Free Other Places 2: Road Blocks by P. S. Power Page A

Turning to Judy he explained. "Hiram is a month or two into his attempt to give up a life of crime. This is actually a great sign for him."
    The voice that came from the man croaked a bit.
    "Everyone else just had to go. Lisa said she'd stay and camp on her office floor, but I ain't leaving a Wistra addict alone in a high stress situation with no sleep. The calls have slowed down, so at least the ones coming in now are half important, and not just people trying to find out the news. Nothing has really changed, not yet. After the first bit of shock, most of the different groups are kind of understanding that this isn't a full on Vampire assault. That will last until the first hothead starts some shit and ends up getting caught on camera." He sat and sipped at a cup of coffee that looked black and bitter, and smelled cold, if he could tell that kind of thing at all.
    "Wonderful. Well, let me see if the Alede Embassy is open or not, and then I'll take over for you, so you can get some rest too."
    The man smiled a bit, but let it fade and pretended to fall asleep, waking with a start. It was way more comical than he could have managed, but he did smile.
    Judy did too, and walked with him to the front door, smiling when Lenore saw them through her large and spotless front window. Zack walked to the door of the shop and stuck his head in.
    "Hi! How are things?"
    "Tense, and the stress is making those of us here hungrier than we would be normally. I don't suppose you could manage another basket of blood? That or find someone for us. That wouldn't be as useful though however and would be hypocritical to the new effort." She smiled and waved a bit. "Who's your new friend?"
    "Oh, this is Judy Swan. Alede, but don't worry, I fed Troy and the crazy girl he brought home to her. She's really nice. You'll like her I think. Right now I need to get her to her Embassy before they think I kidnapped her."
    "Indeed. We should all get together later then."
    Judy was technically outside the shop, so didn't make conversation with Lenore, meaning they were underway a few moments later.
    "So... You're dating Lenore Hawthorn ? I didn't even know she was a Vampire. She used to do movies, back in the thirties for a while. Now I know why she quit. It's hard to hide not aging for too long. Hmmm."
    This time there were actually people in the plus sized women's clothing store, and the door was unlocked, so they were allowed in and everything. It was a vast improvement. Several of them walked over, but Kaitlyn ran up to hug her grandmother, just in case he had any doubt who was related to whom.
    "You made it! Mom said she was trying to get Zack to go get you, but didn't know if it would work or not. We're paying for it ourselves, since he won't work for the governing body." She pushed her fake nerd glasses up with a single finger, her brown eyes looking as perfect as always. "Except no one knows what to get him, and we can't afford the millions of dollars it would cost." She looked at them and nodded. "At least you left your bags. That would technically double the debt for each one. That's the consensus at least. Everyone is scrambling right now, trying to make him take something."
    Zack sighed and gave her a hangdog look.
    "You don't owe me anything. We can just claim it was your Christmas present. Then I won't have to put up with Valerie coming by twice a day to see if I need anything. Not that she won't just avoid me, like everyone else that thinks they owe me something."
    Valerie herself moved in and did the whole hugging thing too.
    "You really did it? That's incredible. I thought you were blowing me off..." She licked her lips, seductively and pushed her chest forward toward him. "I hadn't thought about that, do those gift certificates count for something like this?"
    Mirror Him moved in a bit and moved his face toward her, like he was going to kiss the woman.
    "I'll have to check with the corporate office on that, but..."
    He moved away and nodded his