Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  The fight wasn't over though, and like always Eve just stood there, watching impassively. It could have been that she didn't want to get involved in his business, of course, but this one time it seemed a bit more like it was a different reason calling to her. So, with a broken back, and unable to stand on his own, Ty got to the business at hand.

  Vampire butt kicking.

  It was an interesting and very different battle than the ones he'd had before. This time, instead of taking a well covered stance, with his fists held high, so he could guard his delicate throat, he had to grapple and eye gauge through the whole thing. It was hairy a few times, too. With his right arm wrapped around the undead neck of his new BFF, he had to use his other hand to try and strike the right points. It took a while, and there was much screaming to be had when he got it right.

  One of them felt pain, it seemed.

  Then, after he had the other man blind, streamers of blood running from where his eyes had been, Tyler got half on top of his wriggling form and started striking with his right hand, over and again. To the face, neck and throat. Eventually, and it really did take a while, the other fellow went limp.

  Just in time for his legs to start working again, if not perfectly yet.

  Standing up, a bit shakily, he glanced over at the other man, who looked a bit smaller than the first had. Hispanic, if very pale now. The other man had been too, but younger and taller looking. Not that it meant anything. It was, he realized, why anyone in the other communities listened to him really. They couldn't tell at a glance how old people from other groups were, and that passed on to him too. These men were both older than eighteen, and had been when they'd died.

  He nearly thought that they were older, one of them being truly and finally gone now, but he stirred on the ground, making feeble and pained noises. His eyes still weren't back though, and Ty was ready for him now, so the next fight would go a bit more smoothly. In fact, he looked around, saw a mop in the corner, and picked it up, ready to beat the downed Vampire with it, when he got up. He didn't break the head of it off, since it wasn't his to damage, but it probably wouldn't last the battle to come.

  Strangely both Keeley and Eve were smiling. Standing there like this kind of thing was perfectly normal.

  "As I was saying, Julio, this is Tyler Gartner, who's agreed to help us for the next few days. He'll be in charge." She looked at the man, who was about her size, but seemed like he was pushing fifty. It got a nod from him. Then, only after that, did she go on. "During the times that you and Martinez can't be awake. I get that your boy here didn't want to lose his position, but he really should have let me finish speaking first. I mean, a whole sentence isn't that much to ask for, is it? Ty is the head of the Coalition of Nations. Not a Vampire, and not staying. I trust that this won't be a problem?" She kicked the man on the ground a little, who was already rallying.

  "No, Senora." It was a bit mumbled, but seemed heartfelt.

  "Good! Because trust me, if you hadn't taken him by surprise you'd probably be dead right now. The bad kind you can't come back from. Apologize, and we can get to cleaning this place up. It's a stupid time to have dominance struggles, and from now on we aren't doing it this way. You pay attention to orders, or I'll replace you." She sounded all bitchy, but the man on the ground, struggling to sit up, mumbled again.

  "Forgive me, Mr. Gartner. I acted in haste." His words sounded old fashioned. A lot more than fifty years would have allowed for.

  Closer to several hundred.

  "I'm sure it won't be an issue. Like Eve said, I'm not staying. I just came to help..." Looking around, he noticed the place, which was not in good repair. Sure, they'd been fighting, and there was a single piece of bent metal, where his back had broken near the front door. It was painted blue, but the whole place was a thousand different colors, none of them particularly purposeful looking. The seats on the booths were cracked vinyl, and the table tops had more drawings on them than empty space. There was a large metal frozen yogurt machine, but it wasn't, he noticed, turned on. That probably meant it wasn't normally in use.

  The tile floor was thrashed too, and seemed to have seen better days. In the forties, perhaps. The thing there was that it looked like it had once been very high quality. Dark slate, instead of something cheesy and newer. Over time it had been scraped and broken, under feet, moving desks and large pieces of equipment, and probably hundreds of other things he couldn't imagine.

  The feeling of the place was that of never having been a real shop. It had just enough trappings to fool... Really, it probably didn't fool anyone. The Police would have just thought it was a front for drug dealing.

  Locking eyes with Eve he sighed.

  "What kind of a budget do we get for this?"

  She smiled at him and shrugged. Then glanced at Keels and the older looking Vampire, Julio.

  "We have new equipment coming, which took about half of it. On the good side we won't have to worry about that part of things. New flooring too. That leaves about sixty thousand for the rest of the place. Do you think you can work with that?" The words were directed to Keeley, not him, he noticed. Then, she was the one that probably had experience with things like that.

  He hoped so, given that he had no clue at all what would be enough.

  The hot girl nodded.

  "Barely, but we'll make do. If we do the work ourselves, that will cut costs. We need tools. Julio, since your friend is out of commission for the time being, could you help us out that way? We could use some pry bars, sledge hammers and a nice general use set of things, if possible?"

  The man grumbled at her, his face vicious looking.

  "Don't order me around, chica. I'm not your slave." It was said fiercely, and more than a little angrily.

  That, it turned out, was a mistake.

  Because Keeley snapped her fingers. It looked cute, and playful, but the Vampire went still. Actually, so did Eve.

  "Damn. I forgot. Well, we can fix that. You are now. So, go get me those tools, as quickly as you safely can? By the way, you can't struggle against me, lie to me, or do anything to seek your freedom. Understood?"

  The Vampire nodded, a slightly absent thing. His face was blank.

  "Si, Mistress." Then he ran from the store, like he was on fire. To go get those tools, no doubt.

  Eve glared at the Greater Demon and then shook her head.

  "Jesus Keeley. I hate it when you do that. I keep waiting for the day you forget I'm your friend and do that to me."

  Tyler could see that one. It probably didn't apply to him, since he'd die without being attached to his mom like he was. Stop moving and rot, or something similar, at least. He was already dead. That meant he could call a certain demon on her bullshit though, and not worry too much about what would happen to him.

  "Um, you're supposed to be pretending to be a Human, aren't you?" The words were polite and calm sounding, but she made a face at him, like she'd been slapped.

  "Fuck. You're right. That was the agreement. I'd reframed it in my head, over the last few days. I don't suppose you'd be good with me starting now?" There was a winsome and hopeful expression then. One meant to play on the idea that he could get lucky with her, possibly.

  That wasn't happening, so he was in a position of power that she might not be ready for.

  "Sure. No do-overs though, starting... Now. Though, clearly, you can protect yourself, or me, if something starts. Other than that, you is da Humanz." That bit of funny talking got a grin going, from Eve, though Keeley just sighed and shook her head.

  "So, I need to go and sleep. I can camp out." She waved at her gear, which made sense to him, but Eve made a face.

  "Rules lawyer. You forgot when it came to taking my people as slaves, but you remembered to bring a tent? Fine, you can set up out back. I'll clear it with security."

  That got a giggle from the Greater Demon, but she didn't back down, or change her mind about sleeping.

  When Julio came back, at a run, he was loaded with t
ools, some of them electric. Without waiting they all started in on breaking the place apart. It went pretty fast, really. They had several people with super powers, and Martinez, looking like he should be selling drugs, rather than running an embassy, pitched in as soon as he rebuilt his eyes enough.

  Eve had to help him with that part, which got the man to go very quiet around her after that. Keeley smiled at him, and whispered why that was.

  "Only one Master Vampire has that kind of healing ability. The Snowflake. Really, by rights she should have vaporized his head when he attacked you, but I think she wanted to see how you were going to win. Now, since I'm a helpless Human girl, help me rip these booths out?" That took using a ratchet set, and a sledge hammer, but by the time the other two Vampires left for the day, at a little past four, the place was pretty close to empty inside.

  That meant a hundred trips carrying things out to the special dumpster that Eve had hired for the job, but Keeley didn't actually run off to get that sleep. It meant that she wasn't working very hard to pretend to be Human, but that wasn't a big deal to him. The help was more important.

  Then, slowly, things started to come in. The first thing they did was strip the walls patch things and then paint. Eve, for her part waited until noon, then came and gave each of them a hug.

  "I'm out of here for a while. My real job is in finding who set up the attack on our people. Speaking of which we have a few of them coming in... That will be at two. Feel free to set them to work. The ones that refused to help were fired. This place hasn't been running well for a long time." Then, without waiting for him to ask questions, she took off.

  Vanishing like she did. Moving so fast that he couldn't see her doing it.

  His part in the whole thing was work. At the moment that meant getting the first coat of paint in place. The fumes were probably headache inducing for others, but he was fine with it. He could get the scent, he realized, but there was no real reaction to it. The paint was bright, a cheery yellow. That wasn't what he would have picked for the place, but it did match the Yoghurt World in Vancouver. Even with the floor being torn up the place looked better by the time the two men and one woman came in, a bit before they absolutely had to be there.

  Keeley nudged him.

  "This is your show. You had to fight for it, after all."

  "Ohhh, true. Hi everyone! I'm Ty and this is Keeley. Eve Benson, the new boss here for the time being, asked us to help you get this place in order. We need to get another coat of paint up, and then start on the flooring. The tables and new booths won't be in until tomorrow, but if we work hard we'll be ready. The new front counter will need to be done at the same time." He liked the way he sounded, but the woman, who looked about thirty, and was whiter than he was, made a face.

  "I hate to be a pain, but do we get paid for this? The lady on the phone basically said that I had to get my ass in here if I wanted to keep working, and not ask too many questions. I know that Vampires might not play by the rules, but I have to make my rent."

  Ty didn't have an answer, so lied.

  "Yeah. In fact you, the ones that showed up, get raises. The amounts of those will vary, but the harder you work now, the longer the hours and the more effort you put in, the more you get paid." Hopefully Eve would back him up on that. They all seemed pretty pleased with that however, and Keels nodded along, like it was a thing that had been spoken about.

  It only took a little bit of prompting to get the others to work at near the same speed that he was. Keeley stopped after a while though, and looked at him meaningfully.

  "I need to get something to eat."

  For her that was probably a big deal too, not just a hamburger or two. At least Zack ate constantly, and he'd kind of let Keeley go hungry for half a day now.

  "I can give you some money. Can you pick something up for everyone?" That seemed about right, since he was in charge at the moment. The girl seemed happy with that, and took what cash he had on him, which wasn't a lot.

  Still, she left the rest of them working, which was going pretty well. By the time she was back, about an hour later, holding bags of things to eat from a place that seemed to have Mexican food, they were starting on the floors. The tile was a heavy ceramic, and had two colors, though one of them was clearly just enough for a border around the place. It was a rust red and deep black. Neither of them were shiny.

  With five people doing the work they had it down in a few hours, even having taken time off to eat.

  In fact, by nine they had it done, and were cleaning up from it. The walls weren't dried yet, so that left assembling the new front counter area. It was precut, thankfully, which meant there wouldn't be any sawdust to get on the walls. They did have to wipe everything down however. Eve came back just in time for the thing to be all the way up, at eleven, followed by the two men from the night before.

  Julio glared at him, but managed a polite smile for the others, including Keeley. Martinez just looked scared the whole time. His words were polite however.

  "Great job, everyone. I've never seen this place look so fresh and clean. At this rate we might even fool people into thinking it's an actual business." He seemed to think that was a joke, but Eve smiled at him, and patted his arm. It was a friendly thing, but given they were both Vampires it probably meant she was treating him like a dog.

  He ate it. After all, one of them was a Master Vampire that had a real name, and the other was a guy that had gotten his behind handed to him by a Human the night before. Ty had sparred with Eve, and knew that she could kill the other Vampires if she wanted. It wouldn't even be a question.

  The others got that part, it seemed.

  "Nope. This place is going to be a real shop. Starting tomorrow we're going to have machines in here and everything will be made from scratch. There will be lessons on that. Who wants to be in charge of that?"

  She glanced at everyone, but he was leaving, and Keeley didn't really have to stay either. Not past the next day. That was the agreement they had. One of the men raised his hand, a bit tentatively.

  "I can do that? I was a cook, in the Marines. A long time ago, but..." He was older. Probably too much so to be working a fast food job, but the economy was what it was. You did what you had to in order to survive.

  "Perfect! I'd like you three to work out a shift rotation, and to make sure we have twenty-four hour a day coverage. We're also selling blood. You all get the whole Vampire thing, right?" The other man, the Human that had been working all day, shook his head.

  "That isn't real. I mean I've never met any." He laughed a bit, but it was strained and uncomfortable.

  Eve didn't really try to correct him, which probably meant she didn't really care. In fact, she just looked at the others then, dismissing the man that couldn't adapt.

  "This is the Vampire embassy for the area. In a few days Lenore Hawthorne, the Western States ruler for our people will be here to examine things. We'll fail the inspection, of course, because she's a bitch that way. I'd like to have this place up to specs by next month however, which means we have... Twenty-three days to get that to happen. For now, you three should get on home and rest. Tyler, you have the place here?"

  He nodded, "there isn't a lot to do left, until the new machines get in tomorrow morning. About eleven, I think."

  Eve got the others to leave, and headed to the back with her Vampire friends. That left him up front, just sitting there with Keels.

  She winked at him, and watched the paint dry for a while.

  "It's amazing what you can get done when you don't need to sleep, isn't it? You don't have to stop. Really, you need to get some hobbies going. You play music, right? Keyboard, and singing?"

  It was true and he was better than decent at both. Not that he had a keyboard at the moment. His old one had died a few months back, and hadn't been replaced yet. That could be fixed though, as soon as he had the funds for it.

  "Yep. Why, want to start a band?"

  To his surprise the girl nodded.

/>   "In a manner of speaking. I have a friend, a slave of mine, who's a gifted guitarist. Steve York. I was thinking that it would be a good time for him to get into something like that. If you want, I can set that up? I have a few other people too. Rebekah, from the All Vampire Band needs something to do. Her group is taking a break for a few years. Breaking up, probably. The gimmick was a great one before everyone knew they were real, but now there are several of her kind making the rounds. I do think we can get her old drummer too however. A Bat shifter who became a Vampire. He needs too much blood not to align himself with her."

  Tyler thought for a second, and then nodded. He did love music.

  "Can they come to Vancouver for the first part? I have a job there."

  She smiled and shook her head at him.

  "No. The Coalition is important, and you should keep that work up, but you don't have to work at a bookstore all the time. That's just a job, after all. Music is a calling for you. It will be a few months, before the album can be produced and delivered to the public, and I'll want you to meet the others first, but you're all nice people. You'll get along. I'll host you all, in Nevada, at one of my houses there. Near Sparks. That's my territory. You all still have to prove out, as a group, but I own a record label, so that barrier to entry isn't too high for you. Each of you is highly skilled, as well. You and Steve especially. You're both slaves that weren't given a choice but to be good. I already chatted with The Rotted about it. She's leaving the whole thing up to you. Being a rock star isn't a sure thing, but I do know some tricks that might help you make it."

  She probably did. It was, he realized, kind of a cool idea. Really he'd figured that his music career would end up being him playing late at night, alone in his room. Actually getting to make music, possibly being a star someday, or at least in a band that made it big, was better than that.

  "It won't work though, will it? That kind of thing really doesn't, for most people."