Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (29 page)

Plus, there was a woman that used
to work there that was a shifter, who Darla thought she could get to come back,
since the woman needed the money. It had been part of a punishment, working
there, since no one else wanted to. Her real end point was to get Vivian in as
well, since it would save her work and effort.

Zack tilted his head.

"Sixty million, but one of
the five people can be that bear shifter that used to work here? She gets part
of the money though. Not a lot, or she won't work very hard, but enough so she
won't starve." Because Lisa was actually concerned that way. The woman
wasn't that interesting to her, but they were both lesbians and had become
friends more or less. It was sort of a solidarity thing.

Darla glared at him, not meaning
it at all.

"Forty million, four, and
Viv?"

He shrugged. After all, he wasn't
going to get anything from it, and it didn't matter because of that.

"Fifty, four and Vivian, but
the
others
need to be mages. We should get an assistant ambassador in
here. If I'm working from here part time things will be picking up, and that
shouldn't all be dumped on Lisa." He knew that his face was too pleasant
about the whole thing, but the demon touched his arm, taking in a tiny sip of
his being, which she told him all about, on the deep level. Even as she did it,
which was interesting to get a report on.

"All right. Forty-five
million, four mages and Vivian. Or Five mages, if I can't get her? Or do you
want me to force that into being?" That was cold, and meant to throw him
off, since she didn't think that he'd be in for slavery.

As a rule that was
true
,
but the bear shifter had been kind of shunned by her own people, so needed the
help. Something about her having beaten Val, who was, in this place, Kaitlyn's
mom.
That
was different, and nearly threw him off for a few seconds. It
had come up before, but was just
wrong
, somehow.

Then he nodded. The greater demon
wanted him to agree, saying something like
deal
, so he did.

In a sudden rush, the world
slapped at him, a wall of overwhelming force trying to take over his mind.

That went away after a few
moments, leaving him untouched. After all, he was used to sitting in the void
between worlds. Simply pushing at him a bit like that wasn't even close to
enough to enslave him. It was a thing that the woman should have realized,
having all his information.

Darla smiled at him, and put her
hand out to shake.

"Fine, then. I'll have those
people in here inside a week and the payment in place by the morning?"

He smiled at the pretty woman,
locking eyes with her, "that sounds wonderful. Thanks."

Then he went to the node in the
back, and tried to find Lenore Hawthorn. It was, in the end, incredibly simple
to do.

Zack followed the thread to
Lenore, who was both very similar too, and most certainly different than
Claire. For one thing, he loved Claire, and the link there stretched off into
the distance, past nothing and back again into a different reality. When he
focused, Zack really could feel that line between them.

The space Lenore was in however
wasn't one that he'd been to before, in any world. There was no node nearby,
but there were shortcuts all over the place, so he was able to go into the
Montana node point and almost instantly walk outside, into the snow, to find
that about a mile away there were three choices that took him to Sparks
directly. From there it took two switchbacks to find the big house where the
woman was. It was a
mansion
, and while different than his, being a
little smaller in footprint and taller by what looked like two floors, it was
still pretty nice.

There was a shrub carving in the
center of a circular driveway, of a hippo. Pruned to look that way, he thought,
not carved really. Not that there was a lot of difference really. You started
with a whole thing and removed parts of it to create a design that looked
enough like another object to fill in the blanks. This one was a bit
cartoonish, but still called to him.

Plants did that, from time to
time. It didn't really want much, just some water. There was a hose by the side
of the house, near the left of the front porch area, in a tan container. It
only took a few minutes, but Zack was still standing there, making sure the
bush had what it needed when a strange man came out of the house.

Water spilling from the end of
the green garden hose, Zack stared more than was polite at the smiling guy. He
wasn't huge, but was a little bigger than Zack himself was. More muscular, and
very pale, but not a vampire. He also wasn't alive. In fact, death rippled from
his being.

Since he was
Cavendish
,
that part made sense. This fellow was a bit younger looking, and seemed to be
in shape, but the face was close enough to give the idea away. Plus,
this
man was different than the strange and deadly man from his world. For one
thing, that man was the incarnation of death in a figurative way.

A being so dangerous and skilled
at killing that Zack was afraid of him, all the time they were close.

This guy gave off a powerful aura
of death, but... It was a part of him. A contained flow of black energy, that
made the shadow inside of him actually black, which was different than most had
going on. Demons sort of did, the ones from his world, but this man was shaped
like himself inside, not a family sized soup can. The darkness was there however,
and pushed at the flesh, forcing it into motion, in the exact opposite of what
life most often did.

What he wasn't, however, was
frightening.

"Hi! Um... I'm Zack Hartley?
Or, technically, I'm a different Zack, from another world? I know I look
different than the one from here. Do you know him? He's way more Japanese than
I am. Better looking, too." It was all true, but sounded insane enough
that he kind of expected to be attacked about the time he stopped talking.

Instead the guy just walked
toward him, and nodded.

"I meant to get to that
earlier. Sidetracked, you know? Sorry bush. I'll do better in the future."
There was no attempt to challenge Zack or anything, just help in turning the
water off, and getting the hose to actually coil up into its little round case
again. There was a crank on the top, which the other fellow worked at, looking
like it wasn't his first time.

He spoke calmly, seeming a little
bit too happy for him being there. It was dark out already, and cold, but not
frozen yet. Hopefully it would be warm enough to let the plant do what it
needed before everything froze. That seemed right, since the shadow of the
hippo bush went down a good seven feet and it was warmer down there.

"I'm Tyler. Gartner. I...
Don't know that I've ever met anyone from a different reality at all." He
grinned, which was big and broad, seeming really happy. His shadow made him do it,
pulling the strings of the body to get it all done. "Which is
awesome
!
Though, the other lands that people come from, a lot of them do say that they
are from pretty far away. I..."

Zack nodded.

"That one got me at first,
too. The other lands thing? Most of them are from different realities, but
those are ones that are accessible through different routes. Places are
interconnected, which makes sense to me. So people from other worlds are
probably a thing you do every day, I bet." He didn't know that, but it
felt right, and the man laughed a bit. He was friendly at least, which was
nice.

So many people weren't, really.

"Neat. Anyway, can I ask you
in? Or, do you have a message for me?" That part had a bit of stress to
it, as if he were asking a question.

About a message from a different
world. Even though he didn't know that he'd met anyone from there before in his
life.

"Nope! I came to pick up
Lenore? Hawthorn? That will be wild. She's..." He didn't know how to
describe it all so just jumped in with both feet. "Back home she's kind of
married to me. One of my wives. I have eight of them, but this world is really
similar, so I guess she's not that different here?" The feeling was
similar, after all.

Tyler gave him a slightly worried
look, and went still. That was kind of an undead thing. They froze like that,
when they were taken by surprise.

"Um... Is your Lenore a
vampire? That's kind of a big thing, but I don't know if you have that there?"

"Oh, sure. Claire, not
Lenore, but she
is
a vampire. I don't know if they look that much alike
though. I mean, you look like Cavendish, but... I don't know, like you could be
brothers, though I think you're this world's version of him. Vice-versa, of
course. His version of being an incarnation of death is much more alive,
though. Scarier, too. Great guy, but he makes me feel like I'm going to pass
out most of the time."

That was a lot to dump on this
young man, but he snorted a little, or perhaps chuckled softly and nodded.

"Can't wait to meet him.
Anyway, we can go in? Lenore didn't mention anyone was coming, but she's
probably just inside the door, since all the vampires will have heard all of
this." There was warning in the words, which was nice of the man.

Not that Zack couldn't see the
people waiting for him. There shadows were right there, after all.

There were
several
of
them.

Four, and all of them sort of
recognizable to him. Lenore, who he'd tracked was there, standing in the front.
She moved forward, letting herself be seen through the door. The beast shadow
inside of her was standing firm, but greeted him with a bow. He was expected,
so it made sense.

Her face was very familiar. The
only real difference was the fact that this version had shorter hair, which was
in a nice shoulder length hairdo that seemed both summery and sporty. She was
in a dress, but it was a bit more modern seeming than the things Claire often
wore. Like she was dressed up to go out to a club that night. The thin straps
on her shoulder exposed a lot of pale and smooth flesh. So party ready. Which
for all he knew, she had been planning. She was in black, and showing enough
flesh to be interesting, holding a black, expensive seeming, clutch purse.

"Mr. Hartley?"

"Ms. Hawthorn?" He
smiled when he said it, which got the other three women there to push forward,
not touching one another.

One of them was Libby, and he
thought he recognized the taller bone white person with red eyes, but the
youngest looking girl, who was sweet looking, and seemed about fourteen, wasn't
anyone he recognized from his own world.

Until he
got
it. That
required him to flip the genders and squint a bit, but was all right there if
you paid attention. Then it was hard to keep his shock inside. This one was a
vampire, which was different, too.

Lenore waved at the others,
laughing a bit, not certain inside if she was allowed to be playful with this
incarnation of Zack. He was said to be human, by a being that might actually
know about it, but that wasn't certain yet. Even if that was the case, he was
clearly a being of power, regardless of his nature. So she didn't want anyone
to misstep and anger him, or cause a fight to break out. They would, perhaps,
win if that happened, there being only one of him, and Tyler being on their
side, most likely. Plus three master vampires and a mercenary. That was enough
that even demons would have feared them.

Zack smiled.

"Hi everyone! I'm a
different Zack? Human, and from a place where the demons are pretty different
than yours. Um, energy beings that possess people? All of you have counterparts
there, but some of them are different. Lenore is named Claire there, and
married to me. Um, Libby Patterson..." He looked at the bat shifter, who
was nearly identical to his, moved forward, looking him up and down.

Like Libby always did. It was
lascivious, but that fit for the high energy girl. Girls, it seemed.

"Calley Hale. Ambassador for
the Nevada embassy, Shifter Nation, which I bet you guessed. Patterson... I
have a grandma named that. She's a wolf. So, if Lenore is Claire, and your
wife, then I'm... Dead, for sleeping with you on the side?" That got a
laugh from several of them, and thankfully wasn't the truth.

"My girlfriend? Still alive
and well. We all live together.
Not
an ambassador though. She used to be
second in command at Underwood, but... Well, some small things came up and she
was sort of exiled for a while, from the community? So she lives with me now.
She's the first of the shifter line walkers, so that's kind of cool, if not a
promotion like you have."

The tall white lady smiled, her
skin so pale that it was like real chalk, her eyes being the color of fresh,
bright red, blood. They shone a bit, and her mouth was filled with about a
hundred fangs. No regular teeth, just the ones meant to break the flesh to get
at the yummy juiciness inside a being.

"Ooh! Do me next! Am I a
famous singer there, too? Hmm? Or own the human blood concern?"

The words got him to blink and
shake his head a bit.

"Not exactly? Rebecca is one
of the younger vampires that Claire is watching. She's quiet, and a bit shy.
Nice? Not famous or anything. The vampires there aren't public, so
that
kind of thing isn't one that really happens."

The last person didn't push
forward, but did just stand and wait.

Finally the Claire that wasn't
her
bowed her head a bit.

"Ginger Harris, Assistant
Ambassador for the vampires here in Nevada. My daughter."

It was clear from the beast
inside the girl that she was dying to know all about who she was in that other
world, but Zack decided not to make too big of a deal about it.

"Hi Ginger, nice to meet
you. Anyway, we should be getting back. Um, are you all going? It will only be
for a few hours, and I can get you back before morning. Then I'm leaving on
vacation, but it will be fun? I mean, in a different
world
. You all have
probably done that before, but it's different when the places are kind of the
same." It was, and he tried not to sell the thing too hard. They probably
could all arrange to go when they wanted, being famous and important there.

Lenore and Tyler both knew Eve
after all, and that was enough to get them a visit he was willing to bet.
Ginger would have been able to pull it off too, though she didn't know it yet.
That one was going to be fun, if the right people were around.

He expected reticence, or fear at
the idea, since being stranded away from home was kind of a big thing if you
were in a different world, but Zack was met with several smiles, and a head bow
from Lenore.

"That is most kind. What
kind of payment do you suggest we arrange for this?" She meant it, but was
also wondering if it would be free. It wouldn't have been normally, but they
were invited to go, by the person doing the work. That should at least allow
the others to call it a gift.

"Well, we're doing a thing,
on the other side? If you want to try it, any of you, that could work? It's why
Lenore is going, but Ginger... It should work for you as well." He looked
at Rebekah, her shadow giving him the name by spelling it for him, and picked
up that she already had a sex drive.

All of her kind of vampire did.
That was different, but then, so was she. In his world there was only the one
kind of that being, as far as Zack knew. Here there seemed to be more than
that.

Lenore looked at him and bowed
again, but didn't speak for the girl. She was young, barely into her twenties,
and less than that as a vamp. She was also an important person in her own
right, having managed to become a master vampire after only a few years of
unlife, and an assistant ambassador less than a year after that. On her own,
with only a bit of pressure put into play by Tyler, who was her boyfriend.

Calley's too, which was indicated
by the interplay between them all.