Demonsense (Demonsense series Book 1) (50 page)

“But if she drugs you,” Bree began anxiously.

“Too many ifs,” Daniel replied, voice hardening. “We don’t have the time. I'll go in first. Give it a few minutes so I can get their attention focused on me, then Kevin, you and Bree follow and try to get to Hunter." Without another word, he turned and ran around the corner for the door of the warehouse.
 

Bree took a brief moment to shove her shrieking Demonsense into a dark part of her mind so she could try to think as she sprinted after Daniel. The warehouse door was open. She slowed as she came up to the door and peered carefully around the door jamb.

Franchesca was standing with her hand around Hunter's neck. Daniel faced her, hands up before him, a flurry of red, orange, black and gold shapes hovering in the air around him, swirls of spikes, tentacles, scales, and worst of all, demonic eyes, circling him, focused on him.
 

Almost the instant she had taken in the scene, Hunter’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he sagged in Franchesca’s grasp. Bree’s whole body went hot with anger and fear. She forced herself to pause and get the lay of the land so she'd know where to intervene.
 

Another man was standing next to Franchesca, and she recognized him as Scanlon, the one who was supposedly Hunter’s biological father. He was possessed as well. The third man was Justice, the one who'd beat her up at her office. He was just pulling himself up off the ground. He wasn't possessed, and he was looking nervously at the demons surrounding Daniel.

Bree heard the sound of Kevin breathing behind her, and felt his ward as a reassuring presence around them. She told him quickly over her shoulder what she was seeing, keeping her voice as quiet as humanly possible. Fortunately, Franchesca was so focused on Daniel that she seemed not to hear Bree.

“You may as well drop your wards, Daniel, you're thoroughly outnumbered,” Franchesca said, the timbre of demon possession clear in her voice. Bree peeked again around the corner.

“If one of these demons possesses me, I don’t think you’re going to like the results,” Daniel replied.
 

“I called these demons, I can control them,” Franchesca said, raising her chin.

“I seem to remember I bested you on Halloween. Head to head, I’m the stronger. I always have been.”
“You had help.” Franchesca’s voice sharpened.
 

“I’m even stronger now, I’ve had time to recover,” Daniel bluffed.

“I judge you’ll last about two more minutes."
“I only have to last two minutes. I have reinforcements less than a minute out.”
Bree could see both of them in profile, and so far, Daniel wasn't showing the strain of maintaining the ward. But it couldn’t last. Even if he was strong enough to keep his ward up and the demons off him, that much demonic energy could so easily put him over the edge, let that taint-like darkness take over, as it nearly had last night.

"If you're referring to the two powered and the normal outside the door, I don't think much of your reinforcements."

"I'm talking Keepers, Franchesca. Remember how many of them showed up at the exchange? You made a mistake in kidnapping Hunter. Now you've got a whole city of Keepers gunning for you."

Kevin whispered in Bree's ear. “We have to go in!”

“Well then,” she heard Franchesca say, “I guess I’m going to have to make it worth your while to surrender to me now.” Bree heard Daniel give out a strangled, “No!” just as she ran into the room, Kevin right behind her.

Franchesca was crouched over Hunter, and her fist was clenched above Hunter's chest. "I just killed the Seattle's clan chief with this spell. It will take barely a thought to kill the boy.”

Before Bree got more than three steps into the room, Daniel waved down his ward and leaped forward, knocking his shoulder into Franchesca football-style, sending her sprawling. He gripped Hunter by the arm, and slid him across the floor, towards the door. Kevin dashed forward to put himself between Franchesca and Hunter, and Bree felt him pull the ward from around her and put it up in front of him.

Bree skidded to a stop next to Hunter, and shouted, “Shield!" Her defensive barrier leapt into existence around herself and Hunter. Daniel sprang to his feet and lurched the few short steps to Bree and Hunter, and she dropped the shield spell so he could get in. She got it back up just as the demons rushed them.
 

Her spell heated up and wavered against the pressure of so many demons. Tentacles and clawed hands slapped at it, and the dragon's teeth dragged across it. The faces of devils and monsters leered, orange eyes whirling.
 

She felt a surge as Daniel joined his strength to hers, seamlessly adding energy without disrupting the spell, still leaving her in charge since she was holding the attunement. She started to shake with the effort.

Daniel said, “Hunter’s alive.”
 

Bree nearly lost her focus at the rush of relief. Then she heard Kevin yelp. He blocked her view of Franchesca, but Bree could feel the pressure Franchesca was putting on his ward even behind the shield spell. No way could he beat Franchesca, and Scanlon was there to back her up. Bree shouted, “Steve!” at the top of her lungs.

Steve tore around the corner and into the room. Scanlon’s back was to him, but Bree saw Justice register him. Justice glanced her way, and she held his eyes with hers, put all her desperation into the look, tried to reach that small part of him she'd nearly got to when she was tied up at her office. She said, “Please help, for Hunter.”

He glanced over at Franchesca, and met Bree's gaze again, fear in his washed out blue eyes. Then he gave a tiny nod, turned and slipped out of sight among the crates further back in the warehouse.

"Bree, open the shield for Steve!" Daniel said. With a teeth gritting effort, Bree sliced open a door in her shield spell then slammed it down behind Steve. He was just stooping to pick up Hunter when Scanlon ran at them and bounced off the shield. Scanlon growled, an inhuman sound, the orange light flaring in his eyes. He threw himself mindlessly at the shield again and again, and Bree felt the impact down to her toenails. Daniel was pressed up close beside her, shoulder to shoulder, and he put a hand on Steve's shoulder. They all backed toward the door.

"I attuned the shield to the demons, not Scanlon," Bree panted.
 

"I know. Just hold it a few seconds more," Daniel said.
 

They arrived at the door, and Daniel spun Steve around so he was facing the door with Hunter. Hunter's face was pale, and dried blood covered the side of it. With a groan of pain, Bree opened the shield spell again, and Steve ran out with Hunter in his arms. She threw a stab of Reader and Demonsense out after him, and no one was out there between the warehouse and Steve's car.
 

"Go with Steve!" Daniel demanded.

"Steve and Hunter are safe! I'm not going without you and Kevin!"

The distraction of talking to Daniel made her lose control of the shield spell. It wavered and went down.
 

Daniel immediately threw up a shield spell of his own, and three of the demons hit it so hard that sparks flew all along the edges. He was weakening, fast.
 

She glanced over to where Kevin had been and saw him wrestling with Franchesca on the ground. Attacking her physically must have distracted her enough to keep her from casting. But even as that thought appeared in Bree's mind, Franchesca cried, "Freeze!"

Kevin went stiff where he was lying on top of Franchesca. Scanlon went over to pull him off.

"You have to help Kevin! I'll try to do something to distract Scanlon," Bree gasped.

Daniel's eyes were wild in a way Bree had never seen before. "On three, I'll drop the shield and you
get out that door
. One, two, three!"

The shield spell dropped, and Bree backed away from Daniel, but she didn't leave. She cast shield again, and the effort nearly made her pass out. Daniel gave her an agonized look, then cast a ward, spun around and made a run for Franchesca. He lurched to the side as he passed Scanlon, and the impact with Daniel's ward sent Scanlon to the ground.
 

Franchesca was out from under Kevin, and she waved up a ward as she rose to standing. The demons had all followed Daniel, and his ward sparked as they threw themselves against it. The energy signature of the ward altered, and Bree figured Daniel must have attuned to more of a shield spell, hoping to use less energy now that he was able to craft a protection aimed at keeping out those specific demons. Still, Bree knew he had to be close to used up.
 

A movement out of the corner of her eye alerted her that Scanlon was rising to his feet. Without pausing to think, Bree dropped her shield spell, ran at Scanlon and threw herself on top of him, bearing him to the ground.
 

A whoof of air escaped him as she landed on top of him. She felt the oily, hot sensation of the demon inside him, felt tendrils of demonic energy reaching for her. She must be more high power than Scanlon, the demon was attracted to her. She frantically scrambled back off of him.
 

She heard Daniel shout “No!” again, and she turned to see Franchesca with her hand clenched above Kevin’s chest. Daniel threw his ward against Franchesca's, and more sparks flew as the wards collided. Franchesca's ward did not go down, but Daniel's did.

He whirled around, threw his arms out and shouted, "Demons I command you! Do not move!"

To her shock, all the demons surrounding him froze in place. Even across the room, she could see how hard Daniel was trembling. "I command you, take down that woman's ward!" He pointed at Franchesca.

"Do not! I command you!" Franchesca shrieked. Three of the demons, the black one that looked like an evil beetle on steroids, a bloated, scaly faced monster, and the tentacled one all hesitated. But the dragon and the devil launched themselves at Franchesca's ward.
 

Daniel's face was running with sweat now. "I command you, do as I ordered!"
 
He listed to one side, and went down on one knee.
 

Scanlon was climbing to his feet, and he stared intently at Daniel's back. Bree hurled herself at Scanlon again, but she ran painfully into a ward he'd put up. She staggered but stayed on her feet.

She had to do something! She didn’t know the name of the demon Scanlon had inside him, didn’t have more than her cross and some holy water on her. She didn’t have time to pull off an exorcism, and didn’t know if she could command Scanlon’s demon with whatever Demon Master talent she might have. But if she could get it out of him, he would be incapacitated, at least for a little while. She had to try.
 

She kicked at Scanlon's ward again to draw his attention. "Too scared to fight a girl?" she taunted. His eyes narrowed, and Bree felt a surge in her Demonsense. The demon had more fully taken over Scanlon.
 

Scanlon flicked at the air with his fingers, and his ward dissolved. He pace towards her, growling, "I'll show you what I know how to do with girls."

She dug frantically into her jeans pocket, yanked out the small perfume bottle full of holy water that had belonged to Joe’s wife’s, unstoppered it with shaking fingers, and flung the contents on Scanlon, shouting, “Demon, I command you! Leave your host!” She thrust all of her anger and will into the command, all the base energy she knew how to muster.
 

Scanlon screamed, too high for a man, too loud for his vocal cords to sustain. He threw his head back, and the demon rushed out of him so quickly, so powerfully, that he started to burn from the inside out. Fire shot out of his mouth and eyes.

“No,” Bree whispered in horror, backing away, then, louder, “No, stop! I command you, don’t kill him!”

But it was too late. The flames intensified, and Scanlon’s skin just melted off him, the muscle and sinew and bones underneath burning and turning to ash almost faster than her eyes could follow. It was just like Seth. Exactly like what had happened to Seth. And she had caused it.
 

And then Seth was there. It was Seth who was burning. Her body froze, and a part of her mind retreated, far away, to that place it had gone when this had happened before. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Some part of her could hear sounds behind her, knew that she had something to do, someone she needed to protect.
 

What snapped her out of it was Daniel’s voice crying, “All right, all right!
 
Franchesca, stop, you’ve won, I'm yours! Let Kevin live, and I swear you can take me!”

She turned and took in the scene. Kevin unconscious on the floor, Franchesca slowly opening her hand and stepping away from him. Daniel knelt before her, five demons frozen in the air around him, including the one she had sent out of Scanlon. Another, the Erekim, was attached to Daniel's neck, clearly feeding off of him, but somehow, Daniel was preventing it from possessing him. It looked like he had mastered all but the most powerful demon, and had not been able to master the last one in time to save Kevin. So he had surrendered.
 

Franchesca got slowly to her feet. Bree barely noticed. Her eyes were fastened on Kevin, trying to see if he was still breathing. She felt half frantic, half numb from the effects of the flashback. There, she could see it, the rise and fall of Kevin’s chest.
 

She'd landed near a tall pile of crates, and was in their shadow. She put out a hand and gripped the nearest one, tried to steady herself. She was very close to blacking out.
 

Franchesca spoke, the buzz of the demon’s presence more evident than before. “You swear, do you Daniel? You swear to be mine, to do as I ask, to give me the spell?”

“I swear,” Daniel replied, a little breathlessly

“You lie!” Franchesca hissed, and Bree saw the subtle droop to Daniel’s shoulders, and she knew Franchesca had read him truly. He still wanted to fight.
 

But how could he? The only thing keeping the demons frozen in the air was Daniel’s will. The demon feeding on him would drain that soon enough.