by P. S. Power
Not just someone. A man, dressed in some of the nicest clothing he'd ever seen. If you could call a person with a Demon living in them a man any more. He instantly responded as he had been taught as a child by the Big Shadow. He balled up his soul in the middle of his Shadow and tightened it all into a glossy black ball, making it impenetrable to Demons, he'd been told.
“Hello. Welcome to Candles and More. How can I help you today.” He knew he sounded cold, he meant to. Demons were bad. He remembered them now, and didn't want to.
The Demon didn't smile or move at all. He just stared. After nearly a full minute he spoke, a slight hint of an English accent in his dry voice.
“I'm Devon. From the Men's Wear Store down the way. Would you be young Mr. Hartley?”
“I am. Did you come to buy candles or incense? I can probably get you a nice deal if you're willing to buy in bulk.” Zack held himself in that glassy black ball without wavering. He stared at the being in front of him, trying not to show fear. Like facing down a wild dog or something, Zack told himself.
“Perhaps another time. Today I'm afraid I simply came to gawk at the new oddity everyone's talking about. Running the lines without magic or sacrifice, I hear? And laying no claim to being one of us... Interesting, Mr. Hartley. Even as I stand here in front of you I can't tell what you are. Amazing, really, as that's a special talent of my own. Determining who and what a being is. Somehow you're making yourself nearly invisible to me.”
Devon flowed forward, almost as if he didn't have bones in the same places a normal man would.
Zack nearly growled as he approached.
“I'm working right now. If you just want to chat, maybe we should do lunch sometime?” Zack gestured toward the door. “I really should get back to my duties if you've seen enough for now?”
“Oh, of course! How rude of me. Yes, let us do lunch sometime soon. Allow me to leave a calling card for you. Please feel free to call on me if you find yourself free to meet. Anytime will do. Also, if you need any clothing, do let us know. We have some of the finest tailors in the world working for us right here in the Underwood Mall.” Tilting his head in a slight nod he turned to leave. “Until next we meet then, Mr. Hartley.”
Zack just nodded silently, holding himself as tightly as possible to prevent the Demon from gaining any insight into him.
Claire smiled at him grimly from her vantage point across the way. This time she had watched him without any pretense of cleaning the store. He nodded to her, to let her know he appreciated her implied support.
Holding himself in that tight ball, he kept working. His stomach started growling at about three-thirty, but he didn't dare leave the store unattended if Demons might come in. Not that they'd steal or anything, not here. They just couldn't be trusted as a rule.
Hilda went into the YoGurt shop about four and talked to Claire for several minutes. Laughing she turned toward the door, carrying something large and white in her hands. Then walked the not quite straight line over to him with purpose, smiling when she noticed him looking at her.
Coming through the door she held out the white container in front of her.
“My turn! I got dinner for us from the food court. Mac said that you told him yesterday that you do not eat meat? So I got you the same stuff that you ate yesterday, I hope that's all right? Claire said she thought you'd forgotten to eat today. Say to me, why does this place smell like a Demon? Has Devon been in here? It smells of him. I brought forks and chopsticks. I didn't know if you knew how to use them, the chopsticks?”
Just then the Bat girl came walking into view with a drink carrier that had three cups in it. Both Hilda and Zack watched her come into the store and walk over to them.
“Hi! We sort of met the other day in the food court? I'm Libby. The one that changes into a bat, like you guessed before? Nessa noticed everyone else, meaning Devon and Hilda, seemed to be headed this way so she sent me to spy on you. I brought drinks.” Her Shadow bat self squeaked out, Spying, lemonade, cute boy. Fun!
Opening the box with mounds of food inside Hilda turned to Libby. “I don't think I got enough for all of us. I didn't know you'd be joining us.” It took Zack a second to realize that in her mind she'd merely stated a fact. What looked like a dinner for six seemed like two portions to her.
“No problem, I'm not hungry yet. Do you have chairs though? I've been on my feet for hours.”
The chairs came out of Lisa's office. They were the same kind as in the food court. Someone had probably lifted them the night before.
Sitting around the front counter, Libby started talking as soon as Zack loaded his plate and poured some of the sweet and sour sauce over his noodles, fried rice and spring rolls. He used a fork, but Hilda used a pair of chopsticks deftly, as if she had grown up using them. Which for all he knew she had. He knew nothing of her culture. He should ask some time if he got a chance. It had to be fascinating.
“So, I'm supposed to find some things out for Nessa, and all them. Can I just ask you? It's loads easier that way.” Having just taken a bite of delicious fried rice he nodded for her to go ahead.
The Bat girl, pulled out a small pad and a pen, and read the first question, scrunching up her face in a way that didn't make her look better, but still seemed incredibly cute somehow.
“Cool. Okay. First, are you a Demon?”
Hilda's eyes shot open and her Shadow self reared back, a scandalized expression on her face.
“Nope. Just a regular Human. I had to pass some magic test last night to prove that. I suppose someone from the Mage Guild will know about that.” He answered frankly.
“Okay. You walked into a line last night and took Master Wu-Li with you. How did you do that?”
Again the biggest reaction came from Hilda. “What! That's ridiculous, no one can walk the lines except... Wait, what happened? No one ever tell me anything!” It seemed to be a real issue to her, since her inner self echoed the words. If in better English.
The Bat girl nodded, making the motion a lot bigger than she really needed to.
“Exactly. Only Demons walk the lines like that, but Master Wu-Li told Nessa and Ang that it wasn't like that at all. It seems that some Mage girl got stolen and Master Wu-Li and Zack walked a line and got her back after a huge battle. They almost died a bunch and stuff. Master Wu-Li said that Zack saved him in the line somehow.”
Both versions of Hilda turned to him and growled “Tell me!” at the same time.
Taking another bite of food to stall for time while he collected himself and came up with a short answer.
“I'm not a Demon. I learned to walk lines, or whatever you want to call it, when I was little. I had to in order to survive. I... don't really want to go into it now... Anyway, Master Wu-Li wouldn't have been in trouble in the line if I'd done it right from the get go, but I'm rusty with that, walking lines. I did nearly die, by getting myself drowned while getting to the girl. Jennifer. I can't swim and we ended up in the ocean. Then Master Wu took out like thirteen guys using his martial arts skills and stuff. We got Jennifer and came back here, using some shortcuts I found. That's all.”
A bite of spring roll punctuated this. It was really good. Nearly perfect. Again.
“Right. So then they want to know what you're charging for this service.”
That made him pull up short. Charge? For going to get a little girl in trouble? How could he charge for that?
“I'm not... charging... anything. Jennifer needed help. So I helped her. I wasn't even on the clock or anything. Why would I charge for that?”
Hilda and Libby just stared at him, dumbfounded. Across the way Claire stood in the window of her shop, staring as well.
Chapter eight
“What?” Everyone stared at him and kept staring for at least twenty seconds. It went past creepy into so bizarre that he nearly ducked behind the counter for protection. “If a little kid is in trouble, you help them, right? If a friend needs you, then you do your best for them, even if it's inconve
nient. You just do it. I don't see why not billing someone for this would be a big deal... Honestly, it seems like the other way around would be wrong, doesn't it?”
Libby kept looking at him, while Hilda picked up a napkin and blotted at her eyes.
“Zack... What you did, it would... No one would... I...” The large woman stammered.
Libby shook herself slightly, as if to remind herself to speak, “Zack... It's like this... A century ago a prince of my people was taken by another group of Weres that we warred with back then. They were going to kill him to teach my people a lesson. The king, my great grandfather on my dad's side, tried to make a deal with some Demons to do less than you did last night. Half of my people offered their lives and everything they owned to the Demons to get him free. This wasn't even nearly enough for them. This is what most of us live with, all the time.
“It can take years to get the Demons to take even one person through a line and costs so much that Demons don't even charge for it in money. They work in souls, and lives.”
Hilda nodded and her Shadow self cried, tears flowing down her giant cheeks.
“And you just saved a little girl, almost dying to do it and can't even understand why we wonder at you. This does show that he is no Demon though, yes, Libby?” She reached across the counter and squeezed his shoulder gently. “No Demon would have refused payment, or done this without taking all they could get.”
Zack waved that away.
“But the Mages, last night, they were going to open the line on their own... They just couldn't do it in time, so I helped out a bit... That's not such a big deal. Even if I do look kind of cool, if you only hear the story, and not about how I was gasping and flopping around through most of it.”
Hilda took her hand back and spoke in a low tone, “No, they desperately tried, knowing they couldn't do it in time. Many peoples can open a line and shove a person or two through. Mages are slow, but they can send a dozen or more through a line at once, if they start weeks or months ahead of time. My people, the Trolleinkein can do it faster. With the sacrifice of a life of one of the people, though only one or two can pass, and only in one direction that way. Vampires can do it too, but they don't. The cost is just too high. Only Demons run the lines without great cost. Well them and now you. So people are going to want you and want what you can do for them.”
The Bat girl's Shadow unfurled it's wings and stretched, flapping a couple of times.
“So last thing... I guess I should ask, what do you want? Basically, if we need to hire you what can we do to get your attention?” Then she batted her eye lashes at him playfully, her Shadow indicating a certain Bat girl might be an option for payment.
He shook his head and ate several more bites of food before speaking. Then took a sip of lemonade. It had been made with real lemons. For a food court in a Mall, the food managed to be really high quality. He wondered if that had to do with this place really being more like Embassy Row than a rundown mall?
After a minute or so he finally spoke, “If it's really important, and someone needs help, then I'll do what I can. I can't leave some kid in trouble because I'm scared or because I think I should make more money from it or something like that. I guess that goes for everyone else too, not just kids. So, tell them... Tell them I don't know exactly.” Another sip of lemonade. “Right now my main goal is to make at least two hundred dollars this month so that my roommate and I can pay off all our bills in time. Do either of you know of anyone that's hiring? Maybe I could get another job or do temp work on my days off or something?”
This time they stared at each other. Zack figured this meant he said something stupid again.
Hilda nodded her head. “You know, if you're serious, a couple of places here run on really small staff numbers. The Power Center has plenty of people, so does Princess Pretty Nail, but the Fun Zone only has two people to keep it going all the time. Claire across the way is the only one of the Vampires old enough to come out in the daylight, so she has to work every day... I'd check with her first. Even if she doesn't have anything, she probably has ideas that are worth listening to. She's smart.”
Libby smiled then and pointed at the front window. “Claire says that that may be an excellent idea and that she'll come over after the next shift gets there and talk to you about it. Oh, and she says to thank that 'darling girl Hilda' for saying she's smart.”
“She can hear us from here?” Zack looked through the widow at her.
“Oh sure. About half of the beings here can hear what is being said in most of the stores from anyplace else in the mall. Hilda's folk can't, but they can track an individual snow flake in a storm by scent. I don't know what the Djinn do, but they always know everything anyway. Speaking of knowing everything, I need to get back to The Chasm and let Nessa in on all of this. Her hearing's good, but she can't hear us from there. My hearing is that good, but she's a cat, you know how they are...”
With that the girl-bat moved out of the store without looking back. In a few seconds she disappeared from sight totally.
“Hilda... Did... did she just say she was a princess?”
“Oh, yeah. Don't be too impressed though, everyone here is someone or something special in some way. Hey, I'm a Chief's only daughter, which is basically a princess for my people. Glen, the tall guy at 'Fried Things'? He's a duke. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people here had something like that going on. I know that Lisa's family is really high up in the Mage power structure, too. Almost every manager here is an Ambassador, even Nessa, if you can believe it. In most groups you don't get this kind of job unless you can do something special or are really well connected. Even the guys at the gym are all extra qualified. They all had to learn English, which is hard for us, and were handpicked for being calm and reliable warriors, as well as able to pass for Human.”
They both returned to eating after that, finishing at about the same time.
“Oh, I hate to run like this, but I have someone coming for a session in about ten minutes, I need to get back. Thanks for having dinner with me!”
“Thank you for thinking of me and bringing the food! I'll see you soon I hope. Bye.”
“Bye.”
The mess left from the food and drinks took only a few minutes to clean up, and that long only because he took his time, trying to understand everything that had been said.
For all that he had a lot more history than he had let himself remember before, his experience with people had been very limited and mostly traumatic. He knew that he simply missed a lot of important things that everyone else seemed to already know without even thinking about it.
He just happened to be looking out the front window, while doing nothing in particular, when Keane came into work. The tall Vampire raised a hand in a half-wave, acknowledging his presence, so Zack waved back.
Claire's Shadow self came over without her. He'd seen this kind of thing before, if only rarely. If someone thought about him intently, they'd often show up like this. He'd seen it with other people too, as just part of normal communications. Most people ignored it, except in extreme emergencies, when their Shadow selves insisted that they pay attention.
I'm coming to offer you work, taking my place for a day or two. This is because I like you and think you worthy of trust, but also because I really, truly, wish to get my hair done.
That communicated she shrank back into herself.
A few minutes passed, then a few more. Claire came through the door and carefully shut it behind her.
“I think Hilda likes you.” She teased. “A woman doesn't bring a man food for no reason after all.” Her smile quirked. The deeper part of herself rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, Hilda's cool. Let's not start pointing out how bringing people food has meaning though. Because you've hooked me up several times now and this morning both of us not only gave Hilda food, but seven very large Trolleinkein as well. Really that's not something I want to consider right now.” Shaking his head somberly he kept a smile o
ff his face for nearly five seconds, then it spilled out.
“Oh, I don't know, a couple of those fellows remind me of my first husband. Of course things were different back then and hygiene rules tended to be a little... spotty.”
She moved closer to him. Her interest increasing suddenly, her Shadow showing more hunger than it had before. “Let's get down to business, Mr. Hartley, before we lose more of the night. I need to feed soon or I'll get cranky. I overheard young Hilda's suggestion that you seek employment for your next off day at another establishment here in the building. There's logic to her suggestion. You already know about everyone and seem willing to work with others, even if they're of a different sort than your own. I myself could use someone, shall we say, reliable, that's capable and honest. Plus your innate ability to go out during the day means that you can cover my shift, allowing me to take care of some delicate tasks. That's not important right now. What is crucial here is that we make it on a week day. If I may inquire, what days are you off this week?”
This caught him off guard. Really, he had been working on the principle that he came to work at nine and left at nine, unless told otherwise. He held up a finger and went to the phone. As he suspected, Lisa didn't know either, but he explained that he needed a week day off, so that he could cover during the day for Claire. After a period of silence, she answered that he could get Friday and Saturday off this week if he wanted. Claire's eye lit up and her inner beast clapped her hands like a little girl.
Then she asked if she could speak with Lisa.
“I just don't want you to worry, Mr. Hartley is just attempting to earn a bit more money, to cover his monthly obligations, I believe... Yes... Truly it isn't much, but I think he'll insist upon earning it directly... From what I've heard, that does not seem at all likely. Oh, yes. The Demon Devon was in earlier. From what he said I think that Mr. Hartley is actually quite safe in that regards right now.... Ha ha! Of course. I just wanted to make certain you understood that this is only a normal business arrangement, nothing untoward. Certainly, one moment.”