by P. S. Power
Zack focused, using everything he had, and pulled back his panic. She hadn't meant to do it, he was pretty sure, and she was young, so mistakes could happen. So there was no need for anger, but he had to show her that he wasn't someone to be played with either. It was a rule. A real one for their kind.
She looked blank suddenly, as if she got what he was thinking, or thought so at least.
She was wrong of course, since he'd just had sex and punishing her with that kind of thing was exactly the opposite of what that was for, anyway. It was supposed to be fun. Making it less than that was sort of evil.
He glared a little though, forcing himself to do it.
"That was way too close. You owe me for that. Big. Like, huge beyond measure."
She looked down and nodded.
"I know. What do you want me to do?"
"I should make you my slave for a while, but I don't do that. Still, agreeing to not take slaves and then trying for me, even by accident, is bad, Keeley. I should be trying to kill you right now. That... If Darla was here, she'd probably order me to do it. Or at least take a literal pound of flesh. You're going to have to make this right."
He didn't know what else to say and MH didn't come out to suggest freaky relative sex or anything, so there was no help there. Finally, after a minute, he nodded, an idea forming.
"Fine. At midnight I have the Vampire Council coming in. You and your people are going to stand with me for that. It might be a trap, to kill me, or Marissa, the Vampire. If so, you back me. That isn't the end of things. This is too big for me to let it go. How did that even happen, we worded things pretty carefully, didn't we?"
She looked away.
"I'm just that strong. I think, on some level, I was probably trying to take you. You left me in Underhill, Zack. That's huge. You took another Greater Demon through the lines, instantly, and left me in a place that was so far away it took me nearly a day to return. I get that it's only been an hour or so here, but time runs differently on the lines. So, yeah. I take responsibility for what I just did. I'll make it up to you."
He nodded, locking his emotions down totally.
"Good. Well, it won't help to walk around pointing fingers. Let's go and get something to eat, which you will pay for, like an adult, and then we'll set things up with Marissa and your people."
He went to the cafe, but it was closed, so took Rebekah by the hand, very deliberately, and walked to the frozen yogurt shop. That meant Keeley had to trail behind.
In shame.
Where she belonged. After all, she'd tried, and nearly succeeded, in stealing his free will and making him her slave, forever. The only way out of that was to die, he'd been told that by Darla. Yeah, a Greater Demon might find a way to do that and still live, but it was hard and Keeley could lock a person into place strongly enough to make struggling hard, even for one of them.
What she'd done, accident or not, was about as big of an insult as one Greater Demon could give to another. It was, pretty much, her indicating that she didn't take him seriously. Worse, he'd nearly lost. If that had happened... Well, then the best he could have hoped for was a survivable death.
He didn't stomp into the shop, but Edom and Barb both looked at him like he had. That, he realized probably had to do with him holding on to Rebekah's hand like he was. It wasn't outside of the Vampire dating rules, he didn't think.
After all, Lenore was older and had a more important position than the Manthori did, so it wasn't even a question, that way. Of course, the Vampire girl knew that what they were really responding to was the fact that they'd had sex. It wasn't a big deal, except that he'd flirted with Barb for months and never done it with her. Zack was owning it too, still holding the woman's hand like he was.
When Lenore came out, she simply smiled, which was false, but not phony looking. She wouldn't care if he had sex, he didn't think. Her main reason for being with him was to gain his good will, after all. It always had been. Not that she didn't like him, in her own way. She did.
It was simply that, in her mind, in the mind of any Vampire, the old and the powerful had sex when they wanted to. If you were very powerful, you could command it, and others had to obey. That Zack had clearly taken the head of the new blood concern and was openly flouting this in front of the woman's owner meant, to her mind, that he was simply indicating his rightful place. Above Keeley.
It was very different than what he was really doing, which was, he knew, actually seeking comfort.
Because even if it had been a mistake, or a game, he'd come very close to being made a slave to a Greater Demon.
Again.
And since he hadn't known he ever had before, that idea terrified him more than even magic could hide.
Chapter six
"Barkeep, make it a double." He had to force himself to pretend he was in a bar, actually seeing it overlaid on reality for an instant to get the words out. Just to try and be slightly funny. It was too much work, suddenly, but fortunately that came after the words were already out. Edom looked at him seriously, and fixed him with his eyes, carefully.
"Hard day?"
Then, as if playing a role himself, the man "poured" him a large, plain frozen yogurt. Zack took it, gratefully, and started to eat with a red plastic spoon, not answering at all, since he really didn't know what to think at the moment.
He'd been a slave to a Greater Demon. It made sense, after a fashion, since even Xenses had admitted to him that he'd made him do some pretty horrible things. That was, without a doubt, the easiest way to get it done. Even a child of nine would have to do what they were told, in that case. No matter how much it hurt them to do it. Or how much they wanted to fight.
Really, it had to be something like that, didn't it? It always had.
The only problem with that was, simply, that there was no way to break that kind of thing, unless he'd died. That probably meant that the Greater Demon Finias, his grandfather, had killed him. Carefully, and for his own good, of course.
That part he could deal with. Even if the man had smothered him with his own hands, locking painfully over his mouth and nose as he struggled for breath, not able to do it at all, his lungs searing from the pain... Yeah, he could let that pass without comment. It had to be done. Because the rest of it was so bad that even dying was better.
He remembered it.
Not all of it, but that part, his dying, the man, Finias, looking Mexican at the time, and smelling like pears. He'd explained what had to happen and why, and had given Zack a choice.
He could stay with Xenses, or die.
Even at ten, which was the age he'd been at the time, he'd asked the man to kill him. But then he'd woken up. At home, or at least with his grandparents, who took him in instantly.
There were touches of things in his mind then, little hints and bobbles of memories that threatened to break free, even as Mirror Him screamed in his head, trying to distract him. To protect him for one final time.
It didn't work.
He stood in front of the counter of a frozen yogurt shop, a plastic spoon shoveling frosty whiteness into his face mechanically, with everything that had ever been hidden from him pounding into his consciousness, as if it had happened not a day before.
For sixteen months, he'd feasted on Humans and other creatures. All of them begged him not to eat them, since they were alive at the time. Every single one. His mother... He'd been told that he'd eaten her legs and that she'd survived it, but in that moment he could hear the screaming, the begging, as his little teeth tore into her chewy flesh. He'd been ordered to do it, naturally, but he was so hungry...
It was so good.
That was the least part of things. By the time he got to the daily rapes, he almost didn't care. That Xenses hadn't raped him was a surprise, actually. He'd kind of been told, by the Demon himself, that he had. It was just that he'd been passed around to about twenty other things to do the work. So that he wouldn't blame Xenses later, most likely. It was insightful, on his part, h
e knew.
There were things so dark and evil that he wanted them to simply not be true. The monster had fed him babies. Tiny living ones. It started with Humans, but hadn't ended there at all.
This had all taken place in a silver and purple land, which he knew was what most of his kind saw when they walked the lines. He didn't. He avoided that place, and moved from one point to another. Now he finally understood why.
It took him a few moments, but he rallied enough to get Edom to refill his large cup, and start eating again, and then, slowly, as the memories finished, he made all his emotions go away. It would take time to deal with things and a lot of them he simply wasn't really going to be able to. If he'd been a Human, he would have gone mad, right then, without stopping to consider any alternatives. Nothing anyone could say would fix the damage.
Zack wasn't Human though. He was himself. A Greater Demon, but also the Line Walker. Also a book seller and a businessman. That meant, unlike most of the people he'd ever known, he had real options as to how to deal with things. At the moment, he decided to control himself, and tried for absolute calm. It burned magic at an incredible rate, his mind struggling against what his will insisted had to be done, so he kept eating, one thing after another, even as people stared at him. Keeley touched his arm, but pulled back, even though he didn't lash out at her.
She understood.
Zack... Smiled.
It wasn't a sinister thing, but as the memories came back, he felt Mirror Him slide back into place. Into the spot he belonged, as part of himself. The survivor. The fighter that had, in his most desperate hour, separated from the whole, in order to save them from the darkest things. The stuff that existed inside. He would, Zack thought, actually miss MH.
For a long time he'd been his best friend, after all. True, a slightly abrasive and abusive friend, but someone that was always there for him. Now, they were one. It had to happen, but it was going to be a little lonely for a time. There was no void however, inside, since Mirror Him was still there, just not separate.
He looked around at Keeley, and then moved back.
"Did you want to order something?"
"Certainly, a banana fudge swirl please?" She was watching him closely, but he didn't let that bother him, the world actually popping into focus suddenly. It was, he thought, the way it would have been, if he hadn't been shattered so early in life. He could tell so many different things now.
For instance, Barb was hanging back, and afraid of him, but actually liked him at the same time. She was a little jealous that he'd slept with Rebekah, but mainly just wanted him as a friend. A real one. Not that sex was out of the picture, since he could just toss her down and do that if he wanted, but she sort of hoped it wouldn't happen that way. She'd told him all of that, he realized. More than once. Just in code, asking for dates and flowers, instead of being made to have sex.
Edom realized that something had happened, and was readying himself to die. Fighting Keeley. Possibly Rebekah. He didn't know who'd kill him, but the moment felt right for it. It showed in how he squared his shoulders, even as he made the treat for the other Demon. The girl that looked so pretty and young and was something more terrifying than even he was.
It was a strange picture, since he was muscular and black and in a fight almost no one in the world would have bet on the stick thin white girl for the win, but he knew what would happen even given that. Out of all of them, the only one that was actually relaxed was Lenore. She knew that there wasn't going to be a battle, though she wondered...
Why Zack wasn't getting his own food. She gestured at the cup.
"Taste testing? How is the base product then?"
He actually understood what she was doing, which had to do with distraction. She couldn't eat her own things, so she needed others to do that for her, which had caused an obsession with getting it perfect, over the years. It very nearly was. Tastes varied though.
"Up the fat content, or add something that will mimic that, a thickener or something? We should work on that. Really, it's good. If we can do that though, it will be really high end." He smiled as Keeley took a bite of what she had, and then shook her head, ever so slightly.
"I disagree. It's perfect right now. That would make it too cloying. You should try it with the fudge, Zack, I think that will show a difference."
He did, and she was, naturally, correct. It wasn't about the taste, or the mouth feel, but him eating. It was an excuse to have him be given things constantly, for a time. He was using a lot of magic to keep his emotions in check, but that wasn't visible from the outside. Not really. Finally, after Barb started to help, and Lenore pulled out her notebook, to take what they were suggesting down, he remembered why he was actually there.
To introduce Rebekah. Not to stand there like a freak, having a meltdown.
Carrying the treat in his hand, which was no doubt rude, he waved to the Vampire woman and the Demon girl.
"This way." He knew that Marissa was still there, since he could feel the ripples in space around her, even as she held still. When he saw her, talking softly into a small black and gold cell phone, he waved. It was a small thing, done with a spoon in his hand, but she smiled back and kept talking.
"At midnight, yes..." She paused, and he focused his attention a bit, realizing something. His hearing wasn't anywhere near Vampire level, or Bat shifter, but he could tell what the other person was saying, based on the patterns that the sound made as it disrupted the universe. It was different, but he knew that Marissa was, very gently, being told to go soak her head, since no one wanted to sell mercenaries to her at the moment, because that might just start a war with the Vampires.
It was a point and the Kobold on the phone knew that. He recognized the voice as the blacksmith, from down the way.
That meant she was off the thing not two minutes later, trying hard not to seem panicked herself.
She glanced up at him, from where she sat on the nice dark brown leather sofa, and then looked over at Lenore, and Rebekah.
"I see you need the space?" Her nose twitched ever so slightly, picking up the scent of sex, and her mind made the leap. "Or not? I fear my local options for support in this evening's gathering are limited. I don't suppose you'd be willing to stand against the Council for me, dear? If they attack?" She was talking directly to Rebekah, but Lenore moved to the front and bowed, first to Keeley, and then Marissa.
"This woman is The Mistress of Souls, the Greater Demon. Rebekah is her second." She stopped, slightly wide eyed, but relaxed when Keeley nodded.
"That's right. We, along with the Lesser Demon Balthias, have been asked to help make certain that things go smoothly this evening? I hope that will put your mind at ease in this. The Line Walker contracted us for it."
That wasn't what she was there for, exactly, since the goal was to make certain he lived, but it was close enough.
"Correct." He lied, easily and as if it were simply the truth, without trying at all. He took a few more bites of food first, but then, ten seconds later, the taste of fudge in his mouth, continued. "I'll test each one as they come in, after making certain I'm not walking into an ambush. If I am, well, then you'll need some new council members. If not, I'll bring them here, one by one. If they're going to be a threat to you, I'll handle that before we get in." Unless, of course, they had a really good reason. Then he might change his mind.
He didn't say that. Or even want to.
It was... Different. It probably meant, in some very real ways, he was a worse person now than he had been even an hour before. Part of him wanted to blame Keeley, but that wasn't true. She'd set the chain off, but that... Well, it wasn't bad, just uncomfortable for him. She probably did it on purpose. She knew enough about him to understand that trying to take him could do that. In fact, when Darla had lightly flirted with it once, to test him and see if he was one of them or not, Keeley had nearly freaked out.
Then, at the time, he didn't have any way to cope with things, except Mirror Him, and takin
g that away would have broken him for a long time. He couldn't afford six months of gibbering right then either, since too many things wanted him dead.
So now, after he had some small ability to handle things, she'd done it herself? It made sense. Of course, waiting six years would have too. She was probably trying to turn him against Xenses, since Darla would have told her how he'd made an agreement with the Demon to try and act like a family. The caveat there had been that, if he couldn't handle his memories, when he regained them, that things might well change.
Having a record of his entire history in her head, she'd figured that he'd lash out about now, and demand Xenses dead, no doubt. Really, knowing what had happened, how much he'd been hurt, and how he'd asked to die, at the end, he sort of felt like doing that.
It would be stupid though. Moronic, on an unforgivable level. Getting involved in Keeley and Darla's battle wasn't a long term survival scenario for him at all. At the moment he had something in place that, while it didn't protect him, did give him some time to think and plan. In order to live long enough to really have a chance it was just possible that he might well need to make peace with his father. The real one.
The other two parents, well, his grandmother had gotten that much right. They'd sold him. To a Demon. Oh, it had been a trick to take them as slaves in the end, but they'd done it. They'd also paid for it, over and over again. Right now, if he'd heard correctly, they'd been taken by the Greater Demon Goethe. Hopefully they were well, because he wasn't running off to fight some unknown power for them.
Then, eating the last spoon of chocolate from the bottom of his container, he swallowed and gave a single nod.
"Keeley, The Mistress of Souls, and her people will hold a position here. We can frame things up nicely, with Balthias behind you. It will look good. Of course, if anyone comes, they'll be friendlies, so try and make sure he isn't spewing fear all over the place, please?" He smiled, the trickle of magic still being needed constantly, to keep him from acting crazed. The memories were still all there, but he was a tiny bit displeased with his Aunt for having dumped this on him like she had. It might be a good plan from her perspective, but it was less of one from his.