Other Places 2: Road Blocks (4 page)

It still took a long time to get everyone back to Denver, and when he got to the Bat Shifter, he was actually a
bat
. The others had been grumbling a little bit about a Vampire touching them, but Branson ordered them to shut up about it almost instantly. It was Vaughn's turn to refuse suddenly.

"I don't think so. He'll need to turn back. I don't handle...
creatures
."

That got the remaining five Shifters in the room to make faces, and Zack to roll his eyes. It was Branson, the vastly muscled man that explained at least.

"I get the cultural prejudice, but he had to heal and his body forced a change to make it happen. It will be hours before he can get back. I won't leave a man behind."

"Nor do I wish you to, I simply can't touch him. I would, if it were a mere taboo, but... I don't have time to explain."

Zack looked at the wound on the bat and found it wasn't there, which made sense. Why shift into an injury? If you had that kind of power, it made sense that you'd heal while doing it each time, didn't it? The man wasn't huge, about a hundred pounds at a guess.

"Hey... I don't know how this works, but can you fold your wings together a bit, so I can try to pick you up? It will look like I'm trying to have sex with you, but I swear that isn't the case."

He didn't expect words, and they didn't come, the man moving in front of him and folding his arms so that he could be reached around. Then, gasping from the effort, his right arm hurting from the strain, he got the man through. The rest of the work was faster than that, even with the injured, since this one was the only being that had changed shape.

That it was a big sticking point for an old Vampire didn't make a lot of sense, but it wasn't his business to ask about it, so he just did his part.

On the good side, he wasn't personally needed for the rest of it, so took Vaughn back to Candles and More, so that he could unlock the space, having an hour left to his day still. If anyone gave him grief about leaving the place closed for so long he was going to have Mirror Him spin a story about an orgy with twenty hot swimsuit models.

They were supposed to be open all the time, at least during stated hours, but things could happen. If this wasn't a good enough excuse then he couldn't think of any at all.

Lenore ran over, and moved around Vaughn to hug him closely.

"You live? What's the situation on the ground there?" That at least was addressed to the other man, since he didn't know how to really explain it at all.

Vaughn actually sneered, which wasn't what Zack had seen from him so far. He looked horribly angry.

"
It was our own people
. Vampires all. We thought it was a mixed group originally, but we got enough from them in the end to put it together. This is... about things
other
than the Line Walker. That was both a distraction and an attempt to threaten the rest of us. The feeling of it is that they're opposed to the new ruling that states live feeding should be controlled. They drove our debt with Mr. Hartley to a level today that I do not think we will ever be able to repay, using his name so. Some Humans died, and all the Vampires working against us perished in the action. Or after. We had to leave the bodies, which will probably mean we need to send someone around to talk to the coroner and his staff." He looked away and froze, just not moving for several minutes.

Lenore made a face, which for her meant faking it. She tried anyway, all the time, and most of the ruling council did the same thing, only much better than the young. She was decent at it, but he could see the little differences, compared to a regular person.

"That's..." She took a huge breath and shrugged. "I'm willing to do my part in paying it, but he already has funding enough to make him happy, and to keep him safe during hard times. He refuses to take slaves and wants no one dead in particular. So... I believe I'll leave repayment to you this time? Perhaps some new furnishings for his home? It's a modest dwelling, but some wear has taken place over the last months."

That was true. For some reason, people kept getting into fights in his living room. First it was Bey and a young Vampire that just... died, leaving his head on the sofa. Then his friend Keeley and...
herself
. It had looked like it at least. Both of them were Greater Demons, and he had a suspicion that those two being around, along with the others, was what had really given him a bad reputation. Most people knew that playing with Demons was a bad plan, so tried to avoid the places they hung out in.

Zack could endorse it, but when several of them claimed to be your personal friend, you didn't flip them the bird and walk away. Cowering came to mind as a good response, but he doubted hiding was a real option.

His stomach growled then, which got him to sigh.

"Could I get a peanut butter swirl with chocolate on the top. I'll-" He was going to say that he'd grab his wallet, which was in the back, but Lenore just ran to her own shop and started making it for him.

That left him standing in the front of his own store, looking around. They had a lot of pink and red Valentine's decorations up, along with candle displays. In the few days they'd have to redo it, but he liked to keep things seasonal. What was next though? Spring themed things?

The Vampire's cell rang, and he moved away, speaking rapidly, but in a calm voice. Clearly not being needed, Zack started to front face the whole store, which took about three minutes, since no one had moved anything all day, and then swept, which for once got almost nothing at all. Just a bare hint of dust. The place was clean, and neat, as well as decorated. Now if they could just get sales, it would be worth it all.

Not for the first time he stood behind the counter wondering if he should start bringing books with him each day. Reading was fun, and killed time, but felt like he was cheating the store, so he hadn't been, but it got very boring sometimes.

'Yeah it does. I mean with the shooting and dying all around and you trying to get us killed to save people you don't know. Oh, you didn't mean
that
part, did you?'

"Nope, I didn't." He smiled and saw the man in the back of his store look at him a little strangely, but was rescued by Lenore coming in with an extra large frozen yoghurt. It looked amazing and tasted that way too, the chocolate on top being a caramel not just stuff from a can. Nothing in the dish was. She even ground her own peanut butter. Zack knew this, because occasionally he filled in over there in the mornings. Otherwise Lenore could never have a day off. Most of that was being done by the Mage intern, Jennifer, since he'd been convalescing, but he liked to put in a little time there, since it was a place filled with free food.

"Thank you. This is perfect. I'll get my wallet as soon as I'm done?" He knew she wouldn't make him pay, but asking was important. Besides, he could afford things like this now.

She didn't even answer, just waving a hand at him and walking to the back of the store, staring at Vaughn, going into a truly blank state. After a bit she turned to Zack and explained, knowing that his hearing wasn't up to the task.

"This isn't good. It seems that everyone has figured out that this attack was done by my kind, and many of them are far less than happy about it at the moment." She looked back at her shop and then actually moved to look both ways up and down the Mall proper.

When she turned back her face was serious.

"In fact, most are calling for war over it."

Of
course
they were. It wasn't the best way to handle things at all, but most people got scared and just lashed out, or at least wanted other people to do it for them. It was tempting, if you knew that you, personally, wouldn't have to face the consequences of your own actions. More than once he'd thought things like that himself, like about the pesky cop that had been bothering him earlier. They were wrong, but that wouldn't occur to many of them for a while. At the moment they were angry and scared, so things like being right in what they were calling for took a back seat.

It seemed it was a real problem too, since Lenore ran back to her store to answer the phone. She was there late already, which was a bit odd and probably also meant that she needed to eat. He didn't feed her himself, since what Vampires really ate was life energy, not blood. That was just a way to keep links open to the various sources.

Tilting his head, Zack had a thought and dug out the card Keeley had given him. He didn't really need to talk to her, personally, but rather to her friend, Rebekah, who was one of the cool looking Manthori Vampires. They had a business being started, a blood bank system for Vampires, that was possible because they'd learned to preserve the stuff without it tasting like toxic waste, which had been a problem before, from what he'd heard.

The phone picked up on the second ring.

"Zack. What may I do for you today?" It was Keeley, who always managed to sound a little formal with him. She was sixteen, and looked it, but also a Greater Demon, so immortal or nearly so, and so powerful that many people had suggested that a good thing to do when you met one was kill yourself. It was better than many of the alternatives, or a least that was the general idea. Keeley however was nice, to
him
. So were most of her friends, which meant he'd met a half dozen Greater Demons and hadn't been enslaved yet or anything.

"Hi. I was wondering if I could get in touch with your friend, Rebekah? I don't know what I can trade with her, but if she has any of your new blood available, I'd like some. Please."

"It's currently a hundred dollars a pint, but we can do that. Let me get her for you. Perhaps you
could
work out a trade? I know that her friend, Jonas, would like to come and visit her, but has to be at work regularly. The other way around as well. That might be a place to start. Just make certain you get fair value for it." Then she held her hand over the phone, speaking clearly enough he could still hear her.

"Rebekah dear? Telephone for you. Zack Hartley."

There was the sound of scurrying, but the phone passed without making any real noise about it, so it wasn't snatched from Keeley's grasp, just passed along. They were both just so fast it was nearly instant.

"Mr. Hartley, sir?"

"Or, you know, Zack, which is shorter and easier to say. I was hoping to trade you for some blood. The good kind. Keeley gave me inside information. You and your friend Jonas want to visit each other regularly? What would that be worth to you?"

She paused, and there was a murmur from the other end of the line, which sounded like Keeley, but he wasn't certain.

"A lot. Not my soul, or being enslaved, and I'd like to avoid torture for it, but I can work with almost anything else. I have some money, but not enough for that kind of thing. Jonas is a political aide, so that means not rich. You want blood though? For Vampires?"

He nodded, then realized that wouldn't communicate anything well at all.

"That's right. Can I get some now? Enough for a few people for the night. There... Might be a war coming for your kind, which you should check in to." Then he had to tell her the whole thing, which got her to go silent for a bit.

"I'd give you whatever you wanted just for that bit of information, sir. I mean Zack. I... If I could book some trips with you? I can pay in blood. Call it a hundred units per? That's cheating you horribly, but we aren't up to full production levels yet. We need to open at least a thousand new blood banks for it. It's going well and we do have a hundred already being set up, with fifteen in operation, so I can pay what I offered." She sounded professional when she gave her spiel about it. "Including breaking into my private reserve for you tonight. I have enough on hand I think, but it's at Keeley's home, the one she shares with her mother? It will take me a bit to get it."

He knew where that was however, so offered to pick it up himself, since that would keep the thing just between the two of them. Keeley chuckled in the background, but also had Rebekah agreeing a few seconds later.

"We'll call ahead, so she knows to expect you, so, about five minutes or so?"

That would work for him, since it was almost nine, meaning he could close the store, at least for a bit. He had a feeling that once news spread, normal working hours might just be something that went away.

He waited, got Vaughn to leave with some waving motions and smiles, the man not looking hurt about it, being too distracted with his talking, and locked up. Then he jogged to the back and stepped into Arizona. It was warmer there, even this time of year, than in Washington, but not hot at all. Chilly enough that he hurried, having to walk a few blocks to get there.

The woman that answered wasn't Keeley, but was, as planned, her
very
cute mother. She looked to be in her early to mid-thirties, and was dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans this time, which was different for her, being that the last two times they'd met she'd been in nicer clothing that was a bit revealing.

Mirror Him took control and smiled, leering a bit.

"Why,
hello
. You look good tonight, Keeley's mom. I don't suppose you'd like to come out and play?" It was so unexpected that she just stood there for a moment, then smiled, laughing a bit.

"I can't tonight, but soon? I have a huge party tomorrow. Floral arrangements and decorations. My assistant and I will be up all night. We could get together this Friday, I think, in the evening?"

MH tilted his head back and nodded once, very slowly.

"The day after Valentine's?
Perfect
. I'll pick you up at seven, here. Wear cute underwear, since I plan on seeing it."

Then being a gentleman, he let Zack have control again, laughing.

He tried to keep his voice strong at least and to smile. Sherri really was pretty after all, and he did
not
want to make her upset.

"Right now I need to get something for..." He looked around and the woman touched his arm, her soft hand pulling him in gently.

"Eve is packaging that up for you. In here?"

By packaging she meant turning it into a blood gift basket, complete with flowers and two candles, as if he were going to be going on a very strange picnic. Which was an idea, if he could get a sandwich too. Maybe a soda?

"This looks great! Thank you... Eve is it?" He held out his hand, since the girl was obviously a Human, and might not get what was going on. Acting like whatever strange thing was going on was normal left most people feeling better, if they had to rationalize it all to themselves.

Eve, it seemed, was up on what was happening however. Knowledgeable even.

"Hey, nice to meet you. Keeley said I should call you some time? See if I can get a job as your intern for the summer? Anyway, we have containers of ice for each of the four bottles of blood. That will keep it fresh, but you have about four days before it will go bad and lose the energy links. Which sucks. Most of the Vamps like it heated a little, but a warm water bath for a few minutes works best for that. They'll be tempted to microwave it, but that damages the energy too. I hear it also tastes horrible if you let it touch anything metal. It will react to the compound used for preservation." She handed it to him with both hands and smiled.

He dug through his pockets, to find his wallet, which he didn't have. It wasn't for a tip, thank goodness, though they deserved one for the presentation. Zack just wanted a card. Finally he wrote the store number, and his new home one on a piece of paper for them to have around.

"I didn't know I needed an intern, but if Keeley suggested it, I'll try to see what she has in mind. Give me a call and we'll look into it?" Then he turned to Sherri and smiled, even meaning it. "As for you, call whenever you like. I think I should mention that I have a girlfriend, as well as a split personality, but
she's
a Vampire and won't care if we date, and the alter is the one that asked you out, so, you know, we both like you." He managed to make it sound sane and charming, like a joke, but it was all true. She smiled about it and touched him again.

"Oh?
That's
nice to know in advance. Most people keep the mental health problems for the breakup."

He nodded, since it was just the truth and waved to them both as he walked out. The trip back was longer, but he could route through the Paris Node, using shortcuts that weren't as good, but still got him where he needed to go in about fifteen minutes.

Then he took the gift basket to his girlfriend. And the other Vampires that were suddenly in the building. It was late, and apparently they came in for things like this. It wasn't a lot of people, but there were eight of them. Most were avoiding the place now, it seemed, since Bey had come to visit a little over a month before. Generally that meant a whole lot of Vampires would be dying, but he'd only taken out a few, since it was part of the new plan.

The one that, oddly enough, involved the kind of preserved blood that he was holding out to Lenore. She didn't have a phone pressed to her ear, but the Vampire woman in front of her growled, her eyes red. Pure red, with even the whites being hidden. It was a sign that she was about to eat someone, or fight, and since she wasn't clenching a fist, but
was
eying him, he had to figure it was the first one and that dinner was about to be him.

"There should be enough to share? It's the good kind." He tried not to seem nervous or afraid, since that could set a feeding frenzy off, he thought. Lenore snagged the basket and smiled, then opened the colored cellophane enough to see the four glass bottles inside, sitting, as promised, in containers of ice.

She popped the top of one of them and sniffed it, her own eyes showing more red than earlier, but handed the bottle to the woman, who, Zack realized, was the Chief of Police. Sims. That was her last name at least. She didn't hesitate, drinking the whole thing as if it were water and she was in a desert, which might actually be the case for her, after a fashion. When she finished, her eyes closed, she held the bottle out to hand back and then waited as everyone watched her.

"That..." She said, eyelids going up, to show very normal brown instead of blood colored irises, "Is really very good. At least six links in each bottle? It feels right. I've gotten the ads for it, but hadn't tried it yet." She looked at Lenore and smiled. "Thank you."

Then, surprisingly, she said the same to Zack.

"I hear we have you to thank for today?" The words sounded bland, but a little accusing, which got her to shake her head. "I mean preventing the worst of things for us. This isn't great, but we should be able to figure it all out. If we get enough time."

Lenore drank hers cold too, but he explained what he was told which got the other two heated that way. Soaking in a pan of warm water for a bit, Vaughn got one and rather politely the last was put in sample cups for the others to have a few sips of each. The general consensus seemed positive about it.

One of the men, who looked younger than the others, physically, gestured at his cup, which was just a paper one from the shop. "If we could do some tastings like this soon, perhaps we could prevent any more events like today's? Or at least slow them down a bit." He knocked gently on the orange Formica of the booth he sat at, and looked around at the others, including Zack. "When are they going to be producing in full swing?"

That got answered by Lenore, who was washing out the bottles and the cups, before tossing them. She kept the bottles actually, since they were nice, being glass with glass stoppers. She was from a time when you just didn't waste things easily.

"Three months, I hear. That will be the first hundred locations. Then there are plans for many more across the country. I don't know that we can get enough for wide spread testing by our people, but perhaps it could be arranged for the leadership in most areas? I'll put a call in and see, in a few days. Right now..." She looked at Zack and then the others, "Mr. Hartley needs to go and answer his telephone, I believe."

He jogged over, but had left the door unlocked, so got to it in about four rings. It might be more than that, if it had taken time for Lenore to let him know about it.

"Candles and More, here to help you with all your candle needs." It wasn't an inspired slogan, but no one had ever said anything about it yet.

"Zack? Bob Millhouse here. Good to see you're on site. I've been getting calls for half an hour from the Council and every Mage that has CNN or Fox news. What can you tell me about the situation in New Mexico?"

It took him a bit, the story being longer than he thought it would be, but at the end of it, the man on the other end of the line, the Mage Ambassador for the area, just grunted.

"We'll be in shortly. I hate to do it, but we need everyone on this. For the time being the whole staff needs to be on call."

"I'll get in touch with everyone." Without warning, the phone went dead in his hand, the line buzzing. Apparently shortly meant no time for saying goodbye that night?

He got on with Lisa first, since she was the second in command of the whole thing. She sounded sleepy when she spoke, like he'd woken her up. Which made
sense
. She was still trying to recover from the drug addiction she'd developed trying to handle the place on her own.

"Hi Lisa. Everyone needs to come to the store. A bit of... Um, possible wide spread war, and mayhem? Don't do any drugs for this. You can sleep in your office if you have to or whatever."

"
Thanks mom
, I'll be right there, along with my pillow and teddy bear."

"Good. See you in a bit."

Then he had to find Hiram, who wasn't sleeping at all, from the sound of the woman's voice that was next to him.

"Hiram?" He explained and waited for a response, which was a murmur that sounded... erotic. "Dude, you are
not
getting a blowjob while talking to me on the phone."

There was a bit of heavy breathing and a sigh.

"I'll be a bit. But I'm coming." Then he stopped... and spoke to the other person. "No, keep doing what you were, I just meant that I'd be in to work. Yeah, that's it..."

Zack cleared his throat, but Mirror Him chortled inside his head.

'
Jealous
? I bet she's a washed up crack whore with no teeth, but hey, that might be interesting. Better suction that way I bet. Plus, no accidental biting.'

"As soon as you can please." Then he hung up and debated calling their intern. It wasn't a school night, and someone would have to keep them in coffee and donuts.

He actually had to talk to her parents, to let them know she wasn't secretly planning to run out and do drugs or have "the sex" with strange men in a parking lot.

"No, it's a real emergency. Her newly reformed Uncle will be here, as well as many responsible adults. I promise she won't have any fun at all." That convinced them well enough that they offered to drive her there. It meant they wanted to check things out for themselves, but that seemed reasonable to him. What did real parents do most of the time anyway?
His
had sold him to a Greater Demon, which hadn't gone well for Zack at all. It was why he was so broken, most likely, not that he could remember it. From the sound of it, that was a blessing.

The Mall was always a bit more busy at night than during the day, at least the few times that he'd been there to see it, working nine to nine. Tonight it started to actually buzz a little, with people running past the store occasionally. Most of them looked vaguely familiar, but some were new to him. Like the strange fishlike man that stopped at the window and looked in. He was really more like the creature from the black lagoon than anything, but had on pants, a loose shirt and shoes. He didn't pop in to visit, just walking deeper into the Mall, where most the shops were.

The phone calls started coming then, with people sounding a bit stressed, but not panicked.

"War? Not yet. Everyone is on this though. Keep your head down for now and make sure that your doors are locked and you have wards up, if you can." He basically just repeated that same phrase, with minor variations until Bob Millhouse and a very pale and thin woman came in. She looked like she was still recovering from being mostly dead, so he figured that she was Evelyn, Bob's wife. Just as they got to the counter the phone rang, so he gave his little speech again.

When he hung up the Ambassador, who looked to be in his thirties, but was likely much older, nodded. He was a trim white man, but Vancouver had a lot of those, so he blended nicely.

"Excellent. Don't create fear, but get people to take precautions. Zack, this is my wife, Evelyn." He didn't go into the whole thing deeply, since it was an emergency. The phone rang again and Bob headed to the back to do something.

This time the man on the line sounded cold and professional. That was a change from partly panicked and angsty, so it really caught Zack's attention.

"Eric Weise here. Is Lisa in at the moment?" He didn't add the rest of what he was thinking, but it was clear in his voice. Was she
there
, or off having sex with some woman. The guy was such a jerk on the topic that Zack kind of wished he could imply she was off sucking some guy off, but couldn't say the words, and for once MH didn't do it for him.

"She's incoming. If you leave a number, I'll see if she can call directly."

"She has it. I'm at the office and will be all night. Thank you." Then he hung up, which was the treat of the night, it seemed. No one was being overly polite.

Crises or not, Lisa didn't get there until the intern and her parents were walking in, even given that she lived closer. Of course she'd actually brought things with her, and carried a big bundle of bedding and a bag awkwardly.

"Bob's in the back, and your father wants you to call him at his office."