Other Places 3: Detours (10 page)

He
nodded.

"Except
that
I
don't look as good in a dress. Yet. So, if you don't mind, let's
see if we can find someone to show these two what to do, and then we can go and
make the first introductions? I need to grab a snack, too." He walked
then, pulling Rebekah by the hand gently, not letting go. He didn't even when
he got to the front desk, to find Kaitlyn standing there, along with Hiram.

The
man looked at him and shrugged.

"Jelly
went home at nine. I wanted her to have a chance to get her school work done. I
know that I don't make the schedules here..." He waited, his face not
moving a lot. Tense, as if it had been a bad idea.

"That's
fine. Actually, I'd like you two to take that on. Schedules and all the manager's
duties? Kait is going off to school in the fall, so can't have the job full
time, but she knows the computer system, and treating her like a kid isn't
going to help, since she could shut the whole operation down in a couple of key
strokes, I bet. It pays more, but part of that will be doing my line travel
appointments, and all that too. Lisa was doing a lot of that for me,
but..." He didn't explain and from the look on both of their faces didn't
need to. "What do you say?"

Hiram
sighed, but smiled a bit.

"So,
you're serious about not letting me go back to a life of crime?"

"Well,
a more controlled life of crime, maybe? Politics, or something a bit
safer." The man had been a thief, and a con man, so he had the needed
skills, Zack was willing to bet.

Kaitlyn
actually went a little wide eyed.

"I
get to be sort of in charge of something? This is an important job, too. I
mean, this is kind of an embassy, so..." What she was thinking, Zack
couldn't tell, but he was willing to bet it involved protecting herself from
her own people more than anything else. Her governing body had tried to have
her killed once already. Keeley had threatened them into stopping that, but
dead was dead, and if they accidently put her name back on a list, that could
go poorly for Kait. Plus, alive or not, she might well be black-balled from
certain things in her own power structure. Not that a seventeen year old would
have a big issue with that yet, but life for an Alede could be pretty long, and
three hundred odd years was enough time to have things work out poorly for you
that way. If you weren't careful.

Unless,
of course, she was simply planning to take over. That was probably a good idea,
since her current Governing Body was filled with jerks that killed kids, so
they wouldn't challenge them later, if they were too strong. He'd have to
mention the idea to her, if he got a chance.

They
both nodded.

"Great!
Okay, then, these two are Roland and Rowan, the night shift. This lovely lady
whose hand I'm holding is Rebekah, who's important in the Vampire community,
running their new blood harvesting concern. She also works for Keeley, The
Mistress of Souls. As an
employee
, not a slave. She might be around in a
bit, so if you see an incredibly hot teen girl with dark brown hair hanging
around, don't hit on her,
Hiram
." He shrugged then. "Because,
you know, she's my Aunt, and that would be creepy. Plus, she's only sixteen,
so..."

The
man chuckled, his slightly hard looking and decently lean face needing to
either finish growing a beard or to shave. Right now he looked like he was
ready for a weekend long bender.

"Yeah,
because it's the
age
thing that would keep me from trying to sleep with
a Greater Demon." He didn't grin about it at least.

Kaitlyn
did.

"She's
hot. I know her too, so I'll wave you off if you start to flirt with her too
much. So, these two are working with us?" She looked at Rowan and Roland
then, her face pleasant and... oddly professional.

"Yes,
so, if you two could work out the training for them? They need to be back home
by dawn, or a little before that, so... I guess I'll be picking you up and
taking you home for a bit, until we can find you someplace closer than the
camp? I'd let you stay at my place, but Marissa is planning on using it. Still
in a pinch, I won't need my bed, so that might work."

No
one said anything, so he walked toward the front of the store, having never let
go of Rebekah's hand at all. He didn't then either, but did look at her,
noticing that she was dressed a bit like Keeley had been, except that she had a
band t-shirt on, that said "The All Vampire Band" on it, and had a
picture of her own face, if as a stylized line drawing. That was pretty clever,
he realized.

Plus,
she was good. He knew that just from holding her hand. It was both real
and
a deflection that allowed her to walk the streets openly in most places. She
looked like she did, not because she was scary and had an alternative lifestyle,
but because she was a
performer
.

Mirror
Him took over then, which was a thing he hadn't done in weeks.

"So,
I was thinking that we should go in the back room and fuck, before we head over
and meet Marissa? Just a quickie. Balthias shouldn't be the only one getting
some tonight, right?"

It
was blunt, and a bit crude, but the woman looked down at her hand and nodded.

"Let's.
I want to avoid meeting the important people anyway. It's panic inducing. Where
do you want to do it?"

Walking
toward the node room, Mirror Him didn't pause at all, and spoke with a relaxed
tone to his voice.

"The
pussy is fine. I'm not trying to dominate you or anything, just have fun. I'd
go with oral, but given the fang situation you've got going on, I think that
should just be me doing that part for now. Not that Zack can't heal up the
nicks and all that, but you know, that would be annoying."

She
didn't mention the part where he was suddenly talking about himself in third
person, but she did let him bend her over the desk in his office, which had
nothing on it but a phone. Mirror Him, probably thinking he was being cute,
took her jeans down, slightly roughly, and undid his own pants, and then
positioned himself right at her opening, just before handing control back to
Zack.

The
idea, he knew, was that Zack was supposed to be left feeling awkward and like
he needed MH to keep things together. Instead he ran his right hand under the
back of Rebekah's shirt and moved into her. It wasn't as rough as all that, but
MH had said a quickie, so there wasn't a lot of foreplay involved. Luckily,
somehow, the girl was turned on enough that she was wet already. That made it
all a lot easier on her.

It
took about fifteen minutes, and just as she came, Keeley appeared at the office
door. Almost as if she'd planned it. He felt a sudden hint of embarrassment,
but then locked it down, and kept going, letting the exotic Vampire woman cry
out, before having his own orgasm. Rebekah didn't even blink about seeing her
there, and just stood up, adjusting her underwear. Zack... Smiled.

"Hey!
Darla thought it would take you all night to get back. I knew it wasn't that
hard. So, are you staying the weekend? If so we should work out terms, so that
it's all adult, and what not." That was an important Greater Demon thing
too. This was his territory. She was in it. Visiting was fine, as long as she
didn't harm his people and all that. Not that she would, but she couldn't take
slaves here or anything. It was one of his rules.

"That
sounds fun. You didn't ask if you could have sex with my Vampire." That
was just a counter jab, he knew, trying to deflect from the future bargaining.

"You
mean my second girlfriend here? I'm part of her harem of men, didn't you know
that?" The words took a bit of lying, but were funny enough that Keeley
just nodded.

"I
had
heard something about that. So, what do you want, for the privilege
of my visiting you?"

He
got his own clothing up, doing it right in front of her, noticing her eyes
looking down a bit farther than was really polite. For a relative. Then he
nodded.

The
idea, according to the library of memories that hung in space around him, was
to get her to think about sex. She'd been looking that way, he'd made it seemed
like he was agreeing with her... Which might well distract a regular person a
bit.

"No
taking slaves, or killing my people. That's anyone in my territory, which is
the whole city. Have sex with anyone you like, if it comes up. Pay for your
food. Normal enough things really. Is that good with you?"

"Terms
accepted." She didn't even say
deal
, but her power flared over him,
trying to steal his will and lock him in as her slave anyway, though after a
half minute she managed to pull back.

Looking
panicked.

"Crap!
I was not trying to do that Zack! I'm sorry. I..." Rebekah looked baffled,
and he was a bit out of breath. He was almost certain that she'd tried
not
to take him as a slave, and he'd instinctually struggled as hard as he could,
and still almost lost.

Zack
focused, using everything he had, and pulled back his panic. She hadn't meant
to do it, he was pretty sure, and she was young, so mistakes could happen. So
there was no need for anger, but he had to show her that he wasn't someone to
be played with either. It was a rule. A real one for their kind.

She
looked blank suddenly, as if she got what he was thinking, or thought so at
least.

She
was wrong of course, since he'd just had sex and punishing her with that kind
of thing was exactly the opposite of what that was for, anyway. It was
supposed
to be fun. Making it less than that was sort of evil.

He
glared a little though, forcing himself to do it.

"That
was
way
too close. You owe me for that.
Big
. Like, huge beyond
measure."

She
looked down and nodded.

"I
know. What do you want me to do?"

"I
should make you
my
slave for a while, but
I
don't do that. Still,
agreeing to not take slaves and then trying for me, even by accident, is bad,
Keeley. I should be trying to kill you right now. That... If Darla was here,
she'd probably
order
me to do it. Or at least take a literal pound of
flesh. You're going to have to make this right."

He
didn't know what else to say and MH didn't come out to suggest freaky relative
sex or anything, so there was no help there. Finally, after a minute, he
nodded, an idea forming.

"Fine.
At midnight I have the Vampire Council coming in. You and your people are going
to stand with me for that. It might be a trap, to kill me, or Marissa, the
Vampire. If so, you back
me
. That isn't the end of things. This is too
big for me to let it go. How did that even happen, we worded things pretty
carefully, didn't we?"

She
looked away.

"I'm
just that strong. I think, on some level, I was probably
trying
to take
you. You left me in Underhill, Zack. That's huge. You took another Greater
Demon through the lines,
instantly
, and left me in a place that was so
far away it took me nearly a day to return. I get that it's only been an hour
or so here, but time runs differently on the lines. So, yeah. I take responsibility
for what I just did. I'll make it up to you."

He
nodded, locking his emotions down totally.

"Good.
Well, it won't help to walk around pointing fingers. Let's go and get something
to eat, which you will pay for, like an adult, and then we'll set things up
with Marissa and your people."

He
went to the cafe, but it was closed, so took Rebekah by the hand, very
deliberately, and walked to the frozen yogurt shop. That meant Keeley had to
trail behind.

In
shame.

Where
she
belonged
. After all, she'd tried, and nearly succeeded, in stealing
his free will and making him her slave, forever. The only way out of that was
to die, he'd been told that by Darla. Yeah, a Greater Demon might find a way to
do that and still live, but it was hard and Keeley could lock a person into
place strongly enough to make struggling hard, even for one of
them
.

What
she'd done, accident or not, was about as big of an insult as one Greater Demon
could give to another. It was, pretty much, her indicating that she didn't take
him seriously. Worse, he'd nearly
lost
. If that had happened... Well,
then the best he could have hoped for was a survivable death.

He
didn't stomp into the shop, but Edom and Barb both looked at him like he had.
That, he realized probably had to do with him holding on to Rebekah's hand like
he was. It wasn't outside of the Vampire dating rules, he didn't think.

After
all, Lenore was older and had a more important position than the Manthori did,
so it wasn't even a question, that way. Of course, the Vampire girl knew that
what they were really responding to was the fact that they'd had sex. It wasn't
a big deal, except that he'd flirted with Barb for months and never done it
with her. Zack was owning it too, still holding the woman's hand like he was.