Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  Nodding to himself he finished eating, and then stood up, watching the people around him for a while. All that had been said left him wondering, for a moment, if this reality was his, or if it was a thing that belonged to someone else. Perhaps the teen boy across the way, who was contemplating the wonders of a vegetarian hamburger. It could be the Elth behind the counter, his copper hair shining as he moved quickly, to make sure the customer had what was needed for the day. Xan. His friend.

  It could have been anyone else in all of that universe too, including an alien, or, perhaps an animal. Maybe even a machine that had yet to be built. Infinite meant everything after all, which was a lot to take in. Zack decided that it probably didn't matter really, in the end.

  He had to try and do the right thing, but that was all. The rest would either take care of itself, or not.

  So, cleaning up after himself, he waved to Merry, and then went to collect up the rest of the women in his life that needed to go home.

  After that he had an entire life to get into some kind of order before it ended. That was enough for him to worry about for the time being.

  Chapter seven

  Zack wondered, for about ten minutes, if he should go into a long winded, and probably futile, existential crisis about then. The information he had was so weird that even his mind didn't really want to consider it all. Then, almost as if something clicked in his head, it really hit home that he didn't have to bother with that. He existed, and that, for the time being, was enough.

  Taking a collection of women home with him, he wondered what should come next, and knew that it was really three things. First, he had some vampires to get fed. Alede too, though he was going to pass that duty off to Eve again, if he could. She didn't seem to be influenced by the extreme sexual feelings that he was after feeding them, and having had a few days off, Zack was finally feeling almost normal again. That meant he wanted sex, but it was just a normal thing, not a constant screaming from his loins.

  Charli was still at work for the evening at Something Wonderful, but he hadn't been kidding about her giving things a try. Then he needed to find someone else that hadn't gone into the void already, and have Troy take them in, watching them the whole time.

  First his friend was going to need to be a bit more seasoned though, which meant going to find him, since he could be literally anywhere now. It was a problem with teaching people how to travel instantly to anyplace that existed. Eventually, they would do it. Taking a deep breath, Zack plunged in, feeling the people and activity in his own home, rather than seeing it directly. The shadows were always there, speaking to him about things, but that normally got blocked out. It would be hard to stay sane if he didn't, or at least that had been his personal experience. Ever since he was young that part had kind of made sense.

  Now, for the first time, he didn't let that happen. Wanting to remember them all the way they were. Angry, hungry, sad, chipper, and worried. Normal and strange in their own ways. Perfect beings all.

  "All right. Vampires with me? Alede... Eve will you handle that part?" Chris was there, still awake, through force of will, even though he didn't need to be. He was trying to get his homework done, writing on a tablet that he held on his lap. More correctly it was a laptop computer, and on a pillow to keep his lap from roasting. It was plugged into the wall however, and he typed away more rapidly than Zack could have managed, unless he slowed time down a lot. Touch typing, which was a magical seeming skill, now that he got to see it happening close up. Using all the fingers instead of just two like he would have probably been forced to.

  It wasn't late at all, being about five in the evening there, so it was only a bit shocking when the kid looked up from what he was doing and spoke to Zack directly.

  "I... Invited some friends over. To study? I don't know if they can all get rides, so it might not happen. That should be about six? I told them we'd be going late." His shadow didn't tell on him, but even Zack understood what was going on. What nearly had to be. He'd invited a girl over. With some other people to make it seem safe and normal, but there was, at the heart of the whole thing, a special person that he wanted to spend time with.

  Otherwise he would have simply slept, like a sane person. Though the kid's inner self didn't give all of that away. It was, in the end, just him guessing as to the reason. In a way he sort of hoped it was the case, since Chris deserved to have that kind of thing. Crushes and dates. Regular human connections to average people.

  Blinking, Zack nodded.

  "Um, sure? That could be cool. We need to make sure everyone is fed first, so there are no mistakes. I don't need an orgy breaking out in the living room. Especially an under aged one." A bloodbath of feeding wouldn't do either. The thing there was that the vampires took what they did, drinking from the living to survive, very seriously. Doing it wrong too often could have you killed by their rules. The Alede kind of figured that everyone just liked to spend time with them, and that sex was always fun.

  So one group struggled a lot harder to do the right thing, as far as that went.

  Looking up he saw Eve and Lyn enter the room from across the way. They were both wonderful, he realized. Different, and out of place there however. Good, and pleasant, but there truly was a sense of wrongness about them. Like they should be in a different world. Which was simply the case. He'd broken, or at least bent, the natural order of creation bringing them to his home. Not that reality was screaming about it yet, as far as he could tell.

  "Hey! So, I have a lot to get to tonight. You two should get home soon. I mean, you can live here, if you want, I'm not trying to get rid of you, but you need to work from there. I'm only half trying to get rid of you, you understand?" It was a tossup from their expressions as to what they were thinking, but Lyn looked relieved inside.

  Eve just shrugged.

  "Good plan. I hear that Chris has peeps coming in for the night? Late at least? I want to take him back with me, when we go. Set up a regular meet. I'd get Don too, but he skipped out on us. Education... Man..." She smiled, clearly playing about parts of things.

  Chris seemed a little uncertain, but Zack could see it.

  "If nothing else it's a whole world where you can go... And not be thought of as fourteen. You should do that. Maybe tomorrow? Right now, I need to see who's going to try and be the first vampire line walker from here. Or at least who can last the longest, proving that they're worthy of being Eve's new student." That was a big part of the whole thing, he recalled. A test to see who got to try learning to last through the days alive.

  Eve winked then, and noticed that Chris had gone back to his rapid typing. He'd pause every fifteen or twenty seconds, thinking of what to write next. It didn't take him too long to get that part done, so it was just the barest of hesitation between words, normally at the end of a sentence.

  The fact that he was in high school meant that whatever paper he was working on was going to be finished soon, Zack figured. It didn't take long to write a five page report on the civil war or whatever the topic was. Not if you could type that fast and consistently. At least he thought that was right. He'd never gone to school like that, having been in an institution for years, then kind of home schooled after that, his clear insanity being a bit too much for most to understand or tolerate back then.

  His grandparents, who had raised him after his parents had run off into a life of drugs, or as it turned out for his father, being possessed by an arch-demon, hadn't really known what to do about him. They were mages, as it turned out, but the things he'd described seeing and hearing were just too different for them to credit at the time. Really, they'd probably thought that he was a mage, by some stroke of genetics they didn't understand, who'd accidently gone mad and was just not understanding things correctly.

  That had made things kind of hard.

  Lisa was back at her own home, which she still kept even though there was a room for her at the mansion. She and Maryl, Libby's aunt, were an item now. It even seemed to be getting pre
tty serious. As in Maryl was thinking of asking Lisa to get married. Zack didn't think that had happened yet however, and wouldn't talk about it, since it wasn't his issue to deal with.

  If he was gone soon, it wouldn't even become all that complex for them, really. Lisa was, by mage law, married to him. That was a paperwork thing however, and while prudish about sex as a group, they were pretty open about what was allowable contract wise. This way he wouldn't have to marry Maryl too however. Not that it would be hellish to do that, but he was seeing, and not married to, Libby. That could get complicated. Dying would prevent that from happening nicely.

  So there was a silver lining, of sorts.

  Better, it wouldn't be really dying like that. Just sort of moving on. Unless he screwed it up somehow. If, of course, he understood what was needed at all, which, in the end, he almost certainly wouldn't be doing until it was too late. You didn't, in life, most of the time and the bigger a thing was the less understandable it would really be.

  Having spoken about feeding like he had, using his indoor voice, the front room started to fill up rapidly, with the vampires lining up in front of him, David getting there first. Looking around he sighed and smiled at Chris. It held a sort of knowing and resigned look.

  "I don't suppose I could blow you for a fill up? Otherwise I'll have to wait for half an hour while everyone else goes." There was solid teasing to it, but the human boy brushed his slightly floppy brown hair from his head, and then typed for a bit, before answering.

  "Sure, we'll just get Lyn to turn you into a girl for that. You can do that, right?" He looked at the Alede, who looked puzzled and shook her head.

  "No? I mean, in theory it's possible, but I've never done it. No one has, that I know of."

  That got the other Alede there, Val, to look puzzled.

  "They didn't teach it in school? I can show you how, if you want. We can practice on Dave here. Vampires are a little harder, but if we can get the energy for it?" She looked at their dinner, Eve, who made a face and then tilted her head from side to side.

  "Sure. Or one of us could blow him instead, which would be easier, but this sounds almost worth the effort. I don't have any other plans for the evening. Unless you want to show us how to get home? Otherwise I'm kind of stuck here."

  That was addressed to Zack, who shrugged back at her and smiled.

  "Really? You don't think you can just go home? Back here, too. I'm half surprised you didn't go back there in the first place, to be honest. On your first walking? Lyn can already do it, so she could show you, but... I mean, it's home. Just go there. It's not hard or anything. Still, if you want to do all that stuff first you should hurry, and get David changed? I can take her into the void in a bit, after Charli goes." The gender change to the name wasn't done by mistake. That was the Alede way, and they didn't have any issues with it. They were whatever sex they happened to be at the moment.

  Really, that kind of thing was probably what you had to do with any shape change, if you wanted to be good at it. Change into a wolf, or bat, and be that. Not a human with a funny shape, but the actual thing itself. It was a good idea not to forget things like that, just in case it came up. He hadn't always been a guy, or a human, himself. That had worked well enough for him.

  That, the idea that the vampires were being tossed into the void, was news to everyone, and a lot of them clearly didn't get that he was serious. Really, looking around, it seemed like no one thought that the Charli was real in the slightest. The girl was too young, to most of their minds. Except Chris, who just stood up, and started circulating energy, for David.

  The funny thing there was that his shadow clearly didn't expect a payoff for doing it. Like the whole thing was a joke. Eve and Lyn really wanted to see Dave be changed however, and offering sex was how the vampires had been paying for blood for a long time. That, money, or drugs. Chris didn't need either of those last two, so it seemed fair to the others.

  Honestly, Claire was pretty certain that David was badly cheating the boy, in order to jump the line. The rest of them were fine with it however, since it would be cool to see the form change for them too, so a fight didn't break out.

  Nikki came to him first, Claire just not needing energy that way any longer. She got it from him directly, which was part of why he had to eat so much now. He was, after a fashion, eating for two. One of them just happened to be a master vampire, so the load was kind of heavy at times that way.

  Things went quickly, and Betty went last in his grouping, which was just Rebecca, Nikki and her. She was the Secretary of State for the Nation of Line Walkers, but today was dressed down into jeans and a powder blue t-shirt. That probably meant it was her day off or something. Being the youngest vampire there, she went last, in that case.

  As soon as everyone had enough energy to last for a good long while, Val moved on David, and took his hand. It was done gently, but she clearly wasn't letting him get away, either.

  "Come this way. Lyn, Eve? You said you wanted to watch?"

  Then they all left the room, just before there was a knock at the front door. That part was handy, since it lowered the number of people that would be greeting whoever had come. They had a lot of people, and depending on the nature of the beings at the door, there could be bowing, hugging or even singing, to be done. Not that he'd ever had to do that last one himself, but it wasn't impossible, so it would pay to stay ready.

  Zack got up, answering the firm sounding knock himself, and wasn't too surprised to find that it was a group of three youngish looking high school students. Two girls, and a guy that looked like he'd be on a basketball team if the school had half a brain. He was at least six-seven, after all. Thin and lanky. He had dark skin, and was dressed casually. Clean and tidy, however, so that he could make a good impression. Next to him was a girl that was about five-six, a bit heavyset, wearing a warm sweater, a sensible jacket, and thick glasses.

  The fourth person was dressed up like a gothic vampire. All in black, with heavy black lines around her eyes, making them sink into her skull. Her hair was a soft pink, and she was so pale there was obvious makeup being used to cause it to happen. Her clothing flowed, but was all in black, and didn't look warm enough for the chill December air outside.

  Zack smiled, but didn't offer to shake hands, since kids didn't as a rule, and he wasn't Chris's dad. Thankfully. His father had been a demon possessed asshole.

  "Hi! Did you come to study with Chris?"

  The gothy girl nodded, sneering a bit at first, then stopping herself. Her shadow just looked at him and spoke gently.

  He lives here? This place is amazing. He must be loaded.

  There was a lot more that came through, about how Chris was suddenly a lot more interesting. She'd really only come because she wanted Jamal, the black guy. That, and she figured that a geek like Chris might actually be able to help her study.

  The slightly plump girl was impressed too, but was kinder about it inside. Chris was, more or less, a friend of hers. They sat at the same table at lunch, and would talk from time to time on the phone. She wasn't exactly crushing on the boy, but she was friendly that way with him.

  Jamal... Was actually there to try and get a good grade for once. Chris had been helping him the whole quarter, pushing at him to do a good job, if subtly. It was working, and that meant that if his new bud wanted him to spend a Friday not getting drunk, then he was willing to do it. Besides, he figured that Chris wanted to get lucky with one of the girls, and kind of hoped that he was going to pick Beth. The chunky one.

  Not because he wanted the other girl, but because of the two of them, she was the one that wasn't a complete bitch.

  Zack got all of this inside an instant, before Clarissa, the bitchy Goth one, if Jamal was right, could speak.

  When she did, the words were a bit snotty. That took talent, to start a conversation that way, Zack realized. Still, everyone had some skills, even if they were different than most.

  "Like, yeah. Are you his... You know, d
ad?" She didn't think he was even close to being that old, but was trying to be rude to him, just because she could get away with it. The other girl stiffened a bit, because she thought that Zack must be his brother, Ben, and Jamal looked away, annoyed.

  Zack just smiled.

  "Cousin. Come on in? He's set up in the front sitting room."

  It was a bit of a walk to get there, but not that bad of one. Once they got to the all white and cream colored space, Chris stood, looking the longest at Beth, thankfully. Just from the tiny bit of time the three had been there, she and Jamal were already the clear favorites, as far as Zack was concerned.

  Chris wasn't that gay, but if he were going to turn out that way, or wanted to experiment, he could do worse than Jamal there.

  Everyone else had moved back into the kitchen, to get out of the way. That was the vampires, but an image of Claire walked forward. It was her shadow, so no one else heard her. Chris might have, since he glanced that way, but there was no outward indication that he heard her speaking.

  We should offer refreshments.

  That did seem like the sort of thing that a real adult might do, at his own home, so Zack nodded a bit. Then he spoke out loud, knowing that the vampires would hear him.

  "I need to run out for a bit, but I think Claire will be here. Would any of you like anything to drink? Or eat? I can pick up some burgers and fries? I should be back in a few hours." Or sooner, if the vampires didn't take too long. He could warp time enough in the void that the whole thing would only take a few minutes, if he wanted. Deciding on that he watched the various new people thinking, which was different than he would have thought of.

  Jamal had five bucks on him, and was willing to part with it, but didn't know if that would even cover his part of things. He was starving, which was the norm for him, and food sounded really good about then. He didn't want to be that guy that everyone else had to pay for though.

  Beth wanted to eat, but didn't want to seem like a pig in front of the boys, or Clarissa, who would make fun of her later, if she wasn't careful.