by P. S. Power
Killing her.
It took longer for her to die than most, he guessed, since she tried to fight against it, healing as well as she could, restarting her heart, her pure terror pouring out into the world. It took three more solid death blows to get the job done, but he felt the link shatter, finally, and was free again for real.
Then, because she was a ditz, not evil, he started trying to save her. She was dead, and truly so, but there was time left, if he got to work. Up to a day, or possibly two, for someone like her. That meant he had time to experiment, and get it right.
It was hard, and while he had her pretty much fixed an hour later, she still needed a lot more work. Rebuilding her face had to come last, and while it burned up his own magic, it also took mass from her, which meant, as soon as he could, finding food for her and bringing it in.
Really he expected her to be gone when he returned, having run off in fear, but she was just sitting and healing. She drank the cream he'd gotten, holding it herself, as he did the same, eating just as much of the hoard as she was. It hadn't seemed like much, but he'd done some damage to the girl, and even trying to help her fix it had cost him a lot. He'd drained about half the magic he had, at a guess, doing it.
So he ate, and made her do the same as she rebuilt herself. Her face became warped and raw looking, but finally pretty, after ten hours or so, with both of them sitting there, and him making five more trips for food, just stealing it from warehouses around the world, moving in palates of things at once.
When she was healthy again, enough to pause in her eating, she looked at him and shook her head.
"Crap. Well that didn't work. I still won't let Xenses go, even if you have an agreement with him. You shouldn't let him get away either. I know what he did to you, and had done. You do too now. How can you bear to be around him at all?"
He finished the stick of unsalted butter in his hand and used a napkin from the picnic to wipe his mouth. It was a red cloth thing, and matched the blanket.
"That wasn't what I was going to ask for. Not at all. Ever. The agreement I made with him is just that I'll try to act like family and give him a chance to do the same. There are even provisions for me not being involved in your and Darla's vendetta. Besides, that isn't the most important thing to you, is it? I mean, a big deal, but it wouldn't get much for me, really."
She looked away, then took a stick of butter herself, eating it slowly, as if it were an ice cream bar. It was gross, he realized, even as he took another one of his own. He needed the calories too, so did it, making himself enjoy it.
"That is the most important thing to me. What else do I have? You even took all my slaves from me. That's going to make going home interesting. Darla probably thinks that you killed me. Which, oops, you did." She waved down at her body then and shuddered a little. "That isn't fun, by the way. You brought me back, so, I guess there's that. I've been planning to let some of my people go eventually anyway. Now I can. I'll need to get Steve York again, or else he'll start slacking off on his music practice. I guess I can let the rest go. Elis has learned his lesson, I think. Bal... Well, he's been good, and I think I've treated him well enough that he won't come at me for revenge. If he tries, then I'll just take him again." She seemed thoughtful, rather than angry though. As if it all didn't really matter to her.
Zack nodded.
"Really? I want your mother, Hally and Rebekah. All three of them."
She looked at him, not moving at all for a long time, then tried to both grab him again, taking him as a slave, and block at the same time, so he couldn't stop her from talking. The only problem there was that he'd actually figured she'd do that, so had gotten ready for her.
This time he hit from an unexpected direction, trying to take her at the same time, as if in a battle of wills. Then he feinted at her jaw, and moved around behind her, slipping sideways in space, falling and moving in a circle around her at the same time. Technically it was a move that couldn't exist. It took magic and energy to get it done, but he was able to kill her again, with repeated blows to the back of the head, not being taken first this time, having managed to buy some time by trying for her in the same way.
Then there was more healing, more eating, and, three hours later, another death, as he had to kill her again. Wash and repeat, he thought, as he coaxed her back to life for the third time in less than a day. He was tempted to fuse her lips together at first, just so she'd have to listen, but he didn't. Instead he just gave her more food, and shook his head.
"At least I get what the trap was, now. So, the point here is that Tarsus is a prick. Got it. Also, clearly, adult or not, you really aren't all that. Not in a fight. So, the terms? You really, really, need to know what I do, and can't beat me in a fight right now. I think the point is that you have to make a huge sacrifice for this. I mean, like a lesson or something. A hard one, clearly. I'll tell you what I know, for those three. Unlimited rights to them. I won't take them as slaves, since I don't do that, but you'll have to give up any rights there. I'll own them, outright. Their businesses and work too. They don't get a choice in the matter, either. You have to do it. Sell them, against their will." He wanted to take it all back, since that was pretty much real slavery, even if he didn't make a deal with them personally. Still, the point was that she had to sell them, not that he had to make them be real slaves. They could live however they wanted, as far as that went. Just like all his people.
Really, it just meant that they'd have his protection, which, given everything, was probably also the point. Tarsus planned to do something really hard to Keeley, and right now those people were collateral damage waiting to happen. The idea that The Librarian had set the whole thing up that way suddenly made sense. Or at least that it had happened. All of Keeley's people were being removed from the scene, weren't they? In a few months, even Darla's friend Eve would be away from them, safe, with him.
It was complex, but made sense didn't it?
Especially if the Second Crucible wasn't just for Keeley, but for Darla too. She'd said that she'd never been taken on that way, since it was a thing that only the would be leadership went through...
So he waited, to see if they were going to fight again.
This time, Keeley... cried at him.
"I... I love them. They're my friends, I can't do that to them. What if this is a trick and you're lying to me? I can't risk them." She sobbed, so Zack moved in and awkwardly held her.
It was what you did, when girls cried.
She stopped not too long after, and didn't try to kill him or run, just sitting there.
"I don't know what to do. I have to do it, don't I? If you're lying to me... Well, I can't do much to you, can I? You could just kill me and take them all, so that's a sign, I suppose. If you wanted them that badly. Are you really just taking them because I love them? To hurt me?"
Zack tilted his head.
"I can't prove this right now, not until you agree to it and possibly not even then, but while it's clear that taking them because you love them is part of the point, I don't think that even Tarsus is doing it to hurt you. The opposite, in fact. I guess I'm going to have to ask you to trust me in this? That isn't the normal way of our kind, but I don't have anything else to give you, unless you trade for it." That last line wanted to come out like a question, but he held on and made it sound almost confident. Nearly at least.
She held him then, and after a long time, she sighed, silent tears making the front of his shirt wet as he sat and watched the world begin and end.
"I agree, on those terms, but if what you have to tell me isn't important enough, then it's automatically off. I get to decide if it is, too." She didn't smile about her wording, since she could just claim it wasn't enough, and take her people back, no matter what he said, which was her point, he knew. It wasn't even clever at all, just a last desperate attempt to get around what it seemed he, or at least The Librarian, wanted.
Zack nodded.
"I understand what you're doing. I a
gree, on those terms, as well, with the caveat that you have to be fair and honest, to your own way of thinking, in your judgment of the information I give you."He shrugged and then let his hand touch hers, gently. "Plus or minus ten percent on the honesty?"
She smiled, clearly feeling better about it all, suddenly. It was enough that very little in the world would be enough to force her hand then, and Zack would hold to his bargains. Even the crazies of their kind almost always did. Doing otherwise was an invitation to have everyone turn on you, if you did it too often.
"Agreed." She put out her hand, to shake, which Zack took, ready to kill her again, if even the wrong sort of tingle started to happen, but nothing did at all.
"I too, agree, on those terms, as I understand them."
Then he took a breath, and didn't make her wait at all.
"Tarsus and possibly some of the others, are going to put you through the Second Crucible in a few months time. No adult Greater Demon may help you prepare for it. I suggested myself, but he looked at me like I was offering to smear grape jelly on your butt, not do anything useful, so that might not be the greatest idea. I'm here for you anyway, if you need lifting and toting done? Also, and this is the important part, if you fail, Tarsus will kill you. As in for real and always dead. My understanding is that this isn't some kind of trial by combat or anything, but leadership exercises? Still, it's pretty possible that everyone you know will be at risk, which is why, I think, they all have to stay with me. I can't prove that last part, but it seems to fit."
After a moment, the pretty girl with her slightly too pink face, since it was still healing from the damage he'd done, if only a bit, cursed at him.
Then stood and bowed.
"As we agreed then, Line Walker. Those I love that were specified, are yours, to do with as you please."
He nodded. Then, after making sure they weren't littering or killing any bugs, or taking them back with them to a place they might not survive in easily, they left, going to Keeley's home.
To his new people.
Chapter twenty
Zack didn't know what to expect, considering all the recently freed beings around the Mistress of Souls, but the actual result on the ground was sort of impressive. Everyone, including Darla, Hally and Eve, as well as a boy that Zack had seen before, but hadn't properly met, named Gary, were with Sheri. Keeley's hot mom. Now his person to look after.
Balthias was there, standing at the back, next to the Greater Demon Fram. That one, at least, would have to know he was free. He looked like a cheerleader, one with long black hair, but was a male, none the less. Zack recognized him, since he'd been there when Keeley had taken him. Rebekah was there too, along with Elis, who waved at him, his face hard. The Hsreth were around too, but working to make people food, in the kitchen. It was sort of their default mode, as a species. They made the house nice, when they were feeling stressed.
Darla moved first, hugging her sister hard.
"We all thought you were dead. What happened?"
He was still trying to figure out how to say it all when Keeley started speaking her voice a bit wry.
"I had a disagreement with The Line Walker, and tried to take him as a slave. He killed me." She looked at everyone else and then made a silly face, just as a middle aged Hsreth, who seemed like a slightly blocky Human woman with curly hair, walked from the kitchen, carrying a tray. "Actually he did it several times, and kept bringing me back. So, good news, everyone! You're free! That was the plan anyway, so isn't a big deal. True, I was going to wait longer with you, Fram, but you get the idea? Don't try to pick fights with people if you don't have to? I should have learned that one, too, apparently. On the other side, I traded some of you to Zack, in order to get at information, so you belong to him now."
It was strange, who seemed scared or shocked by hearing that.
Eve just nodded, as if she were going to be one of them traded away, and actually walked over to him, her face not totally displeased.
"Well, can I still do that Vampire thing? Or, I mean, what do you have planned for me?"
Zack gave her a hug, since, why not? She was cute, in a slightly Latino way. Hence being on the cheerleading squad. Darla made a hard face at her sister as if it were actually what had happened. Eve wasn't Keeley's to bargain away like that though, but it still made sense for him to take her, if he could.
"You're still on that internship, but I can get you some introductions to people. Important ones. I've set things up with Edom, the Assistant Ambassador at Westfield to watch you, so you can observe him and his people part time. It will be part time with him, mainly in the evenings, and mornings in the book store I own. A lot of work, but also a great place to meet people."
That got Gary to make a face.
"I won't let you just force her to be your slave. I'll..." It was clear he didn't know what to do, so he tried to hit Zack in the nose. It was going to miss, after Zack moved a bit, but Eve was in the wrong place, and about to be hit instead, so he caught the large fist in the air and held it gently, about an inch from the back of the short haired girl's head.
"Understood, no slaves. Everyone heard that right? Gary isn't going to allow that, so you can all rest easy." He looked at the fist and moved to the side still holding it. The kid was nice looking, in good shape, and gay, but smart enough. Recently coming off of a fairly severe depression though. "You can come and check things out to make sure, all right? I..." He had to think fast, but there was enough time to get things done, he thought. "I have a summer camp. You and Hally can work there, as councilors, this summer? Not everyone will be Human, including some of the campers, so, you know, it isn't that boring. It pays pretty well and everything. You can teach the kids martial arts and hiking skills, right?"
Hally smiled and clapped, a bit like Bey always did.
"Ooh! I can do hiking too? I know how... Which sounds stupid, doesn't it? Everyone can walk, but, I know what to take and how to dress. My family goes, sometimes."
Zack actually felt pleased, since that was a reasonable thing for a decently innocent teen girl to be doing. Eve was a little older, and would be eighteen that summer, but Hally was young, even for her years.
Balthias grumbled at him, starting to spread terror, since it was his nature and no one could really stop him, at the moment. Zack responded by not letting himself feel it, which was clearly what the rest of them were doing too.
"Who else, was traded into servitude then, Mistress of Souls? Our initial bargain was that I would, at your will, be released. Have I been sold to this being, The Walker of Lines?"
She smiled a bit sadly.
"No. You're truly free, to go and live as you will. I suggest doing it far away from me, at least for a while, since, if the information I got was correct and it seems to be, I'm being put to the Second Crucible soon."
Fram pursed his pretty lips and whistled.
"Damn... They really are going to kill you, aren't they Keels? So, is that why you're trading us all away? To get us out of the field of fire? Good idea. Well, I'm out of here then, as soon as the meeting is over. Anyone that wants can come with me? If you aren't going with The Line Walker here? Not that it isn't tempting." There was a pause and a slightly cocked hip then. "I don't suppose you have room in your bed for me too?"
Darla laughed then, at least.
"Back off, Bold. If you mess with my mentee, you mess with me. Besides, you'd be too much of a bad influence on him." She smiled, as if happy about it all, and then moved across the room to pat him on the shoulder. There was a combination of protectiveness and worry to the move and a single thought that passed to him, with enough energy that he couldn't ignore it.
Lie.
"So, Zack, you made a deal for who? All the kids, Sheri and the Vampires? Or were the Hsreth involved too?"
Keeley winced, since most of them stared at her, as if feeling betrayed.
He got the general idea though.
"Mainly, I..." He looked at the older woman, who see
med closed off, rather than happy or sad. Like she feared her lot in life was being set for her, but that noting that could cause problems. The man that stood behind her, who was also one of her people, a Hsreth, seemed a little scared, and let it show. Zack bowed to them both. "The bargain there, for the two of you is one of limited protection? You can stay at your business here, and if the need comes up, I'll get you and yours out of harm's way. At least as to what Keeley has coming and limited natural disasters. If you need money or anything, just ask. That sort of thing?"
The Hsreth both bowed, and then moved back, without saying they understood.
"The rest of you, plus Becky Hoader, are part of the agreement." He left that vague, but didn't leave Elis out. He wasn't that great of a guy, but the Manthori Vampire wasn't evil either, just entitled. It was different.
Gary groaned a bit then. At first he thought it was that he didn't want Becky around, but there was nothing in his memories that indicated that should be the case.
"We have a road trip planned, for this summer? If we're all working that's going to be a bust, isn't it?"
Zack thought for a bit, and then looked at Darla, who didn't seem all that happy with the idea either, losing the trip.
"Why? We can set the schedules up any way we want. Just... Sheri, Hally and Rebekah are going to have to come and live with me part time. I'll need a new house too. You can help me look for one, Sheri? Eve has a place set up already, but the rest of you will need to have your own places. So, several houses." He counted it up, and wondered if Lenore would be willing to help too? She was good at things like that.
So was Xenses, if it came down to it. Really, though it was hard to admit, as per their arrangement, Zack should probably ask about it, if the man ever showed back up. He'd need something to trade, but decided to go with cash.
People started talking then, and to his surprise, no major fights broke out. Eve was willing to move that day, but Keeley pointed out that they had months left in the school year. Hally lived at home, with her parents, who, she assured him, several times, wouldn't just let her move to a different state. Especially with a boy she'd only just met.