Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (10 page)

The man also had a wonderfully
deep voice. Bass, and a bit rumbling.

"I'm supposed to guard you
for the trip. So if anything happens, stay behind me."

Ty nodded, then thought for a
moment, and shook his head.

"Honestly... That doesn't
make sense, does it? You should guard the others and stay behind me. I..."
It was so new to him that it kind of shook him inside to say the words out
loud. In the end he didn't really. "I pretty much can't die, I guess. So
that seems right. I'm also not bullet proof, so it isn't a perfect plan that
way. We should probably avoid problems, and if they happen, run and hide?"
That
made him sound brave, but he decided not to care about that sort of
thing. If anyone wanted to think he was a coward, they were welcome to the
idea.

The fact was, when he considered
it for a while that he really just wasn't, which was why the idea didn't bug
him that much. When things happened, he tended to be a bit too tough and manly,
when you got down to it. Taking on five Vampires at once, and gun wielding
women and men like he had.

Now it sort of made sense, but at
the time it had been pretty much
asking
to die.

Opening the box on his lap, he
saw that there was a variety of things inside it. Mainly sandwiches in this
one, with some savory wrapped meat pastries to the right hand side. Being
selective he took a single veggie one on whole wheat bread, and passed the box
to the man next to him.

"Here. We should all
eat." That got a nod from Kait at least. Kyle, her boy form. He was cute,
but not as much as the nerdy book girl he was used to. Not that the desire to
do them both wasn't pretty strong. It was good that he'd picked not to consider
the Alede that way really. How anyone even
thought
around them most days
he didn't know. It was all he could do not to give in to everything they wanted
all the time when they were women, and he had an actual plan for dealing with
them.

Just say no.

Rupert rumbled then, and smiled
again.

"Thanks. I get pretty hungry
most of the time. Most Shifters do. We should pull over so Calley can get
something."

That kind of made sense, given
how much she moved most of the time. She had to pretty much just be burning
calories like she was doing light aerobics constantly. Given that she was,
essentially, doing that all the time. Ty liked the energy, but the woman never
stopped. Not even when she slept, he was willing to bet. Motion was simply part
of her for some reason. Bats weren't like that. Not the real ones. At least Ty
thought that was the case. It occurred to him that he wasn't exactly an expert
on the topic. Other than knowing that a quarter of all mammal species were
bats, a tidbit that he'd picked up from a documentary once, and that they could
fly, he didn't know much in that direction.

He looked out the window for a
second, then glanced toward the front, looking at the controls. The thing was
an automatic, and pretty standard. If anything they were a little closer
together than normal, because Calley was able to drive the thing. She wasn't a
huge person, so that made sense.

"I can drive this. I learned
how to do both automatic and standard. Mom insisted before I took the test for
it. No car, but I can
drive
pretty well for all that. I have my license
with me, if you want?" It came out sounding bored, rather than like he was
bragging about his skills to impress Calley, which was
actually
what he
was doing. Not that being able to drive stick was some kind of super power, but
he did want her to know that, in a pinch, he was sort of competent.

She nodded, her face beaming like
she actually got what he meant.

"Really? Cool beans. I'm up
for this trip, so we have to actually stop for me to eat, so save me some. I'll
keep that in mind for the next trip. Really, we should have gotten you a side
arm. Oversight on my part. We should go and practice first, so you know how to
handle it. In a couple of days?"

It actually sounded fun to him.
He'd always wanted to learn to use weapons like that, but had never had the
chance. Honestly, he probably needed to learn firearms, knives, and some kind
of bludgeon. A short stick or something would be better than a full staff
weapon for that.

"Sounds good. Really fun,
actually. I should be getting a break any day now. I'm nearly certain of it. I mean
I only work forty hours a week.
Supposedly
." He grinned, since it didn't
matter nearly as much lately. He had twenty-four hours a day now, and didn't
get tired. It meant he had the time to get things done. It was more about
getting things aligned with Calley than anything else. Sex was kind of the same
thing, no doubt. He had time for it, if he could make it happen. Then, neither
girl that he lived with was actually being too hard to get that way, so it was
probably something else going on there. Like him filling
every
single
moment with work.

Given that he liked sex, that
didn't have the right feeling to it. Sure, he wanted to do a good job with the bookstore
and this other project he had going on with the Coalition, but neither should
have stopped him from doing that kind of thing if he made a point to be
available.

It was then, most likely, a
Greater Demon plot. Zack had mentioned that he needed to be a bit more careful
there, not trusting that kind of being, and that, while clearly stupid on his
part, his lack of getting busy  was a good thing to blame on them. That, and
the weather. He had to start somewhere, after all.

Calley however, watching the road
like she was a Hawk, not a Bat, spoke knowledgably about what was going on in
his life, as far as work went.

"Well, things will calm down
at work for you in a few days. For a bit. The first round of vacations will be
done then, and your other coworkers will come back. Then, at the start of
August the next round begins. Ben is going to be gone then, right?" She
spoke with the confidence of a person that had been in on planning from the
start, not just a casual eavesdropper.

Given her hearing she probably
knew everything that went on at Westfield, at any given time.

Kyle, the slightly rugged, but
very clear skinned and handsome boy smiled.

"Yeah. Eve managed to get
time off too, if nothing goes wrong. We're all going to the Ettarian lands for
two weeks. I've been wanting to go for a while now, since I heard what people
were saying about it a few years ago. It's pretty much a technological
wonderland. The people there are all telepathic giants, about seven feet tall,
but pretty,
and
as it turns out, harvestable for Alede. I checked that
with their ambassador." The boy sounded conversational, and a bit excited.

It did sound pretty neat.

"I should do that
soon." Ty muttered, thinking about things without explaining.

Calley giggled, and teased him a
bit.

"You're going to blow the
Ettarian Ambassador? Can I watch? That should be pretty interesting."

Ty nodded, which got Rupert to
smother a laugh and pass the large box of food up to the seat with the crowded
Alede in it. Robert took it, letting his hand brush against the Bear's a
little. Not enough to be sexual, since for the time being they were all pretty
locked down that way.

"Yep. That's precisely what
I meant.
Not
going around and making a point of talking to everyone.
Just getting on my knees with some stranger like that. I'm sure he'd be
thrilled
when I stopped by out of the blue." There was enough sarcasm that everyone
probably got it, but Valerie tilted her head a little, and took a small and
delicate looking sandwich, which was wrapped in wax paper.

"Oh, watercress. My
favorite. I don't really think that Yavvel would enjoy that in particular.
Unless you can become a woman? Some of the others might like that too then.
Now, just going for a visit might work for some of them. You'll want to learn
about each group first however, to see how you need to approach them. Some will
need gifts, and others pretty words. Some of them need for you to basically walk
in, and start yelling at them to do what you want, or
else
. So that it's
a real thing to them." There was an abstract tone to her voice, as if that
wasn't a big deal to her, but it sounded like it might be sort of important
really.

"Can we make an appointment
for that? So I can pick your brain and take notes? I don't want to take up too
much of your time or anything. It can be any time I'm not working?" Which
was just true, for the most part.

There was no answer for a bit,
since the woman had started eating, though after she'd finished her small bite
there was a nod. The back of her blonde head made it seem energetic. Like it
was a great idea, not a bother or anything.

"We
can
, provided
nothing else comes up. We, the Governing Body and I, have been worried about
what we could add to the effort. For the Coalition? This will be far more real
seeming than some of the other suggestions. Most of them were to either pay for
a healthy share of it, or to offer sex. That..." She took another bite,
finished it and then turned for a moment to look at him. Kait and Robert did
too, which took some straining on their parts. "We're taken less than
seriously by a lot of the other groups due to that kind of thinking. It's our
natures, and not a bad thing, but it's difficult to be a real player in the
game when everyone constantly thinks you should be on your back, under
them."

That
would
be a problem.

He nodded then, his head moving
slowly.

"Well, that sounds like a
real enough thing to me, actually. So far the whole Coalition is pretty easy
going. Mainly making some phone calls. Really, we should see about getting
you
an interview or two. Television or radio? Let people know about you from your
own words. Do a thing at the library, like the Vampires did a couple of months
ago... Do you have a blog?" That was a word that he'd heard before. Once
he had a computer of his own he might even be able to look one up.

Kyle laughed. It was a good
natured seeming thing, rather than being filled with sexual overtones. Really,
while Ty was kind of fond of Kait, it seemed to him like she was a better fit
with the Human world as Kyle. Just more relaxed about a lot of stuff.

"We do! It's even halfway
decent. Really, it's a news site, for our people, though a lot of it is also
opinion. I can get you the address for it, if you want to take a look?"

It was neat sounding, and better
than he'd figured on. For some reason, he'd been thinking that the Alede
weren't much more than constant sex. Given that Valerie had just pointed out
that it was a problem for them, he felt a bit embarrassed for a few seconds,
then realized that no one else would think anything of what he'd been assuming.
In a way that was even worse.

"Awesome, so you can help me
set one up for the Coalition too? A web-page? I don't really know how to do
that myself."

The good looking young man turned
again, and winked at him. It was flirty, as soon as all of the attention had
turned to him directly. There was probably just no way around that. Alede were,
in the end, what they had to be in order to survive. Like sharks, they were
constantly looking for their next meal. Sexy, sexy sharks, but still, now that
he thought of it that way, Ty could kind of see it.

Kyle, and Tyler tried to get the
name right this time, since none of the Alede made mistakes that way, seemed
pleased to be asked.

"Sure. I do that as a hobby
anyway, so I can run it for you, if you want? Then we'll have two points of
being useful that don't involve being the world's biggest ho-bags. Not that
there's anything
wrong
with that." It got a low chuckle from the
people in the seat in front of them, and from Calley. The other two men were
silent on the topic.

They bantered for a while, and
nibbled on food. The trip, according to Ang, would take about three and a half
hours just to get to the boat dock. Then it would be about two hours to the
island in question, which was off the coast of Washington State, but small
enough it didn't show on any maps in particular.

The Dragon Shifter kept his gaze
moving constantly, looking for threats.

"We, my people, own it. We
have about fifty of them in different places around the world. They can be
surprisingly useful. Not just as prisons. I go on occasion myself, so that I
can change. It's hard to do in the city, and not be seen. Though, I suppose I
should get over that now. We're out. It's just hard to keep that in mind."

That seemed like a thing to Ty,
who was impressed.
He
barely owned his own socks, much less property.
Having a whole island, even a little one, was a big deal. They were an entire
people though, not just private citizens, so that made a big difference. It was
the kind of thing he should have put down in his notebook, which, naturally,
he'd left behind the desk at work.

Feeling stupid, since he was
trapped in a van with people from two of the groups he needed to get info on,
he sighed. It wasn't like they could get away from him at the moment, so he
needed to be using that to his own ends. Ty asked questions for a bit, since
working from memory wasn't a horrible thing either. Not perfect, but he could
do it. If worse came to worse he could pin Calley down about the Shifters again
later. Kait would serve for the Alede, he bet.