Between (Alternate Places Book 2)

by Power, P. S.

"Have you read it yet?" Her nod seemed haunted, though she had to have seen a lot of the things inside first hand, or at least similar things, at one point or another.

  That must have showed on his face, because after rubbing her cheek for a moment with the side of her hand, she went on.

  “I know that you have this vision of us, Demons, being monsters that hurt children Zack, but most of us wouldn't dream of it. Yes, we drive hard bargains and insist on them being enforced, but that's just our way. We tried trusting in the good faith of others, it almost never works. This current treaty has held together mainly because of you so far, you know. One person out of billions that actually keeps their word... Anyway, most of us are like you. Like Humans or Vampires, or even your Alede friends. We all look for something, blood, sex or in the case of Demons and a lot of Humans, power. It doesn't make us all monsters though.”

  She sipped her tea as he looked at her, fighting to shut down his anger over the children being hurt and listen to her.

  “I only mention this, because what's in this file is going to make you mad. It should make you mad. It makes me mad... I just don't want you to throw away the treaty based on this. Blaming all of us for what a few sick beings do. I didn't censor anything, so, ready yourself before you look.” Her eyes, a bluish gray he realized having never noticed them before that he remembered, looked down at the file then back into his eyes.

  Taking a deep breath he concentrated as he exhaled, focusing on the bottom of his brain, near the front, where emotions seemed to come from to his perceptions, he held this area calm and immobile, letting all emotions fade from existence. Checking to make certain that his emotions had been turned off well enough, by running a few of his most dark and upsetting memories through his mind, it became clear that he felt as ready as he would any time soon. Possibly ever.

  He began reading the files, compiling the data, not reacting to what he saw. Focusing intently, he pushed his mind to absorb what was there, holding it separate from everything else, so that he could come back to it later, but it would never force itself upon him.

  Some of the information he discarded. Those files were bad. Just not wearing the fingerprints of trying to break the children involved as fundamentally as would be needed to find, and set free, those that waited. Even in this sea of horrors, some of them weren't as bad as the others.

  About half of them, forty files, could be related to what they looked for.

  Zack knew that these weren't the only ones that could fit, it being possible that the servants, the Arch-Demons as they'd been called, would figure out that they might be tracked this way and simply go off book, using only Humans, or even some other species all together.

  He also knew that it had to be a Human mind that broke, because of the one gift that Humans had, the one thing they had more of than any other group, though they didn't realize it. Creativity. Not great in a fist fight against a Trolleinkein or a Vampire, but exactly what was needed to imagine a space that doesn't exist solidly enough to give it shape, so that something could escape.

  This meant that they only had to search out the missing Human kids. It might be possible that an adult, one damaged enough already, could be shattered in such a way, but that was so unlikely it probably wouldn't even be considered. Children then, he knew, would have to be the targets.

  "Thanks, Beatrice. If you can find anything else, please let me know immediately? I'm not going to lie to you here. What you're doing might end up saving the world. The greater world, not just this little part of it."

  Without saying more, they both rose and headed out the back door, walking through the gift basket shop, then took her back to her embassy in the Mall.

  He knew that being polite to her, even if it still felt hard to him, might pay off in the future. It was still hard to keep in mind that the horrors that had happened to him as a boy had been at the hands of an Arch-Demon. Not one of Beatrice's people at all. Blaming them for it was wrong. Incorrect, not just bigoted and...

  Zack still felt the way he always had toward them. Nearly. He really was trying to make himself see them for what they were, not what he imagined them to be. It was hard though. For so long he'd feared them. All of them. Now... Well, it seemed like they hadn't been that scary. They feared him. That wasn't a good thing however. No one should want to be feared. So there was work needed on that one.

  Back in the house, he moved the files to the computer room. Not to use the computer as much as so he could close the door, in case someone walked by that didn't have to look at the pictures inside. These things were bad enough that even seeing the pictures would be a stress to people that they didn't need, not after everything that had happened.

  He focused intently, redoubling his efforts to keep all emotion stifled for the time being, knowing that it wouldn't help him now. Crying about the horrors contained in these files wouldn't get the work done. It couldn't help any of these kids.

  He flipped through the pictures, doing something that he'd never done before, looking at each one and searching out those that were alive. Separating out those who's Shadows came through the pictures as ghosts. As he suspected, most of them were already dead. In the end he found seven that still lived.

  Two boys and five girls.

  Standing, he walked to the other room and got something to eat, knowing that if he didn't do it now, he wouldn't be able to, not if he allowed his emotions to come back this soon after seeing those horrors. Since he planned to find them all, as soon as possible, he knew he had to eat.

  So he did.

  While he munched he explained what he'd need, his voice sounded dead and cold, even sitting inside himself as he was. Claire made some calls. An hour later they all stood at the mall, ready to go. In all forty people stood in the back of Candles and More. He searched for the first target, trying to get as much information as he could and then they stormed the underground complex. A slavery ring, with a dozen kids being abused. One of them especially so, by a Demon.

  Troy cut one of the Demon's legs off in a single swift move, his expression if he had one hidden behind the bluish mirror that served as his face when in armor. They tied off the bleeding stumps and Zack dragged the creature into the void to destroy him. He turned out to be just a Demon. He knew that what they wanted, what the Arch-Demons had planned, didn't take one of them to pull off. Anyone could be doing their work. Human, Demon, Vampire... anything. Maybe even machines could be set to do it, if they were sophisticated enough. So maybe this had been the one, or at least one of the ones, they were trying to use.

  He left handling the kids to a cleanup crew that called in the authorities. When it was done well enough they called him for a pick up, before he went to find the next situation.

  The second one had two kids. Both so horribly maimed that Troy wanted to do the same thing to the man that had done it, but couldn't stomach it, even having witnessed the aftermath of the monster's work close up. Zack removed the evil man's head with a blast of force instead, standing well back, so he wouldn't get bits of blood and brain all over himself.

  He brought Patty in, to heal the kids, by changing their genders then putting them back, both of them unconscious while it happened. It took time and more energy than Patty could hold at once. He held her and cycled energy through her while she worked. She cried the whole time, shaking and sobbing, even as she made herself change them as well as she could.

  This healed their bodies, but their minds would never fully recover, he realized. Some things couldn't just be fixed and undone.

  The next child was dead when they got to her. They hunted all of the adults involved down. This one had a group of people, so they had to force information from them just in case something else turned out to be behind it. They did have something working behind the scenes driving them, shaping their depravity, just not anything Zack expected.

  “Churches? Fundamentalist Churches? These people are part of some huge Church group that abducts children and does things like this to them?�
� Zack sputtered, growing so angry that he almost killed all of the adults, these monsters, right there. Instead he regained control over his emotions and focused, forcing himself to parse through every name, every date, each location, they could give him.

  When this had ended, or when they got time, they'd make sure that these people paid for their crimes. If nothing else he'd make sure that this information made its way to the hands of people that would know what to do with it. He made sure that none of the adults here would ever harm anyone again before he left, doing it himself.

  On the fifth child, another girl, they hit pay dirt.

  He knew this because when he dragged the Demon to the void, it instantly turned on him. Huge, ferocious and fighting. He'd taken to hitting the Demons instantly because of that. There seemed to be a second when the Arch-Demons were disoriented, he found this out from his last two encounters, so he tried to capitalize on it, not giving them time to fight.

  He wounded the thing early and severely, so it only took a few seconds to destroy it, even though it tried to strike back at him as it vanished. For once the Arch-Demon failed and he took no injury at all. It'd been close, of course. Zack really needed to hone his technique even more, he realized or one of these things would eventually get him.

  The other two were simply run by Humans, though the last had more Church ties. That bothered him. Even though he'd never been religious himself, the idea of someone using something that should be so pure as a front for some of the greatest evils imaginable... it hurt too much to think about. He locked that part of him down and kept moving as best he could.

  When they had finished for the day, he thanked everyone, except the Alfric who had a cultural taboo against being thanked, and walked with Claire over to the Menswear shop. Inside, Devon offered them some tea or coffee. They both declined, simply because Claire didn't actually need either and Zack felt too world weary at the moment to enjoy anything. Even bothering seemed a chore.

  “Several Demons and an Arch-Demon masquerading as one of you. A bunch of Humans, too. We have written records for you of what we know.” Claire passed the file to the Demon.

  Zack tried not to sound as world weary as he felt at the moment. No one liked a downer in the middle of their day, after all. Probably not even Devon did. Zack felt slightly proud of himself for a half moment, for not calling him the Demon, but realized that thinking that kind of undid it. Still, it was progress.

  “I told you why they need the kids. As to why they want the Nexus, that's anyone's guess. Probably to control the lines of attack or something like that, in case they ever make their plan happen. That's just a guess though, it could be something totally different. Still, I think that anyone can see that these are related, and therefore the Demons are keeping up their end of the treaty. If you or your people can come up with any more files or data of things that aren't in the files, Beatrice knows what to look for, that would really help. Tell her I said thanks, by the way, in case I don't see her for a bit.” He shook the Demon's hand before leaving. Still hard for him to do, perhaps, but he had to admit that the information had proved useful. They deserved the praise.

  Libby grabbed him when he got home and stuck him in the shower, then dressed him in a pair of loose gray pants with a draw string and a matching shirt after he got out. After that she made him eat something, which he barely noticed. Finally when she pushed him onto the bed face first, he tried to really focus on her. She lifted his shirt for him, pulling it off and started rubbing his back with a bit of oil that had no particular scent.

  Claire came in, warm from a soak in the hot tub she'd had put in months before and they both worked on him, rubbing and stroking. It felt nice, though he hadn't been very tense before, having finally gotten the basics of relaxation down, though he hadn't had time to work on more sophisticated biological control yet. Kaitlyn had and told him he should make the time to learn it himself as soon as possible.

  Finally, after about twenty minutes of this Libby grabbed a towel and wiped his back off, lingering over the job for a minute, knowing that the towel would feel good, as it lightly rasped across the skin.

  “All right,” Libby stopped and threw the towel onto the table next to the bed. “I know how shy you are about these things sometimes, so I thought that Claire and I would sixty-nine for a while, while you thought of what you wanted to do with us. Or, if you want, have us do to you or each other. If you don't pick something by my, say, second orgasm, then I will...” Her grin looked wicked.

  Both of them stripped, Claire's body pale and smooth compared to Libby's pale base with slightly red brown freckles over her shoulders and upper arms. From his lessons with Patty, he knew that Claire had a B-cup, and Libby an A, not that it mattered to Zack at all, it being just another thing that made each of them unique. It could come up if he were ever supposed to buy clothing for them, however.

  Both were slim. Vampires always were, past a certain age, Claire had told him a while back, no matter how big they were when they started. From what he could tell, Bats were always slim, too. That probably had something to do with similarities developed to their animal forms, he guessed. He'd only seen Libby transform a handful of times, though she'd mentioned to him going flying with Maryl a lot. Apparently every few nights.

  As promised, they moved into a sixty-nine, with Claire situated on top. They both did this expertly and he wondered if they had been practicing when neither of them had him for the night. He hoped so. They both deserved the attention.

  He only wished that Claire could actually enjoy what Libby did to her, or what he did to her for that matter. Zack could impart energy to her, even in a way that felt good, he knew. Still that didn't measure up to a true sexual response.

  He wondered for a minute, if he could talk her Beast, her inner self, different from a Human's Shadow in some respects, into allowing her to feel pleasure, kind of like how he'd learned to project pleasure to others. True, she'd technically have to do it herself, on the deeper level of being, but if she could feel it, or even just thought she felt it, didn't that count?

  He tried to explain it to her inner self. It took some minutes before it caught on to what he meant and a few more, with him demonstrating what it should feel like before she suddenly gasped. She jerked away from Libby suddenly, hovering over her face, but out of reach.

  “Claire, it's okay, I'm doing it. Try it again, with Libby...” His voice sounded calm and a little coaxing, he knew.

  She lowered herself, jumping again when the other woman's tongue touched her. Then she settled in to it, hanging on as waves of pleasure broke over her for the first time in three centuries. Not wanting to be left out, Zack lubed up and moved behind her, placing himself inside her, and then projecting a sense of pure pleasure to her Shadow. This time it knew what to do, and caused her to feel it, sending her to a level that she could just barely stand, though this was a lot less than the other women could take.

  He figured she felt sensitive because of it being novel to her, after so much time.

  Zack reminded her inner self how to orgasm. It hit a wave of pleasure and complied with a powerful spasm, so strong that it almost hurt to be inside her. Vampire strength being so powerful. She gasped, only to have it happen again and again, each time gripping him hard.

  He let her milk him in this way for a while, knowing that trying to thrust would probably injure him right now, her muscles forming a tight enough boundary with each contraction that he wouldn't be able to get back in if he pulled even a little ways out.

  Libby kept going, licking his scrotum occasionally while working on Claire, enjoying the other woman's tiny gasps and moans. They were so different from the ones she normally faked for them.

  After ten minutes of this he let Claire go and asked them both to roll over, so he could do Libby.

  He did something similar with her, but timed her orgasms and waves of pleasure so that he could thrust inside of her between each one. He finally came himself after about five minutes
, speeding up, trying not to hurt her as he finished.

  “Oh, that was incredible! Now if we could just leave that on, so that it happens every time I have sex, not just with you.” Claire sighed, and kissed him.

  Thinking about it, he wondered how often Claire had sex with other people. Curious, he asked.

  “About three times a week, if we include Libby or Merri. Sometimes with other Vampires though, because of politics or what not....Does that... upset you?” Her concern became real as she realized that a lot of men might have a problem with everything she just said.

  "Nope. I'm too old for silliness like that, I think. The important part is making sure that you enjoy what you're doing. So..."

  Zack talked to her beast for a while, and then asked Libby to touch her again.

  Moving back, so that she knew there could be no contact with him, he watched her gasp and writhe. When they were done he smiled.

  “That should happen at about that level every time you have sex now. I may have to remind your inner self what to do a couple of times, so if it starts to fade or you want the level of pleasure boosted, let me know. You'll probably want more soon. This should set you at about normal though, for a regular woman.”

  She kissed him, tasting faintly of Libby, and giggled in a way he had never heard before.

  “Now you just have to hope that not every Vampire in the building heard us, or else you're going to be a very busy boy for a while!” She mentioned knowingly.

  They had heard of course.

  Naturally.

  Chapter twenty-four

  As he walked to the food court for lunch he noticed Norris's girlfriend Janet hanging around the front of Candles and More. Not coming in, just pretending to look at the new window display, waiting for... something. Or someone, Zack realized, her Shadow watching him, rehearsed things to say, casual things that would get more information about Norris from his friend.

  She'd picked him for this, because she thought that the women would see through her too easily, and while he seemed a nice guy to her, brilliance didn't seem his strong suit to her mind. She fidgeted a little while he watched her, the shoes she had worn had low heels, but weren't meant for actually standing in.