Fudge.
Darla was right, the memories were there. Keeley just didn't want to touch them. Some things were just too uncomfortable to know about. But this time she had to, didn't she? Steeling her will she tried to remember her mom's vacation to Cancun, her father not there, how her mom had been considering leaving him at the time and then met the tall dark stranger in the hotel bar. Carlos.
“Wait, my real dad's Mexican? Or, I guess demon, but, I don't look half Mexican and he really did have that whole swarthy look going on...”
This got a nod.
“Yep. That's dad alright. Back then. Now he looks as white as you or I. Demon kids always look like their mothers. It's pretty handy really, otherwise all those human guys would know the kids weren't theirs, right?”
“Ah...”
It was a lot to take in and there was too much information in the memories by far, Keeley had to shut them off after establishing that the child, her, was indeed not her dad's. Creepy. Her mom knew too. Or at least suspected. Eeep.
“OK, so um, what's next?” Keeley said. Too much was lining up for Darla to just be pranking her.
Or at least too much for a regular high school level prank. It could be a demon prank. But if so, why? Was living for hundreds or thousands of years that boring? It was a real thought. She stared at the girl, something she said, the way she'd said it, finally clicking.
“Wait... “that's dad alright”... Um...”
Big nods came from across the table.
“Indeed Keels, you're my little sister, which is why I got called in to be your mentor. You have an older brother too, Xenses, but he's a complete tool most of the time. If you meet him... well, don't meet him. The best you could get away with there is convincing him that a little torture and rape is in order just because you're family. He'd probably do that, and then kill you anyway. Not one of the nicer members of our little family.”
Darla shrugged and took another roll.
“Anyway, what's first? Well, the very first thing we need to do is get you some protein. What you ate should hold you for a bit. I'm... it was a bit of a dirty trick, me letting you run the goeardes like that, the time manipulator? It really eats a lot of energy. I actually didn't think you'd pull it off, which means you're way stronger magically than I thought. Not showing physically yet too much, but I doubt that will be too far behind. The trick, for now, will be keeping you looking about the same way. It would be really easy for you to suddenly look like a walking skeleton right now.”
The blond jumped up and moved toward the kitchen rapidly.
“Steak OK? I have chicken and some pork chops too, I can make something else though, if you want, I make a really intense sweet and sour chocolate chicken for instance? That will take longer though.”
“Um anything is fine. I'm not that hungry now, thanks.” Her stomach as if having heard her words, growled.
Stupid stomach... keeping her from being polite. She'd have glared at it, but couldn't figure out an angle that wouldn't just look ridiculous for that.
“No problem. Steak then, I can start it now. So, other than food, I think the first thing we need to do is fix your vision. Those coke bottle glasses you have on may win over the geek guys at school, but if they get knocked off you'll be half blind. We can do that after we eat.”
They could?
“We can? I'm not certain I know how to do that just yet, if I'm supposed to have some kind of power...”
Darla laughed.
“Oh ye of little faith in yourself... No, I have a device for that. That's my thing, manipulating energy and matter using machines and devices. Each of us has an area we do better in than others. I don't know what yours will be yet. Possibly data collection. That or eating.” There was a slight hint of teasing in the words, but no smile to go with it.
God. Keeley had to really hope her secret super power wasn't eating. That would be too lame.
The sounds from the kitchen were fast, closer together than they should be, and when Keeley finally got up to see what was going on it boggled her just a little. The room was pitch black.
“Um, Darla?”
“Oh! Hey, go ahead and step in, it's just a time field.” Her voice came back as a squeak, like a children's cartoon version of Darla, possibly if they made her a rodent.
One step into the dark and the room looked normal. Keeley tried to size it all up.
“Um, why does sound get out of the field but light just stops? That doesn't really make a lot of sense, or, does it? Is it a magic thing?”
“Yes. In this case it's because I'm using the light energy of the space to power the time field instead of my own energy. I'd have gotten you to do it, but then I'd have to feed you even more.” She was whipping around inside the field too, so not all the extra speed was a time distortion effect. The demon slapped her hand at a small pendant around her neck and pulled the four steaks off the stove with the other.
“Done. Well, let's eat these.”
Finally, after finishing her second steak, huge things that Darla had left a little too pink in the middle, Keeley felt full. Not stuffed, but it was enough. She held out her hand when Darla tried to put a third slab of meat on her plate.
“No more, I'm already going to gain like ten pounds from all this. If you don't want me on the cheer leading squad that's fine, but you don't have to fatten me up just for that.” She was being playful and Darla winked.
“Ah, on to my clever plan already? Seriously though, you won't gain weight from this. As it is we'll probably have to make you eat a lot more than this each day for the next few decades or you'll lose weight, just from the changes. We should get you some new clothes too, since I doubt you'll be a size six by this time next week. More like a four.”
“Right, well, if that's the case, then I guess you can buy? I have twenty bucks on me still, but that's it.”
“Oh, no big thing. I can get you clothes and whatever else you need. After high school you'll need a job for a while, because it takes a bit to learn everything and you'll want to look like a real person, until you learn to fake it really well. Then no one hardly cares at all. So, your eyes?”
That, it turned out, was fixed in about ten minutes, once Darla went to work. Oddly she used a simple vision chart and a complex silver and gem device to do the work. The whole thing had to be held in both hands and got put to one eye at a time, but it didn't hurt overly. It stung a little at first, but with three passes and some gears being shifted, her eyes were corrected. The whole thing reminding Keeley of a clockwork pair of binoculars, but with only one eye port, her vision, amazingly, got fixed.
There was no problem until she automatically put her glasses back on.
“Gah!” She ripped them off and blinked, feeling a little ill. The world through her old lenses was now wavy and distorted, but without them... perfect, she set the horn rimmed things aside.
“Now I just have to come up with a reason I'm not wearing my glasses. No one will probably notice at school, but mom will. She knows I can't have contacts or eye surgery yet...”
“No problem. Leave that to me. As for school, well, people will probably start noticing you now. It's not just your looks that are changing, you're hanging with a bunch of cheerleaders, so that will alter your social status. Hmmm. Tell you what, if you can trust me, why don't I pick up some clothes for you and meet you Monday morning before school? I have some people I want you to meet later today, and really we need to get in touch with your parents... So, bargain? I'll handle the clothing for you?”
Keeley nearly just said yes, but then tilted her head at the other girl.
“Um, no? Who do you think you're talking too?”
Darla clapped.
“Oh, you might even survive. I hope so. I always wanted a sister. We'll get you trained up, then you and I can gang up on Xenses and rip his, well, a few choice body parts, off. Very good though. Not even me. I will however still pick up those clothes for you and I really do want you to meet some people. Just two I think, for today. Back-up and testing.”
She didn't explain that comment, and instead had Keeley repeat everything she'd said about demons to her, three times, filling in the explanations with each retelling.
“Right, so, not that I'm arranging anything for you at the moment, sex wise, but you can't get pregnant and can't get any diseases. It just won't happen. So, guys, girls, whatever you want, go for it. Or nothing. You are kind of young. For a demon I mean. Sixteen, that's like a one year old in human years. You get time. Unless you get killed of course.”
Time enough for everything except thinking apparently, Keeley thought. The whole thing had happened fast and really, she wasn't totally sure Darla wasn't just messing with her still. Her mom was a tramp and cheated on her dad, and she had a demon half-sister? One that was supposed to be her mentor. What she was supposed to learn she didn't know. So she asked. It seemed a fair question.
“Well, a lot of things Keels. How to survive mainly, but psychology, spirits and the rules of demons, magic, machines, science, make-up and song, all the other things that demons invented and then taught to mankind. How to travel between places and how to manipulate minds. All that kind of thing. Plus, how to cook. No one cooks anymore. You really should learn.”
Oh. That all made sense then. It sounded like a lot. Like it would take a long time too.
Darla shrugged.
“I'm with you for the long haul sis. At least seventy years. Which doesn't mean we'll be attached at the hip the whole time, but...”
The phone rang.
Keeley hadn't even known that there was a phone there. It made sense that there would be, it had everything else, except a television and a computer, but those could just be hidden somewhere out of sight. Darla looked baffled for a moment and then answered the phone, pulling it out of a small cabinet behind the dining room table, against the wall. It was a small case about a foot square, a nice deep wood tone, nearly black.
“Good afternoon, Darla Gibson, to whom am I speaking please?” Her voice was chipper and happy sounding, as well as old fashioned and proper.
“Oh, hi Quince! So nice to hear from you...” Then she listened for a few minutes, making faces at Keeley the whole time.
It was strange to watch, since the conversation didn't play across the other girl like it would a normal person's. She reacted and responded, but almost no information about it got out. Finally the girl nodded at her and smiled.
“Quince? I'd love to go to Homecoming with you. I have a guest right now, Keeley Thomson? She's new at school. Right, the cute one with the glasses, except she just got that fixed... Um, well she already has a date for the dance, but if he's interested in going out with her some other time let me know and we can set them up... OK, thank you so much for asking me Quince. I'll see you at school Monday? Ok then, Bye.”