Demonsense: Demon Master Part 21

"If he survives," Gelsenim murmured.

Bree s.h.i.+vered. Now it was Gelsenim who was being more honest than perhaps he should be. Well, she knew the proper come back to that. "You'd better hope he does, Gelsenim, because if he doesn't, you can bet your sweet demonic a.s.s that I'm going to think twice before calling you," Bree returned militantly. "So you'd better keep putting your mind to how to heal the divided thing. Now, be gone. I will call on you again in the next couple of days."

Gelsenim's body seemed to tense up in response to her command. It was as if he had to apply his will to obeying. "Again, as you wish, my host," he replied softly. His form wavered, then dispersed, and Bree felt the warmth of the possession leave her body shortly after. The doorway between the worlds opened, and he was gone.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Bree managed to make it to Wednesday without anything else bad happening. She went to work three days in a row, and could almost have imagined life was returning to normal if it weren't for what she was hearing on the news. The rash of rioting and looting now affected five different U.S. cities to the extent that curfews were in force and people were being arrested and detained without the usual due process. And the problems seemed to be spreading to smaller communities as well. Everywhere, it seemed young adults were the flash point, the starting place for the unrest, although certainly older people became involved as well. Bree wasn't called in to help on anything until Wednesday night. She'd had dinner and had indulged herself by getting early into her pajamas when she got a call from Javier Ortiz at around seven thirty.

"Bree, Javier," he said shortly. "We're calling in all available powered. There's another problem developing downtown. Some kind of political protest started at Westlake Center, a bunch of people out with signs protesting the curfew and the arrests. It's just the sort of thing the Keltoi will run with, and it's all too likely to get ugly. My people on the scene have already identified a number of possessed. Can you get hold of Kevin and Daniel and meet a couple of blocks down, at Second and Pike?"

"I don't know about Daniel, I think he's out of town," she lied, "but I'll try Kevin. I'll come either way. Maybe you could pair me with a Warder or something if Kevin can't make it."

"Fine, thanks. Every person helps," Javier said in what sounded to her like a rote reply he'd had to repeat far too many times. She felt a rush of empathy for him. He wasn't her favorite person, but he was certainly working his a.s.s off to do what he could under great pressure and with not nearly enough trained people. She wanted to tell him she appreciated what he was doing, but she was unable to find the words before he signed off, clearly in a rush to make his next call.

She was able to reach Kevin immediately, and he agreed to come by her place. Bree brewed up some coffee and put it in a couple of travel mugs for them. It was likely to be a late night, and she for one was tired already. She got into some warm clothes, pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and set her brown leather jacket on the couch, ready to go. Once Kevin arrived, they decided to take her smaller vehicle as parking downtown was likely to be a major ha.s.sle and they might need to squeeze into a small s.p.a.ce. They strategized during the drive, but didn't truly come up with anything new beyond Kevin's original idea of well warded, quick, targeted strikes focused on powered or possessed who were causing trouble.

"I'm hoping you don't have to resort to calling Gelsenim. The place will be crawling with Keepers," he told Bree as she pulled into an overpriced parking garage. She'd finally overcome her skinflint reluctance to pay for parking after a fruitless search for on street parking on the packed streets.

"I wish it were safe to do it," she admitted. "I have to say, he's been a tremendous help lately. I can't help but think that in a situation like this, where everyone with a lick of Demonsense will be overwhelmed, it's likely to be hard to spot any particular person as possessed."

"Yet you're able to do it quite well," Kevin reminded her as he settled his travel mug back in the car's cup holder.

"Well, I'm pretty high power for Demonsense. I'm sure most of the powered there won't be."

"Don't rationalize," Kevin admonished. "You can be sure some Keeper high in Demonsense will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think you've just gotten lucky so far."

"d.a.m.n it, I suppose you're right," Bree groused. "I really will try to avoid it, I promise." They quickly set personal wards before getting out of the car. Bree had taken to keeping a marker in her car to aid in that purpose. Then they got out, locked up, and walked briskly through the gloomy parking garage, out the exit, and towards the designated meeting spot. Bree felt a tired, jangling anxiety building as they walked. The feeling was like dusty moths fluttering around in her chest and up her spine. She knew it was going to be hard to keep her promise to Kevin to avoid calling Gelsenim. She'd been badly frightened at times during the two riots she'd already been involved with, and some part of her back brain was telling her she was a complete idiot for moving toward trouble. The streets were alive with milling people, and they could hear the crowd noise of the gathering as they got closer. There was the overall buzz of talking and shouting, punctuated by what sounded like someone speaking through a bullhorn, perhaps the cops, or maybe one of the protestors. They were in the center of the downtown retail core, home of the major department stores and several malls. Tall buildings rose all around them, and some housed a variety of smaller business on their bottom floors. They pa.s.sed a small, independent bookstore, a store devoted entirely to hats, and in import store with replicas of King Tut's tomb and belly dance outfits in the window.

Westlake Center, their eventual destination, was one of the malls, and included an open area in front and a plaza with a fountain across the street. It was the spot the big Christmas tree was set up during the holidays, and a common gathering place for the political protests that were a feature of Seattle life. They were usually peaceful and polite, in typical Northwest fas.h.i.+on, though there had been trouble some years ago, during the World Trade Organization protests, which had ended with some looting and a number of arrests.

Javier was not at the meeting place, but Bree immediately recognized a Keeper she knew only as Chen, a tall, Chinese-American woman with short bobbed hair she'd encountered during her adventures with Daniel last fall. She was instructing what appeared to be a non-Keeper group of powered. Bree recognized a few as those she'd met in school or at powered social gatherings, though none were what she would have considered close friends. There were some new faces as well.

Interestingly, Chen was saying roughly what she and Kevin had determined on as good tactics. "All you're here to do is interrupt and interfere with anyone possessed or powered that's involved in any violence. Don't feel like you have to physically stop someone who's out of your league, and don't try to do any serious battle. We're just looking to you for some harm reduction. We're mostly trying to prevent more fatalities. So stick to the edges of the crowd, keep alert, do what you can, and get out quick. Now, everyone's either a Warder or is paired with a Warder, right?" Many heads nodded and a few murmured an affirmative. Chen caught Bree's eye and nodded slightly in acknowledgement, then she concluded with, "All right people, do some good, but don't get hurt! If you hear gunfire, get out and away as quickly as possible." Chen turned and spoke into the ear of a man Bree recognized as another Keeper, a shorter Asian man whose name she couldn't remember.

"Okay, I guess this is it. Let's go," Bree told Kevin. As they approached Westlake Center, they could see some people clutching signs hurrying away, frightened looks on their faces.

"Those are the smart ones," Kevin said, voice tight with repressed tension. Bree's nerves ratcheted up another notch. It all sounded so logical. Just get in, interrupt the violence, and get out. But she knew now, from experience, that it probably wouldn't be that easy. She linked arms with Kevin, seeking some sense of courage, and the look he gave her when she did told her he was rather hoping to get courage from her as well. There were already a lot of police in riot gear, transparent plastic s.h.i.+elds of some kind held in front of them, helmets on their heads. The ones Bree saw looked tense. There were a lot of people with signs, declaring things like, "Due process is an American right!" "No curfew!" and "We are not a Fascist State!" There were also some counter protesters, their signs more along the lines of "Law and Order now!" and "We support our police officers!" It was clearly not a purely peaceful protest at this point, but neither did things look or feel fully out of control to Bree. She could see that some people were in each other's faces, shouting and angry, and there was some chanting of political slogans, but so far, no overt violence that she could see.

But the closer she got, the more her Demonsense throbbed through her. There were possessed here, definitely a lot of possessed. She tried to pinpoint their location, and she was able to identify a few. She pointed them out to Kevin as they slowly and cautiously made their way around the outer edges of the crowd.

Bree should have been rea.s.sured by the lack of overt violence so far, but she wasn't. The crowd felt to her like a big, grumbling, sleepy bear, ready to leap into snarling action if disturbed. With so many possessed, things wouldn't stay calm for long. She found that she longed for Daniel. She wanted his confidence, his battle readiness beside her. And just as much, she wished she had Gelsenim on board, as much as it chagrined her to admit it. She'd never imagined she'd think such a thought in her life, that she actually wanted a demon possession.

She and Kevin slowly made a complete circuit of the outside edges of the crowd, continuing to take note of those Bree thought were possessed, particularly those she read as powered. "There are probably more powered that I'm not able to sense," Bree told Kevin as the pa.s.sed their starting point at the west side of the plaza and continued on around again. "My Demonsense has more range than my Reader sense." She had to lean into him and talk into his ear as the crowd noises were getting louder. Kevin only nodded in reply. She could feel a sparkling sense of barely leased Warder power all around him. He was poised to throw up a ward at a moment's notice.

Bree wished that whatever bad thing was going to happen would get started already. Kevin was going to wear himself out holding himself ready like that, and her fear was growing with their watchful inaction. She was beginning to regret the coffee she'd downed. The caffeine buzz just seemed to be adding to an overall sense of nervousness. If this continued on much longer, she knew her courage would desert her completely.

Quite suddenly, a monster stab of adrenaline went straight into her heart, lighting up her body with an electric fight or flight response, and it took a few moments for her brain to catch up with the cause. There, ahead and to her right, she saw the crisp profile of a tall woman, long, curly dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Was it? Could it be? "Kevin," she hissed, "over there, to the right. Is that Franchesca Gambrini?"

Kevin's head swiveled as he tried to see where Bree was pointing. He stopped abruptly as he caught sight of her. "Holy s.h.i.+t, that's her," he confirmed. Kevin had known Franchesca as long as he'd known Daniel. Back when they were all in school together, they had, in a sense, been rivals for Daniel's affection. Kevin had had a world-cla.s.s crush on Daniel, and Franchesca was Daniel's girlfriend. She'd also alienated Kevin by torturing Daniel with her need to constantly prove to herself that Daniel loved her. She would flirt with others to get a rise out of Daniel, would pick fights in order get to the pa.s.sionate reconciliation. She'd left Daniel several times before the final break up, when she'd moved away from Ma.s.sachusetts to join the New York Keltoi clan her mother had been a part of. Bree had heard the whole story, from both Kevin and Daniel, and had witnessed for herself the hostile dynamic between Franchesca and Kevin, not to mention the more twisted one between Franchesca and Daniel, last fall.

Bree realized with shame that she was afraid of Franchesca. She'd bested the demon burned harpy last year with Daniel's and Gelsenim's help, but it had been a very near thing. Franchesca was a high power Caster, Reader and Demon Master, and she was frigging crazy.

She was clearly trying to blend in with the crowd. She'd forsaken her usual East coast, urban glamour for a more casual look of black jeans and a lamb's wool lined green corduroy coat. Dressing down took nothing away from her beauty, Bree noted with huge annoyance. She appeared to be alone.

Kevin dragged Bree back a few steps, making sure there was a group of people between Franchesca's line of sight and them. "This is not a good sign," Kevin was saying. "If she's here, there's a chance the L.A. Keltoi have sent reinforcements."

"Which probably means a whole h.e.l.l of a lot of demons will be called," Bree replied grimly.

"Not to mention what Franchesca can do on her own with Casting. She's a nasty fighter."

"As I have reason to know," Bree confirmed, glancing around nervously.

"We should inform one of the Keepers."

"Agreed. But I'm afraid to lose sight of her. If we go looking for a Keeper, she might move."

Kevin rubbed his nose in frustration. Then he straightened his gla.s.ses and his shoulders. "Yeah, but I don't think it would be good if she saw us, either. She'd probably go ballistic. We can't stay right on top of her like this. How about we stay in this general area, but out of her sight, and keep an eye out for any pa.s.sing Keeper."

"We could also grab any of the other powered we see and send them after a Keeper."

"Good idea."

Now, Bree reflected, she was glad Daniel wasn't here. Franchesca really got to Daniel, in ways Bree could understand but resented.

Of course, Daniel also got to Franchesca. He'd come close a couple of times to convincing his ex to leave the Keltoi, but in Bree's opinion, the woman was too far gone in Demon Master instability to be salvageable. Of course, maybe she wanted to believe that. Her gut reaction to Franchesca's presence was, unfortunately, pretty revealing of where her feelings for Daniel stood. She wanted Franchesca gone, out of town, away from Daniel. There was a fierce chant going in the back of her mind. He's mine, you can't have him.

Bree rolled her shoulders, trying to rid herself of acc.u.mulated tension, then staggered against Kevin as someone was pushed into her. Oh lord, here we go, she had time to think before it happened again.

Kevin pulled her away from the two women who were engaged in a pus.h.i.+ng match. As Bree shook herself out of her preoccupation with Franchesca and cast an eye over the crowd as a whole, she could see that some fights were starting to break out. The volume of the crowd noise went up along with it. She was torn between wanting to keep an eye on Franchesca and wanting to focus on her original a.s.signment. If she was smart, she'd make sure Franchesca didn't see her. The woman wanted Bree dead, and she had the powered chops to see it done, and quickly. Bree knew a moment's intense temptation to call Gelsenim, but she squashed it. She and Kevin moved back a few more steps toward the crowd's edge, still scanning for a Keeper to set on Franchesca as well as trying to pinpoint any trouble spots with which they might help.

As they moved further out of direct sight of Franchesca, anger overtook her fear. It really p.i.s.sed her off to be running away from that woman. The surge of anger helped harden her toward action, which was a great help when she spotted a possessed young woman in the crowd knock down and straddle a young man, slapping him.

She signaled to Kevin, and they moved together towards the conflict. Bree gathered her will and base energy and formulated her easiest offensive spell, then flung it at the young woman. The woman, with magenta dyed hair in pigtails, paused in her attack as she listed to the side with dizziness. The young man underneath her managed to wiggle out from under her, swearing, "b.i.t.c.h, what is wrong with you?" To Bree's relief, one of the young man's friends grabbed him and pulled him away, preventing him from responding with further violence. The woman got to her feet, a confused look on her face. But as they watched, her expression twisted into one of rage.

"Uh oh," Bree had time to say before the woman's eyes fastened on Bree, and she charged. With a rush, Kevin threw up a heavy duty ward, and the woman smashed into it hard enough to knock her on her a.s.s. Bree readied a freeze spell. It had thus far been hard for her to succeed at a full body freeze. She was fairly good at freezing particular body parts as it took less juice to do it. She opted to focus on legs in hopes of keeping the possessed woman out of action for a while. "Okay, drop it!" she shouted to Kevin.

Bree threw the spell at the woman with a discrete underhanded, softball pitching motion the minute Kevin's ward dissolved, and she watched with satisfaction as the woman went down, then tried and failed to get back to her feet.

Kevin grabbed Bree's arm and pulled her back to the outside edge of the crowd. His eyes were glittering with a mixture of tension and excitement. "That was good," he told Bree. "That's just the sort of quick strike I was thinking about. If you could do more of that freeze the legs spell on possessed, that should keep the damage they can do to a minimum."

"I'm worried about people getting trampled if they can't get up," Bree admitted. She was scanning the crowd again for Franchesca.

"d.a.m.n, that's a good point," Kevin conceded. "How about if you save that for people who are being actively violent? In those cases, it could be the lesser of two evils." As he spoke, Bree read the movement of the crowd. Much like her experience at Pioneer Square, she could perceive a pattern in the growing chaos, and a sharp, metallic feel of rage was building up in the energy field all around. Her Demonsense was telling her more demons were present now than had been at her first arrival.

She suddenly got why that might be. In order for the riot to seem natural, the Demon Masters had to call in demons gradually, had to build the tension over time. Well, it sure as h.e.l.l was working. She spotted a nexus of demonic activity near at hand, and pulled Kevin in that direction. They started to get jostled as they wove their way into the crowd, and Kevin moved in front of her to protect her with his greater bulk. He kept hold of her hand, and she could feel through his touch how close to the surface his Warder magic remained. It rea.s.sured her.

They arrived at the focus of the trouble. There were two groups of protesters facing off, yelling at one another, and just as they arrived, one of the men shoved an opponent hard with his sign. There was a roar of outrage from the other side, and more shoving and pus.h.i.+ng broke out. The possessed man, who was in a Mariner's baseball cap and had the look of a friendly blue-collar guy from the corner tavern, gave Bree a very unfriendly look. Even at that distance, Bree could see the orange spark of the demon's presence in the man's eyes. This demon must be strong enough to perceive her as powered, and maybe even as an Exorcist.

The man's focus on her was broken when someone threw a punch at him. Rather than looking shocked or upset at the impact, he looked gleeful as his head snapped back around after the punch, mouth b.l.o.o.d.y, smile fixed. He returned the blow with interest, and the man across from him reeled back into his buddies behind him. The possessed man immediately followed, aiming another punch. Bree quickly cast a freeze spell on his punching arm. He staggered a little as his muscles failed to respond to his half thrown jab. Immediately, he turned to face Bree.

She felt Kevin's magic surging, and she shouted, "No, wait!" and cast another spell. She went for the legs again, and the possessed man toppled. Bree winced as someone tripped over him, then saw one of his companions reach down to try to pull the man to his feet.

Satisfied, she started backing away from the scene, but found her way blocked. Kevin was pressed in front of her, and another person close behind her. She was hemmed in on all sides now and was starting to feel claustrophobic. She could just make out more violent activity over Kevin's shoulder. There was a full out fistfight going on. As the crowd around them s.h.i.+fted, a small opening emerged to her left, and she took it, grabbing for Kevin's hand and weaseling through. She could feel the push/pull on Kevin through their grip as he tried to follow her through s.p.a.ces too small for him. She heard him apologizing as they went.

Bree felt a growing sensation of frustration as the energy of the crowd continued to worsen. They were able to do so little. Sure, disabling the two possessed probably helped some, for a brief time at least. She couldn't help but think how much more good she could be doing if she could simply order all the demons she encountered out. As they broke through again to the less dense outer part of the crowd, she remembered how well Gelsenim had been doing lately on masking his demonic energy signature. If he were able to keep it that muted, might she be able to utilize his help with fairly minimal risk of getting caught?

She pictured making that argument to Kevin, and could easily imagine his objections. He was doing amazingly well here tonight, as he'd done when they worked together at Alki. But it wasn't truly in his nature to take many risks. He was protective and cautious to a fault, and she knew he'd throw her promise not to call Gelsenim ruthlessly into her face if she tried to make her case. Yet again, she wished Daniel were here. She thought he'd back her up on it if he thought she could get away with it.

She and Kevin made it all the way out and turned to face the action. She scanned for Franchesca. It was clearly going to be difficult to try to keep track of her while avoiding being seen in all this mess. She could see more police in riot gear moving into place around the pockets of violence, trying to move in and break it up, and Bree had a brief hope that they would be able to contain the worst of it.

As her eyes moved over the crowd, her attention was caught by a flash of red light. She realized as she searched for the source that she was seeing the reflection of the light in the huge gla.s.s expanse that was the front of the Westlake Center mall.

The flickering of the light increased in tempo and then, to her great shock, she saw the form of a disembodied demon rise above the crowd. It looked like a dragon, long reptilian snout opened in a roar of anger, red lined black wings rising over it's long body, orange eyes whirling.

Bree was drenched in involuntary terror. A demon in a form like this had killed her husband Seth. It might even be the same one. That it was visible here, now, was a violation of the deepest tenant of the magical community, both light and dark, that of secrecy. Even a demon burned Demon Master would be highly unlikely to allow a disembodied demon to be seen in public if they had any control over it whatsoever. Which may well mean that this particular demon had escaped control of the Master who had called it. And that was a seriously bad thing.

There were shrieks of surprise and fear as the people in the crowd nearby saw the apparition, followed by screams of pain as the demon's energy began to burn the people around it. The demon wouldn't be able to hurt people for long. It couldn't maintain enough physical energy on this plane to do so for more than a minute or two. But a minute or two was all it would take to get a lot of people seriously hurt or killed in a crowd this dense. She turned frantic eyes on Kevin, who was looking as freaked out as she felt. "Kevin, I have to do something!"

"No. It'll burn out in a minute." His face had turned grim as he looked at her. He gestured to his right, and she saw Keeper Chen and her partner moving toward the demon. Chen clutched some kind of amulet around her neck, probably a religious focus of some kind, and her lips were moving in what Bree a.s.sumed was the beginnings of an exorcism spell. Bree knew the likelihood of the exorcism spells being raised in time to protect those nearby from the demon was nil, though she didn't blame Chen for trying. What else was there to do?

She watched in trepidation as Chen and her companion broke into the area around the demon. The crowd was trying to move away from it, so there appeared to be some s.p.a.ce around it. Chen was tall enough to be seen over most of the crowd. Her partner wasn't visible at all. Chen's arms rose as she prepared to throw the exorcism spell she'd prepared at the demon.

Just as she cast the spell forward, the demon spun to face Chen, jaws outthrust. The spell did nothing to stop the demon as its spectral form bit into Chen, and she watched in horror as Chen started to burn. She caught fire and blackened like a marshmallow being roasted in a campfire. Bree had to clamp a hand over her mouth and turn away to keep from throwing up. Panic competed with nausea as her eyes lit on another demonic form coming into being, a devil form this time, much further away, but visible over the ma.s.s of people in a swirl of red, orange and black. Bree forced her gorge down and grabbed Kevin by the arm, turning him to face her. "I have to call Gelsenim!" she shrieked.

Kevin's hands went to the sides of his head and he was saying, "f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k!" Bree shook him by the arm, hard, and said, "I need you to ward me. And I need you to keep an eye out for Keepers. Jesus, Kevin, I have to, you know I have to!"

He closed his eyes and grimaced, then he dropped his hands and said, "s.h.i.+t, yes, I know!"

She turned full circle to scan for Keepers, Reader sense questing at full range for powered. When she came back around to Kevin, she said, "Clear for the moment." She rubbed at the demon repelling wards on her hands, forcing them to break, then gathered her will quickly, and called mentally, desperately, "Gelsenim, come to me now! Come directly into me!" She stood, braced, as another, then another demon took shape, both civilians and police scattering away from the nightmare forms. A familiar rush of heat flowed into Bree, and she heard Gelsenim's voice in her head, My host, yet again you place yourself in danger. Is this truly necessary?

Just shut up and get busy. Are you muting your energy signature?

Yes, my host, I know that is what you prefer.

Fine, now help me banish these f.u.c.king demons! She stalked forward into the crowd, Kevin at her side. She went straight for the dragon. It was probably about out of steam, but it was closest. Can we do this silently? I don't want to broadcast to the world what I'm doing.

It is only slightly more difficult that way. She got about twenty feet away from the demon and focused both her base and will energy in that configuration she had come to think of as Demon Master energy. She shouted the words in her mind, Demon, I command you, be gone!

Gelsenim's power combine with hers and struck the demon. It howled in protest, but almost immediately broke form and vanished. A wild triumph rose up in Bree at the sight. She turned to face the next demon, and instead came face to face with Franchesca.

"You know, I put a lot of effort calling that one, and I don't appreciate you messing with my work," Franchesca said conversationally. They were in a relatively open area near where the vanished demon had been, and while there was a lot of crowd noise nearby, Bree could easily hear Franchesca speak. Before she could think up a reply, she felt Kevin's ward spring into place. She was immensely grateful for Kevin's quick action. They had at least a couple of minutes to get away from Franchesca while staying protected from both magic and physical force.

"Yeah, well I don't appreciate you messing with my city," Bree replied angrily. "Get out of my f.u.c.king way."

"Or you'll do what?" Franchesca asked, eyes narrowing.

Gelsenim, can we take her?

I can help you cast several offensive spells, but your friend would have to drop his ward. The structure of the spells he intended bloomed in her head.

She can probably counter those, Bree replied anxiously. She realized that the longer she failed to answer Franchesca, the more strain she was putting on Kevin. He couldn't hold the ward forever.

"Look, you can probably sense I have a demon on board," Bree temporized. "It's an Erekim. So you might want to think twice about s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with me."

Franchesca threw back her head and laughed. "And you think I can't call one of my own?" she taunted.

"I think you're probably overextended from calling as many demons as you have already tonight," Kevin put in. "I think your control is slipping already and you don't dare let yourself be possessed right now."

Franchesca's expression darkened to anger, and Bree immediately read that Kevin had hit the nail on the head. d.a.m.n, the man was brilliant. Franchesca didn't want to be possessed right now, so Bree had at least that advantage.

Won't you let me kill this one for you? Gelsenim wheedled. She is truly a danger to you. We have encountered her before, and she is a very high power Caster. You are right, she may be able to counter even our combined power.

Bree was mightily tempted, but she thrust that temptation away. She had to come up with some other way. And the longer it took, the more people were going to die. "How can you do it?" she blurted out. "How can you just ruthlessly kill all these people?"

"For a higher goal, of course," Franchesca responded with an ironic sneer.

"Oh, I think you enjoy it," Bree shot back. "I think you are that completely sick and twisted. How do you suppose Daniel will react when I tell him what you've done here?"

Franchesca's face dissolved instantly into rage, and Bree knew a moment's intense fear, fear that she'd gone too far, fear that Kevin's ward would fail if Franchesca hit them with her full power, as she was like to do in anger.

But then Kevin did something completely unexpected. He dropped the ward, stepped forward, and punched Franchesca in the face. He had to reach up a little to do it, but he didn't hold back, and Franchesca's head whipped hard to the side. He hit her again before she could respond, and she staggered, clutching at her cheek. One more jab, and she was down. Kevin bent over her and punched her a couple more times for good measure. "And that's for kidnapping my son!" he snarled.

Bree's mouth was open in stupid surprise. She hadn't known Kevin had it in him to physically attack anyone, let alone a woman. Of course, this was Franchesca they were talking about. "C'mon, let's move out before she recovers," he said, wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist. Bree lost no time in following him away from where Franchesca was lying dazed and bleeding on the ground.

They'd only gone a few steps towards the next demon when Bree saw Javier Ortiz. Heart rate spiking, she ducked behind Kevin, and anxiously maneuvered him in another direction. Mute, Gelsenim, mute! Hide as best you can, she commanded. She didn't dare risk a glance back at Javier, just moved as fast as possible away from where she'd last seen him.

As they approached one of the devil formed demons, she threw a quick read around for him, but he wasn't in range. She focused back inside on Gelsenim, bid him to help her, focused her power and banished the demon. There was only one of the visible ones left now, as far as she could see, the others likely having possessed someone to avoid retreating back to the void. In spite of the dangers of the milling, panicked, battling crowd, Bree was starting to feel like they were making a little progress.

How close do I really have to be to banish these demons? And can't you do more than one at a time? she finally thought to ask Gelsenim. She wished she'd thought to ask before, but she supposed she could be forgiven for not thinking straight in the middle of such a dangerous mess. She realized it would have been better to have planned these things out in advance rather than tell herself she wouldn't call Gelsenim.

I can do more if I do not have to suppress my energy signature. But we are much more likely to be perceived by Keepers if I do so.

Bree took a few precious moments to read the crowd again. Okay, I think we're safe. Let's see how many we can do at once. She focused on her Demonsense, registering not only the disembodied demon, but also nine more inside hosts that were within about fifty feet of her.

Her concentration was broken by the sound of gunfire. She was getting too d.a.m.ned familiar with that sound. She glanced around, didn't see anyone with a gun nearby, and proceeded to try to banish ten demons at once. She wondered if even Daniel could do such a thing, wondered if she was insane for even trying.

Desperation lent her strength, and as Gelsenim allowed his full power to fill her, she felt swollen with energy. She realized she had to say the words out loud and risk being heard if she was going to have any hope of directing such a huge wad of energy. "Demons, we command you, all of you! Be gone!" With a painful sucking sensation, she felt the power roar out of her and strike each of the demons she'd targeted. She staggered, head ringing and spinning at the same time, and she had to clutch at Kevin to avoid going down. To her stunned but immense satisfaction, every single one of the demons vanished back into the void. Bree took a shaky breath, and looked at Kevin. "We did it!" she told him. "We got a big bunch of them to leave."

"I guess that makes me an idiot for telling you not to do it before," Kevin replied ruefully, then staggered as someone clipped him trying to get by. As Bree looked up at him to reply, she saw his eyes widen. "Javier!" he hissed.

Oh s.h.i.+t, Gelsenim, leave now! she squawked internally. She felt dizzy as the demon obeyed her, and had to clutch at Kevin's arm.