On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (20 page)

Claire simply ignored it, expediency being her main concern.
If Keeber could keep things calm by having sex with the girl, then they'd clear
the other bed for them and be thankful that they had something they could do
without making the situation worse.

Kaitlyn jumped up, almost hitting Claire, swatting at her
hands to move them away from the papers, which instead of getting an anger
reaction from the Vampire, got her to pause briefly. Good to know. Vampires
could be a little touchy about things like that and Kate had acted without
thinking, but Claire remained steady as always. That was probably why she was
an Ambassador, Kate realized.

“Sorry! But I know what a pain it is if things get out of
order when you're working on them. I don't want to screw up Don here. Let's see
if we can keep some kind of organization...” It wasn't perfect, the papers
getting separated as closely as they could manage by subject into three neat
stacks, placed between the textbooks that seemed to go with them. They could
only hope that they weren't going to get into too much trouble later for it.

The bed clear, Claire gently picked up the large man holding
the much lighter girl and set them next to it, so the he wouldn't have to let
go. Keeber moaned a little when they fell onto the bed, Britney working at his
belt already, hitting him with a solid dose of lust. Strong enough that he
didn't really have a choice but to comply with her demands for sex, in public
or not. After a few seconds, he rolled to one side, dumping her off slightly,
though still holding her tightly.

“I can't! I...have a girlfriend.” He tried to pull away,
while she fought to keep him in her arms, not willing to let go now that she
had a hold of him.

Blaine got up and limped over to his sister, clearly still in
a lot of pain, and placed his left hand on her shoulder. He didn't say
anything, but after about twenty seconds, the girl calmed down a lot, pulled
her energy back in and let go of the big man with an apology. Claire shrugged,
clearly not caring how the situation handled itself, as long as it
did.
Then
she stepped away from them all, standing next to Hilda and made another phone
call.

Keeber, still hard, refastened his belt and sighed, “It's
nothing against you, but Becky's a regular Human, and she wouldn't understand
if I had sex with you for any reason. I'm not a good enough liar to hide it
from her either...”

They sat and waited, taking pictures of Blaine's injuries,
Claire making several more calls and getting a few in return. Finally a knock
came at the door. Hilda stiffened, then smiled, able to smell who it was
through the wood. The door started to open, a key being used, causing Keeber
and Claire to go on alert, until a voice called out from the other side.

“It's us! Zack and Don. Don't shoot, Keeber.” It was said
precisely, since Zack could kind of see the inside of the room through the
door. He'd told Kate about it a few times trying to explain things that she
might notice, but other than some lines going through walls, a door was still
solid to her.

They walked in carefully, Zack getting a hug from Hilda,
which he returned heartily. Having known him as long as she had, Kate knew that
probably meant Don and Zack had been in the void for a
long
time, at
least to their perception. Britney pushed Keeber out of the way and knocked
into Claire lightly as she raced to Don, grabbing him up in a hug and kissing
him on the lips hard.

“Are you all right? Did they hurt you somehow?” She asked,
between kisses.

He kissed her back, then after about fifteen seconds shook
his head.

“Nope, I'm fine. I just had to learn some things, and it took
a while. Then I had to practice some of what I'd learned for a few hours before
Zack thought I'd be ready to give it a try on a person.”

The thin man walked over and gave Claire a kiss before
turning to Kate and hugging her.

“I think he should try it on you first, Kaitlyn. He may not
be able to see shortcuts or enter the void on his own, yet, but his mastery of
energy itself is strong. Maybe stronger than mine. We need a pro here for him
to practice on first, I think...” He gestured to Don to take the position he'd
shown him earlier. Hand flat on Kate's bare stomach, a move which caught the
attention of the other two Alede, since it was how little kids were fed energy
by their parent when they were too young to collect any on their own.

Don started by taking a few deep breaths, the lines of
blue-green thick around him as he did it, then he let these flow through her
all at once. The energy ripped through her, almost causing her to black out.
She went to full charge nearly instantly and started orgasming so hard it
didn't even feel nice. It felt like a seizure.

“Whoa! Break there, Don.” Zack told him, causing the
connection to be broken instantly. Don scampering back, eyes suddenly wild,
afraid he'd done it wrong or hurt her. “Let's try it again, only, say, a
quarter of that power level? Think you can do that?” Don nodded and started
over again. This time she started to ride a high of sexual bliss instantly,
being already topped off, though she tried to hide the effects on her body that
it had. After a minute she pushed his hand away.

Leaning in she kissed him, at least as well as Britney had
done, and hugged him for a bit, until he started to blush. Kate looked at Don
gently and smiled.

“That should do it. Try it with Britney and Blaine. Blaine
first, but... Blaine, it feels pretty good once you're full, so, you know, try
not to come in your pants. Changing clothes would be a pain for you right now.
Just push his hand away when you're topped off.” Kate told him bluntly, since
this kind of information would be heeded better coming from someone who
obviously
knew
what was about to happen.

Blaine made himself push away before he orgasmed, which made
Zack smile and give him a little thumbs up, covertly, hiding the move from
everyone with his body, except Kaitlyn who stood right next to him.

Britney did the more typical Alede thing and held his hand to
her stomach as long as she could. She didn't get any more energy out of it than
her brother had. Full was all you got, Kate knew. Still she rode pure pleasure
for about a minute before having to let go. Once this had finished, Kate told
them to lock all their power down as well as they could, so Hilda could join
the discussion.

They did a reasonable job. Britney taking Don by the hand and
sitting down on the edge of Blaine's bed, they both touched their friend,
signals of ownership being applied one after another. As they looked at him
with a bit of awe in their eyes. Neither of them had probably ever managed
full
before, not even Britney's glory hole adventure would have done that, not even
close. It probably seemed to them like Don had suddenly become the most
important person in their lives.

Everyone but Hilda and Keeber sat down then, Claire rolling
out what she'd accomplished on the phone so far for Zack and Don.

“We have a special meeting in three hours with the police and
the lawyers of the attackers, as well as our own lawyers and the boys
themselves. Zack, you'll need to come along I believe, so that you can check
the men to make certain their minds haven't been tampered with, and to compel
them to not have any problems with this any more if it's only silliness as
Britney has suggested. That will take care of the immediate matter. I trust,
Blaine, that you're willing to have them released if they're no longer a threat
to you? They
did
commit a real crime, but if they're released we should
be able to track down the others and make certain no further violence comes of
this, and deal with any outside threats that may exist as well.”

Blaine seemed of two minds on the issue. He didn't want them to
get away with the attack, but kind of understood how it may have been jarring
to them, seeing a man walk out of the bathroom like that. He finally agreed
that no matter what else happened, they probably shouldn't be prosecuted fully
for it. Since the jail time they'd get for it would only make them worse
people. Most likely ruining the rest of their lives for something that boiled
down to a few moments of anger over someone else's mistake. He narrowed his eye
at his sister when he mentioned the last bit.

Thinking about everything, Kate wondered if anyone had
thought to check with “McC's” and see if the bar had cameras up, recording the
action.

“Britney being on the Internet isn't such a huge deal, unless
her change got caught, too. That could be bad. No one would believe it was
real, obviously, but still, that kind of thing is probably best kept out of the
public eye.” Britney stood up suddenly, the impact hitting her solidly. That
kind of thing could come back on all Alede, and
that
meant she needed to
find and destroy any such recording, at least if it showed anything other than
sex.

She headed for the door, looking ready to burn the bar down
if she couldn't find the tape or recording, her hands turning into tight fists
and her lips going white. Kate stood and put a hand on her arm, getting her to
stop for a second.

“I'm not
stopping
you, Brit. We need to make sure this
is covered that way... Just, you need back-up. Someone intimidating enough to
make them think twice about giving us the brush off, and someone that can get information
from them...So, Keeber, and either Claire or Zack. I'll go with you for moral
support if you want, since my skills as a body guard aren't enough to be missed
if I leave. Unless you others think I'll get in the way?” She looked around the
room.

Hilda looked a little hurt about not having been picked so
she explained her reasoning to her.

“The reason I think Keeber should go is that he
looks
more intimidating than you do Hilda. I think no one in this room would doubt
that you could go and kill everyone in the bar. For that matter
I
probably could, if I could borrow your gun. The thing is, with Keeber there,
they might just buckle under without any force being needed at all. They'd
probably take one look at you... and ask if you wanted to be in the movies
yourself. And by
movies
here, I mean porn...” Kate raised her eyebrows
then winked at the giant woman, who really would do well in porn, looking a bit
like a blonde, pink skinned she-hulk. You'd have to work out the logistics and
give her a single partner for the shooting day, but other than that the whole
thing could work out pretty well. Kate considered the idea for a moment. She'd
bring it up with her later, if they ever had time, since teenage boys everywhere
shouldn't be denied seeing her nude. The girls either for that matter.

Hilda grinned at her, “Do you really think so? I mean, I
wouldn't want to be in
their
movies, but it's nice to be asked. Still, I
see your point. Each to their own best task. In this Keeber is the better
choice. And... Claire I think. She can tell them that she is the agent of
Britney and that they don't want the recordings released, unless they are of
high enough quality. That way it just becomes a matter of economics and you can
maybe buy the recordings, rather than killing the men and taking them. I don't
think Zack could do that well and it would, perhaps, become violent faster that
way.”

Looking around the room, Kate judged everyone's opinions of
the plan. Keeber stood and adjusted the hand gun in its holster under his arm,
then hid it under a heavy leather jacket that made him look a lot like an enforcer
or leg breaker for the mob to Kate. Don and Blaine looked bemused and Blaine
told his sister not to go off half-cocked, which got a laugh from everyone but
Hilda and Zack, neither of whom really got it, she knew.

Claire stood fluidly, "Might I borrow a coat?"

Her words held just a bit of her accent. It was Irish or
Scottish, Kaitlyn thought. She didn't know which, even if they were very
different things, because it was soft and not there all the time.

She could handle the cold, better than anyone else in the
room, but it would look funny if a girl in an old fashioned dress walked
through the snow to the bar a half mile away without one. Don volunteered his
own, which looked far too large on the smallish Vampire, but
did
look
warm. She moved her shoulders in it a little, getting cozy, then thanked the
boy with a hug.

That
caught Kate's attention, since Claire generally
took a while before warming up to a new person. She didn't know what the hug
signified, if anything, but she also didn't offer to bargain or pay for the use
of the jacket. Normally she would have, Don being the only person in the room
that wasn't involved in this situation directly. Maybe it was nothing though,
or maybe she just liked Don? He was a nice guy after all. Just because she was
tied to Zack through a blood bond, that didn't mean she couldn't have some
friends on the side.

As they walked outside, the cold air hit Kate in the face,
making her glad that she'd worn her heavy coat, stocking cap and long scarf, as
well as gloves. Britney marched along in similar gear, but a lighter hat, one
picked for style, not warmth, and shivered as she walked. If Keeber felt it, he
didn't let them know about it, just moving, his hands un-gloved and no hat or
scarf. Claire didn't feel anything, Kaitlyn knew. Except possibly the pressure
of the ground under her feet as she moved.

As they walked, Claire outlined a course of action.

They'd go in and search first for cameras or possible camera
mountings, remembering that any crack or pinhole could do, since the technology
had made that possible now. Then, if they found anything, they'd locate the
person responsible for it and try to gain access to the recordings. If they
showed anything, like Britney shifting form, they'd remove them, by purchase
first if possible, then if it wasn't take them by force.