by P. S. Power
That sounded good, but he shook his head, then shrugged.
"Not at the moment. Hey, um, that thing you're supposed to do for me, that your king assigned you? What exactly did he tell you to do?"
She froze, her face blank for the moment.
"I'm to... Strike your head from your neck, when you order me to. Then say 'you are the Gatekeeper', as your shade rises from your body."
It sounded pretty specific.
Hilda turned on her, looking baffled, and Claire set her knitting down. She was about to become violent, in order to protect Zack from the obviously evil Merry. He waved at her to forestall that, and winked.
"Notice, she said the order was to do it when I told her to. I don't go around saying things like that on accident. I mean, if I tell anyone to kill me, please do it, just in case it's important." That was a lot different than just sneaking up on him and doing it at the right time.
For some reason, while Claire settled back, she didn't seem all that keen on the idea. It practically screamed from her beast, who railed against the coming death she most likely faced.
Zack had to nod at that. After all, if he died, or so the legend went, she died, too. The other way around was also suspected, but if he were in the void, that probably wouldn't happen.
Outwardly she was calm, and a bit still. Vampires did that when they got scared. It wasn't really time for that to happen yet. Honestly, there was a lot for him to do first, before it would be a thing for them to work on. Being afraid would just distract them at the moment.
Looking at Claire, he shrugged.
"We'll avoid that? If we have to die, or I do, well, I think I might be able to save you now. Regardless, we need to check that part out. I think I'll need to be gone for a while for that to work. Three or four days? On the great side, we have a lot of backup on the line walker side now." He went into that, listing out what had been happening.
Hilda shook her head.
"So many! It makes it sound simple, or easy. Until you remember that some of these beings spent hundreds of years learning the skill. People will forget that, I bet. Ones who would fret and be maddened inside at being left in a room alone for half a day will assume that any can do it with ease. I should write a ballad. Maybe..." She looked away, then got up, muttering to herself. It was adorable.
Even if she was huge for a woman.
Merry looked horrible, so Zack moved to her, where she stood and bent down to give her a hug. It lingered for a bit, with her tiny arms wrapped around him. After a while, she whispered into his ear.
"I have no choice."
It was a plea. One begging for her life. Zack crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out after standing up.
"Silly. I can think of at least ten reasons to do both of those things. Two of them don't even involve me dying. I don't think we need to be worried about placing blame just yet. I mean, we could be faking a beheading? Or... Well, I'm not certain, but if I was close enough to a node when it happened, it might not even kill me." That was dicey, since he had a functional range that he would need to be in for that to work, but he could see how it might. "Also... I don't think... I mean, I can see that Big Shadow is like me, but... He also isn't. I know for a fact that he's the Gatekeeper. I need to talk to him if I can. Riley was saying some stuff, but who knows what that was all about? Nothing against him, but Tricksters aren't exactly the most straightforward people in reality." He smiled at that, since, well, it was true.
The being had been pretty above board with him in the past, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do whatever he thought was needed in order to get the universe into line. For instance, maybe telling Zack to try and get out of being alone in a void forever would ruin things. He couldn't see that for himself, but it was possible. Plus, Zack was probably going to do exactly what he was and fight against his fate.
Hopefully that was the right thing to do. Otherwise a certain Trickster was probably going to end up kicking his behind. They didn't play fair after all, so Zack didn't doubt that would be happening if he wasn't careful. Possibly even if he was.
That line of thought got him to laugh, out loud, and shake his head. Claire smiled, though it was a worried thing. Weak around the edges and not matched by the beast inside of her. Merry just stood there, feeling lost. That got her hugged again, which didn't really help. After a moment she took a deep breath and started to leave the room.
"I'll make food. It won't be a moment." Part of the reason for that was to prevent the others from seeing her cry. Her lot in life was to, as far as she knew, kill her own husband.
She'd known that for nearly a decade, the king having told her before she and her brother left for this far off land, about the prophecy. Yes, it was possible for the interpretations to make a huge difference in such things, but she'd been ordered to do it, by a man that had been told by a true seer that he had to do it.
That had been a thing that the ancient ruler had mentioned to her, according to her glowing shadow self. The words were confusing at first, but Zack nodded his head, and looked at Claire.
"Interesting. This is a lot different than I thought. Here I was, getting ready to die and go live forever in the void. Now I'm not at all certain that's what this will really require. Well! Tomorrow I'll go and see if I can dig up Big Shadow. That will probably tell me more. I should have done that already. Instead I thought that I was being noble. Saving the scheme of all reality by myself." It felt a bit over the top at the moment, thinking that kind of thing. It was the saying it out loud portion that really did it.
For all he knew the whole thing might be a trick meant to just push him into doing something else, completely, like training a lot of line walkers. Which could be good, or bad. He wasn't certain yet what the fallout would be.
Not really feeling better, Zack moved over to where Claire still sat and dropped in beside her.
"Homework time then. Say, just in case, what do you want for Christmas?" It was changing the topic, but all he had at the moment was a bunch of conflicting facts. Worse, they weren't that. They were just ideas, and things he'd been told.
Claire smiled an him and leaned in, her cool shoulder bumping his chest lightly. It was cuddly, and held for a while. He wasn't fooled however, the woman just didn't need anything that could be bought, and didn't have a clue what to ask for present wise. She was stalling.
Getting that, Zack nodded.
"You do know that if you say nothing, what you get are socks. It's a tradition. Funny looking ones, plain white sports ones... Things that look like candy canes..." Which would look hilarious on her. Unless that was all she was wearing of course. Then it would be sort of hot.
His teasing got her to nod.
"I understand. I'll come up with something a bit more appropriate. Perhaps a new coat? I don't truly need one, but it's better than stockings. We do need to arrange for some things however. Perhaps we could hire a shopper? Send them to Lesser Shia with a list?" It was a good idea, but still didn't tell him what she wanted.
He thought for a bit, nudging her back. Then, trying to distract her, he kissed her on the cheek. It was cold, but familiar, and smooth. Zack stood up, and stretched, then took a deep breath. The place smelled like apple tarts. How he could tell the difference between that and say, pie, he didn't know. There was one however. The only thing there was that Merry would never serve that in the morning. He always got oats. Like clockwork, that was breakfast. Even when others were there, eating butter drenched French toast, or maple covered waffles. If he was still hungry after that, then another, larger, bowl of oats would be served.
He'd never really noticed that before, but it was true.
Thinking about it he thought he understood what was going on there. Back before he needed to eat so much he'd gotten injured a few times, and had to heal up. So he'd gotten oatmeal and juice. Soft things that even a sore mouth could manage. For some reason Merry had learned to think of that as his favorite morning food, so served it to him each day. Zack did like
it, since she did a great job with it, but a bowl of cornflakes could be a nice change now and again. He would have mentioned it, but then Merry would have had to learn how to make them. Buying a box of the stuff from Wal-Mart just wouldn't do after all. Not in her world.
So it was a bit of a shock when Merry came back, holding her hands in front of her.
"I have some things to eat? It's before the morning meal, I..." Her inner shining seemed upset, but she hid it pretty well. "I can make oats for you?"
Zack shook his head.
"This early? That doesn't seem right. I'm sure you made good choices here." He'd keep being certain of that, he decided. No matter what she served him. Then, in the entire time they'd known each other, her food had always been good. Not even once had there been anything even remotely less than perfect about it.
The apple tarts were actually a spiced roll, which did have that fruit in them, along with lots of gooey frosting. It was lightly butter flavored, and whipped to a level that reminded him of the filling of a Twinkie. Only better. Because Merry made it.
"This is great! I mean that, too. I'm not just being nice to you. We should take some to Don and Kate, if I don't eat them all. Brit and Blain, too." The blond twins were off at the same school. Along with Jennifer Stone, who he didn't really know very well at all. Honestly, he needed to go and kidnap her soon, to see if she could do the line walker thing. The mages didn't have anyone yet who could do it, but her people were going to want to get in on that kind of thing and Zack only really knew a few of them on a close personal basis. Lisa Penbroke, who was probably a person to try that with too, of course, but he wanted to send her in with Troy, if he'd do it, since Zack didn't need her as a daughter. Not having already slept with her more than once. That would just be creepy.
Eloise, their leader, his own grandparents, and Lisa's father George.
None of them were people he wanted to spend hundreds or thousands of years with. Jelly, which was Jen's nickname, was kind of a blank to him, but seemed all right, more or less. Her Uncle, Hiram was a criminal, and he'd be learning to be a line walker about ten years after Zack was dead. Not that he hated the guy, but the man would use any power he had to get ahead, even if he didn't need to. As it was he was the head spy for the Nation of Line Walkers already.
That wasn't going to end up going well, but it had been Kaitlyn's choice, and she was kind of in charge of the thing, it having been her idea in the first place. That sounded fair to him, since he didn't want to do it himself. Really, they needed to get her a title soon, so that everyone would know she was the president, or whatever they called her. Queen came to mind, but he rejected it, not wanting her to get a big head that way. They also needed some kind of term limit. Otherwise whoever held the office might have it for hundreds of years, which was fine, unless they were horrible at it. Then it could lead to problems.
The rolls were really great however, and he managed to eat four of them before his body was telling him that he had to stop for a while. They weren't little after all. Merry had kept busy, setting up five plates of the things, along with large plastic containers, storage bins really, filled with things to eat for each of them. They had their names written on them, in English. That hadn't been the case until about four weeks prior to that, when it had suddenly changed. Merry hadn't mentioned it, but it was clear that her writing in English was getting a lot better. She practiced almost every night, so it seemed right to him.
"I, will get these wonders to the right places, directly. The kids will need to have things to fuel them for their finals, and all that studying they have to do."
Each of the rooms he needed had a shortcut to it. Ones that he'd made himself, so the other end points were in different bedrooms at the house. The ones that the college kids used when they came to visit.
That meant he only had to make five trips to get it all done. Merry didn't pack light when it came to food.
Chapter twelve
"Ooooh, yeeaahhh!" Blain, looking like his normal self, a very good looking young blond man that probably should have been a stripper, instead of a college student, smiled hugely when Zack made the first trip through into his room. He was an Alede, and shared with with Don.
Also, after a fashion, Zack's son. Adopted, but they'd spent nearly a thousand years in the void together at one point. Blain wasn't a line walker, but he had managed to develop other powers. The main one for him being that he didn't need to absorb sexual energy any longer. His ability to fight, physically, had also increased dramatically. On a level that indicated he'd mastered the ability to slow time in his mind, allowing him to see what was coming as if it were in slow motion.
Zack could do that too, and he thought that Chris and Kate had some talent that way as well, so it wasn't exactly novel, but given that the boy wanted to be a fighter, as well as a lover, that wasn't a horrible skill for him to get. His mind just lacked the flexibility to enter the void alone. He could survive there however, which was another power, even if Zack hadn't considered it before. Alede didn't do well in isolation normally, but if this one was ever dumped in a black cell for a week, he not only wouldn't die, he'd be fine.
At first, when they'd come back, he'd seemed quiet and a bit dark, but over the last months, it appeared to be fading. That, or being fought off. The kid seemed like a real college boy again. Only now he was one that actually did his homework, instead of trading sex for grades.
"Yep. Merry was worried that you'd all starve to death if she didn't send you two week's worth of food. How's the brain work going? Learning all about math, and um..." Zack had never really learned what it was they were taking. Any of them, other than Kaitlyn. Considering he'd taken over their bills, that was a poor idea.
Don looked up and him and smiled a bit. It was a little sad around the edges, but his inner self was still focusing on the text in front of him.
"History for me. I should have come and talked to everyone, I just got busy." He waved at the paper, and then grimaced, wondering if his priorities were right, at the moment. "How are the new people? Eve, and alternate Kate? Uh, Lyn?" He was just pretending that he didn't know what to call her, it was clear. The concept of there being two of his girlfriend seemed to be throwing him off.
Zack grinned.
"Back home, setting up our new network over there. Chris is covering that for us. Troy is doing Lesser Shia, and Charli and Libby are starting a new concern at Something Wonderful. I don't want to move them before Christmas, since we have all those baskets to make up. Really, after finals we should have you and Kate work on that part, too. Get your basket making groove on, using that human creativity and all that." He was teasing a bit, since the real money, and use, was in the line walking portion of things, and Don would probably spend his whole break going to different places, working.
Which sounded like it would suck. Zack nodded, smiling, and decided that everyone was getting some time off, over the holidays. Even if they weren't Christian, it was only fair.
Don looked at him, but simply nodded, working out that there were more people trained up now without it being stated explicitly. There was a slight widening of the eyes however, which indicated that he was impressed.
"I can do that. Need help bringing things through?"
Zack waved that away, and shook his head after a moment.
"I'm good. Here, let me..." He stepped through, grabbed the package for Blain, since he'd taken Don's in first, and set it in the middle of the small dorm room. "There. Now, I just have to find the others. What time is it here?"
Blain moved to look at the bright red digital clock to the side of his small study desk.
"Um, eight-forty, in the morning, in case you're turned around."
Zack nodded.
"Great. So only a fifty-fifty chance of me walking in on your sister having sex, Blain?"
That got a chuckle, and a big smile from the boy, who was, after all, an Alede.
"Not that she'll care. She's still trying to work out how to ge
t Hartley into bed, by the way. On the good side, she's taken to actually trying to study, since Don has been feeding her every day. It's a deal they made. I say risk the invasion. She needs the food, if nothing else."
He was still doing Kate first, who was, like the boys, actually doing her school work. Or, more exactly, was writing something like a doctoral thesis on her classes, instead of doing the study that she'd already committed to memory. Not that it was going to be turned in, but it was good practice, no doubt.
"Zack! With food. Thanks. I was just about to come and see if I could beg some from Merry. I've been so hungry lately. I blame all the extra practice Blain has been having us do. Not that it will hurt anything." She took the top box, which had the plate of still warm rolls on it, covered with plastic wrap, just to prevent the things from getting frosting all over the place.
The rest was settled on the floor. There was a small, somewhat inconvenient throw rug there, but he moved to the far side of it. The room was only about twelve by fifteen, but Kait didn't have to share, Claire having bribed someone in the head office for it. That, or she'd used mental powers to get it done. It was hard to tell, honestly. Either way, it had worked.
Then, Claire would have probably killed people to get what she wanted done, if that was what it took. It was a hard thing to remember, since all the vampires he knew were so nice to him, but they killed without worrying about it. If you got in their way and weren't powerful enough, they would end your days. Even the good ones that he knew had to fight against that kind of thing. Not that his vampire had done that in this case. There would be no need to. Not given the kind of money and power that she could bring to bear on the situation.
Kaitlyn gave him a quick hug, her mind focused on her work, and her plans to actually study for her tests again soon. Those were the right ideas, so he gave her a hug, and then move back into the line. It was Britney's turn then, and she was just trying to do school work, too. So absorbed into it that she didn't notice he was there at all. She was working at a computer, which was just a laptop, but was new looking. Zack didn't interrupt the attractive and youthful seeming blonde girl. That would be rude and he really didn't want to have sex with her.
