by P. S. Power
Then as if that were the closing line, he left, just moving to the side, and not being there anymore. It was cool as fuck. Really, it had to be awesome to have super powers like that. All he could do was be hit by bullets and not die. Sort of. Still, it was very early in the day, and he didn't need to sleep, so Tyler stood up, very slowly, and hobbled over to the bathroom. A shower would be nice, since they hadn't really done anything to keep him clean at the hospital in particular.
Not even a sponge bath from a hot nurse or anything. True, he hadn't been in the mood for that kind of thing, but still, they could have offered. What was he suppose to write about now, when he retold the story? It took a while, but the wounds on his middle, while puckered and sewn shut, really didn't seem bad. There was no redness, and they really did seem almost healed over already. It still hurt a bit, he figured, but it was pretty clear that he was, like Zack had claimed, pretty much better already. Like they were just lines of stitching on his flesh, not real wounds at all.
That was hard to think about, so he walked through the house, naked, to get to his room. It wasn't a far trip, but he'd forgotten to get clean clothing. It would have been too risky normally, since he was flashing the world, but no one was there, so it wasn't that big of an issue, he didn't think. Looking around in the short hallway space, his slightly damp feet on the hardwood floor, Ty half expected someone to come in and catch him. No one did though, since normal people worked during the day.
What did happen though was his cell phone ringing. It was in his pants pocket, which was held at the moment in his hand. That was a horrible habit to get into, since he'd really forgot the thing. If he'd done the wash, it would have been destroyed in there, he bet. Standing there naked and still a bit moist from the shower, but feeling springtime fresh, thanks to the soap he'd used, he answered the thing like always.
"Coalition of Nations. This is Tyler Gartner. How can I help you?"
There was a polite pause, and then a male voice spoke, sounding a bit reticent.
"Ah... Yeah, hi. This is Officer Mike Ledbetter. Canton Ohio PD? We, uh, found three, erm people? Vampires. The tall white kind? They're outside though, just laying under a bush. We were told that if we have anything we don't know how to handle to pass the buck to you people. I have to admit, I'm lost here. Normally I'd just say screw it and leave them, now that I know what they are, but it's right near a school, and the parents are getting a bit worked up." From the sound of it, those parents were right there. Being agitated, like he'd mentioned.
"Okay. You have the right idea. They won't be awake for a good long while. Though, why are there parents at a school? Don't you have summer vacation there?"
"Yeah. There's this special program for genius kids or something. Math camp? So it would be best if we can do something about this. We could just move them, but I don't want to end up with some wild and flailing Vamp in the back of my car if I can help it. I just cleaned it. It would be a shame to have the doors ripped off."
Which was a point, even if the man was being funny.
"No problem. We'll call the local embassy there and let them deal with it. It will be a bit. I need to make some calls. Can I get a location for that? An address so we can send people there directly?"
It took a bit, since he had to run to the other room for a pen and some paper. Thankfully Calley had a pad on the fridge. It had a partial food list on it already. Turning the page he started writing the info down right under the red rooster in the left hand corner of the otherwise white page.
"I'll get back with you as soon as possible. One minute here. Or more likely twenty, but I'll try to hurry so that crowd doesn't lynch you. Stay strong, Officer Ledbetter. You're our only hope."
That got him called a wise-ass, but in a friendly way.
The trick was finding the number for the Ohio embassy. He had it though, written in the notebook that Darla, The technician, had given him for that kind of thing. It did occur to him that her advice was already paying off that way. Collecting information was useful.
It didn't take long for him to locate the thing, which had been placed on his bed, in his room. It had been at work, but someone had clearly brought it back for him.
A few seconds later, on the first ring, the phone picked up and a youthful sounding woman answered it.
"Yoghurt World, this is Ginger speaking." That was all, but it was enough for him.
"Ginger! This is Tyler, your loving boyfriend. So, how would you like to help me with some bodies?" He was trying to be cute, but her tone was deadly serious on the reply.
"Hang on. I need to get someone to cover me here. I'll be right there..."
"Nope. These are on your end, in Ohio. Three, um, Manthori, under a bush at an elementary school? It really shouldn't be a big deal, but the police don't know what to do about it, so asked me. I, in turn have cleverly called you. I have directions?"
That got a laugh, and after taking the instructions down, she giggled.
"So, I need to hurry, if I'm making your party tonight. That bitch Eve only scheduled in three hours for me to run halfway across the country. No one is that fast. Well, her, and Bey. And Zack... Damn, that makes me sound lazy doesn't it?"
"Kind of, but since it would take me about two years to make the same trip that way, I don't think I'll be judging you on it, this time. Thanks."
That got a chuckle, but apparently she really needed to hurry, since she only made another two minutes worth of small talk.
Chapter seventeen
The trip to the mall took him about twenty minutes to make. Ty had to go slow, even if he were feeling all right over all. There was just no real energy for making the trip. That, or, and he had to admit it was possible, he might have been dragging his feet a bit, not wanting to go and deal with people that had helped nearly kill him. He hated nearly being killed.
The only thing worse was, no doubt, actually dying.
His middle wasn't comfortable, at least if he thought about it, but he could walk, and there was no incredible pain from it all. A dull ache, maybe.
He made a point of walking smoothly however, measuring his steps, to prevent jostling or pounding the blacktop under his running shoes. Still, after a while he ended up standing at the front of the bookstore, which had been tidied a good bit, but was still messy in places. There were piles of books on the floor, for instance. All the shelves had been put back into place however.
There were two people working out in the room, slowly fixing the mess that had been made. One of them was Alexis, and the other was the guy that had wrestled for the gun to save her life. The skinny one that had gotten him shot three times. Will. Not that Tyler was holding a grudge. It had been a noble attempt, even if it hurt him personally.
Looking around, he noticed that there were other people there. Kaitlyn for instance, was working the front desk, even though no one was coming in actively at the moment. It was still pretty early in the day, and the store looked like they were moving in. Possibly out. There was no one in the world that was going to walk into the place and think that the succubi were going to be servicing people that day. Alexis looked pretty edgy about that one already, too. She was working constantly, but kept glancing over at the man she was near, her body slowly migrating toward him the whole time.
For his part, the man, Will, did his best to ignore the hot blonde girl next to him. She looked to be about twenty or so, but was younger than that, Ty thought. Seventeen. Really, all of her people looked to be about the same age. Fuckable. Ideally so. Still, the man that had fought the crazed sexist gunman a few days before, if ineptly, was trying not to show that he was about to burst the front of his pants open. Even if it was kind of clear he really was.
Off to the side, near the owl door, there was a group of about ten women. No men though, even if not all of the ones that had been in on the vandalism had been part of the shooting plan. The government hadn't wanted to let them go. After all, someone had to pay for the wrong doing. It had been all they could
do to get Will free in the bargain. That was what Zack had told him anyway.
Tyler approached them, to a set of glares and hostile looks, which got him to nod.
"For once you have the right attitude. You all helped get me shot. Three times." He lifted his shirt, to show them the bandages, which just got a few sneers. "True, that may not matter to you, but if it doesn't, I highly suggest you learn about empathy right now. Otherwise things will not be going well for you today."
"You can't threaten us!"
He blinked, then smiled at the rather dumpy looking woman that had spoken. Part of it was unfair, he knew. She wasn't wearing makeup, and while no Alede, she could have looked different if she'd chosen that path in life. He was just pissed off at them for being what they were.
Assholes.
Nodding, he made himself smile.
"You'd think that, but no, you're wrong. You see, this bookstore, that you and your people so ably dismantled the other day, is owned and operated by The Line Walker. As Humans... You're all Human, right?" He looked at them, expecting glares, but was shocked when one of the women near the back raised her hand. She had dark skin, and a very ample middle, but managed a smile for him. It was fake as all hell, but she'd tried, which he decided meant something. Like she wasn't insane.
"I'm... Actually a Naga." She glanced at the others, but none of them seemed to get what that was. Ty only knew about it from his reading of fiction, as far as that went.
"You transform into a giant snake with the head of a woman?" There was a nod, which did get the rest of her friends to seem a bit odd at least. "Cool. So you may get what a Greater Demon is. Explain it to the rest of the people here, as you work. Right now, at this moment, the only thing that's keeping you alive is him. Not the law. Not your good looks, or clever social philosophy. A Demon. So get out here and start putting books on the shelf, and do it right, or else..."
That got a most of the women to act like they were being wronged, except the Naga, who just seemed ready to soil herself.
"Excuse me, ma'am, what's your name?" He gestured toward the dark skinned heavy lady that could become a snake, which probably meant she was a Shifter of some kind.
"Sue... Sir." That one word got the other women going nicely enough.
One of the women, who had very short hair, which was kind of cute on her, even if she was sort of plump too, glared at him.
"He's just some piece of shit man. Not even that. You're what, sixteen? You probably live in your mother's basement. Are you gay, too?" There was belittlement in her words, as if that made any sense in the real world. It was bitchy of her, and nearly insane.
"Eighteen, today. I just moved away from home last week, and already I've been shot by fanatical fucktards that can't find their sanity with both hands and a map. Bisexual, though trust me, I'm not taking any dates from your group this week. Anyway, Sue, you're in charge of this group. If they don't work, tell Kait, the woman running the store up there, and she'll make sure they're put to death. I leave it to you to explain how serious that really is." Then he waved toward them and didn't speak.
Sue did get them to move though, after a few minutes of whispering. None of them seemed worried in the slightest. Then he waved to the skinny man, Will.
"You, need to learn how to fight. Or at least control where a handgun is pointed better than that. Unless you meant for me to be hit like that? In that case..." He grinned, feeling amused. More than he should have been, given the wounds on his mid-section. "Well, then you did a great job."
The man winced, and spoke in a slightly high pitched voice. It was being held in his throat too, and made him sound ridiculous. Not even like a woman. Just a man that thought that females would like him better if he seemed weak and non-threatening enough. If that was the case, he honestly could have just been himself and it would have been fine.
"Sorry. I... I didn't know Jess was going to be doing that. I tried to stop him, but... Like you said. I don't even know why we're here. The police just told us that we had to come, if we didn't want to sit in jail. I figured it would be a bit like this. Repairing the damage and all. I'm really sorry."
Tyler didn't have the heart to treat him badly, since if there was a dupe in the group there, it was this man. Worse, he was pretty certain that all of them had been misled. The very, very last thing that anyone with their beliefs should have ever done was to go after the Alede. Everyone liked them, after all.
He just stared at the man, smiling, for a while.
"Lower the register of your voice a bit. You sound too far off. Like this." He made his own voice go lower, which did sound manly, if a bit fake. "Straighten your shoulders too. No one is going to beat you up for trying to stop a gunman. Right now..." Tyler was being a prick, and knew it, but the man was also bugging him by acting like a victim just waiting for a crime to come along. That kind of thing, how you addressed the world, was a choice. "Right now, Alexis, why don't you and Will go and check the side rooms?"
The girl smiled, and sighed, her chest, which was not tiny, straining a little under her shirt.
"That's a great idea. I should have thought of that. Come on Will." She took him by the hand, and started to lead him away, but the guy was slow to move.
"Shouldn't I stay and do this? We didn't mess up any other rooms here, did we?"
It was pretty plain that the man had no clue what an Alede was. Not even a tiny bit. Which made protesting them a poor plan on his part.
"Um... No? You should go with her and have sex. She'll explain it to you, if you want?" Those words got a laugh from the young succubus, and had the other guy taken away. Pulled more than a little bit.
It also left him alone in the store, other than the ten rather useless women there, who were finally starting to work, and Kait. He bent slowly, kneeling on the ground, and started to shelve what he could find that was in reach. It should hurt too much to work at his normal speed, but half an hour later he was able to shuffle to the other side of the thing, the floor around him clean.
The work went on that way until Alexis and her friend came back. Then, being lazy like he was, Ty got up, with some help from Will, and moved over to the front, where the nerdy looking Alede girl was speaking to a nice looking Human woman. That was what he thought at first anyway. When the light skinned blonde lady, who seemed to be in her mid-twenties, turned, he realized that it was Judy Swan. From the movies. Today she was in a t-shirt, which was pink, tight, and had a unicorn on the front, and jeans that looked good on her, but not like the other Alede really.
Still, she was movie ready, even if dressed down, which really probably said something about how hot she actually was.
Kait smiled at him, and waved.
"There he is! Judy, this is Tyler Gartner. The head of the Coalition of Nations? Don't be confused by his looks. He's Human. He's just that young."
It was a normal sort of thing to say, so he started to say hello as the woman closed with him, and then, very carefully, gave him a warm hug.
"Tyler! We spoke on the phone yesterday. I went to your house, but you weren't there, so I came here to ask after you. Kaitlyn was just telling me about what happened. It's horrible." Then there was a slow head shake, and a twisted mouth as she stared at him. "Shouldn't you be in bed, resting?"
He glanced at the room, but no one was listening, not unless they had super hearing.
"I'm doing all right. Not that I can tell you why that is. Not really up for a full day's work, but Zack asked me to come in and intimidate some women." He waved, so that Judy would get who he meant. "Something creative, but I couldn't think of anything that was all that great. I'm just not scary enough. Any suggestions?"
He was being silly, but Kaitlyn made a face, and then nodded her head.
"I might have one? Um, can you watch the front for me? I need to chat with someone. Zack had to leave, so, you know, no node work is being set up for now. Not unless it's for after tomorrow."
That kind of thing happened, and while The Lin
e Walker was actually pretty good about getting people where they needed to be on time, if he couldn't do it, for whatever reason, he did not seem to give two fucks about it. Not even if it meant giving back millions of dollars.
"Not a problem. I need to go check on some things after a bit though, so..." Telling her to hurry her hot little behind up wasn't going to help anything, but she did seem to get the idea.
"I shouldn't be too long. Maybe twenty minutes?"
Which in standard Alede time meant two hours if not more. As a group they did tend to get side tracked a lot. Still, Kait was probably the best of them that way, as far as he'd noticed so far.
The girl didn't wait to head off, going toward the owl door, so he tottled, slowly, behind the counter.
Then, looking at Judy, he smiled.
"So, you came to be my new girlfriend for the week? I already have two of them, not that either came to see me when I was in the hospital. My mom didn't either. The only visitors I had..." He made a face, the actress going a bit wide eyed for him, like he was about to say something massively funny. "Well they were all Greater Demons. Seriously, that isn't a joke. Not all at the same time thankfully."
Judy furrowed her brows, in a funny way, and tried to give him a questioning smile.
"The Line Walker, The Technician and The Mistress of Souls?" It was clearly a guess, but really, a pretty good one, given she'd just gotten there. It probably meant she had a pretty good idea of what was going on with her daughter and Kait.
"Two of three? The Storm, not The Mistress of Souls. I have to say I would have liked that one better. Keeley brought me gifts the one time we met, and was helpful. The Storm keeps hinting that I have some kind of dark past I don't know about and that The Rotted is involved. How some little girl... Anne, The Rotted, normally looks like a kid." He put a hand out, and held it palm down to illustrate the approximate size he meant. "So I would have noticed her, if she was around all the time, don't you think? Honest, I don't hang with fifth graders, as a rule."