On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  “Yeah, come on through. It's just me and the books here.”

  The next few minutes were a confusion of hugs, kisses, explanations about who knew what and large amounts of food being passed over. They'd all brought warm clothes, and some lighter things for indoors, Merri assured her. Zack gave her a quick hug and left, telling them that he'd be back again the next day at the same time, if he didn't hear from them sooner.

  The second that Zack left they all plopped into various chairs, or on the bed for Val, and asked for the full story on everyone there. It took a while to explain, but she finished just in time, as her three best friends on the campus knocked on her door at just before noon.

  “We heard a rumor that you had guests, and didn't want to be left out.” Blaine said with a kiss, walking in quickly, since Britney had pushed him from behind. Don walked in more sedately, smiling at Kate apologetically, even though they'd all been invited.

  “I tried to get them to bring their grown up selves, but the excitement proved, once again, to be too much. Like kids on Christmas morning. I'm afraid we're in for antics.” He looked at each visiting woman in turn, but froze when he saw Merri. After a few moments he recovered, realizing that he'd been staring at her.

  “Damn. Not even in the room for three seconds, and the guys have both figured out who the pretty ones are, already.” Libby shook her head. “Well, at least he looked at me first, instead of you Merri. Ugly as I am, he may not have even seen me the other way.” It was joking, and not that down on herself, but she was staring from one guy to the other, as if waiting to see if anyone would notice her for longer than a glance.

  Don's eyes went big as he turned his attention back to Libby, staring without blinking for a good fifteen seconds.

  “That's not it at all, and you claiming to be ugly is like me claiming to be Sasquatch. Funny, clever maybe, but also totally untrue. Maybe most people miss your looks at first, because you're exotic, instead of perfectly average, but that doesn't make you less good looking than these others, just harder to find. For morons, I mean.” Turning to Valerie and Merri he added, “You two are great looking, no doubt,” He swiveled his attention back to the coppery red head that looked like she had a buzz cut that had grown out. “But... really, they're not better looking than you are, just different.”

  He sat down then, and blushed a deep scarlet red, realizing he'd probably said way too much, and to someone he hardly knew. Kate noticed that Libby smiled, however. A huge grin crossed her face, and she seemed to actually relax. For all that she joked about her looks and came straight out with the fact that she didn't measure up in that department, Kate knew it bugged her. Don probably couldn't have come up with something better to say to her if he'd had a speech writing team to work on it.

  Valerie moved to the other Alede first, and gave each a hug and a kiss. Since no one moved to put an arm around Don or showed any of the other “ownership” signals, she did the same with him, explaining that it was a traditional greeting where she came from. She made a point of standing a little closer to Don, then she started licking her lips and looking at him saucily through her lashes, trying to pretend to be coy Kate noticed. Natural enough, since he was the only Human in the room. It would be a matter of pride to her, scoring with Don or even “borrowing” him from the others if she could. The Alede equivalent of one-up-manship. The blonde, who really did look a lot like a slightly older version of Britney, smiled at him when she caught his eye.

  Merri followed suit with her own version of traditional greetings, which involved bowing over Britney's hands, then quietly standing behind Kate. Her friend and the friend of the new men, bowing and holding it, while she introduced the tiny woman to them. Don bowed back to her when he was introduced, getting a smile from her, though Blaine had just stood, not knowing what to do.

  Libby came forward then, grinning playfully, and sank to her knees directly in front of Don.

  “Well, if it's traditional greetings all around...” She started working on his belt, as if to remove it. After a few seconds everyone started laughing, and after a few more Val moved in and told Don he'd best move back a few steps.

  “Libby's a dear, but she'd totally blow you in front of a group of people, just to get a laugh.”

  Don put a hand up suddenly, causing Val to stop for a second.

  “Wait... I need to think this through... On the one hand, public ridicule and possibly getting kicked out of the room forever. Embarrassing Kate's friends and having my own think I'm a freak, on the other, blowjob from a hot chick... Ooh, this is hard.” Libby looked up at him and murmured, “Uhn-hmm!” Then she went back to work on his belt, smiling.

  Blaine finally tackled Don, carrying him away, making everyone laugh.

  “Not to mess with you here Don, but we really, really need to impress Merri...” Clapping Don on the shoulder he put out a hand to Libby, who playfully pretended to pull him over to take Don's place. Everyone laughed again.

  They went on a tour of the campus after that, spending a lot of time looking at the buildings, some of which actually warranted it, and at their class rooms which really didn't. Then, as darkness approached, they went to the dining hall for dinner. As Kaitlyn had predicted, Merri looked horrified by the food. Slightly green actually, a color that Kate didn't know the other woman could turn. She sniffed when she saw the trays, then got a look on her face like she felt sorry she'd inhaled through her nose. Trying to be a trooper, she selected a few items, hoping that they'd taste better than they looked and that the lack of presentation didn't mean a total disregard for quality. From her face, Kate saw, that wasn't what she came to at all after examining the food for a few minutes. Her face becoming first shocked, then horrified. Then more than a bit angry.

  “If I tried to serve this to the dogs back home, I'd have been beaten and cast out!” She told them this in a hushed voice. “I'm not even sure what half of this is, and I work with food every day. I mean, I recognize the noodles in this as a pasta, if horribly over cooked, but... this sauce... Is this... supposed to be like Italian food? Mae would have someone's tongue ripped out for making this, since they apparently aren't using it to taste the food anyway.” She glared at the tray, refusing to eat anymore.

  Val picked at hers and seconded the motion.

  “I know that Merri tends to be a bit of a food snob, but this really isn't very good. I mean, the food at my old university was horrible, but it at least had fairly even heat in foods that were supposed to be hot.” She picked at her plate though and tried the occasional bite.

  Libby chowed down. “I've had worse. In training we had to make do on nothing but insects and carrion for a week once. After that, anything not actively rotting seems fairly reasonable. I would have killed for food this good back then.”

  Blaine stared at her for a moment.

  "Were you in the military? Or... Are you still? You have the haircut for it. Also you seem really fit."

  Kate could see his reasoning, her hair really was short, especially for a woman, no more than two or three inches of red on top, shorter on the sides. Kate knew that her hair just grew that way, it being one of the distinctive Bat traits in their Human form. Her body had a lean and hard look to it, which when you knew that the woman turned into a bat made sense, but otherwise spoke of either monstrously hard training or an eating disorder. Possibly both. Since the woman tucked into the food fairly well, it seemed a likely question to ask. That, or how bad her bulimia was.

  “Me? Well, kind of. Most Weres are given military training in our late teens. I served for a couple of years before I started embassy duty, then, you know, things happened... But the training I got really helped out later in life. I recommend the military as an experience to anyone. Not a happy experience necessarily, but something worth doing.” She ate for a while, totally oblivious to the fact that she'd just declared herself a Were in front of the whole room. When she looked up she saw everyone staring at her, except Don. Kate could hear her mutter “oh, crap” so
ftly under her breath.

  Everyone scrambled for some way to cover this, but Don spoke first. “Oh, a Were? Like in Enigma Seven? I always play a fighter myself, well sometimes a thief. I've tried playing Weres though, it doesn't work too well with the game mechanics.” He told them then, seamlessly, about the game he planned to build, if he could master the skills.

  Merri looked at him with awe. As if he were discussing the idea of creating a new world, all by himself.

  “Really? You plan to design your own game world? It's like being a Wizard, only useful! Here I thought that Enigma Eight sounded interesting, but your world sounds so much better. When do you think you can have it finished by?” She looked only a little down fallen when he mentioned it would be a few years at least. Faster if he could find funding for the project.

  Merri clapped her hands excitedly and told him she'd work on that portion of things for him, if he wanted.

  “That... sounds really cool! I'll have to push myself then, to make sure I'm ready just in case. Even if nothing happens with your effort, well... it won't hurt me to try a little harder. I'm here to learn this stuff anyway. For now, how about we go somewhere else that has something approaching food that everyone can eat? I think I saw some real food back in Kate's room...”

  Merri came around the table, and kissed him on the cheek.

  “If you weren't going to be busy with Libby later, I'd entertain the idea of taking you for myself.”

  Val looked amused and winked at the two blonds. “I wasn't aware that you'd already called him Libby...” The incredibly hot blonde said, projecting more than a little bit of lust behind it, directly at the Human, Kate noticed. Kind of mean of her actually, since Don had shown real interest in Libby, just based on her own appeal. Not a common thing for someone to pick up on as fast as he did. Most people had to kind of grow into it, much to the bat woman's displeasure. Plus, he'd done it in a room full of Alede. That was... Nearly impossible to pull off.

  Libby just nodded, taking a sip of some kind of fruit punch that probably didn't contain fruit at all, but had a lot of red dye to help make up for it. It left her tongue a bright pink color with an even brighter stain down the middle of it, which she showed everyone when she stuck her tongue out at Val.

  “Yep! Called him last night. You weren't there. In the kitchen with Zack. Merri was there, she can tell you.” The girl pretended to throw her hair over her shoulder with a flipping motion of one hand, something Val did habitually when proving a point. The effect got a laugh, what she was going for, even getting one from Merri, who seldom laughed at jokes that someone else might take offense at.

  “Indeed,” Merri spoke softly, but with a gleam in her eyes, looking dead at Val. “Zack even recommended the boy to her himself. Our husband seems to think he has promise, you know. I can see it myself, now that we've met.” The small woman wet her lips and made coy eye contact with Don, then blushed and looked away, covering her mouth with a tiny hand.

  Britney looked at them all, baffled. She took in each of them in turn, sizing them up and not understanding the situation at all. Finally Blaine, a bit baffled himself, asked who Zack was.

  Don looked at him, and tossed his hands in the air.

  “Seriously? You've been hanging around with Kate for how long and you don't know that Zack's her adopted father? She's only mentioned it like, a half dozen times... Seriously folks... I think the school food's getting to our brains, let's get out of here.”

  Kate waved at Jelly who hadn't joined them, but had obviously been listening to the whole discussion. The girl, who wore a teal green jacket with blue stripes waved back, and covertly blew her a kiss. Both Libby and Don saw the move and as one blew kisses back to her, their movements looked almost choreographed, big and showy. The girl didn't blush, but looked like she wanted to, really badly.

  Kate linked arms with Merri and Val and led the way out. Libby, seeing this, bowed in a comical fashion and linked arms with Don, leaving the blond twins in the back. If they felt like they were out of place, they hid it well, linking their own arms with great dignity. When everyone got outside, they both remembered that they had appointments to keep, and since they still had to keep themselves alive the old fashioned way, Kate understood. So did the others, though they all acted sad to see them go.

  As they did, Merri made a sound that didn't fit her normally high pitched voice.

  "I'll not see these children starve. Being forced to live off the pig swill that this institution claims as nourishing food. We need to repair home immediately, so that I can make enough to sustain you all, until at least the middle of next week. Then I'll send more to you. I swear it." There was the sound of a sacred oath to what she said. Also, she looked incredibly determined. It was cute, but Kate knew it wasn't a thing to ignore. Not if they didn't want to hurt Merri's feelings.

  Val made a call to Zack, who showed up for them about two minutes later, and passed everyone through quickly, including Don, who hadn't expected it. He boggled for a few seconds, then caught himself and played the whole thing off like it was perfectly normal in his life.

  "What, a two thousand mile trip in less than a second? Well, not this week. Ho-hum." Kate filled the words in for him, based on his expression. It was kind of impressive. She'd had a bigger reaction the first time she'd ever gone anywhere with Zack. Of course they'd been carrying a dead body at the time, so that may have skewed her perception just a bit. Zack left without saying more than that he'd be back in a few hours if he could. With the time change it had gone from six-thirty to four thirty in an instant. That meant he still needed to be at work.

  Zack patted the boy on the back, and laughed before he left from the kitchen where they'd all moved so that Merri could get started working. The room was impressive. Filled with silver industrial cooking appliances and a bigger working space than most major restaurants. The floor was a polished hard wood that Kate thought might be teak. It never dented, no matter what hit it, pots, pans or part of the wall.

  Merri chuckled too, but none of them said what it was about until Libby finally put her hands on her hips, and demanded to know what the joke was.

  “Oh, twas nothing... Zack just asked if the boy wanted to go into the void later and see what it's like. He said he would, but that he wanted to get that oral sex from you first, if Zack didn't mind. He said he didn't, but that Donald should also see if he could interest me in doing it too, since I'd gotten so good at it.” Merri looked pleased with herself at that, then looked at the others.

  “Well, it's what he said!”

  Don agreed.

  “Seriously, you didn't all just see that? With the double images and all? I'm so glad Merri saw it at least, or I'd think I was going nuts. Succubi as best friends, Incubi as roommates, teleporting guys that talk in your head and glowing magical women that keep giving us awesome food. And Libby, who, if it weren't for the fact that I'm still half worried that Kate would kick my butt if I actually did it, I'd be running off with right now...” He looked at her and waved his finger in the air. “For that oral sex you were offering earlier. Joke or not, that made me horny.”

  Libby chuckled and took him by the hand. “You don't mind, do you Kate? We can both do him if you want...” She started pulling him out of the room then, her voice fading a bit as she led him away.

  Kaitlyn called out softly.

  “Nah, but go easy on him. He was a virgin before last night you know. So leave him with enough energy so that some of us others can have a go too. You know how it is when you're a newbie, wanting to do everyone you can all at once.” This came out as a whisper that Libby could hear, but the Human wouldn't. She also got that Don's new, more aggressive attitude toward sex had a lot to do with how many Alede he'd just been exposed to. Three, functionally, since she didn't count. The second that Val had touched him however, the twins had started leaking a lot of passion, which caused Val to amp up her own offering to the room.

  On any normal day, Merri wouldn't have offered even a
suggestion that she do anything with Don that related to sex. The Bat girl however really was like that, all the time. It was one of her best traits, as far as Kate was concerned.

  Libby murmured back that she'd just go once, leaving him available for at least Val to get a go. Merri would be too busy cooking most likely.

  Kate looked at the other two women and repeated it.

  “So, Zack really offered to take him into the void? That's, I mean to the best of my knowledge he's only done that with me and Felicia, and then only because we would have probably been killed if he hadn't. Has anyone else even tried it?”

  Merri shrugged, a habit she'd cultivated, seeing Zack do it so often, Kate knew. The Alfric woman felt surprisingly aware that she wasn't the equal of the others when it came to cultural knowledge, and tried to catch up everywhere she could. She even studied reading in English with Troy at night, sometimes, before they played video games.

  About forty minutes later Libby and Don came back. The red head winked at Kate, but didn't let go of his hand. Kaitlyn saw the satisfied look on Libby's face and wondered if she'd really held herself to just one turn. Hard to know with her. She'd lie about sex without even thinking about it, which had helped Kate out in some dark times, so she didn't really want to find fault with the habit now. Merri passed out plates of food for them all to eat at the table in the kitchen, so that she could talk to them while she worked

  “Now Don, how much do you think it will cost to finance this game of yours?” She asked as she moved from one part of the kitchen to the other rapidly. “I mean to do it up right, hire the best workmen for the job and all that?” Reaching into the oven she pulled out a pan with bread loaves on it with her bare hand, not even seeming to notice it as warm.