Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) Page 2

  "Can reality handle two of you?" It was playful, and not meant to be mean at all. It wasn't even a real question, though her friend nodded in response.

  "Hartley here is... Really different than I am, Kait. I don't know if there's a version of either of you in his world..." His shadow said that he did know, however, and was lying, so that it could be explained in a more normal fashion. It would leave the woman feeling safer about it all.

  Looking at the Alede, Zack nodded.

  "Kate Swanson is one of my protégés. A Line-Walker. She's an Alede, like you, not a human." That got an interesting response, since the women both seemed to think that wasn't possible for some reason.

  Kait at least moved closer. It was interested, rather than being too friendly.

  "Seriously? We can do that? At least the Alede from your world can learn how?" A delicate hand came out, touching his arm, but if she was excited, or fearful, she didn't let anything leak out to inform him about it. Being an Alede, and he knew for a fact that she was, that should have been nearly impossible for her.

  His Kate could do it however, so he nodded.

  "One of them has learned. It took her hundreds of years in the void between worlds though. I don't know if you can learn how to do it, or not, but if you want to try, I'll help you. After all, you're already too much like my adopted daughter for me to sleep with, so there's no need for me not to have twins." He was hoping it came across as playful. It probably didn't really make it, since he was a bit awkward that way.

  The other Zack laughed a bit, then looked at the girl.

  "I honestly don't know if you can learn his way, but you should try. That other Kaitlyn sounds incredible. Not that you aren't too, but it could come in handy, if you can learn how to do it. After all, what's a few hundred years?"

  The girl took a slightly shuddering breath, and then bit her lips. It was mainly excitement at the idea, Zack thought. That and nearly crippling fear at the idea of being alone for even a few hours.

  "Could I do that? I... Is it all right? I don't know if I can handle being away for hundreds of years. I have people..." She was clearly torn by it all.

  So he shrugged at her, and looked at each of the people in turn.

  "Time in the void is different, so it will only seem like a few days out here. Then, you can maybe use a year or two of working the lines, under weak and insufficient supervision. There's no real reason you can't work from here. If it works, I mean. So far most people have failed, when they tried, or ended up with pretty different powers. Still, you're a Kaitlyn, so it could work? Even if it doesn't, everyone that lasted more than a year or two has really seemed to benefit from the training. It's a bit like intensive meditation really. Except that you get to do it, and nothing else, for a very long time. You don't need to do anything else there, at first. Not breathe, or sleep. You won't need food, or rest. So it works pretty well." He smiled, but too late, wondering if she were going to wisely tell him to take a flying leap.

  Some had, and more had declined to even try it, fear owning them. This girl just took a huge breath, and then shuddered.

  "That... It's pretty much my worst nightmare. Won't I starve? I need energy to survive." She was also thinking about how lonely it would be, but he shook his head.

  "Nope. You don't need food or energy there. Or have a body. The whole thing is kind of cool. So... Is it all right if we finish the tour here first? I have to say, this place is pretty awesome. Everything is so different! Where should we go next? Oh! Do you have a Frozen YoGurt here? One of my wives, Claire Hawthorn, works at the one at Underwood. She's a vampire? She's the Ambassador."

  Other Zack got it first, his eyes smiling a little bit.

  "Lenore, I bet. My girlfriend here. She's the regional head for the western states now. Edom Freeman is the Ambassador here?"

  He had to shake his head then, "not a name I know. Still, it would be fun to see it."

  Kate touched his arm, then took it, showing an Alede ownership sign. Pulling on him a little, getting a pout from the red headed Roberta, she lead him toward the front.

  "You have more than one wife? That's progressive of you. Our Zack is a bit shy that way. I think that Eve is in right now, down there. She's my girlfriend?" Her inner self wanted to know really badly if he knew her from his own world, but the name wasn't familiar.

  The mall itself was a little bit plainer inside at Westfield. There was no place to sit, and fewer stores were open in the place he came from. For all that, there were a lot of people walking around. More than he would have thought normal for his mall. Kids and teens, along with adults walking in pairs. Families, too.

  "This is nice. No planters, though. My mall has those all over the place. A skylight over the main walkway, up there." He hadn't really thought about it but this place was a bit darker that way.

  As he was lead from the shop, headed to the left, he noticed a few differences. For instance the sign for Frozen YoGurt, proclaimed the place as Yoghurt World. Off to the left they passed The Chasm, which was called Brand Village here. Across the way Beautiful Plus was Pretty Plus: Passions.

  The Knife shop was still just called that however, which was the same. Looking behind him, spinning a bit like a tourist in Paris for the first time, Zack saw that the herb shop was still there and inside he noticed Wu-Li, who bowed to them. He did it back, then waved at the young looking ancient man.

  He would have stopped, but the Kaitlyn here was just about as goal oriented as his own, which meant he was tugged along firmly enough for it to be real. Since it was walk or lose his balance, he tried to chuckle and actually keep up.

  She really wanted to know if he recognized her girlfriend. Eve.

  He didn't, not in a personal way. Looking through the window of the Yoghurt World he saw her and while she was fantastic looking, and smiled brightly when she saw them all, she wasn't anyone he knew from work.

  Glancing at Kait he shook his head, not wanting her to feel bad about that. There were lots of people in both worlds that he didn't know, after all.

  "She's new to me. We should go say hi? She seems nice." At least in that she was attractive and had bothered to smile at him, even if he was with her girlfriend. Given what succubi were, that could mean a lot of things, but probably would mean that he was trying to bang her. If she'd been anyone else, or if he had been, that might even have been true.

  His link to the Alede that he'd learned to pass energy to had left him nearly perpetually horny, and unable to do anything about it for himself. Other than to lock that part of him down by force of will, that was. It worked, but took a level of focus that was hard to keep up with while being wowed by a different world.

  Once they were all inside, the girl behind the counter, who looked to be in her very early twenties, clicked in his head. He had met her, if only in passing. Snapping his finger he smiled.

  "Oh, wait! We have met. You're the vampire from the movies? The one that always plays the Space Marine roles? That kind of thing? Um... Hernandez? You just look different here." Then he realized that the poor thing wasn't going to have any context at all for what he was yammering on about. Before he could explain, she just nodded.

  "So, this is Zack... Only from another world? Nifty. I don't do movies here. I just make fresh and tasty yogurt products. Would you like one? You can pay for it?" She looked at her Zack, who shook his head a bit.

  "He's not a demon. A human line walker. A real one. Anyway, his Kaitlyn is a line walker too, so he's going to teach ours to do it, if she can learn. I was hoping that you'd go with her? It's in a different reality, but it doesn't sound too bad really. I mean, no me, but I think we can get you back and forth. Maybe you could do the void training thing, too? It can't be any worse than being locked in a glass coffin for six months."

  Zack knew he wasn't getting everything, but the girl moved instantly, making him a peanut butter chocolate swirl dish. The quality was pretty high on it, he noticed. Everything was fresh, just like it was back home, too. I
t was slid across the counter, so he pulled his wallet. His card wasn't going to work, and his cash was all essentially counterfeit, even if it might get past the girl. Patting his pocket he found a few gold coins, so pulled one, hoping that it had some kind of value in this new place.

  Looking at it, Eve smiled and snorted.

  "I can't make change for that. It's worth about twelve hundred dollars here. Unless you want to open a tab?" She winked at him, which was cute, and then looked at her Zack, who shrugged at her. It looked really familiar, actually.

  "That's a great idea. I need to talk to Ed. Probably Bey as well, if I want to risk sending you to a different reality. It isn't totally safe, but... This Zack, Hartley here... He's a good person. I mean, the rare and special kind. Not like we are. We can actually trust him."

  Then as if it made sense to everyone, he headed toward Claire's office. Only it wasn't hers. Not here. It wasn't even Lenore's. In this place it probably belonged to Ed, whoever that was.

  Twenty minutes later he came back out, a good looking black vampire man with him. In a really nice suit. Armani, at a guess. Zack could afford things like that now, but hadn't really bothered, working for a living like he did. He finished his large treat, and had another, paying for them both out of the deposit he'd made with the place, and got one for new Kaitlyn, too.

  Looking at her he sighed and shook his head.

  "That's going to be confusing. We have an identical you there. Well, we'll come up with something. I don't suppose you have a boy name that's different?"

  She smiled, as if trying to be encouraging.

  "Kyle?"

  He laughed, and shook his head.

  "Identical then. Well, on the good side that's probably promising as for learning the new things. If she can do it, so can you. We'll have to figure something out. Other you is off at college, but she visits every few days."

  The girl nodded.

  "I graduated two years ago. I have a Political Science degree." She seemed a bit proud of that fact, which she should be, since she'd actually earned the thing by studying and not just sleeping her way into it.

  Looking around he could see the difference. Everything was just a tiny bit off, time wise. It was a thing to keep in mind.

  Edom, the Ambassador, shook his hand, and seemed wary, even as other Zack kept going over how wonderful, and not into kidnapping, this new him was. It was almost too much, and sounded fake because of it, but after about ten phone calls and two hours, they were able to go over to the Candles and More, so that they could use their node. There was no real reason for that, it was just what he was used too, so it seemed right to him. Automatic.

  From there, they could go home. With only a brief stop first.

  In the void.

  Chapter two

  Zack felt a bit of relief being back in the ultimate darkness again. It had been exciting and interesting to see that other Earth, but there had also been a strange pressure to it for him. A feeling that he was in the wrong place. It wasn't too bad, and he knew that after a while he'd have gotten used to it, but in a lot of ways the whole thing was too similar to what he knew to be easy that way. Even as it was different. That other him was similar to him, but also wasn't really. Not even just Zack from a different world, but a version with enough variation that they were both the same person, and not, at the same time.

  Which was good, since if he ever met one of him that was too close to being the same, they'd probably collapse instantly into a single being. That would get their entire worlds to do the same thing, so he decided to avoid that one, if he could. Just in case it made a difference.

  Sooner or later he'd have made mistakes if he'd stayed however, ones that would have been really embarrassing.

  For instance the Lisa at the other Candles and More had been more than a little baffled when he'd kissed her. She hadn't said anything, though Eve had hidden a chuckle, barely, when it happened. Zack had too many women in his life now not to end up responding the wrong way in this world, he could tell.

  So he'd prepared his new friends, or had tried too, and taken them inside. To the space between worlds. Into a nothing so profound that most broke instantly, once they were there.

  It was why he was cheating, and tried to condition their minds first.

  Kaitlyn had been compelled easily enough. He'd simply ordered her to focus and never drop it, then to keep coming back to that, if she ever got distracted. The girl accepted it, and while she shook a little, scared of him over what he'd just done, it worked about as well as it did on anyone he'd ever tried it on.

  Eve simply shrugged it off like she was a waxed duck and his words were a fine mist. Rather than argue about it, he decided to simply let her try it. They could all leave the line if she couldn't handle it and he could take her back when it was time, after her friend finished learning.

  Instead, the vampire girl barely had an issue at all. There were a few rocky points, when she became a tiny bit distracted, but it was no worse than her friend was doing. He monitored them both closely, staying with them for a very, very long time. Longer than he'd figured, but neither of them were giving up, so Zack didn't either. They were earning their new focus and power however. The hard way, over so long a time that it should have boggled even his mind. That it didn't, just went to show how jaded he was starting to get.

  After a while, a few hundred years or longer, he passed thoughts to them, and once they both heard him, which took decades, he gave the needed instructions.

  Pull yourself inward. Constantly. Otherwise you'll vanish into the void forever. Don't lose yourself now! You're doing it! You're winning!

  Then, gently, and slowly, making sure they both had the right idea, he let them go. To die on their own if they failed. It was close a few times, but after no more than two hundred years, they were both chatting away, holding themselves in place very well indeed.

  It was about that time that he noticed the demon activity. It always went on, the black sense of movement that he could recognize inside himself, and outside at the same instant, but most of the time they didn't go to a single node like they were. The last time that had happened it had been an attack. The demon kind carrying in fighters to kill and destroy innocent people. This felt the same, but there was a treaty in place.

  Since they didn't enjoy dying forever any more than anyone else, it seemed a bit strange at the moment that they were trying again. Enough so that he hesitated, speaking to the girls instead.

  Kait, Eve? That might be an attack. I don't want to leave you alone yet, but I need to go and check that out.

  It was a bit strange, since Eve floated forward, without moving. He hadn't taught them how to do that yet, but after a moment Kaitlyn Two tried as well, and failed to do the same thing. Her friend started calling out to her, about how it was done, but had to come back to be heard. Not that movement was real in the void. Still, perception counted more than not.

  In contact, more or less, the vampire sent out a pulse that could only be described as loving to her friend.

  There is no space here. It isn't moving. Just change your attention. That way. That's all I was doing anyway.

  Then, after no more than a few weeks, they were heading toward the correct node, as a group. Rather than start killing and destroying, he simply moved in, walking through the same node that the demons were using. He left the girls there, planning to be right back, but the instant he was in place he was passed a box. It was done without looking at him, and instantly.

  The man that gave it to him wasn't a demon, but was, instead, his roommate and best friend. Troy.

  "Zack! Thank god. There's a massive storm in Southland. Beatrice got her people to help out, for free, but we couldn't find you. Can you help us..." Then he stopped as Eve and Kaitlyn followed, one at a time, opening the node for themselves.

  Troy smiled, and hugged Kait, then looked at Eve, and bowed.

  She smiled at him, and gave him a hug too.

  "I didn't know that we g
ot a Troy, too. You aren't a vampire here yet?" She kept moving, walking out of the way, since others were coming in, to get packages to take away with them away.

  They were, Zack thought, at the Dallas, Texas, node complex. This was the demon node, specifically but Troy turned, ignoring the strange new girl.

  At least it seemed that way.

  "We can get a large shipment from Lesser Shia. They're afraid to work with the demons on it yet, after the big attack there. You and Kaitlyn can do it? No one is paying for anything. The demons... They signed a treaty, so this is really important to them." What he was trying to project was that they'd all be incredibly insulted if anyone were to suggest they were too surprised by that idea. They kept their bargains after all.

  They just, as a people, didn't expect anyone else too, so tended to be bastards about the whole thing.

  A little dreamily, the new Kaitlyn nodded.

  "I think I can do that, if you show me where to go, and how to take things with me? We should try to get your Kaitlyn, too. I'll need a different name here. Zack said that, once."

  Smiling, Eve looked at Troy and shook her head.

  "Quick update, so this kind of makes sense. I'm Eve Benson. This is Kaitlyn Swanson. Were both from a different reality. This Zack Hartley, yours, took us into the void, so we could learn how to do this nifty line walking thing. Which works, by the way. So this isn't the girl you know. Still, we can help, if those people will let us? How long were we in there?" She looked at Zack then, her face controlled and normal enough for her.

  "Over all? Probably about a thousand years? It would explain why the movement here by the demons all seemed so slow. I hadn't planned on that. Still, you two did great. We can go to Lesser Shia, I bet. You're in charge here, Troy?" He'd passed out the boxes to the others, but Beatrice walked in from the other room, looked at the scene and shook her head.

  "I am for this, as your liaison. That's my title now, after you refused to be married to a demon, due to your misplaced bigotry. It's a bit insulting, but I'll live. I can expect those weekly payments to start soon? Everyone else is being paid regularly. It's only fair." The woman had curly black hair and pale white skin, as well as professional looking clothing. A skirt and blazer that were in matching red.