Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (19 page)

The unattractive woman, who was
heavy, square shouldered and who had a slightly better beard growth going than
he could manage himself, started hitting him again. Poorly.

"Quiet, you male
oppressor!"

"Um, I'm not oppressing you.
You're committing a crime, and
literally
hitting me! That makes you the
oppressor here. You want to
not
be doing that. Stop and let me go.
Now."

Another of the women, who seemed
a bit rabid, screeched in his direction. Her hair was fuzzy, and she probably
would have been cute, if it weren't for the deep frown lines on her face.
Flecks of spittle flew from her face as she yelled.

"You! You threatened to rape
our friends. You won't get away with that!"

That was news to him.

"I... What the hell are you
talking about? I didn't do that." No, he'd let Balthias do that. It was a
very
different thing.

That got incoherent ranting, the
message of which basically told him that the woman had nothing to go on in
particular. She just started saying words, which while catchy, didn't cover
why
he was being taken. Her reasoning seemed to be about the Patriarchy, which,
when he asked to have that really explained got three different responses from
four different women. The only good part of the whole thing was that they
started fighting among themselves about it, which meant there was screaming
when the doors were ripped off the vehicle. It was a booming and screeching
thing, that involved sounds Tyler was nearly willing to bet would do some
hearing damage.

To those others, who didn't just
soak that kind of thing and grow teeth back like he did.

Strangely, even though he'd
expected Eve, or maybe Ginger, to get there first, or possibly Zack,
or
his mom, it wasn't any of them there. No, the Vampire that was kicking some
behind rather handily was one that he didn't recognize.

Only that wasn't true. When he
saw her slightly nerdy face, and focused he got it. He'd met her,
twice
.
She'd lent Eve her car to give him a ride once in fact, which had been
ultra
cool of her.

"Hi Maggie. Thanks for the
rescue. Please be careful not to hurt them. I think they might be... I don't
know. Kind of deluded? I'd say
slow
, but that isn't right. I don't want
to insult people with learning disabilities, so this
has
to be something
else. They might have been tricked, or brainwashed into it, so we should be
careful."

The last of the women, the heavy
one that had screamed first was tossed into the parking lot. The Vampire looked
like a bit of a hippie to him, and a tiny bit like a nerd. She was
also
kind of adorable, while she was saving his life like that.

"Fanatics are
always
a pain in the rump. I was just going to come in and see if I could get the word
on what's going on at the meeting. I heard you, so figured you might
know?"

"Nope? I bet we can find out,
if we try. There was a bomb threat.
Probably
these people. We should, I
don't know, call the police?"

She nodded, and pulled a cell
phone, which meant that they got very prompt service. The cops were still
there,
and
she was known as the daughter of Chief Sims. They didn't even
shoot him first this time before arresting the actual bad guys. Bad gals, he
reminded himself, not wanting to get that part wrong. They didn't even spray
his face with anything
or
try to taser him, either. In all, it was a
good day.

It still took hours for him to
get out of there. The police kept asking him the same six or so questions, over
and over again, and generally were acting like he was making up being
kidnapped, even with Maggie Sims backing him up on the topic.

It was bad enough that the woman
finally lost her cool a bit and growled at some of the men.

"Look, this isn't hard. Look
at the video from those cameras?" She pointed, frustration in her voice.

It was a good point, and while
they did get with the plant manager for the mall, and the footage was both
delivered and very clear, he was still hassled for a long time, as if he were
making things up.

In the end it was Robertson that
explained the whole thing to him. The cop looked exhausted, his mustache kind
of messed up, which Tyler had never even thought of as being a thing that could
happen.

"They know that you've taken
out Vampires, unarmed. One more than one occasion. There's no way a bunch of
regular women could take you against your will." Even as he spoke he was
skeptical sounding.

Ty nodded.

"Sure. I
could
have
kicked their asses. Then you'd be taking me to prison right now, wouldn't you?
Hell, I was stabbed the other day and the cops attacked
me
for it. Are
you really going to tell me that I had a legal right to self-defense given
that? If I even pushed them away so I could run I'd be open to arrest now,
right?"

That got the cop to look baffled
for a moment, but after a while he laughed, just a little. A dry chuckle that
seemed nearly miserable under the surface level.

"True. It's a trap for all
men. Even cops have to deal with it from time to time. I saw a case recently
where a woman came up behind an officer who was working on a computer and
slashed his throat, trying to kill him. She got probation for it.
Probation
.
He lived, but there was an investigation into
his
use of force, wresting
the knife from her. He didn't even punch her."

That was kind of shocking, but it
also made sense at the same time, from what he'd seen.

Still, that being pointed out did
get the other cops to pull back a bit, question wise. They got part of it, if
nothing else. He hadn't been being a wimp, being taken like that, he'd been
being diplomatic. Luckily Maggie, the Chief's daughter had been there to help
him out.

It was funny, but not one of the
cops put two and two together to come to the conclusion that she was a Vampire.
Not even with the vehicle damage. Ty suspected mind control on her part, but he
didn't see it happening. There were no particularly lingering stares or verbal
commands telling them what to do. Not that he could tell.

It was nine in the morning by the
time he was allowed to go home, and for once he actually got to. After all, it
was an order day, which meant the new books were coming in later that night.
That meant he was able to find a place and just sit. It had been a while since
he'd been able to do that. At least without anyone trying to hit him at the
same time.

His chosen place was Calley's
sofa. It was warm and soft, letting him sink into it. There was a nice and
rather large television in front of him, but he left it off, just breathing for
a while. A thing that he eventually realized he didn't need to do. On the good
side, even with his life being kind of bad at the moment, he also didn't think
he was capable of depression.
That
was kind of cool, actually. No one
needed that kind of thing, if they didn't have to feel like that.

After about half an hour of that,
just when he was going to get incredibly bored, Calley came in, through the
front door. She looked pretty exhausted. The real kind that gave her dark
circles under her eyes, like a real person.

"Tyler! You still live
here?" She hopped over the arm of the couch and slid in beside him,
cuddling in to his side.

"I
know
. How are
things going for you? I'd share first, but the fact is I have no clue about my
life. I mean, you'd think I'd know, having lived it, but no... Not so much."
That seemed fair to him.

"Catherine is freaking out.
We're seeing attacks at a level that pretty much means someone is setting them
up, but she doesn't know who it is, or why they'd bother. I mean,
feminists
?
They aren't normally bombing kidnappers, are they? Even the extremists tend to
be more about talk than action. That pretty much means someone is trying to
line things up for some reason. Then there's the thing with Vivian. I mean,
she's Rupert's
sister
. Sent after Catherine personally?" There was
a rapid settling of her body, almost vibrating against his side.

After thinking for a few seconds,
that being a thing that he liked to do occasionally, Ty could see that as
strange.

"Yeah. My guess is Greater
Demons. Zack pretty much told me that if I trusted any of them he'd cut off my
arm and eat it in front of me. I like my hands, so... Yep. I'm blaming them
irrationally. Probably The Storm, since I know she's going after my mom."

Hopping up the Bat girl scurried
to the kitchen.

"Pancakes! You want?"

He did. It actually sounded
pretty good, given everything.

"Sure. I should help."
Not that he was the best cook in the world, but he could do a few things in the
kitchen. More than just that, actually. Really, he was good at it. His mom had
taught him how, so he could make his own dinners when she was working. Now he
had to wonder what she'd
really
been doing all that time. Demon stuff,
no doubt.

He had other kitchen skills too
however. Washing dishes and standing there, mainly. Opening cans was a talent
of his as well, and he
could
mix a mean pitcher of frozen orange juice
concentrate.
If
they weren't going to use fresh oranges. Most of the
time they hadn't done that either, since Ty had grown up poor, but he'd been
shown how, so that he'd have the skill.

They had several cans too, so he
worked near the sink, trying to stay out of the way.

That almost didn't matter, since
the girl kept moving toward him, even as he shuffled over to give her room to
work. That kept him moving around the space until Calley set up an electric
griddle on the counter, pulling it from below that.

Then she stopped pursuing him
like she had been, clearly not getting that she'd been doing it. As the batter
was poured and started to make little noises at it cooked, the girl set up some
eggs on the stove in a pan. She glanced at him, but he waved those away. They
smelled wonderful, but that wasn't a good thing at the moment. He was feeling
kind of hungry, which was mainly a psychological thing for him.

Eating was just for fun.

Kind of like sex.

That could have been sad and
might be someday, if he ever wanted kids, but at eighteen he was feeling all
right with that kind of thing. He couldn't get a girl pregnant? Wonderful. That
was one less thing to worry about.

As she worked, standing like a
warrior in front of the griddle, holding a long handled spatula, Calley glanced
over at him.

"Ohhh, will you pour me a
glass of OJ?"

He got her one, the heavy
pitcher, which was made of clear glass, feeling about room temperature to him.
There was a bit of condensation on the outside of it, meaning it was cool. So
was he though, naturally.

"I keep forgetting that I'm
cold all the time. I know why I didn't realize it for years, but it's shocking
that no one mentioned it to me." Only, of course, they had. People had
mentioned him having cold hands several times, Ty just hadn't touched people a
lot.

Now that he thought about it,
Lucy had always hinted that he should avoid that, so he wouldn't catch their
germs. An awful lot of what he'd done had been about not being noticed as a
dead person, now that he was able to see his own life clearly.

Before the first batch of crispy
smelling golden brown cakes were put on a plate, a soft knock came from the
front door. It was late enough in the day that it didn't seem impossible,
though he used the peep hole, and was a bit shocked to see who was there, on
the other side of the thing.

Cracking the door, he let his
head pop out, and tried to seem skeptical.

"Are you here to tell me
about our Lord, Jesus Christ?"

The Mistress of Souls snorted a
bit, and then let her head tilt from side to side.

"Not
exactly
. So, let
me in anyway? I mainly just came to check on you, since I hear you've had a
rough few days. I'm good like that. Practically your best friend, when you come
down to it. I mean, who else comes from out of state just to make sure their
pal is all right?" Her face was smiling and friendly. Also a bit too good
looking. Like she wasn't exactly real.

Perfect on a level that was too
hard to ignore. Like the Alede were. Only without blasts of lust coming off of
her, which was nice, now that he noticed it.

"Um, okay, but no sex or
tricks. I mean, tricking me or my friends. If you want to do stupid
Demon
tricks to amuse us, that would be cool."

That got a nod, but no words.

Then she pushed her way in, and
sniffed.

"Hey, can you set me up with
a plate too? Those smell marvelous." She called it out, clearly speaking
to Calley, even though she didn't raise her voice that much. It got the Bat
girl to walk over, her face a tiny bit scared. She had a gun in her hand, which
meant that it had been hidden in the kitchen someplace. It certainly didn't
look like it could have fit in the back of her skirt.

It should have been really tense,
but Keeley just waved at her, smiling.

"Calley Hale. Zack's
mentioned you. He thinks you're cute. I can see it. Still, I'm just here to
visit, so, we
can
fight if you want, but that seems further away from
pancakes
to me... Oh, eggs too?" She seemed hopeful, and the gun was pointed
downward.

"Are you here to hurt Ty? I
won't let you. I mean, I can't stop you, but..." She seemed confused and
frightened, but Keeley shook her head.

"Nope. I wouldn't, even if I
could. Which isn't impossible, but would be pretty hard to pull off. Really, he
set
me
up for some work the other day, so I came to make sure I know the
timing of things. Before you ask, yes, he worked
me
around, not the
other way. Hopping to the word of the dead man. I'd complain about slipping,
but he's pretty cool, don't you think?"

The conversation seemed to be a
bit strained, but the Bat girl sighed and moved back, like the Grater Demon
couldn't have just lied.

"How many eggs?"

"What you have left? I'll
leave some cash for them. Not that I'm offering to
pay
you for it.
There's a subtle difference there. Neither of you is a Greater Demon. I just
don't want you to dread me coming to visit. We should hang out. I'm really
pretty nice, I hear."

Tyler didn't know if that was
true or not, so smiled at the girl. Her face was designed to manipulate men, he
realized. He didn't feel it, even though he did when he looked over at Calley.
His girlfriend. Logically he should have been very responsive to the new girl,
being prettier and trying to use that against him, but he just didn't.

"I wonder if it's about
being a slave already?"

The girl moved toward him and
patted his arm, then winked at him.

"I see. That's... Yes? I
think you actually have programming to protect you from Greater Demons, which
The Rotted put into play. Smart of her. Once you know what we are, you won't
feel like that for us. Other than Zack... Which is darned specific, but I can
see it. He's pretty much the only one of us you can trust. Not that you get a
choice with Lucy."

Calley seemed not to get it all,
so he smiled at her.

"I was wondering why I
didn't feel any attraction to her. Good to know I'm not gay? Not that there's
anything wrong with that." It was meant to be a joke, but no one even
smiled at it. Probably because he was close enough that way.

As if she was reading his mind,
The Mistress of Souls just started talking about him.

"You were raised by a
Greater Demon, as both her slave
and
child. That means you're going to
reflect her morals pretty solidly, I bet. The Rotted is insane, for one of us.
That probably suggests that you won't be well balanced in some ways. In others
you'll do better. Like being bi-sexual. Greater Demons just don't care about
things like that, so it makes sense you wouldn't. I bet you don't care if you
kill people either, do you?" She was saying it for Calley, who'd gone back
to the other room.

"Um... You know, I haven't
really so far, but I do tend to avoid it. I find the idea of eating people
really gross. And alluring, at the same time, which is sickening to me."

"Exactly. A thing that Anne,
your mom, put into place so you could pass as Human. She did a pretty good job,
really. We should set the table." With that, it was clear that her input
as far as his nature was over for the time being. It wasn't subtle, so he got
it pretty clearly.