visiting would be totally done yet. Just, for the time being, she was putting some things off. Like figuring out where her sister was at the moment. It would be fine to interrupt her, for what was coming. If not, well, then Keeley and maybe Zack, could handle it for her. That was less than ideal, since Darla, as much as anyone in the world that still lived, had reason to hate Xenses.

There had been tortures there that Keeley had never even bothered to think about. Things so horrible that Xenses had used on Darla, for fun, or to do whatever it was that his broken and deranged mind thought was needed, that he'd never even approached doing with Zack. Zack had been a baby then. Not even that, by their standards, his powers not having come in at that time. Only nine or ten.

Darla had been older, and tricked into making a deal with the beast. It hadn't gone well for her.

In the main, one Greater Demon didn't take another as a slave. It wasn't about being polite or kind either. It was, for most of them, just a very hard thing to do. A constant drain on the energy reserves that meant fighting with a being that had everything you did, and who might just reply to your attempts with a bit of death or mayhem, if not just grabbing you up for themselves as a counter move.

That meant, when it came to dealing with bargains, most of the others were careful, deliberate and took a long time to set things up. It wasn't, for the others, a matter of just saying "deal" and shaking hands. The other beings involved had to agree, and mean it.

Not that she bothered with all that, but whatever had tricked or trapped Darla had been... Big, then. A thing that Xenses had held over her on a level that probably wouldn't even make sense now, to either of them.

Zack had a pretty good reason to want his father dead, too, since the man had pretty much left him insane at an early age, breaking him so completely that he probably wouldn't survive very long, all things being equal.

He had an agreement with Xenses though, that basically meant he couldn't kill him, for the time being. The specifics had never been spelled out for her, but Keeley was willing to bet that they weren't good and were probably meant to trap Zack, later. Using his youth against him in a game that was rigged from the start. If not, Xenses should have been doing that. After all, Defiler. It was spelled out right in the name. Greater Demons didn't often go for a lot of subtlety in things like that.

It was tempting to go straight home, and use that as a base of operations to find the creature that was her brother, using new slaves and connections to do the work. Except that, she realized, she probably didn't have to. It was risky, treating him like a Human, since Xen would fight, if he realized it was needed and would have to know who to go after if that happened. He might possibly even know where her new place was, making it easier to try and kill her, if things got interesting that way. She hadn't hidden where her territory was. Not even a little. Doing that would defeat the whole point.

She found a nice park to sit in, using the inroads to get there, and selecting it at random. It was, she thought, in Utah. That was based on the look of the people around her, walking and sitting in the mid-afternoon sun. There were subtle things that were telling. The shape of the face on the men, for instance. Not all of them, but there had been a singular lineage in that area that caused them to look similar in an almost racial manner. It was a family resemblance, but one that was due to inbreeding, and line crossing over generations. It wasn't about their mothers dating their fathers, in the main, or anything that close. Just people from the same part of the world settling in an area where one man might father hundreds of children. That, even if it was a rare event, made an impression on the place.

Plus, there was a sign across the street that claimed the building was the Salt Lake City Bank and Trust. That was a pretty good indication, too.

She wasn't dressed to lay out in the sun, and didn't want to be that vulnerable, just in case things went really wrong, fast. So she sat on a bench made of stone and concrete, and developed the package of information she wanted to put in place. It was, very nearly, like a computer program. Once downloaded into Xenses, it would take over, like a virus, ordering his mind into a shape that should, if she didn't leave too many gaps, lock him into being a total slave, with no hope of escape. Ever.

That would last... Whole minutes, if she had to guess. The trick there would be in not letting him know what was going on, until it was far too late.

So, easy and safe, just the way she liked things.

It was just getting dark, so about eight o'clock, local time, when she reached out with her mind, searching for the being that had killed her father. He was in hiding, so it made sense to find him in Arizona. Probably no more than a few miles from Darla's house. So that he could watch her, and plan his next move. Less than that, she realized, getting the basic sense of things. He was, almost certainly, hiding in her own larger house there.

The jerk.

It was clever, of course. She would have never thought to look for him there. It wasn't the ranch style place in town that she tended to use when there, but one of the places that she'd bought and owned outright. The one that had been shared by her old slaves, before she'd died, and set them free. It was sitting empty, and there was no reason in the whole world for her to even think about going there. Except for him being there visiting so nicely, now that she knew about it. Anger started to rise at the intrusion, but she shut it down with an image of puppies in her head, and a touch of magic.

That left her feeling compassionate, but it would work, for the time being. She felt nearly bad for the fool, who thought that because she was young that meant she wouldn't be able to do anything to him. Without waiting, since giving him a chance to put up stronger shields wasn't going to help her, she got the package of information and command ready, and held it in her mind, near where Xenses was, but not close enough for him to feel the magic of it, or set off any alarms.

Then, without warning, she started to take his mind, using his heart beating as the needed sign that he agreed with her, and would be her slave forever. It was a delicate operation, and he didn't struggle, not realizing he should yet, so the pack of information for him was put in place and triggered inside three seconds. There was a mental sign that it was working, as the connection between them settled into being, just like all the others that she held. This time, unlike the last, there was no fighting, or attempt to kill her. She wasn't worn down either, which really helped, she decided. Part of her had feared that Xenses was just too tough for this kind of thing. Unless he was faking, it had happened smoothly and with no ripples in the magic that formed his thoughts. Not easily, but if it worked, and Xenses died that day, she decided to be relatively happy about it. Pleased with her own work, even.

The rest of the plan was harder than she'd thought, since she had to go and find Zack for the next part. He should have been at work, or home, but he was actually off at his summer camp. Keeley didn't know where that was, and didn't really feel like invading one of his places just to chat with him. Kaitlyn told her where he was however, her voice sweet.

"Oh, are we still on for a visit? That's... in two days?"

"I wouldn't miss it! I have a whole bunch of new friends for you to play with, too, if you'd like? You won't starve, I can guarantee." She ate sexual energy, and Demons weren't able to make it, using it all for themselves, being inherently selfish that way. Humans were good about that however, and she had a lot of them suddenly. Most would be pretty happy to spend time with an Alede too. It was a win-win situation as far as that went. Food and sex, all in one package for her friend, too.

"Great! Don't forget." She seemed nearly happy to be coming for a visit now, and didn't hesitate to get her the number for the camp. It made sense that they had one, since worried parents would want to get in touch.

When she finally got the number dialed, whole seconds later, Zack answered it himself. He started to give a little speech about the place, as if she were sending her kids there, but she cut him off, with a happy lilt to her voice.

"Line Walker? Would you be able to help me with something? I need to pick up a cake and find Darla. I have her birthday present ready, and the element of surprise. That's months away still, so I bet it will be a nice shock to her. A pleasant one though."

"Ah. Um... yeah, let me... I can do that. What kind of cake? I can probably pick one up for you on the way in. It will take less time?" That was a question, because he was smart enough to know that Keeley wasn't really just going to call him in to talk about cake. Though, really, she should. What better topic to bond over? She decided to make a point of doing that, or at least something similar soon.

"Italian cream cake. It's her favorite, last I heard."

"No prob. I'll be there in, call it, twenty minutes? More if I have to try more than one place for the right kind." Then he hung up, without saying anything polite sounding, because he did things like that still. It was part of his insanity, she thought, rather than him trying to be rude on purpose.

She didn't leave the park, even after a few people started to give her suspicious glances. Apparently in Utah all the drug dealers and hard core gang members looked like casually dressed teen girls. It would have made sense if it had been mainly men, or if the women doing it had seemed sketchy themselves, but it was a bunch of regular people, as far as she could tell. That ended after a bit, since she was in a park, and it got too dark to see her, lacking good lighting.

Zack stepped out from behind a tree, a ways off. That had to be on purpose, since she hadn't felt him coming, which was a level of skill that she had to admire and couldn't match. In his hands he carried a large pink box that had to have an entire sheet cake in it.

"Keeley! Um, I have cake." There was a young and almost awkward sound to the way he spoke, his face not really clear to her, even from fifty feet away. She could see better than most in the dark, but it was still far from perfect. She could tell that he was mainly in blue, and while he had a button up shirt on, his shoes were built for running.

Hers weren't, being tennis shoes, but they were her old ones, that had arcane looking symbols that meant nothing all over them, in black ink. Doodles to make her seem more interesting than she'd felt like she was, once upon a time. Months ago now. A lifetime away, back when she'd been a Human girl, and not herself. Not who she'd become.

The Mistress of Souls.

That had a nice dramatic ring to it, she decided, smiling.

"Hey Zack. We should go, since there's a busy night ahead. Cake to eat, and all that. Presents to pass out. I might have one for you, too." If he wanted in on it, that was.

If not, then she was going to be in trouble.

"Darla is in Austria. Oh, she um, passed her Second Crucible. It wasn't an easy one, like yours, from what I can tell. It was three or four days of fighting. She's fine, herself, but it was close for a bit there. I'll let her go over it, if she doesn't get side tracked by the party. I wish you would have told me about this earlier, so I could have something for her, too. Now I'll look a bit like a jerk. Not caring enough to get her anything."

That was an odd thing about Zack. He sounded a bit too much like he really meant it. A Greater Demon, but one that almost never remembered to control his emotions yet. He'd learn, no doubt. If someone didn't kill him first.

Walking over to her, he handed the big box to her, which smelled good, and correct for the scene that was about to play out. Rich and decadent. Then he took her arm, using his fingers, not grabbing, just gently touching, almost with a kind of sweetness, and caused a rift to open up in front of her. A node. It glowed purple, though she would have seen it anyway.

"Don't fight it. Just focus on the other side and step through. The only one of us to get that almost right so far is Gregor. Darla fights each time, like I'm kidnapping her."

She smiled and nodded.

"That makes sense. Um, don't mention it to everyone, but Gregor, he's actually an Angel. Those are real. That, or I'm being punked big time. We can't really keep that in mind, so most of us, Greater Demons, can't admit to that being true. I don't know if you can or not, but it seems likely to me. You're not sane, and trust me, which should be enough for you to get past that hurdle. Of course, you aren't their special chosen one yet, or whatever I am. Otherwise they really would have been better off approaching you first. I'll bring that one up at the next office meeting."

Zack shrugged.

"Oh? All right. I can't see that it makes a difference. Gregor is one? I should talk to him about that then? Or, not. Hey, does that mean the whole God thing is right, too?"

"I don't know. They, I've met two or three to talk to, some of them said it was true, but, I can't prove any of it. I'm playing pretend right now, just to tell you this. You might want to hide it from Darla for now? That info isn't your present, by the way. Though, it should count. I mean, who else gives you information like that? Not Tarsus, that's for sure." Which was part of the problem.

She stepped through, and instinctually fought the whole time, which got her glared at on the other side. The place they were in was... Bland. A hotel room, but neither big or well decorated. It had a chair, which was made all of wood and didn't seem comfortable, a small bed with an old and well worn spread on it and an attractive and well dressed blonde woman standing in the middle of the room. She held a gun, or something a bit like one, made of crystal and copper wire, wound in intricate ways. Some of the twists dipped into another part of reality, Keeley thought.

Darla. Looking different than she normally did, but still familiar. Attractive, but about forty. Other than a few new lines and a slightly heavier jaw line, she was the same sister that Keeley had met first, the October before. The Cheerleader version. In this case, her good looking mother, perhaps?

"Happy birthday!" She said the words brightly, and ignored the weapon that was still pointed at her. "Italian cream cake? That's what you asked for. I didn't know what to get you at first, but something came up. You have to share with Zack. Since it's kind of a big deal. I know that won't be a problem. We should put this somewhere first, so it won't be ruined when it gets here. The present, I mean."

Darla looked at her closely, and then grinned.

"Cake? My favorite kind, too. I do recall saying that, but it isn't my birthday, Keels." The part where she said if it is you, didn't get spoken out loud. It was heavily implied, enough so that she nearly rolled her eyes.

"I know, it's a surprise party. I... you know, here, I can prove I'm me. You might want to be armed for it though. Let me see, Zack? You too." She didn't know if he went around armed, but reaching behind him he pulled a plain black pistol of some kind. That nearly got her to blink, but even he needed to take steps, if he wanted to survive. "Good, let me..." She pulled a sword, a katana, with a Toledo steel blade on it, rather than one made in traditional form. The Kobold that had made it was creative that way.

"So... Xenses, attend us here." She had to send a thought out with the words, and back it with a pulse of magic, but nothing happened at first.

They had a wait, after all, but a few minutes later he came, moving into the space between them all, carefully. Then, standing there looking a lot like how Zack used to, unable to do anything else, was their prey.

The Greater Demon that had murdered her father.

"Happy birthday, Darla. Zack. Now, let's kill this thing, and get rid of the pieces?"

She expected some kind of argument, or more of a fight from Xenses, who wasn't even allowed to talk, since she wasn't letting him have that much fun with the whole thing. There would be no room for last minute insults, or recriminations from him. No chance to escape, or even beg for his life. There wasn't anything like that, just Darla slapping up a slow time bubble around them, which would change how things sounded from the outside. It didn't muffle them so much, but it would distort things enough that the screams and explosions would sound different.

Or, as the case turned out to be, the grunting that happened.

Darla moved in her face a grimace of rage and happiness that was horrible to look upon, and took an arm, the left one, putting her well shod foot on the man's side.

Zack shook his head at her then, causing them all to stop.

"Wait." He put his gun in the back of his pants, or more likely in a holster there, and moved in himself, also smiling. "I'll do the other one. That way the forces will balance better."

Then, working together, as a team, the other two pulled the Greater Demon apart. He couldn't fight, or flee. There was no healing on his part either, but Zack moved in and kept him from dying with a judicious bit of magic. It was decently well done, and clearly a thing that he'd been studying up on. He was getting the job done, but not blasting power into it. More a tiny bit of guiding, rather than brute force. That he saved for limb pulling. Hence the grunting.

From the outside it probably sounded like Darla was getting pretty lucky. With several people at once, since they wanted her help, when it came time to take the head off. She offered to use her sword, but Darla and Zack both opted for twisting it, until it popped off. It took a while. About fifteen minutes, or there about.

The floor was a mess, but no one seemed worried on that score. The floor was red and sticky, the blood there beginning to dry already.

When it was very clear that no life existed in the form in front of them and never would again, Darla left, coming back about ten minutes later on the inroads. She carried a large and rather nice chest with her. A familiar one. Inside, Keeley knew, beneath the heavy iron bands and nice sturdy wood, was the Geordis. A time machine of sorts, that ran on magic. Anything it surrounded would be undone, the time it happened in never having taken place.

The elements of it were all large, perfectly round, cylinders, about as big as a dinner plate in cross section, and about fourteen inches tall. Made of solid gold with little pointers on the top. Keeley had used it before, a few times. Getting the idea, she helped Darla set it all up, and stood over the body as her sister used the dials.

"Ready Keels?"

She was, and nodded, set to grab him again, as time was turned back and he came back to life, having never been dead at all. The packet of data worked for this too, and he never even took a free breath. It was, she understood, good practice for anything else like this she might need to do, later.

Darla did it an entirely different way this time, getting Zack to help her paint Xenses with a white acid from a little jar. It ate his flesh off, as he suffered, over the course of hours. The desire to kill him faded on the fourth turn they took, and after Keels grabbed him that time, they removed themselves to a forest that Zack knew about, in a place so remote there were two moons in the sky. One was regular, like at home, but the other was small and yellow, being misshapen. The foliage of the place was mainly purple, with some orange and green mixed in for contrast. It was pretty, reminding her a bit of rotting flesh.

Which wasn't a sane thought, but still true. Everything had its own beauty, didn't it?

This time she helped cut the body up, which was burned on five separate pyres. Big ones that threatened to set the whole world around them on fire.

"Lovely." Darla shook her head a bit however, and looked over at Zack, who'd brought the cake with them. "We should eat some of that now. How are we paying for it?"

That was part of being an adult in their world, as annoying as it was at the moment. An adult didn't get offered free food, and didn't ask for it.

"Three way split?" Keeley said it without pause, knowing that she needed to get more food herself soon. Zack had actually left for a while, as Xenses dissolved earlier, to get something to eat. Darla hadn't. It was too important to her for things like that to get in the way of her fun. Her final revenge.

That got a nod.

"I can do that. Thank you for the present, Keels. This was... Incredible. I knew I was the best mentor ever. This just proves it, don't you think? Even after we finished all that, you came back to reward me for it." She grinned, but didn't take it back, since that would ruin the teasing she was doing. She'd hardly done much at all compared to most mentors for their kind. Not for Keeley. She still had seventy odd years with Zack though, so she could make up for it with that.

"Not too bad, actually. I could have used a bit more seasoning first, but everyone knows that. I'll muddle by. Mainly by complaining uselessly at you, Darla. Zack too, but less so."

That got a more considered look, as Darla turned to the fire, while Zack stepped away and almost right back, with plates and a large basket filled with food. It was wicker, but so huge that it had to have been specially made. It was bigger than the box the Geordis was kept in, by about fifty percent. It was a full picnic, since the fires weren't going to burn out anytime soon, being so large. Xenses was mainly gone already, and the hotel had been left fine, and unstained, due to their use of time control devices. There was no blood traces left, since in a very real way, nothing had happened there in the first place.

They spent a long time eating then, after letting Zack know that he'd be paid for the food, which he already knew. Then they ate and chattered back and forth for a long time, until even the embers were gone.

Finally Darla stood up, and waved to each of them.

"This, is the end of Xenses. The Defiler. Killed thrice, never to walk the world again. It was a long time in coming, and my only regret is that I didn't kill you more."

It was as far from being a prayer for the dead as was possible, but still clearly heartfelt. Zack didn't add anything, but Keeley did, not realizing what it was going to be until her mouth moved, almost on its own.

"This is the end. Goodbye, brother. The world is better for you leaving it. Don't come back. If you do, we won't be as kind."

Then they pushed dirt over the remains of the five blazes and packed things up, leaving to their own places in the world. One that, as she'd just pointed out, was better for not having a certain Greater Demon in it. That might not last, since when one Demon died, another always tried to take its place. An insane being like her brother might well be replaced by something just as bad, or worse, but that, she decided, wasn't her problem.

Neither was all the rest of what people wanted her to do. Hunting the other Greater Demons to the death? Trapping them in far off realities? Even if she could manage it, she really had to wonder if that was the best course of action.

Tarsus had said that trapping them away from the world was the best thing to do, and that all of the universe might be destroyed if those others were allowed to stay in it with their full powers. He was even right, given what he knew.

The thing there was that he didn't have all the information, and even if he had it, he wouldn't be able to understand what he was really seeing. It was crippling and led him to errors, unknowing. Keeley couldn't see a way to fix that either. Really, if she had it right, it was all part of a plan. Maybe she was supposed to kill those Greater Demons? Or, just possibly, she was supposed to help trap them, just like Tarsus wanted?

There was also the chance that she was supposed to get herself out of it all, somehow. Beg off in a way that could be acknowledged as sensible by everyone involved without getting her killed? For some reason, even if not backed with facts, that last one felt right. She'd go and... Well, that was the hard part. She couldn't explain to anyone. That Zack had heard the word Angel and not laughed at her was a vast deal, and she knew it. Tarsus would probably ignore her, thinking it a clever, or possibly stupid, ploy to get out of risking herself.

Which would be totally fair of her to try, so not unexpected.

Michael, well, she didn't even remember talking to the man. If that part of things existed, then she'd have to deal with that too. Somehow. Maybe by having Gregor do it for her? How did you deal with things that you simply couldn't think about or consciously hold on to as a real concept? Humans did it, all the time, but most of the problems they had in life were due to that very fact about themselves. They constantly had to make decisions about things that they couldn't comprehend, and it led them to the wrong answers, over and again.

There was trouble coming however, if she didn't work it out...

Or was there? What, really was her part in this? Tarsus might try to kill her if she didn't do what he wanted, as a show of force, but that wasn't likely. She might not be a real threat to him, but she was still a Greater Demon and she might just get lucky, if it came to a fight. She'd done all right with Xenses, hadn't she? Yes, that wasn't all her, but that was a real point too. She had friends. Keeley had worked out what was needed, and took him from a direction he wasn't prepared for. Then used the others to remove the being. No one was prepared for that kind of thing, she didn't think.

So, for a small period of time, or possibly one not that tiny, she, Keeley Thomson, The Mistress of Souls, had an edge over all the other Greater Demons. She could, possibly, take them all and force them to be her slaves, doing what she wanted.

The idea was thrilling, but ultimately a thing she didn't want to bother with. Oh, power was grand, and she'd get around to gathering that for herself, but holding onto hundreds of crazy Greater Demons was less than a thrilling idea. So that left her with what? A bit of a threat to leave her protected?

That didn't mean much, if Tarsus was right, did it?

Really, what she needed to do was talk to someone that actually knew what was supposed to happen. There just wasn't anyone around like that. Not unless God wanted to make an appearance and explain it all to her?

On thinking that she carefully looked around her living room, being a bit playful about it, but not expecting anyone to actually show up and give her a sign. No one did, naturally, since God, as she knew, was make-believe. Being a bit at loose ends she went to make food, knowing that skipping out was a bad habit.

When a knock came at the front door she ran to it, throwing it open, to find, not God, but The Vile, standing right there, his face made to look nice for her, and his scent a bit like roses. For a being that thought that corruption and the scent of death was somehow the correct way to be, it was ever so polite of him.

"Mistress of Souls. I have come to visit."

"Vile. Wonderful. I have some food going. You can pay me for it. Or trade some stories of equal value? If this is a date, I mean."

"That would serve. I know that this is the wrong day, but I'd hoped that you'd see me anyway."

She nodded, her mouth moving on its own again, which was wrong. It shouldn't do that at all, but after a moment, she got the idea. She was being guided into place, wasn't she? By... She looked around, but didn't see anything.

"I wanted to talk to you anyway. What do you know about The Rage?"

There was a hint of a pause and then a soft smile.

"I know that he is violent in the extreme, and looking for you. It seems that he has taken offense at your careful handling of the situation you dealt with for us. The Lover... Well, she is in hiding. Nearly thrice dead at his hands, already. I too am hunted, as is the Cartographer. I do not know if we will live through this. Worse, The Chaotic has been notified, as had the Helmsman. We are, I would hazard, about to live in interesting times."

"Oh? Well... Don't worry, I'll deal with this. That's my job, after all." She sounded really confident, and even felt that way, but didn't know where the words were coming from.

Not unless it was the hand of God himself, messing with her. If so, she would have preferred another note. One not in her head this time, if it was all the same.

Chapter fourteen

The meal she shared with Vile was a bit strained and tense, but not much more than she might have suspected it would be. He was polite and even friendly the whole time, but worried about how he was going to survive. That, she realized was a thing that they all had in common. All the Greater Demons that existed really wanted to live.

Humans, and a lot of other beings could just hang on and survive day to day, but you didn't live long as one of her kind unless it was a fundamental desire from deep within your heart. She felt it, and so did all the others. Sane or not.

When he left, she promised to handle things and asked for a week or two to get the real work done. It was probably a poor plan, but she decided to handle this one alone. If she messed it up, no one else would need to die for it that way. If, as she suspected, it was actually God that was influencing her in this, then... Well, she was either gone off in the head, or kind of required to give it her best shot.

She did go off into the national forest area for it however, since she didn't particularly want to trash her new house. It had taken a lot of work to get it the way she wanted, and keeping her things nice was important to her. She also ate more first and drew power the whole time. She wasn't at full capacity, if such a state existed, but she was flush with energy and power when she repeated with The Rage what she'd done with her brother.

Grabbing his being at a distance and forcing him to not respond when she called him to his death.

It... Didn't take long, once she decided on the course of action she had to take. It was incredibly dangerous, but he was removed before she knew it, his head on the ground beside her.

It was a nice head, she decided. Large, since the body it had been on was about ten feet tall. Pretty too. Rage filled or not, the giant thing was a work of art. It had armor under the skin, and while it didn't look very human, being gray and a little warty on the outside, she was able to understand that this was a being that she couldn't have beaten in a real fight.

Everything about him had been designed to help support the fire of rage within. The waiting she did, sitting beside the corpse as it cooled, was simply so that no one could come along and bring him back to life. There would be no tricks this time. No revenge or fancy ways to make him dead. Just a whole lot of sword blows and then silent waiting.

She had to call and cancel with Kait, but did that while she sat outside her house, after heading back a day later. Anyone in the world that wanted to look could have seen what she was doing, but she didn't care. No one that mattered would notice and if the NSA wanted to spy on her, they were welcome to. They played in such different realities that even if they saw every illegal thing she did, they wouldn't bother to notice it.

A lot of things took place then, all in a row. First she got on her cell phone and checked in with Felecia. The bottle redhead was up, and even had good news, since she'd been able to secure the building that the former drug den had been in, and had used those people to start their blood operation. Not exactly in the way that Keeley had intended, since she was using them as blood sources, which was a little hard on the system, as most of them were just kicking drug habits, too.

It worked for the time being and they could get real, community sourced blood going in a few weeks time, if they worked at it. Poor people would sell theirs if the money was good enough. They didn't need as much as the Red Cross did either, and could afford to pay more for it, so people could donate weekly. It wasn't the same as a full time job, but if you needed food for your kids, an extra thirty dollars a week could add up. The woman seemed scared, when she realized that the actual plan had been different than she'd thought, but Keeley didn't truly mind. Minor miscommunications happened, didn't they?

When night fell, Keeley traveled the inroads and picked up the massive corpse of The Rage, then walked into the forest with it. She had to run and get tools, not able to just call Zack to get them for her, since her cell reception had dropped off when she moved too far from the city. Where she'd been earlier had been a sweet spot that way.

When morning came she thought about it for a while, and then worked out how to take Helmsman and The Chaotic as well. Those needed to be done well away from her, physically. It baffled her for a while as to how to get that done, until she realized that she could take Helmsman first, then The Chaotic and have them both kill each other, never exposing herself to their powers directly. She did have to do a physical check of the area they met in and then make the bodies vanish, but that worked well enough.

The forest had new fertilizer that day, in a certain spot. She just hoped that it would be over then. That taking out those three threats really did something, and the whole thing wasn't simply doomed to restart. Not soon at least. Worse, Keeley had to pray that it wasn't really the opening salvo in a war against her kind by the Angels. Heaven, if that was a place, setting it up for her to do the hardest work just to start things off.

She worked fast, and buried them deep, since having bodies found was never a great idea. Even if she couldn't be caught for it, that would cause trouble. So she didn't stint on the elbow grease and managed to have it all done by the time she absolutely had to go back home, to get some food.

Then... She didn't really know what else to do. There had been that thing with the Vile however. Her mouth working, without her conscious input. That kind of thing was familiar to her, from when she was a girl, but now it just didn't happen. It meant that someone else, or something, had done that for her.

Her guess wasn't going to be God, either.

More like one of his lackeys. If they really existed. If not, Gregor had best have his affairs in order, since she was done now. Almost. No one got to control her like that. If it was God, and that was real, well, then she didn't have a choice, did she?

If it was an Angel...

Well, she might not have much of a choice there either. Except that there was something that Gregor had mentioned to her that suddenly made some sense. Greater Demons were better fighters than they were. On average. It meant that, personal skill aside, the things could be destroyed. Otherwise fighting did no good at all.

Not knowing what would happen, she readied a new packet of information, building it for a specific purpose in her mind. This time steered toward an Angel. More to the point, one that pretended to be a Swiss Guard. She needed information, and the first part of that was knowing if that sort of being was susceptible to her that way. Telepathically it didn't work, so she went in person, to find that as hard as she tried to take him. It not only didn't do anything, he didn't seem to notice when she tried.

He just stood there in his silly red and yellow clown costume, watching the world for changes. So, that one was answered. She wasn't going to simply grab Michael up and make him talk, was she? Not that she could find him. Keels knew that, having tried several times. It was simply like he didn't exist. Which was possible, she guessed. All of that kept her busy for longer than she'd figured it would, and she was just starting to feel silly when she returned to her own home to find a strange man, one that looked like a farmer, on her front porch. Waiting for her.

He smiled pleasantly.

"You won't remember me."

"Archangel Michael." That got a proud look to cross his friendly features. It wasn't haughty or patronizing, either. He really seemed to think that her remembering him was special.

"That's really good! I just wanted to come and tell you how pleased we all are. You handled those removals as well as could be expected, and better. There was no torture or aggression to it, which we didn't know would be the case. Thank you, for listening to me. It is hard to find one with both ears, and the will to hear."

It should have seemed like he was being a dick, she decided, but it was really clear that he was actually just saying what he meant. Which, if he couldn't, or perhaps simply didn't lie, might be handy. Walking a few steps toward him, she left her hands empty. Chances were that she could slice him up with a blade, if she tried hard enough, especially if she imbued it with magic before it landed. That portion of their beings, magic, or celestial energy, was very clean and pure, but while that made it harder to disrupt, it also left them open to Demonic attacks on that level too, she bet. Her magic was a bit messy around the edges, she realized. Zack's line travel wasn't, but everything these beings did that way was pure. Ordered on a fundamental level.

Not that Zack didn't make up for doing that in a lot of other chaotic ways.

She cleared her throat a little.

"Care to answer some questions? I only have a few."

"Ah... I will answer, but you won't remember this. If, knowing that, you're willing to hear me anyway, I'll give you the information you wish, if it is in my possession." He moved in the wind, swaying with it, as if ephemeral. He didn't have wings, which would have been a nice touch, but probably wouldn't have gone with the blue button up farm shirt and jeans look. Or the boots. They were filth covered, and brown. It nearly seemed like this being actually grew things for a living. Which could be the case. What did she know about what he and his kind did?

"Great. Well, first, I was taken over the other day, while talking to The Vile. Was that you?" She was ready to whip out her sword from its extra dimensional holding area, if he answered incorrectly.

"Take over? No. I merely whispered in your ear. It didn't force you to action, you chose to say what I suggested. My kind cannot do that by force. I was watching and simply didn't wish that nice being to suffer too great a fear, given that you were there to protect him. I had already seen the outcome of that meeting. It worked to my benefit, and that of Himself, but the whole situation was one that was forced upon you, Keeley. By your Tarsus?" He waited for a while, looking up at the sky above them as he appeared to think. Or listen. "It is that he feared those he set you after, more than was needed. He might not be pleased by what you did, but I do not think he will seek to harm you, or even ridicule you for it."

Keeley had to agree that it sounded likely to her, if nothing else.

"What part did you play in setting it up?"

"I? Nothing. I cannot act on one such as Tarsus The Librarian, and while Humans can at times hear me, they are most often as you are. If their minds are open they can be touched, but not impressed. I am a messenger, and simply sent a message to you, Keeley Thomson. That you should not trap the others of your kind. Kill them if you need to, but never trap them away from reality."

She shook her head a bit, and then closed her eyes, wondering if the vision in front of her would fade when she did. He was still there when they opened however, looking serene and not like he was messing with her.

"Why not? It seems the more sensible option, doesn't it? If we kill, or destroy them, they come back, or at least another Greater Demon does. If they aren't sane then we get another crazy, and normally the other way around. I've wondered for a while now if Zack, The Line Walker, wasn't driven insane just to try and upset that balance. But if someone kills him then we should get a sane Baby Demon from the deal. Or we should."

That earned a look that seemed to let her know that she was five and oh, by the way, a moron.

"Think of what you know, Keeley Thomson. Those of your kind that are less than sane have been working together for a long time now. Holding to skills that they normally cannot discipline themselves to, being careful when recklessness is the main operating methodology that they are forced to subscribe to. Why is that, do you think?"

"Um... Well... Helmsman's power could have done that. There's no particular reason for it however. Unless..." Mikey looked expectant then.

Enough so that she was nearly derailed by him being there. Again. It was a massive problem watching him there, knowing what he was. Good and pure, and totally counter to her own being. Just being around him, the frisson between their magics, was screwing with her ability to think. Annoyingly, it didn't seem to do anything to him that way. So he was clear and sharp, while she fought to remember complex things like her name.

"Okay, so, Tarsus wanted her removed, feeling that she was unbalancing reality. That sounds like it was happening, and if he knew what was going on..."

"Yes. Your leader was informed, by a brother of mine, that this was taking place. He is not clear about what is being said however, so we needed to ensure that the wrong path was not taken. Your kind is part of what is needed to keep reality in place and to the plan. As are mine own. You cannot have light without darkness, or up without down. In this case it is that there is evil in the world and by concentrating it in a few, the damage to the many is lowered greatly. Yes, some die, and bad things happen to them, but it would be a million times worse, if those such as you weren't on hand to focus it and limit the scope of what can be done."

She actually thought she could follow that one, after a fashion.

"And you, your kind... Angels, you focus good, so that... Um, I don't get that part, wouldn't a lot of little goods being done help reality work more smoothly?"

That got a grin that seemed more like it belonged on a small child than a grown farmer.

"No, good taken too far always becomes evil, too. Always. You are correct however, we are the limit on one side. The line that cannot easily be crossed. We exist, both good and evil, to hold the rest of the beings inside reality. So that they do not destroy it all. In keeping those others trapped, like you and The Technician have been doing, you weaken that, and allow others to become more negative. So far it has had only minor effects, but they will grow, if that power is not freed. I would ask that you do that. Now, please."

She looked away from her house, talking to the thing that might not be there and wouldn't have been, when it left. To that end she decided to write herself another mental note and this time a physical one too. Without asking what he wanted, she jogged to do that, and took notes for hours, writing it all down. Making certain that the explanation was right this time. No one would believe it, except maybe Zack, but she needed to know these things were possible, didn't she?

"So, you want me to free those Greater Demons, even if they'll all try to destroy me if I do? They're going to be pretty pissed about being controlled, even if just for a while. No one wants to be imprisoned like that, and none of them are well balanced. I don't particularly wish to die, myself." She meant it, but that wasn't news to her, in particular.

"I understand. That, as I mentioned is the weakness of pure good. This is a thing that needs to be done, and to me any sacrifice is worth it happening. The death of millions, to save even more. The death of one evil little girl hardly even weighs on me in this, until I stop to think of you as a person, at which point things flip to the other side and I would call it all off, to give you even a few more seconds of life, if need be. We are boundaries, Keeley. For others. Not rules. Not Guides to follow. We are the lines on the road, and the signs that indicate what is right and wrong. Nothing more. In the end, you must do what you will about those others. It will be put to balance. I still believe you should do it, but that's mainly because you're actually trying to listen to me." He made certain that she wrote that all down and put it securely in her head, locked in to trigger when she saw the note pad it was all being taken down on. There were pages of material, all in black ink. Like what she used for school.

All of the words describing insane ramblings. Ones that, she knew, were real.

"I will take my leave now, Keeley Thomson. Mistress of Souls, and leave you to what evil you must do in order to influence things as must happen. I... well, my nature is to wish people well, and happy. Blessed, even. I do not know if that would be of aid to you. We will meet again, however, as we have before. You will not remember me."

Of course she wouldn't. She never did. None of her kind did. Almost no one could, regardless of who they were. Keeley watched him leave, walking away, toward the street in front of her house. The world was a bit too tan in the area for her taste. Going into massive droughts too, over the next years. That reminded her of another thing she could do in order to make some extra funds. Shipping water in. That, or getting some kind of set up to make it? Take it from the ocean and use solar desalination perhaps? For her own gain, of course. Even if the result would be good for others in the end.

That part at least made sense. She, and the others, all of them, were boundaries for the real people. Not actual controls, for the most part, but ways to steer them toward the right goal.

"Hey, do I ever get to meet this God of yours? He could at least drop in for cookies or some tea, don't you think?" It sounded flip and unbelieving, but that was the way she felt, so it worked for her, she thought.

It was designed to get a laugh, but the Angel turned, from about twenty feet away and went still, listening to something that Keeley simply couldn't hear. Then he waved at the world around her.

"He is here, Keeley. All around you, always. Not as a metaphor, as a part of things. Look through my eyes, if you can, and see what is there to behold."

There was a moment of disorientation, since it was pretty clear that his offer to lend her his perspective was real. When he looked over at her, she saw herself as he did. She was... Hot. Young and fragile seeming, too. Also possessed of a strength that flowed from her, into the world and beyond. It was black, which was the color of evil, but also golden in places. Nearly divine at times. Mainly just bad, but that wasn't the only thing she was.

There were streamers of light as well. Faint things that moved to a golden expanse that was all around her. It was within everything, and when she noticed it, Keeley felt awe. A touch of something came back to her, a thing so unexpected that she nearly cried, for a moment.

It was love. That sounded corny enough to bring her out of that contact a little, but not totally. There was a sense of a word. Not the actual sound, but a knowledge of what was, as this huge thing as big as she could understand, and larger than that by far, communicated with her.

"You are loved, my daughter." That was the general idea.

Nothing else came, no instructions or hints about how to live or what to do. Just a sense that this wasn't special or new. This was, in the end, what existed around her all the time. She lived within the light and love, and had simply never noticed it before. It wasn't part of what she was able to see. No one was allowed that. Not her kind, not the Humans or their cousin races. If they had been able to get it, they wouldn't have needed guidelines. Then, they also all would have been Angels, more or less. Perfect, and not able to do the wrong things that were needed for the end point to be reached. That was a big part of the plan. It was why there were things that were broken and backwards. So that, in the end, a thing could be born that encompassed everything.

The connection broke, and her mind reeled, hurting deep inside from the dissonance. It was bad enough that she had to force herself to heal more quickly than normal, using magic. If not, she probably would have died from brain hemorrhages. Several of them.

Mikey made an odd gesture, and vanished, not speaking to her again. Either he thought that was dramatic and well timed, which it was, or he knew that she wasn't going to be ready to talk to him for a while. That one was right too, she decided. The thing was, after touching God like that... She remembered him. It wasn't perfect recall, but it was all there. She could sense the presence around her too. God. Right there, watching her, all the time.

Even in the shower. Even when on the toilet.

Perv.

There was, at least she imagined, a soft sense of a smile or laugh that came to her. It faded, slowly, but she remembered it. That didn't go away. She waited for a long time, but nothing happened to remove it. So, finally, she rewrote her notes onto her computer. It would help keep things straight if it wasn't hand written. That looked a bit more crazy than not. Good spelling would help, too. It wasn't long, only about forty pages in all.

Then she ate more, shopped, and thought for a long time about what to do. There was, she understood, really only one part of the whole thing left to handle.

Tarsus.

The rest of them were her friends. Her family. Finias would be there for her parties, and to hang out if she wanted... and Zack, well, they needed to get together and probably go out a few times at the very least. Greater Demons didn't have a lot of morals when it came to sex, which was, she realized, a good thing. For her. For them. It set that line for others, so they knew where not to cross it themselves. They were evil, but the net effect, over all, was not so bad. The Angels would be the same way, on the other side then, she thought. They did good, but in the end they showed how not to go so far that it became unbalanced that way either.

Tarsus however, wasn't her buddy. He could react badly to what she told him. Except of course that she was only going to use about half the truth. Doing more than that was a good way to have herself ambushed, after all.

So, she started cooking and invited him over for supper that night. It wasn't a real meal time, being about three in the morning, but he could, he allowed, eat. That was a constant thing in their lives. Gluttony beyond reason. Needed just to survive.

He came to the front door, and held a bottle of wine for them to share. It was a nice red, which would go with the hamburgers she'd made nicely.

"We could save it for a nicer meal, if you want?" That was fine with her, but he just waved that away.

"I'm sure this will be fine. It smells very nice." He came in with very little hint and sat comfortably at her kitchen table. His look was his normal one. Meaning a bit sour faced, and like a Roman patrician. Keeley knew it was done that way on purpose. The haircut was a big part of it, being very straight in the front, cutting across the forehead in a straight line. Over a nose that was excellent for looking down at people.

After she got the first load of food on the table, she ate a burger in about six large bites and then wiped her mouth with a linen napkin. She had mayo on hers and a bit of relish and mustard. She'd never been all that into ketchup, so at least it didn't look like her mouth had just consumed a person or anything that gross.

Without preamble she started in, just explaining, if with a few lies. She made a point of shielding well enough that he wouldn't pick up on Angelic influence as a reason for her actions. It hadn't been, totally. She didn't think.

"Xenses is dead. The Rage, The Chaotic and Helmsman too. The Void is... Still around, but won't destroy reality. I can't explain that to you. By that I mean, as you might well understand, that I can't do it, not that I won't, or don't think you should know. I..." For some reason she kept speaking, almost hearing someone whispering in her ear. Because, of course, an Angel would know how to best handle a Greater Demon? It seemed to her that she might just have a bit more experience there. Then again, maybe not. She was only sixteen after all.

She looked the Demon in the eye, a soft brown at the moment and smiled.

"I was going to lie and claim that they caught me off guard and I had to do it, but it took planning and care. I worked out that removing them forever would... create problems that we couldn't fix, with the rest of reality. To that end we might need to release or at least kill, the ones that Darla and I captured. It isn't perfect, but it's how things need to be. Again, I can't explain this to you in any meaningful way. It would be good if you would trust me, but I'm not counting on that. The fact is however, that it's already done, and the bodies buried." She fought the urge to cross her arms defensively and just ate some more.

Then she waited, being stared at the entire time. Not for a few seconds or even a minute but a half hour of dead silence, before he said anything to her.

"Is that so? Well... I do wish you would have shared your plans with me. I guess I can't complain too much, however. The spirit, if not the letter, was carried out, and you lived, which is a better outcome than I'd hoped." There was another long silence, but a far more normal one that took about half a minute before he took a sip of wine from a crystal goblet and then munched half a burger of his own.

Looking at the clock on the wall, a sign that he was going to suggest he leave soon, he spoke, softly.

"When we first met, I thought you too weak to survive long, amongst us, Keeley. Most of our kind come into power in the first years after waking, with strength coming first. That you did not frightened me. I worried for my granddaughter. That you would be harmed, and used. Then I made myself stop that, but not forget the feeling. After that, no matter what was thrown at you, you handled it. Not perfectly, but well enough, which is all that should be asked of the young. It's almost as if you possess some guidance that I simply cannot see. Regardless. I congratulate you on your achievement. It had to be done, one way or the other. Now, what do you have planned?"

She didn't need him to go into that one too deeply. He wanted to know if she was going to take over the Council, or perhaps simply enslave them all.

"I was thinking that I might get a job as a camp councilor. Sneak in and watch what my friends get up to when I'm not around. See if they say mean things about me behind my back."

"Take them as yours again? I notice that you have... several others now. What is that, seventy-two?"

It was so, she nodded.

"That's just the start of those here in my territory. I'm not taking my friends as slaves however. I think, no matter what happens, that they deserve to be free." She wanted to giggle, but didn't and managed to look over a French fry at the Greater Demon. Her grandfather. "You know, I don't know how it happened, but I think I might actually be growing up. A year ago I was just a girl, and now... I think I'm ready to start life as what I really am. It hasn't all been easy, but..."

There was a smile and he stood, then surprisingly gave her a hug. Oh, true, he also managed to cop a feel of her left breast, rather unsubtly on the way back to standing, which he held for about ten seconds as she sat there, letting her nipple go hard. This wasn't about sex, however. It was his way of teasing her, and her own of showing him it wasn't going to work. Not now.

"Perhaps you have at that. Well, break a leg and don't take any wooden nickels. I'll call if you have an assignment coming any time soon. You passed the Second Crucible, so you asked for it. Most of the others are smart enough to throw the thing, when their turn comes. Do you have any idea which of us you'd like to work under?" There was no double meaning to the words, at least.

"Gregor, I think. In a strange way, we have the most in common." It was strange, but The Librarian merely nodded.

"Good, I'll let him know that. Until we meet again."

Then almost directly, dropping a single silver coin, if a large one, on the table, he walked out. It was his payment for the food. Then, shortly after that, he got onto the inroads, entering politely outside the front door, and vanished.

Chapter fifteen

In a way, Keeley reflected as she looked into her bathroom mirror, change was both good and bad, at times. In that moment she meant the slightly rough patch of skin on her left cheek that was a series of raised, slightly pink, bumps.

The entire face that looked back at her was different, since she'd shifted most of her appearance rather carefully, becoming a new person as far as anyone normal could tell. With a bit of acting, it would fool everyone. She was shorter, for one thing, being barely five feet tall, now. Her body was a bit rounder too, her mass having been condensed and spread over her smaller frame. It wasn't a huge thing, and she was still cute, but not so much that heads would always turn while walking down the street.

Her eyes were a nice blue, but not a special one. Just a light color that worked with the sandy blond hair she had now. The skin was tan, but just a healthy glow on a white girl, not anything that made her look more exotic or ethnic. There was a roundness to her that was adult, but not overdone. Smaller breasts, wider hips than she'd had before, and a higher pitched voice.

Keeley decided that this face, this new part of her, would be called Ella. It was a bit of an old fashioned name, but close enough to things that were popular at the moment not to sound too strange. On top of that, it was plain enough not to seem fake. Even if it was.

Like she'd just thought however, no one would ever know that.

Unless God told them. She sent out a thought, trying to mimic what Angels did that way, and mainly failing so far. It was just a poke, saying that He better not tell on her. She couldn't be certain but she thought, on some deep level that there was the hint of a smile that came at her then. From... Somewhere.

That part was strange, but she was adapting. That, and keeping her mouth shut.

There was no real reason to try and insist that everyone else acknowledge that being, after all. For one thing, experiences aside, there was no way to prove that it even existed. That probably meant she was insane, and not just privy to the secret information, but it was either true or not. Dwelling on that kind of thing was for Humans. Not her. She was, as she'd finally started to internalize, not one of those. It had taken a long time for that to sink in. Months, even.

That got her to smile and regard the face in the mirror again. She spoke to it, trying out the new voice, which was very different than her old one. Less self assured, but more friendly and playful.

"Well, Ella, are you ready for your first day as a camp councilor?" She'd gotten the job fair and square, simply applying for it. There had been a last minute cancellation, due to a Vampire getting into a fight the night before, which she'd heard about from Zack.

Okay, that part was cheating a bit, but she had simply planned to get him to let her in, being that he owned the place. This way would be a lot more interesting.

Her friends had finished their trip to the Grand Canyon, which meant that her Durg, Kevin, was making his way toward Becky, so they could move off to Hollywood, or at least L.A. It was a good enough plan, especially since Darla had already arranged for the girl to have a small but important part in a decently large picture. Not that Becky knew that yet.

The rest of them were fine. They had their own lives and businesses. Rebekah, her Vampire friend, had been more than pleased to help start a major blood collection business in Sparks, and Keeley's newly rehabilitated junkie squad was stepping up nicely. They weren't Mensa members, but their new jobs didn't require that from them. Just hard work and showing up in time.

Other than that, nothing too major had been happening over the last few days. Not that boring wasn't a good thing. She was, she decided, quite in love with the idea now. There was work to do, but that would always be the case, except for brief lulls between major happenings.

Soon she'd need to see about coming up with a few real businesses to keep her entertained.

She was, except for the need to put some clothing on, ready, she decided. The future would come, and while it might not be perfect, or, thanks to God staring at her butt, private, but she'd manage. Keeley was, after all, a Greater Demon. Which was a thing that she wasn't going to fight being any longer. She had a place in the scheme of reality, and it was as important as anything ever got.

So, keeping that in mind, she got herself ready, and moved toward the next thing. There was work to do, and she was, finally, ready to do her part to make it all happen.

A real adult.

A Demon girl.

Smiling she spoke in Ella's voice, winking at her own reflection, then decided not to do that again, since it was a bit too similar to her old mannerisms.

"A Demon woman, Keels. And don't forget it."

On that note, she went to make everything ready. It wouldn't do to keep the plan of the universe waiting, after all.

Other works by P.S. Power that you can pick up today on Amazon.com:

The Young Ancients:

The Builder

Knight Esquire

Knight

Ambassador

Counselor

Slave Line

The Dark Half of the Sun

A Simple Darkness

Ancient Kings

Lord of the Sky

The Silence Within

Kingdom of Stars

Goddess of the Moon

Envoy to Earth

The Keeley Thomson Universe:

Keeley Thomson: (The Complete Series)

Demon Girl

Keelzabub

Mistress of Souls

Demon Trap

Demon Bait

Other Places:

Shortcuts

Detours

Road Blocks

Other books in the Keeleyverse:

Christmas of the Vampire (Richard Swirlin, Vampire)

Friendzoned (Becky Hoader)

Gwen Farris:

Abominations

Monsters

Strangers and Lies

Tremble in the Dark

The Infected:

Proxy

Gabriel

Cast Iron

Proxy: Reunions

Cellophane

Goblin

Ghost girl

The Lament:

Without Rhythm

Off Center

Dead End:

A Very Good Man

A Very Good Neighbor

A Very Good Thing

A Very Dark Place

The Greasepaint Chronicles:

A Fear of Clowns

Other works:

Crayons

Unrelenting Terror (Which no one should read, under an circumstances!)

Ijime: The Bullies (As Dan Abe)

Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Story

*To find out more about what's coming next, please go to pspowerbooks.com

There's lots of information, fun things to read and a forum where you can share ideas, or plots against the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

Chapter fourteen

Chapter fifteen