Other Places 3: Detours (19 page)

The
funny thing there, was that while the other two girls walked away, Hally, the
cuddly redhead, stayed behind. She was pretending that, for some reason, she
was part of the group
needed
for the discussion or something.

Zack
looked at her and shrugged. She knew what he was already, and the others as
well, so why not? Maybe she'd have a good idea or two?

"Someone
has been appearing to me as people that I know, except it hasn't been them.
Shape changing to fool me, for some reason. One of them, a Greater Demon, tried
to make me a slave, while pretending to be Keeley. I think, at least. It could
have been her, and this could be an act now, but it makes a bit more sense the
other way around. I hate not knowing. I don't suppose you'd be able to vouch
for them? Rebekah and Balthias too?" He looked at her closely, as the
others moved all the way inside.

She
didn't answer right away, clearly bothering to think, rather than shout about
how he was insane or stupid.

"I
was with everyone last night. All night, except when people went to the
bathroom. I fell asleep about midnight though, so I can't say for certain,
after that. Rebekah was with me when I woke up this morning. Everyone else was
gone. Then Becky came over, and she doesn't know about things? So Bal and
Rebekah left, even though Becky knows her. Not that she's real though. Just
that she's in a band and had some work done."

Zack
nodded, and then leaned in a bit, taking her hand. The girl's life was sweet
and simple compared to most. She knew some things, now, but in the main she was
about as pure as anyone he'd ever met. It could all be faked, of course.

Probably
not.

It
was just so hard to trust anyone suddenly, thanks to the confusion of the last
few days.

Which
was, almost certainly, the point of the whole thing. Leaving him too confused
to know which way to jump. The only thing he didn't understand then, was why?

Darla
patted his shoulder, but didn't offer any answers at all.

Keeley
just kept her distance, seeming more than a little wary.

Zack
went over everything since the last time Darla claimed she'd been with him, two
nights before, at his house. He ended on the tale of Ann The Rotted, which got
the older Demon to nod.

"I
have memories of her that fit that image at least, which of course, means
nothing at the moment. It's not a bad trick, inserting people like that. I
wouldn't have thought that it would take place with quite so many Greater
Demons at once, but it seems pretty well done, given who the players most
likely are." She glanced at Hally and explained, which practically
screamed to him that she meant if for Zack, but didn't want to risk insulting
him at the moment.

"The
Adversaries, of course. The insane Greater Demons. Normally they can't
coordinate things like this by themselves for very long. That means that
someone is controlling them, or at least making them play nice for a while. The
only thing there is that Ann
migh
t have just shown up on her own.
She's... Strange that way. Like Fram.
Insane
, but in a decently likable
way. If it
was
her and she offered to be friends, Zack should take it
seriously. If it wasn't, then..." She reached out, and patted Hally a bit.
"Well, in that case, I'm betting that they've all scattered by now. After
all, in about ten minutes we're going to go and start laying down some Demon
traps at your mall, Zack. The more of them we catch the fewer will be reborn as
something worse."

He'd
gotten the story on that part at least. There was, roughly, a balance to the
world,
and
the Demons in it. If one died, the next one to come along
would tend to be like it had been. So if it was angry and insane, the next
would at least be an agent of chaos. If it was good and orderly, the same thing
would happen. Not always in the same way, not being a clone or anything, which
was the danger, since the truly batshit Demons tended to live for a good long
while, making trouble the whole time, and that meant, over time that there were
some pretty dangerous things out there. The good died young, and cycled faster.

Hence
trapping
the enemies when possible. It meant that they could be taken
out of play, at least for a while, without risking something even worse taking
their place. True, eventually they'd escape, or be released, but in the mean
time they were out of the loop and not causing too many problems.

Keeley
was going of course, she said, but then shrugged.

"I
can't really help."

Hally
made a face.

"Because
of that mentoring thing?"

Zack
smiled at her, since she had that one right, without even being told. Clearly
someone already had been getting the little cutie up to speed. He reached out
and touched her again anyway, just to make certain she was still showing up as
herself, and not some freaky doppelganger. She was just what she seemed still.
The girl was simply smarter than she pretended to be, and had a good reason to
pay attention. Greater Demons had already had a lot of results in her life. Not
always positive ones.

Darla
ran off, but her sister stayed and shook her head.

"Yep.
I hate that thing, since really, in a case like
this
we should be moving
in with about everyone that will go. If I were Xenses, or whoever is behind
this, I'd be waiting for us there, ready to kill us all. In fact, even if we
can't help directly, I'm going to make some calls. People should go... and look
at your new shop. It will be like a party. You can hold as many of those as you
want." She rose to do it and wasn't wrong, but Zack held out his right
hand, getting her to stop.

"Nope.
This is my problem.
I'll
handle it." It sounded good and even bold
and brave, but he had no clue what he was going to be doing really. He did have
a distraction for her though. "
You
, however, should get the real
Rebekah around, along with her band. The fake her, and you, no doubt, promised
to play at the Tarran 2 LA tonight in a special closed show. There are tickets,
and everything. If they don't show, they'll look bad. Claiming that they didn't
know about it isn't really going to work for most people, not this time."

That
changed the mood a bit, which meant that he and Darla were able to carry
several large cloth sacks full of magical gear to his shop, about three minutes
later, without a pesky little sister tagging along to get killed. Darla
had
to help him, to an extent, being his nanny or whatever, but they were forced to
go it alone, for the most part. The place was
empty
of Greater Demons
anyway. It was like they'd all decided not to like him suddenly. Jerks.

Darla
snorted, a bit derisively.

"Naturally.
They couldn't make it that easy on us, could they? It wasn't even a trap for
me, or Keeley, which would have been a
good
one. She's still too stupid
to run away when confronted with overwhelming force all the time. That probably
means that it really was, and is, about you. Which means that I'm not leaving
your side for a while. It's a pain in the ass, you know that, Zack?" She
grinned though and patted his arm gently, as if to reassure him.

Since
he wasn't totally convinced she was really her, it didn't help that much, but he
nodded, still carrying the bag of potent magical machines. That
was
The
Technician's main skill, making things like that. On the good side that
probably meant she was either really her, or had mugged the real Darla and
stolen her things. Since that would have made a mess at her house, it was
probably the first one.

He
hoped.

"Well,
that's
going to make going to the bathroom later a bit awkward, isn't
it?" He looked around the main section of the mall, which had a few people
in it still, but no Greater Demons, other than them.

"Yep,
it sure is. Well, you'll live and I don't really care, so there's that. Let's
call Keels in then. So... I wonder who you had sex with, if it wasn't Rebekah?
Fifty bucks says it was your dad." She watched him carefully, as if expecting
him to suddenly do something weird.

Of
course, she also had to be wondering if he was really himself, didn't she? He
even seemed different, his mind being more unified than it had been. It could
have been because he was faking it, right?

"No
bet. I hope it wasn't, but if so, that doesn't count. I mean, I didn't know,
right? For properly creepy sex it's no fair making yourself look like a hot
Vampire woman."

"Sure,
we can play make-believe like that if it leaves you feeling better. Or you can
simply choose not to care. Either way."

He
laughed and shook his head a bit, making himself do it.

"Fine.
I won't care about things like that then. So, Aunty, how about you get on your
knees and
prove
you don't care yourself?" He was kidding, but
started to kill off that part of himself that would feel it was awkward, just
in case she called his bluff.

She
nodded. That was just the kind of being she was.

"Or
I can grow a cock and you can do that? We'll have to try that soon too. I mean
that, too. I left Keeley far too squeamish about things like that, so now if
she ends up being gang raped later in the day, it's going to actually disrupt
her thinking for a while. It was a mistake, but I really thought I had more
time. No one goes through to being an adult in a few months like that. Even she
didn't really. Well, you can
see
that one."

Which
he could. They'd even talked about it before.

Then,
as if testing him, she dropped to her knees in front of him, and started to
reach for the front of his black slacks. He shrugged.

"I
get the point. Here." If she was shocked by him starting to undo his pants
she didn't show it, but the people in the mall's main hallway were starting to
stare a bit. That was probably because they were prudes. After a few seconds
she jumped up, her voice sounding cute and girlish.

"Ha!
I knew you were a pervert."

He
nodded and smiled about it, faking a jovial tone.

"Yep,
you caught me. So, should we go make that call?"

Linking
arms with him, she led the way, pulling him subtly toward his own store. There
was no need to talk about things, since, it was clear, they both were going to
be pushing at each other for a long time, neither being truly certain who the
other was. It was either that or she'd simply meant what she said about sex,
and not having prepped Keeley enough for the world they lived in.

The
truth was, he just didn't care at the moment.

What
he needed to do was get something to eat and then...

Really,
that was all. He could even probably take off for the evening soon, unless some
line work came in. If all his new little Greater Demon friends were going to
just take off like that, there probably wasn't a lot for him to do.

Palma
had food waiting for him, which he took to the back office, with Darla buying
some for herself. She paid full price, and didn't even ask about the family
discount. That was polite of her, really.

The
food was rich enough, and filling, but nothing he hadn't had before, so he just
ate, keeping his senses open and trying to pay attention to the world. It
probably made him seem paranoid, but Darla didn't call him on it. Instead she
just ate for a long time, and looked around herself.

"This
is a good space. Are you planning on more than one? Different node locations,
and all that? You should diversify too. Maybe go into business doing something
else as well. Three dimensional fabrication looks promising."

He
blinked at her and then nodded, getting what she was trying to do. Zack didn't
know much about three-D printing, did he? So if he suddenly spouted off reams
of information about the subject, he'd look strange. On the other hand, she was
his mentor, so it was part of her job to introduce new ideas to him. That
subject probably really was the next big thing, so she was also doing her job,
at the same time. It was brilliant.

"We
need a better way to test and see if people are themselves. I should learn to
change shape too. Everyone else around here seems to be able to, and that's
leaving me at a disadvantage. I..." It was whiny, but he said it anyway,
really feeling it suddenly. "I'm not handling this very well, am I? I'm, I
don't know, tired of it already. Three whole weeks in and the whole thing seems
like too much. I can't let my guard down, since if I do, then my brain will try
to collapse. I can't just do my job, because dumb-asses are coming in on the
first day and pretending to be other people. What am I supposed to do?"

He
waved his fork a little. It was real silverware. Stainless steel, since
real
silver was asking for it to be stolen. The point was that Palma had suggested
that food eaten with plastic was always less tasty, no matter what the flavor
was like. It was a psychological point, but a real one.

"I
mean, I
know
what I need to do, which is to keep going, and not let this
garbage get to me, but is this normal? Tricks like this in the first weeks? I
expected people to try and kill me, and pretty much just brush that off when it
happens. I mean, it's the tradition, right? The rest of this, well, you neglected
to warn me about it." He put down the eating tool and held up his fingers,
one at a time. "I mean, don't take candy from strangers, check. Look both
ways when crossing the street, got it. Everyone will try to kill me for about a
hundred years... But the rest of this you sort of left off. I suppose I should
have guessed at complicated plotting, but this seems a little over the top. Why
not just kill me? I'm decent with the inroads, but that's hardly something
worth doing
this
over. Is it?"

The
pretty blonde shook her head, making her hair, which had just a tiny bit of
curl to it, bob a little. Her skin was flawless, which was a sign that she
wasn't a Human, if nothing else. Women didn't look like that. Not real ones.
Even beauty queens had the occasional blemish, unless they hid it under
make-up. Even then you could see tiny bits of roughness in places. She looked
like an Alede, really, which was too much for most occasions.

"Seriously?
No. It isn't normal at all. My take on this is that something really major is
going to happen soon, and that they're using you, and Keeley, as distractions.
That really will only affect Finias and I. Maybe Gregor. Since he's in charge
of North America, more or less. Not that we aren't worth distracting, but it
seems like a bit much for just us. Honestly... I think they're courting you.
Both of you, over to their side of things.
You
make more sense that way,
but Keeley is too strong to play with. It's one way that you know
she
didn't really try to take you last night. If the real Mistress of Souls had
tried that, you'd be her slave right now. That or dead. Once that starts,
there's no pulling back for our kind, which means whoever tried it simply
failed
with you, Zack. The Mistress of Souls wouldn't have. If she tried that, your
only hope would be killing her before she could order you to do anything.
That's always her first move, ordering people to freeze, so keep that in mind."