On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  The only saving grace there was that they used that data as a means to get others into bed, rather than as spies for anyone's enemies. It was probably why most people didn't really notice it happening.

  She waited then, for everything to get as quiet as it could be.

  Then she explained everything again.

  That got a reaction from her mom, if nothing else. A real one, that was more powerful than she'd expected, to be totally honest about it.

  "Sit here and don't move. I have to check on this before..." The lovely and young looking woman brushed at her hair in a way that had no allure whatsoever. Then she got up, smoothed her clothing carefully and walked out, leaving her daughter sitting there.

  An hour and a half later, Patricia came back, with real tears in her eyes. It took nearly ten minutes for her to calm down enough to talk. To even say what she'd found out loud.

  “Kaitlyn... It's not just Lisa. It's all of them! Everyone Zack's had sex with that isn't an Alede. Even Claire! I didn't think a Vampire could be handled that way. They all show signs of addiction and not borderline either. He's been systematically increasing the amount of pleasure he's used with them over time. I wouldn't doubt that the younger Vampires have been affected too. I think... I think he has to be doing it on purpose.”

  It hit Kate suddenly, a wave of nausea washing over her. It was a vast thing, wasn't it? What it meant...

  “Oh, fuck. Me too, then. It's exactly what he did to me with the feeding. I thought, you know, that I was being all clever and tricking him into feeding me more and more energy, so I could get off, without him knowing about it, but he knows! He told Don that he knows we all orgasm and try to get as much pleasure from him as possible! Fuck!”

  Kate started shaking in reaction to the news, fear and anger mingling in her bloodstream. Enough so that Patty started to look concerned, but eventually noticed that even in this abject rage, Kaitlyn kept her energy reigned in nearly perfectly. That was part of her training, wasn't it? To control herself, even when it seemed like there was no way for anyone to manage it.

  She stood then, and asked that Patty bring in someone from the outside to check this out, someone that would be completely impartial. If she were wrong, if they were, then it needed to be pointed out. Soon, too. She felt strangely tired as she said it. Drained, as if all hope had gone out of her. Like it had flowed away from the entire world.

  Thinking through it, she tried to find a way that this wasn't sinister. Some loophole, or gap in knowledge that would have let Zack do this without being evil. Her mind drew a blank. She'd told him, more than once, from her own lips, that too much pleasure could addict a person. He'd heard the other Alede discussing what could happen to people that were used that way, too. How very badly it always ended. He didn't have ignorance as an excuse. That wasn't it, then.

  She just sat there, crying. Patty came over and held her, and eventually, other people started coming in. The Alede first, who hushed and went still when Patty explained the situation to them. It was clear that they all understood. It frightened them too. The Line-Walker doing that was a horrible thing. There was almost nothing that they could do about it either.

  Kaitlyn dried her eyes finally, noticing the time. Then, slowly, she got to her feet, not really sure what she was doing, but feeling, knowing, on a deep level that she was probably one of the only people on the planet, on any planet maybe, that could actually do it and survive. Except that, if Zack was actually evil, then her thoughts about him loving her might be a lie. Part of her own addiction that left her under his complete control.

  Her feet felt like lead as she walked into Candles and More. As she passed Jelly, still sitting at the front desk looking more than a little shell shocked, she told her to leave, to go to the Import store and tell Ghurian that Kate had asked him to protect her. To guard Jelly, if he could. Then she stood in the back room, waiting. Lisa came out of her office, knowing that Zack should be back soon. Claire came and bundled her away, explaining things in a hushed tone, that Kate ignored. That wasn't her part in this. The others would handle that, after she was gone, she hoped.

  Zack came back at a few minutes after six, smiling when he saw her, at first.

  “Did you know? All those women... Did you know that you were addicting them like that?” She asked, her voice cold, a steel gray colored line coming from her, moving toward him. It impacted, but didn't shake him in particular. Thin or not, he was strong. Too much so, she had to figure.

  He didn't make her clarify. Zack simply nodded.

  “Yes. Not at first, not really, I don't think, but I figured it out months ago. It's just, well, it made them all so happy... And everything got so much easier then. I wanted everyone to like me...”

  She nodded. So, there's that at least, she thought as she moved toward him. He didn't know... at first and did it because he wanted things to be easier, to make everyone else happy. So, not evil. Just criminally stupid. That was better, wasn't it?

  “Zack... I love you.” She told him.

  Then she attacked. A flurry of punches first, which caught him totally unaware. After a few seconds he ran from her, his speed making him blur more than a little as he left the store. Kate did something that she'd never done then. Not on that kind of level. Focusing her energy as tightly as she could, she followed him, moving so fast she could feel her bones creak. Threatening to break in her skin as she rounded the corner of the store after him, but she closed the distance anyway and tackled him from behind.

  She didn't care about who saw it. This was too important for embarrassment or even survival to make a difference to what happened. She just started beating him, blow after blow landing, aiming for his head. He blocked, moving fast even now. Like the Vampires did, blurring and his limbs vanishing from sight for brief moments only to reappear suddenly, not having anywhere to go. She made herself match him, feeling things rupture from the speed. Blossoms of red bruises ran down her arms suddenly as she hit him in the face, smashing the bones there as well as the ones in her hands.

  Kaitlyn screamed, rage poured out of her for the first time in years, maybe ever. It wasn't exactly a normal feeling for her. She kept hitting Zack as hard as she could until he stopped moving. When he didn't do more than breathe, she wrapped her shattered right hand in his belt and drug him away. No one stopped her, but no one helped her either. She took him to the food court, dragging him toward the Chinese food place where Merri stood, fully armored and holding her sword. Looking ready to kill Kate.

  Kate stopped and looked at the other woman for a second.

  “Merri, I need to put him in your safe room... Probably for a while. Not that isolation is that big of a deal for him. I just need time to think.”

  She started dragging him again. Finally Mac came out, walking a wide circle around his sister and took Zack, nearly twice his size, and four times his weight, and pulled him to the back room easily. He set his burden down for a moment and opened the small door with its four inches of steel plating inside and reinforced walls, meant to keep raging Alfric in and everyone else out, then pulled the larger man inside, closing and locking the door from the outside when he walked out.

  “Kaitlyn girl... I hope there's a good reason for this, or the King will have me skinned alive, and I'm rather fond of my skin, to tell the truth...”

  She sat on the floor and didn't move, not bothering to answer the tiny Alfric man. Not because he didn't deserve one, just because she couldn't manage the words at the moment. She felt tired. Not just low energy tired, or needing food tired, but bone weary, exhausted by the world tired. Looking inside she realized that she had enough energy to turn into Kyle and back, as soon as she got out of sight of everyone. Standing shakily, she limped over to Beautiful Plus. Stripping her clothes off she climbed into the shower, and changed shape, first into her boy form, then back.

  She turned the shower on full blast and stood under it, not really knowing if it was so hot it burned her skin, or so cold she couldn't tell. T
he fact that she felt at all amazed her. Tears tried to make tracks down her face, she knew, but were washed away too fast to be seen, even if anyone had been looking. She came out half an hour later, maybe more, wet and having nothing to wear except what she'd had on earlier. She put her clothes back on without paying too much attention. They felt damp still, from the sweat she'd produced trying to cool her body down before.

  No one bothered her until she walked out of the clothing store. Then a strange scene took place, as an unusual crew, not people she'd normally think of as close friends, some of them not friends at all, barely knowing them stood in front of Beautiful Plus. Keeping everyone away from her until she was ready to take whatever came from her actions.

  Rikesh the Djinn made a bit of sense, being that he really didn't like Zack all that much. Next to him the Alfric woman Mae stood, ready for battle, but with no sword in her hand, her golden armor shone brightly and her face looked blank. One of the Alfric men tried to bluster past her and she did something that sent him flying back. Glen put a hand on the man's shoulder and led him away. Scott the Demon stood, arms crossed, facing down Beatrice, who alternated screaming at him with low invective that sounded scathing, but didn't get a reaction from him at all. Rounding this out was Lars, the Trolleinkein, who stood his ground facing half the others of his kind there, refusing to let anyone in.

  Kate walked past this line, nodding to each of her protectors in turn. In a loud voice she explained what Zack had done, and what it meant to her and her people.

  “I know a lot of you won't get it, and I know that this doesn't mean that Zack was being evil. Not on purpose... But, he's so powerful and important and will probably be around for a long time... If he gets away with this now, what does that mean for a thousand years from now? Someone had to do something. It's not perfect, but... It's all I could come up with.”

  Walking to the middle of the central promenade, she sat on the floor again. The bricks cool to the touch underneath her, but smooth, almost comforting to her, being the same as they always were. Now that she had boldly walked out among them, no one came too close to her for a bit. Finally Hilda walked over from the food court.

  “I checked Zack. He's conscious, but he told me that I shouldn't let him out until Kaitlyn said to. He told me to tell you all that he's sorry and that he didn't mean to cause anyone any pain or harm.” She shrugged. “I think perhaps he got your message, Kaitlyn. Now we simply have to figure out what to do with those affected by this... addiction.”

  Behind Ghurian, literally behind him using the man as a shield, Jelly stood, looking shaken and more than a bit traumatized. Rikesh walked over to her and took her hand gently, then led her over to where Kate sat. Interestingly, Ghurian, who had obviously been guarding the girl as she'd requested, let Rikesh take her from him without a word. Of course this time, instead of causing a problem, Rikesh had actually been pretty helpful. Maybe she'd have to rethink her opinion of him.

  Closer to the food court, jittering from foot to foot, Merri stood, looking as if she couldn't decide whether to break Zack out of confinement or stab Kate with her sword, which she still had out and held defensively, ready to fight anyone that came for Zack most likely.

  Walking over to the small woman, Troy said something to her, which, after a few moments, caused her to make the sword vanish, followed by the armor. He took her into his arms and held her close for a bit, then they walked to the back of the Chinese restaurant and didn't come back.

  After sitting for about twenty minutes, no one talking to her, though some hovered about five to ten feet away, ready to come to her aid if needed, she thought, Kate tried to make certain she was calmed down. Lars and Hilda stood watching her, closely. Don huddled in a small group with the Alede and oddly enough, Claire, who seemed to be trying to calm them all down.

  “Zack seems to have learned his lesson as Hilda stated. I don't think he will seek retaliation against Kaitlyn or any of us for this. It really isn't in his nature...”

  Nothing much happened though, until Chi, the Bat boy walked out of his store and started telling people what to do.

  “Seriously, there was a fight, a family spat. It's resolved for now, so everyone get back to work! You, Trolleinkein people, would you please go get Zack out of that hole now? Leaving him there longer than this probably won't help and you... Kate, get up off the floor already. You don't look hurt, not anymore, so stop acting like a wimp. We aren't going to help anyone by avoiding the fall out here.”

  He looked around and seeing that no one moved, laughed and then made a face at the crowd.

  “Move! Some of us actually run businesses here you know, and having the mall open during the day is handy for that...”

  His thin frame, lean and muscular, wiry red hair and thick horn-rimmed glasses didn't make him look intimidating, but people finally did it anyway. Realizing that, even if he wasn't right, they could blame him later if his plan failed. Kate stood up and walked to him, then gave him a hug for a while. He patted her back and told her that everything would be all right, even if this felt really serious at the moment.

  “Things blow over. It can suck going through them, but we'll all get past this, probably faster than you'd expect. Do you want me to handle the clean up here for you?” He asked, sounding oddly military then, as if the idea of mopping up after the battle would be only natural for him.

  She nodded. It may be weak, but she didn't know what to do now, not at all.

  Hilda and Lars brought Zack out and sat him at one of the tables in the food court, the one that Chi pointed at.

  “All right, Zack, are you awake enough to hear me?” He asked, watching the bloody figure closely. Seeing him nod a bit.

  “Good! Glad to hear it. OK. First, just so we can talk, can someone heal up Zack here?”

  Looking awkward she knew, Kate moved forward, only to stop, feeling a hand on her shoulder. Don walked with her, holding her left hand, and covertly passed energy to her while she worked, slowly and carefully, changing only a small bit of Zack at a time and changing it back, making it look like she healed his white flesh to a tan colored bruise and then let it turn white. She knew that most people didn't understand how she did this and probably didn't care how it worked as long as it did.

  When Zack looked better, making sure he had all his teeth, she stopped and sat back down. She hadn't hit him in the chest at all, just the head, so he shouldn't need a lot of healing past what she'd done, and if he did, well, he'd heal. Maybe not as fast as this, but still, so much faster than a regular Human would, thanks to his own talents and his link to Claire. So that it didn't need any more thought on her part.

  Chi looked around for a moment.

  “Excuse me... Patty? You're the Alede Ambassador and this seems to be an Alede style problem, could you explain the situation clearly to everyone please?”

  Standing, Patricia regarded the crowd and then began from the most basic place possible. Explaining the biology of addiction, how an addiction to pure pleasure was the single most addictive thing known. How their culture dealt with people that addicted others on purpose and what the treatment for such addiction would be.

  “We have to taper them off. Going cold turkey would probably kill most of them and the list of people addicted here is... staggering. An Ambassador, an Assistant Ambassador, A princess and several others, all at least as important to someone here as any of the rest.

  “One thing I have to make clear though, is that Zack, Mr. Hartley, cannot have access to them until they're recovered, possibly not even then...” She stopped and looked at Zack, who'd shifted like he wanted to say something.

  “Zack... you have to understand. No matter what you do now, these women are all addicted to you. This association runs so deep that it will probably never be broken. We need to save their lives and protect them now... None of us here thinks you're a bad person, but this is, a vast screw-up. We can save them, but it's going to take the effort of all the Alede here and we can't have you accid
entally interrupting the process. Do you understand? From this time on, your right to produce pleasure using your abilities is suspended. I can't back that in any way, but if it isn't, then...”

  She looked around, not having anything at all to back it up with.

  Kate broke in then.

  “If you keep doing this, then I'll never talk to you again. Even if it means eventually starving to death myself, even if it will hurt me forever.”

  Chi nodded, thought for a second and then made pronouncement.

  “All right then. So Zack... No touching any of these women affected or messing with the Alede effort in any way, at least until Patty says they're cured, even then, you have to promise you won't do this pleasure thing again with anyone.”

  Merri broke in then, describing the problem that feeding the Alede had caused. After a bit of discussion, The Bat boy nodded and looked around.

  “OK... Maryl, you've never had sex with him, right? So you go and give him handjobs several times a day until this is over. I know, not exactly exciting for you, but, I don't know, Zack will pay you for it. Ten gold a pop. Understood Zack?”

  The Line-Walker looked very sad, but nodded. Kate shuddered, her own heart aching for him. He'd pretty much just been told that he couldn't have any contact with anyone he loved, possibly ever again. Worse, some of them, like Claire, he was actually bound to. He couldn't just forget about her and move on, they had to stay together.

  No one was really satisfied with the whole thing, but no one did more than glare at her about it either. Libby walked over to Don and cried on his shoulder for a while. Claire, ever the bastion of sensibility and practicality started to make arrangements for everyone to get home. Don walked over to her, half carrying Libby with him and told her that he could get them all back home.