On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  She took off then, giving her a wink and telling her to let Merri know she appreciated the things she'd sent.

  Kate laughed for a while then, feeling a little like she dodged a bullet, kicking herself a bit for telling the girl so much when she was supposed to be keeping everything a secret. She let go of it after a few minutes, it being already done and grabbed a bottle of the juice Merri had sent her from the fridge. She worked until the paper for art history was finished as well as she thought she could get it, printed out and bound, coming in at seven pages printed, single spaced. She hoped that wouldn't hurt her grade too much, being longer than it should.

  Then she looked up that Hartley fan fiction. It was fascinating.

  Most of it was horrible of course. Truly awful, and obviously written by Alede that thought that Hartley was someone or something very different than he really was. Darker in personality, more of a fighter than a lover, bossy and egocentric to start with. Purely sadistic in a few of the stories.

  Some of the others were poorly written or in a few cases, written well, but by someone that thought that Zack wasn't Human at all. He'd turn into a werewolf during sex or his ancient reptile form would show through. Something like that.

  Still, when you hit specific names, some pretty interesting stories popped up. All of the Vampires she knew had a story with Hartley, not just David. Several of the Alfric did. Mac and Merri as well as Glen and Xan. She could buy that someone would know who Glen was from stories that had leaked, being the leader of Merri's people at Underwood, but Xan? The Alfric who ran the Burger Joint? Sure, a cool guy and a good friend to Zack, but who outside of the mall would really know that at all?

  Everyone had a story with Zack it seemed, including her... except Riley the Trickster. That sounded like a bit of a challenge to her. He may have even written all the other stories himself just to get her to make one up about him. Or, she reflected, Rose might have done it, though she probably would have just called and asked Kate to write it if she wanted to see it done, being cool that way. Most Tricksters didn't just share information, because most beings wouldn't do what they needed them to. A lot of time those things could be morally incorrect, but clearly needed, but sometimes they were just painful, or embarrassing. So they had to fool people into doing what the universe needed accomplished to stay in balance. She'd learned a long time before that when a Trickster wanted something done, it was almost always best to just go along with them. It didn't mean you'd be safe or not end up looking stupid, but it generally stopped the worst of it, because they didn't have to add any little personal “lessons” for you then.

  She started writing, feeling a little awkward at first. Zack wouldn't have sex with a man... It was kind of a blind spot for him, and probably stemmed from the horrible abuse that he'd undergone as a child, rather than any kind of actual hatred for gay people. So it wasn't going to happen, unless he was tricked of course. After four hours she had a story worth putting up online she thought, in which Riley ended up having rather uncomfortable anal sex after fooling Zack into believing he was actually his sister Rose. It was actually halfway funny, she realized, in a farcical kind of way. Especially the part where Rose catches her brother and tricks him into putting on a sign proclaiming himself to be a pervert, covered in super-glue.

  She signed her real name to it, so that if Riley objected he'd know who to go to, and submitted it to the web-site that had most of the other decent stuff on it. Now, as long as the site wasn't run by Riley...and given the Trickster's nature, possibly even if it was, it should go up within a few days.

  After that she was left with about eight hours before she had to do anything the next day. Not needing sleep and having had plenty to eat, she found herself kind of at loose ends. She'd started to eat a sandwich from the fridge out of boredom when the phone rang. She picked it up quickly, since it was nearly two in the morning and a ringing phone could potentially bother someone, even with the ringer turned down to the lowest audible setting.

  “Kaitlyn?” Came a familiar voice, Zack's, from the handset. “Could we possibly borrow your healing skills here, um, now? We have three injured. No one you know, but it's important that they live if at all possible. Wu-Li's trying but he can only do so much when severe trauma is involved. He felt that you might be able to do a lot more though...”

  As always with Zack, he didn't ask in a way that made her feel obligated. He sounded almost like he didn't care what she did, or at least like he didn't want to pressure her, thinking that one action would be as good as any other. She knew him though, maybe better than anyone else in the whole world. After all, she'd spent decades in the void, with nothing else around her but him. The opposite being true as well, she knew, he'd spent that same time doing nothing, but focusing on her.

  He wouldn't ask for her help if there was another way, not when she was supposed to be off at school learning and doing student stuff. If it had been really important to him, personally, he would have just shown up, risking interruption of whatever she might be doing. Her being a Succubus, that would probably involve sex to his mind, even though she hadn't gotten any sex at college yet, though she'd been here for nearly a week now. Maybe she could get some from someone at the mall though, depending on who was there, of course. It would be the middle of the night, so most of the people would be working or gone for the day, depending on which embassy they were with.

  “Sure, I'm free, I just finished up my art history paper and I don't have any classes till later. Noon my time. When can you get here?” She knew it could be a variable amount of time. If he stood in the back of Something Wonderful or Candles and More, the shops he frequented most often, since he owned Something Wonderful and did most of his work at the other place, it could be a minute or two before he worked his way over to her, if he didn't push it. On the other hand, if he had really expected her to come, he might have called from the house in which case...

  The thin, young looking man stepped into the room with her almost instantly. He wore nice clothes for this time of day. Slacks, a button front shirt and blazer that looked casual-dressy. The only thing that kept him from being really good looking, for a Human anyway, was his weight. Every time he managed to gain anything, it seemed like something would happen, forcing him back into a hyper thin, raw boned look.

  She hung up the phone and set it back on the desk, knowing that he wouldn't have come that quickly if it wasn't at least a little bit important, call or not. Putting out her left hand and darting toward him, Kate moved, hoping he'd do what he used to and simply pull her through the rift, instead of knocking her out or something. He hadn't seemed twitchy or anything, but who could blame him after all he'd been through if he was?

  He made the grab perfectly, as if they'd planned it and turned, pulling her through the dip in space in the middle of her dorm room, into the living room of the big house everyone shared. Home.

  “We should probably hurry.” He told her, not letting go of her arm, running toward the kitchen with her, which wasn't too far away from where they'd come out, just around the corner.

  Merri, the small, adorably cute red-headed woman looked up from the oven, where she had something baking that smelled wonderful. A smile came over her face and her eyes lit up as she saw them. “Kaitlyn! Welcome back.”

  Zack laughed and called out that they'd be back later as he pulled Kate out the back door, she managed to call out to the woman as they passed though.

  “Love you...”

  Then Zack yanked her out the door, into the rift that would carry them to the mall.

  Going through a rift didn't feel like anything, not to her at least. The sudden shifts could be a little disorienting to some people, but to her it always seemed like she blinked and the world around her just changed. Kind of like a slide show or something like that, or a jump cut in a movie. In a way it felt a little disappointing at first, since it always seemed like teleporting thousands of miles or even a few feet, should be accompanied by a special effect of some k
ind. At least a popping sound or a flash of light. Instead all she got was a sudden smell of fruit potpourri, which she associated with the gift basket shop they'd just gone in to.

  A tug on her arm indicated they needed to keep moving. The front door to the shop stood open, even though the lights were off for the day. Nothing had changed here since she'd left, for all that it felt like it had been a long time. They ran toward the end of the mall, moving as fast as she could go, she had a sneaking suspicion that the thin man next to her had simply matched her speed out of politeness. It used to be that she could beat him in a foot race, but since he'd come back from things a month or so ago, his movements seemed off, as if he had to slow everything down most of the time now, to interact with the regular people.

  At the end of their run he turned right, into Frozen YoGurt, the Vampire embassy, rather than left toward the candle shop. Inside they hurried past the front counter. Blake, one of the Vampires, looked up and smiled when he saw her. The counter was a gleaming white expanse between them, a cash register toward the door and large silver machines toward the back. She waved on the way past, realizing that she'd never had sex with him, even though his looks were more than good enough and all the Vampires around here had learned how to enjoy having sex again lately. She didn't know for sure, but she'd bet that it had something to do with Zack from how secretive they were all trying to be about the whole thing. She'd have to see if he got a break or something before she left, if there turned out to be time.

  In the back of the shop, near the node, three bodies, all men. Humans by the look of them, though that could be misleading, since a number of groups looked perfectly Human as well. They were all laid on the ground, covered with blood. Wu-Li, the master healer, moved from one to the next, waving his hands over each of them. She couldn't see it herself directly, but this pattern of movement meant that he'd been trying to keep the men alive by passing them energy directly, which he only did when things got really bad.

  She looked at them as she walked up, seeing the bloody clothes with slashes and stab wounds, mainly in to the torso. The one closest to her had been hit across the eyes as well, leaving a gaping line with a badly damaged left eye and no right one left at all, blood and a milky fluid marked his face, tracks running down to the ground. She focused as tightly as she could, jumping, almost diving, toward the closest one and began fixing the wounds. Letting her energy out, focused on a small space about the size of a quarter, she began to shift small bits of flesh from male to female, allowing the skin and bone to heal underneath her gaze instantly, then quickly transferred it back to male flesh, so that the tissues would remain compatible long term

  It took time, but using this technique, she healed the first man completely inside ten minutes. The next one over had died from blood loss while she worked on the first, so Claire, the head Vampire around their area, motioned for her to move to the man farthest away as soon as she'd stood up. A man in full Alfric armor moved in and put a blade to the throat of the man she'd just healed, preventing him from moving. He started to say something, but she had to focus on the last man and didn't really catch what he cried out. He didn't sound happy to be alive. Ingrate.

  After she finished with the last man, she finally got a chance to look around the room, seeing several people that she didn't expect, and hadn't noticed when they'd ran in, her attention having gone to the men on the ground immediately. The room wasn't big, about fifteen by fifteen. With a red brick floor, which meant no one had ever bothered to finish the room from mall standards, which made sense. Vampires not really using the nodes themselves in the main. There was art on the walls, true, but that was new. She remembered when it had first appeared about six months before.

  Beatrice the Demon stood next to Hilda, the tall blonde woman towering over the smaller, slightly pale brunette. Hilda wore a black military style outfit, the cloth hanging well on her. Beatrice was dressed in what looked like a sci-fi geek's idea of female battle armor. Black snake like tendrils covered her flesh, cupping her breasts and accentuating her crotch, a shiny black over a skin tight buff black base that looked almost like her skin had been painted, instead of clothing put on. It looked hot. Sexy as hell, Kate admitted, but not like very effective protection. Then again, she doubted the Demon would have worn it if it didn't do something for her and since this didn't seem to be latex fetish night, it probably had some real world use. Beatrice was a lot of things, including alluring in her own way, but frivolous wasn't one of them. Kate hadn't had a lot to do with any of the Demons really, but the female always seemed capable and hard working, which surprised her most of the time. Demons were supposed to be crafty and conniving, not... normal.

  Standing a bit away from them, was a tall Vampire. Nearly seven feet or slightly more, and thin, almost skeletal, with dark hair that hit that line between deep brown and true black and brown eyes that always seemed just a little too close to blood red. The color that vamps eyes turned when they were about to attack or feed. The whole package was a bit too much for Kaitlyn to feel comfortable around him, but he waited calmly. She'd seen him before, and had even talked to him. He did something that involved children, she knew. Something good, since Zack gave him free passage anywhere he wanted to go without an appointment. Kate didn't even know his name, and really didn't know if anyone in the room did. Zack had certainly never mentioned it to her if he knew.

  Hilda tied the men that lived up, not being all that gentle with them, while the armored man held his sword on them. She used silver duct tape instead of rope, wrapping them up with a lot more strands of the stuff than Kaitlyn would have used. Then again, she didn't even really know that these men were regular people. Maybe their kind needed that much duct tape to hold them?

  As soon as the men were taken care of and Hilda stepped back, watching them, the armored man's sword disappeared, followed by the armor, including the eerie mirror finished face plate that some of the Alfric had been showing up with lately. Which Merri, the resident expert on all things Alfric, had told her had to do with protecting their faces from bullets. Standing in front of her wasn't one of the people from the food court at all, but Troy. He turned to her and wrapped her up in a big hug.

  “Kaitlyn! Thanks for coming and, you know, helping us with this.” He moved in and kissed her gently on the lips, but didn't turn it into anything more passionate than that, not in front of Hilda, who he'd been dating for a while now. Not that Hilda would have minded. Her people didn't really go in for kissing, since they were normally covered with hair, and their idea of having a relationship tended to be more along the lines of sleeping with anyone you wanted, as long as you gave an appropriate waiting time between partners. So it was all cool with her, but Troy worried about the whole thing like a Human guy, which he was.

  Hilda came over and gave her a hug too, being one of the few Alede she could actually stand being that close to for any length of time. Mainly because Kate had learned to functionally not leak energy all over the place and, she understood, having not had sex for a while, probably didn't seem off putting at all to the huge woman at the moment.

  Beatrice surprised her by also closing in for a hug, which she gave back without even thinking about it at first. After a few seconds of this the tall Vampire cleared his throat and broke in. His voice was deep, almost so deep that it felt like it tickled her someplace deep inside when he spoke. It was a nice feeling, as far as she was concerned.

  “Thank you, for coming to our aid. I understand that you're one of the Succubi? Can all of you heal like this? I don't mean to pry, but it's come up in the past that people needed healing and I wasn't able to help them. I've seen another one of your kind heal some children before, but I thought that might be a special case.” He stopped suddenly and simply stood looking at her, without any movement at all, almost dropping beyond notice, like a mannequin or piece of the background scenery, seen but not seeming special to her at all. Not calling attention in any of the thousand ways everyone else in the room did.
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  Claire stepped forward, a quiet and dainty movement filled with presence and answered for her, since by Vampire rules, things too convoluted for an Alede to bother with, Kaitlyn would be one of her people, even though by Alede rules she could make an equal claim on Claire, since they were so close. So if they ever ended up at a party with Alede, she'd get to return the favor. The idea of her driving off all comers as they tried to steal her Vampire friend made her want to laugh, which would have been a bad idea, since old Vampires didn't generally like being laughed at and explaining would be difficult right now.

  “The one you saw heal those children was Patricia, Kaitlyn's mother. She is indeed a very special person, but Kaitlyn here is perhaps the most proficient of the Alede healers in the world. I believe it is she who taught Patty what she knows about the subject, as backwards as that may seem. There are energy issues involved however, so only a small handful of Alede can actually heal others this way safely. Like us, most rest too close to starvation to spend power like this. Kaitlyn will have to feed soon in order to make up for her efforts here tonight.” Claire put no special emphasis on the words, but it seemed clear that she didn't want the tall Vampire to know that Zack could feed her without cost to himself.

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Yeah, it can really wipe you out. But when your friends call, you do what you can, right? So, who's going to hook me up? Hmm?” She made her voice go sultry and seductive then, more so than she had in a long time. Over a week at least. She noticed that Zack's eyes stared into the distance then, locking down all his sexual impulses she knew. It was his normal habit around her anyway. Sticking her tongue out at him would have been inappropriate, but she still wanted to do it. Troy turned toward her a little bit, stiffening she saw, and in a good way as far as she was concerned. Turning to him hopefully she licked her lips, wetting them to a soft sheen, but the man shook his head, trying to resist her influence. He managed it, which impressed her a little bit. Sure, she wasn't spraying him with pure lust or anything, but he'd had sex with her before and his body would want to repeat the experience again, since Humans naturally sought pleasure when they could get it. That he thought something else would be more important right now amazed her.