by P. S. Power
It was the right thing to say, even if the woman was clearly trying to use her for something.
“What do you need?” She made herself sound concerned, as if she truly cared. Even if she didn’t know if that was the case, as of yet. If it was something minor, then she decided to simply help with it. There were too many possibilities for her not to simply wait for an answer.
The words were a bit reluctant, when they finally came.
“Well… Several hundred Vampires are insisting that Bey present himself for the final death. In China, his home.” She stopped then. As if that was anywhere near enough information.
“I can’t see that as a problem. He can simply leave, or kill them all. Are they that powerful? I mean, he is Bey.” The Killer of the Council. He’d fought, and destroyed, armies of Vampires before. Honestly, that was pretty close to being a description of his actual job. He killed powerful armies. Alone.
There was a sigh. It sounded almost real.
“Normally that would be the case. They’ve taken several towns as hostage, however. Four of them, we believe. Very far from one another. Thousands of miles. They are holding the Humans inside as hostage against his good behavior, I fear. Bey refuses to spend their lives for his own. He’s moving to surrender himself in twelve hours.”
That made more sense. It was psychological blackmail that was winning the day. Bey was a good being, for one of his people. He was, possibly, just good, for anyone.
“Right. We’ll need to re-take those towns then. Have you contacted the line walkers yet?”
“Yes. I tried at least. Zackery is gone from this reality and will be for some days. We have Miss Rome in with us, from the Shifters. Eve Benson, The Snowflake, and Troy Lopez are both missing. We don’t know if they’ve gone ahead to fix this situation themselves or if something else came up. They’re most active individuals. That… Miss Rome thinks we need at least four line walkers for this to work. We have six Vampires willing to go and fight, if they can get there in time. Strong beings all.”
Keeley took a deep breath, then nodded.
“Understood. I’m in. We need two more line walkers, then. Plus, more forces than that, if we have to fight on four or five fronts. I’ll see who I can find. You should call Barbara Fines. She can do part of it.”
There was hesitation then.
“She’s willing to go in, but her line walking skills are…” The woman clearly didn’t want to speak the truth. That woman was simply slow that way. At least she had been, in the past.
“Right. I think she’s been working on improving, however. I have faith that she’ll do her duty as well as anyone, to help Bey. Let me see who I can find. Are we meeting at your Council House?”
There was a soft exhalation, which was done for affect, naturally. The hermaphrodite on the phone didn’t need to breathe, except to speak.
“Thanks to you, Miss Thomson. Yes, if we could meet here, that would be good. Bey… Doesn’t know that I called on you.”
That would be due to the fact that the Vampire, who was possibly the sweetest of his kind, didn’t like her much. She was a threat that he couldn’t beat, in a world where very few beings held that status. Plus, she was known for taking powerful people as slaves. Easily.
Which didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be his friend.
“I’ll collect who I can for this, then. Give me an hour?”
“We’ll await your arrival.”
She hung up then, not waiting for the Vampire to do it first. That could take too long. Almost instantly, she tapped her phone, scrolling down the list of people that called her most often. The first one wasn’t to Ravi, though that was going to be close to the top, since she figured that he’d say yes, just to be helpful, even if he didn't know Bey at all.
No, first she called Tyler. After all, this was, very literally, Coalition business.
“Tyler Gar-” The man’s voice wasn’t Ty’s, meaning it was Fram, his secretary.
“Fram, this is Keeley. Bey Transmorguire needs our help. Get Ty ready. We need the line walkers and anyone we can get to go in and take out some Vampires. About two hundred of them in four locations. They’re holding Human hostages, to get him to sacrifice himself.”
There was a hiss, followed by a soft chuckle.
“Clever of them! That could really work, with him. Which is why you’re calling. I’ll set things up here. Where are we meeting?”
“Vampire Council House. In an hour. I can do the transport or get Ravi to?”
“Hmm. I’ll collect young Mr. Pendar. He’s at one of his other jobs right now. The grocery store. It will be faster if I take care of that.”
She nodded, letting the affirmation carry into her voice.
“Thanks. See you in an hour. Fifty-nine minutes from… now.”
There was another hang up, then she redialed.
This time the man speaking was different. Younger sounding. More official, in an odd way.
“Candles and More, this is Vincent, how may I help you today?”
“Vince, this is Keeley Thomson, we met about a week ago?” It wasn’t like they’d fought crime together or anything, so she waited for him to respond.
“I recall that. What can I do for you?”
“Bey, of the Vampire Council needs help. We need to take a fighting force in to protect four villages in China from Vampires. The Humans are being held hostage. Will you help with that?” She was willing to pay for his time, of course. After all, she wasn’t sleeping with him, like she was Ravi. Even if she was, they didn't have a real relationship. They weren’t even friends. They’d met twice.
Even Ravi could make some money off of the whole thing, if he wanted. That meant she had to be willing to deal with Mr. Ridenour, who was a Mage after all. Not even a Human being. He had no skin in the game at all.
“I… When will you need me? I can… Lisa! Emergency!”
That got the sound of running feet, coming from the back of the small candle shop that acted as the Mage embassy for Washington, Oregon and part of Idaho.
“What?” The woman seemed worried, even as Vince fairly shouted at her.
“Bey the Vampire is being set up. In China. I think there’s a team going in. To four different places. Some Vamps have hostages.”
There was a soft noise then.
It sounded upset.
“We need to call in everyone we can, then. You’re going directly?”
Keeley could hear her, so answered without waiting, even if it was rude. Bey needed her, after all. He was very nearly her favorite Vampire. It was ridiculous, but she felt a bit of a sense of ownership over him. Like she might have with a pet dog. If other dogs were going to kill him, they were fighting her for the privilege first.
She probably wasn’t the only ex-demon to feel that way, either. Bey was actually pretty popular.
Which got her to think outside the box for a moment. In the past, she would have taken care of the situation herself. After all, they were only Vampires. Asking for help would seem weak. Now it made sense to use it as a community building project.
As soon as possible, she hung up again and called Bente.
“Hello?” The other demon spoke Italian, so Keeley did the same.
“Bente, this is Keeley Thomson. Bey the Vampire is being extorted, his final death in exchange for many Human lives. Would you be interested in helping me stop that?” It was a risk, and there was a false start, the woman laughing.
“Ah, Keeley! I nearly asked what you would trade for his life. I will come. I have always enjoyed his company. Should I enquire with the others if they wish to attend to his safety and comfort as well?”
She smiled then, since it was more help than she’d actually figured on getting from the woman.
“That would be wonderful. We meet at the Vampire Council House in fifty-three minutes.”
She had to keep up in that vein. Not everyone could be reached in time. Two of them couldn’t come and one, Scotty Laird, was willing, but
didn't have transportation and wasn’t a fast runner. That meant sending someone in to get him. As it turned out, Vince managed to get Phillip Hart, the other Human line walker, to do that for them.
In all of it, not one person asked why she was doing anything at all. At least not until she shifted to her old face, on a taller, thicker frame, and transported herself over to the Council House on her own. Wondering who, if anyone would be showing up.
That, when she stepped out of the node and walked down the hallway, was interesting to see.
Instead of the half dozen Vampires she’d been told to expect, there were at least fifty beings in the vast stone room. It had chairs, but no one was sitting at all. When she came in, about half of them turned to face her. Marissa, who was standing next to the short bald Vampire of the hour, waved. Recognizing her, even if she was taller than she normally seemed. Not by much, just enough for her clothing to fit. Her chest was smaller as well, by a few cup sizes.
“Miss Thomson, over here!”
Keeley jogged over, using more or less normal speed levels. A few others moved in that direction at the same time. Avery Rome and Calley Hale, the Shifter President.
Each of them got a hug. Then, because of what was going on, she did the same with first Marissa and then Bey. She spoke to him, directly, being the star of the day, like it or not.
“We’ll save these towns for you, while you handle whoever is in charge of this? Unless you don’t want to bother, of course. In that case I can dress up like you and handle it. Whoever is doing this needs to know not to mess with my friends.” She meant it, which apparently carried well enough.
The tiny man looked at her carefully.
“I would not have bothered you with such a trifling thing, Mistress of Souls.” He pretended to wince then, as if using her title was a mistake.
She rolled her eyes at him, then gave him another hug.
“Keeley. You should have called me first. Or at least… Fifth or so?” He had people for things, after all. Naturally they’d be higher up the food chain than she was for such things.
There was a ripple, down the hallway, as first one, then several others walked into the building, using the lines. It was related enough to what line walkers did that most of them turned to look in that direction. After about ten seconds people started coming into the room.
A lot of them. Not all of them were ex-demons, either. Though, truly, there were more of those than she would have credited as showing up. Even a few that she didn’t know at all. That got her to smile and wave, like a little kid. Avery did the same, which made the whole thing seem cheerful enough.
Keeley just clapped, getting everyone to pay attention.
“We need to find the correct entry locations. Do we have those already?” She looked at Marissa, since it was clearly her operation.
There was a slow headshake.
“We have names. They’re geographically diverse, to make it impossible for Bey to reach them all in time. Would a map be sufficient? I haven’t been to most of the locations, personally. Only one and that was some time ago. Hundreds of years, I think.”
It took some waving to get the line walkers to come over. That had most of the ex-demons doing the same thing. Not all of them, but it was an impressive showing, for their people. The Mages had three individuals in the room. The Vampires had eleven. The line walkers had five in all, if she got to count for that.
The Shifters had three and Human beings had four. One of those was her boss, Will. Phillip Hart and Ravi were there as well. The last one got her to smile, though, seeing who it was. A nervous young man, who was wearing his Yoghurt World apron still. Kevin. Karen the yogurt girl’s male form.
What he thought he was going to do that others there couldn’t, she didn't know. Yet, there he was, standing next to Lenore Hawthorn and Edom Freeman. Ready to fight. From the bulge on his right-hand side, he’d even had the presence of mind to bring a handgun. It would be useless against Vampires, but did show a certain intent.
There were, when the last one walked in, fifteen of her people there. One of them reached out, picked Bey up by the shoulders then hugged him like a stuffed bear.
He was a strong looking man with a tidy beard and a three-piece suit.
“Transmorguire! We all heard that our friend could use some help, so we all came to see to that.”
The Vampire had to look closely at the man, before he nodded, seeming worried.
“Smith?”
That allowed the Vamp to be settled on the stone floor again.
“Right in one! Darrel, now. So, we have locations? Where’s our map man…” He turned and waved to a thin fellow, who flowed across the room. The look was different than the last time they’d met, but The Cartographer felt the same as before.
He didn’t introduce himself to anyone, simply staring at Marissa.
“If you have map locations, I can translate that for the beings here, easily enough. Are we doing this in teams?”
That was addressed to her, for some reason, as if she were the one in charge of such things for the day. It wasn’t true, but that still made the most sense.
“Let’s do that? We need six groups, I think. Four to protect the towns, one to stay back here and coordinate communications and one to go with Bey, as backup. I’ll go in on that one, if it’s all right, Bey?”
The Smith nodded then, as if it were agreed on already.
“I’ll do that as well? We should take a few others. Perhaps a Human to stand for them and to thrash whoever took their people hostage, as they did?” He looked around, then, almost as if joking, pointed to Kevin. “He looks likely for it. He’s the only one in the room of his kind to come armed. The rest are on transportation?”
She nodded, as Finias, her father, moved in along side of her. Looking younger than she’d seen him before. Cuter as well, since he was in a rather fetching dress and his long blond locks were pulled back in a thick braid. His figure was technically nicer than what Keeley had going on at the moment as well. Not perfect. He was better that way. Most of what he did seemed real, when he changed shape. She was just learning to do that part, herself. Vanity still had her tending toward being attractive and a bit too nice in some ways, most of the time.
Mainly because part of her really wanted to get laid. Pretty much constantly. It was part of her nature, but the same was true for the rest of her people and most of them managed well enough.
Answering, Keeley scanned the room again.
“That’s right. Good call then. We should…” She sighed, then realized that what she wanted to do would probably freak out a few people, if she wasn’t careful. To that end she looked at the others. Most of them stopped, and stared back, understanding more than they were speaking about out loud. “We should give Kevin some powers, if he has to go and fight Vampires for his people. I won’t do that kind of thing alone. I mean, he can already turn into a girl and has some psychic attraction abilities, but nothing that will help him in a fight. I… Don’t know… How about we vote and at least two-thirds of the Wise Ones present have to agree on it? With a minimum of three being needed for it.” That way no one would be acting alone, at least.
Half of the people acted like she was being silly. Interestingly, Ann, looking like a black haired, glasses wearing eleven-year-old, backed her up.
“That’s sound enough. Especially since you could just have done it and no one would call you on it, right now. We need to be careful about what we create, for the time being. All in favor, raise your hands?” She put a paw up in the air, the pale flesh being easy enough to see, since the room was well enough lit. There were electric bulbs above them, in several chandeliers of crystal.
The Ex-demons didn’t all do it, but most of them did. So did Calley Hale, Avery and Will Dern. Tyler didn’t, though he moved over, nodding.
“That really is sound. Like mom said. Do we also get to vote on who gets taken as a slave or not? Let me… Kev! Come this way. You have a mission.”
&n
bsp; The word slave, right before calling the Human over to what was now the main body of people in the room, meant that Ambassador Freeman came along as well. Looking ready to fight for his worker, even if it meant his final death. Keeley smiled at the Vampire.
“Tyler was just suggesting that I get all of my future slaves cleared with everyone before taking them. I think he meant for all of us? That… Seems like a big hassle, to tell the truth. Why not go through Tyler on that for now? It will mean having a really good reason to take the slave, of course, but he’s let me grab a few without kicking my behind, so that probably means he’s willing to play, if you have half a reason for it.”
No one liked that one, for some reason. Still, enough people waved their hands in the air that it kind of passed. Keeley, not really wanting to do it, raised her right hand, a finger pointing at the ceiling high above.
“I… Mimic, attend me. At the Vampire Council House. In the main ballroom.” She sent the order down the line, knowing that the Greater Demon would follow her directions, even if he didn't know where he was going or why. Unlike the others, the man came in across the building, finding them about two minutes later. Everyone else had gone back to talking about the plan.
Mainly about what kind of powers to hook Kevin up with. They all agreed that it made the most sense to let him keep those in both of his forms. When The Mimic, still looking like Bob Millhouse, the former Mage Ambassador, walked into the room, there was an audible gasp. From Lisa Penbroke. The man had been her boss, after all. Actually, The Mimic had as well, after killing the other man and taking his life over.
“You rang, Mistress?” The Greater Demon did not seem well pleased by the idea. Not that she could blame him.
“I did! The Greater Demons stopped being that, about six months ago. This is the first meeting of us with enough in attendance that I though you might believe me when I told you about it. You should take a bit and talk to everyone about that. Right now, we’re going to save some Human beings in China. Vampires have them. You can help with that, if you like?” That wasn’t an order, but the part where he was supposed to talk to everyone about not being Greater Demons any longer, was.