Keeley Thomson (Book 3): Mistress of Souls (2 page)

"That's the truth. Good, let's give it a try? If you're too awful we can always get Mrs. Benson in anyway."

The whole thing didn't take long, since it was mainly just one of the junior news people and her standing outside in front of the building by a mailbox. It would make the whole thing seem more patriotic. Keeley knew that most people linked community to the idea of country on some level, so it would subtly influence them to want to attend.

The woman doing the interviewing didn't know anything about it, but figured out what questions to ask to find out, which, really, was the point. As she left Keeley stopped her and touched her arm, instantly picking up the woman's entire life, every experience and nuance, from the fact that she was in a decently committed relationship with two other people, a man
and
a woman, to the knowledge that she actually had a job offer from a rival station to be co-anchor of a morning show. It wasn't a huge job, but it paid about the same as the current one and was a step up in prestige. That was important to her. More so than money even.

"Thank you so much, you did great. Can I give you my card?" Keeley dug one out of the ridiculous hand bag she was carrying with her, a small thing that Darla had insisted on. It was mainly about her having make-up on her all the time, but also let her carry a debit card and car keys when she didn't have pockets, so it wasn't a horrible idea, just a pain in the rear to have to do. She had business cards though. Real ones, that had the Coretechs logo on them and named her position as community liaison. Dan Carmichael had them made up for her. It wasn't her actual position, which was mail room clerk, but it did sound better and Darla had just smiled when she saw them. No one really expected a fellow Demon to play by normal rules after all.

"Oh, thanks sweetie. So do I just call you if I have any questions about the party?"

Keeley handed the card over and winked, doing it on purpose, so that she'd look older to anyone watching. Girls her age didn't wink anymore. Since she was making herself unavailable to telepaths she didn't have to guard her thoughts as carefully, but she still needed to sell the idea that she was a lot more ancient than she looked.

Because young Demons were on almost everyone's list of things to kill.

It made sense, about half of all Greater Demons, and there were only about five-hundred at any one time, were actually decent enough people. Maybe a little more relaxed when it came to morals, but not monsters
all
the time. That meant that the remainder felt it important to really go and cover that fact up with atrocities on a regular basis. They were so bad that no one wanted to risk the chance of a baby Demon growing up to be one of that second sort. So when someone her age was found out, almost everyone tried to kill them. Hard and often.

Even other Demons would often take a shot at it if they could. Why let someone evil come and make their lives more difficult, right?

So she was making an effort to be older. It was working so far... then no one had challenged her on the idea at all. Acting was useful, but the fact was Keeley could be called on it at any time. If that happened she had to be able to fight well enough to survive. All Demons were different in what skills they had and in what measure. Some were fantastically strong and fast, but didn't have a great deal of magic. Others, like her, were pretty weak, but did alright in mental and magical aspects of things. Her thing, so far at least, seemed to be in making deals.

It was how she managed to take the slaves she had. All Greater Demons could do it, but she was the only one that had ever managed to take a Vampire. She'd even done it against his will. The Hsreth were kind of a trophy that way as well. A lot of fully grown Demons would have had trouble with it. Keeley had done it almost by accident.

It still didn't mean she couldn't be taken down though. Hence the acting.

"That's right. In fact, why don't you give me a call and I'll arrange a lunch for you with the Police Chief and his wife? Maybe a few of the Coretechs people?" It was something new for Keeley to do, but the girl was pretty and seemed intelligent. That and a little help in the right places could turn her into a real asset later. Keeley had never tried to groom a person like this before, but why not? Having a reporter as a friend couldn't hurt at any rate.

"I..." The woman half froze, her voice sticking as she looked at Keeley, almost scared. Almost as if she didn't want to go to the party, or as if something was wrong.

Keeley decided to try something she simply hadn't had a chance to yet and focus on her data collection ability, extending it outward from her skin toward the woman in front of her, being careful not to let any thoughts out from behind her shielding with it. She nearly laughed when she got the very strong and clear sense of what the woman was thinking. Not just because it was neat to suddenly have telepathy either.

She was wondering if Keeley was trying to pick her up and was actually a bit tempted. Of course she also thought Keeley was a couple years older than she actually was, so it wasn't her age that made it seem like a bad idea, just the fact that she had partners already.

Keeley smiled at her, nodding.

"I won't be there for it, but you can bring your boyfriend or husband?" She held up her left hand, palm up, which was a submissive posture, meant to put the woman at ease.

"Or you can bring your girlfriend or one of each if you like. I think you'll find that Chief Benson and his wife are pretty open minded, as long as you're law abiding. Great people. Shall I see what I can arrange for you?" It was a long shot, but the woman looked around and finally whispered her answer.

"That would be fucking fantastic. Can you really do all that?"

"Yes. I won't guarantee that none of them will hit on you, but I can set up the meeting and trust me, if you say no to an overture, I don't think anyone will take offense. Really I should see if my school Principal wants in on it. I know that probably doesn't seem like a huge thing, but he's a great guy and on the party planning committee too. Plus... yes, some other people, if I can get them together. Now I'm almost sad I can't come. Curfew you know. Home by nine or I'll end up grounded." She added the hints to her age, which the woman picked up on easily enough, but didn't mention, glad she hadn't made a pass at Keeley herself. That would have been awkward.

The thoughts rolled off her easily, especially as she wondered if it would be alright to really invite both her honeys to something adult and dressy for once. They weren't really in hiding, but most people didn't understand either.

"I'd love to. Here, I have a card too." She had to dig through the large backpack she carried, but came up with one pretty quickly.

"Can you call me if it looks like it's actually going to happen?"

The card said her name was Deborah Forbes and listed her as a reporter. Keeley smiled, memorized the name and number and tucked it in her purse.

"I can, let me see if I can set that up for tomorrow evening?"

They parted, with the other woman grinning happily, but wondering if Keeley would be able to pull it off. It also occurred to her that she should make a point of pushing for a long segment on the footage she'd just gotten, if Stanly could be convinced. Everyone wanted more air time, but if the girl could pull off half of what she'd suggested it would be worth trying. After all, if this little Halloween party thing looked good that night, maybe she could get a real news story out of the Chief sometime in return?

So intent on following the thoughts of the woman behind her as she walked around the corner Keeley nearly missed seeing the man that lunged at her from behind the bushes near the edge of the building. He knocked into her first, feeding his entire miserable existence into her head at once, then tried to grab her bag as she stumbled. She let go of it in shock, then tried to remember what to do, while she slowed time around herself and pushed her body hard, remembering the times she'd managed super fast movement, using magic to lend her abilities her physical body didn't have yet. Then she had plenty time to decide what to do, the man turning in slow motion in front of her, getting ready to run as soon as he could.

It took a bit for her to work it all out. She was taken off guard, and had only had two lessons in fighting so far, both from Darla, and read a book on the subject. It certainly wasn't the same as decades of experience. Luckily this wasn't a tough situation. The man in front of her was just looking for drug money and easy targets. He wasn't expecting a fight at all. Honestly Keeley should have let him go and just canceled the cards later, but she needed the practice and hated the idea of being a victim of crime if she could help it. It was probably an ego issue, but that was something to work on later, when she wasn't being robbed.

Reaching out with both hands she grabbed the left side of his face, right hand above the left and pivoted, taking his head down to the ground in an smooth arc of motion, making certain that the force remained even the whole time, pushing at the end as hard as possible, making a satisfying thunk on the sidewalk with his skull. There was blood from under his hair, but the guy was still breathing, if unconscious.

The idea of just walking away was tempting, but someone might notice him before he stumbled off, so she made an effort to let her perception of time return to normal and calm herself.

"Help!" She made herself sound panicked and young, even though she didn't feel it. She did shake a bit, but let that keep going. It would make her look weak. She probably needed to be ready to cry too. Otherwise it would all look wrong.

"Help me, please! This man tried to rob me!"

She had to yell for a while, but three minutes latter a respectable crowd had gathered, the police were called and a news crew had assembled, Deborah Forbes getting there first having been closest when it happened. She took the mic and started asking questions of Keeley and the man trying to recover on the ground. He wasn't doing too well, barely able to even sit up. Deborah acted like it was a major news item, since Keeley had already done all of that party interview just a bit before. It could work into something that went national even. People loved seeing school girls kicking bad guy butt.

Great for Deborah's career, but kind of high profile for a baby Demon trying to hide. Then, if she was acting older than she was...

She did another interview, managing to come off both amped up and scared, but also finding a cloth to press to the druggie's head to stop the bleeding until an ambulance arrived. It took hours to finish talking to the police, but she made it home in time to make her nine o'clock curfew by two and a half hours. It wasn't even dinner time when she walked through the door, her mother running over with a worried look in her eyes.

"Honey are you OK? Your friend Hally called. She saw you on channel six, they're saying you were attacked and nearly killed?"

That got a laugh, if a slightly strained one.

"Purse snatching. I managed to knock the man out. I wonder if they're running any footage of the interview? It wasn't that big of a deal, I..." The television was on and Deborah was busily going over the whole thing, questioning a young officer from the force that Keeley recognized as one of Darla's people. The man hadn't been on the scene earlier, but he was big and kind of good looking, in a respectable way. He made it sound like she'd engaged in a protracted battle with the well known criminal, possibly involving weapons and kung-fu mastery, instead of using only one move. It did make her sound dangerous though.

Then the station played the footage from the party interview, playing up the fact that she'd only been there to help get the word out so that everyone could come together as a community. Deborah returned on screen again, talking to someone from a national news network. The shots of her chatting to Keeley in the background being played as color while the whole thing was explained. It took up nearly an hour's worth of coverage, but a lot of it harped on the coming party, which had to be good for attendance. It also made her seem like a way better person than she was.

"Wow, "Saint Me", go figure. I swear it wasn't anything like that." She covered it all for her mom, who tended to worry too much. If she didn't it could turn into a night of fretting and possibly emotional bonding. No one wanted that.

Sherry raised her eyebrows as if not really believing what her innocent little girl was saying, which was hardly fair, since it was all true.

"Alright... I guess. I'm just glad you're safe. What would you like for dinner?"

"About twenty thousand calories of whatever's handy? I'm starving." She meant it literally, but didn't expect her mother to take it that way, since she didn't realize yet that Keeley knew Dan had already told her about the whole Demon thing. Parts of it at least.

She just went to the kitchen and came out a few minutes later with a bowl of chocolate ice cream that had chocolate sauce all over it. It practically floated in the bowl. Keeley looked at it and then shook her head mournfully.

"You
do
think I've gotten too skinny then? I swear I'm eating regularly. More than ever even." She dug into the bowl and ate several spoonfuls to show how sincere she was.

That earned a small smile.

"Well, you know, different people have different needs that way. Maybe you just need to eat more than most people? Not the worst trait to have, is it? A lot of people would kill for a metabolism like that. I'm going to make some steak and mashed potatoes. Is that good? I could do up something else if you like..."

What went unsaid was that it was Monday, which in the Thomson house meant steak and mashed potatoes. It was one of her father's favorite meals but he wouldn't have thrown a fit or anything if he didn't get it. It would just have thrown off her mother's schedule. Given her problems with OCD that wouldn't play too well. It might require drugs or a sleepless night preparing meals that no one would eat.

"That sounds great. Well, I need to get to some homework and then call some people before it gets too late. I promised to try and set up a meeting for a reporter with some important people tomorrow night. Basically the group doing the Halloween party. Hey, you and Dad are in on helping with that right?" She hadn't asked and didn't need the help yet, but it wouldn't hurt anything if they did.