Demon Girl (Keeley Thomson Book One) (13 page)

   She did, fast, realizing that this situation was way out of her depth suddenly. No, she realized, it had been for nearly a day, this wasn't sudden at all, she was just now really getting it. Darla was a demon. A real one. And she'd been watching her for days, maybe longer. Why? Human sacrifice?

   The cheerleader certainly didn't need her for fashion tips.

   Or apparently heavy lifting.

   Keeley stood up all the way, and the blood rushed from her head, making the world go a little dark. Not too bad, but enough she noticed it. The other girl watched her and then smiling, started to put the large gold rounds back in their slots inside the box.

   “We need to get you some food, but I learned a long time ago not to leave things like this just sitting out. You never know who's going to be coming around after all and most people seeing it won't think “Hey, cool, time manipulator” they'll just see all the gold. As if it wasn't worth a million times more than the metal it's made of. There are only five of them in existence and only one demon anywhere can make them.”

   A time manipulator would be priceless, wouldn't it? Keeley could see that. A lot of governments would probably pay billions of dollars for one of these. Especially if it did more than just floors. Fixing a broken super computer or missile for instance. Yeah, that would be worth it to some people. That or other things.

   “Wait, if we had a body on the floor and they died a day before would this...”

   “Fix them? Make it so they functionally hadn't died? Yes. It's a poor idea, unless you're getting paid for it and few have anything worth trading something like that for, but it works. Hard to keep a low profile if you go around doing that though.”

   “Ah, you mean hiding from humans?” Keeley knew it was part of all the stories, but that had never made sense to her, if you were all that strong, why hide? Especially from people you could easily just dominate.

   It earned a funny face from the demon.

   “No, not at all. If I walked up to a group of people and told them all about myself, demon heritage and all, what do you think they'd say? Or if a vampire did the same thing?”

   Keeley shrugged, that was just obvious. “That you're a nut job and that Vlad needed to check into an institution, most likely. That or maybe that the role-playing had gone just a little too far or that your drugs were better than the ones they'd taken. It would probably depend on how cute you were.”

   Darla nodded as she finished getting the second to last of the rounds into the case.

   “Exactly. Like the vampire that ran for Governor of Main a few years ago. He ran as what he is openly and everyone just thought he was a loon. Richard Swerlin. Not a bad guy for a vamp. Maybe I'll introduce you if he comes into town? Or we could go to some of the others' parties when you're ready? There's almost always something going on. That could be fun.” She spoke as the last piece went away, the green painted top being closed and latched firmly.

   “One sec. Hey, meet me in the kitchen? I'll be right back, just want to get this put away.”

   She ran out of the room with the box.

   Ran.

   Her feet barely even made a sound as she did it too. Keeley decided not to get in an arm wrestling match with the girl. Or a fist fight. She must be really good at those cheerleading lifts though. That and her looks would be enough to get on the team most likely. Especially at a fairly small school like Raintree.

   The kitchen was clean still and smelled slightly of bleach and floor cleaner, but not too much. Just enough so that Hally and Eve felt that the mold couldn't have possibly survived. That it hadn't been there to start with assured that at least. Keeley leaned against the counter for a second, suddenly weak and a little shaky. Low blood sugar? It felt right, but then maybe this was what having your soul sucked out felt like? Not that she had any reason to think that Darla had lied to her, except, of course... demon.

   As a group they didn't exactly have the best reputation in that regard, did they?

   The blond bounced back into the room about a minute and a half later, smiling as she did and holding up her right hand.

   “Wait, emergency rations... Here.” She went to the freezer and got out a container of ice cream, a new one, from a specialty shop it seemed. The label was bland looking, a plain brown container, and on the top it said peanut butter ripple in large dark brown letters that looked hand stamped. There were no other markings on it at all.

   Right now, Keeley decided as she was handed a silver spoon, she'd have eaten it if it said it was squid flavored. Hunger tried to tear out her middle. Actually cramping from it. That was something she'd never really experienced before. She'd gone without food a few times in her life, mainly trying to lose weight, but this felt like she hadn't eaten in days. When she remarked on it, between bites, Darla grinned.

   “Well, you powered a fifteen hour or greater time reversal. You didn't think that would be free did you? In energy it would be about like you having run that entire time at top speed... figure that you lost four pounds of fat from it and you won't be too far off.” She shrugged.

   “Eat. I'll talk like I said I would. What do you want to know first?”

   Keeley stopped, pointedly not eating. What did she want to know first? There was so much, a thousand questions crowded her mind and didn't leave her room to organize everything properly. The central one was clear enough though. The one thing that actually pulled all the oddities together.

   “Demons?” She said simply, then found herself sticking the spoon in her mouth taking a large bite from the half gallon container of frozen goodness.

   The blond shrugged.

   “Right, well, to the table so we can sit while I go over it.” She gestured, a far more fluid thing than Keeley had seen from a human form before. Eerily smooth, it made her eyes itch to see it. Her mind tickled and ached just a little from it.

   She followed to the other room though, sitting and waiting for the girl to talk, eating automatically, hunger forcing her to split her attention.

   “So, demons...” Darla sat across from her. “Well, we aren't what you think we are. We aren't fallen angles, that's just propaganda from the cult of the shared imaginary friend. Christianity. I swear those people have done more to screw with us than any other group. They won't even apologize for it. It's always “get behind me demon” as if that's not hugely insulting?” She sighed.

   “We're an active sub-species of humanity. Related obviously. Very long lived. Our nature allows us to see part of the template of reality, which allows us to do things that humans don't. We get some other perks too. Shape changing, once you learn the skill, very long lives, though we can be killed if enough force is brought to bear. So getting cocky is a really bad idea. Things like that.”

   Keeley had embarrassingly gotten through about a quarter of the container of ice cream already. She tried to slow down, but Darla caught the move.

   “Eat... So, the name, demon... Originally it came from Greek, daemon, and just meant “wise one”. Early on a few of us pointed out the dangers of the Christian cult so they vilified us, there's a bit more to the story and not all of it good, but later for that? You'd think that people would have caught on to the fact that they were basically saying not to trust the intelligent thinkers, but there you have it. People are, in general, easily led to any conclusion you want. That's why religion works. Politics too.”

   This, it seemed, was the explanation. Keeley took a delicate bite, which still took an act of will, because it was hard not to just ram it in her mouth as fast as she could, and decided on what to ask next.

   “Um, alright, so long lived wise ones. Propaganda from the church... So all that business about deals for souls?”

   “Fake.” Darla tilted her head then and wiggled her right hand in the air, a gesture to show there was room for debate.

   “Kind of. We don't deal for souls and even the definition of that, the soul, is spotty at best. I personally think that it's the background pattern impression any organized field makes on reality, but that's just me. Other people have different ideas. We do make deals though. Binding ones that can't be broken once set. If you're going to live for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years, it makes sense to be comfortable while doing it. It's kind of the family business after a fashion.”

   She stood, Keeley thought to pace, but instead she walked to the kitchen through the swinging saloon style wooden doors, a blond color that matched the dining room, not the kitchen, and kept talking as she made rustling noises in the other room.

   “So, we make deals with people. We help them reach a goal, say to be rich, or loved, happy or what have you and in return they provide services for us. Now, granted, depending on who you deal with those services may not always be pleasant. I recommend you avoid anything like that for a while. If a demon offers you anything like a deal, just say no.”

   Walking back in carefully, her arms were loaded with prepackaged goodies that Keeley wouldn't have thought would be in Darla's kitchen at all, not after the way she'd made everything from scratch the night before. A box of cellophane wrapped snack cakes got opened one by one and set on a white and blue plate next to the ice cream container. Keeley didn't stare, but doubted she'd be that hungry after polishing off all the ice cream. The stuff was rich, high in fat and sugar, cloying almost, but better than she'd ever had before.

   Her stomach still growled. That was annoying. She didn't even feel a little full yet.

   Darla pushed a golden curl to the side, as if it hadn't been behaving perfectly, which it had, and kept going, her voice going low and conspiratorial.

   “So, how about this. I'll teach you all about demon kind and all you have to do is hang out and maybe do a few favors for me now and again? Think about it? How often do you get to learn secret demon information? No one gets to do that...”

   The snort nearly shot half melted frozen dessert through Keeley's nose.

   “No.” She frowned at the other girl a little sound exasperated at the obvious game being played.

   “Did you think I wasn't paying attention or something? You just said...”

   “Yep. I did. You'd be surprised at how many people would have fallen for that though. Good. Keep it in mind. No matter what, you can't make a deal with a demon. Not me, not any of us. We're... well it would be unfair to say we aren't your friends, a lot of us probably will be, but out of the five hundred and twenty of us right now, about a hundred and thirteen would just as soon kill a human as deal with them and if they get their hooks into anyone, even one of us, it doesn't go well.”

   It took a few seconds and a few more bites of food to process all the information.

   “OK, I guess I can see that. Why so few demons? That's not a lot for a population base is it? I guess with the immortality, or very long lives, that kind of makes some sense, but it still seems low.”

   “Well, no one really knows for certain, but the pattern of the world seems to only allow a maximum number of us. Five hundred and thirty-six is the limit we think. There's never been more than that. But we do suffer attrition and most of the kids don't make it long enough to assure survival. That takes about seventy to a hundred and twenty years.” A delicate hand was waved as she reached over and took one of the cream filled chocolate cakes from the plate and bit it nearly in half.