Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (30 page)

The girl, Ginger, who had hair
that was straight and just past shoulder length, looked pretty young, but
wasn't
.
She had a smile on her face however, and managed not to seem to shy about
accepting, having knowledge of what was planned. Not that she totally trusted
it all, but inviting them to all go along meant it was a real enough thing. A
gift meant to soften them up for some kind of bargaining later, probably.

Which, if it got her a sex drive,
would, she assured him happily on the inner level, probably work out for him.

No one whined about the bit of
walking that going through the shortcuts entailed. Surprisingly enough most of
them had done it all before, with the greater demon version of him. It wasn't
his only trick, and most of the time other Zack made his own nodes now, but
before he'd known about being a demon it had been what had happened with him,
too.

This all came from Lenore's
shadow, her outer words not matching that at all.

"This is most exciting. I do
wonder, is the version of me there nice?" There was a grin that went with
the words, as they walked along. That kind of thing that women did when they
were flirting with you gently, but also wanted to be able to deny it later, if
they had to for some reason.

He just answered the question.

"Oh, yeah. She's great,
really. You probably have a lot in common. Enough that you'll either get along
or we'll have to pull the furniture back so it doesn't get trashed in the
fight. Don't do
that
, though." He looked at her, a bit of worry on
her face, as if that would be the real response to herself. Both of them seemed
pretty cool to him, so it wouldn't be happening that way. "Then we'd have
to wonder who the evil one is, and you'd both be all 'No, she's not the real
me, I am!' and all that. No,
much
better to avoid that part of things.
Though if it comes up, the secret code word is...
Grapefruit
. Everyone
got that?"

They actually all agreed with
that plan, as if it weren't a joke. Then, for all they knew their other selves
would be pains in the ass, or really evil. After all, he could be the good
version of him, who wasn't a demon. Maybe other people were like that too.

So far they seemed like people to
him, really. Polite ones that didn't go around starting trouble. So he was a
bit surprised when he got to the back of Yoghurt World to find several people
standing there, two of them looking angry. Like they wanted to fight.

One of them was an older looking
woman, who had red eyes, fangs out, and a bit of gray in her short cropped
hair. In a business skirt, which was a solid brick red. The other lady was...
Well, from her interior being, she was a woman, but she also had elements of
being a man.
Mainly
a female however, and she was in a dress, so Zack
decided that was good enough. She was cute after all, and didn't seem to have
her fangs deployed to rip at his throat. Not like her friend.

There was an argument going on,
and it wasn't directed at him, but rather a combination of a small, very thin,
bald man with big ears, and Eve. The older looking woman was going after her,
growling and not willing to attack.

"No! We can't send away two
of our most important people like this! There's no way to know what these
beings have planned, or what they actually are, even. Even if we have to send
Eve, and director Hawthorne, we
can't
risk Bey." She coward away,
both inside and out as she said the name, though the small man simply smiled at
her. Even the giant beast inside of him did that.

"I'm certain that it will be
fine. Eve has scouted the area, and tells of people not so different than our
own. Kinder perhaps? Trusting enough to send young Nicole from their world to
ours, knowing that we would keep her safe. There is some risk, but there always
is in life. Should we not give them the same respect they have shown us so
far?"

The other woman, the one that was
part man, shook her head.

"This is a bit sudden,
and
set up by a greater demon. Even if no harm is intended by these others, we
should be... Wary, perhaps? If they take you, then we're not going to fare
well. You are the heart of the council, Bey. Please reconsider." Her words
were nicer outside, but her beast growled them, which was picked up by most of
the other people in the room.

The big thing there was that Zack
could kind of see it, and it
wasn't
perfectly safe. They had threats
where he was from, and while these people could probably handle it, they might
not know what all of them
were
. On the other hand, he was in the same
boat there, and so far nothing too bad had taken place, so they could probably
handle it.

The tiny man shook his head and
clapped.

"We should not let fear rule
us too often, Marissa. I shall go and do this thing, and report back. If I do
not, then we will have an answer to the unasked question of threat and intent."
Then the man turned, and bowed toward Zack, picking him out instantly.

"Mr. Hartley? I notice that
you have Lenore with you?"

He nodded.

"I need to get the others
too. One second?" It didn't take long, and he brought Calley in last,
since she was, oddly enough, the most easily injured out of all of them, if a
fight broke out. Things weren't a lot calmer when he finished the last trip,
about a minute later, but no one had come to blows yet either.

The back area was a tiny bit
crowded, but not too bad. Horrible if there was a super human battle about to
take place, but for the most part they simply bickered a bit, which was
annoying, but not anything he couldn't put up with.

Eve stood back and winked at him.

"So, food while we wait? Ty,
Mr. Hartley, Calley, treats for you? Lenore do you want some blood?
Ginger?" That last was said with a bit of a glare however. From the
interplay of shadows it wasn't due to Eve hating the girl either, just that
she'd trained her to be a master vampire, and part of that was learning not to
crave blood all the time.

At least she was supposed to
resist the urge, which was pretty powerful.

"None for me, I had some a
few days ago." She resisted an urge to stick her tongue out, since there
were all those important people there. Like Bey, Marissa and of course, alien
Zack.

It was strange to be called that,
but kind of true, anyway. It made Eve happy to hear about, since her friend
getting all lazy would be hard to correct, now that she had some real political
power. Lenore declined as well, because it wouldn't look good for her to do
that if the children were able to control their urges. She'd been forced to
learn a lot of self-discipline over the last year, because of Eve. She was even
a kind enough person that she didn't hold a grudge over it.

The conversation wasn't going to
be stopping any time soon, it seemed, as the angry woman, Chief Sims, as in the
head of the local police department, was pretty worried that she'd be blamed if
anyone went away and didn't come back. The other vampire lady wasn't won over
yet either

Zack nodded, and waved the others
toward the front.

"I can make them. I've
worked part time at Frozen YoGurt, anyway. The set up..." He looked out at
the counter, and the machines behind it, which was very familiar. Nikki waved
at him, from behind the counter, and smiled.

"It's nearly identical. Eve
and Lenore put in waffle cones however, which we don't have. They smell good.
Here, I can make you all something? I have a new dish that I want to try out. A
cone really."

"Thanks. I have a tab here?
I can buy for everyone?" It was true, and oddly enough Eve didn't try to
say otherwise, though there was something in what he said that was hilarious to
her.

"Thanks, Nik. Let's see the
masterpiece?"

It wasn't that, really. What it
was however was
good
. A little too sweet for him, but it was essentially
a peanut butter and banana sandwich, with the bread being bits of waffle cone
placed inside the outer one, and strawberry jelly swirled inside the vanilla
frozen yogurt. The whole thing was covered with thick whipped cream, and dusted
with powdered peanuts.

"This is really good! You
should get with Claire and see about setting it up for Frozen YoGurt." He
ate, and so did Ty and Calley, which was a bit odd, since Tyler wasn't alive.
Still, a line of energy moved away from him, using up the food as he consumed
it, sending the power to someone else, who he was clearly tied to very tightly.
Like a mother was with her child.

Before it was born.

That wasn't his business, so he sat
in a booth, and relaxed for a bit, hoping that the conversation in the back
wasn't going to take too long. After all, they had a deadline, and there were
other vampires waiting for their turn to have a sex drive woken up inside of
them. Plus people to train, which couldn't be done there. Not all of it.

That got him to look at Eve, who
was watching the back closely, and smile.

"Hey, why don't we go over
your part of this here? I still want to take Lenore, Tyler, Ginger and Calley
with me, and you, if you can get away, but your buddy Bey can be your first
test subject. He's pretty old actually. Um, so I'll do you first, and then him,
so you can watch, and you can do the others? Then we can go for our visit and
not be late?" It was kind of an issue, unless he wanted to try time
travel.

Which was clearly a real thing,
in the void, now that he thought about it. It just wasn't in the works for that
night, since it could take a while to learn and master. There would probably be
an arch-demon waiting for him to come hang out.

Eve was sitting across from him,
and sighed. It was a mighty thing, designed to influence the rest of them,
including the people in the back, who could all hear her doing it.

"See,
this
is why I
like you. We can do that, I suppose. I
still
think that Bey should get
to go too, but we can part things out, so that we aren't taking too many risks
with him. Being that, you know, we have to coddle him so carefully, being
delicate like he is. A virtual flower, really." That was for the others,
since it was kind of clear that the great vampire beast inside of the fellow
wasn't soft, or easy to hurt.

Zack nodded, and focused, trying
to work out what was going to be needed for those involved at the moment. Eve
had proven resistant to his mental control before, but if he made himself seem
larger and more powerful than her on the shadow level, it could still work.
That was the basis of vampire compulsion after all. They overwhelmed the minds
of others with fear and awe. Then spoke simple orders to them.

The big difference with
him
doing it was that he could fake being pretty much any size he needed to be on
that level. So he did that, suddenly and without warning, focusing all of his
energy on Eve directly. That was about
not
doing Ginger yet. Which was
hard to manage.
She'd
be the easiest for anyone there to deal with that
way, he was willing to bet. She was tough, and mentally strong, but not like
the rest were.

Except Nikki, but Zack had
already gotten her a sex drive going. Rebekah didn't need one, so that was out
too, which was a shame. The woman was just about right for Eve to practice on.
Old, and strong enough, but not as much as the others in the back.

It worked pretty well, with only
a few minutes of orders, which this time the girl just took. She did give him
an uneasy look after a while, understanding what was going on, but it still
worked, even as she looked up at his shadow, understanding what had taken
place.

 Then he got up, walked around
the table and leaned over Ty, to kiss her. She didn't really respond at first,
until he ran his hand up her thigh,
then
the vampire jumped.

"Agh! All right,
that
works! Coolness. Who do I screw first?" She looked at him, since he'd done
all the hard work. She was even mildly attracted to him, he noticed.

True, she was more attracted to
Ty
,
by about a hundred times, but Zack could live with that. Most of the women he
knew were more involved with other people, rather than him. He was, when you
got to the heart of it all, just a good way to social climb, and nice enough to
be worth putting up with for the perks. Ginger took a bit to catch on, but as
soon as Eve started getting Tyler to do things to her, over her clothing she
went wide eyed.

"Oh, you did it? I don't
suppose I can go next?"

She could, and did, of course.
The trick there was walking Eve through the whole thing, which meant reminding
Ginger what sex felt like, and what being turned on was all about. The pleasure
of it, and all that. It wasn't actually real, being more about a strong
imagining of pleasure, but it was close enough for people that had nothing
else, if done correctly. Eve over did her part of it a little bit, which would,
Zack knew from past personal experience, on Nikki as it turned out, leave the
younger woman a bit more attuned to sexual responses than not. It worked
though, and Ginger, being Ty's girlfriend, demanded him back from Eve, who sighed.