Demonsense (Demonsense series Book 1) (36 page)

Franchesca retreated a step as Hunter advanced, then raised her fists before her and squeezed. "I am indeed a Master. And you will not feed on me. But I invite you to feed on your host."

Scanlon tried to force his eyes away. But he couldn't do it, the freeze spell was still firmly in place.

Hunter's head cocked far to one side as the demon took stock of its host. His eyes closed briefly, then snapped open. Hunter's voice took on even more of that creepy buzzing tone possessed got when a demon was in full control. "This host suffers greatly, but it is small, and won't make much of a meal. If the suffering were more..."

Hunter raised his arm to his mouth and bit the skin, hard. Blood immediately flowed from the wound, reddening Hunter's teeth.
 

"You will stop!" Franchesca demanded. Scanlon would swear she sounded nervous, like maybe she wasn't in full control of the demon. Scanlon's Demonsense wasn't all that great, so he couldn't really tell how powerful a demon she'd called, but he guessed if it scared her, it was probably big.

Hunter glared up at her, and bit down harder.
 

"You will stop biting your host, and you will not harm your host again until I give you leave!" Franchesca stepped toward Hunter and put her two fisted hands together.

Hunter's eyes rolled back in his head and he released his arm. He growled, and his face turned red with the demon's rage. Blood trailed out of his mouth and down his chin.

Franchesca kept one hand fisted and raised while she turned back to the camera. "As you see, it will be difficult to keep the child intact if he has to endure possession. Even if I prevent the demon from deliberately hurting his host, you know there are only so many possessions a child can have before he dies. In fact, even one sometimes does it. Let's find out, shall we? Habbaku, depart! I will call you again soon."
 

"I have not yet fed! I'm hungry!" Hunter cried.

"You will be fed soon, but I command you to leave the child now!"

Hunter's mouth flew open, and orange smoke shot out, at Franchesca. She made a sweeping gesture with her hands, and the smoke curved and went by her. A dark opening appeared in the air next to her, and the demon was sucked into it. The opening closed, and Hunter dropped to the floor. Scanlon winced as the kid's head bounced at the impact. He realized he was starting to be able to move, just a bit. Hunter began convulsing, and Scanlon tried to push off the couch to get to his feet, but he still couldn't do more than twitch.

Franchesca looked down at Hunter, dark eyes expressionless. She waited until he stopped seizing, then bent over him and slapped him sharply on the cheek. Hunter's head moved limply in response, and Scanlon's rage flared up again. If his son was dead, he would kill the bitch.

No you won't
, a tiny voice in the back of his head told him.
Carson would take you out in a heartbeat if you tried.
 

Scanlon nearly choked on his shame and anger. It was clear now how little Carson valued him. He hadn't lifted a finger to protect Hunter, he'd just gone right along with Franchesca. Scanlon imagined telling his father about all this, but the impulse quickly died away. Doing that would mean admitting to his father he hadn't done anything to protect Hunter. That he was incapable of doing a damned thing.

Franchesca slapped Hunter three more times, and the third time, his eyes half-opened. He lifted his head a little, looked around, then closed his eyes again and his head sank back down.

Franchesca stood up and addressed the camera again. "It looks like you can tell Kevin his son is alive for now. But that can so easily change. If you don't present yourself where and when I instruct, I will call the demon again and have him possess Hunter. And if you don't do exactly as I say, I will see the boy is possessed again. Each day you delay will mean another possession for the boy. How many more do you imagine he can endure? This was a short one, just to demonstrate what I can do. A longer one could well be fatal."
 

Franchesca tossed a long lock of hair back over her shoulder and moved toward the camera. "I don't want to hurt the child, Daniel. I didn't want it to come to this. You must stop resisting me. Not just for the child, but for me as well. The stakes are high, Daniel, the highest. I need you with me."

Scanlon sneered at the obvious manipulation, and doing so made him realize he could move again. He got slowly to his feet as Franchesca finished. "You will receive your instructions two hours after you get this video. Follow them to the letter." She nodded at Mosel to stop the recording.
 

Scanlon managed to move toward Hunter. As long as he took short steps, his muscles obeyed him. Franchesca saw him coming, and looked right past him at Carson. "I think that should be sufficient motivation, don't you?"

"You had better hope it is. If what you say about Thorvaldson's casting abilities is true, the sooner we make the exchange, the less time he has to mount a finder spell," Carson replied evenly. "This place is well warded against such spells, but I have no illusions that any masking spell is perfect."

"Then it should be tonight."

"You're not taking Hunter," Scanlon rasped. He'd made it to Hunter's side, and he knelt down next to him. Hunter was breathing, but it looked like he was unconscious. Scanlon wasn't sure what to do. Should he pick the kid up? Let him lie?

“I have every intention of taking the boy with me to the meet, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to let Daniel or the Keepers have him,” Franchesca replied. She sat down in one of the chairs, and crossed her legs.
 

"Then I want to come with him," Scanlon replied. He knew he had no real chance to prevent it, so that was the best he could do.

“With any luck, I'll be able to drug Daniel at the moment of the exchange," Franchesca said. "He'll be concerned about avoiding any harm coming to the child, so I don't believe he'll start a fight before that. I want enough people with me to have a real chance at getting Daniel if I'm not successful in drugging him.”

“You'll have them. You do realize he'll bring people too,” Carson stood up and gestured to Destry. Destry nodded and pulled a cell phone out of her pocket, and walked out of earshot as she began making calls.

“Or course he will. So we'll have to come up with a location for the meet that grants us some advantage, in case the Keepers manage to equal our numbers."

“Keepers are always paranoid about normals getting hurt,” Mosel put in. “Perhaps a public location would be an advantage for our side?”

“It’s a thought,” Carson covered a yawn with his hand, then replied. “Of course, normals being present will limit our options as well.”

 
“But it will limit them more.” Franchesca put in. “And I think I have the perfect setting in mind. Tonight is Halloween night. Surely there is some public event or celebration where we could stage the meet?”

“Trolloween,” Destry said crisply, striding back towards the group.

Franchesca glanced at Destry, brows raised.

“It’s an outdoor costume party," Destry replied. "They have it every year on Halloween night, at the big Troll statue that’s under the Aurora Bridge. There’s usually about three or four hundred people there. They sort of mill around, checking out each other’s costumes, then they have drumming and dancing, then a parade through town. It has the advantage of easy access because it’s outside. And if you want a public venue where the demon ridden might fit in…”

“The irony is rather delicious, isn’t it?” Franchesca purred. “And how lovely to have a chance to dress up! I’m liking this plan more and more.”

“A bit of a scuffle might go unnoticed in that kind of setting,” Carson mused, settling down on the arm of one of the chairs. “And if you get a chance at Thorvaldson and can take him quickly, you should be able to pass it off as taking a drunk friend home.”

Mosel joined the conversation. “Worst case scenario, we have to bash a few heads. If we get out of there fast and don’t leave any bodies, it’ll just get chalked up to drunks or gang violence.”
 

Scanlon figured Mosel wanted a chance at Thorvaldson. It would look good to take down that kind of high power Keeper, and Mosel probably wanted the challenge. Scanlon wasn’t so sure he wanted in. Yeah, they’d nearly got the better of Thorvaldson, but if Scanlon had read it right, that was because Thorvaldson had been surprised by Franchesca's presence, and Franchesca has done well at manipulating him. Clearly, those two had some seriously twisted shit going on between them. This time, Thorvaldson would be more prepared. He wasn't at all sure Franchesca would succeed in drugging Thorvaldson.

Of course, if Thorvaldson hadn’t been Demon Master enough to order the demon he'd called back out of him, he wouldn’t care about getting Hunter back at this point. Carson didn’t know that they’d left Thorvaldson possessed. He thought about trying to get Carson’s attention, remind him that Scanlon might have more to report, but just as quickly, decided against it. He was royally pissed at Carson.
 

He did want Franchesca to get Thorvaldson tonight, because that was his best chance at being able to keep control of his son. If Franchesca wasn't successful, he had no doubt she'd follow through on her threat to have Hunter possessed again.
 

Scanlon's mind went in circles, trying to figure some way to get Hunter out of all this without getting permanently on Carson's bad side. But nothing, absolutely nothing came to him.

Chapter 19

Bree
felt positively absurd as she looked at herself in the mirror. Apparently the best the Keeper team could do for her costume was a set of white and pink playboy bunny ears and a half mask with a bunny nose and whiskers. She refused to wear the leotard with the powder puff tail that was supposed to go along with the costume. The party was outside, and it was October, for crissakes! She opted for the cream colored sweater that was in the bag of clothes Keeper Chen brought over for her and Daniel, along with the new pair of jeans that fit surprisingly well.
 

Daniel had been distant and preoccupied with his involvement in the planning for the meet proposed by Franchesca. He approached her just before the Keepers showed up to do a spot of healing on her. While he’d told her it was far from his best talent, her bruises were all far lighter and less painful already, and the swelling on her face was gone. Neither of them spoke of the scene in her room that morning.

Daniel came in as she was regarding herself. He dangled his fox mask in one hand, and had on jeans and a dark orange sweater.
 

Bree pulled off her mask, and asked, “There was an orange sweater in your bag?"

“Yeah, kind of a coincidence, isn’t it, the fox color? I’m taking that as a good omen." He took a step forward. "Listen, it’s time to go.”
 

"You don't seem that nervous," Bree said, looking up at him.

"A Keeper action is familiar territory for me," he reminded her. He really did look calm. Calm and distant.
 

"Well, it's not for me," Bree replied. "I'm not exactly thrilled about a second go round with people who beat me and threatened to kill me."
 

"I still think you should stay here. I don't like that Franchesca instructed you be at the meet."

"Dressed as a rabbit, no less. With you the fox, and her the eagle. Not exactly being subtle, is she? She wants me to know I'm not in your league, or hers. Not that she's wrong." She rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the tension. "None of that matters, though. Someone should be there that Hunter recognizes. Someone who can help him if he's possessed." She hated even saying the word possessed. It brought up images from that horrible video of Hunter Franchesca had sent via Javier.
 

Daniel crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "I'll be there. He knows me."

Bree shook her head. "Someone else in case you..." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, and couldn't push away the knowledge that Daniel might be giving himself up to be killed.

"You know this is the right thing for me to do," Daniel said quietly.
 

"I know! God damn it, this whole thing is insane, and it scares me, but that doesn't matter either. I'm going." Bree pushed past him and started down the stairs. She hoped he didn't see how her hands shook.

Someone had fetched her car from her office, and Daniel insisted on riding along with Bree rather than with one of the Keeper teams. They arrived early, but it was still a challenge to get parking anywhere near the event. They ended up walking a good way, down one of Seattle’s many hills, through the Fremont neighborhood. It had rained most of the day, but had blessedly stopped about an hour before. There was a fitful breeze, and it felt like another storm front was moving in. Jack-o-lanterns glowed on many front porches, and there was a smattering of trick or treaters ushered by their parents.

The distant sound of drums gradually grew louder as they neared the festivities, and as they made their final turn, the Troll was in sight.

The Troll was decorated with glimmering jack-o-lanterns of every size, placed all around and on top of the giant statue, which was tucked under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. Its torso emerged from rock and earth, with a huge nose, scraggly long hair, and one reflective silver eye. One of its hands clutched an actual Volkswagen Beetle. They could see the drummers sitting in a circle, pounding away on a variety of African drums. About a hundred people in costumes had already gathered, some dancing, most just wandering around and chatting. Burning tiki torches were set at intervals in the wide area in front of the statue. While streetlights were on down the street, it was relatively dark under the bridge where the Troll lurked.
 

Daniel stopped short of the crowd and faced Bree so that he would look like he was talking to her as he scanned the crowd for Keepers and Keltoi. His dark eyes were visible in the holes of his mask, glinting in the dancing light of the torches, lending him a strangely authentic animal look.