by P. S. Power
“Well, you know how to call if you need me. I should be going home soon...”
Xan, hearing this, loaded Zack up with food for himself, Troy, Betty, and Hilda. Hilda stood in the door to the Gym when he got there, talking to Merle and one of the other men. He couldn't understand them on the surface, though he got almost instant translation on the deeper level.
Hilda didn't feel comfortable leaving some of the men behind on the seventeenth. Merle however said that they couldn't leave the Gym unattended by treaty, so someone had to stay. The other man said that it would be a great joy to return for a visit, however this gift already stressed the bounds of friendship, so they should not bother 'The Little Chief' about it.
Apparently he was royalty now? Good to know. The name probably meant they thought he was being bossy or pushy though, which wasn't a thing he associated with himself.
“Hi, Hilda, are you ready? Xan got dinner for us, great guy... Oh! Say, Merle, I've been meaning to ask you, when would be a good time to schedule the trip for the other men? It can be as early as the eighteenth, though we can stagger it if need be so it doesn't disrupt the work schedules and all...”
The three Trolleinkein stopped. They didn't even seem to breathe for a beat. Then, slowly, Merle asked him to say that again. Zack did, explaining that he knew they couldn't all go at once and had meant to clear the issue with him, though what with one thing and another it had slipped his mind.
“Ah, you mean the part of things where you did the impossible to help people far away, and nearly died of neurotoxin put in a drink, enough to kill the strongest of us? Yes, I've found almost dying to be distracting myself, from time to time. You're too kind though, the gift you have already offered is, I have not the words...”
Feeling very small, given the company that loomed around him, Zack said, “Well, that's good... if you can't find the words you can't bother refusing. Let's say the nineteenth then? Let me know if that needs to change.” Grabbing Hilda by the hand he pulled her along, saying just loud enough for Merle to hear, “Hurry, or else he'll be trying to refuse all night!”
The beauty beside him laughed and scampered off with him in mock flight. After a few steps they both nodded to Merle and started walking normally. From behind them he could hear the big man chuckle a little. It resonated in the rather bare hallway of the place.
As they walked to the other end of the mall, his preferred exit, he noticed the woman he'd seen before stood watching Valerie through the window of the store. He steered toward her enough to see her Shadow which growled and raged. Angrily. You'll be mine, bitch. I'll make you beg to lick my ass!
It looked Human, but like an insane man, not a lady at all. Taller than she was by a good half foot, and thin, rather than slightly big boned.
Turning to Hilda he looked at the other woman, indicating her with a head nod. Zack projected a sense of urgency on the deeper level, trying to communicate how important this may be. As he watched the woman for a moment, her Shadow kept spewing this kind of hate, staring daggers at Valerie the whole time. If this was a jealous lover, then something had gone very wrong at some point. What else it could be was baffling however. Val was too sexy, true enough, but most people didn't hate others for that. Not really.
“Watch her, and follow her if she leaves. Be careful. Just Human I think, but not right mentally... I don't think she's armed, but I could have missed something.” Hilda nodded and walked away from him, floating closer to where the woman stood, watching. Ignoring the world around her.
For his part, Zack just strolled into the store where Val worked. She'd stopped to help someone about to make a huge fashion mistake it seemed, and couldn't be bothered for a while.
He found Norris instead and signaled to him with a small wave, his back to the front glass of the place.
"Do you know the woman out in the hall that's staring at Valerie?"
The Incubus glanced out to look, his inner self ready to search for a while, but both of him found her instantly. She wasn't really being subtle, or amorous in her attentions.
"I do not. She seems... Memorable, in an attitude sense, doesn't she. Why? Are you protecting your wife from ardent suitors?" That actually made the man seem slightly worried, until Zack shook his head a bit.
“Well, she's standing there thinking things like, 'Bitch, I'll fuck you until you can't walk' and 'you'll be lucky if I let you drink my pee' This is the second time I've seen her, and both times her Shadow self has been saying things that seem... wrong. Like they don't fit. That part of us tends to be very literal, so I thought I'd check things out. I mean, I know some people like that kind of thing in a sex way, but she isn't coming across that way.” It would be nice to short circuit the ten minutes of Norris trying to explain to him that Val needed to have a lot of lovers and friends. He got it. She was a succubus. It was part of the package, and honestly didn't bother him all that much.
The good looking man in front of him looked at the woman over Zack's shoulder. Reaching out he fixed the front of Zack's shirt, and pretended to be brushing lint off. No sense of sex came from it though, which was nice. Refreshing actually. Then casually Norris stared a little closer at her. For a long time before speaking.
“Well, dark brown roots, so she lightens her hair, lots of make-up, not that smooth a job... Could be... I need a closer look... Wait here.” There was real urgency in the words, as the man quickly walked away.
The line he took to the dressing booths avoided being visible from the woman's position. He grabbed something on the way in.
A few minutes later a woman came out. An incredibly hot one. She had dark brown hair and big brown eyes, one of those naturally attractive women that other women said mean things about when they left the room. Not all that tall, five-five or so, wearing a skirt that didn't quite fit, and a plain blouse tied off at the middle.
She walked over to Zack, padding bare foot.
“Nora?”
She nodded and her Shadow self said, quick!
“I'm going in for a closer look. One minute.” She padded out of the store, giving a sign to Patty that he didn't recognize, though the communication on a deeper level signaled, 'danger-unknown'. The manager nodded and gently moved everyone else back, away from the front of the store. Even the Human customers, which was good to see. It would be too easy for someone like her to think of them as only food, after a while. That she didn't seem to was a sign that these people might just be a bit nicer than he thought.
Nora walked closer to the strange woman, looked shocked after a second and turned to come back into the store.
“That's her.” The brunette spoke softly into his ear, as if sharing something naughty, voice nearly a hiss.
“Her?” Zack asked, equally soft.
“Yes, the man that poisoned Charli at the club, that's her! We need to catch her without violating the treaty...”
Not understanding all of this, except that violence would be bad, he decided to try something he never had before on such an extreme level. Zack had some tricks after all. If he could ramp the power up just a bit, the one he was thinking of might just work. After all, Vampires did it all the time, didn't they?
He walked up to the woman, talking to her on the Shadow level,
You want to relax and stay relaxed, that's what will work best, you'll go with me and do what I say, because that will help you most, do you understand? It's really for the best... Go ahead and relax now...
Then, when she had been lulled into a relaxed state, he expanded his Shadow form, into a huge, angry looking creature much like a Vampire's Shadow, only much bigger and on that level screamed at her as hard as could be managed without actually bending space. DO IT. DO IT NOW!
At the same time he spoke to her, his words polite and almost playful. “Won't you come with me? We have someplace interesting to go... It will be fun.” Zack took her arm and started walking.
She pulled against him slightly, so he repeated the command on the deep level. After that, c
razy or not, the woman followed him without question.
He could feel Hilda, Nora, and Patty walking behind him, a short time later Val followed.
Not knowing what else to do, he walked her past the frozen yogurt place. Keane saw the parade and picked up the phone, possibly being signaled by someone behind him. Zack looked at him, then at the woman several times, trying to convey meaning.
In the parking lot he waited with her by the shortcut. Hilda took the woman in a hold that simply would not be broken, not by anyone with less than super Human strength at least, though it didn't harm her at all. Then he took them through to the house.
He stepped back and did the same with Val and Patty. Nora went through after that, without much hesitation, even though she hadn't done this before. Once inside Hilda called out for Betty and Nikki, her voice bellowing their names.
They got Troy too. Bellowing was good that way, getting all the people to pay attention fast. It always worked on him anyway, Zack realized.
Nikki tilted her head, which looked a bit slow and contrived, but got the idea quickly enough. A woman being held by a Trolleikein like that probably wasn't one of their friends.
"We should take this prisoner to the basement." She pointed at the others, even though they all knew the way, and whispered to Zack on the way by. "We really don't want to trouble the good police force of this town, if we can help it. It's better to be underground if she starts screaming. It will muffle things a lot." There was a look to go with it, one that was suddenly professional and a lot more experienced than Zack thought was proper, coming from a cute woman in regards to another one in a situation like they were in.
The whole basement looked vastly different than Zack remembered it. There were several rooms now for instance, instead of a single cobweb filled expanse. Entering one of them, a room with no windows, Nikki got some rope and carefully tied the captive to a chair. She struggled a little bit, so Zack ordered her to sit still and relax. A little more firmly this time. She did. It was so instant that everyone noticed it.
“Compulsion?” Nikki said, though she didn't expand on the idea.
Not knowing exactly what to do next, he handed the telling of the story over to Nora.
She covered in brief what had happened to Charli, which was a known tale, at least in part. How they interrupted the guy who drugged her and planned to rape her – and possibly worse – when he got her alone.
“Keane and I were left with him to handle things. Keane wanted to simply kill him, but I thought that changing him into a woman would open his eyes to what he'd been doing, maybe give him a new perspective or at least a chance to let his sex drive settle a bit. I swear, it works more often than you'd think, once people can see the other side clearly. Keane did that thing, Vampire mind control...”
Nikki broke in, repeating herself. “Compulsion.”
“Right, compulsion. The idea had been to confuse him enough that he'd actually need time to rebound after the psychic shock of waking up as a woman. It doesn't seem to have worked.”
“Wait, this woman here, she used to be a man? A man that you turned into a woman as punishment for trying to rape Charli, little Charli from the club? From my club?” Troy crossed his arms and stood in front of Nora.
The brunette stared at him and nodded. Nora kept a lid on her powers just as tightly as Norris did, so the young man managed to keep his mind on topic.
“And a Vampire, who's my regional manager at the bar, mind fucked him/her so that she'd be able to, I don't know, reflect on her past and go and sin no more or something?” Troy turned to look at Zack for confirmation. “But something went wrong? What? Is this guy, or whatever, woman, too stupid to stay brainwashed? Or too crazy? Was it done wrong?”
A deep male voice came from the doorway. “No, I swear she was truly compelled. Her mind must be corrupted somehow to continue in the old pattern this fast... Oh, eventually, a month later, or two... But I wasn't gentle with her, this should have been effective for some time.”
Walking into the room, Keane assessed the situation.
“I'm surprised that someone so insane is within your abilities to control Nikki. Impressive. I'm not sure I could have done as well, given everything that's happened...”
Nikki held up her hands as if warding off the idea. Instead of speaking she just shook her head and pointed at Zack.
“Oh? I see then. Well... What do you all think we should do with her?” Keane scanned the room.
Hilda, Keane, Nikki, and Troy suggested that death seemed a reasonable answer, if they couldn't fix things for good. The Alede agreed, but with a lot of reluctance. They liked to handle situations without violence if possible, but they didn't want Val to be hurt later because they failed to act now, either.
They decided to call in some help before killing her, just in case the woman's mind could be fixed. Keane put in the call, which turned out to be to Lisa. He mentioned the situation and asked if any of her people that had expertise in the area might be available.
Once the phone was put away in his pocket, he told the room that someone would be there within the hour, knowing that not everyone could hear what had been said over the phone clearly.
Nora moved off to tease Troy about not recognizing her, even though she came into the club and ordered from him at least once a week. Patty hugged Val, who seemed to need it, with Hilda holding herself off at a distance from them. Keane talked to Nikki and made periodic phone calls.
Zack looked at the time. Nearly seven. Still hours before someone had to get Merri from work.
“Val, what time are you supposed to pick up Merri? She told me you offered her a ride, but didn't say when...” Val looked puzzled for a moment, her Shadow blurting out, The secret! Don't tell him.
“Oh, I'll be picking her up at about nine, but it could be as late as midnight. She has to wait for the next shift to arrive and there's no hard and fast plan. Something came up for the Alfric, I guess? They didn't elect to tell me what, either.”
Patty told her that they could handle this, meaning the situation with their captive, so not to worry about being there in time.
“Just go when you need to. We have enough people here to handle things without it being too large of a problem.”
Claire showed up about eight with George Penbroke in tow. He shook everyone's hand in the living room, except Hilda, who'd stayed downstairs to guard the woman, even though she hadn't tried to struggle. Not yet at least. Zack didn't know how long what he did to her might hold.
“I spoke with Miss Hawthorn on the way over and we both agree that we need to run a simple battery of examinations. Test for outside control, possession, and so forth. Then, if those turn up negative, we move to testing for insanity. If the young lady's insane, we'll see if anyone or anything can fix it. Other than that, I'll leave things in your hands.” The Mage who looked like a lawyer addressed this last directly toward Claire.
Claire, took charge then, leading George down. Everyone else she asked to stay upstairs unless summoned. It sounded calm, but a bit bossy. There might be a reason for it, so they all did it.
About half an hour later, Val, Keane, and Zack were asked to go down one at a time, in that order. When his turn came, Zack simply walked into the room and stopped, as George held up a hand, pointing a strange piece of stone about the size of two of his fingers in thickness and seven inches long, toward Zack.
“And the last one. That's all, as far as outside influences. Thank you, Mr. Hartley, we'll call you again if your aid is required.”
Dismissed, he climbed the stairs again, noticing that he felt a bit hungry. He had the burgers from earlier, but that seemed poor manners, eating in front of guests without offering them something. Betty solved that problem by taking a count of who'd be eating and heading for the kitchen. To his slight shock Patty followed her to help. She practiced cooking as a hobby, she let him know, on her way by him.
“It's so rare that I get to cook for more than two people at once though.
” She seemed enthused by the idea, so he didn't try to stop her. Guest or not, even her poorest efforts in the kitchen would probably be tens of times better than his best.
As it neared nine Val took off, without eating, getting Zack to walk her through the shortcut out front. She had to be there to pick up Merri, she said, her Shadow mumbling about the secret the two women shared. Zack tried to ignore this. If they had a secret, he'd try to keep out of it. If they wanted him to know, they'd tell him. He started to wonder what it could be, then turned him mind away from it again.
Dinner turned out well. A little heavy on meat, but Zack managed to eat around it. Mainly. He caught a bite or two of beef, and felt the waves of fear and pain as he swallowed, not wanting to spit the food out at the table. Sometimes it amazed him that other people could eat meat and not notice this, how the Shadows of the animals still existed in the flesh...
When they were done he and Troy did the dishes. It seemed fair to both men, since they hadn't cooked anything.
“Do you think... that we'll really have to kill her?” Troy dried a plate and placed it on the wooden rack next to the sink.
“I didn't say anything downstairs, but I think we should kill her. The things she'd planned for Val, well, they weren't nice. She isn't just someone angry over what's happened to her, she really enjoys hurting others, even when there's no point. That she couldn't stop, even when her world turned inside out, not even for a few weeks... I don't think we can fix that long term. Maybe someone else has some ideas, but I don't. We can't let her go, and we can't keep her. There's a no pets rule here. No insane ones anyway.”
Claire and George came up the stairs as they finished drying the last of the dishes.
“Thank you, George, we'll handle things from this point on. Funds have, I believe, already been transferred, but please let me know if there's any problem. We appreciate your aid in this. We'll at least know that we've done what we could, given the situation.”
