The Gates of Troy (Lopez Time Book 3) Page 12

  That part sounded off to Troy. Over the top.

  Zack shrugged.

  “Hadn’t what? You’re blocking things out really well right now. If you want to share, then you have to actually speak. I can’t guess. Well, I could but this is sort of big to play with.”

  “Well… I went head to head with him. His feeling of love and devotion? I countered it with calm, blasting that out into the room. Except… I beat him, Zack. I overpowered him. It wasn’t easy or anything but I won.” That sounded even worse, saying it out loud like he was.

  There was a slow grin, from his friend.

  “I get it now. You fought a god, in a way, and handed him his behind. So, you just realized that you could take over the world, doing the same thing, if you tried? It’s a bit heady, the first time you understand that. Especially when it’s real and not you just sucking your own cock.”

  The words were harsh, for Zack. Not mean though. It was clear he just didn't want to give Troy a big head.

  “I hear that one. The big difference is that I know not to push people around and start a war. Genesh… he really didn’t get that. I mean, it wasn’t like we spent four years talking about things, but... It was like it just didn't make sense to him not to take over and do the thinking for everyone. For their own good. He seemed to mean that part. It didn’t feel like it was about power, either. Just him being some kind of super-dad.”

  There was a single finger pointed his way and a charming look on the slightly Asian features of Zack’s face.

  “Bingo. Good, we don’t have to bother with the whole mutually assured destruction talk then. Whew. Dodged that one then. So, one down. That’s a good start. You know, you really should find out if any of the others want a free trip to their ideal world. If even one of them takes you up on it, then it’s a win.”

  It wasn’t a horrible idea, of course.

  Even if it left some things out, like how to spread that around.

  “What… I could take out ads, I suppose? Televise it?” He pitched his voice an octave down and tilted his head down. “Are you a recently freed god from a long-ago time? Wondering how to make the most of your new-found freedom and don’t really want to go back into a little box? Contact Troy Lopez to find the best world possible! Live in luxury and peace, or war and hardship! Whatever works best for you!”

  There was a soft chuckle, which came from the door to the room. The woman that walked in, coming in from the bookstore side of things, was familiar. Darla Gibson. The Technician. She was much better looking than in her Alison form. She also seemed a lot less like a real person. She’d pushed herself into being something so special, appearance wise, that almost no one could ignore her. Alison could walk into a store and buy tampons without anyone thinking anything of it. Darla would be followed around the whole place, being watched like a hawk by five to ten men and women. Half of them probably wouldn’t even get they were doing it. That had to put a crimp in greater demon plans though, at least part of the time.

  “That might work. It really wouldn’t hurt anything to try. Put the idea in enough minds and it will eventually get to the right ears. As it stands right now, I’m betting that at least half of them will be gunning for you. You faced a god and won. Good job, by the way. You even did it without taking any damage at all. The smart ones are going to wonder what you want from them, to avoid a conflict. The dumb ones are going to go for you, before you can work out what to do about them.” She winked at him, her face happy. “That might not happen, by the way. The truth here is that these beings are all different and my take on things is my own. I’m used to greater demons, which are a different caste of people.”

  She took a few steps forward but also didn’t try to touch Troy. At first, he didn’t get it, since they did that to try and get data. Not that Darla didn’t seem to have some of that already.

  How that had happened he didn’t know. Short of putting a bug on him, it didn’t make any sense at all. Blinking, he patted his pockets, ready to make a joke about it all. In his left-hand coat pocket, there was a small copper disk, that had runes all over the outside of it in tiny letters. It didn’t scream with magic though. The center was a bit loose and made of silver, having a sense of foil to it.

  “Okay… That’s a little strange, isn’t it?” He held the tiny thing, about half the size of a penny, out.

  The Technician grinned.

  “I have to guard my investments, don’t I? Finias mentioned to me that you’ve learned to protect your thoughts from him. I figured that a backup would be a good idea, given that. If you can beat him, you can beat any of us, that way. Not if we tried our hardest but doing that is pretty obvious. Even you would get it, I bet.” She was being slightly snarky with him. Which wasn’t being done by accident. Trying to use a bit of magic to increase his ability to think, he still took a minute to work it out.

  “I get it. Sorry about the long pause there, you just seemed a bit insane for a moment. You realized that I might be worth something, finally, so were trying to take me down a peg. Got it.” He actually did, which was interesting. “It isn’t a horrible thing for me to keep in mind. No one wants an uppity Troy around, do they?”

  The hot blonde woman, who looked to be in her low twenties, her skin smooth and perfect, batted her big blue eyes at him. Playfully.

  “Good. Keep doing that. Really, you need to work out how to increase the capacity of your brain itself. Using magic for it works but if you get taken by surprise you won’t have time to do that. Now though, I need to contact some people. I have a bet to collect on. A certain Pristine didn’t think you’d be able to take out any of the gods that escaped on your own. She owes me a super model.” There was a strange expression then. “Do you want half of her?”

  That got him to roll his eyes at the demon. He wasn’t one of her people after all.

  “Nope? I don’t even drink human blood, as a rule. Having half of a skinny super model would do me no good at all.”

  The Technician let her head bob a bit.

  “Very well, then. I was thinking that you might be squeamish about things like that. Ann was looking for a way to punish you, if you mess up. So, she can’t give you a puppy, then kill it if you don’t follow her orders?”

  Zack snorted, a fake thing that was meant to be rude to his mentor.

  “That’s ridiculous, Darla. Troy loves people and animals but if he gives in to that kind of threat, a lot more would die in the end. Someone like Ann would never let that kind of a thing go unused, if it would work even part of the time. Besides, I’m pretty certain he can control his emotions. Perfectly, now. Even if he’s nicer than we are, by nature, that’s a useful trick when it comes to getting around emotional blackmail. She needs to go with bribes.”

  Troy thought for a moment, still using magic to increase his ability to do it clearly.

  “Or… She could just be reasonable in what she wants? Is that too much to ask?”

  That got a laugh, which was at him, not his words.

  Darla seemed thrilled but mean now.

  “Duh. What are you thinking, Troy? Ann is insane. Sure, she loves you but that just means you can’t bargain with her like a normal person. If you give her anything to hold on to, she will. Anything can be used against you, if you allow it to be. So don’t.”

  That made sense. The biggest weakness he had, was those he loved, of course. Those close to him.

  “Barbara…”

  From the back of the room, Zack shook his head.

  “Oddly enough, she’s probably safe. So is Avery. Oh… You heard that Troy is getting married? Ann is excited by that, by the way. At least if you invite her to the wedding. Keep her out and… That will not go well. No… My guess is that she won’t risk a line walker. That would be too dangerous. We’d all have to fight, if she did something like that. No… If she tried that, she’d go after someone that was safe for her to take out. Probably Bey.”

  Troy’s maker.

  That made sense, after a fashi
on.

  “Except that I’d fight, if she did that. I like her but not enough to look past that.”

  Nodding, Darla stared directly into his eyes.

  “Which she has to know to be real. You’re a force in this world now, Troy. No matter what else you once were, or might choose to become, you, Troy Lopez, have just pointed out that people have to pay attention to what you want. That only works for you, if you’re willing to back up your will with action. And death.”

  Chapter eight

  “Oh, for the heady days of being a simple bar tender.” Troy thought about his poor joke for a moment, then smiled.

  It hadn’t been the perfect job, since there had been a lot of drunks around all the time. That led to puking, peeing of pants and of course, people being assholes to him, on occasion. Even if he was their buddy, who had gotten them drinks earlier in the night.

  Even with that though, it had been easy enough to do. You cleaned up the messes, kept a cool head when people yelled at you and if violence started, you got the bouncers over to deal with it.

  Now, in a way, he was the bouncer.

  The quality of the drunks had improved, as well. Freaking gods… That sounded insane. Almost goofy, even to Troy, who’d met a few of them now.

  It was what he was thinking, even as he sat at a table in the Yoghurt World, at Westfield. Barbara was there but doing paperwork in the back room. She was an actual official, after all. The Assistant Ambassador there, for their entire people. It had been part of the problem with their relationship, in the first place. That kind of power was, in the end, political. That was real enough but wouldn’t help her in a fight. Troy was a kid though, compared to her. She’d been a vampire for half a century. More than that, actually. Nearly sixty years. Troy was still in his second year of being dead.

  He wasn’t supposed to be able to match her. He should have been… Well, honestly, he shouldn’t have been doing anything like having a relationship at all. Most of his new people were angry and tried to fight the world for decades, after they died. Troy had mastered that, never going through that kind of thing like everyone else he knew who hadn’t been trained had.

  Now… Well, it wasn’t lost on him that he was a lot more than he’d ever figured he would have been. It might not be enough to save him but Riley had put him up against beings that he shouldn’t have won against at all.

  Then again, the man had told him that it was either him doing it, or a human pre-school teacher. How that man or woman would have done it, he didn't know. Really, given the source, that person might not exist at all. If they did… Well, that was a job description. A teacher of little kids. For all he knew, they might be a super mage or something at the same time.

  Like claiming that he was just a cop. That he had been. The failure there wasn’t all that much fun. He’d already mentioned it to Barb. She for her part, hadn’t really cared at all. If anything, the idea seemed to be making her happy. As if his being with the police had been what had taken him away. Like a soldier taking his orders to go off to war. It hadn’t been that. Just him being too immature to understand that he could control himself, if he put the work in.

  The person working behind the counter wasn’t Crystal, who had the day off. It wasn’t even Phil, since he’d moved into working almost full time with Zack, doing line transfer work. The boy behind the counter wasn’t anyone he knew at all. A human, from the look of him.

  For the third time, the boy, who was probably about eighteen or so, smiled at him.

  “Are you sure you don’t want anything? Blood? A waffle cone?” He seemed to mean it and was, if anything, being a little annoying about the whole thing. It was getting late but no vampires had come in yet for their blood or anything like that.

  It was a bit strange but the human kid didn’t seem scared in particular. Just a bit bored. From his name tag, he was named Karen. That matched the long hair tied back with a powder blue scrunchy at least. Not the scent of testosterone, though.

  “I’m good, thanks, Karen.” He used the name and wasn’t corrected. If anything, the guy seemed pleased that it was being used. Nothing else about him spoke of being a female but Troy was good with that. He just didn’t want to call a man a woman if they didn’t want to be referred to that way. “Oh, if it’s not rude, what, erm, pronouns do you like?”

  It was kind of insane sounding but the boy seemed unconcerned about being asked.

  “Xe, Xei, and Xer.” The sound all came out sounding like a mushy and hard to pronounce zee, which was fine enough. It told him enough to earn a nod.

  “Cool. I’m never getting that right, you understand that, don’t you? I mean, I’ll try but I’m fucking that one up. Zshee… Nope. Not even close. You’re good with zay, right?”

  The kid smiled like he wasn’t being a total prick about it.

  “That’s not bad. Most of the time people just don’t talk to me, afraid I’ll be offended. I won’t be. Not unless someone is coming at me on purpose. I don’t care that much. I’m just me, you know?”

  He didn’t but Troy smiled. Being nice never hurt in life, if you had a chance.

  “Nifty. How long have you worked here?” It was too probing but there wasn’t a lot to talk about, if he didn't cover the work stuff.

  “Not long. A few months. Everyone has been really nice about... Well, you know, I’m weird. Even the vampires that come in just kind of don’t care. If I go to the grocery store, I get looked at funny and even told off for being a freak. Here I’m just… The person that passes out the blood. If I do that well, then no one cares about the rest. If I don’t, well, then I bet they yell.”

  That made sense. It was a bit progressive but most people that became vamps didn’t really judge others life choices nearly as much as some would think. They tended to be politically conservative, which threw some people off that way. It still varied, like the general public. Most of them were pretty solid as far as ignoring the insanity of others. So little things like wanting to dress a certain way or be called by a given name just didn’t register as a big deal to them.

  Barbara walked out of the back office, her face calm and professional looking.

  “Hey, Troy… Since you aren’t doing your cop gig anymore, would you do me a favor? Pleeeease? I’d do it but I’m needed here for the evening. It’s the fresh blood order night, which means a lot of business will be coming in. Fresh is best.”

  Troy smiled.

  “Line travel? Who needs to go where?”

  She tilted her head side to side for a bit, as if considering something. Finally, she took a deep breath.

  “Vince, from the mages? His girlfriend lives in the IPB world. I’ve been taking him to visit. Well, alternating with Phillip. He’s out of town though and I really should stay here. I know it will only take a few minutes but you know…”

  There were three different things that it could be. The first was simple and consistent. Barb was a line walker but just barely. She was great at surviving in the void. Top notch that way, actually. Whatever was needed to get in and out of the void was barely present in her, for some reason. She did it but it could take her years in the void, to make it happen each time. Troy spent about thirty seconds there, to his perspective, in the main. It was just easier for him.

  The second thing was the other obvious one. Karen was a human being. Xe could sell blood and make treats but if a fight took place, it wasn’t fair to put xer in that kind of danger. Especially for an hourly wage. Even if the pay was good for sales, it wasn’t enough to have people fighting the undead.

  Last, well, Troy didn’t know if it would be real but it was possible that she was testing him, to see if he’d do what she asked. If so, then he should tell her no. It wasn’t unreasonable really, so if that was her reason, she needed to try harder. He’d been hit with that kind of thing before though, and it tended to look different. The trick was that he only gave a woman one shot at that kind of thing. Even if it hurt, Troy knew that too many tests like that were a sign
that things weren’t going well. Barb hadn’t done that kind of thing before, and probably wasn’t at the moment. She was great, in a lot of ways. A little moody but that had smoothed out a lot, after all her time in the void.

  That had worked for him as well, so he got the idea.

  “That sounds fun. When?” He didn’t know the time at the moment, since his watch hadn’t lived through the djinn attack. It hadn’t melted off or anything, just stopped working.

  Barbara smiled at him, as if it were a huge deal that he was willing to help people out. He almost always was though. He was great that way. The thought made him smile.

  “Erm… Now? In about five minutes, actually. I just heard him and Lisa talking about him taking in a letter with him. I normally go over at eight or so, if he’s working.”

  That was a sweet deal. Too good of one, actually, considering it was a teen boy and dating. Not a life changing event or anything. He tilted his head, then shrugged.

  “Um… Why? I mean…” Troy was willing enough to carry the guy around. It wasn’t about that part of things.

  His honey smiled at him and then reached out to touch his arm. There was no tingling, indicating she probably wasn’t a greater demon. That he even considered that as possible was a sign that he was paranoid now. Given that was probably a good plan for the day, he smiled back.

  She grinned at him.

  “Well, that one is kind of an interesting story. Avery kind of ordered him to hook up with a girl from there. Bridget. There was a story there. Another friend of hers, Alan, was supposed to do it. Which went fine, until I took him over the first time. I’m too slow in the void for him and he kind of lost it. He’s fine now, but… Not totally. Bridget is cool, so Ave hooked her up with a different guy. She’s nice, if a bit hyper… Anyway, she’s the third in command of her military unit there, so it’s a big deal. You were at the battle against the military here, so you saw the IPB people? She was the one leading them. Tossing tanks around and flying? Functionally this gives us an in there, other than just having annoying line walkers showing up and flaunting our powers in their faces. You know how to get there, right?”