Black London 05 - Soul Trade

make a broken body ambulatory, give voice to a silent tongue and sight to ruined eyes?
    Actual demonic possession was rare; becausemost demons strong enough to possess were strong enough to mold their own human shapes. Pete had never seen a demon in a human body with her own eyes. It was harder than it sounded—you had to wrestle the living into submission, subvert their will, and ride their body like a bucking horse.
    Of course, Pete supposed, picking on catatonic children made the whole game a lot easier.
    “Sure as I canbe,” Jack said. “I’m not gonna get close enough to poke and prod them, that’s for sure, but I don’t know any other nasty that can do what they’re doing.” He was pale, and small beads of sweat had collected in the hollows of his cheeks and across his upper lip. With his second sight, Jack saw the children for what they really were—hollowed-out bits of flesh containing something that had never beenhuman and never would be.
    “All right,” Pete said, staying still and quiet and trying not to telegraph alarm with her words or her face. Up on the stage the prophecies went on, the tone grimmer and grimmer. The worse someone’s future was, the wider Bridget, Diana, and Patrick grinned and the more poor Margaret looked like she might throw up. “So what do we do now?”
    “Got to get them one by one,”Jack murmured. “I can’t exorcise three bodies at once. I don’t even know if they’re Named or just travelers.”
    Pete swallowed hard. Named demons were the 666 leaders of the legions of Hell, the big hard men. If a Named was responsible for this, they were, as the Americans put it, up shit creek. Thinking about trying to exorcise a Named demon made her throat constrict. She felt as if small rockswere embedded in her chest, making her breath burn. “I could touch them. Find out their true names and use them in the exorcism.”
    “No,” Jack hissed, harsh enough that the people around them looked. Pete glared in return until they went back to staring at the stage.
    “It’s not like we have a lot of other options,” she said. “And I know the parents will let me get close enough if I play into theirbullshit.”
    The cash collection basket came by, heavy with coins and rustling with notes—many of them twenty or fifty pounds. Jack nimbly pocketed a hundred and twenty quid before passing it along to the woman next to him. “Pete, I don’t need to tell you what’s going to happen if you try to empty out a demon with your talent. The last time you tried, you nearly burned down me flat and both ofus with it.”
    “I don’t want to,” Pete told him, fidgeting at the implied criticism of his words. The Named that she’d accidentally exorcised just after she’d met Jack hadn’t been much of a fighter—more of a skulker, really—and even getting rid of him had nearly killed her. “I haven’t forgotten that I have a tendency to go apocalyptic when I brush up against demon magic, but I don’t see that wehave much of a choice. You’re never going to have time to set up a proper exorcism—these kids are being watched like hawks.”
    She wasn’t letting a demon worm its way into Margaret Smythe, and it was simple as that. Margaret was the only one who’d survived Treadwell with her mind intact, which was probably why she hadn’t been possessed yet. Yet being the operative word.
    Before Jack could say anythingelse, Pete started for the stage, moving through the thick knot of people waiting at the mic, until she found Norma Smythe. “So,” she said brightly, amazed at herself and how easy it was to sound cheerful. “This is quite a show.”
    “Yeah,” Norma said, relaxing when Pete smiled. Norma Smythe liked attention more than she worried about Pete being untrustworthy. It had been the same way when AlgernonTreadwell had taken Margaret—she’d been more interested in crying for the telly cameras than she was concerned about Pete finding anything untoward during her home visit. “Margaret ain’t showed any abilities yet, but since Philip had the idea to organize this…” She dropped her voice conspiratorially. “That twat Dexter Killigan might think he’s in charge, but we’re the ones who are…” she searchedfor the word, her heavily made up brow crinkling. “Monetizing it,” she said at last. “Philip said we might get on Tricia if this keeps up. Wouldn’t that be a laugh?”
    “A huge one,” Pete agreed. Norma Smythe went back to