by Power, P. S.
He told them some of what he'd collected.
“He's working for himself, and he doesn't mean us any real harm, he just doesn't understand me and wants to collect information on me that he can use if he has to. He'd picked Nikki because he knew she'd be young enough to influence and far enough away from the core group that he could get her alone for the time he needed to do the work, about twelve hours, without anyone noticing she'd been gone. He also wanted to know if Lisa and I had been sleeping together, hoping she'd change her lesbian ways and give him a grandchild. No lie, his Shadow actually said that.”
Lisa didn't seem pleased, though her relief that her father wouldn't have to be killed for being a bad guy seemed apparent to all. Zack noticed that she had been willing to entertain the idea that he might be an enemy easily enough though. More easily than Zack had, in fact. Even good parental relationships could be hard, he guessed.
Nikki brought him another yogurt and thanked him for getting rid of the compulsion. Her beast was angry, livid in fact, she coped well, not letting it show externally.
He got up and put his arms out, and she actually hugged him, though he didn't normally do things like that, hugging her. She felt like a Vampire. Cold, hard and not like his Vampire, though he still had an erection when he turned back to the table.
Lisa noticed but pretended she didn't. Kaitlyn on the other hand stared. She started to say something suggestive, then stopped herself. She fought to remove the thought from her head, eventually winning. Zack felt pride swell up inside, remembering that less than two months before she had almost had to be killed because of her inability to control her powers. Now she could control both her thoughts and reactions masterfully. Better than most Alede he'd met. Even the oldest ones.
Claire didn't react at all to that, focused on the matter of George Penbroke.
“I don't like that he used Nikki like that, but it isn't actually against either the charter here or Vampire law. Now if he'd tried it on me, as an Ambassador he would have violated at least the spirit of the rules. It's a bit odd that he spied on Zack at home, but again, not illegal.” She looked for ways to use the law against him, Zack could see the complex workings within her.
Zack though, thought that they should just talk to George, let him know that they didn't like that kind of thing and offer to tell him anything that he could think to ask. “That way, he can get what he wants and it won't be nearly so... creepy.” George struck him as a little officious, ashamed of his daughter's sexuality and suspicious of anything, or anyone new, but that didn't make him evil, Zack told them, hoping it would calm Lisa down.
Lisa needed sleep, so decided to go home. Her mind burned inside, he could see, feeling angry still and ashamed of her father and more than a little ashamed of herself for not being the daughter he'd always wanted her to be. Her Shadow self gnashed her teeth at all this, then carried the woman toward home.
Even though it was his night off, Blake came in to take over for Nikki, so that she wouldn't have to be alone all night. Zack walked them home, to his house, taking Kaitlyn and Patty with them. One nice thing about not needing to sleep, he didn't need to find beds for everyone. If they came and visited all night, the only thing they needed would be clothes and toothbrushes. Both of which they all already had at the house.
Hilda came out of Troy's room when they got back. Seeming happy.
"Troy and I had sex. I know that you can't smell it..."
She gave them only the briefest of hugs, her inner self fearing that the scent of it would be highly offensive to them, even though she consciously knew that no one there would mind at all. If they even had the ability to notice. Zack knew that Troy and Hilda would be spending a lot more time together, it shone brightly in front of him now. He couldn't tell the future, exactly, though he could see what would most likely happen based on what both of their Shadows were saying.
Merri came and sat on his lap, noticed his state and practically purred at him. He knew that it wasn't her own sexual desires that caused her to act this way, of course, though they were normal and healthy enough. It had to do with her need to gain attention from him. In her mind the highest goal she had each day involved pleasing him. Her entire homeland seemed based on the idea that men, no matter who they were, ruled over women, again no matter who they were or what they could do. The women believed this so much that they didn't even bother to argue with it. They just did what they thought their husbands, fathers or sometimes even older brothers, told them to do.
The phone rang, then Claire's phone rang, finally Patty's phone rang. Hilda simply went stiff, producing no ringing. A vision of Merle, her boss communicated with her in a quasi dream state. Zack didn't bother waiting to find out what had happened, he just put his shoes on, getting ready to go. He kind of wished he'd grabbed something to eat, but hadn't been hungry enough to bother yet. It should be a lesson, he understood, do everything when a time presented itself, because emergencies may come at any moment.
It turned out that he didn't have to go anywhere for once, though everyone else did. Apparently the United Councils had decided that they could no longer ignore the attacks coming from the Demons and had moved almost unanimously to suspend their Nexus privileges until such time as these attacks ceased.
They couldn't stop them from actually using the nodes, so all facilities had orders to kill any Demon coming out of a Node. Since it would only act to slow them down, having to find another physical body before they could interact in the outer world, it didn't even count as murder to most of the groups.
This required diplomacy, so all of the Embassy personnel had to go in to work. Surprisingly to Zack, because he'd never thought of it that way before, this included Merri. Not that her ideas wouldn't be of value, they were often very good in fact, he just didn't know if anyone there would bother to listen to her, being both young and female.
Zack got all of them back to the Mall, which would be closed for the time being to the public, until this situation resolved itself. They all had to go in through the back door of either their respective Embassy or through another if they would let them in. The public doors were locked. Zack just ushered everyone in through the back of Candles and More, then waited for Lisa to get there.
She showed up with George, Eloise, and Gregory, who still didn't come in often, but held the actual title of Ambassador for Underwood. Functionally it meant that he was the ambassador for the Northwest United States and Canada. Alaska had their own Nexus, and their own Embassy there.
“Zack? What are you doing here?” Lisa asked him, concerned.
“Just waiting to make sure you got in all right. I brought everyone else back, except Kaitlyn, Libby and Maryl. Well, and Troy, but this is a bit out of his area of expertise. Mine too. I'm going to go home. I'll be back in the morning or if I'm called for anything I guess.” He glanced at Eloise and remembered something.
“Oh! Eloise. I wanted to thank you for getting Clyde to see me the other day. I don't want to speak out of turn or anything, but it ended up being very important and really helped. So again, thank you.” He walked over to shake her hand, only to find himself pulled into a hug.
“Not a problem dear. He called me back to let me know what happened. He sounded very impressed with you. In fact he mentioned asking for another appointment with you soon. Some business venture no doubt?” She hugged him again, glaring at George.
“Now I understand that there is some issue with George spying on you at home and subverting the mind of one of your people?” Her voice firmed greatly when she said this. George stayed outwardly relaxed, his internal self stiffening and scrambling for excuses that could get him off the hook.
Zack waved this away.
“Yeah, a bit annoying, especially the business with kidnapping Nikki. He really should apologize to her for that. I suggest a letter though. Maybe a present. I don't think she's going to let him get close to her physically any time soon, to tell the truth. It could become violent if he presses the issu
e. Otherwise I think she's willing to utilize non-violent means to rectify this. Mostly.” He hoped that this got through to the man. Vampires were not known for their non-violent ways. That this embassy stayed staffed with well behaved, well disciplined people, was a gift and not the norm. If he pushed them too far, they may simply kill him.
He said good bye then, and asked them to call him if they had news or reports that he may need later.
“Lisa... In case it comes up, right now I'm not walking out of a line until this is resolved or we can at least establish safe passage. I don't want to be killed by someone feeling a little trigger happy and quick on the draw...” They all nodded. Gregory actually made a note of exactly what he said.
Once back home Zack found that he didn't have much to do. Betty sat on the sofa, about ten feet away from Kaitlyn, who sat watching television news, looking for anything that could be a sign of overt hostilities. Sometimes things were, she said to him. You just had to learn what kind of information felt wrong, and didn't fit the explanation given by the reporters.
Wandering to the kitchen he looked around for something to eat. Merri didn't leave leftovers. He'd a feeling that she didn't throw them out, just that some of the ladies ate a lot more than they let him know about, as if he would think less of them for it or something.
Merri also didn't allow much packaged food in her kitchen, preferring to make things from scratch if the ingredients could be found.
Betty went off to bed at about three, figuring she wouldn't be needed. He talked to Kaitlyn for an hour after that, his body staying aroused the whole time, even though he had kept his mind firmly away from any thoughts of sex.
Finally she came over and sat next to him.
“Do you want a blowjob?” She asked seriously. “Or even a handjob? I know that you can't take care of that manually yourself, probably due to an energy interaction of some kind.”
"I'll live. It would be like molesting my daughter at this point to do that with you. This is annoying, but it won't kill me."
“Okay, so if you don't want that kind of help from me, have you tried controlling your body directly, like a yogi would? You have the concentration for it after all. All you have to do is feel the right part of your body, then figure out if tensing or relaxing a muscle in the area will help, for the most part. Glands and hormones are different, but you can learn to control them too. Basically if you can feel the gland swelling, it's producing more hormones, if it shrinks, less.” She pushed her hair back over her shoulder.
“I looked it up, for the penis, blood flow diminishes when the muscles in the core contract, and relaxing them causes the blood pressure to go up. It's backwards, to what you might think, but you may want to give controlling it a try.”
He closed his eyes focused and contracted the muscles inside his manhood. After a few second he felt it move, going down. He kept it up for a few minutes, until the erection had disappeared.
“Well, that worked! Thanks Kaitlyn. I may be able to get a hold of this problem after all.” The girl smiled at him when he said that. Of course, he realized, she saw it as a double entendre.
At five-fifteen, Claire called with news. The Demons had decided to answer the threat made toward them with another threat. Saying that if any Demon were to be killed, if even their body were destroyed, they'd go into open, all out war.
“This isn't good, Zack.” His Vampire let him know. “In the last hundred years there has never been a problem this potentially dangerous. This could literally drag the entire world into war. Vampires, Humans, everyone. From what I hear, the upper council doesn't think we can back down on this one either and the Demons feel the same way. I don't see any good way out of this.” She sounded miserable.
Being important and needed to handle things she also had to go. Zack noticed her Shadow saying that to him, and nodded on the same level.
"Right. I'll clear the line, but let me know if I'm needed for anything. I'll be in later."
She hung up, not having said anything, but her inner self lingered, and blew him a small kiss. He did it back.
At six Zack dug out the number for a bakery. He actually had a card for in his room, but that meant trying to do it without waking up Libby or Maryl who were still sleeping in his bed. As it turned out, they'd intended to get up at about that time anyway, Libby told him in a sleep filled voice. As they took turns in the bathroom, he checked the bakery hours and decided to see if anyone would be there yet, even though they didn't open until eight.
The phone rang three times before someone picked up.
“Sunshine Bakery, Barbara speaking, how may I help you?” He vaguely recognized her voice as being Beth's partner. He felt a little closer to Beth, who he'd met several times after he'd helped save her daughter, Jenifer, from her crazy father that had tried to kill her. He'd ended up killing the man, the first person he'd ever killed, he suddenly realized, even though he'd killed over a hundred in the last few months since then. Though that was also spread out over a long time for him. Possibly thousands of years. He hadn't mentioned that, because it was too strange to bring out at the time. It might just always be.
Barbara would work for this though, since he wanted to see about getting some baked goods and she ran a bakery. He made a point to keep his body under control while he spoke, his words coming out smoothly still, as they had the night before.
“Hi Barbara, this is Zack Hartley. Do you have donuts, muffins, that kind of thing there?” By her warm chuckle he got the idea that they did, indeed, have such things.
Beth had apparently grabbed the phone and started talking to him rapidly.
“Did you hear yet, there was another attack last night, in Greece and now the United Council and the Demons may go to war. It's all anybody's talking about. I don't know what to do really. I don't want to go to war, but we may all have to...” Fear tinged her words.
“Right. I was thinking that since everyone worked last night that we could use some food. I think that the food court is mostly shut down, because almost everyone that works there is considered diplomatic personnel for the Alfric. So donuts, muffins, cinnamon rolls? I'm paying for it. I'll take as much as you have of everything like that. Even cookies and bread if you have any. I will need delivery on it, since I can't actually drive, but I'll pay extra for it if you want. I can bring the money to you now, or I can give it to you at the Mall. I have to get some from Lisa, because Merri normally handles the accounts and cash, but I think I can afford it.” After a moment of hushed talking sounding like a hand covered the mouthpiece of the phone, she told him that they'd have everything to the mall by eight-thirty if he'd meet them there, since she didn't think they could get in without him right now.
He gathered everyone just before then, and walked them through the shortcut just in time to see Beth and Barbara to pull up in their Sunshine Bakery van. A big white delivery vehicle with a giant sun logo on the side. He waved to them and showed them the back door to Candles and More. Beth went right to it, having been through that door over the years a lot more than Zack had in his little over three months at the Mall.
Using his key he got them in, everyone taking a large box and unloading into the back room of the store. Beth had him help her move a large rolling cart off the back. Lisa and Gregory came out to see what was happening.
“Hi Lisa, I need some money from my account, cash. I don't know how much, but whatever Beth asks for. Make her take the full amount, because we may need her in the days to come too. We have donuts, muffins, cookies and croissants. I think some other things too. I don't know if the food court is open, but figured the Alfric would be busy too, so...” He gestured to the rolling cart being filled with large pink boxes as he spoke.
To his surprise, Gregory spoke to him directly for the first time.
“That's a very kind gesture, Mr. Hartley. I'm sure that these will be most appreciated. In a situation like this, even the small things can sometimes make all the difference.” He bowed slightly, a movement
Zack had noticed a lot of people involved with the Nexus Embassies making. It seemed like a default move, what you did when you wanted to be polite, but didn't know the customs of the person you were talking to for sure.
They set up at the front of the food court, which had indeed been shut down. Mae, who ran the Italian Place, came out and filled a large container that had a pour spout with coffee, and left a stack of cups next to it, one table over from the donuts. She shamelessly grabbed a large apple fritter on her way back to where she came from, eating it efficiently.
Riley and Rose came over, Rose giving him a hug, then both loading plates with assorted baked goods. As they walked to a table, all of the Trolleinkein and most of the Alfric came out as well. The food disappeared rapidly under the strain of this crowd. He asked Libby quietly if she'd saved a box back at the store for them. She raised two fingers, and smiled at him.
Making up his mind, he took a box from the back that had assorted things in it and carried it over to where the Demons had their men's clothing store. The front of the store looked dark, but he could see their Shadows within, moving about slowly, even through the walls. He went to the wooden front door and knocked firmly.
After twenty seconds or so, after taking defensive positions around the shop, a voice he recognized as Devon's called out.
“Yes?”
Not wanting to scare them into action, he tried to answer clearly while sounding calm.
“This is Zack Hartley, Devon. I had some donuts and other things brought in and thought you might not want to head out to the tables just yet, so I brought you guys a box. As far as I know no hostilities have started, so I think it's safe to come out enough to get them. I'll stand in front of the door, so anyone trying will have to at least push me out of the way first.” He waited for about half a minute, no one in the shop moving.