Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (40 page)

“And see, Bree, here’s the fire station. I made that. And Brendan made that house, and this one, it’s a garage, like where you take your car to get fixed. It’s a small town like where Grandma and Grandpa Vilchek live, because we don’t have enough legos to make a big one.”
 

Bree obediently squatted down and admired the construction. There were some small cars and trucks scattered about as well. Brendan, more shy than Hunter, was running a tiny orange Mustang with great concentration along the carpet and into his ‘garage,’ which was a multi-colored lego square about five bricks high without a roof. She could hear the sound of talking and laughing from the kitchen, but she was enjoying hanging out with the boys and wasn’t in a hurry to join the adults. Hunter’s green eyes sparkled and his little hands gestured expressively as he described his building project. He’d recently gotten a haircut, and his silky brown bangs were shorter than usual.
   

She had known Hunter since Kevin and Steve had adopted him as an infant, and had often served as chief baby sitter when his Dads needed a date night as neither of them had family in town. She adored Hunter, and was glad to see him behaving so normally. His abduction last fall had been a great trauma, and while she was told he still had a heightened fear of strangers, overall, he seemed to have recovered well. Bruce eventually made his way out to Bree holding two glasses of wine and offered one to her, which she gratefully took. He sat down on the couch, and momentarily, Brendan was leaning up against Bruce’s leg, proffering a car and asking his uncle what kind it was.
 

“That, little man, is a Porsche. That is one fast car.”
 

“Hunter, this is a Porsche!” Brendan announced importantly. Hunter came over to have a look, and Bree moved to sit next to Bruce on the couch. In a moment, Kevin came out and joined them, taking a seat in the bright red chair to their left. “Sophie and Steve have things well in hand. I’ve been informed that those who love to cook don’t welcome input from those who merely love to eat.” He patted his rounded stomach comfortably as he spoke. “And I do love to eat. There’s some baba ghanouj and vegetables in there, Bree, if you need a nosh.”

“I’m good for the moment,” she reassured him. Hunter paused in his play to clamber up onto Kevin’s lap. “Daddy, Bree was sad before, but now she feels better. I told her about my fire station, and she said it was aventive.”

“I suspect you mean ‘inventive,’ son,” Kevin replied as he shot Bree a speculative look. Hunter was a budding Reader, and was prone to making these sudden, awkward announcements on the emotional state of those around him.
 

“Yeah, inventive.” He hopped back down and joined Brendan again.

“So what’s up?” Kevin asked Bree, concern evident on his face. She rolled her eyes in the direction of the boys playing on the floor and said, “Oh, you know, just a bit of a down day.”

Kevin got the hint and dropped the subject, asking Bruce instead about his new computer at work. Kevin was a programmer, and Bruce a moderately geeky user, so the conversation soon went over Bree’s head and well beyond her interest level. She wandered out into the kitchen where Sophie was busy frying up falafel while Steve chopped tomatoes and cucumbers.
 

Bree helped herself to veggies and dip while she caught up on the news with her two friends. Steve had just gotten an exciting new contract to design a waterfront home for a high level Microsoft executive. He was an architect with a specialty in green design, and it was just the sort of project he loved best: Contemporary, great views, and a client with a strong interest in using sustainable and recycled materials. Sophie had recently delivered a baby to a couple who wanted a whole community of friends to be present providing chanting and drumming. As she removed some of the falafel patties with a slotted spoon and put them into the oven to keep warm, she said, “Hey, you know I’m all for whatever makes the mother happy. And I personally am a big fan of drumming and chanting. But eighteen hours of it? Non-stop? I could not get to sleep last night for almost two hours because those frigging’ chants just kept rolling over and over in my head!” She smiled as she said it, though.
 

Listening to her friends talk about the details of their week was tremendously soothing. Bree didn’t feel much like talking herself, but she could feel her sadness and anxiety lifting even further as she watched Sophie and Steve finish putting together the Middle Eastern themed feast.
 

Although Sophie and Bruce had a dining room, it was the sort of space that was seldom used for the purpose for which it was designed. The dining table currently held a stack of mail and Sophie’s laptop, as well as a scattering of books. Instead, the adults would be eating at the table in the kitchen, and the two boys, at their own request, were arranged cross-legged in front of the coffee table in the living room. Sophie dished out some mac and cheese for the boys, along with some carrot sticks and peas, as both had strongly declined the majority of what the adults were having. Bree and Steve helped settle the boys with their food, then returned to the kitchen, which was down the hall from the living room, at the back of the house. This provided some privacy for the adult’s discussion, but it did mean that someone had to get up periodically and look in on the kids.

The dinner started convivially enough, with more little bits of personal happenings, but inevitably, turned to news of the wider world. “It’s bizarre, isn’t it?” Sophie complained between bites of falafel. “I just can’t wrap my head around the idea of the riots and the looting happening. You know, in a way, I can get the riots. People can get crazy in a crowd, people bump each other, get violent, all that. The looting almost freaks me out more. Obviously, the violence is worse by far, but there’s something so, I don’t know, post-apocalyptic about people just bashing in store windows and taking what they want.”

“It feels like law and order is breaking down,” Steve said worriedly.
 

“Yes, and that’s the whole point of it all, if we’re to believe the rumors we’ve heard. We’re supposed to feel that way, we’re supposed to be outraged and demand a change in government,” Kevin countered.

“Yeah, and we’re apparently supposed to give up our civil liberties as well,” Bruce added darkly. “There’s been talk about a curfew, and it worries me. I see the point of it for now, but I don’t like where this is headed.”

“If it were just happening here, I think I’d find it less overwhelming,” Bree put in.
 
Her enjoyment in the excellent food dwindled with the change in subject. She used her napkin to wipe the yogurt-cucumber sauce that had dribbled onto her hands from her falafel sandwich off her fingers. “I hear it’s much worse in L.A. and Miami.”

“I suppose we should thank our rainy climate for that,” Steve said. “Tempers run high when it’s hot, and at least we don’t have that to deal with.”

“Things were hot enough last night, at Pioneer Square. Javier called me in on it, so I was there for a good part of it.”

There were gasps and questions from around the table at that. Kevin admitted he’d gotten a message from Javier as well, but had been unable to respond because he’d been home alone with Hunter, as Steve had been out having dinner with a friend. Steve gave him a sharp look at that, and Bree wondered what his stance was on Kevin taking part in these powered activities. She couldn’t imagine he loved the idea. She didn’t love the idea of anyone at all being involved, but here they all were.
 

“It was a madhouse,” she told the group as they finally quieted down enough to let her talk. “I was having dinner with Leander…”

“Leander Rayne? That guy I invited to the St. Patrick’s Day party?” Bruce asked. There was something in his tone that left Bree feeling that Bruce had mixed feelings about the idea of her going out with Leander. He and Daniel had become fast friends, and she’d previously gotten the impression that he would have liked it if she and Daniel ended up together. On the other hand, Bruce wasn’t one to interfere in someone else’s personal life. The same could not be said for Sophie, who immediately waded in with, “Goodness, Bree, he’s gloriously handsome, but I could have sworn I smelled ‘womanizer’ all over that guy. Are you sure he’s your type?”

“It wasn’t a ‘date’ date,” Bree replied, cheeks coloring, “it was a friend date. Or at least that’s what I intended.”

“Oh, this sounds like a good story,” Steve said, eyebrows wriggling suggestively.

Bree felt control of the conversation slipping away from her at a high rate of speed. She attempted to wrest it back by forging ahead briskly. “Anyway, I got a message from Javier, and since Leander was with me, he wanted to come along. He’s something of a Caster and Warder, and he was definitely helpful.” With that, she’d managed to get the attention off her date with Leander, and was able to finish her story of her involvement in the riot. Kevin looked grim, maybe even angry, as she related her utilizing of Gelsenim to cast out the demons of their attackers near the end. She knew it worried him greatly, the risk of discovery of her budding Demon Master potential, but he didn’t comment. Bree had planned on skipping her strange, complicated encounter with Leander, but decided she needed other eyes on this, other perspectives. She hadn’t ended feeling very good about it all, but still couldn’t think what else she could have done.

“You know, I’ve gotta say I’m impressed,” Sophie said as Bree concluded her tale of deceit and seduction. She had pushed her plate away and had her elbows on the table, hands clasped together, and she gave Bree a rather wicked smile over her hands. “I do believe you bested Parrot Boy at his own game.”

“Parrot boy?” Bree asked, mystified.
 

“Oh, it’s just a little pet name Bruce and I made up for Leander. You know, colorful, talkative, smart, and a little full of himself. Kinda goes with the Bird Master theme. Anyway, I call that thinking on your feet, girl.”
 

“Truly, I can’t think what else you could have done. Distraction is your only hope with a Reader,” Kevin reassured her, leaning forward to put a hand briefly on her forearm. Bree figured she must look as embarrassed as she felt if she was garnering that kind of support.
 

“It just feels wrong to be manipulative in that way. But I really didn’t think it was my place to reveal anything about Daniel. I don’t have any particular reason to distrust Leander, but Daniel seems to think he might be a dark power user.”

“Daniel never told me that,” Kevin said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, where is Daniel anyway?” Steve asked.

Bruce replied. “We invited him, but he said he couldn’t make it. He didn’t seem to want to talk. There was something, I don’t know, something in his voice that worried me.”

Bree’s glance crashed right into Kevin’s, and she realized that they must be the only two people Daniel had told about his self-imposed exile and the reasons for it. Bree was intensely relieved that she wasn’t the only one who knew.
 

“He’s got something to work out,” Kevin said carefully. “Something having to do with Gelsenim’s ‘divided’ theory. He can get a little obsessed when he’s working on something like that.”

“Yeah, and he can get a little ridiculous when he thinks he’s protecting other people,” Bruce countered. There was a brief interruption as Brendan came barreling into the room asking if he could have some cookies. Steve got up and went to check on how much supper the boys had managed to eat so far and mediate cookie negotiations.
 

The break in conversation allowed a certain tension to be felt in the room between Bruce and Kevin, and as soon as Brendan was out of the room, Bruce leaned forward.
 
“Sometimes I think that man has us all enchanted,” he said intently. “We all have a tendency to do whatever he says. Yes, he’s an experienced Keeper. Yes, he has more power than probably everyone here at the table combined and then some. He’s on something of a mission, and it’s a mission we’ve all signed up for, for one reason or another. But that doesn’t mean that Daniel always knows what’s best for Daniel. Why should he have to try to figure this all out alone?”
 

He glanced briefly in Bree’s direction, and she answered defensively, “Look, I tried my best to sell him on another course. We had a disagreement about it, but he wouldn’t be moved. And in the end, it’s his life, right? We can’t make him do something he’s not willing to do.”

“That’s all true, but I’m just saying I think it’s probably not best for him to take this type of research on all by himself. Whatever happened to the idea that you were going to monitor him, Bree?”

Bree’s anxiety for Daniel, which had been eating at her all week, rose to the surface and leaped out like a suddenly freed porpoise. “I know, I know! But after he had that break, he just wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t let me in. I think it’s crazy for him to do it this way, but I just could not get through to him!”

“What break?” Sophie asked, and the simple question brought a sudden halt to the conversation. Kevin looked at her inquiringly, and after a minute’s squirming, guilty, internal debate, Bree decided to let them all know about Daniel having become fully divided. Kevin didn’t try to stop her, although he looked uncomfortable as she spoke. Steve got back early in the recitation, so she didn’t have to repeat herself much.

“Lady protect him,” Sophie breathed as Bree concluded her story.
 

“Damn it, I thought it was something like that,” Bruce muttered right on Sophie’s heels.

“I know I’m out of my league here when it comes to all this powered stuff, but isn’t it kind of dangerous to just let Daniel be off by himself, without anyone at all checking in on him?”

“I’ve been checking in on him,” Kevin put in quietly. Steve gave him an accusing look. “I’m sorry, love, but he told me in confidence, and I had to respect that. I’m no Reader, but he’s been checking in by phone and email, several times a day, just so I know he’s still more or less himself.”