by P. S. Power
It was really clear that the seal man, Samuel, wanted to beg off and take the win they already had, apparently, since Zack wasn't crying or carrying on about them not having a kite with them. That was undone by Brad, who grinned, his stomach being more important to him than their cover story.
"Okay. That sounds great. We can get lunch or something later? I mean if you don't run away from us first. We're all a bunch of freaks, by the way. I mean who flies kites at this time of day, in the rain?"
The others got uneasy again, but Zack smiled.
"Seriously. Then, saying it to the guy sitting outside watching the sun rise... You know, I can't really make too big of a thing of it can I? Do you know of any place that might be open? It's a bit early." That was his concern, but Brad stood still for a bit, sniffed the air, and pointed toward the center of town.
"Food, that way." He said it with certainty, but the others acted like it was something odd.
True, Zack couldn't smell anything except the beach, but that was pretty much the way that food had to be. Instead of going to the stairs, well down the beach, the boy walked straight to the wall behind them, marching quickly, since he was really in need of food after his change, and climbed up and over it easily. Too much so for how large he was. The others just did it too, since it was the kind of thing they practiced, and Samuel got ready to lend Zack some aid doing the same thing. Not that he needed it. He was thin, and not that heavy, which helped, but Zack led an active life, and while it didn't make him superhuman, strength wise, he also had a link to a vampire, which did give him an edge toward that sort of thing. He was, if not exactly a power lifter, able to hold his own with these people.
The older looking man, who was, now that he was closer, about thirty-five looking, which probably meant in his fifties for a shifter, didn't show much surprise to that. Zack had climbed, like a normal person that was in shape, but that was all. They went over last, and had to scramble, since the bird lady, and the walrus boy were both leading the way. Nearly running they were walking so fast.
Looking over at Shay and Samuel, Zack rolled his eyes. Happily though. He was hungry too, after all. Then, he was eating for two, being tied to Claire like he was.
"I hope it isn't just a candy store. This town does have those, right?" He was speaking to the man, but Freya, the oddly named bird lady turned to look at him, and bounced a bit.
"Yeah. Some really good ones too, but I need some meat. Eggs at least. I hope that we can get something not too sweet. Maybe some donuts? How much money did you bring with you? I'm not sure you understand how much we can eat. When it's free, I mean." She was actually concerned, since the others would need more food than she would, and she ate a bit like a linebacker.
"Not a problem. I eat a lot too, most days."
She nodded, not getting that he meant it. Food for ten people could add up, after all, and the four of them would need to have about that, just for them. The thing there was that they didn't have any money of note with them, since the idea had been to get away for the holidays on the cheap. They were mainly people that didn't have a lot of family to stay with, but who wanted to be with people they could open up around about who they really were.
Not that she hated Zack, who was, while a bit gullible seeming and too kind hearted, treating strangers to breakfast, seemed pretty nice. Her interest ended there however, since he was, as far as she could tell, just a regular human.
She did notice how stressed Samuel was however, but kept walking fast, too. One way or another, she needed to eat pretty fast.
Brad's nose was good, it turned out, and they ended up at a place that was just opening their doors as they got there. The man that welcomed them was a bit older looking, and had on a cream and black apron, with an old timey puffy shirt that was red and white stripes on underneath it.
"Good morning! Are you coming for coffee? Still up from last night?"
Zack grinned.
"Food, please. Lots of it? We're a competitive eating troop, and need to practice, so what do you have that we can do that with?"
The man sized them up, took it as a joke, and then treated them seriously anyway. Customers in the winter were rare, and he needed any sales he could get.
"We have some nice buttermilk pancakes? I could get you a few hundred of those?"
Zack nodded, "that sounds good. Eggs and sausage, too? Too many carbs at once is horrible for your blood sugar, and this is just practice, not a contest. Normally you just drink a lot of water to stretch your stomach, but you have to learn to handle solids too, and this is the day for it."
The man smiled, wondering how far Zack was going to take the thing, but showed them in. The place was nice inside, being well cared for, and warm. There were fake plants all over the place, and polished wood on the walls. The tables didn't have cloths on them, but were clean, which was a good sign. They were handed menus however, which they all took as they settled into place.
He ended up next to Brad, who looked at the thing in his hand.
"Um..." He didn't know what to do then, but loved the eating contest story. The real issue was that someone else was paying, and there might be a limit as to how much he should get.
Zack looked at the older man, who was the owner, but not the chef, and then smiled, shifted to the side and removed his wallet from the back of his jeans. It was made of green hemp, since leather would have been a problem for him. Pulling three one hundred dollar bills, he handed them over.
"I wasn't kidding about the order. Does anyone want anything else, too? This is training, so we'll need water as well." He tried to seem serious, which got the proprietor to suddenly do the same.
"You'll need that all at one time? That might take a bit..."
He nodded and looked at the menu.
"Understood. Can we get some cinnamon rolls to start us out?"
They could, and since the chef had gotten up early to start making those from scratch, they were still warm.
Samuel ate as well as the others, even if he were nervous about Zack still, and shook his head.
"So, you're a professional eater? I didn't even know that was a thing. I hope we can all keep up, or we'll look bad." He wasn't too afraid that they couldn't.
Brad laughed.
"I should totally do that. I'm good at eating, practically a professional already." It was a fat joke, but also true, given that he needed about ten to fifteen thousand calories after his change.
If he was anything like Libby, anyway.
Zack didn't lie, shaking his head a bit.
"Nope. I work at a candle store in a mall. Eating is mainly a hobby for me. It is a sport though. A real one. People make a living at it and everything."
That started a conversation about what they all did, which was actually mercenary work. They were all field operatives too, unlike the people he knew, who were more office types, except for Maryl. She had to go and do real training, to keep in shape and stay ready to fight. Libby wasn't forced to do that anymore, since once your people tried to kill you, there was kind of a release on any sort of obligation to them.
They explained it carefully, being a bit cagey about it all.
Samuel ate a few bits, trying to work out how to put things.
"We're... Actually private contractors. We mainly work overseas? Uh..." It was kind of true, for all of them, but they didn't look like most people doing that kind of thing. The women especially. So Sam told the truth, after a fashion. "Shay does underwater demolitions, so do me and Brad. Freya is in communications." Then, wisely, he stopped.
Most people weren't going to ask that kind of person for specifics after all. You said what you did, the other person looked a bit surprised, and then said something about it being interesting. Unless you worked at a store in a mall, and then even ordinary people just acted impressed that you had a job. They showed that by nodding once or twice.
Most of them looked young, and you didn't expect a lot from people in a certain age range. Being private militar
y contractors was sort of interesting, and had a certain cool factor even. Samuel kind of expected that part to get noticed, but Zack just ate for a bit, and let the others do the same. They all needed it. Shay, the dolphin, kept up with him, but Brad ate three of the sweet rolls to his two, and Freya only had one and a half. The others did better than that, and the food started to come on large trays by the time they were finished. They divided it all up, with Zack taking ten of the things, smothering them in butter first, along with maple syrup.
The others kept up, which would have gotten stares later in the day. The entire staff, both of them, just served them for about an hour, until other patrons started to get there. Most of the food was at the table by then, so they didn't have to stop eating, which was nice.
It wasn't until nine-thirty that they slowed down, and were interrupted by three bears and an antelope. They moved to the table, looked at the remains, and then at Samuel.
The woman that spoke, Vivian, glared a bit.
"Kind of telling, isn't it? Sloppy." Her voice was deep for a woman, but that was down to her guttural growl, rather than being manly.
Zack answered, waving at the table.
"You snooze, you lose. They know that we're a professional eating team. I guess we can get you something too, but we're timing you. Luckily you're the b-team." He had his card still, and it would clear, so wasn't worried that way.
The large woman stared at him, but then smiled, and shook her head a bit.
"Brilliant. Yeah, that sounds good. I'm Vivian. Viv Hobson? I don't think we've met." She was trying to figure out what kind of shifter he was, guessing something like a lynx, given his thin body, and quick eyes. That was similar to a snake in looks, but it was too cold out for that kind to bother being there. If they had been, then being happy and quick would have been out of the picture. So it was something else.
He was clearly smart though, to have worked out the competitive eating con like that. Vivian decided to use that one herself, in the future. The man that brought the menus didn't even blink at the others as they ordered what would have normally been too much food by far. That meant it was a good trick.
Vivian looked at the thin, but in shape enough new man, and got Brad the gunner to move so that she could sit next to him. She was a powerful woman, but bears tended to be muscular, not fat, and she filled out her casual clothing well enough. Her hair was a standard brown, but she'd showered and put on some makeup before going out, so felt confident enough to flirt a bit. The man was nice looking, but not totally outside of what she'd dated before.
"So, Zack, is it? That's a nice name. Like the line walker?"
The others, the ones from earlier, went still, not having been able to explain it all yet. He just shrugged, putting two and two together. After all, the clothing store slash shifter embassy had a bear with the same last name, who was also a bear. That was telling.
He just nodded.
"Zack Hartley. I'm on vacation though, so don't book any trips right now. We have loads of line walkers, which means breaks. So I get a whole week off. Hobson... Are you Keeber's sister by any chance? I think I heard something about you." Which he had. It was just in a different world.
She smiled, getting who he was instantly. It was part of the price of fame.
"Yep! He's talked about you. Good things. He said we should date, but that was before you got married to fifteen women. You... You're dating Libby Paterson, right? He said that she didn't really try to get you killed exactly?" It was a sudden change up, and while the new people just accepted that the line walker was there with them, paying for the food, the ones from the beach were baffled by it.
"She's a line walker now, too. The first shifter to do it. You should all try, later. Right now... Well, there are some problems in the void, so until that's done I can't recommend it. Hopefully that part will be over soon."
Vivian smiled at him, and let her muscular leg press up against his under the table. She was very warm, since most shifters were.
"Really? We have a line walker now? That's going to be big. We should hit her up for travel before everyone abuses her too much. If she's willing, I mean. Ohhh. Pancakes." She was distracted for a bit, since food was coming, and even if she hadn't shifted that day, not needing to for the month yet, her type still ate pretty well. The antelope man just got a fruit salad, which also sounded nice.
At about ten they were able to leave, and he actually didn't have to pay too much more than the three bills he'd passed over. He tipped a hundred percent however, since it was the slow season, and he might want to eat there the next day. It was a bit funny, but Brad and Vivian both followed him out, like they were all together. The others broke off, either not caring about him, or wondering if asking for an autograph was out of the question.
Vivian patted him on the back, trying to come onto him a bit. It was kind of flattering, since she honestly wasn't thinking of him as anything except her brother's friend.
"What do you have planned for the day? I wasn't going to go and see what was open here? It's the off season, but I do smell cotton candy and caramel corn." She sniffed a bit, and so did Brad.
He grinned.
"Sounds fun, we should all go. I need to go and shop, first. I'm sort of setting up the new place here. Help me carry things, and I'll be your friend." He meant it, because they were nice seeming, but they both nodded, seriously.
Brad looked around as they walked, and then pounded him on the back too.
"Good plan. So we do that, then circle back for candy?"
They did exactly that, which was oddly enough, kind of fun.
Chapter seventeen
Zack spent most of the next few days alone.
That was his choice, since the shifters had invited him to hang with them, even if half of them were a bit worried about that kind of thing. Vivian and Brad liked him pretty well however, and no one objected to him precisely. Instead it was more that they were concerned that he'd think they were sent in to spy on him, rather than just having gone there at the same time by happenstance. Given that they would have had to be in cahoots with Lisa, that wasn't likely. Plus he knew it wasn't true, since he could get that from their inner selves pretty easily.
So he went his own way, meeting up with them only occasionally, even if it was fun having others around who didn't really want anything from him. On the good side he was able to order in furnishings for the new house, and by Thursday had a nice looking place going on. It wasn't luxurious, but it had a nice feeling to it. The counters and kitchen tile really needed to be replaced, but he was going to get Lisa to hire that part done. Woodworking was a great skill to have, but he didn't. Not yet anyway.
That was why he found himself meeting Friday morning, at about three in the a.m. on the beach. Walking toward the rocks on the left hand side of the long sandy thing. There was a boulder field over that way, and it had been calling to him for a few days. When he got to them he debated going back to the house, but just stood there for a bit.
Something, he realized after a bit, was incredibly wrong there. Enough so that he actually froze, unable to find the source of the discomfort. A shiver of true and unabated fear tried to crawl up his spine, and then back down, even though there was nothing there. Not that he could see. The feeling was real however. The ocean was moon lit, so he could see, and the wind pretty nifty, if too cold to be pleasant.
That wasn't the issue. No, it was the shadow coming across the waves. At first he couldn't make the thing out, being a bit too focused on his footing, and the world around him, oddly enough. The physical reality that was.
Which meant, by the time he really focused on the arch-demon, and realized that it was his friend, Big Shadow, or at least the more youthful version of him, the thing was on top of him. Literally. The shadow, and it truly looked like one in the outer land, outside the void, was about twenty feet across and a bit blob like.
Until it settled over his physical body, and entered him.
Taking him.
It was a painful thing, since he fought, so hard that his inner self started to separate from his body. Being forced out by the invader who tried to take it. Killing him in the process. Except that it couldn't. Even trying was kind of silly, he realized.
He was, in the end, Zack. When Darla had tried to steal his will, he'd pushed her back without being more than slightly focused about the idea for him. This being wasn't having that however, and was inside of him already.
Invisible claws of energy taking him from the inside. Possessing him.
If he'd been ready for it, or in the void, things would have gone differently. It should have even then, he knew. The truth was, Zack Hartley, the ancient line walker, could have killed the being inside of him, at any time. Easily. Tearing him to shreds in an instant. Even without dying himself, he could do it. The problem there was that, if he did that, then his own past wouldn't have happened, and that, at least in theory, would mean he'd die as a child, and never learn how to keep it from happening now.
So he couldn't get that done. Or, more to the point, he could, if he did it correctly. Standing on the beach it would be hard, but once in the void the whole thing would be easy enough to manage. There he could separate the two of them out instantly, and then talk to the arch-demon for a while. Chat him up and explain that he needed to alter everything about his being. Zack knew that would go over pretty well. It had to, after all.
Instead of killing anyone, he froze in place, fighting against the force inside him, that wasn't trying to take him over at the moment, as much as get him to walk into the water and take a deep breath. Like that was going to be enough to kill him. That thought, which was true after a fashion, was honestly kind of interesting.
"That isn't happening, friend. You need to come with me now. We can talk and work this out. You can't beat me, and I won't let you die. So, what do you say? Truce?" It was agony, trying to do anything at all. The fight shouldn't have been fair. A mere human didn't stand a chance against an arch-demon, in almost any circumstance. That he'd left that state, being human, behind a while back was clear to him suddenly. He was, after a fashion, possessed, sure, but that was because of circumstances. If any other being had tried it, they would have died already.