Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  The last one was wondering if she could get some beer and turn the whole thing into a party. A place like they were in had to have a wine cellar, or something like that. They could sneak in and steal something, if that was the case. At least if it wasn't locked.

  Before anyone could speak, he collected their orders, understanding that Beth was a vegetarian. Chris spoke up, sounding normal for him.

  "Some sodas? I don't know what we have in the fridge..." There was a bit of hesitation there, on that one, since he had to know that Merry wouldn't let anything like that into the house. She had a collection of handmade syrups for that kind of thing. Luckily Zack knew where they were, and so did Claire.

  "I don't know either. I'll ask in the kitchen on my way out? Be back in a bit."

  None of them really cared about that, except that he was being polite, which went over with three of the people there well enough.

  All he could do was hope that if Chris really liked Clarissa, that David turned into a girl that was cute enough to turn his head away from her. Otherwise he was going to have to try and throw Nikki at him. Smiling he got to the kitchen and sighed, but managed to speak normally.

  "Would it be possible to get some drinks for them? We should probably not serve alcohol, since they're kids and the one that really wants it probably isn't the kind of young lady to allow to get drunk."

  Claire was already working away, knowing what to do more or less. She worked with food for a living after all, so it wasn't amazing that she could do other things as well.

  Her voice was pleasant enough when she spoke to put him at ease.

  "So, these three will go into the void today? Hawk wishes to try as well, but is serving as Vaun's assistant for the evening. I'm rather pleased by that. He's very young, but already doing well." There was no digging at these others in those words, since they were planning to try and improve their lot in the world as well.

  There was a sense from her words however that combined worry, for her friends and children, with pride that they were all willing to try. Even facing death to make their lives better. To gain power that others didn't even reach toward normally until they were hundreds of years old.

  They each had their own reasons for doing it, Zack noticed. Rebecca was the really interesting one, in that she wanted the power to protect herself from harm. Her past had been traumatic enough that she really didn't want to risk being used like that again, by anyone.

  Nikki was just willing to try in order to give it a chance to work, or not. It was a more academic thing to her, rather than having a drive to do it, no matter what. That could work though, Zack knew. If the woman was able to learn to focus long enough, well enough, then it didn't matter what the reason for it was in her head.

  Betty just wanted to try and make Claire, her maker, happy.

  Just as the drinks were about to be mixed and poured into the chilled glass tumblers, Eve, Lyn, Val, and the girl that used to be David, walked into the room. Zack understood who she was, but the look was incredibly different. She was youthful looking, seeming about sixteen, and had smooth, deeply tanned skin. She wasn't a ten, but rather a solid and cute seven or eight. It was a good look, and Lyn proudly pointed to her.

  "Denise. I did it. You said this was fine? She can do the testing this way?"

  Zack nodded, knowing that in the void it wouldn't be a factor. There were no bodies there. Just pure consciousness. So far both men and women had made it long term, and had also failed at it.

  Denise was dressed up in an outfit that emphasized her hourglass figure, and belonged to Maria. Val looked at him, a bit guiltily, because those were his clothes, more or less. Not that he was unwilling to share. Patty, the Alede Ambassador had gotten them for him, to wear in his female form. Maria. Zack wasn't using them that day however, and it was better than having Denise run around in oversized sweat pants. Or naked. That would be distracting, he didn't doubt.

  Zack nodded, and started taking people through the shortcut out back, about five feet from the kitchen door. From the back of Something Wonderful, he went into the line with the others, one at a time. The results weren't perfect really. Nikki hung in for the longest, that being over a hundred years, learning to concentrate very nicely, but she just wasn't going to be a line walker. Her ability to focus was high level however, and her senses were both highly controlled and hyper acute when they came out.

  Rebecca and Betty both failed inside the first year, and had to be taken out quickly, so that their minds wouldn't break.

  David did better than that, but at about ten years had to be released. It was that or end up going insane. Denise was breathless when they came out, and she started to sweat, hard. Making Maria's clothing all damp. It was a very interesting effect, given that she was a vampire, and not a human. After a bit Zack understood that she'd come out a bit differently than she'd gone in. That he, in the transfer back, had changed her a bit. It could be fixed and would be as soon as she turned back in to Dave, but it was an interesting idea to try out, if he ever got a chance.

  She could, or anyone really, become almost anything, if they did it right.

  Looking at them all, Zack smiled.

  "Nikki gets to go first then. Denise after that. Now, where's Charli?" Libby came from the front of the shop, her rust red hair and glasses gleaming. She was dressed in a nice skirt, with a fancy green blouse. It left her seeming years older than she normally looked, but still not her age. She was in her thirties and looked like a young twenty-something.

  Behind her, being dragged a little, was Charli. She wasn't that pleased, but also wasn't scared or upset. That meant he could take her back, when the others got to go home.

  "Eve? You get Nikki here first. She can't walk the lines, but I bet she's ready for your training. Can you do that thing you did with Troy the other day, on Charli? The magic?"

  It turned out that she could, and Zack redid it again himself, to help the girl out at first. He should have done it on the vampires too, but the fact was he didn't think they could walk the lines, so hadn't tried that. If they went again he needed to attempt that however.

  To give them a chance to learn how to focus like Nikki had, if nothing else.

  Charli did really well, in the void. Her mind adapted fast. Not the best ever, but probably as well as Kaitlyn had. The best part of the whole thing was how minor her troubles were. Her mind became solid and pure, after a few centuries, and at about a thousand years, they came back out, the girl opening the node for herself, after only a tiny bit of fumbling and figuring out how it was done. A decade's worth or so. That meant she was a line walker really, though no one was there to see her do it.

  Zack held up a finger in front of his lips, and gestured to the node.

  "Go in. Find Lesser Shia." The girl, still glazed eyed, did it instantly. She'd been there before, so it was an easy thing for her to do. Then, without being polite about it at all, he ran her through the paces of everything he knew, including how to do the energy work that might needed. She wasn't good at it, at first, so he took her back into the void for a very long time, pushing her without mercy.

  When they finally came back she tried to shake her head, but it was a slow and disjointed thing.

  "No! Smoothly. Remember to react correctly. The things you are seeing and hearing are real, but it will take work to not seem too strange. We've been gone for long enough that it can be hard to remember that, but do. Here it hasn't been long at all. It's a perspective thing." He smiled at her, watching her so intensely that there was probably an actual force coming off of him that hit her.

  His intent made ripples in her energy field. Not strong ones but he could see it in the air. It was interesting, since it hadn't happened like that with anyone else that he'd ever noticed.

  Then he grinned at her.

  "You still have to do your job here. I can't do it, make the baskets, so, you know, you're it."

  That got Libby to come back again, her face smiling, but her inner self questioni
ng. To her it seemed like the other girl hadn't made it. That was part due to a lack of faith, but also to the fact that to her they'd only been gone for about half an hour. There was no way to measure time in the void really, since it was too fluid that way.

  Zack forced a wink. It had to look fake, but a lot of times that kind of thing wasn't noticed.

  "Charli is the newest line walker. She'll need some time to readjust, since I kept her away from here for a long time. Thousands of years. Thankfully you don't forget your regular world life when you come back. Just while you're there." Even that wasn't total, but it could happen.

  The Korean girl nodded, her dark brown hair moving a tiny bit. It caused lines of sound and power to cascade into the room. It wasn't her really, Zack guessed.

  Just him noticing things that he hadn't before.

  Libby smiled, and sighed.

  "Fuck. I didn't make it five years in there before I had to leave. I got horny, what can I say? Still, maybe I should try again? Otherwise my people won't have anyone that can do it."

  Zack looked at her, and then took a deep breath. Then he looked at her, examining her for that certain something that the other line walkers had. It was an ephemeral quality, but there, inside of her innermost self, he saw it. Small, and rough, but present.

  "You can do it. Eve will be able to help with that. I... Are you willing to let Troy teach you? I'll be there too, so it will be safe, but I need to make sure that we have other people that can do the training. Charli, you're in for that as well, right?" He was going to explain, but the girl agreed with him, her voice a bit dreamy.

  "Okay. Should I go get him?"

  Troy was still working, at Lesser Shia, so Zack nodded.

  "Meet us back here in ten minutes? Come on Libby. Let's abuse Eve's good will before she's gone."

  That was a real factor, but it occurred to him that they could have taken people to her world for that part. The others could do that, when he was gone. Even before that, given everything. The girl had a real skill when it came to getting people to do well at things, it seemed.

  Troy had to go in first, for a very long time, and learn his skills on a level that would have seemed insane the day before. Not just then, since Charli had been through it all.

  Then, together, they all went into the line to teach Libby Paterson, the Bat- girl, how to survive in the void. Better than that, this time, Libby lasted about five hundred years, and managed, with a lot of trouble, to get not just herself, but all of them, out.

  That left her gasping and vomiting on the floor, but Zack was kind of impressed. Charli didn't get it yet, but Troy smiled and clapped.

  "Awesome! I tried that earlier, with three people? I did the same thing. Poor Hathe nearly called a medic for me."

  Zack nodded then.

  "It's pretty much always like that if you do more than one person at a time. Two, and I'm out of breath. Three or more and it's like that." Then he looked around the room, made a face that was, he hoped, pleased and after a few minutes of waiting for Libby, helped her up. They were going to need to clean the floor. Zack moved to get the mop and bucket from the closet and started in on that while the others lounged a bit. Troy had worked longer and Charli was still a bit drifty, not having been allowed to really find her real world legs again yet.

  Libby smiled at them, and shuddered a little bit.

  "I hate getting sick. So, no more than two at a time?"

  Zack mopped, and nodded at the same time, the movements synching up.

  "Exactly. What I want now, soon, is for all of us to start training people. We should have at least ten or twenty thousand line walkers, in the end. Spread out all over reality. Realities? I don't know how we find volunteers yet, but we can work on that. Are you all in?" If they weren't it would slow things down.

  Troy was however, and Libby nodded. Charli was just standing there, a loopy grin on her face.

  "I don't know. That's a lot of time to spend in the void. Millions of years. That doesn't really... I mean... I don't know."

  Zack could see that, and it was a great point.

  "Now, let's go and get some food? We all eat, and haven't for a while. Or..." Zack looked at the clock, which said it was just after nine. They'd shut the store down early, so that everyone could leave, but it was about half an hour before they could go get Merry from work.

  He would have gone and helped her clean up, but that would make her angry, though she'd hide it. The job was hers and doing her work for her, was a major Elth no-no. To the level that she'd even yell at him, if he did that.

  "Fu-!" Zack ran then, having realized that he'd promised hamburgers for people and then gotten side tracked, coming up with two new line walkers.

  Xan looked up, worried, and wondering if he were about to die, as the group of most ancient beings came for him. Charging directly. He nearly summoned his sword, and did pull the mop in front of himself, realizing that one of the beings was his love. Charli.

  Not that she knew about that part of things. He'd never told her about how he felt.

  Zack waved at him.

  "Are we too late? I said that I'd get people food and got distracted in the void. Well, I guess I can take the kids something from Burgerville. They should still be open." There was no manipulation to his words, just a new plan. It would mean taking a shortcut and walking a bit, but he could get that done in about half an hour.

  Stopping suddenly, Xan glared at him, his inner self covering for the fact that he'd been worried about death moments before.

  "I can make something. I have no plans, and it would be an honor to cook for you and your people. Line walkers."

  He was staring at Charli, and she looked back evenly.

  Finally as he turned, to do his work, he turned back.

  "Miss Charli, would you like to attend a function with me, soon?" He expected her to say no, and given the moment, Zack kind of did, too.

  Instead she smiled, almost seeming like she was drugged.

  "I would like that. Tomorrow night? After you get off work?" It made sense, given that the Elth man worked nearly every day. As far as Zack could tell his people didn't have the concept of weekends.

  They both agreed to that, which meant Xan was very pleased as he took the food order and made more food than he probably had during the rush earlier.

  Chapter eight

  It took all of them to carry the bags of food back without crushing it. They also had Hilda and Merry with them, which meant that the flavor of their little group changed a lot when they got back to the house.

  Merry gasped however when she realized that the food, in part, was for guests.

  "We can't serve them this! It wasn't made fresh. It's old now, and less than proper." She was really concerned about it, and looked half panicked about the whole thing.

  Troy smiled, hearing about the whole thing, and patted her on the back, lovingly.

  "No problem this time. School kids being out this late won't expect even free stuff, so this will be fine. Plus, Xan just made this stuff. This is good. If you make them real food, it would seem wrong to them."

  Merry was not convinced, and set to making sweets, in case they were needed later, after the poor quality food that her work cohort had made was roundly rejected by the minor gods that Chris would have chosen to be his friends.

  She didn't say that, but it was there in her every movement, and her shining inner shadow seemed to think it was real enough. It was bad enough that Zack had to give her a hug, then leave the room, to ensure he didn't laugh at her over the whole thing. Then he took the food to the dining room, and set the bags on it.

  Poking his head into the front room, he noticed that Clarissa had moved to sit by poor Jamal, who was ignoring her so hard it wasn't really cute or funny. Each time she moved to touch him, he pulled away, subtly. Inside he was annoyed, and kept staring at the girl, growling softly at her.

  Leave me alone.

  That he didn't want to be a jerk about it was also clear.
So he was fairly happy to see Zack standing in the doorway about sixty feet away.

  "Hey all! I got that food. Sorry I'm late. I got sidetracked at work." It was before ten still, but these kids weren't spending the night. At least it would make no sense for them to. Two girls and two boys in a mansion filled with succubi and vampires didn't seem like a thing that anyone's parents would be thrilled to hear about. Even if they didn't know those groups were real, they probably would have pulled their children from the place on hearing it was even a make-believe option for the night.

  Waving, Zack got the kids to get up and follow him to the other room. Chris moved lightly, and without the clumsiness that his lanky, admittedly nerdy, form should have allowed him. There was a smoothness to it that Jamal thought of as being fit, and probably belonging to a natural athlete. Beth didn't really notice it, and Clarissa thought it looked feminine, based on the idea that she wasn't that interested in Chris. Not with the larger, more powerful looking black guy there.

  It was a bit troubling, since it was clear that Clarissa was, more or less, just a normal girl. A bit too emotional, and prone to thinking of herself before anyone else, but she wasn't really being bad. None the less, she was annoying Zack, too. On the good side, Chris just walked toward the front of the group, smiling.

  "Is every one eating with us?" His shadow turned to Zack, on purpose, and tilted his head. The meaning was clear even without words. He wanted to know if the vampires were going to just sit there with them at the meal.

  Not because he didn't like them, but because they didn't eat food, and while it was normal for them, knowing that their friends were filled with energy and not hungry any longer, it might seem strange. How could they explain that to the kids that didn't know who, or what, the other people were was the actual question then.

  Zack simply didn't know. Shrugging he tried to send back that message, but it wasn't very helpful of him.

  Everyone there, the kids, seemed surprised to find that there were other people around. They'd been left alone for hours, and had only seen Claire, so there was a surprised feeling from everyone except Chris, who knew what was going on.