Other Places 2: Road Blocks Read online

  Other Places: Book Two

  Road Blocks

  P.S. Power

  Contents

  Chapter one

  Chapter two

  Chapter three

  Chapter four

  Chapter five

  Chapter six

  Chapter seven

  Chapter eight

  Chapter nine

  Chapter ten

  Chapter eleven

  Chapter twelve

  Chapter thirteen

  Chapter fourteen

  Chapter fifteen

  Chapter sixteen

  Chapter seventeen

  Chapter eighteen

  Chapter nineteen

  Chapter one

  "Do you really think anyone is impressed with a minimum wage earning, thirty-odd year old candle jockey that works in a rundown Mall? Have some pride, and get a real job, punk. Like selling to me." The man that was speaking to Zack had been saying things like that for about five minutes. There was no one else in the store, but the fellow was clearly, and irrationally, upset. That meant he was trying to take his anger out on the only person there.

  It wasn't a rational thing, and the beefy, bald fellow, was trying to push him into admitting that he had drugs for sale. The problem there, Zack decided, was that, if he did have anything like that for sale, he wouldn't have sold it to the man in front of him at all. Ever. He was like every bad undercover cop from any eighties movie you wanted to name. It was so obvious that for a few minutes it was really hard to tell what he was actually trying to do at all.

  The voice inside his head agreed, which was a rare thing. They normally argued a bit.

  Mirror Him, his alternate personality, wasn't going to take this much longer either it was pretty clear.

  'How's the arm feeling boyo? Cause I'm going to punch this dickhead in the nuts in about six seconds.'

  The problem with Mirror Him was that about half the time when he said something like that, it was really about to happen. Zack cleared his throat and looked out into the Mall not seeing anyone at all. It was the dead side, so that wasn't a big surprise, this time of year. February wasn't a prime shopping season.

  The fellow leaned in, which had Zack moving back, into the hole in space the movement made. It wasn't a real attack, but he was a bit shy about things like that right now. The last scuffle he'd gotten into had left him healing for six weeks nearly. His arm was better, and so were his ribs, but the strength hadn't come back yet. Given that he'd had to look up to ninety pound weaklings before that, it wasn't a good thing as far as his martial arts skills went. Or wouldn't be if he had them, he was sure.

  "Sorry, you need to leave now. This is a candle shop. We don't have drugs. We don't sell hot women, and if there's anything else you might need officer, I suggest you look someplace that actually sells them. Now, if you don't leave this minute, I'll call the police and let them take you out, as you proclaim that you're innocent loudly for all to hear. It isn't much of a threat, but it's all I have for you at the moment. If you want my best material, you need to buy something. Just to clarify, in case you missed it, that would be candles or candle associated things. Incense, holders for that... what have you."

  The man paused, just for a moment, the gap in his body language screaming at Zack that his words about being an officer had accurately hit home.

  "What? Who said I was a cop? Do I look like a pig, I mean man, I'm just trying to score here... Dude, I can't believe you'd say that. What, so I need to bring a friend in to vouch for me?" He got a lot less aggressive then. It probably had to do with the fact that he was too busy trying to seem cool, rather than like an authority figure. It was a bit late for that.

  "No, you don't look like a pig. Just a police officer. It's in your bearing, around the edges. You also keep touching the spot your side arm would have been back when you wore a uniform, even though the one you have is on your back. I'd guess local police, but I don't know that. You're no one I know, clearly. So... You were asked to leave? We don't have that kind of thing here at all and if we did, trying to make me sell to you wouldn't work. Also, you have bad breath. Dental hygiene is a good habit to have. I get the idea, keeping things realistic, but there are limits." Zack wasn't trying to be mean to him, so shut his mouth then, before the rest came out. A part of who, and possibly what he was that forced him to tell the truth all the time. At least if his lips moved. If he didn't talk, he was normally fine.

  At the moment he was feeling a bit upset, not being used to people trying to make him do illegal things like this. Not by being mean to him at any rate. The very idea that an undercover cop would come to his store and think they sold drugs... Well, honestly, that made a lot of sense. The manager had just gotten back from a retreat, which for Mages was kind of like rehab. Only with chanting and spells, if Zack had been told about it correctly. She seemed better, but was actually working at taking it easier now. She left work at five now, every day. That meant he was there in the evening, so got to deal with jerks like this.

  That was better than Lisa having to do it. For one thing, she might even know something that could get her in trouble. He just didn't. That would protect him a bit.

  Zack pointed at the door, but smiled a bit.

  "So, the next time you come in, please do so for your candle needs and remember, the 'more' in the store name just means incense. Thanks." He actually sounded relaxed and like he was a bit amused, even though the man stormed out, calling out that he should go fuck himself with his candles.

  'Ooohhh, kinky." MH laughed as the man turned to glare at Zack. "You could have him killed, I bet. Lenore would get it done for you. Or you could take him into the back and push half of him through the Node, that works too. Hide the body in never land, or some shit."

  Zack tried to let that suggestion pass. After all, Lenore would have the guy killed, but running his mouth a bit wasn't that big of a deal. The strange thing was that she wasn't in her store, as far as he could tell. It might be that she was on the phone in the back, since her job had her doing that a lot, but she almost never left the front space go unattended for more than fifteen minutes or so, and he was nearly certain that if the Vampire Ambassador had heard the man hassling him, she would have come over, or at least walked to the front carrying the hand held, to look at them through the window.

  She was his girlfriend after all.

  That part was sort of new, but he was planning to actually get her something for Valentine's Day, which would be a first, as far as women went. If, of course, they didn't break up a few days before the holiday. That was something that he'd seen people do a lot, and his self esteem was low enough to realize that she might just not be that in to him. The sex was great, since she was willing to have it with him, and couldn't get pregnant, so it took a lot of subconscious worry out of all of it. She was very skilled at it and he wasn't, but he was almost certain that she didn't enjoy having sex with him at all.

  It wasn't a great thing to think, and he hoped he was wrong, but there wasn't really anyone to talk to about it in his life. Troy, his best friend, maybe. No one else really.

  That didn't mean he wasn't going to worry about her, if there was a problem. The fact of the matter was that if anyone could just take her from Yoghurt World, Zack wasn't up to doing anything of note about it. Which also showed how little they had in common. If he saw a mugger, he'd try to run, and end up caught, losing his wallet. She ate them. The balance of power was just a bit off there, between them, wasn't it? Still, he was her boyfriend and that meant making sure she was doing all right, when he could.

  Her store was open, which was always true, being that it was a twenty-four hour a day place. The candle store wasn't, but they did half days, seve
n days a week. Most of the time managing to bring in no more than a few hundred dollars in that time. They weren't a real store, so it was hard to get people into the place. It was an embassy for Mages. Who were also the ones that actually paid for the candles. They used them in rituals, and things like that. Probably while bathing or having romantic dinners.

  'I know Zack, why not go across the way and find your hot chic and bang her? The place is dead. Theirs is worse.' That was a Vampire joke. Mirror Him ran hot and cold that way. That it was that bad meant he thought it was weird too, Lenore being gone that long.

  "I'll just pop over and see what's up? I'm probably going to catch her having sex in the back, but hey, that's cool, right?" The idea actually didn't bug him as much as it would most people. It was one of the rifts that people caused all the time. They wanted to have a lot of connections with people, and weren't allowed to, which made holes in their personalities. They didn't notice it, mainly, but Zack did.

  He headed to the back for it though, since if she really was doing something like that, he could see it through the Node. As long as it was in the back room, and not the little office space, or the bathroom. Or the closet they kept the mops in. Or up in the ceiling, under the tiles. She could do that pretty easily, with her super strength and agility.

  The Node was in a magical warding circle made of silver, which was inlaid in the tile floor. The arcane symbols along the outer rim were pretty meaningless to him, since that hadn't been part of his early education at all. He knew Mage law, since his grandparents had taught him that. He even knew a bit about herbs, or had once. His grandmother did that kind of thing, but he hadn't used it in years.

  In the center of the mass of symbols was a floating distortion in space that was like a spotlight to him. It called to him the second he got close and tried to draw him inside. Really, it was a way to go almost anywhere, if you could use it. Most couldn't, and other than Demons, who didn't need them it turned out, being able to make their own, only one being could do it without great cost to himself or others.

  Zack.

  Unfortunately it was the kind of thing that ran hot and cold, it seemed. People that needed his help to get someplace, or find something, normally traded with him, or occasionally paid a lot for it in cash, gems or precious metals. Generally trade though. The rest of the Universe just didn't need him at all. At first he'd had a few in every couple of days, asking for his help, or trying to get a free trip, since he'd given loads of those away for Christmas to people in the Mall. Lately it had dried up a lot. Maybe it was just the slow season, but it felt like people were avoiding him.

  'Wah. I'm Zack and can't figure out how to make my cool super power do enough for me. Baby.' The voice in his head was back to normal now, as he approached the Node physically.

  For a second he nearly didn't look at what Lenore was doing. She was an adult, and if she really was doing something she didn't want seen, then it was wrong of him to look, wasn't it?

  It was simple to find her, since the Mall only really only had one Node. Most people didn't understand that, because there were nine stores with them, in physical space. He got it, feeling it easily, but most didn't. Not really.

  Peeking into the back of another store here however was simple and happened instantly, which meant he was looking at his girlfriend, on her knees in front of a stately looking man, her head bobbing a bit. Zack blinked, but realized after a second that it looked wrong. She wasn't blowing the guy, but...

  Begging?

  That didn't make a lot of sense, did it? She was the Ambassador there, and while the man seemed to be a Vampire, nothing else about him spoke of power. Which could happen if he were old enough. A long time ago Vampires were picked in their human forms for reasons other than great looks. Even now the pattern was to pick nice looking people, rather than jaw droppingly hot. It made it easier to hide in most places.

  Finally, after a few moments, he tried to focus, working on something new. Light passed through the Node, so why not sound? It wasn't as easy to get, and they sounded very soft and far away.

  "Please Vaughn, don't do this. It's wrong to get the Line Walker involved in our business. We can do it some other way. The council..." There were words after it, but he couldn't hear them.

  Hearing her beg to protect him was worse than her doing what he'd been thinking she had at first. That would probably just be politics after all. She'd explained that part to him on their first date. Sex was used for domination more than pleasure among their kind. It was that too, but not the main reason for it. It was probably why she was on her knees like that anyway, to try and tempt the man into doing that, instead of whatever he wanted to do to Zack.

  "I know. I ran it by them first, and half of them suggested we just cut our losses, but it would be... hundreds of people. We don't have a lot of time left, I don't think. The Node has been taken and no one else can do anything about it. We'll protect him as best we can. With our lives if need be, I promise you. This isn't just our problem, a dozen races are involved here. We have to ask."

  The trouble with the whole thing is that Zack was nearly positive that the asshole making his girlfriend beg like that was crying at the same time. They were clear tears, not the blood all the movies had promised. Lenore didn't get up until the man started to walk out anyway, apparently to come visit with him. She followed then, and Zack walked to the front.

  'Always liked that Lenore. Yup. Good gal you got there. What do you get a Vampire for Valentine's Day anyway? A box of chocolatiers?'

  That actually sounded about right. He was hoping flowers, and maybe a nice piece of jewelry would work too. He was busily thinking about that while he walked to the front counter, not bothering to hide what he'd been doing, after all, it wasn't like he could lie about it anyway, if asked.

  The wooden tile floor was new, being put in about a month prior at night, while they were closed. He'd helped out a strange creature with an unpronounceable name, whose wife had wandered off. Not run away, just actually gone out one day and gotten lost. It was a problem for their people, but the being liked her, so Zack had done his part, not figuring that there would be a trade, since he didn't speak the guy's language at all. That was so wrong. They got a new floor in one night, and the front door had been replaced, so that it didn't squeak when being opened. He wouldn't have even known who'd done it, if Cormack the night Vampire from across the way hadn't seen him doing it. With his wife, who was pretty happy to be found as well, it seemed.

  The new floor was nearly seamless, and easier to keep clean, so he'd switched to the dust mop for it, rather than a broom. Zack was only thinking about that because Mirror Him had grabbed it from the back on his way past, not that either of the two Vampires really noticed it at all. Not even as a potential weapon. That made him slightly sad. If either of them had a nice thick dust mop handle, made out of hardwood, the other would be staring, and trying to find the exits.

  For all her begging of moments before, Lenore came to him first, her eyes happy looking, except for the extra red in the center. That was a sign of real agitation and was hard for her kind of Vamp to control.

  "Zack? I've come to ask something of you, and you should say no without hesitation." She looked sideways at the man with her, who was about six-three and had light brown hair. His nose was long and roman and his pale flesh looked a little fake. Almost like he had makeup on for some reason. Zack nodded at him, looking at the hidden fangs. They made a bulge under the top lip.

  "You're wearing makeup, so you can pretend to be a fake Vampire if anyone catches on? That's smart. Just tell them you're LARPing." Live action roll playing wasn't a thing Zack had ever gone in for, but for a man that looked as normal as this one, a little stage dressing and a case for some fake teeth could do wonders. Not for the first time he wondered if one of their kind had invented that kind of thing, or at least the Vampire version.

  "Indeed. Lenore is correct as well. You should pass on this. The only reason that you might not, is the s
ituation." He paused and looked at the pretty girl next to him, who looked nineteen and was a few hundred years old at least. She could be a bit sketchy when it came to a real number, so Zack hadn't pressed the issue. That used to be a thing for women, right? Hiding their age?

  She didn't make eye contact with either of them, so the man started to speak, his voice low and mellow, a slightly rhythmic thing that wasn't sing-song, but started to tug at Zack's mind with the first words.

  "Stop." He didn't want to be rude, but there had to be rules. If they needed something from him that both of them had already suggested he decline to do, it was only fair that he heard it with a clear mind.

  "Forgive me. I..." The man faked a shrug. Everything the old Vampires did was fake as far as emotions went. Except possibly anger. "To be exacting, I was planning to try and control your mind to gain your cooperation. It would be wrong of me to do so, and possibly cost my life, but there is a situation in the New Mexico region, at their Node. A group of... Criminals, I suppose, have taken it over, and are demanding that we send you to them, or they'll kill one hostage every hour until we do. That place is much like this, except..." He paused and drew in a deep breath. Vampires didn't need to breathe, except to speak, but this didn't seem false for some reason. That had to mean it was even worse than Zack would have thought.

  "I've been there. They actually had people in their stores? Real ones, I mean? Shoppers. Not that we aren't real, but you get the idea. Soccer moms, and Little League coaches. That kind of thing?"

  "They have several hundred people, and if they kill them, we won't be able to hide it from the authorities. As it is we may not be able to anyway, even if they can walk out now. It isn't strictly needed, hiding ourselves, but scrutiny by the police is a danger to some groups. The weak, and those that can't protect themselves in a typical fashion from incarceration."

  'Plus there have to be kids. It's what, an hour later there? On a Friday? Yeah, school girls in their pretty little dresses, even a few boys for you, Zack, with their letterman's jackets and crew cuts. You just have to rush in and sacrifice yourself for them. Oh, you must, you must!' The sarcasm was laid on so thick that Zack could feel it inside his head. MH didn't stop either, keeping up a steady stream of it, just in case he didn't get the idea. Going there was likely to be a bad idea. Probably the last one he'd ever have.