Keeley Thomson (Book 2): Keelzebub by P.S. Power Read Free Book Online

phone.
    It was, after all, possible that she was just wrong. Demons got special insight into reality, they could see the ripples and flaws in it, see how things fit together, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be wrong sometimes. If it was the case here, getting worked up would just waste time. So would worry. Better to just confront things and go on. Hence a phone call.
    To Darla.
    There was a ring, then two. On the third one, like always, Darla picked up. This time it was her regular home phone number, not the official one for “Mrs. Gibson, business magnate”.
    Right now Keeley needed to chat with her half sister. Maybe. Unless she was just jumping to conclusions.
    “Hello, Gibson residence, Darla speaking, how may I help you?” She always answered the phone like that, or some variation of it. A throwback to a more polite time, Keeley figured. It did sound better than what most people did anymore. Even better than what the older version of her used. More genteel. But then Darla was an old Demon pretending to be a young girl, so there would be flaws in her pattern, wouldn’t there?
    “Hi Darla, this is Keeley.” She wanted to pause, or even rush through the question, but instead just forced herself to speak smoothly.
    “I’d like to ask you something. It may be sensitive, I don’t know for certain. Would it be possible for you to come over?” She was about to add that it could probably wait until the next day, but didn’t get the chance.
    “Coming now. Be just a minute.” Then the phone clicked of, being hung up without a goodbye at all.
    Her parents were in bed, which didn’t mean asleep, she knew, but that should still be all right, as long as Darla didn’t knock on the front door. The girl had mad ninja skills and could use magic, so it should be all right. Keeley tried to sense her coming, and did, like a small, lighting fast blip in reality moving toward her. Suddenly the air in front of her warped, twisted and rippled, there was a single blue flash and Darla Gibson, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a soft pale pink sweater, stepped out of it, to the right. A single sidestep.
    It was neat. Honestly Keeley couldn’t wait until she could do that too. They called it “walking the in roads” Basically it was really fast travel that wasn’t exactly teleportation, but was about as close as you wanted to get most days. Truly instant anything was a bad idea, since the results around it tended to just snap back when you were done, as if the whole thing didn’t count. Keeley knew that from the information in her head, which just jumped to the front on its own. Helpful for once.
    Meaning she’d probably started to integrate it then. Good. It was an amazing thing, all that information, but hard to use. Most Demons never really got a true handle on it, she realized. Pretty much just Tarsus. If she could do that, or even just learn to use it well, it might make a huge difference.
    The pretty blond girl had pale, porcelain like skin, and a questioning look on her face, plus a black backpack in hand, a large one. In a few quick gestures she pulled out a small box, similar to the one that Keeley had seen her with before, but this one was all silver, instead of a more practical copper color. It was pretty, and had hundreds of little gears on the outside. Taking out a single key and putting it in the top, the Demoness opened it, making about half the gears move a few places as she turned the key.
    Inside the box, which was lined with white silk, it looked like, was another key.
    It seemed a bit over the top to Keeley, having a special box for a key, but Darla, still not saying anything, smirked a little and handed it to her, holding it out carefully and giving her a meaningful look.
    Keeley took the silver thing, which was oddly warm to the touch, and waited. After a second the heat vanished from the room, leaving her breath visible in the air. That meant she had to devote some time to reminding herself to be