Other Places 1: Shortcuts (17 page)

Zack scowled.

"Coming." Dropping the fork he stood, feeling a little sour over the whole thing. If it wasn't a hot woman, it had better at least be someone that wouldn't mind if he ate in front of them.

When he opened the door, ready for almost anything, he was taken slightly aback. It was Bey, standing next to a very confused and befuddled looking Baconni.

"Ah! Friend Zack! I was wondering if I could enlist your aid once again? I have some small trouble to attend to in the province of Florida, and then Italy. I know that it's a huge inconvenience to you, but I would be willing to pay handsomely for the service." He gestured to the man next to him, smiling hugely. "This is my new friend, Frank. I found him outside my daughter's home, looking in her windows... A little out of turn, but he seems a pleasant sort. Merely trying to find her guilty of crimes, which is his profession, not see her without clothing."

Nodding Zack waved them in.

"I was just going to get something to eat. If you don't mind waiting a bit?" It was probably all kinds of rude, asking someone as powerful and important as him to wait, but there was a gentle smile instead of impatience.

"Please, I'm sorry for intruding on your meal time. Frank and I can wait in your sitting room?"

Zack grinned and felt oddly happy about the phrasing. It was old fashioned, but meant kindly, not with any kind of judgment over the poor quality of the space. It really was clean at least. Troy made sure of that, and he tried to help when he could.

"Certainly. I have some..." Glancing he saw that Baconni looked almost drunk, but neither he or Troy had coffee regularly. "Soda? Or orange juice? Um... hot water too." He didn't know what else to offer the funny looking Vampire, but the man gave a slight bow as if it were exactly what he wanted.

"Perfect! I can get a reading on this area as well."

It didn't take long to make certain both men had something to drink, and then, rude or not, he sat alone in the kitchen and ate. Quickly, since he really doubted that Bey would have tracked him down just to go and visit some relatives. After finishing, tossing the remains of his meal's evidence. After that he washed up in the kitchen sink, so he didn't embarrass himself by looking sloppy. Then, hoping he hadn't taken way too long, Zack went into the other room.

"Now... you have a daughter?" He asked bluntly, but Bey bowed a little instead of acting like it was him being insane or abrupt.

"Yes. In this case the one spied upon was Nicole. You know her? Also, in this area, Lenore. That is a most unusual circumstance, since they were sisters in life as well. I think perhaps bringing them both over was a mistake, in hindsight. They do fight so. Well, you've seen some small part of that. At any rate, Nicole is reluctant to kill her pet here, even though he is a nuisance to her. What do you think Zack, should we make him vanish for her? It would be simpler all around. We don't even have to kill him, you can simply take him to one of the other lands and leave him. The place of the fair folk perhaps?"

That meant nothing to him, but he kind of got a hint of what it meant when Mirror Him spoke from the decorative shining tiles on the wall.

"No shit. I hadn't thought about it before, but it's a real point. You can go to
anyplace
the nodes connect too. Not every place is going to be in regular space, is it? Tell him that you'll do it if you can bang his daughters. That Lenore seems like she'd be a beast in the sack. It's always the tame looking ones, isn't it?"

Not wanting to die, Zack decided not to listen to what M.H. said in this case. Or not all of it at least.

"We can do that. I think I can pick him up at least... eventually. I really need to work out more, get in better shape so I can pick up more than a hundred and thirty pounds."

The tiny man nodded, as if that only made sense.

"Frank is much larger than that. If I knew for a fact that you would maintain your abilities after the transformation, I would offer to bring you over. Then you'd have plentiful strength. It would limit when you could act however, for many hundreds of years. A program of physical exercise does seem to be the next best option."

They both looked at the Detective, who was sipping at an off-brand cola. He hadn't spoken yet, still seeming dazed.

Bey waved a hand and then looked at the large man.

"Oh well, perhaps it's best if we do this the old fashioned way? Frank, please listen to me. Are you paying attention?"

The man nodded dumbly and muttered yes in a voice so soft it was almost impossible to hear.

Bey focused on him totally.

"Very good. You will forget that you know about Vampires, or anyone that knows of them at all. When you try to think of Nicole, you will remember her only as a strange girl that enjoys play acting, but who is a harmless sort and slightly annoying. She isn't someone to be concerned with and in fact, you feel a strong urge to avoid her, so that she will not bother you. Now, you will go home and sleep deeply and well. When you awaken you will feel energized and like you have your life back. Nothing will deter you from living well, particularly silly superstitions and the games of bored rich children, which is how you will think of Vampires from now on. Is that clear to you?"

"Yeah. I'm going to go home now." Then, without putting down the cola, he got up and left, getting into the fairly new model car out front and pulling away into the night.

Instead of going back in all the way, Zack just grabbed his jacket and gestured for the tiny man to follow him across the street. There was almost no traffic, being as late as it was. He didn't mention what he was doing, but Bey didn't struggle or seem put out when he picked him up and moved them both through to the mall. In fact he giggled a little and clapped happily.

"Splendid! Oh, I'm going to be in such debt to you soon, I fear. This is so much nicer than being trapped in a slow automobile or train. We should go inside however, lest you catch cold. Quickly... this way." Bey moved faster than Zack could comfortably walk, which meant he ended up jogging, feeling a little light headed from it by the time they were entering the Vampire shop. The man behind the counter was the younger Vampire from the other day. Cormack. Zack knew that because he had a name tag on. It was darned helpful of him.

As if suddenly energized by the concept of getting to go someplace far away, Bey tugged his arm a little, his movements smooth and quick, rather than jumpy, but the sense of happy giddiness came through anyway.

Zack stopped in front of the node, finding the main complex of rifts in Florida almost instantly. He knew where they all were, on some level and when he focused on them it was easy to find. What he didn't know was which one exactly he was supposed to go through. It was a real embassy style thing, and he could ignore the ones that were dark, the lights being turned off for the night, but that left seven almost identical spaces. Looking around he noticed that one of the rooms was very richly and ornately decorated in bright colors. So it wasn't that one, he didn't think.

"Should we call and have one of the people there come to meet you? I can use them to find the right place. If they go to the node room, that should be enough."

That got a small nod and the man using the phone behind the counter. Cormack looked at both of them nervously, just cleaning a bit while he waited for things to work out.

There were no words however, which probably was wise, if he didn't know what was going on. After a few minutes of happy chatter Bey put in the request for the woman in charge to go to their node and wait. He didn't explain why, but looking through it Zack almost didn't get it at first. It wasn't a woman at all, for all her name was Sedra. She was maybe fourteen, or had been when she died, her hair long and red, but with a perfectly pale complexion and nearly coal black eyes.

It was both troublingly cute, and eerie at the same time. No doubt that she was the right person though.

When they stepped through she jumped back and yelled a little, which got three other Vampires to rush them. They died, each one appearing to just rupture at the same time, faces splattering into a red mist that flew back into the wall behind them and to the right, all in exactly the same place. Bey stood smiling and held his hands out to the girl Vampire, who was dressed in a pretty blue dress with black buckled shoes.

"Sedra! How lovely to see you! I was given to understand that you were a little behind in your annual taxes? Now, we aren't animals, so if it's a true financial difficulty, we can arrange an extension, of course. I'm so sorry about your people here... I should have explained that our new friend, the Line Walker, was going to bring me to you for a visit." The happy voice turned flat suddenly, a deadly change that made Zack want to run away. Sedra looked to feel about the same way. "Now, I personally choose to disregard rumors that you and yours planned to simply not contribute as agreed upon. That would be a very poor plan."

He turned to Zack, explaining, his voice much more pleasant again.

"It may seem harsh, insisting on taxes from people, but if we do not, some tend to forget to whom they owe fealty. Vampires that believe they are ready to rule themselves very rarely are. When it does happen and they have grown calm enough and sane with time, we tend to draft them to the council."

Sedra went to her knees and bowed in a way that Zack didn't think was possible for a human being.

"Please... Great Bey, I beseech thee, do not slaughter us all. It was but an oversight, not willful disregard-"

"Oh, do stop lying Sedra, we're friends here and I know you too well for such games. Just send that payment along to the Council and I'll let this go. This time. We will not, we
cannot
, allow rogue operations anywhere in the world. I had thought that you, of all people, would know that."

Why that was neither of them said, but she sounded far more willing to pay up than not after that. Zack looked at the bodies and shrugged, they were all men, and kind of large, but by getting Bey to kind of toss them at the node he was able to carry them away to a strange looking forest that was very far away. He knew that, because there were two moons in the sky. One silver and pretty normal looking, one smaller, misshapen and slightly yellow. He didn't bury them, but with each trip through, using the momentum supplied by the Vampire, he got them into a loose pile without getting too dirty.

The young looking girl was still busy groveling when he finished up, Bey smiling at her and nodding again.

"Very good! That is more like it. Now, understand this, if you fail me, or the council, again, I will set you to serving as the slave of the Line Walker full time. He is a kind man, but we will school him well as to how to best punish you while you serve. Do
not
cause that to happen. I like him too much to see him used so poorly." He softened his tone a bit and touched her shoulder gently. "You as well, Dear."

Then he stepped toward Zack and watched him carefully, not having given any other instruction than that they were going to Italy next. Again, it wasn't hard to find the node complex, which was decently large and well developed, but which place to go to exactly... In the end, he guessed and the little vampire hopped up, instead of waiting for Zack to grab him. It worked remarkably well, meaning that Bey was on his feet and looking around on the other side when they came through, not being cuddled by Zack. They stepped out into a large stone walkway, since the node behind them was kind of out in the open. Bey clapped again, but there was no one around to hear them.

"This will do nicely. We need to go more carefully here, for the one we seek is older and far more powerful than those we just left. Nearly my age. I do not wish to leave you unguarded, but please be careful. Janus isn't known as the three headed god for nothing. He has more than one face..." There was a brief pause, with a stillness that grabbed the attention. "More than one person lives in his skin? I do not have the words for it... Depending on who is around, this can be most dangerous."

Zack got it. Multiple personality disorder.

It wasn't exactly an unknown to him, was it? For some reason thinking that got M.H. to chuckle in his head.

"I'll try to let you do the talking." It seemed safer that way, but Bey shrugged.

"Who knows what will work? Shall we then? This might be very fruitful. That or a grand waste of time."

Zack nodded, that was pretty much everything anymore, wasn't it?

It turned out to be a little bit of both, a waste of a lot of time, mainly chatting with the somewhat disjointed Vampire, and sort of useful. Janus was actually rather pleasant to them and spoke perfect English the whole time, because Zack didn't know any other languages. It wasn't really needed, since he didn't understand most of what the two talked about anyway. It was a matter of context and with people as old as these, they had it, and he just didn't. They stood while chatting, and took hours, mainly going on about different people they knew.

Rather abruptly the short and stocky Vampire they were visiting with, who looked to be pushing fifty when he died, if not older, stopped and stared at Zack for a long time. It wasn't a hungry thing, not exactly, but it was pretty darned unnerving anyway.

"Fine." The word had a drifty feel to them, like they'd lost the man again. It had happened several times already after all, with Bey bringing him back to the topic at hand very gently each time. "This one can walk the in-roads? He is not a Demon though? If so, then perhaps we can do business. I will allow you to kill those of my brood that have troubled you, without retaliation, if you would have your Walker deliver a package for me."

Bey stiffened and gave the other man a hard look that didn't seem like him at all.

"I think not Janus. This is the
Line Walker
. I already owe him more than I can easily repay. To incur more debt simply to avoid a war with you isn't worth it. Ask for something else."

That started a rather heated debate, one that ended with Bey relenting, but looking very unhappy about it all.

"Very well, but if I need anything else from you in the next few hundred years I expect this to count toward that as well, no matter what it is..."

Janus nodded, but didn't come up with what needed to be delivered, that, he informed them, had to be picked up. He had an address for it, and it wasn't far away, but they had to get a ride. It was about thirty miles and as much as Bey hated cars, Zack hated blisters. The compromise was for Zack to be driven by one of Janus's people and for Bey to jog along with them, not letting himself be seen. It was daylight, but it didn't seem like a real problem. Once they started moving Bey vanished and simply wasn't seen.

The car was tiny, and the driver was an asshole, smoking unfiltered cigarettes the whole time and saying long strings of words in Italian followed by "fuck America!" Then he'd laugh, as if it were funny. The man was a Vampire and old enough to be up during the day without apparent hardship, so Zack didn't say anything about it. He tried to memorize the face though, so that if he was ever asked to take the guy somewhere he could remember to leave him in the Arctic instead.

When they got to the mansion they needed Bey walked up and opened the door for him, then waved the driver away with a few words of his own, in Italian. They didn't sound overly pleasant.

"Forgive him. Janus does not always bring over the most pleasant or intelligent of individuals. Hence the problem we have at the moment. I do have to say, the discussion with him went better than I thought it might. Half the time one speaks with the three faced one, a war starts. Now, shall we see to this package, whatever it is?"

At the door they were met by a rather attractive dark haired human woman who smiled and ran away, coming back a few minutes later with a large wooden box. At first Zack wondered if it was going to weigh a lot, but it wasn't heavy at all. Maybe ten pounds.

"Now we just need to know where it goes." Zack muttered, since without that they were rather stuck. The woman gave a name, but it didn't mean anything to Bey or him, so she ran and came back with an even prettier woman, as if upgrading or something.

The woman was
so
good looking that Zack wasn't even attracted to her. Mirror Him growled, from the perfection of her flawless eyes.

"She's a fucking Demon Zack. A Greater Demon.
Run
..." He didn't take over the body though, so Zack held his ground, watching her closely. It was funny, but what he was thinking about wasn't fear of the woman at all, but how M.H. would know what she was. To the best of his knowledge they'd never met one before. Except...

There were rifts in space all around her. It reminded him of the man that they'd met in the store that one time. The older one that had warned him that he needed to charge people for his services. Only Mirror Him hadn't admitted to knowing anything about it at the time. He was about to question that little factoid when the being in front of him smiled and started speaking in slightly accented English, looking at him directly.

"Ah!" Her hands clasped in front of her primly then, which fit with the rest of her perfectly. "This is the human that walks the lines? Such a treat to meet you. I am called The Pristine. I need this gift taken to The Mistress of Souls."

Without waiting she stepped forward and touched his arm lightly, then smiled and stepped back. "I have a picture of her, here, wait but a moment."

The woman didn't seem to hurry at all, but ten seconds later after drifting to the right, marginally out of sight, she was back, holding a magazine and pointing to a young woman sitting in the front row of what seemed a fashion show. She was pretty. Not perfectly so, but easily good enough looking to have been on the catwalk herself.

It was hard to keep her image in mind at first, but he thought he had it after a few minutes of looking. Then all he had to do was find a rift in space that led to the node and they could be on their way. As he turned to walk away with Bey, who had gone very silent and wasn't smiling at all, The Pristine moved toward him again and clapped his shoulder lightly.

"We will meet again, I think, young one. Let us be friends? I cannot do much for you, but perhaps things will change in the future?" She leaned in close and let her lips touch his left ear gently. "You need to charge more, or these others will start to take advantage of you. I will start, here is some information you might not find elsewhere easily. You need to seek the Greater Demon Finias. He holds information you might find useful." She pulled back, smiled and turned away.

Zack didn't say anything for some time, just walking toward the closest useful rift. It was, he thought, three steps to the Italian node complex. The walk wasn't a bad one, all things considered and Bey moved silently the whole time, his eyes more than a little angry for some reason. Zack didn't ask, figuring that it wasn't at him in particular. If it was, hopefully the man would have let him know, so that whatever mistake he'd made could be corrected.

The trip took them first to New Mexico, which had a shopping mall style set up too, like the Washington state node. Theirs was a bit busier, and had real shoppers as well as a lot of unique looking little shops. All the spaces were being used too. It took a bit of searching to find the Yoghurt World, and when they did Bey just walked into the back, even as the man working the front ran after them, sounding panicked.

"Is something wrong? I... is there an investigation?" The guy seemed really frightened and Bey relented in his silent anger enough to wave at the man, using a barely lifted finger.

"No problem. This is Mr. Hartley, if you or your people see him, ever, offer him what aid you can, no matter what it costs you. Is that understood?"

Then, without waiting Zack found the closest rift outlet to the girl they were looking for, ending up about six blocks from a small single level ranch style house. It meant walking, but as long as he kept thinking about her, he could feel where she was in space. It wasn't hot out, but he was sweating just a little from the exertion by the time they got to the right door. He knocked, wondering if something very bad was about to happen, since Bey was looking very angry again. The little Vampire held the box carefully, a total stillness coming over him.

It didn't take long for someone to come to the door, a cute woman that looked to be in her late thirties, with short dark hair and friendly brown eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and a light blue button up shirt that had just enough of a gap between two buttons for Zack to get that her bra was a light cream color. He tried not to stare, since she was making an effort to smile at them, clearly paying more attention to Bey than him.

"Hello? May I help you with something?"

Zack pointed at the box, "delivery for... The Mistress of Souls? That sounds really funny to say out loud doesn't it? Kind of pretentious or something."

Bey stiffened as the girl Zack had seen in the picture came around the corner. Before he could stammer out an apology she nodded and took the box from the smaller man, giving him a smile and turning to Zack.

"No doubt. I was given that name by my sister. All the Greater Demons are called something like that and yes, it's totally pretentious. Kind of our thing, as a race. So, this is what Bente sent me? Let's look at it, shall we?" Setting the box down on a coffee table in front of a single easy chair, she opened the top, causing the whole thing to make an alarming popping sound. Rolling her eyes obviously she pulled out a very nice copper and silver colored dress. It shimmered, but wasn't the kind of thing that looked like shiny fabric, rather more like flexible metal.

"Not bad, do you like it?" She held the thing up to her and Bey gave a single nod, trying not to speak at all, it was clear. The woman that had opened the door gushed a little, but the girl stared at Zack as if it had been
his
judgment she was really concerned about. Since that was
exactly
who she had to impress. No doubt about it. He rolled his own eyes and made eye contact. She seemed to get the idea, from the way she smiled at him.

Still, he had to tell the truth, having been asked.

"Um, it's really nice. You'd probably look good in anything, but this is really special. The seams are all rifts, bending in on space itself. I guess you know that, since you'll have to move through them to get it on." Frowning a little he continued. "You should put it on. In front of us. Possible with a little nudity involved. I've never seen a Demon naked before. Not that I know of at least... I suppose it could have happened at some time though. I mean, how would I know, unless you have a tail or something? That could be cool."

There was a mortified howl from Mirror Him as the girl reached out and patted his arm. It was a thing of fear, not pain and after a second she stepped back, not looking angry at all. Smiling happily in fact.

"Nope, no tail or free peep show. Not this time at least. What I
will
do for you is send a message to Finias and see if he can visit with you again soon. There's a story for him to share with you, I think. Anyway, here, let me get something for you..." She ran off, taking the dress with her, after a minute she was back, the gown gone, holding a business card.

It turned out to be two of them, one for Bey, the other being handed to Zack with a small smile.

She looked into his eyes deeply and didn't break eye contact for several seconds.

"We should hang out some time. Maybe catch a movie?"

It got him to blink and then shrug, "sounds fun. Well, we need to be getting back. Bit of a walk to get to the rift we..." Before he could finish saying anything a hole warped into being beside them, the girl pointing just a tiny bit with one finger. Zack blinked. "Or... not. That's a handy trick, isn't it?"

The Greater Demon didn't say anything at first, just giving him a hug, which was surprising to him. Enough that he nearly squeaked. Bey moved between them, clearly trying to protect him from the girl who... hugged the little Vampire too.

"OK you two, don't be strangers. I expect a call soon Zack. No fair leaving me hanging."

"Um, alright." He didn't know what to say, but it was pretty clear that dating a Demon wasn't a great idea. It even
sounded
like a bad plan, without anyone warning him about it at all. It was kind of what "Demon" really meant, wasn't it?

The rift that she'd opened took them directly back to their node in Washington. Actually, he realized, it wasn't just a rift at all, the Demon had created a
node
for them. A one way, temporary one, but he could have used it to go anywhere. She hadn't mentioned payment for it either. It was just a thing that she could do without thinking about it. That or she was trying to impress him. If that was the case, it worked.

Mirror Him was impressed too, gibbering in fear in every surface that had even a hint of reflection at all.

The whole thing had taken hours. So long in fact that it was time for him to go and open the store across the way, Lenore already working in her own shop.

"Zack! Bey... Is all well?" She seemed desperately concerned for her, letting her eyes actually open a little wider than normal and everything.

The little, generally happy, Vampire shook his head. It seemed sad and almost crestfallen.

"I fear not. Janus is allowing the destruction of those his line had created in this case, but he tricked us into dealing with Greater Demons. It has compounded the price of our debt to the Line Walker to a level that I doubt we can ever get out from under. I'm thinking of gifting you and Nicole to him. It won't pay for everything by any stretch of the imagination, but it will be a start."

Zack shook his head and then yawned. He was both hungry and tired, but it was time to get to work. Lisa wasn't there yet at any rate, probably having had a hard night herself.