by P. S. Power
Time travel, no doubt. In the void it was possible, but at that moment he couldn't go in and check that part of things out. Not if he didn't want to be attacked, which was a thing he kind of needed to avoid for the time being.
Big Shadow wasn't fully trained, or reasonable, yet, but there was enough power there to eventually kill him, if he got enough chances. Especially if Zack wasn't willing to do that to the being first, in his own right. Kill or be killed came out all wrong if you kind of loved the other person.
The options shrank down a lot, until avoiding that kind of situation was all you could do.
So, he decided to ignore everything, and pretend it would all be fine in the end. That could happen, after all.
He waved at the others then.
"Right, Kaitlyn, Jen, you two are taking over the candle shop for a week. Chris will help you with that, when he isn't over in the other reality, with his girlfriend, other Kate." He was kidding a bit, but Chris nodded and Kate had to hide a snicker, which she covered with a hand.
Don turned red.
"That is so not cool. I know I can't stop you, but... You're still just a kid, Chris." It seemed like a fight was about to blow up, when Chris just shook his head.
"I haven't been a child for longer than you've been alive, Don. Including the hundreds of years you spent between. You know that. I know that part of you wants to hold me in place like that, but it isn't the truth. You can let me go now. Honest." There was a gentleness to the words, but it was kind of clear from the way Don was holding himself that the conversation wasn't going to be over.
"Don, can you work out of Lesser Shia with Troy? He needs some time off to work at Frozen YoGurt." Then he dropped the bombshell, and waited for the explosion. "I... Am planning to get away for a bit. A few days. Rent a cabin in the mountains or a bungalow at the beach. Before you ask, no, none of you can come."
After all, half the point of leaving was so they wouldn't all be there with him. He needed a change to actually think, and possibly just unwind for a day or two.
Kate grinned at him.
"We'll live. Are you leaving today or... When?"
"In a few, most likely. I don't even have a real destination picked out yet, much less anything rented or reserved. I know, I could go anywhere, but I just need someplace to sleep for a bit and hang out during the day. Not that I sleep." Which was a point. He might want to go someplace entertaining. With shows and stuff. The problem there was that things like that always held too much information to be interesting or fun. The actors and singers always told him all about the production, which ruined the whole thing for him, since they tended to be kind of emotional people, as a rule.
Even videogames held layers of information about the designers and creators. How people missed seeing it he didn't know. It was right there, all the time, in every single message the darned things put out.
Rather than point out all the flaws in his master plan to escape, the younger people all just started dividing work up. Don would do Lesser Shia, and Something Wonderful, while the other three would take over at the candle shop for him and Lisa. It took mentioning that portion of things, and also meant that Maryl was going to have to have someone covering for her over at Bat Street, but that wasn't his part to control.
Technically he owned the mail order concern, at least part of it, which basically sent out packages to anyone in exile, or who needed to have their food, clothing or other things delivered. Thankfully it worked without him, or any of the line walkers, most days, and operated at a loss. It had been set up to help out Libby and Maryl's family, for the most part, which had smoothed out a lot now. For a long time it had been hard for them, for any Bat shifter, to hold a job or buy anything, even if they had the funds for it. They couldn't fix all the troubles of the world, but making sure people could get groceries and some other things had seemed fair to him.
They went back to the mansion first, then the others all went off to take over their new posts. Not that he wouldn't have let them take a day or two to have a vacation of their own. None of them even asked about it. Zack would have.
Except, of course that he really would have just gotten to work, like everyone else was. Still, if he were going to be gone, he needed a place to go, and to let all the ladies in his life know about it before he simply vanished. After all, doing that would be rude.
Tempting, too.
He could, at any time, simply walk away now. The world didn't need him any longer, having lots of other people that could do the same thing. Not that he was dead weight, but things would go on without him. It was comforting, really. The world neither started, nor ended, because of him.
It never had, but even the little things were handled now.
His first trip was to see Claire, who, dead or not, was his favorite wife. In fact, he was a bit worried that she might feel hurt, if he left without her like he planned. Merry would actually be fine, as long as she could get to work in time each day. Elth marriages held certain requirements of both the men and women, but since she was cared for, and had all the materials she needed to survive, Merry would feel fine about him going off for a while, or even having a second household.
Hilda, Rose, Yasmine... None of them would care that much about him walking off for a while. Seriously, two of the three could probably find him anywhere he went, and Yasmine, a Djin, wasn't human at all. Most days she didn't come around, just like he didn't seek her out.
Lisa had plans too, at least inside her secret thoughts, and Val had been remarkably distant of late. That was due to the fact that she was taken care of rather nicely, and had been for a while. Blinking he realized that probably meant that Chris had been passing energy to her, and the others. Given his biological age that probably meant the poor guy had been walking around hard almost constantly for weeks now. It sounded fine, especially if you had all those Alede there willing to trade for the energy they got, but he'd been at school during the day which had to be horrible.
Being around all those cute girls and being able to do nothing about it. Though, since the police hadn't been called and Chris hadn't seemed distressed all the time, he might have managed to figure out how to control things that way. It was possible to do, Zack knew. He'd done it. The body could be made to behave, if you had enough will power.
Since the whole thing had to do with magic, it was also possible that it just affected the younger man differently than it did him or Don.
Still he went to find Claire by going to the yogurt shop directly, using the node in the back. It was late enough in the day by the time he did it that, while his vampire was still there, a small, slightly dark skinned, girl was behind the counter, working away.
She looked familiar, since it was David, or at least the girl that he'd been turned into. Zack realized that he could turn her back, if she wanted to do it. Though he didn't mention that, trying to recall the name that they'd given her. The vampire girl was cute, but not drop dead gorgeous. The big difference now was that she was dressed up in jeans and a tight shirt, which showed off her better than average body well enough, even under the apron she had on.
"Hey, Denise. I just came to chat with Claire." It was the kind of thing that you said, though the girl, who was clearly a man inside, just nodded, and kept cleaning happily.
"In her office? I could make something for you, if you want? We have a bunch of bananas that need to be used. They're good right now, but tomorrow we'll have to toss them anyway." Then she started working, efficiently enough that Zack understood he was going to be eating soon, like it or not. He was hungry, so that was probably a good idea.
Claire came out, looking up at him, wearing a light blue dress that he'd seen before, several times now. It really looked like it would have been about right in the late eighteen hundreds. The whole thing was faded with time, but she, too, had an apron on over it.
"Zack! Is everything going well?" That was her personal code for asking if there was an emergency.
"Yep! I'm planning
to go on vacation for a week and leave the rest of you hard working people here to carry on without me. I just didn't want you to think I don't love you, so, you know, I'm actually telling everyone about it first."
Inside her beast rose a bit, and made a face that wasn't all that unpleasant. There were fangs involved and all red eyes, but she still basically looked like herself, which was cute and even kind of sexy.
I can't be gone now. The conference.
Zack didn't know what that one was about, but nodded at her.
"I was just thinking that I'd head to the beach, or something like that? Alone, if that doesn't seem to mean? Everyone else is busy, and Lisa wants to get away with Maryl if that can be set up. Say, Denise, you don't want to see about filling in at Bat Street for a few days, do you?" It was possible that he'd be needed there, but Claire smiled, seeming to mean it.
"That could be advantageous. I'll have Eugene work here for a few nights, while you do that? Courting the disaffected members of the shifter clans can't hurt, and you don't have the old taboos." She glance at Zack and made a disgusted face. "Some of the older vampires can't touch shifted beings. It's psychological, but so deeply ingrained that they really can't manage it. That has, as you might imagine, stopped more than a few wars over the centuries. The younger people, like myself, seem less inclined to hold to that way of believing. For us, now, it means that Denise here could infiltrate that location well enough. Very good idea."
Zack nearly mentioned that she was being silly about the whole thing, Since Zack owned Bat Street, but then stopped. After all, if Denise here could work in over there, without his help, that was probably good training. Since Zack could, he figured, get her to look like anyone he wanted, one way or the other, it made sense for them to get her some practice. Spies were possibly useful.
He let his head run from side to side.
"That... Isn't really too bad of a plan. Um... We can get you a different shape though. A new name, too. The new personality will be up to you, but live it, right?" This last bit he whispered, and Claire gave him a puzzled look. She had to get the idea however. If the bats hadn't noticed their plan yet, they would soon. After all, they had really good hearing, as a group.
That got the smallish to normal sized woman to head toward the back with him. She was kind of dark skinned, but still clearly a vampire. That was a subtle thing, because part of her was a lot more human than that, but hit around all the edges. Pulling her into the node quickly, Zack got to work.
The real change wouldn't take place until he got her back through the node point, naturally. What was needed however was care and finding the right memory of how people he'd been in the void with were shaped on all levels. Then changes would be needed. Particular ones, that had to be done perfectly, if David was going to survive the process. It was, after all, taking an old thing, adding creativity, and coming out with something new.
So slowing time down to a standstill, or as close as he could get to the single point of focus without ceasing to exist, he formed a plan.
All the while seeing his old friend, Big Shadow, moving toward him, projecting pure rage and hatred. On the good side, it took years for him to notice that Zack was there, and the movement toward him was so slow that fear wasn't needed on his part. He took his time, and made certain that he did the work correctly. There was no room for error.
So he didn't make any, even as the first edge of an attack came toward them. Nothing touched them however, since Zack chose not to let that happen.
Stepping out of the line, he tugged the new girl along with him. Claire saw, and understood, the whole thing and got it, a lot faster than Zack would have thought she might.
After all, Denise had gone from being a vampire, to being a shifter. Specifically a bat shifter. It wasn't just the external picture either. Yes, she had a flat nose, pale skin and freckles like they all did. She didn't need glasses, since about half of them didn't, and her hair was a deep brown, instead of rust red. It was naturally short however, which was a trait they all shared. All the bats were like that. Also tiny, and light. This new girl was smaller than any of the others he knew, by several inches, and lighter by about twenty pounds.
The thing was, inside of the new woman, there wasn't a beast at all, but a bat. A real one. At least it seemed that way. She was a lot smaller, and thinner than Denise had been, since you had to be small in order to change and fly. At least for that kind of shifter. Which she could do, once she learned how. Change into a bat, and take to the air.
His girlfriend's eyes going wide, Zack smiled. He held a single finger up to his mouth, making certain they knew not to react or comment about what was taking place. If this new person was going to try and infiltrate, they needed to give her a real shot.
Then he pointed to the door, since saying anything would give it all away far too easily.
Chapter fourteen
It was remarkably hard, and easy, to get away for a bit now that there was more than one person that could walk through the void. No one was upset over the idea of him taking a bit of time away, even if it meant leaving them behind personally. Of all of them, only Chris, oddly enough, seemed sad that he was going really. Even then, it was clear that jealousy was behind that one.
A minor, tiny, and not very green feeling that had to do with how few times he'd gotten to go away himself, and the fact that looking like he did, being so young, he really couldn't. The guy was thousands of years old, or, more to the point about a thousand, but he looked fourteen. Worse, he lived in a world where he was fourteen. Meaning he didn't have his own bank accounts in the real world. There was no credit card in his name, or anything like that.
The funny thing there was that Zack could see the flaw in it. Chris, young looking or not, could change that. Even if he didn't figure out how to do it himself, in the void, which could take a while, the boy could walk into Lesser Shia and hire the work done at any time. Full face and body alterations were common there, and not that expensive, from what Zack had heard.
Even better, he could move there, or to a lot of different places, where his apparent youthfulness wouldn't be looked at twice. For instance, he could go to where Eve lived, and hang out there with very few problems. A couple maybe, since he did look like a human kid, but there, since vampires and other groups were out to the public, he could explain it all. It would be more effort than in some areas, but it could work, and be almost like home. Possibly with a few women to go along with him, if he wanted.
After a few minutes of moping around, Chris shook his head.
"I know, I have it so hard. Poor one-percent-first-world-problem me, don't you think?" His shadow shifted, turning to look at Zack, still clearly feeling the press of the other man's freedom, not getting that he had the same kind of thing himself if he wanted it.
Zack tilted his head and honestly considered not mentioning anything. It was one of those things where telling Chris that he had a lot of options might well backfire on them all. He could walk away and work almost anywhere in reality. Really, he could go to a lot of places and not even do anything in a lot of them.
Then he shook his head slowly, since not mentioning something that obvious wouldn't stop it from coming together in the boy's head.
"You could do it. Go on vacation. In a lot of different worlds. Everyone is laughing at me here for not doing that. I bet Eve could hook you up over in her world and no one would think twice about it. Well, maybe a little, but there's a lot that can be done. There must be... Well, an infinite number of realities we haven't even thought of so far, much less gone to. Everything exists, in theory. I've been avoiding the concept, since it means a lot of bad things as well as good, but if you were careful..." He was rambling, or so it seemed to him, but Chris took a deep breath and then laughed. It was a bit weak sounding.
Like he was really thinking about first world problems now. Also how little even those kinds of thing had to impact him, if he chose otherwise.
Instead of standing there and ch
atting about possible options, Chris sighed and shook his head. His neck was thin, and his lank brown hair needed to be cut. After all, he wasn't just a high school kid, but also a head of state, more or less.
"Good points. I'll be fine. I'm not doing anything until summer anyway. I do want to get away then, though. Maybe I'll get a place in the mountains somewhere? In the Trollienkeine lands, maybe? I can get Hilda to teach me the language before then."
The idea was a good one, so he nodded.
"That, Elth, and whatever they speak at Lesser Shia. Being reliant on translators isn't the best way to do business. You can set up lessons for that? After I get back, so I can do it too, now that I have all this free time opening up. That part is so strange. I've kind of been working for..." He thought about it, and had to shake his head. "I don't even know. A lot longer than it seems out here, in solid land."
Explaining that was the next thing he had planned, but Chris got it. It wasn't the void, being filled with all that solid matter. The entire place was rough, and filled with... Stuff. All over the freaking place.
Chris waved, and walked off, calling back as he left the front room where Zack sat on a sofa, alone.
"I'll get that together. Maybe a few other languages? We should be able to figure out how to learn them faster than most."
Then he was gone, and the room went silent. Not really, of course. Zack knew the difference, in a way that almost no one ever did. There was the sound of the clock across the room, and the electricity in the wires of the place. His own body, even as he didn't move, gave off a low hum, a pounding from his heart as it beat. The air slowly going through his lungs, nose and throat. It was a cacophony, compared to real silence.
Even Claire flowing into the space changed things by so much that it stung his mind a little bit, now that he was noticing it again. It took focus to kick himself out of it, partially. Her shadow came in first, by about ten feet, and noticed him sitting there.
The sense of greeting was strong. Also that his vampire was looking for him.