by P. S. Power
"Won't that get in the way of your embassy duties here?"
Glen shrugged.
"Not really. We don't need many people here for that, and are over saturating our client base. If you let us set this up right, we can not only run both places, but probably reduce the overall tension level in the Mall by fifty percent." He smiled, which was a disarming thing and meant to be. "I'm making that last bit up, but..."
Zack nodded. He had the funds for it, he thought, and might have more coming in. He held out his hand to shake, and got one from both Glen and Kaitlyn, who seemed to want in on the whole thing.
"I'm headed to college next fall, but that's a ways away, and... really, I'm not getting a lot of action here. I might do better as a girl. Kyle still triggers too many maternal responses in the clientele here."
It was the kind of problem that he'd have never figured out on his own, but he just asked if they wanted to set it in motion. It might not work, but it sounded nicer than not having anything to do with his days, and he had people to see to and promises to keep still, so this would let him stay around.
No one in the food court would talk to him at all, being too wary, though Conrad did offer him some food, which he paid for out of pocket this time. The man took his money, but didn't make eye contact with him at all. After eating it, right out in the middle of the set of white metal and glass tables, he cleared the tray carefully and finished the rounds. The Trolleikein all acted like everyone else was tripping, and the women at Princess Pretty nails all figured that he'd come to ask out Charlie, the youngest one, who blushed the whole time.
So he did it. After all, even if she turned him down it was at least something for them to talk about, when he left. They all seemed horribly bored.
"So, what do you say? Everyone else seems to think it's a good idea? Dinner and a show? I have no clue what's playing, but I bet we could find something." This came out sounding so confident that he almost blushed, but the girl ate it up, doing first the blushing, then the agreeing part of things in rapid progression.
"Um, I'd like that. When?"
They agreed that the next weekend would be good. He set it for Friday, figuring that he could always change what they were doing if it was needed. Of course it meant that Darla would have to be all right with him taking off from practice, but he'd ask. Charlie was a little cutie and while not as alluring as some of the women he'd met lately, she was real. The fact was, for one reason or another, most of the people he knew weren't.
Not that they weren't good, but Lenore, for all she was nice and pretty, had to fake her way through every expression and emotional response. All the Vampires were like that really, except the very old ones and he just wasn't going to date Bey. The Alede were literally a trap to lure in victims for food. True, they didn't hurt them, but it was a part of them to not seem real at all. It was probably why Judy was a good actress. Like Lenore, it was part of her nature.
The Shifters were real, but half of them were a bit annoying, with their bigotry. Not fake about it, but that wasn't a huge improvement for them. Keeley and Darla...
Again, they were faking their way through everything, weren't they? And now he was too. That didn't mean he couldn't see the value in making a friend of Charlie.
That covered the first level, which meant that he'd turned around to work over to the stairs when Calley came out of her Embassy and waved at him.
"Zack! They're here!" She looked a little off however and Zack had a feeling of dread cut through his stomach about then. There were a dozen reasons why Calley might have been upset, it was true. Jahn could have told her she was fired, or her brother might have died in a freak flying accident. It was also possible that she'd overheard the book shop idea, but didn't like coffee, or reading.
It wasn't that, and he could see the warps in space that told him all about it. Shifters had come, but there were too many little ones for it all to be a coincidence. Taking a deep breath, he started walking that way, making himself feel peaceful this time, instead of just calm. On the good side, there was a chance right there to practice lying. He tried to make himself really believe the words before he got there, nearly two minutes later. It took enough of an energy draw that he was worried it would be too much for a moment, but he felt the new condition slip into place.
He moved into the place, past the circular racks of clothing and the faceless bald dummies wearing them and saw them all. Jahn Samson, along with three aides and his whole family. Including his three little children... and his wife.
She gave him a disgusted look as soon as he walked up, and he gave it his best shot.
"Mrs. Samson, how wonderful to see you. Looking so pretty too." She wasn't that great looking, but had taken pains to be presentable, and while a little twitchy, being a rabbit, the woman wasn't so much flighty as she was a mega-bitch.
Her nose actually wrinkled as the small man beside her held out his hand, preventing her from speaking yet.
"Line Walker. Thank you for coming here and doing this for us. I understand that the Vampires are making the arrangements to pay for this?" He looked slightly worried, even after Zack nodded.
That wasn't really true either, but he was on a roll, it seemed.
"That's right. They really don't want this to blow up into something negative. More negative, I mean. No one can claim the events in New Mexico were good. I didn't realize that we'd have this many, I have a porter coming. A Trolleinkein. She'll need to touch you for this to work." He felt stronger now, but hadn't tested it and didn't really want to start something with the tiny, rather angry seeming woman in front of him. Even the other Shifters were acting like they didn't want her there. Zack understood why, as soon as she opened her mouth.
"A Troll? At least they aren't as low born as Humans. I had to wash them for weeks to get the stink out of my children the last time this... man, touched them. An emergency, so it had to be done, but the sloppy service, requiring us to fly home, after what we went through-" She kept going, but Zack realized he had a true super-power that he'd never noticed before at all. He was able to block her out completely, and still hear everyone else. That meant he had a nice conversation with an increasingly uneasy Jahn and his aides, which occasionally included his oldest child, who was very polite and courteous. All the kids were. They had some bags, but had packed for a week, not a year and a half. It would make a difference.
His job or not, the Dragon-Shifter, if that's what he was, went and got Hilde for them, and Calley walked in front of Catherine, as if guarding her physically from Zack's notorious rage. For his part, even though he could see the tiny woman's mouth move, he was very pleased with the results he was getting. In the back room he went through and waved at the telepath there, who signaled for him to stop and touched his arm. The man thought at him and it was very clear at least.
'We could use those Interpreters?'
That was a thing that Zack had forgotten all about. He nodded, planning to go and get them after the Shifter leader and his people were in. He explained it all, including his lapse, but not why. The man nodded calmly and stood back, letting him get to the job at hand.
Mrs. Samson was a pain, it seemed, but other than listening to everyone apologize about it, including two of her children, Zack didn't have to hear it. It was nice.
Then he spent hours getting those translators in, the bird people being willing, but the Fox Shifters not so much so. In order to get them to be happy with it, he had to promise to take their leader along, which he had no problem with. The woman was old and didn't say much to him, and as soon as she stopped stabbing him, which meant twisting the knife from her hand and healing, he had her in place in the Ettarian lands. He hadn't been ready for it, but the healing was much faster now that he had more energy. It reminded him to go and get his big box of food from his house, which was still on the table. He had donuts too, but kind of felt like a chicken sandwich instead.
Plus, now he needed to go and change.
Calley looked at
him and winced, but it was Catherine, the bitchy Ambassador, who was a cat-woman of some kind, who commented on it.
"Trouble?" It wasn't rude at least and she looked almost worried about it.
"A bit. The Reynard leader took exception and stabbed me about ten times. I healed, but need a new shirt." He was going to leave it at that, knowing that it was that thing were everyone tried to kill the baby Demons, but the Ambassador acted like it was some vast problem.
"Do they live?"
He could have played dumb and ask who she meant, but the idea was that he might have killed The Reynard, wholesale, for that kind of thing. There weren't that many of them after all and turning into a fox, while a real ability, wasn't exactly enough to protect them from, say, a hunting rifle.
"Everyone is fine. I just took the knife away and got her into place. If they do it again, I'll have to do more however. That's their free pass, because I hate killing old women in the morning. You might want to pass the word around?"
She acted as if he were being mean to her, personally, but Calley came up and moved between them again, which was a little strange. He really wasn't going to harm the woman after all, and she hadn't exactly been slapping him down, or even yelling.
"Let's get you a shirt, to replace that one? Something in light blue would look nice on you. Over here?" She goaded him away, but seemed shocked when he paid for the shirt. They hadn't stabbed him after all and while it might feel good to make the woman that stabbed him replace it, that would just lead to wasted time for him.
Taking his bag, which had the bloody shirt in it, he used their Node to go directly home. He needed to scrub up. He picked his own bedroom to appear, in case there were workmen around, but that wasn't a big problem that day, since Troy was sleeping and Judy was on the sofa, finishing the book she was reading. When she saw him there was a large smile on her face, but she didn't hop up to hug him or anything. Instead she marked her book and sat up.
It was still the old sofa, which she patted gently, indicating that he might want to sit.
"Long time no see. I hear they're keeping you busy at the Mall?" Her voice was calm and held a slight edge of playfulness, instead of that sexiness the other Alede always had with him. Even Glen had, which was a bit odd. They couldn't really help it, except for her. That meant she was probably way older than he'd originally thought, wasn't she?
"Not so bad today. I just need to go back and make sure Bey gets into the meeting in a bit. I needed to get some food first." He looked at the kitchen and then sighed. "I guess I got fired from work. For being a Demon? You have heard about that right?" It was possible that no one had told her after all.
She nodded.
"I have heard something. Considering it's all over the alternative news sources, at least ours, it was kind of hard to miss. How do you feel about it?"
"You know... I haven't really thought about that yet. I don't get a choice, so... Does it matter how I feel?"
After a bit, her eyes glued to his closely, she shook her head.
"No, not really. When there's nothing you can do about things, you just have to make it work. Speaking of which, let me make you something to eat. I noticed that the food supplies have both increased and gotten better? How about this, you can tell me about what's going on and I'll cook. Deal?" She grinned as if she were being cute.
Zack shook his head.
"Nope."
Judy laughed, but went to make the food anyway.
Chapter nineteen
Since there was no pretense that he wasn't different, Zack just asked for way more food than Judy would think was reasonable for one person, which had a large pot of chili made, with two pans of corn bread and a salad, to round things out. It took about forty minutes for it all to be done, but the pot had added sweet onion and enough spices that the whole place was far more inviting to him than it had been for a while.
That was due to the changes, which he realized was a bit mean of him. On some level he'd kind of felt like the actress was taking over and being pushy, even when all she was really doing was making his world nicer. He had to eat out of regular sized bowls, but was able to put a lot of melted butter on the bread, along with honey. It shouldn't have worked with the spicy food, being too sweet, but he really liked it, once he let himself feel the gnawing hunger again.
"This is really good. Thanks." He had to wait between bites, but she winked at him, and reached out to touch his arm gently. It wasn't a come on though, he didn't think.
Zack, remembering to practice like he'd been told, tried to read her in that brief contact, but didn't get anything. That could mean almost anything, naturally, since he wasn't all that good at doing that kind of thing yet. After eating for a bit he moved and tried it again, touching her arm in a way that would probably seem like he was coming on to her, instead of the other way around. That would be natural enough, since she was a friendly person, as well as cute. It took a lot longer and still nothing came out. It was baffling.
He'd gotten a read on an Alede before, so he knew it could be done.
Still eating he tried to work out what it meant. Was he doing something wrong? His review of it said that he should be fine really. The connection was solid, flesh on flesh, and his focus should be deep enough. The light trickle of magical energy he was using was enough, but he tried to increase it, just in case he was wrong.
That got her to pull back, as if stung.
Then she smiled.
"It seems that we're about done with this game then, aren't we? Well, it's been fun." She stood, but didn't run out or anything, even as what had to be happening slowly dawned on him. Mirror Him got it first, but then, in a lot of ways MH was smarter than he was.
'Crap. She's not her. She's-'
Judy looked strange, but tilted her head, her eyes going just a little bit blank.
"That's right, boys, it's daddy!" She threw her arms out wide, and spun in a circle, but only one time. Then she cleared her throat, which was strange and obviously meant to get his attention. She still looked and sounded like her however, even as his brain slowly processed everything.
Mirror Him freaked, but didn't attack, just screaming again and hiding. It was a bit less than helpful, or protective, but Zack got the idea. He was the one in charge now and MH knew it.
It took a moment, and Zack kept eating, since he was both still really hungry and wanted the time to think. That last part simply wasn't happening well, so he actually was dishing up a second bowl of chili when he finally let his mouth move.
"You can pay me for the food then. What you've had here." It was what he was supposed to say, he figured, but the actress, who clearly wasn't, just nodded, and sat down, getting that the first move wasn't going to be fighting, or even running off, it seemed.
"Fair." The eyes went back to being a lot more normal, or at least more Judy, but the voice was a bit sing song and eerie. "So, son of my flesh, daughter of my soul, I've come to bring you home with me. After Finias stole you away, I thought to never find you again, but then I heard of a boy that walked the lines, and who wore my old face, all while pretending so very well to be a Human. I didn't believe it at first. I really thought that Keeley was my son, you know. I'm very happy that it's you. You're... perfect." Absently she, or more properly, he, took some of the corn bread and buttered it. The spread had herbs in it but was starting to solidify from its melted state a bit already.
Buying time for thinking, Zack did the same, adding honey to his. He needed to eat. That or it was his last meal, so was worth paying attention to anyway.
"You know, I kept thinking of you as taller. With horns too. Maybe red skin? The way the others talked about you made you seem, really insane. Like... me. Still, I guess you're kind of horrible, aren't you? What you did to me and all that? Not a great thing. It might have been better to leave me alone that way. I'm... not well, as you've probably guessed." It took an application of will and magic to keep the fear at bay, but he sounded confident and even slightly tough, thoug
h that wasn't going to really help him in the end, was it?
Xenses surprised him then, because while Zack expected laughter, or mocking, what he got was a somber nod.
"I can see that now. At the time I thought I was creating a masterpiece, something so broken that nothing would be able to stop you. A force that our side could use against those that seek to constrain us and hold us down. There's a war going on. One between those that love freedom, and those that think that the apex predators of the world, meaning us, need to be held to Human rules of behavior. Not that they really do that themselves, the bunch of hypocrites. We're Greater Demons, son. We have our own rules, and don't really need more. We should seek to shape reality to our liking, not just accept what it is and nudge here and there like those goody-goods. I bet that no one explained that to you at all, did they? It was all just rape and torture, having to eat your mother's legs while she screamed and fucking your human father in the ass with that little penis I helped you grow?" The Judy Demon sighed, and pushed the large pot of chili closer. "Eat up. What Finias allowed to happen to you... Starving you like that for years..."
There was actually anger in her eyes.
"I won't let them hurt you anymore. I'll admit, at least they gave you over to Darla, she's a good girl. You really should fuck her, you know that? If you make your cock big enough she'll scream for days. I used to do that to her, when she was my slave. I was going to do Keeley that way too, but she actually got the better of me. Can you believe that? Luckily she's done it a couple of times now to others, or I'd be a laughing stock. There's a person that needs her ass raped. I'll leave that to you. It can be your birthday present."
"Um... That sounds horrible. Why would I do that? For one thing, I'm pretty certain that either of them would just let me do that, if I asked or traded for it, as long as it didn't hurt them, plus, aren't we all related?"
