Other Places 2: Road Blocks (22 page)

As luck would have it, not only was she in, but so was Bey. It was... Well, Zack knew he might not live through the explanation, but it was coming out anyway, so he walked in and took a seat at one of the tables along the side.

Lenore looked at him with a troubled expression. That probably meant she had heard him then.

"Is something the matter, Zack?" She sounded calm and like she expected him to break up with her. Probably for not having enough sex with him.

"Yes. I... Well, it seems that I really am a Greater Demon, like everyone has been saying. I just found out and-" He didn't know what he was expecting them to do. Hit him? That seemed likely. Or rant and rave while he ate fritter after fritter, but they both just went still and then Bey nodded a few times.

"It...
has
been suspected. How will this change our agreements?" He looked sad, as if his world was crumbling around him, his large ears twitching a bit which got Zack to look at the back room, where there was at least one person behind the wall, listening. They weren't very strong, compared to these others, so probably Barb, or at least a Vampire near that age and power level.

Zack shrugged.

"Not at all. Why would it? You keep giving me far more than I'm asking for. Probably because of this being possible. It doesn't
change
anything however. I just..." He was going to go into the whole thing about him being a Demon, so he'd understand if they didn't want to be near him, but then just smiled and tried to find a place that was calm inside. "You know what? I'm not going to keep sugar coating this for people. It seems like I'm the last one to know. So, Lenore, are we still going out or what, and if so, when are we actually doing that? I get that this current crisis is a pain, but you have a back room here and we can put up a sign." It was blunt for him, and he wondered if she were going to try and go all hostile on him, but instead it was her turn to shrug, which really did look fake.

"We can do that. To answer the first question, yes. If you want to? It's a bit strange, but you aren't a different person yet. If you change, well, then I guess I'll do what I have to. That's every relationship isn't it?"

"Good, Well, that's settled then. Thank God. I thought Bey was going to make my head explode, which would be a giant mess in here. Poor Barb would be scrubbing for weeks." That got a reaction from the back and she came to the door, her face blank and pale. More so than usual. She was very still, and was watching him as if she expected a new regime of beatings and rape to follow or something.

"Hi!" He waved a bit. "Tonight, at about five or so? Oh, Lenore, I'll be back, probably a bunch, today. I need to eat more and I seem to remember having unlimited treats from here? Can I just come and get them, since I know that you're still busy?"

She looked at him and nodded once.

"Clean up after yourself as you go and make sure to mark down anything we're about to run out of. I might need you to fill in for me soon, if a war doesn't happen. I
badly
need to have my nails done again." She held them out and the paint was a bit chipped in places.

"I'll need the practice then. Reread the notebook and all that. Thanks." He'd been eating the whole time and finished six donuts while talking, being careful not to do that with his mouth full since that would be rude. His grandparents had taught him that one after all, from an early age.

That was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to having, right there. It wasn't like he was coming out as being gay or something easy like that. Of course,
that
wasn't easy, it was just by comparison that it seemed like it. Now that he thought about it, it would have been a thousand times simpler to say those words to them rather than that he was an evil Demon.

On the good side, he realized, he wasn't going to have to have a long drawn out, and sort of repetitive conversation with Lisa about what he really was. She'd gotten a call and had locked herself in her office. She was working magic, it was clear, but they seemed to be warding spells, rather than an attack of any kind. Hiram looked panicked and ready to run, so Zack plopped the boxes down and offered another dose of fat and sugar.

"So... Erin Soars called?" It was a guess, but the man shook his head.

"Nah, someone named Ginny? Said you admitted that you're a Greater Demon? Lisa's freaking man. Like it's true or something. Heh." The man had his hands on his little silver wrapped quartz crystal weapon. It seemed to have a nice charge too it, but should be single use. Kind of like a tazer on crack.

Zack sighed.

"Yeah. I just found out last night.
Late
. I haven't even slept yet. Hence yesterday's clothes. And
no
, this doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to endorse your life of crime." He looked at the man, and tried to remember what it was like to feel confident and in charge. He had to use his imagination, but it sort of worked, he realized, once he added the needed power to it.

Then he started eating some more, just waiting for something to happen. It did, in the guise of Hildegard coming in.

"Good morning! Oooh, little cakes..." She didn't ask for any, but Zack pushed the box toward her, and then gestured at the closed door.

"I'm a Demon, Lisa just found out and is having a meltdown." Then he watched the girl for her own, but she just ate a cherry iced cake donut.

"I know, I was told on the way down by Kaitlyn. She seems worried, but I didn't hear screams, so I figured that it isn't important today? We're still doing the transfers?"

"If people show up, we do them. The only real difference between today and yesterday is that I was apparently being a lazy moron, who just didn't eat enough to keep his strength up? Still, people will feel better with you touching them than
me
, I bet. What do you think Hiram, will it improve my bad-boy street cred with the ladies?"

The slightly older man sniped a third donut, eating more than he normally would, due to nerves, and then nodded.

"Oh,
hell
yeah. Pretty much the top of the food chain that way, aren't you? Don't touch Jelly though or I'll..." He blanched a bit, but Zack nodded.

"Got it. She
is
legal in this state, did you know that? But, yeah, that would be wrong. Especially since people would think I was taking advantage of her." Which would be the case. He was, until Lisa realized she could just fire him, the girl's boss. That was
all
kinds of inappropriate.

That got Hilde to grin at least, showing her nice white and very heavy teeth.

"I'm older than you are I think. Unless you were lying about that?"

"Nope, twenty-two. How old are you?"

"Twenty-four. We could date. You're a little small for me, but most of the men here are related to me, so I have to be willing to settle. Are you going to come and lift weights? I made a plan."

He agreed to try and show up, starting in two days, if he was allowed. He said it that way and Hiram snorted at him.

"Who's going to stop you? I don't mean who can, I get that you'd go away and all that, if people get their panties in a twist, but who
would
? I know I want my free trip to Hawaii later this year, you know? That was in there, wasn't it? That,
and
complimentary donuts?"

Zack made a face.

"You can do that, but it's kind of bland. I mean, pretty, but when you could go anywhere, why pick someplace that a plane ticket would do just as well for?"

They all went back and forth like that for about an hour, at which point Bob came in, looking stern, which wasn't like him. He didn't glare at Zack though, or Hiram, just the door to the office where Lisa was layering Ward after Ward.

"Hi Bob. I think we have a donut left?" Actually two, since he'd slowed down, not wanting to be the one to take the last one. Both were maple bars and the man blinked, then grabbed one, using the little paper in the box to hold it, caring more about not getting sugar all over himself than germs, it seemed.

"Thank you. I kind of ran out of the house when Lisa called. She wasn't very clear about anything. Is she using again? Wistra shouldn't be like that."

Hiram was the one that spoke, his face set.

"No, if she tried, her watch ward would have gone off. She just found out that Zack's a Greater Demon for real and isn't taking it very well. We're still on schedule otherwise. The whole Mall knows, but so far no pitchfork wielding mobs have come. We... really haven't tried to get her to come out yet. Kind of a low key approach?"

The man didn't comment, just looking at each of them, clearly thinking, and finishing his bar. When he was done he left, to the bathroom and washed his hands, which Zack realized was a great idea, and then came and knocked on the door softly.

"Lisa? Can you come to the door? We have a maple bar left." It was an odd thing to say, but there was no answer, just more chanting. She was pretty good at it and had a nice rhythmic flow going, the words in some language he didn't recognize, until he realized he
did
. It was floating around him suddenly, the language. Ancient Sumerian. She got most of the words right even, though she was mispronouncing about half of them. Some had clearly been distorted so much they didn't really have meaning anymore.

Basically she was telling the demon to go home and leave her alone. It was kind of rude, since he worked there. She charged the words with power, but Zack didn't feel anything from it at all yet. It was being driven into the wards. That meant she might well be safe inside her office, but unless the trashcan was going to get a new use, and they could toss food and water in, she wasn't going to stay in there forever.

Bob kept trying, but she finished the new layer before speaking to him.

"No... Zack... He's
after
me. From the first day he's done everything he could to make me like him, and be in his debt. Now he's going to call that in and make me his slave! I won't do it. I won't let him take me!" This sounded a lot more like a personal issue than something that was really about him, but he didn't have a clue why she felt that way.

Zack did get that nothing he said would let her feel good about him yet, so he didn't try, just washing his hands and face. Finally after Bob had given up and Hiram was rolling his eyes at the door, Hildegard stood and gestured at the people slowly coming in the front of the place.

"The first transits for the day are here. Lisa should come out and do her job. I know that things feel different, but that's not real. Zack, your friend, is real. I, Hildegard, am real." She didn't force the issue however, which was good, since there was simply no way that Lisa was leaving that room while Zack was there. Instead he shrugged and did what Darla had said, practicing his new skills. The first order of business was turning his feeling of frustration and annoyance at Lisa into compassion. It took energy, but didn't leave him starving at the moment.

Then he got Hilde to go through Lisa's speech about the fact that the large girl had to pick people up around the middle, to carry them through. No one spoke to him overly, but that was to be expected. The ones that came first were the bravest, but that didn't mean they weren't worried about what might happen. Of course what
did
take place was everyone just going to the Ettarian lands, safely, and far more quickly than the day before.

Only half the leaders showed up now, but that just meant he was able to order in more food for an early lunch than he would have thought three people could eat. The others stayed in the back with him for it, but when he was done they had time, so he hopped up and dusted the store, then swept. It wasn't horrible, but being closed meant they hadn't been doing it daily for a while.

It was while he was doing that chore that Lisa made her break for it. She darted out the back door at a true run, and hit the bar to open it so fast that she actually knocked the undercover police officer that had been standing there down. For his part he grabbed her, not knowing what was going on, which was a
bit
of a mistake, since she was amped up and wild eyed already, just from fear.

The bald man looked surprised, but held on to her ankle, which got her to stop, and yell at him.

"Run! There's a Greater Demon here! Run for your life!"

Zack just nodded, realizing that, if he'd been paying closer attention, he might well have realized that the man had been standing there, trying to listen to them.

Raising his hand, Zack waved, and then smiled a bit.

"That's me. I just got the job, so she's overreacting a bit. Don't let it worry you."

That got the man to let go of her leg, meaning that, with a run in her pantyhose now, she was able to leave, finally.

"What the fu-" The bald guy was cut off when the heavy blue fire door in the back swung shut on him. No one went out of their way to hold it open either, so it was decently effective. After all, if he wanted to come in it was going to mess with the schedule for the rest of the day. As it was Zack wanted to just give it all up and go home. Lisa hated him.

It wasn't fair, since he'd
always
tried to be a good friend to her and did a lot to help her out already, which should have trumped him being something other than a crazy person with line walking abilities. Trying to be a good little Demon, he made himself feel calm about it all, letting the pain of it slowly fade away. He had to keep that up, which meant using magic for it, so he walked out without saying anything, to get something to eat from across the way.

That
he made up for himself, producing three of the large frosty treats, making sure he did it right, each time, focusing on the details of the thing. It might not help, but it couldn't be worse than Lisa hiding under her bed or whatever it was that she planned to do.

Using a small cardboard carrier, one that he found under the counter, in a stack of them, he got all the treats back, after cleaning up as he'd promised. Lenore didn't try to speak to him, being on the phone, until just before he was getting ready to leave, then she covered the hand piece and spoke in a normal enough tone.

"We have several of the High Council members that want to know if they're still permitted to attend the meeting? I've been telling them yes, but they won't believe me that you aren't charging them for it, personally. What do you want me to tell them?"

Zack sighed and then forced a smile.

"That I'll do it, just like always. I'd like to buy the house that I'm living in. Can you set that up for me? I want it to be for a fair market value, so the landlord doesn't get cheated, but I don't know how to arrange that. Troy Lopez needs to be on the papers too. I told him that would happen. Co-owner."

That got the Vampire to actually smile at him and start speaking to whoever was on the line in a rapid and happy tone, since it was clear that she thought that sounded like a very good trade indeed. It was still underselling the work, by a lot, but Zack had already contracted to do it all with Keeley.

He made himself eat, even though he didn't feel the hunger like he had before. After a bit he understood that. He'd been fighting against that feeling for a long time, trying to make himself seem normal. Or rather, if he had the right idea, MH had been doing it. Probably hiding a lot of other things from him too. Why that was, Zack didn't know for certain. He tried to think it through, but the only thing that came to mind was that he was in hiding and Mirror Him was his protector.

Letting himself feel what was actually there, hunger wise, meant that the treats were gone a few minutes after he started. That, and he looked like a pig, shoveling food into his mouth, sitting in the back room. At least he tried to use his little paper napkin. He'd only taken one. It was a mistake. That meant he needed to scrub up in the bathroom again, not knowing what else the day would hit him with.

It turned out to be a terrified Barb, who came in at five, after Hiram had left. There was no mention of anything changing, but the first time he touched her arm, to take her and her passenger through to the Ettarian lands, he got it. Everything about her poured into him, and he knew what she was thinking. Not just in the moment either.

"
That
, is really distracting." He muttered it out loud, which she pretended not to notice, and he didn't talk about it until they were back in the candle shop, a few minutes later.

He did his new little thing, choosing how he felt and then turned to her, as she cradled her straight left arm with her right palm, like a nervous school girl.

"Really? I mean, do you really think that knowing what I am now is that big of a deal? I'd like to point out that
I
didn't act that way around you, when I thought I was a Human, and you were a
Vampire
. It's pretty much the same thing, except that we already know each other and you
know
, for a fact, that I'm a decent person. That plus I don't want to eat you. Well, not in a way that you wouldn't possibly enjoy." It came out sounding playfully light and even, at least, instead of like an accusation of unfairness. It was valid, since she was reacting based only on the fact that he might be more powerful than she was for real.

That was at the heart of it for her, nothing else. Zack was higher on the food chain than she was and now that she understood that, her reactions to him shifted, almost without her being able to stop them. It was a lot like how she acted around Bey too.

"Sorry. Sir. I'll try to do better." She actually refused to look at him, her black sweater leaving her washed out and cold looking, even though he was nearly certain that she didn't feel things like that anymore.

The really sad thing was that there was nothing he could do to change that about her. She'd grow out of it, eventually. Even she knew that. At the moment, Barb was just too young to challenge someone like him, and that meant she was afraid. It wasn't built into her, Vampires actually had to learn that. It had been beaten in, carefully, over decades of effort from Lenore and a few others. It sounded mean, but he understood now, he thought.

It was like with the baby Vamps that Lazar had made and left to fend for themselves. They were flush with hunger and power and didn't know that they needed to follow any rules, much less how to control themselves. That almost had to come from the outside, at first. That or they'd spend hundreds of years just running around killing without control, making a generalized mess of the world.

Barbara however was taking it too far, for the moment, which was annoying.

They worked, with him making an effort to make her feel as comfortable as possible, so that she'd let go of the idea that he, personally, was going to beat her if she got out of line. He wouldn't do anything of the sort, since she was already a reasonable person, just... scared.

At seven there were no more guests to go through to the meeting, and the next day would be the last of the people actually headed in that direction, so he'd get some time off. Probably not real time to do anything, but it wouldn't be person after being who kept looking at him like he was a shark, getting ready to devour them all.

"Well, good job today. I'd love it if you'd realize that I'm still me and that things are fine between us, but that will probably take time. At least you didn't run away screaming about how I want to steal your soul, like Lisa did."

That actually got the girl to blink and then smile, for the first time that day.

"She what?"

"Yeah, not a joke. She made a break for it and ran out the back, screaming to the undercover cop that was listening at the door about how a Greater Demon was after her.
That's
going to make it seem like no drugs are being sold here, isn't it?" He grinned. "If I can learn to lie, I'm planning to try and sell the man on the idea that we're all just doing a complicated role playing thing. I already told him I was a Greater Demon. Do you want to be an Orc? I think you should totally be an Orc. We can get you a fake nose and some chainmail to wear. It will be cute." He meant that part, which, he realized, was a disturbing thing that he really hadn't realized about himself before. Orcs were basically pig people after all. That he thought it might make the girl in front of him look sexy...

She shook her head.

"Heck no. I'm going with cleric." Then she stopped and brushed her fingernails on her sweater. "That's right, you didn't think that I'd know that, did you? I've eaten more than one Vampire groupie in my time, you know. It's actually not a bad idea really. If we aren't going to just kill the man, or, you know, you don't make him your slave?" At those words she was suddenly scared again.

Naturally.

"No thanks. The man isn't really someone that I'd want hanging around for the rest of his life. I think that the whole role playing thing is probably the best bet. We should write a manual for it. That way people can leave them around and it will clearly look like a joke, or at least a game."

Zack had never thought about writing before, and bet it was hard, but if he was suddenly going to have all day to get things done, it made sense to do things like that on occasion, didn't it? He'd need an illustrator though, that or to learn how to draw. Growing up, art had only been part of his therapy, and no one had really tried to cover exacting technique with him on it. Still, he should be able to learn how, given time. That was in that floating memory bank that Tarsus had foisted on him.

Being a Greater Demon was all about learning things, and seeing how to make them really work. It seemed strange, since no one feared artists and fashion designers in the main, but there it was. Right there, waiting for him to try and understand what it all meant.

He went to the food court, where he was shunned like an Amish man with blue hair by everyone. Even Conrad and Merry refused to look at him, though they did get him his food to go. He got a lot of it and billed it to the Mage Embassy, since that was one of the perks of the job. It wasn't just the Elth and Hsreth either. As he walked back he saw Valerie and her people practically running away from the front of the store, as if he didn't know where they were?

It was dismal, but to be expected, so he just walked back home, watching the whole time, trying to stay ready for an incoming attack. Not that he knew what to do about it, other than trying to run into the lines to escape. It was his one good trick, so he tried to stay ready to use it. That he took his normal shortcut home...

That was mainly just habit. Technically he really should have made a point to just travel directly into his living room, but it didn't occur to him, so he used his key and hoped that Darla wasn't waiting for him inside already. For all that he'd loaded himself down with several plastic carry bags of food containers, it probably wasn't enough to share anymore. Not if she ate like he seemed to need to.

No one was home, but that didn't mean that much really. It was clear that more work had been done and there were ripples from the workmen that had come in, who were all Human, and one Alede, meaning that either Judy didn't know about him yet, or if she did, was avoiding him, while still getting the work she started done. They'd clearly focused on the bathroom that day, and when he popped his head in, it was redone with wood paneling, but the real kind, and had a rebuilt shower with a much larger tub. They were still the one unit, since there wasn't enough space for more, but it was a lot nicer looking. The toilet was even new, and was actually clean and everything.

Zack set to getting the food inside of himself, and was still eating when Darla came, almost exactly at eight. He could feel space warping around her and a terminus forming at the door, before she knocked, so it wasn't a surprise. He got up and let her in, wondering if he was supposed to bow to her, being that she was his mentor and all. Not really knowing, he did it anyway, getting one in return.

"Not a bad start. Keeley always just acted like I was supposed to be her baby-sitter. I see that you're eating?" She walked past him, not waiting to be invited in. Then, she wasn't a Vampire and they had an appointment, so it made sense. "I'll talk, you eat."

As soon as he actually started, feeling a bit conspicuous and not bothering to change that, just shoveling fried rice with sweet and sour sauce into his mouth, she laid things out, starting with what her job, as mentor, really was.

"I'm supposed to give you a chance to survive, if it can be managed. That means teaching you for a reasonable time period, until you can handle things on your own. That won't be forever, but it's normally about seventy to a hundred years. Don't be thrown off by Keeley. She's too young to be a real adult, which means that something there is very wrong. It's a trap, and we all know it, but it's so subtle that I haven't worked out who's behind it. Not Xenses, in case you're wondering. He's about as subtle as a knife to the middle." She smiled, but didn't let him speak.

"So, being your mentor is a sacred duty, and pretty much means that you have to do what I say, until you don't anymore. You have a whole lot to learn still."

Zack swallowed and interjected, hoping it wasn't all that rude. She hadn't said he could speak, but it made sense.

"Except that I probably won't really get that chance?"

She didn't look pleased by the words, but nodded, doing it slowly, and then looking at his food, reminding him that he needed to eat.

"Exactly. Not only are you
clearly
being set up here, outted, if you will, but honestly, given how damaged you are, we'd have normally killed you already. Instead of that, for some reason no one bothered to explain to me at all, you're being given an actual shot. Don't for a second think that means anyone has faith in you, or thinks this will work. It's part of something bigger and probably linked to whatever is going on with Keeley. That means we're all being played here."

He ate, going after several eggrolls in a row, using the rest of the sauce on it.

"So... Should you even waste time on teaching me anything?"

That got a strange and oddly fierce look on the pretty blonde's face.