On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  Don shrugged and tilted his head to the side with a look that said, been there, done that, clearly enough that everyone smiled in sympathy.

  Jelly shook her head, “No, guys, it wasn't like that! George just said I should try to listen in to what you said at meals and stuff. The rest was all me. I mean, you invited me to do stuff with you, and I came because I like you! I didn't tell him about the Vampires or anything. He didn't see them because he didn't come to the room after they got there! He was only there the day before and that was Blaine and Don's room anyway. But after that he didn't ask me to do any more than listen to you at dinner. I told him what you said, but, it was in an open room... I know that doesn't make it better, but he didn't tell me I had to sleep with you and I didn't do it to get information or even stay closer to you because of that.”

  Kate tilted her head, "He was there? In Don and Blaine's room?"

  “What? Oh, Morgan, the guy that told the police about how those guys wanted to rape Blaine? That was him.”

  Britney crossed her arms and shook her head at the girl.

  “That still doesn't make me happy. You're going to have to work pretty hard if you want me to believe you're not spying on me now. Or Kate or Don. You can spy on Blaine if you want to. That should be all right. He's an exhibitionist anyway.”

  Zack didn't say anything, but he looked at Claire closely speaking to her shadow self and shrugged, then winced and told her he didn't know. It seemed insane, even when you knew what he was doing and that it was real. It just did.

  “Both of them did it and enough people saw them do it that we should probably just announce it. They even carried people through the lines multiple times. I'd like to take them more places tomorrow and have them practice before they go back to school, if I can get the time with them. If Kate is all right with being around me, I mean.”

  Claire smiled and walked to Kate, reaching out and taking Don's hand on the way past.

  “Both of them walked the lines? Just to try and save us from our... Past exuberances? Our Kaitlyn and Donald?”

  Half the people in the room looked shocked when they heard this. The other half just stood there, either already knowing about it and accepting it or not really being ready to care about that yet.

  Merri came back in to the room nervously, eyes down holding a plate of food.

  “Kaitlyn... I'm sorry about my earlier actions, they were beneath me and I shouldn't have...” She started to cry then, fat tears crept from her eyes. Taking the plate and passing it to Don, she moved in to hug the woman.

  “Oh, don't worry about it Merri! All's better and forgiven now. Later, when everyone realizes what Zack actually did, then we can have the next round of things. My guess is that it will be all about glaring and recriminations however. For now though, all you did was not make some food for me. I can go without a meal here and there. Besides, if I can forgive Libby for hitting me with a lamp or Lisa for going all, what do you call that look Lisa? Evil Gandalf? Or Jelly for spying on us for George, or even George for continuing to spy on us when I distinctly remember him being told that he could just call us up and ask if he had questions...” She shook herself a little to keep from getting sidetracked.

  “But anyway, if I can forgive them, I doubt that I'd have any grudge against you. If anyone has a right to be mad at me, it's you or maybe Claire. I mean I could have killed him today. I may not have superpowers, but if you hit a person enough, things can happen...”

  Claire cleared her throat.

  “I have to beg to differ Kaitlyn. Today alone I've heard you traveled the lines, the first Alede to ever do that without being taken through that I know of and I saw you move in a fashion that you rarely see outside of Vampires. Yes, it clearly injured you, with all those ruptures all over your arms and face, but you moved at speeds that some of the Vampires in this room would be hard pressed to follow. So, you do indeed have super powers and used them in a fight. I mention this not to make you feel good, but to point out that each blow potentially held death in it today. Keep that in mind when hitting your friends in the future.”

  Kate looked down for a minute, then looked up, pointed over to the corner and stared.

  “Look! A distraction!”

  Everyone laughed, except Zack who spent about ten seconds looking for it. Of course, being him, Kate wondered if he actually found it.

  Then she asked Lisa to give her George's number.

  “It's time we dealt with this once and for all.”

  She dialed the number that the older Mage provided her.

  After the second ring, a man's voice answered, saying hello.

  “George? George Penbroke?” She asked, making sure he actually answered his own phone.

  "Yes. May I help you?" He sounded professional, and polite enough really.

  “Great! This is Kaitlyn Swanson. I don't know if you remember me? Um, about five-seven, dark hair, really hot? Oh! I also work with your daughter and Zack Hartley?” She waited for him to say something.

  "Certainly. You're kind of hard to miss."

  “Well... Let's see... Could you come over here do you think? Because I'd like to talk some things over with you, if that's all right? It's nothing serious, and not a trap. Bring friends if you want or come alone. I promise that the worse anyone will hit you with is a raised voice and maybe not even that... What do you say? We'll have snacks...”

  Betty said something from across the room. Kate pretended not to understand her exactly.

  “Oh! And a really cute Vampire said she'd sleep with you if you come over. Um, I can't really offer more inducements than that, except to tell you that we have your current spy and you might want to come and make sure she's all right, don't you think?”

  To his credit George's first words were don't hurt her and he assured them all that the girl Jenifer wasn't really spying on them, just listening at a distance. Nothing that she deserved or needed to be harmed over. Then, shocking Kate a bit, he said he'd be there within an hour.

  Kate thanked him and hung up.

  Betty walked in front of her, smiling, but crossed her arms over her black stretch shirt, the action pulling the cloth a little tighter over her firm breasts. She put her left foot forward and cocked her hip saucily. After a few beats she leaned in and kissed Kate on the mouth without changing her posture at all. After breaking off she laughed.

  “I said, I'd fuck him up. It's not exactly the same thing. If I have to put out now... Well, then you owe me, that's all I'm saying.”

  They all looked at Kate as if to ask what she thought she was doing, instead of telling them that she was playing it by ear, she laid out a basic plan.

  “This needs to be wrapped up now or else someone is going to end up being killed. If we were even a little more upset today, what might have happened to Jelly? What might still happen to Nikki and Rebeca? They aren't going to want to be men forever and while I think I can shift their girl forms now too, with enough energy from Don or Zack, so they look different that way too, why should they have to be other people? Yeah, they weren't sweet and light in their retaliation, but seriously, I'd have killed the guy for what he did and I'm nice!”

  She moved to sit on the sofa, next to Troy and Hilda.

  “So we're getting thing fixed tonight if we all have to line up and do Lisa's dad until he cries uncle.” She looked around the room. “Except Lisa. She gets a pass on this one.”

  Lisa stood shuddering at the idea, stopped, looked around the room and shuddered again. This got most of the Vampires in the room to at least chuckle.

  They discussed what they wanted to achieve before George got there, going as far as to make extensive notes, if hand written. Betty grabbed them and came back with printed copies from the computer room about ten minutes later, bound in little paper covered folders, everyone in the room got one. Kate's had a nice bright pink color. Pink was one of the best, non-sex, related things about being a girl, she thought. It could be overdone, but then any color could. This bit in
her hand, with its glossy cover and smooth texture just lent a bit of happiness to the room.

  The Vampires, under Claire's direction set up a large table in the living room, big enough that everyone could sit down, with extra seating available in case he came with a small army. By the time the car pulled up, a nice silver sedan, everything was set up as well as possible on such short notice.

  Kate walked to the front door, since she'd been the one to invite him after all and welcomed the visitors with a smile. George she recognized and caused to pause when she gave him a hug at the door and offered to take his coat. She shook hands with the others, because she didn't know them. A tall brown haired woman caught her attention, but just because she looked so regal. Another gray haired man, smaller and thinner than George, who wasn't fat at all, followed with a darker skinned man that looked Native American and wore comfortable looking Jeans and a work shirt made of something heavy, like flannel.

  She took their coats and jackets, hanging them up in the front closet by the door, asking them if they had any papers or weapons they wanted from them before they went to the meeting. The Native man nodded and pulled several items from his pocket. One of them a knife wrapped in a plain leather hilt, wrapped with a string that had beads, stones and bird feathers on it.

  In the room itself, she put an arm around George, signaling that, for this meeting, he had her protection, for what that was worth. She asked him to introduce his friends please, as they sat.

  “Of course,” George said smoothly. “This gentleman is Daniel Fort,” He gestured at the older of the two men as he sat near the head of the table. “Next to him is my lieutenant Gabrielle Harris, next to her is Harold Peirce.” The last wave of his hand went to the Indian looking man. Looking at him Kate realized she hadn't ever slept with a Native American before. Not that race matter in sex at all, but still variety was always nice.

  George looked around, saw Jelly and nodded.

  “I trust you haven't been harmed in any way, Miss Stone?” George said first thing.

  “No... Um, they knew all about me before I got here, or got the internship.” She gulped and sounded scared. Lisa looked over at her father and raised her head.

  “That's true. We knew before Eloise put her forward to the council by the way. She felt it wouldn't be proper to let your involvement keep the girl from such a potentially career advancing experience. Nor do we intend to let it happen now either. So, with your word on the matter to leave her alone, I think we can take Jenifer out of play with no harm to her or her family?” She said this civilly enough that no one blinked.

  “Agreed.”

  This, oddly, came from the older man sitting next to Mr. Penbroke, but George nodded that he agreed as well, so did the others.

  “Great! This is going so well already!” Kaitlyn enthused. “Now, there are a few things we want from you Mr. Penbroke and I Imagine your... organization?” She turned her hand up toward the others at the table next to him. “To start with, even though we can all understand how... uncomfortable you were made by Nicole and Rebeca, given that it was in retaliation for an extra legal action, an act on your own part that could be best described as forcible mind rape, I think that using large but not harmfully sized dildo's to anally sodomize you for a small fraction of the time that you did that to Nikki is a fair, if embarrassing punishment, don't you, if you really think about it?”

  Kate looked at him frankly and openly, so caught the phases of his response, shock, embarrassment then denial.

  “You've been misinformed Miss Swanson... I was kidnapped and deprived of sleep while being forced to watch a children's television program for nearly a week straight. My dignity was impinged, but I wasn't sexually violated.”

  Kate sat up, eyes going wide...

  “Really, are you sure? Because, well, what you described, it doesn't sound like fair retribution at all. I mean, I would have done more to you for that and you yourself would have had someone killed or mind fucked back in the same way, wouldn't you? Making you watch kiddy shows for a week? That seems, well, a little unlikely, especially in light of your rather extreme response to what could be described as gentle hazing...” She shook her head, unable to believe she could say this and keep a straight face, much less a tone of voice that sounded serious. Even more amazing, everyone else at the table kept a straight face too.

  George colored a bit, “Don't play with me, Kaitlyn.” He growled.

  Looking at him squarely she gave him a rather vulpine grin and licked her lips a little, in a way that caught his attention easily, as he'd temporarily forgotten that, no matter what else she might be, Alede was first among them.

  “Are you sure you don't want to play games George?” She made her voice soft, sexy and light, as if in invitation. Heck, if sleeping with him would smooth everything over she'd do him right now, on the table. Even if it would scar Lisa for life. Maybe they could get her to leave for a while?

  He blinked solidly and humphed.

  Kate nodded then and leaned forward.

  “All right George let's get this out of the way. No negotiation here, no games, for now at least. No jokes... Back off Nikki and Rebeca and take your punishment like a man. What happened to you sucked. We all get that. Except it seems, you. You can't see it as a lesson about what not to do to other people as it was obviously intended. So get it. Agreed? Or do we really need to go over this single thing for hours when you should have gotten it by day three and the thousand playing of 'won't you be my neighbor?' It's in your court, but all the fun stuff only happens if you bend on this point...”

  For a second she thought he'd storm out or grandstand, claiming that anything done to him had to have more weight than something done to some dead piece of trash, instead he closed his eyes for a full minute, no one speaking at all, and mutter a quiet word.

  “Fine.” He intoned.

  “Fine? As in, you'll call everyone and everything off of all of our people, especially Nicole and Rebeca, no tricks or games? We can simply start with a clean slate, on both sides, and go forward as friends?” She made herself sound hopeful in a tone that all the Alede understood, since it had been taught in school around the fifth grade. Designed and practiced to hit every heart string in a male human. She looked at him adoringly. She knew that he knew at least part of what she was doing, but that wouldn't matter, since the fact that she bothered to try had an impact too, showing him how much she wanted all this to happen.

  Sighing, he looked at the people he brought with him, who shrugged, tilted their head or nodded, basically showing that they didn't really have a problem with the idea.

  “Agreed. Nicole Bartlet and Rebeca Smith will be free of retribution as long as they agree to not pursue any harm, violence, or hazing, against me or mine. Is that agreeable?”

  Claire asked for a definition of mine in that context, and then agreed, speaking for her people, that they wouldn't go after him or any people working for him as long as not directly or indirectly attacked. Don cleared his throat and waved to George when he had everyone's attention.

  “I, uh, have an idea... From now on, when we're all dealing with each other, since we're all friends now, why don't we do away with the lawyer language and start acting like friends? Everyone here on this side is saying don't hurt our friends or set them up. In return we agree not to hurt you or set you up in the same way. No loop holes, no take backs. I know, a bit playground, but it should cut out about three hours of going over the same thing to reach that basic agreement.”

  George actually chuckled at that, Harold, the Indian nodded and smiled.

  “I like these people, George. Perhaps we misjudged them earlier. Sorry if we did folks, things can happen when you don't have all the information...”

  Clapping a bit, happy that things were getting settled, Kate started on the next section.

  “All right, spying. Don't do it. In return, we give you and your friends here, as long as they all check out that is, a seat at the table. If you want to know so
mething, you ask and we'll tell you. In return, you do the same for us. All above board. If you really have to keep some Mage secret under orders, or don't want to tell someone what you're getting them for their birthday or something, no problem.

  “If you do have a problem, actually tell us! We may fight and argue about it, but you'll get way better intel that way. And, even though it hasn't ever, to my knowledge, come up that we want to know about you, past where you get your suits at least, we'll just do the same with you.”

  They agreed, but Kate could tell that they didn't believe they would actually be told anything.

  Kaitlyn sighed a bit, understanding the idea, but not wanting to let things fall apart from just their lack of trust. So she covered everything that had happened that day, ending with the successful resolution for his daughter and the others. He looked grateful, and relieved. That beat the baffled that she'd expected really.

  “See, now that was a bunch of information, including the nitty-gritty details that you probably didn't want to know, not all of them, like what Zack and Lisa were doing that allowed that situation to happen, but...” She laughed when George put up a hand as if to urge her to stop there.

  “Right. So, what do you think, are you all in?”

  She looked at the people sitting there, all of them looked to be in basic agreement with the idea now.

  She told them that she planned to hold monthly meetings, and more if there were emergencies, she'd get their numbers and call them if things came up and expected them to do the same. Then as a finale, having their agreement, she did something no one else at the table, except Zack and probably Don, knew she was about to do. Zack sent her a tendril of thought, saying “do it”.

  “All right that just leaves one thing, which, will of course, lead to a thousand more.” Glancing at everyone around the table she continued.

  “As of today, there is no longer one Line-Walker, but three. Now, Don and I aren't as good as Zack yet, and we all seem to have different strengths and skills, but the point is, with three of us, there are enough for us to declare ourselves an actual working body. A government body if you will. So, from this point forward no one is just dealing with Zack, but instead with a complete Nation.”