by Power, P. S.
She just nodded soberly.
Merri stood next to him, putting more eggs on his plate, also just assuming that where he went, she went. If that meant taking on villains, her Shadow told him, she'd keep her sword sharp.
Everyone else agreed, even Val and Sarah, to his surprise, since they generally tried to avoid violence as much as possible.
“Sometimes you have to fight. Besides, hurting people, especially kids, makes me mad.” Val told them all.
Claire surveyed the damage before work, so that she could call in a contractor to have it fixed as soon as possible. When everyone else had left the room to ready themselves, Zack asked her if she'd do something for him.
“Look, I don't know who the people are that we helped that one time, with the pedophile? I don't even know the tall Vampire's name,” he held up a hand, getting that she wasn't allowed to tell him. It hadn't been spoken about, but it was clear. He was her maker, after all. If he asked her not to let anyone else know his name, she wouldn't. “And I don't think I need to know now. What I want to know, is, if these people do this kind of thing often, do you think they could use the information we have? I mean, we've collected a lot of information ourselves and the Demons gave us loads that we don't need, but still involved kids being hurt. Maybe those people, the ones that called us in, maybe they can use it?” He handed her a thumb drive, one that had everything they knew on it.
Claire nodded and took it, carefully not thinking about who these people might be. Zack made a point to ignore any thoughts like that from her. If they thought they needed this to be secret and Claire agreed, then he didn't need to know. The world held a lot that he didn't understand after all, so he'd deal with not knowing, just in case it turned out to be important.
He made arrangements with Merri to have meals brought in for the day at work. The morning went smoothly, a steady stream of people needing transfers, most of them from secondary locations, which he'd learned pretty well, to third locations. He moved through the void as quickly as possible, limiting the time there as well as he could. Nothing happened though.
At lunch he ate in Lisa's office with her.
“So...You and Maryl?” He had a hopeful lilt to his voice. She blushed and looked away though.
“She's nice. I don't know how you feel about it though, so I didn't make any other plans with her...” Hesitating for a moment, she just didn't start talking again, not knowing what to say.
Zack thought about it, even though he knew what he felt about the matter, he didn't know exactly what Lisa wanted to hear. Her Shadow just seemed worried and didn't give him anything to work with, so he decided to just go with his own sense of things.
“Well, I think you two would be good together, if you like her, I mean. As for you and me?” He saw her nod internally at that.
“We can keep doing what we have been, unless you don't want to, or Maryl has a problem with it. In that case, we figure out something else. Your happiness should come first in this, yours and Maryl's. Though...From what she's said to me, I don't think she'll have a problem with it. For that matter I know for a fact she wouldn't have a problem taking your place, sexually I mean. Because, she's mentioned it about a dozen times. But, you know, she's Libby's aunt. It seems wrong to me somehow. You'd think I'd be over things like that, but there it is.”
This made her smile.
She moved to kneel down on the floor, but he held out a hand to stop her.
"No, here..."
Zack bent her over the desk and used his hand, with tiny probes of pleasure, stroking her through her panties, causing her to gasp. He pulled out a condom from his pocket, taking it out carefully, holding the sense of pleasure scintillating on her tender flesh.
They'd talked about doing this before, but she'd waited on him, afraid to try sex with a man again, even though she knew it wouldn't hurt at all, not with what he could do. It took him a moment to get himself unclothed enough to put it on, unfamiliar to him, since the other women couldn't get pregnant by him it didn't normally come up, except with Libby, who assured him that she'd love having a child, but didn't think it likely, as her kind had some real fertility issues.
He pulled her underwear off, cute, colorful panties, which she wore just for him, he knew, in case he saw them on any given day. Her skirt raised, he increased the sense of pleasure running through her, not focusing on any specific part yet, just making sure the whole experience seemed nice for her.
As he placed himself touching her, about to enter, he focused himself, causing her to shudder with a warm tingling sensation as he slowly pushed forward. All her weight rested flat on the desk, her head turned, not looking at anything in particular, focusing on how she felt.
Slowly, he worked himself into her, her lower lips parted and swollen. She accepted him to his full length. Holding still for a moment, he let her get used to the idea, then increased the pleasure involved, as he began to thrust, until soon she began to buck backwards against him, an uncoordinated move, but one that showed her enthusiasm.
He knew that her desire to be with him had a lot to do with her feelings of obligation, to him and her own people, though she'd come to crave being with him, the amounts of pleasure he caused being addictive, he'd found, after using it for a while.
The condom dulled the sensation for him, so he thrust a bit harder than he usually would have, increasing her pleasure to a peak that almost sent her over into orgasm, pulsing it a little in time with his actions. Finally, he pushed the levels just a bit higher and held them there, causing her to let go. Spasm after spasm, but without relief from the pleasure yet, so she just kept coming as he focused on himself for a moment.
He timed his moves carefully, so that each time she pulsed he used the time between to best use. Finally he came, as she stayed in place, not moving for about three minutes.
He pulled out, carefully grasping the top of the condom, as she turned around to look at him.
“Oh! I didn't know you used a condom. Thank you. Kids aren't something I'm planning on yet. Lucky for me you're the responsible one when it comes to sex. I didn't even think about it...” She felt stupid for a moment, then let go of the thought, he saw.
They held each other and kissed for a few minutes, until he had to go to Lesser Shia.
As he translated to the other location, it occurred to him that Lisa loved him now. That the love had a basis in addiction didn't matter. He needed to make sure she didn't get hurt and that she had other loves, because he couldn't be enough for any more women. At times he feared that he couldn't be enough for one. Not really.
Zack blocked that thought out, just working for the next several hours. He almost didn't know what to do when the work finished and no one waited for him to move anything or take them somewhere, his focus had been so intense.
Just as he readied himself to leave, one of the translators came in. speaking to him directly, which was still rare.
“Mr. Hartley, there is a being here, a man we think... who says that he knows you and would like to request something from you. We don't have anything in place to deal with such things, what do you recommend we do in such a case?” The being dressed all in blue, face covered stood passively, waiting for him to answer.
Zack thought and didn't remember bringing anyone here that he hadn't taken back.
“Can you bring him through, but carefully, so that I can see who it is from the door?” That being the farthest they let him venture into the complex.
It turned out to be the tall Vampire, he had the man brought through, giving orders to always let him pass if he showed up, just in case.
The Vampire didn't speak at all, he just walked over to Zack and put his arm out, taking it they walked into Underwood.
They nodded to each other and he left, walking directly to Frozen YoGurt. Claire handed him something and he walked out, turned into the mall and walked away.
Claire motioned him over and asked him to stay for a while.
“I have some new flavor
s I want you to try. Charli suggested them.” She gave him a small cup with light green yogurt in it. He took a spoonful, expecting apple or Lime, but it turned out to be something else he didn't recognize. It tasted good though.
“Avocado.” She said, seeming a bit hesitant for her.
He took another bite.
“It's good. I wouldn't have thought to try avocado though.”
She fixed him another, this time with chocolate syrup drizzled on the top. It seemed all right, though nothing special. When she tried the other standard toppings nothing really stood out either. Finally she tried just a bit of maple syrup, which worked really well in Zack's opinion.
The tall Vampire walked back in to the Frozen YoGurt and asked if it would be possible for him to book passage to one of the European nodes. It didn't matter which one.
Shrugging, Zack got up and took him to Paris, not asking what the man had planned.
Over the next few weeks the same Vampire came in asking for passage to different nodes around the world. He said very little, and Zack didn't ask him anything.
The day before Halloween he came in and asked Zack to take him to a small town in the mid-west, he had maps and pictures of a child he believed to be there. He also asked for as much back-up as they could muster on short notice. This turned out to be Hilda, Troy and Beatrice the Demon, though Zack didn't know how she'd even heard that anything had been about to take place.
Troy stood ready, wearing his full armor, and a gun on his hip from a heavy leather belt that had lots of little pockets on it. Hilda also had a gun belt on, and carried her war paddle. The armor that Beatrice wore seemed like something aliens might grow for the purpose. If she lived in a comic book at least.
Looking down at herself, she gave a tight, slightly cold smile.
"It came from a specialist in Lesser Shia. It does good work. The weapon is from there too. From a different place." The thing at her side looked like a television remote control to him rather than a gun. A dark gray looking metal that had no seams or visible buttons or controls.
Nodding, the tall Vampire explained what they had to do.
“There's about twelve of them, Human and Demon, with eight children. Some of them are their own offspring, some have been kidnapped. It's a Human sacrifice situation. I scouted the area before. The little ones are being kept away from the area the adults use. We have about an hour, I'd guess, if we're not already too late. I couldn't get here faster.” He showed them what the situation should look like on the ground, using a hand drawn map.
They hit the Node almost immediately after that, and then waited as Zack tried to find the compound as fast as possible. It took about five minutes, and three shortcuts to hone-in on the location.
They attacked the place hard and fast, everyone aiming for the knees and lower body whenever possible, so that they'd leave the Demons alive, for Zack to get rid of permanently if it could be managed.
The people fired back, using traditional fire arms.
Zack thought for a moment, as he sat behind a low stone wall, hiding from the bullets. If he opened a rift, he could get to them from behind, maybe taking someone with him. He focused and in a few minutes had it ready to go.
He waved over the tall Vampire, who appeared at his side instantly.
“I have a rift opened up right behind them.” He didn't need to explain any more. The grim being just nodded and moved into position holding his left arm out toward Zack.
“On three then,” he whispered.
“One...two...three.” They stepped through.
Zack focused on the world completely, which slowed to a crawl. Pushing as hard as he dared, knowing that to do more would injure him, he summoned Shield of Innocence and ran, following the Vampire, who easily left him behind, though he could see where the man went, his arms and legs blurring a little with speed.
When he saw the Vampire go right, he headed left, swinging his small sword artlessly, hacking at anyone he could find. Taking off gun arms and legs if he could, on the Demons. One of them escaped, the body dying instantly as a bullet from Troy or Hilda hit it, reminding him to keep his head down. He extended a line of black force from his left hand, knocking out a regular Human holding a shot gun, who hadn't realized that his people were being attacked from the rear yet.
As chaos erupted, Troy and Hilda attacked from the front, Troy in the lead, swinging his own sword, a good bit more smoothly than Zack had, taking out the last two standing with fast blows to the arms and legs.
The tall Vampire grabbed one of the Demons and ran toward were they came from. The others did the same, Though Zack came in last, sort of dragging the one he had. The man wasn't helping and while not heavy, still was at least as large as Zack. Beatrice didn't fare a lot better than he did, though she was, he noticed, ahead of him. Her Demon was bigger than she was, too. He probably needed to stick with his exercise routine, he figured.
A few minutes later he started taking them into the void. He stayed ready for counter attack, but the four Demons they had were just regular ones, and died easily. As he finished the last, he noticed that the Big Shadow moved toward him, so he waited for it.
Something seemed wrong though, some character of movement or even just a sense of malice, he couldn't tell, though this being, most definitively wasn't his friend.
It came for him.
Remembering what he'd been told, Zack ran.
He sat on the ground next to the Node, gasping in fear as the others gathered around him.
It took a long while before he felt ready to try and take them home.
Even then, he hurried through the void like he never had before.
Chapter twenty-nine
Zack got through the next days by shutting down all the fear he could find within himself. It took him a while each day before stepping into the void to brace himself, knowing that at any moment he could find himself confronted with that nameless thing. Something about it frightened him on a level so deep he could just barely shake it, even using all of the focus and determination he could muster.
He moved through his day mainly taking orders and trying to be ready to move, to run, or even to fight at all times. It caused him to seem absent minded he knew, everyone around him started to worry.
Finally he knew he couldn't take it anymore, and that he had to face his fear, even if it meant dying. So, after work, four days after his sighting, he entered the void and just sat there, waiting. After a while, Big Shadow came.
So you met what we discussed.
A statement not a question. His friend knew everything that happened around him, it seemed, even though it sometimes didn't show up for years at a time.
He asked it how he should fight it, what he could do to make it go away.
That fight is not yours. It's not even mine. Others shall deal with it, but it takes time for such forces to move. All you must do now is be ready for the attacks you can handle and trust that, within reason, you will not be left to fight beings that you cannot understand or fathom.
It occurred to him then that if this thing would not be allowed to harm him directly, that he didn't have to fear it, even in the void. He asked why he should run from it, if it could not harm him?
There are many kinds of harm. With this, I fear only that you would be told lies that might distress you, or even truths you are not ready yet to know. There is good reason to fear in this, but from that being, the Nameless One, you need fear only what it might say to you and attacks from others it may wield as weapons.
Zack had to admit that this made him feel a bit safer about going into the void. Perhaps he'd even be able to work in peace. Or at least without having to constantly battle fear.
Then thanking his friend, Zackary went home, feeling a bit less like the world was going to fall in on him.
Being absent minded lately, he hadn't done anything for Halloween, though all the Vampires did and Hilda made Troy dress up as a bear and go to a party with her, Zack saw them as they came bac
k in. Val walked around that night dressed as a dowdy librarian, a look she couldn't really pull off, looking like a really attractive college professor instead, he thought.
He noticed that Maryl had moved in with Lisa and came to sit with them at lunch sometimes. It changed what they did after lunch, but he still enjoyed it, as he hadn't had a lot of chance to just talk to Maryl before.
What kind of knocked him back a step was when Charli had shown up in bed with Libby and him one night, apparently thinking that they were dating now, since the night of dancing with Maria and what happened there. Zack had put it all out of mind, but apparently the others hadn't. It had been a little awkward. Not externally, since she was fun and nice, but inside he worried that he just didn't have the time for another woman in his life. He was already failing them all, more than a little.
As time passed and he forced himself to keep paying attention to possible attack, starting to feel fatigue set in. It became harder and harder to find a reason to focus on it as intently as he knew he should.
In mid-November the tall Vampire came in and asked for transport to the Australian Central Nexus. As an aside he also asked if Zack knew where he could get a quarter million dollars... fast.
“There's a rumored slavery ring in Utah, and I may be able to buy myself in with about that much. If I can, then I should be able to break it open. It may just be a con though, so the money could just vanish into a hole. It's happened before.” The Vampire looked at him, thinking of an old time, when something like that happened, his Shadow self illustrating it for Zack vividly. He focused past this and ignored it.
Zack thought for a bit, not saying anything, just standing while the tall Vampire looked at him.
“I'm not sure we have that kind of cash here. We normally work in gold. Would that work?” He didn't know what the rules of these things were really.
This made the tall Vampire blink.