by P. S. Power
It was clear enough, thanks to the mind set he was holding.
"Yes. Still, those are the rules of the world I live in. I'd rather follow them than not. It doesn't matter what you feel about the social structure, as long as you can follow it closely enough."
There was a laugh then and a stuck out tongue.
"Or if you can tell the world that their rules don't count. Greater Demon morality at its finest. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something. I... I found a message, a lot of them, actually, in my own writing, sealed with my magic. Some in my own head. Are, Angels real? I know that nothing in particular precludes God, really, but that's an abstract thing..."
That got him to blink.
"Yes. Totally real things. You've even met a bunch of them. Well, at least one or two. Gregor is one. Also the Archangel Michael mentioned you to me the one time we met? I think that Tarsus had something done to him so he can remember things like that, now. Your kind can't easily hold the idea, I hear. Why ask me about it though?" That part was a little strange.
"It was in the notes in my head. One of the reasons that I'm not supposed to kill you for kicking my ass. And yes, it does say that Mike told me that. So he knew, whoever he is. Interesting. Well, we should try to be friends then? There's a note in here that says that you, for some reason, will end up being far more important than you seem right now. Not that you aren't important to me. I always liked you. Even when I was messing with your head like I did. Sorry about that." She giggled then, and shook her head a little. Probably to influence what he'd think about what she said next. That was as clear to him suddenly as if she'd spoken about it out loud. "Do you want to have make-up sex? I can turn into a little girl for you, if you want?"
He looked at her, and nearly told her to go fuck herself, since it was clear she was screwing with him on purpose, saying that. So he changed tactics, altering the rules. It really helped not feeling much. There was a little bit of annoyance though, so he increased the concept of emotional blankness inside of himself.
"Sure. Not too young. Cultural taboos and all that. How about what you looked like at fourteen or so? Or a little older?" Then as if he actually expected her to do it right then he started working at the front of his trousers. He knew she was bluffing though, and after a few seconds she rolled her eyes at him.
"I'm not that fast at shape changing yet. So, I can't play with you that way? What would you have done if I'd morphed into a six year old and offered to suck you off?"
"Said no. Obviously. There are limits. I'm not one of your people, so I don't have to pretend that I love everything you get up to, do I?"
"That's true. Well, later maybe? I actually need to get off to dinner soon, if we aren't going to get all kinky for everyone walking by. That would be easier on Steve anyway. He'll be down in a bit. Just to keep you in the loop, he's totally been sleeping with Rebekah, even though she made a rule about no sex among the band. People can be such morons. Isn't it wonderful?" She leaned in and kissed him, which got him to wonder if she were really Keeley or not.
Then he tilted his head a bit and squinted, trying to focus on the concepts he needed. None of them gave him the needed insight however.
Finally he just asked.
"You... Don't seem right, exactly. Are you really you?"
She nodded, "that is silly question. Rephrase it."
"Are you really Keeley Thomson, The Mistress of Souls?"
That got a shrug.
"Right now? Of course I am. That says nothing for who I might be later, or who I was before though, does it? To answer the question properly, yes. I'm really me. I am still making fun of you, but there's a reason behind it. I'm trying to push you to use your full abilities. It's working too, so keep that up. I know that you can only do so much, essentially being a Human, but you also don't feel pain, and heal wonderfully fast. Those traits mean you can do a lot more than you think, as long as you keep trying."
Then she nodded at him, and sighed.
"Angels? That is so hard to believe. There's a lot of evidence here, in my mind, however. I think I must be doing this every few days or so, now. Sorry if I get repetitive with the question. Anyway, for now, let's be friends? I promise not to rape you anymore, or force you to have sex with threats of violence. That does leave bribes, and light mind control, on the table. That goes both ways, if that works for you?"
"All right. Know this though, next time, win or lose, I'll just fight if you try. If you want something from me, we bargain for it. I'll do that same, and not just give orders, but if I mess that up, or whatever, just freaking call me on it next time, will you? You could have just told me no, or even explained things to me."
The woman, who was a bit too young to think of that way really, given their shared western culture, smiled at him, with mock sweetness.
"But you see, Tyler, things had to go like they did. I'm trying to shape you into something new. A thing that the world has never seen before. So I did what I had to in order to get you to become what you need to be."
Then she left, so that he was finally alone.
Nodding, to himself, he actually thought he got it.
The whole thing, not just with Keeley, but with all of it, the Coalition, Eve, everything... It was part of a plan. One that pretty much had to be put forth by Lucy.
After all, no one else would care enough to bother.
Chapter twelve
It wasn't as if he could check on that at the moment. So, just to keep up with things Ty got himself to the kitchen and made fake meat chicken patties and had eight sandwiches. He fried some onions for them, and had avocado too, since they had several ripe ones in the fridge. Next to the bottles of blood. That probably should have freaked him out, but it just didn't. Honestly, the blood was a tiny bit tempting.
It took a while, nearly an hour and a half for Zack to get back, and there were no parents in tow, so they were either situated, being tortured or were dead.
Ty just looked at the Greater Demon and gave a nod as he washed his hands and face in the sink. He would have fed Skalla too, but she'd been hidden away someplace the whole time. True, he could have called for her, but there hadn't been a reason to, and really, he sort of wanted to be alone.
Now it was time to let go of that feeling. Like Allison had mentioned to him. He had the power to control how he felt, so he probably should, most of the time. Getting lazy that way would leave him at a disadvantage.
"So, is that taken care of? By which I mean, they're all moved to their new location and not being harmed?" He wanted to hold his breath, since he had a sneaking feeling that Zack was going to tell him the truth, no matter what it was.
"Yeah. I got them a little cottage by a beach. In a place so far away they won't ever be back. There are people there. Nice ones that are hard working and who don't even know what a Greater Demon is. Life should be easy for them. Good, I hope. I know, I probably should have punished them, but like I said, I think they had enough of that, over the years. They were stupid and greedy for power, but that's what, half of everyone, ever?"
"Something like that. A real point too. So, we should get Skalla and go to Toronto. You can get her back right? I still have a few trips..."
"That works. So, the final showdown with the boss feminist. Have any plans for her? Use some of that speed you've been working on? Maybe a death blast?"
He shrugged.
"Honestly, I was thinking of going in with Skalla and Eve behind me and suggesting that not goading Vampires is a good idea. I... Do you think that someone is behind this? First they went after the Alede, and then Vampires? That doesn't make sense does it?" Things were trying to fall into place, in his head, the conceptual awareness still in full force, but he was missing too much for that.
"Not really. It's part of Human nature to fear the unknown, and these are people that have had actual lessons that told them they were oppressed, even if they can't see it firsthand. So when Vampires and Shifters and all that came into being, suddenl
y being shown to everyone as far as the women's groups were concerned. It was easy to lump them in with the secret cabal that runs the world in their theory. The Patriarchy. Blaming Vampires is at least a bit closer than going after the men that have to do their bidding and are being pushed around by them all the time. So, no. This is all them. They aren't being manipulated from outside, just within. That's a guess though, so I wouldn't let my guard down if it were me."
He thought for a few seconds and nodded.
"Those cult people? It's probably close to the same for them, isn't it?"
"Right, except that they were always kind of battling the darkness, so it made sense to them that they had to protect the young from evil. The sad part is that their leadership didn't even mean any harm. They really wanted to help. It was just that fanatics make poor Human beings in general, no matter what their beliefs. Life is almost never what the people on the fringe imagine it to be. It doesn't matter which edge they're on."
Which was all sensible, and a thing to keep in mind if he felt annoyed shortly. That was nearly certain to happen, so he tried to hold a nice calming concept.
"So, we should get Skalla and go to our doom?"
That got a nod, the Greater Demon seeming normal, even after watching his parents die and come back to life earlier. Then, Tyler was being the same way. It meant a lot, really. They were both probably shutting down how they really felt at the moment.
It was a super-power too, after all, and made sense to use. Allison had told him that, and so far she hadn't abused him too much.
The large woman lumbered down the stairs when called. Which, he realized, wasn't technically true. She moved quickly, but with no more noise than he would have made doing the same thing. Scotty was at the top of the stairs, but didn't volunteer to come with them. It was the sensible move, since battling with ideologues wasn't a thing anyone should try to do on purpose if they didn't have a stake in the game.
Zack smiled at the lady and walked toward the big wooden front door. Ty followed along, having done that drill before. After they were outside, he closed the door, and Zack walked a bit away from the place.
"I'm going to open a node here, directly to the meeting site. Eve and Bey will be there shortly, I think. At about seven-thirty. As soon as they do that, we'll go in as well. It will look a bit like we all appeared by magic." He grinned, and waved his hand, making a purple glowing disk appear in otherwise thin air.
Since there wasn't a lot else to do, Ty tried to analyze what had just happened, based on the concepts that hit him. They were gentle things, but warped the world a bit. Like time being distorted, but different.
"Bent space? That... It's subtle but it shouldn't take that much power to do." He muttered this out loud, and instead of correct him, or call him stupid, Zack seemed happy.
"No doubt, right? It takes a lot of practice, but not power. Most people don't want to bother with subtlety, so they hurl vast amounts of death or magic at things. Life energy, more or less. To open this took me about what you using magic for that one punch did earlier. Even at that, I'm being lazy. I need to get better at things like this. Really, with magic in general. Here, I'll make a little dent in space, try to get a sense of it, and then copy the pattern in your head. Don't use any power for it. Just make the idea work for you. Like you have been."
He got the idea, and even though he tried for about half an hour, very little happened. The thing there was that a tiny bit did, which got The Line Walker to clap.
"Awesome. There are Greater Demons that couldn't have done that without using magic. If you keep working on that you'll eventually be able to make holes in space. It isn't line walking, and will probably take you a long time, but if you ever end up trapped somewhere again, you might be able to just walk out. Once you get good at it, I mean." He tilted his head a bit and looked at Skalla. "See, this is why I should try to teach more often. I could have done that too, but never even considered it before right now. I even knew it was possible, but hadn't thought about it."
The large woman gave the much smaller being a cold look. Her words didn't match that however. Those were conversational enough.
"Ho. That is so. The best warriors are those that teach and fight. Those that show what they have learned, but do not use, tend to do so poorly. Those with skill and the will to teach excel, often." It was said nearly like it was a cultural truism, rather than a simple statement made by one person.
Zack looked at the purple disk and waved at it.
"There they are. We should go through. I don't see an attack taking place. Who's going first?" He looked at Ty, but Skalla moved to the front, her hand reaching to her back, the leather of her outfit creaking a bit as she held the handle of her blade over her shoulder. The thing was curved and had edges in places.
"I am the shield. That is my duty, to make up for the grave insult my people gave to Gartner, of the Nations. If I must die, or kill, to make that right, I will, with a glad heart."
Tyler smiled, since it was nice to have back-up.
"We shouldn't have to even hurt anyone. If they start to attack, you get to slap them down. Be gentle. I... Well, I think you'll see. A big part of this is going to probably be protecting these women from getting themselves into trouble. If I ask you to stop though, please try. I won't unless things are about to go really wrong."
That got a blank look from the giantess, who had he realized, piercing brown eyes below her heavy eyebrows.
"Ho, Gartner. That is the plan." Then she stepped into the light like she'd done it before.
He went next, Zack gesturing for him to do it, and the Greater Demon moving in right behind him. The space was silent at first, being an auditorium. One with two sides arrayed in it.
At the front were about twenty Vampires, many of whom were armed, with sticks and knives. In front of them Eve and Bey stood, along with a man who looked to be about forty. He was in charge, clearly, since he had a suit and tie on. After a few seconds Ty realized that Jonas was right there too, standing directly behind the Vampire he hadn't met. Not in person.
He was going to guess that the man that he'd seen often enough on television, was Richard Swerlin. A government official, if from the wrong country, and internationally famous. For being dead. Like Ty himself was. Well, except a Vampire, and Tyler wasn't actually famous. So, they didn't have much in common. They had talked on the phone before, however.
On the other side of the room, in the seats, clearly having set up first, and without an eye to the fight that looked to be about ready to happen, were about seventy young men and women. Near the front were a few older ladies. They weren't all heavyset, but none of them had makeup on. Eve, and it looked like all of the other Vampire women there, did. It made for a stark contrast, even if about half the college age girls on the feminist side probably would have been about as pretty as most of the Vampires, if they'd bothered to try. A few were even nearly at the level Eve was.
They were already chanting at the Vampires, though it didn't make a lot of sense.
"This is what patriarchy looks like!" It was repeated over and over again. A few of them started to surge forward a bit, but they were trapped by the rows of chairs.
Then, shocking him a bit, Skalla pulled her blade and screamed. It was a blood curdling bellow that made him feel just a bit like wetting himself, standing right there like he was. He nearly let a nervous smile come to his lips, but didn't, not wanting to start out seeming weak.
It didn't stop the chanting. They should have stopped the chanting however. The Vampires all looked at the giant woman respectfully, with Richard Swerlin actually bowing to her, from across the room. Bey gave a deep head nod and gestured politely, and Eve smiled and waved.
"Zack, Tyler! Over here! We were just about to start the negotiations."
He started over, as did Zack, but Skalla walked up to the front of the line of chanting people, picked out the largest woman there and slapped her to the ground. That got three men to yell and move to grab a
t Skalla, who smiled and did the same to them.
"Ho! Heed my words and survive this day! Fail and die. For there is no third path! I am Skalla, of The People. You call us Amazons. I have been brought to save you from your foolish ways. You seek a battle here that you cannot win. Hark! Before you stands an army of the dead! The weakest of their people can kill you all, and they stand ready! Now, to silence, and explain. Why did you come here to die? That is the line of the fool!" She was loud, but there was still murmuring about her having hit a few people. She answered that one by calling for silence again.
At least that was how Ty decided to take it. She slapped people until there was no more than a soft moaning and an attempt by some to rush the doors. That didn't work too well, since several of the Vampires from the back scurried around and locked them all first, then stood guard and pushed them back into a slightly mewling group. It was really funny, since the women were suddenly all very cowed, and were hiding behind the slightly effeminate looking men in the group. Not that there was anything wrong with looking that way. It was just that they all did, which was kind of rare. Most groups of men were more manly, in general.
Tyler knew that he probably seemed like that too. It just didn't seem like they were going to be up to fighting Skalla, really, even though they stood up for their women fairly bravely. The thing there was that the women, when the chips were down, all let them do it. Except for one, who was heavyset, red haired, and had a very shrill voice.
"You can't do this. We have rights! This is what Patriarchy looks like!" She jumped forward, and made exactly the wrong move, trying to slap at Bey.
Tyler could see why he was chosen, really. He was smaller than the woman in question, and was smiling gently. It was a peaceable looking thing, which probably marked him as being someone that wouldn't hit back, to her mind. That wasn't the case, which got all the other Vampires to look scared suddenly. Even Swerlin, who was a Master Vamp himself. No one moved as the bright red haired larger lady, who was youthful, and screaming some slogan that was hard to understand, went for the tiny, hapless seeming man.
