Other Places 1: Shortcuts (28 page)

"So, how are you, grandpa?"

"We heard you had a new job, so your grandmother and I decided to come and see you. It was a bit of a surprise to find out you'd taken up politics without telling us, but not that much. We did kind of set you up for it." The man didn't crack a smile at all, seeming to mean what he was saying instead.

Zack knew it was a joke, of course. The man was almost always kidding about something. It got him to nod his head anyway, agreeing without pause.

"All those lessons in Guild law and what-not. I knew it had to be more than the fact that you'd just forgotten how to do trigonometry."

"That too." Standing back he shook his head a bit. "You look a bit the worse for wear. I hear you've taken up pugilism as a sport?"

"Vampire attack. I can't say it felt all that sporting at all, to tell the truth. So, Maddy decided that we could use some help here? Sorry to pull you away from whatever you were doing back home. I should be able to take back over soon. I need to get some sleep first. I haven't for a few days."

That got his grandfather to give him a look that he could only think of as professional. After nearly a minute of close inspection he waved toward the front.

"Lynn will want to see you, she's watching the front of the place, with your new hire, Hiram? Interesting man. I'm almost certain I presided over a court hearing for him once. Petty larceny if I recall correctly. He couldn't have been more than your age back then." He started walking, making sure to go slow, in case Zack really couldn't keep up. That meant the trip that normally would have taken ten seconds took thirty, but it was a relief to just go at the pace his body wanted too. Wu-Li practically ran everywhere.

His grandmother was, as promised, at the front of the room, helping to set up a real Christmas tree in the front right corner of the space. Both she and Hiram were wearing little red fake fur hats that had white fluffy balls on the ends. She looked like she was having fun, smiling and kidding with the man, as they threw tinsel back and forth a bit. Some of it got on the floor, making Zack smile.

"Hey you kids, knock that off. It'll take forever to sweep that stuff up." He tried to sound serious, but it didn't really work, his tone being too happy. It was kind of nice to see his family again after all. He hadn't really, for nearly two years. It had been his idea to go away from them, because his being around had made their lives almost stop for a time, and it was only fair. The black haired woman walked toward him rapidly smiling. She looked Japanese, since she was from there originally, having come to America just after World War Two.

She looked young, since her specialty was in healing and working with plants, so like a lot of Mages he met that weren't into some pretty dark things, she only seemed to be about thirty or so. Younger than that, since her genetics were good that way. As she hugged him, an awkward thing that was mainly patting at his left shoulder gently, she grinned, which made her look a lot younger.

"Merry Christmas! Mr. Stone got a tree for us, isn't it wonderful?"

"Hi grandma." There was a playful way to her body language that made him think of elves. That could have just been the hat though. If so, the same magic wasn't working for Hiram very well. He looked a bit like the Grinch, only not green. "How have you been?"

The small woman looked at him and made a face at his own condition. "Better than you. I'd heard, but I didn't realize you'd go off on something as dangerous as a world tour in that kind of condition. What were you thinking?"

"That my new healing treatments might take my rift walking abilities away and that if I wanted to help Bob's wife I had to do it fast. Also, if we don't want her to die we have a time schedule. It wasn't fun, but I did a lot of energy work. Wu-Li says he thinks I even have the start of some kind of circulation now. If so, then I don't think I'm going to lose my abilities after all, since everything is working
that
way pretty well." Smiling he leaned in to give her a slightly less careful hug, knowing what hurt on him better than she did.

Then everyone except Hiram stood around looking like they didn't know what to say for a while. Finally his grandfather spoke, glancing up at the clock on the wall, which said it was nearly five in the afternoon.

"Well, that's a day for us then. You have everything here Hiram? We can stay and help with the tree, if you need?"

That got a dark chuckle and a head shake.

"Nah, take off. Jelly's coming in a few, and we can handle this. Thanks for giving us a hand here, while Lisa's out. Need me to open in the morning?"

Zack shook his head, which hurt, but worked as far as motion went.

"I have that part. I need to get off to sleep, like I said. I hate to just run off on you both, since we haven't seen each other in forever, but I kind of have to. Maybe we can get together tomorrow?"

That seemed like a plan, though neither of the older people mentioned why that was. It was horribly rude of him to just leave, but he wasn't kidding, if he tried to stay up any more he was just going to fall asleep anyway. It didn't even occur to him that he might need to be extra careful leaving until he was already in his own house, stumbling toward his bedroom.

No one had mentioned that any Vampires had been subdued or anything and there was just a chance that Lazar might be inclined to hold him responsible for not dying or something. It was stupid, but as far as he could tell, the man wasn't firing on all cylinders. Not that he was one to talk, but even "Crazy Zack" had enough common sense not to pick a fight with the Vampire council. He tried not to do that with anyone, if he could help it.

He woke up at about seven in the morning, hurting too much to sleep any longer and even though it caused him pain, he made a point of doing his breathing exercises and tried to visualize his internal energy moving like he was supposed too. There was a tea he needed to drink as well, which he did, but a little grudgingly, since it didn't seem fair that he had to and no one else did. Normal people had moving energy all the time, didn't they? Why on earth had his stopped in the first place? From what Wu-Li had said it was a long term condition and he couldn't really tell why Zack was still alive.

So he did the exercises and made himself clean up and get to work on time, even if he did feel a bit like he was dragging in, even after having nearly two whole days off.

Laziness, no doubt. He chuckled at the thought, then stopped and did the whole breathing thing again. Just as he finished his grandparents came in, both looking more than ready to work.

His grandfather winked at him.

"You beat us in! Good to know you're taking it seriously. Now, there's an appointment at eleven and another at three this afternoon. I'll take that one with you, though the first one requested a meeting with you specifically." He glanced at the pad in his hand, a yellow legal thing with light blue lines.

"First up is the local Shifter Ambassador, Catherine Peterson and her Aide Calley Hale? It's about getting help with Christmas decorations. I think you should get your grandmother in on that one too. The one at three is with a Keeley Thomson? Regarding a fitting for some party clothing?" There was a smile that went with the statement, which no doubt meant that his grandpa thought that it was about a real date or something.

Hence his wanting to meet her.

Zack just nodded, not knowing what to say.

"Have you two met everyone here yet? Lenore and the people from the food court?" He wasn't trying to distract them as much as find something interesting for them to do. That didn't really turn out to be a problem, since Brad Hartley was in town, and the former guild representative was
popular
.

There were two meetings for Zack, and nine for the other man. The first coming in at about nine-fifteen after Zack sent for coffee and Lynn started to sweep up the front and made sure the tree had water. Then she stood by it for a few minutes funneling energy to it, to help it stay alive. Zack was very nearly useless, it seemed, since he still couldn't even sweep up. He did the exercises again, breathing deep, as the woman watched him closely, nodding finally.

"Better. I hadn't noticed it until it was mentioned yesterday, but I can see the lack of motion now. That's really helping." As Lenore came in with a tray she looked up and smiled, waving to her a bit.

"Hello Lenore. Is everything alright?" There was no real hint of concern to his grandmother's voice, just friendliness.

"When is it ever? Zack, I brought you this." She handed over a cup that seemed to have tea in it, rather than a treat of any kind, which, it turned out, was the same stuff Wu-Li had him on. Making a face he drank it all, since the temperature was just about right for it.

"Thank you." He forced himself not to mutter the words, even as the slightly cloying taste of hay filled his mouth and stayed there for a while.

"I also have a request. The Alede Ambassador's daughter seems to have run away from her school and since that might be a problem, Valerie was wondering if she could bribe you to find her? I didn't ask as to the payment structure, but they aren't a poor group. Would that be something you might do? I told her some of what you've gone through lately and she assured me that she'll understand if you should choose not to aid her."

Having no clue what an Alede was he didn't feel any particular need to help her, but he also didn't really want to say no right in front of his grandmother. Besides, to tell the truth, it probably wouldn't take all that long and he could look into it after he finished his first meeting. It wasn't like he had a lot to do. His grandparents were handling everything pretty darned smoothly after all. It was probably just about the way the place was really supposed to be run, he realized. Normal hours, with no one having to half kill themselves or use drugs to get everything done each day.

"Sure. I could use a picture of her or something like that. I can't promise to get her back, but if she's near a rift I might be able to locate where she is. Don't promise any more than that though, please. I've gotten lucky a few times, but that doesn't mean it will always happen."

Lenore smiled, letting her fangs show a bit and then looked at Lynn, her face a good bit more serious. "Now, I heard that Keeley is coming later today? Has anyone told you about her?"

His grandmother seemed happy enough about the whole thing, "no, no one has, is she someone special to my grandson perhaps? Should I expect wedding bells sometime soon?"

It was a bit shocking to him, since she'd never said things like that about him before, usually glad that he managed to feed himself and do his studies. Lenore sighed and shook her head a little, smoothing the front of her light tan colored dress.

"I... honestly don't know
what
her intentions are. She seemed nice enough when we last met, but she's... A Greater Demon. One that, for some reason, has taken an interest in Zack. It isn't that hard to see why, since a human Line Walker is unique, if nothing else, but that shouldn't be a threat to her or her people. I just wanted you to know what's coming."

Zack grimaced a little.

"She's hot too. Looks too young for me though, so I don't plan on getting married to her. I probably wouldn't anyway. I don't think I'd be very good at it."

That got his grandmother to move closer to him, as if she were going to protect him with her own body against the horrible Demon that was hunting him. He didn't think it would either work, or be needed, but it was kind of nice to know that someone cared that much for him. Her eyes narrowed a little and she glared at Lenore just a bit.

"You let a Greater Demon near my Zack?" There was an accusation in the tone, but the Vampire just nodded a bit.

"It was a trick by another Vampire, one that might not have our best interests at heart. There's no excuse for it, but all we can do now is try to get everyone we can out of this alive and in one piece. That might not be happening, but we can only hope for the best."

Lynn seemed very serious in her black pants, white shirt and Santa hat then.

"Yes. See that it happens. Zack has been through more than enough of that kind of thing."

There was a bit of a glare and a nod from Lenore before she left, but his grandmother didn't say anything else about the topic at all.

For some reason he didn't really understand, M.H. took over and didn't speak at all, simply moving around the store slowly, making sure all the labels were toward the front properly. Because that wasn't suspicious at all.

It was pretty clear that the whole decorating thing for Brand Village was an excuse for the women that came to get in touch with him. That wouldn't have been so bad if he was just having to actually work on decoration themes, or even if Calley was pestering him for free stuff. Getting people for them or a deal on candles. He could have handled that fairly easily, to tell the truth. It would have been easier if his grandmother hadn't been standing right there taking notes too.

Catherine Peterson however, the Shifter Ambassador, was nearly the most unpleasant person he'd ever run into. If it wasn't for the Rabbit woman he'd met she would have gotten the number one spot, mainly based on entitlement. That and Lazar, based on the whole attempted murder thing, and all the pain.

It was bad enough that Lynn was glaring again not fifteen minutes into the exercise and Calley was busily trying to get Peterson to shut up without actually saying it that way, since the woman was her boss. The sad part there was that most of the things she was asking for probably could have been done easily enough, if she hadn't started barking orders right off the bat, going on about what she wanted done and when the deadline was.

Even
then
, if her concern had started with the decorations, he might have been able to work with her. Instead she demanded that he do a half dozen "important" transfers for her, since he was doing things for the Vampires all the time. He let her get through the whole list, listening to it and watching her closely. She was pretty, in a feline type of way. It didn't work nearly as well on an actual human as it did in Japanese anime however, so while she looked fine, it lacked the allure it might have had. That was fine, since he was about to start yelling at her if she didn't shut up. For some reason Mirror Him didn't come out to play, which was a little surprising, until he explained, talking into his right ear silently.

"Dude, she's
trying
to get a reaction from you for some reason. This is so obviously a set up I'm surprised you're letting yourself react to it at all. Why not take charge of the situation and see what happens? I can't do polite as well as you, so this one is yours, but I think she's scared of something. Find out what it is and use it against her." For once the voice in his head was actually decently calm and not abusive at all. That was freaky. M.H. should have been about ready to scream at the woman, but instead he was suggesting peaceful diplomacy? It had to be a trick.

Zack waited for a few seconds and then looked over at Calley, who winced hard, getting the forty-something and kind of brittle looking blonde woman to sneer at her.

"We don't have to bow to anyone. We're
Shifters
. More than anyone in existence we have the right to claim to be more than human."

After a few seconds and a lot more cringing on the part of the Bat girl, he looked around and nodded at the store, in which no one seemed to have done anything for the holidays at all. Several employees were inside, moving around, pretending to fold clothing, but covertly watching them instead.

He shrugged.

"Alright. So, Catherine, what's the real story here? I know you didn't have us come down here to try and piss me off, or assert that you're naturally better than someone you seem to want things from, since that would be stupid, so what's the real deal?" He waited, wondering if that was actually correct at all. He'd believed it when he said the words, but the second they came out the look on the woman's face moved toward livid instead of anything he might have expected to some from an Ambassador at all. It was kind of cool looking, given that she actually started to transform a little in front of him, standing right outside her own store, in the main hall.

That had to be a no-no, didn't it? Her features changed and the whole shape of her face warped, then almost as rapidly went back to normal.

"Real story? You can't ask me that!" She didn't try to hit him, but moved like she might, which got him to step toward her, slightly to the left, meaning she'd have to turn in order to do anything to him. It got her to freeze when she realized what he'd just done, which probably meant she was a very well trained fighter. Most people missed it when he did things like that.

"Or you can keep doing what you are, beat me down and start something that doesn't really need to begin at all. So,
yes
, the real story please. Why are you trying to make me mad? What do you hope to gain from it?" It was just possible that she was just naturally a bitch, but the body language from Calley was all wrong for that. She seemed scared, but not of her boss, which probably would have been the case if the woman was just evil all the time. No, this had to be something more complicated, didn't it? Some kind of trick or plan, maybe a reaction to something he'd done? What that was he didn't know, not until Calley started speaking, which got her arm grabbed and a solid hiss from Peterson.

That didn't stop her from talking though, not at all. In fact she shrugged the hand off of her arm and made a face.

"She got word that we were in debt to you and that Jahn wants
her
to find out what you want. By starting a fight with you, she was hoping that you might hate her enough to just leave, so she could say that you didn't want anything. Of course, later, when we come begging you for favors and you say no, she'd have to explain, but that might be years, right? Who knows, maybe you'd even forget that she was a bit unpleasant one day." There was a hard look at her boss, but the normally cheery seeming and hyper girl just seemed ticked off herself. Not at Zack at least, so there was that. "It looks like
you're
getting past her opening move with a calm and sunny smile, the one thing she wasn't ready for."

Zack touched his face to find he actually was grinning. He hadn't realized that before. Hopefully it wouldn't be considered rude of him, since he wasn't trying to goad the woman. Not yet at least.

"I see. Sort of. Well, why don't we put that on hold then, and you can try to make me hate you again later? Or, I don't know, come up with something to trade that isn't that big of a deal to you? I'm not even sure what you supposedly owe me anyway."

Calley, who probably wasn't going to be long in her job if she didn't learn to keep her mouth closed a little better, explained the dynamics to him.

"The land dispute was payment for one of the transports, but you made a lot more than that. One for each kid and then more for their luggage. Rutha should have left it behind, but she didn't, so now the debt is owed. Really though, no one thinks that the land thing is enough even for one person. It's kind of gotten us in a bind, since we only get so much money here, in our budget, and it's nowhere near what we'd need to pay you, if you want it that way. That was why I was at your house trying to figure out what you might want. It's pretty plain you aren't driven by
things
, so I don't know what we're supposed to give you."

Catherine actually growled at Calley, which was far less cute than it should have been, seeming a lot more like an actual threat than anything else.

"Why not tell him what I keep in my underwear drawer while you're at it? We can't afford to negotiate from a position of weakness Hale."

"We can't afford to
negotiate
at all. That's what I'm saying. Zack get's it, right?" Calley nodded, helpfully letting him know what she wanted him to say. It even sort of worked.

"How about this..." The pause seemed meaningful to everyone else and his own grandmother looked at him as if expecting pearls of wisdom to drop from his lips, even though he didn't have anything at all to follow it all up with. Finally he had to continue though, or it would seem like he was a moron. "I'll make you a deal, just for this first time, so that you don't end up going bankrupt or anything like that, being stuck with this."

Instead of seeming happy about it the slightly older looking woman frowned and seemed suspicious, as if he was going to ask for way too much from her. It was a thing he was beginning to notice a lot of people doing lately.

"Calley and..." He pointed, a nearly random thing that ended on a huge bearded man at the back of the room, who froze when he noticed the move. "That guy. They can come to my house." He didn't really have time for that kind of socializing, but if he left it open ended it would let Catherine imagine that he was putting them to work, doing something or other, to pay for her people's debt.

She didn't even hesitate to stick her right hand out to shake on the deal.

"Done. Well, that was easier than I thought. So, what about those Christmas decorations?" She seemed much happier then, even though Calley and the man at the back of the room both looked down, kind of bummed out. that seemed a little off to Zack. He was... When he thought about having to hang out with him he drew a blank himself. Fun wouldn't be the word for it. Or entertaining. Maybe they had the right idea?

The decorations weren't exactly hard to come up with, since it was a large window display with manikins in it, dressed in the stores clothing, which was pretty nice. He really should have asked for some of that, he realized, but it was too late now. Or, well it was pretty clear that they thought the value of his work was high, so maybe he could add to the fee, but honestly, he should have said that first. Asking for more after the agreement had been made seemed creepy to him. He decided to just get some Santa hats and garlands for the whole thing, some white material to act like fake snow and some strings of lights in red and green. It wouldn't even cost that much. The woman didn't even seem worried about the expense now, so the budget was clearly larger than she'd been letting on.

It wasn't until he and his grandmother were walking away that he noticed that he was being followed by Calley and his new, rather large, friend. The bearded one.

They walked all the way back to the store with him, looking down the whole time, like they were little kids in trouble. They did stop inside the door and look around, Calley nodding as she glanced at the tree and all the decorations.

"Wow. This kicks butt. So... anyway, what are we going to be doing? I really don't mind sex stuff, but I don't want to be food for Vampires if that's alright. I know, cultural prejudice, but..."

"
What
?" Zack didn't really get it for a long time but Lynn did, her face rather calm considering what she said next.

"Dear, you just took these two as slaves, I believe that they wish to know what their captivity will require of them."

"Oh."

After a few seconds he nodded and waved his left hand at them.

"Miscommunication... big time. I was asking you two to come
hang out
sometimes, dinner, maybe play cards or something. Have a movie night or whatever. It was just a thing to get that lady off of my back. You don't even really have to come, if you don't want to. Still, it would be cool to have some people over, every now and again, and you're both invited."

That got everyone to stare at him, as if he were stupid or something, but he snorted at them, Mirror Him taking over instantly and without warning.

"What? Do you really think you have anything I need? I work to pay my bills and get chicks when I want them, crazy or not. I mean seriously, Calley, you'd totally do me, right?
Of course
you would. My point is that I don't
need
slaves, or more crap sitting around my house. Money just buys
stuff
. I have enough now. So, yeah, I mean it, you two just come over and hang sometime and we can tell your people that you're handling things. If it comes up you can help me on some project or whatever. Don't make a big thing of it, because this is America and we don't have slaves here. Also, your boss is a little bitchy. You might let her know I said that, just so she doesn't get confused and think I like her or something." Then, mercifully, he shut up.

On the good side his grandmother didn't scold him for it, beaming instead and patting him on the back as if he hadn't just been completely rude to both these people.

"Well, there we go. I'd understood his words to mean something like that too, but it seems your Ambassador is rather more... free with the meaning of things. We should get together soon, all of us. Do you both have someone to bring to the party?"

The large man who mumbled that his name was Rupert when asked, allowed that he did have a girlfriend, who was a regular human. The idea of bringing her along clearly distressed him a little. Calley wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Nope, not me. Totally free agent. You could set me up with your buddy Troy though."

Zack wrinkled his nose back.

"Ask for yourself Bat girl. Don't think that you going out with him means I won't swoop in and pick you up myself either. Just a warning." It was true, on a certain level, but he was trying to sound playful too. The girl just tilted her head a bit.

"Alright. I can do that, if you want. Just remember, my kind aren't monogamous, so don't expect me to set up house full time. I don't think I could, even if I had to. It really isn't the way we're wired inside."

He nodded as if it was fine with him, which it really was. The jumpy girl was nice enough, but kind of jangling, it was a thing that could set his nerves on edge after a while, he thought. The whole conversation was a little hard, since his grandmother was right there, watching them all, but she didn't comment on it, just suggesting they all get together on Friday night."