Mr. Hartley (Alternate Places Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  “No. I was just joking about that, though she really does eat those awful blood puddings... No, she's in the Czech Republic. A lot of bats live in that part of the world. I've been there. When I was little I stayed there for a few months, when my dad nearly died.” Her tears hadn't stopped and she spoke between wracking sobs, her Shadow being chittering anxiously and telling him she didn't deserve his help, that he shouldn't take her. Her anxiety grew so great as he watched that he had to ignore it, to stop it from affecting his mind too.

  Leading her to the back he asked her to think about the woman and where she lived. It took longer than normal, since she didn't live on a nexus point, not even kind of near one. They'd have to use the nexus in France and find shortcuts to the actual location. Still, maybe the walk would help Libby calm down a little before they got there.

  Hugging her tightly, he told her that everything would be all right.

  Then they stepped into the line.

  Chapter forty-three

  Zack took the first thousand miles in a few steps, gentling pulling the crying girl with him, stopping only briefly to hold her. Trying to comfort her. He pulled his attention away from her Shadow, the wailing and crying on both levels hurt too much to watch, at least if he wanted to function at the same time.

  The last leg of the journey came about half an hour later, taking smaller steps each time, trying to find the location the girl had held in her mind originally. As they neared their destination, she'd become less coherent, crying more rather than less as he'd hoped she would. The thin and harried feeling outer shell, hurried her along as best he could, hoping that they could help her grandmother in some way, or at least be there for her, since she obviously meant so much to Libby.

  Finally, after an hour of walking and nearly fifty passes through rifts in space, she looked around and stopped, finally pointing to a small, isolated cottage about a quarter of a mile away.

  “There. That's her house...You don't have to come with me...” Her tears didn't end though, so he walked with her, promising to stay with her until she didn't need him. He could tell she needed someone right now, so he did his best for her, out of love and concern. Most of this was said on the deeper level, since it was impossible to speak over her sobbing.

  He'd never thought of her as fragile before. Always there with something funny to add to the conversation, or standing up bravely for her friends. Even if it was a little stupid of her to be doing it in some cases. Libby always did. He couldn't remember if she'd ever cried in front of him before, but didn't think so. Maybe gotten misty eyed or quietly emotional, but nothing like this.

  As they got to the front door, a woman opened it and gestured to them.

  “Come in, hurry now...” She said with a heavy accent, but one that sounded Australian, instead of Czech. At least to his uneducated ear. Which really wasn't that poor anymore, since he'd been to that part of the world a lot in the last few months. Having the same color of hair, rust red, also kept short, and the same flattened looking nose and thin lips that Libby had. It was pretty obvious that this must be a relative of hers. Maybe the one that had called her to let her know about her grandmother?

  They entered quickly, Libby going in first, the woman pushing her suddenly out of the way as Zack felt himself hit from all sides. Blow after blow landed, the first one nearly taking him out, hitting him in the back of the head, just above the neck. He dropped heavily to the floor, seeing Libby standing with a look of horror on her face as everything went black.

  In that place, inside the darkness, Zack wasn't gone, like many would have been. So he managed to work out that he had, being a bit distracted by all the carrying on, walked into a trap. It was hard to understand a lot more than that, but slowly he put some things together. One of them was the simple fear that his friend, the Bat girl, had been part of it. Even so, she might be hurt.

  When he woke, finally, Zack found himself tied to a chair in a small room. The floor looked to be made of cobble stone. The walls made of something similar. Certainly too thick for him to get through, even if his hands were free and he had time to do it.

  In front of him stood the Vampire he knew as Forest. That wasn't his real name, but there was no reason at the moment to find anything kinder to call him. Libby sat on the hard looking floor, her back against the equally hard and unforgiving wall, crying... but unrestrained.

  That kind of showed which side she was on, didn't it? At least she didn't seem happy or gloating about it. That would be too much to take for the moment. Not that he could afford to let himself feel anything about that right now. In fact, before the Vampire in front of him could speak, Zack started to focus through the pain in his head.

  It throbbed and ached, but with effort he pushed at the discomfort until it drew back enough for him to think a little. Then he looked sharply at the muscular and fierce seeming Vampire in front of him.

  Forest spoke, as if on command.

  “Good! I'd wondered if we'd damaged you beyond waking. That happens sometimes with pieces of shit like you. So weak and delicate, but going around acting like you're invincible heroes. Ha!” A slap rang across Zack's face.

  Instead of speaking, he took the time after the blow to lock down all remaining pain perception as well as he could, his head ringing from the first blow. All the aches faded, and then vanished finally, his focus still wavered though, in and out.

  “Don't worry though. I'm not going to kill you. That would kill that little bitch Clara too fast, stupid of her to link herself to something like you, it would serve her right to just find herself dead. I want to remind her of old times first, though. Maybe you can join us? Your father told us how you loved taking it in the behind when you were a boy. Maybe you and Clara could work as a team, taking on all comers? Oh, he told me to say hello for him by the way. 'Hello.'” The Vampire gave him a mocking wave.

  A blow came in from the other direction, whipping his head around and sending a couple of teeth flying. Zack just pulled his head around and stared. He hadn't felt the blow as more than pressure. Once pain had been properly locked down, further pain always seemed easier to manage, he'd noticed over the past weeks.

  “What, nothing to say? No begging? No asking me not to hurt your beloved?” Another blow rang his head, he felt something click in his neck, a tendon ripping, he thought, rather than his neck breaking.

  Libby gasped and started mumbling something. After his head cleared again and the black sparkles of unconsciousness left him, he realized she had been chanting “I'm sorry,” though she sat with her hands firmly over her ears, she still shook every time a blow struck.

  Zack didn't speak, instead he gathered his energy into a black line and struck at Forest with it.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again and again.

  The Vampire started laughing at him then.

  “Oh, that tickles a little bit! Do you think me a fool? Do you think that I wouldn't come prepared? It took weeks, and more money that I care to say, but I found an amulet that thwarts your use of life energy against me and inserted it into my own body. Lesser Shia; you really can find anything there. You can't hurt me that way now. Without your little trick and away from a node... You. Are. Nothing!” The Vampire punctuated each of the last three words with another blow to the head. Everything went black.

  That still didn't take him out of the game, just out of being able to move for the moment. Taking his time to think, Zack let himself come up with a plan. One that was dangerous, and probably wouldn't work, but it was all he could think of for the moment. What had Big Shadow told him? To be clever and creative? That was close enough.

  When he came to regular consciousness again, the room had emptied, except for one Vampire, who stood in front of him, watching closely. As soon as his eyes opened, the strange man called out in a language that Zack had never heard before. Forest came back in, followed by two other Vampires, both men. Given how he'd treated Claire it wasn't really shocking to find that no women wanted
to work with the freak. It would always be too dangerous.

  “We have other things to do, and we don't want to risk you getting away, I do hope you understand? You're worth far too much to simply kill. No. We'll leave you alive. Break his arms and legs, but leave him tied to the chair. We'll leave two of you to guard him while we attend to business.”

  As two of the Vampires took turns breaking first his arms, dislocating the shoulders actually, rather than breaking them at the bone, making loud popping sounds. Then his legs, tearing the tendons in his knees again failing to actually break the bone, Zack focused on what Shadow Forest said to him, ignoring what the beasts he couldn't stop at the moment did to him.

  By midnight the lines will be ours. First we win Underwood and use that as a base to invade everywhere else. So many places expect travel from that Nexus now that they won't even understand what's hitting them at first. The Demons better hold up their end of this!

  From the other room he heard Libby crying out as his legs popped, another voice, a woman's, whispered something to her that he couldn't hear. Her sobs were louder than the small grunts he made when the air forced itself from his lungs, beyond even his ability to control.

  Forest hit him a few more times for good measure, in the midsection. He grunted as air exploded from him, still managing to stop any pain from truly reaching his awareness. These others barely seemed to notice the fact. Which was strange. Did they really think it was all over, just because he had a tiny bit of damage?

  At the command of the older Vampire, two split off from the group, and stood outside the door of the room. He heard the others leave, probably running with that super speed of theirs cross country to a node Zack simply hadn't been to. It could be in the back yard for all he knew, he couldn't tell where they were without being shown on a map, unless he got within sight of it. Not that he knew of.

  Looking around he saw that nothing in the room looked like it would help him get free. He tried to calm his thoughts even more, focusing only on the problem at hand.

  He could take out the Vampires, if Forest had neglected to get amulets for them as well, and being that he'd whined about the price of one, that seemed likely. At least Zack thought he could do it. Maybe... He decided he'd have to risk it.

  He couldn't count on Libby for help, or the other woman, they were part of the trap. A stab of pain lanced through his mind at the betrayal, and he focused on the source of the emotion, knowing that this part would be the one to hit him the hardest. Since his parents had betrayed him too, back when. He found it and let go of the pain, focusing on shutting off all of his emotional responses, while keeping the physical portion shut off as well. He didn't have time to worry about emotions or let them rule him now. Later maybe.

  First he needed to get out of the chair, even if he couldn't possibly walk right now.

  That stymied him. Nothing around would let him cut the ropes. Could he blast then with a line of force? Focusing he tried to play that through in his head, and decided he could do it, most likely at least, but he'd really break his arms due to the force of the moving ropes, possibly ripping the skin off as well. He needed to not take any more damage from this if he could help it.

  What then, if he focused the line of force though? Using that to take out just a few strands of rope at a time, would that work?

  Trying it, he thought he felt a few strands crunch, signaling that they'd snapped. He hoped. Zack kept going, removing a little bit at a time, sensing where the ropes were behind him, rather than seeing them. Until all at once, with a mighty effort on his part, the last strand broke. He couldn't pull his arms around yet. It was a real start though, he figured.

  The door opened, and one of the remaining Vampires, a dark haired man with a mustache and dressed a bit like a farmer came in and said something in a foreign language. Using all of his focus, he tried to form the energy into a thin dark line, this time about eight inches wide, and shoved it through the other man's throat, pulling back as fast as he could, just in case, hoping to pull as much life energy out of him as possible. Better an unconscious Vampire with a head than nothing, he reasoned. At the last second it seemed that twelve inches wide would be more prudent, in case he missed a little.

  Standing there without moving for several seconds Zack began to wonder if Forest had actually spent the money to have all his people equipped with those amulets. If so he was more cautious and probably smarter than Claire had been telling him.

  Then the Vampire's head slipped off with a thunk.

  So, no. That part wasn't going to be a problem. Being so focused he didn't grin about it, but he could see the humor in the situation. They'd underestimated him. Probably because to their minds he was made of food. Even a cow could kick a person to death though. People choked on chicken bones all the time too.

  Food could be deadly.

  The other Vampire came through the door fast, but not using his full speed. So he slipped on the blood of the now headless man and hit the stone wall hard. Zack hit him in the back with another line of black force, then, after the Vampire fell, cut his head off, too.

  As a trick, that one worked really well, it seemed.

  Knowing he couldn't stand, Zack held his position, staying in the chair. It was pretty sturdy, made of something like wrist thick logs. Blinking, Zack realized that had been done so that he wouldn't easily break it if he started to snap the ropes. Like he could do that? It was a little incongruent, since Forest quite clearly didn't think he was physically strong at all. That probably meant one of the others had thought of it for him.

  Libby and her friend or relative, whatever she happened to be, could come through the door at any moment. Probably armed, since that was generally the way that Weres fought. He readied himself for that, held his mind sharp and prepared, but no one came.

  Eventually he freed himself from the ropes, and fell to the floor in a slow-motion slump, a gasp coming from him due to the impact. He knew that Libby could hear him, and her friend probably could too, but they didn't say anything. Zack could still hear his Bat girl out there, crying. A sense of pity rose up inside of him, which he took care of quickly. He didn't have time for pity. He had to get to Underwood and inform them of what Forest and the Demons had planned.

  Or contact them some other way.

  Rolling on the floor, he eventually managed to get his right arm in the socket with a pop. Then he did the left, in a similar fashion. His knees... He couldn't do anything about them. His legs wouldn't carry his weight, so he crawled to the doorway using his hands, his legs dragging behind him uselessly.

  From the door he could see Libby, sitting huddled and crying, with the other woman comforting her. Pointing a single finger of his left hand at the other woman, he cast out a faint gray line of energy, hitting her firmly in the head, then repeated it about three seconds later, a little harder, knocking her out.

  Libby noticed this and sat up. Her face splotchy and damp with tears. When she saw him she whimpered a little, her Shadow speaking of his pain and how sorry she felt.

  But she spoke out loud.

  “I know I deserve to die. I'm so sorry.” Closing her eyes firmly she said, “Do it”.

  He looked around the room instead.

  “Libby, is there a phone?” He asked her in a slightly muffled voice, slurring and lisping because of his missing front teeth and the swelling of his face.

  Looking up she didn't answer, instead her shoulders hunched and she pointed to a shelf that had a cordless phone.

  “It's hooked up to the computer. You can call, just dial normally.” Finally, she looked at him and got up to get him the phone.

  He tried dialing the phone number of Candles and More, though he had trouble hitting the buttons accurately, as he'd started to see two of everything, his left eye had swollen almost completely shut. On his third try he got in and the phone rang, but no one answered.

  He figured it must have gotten late, so Kyle locked up and took off, as he should have, under normal
conditions, after all, Zack had taken off with Libby, why would he suspect anything? That was probably the point of her being the one to do it. Betray him like that, to their enemies.

  He tried to remember the number for Frozen YoGurt, but couldn't and he didn't know his new home phone number at all yet. Wracking his brain he couldn't come up with a single number he knew.

  “Libby... they're going to attack Underwood.” Words came out, but he had to say it three times for her to get his meaning. “Are the Weres all in on it, or is it just you?” he asked.

  “No. Just me, just my family, I can explain...” she started.

  He cut her off.

  “Not now. Call your work, somebody should be there, I hope.” Again he repeated the basic message several times.

  Nessa picked up. He tried to talk to her, but she had too hard of a time understanding him at first, he finally put Libby on the phone, pointed his hand at her and said, “Tell her!”

  “Nessa... I messed up... big time. There's no time to explain... No, listen, they're coming to attack Underwood. No, not a joke, this is real. Sound the alert, tell everyone. I don't think there's much time. Vampires for sure...”

  Zack said to say Demons, Libby got the idea.

  “Demons too, so at least some of them are coming in by the nodes. Go... I'll tell you the rest later. If I live.”

  With an alert out, he relaxed a little. His eyes had blurred and he had to fight feelings of nausea, so he closed them. The left one anyway, the right had already conveniently shut for him.

  For some reason, he thought of something that he hadn't in a while. Something he'd done once. How had he done it? Almost done it. He tried to remember. Maybe he was wrong, but it could be worth trying, he hoped.

  He balled up his Shadow around his soul, like he did when hiding from Demons or Vampires. Then he pushed it deep inside of himself. Deeper. He circulated his energy through this blackness, hard. He didn't stop even when it felt he had hit a wall. Then he tried for more, but nothing happened.