Other Places 2: Road Blocks (19 page)

"Hello. You wanted to speak to me?" She said if from behind him, but she'd been there for a while, since space wasn't boiling the way it normally did when she was just moving through it.

"Hi! Yeah, I was... Is it possible that someone set up the meeting to be in the Ettarian lands so that I'd have to take everyone? If so, can you tell who and why?" It seemed like a damn tall order, but she looked around and started to walk, waving to him, heading toward the far side of the building, toward Princess Pretty Nail and the Power Lifting gym.

It wasn't what he'd have normally done at all, which was probably the point.

"It seems odd. The most likely person, given what we know, to have done that, would be me. I didn't however. Finias or Darla could both do it, but they have no particular reason to either draw you out, or expose you to so many people that will take your ability to do that as being odd." She wasn't going fast, but scanned the area closely as they moved, looking for attack. He tried to do the same, but didn't know what would be coming that way, if anything at all.

After a moment she turned to him, staying in motion the whole time, taking his left hand, as if they were a couple or something.

"If it were either of them however, they would have simply asked for what they wanted from you, or made a bargain. You aren't intractable and anyone wanting you dead would attack, not do something like this.

"I believe that Gregor is the same. He'd just ask and deal. Bente... Well, she considers you a friend already, and Tarsus would... Honestly, it
could
be him. Most likely however..." She actually stopped talking and looked around like a person that thought the cops were after them in a movie.

"Yes?" He tried to sound polite, but it had that drawn out tone that annoyed people got anyway.

"Well, I don't have proof, but my best guess is that my brother, Xenses, is behind it. He probably wants to test you and see if you can do it."

Mirror Him howled, a thing of fear and rage, but didn't do it out loud, thankfully, leaving Zack in charge for once when things got tense.

"The freak that put me on the lines when I was kidnapped and did... I don't know what all he did to me, that old guy, Finias? He said that it was bad. Considering that he's a Greater Demon, I have to think it's probably just as well I don't remember. I should probably know, but..." He wasn't sure that it would help and if not, why would he want to?

That got the hot teen girl next to him to take a deep breath.

"Okay. I..." She actually went blank for a bit and then started to shudder, a single tear coming from her right eye after a minute. "I can access those memories. I... Zack, I won't lie to you, not ever. You understand that, right?"

He knew she was saying the words and they seemed honest, but that didn't mean she'd
never
lie. Almost everyone did at some point. He said this, but she just smiled and shook her head.

"Demon bigot. Anyway, my point is... Just knowing half this stuff would break you right now. I mean, really badly. You can't cope with it yet. I can tell you part of it, and it's true, but you need to understand... this is the mild stuff. It also wasn't your fault. None of it. Xenses is crazy for one of our kind, and he tried to make you that way too. It pretty much worked..." She opened a rift, as if it weren't a problem, making space bubble and breach, and then took his hand, stepping into it. He followed, almost by rote, since it was what he did all day. They ended in her living room, with Sherri sitting on the sofa alone, watching television.

She turned and went wide eyed, then grinned.

"And here I'd thought I'd been stood up! Where would you like to go?"

He was a bit worked up, and Mirror Him was not up to coming out to talk to his would be date, so Zack handled it, after a fashion.

"I'd
like
to go to your room and see if I can manage better than average sex, but Keeley promised to tear off my balls if I did that." He looked at the Demon in question and then back at her Human mother. "You get the idea right? She really means it, and I've barely used them yet. It isn't fair at all, since you're very nice and attractive, but under threat of physical bodily harm, I have to fold. Just to be clear, this
does
mean your own daughter is cock-blocking you. I don't think it's in a nice, she just wants me for herself, kind of way either. You two should probably talk about it. Later, after I leave?"

 Sherri laughed a bit, but Keeley crossed her arms and made a serious face.

"We
will
talk about it later, mother. Right now just... watch your movie." She smiled as the woman gave her a look that spoke of a potential spanking for the trouble maker if she wasn't careful. A grounding at least.

Then he got pulled to her bedroom again, which Keeley clearly used as her private office.

"This place isn't really secure, but I can run some counter measures. So...
that
bought me about two minutes to think. I... Don't want this to hurt you. I don't suppose you accept that it was really bad and call it a day?"

"Honestly? If it won't hurt anything later, I can do that."

That got her to frown, and look more sullen than he'd ever seen her even try for.

"You have to know, in case Xenses comes for you. You can run, if you have to. He's not as good as you are with the lines. Not really. Slower than I am, and I'm only sixteen. So that's something. You need to be able to get on them from anywhere, which you haven't been doing, but you can. I'll show you in a bit. It takes energy, which for now will mean eating more. You need to anyway." She patted his left arm. "Anorexia is so schoolgirl. I'll get us a snack in fact. You can pay me for it."

That seemed an odd way to offer food to a guest, but he had his checkbook with him, even though he never used it. He needed to start carrying more cash.

"That's a Greater Demon thing. Never offer food, or drink to one of us for free. That's an insult, and saying that you think we're children. Always trade or pay for food, even if it's a gift. Just like how you don't do favors for people for free.
Always
bargain for them. Speaking of which, just to give you the idea, what are you trading me for this information?"

Zack looked away, trying not to check out her butt as she moved to the stove and started making steaks. She had some water on to boil in a big pot and opened not one, but
three
jars of pasta sauce and started browning more meat on the fourth burner. Hamburger that got spices added to it. She traveled from one task to another without using greater than normal speed at all, but she didn't let anything burn.

"How about that, um, favor you'll owe me? If I can stop the war, or help with that?"

She nodded, not looking at him at all.

"Done. I think we should wait until after you eat. I expect tears and hair pulling and you'll need the calories for it. In the mean time, Becky was
mortified
that we caught her the other day. I told her that it probably only made you want to do her yourself, so if you could give her a call and ask her out? She's legal after all, eighteen, and within your dating age range. I doubt Lenore will mind, if you explain it. Or Kyle. Alede are so good about things like that. At least with anyone but another Alede. Then they get territorial fast."

He sighed.

"I have time for dating? I haven't even been alone with my girlfriend in nearly two weeks. Maybe she's trying to avoid me? I know that I'm not all that good looking..."

That got a laugh, but she didn't turn from what she was doing, just putting two loaves of premade garlic bread in the oven. Apparently they were having guests?

"You aren't half bad Zack. The bit of work I did last night is going to hold, so you look younger and a bit more symmetrical. We should get a truly different look for you soon, but for now it's about what people will accept without realizing that something is wrong. Lenore really likes you however. In a Vampire way, true, so, you know, not soul mates, but she isn't about to dump you or whatever it is you fear. She wouldn't if you were a toad with horribly bad breath, which you aren't. If anything she's probably worried that you aren't entertaining more Vampires yet. She'll want that to help bind you to her. I think you should avoid it for now, to be honest. You'll have more leverage that way. Make her do the work herself. Be a bit more demanding, so that she knows she's wanted personally." It was a lot of free information, considering everything and he wasn't certain he could follow it all, but Keeley just kept right on talking, as if he was absorbing her pearls of wisdom without question.

"Oh! You should arm yourself too. Fire arms and blades are what I go with. Of course I learned how to use them first, but you can too. You have a great blade place at Westfield, the Kobold Embassy? Fantastic work. Go in with about fifty thousand so you don't insult the man, and get some lessons first, so you don't hack off a limb. Wu-Li can help with that, I bet, if you don't want me to do it. I have a book printed out too, that you should read..." She kept stirring and added the noodles to the water about then.

Ten minutes later the table was loaded with food, and she waved at it.

"Call it twenty... three dollars worth for your share? I have some great desserts too, you'll want in on that. The stuff here is only a fraction of it." She waited and took the check from his fingers with a little tug and he could swear, as strange as it was, that she actually sub-vocalized a
"yoink!"
sound effect.

Then she started eating without ceremony or saying that he should at all. He started by taking normal portions of food, but she just shook her head.

"In public, yes, but right now get as much in you as possible. Load your plate and remember that you need more protein than you think." She actually got up and did it for him, heaping the plate with more than four people could keep down. He was hungry, it was true, but that was ridiculous.

"I'll get fat, trying to eat this."

"No... You won't. Go ahead. Eat." She didn't watch him directly though he could sort of feel her regard as he slowly chewed hoping it wouldn't insult her when he couldn't finish it.

When he did, she got him another plateful and a full loaf of garlic bread.

"You see the trend here? Where does it all go? It's like a stage magic trick almost. You're just processing it so fully, and so fast that it isn't a problem that way. I kind of thought you might. Don't do this around other people. It's a dead giveaway for those that know. You can come here and pay me for it. That or Darla's. We need to get with her in a bit too, after you stop crying and all that. Dessert first. I have the
best
cheesecake. My Hsreth friends make it. This one had lemon curd on top... Finish that and I'll show you."

Zack was starting to get just a tiny bit suspicious after he finished that
and
a full cake. It could be a trick, except that, deep inside, howling the words, other him slowly explained what it meant.

Well, actually at first it was a litany of, 'fuck, fuck, fuck... fucking
hell
!' Zack didn't feel enslaved however, so he managed to extrapolate what was going on, from the obvious clues and the fact that Keeley had pretty much started using "we" to reference Greater Demons in a way that seemed a bit too him inclusive to be a mistake.

He smiled at Keeley and tried not to let the idea rock him too much. He wasn't actually a different person today than yesterday, was he? No matter what, he could just always be himself, and not let the world control how he acted too much.

Except that he also knew that the idea made him feel not just bad, but really, really horrible. He said the words anyway, since it was his part in things no doubt. Even if it made him sound stupid, if he were wrong.

"So... I guess the bad news here is that I'm a Greater Demon after all?"

That actually got Keeley to stop and then smile at him, shaking her head a bit.

"You got that already? I figured that it would take a lot more than those little hints to break through to you. The denial is strong with you, after all. You are, however, a Greater Demon. That
isn't
the bad news. It isn't bad at all really.
Lots
of perks to being one of us, which I'll get to soon."

She made a point to eat the last of the cheesecake before going on and then started to clear the table and do the dishes in a very particular order. Doing things like washing each plate three times before putting it in the rack.

"No, that's the good news. The bad news is... Well, I think that Xenses is your father, and that he
really
doesn't want to let you grow up."

 Zack made a face and then tried to look skeptical about the whole thing.

"
Riiight
. I'm pretty sure I know who my father is. I have grandparents and everything. They raised me?" That was just a fact, and he remembered it, from the time he was about eleven on.

The Demon girl was standing, her body relaxed, but balanced. Like a person ready to run or fight, Zack realized, instead of a friend giving some guy news that he just might not be that happy with. What did she think he was going to do? Run away? She smiled and it looked real, but the girl kept talking anyway, explaining.

"They probably think that's simply a fact. It isn't. Greater Demons don't have children with each other. The men procreate with Human women. I don't know the particulars of this case, but if you're one of us, your father is too. There are no exceptions." She kept at the cleaning, working quickly, but again, not so fast that it broke anything or bent reality around her.

"We can go into that later. Maybe I'm wrong and it's another one of us. That would probably be for the best. Xenses... He's insane. Not the good kind either. For our kind it means a being incapable or unwilling to see what's really there. Like you, but worse. Much so, because he's violent and horrible at the same time, and honestly sees it as his best option in many cases. That you're so gentle is really what's kept you alive so far, I think."

That got a shrug in return, and a bit of a frown. He'd done violent things, even hurt people. He'd killed twice, that he knew of and...

The girl just blinked at him.

"Yes, you did all that, and a lot more. The thing there isn't that you've killed, but why you did it. In each case it was sensible at the time. When you killed that Mage girl's father, you did it to save her life, which was the job you were doing at the time. Later, with the master Vampire, you were trying to survive. That part of you is remarkably well balanced, for one of us. Maybe too much so. It isn't the same thing at all, so don't worry that way. The big problem is that half of your mind is someone else, and that's going to have to change, only..."

She stopped talking and Zack wasn't totally certain it was just to control the flow of conversation or what he was thinking about. When she continued, her words were harder, and she almost seemed ready to give up on him.

"You can't handle what Mirror Him knows. Not yet. You may never be able to. The problem is that too many know that you're a Greater Demon, and you've seen how that goes for the young of our kind. People
will
try to kill you, eventually. Especially since you aren't that well balanced."

Zack nodded, since he really had seen how she was treated and beings feared her, at least as much as any of the other of her kind. Their kind, if he wasn't being jerked around.

"So, I'm dead?" It was a simple question and she smiled about it. Then nodded.

"Almost certainly. It's what happens to you, and to those you love and care for before that happens, that you need to be willing to fight for now. There are some ways to die that are simply better than others, if you have to. Not that you shouldn't try to get around all that anyway. I just don't want you to think this is really about saving you."

"It isn't? Then what's the plan?" It seemed like a good thing to know, didn't it?

"To flush out Xenses, and kill him. I'm using you as bait. That doesn't mean you aren't someone I want as a friend as well, but that's my current goal. You... Really, I doubt you can survive that. I'll try, but I can't promise anything. Honestly, if you were going to be sensible about all this, I'd suggest using the one talent you really have, and use the in-roads to get so far away that even Demons can't easily find you. That could give you... decades of time to prepare. Longer if you did it right." It sounded matter of fact and a bit cold, but suddenly a look of misery crossed her face. It wasn't a thing he associated with her at all.

"Of course, if you do that, then a lot of innocent people will die."

Zack thought about it all for a while and tried to work out what he should do. Mirror Him was hiding in a deep corner of his mind, so wasn't going to be very helpful for a while. The brave thing to do would be to stand and fight, but it was also foolish. You didn't do that if you had another choice. He could end up a slave, or worse, if things went wrong. On the other hand he really didn't want to
starve
to death either, did he? That was something new to him, he realized, this was the first time in... years, that he actually felt not hungry. He'd sort of been blocking it out for a long time, but it had been there, gnawing at him.

After he mentioned this out loud, Keeley nodded.

"Sure. You can do that on purpose. In fact, if you can do that, you can do a lot of other things too. Imagine what emotional state you want, focus on it for a bit and you'll enter it fully. If you can remember a time that it's happened before it's really easy. The same with feeling awake, rested after exertion, or healing. Remember to feel whole and well, add a bit of energy to it and you'll do it. You'll have to eat a lot more for that. Like you did here, three or four times a day. Here, try to imagine yourself feeling happy and really hold it for a while."

She had to wait, since Zack didn't easily come up with a happy thought, but when he did, remembering how he felt when he first went to a carnival as a boy, it all came back to him, washing over and through him perfectly. Keeley didn't let him stop there, getting up to fix him a snack, and then running him through ten different states she thought were most useful.

"Blank and peaceful are both good. Especially when you're about to get shocking news, which... Well,
I
could do without three hours of tears. Why not practice that one right now and write me another check? I want to go over some of the healing things too." It sounded pretty innocent, and of course really just wasn't.

First she had him find a good healthy feeling and push it for a while, which actually left him feeling good. Much stronger than before. He hadn't realized how much like crap he'd been feeling for years.

Then she winked at him, leaned in and kissed his cheek, taking his right hand gently.

"Got it?" She whispered the words, which made him feel pretty uneasy, suddenly, because she was still far too young for him. And, if she was right, his Aunt. He made that go away however, leaving a sense of peace behind and then did the healing thing again.

"Yes. I think so-" He figured that she was going to do something. Crush his hand or give him a black eye that he'd have to heal. Apparently that was too wimpy for a Greater Demon, so she pulled a flat gray knife out of nowhere, from the bent space beside her really, and stabbed him in the stomach. Only once at least, so there was that, but it still hurt horribly.

"Healing and pain control. Remember both at once, so you can function. You just practiced them, so let's see it." She waited as he bled, her face blank and then slightly happy as, miraculously, he started to manage it. The whole thing took about five minutes to get done, but he did get the pain to go away faster than that.

She grunted and looked disgusted with him, glancing at the blood.

"And if I were Xenses, you'd be dead. Or more likely, being raped about now. That's his go to family friendly move, by the way. At least that seemed to be his plan for me, when we last met." She looked at him, as if he were supposed to get it all, and he nodded.

"I always just assumed that I was raped, in my missing time. Is
that
the bad part?"

"You keep asking that, and it keeps not being the case. You were raped,
and
raped people. You ate them alive and then did even worse things to them to bend your mind into his image. He tortured you in ways that I won't tell you about, but physical things won't break one of us that easily. Not even as babies. You're getting the idea? If those are the things that I'm telling you, then the rest is so bad that you still don't want to know yet. Not until you master your thoughts and emotions more fully." She waited, focusing on him closely.

Too closely really. It left him feeling afraid and uncomfortable.

She threw up her hands, smiling.

"And what do the baby Demons do when they feel uncomfortable?"

"Change how they feel?"

She nodded, seeming to think he was actually adapting to what was going on. He tried to control his mind, and managed it, after a few tries. This was decently big after all, and it was so temping to block out the bad things that he'd heard, before he remembered them. Zack could feel that happening, and didn't want to relive things. Then, he probably didn't have to, did he?

Keeley clapped him on the shoulder gently and smiled.

"Not bad for the first day. I need to get you to The Technician and The Mind Stealer. That's probably going to be Darla and Finias to you, but it's important to use the right titles. You have a lot to learn and will need a mentor. That probably isn't going to be the sixteen year old girl, regardless of me being proclaimed an adult early. Really, I vote for Darla. Finias is great, but you two have history and it might make him want to be too gentle with you. Darla... She dropped a car on me once, to help me learn something. I don't know if that's who you'll get." She turned and got out a box of snack cakes, which were the cheapest kind most stores sold, and pushed it toward him. "Snack first. These things are great. Lots of calories for a low cost. Mom buys them in bulk for me."

They were strawberry shortcake rolls and she was right, they were good. Enough so that he finished the whole box of them in about five minutes, then felt guilty, for having eaten so much. He was able to make that go away too, and then realized that it would work for all the negative emotions. She'd said that was the case, but it was real, suddenly.

"Okay, let's go. We can walk. Darla only lives about three blocks from here."

She really did too and Keeley didn't run or anything, just strolling along, watching the world around her, as if it were constantly fascinating. Zack tried to copy that too, and felt a sense of wonder, and a sudden popping out of details that he'd been missing. Keeley grinned about it, but didn't comment.

At the door she did two things. The first was knock and the second was standing back about three feet, which got him to follow along with her. He didn't see a trap door, but he didn't know how The Technician guarded her place either.

Really, it just seemed like she opened the door, looking like a hot blonde cheerleader from a movie or television show. It was really a little over done, he thought, but at least she hadn't overdressed for the evening, just being in jeans and a t-shirt, like Keeley was. They didn't look like sisters, being very different from one another, but they both seemed just a little unreal, now that he was paying attention to things like that. Too perfect and smooth. Even gorgeous women their age needed a bit of makeup, right? They had features that were just on the uncanny valley side of balanced, not being normal really. Oh, it was a close thing, so most wouldn't understand what they were seeing, or might think they'd just had really good plastic surgery, but it was there.

"Good evening. Have you come to sell me cookies? If so I have to point out that the local Girl Scouts have already shaken me down three times this week. They're just so cute in their ugly little uniforms." The words were playful and didn't admit to anything on the surface, but high school girls didn't get approached by girls selling cookies, did they? And they certainly didn't buy them.

Of course, The Technician knew that he'd recognize her, didn't she?

 "Technician." He felt like he should bow or something, but didn't know if that was a Greater Demon thing or not. She actually gave him a little hug.

"Line Walker." Then she sighed and glanced at Keeley a bit harder than seemed normal. "And the Mistress of Souls. So, you told him. Don't give me that line about how he guessed on his own either. That
wasn't
what happened."

Instead of arguing the point, she smiled and patted her sister on the arm in a way that looked funny, but that Zack didn't get for a few seconds, until he realized she was talking to her telepathically.

"Do you disagree?" Keeley tilted her head a little, almost imperceptibly and waited, not even moving to go in at all.

Darla sighed, a large and overdone thing that was meant for him, Zack realized, not her sister.

"Ah, kids. Just because you're correct, that doesn't mean that it's the wisest course of action to take. Too late to take it back now, and I do agree, with reservations. Finias should have been there for it, and possibly broken the news himself. Now we have to try and manage him, which is going to be... Less than a fun way to spend the evening. Come in. Try not to bleed on the furniture again."

That got a chuckle from the darker haired girl and entry into The Technician's home, which was very white. Cream colored carpets and eggshell furnishings, accented with wood and only a few pieces of art hanging on the wall. They were all by the same artist, he thought, and not bad. A little too impressionistic for his taste, but the splash of color the pictures of flowered fields and barns gave was nice. Near the back of the room, beyond the sunken living space, was a short staircase. It was a strange shape for a house, it was clear. All the recent work on his own brought it to mind. Looking around he could see how the place was in a bent field of space. Why, he didn't know.