Other Places 3: Detours (36 page)

"So,
when you were taken, they turned you into a slave? Your parents, Darren and
Tina, I mean?"

It
was like he couldn't bear to face the reality of things, but he wasn't a
regular Human, so it was simple denial, not inability to understand reality.

"No,
that was
Xenses
. The Defiler, in case it ever comes up. I get the much
niftier name of
The Line Walker
. That one kind of stuck. It should play
better in the bible belt, don't you think?"

No
one commented, the joke, as it was, falling flat. Lyn sighed and shook her head
a bit, looking at her husband.

"I
have something to tell you, Bradley." There was depth to the whole thing,
and a bit of sadness, because it was pretty clear that her love just wasn't
going to handle that kind of thing well at all. He hadn't screamed, or thrown
Zack out for being evil, but there was no need to push him that hard either.
Zack focused a bit and sent that single thought at her, which simply had her
shaking her head.

Then
she spoke out loud.

"No,
Zachary, I must. It is past time by far. Bradley, I'm a Greater Demon, too. I
always was. I'm not lying or playing a game with you right now either. I love
you and will always do so, but it's time for you to know this. It might become
important, over the next years."

Brad
looked at her and smiled, weakly, as if hoping it was a joke, and that
possibly, it
all
was. Some ultimate and unfunny prank, meant to cause
him grief, just to be goofy. Like those awful television programs. Zack could
see him thinking things through, or feel it, more to the point, and knew the
moment that it sank in. It felt like betrayal.

"How?
Why bother? I've put so much of my life into you. Both of you... I..."
What he was about to do, Zack knew, was have a meltdown.

Lyn
swallowed and looked away, shyly, as if trying to avoid the confrontation that
hadn't been needed. She could have kept her mouth shut, he knew and probably
lasted a few hundred more years, without the topic even coming up. At least
unless the others found her, or told on her, just to make her life hard. Like
Tarsus had, which was probably what he'd planned all along.

Lyn
knew that too.

Steeling
himself, Zack sat up and then sighed, holding his face with both hands.

"If
we're telling the truth, there's one more thing you should know, grandpa.
I..." He looked past his fingers as the other man stared, it being pretty
clear that even one more straw might just break his back. "I'm... black.
In my soul. African I mean, not a black Mage or anything. Inside though, I'm
all
about the hood." It came out sad, deadpanned and like he fully expected to
be cast out because of his admission. Really, it was about the best acting he'd
ever done.

Brad
gave him a dry look, but rallied a lot. Which was the point.

"I
think I always knew that about you, Zack." He didn't smile, exactly, but
did manage to sit up a good bit and not seem ready to fold in on himself.
"Here I thought you were going to say that you were gay. Not that I care
about that, even if I am from a different time. Most Mages aren't worried about
that."

Zack
snorted, "tell that to Eric Weise. He treats his daughter like garbage
over her being a lesbian. If I wasn't so busy, I'd be calling that man every
day and chewing him out over that. Not that it would help."

That
got both of the other people to nod, interestingly enough. Lyn explained.

"Eric...
He's been around for a while. It can be hard for the older people to adapt all
the time. It was why he had to fake his death, even at the height of his fame.
Back when he was Harry Houdini? That really isn't a great excuse.
I'm
old and I don't care about things like that." She grinned, looking at him
closely.

He
waved the glance away.

"Right.
Well, no boyfriends to bring home for Thanksgiving,
yet
. I'll let you
know if that changes. Right now, well, really, I just came to touch base. Make
sure you know that I'm eating enough and have a new job." He was going to
leave it there, but his grandfather, most likely looking to change the subject
from the topic of Demons, glommed on to that one.

"You
left the Guild Embassy?" He said it as if feeling slightly hurt, as if his
not working for the Mage Guild was him turning his back on the family business.
Which, made sense. Brad had been a representative for a long time with them,
before he retired.

Which
had been because of Zack. That and all the problems he'd had after he got back
to the real world.

"Oh,
well, they
sort
of fired me. Lisa freaked out and was acting like I was
going to make her my personal slave, so Eric Weise pressured the board to force
me out. Then they dropped the job of letting me go on poor Bob Millhouse. I
hadn't even thought of that before, but they literally set him up to insult a
Greater Demon, not knowing what would happen at all. That's pretty cold, isn't
it? He should lodge a complaint. I'll run that past him the next time we get
together. I'm supposed to go in soon and work the store for him, since he
apparently can't manage dusting or doing the ordering. Lisa is back to a
retreat. I got her booked in this morning. Wistra?" He didn't know if
they'd have heard of it, since it wasn't a common street drug, but Brad winced.

"Right,
you mentioned that before. It can be hard to break free from. Well, it's good
she's getting help. So, if you aren't there, what are you doing? Working with
the Vampires?" That last line was strained, if only a bit. It wasn't that
his grandfather was a bigot, as much as that he feared for his tasty grandson.
It was an old habit, after all, and not one that would be easily broken.

"I
started a bookstore. It has a little cafe and a node transfer business next
door. That's the real business, but I'm taking them all seriously. I'm also
planning a modeling agency. That's just for business experience. I have some
Alede that owe me some favors, and was going to get with Bente soon and see if
she had any tips or contacts I could trade for. Something low key?"

Lyn
looked at her husband then and then Zack.

"I
haven't seen her for nearly a century. We used to go around together, Bente and
I. The Fashion Demon. The Pristine, if she's ever over to visit. Well, if I'm
not going to be allowed my privacy, I suppose I should see to that soon then.
The Technician as well. We used to get up to some
antics
. For instance,
one time Darlene, Bennie and myself replaced the Statue of Liberty with a robot
that terrorized New York for five days. Then we got the papers to write the
whole thing off as ergot mold poisoning. Needless to say, I've calmed down a
bit, since then."

Zack
wanted to be surprised, but there really weren't that many of them, Greater
Demons. Probably fewer that were worth hanging around with, good side or bad.

"I
was just with her, Darla. The Technician. Different name now, but same person.
She got roped into being my mentor?"

That
got a pleased smile from his grandmother, who let her eyebrows raise a bit.

"
That's
something then. Most of the time the insane Greater Demons don't get that kind
of thing. Is this a new policy? I had Tarsus, myself, as would be expected, but
it wasn't really the same thing, back then. A sort of prototype program. I'm
not like you are however."

Zack
shrugged as his grandfather made a face. No one at the table would doubt he was
nutty, even if he was doing better now. Still, it wasn't polite to just say it
out loud, was it?

"I
think she just wants me for my body? Honestly, Keeley got her to do it. I don't
know why that is. It's probably a mistake, but it really is helping, I think.
If nothing else I can cook better now." He was about to ask why they
hadn't taught him that, as a child, when he realized that it probably had
something to do with the idea that he hadn't been all that together really.
Innocent and trusting, but not able to focus all the time. Cooking and baking
took that, though.

Focus.

Lyn
tapped two of her fingers together, the index ones from each hand, the rest on
the table. After a bit she let her mouth tighten and looked a bit mean.

"Yes.
The Mistress of Souls. She does seem to have a bit of interest in you, doesn't
she? Is it romantic, do you think? Or something more sinister?"

"That
second one. She plans to use me as bait to kill Xenses. Since I have an
agreement with him, that pretty much says I'll give him a chance to make things
up with me, I can't really help her that way. It's part of why Darla took me on
too, I bet. Actually, I know that one, since everyone told me all about it
pretty clearly. The only difference really is that everyone thought I'd be dead
by now, when it turns out that no one seems to really care much about me, one
way or the other. So for now I'm pretty much just working with anyone that
shows up and trying not to step on too many toes on purpose."

Brad
nodded.

"Well,
she seems nice, that Mistress of Souls. For a..." He stopped, and looked
at both the people with him, then went on. "For a teenage girl. I hear she
really isn't very old?"

"Right.
Sixteen, I think. Still, I have a date with her at midnight, her time, so
should get ready for that."

Neither
called him on the age thing at least. Lyn giggled though, hiding the move
behind her right hand, like a young girl. It looked phony. It was, but she
always did it that way, as if making it seem like an affectation on purpose.

"Well,
you two should have fun. Are you taking her somewhere nice?"

He
actually had someplace lined up, in his head, hidden behind the shielding
there.

"The
dumpster behind Denny's. I was thinking we'd go freegan? You know, get what we
can from what others waste? Girls love that kind of thing, don't they? Being
down with mother nature and all that?"

The
real point, which they both managed to catch on to, was that he simply wasn't
planning to tell anyone about the destination at all. Or even think about it
again. He really needed to get back to setting things to right in his mind,
then setting things up so that it would be really hard for anyone to just take
information from him, at least that evening. It meant several different types
of mental shielding, layered to make it harder to pull things from his
thoughts. After that, well, he had even more to set up. Like a nice basket, and
a blanket to sit on? Some wine and candles?

It
might not be a real date, but he could at least make it pleasant, right? It was
good practice, doing things like that, all the time.

They
finished eating and wouldn't hear of him helping to clean up at all. Then his
grandmother went to her bag, which was in the hallway and got out a ten dollar
bill.

"For
the food you brought."

Zack
understood.

Before,
she'd just been his Grandma Lyn. A person that had been there for as long as he
could remember, and who'd taken care of him. Family. She still was all of that,
but also a Greater Demon to him now, which meant that he had to treat her that
way, or it would require them to fight. Or at least have him not being invited
to holiday meals. It would be a mistake, to think that she wouldn't react to
him differently now. She almost had to, since there was always a chance that
he'd do the same to her, and that could be, catastrophic, if they weren't
careful.

"Thanks,
both of you. We should get together soon, again." It was the kind of thing
that you said, so he did it, feeling weird now, and a bit unwelcome. It was
like the world around him had changed, in the last few days.

Maybe
even before that? He'd been gone for years after all, and everyone said you
couldn't go home again. That seemed right, since this just wasn't that for him,
anymore. He passed out hugs and handshakes, and left before nine, meaning he
had plenty of time to set up what he needed.

It
was, well, nice, after a fashion. Nothing that he would have expected, but here
he was, with a life and everything. Oh, it wasn't perfect, but that was fine,
for now. All he really had to do was solidify the connections he needed with
everyone and to see to his daily work. For a while at any rate.

After
he did that thing with Keeley.

It
felt wrong, somehow, that part of things. Like he was being set up. That was
probably the case too. Tarsus was more than capable of putting in traps too
subtle for him to even see, he didn't doubt. Even using the truth to make that
happen. Really, that meant he needed to be careful, and not let anything take
him by surprise. Otherwise, his life might well end that night.

It
was a strange idea, and one that tickled at the back of his mind. Not that
there were dangers in the world, but that this one was close to home and had
been arranged very carefully. He just couldn't see what it was, clearly. Not
yet.

That,
he knew, had to do with him being insane.

He
actually had the information, but was refusing to understand it, because he
didn't like what it meant. It should have been enough for him to move past
things, but it just wasn't. Even knowing the thing existed, that there was a
trap, didn't make it any clearer.