Other Places 3: Detours (14 page)

"Like
before? Jump on three?"

"Exactly."

They
were faster this time, and didn't all have to cram into a tiny space, being in
a clearing that had decent cover thanks to shrubbery. Right outside the single
story building that the kids were being kept in.

Zack
did twenty-two transfers, which took two and a half minutes, and then stood
there with five armed and black clad Vampires while John, Martinez and the rest
went in, and silently brought the five unconscious men out of the building. Two
women too. All adult, though it was pretty easy to see that the ladies had been
prisoners. They didn't have chains, but their eyes were dead.

He
walked over to where the people had been sat on the ground, and touched each of
them, before they could wake. It was sickening, of course.

"The
women have both been treated for years with burundanga, which is basically
scopolamine. They won't recover at this point. They'll do what they're told
however. The men..." He walked up to one of them, and thought about things
for a second. He was evil, and had raped children daily, just for fun.

It
wasn't that he was a dedicated pedophile. He wasn't overly attracted to kids,
and had also used the women for sex, but he
loved
making people
miserable, and hurting them.

He
also didn't know anything of use about other operations. Not like two of the
other men, who were, in their own ways, even worse.

"This
one has nothing to tell us." The rest though, all had a bit of
information. So he kept going. "These two have some, mainly about things
happening in Europe and these two..." He had to keep himself from slapping
them, but managed, if barely. They were the ones that were nicely dressed and
had on shoes that didn't fit island living. Of course. Shiny things that were
out of place. "These two are CIA operatives, here to arrange kids for delivery
to politicians in the States."

He
had to fight a shocked and betrayed feeling, even though he knew what he said
was true, but all of the Vampires simply nodded. As if that was simply a known
and accepted thing. Politicians could be pretty awful people, at times.

Martinez
glanced at John, "so, where do you want the kids?"

That
turned out, was in several places, since the little ones, and they were all
under ten, had been taken from three different continents. That meant Zack had
to deliver them to nodes in France, the U.S. and, as strange as it seemed,
North Korea. It was delicate, doing that without all the kids freaking out, and
they didn't manage it all that well, since not all of them were totally
shattered yet, having been taken within the last few weeks.

Still,
by five in the morning, Zack was back home, at his real house, so he could get
something to eat and shower. It took a lot of scrubbing and more magic, but by
six he was almost clean again and felt that way. Inside. When he came out of
the bathroom, he found Troy, his best friend and roommate sitting on the sofa,
playing a video game. It seemed so normal, after the day before. Good and
wholesome.

He
pointed at the screen, which was a new thing, and about fifty inches wide.

"Macros
Connection. It's pretty decent. You play as a spy, going on special operations
missions." Pausing the game, since it would be rude otherwise, he smiled.
"How did the first day go in the mines?"

Zack
made himself not feel tired, since sleep wasn't happening, and removed any hint
of depression from his being.

"Not
horrible, as far as that went. I think I'll avoid games about things like
that
for a while though." He waved at the screen. "I'm making pancakes and
eggs, do you want some? We have some real maple syrup."

His
roomie blinked. "We
do
? Wow. I don't think I've ever had that.
Sure, that sounds better than the bowl of bran flakes I had planned for
later."

There
was an affable acceptance to Troy, that Zack could see now was due to his tie
with Finias. In part. He'd started out a nice guy, but had been given orders to
treat Zack well. He didn't know about that, which was a thing that Zack was
going to leave him. It was bad enough being a slave. Worrying about it wasn't
going to help him.

He
got to work on the food, setting things up first, even as hunger gnawed at his
middle. That meant carefully cracking two dozen eggs, and getting both of his
new griddles out, as well as the large, and very deep, cast iron skillet. As he
worked, Troy walked in, his face happy, holding up two slips of paper, as if
they were real prizes.

"I
know that you're pretty busy, but I managed to get these. We had a raffle for
them at work. The gods of luck are with me this week it seems. Tickets to see a
private show from the All Vampire Band. Edom arranged it. They're really
good." He shook his head and then shrugged a bit. "I don't know if
they're real Vampires or not. The front woman, Rebekah, she doesn't look like
it. Red contacts and too many fake teeth. Bleached skin. Still, I wouldn't kick
her out of bed, you know? That's tonight."

Zack
nodded, but figured that the whole thing had been thrown together in the last
hour or two before Troy left the club for the evening. Probably by Keeley. It
felt like the kind of things she'd do. The flow of food didn't get interrupted,
but he smiled.

"Thanks
for thinking of me. I'm in. She's a Manthori Vampire, so, yeah, real. Say, any
news on Stocky the Bunny Boiler?" She was a crazy girl, as in legitimately
having mental problems, who had been stalking Troy after a one night stand...
for about a month. It would have been funny, if not for the fact that she was
so aggressive about it. If she'd been a bit more sane, Zack would have just
suggested that his friend date her for a while and see where it went. She wasn't
hot
, being a bit chubby, but not ugly or anything.

Of
course, if she'd been sane at all, she wouldn't stand around outside the club
telling all the hot women that Troy the bartender had syphilis. Not if she
wanted a shot with him any time in the future. That was why
Zack
was
getting invited to the club, he was willing to bet. Not that he wouldn't have
been otherwise, but taking a girl would probably assure some action. The thing
there was that no women really wanted anything to do with Troy that week, just
in case they had to deal with Stocky. Plus, even the hint that he had diseases
was going to put a lot of people off.

His
friend grunted and looked away.

"She
keyed my car. Worse, she keyed
Edom's
too. It's one thing to go after my
economically priced future rust bucket, but have you seen what Ed drives? It's
worth more than this house."

Zack
winced.

"Damn...
It's a fiberglass body too, not just a new paint job. I don't know what that
will cost to fix, but it's more than a few thousand dollars, I bet."

Troy
nodded, his face looking miserable.

"It's
all my fault, too. I should have known that she was off, and not gone there. Now
my life is being ruined. I could get fired over this. I mean, she's starting to
impact business and Edom isn't going to let her keep on doing things like that,
is he?" The hint there, no doubt, was that they, he and Zack, should do
something about her before Edom had her killed.

Short
of killing her themselves though, what was there to do? Cure her? There were
ways to do that, but from what he could tell from the memories being dropped
into his head, all of them would take a lot more effort than they were worth.
The simplest thing to do would be to make a deal with her and order her to fix
it herself. He didn't take slaves though and wasn't starting, just to save a
vandal. Still, it did give him an idea.

He
went to the phone and dialed a number from memory. That part of being a Greater
Demon was pretty sweet, once he had enough to eat. It meant that, on the second
ring, when Keeley picked up her cell, he was holding the phone with the side of
his head, flipping pancakes, but it still worked, more or less.

"Mistress
of Souls." He intoned it, so she'd get that he wasn't all that pleased
with her still.

"Line
Walker. Am I still allowed to visit?"

He
nearly told her no, after what she'd done, but instead relented.

"Breakfast
in about seven minutes. I'll make more." She already knew she had to pay,
so he wasn't reminding her again. It was an insult to feed her without asking
her to pay, but that had already been taken care of in advance. She'd remember.

They
both hung up, and he managed to get the kitchen phone back on the hook without
letting anything burn and started more eggs, and some bacon to go with it, if
they were going to have guests. There was a knock on the door about the time
the pink strips of meat were starting to sizzle, and Troy went to answer it.

It
was funny, listening to him do it.

"Hey,
Keeley! Finally come to spend some time with me? Come in. Zack, Keeley's here!
We're going to go to my room..." He was kidding, since they always flirted
back and forth when they met, politely enough given that the girl was actually
too young for him.

Except
that this time she took
him
by the hand and started to walk off, trying
to avoid Zack. That wasn't going to happen though.

"Could
you set the table Troy? Keeley." He didn't know what to say, but dished
the food up and then broke out several packages of store bought Danish, and set
them on a large tray. It was clear that he'd need the calories to get through
the day and Keeley had a tendency to under eat, if Xenses could be trusted.

His
roommate looked at the temptingly hot young woman with her dark hair, nice bust
line and perfect features and sighed.

"Well,
duty calls, I guess. So, Keeley, what brings you to our neck of the woods? I
thought you were down in Arizona?"

She
waved at Zack.

"Visiting
you two! You know I can't resist. Darla is busy all weekend with meetings, so
she asked me to spend some time with Zack and make sure our brother doesn't
bother him."

Troy
actually knew all about that, and made a face. The last person he'd managed to
get into bed had looked like a famous actress, and pretended to be her, but had
actually been a Greater Demon. A dude too. For him that wasn't happy news.

Keeley
patted his arm slightly, answering without needed him to speak about it all.

"Don't
worry, with Greater Demons gender doesn't matter. Now, what's this I hear about
a stalker? It sounds fascinating..."

Zack
let her deflect from anything important while he served food, then sat down and
started eating some eggs and pancakes, along with melted butter and real syrup.
He let the others serve themselves.

Troy
went over the whole story again, including the bits about how Xenses and he got
busy, along with Stocky, who'd given her name as Ann, at the time, which had
gotten him into a big mess. He ended with the cars being damaged, which got a
gentle nod from the Demon.

"Well,
you could get a restraining order. It won't do much, but then you can call the
police in to remove her. It won't really protect you. Have you considered a
gun? You should arm yourself anyway, given the life you lead. All those undead,
I mean, and shape shifters, just hanging around." There was an almost
subliminal shudder along with the words.

She
was leading him, it was clear, away from the thought of her in particular,
being a Greater Demon. Like anyone would ever forget that?

Zack
blinked, but worked it out well enough. Troy, while not a ten, was a nice solid
seven and a half and paid a lot of attention to her. She actually
liked
him. As in, wanted to date the man, eventually. Maybe at least. That meant not
being associated with Xenses, who was about five seconds away from being a
traumatic movie moment shower scene for his friend. Crying as he tried to scrub
the stain away.

Keeley
wanted to prove that she, at least, was a real girl.

He
kept eating and burning magic so he wouldn't freak out. Bun after iced bun went
into his face, so fast he barely tasted anything at all.

When
the last of it was done, he just got more and pushed a filled tray in front of
the girl. She'd taken very little compared to what she really needed, trying to
fool Troy, on a subconscious level. That wouldn't do at all.

He
looked at his buddy and then waved at her, explaining it all.

"Little
miss Greater Demon has the hots for you. She's trying to work you around to not
thinking of her as what she really is, at least. She's a
girl
, so, you
know, as soon as she turns eighteen or so, you should totally look into that. Or
if you just decide to say screw it and forget the law. For right now, Keeley,
why don't you get on his good side by taking care of his stalker problem for
him? It's why I called you over, as you no doubt have already worked out. I
don't care how you do it." Because, he realized, as cold as it sounded, he
really didn't.

The
crazy chick wasn't his problem. He just didn't want her to work out where he
lived, and firebomb the place, because that was an actual possibility. Someone
had done that to the Tarran 2 LA about three months before, which meant the
idea was still out there. That had been Vampires, but you could look up how to
make a Molotov cocktail online, even if you were a nut job.