Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (3 page)

The hand came away from his crotch
then, and the sadistic bully laughed.

"That was
inspired
,
you mean? Did you see how fast their tone changed, when I made up some B.S.
about him doing his little sister? We should use that as our standard line from
now on."

They spoke, back and forth for a
while, over the merits of using false accusations like that to get away with
their crimes. They didn't put it that way, but it was clearly what they meant.
Worse, they knew they were in the wrong, legally speaking. It was also clear
that they thought it was morally justified.

He didn't speak, until they got
inside the gate. Looking back, and a bit to the right, he took in the lay of
the land. It was sort of red colored where they were, and very open, with only
scrubby vegetation around. That meant they could be seen for miles, if anyone
ever tried to escape. There was fence, that looked to be ten to twelve feet
high, with rings of barbed wire on the top. Inside the space, which was
decently large, were about a dozen buildings. A few were big, but most seemed
like mobile homes.

There was a lot of concrete, and
a group of kids, all of whom looked tired, were busily jogging around the
outside, using one of the paths. They were a mixed group, with what looked to
be adult men and women in the front, and kids of various ages spread through
the rest of the thing. They all wore long blue shorts and white t-shirts.

Two of them limped along, not
having the shoes that the rest of them did. A man jogged behind them, hitting
them with a whip, screaming that they weren't going fast enough.

Alan didn't let him unbuckle
himself, reaching over and doing it for him, taking the time to feel his crotch
again. Then he pushed him out the side door, hard enough that he landed on his
side. Tyler stood up though, quickly, after rolling so that the kick the goon
tried missed. Looking around he noticed that Eve and Bey were there, as had
been the plan. They were both inside the fence too, probably having just hopped
over it.

This wasn't a place meant to keep
Vampires in, or out.

Glancing around, he noticed that
there was an older gentleman walking up. He had wispy hair on the top of his
head, and a kind looking smile. He was dressed nicely too, in a gray suit, with
a red and blue striped tie and shiny black shoes.

Smiling at him, Tyler moved a few
steps in his direction.

"Excuse me, are you in
charge here, sir?" His voice was smooth, and relaxed, which had the men
that had broken his jaw looking incredibly confused.

"I am, son. Jameson Blythe.
You're Tyler?" It was spoken very politely, compared to the rest of the
treatment he'd been getting.

"That's right, sir. Now,
I've been kidnapped by these men. Illegally. I don't suppose I can just leave
from here now? You
really
want to say yes, if you aren't in on
kidnapping me. I'm
trying
to help you out, giving you that option.
You'll want to take it."

Eve was getting it all down, the
camera held up, with her looking at the screen. She wasn't even that far off,
but no one was paying attention to her. They had
him
there to distract
them after all.

Growling in rage, Alan charged
him.

Jameson, the kindly old leader of
the place shook his head sadly.

"I'm sorry son. You're too
wicked to leave here. We have to keep you, for your own good."

He spoke calmly, even as he was
being beaten by Alan. It really should have been a sign, but there was no
accounting for rage, it seemed.

"So, I'm being held here, as
a prisoner, against my will? Even though I'm eighteen and that's not
legal?"

"I'm afraid so, son."

Then he sighed, and nodded at the
man.

"Good to know. Thanks."

The old man, the top of his head
brown from the intense sun of the area actually looked baffled, as Ty took a
step back and blocked suddenly. The man that was trying to pummel him stopped
after a bit, letting the other fellow speak.

"That doesn't seem right.
What do you think is going on here, boy?"

He nodded.

"I think, and please correct
me if I have this wrong, that you and your team are a band of criminals that
are holding people here illegally, after kidnapping them. That being the case,
I have a good reason to simply leave. Really though, I don't suppose you could
call for help first? You'll want
all
your people out here for this.
Everyone really."

That didn't go over well,
or
get results. Not the ones he wanted anyway.

Well, the three men tried to
tackle him, but now that he had what he needed Ty could finally fight back. That
meant the bullies that had been hitting him for hours were all unconscious
inside a few seconds. They really weren't great fighters, even if they were
pretty big. Before he could turn to explain, the white woman with the big hair
and amble waistline sprayed him in the face with pepper spray.

It didn't even burn when it hit
his eyes. The dye in it did color his vision yellow, but he was able to blink
that away as he moved in and stole the canister from her.

Then he looked at it and
pretended to read the directions. It was a nice large thing, about the size and
shape of a can of bug spray. Which, he saw when he looked, was just a fact.
Wasp and hornet spray. That should have left him blind. He had been planning to
subdue her with it, but it was really too much, since it would do long lasting
physical damage to a regular living person. Instead he tossed it away.

"
I
know, why don't
you call your people out here now? The police will be here shortly. You're all
going away for a long time, but going there with injuries won't help you. So,
what do you say?"

The old man just stood there for
a bit, his brain finally filling in that something wasn't right with the whole
thing, and the now angry Christian church lady tried to slap him. With her
hand. Without thinking he went into a combat stance, one with a high guard, and
hunched position, to protect his neck from Vampires. It worked pretty well for
average women too, and let him block everything she did with minimal movement.
Because his fists were so high, near the top of his head, he tended to use
hammer blows, at least as his opening move. They were slow, compared to jabs,
but a lot more powerful.

That meant the woman was able to
try and step away, but he followed her and still struck her in the head, once,
even as she guarded herself with a waved hand. That took her down well enough.
The other men were starting to get up, but he handled two of them pretty easily.

"Stay down. Lie there, and
wait, or I'll have to kick you into unconsciousness. Like this." He
demonstrated the idea on Alan, who'd started trying to move faster after that,
rather than do what he'd been told.

Bey and Eve had moved over,
catching the whole thing as it unfolded. The noise and activity got ten or so
people out then, all in matching shirts. The men all had on blue, and the women
dark green. It still looked tidy and official, and all of them were clearly
marked.

He waved as they came over.

"Hello. You all need to lie
on the pavement here and wait for the police. Speaking of which, I need a
phone. Eve, can I borrow yours? I wasn't allowed to bring mine, for some
reason. Probably the kidnapping thing. Maybe it was just an oversight? I don't
want to accuse these nice people of..." He laughed, really hard, not able
to help it. "Oh, I can't manage that yet. It's too funny."

Half the men tried for him, along
with a single woman. They were laid out nicely after a bit, and followed along
well enough, except for one guy who kept trying to get up and hit him when he
wasn't looking. Neither Bey or Eve did anything however, letting Ty do all the
hard work. That was so no one would be able to claim they'd used Vampire powers
on them later, which might let them get away with what they'd done to the kids
already.

A short call to nine-one-one, two
fist fights, and an aborted gun battle later, there were fifty kids standing
there, gawking at the adults, who'd all been forced to lay on the ground,
except their leader. He was old, hadn't fought, and had Bey watching him like a
hawk. It was possible that he had some kind of supernatural powers after all,
so it paid to make sure he didn't get a chance to use them.

For his part, the man wasn't even
rude, really.

"This is a misunderstanding.
We
help
people here, that's all. These children are troubled, and need
the light of the Lord to guide them back to the path of the righteous, as well
as a firm, but loving, hand. Surely you can see that? Their parents sent them
to us, for help, and understanding."

Eve smiled at him, winningly.                                        

"Sure they did. We have
pictures of your peeps here abusing them, and a lot of footage of kidnappings.
Hey, if you're over eighteen, raise your hand."

That got seven people to do it,
all from the crowd of kids.

"How many of you tried to
leave when you got old enough?"

None of them put their hands
down. Eve started making dinging sounds, like a buzzer or bell going off.

"And the answer is... False
imprisonment! Plus you had Ty here kidnapped, beaten, and molested sexually by
your buddy, Alan. I have some decent footage of it. Also, public defamation of
character. Minor, compared to the other things, but hey, why not use it all? So
the answer is, you folks are going away for a good long time. You have Tyler Gartner
here to thank for that gift. The Vampire Council
was
planning to just
kill you all. You should thank your new buddy now, since you won't get a chance
once the cops get here." She pointed, and there were lights, but the
sirens weren't a thing for anyone else yet.

Except maybe Bey. He was busily
standing there watching the old man. Blythe. Like a hawk, not even bothering to
blink. Nothing happened though, but he was the one in charge. If anyone was
going to whip out a super power and lay down a hurting, it was probably going
to be him. It sure wasn't Alan, because he was busy mewling on the ground,
complaining about being hit a few times.

It was tempting to call him a
little bitch, but that wasn't fair. True, the ones crying and carrying on as
the police got there
were
mainly the ladies, but that might have just
been them trying to get out of trouble by making it seem like they were the
wronged parties. After how he'd spent the night hitting Tyler, that had to mark
him as a wimp anyway. If you wanted to be a tough guy, you weren't allowed to
cry when it was your turn.

None of the kids did much, though
after the police realized that there were nearly fifty people standing there
that had been taken prisoner by an insane cult, they were questioned and the
feds were called in. The FBI.

One of the officers explained it
to him. To Bey, actually, but that was understandable. He was the oldest
looking one of them, which meant in charge, most likely. That he seemed to be
about forty, if not younger, was taken as being easily understood, as he'd
announced himself to be a Vampire as soon as it was safe.

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.