Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) Read online

  It seemed it was a point, so she stuck her tongue out, which was very cute. Too much so, considering he had a perfectly good Vampire already at home.

  "So, is there a book or something? For the frozen yogurt, I mean?"

  That got her to run out, coming back a few minutes later at a Human level trot. Carrying a slender notebook.

  "Here. Memorize this. If you can do that, you'll be halfway to being a master of the subject. It's Lenore Hawthorne's personal guidebook to Yoghurt World. Good thinking. I can show you what to do here, as soon as someone comes in to relieve you. It will be fun. I promise."

  "Oh? So you can lie. Well, I kind of suspected that one, but good to know that it's a thing for you. I'd hate to think you had a handicap."

  For some reason that got her to laugh, and hard, but she didn't explain, just walking out, and calling to him over her shoulder. Trying to look all pale and cool, like Vampires always did.

  "Read that, if you get a chance. It's supposed to hold the mysteries of the frozen yogurt ages."

  There was nothing else to do, even as Palma came in to open her cafe, so he did just that. The whole thing was hand written, but the penmanship was good. A lot better than his. Like whoever had written the thing had practiced for a long time, and been picky about it too. Lenore.

  He'd met her once. At his eighteenth birthday party. It was a thought that made him feel old, even though it had only been about two weeks back. Less than that even. The Vampire was in charge of the Western States, which was an important sounding job. It was hard to keep in mind, given how young she looked, but the woman was old enough to have moved up in a world that pretty much insisted you be over a hundred years dead to even have a seat at the grown up table. She looked about nineteen or so. If he hadn't been dating Ginger, her daughter, he could have seen himself going out with her. Instead Zack was doing it. Given how scared everyone was of Greater Demons that had to mean she was hard to the core. Enough so that she was probably both deadly and important beyond what he'd thought at the time, when she was delicately suggesting that being dead wasn't that big of a deal.

  Which, now that he'd had a few days to consider things since finding out, he had to agree with. His entire life he'd been dead, and hadn't even known it. True, he'd kind of been brainwashed by Lucy not to realize that, but now that he could there were some good parts to it.

  One of them being that he didn't get tired, so his head was clear and fresh, even after working for days on end. The little notebook was also very clear, and technically interesting. It even went into the perfect amount of swirls to use in a large cup of frozen yogurt and how to make it. From scratch. It was kind of clear that the details were going to require him to actually memorize the whole thing, but he just read through it first.

  The whole thing with the Librarian kept niggling at him however. Like a worm that had burrowed into the back of his head. Making him feel lazy every moment he wasn't actively working to get it done. That had to be some kind of demon trick. The thing there was that he was nearly certain that it was something his mom, The Rotted, had left there for him. Probably forcing him do a good job when Greater Demons asked something of him, so he wouldn't be killed.

  Which reminded him to fill in everything he'd learned in the last days in his notebook. That had been suggested by Darla, The Technician. After a fashion she was kind of a friend of his. Having spoken twice now. So was The Mistress of Souls. She'd even given him his cell phone and was paying the bill on it. Which meant her number was in it already.

  Sighing, he hit the buttons, even though it was insanely early to be calling anyone like that. She answered on the first ring.

  "Hello?"

  "Um, hi? Mistress of Souls? This is Tyler Gartner? We met at Zack's bookstore? The Line Walker?"

  "Sure. What can I do for you Tyler? Did you call to ask me out? That would be nice. No one does that. It's all 'please don't eat my soul' day in, day out." There was humor to the whole thing, which he took to be a good sign.

  "Um, nope? We could, of course. I just hadn't thought about it. I was wondering if I could, um, get you to give me huge amounts of cash and prizes?" It was a funny way to say it, since he'd just called for her phone number, but remembered The Rotted, who he was enslaved to, suggesting that he bargain harder once.

  Now his mouth was working on its own to get that done. Ty didn't really get a choice in the matter.

  "Possibly. What do you need it for?"

  "Really? Just so I can kind of take you to the cleaners for the information I have. All you have to do is pretend to be a regular Human girl and come help me fix a yogurt shop. In California? You don't get paid for it, but Eve will be there, and she claimed it would be fun." That was even true, as far as it went.

  The phone practically purred in his hand then, a thing he didn't know was possible for it.

  "Oh? That does sound fun, actually. I can do that. If the information is good enough. If not, I'll take you as my personal slave, deal?"

  He snorted.

  "Fuck no. Thank you. I'm already the slave of one Greater Demon and it's too much. Worse, she's what's keeping me alive, so I don't think I can even get out of it. Anyway, if you're in on the info for work part?"

  "Yep. Tell me what the great secret is." She sounded a little bit dark and annoyed with him, for some reason. Probably because he'd cleverly thwarted her plan to make him a slave. If that was even a thing that could happen with him. If it did, he was willing to bet it would have killed him when the energy ran out from The Rotted.

  "I was approached by a man, he was old, dressed as a Catholic Priest and acted like one. He wanted me to set up a meeting for you, Eve, and Lyn Hartley. Then he mentioned that he was Tarsus, The Librarian. He told me that you three probably wouldn't want to go and see him, for some reason. I let him think that I'd set that up, or at least try, so that I wouldn't be killed out of hand. He also said that Eve was a Greater Demon, or nearly so." Since telling her that might be a big enough secret to be worth her while. "Lyn Hartley is too. The Changling. Everyone knows that though, except Lisa down at the Mage Embassy. I don't really know why."

  The phone made a sound that was gusty and longer than was really possible for a Human to pull off. When that ended, the girl spoke, her voice calm, and warmer than it was.

  "That's not bad info. All right. It's worth the work. When do we go?"

  "In a day or so? I'll call with that. Anyway, I was wondering, can I get The Librarian's number? I kind of wanted to make sure it was really him and not some other Greater Demon trying to mess with me."

  "One sec... Here it is. I have it memorized, but had to call it up." It was rolled off easily, and was a lot longer than it should have been, being severely overseas. "If it is him... Well, I can see how he might think that. Maybe if you arranged for us to meet on Skype? Did he say what it was about?"

  "Gregor, The Cleric, seems to be in some kind of trouble? That's who he told me he looked like when he came in, which I didn't understand."

  There was a noise, and then she seemed to be walking. If so, it wasn't hard for her.

  "Take care of that for us? Then we can talk. I'll look into it from my end. Oh, do you want Lyn's number? I have that, too."

  It took about three minutes to get everything written down, but at the end of it the woman on the phone just hung up, leaving empty air. There had been a scream first, and it wasn't from her, unless she was a lot more manly than he'd taken her to be when they'd met before.

  It was tempting to put off the call overseas, to Greece, which should get him in touch with The Librarian. He didn't give into it though, since he also kind of wanted to know.

  This time it took six rings, before a rather dry, but very male, voice picked up. It spoke in a foreign language he didn't know.

  "Um, hello? Librarian? This is Tyler Gartner."

  "Oh? Have you managed to set up that meeting then already? I'd figured that it would take several weeks, to be truthful." The tone kind of said that he didn'
t think anything had been done yet.

  The words said that it really had been him setting it up. That was kind of a shock. He'd really figured it was going to be The Storm.

  "The Mistress of Souls suggested that you all do that by Skype. Is that something you can accept?"

  There was a pause, but then a soft chuckle.

  "Well, she is my granddaughter, isn't she? Yes, that will serve. The others are willing on those terms as well?"

  "Not that I know of. I think that The Snowflake will be, but I haven't spoken to The Changling yet. I'm planning to do that next. The meeting should be set for when? Tonight?" He didn't know, but that seemed right if it was a big enough emergency to have him in on it.

  "Would six in the evening your time be good? If you can bring it together in time. If not, call and let me know. I'll send you the information for it. Do you have an e-mail account?"

  It was funny, since he didn't, but that wasn't a huge problem. The man could just use the others, as soon as they agreed to talk to him. Greater Demons seemed to all be up on things like that, which was interesting to find out.

  So far it hadn't seemed worth having him do. Ty didn't say that, but it really seemed to be the case.

  The man on the phone was very polite to him though, and got off of it gently, suggesting they get together and go fishing sometime. That was strange, but also friendly enough, as long as he wasn't going to be the bait. That got a laugh.

  Then he had to call Lyn. He got a man however, who answered the phone a bit abruptly.

  "Brad Hartley. Is there an emergency?"

  Looking at the clock, Ty saw how early it was, and winced.

  "Nothing too major. This is Ty Gartner, from the Coalition of Nations? I was asked to set up a meeting between The Changling and The Librarian, along with some others. The Mistress of Souls, and The Snowflake. They're doing it over the computer, so it isn't a real meeting. More like a phone call? So, not a vast thing to worry over, still, he seemed to think it was pretty important. I don't know why he thought that really, since I'm just the middle man."

  "I... Let me run that by her? Honey?" The man went off, but a woman's voice came after some mumbling on the other end for a while.

  Lyn sounded normal. Like anyone would on the phone.

  "We might be able to arrange that, Mr. Gartner. I take it all is well there? I've heard some troubling things."

  That started a longer conversation, but when it was over he felt better informed. At least if she wasn't lying to him.

  Chapter seven

  The good, possibly the best, thing about dealing with Greater Demons was that they didn't really seem to think that he was responsible for them. Eve didn't either, once he got back in touch with her to set things up, by phone. Zack still wasn't in. It was a bit worrying, since he also wasn't answering his cell. There was just an eerie silence that way.

  No one else was concerned, so he tried not to be either. The man was an adult, and had hinted that he was dealing with something big. Starting at seven-thirty several of the Alede came in, led by Kait, who seemed to think that she was actually capable of running the place for some reason.

  "Well, I am the co-manager. It's kind of in the job description. If I can get away to have sex a couple of times first thing I'm good for the day. It's always tempting to run off and entertain here, because, you know. Sex is more fun than work. One of my favorite things. I'm not some kind of..." She stopped her voice sounding annoyed and her face looking a bit bitchy. She wasn't making eye contact with him though, and the fake glasses she was wearing really helped to make her seem more normal that day.

  Still incredibly hot, but like a movie nerd girl, instead of the star of the show. She was also tamping down her natural allure, hard. It was plain to him, since Ty noticed, his pants weren't trying to come off on their own.

  So he nodded.

  "It must be tough. You are the best Alede worker I've seen so far though, so of course you can handle it. That was never a question." It really had been, in his head, but if she needed him to lie to her in order to help her become what she wanted, then he would. That was part of his job, after a fashion.

  It also felt like the right thing to do, because after a few moments she relaxed a lot and smiled at him.

  "Thanks. I want to impress you, if I can." She made that sound like it was an actual thing and not a sarcastic comment.

  Tyler didn't get it in the slightest. Why in hell would this woman, who was his boss, as it turned out, want to even bother with him, other than to tell him to get back to work?

  She didn't make him ask, clearly being nice that way. It was worse than if she was just sexy and mean, he decided. More powerfully distracting, at least in potential. A thing designed to keep him from doing his job well.

  "I was wondering if I could work with you on the Coalition? I know that it might not seem like a great idea, but Alede are more than just their need to feed, or the ability to fill out a pair of slacks well. I have a Bachelor's degree in Business Management, with a minor in Political Science. I know that isn't some huge feat or anything, but I didn't major in partying at school, or just get my grades by sleeping with my professors. That was really hard to pull off too, because trust me it was tempting. I did the work though, to make something of myself."

  From the look on her face it seemed like she figured he was going to say no. That was insane, of course, being that it was free help. Still, Tyler also noticed that she really was keeping herself from using her looks or whatever psychic abilities she had from just making him do what she wanted. Her body was mainly turned away, and her arms closed over the top of her chest, crossing to block her breasts from view, rather than framing them to make them seem larger like most of her kind did as a casual default.

  Her clothing was good too. Blue jeans, which were clean and form fitting, but no more than a nerd girl might be wearing, and a funny shirt that had three quarter length sleeves. Those were blue, but the body of her shirt was a rather plain gray.

  Even thinking that he might tell her that she wasn't good enough to work with him, or whatever it was she was thinking, the woman wasn't forcing him to do anything. Just asking. It was still a bit unfair, given how good looking she was, but he could see the effort going into it, and tried to ignore that part of himself.

  "All right. For today can you check in on Vivian at the Mage embassy a few times? Make sure she has what she needs and knows to really work. There may be more if something comes up. Most days it really doesn't, but it could. After you get things handled, energy wise, I mean. I'll stick it out here for a bit so you can do that, if anyone comes in?" He didn't know how that really worked, since the Alede seemed to try and have sex constantly, so he finally just spread his hands. "How much, I mean, how many times do you need to do that a day, really?" He felt awkward, but it was a good question. If she needed to have sex every few hours it was going to make it a lot harder to work with her on anything important.

  The woman, her hair back in a loose ponytail, brushed at it a bit. An artful looking wisp of hair was pushed from the side of her face, already out of the way.

  "Twice. That means two solid energy harvests, so I can really do it at one time, if my partners are fresh. More than that is nice, fun and all that, and I can collect energy from it for later, to do things with. Shifting into Kyle for instance. Or influencing people. We're actually really efficient that way. Better than Vampires. I mean, if I bite someone, they want it." She grinned, actually speaking past him, to a woman who was standing there, looking at them. Hungrily.

  She was very short, being just about five feet tall, and had rust red hair, very pale skin with freckles, and an African American nose. Her eyes were behind heavy glasses, distorted by the thick lenses. In short, she looked a lot like Calley did. Enough so that she pretty much had to be a relative, or at least a Bat shifter.

  Her clothing was pretty plain, being black slacks and a button down blue and white striped shirt. It gapped just enough between the tw
o top buttons to see that she had a pale cream colored bra on. Though, like Calley, she was small that way. Enough so that the thing was probably about being polite and professional, rather than needed to keep herself from the effects of gravity.

  Kait moved around the front counter, seeming pleased, and hugged the woman like a long lost lover. Given how the lady responded, that was probably just the case.

  "Madeline! Back from vacation then? I saw you were scheduled, but I didn't know if Zack had called you in yet." Then she kissed the woman long and hard. Enough so that Tyler had to look away, even if it was entertaining. He made himself smile. A wave of lust came from them both, and the other woman locked her gaze on Kaitlyn so hard that it seemed like she was mesmerized.

  "I'm back! Fresh from four weeks of living in the woods, eating berries and voles, and spending my nights running operations to make sure I haven't lost all my training. What have you been up to? More to the point, who have you been up to? I leave for a month and you replace me with a hunk..." She looked over at him then, still seeming like she wanted to have sex, even as she locked eyes with Tyler, still in Kait's arms.

  Calley had said that Bat's liked sex, and had even mentioned they weren't that picky all the time. Men, women, hot, or not. This woman seemed a bit more into that at the moment than Calley normally did. Then, if she'd been out training for a month, it might have been simple deprivation.

  He waved at her, and tried to keep that in mind.

  "Tyler. I can hold the desk here, if you two want to, um..." Adults didn't blush like he was, he bet. Then he sighed, since it was clear that he wasn't either.

  His face didn't infuse with blood, he just imagined that it did. Meaning that all those times he'd thought he was embarrassing himself that way, everyone else in the world had probably thought he was cool as a cucumber. So, not missing much of a beat, he went on.

  "If you want to go use one of the side rooms?" He thought that Shifters counted for sexual energy that way, and if not the woman would be a bit more relaxed he bet. Like Calley, she was in constant motion, twitching and flapping around, her face going bright at the mention of her getting some like that.