Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (17 page)

Chris nodded, took a bite of the
treat, then handed the cup off to demon Zack.

"Great plan, you have a room
we can use?" He was teasing, but Kait just took him by the hand and moved
him toward the back of the store. It could have been funny, but it really
wasn't.

The other him gestured with his
head, toward the node room on the other side, away from the front counter.
Through the owl door.

Once they were inside he spoke
softly.

"We have things to discus.
Come this way?" He gestured to the node, and moved, unlocking the thing
with an ease that surprised Zack a little.

After all, he'd kind of figured
that doing that sort of thing would be identical for both of them, but it truly
wasn't.

It was strange, but the demon
moved through the void without seeming to notice he was there. The place he
went though was even stranger. They ended up walking out to a spot almost
outside of reality. All of it. There was a tree behind them and a grass covered
hill. The leaves were strange, having a weird split structure to them. Almost
like fronds, more than anything else.

They drooped, and were a lot more
yellow and purple than he was used to seeing where he came from.

In front of them, where the
slightly Japanese version of him watched, was a smear of colors. It was almost
all of reality, Zack knew. A tiny portion of it. Folding inside the thing were
almost an infinite number more of them.

Demon Zack shook his head.

"Well, things look to be
changing, don't they? Two new greater demons showing up like this will be a
problem with the others. We can, maybe, hide Kaitlyn, being an Alede, but
Eve... People are
going
to figure it out. She's too powerful now. On the
good side, she's powerful enough that people might not want to bother screwing
with her. You seem to have a plan?" It was a question, but Zack had
noticed that the other man hadn't tried to touch him again.

That meant he had to use his
words, like a normal person.

"I'm probably going to be
going away soon. Into the void. I..." He stopped, not knowing how to
explain it all. Putting out his hand, for the other man to touch, he smiled.
"It's been a while since we last spoke."

Demon Zack touched him and
winced, but held on. His entire life tried to seep out into the other fellow,
but only part of it did.

The guy shook his head and
sighed.

"Wow. That's what, seventeen
thousand years? I feel like a slacker now. So, you have to go and live forever
in an empty place, alone. Just to keep the universe steady, so that the rest of
us can, eventually, live in our own reality, alone... That sounds a lot less
than entertaining. Also like there's a lot of room in what you're thinking for
it to be different than that? If it were me, I'd try for one of those other
options."

There
was
a point in that.
Smiling, Zack didn't argue it.

"I can't think that far
ahead. Really, I've lived in the void long enough to not fear eternity alone.
Stopping horrors that can't be imagined, from destroying everything for
everyone, seems more important. I know, short run thinking, but... Hey, we have
billions of years or more before the end comes." It was how he felt, and
the other guy didn't bother to speak about the end.

It was too much for one person to
handle. Maybe too much for all of them to understand.

Zack, the other one, looked at
him and smiled. It was both familiar and different at the same time.

"I hear you. Procrastination
is key to getting by, sometimes. So, we can get together and work out who works
were, when? I'll take your friend Chris's advice, and see about pulling some
shifts at Lesser Shia. We just opened that up last week."

Then, opening a hole in space a
lot more easily than Zack would have managed, a node, not a shortcut, the man
walked into the void again. He followed instantly, since it was easier that
way, and moved back to Westfield mall with him. Into the bookstore. The node
space there with the really great floors.

Then they went to the cafe, since
Chris and Kaitlyn weren't done. The demon smiled and waved at the side room
they'd gone into, to indicate the topic.

"Go figure. The kid has a
lot of personal control, and doesn't want to end too fast. What is
up
with his brother anyway? I get the whole rape thing, but stopping his little
brother from getting any kind of contact past a hug seems a bit harsh, doesn't
it? We've both had to deal with things, and Don there only has one event. You
should work with him on integrating and mastering that, so it won't keep
hurting him like it is. You know
how
, more or less."

The cafe, which was on the left,
at the far back of the place, was decently sized, and being run by a square
shaped, curly haired woman that seemed different than anyone Zack had seen
before. He didn't ask what she was, because a steady stream of food came out at
them, with a combination of savory and sweet things. The woman seemed
frightened, which got the other Zack to wave at her a tiny bit. Barely moving,
actually. Just enough to catch her attention.

"Palma, this is Zack
Hartley. Call him Mr. Hartley. He's the human line walker. The real one. Not
that we can expect anyone else to buy that, other than the demons. He's from a
different place. He might be through here, from time to time, so please make
sure he gets something to eat when he does? He needs to eat more."

Zack looked at him, and gave the
woman a nod.

"I do?"

"Oh, yeah. Especially if you
aren't going to get to anymore soon. The memories will need to last. You need
to test that thing with your Lenore, too. Claire. I don't know her, but getting
her killed if she doesn't need to die over it seems like something to avoid for
you."

It was true, so he nodded,
knowing it would have to be done soon. It
seemed
like she would be all
right, but it didn't take a genius to understand that things might not work
normally if he never came back to physical reality. If that was how things had
to work out. He wasn't certain that was the case, but at the moment he didn't
understand how the whole thing was supposed to work anyway.

It would either work out, or not.

They ate, with the demon version
of him doing a lot more of that than he was. It was like watching an eating
champion put food away, except that those guys generally reached a point where
they were full, and had to slow down. The guy next to him just kept going,
ending up at about the time that Kait and Chris came from the sex room.

Chris didn't look embarrassed by
it, locking that part down rather well. The succubus just looked pleased.

Standing up, Zack checked to see
if Troy and Barb were back yet. They weren't, but that wasn't a big issue for
them. Troy could get home on his own, and having Zack sit by the node, wringing
his hands nervously wouldn't help anyone in the slightest.

"All right, we can all find
the place now, or will be able to soon. Can you swing by in a few days? We
should keep things open that way." Not that Chris wasn't going to want to
volunteer to come back. The place was going to be fun for him.

That was pretty obvious.

It took a minute to come get everyone
moving, and he got Chris to head back to the vampire node, so they could let
Eve know they were heading back now. Nikki was there, cleaning the place, which
was a job that she knew pretty well already. She could even work the shop, the
two places being so similar.

Zack smiled, and clapped once.

"All right! We need to be
heading back. You have what you need here? I can bring gold, or... Mop the
floor?"

Eve laughed, and shook her head.

"We're good. This will take
a few weeks. Then I can get Nikki back to you. Easy as pie."

"Sounds good then. Bye! Talk
to you soon!"

He headed to the back, but Chris
didn't, saying something to Eve first. Zack went straight back to his own mall,
far away. The boy could find his own way back. It felt cold and hard to him,
but people were going to have to stand on their own. No matter what happened,
no matter how things turned out, that was the truth.

Still, being himself, Zack waited
in the back of the basket shop for Chris to show up. Troy did it first, walking
out of the node, looking smug.

"Yeah, that's right, who's
the best trainer of line walkers?
Me
. That's who."

Zack smiled, "Great! So Barb
will be around, too?"

"Yup. She's pretty cool. I
mean, no Hilda, but as a vampire she can actually have a real
relationship." There was a bit of humor to the words, but his friend
didn't go into everything he wanted to.

Like how he'd been getting really
close to Merry for a while now. It wasn't really a bad thing. It was in the
end, good to love others. In a way he kind of envied Troy that. Zack liked
people, and felt a lot of empathy for them, but there was something that was
lacking inside him now. Probably because he was just so very old. Ancient,
really.

They didn't talk about it. It
wasn't the right time for things like that. No, Zack needed to let his friend
get back home and to...

That part hit him suddenly.
Honestly, there was nothing at all that he needed to do for whole
hours
now. He wasn't due in to work until nine the next day, and it was only a little
past two. Smiling he waved, doing it silently, and went home. The long way.
Just walking in the dark and enjoying being alone for a while. Zack didn't want
to be ungrateful, but his life was filled to the brim now, that way. Most of
the time he wasn't in the void, he was bombarded by people that wanted things
from him. Money, travel to different locations, or simply his time.

True, a lot of people had that
kind of thing going on in life, but it was starting, rather suddenly, to wear
on him. It was, almost, like he felt ready to let go of it all, and simply
become something else.

Big Shadow. Maybe.

A being that didn't even have a
name. That was weird, since Big Shadow had saved him as a child, and been there
with him for a very long time. He could feel it now, thinking back. The giant
in the void was strange, and different, but there was a thread that rang
through it's being, behind the great age and wisdom. It was him. Not perfectly
so, but he was involved there, and it was clear to him now.

The night air was cold, not just cool,
and he'd forgotten to bring a jacket. It was so seldom that he just hung
outside anymore that it hadn't even occurred to him. Crossing his thin arms
over his chest, he tilted his head and started to walk a bit faster. There was
a shortcut ahead, which he could feel, even if it was out of the range of his
physical sight. It would take him to... Iceland, of all places. He'd never been
there before, but it felt right. It also sounded really cold.

So he stopped and headed back
toward the mall, nearly an hour later. It ate up time, if nothing else. No one
was out and about, not that he was worried about muggers now. He knew how to
fight, and could pull out some tricks that even a gunman wouldn't be ready for.
True, that might not help him against a mage, or vampire, but it also
might
.

It was four by the time he got to
the mall again, and he had to borrow the node in the back of Frozen YoGurt,
since Something Wonderful was closed and while he had keys for it,
they
were back in his room. It wasn't hard, but he had to go to the back of the
basket shop, then take the shortcut from there over to his house. That took
about a minute, but felt like a lot of work, after his long walk. He wasn't
tired. It was different than that.

Confused
, came to mind.

The biggest problem there was
that he didn't know what he was feeling that over. Yes, he'd gotten the
explanations from Riley, but it didn't feel
right
. What demon Zack had
mentioned was in there too, now.

There was doubt that he was going
away, or had to,
forever
.

That was, he knew, a really long
time. He was weird already, but his mind
had
been tempered by having
others around. Even Big Shadow had contact with others. What would happen to
Joe Smith, after fifty million years floating as a point of consciousness in a
vast pool of nothing was beyond what Zack could dream up.

He only knew what much shorter
things than that were like.

The thing to do, would, of
course, involve talking to Big Shadow. The first thing he needed to check was
simply the idea that he was both the gate and the gate keeper. He'd come to
that conclusion, based on what Merry's inner self had said to him, but that
didn't make it true. Even though he didn't think that Merry wanted to lie to
him, he knew for a fact that she might. Even her shadow self was different than
a human's. She was far more aware of it, for one thing. All Elth were. So she
could have been fooling him that way.

Maybe even for his own good, or
to get him to be a little more proactive in the moment, to prevent all that
from happening. It was also possible that he'd been right the whole time, but
giving up wasn't his way. You didn't survive in the void like he had, and come
back
,
if you wanted to just let things happen to you, or give up.

That in mind, he moved to the
living room, trying not to mull over things too much. This was the place they
all hung out, not where guests were brought. This was the real heart of the
house. The furniture was soft and brown, so that little spills wouldn't show
too much. It was tiny, compared to the rest of the place, twenty by forty, or
so close that Zack couldn't tell any different. The only people there at the
moment were Hilda, Merry and Claire. His vampire was knitting what seemed like
a complicated sweater. It was in a silver that was tinged with gray, and had an
interesting pattern to it. Raised bits, that caused lines down the flat
surfaces. There were no arms on it yet, so it might have been a vest, but if
so, they'd have to work to bring the things back into style.