If he’d done that, however, Troy might have reacted poorly. Not to his own benefit, either.
The Mind Taker seemed pleased suddenly.
“Indeed, Mr. Lopez. It also would mess up the flow of space inside your dwelling. We try not to do that to our cohorts. That you’ve been being coached, even loosely, by my daughter and by The Rotted is nothing short of amazing. Dangerous, as well. For you. Still, they are capable beings, if you can survive their attentions. Now… You were going to spank me for meddling?”
He shook his head.
“Not really. I was thinking more along the lines of being let into your plans here? I haven’t had any real connection to Katherine yet. We’ve talked once. She’s uneasy since I’m a police officer. I don’t care about her drinking and drug use, that kind of thing?”
The man shrugged.
“Kathy Hoader isn’t a bright or wise woman. She lives her life as if she were still in her early twenties and not much, short of mind control, will change that. As you have worked out, no one in the world cares enough about her to bother putting the work in. I was rather hoping that by introducing her to you, that I might get you to take that on? I could, perhaps, trade you something for that effort?”
It was different than he would have figured. Messing with the woman’s mind would have taken the greater demon mere moments. Having Troy do it was probably less certain and would be out of his direct control. There didn’t seem to be a lot of benefit in it for the fellow at all, in fact.
Making the whole thing seem very suspicious.
The Mind Taker pulled at the front of his suit jacket, adjusting it, even though it had a perfect fit.
“No. It’s truly that I don’t wish to be bothered with her directly. I tried that route. She’s a difficult person to love, or even tolerate. Short of making her a slave, it seemed less than fulfilling for me to do myself. What I’m suggesting here is that you take her as a slave, instead. For her own enrichment. You’re a good person, Troy Lopez. Also, a being of greater power than you have yet been showing. Not one of my people, but a being that might well rival one of us.” He spread his hands, palms up. “A thing that was hidden from me, when we worked together before. You already can walk the lines. There is need of refinement for that ability, but others have learned how to do it. You have magic as well, with the clear ability to reach far past the norm there for a vampire. With those tools, you might become great. More so than you would have dreamed.”
“Which has what to do with taking slaves? That’s illegal here.”
The demon made his face look like it belonged to a sarcastic teen for half a second, then sobered.
“As if those rules apply to you or I? Besides, if it offends you, then think of it as being about helping a very lost woman. That and making her daughter’s life better. It really can be that, if you do it correctly.”
He didn’t really want to bother with it, but faked a sigh. It was hard to get around doing what greater demons wished you to. If he didn't help out willingly, then he’d be forced to, in some other way.
“I can go and compel her not to drink or do drugs? Maybe help her find a better job. I don’t know what else I should do here.”
Finias smiled at him then.
“No. Don’t go and compel her. That’s silly. You have the ability to do it from here. Collect energy, and extend your thoughts out to her. She needs to be kinder, more loving, more conscientious. The drinking and drugs will need to be managed. That will need to be tapered off, or she’ll go into withdrawals. You could, possibly, prevent those, using magic. That would take a lot more work. Then you should help her with her diet, exercise and so on. We want her to profit from this, after all.”
The whole thing was a lot harder than it sounded like at first. Troy had really figured on just jogging over, staring into the woman’s eyes and telling her to fix herself. It had kind of worked with others, in the past. Instead Finias guided him through a complicated multi-step mind control program. One that he couldn’t even determine would work, without going and seeing the lady for himself.
As he worked, trying to infiltrate her mind without allowing himself to be noticed, by anyone, a few other hints were added by the demon.
“When you focus enough, or on any singular thing, I have to work harder to read your mind.” That was stated alone, which was clearly on purpose, a while later the fellow cleared his throat.
Then he spoke, as if Troy were being slow on purpose.
“Take the feeling of two or three concepts and add them together. Until they are one thing. That allows you to hold multiple subjects at one time. That Ann didn't mention that to you… Then, there’s a reason we don’t let the insane greater demons be mentors in the main. That Darla is attempting to do that now is… Different.”
The man was good that way, dropping things that should have been obvious, even if they weren’t. Finally, about three hours later, the other man stood up, having taken the comfy chair and giving Troy his regular spot on the sofa.
“That’s not bad. I need to go now. We should talk again soon. Keep up with this. You need a lot more work, but you gained a real skill here today. It will take constant involvement on your part, for a while, to actually change her, and not just control her behavior. Once a month or so, to start? After a time, she’ll change perfectly.”
The man almost jogged out the front door. He vanished, stepping into a thousand bubbles that warped space, just in time for the front door of the apartment one over to open. Krista walked out, her mother following right behind. She was dressed up, but not in party clothing. Just nice things. The actress was exactly like she had been.
The younger woman smiled at him.
“We’re going out for dinner. Would you like to come?” She seemed to mean it. As if that only made sense.
“Nope? I don’t really eat, so it isn’t that much fun for me anymore. See you both later, though? I’ll be out tomorrow. I have to run up to Vancouver, Washington.” He meant actually run. That probably wasn’t going to carry over to either woman.
Krista winced.
“I guess I can be out of here by then.”
That got him to shrug.
“Nah. Stay as long as you need. I can leave you a key. There’s some food left over, if you want to eat? My friend Ann was supposed to eat it, but left early.”
“Really? Thanks!” Moving in she hugged him. That was done back, but Katherine didn't give either of them a smarmy or knowing look. In fact, she just smiled.
“That is pretty nice. Becky was telling me that she wants to put you in one of her shows. Possibly as a vampire police officer. That could be fun. You should think about it.”
The idea wasn’t a good one, really, but he nodded a bit anyway.
“Later! You two have fun.” It wasn’t a yes, but wasn’t him screaming no and running away, either. They headed down the stairs then, letting him get back inside.
It was more work, but he tried to practice the new magical things. Starting by holding very different ideas and mixing them into one thing. It didn’t always work that well. Some of the things, like making hunger and the pain from the sun go away seemed to work, when combined together. Not that it wasn’t dark out at the moment.
Creating fire and water at one time didn’t happen at all, until he worked out how to have one feeling of two things with two different locations at the same time. It was really four things, instead of two, but it did work well enough. It only took him four hours to make happen.
Then he plugged away, attempting to increase the energy collection he was doing. That went slowly. He was far from the hundred times that Ann figured he was going to need to increase his power ratio by.
It was a bit boring, really. Not the he was able to feel that and work at the same time. Still, he took a real break and was playing videogames about the time Eve called for him.
He recognized the calling number, so the voice on the other end wasn’t a big shock.
“Troy! Hey, you
have some people here for you. Tor and Dareg? They came early, not knowing what you wanted.”
“Ah. Okay, I’ll… I need to run the distance. That will be about two hours?” He let himself sound worried about it. It was a long time to sit around waiting, after all.
There was a snort then.
“Or… You could not be a little pussy and do it in say… Ten minutes? I could do it in five, so you should be good for half that, at the slowest. Just don’t care about the pain and you’ll be fine. Adding more energy will help with that. A little.”
He nodded. That was a hint if ever he’d heard one.
“I’m coming. As fast as I can. Please thank them for me. That and give them food? I’ll hurry.”
He went to his bedroom first. Wearing nicer clothing was fine, but he needed running shoes on his feet. Otherwise he was going to trash the nice dress shoes that Avery had made for him. That would look funny, but he’d live.
The trip itself took forever. Not truly but to him it felt like he was walking in an endless night. Not traveling all that fast either. It was horribly boring and really did hurt. Even as he worked out a way of holding the pain back and add magic to the whole thing. Concentrating hard enough seemed to help, but he still had to push, since there were people sitting there, in a fast food yogurt shop, for him to deliver the amulet that was around his neck.
That was incredibly rude of him. Worse, Eve had spoken that it should take him ten minutes, out loud. If it took any longer than that, it would seem like he didn't care enough to try very hard. As he walked faster, distorting time and space around him, the pain grew.
Even as he tried to fight it off with magic.
The combination of the two things, moving fast and being pain free, didn’t really seem to go hand in hand. Which was probably his own failure instead of it being impossible to do. After a while he shut down almost everything except what he needed not to fall down or hit things as he moved, and a rough map of where he needed to go.
That seemed to help the discomfort, at least. He still couldn’t tell how fast he was moving. Even as he finally, seemingly months later, approached Westfield mall from the far side. It was closer to the two-oh-five freeway that he’d been following than the other side of the complex was. At the glass door, by the power lifting gym, he stopped. Not breathing for what seemed like a pretty long time.
Pain tried to flare through him, but he fought it off, using magic. That meant collecting energy. There wasn’t a lot to spare, since it took a good bit to make it all happen. Then, slowly taking a breath, trying not to scream, he walked inside. Even then he marched a bit, trying to get down to the other side in a timely fashion. No one seemed to see him in particular. Not to call out to him or anything like that. He’d been gone long enough that a lot of people would have forgotten him, no doubt.
That let him get to the shop quickly, so at least he had that going for him. No one seemed to think anything of a man in an expensive suit walking through the nearly empty mall at night. The place was closed to the public at the moment, though the doors were still open. A lot of the embassies were shuttered, having iron gates down to protect the spaces.
All of them were groups that slept. There were people at the lifting gym, for instance. The mage embassy, right across from the Yoghurt World, was totally dark. The vampire place wasn’t exactly hopping, though he could see that there really were people there, through the window. Hurrying in, he pasted a smile on his face.
Eve, who was working, hence behind the counter, glanced over at the clock.
“Holy… Okay, not bad at all, Troy! You actually did it in ten minutes. Well, ten and change, but close enough. I figured you’d be closer to that two hours, for real. That’s what I said, right Dare?”
The younger man, who was about seventeen or so and looked a lot better than Troy did, nodded.
His accent was thick and Germanic sounding.
“That is the truth, Mr. Lopez. She said that there was much teasing happening. It was, instead that you are even more impressive than that.”
Across from him, at the orange and yellow booth they were sharing, was a very tall man. Not that Dareg was tiny. He was pushing seven feet. Tor Baker was bigger than that. Only by a few inches. The man was thin, and very fit seeming. Also, pretty on a level that would have gotten Troy into bed with only a bit of effort. Even if he was a dude. That was disturbing to realize, but still true.
The guy was hot, in a slightly girly way. It didn’t really fit but there it was.
“That’s what I heard, as well.” Tor’s English was a little better, in that his accent wasn’t as thick. He felt a little less awkward about it as well.
Working at his neck, Troy got the healing amulet off and handed it over, the string held loosely in his fingers. The man smiled and looked at the thing, a line of intent coming out of him. It was rather interesting to see.
“Ah. This is one that I made.”
Troy nodded then.
“Exactly. Zack, um, Demon Zack, he lent it to me for my partner at work. She had some heart problems, so this healed her, I think? The deal was that I get it back to you directly. Normally I would have gone to you, but my current job doesn’t really allow that. Here you go. Thanks for the loan.”
Dare smiled, as if it just made sense.
Tor on the other hand tilted his head. It was too adorable, which made it annoying.
“I do not recall making that kind of suggestion to him. It was simply a gift. Still, there is some point here. Perhaps he wished us to meet? What is your new job? I run both a bakery and a mage school, myself.”
He blinked, then smiled.
“Police officer.”
Eve called out, knowing more about the world of these people than Troy did. Even if he had been there a few times.
“A guardsman. A human one. He’s the first vampire to do that job openly at all. We’re hiding the line walker part of things. I think. That part doesn’t make a lot of sense, except that he isn’t leaving town all the time? That… I can see it, actually.”
Interestingly, the other men seemed to as well.
Troy shrugged.
“It’s always nice to meet new people.” There was very little else for him to say, at the moment. Running a mage school sounded neat, so he started to ask about that, when his phone range. That got him to jump and slap at his jacket pocket.
“Lopez here.”
The voice that came was Tran’s, which was interesting, given how late it was.
“Get your butt to the station, Troy. We got one of the mages. It is not going well. Hurry?”
“Incoming… Ten minutes.” He didn’t know if he could do that again, but Eve went wide eyed.
“Go. Thanks for coming.”
“Right. Thanks for coming. I hate to run off. We have killers… I can’t explain quickly.”
Tor didn’t make him, just standing.
“Go then. Best of luck!”
He moved with speed from there, going carefully through the door on the far side of the mall. Then he focused, pulled energy as hard as he could and schooled his mind as much as possible.
Then he moved so hard that every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire. Freezing at the same time. Every kind of pain ripped through him, at a level that he nearly couldn’t bear. Even using magic to stop the pain didn’t really seem to help. Except that, when he tried to stop doing it to save the effort, he nearly passed out. The world actually went black for a bit and he stopped moving.
Thankfully he was able to get his focus back and hold the idea. Pushing himself like he was didn’t make it seem like he was moving any faster. When he got to Lincoln, he moved directly inside the police station. Tran had been right, it seemed.
There was a wall missing, on the far side, with Lars the mage pointing a glowing hand at several uniformed officers. None of them had their weapons out yet, either, having been taken by surprise. Without hesitation, Troy moved over to the mage, who still looked like a young coll
ege age kid, and punched him in the head. Once.
Hard. As much as he could manage.
That vaporized. It got blood all over the far wall and a bit over his hand. His suit wasn’t touched, he didn’t think.
Then he moved away, since the others were going to shoot, he didn’t doubt.
They did. Hitting the headless man several times before realizing he was already dead.
Troy didn't breathe, the urge to scream being far too strong to risk having air in his lungs.
Chapter sixteen
To Troy, the big issue of the hour was that he couldn’t get information from a dead man very easily. There was also the fact that he’d murdered a man with his bare hands, which could be taken the wrong way by the public.
The Chief reacted to a different portion of things almost instantly.
“You need to get in to see someone, Officer Lopez. That’s procedure. I’ll set that up for Monday. For the moment…” The man stopped, seeming to think about the whole thing, then smiled. “Honestly, this was perfect. You didn’t shoot him. We have evidence that showed he was using powers that most won’t have and it looked like he was about to kill your fellow officers when you took action. That we had you called in will help as well. You had every reason to think it was a dangerous situation. Which it was.”
That all made sense, but he didn’t know what it really meant for him.
“Okay. I need to fill out a report on this, then?”
“Not really. We need that report but other officers need to take it for you. So, off to questioning for you. Don’t add anything. Just give one, very short story. You know the drill there.”
He did. You only ever gave the cops one story. They wanted you to float around and say things in different ways. That way they could find the holes in your story, and maybe pin something on you. Innocent people only had one story. So the theory went.
Troy Ounce (Lopez Time Book 1) Page 23