On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (18 page)

The security man may have looked like a rent-a-cop, but he
moved quickly and professionally to secure the area, and called in back up. Insisting
that everyone stay exactly where they were, which meant the three attackers had
to stay on the ground. It looked cold and hard to Kate.
Good
, she
thought,
it probably won't teach them anything, but at least it makes them
that much more miserable right now.

Five minutes later about ten campus security members stood
around taking everyone's stories one by one. The small black man went first, at
his own insistence, telling them what he heard and saw, a look of revulsion on
his face.

“I was walking, headed to class, poly-sci and I saw these
three,” He clarified by pointing at each of the men still on the ground, two of
them still holding body parts. The ones Kate dealt with, the other just
sitting, dazed, but unharmed. Whatever Jelly did to him, it didn't seem to be
permanent. “Tackle that little guy with the blond hair. Well, that one big guy
tackled him, from
behind,
and then his buddies ran up and started
kicking him. They were screaming at him, something like, 'you fag, we're going
to fuck you' and the others were all like, 'yeah, we'll fuck you up the ass,
you homo.' things like that. I think they were planning to rape him or
something. I was gearing up to help, you know, by screaming or maybe calling
out for them to stop, cause I'm no great fighter, when that woman there flew at
those huge guys and started kicking their butts. I
was
going to help
then, so I started running over, cause, you know, I figured I'd look bad, if
some girl could take them out, and I did nothing, but that smaller woman ran
over and, uh, punched that guy in the stomach. So I didn't have to do
anything.” He gave his name as Morgan Hier and then stood back, while the
others were interviewed in turn.

Kate realized that the men
had
been yelling something
about Blaine being a homosexual, but they hadn't seemed like rapists to her. More
like they wanted to kill her friend. Still, no matter why they attacked, an
allegation of homosexual rape in public, even attempted, would get them in a
lot more trouble than if they were just drunkenly brawling on the college
grounds. She repeated what Morgan had told them, changing the words just a
little like she'd been taught in school, crying, letting her fear and reaction
show plainly now that everything was over.

“They were trying to kill him!” She cried, then made it sound
like she'd only pushed the attackers away, their wounds being due to falling,
though she admitted she'd kicked one of the men in the groin. Since he'd have
to go to the hospital to make sure nothing ruptured, there had to be an
explanation that seemed reasonable. The campus police called in the local
police when they realized that this looked like a hate crime, meaning that
everyone had to stay and give another statement.

The police wanted Blaine to go to the hospital, but he
refused, saying that he couldn't afford the medical bills. Kate knew that what
he couldn't afford was too close a scrutiny to his wounds, since he could heal
them by simply transforming at any time, as long as the wounds didn't heal
completely before he did it. As soon as he had the energy, he could shift and
repair himself, but not if the doctors reported things like missing teeth or
broken bones.

Morgan, the small man, dressed in a very heavy black coat
that looked oversized for him, helped Blaine back to his room, taking his arm.
Jelly moved in on the other side doing the same, supporting him between them.
Then Kate led them back to the dorm room he shared with Don. Morgan left them
at the door, telling them all to be careful. Oddly enough he stared at Jelly
when he said this and patted his pocket, while looking where she'd hidden the
crystal she'd used to subdue the man earlier. She nodded and looked down for a
bit before following the others into the room.

Don stood inside the door, having been studying on his bed it
looked like, based on the books and papers strewn about it. He took Blaine
gently by the arm and led him to the other bed, that had a worn but comfortable
looking old quilt on it, so that he could sit. Kate filled him in on what
happened, while Jelly fussed over him ineffectively, getting him water and
finding Don's stash of band-aids.

When Britney got there,
she
started crying. Sobbing
inconsolably.

Really it seemed a bit over the top to Kate. Blaine was a
fighter, after all. Sometimes you got beaten up. It happened, and he wasn't
going to be all that worked up over it, she didn't think. More like embarrassed.

Don moved to her and put an arm around her, which she turned
into a hug. After a few minutes she looked at her brother and sobbed again.

“I'm so sorry! This is all my fault!”

The girl was pretty even when her eyes were red and slightly
puffy, if in a dewy pink sort of way. One that she'd somehow coordinated her
soft pink shirt with. Brit went
silent
and refused to say anything else
after her first words on the matter. She looked at Kate hard, then Blaine. Her
right hand, with the last two fingers curled under pulled slowly across her
stomach. One of the hand signals letting other Alede know that the subject of
the moment wouldn't be safe to talk about in present company. Meaning Don and
Jelly.

“Brit... If people are going to be attacking us, then I think
we should
all
know about it, don't you?” Kaitlyn said, trying to sound
reassuring.

The blonde looked down and shook her head again, making the
same sign over and over. Finally Jelly stood up and excused herself, saying
that she had a report due. Blaine struggled to sit up, his ribs obviously more
than a little sore, gasping as he tried to get the short girl to stop for a
second. He worked his mouth, coated with blood that had run into the cuts and
cracks around his lips.

“Jelly... thanks for helping me out earlier. I didn't see it,
but from what that guy Morgan said, you really saved me.” He put his arm out as
if to give her a hug, then thought better of it and chuckled a little, clearly
in pain even from that. “I'd hate to have had that go on much longer... When I
get better we should hang out or something.”

Don shook his head, sitting next to Britney, who still cried,
hanging on to him for comfort.

“Dang man, even beaten up you managed to make that sound all
sexy and alluring. 'We should... hang out or
something
'. I should take
notes.” He sounded playful, trying to raise everyone's spirits.

 Jelly grinned at him, then, giving Kate a meaningful look,
cast a single line of thought toward her, one that said she'd explain later,
then turned and left.

Britney didn't try to hurry Don out of the room, which could
have been for comfort. It probably was in part, but it
also
served to
keep her from having to spill what she knew. Kate caught this instantly and Don
got it a second later. She almost asked Don to leave, when he moved away from
the crying girl a little, and told her to just spit it out.

“How is this
your
fault? Did you hire those guys to
attack your brother? I don't see how this could be about you. I'm your friend,
both of you... I think you can tell me what's wrong. I mean, I
know
you
both sleep with a lot of people, guys, girls, groups of people... unless you're
secretly into kids or animals, I'm good with it... So, what could
you
have possibly done to make this happen? Sleep with the wrong guys somehow? Or girls?
But how would that get
Blaine
beaten up? I'm confused...” He also
sounded it.

Britney just cried harder for a few minutes, then, surprising
Kate, choked out the whole story. Secrecy was always hard for Alede, especially
young ones, as she's learned the other day, spilling everything to Britney.

“A few weeks ago, just when the new term started, so less
than that, I went to “McC's” the pub that everyone goes to in town? Well in the
back bathrooms someone set up a glory hole, so, you know, I figured why not?
Guys lined up for like, two hours and I harvested massive energy from it.
Something about it being dirty makes the guys produce that much more... Anyway,
I realized that I didn't want anyone to know who I was and that everyone would
see me leave... So I sort of disguised myself as a boy on the way out. When I
do that, I look an awful lot like Blaine, so they must have thought that I was
him when I had sex with them. Of course at least
some
of them should
have realized I really was a girl when I was with them, based on what we did,
but enough of them saw me looking like that... I'm so sorry!” This all came out
frantically, rushed and harried. She hugged Don to her when she finished, as if
for protection.

Blaine stared at her, his eyes flying back and forth between
Kate, Don and his sister, finally resting on the blonde.

“
Britney
!” He rasped out, his words slurred from the
swelling of his mouth. His breath came in short pants as he struggled to say
something.

Don still holding Britney patted her shoulder a bit before
speaking.

“Wait...” He moved back from the girl and held her with both
hands, staring into her eyes. Very dramatically. “You're saying... glory holes
are
real
? I thought that was just something made up for the Internet. I
mean, I'm as horny as the next guy, but the idea of sticking yourself through a
hole in the wall, not knowing who's on the other side, or
what
they'll
do to you...”

Blaine grunted and tried to speak, but Kaitlyn put a hand
out, since the effort obviously caused him pain. “Yeah, they're real, but
mainly in the homosexual community. You nailed that one though, they were lucky
to find that the guy on the other side was good looking and disease free. Any
other glory hole and they'd probably be going in for penicillin right now,
if
they were lucky.” She went on to discuss the most likely places to find such
things and that most of the time when they were put in place somewhere, anymore
at least, camera feeds went up online immediately. They could just hope that
“McC's” didn't do that, or there could be problems later.

“In fact, I need to make a call...”

Pulling out her phone, she hit the third number on her speed
dial, which was a direct line to Beautiful Plus, more to the point, it was the
number for her mom's desk phone. It rang twice before it picked up.

“Alede embassy at Underwood, how may I direct your call?” The
voice was a rich tenor that sent a small shiver down her spine, even though
she'd never had sex with the owner. Actually, most of the time they'd spent
together, he'd locked her in small rooms or launched sneak attacks on her when
she wasn't looking, trying to trigger a catastrophic power meltdown that would
have had her killed if it happened. Only
that,
that testing he did, the
time he spent proving she was better, and the sessions in the void she'd spent
with Zack saved her from the national committee putting her down. Like a dog.

“Norris? Hey is my mom... wait...you know, I think you can
handle this one better than she could. We've had an attack on an Alede here...
no,
I'm
fine, it's my friend Blaine, male. Yeah, one of the twins.
Anyway, there's a situation and I know we're supposed to report these
things...” She covered the whole thing, including the backup she'd gotten from
the mage, Jenifer Stone and that Don was in the room, though his hearing wasn't
good enough to understand what came over the phone.

“I see. Hang on a sec.” Music started playing in the
background. “OK. We're sending someone through... Lisa insisted. They'll be in
your room in about ten minutes. Can you meet them there or do we need
directions to your location?”

Kate thought for a minute and realized that sending someone
would probably be the fastest thing to do, and volunteered Don for the task, he
just shrugged and left for her room, having a decent idea of where to wait so
he wouldn't get hit by Zack and whoever he had with him. She tossed him her key
as he left and asked him to hurry.

Britney wrapped her arms around herself and cried harder.

“Are they coming to arrest me for being so stupid, do you
think?” This came out with sobs, but actually sounded like a joke underneath it
all. Dabbing at her eyes, she tried to put on a good face for company, not
knowing who would be sent, or even
why
really. Kate wanted to reassure
her, but she didn't know who would be coming either, or where they were from.

The blood had stopped coming from Blaine's face, for the most
part at least, a small bit oozed out when he moved too much, but the swelling
choked the worst of it off. Large green and yellow bruises had started to form,
not turning black or deep purple yet. His right eye had almost closed totally
as they sat. Kate raided the mini-fridge and took a can of off brand cola out
that had Don's name written on it and handed it over to be pressed against his
eye.

Twenty minutes later a soft knock came at the door. Before
opening it, Kaitlyn asked who was there, just in case the attackers had friends
or something. The reply came immediately, though softly.

“It is I, Claire Hawthorn, Ambassador Prime of the S'ethuili
at Underwood. With me are Hildegarde Meorgeansdotter warrior of the
Trolleinkein and Eustace Frank, Captain of the guard, UCW.” A few heart beats
later, a deep but friendly voice rumbled through the door.

“I prefer Keeber...” The voice said innocently.

Kate had the door halfway open by the time Keeber had started
speaking and jumped into Claire's arms. Hugging the cold woman close to her for
a moment and kissing her, signaling the others that this person was known to
her. Kate asked them to all come in, stepping out of the way to clear a path
for them. Once inside Hilda turned and stood facing the door, her large hand
suddenly holding a
huge
handgun that she pulled out of a messenger bag
on her hip. Claire walked all the way into the room with Keeber, both of them
searching the space carefully, as if looking for possible traps or an ambush.
The big man with the close trimmed but very full beard sniffed the room for a
bit.