Demon Master (Demonsense series Book 2) (62 page)

Her back felt horribly exposed as she ran, and sure enough, she heard two quick pops as the shooter tried for her again. A splinter of wood torn from the edge of the grey house struck her cheek as she passed. Already, she felt exhausted, but that put a fresh burst of power into her shaky legs.
 

She had remembered correctly, and there was no fence between her and the next back yard. She took an angle to the right as she ran toward the side of the house on the next block over. She thought she heard running footsteps behind her. She made it around the corner of the house, through the two squares of light from the house’s windows, and out onto the front yard.

Why me?
she couldn't help thinking as she ran. Who was she such a threat to that they were trying to kill her? She calculated a circular course that would hopefully throw off her pursuer and land her closer to her house. She ran across a front yard back to the left, across the yard of the next house, then around the corner of that one, back the way she had come, towards her own block.
 

This house was completely dark. She scurried down the side of the house, trying to make as little sound as possible, and got around the back corner, where she stopped, listening for signs of pursuit. All she could hear was her own panting breaths.
 

Cautiously, she crept along the back of the house, expecting at any moment to be ambushed. She saw she was four houses down from her own house at this point, but every back yard between where she stood and her own was encircled with fences . She would have to go back around front.

She trotted as lightly as possible across the yard, trying to keep to the shadows cast by the house and by the few trees. She made it back between the green and grey houses again without hearing anything else, and she began to wonder if she’d outsmarted the shooter. She paused when she got back to her street, looking up and down for any sign of movement. She didn’t see any. She had the animal impulse to make a straight run for her house, a rabbit racing for its hole, but she couldn’t afford to assume that the shooter was still looking for her on the next block over. For all she knew, he was taking aim at her right this second.
 

She skirted the bushes in front the green house and paused again to glance quickly around the corner to see if the shooter might be coming up on that side of the house. She didn’t see anything, so she sprinted across the gap between the houses. She did the same for the next two houses, then looked carefully behind her. Nothing.
 

The view of her own house was blocked by the house in front of her, as hers was set back further from the street. Clearly, the shooter knew where to find her house, so there was no reason he couldn't have maneuvered himself back there. Bree could very well be running straight toward him.

But she didn't have much choice. How likely was it that she could continue to elude her pursuer in the mad, nightmarish dash around the neighborhood? Warding spells were ready and waiting to be set at her house. She made the split second decision to make for home rather than trying for her car. She dashed across the front yard of her next door neighbor, already fumbling in her coat pocket for her keys, turned the corner, and ran straight into Leander Rayne.

Leander grasped Bree by the shoulders, preventing her from bowling him over. She looked up at him with terror written all over her face, revealed in the dim glow of her front porch light. Terror was replaced by recognition, and she flung her arms around his waist and buried her head against his chest. “Leander, thank God!” she gasped against him. His arms went around her, seemingly at their own volition. He felt something turn over inside of him. She pulled back again immediately and said breathlessly, “Quick, inside, now, someone’s been shooting at me!”
 

He followed her up onto her porch as she got her keys into the lock and pushed open the door. He threw up a ward and scanned the street behind them, and sure enough, he saw a figure ghost into view. There wasn’t much light on this part of the street, but there was enough to make out the familiar features of Franchesca Gambrini as she raised her arms, bringing her gun up to bear on him. He saw her lips quirk into a smile just as he pushed Bree through the door ahead of him and slammed it shut behind them and locked it.
 

Shit, she’d seen him, and she’d been more than willing to shoot him. That bitch wasn’t just demon burned, she was full out crazy. How did she think she was going to justify killing him to Marton? Or, for that matter, killing Bree before she’d been wrung dry of whatever information she had? As he followed Bree into her living room, mind racing, he suddenly recalled Marton telling him he could kill Bree when he was done with her. He remembered the look of Franchesca’s face. That was it, she was going to kill Bree and pin it on him.
 

He felt Bree trigger her house wards, and he was impressed with their strength. He wondered if Daniel or Kevin had put them up for her. He came up beside Bree and grabbed her wrist as she reached for the switch on the floor lamp next to her couch. “Don’t,” he said quietly.
 

“Right,” she replied faintly. She dropped her hand, but he didn’t let go of her wrist. They stood quietly for a minute, both straining for sounds that might mean Franchesca was going to try to get into the house, or test the house wards by taking a shot at them through the windows. When no sounds came, Leander said, “Go ahead and pull all the curtains, but don’t stand in front of the windows as you do it.” She nodded, and he released her. He watched as she angled up to the living room window and pulled the curtains to with quick jerks. She went into the dining room and did the same, and he heard her pulling blinds shut in the kitchen.
 

Bree came back to where he was standing, pulling off her coat as she went. She threw it down on a chair, then wrapped her arms around herself. It was dark with all the curtains drawn, and Leander couldn’t make out her expression. He’d been so angry all the way over here, but now that Bree was standing in front of him, clearly trying to hold herself together, the anger drained right out of him, replaced by tiredness and an unwilling, automatic calculation. She was feeling vulnerable, and here he was, just in time to protect her and comfort her. He couldn’t have asked for a better in.
 

He closed the distance between her and put an arm gently around her shoulders. “Come on, let’s sit down a minute.” He guided her to the couch and sat next to her, arm still around her shoulders. She felt rigid beneath his touch, but he didn’t think it was because he was touching her. His Reader sense had come up as soon as she ran into him, and it was clear she was frightened and a bit in shock.
 

“Do you think I should call the police? Or maybe the Keepers?” she asked softly.

“The Keepers if anyone,” he replied, matching his tone to hers. It felt right to keep the lights off, keep their voices low. “I can’t imagine a normal trying to kill you. It has to have something to do with the Keltoi. But honestly, by the time a Keeper gets here, I’m sure the shooter will be gone.”

“Do you think he’s out there right now? Will he try to get in the house?”

Leander wasn’t about to correct her error in thinking the shooter was a man. Given the story he’d spun Bree before, there was no way he should have known who Franchesca was. He shook his head. “I doubt it. There’s more evidence in a break and enter situation. Unless you’re very careful, you’re going to miss something, leave something behind that could get you nailed, either forensic evidence normal cops can find, or the kind of evidence a good Caster can work with. It’s safer to kill someone out on the street.”

He felt Bree shiver. “You’d think I’d be used to this by now, but I’m not. I just can’t get over thinking that I’m nobody. I’m not the kind of person someone else would want to kill.”

Leander rubbed her shoulder. “I can imagine it’s hard when you’re used to a safer life.”
 

She shifted beneath his arm as she turned to look up at him. His eyes were adjusting to the dark and he could just make out her expression. She looked sad as she said, “Spoken like one who isn’t used to a safer life.”
 

Leander shrugged and answered honestly. “I’m still surprised when I do feel safe. I can’t seem to stop preparing for trouble.”

“Is that why you’re so calm right now?”

“I think it’s easier for me to be calm when I feel like I have someone to take care of.”

“I know what you mean,” she answered. He felt her relaxing a little, and she shifted, nestling closer as she looked out into the dark. “When I was trying to help out at the riots, I was scared the whole time, but really focused as well. Having a job to do, trying to help, it made me a stronger person, stronger than I thought I could be. Tonight, though, I didn’t feel strong at all. I completely panicked. It’s a miracle I didn’t get shot.”

“It worries me that you’re involved in all this. It seems to me that it’s Daniel that’s gotten you into it. It’s the only explanation I can come up with. He’s up to his ears in something major, and he’s pulled you in with him. What do the Keltoi want with him anyway?”
 

Bree sighed, and he felt her melt against him. It was a kind of surrender, and Leander felt a rush of anticipation in spite of his weariness and the distracting pain from his earlier battering at Franchesca’s hands.
 

“You’ve already guessed most of it, so I might as well tell you the rest,” Bree said. “You remember I told you about doing research on demons with Daniel. Well, he's a Demon Master, a high power one, and a Binder as well. The reason he was able to make Keeper, and avoid detection by the Ecclesias is that he has managed to perfect a hiding spell. You may know that’s something no one has been able to do before. It hasn’t been possible to hide the forbidden talents from Readers. The Keltoi want Daniel because they want the spell. They went after him last year, kidnapped Hunter to get his cooperation, but we were able to get Hunter away without Daniel getting captured.”
 
She paused, looked away as if she were thinking hard, then looked up at him. The limited light still made it hard for him to read her, but her body had shifted a little toward him, and there was an angle to her mouth that made him think she had decided to trust him. "We’re not really sure why they’ve left him alone since. I think they’re biding their time until they think they can get another good shot at him. The thing is, he’s so incredibly high power in so many talents that he’s not easy to take down. And I imagine if they were to get him, he would be hard to break. I think it’s a puzzle they haven’t solved yet, how to get the spell out of him.”

So close, he was so close to getting what he needed from her. His weariness, his pain, retreated to the back of his mind, and he swiftly considered and rejected several ways to direct the conversation, finally settling on, “How on earth does he manage a spell that has to be on all the time? Who has that much energy?”
 

“You’d think that it would take a ton of energy, wouldn’t you? And he has plenty to burn, but from what he tells me, the spell isn’t too bad in terms of energy usage. It’s something he has to renew every couple of days. There’s this bracelet he wears, some kind of rune inscribed rock that he uses as a focus, or maybe it’s even part of the spell, I’m not sure. I know there are a ton of complicated parts to getting the spell up and running, but once it is, it’s fairly simple to renew it. But I'm almost convinced there's a problem with it. I think it’s having a negative affect on him.”

Leander’s budding excitement died away. She didn’t know how the spell worked, not in any detail. It was more information than he had before, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough to satisfy Marton. Still, if there was some trouble with the spell, that could be important information. “What kind of negative effect?” he asked.

“It’s kind of hard to explain, and to be honest, I have no idea if everyone would have this effect or if it’s something peculiar to Daniel. But basically, it looks like him cutting off such a big part of himself for so long has done something to his psyche, or maybe to his neurological structure, if there’s any difference between the two. It’s created a kind of rift inside of him, and it makes him unstable. He’s been getting worse and worse. The demon I work with, Gelsenim, says he’s seen this kind of thing before. He calls it 'being divided,' and he says that once Daniel breaks, he’ll basically be some kind of psychopath.” She shuddered. “It scares me, someone with his abilities being unstable. But you have to understand, I think Daniel is basically good. In fact, he’s almost too good, too altruistic, too ready to put himself at risk for other people.”
 

Leander stayed quiet. He could hear in her voice that she was working something out as she spoke.
 

“You know, I think that’s part of the problem," she continued, voice so soft now that Leander had to lean closer to hear. "He really is divided. He only ever allows himself to be good, to be better than good. Everything else is locked away along with his Demon Master and Binder talents.”

“So what’s making him worse?”

“A combination of things. I think part of it is the increased demon contact. He’d done demon research on his own before, but less frequently. And maybe some of its time. Maybe he’s just been doing the hiding spell for too long. Some of it seems to be me,” she concluded in a tiny voice.

“How can it be you?” Leander asked, shaking her shoulder very gently.

She hesitated, and Leander waited in some suspense. God, don't let her clam up now. He had to suppress a sigh of relief when she finally went on.
 

“You read it right, at the party. Daniel does still have feelings for me. I gather he hasn’t allowed himself to have those kinds of feelings for anyone in years. He seems to react particularly badly to any threat to me.”

“I can understand that,” Leander murmured. “It’s our most basic fear, isn’t it? Losing someone we love?”