On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (49 page)

When they got off the phone, Gretchen having happily agreed to
accepting the service.
If
feeling a little odd about having a strange
man in her dorm room all night. Kate decided to set Nikki up in Don and
Blaine's room as had already been decided. That way she could guard them if
need be
and
take care of Don if he needed it, which he would, after
everything he'd done with Kate that night.

At about eight Libby showed up through the rift, Chris
bringing her and three other men that all looked a lot more professional than
Willet or his other friend had, even if their suits looked brand new and she
had to step forward and take a price tag off of one of them.

He looked at her and laughed, “I'd heard that the Succubi
were friendly, but I'd figured on at least a
hug
first...” The man
smiled at her, his brown mustache wiggling as he wrinkled his nose a little.

Kate, having pulled the tag off of his waist band leaned in
and hugged him, getting a laugh from everyone else too. Libby gave her a hug
and asked who Mr. Hawk was. The man, who'd been sitting on the bed stood and
nodded to her.

“I'm Hawk.” His voice had become deeper, more resonant and
seemed almost as if it had been designed to touch all the right parts of a
woman's soul. Which, of course, it had been. Kate couldn't have told you what
the needed harmonics were in a voice to make it sound both sexy and manly, but
on some deep level she knew, and had built it into the boy when she changed
him.

Libby looked ready to jump the guy and start doing him in the
middle of the room, but instead pulled out a black gun holster with a
semi-automatic in it. It looked like a nine millimeter to Kate. The Bat woman
took it out and asked him if he knew how to use it.

He shook his head to the surprise of the new comers, “Nope,
not at all. I've played some shooting games, but that's the extent of my
knowledge.”

Libby looked shocked and pulled the weapon back a bit,
“Willet said he'd need a gun...”

Don chuckled and took the weapon from Libby, popping the
magazine, clearing the chamber and asking if there was an empty one around so
he wouldn't have to empty the one that had been in it. There
were
others,
but all of them were fully loaded and ready to go, so he pulled the bullets
from the one in his hand, put it back in the weapon and handed the whole thing
over to Hawk who stood waiting, watching everyone in the room.

Don shrugged at Libby and winked, “He's a Vampire, he only
has to
look
like a Human bodyguard. For that matter, it may be illegal
for him to have a weapon here anyway. We need to check on that. I don't want
the cops called on him for carrying if we can help it.”

Libby looked at the man Hawk had become and eventually put
everything together, her eyes going wide, then melting into something a little
more appreciative.

“So... Looking good there Hawk. We should go out for drinks
or something before they make you give that back.”

The other men didn't get what they were talking about and thought
she was being sarcastic about him not knowing how to use a gun it seemed, from
the looks they all gave Libby. Kate smiled and offered to take them all over to
Willet then. Except Chris, who didn't look like he'd fit in on campus at all,
and
really
wouldn't be able to pass as a security agent. He looked at
Hawk and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, unless...” He started, pointing covertly at the
Vampire boy.

Kate shook her head and gave him a kiss on the cheek, pushing
him toward the rift. The throw rug bunched a little under his feet when he
stopped suddenly and twisted to catch his balance. He reached out and steadied
himself using her arm. Managing to brush against her breast as he did so. He
blushed and apologized, after righting himself and kicked at the carpet,
looking down, until it flattened again.

Kate grabbed him about the neck and pulled him into a half
headlock, kissing the top of his head then pushing him into the rift, which he
managed to walk through, even starting off balance. Kate felt a twinge of envy
over that, but didn't let it bother her. She could change people's shapes after
all and while not as handy and being something that took cooperation from
others for, it was still pretty cool.

Everyone went with her to find Willet, and being that they
called first, he stood outside Jelly's room waiting for them when they arrived.
He didn't recognize “Mr. Hawk” so shook hands with him, a troubled look on his
face when he felt how cold the hand was. He explained the situation, which
girl, the Human Gretchen he was there to guard and the uncertain situation.

“We don't know if she's in any danger. There have been
murders on campus, but the cameras were everywhere and we have reason to
believe we haven't found them all by any means. Keeping an eye on the girl
won't hurt of course and will make her feel safer. Um... Will you be all right
alone with her?”

Hawk nodded and told the man that wouldn't be a problem. He
sounded so certain when he said it that Willet almost didn't believe him at
first, but Kate and Don both told him it was true from where they stood in the
hall behind him. A clutch of three students, two boys and a girl tried to walk
by, staring at the men a little suspiciously. Willet turned to them and gave
them a frank and open look.

“Right Key Security, we're checking out the electronic
devices uncovered earlier today in this building and seeing to the security of
students in this room. If you have any questions, please ask your R.A. or
campus security. If you see anything strange or out of place, please contact
either us or security immediately. Thanks folks. We'll do our best to get this
taken care of as soon as possible.”

The other men all stood doing their best to look like they
belonged there, which they actually did. It was probably a first in their
careers, the school having
asked
them to do all this. Kate decided to
let Willet go over all that, if he hadn't.

The students thanked them and walked past, looking back only
a couple of times. Apparently murders and strange spy cameras in the rooms
would get some attention, even from college students.

Willet knocked on the door, which brought both the girl's
front and center. Gretchen saw Hawk... and went
blank
, then she flushed
and moved her mouth like she wanted to stammer, but forgot how her vocal cords
worked. She stood straighter and pushed her breasts out firmly. B-cups, Kate
noticed, but respectable given her fairly small frame. They fit her in
proportion at least. Kate could smell the pheromones coming off of her strongly
before Willet even finished explaining the situation.

Gretchen looked at Hawk and stepped forward, “Has anyone ever
told you that you look a bit like Gavin Stipes?” She asked, touching his arm
and standing about two feet closer to the man than any Human normally would
have. It normally worked, when you considered that most men that let a woman
get that close had already mentally accepted that they'd be willing to have sex
with them. So for a woman to boldly move that close jumped a bunch of steps,
but could also speed the whole process up a lot. It was pretty much Alede 101
and something Kate had used herself thousands of times.

Not recently enough for her taste, but it was still a good
trick to remember.

Hawk didn't have a sex drive, but he remembered how it had
felt to have one, and had been told by Kate to get the girl to accept him. If
that meant having sex with her that would work. If it meant standing in the
middle of the room, facing the door while she slept, that would be fine too.

Gretchen gave Jelly a
look
and made a motion with her
hand, telling the girl to go away and then pulled the Vampire into the room
with her. Jelly smiled, hit the door with her palm before it could close and
grabbed her overnight bag, a brown canvas tote that had been written all over
with what looked like arcane symbols. Given whose bag it was, they might
actually work, too. Kate looked at them closely then and realized that she'd
seen a lot of similar markings on things over the last year.

The next days went by far more smoothly. Hawk spent each night
with Gretchen, who had actually waited several days to ask him for sex. He'd
done well enough that the girl told Jelly that she was in love, but Willet
warned her that men like Hawk couldn't afford to settle down. Fighting a grin
the whole time. The whole thing sounded like a bad movie plot to her, but Kate
understood that Gretchen was one of those Humans that
always
fell in
love, but only for intense, brief time periods. If he stuck around, she'd
probably end up being bored with him in three weeks time or thereabouts. So it
was just as well that he got “called away” overseas to save an undisclosed
member of a royal family. Kate smirked, but Jelly swore that Gretchen actually
bought it.

Who ever had put the cameras in had been careful. Maybe too
careful, Willet told them after a week of investigation. He ran down everything
with them.

“They haven't made a lot of mistakes here. The cameras are
clean and untraceable. We know what company made them, but we don't even have
the model numbers. All identifying marks have been disguised carefully. There
were transmitter arrays, but they were broad spread, so while we know that the
signals only went about a mile, we don't know where within that mile the
receiver would be. It could even be in one of the buildings here. They need
receiving equipment, but that doesn't take a lot of space any more. A big
closet and some recording devices would be enough.

“The masks threw us at first, until we looked at the security
records. Over the last five months, four incidences have been recorded on
campus of masked men running out of someone's room. Nothing had ever been missing,
so everyone figured panty-sniffers or something and wrote it off. But none of
them were ever caught either, if it was more than one person.

“That's what led to the mistake though, that bit of care
there. It was a good plan and worked as far as that went, but it left a
trail...”

Kate pulled one of the wooden chairs Claire had picked out
for her, that had thickly padded seat cushions on them, around with her foot. The
carpet ruined the effect, muffling the sound and almost making the chair tip,
but when she got it into position in front of her she waved a hand at it
smiling, indicating that Willet should sit, which he did, if uneasily.

Tilting her head she gave him a look that she hoped would
seem serious and questioning.

“Spill it. Stop with the detective novel break down and give
us the results. Please.” The last added to help keep them all on good terms.
After all, a good working relationship had to be built on more than just sex. For
some reason.

Jelly's uncle nodded and smirked a bit, proud of his work it
seemed, “Right. Both of the dead kids? Their dorm rooms were two of the places
the masked men were seen running from.”

The room went silent, after a full thirty seconds Don finally
spoke.

“Well...
Fuck
.”

Willet's eyes had gone dead, showing no emotion at all. Kate
had seen him look weasel-like before. Also furtive, fairly frequently. Even
cute a time or two. This was the first time their new spy chief had ever looked
deadly
that she could recall.

“Exactly.”

Something in all this resonated with Kate, but she couldn't
figure it out. It was like something there on the tip of her tongue, waiting to
be spoken, but staying just out of reach. The whole thing left her feeling
breathless after a bit, and soon everyone was looking at her as she sucked in
air desperately. She just held a hand up and stood, pushing the fairly light
chair she sat in backwards until it hit the wall, about four inches behind her.
She walked quickly toward the rift, catching her foot on the rug.

This new rug just
wasn't
going to work out, she
decided. She'd ask for a new one, or an old one out of storage, not needing to
spend money on it personally for any reason as long as she could get something
that wouldn't keep trying to kill people in her room. Standing in front of the
rift she focused, trying to see it. Nothing came, but she remembered what Chris
had done when he stumbled through it a few days before and found her way
through on her own, Don followed, but she asked him to go back and see to the
needed things on the ground back at the school.

“Someone has to be in charge now. Willet's good, so let him
do it, but try to steer him away from anything that will overtly break the laws
of the area. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

She left him still standing there, in the living room of the
mansion and headed first to the back door, where she fought with the rift for
about five minutes and then into the void itself from Something Wonderful.
That
part, going in to the void took about three seconds. She was decently good at
that part now, which was heartening, if nothing else.

Once there she focused, holding herself together, and trying
to find the memories inside of her that needed to come to the front. There were
lines between different thoughts and ideas, she knew. She'd seen them before,
thin threads that barely existed, but they were there. In the nothingness she
could find them, however. Kate could, with enough focus and time, do anything.
Here she had both of those things.

She went back in her mind, to the conversation with Willet
earlier. Something in it had plucked one of those lines, trying to form a
connection with something else. She narrowed her focus until she found it,
sitting in the middle of the conversation. The thing she sought was there, in
the description of the electronics in the rooms.

No.

Not the electronics in the room at all. The receivers needed.
Something with monitors. Cameras being received... The back room at McC's.
Their cameras had been wireless and they had all that equipment. That didn't
mean they were the guilty parties, but it would give them someplace to start.
They had
already
set things up to watch people having sex, so why
wouldn't they be more involved?