by P. S. Power
At five Val came with more food for the girl, who ate it all, focusing on it totally. He asked her to stay for a while, while he took care of his appointments with Wu-Li and Patty.
“That's why I'm here. Patty wanted to make sure you could come. Now that you two are an item, she wanted to make certain you had time together.”
He blinked.
He remembered the whole 'secret meetings' plan, but he hadn't expected Patty to simply tell everyone. It seemed like Val didn't have a problem with it, a trait he'd come to admire in the Alede. He kissed her, holding her gently and trying to remember all the techniques from the book. They broke off after a few minutes.
“Wow! That was skillful... but there wasn't a hint of passion from you at all. All technique that time... Is that because of...” She nodded toward the girl, who was eating a large plate of various fried things. It smelled pretty good to Zack, though he didn't trust it to not have meat mixed in.
Nodding at that, he explained.
“I locked everything down this morning. I figured that things would go more smoothly that way. So far so good. You're still great though. Which is what I wanted to convey in a way you'd understand.”
Chuckling, she kissed his cheek.
“Hey, um, not to add to problems or burdens, but my mom is coming tomorrow and I thought you should be ready. She's... interesting, to say the least. She'll probably hit on you. That isn't an insult for an Alede though. She's borrowed most of my boyfriends since I was fourteen, but she always gave them back. I've also borrowed more than a few of her lovers as well. But, well, you'll see, just promise not to be surprised in a bad way?”
He raised three fingers in a boy scout salute and promise to do his best.
Wu-Li had Zack repeat the activities of the last session while Dan threw things at him, making him dodge and scramble to keep his feet. The younger master started out with bean bags, then moved to tennis balls by the end, forcing Zack to move faster and faster not to get hit. He couldn't dodge all of them, though he kept up striking the bricks pretty well, even when he got hit in the head a few times. That was the point, after all. Remembering to draw his personal energy back after using it under pressure.
Patty, starving now, asked him to let go of his control for the lesson so that she could grab the extra energy. Given how desperate her words felt to him, he told her that would be fine.
She then spent an hour doing everything she could to get a reaction out of him. It worked, at least enough for her to take the edge off. He told her to go and harvest some energy for a while, as Norris and everyone seemed to be back from their own trips. He promised he'd have her daughter in front of Beautiful Plus at five after nine.
She came in fully fed and happier than he had seen her in days.
And only a little late.
Chapter thirty-six
Val's mom wouldn't be there until six or six-thirty, according to the phone message she'd left the day before with Betty, while everyone else worked. Valerie would go pick her up at the airport instead of making her take a cab, which seemed like the right thing to do to Zack.
He could tell Val was nervous, her Shadow self rehearsing how to introduce them in a way that would make sense to her mother. In their world, to the Alede, the current living arrangement would seem highly strange, not at all uninviting, just different. She didn't want her mother to misunderstand anything.
He knew he couldn't help much in this case. Zack barely remembered his own mom, who'd died while he lived in the void, apparently of a drug overdose. Then again, his father supposedly died near that time as well, but... Oops? The Demon had probably faked his death to get out of a prison sentence. Not that any Human-constructed prison had much of a chance of holding one of those dark beasts.
However, Val had a lot more knowledge about how to handle mothers in general than he did. Her knowledge of her own mom would have to suffice for this.
She did hop into bed with him early though, waking him up to do interesting things. Apparently she felt a bit of a power crunch herself trying to help keep Kaitlyn fed as well. According to Merri, who came in just after that, it would be Lisa's day anyway and she hadn't shown any inclination toward pursuing a physical relationship, so this should work out fine. Then she kissed him and he suggested that she take a turn later herself, if she wanted. The small woman kissed him and walked away, smiling but not saying anything.
He found Hilda in the living room, just sitting alone, after he got out of the shower. They talked for a bit. Zack needed to hit the gym later, she said. Looking away, her braid flowing down her back, she mentioned that she really would like to see him to talk to more often. Just the two of them.
He hugged her and said that she should plan on it. He started to kiss her, then stopped.
“Your people don't kiss, do you? This must seem really weird to you then.” Then he gave her a peck on the cheek.
She looked at him and started laughing.
“We're covered with hair, normally I mean. This tends to keep our mouths out of most activities with each other. There are a couple things we do, after all we aren't covered with hair down below. About like you Humans there really...The kissing is a little odd to me, but nice. I can learn new things. I'm getting past the desire to hit someone that smells like sex and is trying to touch me more than casually. It's hard though.”
She hugged him and they held each other for a moment.
At work he taught Kaitlyn to use the register and they pretty much marked time without much happening. He found little errands for her to do, ran focusing and concentration drills with her, and they talked about how she felt about things.
He didn't want to be mean, but there were too many Alede in his life right now for comfort. Even though they were being 'good' by their standards, they pressed on people a little. He noticed that this line of thought led nowhere helpful, so he spent a little time tracking it to its origins in his head.
It wasn't that he didn't like them. He did. As individuals. Even Kate was kind of charming in her own jailbait fashion. By their nature, it would be nearly impossible not to like them, he knew this and had seen the effects of it with his own eyes more than once in the last weeks; but he felt overworked and like he had no time to himself.
At that thought he realized that he could just go and hang out in the void whenever he wanted. He could have centuries of free time per year. Sure, he couldn't spend years at a time gone during the work day, but he could grab weeks or even months without anyone ever missing him. It would give him time to think. He asked Kaitlyn to watch the store while he stepped out for a minute or two, and let Lisa know he would be back soon.
“Christmas errands?” the cute thirty-something asked.
“Ah, no, I only have a little more shopping to do and that can be done locally. Actually... I'm going into the void. To hang out and rest for a bit. Life's been pretty overwhelming lately...”
Her eyes held a question. Licking her lips she took a deep breath.
"Are you feeling okay?"
“Just a little tired. I went from sitting around reading books and eating three packs of ramen per day to either working, taking people through the line, or being offered sex by women that two months ago wouldn't have talked to me unless... actually, they just wouldn't have talked to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I just realized I need a bit of a vacation from everything. So, the void. I can relax there for a while, think about things I haven't been and be back before anyone misses me.”
Taking a deep breath, she nodded and flattened her right hand on the top of the desk, letting the breath out slowly.
“Okay. I know we're overworking you, too. If you saw how much we have to turn away though... For every person you transfer, ten are on a waiting list and another ten have been turned away for one reason or another... At this point you have more money than you could ever spend. You need to start putting that money back into the system or else economies are going to be ruined, and I'm not really kidding a
bout this... Then there's the work from Lesser Shia. On the good side, it helps a lot of people.”
Shaking her head, not in negation, more to clear it, Zack thought, she leaned forward.
“It's like several forces are pulling and pushing us, trying to make us take the wrong turn or something. I can't explain it, but I feel it. Not that I have any great prescience, just enough to avoid traffic tickets and get about half the numbers right on a lotto ticket. Still, it feels like a trap. One we can't see yet.”
Her eyes darkened briefly and then she lightened.
“But you can take breaks in the void. It's a good idea if it helps you, and I can get more help in here. I've never been good at asking for help, but I think it's time I learned. Maybe Kaitlyn can do it? I mean as more than a clerk, though I have to admit the store looks great with both of you working on it.”
She pointed out that some of her work, organizing the flow of traffic, could be easily taught and the young lady seemed smart enough. It would just be a matter of her making schedules.
“Maybe she could shadow me someday soon?”
This use of the term Shadow startled him, until she explained it.
He nodded. If Kaitlyn could stay sane through what he planned for her, then yes, that could work nicely. Maybe Lisa could get some actual days off for a change?
He told her that they should do all of that, went around her desk and gave her a hug, because she looked worn out, and said he would be back in a bit.
A few minutes later he strode out of the line, refreshed and with a sense of purpose. He'd made some connections in his mind, sitting in that space with nothing to distract him over the last months of experiential time.
That meant speaking to Claire.
He passed Kaitlyn at the front desk and stopped to hug her for a while. It had occurred to him that by depriving her of contact, damage had been done to her psyche. Fearing they may trigger her tendency to spray power without control, the people at that facility she'd been at limited all of her contact, eliminating half of what she needed to learn the control they feared she lacked.
He'd have to get with the Alede and deal with that too. Their fear of her made no sense, now that she had more control. Soon that control would be her own, if all went anywhere near to plan. Perhaps today...
Breaking the hold, Zack nodded.
"I'll be back in a bit. Then we have some things to do together."
She of course started imagining stocking shelves or possibly sex, because her mind always went there first. Even after being told what they needed to do, he doubted she'd really understand until she'd done it.
The yogurt shop stood empty inside. The sense of Claire and the swirl of alterations to the world that her passing made led him to the back where she spoke on the phone. Clearly it was Vaun, since his presence was in the room if faintly and what they spoke of... the Vampire they called Forest.
Standing in the door he waited. There was a feeling to the whole thing that told him it was more important than what he wanted to say. For the time being. His Vampire spoke rapidly, listened for a bit, then hung up.
Before she spoke, he took her hand trying to make it seem like a sweet gesture, since she was the kind of woman that needed to be treated that way more. Being cautious, and holding a finger to his lips for silence they went through the line, ending at an isolated and cold place. Greenland, he thought, or someplace very like it. He'd picked it just because this Nexus didn't have any kind of structure near enough to it to see.
“Forest is involved with the plot against us, yes. I figured that out. I've been gone for a while, thinking and going over what's happened. There are connections I normally ignore, but once they exist they always leave a trace. I can look at them, if things are calm enough. But they haven't been calm enough. I asked myself why and it keeps coming back to two obvious groupings of events.”
Nodding she prompted him to continue his analysis. Letting him go on with his little game of sleuth. Except that she didn't see it that way. Honestly, Zack realized, her inner self was deferring to him... and his ancient wisdom. That was different.
“There are positive seeming and negative seeming events, some in each group that seem to run counter to their obvious purpose however. For me, it started with coming here. To Underwood, I mean. I felt drawn to it. Not just like it would be lucky for me, but actually pulled, no, that's wrong, I felt like the world had tilted and I was rolling toward someplace. That one point set many things into motion though.”
He stretched, reaching for the sky.
“There are connections that I didn't bother with before, thinking the solution obvious. Jennifer's father had taken her and wanted to kill her. I thought out of spite... but what if they were doing it on orders? Anyway, that event caused me to go into the void, which allowed those early memories to be triggered and the full memories of the void to be restored. This goes on and on. Many events seem to be trying to manage us, all of us at work, toward two different points. One more cohesive, one chaotic and disarrayed.”
What they wanted though, would require something like the Vampires' information network. They needed to see if odd attacks had happened in any other Nexus locations.
This plot stank of Demon intervention to him. Convoluted and complex, but at each step there seemed to be another route they could take to win, and another chance for their opponents to lose if they made a misstep.
“There's a lot more, but what I really would like is for you to arrange to have that data collected without making waves that lead back to us. So easy, right?”
Claire spoke then.
“Forest has been publicly bragging about dropping that body at Underwood. He claimed it's because of my 'uppity' ways.” Facing him she went on. It was pretty clear she didn't really want to, and was being brave about telling him the story.
“We used to be together, if you could call it that, about two hundred years ago. He kept me chained and starved, publicly using me for sex and having others do it too for shows and spectacles. It went on so long that I forgot to be ashamed of such things and did them only to survive. As one might catch a fish without considering that its life has value to it, or drawing water from a well. Not the best of times. He's convinced himself – or at least tells all that will listen – that we were truly in love, and now claims that I am, or should be, his still.”
"That seems well balanced and like he's using all of his marbles, doesn't it?"
"Agreed. Forest has never been a sharp thinker. This however, is pushing up against limits that even he should know better than to cross. There is, perhaps to an insane mind, a real claim that once having been his property, I am still, no matter how long I have been free. That the power to take another trumps their ability to live on their own... This however... Saying that a chained and abused slave loves you and that you loved them? It seems more than a little unreasoned. I'd suspect a ruse of some kind, except that he lacks the intelligence and discipline to pull something like that off, and only rarely works with anyone else that he'd take direction from.”
She moved back toward the line, but he held her hand for a moment.
“One more thing. I love you. I'm fond of the others, but there's something wrong there. I know that from the beginning I loved you, and that we should be together. This is deep level stuff, not just wishful thinking. It had been the pattern when we met. Then...”
He reached out in front of him gesturing as he spoke, drawing lines in the air.
“Then the others were thrown into the equation. I like them all and certainly enjoy the sex, now at least, but my life isn't supposed to be about sex right now. I can feel it, but I can't see a reason anyone or anything would have tried to use all of these women to stop me from seeing something...”
Claire blinked, slowly she started to nod, getting something.
“Val, Patty, and Sarah... It is incredibly odd for so many Alede to be so closely intertwined as to their love lives. Even when under control, they tend to throw
the world around them into a bit of chaos due to their allure. Then a young woman with no control at all comes into the picture? That is strange. Each one, all of us to be fair, clamoring for your attention... Yes, I can see that as being possible, though I can't see who would do that either. Why is simple, it makes you far more vulnerable.”
That, he understood. If they were threatened he'd do what he could to save them, no matter what. Even if it meant dying. If there had been only Claire, well she could take care of herself. Even Hilda and Merri seemed to be formidable physically, though it could be hard to remember that about Merri.
Lisa and the Alede though... a few bullets and they'd be gone. Libby...
“I'm not saying it's all bad, but I can't keep up with all the demands on my time any more, most days at least. I need to find a way to keep everyone in my life happy, but I'm split in too many ways.”
Holding him suddenly, she bit him on the neck and sucked for a while. He blocked out the small bit of pain from it easily enough, wondering why she'd done it. Her inner beast seemed hungry, but he didn't think her control had been pushed that far. Then she licked the wound well and kissed him.
“Okay, I'll help you. I need you... I need you to trust me totally though. I'm going to drink your blood and I need you to drink mine at the same time. It'll build a bond between us. Here...” She bit her own wrist, cleanly and deeply, blood welled out. “Don't worry, it won't make you feel ill like Human blood would. Drink some. It's good.”
He looked at her. It came down to trust, or it would if he couldn't see and hear what she intended. It scared him a little, so he shut down the fear, focusing on it and letting it all go.
He put his mouth on her wrist and started drinking. The blood tasted a bit of copper and iron, not exactly tasty, but as she said, it didn't make him feel sick. She bit his neck, hitting the jugular vein, and sucked deeply, causing the blood to flow from her more powerfully as well. He suppressed his revulsion until it no longer existed in regards to blood drinking. Then, making an effort to trust her completely, he drank, mechanically, without emotion.