Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (16 page)

As the food vanished, and the
diabolical plan to frame Jamal became more heated in Clarissa's mind, Zack
simply looked over at her, and allowed his inner-self to rise up, vastly. He
made it seem like a beast. Very much like what the vampires had going on, when
they compelled a person.

The basic idea was that they
frightened people into obeying them on a level so deep that resistance was hard
to come up with. It didn't work on him, and probably wouldn't on most of the
others that could walk the lines, since it wouldn't slip under their awareness.

Silently, while finishing a large
wax paper package of very crispy fries, Zack looked at Val, and ordered
Clarissa to behave. It happened silently, so only a third of the room jumped
into response to it.

DO NOT LIE. DO NOT LIE ABOUT
ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN!

He was trying for Clarissa alone,
but it was kind of easy to see that Jamal and Beth were affected too. That
meant he had to order them to simply not speak about what they'd heard that
night. They could, if they wanted too, get with Chris about things however,
which he left open to them. Troy, too. Not him however, since he wasn't going
to bother with anything that silly now. There wasn't enough time left.

Even if he lived forever, there
wasn't, not for people he didn't know, or care about.

Eve watched him after that,
closely, but with a small, fake smile, on her lips. It wasn't until after they
helped clean up, and Jamal drove the girls back to their homes, that anyone
addressed what had just happened. At that, it was just a wink, coming from the
good looking vampire from another world.

"All right, we need to get
people around, and get back now. I'll try to check in once a week or so? If I
don't hear from you first. Where's Nikki?"

Things would have moved faster
then, except the Eve really did want to take Chris with her, and Claire started
to have a problem with that. Fearing that she had unwholesome plans for the
boy. Things that involved torture and rape, probably. If not Eve herself, then
her kind, in that strange and impossible to reach land.

It wasn't the case, but took a
while for Eve to explain that it was just about setting up trade routes. In the
end that meant though that Claire was going too, and taking several of the
vampires with them, so that they could protect their human line walker from
harm.

Which wouldn't work, Zack knew.
Or rather it would, but they couldn't afford to coddle Chris, and he was an
adult. One many times older than Claire even. So, for about the third time in
his life, Zack put his foot down.

"No. Chris goes in alone.
I'll go too, and Troy, so we can get the location. Charli, you probably need to
sleep soon. We'll head over in the morning. Or... Chris can take you? I want to
meet with, um, me, and set up a schedule."

Claire seemed ready to snap at
him over it, but Hilda interrupted, nodding.

"Yes. We cannot act as if
our friends are enemies and expect them not to change as we do it. Eve of the
vampires is a good and capable being. Kaitlyn of the other world, too.
Christopher the line walker will be safe with them. Any may die, at any time.
We cannot live in fear though. It would be wrong to make others live that way
as well."

She sat back, relaxed, and Troy
stood up, smiling.

"A point. Come on then
peeps. I want to go and come back inside the hour, myself. I slept late, but it
was still a bit of a day. I have a shift to cover at the club tomorrow, too.
Part of a day at Lesser Shia as well."

Claire stopped frowning at least,
and looked bemused.

"Oh? Are you not going to
become a full time line walker?"

There was a shrug, and Troy shook
his head.

"I think so? I was thinking
of becoming a vampire, too. Then getting Eve to do that training stuff, but
that might take a while? Then I can be up all night, and all day. I might not,
since I do like hamburgers, but if not that, then I'll figure something out.
Maybe get Eve here to do what you and Zack are? With that blood link?"

Eve stuck her tongue out, and
then shook her head.

"No way. Not if you can do
it on your own. That way if you splat all over a windshield sometime I don't
buy it. That... We don't do that back home. Not legally. Slavery is illegal.
Though, I guess a line walker can't really be taken as a slave that way,
so..."

Her face was untroubled by the
concept, but her words were oddly stressed. Zack didn't know why that was, so
stood and moved toward the kitchen, wanting to use the shortcut there. He carried
trash with him as did several of the others.

In the end Nikki met them outside
the back door, carrying a soft duffle bag, an old military style thing, with
her belongings in it. That made sense, given that she was going to be gone for
a while. Zack walked her through the shortcut to Something Wonderful instantly,
not wanting to put up with Claire's worries for the moment. Not that they were
totally insane, but they
were
unfounded.

Chris, Eve, Lyn, and Troy
followed, coming in fast enough that the idea of not hanging out in the kitchen
had clearly spread. From the node room, which was still cluttered and filled
with baskets that were being put together, he waved them all toward the node.

"Eve, Lyn, I want you to go
first. Take us to your world. I can find it, if you have trouble, but you
really shouldn't. It's your home, after all. Then we'll follow along." He didn't
have to ask if anyone was ready, since they either were, or would be, soon
enough.

The trip through the void was
fast and smooth enough. Troy and Chris both had a bit of trouble finding the
right node point, though Eve and Lyn were almost drawn to the correct place,
now that they were trying to do it that way. Home was familiar, and the easiest
place to find, after all.

Smiling, Zack helped Nikki
through the line, into the back of Yoghurt World. The lights were a bit
brighter than back home, and while both places were clean and professional, the
colors used in this one were a little shinier, somehow. Similar, but just
different enough that it was noticeable. Which probably was just him, and Zack
had to allow,
could
be imagination.

He was going in last, so wasn't
that shocked to find that a cute vampire he didn't know was standing there,
holding a long knife, ready to fight them all.

Eve smiled and waved.

"Hey Barb! This is... Well,
not even close to everyone. You got the word? About the alternate dimension
stuff?"

The woman, looking suspicious,
nodded.

"Edom did let me know about
it. So, you're all demons?" She seemed tense about it, so Zack shook his
head, knowing that what was meant was very different, if no less insulting, in
this place, compared to back home.

"Nope! I'm Zack Hartley.
Human. Troy, and Chris here are, too. We're all line walkers though, which is a
learned skill where we come from, not a thing that people are born doing."
Then he sighed and shook his head, not trying to be confusing. "
Except
the demons. We aren't them though. Um, nice to meet you?"

Barb looked at all of them,
warily, but lowered the long, sharp looking, blade.

"Welcome, then? Does anyone
need anything? I can get you blood, or... Um, frozen treats?" For some
reason she looked at Chris for that, and got a nod in return.

"That sounds great. I can't
pay for it though. I should have brought some gold with me. You take that,
right?"

Eve grinned then.

"Mr. Hartley here has a tab.
Prepaid. I think you can abuse his good will that way, Chris. Anyway Barb, Kait
and I learned to walk the lines, and we need you to go and do that, too.
Really, you and Troy, our Troy, both should. As far as we know he's a shoe-in,
since another version of him who is kind of close can already do it. Maybe not.
I don't know about you, but if
I
can make it happen, I'm betting you
can. You're kind of incredible that way."

Zack was willing to simply accept
that part of things, but Barb snorted. It was derisive and unbelieving.

"
Riiiight
. I'll just
get to the back room and do that now. Who do you think I am, The
Snowflake?"

That was an inside thing, it
seemed, since Lyn hid a smile over it, and Eve snorted back.

For his part, Zack just started
working on the orders that would help her last in the void, and noticing that,
Eve grinned and rather subtly did her magic thing. Then she spun on Troy, and
laughed.

"So, in this world this is
your girlfriend. Why don't you take her into the void? That way I won't have to
put up with the name calling. Though, seriously Barb, after this I expect you
not to run your mouth like that anymore. Not everyone gets a chance like this.
Even if you fail, it's worth trying. I'll watch the store here."

It seemed efficient enough and
while Zack kind of worried that Troy might not be up to the effort yet, he let
them go. It was what Hilda had said that got him to do it. They had to trust
their own people. Yes, sometimes they might fail, but Troy wouldn't. Not at the
cost of another's life.

The very worst thing that would
happen then was that neither of them would ever come back.

Barb really seemed to think the
whole thing was a joke for some reason, but decided to play along, since she
kind of wanted to try and get this Troy into a threesome with hers. That would
be like having twins in bed, to her way of thinking. Plus, not cheating, at the
same time.

There was a soft half gasp as the
two went to the back and vanished, and Eve moved around the counter, to grab an
apron and make that treat for Chris.

"Ohhh. We have some avocado
frozen yogurt made. Try it with the marmalade sauce." She worked
efficiently, and handed the large cup over. It really did look good, but Zack
didn't ask for one, wanting to go and see if the other him was there. It was
strange, since they were clearly different people, but also the same.

The idea of what was really
happening there clicked into his head. They
weren't
on the same line. He
wasn't this other man, or vice-versa, even if they were very similar. If they
were the same being, then the instant he moved into a universe with himself on
it, if it was close enough, they would end up merging. Possibly even collapsing
the two nearly identical universes into one.

How he knew that he didn't understand.
It felt right. Zack was certain of it, and also knew that it probably didn't
matter. The point was, for the time being, that he couldn't get too close to a
real copy of himself. The ones that were very different shouldn't be a problem
however.

So waving a bit, he started to
walk off, Lyn and Chris following. The boy was eating as he walked, and
commented on the food, a gob of green frozen treat and translucent orange on a
long red plastic spoon.

He pointed at the cup after
taking a thick seeming bite of the stuff.

"You know, this should be
horrible. It
isn't
. It really works. I didn't even know I liked
marmalade. Then, I've never had it before, so fair enough."

Zack nodded, and Lyn smiled,
touching the boy on the back.

"Yeah, a greater demon came
up with it. The combination, not marmalade. I don't think so at any rate. Zack
should be in this time of night. Most of the transfers from here happen about
then. Really, it's a lot less busy, since, you know, he's a demon and people
are kind of afraid of him." She glanced at Chris, as if expecting him to
be scared too, for some reason.

He just ate some more, his shadow
showing that he was mulling the idea over.

"So, people are good with
Alede here? I mean, they know what you are?"

The very attractive fake nerd
pushed her glasses up, and nodded.

"Yeah. It's kind of handy
really. We were afraid, almost forever, that if humans knew about us they'd try
to kill us all. Really, only a tiny percentage of them even hate us for being
what we are. It's a
lot
different than I would have imagined, six years
ago. Why?"

"Um, well, we can have human
and Alede line walkers here then, and that should help things pick up. Then we
get your Zack to go, and like do Lesser Shia, where they won't care about that
very much? It might not be needed, but..."

The girl walked with her arm
around the boy. Zack didn't really get it at first, until they got into the
bookstore down the way. Seeing it there, with a big sign that said
"Hartley and Co." threw him off again. It just wasn't Something
Wonderful.

Not that it wasn't still good.

Inside the space other Zack was
there, stocking books onto the shelf quickly, a single half filled cart by his
side. When he turned he saw his Kait, and moved in to give her a hug, his hand
brushing Chris as he did it. Taking in their information, one after the other.

His shadow self was almost
identical to his outer one, so the man himself simply spoke to all of them.

"I took copies of your
information. I think you have a great idea there, Chris. Can I use that? More
to the point, would you like to work out of here? I think Kait is claiming you
first, but this one isn't your brother's girlfriend, so... If I were you, I'd
hit that as often as I could. Eve too, if she's game. If nothing else you two
can be pals."