Mr. Hartley (Alternate Places Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  He said that he thought they would and took her advice, after saying goodbye to both of the ladies in what he hoped seemed a polite manner.

  Zack looked around the mall, almost at a loss for what to do. There were no emergencies of note, no work to be done. Not even at home. Hilda and Merri had been doing all the shopping and the tiny woman had all the money anyway. Troy would be asleep and everyone else he knew, except for Betty would be at work. As far as he knew, Betty's job seemed to be doing whatever Claire asked of her. What exactly she got out of it he hadn't asked. More to learn it seemed.

  As he walked by Beautiful Plus he saw a plump woman go in and head straight toward Norris, who'd been arranging clothes on a rack. The woman lit up when she saw him, pushed her hair back and licked her lips in unconscious mating signals.

  Val stood, looking at him he realized, so he waved and walked toward her. Her Shadow cringed from him, as did her physical body language, if only slightly.

  Patty, the Ambassador, intercepted him, being a bit obvious about it and acting like she was protecting her friend. If seductively. "Mr. Hartley! What a pleasant surprise. Is there anything we can help you with today? Services... Or perhaps clothing for your friends? Or you, if you wish, but we'll need to send for a seamstress in that case. I'm afraid you're a little thin for our line here at the moment."

  He told her that he'd like a few minutes with Val and the Older Succubus nodded, her inner succubus came forward and asked him not to be too hard on the girl. He agreed without hesitation.

  He asked the Succubus to take a brief walk with him.

  As soon as they got out of earshot of the store, she stopped and not even looking at him said “I'm sorry. I know I messed up...I...”

  “You... didn't do anything wrong?” He filled in for her. “So you had sex with a guy that would have probably had sex with you anyway, even if your nature didn't come packed with an almost irresistible sex magnet in the middle. That's not exactly a crime. I didn't even ask you not to have sex with him or anyone else there for that matter. I do suggest that we all go carefully with each other until we get the rules down, though. Me too, by the way. I'm not saying this is even mainly something you need to do. I have the most chance of messing things up right now. My longest relationship to date having lasted about eight days, that doesn't make me much of an expert on these things, right?” He turned to her and grinned, ducking his head a little for a moment.

  After a few seconds he took her hand and squeezed it gently, not letting go even as her inner sexual pressure spilled out over him. Instead he focused his mind, keeping to the topic at hand, rather than the effect she had on him. Difficult, he realized, but not impossible for him to do, if he focused as he'd remembered how to do from his time in the void.

  “You have a right, as much right as anyone at least, to be there. So does Betty. I think that everyone else is going to be more understanding when it comes to sex, but Betty's pretty young in some ways. So is Troy really. Their social conditioning is... Of this world and different than everyone else. I think Betty's calmed down now, still, we need to watch her and make certain she isn't made too unhappy by what we do. Ultimately it's between her and Claire though. I don't know exactly what their relationship is, but I can tell it's really important to Betty.” He shrugged, because he just didn't know what else to add.

  Val let go of his hand and faced him. A hand went to his shoulder and she leaned in to kiss him, gently, on the cheek.

  “You don't blame me, or any of us, for being what we are? How rare a thing is that?”

  “Is it a rare thing? It seems to me that one hundred percent of the people standing here right now do that, so based on that, I'd say, not all that different?” He moved beside her and put an arm across her shoulders. “We just need to remember to be as careful as we can with everyone and not blame people for simple mistakes. Betty acted poorly and emotionally, granted, but exactly as her culture taught her to. For that matter so did Troy. You followed what you had to do and that's not going to stop any time soon, so will everyone else. But where we have choices we need to make them as well as we can, that's all.”

  He walked her back to her store, not wanting to mess up her work day or anything. A cute, if big boned, woman watched him intently as he walked Valerie back to work. She had medium length hair, light brown, and wore fairly fashionable clothing. Her skin seemed flawless, giving her a kind of delicate 'china-doll' look. Her Shadow self screamed at him however, Get away from her, she's mine!

  As he left, he casually asked Val to look at the woman and see if she knew her. She answered honestly that she didn't. It seemed an odd thing to him, though harmless enough for now. Maybe he misheard or misunderstood her? It could happen he knew. Sometimes a person's Shadow said things that just didn't make sense because he lacked context for it.

  Since everyone had to work, he decided to go see if Claire wanted to chat. He hadn't spent much time with her lately. Plus she had all that access to frozen yogurt, which he supposedly had access to on occasion, although he may not have any left for this week, having used them up on the people from The Tarantula. Worth a shot, he figured and at least he could spend some time with his friend.

  Claire lit up when he walked in.

  “You survived then? Never guaranteed when the Tricksters are involved. I'm delighted to see you, to what do I owe this pleasure?” She'd turned away from him, and looked at him from the corner of her eye, in a way that he understood had to do with her being flirtatious. At least he thought it did. It seemed a body language signal from an older time though, at least that's what her inner self told him when he'd asked a week or so before.

  Really, he'd have missed it, except for her Shadow telling him that she wanted his attention. Who knew I still had a heart to lose.

  This came across clearly, directed at him, so he filed it away for later.

  He told her, quickly since not much had happened, about his day, Riley's mother, and his sister Rose. Then he asked about her own day.

  It turned out that Claire's average day entailed a lot more than it had seemed to him before. Though he never noticed her on the phone, she apparently kept in near constant contact with Vampires from around the world. During the day, of course, only the eldest were awake. It turned out to be a rare gift, since most Vampires didn't make it to even a hundred years old, much less the nearly 300 that gave them relative immunity to the sun.

  “There's always some youngster thinking they're the next best thing, trying to cause problems or getting themselves into trouble. Of course interest in this area, the Underwood region, has gone up recently, so I'm fielding calls for that as well. Politics and busy work.” Her hands flew into action behind the counter.

  It seemed that she'd conceived a new idea, a peanut butter and chocolate fudge concoction that used a fluffy peanut butter yogurt instead of a thicker syrup or the real thing. She provided what she called a base sample, with no toppings or additions, just the yogurt with a smooth syrup made of hot fudge. She handed it to him and quizzed him on flavor, texture, scent, and a host of other things.

  When he had finished the small serving, she changed the amount of fudge in it, and repeated the questions while he ate. By the fourth cup he had to beg off for a while, because all the sugar seemed to be making him feel a little loopy.

  Claire seemed concerned, so he explained that he'd skipped lunch, because he didn't have any money, having given it all to Merri to take care of.

  "She's in charge of the household budget, which means my money, too. That seems to be the way it's done in old cartoons at any rate."

  “Ah! Well, that explains why she suddenly seemed happier this morning. I know she felt a little, out of place, with all of us having official jobs to do and her just being the cook. It's good she has a place now.” She reached out and touched him on the chest, just above his heart, and held her hand there for a while, considering something before speaking.

  “You should go see her. She won't let you go hungry
you know. In fact, she's probably frantic that you haven't come to get food yet, wondering if she should have brought it to you...”

  Zack decided he'd do that as soon as he finished there.

  He asked about Vaun first though, wondering if the older Vampire had managed all right. If he still lived even, and had he gotten to where he needed in time?

  Claire shared the tale of what had transpired after he'd redelivered Vaun.

  “He ran straight out, according to him, with no trouble. The fools had left the stairwell unguarded, can you believe that? Apparently the idea that he could come in twice just hadn't occurred to them, and coming through another node, well, that's unheard of. He took the information to the sub-council there and the data stopped a minor war. His actions saved lives. Vampire and Human. Not to mention the amount of money he saved for our faction. The whole thing had been a power grab by a Vampire named... Forest. Um, that's not his real name, but it's what my faction calls him, after the movie character? He hates it, which to my mind is enough reason to keep calling him that. He'd been one of the attackers. Notable mainly for his brutality. Still, Vaun thwarted him, thanks to you.”

  He tilted his head and wondered if this would cause problems later. His helping Vaun.

  “Not even Forest would attack you personally over that. He's thuggish, brutal, and cold, but he wouldn't hold a grudge against you over this, especially since he may need your services at some point.” Grimacing, she told him more about the Vampire called Forest.

  His history seemed to show a trend, to Zack. He'd overstep his ability to control a situation, thinking that his powers gave him control over things too complex for anyone to directly manage. When it started to fail, he tried to control everything by using force, rather than reason and certainly not compassion or common sense.

  That he didn't know of his own relatively low skill level in political intrigue made him more dangerous than most Vampires, Claire told Zack. He'd become frustrated and instead of trying to learn something new he just blamed everyone else for his problems.

  “Which doesn't mean his plans never work. He's had decades, even longer, of relative success. There's power in the fist and the sword, even in this modern world.”

  She shook herself, old memories surfacing, showing Zack more of her own past with Forest, from a time before he'd that name even. The stories were not pleasant things at all, filled with pain and control, enslavement even.

  She reached out to him again, touching his arm, a wave of coolness penetrated his thin shirt sleeve. “You should go get some real food in you.”

  He gave her hand a small squeeze earning him a smile and did as she suggested, heading down to the food court to see if Merri could find a bit of food for him in the back or something.

  She came running out of the back of the Chinese food place, a tray filled with food in her hands, the second he walked into sight. She called for him to sit and expertly placed food in front of him, steam rising from the dishes. So it was all hot.

  “I didn't know when you were coming, so I just tried to keep some things ready for you. Luckily young Hilda came by every few hours so I could keep your portions fresh by feeding her those that I set aside. We should try to develop a bit more of a schedule, if that pleases you.” Her voice became very meek again.

  He almost thanked her for all her work, but instead changed it to saying how wonderful she'd managed to be, doing all of that without indication of his plans.

  "I'll try to give you my schedule each day. That won't account for emergencies, but we should be able to keep things running more smoothly, so you won't have to do unneeded work. Not that feeding Hilda is a bad thing. Lisa either, though that probably won't take much time for you." He felt like a tool, saying that. Dumping extra work on her that she probably didn't need in her life.

  She beamed at him as if he had said something brilliant. Really, he began to wonder what kind of treatment Alfric women expected from their husbands, if every small kindness seemed so great to her. Or did she seem impressed with this because he wasn't Alfric? Was he, to her mind, just some Human brute that might be into all sorts of strange and evil things?

  As he ate, Hilda came and sat next to him, not hungry for once, having had food every two hours like she had.

  She hinted that he should get the seventeenth off from work if he could. He didn't get it at first, but then realized the significance.

  “Right! We also need to figure out who all's going with us, right? I mean, they may not want to hang out at your Mom's, but the guys, Lars and Merle and the others, they may want to go too, right? Just to get back home for a bit. Shop, or see if they can look people up.”

  Her jaw dropped. Seeing what seemed to be about to happen, Zack pushed his tray to the right as she grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. This sent her chair flying and tilted the table. She let go as the food started sliding, and he caught it before it hit the floor. Almost gracefully even.

  “You think that might go over well then?” He ate a spring roll that had sweet and sour sauce baked into it, something he'd suggested to Merri when she'd asked if he had any new ideas for the shop. It wouldn't be for everyone though, he knew and had told her at the time. Hilda agreed with him that it should go over well enough and that the new spring rolls were delicious. Showing once again the Merri had a genuine gift for cooking.

  That night, when he got into bed, a new bed that had shown up nearly a week before with a matching bedroom set, Hilda climbed into bed next to him. Merri joined them a little later. Val looked at them wistfully from the doorway, but didn't come in.

  No one spoke or touched him.

  He dreamed of Shadows and darkness all night long.

  With only two bright spots of light to guide him through it all.

  Chapter twenty-one

  He woke up, light coming through the window, highly aroused, with a mostly naked succubus running her hands up and down his body. She ran her left hand lightly from knee to stomach and back again.

  “Good morning, good to see you... up.” She grinned and pulled back from him a little. “I'm actually not being a perv, rather I am conducting a scientific examination to make sure that everything is in... working order. It seems to be.” Her voice moved from almost clinical to highly seductive within a single sentence.

  Zack locked his emotions away solidly by reflex. He considered the situation as Val resumed what she had been doing and slowly, carefully let his emotional control relax. He fully anticipated a strong negative reaction, even flashbacks, since what she'd done, continued to do, hit awfully close to the reasons he had locked out thoughts of sex initially.

  Instead he felt, if he looked at the situation honestly, aroused and a little bit irritated.

  Aroused because of the obvious. Val's very make up created vast sexual desire in other people. That she kept it tamped down, even while doing this, showed great control and probably that she'd fed recently.

  Irritated because it did touch on issues that he had a strong sense she knew about or at least had an idea of. She lingered in a sensitive place and squeezed slightly, sending a wave of pleasure and a slight bit of panic through him.

  He grasped her hand slowly and moved it away, while focusing intently, relaxing his body and isolating the irritation he felt. When he finished he spoke softly.

  “All right.... I need to get up now.” Which of course he did, since he needed to use the bathroom pretty desperately. “We'll talk in a few minutes. You may want clothes. I'll meet you at the breakfast table.” He started to pull clothes out of the closet, when he noticed that an outfit, suit, tie, jacket and belt hung up on a hook outside his closet door. On a small table next to the closet door, one of the new things that had magically appeared about a week before, a pair of black socks and some strange looking underwear sat.

  He took them all and headed for the bathroom. He tried to limit his time there in the morning. No one ever said anything, but he knew that everyone but Claire liked to use the mirror be
fore leaving for work. Claire didn't need to, because Betty did her hair and make-up for her.

  Showered and clean, he went to put on deodorant. The stuff he had gotten from Kroger's had disappeared, leaving something new in its place. The label was hand written, though it had instructions. The small container smelled like cedar, the one kind of wood he knew by scent from his time at the furniture store, and contained a slightly waxy paste he had to rub between his fingers then apply under his arms. It made him smell like a tree, though not so strongly it bothered him. It took a few moments to scrub his hands clean, the waxy stuff repelling water pretty well.

  At the table, Valerie sat buttering an English muffin that had been toasted on one side. Merri placed a bowl of hot cereal in front of him, and sprinkled cinnamon on it once it sat on the table. Hilda ate a pastry that looked like one of the ones the smaller woman had made the other day. He looked at his oatmeal and began to eat. Today it seemed different, a kind of smooth white cereal instead of the regular oats. He asked about it and Merri blushed.

  Valerie answered for her though. “It's Cream of Wheat. She saw it in the store and asked about it. My mother used to make it for my sister and I when we were little. It's not bad, try it.”

  After blowing on a spoonful, something he'd learned from the oatmeal, he took a bite. It was a little bland maybe, though it made an excellent backdrop for the spices, more than just cinnamon as he first thought, that had been put on it. Merri looked at him a little fearfully, as if trying something new might make him angry or something.

  “Wow! This is really good. Is this your first time making it? I've never had it, but it seems perfect. Val?” Spooning just a little out, he held it out to her. He figured, from past discussions, that her virtual immunity to all disease meant she wouldn't be worried about germs. Not his anyway.