Other Places 3: Detours (37 page)

Zack
focused and worked his way back to his house, not going into work, and then sat
on the sofa, all alone. That meant Roland and Rowan had left somehow, hopefully
just catching a ride with Troy, since the club wasn't open that night, Zack was
willing to bet. It would probably be used as a meeting place for the council.

So
for several glorious hours, he just snacked, sat, and worked, and when the time
came, managed to have a credible looking picnic ready to go. An adult one too,
not just corn chips and juiceboxes. Then he opened a node and terminated it at
the end of Keeley Thomson's door, in Arizona. Walking through, he knocked, to
find her standing on the other side, her face serious, and a bit frightened
looking.

At
first he thought she was someone else, who didn't know how to play the role
right, but it really wasn't that, he didn't think. She was, for some reason,
simply afraid of him.

It
didn't make sense at all, but he reached out and took her hand, and she
returned the move.

Then,
after a moment of conversation, he led her into a new node, one that led to a
place so far away that not even The Librarian had ever heard of it.

Keeley
looked around, her eyes not quite comprehending for a few moments. Zack could see
that. Literally, in fact, since from their position, which looked like a nice
grass covered hill, with a single strange tree behind them, the world below
seemed like a blur of colors. On the right was a red glow and on the left it
was blue.

In
the middle though, instead of a rainbow of lovely flavors, there was a muddle
of browns and light blues, with a few hints of green and tan, all of which
slowly shifted. No fine definition could be worked out, which made sense, given
that they were seeing pretty close to
everything
, all at once. It was
how the Earth looked, from here.

The
pretty dark haired girl stared, then had to just shake her head, and looked
behind them at the tree. It was kind of bare, but small buds of green showed.
In form it was a bit like an oak, but out here, so far away from where that
kind of thing really grew, it wasn't that. The world below gave the only glow,
which kind of gave the impression of a darkened movie theater. More or less.

Zack
put down the blanket he'd brought, being careful not to crush the insects that
crawled in the grass. They weren't really ants, naturally, having far too many
legs for one thing, which made them a bit more like centipedes, but they were
still living things, and given the hardship of living where they were, they
were special.

Then
he slowly unpacked the wicker basket, as he gestured for Keeley to sit next to
him, smiling. No thoughts got in or out of his head, and the girl was nearly
the same, though he did catch a small hint of wonder from her. She winced a bit
when he got the candles out and used a bic lighter to make the flame. At first
he thought it was about the brass candle holders being too much, or the plastic
lighter being too tacky, but when he poured the wine, which was champagne, she
did it again. The glasses were real and nice looking, and even the correct ones
for the beverage at hand, so it wasn't about him not putting on a good show at
all. He'd even packed in real glass plates, and the food was, well,
he'd
made it, so probably just functional, but there was a bit of work behind it
all.

Slowly
he set things up, as she turned her attention to him, not speaking at all, or
asking why Zack had brought her all the way out there. If it were the other way
around, there would have been a game of twenty questions going on by then. Of
course, she might have already figured everything out, given who she was. Being
sane and all that, compared to him.

"This
is really lovely." She murmured the words, and actually took the food,
without insisting on paying for it first. That was fine, since she could just
drop a check with him later. Or trade for it, if that was her plan. Greater
Demons normally just offered a bit of cash that way, his thing with Darla
earlier aside. After all, even good food was just
food
.

Zack
smiled and waved his free hand at the world below.

"It's
the beginning and end of the world. Technically, I suppose, this thing behind
us is the world tree. I guess the rest does sort of look like a rainbow bridge,
if you squint hard enough? I figured that out here no one would spy on us, too
easily." That was the idea at least. He still scanned around for a bit,
but certainly couldn't find anything larger than a bug glancing at them. They
could be the spies, of course, but he'd picked the location sort of carefully,
so they should have some time.

Keeley
sipped at her glass, then ate, not really looking at him. After a while she
sighed, which was a soft thing, and made eye contact.

"This
is a good place. Thank you, for trying to make my first time special. I was
worried that it would be a bit more... Well, being raped in an alley came to
mind. This is great. Something to remember. Pleasantly." She winced again,
which was realistic enough, even if the action didn't fool him. "So, what
would you like to do first? We should finish eating, but I don't have a plan
otherwise."

Zack
probably should have blinked, or at least denied that was what they were there
for, but he smiled a bit and took a sip of the bubbly pale liquid in his glass,
to cover. After all, while he'd said that she had to do a Greater Demon, he
hadn't said it would need to be him. But Darla was right on that one, and had
told Keeley that Zack was about the best she could hope for, that way, hadn't
she? She was too young to just ask him to be the one, so was pretending that he
was putting himself forward for the job.

He
could work with that.

"We
can go by the numbers, I suppose. Since it's your first time." With him at
least. If she and Hally hadn't been at least doing some hand things under the
covers at their sleepovers, he'd be shocked and amazed.

They
didn't talk until the food was done, and he packed everything up, except the
candles, which hadn't burned down too far, moving in next to her then.
Wondering the whole time if she was really her. It seemed right, but that could
be faked. It was going to be annoying if he had sex with her and she turned out
to be Tarsus. Or worse, his grandmother. The only thing there was that he was
nearly certain that, Greater Demon or not,
Lyn
wouldn't do that to him.
That left almost all the rest of their kind, sure, but he could put up with
that.

Really,
if he had to, he could make himself not care even about her, now. It had gone
fairly quickly, the burying of his trauma, once he got the idea. The worst of
it, at least. There were gaps and cracks left, and maybe even whole portions of
things he hadn't thought about at all. He was pretty well on toward healing
however, as far as that went.

Enough
so that the idea that he was kissing his Aunt didn't really matter to him. Oh,
random strains of banjo music tried to play in the back of his mind, but he
silenced that well enough.

Keeley
was just the right amount of tentative and vulnerable to leave him feeling old
and wise, without bothering to say no at any point. They actually did a lot
more than he would have, on a first date with a virgin if she'd been a Human
girl. That would have been some kissing probably, with a bit of heavy petting
over the clothing.

She
got introduced
to just about every single position, including a few that weren't even in the
Kama Sutra, since they were both physically capable of things that regular
people weren't. He started out being gentle with her, but made sure she knew
what it was like to be roughly handled as well, using each part of her in a
variety of ways. She seemed to understand that he was teaching her, and not
just
being a jerk, so made herself enjoy what was going on. Or at least pretended to.
Given her abilities, she should have actually done it, but that part didn't
leak out from her shielding.

At
the end, when they'd exhausted everything he knew how to do, and had tried a
few things that would have killed most people, he laid next to her, letting her
dark brown hair cover part of his chest as he held her close.

Then
he grinned, "so... was it good for you?" Chuckling he kissed her
cheek gently, and wrapped his arms around her slender middle. "Fair
warning, the
only
correct answer is yes. It's best if you play it up a
bit. I mean,
I
understand that you were just going through the motions,
but it's important that you never let on to that. It would also be appropriate,
after that, for you to tell me about how incredible I am and how you were now
ruined for all other men. Unless it was
really
dismal,
and
the
person you were with knows it, then just pretend you came instantly and want to
do it again, soon." He thought for a second and then shrugged. "Which
won't work if they can't perform. In that case, I suppose the idea is to act
like that was the plan all along? There's no good way to fix that, I don't
think."

She
giggled and moved closer to him, letter her cheek rest on his for a long while.

"It
really
was
nice. I guess that's a good enough sign that you aren't
Xenses at least. Who are you?"

He
got that one. It was pretty central to his thoughts at the moment, after all.

"I'm
Zack
. Nice to meet you?" Reaching out he stroked her flat stomach
just a bit, then moved up to her left breast, which responded, growing tight.
The nipple was a nice pink color, and she'd healed fast enough that the light
biting he'd done earlier hadn't left a mark at all. Zack played with her a bit,
thinking about making himself hard again, if she was willing to give him the
chance.

Then,
without asking, he moved down her body with some gentle kisses, just to see
what she'd do. The answer was a lot more friendly than she strictly had to be,
given the rules of their agreement. In fact, she didn't even have to pick him
as one of the five people, according to that. When they were finished, being a
good bit less adventurous or rough, this time, and she spasmed on him, since
they could match up that way a lot more easily than most people could have,
using just a touch of magic to make it happen, he winked at her.

"So,
I'm
Zack
and you are..."

It
was her turn to be playful, then.

"Keeley.
I guess that one would go both ways, wouldn't it? So, do you think this counts
as having sex with a Greater Demon? I don't want to cheat you, on our bargain."

He
thought about it for a bit, but then nodded.

"It
does. I can't see any way that you haven't met both the letter and the spirit
of the agreement that way. Still, I told Gregor to send you a note or
something, suggesting you and he get busy soon, so you might want to do that
too. He's probably
way
better than I am, after all. I'm a little
surprised." He looked at her, noticing that she was still breathing just a
tiny bit hard, though there was no sweat on her anywhere. He was damp, a bit,
even though he'd made a point the whole time of not doing that too much. There
was no need to be gross about it. The area they were in was nice and cool,
without being cold really. It was always a constant twilight here, so it stayed
a steady fifty degrees, or so.

"Oh?
I guess. He seems nice enough at least. I could turn into a little boy for him
or something?" She seemed to mean it, without any irony at all.

Zack
had to just make a face, twisting his mouth a bit.

"I...
Don't honestly know. A lot of Catholic priests do that kind of thing, but
he
seems to frown on it. I'd go in as yourself and see if that will do. Or ask
before hand, politely. You should know that already. I mean, I'm the insane one
here that doesn't get things. I still don't understand how this is a trap for
me, for instance. I mean, I know that Tarsus set it up to be one, but how...
I'm not really certain."

She
moved back, still naked, and gave him a skeptical look.

"A
trap? How do you mean? Can you lay it all out for me? You have information that
I don't."

He
propped himself up and then slowly started to climb back into his clothes. That
got her to do the same, if more cutely.

"Really,
I think the trap is in this; I have information that you need, but I'm supposed
to make you trade for it, taking what you hold most dear in exchange. That part
was pretty much spelled out to me too. Before you ask, he also said it wasn't
supposed to be any stupid bantering about sex at all, since he expects you to
be sort of slutty, after you have a few people under your belt." Zack
grinned and spread his hands. "He was nicer than that about it, but it was
pretty much what he meant. Given that there's no risk at all for you to do
that, as long as you protect your local reputation, that's probably a good
idea. Not having sex as a social tradition is all about controlling people,
after all. Mainly so that men will know if their child is theirs or not. Which
you know."

He
felt like he should have lost her in there, but the girl just brushed her hair
back and smiled about it all.

"Darla
basically told me the same thing, about fifty times. I was raised in America
and so... You know, repressed culture and all that?"

"Yeah,
I hear you there. We're certainly in a different world now, aren't we?" He
looked out at everything and then back at her, pointing out that they actually
were. Literally. In a different world. Or, well, theirs was in that mess
somewhere, but the point remained.

As
Greater Demons they simply couldn't play by the same rules that they'd both
been taught as children. Not if they wanted to survive.

She
got that, obviously. Otherwise she wouldn't have shown up and done everything
they had. After a moment, she glared at him, and finally spoke, as if he were
being dense on purpose.

"So,
what is it that you want to trade for? What do you have for me first?"

He
spread his hands, since that, he feared was half of the trap, wasn't it?

"Well,
I have information about something to come for you. You
need
to know it,
and it's worth... Well, a lot more than you'd think, without me giving it away.
The thing there is that you'll have to trade for it blind, and since I'm
supposed to get a vast thing from you for it, you almost have to refuse. Except
that, you shouldn't. Also..." It clicked then, so he let himself wince,
getting what his part of the trap really was.