Other Places 2: Road Blocks (14 page)

'Don't forget your boyfriend Edom. I know you want
his
chocolate yumminess too. I get what you mean. Maybe it's just that you feel, I don't know, responsible for her? It don't make sense, but then
you
often don't. You should totally be banging someone tonight. Maybe Lisa? I bet she could use some hot Zack lovin' about now. On the rebound after being dumped and just off of drugs? All her defenses have to be down, don't they?'

That was probably true, but felt wrong. She was a lesbian for one thing and even if she was willing, which Zack wasn't certain of, he was her employee. That meant they needed to keep things professional, right?

'Then do Nikki. That whole pierced punk thing is kinda hot. I bet she does anal on the first date. You should at least see if
Lenore
wants to do something. She's been working her ass off and all you've done is get her some blood. You better not cheap out, today is the fourteenth. If you don't get her at least flowers she's going to dump your ass, and you'll be back to sweet talking lefty there.'

Zack actually looked at his hand and sighed. There was some truth to that, wasn't there? It was early still, so he got the phone book and used his card to get a flower delivery made to the Mall for her, and as an afterthought, a smaller arrangement each for Lisa, Jennifer and Barb, since they were friends too and, as MH pointed out, V-day was an excellent time to set the groundwork for sex with women who's boyfriends didn't step up, or even remember them. Or girlfriends.

He wasn't doing the whole female population of the Mall, since that would be far too obvious. Then he twisted his face and realized that he needed something a lot more special for Lenore, if he was even doing that little bit for other women, and decided on jewelry. It meant finding an open shop for it and being fleeced on the price, coming in last minute like he was, the older man in the store seeing him coming from a mile away, but the guy did wrap it for him, his wire rimmed gold framed glasses sparkling under the store lights.

Thus armed he got into work at eight, and managed to go and find Rebekah at Jonas's apartment, in Maine. He had to pound on the door a little, but didn't mind waiting really, even if it took ten minutes for her to get to the door, a bright red silk robe wrapped around her, showing that she was really that pale all over. She wasn't half as careful about closing the front as she might have been, so he knew that she had pubic hair to match the copper stuff on her head.

"Ah! Sorry, sir... I'll be... Just a second. I said to come early, and got side tracked." She seemed panicked or something, like he was going to leave her?

True, it was eleven here in Maine, but he wasn't exactly worried about it in particular, as long as he made his schedule on time. He got left at the door and there was a bit of rushing from inside the place, but other than some hushed talking, and some thumping sounds, nothing seemed out of place. Four minutes later the Manthori Vampire was at the door, her hair a mess and smelling of sex, but there, and ready to get back home.

It still took a while, since it wasn't Node to Node travel, which meant some walking was involved, but she seemed both subdued and pretty pleased the whole time.

"Thank you. I wish we could do that more often. He's very sweet, Jonas." She didn't mention anything for a long time, just walking along with him, in heels, as they worked through various shortcuts and bends in space to speed things up a bit. It was odd, but he was able to see a lot more of them now than he used to, he thought.

"So, I can have that blood ready, when you need it?"

He smiled and nodded pretty happily.

"I hear you can send it Fed-Ex?"

"It's a different service, but about the same thing, except with refrigerated trucks, yes."

"Great. I need some for my house? Bey is staying with Troy and me. Kind of a roommate thing, like I mentioned? At least when he's in town, so that would be good. Actually if it's marked well you can send it to Yoghurt World there and I can take it home with me? That way no one will have to be there to sign for it." It seemed like a plan, but she stopped walking suddenly, staring at him as if something were horribly wrong.

"The Bey is your new housemate? I... Know you mentioned something, but... You know that little Vampires everywhere are taught that if they misbehave, The Bey will come and kill them, right? It's like setting up house with the Bogey-man." She pronounced the word with an almost British accent, instead of saying boogieman like Zack would have.

He nodded anyway.

"Except
I
just know him as a nice guy that's saved my butt half a dozen times in the last three months. Saint Bey, practically. He's
really
nice too. Always willing to help people out and all that. I bet he's tidy. He just seems like he would be, doesn't he?" She'd met him, at least once before. It was at a party though, but the Vampire woman nodded, her red eyes still a little wide.

"I guess he does, come to think of it. Well, I'll get that done, the blood deliveries. I would anyway, for The Bey, if only to curry favor. I shouldn't say that, or you'll expect it for free, but I would." She gave him a wry look that showed a lot of pointy teeth. It wasn't a smile, but was an unguarded moment for her, he realized. That probably meant she was comfortable with him.

That was
good
though, right?

"So, call when you need me to deliver you for your next date, or vice-versa. You two should go to Paris or something. I can do that too. Maybe other places, if you let me work it out in advance. It's easiest for me, going Node to Node, so try to find places close to one, so we don't have to do this all the time." He waved at his feet, indicating the walking, even though it wasn't that bad yet.

Rebekah at least didn't try to demure or claim she couldn't afford it.

"What's the price?"

"Well, if you help me keep the needy Vampires and my guests in fresh blood on demand, that should work. I'd ask for sex too or something, since you're kind of hot, but Jonas would kick my behind for that, so I better not." He didn't know that the man would, but it seemed about right, didn't it? He was pretty young after all.

She smiled, letting her teeth show again. It looked fierce, but happy.

"You think I'm hot? Ooooh. This is my lucky year then, isn't it? First I get Jonas and now get a crack at the Line Walker? OK. I don't think Jonas will mind that much. He knows the score that way. I'm so much older than him that I'm sort of expected to have a stable of lovers anyway. So, whenever you want. Just call."

It was a lot more blunt than he'd been expecting and was tempting, to say the least.

MH took over, ripping his control away and grinned.

"Fuck yes! If it wasn't for the obvious sloppy seconds I'd be doing you right now, over in those bushes." He pointed so she could see what he meant. "Damn, I wish I'd brought some rubbers with me. Well, next time, we're totally doing it. I'll be in touch.
Soon
."

That got a giggle from the Vampire, but they both kept walking, and reached her door without Zack saying anything to take that idea back. It wasn't like he felt bad about the idea, or like it was cheating on Lenore, but there was only so much energy he had for the day and he really
was
going to save it for his girlfriend that way. Temptations aside, it was Valentine's Day and while he might not know anything about being with a girl for that particular holiday himself, he had a feeling that sleeping with other women was kind of bad form, all things considered.

Then, he was probably being a moron too, since Vampires had totally different rules that way.

Rebekah got dropped off at her door, since Zack wanted to see Keeley's other house, which was nice enough, but not a mansion either, and then he got back to the shop half an hour later, since the route was a little convoluted. So much so that he actually ended up at a Node in Washington D.C. as the fastest way back. He wasn't certain, since the thing wasn't huge and didn't seem to be guarded or anything, but he thought it might be
in
the Smithsonian. The old man guarding the room he was in probably didn't notice him leaving, but that was the name on the arm of his uniform.

The whole thing had taken him until a bit after nine and Lisa was glaring at him a little when he got in, ready to scold him for being late, it seemed. He sighed first and shook his head.

"Sorry, delivery. I had to pick someone up in Maine and take her to Arizona." He was about to say more when the woman, still looking a bit thin just smiled at him and took her hands off of her hips.

"I should have known it wasn't just you being lazy. We have the Trolleinkein Great One and their Head Shaman at ten, and then about one pick up per hour for the next three days. Per work hour, that is. I told everyone that you were off at seven and that they could just hold the meeting if they had to, for everyone to get there." She smiled again, her blue dress looking new. She had a big silver belt on with a turquoise buckle, and regular pantyhose on underneath it. She actually looked pretty good. It was a thought that had MH ready to jump her bones right there in the office, though Zack held him back, if with some effort.

He didn't need to be
fired
after all.

What he did need to do was give Lenore her present, before something wacky happened like it falling out of his pocket in a far off land or something like that. He didn't need his life to turn into a sit-com after all. If he wanted that he'd let MH run the show all the time. To that end he smiled at Lisa.

"I'll be right back? I need to go and talk to Lenore." He carefully didn't mention why, because he had a feeling that letting the recently dumped woman know what he was doing might be rubbing salt in the wounds. He just hoped that his tiny bouquet of flowers coming later didn't do that too. He fretted over that while he walked out the front, which hadn't been locked in days, so that anyone in the Mall could get in touch with them instantly. Almost no one had come in, but it was open to them, just in case.

He didn't make a big production out of it, just handing the box to Lenore across her counter. It probably wasn't enough, but she smiled at him kindly at least.

"What's this?"

"Valentine's Day present. I know, I need to do more and have plans for flowers to be delivered later, but several women will be getting them, mainly so that I can sleep with them later. Or at least so they'll feel loved. This is just for you, since you're special." It was, again and like always, too much information, but Lenore acted like it was a perfectly normal kind of thing to say.

Opening it her eyes lit up.

"A necklace? With emeralds? My favorite stone. Thank you! This is lovely Zack. I fear I haven't remembered to get you anything yet at all. Vampires don't really do Valentine's Day, what do you want?" She looked at him closely, as if expecting an outrageous demand.

"I think that the traditional gift is sex. I give you flowers and chocolates, or in your case blood, maybe some jewelry and you give me sex. I could have that wrong, since this is the first time I've gotten this far with a woman that I'm actually seeing."

She gave him a blank look for a few seconds and then nodded.

"I can do that. It sounds like far more fun for me than for you, over all, but..." She threw up her hands and smiled hugely. "If it's the way of things, then we should follow along too."

Then, after getting his help in putting the necklace on, she made him a treat. It was filled with cherries and folded fluffy cream, making the whole thing look and taste like a cloud. It fit the day, and again, even with his large breakfast he was starving. It was as bad as when he'd really been without food for months even as he ate. He consumed the thing, but left before she could offer him another, not wanting to look like a pig.

"Do I have a tapeworm, or what?" He said the words out loud, but was in the central hallway, which meant that, while fifty different beings probably heard him say it, no one answered that he knew of. That meant that he got back into the store in time for two things to happen. The first was Hildegard coming in right behind him and clapping him gently on the shoulder.

"Line Walker! I have come to guide you to my lands, since the others all guard their Christmas gifts too jealously, even in this time of need."

She had to explain that, how she'd been picked to come, since she was willing to spend her gift, in order to arrange the pick-up of her people's leaders. The giant girl held her heavy featured head up proudly, as if it were an honor.

Before he could explain that she wouldn't have to use her gift for it, the front phone rang, which he answered, since that was normally store business. This time it wasn't though. It was a Demon.

More, it was one that he didn't know well at all.

"Is this the Line Walker?" The voice said, not being at all familiar at first. Not until he clarified the situation. "This is Gregor. We met at Finias's wonderful Christmas party? I suggested an arrangement for some work?"

This was all said as if it was a question, or as if Zack might have, somehow, forgotten the bespectacled and priestly looking man.

"The Cleric. I remember. How are you doing?" It couldn't hurt to be polite, Zack figured, even as Mirror Him was gibbering in the back ground, mainly repeating the word fuck, over and over again.

"Things are going well, to tell the truth. I do have a minor difficulty, like the ones that I mentioned before? There is a group of people, in a small and isolated village in Guatemala. Very good people, but there is a disease outbreak there and I'm known to be in Switzerland at the moment so I cannot quickly attend them myself. We had a shipment traveling by plane and boat, but an unforeseen storm has rather stopped it. There won't be time to send another shipment through normal means, I fear. Would it be possible to hire your services for the task?" He sounded concerned, and as if it were actually desperately important to the man, on a personal level. He was a Greater Demon though, not a man at all, and that meant...

Pretty much whatever he wanted it to, most likely. If he wanted Zack to walk into a trap, that would simply happen and probably wouldn't be something as simple as asking him to take medicine to needy people. Or maybe it would? What did he know about Greater Demons and what they did?

"I... Have to get the Trolleinkein Leader and their High Shaman right now, but after that I think I have an hour. I don't suppose you could get that stuff to a Node, could you? Also, how heavy is what I have to carry?"

There was no discernable pause at all, the man simply speaking as if he already knew what was going to be said exactly.

"Please hurry. I'll have an agent of mine, an Elth, since you are aware of that kind of being, waiting at the Mage Embassy. I'll have instructions for you that will get you to the correct person in the village you need to go to. What is your price for this?" The words all flowed smoothly, as if they were just regular conversation.

Zack really hated this part. Something clicked in him though, so he decided to simply try and run with it.

"A favor. One to be of a similar nature. You can decline it at the time, if you want. If I need it, I'll try to give you at least the same amount of warning you've given me." That sounded fair at least, and the Cleric made a noise that sounded like he was fine with it.

"Very good. That is what we will do. Please let me know when it's all done? Or if there are problems and you can't finish it?"

"Right. I'll get to things now. My real job first. Can I get a number for you?"

That didn't take long and he jogged to the back, Hildegard moving along with him, clearly holding back tremendously. She was doing no more than walking it seemed.

He explained what was needed of her, which was something very different than he'd ever tried before, but it felt like he could do it.

"I'd like you to think of your home. Plus your leader or High Shaman if you can. I'm going to try to use that to locate them. If it works..." Then it would be a miracle. The girl was smart, and didn't question that he could do it, and even let him hold her hand, in case that would help.

The very shocking thing there, was that it really did. He could feel the place in his mind. It still took a bit of searching, but he had the correct Node not five minutes later, he thought and there were two beings, both very large and dressed in what seemed almost Polynesian island like gear, with grass skirts and bone necklaces. One was a female, he thought, but they didn't look that much like Hilde did. In fact they looked a little wild and rough. The one his right was
all
white, or at least an eggshell color, and the other was brown, with liberal white of his own on his shoulders and face. What skin he could see was white though, like his own.

"Let's give this a try then. If nothing else it will be good practice for later. On three, hop." He counted down and she did it perfectly, as if she had been her entire life.

When he stepped through and she landed, the darker one stepped back a bit, but the other clapped her huge hands once and started speaking in a guttural language that seemed a bit like German, but wasn't. He didn't think so at least. Then, would Zack have known ancient Germanic languages if he heard them? It didn't seem all that likely, come to think of it.

Hildegard however was very excited and waited for the woman to stop speaking, then stepped out of the way. She was clearly explaining things however, very quickly, and with enough force that both the high ranking officials of her people stiffened a bit, then moved to step forward, extending their arms for him to take.

Hilde growled and waved them back, as if they were being silly.

"One, two, three!" She spoke loudly, doing a good imitation of his own voice, if not exactly right, being a little high pitched, and hopped exactly on three. Then she showed them again, without waiting, several more times.

The Shaman went first, letting him take her lower arm, since she was much larger than he was. She missed the hop the first time, but not the second, which was good enough. The Leader got it on the first try, but stumbled a little when they got into the back room of Candles and More. They both waited however, which was good, since he had no way of explaining what he wanted from them at all. They'd be really smart, but you still had to have context for hand gestures to work, and he didn't know if they really did yet.

Back in her homeland Hildegard stood looking around the open glen they were in. It was just headed to twilight there, he thought, and the air smelled of strange plants, but it wasn't a bad thing, just a different one.

"We need to get their things for them." He didn't want to rush the girl, but she was clearly in a hurry, trying to carry everything at once. It wasn't going to work, since it seemed that the Shaman had needed working material for her job that were in a giant case that was made of very thick, and well carved, wood.

Hildegard just didn't have enough hands for it, and the comparatively tiny and weak human next to her wasn't going to be much help at all that way, it was clear. She looked sad about leaving it, but Zack shrugged.

"So we make
two
trips. Not a problem."

That got her to seem a bit different, but she did it, and then helped the others take their things down the Mall to the power lifting gym. They didn't say thank you, particularly, but both pounded him on the back, which he took to be the intent. That or they'd decided to kill him covertly, under the guise of pretending to be friendly. They seemed like nice enough people, even if they were a bit different looking. Not everyone was as friendly as all that, he knew from personal experience.

It didn't take a long time at least, since Hilde had kind of kicked butt at her part of things, so Zack was able to stick his head into Lisa's office and try to explain the next bit to her, just hoping it wouldn't destroy the schedule for the day.

"Hey, um, right." He said it as if that might be a good way to start a hard conversation. "I have to get off to Switzerland to pick up some medicine for people in Guatemala now?" He looked down and then shrugged. "It's for a Greater Demon, The Cleric. I don't know if it's a trap, or what, or like, eighty times harder than it sounds, or... I just don't know, but from the sound of it those people will be dying soon if they don't get their stuff, so I have to try."

Lisa just tilted her head and looked pissed. It was a pretty strange thing for her to be doing, all things considered, but at least she explained, after a few moments.

"Freaking Demons. Don't let them kill you Zack. We kind of need you, in case you haven't noticed. Even if all you ever did was keep the store clean, you're too valuable to waste on them. Do you know when you'll be back?"

He didn't. It sounded like a simple pickup, but the odds were there would be a long walk into the village and another to get out, in a place he wasn't familiar with at all. He tried to explain that, but she shook her head, looking upset again.

"We have to get with the Ettarian Ambassador at noon. I set it up so that you'd actually know where to take people. That gives you roughly an hour." She tried to look fierce, instead of sad about it, but they both knew that probably wasn't going to happen.

Still, no harm in trying, so Zack waved.

"Sure. Let me see what I can do about that?"

Leaving without saying anything else, he found the Swiss Node that had a tiny woman standing in front of it. She was bigger than Merry was, and had metallic hair that looked silver, with matching eyes. It made for a creepy and eerie combination, but when he stepped through the Node to find her alone in the back of the large and otherwise empty space, she bowed, which seemed humble and friendly.

"Line Walker." It wasn't a question at least and she pointed to a heavily constructed red back pack with a white cross on it. "The Cleric asked me to deliver this to you, for those in need. I have a photograph of the man you need to find. Is that sufficient for your task? I also have map coordinates and a GPS device, if that is preferable?"

Zack looked at the woman and realized that her eyes were solid silver, which made it look like she couldn't possibly see him. That wasn't the case, since she tracked him easily.

"I think the photo will work best, actually. How heavy is that bag?" It looked big, but that turned out to be deceptive, since it was filled with some kind of packing material, so the whole thing was only about twenty or thirty pounds. It would be a pain to carry through a jungle, but he'd manage.

The tiny hand came out with what looked to be a string of photo booth pictures, all of a man that looked to be about thirty-five or so, sitting alone. He wasn't great looking, and had thinning hair on top, but he had a nice smile and was clearly fighting that from his face in half the pictures. One was missing, which was probably the one used for his passport.

Once he had it, Zack carefully got the pack onto his back, which really spread the weight very nicely, as he'd learned with Judy's gear a few days before, and then stood in front of the Node, making sure to give the pictures back first. He wouldn't need them now, after all. He had to focus to find the man, who was in a tent,
surrounded
by sick and half dead looking people. Most of them being kids, he realized. Once he had that, he tried something that he'd only done once before, and pushed at the fabric of space on the other side, using the power of the Node to rupture it there, allowing him to travel directly to the space next to the man.

If it had been a movie, doing that would have gotten a gasp, or possibly screams as people saw a man walk out of nothingness. In real life it never happened that way of course. Most people couldn't see things that were too strange, being too tied up in what they thought reality was. In this case the reality of dying, or knowing people that were going to soon.

"Help me get this off. It has the medical shipment you're waiting for?" Zack said it to the man, who did jump then, going wide eyed. He didn't speak though, rolling something off in a language that Zack didn't speak. It sounded like Spanish, but he couldn't prove that.

"Sorry. Here, take this?"

The man unpacked the red bag quickly and then closed his eyes and spoke in a totally different language then. Again not anything that Zack knew, but there were tears in his eyes and he called out, which got people to run into the tent, wearing masks. That was an interesting point that he hadn't thought about. Had he been exposed to this plague or whatever it was?

He had no way of asking, and the people, there two men and a woman that ran in speaking French, didn't seem concerned about that overly. They just got the little glass vials of yellow out and started giving people shots. He got one, when the woman just turned and stabbed him in the arm, whatever that meant.

Then the first man nodded at him and went to work.

It was good enough for Zack, so he tried to figure out how the heck he was supposed to get out of there before noon.

It required jogging, but for a chaotic Node system, South America was actually pretty well organized, which meant he only had to travel about a mile on foot, gasping a bit the whole time in the heat, and then got to a Node...

In New Mexico.

It was still a major crime scene, which meant that there were police walking around, and detectives as well as government types, if he could tell that kind of thing from the movies. One saw him, and he nearly panicked as the man walked over, but instead of questioning why he was there, he just nodded, since it was inside the controlled area, at the back of a clothing store.

"Finding anything?" The man, who was dressed like a regular Police officer said, trying
very
hard not to seem bored.

Zack shook his head.

"Not at all. This place is a mess. Even the building construction isn't quite right. I need to go soon, myself. When do you get off?" It was an odd thing to say, like he was hitting on the man, but all of it was true, which meant he could speak the words. The guy tensed a bit and moved back, not realizing that Federal Agents didn't walk around in Tennis shoes too often, it seemed.