Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) Read online

  "Neat. Let's run over to the Fort? It's a bit away, but I have the time and want to see if things are being set up correctly. Let's go?" She turned, and started running. Fast, but not so much that he couldn't keep up. Really, with a bit of work he was able to push a lot faster, into a true sprint.

  It didn't hurt, which was nice. He also didn't go at super speeds. Or, he probably was, kind of.

  If he were a marathon runner, he would have taken some records he bet. Instead he was just barely able to keep up with the two girls, both of whom could have run there and back dozens, if not hundreds of times before he got there.

  So, it was fast for a Human, but it wasn't going to impress his girlfriend much. Ginger was just so fast it baffled the mind, and if he'd heard correctly, Eve was over twice that quick.

  That was life though, when you hung out with Vampires. Really, it was life all over. There was always someone stronger, tougher, faster or smarter than you were.

  The trick was to not let that get to you, and try your best anyway.

  Chapter Three

  It was still early in the day when they got to the Fort. The actual events were set up in the large central park area, about a mile away from the wooden walled structure itself. That was closer to the Columbia River, which was where they lit off the fireworks. He knew from previous years that it would be taking place at about ten that night. When it got dark enough to be impressive.

  Then one of the largest such events in the world would take place. Right there, where he lived.

  Eve stopped near where the stands of food, drinks and some little jewelry stands, were setting up for the day. The people there glanced at them hopefully, which made some sense. He was dressed for running, but the girls had on jeans and regular shirts, which meant they might well have cash on them. For his part, even though he had a good job now at the bookstore, and had put in some hours, he'd only been paid once, and almost all of that had gone to Calley.

  After all, she did all the food shopping, as well as owning the place. He got a great deal on the rent, but the one check hadn't gone that far. True, it seemed that he didn't really need to eat, and pretty much never had, but he liked it. He got hungry after all.

  The gross part there was that he was nearly certain that what he was hankerin' for was Human flesh. Consciously that wasn't a thing for him, being that he didn't eat meat. If he was ever told to get a cannibal snack by his mom though, it was probably going to be really hard to resist. Hopefully that wouldn't happen. After all, he didn't need food to survive, just energy from her. It sort of went the other way too, if he ate real food. She got a bit of energy from it, so to her way of thinking that was worth doing.

  The two Vampire girls got looks from some of the men around them, and one of them, an older guy with a beard called out, trying to shame him into buying them things.

  "Hey there young man. You should get your ladies here some flowers. Lovely blossoms for the lovely blossoms! Only three dollars apiece. A bargain at half the price."

  He shook his head, and ignored the guy. After all, he was too poor for that kind of thing, even if Ginger looked wistful enough that he kind of wanted to get her something. Eve waved them on however, then patted him on the back.

  The move made him wince.

  "I'm a bit damp for that right now." He always felt slick and a bit dirty until he showered, and having just thrown himself across town, the long way, he had to be a mess.

  It got a chuckle from Eve, who rubbed at his arm.

  "Not in the slightest. Bone dry, in fact. I bet that's part of what Anne told you to think, before you knew what you were. You should get it now, since she said you were allowed to understand now. You don't sweat. Look at yourself."

  The vision he had when he looked down, seeing the sweat soaked shirt he had on, which was red, altered instantly, in the blink of an eye. It was, as she'd said, totally dry.

  "Oh. I... Well, that's something. I wonder how fast we went."

  Ginger put her hand on his back as the sun beat down on them, and giggled. It sounded strained, and a bit fake. He didn't really get why.

  "You were slooow. That was what, twenty-five miles per hour? I'd make fun of you, but you can't help it if you're a bit lame like that." She shook her head sadly, making fun of him in a flirty way. He hoped.

  Otherwise she was just being mean for some reason.

  Eve, clearly having mind reading powers gave him a glance then.

  "It's the sun. Being up during the day hurts our kind of Vampire. Even inside, underground it's like sticking your body in a blast furnace. Being out like this is pure agony. Really, if you want any of us to be sweetness and light with you, approaching us at night is the way to go." She started to reach out to him, but got a slightly pouty growl from Ginger. "See? Honest, I won't steal him from you, even if he is cool. You already said I could hit that, if I wanted, as long as I didn't take him away. Not that I could. You're kind of a big deal. Ging. We have a booth up there. Troy is setting it up, with Barb."

  The names didn't mean much to him, but he recognized the dark haired Vampire woman, who was wearing a big straw hat on her head, and black heavy clothing. He'd seen her at Yoghurt World a few times at least, so assumed she was a Vamp. She had the same kind of fake smile on her face that Ginger did. Eve... Well, she wasn't smiling, but her expression seemed more relaxed, like the pain wasn't as big of an issue for her.

  The man with Barb, who he presumed was Troy, was a good match for the woman. They were both nice looking, without it being too much. Fit, and toned, without being athletes in appearance. Probably sevens or so, in looks. He had black hair, or a brown so deep it was hard to tell the difference, and looked to be in his late twenties. His skin was a nice light brown color, that went well with his eyes.

  In short, though he didn't say it out loud, Tyler really wouldn't have minded doing them both. That was a thought line to resist, being that he had shorts on. Instead he smiled and waved at the woman, who seemed to warm a bit seeing who was there.

  "Mr. Gartner! Plus my lackeys. Thank goodness. I was just about to have to actually start working so that Troy wouldn't think he was doing it all himself." She waved at the white booth set up, which seemed to have a grill behind them, for burgers and hot dogs, as well as a drinks fountain, and a deep fryer, for a disgusting, but tempting array of things.

  Looking at the sign he winced, and then shook his head.

  "Deep fried Twinkies and Mars Bars? I'm not sure I want to ask. Oh, um, hi!" He looked at Troy, and tried not to lick his lips. They felt dry, but locking eyes and doing that would pretty much force the guy to feel uneasy. "I'm Tyler."

  Ginger hugged him from the side and didn't let go. It was close enough that a woman at a different stand scowled at them. At first he figured that it was about Ginger looking so young, about fourteen or fifteen, but really, he wasn't that far out of her dating range, that way. So it wasn't about that. Then he realized that they were standing in front of a booth that proclaimed them to be Vampires. He wasn't, and he kind of thought that Troy wouldn't be either, but the others were.

  The woman in question was, if her booth and materials weren't lying, there as part of a church group. They were mainly selling brightly colored clothing and hats. She scowled at them, but before she could look away, he waved at her, and smiled. That got the rest of them to do the same. Caught then, between being a bitch and looking away, or responding like a normal person, she managed a nod for them.

  "Troy Lopez. Don't let Barb here fool you, she's done most of the hard work so far. We could use some help on set up. That and testing things as they come off the grill? I don't suppose you can eat food?"

  Smiling, he nodded.

  "Oddly enough, that's one of my super powers. No meat."

  That got a knowing nod, as the man got back to work, putting supplies away. "Edom is bringing the rest of the stuff. He rented a truck. We can use some help carrying it? Many hands makes light work, I hear tell. Hmm? Hmm?" Wiggling his eyebrows
comically he made eye contact with Eve, who shrugged back.

  Her words were pleased in tone.

  "Sure. Make me do all the work why don't you? Well, it was my idea, so I guess there's a real point in there somewhere. I can beg Ginger to help too. Maybe, if you offer to blow him, we can get Ty too? Please?"

  That got the man to make a face and look away for a bit.

  "I'd rather not. I'm not that into guys."

  Eve laughed at him, and shook her head.

  "Which is why you need to get over that. I was kidding anyway. I swear, I keep trying to get people to hook up Tyler, and it just doesn't work. I'd blame you, Ty, but you're kind of hot, so I'm thinking it must be my approach. Anyway, you'll probably need to be off with some of the other groups, at least part of the day. The Shifters have a booth around here, doing face painting. There are some Mages doing baked goods, and magical talismans that actually work. Just little things. Nothing that should cause any problems."

  She glanced at the others, and then over at Barb directly.

  "Tyler is the head of the new Coalition of Nations. So if anything starts going down involving... Pretty much anyone, we're supposed to dump it on him. Not that we'll have issues here. Vancouver is one of the good places. Really, Ty, you need your phone, so you can be on tap for people. Zack will want to know where you are too, in case you need to go someplace, or get to a computer. Here, you help Troy, and I'll get your phone. It's in your room next to the whips and chains?" She let that last bit come out like it was real, but the people there knew her too well, so it didn't work.

  That, or they just assumed that kind of thing would be normal.

  "On top of my dresser you mean, in my spartan and monk like cell?" He grinned and glanced at the others. "I haven't done much with the place yet."

  Instead of saying anything Eve vanished, and Barb waved to the left.

  "Ed says he's in a yellow Rider truck? He'd like to move the ice chests first, which will take two Vampires." Barb looked ready to go, but Ginger waved her back.

  "Nah. Tyler and I can do this. It's only what, a few hundred pounds?" She spoke normally, but seemed to be listening to a reply. "Four hundred? I can do that alone... Awkward though, right. No problem, I bet. Here, we're coming." She started off at a jog that was about as fast as Ty could push himself. Edom, who was wearing a tight blue cotton shirt, and jeans, smiled at them as they got there.

  "Mr. Gartner. Good to see you. Thanks for the help. I can get most of this, but there are a few things that having help with will make simpler. Like this beast."

  What he pointed at was about the size of a small car. It was like an ice chest, but the biggest thing like it he'd ever seen. There were strong looking metal handles on the sides, for carrying, but the man popped it open to show that it had not only ice, but meat, cheese and other perishables inside. There was even milk and eggs. A lot of them. The thing was long, being about ten feet by about four, and filled to the brim.

  So, yeah, it would probably work best with two people lifting it. Tyler gave it a hard glance, and then shook his head.

  "Right, well, we'll need to go slow, since I can't see the eggs lasting if we don't coordinate this right. Let's get to it?"

  Ginger, who was stronger than he was, took the near end, so that she'd be the one to walk down the ramp backward. The lifting portion didn't hurt, but it was a lot more than two hundred pounds. He nearly couldn't do it. That probably meant it was closer to four or five hundred really. True, he wasn't huge, but he could use all of his strength, and didn't have to stop. That made him something like fifty or sixty percent stronger than he should have been. Maybe more than that. His mom had told him he was a few times stronger than his size would allow for. She hadn't called that part a super power, but this chest was packed solid and heavy enough that it might well mean he was doing a bit better than he thought that way.

  It was really close though, he thought. A strong man could have lifted more. Maybe even by a lot. Not for as long though, and while the weight hadn't jerked instantly into place, he didn't really feel it.

  The ramp was a bit slick under his shoes, but Ginger was able to keep them from sliding, being on the ground by the time his feet tried to slip on the solid metal runner. Feeling stupid he realized, almost at the end, that there was a textured strip right next to his foot the whole time. They didn't drop it, and even though it was about a quarter of a mile away, they got the thing over to the booth without setting it down.

  That part wasn't even hard. It truly didn't actually feel like anything to him, and there was no gasping or moaning from Ginger either. The box was settled into place behind the booth, which would help keep it out of the sun for part of the day. Edom, smiling the whole time, walked up, holding a large chest of things on his right shoulder, like a strong man, or possibly an old time porter.

  "Good work. There are a few more trips..." The words were leading.

  Tyler just started walking back. It wasn't exactly high excitement maybe, but they needed the help, and he was the one that didn't feel like he was being tortured the whole time. It was weird, but even though they had a lot more power than he did, Ty had the better deal that way. Most days you didn't need super strength at all, or hyper-speed.

  The sun was always there.

  Keeping that in mind, he helped with the rest of the work, setting up the propane grills, and the deep fryer they were using. Eve did the generator, and the drinks machine, while Ginger and Edom started setting out the work spaces. They had a lot of onions for instance, that needed to be chopped up and fried. They had French fries too, which for some reason were being made from fresh potatoes, instead of gotten out of bags. In fact, most of the stuff was being made right there. Not the buns, or the condiments, but almost everything else was.

  Working together they had food started by about noon, and while there weren't a lot of people there yet, the drinks sold pretty well. Troy kept making things for him to try, as if doing so made any sense. The first was a deep fried Twinkie, which was good, if sickly sweet. Then a variety of things that almost didn't seem possible. It included a pile of onion rings to round it out. He tried to make him a hamburger too, but grudgingly provided a veggie sandwich with melted cheese on it instead. It was still good, the warm onions and cool tomato slices working nicely with the pickles.

  After watching him eat the whole thing the man shook his head a little.

  "So, is it about stopping global warming? The whole vegetarian thing? I read something about that. How vegetarians have a lower carbon footprint?" The guy didn't seem like the type to research things like that, his clothing being a little too trendy for deep thought to be indicated, but the two things probably didn't really go hand in hand.

  It was tempting to lie, but after a bit he just shook his head.

  "Nothing like that. I'm... Basically I guess I'm like a zombie? Only the Greater Demon that made me set it up so I won't have to eat Human flesh. Part of not doing that means I need to not get a taste for meat, I think."

  The guy made a face then. A frown that was deep and slightly suspicious.

  "The Rotted?"

  Nodding, Ty smiled.

  "Yeah. My mom. I mean, she's raised me since I was little. About two. When I died. I just found out about it all a week ago. I really thought I was alive the whole time." He lifted his hands, to show that he didn't understand it all yet, but Troy suddenly seemed really shy about the whole thing.

  Eve, who was cutting potatoes, and tossing them lightly in sugar water, to help them brown, laughed a bit.

  "That look on his face is his way of telling you that he's totally banged your mom. Before you get too mad at him, she did look like him at the time. That kind of makes it masturbation, on his side. I did her, too. It was hot. Like twins."

  Standing there, feeling shocked, Ty stopped what he was doing, stuck his fingers in his ears and started humming.

  "I'm not listening to you... I can't hear youuuu. Nananana." It was a thing that he'd seen on t
elevision, but it seemed to actually work. It probably helped that Eve stopped talking, and snickered at him. When he stopped doing it she started talking again.

  "Greater Demons don't really play by Human rules. Oh, your phone. Here you go." She had to wash her hands first, so that she didn't get potato scum all over it. The trouble there was that he didn't really have pockets, except the one on his thin shirt. He used it, knowing it would leave him looking nerdy.

  "Thanks. Now, I just need to forget the fact that my mind is scarred forever. I should go and see who else is here?"

  Edom clapped him on the back, a hardy thing that seemed encouraging.

  "Thanks for the help."

  "I might be back. Free food, and all that." Not that he needed to eat. Troy had loaded him up already.

  The man nodded, as if him getting free stuff made actual sense.

  It took a bit of walking around to find the other groups that weren't strictly Human. Calley was there, and had cat whiskers and a very adorable black nose painted on, which led him to the Shifters easily enough. She waved to him briefly, but was putting a rose on the cheek of a young lady, so had to keep working.

  "Hey Sweetie! You should come back in a bit. We can use your face as advertising space."

  He nodded, since that would work well enough.

  "All right. Do you know where the Mages are?"

  She didn't, but Rupert, the Bear Shifter, who was darned close to having the look of a biker gang member, complete with multi-colored bandana hiding his hair, smiled at him, and pointed to the left. Away from the parking area, since the booth was on the other side of the walkway that everything was on.

  "That way, on this side about ten places down."

  Ty smiled back, then stopped for a second.

  "Say, um, how is your sister? She was picked up and everything?"

  Vivian had sort of taken the Alede Ambassador hostage, and beaten her. With a gun. It wasn't a good situation, since her girlfriend at the time had set her up to attack the Shifter Ambassador, which would have been a death sentence if she'd done it.