On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (30 page)

The only saving grace there was that they used that data as a
means to get others into bed, rather than as spies for anyone's enemies. It was
probably why most people didn't really notice it happening.

She waited then, for everything to get as quiet as it could
be.

Then she explained everything again.

That got a reaction from her mom, if nothing else. A real
one, that was more powerful than she'd expected, to be totally honest about it.

"Sit here and don't move. I have to check on this
before..." The lovely and young looking woman brushed at her hair in a way
that had no allure whatsoever. Then she got up, smoothed her clothing carefully
and walked out, leaving her daughter sitting there.

An hour and a half later, Patricia came back, with real tears
in her eyes. It took nearly ten minutes for her to calm down enough to talk. To
even say what she'd found out loud.

“Kaitlyn... It's not just Lisa. It's all of them! Everyone
Zack's had sex with that isn't an Alede. Even
Claire
! I didn't think a
Vampire could be handled that way. They all show signs of addiction and not
borderline either. He's been systematically increasing the amount of pleasure
he's used with them over time. I wouldn't doubt that the younger Vampires have
been affected too. I think... I think he
has
to be doing it on
purpose
.”

It hit Kate suddenly, a wave of nausea washing over her. It
was a vast thing, wasn't it? What it meant...

“Oh,
fuck
. Me too, then. It's exactly what he did to
me with the feeding. I thought, you know, that I was being all clever and
tricking him into feeding me more and more energy, so I could get off, without
him knowing about it, but he
knows
! He told Don that he knows we all
orgasm and try to get as much pleasure from him as possible! Fuck!”

Kate started shaking in reaction to the news, fear and anger
mingling in her bloodstream. Enough so that Patty started to look concerned,
but eventually noticed that even in this abject rage, Kaitlyn kept her energy
reigned in nearly perfectly. That was part of her training, wasn't it? To
control herself, even when it seemed like there was no way for anyone to manage
it.

She stood then, and asked that Patty bring in someone from
the outside to check this out, someone that would be completely impartial. If
she were wrong, if they were, then it needed to be pointed out. Soon, too. She
felt strangely tired as she said it. Drained, as if all hope had gone out of
her. Like it had flowed away from the entire world.

Thinking through it, she tried to find a way that this
wasn't
sinister. Some loophole, or gap in knowledge that would have let Zack do this
without being evil. Her mind drew a blank. She'd told him, more than once, from
her own lips, that too much pleasure could addict a person. He'd heard the
other Alede discussing what could happen to people that were used that way,
too. How very badly it always ended. He didn't have ignorance as an excuse.
That wasn't it, then.

She just sat there, crying. Patty came over and held her, and
eventually, other people started coming in. The Alede first, who hushed and
went still when Patty explained the situation to them. It was clear that they
all understood. It frightened them too. The Line-Walker doing that was a
horrible thing. There was almost nothing that they could do about it either.

Kaitlyn dried her eyes finally, noticing the time. Then,
slowly, she got to her feet, not really sure what she was doing, but feeling,
knowing
, on a deep level that she was probably one of the only people on
the planet, on any planet maybe, that could actually do it and survive. Except
that, if Zack was actually evil, then her thoughts about him loving her might
be a lie. Part of her own addiction that left her under his complete control.

Her feet felt like lead as she walked into Candles and More.
As she passed Jelly, still sitting at the front desk looking more than a little
shell shocked, she told her to leave, to go to the Import store and tell
Ghurian that Kate had asked him to protect her. To guard Jelly,
if
he
could. Then she stood in the back room, waiting. Lisa came out of her office,
knowing that Zack should be back soon. Claire came and bundled her away,
explaining things in a hushed tone, that Kate ignored. That wasn't her part in
this. The others would handle that, after she was gone, she hoped.

Zack came back at a few minutes after six, smiling when he
saw her, at first.

“Did you
know
? All those women... Did you know that
you were addicting them like that?” She asked, her voice cold, a steel gray
colored line coming from her, moving toward him. It impacted, but didn't shake
him in particular. Thin or not, he was strong. Too much so, she had to figure.

He didn't make her clarify. Zack simply nodded.

“Yes. Not at first, not really, I don't think, but I figured
it out months ago. It's just, well, it made them all so happy... And everything
got so much easier then. I wanted everyone to like me...”

She nodded.
So, there's that at least
, she thought as
she moved toward him. He didn't know... at first and did it because he wanted
things to be easier, to make everyone else happy. So,
not evil
. Just
criminally stupid. That was better, wasn't it?

“Zack... I love you.” She told him.

Then she attacked. A flurry of punches first, which caught
him totally unaware. After a few seconds he ran from her, his speed making him
blur more than a little as he left the store. Kate did something that
she'd
never done then. Not on that kind of level. Focusing her energy as tightly as
she could, she followed him, moving so fast she could feel her bones creak. Threatening
to break in her skin as she rounded the corner of the store after him, but she
closed the distance anyway and tackled him from behind.

She didn't care about who saw it. This was too important for
embarrassment or even survival to make a difference to what happened. She just
started beating him, blow after blow landing, aiming for his head. He blocked,
moving fast even now. Like the Vampires did, blurring and his limbs vanishing
from sight for brief moments only to reappear suddenly, not having anywhere to
go. She made herself match him, feeling things rupture from the speed. Blossoms
of red bruises ran down her arms suddenly as she hit him in the face, smashing
the bones there as well as the ones in her hands.

Kaitlyn screamed, rage poured out of her for the first time
in years, maybe ever. It wasn't exactly a normal feeling for her. She kept
hitting Zack as hard as she could until he stopped moving. When he didn't do
more than breathe, she wrapped her shattered right hand in his belt and drug
him away. No one stopped her, but no one helped her either. She took him to the
food court, dragging him toward the Chinese food place where Merri stood, fully
armored and holding her sword. Looking ready to kill Kate.

Kate stopped and looked at the other woman for a second.

“Merri, I need to put him in your safe room... Probably for a
while. Not that isolation is that big of a deal for him. I just need time to
think.”

She started dragging him again. Finally Mac came out, walking
a wide circle around his sister and took Zack, nearly twice his size, and four
times his weight, and pulled him to the back room easily. He set his burden
down for a moment and opened the small door with its four inches of steel
plating inside and reinforced walls, meant to keep raging Alfric in and
everyone else out, then pulled the larger man inside, closing and locking the
door from the outside when he walked out.

“Kaitlyn girl... I hope there's a good reason for this, or
the King will have me skinned alive, and I'm rather fond of my skin, to tell
the truth...”

She sat on the floor and didn't move, not bothering to answer
the tiny Alfric man. Not because he didn't deserve one, just because she
couldn't manage the words at the moment. She felt tired. Not just low energy
tired, or needing food tired, but bone weary, exhausted by the
world
tired.
Looking inside she realized that she had enough energy to turn into Kyle and
back, as soon as she got out of sight of everyone. Standing shakily, she limped
over to Beautiful Plus. Stripping her clothes off she climbed into the shower,
and changed shape, first into her boy form, then back.

She turned the shower on full blast and stood under it, not
really knowing if it was so hot it burned her skin, or so cold she couldn't
tell. The fact that she felt at all amazed her. Tears tried to make tracks down
her face, she knew, but were washed away too fast to be seen, even if anyone
had been looking. She came out half an hour later, maybe more, wet and having
nothing to wear except what she'd had on earlier. She put her clothes back on
without paying too much attention. They felt damp still, from the sweat she'd
produced trying to cool her body down before.

No one bothered her until she walked out of the clothing
store. Then a strange scene took place, as an unusual crew, not people she'd
normally think of as close friends, some of them
not
friends at all,
barely knowing them stood in front of Beautiful Plus. Keeping everyone away
from her until she was ready to take whatever came from her actions.

Rikesh the Djinn made a bit of sense, being that he
really
didn't like Zack all that much. Next to him the Alfric woman Mae stood, ready
for battle, but with no sword in her hand, her golden armor shone brightly and
her face looked blank. One of the Alfric men tried to bluster past her and she
did something that sent him flying back. Glen put a hand on the man's shoulder
and led him away. Scott the Demon stood, arms crossed, facing down Beatrice,
who alternated screaming at him with low invective that sounded scathing, but
didn't get a reaction from him at all. Rounding this out was Lars, the Trolleinkein,
who stood his ground facing half the others of his kind there, refusing to let
anyone in.

Kate walked past this line, nodding to each of her protectors
in turn. In a loud voice she explained what Zack had done, and what it meant to
her and her people.

“I know a lot of you won't get it, and I
know
that
this doesn't mean that Zack was being evil. Not on purpose... But, he's so
powerful and important and will probably be around for a long time... If he
gets away with this
now
, what does that mean for a thousand years from
now? Someone
had
to do something. It's not perfect, but... It's all I
could come up with.”

Walking to the middle of the central promenade, she sat on
the floor again. The bricks cool to the touch underneath her, but smooth,
almost comforting to her, being the same as they always were. Now that she had
boldly walked out among them, no one came too close to her for a bit. Finally
Hilda walked over from the food court.

“I checked Zack. He's conscious, but he told me that I
shouldn't let him out until Kaitlyn said to. He told me to tell you all that
he's sorry and that he didn't mean to cause anyone any pain or harm.” She
shrugged. “I think perhaps he got your message, Kaitlyn. Now we simply have to
figure out what to do with those affected by this... addiction.”

Behind Ghurian, literally behind him using the man as a
shield, Jelly stood, looking shaken and more than a bit traumatized. Rikesh
walked over to her and took her hand gently, then led her over to where Kate
sat. Interestingly, Ghurian, who had obviously been guarding the girl as she'd
requested, let Rikesh take her from him without a word. Of course this time,
instead of causing a problem, Rikesh had actually been pretty helpful. Maybe
she'd have to rethink her opinion of him.

Closer to the food court, jittering from foot to foot, Merri
stood, looking as if she couldn't decide whether to break Zack out of
confinement or stab Kate with her sword, which she still had out and held defensively,
ready to fight anyone that came for Zack most likely.

Walking over to the small woman, Troy said something to her,
which, after a few moments, caused her to make the sword vanish, followed by
the armor. He took her into his arms and held her close for a bit, then they
walked to the back of the Chinese restaurant and didn't come back.

After sitting for about twenty minutes, no one talking to
her, though some hovered about five to ten feet away, ready to come to her aid
if needed, she thought, Kate tried to make certain she was calmed down. Lars
and Hilda stood watching her, closely. Don huddled in a small group with the
Alede and oddly enough, Claire, who seemed to be trying to calm them all down.

“Zack seems to have learned his lesson as Hilda stated. I
don't think he will seek retaliation against Kaitlyn or any of us for this. It
really isn't in his nature...”

Nothing much happened though, until Chi, the Bat boy walked
out of his store and started telling people what to do.

“Seriously, there was a
fight
, a family spat. It's
resolved for now, so everyone get back to work! You, Trolleinkein people, would
you please go get Zack out of that hole now? Leaving
him
there longer
than this probably won't help and you... Kate, get up off the floor already.
You don't
look
hurt, not anymore, so stop acting like a wimp. We aren't
going to help anyone by avoiding the fall out here.”

He looked around and seeing that no one moved, laughed and
then made a face at the crowd.

“Move! Some of us actually run businesses here you know, and
having the mall
open
during the day is handy for that...”

His thin frame, lean and muscular, wiry red hair and thick
horn-rimmed glasses didn't make him look intimidating, but people finally did
it anyway. Realizing that, even if he wasn't right, they could blame him later
if his plan failed. Kate stood up and walked to him, then gave him a hug for a
while. He patted her back and told her that everything would be all right, even
if this felt really serious at the moment.