Between (Alternate Places Book 2)

by Power, P. S.

  With a wave and without explaining, Zack quickly went to visit everyone before heading off to Patty's. He knew a shortcut to her place now, so he could walk the distance in about five minutes, even though she lived about ten miles away, in a very nice condo.

  Claire had gone for the day already, to the house she shared with about a dozen Vampires. As their leader, part of her job involved teaching them to behave and not be noticed by regular people. Sometimes, she had told him, with the rougher ones, she had to use force. Though Zack had never seen this happen. He'd met them all about a month before, though he still didn't know all of their names. Some of them had held back a lot, almost as if trying to hide from him, or go unnoticed at least.

  On Friday he'd agreed to go with Claire, her lieutenant Keane and Nikki, who seemed lower in the ranks, along with one of the new girls that showed promise, to Claire's dance club, The Tarantula. Where Troy coincidentally happened to work as a bar tender. Something clicked in his head then. What were the odds that Troy would be working at the only Vampire owned night club in the city?

  The answer, was not very good. Not living with him like he did. It would be like someone winning the weirdo lotto six times in a row.

  It might be more of the pattern of strange events that he and Claire had been putting together. Or not. He'd have to run it by her, just in case there turned out to be something to it.

  He passed The Chasm, the name an obvious play on 'The Gap', since they carried very similar clothing items. Run by the Weres, who were all different kinds of animal based shape shifters. Libby had worked there until she betrayed them all, nearly gotten him killed, and had all her worldly possessions stripped from her. Along with her job, as punishment for it. Thinking about that made Zack both sad and worried.

  How would she get by with nothing? He'd heard through Hilda, who heard from Rose the Trickster that even her family had to cast her out. They'd had to or else no one would do any business with them. Not even sell them food or anything. It had been the fault of a group of Demons, not them, so it wasn't fair.

  Not that anyone else cared that much about the concept of fairness. Not that he's seen lately.

  As he glanced into the store, Ang, the small Asian man that held the form of a dragon within him saw him looking... and cast his eyes down instantly. Nessa stared at him though, refusing to look away like the others did when they saw him. They were probably angry at him over what had happened to Libby, their friend. He could understand that. He should have argued her case better in court, but he'd felt so hurt and sad when it happened that the best he could do for her had been to get the judges to grant leniency and not order her death... and the death of her entire family line.

  The path kept on to the food court, where he knew that Merri at least would probably have some food for him, and if not, someone else would. She didn't disappoint, having a full tray ready for him when he got there. Tonight it held a bunch of battered and fried things, since she was filling in for Glen, who normally ran the oddly named restaurant, but who'd been out a lot more lately, since he and Rose returned from the Alfric lands a few weeks prior. Fried Things. It was a wonder that anyone ate there at all, given what they called it. Still, the food was good.

  He ate it quickly, finding that it didn't seem greasy at all. Merri, and it seemed, all her people here at Underwood, cooked superbly. As he finished she ran up to him and kissed him lovingly, then, without saying anything, hurried back to the small open faced shop she filled in at. Even when there were no customers, they all took their work very seriously.

  After that, he headed over to see Hilda at the Gym and say hi to the others that worked there. They were all Trolleinkein, the trolls of legend, though when at home they all looked a lot more like Big Foot to his eye, than some warty-lumpy creature from a story book.

  Huge and massively powerful, when you got beneath the thick fur, they were essentially just Human in appearance, proportions aside. Hilda for instance, though she had to shave her whole body regularly, looked more like a six foot six playboy centerfold than anything else. Her long blond hair, perpetually worn in a braid down her back, gave her a little bit of a Norse Valkyrie feel, though her accent had nearly vanished over the last months.

  He hugged her when he went in to the power lifting gym. Merle, the manager and Ambassador for his people there, came over and slapped him on the back, measuring his force though, so it didn't sting this time. A few others looked up from where they lifted weights that would have blown the world record out of the water and called out greetings to him. He still only knew half of their names by sight, so he just said hi to everyone instead.

  As he left the Gym a few minutes later, having stepped in only to touch base, he heard his name being called from nearby.

  “Zack! Hey, wait a second.”

  Looking up there was a cute Asian girl running toward him, out of Princess Pretty Nail. He recognized her instantly as Charli. Her mother owned the nail salon.

  “I'm supposed to meet up with Betty and Nikki later, but I have to work late, some appointments came up, do you think you could ask them to meet me here at nine instead of at your house? I can't get the car tonight...”

  He nodded, then remembering that she, at least a little bit, knew about things now. About Vampires and Demons at the very least. She and the other women at the nail salon had fought them when the mall had been attacked, and watched the battle of champions that had been put together to settle things.

  “I can come and get you when I get the others if you want, at nine? It will take less time that way.”

  She smiled in relief, "Thanks! It's been a pain lately having to borrow my mom's car. She's actually been busy, if you can believe it. You'll meet me here, or..." Her button nose wrinkled a little as she smiled. It was pretty charming, in a regular girl kind of way.

  "That works. See you then." He walked away, but with a wave, trying to communicate properly.

  First he needed to get to Patty's and go over his lessons, which had grown both more in-depth and less sexual over the last month.

  He took the shortcut he'd found that came out about a block away from her door. This rift in space seemed pretty stable, he noted, not shifting much, even as he used it daily. Zack moved quickly and knocked gently. When she came to the thick slab of wood that was her front door, he noticed she checked the peep hole first, seeing her Shadow carefully analyze everything before she opened it.

  “There you are Zack! Good, we don't have much time tonight and I want to go over some things with you that you need to change for, I think.” He knew that from the way she said change, she didn't mean out of his current outfit.

  In a hurry, she pulled him through the nice and very white colored space. The carpet had a rich and hard to care for look, but felt soft under his shoes. Cushy. Probably so that when she had sex on it there wouldn't be any rug burns. They ended up traveling through the whole place, to her safe room. It had no windows and reinforced walls, with a security door on it that was decorated to make it seem like it led to a second bedroom.

  The process went quickly, as she used her abilities to transform him from a rather average looking guy into a stunning, if petite, woman. This had been the reason for their secrecy, as he had a plan, though it was pretty tentative, to hunt down a particular Demon and kill it. Which, naturally, he could only do in the void. What others called the lines. Since no Demon would willingly go into a Node with Zack now, after he killed sixteen of them a month prior there, he needed a disguise and some kind of reason to get this particular one in there at the same time.

  They'd agreed to call his female persona Maria. It was an old fashioned enough sounding name that a Demon might use it for this form. Most Demons adapted to the world around them, but slowly, clinging to old names and turns of phrase sometimes. He'd also learned to fake the internal energy signature of Demons, though not their language or culture, which they hid from everyone pretty carefully. Zack would have to be very careful with that part of things
he knew and not get too close to the Demon he wanted to kill until just before he did it. Seconds before if he could manage it.

  Patty looked at the girl before her and nodded.

  You're lovely, just as I remembered.

  That came from her Shadow, but there was also a pat on the arm for Maria from that direction. For Patty, touching a naked woman like that was showing a lot of restraint, Zack knew.

  The Succubus smiled at her, trying to seem supportive.

  "Come with me then? Leave your clothes off. It will make things faster." Then she beckoned Maria to follow her out of the room.

  Walking like this, naked, in a strange body, always left Zack feeling a little vulnerable, even though he was safe with the Succubus.

  Patty's bedroom could have belonged in a palace somewhere without raising any eyebrows. A huge four poster bed took up the center of the space. A rich deep red and gold bed spread, matching pillow cases and equally rich drapes. The carpet had a soft, plush feel to it as well, with three throw rugs, each softer than the last it seemed, protecting the floor in the regular traffic areas. They were probably also selected to be comfortable kneeling, or lying on now that he thought about it. Now that she thought about it, Maria corrected, trying to play the role as well as possible. It might make a difference later. Alede in general didn't like to leave anything sexually related to chance.

  “I know this isn't your favorite topic, but we need to go over some things... Sex, as a woman. With a man. Wait!” She held up a hand to forestall the arguments that were about to come. It was right, since he really was about to have a problem with it.

  “If you keep thinking like a man, it's going to color your disguise. You have to let go of that and embrace being a woman so totally that no one would ever guess you'd ever been anything else. Understand?”

  Honestly, the slightly brown young woman didn't, though she trusted Patty to know her business. If she said that Maria needed this information, then it probably stood that she did. Knowing this didn't make the situation any more comfortable, of course, but Zack, Maria she corrected herself, knew that she'd just have to deal as best she could.

  “Okay. Fine. What do I need to do?” This came quick, her speaking a little breathless. She locked down her emotions and the sudden fear she felt, focusing on the other woman totally.

  Instead of Patty transforming herself into Patrick, her male side, she got out some realistic silicone models of genitalia and a small harness that she put on, though outside of her clothes, the fake penis, Maria saw, fit into the base of the belt arrangement, clicking into place. Cleverly enough it looked like they could be exchanged, so that different models could be used with the same rigging.

  The first one she used seemed small, or at least normal for a penis, she thought, looking at it. Some of the others there were far bigger, sitting in the metal case next to the bed on a small table.

  The Succubus turned to her and asked if she could kneel down in front of her, please. Every word she used carefully chosen not to seem demanding or pushy. She also avoided any common slang terms that may act as a trigger for old and negative memories.

  “Now, if you could, as the reading you've done explained, approach and perform fellatio, when you're ready.” Patty held still, keeping her hands by her sides at all times. There wasn't a big attempt to make it seem sexy at least. Not that it made a difference to the situation. The problems here weren't about sex, but abuse.

  Maria walked forward on her knees, locking away the old memories soundly and not moving until she felt sure that she could do this. When ready, she moved toward the other woman, put the fake penis in her mouth and began to suck on it gently. Pulling back slightly she ran her tongue around the tip, in a way that she knew didn't feel like much to circumcised men, but looked visually impressive. It had been in the textbook.

  Carefully suppressing her gag reflex, which only took relaxing the muscles in the throat, something easy enough for her to do, she pushed it further in, letting the head of it hit her tonsils, then working it past them, breathing through her nose. She did this for several minutes, eventually moving faster and faster, using her left hand on the base, until Patty told her that she had done well and asked her gently to roll over onto her back on the bed.

  Carefully moving Maria to the edge of the bed, Patty lubed the head with a bit of oil and began to insert it into the girl slowly, carefully.

  Maria freaked. Curling suddenly into a tight ball.

  “Okay...” Patty said gently. “Not ready for that yet. We'll work on it another time.”

  Chapter two

  Zack, back to being himself again, had to shut down every emotion just to gain enough composure to leave in time to get the others home from work. He apologized to Patty for his behavior, knowing he'd have felt embarrassed if he could.

  “I really thought I'd dealt with everything from my past already. I guess there's more for me to do still...” He sounded so sad when he said this that Patty came over and held him for a minute before speaking.

  “Of course you do! I'm asking you to do things that you normally never would have to even think about trying. Yes, there truly is a good reason, but that doesn't mean we won't push some buttons along the way. That you've dealt with everything as well as you have so far is amazing. Just keep doing that and this will pass soon enough. You just have to learn to separate your fear of people doing bad things to you, from things you choose to do. For someone else I'd worry that would be too hard, but I've seen you do things that were at least as difficult, so I know you can do it.” The smile she gave him seemed encouraging, though he could tell that on a deep level she'd been disturbed by the force of his reaction. It had even scared her for a few moments as he'd rolled away from her, backing up until he hit a wall.

  Before he left, Zack took time to help her fully recharge. Two full transformations in under an hour took a lot out of an Alede. The only reason it didn't take a lot out of him, he knew, was that he kept pulling more and more energy from the universe around himself directly. This, oddly enough, seemed to be a Human ability, something anyone could learn, though most people never bothered to for some reason.

  He managed to kiss her and hold her tightly before leaving. Thankfully Zack didn't associate what had just happened with her, he realized, but with his past... somehow. Though he found it odd that giving head hadn't bothered him much, not beyond his ability to control at least. It had, in fact, been something forced on him as a child, over and over again. Vaginal penetration, a thing he'd have no particular associations with, caused him to panic. It didn't make sense to him at all. Anal sex he could see, but that?

  He got the girls from the Mall, including Charli and Val, who normally drove to work, but who'd left her car, a roomy sedan of some sort, at the shop earlier for some work. When they got outside to the parking lot, Charli looked around, smiling a bit.

  "Um... Where's your car?" Her Shadow feared that someone had stolen it, which would be bad for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it would ruin her plans for the night. It also would mean that they were all stuck there, and that Zack would be angry, having been robbed like that.

  “Oh, right! We aren't going by car. You've actually done this before, though you probably don't remember it. It's just a shortcut though, nothing big. Here, hold hands everyone, all you have to do is walk Charli. That and not scream on the other side. It's a residential neighborhood, so... You know.” He started walking through the rift in space, pulling them all through. On the other side the Korean girl let out a surprised grunt.

  “Well! That's fast. I didn't even feel anything. You all do this all the time?” She seemed impressed rather than scared. She did glance behind them, at the elm tree that it seemed like they'd walked out of. It was the neighbor's yard, and the man that lived there looked out of the window at them.

  Smiling. Inside, his Shadow was ready for an attack though. It was scary to watch, so as a rule, Zack ignored him. The man was so frightening that at first Zack had wonder
ed if he was a Demon, but when he'd taken the chance to get a good look, he seemed pretty normal. Except for the fact that it was almost certain that anything trying to fight with him was going to die.

  On the good side, he never complained about them using his yard. Not even with the bit of worn down grass they'd been forming over the months of coming and going that way.

  They all nodded and walked toward the house, a small white building with cracked grey paint on the cement front steps, and a useless black lamp post out front, a black wrought iron affair that probably hadn't worked in over thirty years, crossing the street carefully, in case some early drunk driver decided to head home, not noticing they were there. It was early for that, but being careful was a useful trait, wasn't it?

  Once inside, Nikki and Betty fairly tackled Charli.

  “Oh! Did you just get here then? Your mom decided to part with the car after all?” Betty asked, surprised, because Charli's mom, known to them only as 'Mrs. Walsh' didn't have a big reputation for changing her mind once made up.

  “Nah. Zack brought me with everyone else through that... Um, shortcut outside.” She grinned as she saw the other women go slack jawed for a moment in shock. Regular Humans, which Charli was, didn't normally get told anything, much less shown by others, first hand.

  Zack waved off the objections of their Shadow selves though, saying back that Charli already knew about this stuff, so there was no reason she couldn't benefit from it. After a few moments, they agreed, if only because Charli stood right in front of them having accepted the whole thing calmly, not with fear like most people would have.

  Apparently this event, with Charli, Nikki and Betty had been meant to be a girls' night, so when Merri, Hilda, Val, Sarah and Kaitlin came upstairs with Betty it turned in to a regular slumber party, without the sleeping as out of that whole group, only Charli would need any and for her part she'd brought a two litter bottle of diet Mt. Dew.

  Kaitlyn looked at him and asked if he'd be leaving. Not hinting, just curious.