Other Places 1: Shortcuts (23 page)

"Um, Janus I think? From Italy?" He didn't know that for a fact, but she just nodded.

"Got that? I'm only in town for a bit, to tend to an injured friend. He called me in. The human Line Walker. Attacked for trying to keep things peaceful here. Yes, I'll be sure to let him know how sorry you all are,
and
try to make sure he's available to take your calls as soon as he's recovered enough to work again." There were a few more pleasantries, and then she hung up, making a goofy face, her tongue out and eyes looking up at the ceiling, crossed. It was horribly cute, which was probably her intent.

"There. That should set things in motion well enough. It will make them all look bad if we have to hunt this jerk down by ourselves now, won't it? Do you think you can eat anything? I'm buying. Or more to the point, I'm going to snow the counter man into thinking he should be giving me free things, by pretending that's the natural order of this situation."

"Maybe something to drink?" They didn't have soda there, but he was delivered a large cup of room temperature sprite, with a twisty straw, not a minute later. Thanking his new friend, he sipped at it, wondering what it was all going to cost him. It seemed rude to ask, but after a few minutes, the Demon's school work being finished already it seemed, she winked at him.

"Don't worry, I try not to take souls unless people tick me off. This is just me being a pal. You'd do the same for me, right?" It was an offhand type of comment, but Zack answered honestly.

"Sure.
Now
I would. I wouldn't have known to before."

"Exactly why I'm doing it. Now we're friends. See? Someone had to make the first move. Also, like I mentioned, we're going to my dad's party on the twentieth, so try to heal up quickly. You'll need a tux. You can rent one, or... I know, I'll get Bente to make something for you. It will be hard to get her not to freak out and make you look like a Christmas tree, but as long as you don't mind being the best dressed being in the room, it will work."

Then as if it were decided on, she made a phone call and asked for that to be made, talking to The Pristine herself.

"Hey Bente! So, like we discussed? In... Zack, what color do you want?"

He shook his head a little and was about to say black when she answered for him anyway, her voice pleasant and somehow older sounding.

"Given his coloration I say two-tone brown, with a near red shirt under it. I think we'll go subtle here, since he's a little shy."

That crack nearly got her invited to bed, to show her just how shy he really was, but that wasn't happening. He hurt too much for it, and his head felt swollen and thick inside. It sucked, he decided.

When she got off the phone the Demoness got another treat, apparently needing to eat a lot and then sat with him, asking how the Mall thing was working for him. She didn't seem surprised when he mentioned that his boss was going into rehab, sort of, or that the other person in charge had a wife dying of cancer.

Instead she plugged in her phone so that the battery wouldn't die and just chatted with him about her life, or parts of it, covering her friends from school and some of the very normal things she did. Like going to Church on Sundays with her mother, and how she and her buddy, an older woman, had been doing baking for it together for the last several weeks.

"Great lady. Mediocre baker, but really sweet person. Do you go to church?"

He didn't shake his head, or show any outward signs of surprise, but he had to ask about that.

"Wait, I am
not
about to be proselytized to by a Demon, am I? Actually... go ahead, this will have to be good."

She shook her head, a move that he envied, being all side to side as it was, without the girl vomiting or anything. He didn't figure he could pull that off at the moment.

"Nope. Totally lecture free too. Just making conversation. I just go for the social contacts... Speaking of which, I think some of yours are here. How exciting. I hope we can all be friends? I guess I should stand up and stop being so lazy? Just in case they attack." The move to her feet was so graceful that she nearly seemed to float for a few seconds, she settled, perfectly balanced just as Bey and Lenore came into the room, both of them looking... horrified.

"Zack! Are you well friend? I swear I will find this monster that would harm an innocent and make him wish he was never born, much less brought over. This will not stand." There was steel in the little man's tone. Lenore for her part moved to him and tried to give him a hug. It hurt, but he fought not to show any pain. He really didn't want anyone to think he was weak for some reason, even if it was obvious to everyone else in the room.

"No problems. I mean, clearly I need to learn to fight better. I think I only hit him once. Maybe twice, but it didn't do much." Before he had a chance to make a joke about garlic scented fighting gloves, Bey started crying.

"This is not allowed. I should have simply destroyed them all. These new rules are unworkable, if the good must be harmed before resolution is found." There was a grimness to it that got Lenore to smile, a small thing that held rage inside it.

Keeley nodded and held out her hand.

"Well, I can certainly see that line of reasoning. Still, you've done so much so far, and capturing those little Vampires to your cause as you have is a marvelous thing. That's almost never done. It's a shame that Zack got caught up in it, true, but we won't let that happen again. Really, I know that for my part, I'd be happy to see those responsible killed. This Lazar? Anyone that set him to it as well of course."

Bey took the dainty hand and then Lenore did in turn, as if greeting an absolutely normal school girl that knew way too much about them as if it were completely normal.

They each introduced themselves, since Zack, the only on that knew them all, was a little out of it, his head swimming a bit. Not so much that it seemed strange for Bey to be doing it, since the two had met before, but that might just be some kind of old world charm kicking in.

"Anyway, I have to get to school in a few hours, do you think Zack could stay here? I can skip if need be, but I have a math final today. We're doing it early so that we don't have to worry about it right before the winter break." It seemed so natural that neither Vampire questioned her on the idea at all. Of
course
she had a final.

Bey, it turned out, needed to go and attend to some business of his own.

"I'll just pop right out and see about this Lazar, then be back before the dawn." That came out very relaxed. Lenore just looked at her chairs, the backing cushions ripped off to prop him up.

Then, after Bey left, they stood chatting for a while, with Keeley eventually settling on the front of one of the half denuded chairs, not seeming concerned about it. Lenore wasn't pleased, but she didn't complain either, seeing what they were being used for. At five in the morning Keeley stood and moved forward, clasping hands with Lenore again, then, very carefully, kissing Zack on the cheek.

"I'm only a phone call away if you need me. Lenore will stay with you, or at least stay close, right?" She moved her attention over to the Vampire who nodded calmly.

"Certainly. Zack is one of my people now too, not just the Mages."

"Great. So nice meeting you Lenore. Hey, do you want to come to a party? A lot of people are going to be there. Good contacts and all that. On the twentieth? Zack's going, as my date, so you'll have to find your own, but that shouldn't be hard for you. It's a low key thing, for Christmas. Fancy dress."

Then, as if it were an afterthought she gave the woman a card, "call me if you have any questions or need help with anything. We can hang out." Then she left, walking out as if she wasn't just going to vanish the second she was out of sight.

Lenore gave him a funny look that spoke of sly thoughts, and smirked, a hint of fang showing on the right.

"So, you have a date? I wasn't aware that you had a young lady friend, Zack. A very pretty one too. A tad young for you though, don't you think? Is she a Mage? I don't recognize her..." It was fishing, but so obvious it didn't really count.

"Um... We only met once before and she just kind of declared that I'm going to this party with her. To meet a Greater Demon that
another
Greater Demon said I should talk to. The one that just left is The Mistress of Souls. So, not my girlfriend. Nice though, don't you think? She did come when I needed help, and didn't ask for anything in return. I suppose I owe her now anyway." Lenore too, but he didn't mention that, since she was busily looking at him like the blows to the head had made him stupid. In a way it was true, but still, it wasn't a very polite thing for her to think, was it?

"I'm... sorry...
That
was The Mistress of Souls? I..." She didn't say anything else, just going to make a call in the front. When she came back she didn't mention it again for a long time, finally looking at the far wall across from him, she started nodding.

"I just called Richard Swerlin and offered to shove his head up his behind for him. He does swear that the Demoness is as she seems. Friendly and kind. For one of her people at least. Tread very carefully there Zack. If she wants to harm you, nothing I do will stop it. I didn't even know who she was until you mentioned it."

He grinned and instantly regretted the move, his head aching a lot worse for having tried. It was, he figured, the fact that whatever powdered flower Wu-Li had given him was wearing off. He was going to need more if he was going to get to work on time. When he mentioned it to Lenore the girl didn't act surprised or try to forbid it, she just nodded slowly and called out for Cormack to see if that could be arranged. The man walked so quickly he might as well been running.

Ten minutes later he had a bitter cup of very strong herb mix for him.

"Get it down fast. The China man said you shouldn't be shy about it. Good sort. I... This modern time is hard, isn't it? I
meant
to say that Master
Wu-Li
said for you to do that." Cormack pressed the clay mug into his hand, it was too hot to drink fast, but Lenore fixed that with a little ice.

It was horrible tasting and different than the brew from before, but he had to trust that the herbologist knew what he was doing. Whatever it was in the cup it did start to cut the pain a bit and held the aching back a little. His head still throbbed, but it was going to. That was just what the day had to offer and complaining about it wasn't going to help anything.

It was eight before he managed to stand up and start to go over to Candles and More, looking more than a bit of a mess from the beating that he'd been given. His clothing was dirty from where he'd hit the ground and had patches of blood on it. All his of course. Stupid Vampire, being so totally better at fighting, as well as a thousand times stronger, than he was. Worse, he was pretty sure that he'd been better looking too, even with the facial scaring. The jerk had
also
ruined his clothing.

He didn't even try to do anything, except turn the lights and the music on, which took a long time to manage. Sweeping was right out for the day. Luckily the place looked decent already. That meant all he had to really do was manage to stay awake, answer the phone and figure out how to get all the way up on the stool he normally sat on without hurting himself even worse.

It was an adventure, to say the least. After six tries, nearly falling once and just slipping to the side the other five, he managed to perch, his behind beginning to hurt almost immediately. It was pretty clear that it was a bad plan, trying to keep things open, instead of sitting in the back room of the shop across the way and being tended to. It had to be done though. People were counting on them to be open, for all their Candle and More needs.

Almost as if they knew it was going to be a bad day for him, people actually came in
and
started calling at ten after nine. He managed the phone well enough, even though he couldn't take messages, not able to write with his left hand very well. That meant trying to solve things for people on the fly. Most of them weren't that easy, obviously, or they wouldn't need someone from the guild butting in. The second person to come in was, thankfully, a familiar face. He nearly cried when he saw the man and didn't let him say anything at all, just reaching for him plaintively with his left hand.

"Thank god you're here. Can you answer the phones?
Please
, I mean? I can't really afford to pay you, but it will really help."

Hiram Stone let his mouth open and close like a fish for a while before saying anything.

"
What
?"

"The guild needs you. You said you were a dues paying member in good standing, didn't you? So, you know, you're a deputy, or whatever it's called. Please. I'm broken enough that I
can't
do this, not really. I can't even take messages right now. I also can't fall asleep... concussion, so don't let me."

The man blinked.

"I... just came to see if I could get a deal for my niece. She can't afford the dues right now and there has to be some kind of family discount or something."

Zack didn't nod, but he forced a smile, if a small one so his lip wouldn't start bleeding again.

"Yes. How old is she?"

"Sixteen today. I wanted to get it for her, as a present, but her parents insist on paying for it, only, they don't really have the funds right now. It's tradition though. When you turn sixteen you join up."