Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (8 page)

Kaitlyn, looking adorable in a
pair of fake glasses, and jeans that weren't too tight, nodded.

"More than that, I'm
twenty-four. She's only seventeen. At least in the here and now physical world
way. Void stuff is different. Plus, you mentioned that my mother here is named
Patty?"

She was looking at Val, one of
the Alede, who smiled at her prettily, and responded with a bold enough voice.

"That's right. She's very
nice. Does she have a different name over there?"

Lyn grinned, then tilted her hand
back and forth a little bit.

"Kind of? Back home her name
is Valerie, and she's... Well,
you
. I also think that our Nikki is
older. By a few hundred years? Also Claire's sister. As in both made by the
same vampire and having the same parents."

Eve coughed a bit as the
reactions to that info made its way around the room. Nikki didn't respond
having heard it before but the others did. The math didn't work, from one place
to the other, but neither of them had to be wrong. In one place Nikki hadn't
been born for several hundred years, and had different parents, even if she
were the same person. In the other, Valerie, his Alede wife, was Kaitlyn's
mother. Even though in their world that was Patty, who was a totally different
person altogether.

So, it made perfect sense. It was
what different meant, after all.

Zack smiled at it, and stood up,
having sat down to watch everyone else doing his daily chores. It was more fun
that way, he decided.

"That seems right. After
all, things are bound to overlap in places, but they are, in the end, different
worlds with slightly different rules, and probably even more varied
interpretations of things. That's kind of cool. So, let's get to things? The
first one being getting me food." He made a face to show that he wasn't
trying to be a jerk about it all, but the new line walkers all moved then, like
it was a competition to get that done.

Which meant that Eve had a tray
of fresh and still mildly warm rolls for him in the dining room when he got
there, and both Lyn and Troy had headed out through the shortcut in the back to
find things. Troy had to help Lyn through it, but that seemed fair. He got back
first that way, with the girl coming in after Zack had finished about half the
rolls, stuffing the raspberry filled treats into his face like they were going
to be gone if he didn't.

Troy had just gone to the food
court at the mall and gotten Mac, Merry's brother, to set up a few large
containers of fried rice and spring rolls. All vegetarian.

When Lyn got back, she had three
nicely large boxes of pastries. From her favorite shop. In Paris. France.

After setting them down, she
explained why it had taken her so long.

"This world doesn't have
that particular place, so I had to go home first, then find my way back.
I'm
counting this one as a win. Plus, using the shortcut things is
really
hard. I had to kind of memorize what I'd seen Zack doing earlier and use that
to get through the thing in the back of the shop here." Still, even
admitting hardship there, she seemed pleased enough.

After all, she'd worked out how
to travel between worlds on her own.

It was just the four of them in
the dining room at the moment, the others all figuring that they'd be better
off doing other things. That, or at least watching television. As it turned out
though, Claire and Chris were gone, on official vampire related duties. They
all learned that when a phone call came in, just as Zack finished the fried
rice, sharing the pastries with Lyn and Troy. Not that anyone else there ate as
much as he did.

It came in to his cell phone,
which made him jump, the new thing being unfamiliar to him still. He actually
slapped at his pocket at first, having forgotten the thing was there.

"Hello, Zack Hartley
here." He tried to sound warm and professional, not like the breath had
been knocked out of him by the shock of being contacted directly. He wasn't
used to it, but being that delicate would be seen as pretentious, he was
willing to bet.

"Mr. Hartley? Vaun, here. Of
the vampires? I was hoping to enlist your hire? We've already contracted with
Christopher the line walker, but it was suggested that we might be able to do
more than he alone? There's... A rather unfortunate battle taking place at the
moment, in Bangladesh. Normally we wouldn't wish to bother such an esteemed
personage as yourself, but it might be best if the center of such a populous
city wasn't rendered to dust? If I have this right, it seems to be the same
invisible beings that attacked Lesser Shia? If not them, then something
similar." That came out sounding tense, but more
annoyed
than
anything else.

Definitely not scared.

"I'm on my way. We need
help... How bad is it?"

Vaun sighed, but it was nearly
pleased, Zack thought.

"It's not going too poorly,
actually. Your man Christopher has procured the loan of weapons from Lesser
Shia itself, so we may do battle in a more efficient fashion. Also armor that
works very well against this particular foe. The difficulty at the moment is
that over half of them are invisible. What we truly need are beings capable of
spotting them for us? Is that something you could arrange? Kaitlyn the line
walker, and your friend, Cavendish, perhaps? Claire was just speaking most
highly of them both, the other day. So did those from Lesser Shia." There
was no sense of faint praise in the words.

Then, there shouldn't be. Those
two had done about half the work saving that far away city. By themselves.

"I can't promise anything,
but I can ask? Regardless I'll be there as soon as possible. You're at the
embassy there?" That one should be an official seeming place, rather than
a Frozen YoGurt. Zack didn't
think
that would be the case anyway.

There was a dry pause, but only
for a few seconds.

"Thank you Line Walker.
Anything you can do will be most welcome. Would it be proper to arrange payment
for this with Miss Hawthorne?"

"Sure. Got to go. Be there
as directly as possible."

The others had all been sitting,
but Eve had stood up, hearing what was said. To his shock, so had the new
Kaitlyn. Troy did it as Zack randomly pushed buttons, hoping that one of the
random things he touched would hang the telephone up. It worked, eventually,
when Troy reached over and tapped one for him.

"What's up?"

Zack made a tight face, then
spoke to Troy directly.

"The war. An attack on us
this time. Bangladesh. Chris is already there, and has the vampires outfitted
with good weapons and armor, so they're holding for now. They need spotters.
People that can see energy as it moves. So we need all of us. Cavendish,
too." He stiffened a bit then, and looked at the new people, feeling a
little bit ashamed of himself for his feelings there.

"The man is a hero. Possibly
the best fighter in the world. He also terrifies the
crud
out of me. It
isn't fair though. He's entirely sweet. As long as he isn't killing you, I
mean. I need to see if I can get him. Troy, can you get with Kate and Don? I
could do without this happening when they should be studying for finals,
but..."

It wasn't like there was a real
choice.

Eve waved at him, and looked at
Lyn.

"Split up? You go with Troy,
and I'll face this guy down. Not that much scares me anymore. Just mice."
Then she faked a shudder, making fun of herself.

He felt a bit cowardly about it,
but decided having a safety blanket would be better than not having one, so he
nodded about it all.

"If we can find him, we'll
bring him to the battle directly. If not... Well, then we come without him. Be
careful. We aren't going there to fight, if we can help it."

Lyn nodded then.

"Good? I really don't know
how. I can point at things though, if it will help?"

That was a bit surprising to him,
since
their
Kaitlyn was pretty close to being a martial arts master. All
of the Alede knew how to fight, in the world that Zack came from. Apparently it
was different in other places.

Hopefully that meant that the
Alede there just lived in a safer world, where being attacked wasn't all that
common.

The shortcut that Zack needed to
use meant going to the back of Something Wonderful, normally. At that moment,
the best bet would be Frozen YoGurt, since they'd be open all night. The other
places would be closed down until morning.

That meant going out the back,
along with Eve. He didn't take her into the shortcut however, pointing at it.

"It isn't hard. All you have
to do is hit it right. But, once you do, you'll need to jump over to the node,
and then go to the back of the vampire embassy here." He thought that
might be too much to ask, but didn't offer to hold her hand. Not even figuratively.

If she didn't manage it, she'd be
stuck there, but safe enough. Still, he went first, and stood there for half a
minute, in the back of the basket shop, wondering if she'd show up at all. She
managed to stroll through just as he was about to give up on her.

Smiling, happy that she'd managed
the trick on her own, he followed the plan, calling out as soon as he was in
the back of the yogurt shop.

"It's me, Zack Hartley. Eve
Benson the line walking vampire should be coming in..." Before he could
say as well, the girl was there, Keane, the Assistant Ambassador was there,
holding a large knife that could have been a baby sword.

"Line Walker? Demons?"

"Nope. New line walkers.
You'll like her I think."

The girl moved into the space,
looking natural, like it was the easiest thing in the universe to pull off.
Then she stopped dead, furrowed her brow and smiled at the same time.

"Cormack?"

The blade didn't drop, but the
man laughed.

"
Keane
. No one calls
me Cormack here. Have we met?" He seemed concerned, inside, that he'd
forgotten someone as striking as Eve, but didn't say anything more about it.

Zack shook his head.

"Not in this world. She's
from a different reality. No time to explain. We need to run. If all goes well
we'll be back in a few minutes. If not... Well, it might be longer. We need to
find Cavendish if we can." He didn't explain who that was, but got a nod
anyway.

The scary man was famous, after
all.

He started to run, passing Keane,
moving as fast as he could, by both slowing time, and pushing his life energy
out in front of himself. Eve kept pace with him, walking as he tried to sprint
for all he was worth. Zack needed the shortcut at the end of the side parking
area, but didn't know how to explain the whole thing to the girl. In the end,
he just didn't bother, since she seemed to get the idea on her own.

After stepping through he waited,
the girl still taking about thirty seconds to hit the rift in space correctly.
As soon as she did, he waved across the street. There were cars, since it
wasn't that late, but it was enough to keep him from running across the road.

"That's my old house. We
need to go this way." That got him to turn to the left, not wanting too.
"This green house here."

It probably seemed strange to
her, but she just followed and then spoke calmly to him. Then, she didn't seem
to know who, or what, they were about to meet.

"I used to live there. In my
world? With Zack and Troy. A few years ago, when I was about sixteen. In case
you're wondering, no, Zack didn't have sex with me back then. Troy did. We were
kind of going out for a while. In the end he hooked up with my friend Barb. So
far I haven't seen her here. Um, she's a vampire, back home." She started
jogging, which meant he had too as well, and looking at him, picked to go
around the building to the front door.

Staying back a bit just meant
that Eve was pounding on the door, calling out loudly, before he got there. It
was an emergency, but Zack didn't know what the man they were there for would
think of that kind of announcement of their presence.

"Hello? Cavendish? It's Eve
Benson. There's an attack on Bangladesh, in India. Like the one at Lesser
Shia?" Then she pounded some more, until the door opened.

The man came out, holding a small
rectangular box that was all silver, and wearing what seemed like latex fetish
gear. It was actually super strong armor, but it looked form fitting and hugged
the man's lean form.

Looking at Eve, the guy froze in
place, which was odd for him. Zack would have accepted fighting suddenly, or
acting polite and slightly happy, but this was different. His face was covered
with latex, but that melted off, showing the slightly tan skin underneath.

"
Evelyn
? From high
school?" He seemed baffled.

So was Zack, since it meant the
man knew an actress, who while not famous really, did get work. Then, Zack was
willing to bet that Cavendish probably didn't get out to things like that a
lot. He wouldn't have known about it at all, except that he'd seen a movie or
two that Troy had borrowed, a long time before.