by P. S. Power
Zack nodded, "I figured it was something like that. A loophole in the exact words we used. So, Keeley and Darla are expecting you to show up on the fifteenth, in Johannesburg. Where exactly, they didn't say. It's a trick of course, but as far as I can tell, they aren't particularly tracking me. That could be wrong, so, consider yourself warned?"
That got him slapped on the shoulder in a way that was a bit too friendly, considering everything in the past.
"Thanks. I'll make it worth their while. Or, at least give them a chance to set that up. Now, I'd like to leave Ann here with you? She gets along with most of your friends all right, and mentioned that you two are dating? That's pretty fast work, but what else should the world expect from my son?"
Stocky looked at him and smiled hugely.
Zack just nodded back, getting the woman to seem happy enough.
"After a fashion, I suppose. Mainly friends. Still, you can't stay like this." He meant the current face, which had her simply... Shift. The body wasn't that different, but her features altered enough that she wasn't the same girl, after about a minute. Then she turned a nice and even tan.
"Better? I have to say, you're kind of picky, aren't you? Can't be a little girl, can't be the one stalking your friend. I suppose you'll insist that I stay female too? Tsk." She was teasing, at least.
Zack nodded.
"Yep. For now, anyway. Say, were you Rebekah in that little play, the other day?" He didn't know that at all, but she nodded, cuddling closer to him.
Next to him Xenses seemed to be ignoring them, or perhaps listening to something that Zack just couldn't hear. Then he waved lightly.
"I'm out then. Another attack in L.A. Oh, hey, here..." There was a touch on his hand and a thread sprang out at him, with a lot more force than was needed for him to pick up on it. It nearly slapped into his mind, rather than just being presented.
It had the faces and names of the people involved in the plotting and the attacks. All of them, which was nearly forty people.
Then, without waiting at all, the crazy and no doubt evil, Greater Demon Xenses, vanished. It was slow, and almost ponderously done, but he managed to get onto the lines and leave, without anyone doing more than blinking once.
Ann held his hand, and then kissed him gently on the cheek.
"We should get married, don't you think? We can't have kids, but we could adopt? Or, I know, I can raise one from the dead? That will be fine, I think. Or would you like to get a dog instead? This is so much fun." She didn't try to drag him off at least.
Sighing, Zack looked over at Lenore, who saw him, but didn't seem too put out by the new girl on his arm.
"I have a girlfriend. Over there? We're friends, that was what we agreed to, right?"
She nodded, her face decently cute, if still a little round. Like a real girl, instead of a computer generated model, like Keeley.
"Indeed it was. Still, you like me, and I know your rules now, so it seems right. You can bring your other women and men too. I like Troy. We can take him to bed with us tonight?"
Zack didn't say no, since Ann was clearly insane, or trying to make him think she was, but was also being annoying, not evil. He didn't want to push her too hard that way, so ignored her.
"We should go in, I need to get in touch with some people, since I have some people to kill, it seems. After I check things out, I mean. I don't just go around doing things like that. Killing. There's a good reason for it." His voice was light and lightly airy, but not that playful.
He meant it, but didn't want the crowd to think he was a terrorist.
The Demoness cuddled his arm a bit more, rubbing her chest against him, and chuckled.
"Well, so much for me making you think I was really going to insist on instant wedding bells. What's the project? More to the point, can you kill them in a way that will allow me to resurrect them, so we can do it all over again? That's always more fun. For me. Not so much for them, but hey, if they wanted a vote in the matter, they shouldn't tick off people like us."
He looked at her, feeling a little blank at first, but letting a small smile come to his lips after a while.
"You know, I think we can probably manage that. I need to get a team together, but I doubt anyone will insist that we treat these particular people all that nicely. Not even Gregor. These are Christians, but not the good kind."
"There's a good kind? You mean dead, right?" She wrinkled her nose then, since it was clear that not all Demons were big fans of the religions.
"Not yet. You know those jerks that go to people's funerals and hold signs saying 'God hates Fags'? It's them. Their leader has been trying to find a way to start a holy war for years, and planted evidence to make this look related to Islam. I personally find that annoying, since it's going to play merry havoc with the economy of the Human world. Just when I finally became wealthy, too."
It sounded self-serving and petty, but as reasons went seemed to work well enough, since Ann just started walking with him. He moved over and gestured to Edom and Lenore, which had Bey coming along with them, even if he'd been leading things. Zack smiled and waved him back.
"You should stay here and help these people in their fear and grief. We just need to do a few little things. It won't take long."
Not really.
Inside he contacted Gregor first, his voice relaxed. After he explained the situation the generally kind seeming Greater Demon actually growled.
"Oh, him. I know the one, and his family. They consider themselves the true elect. That never works out well, in the end. I've tried to steer the faithful away from that kind of thing, but every few hundred years someone comes along and manages to get a small group to think that they're the chosen few." There was a very long and drawn out sigh. "So, I can go and deal with them, now."
Zack shrugged, but cleared his throat.
"I was thinking more along the lines of having them killed, brought back, and then confessing on live television, only to die by their own hands, publically? We can play with that idea, if you want. The Rotted volunteered for that last part. Not wild about religious people, I think... Just in general."
There was a strange silence then, and the man finally made a sound that seemed like something was stuck in his craw.
"You have Xenses and the Rotted working on this? Who else?"
"Um, well, you, me, Ann, I was going to ask Darla if she wanted to come along too? Lenore, my girlfriend. Don't listen to The Rotted, we aren't really dating, her and I. Just friends, at least by the agreement we made the other day. Edom the Vampire, Richard Swerlin, the politician... That's about all. Did you want anyone included? We could invite the President, since I'm sure he wants in on this, but I don't think he'll be allowed to go." He was being a bit of a smart ass and knew it, but the man on the phone just seemed to take it all in stride then.
Like it was normal. That wasn't the case, since most things like this were just ignored by their kind.
"Very well. I'll be there shortly. I agree, however, that we should elicit a full confession from them, before allowing them the rescue of death. They killed far too many of my people this day. I thank you for your aid, Line Walker." Then he hung up, probably so that Zack wouldn't have to figure out what to say after that.
If so, it was really pretty nice of the man, because Zack didn't have a clue at all.
Turning to the others he made the next phone call. After that, well, it would be time to see to some very bad people.
Ones that even God couldn't love, he didn't think.
Chapter fifteen
The church wasn't much of one, as far as impressive trappings went. It was a slightly blue tinted gray color, with white trim, and a nice, but not huge, sign out front. It just had their name on it, but didn't explain that the hate group, and that was their true nature, was made up mainly of one family. Forty members strong and often in the press, but only for their egregious behavior.
Zack opened a node to the front of the building, and just had people w
alk through. It was a bit harder to do the Demons with them, but not all that much. It was mainly that all of them, to a person, tried to struggle and do the work themselves. The problem there was that they wanted to do it wrong. They all started trying to spray power around, sloppily ripping into space, instead of simply walking through the neatly provided gap he made.
Really, if he could train people to focus on where they were going, and made the rift glow a bit, anyone should be able to use them, without the extra work on his part. It was something to consider, but later, after the events of the day.
Keeley had come too, inviting herself along, since Darla had decided to be a pain, and tell her about Ann. The Mistress of Souls didn't seem to trust her at all. They'd never met or anything, but just the fact that the crazy Demon saw things a bit differently was enough, it seemed. As if insanity for their kind meant particularly bad? None of them were actually sweetness and light after all. He was pretty close to the best there, and that was mainly because he was so new to it all that he hadn't been forced into being dark and evil all the time just to survive.
It would come, in time. That was in the memories that Tarsus had given him too. They all went bad, eventually. Oh, it varied as to how much damage they did, but that was it. He could cannibalize nuns and babies in front of Gregor and the man probably wouldn't do more than suggest a good wine to go with. White, most likely. Something dry, to cut the salty taste that all westerners had? That this knowledge was in his collection of information wasn't comforting at all, so he let it go and smiled.
"We should knock?" They looked like a strange group, really. Teens and their chaperone, who seemed like a Catholic priest, at the moment. He was dressed like one and everything, since he'd come from work. Actually, a lot of them had.
Apparently, powerful didn't mean you got to be all that lazy, did it? Even Keeley had come from school, where they were holding a rally all night, so that people wouldn't have to be alone. It was nice.
He didn't wait, for all that he asked what he should do. There were at least ten people inside. That was easy to see, and there was also a dirty bomb, in the basement. The radiation warped space a little. He cast that idea out to the others, and then realized that, if he focused enough and added some power to it, Lenore and Edom would get the idea too.
'Ten people inside. Eight women and girls, one boy of about fifteen and their leader. Also a bomb in the basement. I'll go in first. Everyone else stay back a way.'
That got a mixed response, since crazy or not, Ann backed off, just walking toward the rainbow colored house across the street that had a Gay Alliance sign in the yard. Edom held his ground for a moment, but was pulled away by Keeley, with Lenore being led by Darla.
Richard Swerlin stood up straighter, not having gotten the message, so Zack sent it again, just for him. Then the man... Nodded.
"This is my job. I'll go."
He wasn't wrong, Zack realized. These people had attacked America and he was, Vampire or not, a member of the House of Representatives. It was literally his job to help protect the land they were in. Mainly by making laws and taking bribes, or however it was done, but Zack had no real doubt that anyone that knew what was going on would have done something similar.
Plus, undead, and with super powers.
Gregor came too, actually moving in front of them, pasting a smile on his face. He knocked firmly, which, after a moment, had an eyeball pressed to the peephole in the door. As if the cameras weren't enough?
They opened the door, and the man that did it, his blue eyes rimed with aged yellowed and slightly bloodshot whites, sneered. Because that was how you treated guests, wasn't it?
"I think you have the wrong place, heathens. This is a house of the Lord and only the elect may pass within. State your business and be gone. This is a dark day for the whole world, but the light is coming!"
Zack looked at the man, and then nodded. He could see the sense in it, after all. From the perspective of an insane and deluded bigot, what he was saying was just fact. They were unclean, not being him. God was, of course, on his side, because, naturally, his reading of the bible entitled him to act as he did. It was right there in the word, after all.
He popped his head around the other Greater Demon a bit, so that the old and wrinkled corpse of a man could see him clearly.
Then he waved a bit.
"Hi! I'm Zack, this is Gregor, who's also called The Cleric, and this other gentleman is Congressman Richard Swerlin. You know the name, since I'm pretty sure you've preached against him a time or two. Anyway, I was wondering if we could help you out of the bind you've gotten into here?" He said it sweetly enough that bigoted hate fiend or not the man paused.
"Say what? I... Is this about our protests? God really does hate fags, boy. You can't be saved, but you should know that. God hates all your kind. The sodomite, the perverse, the Satanist... The Catholic. Those papists are the worst of the lot. I don't have time for games, right now." He sounded bitter and angry, but only half as much as the few times Zack had heard him on television. He walked forward, and slammed his palm against the door as the man tried to slam it, realizing that something was actually wrong and that they weren't there to leave a religious pamphlet.
The door was made of heavy metal, and had very sturdy hinges. Like what smart drug lords used on crack houses. He could see that as they flew off, the whole thing pressing into the old man, who was falling. Only to be caught by Gregor.
After all, they wanted the man to be presentable for his public confession later.
Zack decided to do it the easy way, and reached out, to help the man stand up. On contact he saw it all...
Oh, you'd think the guy was probably a closeted homosexual or child molester, but he really wasn't. Other things though, including guilty as sin.
Zack looked at the man and waved his hand a bit.
"Check him for me, so that we both can confirm this?" The man tried to scramble back, but Richard, being kind and gentle about it, moved to his side, the mighty crash causing people in the back room to run and look.
The Cleric touched his cheek, which was almost a soft caress, rather than the grab that Zack had used, and then laughed.
"I understand. Well. You'll be confessing to that soon."
Zack nodded, but didn't really care, though the people in the back, a few of whom had guns, seemed to want to know what they were talking about. He spoke, but only so that Richard would know what was happening.
"They're all cannibals. I mean, I normally wouldn't cast stones there, since I've had more than my share of the other, other white meat in my time, but there it is. They also planted those bombs, and plan to do more, in time. You know, making the sinners pay. The unclean. So, people that don't eat their friends, I guess?"
The politician made a face, and then sighed.
"I could forgive an unusual diet, perhaps, or even deaths to feed yourselves, but not wholesale contamination of my own food. Even if it wasn't my job to protect people. Which, as it turns out, it is." He started to move and was shot once, which didn't do much to him.
Zack slowed the happenings and paid attention, finding the rifts in space where no bullets would be flying. The people were too packed in for that kind of thing, and were, no doubt, about to die at the hands of the government representative. Except that Gregor was getting there first.
Calling out he cautioned them, since there were rules to this kind of thing.
"Disarm them! I'll check the device in the basement." Which he did by simply running to the door which was just outside the kitchen. There were stairs leading down, which were just made of painted wood. It was well worn, but not untidy. When he got to the bottom he found a woman, who was clearly at least her own Aunt, as far as bloodlines went, from the way her features were arranged, and looked too much like the church leader's. She rather desperately scrambled for the bomb, which was just sitting on a sturdy looking shop style work bench. It was a lot like the one in his own garage that Darla had made hi
m build, as his first project. His was nicer, and painted, but this one wasn't horrible.
You just did better work with a Demon riding your behind.
"Don't bother." Zack pushed the space in front of him, and walked sedately, which probably made it seem like he was using blurring levels of speed to the woman. He was on her fast enough that she clearly hadn't had a chance to do much, and then he pulled her back, gently.
The contact showed a few things, such as her ugliness not being due to inbreeding, which had just been him being mean, it seemed. She was one of the organization's four bomb builders however. They would have done more, but it was harder to steal medical waste than it sounded like it should be. Then, for best effect, they'd needed to powder it, which took a lot of work, to do it safely.
She felt rather proud of that part, since they'd managed it without anyone getting sick at all.
Zack could see it. The images in her thoughts were complex, but efficient. They'd learned a lot, in order to be the best terrorists they could be. Then, they were smart, as a group. Ten of them had law degrees, since suing people for "infringing their rights" was how they made money for their hate campaign projects. It showed in the quality of all they did.
"Calm now. I can't let you set that off. Not yet. You'll need to do that later. After you confess." He was holding her by the back of her neck, which meant choking off the blood to her brain, since his hand wasn't all that big. Only partially, since he couldn't reach around to both arteries at once. That meant, when he went back up the stairs, they were all still alive. Unarmed and not conscious, sure, but breathing.
He didn't wait, just running to the front door and calling out.
"Got em! Come on in!" He didn't yell, which meant that the Vampires were there first, but only just by a few feet. The others dashed over quickly enough, though Ann was smiling, her face both the second darkest in the group and a bit manic.