Other Places 2: Road Blocks

by P. S. Power

  "That, is really distracting." He muttered it out loud, which she pretended not to notice, and he didn't talk about it until they were back in the candle shop, a few minutes later.

  He did his new little thing, choosing how he felt and then turned to her, as she cradled her straight left arm with her right palm, like a nervous school girl.

  "Really? I mean, do you really think that knowing what I am now is that big of a deal? I'd like to point out that I didn't act that way around you, when I thought I was a Human, and you were a Vampire. It's pretty much the same thing, except that we already know each other and you know, for a fact, that I'm a decent person. That plus I don't want to eat you. Well, not in a way that you wouldn't possibly enjoy." It came out sounding playfully light and even, at least, instead of like an accusation of unfairness. It was valid, since she was reacting based only on the fact that he might be more powerful than she was for real.

  That was at the heart of it for her, nothing else. Zack was higher on the food chain than she was and now that she understood that, her reactions to him shifted, almost without her being able to stop them. It was a lot like how she acted around Bey too.

  "Sorry. Sir. I'll try to do better." She actually refused to look at him, her black sweater leaving her washed out and cold looking, even though he was nearly certain that she didn't feel things like that anymore.

  The really sad thing was that there was nothing he could do to change that about her. She'd grow out of it, eventually. Even she knew that. At the moment, Barb was just too young to challenge someone like him, and that meant she was afraid. It wasn't built into her, Vampires actually had to learn that. It had been beaten in, carefully, over decades of effort from Lenore and a few others. It sounded mean, but he understood now, he thought.

  It was like with the baby Vamps that Lazar had made and left to fend for themselves. They were flush with hunger and power and didn't know that they needed to follow any rules, much less how to control themselves. That almost had to come from the outside, at first. That or they'd spend hundreds of years just running around killing without control, making a generalized mess of the world.

  Barbara however was taking it too far, for the moment, which was annoying.

  They worked, with him making an effort to make her feel as comfortable as possible, so that she'd let go of the idea that he, personally, was going to beat her if she got out of line. He wouldn't do anything of the sort, since she was already a reasonable person, just... scared.

  At seven there were no more guests to go through to the meeting, and the next day would be the last of the people actually headed in that direction, so he'd get some time off. Probably not real time to do anything, but it wouldn't be person after being who kept looking at him like he was a shark, getting ready to devour them all.

  "Well, good job today. I'd love it if you'd realize that I'm still me and that things are fine between us, but that will probably take time. At least you didn't run away screaming about how I want to steal your soul, like Lisa did."

  That actually got the girl to blink and then smile, for the first time that day.

  "She what?"

  "Yeah, not a joke. She made a break for it and ran out the back, screaming to the undercover cop that was listening at the door about how a Greater Demon was after her. That's going to make it seem like no drugs are being sold here, isn't it?" He grinned. "If I can learn to lie, I'm planning to try and sell the man on the idea that we're all just doing a complicated role playing thing. I already told him I was a Greater Demon. Do you want to be an Orc? I think you should totally be an Orc. We can get you a fake nose and some chainmail to wear. It will be cute." He meant that part, which, he realized, was a disturbing thing that he really hadn't realized about himself before. Orcs were basically pig people after all. That he thought it might make the girl in front of him look sexy...

  She shook her head.

  "Heck no. I'm going with cleric." Then she stopped and brushed her fingernails on her sweater. "That's right, you didn't think that I'd know that, did you? I've eaten more than one Vampire groupie in my time, you know. It's actually not a bad idea really. If we aren't going to just kill the man, or, you know, you don't make him your slave?" At those words she was suddenly scared again.

  Naturally.

  "No thanks. The man isn't really someone that I'd want hanging around for the rest of his life. I think that the whole role playing thing is probably the best bet. We should write a manual for it. That way people can leave them around and it will clearly look like a joke, or at least a game."

  Zack had never thought about writing before, and bet it was hard, but if he was suddenly going to have all day to get things done, it made sense to do things like that on occasion, didn't it? He'd need an illustrator though, that or to learn how to draw. Growing up, art had only been part of his therapy, and no one had really tried to cover exacting technique with him on it. Still, he should be able to learn how, given time. That was in that floating memory bank that Tarsus had foisted on him.

  Being a Greater Demon was all about learning things, and seeing how to make them really work. It seemed strange, since no one feared artists and fashion designers in the main, but there it was. Right there, waiting for him to try and understand what it all meant.

  He went to the food court, where he was shunned like an Amish man with blue hair by everyone. Even Conrad and Merry refused to look at him, though they did get him his food to go. He got a lot of it and billed it to the Mage Embassy, since that was one of the perks of the job. It wasn't just the Elth and Hsreth either. As he walked back he saw Valerie and her people practically running away from the front of the store, as if he didn't know where they were?

  It was dismal, but to be expected, so he just walked back home, watching the whole time, trying to stay ready for an incoming attack. Not that he knew what to do about it, other than trying to run into the lines to escape. It was his one good trick, so he tried to stay ready to use it. That he took his normal shortcut home...

  That was mainly just habit. Technically he really should have made a point to just travel directly into his living room, but it didn't occur to him, so he used his key and hoped that Darla wasn't waiting for him inside already. For all that he'd loaded himself down with several plastic carry bags of food containers, it probably wasn't enough to share anymore. Not if she ate like he seemed to need to.

  No one was home, but that didn't mean that much really. It was clear that more work had been done and there were ripples from the workmen that had come in, who were all Human, and one Alede, meaning that either Judy didn't know about him yet, or if she did, was avoiding him, while still getting the work she started done. They'd clearly focused on the bathroom that day, and when he popped his head in, it was redone with wood paneling, but the real kind, and had a rebuilt shower with a much larger tub. They were still the one unit, since there wasn't enough space for more, but it was a lot nicer looking. The toilet was even new, and was actually clean and everything.

  Zack set to getting the food inside of himself, and was still eating when Darla came, almost exactly at eight. He could feel space warping around her and a terminus forming at the door, before she knocked, so it wasn't a surprise. He got up and let her in, wondering if he was supposed to bow to her, being that she was his mentor and all. Not really knowing, he did it anyway, getting one in return.

  "Not a bad start. Keeley always just acted like I was supposed to be her baby-sitter. I see that you're eating?" She walked past him, not waiting to be invited in. Then, she wasn't a Vampire and they had an appointment, so it made sense. "I'll talk, you eat."

  As soon as he actually started, feeling a bit conspicuous and not bothering to change that, just shoveling fried rice with sweet and sour sauce into his mouth, she laid things out, starting with what her job, as mentor, really was.

  "I'm supposed to give you a chance to survive, if it can be managed. That means teaching you for a reasonable time period, until you can handle things
on your own. That won't be forever, but it's normally about seventy to a hundred years. Don't be thrown off by Keeley. She's too young to be a real adult, which means that something there is very wrong. It's a trap, and we all know it, but it's so subtle that I haven't worked out who's behind it. Not Xenses, in case you're wondering. He's about as subtle as a knife to the middle." She smiled, but didn't let him speak.

  "So, being your mentor is a sacred duty, and pretty much means that you have to do what I say, until you don't anymore. You have a whole lot to learn still."

  Zack swallowed and interjected, hoping it wasn't all that rude. She hadn't said he could speak, but it made sense.

  "Except that I probably won't really get that chance?"

  She didn't look pleased by the words, but nodded, doing it slowly, and then looking at his food, reminding him that he needed to eat.

  "Exactly. Not only are you clearly being set up here, outted, if you will, but honestly, given how damaged you are, we'd have normally killed you already. Instead of that, for some reason no one bothered to explain to me at all, you're being given an actual shot. Don't for a second think that means anyone has faith in you, or thinks this will work. It's part of something bigger and probably linked to whatever is going on with Keeley. That means we're all being played here."

  He ate, going after several eggrolls in a row, using the rest of the sauce on it.

  "So... Should you even waste time on teaching me anything?"

  That got a strange and oddly fierce look on the pretty blonde's face.

  "I'm your mentor. So far I'm the single most effective mentor in Greater Demon history. I've never lost a charge, and my only one so far reached adulthood faster than anyone else ever has. True, a lot of that was her, but darn straight it's worth teaching you, and keeping you alive. If I don't, the other Demons will make fun of me. I hate that."

  He nodded, his mouth full again. When the last of the food was gone, not long after that, she started on what she thought he'd need to know first. Zack figured that would be fighting, or magic, but she actually started him on...

  How to cook.

  That got him to look at her funny, and finally tilt his head in a questioning fashion.

  "I... Is that so I can subdue Xenses with homemade roast?"

  She didn't take offense at least, just nodding.

  "You can't learn to fight fast enough to do you much good. Don't get me wrong, you will be working on that, but for now you need basic survival skills. Real cooking, from scratch, more food around here and a chance to build up without exhausting yourself trying to use magic like you have been all day. Not that you shouldn't be practicing, but you have to recover and that means food for now. Later I'll show you how to gather energy from the world around you, but that takes time to get good at."

  It sort of made sense, he supposed. He was, Zack realized, still starving, for one of their kind of people. He needed to actually eat way more and build back up. He'd thought that he had been, but then, no weight had come back, had it?

  "All right, what do we make first?" He tried to sound like he was into the idea, and really wasn't all that opposed to it, in the main.

  "Well, you have a nice set up here, but first you need to do some shopping. A lot of it..." She smiled about the idea, as if it would be fun or something. It wasn't, not really.

  She had him make twenty trips to different stores for the purpose, stealing and then returning, their shopping carts. They got things in bulk and spent nearly five thousand dollars on food. It was so much that they didn't have a place to put it all, so most of it ended up being carefully packed into heavy duty bins and placed in the garage, along the left side. It was a mess in there, which meant, to Darla's way of thinking, that they were cleaning that up first. That meant no actual cooking was being done until nearly four in the morning, and they started on meat, fixing seasoned beef sausages that had been gotten from a butcher in Germany, eggs and pancakes, which she made him memorize six different recipes for. If the food was prepared sloppily, she made him eat it and then make more. She handed him some cash, and had him do several dishes up for her as well, but wasn't having half of what he did.

  "The privileges of age. I can take in enough energy to offset things. It's never perfect and we simply consume more than Humans or most other creatures do. Since you aren't in hiding, you can do this openly, which will make your days easier. I take it that you had some interesting reactions to the news?"

  "Oh, yeah. People refusing to look at me, my own boss, who's supposed to be my friend, running away, thinking I'm after her for some reason. One of my assistants is afraid of me too. So, probably the standard reaction set for one of us?"

  That comment got Darla to chuckle and touch his arm gently. He got the idea, now, that she was reading all his information, but since he couldn't stop her, he just waited. It didn't take long.

  "That's actually much better than you should have been expecting. Enough beings there owe you already that they weren't overtly hostile and no one tried to kill you at all. For a young Greater Demon that's practically the same as them all giving you extra birthday presents. Smooth things over where you can however. The situation you've worked yourself into there is not a horrible place for you right now. The level at which you're gaining favors and new friends is so high that few will probably challenge you directly. Oh, the rest of the Greater Demons might, but for now they're holding back, which is... telling. You can't stop them from killing you, so it isn't fear of you. My guess is that no one cares overly, to tell the truth. You just fit in too nicely."

  Zack didn't see that one at all, but tried not to let the French toast he was making burn. It had spices in the batter, but other than that wasn't hard to make, once it was explained to him.

  "Explain that one for the dumb new kid?"

  "Really? You can't see it yourself? Well, you did admit you were dumb. It's simple, you're clearly insane, so the, let's call them the 'bad guys' so you don't get lost, the adversaries, think of you as a potential recruit to their cause of general mayhem and destruction. The others, the nicer ones, like myself, realize that you're relatively harmless and have even been orderly, over all. That means that most of us don't really want you dead. That doesn't mean it won't happen that way, but for the next days and weeks it might give you a chance to repair the damage you've let happen to yourself."

  Then, as if making a point, he had to eat more. It wasn't a Human amount at all, and he wasn't gaining anything from it, even though the actual raw weight of the food and drink he was consuming should have done that for him. He looked the same at least.

  Darla waved at him, when he looked down at his still flat and slightly hungry stomach.

  "We process things differently. You may see Greater Demons that appear heavy, at times, but that's false. Our energy is held in a different portion of reality, which means that you need to fill the bank there. It will be a while. It won't hurt for you to add a bit of muscle however. Later, however. This is going to take months to fix already, so we don't need you burning it all up for vanity's sake."

  He wasn't that vain, he didn't think, so had no real problem with it all. Before she left, Darla had him make up a large plastic bin of food for him to take to work. It was mainly junk, but as she pointed out, he needed the calories more than simple nutrition.

  "Eat. Whenever you can, all day. I'll be back this evening, at eight again. I won't be here all the time or anything, but for now, you should expect me then. You're very important to me, Zack."

  He sighed and stood, to walk her to the door, which seemed to be the polite thing to do.

  "All that and I don't even know how to lie yet?" He smiled, but she nodded at him, as if letting him know it was an actual thought, and a good one. How she conveyed all that he didn't know, but he got it anyway.

  "Try it. I suggest, when it comes up, that you simply make yourself feel like it's the truth. Not so well that you believe it, but enough that you can speak the words. Also, remember to pay
attention. You're being pretty lazy that way and it's the fundamental portion of being one of us, crazy or not." Then she gave him a quick hug and got herself out the front door as Troy came in the back. He sniffed the air, but it was clear there was no food left.

  "Darn. Well, cereal for me then." He laughed about it, but Zack shrugged. He was late getting home, and didn't have a girl with him, so that meant he'd either gone back to her place, or had to work late. That or something had happened.

  It turned out to be that last one.

  "Remember that girl I brought home last week? The one you got a cab for? She actually tried to follow me home. She sat at the bar all night, making eyes at me too. It was creepy. I mean..." He looked around and didn't start right in getting himself food, so Zack stood and started in on some more of the sausage and eggs, pointing to it with two fingers, so that Troy would get that at least part of it was for him. "Oh, thanks! Anyway, it wasn't normal at all. It wasn't the kind of thing that had people wondering if I was going to get lucky after work, or even like obsession. It was bad enough that Edom asked her to leave, himself. Then she waited for me outside and tried to follow me home. I can't explain it really. It was weird. Like, stalker level strange, not just a one night stand that can't let go."

  Zack watched the stove and made sure he got it all right, starting some more French toast at the same time. They had real maple syrup for it, since Darla had insisted. Nodding without looking over he paused to think about things.

  "I know. She's not well. I mean, I got that she was crazy when we met. Judy did too. The real kind, not just name calling. It's why I got rid of her like I did, I paid the driver extra to take her the long way, and make certain she'd be confused as to where we live."

  That was news to Troy, since Zack hadn't mentioned it to him, and while Judy had been having sex with him, before the paparazzo had made her leave, she hadn't exactly spent hours in long and heartfelt conversation with him. It really just hadn't come up and probably didn't seem important to an Alede. If that kind of thing happened, you dealt with it and moved on, since each day meant you needed to be ready for the next meal. Getting caught up in the past just bogged you down.