Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  The idea of what was really happening there clicked into his head. They weren't on the same line. He wasn't this other man, or vice-versa, even if they were very similar. If they were the same being, then the instant he moved into a universe with himself on it, if it was close enough, they would end up merging. Possibly even collapsing the two nearly identical universes into one.

  How he knew that he didn't understand. It felt right. Zack was certain of it, and also knew that it probably didn't matter. The point was, for the time being, that he couldn't get too close to a real copy of himself. The ones that were very different shouldn't be a problem however.

  So waving a bit, he started to walk off, Lyn and Chris following. The boy was eating as he walked, and commented on the food, a gob of green frozen treat and translucent orange on a long red plastic spoon.

  He pointed at the cup after taking a thick seeming bite of the stuff.

  "You know, this should be horrible. It isn't. It really works. I didn't even know I liked marmalade. Then, I've never had it before, so fair enough."

  Zack nodded, and Lyn smiled, touching the boy on the back.

  "Yeah, a greater demon came up with it. The combination, not marmalade. I don't think so at any rate. Zack should be in this time of night. Most of the transfers from here happen about then. Really, it's a lot less busy, since, you know, he's a demon and people are kind of afraid of him." She glanced at Chris, as if expecting him to be scared too, for some reason.

  He just ate some more, his shadow showing that he was mulling the idea over.

  "So, people are good with Alede here? I mean, they know what you are?"

  The very attractive fake nerd pushed her glasses up, and nodded.

  "Yeah. It's kind of handy really. We were afraid, almost forever, that if humans knew about us they'd try to kill us all. Really, only a tiny percentage of them even hate us for being what we are. It's a lot different than I would have imagined, six years ago. Why?"

  "Um, well, we can have human and Alede line walkers here then, and that should help things pick up. Then we get your Zack to go, and like do Lesser Shia, where they won't care about that very much? It might not be needed, but..."

  The girl walked with her arm around the boy. Zack didn't really get it at first, until they got into the bookstore down the way. Seeing it there, with a big sign that said "Hartley and Co." threw him off again. It just wasn't Something Wonderful.

  Not that it wasn't still good.

  Inside the space other Zack was there, stocking books onto the shelf quickly, a single half filled cart by his side. When he turned he saw his Kait, and moved in to give her a hug, his hand brushing Chris as he did it. Taking in their information, one after the other.

  His shadow self was almost identical to his outer one, so the man himself simply spoke to all of them.

  "I took copies of your information. I think you have a great idea there, Chris. Can I use that? More to the point, would you like to work out of here? I think Kait is claiming you first, but this one isn't your brother's girlfriend, so... If I were you, I'd hit that as often as I could. Eve too, if she's game. If nothing else you two can be pals."

  Chris nodded, took a bite of the treat, then handed the cup off to demon Zack.

  "Great plan, you have a room we can use?" He was teasing, but Kait just took him by the hand and moved him toward the back of the store. It could have been funny, but it really wasn't.

  The other him gestured with his head, toward the node room on the other side, away from the front counter. Through the owl door.

  Once they were inside he spoke softly.

  "We have things to discus. Come this way?" He gestured to the node, and moved, unlocking the thing with an ease that surprised Zack a little.

  After all, he'd kind of figured that doing that sort of thing would be identical for both of them, but it truly wasn't.

  Chapter nine

  It was strange, but the demon moved through the void without seeming to notice he was there. The place he went though was even stranger. They ended up walking out to a spot almost outside of reality. All of it. There was a tree behind them and a grass covered hill. The leaves were strange, having a weird split structure to them. Almost like fronds, more than anything else.

  They drooped, and were a lot more yellow and purple than he was used to seeing where he came from.

  In front of them, where the slightly Japanese version of him watched, was a smear of colors. It was almost all of reality, Zack knew. A tiny portion of it. Folding inside the thing were almost an infinite number more of them.

  Demon Zack shook his head.

  "Well, things look to be changing, don't they? Two new greater demons showing up like this will be a problem with the others. We can, maybe, hide Kaitlyn, being an Alede, but Eve... People are going to figure it out. She's too powerful now. On the good side, she's powerful enough that people might not want to bother screwing with her. You seem to have a plan?" It was a question, but Zack had noticed that the other man hadn't tried to touch him again.

  That meant he had to use his words, like a normal person.

  "I'm probably going to be going away soon. Into the void. I..." He stopped, not knowing how to explain it all. Putting out his hand, for the other man to touch, he smiled. "It's been a while since we last spoke."

  Demon Zack touched him and winced, but held on. His entire life tried to seep out into the other fellow, but only part of it did.

  The guy shook his head and sighed.

  "Wow. That's what, seventeen thousand years? I feel like a slacker now. So, you have to go and live forever in an empty place, alone. Just to keep the universe steady, so that the rest of us can, eventually, live in our own reality, alone... That sounds a lot less than entertaining. Also like there's a lot of room in what you're thinking for it to be different than that? If it were me, I'd try for one of those other options."

  There was a point in that. Smiling, Zack didn't argue it.

  "I can't think that far ahead. Really, I've lived in the void long enough to not fear eternity alone. Stopping horrors that can't be imagined, from destroying everything for everyone, seems more important. I know, short run thinking, but... Hey, we have billions of years or more before the end comes." It was how he felt, and the other guy didn't bother to speak about the end.

  It was too much for one person to handle. Maybe too much for all of them to understand.

  Zack, the other one, looked at him and smiled. It was both familiar and different at the same time.

  "I hear you. Procrastination is key to getting by, sometimes. So, we can get together and work out who works were, when? I'll take your friend Chris's advice, and see about pulling some shifts at Lesser Shia. We just opened that up last week."

  Then, opening a hole in space a lot more easily than Zack would have managed, a node, not a shortcut, the man walked into the void again. He followed instantly, since it was easier that way, and moved back to Westfield mall with him. Into the bookstore. The node space there with the really great floors.

  Then they went to the cafe, since Chris and Kaitlyn weren't done. The demon smiled and waved at the side room they'd gone into, to indicate the topic.

  "Go figure. The kid has a lot of personal control, and doesn't want to end too fast. What is up with his brother anyway? I get the whole rape thing, but stopping his little brother from getting any kind of contact past a hug seems a bit harsh, doesn't it? We've both had to deal with things, and Don there only has one event. You should work with him on integrating and mastering that, so it won't keep hurting him like it is. You know how, more or less."

  The cafe, which was on the left, at the far back of the place, was decently sized, and being run by a square shaped, curly haired woman that seemed different than anyone Zack had seen before. He didn't ask what she was, because a steady stream of food came out at them, with a combination of savory and sweet things. The woman seemed frightened, which got the other Zack to wave at her a tiny bit. Barely moving, actu
ally. Just enough to catch her attention.

  "Palma, this is Zack Hartley. Call him Mr. Hartley. He's the human line walker. The real one. Not that we can expect anyone else to buy that, other than the demons. He's from a different place. He might be through here, from time to time, so please make sure he gets something to eat when he does? He needs to eat more."

  Zack looked at him, and gave the woman a nod.

  "I do?"

  "Oh, yeah. Especially if you aren't going to get to anymore soon. The memories will need to last. You need to test that thing with your Lenore, too. Claire. I don't know her, but getting her killed if she doesn't need to die over it seems like something to avoid for you."

  It was true, so he nodded, knowing it would have to be done soon. It seemed like she would be all right, but it didn't take a genius to understand that things might not work normally if he never came back to physical reality. If that was how things had to work out. He wasn't certain that was the case, but at the moment he didn't understand how the whole thing was supposed to work anyway.

  It would either work out, or not.

  They ate, with the demon version of him doing a lot more of that than he was. It was like watching an eating champion put food away, except that those guys generally reached a point where they were full, and had to slow down. The guy next to him just kept going, ending up at about the time that Kait and Chris came from the sex room.

  Chris didn't look embarrassed by it, locking that part down rather well. The succubus just looked pleased.

  Standing up, Zack checked to see if Troy and Barb were back yet. They weren't, but that wasn't a big issue for them. Troy could get home on his own, and having Zack sit by the node, wringing his hands nervously wouldn't help anyone in the slightest.

  "All right, we can all find the place now, or will be able to soon. Can you swing by in a few days? We should keep things open that way." Not that Chris wasn't going to want to volunteer to come back. The place was going to be fun for him.

  That was pretty obvious.

  It took a minute to come get everyone moving, and he got Chris to head back to the vampire node, so they could let Eve know they were heading back now. Nikki was there, cleaning the place, which was a job that she knew pretty well already. She could even work the shop, the two places being so similar.

  Zack smiled, and clapped once.

  "All right! We need to be heading back. You have what you need here? I can bring gold, or... Mop the floor?"

  Eve laughed, and shook her head.

  "We're good. This will take a few weeks. Then I can get Nikki back to you. Easy as pie."

  "Sounds good then. Bye! Talk to you soon!"

  He headed to the back, but Chris didn't, saying something to Eve first. Zack went straight back to his own mall, far away. The boy could find his own way back. It felt cold and hard to him, but people were going to have to stand on their own. No matter what happened, no matter how things turned out, that was the truth.

  Still, being himself, Zack waited in the back of the basket shop for Chris to show up. Troy did it first, walking out of the node, looking smug.

  "Yeah, that's right, who's the best trainer of line walkers? Me. That's who."

  Zack smiled, "Great! So Barb will be around, too?"

  "Yup. She's pretty cool. I mean, no Hilda, but as a vampire she can actually have a real relationship." There was a bit of humor to the words, but his friend didn't go into everything he wanted to.

  Like how he'd been getting really close to Merry for a while now. It wasn't really a bad thing. It was in the end, good to love others. In a way he kind of envied Troy that. Zack liked people, and felt a lot of empathy for them, but there was something that was lacking inside him now. Probably because he was just so very old. Ancient, really.

  They didn't talk about it. It wasn't the right time for things like that. No, Zack needed to let his friend get back home and to...

  That part hit him suddenly. Honestly, there was nothing at all that he needed to do for whole hours now. He wasn't due in to work until nine the next day, and it was only a little past two. Smiling he waved, doing it silently, and went home. The long way. Just walking in the dark and enjoying being alone for a while. Zack didn't want to be ungrateful, but his life was filled to the brim now, that way. Most of the time he wasn't in the void, he was bombarded by people that wanted things from him. Money, travel to different locations, or simply his time.

  True, a lot of people had that kind of thing going on in life, but it was starting, rather suddenly, to wear on him. It was, almost, like he felt ready to let go of it all, and simply become something else.

  Big Shadow. Maybe.

  A being that didn't even have a name. That was weird, since Big Shadow had saved him as a child, and been there with him for a very long time. He could feel it now, thinking back. The giant in the void was strange, and different, but there was a thread that rang through it's being, behind the great age and wisdom. It was him. Not perfectly so, but he was involved there, and it was clear to him now.

  The night air was cold, not just cool, and he'd forgotten to bring a jacket. It was so seldom that he just hung outside anymore that it hadn't even occurred to him. Crossing his thin arms over his chest, he tilted his head and started to walk a bit faster. There was a shortcut ahead, which he could feel, even if it was out of the range of his physical sight. It would take him to... Iceland, of all places. He'd never been there before, but it felt right. It also sounded really cold.

  So he stopped and headed back toward the mall, nearly an hour later. It ate up time, if nothing else. No one was out and about, not that he was worried about muggers now. He knew how to fight, and could pull out some tricks that even a gunman wouldn't be ready for. True, that might not help him against a mage, or vampire, but it also might.

  It was four by the time he got to the mall again, and he had to borrow the node in the back of Frozen YoGurt, since Something Wonderful was closed and while he had keys for it, they were back in his room. It wasn't hard, but he had to go to the back of the basket shop, then take the shortcut from there over to his house. That took about a minute, but felt like a lot of work, after his long walk. He wasn't tired. It was different than that.

  Confused, came to mind.

  The biggest problem there was that he didn't know what he was feeling that over. Yes, he'd gotten the explanations from Riley, but it didn't feel right. What demon Zack had mentioned was in there too, now.

  There was doubt that he was going away, or had to, forever.

  That was, he knew, a really long time. He was weird already, but his mind had been tempered by having others around. Even Big Shadow had contact with others. What would happen to Joe Smith, after fifty million years floating as a point of consciousness in a vast pool of nothing was beyond what Zack could dream up.

  He only knew what much shorter things than that were like.

  The thing to do, would, of course, involve talking to Big Shadow. The first thing he needed to check was simply the idea that he was both the gate and the gate keeper. He'd come to that conclusion, based on what Merry's inner self had said to him, but that didn't make it true. Even though he didn't think that Merry wanted to lie to him, he knew for a fact that she might. Even her shadow self was different than a human's. She was far more aware of it, for one thing. All Elth were. So she could have been fooling him that way.

  Maybe even for his own good, or to get him to be a little more proactive in the moment, to prevent all that from happening. It was also possible that he'd been right the whole time, but giving up wasn't his way. You didn't survive in the void like he had, and come back, if you wanted to just let things happen to you, or give up.

  That in mind, he moved to the living room, trying not to mull over things too much. This was the place they all hung out, not where guests were brought. This was the real heart of the house. The furniture was soft and brown, so that little spills wouldn't show too much. It was tiny, compared to the rest of the place, twe
nty by forty, or so close that Zack couldn't tell any different. The only people there at the moment were Hilda, Merry and Claire. His vampire was knitting what seemed like a complicated sweater. It was in a silver that was tinged with gray, and had an interesting pattern to it. Raised bits, that caused lines down the flat surfaces. There were no arms on it yet, so it might have been a vest, but if so, they'd have to work to bring the things back into style.

  If they ever were, which Zack couldn't say for certain.

  Merry and Hilda were playing a videogame, each one hunting others on a split screen. They were playing on the same side, and had headsets on, calling out helpful tips to the other players.

  Hilda laughed, fighting the whole time, shooting people that weren't there. One of them went down suddenly, under a hail of bullets.

  "No, it is not I, Hilda, who is the newb. I think that you, instead, need to be taken back to schooling!"

  The shadow of the man that had spoken was laughing, and didn't seem all that worked up. He was in front of Hilda, though she couldn't see that part of things.

  You don't play like a girl.

  There was an affable sense about the other player, though if the shadow was accurate and they weren't always, since they showed what a person thought they were, not what they actually looked like, the man was both young and kind of fat.

  Zack ignored him, since he was trading barbs with Hilda, while his fellows were dying at the barrel point of Merry. The match went on for about ten minutes, with more trash talk happening in a concentrated time frame than he'd ever heard in his entire life. There were fewer death threats however, and less talk of rape than he would have expected.

  After she set the controller down Merry hopped from the floor to her feet, her little dress flying up a bit.

  "Husband! I did not see you there. Do you require food, or drink?"