Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) Read online

  "I have a lot to do. Most of it has nothing to do with you, or yours, however. Don't let this be a bad thing. We can be friends, if you want." She meant it, but knew that it wouldn't be happening easily. There was too much terror coming from the other woman still. So much that she didn't even bother trying to attack.

  "I... Guess. I should probably get back to the club." It hadn't been long, but Keeley got what she meant, it was time for a certain Greater Demon to get out of her hair.

  That was a bit rude, since they hadn't hung out at all really, but she just winked at the other woman, then gave her a quick hug.

  "I'll go then. We should get together soon though. We have that blood center to set up. Really, what we need to do there is diversify. I'll see about getting those animals in. If we have both Human and fine animal resources, more Vampires will be able to use them, rather than just lying about it and keeping on with their old habits." It wasn't a horrible idea. Vampires were prejudiced against eating animal blood, and some of it was harder to use for energy links, but Alpaca was good. So was horse, but they were harder to work with.

  It tasted different, but there had to be ways to spice it up for flavor.

  Walking away, she considered the idea, being aware that Felecia was simply trailing behind her, even out to her car, parked well down the street, past some old buildings that looked abandoned.

  Looking at them, seeing the broken windows and boarded up doors, she waved at it.

  "This used to be some kind of manufacturing center?" She pointed at it and looked closely for signs of what was going on now. That...

  The door had tool marks on the right hand side, which meant that someone had removed the padlock that used to be there. Junkies, from the smell coming from within. All poor Humans would eventually use someplace near their own dwelling as a toilet, and whoever was in there had been for a while. There were broken out windows, and several of them weren't covered with anything, but a few were. Two had boards in place on the outside, but several had sheets and blankets put up to keep the light out. Daytime sleeping dens. There were wrappers and cigarette butts near the front and more around the corner, just peeking out from the edge, where someone often stood to watch for... The police, most likely. That reminded her that she needed to gain control over the department as soon as possible. This place too, if it was the local drug den, like it seemed. One of them.

  Sparks was big enough to have more than one, and nothing was being produced here. Just sold. As she stood and watched, Felecia suddenly stopping to stare at the front of the place, there was a sound from within. A rather panicked female voice, saying no, several times. She seemed to be decently young. The Vampire grimaced a little, and looked away.

  "The dealers, some of them get the runaway girls in there..." Whatever they normally did, it didn't sound all that consensual at the moment.

  That Felecia knew about the place just made sense, given that her main business was less than a block away. Keeley shrugged and walked over to the door, a bit interested to find that her new friend came with her, without being asked. That was a better sign than she would have hoped, given that Vampire rules basically told people to mind their own business, most of the time.

  They weren't met with a lot of force. In fact, other than a stench that reminded her a bit of The Vile, meaning it needed to be blocked out, no one stirred to notice them. The sounds of the attack, and it was that, she realized, came from the second floor. Jogging a bit and getting ready to fight, slowing time, she found the right room, and simply walked in as two thin and rather seedy looking druggies tried to pull the filth encrusted blue jeans off of a black girl that didn't seem at all interested in being helpful to them. Keeley could see that, given that they kept hitting her for not moving fast enough. At least that was what they said.

  "Fuck, bitch! Stop fighting, or I'll knock you the fuck out!" The man that said it, who couldn't have been thirty, and needed a solid shave, moved in to strike the girl, only to find that he fell over sideways first. He'd been standing, but the kick to his load bearing leg made a snapping sound and he went down.

  Screaming.

  "Fuuuuuck!" The other man had a knife, which Keeley took, not even bothering to slow down time in order to do it. They just weren't all that fast, she realized. Not compared to her. She kicked him too, but in the groin, since the target presented itself pretty clearly.

  Then she looked at the black girl, who was far from pretty, but was too young to be hanging out in a crap hole like this one. Too far gone into drugs to free herself just then, and not smart enough to realize that chemicals had to be managed in order to help a person in life.

  "Hello! I'm Keeley, and this is Felecia." She waved at the other woman and then sighed a bit, if to herself. There were several things that she could have done, but she knew that playing to her own strength would be for the best. Especially since she needed servants that she wouldn't mind losing, if it came to it. There was too much to get done on her own. True these were a fixer upper project, but a little elbow grease and some water would get them going pretty well, she figured.

  She started with the screaming man. He had black hair, the kind that always seemed a bit greasy, unless scrupulous care was taken with it. His t-shirt was too light for the temperature, and filthy. A red and yellow logo on the front proclaimed that he liked a certain kind of beer, which was probably true, given that it was the cheap kind that all the kids liked, for their weekend parties. Keels didn't even try to make a deal with him, just setting the link.

  "You're a slave." Then she pointed to his partner and did the same to him. "You too. You, miss... What's your name?"

  The dark girl backed up, her zipper undone which let her filthy, once white and now gray, underwear show. It was hard to stay clean, living like these people did. That was clear.

  "Simone." She said it defiantly, as if daring Keeley to call her a liar. She wasn't telling the truth, but that wasn't something that she cared about, was it?

  "Fine. You're a slave too now. None of you can go against my orders, or try to tell anyone that you're mine. You can never lie to me, or try to escape in any way. Understood?" They did, and even the screaming would be rapist nodded.

  Felecia just looked freaked, like it was her turn next.

  "Excellent. Now, you... Screamy, what's your name?"

  "Um, Francis. Ma'am." It was probably Frank, but she'd told him that lying wasn't allowed, so he went with the whole thing that his mother had given him.

  "Francis, your leg doesn't hurt. There's no pain in it now. You'll take it easy on it, but it isn't injured too badly, so treat it like a sprain and you'll be fine."

  The other man, Jim, introduced himself immediately, which got her to smile. They might be scum, but now they were hers and while rapists weren't her favorite kind of people to play with, Simone wasn't a friend of hers, so they didn't need to be more than gently corrected.

  "Now, let's go and get everyone else? There are what, three more people here?" That was a guess, based on the patterns of foot traffic in the dust outside the door, but Francis nodded and then, limping, led them to a room on the first floor. That had three more drug fiends, or whatever they used to be, and six kids, all on mattresses that were on the floor.

  Without a word, Keeley took each of them, practicing telepathic commands, as fast as she could manage them. It wasn't quick enough to beat a demon, but she was getting the basic idea. The real trick was to start out by telling them they couldn't think, and moving from there.

  That had them all stopping to stare at her, and Felecia, since the woman was standing right next to her left hand, protectively.

  "Everyone, if I could have your attention? You're no longer drug addicts, and can't stand the idea of putting drugs, alcohol or tobacco in your bodies. Right now, I want you to start cleaning this place up. Felecia, if I get you the funds, can you set up the purchase of this place for me? We'll repurpose it for the new blood harvesting operation. These nice people will be your new work
force, to make up in part for Evan being gone." Not that a bunch of drugged out losers was going to do a lot for her, but it was a place to start, and Keeley knew, even if they didn't get it yet, they were all former, to that particular state. From that point on they were going to be useful. To her, if no one else.

  They'd need a real place to stay, too. It took a bit for her to work all that out with Felecia, but the scared and largely silent Vampire did seem to pick up the idea that she, personally, wasn't being locked into being a slave yet. She didn't seem to understand why, but also didn't want to ask. That fact pretty much took up her entire brain for a while, even as she struggled to pay attention to what Keeley wanted. She really should have negotiated a salary, but if the woman was fine doing some things for her for free, Keeley wasn't going to whine about it.

  It was pretty easy to set the new slaves to work, with the understanding that they would rest when needed and eat in the morning. They didn't have a lot of food there, which meant, she didn't doubt, a bothersome shopping trip on her part. There was a nice and mainly empty dumpster out back, so that would work to get them started, since cleaning in there was going to take a while.

  Luckily it wasn't too late, so she started in on that, leaving her car, Misty, parked down the street. Felecia practically ran away, to do what she asked, while she pitched in, getting things set up as much as possible. By morning, most of her people sleeping on skuzzy looking pads that they'd brought in from somewhere, she left to get provisions and real cleaning supplies.

  That included several trips, since they needed almost everything. New beds too, but she wanted to get them set up someplace else for that part of things, if possible. In the mean time... Well, she could rent someplace for them. A house or two. Or buy them, so that no one would complain about the number of people being tucked inside it.

  That kept her busy, for a while, until the next night when she finally went home for a while, to catch a shower and see if anyone was looking for her.

  The man that was there just stood on her front doorstep, looking unfamiliar and pleasant enough when she drove up. Turning, he waved to her, in an efficient fashion. There was no car there, and his boots looked a bit dusty, telling her that they'd been walked around in a lot. There was wear on them, and the clothing seemed old, and worn enough that she almost let the whole thing go. There was no hint that this man wasn't what he seemed, except... Something wasn't right. That was strange to her. Very much so.

  She was a Greater Demon, and, as she stood in front of the man, something just felt... off. There was no sign of what it was however. He smiled, and his lined face held charm and even a bit of charisma, but not good looks. There was a blue tone to his outfit, but that wasn't important, she didn't think...

  It was... That something had just happened to her. Looking down she noticed that her dress was a bit mussed, mainly from working all night, but there was, on her right hip, a faint hint of dirt from the ground under her feet. Like she'd fallen over and landed hard, then brushed it off. Glancing at her right hand, there was just the tiniest bit of dirt there too.

  So this was something new. A thing that hadn't happened to her, but had.

  Looking at the smiling man, she shook her head.

  "No, that won't work. Void, is it? No more of that, thank you." She didn't remember anything happening, but it clearly had. She waited, expecting her world to reset again, but the fellow in front of her nodded, still seeming pleasant about it all.

  "Call me Michael. Archangel? You might have heard of me? Forgive my... Meddling, but you rather took exception to this news the last time I gave it to you. That's my fault, it was a horrible delivery. Perhaps this will go better?" He had his hands slightly out, and empty, but was clearly ready to do something to her, if she tried to fight, or possibly even run.

  "I... See. You know, I was told that there was no such things as Angels? Or, to be exact, I was led to think that. Are you certain that's what you are?" She didn't go into the fact that it made a lot more sense for him to be, oh, a different kind of Demon, or even an illusion.

  No one wanted to hear that they weren't real, she was willing to bet. This man however, whatever he actually turned out to be, seemed fine with that however.

  "I know. It's something that's been done in the last years, about the last two hundred, to keep your kind from killing us all. We aren't violent or a threat, but... Well, some of you don't see that. Or do, perhaps, but can't realize that non-violence isn't a thing to fear? Regardless, even if we allow it, your kind have trouble understanding that we exist. When I leave, you won't remember me." The tone was a bit preachy, to be honest, and the man seemed a little dumb.

  Then, maybe that's what people like him looked like? Regular people that could wipe everything that had happened from your mind? It was certainly a power at any rate. One that would be hard to beat.

  "I'll try to keep that in mind. Do you want something to eat? I was just about to fix something for myself. I have plenty." She paused and then shrugged. "You can pay for it, if you're a Greater Demon, or have it for free if that fits your... Um, angelic rules?" It wasn't like she knew what to think about anything yet, was it? She waited, and watched, but the man just smiled, beatifically.

  Like that was a thing? Apparently for people like him it was.

  She moved toward him, not planning to do anything, and felt herself pushed away as she closed bodily. The pressure seemed to do the same thing to him, so he skipped back, but it was strange, since she didn't have any information on that kind of thing happening. Not even in the library that Tarsus had given her. Keeley did get to the door however, and once in popped her head back out and winked.

  "Come on. I'll get that food. So, I could whip up an angel food cake? Or is that too on the nose?"

  "A little bit. Funny though." He seemed to really think that was the case, and smiled at her, then followed, keeping himself at least four feet away all the time. Any closer and the pressure between them started to build.

  She made a lot of food, just working for a time, as the man sat in a chair at her kitchen table, and regarded her intensely. Finally she sat too, with a basket of garlic bread, and took a bunch of slices, passing the rest over to the strange person she didn't know. He took a single piece and then pushed it back at her.

  "I'm made of celestial energy, not matter, so I don't truly need food. I do love good bread, however." He could eat, it was clear and did so, munching silently for a while. The other energy beings she'd met had been able to eat too, so that wasn't a dead giveaway as to him being something else.

  "Me too. So... Not to be rude, but what can I do for you? Did you come to convert me to the faith? If so, you might want to take that up with Gregor, since as far as I know he invented the whole religion thing." She was being a bit snarky, and knew it, but the man didn't seem too upset by the idea.

  "Christianity. He came up with the one religion. Or..." He looked at the door and looked at her, his face unfamiliar, but something inside the eyes gave him away then. It was different, but...

  "Gregor?" It was a game then? A trick? She smiled, glad that the Greater Demon hadn't decided to keep the game up for too long. It was vexing, being fooled like that. He still seemed totally Human, and didn't start eating any more than he had.

  "Not too bad. None of the others have ever made a connection there. Good job, Keeley. Now just put the rest of it together, and I won't have to take the next seven years getting you to believe that I exist."

  She thought about it, and understood what he wanted her to say. After all, it was pretty clear, wasn't it?

  "You're actually an Angel, and created Christianity, because... It's real?"

  There was a slightly funny look and the man in front of her rolled his eyes.

  "No, of course not. That doesn't even make sense, Keeley. There are too many religions in the world for that to be the case. We, the Angels, did create the world's religions, at His behest, but that isn't the point. Work the problem, miss. I'm afraid we don'
t have a lot of time for doubt or recriminations. Incorrect assumptions either. You're missing things and getting them wrong."

  She looked at the ceiling, and then cleared her throat.

  "All right then... Let me see, the only thing that's changed is... What Tarsus asked me to do? Getting those Greater Demons to read the books he wanted? Except..." She felt slow and her mind was funny, fuzzy and bogged down. "Hey, wait, why can't I touch you? I've done it before? This is some kind of defensive thing?"

  "Yes. I am not of the fallen, so it's different." He made a little motion with his hand, a rolling thing that told her to get on with it, along with a friendly expression that told her he wasn't that upset about the side tracking. Before he could go on, Keels crossed her eyes, and then actually made her brain start working again. It was just the shock of finding all of that out.

  "And... Tarsus wouldn't need me to do that, would he? That never made much sense. Well, if he were going to just use me for the purpose, but..."

  Gregor, or Michael, whichever counted in the moment, nodded.

  "Close enough, I don't want you to feel too badly about this, since the vast majority of the others can't comprehend it, not even the smallest portion of it."

  Keeley smiled and then looked at the man closely.

  "Wait, am I actually an Angel, too? That would explain my good and wholesome ways, compared to the rest of them."

  "No, not that one. You're honestly pretty evil. You all are. It's simply that Tarsus has set something in motion that will end reality, if you, or he, carry it out. If you bind evil, everything ends. Creation will be thrown out of balance and it all ceases. Forever."

  She nodded, not really seeing it.

  "So, what you want then, is for me not to go up against four crazy Greater Demons? I think I can do that one."

  Gregor, looking so different from what he normally did, simply shook his head slowly.

  "No, Keeley, I... We all, need you to restore the balance. To find all the others of your kind that have been trapped, and set them free."