Keeley Thomson (Book 3): Mistress of Souls (12 page)

For her part she wondered if the thing was going to blow up in their faces the whole time. They went in on Friday evening, just after cheerleading practice, but alone, just the two of them. Gary's party was the next night, which reminded Keeley to mention the thought she'd had on that score.

"So... Gary might be setting something up. Probably planning to kill some Durgs. You may just want to make sure I'm wrong about that though. I haven't checked directly. Might be a bit of a giveaway if he does though, since they'll have to know someone is on to them then. Really I don't know why they're still in the area. If it was me I'd have left as soon as Edith was dead. She has to have family that will want this stuff and possibly her old slaves too. They also knew that a Greater Demon was involved. That should be enough to make anyone want to vanish."

"True. We
are
scary. Well, not
us
, but you know what I mean. In general." She pulled something that looked like a gold letter opener from a deep crack in a wall, held between two tight wooden panels. It looked to have black scrollwork all over it.

Darla held it in a white silk cloth, the air buzzing with energy for a second then dissipating, making the whole place a lot less menacing suddenly.

"This is probably why no one bothered coming to look at anything here. Ancient Sumerian I think. Not made by humans of course, or it would be Cuneiform on the outside. Probably Annunaki. The space gods. I've actually never been certain if they were real or if one of us was just using that as a control mechanism. Anyway, it's good work. Pretty much designed to protect a house from intruders. Notice you didn't just come in and start collecting stuff on your own before you bought the place, did you? I figure it was this bad boy here that made that happen. Once you owned it, the concept affected the device, letting you and your guests in."

It got wrapped up and Keeley had to write out a description of it and make a tag. Well, to be fair Darla didn't say she did, but if they decided to sell anything it would be useful and she wasn't going to start walking around grabbing things she didn't understand. That's what she hired Darla for.

Over the next day they collected two hundred and forty-six different strange objects. Almost all different and all of them useful in some way. One just let a person move through space from one place to another. It could only be used once a day though and they could both already do that, but for a person or being that didn't have the talent it could be really useful. It went in the pile of things to sell. Another thing was just a quartz crystal that had silver wire wrapped around it hundreds of times and a small silk cord hanging off the top.

"There it is! I've been looking for that thing for decades. It's my old finding crystal. Not worth that much to anyone else. I don't suppose you'd let me have it for free would you? It was one of the first things I made by myself. We could probably get a few thousand for it, and I can't justify taking it as part of my percentage, since it isn't worth much compared to the rest of this." She looked at it wistfully and shook her head, setting it down to the side.

"Sure. Merry Christmas though. At least in part I mean. If it turns out to be some fantastically valuable thing later though you have to pay me the difference. Seventy percent of the sale value."

Darla nodded and put it in her pocket with a happy look on her face.

"For a Greater Demon you aren't half bad, you know that?"

"Well you know what they say about Demons, none of them are half bad if you use the right spices and tenderize first." Keeley said it absently and walked over to a small blue metal sphere about the size of a golf ball. She didn't touch it though. It was powerful, whatever it was. Noticing this Darla stared at it for a while and then shook her head.

"I think it's a ghost trap. Elegant construction on it. Smaller and less fragile than the glass ones I've built. I'd love to take it apart..." It got put in the pile for things to possibly be kept.

Most things she just didn't need and probably never would. A few even Darla thought they should hang on to, like something that seemed designed to do nothing but rip the universe apart. The idea that a loon like Edith Givens had been in control of it was frightening. Way more than a couple of Demons having the same thing. It hit Keeley that they were all lucky to be alive.

They used Freida to move the stuff, putting most of it in Darla's secret vault, because Keeley didn't have one yet. Obviously she needed to go and get one pretty quick. Of all of it Darla wanted forty-two items and suggest she keep sixteen of them for herself, because they could be useful in the future. The rest were for sale. Darla said she'd handle that part, which was good. If Keeley was responsible for them all she could come up with was auctioning them on EBay.

Darla laughed.

"Not too far wrong. We'll take a list of things to Dan's party and see if anyone wants a copy to spread to friends. I wouldn't be shocked if it's all gone inside a few months. Just put the funds in your account?"

"Sure." She was spending it fast enough to need to start replacing it. Now that it was clean she could look into reselling Edith's old place. Maybe do some remodeling first. It wasn't bad really, once you got past the idea of someone that loathsome having lived there. It just lacked a certain spark of happiness. Maybe she'd keep it though. Who knew when an extra house could come in handy. Like a safe house or something. Or a place for guests if they wanted to stay in town for a while?

They got to Darla's about five in the afternoon, and ate for hours, trying to stock up for later. There would be snacks at the party, but not enough for either of them to really be comfortable. Not without storing some energy up first.

"Here's a trick, drink a few two liters of soda. Lots of sugar and calories. No one will really think anything of it either. Probably won't even notice. We'll pick some up on the way. Everyone should be there at seven?" Darla sounded efficient suddenly, letting down her normal bubbly disguise.

Keeley could relate to that. It was a chore having to pretend to be young all the time.

"Right."

They were the first ones there, but that changed before six-thirty. Hally came with her mother and Eve, Steve York in tow behind them all, looking a little shy, which wasn't like him at all. The kid had all his fingers wrapped at the ends except the pinkies, his red hair had been cut shorter and he looked to have both grown about half an inch taller in the last week and dropped a few pounds. Instead of running over to her he walked, not really making eye contact. At first she though he was checking out Darla, who was to her left, but that wasn't it. He was just trying not to look at her.

"Hey." The word was clear enough, but soft. He did glance up at her though. Not much though, he was pretty close to her own height.

"Hi Steve. Giving the fingers a break from guitar practice for a bit?" She pointed at the bandages which got a slightly sullen shrug.

"Um, just for the night. Should be good enough tomorrow, I just did too much yesterday. So... anyway..." He took a deep breath and rushed through the rest of the statement as if he expected to need to run away after.

"There's a concert in at the Town center on the third of November. Would you like to go?" He swallowed nervously. It was kind of cute.

"With me I mean? Like on a date? I know that you're a little older than me, so, you know, like friends or..." He stumbled to a stop and blushed a brilliant scarlet as his sister and mother both looked like they were about to bust up laughing, which was mean of them. Her own mother was fighting a smile too. Darla managed polite interest, but the real surprise was Eve who just kind of nodded at Keeley, but didn't say anything at all.

"OK. I'll drive. Sounds like fun. You're not getting past first base though, so make sure to look that up before we go." She smiled at him and made eye contact, not breaking it off for a while. He was young, and would never be someone she'd seriously consider dating, because he was enslaved to her. Still, she could let him down easy and influence him to be her friend with just a little effort. Shooting him down when he'd never asked anyone out before though would be too much for him to easily recover from. Especially since she was cheating big time on the attraction scale. He couldn't know why he felt like he did, so had probably turned it into a feeling of being well and truly in love. It wouldn't be very nice of her to abuse that.

At least the others stopped laughing, looking a bit surprised for some reason. Eve walked up to the boy and slapped him on the back gently.

"See, I told you, you don't get anything by not trying. Now just make sure not to get her pregnant or Sherry will fire me for telling you to try it."

Darla nodded, walking to the door, a car having pulled up outside.

"That's true. Plus you're far too young for a child of your own. Definitely remember to have safe sex if you do anything. If you're too afraid to buy condoms, you're too young to be having sex." She turned and winked at him which got a very different response than Keeley had thought would happen.

"I don't know much about that... maybe you could show me later?" It was direct and sounded like a line he'd used before, one that got a frown from his mother and another smile from Keeley's

Hally just shook her head.

"At least he's being on good behavior with you Keelzebub. If he can just learn to do that more often with everyone else he might even grow up to be an actual human being. I mean, I'm not holding my breath personally, but it
could
happen. Someday." She said it sweetly though, and smiled at her kid brother rather than making a face.

Besides, while everyone else may have missed it, Keeley noticed that Darla hadn't said no, had she? Oh, it wouldn't be happening any time soon, or Keeley would have to try and kill her, but she was being sensitive to the guy's feelings too. Too bad his mother and sister weren't really able to get that part of things. We'll, she could talk to them about it later.

The door opened to show that Barb was there along with Gary, Becky Hoader and Maria Gonzales. That was everyone then. Steve walked over and took her hand, spreading his life into her as he did before he took off with his mother, not being invited to the mainly all girl slumber party.

"I'll call and make sure we have everything planned right. If that's OK?" He sounded pretty tentative about it again.

"That's a good idea. Don't forget. I'll probably see you before then though, but if not, call."

Ginger didn't drag him out the door, not exactly, but it was pretty close to that. Gary was watching with a strange look on his face.

"New boyfriend Keels?'

She just nodded, getting that doing anything else would be taken as a sign of weakness and mark her as fair game for the whole evening.

"Yep. We have a date at least. Next month. He's the first boy to ever ask me out you know." That was true of course, which got almost everyone to give her a funny look except for Darla and Barb. Of course they'd all been dating since they were in preschool most likely. Even her own mom had boyfriends when she was a girl. Only Keeley was strange enough to not have that kind of experience.

Except Barb it seemed.

"I've never been asked out either. Guys just don't like me. Starve myself, get plastic surgery and spend hours in therapy trying to learn what to do and still nothing. I guess I've gotten used to it though." There was a polite murmur from about half the room, with Gary being the loudest.

"No, that's not true, you just haven't hit your stride yet. We'll get you set up and then all the other guys will realize you aren't standoffish or cold and will get work up courage to take a shot at you. In the meantime we have movies to watch and popcorn to explode all over the kitchen. At least that's normally what happens when I make it." He tried to look innocent, but he knew how her mother was with messes and that she'd most likely volunteer to make it herself instead.

Only she didn't.

"Make a mess and clean it up. I've got some work to do and then I'll turn in early. Another last minute job came in today. At least I get three days for it all. I'm just doing pre-prep now." She sounded confident and happy.

Eve perked up a little too.

"Need help with it? I'm not religious, so working on Sunday isn't that big an issue for me."

"Wonderful. Thanks Eve. The rest of you be good and try not to burn anything. I'm here if you need me."

The movies were actually on the computer, not television, which meant trading around some screens and dragging some cables around. Keeley could have done it, but Darla didn't wait to be asked. Technical stuff was her thing after all. Not just the magical kind either.

First they turned off the lights and huddled close to watch a really bad comedy show about men that got so drunk they all had amnesia. It had more plot holes than plot and they left an entire thread unresolved at the end, but it was supposed to just be a vehicle for sex jokes and light slapstick comedy, so she let that stuff go and didn't mention it. Almost everyone else laughed, so she joined in, the sense of community being the important part after all.

Then they ate for a while, talking about boys and what they wanted to do when they got out of school. It was a good thing to consider, Keeley realized. She'd kind of been thinking about going into advertising before the whole Demon thing came up. That or psychology, which was a related field. Being "The Mistress of Souls" actually seemed to pay alright, and was interesting enough, but it didn't make for a very good cover over all. How did you write that down on your taxes anyway?

Did she just write in that she extorted most of her funds from Vampires? Luckily that was probably tax free. She'd have to check though, just in case.

Darla added a lame line about wanting to go to Hollywood to be an actress and Hally just shook her head, not having even that lame of an idea. Gary figured that he'd probably end up in the military, if they were still taking gays by then, which got Becky to sit up a little and stare.