by P. S. Power
"Thanks, both of you. We should get together soon, again." It was the kind of thing that you said, so he did it, feeling weird now, and a bit unwelcome. It was like the world around him had changed, in the last few days.
Maybe even before that? He'd been gone for years after all, and everyone said you couldn't go home again. That seemed right, since this just wasn't that for him, anymore. He passed out hugs and handshakes, and left before nine, meaning he had plenty of time to set up what he needed.
It was, well, nice, after a fashion. Nothing that he would have expected, but here he was, with a life and everything. Oh, it wasn't perfect, but that was fine, for now. All he really had to do was solidify the connections he needed with everyone and to see to his daily work. For a while at any rate.
After he did that thing with Keeley.
It felt wrong, somehow, that part of things. Like he was being set up. That was probably the case too. Tarsus was more than capable of putting in traps too subtle for him to even see, he didn't doubt. Even using the truth to make that happen. Really, that meant he needed to be careful, and not let anything take him by surprise. Otherwise, his life might well end that night.
It was a strange idea, and one that tickled at the back of his mind. Not that there were dangers in the world, but that this one was close to home and had been arranged very carefully. He just couldn't see what it was, clearly. Not yet.
That, he knew, had to do with him being insane.
He actually had the information, but was refusing to understand it, because he didn't like what it meant. It should have been enough for him to move past things, but it just wasn't. Even knowing the thing existed, that there was a trap, didn't make it any clearer.
Zack focused and worked his way back to his house, not going into work, and then sat on the sofa, all alone. That meant Roland and Rowan had left somehow, hopefully just catching a ride with Troy, since the club wasn't open that night, Zack was willing to bet. It would probably be used as a meeting place for the council.
So for several glorious hours, he just snacked, sat, and worked, and when the time came, managed to have a credible looking picnic ready to go. An adult one too, not just corn chips and juiceboxes. Then he opened a node and terminated it at the end of Keeley Thomson's door, in Arizona. Walking through, he knocked, to find her standing on the other side, her face serious, and a bit frightened looking.
At first he thought she was someone else, who didn't know how to play the role right, but it really wasn't that, he didn't think. She was, for some reason, simply afraid of him.
It didn't make sense at all, but he reached out and took her hand, and she returned the move.
Then, after a moment of conversation, he led her into a new node, one that led to a place so far away that not even The Librarian had ever heard of it.
Chapter nineteen
Keeley looked around, her eyes not quite comprehending for a few moments. Zack could see that. Literally, in fact, since from their position, which looked like a nice grass covered hill, with a single strange tree behind them, the world below seemed like a blur of colors. On the right was a red glow and on the left it was blue.
In the middle though, instead of a rainbow of lovely flavors, there was a muddle of browns and light blues, with a few hints of green and tan, all of which slowly shifted. No fine definition could be worked out, which made sense, given that they were seeing pretty close to everything, all at once. It was how the Earth looked, from here.
The pretty dark haired girl stared, then had to just shake her head, and looked behind them at the tree. It was kind of bare, but small buds of green showed. In form it was a bit like an oak, but out here, so far away from where that kind of thing really grew, it wasn't that. The world below gave the only glow, which kind of gave the impression of a darkened movie theater. More or less.
Zack put down the blanket he'd brought, being careful not to crush the insects that crawled in the grass. They weren't really ants, naturally, having far too many legs for one thing, which made them a bit more like centipedes, but they were still living things, and given the hardship of living where they were, they were special.
Then he slowly unpacked the wicker basket, as he gestured for Keeley to sit next to him, smiling. No thoughts got in or out of his head, and the girl was nearly the same, though he did catch a small hint of wonder from her. She winced a bit when he got the candles out and used a bic lighter to make the flame. At first he thought it was about the brass candle holders being too much, or the plastic lighter being too tacky, but when he poured the wine, which was champagne, she did it again. The glasses were real and nice looking, and even the correct ones for the beverage at hand, so it wasn't about him not putting on a good show at all. He'd even packed in real glass plates, and the food was, well, he'd made it, so probably just functional, but there was a bit of work behind it all.
Slowly he set things up, as she turned her attention to him, not speaking at all, or asking why Zack had brought her all the way out there. If it were the other way around, there would have been a game of twenty questions going on by then. Of course, she might have already figured everything out, given who she was. Being sane and all that, compared to him.
"This is really lovely." She murmured the words, and actually took the food, without insisting on paying for it first. That was fine, since she could just drop a check with him later. Or trade for it, if that was her plan. Greater Demons normally just offered a bit of cash that way, his thing with Darla earlier aside. After all, even good food was just food.
Zack smiled and waved his free hand at the world below.
"It's the beginning and end of the world. Technically, I suppose, this thing behind us is the world tree. I guess the rest does sort of look like a rainbow bridge, if you squint hard enough? I figured that out here no one would spy on us, too easily." That was the idea at least. He still scanned around for a bit, but certainly couldn't find anything larger than a bug glancing at them. They could be the spies, of course, but he'd picked the location sort of carefully, so they should have some time.
Keeley sipped at her glass, then ate, not really looking at him. After a while she sighed, which was a soft thing, and made eye contact.
"This is a good place. Thank you, for trying to make my first time special. I was worried that it would be a bit more... Well, being raped in an alley came to mind. This is great. Something to remember. Pleasantly." She winced again, which was realistic enough, even if the action didn't fool him. "So, what would you like to do first? We should finish eating, but I don't have a plan otherwise."
Zack probably should have blinked, or at least denied that was what they were there for, but he smiled a bit and took a sip of the bubbly pale liquid in his glass, to cover. After all, while he'd said that she had to do a Greater Demon, he hadn't said it would need to be him. But Darla was right on that one, and had told Keeley that Zack was about the best she could hope for, that way, hadn't she? She was too young to just ask him to be the one, so was pretending that he was putting himself forward for the job.
He could work with that.
"We can go by the numbers, I suppose. Since it's your first time." With him at least. If she and Hally hadn't been at least doing some hand things under the covers at their sleepovers, he'd be shocked and amazed.
They didn't talk until the food was done, and he packed everything up, except the candles, which hadn't burned down too far, moving in next to her then. Wondering the whole time if she was really her. It seemed right, but that could be faked. It was going to be annoying if he had sex with her and she turned out to be Tarsus. Or worse, his grandmother. The only thing there was that he was nearly certain that, Greater Demon or not, Lyn wouldn't do that to him. That left almost all the rest of their kind, sure, but he could put up with that.
Really, if he had to, he could make himself not care even about her, now. It had gone fairly quickly, the burying of his trauma, once he got the idea. The worst of it, at least. There were gaps a
nd cracks left, and maybe even whole portions of things he hadn't thought about at all. He was pretty well on toward healing however, as far as that went.
Enough so that the idea that he was kissing his Aunt didn't really matter to him. Oh, random strains of banjo music tried to play in the back of his mind, but he silenced that well enough.
Keeley was just the right amount of tentative and vulnerable to leave him feeling old and wise, without bothering to say no at any point. They actually did a lot more than he would have, on a first date with a virgin if she'd been a Human girl. That would have been some kissing probably, with a bit of heavy petting over the clothing.
She got introduced to just about every single position, including a few that weren't even in the Kama Sutra, since they were both physically capable of things that regular people weren't. He started out being gentle with her, but made sure she knew what it was like to be roughly handled as well, using each part of her in a variety of ways. She seemed to understand that he was teaching her, and not just being a jerk, so made herself enjoy what was going on. Or at least pretended to. Given her abilities, she should have actually done it, but that part didn't leak out from her shielding.
At the end, when they'd exhausted everything he knew how to do, and had tried a few things that would have killed most people, he laid next to her, letting her dark brown hair cover part of his chest as he held her close.
Then he grinned, "so... was it good for you?" Chuckling he kissed her cheek gently, and wrapped his arms around her slender middle. "Fair warning, the only correct answer is yes. It's best if you play it up a bit. I mean, I understand that you were just going through the motions, but it's important that you never let on to that. It would also be appropriate, after that, for you to tell me about how incredible I am and how you were now ruined for all other men. Unless it was really dismal, and the person you were with knows it, then just pretend you came instantly and want to do it again, soon." He thought for a second and then shrugged. "Which won't work if they can't perform. In that case, I suppose the idea is to act like that was the plan all along? There's no good way to fix that, I don't think."
She giggled and moved closer to him, letter her cheek rest on his for a long while.
"It really was nice. I guess that's a good enough sign that you aren't Xenses at least. Who are you?"
He got that one. It was pretty central to his thoughts at the moment, after all.
"I'm Zack. Nice to meet you?" Reaching out he stroked her flat stomach just a bit, then moved up to her left breast, which responded, growing tight. The nipple was a nice pink color, and she'd healed fast enough that the light biting he'd done earlier hadn't left a mark at all. Zack played with her a bit, thinking about making himself hard again, if she was willing to give him the chance.
Then, without asking, he moved down her body with some gentle kisses, just to see what she'd do. The answer was a lot more friendly than she strictly had to be, given the rules of their agreement. In fact, she didn't even have to pick him as one of the five people, according to that. When they were finished, being a good bit less adventurous or rough, this time, and she spasmed on him, since they could match up that way a lot more easily than most people could have, using just a touch of magic to make it happen, he winked at her.
"So, I'm Zack and you are..."
It was her turn to be playful, then.
"Keeley. I guess that one would go both ways, wouldn't it? So, do you think this counts as having sex with a Greater Demon? I don't want to cheat you, on our bargain."
He thought about it for a bit, but then nodded.
"It does. I can't see any way that you haven't met both the letter and the spirit of the agreement that way. Still, I told Gregor to send you a note or something, suggesting you and he get busy soon, so you might want to do that too. He's probably way better than I am, after all. I'm a little surprised." He looked at her, noticing that she was still breathing just a tiny bit hard, though there was no sweat on her anywhere. He was damp, a bit, even though he'd made a point the whole time of not doing that too much. There was no need to be gross about it. The area they were in was nice and cool, without being cold really. It was always a constant twilight here, so it stayed a steady fifty degrees, or so.
"Oh? I guess. He seems nice enough at least. I could turn into a little boy for him or something?" She seemed to mean it, without any irony at all.
Zack had to just make a face, twisting his mouth a bit.
"I... Don't honestly know. A lot of Catholic priests do that kind of thing, but he seems to frown on it. I'd go in as yourself and see if that will do. Or ask before hand, politely. You should know that already. I mean, I'm the insane one here that doesn't get things. I still don't understand how this is a trap for me, for instance. I mean, I know that Tarsus set it up to be one, but how... I'm not really certain."
She moved back, still naked, and gave him a skeptical look.
"A trap? How do you mean? Can you lay it all out for me? You have information that I don't."
He propped himself up and then slowly started to climb back into his clothes. That got her to do the same, if more cutely.
"Really, I think the trap is in this; I have information that you need, but I'm supposed to make you trade for it, taking what you hold most dear in exchange. That part was pretty much spelled out to me too. Before you ask, he also said it wasn't supposed to be any stupid bantering about sex at all, since he expects you to be sort of slutty, after you have a few people under your belt." Zack grinned and spread his hands. "He was nicer than that about it, but it was pretty much what he meant. Given that there's no risk at all for you to do that, as long as you protect your local reputation, that's probably a good idea. Not having sex as a social tradition is all about controlling people, after all. Mainly so that men will know if their child is theirs or not. Which you know."
He felt like he should have lost her in there, but the girl just brushed her hair back and smiled about it all.
"Darla basically told me the same thing, about fifty times. I was raised in America and so... You know, repressed culture and all that?"
"Yeah, I hear you there. We're certainly in a different world now, aren't we?" He looked out at everything and then back at her, pointing out that they actually were. Literally. In a different world. Or, well, theirs was in that mess somewhere, but the point remained.
As Greater Demons they simply couldn't play by the same rules that they'd both been taught as children. Not if they wanted to survive.
She got that, obviously. Otherwise she wouldn't have shown up and done everything they had. After a moment, she glared at him, and finally spoke, as if he were being dense on purpose.
"So, what is it that you want to trade for? What do you have for me first?"
He spread his hands, since that, he feared was half of the trap, wasn't it?
"Well, I have information about something to come for you. You need to know it, and it's worth... Well, a lot more than you'd think, without me giving it away. The thing there is that you'll have to trade for it blind, and since I'm supposed to get a vast thing from you for it, you almost have to refuse. Except that, you shouldn't. Also..." It clicked then, so he let himself wince, getting what his part of the trap really was.
That meant he went silent for a bit, even as the low rumble of the world being destroyed off to the right came at him constantly. It wasn't a fast process, so the tone was low frequency, but powerful. One wave every ten seconds or so. Shaking his head, he revised his plans and wondered if he was really going to die, trying to do this. It was actually possible, he knew.
The smart thing would be for him to just trade something smaller than he'd planned, but then, later, Keeley might not respect him, thinking that he was too nice, or easy to push around. She wasn't that kind of being now, but in ten years? A thousand? He had to plan for that, didn't he?
Shaking his head, Zack continued.
"So, don't try to enslave me or kill me, but I need to go bi
g with this, I think. Sorry about that, but it really has to happen. You need this, so go along with it."
She made a face, which was dark and grumpy, as if he were being slow just to mess with her.
"You already had my ass, so, what do you want? All my money? Darla?" She said it slowly, as the real idea started to dawn on her. What was really important to her.
"Xenses? You want to save him, don't you? To make me let go of my revenge plot... I won't do it! That's too much. No. He killed my father. I will destroy him. If you try to protect him, I'll remove you... Deal?"
Two things happened then. The first was that he was almost certain that everyone that had mentioned the idea had been correct. If Keeley tried to take him, he was simply going to be taken, no matter how hard he fought. The second was that links like that, the slavery of the Greater Demons, broke as a person died. He'd done it himself, after all. With the help of Finias.
That was the important part, he decided. He'd died, and that broke the link, but the old and powerful Greater Demon had brought him back. Saving him. It was a form of healing magic, so slowing time as The Mistress of Souls turned him into her bitch, he reviewed that as well as he could. Healing another wasn't so different from doing that to yourself, he realized. The location was simply different.
He was actually pretty good with that kind of thing. Space wasn't actually real, after all.
Then, just as the link was formed, before she could order him to not move, Zack stepped in and punched her. It was fast, nearly enough for the move to rip her lower jaw off under the impact. That distracted her and made speaking hard enough that she couldn't manage it yet. Then as she scrambled away, with her new, but still sort of free, slave coming at her, he leapt in and broke her neck.