Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (27 page)

That got the smallish to normal
sized woman to head toward the back with him. She was kind of dark skinned, but
still clearly a vampire. That was a subtle thing, because part of her was a lot
more human than that, but hit around all the edges. Pulling her into the node
quickly, Zack got to work.

The real change wouldn't take
place until he got her back through the node point, naturally. What was needed
however was care and finding the right memory of how people he'd been in the
void with were shaped on all levels. Then changes would be needed. Particular
ones, that had to be done perfectly, if David was going to survive the process.
It was, after all, taking an old thing, adding creativity, and coming out with
something new.

So slowing time down to a
standstill, or as close as he could get to the single point of focus without
ceasing to exist, he formed a plan.

All the while seeing his old
friend, Big Shadow, moving toward him, projecting pure rage and hatred. On the
good side, it took years for him to notice that Zack was there, and the
movement toward him was so slow that fear wasn't needed on his part. He took
his time, and made certain that he did the work correctly. There was no room
for error.

So he didn't make any, even as
the first edge of an attack came toward them. Nothing touched them however,
since Zack chose not to let that happen.

Stepping out of the line, he
tugged the new girl along with him. Claire saw, and understood, the whole thing
and got it, a lot faster than Zack would have thought she might.

After all, Denise had gone from
being a vampire, to being a shifter. Specifically a bat shifter. It wasn't
just
the external picture either. Yes, she had a flat nose, pale skin and freckles
like they all did. She didn't need glasses, since about half of them didn't,
and her hair was a deep brown, instead of rust red. It was naturally short
however, which was a trait they all shared. All the bats were like that. Also
tiny, and light. This new girl was smaller than any of the others he knew, by
several inches, and lighter by about twenty pounds.

The thing was, inside of the new
woman, there wasn't a beast at all, but a bat. A real one. At least it seemed
that way. She was a lot smaller, and thinner than Denise had been, since you
had to be small in order to change and fly. At least for that kind of shifter.
Which she could do, once she learned how. Change into a bat, and take to the air.

His girlfriend's eyes going wide,
Zack smiled. He held a single finger up to his mouth, making certain they knew
not to react or comment about what was taking place. If this new person was
going to try and infiltrate, they needed to give her a real shot.

Then he
pointed to the door, since saying
anything
would give it all away far
too easily.

It was remarkably hard,
and
easy, to get away for a bit now that there was more than one person that could
walk through the void. No one was upset over the idea of him taking a bit of
time away, even if it meant leaving them behind personally. Of all of them,
only Chris, oddly enough, seemed sad that he was going really. Even then, it
was clear that jealousy was behind that one.

A minor, tiny, and not very green
feeling that had to do with how few times he'd gotten to go away himself, and
the fact that looking like he did, being so young, he really
couldn't
.
The guy was thousands of years old, or, more to the point about a thousand, but
he
looked
fourteen. Worse, he lived in a world where he
was
fourteen. Meaning he didn't have his own bank accounts in the real world. There
was no credit card in his name, or anything like that.

The funny thing there was that
Zack could see the flaw in it. Chris, young looking or not, could change that.
Even if he didn't figure out how to do it himself, in the void, which could
take a while, the boy could walk into Lesser Shia and
hire
the work done
at any time. Full face and body alterations were common there, and not that
expensive, from what Zack had heard.

Even better, he could move there,
or to a lot of different places, where his apparent youthfulness wouldn't be
looked at twice. For instance, he could go to where Eve lived, and hang out there
with very few problems. A couple maybe, since he did look like a human kid, but
there, since vampires and other groups were out to the public, he could
explain
it all. It would be more effort than in some areas, but it
could
work,
and be almost like home. Possibly with a few women to go along with him, if he
wanted.

After a few minutes of moping
around, Chris shook his head.

"I know, I have it
so
hard. Poor one-percent-first-world-problem me, don't you think?" His
shadow shifted, turning to look at Zack, still clearly feeling the press of the
other man's freedom, not getting that he had the same kind of thing himself if
he wanted it.

Zack tilted his head and honestly
considered not mentioning anything. It was one of those things where telling
Chris that he had a lot of options might well backfire on them all. He could
walk away and work almost anywhere in reality. Really, he could go to a lot of
places and not even do anything in a lot of them.

Then he shook his head slowly,
since not mentioning something that obvious wouldn't stop it from coming
together in the boy's head.

"You
could
do it. Go
on vacation. In a lot of different worlds. Everyone is laughing at me here for
not doing that. I bet Eve could hook you up over in her world and no one would
think twice about it. Well, maybe a little, but there's a lot that can be done.
There must be... Well, an infinite number of realities we haven't even thought
of so far, much less gone to. Everything exists, in theory. I've been avoiding
the concept, since it means a lot of bad things as well as good, but if you
were careful..." He was rambling, or so it seemed to him, but Chris took a
deep breath and then laughed. It was a bit weak sounding.

Like he was
really
thinking about first world problems now. Also how little even those kinds of
thing had to impact him, if he chose otherwise.

Instead of standing there and
chatting about possible options, Chris sighed and shook his head. His neck was
thin, and his lank brown hair needed to be cut. After all, he wasn't just a
high school kid, but also a head of state, more or less.

"Good points. I'll be fine.
I'm not doing anything until summer anyway. I do want to get away then, though.
Maybe I'll get a place in the mountains somewhere? In the Trollienkeine lands,
maybe? I can get Hilda to teach me the language before then."

The idea was a good one, so he
nodded.

"That, Elth, and whatever
they speak at Lesser Shia. Being reliant on translators isn't the best way to
do business. You can set up lessons for that? After I get back, so I can do it
too, now that I have all this free time opening up. That part is so strange.
I've kind of been working for..." He thought about it, and had to shake
his head. "I don't even know. A lot longer than it seems out here, in
solid land."

Explaining that was the next
thing he had planned, but Chris got it. It wasn't the
void
, being filled
with all that solid matter. The entire place was rough, and filled with...
Stuff. All over the freaking place.

Chris waved, and walked off,
calling back as he left the front room where Zack sat on a sofa, alone.

"I'll get that together.
Maybe a few other languages? We should be able to figure out how to learn them
faster than most."

Then he was gone, and the room
went silent. Not really, of course. Zack knew the difference, in a way that
almost no one ever did. There was the sound of the clock across the room, and
the electricity in the wires of the place. His own body, even as he didn't
move, gave off a low hum, a pounding from his heart as it beat. The air slowly
going through his lungs, nose and throat. It was a cacophony, compared to real
silence.

Even Claire flowing into the
space changed things by so much that it stung his mind a little bit, now that
he was noticing it again. It took focus to kick himself out of it, partially.
Her shadow came in first, by about ten feet, and noticed him sitting there.

The sense of greeting was strong.
Also that his vampire was looking for him.

"Zack? I was speaking to
Lisa, and she mentioned renting a place for you at the coast? Rather, she already
purchased a house for you. Nearby, so that we can contact you at need. I think
that was her purpose in doing that, at least. It isn't a grand palace, but it
sounds cozy." She smiled, and moved over to him, sinking along side of
him, her cool body harder than a living woman's would have been. "Before
you go, could you do a service for me?"

For half a minute he wondered if
she wanted to have sex, but vampires didn't really want that very much. A few
of them around there could enjoy it however, which her inner self
was
reminding him of at that very moment. There were no words, just the memory of
things coming at him, but he picked up part of the idea. The big thing there
was that her words changed the meaning slightly, away from
him
getting
lucky toward something a lot different.

Claire smiled, and looked away,
as if she were feeling shy. She was many things, but that wasn't one of them,
so Zack didn't buy it, even for a moment.

"Luthor and his people have
recently been given a large amount of aid from a rather ancient vampire, named
Lissette. It was suggested that we, here, might be able to reward her, by
returning the pleasures of the flesh to her? I know that we don't have a real
payment that we can give you at this time, but..." Her inner self just
shrugged, copying what he did all the time, and suggested to him that she
wanted to climb the social structure, and being the person that Luthor went to
first like that was vast.

It nearly meant the man was
saying that she, Claire, was one of the most important of her kind. Given that
she was only about three hundred years old, that was a big deal. Luthor however
didn't particularly want to be in open ended debt to anyone forever, for some
strange reason. So he'd asked Claire to try and work out some way for Zack to
do it, since being able to feel sensual pleasure was a big thing after
centuries of not having it, but to do it in a way that wouldn't leave the
vampires open to all the cost doing that kind of thing
should
entail.

So it took him a second, as Claire
sat there, fearing he was getting angry at being asked for things, yet again.
It wasn't that, really, since he didn't bother with that kind of thing anymore.
It was just tricky to figure out a way to make it all work out.

"Would she..." Zack
tilted his head, then shook it gently. "I'd like for the others to learn
to do that, too. Don and Chris, at least. Maybe get Eve in and see if she can
pick that up, too? I think she might be able to, using magic. I don't know if
Kate can do it, but I'd like her to give it a shot. I think that at least
remembering what sex was like would be easier for her, for some reason. I just
don't know if she can communicate it well enough on the shadow level. But maybe
if we got a few people in to practice on? It's harder on the older vampires, so
that
would
be useful. A mix of them, both young and old?"

Claire sat up, suddenly pleased.

"
That
could work very
well. We could, perhaps, do this before you leave? Or after, if you wish. I
don't want you to be stressed before your holiday." She was both slightly
giddy, and a bit tentative.

Smiling, he stood up.

"Sure? If the victims can
attend? If not, then we can do it whenever is convenient. That will work
though? If we do a training run for some people, then the people volunteering
to help us out..."

"Indeed. That way we can
write off their help, and yet still reward them for their good deeds.
I
need to run and make a call, however. Several." Hopping up she hurried
from the room, moving a good bit faster than a human would have been able to.

Zack stood, and then stretched a
bit, bending over to touch his toes, and reaching up to the ceiling. For all he
didn't get to do that kind of thing a lot each day his flexibility wasn't too
bad. Then, thinking about what a trip to someplace he was going to stay at
would take, he walked to his own room and packed a small bag. It was a backpack,
though in his closet there was a real suitcase, too. This one, which was blue
and black, was just a lot more
him
, in some way. It fit, and would look
right, he thought.

He took some of his more casual
clothing, running shoes, and a swimming suit, now that he could do that kind of
thing. He still wasn't great at it, but Troy had taught him how to do enough
that he wouldn't drown, most days. They even had a pool in the back, but that
wasn't the ocean. Then, he thought about it for a moment and realized that the
Pacific in December might not be a great place to go wading.

Still, he'd have a toothbrush,
paste and cleaning gear. That and enough cash so he wouldn't starve, even if it
meant dining out for each meal. How that would be done he didn't know, but he
was, Zack guessed, almost ready. All he had to do was find the address, and
hopefully get some keys from Lisa.

That meant finding her, he
thought. It was getting late, after a fashion, being dark out already. It was
December however, so that happened at about five, more or less. Still, help or
not, she was just in her office at the candle store, fretting about leaving
Kate in charge for a week. Not because the girl couldn't handle things, however.
It was mainly about having known her when she was too young to be trusted with
things like that, not long before, to Lisa's mind.

It wasn't real after all, and
wouldn't have been even if the Alede were really seventeen, which she wasn't. After
all, if worse came to worse, they
could
just not take anyone through the
node.

Given that there would be
two
line walkers there, they could also just take anyone that came in. The girls
even had plans in place to get several of the others into play at times. It
wasn't like Kate didn't know the job either, so it was
really
just about
Lisa feeling more important than she really was.

Zack could kind of understand
that. She honestly did a lot of the work there, and that could leave a person
feeling like no one else would do it right. Zack sort of felt like that, and
there were a lot of other people that really could replace him now. That was
why he got to leave for a week. Thinking about that, he smiled, and looked into
the office, where Lisa was pouring over the schedule for the week, trying to
get it all in perfect order before she left.

"Hey Lisa! Claire said that
you bought a beach house? One that I can use, or is it just for you and
Maryl?" That hadn't occurred to him before, but
was
possible. It
was even within the bounds of reason that she could have told the vampire that,
and been misunderstood.

In vampire society, the more
important you were, the more things revolved around you. It was a sharper and
clearer thing than with humans, though obviously that was where the whole thing
came from originally. Zack wondered if, thousands of years before, things were
actually done that way. With each person constantly fighting for position, and
power, over those around them.

Lisa however lit up, hearing the
words.

"It's yours. I hope you like
it? It's small, and not a really nice place, but it occurred to me that you might
actually enjoy that? You always seem a little out of place at your new house.
If not we can get something bigger and nicer. There were some places available,
but this was a direct sale to the previous owner, and they took cash, so it went
a lot faster than normal. I have a map, some pictures, and the keys for it.
Um... Here we go!" She smiled, and pushed a stack of papers over the desk
toward him.