Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) by P.S. Power

smiled. His
thin face held stress lines too, and looked tired, but he didn't complain at
them.
    "Mr. Hartley! Miss Swanson.
I'm afraid I don't recognize your friend. Is she an Alede?" He looked at
Eve, doing so closely, his eyes searching her face, which was flawless, and
attractive enough.
    She didn't pump out raw lust, but
Lyn wasn't either, so it could be that she was one of those. Zack could
understand the mistake, but Eve just pushed her hair back, which was loose and
about midway down her back, and smiled at the man.
    "Afraid not. I'm Eve Benson.
Your friendly line walking vampire girl. From a different reality, even. That isn't a joke, Greg. This Kaitlyn is, too. Yours is off at school right now.
Anyway, where do you need me? I can answer phones, or we can do line walking
stuff? Or I can get you a good deal on frozen yogurt I bet. I already know the
job, so I bet I can get a part time position here. Then we'll be hitting
that employee discount in no time."
    The man smiled at her, like she
was insane, and looked back at Zack.
    "Anything would help. We
have the phones taken care of here. Amazingly, news of an alien attack seems to
have gotten a lot of people out, and willing to help. What can you tell us,
news wise?" The man didn't seem to think they'd know anything really, but
was kind of hoping that they'd have contacts that would.
    Taking a few minutes he ran down
the whole story, as Lisa, looking a bit sleepy, came out of the office and
nodded at him. When he got to the part about Cavendish needing to be paid she
scurried off, but came back with a nice fat envelope with the man's name on the
outside. She had a small bag to go with it, that clanked gently as she handed
it over.
    "Good call. I should have
thought of that. This should get him caught up. If he needs more... Well, then
we can take it out of your pay, right?" She was playing, but that sounded
fair to him. He had the funds, after all. If one of his people needed them,
then that was a good place for them to go.
    "I'll
get this taken care of. A bit later though. If he's sane, then the man will be
fast asleep right now. I was planning on taking Lesser Shia today. We can split
that between here and there. Eve, why don't you and I do that first. Lyn, you
start here, and I'll be back in a few hours with Eve, so you can trade off. They'll
need an update there. Call it ten or so?"
 He looked at Lisa, who just seemed baffled, but nodded. The idea of Kate being
a line walker wasn't that new after all, and it was clear that she was conflating
Lyn with being the other girl. Eve was throwing her off, but only a bit.
That part was mainly down to the idea that the girl was a vampire. She really
didn't seem like one, being awake during the day and seeming so calm all the
time.
    "Um, sure? Do you... Need
anything?" Lisa's eyes looked down at the front of his slacks, which were
tight. He hadn't been having even a fraction of the sex that he needed over the
last day or two. There was no real time for it just then either, so he shook
his head, closed his eyes and focused. Until the erection went away. It took
work, but no one mentioned it again. This time it was easier to get done, for
some reason, than it had been before.
    Then he got things underway for
the day. Lesser Shia wasn't ready for line walkers yet, but managed to get
things started about half an hour after they got there. After the first few
trips, Zack stood back, and watched, pushing Eve to do it all for him. She
snorted, called him lazy, and didn't do it as fast as he could, but there was
no whining about it either. Kate and Don both did that a bit, if internally.
Chris, oddly, didn't. He was so much slower that it wasn't even funny however.
    At ten he left Eve doing that,
and went back to the candle store, to get Cavendish his pay envelope.
    That meant he dawdled a bit, feeling
terrified that the man would end his very being as he walked slowly to the old
shortcut that took him to his old house. His home, even