Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) Read online

  It took hours though, before anyone with real power got there. The bad guys were there still, in the back of police cars, in handcuffs. Eve shared a little of the footage she had, which let him off the hook, even though he'd kicked the butts of most of the people that had been arrested.

  When the FBI finally arrived, they came in force, though the locals still had control of the physical bodies of the evil cult group. Ty assumed that was what to call them, not having a better phrase for it. Regular Christians didn't pull crap like that, so just saying they were followers of the J. man wasn't fair. These people were a special kind of jerk.

  Criminals.

  It made a difference, in a very real way.

  After speaking to the police, a man and a woman walked over to where Bey, Eve and Tyler stood, near the kids. It was out of the way, and meant that if they had to, they could fight their way out of the place, with the children. It didn't seem likely, but Bey didn't want to take any chances. Eve went along with him instantly, and given that he had thousands of years of experience, it made sense to pay attention. They were collected together however, when the feds came to chat with Bey. Again, they just assumed he was in charge.

  It was ageism, pure and simple. The idea got him to smile, since he really couldn't care any less about that kind of thing at the moment.

  "Mr. Transmorguire?" The man speaking, who looked about forty though he was going gray already at the fringes, badly mispronounced the name. Bey ignored that part, bowing a bit in response.

  "That is I."

  The woman had very short black hair, and was so far from pretty it was endearing. Tyler knew a lot of lovely ladies. So many in fact that he was starting to see past that. This woman, for instance, seemed efficient, and a little scared.

  In fact she swallowed nervously, and spoke with a bit of a tremor to her voice.

  "Maybe we should get that Coalition thing in on this? The Coalition of Nations? I... I don't know if we should be dealing with a member of the Vampire Council directly." Her eyes went to her partner, and she refused to make eye contact with any of them.

  That made sense. If you locked eyes with a Vamp, a lot of them could compel you to do things. So far he seemed to be immune to that, thanks to being the slave of a Greater Demon.

  Sticking his hand out toward her, he waited. To her credit she took it, even though there was dried blood on it. He wasn't certain that it was all his, either.

  "Hi. Tyler Gartner. Head of the Coalition of Nations? Also kidnapping and assault victim. We have footage. As for working with Bey... Well, when in doubt, give me a call? He's cool. So is Eve. If you have a Vampire issue, you should feel free to call on Eve directly. Or if, you know, you need super human back up for soemthing? It's part of her job." He didn't know that, but Bey smiled and nodded, as if it were actually the case.

  "You will wish to see our recordings of the abuse? We have hundreds of hours, having been observing the facility first. The Council had voted to exterminate the individuals here, before Mr. Gartner established his new endeavor. These individuals here, who harmed children, were saved by that. Now that we can work within the Human sphere, we hope to do much with your people, at the FBI. We have information that may, at times, aid you?"

  The man smiled and gave a nod.

  "That sounds... Both illegal, and like a good idea. I take it you understand the whole thing where we don't want Vampires, or anyone, going around and killing people? This wasn't bad. Next time you might get with us first? We could have had more man power ready to go."

  It was Ty who had to go over everything six times, but his story didn't change much. They'd been careful not to break any laws, but there were a few points that the agents were worried about. Mainly little things that could potentially work to get the cult off the hook.

  "On the other hand, no one loves groups that hurt kids. You folks have a ride home? You said you came from Vancouver, Washington? That's a bit of a walk." He smiled, but Bey bowed to him.

  "Not too bad of one. I shall carry Mr. Gartner back with us, as we run the distance. It's how we arrived, so doable for us. We should, perhaps, go soon. Tomorrow is the Day of Independence, and my protégé is needed to run a booth at a celebration."

  Eve winked at the short haired, fugly, woman.

  "We're setting up a few stands. Food, face painting and jewelry sales. Things like that. A lot of groups up there are doing things like that. Part of making it seem like we're just people, not monsters that are coming for their kids. After all, they don't need us for that. Humans are enough."

  That got somber nods all the way around, but they were also released, after passing numbers to the other people. Ty had to get cards from the agents, so he'd be able to take their numbers down and put them in his special notebook. It was a normal enough thing, the kind that could be bought at Wal-Mart. Inside though, it held pages of information about various people, different groups and contact numbers for people that he'd encountered before in one way or another.

  It was totally fair to put contacts with the FBI in it. He tried to shake hands with both of them again, before leaving. Then, without realizing what was happening, he felt himself being picked up. Like a child. Then the world blurred around him. Ty had done that before, with Eve carrying him, but this was different. Faster, and longer. Really, he couldn't breathe the whole time either. When Eve had done it that part had been hard, but there was just no way to do it now. He tried to hang in there the whole time, only to realize that after about a half hour that he didn't really need to take in air.

  How that worked, he didn't know, but it seemed right anyway. He was dead after all. A thing that had been pointed out to him several times in the last day.

  The idea kind of hurt. A big part of who he was had involved the idea that he was alive, just like everyone else. It hadn't been a huge issue for him either, since everyone was. True, not the people he was with, or him, but almost everyone he'd ever met was just a nice, normal, living person.

  Tyler was alive, in his head. The idea that he didn't need to breathe was almost insane to him. There it was. After a long time, which was nearly an hour in a blurred kaleidoscope world, they stopped outside of the Westfield Mall. Slowly, and with control, Ty was lowered to the cement, right outside of the door on the far side of the place. It was the entrance nearest the Yoghurt World, rather than the one he normally used, down by the nail place and the power lifting gym.

  Taking a breath, he noticed that the others did the same thing, though neither spoke for a while just going in. He waved at them.

  "I should get in to work. Hopefully it's not too late. I did let Zack know I might be a bit behind schedule. I told him it could be a few weeks, so hopefully this will work out all right?"

  Bey smiled at him, his face lighting up grandly.

  "Very good, Mr. Gartner. If I have something more for you, I can find you there?"

  "Yep. I'd say call, but my phone is at home. Later. I'll jog over when I get a break."

  That, it seemed, was good enough. Then, Bey had lived most of his entire life without phones.

  Looking at the man, he smiled back.

  "Or, if you need me sooner, just call it out, and one of the Alede will tell me. They're good that way. I mean, I might have to bribe them with something, but you know, that's everyone, and I can get cookies, right?" He was kidding, but Eve winked at him.

  "A good point. I need to write this up for the Council. I don't suppose you'd do one too? I can make copies for you, if you will?"

  That wasn't a thing he'd thought of for himself. Did they need files on what they were doing? Outside of his notebook, he didn't really have anything. Sighing, he nodded.

  "I can do something. After work? I get tomorrow off, so I can stay up all night doing that."

  Unless something more fun came up, like... Nearly anything. Ever.

  If he'd wanted to do paperwork all the time he would have gone to college. Though that hadn't really been the reason that he'd chosen not to go. I
t was, in the end, just a money thing. His mom was a waitress, and couldn't really cover it for him. So faced with either not going, since he hadn't gotten any scholarships, even though he'd had great grades, or building up loads of debt that might not ever be repaid, he'd opted to just get a job. So far it had been working out for him, but there it was, even without a white collar, he had to write for a living.

  Not, of course, that he was getting paid for the Coalition work. Hence not doing anything during work hours.

  His clothing wasn't great for the bookstore, just being jeans and a t-shirt, along with running shoes and no socks. That had been how he'd dressed for the attack from the kidnapping cult. The funny thing was that he'd pretended to be asleep, but no one had mentioned the fact that he'd had clothes on when they'd gotten there. It could have been that they just weren't very smart, but they might have also have been distracted, and amped up on testosterone and adrenalin.

  Still, after pulling a name tag from the back room, and fixing it to have his name on it using a little gun from the shared desk in the corner, he clocked in. It was five in the evening, which meant Ty was late, but only by a few hours. It was also Friday, which was a busy day for the Alede, since they used the reading rooms along the left hand side of the store to have sex with all comers.

  Being that they were out now, and everyone could if they wanted to know about them, do so the sex business had picked up at times in the last weeks. They even had a web-page. It was mainly porn, but that was a pretty honest way of explaining who and what they were. It meant that a lot of people had come to the mall, and no doubt other locations, in the last few months, looking for sex. Being that Humans tended to think of Friday night as the time for that kind of thing, there were loads of people in the store already.

  On the good side, most of them were willing to hang out for a while. There was no reason that people couldn't buy some books while they waited their turn. Really though, they needed to get a sign-in sheet going.

  Otherwise the shy people were going to be left out. His job would be in doing everything else, along with Hiram, the manager, and Zack. The owner. They were both men, but very different looking people. Hiram Stone was about forty or so, and looked a bit hard in unguarded moments. He was a Mage, and was learning the healing arts. Now. From the stories, most of his career had involved being a pretty hard core criminal. Mainly preying on Humans.

  Zack Hartley was different. He looked about twenty-five or so, had dark hair, that was short and well brushed, and perfect skin. His look was a little exotic, being half Asian. Probably Japanese, since his grandmother, Lyn, was. They were both Greater Demons, but not everyone knew about Lyn, who pretended to be a Mage, most of the time.

  "Hey guys." He waved to them both, being more casual than normal, since a lot of people were watching. "We've successfully freed the children. It only took about four hours of beatings and some light molestation to get it done." That was the part that bothered him most. Not because Alan had liked him, but because the man had done that, while clearly despising Ty.

  Zack reached out, and patted his shoulder, letting his hand linger. That wasn't about his boss wanting his tight undead body, Tyler didn't think. Unfortunately. No, he was just picking up all of the information that had made up his life. Probably to get an update into what had happened while he wasn't there. Getting that he knew all of that, The Line Walker winced.

  "That's a bit messed up. The plan will work. You should leak it online, in order to taint the perception of people on the Christian right. Not that it's really needed. When you get done with work you can write up that report in the back? It will be easier to send copies that way. You should get your own computer when you save up enough money."

  Hiram chuckled a little, but didn't say anything about why. He just looked out at the floor, where there were lots of men and women hanging out, waiting for their own chance to get laid. They milled, and picked up books, but most weren't buying anything.

  After a minute he pulled out a yellow legal pad, and got a pen, then, without asking the boss if it was a good plan, he waved it, trying to get everyone's attention.

  "Hey! If you want an appointment with one of the Alede, you need to sign in first." Then he held the yellow legal pad up high. "I, however, am holding the list hostage, behind the counter. If you'd like to get on it, you should come up here. I'm open to bribes, or if you want something out of this, you can just buy a good book. That will work, too. We'll call the names out. Thank you, in advance." He waited for hostile muttering, or anger, but instead there was a mad rush toward the front, with people just madly grabbing things off the shelves. The man that got there first was older, and clearly more clever than the rest, simply holding a fifty dollar bill.

  "First?" He had a bribe, and Ty sold him a gift card for the store, rather than just taking the money.

  The man thought that was funny, or cute, but didn't put him down for it, since Tyler kept control of the list, and had to run with it to everyone that was making a purchase. Most of them. A few people, a bit further back in the line, had just seen how busy the place was and were there to shop, the crowd drawing them in.

  Which was awesome.

  At twenty names, Zack looked at the list, and waved to the people.

  "We need more Alede over here, if they have the time? Or we could send people over there for you?" He just spoke, in a conversational tone, and looked over at Pretty Plus. It got three women and a very good looking man to walk out of the place, waving the whole time. The man, who was in a very nice suit, was familiar. Robert, who was the Assistant Ambassador for the Alede. Two of the women were ones that he recognized, being girls that worked with him sometimes. The last one was special seeming however, since she was dressed in yoga pants, and looked like a soccer mom. A very young, and highly pretty one, but she wasn't anywhere near the hotness level of the others there with her.

  She saw him looking at her, trying to figure her out, so she waved.

  "Hiya! I'm Sally. I heard that you were looking for some Alede? I was just visiting with some friends of mine, so I don't know if I'm invited to the fun?" She spoke to him directly, so he nodded, not caring which Alede serviced people. They had a lot of them, after all. Sharing seemed like the polite thing to do. He knew that they seemed to need to have sex about six times a day, in order to harvest the cast off energy. Just doing the ones there at the moment, and it was early still, that was ten each.

  "That sounds great Sally. Thanks for coming by. We need to find places for people. Um... Zack?"

  "Side rooms, back room here, dressing rooms over at Pretty Plus. That should be enough for now. I suppose we could open the node room for an orgy, but I've been saving that for a special occasion. Otherwise I won't get to use my own work space most days." It was sensible sounding, and the Alede got it as a joke, laughing hard about it. Sexily so.

  Both tills were in constant use, but someone had to start working the store and cleaning the side rooms, so he ran to do that, knowing the others would get the idea. It was intense for a while, since the numbers kept growing, almost like someone had put an ad in the papers or something, offering free sex.

  That got him to work faster, and then, remembering a trick that he'd seen Palma, the Hsreth woman that ran the cafe in the back of the place, he tried that. It was just about picking what he was doing, mapping out what came next, and trying to flow from one thing to the next smoothly, without pause.

  He didn't get tired, so was able to keep doing it all night long. For what was probably the first time he'd ever seen at the place, they had to have the Alede take breaks, and Zack had to go off through the node to another embassy, to trade out their people.

  Luckily, things slowed down eventually, at about three in the morning. He was in overtime, so didn't whine, since the money would help if he wanted to ever get a computer or anything. The whole place ended up being a mess, so he started right in on getting it cleaned up, which took several more hours. Then he yawned, stretched, and wen
t to the back, in order to use the computer there, writing as fast as he could.

  It still meant that it was nearly seven in the morning when he was finished. His notebook was at home, with his phone. No Alede had yelled at him that he was needed by anyone, so he decided to call it good, and just go away. On the nice side, even though he hadn't slept in days, he didn't really need to. More to the point, he was aware now that for years he'd simply laid down at a certain time, and closed his eyes. Then, when the alarm rang, if he had one, he'd gotten up and started his day. Almost exactly eight hours later each time.

  No real sleep had taken place. No dreaming went on when he wasn't looking. Breathing, it seemed, was just a habit for him, too. Even running, a thing that he enjoyed doing, was just him moving from place to place, without it helping him in any way.

  That was something that he'd never tried. When he got home, Ty changed into shorts, a fresh shirt, and put socks on, even though he wouldn't need them for comfort. Oddly enough, just as he got out of the house, Eve and Ginger found him. That got him hugged, by both of them, which meant that Ginger scowled at the other Vampire girl a bit, and cuddled him closer for a bit, making a point of kissing him.

  "Mine."

  That got Eve to nod.

  "Agreed. We're just friends, so we don't have to fight for control of him. Honest. Going jogging?" She waved at his clothing and shoes with a smile. "I figured that out with my Sherlock Holmes-like inductive reasoning"

  He didn't correct her and say deductive, just assuming he was the one that would be wrong.

  "Yep. I decided to try out my zombie powers and run as fast as I can for a while. Supposedly I can't get tired, so that should mean I can sprint full out for as long as I want, right?" It probably wasn't the case, but the Vampires both seemed to think it sounded reasonable.

  Eve glanced around and shrugged.