 
BITTEN

The First Book of "The One Rises"

by

Anna Wolfe

* * * * *

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 by Anna Wolfe

Cover Art by Jonathan Burkhardt

Discover other titles at Anna Wolfe's Smashwords Page

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue: Callie White

Chapter 1: Silas

Chapter 2: Callie

Chapter 3: Callie

Chapter 4: Edie Carter

Chapter 5: Callie

Chapter 6: Callie

Chapter 7: Callie

Chapter 8: Mark Little

Chapter 9: Callie

Chapter 10: Callie

Chapter 11: Silas

Chapter 12: Callie

Chapter 13: Mark

Chapter 14: Silas

Chapter 15: Callie

Chapter 16: Edie

Chapter 17: Mark

Chapter 18: Callie

Chapter 19: Edie

Chapter 20: Callie

Chapter 21: Edie

Chapter 22: Callie

Chapter 23: Edie

Chapter 24: Callie

Chapter 25: Edie

Chapter 26: Callie

Chapter 27: Silas

Epilogue: Phaedon Papadapolous

About the Author

Sample Chapters

***

#### Prologue: Callie White

Callie came to slowly with a familiar tang in her mouth. Keeping her eyes closed, she slowly took an inventory of her body. While her head felt about two sizes too big for her skull, everything else felt fantastic and she was full for the first time in months. After a moment, her brain processed the taste in her mouth and added a smell to help out. She was, in all likelihood, lying in a pool of blood.

Please, no.

She remembered a blond man with a flat, thin mouth that she wanted to kill. Did I succeed? Forcing her eyes open, she looked over the white rug in front of her that was now a dark, nasty red. There was a man's hand hanging limply from the bed.

Callie rolled over onto her back with a groan and looked around. The bedroom she was in was done mostly in grey and white. On the right, there was a wall of windows that looked out over the night skyline of Chicago. Most of the carpet was white and plush, except for the part that squished under her hand as she pushed herself up. The room looked vaguely familiar and panic bubbled around the edges of her mind.

She looked back at the bed though she was certain that it was a mistake. As she recognized him, her memory came back in a rush. Owen Pedersen was the piece of shit bastard who'd helped a demon possess her closest friend so he could win the damn lottery. A half dozen bodies later, her brother's among them, she'd managed to kill the demon but not before it had bitten her and left her with some serious problems.

Owen lay on his stomach, his head turned towards her. His mouth was open, his eyes wide in terror, and his back was a bloody mess.

She doubled over as the feel of Owen's neck under her knee as she pinned him to the mattress flashed brightly in her mind. She'd twisted a hangar until it was doubled over into a long, vicious whip. Her shoulder still ached from the force of the blows and the sound of hitting him was a meaty, sickening sound in her memory. The emotion rolling off of him, though, tasted sharp and sweet as it poured from his skin into hers.

She gagged and the sharp, visceral memory fled. The panic washed in from the edges of her mind to replace the memory. A vise closed around her chest and she gasped, desperate for air. I did that! Oh my god, oh my god, what am I? What am I going to do?

Stumbling back, her body shaking so badly that she could barely walk, Callie staggered to an armchair set by the wide window. Her body forced upright by the stiff shape of the seat, she wondered if Owen had ever actually sat in this chair. She'd meant to kill him. Somewhere around here was a gun, and she'd had every intention of shooting him until he was dead. Hell, she thought, I broke out of a psychiatric facility to do it. Six people are dead, seven if you count Owen, my life is destroyed, and my parents... She bent forward as grief seized her heart. She couldn't even wrap her mind around what her parents' life was now like. At least I knew what the fuck had happened. No, Callie felt no guilt that Owen was dead, but torturing him hadn't been part of the plan.

When she'd pointed the gun at him, his fear had hit her and tasted so good. I think I've lost my mind. She got another flash of Owen, a knife pressed against his neck and he was begging, begging her not to kill him. Callie started to cry. Maybe I belong in that psych ward. The demon bite had changed her and she was only beginning to sort how.

Another image bit at her and she cried out. Owen was underneath her, the fear and lust rising up off his skin tasted unbelievably delicious. Her hand was between his legs... I had... I was... I was... her mind skittered and the memory was gone. She tumbled forward and vomited onto the carpet. She couldn't stop heaving, her eyes and throat burning, as the word rapist rolled around in her mind.

God in heaven, help me. Callie knew her plea would go unanswered. God doesn't help rapists.

She curled up on the floor, crying and shaking, the taste of vomit sharp and bitter in her mouth. After a while, she remembered something important. The book, the book Owen used. I have to find it. I have to destroy it. Then I can die.

She staggered to her feet. The smell of blood followed her through the apartment as she searched. She was covered it blood, but didn't know what to do about it. Owen's memories fluttered in her mind and she knew the book was somewhere in the floor. She began moving furniture and after a few minutes, she moved a stack of shoe boxes in the walk in closet and found a floor safe. Am I strong enough to break it open? She lifted her leg and then lowered it, concerned the neighbors might hear the noise of the safe crumpling under the blow.

There was a sharp pain in her head as the memory of Owen setting the combination rose up and stabbed her. Callie closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths until she was sure she was under control. I do not want to remember killing Owen Pedersen.

She knelt down and entered the 10-digit code. It was a combination of his social security number and his birthday and Callie wished she didn't know that. The safe opened with a snick, and she pulled the door open to look at a small, leather bound book. Such a small thing to have caused so much trouble. Callie picked it up and flipped it open. The handwriting was small and crabbed and most of the pages contained recipes. It wasn't until the back that she spotted the spell for demon summoning.

It was just so unbelievable. Some small town kid uses his great-great grandmother's recipe book to summon a demon. Well, you know, how else are you going to do it? A high-pitched, nervous giggle escaped her and she knew it sounded insane. Picking up the book, she walked to the balcony to exit the same way she arrived. Levitating up to the roof in the cold spring wind, she repeated her plan to herself.

Step 1: Destroy the book. Step 2: Kill myself.

*****

#### Chapter 1: Silas

There was a sharp knock on Silas' door and then, without waiting for an invitation, Mark entered. "Hey boss man, I got something for you."

Silas pressed his lips together. Why did I ever admit I hated that nickname? Oh that's right, I didn't. Truth-sensing bastard. Mark shot a broad grin at Silas and then dropped his body heavily in one of the rickety chairs in front the desk.

"If you were not so useful, I would ship you to Siberia." Silas growled at him. It was a growl that had pacified recruits for over a hundred and fifty years, but Mark just snickered. Silas flexed his jaw and glared at him. I'm losing my touch.

"C'mon boss man, we both know that's not true. What good is a human lie detector in the snowy fields of Siberia?" Mark wiggled, trying to get himself comfortable, as he spoke.

Silas knew what Mark was going to do next and so made sure to make a threat he knew Mark would care about. "If you put your feet on my desk, I am going to make you run laps for the rest of the afternoon."

Mark lifted his eyebrows and then grinned. "Fine, be grumpy. Now, you want to know what I found out or not?"

Silas raised his eyes skyward. "I want so many things, Mr. Little, but by all means, let us begin with your news." Silas leaned back and smirked since Mark hated his last name with a passion.

"You remember the guy that got cut up in Chicago?" Mark asked.

Silas just looked at him and thought, of course I remember. I assigned the investigation to you, nitwit.

Mark grinned, hands folded over his stomach. "This guy, Pedersen, won the lottery, which got my spidey-senses tingling, you know?"

Silas nodded and bit back impatience. For the past fifty years or so, people who made deals with demons always wanted to win the lottery or become famous for doing nothing. A hundred years ago they'd wanted to strike gold. Mark knew this because Silas had told him, but Silas had also scolded Mark for rushing his reports too often to get bent out of shape when the boy actually followed instructions.

"I've been keeping tabs on the Chicago investigation, which has pretty much petered out." Mark snickered at his own lame joke and then continued. "I finally got someone to tell me where this Owen character was from, some tiny ass town in Minnesota. So I called up the police department and the very first sergeant I got on the phone couldn't wait to tell me all the details. He was very cooperative. Six bodies, five of them with clear demonridden bite marks. The final body, the only woman of the bunch, got her head cut off." Mark waggled his eyebrows at Silas.

"So, you believe the beheaded woman was demonridden." Silas leaned back to consider what Mark was saying. "If that is the case, who killed the man in Chicago?"

"I'm getting there. The cops in Dundas decided that their killer had to be the girl they found passed out next to the last two bodies, girl by the name of Callie White. Her parents started screaming that they were wrong and everybody was unhappy when she was stuck in a high security psych ward. About a week before Pedersen bit it, she broke out. I put the file the sergeant sent me on our server." Mark pointed at the computer with a jerk of his chin.

Silas sighed and rotated in his chair. By the One, I hate computers. Silas clicked through the folders, looking for the new material Mark uploaded. He was still suspicious of the technology. It seemed like too much power to put in human hands and it certainly seemed to make it easier for the demonridden to manipulate the world around them.

"I think Callie White is runnin' around with a demon bite and probably getting hungrier by the minute. If she hasn't crossed over already." Mark said, unable to stop talking for more than a thirty seconds.

Silas waved his hand at Mark and opened the image files. He scrolled through the images of the bodies. The first four were all young men, probably sixteen or seventeen. They were mostly unclothed and had been torn apart and Silas saw a bite pattern in the flesh. If the doctor doing the autopsies were good at his or her job, the medical reports would mention sexual contact or assault. The sixth body was a boy, about fifteen and the only black victim; his race would have been unimportant except that he was Callie's brother. The differences in their racial appearances would be worth further investigation. The final boy's skull had been crushed. He was still fully clothed and had been found not far from the final victim's body, the young woman who had been decapitated.

"The girl, Callie, had a bite mark?" Silas asked.

"Yep, on the right thigh. At least, that's what the medical report said, from the emergency room where they brought her. The bite wasn't fresh. She was in a coma for months." Mark added, "There's a school photo of her in there. I titled it White1."

Silas opened another file and saw a girl who would be invisible at any school, even one as small as the one she attended. She was neither pretty nor ugly, with long thin hair in a washed out brown that was almost blond. Her skin was the kind of white that had yellow undertones. She had a pointed chin which, when combined with her too big eyes, made her look even younger. In the photo, she was hunching her shoulders and giving the person behind the camera a strained smile. Mostly, she looked uncomfortable.

"How did the Chicago cops miss this? For that matter, how did the Minnesota officers miss it?" Either way you looked at it, there was an obvious link between the events and Illinois was not so far from Minnesota. Silas made a brief mental note to look into Callie and her brother's adoption at a later point. He then turned his focus to more pressing problems.

"I think someone's trying to bury this and hard." Mark said, the humor in his face gone. "By the time I talked to anyone, the Chicago cops' had already decided Owen's death was an accident. Since he got beat to death, I don't see how anyone could think that, but every last one I talked to used the same phrase, 'an unfortunate incident'. It was seriously weird, man."

Silas finally let himself sigh. "I see. Well, that puts an unpleasant spin on the whole thing. Put the word out and we shall see if we can find her before she kills too often." Maybe we can still save her. Silas didn't hold out much hope. Six months was a long time for one of the bitten to go without food of some kind and the killing was so easy.

"No need." Mark twisted his mouth up into a smile. "Take a look at White2."

Silas lifted an eyebrow, but did as he was bid. It was a grainy black and white photo of a squat brick building. A figure was exiting through a set of double doors: small, thin, and wearing an enormous grey hoodie. Silas could see the outline of her face despite the hood and knew it was the target. He looked at Mark and quirked one eyebrow.

"Don't you want to know where she is?" Mark asked, studiously picking a piece of lint from his t-shirt.

"Do tell." Silas continued to look at him, knowing Mark had gotten this information using methods Silas had expressly forbidden.

"Chicago." Mark nodded, as if to himself.

Really? How surprising. "She did not run. Interesting." Silas let the silence spin out as he scanned the police report from Dundas. Mark was not comfortable with quiet. Silas paused for a moment over her psychological profile. I wonder if she's actually schizophrenic or if that was conveniently made up.

"I had Spider find it for me." Mark met Silas' eyes angrily as he spoke.

Silas made a tsking sound. "When he comes to collect his payment, I will not protect you. Not when you have so actively ignored my advice to stay away from him."

Mark snorted. "I'm not an idiot. I know the rules. He can't kill me and he can't permanently injure me emotionally, magically, or physically."

Silas kept his face still. "There is a great deal of latitude in the limitations I have placed on Spider and you know it."

"Don't you worry about me, boss man." Mark pushed himself out of his chair and strolled towards the door. "I'll tell Edie we're headed out to Chicago."

But Silas did worry about him. He worried about them all. Stupid, stupid children.

***

#### Chapter 2: Callie

Callie ducked into Union Station and stood for a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darker interior. It was just past nine in the morning, so the morning rush was basically over. She got a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a glass window and then looked away quickly. I do not look good. Her hair was roughly chopped to chin length and dyed an unflattering black. She was swimming in a huge, grey hoodie that needed to be cleaned and the hunger made her look like a junkie, all bone and pale sweating skin.

She kept her eyes down and walked purposefully towards the enormous central room. Over time, she'd found that cops and security guards hassled her less if she walked purposefully, even if she did look like a homeless Goth junkie.

To her immense frustration, she had been unable to destroy the book. She tried tearing it apart, crushing it, and soaking it in gasoline before setting it on fire. If she'd been able to get her hands on acid, she would have tried that too. Once, in a desperate attempt, she'd followed instructions in a pagan book of spells to remove an obstacle from one's path. Absolutely nothing happened except that she felt like an idiot.

She made her way to the wall of storage lockers by the baggage claim. There weren't many of them. Worries about terrorist attacks had eliminated this kind of storage option almost everywhere in the city. A couple of months ago, a skinny, desperate drug addict had robbed Callie at gunpoint. The only reason he hadn't taken the book was because he didn't think he could pawn it and she'd sobbed and begged. She'd been too shocked to remember to levitate and the whole thing could have been much worse.

There weren't many places an escaped serial killer with no identification could lock up something valuable. This was the only solution she had been able to come up with. Of course, the same fears that led to there being so few lockers meant it was against the rules to use the storage lockers for long-term storage. The only reason she could was walking towards her wearing a security guard's uniform.

"Rose, child, have you eaten this morning?" Dylan Hackett asked. He was in his sixties, with a round face and a round belly, and he worked the morning security shift at Union Station. He pulled on the belt of his uniform and looked at Callie in concern.

Callie looked down at the floor and nodded. "I did, Mr. Hackett." Callie reached out to touch the pattern of his mind briefly to reaffirm that her read of him was still true. As always, Hackett's mind was a tight weave of honesty, loyalty and an unyielding belief in right and wrong. If she hadn't been able to read him, Callie would have been certain Hackett was a pedophile or some kind of creepy killer. Nobody was this nice.

"You look like you had a rough night." Hackett said, stopping in front of the locker. He had a hint of an Irish brogue to his words that warmed her heart.

Callie shrugged one shoulder. "One night's like the next." It was hard to look Hackett in the face. He was a really good person and she had told him enough lies to make Jesus weep for shame.

Hackett reached out to pat her shoulder and Callie pulled away, flinching before she could stop herself. She shuddered as she thought about the times someone had touched her since she'd gotten bitten, excepting the horror show with Owen. It hurt so badly she thought her skin would burst open from the inside.

Hackett pulled his hand back and sighed. "I'm sorry, Rose. I forget."

Callie nodded, twisting her foot into the floor and rubbing her right arm with her left hand. She'd told Hackett that her father had sexually assaulted her in order to explain why she couldn't go home and why she didn't want anyone to touch her.

"I just don't understand why you won't talk to Pastor Daniels. He's a good man." Hackett frowned and settled his hands on his belt.

Callie sighed. Hackett's latest plan involved getting her to meet with the pastor of his church. It had been better when he'd focused on informing her about the location of homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Hackett was getting pretty insistent about it and Callie knew it was because she looked worse with every passing day. Still, it didn't matter. The pastor wasn't an option. If only I weren't a demon bitten freak considered responsible for murdering a whole hell of a lot of people.

Hackett didn't work on Tuesdays and Callie decided that tomorrow was soon enough to move the book to another place. There was a vent in an isolated bathroom in the public library nearby that might work. She would make sure this afternoon and move the book in the morning.

"Give me a couple more days, Mr. Hackett. I know you're right, but" Callie shrugged helplessly and looked at him with what she hoped were doe-eyes.

"You mean so you can do drugs." Hackett narrowed his eyes, eyebrows pulling together sharply. His mind flickered, suddenly sharp around the edges. Hackett disapproved of drugs so much it was a personality trait.

"No, Mr. Hackett. No drugs." Callie knew he didn't believe her and so decided to be honest for once. "Drugs would be easier to deal with, Mr. Hackett. Right about now, I'd take a drug habit if the rest of it would go away."

Hackett looked at her for a long moment and then gave her one firm nod. "This can't go on much longer, Rose, but you can have your few days. Now you go on, take care of your business." He motioned with his head at the locker.

"Thanks, Mr. Hackett. For everything." Callie smiled at him.

He shook his head and waved one hand dismissively, but she saw him smiling as he walked away.

She hit the buttons on the keypad and popped open the door to the locker. The book was wrapped in brown paper and pushed into the farthest corner of the small locker. Closing the door, she fed the bottomless pit of a machine more money. The amount of panhandling necessary to keep this insatiable thing in dollar bills was making it even harder to figure out how to destroy the book.

It was a fifteen-minute walk to the library and Callie tried to enjoy moving around, but she was so hungry that it was hard not to think about how much her body hurt. Callie stared at the people in front of her, trying not to think about what they would taste like in pain and fear. I'm so hungry. It was hard, though, and no matter how much food she ate her stomach was always growling. It was a clear, crisp fall morning and she tried not to think about what happened in January. There were a lot of topics to avoid thinking about. She just wanted to destroy that book and die. Six months ago, it had seemed like such a simple plan.

Callie paused to enjoy the gleaming white interior of the Harold Washington Library. It had surprised her when the library staff mostly left her alone as long as she was clean and didn't bother anyone. The library was only the solution she'd come up with to try and solve the problem of destroying the book, though the books and Internet research hadn't helped at all.

After spending the morning studying, Callie stood and stretched. She walked quickly up the stairs until she got to the fifth floor. Opening the door, she peered around to make sure no one was looking and then headed into a far, rarely used corner where there was a small, dusty one-person bathroom. It wasn't marked and Callie guessed that it was supposed to be for employees. The only thing that was important to her was that a couple of administrative staff screwed like rabbits in there on their lunch hour pretty much every day. As far as she could tell, no one else ever used this bathroom.

Callie sat down with her back to the shelves and tucked her head against her knees. One bunny arrived and then the second bunny. After a few minutes, a ripple of emotion shimmered into existence and Callie reached out and began siphoning it into herself. She still wasn't sure how she did this, but it was the only way she could function. Compared to eating Owen, this was just scraps, but so far, it had been enough to stop her from killing. And the power exuding from the enthusiastic bunnies was the only way she'd found the bathroom since she never would have looked twice at the door otherwise. This was also the safest way to eat since hunting scraps of pain and fear meant going near people in sketchy places.

After the bunnies had come and gone, Callie ducked into the little bathroom. She stood on the toilet and used a quarter to get the screws loose on the vent high up on the wall. Tucking the small screws into the front pocket of her hoodie, she eased the vent free, taking care not to scrape up the wall or the metal covering. Callie reached up and patted the area behind the covering. Though her hand came back filthy, there was a space large enough and flat enough to stash the book. She replaced the vent, used the facilities, rinsed her body quickly, and then went back to finish reading the book she'd started. It was likely as useless as the next, but it was better than doing nothing.

Once she finished the book, she left to spend part of the afternoon panhandling and then hoofed it north. There was a soup kitchen run out of a church on Michigan Avenue and it was a thirty or forty minute walk. There were closer places, but Callie hadn't been to this one in a while and she tried not to go to the same place too often. As she walked, she thought about the book, muttering, "I'm running out of ideas." A couple walking towards her crossed to the other side of the street; Callie couldn't blame them.

It was a relief to get inside the warm building and Callie scanned the room, looking for the other reason she never came to this soup kitchen: a volunteer whose mind was so disturbingly violent it was difficult to be in the same room with him; his mind slithered and pulsed. She cursed internally when she saw him, a nondescript man with short blond hair and a pink mouth that spread into a grin when he spotted her. Callie dropped her eyes to the floor and hoped the line would move quickly.

She ate efficiently, the food basic but good, waited until psychokiller guy had his back turned, and then slipped out into the cold night air. Her other hunger growled in her belly and she ignored it, hunching into her hoodie and walking quickly. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and interrupted her thoughts about where to crash for the night. Automatically, she reached out to scan the area with her mind. There was nothing there, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away. She'd learned to trust her instincts and so, with a quick glance around, she started to run and searched for a convenience store or some place she could duck and hide.

There! A neon light blinking about a block away made Callie pick up the pace, the air burning in her lungs. She was so hungry that it was hard to get her body to respond. A figure stepped out of the shadows and Callie shrieked in surprise. The figure was very tall and the breadth of the shoulders made her think it was a man. She wasn't sure, though, because she couldn't feel his mind at all. That was the scariest part.

She turned, almost falling on her ass, and headed back towards the church that held the soup kitchen, hoping to find refuge there. Another figure stepped out of the darkness and she couldn't tell if it was male or female. There was no mind for her to touch at all. Fear rose up the back of Callie's throat and choked her.

Suddenly, she couldn't feel the cool air of the night. Heat rose up around her, warm as a hot summer's day, and she blinked stupidly. Callie couldn't make her feet move, as stuck as a fly in honey. The urge to lie down and go to sleep was overwhelming.

After that, the world went black.

***

#### Chapter 3: Callie

Callie awoke slowly, but didn't open her eyes. Instead, she strained her senses and tried to figure out where she was. Somewhere, there was water dripping and the room smelled like damp stone. I'm in a basement. Goody. Callie tried to reach out and mentally scan the room for other people but a wave of dizziness rolled over her. No matter, she was pretty sure there was someone in the room.

She reached out and mentally touched her parents' memories. Whenever she touched people, their memories would pour into her. Most of the time, these memories faded; when she touched someone often enough, however, it was as if she had access to their memories as well as her own. Over the years, the memories from her parents, her brother, Rachel, and her childhood doctor had guided her in times of crisis. What do I do?

There was more than one person involved in your kidnapping, whispered the father-memories. Look small and helpless so they will underestimate you, advised the mother-memories.

"You can stop pretending to be asleep." A gravelly male voice said. He sounded amused.

Callie's spine stiffened in surprise before she could stop herself. Dammit! Opening her eyes, she looked at the rough, stone wall. She swung around and sat up in one motion and then regretted it as the room swam.

"Don't move so fast for a few minutes. The feeling will wear off." The same man said flatly.

She forced her eyes to focus on the room. She was sitting on a cot and there was a green, wooden door in the right hand corner of the room. The light bulb over the door backlit the man sitting in a chair. It was hard to see his face, but his hair was buzzed short and he was squeezed onto a narrow chair so he had to be tall. Or maybe the chair is tiny. His right ankle was resting on his left knee and his arms were folded over his chest. She scooted backwards until she could press into the corner. The hunger was like a black pit in her stomach.

"What did you do to me?" Callie asked. She didn't have to work to make her voice tremble.

"Nothing compared to what you did to Owen Pedersen." He said as he unfolded his legs and sat up. Leaning forward, he added, "Or have you been pretending that didn't happen?"

Callie pressed her lips together and glared at him as she fought the urge to knock him down and run. That was dumb, though, because somehow he'd incapacitated her and escaping was going to be difficult until she figured out how he had done it. I waited to escape the psych ward for three months. I can wait now.

"You are not going to escape." His voice was hard and empty.

She bared her teeth at him in response. I wonder what he tastes like when he's afraid. The thought trickled across Callie's mind and she shuddered, dropping her eyes. The hunger was so intense that it was hard to think and the room spun a little bit. "Mister, you gotta leave."

"It is the hunger." He sounded closer so Callie forced her eyes open. He'd stood up and he didn't fit in the room. He was hunched over and she could feel his eyes on her.

"How tall are you?" Callie blurted as the edges of her vision turned black. So hungry. Then what he said registered. "How do, how did you know about..." She trailed off. She couldn't even say it out loud.

"I know what really happened." His voice seemed to vibrate against her skin.

Callie couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up out of her throat. "I murdered seven people. I'm a mad woman." She started to cry even as giggles tore up out of her throat.

"I have read the police reports." He took a step closer as he spoke.

"Stop!" She held a hand up. "You have to stop. You have to let me out. I can't, you can't be near me!" She couldn't believe it when he took another step forward.

"But those reports don't know what really happened." He continued as if Callie hadn't spoken. "It was the girl, Rachel, she was demonridden."

"Demonridden." The word echoed in her head like bells ringing.

"Yes. Someone pulled a demon into our world and it rode your friend until you killed it." He took another two steps forward and squatted down in front of her. Callie could now see that he had a lean face with a long nose to match. His eyes were set underneath thick eyebrows and he smelled like food. She stared at him as he continued talking, "But before you killed her, she bit you and now you have all kinds of new abilities and the hunger to go with it. Tell me, is it just pain that feeds you?"

She stared at him as tears prickled at her eyes. Other people knew about demons and the relief that swept through her was quick and sudden. Then, Callie began to wonder how he knew about the demons, if maybe he was a demon and intended to feed on her. That was not going to happen again.

"It is okay, Callie. We have got you. We can help you." He reached out with one hand to touch her.

Callie panicked. If he touches me, I'll kill him. She dug down into herself as hard as she could and then jerked one hand out. The same power that allowed her to levitate flashed out and she got a quick image of his eyes opening wide in surprise before the force knocked him backwards and into the far wall of the room. Hunger stabbed her in the ribcage as she panted. Well, that's new. Get up, you stupid girl! She tumbled off the cot and hobbled to the door. It was locked.

The man was groaning and Callie looked at down at him. I wonder if he has a key. She considered that for a moment and then shook her head. Probably not a good idea to search him. She stared at the door and then decided to try to use her newfound skill. She pulled down deep into her belly and gestured at the door. It blew open with a satisfying crunch, followed by a hunger pain so sharp it drove her to one knee. She made a low keening sound of pain.

She crawled forward and then grabbed the door jamb to pull herself to her feet. She peeked around a corner and saw a mostly empty basement with a packed dirt floor. There were some cans of paint and a worktable in the far corner. Next to it, there was a set of stairs. Callie licked her lips and took a deep breath before forcing herself away from the door. She was so focused on putting one foot in front of the other that she didn't hear the door open and someone clomping down the steps. As a man's feet appeared Callie looked around frantically for a place to hide.

"Silas?! What was that?" His voice reached out to caress her and she stopped, swaying with hunger. Callie saw booted feet and jeans first and a white t-shirt over a flat belly. She could feel emotion flickering around him so thick she could almost taste it. He got to the bottom of the stairs and stopped when he saw her.

He smelled like a perfectly cooked piece of steak and what little light there was in the basement gleamed on his skin. Her hunger rose up to swallow her. Callie licked her lips and thought about speaking. I will drink him down and it will be good. She took a step forward.

"Whoa. You are definitely not supposed to be loose yet." He smiled and spread his hands in front of him.

The sharp spike of his fear burst on her tongue like chocolate. Shuddering, Callie tilted her head to see him better and then reached out with her power to grab him. He made a surprised choking sound and staggered backwards. She was barely on her feet, but she dug deeper and tried to pull some of the emotion swirling around him to her. He scrabbled at the stairs under his hands as he tried to get up.

"Edie!" He screamed, tilting his head up the stairs. "Edie, help!"

Callie frowned, not wanting to be interrupted. She was so hungry that the edges of her vision were turning black. If I can just touch him, I'll be okay. As she took a step forward, her right leg gave out and there was a roaring sound that made it hard to hear.

A slow, gentle warmth crept over Callie and pushed the hunger down. She came back to herself and looked down at fingernails torn from digging into the earth and her right knee dug into her sternum.

"Callie, Callie. It's okay. We can help you." A woman's voice this time, warm with a rounded accent Callie couldn't place.

The sob tore out of Callie's mouth and she couldn't stop the ones that followed it. Her muscles spasmed and even though she couldn't feel it, Callie knew it was the hunger.

"No one can help me." Callie said hoarsely, grateful she could speak at all. "It's too late. I can't control it. If you touch me, I'll kill you."

"Looks to me like you're already trying to kill someone." The voice was still warm, but there was a thread of disapproval.

"What?" Callie shook her head. Then she realized that her power was still wrapped tightly around the second man and she wasn't sure how she'd done it. Terror rose up and choked her. "How do I stop? What do I do?"

"It's okay. Just pull it back the same way you extended it." The woman stepped carefully down the stairs until she could bend and see into the basement. Callie looked at her, but didn't process much. The woman was just a blur.

"I don't know how I did it!" Callie said shrilly. She could feel her power coiled around the man on the stairs and she wanted so badly to suck his emotion from him. Tucking both knees under her, Callie curled her face down to sob brokenly into her knees. "Please kill me. Please."

"Callie, look at me." The woman sounded close.

"Don't touch me!" Callie squeezed out, turning her head to one side so she would be heard.

"I won't. If you let it go too long, the hunger tries to take what you need to survive. But you can control it. Imagine you're pulling a rope and storing it your stomach. Call the hunger back to you and then we'll feed you. Our friend Silas, he can give you what you need and it won't hurt him. Or you. You'll be okay. Can you do that for me, Callie?" She spoke slowly and clearly.

Now that she was closer, the feeling of warmth was stronger. Callie let out a shaky breath and focused on the promise that the hunger would stop. Callie thought about the power hovering around the man on stairs and then imagined pulling on a rope, pictured her hands tucking a thick rope inside the empty space in her chest. It came back grudgingly, snarling under her hands, but it released the man. The hunger ratcheted up and almost overpowered the warmth. As soon as Callie pulled the power back, a hand grabbed her above the elbow to haul her to her feet.

Callie howled, "Don't touch me," as her hands scrabbled at his shirt. Then the power came trickling onto her skin and it felt so good, she cried out. Another hand grabbed her neck and forced her gaze up.

"Look at me." The gravelly voice man ordered.

He was bleeding somewhere; the blood smelled like oranges. Callie met his eyes and sucked her breath in fearfully. His eyes were as hard and pitiless as a cold winter's night. Power rose up out of him and poured into Callie through his hands, a burning cold that felt so good it hurt. When the pain receded and left only the pleasure, she made a keening sound she was sure she'd never made before. She'd never felt anything so amazing. And then the world went black. Again.

****

#### Chapter 4: Edie Carter

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Mark gasped, "She coulda fuckin' killed me!" He was leaning against the wall, his eyes wide and his face pale. Sweat glittered in his forehead in the low light of the basement.

"Yes. She could have." Silas agreed, setting the girl down on the ground with a thump. "Good work, Edie."

The compliment warmed Edie a little, more so because Silas gave them rarely. Edie was not, however, in the mood to be distracted. "What the devil has gotten into you Silas? How'd she get loose in the first place?"

"Knocked me clear across the room." Silas replied as if he was reporting that water was wet. He looked down at the child with a stony gaze.

"Has she crossed?" Edie asked, still annoyed with Silas. Not so long ago, she would never have believed one of the newly bitten could have taken the tall man by surprise, not even when they turned out to be more powerful than expected.

"I don't think so. Look at her." Silas squatted down and pushed at her shoulder until the girl was on her back.

Edie sucked in a breath. "She's starving." The skin on the girl's face was sunken and stretched tight over her bones as if she didn't have an ounce of fat to spare. "She must have eaten something. Nobody can go six months without food."

"Hello! Why aren't we talking about how she almost killed me?!" Mark exclaimed and Edie frowned to hear the pout in his voice.

Edie turned to look at him. "You let a half-starved potential recruit take you out without so much as kicking your feet! You could have done half a dozen different things to stop her, all of which we have trained you to do.

"Fuck you, Edie!" Mark snarled. He was rubbing at his throat as if he didn't realize he was doing it.

Edie opened her mouth and then closed it. I am adult and he is a child. Don't take the bait.

"Be quiet, both of you." Silas said evenly.

They both shut up.

The silence stretched out as Silas remained motionless and stared at the unconscious girl. Mark opened his mouth once to say something, but Edie glared at him until he closed it. He glared at her in return, but that was just fine as long he kept his mouth closed.

"I think, Edie, that I was hasty in dismissing your earlier suggestion." Silas finally said. "Putting her in the basement, without your power to soften the blow, was not effective."

Edie jerked in surprise. Well, isn't he full of surprises today? Admitting that he had made a mistake was also something Silas did not do very often. "I see." Edie was proud she managed to sound neutral.

"Since I am pretty sure she has not yet turned, not completely, anyway, we will give her a chance. If it turns out we are wrong, we will deal with it. I will carry her upstairs." Silas leaned down to pick the girl up as if she weighed nothing. He stood and hunched his body over to fit into the low-ceiling room.

Edie backed up, waving at Mark to get out of the way. He scrambled up the stairs and Edie followed as quickly as she could.

Silas emerged into the kitchen, blinking in the sudden light. Edie met his pale, empty eyes unflinchingly as Silas spoke. "When she wakes, it would be best if neither of you touched her. We do not know what her control is like, but she seemed quite certain that touch was part of it."

When he looked at Mark, the boy flinched. Mark's color had returned and the arrogant tilt of his mouth with it. He's scared of Silas though, sure as a cat's got claws. Edie blinked in surprise as Silas did not tear into Mark as she expected and instead, sounding almost bored, Silas told Mark, "We will work on defensive drills this week. I would rather you did not die." Silas turned then to carry the girl to the empty upstairs bedroom.

Mark looked at Edie with his eyes wide and his lips pressed into a flat line. Edie shook her head and shrugged. She didn't know what was going on either. Edie shivered, rubbing her arms with her hands, and moved to follow Silas upstairs. The suburban house they were in was huge and yet still managed to feel just like almost every other suburban house Edie had ever been in. Edie preferred older homes, places with more quirks and character.

Silas set Callie on top of one of the beds in an empty bedroom. "The clothes she is wearing are filthy. I will find some clothes for her while you lay your power over her."

"How much juice should I give it?" Edie asked, hoping he would tell her to go heavy.

"Forty five percent. We want her to be able to talk." Silas said and then slipped from the room.

Forty-five was a good number. Edie rubbed her hands together and then closed her eyes. She imagined a coil of power emerging from her deep in her belly, imagined pulling it out through her sternum. In Edie's mind, her power was as golden as the sun on a summer's day. It helped her to extend her power out of the unconscious girl, threading it into Callie's power. When the other woman finally woke up, she would be completely relaxed and disinclined to fight.

Silas returned holding a stack of clothing. "These will be too big, but they are clean. I got her several sets of clothing. Based on the size of her closet, I cannot imagine the lady of the house will miss any of the items." He set the stack down on top of the small, child-sized desk.

"Shall I change her clothes?" Edie asked, licking her lips nervously. I do not want to touch that girl.

Silas sighed. "No. She has surprised us once already and we do not yet understand how her power works."

Edie nodded and turned to leave. It was easy enough to keep her power over the girl from anywhere in the house. She paused and then asked, "Do you want me to stay?"

"Yes." Silas said quietly.

Edie nodded and then found a place to sit. Silas removed Callie's clothing briskly, holding each item between his finger and thumb before dropping it in a pile on the floor.

Edie sucked in her breath to see the way Callie's ribs and hipbones jutted out. "God, Silas, it's amazing Mark is still alive."

"I know. I have seen bitten look this bad, but they are usually older. The younger ones cannot help but kill." Silas began pulling the large, loose shorts and tank top onto the young woman.

Edie shot Silas a look. When did you see something like that? Of course, she would never ask him such a question. In the eighteen years they'd known each other, Edie knew she'd learned more about Silas than he preferred and he disliked it when she tried to pry into his past.

"She must have fed on something, though, or she would be dead." Edie said as Silas lifted the girl again. Edie stood up and folded the covers down on the bed.

Silas nodded in agreement as the two of them left the room together. "We will sort it out after she has woken up." Silas picked up the pile of clothing with a curl of his lip. "I will put these in the trash." He continued, "She will sleep for a while, but we should keep an eye on her."

"I can do that." Edie was curious to talk to someone who had managed to knock Silas into a wall. Whatever the outcome, it was bound to be interesting.

****

#### Chapter 5: Callie

When Callie woke up the second time, she was in a comfortable bed, full, and warm. It had been such a long time since she felt this good that it was difficult to care that she'd been kidnapped and knocked out twice. Callie stretched lazily and then sat up.

Morning light slanted across the floor as she let her eyes move around the room slowly. She had to be in a little boy's room. The twin bed had a dark blue bedspread on it and there was a wallpaper border around the room with balls from different sports: soccer, basketball, and football. The shelves along one wall were lined with books and toys.

When Callie's eyes reached the woman sitting in the room, she paused. The woman was black with skin more coffee than cream and so very smooth. Callie guessed she was in her early thirties, and the white silk blouse and beige trousers made Callie feel young and scruffy. The woman's hair was cut in a short, stylish afro and she had red tear drop earrings. Callie touched her hair self-consciously. There was a book resting in the woman's lap and she had her lips pursed in amusement.

"I'm sorry to stare." Callie managed to say, dropping her eyes. Callie was surprised she didn't blush. It usually took so little to make her blush that it was odd when it didn't happen. Callie felt so warm and relaxed that it was like being curled up in a sunbeam. "Is that you? That warmth?"

The woman nodded. "It is." Her voice was as round and soft as Callie remembered.

Callie thought about it some more, her thoughts moving slowly. As she often did when she was confused about what to do, Callie tried to draw on the parts of her mind that contained her parents' memory sets. For the first time in her life when she touched the place in her mind where the memories were, she found nothing. It was like listening to static on a radio. I'm alone. "I'm pretty freaked right now, huh?"

"Yes, I would say you are." She smiled and Callie smiled back. "Most of the recruits are very afraid at this point."

"I can't really think. Maybe I should lie back down." Callie blinked slowly and with great effort.

"I've turned the juice pretty high. You're stronger than we expected and we don't really know how much control you have. If I let up a little, will you promise to listen to me for a few minutes? I won't hurt you." The woman folded her hands and looked at Callie, waiting for her answer.

Callie considered what she said, but still couldn't think straight. Instead, she reached out to touch the woman's mind. Even through the heat enveloping her, Callie could sense the woman. Her mind was unusually sharp and clear. She was reliable and calm, the pattern shot through with a surprising ruthlessness. Underneath that, she was so sad that Callie started to tear up a little bit in sympathy. Sniffling, Callie nodded. "Okay. Just a little though, just so I can think."

"Good. I'm glad." The woman closed her eyes and the heat receded.

As it did, fear bubbled up and Callie's throat closed up tight and she started to breath heavily and claw at the bedspread.

"Sorry. Let me just..." The woman said.

Callie closed her eyes and shuddered as the fear slipped away on a wave of warmth. "That's, okay. That's good." Callie wiped the tears off my face. "Helluva power you've got there, lady."

"Edie. My name is Edie." She tilted her head as she looked at Callie.

With a sharp and bitter laugh, Callie said, "Okay. Edie. Tell me what the hell is going on."

Edie pursed her lips and then flattened them into a line. "Alright, here's how we are going to do this. I'm going to give you a very brief outline about what is going on. Then, we're going to go downstairs and have some breakfast. You can meet Mark and Silas formally." She gave a little smile as she said this last part.

Callie shifted uncomfortably. Our informal introduction was enough for me, thanks.

"You keep asking questions and we'll keep answering them as best we can." She continued, "It's going to take you days to accept the basics of what I'm saying and months to really understand what's going on. So just, be patient with yourself and with us." Then she stopped talking.

"Am I supposed to do something now?" Callie asked, feeling confused about what was going on. It was so hard to think.

"No. No. I'm just trying to organize my thoughts." She held up a hand and looked away for a moment. "There is another world touching ours that is filled with demons or, at least, that's what we call them. They call themselves something else entirely, though that is neither here nor there. Every now and again, human beings manage to pull these demons through to our side. The human dies, of course, and the demon gets a person shaped suit to live in. We call these creatures the demonridden."

Callie opened her mouth to ask a question and Edie answered it before the younger woman could speak. Shaking her head, Edie said, "I don't know why. No one knows why. And they have to ride a human body."

Even through the haze of her power, the word made Callie's body shake. She saw Rachel's face as her jaw extended beyond what was possible, her teeth elongating into sharp, serrated needles and heard the sound of her brother's skull popping as Rachel bit down.

"Callie, are you okay?" Edie asked, her eyes flicking back and forth as she searched Callie's face for some sign the girl was about to lose control.

It was a look that Callie was used to so she just nodded and made a keep-going motion with her hand.

"The demonridden can die. You know that." Edie continued, a small frown marring her delicate eyebrows. "Most of the time, when one of the demonridden bites someone, they die. If they don't, well, they end up like us." She motioned to herself and then to Callie.

"A demon bit you?" Callie asked, even though she knew it was a dumb question since Edie had just said exactly that. Callie considered asking her how it happened, but it felt rude and so she twisted the sheets in her hands.

Edie scooted forward in the chair and pulled her blouse loose. "When I was twelve, my brother was, he, he became one of the demonridden." She lifted her top and across her ribs was a smooth, white scar.

"Did he lick you?" Callie asked and then tried to blush. "I'm sorry. It's just, that doesn't look like mine." The scar on her right thigh tingled as she thought about it and Callie resisted the urge to touch it.

Edie smoothed her shirt and tucked it back in. "He didn't lick me, but I can see why you would think that. Demons aren't all the same. The way that they feed, the things that they can do, it's often quite different. And the same demon could bite six people and every one could have a different reaction. If I knew why, I would tell you."

Callie nodded and looked at the bedspread and then smoothed it. She had so many questions and no idea where to start. After a moment, Callie asked, "Am I a prisoner?"

Edie blinked, as if she hadn't considered this question. After a moment, she sighed. "Sort of. If you don't get some kind of training, the chances are high you will get lost in the hunger. You will hurt people and probably kill them. There are those among the bitten who would value such terrible inclinations, but we are not among them. Silas will assess your abilities and then either he will train you himself or he will provide you with someone appropriate. You don't have much choice about that. Once you are sufficiently trained, you will be free to return to your life. Though..." Edie stopped and pressed her lips together. She smoothed the fabric of her pants, as if the feel of the cloth comforted her.

"Though?" Callie prompted, since returning to normal life was never going to happen. Of course, being "assessed" by Silas sounded as about as appealing as getting jabbed with a fork. Left to her own devices, Callie would never lay eyes on the man again.

Edie shrugged. "It's a little early to mention this, but we usually offer trained recruits the chance to join us, the bitten who work to prevent others of our kind from doing too much harm. Not everyone is interested, but many are. There are more of us than you might think." She smiled then, as if that were supposed to be appealing.

Callie's stomach sank and she grumbled with a twist of her lips, "Awesome."

Edie opened her mouth to say something and then closed it as Callie's stomach audibly rumbled. It went on for an embarrassingly long time. Callie covered her mouth and giggled.

"Well, I think maybe it's time for breakfast." Edie stood as she said this, tucking the book in her lap against her chest.

Callie nodded and scooted out of the bed. As she looked down, she realized that her clothes were different and her brain skittered away from thinking too hard about who had made the switch. Callie crossed her arms over her chest, acutely aware that she wasn't wearing a bra. It made her feel vulnerable and kind of naked. "Hey Edie, is there a robe, or something?"

"I can do you one better." She pointed at pile of clothing that sat on the desk behind her. "I'll wait outside while you dress."

"Okay." Callie caught a whiff of bacon and coffee as Edie opened and closed the bedroom door. She shook the clothes out and began pulling the underwear and pants on. There was a sports bra and a clean t-shirt as well. Everything was a little bit too large and Callie ruefully noted that she wasn't going to win any fashion contests. At least I've got real clothes. Callie stepped into the hall, keeping her arms straight by her side and her eyes on the floor.

"This way, Callie." Edie said.

Watching Edie's feet move past her, Callie followed the other woman through a large house done mostly in beige. There were two more bedrooms on the hallway before the house opened up onto a large landing that over looked the stairs and a two-story entryway. The carpet was textured and flat. As they walked down the stairs, Callie saw a living room on the left that seemed connected to a dining room. Edie walked to the right, through a small hallway, and into a large kitchen and family room. There was a set of sliding doors on the far wall overlooking a small fenced in backyard. Beyond that, trees rustled in the wind.

The kitchen had a big island in the middle of it with brown marble counter tops. The furniture in the family room was brown leather and looked like it had been purchased for appearance rather than comfort. There was a guy standing in front of the range, and Callie thought he might be a couple of years older than she was. She reached out, very delicately, to touch his mind. The clarity of the read was as startling as Edie's had been. He was cocky and sure of himself, but underneath that he was afraid and angry. Callie recognized the man she'd tried to eat.

"Mark." Edie's low voice sounded suddenly tight and unfriendly. Callie looked over at her in surprise. The feeling of Edie's mind changed as the hard beads of ruthlessness multiplied.

Mark turned around and Callie didn't bother to pretend she wasn't studying him. She guessed he was a couple of inches taller than her, maybe 5'10". His hair was frizzy and dark blond, with the top part long and pulled into a ponytail while the bottom part of his head was buzzed short. His skin was the kind of brown white guys get from being in the sun a little too long and his eyes matched. His nose was a little bit too large for his face and his lips were full. A silver stud gleamed in his left ear and he had two small, thick hoops in his right ear. Mark would have blended into Dundas without so much as a ripple in the water and Callie suddenly felt homesick. Even the tattoos are right, she though, looking at the faux-tribal tattoo around his left forearm and flaming dice on his upper right arm that peaked out from beneath the t-shirt.

Mark grinned at Callie and motioned his hands up and down his front, "You want I should turn around?"

"No, that's okay. I got a good look before." Callie giggled before she could stop herself, the sound bubbling out of her.

He snorted and Callie laughed. "So, you gonna try and eat me again?" He asked, turning back to the stove.

"Probably not. You look less delicious now that I'm full." Callie sat down at the breakfast bar and reached out to steal a piece of bacon. Mmm, crunchy salty goodness.

"Oh man, that hurt. You know, you don't gotta be so mean." He was grinning when he turned back around. He had yet to actually look at or talk to Edie. Mark was wearing a t-shirt that was a little bit too large and a pair of well-worn jeans with a hole in the left knee.

"There's coffee." Mark said, pointing to a small plastic pitcher on the counter. Callie stared at it, unsure of what it is. "For you too, Edie." This time he did look at the other woman, but his eyes were hard.

Callie looked over and saw a matching expression on Edie's face. "Um," Callie said, trying to break the tension in the room. "I don't drink coffee."

Mark gave Callie a sly half grin. "Don't let Silas know that. Boss man's got a real thing for coffee."

Since Callie didn't know what to say to that, she just gave him half shrug in response. Edie reached out, twisted the top on the plastic pitcher, and then poured coffee into a mug. Callie had a momentary pang of regret that coffee never tasted as good as it smelled.

"What is that?" Callie asked, curiosity winning out over discomfort.

"It's a French press." Edie replied, flicking a glance at the other woman.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Silas will explain it to you in great detail, whether you want to hear it or not." Mark rolled his eyes and then made a face, as if to say he'd gotten the explanation himself and it was boring.

Callie giggled again. God, what has gotten into me? She liked Mark in a sharp and immediate way that didn't feel right. "Why do I want to trust you?" Callie asked him, sitting up sharply and glaring. "Is that what you do?"

Mark's mouth dropped open and he shot a glance at Edie. Callie looked over and found the other woman staring.

After a moment, he said, "Yeah, that's one of the things I do. How did you know?"

"I can feel it. How do I make it stop? Can you make it stop?" The words tumbled out of Callie's mouth. Now that she knew it was happening, it was making her skin itch.

Mark turned the corners of his mouth down, "I can make it stop." He didn't sound pleased about it.

Not my problem. After a moment, Callie felt like someone had pulled a heavy wool blanket away. She sighed, pushing her shoulders back and moving her head from side to side to relax a little bit. "Better. Thank you." Callie looked at Mark, curious to see if he looked different. He didn't. "Are you going to be mean to me now, because you can't be sure I'll like you?"

Edie snickered into her coffee and Mark shot her a narrow eyed look. When he turned back to face Callie, the look was gone. His posture stiff, he said, "I'll be nice to you, if you're nice to me. I probably shouldn't have done it, but, well, you tried to kill me and I thought things might go better if you liked me."

"Oh." If Callie hadn't been swimming in warmth, she would be embarrassed right about now. "I'm sorry about that." Callie looked up and met his eyes. He nodded and gave a half grin. The cockiness was climbing back into his eyes.

"How do you like your eggs? I make a mean egg." He set his hands against the marble countertop and leaned in, the muscles in his arms flexing. Mark tilted his head as if he were asking for a secret.

Callie bit back a grin and she said, "Scrambled," and reached out to take another piece of bacon.

Mark snagged a pan off of the range and scraped the contents onto a plate. He handed the plate to Edie and pointed to the toast peaking out of the toaster.

"Thanks, Mark." Edie said, her voice soft again. She walked over and began buttering her toast.

Mark shrugged, as if it weren't a big deal, but he smiled as he turned back to the stove.

"So, uh, do you guys kill demons? Or demonridden, or whatever." The question tumbled thoughtlessly off her tongue.

Mark and Edie both rotated to stare at Callie. Then Mark said, "Wow, you're gonna ask, just like that?"

At the same time, Edie said in a flat, emphatic tone, "No."

Callie bit her lip. "Why not?"

A gravelly voice slid up Callie's spine, "Because we don't want to die." With that cheery pronouncement, Silas eased into the room. Callie turned towards him in surprise, jabbing her ribs against the counter for her trouble. Even through the haze of Edie's power, just the sound of his voice sent her heart rate climbing. His power was a palpable thing, sliding across her skin and leaving a trail of goose bumps.

Rubbing her arms, Callie glanced at him briefly and flicked her eyes away. "Oh." She licked her lips and nodded. That was brilliant, Callie. Good job! Callie turned her body away from him, and tried to get her heart rate under control. She hoped he couldn't see how much he scared her and how much she wanted to crawl into his power and drink him up. Callie focused her eyes on Mark's back, though she could still see Silas out of the corner of her eye. He walked over to Edie, touching her back gently, as he snagged the other piece of toast. Edie leaned into his hand momentarily and Callie wondered at that. Callie watched as Silas walked around so he could get at the French press, coming so close that she could have reached out to touch him. His power crackled over her skin and Callie tried to hold herself still, but then she was out of her chair and across the room before she could stop herself.

Silas turned to stare at Callie, coffee pot in one hand, eyebrows raised, and a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth. He shouldn't look dangerous. Callie forced herself to look at him the way she had looked at Edie and Mark. Anywhere between twenty-five and forty, he was ridiculously tall, 6'3" or 6'4", and lean. Many men with that build, even the athletic ones, seemed to be mostly knees and elbows. Silas, though, was sleek and Callie could see the play of muscles underneath his jeans and long sleeved cotton top. He moved like a shark through the water, with no doubt or hesitation.

It did not help that he was handsome to boot, with olive skin and a bump in his nose that should have looked stupid but didn't. His mouth was firm and wide, the thin lips managing to look enticing. His eyes, well, Callie couldn't actually look him in the eye.

"Callie? Callie!" Edie's voice cut through the Callie's panic. With a start, Callie realized that Edie had said her name several times. She was standing several feet closer as well.

Callie looked at Silas' cheekbone firmly. "Dude, I know I'm supposed to be all, 'oh, powerful trainer guy, teach me'," Callie made her voice squeaky and high pitched for the last part before continuing in her normal tone of voice. "But you have got to turn the voltage down. I can't breathe." She made a slashing motion with her right hand, hoping she seemed firm and in control and not absolutely terrified.

Silas didn't look away from Callie as he set the coffee pot down. Pulling the toast from his mouth, he asked quietly, "Mark? Edie?"

They seemed to know what he was asking because Edie shook her head.

Mark added, "You feel the same to me, boss man."

Silas nodded. "I apologize. I did not realize you were quite this sensitive. Give me a moment and I will turn the "voltage" down." He actually made rabbit ear motions with the hand not holding the toast. If Callie hadn't been so afraid, she would have laughed at him.

Unlike Mark's power, which simply vanished, Silas' power rippled over her skin and Callie chewed the inside of her mouth to stop herself from crying out. It felt almost like it was tugging at her and when it was finally gone, she had to step forward so she wouldn't fall on her face.

"Come, sit." Silas said, motioning with hand towards one of the couches in the family room. "Let us talk. I will keep my distance from you."

Callie could hear the 'for now' on the end of the last sentence and swallowed. I do not want to be here. Of course, there wasn't much she could do about it, at least right now. Callie sat down on one of the brown leather couches. Silas sat down on the other couch, chewing the toast and holding the coffee cup.

Mark brought Callie a plate. "Here, kid, you look like you could use some food."

"Thanks." Callie started eating the eggs so she wouldn't have to talk to Silas. He just waited silently, sipping his coffee.

As Callie finished and wiped her mouth on the paper towel, Silas broke the silence. "Can you sense anything other than power?"

"Nope." Callie replied promptly. This was not a surprising question and there was no need for these people to know she'd been a freak long before a demon had bitten her.

Mark, now sitting at the breakfast bar and eating his own breakfast, called out in a singsong voice, "Liar!"

Callie glared at his back. No way.

"Want to answer that question again, only with the truth this time?" Silas quirked his lips in what Callie guessed was his version of a smirk.

"Not really." Callie folded her arms over her chest and focused on looking angry instead of scared.

Mark turned around to look at them both, grinning from ear to ear. "She told the truth that time."

"Come, Ms. White. I cannot help you if you do not help me." Silas had shoved the smirk down and now just looked earnest. Callie wanted to point at him and call him a liar, see how he liked it. She thought frantically. Her ability to touch the pattern of other people's minds frightened people and there was no reason to advertise how strange she was. Being bitten by a demon is enough.

"Can you hear what people are thinking?" Silas asked, crossing one ankle over his knee. He looked like he was getting comfortable for a long Q & A session.

Callie bit her lip and tried to think of a way to distract them. "I can levitate." She picked at a small thread coming loose in her jeans as she shot a quick glance up, careful not to meet his eyes. Silas looked like he was trying not to laugh. "What? I can."

"That is good to know and we shall certainly discuss that further. Can you hear what people are thinking?" Silas' voice was even and it made her want to throw things at him.

"No." Callie chewed on her bottom lip, trying to figure out how to get out of this. "Levitation really doesn't do anything for you? I'm a lot stronger, like, I think I could bench press a hundred pounds."

Silas looked over at Mark, who, without turning around, lifted his left hand up in the air and gave a thumbs up. Silas looked back at Callie, "It is likely you can bench press more than that. Strength is a fairly consistent side effect."

"You're really gonna go with side effect? That's the word that sounds good to you?" Callie shook her head, wondering how strong his grasp on sanity was.

Silas shook one finger at her. "You will not distract me. When did you first notice that you could sense power?"

Oh my god. "Listen, I can't sense power. I just get an impression of people's personality. When I touch them, I get a stronger impression. It's not an exact science."

Again, Silas looked over at Mark and got another thumbs up. At some point, Callie realized that Edie was no longer in the room, though the warmth of the woman's power still clung to her skin.

Callie suppressed a sigh of relief. It was possible to lie by omission and, god damn, Callie needed that wiggle room.

"How do you accomplish this?" Silas sounded intrigued.

"I don't know. How do you breathe?" Callie asked, huffing and rolling her eyes.

Mark noisily pushed one of the chairs at the breakfast bar further away and then set his feet on it. He picked up a magazine and flipped it open.

"Mark." Silas didn't look at the younger man this time, but there was a hint of a growl in the word.

"What? Oh, yah. Too much interference." Mark waved a hand in Callie's direction.

Callie turned her head to the left to consider Mark's words while Silas pressed his lips together. "Do you know the range of this ability?" Silas asked.

Callie shrugged one shoulder.

"Lie." Mark said without looking up from his magazine. He pointed his forefinger and thumb like it was a gun and then 'pulled' the trigger.

"That is really annoying." Callie snarled, irritated beyond belief. Fear and worry needled her and it was still hard to think.

"I know." He flashed Callie a look, mouth in a half grin and wiggling his eyebrows.

"Fine. Fifty feet? Somewhere around there, anyway. I don't push it as far as I can because it hurts." She flipped Mark the bird as she spoke.

"Don't shoot the messenger, kid." Mark said to Callie and then he added, looking at Silas. "That last part was true."

"Do it now." Silas ordered.

"No." She replied immediately. Callie considered flipping him off as well, to emphasize her refusal and then chickened out. "I said it hurts."

"Try. Stop the moment it begins to hurt." Silas stood and walked into the kitchen. He started washing dishes.

Callie sat there, blinking in confusion. I expected a little bit more, I don't know, cajoling or threatening? Is he going to ignore me into obedience?

"Do us both a favor and just do it." Mark said, looking up from the magazine. "He's just going to follow you around all day, 'just try it. Are you afraid to try? Why would you be afraid of something that is a part of you'?" As Mark impersonated Silas, he deepened his voice and pulled his eyebrows down in an angry line. The expression faded and with a grimace, he said, "I've got a headache just thinking about it."

Callie smiled at his antics. "You people are nuts, you know that right?"

"Oh yeah. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best part of the job." Mark smiled back.

Callie pulled her legs up off the floor and crossed them. Reading from a distance was really unpleasant, like stretching a muscle too far, and it felt like something would tear if she went too far. She felt Mark first, that same arrogant/scared mesh. When Callie touched Silas' mind for the first time, she froze in shock. He was there, but it was like trying to pick up a cold, slippery stone. There was no information to read. She swallowed, anxiety tight and low in her belly.

Edie was upstairs. Reliable/ruthless/sad. Callie stretched her mind out as a slow ache began to bloom at the base of her skull.

There was no one in the house on the right. As Callie reached out in the other direction, she brushed across a mind that was a tight snarl of hunger and rage. It scared her more than touching Silas' mind.

"There's something out there." She managed to choke out.

Mark shot out of his seat and across the room. He jerked open a drawer and pulled out a gun.

"You have a gun? What the fuck?" Callie stood up and then realized she didn't have anywhere to go.

Silas continued washing dishes. "What is it?"

Callie stared at his back.

He turned the water off, picked up a towel and started drying his hands. He turned around and leaned against the sink. "Ms. White, what is out there?"

She slowly sat back down.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Mark snarled at Silas. "What the fuck is out there?!"

"If you had scouted the perimeter, as I asked, you would know." Silas gave Mark a long, level look.

Mark curled his lip at Silas and then turned on his heel and marched out of the room. Callie was grateful he took the gun with him.

Silas walked towards her and she could feel his eyes on the side of her face. Callie shifted on the couch to avoid meeting his gaze. She realized that she'd pointed herself towards the mind she had sensed. Silas came and stood behind her, facing the same direction. Callie's shoulders rose of their own accord as a tight feeling spread between her shoulder blades.

When he put two fingers on her neck, she jerked in surprise. She opened her mouth to tell him to get his hands off, but then the power trickled down into her skin and Callie shuddered instead. She knew she should get up, get away, but she just couldn't do it.

Callie listened to him talk and waited for his mind to overwhelm her, the way it did when anyone touched her, waited for the feeling of drowning in another person to tear her open.

"Most of the things that are happening to you have happened to others. Levitation. Strength. Even telepathy. Being able to sense power, though, that is unusual. I intended to dispatch our friend in the bushes after you and I met one another, but now I see another use for it." He paused.

It still hadn't happened. His mind felt the same and she knew exactly nothing about him. This had never happened before. Callie's shoulders slowly lowered and she brushed his mind again and again, trying to figure out what was going on. The more she touched the cold stone of his mind, the less it seemed like a stone. There was so much more underneath. It was as if he had buried so much of himself that there was nothing to read. She'd watched a PBS show about crocodiles when she was little. All she could remember was the image of a crocodile waiting for its prey underwater with only its eyes resting above the water. She'd had nightmares for weeks. That's what Silas' mind felt like, like a crocodile's mind. Just waiting. Only it was cold, too. He's a snow crocodile. She giggled at the mental image.

"There is something funny?" Silas asked, his fingers still on her neck.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry. I drifted off there." She laughed. I think I'm high. The thought made her laugh again.

Silas said, so quietly Callie almost didn't hear him, "Please focus, Ms. White. What can you sense?"

She cleared her throat, ignored the laughter trying to climb out of her mouth, and reached out with her mind. It was hard not to flinch as her mind touched the thing outside. It had been human once and now it was so hungry. "It's not a demon. Once it was male. It eats everything. And..." She stopped and thought about it. It was hard to make the jumbled impressions make sense. "Can it see things that are far away, like tracking them?"

"That is an impressive ability, Ms. White. You are correct on all points." Silas removed his hand from her neck and backed away.

The loss of contact made Callie a little dizzy and she turned again to slump over the arm of the couch. She felt warm and lazy. "You know what that is?" Her voice was low and she wasn't sure if it was Silas' power or Edie's that made her feel this way.

"Yes. We call them leeches." Silas replied. "Many demonridden cannot control the ones they bite. Some of the oldest, however, can and the leeches have been bitten just such a creature. He throws them out like seeds on the wind. They eat whatever they can find and he lets them have enough to live. Everything else gets siphoned off to him."

Panic fluttered at the edges of her mind, but nothing seemed very important. She managed to say, "Creepy."

Silas shot her a small smile. "Indeed. Remain here. I shall return shortly."

Callie reached out again to touch his mind. It was so strange. Even though it was uncomfortable to touch, it was also fascinating. What would make a mind feel this way?

As Silas' mind turned sharp and spiky, Callie realized she'd made a mistake. She could feel the vibration in her hands as he drove a sword into the leech's chest. Callie tried to pull herself free and found that she couldn't. Panic started to rise up from her belly until she thought she would choke on it. But when Silas start siphoning power off the other man in sharp bites, the panic roared through her and Callie bit her lip until she tasted blood.

He's eating him. Oh my god. Oh my god. He's eating him!! She put her hands on her head and imagined a brick wall around her head to try to break the connection with Silas. The link snapped and she fell, gasping, onto her knees. Terror, panic, and anxiety washed through as Edie's influence faded as well. Suddenly, the voices of her family blared through her mind. It was Rachel's memories, however, that came through the clearest. Callie-girl, why the fuck are you still here? Before the rachel-memories had finished the thought, Callie was pulling the sliding door open and running. As she neared the fence, she jumped and then pushed her power at the ground. She was up and over the fence in two heartbeats.

Callie didn't know where she was going, but away from her current location seemed like a good idea. There was so much information swirling in her head that it was hard to think about anything at all. On top of that, she had no idea if any of it was true. Her bare feet slapped against rocks and branches, stinging sharply as she ran.

She was so preoccupied that she missed the dip in the ground in front of her. She took a tumble, shrieking in surprise, and totally failed to use her ability to levitate. Callie slide to the bottom of a small depression in the ground. She slowly got to her feet, running her hands over her head to see if there was any blood. She panted, gasping for air, and wondered what the hell she was going to do. There weren't many trees in this little dip, but there were enough trees around that there wasn't much direct sunlight. The ground was partially covered with newly fallen leaves and she could smell the earth disturbed by her fall.

"Well, bless me, today's my lucky day." A man said and then he giggled.

Christ, now what? Callie looked around, trying to spot him, and reached out with her mind. A cold chill went down her spin as she recognized the vicious/cautious/greedy mind of the psychokiller guy from the soup kitchen. How did he find me?

Callie turned around to face him. He was standing at the edge of the valley, looking down. His slacks and gleaming black shoes looked out of place here in the woods, even if it was the woods behind a suburban housing division.

"You don't know how disappointed I was when those louts took you!" His voice was a little bit squeaky. He began clambering down, seemingly unhampered by his inappropriate footwear.

Callie started backing away, wondering how long it would take to make it up the other side.

"But then, I saw the leech and I knew I could still have you. I'd been waiting for so long, you see." He grinned at her, mouth stretching over teeth, and his pale eyes glittered avidly.

It finally occurred to Callie that he was one of the bitten and that he wanted to "have" her, which could mean pretty much anything and none of it good. She turned and launched herself up the hill. There would be no having of any kind.

He giggled again, "Ooo, goody!"

Callie made it out of the valley and maybe ten feet before he crashed into her back. She tumbled forward and smashed into the ground. Callie snarled and pushed herself off the ground with one hand, twisting around so she could make a backhanded motion at him. The levitation force rolled off her arm and into his face. He snapped backwards with a satisfying crunch.

She scrambled to her feet and turned, deciding to fight instead of run. She threw another wave of power at him and he dove to one side. Rocks and dirt exploded.

He was laughing. "Kitten wants to play! I love to play!" He rolled to his feet and as he did his body changed. By the time he stood, his legs and arms had lengthened, and his whole upper body shifted itself forward until it was almost parallel to the ground. His head looked like it had been sucked into a tube, his wide mouth lined with sharp teeth.

In retrospect, Callie realized she should have thrown power at him until she knocked his ass to pieces. Instead, she stood there, gaping at the horrible thing in front of her. He, it, whatever the fuck it was, moved towards her.

Over the creature's shoulder, Callie saw Silas coming through the trees. He was running flat out, arms and legs moving with a fluid grace that she admired, even though she was terrified and about to be eaten. His eyes were fixed on the creature and she noted that they were a pale color. Grey, maybe? As he got closer, he reached one hand up and drew a sword from a sheath on his back. The long, straight length caught flashes of sunlight. She'd never really thought about it, but running with a sword must be difficult. Not that Silas looks like he's having any trouble.

Right about then, the creature hit her in the ribs. She went down like a sack of potatoes and then tried to keep rolling to get away from thing. She managed to scramble to her feet, touching her ribs briefly to make sure nothing was broken.

Silas used his momentum to send one booted foot straight out, catching the creature in the lower back. The creature that used to be a really psycho guy shrieked and tried to turn. Silas stepped quickly to one side and with a sharp motion, chopped its head off. The head rolled with dull thumps across the dirt ground. The body remained upright for a moment before it also fell with a louder thump.

"Holy shit," was all Callie could manage in response.

***

#### Chapter 6: Callie

Silas wiped the sword on the remains of the now dead guy's shirt and then sheathed it. Or Callie assumed he sheathed it since it disappeared down the back of his top. He wasn't even breathing hard. "You are a great deal of trouble, Ms. White."

"You ate him! All that talk about how bad the demonridden are and how you're going to teach me to be better than that and you ate him! It was disgusting." She spat the words at him as she stumbled backwards. This whole thing is just crazy.

Silas didn't say anything. He just stood there looking at her.

Fine with me. Callie turned around and started marching away.

When Silas grabbed her arm, as she knew he would, Callie turned and hit him with as much power as she could muster. She could only reach his neck, but her fist made a satisfying thumping sound so she hit him again. She tried pulled her arm free, digging her nails into his fingers hard enough to draw blood. "Get your hands off me, you piece of shit monster. Let go!" The whole time, his facial expression didn't change.

When Callie raised her hand to hit him again, she never made contact. Instead, the world blurred and when she could make sense of what was going on, she was pinned so thoroughly she could barely move. Hitting the ground drove the air out of her lungs and it felt like Silas had dropped his whole body weight on her bruised ribs. Callie exhaled all the air in her lungs in one long whoosh. His head was tucked into her shoulder so she couldn't bite him and his shoulder was pressed into her sternum. He'd grabbed each of her wrists with his hands and pinned them to the ground. One leg was pinning both of Callie's and the other was positioned far away from her body to give him leverage.

Callie began to scream insults at him, trying to get loose, buck him off of her, or bite him. When she ran out of things to say, she began to sob. She couldn't wipe the tears or the snot off her face and she hated him for it. Eventually, Callie ran out of tears and just lay there gulping for air and feeling like someone had scooped her insides out.

Silas shifted his head just enough that his voice was in her ear. "Ms. White, can you hear me now?"

"You sound like a Verizon commercial." Callie thought that should be amusing but couldn't muster up much in the way of feelings.

"I will take that as a yes. I find that I must apologize to you again." Silas continued.

She wanted him to shut up. The chills that followed everywhere his breath touched made her want to scream.

"If I had known you were still connected to the leech, I would not have taken his power. You drank more deeply last night than I had expected and I do not think I will be able to feed for several days. I was just being," he paused before finishing, "efficient."

Efficient. Of course. Silly me. "Let me up, Silas." Now that she was calming down, she didn't really want the cold crocodile of his mind touching her. It was sharper and clearer with so much contact between them

"Are you going to attack me again?" His low voice in her ear made something tighten low in her belly and she hated him for that, too.

"No. Well, not right now, anyway." That, at least, she could promise.

He rolled off and into a squat. "I really can teach you how to control your abilities."

Callie coughed and gulped much needed air and then rolled over so she could sit up. "I don't like you much."

"When you went to Owen Pedersen's apartment, you meant to kill him." Silas stated, looking over at Callie without expression.

She blinked at the sudden change in the conversation. She didn't really know what to say, since it was true and Silas hadn't really asked a question. She finally nodded.

"A long time ago, I tried to help leeches break free of their master. I tried to help them eat without killing. The hold of their master is too strong. All I can offer is a merciful death and I see no reason why I should not steal power from Herman." Silas looked away as he spoke to scan the woods with his eyes.

Callie tried to imagine what an ancient demon wearing a Herman-suit would look like and couldn't. "Herman, Master of Leeches." She waggled her hands in front of her and gave a low, tired snicker.

Silas' gaze snapped back. "It is not funny."

"No. It isn't, but I can't deal with all of this. It's too much. Silas, this is crazy." She made a sweeping motion with her arm that encompassed the body in front of them.

Silas nodded, his gaze wandering again. "I can only ask that you give it time."

"How much time?" Silas' plan has some serious holes in it. I'll bet death by decapitation isn't a bad way to go.

"Six months with me. Six months to a year with another trainer. A yearly check in with me or your other trainer." Silas said so promptly that she knew this was his regular spiel.

Looking over at the body of the dead bitten, Callie saw steam rising in big, fat curls. "Silas, is that body melting?"

"Yes." He studied the far trees and did not meet her eyes.

She opened her mouth to ask if that happened to all the bitten and then closed it. She did not want to know. "I'll try."

"Good." Silas rose in one smooth motion and offered a hand to help her up. "Come, we must leave here. I had hoped to spend at least a day instructing you on controlling your power, but it is no longer safe. It is troubling that we were followed by more than one of the lost and there are too many humans here."

"Where will we go?" She ignored his hand and got slowly to her feet. Her body ached like a big, dumb boy had body slammed her into the dirt and she resented it.

"We have a place out East." He retracted his hand and tucked it into the pocket of his jeans.

Callie brushed dirt off of her butt, twisting around to see if she had gotten it all. "Well, that was fast. I'm not leaving Illinois."

Silas leveled his gaze at her and she dropped her eyes. The man's gaze landed like a ton of bricks. "I await your explanation with bated breath, Ms. White."

Callie pursed her lips as she considered her options. Telling him about the book was really dumb. She didn't know anything about him and he was clearly way more powerful than she was. On the other hand, she'd failed in every way to destroy the book and he was way more powerful. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans and looked upwards. "The book that Owen Pedersen used to pull a demon across is in Chicago. I stashed it once I sorted out that I couldn't destroy it."

Silas put his hand over his face and bent his head. When he straightened up, Callie flinched. The corners of his mouth were turned down slightly and the droop in his shoulders made him look closer to forty than twenty-five. That low voice of his had an edge of exhaustion in it. "You left a keystone unattended in Chicago?"

"Yes?" She made it a question since she didn't know what the hell a keystone was. "I couldn't figure out how to destroy it. You don't happen to know how to do that, do you? Because that would be awesome."

"You left a keystone, unattended, in Chicago." He shook his head and looked up. He kept shaking his head.

"Silas, it's fine. I checked it..." Callie trailed off as a dull, unpleasant feeling spread through her chest. It was morning and the locker needed to be fed money and re-locked. What's more, Hackett wasn't working today. The book was going to be unprotected.

"What?" Silas stepped closer to me and Callie had to work to stay where she was.

She broke out in a sweat. "The book's out in the open. Oh my fucking god. We have to get back to Chicago."

***

#### Chapter 7: Callie

"Edie! Mark!"

Callie could hear Silas bellowing as she ran towards the fence, her bare feet aching. Silas had taken off for the house so fast, he'd left Callie in the dust. By the time she made it back to the kitchen, everyone in the house was gathered in the family room.

"Good lord! What happened to Callie?" Edie's eyes widened and she started moving towards the young woman briskly.

Callie looked down and sighed at the dirt stains all over her clothes and wondered if there were leaves in her hair.

Silas flickered a glance at Callie and then back at Edie. "One of the lost was in the woods; he followed us out of the city. More importantly, there is a keystone in Chicago. Mark, get Betsy ready to go. Edie, look Ms. White over for injuries. We are leaving in fifteen minutes." Silas walked out of the room, long legs moving rapidly.

"Damn it, Silas! Betsy needs an oil change!" Mark turned on his heel and took off after Silas.

"Come on, let me take a look at you." Edie was shaking her head. "A leech and one of the lost in the same day. That's unusual."

Callie felt Edie's power reach out, its warmth washing over her skin. "Don't." Callie said quietly.

Edie looked at Callie and pursed her lips. "Are you sure? I usually soften the edges for new folks for the first couple weeks."

"I need to be able to think and I'm probably not going to have a nervous break down until after we get the book back." Callie gave Edie a small smile as she said this, though it took some work to make the corners of her mouth turn up.

The warmth ebbed away. As Edie stepped towards her, Callie took a step backwards.

Edie stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Oh stop it. You're not going to eat me and I need to know if you're really hurt."

"If you want me to know incredibly personal shit about you, go ahead and touch me." Callie said, as exhaustion swept over her. The last twenty-four hours had been so emotionally intense that Callie was beginning to shut down. It was only the idea of the book getting into someone else's hands that was keeping her from curling up into a little ball.

"Oh." Edie stopped and lifted her eyebrows. "It's that bad?"

Callie nodded.

She looked at Callie for a long moment and then narrowed her eyes. "But not Silas. You can't get anything from Silas?"

Callie gave her a long look in return. "Is it that obvious?"

Edie smiled and shook her head. "No. I just know he's tightly shielded. Okay, tell me what hurts and I'll decide whether Silas needs to check you out. How are your feet?"

Callie lifted one and looked at. "Torn up."

Edie nodded. "Okay, I'll get you a first aid kit and some shoes. Tell me what else hurts."

Callie told her about the fight out in the woods and was grateful Edie didn't ask her what she was doing out there. Callie still wanted to run, preferably screaming at the top of her lungs, but the book was more important than anything else.

"Lift your shirt and let me see." Edie ordered. Callie lifted her shirt and Edie pressed her lips together. "You are going to have some spectacular bruises. I think Silas should check your ribs out and we need to clean your feet, but I think you're probably fine." Edie tsked and shook her head. "In a few weeks, it won't even matter. You or someone else will be able to heal you. Right now, you're so power-hungry, that you'll have to heal the old fashioned way."

Callie made a noncommittal noise, certain that refusing Silas' examination was not an option, but curious at the possibility of being able to heal quickly.

"If I leave you here, are you going to be here when I come back?" Edie asked, her warm voice dry and sharp.

Callie swallowed and looked away before nodding in agreement.

Edie made as sharp exhalation, "Callie, I'm sorry. I know you're frightened and us having to back to Chicago for the keystone, well, it's making the whole thing even more chaotic. It'll get better, I promise. Just give us a chance."

"Seems to me I don't have much choice." When Edie walked away without saying anything, Callie sighed in relief. Tears welled up in her eyes and Callie scrubbed at her face, trying to make them stop. Finally, she got up and washed the dirt off her hands, arms, and face. She drank a glass of water.

"Edie says your ribs are hurt." Silas' voice came from directly behind her.

Callie jumped and turned around. "Jesus fucking Christ, you scared me."

"Your language is atrocious, Ms. White. Please lift your shirt." Silas motioned at her mid-section with his hand.

Lifting the shirt again, Callie looked stolidly over his shoulder as his long fingers pressed into her sore flesh. "As soon as you show me proof that you're actually my father, I'll stop swearing. Maybe."

Silas snorted. "You swear like that in front of your father?"

Grief tugged at her and she struggled to keep her voice even. "Don't talk about my father, Silas."

His gaze raked across the side of her face and Callie kept her eyes averted. There was no way to forget how cold his eyes had been.

"As you wish. Your ribs are not broken." Silas stepped back and she pulled her shirt back down. He added, "There is a first aid kit and shoes in the RV. We can take care of your feet as we travel."

Callie wondered who really owned this house as she followed Silas out to the driveway. It was a small subdivision and the houses all had the same look to them, though blocking the view of most of the neighborhood was an ancient, rickety looking RV. It was maybe thirty feet long and at some point it had been brown and white. It was so old that time had worn down the outside until the colors were nearly indistinguishable. There were some rust spots towards the bottom and the skull of a steer with a broken horn stuck to the grill. It looked profoundly unsafe.

"Close your mouth, White. You're insulting my baby." Mark grinned even though he sounded offended and Callie closed her mouth with some effort.

"It's..." Callie trailed off, unable to find a polite adjective. "A death trap?"

"Check out her insides out before you get all snooty." Mark walked past Callie and back into the house. Silas had already entered and he had left the door open behind him. Callie stepped gingerly into the RV. There was an ugly curtain gathered on the right that could separate the two captain seats in front from the rest of the vehicle.

Directly across from the door was a small kitchenette with a two-range stovetop, a small oven, a microwave, and a sink. The shelves were a pale beech color and looked like they might be real wood. To the left of that was a table that matched the kitchen cabinets with dark blue benches. Across from the table was a dark blue couch that looked comfortable and above both the table and the couch were lockable cabinets. The carpet was soft and beige.

Silas was coming from the back of the RV and he did not have to bend or crouch in order to fit into the space, though there wasn't much room to spare. Callie wondered about the sleeping arrangements, but couldn't see much of the back.

"Sit." Silas aimed one long finger at the couch.

Callie yipped like a small, annoying dog, but parked her butt on the couch.

Silas glared and Callie glared back at his cheekbone as ferociously as possible.

Still glaring, Silas walked over, a plastic square container in his hand, and knelt in from of Callie. He opened the plastic container and pulled out a small, white bottle and then draped a towel over one hand. "Give me your foot."

Feeling stupid and vulnerable, Callie put her foot into his towel covered outstretched hand.

"Where are we going, Ms. White?" Silas asked as he began squirting a stinging liquid over her the sole of her foot.

Callie folded her arms and tried not to cry or blush, "Union Station."

Silas shook his head. "Why not simply leave it on the sidewalk? At least that way, it would probably still be in Chicago. At this point, it could be anywhere."

Callie bit back an angry retort and shrugged, trying to will away the tears forming up at the corners of her eyes. She rubbed her eyes aggressively with the palm of her hand, "I wanted it to be locked up. It wasn't safe with me. And it can't be anywhere because I put my eyes on it yesterday morning, about 9:30am and the locker would have stayed locked until that time this morning. What time is it?"

Silas looked up, his lips pressed into a flat line. After a moment, he dropped his eyes, patted her right foot dry and set it down, making a tight motion with his hand for her other foot. Callie set it on the towel. Clipping his words short as he cleaned her other foot, he said, "Ms. White, you were unconscious for much longer than you think. It has been almost thirty-six hours since we took you from Chicago and by your estimation, the book has been unprotected for almost an entire day."

Callie's heart sank into her stomach and chills raced down her back. She said nothing as Silas finished with her foot. He stood and walked to the back of the RV. When he returned, he handed her a pair of socks and old sneakers. Callie took them, her mind still churning with fear.

"I will let Edie know our destination." Silas walked past Callie and twitched the curtain open.

"How far are we from the city?" Callie whispered, barely able to get the words out.

"About two hours." Silas told her over his shoulder and then Callie was looking at his back. She could hear his low voice and Edie's murmured reply as she pulled the socks and shoes on. Callie forced herself to take long, slow breaths. There was nothing she could do right now. They just had to get to Chicago and get the book as fast as possible. It'll be fine. Who's going to want to steal a book, anyway?

***

#### Chapter 8: Mark Little

Mark threw himself into the RV, thumping up the stairs. "House is locked up, boss man! Let's roll! Hey!" He turned to look at Callie as he said this last part. "You seen the back yet?" Mark realized he was staring at the sharp ridges of Callie's wrist bones and pulled his eyes away. She must still be so hungry. The thought sent a flush of fear and desire sparking through him.

Mutely, Callie shook her head. Mark motioned for her to follow him towards the back. He started back without waiting to see if she would come. It wasn't like he could lose her in the tiny space.

"This is the bathroom." Mark popped the door open and Callie leaned in. Mark was aware of the heat of her body as she edged past him and also that she could probably use a shower. Still, she did look a little bit better than she had the first time Mark had seen her unconscious in the back of their RV. He looked the bathroom over, remembering the first time he'd seen it and how different it had been from the trailer he grew up in. The sink was square and the fixtures gleamed. The blue and beige theme continued into the bathroom, with the tile pattern on the wall, floors, and shower.

Mark turned and pointed to the wall of drawers opposite the bathroom. "We've got all kinds of stuff in here. Towels, soap, toilet paper. If you need something, check here first."

Callie nodded, part of her lower lip sucked into her mouth and held there with her teeth.

"This is where we sleep." Mark walked backwards and motioned towards the bunk beds on either side of the sleeping area. It felt good to show someone else around the space as if he belonged here. There was a window in the center of the back of the RV covered in a lacy curtain. On the right side there were two long bunk beds and on the left were two for normal sized humans. There was another set of drawers on the left side. She leaned down and tested the mattress on one of them. Mark knew it was thick, soft, and comfortable.

"The RV is nicer on the inside." Callie smiled at him and he smiled back. With a rumble, the RV started and then began backing out of the driveway in a smooth motion.

"This is your bunk." He pointed to the top shorter bunk. "But I'm happy to switch with you, if you want."

"Actually, I prefer the top bunk."

"While I am sure the tour of our little vehicle is fascinating, perhaps we could focus on more pressing matters." Silas said stiffly from the doorway.

Mark looked over Callie's shoulder at the other man and rage bloomed in his chest. Most of the time, just looking at Silas made him angry.

Callie turned, her back against the longer bunk, her gazing flicking nervously between the two of them. She licked her lips and said in a low, choked voice, "Sure."

"No problem, boss man." Mark lifted half of his mouth in an almost-smile. Don't punch Silas in the throat. It will have to wait. Mark stepped forward and put one hand out as if he were going to rest it on Callie's back.

She scooted into the bottom bunk and gave Mark a long, unfriendly look. "Is there a way I can be clearer about people not touching me? Because I'm starting to feel like a broken record and it looks like we're going to be sharing tight quarters."

Mark's eyebrows flicked up and his eyes widened, her words startling him as much as the anger rolling off her. The muscles in his right leg jumped and he wanted to step forward and pull that anger into him. Mark balled his hands into fists and forced his words to be casual. "Sorry, didn't realize it was such a big deal. I'll be more careful in the future."

Silas had to back up so that both men could leave the sleeping area. Callie followed after a minute or two. Silas sat on the couch and so Mark sat down at the table, his back towards the wall of the vehicle, and his feet stretched out along the bench.

"Please tell us what you know about the keystone and its location." Silas kept his gaze fixed on the wall across from him.

Callie put her head in her hands for a moment and then said, "About a month ago, maybe five weeks, I got robbed. Up 'til then, I'd been carrying the book with me. It's not big, maybe five by seven inches. It's mostly recipes and demons only come up on the last few pages. Anyway, I decided that I needed to find a safer place for the book."

Mark frowned. "Why didn't you levitate away? Or knock him down like you did with Silas?"

Callie sighed. "Well, I didn't know I could knock him down and, honestly, I was afraid. No one had ever pointed a gun at me before and, I don't know, I just froze. The guy didn't take the book because it wasn't worth anything and I could read enough from his mind that I knew he mostly wanted to get high and wasn't some kind of crazy psychokiller rapist. So I cried and sniffled and he let me keep the book. There aren't that many places you can lock something up when you haven't got ID."

"How did you manage to keep something there for so long?" Silas asked, his gaze still fixed on some point in the distance. Mark looked at the tight lines of worry around Silas' mouth and began to get nervous.

Callie nodded. "After a couple of days, I got yanked into the security office by a guard, guy by the name of Hackett. He thought I was stashing my drugs in the locker. But, Hackett's a good guy at heart, so I told him that I was keeping my grandmother's book in the locker and that I didn't want it stolen. Also, I cried. Once he checked the locker out and saw that it was true, he melted like a marshmallow in the sun. He's the reason I could keep the book there."

"How does the book instruct someone to pull a demon across?" Silas looked at Callie as he asked the question.

Callie shrugged. "It's totally silly. You have to light candles alternating in black and white and in particular order. There's some nonsense words and a little dance move you have to do and blood has to be spilled. The most important part is that you have to provide the demon with a body. The wording is a little fuzzy on what that means. It says something like, "Thou shalt provide the blessed one with a home for as long as it may have need" or some crap like that. Owen swore that he thought that Rachel would be fine, that the demon would stay for a while and then leave. I think he was a sack of shit who didn't care what happened after he got what he wanted."

Callie's face was pressed into hard, angry lines, anger fluttering over her skin like a hot summer breeze, and for the first time, Mark saw a woman capable of killing a demonridden and escaping an insane asylum. Her anger smelled like caramelized sugar and Mark ached to reach out and absorb it all. Shit, I'm gonna need to feed soon. I hate feeding on the road.

Edie called out from the front, "How certain are you that this security guard is trustworthy?"

Callie didn't answer for a moment. "Pretty sure. I think he's the kind of man who, once he decides something is the right thing to do, sticks to it." Callie continued, "If the book is there, none of this matters. But if it isn't, what do we do? There's probably cameras on the lockers, if we can get someone to show us."

No one said anything for a long moment and then Edie called out again, "When does your security guard friend's shift end?"

"Um, maybe two o'clock?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure but I know he works the morning shift."

"If he's not there, it doesn't matter." Mark rolled his eyes. Edie would create a minute-by-minute schedule for going to take a shit. "The two of us can work over a security guard who's already on duty."

"It's easier to work on someone who's already inclined to trust us. We can work him over enough to make sure he doesn't mention us to anyone." Edie increased the volume of her voice as she spoke over her shoulder.

"Who cares if he does?" Mark snapped, his mouth pulling into an annoyed twist.

Silas nodded. "Edie is right."

Mark looked upwards and shook his head, muttering, "Of course she is."

Silas ignored Mark and continued, "If the book is gone, the person who took it could be injured or could get injured as we retrieve the keystone. The less of an impression we make on people, the easier it is to avoid the attention of anyone who might be watching."

"Okay, well, we better have some kind of cover story for Hackett because he's going to care who you people are." Callie shifted a little in her seat and chewed on a fingernail. There was another couple of minutes of silence and then Callie spoke again. "Even if we're going to attract the attention of the police, isn't it better to get the book sooner rather than later? The longer the person has with the book, the more likely it is they'll pull a demon across and that seems really important to me. More important than avoiding the cops."

Mark glanced at Silas' clenched jaw and pinched lips and felt his heart sink into his stomach.

"What?" Callie demanded.

Silas twisted his mouth. "A keystone wants to be used. It has been calling out to people from the moment it was used to pull a demon across. Chances are there was someone sniffing around the locker since you put the book there."

"So..." Callie said and then stopped. Her face went pale. "You think the book has already been used."

"Yes." Silas' low, raspy voice was final.

Mark closed his eyes for a moment as shock rolled through him. He'd never been anywhere near a keystone before and the only time he'd been near one of the demonridden was the time he got bit. He felt the muscles in his chest begin to tremble.

Callie had leaned over and rested her head on her knees. Mark thought she might be crying. "I've made so many mistakes."

Mark cleared his throat, but it was Silas who spoke. "How could you have known?"

She sat up, taking a sharp inhale, and wiped the tears away. Her jaw was set and the hard lines of her face made her look older. "I can fix that, can't I? Tell me about keystones."

"Mark, think you can handle this one?" Silas asked, twitching his eyebrows as if he didn't believe Mark could.

Mark flexed his jaw and then shrugged. "Sure, boss man. Whatever you say."

Silas folded his legs up until he was in the lotus position and then closed his eyes. Callie blinked a few times in surprise. "Is he meditating?"

"Yeah, he's trying get all his Zen shit in order, in case we need to fight. He does this a lot." Mark shrugged, because he didn't really understand why Silas did this. Frankly, it was weird that the man would fold his legs up and meditate at the drop of a hat.

"Oh. Okay." Callie looked at the side of Silas' face, her mouth pressing into a flat line and her eyes going distant.

"Don't think he can't hear us, though. I made that mistake once." Mark flipped up his middle finger up in Silas' direction and smirked at Callie. She smiled and shook her head.

"So, this is like a test for you?" Callie's voice went up at the end of the sentence and she flicked her glance over in Mark's direction.

"Yep." Mark replied. "Boss man here wants to know if I've been paying attention."

"Awesome." Callie muttered the word.

Mark shot her a grin and Callie slowly smiled back him before asking, "So why couldn't I destroy the damn thing? Believe me, I tried."

Mark shrugged. "There's lots of ways demons get pulled across and most of 'em, well, as I understand it," he cut a look at Silas before looking back at Callie, "Require human will. Anything can be a keystone, too. Books, rocks, feathers, all kinds of shit, because the object is really just a focus for human will."

Callie frowned and shook her head. "That's insane. So, if I told you, here, this tic tac can raise a demon, then the tic tac could become a keystone?"

"Sure, if you could get me to believe the tic tac could really do it." He snickered a little to think of using a tic tac to pull a demon across. Then he shook his head. "Of course, I wouldn't believe in a tic tac. That's why keystones tend to be stuff people already kind of believe in. Like a spell book, you know? There's, like, a thousand years of people believing books are magic."

Silas exhaled through his nose sharply, but said nothing and his eyes remained closed. Mark glared at him for a moment. "Once an object has been used to pull a demon across, it absorbs some of that power, magic, whatever. It's really hard to destroy. It's like alive, or something creepy like that."

Callie's eyes went wide and she slowly licked her lips and swallowed. "How hard?"

"Well," Mark trailed off and looked at Silas. When Silas didn't respond, Mark bobbed his head from side to side. "Boss man says it can be done. I've never seen it."

Callie asked, "How long have you been, um, one of the bitten?" She stumbled over the last word.

"A little over a year and a half." Mark's mind turned abruptly to the event that had changed his life, a sudden and chaotic explosion of violence and destruction followed by pain.

"Do keystones call to the demonridden?" Callie asked loudly. She had tipped her head to one side and hunched her shoulders, her expression suddenly soft and apologetic.

Mark's nostrils flared and he forced his eyes back to Callie. "Nah, it's just humans. But, using a keystone attracts the attention of the big dogs. They don't want to use it, they just don't want the competition, ya know? I know sometimes they destroy keystones."

Callie was rubbing her hands on the thighs of her jeans slowly, as if she didn't realize she was doing it. "Okay. What about... the bitten?" Callie tripped over the word again.

Mark laughed, a short and sharp bark. "It's dumb, right? The bitten." He held his arms out like a zombie and made low moaning sound. "But, man, you should hear what the other guys call themselves. 'The Chosen.'" Mark made rabbit ears as he said the last two words and then he shook his head.

"What?" Callie stopped the motion of her hands across her jeans.

"The bitten who don't give a shit who they hurt, the ones who want power the way the demonridden do, they call themselves 'The Chosen.' Can you believe that shit?" Mark was snickering now.

Callie's jaw went slack and she wiped her face with one shaking hand. "They're organized? Jesus Christ."

"Loosely." Silas said, suddenly opening his eyes to give Callie a narrow-eyed and considering look. Mark wondered what the other man was thinking.

Callie held a hand up. "Okay, that's enough..." She shook her head back and forth jerkily. "That's all I can handle right now."

Mark was impressed she'd managed to last this long. He'd refused to talk for weeks after the event. Of course, she'd been bitten quite a while ago so maybe she was a little bit more adjusted to how fucking weird the whole thing was. Mark wasn't sure he was adjusted and this had been his reality for a while now. God, I wish I could go back.

Edie talk-yelled over her shoulder. "We still don't know what we're going to tell this man, Hackett."

Callie bobbed her head and bit her lip again. Mark wondered if it was a nervous habit.

"Um, one other thing." Callie said after a minute. "Hackett thinks my father sexually assaulted me, which is why I can't go home."

Mark stuck his tongue in his cheek, and tipped his head to one side, "That actually helps. How about I'm your brother, come to save you. And Edie is a family friend?"

"That could work," Callie said quietly. "What about Silas?" She gave Silas a long look out of the corner of her eye with her eyebrows lifted.

"I will just float around the station and see what I find." Silas replied blandly.

Callie looked down and let out a small, disbelieving laugh. "Okay. Sure." Plucking at the shirt she had on, she asked, "Is there another set of clothes I can change into? I would seriously love a shower right now."

Edie called out from the front, "Yep. You've got the bottom drawer in the back dresser. It's all kind of mish mosh, but it should keep you clothed until we have a chance to get you some new stuff."

"If it's clean, I'm good." Callie smiled at them all and then thought about how small this space was. "Um, is there a way to separate the back area from the front area?"

Mark realized with a sudden sinking of his stomach that he was going to have to listen to Callie take a shower, probably every day until they got home. Shit.

***

#### Chapter 9: Callie

The RV slowed while Callie was in the shower. By the time she got out, dressed, and back up front, the vehicle had stopped entirely. She pushed the curtain that separated the front from the back to one side. "Where are we?" Out the window, she could see bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"At the interchange between I-94 and I-90." Edie replied.

"Should we be hitting traffic this late in the morning?" Callie bounced up and down on her feet, wanting to be in Chicago, wanting the book in her hands. She reached out to touch Silas' mind; it was so strange that she was having a hard time leaving it alone. Touching his mind was like touching the empty socket where a tooth used to be: disturbing but compelling.

"Heading into Chicago we are going to hit traffic off and on for the next thirty miles." Silas was still sitting on the couch, long legs stretched out in front him and crossed at the ankles. "No matter, we can use the time to introduce you to using your power."

"I'm pretty sure I know how to use my power." She crossed her arms over her chest and curled her upper lip at Silas. "Or did I imagine knocking you into the wall?"

"Oh, ouch! You gonna let her sass you like that, boss man?" Mark smirked but didn't look up from the iPad he was staring at intently, his fingers flicking over the screen.

Silas didn't acknowledge Mark's words. "You have power, that is true, but you lack control and finesse. What if you had wanted to knock my ass into a wall without injuring other people who might be in the room? Or were you planning on taking out everyone around you?"

She leveled a long look at his cheekbone. "And now seems like a good time to do this?"

"Why are you fighting this so hard? I have offered to teach you control, but now that I do, you throw a fit like a child. Sit and place your hand on top of mine." He set his left hand out, palm up, turned his head forward and then closed his eyes.

Callie didn't want to think about anything but the book, but his words stung so she sat down and placed her right hand on top of his. Almost immediately, Silas began feeding her a thin thread of power.

"Does power taste or smell like anything when you are hungry or when you use your abilities?" Silas asked quietly, his eyes still closed.

Callie bit her lip and thought about it. "No, not usually. When..." She stopped, a flush spreading up her face.

"When?" Silas prompted, his face empty and his body relaxed.

"When I tried to eat Mark, yesterday. Was it yesterday? He smelled like steak and his power tasted like chocolate." Callie wanted to sink into the couch cushions in embarrassment.

Mark looked up from his iPad and gave her a slow, smug grin. "I'm dinner and dessert all in one. You can jump me any time you like." He wiggled his eyebrows and leered in an exaggerated fashion.

She pointed at him with her left hand. "Ew."

"Mark." Silas voice was granite and he opened his eyes to level a hard look at the young man.

Mark, stilling grinning, lifted one hand and tipped his head to one side. "Don't blame me for being so sexy. It comes natural."

Silas said nothing, just kept looking at Mark. The grin slid off Mark's face and then he rolled his eyes. "Don't get your panties in twist, boss man. I'm just teasin'."

Closing his eyes and settling his head back on the back of couch, Silas continued talking. "For now, imagine that the power I'm sending you from my hand to yours is a color. It does not matter which one. It's just a mental image to help you practice."

Licking her lips, she nodded and imagined the power was white.

"Imagine that power is coiling in your palm, instead of moving up your arm." Silas' voice was even and relaxed.

Callie had to close her eyes to do it. The power temperature became pleasantly cool and a little tingly, like the way peppermint oil feels on the tongue. That's kind of neat, actually.

"The bitten can feed on a number of things, most commonly fear, anger, greed, pain, blood, and sex." Silas said indifferently and as what he'd just said wasn't horrifying.

She snatched her hand away from his and the power gathered in her hand shot up her arm in a cool, shivery burst. "I'm not going to have sex with you!" Callie blurted and then began blushing furiously.

Silas opened his eye and lifted his eyebrows. "Do you have reason to believe you can feed on sex, Ms. White?"

After opening and closing her mouth a few times like an idiot, she dropped her eyes onto the floor of the RV. There was no good way to respond to that question.

"I see." Silas sighed. "It is possible to train someone to generate power during sex without actual penetration. That said, it depends greatly on how your abilities have manifested. I will do what is necessary to teach you control and ensure that you do not kill your human partner by accident. I expect you to do the same."

Callie shook her head from side to side vehemently, wishing she had never heard Silas use the word "penetration".

Silas' next words were sharp and biting. "Child, I am not scheming to bed you."

Telling him she wasn't a child seemed foolish even though she thought about it. It was better if he saw her as a child because she wasn't going to have sex with anybody. Not Silas, not Mark, not Edie. No one. It hurt too much to absorb someone's memories and doing that was the only way it was safe to let someone touch her.

"If I may continue, whatever one of us feeds on, there are two ways to gather energy." Silas settled back onto the couch, hand laid out, and closed his eyes. Once Callie placed her hand on his, he sent out another thin stream of power.

Callie coiled it again, struggling to keep control over the power. This time she imagined it was vivid green and the temperature of the magic warmed. It still tingled, but now it was more like electricity.

"The first way to gather energy is to simply take it. When done without thought, this approach can be lethal and usually hurts the person being feed upon. You have only to think of the demonridden you observed to know what I am talking about." Silas' voice had taken on a cadence, as if he had said this a thousand times.

Hell, he probably has said it a thousand times. She wondered how long Silas had been one of the bitten and had to force herself to pay attention to his words.

"But what we are doing right now is also this same method. In this case, I am giving, you are taking, and no one is harmed."

As Silas feed her more power, it became more difficult to keep it swirling in her hand. It felt as if her hand was too small to contain the power and sweat beaded at her hairline as she tried to control it.

"Now, we will reverse the process. You will give and I will take. Do not disrupt the flow of the energy. Imagine that one small thread of the power continues moving from your hand to mine." Silas almost sounded bored, as if this should be easy.

Callie nudged a small line of power from the ball in her hand towards Silas. It skittered, jumped and snapped back into her palm. It stung and she made a small, surprised sound and the power vanished up her arm again in a warm rush.

"Try again." Silas said, already spinning out another line of power. As he did so, he kept talking. "When done properly, taking energy can be quite useful and some of the lower powered bitten do only this. There are many bitten working productively in places like hospitals because they can ease patients suffering and feed at the same time. One must be careful, however, because pain and suffering are important and stripping someone of them entirely can be quite damaging."

Silas stopped the flow of power and the ball swirled in Callie's palm. She stared at her palm until her eyes ached. While she could not see anything in the material world, the ball of power felt tangible in her hand. This time, she'd kept track of where the "beginning" of the thread has been as Silas feed it to her. It wasn't real, but it made it easier to pull a bit of power loose and send it back.

Opening his eyes, Silas raised his eyebrows. "Good, Ms. White, please continue. The second way to feed is to generate the energy. This is more difficult but also more satisfying. Those that feed on desire have the easiest time because humans generate a great deal of energy during sex and it can be gathered without harm. Quite the opposite, in fact. Those who feed on pain and blood are also often able to easily arrange generating energy without harming those they feed on. It can be difficult to generate power for those who feed on the other sources, such as anger or fear, without damaging the humans involved."

Callie heard what Silas was saying, but the power jumping in her palm pulled at her attention. Forcing the power to go slowly was difficult and the muscles in her arms and back were beginning to feel the strain.

"It is doubtful that you know all of the ways that you can feed because your abilities are new and unexplored, but many of us cannot survive only on what we can take, at least not without harming people. I can already tell that you will be too powerful to feed this way alone. You will have to learn how to generate energy." Silas gathered the energy and this time, Callie could still sense it, picturing the power moving a slow circle in his hand. He continued, "We already know that you can feed off of pain."

As he began feeding Callie the power back, he reached over with his right hand and pinched her arm sharply.

"Ouch!" Callie glared at him and then her breath caught in her throat as the power arced wildly, the color suddenly a darker green in her imagination. The spark merged with the rest of the power and Callie let out a slow, shaky breath. "Oh."

"Indeed." Silas quirked his mouth in a half smile.

Callie began feeding the power back to Silas, noticing that there was a bit more than what they had started with. "Does it, uh, does it work the other way?" She stuttered the question, certain that her skin was going to be stained permanently pink from blushing so hard.

"It does." Silas didn't open his eyes as he answered and Callie was grateful for that.

She studied his profile, the sharp curves of his face, and couldn't do it. "This whole thing is really fucked up."

Silas opened his eyes and Callie dropped hers. It was really frustrating not to be able to look him in the face. She couldn't read him and she couldn't watch for the little signals people communicated in their faces. She felt blind.

Silas fed the power back into her palm as he spoke, "For now, practice moving the power back and forth. It is an important skill and one you would do well to develop. Leave generating power a problem for another day. Mark, we are going to need lunch."

Mark glared at Silas and when he was ignored, made a teeth-sucking noise of irritation and set his iPad down. As Mark pulled food out of the cupboards, he muttered angrily under his breath.

"How did you get into Owen Pedersen's apartment?" Silas asked, as the two passed the power back and forth.

"I levitated?" Callie made it a question, since it seemed like an obvious solution. Moving the power was difficult and she could feel sweat gathering under her arms as her muscles began to tremble with effort.

"His apartment was on the 10th floor. You levitated that far in one shot?" Silas' sounded doubtful and he crinkled his eyebrows, as if to emphasize how unlikely it was that she had accomplished such a feat.

"Oh. No." It was getting harder to stop the power from moving up her arm. "There was a fire escape at the back of the building so I levitated to that and then the roof. Then I levitated down onto his balcony. It was easier the other way around because..." The words trailed off as she remembered killing Owen and how good it felt afterwards. The power flickered in her palm and shot up her arm.

Silas nodded and Callie wiped the sweat off her face, relieved to avoid finishing the sentence.

Mark banged a plate of sandwiches onto the table and sat down with a huff.

"Did you bring one to Edie?" Silas asked even though knew Mark hadn't. The RV was so small that one couldn't do much of anything without being observed.

Mark's face tied up into an angry knot, but he stood and brought a sandwich to Edie as she drove through the traffic. Callie looked out the window again and realized they were in the city, rumbling slowly through traffic and construction.

Silas sat up, folding his legs up and turning to look at Callie. "We can stop, for now, and eat. Out of curiosity, how high can you lift your body?"

"Um," Callie looked up, trying to remember how high up she had to levitate to get out of the psychiatric facility. "Maybe twenty feet? I'm not really sure."

Silas quirked one side of his mouth to one side and frowned. "So why not levitate from balcony to balcony in Pedersen's building?"

"Well, I thought someone might notice and I was pretty hungry by then. It took me a while to find him." Callie snagged a sandwich and took a bite out of it. Now that they'd stopped, she was ravenous and ate the sandwich as quickly as possible.

"How long can you hold yourself up that high?" Silas picked up a sandwich and took a small bite.

Callie swallowed the last bit of sandwich. "Again, not really sure. A minute? But it hurt a lot. Can most bitten who levitate hold themselves up like that?"

Silas shrugged. "Levitation manifests in a number of ways. Some can only manipulate their own body. Others can only manipulate objects around them. Whatever the ability is, power tends to increase as the bitten age. This is the way of the demonridden as well."

"Girl, you better eat a second one." Mark said, grinning at Callie as he flopped down onto the table bench. "You look like a scarecrow."

Callie considered possible responses and finally opted to open her mouth and burp at him. Mark burst into laughter and Silas looked down at his hands and shook his head.

****

#### Chapter 10: Callie

Edie parked the RV in a large parking lot that seemed to be for a row of small storefronts. Edie stood, stretching, as Mark opened one of the cabinets over the table and grabbed two identical black, sling backpacks. He handed one to Edie and clipped the other one on himself.

"We're a couple of blocks from Union Station, but this looked like a good place to leave the RV." Edie fussed with the straps of the backpack until she was satisfied it fit.

"Won't someone notice this giant vehicle?" Callie asked, following the others out of the RV.

"No." Silas stood on the black asphalt, one hand over his eyes, and scanned the area.

"Why not? It's not like this thing blends." Callie jerked one thumb at the rickety, ancient-looking RV.

"That's one of Silas' abilities." Edie finally said. "He can make sure people don't notice things like the RV." She paused and then gave a small, wry smile, "Or us for that matter."

Callie nodded, suddenly understanding Silas' earlier reference to 'floating around.' "Is it a secret or something?"

Edie and Silas exchanged a glance, before she said, "No. Silas was just trying to see if you could sense his ability, the way you did with Mark and me. But now we're going into a situation that could be dangerous so you need to know." As she said this last part, she looked at Silas, as if daring him to contradict her.

He just shrugged one shoulder. "Callie, you are the least fit of any of us so you should set the pace."

Callie pressed her lips together, put her hands on her hips and looked down at the ground as embarrassment scalded her. He was right, but that didn't stop Callie from feeling the urge to throw rocks at him. She knew the months of her other hunger had eaten through her muscles like acid.

"Setting the pace means..." Silas began, as Callie continued to stand there.

Callie held up a hand. "I know what it means. I ran cross-country for a couple of years. I'm just trying to decide on a realistic pace for me." After a moment, she started jogging towards the station at a pace that was embarrassingly slow, barely more than a brisk walk, but it was a speed she knew could maintain for several blocks and recover from quickly.

Mark followed, placing himself behind Callie by a couple of paces and slightly to the left. Edie shifted into position, a couple of paces to Callie's right but only a pace or so behind her. Once they'd gone about fifty feet, Silas' outpaced Callie and then settled into to match her speed, several steps ahead and positioned between the two women. In short, it was a completely bizarre way to run down the streets of Chicago and, yet, no one noticed. In fact, people stepped out of the way as they talked on their phones or dug through their bags, as if they'd always meant to step onto the curb for a moment. It made Callie's skin crawl a little bit.

It only took a few minutes to get to the front of Union Station. There were people coming and going, but it was clear the morning rush had passed and the clock just inside the sliding doors read 11:53AM. Silas stopped once everyone was inside, turned, and gave Callie a half bow, gesturing with his hand in an invitation to take the lead. Callie couldn't tell if he was being snotty or not, but she stepped forward to lead the way to the lockers. The white walls of the central room gleamed under the light shining through the enormous vaulted atrium ceiling. The baggage claim was less impressive with low ceilings, linoleum floors and fluorescent lighting.

As Callie opened the locker, her heart was racing so hard that she could feel it in her neck and her palms were tingly and sweaty. There was nothing there; the book was gone. She swayed forward until her head rested against the lockers, fear and anger a hot itchy feeling all over her body.

"I will take a look around, see if I sense anything. You three see if you can find this guard Hackett. Edie, Mark, make sure the security guard considers your visit to be unimportant and not worth mentioning to anyone." Silas' voice sounded like it was coming from far away, muffled by the roaring in Callie ears.

"Silas, we've done this before." Edie replied tartly.

"Of course." His cold crocodile mind vanished after about twenty feet.

Callie was still leaning against the lockers, trying to cool herself down with the cold metal of the locker, when Hackett said her name. Well, not my name, my fake name.

"Rose?"

Callie started to cry, big embarrassing sobs, too. She knew there was nothing dainty about the sounds coming out of her throat. Mark and Edie started spinning out more lies and none of it mattered because the book was gone.

"Oh Rose, child, don't cry. Here." Hackett hovered over her, holding out a tissue.

Callie took it blindly and accidentally brushed his hand. A sharp image of herself, dyed black hair hanging limply and her face splotchy carved its way into her along with Hackett's certainty that losing the book was his fault and he had to make it right. Callie staggered into the lockers and then tried to make it look like she'd done it on purpose. She pressed her face against the lockers for a moment before pushing away to wipe her face and blow her nose.

"Mr. Hackett, I'm sorry to cry like this. Can you help us find out who took it, please?" Callie couldn't even stir up enough energy to make doe-eyes at him. She wanted to find somewhere dark to curl up and sleep for a hundred years, but the weight of the book held her in place.

"Of course, of course. I told your brother already, you three can come with me. We've got security cameras on the baggage claim and we'll find out who took it." Hackett gave Callie a small, tight unhappy looking smile. "We'll fix this, Rose. I promise."

Callie nodded and then trailed after the three of them through the baggage claim. They were talking animatedly and Callie caught a word here or there. Hackett was smiling and he kept touching both Mark and Edie. When Callie touched Hackett's mind there was a sticky layer that clouded everything and made it hard to feel the pattern of his mind. Edie and Mark had laid their power over Hackett in a thick blanket; it shimmered in Callie's mind as something new, a power that didn't feel like either of them.

Hackett led them through an unmarked door into the parts of Union Station most people never saw. The linoleum floors were scuffed and the fluorescent lights bounced off the pale grey walls and floor. The group walked up a flight of metal stairs and around a corner, where Hackett knocked on another unmarked metal door.

The man who answered it was about 5'10", in his mid-forties and pretty fit, with short brown hair and a thick mustache shot through with grey. His mind felt like a cement block of hostility with sharp edges that suggested he was competitive. The man positioned himself in the door and glared. "Hackett. Who the hell are these people and what are they doing here?"

"Jackson, don't be an ass. These folks here had something stolen and we want to check the videos." Hackett pulled on his belt as he talked.

"There is no fucking way I'm letting a bunch of civilians into this booth. Hackett, are you out of your mind? Take them to lost and found." Jackson only looked at Hackett as he spoke.

"Sir?" Mark asked, smiling as he did so. Jackson glared at Mark and opened his mouth to say something and then stopped, his mouth hanging open. Edie reached out and touched the back of his hand. Jackson began to smile. The sensation of their power muffling Jackson's personality sent chills down Callie's spine and she pulled her mind away.

"We won't take up much of your time." Edie smiled as she said this and Jackson nodded several times.

"Sure, sure. No problem. C'mon in. Mi casa, su casa." Jackson chuckled, a hollow low rumble.

Edie and Mark chuckled as well, though Callie didn't get the joke. The room was small and there was a bank of screens directly across from the door. The only light in the room came from the monitors and a small lamp on the desk in front of the screens. The air conditioning was cranked so high that Callie started to shiver.

Hackett leaned over and whispered, "Cold, isn't it? That's why we call it this room the 'fridge." He smiled at her as he said it.

Callie shot him a smile in return, squeezed into a corner, and tried not to think about how close everyone was. Edie and Mark explained the make-believe situation to Jackson who seemed enthralled by the tale of the lost book. The video streams from the cameras were stored on a central digital recording device and Jackson, even under the combined weight of Edie and Mark's power, was vague about how often the recordings were deleted.

Even though it was uncomfortable, Callie reached out again to touch both his mind and Hackett's. Jackson's pattern was rippling under the sticky layer of Edie and Mark's power. Callie didn't touch Mark and Edie's minds because she didn't want to know if doing this changed the pattern of their minds. My plate is already full of totally screwed up things I can't do anything about.

"Here, I can pull the recording for that camera from yesterday." Jackson said, his mind pushing against the power that held him.

"That would be real helpful, Mr. Jackson." Mark said with a toothy grin.

Jackson smiled back, a big dopey grin that didn't fit on his face. "Sure, Mark. Happy to help." He tapped at the keyboard in front of him and the screen in front of him flickered. A few more taps and the images began to jump forward more quickly. Everyone leaned forward, eyes straining as at the images flickering by.

After a few minutes, Hackett said, "Is that Benji?"

"I don't know, never met the kid." Jackson frowned and tapped the screen. A thin figure in a security guard's uniform opened the locker with the book in it. He stood there for several minutes, back to the camera, zipped his jacket, and then walked away, smoothing the front of his coat several times and looking around.

"That's Benji, alright." Hackett nodded firmly. "And here I thought he was a good man."

"Who is Benji?" Edie asked, her voice quiet and firm. The room was so small that she could reach out and touch both men's hands.

They both turned to her with identical smiles on their faces. Hackett replied, "He's the one who usually works in the 'fridge on first shift. He went home early yesterday, said he was sick."

"Didn't come in today, either." Jackson said in a rush, flickering his eyes at Hackett. "I normally work second shift, but the shift supervisor called me in early 'cause this Ben kid didn't show."

"Ah." Edie sighed heavily and closed her eyes. "What's his full name?"

"Ben Goodwin." Hackett said quickly and Jackson glared at him.

"Guys, you've been really great." Mark shifted where he was standing so he could clap Jackson on the shoulder. "Really great. It might not be a bad thing if this video got lost. We don't want to make any trouble for this guy."

"What're you saying, Mark?" Jackson narrowed his eyes and pressed his mouth into a flat line. His mind flared, breaking through the sticky layer over it for a moment. Hackett's mind began to ripple.

Edie clenched her hands into fists and rocked back. Mark reached out and touched her shoulder and their power flowed out so heavily that it choked off the security guards' attempted resistance.

Clearing her throat, Callie said, "He didn't mean anything, Mr. Jackson. He's just trying to protect me. I'm sorry to involve you both in something like this, but..." She stopped and swallowed, trying to steel herself to lie convincingly. "My father's looking for me, Mr. Hackett and he's got money and power and he's charming as hell. It's why I didn't want to see your minister, Mr. Hackett. He's got a lot of people convinced that he's out to protect me when it's, it's just the opposite. I never know who to trust." Callie started sniffing a little bit, as if she were crying, and rubbed her eyes. "You don't have to delete the video, but if anyone comes looking for the book or me or anything, please don't tell them, okay?"

"What'd this guy do?" Jackson asked, his voice loud in the tiny room.

Hackett glared at him, "Stuff a father's not supposed to do to his child."

Callie started crying for real, then. These kinds of lies were terrible on a level so profound it made her stomach churn. "I'm really sorry. I'm so sorry."

Mark and Edie were both staring at her.

Hackett reached out and patted her shoulder. "Rose, it's okay."

Calle got an excruciatingly clear image of a little girl with curly hair and big blue eyes along with a wave of fierce protectiveness. She made herself stand there as the image tore into her mind and it took everything she had not to scream and pull away. "Thanks, Mr. Hackett. I hope that's true some day."

"We'll keep you safe, Rose." Hackett turned and gave Jackson a fierce look.

After a moment, Jackson nodded. Both of their minds had smoothed under Edie and Mark's power. They would do as they promised.

"We should go." Callie said quietly, wanting to be out of that room so badly she could hardly stand it.

They all filed out of the room. Before she left, Callie turned, met Jackson's eyes, and bobbed her head at him respectfully. "Thanks, Mr. Jackson." He nodded back, already turning his eyes back to the screens in front of him.

***

#### Chapter 11: Silas

Silas ghosted up to stand near Mark and Edie. He kept his power tight against his skin as he tried to figure out whether or not it was a good idea to appear. As he eavesdropped, Silas scanned the terminal around them. He'd felt a prickle on his neck ever since they'd gotten into the city, but could spot nothing. That didn't make him feel better, not with a young, grieving, and unexpectedly powerful demon killer in his care. Until Callie got her powers under control, it would take only a moment of attention from one of the Elders to wipe her off the map and maybe Mark and Edie with her. They were in dangerous waters, their safety depending on the hope that the short attention span and mercurial nature of the demonridden had the creatures looking elsewhere.

Callie was sitting on a bench, looking pale and shaky though her voice was firm. "They weren't going to delete those files."

"How do you know that?" Mark asked, for once pitching his voice low.

Callie shrugged. "I could feel it. You were asking them to do something that went against who they see themselves to be. Good guys don't delete security feeds." She winced and rubbed at her nose, looking down at her hand afterwards.

"It hurt when Hackett touched you, didn't it?" Edie asked.

Callie's face closed down into a hard, empty expression.

Silas narrowed his eyes, wishing he could open up her mind and peel out the information he wanted. He knew she was lying because all new recruits lied. Silas took a moment to remind himself that, like almost all of the newly bitten, Callie had been subjected to physical and psychological violence. Sometimes, it felt like remembering that was harder than it should be.

"How much of that will they remember?" Callie asked, clearly and obviously changing the subject.

"Not much." Mark answered. "Enough that they'll protect us or, really, you. That was a serious yarn you just spun."

Callie twitched her shoulders and looked at the floor. Silas looked her over critically. While the girl was less awkward in person than in the school photo, she also seemed more fragile. He thought about how terrified she'd looked in that basement, scrabbling into the corner and crying. Of course, she thought she was protecting me from her hunger. He snorted mentally.

Edie squatted down until she was eye level with the girl. "It hurt you, didn't it?" That was Edie, always getting to the point. Silas let himself feel a moment of affection before pushing it away.

Callie glared at Edie and drew her mouth back in a snarl. "Yes, alright? He touched me twice, for less than a second, and I know that he feels responsible for losing the book and that he loves his daughter with his whole being and I feel like I got jabbed in the head with an ice pick and I'm just glad I don't have a nosebleed. Happy now?"

Silas frowned. There was something not at all right about the way this girl's powers were manifesting. When he combined that with the likely involvement of the Chosen in hiding the crimes surrounding her bite, a slow coil of worry begin to tighten in his chest.

"No, Callie, of course not. I don't want you to be in pain. But it's harder to help you if you don't tell us everything." Edie smiled as she spoke. It was a smile that had cracked tougher nuts than Callie White.

Callie snorted. "Oh for god's sake! I've known you people less than two days and you've kidnapped me, knocked me out twice, and dragged me all over Illinois! Excuse me for not pouring out my life story."

Silas smiled to himself and was glad no one could see him. Perhaps she will survive.

"Heads up." Mark said in a low, urgent voice and jerked his head forward. Silas looked in that direction and saw a heavyset security guard walking briskly towards them. Silas remained still and waited for Hackett to move around him. He could hide himself while he was in motion, but it was easier if he remained in one place.

Callie stood, her whole demeanor changing. She suddenly looked more awkward, scuffing her feet on the floor and looking up at the security guard through the eyelashes of her lowered eyes. She took up less space too, hunching her arms and shoulders in a way that was also reminiscent of her school photo.

"Rose, sorry it took me so long." The older man, Hackett, handed Callie a slip of paper. "Don't be too hard on him, okay? He's a good guy."

Callie nodded, "We won't, Mr. Hackett. We'll just ask him to give it back. If he doesn't, well, I can live without it. In the end, it's just a book. I've got my family with me in person now."

Silas rolled his eyes at the soft, sugary tone and made a mental note that the little one was a good liar. He wondered briefly how that had come to be. American teenagers were, in his experience, very bad at lying. The only exceptions were young ones who grew up hard and, even then, they were clumsy.

"My address is on there as well." Hackett added. "Send me a note, okay? Let me know you've gotten to your brother's safely."

Callie ducked her head and smiled. "Okay, Mr. Hackett. Thanks for everything."

Hackett shook hands with both Edie and Mark. Silas knew the two of them would be layering their power over his mind as heavily as they could. The less the security guard thought about them, the better.

Finally, Hackett left. As the older man turned his back, Callie's shoulders slumped and she ran both hands through her hair. Silas began weaving his power over the other three before dropping the shields between himself and the rest of his team.

Mark and Edie, accustomed to his coming and going, turned and nodded their heads in greeting. Callie jumped back several inches and squeaked. Then she assumed what Silas was beginning to think was her favorite expression: glaring at his cheek. He resisted the urge to tell her that he could roll her with his power whether or not she met his gaze. No need to scare her too badly in the first couple of days as there would be plenty of time for that later.

"Report." Silas said.

Edie answered quickly, "A security guard took it. We've laid a pretty heavy-duty layer on the two security guards we had to interact with so they'll keep their mouths shut. We weren't able to get them to erase the security feed of the security guard stealing the book or of us."

"I take it that," Silas pointed at the paper crumpled in Callie's hand, "Is the address of the thief?"

Callie nodded.

"And what yarn did you spin for the guards, Ms. White?" Silas stepped closer, using his height to loom over her.

Callie held her ground, but dropped her eyes to the floor and said nothing.

"Man, you should have heard her. Apparently," Mark grinned and pointed back and forth between himself and Callie, "Our father is a big ol' bad guy with cops on his payroll. She made him sound like some kind of mobster. Seriously. It was awesome. They ate it up with a spoon."

Callie lifted her eyes so she could gaze across the room, her face so carefully empty that Silas could see the strain around her eyes and mouth. You don't like lying. Interesting.

"And why did they refuse to delete the footage?" Silas asked, staring at the side of Callie's face.

She twisted her mouth to one side. "You were listening, so why ask the question again?"

"Because you did not answer it." Silas backed off a few paces, giving her space to breath.

Callie shrugged. "I just knew that they weren't going to do it. The patterns of their minds were breaking through whatever the hell Edie and Mark were doing. If we kept pushing, they were gonna decide something was fishy with our story."

Silas considered her words. In all of his years working with the newly bitten, he'd never come across someone with the ability to read people as Callie did. It was troubling and Silas had no idea what to do about it. He disliked not knowing what to do.

"Let us head back to the RV. We need to get to this security guard" Silas paused and glanced at Edie.

"Ben Goodwin." Edie filled in.

Silas nodded. "The sooner we get there, the better our chance of stopping him before he does something foolish. If he has not already done so."

They returned the RV quickly, Callie's pace distressingly slow. Silas continued to scan, certain they were being watched but unable to spot anyone. Coming to Chicago had been a mistake, but a keystone jumping hands from human to human was a recipe for disaster. There had to be at least one of the Chosen aware there was a keystone in Chicago. They were too power hungry not to notice. A large enough group of the bitten could overcome a baby demonridden; for a foolish few, it was worth the wrath that would rain down on them from the Elders and never mind who else got splattered in the process.

Once the door to the RV was closed behind them, Silas started talking rapidly.

"Mark, see what info you can get from the Assessor's Office on the property we're headed to and maybe some kind of visual. Edie, get Spider on the phone. Tell him to deal with the security feeds and while he's at it, Ms. White's police records and any outstanding warrants. Ms. White, you're up front with me."

He bent to adjust the seat back and then slid into the driver's seat. Callie followed, curling up in the front seat, her left leg bent so her foot was on the seat and her right elbow resting on the door. Her head drooped onto her hand like it was too heavy to hold up. Silas pulled the curtain behind them closed; it was only the illusion of privacy, but that would be enough.

Silas tapped the address into the GPS unit and tried to figure out how to broach the topic of the keystone with Callie. As he began moving the RV into traffic, he decided the direct approach might be effective. "We are in a very dangerous position right now. You have killed one of the demonridden. While the older demonridden do not care for competition, neither do they care for uppity bitten thinking they can kill demons. Should any of the Elders notice and decide they care, you will die. If you are lucky it will be fast. If you are unlucky it will be a slow death. If you are very unlucky, they will kill everyone you have ever met while they are at it."

The little one straightened in her seat and turned her head to look at him. He could see the pale oval of her face turned towards him from the corner of his eye.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because if there is a baby demonridden at Ben Goodwin's house, you are going to want to kill it. The desire will bite at you and I urge you to ignore it. Lives depend on it." Silas' said the words in a voice devoid of emotion. He knew that it unnerved people and he wanted Callie to take his warning seriously.

The little one said nothing in return; instead, she turned to stare out the window.

"Ms. White?"

"I heard you." She replied flatly. "Who's Spider?"

"He is one of the lost that is occasionally useful." Silas replied, debating whether or not he should force the conversation with Callie. He knew she didn't believe him, not really, and it was imperative that he impress their danger upon her.

"What does he do? How can he deal with the security feeds?" She spoke towards the window, though Silas could hear her clearly.

"Electricity is energy. Some of the bitten are good at manipulating it and Spider can do amazing things with electronic gadgets. By the time he is done, there will be no digital information of you to be had." Silas shook his head at the traffic at one o'clock on a Tuesday; he really hated cities.

"Does he work for us? Is there an us?" Callie asked, her face still turned away.

"Much like the Chosen, there is a loosely organized 'us'. We do not really have a name; we usually just call ourselves the bitten. We call those who refuse to affiliate with either side the lost." Silas shrugged. There had once been a more organized group of the bitten, with a name to match, but he wasn't willing to go into the history lesson just yet.

"No? We're not named something like 'The Bite Marks' or the 'Better Bitten' or something?" Callie giggled as she threw out possible names.

Silas frowned as her words hit a little too close to home. "I do not see why having names for different groups is so strange. How else are we to talk of the differences among us?"

Callie shot him a quick look and then her gaze shot away. "Because I feel like I'm trapped in a comic book!"

"I cannot help that." Silas shrugged.

She sighed. "Fine. So, is he one of the Better Bitten, this spider guy?"

"Spider works for himself." Silas forced the words out around a clenched jaw. This was a topic that should also wait until she'd had a little more training. Spider was dangerous and this was especially true for Callie. The bastard would take one look at her and see dinner.

"And everyone tolerates that? The Chosen? The Better Bitten?"

"Stop calling us the Better Bitten! It makes us sound like a pest control service." Silas shook his head. These kids are going to drive me mad. Focus on the part where you could die! "And yes, as long as Spider obeys the rules, we tolerate his existence. I do not know how he deals with the Chosen because I do not care."

"What are the rules?" Callie asked blandly and seemingly unaware of his temper tantrum.

Silas took a deep breath in through his nose and slowly exhaled it as he imagined a warm ocean breeze blowing through him. He repeated this several times, letting his anger flutter away on that imagined ripple of air. Finally, he said, "Spider can only feed on the power of other bitten. If he helps when I require it, he is allowed to feed as long as he does not do permanent emotional, physical or psychic damage. If he breaks the rules, I will cut him open from pubic bone to sternum."

Callie sucked in her breath at his words and glared at his cheek. "I'm seriously concerned about your moral compass."

Silas shot her a glance, maneuvering around a stopped taxicab. "You are so certain of your own?"

She paused for several moments. "No." She turned her face away.

The falsely human voice of the GPS echoed strangely in the forward cabin as several minutes of silence unfurled between them. When she turned to face him, huge tears were running silently down her face. "I knew that thing wasn't Rachel. I knew as soon... from the beginning, and I didn't do anything. Not even after her first kill. I knew his family and I just..." She trailed off and closed her eyes, the tears streaming rapidly.

Silas reflexively clenched his hands on the steering wheel. He knew that kind of guilt, the weight of it pressing in on you from every direction so intensely it was difficult to move. There were no words that could get through that kind guilt. Later, when you found you were still breathing even though years had gone by, maybe then you could accept that you had made the best of the choices before you. Silas asked the muscles in his hands to relax. There was only one way to deal with such guilt. "Then you have a very difficult task ahead of you."

She was silent for thirty seconds. "And what is that?"

"A lifetime of making amends." Silas said this as softly as he could, tensing the muscles in the back of his throat in a partially successful attempt to ease the gravel in his voice.

Callie's eyes went wide and her mouth folded into a flat line, her fingers curling around each other tightly. She turned her face away to stare out the window.

Good, perhaps she will think twice before endangering everyone else.

***

#### Chapter 12: Callie

The security guard's house was a small, white ranch. The yard had a low, wooden fence around it and the grass had patches of brown. There were a few scrubby bushes at the front and a driveway on the left that led to a one-car garage. The black shutters on the front of the house were new and just a little crooked, as if someone wanted to take care of the house but didn't quite know how to do it.

Callie reached out with her mind and then said, "I don't sense anyone inside." She rubbed one of her arms, peering around at the silent houses on the block. Silas, Mark, and Edie were all acting like no one was going to see them, talking in normal tones about the best way to get into the house, but it was hard to trust Silas' strange power. There was no telltale curtain twitching, but surely some of the houses were occupied. Callie reached out with her mind to scan the houses around them. A headache began to spread through the back of her head as she pushed her mental power as far as it could go. She could only reach the houses on either side of ranch; both were empty.

The four walked around to the back of the house, which was as bare and scrubby-looking at the front. The grass had been cut in the last few days, though.

"Ms. White." Silas' said and then held his hand out. Callie reached out to take what he was holding and got a handful of latex gloves.

"Why the gloves?" Callie pulled them awkwardly and the latex kept catching on her skin.

"I can hide us from sight, but I cannot do much about finger prints. If there is nothing in the house, we will leave it as we find it." He turned away as he spoke to look at the house.

Once everyone was gloved, Silas opened the gate and headed to the back door. It took him less than a minute to pick the lock and Callie was somewhat regretful she hadn't gotten to watch him do it up close; it was a skill that had always appealed to her. The online information from the Assessor's Office had given them the rough layout of the home and they knew the backdoor led into a small kitchen. Callie, as the last one in, closed the door behind her.

The green-tile counters and old, white wooden cupboards gave the kitchen a retro feel, like it had never quite made it out of the fifties. It was clean and there were dishes in a rack next to the sink. There was a doorway directly across from them and Callie could see the front door through it. The other doorway was on the left and she could see a small table and chairs. There was one door in the kitchen, on the far wall and a bit to left. Callie knew it was the door to the basement.

Silas nodded. "Edie, Callie, take the upstairs. Mark, search the basement. I'll take the first floor." Silas issued the orders and walked out of the room without waiting to see if they would be obeyed.

Callie reluctantly followed Edie, but they were still on the carpeted staircase when Mark called out, "Guys, you need to come back."

Walking back into the kitchen, Callie caught a whiff of rotting garbage. Mark, face pale, stood at the top of a set of stairs that led into the basement. As Callie got closer, the smell became stronger, less like garbage and more like human waste. Standing in the kitchen, looking down into the dark, Callie knew they were too late. She put her hand over her mouth, choking down screams and backed away until she bumped into the kitchen counter.

Silas flickered a glance at Callie. "Mark, stay up here with Callie."

"No." Callie choked the word out. She did not want to go down in the basement, but this was her mess and standing up in the kitchen was not acceptable. Silas' words from the drive over bit at her like termites into rotten wood. She was not going to hide from the consequences of her actions.

All three of them looked at Callie, Silas with an empty face and Mark and Edie with sympathy. No one said anything. Instead, Mark started pulling small, blue pieces of cloth from his backpack and handing them to people. He walked over to Callie and handed some her. She stared down at them and then up at him.

"They're booties." Mark gestured downwards, "For your feet."

"My feet?" Callie felt slow, stupid and like her thoughts were out of sync with what was going on.

"Yeah. It's really hard to get blood out of shoes." Mark gave a one-shouldered shrug.

Callie stopped herself from repeating the last word of his sentence, even though she didn't understand what he was talking about. Edie and Silas were already down in the basement, and the light spilled out onto the kitchen floor.

"And you're going to want this." Mark said, handing her what looked like an air sickness bag. He turned and headed down the stairs.

Callie was alone in the kitchen. Forcing her feet to move, she made her way to the top of the stairs. The smell got stronger, a sharp metallic flavor coating the back of her tongue. Her whole body was trembling and it was hard not to just sit down and put her head between her knees. There was blood splashed across the floor at the bottom of the stairs and her hindbrain began screaming at her to flee. About halfway down the steps, she saw the first piece of body. Her brain couldn't process what she was looking at so her feet kept moving until she saw another piece and then another.

Fuck. Fuck. Someone had been torn to pieces. As the thought whirled around in her mind, her stomach jerked and she turned to face the wall, forcing herself to breath in and out of her nose slowly. The fetid smell crawled down her throat and the smell was so strong she felt like she might choke on it. You saw Jasper's brains on the floor. You saw what demonridden Rachel did. You killed Rachel. Turn the fuck around and look at it!

Callie turned back around and descended until she was just above where the blood started on the stairs. The basement was small, the walls unfinished rough wood, and the floor was concrete. In one corner, there was an old washing machine and dryer. Silas, Edie, and Mark were moving through the pieces. Callie's thoughts skipped as her brain tried to refuse making sense of the carnage.

Not far from the stairs, there was a hand. It was just lying there, and the blood underneath it looked glossy and red, as if it were still fresh. The pieces began to look like parts of a person, laid out in a line that lead to the incantation circle in the far corner of the room, suggesting the demon had torn pieces from someone as it walked from the circle and out of the basement.

Someone was crying. After a moment, Callie realized that she was the one weeping. At some point, her body decided it was time to sit and she was now huddled on the stairs. She closed her eyes and tried to get herself back under control. As she had been doing off and on all day, she reached out to touch Silas' mind. This time, it was not out of curiosity. Instead, she hoped that the cold crocodile mind of his would help her get back under control, sort of like falling into an ice bath. She realized her mistake too late, as a swirling black ball of rage hit her, scorching her from the inside out with cold so intense it burned.

Callie screamed and pulled her mind away. Distantly, she heard Silas say, "Mark, deal with her."

"Callie? Callie?" Callie heard Mark from far away. "Callie, it's okay. You can go upstairs. It's okay." He was talking slowly, as if she were a small dog or an overwrought child. Callie resented it and she held onto that resentment like it was a raft in the middle of the ocean.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine." Callie was back in her body, back with the smells and visuals of the blood-covered basement. It hadn't been her intention, but the pain of touching Silas' mind had cleared some of the panic away and she felt like she was back in control of her body. Mostly, anyway.

"Callie, c'mon, I'll help you upstairs." Mark was shifting from foot to foot, his lips pulled up to reveal a skeleton of a smile. He was pale underneath his tan and his hand, as he lifted it to guide her, was shaking.

Callie bared her teeth at him and his hand stopped. "I'll stay. Please." She squeezed the last word out, the intensity of her feelings rising up to choke her.

Mark nodded a couple of times and then looked back over the basement. "I'm sorry to say, you get used to it."

Callie just swallowed and nodded as a response. Mark went back to whatever it was he was doing and Callie inhaled and exhaled slowly, focusing her attention on not vomiting. After a few minutes, it became clear that they were searching for the book. It made sense. If the book was in the house, it was in this hell hole.

As the search wound down, Silas asked, "Mark, what do you see?"

Mark closed his eyes and clenched his fists. When he answered, his voice was thick with some emotion, anger or sadness or something else, something darker. "I'm pretty sure we're looking at pieces of the security guard. And I think he pulled through a bonebreaker."

Silas nodded. "Agreed. What else?"

Mark clenched his fists open and closed. "If the demonridden isn't riding the security guard, who is it riding?"

"I concur." Silas swept his eyes over the room again. "Anyone think the book is still here?" Edie and Mark shook their heads. Callie just sat there, staring at the pieces of Ben Goodwin, with a heavy churning knot of guilt in her stomach.

"Edie, check upstairs for photos, anything where it is just the security guard and one other person. He couldn't have gotten a hold of a stranger so quickly, so he probably believed the possession would be temporary." Silas headed towards the stairs. "Mark, take Callie outside. She is in shock and we need her functioning. Once we are back at Betsy, find the nearest high school, hang out for teenagers, and hospitals."

Callie scooted backwards and up the stairs into the kitchen. Once there, she looked down at her feet. Even though she hadn't gone all the way down, there was a smear of blood on one blue bootie. She spoke, her voice seeming to come from someplace outside of her body. "What do I do with the booties?"

"Leave them on the stairs, dear. Gloves too." Edie said, plucking hers off and leaving them at the top of the stairs.

"Isn't that a problem? Won't someone find them and wonder?" Callie asked. Both Mark and Edie were in the kitchen and Silas still hadn't come up from the basement.

Edie looked at Mark, "I'm going to look for photos. I'll see you guys outside." She walked away and the light in the living room flipped on a moment later.

Mark opened the door. "C'mon. Let's wait outside."

Callie peeled the gloves off, dropped them on the small pile of booties, and followed Mark outside. A whole new set of questions was swirling slowly in her head. "Mark, why aren't you worried about the booties?"

"We're gonna burn the place down." Mark said with a sigh. He looked at Callie with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"What? Why?" Her mouth was dry and she had to clear her throat a couple of times.

"If the cops found that, the whole fucking city would be in a panic." Mark motioned at the house. A car rumbled by, radio blasting, and the tinny pop music was at odds with the tense moment in the sunlit backyard. For Callie, the world wavered with that musical intrusion and everything suddenly seeming surreal. The music faded and the moment passed.

"The whole fucking city should be in a panic!" Callie snarled at him, lips and throat trembling.

"Oh, you want to tell them demons are real? Really? Why don't you think that one through for a couple of days and then get back to me." Mark rolled his eyes.

Callie was silent after that, the images of the basement burned into her retinas. With every blink, she could see the after image of blood and bone. I need to get the book and destroy it. That's what matters. She paced back and forth, breathing the fresh air in through her nose and out of her mouth.

Edie exited the house, followed by Silas.

"Anything good?" Mark asked.

Edie held out three picture frames. "Mother. Friend or brother. Girlfriend." Callie looked down at the pictures, but all she could see was light gleaming on the glass.

"Time to go." Silas said.

***

#### Chapter 13: Mark

Mark walked to the back of the RV and pulled his laptop out of his drawer in the back before sitting down at the table. He started searching for hospitals or high schools. Silas and Edie were bent over the three photos and Callie was sitting on the couch, jiggling one leg and twitching the curtains open and closed so she could peer in the direction of the house.

"If we do not hear sirens by the time we get back, we will call the fire in to the proper authorities." Silas didn't look up from the photos as he spoke. "What needed to burn has undoubtedly already done so."

Callie said nothing; she didn't even look at the tall man. Mark glanced at her briefly. She was still a little grey in the creases of her skin and her mouth and eyes were pinched. She hadn't vomited in the basement, but she'd cried and screamed like a wounded animal so...

The results of his search popped up and Mark gave a low whistle. "Okay, boss man, there's a hospital nearby, a big one. There's also a mall. The high school's like a forty-five minute walk. Think a demonridden would steal a car?" Mark rotated the computer so that they could all see the map.

Silas looked at the screen for a long moment. "Mark and Callie, take the mall. Edie and I will go to the hospital. Keep. Away. From. The. Demonridden." He bit off the words, leveling a glare at Callie that scorched Mark along the way.

Callie looked Silas in the eye briefly and then dropped her eyes to look the map. She leaned forward and stared at it for several minutes. It wasn't at all clear to Mark that she'd even heard Silas.

"Whomever spots the demonridden first, call the others. We will watch and find a moment to steal the book back." Silas took two long steps and was at the door.

"Why would the demon take the book, anyway?" Mark closed the computer and stood.

"Perhaps it doesn't realize it's useless for anything other than summoning another demon." Edie replied, also standing.

"It does not matter. The only thing that matters is that if it sees us, the demonridden will tear our bones from our bodies and suck pain and marrow out. Do not forget that." Silas gave Callie and Mark a serious, long look. Mark suppressed a sigh. Silas really does think I'm an idiot. Mark had been near a demonridden once and never wanted to do it again. Why Silas would think he'd rush headlong into a conflict with one of those things was beyond Mark.

Silas and Edie headed off into the late afternoon sun, quickly disappearing from view. Mark turned to Callie, "C'mon, let's go."

He started walking quickly towards the mall. It was a little after 2pm and school was likely still in session so the chances of a bonebreaker heading to the mall were slim. "We're going to have to be careful poking our nose around in a mall. We can say we're looking for a bathroom if we need to go someplace we're not supposed to. It should work though... " Mark trailed off and shot her a sidelong glance as he tried to decide if she was the kind of girl who could take being told she looked jittery, brittle, and hard edged. Probably not. Girls seemed to care about that kind of stuff.

Callie scrunched her nose for a moment before saying, "I know what I look like."

Mark shrugged, unwilling to agree or disagree with such a dangerous statement. "Not that it matters. Most of the time, bonebreakers head for hospitals."

Callie glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "So why split up?"

"Well, sometimes they go after teenagers. I guess the angst tastes good or whatever. And it means Silas got the noobs out of his hair while he and Edie deal with the problem." Mark felt his lips twist with annoyance.

"Hmm." Callie glanced around as she walked, eyes flicking to and fro. "What the hell is a bonebreaker, anyway? I thought all the demonridden and the bitten were all really different. That's what Edie said."

Tilting his head to one side, Mark considered how to answer. "Bonebreakers come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have a particular kind of jaw. It's long and narrow and they've got this fucking crazy tongue, like, I don't know, a huge straw or something. So they snap the bones and suck the marrow out. Bonebreakers have a thing for bone marrow. Even though they've all got that same kind of jaw, it doesn't tell you anything about what else they might having going on, you know?"

"Is that true of leeches as well?" Callie's eyes flicked from side to side as they walked.

Mark shook his head. "Some leeches are more powerful than others, but their abilities are all the same. And they're kept so hungry that they go mad pretty quick. That's really unusual though. Herman's one of the oldest." Mark paused and then pointed ahead. "That's gotta be it."

The mall was a huge, flat cement building square in the middle of a cement parking lot. They were approaching from the back so there was a tall fence that had some kind of mesh on it to hide the loading area from prying eyes. There were thin metal delivery doors and employee entrances peeking over the top of the fence. Between the fence and the street there was a strip of grass with a ten foot high tree growing every ten feet or so.

Mark looked at Callie, "Man, I don't even know where to begin."

Callie surveyed the long, opaque fence. "I guess we should walk around to the front."

Mark nodded in agreement and the two of them began walking along the fence. The mall was large and Mark was already slightly sweaty from the fall sun. Why the hell don't they put an entrance at the back?

As they neared the far corner, Mark's heart sank. It looked like there were private properties right up against the fence. There would be no way to get around to the main mall entrance. He opened his mouth to suggest they try the other side when Callie stopped mid-step, her eyes suddenly distant. When her gaze shifted back to Mark, he swallowed hard. Her lips were drawn back over her teeth in a snarl and her whole body tensed. She took off running towards the residential block much faster than her limping pace from earlier. Mark stood frozen for a moment and then raced to catch up.

Callie disappeared around the edge of the fence; as Mark came around the same corner, he stopped so abruptly that his knees ached. His mind could barely accept what he was seeing. A thin, sharp-faced woman with black hair had a young girl, maybe fourteen, pinned to the ground underneath her. That's the security guard's girlfriend. The woman, the demonridden, its jaw had popped loose and the bones were beginning to reform into the long, telltale shape of a bonebreaker. That wasn't the most startling part though it really should have been. Instead, it was Callie who shocked him, as she stood over the creature and... and... scolded it!

"What are you doing? Have you given no thought to surviving at all?" Callie put her arms on her hips and leaned forward. "Think of the word police! What does the body you're inhabiting show you?"

The sharp-faced woman looked up and hissed. The girl underneath it shrieked and squirmed, fingers scrabbling wildly against the demonridden's arms. The creature didn't take its eyes off of Callie as it slapped the teen.

Callie snorted and continued, "Yes, yes, I know you're hungry."

The demonridden's hissing stopped abruptly and it straightened, giving Callie a wide-eyed look.

"Honestly! I search high and low for one such as you and what do I find? You eating some stupid teenage girl in broad daylight!" Callie threw her hands up in the air and made an exasperated noise.

Mark remained rooted to the ground, not sure if he should run or stay put. What the fuck is happening right now?

"Who are you to tell me to stop?" The demonridden's voice was high, fluting, and feminine. The expression, though, was pure hate.

"I'm your ticket to power, babe, if you can manage to control yourself long enough." Callie shook her head slowly and looked the demonridden up and down.

The demonridden stood and took several steps towards Callie. "Did you do that?"

Callie exhaled sharply. "Christ! Maybe I should find a different baby demon. This one doesn't seem very bright."

Mark swallowed and his throat was so dry that the action hurt a little. Is she talking to me? I hope not.

The teenager curled onto her right side, sobbing, as the demonridden stepped even closer. Mark's legs tensed to run.

"What are you?" The demonridden asked, eyes focused on Callie.

Callie sighed impatiently. "Did you think the word police? What did you see?"

The demonridden's face slowly morphed back into a human shape. "What do I care? I will crush their tiny, weak bodies!"

"Lord help me!" Callie ran her hand through her hair before saying, "Sure, the first couple, that's probably true. And then what? You going to kill a hundred? A thousand? Babe, you won't even manage to kill thirty before one of the Elders crushes you like a bug."

The demonridden narrowed it eyes and hissed quietly.

"What? You thought you were the first? That's adorable." Callie grinned. "No, there are others and they've been here a long time. They're strong. But you and me, babe, we can carve out a helluva territory and drink the power down."

"What are you?" The demonridden asked again.

Callie giggled. "Who cares when I can do this?"

Mark caught the edge of her power as she threw it at the creature. His stomach twisted in fear as pain and pleasure shot through him and both he and the demonridden swayed towards Callie. Sweat broke out on his upper lip and he wanted to reach out and touch her.

The demonridden had the same idea. Callie danced back, out of the reach of its grasping fingers, laughing. "Not so fast, babe. I didn't find you all by my lonesome. I had help and they're expecting to get paid."

A sharp, echoing cry, like a hawk's scream, poured out of the demonridden's throat. "I take what I want!"

Callie shrugged. "Sure, you could." She grinned. "But these guys are good at finding things and all they want is the stupid book. They could be useful to us later, if you don't kill them."

"The book?" The demonridden stepped towards Callie again and frowned as the girl danced back.

Behind them, Mark watched the teenage girl crawl, looking over her shoulder fearfully, until she reached the edge of the house. Then she stood and fled. Mark wished he could join her. Silas, I need to get Silas. He'll know what to do. Though he thought it, Mark couldn't make himself move.

With a roll of her eyes, Callie said, "Yeah. The book the human used to pull you across. It probably smells like power to you, but you can't do anything with it except bring another one like you here. You don't want to bring others over, do you?"

The demonridden's human mouth opened and gave a long, angry hiss. "You lie."

"Yeah, because that would make sense. I found you. Remember?" Then Callie gave a small grin. "Know what else I can do?" She didn't wait for an answer before she began to lift herself over the ground.

Mark stared as she floated upwards and was almost distracted from how incredible her power felt as it flowed over him. That is so cool.

The demonridden's eyes followed Callie as the girl floated up into the air. Looking down, Callie asked, "Isn't this better than a book?"

As Callie slowly floated back down onto the grass, the demonridden darted forward and grabbed her wrist. "You will meet me here," it said in a high, excited voice. "In... in ninety minutes. I will bring the book."

Callie gave a cocky smile. "Great. We'll be there."

The demonridden turned and walked rapidly away and Mark was relieved to see her, it, walk away in a direction different than where the teenager had fled.

"Don't say a fucking word." Callie grated out, a broad smile stretched across her face so tightly that it hurt Mark a little to look at her. "Get Silas on the phone, tell him to meet us ASAP. Not at the car, though."

"Callie," Mark croaked the word out, fear a bitter and dry taste in his mouth.

"We don't know what it can do, Mark." Callie's eyes were wide and he could see tears glittering on her lashes. "We need Silas so he can do his voodoo thing." She waggled her fingers at him.

Mark finally figured out what the hell she was talking about. Could that thing still be watching us? He nodded and pulled his phone out as the two of them began rapidly walking back the way they had come.

"Silas, don't say anything. Just meet us at Kenton and 95th. Got it? Good." Mark hung the phone up.

Mark glanced at Callie out of the corner of his eye. As soon as they turned, the smile had dropped off of her face and she was walking so quickly she was almost running. The idea that the demonridden could be watching them made the back of Mark's neck itch and sweat broke out in a long, anxious line down his back.

Silas was waiting for them, pacing back and forth in jerky, angry movements. "What have you two done? Edie is alone with a newborn demonridden on the loose."

Callie marched up to him without speaking a word. She reached out to touch him and Silas pulled back with a frown.

"Silas, do your invisible thing and let me touch you. Now." Callie said with an edge of hysteria in her voice. Her left hand balled into a fist and she held her right hand open in front her.

If anything, Silas' frown deepened, but he lifted his hand until it was between them, palm up. Mark blinked in surprise. If he'd asked Silas to do that, he'd have gotten twenty damn questions and then Silas probably would've demanded an essay.

Callie wrapped her fingers around his wrist and then stared off into the distance. "Are you doing it?" Callie asked.

Silas nodded. "I am."

Callie nodded. "I can't sense anything, not for a two hundred feet in every direction." Then she dropped Silas' wrist like it was a hot rock and ran to the curb, bending over to vomit in the street.

"What. Is. Going. On." Silas snarled as his face got that pinched white look Mark hated.

"Boss man, I don't even know where to begin." Mark exhaled sharply as his leg muscles began to shake. He bent his knees and leaned forward, pressing his hands against his thighs and trying to keep his breathing even.

"Try."

Mark thought for a moment. "She's cut some sort of deal with the demonridden. We're trading her for the book. Honestly, I'm not sure I understand what the hell just happened."

Silas' face went from white to red in less than two seconds and Mark was intensely glad he wasn't the source of the man' wrath. And then, one moment Silas was standing in front of him and the next the tall man was dragging Callie by one arm in the direction of the RV.

Mark followed reluctantly.

***

#### Chapter 14: Silas

"You did not heed my words at all!" Silas yelled, his voice booming inside the small space of the RV. "Are you so arrogant you would kill us all?"

"I'm already at risk and so are my family and everyone else I know. I can't do anything about that. We'll meet up with the demon, you get the book and leave and I'll stay. Either I'll kill her or I won't and you guys don't have to be involved at all." Callie said the words in a dull monotone that pissed Silas off even more. She was sitting on the couch, bent over, her forehead pressed against one hand.

"Stupid child! What makes you think the Elders will draw such a distinction?" Silas barked. He wanted to shake her until she understood.

"What good is torturing someone to death as a warning if no one knows about it? You guys will live. Probably." Callie sneered as she spoke, but Silas could see that her lower jaw was trembling.

Silas paused, the words cutting through his anger. If I weren't part of the equation, she might actually be right. Would I be part of the equation? The palm of his sword hand began to itch. It had been so long since he'd had one of the demonridden under his blade and he missed the feeling with a sudden longing. He closed his eyes and focused his mind inwards.

"The demonridden will simply kill you and keep the book." Silas forced himself to focus on the flaws in Callie's plan.

"She won't." Callie's stated firmly.

Silas tilted his head down and caught her gaze. The girl shifted back and forth but for once she didn't drop her eyes. Instead, she tilted her chin up and glared at him.

"She won't." Callie repeated. "When Rachel, whatever that thing in Rachel." She stopped and swallowed slowly. "The demon in Rachel's body, it bit me on purpose. It told me so. It, I." She stopped again and wiped her face with a shaking hand.

His concerns about Callie's, the ones knotted in his chest, suddenly expanded into his stomach. It wanted her as a pet even though it was young and hungry. That is very, very bad.

Callie finally managed to speak, "It said I tasted delicious. That's how I killed her. I, um," the little one's pale skin began to turn pink, "I distracted her while Jasper attacked her from behind. If we'd known to cut her head off, I think it would have worked."

"You distracted her?" What the girl was saying made no sense.

Callie nodded and looked at Mark. "He knows what I'm talking about."

Mark shifted as everyone in the camper turned to look at him. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

With a sigh, Callie said, "Tell him what happened at the mall."

As Mark slowly reported on the earlier events, Silas was, quite frankly, even more confused. By rights, the demonridden should have torn all three of them to pieces.

When Mark was finished, Silas looked back at Callie.

"I'm like demon catnip or something." Callie looked at the floor as she said this.

"When it touched you, what did you see?" Silas asked. He had always wondered what went on in the mind of a demonridden, though never enough to actually want an ability like Callie's.

She glanced at him briefly and then away. "It could fly, wherever it came from. It was frustrated to be earthbound."

Silas blinked.

Edie's voice broke in and Silas turned his head to focus on her. "While that's fascinating, I just want to make sure I'm clear about what's going on. We're going to trade Callie for the keystone to a demonridden," Edie made eye contact with each of them as she spoke. "Then we're going to hope Callie can distract and then kill the demonridden. If she fails, we'll have an angry demonridden on our tail. And if she succeeds, we're all marked for death. Am I missing anything?"

There was a long silence before Callie said, "Just the benefits: we'll have taken a keystone out of circulation and killed a demon."

Edie's head jerked back and she stared at Callie, her fingers tapping out a rhythm on her knee.

After a moment, when it became clear that Edie was not going to say anything more, Callie added. "The clock is ticking and I need booze and an axe."

Mark laughed and then stopped as Callie glared at him. "What? You're serious? You're going to get drunk? What the hell kind of a plan is that?!"

"It worked before." Callie said with a shrug, "And if I'm not drunk the demon's mind will be too much to bear. Their minds are..." Callie stopped, her face tightening in pain and her gaze suddenly distant. "Not human. Not even a little."

Silas stepped forward so he could loom over the smaller woman. "This is suicide."

"Probably." Callie conceded. "As long as you get the book, it's worth it."

Silas grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet, and wrapped his power around her in a tight coil. As he touched her, the itching in his sword hand's palm eased. "I can stop you."

Callie gasped and closed her eyes. When she spoke, her words were choked. "I know. But you aren't going to."

Silas finally gave in to his urge and shook her. "Why not? Why wouldn't I stop you?"

"Because you hate this thing so much, it hurts." Her eyes were still closed.

Silas snatched his hand back, uncertain whether she could read anything from him. He didn't think so. Decades of practice allowed him to create layers of powerful shielding. She shouldn't know that. Is she guessing? He clenched his jaw until it ached.

Callie gazed steadily at his cheekbone, her own jaw set and her eyes glittering in anger.

Silas could feel her gathering her power, her efforts clumsy but the power behind them substantial. She cannot possibly succeed. After a long moment, Silas said, "Mark, get Callie some booze and an axe."

"Tequila," the girl added, peering around Silas.

Mark closed his eyes and tilted his head back. "This is totally insane. Totally. Insane." He crossed his arms over his chest and didn't move.

"I'll do it." Edie said. She turned on her heel, snatched her purse from the hook by the door and slammed the door behind her.

***

#### Chapter 15: Callie

Callie licked salt off of her hand and slammed the shot of tequila. Ugh, tastes like boot leather. She coughed a couple of times as her eyes watered.

Silas sat across from her with his long legs stretched out along the bench. He kept pressing his right hand flat against the table and then bunching it up into a fist; the gesture was making Callie nervous.

Mark was gone; he'd taken off before Edie had even gotten back. Callie felt guilty about that but not enough to change her plan. Edie was sitting on the couch, legs folded underneath her and hands knotted in her lap.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Callie spoke slowly so she could enunciate the words. She blinked a couple of times and decided she'd probably had enough to drink. She gestured with the empty shot glass at Silas' hand on the table.

Silas glanced up at her and then back down at the table. He didn't stop moving his hand. Callie lifted her eyebrows and then forced herself to look away.

"I think it's time to go." Edie said quietly, flicking a quick glance at Callie.

Callie nodded in agreement and she and Silas stood. The space was cramped with the two of them standing there. As they exited the RV, Callie heard Edie say, "We'll be here when you get back." The words warmed her even though she knew the other woman was speaking to Silas.

The two walked silently to the meeting place the demonridden had implanted in Callie's mind. Callie didn't particularly want to talk and Silas seemed lost in his own thoughts. As she focused on putting one foot in front of the other, she shot a quick glance at the tall man. His brows were furrowed into a thick, heavy line.

"Worried I'm going to get you killed?" Callie finally broke the silence.

He shot her a quick glance. "Not me. Everyone else."

She swallowed heavily. "Oh. I'm worried I'm going to get everyone killed."

"Then why do this?" Silas asked, "Why risk it?"

"Why are you letting me?" Callie asked. "We both know you could kick my ass blindfolded and with one hand tied behind your back." She flicked a glance at him and stumbled as she caught his gaze. There's something really weird about his eyes. She jerked her eyes away and down.

"Ms. White, there is something you should know." Silas said as if he were considering every word.

"What?" Her heartbeat pulsed painfully in her neck.

"I do not need to look you in the eye to roll you with my power."

Her mouth went dry at his words. Callie licked her lips a couple of times and cleared her throat. "So, you're saying you could kick my ass with both hands tied behind your back?" She gave him a sly glance as she said this.

Silas huffed a small laugh and the corner of his mouth turned up. "When we get there, let me do the talking."

Callie nodded, they'd been over this half a dozen times already. Still, if he wants to be repetitive, "And you'll stay, to see..." She trailed off, unable to talk about her own death again. She touched the comforting weight of the axe in the bag slung across her chest.

Silas looked down at her for a moment and nodded. "I will stay. If you succeed, I will make sure you get back to Betsy. If you fail, I will not help you."

They were silent for several minutes before Silas spoke again. "Ms. White, are you certain you wish to do this?"

Callie pressed her lips together to stop the insane laughter that burned in her chest from escaping. "No, Silas, I'm not. But I'm going to anyway."

At the end of the block, Callie could see a wide green space opening up. The two of them stopped at the edge of a wide, grassy field. To one side, there was a baseball diamond and beyond that, there was a small playscape.

"Silas, there are so many people here." Callie pressed her hand against her belly and took a deep breath. She was so nervous that her whole body shook.

"I'll make sure no one gets involved." Silas said quietly and Callie nodded a few times to reassure herself.

They headed to the ring of large willow trees on one corner of the park. Underneath the trailing branches, the sound of laughing children and cars rumbling by faded. The demonridden stood in the center of a clearing, pacing back and forth in short, jerky steps.

When it saw them, it stopped and hissed. "This is the one who must be paid?"

Callie's feet froze and she stopped walking abruptly. The sound of its voice made her stomach twist up so tight she thought she might have to lean over and heave.

Silas stepped forward. "I am. You have what I want?"

The demonridden tilted its head to look at Silas with one eye. After several painful seconds, it nodded, pulling the book out from where it had tucked it into the waistband of its pants. He opened it, flipping through casually until he got to the pages in the back. With an audible snap, he closed the book. "The girl knows how to find me, if you like."

With a dismissive wave of its hand, the demonridden reached out to grasp Callie's wrists. Its mind slammed into her and it pulled her under in a whirlpool of greed. Callie choked, the haze of the alcohol barely enough to stop the scream climbing up her throat. She could hardly make sense out of what she was feeling. After an agonizing moment, she came to understand that the demonridden was intensely pleased to have such a toy all for itself, to not have to share with its sack mates. Her mind stumbled over the words. What the hell is a sack mate? Even as she thought the question, she got a sharp, terrifying image, all eyes and mandibles and claws in some kind of gelatinous substance.

Callie took a deep breath and leaned forward, pressing her mouth against the demonridden's lips. The creature made a surprised sound, but as Callie began to feed it power, it began to make pleased screeching noises. The images slowed some, but the intensity of the feelings coming from the demon actually increased. Callie dug her fingernails into her palms and tried to concentrate on getting the demon drunk on power.

It seemed to go on and on, though Callie knew it was only seconds. With a sinking stomach, Callie realized that what she was doing wasn't enough. By now, the thing inhabiting Rachel's body had been almost incoherent in its pleasure. Maybe Rachel was more susceptible to my ability? No, no! Idiot! It doesn't feed on sex. Callie dug around in the images and feelings swamping her and found the Demon's experience as it murdered the security guard. Callie jerked and bit down as she did. The demonridden clutched at Callie's back, thrusting its hips and growling. A fresh surge of emotion smacked Callie in the back of her skull. Pain. It feeds on pain.

This isn't going to work. Callie tried to force herself to come up with a new plan. This demon felt entirely different as its mind wormed its way deeper and deeper. It seemed tireless and barely affected by her power. Callie pulled her mouth away from it, gasping as she tried to get her mind back. The demon began to move its hands up and down her back, a trail of pain following its fingers.

It was pleased about this new world it found itself in. There was so much to take, so much to have, and no one able to fight for it. It was glorious, if overly bright. It should restrain itself, but it wondered if it should suck the power from this new toy and try to fly. It so wanted to fly.

Callie looked up, panting in dry rasping heaves. Between the branches of the trees overhead, the fall sky shone bright and blue; the leaves fluttered in the breeze. Hot tears slid down her face, leaving her cheeks wet and cool. The pain intensified, climbing up through her bones and still she bit down on her screams. I'm going to die. The thought wasn't that terrible. If only the pain would stop.

She was suddenly blind and deaf, the world blotted out a light so bright she saw spots and a burst of air and sound that left her feeling like her head was full of ball bearings. Her sight returned in skipped images, jumbled together. The demon's eyes wide, it's mouth extended; a flash of a red spray of blood and the taste of copper; Silas, sword extended, a vicious smile bisecting his face.

She blinked, her eyes lashes sticking together. Silas was in front of her, one hand on either shoulder, and he was bent so their faces were inches apart. His mouth seemed to be moving.

"... hear me? Ms. White?!"

Callie felt her knees give out and she staggered forward. Looking down, she could see she was covered in blood. "I'm going to need another shower." She giggled.

"Ms. White? Are you okay?" Silas' face was scrunched into a tight, worried pucker.

"I, I think so." Callie tried to pat herself down, but stopped when Silas caught her hands in his.

"You are fine physically, I checked, but you were unresponsive for several minutes." Silas continued looking at her with that tight, unhappy look.

"Oh." Callie looked down and saw the demon lying on the ground, it's head clearly separated from its body and big fat curls of steam beginning to rise up from the corpse. "You killed it."

Silas gave her a long look and then shook his head. "No, Ms. White, I did not."

Callie frowned. "But, I saw you."

Silas' eyes went wide. "I assure you, I did not. I waited, as I said I would. It seemed you would fail, but then you pulled the ax from your bag and killed the demon. It was... surprising."

Callie frowned. "I... I don't remember." She looked down and saw the ax lying on the ground. The blade's edge covered in blood. She reached down and stuffed it back into her bag.

"Understandable. Come on, let us get you back to Betsy." Silas straightened up and then asked, "Can you walk on your own?"

"Let's find out." Callie turned and staggered back the way they had come. In her mind, the memories of the demon pulsed and twisted in a new and painfully raw mental wound.

****

#### Chapter 16: Edie

The loud banging on the door made Edie jump. She was up and out of her seat quickly and pushing the door to the RV open. Silas had Callie in his arms and the girl was covered in blood.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! What happened?" Edie stepped back to give them room to enter.

"The demonridden is dead. We are uninjured. Physically, anyway." Silas set the girl on her feet and she swayed alarmingly. The tall man kept one hand on her back, holding her upright. Bending his knees, he brought his face closer to Callie's. "Ms. White? I am not going to put you in the bed covered in blood. You need to shower. Do you think you can do that by yourself?"

Though Callie's eyes were open, her gaze was unfocused and distant. She didn't respond to Silas' question.

"Ms. White, I will bathe you if I must." Silas said the words slowly and lines of formed across his forehead as he frowned.

Callie shook her head several times with small, rapid movements. She blinked over and over as she stood there.

Silas exhaled slowly and stood up. "Good. Mark, get some sleeping garments for Ms. White. Edie, calculate how long it will take us to get to Hatter's at this time of day."

Edie's stomach clenched at the name. "Silas..."

Silas looked at her with hard, grey eyes. "Just do it."

Swallowing, Edie turned and headed to the front of the RV. She entered the address into the GPS unit with angry stabs of her fingers. Hatter is dangerous and unreliable and I'm not going near him. Silas and Callie disappeared into the bathroom and Edie heard someone thump into the door before the shower started.

The door clicked open and closed and then Silas was hovering the space between the two captain seats at the front. "Hatter is nearby and uniquely suited to helping us destroy the book. The power signature will inevitably attract the wrong kind of attention; with such an unstable recruit, we are vulnerable to attack. The sooner the book is destroyed, the better."

Edie pressed her lips together. "You always intended for us to go to Hatter's." Fear and anger made the words feel tight in her throat and she couldn't help but feel tricked.

"Yes." Silas said the word quietly.

"You think so little of me?" Edie stiffened her spine and turned away. She didn't know why she was so upset. Sooner or later, Silas treated everyone like a child. He couldn't seem to help himself and Edie knew he did it less with her than with anyone else. At least, less than anyone she had ever seen.

"No, no." Silas reached out and touched her shoulder. His voice was pitched low in a vain attempt to avoid being overhead by Mark. "Just planning how to get the book back was overwhelming the girl and I know how you feel about Hatter. I wanted you focused on the risks we were taking, not thinking about what was coming next. Edie, we just killed a demonridden. Sooner or later, there will be a price to pay for that."

"I'm not going anywhere near that crazy bastard. He almost killed me last time." Edie glared up at Silas. I'm not going to talk to you about trust again. I'm just not going to do it.

"I understand. Perhaps it is time Mark met Hatter. It will at least be educational." His lips twisted wryly for a moment.

Edie exhaled sharply. "Always the master of understatement. The GPS thinks it will take six hours or so. You want to drive?"

Silas shook his head. "Let us have Mark start behind the wheel. I would like your assistance getting Ms. White into her bunk. She is not..." Silas paused and shook his head.

"I know." Edie replied and stood up. She waved her hands at the tall, imposing form. "Shoo."

Silas chuckled and backed away. "Mark, take the wheel. Edie has already plotted our course."

Mark was sitting at the table, his eyes flicking back and forth between Edie and Silas. His eyebrows were arched and the curiosity plain on his face. "Who's Hatter?"

Edie sighed. Silas was right; talking about Hatter earlier would have been a distraction. The realization did not soothe the sting of her anger.

"He is one of us." Silas began.

Edie shook her head and tsked disapprovingly at Silas. "He's one of us because he's terrified of you. Hatter is, as you might expect, absolutely mad."

Mark's eyes went round. "He's crazy? So how can he help us with the keystone?"

Silas gave Edie a sidelong glance and waited to see if she would speak. She turned her head away and shrugged one shoulder. With a nod, he said, "Hatter can unmake things. Not everything, he does not have enough power for that. But even if he cannot unmake the keystone, he will know what we need to do. It is a useful ability."

"Unfortunately," Edie added, "The same ability affects his mind. He's gotten worse the past few years."

"Does he make stuff disappear?" Mark asked.

Silas shook his head. "No. He can break things apart into the components. For example, he can unmake water and make oxygen and hydrogen. It is a very dangerous ability and even more so in the hands of someone with so little control."

Mark drummed his fingers on the table. "Is he going to attack me?"

Again, Silas looked at Edie. The woman sighed heavily. "Probably not. A while back, he attacked me and I had to hit him pretty hard with my power. Ever since then, he's been after me to do it again. He gets," she paused before continuing, "Very agitated when I refuse."

Mark nodded a couple of times. "Okay. Where are we going?"

Silas answered. "St. Louis."

Mark stood and walked to the front of the RV. As he started the RV, Edie said to Silas, "You know, Callie's been in the shower a long time."

Silas closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded. "Let us find out why."

As it turned out, Callie had sunk down until she was sitting on the floor of the shower stall. She was staring into space and shivering even though the spray of water was hot.

Edie backed out of the bathroom. "I think you're going to have to go in there and get her. Silas, what's wrong with her?"

Shaking his head, Silas stepped forward. "I do not know. It may be that the demonridden's death affected her. She was touching it when it died."

Wrestling the girl out of the shower proved to be difficult. The space was small and once Callie was on her feet, she seemed totally uninterested in doing anything except standing and staring. Edie wasn't willing to touch the girl to dry or dress her, but she hovered nearby in case Callie decided to get feisty. Once the girl out of the bathroom and clothed, Silas manhandled her into the top bunk. Callie curled up on her side, facing the wall, as Edie pulled the covers over her.

***

#### Chapter 17: Mark

Mark stared out the window, watching the city of St. Louis spring up around him. His stomach churned and he felt nauseous. He looked over at Silas, who was sitting at the tiny table reading a book. Mark suppressed the urge to get up and throw the book in his face.

All that goddamn talk about being careful, about staying alive, and what? Some blond bats her eyelashes at him and now we're goddamn demon killers. They aren't going to just kill us. They're going to tear our skin off by inches, slow, terrible inches.

"Mark, do your breathing exercises." Silas flipped a page as he spoke quietly.

Mark balled his hands into fists and he didn't bother turning around to meet Silas' eyes. "Don't you dare..."

"Hatter will be able to sense your fear and it will make getting him to focus very difficult." Silas replied.

Mark curled his lip. "I drove us here. I'm playing my part, so don't you fucking tell me to breath. I'm not in labor and you and the blond back there just painted a target on our backs. I'll panic if I want to."

Silas heaved a heavy sigh that set Mark's teeth on edge. "Then perhaps it would be best if you remained in the RV. I will speak to Hatter."

Mark turned and pointed at Silas. "I'm going in that house. If I'm going to be tortured and killed, we can at least destroy that stupid book." Mark turned back to the window, hating that he had already fallen into the breathing exercises Silas had taught him.

The sun had set as they drove south. Mark could see brief glimpses into windows of the single story homes, the brief flashes of flickering televisions, the backs of couches, or the outline of a person as they walked across the room made him feel like a peeping tom. Why don't people put curtains on their damn windows?

"Edie? We're almost there." Silas stood as he said this and Edie stopped the RV as the two of them switched places. Silas twitched the curtain closed and Edie sat down at the table, her fingers knotted in front of her.

Mark wondered idly what this Hatter had done to Edie to make her so afraid, though he kept his eyes glued on the window. The last thing he needed was a lecture from bossiest woman in the world. The guy is dangerous, blah, blah, blah. Mark was far more concerned about the demonridden who would undoubtedly kill them all in horrible and excruciating ways.

As they pulled up next to a darkened house, Mark exhaled.

"Mark, do not talk. Do not make eye contact with Hatter." Silas said as he entered the main part of the RV and closed the curtain behind him quickly.

"What am I doing there if I'm just gonna stand there like a lump?" Mark grumbled as he got to his feet.

"Learning." Silas rumbled back.

Mark sighed and climbed down the stairs. The night air smelled crisp and someone, somewhere had a fire going, and he found the tangy scent of burning wood comforting. The street lights were dimly lit and seemed spaced a little too far apart, pools of darkness forming and making the suburban street looking threatening. Most of the houses had wide expanses of grass, but the house they were standing in front of had a yard gone wild. The bushes were overgrown, branches going everywhere, and there wasn't grass so much as a field.

Mark followed Silas and was surprised when Silas opened the front door with a key. Light poured out of the door and Mark realized that there were heavy curtains over the windows.

As they stepped into the house, Mark bit back a low whistle. The house matched the yard and there was stuff everywhere. In one corner of the living room, there were newspapers piled so high they touched the ceiling. The edge of each newspaper was lined up with the others, so that the stacks looked almost like miniature skyscrapers. In another corner, it looked like someone had taken dozens of board games and torn them apart, throwing the pieces every which way. On one side of the long, narrow room, there was a fireplace though it was difficult to see it under the pile of plastic dolls. Each one seemed dirtier than the next, but they were positioned to look as if they were sitting on top of each other. Just beyond the dolls was a table covered in half used bottles of mouthwash. Everywhere he looked, there were piles of crap that looked strangely purposeful.

"Does this guy collect garbage or what?" Mark chuckled though he tried to smother it under his hand.

Silas glared at Mark. "I am quite certain I told you not to talk."

Mark held his hands up and shook his head, unable to wipe the grin off his face. He looked around, trying to decide what the strangest thing in the room was. There was a couch on one side of the room piled high with junk. Standing proudly at the top, like a star on a Christmas tree, was a hammer painted lime green; there was a tiny noose hanging from the round end of the tool. And we have a winner!

Just then, a man said in a low, polished voice, "I thought you were living in Babylon." The guy had some kind of accent. Spanish, maybe?

"Hatter. How are you?" Silas said and sketched an honest-to-god bow.

Hatter stepped into the room and his appearance did not match his voice. His hair was a wild, tangled mess of curls and he wore layers of torn, ragged clothing and dozens of Mardi Gras beads in a riot of colors. Hatter's skin was bronze and his face was cut with deep-set wrinkles around his mouth and eyes.

Hatter moved around the room, picking things up and setting them down. He looked at Silas and then at Mark, blinking rapidly before looking back down at the plastic bottle in his hand. He set it down and picked up a ratty cloth doll. In a sudden movement, Hatter was uncomfortably close. Mark flexed his muscles and forced himself to stand his ground. Hatter looked at him from one eye and then the other. "This, this one. I don't know. Is he on my side?" Hatter stepped closer, "Are you on my side?"

Mark blinked, Hatter's breath acrid and sharp in his nose. "I'm on my side."

Hatter jerked back a step and then another. He shot Silas glances and wrung the head off the doll. "Uh oh. That's just the truth, the truth." Hatter set the doll down and began straightening piles of newspapers, coupons, magazines, and scraps of paper.

"Hatter." Silas said, turning his body slowly until he was facing the man shuffling papers. "You know why I'm here."

"No. No." Hatter began shaking his head.

"Hatter." A frown was beginning to form on Silas' forehead.

Hatter hissed at Silas. "Where is my black star?"

"You know I'm not bringing Edie here ever again." Silas folded his arms across his chest.

"You will bring the star, the bright star." Hatter stomped across the room as he said this until he was shaking his fist in Silas face.

"No." Silas held the keystone up in Hatter's face. "I have got something for you."

Hatter backpedaled, waving his hands in front of his face. "The third eye vision is not available at this time."

"Hatter, do not be difficult." Silas advanced, holding the book out in front of him. With a sharp, aggressive move, Silas shoved the book into Hatter's hand.

Hatter shrieked. "I see it all. I see it all through the yellow windows." He threw the book down and backed away, pointing at the book as he shouted, "That is a blue ruin!"

"Hatter, you know you must assist me in this. You know what that can do. Is that what you want? Another demonridden in the world?" Silas leaned over and picked up the book.

Hatter put his hands over his ears and rocked back and forth. Mark felt a pang of sympathy for the guy; the book clearly caused him pain. Not that it matters to Silas.

Silas stood silently in the middle of the room, holding the book, and looking at Hatter. Mark waited for him to say something, but he didn't. One minute turned into two and then into five. Words bubbled behind Mark's lips and he forced himself to be silent.

Slowly, Hatter took his hands off his ears and straightened up. He looked at Silas, moving his head to different angles as if to see the tall man better. After an excruciatingly long time, Hatter finally said, "You will bring me bella bella."

Silas sighed and shook his head as he unfolded his arms. "What happened to the last bella bella, Hatter?"

Hatter began shaking his head back and forth vigorously. "It's just to slow it down to speed it up, you see?" Hatter grabbed Silas' wrist and tugged.

Mark sucked in his breath, expecting Silas to shake the man off. But Silas just frowned and allowed himself to be tugged into the kitchen. Mark trailed afterwards, feeling increasingly foolish as he did so. Mark walked through the door on the far end of the room and stepped on something that crunched. He looked down with a frown and realized there was cat food all over the floor. As he looked around, he realized that there was cat food all over, bags of it on the counters and piles of it in the corners. He hadn't realized until just now how pungent cat food smelled, the odor so thick it burned his nostrils.

Hatter leaned over and pushed at a cat door that began to swing back and forth. He stood and walked over to the sink, food crunching under his feet, and turned the water faucet on until it dripped. "You see? No more black days."

Silas looked around the room, slowly scanning the covered surfaces.

"This guy wants a cat? Silas, you can't be thinking of giving him one. I mean, he's totally nuts." Mark motioned around the room in a gesture that said because this guy is clearly totally insane.

Hatter drew his lips back and hissed at Mark even as Silas said, "Mark, shut up."

Mark shook his head and wondered how the hell his life had ended up like this, standing in a crazy guy's cat food filled kitchen. I need a cigarette.

"Hatter, if this bella bella dies as the last one did, there will be no more." Silas said finally. "Do you hear me?"

Hatter began to smile and nod. "I feel like crying."

"Hatter." Silas growled the name in an octave so low the room vibrated. Mark hated that tone.

The smile fell off of Hatter's face. "Yes. Yes. I will be a blazing arrow, clean and true. Do you promise? Promise!"

Silas inhaled and exhaled slowly and then nodded. "I promise."

Hatter held out his hand. "Give me the blue ruin." Once he had the book, he sniffed delicately along the edges, his nostrils flaring. After a moment, he licked the spine.

Oh, gross! Mark thought.

Hatter stopped to stare at Mark, like he'd heard the thought, and then went back to sniffing the book. Silas narrowed his eyes at Mark. With short jerky movements, Hatter turned the book over and sniffed along the edges. He opened it, flipping the pages past his face and breathing in the air that wafted up.

"You need the fish on a hook." Hatter said ponderously.

Silas' lips twitched. "I'm going to need more than that."

Hatter made an annoyed huffing sound. "The fish that swallowed the worm," he said faster and waving the book in the air at the side of his face.

"Is the fish blond? With a pointed chin?" Silas asked.

Hatter nodded several times. "Yes, yes, the fish on the hook."

Silas nodded. "I figured as much. What else can you see?"

"You will need the dove, the one with two hearts."

Silas closed his eyes and his long fingers tapped against his thigh. He shook his head.

Hatter made a rude noise and licked the book again, this time on the cover. "One dove, two hearts. She's a beautiful thing, with a voice you haven't heard in ages." Hatter pressed the book against his face. "You're shit out of luck?"

The corners of Silas' mouth twitched. "Ah. Got it."

"They must step into the eye of the storm. Tell the dove that. The eye of the storm." Hatter pressed the book against his face and began to croon low disjointed notes.

"Hatter?" Silas said after a couple of minutes. "Is that all?"

Blinking, Hatter pulled the book away from his face and then dropped it. "Yes. Yes. As long as the fish remembers to breathe."

Silas bent over and picked the book up while Mark headed back to the living room, eager to get out of this cramped little house.

"Thank you, Hatter." Silas said once they were all back in the living room. "Is Patricia taking care of you? Delivering your food the way you like it?"

Hatter gave Silas a knowing smile. "You will bring my star to me, my bright star, my black star. The truth will be revealed when the proper time comes."

Silas opened his mouth and Mark could tell from the hard glint in his eyes that the tall man was going to say something cutting.

"Uh, Silas?" How about you don't take away the hope of the crazy guy who can unmake things?

Silas must have agreed because he closed his mouth.

Hatter's gaze shifted to Mark, his head tilting from side to side, muttering, "This one, this one." He shuffled forward until he was close enough for Mark to catch a whiff of the other man's body odor. Hatter's eyes were such a dark brown that they almost looked like they were all pupil. Mark found he couldn't pull his gaze away and the air between them began to crackle with energy.

Crack! Mark reeled back, his hand going up to his face automatically to touch the place where Hatter had hit him.

"Smack! Smack!" Hatter began to giggle. "This one likes smack!"

Mark staggered back, his face aching and so surprised he couldn't form a coherent thought.

Hatter began to dance around the room, waving his hands up in the air and then down. He laughed as he did it, the sound ringing wildly in the cramped room. Hatter stopped and pointed at Mark. "This one doesn't want to be friends."

"Okay, Hatter, that's enough." Silas stepped forward and touched the dancing man on the shoulder.

Hatter stopped in his tracks, his body suddenly rigid. "Don't forget. Promises."

"I remember, Hatter. I remember. Tomorrow morning, I promise." Silas hooked one hand under Mark's elbow and just about dragged the younger man out of the house.

Against his will, Mark turned his head back to look at Hatter. The madman was standing in the middle of the room, body drawn up into a tall straight line, his mouth pulled wide in a toothy smile. Hatter lifted his right hand and pointed at Mark with his thumb and forefinger, as if aiming an imaginary gun. As Silas pulled Mark around the corner, Hatter "pulled" the trigger. Mark could hear him laughing all the way out of the house.

Silas' long legs moved quickly and Mark trotted to keep up, eager to be away from that madhouse.

As they entered the RV, Edie stood, her face drawn into a tight, unhappy frown. "How did it go?"

Silas pushed Mark at the couch and shrugged, "As well as one could hope. We will drive a few blocks and sleep. Tomorrow, we will bring the Hatter a cat and then we are going to New Hampshire."

Mark leaned forward, putting his face in his hands, and tried not to shake.

Edie's eyebrows went up. "The witch? Really?"

Silas shrugged again. "It is a better option than many. Stay out of sight." Silas ducked into the cab of the RV and shortly thereafter, Betsy roared to life.

The cushion next to him shifted and Edie asked, very quietly, "How are you?"

Tears slid out of his eyes and he couldn't stop them. Instead, he tightened his insides and tried to be silent. Without lifting his head from his hands, Mark asked, "How'd he know, Edie?"

"Know what?" Edie asked.

Mark couldn't answer her, couldn't say it out loud. He just shook his head.

"Oh. Oh, honey, I'm sorry." Edie reached out and touched his back, her power as warm and sticky as honey. "Hatter's got sort of a knack for sensing..." she paused awkwardly. "That kind of thing." She finished after a moment.

Mark stood, balling his hands into fists. "Get your power under control, Edie." Mark ignored Edie's sharp intake of breath. "I'm going to sleep. Think it's okay with Callie back there?"

Her voice sharp with anger, Edie said, "If you can get her to respond, we'd all be better off."

Mark nodded curtly and headed to the back of the RV.

God damn it all to hell, I wish I could still get high.

***

#### Chapter 18: Callie

Callie curled up on her side, unmoving, as her mind came apart and put itself back together again in a slow, unpleasant kaleidoscope of images. It was difficult to tell the difference between when she was asleep and when her consciousness drifted, but it was also difficult to care. What does it matter? The only thing that drove her from her bed was the annoying physical requirement to use the bathroom. People came and went, the RV turned on and off, and none of it mattered.

At some point, she woke to low, angry voices. After a moment, she recognized the low rumble and clear, pleasant notes of Silas and Edie's voices.

"You cannot use your power on her, Edie." Silas said quietly and firmly.

Edie made a huffing, exasperated sound. "She's been in that bunk for more than a day! The girl is having a meltdown and I can help."

"She told you not to use your power on her. The girl was clear." Silas said this as if he'd already said it before and had to work to remain patient.

"I know! Alright? I know. But she's in no state to change her mind. What if she stays like this? Seriously, Silas. How long is too long? A week? A month? I can help her now."

Silas sighed. "If she is still catatonic in a week, we will revisit the issue. Until then, to use your power on her would be tantamount to assault."

The silence stretched out awkwardly and then Callie heard the banging of the RV door.

The next sounds she heard were of someone shouting and the thump of one body hitting another. She rolled out of bed into a crouch before she'd thought about what she was doing. Suddenly and brutally awake, Callie was certain that what she was hearing was the sound of a fight. She crept through the RV slowly, noting that there no one was in it. The door of the RV, however, was open. Heart racing, she crept forward slowly until she could peer outside. At first, she could only see Silas, standing off to one side of a clearing ringed by trees.

"After a year and a half, that is all you can do? Pathetic." Silas sneered the words.

With a strangled cry, Mark rushed into Callie's view. Silas stepped to one side and Mark stumbled past him.

The taller man let out a short, barking laugh. "See?"

Mark turned quickly, his face contorted in rage, and lashed one foot out in front of him, catching Silas in the gut and knocking him back several feet. Silas' dropped into a low crouch and snarled at the smaller man.

The two circled each other, Mark panting and Silas glaring, until Silas darted forward and then, somehow, Mark was flat on his back and Silas was on top of him. The tall man brought his fist up and Callie knew he was going to beat the shit out of Mark. There was no way Mark could get loose.

She rushed forward, stumbling down the stairs, flinging her power at the two of them and shouting, "No!" She was too slow to stop Silas from punching Mark in the face, but the blast of her levitation power caught him in the chest and knocked Silas off Mark.

Exhaustion swept over her and she panted like she'd just been running.

Mark bounded to his feet, rage plain on his face, as he marched across the clearing. "Are you out of your fucking mind?! Do you have any idea what you've done, you stupid bitch?"

As he got nearer, Callie felt something tighten in her chest and anger flared up inside her as if it were a living thing. "Saved your face, you ungrateful asshole."

Mark snorted. "You're so fucking dumb, I don't even know where to begin. I'm trying to eat, if that's okay with your royal fucking highness. Or is that too much for you to deal with because no one is paying any attention to you? Oh, I'm Callie, I just bat my big, empty eyes and try not to think too hard."

By the time he was done talking, Mark was only a couple of feet away. Callie knew she should back up, but found herself stepping forward instead. "I don't even know what you're talking about, asshat. All I know is that Silas was kicking the crap out of you, so I thought I would help. Next time, I'll let him beat you into hamburger."

"God, do you even hear yourself? You didn't care what you were doing, you just wanted to show off. And by the way, every time you use your fancy super power around me, I feel like somebody's sucking me off!" The veins in Mark's neck stood out as he shouted at her.

Rage bloomed in her chest and she stepped forward again, certain that punching Mark in the face would be the most satisfying thing she would ever do.

Silas stepped between them, his back to Callie. "Mark, walk to the trees and stay there."

"Make me." Mark shouted in response.

"You have affected Ms. White with your power. Either you walk to the trees or I cut the connection and you go hungry. Your choice." Silas sounded bored and irritated, though it was hard to tell without being able to see his face.

Mark didn't respond, but after a moment, Silas turned around and opened his hands in front of him. "Ms. White, take a deep breath and let it out slowly."

Callie shook her head and stepped to one side in an effort to see Mark. I'm going to knock that idiot into next week! Silas moved at the same time she did, effectively blocking her ability to see, and Callie gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Ms. White, Mark feeds on anger. When you interrupted us, his power hooked into you. I can cut the connection, but it will hurt and I am concerned it will delay the destruction of the keystone." Silas spoke very softly and the irritation was gone from his voice.

The mention of the book caught her attention, and she looked up to meet Silas' eye. "You know how to destroy it?"

Silas gave her a tight smile. "I thought that might get your attention. Yes, we know what to do and it will be difficult for you to do your part with a splitting headache. Will you help me?"

The anger was strong enough that it was hard to think of anything else, but the idea of destroying that godforsaken book was compelling. Callie nodded.

"Good. Do you remember what it felt like to exchange power with me?" Silas asked. After Callie nodded again, Silas continued, "Somewhere, Mark's power has linked the two of you together. You are feeling his anger. Close your eyes and imagine yourself filled with your power. Use a color if that helps you picture it."

Callie closed her eyes, not really sure what Silas meant. She thought about what the tingling and cool sensation of moving power back and forth. As she did so, the same feelings bloomed in her belly and chest and spread slowly down her arms and legs. In the middle of her chest, however, the tingly feeling stopped.

Silas spoke again. "Somewhere, there is an emptiness, a place where your power does not reach. Imagine this spot in another color. It does not matter what color."

Almost as soon as he said it, a dark red knot bloomed in her chest. It shoved against her own cool, crackling power with sharp, unpleasant jabs.

"Where is it?" Silas asked.

Callie decided he must have stepped closer while her eyes were closed because she was suddenly aware she could feel the heat coming off of his body. Reaching up, she touched her sternum.

Silas muttered under his breath, "Of course it is." He paused for a moment. "Alright, Ms. White. Keep your eyes closed." His voiced moved around to her right as he spoke. "I am going to place my hand on your back and feed you power. I want you to imagine it traveling through your chest and coating Mark's power. Once you have done this, tell me, and do nothing else. Do you understand?"

Callie nodded and Silas placed his hand high on her back, between her shoulder blades. Almost immediately, a cool breeze of power began to slide through her and it felt so good she gasped.

"I am sorry, Ms. White. Does this hurt?" Silas' voice vibrated through his hand.

Callie shuddered. Hurt? It felt amazing. The only way she could differentiate between his power and her own was by following the swirl of pleasure expanding across her chest and towards the red knot. "It's fine. I was just, uh, startled." Callie flinched at how shaky her voice sounded. She imagined Silas' power curling around the dark red power tangled between her breasts. It didn't take long for his power to coat Mark's power from the inside out. "Okay."

"You have done as I asked?" Silas said, his voice going up at the end of the sentence like he didn't really believe her.

With a frown, she said, "yeah. I have."

"Alright. I am now going to place my hand on your collarbone and I want you to connect my power with my other hand. Once you have done this, I am going pull Mark's power loose. Keep your eyes closed until I am done. As soon as it is gone, go inside the RV and do not come out. Do you understand?" Silas shifted as he spoke, keeping one hand on her back, until he was standing on her right and facing her.

"Yeah, I got it." Callie replied and it took all of her will not to squirm and beg him to do... something, anything.

Silas placed his hand high up on her chest, his thumb resting on her neck, and his power practically leaped to complete the circle. She gasped, tears springing to her eyes, the circle of his power cold and tingling, and she arched her hips forward. As Silas pulled Mark's power loose, his feelings scraped against her mind. Thought the contact was quick, his feelings of impatience, frustration, and irritation were strong enough to slash through her desire.

As soon as the red knot was gone, Silas began to growl, an actual, honest-to-god, animal sound. There was a strange popping sound, too. Callie looked up over her right shoulder and into Silas' face, his jaw suddenly extended and sharp, needle teeth beginning to form. She stumbled back, the sharp and acrid taste fear coating her mouth. Rachel looked like that when she... Callie couldn't finish the thought. Silas turned away, his jaw popping back into place, and the two men went at each other, meeting in the middle of the clearing with a meaty thud.

Stumbling back into the RV, she rushed to the bathroom, just managing to get to the toilet in time. She'd cycled through emotions so fast, she felt ill. She hadn't eaten much, but it didn't stop her body from heaving so hard she thought her stomach might come up.

I should have stayed in bed.

****

#### Chapter 19: Edie

With a sharp exhale, Edie forced herself to finish running up the last hill at a brisk pace. She slowed down after that, letting her body cool down as she headed back to the clearing where they had spent the night. It was nice to get out of that RV, away from the others, and use her body. The New England air in September had just a hint of the smell of fall, though it would be weeks before the leaves turned. They were four or five hours south of White Mountain National Forest. For reasons the witches did not care to explain to the likes of her, the area around the forest preserve drew their kind like moths to a flame. Even those who didn't realize they were gifted, the ones more powerful witches called "sensates," found their way there or made sure they never left. It was one of dozens of such areas around the world, though this one was unusual as it drew witches from all five specialties.

This entire situation is out of hand. We've killed a demonridden, gotten Hatter involved, and now we're going to the witches. Edie shook her head as she considered the situation. And I helped! Lord have mercy. It felt good, though, to kill one of those creatures. She still regretted that she hadn't been able to kill the demon riding her brother. Pulling the demon through had been her fault and she couldn't even spare her brother the indignity of some hell spawn running around wearing his skin. It was still alive, too. Most of the baby demonridden died not long after they arrived, killed by their older, stronger, and very territorial brethren. It's still using his name. As always, the thought made her feel ill.

Edie's thoughts turned to Callie White, the springboard for this entire mad escapade. On the surface, there was nothing strange about the girl. Callie was a bit mousy, always hunching her shoulders and turning her face away, and the girl's tendency to blush was almost painful to watch. And she seems to do nothing but cry... and kill demonridden. As most new recruits were, Callie seemed overwhelmed, confused, and angry. It's just... there's something not right about her reactions. She's too... Edie paused, unable to come up with the right word. Edie's thoughts returned to Callie's police file, which listed the girl as suffering from schizophrenia. That might explain why her reactions seem off, particularly if she's been off her meds. Silas seemed to think that the whole issue had been made up in order to legitimate placing the girl in a psychiatric ward, but Edie wasn't so sure.

Edie paused at the edge of the clearing and sighed. Mark and Silas were still at it. She stayed where she was, enjoying the tight feeling in her legs from her run, and began to stretch. After a year and half, it still took Mark far too long to feed and he still couldn't effectively feed from anyone other than Silas. The last time he'd tried to go feed on his own, he'd started a brawl and gotten a dozen people in legal hot water. Of course, she was the one left cleaning up that particular mess.

Silas made an impatient sound and knocked Mark down with a sweep of his legs. The tall man followed through, until he had Mark pinned face down in the dirt. "Accept the power, Mark. I will not allow you to give it back again. You must accept your own anger." Silas shook the boy a bit. Mark snarled and tried to buck free, but Silas was too strong. Eventually, Mark shuddered and relaxed. Silas kept him pinned down for another couple of minutes.

"I'm good, Silas. Let me up." Mark said, his voice muffled and low.

Silas uncoiled and rose to his feet. Mark followed, though less gracefully, shaking out his neck and shoulders.

"Think I should apologize to Callie?" Mark asked, rolling one shoulder and then the other.

Edie stepped forward, "She's awake?"

Silas snorted. "Up and making trouble already."

"C'mon, boss man, how was she to know?" Mark replied.

"That I was not going to beat you to death? I cannot imagine what knowledge she might possess that might have brought her to another conclusion." Silas twisted his lips as spoke.

Edie lifted her eyebrows. "What did she do?"

Mark started to giggle. "For starters, she knocked Silas on his ass again."

Silas eyebrows snapped together in a frown and he said nothing. Instead, he turned and walked towards the RV.

Edie couldn't stop the smile the spread across her face. "Did she now?"

Mark's giggles died down. "Yep. Then me and her almost got in a fight and Silas had to step in and sort it out." By the time he was done talking, he looked serious.

"You call her anything really bad?" Edie asked, knowing how nasty Mark got when he was in the throes of feeding.

Mark shrugged one shoulder and headed to the RV as well. "I've done worse."

Edie nodded. Mark had called her some unforgivable things. She paused at the entrance, giving her eyes a moment to adjust to the darker interior of the RV. Callie was curled up in one corner of the couch, reading a magazine, and her hair was wet enough that there was a dark spot on the over sized t-shirt she was wearing.

Mark looked at Callie for a long moment. "Sorry. About that." He motioned outside.

Edie suppressed a sigh. What a heartfelt apology.

Callie shrugged one shoulder. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to mess up breakfast." Callie threw the magazine onto the kitchen table and sat up, to make room for more people to sit on the couch.

Mark nodded and headed to the back of the RV, hopefully to shower since he was covered in dirt. Silas stretched out along one of the bench seats of the table, his left elbow propped on the table.

"Silas," Callie knotted her hands together in her lap, "I owe you an apology as well."

"And why is that, Ms. White?" Silas' sneered ever so slightly at Callie.

Edie looked Silas over sharply, noting the tightness at the edges of his mouth, and realized that the girl had actually managed to insult him. Edie felt a small, worried tug in her heart. Callie had been with them for less than a week and she'd already managed to get an astonishing amount of reaction out of Silas. The teenaged version of Edie would have been green with jealousy, but now Edie was just concerned that Silas was off his game. He was the glue that held the bitten together and there was going to be hell to pay if he could no longer do it.

Callie looked at Silas for a long moment. "I've gotten more reliant on my ability than I realized. Not being able to touch people really sucks, you know? Most of the time, that's what I focus on. But it also allows me to get a glimpse of people that kept me alive for the past few months and I don't pick up much of anything from you. It's..." Callie paused for a moment and looked at her hands. "Distressing."

Edie watched the girl with a critical eye. Callie White was just a little too self-possessed for an eighteen year old girl.

Mark pushed the curtain that separated their sleeping area from the main part of the RV. He was wearing clean clothes and looked like he'd just wiped his face and arms off. There was still a smudge of dirt along his neck. Edie fought the urge to tell him to go take a shower.

Callie continued. " I woke up, saw you guys fighting, and jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry about that."

Silas grunted noncomittally, but the tight lines around his mouth eased.

"What do you pick up from Mark and I?" Edie asked, curious about this strange ability of Callie's. Perhaps that's what's bothering me.

Callie shook her head and kept her eyes on the floor. "I'd rather not say. People don't like it when you just know stuff about them without them telling you."

Alarm bells started to go off in the back of Edie's mind. "I dislike not knowing more." Edie replied firmly.

Callie nibbled on her lower lip and she twisted her hands together. "Um, well." She stopped and cleared her throat, eyes flicking from side to side.

Why is she afraid? Edie frowned and tipped her head to one side.

"I get sort of," Callie stopped again and frowned. "This is really hard to explain."

"Try." Edie replied. She could feel both men's eyes on her and she flicked her eyes once at Silas. The tall man raised one eyebrow at her, but remained silent. Good enough.

Callie sighed. "I imagine it's like reading Braille, if I were blind. People's minds have different textures and some personality traits are clearer than others. Edie, most of your mind feels smooth, calm. There's these ridged bumps though, so I know you're, I don't know, tough. Those two things together, I would guess you're good in an emergency. And..." Callie stopped and shifted in her seat. "Parts of your mind are very sticky. You're sad, but that's not even what I mean." Callie frowned. "For your mind to feel like that, the sadness is part of who you are. Whatever happened to you, it changed you."

Edie's breath caught in her throat and Callie flinched a little at the sound. Grief and sadness surged up from the recesses of Edie's mind and she struggled to keep a straight face.

"Ooo, now do me!" Mark said, his voice too loud for the small space. He grinned as he said it.

Callie shook her head and tucked her knees up against her chest. "Why? Why make me do this?"

"Why pretend this is information you do not have, Ms. White?" Silas asked quietly.

Callie just shook her head and looked at the floor, muttering, "Because that's what people prefer."

With great effort, Edie shoved her feelings to the side. It was difficult not to feel resentful towards Callie for having to deal with resurgence of sadness and grief, even though Edie knew full well she'd invited it.

"I actually do kinda want to know what you pick up from me. Sorry." Mark said, still leaning against the doorjamb, his arms folded across his chest.

"You probably don't, but whatever. You're cocky and sure of yourself, but that part of your mind is like tinfoil. The fear and anger underneath seeps up like oil." Callie looked at Mark as she spoke the words flatly.

Mark's eyebrows went up, a half smile curving his mouth up. "I'm afraid, huh? How come?"

"I don't know! I get an impression, not a report." Callie replied sharply.

"Geez, don't get pissy. I was just wondering." Mark made a face at Callie as he spoke.

Callie stuck her tongue out at him in response. "Can we go destroy the book now?"

"One last thing, Ms. White. You mentioned you did not get much from me, suggesting you get something." Silas bent his head forward and lifted his eyebrows. "Do tell, Ms. White."

Callie turned back to look at Silas, mouth opening and then closing. She looked at Mark and then back at Silas. She then proceeded to turn beet red.

'It cannot be that bad, Ms. White. Just tell me." Silas sat up in the booth and turned so that he was no longer looking directly at Callie.

"Out in the yard, you were bored and impatient. And back at the security guard's house," Callie paused and closed her eyes. "You were... really angry."

Callie swallowed around the last words and Edie knew she was sugar coating the depth of the emotion. Edie looked at Silas, who sat frozen in his seat, and felt a streak of fear join her worry.

Callie continued, "It was only a moment, for both times, but, the feelings were very clear."

After a long moment, Silas said, "I see."

"Callie, are you schizophrenic?" Edie asked abruptly, no longer interested in avoiding this issue.

The rage on Callie's face appeared suddenly—jaw locked and facial muscles twitching—and for a moment, Edie thought the girl might actually attack.

Then Callie swallowed and looked at the floor and said in a low, thick voice. "No."

Edie looked over at Mark. His arms were crossed over his chest and he tapped his bicep twice with his right hand. So that's the truth, then. What is it about this girl that bothers me so much? The feeling itched at the back of Edie's mind.

"Perhaps we should get on the road." Silas said into the uncomfortable silence. "We are not far from where the witches live."

"What witches?" Callie wiped her hands over her face and then looked around at the three of them. "Please don't tell me there's witches too."

"As you like." Silas said with a shrug. "Unless anyone minds, I will drive."

Callie put her hands in face and moaned. "Witches."

***

#### Chapter 20: Callie

Witches. There's witches. Callie couldn't stop repeating the words in her mind. Why this was more difficult to believe than demons, she didn't know, but it was. It just was. Edie and Mark had given her the bare bones details because she couldn't take much more than that. It was enough to know that witches were humans with elemental powers; that there were five different kinds of witches for earth, air, water, fire, and some sort of clairvoyant witch for "spirit" or whatever that was; and that they were going to go see a big, powerful mama earth witch. That was enough.

"Does she know we're coming?" Callie asked Silas, breaking the silence of the past hour. She was curled in the front seat and Silas was driving. Callie didn't know what Edie and Mark were doing and she didn't care. The only thing that mattered was destroying the book.

"Who?" Silas replied, maneuvering the RV around a curve in the road. It seemed like the roads they'd been on all morning had been nothing but curves.

"Big bad mama earth witch." Callie stared at the trees passing out of the window, trying to peer between the branches.

Silas' mouth curved up into a smile. "Please call her that to her face."

Callie smiled before she could help herself. "Don't be a punk."

"Well, I would not want to be, as you say, a punk. I called her and made an appointment." Silas added, "Mimi is particular that way. And she is going to demand payment."

"What kind of payment?" Callie asked. "Is this going to be horrifying? Because I'm not up for horrifying."

Silas shook his head. "No, but Mimi always seems to want something that is hard to give."

"Hmm." Callie said and turned her face to look out the window. The trees by the side of the road were thick and she caught sight of a deer bounding through the trees. The book, the keystone, was tucked into the pocked of the jacket she was wearing and she dug her fingers into the spine. Mimi the Earth Witch was going to destroy the book whether she liked it or not.

"How do you do it?" Callie asked.

"Do what?" Silas frowned and flicked a glance at her.

She sighed. "Vanish the way you do."

The tall man gave her a long look out of the corner of his eyes. "I do not know. How do you breathe?"

"Punk." Callie rolled her eyes and turned away to hide her smile.

Silas turned onto a narrow paved road that wound around into a circular driveway. In the center of the round driveway was an enormous coniferous tree, its branches dripping down to the ground with long, soft looking needle leaves. The circle had to be fifteen feet across and the tree nearly filled it. Beyond the driveway were large, dense bushes with thick slightly glossy leaves. It took Callie a minute to even notice the house peeking out from behind all the greenery. The brown shingles and dark green trim helped the house blend into the trees and bushes that surrounded it. The doorway was set back from the stairs by several feet, suggesting there was a pretty deep porch and there was a dormer bay window on the second story.

Silas parked the RV and the four of them headed to the door. Callie felt like their steps made too much noise and the porch seemed to press in against them, as if the house were surprised to find such creatures on its doorstep. Silas knocked on the door firmly, though it took several minutes for anyone to answer the door.

The woman who answered the door was ridiculously attractive and far too young to be the earth witch. She was short, maybe 5'1", and had an aggressive hourglass figure. With her dark curly hair pulled up into two pig tails, pale creamy skin, and pouting pink mouth, the woman looked like she'd just rolled out of an orgy. The woman opened the door and sighed, crossing her arms and pushing her already impressive chest up against the thin material of the striped jersey dress she wore. Mark's mouth dropped open.

"Well, don't just stand there. Come on in." The woman's voice was girlish and Callie felt a stab of jealousy. Even Rachel, the prettiest girl at their school, would have felt like a cow next to this woman. Callie fought the urge to tug on her clothing. There was no amount of rearranging going to make the oversized clothing fit better.

The four of them followed the woman as she sashayed down the hallway, her ballet slippers making no sound on the wide, pine floors. Her black leggings emphasized shapely legs and the belt around her narrow waist made it hard not to watch her ass as she walked. The woman turned left at the first door they came to, not bothering to look back and make sure they followed.

Callie peered around and decided this had to be a living room. It was rectangular and there was a big fireplace at the far end. The wide wooden flooring continued into this room and matched the trim around the doors and windows. Someone had painted the walls a warm green color and along one wall was a large abstract painting that made Callie's eyes hurt. The couches dominated the room: two long and two love seats. Callie guessed the room could comfortably seat a dozen people.

The dark haired woman walked to the love seat positioned in front of the fireplace and draped herself gracefully on it. The four of them settled on the two longer couches and Callie perched on the edge of her seat.

"What do you want, Silas?" The woman tilted her head to one side, leaning forward against the arm of the couch, looking both bored and luscious.

Callie held one hand up. "Wait. What? You're the mama earth witch?" She couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice.

The woman, Mimi, raked Callie over with her eyes and then turned back to Silas. "She's darling. Did you find her under a bale of hay?"

Callie pressed her lips together to bite back a laugh. Well, at least Rachel could've outbitched her any day of the week. Reaching out, Callie touched Mimi's mind. It was so tightly woven that all Callie could get was that the earth witch was utterly and completely focused, though there was no way to know on what. Callie frowned, having never touched a mind like that before. That's been happening a lot lately. Callie kept touching Mimi's mind even as she plugged back into the conversation.

"Silas, I hope you aren't expecting a freebie. You remember how that went last time, don't you?" Mimi said the words sweetly, practically batting her eyelashes at the tall man.

"I no longer expect you to be responsible to anyone but yourself. Must we chat or can we get to business?" Silas curled his upper lip at Mimi.

Mimi put her hand on heart and made a small, mocking sound. "Oh dear, you're gonna hurt my feelings. If you want to get right to business, that's fine with me. What do you want?"

Leaning back into the couch, Silas took his time making himself comfortable, before saying, "We need you to help us destroy a keystone."

Mimi stared at him for a moment and then let out a coarse bark of laughter at odds with her appearance. After a minute, she stopped. "Oh. You're serious. What makes you think I can help with something like that?"

"My source was quite certain you could achieve the results we need." Silas spoke crisply. "And I am certain you already had some idea why we are here and what it will cost." As he said this, Silas gave Mimi a level stare.

For the first time, Mimi shifted in her seat and dropped her eyes for just a moment. Callie watched avidly, certain she was missing subtext.

Mimi set her mouth in a firm line. "That one." She leveled one buffed and polished nail at Mark. "I'm going to need his particular set of... skills." She paused before saying the last word to look him up and down.

Mark flushed and glared at her. "You're fucking kidding me right now, right? I'm not gonna be her sex slave." Mark jerked his thumb at Mimi and glared at Silas. Silas lifted his eyebrows in response.

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Morgana's tits, Silas, where do you find these people? I don't want you as a sex slave. At least, not unless you come willingly." She smirked.

Callie rolled her eyes. "Christ on a pogostick." She pulled the keystone from her pocket and tossed it at the curly haired woman. Mimi caught it, her eyes wide and her mouth twisted in distaste. Callie pointed, "That can pull a demon through into this world where it will tear people into pieces. I know because we looked at some pieces the other day. You and I are going to destroy it."

Mimi threw the book back at Callie and snarled, "Be careful ordering me to do anything, little girl." Her eyes glittered with anger.

Callie laughed and shook her head. "Let me rephrase. Me. You. Book. Destroy. So quit being a pain in the ass." As Callie spoke, the dense weave of Mimi's mind shifted and small bubbles of worry dripped down like condensation on a glass. Callie inhaled sharply and pulled back. "You don't know how to destroy it, do you?"

Mimi glared at Callie, "I know what I'm doing." For a moment, she sounded even younger than she looked.

Callie put her face in her hands. "Forget it, Silas. She's lost. Your guy must have been wrong."

Silas took his foot off his knee and leaned forward. "He said we would need the eye of the storm."

Mimi turned her head to look at the tall man. "The eye..." Her voice trailed off and for just a moment, her mind flickered.

Callie let out a slow breath. "And now we're getting somewhere."

Mimi was silent for a long time, staring over their heads and at the far wall. Finally she said, "Who will be the sacrifice?"

Callie pointed at herself with both thumbs. "I'm guessing me."

The witch looked at her again, eyes traveling slowly down and then up. "You agree to something you know nothing about?"

With a sigh, Callie repeated her words in long rush, "You me book destroy. Tell me what we need."

Mimi shrugged. "We have not yet come to an agreement."

Callie rolled her eyes. "Big, bad mama earth witch, are you going do any permanent physical, emotional, or psychological damage to Mark?"

"No." Mimi rolled her eyes back in Callie's direction.

Silas gave her a crocodile smile. "Willing to put that in a blood contract?"

Mimi sighed in irritation. "Fine."

"Hey, people, I'm standing right here!" Mark waved his hands back and forth.

"Actually, you're sitting." Mimi pointed out with a smirk.

"Go ahead and bait me. See how that goes for you." Mark snarled at the witch.

Now sensitized to the connection between emotion and power, Callie could feel the anger rolling off him like an ocean wave.

Mimi smiled and held her hands up in front of her. "Oh no. Please don't hurt me, you bad bad bitten you." She trilled in laughter as her mind reached out, forming a net across the whole of the room. Callie blinked and wondered if it really glowed blue or if that was in her imagination.

"Mark, I will take on your debt to Spider." Silas said into the tense, crackling air of the room.

The anger rolling off Mark stopped abruptly as he turned to stare at the other man. Mark lifted his heels up and began jiggle his legs. After a moment, Mark nodded. "Deal."

"Is Spider someone I want to know?" Mimi asked, almost purring at Silas, as she reeled her power back in.

"You do not have anything Spider wants." Silas said coldly. "How long will it take for you to prepare for the spell?"

Mimi leaned on one elbow, tilted her head, and pursed her lips as she looked Silas over. "We'll do it tonight, when the moon is high."

Edie sighed. "I'll get the contract drawn up."

****

#### Chapter 21: Edie

Edie kept her pace slow and even only by sheer force of will. With a tight smile, she asked Silas to come with her as she drew up the contract that would protect everybody but the idiot she worked for.

"Are you out of your mind?" The words burst from behind Edie's lips before the door closed. "Spider has been trying to get his fangs into you for years and you're just going to serve yourself up on a silver platter?" Edie paced three steps and turned around, throwing her hands up in the air. "Are you out... of your mind!?" She couldn't even find the words to tell him how foolish he was being.

"Are you quite finished?" Silas growled the words in that threatening rumble that used to make her insides turn to jelly.

"No, I'm not." The words that finally came fell out of her lips like ice chips. "Callie's way too powerful, she's being protected by God only knows who, and she's killed two demonridden and a human!" Edie held two of her fingers up. "And what are we doing? Meeting with Hatter. Messing around with witches! She's going to get us killed."

"How quick you are to wash your hands of the second demonridden. I did not hear you protesting." Silas snapped back.

Edie paused and inhaled sharply. "No, I didn't. But she's dangerous, Silas. The man who trained me all those years ago would never have allowed this situation to occur." Edie trailed off, searching his face for some sign that she was getting through to him.

Silas twisted his mouth. "Do you want me to kill her?"

The baldly stated words startled her for a moment and she looked at the curtains over the kitchen table with a frown. "I don't know. But shouldn't we at least talk about it?"

Silas gave her a long look as his anger flowed out of his eyes and was replaced with a look as spare as a glacier field. He folded himself into the booth on one side of the table and Edie settled on the outer edge, each of them facing in the other's direction but at different ends of the table.

With a swallow, Edie spoke. "While I would love to believe she has only killed one human, we don't have any idea what happened these past six months. She could have killed dozens. I don't trust her."

"Nor should you. She is a liar." Silas folded his hands in front of him on the table though he still wouldn't actually look at Edie. "How long have you been doing active field work with me, Edie?"

She gave him a narrow-eyed look. "Two years."

"How many sentient creatures have you killed?" Silas enunciated each word as he said it.

Edie leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. He knew the answer to this question. "Seven. Or eight depending on what constitutes sentience."

"And when you wake from your dreams, whose face haunts you the most?" Silas turned his face to look at her with an empty gaze.

"You bastard." Edie exhaled slowly. Her skin broke out in gooseflesh as she remembered how the bones in her arms felt when she decapitated Jack Williams.

"Why is it his face you see? Surely your first kill made the biggest impression?" He curved his lips into a small, cruel smile.

"You know why. And what does this have to do with..." Edie trailed off as she put the pieces together.

"Jack Williams had to die." Silas made a slicing motion with his hand. "We both knew that. I trusted him to take care of training bitten in Australia and he betrayed the children he was responsible for caring for. He tortured them so badly that they went mad. It was such a waste." Silas shook his head and for a moment he looked like a horse shaking off a fly.

Edie looked at the kitchen table and studied the grain of the wood. She could see Jack on his knees, tears rolling down his wrinkled face, as he tilted his head to one side to give her clear access to his neck. "He said he couldn't stand the hunger anymore."

"If you told that girl we could not help her control her abilities, she would get down on her knees and offer you her neck. At least, as soon as she destroyed the book." Silas pointed at Edie. "Tell me I am wrong."

"I can't. But this is crazy, Silas. Think about it. How can we possibly protect her? Or us? Or anybody? God!" Edie's stomach started to churn with worry and frustration.

"Kill her if you like. I will not stop you, but I will not swing the blade myself." Silas turned his face away from her again. "Edie, there is only so much one person can bear in a lifetime." Silas said these last words quietly.

Edie stopped for a moment and looked at him. His admission shocked her. When he'd first shown up in her life, weeks after her brother's death and subsequent possession, he'd been her rock. And later, after life went to shit, he'd helped her put her life back together. When did that change? Silas, please, tell me what's wrong. She didn't ask the question out loud, though, because she knew he wouldn't tell her anything. Edie rubbed a hand over her face while she thought. "Let's get that contract ready, shall we?"

Silas nodded in agreement.

***

#### Chapter 22: Callie

Callie kept her eyes forward and tried not to giggle as the paintbrush stroked over her skin. The muscles in her back were beginning to ache from holding her arms out in front of her as a female fire witch and a male air witch painted designs on her forearms. It would have been easier if Callie could have rested her hands on their legs, but physical discomfort was preferable to the mental pain that touching them would cause.

"So, um, what do I do when this eye of the storm starts?" Callie asked. She shifted herself carefully, trying to ease a cramp in her hip without disturbing the witches.

The female fire witch looked up for a moment and then back down at her work, "Bleed." She said the word crisply. Like Mimi, the witches' minds felt like tightly woven cloth stretched taut across a frame.

"Oh." Callie looked around the clearing; there was a dense ring of tall, thin trees nestled together as the edge and the moon lit the grass with a cold light. "Am I going to die?"

The fire witch shrugged one shoulder, her tattoos shifting under the skin. Even though the air of the early fall night had a bite, the fire witch was wearing only a black a-shirt, and Callie could see the muscles in her arms flex. Jiye, that's her name. Callie finally pulled the name from her memory. The last few hours had been stressful, with hard-nosed, sometimes nasty, negotiations between Edie and Mimi and a lot of people giving instructions. Callie slept through part of it and everyone's words were starting to blur together.

Richard, the male air witch, made an annoyed sound in his throat and glared at the Asian woman kneeling next to him. He turned and looked at Callie, his paintbrush poised over her skin, "it's a dangerous spell for all of us. If things go perfectly, we'll all be fine. If they don't, you are the most likely to be injured."

"Okay. Right. I got that part. I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do." A shiver rattled her spine and Callie forced her arms to remain still. She was barefoot, too, and her feet were already painted with swirls, symbols, and smudged colors.

"Don't worry. You won't have to make choices. It will just happen." Richard smiled at her, his facial hair creasing to show his teeth. He was older, maybe in his 40's, with deep crows feet around his eyes.

"So they keep telling me." Callie grumbled. The spell didn't make any sense to Callie and it seemed really complicated. She leaned her torso closer to Jiye, trying to keep herself warm in the heat that rolled off the fire witch.

A shout of dismay and laughter interrupted the conversation. Mark had thrown his hands up in the air in disgust and Dave, the male water witch, was laughing at him.

"Man, you're doin' some kind of witchey cheating thing aren't you?" Mark pointed at the male water witch with an accusing finger.

Dave shook his head, his voice carrying across the clearing, "It's not my fault you can't play Go Fish."

"Alright, that's it. I'm gonna go feed Callie and then I'm coming back here and kicking your ass." Mark threw cards down on the ground, stood, and strolled across the grass towards them.

Jiye paused in her brush strokes to watch Mark. Her mind ignited with hatred; the feeling shimmered over the tight weave of her mind like heat over asphalt in 100-degree weather. Jiye's face remained passive though the intensity of her feeling increased as Mark got closer.

"Hey, Callie, I brought you a granola bar." Mark started unwrapping it before Callie could tell him she didn't want it. He squatted down next to her.

"Mark, I, mmph!" Callie almost choked as Mark stuff a piece of granola into her mouth. She chewed angrily. Silas says feed me, so he feeds me. Maybe next I can learn how to roll over and sit.

"Sorry. Boss man was pretty clear you need to eat." Mark gave her a half smile and held the rest of the bar up.

"Are you going to force feed her?" Jiye asked, her voice frigid as she put a particular emphasis on the word "you".

Mark blinked at the fire witch. "I hope not. Callie, are you going to make me force feed you?"

"Yes! I don't, mmph!" Callie pressed her lips together around the lump of granola. The first bite was like lead in her stomach, but she couldn't very well spit it out without disrupting the witches.

"There's only this little bit left." Mark held up what looked like an enormous amount of granola bar.

Callie shook her head and glared at Mark, keeping her lips firmly closed.

"C'mon, Callie. You haven't eaten in a while and that's not good in, uh, your condition." Mark stuttered over the last couple of words, as if suddenly realizing there were secrets he should keep from the witches. Callie rolled her eyes.

"Good lord!" Richard exclaimed. "Are you pregnant?" His brush hovered over her skin as his eyes went wide.

"What? No! Mmph!" Callie exclaimed and Mark wasted no opportunity to shove another bit of granola at her. Neither witch was currently painting so, this time, Callie turned her head and spat out the damn thing as delicately as possible.

Jiye snatched the granola bar out of Mark's hand. "I have work to do and there are at least fifteen things I'd rather being doing right now than this! The last goddamn thing I want to do is watch some jerk shove granola down someone's throat. Now piss off!"

"Piss off?" Mark was suddenly focused entirely on Jiye. "I didn't know they had Orientals in England." He grinned as he said it.

"Orientals?" Jiye voice dropped half an octave and her mind went white-hot with hatred.

Mark swayed and leaned in until he was only inches away from Jiye's face. "Pretty sure I didn't stutter."

Callie sighed and looked upwards before she cocked her right fist back and punched Mark in the side of the face. He made a surprised sound as he tumbled over onto his butt. Callie flinched as an image from Mark's mind etched itself behind her eyes: a black cloud shot through with white sparks hovering around the fire witch.

Callie pointed a finger at Mark, "Do not fuck this up for me just because you want a snack. Now apologize and piss off."

Mark rolled backwards over one shoulder and rose gracefully to his feet. He looked at Callie and said with a shrug, "Sorry."

As he walked away, Jiye muttered under her breath, "Asshole," and then motioned sharply for Callie to put her arm back into position. Callie meekly obeyed.

"Just to be clear, you're not pregnant, right?" Richard had rocked back onto his haunches and was looking at Callie with narrow eyes.

"Not unless it's the second coming of Christ." Callie said with a grin and held her arm out, waggling her fingers as she did so.

Richard laughed and resumed painting.

***

#### Chapter 23: Edie

Edie surveyed the scene in front of her with her arms folded over her chest. Off to her right, Mark and one of the witches were playing a card game. On her left, two of the witches were putting the final touches on Callie's paint; the girl's forearms, feet, and face were almost completed covered in markings.

"Did you tell Mark to force feed Callie?" Edie asked, careful not to move her lips. Silas was somewhere in the trees behind her, keeping an eye on the woods around them. And, as Silas was so fond of saying, a lookout people could see was utterly useless.

Silas made an exasperated sound. "Of course not. I asked him to make sure she ate."

"Did you at least get to watch him try?" Edie asked, a smile stealing across her face.

"I did." Silas' gravel voice vibrated in amusement.

Callie held her arms away from her body and stood carefully. The girl tiptoed through the grass and kept her eyes on her feet. Edie winced internally as she was fully clothed and freezing. She must be so cold.

Callie made her way carefully over to Edie. "I have a question," Callie said as she turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with Edie.

Edie looked over at Callie and tilted her head. "Yes?" Questions about Silas or the demonridden?

"So, that contract, the one you and Mimi screamed your heads off about. I was wondering..." Callie paused for a moment. "What happens if Mimi walks out of the room and one of her witches shoots Mark to death?"

Edie blinked in surprise. Well, that's not what I thought she was going to ask. "Well, Mark will be dead. But Mimi's blood on the contract means she'd bound to hunt his killer down and eliminate them. If Mimi fails, we will be well within our rights to do it for her. I was careful with the wording of the contract." Edie considered the question further. "Why do you ask?"

"The magic is that strong?" Callie asked, her eyes locked on the witches who had gathered across the clearing. Mimi was back and it looked they might be underway soon.

Edie pursed her lips. "Do you want the simple answer or the true answer?"

Callie groaned. "Seriously? Is there a history lesson in all of this? There is, isn't there? Why is it every time I ask a question, I get a history lesson?"

Edie smiled. "I did tell you it would be like this. Which answer do you prefer?"

"How about a true and short answer?" Callie asked with a sigh. "Can you give it to me in a sentence?"

"How about three?" Edie held laughter down in her chest. Callie was too new to see the humor in trying to boil down the history of the Covenant into a single sentence.

Callie looked over at Edie and rolled her eyes. "God, fine. Tell me."

Edie began, "At the end of the Great War..."

"Uh, like World War Two?" Callie interrupted, holding one hand up.

Edie put a hand on her hip and gave Callie an annoyed look. "No. Three sentences isn't much space, so let me finish. At the end of the Great War, the demonridden and witches negotiated the terms of a spelled document called the Covenant. Every contract signed in blood, as long as it is infused with the appropriate power and signed in blood, is connected to that spell. The Covenant is how we have maintained peace for over a hundred and seventy years."

"Jesus help me. The Covenant?!" Callie looked skyward and shook her head. "Okay, so the fact that the fire witch hates Mark with the fire of a thousands suns isn't something we should be worried about?"

Edie shot a look over at the short, intense fire witch and frowned. "You are certain?"

"Yup. She'd cut him to pieces with a song in her heart and Mark there thinks she looks like a snack." Callie carefully touched one of the designs on her right arm, pulling her fingertip back and looking at it.

"There's no need to be foolish. After this is over, just tell Silas and Mark what you told me and we can deal with it then." Edie hoped Mark knew better than to egg this fire witch on, but she wasn't going to hold her breath either.

Callie mimed wiping her hands clean, "Okay. Great. Nice talking with you." Callie took two steps before she turned around. "I'm going to regret asking this, but how many Great Demon Wars have there been?"

"Only one."

"Really?" Callie rolled back onto her heels and then forward again. "I figured they'd fight more than that."

Edie shrugged. "They fight all the time. But the Great War lasted 600 years and spanned the globe. It is also the only war that ever produced something like the Covenant."

"That was six sentences." Callie spread the fingers up on her hands and grinned. "Thanks for the info, Edie. I'll be in the car trying not to freeze to death if anyone wants me."

"Sure." Edie replied, biting back a smile. As soon as the girl was gone, Edie asked, "Silas, did you get that?" It was unlikely that they would stick around long enough for a problem to blow up between Mark and the fire witch, but there was no reason to be foolish.

Silas was quiet for so long that Edie wondered if he was even still there. After a long moment, she heard him say so quietly it was hard to separate his voice from the wind, "Yes."

***

#### Chapter 24: Callie

Callie sat down in the center of the circle, careful not to smudge the drawn symbols with her feet. The book sat in front of her, looking innocuous and out of place.

"Ms. White?" Silas' voice traveled through the crisp air to brush against her skin.

"Uh huh?" Callie's heart beat rapidly in her chest and she felt a little dizzy.

"Do not forget to breath."

Callie nodded. Right, no problem. Anybody can breathe.

"Okay ladies and gentleman," Mimi spoke loudly and clearly. "Let's get this done." Mimi spread her hands apart as far as they could go and then brought them back together in a sharp clap. She repeated the gesture and then began making an ululating sound that made the hair on Callie's arms stand on end.

The male air witch voice boomed out and added a low, insistent sound to Mimi's ululations. Almost immediately, Jiye joined in, her voice surprisingly high as it danced joyously up and around the others' sounds. The final witch, the water witch who had clicked so quickly with Mark, added skipping notes in a resonant tenor. Each closed their eyes as they sang, concentrating on twining of the notes into an intricate melody.

Each voice drove a different set of notes until Callie felt as if she were drowning in the sound. The notes blended into one enormous wave of music, so eerie and beautiful it didn't sound like it could come from human throats. As the pace of the music accelerated, Callie felt the witches' minds spread beyond the confines of their bodies, their tightly focused mental patterns interlocking in complex structure that reached out to tug at Callie insistently as if it were alive.

Her heart beat in her chest wildly and pulling air into her lungs was suddenly so much work. The pull of the magic was strong and pulsing with life; she was afraid that if she let go and fell into the sound, all four of their minds would overwhelm her. They'll tear me apart. She reached out and delicately plugged the gaps with her mind, careful to keep a hold of herself in the process. All four of them stopped singing abruptly and a long note of silence spun out into the night.

Mimi's eyes snapped open, eyes black from corner to corner and her voice suddenly deep and echoing, as if she were speaking from the bottom of a well, "To create is to die." The male air witch's eyes opened next, his eyes as black as Mimi's and his bald head gleamed in the moonlight. He, too, sounded as if he were speaking from somewhere deep and far away, "To die is to begin." The female fire witch, her eyes and voice identical to the two previous, intoned, "To begin is to end."

Callie began to panic as the male water witch opened his eyes, black from rim to rim, and in an empty echoing voice said, "The end is the beginning."

Oh god, something is wrong. No one said anything like this would happen.

The earth rose up and began to ripple as if it were made of water. At the same time, the air within the circle began to whirl, picking up speed until it was screaming its way in savage corkscrews. The book jerked its way up off the ground until it hovered in front of Callie's face. She looked at Mimi, whose eyes were still black and empty, and wondered what to do.

There was a crack as the book broke in two. The pages fluttered in the fierce wind, pressing closer and close to Callie until all she could see and feel was paper. The paper ruptured again with a pop. Almost immediately, the scraps began to dig into her skin and Callie screamed as pain blossomed everywhere. The bits of paper burned like acid. If she could stop screaming for just a moment, she was sure it would be possible to hear it hiss against her skin. And then somehow, the searing pain increased until the black space behind her eyelids burned white-hot and blotted everything out.

When she opened her eyes again, Callie didn't understand what she was looking at. Tears rolled down her cheeks and obscured her vision. It took her a long time to understand that not only was she floating above dirt that moved like water but also she was slowly spinning. She couldn't see any of the witches either because the air was so hot it shimmered. She was alone.

Something asked her a question. Callie blinked slowly, feeling sluggish and confused. How can someone ask me anything? There's no one here. Something asked her a question again, only now it sounded annoyed.

"I don't understand." Callie's throat was so dry she had to whisper the words.

The next sound was so loud that she screamed. It was as if someone blew an enormous, low-pitched air horn in her ear. Callie put her hands over her ears as panic clawed at her and she began to thrash uselessly in the air. The sound repeated, louder and more insistent.

"I don't understand." She screamed the words and began to pant; the air felt thin and insubstantial. Spots appeared at the edges of her vision.

Suddenly, sharp images assailed her mind, but the things she saw didn't make any sense. It was just discordant sounds and flashes of color. Callie forced herself to inhale and exhale slowly, placing her hand on her chest to reassure herself that she really was breathing.

Sobbing, Callie opened her mouth and said, "I choose life for death." She didn't understand what she was saying, not really, but it was true anyhow.

She began to vomit blood out in wet, sticky splatters. She felt something wiggling in the back of her throat and gagged as it slithered over her tongue and poked at her lips. On the next heave, a long tendril shot from her mouth and anchored in the blood soaked dirt below of her. As the tendril made contact, the earth crumpled and became motionless. Her bones felt as if they were made of liquid fire. Her body jerked again as another tendril shot forth and burrowed into the ground. By the time the fourth tendril shot forth, she couldn't scream anymore. Her throat was in tatters and all she could do was cry.

By the time the seventh tendril emerged, Callie realized that the tendrils were becoming a tree. The bark was bone white and gleamed dark red in the creases and edges. An involuntary ripple shook her body and Callie closed her eyes. I don't want to see anymore. I don't want to be here. Please, please. Just let me die.

There was no response from the universe. Instead, something unyielding and vast tore remorselessly up her throat. She kept her eyes tightly closed as she found that she could still scream, though it was a tiny, pitiful sound. Stop, stop.

No more. I can't do this. I can't. I can't. Please stop. Please...

***

#### Chapter 25: Edie

Edie couldn't tear her eyes away from the tree in front of her. At first glance, she thought it was a birch tree. It only took a moment, though, to realize that wasn't possible. The bark was white enough, but underneath the surface wine red veins throbbed. The leaves were like rubies, shimmering and rustling though there was no breeze. It looked alive and she could feel its pulsing with her skin. "What just happened?" She breathed the words, afraid that something terrible was about to occur. The air still buzzed with tension.

Mimi stormed over, her eyes lit with anger, and shook her fist in Silas' face. "Your hayseed mixed her magic with mine!"

"So what?" Mark asked the words absently, his eyes focused on tree.

"So WHAT?" Mimi repeated. She looked back at Silas and her eyes got wide as her voice got lower. "So what?"

Silas grimaced. "Because terrible things happen. You remember Atlantis? That is the kind of thing that happens when you mix different kinds of magic."

Mimi flicked her eyes skyward. "Gee, thanks, Mr. Understatement!" She held her hands out and glared at him. "There are whole civilizations humanity barely remembers because they tried to mix demon power and witch magic and failed!"

Mark took a step towards Callie, eyes suddenly on the girl instead of the tree. "Is she dead?"

Mimi held out her hand. "Back off, muppet! Nobody touches her until she wakes up and we can be sure nothing came through her." Mimi looked at the other three witches who were staring with wide eyes at the tree pulsing in the middle of the clearing. "Why are you three standing around? Putting a fucking protection circle around her before we all get killed!"

The three jumped, suddenly back in the moment. Movement began immediately thereafter, as the four witches scrambled to throw down herbs, salt, and power.

***

#### Chapter 26: Callie

"Callie? Callie!" Mark sounded muffled and far away. A moment or two later, though, he was so loud that it sounded like he was right next to her.

Callie groaned and pain shot down her throat. She reached up to touch her neck, but moving hurt so bad that she mewled in pain. Opening her eyes did not help so she closed them.

"How can we tell if she is still herself?" Edie's voice was easier to listen to. Beautiful, even.

"The salt will tell us. If she can cross the barrier, she's not carrying anything from another world." That voice sounded familiar but Callie couldn't quite place it.

"Does it matter if I enter the circle?" Silas asked quietly.

"No." Said the familiar voice. "Well, it might get you dead, but that's your problem not mine."

"Ms. White?"

Callie forced her eyes open again and had to assume that the tall shadow leaning over her was Silas. "What?" That croak can't be my voice.

"Are you alright?" Silas muttered something under his breath and then said in a louder, clearer voice, "Are you still you?"

"Silas. I just puked up a tree." I really need some water.

"Yes." She could hear him trying not to laugh.

Callie slowly rolled onto her hands and knees and belched. Her throat burned in pain. Silas was suddenly kneeling next to her, his hip pressed against hers and one hand on each of her arms. The startling sensation of another human being's touch flooded through her. She burped again and flinched as pain stabbed at her.

"That was really horrible." A sob escaped her and then she controlled herself. Hurts too much to cry. Oh God, why am I still alive? I chose death.

"I can imagine that as true." Silas said. "You ready to get up?"

She thought for a moment. No. "Let's give it a whirl."

"One. Two. Three."

Silas lifted her easily to her feet, though the world then spun sickeningly. She belched again. "You ever puke up a tree?" Panic clawed at the edges of her mind and Callie resolutely ignored it. Panic could be dealt with later.

"No." Silas replied, lips twitching in his successful efforts not to smile though she caught a dark glitter of amusement as it rolled off him.

"I do NOT recommend it. God, it tastes worse than cat food." She coughed. I just puked up a tree. A tree. That's so fucked up.

"You have eaten cat food?" Silas asked, flicking his eyes at her once.

"Of course. Hasn't everybody?"

***

#### Chapter 27: Silas

This far north, fall was already making inroads and the night air was chilly. Silas shifted himself into a better position as he deepened his meditative state. The events of the past few days had disturbed him more deeply than they ought to have. Guilt bit at him like angry ants and only centuries of practice prevented him from giving into the feeling completely. Such a loss of control serves no one. He had made a terrible mistake and the worst part was that he still wasn't sure why he had done it.

The conditions under which he had been allowed to live were clear: keep the bitten under control and never lift his sword against the demonridden again. He knew this, just as he knew it would not be he who paid the price for his disobedience in the park. It would be every bitten the demonridden could get their hands on. No one would be safe, not even that arrogant puppy who thought he led The Chosen. He should have let Callie die at the demonridden's hands instead of risking the lives of everyone in his care. What is one life weighed against thousands? And yet...

As he listened to the little one scream, trapped outside the circle the witches' created, the palm of his sword had again begun to itch. Killing the demonridden had eased it only for a few hours and it hadn't been this bad in decades. Edie is right to be concerned. But what am I to do? I cannot pass her off to one of the bitten; she is too powerful and unpredictable. I cannot kill her either. Just thinking about it made his chest hurt. I am so tired of... He paused unsure of the answer. I'm just so tired. He knew, too, that he was not entirely in control of himself but he knew of no solution except struggling through as he had for nearly a 180 years. There are no others of my kind left alive to ask for advice and I can hardly ask for help from the demonridden. Silas inhaled and exhaled slowly, letting his thoughts flow away like a river. It was not long, however, until he was interrupted.

Mark opened the door of the RV with a bang. "Silas, my gun is gone. I think Callie took it."

"Why would Callie take it?" Edie asked, following Mark out of the RV.

"Are you people totally fucking blind? That girl's been suicidal since, I don't know, but she sure as hell wants to die. Did you see her in that spell? Fuck this, I'll find her myself." Mark marched away and then stopped at the tree line. They were back in the clearing where they had rested the night before.

Silas sighed. "Peace, Mark, peace. I did not expect her to take such steps so quickly. I will find her." He walked to the perimeter of the camp and began to follow the trail of bent and broken branches. It was not difficult to do as the girl had made no effort to hide her tracks. Silas shook his head. I will have to teach her that no trouble follows those who leave no tracks.

A dark, insidious thought wormed its way into his mind. Why not let her kill herself? All of the people whose lives are in your hands will be safer. No one need know you killed that demonridden in the park. Just let her die. He growled to himself and shook the thought away. The little one's death would solve nothing; the damage was already done and letting her die was no better than killing her himself.

He spotted her, sitting on a rock, the early morning light playing over her features and glinting off the gun in her lap. She stared at it sightlessly, motionless in her despair.

"What are you waiting for?" He said the words quietly to prevent from startling her.

The girl looked up slowly. "The will to do it. I thought it would be easier." Her voice was still so scratchy and hoarse from screaming that he could barely hear her.

Silas shrugged and walked towards her. "The human will to live is quite strong." He eased himself down on the rock, careful not to touch her.

"I'm not human anymore." Her lips and chin trembled as she spoke and a tear slide down her cheek.

With a roll of his eyes, Silas replied, "Children are so dramatic. Of course you are still human. You are just also something else. Something different."

Callie eyes glittered in anger as she glared at him. "Don't patronize me, you arrogant condescending asshole!" The words were angry, though they came out a whisper.

"I am those things, yes. I am other things as well. Does your new skill show you that?" He crossed his arms and lifted an eyebrow at her.

She made a face, as if she were smelling something disgusting and smiling at the same time, and then shook her head.

"Was this always the plan?" Silas motioned at the gun.

Callie shrugged. "Since that night at Owen's. Once the book was gone..." She trailed off.

"But things are different now, are they not? You know what you are. You know you can control yourself." If her abilities didn't preclude it, Silas would touch her hand or arm and try to remind her that she was still a part of the world. She wasn't out of the woods yet, but to kill and then refuse the temptation for months meant it was possible she could save herself.

"Do I? Do you? I'm a murderer." Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the barrel of the gun. "And a rapist. I'm a rapist too." Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Silas was glad the gun was pointed away from him as he hated getting shot. "As am I."

Callie looked at him sharply and Silas met her gaze, no longer ashamed to admit what he had once been.

"I enjoyed it, Silas." She looked away from him as she spoke. "I did. I still dream about how good it felt."

"When you find that other things are better, those dreams will occur less frequently. In time, they may stop completely." He couldn't promise they would go away but he could at least promise her relief.

"What if I don't find something that feels better? Or even enough? What if I kill again? And again?" She looked him then, eyes full of tears.

Silas felt a sharp pain in his chest. "Then I will kill you. As I have before and will again."

She was silent for a long moment and Silas let his eyes wander over the trees. He could her a squirrel chittering angrily and Silas wondered what had upset the creature.

Finally, the girl spoke. "You promise? And I don't mean anything half-assed either. Chop me to pieces and burn my body. I don't want anything left."

Silas felt the burden of the promise settle on his shoulders as it did every time he took on a new recruit. He briefly considered telling her that it would likely be unnecessary to burn her body and then decided against it. "I promise."

Callie clicked the safety on the gun and handed the gun to him, butt first. "Fine. But I promise I'm going to be difficult."

A short, choked laugh burst out of him. "I never had any doubt."

She gave him a considering look. "Show me your jaw."

He met her gaze. With her hair pulled back into a ponytail, the planes of her face seemed cleaner and stronger. He flexed a muscle in his neck and then, with a popping sound, his jaw distended. Callie was up and staring at him before he even finished the transformation. Her eyes were so wide, he could see white all the way around her irises and her breath wheezed in and out of her parted lips. She looked utterly terrified and Silas ignored the twitch in his chest that her gaze caused. It was no more than he deserved.

Callie took a tentative step forward. "Can you talk like that?"

Silas grimaced. "Yessh. Shorta."

She pressed her lips together and now looked amused as well as terrified. She took another step forward. "Does your jaw get any bigger than that?"

He shook his head.

"Your jaw isn't actually the same as hers." Callie tilted her head to one side and stared at his mouth.

He flexed another muscle in his neck and his jaw popped back into its human shape. "Your friend? Rachel?" Silas suddenly had a moment of insight about Callie White. Poor child. "Were you close?"

"She was my best friend." Callie sat back down on the rock and pulled her knees up to her chest. She rested her head on her knees, turning her face away from him. "And she crushed my brother's head like a grape." Her voice was thick with tears.

Silas reached out to squeeze her shoulder. He kept the touch brief, unsure if he would harm her or how much she could read from him. Both possibilities seemed rife with danger. "You know it was not her, not anymore. Don't you?"

"I think I need to be alone now." Her shoulders were shaking and it took her several tries to speak the words.

He nodded and then, realizing she could not see him, said, "Alright. But we are not so far away if you want company."

The little one's ponytail bobbed as she nodded. Silas stood, the gun heavy in his hand, and left her to her grief.

***

#### Epilogue: Phaedon Papadapolous

Phaedon Papadapolous could barely contain his glee as he scrolled through photograph after photograph of the holier-than-thou self-styled leader of the bitten, Silas, chopping the head off a demonridden. It was beautiful and the culmination of a decade of effort.

He reached out and siphoned a little of the energy off the crowd outside his office. The frustration flavored with lust, anxiety, and boredom was particularly good tonight. The energy ran in a cold ripple down his back and helped him stay in control of his face. Once he was certain he wouldn't break into triumphant laughter, he turned to face the young man sitting in front of his desk.

The brat couldn't be more than twenty, with pale blue eyes and a messy shock of white-blond hair. His skin was strangely ruddy, almost pink, and his mouth and jaw were wide and thick. He looked out of place in the sleek, entirely white room.  Of course, who gives a fuck what he looks like if he can take pictures like this?

"Austin, welcome to The Chosen." Phaedon said the words solemnly because otherwise he would laugh his head off.

A slow, smug smile spread across Austin's face.

Phaedon leaned forward, capturing Austin's eyes with his own and lowering his voice, "you're certain no one saw you."

Austin nodded, his smile slowly fading. "I'm sure. I was blending real hard and that dude was busy."

"Good." Phaedon leaned forward and pressed a button on the phone on his desk. "Olivia, could you come in here please?"

The door across the room opened and a tall, statuesque woman walked in. She fit in the room in a way the brat didn't. She glided across the floor, hips swaying in her elegant black slacks and low cut blouse. Her dark, silken hair fell in a wave over one shoulder and her heels clicked against the floor. Olivia stopped in front of the desk.

Phaedon pointed at the brat with one finger. "Take him to the red room. He earned it."

"Did he?" Olivia looked down at Austin for the first time, raising both her eyebrows in surprise. She folded her arms across her chest and looked him up and down. She flicked her eyes at Phaedon. "Giving or receiving?"

The red room was for generating power through pain. Phaedon shrugged. "Try both."

Olivia smirked and looked down at Austin. "We're going to have so much fun."

Austin looked as terrified as he did excited. Phaedon made an annoyed sound and waved his hands at them, "Go on then."

With an inelegant snort, Olivia turned and walked out of the room. Austin shot out of his seat and followed her without looking back.

Once the door clicked shut, Phaedon bent forward and pressed his fingertips against his eyebrows. The possibilities for these photos were endless, but Silas was a slippery bastard.  I am not going to rush this. I will not fail again. I will kill him this time. After a minute, he took a deep breath and picked up the phone. It took several rings before Matthew Paddock picked up the phone. It never failed to startle Phaedon that the most dangerous man he knew sounded like a southern Santa Claus: warm, friendly, and jolly. If the good doctor had an ounce of ambition, Phaedon would have had him shot with a long-range rifle years ago. Instead, Paddock's hatred for Silas was so absolute that he was a hound on Phaedon's leash. All Phaedon had to promise Matthew was a chance to kill Silas.

"Matthew, I have the leverage we need." Phaedon said briskly.

There was a pause. "Well, P, are you sure about that? Last time you sent me on a wild goose chase." Matthew said slowly and the sound of a door closing clicked in the background.

Phaedon leaned back and took a moment to control the surge of irritation at the nickname. "I'm so sure, I can't tell you over the phone. You should book a flight, come see me in a couple of weeks."

"Is it good enough, I should let myself hope? Don't be cruel to an old man, P." There was already a lilt of hope in the doctor's voice.

"Honestly, I can hardly contain myself." Phaedon let some of his glee bleed into his voice.

"Ha!" Paddock said, "It is about time!" There was the sound of paper rustling. "How about the first weekend in October?"

"Send me your flight information and I'll send a car," Phaedon replied, his mind already spinning out ideas as he hung up the phone. There were more phone calls to make and a plan to finalize, but Phaedon let himself daydream for a while as he grinned.  Silas, you don't know it, but you're mine now.

###

#### About the Author

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#### Sample Chapter

#### From Addicted, Book 2 of "The One Rises"

Phaedon reached out with his power and formed a mirror in the wall by his desk. He smoothed his dark brown curls and made certain his button down shirt was evenly tucked into his black slacks. When he was finished, he returned the wall to the pale luminescent surface it had been before. His entire office looked like it was made out of quartz. Chairs, shelves, and his desk rose out of the floor as if it everything had been carved from one piece of stone. He was powerful enough, now, to create things that looked real. But this was how his office looked for years, when he was younger, and he knew that the room would encourage Silas to assume Phaedon was both nervous and less powerful than he actually was.

He strolled over to his desk and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. He had twenty-five decent quality photos of Silas killing a demonridden, and he intended to show the arrogant bastard all of them. He wasn't sure who the timid looking girl with the terrible dye job in the photo was, though not for lack of trying. _Not that it matters_. He knew she was Silas' latest little recruit and she must be firmly under his thumb to sacrifice herself like that. There had been no guarantee that Silas could kill the demonridden in time, and, scrolling through the photos, it looked like Silas had taken his sweet time getting moving.

_Patience. You must be patient._ He whispered the words in his mind. Silas had wriggled loose before in moments when it had seemed impossible that Phaedon could lose. _This game needs to be played carefully_. He used the overhead projector to shine the first photo across one wall.

When his second-in-command, Olivia, buzzed him to let him know that Silas was here, Phaedon took a few minutes to breathe deeply and center himself. The poetic justice of using the techniques he had learned from Silas to help destroy the tall man was not lost on Phaedon. He smiled and bid Olivia to let Silas in. He watched Silas' eyes flicker to the photo and then to Phaedon. _That's right, I own you._

Silas sat down in the only chair in the room, the one facing the screen, crossing one ankle over his knee.

"I'd like to show you the latest additions to my art collection." Phaedon clicked through the photos that showed Silas and the girl walking through a park, Silas and the demonridden in conversation, and then a number of images of the girl being fed upon. Phaedon particularly enjoyed the two shots of the women kissing. _There's just something so deliciously wrong about that._ He stopped on that photograph where Silas had just cut through the demonridden's neck; the girl's eyes were wide and empty as arterial blood sprayed her in the face. "Ah, good, this is one of my favorites."

"What do you want?" Silas said the words slowly.

Phaedon slapped his hand down on his desk and let out a bark of laughter. "I do appreciate an efficient man! I want you out of the picture. Retire. Get gone." _I want to tear your head off and decorate my office with your skull, but that can come later_.

"Ah," Silas said. He stood and walked closer to the projected image. He stood still for a minute, arms folded over his chest, head tilted as he looked at the photo of the girl with dyed black hair. Phaedon forced himself to remain still. _What are you looking at?_

"What is it that you think will happen when you show these photographs to the Conclave?" Silas asked, turning to face Phaedon. His lean face was half-lit by the light of the projector.

Phaedon considered his answer carefully, looking for the trap in Silas' words. "You will die."

Silas gave Phaedon a slow, predatory smile and stepped forward out of the light. "Before they kill me, they will kill you, anyone who works for you, anyone who has set foot in this club since you got those photographs, and anyone who might know anything about what happened. Then they will do the same for the people I know. I will die, but you will die first."

_I'm aware of that._ "You're mad!" Phaedon exclaimed. "The Conclave would never agree to such an extreme response." _Of course they would. The most powerful demonridden in the world, held back only by the Covenant and some witches, do basically any damn thing they please. That's the problem._

Silas shrugged. "Then send them the photos." With that Silas turned and walked out of the room.

Phaedon shut down the projector and watched Silas leave via the security cameras to make sure the wily fucker actually left the building. His mind turned again to a question Phaedon wished he had the answer to. _Why did he kill that demonridden? It makes no sense._ Silas' actions were in direct contradiction to everything Phaedon knew about the man. _If he's willing to kill the demonridden, he and I have no problem with one another. By the One, with someone as powerful as Silas on our side, victory over the demonridden would be assured._

"Well," came a warm, southern voice, "that went pretty well."

Phaedon looked up at Matthew Paddock. The southern doctor was well into his sixties, with a shock of white hair and an enormous belly. _A southern Santa Claus, as long as you're willing to overlook the fact that he can dig his power into you and use you like a puppet._ "Yes, I think it did."

"You still sure the girl is the best target?" Matthew asked as he leaned against Phaedon's desk.

Phaedon focused for a moment and a chair rose up out of the ground for Matthew to sit in. "I do."

"Me too. Are you sure he hasn't shipped her off to another trainer?" Matthew settled his hands across his belly.

"The witch is certain," Phaedon replied. It galled him to have to rely on a witch for intel, but getting to Silas had thus far proved impossible. _I'd work with the One itself if it got me Silas' head on a plate._

Matthew made a noncommittal sound. "Hmm."

Phaedon quirked his mouth in a half smile. "I'm aware that it's impossible to trust a spirit witch. Their information is useful though."

"Or you're useful to them." Matthew narrowed his eyes. "It's clear whoever's calling you is powerful and they can see the future."

"Weeeelll," Phaedon drew the word out. "Not exactly. A spirit witch knows many of the things I might do and how that would affect the short-term future. There's only so many things a spirit witch can see, even the most powerful, and so there is only so much they can interfere. I've got it."

"How?" Matthew demanded.

Phaedon sighed. _You shouldn't have ended your training with Silas so soon, old man._ "The same way the bitten and the demonridden have handled spirit witches for thousands of years. Keep my options open and strike quickly once the opportunity presents itself."

Matthew pursed his lips. "Is that how the demonridden won the Great War? Oh wait, they didn't."

Phaedon made an annoyed sound. "If you have a better idea, I'm all ears."

Matthew shook his head and sighed. "It's hard to believe Silas actually had a girl-sized chink in his armor. You know it could be a trap."

Phaedon pulled the photo Silas had been staring at up on his computer. "It could. She's still our best bet. You up for it?"

Matthew smiled. "You get her here, P, and I'll make sure she's dancing to our tune. Don't you worry about that."

"Good. I'll call Zeke and make sure he's in place."
