On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (21 page)

“If it comes to theft or force, Keeber, I want you and the girls
to leave immediately. I'll meet you all at Don's dorm room when I have the
evidence. It would be best however if we deal with this more... professionally,
however.”

At the bar, Britney caused a small stir with the wait staff,
and one of the bar tenders practically ran to the bathrooms with three or four
small black objects in his hands. Several of the waiters hung around the
bathroom doors, waiting for the girl to go in to one or the other.

Claire smiled and looked at the set up approvingly, “I see
that we won't have to search for the cameras at least. These men
all
seem eager to see you Britney. Perhaps we should seek out the person in
charge?” Claire started to walk toward the bar, probably to compel some answers
from the people there, but Kate put a hand out to stop her and looked around at
the lines coming from the people suddenly, and the cameras where they sat on
the ceilings in the bathrooms. She didn't have to see them to understand that's
what hung there on the other side of the doors. The lines made it perfectly
clear. It felt almost like they had a little sign on each one saying camera.
Not in words, but in feelings, a
knowing
that told her what they were.

She took Claire by the hand and followed the strongest line toward
the back, it was a deep blue mixed with black and purple in irregular splotches.
It didn't feel healthy, a little perverted and out of balance rather than ill,
it seemed to Kate. The line led into a closed room, but the door wasn't locked
so she just walked in.

Inside the large closet looking space sat a slightly
overweight woman wearing a black t-shirt and a light suede jacket in an ugly
red color that couldn't decide if it was pink or burgundy. She had on blue
jeans that looked clean, but well worn, and the expression on her face showed
habitual frown lines that didn't fit with the relative youth of the rest. Her
hair was brown, straight and just past shoulder length, which definitely wasn't
the best possible look for her face shape. She seemed to be in her mid-to-late
thirties to Kate, at a glance at least.

The woman turned to them and looked shocked, “Um, hello? May
I help you?”

Claire stepped forward, a smile on her face and her voice
smooth, as if she'd practice the speech she started giving daily, for years.

“I think you may be able to. I represent Miss Billings here,
perhaps you recognize her from the recordings you made of her a few weeks ago.
I believe on,” moving forward she pointed to two of the monitors in front of
the women. “These cameras in particular, though I could be mistaken...
Regardless, we've come here today to assess the situation. Our client didn't
realize that she would be on video, and is worried that she didn't give her
best performance... her intent being purely recreational at the time. If we
could review the recordings for quality and perhaps be given an option on them
if we like them?”

The woman muttered under her breath, but twitched in response
and started to edge her hand toward her purse, Keeber moved forward and stopped
her, looked in and then handed the bag back to the woman.

Turning to Claire he explained, “I thought she might be going
for a weapon, but it's just drugs. Valium I think.”

The woman blanched, but everyone else just stood there. Kate
finally stepped forward and put out her hand, causing the woman to jump, even
though she just held it out to shake, the woman recovered after a minute and,
trembling, took the hand, her damp palm touching Kate's dry and warm skin. She
let a slight trickle of warmth and trust move through the point of contact,
chasing just a tiny bit of lust, causing the woman to relax and stare at her,
suddenly realizing how hot everyone in the room with her was.

“We're not the police, or anything like that. All this is
about is assuring that Britney only puts out high quality work, at least as far
as the public sees. No one can do that all the time raw, so, if we could see
the footage that would be great. We don't even have to take it with us if you
have it available here?”

The woman sighed and asked them to wait for a moment, then
brought the footage up and explained as they watched it.

“Here's where she starts. I've got to say, it's some of the
best stuff we've ever gotten. I'm going to fast forward if that's all right?
We've all seen it here. It's pretty clear, till the end, where the camera
fritzes for a bit....” It took some time, even moving through in fast motion,
Britney having really spent some effort on the whole thing. The camera angle
stayed the same of course, through it did manage to move slightly, focusing and
zooming in, obviously under control of a human operator. At the end, Britney
got up from her knees, arranged her clothing so that the hood of her sweatshirt
was up and leaned against the wall, shifting into a boy that looked almost like
Blaine. Actually, Kate saw, he looked
exactly
like him, closer than even
identical twins would if they were human.

“We were going to cut that last bit out and sell the rest. In
five years we've never had that kind of footage come in. I mean, once a month
or so a drunk girl will go back, usually with her boyfriend or some guy she
picked up, or a drunk guy will suck off a few of his buddies, but nothing like
this! I'd hate to lose it, but we can't guarantee sales really... Porn doesn't
make that much money any more, not tame stuff like this, thanks to the Internet.”
The woman hunched up her shoulders, but didn't try to argue that she should be
allowed to keep the recording.

Claire surprised her, by asking that she remove the last five
minutes permanently right now, in front of them, and make a copy for their
files as well, telling her she could use the rest as she saw fit.

The woman went to work quickly and walked over all the files
with them. Then Claire looked at her sweetly, causing the woman's eyes to go
suddenly blank, and her voice flat.

“Is that truly all the copies of it?” She asked, sounding
friendly and relaxed. The woman shook a little, compelled, her will stripped
away and told them it was. Claire released her and shook her hand before they
left. Kate remembered when Zack had compelled her, the first time they'd met.
It looked calm from the outside, but she recalled the pure terror of it. It
took her a long time to really feel comfortable around Zack after that, even
though he'd turned out to be a really sweet guy.

Claire pocketed the small black thumb drive the woman had
given them and made pleasantries for a few moments with the wait staff before
they left. They seemed disappointed that Britney wouldn't be staying, but no
one said anything.

On the street Claire moved in next to Britney, taking her
hand and pulling her close, not hurting her in any way, but making sure that
the girl knew she was serious.

“I'd expect you to be more careful in the future, of course.
Your kind lives far too long for you to leave an extensive trail of film
behind... The quality of that is such that you can play it off as being someone
else, even now, to all but close friends and a few observant people that see
you regularly. Too much data would work against you though. I know this first
hand.” Looking at her, not sternly, as much as knowingly, the Vampire waited
for the blonde to nod before starting to walk again.

Back at the room Zack and Claire bundled up Blaine and took
off to go visit with the police and work out the legal matters as best they
could. Leaving Hilda and Keeber behind to guard them. Britney looked up at Kate
when they left and asked if those two could really protect Blaine if he were
attacked.

“Oh, sure. Claire's
really
tough and Zack can run away
like no one's business, so he won't be in the way. If it came down to it though
Zack could take care of things. He's not a great
fighter
, but he's a
decent
killer
. We just don't want that to happen here, if possible.”

Hilda looked like she wanted to say something, but instead
she just nodded, thinking before she finally spoke.

“I have to agree really. Zack is my friend and he's fought
for me
personally
to great effect, but his skills lay more in running
away than anything else. But that doesn't mean he's not brave! He's helped a
lot of people that were in danger...”

Keeber took over and told some of the stories he had about
Zack, many of which involved women trying to get him into bed for some reason.
Especially Libby. His telling of the stories was disjointed and innocent sounding,
even when he talked of Libby doing some fairly lewd things to try and get
attention, most of which Zack had ignored at the time.

Finally Britney, who'd moved to sit on Don's lap, holding him
in place with her own body, cuddled him a bit and asked if he was really all
right.

“If that... that
Hartley
hurt you, I'll... well I
don't know what I'll do, but I'll do something! Maybe I could sneak up on him
and hit him from behind.” She held the boy that had stopped being a boy for
real both a short and very long time before, protectively.

Keeber chuckled, but Hilda didn't, walking over to the girl
in three slow steps. Kate was afraid that she'd respond poorly to this threat
to Zack, but she knelt by the girl and patted her hand briefly instead. Hilda
kept her face passive and kind, which took work for her, according to what
she'd mentioned to Kate several times about how being close to Alede made her feel.

“I think your Don is stronger than you give him credit for.
If it came to it though, I think perhaps you may be able to take Zack in a
fight... He has a hard time hitting women, even if they deserve it. You could
use that to your favor. Also, if you don't use weapons, he'd probably not use
his more dangerous skills, so his trick of knocking a person away would be all
that he had left.” She looked at the other girl and considered something.

“Also, if you were to offer to have sex with him, and really
mean it, that might distract him long enough for you to get a few solid blows
in. He gets distracted at times like that, because he doesn't want to hurt the
other person's feelings, but also doesn't want to have sex with
everyone
all the time. But really, I think Don seems well. He's strong and healthy and
he has new powers as you saw, which speaks of
good
things, not anything
bad.”

Britney let herself be reassured when Don seconded this and
told her about the void. How it had been hard at first and lonely at times,
even if Zack had been right there, how he'd learned to focus so that, even as
centuries passed, he didn't really
feel
them anymore. There wasn't any
pain, and while he did almost dissolve into nothingness at first, he managed to
pull things together in time.

He turned to Kate, “Zack's friend, the Big Shadow? Totally razzed
me about that for like, a hundred years. It really likes
you
though. Oh!
I'm supposed to remind you to go and visit it soon. It asked for you
specifically.”

Britney hugged Don again hard and didn't let go for a while,
then suddenly pushed him away and turned to Kate.

“Wait! So, Zack is Hartley? The real one? Not just someone
with the same name? And... and everyone else is like some big important person
here then? Hilda is the Helga the Trolleinkein? Claire is Clara the Vampire Ambassador
and Keeber is...” She tapered off, since Keeber had, to her knowledge never
been mentioned in any of the Hartley stories she'd heard, not even the slash
fic.

Keeber chuckled, “I'm the guy that stands in the back and
only comes out when needed.” He didn't sound upset about being in that place. Pleased
in fact.

Britney went on, “Then, the others we met, Merri, who I think
I
may
be in love with by the way, since she's saving me from eating that
dining hall food, is Merri the Elf?”

Don broke in then, “Right, but don't call her an Elf. They
like Alfric. Or in her case,
maybe
cutie as long as you weren't in
public. She's pretty great, I agree.”

“And that girl that was here, the one that you like Don,
Libby, she's like,
the
Libby Paterson? Val is
Valerie Renner
?”

They all laughed at her reaction to this, though Kate
wondered for a moment about the state of Alede education that had a pretty
minor Alede functionary, Val, and an infamous criminal, Libby, being well known
to the girl, but the Vampire Ambassador and even Zack's first name left out of
things totally. Sure, cultural bias and all, and the thing with Libby had been
huge, so big that her family still had trouble finding work or getting people
to sell them things like food or clothes. Even the bats that hadn't been
involved in the betrayal of Zack at all were having some pretty tough times
over it. Demons and Vampires had been behind that, with an evil Arch-Demon pulling
the strings... Kate would bet money
that
tid-bit hadn't been covered in
the Alede's schooling either.

Britney glared at everyone, except Keeber, who she winked at
when her gaze crossed his, kind of ruining the rest of the effect, and put her
hands on her hips.

“Now, why were you all lying to me and Blaine about this
then?” She asked crossly.

Biting his lips Don turned away suddenly, not really trying
to hide his reaction, but trying not to laugh in the girl's face either.
Britney looked ready to hit him, but jumped him instead, pushing him back onto
Blaine's bed and sitting on his chest.

“Tell me... Tell me now or I'll...” She looked around and
couldn't come up with a good non-threatening thing to say which could still
work as a threat.

Kate shrugged and threw her an idea.

“You'll change into a boy and kiss him? That could be off
putting, since you look exactly like Blaine when you do that.” She turned to
look at the Human, “I mean
exactly
, Don. It's kind of eerie.”