Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (14 page)

"And you aren't one? I heard
from Tarsus that you were so close to being one that it was pretty much a real
thing. Speaking of which, he also said that he'd like to meet with you, but
doesn't care about that part of things. You just aren't a real threat to him,
if I have that right. Still, he seems to hold you in pretty high esteem. I mean
you made a list of people that only had Greater Demons on it, and he wasn't
being ironic."

The girl took a deep, obviously
fake, breath, and then slowly nodded.

"Fuck. When was this?"

"Last night. He asked me to
set that up. First I'm trying to check and make certain it was really him. He
said it was something about Gregor, The Cleric? It sounded like he was having
some problems, and needs help. So, I
wouldn't
jump in just yet.
My
guess is that it's The Storm, because who else would come to me for that? He
also wants The Mistress of Souls, and Lyn Hartley there."

"Ahhhh. Okay. That... I'm
pretty sure I don't want to risk something like that. Not that he has it out
for me. I can see that one. After all, I'd be dead already if that was the
case. It could be a trick. He was in on a plan to try and kill Keels not too
long ago, which would probably be the real point of this. Get me and Lyn in at
the same time, so
she
feels better about it. I don't know if you can get
her to trust that it isn't an attack." There was a sigh then, but she kept
going. "So, I'll give you twenty-fives dollar an hour. You'll earn it, so
don't think of it as a favor. Also, I can back you up on things. Like Zack
said? Not against Greater Demons, but if you need help with muggers or
something, I have your back, Batman."

That was harkening back to the
first time they'd met, not long before. A Vampire had asked who he was, and
he'd said that, in a gravely movie style voice. Now it was kind of obvious to
him that the man had been asking
what
he was. Probably what kind of
Vampire. Not that he could ask, because the guy was dead. Beheaded and in a
hole in the forest. Buried by Ginger and him.

"Okay. We can do that. I'll
back you up too, to reasonable degrees. You have to help me get there. I need a
plane ticket or a car. Also, we probably need to go and talk to the prosecutor,
about that whole little thing we had with the cult the other day. Blythe's
group. Plus the thing I have here, with the feminists that shot me."

She nodded at that one, but
didn't add anything, not knowing what the issue was really. He'd have to call.
Later though, when it was daylight.

"I can get you there. Back
here too, if I lock up for a bit. Or... It's in California, so not that far.
Ginger might be able to bring you in? It would take too long for you to run it
yourself. You should really work on that. Get some super speed going?"

"Sounds good. So, you aren't
going to cover the Greater Demon thing are you?"

That got a smile, and a leaning
glare.

"Nope. It would be best if
you didn't think about it anymore. I can't kill you, but I
could
drop
you into the ocean. How's your swimming?"

He bluffed, not wanting that to
happen. It really could keep him gone for a long time, if done right. Maybe
longer than he could imagine.

"Perfect. I'd be back in no
more than a week. I can try not to give you away, but if Demons are going
around telling store clerks things like that you
might
not have a very
good secret going on."

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.