by P. S. Power
On the good side he already knew what was going on.
He spread his hands slowly.
"Can you take them some of the new blend? That's not bad and it might at least tide them over. I don't know what to do on the other end."
He sighed.
"Right. Get with Rebekah and see if she'll ear mark some for us? I'll try to make certain it reaches the right place. Do you have some here? For sampling?"
It took fifteen minutes to set up, but the Vampires, all of whom were old and crusty, no matter how young they looked, and not the well balanced kind that were on the council, managed to tolerate being fed from paper cups.
There was grumbling, but Zack spread his hands and looked from one of them to the next, his eyes going cold, since he was supposed to be done by seven and wasn't going to be at this rate. Not at all.
"The situation on the ground is delicate, ladies and gentlemen. You may not like getting blood from a bottle, but we don't have people for you to feed from and doing that at this particular meeting will probably start a wasteful and unneeded conflict. So, how about this; you can all drink the stuff I get for you, or I'll take the bottles and..." Really, what he wanted to do was claim that he'd shove them up their tight Vampire asses for them, but that wasn't going to happen. Instead he modified it. "And leave them here for someone that likes to eat. This is taking a lot more work than I thought it would, and I'm getting annoyed. It's not really your fault, but working with us on this would be so nice right now."
Surprisingly, that worked and the grumbling stopped, which let him get them all into place, even if it did mean being felt up by a Vampire girl. No one complained this time, so the extra explanation seemed to help. That, or they just weren't worried that Barb could crush them.
After that he had to go to Arizona and pick up coolers packed with ice and blood, which meant walking about ten miles in all, along with Barb, carrying the things. They had seven of them and would need more, since the Vampires were trying to stack the rooms with their own people, so they wouldn't be outnumbered too badly if it came to a fight. No one said that exactly, but it was so obvious that even Zack could see it.
On the last trip, being playful like she was, Barb grinned and started to rush ahead.
"Race you! Last one to the shortcut is a rotten egg!" The words marked her as being older than he was by a good twenty years, but the truth was more than that. He shook his head, then shrugged, trying to bend space like he had the night before. If he had. It was clear, once he was doing it, Barb was too, and that the harder she pushed, the bigger the warp in front of her got. Or at least the further away from her body it pushed. He copied that, just walking quickly, which was really all she was doing. He'd always thought of it as running, but it looked different now. She was ahead of him and not watching, but when she stopped, a bit short of the transit point, he did too, which got her to jump.
"Holy crap!" She wasn't breathing hard and he was a bit, but she still seemed a bit impressed, if he could judge such things. "How the hell did you do that? I mean, I'm not exactly the fastest Vampire girl ever, but you matched me..."
It was actually too hard to explain, since to her way of thinking she probably just moved, not realizing how it was done. Trying to go into it would just be too much work. He was starving, and his stomach growled at him fiercely.
He had missed dinner, which could explain it.
"Here, I need to get some food and see if I get my own bed tonight or if it's back to the hotel." He took her arm and shocked at his speed or not, she made the hop perfectly, having done it so many times now. He watched it, and saw just the tiniest extension of space around her when she did it too. Once he knew to look for it, it all made perfect sense.
They weren't done of course, because they still had to make seven trips to the Ettarian lands, where a man was standing by to get the blood around for rapid delivery. Zack thanked him, telepathically, which got the man to smile and nod, then call for help to get things in place fast enough for the Vampire's liking.
Then...
He headed to the food court and made a total pig of himself, eating three full trays of things. It was insane and he should have popped, but he just had to. It was probably a mental thing. Controlling his stress through eating.
'You gotta watch that, or you'll get fat. Not that a bit of weight would hurt for now, but you don't stay twenty-two forever.' MH didn't tell him to stop even with that warning, until people started watching him do it. Then he suggested they move along and at least diversify where they were doing it.
It wasn't totally lost on Zack that Keeley hadn't been around all day, or even called back. Sure, she could just be busy, or worried that he was going to confess his undying love for her, or angle for that three-way with her and that hot redhead that was way too young for him, but he really doubted it was that. Perhaps the busy part? The rest was stupid of him to suspect. As far as he knew, she didn't make mistakes that big, and while she was hot, she wasn't really his type, being all...Demony.
So he was a little bit shocked to find her standing outside the back door of the Mall, leaning against the building when he came out at ten.
"Hello. You wanted to speak to me?" She said if from behind him, but she'd been there for a while, since space wasn't boiling the way it normally did when she was just moving through it.
"Hi! Yeah, I was... Is it possible that someone set up the meeting to be in the Ettarian lands so that I'd have to take everyone? If so, can you tell who and why?" It seemed like a damn tall order, but she looked around and started to walk, waving to him, heading toward the far side of the building, toward Princess Pretty Nail and the Power Lifting gym.
It wasn't what he'd have normally done at all, which was probably the point.
"It seems odd. The most likely person, given what we know, to have done that, would be me. I didn't however. Finias or Darla could both do it, but they have no particular reason to either draw you out, or expose you to so many people that will take your ability to do that as being odd." She wasn't going fast, but scanned the area closely as they moved, looking for attack. He tried to do the same, but didn't know what would be coming that way, if anything at all.
After a moment she turned to him, staying in motion the whole time, taking his left hand, as if they were a couple or something.
"If it were either of them however, they would have simply asked for what they wanted from you, or made a bargain. You aren't intractable and anyone wanting you dead would attack, not do something like this.
"I believe that Gregor is the same. He'd just ask and deal. Bente... Well, she considers you a friend already, and Tarsus would... Honestly, it could be him. Most likely however..." She actually stopped talking and looked around like a person that thought the cops were after them in a movie.
"Yes?" He tried to sound polite, but it had that drawn out tone that annoyed people got anyway.
"Well, I don't have proof, but my best guess is that my brother, Xenses, is behind it. He probably wants to test you and see if you can do it."
Mirror Him howled, a thing of fear and rage, but didn't do it out loud, thankfully, leaving Zack in charge for once when things got tense.
"The freak that put me on the lines when I was kidnapped and did... I don't know what all he did to me, that old guy, Finias? He said that it was bad. Considering that he's a Greater Demon, I have to think it's probably just as well I don't remember. I should probably know, but..." He wasn't sure that it would help and if not, why would he want to?
That got the hot teen girl next to him to take a deep breath.
"Okay. I..." She actually went blank for a bit and then started to shudder, a single tear coming from her right eye after a minute. "I can access those memories. I... Zack, I won't lie to you, not ever. You understand that, right?"
He knew she was saying the words and they seemed honest, but that didn't mean she'd never lie. Almost everyone did at some point. He said this, but she just smiled and shook her head.
<
br /> "Demon bigot. Anyway, my point is... Just knowing half this stuff would break you right now. I mean, really badly. You can't cope with it yet. I can tell you part of it, and it's true, but you need to understand... this is the mild stuff. It also wasn't your fault. None of it. Xenses is crazy for one of our kind, and he tried to make you that way too. It pretty much worked..." She opened a rift, as if it weren't a problem, making space bubble and breach, and then took his hand, stepping into it. He followed, almost by rote, since it was what he did all day. They ended in her living room, with Sherri sitting on the sofa alone, watching television.
She turned and went wide eyed, then grinned.
"And here I'd thought I'd been stood up! Where would you like to go?"
He was a bit worked up, and Mirror Him was not up to coming out to talk to his would be date, so Zack handled it, after a fashion.
"I'd like to go to your room and see if I can manage better than average sex, but Keeley promised to tear off my balls if I did that." He looked at the Demon in question and then back at her Human mother. "You get the idea right? She really means it, and I've barely used them yet. It isn't fair at all, since you're very nice and attractive, but under threat of physical bodily harm, I have to fold. Just to be clear, this does mean your own daughter is cock-blocking you. I don't think it's in a nice, she just wants me for herself, kind of way either. You two should probably talk about it. Later, after I leave?"
Sherri laughed a bit, but Keeley crossed her arms and made a serious face.
"We will talk about it later, mother. Right now just... watch your movie." She smiled as the woman gave her a look that spoke of a potential spanking for the trouble maker if she wasn't careful. A grounding at least.
Then he got pulled to her bedroom again, which Keeley clearly used as her private office.
"This place isn't really secure, but I can run some counter measures. So... that bought me about two minutes to think. I... Don't want this to hurt you. I don't suppose you accept that it was really bad and call it a day?"
"Honestly? If it won't hurt anything later, I can do that."
That got her to frown, and look more sullen than he'd ever seen her even try for.
"You have to know, in case Xenses comes for you. You can run, if you have to. He's not as good as you are with the lines. Not really. Slower than I am, and I'm only sixteen. So that's something. You need to be able to get on them from anywhere, which you haven't been doing, but you can. I'll show you in a bit. It takes energy, which for now will mean eating more. You need to anyway." She patted his left arm. "Anorexia is so schoolgirl. I'll get us a snack in fact. You can pay me for it."
That seemed an odd way to offer food to a guest, but he had his checkbook with him, even though he never used it. He needed to start carrying more cash.
"That's a Greater Demon thing. Never offer food, or drink to one of us for free. That's an insult, and saying that you think we're children. Always trade or pay for food, even if it's a gift. Just like how you don't do favors for people for free. Always bargain for them. Speaking of which, just to give you the idea, what are you trading me for this information?"
Zack looked away, trying not to check out her butt as she moved to the stove and started making steaks. She had some water on to boil in a big pot and opened not one, but three jars of pasta sauce and started browning more meat on the fourth burner. Hamburger that got spices added to it. She traveled from one task to another without using greater than normal speed at all, but she didn't let anything burn.
"How about that, um, favor you'll owe me? If I can stop the war, or help with that?"
She nodded, not looking at him at all.
"Done. I think we should wait until after you eat. I expect tears and hair pulling and you'll need the calories for it. In the mean time, Becky was mortified that we caught her the other day. I told her that it probably only made you want to do her yourself, so if you could give her a call and ask her out? She's legal after all, eighteen, and within your dating age range. I doubt Lenore will mind, if you explain it. Or Kyle. Alede are so good about things like that. At least with anyone but another Alede. Then they get territorial fast."
He sighed.
"I have time for dating? I haven't even been alone with my girlfriend in nearly two weeks. Maybe she's trying to avoid me? I know that I'm not all that good looking..."
That got a laugh, but she didn't turn from what she was doing, just putting two loaves of premade garlic bread in the oven. Apparently they were having guests?
"You aren't half bad Zack. The bit of work I did last night is going to hold, so you look younger and a bit more symmetrical. We should get a truly different look for you soon, but for now it's about what people will accept without realizing that something is wrong. Lenore really likes you however. In a Vampire way, true, so, you know, not soul mates, but she isn't about to dump you or whatever it is you fear. She wouldn't if you were a toad with horribly bad breath, which you aren't. If anything she's probably worried that you aren't entertaining more Vampires yet. She'll want that to help bind you to her. I think you should avoid it for now, to be honest. You'll have more leverage that way. Make her do the work herself. Be a bit more demanding, so that she knows she's wanted personally." It was a lot of free information, considering everything and he wasn't certain he could follow it all, but Keeley just kept right on talking, as if he was absorbing her pearls of wisdom without question.
"Oh! You should arm yourself too. Fire arms and blades are what I go with. Of course I learned how to use them first, but you can too. You have a great blade place at Westfield, the Kobold Embassy? Fantastic work. Go in with about fifty thousand so you don't insult the man, and get some lessons first, so you don't hack off a limb. Wu-Li can help with that, I bet, if you don't want me to do it. I have a book printed out too, that you should read..." She kept stirring and added the noodles to the water about then.
Ten minutes later the table was loaded with food, and she waved at it.
"Call it twenty... three dollars worth for your share? I have some great desserts too, you'll want in on that. The stuff here is only a fraction of it." She waited and took the check from his fingers with a little tug and he could swear, as strange as it was, that she actually sub-vocalized a "yoink!" sound effect.
Then she started eating without ceremony or saying that he should at all. He started by taking normal portions of food, but she just shook her head.
"In public, yes, but right now get as much in you as possible. Load your plate and remember that you need more protein than you think." She actually got up and did it for him, heaping the plate with more than four people could keep down. He was hungry, it was true, but that was ridiculous.
"I'll get fat, trying to eat this."
"No... You won't. Go ahead. Eat." She didn't watch him directly though he could sort of feel her regard as he slowly chewed hoping it wouldn't insult her when he couldn't finish it.
When he did, she got him another plateful and a full loaf of garlic bread.
"You see the trend here? Where does it all go? It's like a stage magic trick almost. You're just processing it so fully, and so fast that it isn't a problem that way. I kind of thought you might. Don't do this around other people. It's a dead giveaway for those that know. You can come here and pay me for it. That or Darla's. We need to get with her in a bit too, after you stop crying and all that. Dessert first. I have the best cheesecake. My Hsreth friends make it. This one had lemon curd on top... Finish that and I'll show you."
Zack was starting to get just a tiny bit suspicious after he finished that and a full cake. It could be a trick, except that, deep inside, howling the words, other him slowly explained what it meant.
Well, actually at first it was a litany of, 'fuck, fuck, fuck... fucking hell!' Zack didn't feel enslaved however, so he managed to extrapolate what was going on, from the obvious clues and the fact that Keeley had pretty much started using "we" to reference Greater Demons in a way that seemed a bit too
him inclusive to be a mistake.
He smiled at Keeley and tried not to let the idea rock him too much. He wasn't actually a different person today than yesterday, was he? No matter what, he could just always be himself, and not let the world control how he acted too much.
Except that he also knew that the idea made him feel not just bad, but really, really horrible. He said the words anyway, since it was his part in things no doubt. Even if it made him sound stupid, if he were wrong.
"So... I guess the bad news here is that I'm a Greater Demon after all?"
That actually got Keeley to stop and then smile at him, shaking her head a bit.
"You got that already? I figured that it would take a lot more than those little hints to break through to you. The denial is strong with you, after all. You are, however, a Greater Demon. That isn't the bad news. It isn't bad at all really. Lots of perks to being one of us, which I'll get to soon."
She made a point to eat the last of the cheesecake before going on and then started to clear the table and do the dishes in a very particular order. Doing things like washing each plate three times before putting it in the rack.
"No, that's the good news. The bad news is... Well, I think that Xenses is your father, and that he really doesn't want to let you grow up."
Chapter fifteen
Zack made a face and then tried to look skeptical about the whole thing.
"Riiight. I'm pretty sure I know who my father is. I have grandparents and everything. They raised me?" That was just a fact, and he remembered it, from the time he was about eleven on.
The Demon girl was standing, her body relaxed, but balanced. Like a person ready to run or fight, Zack realized, instead of a friend giving some guy news that he just might not be that happy with. What did she think he was going to do? Run away? She smiled and it looked real, but the girl kept talking anyway, explaining.
"They probably think that's simply a fact. It isn't. Greater Demons don't have children with each other. The men procreate with Human women. I don't know the particulars of this case, but if you're one of us, your father is too. There are no exceptions." She kept at the cleaning, working quickly, but again, not so fast that it broke anything or bent reality around her.
