On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

The dining hall at Kaitlyn's new school left a lot to be
desired. Oh, it
looked
all right, she figured, the tables being pretty
standard with their Formica tops. A fairly tasteful off white color in this
case, though that wasn't true for the entire campus. Some of the other dining
halls were a bit less tasteful. They did manage to have actual chairs instead
of benches like a high school cafeteria, but the food wasn't all that good.

In fact, it was pretty horrible. It left a scent in the air that
reminded her of slightly watery spaghetti sauce,
and
waffles. No matter
what was being served,
or
what time of day it was. Grabbing a salad with
a clear dressing, supposedly Italian and a piece of plain bread, whole wheat
the label claimed, she worked her way toward the small, separate room that
looked to be mainly inhabited by geeks and drama students.

Her chosen people. More or less.

It had glass walls on two sides, so it wasn't really private
in any way, but the sounds of the main area should be cut down by a good
percentage. A good thing as far as she was concerned. Her hearing was far more
than a few times better than a regular person's, and it looked like the people
inside were still thinking that it was too loud on the main floor. The lighting
in the whole place was fluorescent, so it washed everything out, just a bit.
Enough that nothing looked
quite
like it really should. The glare off of
the tables could be mistaken for cleanliness, given that.
If
the food
was a little more believable. Given the quality on that issue, the real
cleanliness of the place had to be in doubt.

She approached the small side room cautiously.
Actually
trying to be watchful, instead of just being another pretty airhead like most
people would have thought she was.

That's where she'd seen them both go the day before, the two
blonds that leaked sex and lust all over the place. Turning half the heads in
the room with their passing. Both had looked young. No older than she looked,
so about seventeen. Mature for their age, which could mean they were actually
older people just slumming it. Though either of them probably could have gotten
a job in Hollywood based on their looks alone, so that might not be the case.
Or in porn, though she doubted either of them had gone
that
route yet.
Not because they wouldn't be interested, just because college generally came
first for their kind. Alede. The Succubi and Incubi of the world.

Kate smiled to herself, knowing that the idea sounded way
more cool than the actuality.
Getting
to have sex six times a day was a
fun treat, sure.
Having
to have it though, left most of their kind
resting on a knife's edge of desperation all the time, grasping at anyone that
would give them attention in hopes that they could score, and harvest just a
tiny bit of energy from the transaction. Of course, on a college campus like
this, sleeping with a half dozen people a day wasn't that hard to pull off. Not
when you'd have to
literally
tone down your looks to become an actor or
actress. Add to that a natural tendency to pour sexual energy into a room and
you had an instant smörgåsbord ready to go.

Yum
. College kids.

She spotted them sitting at a small round table, that had
room for four people to sit comfortably, or eight to crowd their silver and
black chairs around, if they didn't mind being
really
chummy. Her
current targets were both just as obvious about what they were as the day
before, naturally. They sat with a young man that instantly caught her personal
attention, however. It wasn't his looks, which were just a bit past average,
maybe a seven on a scale of ten. If she were being generous and didn't admit
she kind of had a thing for skinny guys that looked a little geeky. His brown
hair and blue eyes didn't call to her in particular. No, it was something else
entirely that did it for her. The other two sitting with him
both
managed
to keep their hands completely away from him.

That spoke to her. It was so rare and unusual that she
honestly had to wonder what, exactly, this boy was. He sat hunched over his
tray, munching a little despondently at a French fry,
obviously
eager
for attention, but the two blonds both... ignored him, at least when it came to
sexual signals. Honestly that should have been nearly impossible for them to
manage. If he'd been a trollish one and a half on that scale of ten, they
still
should have been all over him. He looked Human, and that meant food
worthy.

She looked at him more closely and thought that he looked a
little familiar, but couldn't place it. His face had a certain shape to it that
called something to mind, but it just didn't come to the front yet. She'd
probably just seen him around before. The campus was decent sized, but you
still ran in to people, out walking around and stuff, right? They both ate in
the same dining hall, which might just be it.

Both of the others cast their gaze out to the room, using the
complicated Alede hand and body posture signals to alert one another to
possible partners. A casual flick toward a thin young man with a blue beret in
the corner of the room for instance, or a vulpine smile and hooded glance in
the direction of a dramatic looking young lady wearing a tan corduroy jacket
and a teal scarf. They kept their interactions hidden and well timed. Probably
born of long practice, since they appeared to be brother and sister to Kate.

Twins, in fact, if she read the faint lines of energy that
ran between them correctly. A solid connection ran between them for sure, one
closer than that of mother and child. Which for an Alede
meant
something.
They were literally dependent on their mothers for energy until they were at
least ten and usually longer than that. She'd never met an Alede that wasn't
close to her parent.

That skill, seeing the lines of connection between things,
wasn't a trait they would share with her. The faint blue lines between friends.
The rose color of people loved and the black of hatred, those lines of energy,
or at least her ability to perceive them, had developed over the years she'd
spent practicing intense meditation. Drifting in the pure black of the void
between worlds. It had taken most of the year since she'd returned to figure
out what the lines themselves really meant, and there were other lines that,
even though she saw them clearly enough, she still couldn't exactly figure out.

She walked slowly toward the table, giving the two Alede a
chance to see her coming. Not that they took it. She carried her tray with both
hands. It was a brown plastic thing that would have cheapened the effect of
even really high quality food. That limited the hand signals she could use with
the two in front of her. Normally they'd be able to
feel
her presence. Unless
their own sexual noise drowned hers out, which was currently unlikely, but
might be
just
possible, sitting close to one another like they were.
Really, they'd probably do better in there hunting if they gave each other
another foot of space or so, since their distancing probably looked a little
romantically involved to the subconscious minds of everyone else in the room.

The only one at the table to look up at her approach turned
out to be the brown haired guy, whose pupils widened a little when he saw her.
His chest pulling
in
on itself, instead of puffing out slightly like
she'd normally expect. It was the common sexual display for Humans, puffing up
to look better and larger than your competitors. That he didn't do it, even on
a subconscious level... well it
wasn't
good. His body told her volumes
about the situation he'd found himself in. She'd need to check to make sure her
take on things was actually correct, even given that. It was possible to make
mistakes after all, and that could cause problems, depending on how the twins here
wanted to play things.

Standing there, holding the ugly tray, which was filled with
hardly enough calories to make the trip to the dining hall worthwhile, Kate
waited for someone to acknowledge her presence verbally. After about fifteen
seconds, seeing that the other two Alede didn't even
notice
her yet,
being too involved in what they were doing it seemed, and the brown haired boy
wouldn't speak first, she simply sat down. Waiting to see if
that
would
work up any attention. The Alede at least should have looked over to see if she
was food or someone coming to steal their people from them.

It wouldn't be fair, she knew, to say that no one noticed
her. Even sitting at a table with the wonder twins, she gathered her share of
admiring glances, especially in
that
room, since her own chosen look of
“hot geek girl” spoke to about half of the people particularly loudly. The fake
glasses on her nose, brown hair, dyed to a
less
lustrous color than
nature provided her with, and the plain green and blue t-shirt and jeans she
wore didn't hide the d-cup breasts or perfect figure much. In fact, a few
people, both men and women, had turned their covert attention away from the
blonds and focused on her instead.

Smiling, she glanced at everyone casually, as if sitting down
at a table of strangers was natural for her. Which it
was
, of course.
The chairs here weren't comfortable, designed to get people to leave quickly no
doubt, so that people wouldn't eat as much probably. She should go talk to
someone about that. Zack was paying restaurant prices for her mandatory meal
plan after all. They could afford to let her have a few hundred calories per
day, couldn't they? Especially if they were going to feed people the crap they
were trying to pass off as nourishment.

 No member of her species had ever mastered the ability of
actually
being shy, however. So there was no hesitation about joining a group of people
she didn't know yet. Distant? Sure. Cold? Occasionally Alede could manage that
one, with practice. Probably not as often as other people might have imagined,
even if they were all good looking. Pushy when it came to sex? Definitely. It
was, after all, their defining trait. Never all that retiring, however. It
could be an issue too, since that kind of thing was more normal than not.

“Hi.” This directed toward the dark haired boy in the
slightly rumpled looking red t-shirt with a half worn off logo for some band on
the front, that sat next to her. “Is it all right if I sit here? I just
transferred in and don't really know anyone yet...” She made her voice sound
innocent and a little lost, on purpose. Begging him to take pity and help the
little lost girl. She leaned toward him just slightly and licked her lips. Not
enough to start a war with the others at the table, but enough to get her
noticed.

The man straightened a little with interest, but apparently
had been around the blonds long enough to know that hot women talking to
him
were usually just interested in getting closer to his companions. He didn't
frown at her, which was nice given what he had to be thinking. He just looked a
little defeated by the whole situation. Natural enough, Kate thought, hoping
that he'd have enough will left to answer her, since talking to someone that
just sat and stared at you would be
creepy
.

“Uh, hi...” He finally managed, as if trying to not really
commit to anything with her, not even basic pleasantries. “Yeah, sure. Really,
you can sit anywhere if you want. It's not like the seats are assigned, right? But,
I mean, of course you can sit here...”

He ate another fry, carefully not making eye contact with
anyone,
especially
her. He could have been trying to seem cool or
unconcerned, but if so, he wasn't pulling it off very well. Really he just
seemed... tired of it all, she guessed. Just because he seemed a little shy,
she focused on her own food for a bit, taking a few bites without really
tasting anything. Except lettuce that had a rusty, slightly iron flavor to it
and vinaigrette that had been made with way too much white vinegar to be
pleasant
and
had been mislabeled. Still, a fairly thin, attractive woman
would look out of place snarfing hamburgers and fries all day long, even though
she
could
without it ever affecting how she looked. In fact she'd
have
to dig into some snacks when she got back to her room, since she needed about
five thousand calories a day just to feel normal. That or a whole
lot
of
sex. Even as well fed on energy as she was, there were things she needed to
feel good. Enough food or bunches of sex rounded things out for her, but it had
to be one or the other at least. She'd gone without either for a while and it
had sucked. Big time.