On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (12 page)

Looking around the store, which fairly gleamed, Claire shook
her head.

“I would, but he still needs to clean up the back room. If
the blood sets, the scent will linger for weeks, making everyone hungry all the
time. Now I could clean it up myself, but that would set a bad precedence...”

Blake's shoulders slumped but he didn't say anything, since
this fell into that Vampire politics stuff, Kate didn't either.

Troy looked around and checked his watch.

“Hmmm. Well...
I'm
not actually in your chain of
command, Vampire wise at least, so I could cover for him and clean up the back
room, if that's all right with you Claire? I mean his shift ends in what, half
an hour anyway? I can certainly mop the floor a couple of times and put down
some disinfectant and what not. I've done it before, so I think I can
manage...” He didn't smile or anything and didn't address Blake, instead
looking only at Claire while he spoke, knowing that the decision lay with her.

She nodded at him very formally.

“Very well Troy, if you wish, since that does take care of
the political end of things nicely. What do you ask in return for this
service?”

Blake perked up behind the counter and he gave Kaitlyn a
longing look, then frowned.

“I... don't really have anything that Troy would want. I mean
I'd offer to have sex with him for it, win-win for me, but he's all pent up
that way still, only doing women. I could offer him Betty, but he's already
had
her and besides, while I don't think she'd
mind
doing it, she's not
really mine to offer. The same is true with Rebeca, and she's shy around men.
Nikki outranks
me,
and I don't really want to be beaten down that badly,
it would be embarrassing. I could offer to work for him, but he only does day
shifts here and I can't. I don't have very much money at all... I don't know,
Troy, is there anything I can do for you that you'd find of equal or greater
value?”

Troy looked at him and finally nodded.

“Yeah, actually there is... I promised Merri that I'd help
her remodel the basement, which is going to be a lot of work. If you'll help
with that? I mean, it's a
lot
of work, since the space is huge, but she
wants it to be more comfortable for you Vampires, so it benefits you twice
really, even if the amount of work seems unequal now.”

Blake looked at everyone quickly, then stared at Claire, who
finally smiled and told them all to go too and have fun, chuckling under her
breath a bit. It was a sweet sound, for all that it had to be fake. Vampires
didn't have normal Human reactions after a while and Claire was pretty old.

Kate found Blake to be an engaging and fun person to have sex
with, and since he could feel pleasure now, she was able to let go and have fun
herself, knowing he would too. Not that she wouldn't have had fun anyway, but
it made things even better. She didn't get any
energy
from it, given
that he was dead and had been for a while now, but Zack had promised to top her
off when he took her back later. They used her bedroom at the house since no one
had claimed it for their own or turned it into a sewing room or anything yet. A
good sign. No one had even taken her furniture or anything or even removed her
decorations.

Merri fed her breakfast with everyone else. Fluffy pancakes,
a bowl of oatmeal and one of the sweet rolls that she made, kind of like a
jelly filled donut, only with the filling wrapped up somehow like a cinnamon
roll. Kate didn't know a lot about cooking or baking, not at Merri's level, but
she really didn't think that what she did with food always aligned with
physics. It
always
tasted good, sometimes
too
good, if that was
possible, though the Alfric woman claimed that she didn't use any magic while
making it at all. Kate took a bite of the roll and squirmed a little, the taste
being so perfect that it had an almost orgasmic effect on her.

Before everyone left for work, she got a little time with the
short red-head and told her how much everyone appreciated what she'd sent them.

“Britney practically orgasmed just from a few sips of your
juice, and if you know Alede, which you
do
, you probably realize what a
huge compliment that is. They all really want to meet you, you know.”

Dimpling up at Kate the small woman winked, a practiced move
that Kate had taught her a few months before. She still scrunched up her face
to do it, but you could definitely tell what she tried to do now. It looked
adorable on her, so much so that Kate had to fight giving her a hug and trying
to pull her off to bed right then.

“Aye, and they'll no doubt be wanting to meet the Line Walker
too!” Her look became knowing then. “I know how you Alede have come to regard
him as a hero, after all. Rightly so, too.”

Shrugging Kate clarified the situation for her friend.

“Britney
would
, yes, though she doesn't know that we
know Zack. I told her, but she thinks I was joking. She
did
ask me to
tell you, personally, that she really appreciated the food and beverages.
Blaine, her brother, he said something like that too, and even offered to trade
their friend Don to you if you'll keep sending them stuff. That was a joke of
course, because Don isn't theirs to trade, you understand... For his part, Don
hasn't picked up the box of stuff yet and may not even know about it, but he
still seemed interested in you the other day, just from hearing about you. So
far you're the only one from here they know about.”

The tiny woman grabbed her forcefully and gave her a hug.
“Oh! You're so dear! If only we didn't have to keep you away so much, and at
such a young age... Maybe you can come back and visit us again soon?” She
looked scared that Kate might say no. She almost laughed, knowing that Merri
meant her
real
age, with void time and all, not the seventeen years
she'd been around on this plane. Alfric could live a long time. Longer than
Alede did on average even, so anything under a hundred seemed really young to
them. That the Alfric woman had left home at only thirty-eight or so didn't
stop her from acting like the mother of the house, that being her actual job as
far as she was concerned.

Shaking her head, not to beg off coming back, but because she
had other plans, she asked Merri if she'd like to come visit
her
soon,
along with a couple of the others maybe? Zack, who had been standing back,
almost invisible in his stillness and quiet, spoke then.

“That sounds like a good plan. Libby mentioned wanting to
visit you the other day as well. Val too, come to think of it. Let me know when
you're ready for them and I'll take them through. You can also come visit here
whenever you like, or the other way around. I mean, it's no harder than going
from one room to another for me. I should have thought of that and brought you
extra company already. So far things really do seem like they're calming down,
and keeping you away was only about keeping you safe and letting you see the
world, not making you unhappy. Sorry...”

She smiled, took the plate of rolls that Merri held out to
her. Covered with a layer of plastic wrap and a pure white dish cloth as
insulation, enough of them to share she noticed, and let Zack lead her back
through the rift in the living room. The clock on the wall of the living room,
above the faux leather sofa said that it was nearing eight-forty, so she knew
that Zack had a little time before he needed to be at the candle store. His
shift wouldn't start until nine sharp. Taking her arm gently, he led her
through the rift into her dorm room, nearly two thousand miles away.

She set the plate of rolls down and turned, taking the thin
man into her arms. It took an act of will on her part not to think about how
much she loved him. How much she wanted him, but she did it, controlling her
thoughts as well as she could, knowing that it made him incredibly uneasy when
she didn't. Later, after he left, she'd let herself feel again. In the moment
she just tried to enjoy the warmth and comfort of his arms.

Stepping back a little bit, she raised her shirt, just enough
for him to put his hand on her bare mid-drift. Reaching out, he loaded vast
amounts of energy into her quickly, taking deep breaths rhythmically as he did
it. This time she pulled away before any real pleasure could start from it,
since the recent sex had left her feeling a little more sensitive than normal
and she didn't want him to notice how easily she reacted. One of the curses of
her physiology being that the more sex she'd had, the easier it would be for
her to respond to other stimuli if it came inside a few hours. If you could
call that a
curse
. A little inconvenient at the moment maybe.

Normally that kind of thing was what made gang bangs so much
fun.

Just before Zack had to leave a knock came at the door.
Instead of leaving before the door opened, Zack followed her, to see who it was
on the on the side, for some reason. He stared intently, like he did when
someone's “shadow” talked to him. His phrase for a person's subconscious mind
that he'd come up with as a young child. When she got the door opened, Don
stood there in his heavy dark blue snow jacket, smiling, until he saw Zack,
then his face fell a bit.

“Oh, hey... sorry. I didn't know that you had company. Blaine
told me that your friend Merri had sent something for us, for each of us and
that I should come get mine... I can come back later...” He forced a smile on
his face, looking at Zack a bit forcefully and making a tiny shaking motion
with his head.

Zack held out his hand to the man.

“Are you Don? Kate's told us all about you! I'm Zack. Zack
Hartley. We brought back some rolls that Merri made, you should get one before
they're all gone.” Zack stepped back into the room, tacitly inviting the other
man in, without saying any actual words about it.

Kate blanched a little, knowing that Don had heard enough
about Hartley to make a connection. At least
possibly
. Zack always went
on about how much regular people missed about the world, maybe Don would miss
this? As her new friend stepped in he nodded, stepping over to the plate of
rolls and pulling off the plastic wrap carefully, he started munching on it for
a second.

“Wow, these are awesome! So... you're that guy that Britney's
all in to? The Line Walker?” He said this casually, as if it were perfectly
normal. He took another bite, his eyes up though, taking in Zack's response
carefully.

Head bobbing in a nod, Zack took another roll himself and
spoke between bites.

“Yeah. It's no big thing, but your friend Britney sounds like
she'd freak if you told her I was here, so, you know, maybe if you could keep
it quiet? Oh, and, just because I can tell you're worried about it, Kate and I
aren't having sex. Never have. She
is
a Succubus though, by nature, like
your other friends are? An Alede. She'll fill you in on all that, but, you
know, you can have great fun with the others until they figure out that you
know everything...” He grinned, taking a few more bites. Then he turned toward
Kaitlyn.

“What? I'm a Human... He's a Human, and we should stick
together. Plus he's
obviously
figured out a lot more than you guys have
given him credit for. This way he'll know that you're not all really aliens or
whatever at least. Besides, he's trustworthy. He won't tell anyone you're here,
at least no one that would present a danger to you, right Don? Really though, I
think that things are pretty safe altogether, as long as
I
don't get mobbed
by fan girls.”

Don licked a bit of lemon filling from his finger and agreed.
He stopped for a second and looked at Zack hard. The other man's eyes went wide
and he started laughing out loud, something that shocked Kate. She looked at
Zack, waiting for an explanation.

“Oh! He... just... his shadow self suggested that we keep him
quiet by bribing him with plates of baked goods on a regular basis. It was
funny though, because he meant it to be and, well... he said it on
purpose
...”
Zack actually wiped a tear from his eye.

“Anyway... nice to meet you Don. I'm going to leave now,
since I need to get to work in a few minutes. Some of the others will be coming
to visit soon, probably in a few days. I'll let them know that you're in the
loop and that the others aren't. We'll have you all over for a weekend soon
though, alright?” He hugged Kate and shook Don's hand again.

Then he turned and walked into the center of the room,
vanishing in a silent blink.

Moving to the bed, Don sat down on the edge, staring at Kaitlyn
as he did it. He patted the bed beside him, motioning for her to sit down. When
she did he put a single arm around her.

“So... you're
not
an alien?” He asked.

Kate sat at the table in the dining hall watching Don, who
nibbled at a French fry and kept looking at her expectantly, not saying
anything, just waiting. Finally she moved in next to him and whispered into his
ear.

“OK, what?”

He didn't say anything, just kicking her very lightly in the
shin instead. He grinned at her and moved a little closer, the legs of the
cheap looking silver and black wire and bent steel chair screeched on the
highly polished tile.

After a few minutes of this, Blaine and Britney walked in,
being their normal selves, which meant that they cast their eyes around the
room looking for people that might be available for sex. Juggling eye contact
with one potential conquest or another nearly constantly.

They settled into their normal chairs almost as one, setting
their trays down, Blaine's loaded with greasy bits of stuff and Britney's
nearly the same as her own. Salad, bread and a piece of overcooked beef patty,
dry. After only a few minutes they focused on the people in front of them, even
though neither would do them any good, energy wise. Kate could sympathize with
this. Really, it didn't mean that the twins didn't
like
them. If
anything, it meant they liked them
more
than if they'd been ordinary
people. After all, if she or Don had been half starved and asked to sit down in
a room full of food, but focus their attentions on a few people instead, that
would have been hard to manage.