Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  "Eh... Not so much. At least you're good looking enough. That helps in life. I do have to say that the work ethic is a bit of a turn on though. Then, my life is work, more or less, and if you can't be bothered to try your best, I don't have time for you."

  Chris finished his cup, and stood, smiling.

  "On that note, I need to go and get ready. I have two tests today. Thankfully I already studied. We're doing the exams early in those classes, so we don't have to worry about it next week. Just the rest of them." He didn't mention that Kate and Don had been let go early so they could sleep and study for their tests, but his inner shadow looked at Zack closely, as if thinking that he might have missed that part of things.

  That, his inner self, was older though. The look was the same, but there was a sense of age that everyone in the room except Merry had. Even Claire felt young, by comparison. Troy too, come to that. Standing, Zack smiled, and looked around.

  "Okay, I need to shower and change for the day. We all should, if just to wash the fighting off of us. I have no clue what the rest of the day will bring, as to fall out from things last night."

  Merry scrambled up, and headed for the kitchen, since her people would need a good hot meal before going out for the day. She just called out to them as she hit the door, letting them know.

  "I'll have a pot of oats ready, with eggs, and toast?" It was a light meal for her, but she hadn't known that anyone would be coming back. Not that day.

  Her shadow turned and looked at him, sadness filling her. It was a gloriously shining thing, that held hints of gold and rose colored light, like the dawn.

  Soon, it will be done. I must render the service for my king. I'm sorry, love.

  Then she scampered from the room, before he could question her on the idea. He'd caught her thinking things like that before, and given how different her kind was, she had to know he knew that. It was really clear that she was under orders to do or say something, and it seemed really important to her. Bad, too. It mainly came up like this when there was an attack, which was starting to show a pattern.

  A big event would take place... And then she'd wonder if it was the time. If the signs lined up. If the moment was right for him to ask. What that service was, Zack didn't know. Just that she didn't get much choice in it, and that her inner self had proclaimed that it would be the end of everything for them, when she did it.

  Since sleeping with Troy, or even Chris, wasn't going to do that, he didn't really know what the whole thing was about.

  He walked quickly to his room, which was just the space that he normally used for sex, and getting dressed in the morning. Zack hurried, but didn't even really think about his guests, who wouldn't have anything to wear there at the large house. They could buy things at the mall however, so that wouldn't be a huge issue.

  As it turned out, Chris had seen to that part of things, by simply leading both of the new women to Kate's room, and raiding her closet. The clothing fit Lyn perfectly, and Eve was a little smaller, being lean and trim, meaning that they found something for her too. It was all decently casual, since that was how Kate got by in life. Jeans, sweaters, and t-shirts that were supposed to look nerdy, but just came across as ridiculously hot on an Alede.

  Everything did. A burlap sack would be high fashion on one of them.

  That meant that there was time for Zack to eat, and Lyn to get some as well, with Chris actually being the one that had to hurry, since he wanted to review before school. He did that in the front room, eating toast so he could hold his book open with his other hand. There was a slow and relaxed kind of hectic feeling to the whole thing. Hurrying, without moving around very fast. After he left, at six-thirty, needing only about thirty seconds to move the ten miles to his classes, the rest of them got off to the mall for the day.

  Not Troy, who was off sleeping, like a good human should, but the rest of them. It was early, and no one would be in yet at Candles and More, he didn't think.

  So it was a bit of a shock to find the place alive and filled with about twenty people. There was a phone bank set up in the back, set up on several tables, and both Gregory and Lisa were answering handsets.

  Zack just stood there, and listened to what was going on, as Agnes, an older woman that had come to help them in an emergency before, picked up a ringing phone.

  "Mage embassy, what can I do for you today?" She had old lady voice, and nicely wrinkled skin. There was a brief moment when Zack understood something then. She was old for the room, in looks, but a lot of them were ancient, compared to her. Not just a few years older either.

  After a moment of listening, the woman went into a prepared sounding speech.

  "We don't know what the fallout from this will be. The reports from Bangladesh seem to be saying that these beings were the same ones that attacked Lesser Shia, but that's all we know. Well, that, and the fact that we clearly won, again. Somehow. No one really has information on that."

  The conversation ended shortly after that. It was a thing, in their world. Mages, and some of the other groups, would actually call their government for information when things went wrong. The real news didn't play on television after all.

  More, even though it wasn't all that helpful, the mage government actually tried to answer them. Getting a break, about five minutes later, Gregory looked up at them all, and smiled. His thin face held stress lines too, and looked tired, but he didn't complain at them.

  "Mr. Hartley! Miss Swanson. I'm afraid I don't recognize your friend. Is she an Alede?" He looked at Eve, doing so closely, his eyes searching her face, which was flawless, and attractive enough.

  She didn't pump out raw lust, but Lyn wasn't either, so it could be that she was one of those. Zack could understand the mistake, but Eve just pushed her hair back, which was loose and about midway down her back, and smiled at the man.

  "Afraid not. I'm Eve Benson. Your friendly line walking vampire girl. From a different reality, even. That isn't a joke, Greg. This Kaitlyn is, too. Yours is off at school right now. Anyway, where do you need me? I can answer phones, or we can do line walking stuff? Or I can get you a good deal on frozen yogurt I bet. I already know the job, so I bet I can get a part time position here. Then we'll be hitting that employee discount in no time."

  The man smiled at her, like she was insane, and looked back at Zack.

  "Anything would help. We have the phones taken care of here. Amazingly, news of an alien attack seems to have gotten a lot of people out, and willing to help. What can you tell us, news wise?" The man didn't seem to think they'd know anything really, but was kind of hoping that they'd have contacts that would.

  Taking a few minutes he ran down the whole story, as Lisa, looking a bit sleepy, came out of the office and nodded at him. When he got to the part about Cavendish needing to be paid she scurried off, but came back with a nice fat envelope with the man's name on the outside. She had a small bag to go with it, that clanked gently as she handed it over.

  "Good call. I should have thought of that. This should get him caught up. If he needs more... Well, then we can take it out of your pay, right?" She was playing, but that sounded fair to him. He had the funds, after all. If one of his people needed them, then that was a good place for them to go.

  "I'll get this taken care of. A bit later though. If he's sane, then the man will be fast asleep right now. I was planning on taking Lesser Shia today. We can split that between here and there. Eve, why don't you and I do that first. Lyn, you start here, and I'll be back in a few hours with Eve, so you can trade off. They'll need an update there. Call it ten or so?"

  He looked at Lisa, who just seemed baffled, but nodded. The idea of Kate being a line walker wasn't that new after all, and it was clear that she was conflating Lyn with being the other girl. Eve was throwing her off, but only a bit. That part was mainly down to the idea that the girl was a vampire. She really didn't seem like one, being awake during the day and seeming so calm all the time.

  "Um, sure? Do you... Need anyt
hing?" Lisa's eyes looked down at the front of his slacks, which were tight. He hadn't been having even a fraction of the sex that he needed over the last day or two. There was no real time for it just then either, so he shook his head, closed his eyes and focused. Until the erection went away. It took work, but no one mentioned it again. This time it was easier to get done, for some reason, than it had been before.

  Then he got things underway for the day. Lesser Shia wasn't ready for line walkers yet, but managed to get things started about half an hour after they got there. After the first few trips, Zack stood back, and watched, pushing Eve to do it all for him. She snorted, called him lazy, and didn't do it as fast as he could, but there was no whining about it either. Kate and Don both did that a bit, if internally. Chris, oddly, didn't. He was so much slower that it wasn't even funny however.

  At ten he left Eve doing that, and went back to the candle store, to get Cavendish his pay envelope.

  That meant he dawdled a bit, feeling terrified that the man would end his very being as he walked slowly to the old shortcut that took him to his old house. His home, even now, at least in his mind. When he knocked on the door he half expected there to be no answer.

  The day was cool, and rainy, even in early December. A fine mist was in the air, and from behind the closed white door, there was a soft sound of a man exercising. To instrumental Christmas music. Half the sound stopped after a moment, as if listening, so Zack knocked again.

  That got a smiling man to open the door, his face looking kind and gentle, even as Zack wanted to gibber and flee.

  "Is there another emergency? I can be ready in a few seconds..." The man started to move, but Zack shook his head and forced a smile.

  "Nope. I just have your pay. You haven't been picking it up. From now on you need to get to Underwood and do that each Friday. This will get you up to date. Part of it's in gold, but we can help you sell that if you need. Here you go. Oh, also, you need to start reporting in, at least a few times a week. We'll probably want you to work on training with Blain. He's off at college right now, but will have some time off in a few weeks."

  The man just stood there for a few moments, and then cleared his throat.

  "I don't understand. Am I working for you now? I didn't fill out my w-two's if that's the case."

  Zack smiled, meaning it, and nodded.

  "Yep. You have been. Kate hired you, months ago. So far you haven't done much though, for the day to day things? So, you get the idea, get ready for that?"

  Then, as if he didn't feel like he was going to die while doing it, he handed over the white envelope, and the tan colored coin purse, and walked away.

  After he rounded the corner, he started to run, just in case he was being followed.

  Not that he was.

  Chapter six

  The rest of the day was varied, which was a nice change for him. In the afternoon he had Troy with him in Lesser Shia, and while he was still slow on the lines, his friend was in good humor the whole time, and worked hard. They all had, really. Still, the stand outs that way so far were Eve and Troy. Neither of them slowed or quit, even when they got tired or bored.

  It meant that later that evening, when he went home, Troy stayed for a while, to make certain that everything got done for once.

  The people at Lesser Shia, instead of being upset by the change in schedule, all seemed ecstatic. Hathe, the leader of the city, their general manger, or whatever his title actually meant, even came to thank them both personally, before Zack could get away.

  "This is incredible, line walkers. If this can be kept up, we'll be able to expand into countless lands!" The man, who was a bit older looking, and had on bright blue and red robes at the moment, smiled at Troy like he was about to ask him out on a date.

  Luckily his shadow spoke of mere greed. It wasn't even bad that way, there also being real concern for their safety and well being flowing from the man. That part, his worry over their lives, was stronger than his own desire for gold or goods. In a way, even that was buried by the idea of getting those things for his people, and the others that would be helped by having a new line walker there.

  Being a genius, which Zack thought the man really might be, he even understood that Troy was the only real new line walker, and that Eve and Lyn were going home soon. That meant he was planning to court Troy harder than those others.

  Much so.

  "We could, if it serves, arrange for a palace to be built for you here? In the city itself, so that you might feel comfortable, coming and going each day?" Hathe spoke warmly, and the translator next to him, all in blue, spoke the words in that eerie fashion they all had. It was nearly right on top of what the man said, but not distracting. How it worked Zack didn't know, but it was easy to get used to.

  He glanced over at Troy, who shook his head slowly.

  "No? For one thing I wouldn't need a palace. A room with a kitchen would work. For now though, I have a place, and should stick with working from there. If I can learn to get faster with all of this, I could put in a shift here every day for a while. Well, five days a week. Out of seven? I want my weekends free." There was hesitation there, as if he feared the man wouldn't see that as enough, but Hathe bowed to him, his face gleeful.

  "Ahha! Indeed then! I thank you, and so do those that I serve." The man seemed about to go on at length, being happy like he was, but Zack had learned a while back how to handle the man, which was simply to explain what you were about to do. Then he'd get out of the way and let you do that, work being seen as pretty important in his world.

  "I'm headed home now, to take some vampires into the void. Troy, you said you were staying for a while?"

  "Yup. I want to see what I can get done without you hovering over me all the time. Being like a mother hen. Well, you know how you get." He meant it, but there was also a bit of goofing around inside him over it. He didn't really mind Zack that much. It was just that having anyone observing him all the time set his nerves on edge.

  That got the man in charge there to bow and call something out that wasn't translated. Zack didn't know, but he expected it was having a lot more goods brought in for Troy to work on. The real money was earned by taking people places, including to and from Lesser Shia, which was a major destination. The thing there was that transporting goods helped more people survive, in the long run.

  Rather than explain all of that to Troy, Zack waved to both of the people he was talking too, and then added in the translator, who didn't outwardly acknowledge that it had happened, and stepped into the ambush.

  Right into the void, where not one, but six, very vast and powerful things waited for him. As soon as they came, Zack was surrounded. One on each side, with no way for him to escape. Even the gaps between them were too small for him to squeeze through. Rather than panic, he focused his entire being as tightly as he could.

  Everything he had then went into the concept of reducing time to a single point. The basic idea was to give him a moment or two to work out what was happening. So far these giant shadows didn't destroy him, or warp the space around him in a way that would leave him incapable of ever moving to another location again. If that happened, there probably wasn't a lot he could do about it. Except to fix the warping and leave. Zack didn't think they knew he could do that part however.

  The issue of the moment, he understood, was that if he attacked one of the things, beings of a size and power that he really wouldn't have thought they could exist before he felt them there, the others could easily end him.

  So he tightened down his essence, pushing himself into being one single thought. Time rippled at first, the subtle movements around him casting lines and warps into the void itself. Things that were always there, but that were not normally perceptible to him. Then, watching and waiting, over the course of thousands of years, he understood something.

  There was no way for him to leave that spot. Not alive. Not unless these beings wanted to allow him to go free.

  It occurred to him t
hat they hadn't been waiting for nearly as long as he had been, sitting there for no more than a few moments, as he pushed nearly to destruction. So, finally, after it was clear that nothing else he could do would work, he tossed an idea off to them. A strange thing that was tight, and so focused that the things around him took forever to respond to.

  Hello. I can't help but notice that you're in my way. Is there a reason for that, or is this just a mistake?

  He didn't see how it could be, but after a moment several of them moved out of the way, floating to the side.

  Then a booming voice, probably coming from one of them, though Zack couldn't tell which, came back to him.

  NEITHER, GATE. WE MERELY TEST TO SEE IF YOU ARE READY. THE DAY AND HOUR DRAW NEAR.

  Then, before he could even ask for some clarification, the things vanished into nothingness. That was a nifty trick, since it left rents in space and time all over the place. Holes in reality. A mess that someone had to clean up. Sighing, at least in spirit, he moved over the things and closed them. Smoothing the mess that had been made. He didn't know why that had to be done, but Big Shadow, his friend, had always told him to do that.

  The way it had always felt was more along the lines of not being a slob, than anything else. Zack wanted to be tidy however, so over the course of about a thousand years of hard work and focus, he did it. Just as he worked on the last bit of things, the sixth rent in the nothingness around him, Big Shadow finally made an appearance. After the hard work was all finished, of course.

  Not that Zack was going to blame him for not helping earlier, with those giants. His friend, the largest and most powerful being he'd ever encountered before, was a midget compared to the new monsters. If he would have tried to do anything, they might have destroyed him, too.

  The being touched him, their information merging on the outermost layer of existence.

  No, little friend. I was merely distracted elsewhere, far from here. Those servants of the dark would not have tried for you like that if I had been near. They are no match for the Gatekeeper, and know it.