Demonsense: Demon Master Part 28

There was a long pause, and she realized he was about to tell her the thing he thought she was going to object to.

"That's part of it. But the other possibility is that someone not a part of the Keepers or the Ecclesias could go after Varga. If it could be done in such a way that it was obvious that the action wasn't through official channels, it might not trigger a war."

"Aw, h.e.l.l no. You are not going to do a hit on Marton Varga!" Bree exclaimed. Daniel gave her a lock jawed look, but that didn't slow her down. "What were we just saying about how impossible it would be to deliberately kill people?"

"It would be difficult to kill innocent people, yes. That's why we need to be sure he's not innocent."

"Have you ever killed someone when it wasn't self defense? Are you even capable of that?"

"No, I've never killed when it wasn't self-defense or in defense of another person," he admitted. "But seriously, Bree, if I challenge Varga directly, and I kill him in battle, you can be sure it will be self defense. He'll hardly lay down for me to kill him."

Don't get hysterical, do not get hysterical, Bree chanted inwardly. It was a tall order. Daniel was talking about sacrificing himself in an effort to stop the war. "What are the chances this guy would even agree to some kind of one on one duel? Why wouldn't he just agree, then cheat, gang up on you? I've got a strong feeling the Keltoi still want you for the hiding spell. They've just been biding their time for some reason."

"All the better to get the confrontation over with."

"But even if you win, you lose because they'll come after you. You'd have to do it in such a way that it was clear you were doing it solo, unofficially. That means his clan will know who to blame. How are you going to survive an entire Keltoi clan trying to kill you?"

"The Keltoi have gone after me before, a number of times. I'm still here, aren't I?"

Bree considered throttling him for his arrogance. Then she considered, and discarded, any number of further arguments, but finally, a pattern fell into place for her. Her busy little Reader sense had been up and running for the whole argument. "You don't mean to survive," she accused.

"Don't be ridiculous," he scoffed. "I'm not suicidal."

All Bree's admonishments to herself about her temper vanished like so much vapor. "Not suicidal, maybe, but not averse to dying. You're going to make someone else kill you because you don't have the guts to do it yourself!"

"And would it be such a f.u.c.king loss?" Daniel replied, finally showing some real anger of his own.

"You said the fix was working!"

His hands clenched and his eyes flashed. "It's working for now. But you heard what Gelsenim said. What are the chances this fix of mine is going to last? Look, maybe you've forgotten what I almost did to you, but I haven't. I'm not being big-headed when I say if I do completely lose it, if I become one of those completely burned Demon Masters, it's going to be d.a.m.ned hard to stop me. You certainly won't be able to, and I know you'll try, you'll dive right in with this insane idea of yours that you, a half trained Reader with absolutely no experience at psychic healing, will be able to fix me. What'll happen is that you'll get killed. And I'll be loose in the world. I'll be worse than Marton Varga, because as far as I can tell, this whole thing is not master minded by a guy who's insane."

Bree was so overcome with emotion that she threw herself off the couch, and stalked around the room, trying to calm herself enough to be able to think clearly. Daniel stayed put, not looking at her, just frowning as he dealt with whatever this argument was bringing up for him. As a line of thought came to her, she went to stand at the back of the couch, where she could look down at him. "You were able to heal Kevin. You did fine with being around Gelsenim. And as far as I can tell, you're good and p.i.s.sed off right now. And nothing's going wrong. I bet if I read you now, I'd see that the restraint structure is still in place. You're acting nothing like that night you attacked me. So there's no reason to jump to the conclusion that the world is better off with you dead."

"It's just an idea, okay Bree? I haven't said I'm going to run right out and try to a.s.sa.s.sinate anyone."

Her hands landed on her hips. "You just said your death wouldn't be a loss! That means you've been thinking about it. I thought you said you were feeling better, calmer!"

Daniel pushed his hands hard into his hair in obvious frustration, then he got to his feet as well, and paced around the couch until he was in front of her. "It's been a bad f.u.c.king day, alright? The world is coming undone all around us. So maybe I'm being inconsistent. Have you considered that I might having mixed feelings about what's been happening to me? What my chances are? Wouldn't you be all over the map in my shoes?"

All the air went out of Bree's sails at once and her arms dropped bonelessly to her sides. As hard as it had been to watch him struggle all these months, how hard must it have been for him to see his mind unraveling? To feel like he was going to become what he'd spent years of his life fighting against? And that he might kill people he cared for in the process? Just look at how much it had set her back to accidentally kill Jim Scanlon, and he'd been involved in kidnapping Hunter.

It wasn't that she'd never felt sympathy for his plight before, but it was. .h.i.tting her hard in her gut in that moment. She wanted to bolt out of his house rather than have to feel what she was feeling.

Instead, she forced herself to look at him closely. As she'd told him, he didn't have that edge to him he'd had the night he'd divided. But he seemed upset enough that she had to wonder if that whole emotion muting thing was up to the task of mediating what he was feeling right now. His jaw was pulsing where he clenched his teeth together, and his whole body was tense. She still felt shaky with emotion, but now she wasn't angry so much as scared. She realized she was absolutely terrified to lose him.

"I know how awful this whole thing has been for you," she told him. Her voice came out with a tremble, but she forged onwards. "I know it's basically your worst nightmare coming true. It's everything your parents feared in you, what you've feared in yourself. And what I've feared in you as well. But my G.o.d, Daniel, look at what you've accomplished in the face of all that! You keep accomplis.h.i.+ng the impossible. n.o.body thought a hiding spell for talents was possible, but you came up with one. Gelsenim said there was no way to avoid your going divided, but in less than two weeks, you came up with a fix. Even if it's not a perfect fix, with more time, you'll come up with something better. I have faith in you."

His eyes finally came up at that, and encouraged, she went on, not really knowing what she was going to say until it came out of her mouth, going on pure emotion, pure instinct. "I do, I always have. I've been afraid of you at times, I know. I've put you through h.e.l.l with all my fears and doubts. But I've also trusted in your strength and your abilities, and I've never had cause to regret that. And more, I trust who you are, at heart. Your heart, my G.o.d, Daniel your heart." She reached out and put a hand to his chest, in her need to somehow get through to him. "You have such a good heart. Please, please, don't give up on it. I want, I can't go through, I need..." She stumbled to a stop, eyes filling with tears.

"What do you need?" Daniel whispered, his hand coming up to cover hers where it lay on his chest.

"Please don't die," she said brokenly, tears spilling out onto her cheeks. "You can't die because, because I love you."

Daniel's face caught fire with pa.s.sion at her words, and almost before she could register what was happening, he was kissing her, trapping her face between his hands, a hard, desperate kiss. And Bree surrendered to it, returned it with equal desperation. Their tongues clashed, and Daniel angled his head to be able to penetrate her mouth more deeply. Bree opened to him, hungrily, and reached for his shoulders, trying to pull him to her. She wanted him closer, wanted to feel the heat of his living body against her, and he obliged, reaching one arm over her shoulder, and another around her waist to pull her firmly to him. Her back arched as the intensity of his kiss pressed her backwards. Her tears had stopped as she threw herself into kissing him, into taking him in, the feeling of the ridged muscles of his back under her hands, the roughness of his beard stubble against her chin, her cheeks. Her whole body was swept by waves of emotion and desire. There was no room for thought as his warm hand worked up under the back of her s.h.i.+rt, and his mouth broke away from hers to kiss her throat.

Bree moaned at the flare of desire the kiss triggered. He moved his hands until they were holding her hips against his, freeing her arm so that she could push both hands into his hair. He raised his head and looked into her eyes, searchingly. An actual thought was able to make its way to her brain; he was wondering if he should stop, if they should stop. She answered by pulling him in for another kiss. At this moment, she didn't care what would happen as a result. The world as she knew it was falling apart. This amazing, maddening, loving man might die in the resulting conflict. She might die. He might lose his mind and kill her. She didn't care.

She reached her hands between them and began struggling with the b.u.t.tons of his s.h.i.+rt. His hands gripped her hips harder, and she worked on his b.u.t.tons until she was able to push his s.h.i.+rt off his shoulders. As he tugged at the sleeves to finish freeing himself, she kissed his neck where it met his shoulder. Daniel threw his head back, eyes closed in pleasure, allowing her exploration, hands temporarily trapped in his s.h.i.+rt cuffs. She took full advantage of the moment, tasting his neck, running her other hand across the strong curve of his chest muscles, down his side, then across his stomach.

Daniel nearly tore the rest of his s.h.i.+rt off himself at that. When he had his hands free he reached for the hem of her green sweater, pulling first that, then the t-s.h.i.+rt on under it over her head, mussing her hair. He pushed her hair off her face, dark eyes staring into her, reading her. Her Reader sense answered, and she felt the wild river of his desire, felt him feeling hers. Then he lowered his lips to hers again, but this time, he kissed her more slowly, tongue taking on a more languorous rhythm at odds with the burning need to consume her she felt inside of him. Then he moved his slow kisses across her shoulder, then over the mound of her breast above her bra. Bree gasped as he moved to the edge of the lacy material, and ran his tongue along it. She tried to move away from him, to reach down for the b.u.t.ton on his jeans, but he moved her hand away, and pulled her against him with a hand at her back.

She started writhing with desperate impatience to get to him. She pushed against his shoulders, forcing his mouth away from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Daniel, please!" she whimpered. He only kissed her mouth again, more forcefully this time, and began backing her across the room, towards the stairs. Bree reached behind her back as they went, unhooking her bra and letting it fall away so she could wrap her arms around his neck and press her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest.

When they got to the stairs, he reached for her hand, took it, and led the way up. His bedroom was just down the hall from the top, and he stopped in the bedroom doorway to kiss her again. As his hands stroked her back, up her sides, Bree could feel they were trembling. Some tiny, sane voice told her that they were going to blow his whole restraining structure straight to h.e.l.l with all this emotion, but then his mouth was at her breast again, and she laughed. He straightened to look at her. "What," he asked, voice breathless.

"I don't care," she said out loud. "I don't care what happens next. I don't care if it kills us both."

Daniel smiled a feral smile that sent a weird mix of fear and even greater desire through her core. "I don't care either." He kissed her again, moving her back until her legs were pressed against the edge of his bed. There was only one window in his bedroom, and the blinds were just slightly open, lending the s.p.a.ce a dim but glowing light where the sun was trying to enter.

As Daniel ran his hands up her arms, goose b.u.mps arose. He pulled back, and stepped away, gesturing to heat the air in the room. Instantly, the temperature went up fifteen degrees. Bree seized her moment to go after the b.u.t.ton and zipper on his jeans, pus.h.i.+ng them and his underwear off over his slim hips. He toed off his shoes and kicked his way the rest of the way out of his pants as he went to work on hers.

Then they were both naked, and he carried her down to the bed, one hand behind her neck, the other beneath her back. Then he pulled her to face him, side to side, and they pressed against each other, deep, devastating kisses interrupted by long, stunned looks as their Reader senses continued to entwine, feeding them information on each other's feelings and sensations.

Daniel finally pushed Bree onto her back, and lay atop her. She opened her legs to him, but he didn't enter her, although she felt the warmth of him pressing against her. They were both breathing rapidly. Daniel rested his weight on one elbow and ran a trembling hand along the side of her face, over her lips. His fingers gently pulled down her lower lip, and he kissed her again. She thought her heart might burst with the love she felt from him in that kiss. He kissed her like she was a holy sacrament, like she was his salvation, like he was going to his death. Then he looked into her eyes and whispered, fiercely, "I love you." And then he entered her, eyes locked with hers, and began stroking slowly. "I love you," he repeated, and tears came to her eyes even while she rocked against him, her body pleading for him to go faster. She kissed his cheek, his lips, his neck, anything she could reach. Daniel moaned then and closed his eyes, lost in the sensation, and his pace increased.

As her Reader sense attuned to him more deeply, Bree's mind began forming images of the restraint structure. She didn't want to see it, didn't want to see it start to break apart if that was what was going to happen. She pulled back, focused on the blessed feeling of him inside of her, the pressure of his body against hers, the beauty of his strong face. They were both starting to sweat in the warmth of the room, and that generated by their movement against one another. As she went back to the layer where everything was emotion, she could no longer tell which were hers and which were his. All she could feel was a soul breaking amount of love and desire, and the intensity of it put her over the edge into release. As her body jerked against his, he groaned and surrendered to it as well.

They stayed entwined, breathing hard, long enough that his arms started to quiver with the effort of holding his weight off of her. With a little shake of his head, he pulled himself out of her and collapsed onto his back next to her. Bree rolled onto her side, her head on his shoulder, arm across his waist. Little aftershocks made her draw in her breath as she moved against him, throwing a leg over his thigh. Without conscious volition, her Reader sense drew back inside her. They lay quietly, his arm caressing her shoulder, hers his side and hip. "Well," he said after a time, "we didn't die."

Bree started giggling, and once she got started, she couldn't stop. Daniel started laughing as well, and he laughed until tears came. Bree felt a wild relief. It was true, they hadn't died. And that internal structure of his hadn't prevented his having feelings for her after all.

Her giggles began to run out, and it took her a few beats in her relieved and satiated state to register the tinge of hysteria creeping into Daniel's laughter. She pulled away a little so she could look up at his face. His eyes were closed, and his breath was being pressed out of him now in small, explosive jerks. His body started to shudder, and he brought a clenched fist up to his chest and started hitting himself with it. Bree grabbed at his hand and said, urgently, "My G.o.d, Daniel, stop! What are you doing?"

His eyes flew open, and his pupils were dilated, making his eyes look entirely black. "The divided thing, it's happening," he gasped. "The structure, I blew it out. You've got to leave, now!"

Bree felt like she'd been shocked with a cattle prod. Her whole body flooded with electric panic. "No, Daniel, let me help!" She prepared herself to go into him in a read, prepared to call on Gelsenim for help.

"No!" he roared. He reared up and shoved her off the bed, then pointed at her, shouting, "I bind you to my will! You will leave, now. You will not try to read me or perform a healing on me!"

She felt the force of his binding strike her, and against her will, she gathered up her things and ran down the stairs. She barely spared time to pull on her jeans and tug her crumpled sweater over her head. She abandoned her s.h.i.+rt and bra, shoved her feet into her boots and s.n.a.t.c.hed up her coat.

She was at the front door when she heard Daniel's voice call her name. She turned to see him halfway down the stairs, dressed only in his jeans. He was clutching the stair banister in a death grip, and his face was white. "You will sit in your car and activate your Demonsense. If you feel me call a demon, you'll drive away, then call Javier or any Keeper you can get hold of, and you will tell them I'm a burned Demon Master and I've lost it, that they'll need the best the Ecclesias has to take me out. If I don't call a demon within that hour, do not call a Keeper or the Ecclesias."

No, a tiny voice, pressed almost to nothing beneath the binding, protested. Shaking with effort, she said it out loud. "No."

Daniel's eyes narrowed, and the binding wrapped her tighter, so tight it was hard to breathe. "You will stay for an hour, and may go at that time if nothing has happened. When I'm able, if I'm able, I'll call you. You will not attempt to come back inside or contact me until I contact you. Go now, and do as I said."

She found herself opening up his door, closing it behind her, and went to her car, where she called up her Demonsense. As she sat there, s.h.i.+vering in shock and grief, tears coursing down her face, she brought up her Reader sense as well, but at this distance, she couldn't get anything on Daniel. You idiot! she berated herself. You irresponsible fool! Why did you have to admit you loved him? Why come over in the first place? Had she wanted this to happen? Had she wanted to push him? Well, she'd pushed him, all right, pushed him right over the edge. And all because she was too weak to bear her upset over the bombings alone, too weak to put a stop to things when it was clear he was starting to feel strong emotions. She should have known then that the restraint structure was weakening. She'd wanted too badly to see proof that he still wanted her, that he loved her as she loved him.

Her Demonsense remained quiescent, and her trembling and tears gradually abated, though she started to s.h.i.+ver with cold. She took the time zip up her and fasten her coat. As reason started to rea.s.sert itself, she admitted Daniel bore some part of the blame. He'd been as irresponsible as she. She suspected they were both reacting to some kind of primal urge to procreate in the face of possible looming war and death. Well, procreation was probably off the table given where she was in her cycle. And that was a relief, though a small part of her swelled with emotion at the thought of having Daniel's child.

As fifteen minutes went by, then a half hour with no demon sign, she began to hope that the worst hadn't happened, that he hadn't fully divided again and called a demon. One of the strange things about the binding was that she didn't really have to contend against an impulse to go back inside. That would be against his instructions, and she mentally just couldn't go there.

Less fortunate was the fact that her mind was free to imagine what all this meant. His fix wasn't good, at least not good enough to withstand certain kinds of emotion. They weren't going to be able to be together. Even more than before, she wanted the chance to try her idea of healing the divide. But what he'd said earlier had struck a nerve. She was untrained in Reader healing techniques. Given she'd shown Exorcist talent, and given that was more rare than being a Reader, her training had prepared her for doing exorcisms instead. She wasn't even sure where to go to learn Reader healing techniques, or even whether those would be enough without significant Healer talent to back them up. Maybe Dion would know something about it or could hook her up with someone who did.

Finally, an hour pa.s.sed, and in accordance with the binding, she didn't try to get back in to see Daniel. She was exhausted from keeping her Demonsense at its maximum level for a whole hour, not to mention the emotional drain of waiting for disaster to occur. She drove home, where she collapsed on her bed, dry eyed, the creepy sensation of having been bound warring with her desperate worry for Daniel.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

The binding didn't wear off, and rest of the day had a disjointed quality to it. Time didn't run in normal ways when a part of Bree's mind was wrapped in thick layers of gauze. The bound part of her was quiescent, while the rest of her mind was spinning with what-if scenarios. She fielded worried calls from her parents and from her brother up in Bellingham, wanting to make sure she wasn't involved in the downtown bombing. Leander called again, and she continued ignoring him. She felt guilty about it, but she just wasn't up to taking on the further complications he brought with him.

She did go to work on her one client of the day, a guy who, strangely, didn't even mention the bombings. Bree respected his apparent need to not go there, and she thought she did a workman-like job on the ma.s.sage in spite of her anxious preoccupation. As usual, working had helped calm her some.

When she was finished and her client had left, she pulled her phone out of her purse, hoping for some message from Daniel, but there was none. She turned the ringer on and set herself to cleaning up her office.

She was just reaching for a lamp's light switch on her way out when her phone rang. She saw on the display that it was Daniel, and had an odd sensation of resistance, almost as if the binding was deciding if answering his call was permitted. With some effort, she pushed through and answered. "Daniel?"

His voice came from the other end of the line, quiet and firm, saying, "I release the binding." Bree felt dizzy and grabbed for the edge of her ma.s.sage table with one hand in an attempt to steady herself. A swishy, liquid sensation in her head accompanied the dizziness, like tiny competing waves slos.h.i.+ng around in a jostled fishbowl. Her breath bounced back at her from the phone, warm and moist as she panted a little into it. Daniel remained silent, waiting for her. She felt like swearing at him, but that would require a coherence of which she was not currently in possession.

"Bree?" Daniel's voice came, sounding flat now.

"I'm here," she managed.

"I'm calling to let you know that I rebuilt the restraining structure."

Bree was vastly relieved, but competing with that was an anger that was an ugly knot in her gut. She was furious at how scared she'd been for him, and so incredibly furious about being bound. And she was angry at herself that her yearning to see him, to lay hands on him, to know for certain that he was all right, overrode everything else.

Anger at herself won out. "I'm an idiot," she said.

"What are you..."

"I'm an idiot for being so impulsive. I should have known how dangerous it was," she interrupted him. "I did know, and I went ahead anyway."

"Obviously you weren't alone in that," Daniel replied. It would have felt better if she could detect some emotion from him, but she couldn't. He sounded shut down again, and she knew if she were smart, she wouldn't mess with that.

She tried to be smart. "Well then, I guess we were both idiots. Fine. Now what?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line before Daniel spoke again. "Now I apologize for binding you and admit I shouldn't have promised that I would never do that to you. Apparently, when I think it's warranted, I'll do it."

"In this case, I guess I understand why you did," Bree begrudgingly admitted. "I know you didn't think there was time to convince me..."

"And that's precisely the problem, isn't it? I had a good reason, a good excuse. That's the slippery slope. Right now, my motives may appear benign, but when it comes down to it, I chose to control you rather than reason with you. And that's the kind of thing a Binder does. That's why it's a forbidden gift."

She sat down in the soft purple chair wedged into the corner of the room and closed her eyes. She knew he had a point, yet wasn't it true that she would have refused to leave? And wasn't it right, what he'd said earlier, that she wasn't truly prepared at this point to try a fix on him? All of that was important, but she had more immediate worries. "I accept your apology, and maybe we can talk more about it sometime, but right now, I want to know what you're going to do about Varga."

"Find him and go after him." Finally, some emotion in his voice. He sounded weary.

Pretty much the reply she'd expected. She pressed her lips together and fought off frustrated tears. "Why are you so sure he'd agree to a duel anyway?"

"If I say I'm challenging him for control of his clan, if I register the challenge through the local clan chief, he'll have to do it. In the Keltoi, a clan chief has to take on any formal challenges to prove he or she is still the strongest. Varga has made a name for himself taking over L.A. and consolidating most of the other California clans under his control. It's vital to all his plans that he be perceived as an uncontested leader."

"Yes, but wouldn't you have to be Keltoi to make that kind of challenge?"

She heard the sound of him scooting a chair across a wood floor and pictured him sprawled in his kitchen chair, looking as tired and dispirited as he sounded. "Normally, that would be the case. But it has happened that high power Keepers go over to the Keltoi and make an up front bid for power. And I have something of a reputation with the Keltoi from my time as Keeper. At the clan leader level, it's common knowledge that I'm a serious threat. In other words, I'm a legitimate challenger."

"And if you win? Are you seriously going to take over the L.A. Keltoi?"

There was a long silence on the line. "Honestly, if I did, and managed to get someone to challenge me in turn, I might get out of the whole thing without reprisals. I'd have to stage it so it looked like I was defeated soundly and surrendered."

"So it's not always a duel to the death?" Bree finally began to feel a bit hopeful.

Another long pause. "It is usually. But there have been some cases where the leader surrendered and was allowed to live as long as they left town."

Her hope fizzled. "Varga wouldn't let you live if he wins and you agreed to leave town, would he? That would be considered a sign of weakness. If he really is making a big time play for power, the political consequences might be too big for him."

"Then I guess I'll just have to beat him."

She tried again to slow him down, make him think. "I still don't see why you think this is the only way to stop Varga. The Keepers suspect it's him behind all this, right?"

"Maybe it's not the only way, but it's the only way to stop him quickly, before more people get killed. And besides, it's ultimately a win-win scenario. If I beat him, this whole Keltoi plan loses steam. If I don't, well, with this divided thing looming over me, I'm a risk. h.e.l.l, my very existence has always been a risk. A Demon Master with my power level who loses it would hurt a lot of people. I always swore I'd die rather than see that happen."

As painful as that last was to hear, she couldn't pretend she hadn't had those same thoughts about herself since she learned she had some degree of Demon Master talent. "I just want more time," she got out through the choking sensation that was blocking her throat. "More time to try to study this divided thing, to get some training so maybe I can help you with it. Or maybe just more time for you to work on it yourself. Don't you think there's a risk of you going divided in the stress of battle?"

He had a quick answer for that one. "I didn't during the Alki riot, and I was not only exposed to a s.h.i.+t load of demons, I was exposed to seeing you in danger. I suspect I didn't lose it then because battle situations are familiar to me. I usually feel focused and in control in a way that's steadying for me. I got far more wound up in a quiet room just hearing about you being a.s.saulted."

An inspiration hit her, and she straightened in her chair. "Yeah, but what if Franchesca is at the duel? I know how much she means to you, how much you want her to get out of the Keltoi. Isn't it those kinds of feelings that cause you trouble?"

"Franchesca nearly killed Hunter, putting that demon in him last year," he replied, voice gone icy. "I was deluding myself that she really wanted out of the Keltoi, that there was still a way to pull her out of demon burn. Anyone who would do that to a six year old child is too far gone to reach."

At last, something that sounded like sanity. "If she's at least as demon burned as before, she'd be a wild card in any scenario where you're involved. She seems, if anything, more affected by you than you are by her. If you show up by yourself, who's going to counter her if she loses it?"

"You just finished saying she's likely still affected by me. Doesn't that argue for her having a hard time killing me? I'd think if she snapped, she'd be more likely to go after Varga than me."

That dead tone was back in his voice. She wasn't getting through to him, but she wasn't ready to give up. "We don't know anything about her relations.h.i.+p with Varga. And even if she's not there, I have hard time believing that Varga is going to let beating you in some face saving fair fight trump his wanting your hiding spell. I'd bet you money he'll bring reinforcements so he can take you. You've got to have back up of some kind!"

"I have thought of that, Bree. If I can get a locate on Varga, and can get hold of the local clan chief quickly to register the challenge, I could catch Varga by surprise, without reinforcements."

"That's a pretty d.a.m.n big if."

"Who do you expect me to use for backup, you?"

"I kicked Franchesca's a.s.s last year when I had Gelsenim on board," she replied hotly.