by P. S. Power
"Not horrible looking. A bit average, but in a kind way. I doubt it though, about the sex, since he isn't material, from what he said. Anyway, that's interesting, anything specific in the notes on it?"
"Not really. Just that you're involved in it, and a bunch of us will be too, in the end. Something about fear that can't be unfelt? That sounds annoying, doesn't it?"
It really did. What was the point of being able to block that kind of thing, if you couldn't?
"Thanks. Well, I should... Call Lucy, actually. So she won't be worried."
Keeley gave him a last hug, and then headed out around the edge of the building, probably to check on those windows. The power was off inside, but for some reason his cell phone worked, so he dialed the right number. He was a bit low on charge, but as long as he didn't take too long, it should be fine.
The thing picked up on the first ring.
"Hello?" The voice was female, and young. Also familiar enough to him that he knew who it was.
"Allison? I was looking for Lucy." He dialed the right number, he was certain.
"I grabbed Leslie's phone when we left the restaurant. Let me... Phone for you? My boyfriend? You better not have been making a play for him, or I will so murder you."
There was a grabbing sound and a laugh.
"Tyler? How are you doing? You should text, like a normal person."
"The Storm came. I won, but she managed to get away at the end, onto the lines. Keeley figures she might need a few days to recover. That's about it for now. I thought that I'd keep you in the loop. Now, you and Allison hang out? I did not see that one coming. I hope she isn't being a bad influence on you." He should have noticed that one. A lot of signs had been there. They probably had the same group of little high school freshmen friends.
Demon Academy, or some such.
The idea tickled him actually. Little kid demons running around like that. Stealing souls and crying in the bathrooms that the boy they like doesn't like them back. After a moment he sobered and realized that the reality would be a little dismal. These were beings trying to trap kids, in order to steal their entire lives away from them. It wasn't fun, or cute,.
Lucy muttered something, then spoke to him again. It was late at night, about twelve now, but there were young voices on her side of things. She didn't sleep, of course. That meant he had no clue what was going on.
"I can be right there. Allison, too. Call it an hour? We have people here and..."
He shrugged, and looked at the very dark building around him.
"Probably not needed? I was just letting you know what was up. I don't need my hand held yet. Later maybe? Keeley is putting together a brunch on Sunday. You'll have to pay, but you should come. Ginger and Calley are coming, too. We should get Zack and Ginger's parents. Lenore and the Human ones."
That got a laugh, because she seemed to have worked out that The Mistress of Souls hadn't invited them all.
"You need to pay, too. Don't let the others push you around. I love you." There was a giggle then, away from the phone, and the sound of a body moving in.
"I love you too, Tyler!" That was Allison. The Technician, playing a role to trap innocent kids into being her... Well, probably her friends, more or less. If she wanted slaves, she wouldn't have been as tricky about it.
That would be good, since sooner or later they were going to learn that she wasn't exactly Human. What Lucy was doing there... Well, that made sense. She was finding new things to do, since her kid had left home and didn't need her as much now. A lot of mothers went back into the work place, after their kids left. He hadn't gone to college, but was working instead.
Then, with the last bit of juice in his phone, he called Calley.
"Tyler?"
"Yep. Alive and erm, you know. Anyway, I won, but she got away before she died. It should be safe for now. The power is totally out here though, so you all might want to hang there, if you have that?"
"We have generators going. Can you come here? Or, do you need help? Are you injured? I can come... One bit..."
He smiled, and then realized that he was actually more or less fine.
"I'm good. Actually I can just walk over. It won't take too long. I need to think. Call it... Ten minutes? I want to change first, and that could be awkward."
She laughed, since the place was several miles away. Still, he wasn't going to go in normal time, needing to practice holding the concept that allowed him to be quicker, without using any real energy. That meant he was at the front of the place, which had four guards out this time, rather than two. Different beings than the ones he knew, but one was an Amazon, he thought.
She looked right for that anyway.
They just moved to the side, letting him in, which worked, but wasn't exactly all that safe really. Then, he was either him right then, or a shape shifted Greater Demon. So they either had just let in the right man, or done the right thing, since fighting would have gotten them all killed.
He didn't slow down though, except at the door, and went to find Calley, who was at her own embassy, along with everyone that had been at the house, and Ricard, his personal assistant. Who was also the Greater Demon Fram.
"Hey all. I'm still here. Ricard..." He held out his hand, as if to shake, but the Greater Demon did what he was supposed to and sent out a tendril of magic to get all his data. Proving he was, in the end, him.
Fram gave him a short head nod.
"Not truly. Several of us can fake that. Still, the rest of the package does seem right. So, I was just about to abuse the poor cafeteria night staff. Would you all like to come along? If the world isn't going to end this moment, I mean?"
They all agreed, and while Calley was exhausted seeming, the Vampires were all fine. Steve was actually sleeping though, curled up in the corner in a sleeping bag. It was green and had a military feel to it. Fluffy looking. Really, he envied the kid that ability. Once a day he could just turn the world off and not bother with it for a while.
The cafeteria was a plain place, and while open enough, and holding large tables, it didn't have a lot of people, or beings, there at the moment. A few. Those were all large furry people however, who looked at them come in, but didn't call out or anything to anyone. Trollienkeine, though some of them had tails. Not all of the six did. The hair was a mix of light brown, dark brown and white. The two white ones were the tail having kind, it seemed.
There was a buffet set up along the far wall, which was a nice hike away, and Ricard didn't bother to pretend he wasn't getting as much as a tray could hold. Tyler got a plate too, but just picked whatever seemed interesting to him. Except meat. Even with plenty of energy coming in all the time, he didn't want to tempt himself with flesh. Still there was plenty, even given that. All of it was real food, too. Nothing from a box, or store, that he could tell.
The tables were wood, and covered with red table clothes, but the place wasn't all that nice. Functional, more than anything. A place to get food, not wine and dine. It was good though, for all that, and, Ricard assured him, the food was even better during the day.
"We just have enough people here to make it worthwhile to stay open all the time. So, I hear that you fought a Greater Demon and kind of kicked her butt? The Storm. She's not too bad in a fight. I took her out once though, so I wouldn't let that go to your head. I normally end up losing, so... Yeah." He didn't sound happy about that, but looked at Tyler closely, as if sizing him up.
Ty shrugged at him a bit.
"Well, I don't suppose I could trade you something to get you to be on my side? I don't have much. I just don't need anyone throwing in with her if I can help it."
The nice looking Greater Demon gave him a considering look, and then smiled.
"Well, you can trade sex for it. Nothing too kinky or anything, let's say? Call it once a week?"
Tyler shrugged. Everyone else looked at him closely though, as if wondering what he was going to say. It was a negotiation though, and if the guy thought that was going to be
a good starting place, then what he was really willing to settle for would be a lot less.
"Hmmm. I get to pick what we do, and how often, but we can do that. About that often, but if we miss a week or two, or even more, due to unforeseen circumstance, then that's just what it is. I don't want to risk defaulting for something this minor. I mean, it's not like The Storm is really going to come and ask you to help attack me, is it?" The Demon had a deal, with Ty's mom, to watch him.
That probably meant that killing him was out of the question.
Fram got that he got that too.
"Okay, but I get to have a turn, too. No fair just doing me up the behind all the time, or putting me under your desk while you have meetings. We can do that, but not only that, is what I'm trying for here."
"All right. Half and half that way. Good. We can take care of that later. Now, what's new around here?" Everyone was looking at him funny, but that was probably because he'd just made plans to fuck his secretary, and that was kind of sexual harassment.
The guy was kind of hot though, even though he was playing that part off. Tyler would have done him anyway. Which, he realized, the Demon would know. So the whole bargain was probably both really trivial and about letting him feel assured that the guy was on his side.
Which could always just be a lie.
What was it that he'd been told that way? That Greater Demons followed through on their deals if they thought that whoever it was could follow through on making them. Or at least be enough of a nuisance to make problems. He might be in that range now, or really, Ty could be fooling himself. Letting him seem to nearly win a fight was a good way of getting him to let his guard down after all.
Not that he was going to fall for that kind of thing. Too many people wanted him dead for that. That number being one. It was still too much. Or, well, she had tried pretty hard to take him out, but her goal, originally, had seemed to be about getting him to go with her. Why though? He was all right, he guessed, as far as looks went. Utility, too.
Tyler was a good worker and didn't get tired, so that could be part of it. But he could always be called away by The Rotted. Or, if The Storm were clever enough, he could be used as bait to get her to the right place at the right time. Even if the Greater Demons had been honest with him, that might still be the real plan. To use him to get at his mom.
Fram smiled at him, and licked his lips, playfully, as if that would bother him. Or distract him. He could feel the small bit of energy coming from the man, as he tried to read his mind. Probably succeeding. Without thinking about it, he ended that, choking the energy from the bit of magic being used. That got the Demon to go wide eyed, but even as he tried again, there was no mind reading allowed.
No, from that point on he had to keep his thoughts, and most of his plans, to himself. Because it seemed that he'd made a big mistake. The Storm wasn't really going to do all that work to get him. Insane or not. So that meant she, and whoever might be working with her, had some larger goal in mind. If anyone was working with her. So far that hadn't been a real thing as far as he could tell, but she might have confederates. That, or minions.
Slaves even. If that was the case, he'd have to watch them. No one around him had that kind of a link, thankfully. He really didn't know what he'd do if one of his friends had been a slave like that. Except of course, he did. He'd kill the link. It wouldn't work for him, since Lucy used death energy for it, at least with him, but he could try it out on Steve later.
That idea was possibly outside of his deal with Keeley however, so he put it on the back burner. After all, making waves wasn't a great plan at the moment. What he needed, more than anything else, was to have friends. You didn't do that by taking away their favorite playthings. Not even if it was the right thing to do.
It would work. He could feel that in his bones. If he could notice the line, he could smother it in darkness, and strip it of power long enough that anyone made a slave would be left free.
In theory, at least.
Chapter seventeen
The problem with having the power to break a Greater Demon's ability to hold a slave was that doing that meant fighting that Greater Demon. Though, when he stopped to think about the idea, Ty got that there was a possible service involved in the whole thing. As far as he knew, if people wanted to break slave line like that right now, it involved killing someone and then bringing them back.
He thought that there was a better, and safer, way. One that didn't involve the use of time manipulation machines. That was really cool, true, because people that died might be brought back, if you cared enough about them, in certain cases, but...
Well, fighting to save people he didn't know wasn't going to be happening. He wasn't pro slavery. Not by any means. That didn't mean his role in the world was to save them all, either. He couldn't even save himself, so that idea was just a bit too ironic for him. Still, before he did anything in particular that way, a test was in order, so he decided to go to the source of most of the new slaves herself.
The Mistress of Souls.
This time, for once, he got a ride to her house, and knocked on her front door. It was... Different. He and the band lived in a giant mansion. One owned by the girl herself. She, on the other hand, lived in a modest single level home that was nice on the outside, but not grand in any way. It was clean and there was a small forest of trees and bushes around it. Given the terrain around them, that was impressive. A lot of them looked like fruit trees too. Given how much her kind ate, that seemed like a good idea.
As Rebekah drove away, not looking at him, since she had no clue why he was there, Tyler knocked again. There was a sense of life, a rushing inward of it in fact, that moved toward the door. When it opened he smiled.
"Hey, Mistress of Souls. I thought I'd come visit with you." Unannounced which was rude, but really Ty didn't want to give her a chance to say no. At least not for the wrong reasons.
"Ty! There you are. I was starting to think you didn't like me. One little rape and people start to freak out. We made up though, so that's over. Did you come over for a reason, or just to try and get a date? That could be fun. I'm free this coming Friday?"
He rolled his eyes a bit and then shook his head.
"Allison and her friends are coming, which you know. Besides, we still have brunch tomorrow at ten, so it seems like we should set things up after that. This is about something different."
"Oh? All right. Well, come on in. Are you selling Amway now? I know you were worried about getting some more money in."
He nodded as he walked past her, not really knowing what that was, but getting that it was some kind of door to door sales thing that was probably annoying.
"A little like that. Here's the pitch: let's say that you're The Mistress of Souls. You collect slaves like some people do little statues of dolphins. On occasion though, you might just want to reward one of them with their freedom, or they might just be more trouble to keep than to get rid of, but killing them means having to eat the body, and you really want a nice fruit pie. What's a girl to do?"
She turned to him, smiled at his bit of patter and spoke like she was in an info-mercial.
"I don't know, attractive and manly spokesperson. What is a hapless Mistress of Souls supposed to do?"
"I'm so glad you asked! All you need is a handy Tyler G. With one simple visit, I can remove the slave link, leaving everyone totally unharmed. To prove this I'll give you a free sample, today. You can't beat a free sample!"
She sobered then, and raised her right hand a bit. It was telling, considering she had to call out, too.
"Jasmine, would you come here, please?" There was a bustling sound, and a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties or so came out of what he assumed was the kitchen. She had mid-toned dark skin, curly hair that was a bit big, and slightly fuzzy, and a pleasant smile.
"Yes, Mistress?"
Keeley smiled at her, looked at Tyler like she wasn't certain, and shrugged, which looked wrong on the thin and prett
y girl, then waved at him.
"Would you like to be free? Tyler here thinks he can break the line between us, if you want. From what he said it should be safe enough. I don't really know, it could hurt. I'll leave that up to you. What would you like?"
There was a nervous swallow, and a look down at the floor.
"Being free is better. I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate all you've done for me though!" She seemed scared, but it was very clear that Keeley wasn't playing games on this one.
Breaking the line was easier than walking across the room. Ty just surrounded it with dark death energy, and then killed the flow of life that moved from Keeley to Jasmine. Before the woman from the kitchen could even finish stammering, it was done.
Perfectly.
Keeley went slightly wide eyed.
"Well! Okay. How much do you plan to charge for this service. I have about ten slaves that have earned their way free. Not if I have to risk their lives, or rent Darla's geordis, it isn't worth that much to me. I'd go, say ten million a pop?"
Tyler shook his head then.
"Nope. Ten thousand dollars for the lot. A special onetime deal just for you, but you have to tell any of the other Demons that might want that service about it too. The idea is to make it so cheap that they'll use it, rather than just kill the slaves when they don't want them anymore." He waited, since it was probably too little, but she nodded at him.
"Charge more than that, but I get the idea. Are you open to trading for things, too? If so, a lot more of us might do that. Even the insane can have favorites, and doing this cost me nothing. No magic, or energy even. Jasmine, can I get you to stay on? I'll pay you, so it will be worth your while that way. Also, I sort of want to make sure you don't relapse. There are other things we can do to make certain you stay clean, now that you're past the first bit. Without enslavement. For one thing, if you start to relapse, I can just look at you all sad. Like this..." She did twenty seconds of a pitiful expression that would have worked on Ty.
So he nodded.
"That's probably good enough. Do you do drug treatments too? I can..." He tilted his head, and changed what he was thinking a little. "If you can get them clean, without pain, and help get them to change, I can break the lines later, when it's time. For free, as long as you cover the other side of things?"