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

  Taking a single breath, then recalling he was supposed to be harvesting magic using cyclical breathing, he nodded at the being. It was clear he was shaken by what was going on, even if the man in front of him was a person that he’d seen a lot at the mall, over the years. Where he’d worked, like a regular person. Where both of them had.

  “What can you tell me? I’ll… Try not to be an asshole about this. I’m not wild about being screwed with but if it was needed to get me around to what was really needed, then I guess it was. Do I need to sacrifice my life to this or something? That would be less than fun but I won’t claim that reality or the world working right is less important than I am.” Using magic, he made himself stay calm. That was, he had to guess, a thing that might be in the works. If so, then he’d need to do it, to protect his people.

  To save everyone, he was willing to die. Even to protect a few, he might do it. Not that he loved the idea.

  “Nah. Nothing like that. Not at all. I mean, sure, you might die forever if you botch this. You might even buy the little farm with close neighbors and win. This is dangerous on a level that should get your jimmies to feel alive and tingly again and give your sphincter a good work out. That’s almost everything worth doing. You could die crossing the street, after all.” There was a wink then, which was more of a closing of one eye that was held, instead of the dark-skinned man being conspiratorial. “Well, that could happen if a meteor hit you at the same time. Possibly. You get the idea, anyway.”

  He kind of did. He wasn’t all that, in the world he was used to playing in. Death was always possible, given that.

  “Okay. Well, good to know that isn’t the end point? So, what’s the goal? Stuff the escaped gods back in their box?”

  Riley nodded. Then shook his head, at the same time. Both were clearly happening at once, as confusing as that was. It wasn’t a physical thing, however. Mainly because the brain box on the trickster’s shoulders was also holding still at the same time.

  “Nothing that simple. If it was just that, we would just get with Enlil and tell him to fix his work again. The mage kids did their part and broke that thing wide open. The last time we had a young and idealistic god build the thing to get rid of his rivals. He was a good kid, really. It didn’t make the world a better place but like with you, it was needed at the time. Now… Well, we have a different god to work with, don’t we? Several of them. If we leave this to the greater demons, they’ll end up killing the things from the cage. The issue there is that, while we can get rid of some of them, doing them all would force the others to fight for their lives. The demon crew doesn’t really understand it but they’ve become more powerful than these others, over time. If they got into it, they won’t lose. It would be a closer fight than might be understood, in the end. That’s worse than the last time. Enlil, who became The Librarian, used far more finesse than the others of his kind would have managed. Back then, or now. In a way, we need you to prevent these gods from the cage being slaughtered, outright. If you have to take a few of them to show that you’re serious… Well, that can work. As long as it doesn’t seem like you’re only going to kill them. If that happens, you die. So do I. Most of humanity… The mages… The shifters will do all right, actually. The vampires would probably live, but… Not most of them.”

  “Okay. So, you need me to get The Librarian to do it again? I’m kind of thinking that you might have just sent him a note, in that case. He sounds… Well, fine, for one of his people.”

  There was a snort then.

  “Fine? He’s so different from the rest of us that calling him a greater demon is an insult. He used to be a god, Troy. One of the first. A real one. No, this isn’t his job. If he has to do the work, or if we dump it on his peeps, then the whole world will end up a cinder. It would be better to let the old ones come back and take over. Which we can’t do, since there’s a plan and that would mess with it. Instead we need someone that can get the work done without being an aggressive asshat the whole time. It means we need a very special person. One that can manage to be an a-hole less than half the time. Troy. The super vampire.”

  The funny thing was that the last words weren’t coming across as being a joke. Not even a gag.

  As if the Trickster just meant that he was actually better, or at least different, than the others of his kind.

  It was a bit ridiculous.

  “This sounds like a job for Eve, doesn’t it? I mean, talk about a super vampire…”

  That got a shrug.

  “Sure. I could have gone that way. She’s a swell gal, that Benson… She would destroy a big chunk of the world doing it but it would get done. I love the girl but think about it? She’s The Bey’s apprentice for a reason. I might have made it work with Kaitlyn the Alede as well. That one was closer but would end up with her being in horrible pain for a long time over it. You probably will be too.” He shrugged then.

  Which Troy got.

  “Right. If it’s the same thing, I’m probably a bit better able to handle that kind of thing than she is. Plus, I’m a man.” It made sense to him.

  The Trickster made a snorting sound.

  “That’s sexist. You know that, right? Kait is as strong as you are, inside. We picked you because you might manage to do it without that kind of torture. Not because I think that it’s better for you to be tortured than her. In all the world, there are only a handful of people that might manage this correctly. One of them is a human preschool teacher, just so you don’t get a big head about it all. The point is that none of them are in a better place for it than you are.”

  He got that then. After all, he was at the very least in the running with some random preschool teacher. It oddly enough made sense to him. Wrangling little kids was probably nearly the same as working with ancient gods, after all.

  “Okay. So, I have to work out how to get this done and stop panicking greater demons? Any hints on how to do that? It doesn’t sound like they need to be that worried, actually. You’ve pretty much said that they can win, if it comes to a fight. Just that it isn’t the best plan for the rest of us. I’ve been talking to some of them. They aren’t happy to hear about this.”

  There was a shrug then.

  “Charge them for it? A lot. After all, nothing will reassure them more than paying billions for a task. If you ask for that kind of cash, they’ll feel that you can back it up, even if they don’t understand how you’ll get it done.”

  “Got it…” He sighed. “That will work, no doubt. I can give the money to charity or something.” Troy didn’t need that kind of cash, after all. No individual did. “Maybe use it for the Coalition of Nations? They need an actual budget.”

  Riley stood up, then reached over to the table next to the chair he was in. There was a paper there. One that Troy needed signed for his job. To prove he was mentally stable. It was signed deftly, with Dr. Boyajian’s name.

  “Here you go. Try to stay out of here for a while? I’m going to be busy for a while. It happens. Believe it or not, this little problem with naughty mage kids and their shiny new god isn’t even the biggest issue on my plate. I need to buy a dog for a little boy. That’s… Far more important to the future of reality.”

  Troy nodded, even if he didn’t see it.

  “Got it. Well, I won’t bug you too much, if I can help it. Still, when I can’t handle this, I’m dumping it back in your lap. I’ll work the Fun Zone and you can wrestle gods.”

  That got a laugh.

  “Nope. If that would work, I would have done it myself, to save you the hassle. I’m far too powerful for this kind of thing. Really… You are too. You just don’t know it yet and won’t for a while. Which means this can work, which was kind of the point of you being here at all. Come on, Troy. They’re only gods. That’s totally your speed, these days. Remember, it isn’t about you kicking butt. Do as little of that as you can get away with. It’s about you using your brain to get things done. The first part will be in making certain that the greater demons back
off.”

  The man shifted then, becoming a fifty something hippie woman again. Then the paper was handed back over.

  “Now, Mr. Lopez… Embrace your female side. That isn’t a joke, by the way. It won’t make you less of a man. At least think about it?”

  “Sure. Girl power. I can back that. Well, this was… You really couldn’t have just sent me an email on the idea?”

  The woman, who was probably one of the most dangerous beings in reality, winked at him.

  “Now I could. Not before. A lot of life is like that, when you get down to it. If you ever end up having to do my job, you’ll see that it’s all different than you think it is. Worse and more wonderful, all at once.”

  Troy nodded then.

  “Oh… Hey. My partner, Denise, she mentioned seeing you before and knew who you were, but she isn’t really her. She’s The Rotted… How did that work? You didn’t hurt Doctor Boyajian, did you?” Troy didn't know how tricksters did things like that, to be honest.

  “Nope. I just called her up and mentioned what was going on. She’s a real trooper that way. I don’t hurt people to get my job done. Sometimes the work does that to them, or their own flaws, but honest, I take the high road.”

  The woman nodded at him then, her face firm.

  “Nifty. I’m out of here then. This is…”

  Troy got up and left then, wondering if his memory was going to fade as he did it. That had been happening a lot over the last year. Every morning for six months, he’d climb into the squad car with Washington. Then, boom, at the end of the day he’d forget that Riley had been sitting next to him.

  This time though, the whole thing, all of it, was right there, in his head. It was just a memory but he knew it all. Even as he walked away, out into the burning sun, everything was crystalline compared to how it had before.

  Even trying to send Baphomet into the pain orb overhead made perfect sense to him, in hindsight. That was where harm and pain came from. It was a part of him now to think that way. It hit him as he moved out into the bright morning. It was only ten after all. A Wednesday. Only days after what had taken place.

  He killed the pain, using enough magical energy to take it all the way down, while drawing more power from the universe and storing it in the bones inside of him. Each day he was doing a bit more that way. It wasn’t enough. Not if he was going up against gods. Though, from the sound of it, he wasn’t supposed to be fighting with them.

  The goal was to…

  “I do not know.” He muttered the word out loud, moving to his car.

  The little, rather beat up, blue and white thing had seen better days. It wasn’t meant to be a chick magnet, naturally. He had the funds to get something a lot nicer, if his goal had been to impress people with his great wealth and good taste in material goods. That just wouldn’t fit his life at the moment. A cop shouldn’t have too much. Certainly not more than the average person they were there to serve. At least not on the surface. That most of them were wealthy, compared to the people they arrested was part of the problem with modern policing. The men and women in blue honestly couldn’t grasp why some people stole, or cheated the government.

  For that matter, they didn’t understand why someone would fight to stay out of jail, over what seemed a minor thing to the police. A few days in lockup could cause a man or woman to lose it. To fight, even to the death, to protect themselves from being punished for things that they hadn’t done or didn’t see as a crime. It wasn’t a big deal to the cops, since three days out of work didn’t cause them to be fired, in the main. Missing a week at the auto-shop would leave a person unemployed. Then looking at more time in jail, for not paying fines.

  That one was really hard in a lot of blue collar areas, Troy knew. The average person made less than the police did, sometimes by three or four times. The cops weren’t even that well paid, so it wasn’t that they needed to be punished by taking the little they had away. Still, at the same time, showing the world that they had more than the average would create a rift between them all.

  So, he was in a beat up little car, even wearing clothing that made him look like a millionaire. He was but he’d gotten the clothing for free. From Avery. Which was awkward, now that he understood more about what was going on there.

  The girl, and she was one, for all she was also hundreds of years old, was good looking, famous and apparently liked him. As in wanting to get married. At least that was what everyone else had been telling him. Including his girlfriend, Barb. Who was, oddly enough, fine with the idea. As long as they didn't have to break up over a trivial thing like that.

  That part was down to the fact that they were vampires. The dead lived by different rules that way, than most people did. So, yes, he could get married to Avery, regardless of what she looked like, and Barb wouldn’t really be all that threatened by her. On the other hand, if he tried to date Eve, there would probably be a fight over it. One that wouldn’t go well for Barbara. Not that it would keep her from doing it. Eve was just too powerful for her not to see the other vamp as a threat to her relationship.

  Avery Rome had gone to Vancouver, Canada, for work but had managed to visit with him every day for the last four. Using as an excuse that there might be rogue gods after him. So far that hadn’t happened at all. It meant that the local mage shop was closed though. She’d kept it open for Leslie and Nevi for a week, but that part had ended, due to reality getting in the way.

  Troy didn’t feel awkward about being liked, even if it was strange to him not to be the one doing most of the work that way. Barb had explained that to him pretty well. Her take might even be true, even if it did sound a bit like pop psychology.

  Women, as a group, liked power, wealth and to be kept safe from the imaginary threats of the world. The problem was that Avery was a dragon shifter, as well as a television star and a line walker. She was very close to being one of the most important people in several worlds. That meant she couldn’t just marry any guy she met on the street. Not even on the set of one of the shows she was on. No, to her, she needed to marry up, or at least across.

  So, she’d picked Troy, as being nearly perfect for her.

  He was a line walker himself, had physical power as a vampire and while not famous in any particular way, was a police officer. An authority figure. Then he started a new business, or was planning to, which no one else in the world was doing at all. Basically, worldwide teleportation for anyone that had a few thousand dollars. It wasn’t line walking, though it was potentially useful.

  Part of him felt uneasy with the attention.

  The truth was, as incredible as Troy was, and he knew that he was decent in some ways, it felt like Avery could do better. So could Barbara, though he wasn’t going to mention that to her. That they didn’t think that was the case was…

  Amazing.

  Smiling a bit, he drove back to work, trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with the current situation. The answer there was actually fairly easy for him to understand. The first thing he needed to do was actually not face off with the escaped gods.

  No, he needed to get the greater demons to back off.

  To that end, as soon as he was at his desk, he picked up the phone.

  He had a few calls to make. The only way that it was going to work at all was if he tricked some of the most powerful beings in existence into doing what he needed them to.

  Which felt right.

  Like what he was born to do.

  Chapter two

  There were, in all, about five hundred and twenty-odd greater demons in the world. Troy didn’t really want to speak to most of them. Not personally. That was, more or less, about survival. Honestly, he didn’t want to force Zack to do it either, since at least one or two of them would insist on fighting if they were approached by one of the new kids. He didn’t know that for a fact but it was true for vampires, so he had to figure it would hold for them as well.

  Not all of them, or all of the time, because most
of them were smart enough to work out that fighting anyone as powerful as one of their own kind would end up with them dying. At least a percentage of such things would go against them. Which would be enough to get some of them to try and kill any of the younger greater demons. Possibly himself or Eve, for the same reason. It was probably true of Avery, as well. They were all minor threats but they were threats.

  A bit like an armed police officer being menaced by a man with a two-foot-long stick. If the idiot got a lucky shot in, the cop was going down. That wasn’t likely to happen but it really could. That generally had the guy with part of a broom handle shot, if he didn’t comply with the abusive demands of the police.

  Greater demons wouldn’t even make demands. They’d just do their best to remove the stick, at least in about half the cases. He was more dangerous than if he’d been a snippy puppy dog or other potentially yummy treat for them. If he approached most of that kind of being, there would be trouble, or could be.

  That meant working out something a lot different than he would have figured doing in the first place. It was tempting to get with Zack, or even with Darla, since they were both of the right race to get the job done as far as dealing with their people went. Instead, he took a deep breath, and dialed a number that he’d only used once before.

  Finias. The Mind Taker.

  First though, he made a point of shielding his brain as well as possible from the being. It might not help at all but just showing that he might be protected that way, the man’s greatest area of personal power, could help keep him free.

  He’d been a slave before after all. Held by the same being he was calling up out of the blue. At least that was what everyone had told him about the situation. The thing there was that it had never really felt right. Not to him. Even now, years later, there was no sense of him having been trapped or abused that way. Mainly because Finias wasn’t an asshole. About half of the greater demons really weren’t. They had to show they were hard though, all the time, in order to keep the others from tearing them down all the time. It was like a prison movie. If you didn't want to be shanked in the shower, you had to stab some people on a regular basis, first.