Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (15 page)

So far it hadn't seemed worth
having him do. Ty didn't say that, but it really seemed to be the case.

The man on the phone was very polite
to him though, and got off of it gently, suggesting they get together and go
fishing sometime. That was strange, but also friendly enough, as long as he
wasn't going to be the bait. That got a laugh.

Then he had to call Lyn. He got a
man however, who answered the phone a bit abruptly.

"Brad Hartley. Is there an
emergency?"

Looking at the clock, Ty saw how
early it was, and winced.

"Nothing too major. This is
Ty Gartner, from the Coalition of Nations? I was asked to set up a meeting
between The Changling and The Librarian, along with some others. The Mistress
of Souls, and The Snowflake. They're doing it over the computer, so it isn't a
real meeting. More like a phone call? So, not a vast thing to worry over,
still, he seemed to think it was pretty important. I don't know why he thought
that really, since I'm just the middle man."

"I... Let me run that by
her? Honey?" The man went off, but a woman's voice came after some
mumbling on the other end for a while.

Lyn sounded normal. Like anyone
would on the phone.

"We might be able to arrange
that, Mr. Gartner. I take it all is well there? I've heard some troubling
things."

That started a longer
conversation, but when it was over he felt better informed. At least if she
wasn't lying to him.

The good, possibly the best,
thing about dealing with Greater Demons was that they didn't really seem to
think that
he
was responsible for them. Eve didn't either, once he got
back in touch with her to set things up, by phone. Zack still wasn't in. It was
a bit worrying, since he also wasn't answering his cell. There was just an
eerie silence that way.

No one else was concerned, so he
tried not to be either. The man was an adult, and had hinted that he was
dealing with something big. Starting at seven-thirty several of the Alede came
in, led by Kait, who seemed to think that she was actually capable of running
the place for some reason.

"Well, I
am
the
co-manager. It's kind of in the job description. If I can get away to have sex
a couple of times first thing I'm good for the day. It's always tempting to run
off and entertain here, because, you know. Sex is more fun than work. One of my
favorite things. I'm not some kind of..." She stopped her voice sounding
annoyed and her face looking a bit bitchy. She wasn't making eye contact with
him though, and the fake glasses she was wearing really helped to make her seem
more normal that day.

Still incredibly hot, but like a
movie nerd girl, instead of the star of the show. She was also tamping down her
natural allure, hard. It was plain to him, since Ty noticed, his pants weren't
trying to come off on their own.

So he nodded.

"It must be tough. You
are
the best Alede worker I've seen so far though, so of course you can handle it.
That was never a question." It really had been, in his head, but if she
needed him to lie to her in order to help her become what she wanted, then he
would. That was part of his job, after a fashion.

It also felt like the right thing
to do, because after a few moments she relaxed a lot and smiled at him.

"Thanks. I want to impress
you, if I can." She made that sound like it was an actual thing and not a
sarcastic comment.

Tyler didn't get it in the
slightest. Why in hell would this woman, who was his boss, as it turned out,
want to even bother with him, other than to tell him to get back to work?

She didn't make him ask, clearly
being nice that way. It was worse than if she was just sexy and mean, he
decided. More powerfully distracting, at least in potential. A thing designed
to keep him from doing his job well.

"I was wondering if I could
work with you on the Coalition? I know that it might not seem like a great
idea, but Alede are more than just their need to feed, or the ability to fill
out a pair of slacks well. I have a Bachelor's degree in Business Management,
with a minor in Political Science. I know that isn't some huge feat or
anything, but I didn't major in partying at school, or just get my grades by
sleeping with my professors. That was really hard to pull off too, because
trust
me it was tempting. I did the work though, to make something of myself."

From the look on her face it
seemed like she figured he was going to say no. That was insane, of course,
being that it was free help. Still, Tyler also noticed that she really was
keeping herself from using her looks or whatever psychic abilities she had from
just making him do what she wanted. Her body was mainly turned away, and her
arms closed over the
top
of her chest, crossing to block her breasts
from view, rather than framing them to make them seem larger like most of her
kind did as a casual default.

Her clothing was good too. Blue
jeans, which were clean and form fitting, but no more than a nerd girl might be
wearing, and a funny shirt that had three quarter length sleeves. Those were
blue, but the body of her shirt was a rather plain gray.

Even thinking that he might tell
her that she wasn't good enough to work with him, or whatever it was she was
thinking, the woman wasn't forcing him to do anything. Just
asking
. It
was still a bit unfair, given how good looking she was, but he could see the
effort going into it, and tried to ignore that part of himself.

"All right. For today can
you check in on Vivian at the Mage embassy a few times? Make sure she has what
she needs and knows to really work. There may be more if something comes up.
Most days it really doesn't, but it could. After you get things handled, energy
wise, I mean. I'll stick it out here for a bit so you can do that, if anyone
comes in?" He didn't know how that really worked, since the Alede seemed
to try and have sex constantly, so he finally just spread his hands. "How
much, I mean, how many times do you need to do that a day, really?" He
felt awkward, but it was a good question. If she needed to have sex every few
hours it was going to make it a lot harder to work with her on anything
important.

The woman, her hair back in a
loose ponytail, brushed at it a bit. An artful looking wisp of hair was pushed
from the side of her face, already out of the way.

"Twice. That means two solid
energy harvests, so I can really do it at one time, if my partners are fresh.
More than that is nice, fun and all that, and I can collect energy from it for
later, to do things with. Shifting into Kyle for instance. Or influencing
people. We're actually really efficient that way. Better than Vampires. I mean,
if
I
bite someone, they
want
it." She grinned, actually
speaking past him, to a woman who was standing there, looking at them.
Hungrily.

She was very short, being just
about five feet tall, and had rust red hair, very pale skin with freckles, and
an African American nose. Her eyes were behind heavy glasses, distorted by the
thick lenses. In short, she looked a lot like Calley did. Enough so that she
pretty much had to be a relative, or at least a Bat shifter.

Her clothing was pretty plain,
being black slacks and a button down blue and white striped shirt. It gapped
just enough between the two top buttons to see that she had a pale cream
colored bra on. Though, like Calley, she was small that way. Enough so that the
thing was probably about being polite and professional, rather than needed to
keep herself from the effects of gravity.

Kait moved around the front
counter, seeming pleased, and hugged the woman like a long lost lover. Given
how the lady responded, that was probably just the case.

"Madeline! Back from
vacation then? I saw you were scheduled, but I didn't know if Zack had called
you in yet." Then she kissed the woman long and hard. Enough so that Tyler
had to look away, even if it was entertaining. He made himself smile. A wave of
lust came from them both, and the other woman locked her gaze on Kaitlyn so
hard that it seemed like she was mesmerized.

"I'm back! Fresh from four
weeks of living in the woods, eating berries and voles, and spending my nights
running operations to make sure I haven't lost all my training. What have you
been up to? More to the point,
who
have you been up to? I leave for a
month and you replace me with a hunk..." She looked over at him then,
still seeming like she wanted to have sex, even as she locked eyes with Tyler,
still in Kait's arms.

Calley had said that Bat's liked
sex, and had even mentioned they weren't that picky all the time. Men, women,
hot, or not. This woman seemed a bit more into that at the moment than Calley
normally did. Then, if she'd been out training for a month, it might have been
simple deprivation.

He waved at her, and tried to
keep that in mind.

"Tyler. I can hold the desk
here, if you two want to, um..." Adults didn't blush like he was, he bet.
Then he sighed, since it was clear that he wasn't either.

His face didn't infuse with
blood, he just
imagined
that it did. Meaning that all those times he'd
thought he was embarrassing himself that way, everyone else in the world had
probably thought he was cool as a cucumber. So, not missing much of a beat, he
went on.

"If you want to go use one
of the side rooms?" He thought that Shifters counted for sexual energy
that way, and if not the woman would be a bit more relaxed he bet. Like Calley,
she was in constant motion, twitching and flapping around, her face going
bright at the mention of her getting some like that.

She took Kait by the hand and
started to walk off, muttering softly.

"The new guy seems nice! I
haven't gotten any in weeks..." There was more talking but they were both
out of earshot for him after a few seconds.

So he got the place ready for the
day, working constantly for half an hour, waiting for things to change. The
thing that did was Zack coming back, marching out of the owl room with wide
eyes.

"Tyler! Sorry, I got hung up
doing some work. You've been here all night?"

"Yep. I'm charging you extra
for it, too. On top of my pay I mean. Normally it would have just been that,
but you didn't even manage to drop a note and I worried about you. So you get
me, you
must
be punished."

Zack winced.

"I see. So, spanking, or
time out?"

It occurred to Tyler that his
cute boss
could
be blackmailed, but he sighed and shook his head. He
could
also
be fired after all, and while it was one thing to think he
was sweet looking, it was another to insist he put out if he didn't want to.

"Eve wants me to go and help
her with a Yoghurt World renovation in California. Right now the plan seems for
her to carry me down, but it would be nicer if you got us there? Faster and
not
me being carried like a baby for what seems like weeks. It's a really odd
effect, traveling with Vampires that way."

That got a slow nod.

"That can be arranged. I
heard about that situation. A gang of Humans pretty much tore the store down,
during the day. They don't have a Master Vampire working there, so it was just
Human staff members. One was put in the hospital. It wasn't even a hate group,
just scared people not realizing that the guy working there on mornings was
just a person like they were. It's a good idea, you going. You can talk to the
local police and make sure the attackers are found, and handled using the law,
rather than just killed."

No one had mentioned the whole
thing to him before, but that did seem like the kind of thing he should have
been brought in on. So he nodded.

"That won't be for a few
days. I'm not going until I have time off here. I got some help. The Mistress
of Souls?" Without even waiting to act casual the Greater Demon, looking
at least half Japanese, took his hand. Then he nodded and stepped back, so that
Tyler wouldn't hit him to test his reflexes. He'd done that once, to see if he
could get past the mind reading thing that way, but hadn't planned on it at the
moment.

Then, for it to work, he
couldn't
plan things out. That was the point. He'd have to respond
after
the contact
was made, and do it so fast that the demon didn't have a chance to realize he
was moving.

Instead of hacking his arm off
for being too trusting, Zack smiled.

"That's not a bad catch. She
has the time right now anyway. Decent worker. So, Madeline is in. She isn't
always like that. Wanting sex at that level? Honestly she's one of the best
workers we have here. A spy sent in by the Shifters to watch me. You too now, I
bet. Coolness. Why don't you go and get with Eve? You really
should
make
a point of memorizing Lenore's notebook. I'll get some copies made of it, actually.
You'll need to be careful with it. It's one of her prized possessions. If you
lose it, I'll have to rewrite it from memory. That would cost you, trust me."

As if he were dismissed, Zack
made motions with his hand and nearly ran to the cafe. The idea was clear, he
needed food, but also didn't think that Tyler was going to be needed. It wasn't
until he was out of the store, about ten minutes later, having clocked out and
taken his larger notebook with him, leaving the other one for those copies to
be made, that he realized a simple fact.

Zack
had
to know that he
liked him.

It was kind of embarrassing, and
made better only by the fact that he sort of liked nearly everyone. That didn't
mean he wanted to sleep with them all, and, as the man himself had pointed out,
he
couldn't
afford to be trusting of Greater Demons. So really, he
had
to stop thinking that kind of thing. It could give Zack a point of leverage to
use over him, if he wasn't careful. Just because he'd been nice so far, and
even helped set him up with an important side job, running the Coalition, that
didn't mean he might not be planning to trick him later.

Inside the Yoghurt World there
were two people. One of them was Eve, who was behind the counter, wearing an
apron that was green and white, which didn't go with the rest of the place at
all, and a dark skinned man who wasn't familiar.

The man turned to him, and stuck
a hand out.

"Mr. Gartner? I'm Ridley. I
run the Fun Zone, on the other side of the mall?"

Tyler nodded, having seen the
place before. The man was a bit taller than he was, so about six feet and a bit
of change, and had short, well groomed hair, as well as a shirt on that told
Tyler that the man was from that location. He'd at least stolen a shirt from
there, and liked to wear it, since it didn't seem new.