On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  “I think I can at least. Zack had me do it a half dozen times this morning, including walking him through, so I know I can do it with another person. I can't take anyone anyplace else right now, but from the back of Something Wonderful to Zack's house, that I can do.”

  The rest of the evening didn't go well at all. Kate woke up laying on the floor of the living room to find that Libby had hit her with a lamp from behind. No sooner had she managed to get a full charge, but nothing past full, from Don then Lisa showed up and hit her with a white beam that came from her index finger, causing her to fall to the ground, writhing in pain and seeing snakes trying to eat her. That only stopped when Jelly stepped between them, weaving a net in the air somehow with her hands, made of a more silvery looking glow.

  The girl held a small crystal up, Kate saw when her vision cleared, trying to protect them both from Lisa, who hammered them both into the ground, shield or not. The force that came was almost physical, at least it felt like it to Kate.

  This didn't stop until Hilda walked up behind the older Mage and hit her, a glancing blow with the side of her hand, turning her palm as she struck so that the force of the blow turned toward the large woman, making the smaller one buckle at the knees and fall to the floor. She picked her up gently, almost lovingly, and carried her out of the room.

  Later, when Claire came in, Troy stepped in front of Kate, suddenly wearing full armor and holding a sword out in front of himself. He called out to Claire, asking her to leave for now, and told her about Lisa and Libby.

  “Oh... well, I see. I'll be at my other house then, if I'm needed? I assure you all that I have no violent intentions, but I can see the need for caution...” Before she turned, she called to Don.

  “Donald, would you see to the feeding and care of my people here? It's nearly dark and I don't know if Zack will be up to it tonight...”

  "Consider it done." The words were almost pleasant sounding, compared to what everyone else had been doing the entire time.

  "How much will this cost? I could perhaps free up some funds for it? Or perhaps arrange for one of the ladies to entertain you for a while? More than one?" Claire sounded nearly peaceful about it all, Kate realized. It was fake of course.

  Don shrugged.

  “Not tonight. Don't worry about it. I'm sorry that all of this has happened...” Then he gave her a hug and let her go. She left, faster than she normally would have, Kaitlyn hearing something suspiciously like a sob coming from her as she reached the front door.

  Zack had gone to sit in the void, Kate knew, but he didn't say when, or even if, he'd be back. She didn't want him to hurt, but what else could she have done? She cried until the Vampires came and asked what happened.

  Since the gender changes, the Vampires staying in the house had a distinctly male presence when they walked into a room in a group. Their first concern had been the change in routine, which they felt more comfortable with when they came to understand that Don could, and would, feed them all that night. Then they were worried about Zack and Claire. They weren't bad people, especially for Vampires, but they needed to feed, even if it meant seeming a little less than concerned about their friends at times.

  “Are... Is everyone all right?” Betty asked, having moved to the front of the line, lifting her shirt so that energy could be passed to her.

  Everyone else grumbled that Betty should go last, being the most junior Vampire in the group, but she grinned at them and didn't give up her position.

  “I have a current agreement with Don. That gives me precedence, unless any of the rest of you also have deals in place?”

  Dwayne held back, knowing that his deal as Nikki to provide sex would be moot for now, since Don probably wouldn't want sex from a large African American man nearly as much as he would have from Nikki. Rebeca, who asked them to call him Rick for now, moved in front of the girl though, to everyone's amazement.

  “Sorry Betty... I do have a deal in place. I can clean up his room here as well as at school, after all. It doesn't matter what I look like for that, right Don?”

  Shrugging the young looking Human just started passing people energy, letting them debate who went first or last. He did say out loud that everyone could argue all they wanted, but the day had seen enough violence.

  “Violence?” Blake asked, looking at Kate, since he felt closest to her out of anyone in the room that wasn't cold to the touch, she knew.

  Blaine explained the whole situation, very carefully, starting at the addiction and working from there.

  “So, Kate kicked his ass pretty hard. They both went into that super Vampire like speed thing that you showed us as Nikki, Dwayne. I think Kate nearly tore herself apart to match him, she was blood red all over for a while. Anyway, there was a judgment and everyone decided that Zack can't see any of the women affected until they're better and maybe not even then. He seems really bummed out and so do they. The women keep attacking Kate.” He held up his hand to the Vampires before they could all attack as one.

  “Except Claire. She left, but she doesn't seem angry with Kate or anything. She just understood that we couldn't actually do anything to stop her from killing us all if she wanted and didn't want us to be afraid, I think. Anyway, she asked Don to make sure you all got taken care of.”

  After they were all fed, including the Alede and Betty, pulling a small bottle of lubricant out of her front pants pocket dropped to her knees in front of Don. No one paid attention to this except David, who said he was a bit jealous and the twins, who both agreed.

  Blake winked at Kate and asked them which one they were jealous of and all of them answered. "Both." Making everyone chuckle a little, except Kate who felt too sad for it right now.

  After a while Merri made food for everyone, except Kate, who she merely glared at and didn't offer anything to.

  “Wow, are they all going into withdrawal already?” Don asked the Alede around him. Blaine shook his head.

  “No, they're just pissed. I mean, I know why Kate had to do it. But if it had been me that had the love of my life and my drug of choice taken away like that, I'd be unpleasant too. The only way this will be fixed any time soon is if we find them a cure or good replacement. Maybe in Lesser Shia? They say you can find anything there.” The last line was a throw away, a thing used by the Alede to describe finding something that probably didn't exist.

  Kate sat up though, Dwayne's eyes went round as well.

  “You think? I mean, this is basically an addiction right? So, somebody probably has some way of fixing it...” The tall black Vampire stared and then grinned.

  “That would... at least be better than sitting around here waiting for Kate to starve. I don't know how we're going to do it though. We don't really have any money, any of us. I suppose we could pimp out Betty and the twins, but that could take a while. Even if we find the money, how do we get to Lesser Shia? Hop a bus?”

  Kate shrugged and looked at Donald, who sat staring at the wall across from him, obviously thinking intently about something.

  “I think... I don't know. Maybe, I could get into and out of the void? Zack said he thought I could do it, if I could find a shortcut. But, I don't know how to find anything in there yet and I've never been to Lesser Shia, whatever that is. Like Wal-Mart or Target or something? Anyway... Maybe. Still, we need money. I don't know how much something like that would cost at all.” Don looked around the room, then stared at Kate, letting her see that offering to try just about tapped his pool of creative resources for now.

  Jelly stood up and rummaged in her purse, which had been sitting on the back of the sofa that Don sat on, even though she'd found a place on the far side of the room, away from everyone. She found a card and held it up.

  “Um... Lisa told me that there was money in the safe and I should just ask her if I needed any. I don't think I'm on her list of friends right now, but I have this...” She held the paper out to Kate, like an offering, held in both hands.

  The number seemed like a c
ell phone by the area code, the name above it said only Gregory. The Mage Ambassador at Underwood. She'd met him personally about a half dozen times now, but she didn't know if he actually knew who she was, having been in the background each time they met.

  “Yeah... But should we bother an actual Ambassador over this? Why should he even care, much less give us money? Though I suppose what we're really asking him to do is steal the money for us, so that should go over better.” The bitterness in her own voice shocked Kate, but she didn't try to hide it.

  Jelly sat back down, defeated, but Don stood, walked over and took the card from her, then lifted the phone from the cradle it sat in on the nice wooden table by the wall, next to the sofa.

  He dialed the numbers and waited, seeming tense to Kate, who watched him closely.

  “Hello, is this Gregory, the Ambassador for the Mages at Underwood? You don't know me... My name's Donald Karver. I'm a friend of Kate Swanson... Right, the Alede Ambassador's daughter. I don't know if you've heard what happened today, yet?” Don told the voice on the phone everything, including their current, ill thought out plan that would probably fail.

  After a minute he nodded, then told the man that they'd wait for him out front of the store.

  “He's agreed to help us, but we have to get to this Lesser Shia place ourselves. If we can't do it, he wants the money back. Which sounds fair to me. We get twenty-four hours though...”

  They moved as one surrounding Kaitlyn with a wall of bodies, to the back door of the kitchen where the rift to Something Wonderful stood. It took him a few seconds to walk through it by himself, then he managed to come back and get everyone, one at a time, with only a bit of fumbling.

  When they got there, they sent Blaine to go and watch for Gregory, who should look like a fifty or sixty year old man with a mainly bald head. While he stood look out, Don and Kate both stared at the node in the back of the shop, trying to figure out what to do. They'd seen Zack do it, but that didn't mean they could understand what he did. He just stepped and it worked, as far as Kate could tell.

  Kate focused, not able to see anything particularly. After a while she noticed that Don had sent a line of attention to the center of a ring that hung in space, above the floor. Following his gaze and attention she began to be able to see it herself, if in a different way than he probably did. It shifted a little and pulsed as they came near it, not staying as stable as she'd always thought it would. In fact, it looked almost alive, like part of an animal that felt prodded and poked by their attention.

  Don, suddenly stepped forward, into the ring. She saw his attention start to pry it open, almost like a door, pried open from the center, but not quite enough to make it happen. She saw what he did though! The tendrils of his focus had come out, black and empty, into the center of the ring, pulling it open. He'd started to go, but the breach wasn't big enough.

  Everyone, let out a sigh when nothing seemed to happen.

  “No! Don, you almost had it. Try again. Focus. You can do it!” Kate seemed excited, which got everyone else's attention.

  He tried again, almost getting it open wide enough. Then again. Each time he just missed it by the tiniest fraction of an inch. Kate looked at it and tried it herself, the void opened in front of her and she stepped in. Slipping into the void.

  She wrapped herself in her own focus, like she'd learned to do the last time she was here and looked around. The landscape of the void was loud and bright to her, almost psychedelic colors. Bright at times, brilliant blues, greens and purples played over the nothingness, at least for her. After a few moments, which could have been longer, days maybe, she found a blue blob floating in space. Larger than she was, more coherent and more solid seeming. She willed herself toward it, but nothing happened. Finally she just cast a tendril of thought toward it.

  Zack?

  The blob oriented toward her suddenly, a sense of surprise coming off of it.

  Kaitlyn? How did you get here?

  I walked.

  She explained it all to him, going over everything that had happened, how Gregory had agreed to help them out with money, if they could get to Lesser Shia and find something that would help everyone.

  Zack seemed enthused about this idea, though he still felt sad, she could tell.

  I messed up, Kaitlyn. I know that. I've known it was a mistake for a while now, I just didn't want to face it. I have to fix this. I guess sitting here isn't going to get it done, is it?

  He showed her the way out, but didn't help her do it. As she fumbled, trying to work out how to find the node she wanted, Don popped through, sitting right in front of the opening.

  Zack cheered, as much as you can cheer when you don't actually have vocal cords. Or lungs. He explained to Don how to get out as well and that he was going to try and fix things himself, if he could.

  Kate went first, managing to pry open the node into the back of Something Wonderful. She walked out on her own, everyone standing gap mouthed.

  Don came right behind her, a goofy looking grin on his face. Followed almost instantly by Zack.

  Zack walked over to Kate and gave her a hug, much to everyone's surprise. Don got a pat on the back which made him turn red.

  “Um, yeah, it took me a long time to work out how to get out. I did it on my own, but... Yeah, I don't look that good right now.” The boy laughed though, and gave Kate a hug of his own.

  Blaine called them over to look and see if the strange man in front of Candles and More was the right one, which it was of course, since very few people ever bothered standing in front of a closed candle store and watching the store front, no matter how pretty the window display looked. Gregory stood there, looking as professional as ever. Diplomatic. For real though. Not like some of the rest of the Ambassadors.

  They moved as a group toward the man, who looked up and smiled when he saw that Zack approached as well.

  “Mr. Hartley! I take it things have been worked out between you and Miss Swanson?” The older looking man smiled at them, happy, it seemed that there wouldn't be a huge mess over this issue.

  There still would be of course, but perhaps not as big of one as could have been.

  They had to use Zack's key, which he had on him, to get into the store, so that Gregory could get into the safe, the combination being his, his wife and oldest child's birthdays. So he could remember it off the top of his head even if he hadn't been into the store all that often in the last few months. Then he liberated two hundred ounces of gold and handed it over to Don specifically. He was the one that had asked for it, after all, so it made a certain kind of sense that he hold on to it.

  “Now, I expect an accounting of all this, and if there's change, I want it back.” The older man sounded stern about it, but not displeased that they seemed to have a plan.

  Don nodded, holding the single large sack that held all the one ounce coins. Zack explained that while both Don and Kate had managed to get into and out of the void by themselves, they didn't know the way to Lesser Shia or how to carry people, not yet.

  “So, let's get some volunteers? I'll take Britney and Blaine and... Jelly? Would you like to come too? I don't think it's night at Lesser Shia though, so we probably shouldn't take anyone sensitive to day light. Don't feel too bad though, they still don't let me out into the market place itself. Wait though, we should send someone else just in case...” Zack ran to the phone on Lisa's desk and dialed a number that he knew by rote now. He spoke briefly and after just a few minutes two Trolleinkein came into the store.

  Kate recognized them, being friends of hers after a fashion. Lars and Birk. The men walked over, dressed in gray sweats with the power gym logo on the front. Both wore matching white tennis shoes on their huge feet, though Birk didn't wear socks with his. That probably marked him as being the cool one. That or it was laundry day and he'd simply run out.

  Zack covered exactly what they'd need to do, follow him into the void and quickly translate into the Lesser Shia node. He covered how they needed
to wrap themselves around the person or persons they carried before they entered the void, and made them practice it several times on him before they tried it for real. Don did this easily, on his first try in fact, but it took about fifteen minutes for Kate to understand what she had to do. Instead of the solid sense of self that Zack used or the glowing blue field that Don saw, she had to build a single thick tendril around herself that housed the other person, too. The others agreed, that while it sounded different, the finished product looked the same to them as what they were doing, if a little tidier. That last part was probably just them trying to find some way for her to not feel stupid about taking so long to get the move down however. Kate got that one without even glancing at the energy signals the men gave off.

  Before they left, Birk turned to Don, who would carry him through the void.

  “Don't drop me in the void please! I've always wanted to see this Market at Lesser Shia.” His voice sounded happy, which oddly raised everyone's spirits a bit, or at least, Kate reflected, it made her feel better. Everyone smiled, including Gregory, who watched the whole thing with interest.

  Zack took his three through first, then Don went with his new buddy. Kate followed them easily enough, wrapping up Lars like she was supposed to. In the void they all hung, waiting. Zack took almost no time finding the Lesser Shia node, pointing it out to the others, without actually moving at all. When they both told him they had it, he went through. Don fumbled for a bit, then got it after only a few moments. Kate thought she had it, but walked out in a completely different area than the one she'd been in before. Lars looked at her and grinned.

  “We live!” He said heartily.

  Next to them a door opened and a strange looking being came in, stared at them for a moment and then smiled.

  “Welcome to Lesser Shia! Did... you mean to come to this particular node?” The being, who was tall, bone white with huge eyes, blood red like a Vampire in a full rage, though without the crown of red pikes coming out of the top of the head. Instead it had two rope-like black projections she associated with Demons. His English was flawless, she noticed, even though she hadn't spoken to first to clue him in to what language she even spoke.