Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (7 page)

"Rebecca Soars? Mage. I
should get the rest of you, if you don't mind?" It probably seemed like he
was deflecting, making it seem like he wasn't there just to get the girl's
info. If so, he was decently smooth about it.

Those were the three main groups
that he'd worked with, except the Alede. So it was a bit of a surprise when he
got away a few minutes later, and found a booth that marked the people working
it as Elth. One of them was even a person he knew.

Kent, the hamburger guy from the
mall.

He waved at the copper haired
man. The guy was exotic on a high level, his locks actually being like metal.
The guy had cool eyes too, which were multi colored in rings. The outer rim was
a deep green. The center was more of a metallic gold color. He was a bit over
five feet tall, by a few inches, but shorter than Ty was. Fit though, and
having very even skin that was slightly metallic in the sunlight. An almost
subliminal sheen of copper again, but very light.

"Clerk! Welcome to the Day
of Independence!"

He got it, and answered in kind.

"Happy fourth of July!"

Then, almost as if it was
planned, his phone rang in his pocket.

The call was for, of all things,
a magazine subscription.

"Um, no, thank you. Please
take me off your calling list." Then he hung up.

Tyler didn't have anything
against telephone solicitors, he just wasn't going to be buying anything from
them, so it was mean to waste their time. Kent looked at him and smiled, as if
commiserating with him.

Glaring at the phone a little, he
faked a grimace.

"Hmm. On the Fourth too. You
know what that means?" He glanced at the copper haired man, who seemed
confused.

"Nay?"

"It means that
someone
is being made to work today. I feel a bit sorry for them. Not even here, where
it's at least a little bit fun." Not that he didn't feel for Kent, but the
man didn't seem offended by the idea.

"This is truth. I get to see
many here, and all of them are festive and bold. Three have walked up to my
very space and inquired as to the nature of the Elth. That rarely happens at
Westfield. The sales are good as well. As long as battle does not begin, I have
to suggest this day might have been well planned." There was a look at the
world around them, which didn't stop at his regard. Foolish of the universe, or
at least the people in it, no doubt. "We stand ready however, in case of
the worst. These people are not warriors however, so I like our chances."

It was a different way of
thinking, but it had kind of been what Rebecca had mentioned, after a fashion.

"Well, the goal is to avoid
violence. If something comes up, give me a call and I'll try to get it handled.
Hopefully nothing will be all that bad."

"Luck to us, then!" He
held up the spatula he was using for his food preparation, like a sword. It
looked about right. Like he really knew how to use it.

The rest of the people with
booths, and there were about forty of them lined up, were Human. Unless they
were hiding themselves for some reason. If that was the case no one ratted them
out, and he couldn't tell the difference.

The whole thing was still just
starting, the crowd not being all that intense yet. It was still about eight
hours until the big show. That part would be impressive, of course. Then would
come the massive crush of people walking miles to get back to their cars,
followed by gridlock that would last for hours. It was an annual tradition.
There would also be a few fights, but that would be the responsibility of the
cops in the area to deal with, as long as none of the other Nations were involved.

Things were relatively happy for
the time being. Some music started, coming from the bandstand area. He knew it
was called that, because a man came on and told them that they'd have live
bands playing until nine. After he did the mic check, which was just him saying
random words. It was a bit loud, but only a bit distorted.

Nothing much happened of note,
until he got in front of the Vampire food booth. The name for it was funny, but
no one seemed to be sprinting away from them. Possibly because it was daylight.
Everyone knew that Vampires only came out at night.

Which
was
true, except for
the most powerful.

When he got there though, standing
in the front of the white and red thing, a push came from behind. It wasn't
hard, but it did rock him a bit, which got him to spin in place. Before he
turned all the way around Ed, Eve and Ginger were all there. The youngest
looking one had pure blood red eyes, and her fang teeth showing.

It was a woman standing there,
who seemed a bit shocked, to tell the truth. It wasn't the Vamps that did it
either, but the slightly blood covered knife in her hand. The one that had just
stuck him in the shoulder. Looking over, he smiled, and then rolled his eyes.

"Well, you
could
have
just said hello. Some people say that when they just meet new people? I don't
suppose you'd like to drop that? Please?" Ty wasn't that worried really.
The big issue was that he was going to need another shirt already. That meant
going home, or at least getting Eve or Ginger to run and get him something.

The lady went wide eyed, and took
a breath. It was like she was going to scream. Then she didn't.

"I won't let you ruin
Reverend Blythe! I won't!" She stabbed again, so he blocked, and carefully
took the blade away, by grabbing it and twisting. It cut his hand, but it didn't
hurt, so he didn't worry about it.

Then she tried to beat him up
with her bare hands. It was poorly done, and ridiculously slow, but at least
she seemed committed to her protection of the old cult leader. That was nice to
see, he guessed. Ginger grabbed her from behind and held her easily, locking
her arms to her sides.

The fun part was trying to
explain what was going on to nine-one-one. The woman on the other end got that
there had been a stabbing, and sent someone out to handle it. One of the
Officers that was dressed up in shorts and had a bike with him, so he could get
around the festival area quickly got there first. His yellow shirt was pretty,
and tight enough to show he must work out.

The man looked at the sign, then
the fact that he'd been stabbed... And promptly sprayed him in the eyes with
pepper spray.

"Get on the ground! Do it,
now!" When the spray did nothing he drew and fired a taser, almost
instantly. It made him dance around, spastically, but didn't let him lie down
in particular. The man started to freak out, even as Eve moved in. Possibly to
kill the guy.

Ty managed to gasp a single word
out.

"No!" For some reason
that got the fellow to pull his side arm, which was stupid on a level that he
couldn't even start to imagine. First, he was pointing it at the wrong person,
though he probably didn't need to have it out. Second, there were people all
around them.

On the good side, he managed to
get on the ground before the panicked man fired.

"
I'm
the one that was
attacked. The woman being held by the girl there is the one that
did
it.
It's okay, you don't need to hurt people."

That got him kicked. Not that it
did anything to him really, other than make his ribs creak a little.

The officer was still clearly
afraid, probably that he was going to be killed by Vampires. Given the
expression on their collective faces, that really was about to take place, so
he was at least up on where things were headed. The strange thing there was
that it was Barb that was moving in. Tyler barely knew her, but she clearly had
decided that he was her buddy, and was
going
to make the bad man stop.
Probably with a bit of blood involved. It wouldn't be hers, either.

He spoke between the kicking's,
his voice relatively calm.

"Stay back. He's just
scared. He doesn't know... He has backup yet. Don't... Let him be hurt."
The whole thing was punctuated with him being hit, laying there and trying to
do what he was told, like get his hands behind his back. The man knelt on his
face while doing that, which had to be softer than the cement under them would
have been on his bare knees. It would have been painful though, for most
people. Real abuse, most likely.

Barb had blood red eyes now, and
looked to be ready to make the police go away. A car came, which made things
worse at first. The two men that got out hit him hard, laying on top of him and
punching occasionally, like there was any need for that kind of thing. He had
both hands behind his back, cuffed already. Short of breaking the things, he
wasn't going to get up and fight them. Except that he probably still could.
Not
without risking everyone else however.

He didn't resist, or even
say
anything, since that seemed to be scaring the men. That meant he was beaten in
silence for a while, as one of them manage to pull his shorts down, leaving him
there, mooning the world. Really, that one had to be on purpose. Hopefully his
rear looked cute from that angle, since at least a few people were getting it
on their cell phones. Ty smiled for the cameras, trying to seem mildly amused
by the antics.

In the end there were at least
five cars there, and while the police didn't keep piling onto him, since they
weren't stupid enough to think it was needed, they did leave him there. Half
naked, and seeping a little bit of blood. The wound was healing already at
least, and didn't hurt. They just stood there, posturing and puffing their
chests out, as the yellow shirted bike cop tried to lie about him.

That ended a few seconds later
when a man he didn't know walked up, holding a cell phone out.

"That's not exactly what
happened. Here, look at this." He held the screen up, which had the other
cops stand down a bit, looking annoyed. One of them grabbed the phone, and
started trying to open it, to get at the sim card.

"Evidence. It's illegal to
video the police."

Eve shook her head.

"
Nooo
. It isn't.
Maybe in Illinois, but not here. In fact it's illegal for you to claim that.
Besides, fifty odd people got that down. It's probably already on Youtube. Your
best bet is to calm the fuck down and realize that the man you attacked here is
the crime victim. Don't make me call the Coalition of Nations on you." She
didn't even smile when she said it.

Ty
nearly lost it at the words, and
he was nearly certain that Edom grinned, though he turned away. Still, one of
the cell phone people came forward, having the whole thing, including the
stabbing in the background. The woman had been trying to covertly get the
Vampire food stand, since it was kind of novel. She seemed embarrassed about
that part of things. It was why they were there that day however, and lucky for
him that she had.

Looking at her from the ground,
still cuffed, Ty smiled at her.

"Don't worry, if they didn't
want to be seen they wouldn't have marked the booth so clearly. You should talk
to some of them. As soon as this is over, I mean." He sounded very
reasonable, which he hoped made him seem badass. Rather than insane. The woman
nodded and checked out his behind rather shamelessly.

Finally, about fifteen minutes
after the first officer was on the scene, they actually subdued the stabby cult
woman. There was proof of her attack, and that he hadn't done anything except
take the knife away. They also had plenty of proof of police abuse, but that
wasn't going to go anywhere. He didn't even bother to mention it. The man
really
had
 just been afraid, after all.

For that matter he still was,
when one of the other officers let Ty go finally. It actually wasn't
policy
to beat up crime victims, after all, no matter what it had looked like. The
yellow shirt guy, and there were four of them now, seemed to think he was going
to come for him. At least he had his hand on his weapon and the little keeper
clasp was undone. Ready to shoot him for the crime of being a Vampire. Sure, he
wasn't one, but how was this guy to know the difference?

Ginger moved over to him, and put
an arm around him gently.

"Are you okay?" It was
the kind of thing that people asked one another. The older Vampires probably
didn't, but she wasn't one of them.

"Peachy, more or less. My
clothes are trashed, and my behind is going to be all over the net now, thanks
to these guys, but other than that, I'm fine." He waved toward the car
that was on the cement walkway, blocking things, that had the cult lady in the
back. "She might not be working alone. I had a run in with her group
yesterday. A kidnapping thing. Then when she stabs me, you jump me... What the
heck is with that? I mean, I'm the
wounded
one. That's a good sign right
there, isn't it?"

Yellow shirt bike cop number one
glared, then acted like he wasn't going to talk for a bit, but finally he
shrugged.

"When a man and a woman
fight, we take the man in. It's pretty much the law. Then you couldn't be
subdued, and I saw the Vampires, and figured you were one of them. Like you
said, I was freaked."

The man was almost apologetic
about it all. Ty gave him a hard look.

"Okay. That can happen to
anyone. Now, apologize for the shorts thing? Hmm?" He didn't really expect
it, but he wasn't suing them, regardless.

"Sorry." He didn't sound
like he meant it, but the man that actually did it cleared his throat. He was
in a full blue uniform, and had come in riding in a car.

"Me too. That wasn't a good
moment. I should have fixed it. Without admitting to any other wrongdoing, I
mean."

He nodded.

"Good enough. Now, what's
the plan? I should report this? I was just coming to see about getting free
food, then maybe do some work. I should get back to that at soon as possible.
Mainly because I won't let the terrorists win." It was funny, and Eve got
it. Again, it seemed like Ed did too, and Troy seemed ready to...

Fight, actually. His hands were
empty, but there was a knife near right in front of him on the table. The one
they used for the onions. Seeing Ty looking at it, he picked it up, then moved
to the pile and started slicing them very thinly. They were the good kind,
being Walla Walla Sweets.