Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (6 page)

DO IT! DO IT NOW! IF YOU FAIL,
YOU DIE!

Troy took a single deep breath
and nodded. "Got it. You
do
know that I'm afraid of the dark, don't
you? I mean, it isn't like I need a night light, but... Yeah. This void sounds
like the exact opposite of what would be fun for me."

The thing there was that he both
meant it, and was willing to go and do what had to be done anyway. Of course he
wasn't going for himself, but to help the others, so they'd know it wasn't that
bad, and would be willing to try.

Looking at the man, Zack felt
really proud for a moment. He was a human too, but willing to face his greatest
fears to help others. A thing that he had been doing for a long time now. Going
off with the strange pale, tall vampire that came, and helping the being find
lost and abused children. Fighting, and even killing, to either get them back
or avenge them.

It was both brave, and needed.
Someone had to speak for the innocent after all.

Zack smiled.

"You can do this. When it
feels like you can't, keep moving back to a single point. I won't lie, this
will be hard at times, but you're the strongest person I've ever met, Troy. I
think that Eve was right about that. You can do this. I have great faith in
you, too. Also, I'll be there the whole time, so, you know, other than it being
dark, you won't have anything to worry about." Then, without saying
anything more, and knowing that Charli was watching them closely, her eyes
wide, Zack stepped through, dragging an unsuspecting Troy Lopez with him.

Wrapping his best friend up in
his own being, ready to move out of the line if he couldn't handle it. Keeping
that part of his thoughts away from him.

The sense of the nothingness
around them was vast, and small at the same time. Comforting to him. Troy on
the other hand had to fight back raw panic over the idea. It was so great that
Zack nearly pulled him from the line, even as time slowed around them. Inside a
few hours however, that was gone, and his pal was making it. Focusing like he'd
told him to.

Not giving up, like Eve had said.

At about five years, earlier than
anyone else had ever managed, Zack spoke to him, and then, carefully, set him
adrift in the void, on his own. Waiting, in that timeless single moment that
stretched out for decades, then over a hundred years. Finally, Troy moved back to
him, butting into him gently with the dense and tight ball of intent that he'd
become.

What time is it? Outside?

It was a first. Most of the
others had barely remembered the outer world at that point in their training,
but Troy had come to help others, so it seemed right that he'd worry about
them.

Let's go see? My best guess is
that it will be an hour or two. Maybe less. I'll show you how to find the node
points and open them? You can do that now. Then I'll abandon you here, and you
can either become millions of years old, or work out how to escape. That sounds
fun, right?

There was a hint of a snort, a
thing that came across more as intent than anything else, but was clear. Then a
single word came at him. It had friendly overtone, at least.

Asshole.

That, in a way was true, Zack
realized. He'd been taking people into the void, risking their lives, for
hundreds, and at times thousands of years. True, he pulled those that failed,
far more than those that could handle it, instantly, but it was still a danger
to them.

Worse, he expected Troy to fail
at opening the rifts. Not because he hadn't done well, but due to the fact that
nearly everyone that had even gotten that far, all twenty of them, had.

Troy however moved away from him,
waiting, and when Zack focused on the weak point in space that was a node that
entered a different world, he felt the right kind of intention coming from the
smaller impression that was his best friend.

It did take a few tries for Troy
to get it, but he went out first, into the back of Candles and More.

Zack felt a smile that couldn't
exist, and went after him. It was the right one, after all, and the place was
still open. In fact, Lisa was in her office speaking on the phone. Half
yelling.

"Look, we have a schedule
for a reason! I
really
doubt that Zack will view you needing to make an
appointment as an emergency, dad." She looked up as he tucked his head
around the corner, Troy having frozen in place, watching the world around
himself, outside the line. The clock on Lisa's desk said it was only seven.
Meaning that his distortion of time had been good.

They'd only left about fifteen
minutes before, and boom, here he was back with the newest, and highly trained,
line walker. Possibly the most natural of them so far, including himself. Not
that he was going to tell Troy that yet. There were dues to be paid and lots of
Lesser Shia shifts to cover first.

She covered the mouthpiece of her
old fashioned corded phone, the thing was a bit dingy with use, and had started
out a color that was close to what some white people had going on.

"My father seems to think
that he doesn't need to call ahead for a reservation. Grrr. I don't suppose
that you could get him to the Australia node? It... Well, an emergency isn't
really correct, it's a political wheeling and dealing thing, but it did come up
suddenly."

Zack shrugged, and looked back at
Troy, who shook himself, and blinked. Recovering a lot faster than anyone else
ever had, it seemed. At least he was learning to fake being himself again. That
was on purpose, too. He was trying to blink, and act normal, even while not
dropping his internal focus.

Shaking his head, Zack smiled at
Lisa, feeling a surge of love for her. She wasn't fond of her dad, but he was
still family, so she tried to help him, when she could. It was sweet of her. A
kindness that made the world a better place. A lot of what she tried to do was
like that. Oh, she was far from perfect, and felt scared far too often about
things that didn't need her to. Under that she was good though. Not
pure
,
but still special.

"Um, sure. Here, wait a
second..." He stepped back and spoke loudly enough that the man on the
phone would be able to hear him. At least if he was paying any attention at
all.

"Hey, Troy. Can you go and
find George Penbroke, and then take him to the Australia node? He's been there
before, so it shouldn't be a problem for you. I'll give you a lesson on it
first. It's a freebie, but good practice." Then as Troy smiled at him, he
moved, so that his friend could be seen by Lisa.

As soon as he was around the
corner, he smiled, charmingly, and waved at her.

"Hey, no problem. I've been
there, too. Is he near a node?"

Lisa Penbroke was many things. A
bit high strung at times, and a little too emotional about things, at others.
What she
wasn't
was slow, mentally. Or that easily rattled by good news.

She moved right back to the
phone, nodded. Her inner self spoke then, the shadow, which looked real and
physical to Zack at least, turned and spoke to Troy.

He is at the D.C. central node.
The mage office there.

It was clear that Troy picked
that up on the surface level, because he jumped back, his face showing honest
surprise.

"Ah!" Then he looked at
Zack, not knowing how to frame his question.

"It's everyone, all the
time. Welcome to the crazy life! Try to act normal though. Otherwise they'll
have you committed, and that won't end well."

It had happened to him once. Troy
had been a regular person far longer however, so managed to relax, and smile
almost instantly.

"Got it. So I just go and do
that?"

Shaking his head, Zack made
himself wrinkle his nose.

"Nope. First you're taking
me to a half dozen places. Tell George that we'll have Troy there for him in
ten to fifteen minutes? I'm making him figure out how to find places first, so
it may be longer than that."

That was important. None of the
others really had that ability yet, and could only go where they'd been before.
If Troy could learn that part, he'd be nearly set, as far as line walking went.

So for the moment Zack was just
pretending that it was how everyone learned.

It took a bit, since his friend
had to learn to wrap him up, to carry him along safely. Normal people would
start to dissipate in the void in a few moments, not knowing how to survive
there. So Zack pretended to be one of them, actually letting himself dissolve
when Troy started to drop the ball. It wasn't
too
bad, thankfully. He
nearly had to pull himself back together, but after the first trip, in which
they ended up at Lesser Shia, Troy finding it from memory, it didn't happen
again.

Then, standing in the main
working room, a translator in blue walking forward, Zack smiled at them. This
one was a male, though it was nearly impossible to tell that from the outside.

"Hi! This is the line
walker, Troy Lopez. Would you pick a random node location for him? I need him
to find someplace that he's never been before."

The being, who made their living
with words, simply gave a nod, which looked a little spooky, and held out a
very pale white hand. Troy took it, and the shadow of the being passed along
the right data.

Then they stood back and bowed.

"We are pleased to meet you,
Troy Lopez. That is the location of my homeland, far away. We would ask that
you not divulge it to others? Not even the Line Walker Hartley has been
there."

Troy bowed, and then took Zack
through the line. Of course, the instant the right node was found, he knew the
location too, but Troy had done his part correctly. Zack was wrapped up well,
and they ended up in a new place that seemed correct.

There were several of the
translators standing in the room, wearing different colors, with their pale,
slightly flat, faces showing. They were odd, but could have passed for human on
a city street. Zack bowed to them. Then spoke in English, knowing that they'd
understand.

"I'm Zack Hartley. This is
Troy Lopez. If you ever need us, please let the translators at Lesser Shia
know, and we'll set things up." Then since they were clearly a bit in
shock, he turned to Troy, and smiled.

"Now, have you ever been to
the Colorado node?"

His friend hadn't, of course.
Zack knew that. So when he shook his head, he smiled.

"Good. I want you to find
it, and take us both there. Try to imagine a map. It can help sometimes. As a
hint, it's were the main governing of the Shifter Nation is done."

It was a lot clumsier then, but
Troy had seen Zack look into a node point to find things before, and while it
took about fifteen minutes, they got pretty close to the right node. It was in
a storeroom, but in the right building. That counted as being close enough.

Zack chuckled anyway as Troy
sighed and acted forlorn over it. That got the guy a pat on the shoulder.

"You have no idea how many
times I've done that. We need to hurry though. Why not find George Penbroke
directly and go to him? Take me with you, but I'll go home from there. Back to
Something Wonderful. Then we can get back to the house, so you can sleep like a
real person." Zack didn't need to, having a direct tie to a master vampire
like he did.

It meant he had to eat more, but
Claire didn't really need to feed any longer. He didn't sleep, which was a good
payoff, but hunger was a real issue for him now.

Troy, still a bit quiet from his
time in the void, held his arm out, after a moment, looking for George, then
stepped through, giving him a small tug. They ended up in the right place, with
Lisa's stuffy seeming father glaring at them a little.

"You're late." The man
was holding a gold, honest to goodness, pocket watch on a chain. His charcoal
gray suit was impeccable, and matched it however. He managed to be a little
blocky, without seeming truly fat. His steel gray hair was neatly combed
however, and it was clear he was dressed to impress someone that would probably
be considered refined.

Troy smiled at him. They weren't
friends, really.

Troy, a mere human back then, had
pretty much threatened the entire mage community into leaving Nikki and Rebecca
alone, once. They were vampires that had kind of kidnapped George and
humiliated him for a week. He'd eventually let it all go, but instead of being
impressed by Troy, the man had clearly been nursing a grudge.

Luckily it was the name calling
kind, and not a real plan to kill him. George's shadow self came out and
growled, a bit fussily, at Troy, and flipped him off with both hands. It was
hard to fight a smile over it, but they both managed, if with some work.

The darker skinned man, who was
dressed casually for him, not having been at work that night, smiled.

"That's my fault. Anyway,
I'm here to get you to the Australian node? We can do that now, if you want?
Uh, how late are we? I need to get a watch, I guess."

George glared a bit, then glanced
at his nice time piece.