Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (7 page)

"Four minutes. I expect
better from you, in the future. Tonight it's fine, but what if it had been an
emergency?" Now the man actually sounded more reasonable, almost like an
actual grown up.

Zack didn't comment on that,
knowing that things went wrong and sometimes people just set their clocks
differently.

"I'll meet you back at
Something Wonderful?"

Troy nodded, then explained to
George what they were going to do, even though the man clearly understood it
all. He'd done it before, being Lisa's dad, after all.

Then the two stepped and
vanished. It was tempting to follow them to ensure Troy's work, but he
resisted. It would either happen or not.

After a few seconds he stepped
into the back of his basket shop, getting a bit of a jump from Charli.

Then smiling, and stepping away,
he waited for Troy to get there, which took less than a minute.

"All right, you can fill in
here tomorrow night, when I take Charli in for her training?"

That was meant to be funny, since
the girl had resisted even trying it for a few moments, but Troy nodded, like
it was a real thing.

"Will do. Now what?"

Zack looked at the place and
shrugged.

"
Now
you learn to use
the shortcuts, and we go get something to eat? I'm already getting hungry
again."

That was just a part of his life
now. Then, things always changed.

The night was interesting, for
Zack.

Troy figured out how to use the
shortcuts, and then led him around the world using them, jumping into nodes at
times, in a way that left Zack feeling pretty impressed. It took hours though,
and by the time they got back to the house, they were both kind of hungry
again.

Troy walked them from the back of
Something Wonderful to the point just outside the back door of the mansion.
Inside Merry stood in front of the oven, having just put something into it. The
process had just started, Zack could tell. It made him feel clever, since he
figured it out on his own, not being told by her shadow.

The rolls, which were something
with raspberry filling, didn't smell even
close
to ready yet. Instead
there was a yeasty scent to the room. There were still bowls that needed to be
cleaned too, and given that his tiny wife didn't leave messes for long, that
probably meant that the click he'd just heard was the hot box being closed.

She spun, her red hair not moving
much, being put up at the moment. It was down her back when loose, and a
lustrous color that held hints of metallic shine to it in the right light. Her
green eyes went wide, as her shadow stammered about how sorry she was that the
place was less than perfect.

Then, as if it made sense to her,
she bowed to Troy. It was a low and humble thing. The kind that her people used
for royalty.

"I
see
! This is so
wonderful!" Then, even if it wasn't the kind of thing that she would have
normally done, she ran across the kitchen and hugged him. Given the height
difference that put her face nearly in Troy's crotch. It was pretty clear to all
of them that she wasn't doing it on accident, even though, as far as Zack had
ever noticed, the two weren't sleeping together. Not yet.

Which didn't mean that nothing
was going on there. The idea hit him a bit harder than he would have thought
most days. Troy was sort of with Hilda, but
Merry
was probably the one
that he was closest to, even if they weren't having sex. Maybe even closer than
Zack was with her, which left him feeling a bit sad for a moment.

He locked that down before anyone
noticed, and his shadow was better behaved than most so didn't give him away.

Merry moved back quickly enough,
and didn't seem ashamed of her actions, not meaning them in a bad way. That
counted, if you weren't an evil person yourself, so Zack smiled at her, and let
it all go. They were married, Merry and him, but it had been kind of ordered by
her king, and they didn't get any choice in the matter. If she had a friend on
the side, well, she was an Elth. That kind of thing was actually normal for her
people. It wasn't like he didn't have sex with other people, so it was only
fair that she get to be happy.

It was also interesting that she
could tell who was a line walker and what their rough ages were, at a glance.
Zack
couldn't really do that. Not without asking about it.

Troy smiled and winked at her,
feeling fond of the tiny woman.

"Yeah. I have to say, this
line walking stuff isn't
that
hard. I mean, now that I can do it. It's
probably
just me being awesome again. I can't help it though, I
am
Troy
Lopez."

Eve who appeared in the doorway,
smiling, let herself snort in derision.

"Oh? Sure, it wasn't the
magic I used on you before you went. No, it's
all
you. Not that you
aren't pretty decent, but don't let it go to your head. So that part
worked?" She looked at Zack, wanting a slightly unbiased opinion about it
all.

"Yeah. I think it really
did. He isn't there yet, but I think he's going to be the best line walker in
the end. That includes me, and
I've
had the most practice. I need to go over
some energy work, so he can feed the vampires and Alede energy." That made
sense to him, but Eve made a face.

"Um, sorry, you lost me.
What?"

That got Merry to smile and nod.

"Oh, yes! Several of the
human line walkers can provide energy at no cost to themselves, passing it to
others. It would be good if another can do this. You should show her, husband.
We have offered her no food, or drink, and she is a guest." There was an
undertone of worry there, and Eve started to beg off, her shadow moving to do
it first, not needing anything at the moment, but Zack understood it was an
Elth thing, and to Merry they really needed to do something for her. Or else it
would be incredibly rude.

So he nodded.

"Sure? It won't hurt
anything, and you might be able to work out how to do it yourself. If you
can... Well, then essentially you won't need to drink blood anymore. Let's try
it? I'll need you to lift your shirt up." There was a slight blandness to
his voice, but smiling she started to lift her button up without hesitation.

It was a nice stomach that was
exposed. Pale, and flat, showing just a hint of ab definition. Troy smiled at
it, and looked away, even though he wasn't the type to be really embarrassed.
It made it seem like it was all a joke, but the vampire woman played along
anyway, clearly being a good sport.

Moving in, Zack started to
increase the circulation of energy. As he breathed in he let the power of the
universe come in through the crown of his head, then as he exhaled pushed it
out with force through his right hand and feet.

Then he drew it around. Closing
with her, he explained the idea to her.

"Can you see it? The
movement?"

She stared and then,
surprisingly, nodded.

"Yep. It's like seeing heat
coming off of a hot road in the desert, but I can make it out. Kind of
flowing?" She made hand gestures, which were more or less right.

"That's the stuff. So, what
I'm going to do is add you to the circuit, basically running power through you.
You should be able to take it in. When you get filled up, let me know and I'll
stop."

There was a sturdy nod, and as
his hand connected with her, she made a small sound. It
wasn't
displeased.

"Hmm. Okay, I can feel it.
I'm good by the way. I tend to walk around pretty close to full all the time.
Neat. So, can
I
get in on those lessons with Troy the line walker, too?
I have Alede friends back home that might get off on it. Free lunch and all
that."

Troy laughed, covering his mouth,
and Merry did the same but didn't make any noise.

Zack sighed.

"They do. Get off on it? You
have to be careful though, or they can get addicted to it. Then Kaitlyn will
kick your butt, and lock you in a closet."

Eve just smiled, and looked
around knowing that she wasn't getting it all. That was nice, since he wasn't
going to explain that one, since it wasn't one of his proudest moments.

"That's a good idea. I was
going to try for some food, but I don't think we have any ready, so let's get
that done?" His words came out a bit terse sounding, but that was due to
his own hunger, which was a bit high at the moment. Merry looked worried about
it, being sensitive to his moods. That was an Elth thing too, especially for
the women. It probably meant that she didn't really expect him to treat her
well all the time. He really tried to, however.

Always. She was worth treating
well. Almost everyone was.

Thinking that, he smiled at
everyone, let his eyes go wide and waved for them to follow him to the drawing
room. Normally Claire used it as her office, when she was at home, but at the
moment it was empty. The place was nice, if old fashioned looking. There was
real leather on the chairs, which got Troy to tense, seeing the pain coming off
of it. It was kind of clear that Eve got that too, but didn't let it phase her.
In fact, her inner self spoke of it being a bit tantalizing.

The lesson itself took longer
than he'd thought it would, since Eve could do it, but it took her a while to
really get a hang of the whole thing. Troy got it faster, but was weaker in
doing it at the end than Zack was. Eve, however, moved energy around like it
was an ocean wave. Hard to make happen, but when she did there was pure force
behind it.

Equalizing all of it was going to
take practice, but it was a good start.

A great one.

It was Nikki that came to find
them, or more accurately find
him
, smiling as she watched them from the
door.

"The hungry masses are
looking for their energy fix, boss man. Don and Kate took off already, since
they actually need to study for finals, and Chris is willing, but we've been
keeping him away from the Alede so far. Plus, I don't really have anything to
trade him for it, since we've also been keeping him from getting any, in order
to keep his brother happy. Are these two ready that way? I can do Troy, to pay
for it?" Then she looked at Eve. "You too, if you want?"

Eve tilted her head, and waved
the woman closer.

"Zack says I need to get the
power level down, but if you want to try it, I can do it for free?" There
was a hint of risk to it. A real enough thing.

Looking at them both, Zack
nodded.

"Go really slow, and hold
back as much as you can. This could injure her, and I don't want to explain why
Claire's Lieutenant exploded all over the woodwork in here."

Eve looked at the other vampire
and smiled.

"Interesting. In my world
you two kind of hate each other. Then, there you're several hundred years old,
and dress like a punk rocker. Also Lenore's sister. As in blood relative?"

The process was done the same way
as normal, and while strong forces moved, it wasn't so much that anything bad
happened. It just went quickly, with Nikki moving back away after about a
minute, instead of several.

"Not... Bad. I'm full, by
the way. I... Wait, if you can do that, can you feed
yourself
energy? I
thought that you had to be alive to pass life energy that way?" She was
baffled, and looked at Zack, a bit harder than normal.

"Apparently not? The energy
is coming from the universe, but it always does, no matter who does the
harvesting. The source is the same for everyone, so... I can't see why it would
have to work that way. It's just that humans do it normally, and vampires
don't. Eve has to make herself do it, I bet. Worth it though, since it kind of
means she can have unlimited power and not need to feed."

Nikki seemed fine with that, if a
bit impressed, so turned to look at the door, just as a crowd of people showed
up. Having heard them walking down the hall, no doubt. It was a mix of Alede
and vampires.

Zack looked at them, and worked
out something that he hadn't noticed before. Eve didn't
have
a sex
drive. She'd mentioned that but the rest of what that could mean hadn't
occurred to him. It could be that she might be able to pass energy to the Alede
without any affect on
her
. Even if she did get turned on as a side
effect, like the guys did, it probably wouldn't show that much, so might not be
a huge issue to her.

"Hey, um, why don't you do
the Alede, Eve? Be careful, since you know, they
will
be over-powered
pretty quickly. Troy, would you help out the others?"

Two lines formed quickly, with
the Alede just going however they happened to get there, and the vampires
working out who was the most important at the moment. It was weird, since all
of them tried to work out what they were going to trade, or pay for the
service. Still, after a few minutes, it was decided that sex was a good enough
trade for things, for that night. With the idea that it would probably not be
good enough in the future.

When it was done, with Lyn going
last, she looked at Eve and smiled.

"
You
, are going to be
popular back home."

The attractive, and somewhat
youthful looking woman shook her head then, and sighed.

"More than I already am? I
don't think I love that idea. I mean, look at how everyone adores me already.
Especially
Gene. Why, add this to the mix, along with line walking and he'll be sending me
a dozen assassins by express mail." She didn't explain, but Lyn seemed
amused by the whole thing. Not doubtful though.

"I hear
that
one. I
get the idea however. Now, since we're all good here, what are the plans for
the night? I don't need to sleep. Not if I get to be this topped off. So..."
She was clearly drawing a blank, but expected him to come up with something, it
was clear.

Zack shrugged, then smiled at the
girl that was, and wasn't, his Kaitlyn.

"Lessons on finding things
and how to use the shortcuts? Not everyone can do either, but Troy has both
down now, so we can split into groups. Then, in the morning we all need to meet
up at Lesser Shia, and see what we can do there, and then, if you two are up to
it, we need to go and get you home. I'm not certain if time runs differently there
or not." He looked at both of the new people and shrugged, then winced,
but didn't let that show too much. "It probably isn't that different, but
some events are clearly way out of order, between the two places. I mean, you
already went to college, right Lyn? Our Kate just started a few months
ago."