Free Other Places 1: Shortcuts by P. S. Power

behind. That wouldn't make him happy when he woke up at all, would it?
    The heavy shelf got tucked on the far side of the space, away from the node by a good twenty feet. On his way back he hit the lights and made sure to lock the door securely on the way out. That kind of thing was important, since they had expensive candles in there. More than that too. Some of that might be tempting to a thief, records and that kind of thing? He didn't know if that was true or not, but really didn't want to test the idea either.
    He headed straight across, not stopping, to find that there were a half dozen Vampires and at least two humans in the store, Edom talking to them, just sitting at a table. Zack waved and walked past, not needing anyone to tell him where the node was. He could feel it after all. The thing practically drew him to it, a feeling almost like falling forward a bit.
    Nikki followed him and Edom must have, because when he panted his way back carrying the heavy corpse, he was standing there, being very still, not even breathing. Zack had to set the man down fast, almost collapsing under his weight, the black Vampire pushing the dead man out of the way and grabbing him , like he was the one in danger of falling down.
    "Oops. It's just carrying the weight. I mean physically. He's heavier than I am." Which, he realized, probably didn't mean anything to these people. Some of the others in the place were trying to crowd into the back with them, only to have Nikki make shewing gestures at them.
    "Back, back you throng of undead." There was a playful grin with the words which got at least some of the people to smile as well. "And don't go telling everyone about this. Secret stuff here."
    That was something he hadn't considered. Why would the dead man be a secret? From the cops, but he got the feeling that most of these folks weren't exactly going to be calling this in. If for no other reason that they probably wouldn't have been believed if they had.
    "Well, there you go. All safe and sound." Still dead too, but that wasn't his problem. On his way out he nodded to Edom and then called back to Nikki, trying to make his voice light, and still sound reasonably serious about the matter. "Remember to put in that request for funds."
    Then he left, the world outside the warm mall freezing. The snow had mainly melted off, but there were a few white drifts at the edges of the parking lot. Also clouds in the sky. Zack hurried home, being careful to watch for police detectives, as well as Vampires, since both seemed to be equally dangerous anymore. For the moment the police actually seemed the greater problem, since no Vampires had trashed his shop at all yet. Nothing showed up at least, so he was back home about two minutes later, the cold making him faster than normal.
    It was Wednesday, which meant that Troy was home, a bag of Taco Bell sitting next to him on the sofa, which he moved off to the side, grinning.
    "Just in time. I have some food with your name on it. The girl I met last night, her sister works at Taco Bell and is about to quit, so she gave away about three hundred dollars of food first. I got loads of it. There's more in the fridge. Beats Ramen." He seemed pretty happy about it, which got Zack to smile too, since Troy deserved to have good things happen to him.
    "That's incredible. I mean, she must really hate her job, to do that. I hope she doesn't get in trouble." Not that he wouldn't eat the food. Even with the Chinese earlier he was still hungry. That was probably going to be happening for a while, a kind of rebound from not having enough for as long as had happened.
    The rest of the evening was spent listening to the radio and eating tacos and chalupas. They were all good, but given everything he would have happily eaten dog biscuits at the moment. He loaded everything with hot sauce, enjoying the light burn it caused. Troy kept staring at each bite as if he was insane. Instead of the regular conversation they used to