Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (8 page)

It took until nearly five to get
everything taken care of. The only good thing about the whole matter was that
his cell phone hadn't broken. It was probably proof that there was actually a
God, since he would have figured that would have been the very first thing to
go. The pocket had kept it from being too dinged up even. He realized that when
it rang, in the middle of talking to one of the cops. The man did
not
look pleased when he answered it, but it was possible that the call could be
important. He had it for work, but didn't explain that.

"Tyler Gartner, Coalition of
Nations. How may I help you today?"

"This is Althea Sims. I
heard there was a small issue at the celebration today? Do you have anyone on
the scene? It seems that a few of the officers are feeling threatened by the
Vampires there."

Not able to help himself, he
snorted. Then he pulled the phone away and gestured at it with his head.

"Chief Sims. She wants to
know if you guys are feeling too threatened. Do you need something to drink, or
eat? I'd offer hugs, but after the beating you guys gave me earlier that
might
be a little bit soon." Then, stopping the smart assed remarks, he waved to
Ginger.

"Can we get some cold drinks
for people? I can't pay."

Edom nodded however.

"Good idea. Anyone? If you
need something, come and get it. We should smooth this over now. Barbara, will
you help Ginger with that? Troy, can you work the grill and fryer at the same
time?" He moved over there himself, but oddly enough left Eve, who was
relaxed and calm seeming. Also a girl. A deadly one most likely. They
all
could have taken all of the police there by themselves. Honestly he wasn't
really certain that he couldn't do the same thing. Alone and unarmed.

Now that he wasn't in handcuffs
anyway.

The thing was, the cops had a
real
reason to be afraid. Treating them like they were just thugs wasn't going to
help anything. No one wanted to be the bad guy. Especially if they'd fucked up
and actually were at the moment. There had to be limits. It was one thing to
over-react in the heat of it all, but to keep doing it and not learn from your
mistakes was criminal.

Also not his problem.

There was speaking from the
device in his hand, since he hadn't ended the call yet. He'd kind of forgotten
about that, doing the rest of it.

"I think that should work.
Thank you, Mr. Gartner. I'm certain that none of the people there meant any
harm." She sounded a bit miserable about it, but that was better than fake
anger.

"Yeah, they already
apologized. I'm not thrilled about the fact that twenty people have pictures of
my bare behind, but I'll live. I just can't seem to not be handcuffed and
beaten these days, can I?"

That led to him going over the
events of the day before, which at the end of the story got a soft laugh.

"So it would seem. I'll let
you get back to work then. May I speak to the officer in charge there?"
That
wasn't
his friend the report taker, but some other man in blue. He
watched his phone, just to make certain he got it back. The thing wasn't really
his, after all. If he lost it, The Mistress of Souls might just be annoyed with
him. Since she was the most wicked and dangerous thing in the world to him, a
hot young woman, he
really
wanted to avoid that.

So he was a little distracted by
that, not wanting to take his eyes off the thing, just in case. Finally, the
man in blue snapped his fingers in his face.

"You with me here?"

"Sorry, yeah. I can't lose
that phone. It belongs to a Greater Demon. That's
exactly
as scary as it
sounds. Don't worry though, if you ever run into one of them, you can just
shoot yourself, so they can't enslave you for the rest of your life. Not all of
them will, but if you tried to pull the kind of lame stuff with them as you're
guys did here, the entire force might die. Or so I've heard. To be fair, all
the ones I've met have been nice enough to me, personally, but I don't want to
risk it."

The man let his mustache twitch a
little. It was a well trimmed thing that looked fairly reasonable on him. He
was a bit heavyset, but in a way that showed he tried to keep in shape, and was
simply not making it.

"Is that bullcrap? Demons? I
saw one on T.V. A big red thing, with horns, like that?" He seemed curious
rather than scared.

"Nope. I'm talking about the
ones that
those
types of Demons are afraid of. They can look any way
they want, and could be anyone around you,
including
people you know
pretty well. The one that gave me the phone to use for the Coalition has always
looked like a hot woman in her early twenties. On the great side there aren't
that many of them. A few hundred I think. So you might never meet one,
or..." He didn't say anything else, since Zack stepped out of nothing,
about ten feet away, like he'd heard him and done it on purpose.

The Greater Demon walked over
like there wasn't a cop right there, or more to the point, like he just didn't
give a damn.

"Hey, Tyler. Can you watch
the store for a while? I need to go and make nice with Darla and some of the
others for a bit. Things are busy there, more or less. I hate to make you miss
the big show here, but there's a thing, so..." He tried to look cute.
Which
worked
.

He recalled something that his
mother had told him once. While looking like a little girl from a movie. That
he wasn't up to working with her people yet, because he bargained too softly.
That he should fix that too. With most people being nice worked, but letting
Greater Demons have the upper hand with him like that was a poor idea.

"What are you offering for
it? I mean, I'm
busy
here, working with my new police friends. They need
a seventh report about me being stabbed. Plus, I'll need to go home first, and
leave not one, but
both
of my girlfriends
here
. All alone, under
the brilliant fireworks display, longing for companionship. They're both hot
too, so they can get that without me. That isn't a good thing, in my book. I
can't even think of anything I need in particular either." He was angling
for more overtime, which wasn't going to be happening that day, since the week
was going to turn over at midnight. Well, he could get
some
time in that
way, but it would be nice if it all counted at time and a half, wouldn't it?
"I also need to be with the Alede Ambassador to go pick up Vivian in the
morning at six. I already made plans and
have
to go." That was
overselling, but he didn't want to be too lazy about it.

Zack didn't even laugh at him,
just nodding.

"I can offer you line
travel. Say three round trips? Plus light backup if you need it. The trips
aren't work related. You have that already. Just for vacations, or day trips.
You can trade them out for other people on the same terms, which might be
useful." It was actually worth a
lot
more than what he'd be doing.

Still, when he told his mom about
it, he wanted to look good. To think, there had been a time not long before
when he was nearly certain that Lucy would have been happy enough for him to
just make it to work most days. Now the bar was completely different.

"Five round trips. That back
up, and..." He scrambled, not able to think of anything at first. Then
something hit him. It would actually help with work. The coalition part anyway.
"And a computer."

He expected to be laughed at, but
Zack just shrugged.

"Three trips, backup, and a
computer. I'll get you something decent, even if you didn't add that part in."
He waited, his eyes steely and closed off.

Ty took his boss's hand then, and
shook, without saying much at first.

"I still have to get away
from here, and need to get Keeley's phone back.
That
man is on with
Chief Sims. So I can't go yet. Plus I need to do this." He waved to the
really pissed off looking cop in front of him. The man was turning red, and
veins were starting to show on his forehead.

It was like he didn't enjoy being
ignored.

Turning to him, he put a hand
out, "sorry about that. We were talking about the odds of meeting a
Greater Demon? This
is
one. The Line Walker. This is his area, his
territory, so if you need anything that way, get with him on it? Only, of
course, you want to
never
need that. If you can get my phone back, I can
get him to show you a trick. If we're done, I mean? I'm not trying to dodge out
on you." Except that he
was
, being incredibly bored.

Zack reached out and touched the
officer's hand lightly. It really seemed out of place, and the man glared, and
seemed about ready to hit someone. Still, pissed off or not, he did go and get
the phone, announcing loudly that The Line Walker was taking the gay kid away.

Ty shook his head.

"
I'm
gay now?
They're
the ones that wanted to see
my
butt. You can't tell me that was on
accident. Ask anyone."

The mouthy officer that probably
secretly wanted to date him, hence thinking
he
was gay, jogged back over
with the cell phone, about half a minute later. It was handed over instantly,
so there was that. Then the guy waved them away. Well, to be exact, Ty was told
to leave. Zack wasn't even looked at.

As they walked away, the Greater
Demon winked at him.

"It's that you don't grow
hair on your body. I mean, you have pubic hair, and some under your arms, but
other than that, nothing. To him that means you shave it all. Plus you
do
have a cute ass, so he was really responding to that a bit. He's straight, so
it was messing with his head a little. It's not
his
fault that you
remind him of that college girl he used to have sex with."

"Oh. I... Do I not have body
hair?" He stared at his arms, and winced. "
Fuck
. I
literally
never noticed that before."

Taking him by the arm, his boss
did something, which caused them to end up in the living room of his own house.
There was no one there, since the others were all back at the Fort, having fun.
Or, more to the point, dealing with annoying cops. It was probably bad form for
him to leave like that, but he was kind of needed. Probably just to stand
there, and act like he was busy fixing the shelves.

It was the
Fourth
after
all. Even people that wanted sex would put it off to go to the parties.

Scrambling he ran to get changed,
and decided on a shower first, since he'd been running earlier, and even if he
didn't sweat, he still felt disgusting. Zack didn't ask him to hurry, but he
did anyway. Ten minutes later he was dressed, had his phone and his notebook,
and headed out the door. Getting there instantly wasn't really going to help
him, after all.

Zack didn't tell him he was being
silly either. The slender man just followed along beside him.

"Thanks. I know that you
wanted to stay. I want to keep at least one person at the place all the time in
case something comes up. Everyone else skated on me. Anyway, Hiram will be in
at five, if he shows up. I wouldn't really count on that. I'll try to be in by
then. If no one is, then just lock things up for me? I hate to do it, but we
can only do so much in life."

"Yeah. So everyone is gone?
Wow, that's going to make it hard, when all those lonely people come in to get
some." He was working on the assumption that at least one or two Alede
would be there, but Zack shrugged.

"Try not to lock yourself
away with anyone? Really, if anyone comes in, it will probably be about node
work. I really need to get going. I'll tell your mother hello, if I see
her."

"Cool. Thanks." He was
about to ask where he was going, as he walked, but the other man was gone
already. It was both a neat and an annoying trick.

Jogging a bit, he went into the
bookstore to find it totally devoid of life. It had just been sitting there,
empty the whole time. The whole mall was pretty quiet, even though
most
of the locations were actually open still. As far as he could tell the whole
place had no one in it that didn't work there. Even the Cafe in the back was
dark and the chairs had been put up for the day. Given no one was there, that
was practical.

So he started straightening the
place, dusted swept and mopped the whole place. Then he vacuumed the few
carpeted areas. Feeling kind of bored, he did the owl room next door. No one
else called it that, but the door to the place and the walls within had fine
carvings of the birds all over them. They were pretty good, but needed to be
cleaned. Dusted and polished, then the fine marble floor was cleaned. There was
time to get things done after all.

The night wasn't as fun as being
at the Fort would have been. Heck, if he'd been there he could have cuddled
with at least one girl while it happened, which would have been a first for
him. He
was
being paid which was important, if in computers and node
travel. Those were good things and worth keeping the place open and tidy. At
nine there was a phone call, from a man that wanted a blowjob.