Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) (29 page)

Even in the shower. Even when on
the toilet.

Perv
.

There was, at least she imagined,
a soft sense of a smile or laugh that came to her. It faded, slowly, but she
remembered it. That didn't go away. She waited for a long time, but nothing
happened to remove it. So, finally, she rewrote her notes onto her computer. It
would help keep things straight if it wasn't hand written. That looked a bit
more crazy than not. Good spelling would help, too. It wasn't long, only about
forty pages in all.

Then she ate more, shopped, and
thought for a long time about what to do. There was, she understood, really
only one part of the whole thing left to handle.

Tarsus.

The rest of them were her
friends. Her family. Finias would be there for her parties, and to hang out if
she wanted... and Zack, well, they needed to get together and probably go out a
few times at the very least. Greater Demons didn't have a lot of morals when it
came to sex, which was, she realized, a good thing. For her. For them. It set
that line for others, so they knew where not to cross it themselves. They were
evil, but the net effect, over all, was not so bad. The Angels would be the
same way, on the other side then, she thought. They did good, but in the end
they showed how not to go so far that it became unbalanced that way either.

Tarsus however, wasn't her buddy.
He could react badly to what she told him. Except of course that she was only
going to use about half the truth. Doing more than that was a good way to have
herself ambushed, after all.

So, she started cooking and
invited him over for supper that night. It wasn't a real meal time, being about
three in the morning, but he could, he allowed, eat. That was a constant thing
in their lives. Gluttony beyond reason. Needed just to survive.

He came to the front door, and
held a bottle of wine for them to share. It was a nice red, which would go with
the hamburgers she'd made nicely.

"We could save it for a
nicer meal, if you want?" That was fine with her, but he just waved that
away.

"I'm sure this will be fine.
It smells very nice." He came in with very little hint and sat comfortably
at her kitchen table. His look was his normal one. Meaning a bit sour faced,
and like a Roman patrician. Keeley knew it was done that way on purpose. The
haircut was a big part of it, being very straight in the front, cutting across
the forehead in a straight line. Over a nose that was excellent for looking
down at people.

After she got the first load of
food on the table, she ate a burger in about six large bites and then wiped her
mouth with a linen napkin. She had mayo on hers and a bit of relish and
mustard. She'd never been all that into ketchup, so at least it didn't look
like her mouth had just consumed a person or anything that gross.

Without preamble she started in,
just explaining, if with a few lies. She made a point of shielding well enough
that he wouldn't pick up on Angelic influence as a reason for her actions. It
hadn't been, totally. She didn't think.

"Xenses is dead. The Rage,
The Chaotic and Helmsman too. The Void is... Still around, but
won't
destroy reality. I can't explain that to you. By that I mean, as you might well
understand, that I
can't
do it, not that I won't, or don't think you
should know. I..." For some reason she kept speaking, almost hearing
someone whispering in her ear. Because, of course, an Angel would know how to
best handle a Greater Demon? It seemed to her that she might just have a bit
more experience there. Then again, maybe not. She was only sixteen after all.

She looked the Demon in the eye,
a soft brown at the moment and smiled.

"I was going to lie and
claim that they caught me off guard and I had to do it, but it took planning
and care. I worked out that removing them forever would... create problems that
we couldn't fix, with the rest of reality. To that end we might need to release
or at least kill, the ones that Darla and I captured. It isn't perfect, but
it's how things need to be. Again, I can't explain this to you in any
meaningful way. It would be good if you would trust me, but I'm not counting on
that. The fact is however, that it's already done, and the bodies buried."
She fought the urge to cross her arms defensively and just ate some more.

Then she waited, being stared at
the entire time. Not for a few seconds or even a minute but a half hour of dead
silence, before he said anything to her.

"Is that so? Well... I do
wish you would have shared your plans with me. I guess I can't complain too
much, however. The spirit, if not the letter, was carried out, and you lived,
which is a better outcome than I'd hoped." There was another long silence,
but a far more normal one that took about half a minute before he took a sip of
wine from a crystal goblet and then munched half a burger of his own.

Looking at the clock on the wall,
a sign that he was going to suggest he leave soon, he spoke, softly.

"When we first met, I
thought you too weak to survive long, amongst us, Keeley. Most of our kind come
into power in the first years after waking, with strength coming first. That
you did not frightened me. I worried for my granddaughter. That you would be
harmed, and used. Then I made myself stop that, but
not
forget the
feeling. After that, no matter what was thrown at you, you handled it. Not
perfectly, but well enough, which is all that should be asked of the young.
It's almost as if you possess some guidance that I simply cannot see.
Regardless. I congratulate you on your achievement. It had to be done, one way
or the other. Now, what do you have planned?"

She didn't need him to go into
that one too deeply. He wanted to know if she was going to take over the
Council, or perhaps simply enslave them all.

"I was thinking that I might
get a job as a camp councilor. Sneak in and watch what my friends get up to
when I'm not around. See if they say mean things about me behind my back."

"Take them as yours again? I
notice that you have... several others now. What is that, seventy-two?"

It was so, she nodded.

"That's just the start of
those here in my territory. I'm not taking my friends as slaves however. I
think, no matter what happens, that they deserve to be free." She wanted
to giggle, but didn't and managed to look over a French fry at the Greater
Demon. Her grandfather. "You know, I don't know how it happened, but I
think I might actually be growing up. A year ago I was just a girl, and now...
I think I'm ready to start life as what I really am. It hasn't all been easy,
but..."

There was a smile and he stood,
then surprisingly gave her a hug. Oh, true, he also managed to cop a feel of
her left breast, rather unsubtly on the way back to standing, which he held for
about ten seconds as she sat there, letting her nipple go hard. This wasn't
about sex, however. It was his way of teasing her, and her own of showing him
it wasn't going to work. Not now.

"Perhaps you have at that.
Well, break a leg and don't take any wooden nickels. I'll call if you have an
assignment coming any time soon. You passed the Second Crucible, so you asked
for it. Most of the others are smart enough to throw the thing, when their turn
comes. Do you have any idea which of us you'd like to work under?" There
was no double meaning to the words, at least.

"Gregor, I think. In a
strange way, we have the most in common." It
was
strange, but The
Librarian merely nodded.

"Good, I'll let him know
that. Until we meet again."

Then almost directly, dropping a
single silver coin, if a large one, on the table, he walked out. It was his
payment for the food. Then, shortly after that, he got onto the inroads,
entering politely outside the front door, and vanished.

In a way, Keeley reflected as she
looked into her bathroom mirror, change was both good
and
bad, at times.
In that moment she meant the slightly rough patch of skin on her left cheek
that was a series of raised, slightly pink, bumps.

The entire face that looked back
at her was different, since she'd shifted most of her appearance rather
carefully, becoming a new person as far as anyone normal could tell. With a bit
of acting, it would fool everyone. She was shorter, for one thing, being barely
five feet tall, now. Her body was a bit rounder too, her mass having been
condensed and spread over her smaller frame. It wasn't a huge thing, and she
was still cute, but not so much that heads would
always
turn while
walking down the street.

Her eyes were a nice blue, but
not a special one. Just a light color that worked with the sandy blond hair she
had now. The skin was tan, but just a healthy glow on a white girl, not
anything that made her look more exotic or ethnic. There was a roundness to her
that was adult, but not overdone. Smaller breasts, wider hips than she'd had
before, and a higher pitched voice.

Keeley decided that this face,
this new part of her, would be called Ella. It was a bit of an old fashioned
name, but close enough to things that were popular at the moment not to sound
too strange. On top of that, it was plain enough not to seem fake. Even if it
was.

Like she'd just thought however,
no one would ever know that.

Unless
God
told them. She
sent out a thought, trying to mimic what Angels did that way, and mainly
failing so far. It was just a poke, saying that
He
better not tell on
her. She couldn't be certain but she thought, on some deep level that there was
the hint of a smile that came at her then. From... Somewhere.

That part was strange, but she
was adapting. That, and keeping her mouth shut.

There was no real reason to try
and insist that everyone else acknowledge that being, after all. For one thing,
experiences aside, there was no way to prove that it even existed. That
probably meant she was insane, and not just privy to the secret information,
but it was either true or not. Dwelling on that kind of thing was for Humans.
Not her. She was, as she'd finally started to internalize, not one of those. It
had taken a long time for that to sink in. Months, even.

That got her to smile and regard
the face in the mirror again. She spoke to it, trying out the new voice, which
was very different than her old one. Less self assured, but more friendly and
playful.

"Well, Ella, are you ready
for your first day as a camp councilor?" She'd gotten the job fair and
square, simply applying for it. There had been a last minute cancellation, due
to a Vampire getting into a fight the night before, which she'd heard about
from Zack.

Okay, that part was cheating a bit,
but she
had
simply planned to get him to let her in, being that he owned
the place. This way would be a lot more interesting.

Her friends had finished their
trip to the Grand Canyon, which meant that her Durg, Kevin, was making his way
toward Becky, so they could move off to Hollywood, or at least L.A. It was a
good enough plan, especially since Darla had already arranged for the girl to
have a small but important part in a decently large picture. Not that Becky
knew that yet.

The rest of them were fine. They
had their own lives and businesses. Rebekah, her Vampire friend, had been more
than pleased to help start a major blood collection business in Sparks, and
Keeley's newly rehabilitated junkie squad was stepping up nicely. They weren't
Mensa members, but their new jobs didn't require that from them. Just hard work
and showing up in time.

Other than that, nothing too
major had been happening over the last few days. Not that boring wasn't a good
thing. She was, she decided,
quite
in love with the idea now. There was
work to do, but that would always be the case, except for brief lulls between
major happenings.

Soon she'd need to see about
coming up with a few real businesses to keep her entertained.

She was, except for the need to
put some clothing on, ready, she decided. The future would come, and while it
might not be perfect, or, thanks to God staring at her butt,
private
,
but she'd manage. Keeley was, after all, a Greater Demon. Which was a thing
that she wasn't going to fight being any longer. She had a place in the scheme
of reality, and it was as important as anything ever got.

So, keeping that in mind, she got
herself ready, and moved toward the next thing. There was work to do, and she
was, finally, ready to do her part to make it all happen.

A real adult.

A Demon girl.

Smiling she spoke in Ella's
voice, winking at her own reflection, then decided not to do that again, since
it was a bit too similar to her old mannerisms.

"A Demon
woman
,
Keels. And don't forget it."

On that note, she went to make everything
ready. It wouldn't do to keep the plan of the universe waiting, after all.

Other works by P.S. Power that you can pick up today on
Amazon.com:

The Young Ancients:

The Builder

Knight Esquire

Knight

Ambassador

Counselor

Slave Line

The Dark Half of the Sun

A Simple Darkness

Ancient Kings

Lord of the Sky

The Silence Within

Kingdom of Stars

Goddess of the Moon

Envoy to Earth

The Keeley Thomson Universe:

Keeley Thomson: (The Complete Series)

Demon Girl

Keelzabub

Mistress of Souls

Demon Trap

Demon Bait

Other Places:

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