Between (Alternate Places Book 2)

by Power, P. S.

  Everyone at Frozen YoGurt were collected in the back. The younger Vampires fielding phone calls constantly. Claire looked up at him, wondering if he needed help with anything, her Shadow asked him that as she outwardly talked on the phone.

  He mouthed the word food at her and pointed to the shop out front. She nodded, though her Shadow told him she couldn't get off the phone right now, as she talked directly to Luthor, the current Vampire leader, in what seemed a brief break in the talks. She looked around quickly, trying to find someone to help him, seeing that everyone looked busy she hunched her shoulders.

  He tried to convey that he remembered what to do by pointing at his own chest and went to make something for himself. He had filled in for Claire one time, so he'd gotten a brief course on how to run the machines. He'd also read the manual, Claire's notebook of secret techniques, that she'd compiled over the years. It was memorable, being so detailed and well done.

  It came back to him easily, even though it had been a few months since he read the book. He wondered if this had something to do with his connection to Claire as he made himself several dishes that were almost to her level of perfection. On his fourth one, Hilda came in, also starving, with Kaitlyn who'd noticed him behind the counter and had decided to see if anyone else wanted anything, since a lot of the people there had to eat every few hours to keep themselves at full energy like he did now, too.

  Hoping that it would be all right with Claire, Zack started making dish after dish, some of them to order, others just prepared for whoever walked in next, as dozens of people started coming through the door, figuring out where people were getting them from. He tried to follow what he remembered from the notebook precisely, knowing that it would matter to Claire later. They had a reputation to uphold, after all.

  After a while, Blake, one of the night people at the shop, came out of the back room to help. The line running out the front wrapped around the door and past the edge of the Glass.

  "Most everyone is just taking whatever is on the counter, so if you could make up some more whipped topping, using heavy cream we can set up a to-go line."

  Blake chuckled at first, about how carefully Zack made each one, even though he moved quickly, though after a while it became apparent that the quality of the ones Zack made outstripped his own greatly. They looked nicer and more people that took those came back for seconds.

  “How did you get so good at this?” The Vampire asked him, trying to carefully measure the amount of vanilla yogurt flowing into the cup, so that he could add the first layer of fudge to it.

  Zack didn't stop working, his focus on what he did at the moment, which he knew helped him to get things done correctly, but didn't have time to say all that. Instead he just looked at Blake quickly and told him the other part of it.

  “I read the notebook.” He pointed at where it sat, underneath the counter, giving the young Vampire a quick smile.

  The rush lasted an hour, until Beth and Barbara finally came back with carts filled with food, they'd both made, plus some bought other places. Zack noticed that Jenifer, Beth's young daughter, walked behind them carrying a box of something, probably condiments, given the size of the box. When she saw him she smiled and nodded at him, since she couldn't wave, her hands being filled at the time.

  People followed them down to the food court, and Zack, turning things over to Blake as the line finally died down, did the same.

  In line he found Kaitlyn, who'd stolen an empty food cart and started making up plates of food for Libby, Maryl, Charli, Lisa and George Penbroke who'd replaced Gregory, so that he could go get some sleep and see his wife, who lay dying of an un-treatable cancer. Zack asked her to put five more plates together, an extra for him, and four for the Demons locked in their shop.

  She wrinkled her nose at that, though she did it anyway. He couldn't blame her for it. If he had one true prejudice, it was against Demons as a group. Not only had a Demon stolen his father's body and sexually abused him, horribly, as a child, but Demons kept trying to kill him and his friends, even now.

  Though, if things were to work out later, it would be better not to have any particularly hard feelings develop between the different groups, Zack figured. So, he'd take them food, when he could.

  He grabbed some cans of soda, which he didn't normally drink himself, for everyone, including the Demons. He turned when he felt a tug at his sleeve.

  Merri, stood there somberly.

  “Forgive me please. I'm an awful wife, running off to handle these things instead of seeing to you as is my duty...” He just smiled and pulled her into a hug.

  “Duty? What you're doing is important right now, I can take care of myself for a little while. True, it's not as nice, but this is kind of a big deal.” He waved his hands around, to indicate that by this, he meant everything.

  He hugged her again and asked her to make certain she ate. She grinned guiltily, and started taking small, very reasonable portions.

  Zack raised an eyebrow at her.

  "Seriously Merri? I know that you need to eat a lot more than that. You don't have to hide what you eat from me. I want you to be comfortable being who you really are. Especially since that's pretty wonderful." It was true, so he mentioned that again on the Shadow level.

  She looked down, but took larger servings as she continued through the line.

  Pushing the cart to the door of the Demon shop, Kaitlyn holding the front while he pushed from the back, since the cart seemed to have a wheel that wanted to force it to the left constantly, they finally worked the food over to the door.

  It took a few minutes to convince the Demons that they meant no harm and that opening the door remained safe. Devon stood in the door taking the plates one at a time from him, then the cans of soda. He did manage to thank him though, before he closed the door in their faces.

  As they walked by Beautiful Plus, Patty ran out and grabbed his arm.

  “Zack! A bit of an oversight... Our Leader, Cerise, I think you met her earlier? Well, no one thought to have anyone bring in partners for her, so she's starving right now. Not just a little, from what I can gather either. She seems to have gotten busy over the last few days and forgot to have sex enough, and now... Well, she needs energy. I was wondering if you could, I mean, I know it's an imposition, but...” Patty actually twisted in place, nervously. Like a child that needed to use the bathroom. Not a sexy and sharply dressed woman in a mustard colored silk blouse, matching skirt and peek-a-boo stockings.

  Zack just nodded, figuring out roughly what she wanted.

  “Fine, have her meet me in the Node room in twenty minutes. Kaitlyn and I will meet her there. I need to eat again first though, as selfish as that is of me.” He grabbed some food from one of the plates and started munching as they walked on.

  Kaitlyn walked for a bit before speaking.

  “Um, so, why exactly am I going?”

  Continuing down the hallway he wondered if he should be trying to push the cart to the right to correct for its drift, as the girl seemed to be working pretty hard to keep it going straight.

  “Two reasons. First, I want her to meet you, since you're pretty much the first big success story given your past, that the Alede have ever heard of. If she knows who you are, maybe the other kids having problems will be allowed to get some real help, instead of being locked up or worse? The second is more selfish. I don't want to have sex with her, so I need someone responsible to act as my body guard.”

  Kaitlyn grinned at him.

  Chapter nine

  Kaitlyn stood in front of Zack protectively, guarding him from Cerise, the leader of her people, refusing to give ground, no matter what the ancient Succubus threw at them.

  “No. If you want the energy, then we do it our way, or we leave. Stop trying to coerce him into having sex with you. We don't have time for this.” The girl's voice sounded flat, focused and uncompromising.

  It took several minutes for the older woman, who looked about the same age as Patty, thoug
h Kate had told him she had to be at least a thousand years old, to buckle under out of hunger and submit to being fed like a child.

  When they finished it took another ten minutes to convince her that Zack would not move in with her and be her new full time energy provider. Kaitlyn refused to let her try and claim him using right of precedence.

  Kaitlyn stood almost right in front of the woman, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and shook her brown curls a bit.

  "Nope. If you want to play that game for this, then I have precedence. Or to be more exacting, for this specific process, Courtney Moore does. But in general, I've been close with Zack for over a decade, far more than anyone else." She didn't bother to explain either, just making the statement. There was no speaking of time in the void or anything.

  It worked, too. Though Cerise did manage to get one of his cards before they could get out of the room.

  Once they were back at Candles and More, Kate grinned at him, and pulled him into a half hug with one arm.

  “The amazing thing here is that she's actually a really good leader. I can't say that she showed much leadership in there, but try not to hold it against her. Sometimes older Alede get like that. They just expect everyone to always do what they want, because that's what normally happens.” Kaitlyn looked down, staring at his crotch.

  “She really did put some vibes out there, didn't she. Good thing you had me or you'd probably be getting your stuff right now so you could move in with her.”

  Zack snorted.

  “No thanks. I'm trying to get my life into some kind of normal shape as it is. I don't think anyone could have a normal life around her. I mean, Human normal. One man, one woman, or at least no more than four women, since I don't think I actually get a choice in that without hurting people I care about. A house and a job. No one trying to kill me or insist that I have sex with dozens of women every week. That kind of thing. I know it's just a dream, but it helps get me through the day.” He managed to sound light hearted about it, even though he knew it was all true.

  The woman that looked barely seventeen, nodded, her dark brown colored hair pulled back into a sporty looking pony tail made of silken curls. Before they left, she reached out and took his hand, giving it just the slightest squeeze, making sure that she didn't project anything into the movement except friendship. He appreciated her effort, knowing that for her it actually took work.

  “Okay, I won't tease you about it anymore. You really do need to get laid more often though. Walking around like that all the time is going to get old, I think, even if you can block out the lust and mental portions of things. At least until you learn to control it all the time, like you did earlier.” Her Shadow told him that she said it that way to gently remind him that he could indeed control his body too.

  He stopped and focused for a moment, tensing and relaxing muscles he hadn't even known he could control the day before, until he returned to normal.

  Kaitlyn noticed.

  “That level of control, you know that you can control almost everything in your body, right? Even hormone releases. Heart rate, bleeding, at least to an extent, breathing. The works. It should just be a matter of practice for you, and apparently not even that much practice when you get down to it.” Her hand in his they walked back to Underwood.

  Libby and Maryl stood talking to an exhausted Lisa, suggesting that she come with them and get some sleep. Kaitlyn offered to man the embassy for her, while she did.

  “Just keep your phone on. We, Zack, can have you back inside five minutes if something happens and you're needed. Don't worry about that. If you collapse from lack of sleep though, you won't do anyone any good.”

  He got them all to his house quickly, and Lisa settled in to Betty's bed downstairs, at the girl's insistence. Maryl went to chat with Troy in his room, trying to get out of the way while Libby pulled him into the bedroom.

  First she pulled his clothes off of him, then, her own. Naked she dragged him over to the bathroom and started running a shower.

  “You have dried blood all over your back.” She told him. "But don't worry, it's sexy gore. Like in the movies."

  She put him under the shower spray and let warm water fall on his back while they both soaped up, then got him to move so that she could rinse off, then let him do the same. Without speaking she turned him around and started scrubbing at his back with a luffa, though he didn't know which person that lived there it belonged too. He'd get them a new one though, he decided. Once it had dried blood all over it, the scratchy sponge thing needed to be thrown away.

  Reaching around him, Libby took her soapy hand and stroked up and down his erection slowly, picking up speed after about a minute. It felt odd to him, coming from the same angle he used when masturbating, but not being able to feel the hand. It felt good though. Especially after having suppressed every urge he'd had all day long.

  Switching hands, she sped up even more, until he almost came. She stopped for a second and got down on her knees in front of him, resuming the rapid pace with her hand. Instead of taking him into her mouth, as he thought she planned to do, she kept jerking him off, looking up at him until he released. She closed her eyes and let it hit her face, water washing it away as it splashed down.

  Her hand kept working for a bit, until she finally stood and rinsed off, facing into the water.

  “It seems popular enough in porn, so I thought I'd give it a try. It doesn't do much for me, but it should make for a good show.” Her smile grew bigger when she said this.

  “After all, if I have to compete with Claire and all the Alede, I need to keep my repertoire fresh. Just wait until you see what I have for you next! We're going to need handcuffs.” She kissed him for a while then.

  After drying off and wrapping up in towels, they went to his bedroom.

  Instead of letting her get dressed, he pushed her gently back on the bed and started kissing her, slowly and carefully working his way down her body. When he reached her groin, he noticed that she had a bit more hair there than he remembered, a light orangey-red. He played with it for a moment, then started using his hands and tongue on her, slowly bringing her to climax as he had learned to do from Patty.

  This left him hard again.

  She noticed and pushed him back onto the bed. What she had planned next did surprised him a little, he realized. He hadn't known she was quite so flexible.

  Later, as she lay back, ready to get some sleep, he pulled on clothes and headed out. Troy met him outside the door.

  “I heard there's some kind of emergency, need any help?” His roommate asked.

  He had been about to put him off, when he realized that they actually could use help. They needed food all night long at the mall and both Beth and Barbara would need to sleep. Troy said he'd be glad to help, if he could.

  Going to the kitchen, where he thought Merri kept the money from his paychecks, he looked around on the Shadow level, finding it where it had been hidden in a jar at the back of an upper shelf. Zack wrote a note explaining the expense and pulled out two thousand dollars which he handed to Troy.

  “It's going to cost a lot more than this, by the end of the night, but I'll try to get the rest at work.” He sent his friend off to the store in search of food, saying he should get as much as his car could carry of anything he thought people might eat.

  The next few hours didn't hold a lot for Zack personally. He went over to run the frozen yogurt line again, and when Troy pounded on the back door of Candles and More, directed him down to 'Something Wonderful' being that it stood closer to the food court, making carrying all the grocery bags in an easier task.

  In the shop they found Charli, still working away at putting the wood floor panels into place.

  “I didn't know you were still here.” Zack hoped that she hadn't been forgotten by the others when they left.

  “Yeah, I wanted to get the floor done tonight, because the table displays are supposed to arrive tomorrow and I thought it would be cool if we could get them
straight on to the floor. They should still show up right? I mean, unless some super war breaks out? They're just coming from a company near here.” Yawning hugely she triggered one in Troy as well, even though he normally stayed up all night for his job.

  Zack didn't know, though that sounded right to him.

  "Come find me when you're ready and I'll get you home. My house I mean. We have plenty of sofa space left, if nothing else."

  Fifteen combined trips later and Troy had all the supplies he'd gotten inside the Mall. He put up a whole table with nothing but candy and high calorie snacks, another with Bagels and things to put on them and so on with sandwiches and chips. Nothing that requiring cooking or baking. He also added sodas to the pile, which hadn't gone as fast as the other things, since the food court still had a drink fountain running.

  Leaving him there to get things set up and keep the food coming, he ran down to Candles and More to check on Kaitlyn who spoke on the phone to Eloise Penbroke, who turned out to be the Mage representative at the summit.

  “Here he is, hold on one second.” Putting a hand over the phone she told him that they needed food brought in for about sixty people. The problem being that no one wanted to simply order food locally, not trusting that someone wouldn't try to poison them all. Instead they agreed on getting food from a half a dozen different locations in various trusted lands, and seeing if he'd go pick it up.

  “Which means going to get it yourself, because of course, no one will trust letting anyone into the complex that isn't already inside, except for you. On the good side, everyone trusts you... Except the Demons.” She sounded tired. He'd have to remind her to sleep soon. Maybe someone could take her place for a while, representing the Mages, or something?

  The list of locations weren't hard to find, the first being his regular Node room at Lesser Shia. The others were less note worthy, but he knew how to find them anyway.