On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (11 page)

The tall Vampire nodded then and turned to Kate again,
waiting as if she'd have something to ask for right then, which she didn't. She
wracked her brain, her attention caught suddenly by the men moaning piteously behind
the duct tape over his mouth, wrapped all the way around his head twice. That
gave her an idea that should allow her to discharge one of these favors right
now, without actually costing the Vampire and his group anything. She'd have
helped take down people like this for free, but Claire seemed to want her to do
it this way.

“All right... I know that these men
have
to be killed.
It's not like we can take them to the cops or anything, I
get
that.” One
of the men, the second one cried out when she said this. Turning, her eyes
flashed.

 “Oh, don't pretend you deserve better! Poor little me, 'I
don't deserve to die. All I did was rape women and little children and, oh yeah,
got bunches of them killed' right... Don't try playing
me
that way.” Her
voice dripped with acid scorn that made Troy stare at her, since he'd never heard
her do more than sound slightly peeved before. Hilda actually stepped back,
which drew the attention of the tall Vampire Kate spoke too.

“So how about this. I invested a lot of energy in healing
them, and I don't want my work to be wasted all that much. So...
if
they
cooperate fully and easily, kill them quickly and as painlessly as possible?
It's better than they deserve, but my people are, at heart, lovers, not
fighters or killers.” Turning she glared at the men, who both looked at her
with panicked eyes. “If they don't cooperate, then do whatever you need to get
the information. There's a difference between kindness and foolishness, after
all.”

The tall Vampire turned his back to the men and winked at her
a smile crossing his face briefly. His voice though, when he spoke sounded
rough and almost angry.

“Well... fine, if that is your wish... We'll be all soft and
kind to them
if
they cooperate. Otherwise we do whatever we
want
to get them to talk. These fuckers
better not
talk. I won't be happy
about this unless they suffer first!” His voice, as deep as it was sent a
shiver of fear through her as he said this he looked seriously angry, but as
soon as he stopped a huge grin covered his face.

“Troy, why don't you take the healer out of here while we get
the information. If you hear screams you'll know that they made the
right
choice
and tried to resist.” This came out so menacing that Kate knew she'd probably
have wet herself if she were one of those men.

That was the point after all. The carrot and the stick.

Troy motioned to Kate to follow him and got all the way
outside the door before he started laughing. They walked for a minute, down the
mall before he stopped.

“Oh, it's really not funny... I mean, Zack can just pull the
information from their heads, so they won't have to be tortured anyway, but I'm
betting that they cooperate a lot more easily now. He really
will
torture
them if they don't though... He's really serious about keeping the bargains he
makes. You were right, they have to die
and
they deserve it. If you knew
half of what they've done... well, let's just say I don't think you would have
left them in there alive if you really
knew,
and leave it at that.”

He hugged her then, just stopping, standing in front of the
dark store front of Beautiful Plus, wrapping her up in his arms tightly. He
didn't let go for a long time. Finally she pulled back just enough to see that
he had tears in his eyes, which he wiped away, making a light sniffling sound.
She started to ask what the problem might be, but he held out a hand stopping
her.

“Stuff, you know? I've seen a lot more than I ever thought I
would of some really crappy things over the last few months. I've done
things... Those men, the ones you healed?
I
did that to them. They wouldn't
talk and Zack wasn't there. So I tortured them. I can still hear them screaming
in my head. I killed... I killed four of their friends, Kaitlyn. By myself. I
don't know what I'm becoming... I mean, when I'm in a fight, it's like I can't
help myself, a rage comes over me and I just do
it
, I just do whatever I
have to and don't stop. Beatrice had to drag me off of the one that died when
she got there with Zack... I mean, am I so bad that
Demons
have to come
and rein me in now? Fuck. Just... fuck.”

He didn't cry anymore, so they started walking again, not
having any real destination in mind. Every place was closed that they would
have normally gone, including the Alede embassy, which masqueraded as a plus
sized women's clothing store. It was a shame, since there was a shower in the
back and Troy could use one. The armor he'd worn may be magic, but it didn't
seem to be very cool inside. He smelled hot still, like sweat and blood. Rage
and emotions too complicated for her nose to understand. The only other showers
in the building were in the gym where Hilda worked as both a trainer and the
front desk person during the day. At night the front desk was manned by Birk,
one of the largest of the Trolleinkein at the mall. Kate made up her mind and
pulled Troy in that direction.

Inside the door Birk actually smiled when he saw them, from
where he sat behind the chrome and glass front desk. The chair he used, more
like a stool with no back, had thick legs and would have made her feel like a
tiny child if she'd tried to sit in it.

“Troy friend! Have you come to work out then? I'm not your
regular trainer, but I have your schedule here, if you seek some extra work...
And you bring Kaitlyn the K'slyphou! I thought you were off at the place of
learning until the warm season came, though it pleases me to see you!” He
walked around the desk, hesitated for a moment then gave her a hug.

She smiled up at the big man, realizing that he'd covertly
sniffed her before moving that close. Troy seemed to get what this meant and
his eyes went wide. Of course he
would
get it, living so closely with
Hilda, they shared a room and everything, even though Trolleinkein didn't need
to sleep.

Laughing, Kate explained the emergency, not even bothering to
cover up that the men would probably not live through the night, which made
Birk nod. He didn't offer to help, but only because he knew that the people
involved could handle it. If it had been serious, they would have
asked
for his help. Obviously. She sure would have at least, since in a fight a
single Trolleinkein, even fairly small ones like her friends here, were about
equal to a tank. A fast,
agile
tank. Even Vampires didn't willingly get
into a fist fight with them. Vampires had speed over just about everything, but
her big friends here could just weather the punishment until they got a hold of
them. After that the Vampire wouldn't normally live very long.

She explained that Troy had come with her for sex, so she
could feed, and asked if they could use the showers. Birk just smiled and got
them some towels, the over sized fluffy white ones that the gym provided. They
smelled like lavender. Since she
didn't
smell like sex and wouldn't mind
if Troy did, it would be all right by the standards of his culture. Even if
they'd wanted to use one of the lifting benches in the main room. The
Trolleinkein were so sensible in some ways, Kate thought. Now if only she could
work out that little scent problem.

They made love in the shower, taking a long time, which let
Kate really get into it. She harvested the energy that came off of him, since
it was free and would go to waste otherwise, even though she also intended to
get some off of Zack later too. The closer she stayed to topped off all the
time, the happier she'd be.

Since Troy was able to get hard again after a while, with
only a small projection of pleasure on her part, she dropped to her knees and
took him into her mouth. She was careful, so that he wouldn't get
too
big a jolt of pleasure, since that could be highly addictive and was generally
frowned upon by Alede everywhere. It could and did happen by accident from time
to time, if the person using the pleasure got lazy or didn't control themselves
properly. That created too many problems to be worth bothering with, given all
the stalking and mental problems it could engender, so the vast majority of her
kind just took care not to give in to the temptation.

At least Troy knew who to go to if he ever needed a fix. If
anything like that ever happened, since he knew what an Alede actually was and
had slept with about a half dozen of them himself, he could get things taken
care of. If he went to Patty, or came to
her
even, with that kind of
problem, they'd make sure he got help. Most people that slept with an Alede
would only be able to associate any addiction with that particular individual,
not something a whole group could do. That led to obsession and could create
huge problems, since by their nature a Succubi or Incubi
had
to have so
many people in their lives. It most often ended in death, usually for the Human
that got addicted, sometimes for the Succubi or Incubi that had messed up.
Either way was bad.

When he came, she swallowed, then carefully licked him clean,
her tongue moving over him slowly and carefully, because it caused him to keep
putting out energy, even past the point that the pleasure had stopped. It
seemed a little naughty to him, she knew, even after all the experiences he'd
had with her people so his mind fully engaged in the process.

Then they took a normal shower for a while, since the gym had
hot water on demand and the energy for it provided for free by the Djinn.
Shower heads could be pointed from several points along the wall so neither of
them had to stand in the cold air while the other got clean. The shiny, silver
spray nozzles worked hard putting forth steamy water that almost burned her
flesh. It felt nice, after the shared lukewarm things at school. They both
scrubbed for a while, then held each other under the hot water, slick skins
touching as water ran down their backs. A scent of flowers filled the air, the
soap that the power lifting gym used. The scent wasn't manly for a Human, but
she doubted that anyone seeing Birk or Merle, the Ambassador, a
huge
hairy man, would ever think they were girly. Finally, Troy suggested that they go
back and see what the situation might be, since his work may or may not be over
for the evening.

“Not that I get
paid
for this. Still, not everything
worth doing is something you get paid for." He looked at her, not a hard
thing, but a searching one, as if he really wanted her to tell him he was right
and that the work he did hunting down criminals that hurt innocent people held
value. So she did, because that kind of thing
did
hold worth. No one
sane could doubt it. Honestly, it was pretty close to the best use of his time
that could be come up with. Illegal in most places, but legality seldom made
things right or wrong.

When they got back to the frozen yogurt shop they found the
bodies gone and only Zack, Hilda and Claire remained in the back. Hilda ran
over and gave her another hug. This time she pulled back rapidly, wrinkling her
nose slightly. She smiled and patted Troy on the shoulder without commenting.

Claire came over and gave her a hug too, this one more
lingering than most of the others had been, now that everyone else had taken
off. Kaitlyn, deciding to be daring, leaned in and kissed her firmly, grabbing
her behind before pulling away. No one blinked about it. Not even Zack, who had
probably ignored the display of sexuality by her anyway. He did that, she knew.
Ignored the parts of the world he wasn't comfortable with. Any sign of sexual
interest from her got that, which kind of hurt her feelings.

Claire wearing an old fashioned dress, which would have
looked right on a show about the old west held her hand as she stepped back a
soft, almost mysterious smile touching her lips.

“You did marvelously earlier. As you probably noticed, Zack's
ability to restore energy is being kept as secret as possible for now, even
from our friends. At least in the Vampire community. It
will
get out
eventually, but the longer it takes, the better off we'll all be. Has school
been treating you well?” The sudden change of topic was typical Claire.

She'd finished saying what she wanted and moved directly to
something else, taking full control of the conversation. Usually without anyone
else ever noticing it. Kate just shrugged. If the Vampire wanted her to just accept
the idea for now, she would, since it involved the other woman's culture here.
Rather than ask a question or answer immediately, she kissed her again, a dry
kiss, even though on the lips. A slight taste of lipstick coming off her friend's
mouth.

Hanging on to Claire's hand, which felt cool in her own, she
told them about her new friends, classes and the trouble Britney had with Don.
Gossip, but interesting enough to catch everyone's attention. She also
mentioned how she hadn't gotten any sex at all during the first week.

“I mean, there's a huge amount of people there, but I'm
holding out for actually
meeting
them first, and my group of friends is
a little small yet, since I'm not
just
looking for sexual partners. So,
if someone else could do it with me before I go back, that would be great.
Troy's about tapped for today, I think. So, someone else?” She looked around
the room, and smiled when Blake raised his hand a little and said “Me! Pick
me!” under his breath.

Claire started to scowl at him, but stopped when Kate smiled
and nodded.

“Yeah, actually I was
hoping
Blake would volunteer. If
I can get him free from work for a bit before I leave?”