Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  He took a breath, and pointed.

  "Calley is the new Shifter Ambassador for that area. Most groups are sending someone. It will have a lot more activity than Westfield does, since it's a real set up, not a fake mall. Even the Coalition of Nations is getting an office there. Just a little one though, since it's only a part time thing."

  It took her a second, but then the naked girl looking woman jumped up and hugged him.

  "Wait, we're all going? Awesome!" There was kissing then, and a bit of chatter about where they would live. He had a place, and with a single call it was worked out that they could share his room with him. After all, two of them didn't sleep.

  Keeley did suggest that they could get their own place eventually.

  After he hung up Calley bit her lip, and reached out to touch him intimately, stroking him gently.

  "As an Ambassador I should have my own place. You too Ginger. Not as nice as mine, of course. That wouldn't look right. Something like this. Then we can all stay at Ty's mansion on the weekends. Rock stars, you know how they are."

  The Vampire girl made a face and then shook her head.

  "I don't get that one."

  "Yeah, I've been invited to try out for a band. It's a bit more than that really, and might be a big thing. Speaking of which, I need to go and see about getting a keyboard. I don't suppose you want to give me a ride to Wal-Mart? I can't afford a really top end one, but I need something to work out a few songs on, so that the other kids will know that I can actually play. Maybe some original pieces? I have some ideas."

  Calley hopped right up, and ran to her room, naked, her sweats in her left hand.

  "I need real clothing. You can come too, Ginger. If you want?"

  It seemed to be the plan, because by the time Ty was dressed and had his cash from his bedroom, the girls were both waiting at the door for him. Calley danced around, her short rust colored hair perfect already. Ginger had to fuss with hers a bit, being past shoulder length. It was an off blonde, which was attractive on her. Really, they were both more than good looks wise, in very different ways.

  Even he did okay, he guessed. Not like Kyle, but men that looked like that were rare, since they couldn't use makeup to improve on what nature gave them. Both the girls in front of him had some on, though that had been for work, so wasn't the full dress up experience.

  Calley had a nice car, and the Wal-Mart wasn't far, due to their policy of putting one next to every Starbucks in the nation. That wasn't true, but the things were both all over the place.

  As they pulled in, Ginger looked around and sighed.

  "I'm going to miss living here. I've been in the area my whole life. What if Nevada is strange? Or the people smell bad?"

  He shook his head, knowing she was kidding.

  "They all smell like candy and deep fried food. It's a law there. Really, we should get some Jolly ranchers to rub all over our bodies for that before we go down."

  The Bat woman moved in next to him, and cradled his arm in hers, pressing her left breast against him lightly. After a bit Ginger took the other side. Then they walked in. People glanced at them, but only a few really stared. At first he figured that it was either jealousy, him having two cute women with him, or ageism, people thinking that Ginger was too young for him, even if she were older than that by a few years.

  It wasn't until a group of ten cross wearing individuals ran at them that he got it. Even then he wouldn't have picked up on the whole thing if one of them weren't the woman that had stabbed him before.

  Ty took a breath and then shook his head.

  "Fuck. I nearly forgot about them. That cult group that was torturing kids? This is them."

  The person in the front, who was a man, but seemed to be in his thirties or so, and wasn't anyone Tyler recognized, pulled a small firearm from the pocket of his hoodie. That should have been a sign, since it was way too warm outside for that kind of thing.

  "Die, unbeliever! God will deliver our brethren from your unholy wrath!"

  Then he was targeted, not just by that man, but three others.

  It did not go well for them. He'd never really considered it before, not in a real, this was happening right now kind of way, but Ginger wasn't just some girl that was decent in bed. Or well, he knew that, but when they'd fought, in practice, he'd always won pretty easily. Because she worked slowly with him by her standards. It was different seeing her suddenly Vamp out, going red eyed and fanged, and taking on regular people.

  The first thing she did was smart though, and not all that violent. Calley was simply gone, and they both vanished. Away from the bullets. Then while he was still being shot up pretty well, the first of the weapons clicking softly to signal they were done, the girl came back.

  He tried to speak, to let her know that they needed to leave them alive. He couldn't though, his throat having been hit too many times for that. It didn't hurt, but he was kind of not holding together properly, which meant he couldn't really jump in to save them either. He did try, but the people were falling too fast for him to keep up with them.

  The ten of them had attacked, and after a minute, the ten of them were all on the ground. At least unconscious. He thought they were all breathing, but they weren't going to be happy when they woke up, if that was the case. Most of them had limbs that were at funny angles.

  For his part, he just stood there, not able to suggest dialing nine-one-one, or that Ginger get with her people, since this was going to be a giant cluster in a few minutes.

  Her eyes went back to normal though, even after the fight, which had to be hard for any Vampire, and she pulled her own phone, dialing with a slightly panicked expression.

  "I'll call Edom. Crap. I think I killed them. I tried not to, I swear. I was afraid for my life. They were going to kill us all." That wasn't really true, since they'd just gone for him, but the bullets hadn't all hit him, it seemed.

  Calley came back, holding her left arm, which was covered with blood. She could still speak, which was a cool trick, all things considered.

  "Come on! I pulled the car up. We need to get out of here, in case of further attack." She looked at him, her face freaking out as she did, which probably meant he looked pretty bad. "Fuck. Ty..."

  The employees rallied about then, and several men ran over, to try and help. They at least didn't act like Ginger or Calley were the threats. Or him, which was nice. Instead they just applied compresses to stop the bleeding. He had some of that going on, but it was more of an oozing in his case, and the bullets were, interestingly, pushing out of his skin already. The ones that hadn't gone all the way through.

  It was then that he had a moment of clarity on the topic.

  When he'd been shot the first time it had taken over a day to really heal up. Part of that had been thanks to the surgery that he'd gotten, and his denial about what was clearly taking place.

  Now it was happening much faster. While it was possible that he was just getting better at it, or had even imagined that he was hurt worse than he really had been before, Ty kind of figured that it was different than that. The worse he was injured, the faster he fixed himself. Thankfully, unlike the last time, he didn't have to imagine the pain of it into being.

  That meant he could move, and while raspy, he had a voice now. After a fashion. He made a hissing noise as air escaped from his chest.

  "Don't forget the keyboard." It was a stupid thing to say, but if he weren't going to be arrested for being attacked, he still needed the thing. It was why he was there in the first place. "Also... How the fuck did they know to be here?"

  Thankfully one of the men woke up about then. He moaned and cried in pain, having a broken leg, but Ginger moved in and slapped him.

  "Good question. How did you know we'd be here? Answer, right now." The blows weren't too hard, but people were acting like beating up an injured man was a big deal. The clerks and other patrons. One of them, a large man with a big beard and a Hells Angels jacket on even put his hand out, to stop her.
From a good distance away, since being a biker didn't mean fool, apparently.

  "Little sis, maybe you shouldn't be doing that here? The fuzz are coming, and they might not get it."

  Instead of acting like she was in charge, the girl stood back then, and nodded.

  "Right. Right. I'd still like to know. How did you know we'd be here?"

  The man on the ground, who had a large cross out, shook his head, and gasped.

  "We followed you. It wasn't hard."

  That was all he got out, before the police came. They did try to arrest Ginger, but pulled back, when they were informed, by the big biker fellow, that the Christian group were the shooters and had lit the skinny fucker up. That, Ty realized, was him.

  He was still healing, but the bullets had stopped popping out, and the red oozing had pretty much stopped. Calley was given a bandage for her arm, but waved off the paramedics when they got there. Tyler did the same.

  The Shifter explained.

  "We're good. I can change shape when I get home, and Ty will heal on his own. We have a mission here, so, if someone can get one of your top end keyboards for us?" It wasn't like they were going to be allowed to leave anytime soon.

  This time, probably thanks to the bullet wounds and the presence of men to blame for the crime, the cops didn't try to attack him personally. Ginger was treated politely, and allowed to go over her story, which involved a lot of her being in fear for her life, and for her friend Calley. His name was in there too, but no one seemed to think he was in any real danger, which, apparently, was the case.

  He managed to dig out his money, which had a bullet hole in it, just like his wallet did. That was handed off to the Manager, who was a middle aged man with thin hair, glasses, and the keyboard that Calley had requested. He didn't ask about it, just running over to a line and having it rung up. Then he carried it back himself, and stood there, holding the four foot long blue and white box.

  "Do you play?"

  It was the kind of thing that people asked each other. Small talk, even though it wasn't really needed at the moment.

  "Yeah. I have an audition thing, for a band, so I need to practice. My old one died a while ago. Sorry about the mess in here. I helped take down a cult that was torturing kids a week ago or so, and now they keep trying to kill me. Probably so I won't be able to testify against their leader. Between them and the feminists I haven't gotten a break in the last bit." He tried to smile, his face letting him do that, even though it felt a little stiff.

  He'd been hit in the head, but it hadn't scrambled his thoughts too much. That was strange, but probably had to do with magic.

  Instead of asking how he'd survived, which would have been what Tyler opened with, the man kind of started to nod.

  "It's just so hard to believe, women doing things like that. Shooting people and bombing them? What did you do to make them mad at you?"

  He laughed then, because the answer was interesting.

  "Nothing. They seem to be afraid that the Alede, the succubi? That they're going to undermine their position in society, I guess. I was just nearby for the things. I don't even really have a problem with them, except the kidnapping attempt. That targeted me, for some reason. I guess because I didn't die correctly the first time? It's a shame, since we could all be friends, if they'd tone it down a few notches. I mean, I like people, in general." Which, he realized, was true.

  He didn't like what everyone did, but if they agreed to cut that stuff out, the rest wasn't that big of a deal. He could even forgive the things that had hurt him.

  Shooting Calley wasn't allowed. Not that he had to say much. They'd walked in, and he was shot. That was his whole statement, and all that the police really needed from him. They thought he was a Vampire. Thankfully Edom got there, along with Eve and David the Vampire, which meant he had people to explain that part for him. Eve did the honors, going over how he was dead, but in a different way, and didn't need blood to survive.

  "He's just a person. A Human, if kind of tough. Non-violent though, not like most of you. He only fights when attacked, and doesn't get angry or anything. There's no need for this kind of thing. It's just a group trying to suppress justice for their crimes." She pointed at a woman who was wide eyed and fanatical looking. "This is the one that stabbed him the other day. I hope you make sure she doesn't get back out to do it again? I know that people make bail, but seriously, this should kind of invalidate that, right?"

  One of the cops, who wasn't that old, and who clearly didn't care that the hot brunette was a Vampire, moved in and spoke to her evenly.

  "We don't control that part. She probably won't be let back out now. You might want to keep your boyfriend safe for the time being. Witness relocation, or what have you. Do Vampires have that kind of thing?"

  She shook her head, looking at the officer very frankly.

  "No. I guess we can move him, or get a safe house. Really, his people should do that. The thing there is that his people is everyone. Including you guys. He's the head of the Coalition of Nations, which means that pretty much every group is going to be up at arms over this when they hear about it. We can keep him safe, but..." She shook her head and looked at the people on the ground. "It might be best if they just didn't come after him again? We'll try to protect them, but Tyler can only beg for their lives so many times before people stop listening to him on the matter."

  Instead of taking that as a death threat, the police all seemed to get the point and agreed with it. That didn't leave the downed Christians happy.

  The stabby woman from the Fourth made a very hard face.

  "It's your job to protect us from the monsters!" It was an accusation, and directed at the cute younger cop, who was looking at Eve at the moment. When he turned a bit, his face was dark, but seemed upset, rather than angry at the words. Like he knew that, but couldn't really carry the job out.

  It was wrong, anyway.

  "No. His job is to clean up after crimes, like this." Ty was sounding a lot better, and while covered in blood, could walk almost normally again. He still had wounds, but they were fixing themselves, really fast. "My job is to make sure that people get along. There are no monsters. Just people you don't know yet. So, please stop trying to hurt people? That's all anyone is asking for."

  That started a lot of praying, and some yelling about how Jesus would protect them. Hopefully that played out for them, since he was kind of sure that shooting in a Wal-Mart was going to lead to prison time, even if he and Calley could heal up from it. What if they'd hit the nice biker dude? Or the cool keyboard getting Manager?

  They might have died from it, and then where would they be? Without a keyboard, and with one of the cult men being kicked to death. Ty really doubted that anyone else would get that.

  They ended up being there for a while, with Edom standing right by Ginger, along with David, who seemed ready to fight the cops if he had to. The men and women in blue didn't seem like that was their plan for the day, so everything stayed pretty calm. Eve, for her part, moved over by him and Calley. Then she licked her lips.

  "You both smell great. Maybe you can move off a bit? Poor David is about to go full vamp over the scent. I like him, but he's a bit low on that kind of control yet. A wimp that way. Like a little school girl really." She spoke softly, and still got covertly flipped off for it from the man, who was about fifty feet away. Ginger smiled at the interplay, and Edom ignored the whole thing. He was black, but made up for it in the minds of the police by dressing in very nice clothing. Rich trumped skin color, almost every time.

  It shouldn't have been needed, but that was the world they lived in, so the man worked the system to his benefit, it was clear. Nice clothing, a friendly smile with no fangs, and polite forms of address all the time. There was a lesson in there for him too, Ty knew. It was a form of mind control over the masses, that no one could really call anyone on.

  Looking down he nodded.

  "I need better clothing."

  Eve faked a co
ugh.

  "I get you there. Those look a bit hard used."

  "Really I was thinking something more... I don't know, professional? Suits and ties or whatever? I look young, and that can work against me. Maybe something like Ed? Only, you know, cheaper?"

  Rather than tell him he was being a dweeb, the girl nodded, then she stood back for a bit, and licked her lips.

  "I'd wait a bit. Feel things out and make sure you aren't going to be shot up in a five hundred dollar set of clothing?"

  Tyler tried to smile, not really feeling like it, but not wanting to be morose either. The blood was starting to dry, and while it didn't make him feel funny, it was going to be hard to clean up.

  "Well, you know, dead people problems. I'd never really thought about it before, but they're different than the ones that living people have. I mean, everyone has to worry about being shot in their nice clothing, but the focus is a lot different for you and me, isn't it?" He shook his head a bit and then wrinkled his nose. "My big concern with the feminists is that no matter what I do, or how nice I am to them, they'll never be kind in return. Yeah, being shot sucks, but instead of feeling bad for that, they turned around and tried to kidnap me. Then one of them accused me of rape for some reason, even though that wasn't a real thing. I guess it was for her? What must her world be like then, if every action or thought someone else has seems like that? Her world has to be a scary place, if someone saying hello is an assault to her warped mind."

  For a moment he felt pretty bad for those women. For all their yelling and stomping around, not one of them had ever seemed happy to him. Even the men with them all seemed to be just riding a train to misery the whole time. He'd been at work, and trying to make a living, but had been more contented than they'd seemed.

  Eve snorted a bit, and leaned in to him, to whisper.

  "It doesn't really matter. The world is filled with people, and some of them will always be doing things the hard way. We don't have to. Just be nice, and let other people take care of themselves. I wish I had some great wisdom for you, but I think that's all there really is. Just try not to judge, and dodge the bullets a little better next time." She waved at the front of his shirt, which was stuck to his body in places. It was just a t-shirt, but had been green, once upon a time.