Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) (2 page)

Instead she thought about how
much she missed her friends. Eve, Becky, Gary, and even her mother all came up
in the mix, as her tears started to flow and she buried her head in Quince's
broad chest. She still had Hally, for the day, which she was reminded of when
the cute and lightly freckled red-headed girl ran to her, screaming. Or, to be
more exact, calling out worriedly.

"
Keeley
!" It was
clear that she didn't see her, shielded by the Durg as she was, so the girl
sprinted to the car, looking ready to dive into the smoky disaster to save her.
It was very sweet of her, and really sold the idea that Hally wasn't the Demon
that Quince was looking for. In fact, even as people came to help, it was
pretty clear that no one there was. Even the slightly slow being she held got
that. It was framed in his disappointment.

He did rally pretty well, at
least.

"I... That doesn't look like
a fire. Maybe we can save the car?" That meant he ran off, to get a fire
extinguisher, which wouldn't help, Keeley knew. The grenade, or smoke bomb, was
already dying down, and the haze had cleared by the time that the boy came
back. She jogged over to Hally, her face still tear streaked and grabbed her
gently, so that the other girl would know that she was really all right.

That was a bit of a shock, though
Keeley didn't let it show. Hally knew that she was fine, and
had
actually noticed her with Quince, and figured out that pretending she didn't
get things was the better plan.
As
she'd run across the parking lot. It
was, frankly, brilliant. Nearly enough that Keeley had to examine her
carefully, to make certain she was really herself. It was a Greater Demon
thing, taking over other people's lives like that. The best of them could make
even someone like her believe the lie, too. That meant looking for any tiny
thing wrong, and observing so closely that it became impossible to fool her.

Even being careful, a couple of
her people could have managed it. Tarsus for instance, who had it in for her,
for some reason. The Rotted too, she was willing to bet. That had come up in
conversation with Zack, since the insane female Demon was his girlfriend. Or at
least
she
thought so. It was hard to tell if she was joking about that
or not, according to her nephew. Not that it really mattered. Ann was hanging
out around him, living at his home and eating his food without paying for it.

If it had been given to her, that
would have been an insult that would probably have ended with Zack being dead.
Or at least Ann being removed from the world to a point where it would take her
centuries to get back home.

For her to just take it... Well
that said a lot too, didn't it? It could have been her claiming that she was
just that much stronger than Zack, but if she thought that, she wasn't going to
be long for the world. Zack had killed Keeley several times, and she was sort
of known for being good in a fight. Not the physical part of it, but in not
losing. The thing there was that Zack was faster than most. He also didn't
hesitate a lot when it came time to kill. He actually liked
her
, for
instance, and had taken her down without so much as blinking.

So Ann was, basically, announcing
to the world that she and the Line Walker were a real team. A couple in a way
that her kind seldom managed for long. Pretty much married, or as close to it
as you could come without a piece of paper to seal the deal.

Wiping her eyes she paid so much
attention to Hally that the girl went a little wide eyed about it. It was a
subconscious reflex, like her pupils dilating, but it was there and visible if
you were watching.

"Are you all right?"
The pretty girl, who was dressed in a fairly normal looking t-shirt and jeans
that day, the top being pink, looked horrified, but she relaxed when a nod came
back in response from Keeley.

"Yeah. I think this is a
prank. A smoke bomb? I..." She laid down on the ground and looked under
Misty the car, just in case there was a fire, but it was pretty clear that the
homemade looking device was finished with its task, and the smoke was really
clearing a lot. Quince knelt down, back with the bright red extinguisher, and
ready to hit the undercarriage of her vehicle then, the nozzle being tucked in
next to her face.

"Don't bother. It was just a
lame trick. I don't know why anyone would do that." She looked up, and let
her eyes narrow and then took a deep breath. It was pretty clear to her, even
to her innocent Keeley persona, what had happened. She thought about it for a
second, since she wanted the whole thing to seem right. That meant about five
seconds later she stood and pushed Quince back. Gently, making sure he barely
moved. Otherwise it would have seemed wrong and possibly given her away.
"You
jerk
! You scared me. I thought that someone had blown up my
car!"

There was a pause, since the Durg
had to process what was going on. He'd been caught and that could mean a
million things, including that she, Keeley, was more than she seemed. After a
moment he managed to just shake his head a little, readying a denial, which he
changed, halfway through.

"I didn't do
anything...." He looked at her and saw that she wasn't buying it and then
forced a smile. It was pretty clear that he was bored with the whole project
now, since it had clearly failed. Still, alienating Keeley was outside his own
act, so he rallied enough to carry on. "I mean, sorry. It was a lot
funnier in my head. It won't hurt anything. I made sure of that."

That was true, so she just glared
at him and hugged Hally closer, even as the school staff slowly came out. They
didn't seem all that happy, but she just looked at the Principal, who was a
friend of hers, and shook her head slowly. It took a while for him to get it,
but he didn't walk over. Instead he grabbed a few teachers and chuckled.

"Senior prank. We could make
a big thing of it, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt this time.
Kids
,
no more of that. School's out for the next three months. Leave and let us not
have to worry about you, all right?" He seemed to mean it, which got
Quince to fake a laugh and try to hide his head a little, with his bare arms.
Pretending that she was going to start hitting him.

"My bad. I guess I need to
think first. Sorry Keeley. I really do want to go out with you, sometime. That's
why I picked you for this. Stupid, huh?" He did his best to look sheepish,
but his face didn't do a good job expressing that sort of thing. It looked calm
and a bit bored, which translated to cool, well enough that no one watching
thought anything of it.

Except Hally, who moved between
them.

"No. She's
mine
, so
back off. I don't really care who knows about it either. We're dating, and if
anyone has a problem with it they can go soak their heads."

A few people looked shocked, but
then left, pretending not to care about things like that. They did, since Hally
and Quince arguing over her was a big deal in their little drama filled lives,
but the boy just held his hands out, as if to ward off blows.

"I... Didn't know that.
Sorry. I don't suppose you'd
both
like to go out sometime then? I mean,
you both like me, right? At least when I'm not making a fool of myself like
this?" There was a wave toward Misty, and he laid on the ground, pulling out
the smoking remains of the device that had been put there. It showed Keels that
there was no physical way to have attached it without the car being lifted,
which a real girl would have never noticed. It was still smoldering and burned
his hand, but there was no pain reaction. Durgs didn't do that. Responding like
that would be seen as weakness, and not allowed in their society.

Keeley was ready to separate the
two, if she had to, or even enslave Quince, because that would make less of a
scene, but her girlfriend shrugged a bit, and looked at Keeley over her
shoulder.

There was an attractive little
head movement, a kind of tilt that spoke volumes, and then the girl shrugged
and turned back to the boy.

"
Maybe
. Gavin broke
up with me, since he's going to college next year. That does leave me a
boyfriend down, but, and I
mean
this, if we go out with you, we expect
something special. Not just you thinking that we're easy, or whatever you
normally do." It was said with a glare that made it seem joking, but the
boy reacted as if pleased. Reaching out to read his mind, which was
ridiculously easy, Keels could tell that he didn't really care, and wasn't
planning to call anytime soon.

Go figure. The ancient being
didn't actually want to get them into bed all that badly. It would have been
insulting if she cared about things like that. It was a bit strange that Hally
had said those words, but it was pretty clear that the girl was trying to be
advanced and work things out properly. Like a Greater Demon herself, or at least
a real adult in a strange situation. One that had something near an open mind.

After muttering that he had their
numbers, which was simply the truth, the boy took off, walking away, not having
a car. He could drive, it turned out, but his Human parents, who were people
that he'd hired to take him in using about two million dollars in bribe money,
hadn't bothered to use a bit of that to provide transportation for him. Instead
they spent most of it on drugs and parties, not being all that bright.

They watched the cute looking
young man walk away, his jeans shifting over his behind nicely enough that
Hally actually stared for a bit, and then got into Misty who started up so
quietly that no one noticed it happening.

"Thank god he didn't use a
fragmentation grenade. That would have ruined her for sure." Patting the worn
and slightly faded black vinyl dashboard gently, she looked over her shoulder
into the nearly empty parking lot, and then pulled out carefully.

It was important to drive that
way, all the time. That most people drove while thinking about a thousand
different things just meant that she had to be even more predictable than most,
since things would
try
to find her, if they could. Normally that wasn't
anything too bad. Ghosts however constantly walked in front of her car. She
mainly ignored them, which is what she did with Rob, when he stood in front of
her vehicle, running right through him as she moved out onto the street. He
waved at her, but Hally had actually been his friend, so telling her all about
it was probably too much, given the recent excitement.

Instead she just drove, watching
the world around her carefully, so that nothing would take her by surprise.
Hally, being a sixteen year old Human girl, spoke the whole time, which was
pleasant, rather than distracting. A little sad sounding, but that was just
about being gone for the summer.

"Camp starts up next week.
Zack has someone to be in charge, but I get to have ten girls every two weeks.
Cabin Four. I need to come up with a name for it. I was thinking the
Woodchucks, but I might go with something a little less scary." She
grinned, since it was clear she understood that no one was really all that
scared by little furry animals.

Keeley tilted her head, watching
the police presence, as one of the officers, Miller, saw her and nodded. They
were friends, after a fashion. She took the station cookies about twice a
month, or other treats that she made herself, and the man, who
loved
snicker doodles, remembered that. There was also a little thing where she'd
fought three Human men that were attacking a cousin of his, an older woman that
Keels knew from church. Gladys. It was mainly the treats however that got the
man's attention.

She didn't look away from the
road, but thought for a moment and then made a face, knowing that the girl next
to her was going to be looking. She always did when speaking to someone.

"How about something tree
related? From what I hear about a third of the kids will be Shifters, and you
don't want to be insulting to anyone." Not that they were that vain as a
group, the Shifters. Some of them might actually
be
Woodchucks however,
and as children it was best not to point out that they were different than
everyone else.

That kind of thing could leave
scars, which was her real point. Hally, not being a bad person, thought for a
second, nodded and agreed instantly.

"The Mighty Oaks?" Then
she looked out the window, changing the subject slightly. "I wish I could
stay with you. Zack is sweet, but it isn't the same."

"I know. I wish that too.
Except for the part where you'd probably die if you tried it. I mean, we don't
really know what's coming, but it sounds intense. Darla has pretty much set
things up so that she won't have to work, for years, if it comes down to it.
Since that's her major hobby, you have to know this is a big deal. So, it's off
to Camp Camas for you and Gary. Unless he skates on it, which he'd
better
not. Going all flaky schoolboy is a poor plan around Zack."

Hally, being smarter than she
normally let anyone know about, just nodded.

"Because making a Greater
Demon angry with you would be about the worst thing you could do? Except that
Zack is really a good person, so... I guess he just wouldn't take Gary
seriously? That could limit things for him later, right? Possible business
deals or whatever."

"Except that Zack won't
really let that happen. I don't know what he has planned for Gary though. I
know that Darla lined up a good acting role for Becky already, in a major
picture, so that should work pretty well to get her career started that way.
Eve..." She looked over at her friend, as if worried, knowing that it
wasn't really that big of a deal to her mind. Or it
was
, but not for the
reasons that should have scared her.