Other Places 3: Detours Read Online Free PDF

been.
    He
nodded.
    "We
could get them to come and pick that up? So you won't have to leave the floor
here. I figured they'd all be down here ten times a day, to tell the truth.
Just like I figured they'd half live at the new cafe, since they get to eat
there for free, too."
    That
got Marissa to murmur softly, but with a bit of focus, and he realized, magical
energy flowing into it, Zack picked it up.
    "You
court them, as well?"
    He...
hadn't really been thinking of it that way. They were friends of his, or at
least some of them were, and far from home. It was hard for them to get enough
to eat, and he had access to nearly unlimited food, so of course he'd think of
them. But, really, the idea wasn't a horrible one, was it? Courting them, as
the Vampire had suggested.
    So
he nodded.
    "Naturally."
It made him sound wise, and since he'd just decided to actually make an effort,
it wasn't even a lie. "The Mages too, if I can get Lisa to stop hating me.
That's going to take some work."
    There
were no follow up questions to that, since the woman was clearly lost in her
numbers suddenly. It didn't take her long to go over the whole thing either,
and at the end she tapped the black book with her right index finger.
    "There
are errors." She didn't sound mean, which was nice of her.
    Lenore
winced, as if she were about to be flogged.
    "Bad
ones?" Her eyebrows wrinkled upward, as if worried, but the auditor shook
her head, being back to her normal girlish self.
    "Not
truly. You simply owe several people funds for work done, and have not paid
them yet. A Jennifer Stone, and also a Hiram Stone? The first for shop tending,
the second for wards on several local concerns? That should be seen to. It's
important to pay our debts in a timely fashion, lest they be forgotten."
    Lenore
bowed, and didn't make any excuses, or even mention that the mass firing of
people a few weeks before had gotten in the way of prompt payment.
    So
Zack did.
    "Jennifer
is the one I asked you to meet with, if she comes in later? Hiram is her uncle.
They haven't been around for a while, since the Mage Guild let them go. It
wasn't the best plan ever, on their part, but..."
    His
girlfriend made a face toward the still closed shop across the way, "it
was truly so. Lisa, the Ambassador's Assistant found out that Zack is..."
Then she went silent.
    Because
clearly she was under orders not to mention what he was to the woman. Probably
others as well. It would take work to keep that hidden now however. Most of the
Vampires already had heard, at least among the ones he talked to.
    The
elder Vampire growled lightly.
    "So,
who ordered you to not speak?" She rose, and looked ready to menace the
other girl, who looked a bit younger, and was , by about seven hundred
years.
    Zack
cleared his throat.
    "My girlfriend ."
    That
got everyone in the room to stop and look at him, as if he were insane, for
about a tenth of a second. Then... A nicely warmed pint of blood was delivered,
in a thick ceramic mug. It was enough that Marissa sat back down.
    "I
forgot myself, Mr. Hartley. Being captured and locked away with no food tends
to make me... edgy." Then, like a good little girl trying not to slam the
whole mug of blood at once, she started to drink. Her lips ended up with a red
stain, but that was the only sign that what she'd been consuming wasn't tea or
cider. Possibly a shake of some kind. A fancy one, in a big mug, but still,
that wasn't a horrible idea.
    It
had a very refined sound to it, really, Zack thought.
    Lenore
didn't act shocked at all, and simply took the mug back, when it was offered,
not speaking at all. Then she washed it before turning again, and finished
making Zack his treats. Each was a tiny bit different, which had to do with the
fact that she wanted to test the concoctions, like she'd mentioned, he was
willing to bet.
    Finally
she spoke, her voice subdued.
    "Are
we at war then?"
    The
rather fussy seeming hermaphrodite shook her head, making the short light brown
hair