Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (32 page)

“As you are unmatched among Keltoi,” Franchesca said with an admiring smile at Marton. She managed to make it sound like a kind of giddy, infatuated comment rather than the veiled insult of Scanlon it was intended to be. Franchesca sent a sidelong look at Scanlon to read his response.
 

“The faster route may still be to get the spell directly from Thorvaldson, which is why Rayne’s assignment still has merit,” Scanlon replied smoothly. “If Jenkins was close enough to Thorvaldson to be entrusted with details of the spell, we may be relatively close to retrieving that information given the inroads Rayne has made with her.”

“So you weren’t able to charm Daniel?” Marton asked Leander directly.

“He’s got that paranoid ex-Keeper thing going. I judged it far easier to take in the woman. She seems relatively unsophisticated about dark power and about Keltoi in general. She’s not entirely trusting by any means, but I can reach her.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to lure her away from Daniel? The two seemed quite wound up in each other when I saw them together last autumn,” Franchesca said. She tried and failed to conceal her avid interest in his response. Leander would have liked to play with her a little on her obvious jealousy, get her to show off her psycho side, but he knew Marton wouldn’t like that, so instead, he answered truthfully. “They’re not a couple, if that’s what you’re asking. They seem to be friends, and I don’t anticipate it will be difficult to get her to form a romantic attachment to me.”

“You like her, don’t you?” Marton commented with a penetrating look at Leander. Damn the man and his uncanny intuition.
 

“Yeah, I like her well enough. She’s pretty in a Northwest hippie girl kind of way, and she’s bright. You know it helps if I actually find something to like in the person I’m trying to get an in with.” The fact that he’d felt a certain tender protectiveness towards Bree, well, that argued for more than just a vague liking, and it wasn’t something he wanted Marton to key in on because it might make Marton think he would be compromised on the assignment. He didn’t dare read Marton to check whether he was picking up those feelings, because Marton didn’t like Leander to read him. Franchesca, on the other hand, was openly unhappy with his positive description of Bree. Really, she ought to try a little harder to hide her emotions in a room full of Readers.

Marton shrugged. “As you say, it makes things easier. Just be aware that someone that naïve may, in some ways, be harder for you to con. One tends to feel sorry for such people, and it can get in the way.”

“You know me, I never let anything get in the way of collecting my fee,” Leander answered breezily.

“Yes, little savage, I know,” Marton replied with some genuine fondness. “I do realize that getting the information could be a delicate business. It may in the end take a more thorough acceptance into the entire group around Thorvaldson and Jenkins.”

“That’s how I figure it as well,” Leander assured him.
 

“In any case,” Marton continued, addressing Scanlon again, “with your agreement, I’d like to loan you five of my own people with Demon Master talent to help with the local effort.”
 

It was an interesting offer, and one equally risky for Scanlon to take as to refuse. Marton had successfully taken over all the southern California Keltoi clans, and had heavy duty influence with those in the North. He was known for infiltrating other clans and taking them down from the inside. Scanlon couldn’t afford to be seen as less effective in the general effort than other Clan leaders. This working together of Keltoi clans was a risky business, which is why it was so seldom attempted. It had taken a man of Marton’s vision and will to make it happen at all.
 

Scanlon, as Leander had predicted he would, agreed with only a short hesitation.
 
Terms were negotiated, a process Leander was hardly needed for. He saw that Franchesca was getting impatient with having to be present for it as well. He’d gotten the impression before, in L.A., when talk of Thorvaldson had come up a couple of times, that she had some kind of crazy thing for the guy. Some vendetta or unresolved romantic business. The way she kept sending Leander speculative little glances was, he thought, more a reflection of her wanting to get him alone and pump him for information than it was an interest in him. She finally leaned forward a little and tried to engage Leander in a low voiced conversation. “So how did you find Daniel?” she asked him.

“A little drunk, a little jealous, a little demon burned,” he responded more provocatively than he should have. Franchesca was openly trying to read him as he spoke.
 

“You didn’t care for him?” she asked even more softly.

Leander shrugged. “I might have if he had cared at all for me. I will say I verge on finding him… intimidating.”

“He is very high powered, more than you know, more than anyone knows.” She looked positively hungry as she spoke, and Leander thought her an idiot for saying so where Marton could hear her. His assessment was borne out when he saw Marton reach over and lace his fingers with Franchesca’s, then squeeze tight enough to make her wince. Being crazy Franchesca, though, she didn’t stop there. “He hesitates to use his Binder abilities, but he will do it in protection of another, and I’ve never seen a stronger Binder.”
 

Gods, was the woman completely insane, rubbing Marton’s nose in the fact that her ex had a major talent he lacked? Marton wasn’t the type to take kindly to that kind of comparison. It wasn’t that he had a weak ego. He didn’t easily feel threatened. But he wouldn’t want that less than flattering comparison brought up in front of Scanlon. He saw Marton’s hand tighten further, and it seemed Franchesca finally got the message, because she shut up.

The two Clan Chiefs finished their business, and Marton and Franchesca took their leave, assuring Scanlon they’d be staying in Seattle for the next couple of weeks to oversee the liaison between the L.A. Demon Masters and Scanlon’s Keltoi. Leander was dismissed by Scanlon moments later with a promise to check in with him personally at the end of the week. He found Marton and Franchesca still in the hallway outside when he left. Marton had Franchesca’s arm in a bruising grip, and his face was inches from hers as he angrily whispered what was likely a harsh reprimand for her behavior in front of Scanlon. Leander quietly stepped around them and continued on his way, trying for invisibility. He didn’t want to attract Marton’s attention when he was in that mood.
 

He sighed in relief when he made it safely to his car without being followed, and drove out of the driveway faster than was seemly in that posh neighborhood, wanting to get distance between himself and his apparently very angry Clan Chief.

It
was dawn before Bree awoke to a stiff neck, and a very sore shoulder and hip.
 
Sleeping on a wood floor was not conducive to comfort. Sometime during the night she and Daniel had shifted until she was snuggled up against his side, one leg thrown over his where he lay on his back, her head on his shoulder and one arm across his stomach. Very carefully, not wanting to wake him yet, she moved back a bit so she could look at him. He appeared entirely peaceful in the dim morning light, lips very slightly parted, lashes dark against his cheeks. She let herself relax against him again. She was relieved she could move, and had the sense she was rested enough that she’d be able to get up, but she didn’t want to. Her newly awakened mind offered the opinion that the man she was so enjoying cuddling up against had, mere hours ago, scared the living hell out of her.
Somehow, she couldn’t muster up any anxiety. All she could seem to focus on was the novelty of waking up next to him. She liked the feel of his stomach muscles under her hand, the long, firm length of his leg against hers, the warmth of his arm around her. He felt so entirely different than her husband Seth had, harder, with more sharp angles. It was a strange sensation to lie with another man besides Seth, but a very intriguing one as well. It was easy to imagine a life that included waking up next to Daniel when he was quiet like this, easy to let herself imagine this was a normal relationship. She didn’t want to give that feeling up. And besides, he wasn’t going to do anything bad to her while he was asleep. So she let herself drift in and out of a drowsy half-sleep without doing anything more than enjoy the moment.
 

Too soon, she felt the small movements that told her Daniel was waking up. She should probably do something sane like try to read him and make sure he was stable enough to be around, but she still inexplicably couldn’t muster up the worry that would get her to do it. Instead, she moved so she could look at him again, and found his face turned to hers, his eyes open.
 

There was a long moment when they just looked at each other, then he raised a hand, brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. Then slowly, carefully, he lowered his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. He’d given her enough time to pull away if she wanted to, but she didn’t want to. It seemed a strangely natural thing for him to do, all of a piece with what had to be her psyche’s refusal to really let in what had happened last night, what it meant.
 

Daniel sighed as he ended the kiss and lowered his head back to the floor. Bree cuddled back into him, unwilling to say anything that might change the mood. They lay together some little while longer. Bree finally mustered the will to essay a tiny little tendril of a read. Her abused Reader sense protested, but she was reassured to feel that, at least at the surface level, Daniel felt to her much as he had before his break last night.
 

He was the first to move, to break the spell of the dawn. He untangled his leg from hers, unwound his arm from around her, and sat up, scratching at the sides of his hair with both hands. He went to rub his hands over his face, and Bree saw him flinch as one hand went over the swollen, bruised abrasion on one cheek from where she had kicked him.
 
Bree winced after he did in sympathy and guilt. She copied his efforts, and got herself groaningly into a sitting position. Well, at least she could definitely move at this point. And shortly after that thought occurred, she began to feel how very hungry she was.
 

Still without a word, Daniel got to his feet, and pulled her to hers with an outstretched hand. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand and said, “Food first. Well, food and bathroom first.
 
I feel… much more myself. I think it’s okay if you’re here long enough to eat.” Bree nodded agreement. He gallantly let her use the closer upstairs bathroom while he went to use the downstairs one.
 

Bree washed her face, did her best to brush her teeth with her forefinger and a squirt of Daniel’s toothpaste, and finger combed her hair. She still felt weak, so much so that she seriously doubted she’d be able to work today, which sucked. She went gingerly down the stairs and met Daniel in the kitchen, where he already had out some toast, jam and butter and some tea steeping. She was grateful that he only had the lights under the top cupboards on, making a little oasis of the kitchen, and sparing them facing each other in brighter light. It suited the quiet mood, as did the earliness of the day. It was still barely light out, another darkly overcast morning in March. She fell on the toast and tea while he cracked a great many eggs into some butter in a frying pan and scrambled them up. Bree had gotten through two pieces of bread and a cup and a half of tea by the time he produced the eggs, and they both went through the rest of their breakfast in silence. The sense of a normal couple waking up together gradually wore off for Bree in spite of the domestic scene. Any moment, they would have to start talking, and she dreaded it. But she gathered her courage and started after one more fortifying sip of tea. “So about last night,” she began.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you were about to say something normal like, ‘About what I said last night when we had a fight’ instead of, ‘About last night, when you almost turned into a murderer,” Daniel interrupted, leaning back in his chair, long legs extended straight out in front of him. His tone was light, but his eyes were watchful, his posture guarded.
 

“Well, yeah, about that,” Bree soldiered on. She utterly related to his desire to have a normal conversation, but there was no way this could be one, and she wanted to get it over with. “When I was working on you, I think I saw a way that maybe this divided thing could be resolved. I think if Gelsenim were to help me again when my energy is recharged, there’s at least a chance we can fix this thing. I want to try.”

“Of course I would love it if whatever is wrong with me could be resolved, but I have to say, it seemed to me like you used up a dangerous amount of base energy last night. Just how risky would such an experiment be for you?”

Bree knew good and well it was dangerous. There had been some very bad moments last night, and on one level, she really did not relish the idea of trying to do something like that again. Still, she tried to make her case. “I’d be working under different circumstances, when I’ve had more time to think about my approach. If we’re able to start out with you in your current state, rather than when you’ve already been, um, triggered, I think it will take less energy and be less dangerous.”

Daniel shook his head. “Less dangerous to start, maybe. But I see significant danger in two ways. And the most obvious one is that I have another one of those breaks in the middle of it.”

“I fixed the one last night.”

“At what cost? And how close did you come to losing yourself in the read? You aren’t the first person to try to help someone mentally or emotionally compromised with Reader ability. Surely you must know that Readers have ended up damaged or in a coma themselves, or even dead after some of those attempts. And I doubt that any of the patients had my level of power or my particular problem.”

“If we got Kevin to ward, and Bruce and Sophie to help again…”