Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (2 page)

"Sure! Here. Um..." He
shrugged, and didn't even mind the move this time, then went on, trying to be
open and honest about the whole thing. "I'm kind of old. A few... Um, I
think it must be close to fifty thousand years now. I don't know if that will
make a difference?"

The man hesitated, then took a
breath.

"Okay... Well, either that's
a great way to get me not to check, meaning this is a trap, or it's real and I
need to be ready for it. Well, either way, let's see?" He moved in
smoothly, and clasped hands with him. It was electric. Powerfully so.

It was enough that only his own
force of will, honed over the ages, allowed him to not jump back screaming. The
other man was doing better that way, and after five minutes, his eyes closed
the whole time, he gasped and let go.

"I... See. Well,
that's
pretty convincing. Why don't we go and look around here then? While I shake and
recoil from all that?" He seemed to mean it, and Yavvel moved toward the
door, his face calm, but his shadow stating that he'd walked way too far
already that day, and what he really wished for was to get to his embassy, on
the upper floor.

The thing there was that he
didn't know how to get out of the situation, without potentially losing this
new contact. After all, this second Line-Walker had gotten him home. For
free
,
apparently. Courting him as a friend only made sense. Enough so that the other
man, who was dressed like Zack was, nodded.

"I
agree
, Ambassador.
Why don't you go rest up, and I'll try to get things set up that way? I see no
reason for us not to all be friends. This is a
good
being, as you sense."

The heavy man nodded, hoping it
was the right thing to do, and then headed toward the front of the place. To a
door that would have been about where the front of the gift basket shop was.

Zack looked at the other man, who
waved subtly toward a nice door to the side that had owl carvings all over it.

"Um, sorry, I didn't get
your name?"

The other guy, who was possibly a
demon, even though he didn't have one inside of him that Zack could see,
smiled.

"Zack Hartley. Same as you.
I even used to
look
like you, which is interesting. I can change shape,
so I picked something a bit different, since you also kind of look like my dad,
who was a horrible monster. Anyway, let's go and see if you can find any
differences? We won't take long, so your Lisa won't worry too much." Then,
as if he were pleased about the whole thing, he guided them out into the the
book store, which was nice, and much larger than he would have expected.

When they came out a familiar
person waved to them from the front desk area. A bit absentmindedly, not really
looking at them until she helped a very attentive older man. One who it was
kind of clear one of the
other
Alede had been having sex with. Zack
could tell, since that woman came out from the back, a wave of interest hitting
him
. That kind of person did things like that.

The new one wasn't a person that
he knew however, though as she walked up to them from the back she froze,
clearly understanding who he was. Her shadow actually spoke to him. That
happened a lot really. It was kind of like telepathy, he guessed, but very
visual for him, too. Really, it was like there were two solid people standing
there, at the same time.

Zack?

He answered in the same fashion,
knowing that her conscious mind wouldn't understand it.

Yes. It's me, only from a
different place.

The other man, the alternate him,
smiled.

"Roberta, this is Zack
Hartley. They just call him Hartley where he comes from, which is a different
reality. He's a Line-Walker too, but is honestly a human, not a Greater Demon.
I was going to show him around, and see if I can get him and some of his people
to work out of here part of the time. Their operation is a
lot
more
advanced than ours."

Zack smiled and gave a small wave
to the woman, who, instead of looking at him like an oddity, seemed ready to
get on her knees and help entice him to stay. Her inner self seemed to like
that idea anyway. She reached out to touch him, a flash of lust coming off of
her that was strong enough to affect him pretty strongly. He felt himself
stiffen, and locked that response down using a
lot
of focus and physical
control.

No one else noticed it, but
Kaitlyn, the woman working the desk, walked over, pushing up a pair of glasses
that looked familiar. Unneeded too. She was exactly like the girl that he knew.
Lovely on a level that was nearing perfection, confident seeming, and...
Controlled. At least compared to the other succubus that was trying to subtly
drag him off to the side. Not that much compared to his Kate, but there had
been real work on that score, it was obvious.

He didn't really get it, but the
other Zack shook his head a little.

"We don't have time for that
right now. Leave Hartley here alone." He didn't try to explain to the
Kaitlyn looking woman, who smiled at him instead of the demon that ran the
place, locking eyes.

She pushed her hair out of the
way, her inner self amazed at what she was seeing. Then she glanced at her Zack
and shook her head.

"Can reality handle
two
of you?" It was playful, and not meant to be mean at all. It wasn't even a
real question, though her friend nodded in response.

"Hartley here is...
Really
different than I am, Kait. I don't know if there's a version of either of you
in his world..." His shadow said that he did know, however, and was lying,
so that it could be explained in a more normal fashion. It would leave the
woman feeling safer about it all.

Looking at the Alede, Zack
nodded.

"Kate Swanson is one of my
protégés. A Line-Walker. She's an Alede, like you, not a human." That got
an interesting response, since the women both seemed to think that wasn't
possible for some reason.

Kait at least moved closer. It
was interested, rather than being
too
friendly.

"
Seriously
? We can do
that? At least the Alede from your world can learn how?" A delicate hand
came out, touching his arm, but if she was excited, or fearful, she didn't let
anything leak out to inform him about it. Being an Alede, and he knew for a
fact that she
was
, that should have been nearly impossible for her.

His Kate could do it however, so
he nodded.

"One of them has learned. It
took her hundreds of years in the void between worlds though. I don't know if
you can learn how to do it, or not, but if you want to try, I'll help you.
After all, you're
already
too much like my adopted daughter for me to
sleep with, so there's no need for me not to have twins." He was hoping it
came across as playful. It probably didn't really make it, since he was a bit
awkward that way.

The other Zack laughed a bit,
then looked at the girl.

"I honestly don't know if
you can learn his way, but you should
try
. That other Kaitlyn sounds
incredible. Not that you aren't too, but it could come in handy, if you can
learn how to do it. After all, what's a few hundred years?"

The girl took a slightly
shuddering breath, and then bit her lips. It was mainly excitement at the idea,
Zack thought. That and nearly crippling fear at the idea of being alone for
even a few hours.

"Could I do that? I... Is it
all right? I don't know if I can handle being away for hundreds of years. I
have people..." She was clearly torn by it all.

So he shrugged at her, and looked
at each of the people in turn.

"Time in the void is
different, so it will only seem like a few days out here. Then, you can maybe
use a year or two of working the lines, under weak and insufficient
supervision. There's no real reason you can't work from here. If it works, I
mean. So far most people have failed, when they tried, or ended up with pretty
different powers. Still, you're
a
Kaitlyn, so it could work? Even if it
doesn't, everyone that lasted more than a year or two has really seemed to
benefit from the training. It's a bit like intensive meditation really. Except
that you get to do it, and nothing else, for a very long time. You don't need
to do anything else there, at first. Not breathe, or sleep. You won't need
food, or rest. So it works pretty well." He smiled, but too late,
wondering if she were going to wisely tell him to take a flying leap.

Some had, and more had declined
to even try it, fear owning them. This girl just took a huge breath, and then
shuddered.

"That... It's pretty much my
worst nightmare. Won't I starve? I need energy to survive." She was also
thinking about how lonely it would be, but he shook his head.

"Nope. You don't need food
or energy there. Or have a body. The whole thing is kind of cool. So... Is it
all right if we finish the tour here first? I have to say, this place is pretty
awesome. Everything is so different! Where should we go next? Oh! Do you have a
Frozen YoGurt here? One of my wives, Claire Hawthorn, works at the one at Underwood.
She's a vampire? She's the Ambassador."

Other Zack got it first, his eyes
smiling a little bit.

"Lenore, I bet. My
girlfriend here. She's the regional head for the western states now. Edom Freeman
is the Ambassador here?"

He had to shake his head then,
"not a name I know. Still, it would be fun to see it."

Kate touched his arm, then took
it, showing an Alede ownership sign. Pulling on him a little, getting a pout
from the red headed Roberta, she lead him toward the front.

"You have more than one
wife?
That's
progressive of you.
Our
Zack is a bit shy that way.
I think that Eve is in right now, down there. She's my girlfriend?" Her
inner self wanted to know really badly if he knew her from his own world, but
the name wasn't familiar.

The mall itself was a little bit
plainer inside at Westfield. There was no place to sit, and fewer stores were
open in the place he came from. For all that, there were a lot of people
walking around. More than he would have thought normal for his mall. Kids and
teens, along with adults walking in pairs. Families, too.

"This is nice. No planters,
though. My mall has those all over the place. A skylight over the main walkway,
up there." He hadn't really thought about it but this place was a bit
darker that way.

As he was lead from the shop,
headed to the left, he noticed a few differences. For instance the sign for
Frozen YoGurt, proclaimed the place as Yoghurt World. Off to the left they
passed The Chasm, which was called Brand Village here. Across the way Beautiful
Plus was Pretty Plus:
Passions
.

The Knife shop was still just
called that however, which was the same. Looking behind him, spinning a bit
like a tourist in Paris for the first time, Zack saw that the herb shop was
still there and inside he noticed Wu-Li, who bowed to them. He did it back,
then waved at the young looking ancient man.

He
would
have stopped, but
the Kaitlyn here was just about as goal oriented as his own, which meant he was
tugged along firmly enough for it to be real. Since it was walk or lose his
balance, he tried to chuckle and actually keep up.

She
really
wanted to know
if he recognized her girlfriend. Eve.

He didn't, not in a personal way.
Looking through the window of the Yoghurt World he saw her and while she was
fantastic looking, and smiled brightly when she saw them all, she wasn't anyone
he knew from work.

Glancing at Kait he shook his
head, not wanting her to feel bad about that. There were lots of people in both
worlds that he didn't know, after all.

"She's new to me. We should
go say hi? She seems nice." At least in that she was attractive and had
bothered to smile at him, even if he was with her girlfriend. Given what
succubi were, that could mean a lot of things, but probably would mean that he
was trying to bang her. If she'd been anyone else, or if
he
had been,
that might even have been true.

His link to the Alede that he'd
learned to pass energy to had left him nearly perpetually horny, and unable to
do anything about it for himself. Other than to lock that part of him down by
force of will, that was. It worked, but took a level of focus that was hard to
keep up with while being wowed by a different world.

Once they were all inside, the
girl behind the counter, who looked to be in her very early twenties, clicked
in his head. He had met her, if only in passing. Snapping his finger he smiled.

"Oh,
wait
! We have
met. You're the vampire from the movies? The one that always plays the Space
Marine roles? That kind of thing? Um... Hernandez? You just look different
here." Then he realized that the poor thing wasn't going to have
any
context at all for what he was yammering on about. Before he could explain, she
just nodded.

"So, this is Zack... Only
from another world? Nifty. I don't do movies here. I just make fresh and tasty
yogurt products. Would you like one? You can pay for it?" She looked at
her Zack, who shook his head a bit.