Living Proof (Tyler G Book 2) (6 page)

Keeping that in mind, he helped
with the rest of the work, setting up the propane grills, and the deep fryer
they were using. Eve did the generator, and the drinks machine, while Ginger
and Edom started setting out the work spaces. They had a lot of onions for
instance, that needed to be chopped up and fried. They had French fries too,
which for some reason were being made from fresh potatoes, instead of gotten
out of bags. In fact, most of the stuff was being made right there. Not the
buns, or the condiments, but almost everything else was.

Working together they had food
started by about noon, and while there weren't a lot of people there yet, the
drinks sold pretty well. Troy kept making things for him to try, as if doing so
made any sense. The first was a deep fried Twinkie, which was good, if sickly
sweet. Then a variety of things that almost didn't seem possible. It included a
pile of onion rings to round it out. He tried to make him a hamburger too, but
grudgingly provided a veggie sandwich with melted cheese on it instead. It was
still good, the warm onions and cool tomato slices working nicely with the
pickles.

After watching him eat the whole
thing the man shook his head a little.

"So, is it about stopping
global warming? The whole vegetarian thing? I read something about that. How
vegetarians have a lower carbon footprint?" The guy didn't seem like the
type to research things like that, his clothing being a little too trendy for
deep thought to be indicated, but the two things probably didn't really go hand
in hand.

It was tempting to lie, but after
a bit he just shook his head.

"Nothing like that. I'm...
Basically I guess I'm like a zombie? Only the Greater Demon that made me set it
up so I won't have to eat Human flesh. Part of not doing that means I need to
not get a taste for meat, I think."

The guy made a face then. A frown
that was deep and slightly suspicious.

"The Rotted?"

Nodding, Ty smiled.

"Yeah. My mom. I mean, she's
raised me since I was little. About two. When I died. I just found out about it
all a week ago. I really thought I was alive the whole time." He lifted
his hands, to show that he didn't understand it all yet, but Troy suddenly
seemed really shy about the whole thing.

Eve, who was cutting potatoes, and
tossing them lightly in sugar water, to help them brown, laughed a bit.

"That look on his face is
his way of telling you that he's
totally
banged your mom. Before you get
too mad at him, she did look like
him
at the time. That kind of makes it
masturbation, on his side. I did her, too. It was hot. Like twins."

Standing there, feeling shocked,
Ty stopped what he was doing, stuck his fingers in his ears and started
humming.

"I'm not listening to you...
I can't hear
youuuu
. Nananana." It was a thing that he'd seen on
television, but it seemed to actually work. It probably helped that Eve stopped
talking, and snickered at him. When he stopped doing it she started talking
again.

"Greater Demons
don't
really play by Human rules. Oh, your phone. Here you go." She had to wash
her hands first, so that she didn't get potato scum all over it. The trouble
there was that he didn't really have pockets, except the one on his thin shirt.
He used it, knowing it would leave him looking nerdy.

"Thanks. Now, I just need to
forget the fact that my mind is scarred forever. I should go and see who else
is here?"

Edom clapped him on the back, a
hardy thing that seemed encouraging.

"Thanks for the help."

"I might be back. Free food,
and all that." Not that he needed to eat. Troy had loaded him up already.

The man nodded, as if him getting
free stuff made actual sense.

It took a bit of walking around
to find the other groups that weren't strictly Human. Calley was there, and had
cat whiskers and a very adorable black nose painted on, which led him to the
Shifters easily enough. She waved to him briefly, but was putting a rose on the
cheek of a young lady, so had to keep working.

"Hey Sweetie! You should
come back in a bit. We can use your face as advertising space."

He nodded, since that would work
well enough.

"All right. Do you know
where the Mages are?"

She didn't, but Rupert, the Bear Shifter,
who was darned close to having the look of a biker gang member, complete with
multi-colored bandana hiding his hair, smiled at him, and pointed to the left.
Away from the parking area, since the booth was on the other side of the
walkway that everything was on.

"That way, on this side
about ten places down."

Ty smiled back, then stopped for
a second.

"Say, um, how is your
sister? She was picked up and everything?"

Vivian had
sort
of taken
the Alede Ambassador hostage, and beaten her. With a gun. It wasn't a good
situation, since her girlfriend at the time had set her up to attack the
Shifter Ambassador, which would have been a death sentence if she'd done it.

So the Bear Shifter lady had been
sentenced by the Alede Ambassador, to seclusion on an island for two weeks.
That one had been interesting to watch happen, given the biological and
cultural differences. The Shifters had figured that Viv would have been tucked
away for years, if not
decades
for her crime.

Even after being beaten
unconscious by the large and powerful woman, with a gun, the Alede Ambassador
had nearly cried when she said two weeks. It wasn't because she wanted to say
more either. The idea of being alone that long was, it seemed, a true horror to
that kind of person. It had been about two weeks before though, he thought.

Keeber shrugged his vast
shoulders tightening enough to show that he had a lot of muscle on him. Maybe
all of his bulk really was.

"We're headed out tomorrow
to get her. Normally there would be a big thing, with the Ambassador going, but
Catherine isn't a fan right now. Not that she's holding a grudge, but it's only
been a few weeks, so it isn't that big of a deal."

Tyler nodded.

"Can I go with you? We
should ask Valerie as well. I know that she might want to make certain Vivian
is all right. She was really upset when she announced the punishment. We should
set that up. Actually, if that works for you, I can try to set that up right
now?"

He had his phone, and the woman's
number was in there already.

Rupert made a cute face, his
bushy brown beard moving a bit.

"I... Think we can do that.
Viv will like seeing you, I think. She felt pretty bad about the whole thing.
She's a hothead over some things, but not a bad person. That might help, yeah.
We'll leave at about six in the morning? We have a van. It's a bit of a
drive."

He nodded. That all seemed right
to him.

"I'll be there. Let me check
with the Alede?"

He moved back a bit, behind the
booth, and dialed the number. It
was
a holiday, so it was possible that
the lady wasn't going to pick up. On the third ring he thought that was likely.
Right until the line clicked, picking up.

"Hello?" It was pretty
much a purr, designed to send shivers down the spine of anyone that was alive
enough to respond that way. On the good side, he was.

"Hi, Valerie? This is Ty
Gartner." He was about to go into the whole thing about the Coalition, in case
she didn't really remember him, but it seemed like she did.

"Oh? Hello, Tyler. May I
help you with something? Are you looking for Kaitlyn?"

That hadn't occurred to him, but
Kait
had
announced to her own people that he was kind of her territory,
as far as sex went. That was all about keeping the others off of him, so he
could work. Still, to her people, his coworker was the boss of him. It would
make sense then, to their minds, that he'd seek her out often. For sex. Because
that was what they did.

"Actually, I'm calling to
see if you wanted to go with me tomorrow morning to get Vivian from her island
exile? I know that you were worried. It's fine if you don't want to go as well,
since she
did
kind of work you over a bit. She'll understand."

There was a hesitation, but then
a soft sound that was a bit like a sigh.

"Thank you. I'd love to
attend. We should take her things. What do you think she'll wish for, after
that ordeal?"

He didn't know, but made some
guesses.

"Food? Clean clothing. Um...
She likes girls I think and just had a breakup, so bringing her a friend that
way might be cool? Maybe not. I don't know enough about women to know if that
would work for them. Probably best to stick to the food and clothes. Maybe a
toothbrush?" He knew that would be something he'd want, if it were him in
the same situation. If they hadn't left her one.

He would have, and honestly,
should have made sure it happened. Instead Ty had just let the Shifters deal
with it, like they always did. What that meant, he didn't know, to be honest.
He hadn't even asked.

Valerie made a soft sound, which
seemed a bit strange. Moist and intimate. Probably due to the fact that she was
busily having sex at the moment.

That
wasn't embarrassing or anything.
Not to her, at any rate.

"We need to meet up at six
tomorrow. I..." He walked around the face painting booth, and waved at Rupert,
who was in charge of the whole thing, as far as he knew. "At Westfield, or
should we meet someplace else?"

The Bear Shifter nodded.

"That works. At her place?
She's the important one."

"Got that? We'll meet at
your store. At six in the morning."

That it seemed, was fine,
thankfully. He was able to get away then, and go off to find the Mages. He
didn't really know any of the people there though, since he only really knew
two Mages. Hiram and Lisa, their Ambassador. There were two openly marked
booths, side by side. One selling food, having sandwiches and baked products,
and one with jewelry that was supposed to be magical.

A black woman smiled at him, her face
kind looking. She was even sort of pretty, he decided. Not drop dead gorgeous
maybe, but decent enough to get his attention.

"Can I help you find
anything? We have some nice croissants. I just made them this morning."
Because that was what all eighteen year old boys wanted.

It sounded good, but he didn't
have any money on him, and couldn't really afford that kind of thing if he did.

"I'm actually just checking
in. Tyler Gartner, Coalition of Nations."

Before he could explain that, the
woman started nodding.

"I didn't know you folks
were part of this. Do you need us to do anything? I can get away for a bit, if
you need one of us?" She stopped, and called out to the woman behind the
counter of the food booth. "Erin? This is the Coalition of Nations rep. I
don't know-"

The woman nearly ran out, not
letting him explain, so he crossed his eyes and smiled at them both. It was an
attempt to be charming.

Erin, who was white, about forty
and had brown hair that looked really even, like it was dyed, came out directly,
looking scared. Even with the funny faces.

"Ginny? What's
happening?"

He broke in, being rude and
interrupting, but not wanting to start an issue.

"Not much, to be honest. I
just didn't get to that part yet. I'm checking in with you to make sure there
are
no problems? Thankfully it really doesn't come up that often, or hasn't so
far."

That got the women to go silent,
and oddly, a cute girl who looked like she might have been about fourteen to
walk over and offer him a cookie off of a small tray.

She nodded at him, rather
officially.

"We haven't had any issues,
even with a sign up saying who we are. It's scary, but so far almost everyone
has been nice, and the ones that haven't just kind of walk past. I'm a bit
nervous. I mean, what can I do if something happens? An attack or
whatever."

It took him a second, but he
finally had an idea of what might work pretty well.

"If that happens, you can
call on the Shifters and Vampires. They'll back you up. They would anyway, but
letting them know what's happening can't hurt. Just like you should back them
up, if it comes up. It probably won't, but you know, better to have a plan than
not? I can give you my cell number, too." He meant give it to all of them,
but the girl acted like he was flirting with her.

That got him to have to fight a
grin. She was pretty, but also a kid. A real one, not one secretly older than
he was by two years. It was enough that he nearly forgot what he'd been
thinking earlier. He looked young enough that no one would have thought much
about it if he'd taken her out on a date. Even the women there with her didn't
think her attention to him was strange.

So he entered her info into his
phone. You never knew who was going to be needed.