The Gates of Troy (Lopez Time Book 3) Read online

  There was an actual roar then. It was so loud that it echoed in the stone floored room they were in. Troy made a face as he pulled the small black thing away from his head.

  “You think that you can defeat me? I invented war, you insolent dog! I will…”

  Troy was working as the other being spoke. It took a bit, and Bey was looking at him like he was crazy but he tried the trick that didn’t work on Baphomet. He really didn't expect it to happen this time either. After all, teleporting someone into the sun was probably an old trick that everyone expected. Like pointing behind them, at something that wasn’t there.

  The bridge had to be made carefully, connecting inside the void between worlds, where no one would get hurt. When he sunk the connection home, the being just stopped talking. Ending up inside the sun. Troy could feel the information that made the god up transferring there. It lasted for about five seconds, then faded totally.

  “Well… If he’s still alive, I’m betting he is not a happy camper. Inside the sun, right now. I wonder if he can teleport.” Nothing happened at all. That probably meant the answer was actually no.

  There was just nothing left of the being. So, Troy took the complex bridge system down.

  Bey looked at him, his face calm.

  “You have removed him from the playing field?”

  “I think so? If nothing else, he’s probably trapped there. That would suck. I hope he died. I don’t want anyone to suffer eternal torment.” He meant it, which seemed to come across.

  At least Bey bowed toward him, just a little.

  “Very well. What do you have planned for the day?”

  They chatted about nothing much for a while, until Barbara and Eve came back. It was The Snowflake that had the answer as to how he was going to spend his evening at least.

  “You should get with Lisa and her people. Then do that stuff you mentioned with other Zack? I mean, if we’re ignoring the fact that you just owned the god of war without breaking a sweat. That’s got to lead to a good nickname. Luckily for you we’ve already committed to The Officer. God slayer would just get you into trouble, you know?”

  He nodded, and changed the meaning of the words.

  “Gods layer? That would be a problem. Also, probably on the table. Not all of them are going to fall for that particular trick. Baphomet shrugged the same thing off and barely seemed annoyed by it. Other than the screaming but I can see that one. Even a bit of time in the world’s biggest pain box would be annoying.”

  It wasn’t on the world but everyone got the basic idea. Troy had to actually use magic to calm himself, since he was a bit worked up, from what had happened.

  “So… yeah. I’ll get with the mages and announce the good news? Or… Should I wait for Vince to get back? We should have a party. Get him drunk, or get a cake for him.”

  Bey actually nodded.

  “That is a very fine idea. It is a rather large thing, learning such as he has. We neglected you three when you gained that power but Vincent is a mage. We would benefit from courting him, do you not think?”

  Interestingly, Barb stood up then.

  “That’s a point. Let me see… I need a cake. I can’t bake much. At least I haven’t for a while. Troy, you should get with Avery. He’s her friend. Just from school, I think? Not closer than that.”

  Not that it would be a problem if they were. Jealousy had to be kept out of their relationships, if they were going to have them. Otherwise it wasn’t going to be worth it to all of them in the long run. If you lived long enough, then people were going to make mistakes. That happened in normal human lifetimes, so it would have to take place in his. If he lasted that long.

  It wasn’t going to interview Maggie Sims. Still, Lisa and her people needed to have the data. They also had a party coming together. That could be fun.

  The big issue was that Lisa was gone for the day and the place was locked up. Troy hadn’t gotten that part of things. Rather than let that bug him, he decided to walk over to Burgerville. It was about fifteen miles away but with a bit of running, he could be there quickly enough. Troy didn’t bother using any magic for it, to cover the pain, just focusing his mind as he moved, trying to be disciplined in what he was doing.

  It hurt but there was no pain orb up at the moment. As a vampire, he didn’t get tired really. Not once he’d learned not to die for the day. There was no panting, though he kept breathing the whole time, so that he could keep the energy flow going. That part was interesting, since he knew that there was no real reason to suck in air to do that. He could just draw power in, constantly, using magic. That would probably require him to push his body to heal again, while adjusting to the new power flow.

  As he moved, in pain, he tried it. At first, he wasn’t getting a lot of flow but by the time he was stopping, outside of the blue and brown building that was his destination, he kind of had it. Healing faster than he normally did if he wasn’t hurt, he used magic to increase the flow. Slowly.

  The last time he’d tried that kind of thing, he’d ended up slamming into the ground. This time he aimed the flow upward, just in case. There was no flying, unfortunately. Lacking that kind of awesomeness to his night, he walked into the shop. It reeked of meat and onions, as well as ketchup. That part was nearly over powering. It was the vinegar, he thought.

  It was nearly ten, so the place wasn’t in a rush. He focused on the scent of soda, since it was mainly sweet, not abrasive. Troy heard the woman he wanted, before he saw her. She was behind the counter, over by the second drive through window. Not working it but handing off food.

  “Here you go, Nate. Two large fries, two doubles with cheese and an apple pie, hot. I already put the condiments and napkins in the bag. Straws, too.”

  The younger man sounded a little bit tired. That or stoned. From the scent, he’d been using something other than pot. It was chemical and a bit acrid. Obvious as well, at least to Troy. What it was he didn’t know. Nothing that would give him energy.

  “Thanks, Mags. Let me pass that off.”

  Troy moved to the counter, the woman working it seeming to be too old for the position. That was the economy, though. People took what they could get. It wasn’t about them being losers even. They probably all had college degrees. That was just how hard it was to get anything going anymore.

  She smiled anyway, seeming happy enough to see him there.

  “Hi! What can I get you tonight?”

  “Maggie Sims? I’m… A friend of hers.” That was overselling the few meetings they’d had in the past. Still, when the nerdy looking, slightly oval faced woman turned, she smiled at him. That seemed real and everything.

  “Troy! Everyone, this is my son, Troy. Bey’s new son.”

  It was news to him that they were that close. Then, Maggie was Bey’s wife, as well as maker, and he’d turned Troy, so that kind of fit. Nodding, she made a considering face. For one thing, he hadn’t been certain that the woman was that out. It made sense, given she’d been on television for it, years before. As the spokesperson for their people.

  The woman at the counter turned then, looked puzzled and then shook her head.

  “Because you’re a vampire… I… I know you told me. I didn’t get that before. That’s real, isn’t it?”

  The kid at the window turned then and nodded.

  “Yeah. I thought that I’d dreamed all that. It’s a bit freaky, isn’t it? I nearly didn't come in today. I had to drug myself first. I was shaking and crying when I got up.”

  Several other people, including the patrons, agreed. All of them had a similar story.

  Maggie looked at him.

  “It’s like it was when I was young. The veil over the minds of the humans seems to be gone. Do you know what happened?”

  “You know… yeah. Some mages, less than fifty of them, took that down. Which isn’t a big deal. I mean, we’re all sweet and nice. Humans are smart and can handle this kind of thing. The trouble is that they dumped a couple of dozen ancient gods out into t
he world. I came to talk to you about that, if you have the time?”

  “I… Can make time for it? Do you mind sitting for a bit? I need to get my paper work done first, or the payroll won’t go in on time. Unless they’re coming here right now? Then… Well, we need to ask them to wait. My people need their money.” She seemed to be joking.

  Not that he wasn’t willing to try asking first, if they had a chance for that kind of thing.

  Troy just sat in a booth and waited. A bit anxiously, though he couldn’t say why that was, exactly. The nice counter woman brought him some water to sip. It was nice of her, he decided.

  Chapter ten

  It took a while for the nerdy vampire girl to come over. She moved correctly for what she seemed to be. A slightly tired fast food manager. Her breathing was perfectly human seeming. Troy was doing it constantly but it was clear that he was doing it in a controlled fashion, if you looked. He took the same amount of air in each and every time.

  Real people didn’t do that.

  Neither did the woman in front of him. He could see her energy, which was pale pink in color, with a dozen soft lines running into the distance around her. Troy still had the same thing going on but they were barely active now. His energy was coming from the universe. Constantly flowing toward him. As magic but also life energy. It had to be changed to become that but something inside of him had taken over and was doing it without stopping. In a very real way, he had more life as a dead man than he had when he was living.

  Almost perfectly, the woman scooted into the booth across from him. Her face wasn’t perfect, because her chin and mouth were a little weak seeming. Her glasses weren’t thick, though the tan and red rims were. She had makeup on. Just enough to sell the idea that she was there to work, while covering up her pale skin.

  She took a deep breath, which shuddered a little bit when it came out.

  “Things are wrong here, Troy. Very, very off. People that couldn’t keep in mind that I’m, well, me, much less that I’m a vampire, suddenly get it. Not until they encounter me, or at least something that reminds them of people like us… Then, boom. They’re hit with the reality of it all. It’s been years. The veil that protected their minds is just… Not there anymore.”

  Nodding, Troy sipped at his water. It was filtered but had a soft chemical flavor to it. It wasn’t horrible but the bottle had tainted it just enough that it wasn’t as pure as the label said it was. The blue and black thing wasn’t trying to lie to him on purpose, he didn’t think.

  “I heard something like that earlier. Um… Ares, The God of War, called me up and mentioned that to me. Also, that he planned to send the world into a perpetual state of war, for kicks and giggles.”

  The very old being in front of him nodded slowly and played with her fingers a bit awkwardly. Like they were on a date. One that wasn’t going that well at all.

  “Crud. I remember him. Not personally. Believe it or not, the gods from when I was a kid… They didn’t come to dinner most of the time. They held themselves away from the rest of us. They were powerful beings. The idea of what a god is has changed. It used to mean something very different. Now, most religious people in the western world would say that god was the creator of everything that exists. Back then…” She looked across the room, out into the night. It was dark out already. It had been for a while.

  The silence stretched for a while, the woman thinking of things that she probably hadn’t had to, for a time longer than people had been using the written word. Close to that, anyway.

  “Okay… Very powerful beings have always existed. As long as people have and probably longer. The early gods tended to just be beings from other realities. Some of them were stronger than the people back then, or immortal, that kind of thing. Eventually, as they found out that people would worship them for it, the competition started. After ten thousand years or so, only the strongest survived. They ran the world for thousands of years. Then, one day, they were gone. At the same time…” She faked a big breath again.

  Troy thought he had the link.

  “Then humans couldn’t recall what you were?”

  “Yeah. It wasn’t in one day or anything. It took years. They forgot. Just stopped seeing us as clearly. Or remembering us. About half of the supernatural things that existed back then, maybe more than that, just faded away. Without that input, that attention, they couldn’t survive in the world any longer. My guess is that a lot of them left, to find someplace better. Others just died. Vampires, even back then, lived in the dark. We were known and feared but not worshiped. We exist in bodies, not the thoughts of humans. That seemed to make a huge difference. The lesser demons existed, though they were different back then.”

  “I see… I think.” He had to cheat, and slowly push his intelligence up, finally doing it with enough energy that the woman across from him started to stiffen up.

  “Is everything all right?”

  Slowly, he nodded.

  “Yes. Let me… The veil seems to be part of the cage that Enlil built. Probably not all of it, since the gods seem strong enough, now that they’re out of it. It was… Probably part of keeping the thing from falling apart. To prevent faith and belief from wearing at it. Then the Mages in The Children of Baphomet screwed things up, royally. They used power to take it down or break it, on purpose. Now we have to deal with the fall out. I don’t suppose you have some reassuring things to say about what great gods they all used to be?”

  “Nope? They weren’t all that bad. Things were very different though. People weren’t free to do what they wanted, for one thing. Really, free-will barely existed. I spent a long, long time living in the ground, coming out only at night, to desperately feed on the blood of the living. We used to eat flesh, and drink the life breath of those that still lived, too. After things changed, I did as well. I was able to think again, for one thing. Most of us didn’t really do that back then. We weren’t people, just things that fed. Eventually, hundreds of years later, I realized what had happened. That was about the time of Ancient Rome, just to give you something to attach that to. Then the Christians came, a few hundred years later.”

  She tapped the table, her face serene, for a few moments. Then she tightened up.

  “Ares… I recall him but like I said, we didn’t meet. The thing there is that I don’t know why I remember that one. I wasn’t… Sane really. I guess. Just a thing that died all day and woke with only one purpose. I was maybe a bit more than that… Things are hazy on that one. What do we do about him? I mean, the legend of him still stands, even now. Not all of the old ones have that going on.”

  It was a lot of information. Not that helpful to him, other than giving him something to think about. Which he did, working through what it meant, carefully. Concentrating on the magic he was doing.

  “Right. Well, Ares won’t be a problem. Genesh either. I found a new world that will only be better with a bit of Genesh around. The other guy…” Looking up he grimaced a bit. “I killed him. I might have worked out a better way of doing things but frankly, he scared me enough that I didn’t want to risk it. I put him inside the sun at least. I assume he’s dead. I hope so.”

  There was a harsh look then but her voice was slightly awed.

  “Ouch. I bet that hurts. Just so you know, if it ever comes up, that’s pretty much my worst nightmare. Go with a nice beheading, instead?”

  Not answering that one, since it was a dark joke, Troy screwed his face up a bit.

  “I really need to get with The Librarian. He used to be called Enlil. I guess that some of the other greater demons used to have other names like that.”

  “Really? I… Never even considered that, to be honest. I thought that they were… just a thing that survived what had happened back then and thrived. We should make a plan. What side are the demons on, do you have any word on that?”

  “Not much of one, yet. Some of them have thrown in with my plan, which is basically me handling things, so that they don’t destroy the planet in
a giant free for all. So far so good, I guess? Two seem to be down, for now. Out of four engagements. Baphomet… That one is hard. I know that whatever their magic is, they can undo mine. At least the line walking parts. Not perfectly but the feeling was similar. Like it didn’t take them by surprise that much.”

  They both waited, the words being done for the time being.

  “Oh!” Troy stood up then, smiling. “Vince Riddenhour, the mage at Westfield? He learned to line walk earlier. I’m planning a training thing for that. Classes? If you know anyone that might be good for that, let me know. I’m not being bigoted or anything, so anyone that might have a knack for it can get in on the lessons. Except I only want about three from here so far. There are people from other worlds already thinking about it. There’s a party for Vince, probably tomorrow evening. Get with Eve on that but we vamps need to make a good showing for it. I think there will be cake?” He had to grin at the words. The memory of that kind of thing filled him for a minute. It was delicious.

  That was a thing he hadn’t even considered since dying.

  It was, of course, due to what he was doing with the magic inside of himself at the moment. His head hurt a bit, so he tried to fix that, holding the sense of change that was needed. That and healing.

  “Also, this Saturday, there’s a picnic in Lincoln, for the public. I’m not working there anymore. A thing happened, with some vampires. They were pushed to it by a god.”

  Maggie didn’t ask if they were still alive.

  “Ares?”

  “No. Loki, probably, though it could be different than that. Apparently, he wasn’t in the cage at all, so what his deal is, I don’t get. I couldn’t tell if there was a point, other than killing me but The Technician figures it was something like a game. The move was cleverer than the other gods have been, really. Testing me, to see what I could handle. It was a novel spell, laid into a set of really nice knives. Geared to only affect me. So, it was kind of personal.”