Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  It was interesting to see the reactions, but Zack realized something, settling into his chair. As his behind hit the soft fabric cushion that was there, and he looked at all the people around the table, his awareness came to a conclusion that was just different to anything that had ever come up before.

  He didn't care what these other people thought.

  Oh, not to the level that he wanted to be mean, but most of his life he'd measured what people were saying inside carefully, and had always tried to make their days smoother. They'd get tense, or upset by new things, and he'd work hard to make certain they didn't feel more stress than needed. If they had an issue with him, he'd even go out of his way to correct the perceived flaw, if it was one.

  Now, glancing with a small smile on his lips, he understood that it wasn't his job to help everyone on every little thing. True, it was mainly because Beth was sitting there, looking longingly at the food, wondering if she should have some or not. She was hungry, but had problems stopping once she got started, and felt fat, sitting there with the bevy of super models that had walked into the room. Her mind didn't have any other way to classify them, but it was intimidating.

  Clarissa was less self-aware and actually thought that she was, if not as good looking at Val, Lyn and Eve, then she was, at the very least, above Beth, Denise and Claire. The big problem there was that it wasn't true. Worse, Jamal quietly had decided that he'd rather sleep with anyone else in the room, other than her. That included Zack, Chris and Troy, and given that the guy wasn't even remotely gay, or even bi, meant something special.

  That wasn't his problem either. Not unless he had to put out for some reason, which wasn't going to be happening.

  So, without feeling shy about it, he took several burgers, and some fries, knowing that he at least needed the calories. Everyone else took normal amounts of food, except Eve and Claire. Beth saw that and winced, then looked down at her plate. Merry insisted on real dishware being used, and scampered to come to the table, Hilda along with her, since there was free food in the offing.

  That got more staring, since they contrasted so nicely. Merry was tiny and delicate, Hilda nearly a giant.

  Rather than address anything the kids were thinking, Zack waved down the table at Charli. She'd managed to go unnoticed, by keeping her inner self very still. It was a good trick. People knew she existed, but no one had been thinking about her.

  "You should eat. You haven't for a while. Even if you don't feel hungry yet." The words got everyone else to look that way, and Claire grinned.

  "I take it things went well enough? There's no terrified gibbering, which I have to take as a fine sign."

  He nodded, and took a bite of a veggie-burger. Xan did a really great job with them, making the patties himself. There was a savory and sweet quality to them that hit just about all the right taste receptors perfectly. It was still warm, and regardless of what had been said by Merry, the food was perfectly fresh. The lettuce was crisp still, and the tomatoes and onions were delightful.

  After he finished enjoying the bite, he spoke, deciding not to care about what the kids heard. If they thought he was weird, then so be it.

  "Charli is a line walker now. Libby, too." He felt for his Bat-girl, to find that she was in the other room, with a full bag of burgers. She didn't want to make a pig out of herself in public, but had to eat a lot more than most of them did.

  It wasn't really true, but people could accept that the giant Hilda ate more than most, without thinking about it. Merry, tiny as she was, needed a lot too, but did that in secret. She felt shame over her part of the resources it took to feed her. Which was ridiculous. They had vast amounts of gold and cash with which to purchase food.

  Claire looked up at him, sharply, having lived for hundreds of years in secret from humans. Boldly stating the facts made her feel uneasy.

  Eve however nodded, and looked up at him.

  "Awesome! After this I need to get back to my place. Edom has been covering for me himself, I bet. I don't want to leave someone else doing my job for too long, or they'll figure out that they don't really need me. Kaitlyn?" It was clear she was asking if the Alede wanted to stay on there for a while or not.

  There were strange orgies to be had, and all that.

  The girl surprised him a bit, but wrinkling her nose cutely, and eating a single French-fry.

  "I'm in the same boat at the book shop. On the good side we can come back and visit whenever we want. Is the plan to take Nik with us? For training?" She wasn't even bothering to be cagey about her words.

  Zack wasn't, so there didn't seem to be a need to. After all, Lyn and Eve were both from a world where normal people knew all about vampires and even Alede. They held no real fear that way.

  Eve nodded, smiling around the table a bit.

  "Yeah. I want to take Chris and introduce him around a bit, too, so that we have several people to move bodies around. Are the rest of you going?" She looked at Jamal, Beth and Clarissa then.

  As if that made any sense. It was really clear that they didn't understand what was going on at all.

  Eve however, seeing that Zack was thinking about that, shrugged at him.

  "The humans here are different than they are back home. I don't know why, but there, if I showed ten people that I was a vampire, nine of them would literally forget by the next day, and most of the remainder would by a week after that. Here people can handle it. It's kind of neat really. Plus, this is obviously fated."

  Claire seemed nearly white, which had to do with how she held herself, not skin color. She was always pale. Vamps were as a rule.

  Her words were slow and even however, even as her eyes started to turn blood red, out of concern or fear.

  "Oh? How so?"

  Eve laughed a bit and pointed at the other people. The new ones.

  "I recognize all of them. Beth and Clarissa are both in my vampire training course. Older versions of them, but them. They haven't been turned yet, but I think they'll make it. This one is Darren over there. He works at Burgerville, with a friend of mine. He's also shorter. A bit of a gamer geek there. Larping?"

  It was very open and bold, and Zack just shook his head.

  "Let's not? If they want in on that kind of thing later, they can get with Chris on it. Otherwise they can just happily think all the hot women here are playing games? I'm not sure we have time for that kind of thing right now." He meant babysitting, but Troy, down the table, shrugged.

  "Or, if they want, they could try out for being line walkers? You did say we needed more of us."

  He nodded, and ate more. That was true. Not only had he said it, but they did kind of need to make sure that happened.

  "You can be in charge of that part? Chat them up, after we eat, and see what they want to do?" He glanced at Chris, who seemed no more than slightly interested in the whole thing. His shadow wasn't protesting, but did feel baffled. After all, these people were just there to study, and he didn't particularly think of them as more than casual friends.

  People he chatted with, but that was all. Really, Clarissa had invited herself. She needed the help with her grades, so he'd decided to put up with her attitude just to be a good person.

  Realizing that he'd been pushing his own agenda on the boy earlier, assuming that he liked one of the girls, Zack smiled and ate for a while. The conversation went on, with the cool vampire parts being ignored by most of them. Jamal, oddly, was willing to buy that bit, since everyone there was so good looking.

  The other two just thought people were trying to be entertaining. Beth thought it was nice of them, and decided that she was allowed to eat a bit, if Hilda was going to consume ten burgers in one sitting. Clarissa was just so self-involved that she figured Eve claiming she was a vampire was the other girl trying to steal all the attention. Which, to her teen mind, was her job. The trouble there was that she didn't have any drama ready to go, in order to steal it back.

  She was considering the idea of claiming one of the guys rape
d her, or tried to, if she could get them alone for more than a few minutes. Jamal, probably, since he was black, and everyone would believe it. Her shadow laid out the plan, and even why it would be done, since the boy had rebuffed her so clearly that evening. That would show him who had the real power, after all. He didn't have a right to refuse her.

  It was all Zack could do to not offer the girl a one way ride to someplace very far away. Thankfully several of the others caught on to what was happening, which meant they were able to come up with a plan to get rid of the girl, without letting her be alone with anyone male. It was a bit complicated however, and really, there was no need for that kind of thing.

  As the food vanished, and the diabolical plan to frame Jamal became more heated in Clarissa's mind, Zack simply looked over at her, and allowed his inner-self to rise up, vastly. He made it seem like a beast. Very much like what the vampires had going on, when they compelled a person.

  The basic idea was that they frightened people into obeying them on a level so deep that resistance was hard to come up with. It didn't work on him, and probably wouldn't on most of the others that could walk the lines, since it wouldn't slip under their awareness.

  Silently, while finishing a large wax paper package of very crispy fries, Zack looked at Val, and ordered Clarissa to behave. It happened silently, so only a third of the room jumped into response to it.

  DO NOT LIE. DO NOT LIE ABOUT ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN!

  He was trying for Clarissa alone, but it was kind of easy to see that Jamal and Beth were affected too. That meant he had to order them to simply not speak about what they'd heard that night. They could, if they wanted too, get with Chris about things however, which he left open to them. Troy, too. Not him however, since he wasn't going to bother with anything that silly now. There wasn't enough time left.

  Even if he lived forever, there wasn't, not for people he didn't know, or care about.

  Eve watched him after that, closely, but with a small, fake smile, on her lips. It wasn't until after they helped clean up, and Jamal drove the girls back to their homes, that anyone addressed what had just happened. At that, it was just a wink, coming from the good looking vampire from another world.

  "All right, we need to get people around, and get back now. I'll try to check in once a week or so? If I don't hear from you first. Where's Nikki?"

  Things would have moved faster then, except the Eve really did want to take Chris with her, and Claire started to have a problem with that. Fearing that she had unwholesome plans for the boy. Things that involved torture and rape, probably. If not Eve herself, then her kind, in that strange and impossible to reach land.

  It wasn't the case, but took a while for Eve to explain that it was just about setting up trade routes. In the end that meant though that Claire was going too, and taking several of the vampires with them, so that they could protect their human line walker from harm.

  Which wouldn't work, Zack knew. Or rather it would, but they couldn't afford to coddle Chris, and he was an adult. One many times older than Claire even. So, for about the third time in his life, Zack put his foot down.

  "No. Chris goes in alone. I'll go too, and Troy, so we can get the location. Charli, you probably need to sleep soon. We'll head over in the morning. Or... Chris can take you? I want to meet with, um, me, and set up a schedule."

  Claire seemed ready to snap at him over it, but Hilda interrupted, nodding.

  "Yes. We cannot act as if our friends are enemies and expect them not to change as we do it. Eve of the vampires is a good and capable being. Kaitlyn of the other world, too. Christopher the line walker will be safe with them. Any may die, at any time. We cannot live in fear though. It would be wrong to make others live that way as well."

  She sat back, relaxed, and Troy stood up, smiling.

  "A point. Come on then peeps. I want to go and come back inside the hour, myself. I slept late, but it was still a bit of a day. I have a shift to cover at the club tomorrow, too. Part of a day at Lesser Shia as well."

  Claire stopped frowning at least, and looked bemused.

  "Oh? Are you not going to become a full time line walker?"

  There was a shrug, and Troy shook his head.

  "I think so? I was thinking of becoming a vampire, too. Then getting Eve to do that training stuff, but that might take a while? Then I can be up all night, and all day. I might not, since I do like hamburgers, but if not that, then I'll figure something out. Maybe get Eve here to do what you and Zack are? With that blood link?"

  Eve stuck her tongue out, and then shook her head.

  "No way. Not if you can do it on your own. That way if you splat all over a windshield sometime I don't buy it. That... We don't do that back home. Not legally. Slavery is illegal. Though, I guess a line walker can't really be taken as a slave that way, so..."

  Her face was untroubled by the concept, but her words were oddly stressed. Zack didn't know why that was, so stood and moved toward the kitchen, wanting to use the shortcut there. He carried trash with him as did several of the others.

  In the end Nikki met them outside the back door, carrying a soft duffle bag, an old military style thing, with her belongings in it. That made sense, given that she was going to be gone for a while. Zack walked her through the shortcut to Something Wonderful instantly, not wanting to put up with Claire's worries for the moment. Not that they were totally insane, but they were unfounded.

  Chris, Eve, Lyn, and Troy followed, coming in fast enough that the idea of not hanging out in the kitchen had clearly spread. From the node room, which was still cluttered and filled with baskets that were being put together, he waved them all toward the node.

  "Eve, Lyn, I want you to go first. Take us to your world. I can find it, if you have trouble, but you really shouldn't. It's your home, after all. Then we'll follow along." He didn't have to ask if anyone was ready, since they either were, or would be, soon enough.

  The trip through the void was fast and smooth enough. Troy and Chris both had a bit of trouble finding the right node point, though Eve and Lyn were almost drawn to the correct place, now that they were trying to do it that way. Home was familiar, and the easiest place to find, after all.

  Smiling, Zack helped Nikki through the line, into the back of Yoghurt World. The lights were a bit brighter than back home, and while both places were clean and professional, the colors used in this one were a little shinier, somehow. Similar, but just different enough that it was noticeable. Which probably was just him, and Zack had to allow, could be imagination.

  He was going in last, so wasn't that shocked to find that a cute vampire he didn't know was standing there, holding a long knife, ready to fight them all.

  Eve smiled and waved.

  "Hey Barb! This is... Well, not even close to everyone. You got the word? About the alternate dimension stuff?"

  The woman, looking suspicious, nodded.

  "Edom did let me know about it. So, you're all demons?" She seemed tense about it, so Zack shook his head, knowing that what was meant was very different, if no less insulting, in this place, compared to back home.

  "Nope! I'm Zack Hartley. Human. Troy, and Chris here are, too. We're all line walkers though, which is a learned skill where we come from, not a thing that people are born doing." Then he sighed and shook his head, not trying to be confusing. "Except the demons. We aren't them though. Um, nice to meet you?"

  Barb looked at all of them, warily, but lowered the long, sharp looking, blade.

  "Welcome, then? Does anyone need anything? I can get you blood, or... Um, frozen treats?" For some reason she looked at Chris for that, and got a nod in return.

  "That sounds great. I can't pay for it though. I should have brought some gold with me. You take that, right?"

  Eve grinned then.

  "Mr. Hartley here has a tab. Prepaid. I think you can abuse his good will that way, Chris. Anyway Barb, Kait and I learned to walk the lines, and we need you to go and do that, too. Really, you and Troy, our
Troy, both should. As far as we know he's a shoe-in, since another version of him who is kind of close can already do it. Maybe not. I don't know about you, but if I can make it happen, I'm betting you can. You're kind of incredible that way."

  Zack was willing to simply accept that part of things, but Barb snorted. It was derisive and unbelieving.

  "Riiiight. I'll just get to the back room and do that now. Who do you think I am, The Snowflake?"

  That was an inside thing, it seemed, since Lyn hid a smile over it, and Eve snorted back.

  For his part, Zack just started working on the orders that would help her last in the void, and noticing that, Eve grinned and rather subtly did her magic thing. Then she spun on Troy, and laughed.

  "So, in this world this is your girlfriend. Why don't you take her into the void? That way I won't have to put up with the name calling. Though, seriously Barb, after this I expect you not to run your mouth like that anymore. Not everyone gets a chance like this. Even if you fail, it's worth trying. I'll watch the store here."

  It seemed efficient enough and while Zack kind of worried that Troy might not be up to the effort yet, he let them go. It was what Hilda had said that got him to do it. They had to trust their own people. Yes, sometimes they might fail, but Troy wouldn't. Not at the cost of another's life.

  The very worst thing that would happen then was that neither of them would ever come back.

  Barb really seemed to think the whole thing was a joke for some reason, but decided to play along, since she kind of wanted to try and get this Troy into a threesome with hers. That would be like having twins in bed, to her way of thinking. Plus, not cheating, at the same time.

  There was a soft half gasp as the two went to the back and vanished, and Eve moved around the counter, to grab an apron and make that treat for Chris.

  "Ohhh. We have some avocado frozen yogurt made. Try it with the marmalade sauce." She worked efficiently, and handed the large cup over. It really did look good, but Zack didn't ask for one, wanting to go and see if the other him was there. It was strange, since they were clearly different people, but also the same.