Other Places 1: Shortcuts (7 page)

"I'm Conrad. Call on me and mine at need. You're too skinny. People will think our food is no good here if that keeps on." He smiled at his own words and left, his presence slightly baffling after he was gone. He wasn't a human, Zack didn't think.

He was short, but perfect in form, like a regular sized man standing off at a distance. It was more like he was a good looking normal person than not, light skinned, but with very normal brown hair and eyes. That and a white outfit for cooking, one that was very nearly spotless. It just didn't seem right.

Whoever Conrad and his people were, they made excellent fried rice. Zack had just finished it when there was a knock on the back door. He'd seen it before, the big metal thing, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine who it would be.

Tossing his container and wiping his mouth carefully he ran to open it, just in case it was a delivery, or some Mage that needed something.

It wasn't.

When he opened the door it was a very cute looking dead girl that had a pierced nose on the left side and an even
more
dead man on her shoulder. That one didn't move at all.

"Um..." The girl stared at him for a very brief time then pushed passed him. "Help?"

The outer door shut on its own, swinging closed instantly, in a way that would make going in and out without a key hard to manage. It didn't move fast, but the dumpster was out that way, meaning that when he wanted to tidy things he had to remember to prop the thing open. It wasn't something he'd thought of overly yet, since all he'd really had to deal with so far was a lot of collapsed boxes, which he had sitting in the far corner of the big back room. It was actually about twice the size of the storefront, which was kind of telling if anyone was going to pay attention to that kind of thing. Who needed a huge and empty back room?

It was obviously for their illegal dancing studio. Covert ballet training or something. Zack didn't smile at his own thought, more interested in the situation unfolding in front of him.

The thin girl with her piercing and fake red hair stared for about ten seconds. He just waited, figuring that she'd say something eventually. Probably that she had the wrong door and knew it. It wasn't like it could be that hard to find the correct side of the building.

"Fuck." It wasn't all that articulate, but she sounded pretty heartfelt about the sentiment. "I know that we aren't supposed to do this, but the human police are following me and watching the door on the other side. I picked this fellow up, he'd been jammed under a house. Can you hide him here? Or, freaking hell... He won't wake up for nearly six hours. If the police get to him before that, I'll have to kill them. It's the rule."

A pounding came from the door then, almost as if they'd been waiting for her to explain herself first.

"Open up! Police!"

The Vampire grimaced and started to put the body down. Zack sighed, and moved under it, surprising her. He'd never carried another person through a rift, but there was a first time for everything. Dead bodies in his back room would clutter everything up. His legs nearly collapsed under him as the girl looked concerned, her face baffled as he waddled slowly toward the rift, picking a nice area in an old growth forest that he'd noticed earlier. It took about four seconds, but that meant dumping the man rather unceremoniously on the other side. It was night and cold out, so the fellow should be alright for a while there. Stepping back was easier.

It really didn't take long, about fifteen seconds for the whole trip. The red haired girl stared at him a bit for some reason, but didn't say anything.

The police yelled again, so Zack went and opened the door, the man he found not seeming like a cop at all, wearing a decently nice suit and having a short, but expensive looking haircut. He was just about to pound with his fist again when the door opened, nearly hitting Zack in the nose. It wasn't fast, so he had time to get out of the way.

"Come in? It's pretty cold out there. Please, enter."

The man stepped in, looking around suspiciously, eyeing the Vampire like they knew each other.

"You think I didn't see you? Carrying in that body like that Nikki? Oh, yeah. Got you now. Where is it? You and your little friends screwed up this time didn't you?" He glanced around and finally looked at Zack.

"Who the fuck are you? Ichabod Crane's shorter brother?"

He didn't answer that, trying to look polite instead. The man growled and started to grab him, but the Vampire girl shook her head.

In fact the look on her face went hard suddenly.

"I wouldn't Baconni. You think you understand the game, but not all of the players are people you want to mess with. In fact
none
of them are, as I've mentioned several times. I can't keep running interference for you. Some people have started to notice and I can't be there all the time to offer protection. I'm not so old I don't have to sleep you know." She looked at Zack and threw her hands up a little, exasperated. "I warned him off of a case a few months back, as a professional courtesy, but he decided it was a good time to start an investigation into what
I
was doing. It's started to screw with my job."

Baconni, if that was his name and not some kind of Italian insult, shook his head, but started in on the woman again, instead of him. Ichabod Crane... Did anyone under forty even know who that was? Other than Zack of course, but he read a lot.

"You can't keep me from finding out the truth forever. Lies about Vampire secret societies won't cut it. What is it, a cult? Some kind of drug empire? Sex trade? I'll find out, and when I do I'm taking you all down." He looked around the largely empty space. "Now, where's that body? I know he's fucking dead, I took his pulse before you ran off with him."

Zack waved around the room, then walked to the door of Lisa's little office and opened it, surprised to find it unlocked, there was, of course, no one in there. He did the same with the restroom and supply closet. Then he walked with both the invaders into the front of the store.

"Candles and More. None of the 'more' is a collection of people, I assure you. Now, if you'd like to look around, please feel free, but there isn't anything here other than slightly expensive scented candles and some nice decorations. We do give a discount to public servants however, if you see anything you like. Only thirty percent, so, you know, it's not a
bribe
or anything, just a little thank you from us to you. For all your hard work and public service." He nearly made a crack about how stupid the man sounded, going on about not believing in Vampires as he stood next to one, but realized that would be a bit mean. If the man couldn't wrap his head around it, then he just wouldn't be able to. Even most people that
wanted
the supernatural to be real couldn't truly understand it. Not when they were faced with it.

The man lashed out with a foot and kicked over one of the new displays. As if that wasn't good enough he cleared a row of candles from the shelf next to it for good measure.

"Fuck you! I know what I saw. This isn't over." Then without any explanation at all he stormed out, taking time to stop and tip an entire shelf like an angry little boy who'd been told he couldn't have all the candy he wanted.

Zack appreciated that he didn't slam the front door, since it might have broken. He did glare at Zack through the window, as if trying to memorize his face.

"OK, I take it back. He
so
isn't getting that discount now."

The Vampire girl looked at the mess and winced a little. It was a forced gesture, something she was doing on purpose to try and make herself seem more human, but it was close to being right, given the mess.

"Crap, sorry. I'll pay for this. I didn't mean for it to get so out of hand. What did you do with the guy I brought?" With a single swipe of one hand she knocked the long bangs out of her face. Her light blue eyes watching him closely.

"I took him to the forest. I'll peek in, but it's probably a good enough place for him until your friend leaves. So... You two used to date or something?" He smiled but the Vampire made a sour face at him.

"You mean because normally no one would keep going after someone like this unless it was personal? You'd think, but he's on me like a dog with a bone. This is the last straw though, the next time someone goes to kill him, I'm letting them do it. Screw him if he won't learn." She spun, her leather jacket shining a little under the florescent lights.

"Nikki, I'm the Proctor for this area. I know, it sounds cool, but that's only because I'm awesome and no one knows what the job really is. Basically the baby Vamp dog catcher. I clean up after the messy kids and try to keep them out of the papers and off the news until they either become responsible enough to do it themselves or I kill them for making my job too hard."

"Zack. Retail clerk. Not awesome at all." He smiled at her, waiting for some kind of judgment, since it wasn't a very high powered job, but he just got a solid nod instead.

"Really? You took another person through a node, without any kind of ceremony, power raising mumbo jumbo or three weeks of fasting and prayer, and you're just a clerk? What does the janitor do around here? If I want a pony can he miracle one up for me?" There was a bit of fang then, as if she were subliminally trying to impress him with how dangerous she was. Like that would work.

Zack shook his head and rolled his eyes a little.

"Nope. That's me too, meaning I need to get to work picking up after your not-boyfriend. You said you'd cover the damage? Do you want the candles if I can save them then? They might still be usable and you never know when the power is going to go out." It seemed a reasonable sales pitch, but the woman laughed.

"Oh, hells yeah. If I have to put in a claim for this with Lenore, I might as well have something to show for it. You know her? Stone cold killer from way back. A bit of a bitch too."

Zack started toward the first point of damage, since it was the smallest of the three main messes. After a few minutes he had it back together, only one of the candles being dented enough that he doubted they could sell it. There were five more in the next pile on the floor and a broken ceramic holder. That was pretty useless, but might be fixable with some superglue he thought. The last shelf was actually broken, which he didn't even know how to request a fix for. Three lines of heavy candles were smashed in places. It was horrible to look at and had left smears of wax on his floor. That would have to be scrapped up somehow, since wax didn't wash away.

Without waiting he wrote up a receipt for all the damaged pieces and handed it over, figuring that it might take a while for it to actually go through. Nikki took it and read the whole thing, then counted the candles and tried to argue that one of them wasn't that badly damaged at all.

"I mean you can barely see the dent if you turn the thing around like this." She set it on the counter, looking hopeful.

"Then it will look great in your bathroom next to your tub, won't it? Cinnamon scented too, if it isn't too strong for you?" That could be a real problem he figured, if that was even a thing. The woman tilted her head back and forth a bit, but still seeming a bit upset by the whole thing.

"I hate this kind of thing. I swear, if I have to pay for this out of pocket I'm going to kill Detective Baconni myself. Idiot." After letting him bag most of it up for her she looked across the central hallway and nodded in that direction. "Edom is there right now? Cool. He likes me. Lenore thinks I'm pretty much a waste of space." There was a brief pause as the man turned, as if hearing his name. It was pretty clear that was the case, and Nikki just started explaining the whole situation, pausing when she got to the part with where the man's body went.

"Um... Well. This fellow here went through the node here and took him away, then came back." There was a tone to her voice that said she didn't really believe it. "I think he can get him back?"

Zack shook his head a little.

"Such faith. I can go over there and use your node, after I close up here? Just after nine or so? I just don't want to clutter my place here up with bodies." He needed to finish fixing the place as well as he could, and that was going to take a bit. Nikki had told him they had about six hours before the man woke up. It should be enough time.

The Vampire next to him looked like she expected to be yelled at for being gullible, but the dark man wearing his little apron just looked at the clock on the wall and nodded, as if it only made sense. That got Nikki to go over, meaning he had some time to do the needed work. It left the store looking a little lopsided , but he really doubted anyone would care overly. He'd set up an extra Christmas display there or something in the morning.

The next day at least, if he could get to the store at all for that shopping. He had a good shortcut to the craft store, if he could get an hour or two to actually go.

It took a lot of work to get the broken shelf to the back, after unloading it, the thing being made of heavy enough metal that he felt a little weak compared to the Detective. If he ever got the time he decided to start working out a bit or something. Lifting weights. He could start with the dead man in the forest. That counted, right? He didn't know for certain but it had felt right, carrying the man. There was a sense that if he wasn't all the way off the ground when going through part of him would be left behind. That wouldn't make him happy when he woke up at all, would it?

The heavy shelf got tucked on the far side of the space, away from the node by a good twenty feet. On his way back he hit the lights and made sure to lock the door securely on the way out. That kind of thing was important, since they had expensive candles in there. More than that too. Some of that might be tempting to a thief, records and that kind of thing? He didn't know if that was true or not, but really didn't want to test the idea either.

He headed straight across, not stopping, to find that there were a half dozen Vampires and at least two humans in the store, Edom talking to them, just sitting at a table. Zack waved and walked past, not needing anyone to tell him where the node was. He could feel it after all. The thing practically drew him to it, a feeling almost like falling forward a bit.

Nikki followed him and Edom must have, because when he panted his way back carrying the heavy corpse, he was standing there, being very still, not even breathing. Zack had to set the man down fast, almost collapsing under his weight, the black Vampire pushing the dead man out of the way and grabbing
him
, like he was the one in danger of falling down.