Other Places 3: Detours (18 page)

"I
am
! This is wonderful! I really thought you were going to act all
superior to me, since you've been hanging around with The Technician and her
little sis. That girl always takes things so seriously. I mean, she's been your
mentor for what, three weeks, and I bet you haven't gotten a break at all yet,
have you? It's all, 'you need to be ready at any time' and 'you're too broken
to live, they'll kill you if they have a chance.' Am I right? You're young and
should be out doing things, not sitting in a room, being lectured about how
little time you have left. Plus, I have it on good authority that almost half
of us, the ones on the other side from the snooty bitch brigade? Only some of
us even particularly want you dead, so how's
that
for awesome?"

"Better
than I'd feared?"

"Like
you have fear? It's good though. Most of us think that you have a lot of
promise, Zack. I may call you that, right? Since we're friends? I'll call you
Zack, and you can call me Snookums. We'll be ever so close. Say, do you want to
get together later and fuck? Or we can catch the Mistress of Souls and take
turns using her? She sort of deserves it, for hurting my new friend like she
did."

She
really did. Zack didn't even have to fake thinking that, though
he
wasn't going to rape anyone. Not even her. For one thing, she was under age.
Not that Ann would care about that, but he did. It was an issue in his world. A
thing that he needed to reconsider, at least with Greater Demons. If he was one
day going to have to have naughty dolphin sex with some hung over male shifter,
in order to get his shipment of Kit-Kats or whatever it would turn out to be,
then he probably needed to not worry about age that much. Not past sixteen or
so anyway.

The
girl shrugged, listening in openly.

"Fine,
fine. You should at least write her a stern letter, like you told that old
Vampire man. Make sure she knows not to mess with you again. That, or take off
one of her arms. She'll grow it back, but if you time it right, she'll be
caught out, having to force herself to do it at the wrong time, messing up her
plans. Or a leg, but that's actually easier to fake, so you should go with
something more visible. Say, I don't suppose, being pals like we are now, if
you'd take me back with you? I can do it myself, but it would be a pain, and
you're so much faster than I am at this. Xenses may be a pain in the ass, if
you let him, but he sure knows how to make a Line Walker. I mean the pain in
the ass part literally. He has this trick that he likes to do where he makes
himself grow huge, and then..." She stopped and shrugged. "Well, I
can't recommend it. So, ride me home?"

That
image was ridiculous, but he was tempted to jump on her little back anyway. She
giggled at the idea too, and took his arm when he offered it, jumping at the
right time to end up back in the node room of his place. Then without waiting
for him to go over what they'd said to each other, she bowed to him, her face
pleased.

"I'll
look different when next we meet. Thank you, for the wonderful outing, sir. I
look forward to the next." Then, the air in front of her making five
distinct bubbles, she stepped in a twisting fashion, going between them and
backwards at the same time. He could track that, and even do it himself, he
knew.

It
was just a bit awkward and clumsy for him to bother with.

A
lot of the Greater Demons were like that, in regards to the lines. The inroads,
as they called them. Each did it in a different way, and most of them wasted
vast amounts of energy doing it. True, he was wasting energy keeping his mind
together at the moment and it wasn't being nearly as efficient as he could be,
so maybe he wasn't one to talk? He was covering the mess up, and controlling
himself, but that wasn't going to fix anything, was it?

Worse,
the bad guys kept coming and treating him a lot more nicely than anyone said
they should be. Why seek him out as a friend? Even as a trick? Killing him, or
trapping him into doing their bidding, he could see, but just to visit and make
nice? That didn't make any sense at all, did it?

Of
course, if they were all insane, that
might
be the reason right there,
right? Shaking his head, he decided that a snack was in order. A large one. It
meant going to see if Palma had anything around, but of course she did, since
the woman was a miracle worker. All her kind were, in the kitchen. With
homemaking in general, he knew. It was all there in the library that floated
around with him.

That
got him thinking, as he moved toward the food, walking past people in the
bookstore. Was there a way to fix his mind? Before, people, mainly Finias and
Darla, had said that it probably couldn't be done at all, but the instant he
remembered everything, Mirror Him had clicked back into place. On his own. That
was the part that wasn't supposed to work, wasn't it? It had anyway, and now he
was fighting the pain of things, but was sane. Or... Well, possibly not
that
.
He wasn't understanding things like the others did after all, was he?

Still,
it was all a bit confusing, wasn't it? Keeley had tried to break his mind, so
that he wouldn't side with Xenses... That made some sense, after a fashion. To
her it would be better if he went insane or died, rather than going over to the
other side.

Except
that action pushed him toward the end she didn't want, didn't it? It was such a
huge thing, to him at least, that Zack could actually consider letting Xenses
get away with all that he'd done to him as a child, because...

But
Keeley
wasn't some airheaded school girl that made mistakes like that.
Anyone would have guessed at that effect, especially if they had access to his
mind.

Darla
hadn't told him that she was planning a business weekend before either... Not
that she wouldn't spring that kind of thing on him, but Ann had said some
interesting things about her and one that was
clearly
right was the fact
that Darla sat around telling him how he was going to die at any moment. She
also checked on him daily, only hadn't, in the last bit. Not even a phone call?
From his own personal Greater Demon Council mother hen?

Finias...
Had come to him in a form that Zack had never seen before, and invited him to a
party at Gregor's. In Rome, with all the other side? As far as the memories
told him
The Cleric
was actually one of the least likely of all Demons
to hang out with that crowd of people, wasn't he? Even Darla was more likely to
do that.

It
was almost as if someone was screwing with him on purpose.

Not
bothering to call first, Zack moved out of the Cafe, without even eating anything,
and hurried to the marble floored node room. Then he forced a bubble to open up
on Darla's doorstep, in Arizona. He didn't knock, just feeling with his mind,
noticing that there were several people inside. One of them at least
felt
like his mentor.

Another
was just as clearly Keeley.

They
came to the door, moving at normal speeds, since there were regular people in
there with them too. So he knocked. That was normal and polite, after all.

It
was Darla, looking blonde, pretty and
young
, who smiled at him when the
door opened.

"Zack!
There you are. I thought you said that you were going to be busy all weekend? I
got your note."

Even
to his slow and insane brain, things started to click into place. He looked at
the two girls in front of him, and then, very carefully, opened six node rifts
at once. He let his left hand come up, a bit dramatically, holding the palm
toward the floor. It wasn't needed, but it gave him a good reason to have a
hand almost ready, if a battle started. He didn't think anyone else could do
that, but Keeley went wide eyed and moved slightly closer, her face going
scared.

"Zack?
I..." Pulling the door shut, so that she and her sister were outside, the
girl whispered. "Balthias, attend me please?" Which got the giant red
and slightly brown horned being to show up, holding a coffee table. Before
anyone could say anything he tried to hit Zack with it, really hard.

He
dodged, warping space a bit so that the whole thing seemed to be in slow
motion. To him at least.

Then
he ignored the being, as Keeley stopped him from trying it again.

"That
won't work. I saw
Balthias
at Westfield last night too. Rebekah, you,
and Darla as an old woman?"

Darla
made a face and looked at the six nodes that he was still holding open, with no
visible strain.

"We
were here the whole time. You sent a note, on the computer, saying that you
planned to be so busy that you doubted you had time for training for two days?
You promised to eat and be good about practicing what you could." She
pulled something from her pocket and waved it at him, but it only glowed, a
light pink color that came out of a crystal on what seemed to be a copper box.
Keeley did the same and so did she.

"Which
confirms that we're all us, to
me
, I can't think of anything that would
do much more right now. We have people here... This has to be dealt with
however." She started to reach out, to touch him, but pulled back at the
last second, as if he was going to strike her or something. Then she dove in,
her hand latching onto his left arm. Not hard, but her entire life sprang into
being for him, as she took his in return. She was older than he'd thought, and
had a darker past than he would have imagined.

She
made a face,
which twisted into near rage, not him. Zack managed to stay calm and collected.

"Keeley..."
She moved back and waved at him, her face being driven into blankness. The
other girl moved in, but did so slowly. Then she did the same passing her much
shorter and happier life to him in exchange for his own. She'd done that before,
the other way around at least, but it was the first time he'd seen what
she
had to offer.

In
the game of I'll show you mine, he was definitely winning that day, he thought.
At least with Keeley. Her life wasn't perfect, but it had only a few really bad
things to it. The death of her father, as Finias had mentioned, at the hands of
Xenses...

Except
what were the odds that the strange and somewhat dated looking man in his store
had been the Mind Taker?

The
dark haired and too good looking girl took a deep breath. It sounded shocked,
but wasn't, he knew. She had better control than that. The pattern in space
that she put out, the way that he'd been secretly identifying Greater Demons,
that was hers, but it had been on fake Keeley too.

"You
remember it
all
? Well, you seem to be handling it, better than I figured
you would too. It's taking a lot of energy to manage, isn't it?"

He
nodded.

"Yeah,
I've been eating enough, so it's doable, but I have to figure out how to repair
the damage. On the good side I'm practically sane. On the bad,
all
the
crazy Demons want to be my BFF." He was about to whine a bit about it,
when a head popped out of the cream and gold colored door. Darla had a nice
house, but the girl the face belonged to wasn't anyone he recognized, for a
moment.

"Becky?
Hi! How are you doing?" He made himself cheery, since the girl wasn't a
bad person at all. She looked different now, but that was because she'd lost
about thirty pounds since they'd last met. That plus some really well done
make-up took her from a solid seven, to a low nine. Or it might. He couldn't
see her body yet, being hidden behind the door. It was a good face though.

"Zack?
Hey! Come in. Eve and Hally are here too. We were just wondering what we should
do tonight. Guys, it's Zack!" She seemed pleased enough at least, with him
being there. Darla smiled too, but Keeley gave him a hard look, as if to warn
him that not everyone in the room knew all about what they were.

Because
he was too stupid to figure that out? Or, too honest to hide it?

She
didn't get to say, since he was actually sort of tackled then, with Hally
hugging him closely enough that he felt loved, even if he didn't understand the
response. Eve moved in next, though they hadn't really met, in more than
passing. When Becky did it, he picked up more about her life at least. For
instance, she was The Technician's slave. It was how she'd gotten into such
good shape so fast. She didn't know it, since the trick that got her into place
had been pretty subtle, but she was trapped anyway. The process had probably
seemed almost magical to the young lady, since Darla had only suggested she
might enjoy exercise and not need to eat as much, now. It hadn't been overt or
anything, so it was probably hard for her to see how it had happened, even if
it had really just been diet and hard exercise.

Zack
hugged her back, feeling her body a bit more than was probably proper, given
their single meeting. She was toned, and symmetrical. Given that she'd been a
bit chubby in the past, it was a major change.

Darla
looked at him as if he weren't bringing trouble to her doorstep and winked at
the others.

"Keels
and I need to chat with Zack for a few minutes. Something has come up. Eve, you
and Becky should go work out. I'm planning a big dinner tonight and you'll want
to be able to have some." It sounded pretty rude, but no one called her on
it.