Demonsense: Demon Master Part 18

"There will be at least one other Exorcist there that I know of. He's a Keeper, a friend of my husband's named Javier Ortiz. And there will probably be others. If we're going to work together on this, I'd suggest you focus on warding us and deflecting any spells, not to mention keeping people off us physically. You are bigger than I am." She sounded chagrined, as if she didn't want to have to admit that, to rely on him for protection.

Absurdly, Leander found his male ego swelling up at that. He wanted to protest that he was quite capable of preventing harm from coming to her, but the reality was, he couldn't be sure of that. Who knew what they were about to get in to? And besides, it sounded like she was at least as good a Caster as he was. He was underplaying his abilities some, as he didn't want her to see him as having a lot of battle experience. That didn't go with his cover. If he kept to that, chances were that at some point, she'd be protecting him.

"One thing Kevin and I found the last time we did this was that at a certain point, the best tactic was just to try to clear the kids out, basically bully them right out of the situation."

"I'm not sure these will necessarily be kids, Bree. I heard that's what went down at that riot on Alki Beach, but I'm guessing we might be dealing with an older crowd. For one thing, unless they have fake IDs, they're at least twenty-one, since it's going to be the bar crowd on the square on a Sat.u.r.day night."

"Well, we can hope that means some of them have some sense."

"Which might work if demons weren't involved," Leander said darkly. He did not care for demons. He'd been possessed before, at Marton's tutelage, and while he'd experienced the rush everyone talked about, he hated the idea of something else being in even partial control of him. He'd gotten through life by making sure he was the one in control, wherever possible and in whatever way possible. Not to mention the fact that they were just plain creepy. He had Demonsense although it was, thank G.o.d, low level rather than high. He could feel them when they were close enough, but it didn't flood his system like he heard it did for those with high power Demonsense. And he was quite sure that described Bree. He'd have to watch out for her with that. Although it appeared she was a seasoned Exorcist and had some battle experience, if there truly were a large number of demons, as Marton and his people had planned for, things might become very difficult for her.

They began to see and hear signs of trouble a block away. There was a club near the corner of the square where people were spilling out onto the sidewalk, and there were sounds of shouting. There was already some police presence as well. Two squad cars were pulled up, though their lights weren't flas.h.i.+ng.

"I'm supposed to look for Javier or one of the other Keepers I know," Bree told him. She sounded much less self-a.s.sured than she had on the walk.

Leander took her hand and put it in the crook of his elbow. "Once more into the breach, dear friend," he told her, producing a good approximation of confidence that he did not actually feel.

Bree slowed when they were half a block away. She leaned toward him and said into his ear, "I feel serious amounts of demons over there. I can't begin to guess how many, but to feel this much at this distance does not bode well." As they got close enough to see in more detail what was happening, they stopped to let her peruse the crowd for her Keeper friends. They were not the only onlookers. People couldn't resist watching a fight, and a fight was definitely going on. There looked to be a number of brawls, small and large, in the crowd milling in front of the club. Leander saw that the metal tables and chairs out front that were probably used for summer outdoor seating were strewn about and causing problems as combatants tripped on them.

As he watched, one young man with the look of a college frat boy picked up a chair and brought it down on the back of another man, who collapsed onto the ground. The police were in evidence trying to break up the fights on the perimeter, with one officer attempting to direct the crowd of onlookers away, but they weren't out in enough force to contain much of the mayhem. Leander couldn't even begin to imagine how he was supposed to be of help in the situation. If he waded in and tried to use spells to divert the brawlers, wouldn't they just get up again and go at each other? And it wasn't like the crowd was big enough at this point for his efforts to go unnoticed. Bree, fortunately, seemed to have a better idea than he did what to do.

"I don't see any of the Keepers, so I'm afraid we're just going to have to make our best guess on how to help right now. Last time, we focused on seeking out the possessed ones and interfering with their actions as much as possible. That could mean dealing with possessed powered, so be prepared."

She looked up at him, and there was an intensity to her look that told him she was trying to read him. Doubtless the proximity of danger had her Reader sense up and running. The uncertain look on her face didn't tell him much about what she'd been able to read, if anything, but her words indicated she had good intuition if nothing else. "I know we may not be able to do much, but it's better than nothing, don't you think?"

Leander did not think. What he thought was that he liked his original plan better, the one involving drinks and dancing and s.e.x. But he had to fake it, so he replied with a smile, "Definitely better than nothing."

Bree turned and watched the crowd, perhaps using her Demonsense, or maybe just her Reader ability to see where the worst trouble was. After a brief moment, she tugged him towards the left. There was another bar down that way, and he could see that people were pouring out of it, coming their way. There were a whole slew of bars and clubs in this neighborhood, and if they all emptied out to check out the fight, the numbers were going to increase rapidly. That meant far more danger, but it also meant they would be lost in the crowd, and use of magic would be less obvious.

He saw the nexus of trouble Bree was heading for shortly before they got there. A group of people circled one of the fights, most egging the contestants on. They looked like college kids to him, their clothes too nice and teeth too straight to be a more low rent kind of crowd. Their faces were distorted with a wild, tribal aggression and an avid curiosity. He was close enough now that he felt the queasiness of his Demonsense reacting to the presence of demons. He couldn't really pinpoint that to any particular person, but Bree could.

"The four guys fighting in the middle, every one of them is possessed," Bree said, again trying to speak into his ear. "If we can work our way closer through these spectators, I'll try some spells to break up the fight. You watch my back."

Leander felt a surge of fear climbing up from his stomach into his throat as she led the way forward. He focused hard and brought up a ward around himself and Bree, one that combined deflection of attention, causing people to want to look away from them, and general power deflection. It was a complex ward, and he felt rather proud of it as he and Bree worked their way through the onlookers to the center of the circle.

The fight was a fierce, chaotic brawl. Two of the young men were rolling around on the ground, throwing wild punches at each other's bodies, pulling at hair, and swearing. Two more were grappling upright, like clenched boxers, focusing on body shots. One of the guys on the ground reached out as he rolled past and grabbed the ankle of one of the standing ones, causing him to lose his balance. The other boxer overbalanced him, and they both went cras.h.i.+ng down. Each one of them was bleeding from earlier head shots. At that point, two of the onlookers joined the fray, grabbing at the men on the ground and trying to pull them upright. One of them, a young man with long red hair much like Leander's own, reached into his coat and his hand came out holding a gun.

"Drop the ward!" Bree shouted.

She must have sensed the power blocking element, and knew if she was going to cast, she needed the energy to be able to get out. Leander reached deep, found the focus point, and dropped the ward. Because he had to work so fast, he wasn't able to drop only part of it. Bree was apparently able to get a cast off because the man with the gun dropped it. Bree darted forward, apparently intent on trying to retrieve the gun. Leander's adrenaline spiked as the redhead recovered from the muscle weakness cast and kicked Bree just as she was bending over for the weapon.

Without conscious thought, Leander leaped forward and threw a punch at the man's face, connecting well enough to hurt the h.e.l.l out of his hand. The man staggered back, away from Bree, who had been knocked to the ground. One of the onlookers, a slight Asian guy, was bending over her, and the expression on his face was furious.

Should he protect Bree or go for the gun? Bree was closer, and with a growl of frustration, he went for her. The Asian guy had Bree by her braid now, and his hand had drawn back to strike her. Leander's foot shot out in a well aimed kick to the man's chest. He fell back into the crowd behind him, which roared with some primitive reaction.

Leander reached down for Bree and pulled her to her feet. The shocked look on her face told him she hadn't expected him to be so skilled at hand to hand combat. He realized that in the heat of the moment, he'd forgotten the role he was trying to maintain. That he shouldn't have been so good at it. Well, he'd have to weave some tale about his youth on the streets. In truth, Marton had sent him to study Tai Kwon Do while he was living with him. Leander hadn't kept up with it, but apparently, his body remembered what to do.

Too late, he remembered the gun. The sound of a shot going off in close quarters caused both he and Bree to startle. They whirled around in unison and saw one of the young men, a blonde kid, down on the ground, clutching b.l.o.o.d.y hands to his chest, mouth widened in a howl of pain and surprise.

Leander felt a burning desire to run. He looked around frantically, trying to locate the shooter. The crowd was in total chaos now, some trying to get away, some pus.h.i.+ng forward to look. There was a pall of negative energy over the whole scene, perceptible to his Demonsense. Leander could begin to feel it working on him. He was growing more angry than afraid, even though the deteriorating circ.u.mstances called for good old fas.h.i.+oned, self- preserving cowardice.

Bree's voice was tight as she shouted at him, "We need to find the guy with the gun. Can you pull up a physical ward?"

He felt some of the demonic influence lessen as he glanced down at her. She was obviously terrified but resolute, and he had the surprising thought that if he didn't live up to her courage, he'd be ashamed of himself. He pulled himself together, felt for his base energy and will energy, and drew on both, hard. Physical wards were very difficult. The law of physics resented being bent to such a great degree, and it took a lot of energy to maintain them. The ward came to his call, but it took all his concentration to keep it in place. "I've got it. You lead the way, and make it fast, I can only hold this for a couple of minutes." Bree took him by the hand. Her hand was cold, which surprised him. He felt sweaty and hot with stress.

They were buffeted about as Bree tried to penetrate the milling, brawling crowd. While no one could physically touch them with the ward up, it created a kind of semi-hard bubble around them, like a mostly blown up beach ball. When people b.u.mped into the ward, it jarred them in a mushy kind of way.

They managed to keep to their feet. Bree's head was tracking back and forth as she tried to locate the shooter. Perhaps a minute had pa.s.sed when they heard another gun shot, off to their right. The crowd seemed endless at this point. It had clearly grown. Doubtless there were police somewhere in the mob trying to contain things, but none were in direct view.

He only knew they had reached their destination by the fact that Bree had stopped. He was near the end of his ability to hold the ward. With an effort, he tried to divide his attention so he could be more aware of his surroundings. He saw the redhead Bree had taken the gun from before. His features were twisted into an att.i.tude of intense rage, and Leander could just make out the orange spark in his eyes that indicated the demon possessing him was in full control. There was a little s.p.a.ce around where he was standing, people having backed off as he raised his arm to point his gun at a struggling group on the ground. "Drop the ward!" Bree shouted over her shoulder at him, then made a gesture with one hand, and the redhead dropped to his knees, then onto his side.

He was still clutching the gun, though. A young man and woman dashed at him, trying to wrest the gun away. It went off, and the young woman, a pretty girl with dyed blonde hair, spun away with the impact of the bullet.

He and Bree were struck so hard from behind that they were thrown to the ground. The ward Leander had managed to pull back up after Bree cast cus.h.i.+oned their fall, then vanished as Leander's concentration broke. Bree landed mostly underneath him. He tried to move off of her, and was distracted by the pain of a kick to his hip, followed by a second higher up on his side. He tossed off dizziness spell, one of the easiest to cast, in the direction of his a.s.sailant. The kicking stopped, but then another body landed on top of him and Bree. He felt someone step on his calf, another trod on the tips of his fingers. He was very much afraid they were about to be trampled to death.

The noise of the crowd was awful. People were in a panic, fighting like animals. He heard another gunshot, further away, then a second, closer. He tried to focus on putting a physical ward back up, but a glancing kick to his head threw him off completely.

At first, he thought the sudden increase in nausea was due to the blow to his head. But then his Demonsense locked in, hard, and he realized he must be in very close proximity to a demon. Even as this registered, he was flipped off of Bree, the force of the telekinetic spell clearly coming from her. She staggered to her feet, and began casting immediately, hands weaving in an intricate dance. People all around them were staggering. Some collapsed to the ground, and some were thrown back by an invisible force. There were cries of anger and surprise punctuating the roar of the crowd, and the sound of sirens that had started up sometime in the last few minutes.

Leander could hardly believe what he was seeing as he watched Bree. He had seldom seen such a display of power. It was the kind of thing really high power Keepers were supposed to be capable of. He must have mis-read Bree's power somehow, and the thought was disturbing.

At first, she seemed to be making good headway. The s.p.a.ce around them widened initially, and Leander had time to get painfully to his feet. His head was throbbing, and he still felt sick. His other pains were a distant second in his awareness.

All around was chaos. He was tall enough to see over the heads of some of the crowd, and he could see it had grown, spilling out into the street, stopping traffic. He could just glimpse police in riot gear beginning to a.s.semble on the edge of things. His attention was drawn back closer in as he saw movement coming toward him in his peripheral vision. Several men were pus.h.i.+ng through the crowd towards he and Bree, and in seconds, a group of seven had made it to the periphery of the little circle of open s.p.a.ce Bree had freed up around them. If his Demonsense was serving him correctly, every one of the seven was possessed, and every one of them was powered. And that probably meant Keltoi.

He briefly considered abandoning Bree then and there. All his instincts were telling him that as amazingly good as Bree was at battle casting, there was no way she was going to best that many powered at once. Not all of them were necessarily Casters, but all they'd really have to do was rush her while some focused on casting, and she'd be overwhelmed quickly, and he with her. He had half turned away from Bree, caught in frantic calculation and indecision, when he was struck hard from behind, hard enough to throw him to the ground. It was all he could do to get his hands up in time to keep his face from smas.h.i.+ng into the pavement. He got another kick to the side, and as he instinctively curled around the pain, he was able to glimpse Bree, arm outstretched, and heard her intoning, in a clearly demon possessed voice, "Demon, I command you! Out of your host!"

In stunned disbelief, the words formed in Leander's mind. Bree Jenkins is a Demon Master.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

All of the possessed Keltoi were down. Bree was pretty sure she hadn't killed any of them by de-possessing them so quickly, but she couldn't be certain.

My host, this is our chance to make our escape. To the south, I feel no others of my kind, and the crowd is thinner there, Gelsenim prompted her. Bree turned to look south, and immediately saw what he meant. On every other side the crowd was thicker. She heard another gun go off, and there was a strange smell to the air. Tear gas?

Leander had made it to his feet and was shouting at her, over the noise of the crowd, "We've got to get out of here, Bree! We won't be able to help anyone if we're dead!" There was a wild look on his face, part fear, part anger, part something else she couldn't name. She noted he was not touching her even though one hand was hovering near her elbow.

He had to have seen her casting out demons with Gelsenim's help. She hadn't had any choice. It was that or let the possessed Keltoi kill both her and Leander, not to mention all the other people they might yet hurt this night. It was probably the only good she'd managed to do in this whole f.u.c.ked up mess, and she'd outed herself in the process. She realized belatedly that Leander had mentioned having low power Demonsense. There was a good chance he knew she was possessed as well. She was badly rattled and couldn't think what to do.

My host, please hurry! Gelsenim insisted.

Having been unable to form a next move herself, she went with Gelsenim's plan. "C'mon, this way," she shouted back at Leander. She was able to read the movement of the crowd to find the quickest way through, dodging the worst of the violence, and her Demonsense warned her away from any more possessed. I might as well go ahead and de-possess more, I've already completely blown my cover, she told Gelsenim. She wasn't truly sure she was doing the right thing in trying to get out of the crowd.

You have not revealed yourself to any those ones you call Keepers, as far as we know. And your base energy is weak now, your will energy weaker. Even with my help, doing that much casting and so many de-possessions have drained you greatly.

I could at least try to do a few more, she replied, slowing down.

Leander must have seen her hesitation. The crowd was thinner, and he didn't have to shout any more. He bent close to her as she walked and said, "Don't even think of going back in there. We're d.a.m.ned lucky to get out with our lives. It's just too out of control, and I can't do much more warding, if any. And besides, there are more police now. I can smell the tear gas. Things will be winding down soon."

When she still hesitated, he finally took her arm and propelled her along, though he let go as soon as he'd got her moving again. The crowd was thin enough here that they could move at a jog. Bree reluctantly let herself be convinced. Not that she wanted to plunge back into that nightmare. She'd never been so afraid in her life. This crowd was far worse than the one at Alki, denser, more violent. She was sure many people must have been killed. Just think of all the gunshots she'd heard, not to mention people probably getting trampled, or knifed, or beaten half to death. There had definitely been a higher proportion of demons in this crowd as well. She never had seen a Keeper, which she supposed on one level she should be thankful for.

As they pa.s.sed the ragged edges of the crowd, she saw a group of men beating in the gla.s.s front of a store with a metal table, likely intent on looting. The world has gone mad, she thought. It was surreal, seeing the fabric of society break down like this. It had felt like that at Alki as well, but it hit Bree harder now, because now that first riot wasn't an isolated incident. As they got free of the crowd, Leander took the lead. She was having a hard time keeping up with him in her dress flats. She was exhausted and on the verge of tears.

You did well. You did what you could do, Gelsenim offered.

I thought I'd be able to do more. I accomplished next to nothing, and almost got Leander and myself killed. Who am I fooling, trying to act like a Keeper?

I do not fully understand it myself, my host. Why put yourself at such risk?

Perversely, the demon's question made her take the opposite stance. Who am I if I don't resist this kind of evil in whatever way I can? It's so incredibly wrong to stir people up like this, cause them to kill one another, over some kind of political game. I may not be that effective at trying to help, but I have to try!

You are upset, my host, Gelsenim soothed.

d.a.m.ned right I'm upset!

Leander was finally slowing down, and Bree realized he had taken a round about route to his place. She could see his building up the street, half a block away. She finally grasped that she was about to be alone with Leander. If, by some miracle, he hadn't seen everything that happened, if his Demonsense had been confused by so many possessed, there was still a chance to keep him in the dark about her abilities. Now that they were alone, if he had a chance to really focus on her, he'd be able to feel that she was possessed.

Gelsenim, I need you to leave. I need to find out what Leander saw, and I don't want him to sense you if there's any chance he hasn't already.

I think it is too late, the demon replied doubtfully.

Regardless, I'll be more nervous about the whole thing if we're still joined. Thanks again so much for coming to my rescue. I will call you again soon.

As you wish, my host, Gelsenim replied softly. She felt the warmth of his presence draining out of her body, and along with it, the boost to her power. She staggered as the last of it left her. She felt incredibly weak. Leander got an arm around her and walked her the rest of the way to his building. Her purse was an uncomfortable bulk between them. She had draped it across herself bandolier style, and had managed to retain it. He supported her up the stairs and into his apartment, deposited her on his couch, then collapsed onto it next to her.

Bree did a quick inventory of her injuries. She'd gotten elbowed and kicked around a bit, and she could feel some spots where she had bruises, but she was free of any serious hurt. Her energy was way down. She'd been casting like crazy in the midst of the action. She suspected an experienced Keeper like Daniel would have more carefully husbanded their resources, not poured it all out at once like that. But she hadn't known what else to do. She'd been acting on instinct.

She looked over at Leander where he sprawled next to her. He was holding one hand to his side, and she saw blood in his hair, and on the side of his face. He must have been hit or kicked in the head. With an effort, she roused herself to move closer to him to inspect it.

"It looks like you got hit in the head. How's it feeling? And did you get hurt anywhere else?"

"It hurts like a son of a b.i.t.c.h, but I don't feel like I'm going to pa.s.s out or anything. I got kicked a lot and stepped on, but nothing feels broken." He pulled away involuntarily as her fingers questing gently in his hair came into contact with the b.u.mp on his head.

"Sorry," she murmured, parting his sticky hair carefully to get a better look. The lamps that had come on when Leander flicked the switch on entering the room weren't providing enough light for her to get a good look. "Let's go to your bathroom, and I'll clean this up for you."

"Are you sure you can stand?" Leander asked.

Bree answered by getting carefully to her feet.

"I was kind of hoping you couldn't," Leander admitted with a tired smile. "Now I have to do it too." He pushed off on one arm of the couch and levered himself up. He shrugged out of his coat and dropped it onto the couch, and Bree copied him and did the same with hers.

He led the way into his bathroom, and sat obediently on the closed toilet as Bree fetched a washcloth down from the towel bar, wet it in the sink, soaped it up, and began gently wiping the blood off his face.

After a moment, she got another washcloth down, and wet that one to wipe away the soap. Leander begin to relax under her ministrations. His eyelids drooped tiredly, and she reflected that he'd probably used a lot of power on warding, as well as any other casting he may have done while her attention was directed elsewhere. She was grateful that he was being so quiet. She hadn't been able to gather her thoughts enough yet to think what lies she might have to try to weave to cover herself. It was probably a lost cause anyway. He was a Reader, he'd admitted he could even read some tells. Her chances of lying to him convincingly weren't good.

He tensed up again a little as she worked her way closer to the wound. He had quite a lump on his head, with the skin broken in a line across the top. When she'd cleaned it as much as she could, she put down the washcloth and looked more closely at him. He still had a hand to his side. "Let me get a look at that," she said, gesturing to his torso.

He reached up one hand to try to wrestle with the top b.u.t.ton on his s.h.i.+rt. After a moment of watching him struggle, Bree pushed his hand aside and bent to do it for him. She pushed the s.h.i.+rt open when she was finished, exposing the very fair skin of his chest. She'd expected more color from a California boy, but she reflected that, like most redheads, he probably burned easily, so he probably avoided the sun. He had a small scattering of light red hair at the top of his chest. The area where he'd been pressing his hand was already coming up with a bruise.

She tried to remember how Dion had examined her for broken ribs. She pressed gently, asking Leander to report on when it hurt worse. "I don't think your ribs or cracked or broken," she finally said, straightening up. "Or at least, you're not reacting like Dion said I would if I had broken ribs. They could well be bruised like mine were, though." He was looking up at her, blue-green eyes strangely open and vulnerable. For just a moment, her Reader sense came up, and a pattern formed. She got the hit that he wasn't used to being cared for in this way. He wasn't at all used to nurturing of any kind. He was very like Daniel in that way. A blend of empathy and guilt rose up in her. She put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm so sorry I got you into this. I'm sorry you got hurt."

"And I'm sorry I wasn't more use," he said in return.

"Oh, I don't know. You were really kicking a.s.s there for a while. Have you studied martial arts or something?"

"A little, as a teenager." His eye contact was steady, and something in it held her up, made her want to know what he was thinking. She s.h.i.+fted her hand on his shoulder until it was resting on his skin rather than the fabric of his s.h.i.+rt. He must know she was preparing to read him, but he didn't pull away or break her gaze. After all, he'd asked her to read him before, had seemed almost to want her to succeed where others had failed. It was crazy to try to do it now, when she was so drained. She would hardly be at her best, but somehow, with him looking at her like that, she couldn't resist.

She couldn't have named why that was so. In another mood, at another time, she wouldn't have done it without thinking it through, without talking to him about it, but she was still frazzled and feeling a little reckless. So she s.h.i.+fted her internal focus and consciously attempted to read him, starting with a simple power read.

As before, the information seemed to s.h.i.+ft and slide under her regard, but this time, the glimpses she got, while never fully forming up into something she could be sure of, seemed a little more coherent. She got a brief sense that his will energy was lower than his base energy. She tried harder to feel for his power profile. Wasn't that Caster power? And that bit there felt like Warding power. She really wanted to feel for his level of Demonsense, but she couldn't get a grip on anything else.

She was about to pull out when, for a brief moment, she felt her energy try to attune with his, as happened in a deep read. It was a dizzying sensation because of the strange way his energy never seemed to settle into a recognizable pattern, but nonetheless, she could just about feel something starting to click into place.

Unfortunately, her focus gave out, unable to drive her weak base energy any further. She listed to one side, and Leander put a hand on her hip to steady her. It took a moment for her to be able to see again, or rather, to be able to focus on her sense of sight. She must have gone deeper than she'd thought.

Once she was aware again, she saw Leander was regarding her very seriously. "Well," he asked, "what did you read?" She couldn't discern from his tone what he was hoping to hear.

"You know, I started to get something like recognizable readings that time. I'm pretty sure I got a read on your energy levels, and maybe the beginnings of a read on your powers. But I already knew you were a Caster and a Warder, so I'm not sure that's a good test."

"I thought that maybe you were trying for a deep read," he said hesitantly.

"I didn't set out to do that. I think my focus is a little fried from earlier. I don't know about you, but it did feel a little like attunement started to happen."

"Well, I felt something, but I have know idea if it was attunement because no one has ever been able to attune with me."

There was a definite wistfulness to his words. She'd been right, a part of him really did want to be read.

"I could try again another time if you want, when I'm more fresh," she hazarded.

"I would like it if it were you. If you were the one who was finally able to do it," he said softly, gazing directly up into her eyes.

She was touched by the trust implied in what he was saying. She was likely still affected as well by the intimacy of the read. She felt a kind of resonance between them, as if perhaps he was trying to attune to her. Even as she thought it, Leander reached up and placed a hand on her shoulder, working it under the edge of her blouse so he could touch her skin. He shut his eyes, and she knew he was about to read her in turn. She experienced a belated spike of panic, but he was already in.

In truth, Bree hadn't been read that often by others, especially not since the Academy, when it was part of her training. It was an odd sensation. It felt like sound vibrations more than anything else, like one of those Tibetan singing bowls where you ran a stick around the rim, causing it to throb in building harmonic tones. A quick read was like a few short waves of sound. The attunement of a deep read was like having those sound waves build in your mind, then move down to encompa.s.s your whole body, resonating in a vibrational dance with the person reading you. It was both pleasant and profound. She lost for a moment the fear she had that Leander would see she had some kind of Demon Master ability. She got immersed in the sensation, which was hypnotic and stimulating and the same time.

And then it was over, and Leander opened his eyes and looked at her with a mixture of surprise and wonder. "You are... amazing. Unique," he marveled. "I don't think I've ever had anything like that experience on reading someone before. I can't usually attune like that."

"I wonder if it's because of whatever it is that makes it hard for you to be read? It feels to me like your energy won't settle and come into focus. That would make it hard for you to attune enough to do a deep read," Bree replied in a weak voice. She was feeling a little dazed and breathless from the after effects of the read.

Leander's eyes narrowed in thought. "I think I don't really even try to attune when I read other people. Maybe I don't want to risk being read in return. Whatever it is that prevents people from being able to read me, it's been a sort of armor. I haven't always, my life hasn't always been like it is now. It hasn't always been safe."

What he was saying fit to Bree, fit in a way she couldn't consciously pa.r.s.e out. On the surface, Leander seemed confident, fun loving, and more than a little outrageous. But she must have been getting hints, somehow, of something more vulnerable underneath. It bothered her not to be able to put her finger on why she thought that. She was used to that information just coming to her, fully formed, like Athena out of Zeus' head, due to the strength of her Reader sense. Reading was something she often did unconsciously. She could turn it off, and she often did to spare herself empathy and information overload. And she could certainly consciously turn it on and direct it to specific levels. But in many instances, it was just another sense her brain automatically processed, like sight or touch. She could often form a good understanding of people, of their vulnerabilities and strengths, through that sense.