Keeley Thomson (Book 4): Demon Trap Read online

  She shrugged and threw an arm over Eve's shoulder. It was a bit possessive, but the girl needed to know that they were still friends, and that things going a bit wrong wouldn't have her abandoned.

  "A bit of both, most likely. I..." It was very irregular, but Keeley actually had a place to put the girls, didn't she? With the Yorks. That wasn't going to be easy, but she nodded and decided to see about that, if nothing else could be worked out instead.

  "Come with me, Bal. We'll get this going, and see what's needed."

  The giant beastly creature stood, hunched over to prevent marking the ceiling with his horns and then waited for her to indicate what she wanted done. They needed to find the girls first, and set things up carefully, she thought.

  She gave the order, and then followed Balthias onto the inroads, making sure to use the energy she'd been storing for it, rather than biological resources. It wasn't any harder to do, but it had a slightly different feeling to the whole thing. It was as if she were buzzing slightly. It kind of tickled, to tell the truth.

  On the ground, at the police station, it was a very different scene than she expected.

  First, it was very clear to the police that the girls, or at least the older one, had done the killing. The Detective in charge was certain of it. There was no doubt there at all in his mind, and the older man was being pretty hostile to the young blonde, who was holding her arms across her chest as she went over and over the same story.

  Keeley nearly just grabbed the man, to make him stop, but she waited as the evening turned into solid night, the girl not being allowed to sleep at all.

  "Now, Wendy, tell me... Your step-dad... did he touch you? I know that if someone had done something like that to me, I'd want to stop it from happening again. Is that what happened? He came and did things to you at night and you and your sister decided you had enough? No one would blame you for it. You can tell me. I can make sure you don't get in trouble if that's what happened." It was a lie, but the girl started to nod, making the man far too happy suddenly.

  "He... made us do things. A lot. I didn't hurt them though. Mags either. It was..." She swallowed and then looked directly at the man, her face suddenly very blank. "There were three of them, I think. I don't know what they wanted, but one of them saw me. Like I said. White men. One had dark hair, that's all I remember." She started shaking then, but the man clearly wasn't buying the lie.

  Keeley stood on the inroads to watch it all, Bal right next to her, the room they viewed looking a bit distorted and warped through the gap.

  If the girl could hold to her story...

  Keeley decided to short circuit the whole thing and found three pretty raunchy criminals that were easily bad enough to be worth sending to prison, and had Balthias scare them all into confessing. It took time, but the girls weren't being blamed for it all by morning. Now they were just orphans that had to be placed somewhere else. On the good side, child protective services found some relatives of theirs that were willing to take them. She'd need to check those people out, but it sounded legitimate enough. An aunt from the mother's side of the family and her husband.

  Keeley would have run off to check the woman out at that moment, but decided that her other plans still needed to be seen to. It would be hard to explain to the Mayor and the City Council why she wasn't at their lunch meeting after all. Plus she had to get with the Yorks and make certain that they understood the situation. Hally was paying for things by performing a task after all. It wouldn't be good for them to go all parental and try to stop her or something.

  That meant getting back to her house, which was empty, except for Eve, who was sleeping on the sofa, and Sherry, who was up already, working in her office space. The sounds were familiar, so Keeley pushed her head in the door and smiled.

  "This is a busy season." It was the kind of inane thing that people said to one another. Most talking was done to bring people closer together, and cement community bonds, rather than to share real or new information. It was kind of an important thing to remember. After all, it took time to do it right, but forgetting to try made you look hostile to most people. That or sad.

  "Oh, hi honey. I'm coming to learn that it's always the busy season when the Taggards are around." She was busily working with about twenty poinsettias, tying gold ribbons around them, with holly leaves and berries attached. It was a decent enough look, but not really up to her normal level.

  Before Keeley could ask, she pointed at the things.

  "I know, less than perfect. Another emergency party. The economy is starting to do a bit better, so a instead of closing their doors Winstonian Paper Works is throwing a party. It's a good thing, but they only made the decision yesterday. One of the owner's wives decided to splurge and try to get Clara for it, but it means we have to make due, materials wise. It isn't horrible, but..." She shrugged.

  That was just the truth. It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't the kind of thing that she normally would have done.

  "The ribbon should be white velvet. About an inch and a half thick?"

  Sherry stopped and stared at her.

  "That's exactly what I had planned, but I didn't have enough. I called, but no place around here does right now. Not that's open at least."

  Keeley actually had to think then, and try to figure out who would have something like that. It was the twenty-second, so most places would be open, she was certain. It was just a matter of finding someplace with the needed item. Nothing came to mind though. Shrugging she got her phone out of her room, since she hadn't taken it with her, and called the first person that came to mind for it.

  It nearly didn't make sense, but she had all of her daughter's memories, and the woman was pretty well prepared, as far as fripperies, and making her own things along those lines.

  "Hello? This is Valerie Fargo, may I... service you today?" She sounded halfway to being a phone sex operator, but managed to keep the words just on this side of normal. It sounded like she was probably a bit slutty, but that was a positive thing, for an Alede.

  After all, when dinner was had by collecting sexual energy, you kind of wanted people around that loved to have sex. Being a bit trampy would work really well for that. It was kind of what Eve did, but she only wanted attention. The Succubus on the phone would want quite a lot more than that.

  "Hi, Valerie. You don't know me, I'm a friend of Kaitlyn? My name's Keeley. Anyway, I was wondering if you might have some white velvet ribbon I could buy from you? I need it for some poinsettias." She waited, wondering if the woman would get who she was talking to at all, but if so, there was no change in voice to indicate that.

  "I... You know, I have quite a bit of that, to tell the truth. In the back here. How much do you need?" The tone did shift though, into something slightly questioning, but professional, rather than like she was actively going to try and poach her daughter's next meal from her. That was the sign of a good mom. For her kind of being at least.

  Not that Keeley could be used as that kind of an energy source. Greater Demons didn't let go of energy when they had sex. Not the women at least. That was the primary difference between the genders really. The men could do that, so they could sire children. The women just couldn't, making them infertile. It wasn't a brilliant plan, as far as reproduction went, but they were pretty long lived, so it made some sense. Otherwise there would be far too many of them, if they could breed like people did.

  She looked at Sherry and smiled.

  "About twenty meters?" That got a nod from the older woman, who seemed interested in what was being said at least.

  "Ah... I have that. I'll let it go for... Say two-fifty per yard? That's what I paid, more or less."

  "Deal." She said the word automatically, and nearly laughed, because the permanent link tried to form between them, just from that, even with over a thousand miles between them at the moment. Keeley didn't let it happen though. She didn't really need any more slaves. As it was she probably needed to cull a few, just so she wouldn't have to
worry about them.

  The woman seemed to be decently chipper about the whole thing at least.

  "When do you need it? Like I said, I have it here. I'd love to meet you. Keeley, you said?"

  "I can be there in a few minutes."

  There was a soft, almost sultry chuckle, since her words were taken as being slightly over eager it seemed.

  "Westfield won't open until nine. It's only seven-forty."

  It was clear that Sherry had all day, but sooner would, of course, be better than later.

  "Is it alright if I come a bit earlier than that? The doors are all unlocked." That was a fact. After all, the place was really a meeting place, and some kinds of creatures didn't need to sleep at all. Others worked only at night. The place would be open.

  "Certainly. I'll unlock the front of the store for you?"

  "Great! Be right in." She hung up then, because the woman was about to start fishing for information. Knowing that the place was always open would mean that Keeley knew something wasn't normal there. Humans didn't shop there at night after all. That could mean a lot of things though. One of them was that she was a regular human, and that Kaitlyn couldn't keep her mouth shut. If that was the case, which it wasn't, Keeley figured that a certain Alede was going to be grounded.

  She turned to Sherry.

  "I should have that for you in a bit here. A mother of a friend of mine has a clothing store and they do some role playing. The sex kind, not the sci-fi convention stuff. Still ribbon is ribbon." She waited, wondering what Sherry would say. Probably that she was happy about the whole thing.

  For once, her mother surprised her a bit.

  "Oh? I... Are you having sex with anyone?" She blushed a bit at least. "I know we had a talk about that kind of thing a long time ago, but..."

  Keeley had to fight down the embarrassment that wanted to rise inside of her, it took a few seconds and was actually trying to come back as she spoke. That was rare anymore. Normally she could just turn things off, like there was a switch. Not this time though, but she managed a smile anyway.

  "Not yet. I might soon. Probably with Hally. I made out a bit with Eve the other day, but that wasn't anything serious."

  Her mother nodded and looked away, avoiding eye contact.

  "I... Do you only like girls then? You went out with Zack..." There was clear confusion in her body language and several hesitant looks at her daughter, or at least the thing that her baby had turned in too.

  "He's nice, isn't he? I... Well, I think the rules are different for me really. I can't get pregnant, or catch diseases, so functionally speaking the only possible downside for me is other people's emotional fallout from what we do. Morally speaking... Well, all of that is just there to control people. It sort of makes sense, from a societal perspective, since pregnant girls running around who don't know who the father is plays merry havoc with the economy, and girls who only like women are harder to control, since they don't need men. There's more to the whole thing, but none of that really applies. Not to me. I'm pretty sure that I can do what I want that way." She smiled again, since she wasn't trying to be hostile, just sharing enough so that when her mom walked in on her doing a goat some time, there wouldn't be as much to explain.

  The thought made her want to wince. She really hoped that wasn't something that would be coming up any time soon.

  Her mother seemed content enough with the idea though.

  "OK. Well, I support you no matter what. I do like Hally. She's very sweet."

  Keeley thought so too, but that wasn't her point, not really. The girl was her friend, but also an asset. Or at least a potential one. Given everything it only made sense to not have her loyalties split between Darla and herself. Since she liked Keeley already, that made a simple, and easy way to bond her in place, without as much hassle as having another slave would be.

  "Well, I should be going." She had to fight to keep her cool again, but didn't let it become a problem. Talking about sex without being afraid of the idea was part of growing up, after all.

  Even if it had been far more awkward than she really wanted to put up with, on any given day.

  The inroads were empty, but they almost always were so that wasn't a surprise. She came out in front of the building, and walked in with a sense of purpose, as if she belonged there. She wasn't dressed up very nicely at the moment, just in jeans and a t-shirt, but that would be fine for an early morning errand run. Being dressed up and looking ready for a fashion show would call too much attention.

  The place she wanted had lights on, but no one was near the front of the store. Not at all. The roll up gate clearly hadn't been down either, since there was no sign of gathered dust on the floor. Even leaving something in place for a few minutes changed the flow of the world around it for hours after it was moved. So that part hadn't been true. Of course, she could hardly blame the woman for that. She didn't know who was coming in after all. If she were a human girl, then acting as normal as possible would be the safest plan.

  "Hello?" She called out in a conversational tone, since louder probably wasn't needed. Alede all had really good hearing. Not bat level, but it was good enough that you didn't bother to whisper if any of them were around. Not for their sake.

  "Oh! That was quick. Back here. I got the ribbon out. Two ten yard spools should work, right?"

  The voice was coming from the back, near the center of the space past the standing clothing racks, was holding very still. It was a strange enough thing that Keeley noticed it. Casting her mind out a bit, using some energy from her stores, she felt the two other beings back there. All Alede. All armed. With guns.

  It took about half a second for her to pick apart all the information then, taking it from Valerie's mind. She did indeed know who Keeley was and had heard that she wasn't as old as all that. So she and her fellow mall store workers were planning to take her out, and not in a fun way. That was just so Keeley wouldn't take Kaitlyn as a slave though. It very nearly even made sense, after a fashion. Except for the whole part where she didn't need Kaitlyn as a slave, since the girl would have done what she wanted anyway, just because she was decently nice.

  Instead of saying anything, she made herself speed up a lot, and slowed her perception of time. Then, burning a lot of magic to make it happen, she moved onto the inroads, and adjusted just enough, with a single and very tiny step, to be in the back room of the place. The others were as well, but they'd all clustered in the front, actually in the door, blocking each other from taking quick action. Because the Alede, while many wonderful things, weren't exactly brilliant fighters.

  Moving off the line quickly, she stepped in behind the women. Then, one by one, she took their weapons away from them. She was tempted to take them over, but didn't bother, since they weren't really all that useful to her at this point.

  "Hello! Oh, you do have the ribbon?" That made her feel better. After all, it meant she wouldn't have to look for it. She held on the guns for the moment, cradling them all in her left arm. With her right hand she picked up the two biggish spools. It was very nearly perfect. "How much do I owe you for it? Fifty?" That was the agreed upon price at least. The women in front of her didn't answer though. The one on the right stepped forward after a few seconds, her face having gone pale and her blonde hair hanging loose down her back.

  "I'm in charge here. They didn't..." She stopped but Keeley got the idea anyway. Even without mind reading. It was about what had to happen, wasn't it?

  "Well, no harm done. I'm friendly though. Yes, I'm charging Kait for helping her, but notice, all I'm asking for is that she perhaps entertain some friends of mine, sometime in the future. Essentially giving her a few free meals. That's not exactly slavery." She also didn't have any need for something like that yet. It could come up though, but it would hardly be a punishment.

  They all knew that was the deal though. They just didn't think it could be the whole thing. The rates were too good, and besides, Greater Demon. Keeley had to give them that one. In t
he main she wouldn't want to deal with her either, thinking what they did.

  Setting down the three handguns on a folding table required taking several steps, the ribbon going directly next to it. Then she dug into her handbag and pulled out several bills. Two twenties and a single ten. No one really used cash that often anymore, but it made sense for the time being, since she didn't want her card being flagged as being over half the world on any given day. That would have the bank cutting her off, to prevent fraud.

  Smiling she held the cash out and walked forward, still ready to move at speeds that these beings just couldn't match. No one tried for her though. They didn't even try to act sexy, which would have been their normal go to move, no doubt. If she weren't her.

  There was no begging or pleading though, and Valerie took the bills, shaking more than a bit. After all, she expected to die any moment, even if Keeley was honorable enough to keep to her bargain. She probably should have killed them, but the fact was, these women weren't a real threat. Even if they'd shot her, that would have mainly just been an annoyance at this point. At least now that her natural strength and toughness had started to kick in a bit. The fact that they all knew she was young wasn't a great thing though. After all, the party had just been the other day. They'd heard it on the grapevine too, so it wasn't exactly a big secret anymore, was it. Keeley got all that and way more information about sex than she'd ever wanted, from the casual brushing of a finger over Valerie's palm as the cash was slid into place.

  Still, for all she was kinky, and had a lot of sex, nothing was truly that bad inside of her. She was a good mother even, if a little too devoted to the ruling council. Those people had planned to kill Kaitlyn after all.

  "There we go then. Sorry to just dash off like this, but the poinsettias won't get decorated properly without this." The white velvet was under a clear plastic wrapper that crinkled a bit when she took them back up. "We should all get together and have lunch, or something, soon. Have a girls' night out."

  Keeley was willing to bet that they wouldn't be calling to confirm the idea, but she left them where they stood, with access to the weapons, if they wanted to try and kill her. They weren't going to get it done if they went for it of course. She was pretty well ready for them, after all.