by Power, P. S.
“Remember, in the days, weeks and years to come, when everything hangs by a thread and we all wonder if we made the right choices, remember then, that only by standing together can we defeat this enemy. Remember to not blame others for actions they did not take and to not blame ourselves for failure either, while we still have a chance, no matter how small, to succeed. Thank you.”
Picking up that he didn't plan to say any more, the crowd slowly began to clap, a few of the leaders hooted or yelled, in a rather undignified manner, Zack thought. He nearly laughed. Those needing translation reacted slightly slower, but over the course of about twenty seconds everyone in the room did something in response to his words. Table pounding was popular as a response.
Zack realized after a few moments why the vast majority of them were so excited. Not because his words had been brilliant or meaningful. No, they were all just happy that he hadn't gone on and on for hours. Apparently a few of the members of the summit really liked to talk. About everything.
Eloise walked up to him, the older woman looking exhausted. Wearing clothes that he'd brought her a few days prior, now with wrinkles as if she had slept in them for days, her hair was a mess and dark blue-black circles under her eyes. She had to sleep, but a lot of the beings there didn't, so the thing had run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
“If you'd sign the document, Mr. Hartley?” Her left hand gestured where to go. That was behind him to the right. He saw that everyone else had made some kind of a mark, design or written their names on the lines provided. The last line had been reserved for him apparently. Because the signature of the only bus driver they had was apparently a big deal to them. He signed quickly, understanding his own real part in this, at least a little.
Pausing he wondered if he should add some kind of title or something, though he couldn't think of anything that reflected his part in things at the moment. So instead he summoned the sword Merri had given him as a wedding gift, the short blade, for a sword, suddenly appearing in his hand by some magic he didn't understand. It was incredibly cool however, just being there like that, his fingers closing on it without conscious thought. Shutting off pain reception in his left palm, he drew the blade slowly across it, leaving a line of blood welling up.
Zack put the sword back where it belonged to be tidy, even though he had never been sure how he did it. It seemed that this ability existed in the blade itself, not inside him at all. It sort of knew what he wanted and did it, in a very limited fashion.
Then he used this blood like a stamp pad, coloring his right thumb in it and pressing this lightly onto the paper in front of him, next to where he had just signed in black ink. It was a thing that he'd read about in a fantasy novel once, but seemed properly dramatic. Eloise handed him something, a piece of cloth she pulled out of her pocket. It absorbed the blood well enough that nothing got on the floor, he noticed, thanking her with a small smile.
The room had gone silent.
After a few moments, a murmur started. Slowly at first, he couldn't make out what he heard. The translators, who never spoke for themselves while on duty, had begun to chant in unison, saying his last name over and over again. Soon everyone else had started doing this too. Even the Demon Representative, though he smirked a little while he did it.
Standing awkwardly, not knowing what to do, he finally held up his right hand, signaling for silence. They all quieted down, waiting to hear what he might say.
“Please...Stop that. You're embarrassing me.” He told the room.
Silence again, only this time, instead of chanting, the room burst out with laughter instead. Some of it was strange and a few did nothing, but that was fine. A lot of different traditions were represented there, after all.
Eloise hugged him. Then, as if everything had been announced over, by some signal he couldn't see or hear, everyone moved to the Node room, wanting to get back home.
The next hours passed as a blur.
Finally, he took Eloise, the last of the leaders to leave except Clyde. Even waiting until after the translators went home, back to Underwood with him. He sat down, not physically tired at all, but feeling oddly drained emotionally. Relief flooding over him that, at least for now, war had been averted. Lisa, had been told what had happened a short time before by Nikki. Who Claire sent over with the news. His boss went over to hug Eloise happily, a sense of relief flowing over her.
"Should I call for a car to come and get you home?" Her voice was gentle now, as if she feared that the older woman would collapse. That wasn't going to happen however.
“That would be wonderful dear. I haven't slept in my own bed in weeks. I believe Zack read the treaty, so he should be able to tell you what we'll need to do for our part. We're going to be putting in passage circles on all the nodes we can, at all of the major Nexus locations. It could take years, decades even, but we need to start as soon as possible. This will be a national effort, but we've decided that it should come out of this office. Don't worry, you'll be getting staff for it! They won't physically work here, not for a while at least.” She smiled, this being an inside joke between them, Zack realized.
Nikki took him by the arm and started dragging him away.
“Claire wants you, then everyone else. It's more efficient to drag you around than it is to have everyone cluster in one place. Safer too. Now that you've got that huge target of a treaty on your back.” She linked arms with him, as if he'd try to escape or something, he noticed.
He felt the coolness of her skin next to his, noticing again that she truly was an animated corpse. He let this go instantly though, as a baseless worry. After all, he reasoned, aren't we all just animated corpses, when you looked at it deeply enough? Why should he consider one type of animation better than another? That seemed like pure bigotry.
First Nikki took him to Frozen YoGurt, where Claire fairly tackled him, almost to the ground and held him tightly for a few minutes. Everyone else just standing around and smiling, then moving in on him as well. The place was still immaculately clean. The bright yellow and orange booths and tables gleamed, and the front glass and silver machines held no hint of dust or smear. Through the window he could see that Candles and More hadn't been kept up that well. It rarely was, even with all the work they put in. Part of that was down to the fact that Claire simply insisted on it. All the time.
Keane hugged him too, though the others just clapped him on the back, a few of the more reserved, just shaking his hand.
Claire placed a hand on his shoulder, and looked directly into his eyes.
“Things are different now though, Zack. You need guards with you at all times. Nikki and...” She paused, looking around the room for a moment. “David. After you've fed each night, you'll relieve his evening shift and stay with him. I don't know how long this duty will last, if it goes on too long, we'll try to get you days off and such occasionally.” She didn't ask if they wanted to do this, Zack noticed, she'd just ordered it done.
Their Shadows both seemed proud, though. Especially David, who saw this as a major promotion in the ranks. He'd managed to show enough patience and steadiness over the last few weeks that Claire herself had selected him to watch her bonded mate. The young Vampire decided right then that he wouldn't let her down, no matter what. Even if it meant permanent death.
When they left, Nikki didn't link arms, taking a position in front of him instead, about ten feet ahead. David fell in behind him, about five feet back, both obviously searched the mall, as if expecting someone to jump out at them at any moment.
Nikki kept searching around them with her eyes as she spoke.
"You need to make the rounds of all the embassies, first thing. Then you can go back home, or to work. Whatever you want to do. Let us know first, so we can prep for it, as needed?"
“So, you're taking this body guard thing seriously then?” He asked her, looking at her back. It was a nice back. Firm, and covered by a black shirt that hugged her tight body. Lower down her jeans were also blac
k, if faded, and not quite as tight as they could be across her... Zack turned his mind away from that, and focused on controlling the response that tried to come.
“Uh, huh,” She replied, not looking at him, scanning the hall instead. “Until this is over, whoever it is that we're going up against is going to want you dead. One being in the whole world can stop their plan for good, by taking out their ability to transport people and resources. So, yeah, Claire thinks they almost have to come for you. It could literally be any moment too... Honestly, we should have more than just the two of us.”
They went to see Devon next, at the Clothing store, to see what he had going on, since they were on the same side now. At least according to the papers everyone had signed. Zack wanted to see how this spirit of cooperation would trickle down through the ranks.
Devon didn't shake his hand, but did bow politely and welcome him warmly enough. It didn't even have that slick edge to it that Demons often used, that set his teeth on edge if he didn't block it out.
“It's good to see that senseless war has been averted.” The Demon started, Beatrice standing at his elbow. “We all wanted to thank you personally as well, for your consideration during this latest trial. You made an unpleasant situation more bearable for us, for which we thank you.” He bowed again. It was a little stiff, but didn't seem angry or anything like that. Then, he wouldn't unless that kind of thing would further his agenda of the moment. For now the Demon seemed to think that bowing and being polite was the right idea.
“Don't mention it. We're on the same side now, so that kind of thing is simply to be expected.” He smiled, then looking behind Devon, and yelled as another Demon, one he recognized from his visits to the shop when he delivered food, raised a firearm at Zack and opened fire.
He dove toward the ground, rolling, trying to summon enough focus to slow time around him. It helped, but didn't give him super speed, he realized, it just let him see what happened more clearly, and gave him more time to come up with a good response. He could push himself faster this way, but most of his real speed came from getting rid of unneeded movements, hesitations, and slow reactions to changing events.
Nikki and David charged the Demon. She grabbed the dapper Demon, who wore a well tailored suit in smoke gray, pulling him to the wood tile floor. David grabbed the gun, a shining black and steel gray, Zack saw as he kept rolling on his side, laying out flat on the ground. The Demon did something, bit down on something hard, making his jaw clench the muscles along the edge of his square face bunching, and after a long time his body started to spasm.
“Cyanide!” Beatrice called her voice low pitched and slow. The Demoness moved over to try and clear the body's mouth. Too late to be effective though, the Demon had left the physical body and now floated toward the back, Zack saw. He followed the black pill shaped void that hung in the air, into a back room, where a Node stood waiting.
Understanding what the Demon intended, Zack ran, as fast as he could, throwing his energy as far in front of him as possible in order to increase his running speed and dove, just before the black object could enter, into the void.
There he waited, watching, time crawling along, for the Demon to emerge. As it did, he allowed space to roil and boil within it, holding this until it couldn't stay together any more.
When he finished, when the Demon ceased to be, he smoothed the space over it. It would be impolite to leave a mess, after all. Zack stepped back out, into the room he just came from. Not dropping his focus on slowing reality around him, which meant keeping his movements economical. Otherwise he might hurt himself, or burn too much physical energy.
Nikki and David instantly took up defensive positions around him, watching the other three Demons carefully, ready to fight if they moved wrong.
Beatrice spoke first, her voice so slow that Zack had to allow himself to come back toward normal just to pick up what she meant.
"Did you get Richard? Can you do that? Destroy one of us once we leave our host body like that?"
“Yes. He doesn't exist anymore, on any level.” He took stock of the situation and realized that this would be an almost perfect way to destroy the treaty, before it even had a chance to start, getting a known Demon to try and kill him. One from his own mall even. It wouldn't even have to succeed. Just the attempt being made might rip things apart, since so many people involved really didn't think that the Demons could be trusted.
Which, most of the time, he agreed with. Demons had hurt him, so... Did that make them all bad? Was he any better to think that, than old southerners were in thinking that every dark skinned person was horrible, because some had once been a problem for them? Or the other way around?
He made a decision then, hoping that he wouldn't regret it later.
“Devon, I'd like for Beatrice to act as my liaison with your people. If you have no objections? You need a presence around me, I think. To show that incidents like that,” he waived toward the Node in the back, “aren't officially sanctioned. I know that this may not seem thrilling to you, Beatrice, but so far you're the only Demon I can actually stand being around for more than a few minutes. No offense Devon or... Sorry, I don't actually know your name...”
The Demon in the back just smiled. He was in a younger body, that looked to be in his late twenties or so. Young looking for a male Demon host.
"Scott. I can see how that might have happened however. I've pretty much avoided being around you, just in case it might tick you off."
“Still, no offense meant.” Zack hoped he seemed polite as he said it. It was really hard to be nice to them though. They were Demons. Still, he needed these people, these beings, in order to hunt down their kind. Without them he could chase Demons around for years, possible centuries, without much luck. He'd pick off the little ones, the ones sent in as shock troops, but he couldn't get any higher than that without help.
Devon looked at Beatrice, as if asking a question. Finally she nodded.
“Agreed then, Mr. Hartley, Beatrice will act as your liaison and guide through our system, if that is what you wish. We, Scott and I, must begin figuring out who Richard had contact with. It rankles that we allowed him into our midst for so long without realizing he held other allegiance.” Devon's voice regained some of his normal smarm as he spoke. Zack couldn't really understand what he meant by it though. Unless they felt betrayed too? Did Demons have emotions? Or was it all just an act?
They headed out, still needing to continue their rounds.
Nikki faked a clearing of the throat, doing it decently well, and brushed at her long black hair.
"If we let every assassination attempt derail us, then this is going to take forever. Stay ready."
They hit Beautiful Plus next, knowing that the Alede would want to see him, if only to reassure themselves that this treaty held weight. Plus, they'd just heard all that gun fire and fighting, and probably the conversations that had taken place.
Patty walked up to hug him, causing Nikki to stiffen slightly. Patty noticed, but just smiled at the Vampire and walked around her to Zack. She kissed him hungrily, running her hands over his back as if sending a message. It took him a second to realize what her Shadow said, but he finally got that she intended to send a message to everyone watching. Basically she said, this one is mine. She knew that from this point on, their plan to kill a certain Demon would be harder to coordinate, so she stated her connection to him early, in a way that no one around them would question. In case they needed an excuse to be alone together at any point. It was a good idea.
“Hey love!” Zack said, hoping she'd understand that he'd picked up on her meaning. Or at least was so enamored of her that her plan would work.
“We came by with information, and to make certain everyone gets topped off. Is it all right if we all use your office for that?” He hoped the Alede wouldn't mind that they had an audience now, since he didn't think that he could get Nikki or David to leave them alone and Beatrice who had followed along already, might feel insulted
if she were the only one sent away.
Gathering around, Val going first, none of the Alede showed any hesitation about doing this in front of the Vampires or the Demon. Though they all looked curious about what they were doing.
David got it first.
“You're feeding them? Kind of like a super happy meal for them or something? Cool. Would that work on Vampires? I'd much rather have you feeling me up once a day than have some half stoned freak trying to get me to go down on him for a couple ounces of blood.” David spoke freely, realizing that maybe he shouldn't have only when Nikki glared at him.
Considering his link with Claire, Zack didn't know if it would work or not.
“I don't know, honestly. I suppose we could try it and see. If it doesn't work, it at least shouldn't hurt. I'm Human, so it's basically life energy. Really, that kind of makes sense.” He extended his hand toward David, who looked around guiltily, Nikki still glaring at him, then opened his shirt as he had seen the Alede do moments before.
Zack started the energy breathing, allowing the flow to circulate through the Vampire as he did it. It didn't seem like anything had happened, David just standing there, without moving. After about five minutes he stopped.
David stared at him, then motioned for Nikki to try it, before he said anything. Zack shrugged, then winced because he had shrugged and repeated the whole thing with her.
“That's...” Nikki stood unmoving for a bit. “I think that we could use this instead of blood. It may be better. It's like raw life energy or something. I couldn't drink that much blood at once, enough to get this kind of energy. If we get a chance we should try this without feeding first and see if it takes away the thirst too. If so... Well, given the current detail, it could come in handy. Finding donors without mugging them is always a pain and Claire forbids that kind of thing.” She explained that mugging meant just running up to a person, knocking them out and feeding on them. Since you most often took their cash as well, most people didn't even realize that anything other than a robbery had occurred.