Troy Ounce (Lopez Time Book 1)

by Phillip S. Power

  She made a face.

  “Great. So now I have to feel bad every time I get the vibrator out.” She didn’t seem to be repentant. Then, as far as he could tell, that wasn’t a big thing in her life.

  “Not really. Like I said, I hear nothing. I see nothing. Nothing, I say!” He grinned at the end, making it a joke.

  Gesturing at the black hefty bag, she wrinkled her nose.

  “Dead animals on the steps though? That’s… Not great. You called the police though, so they’ll… probably ignore it all and then do nothing. I’ll try to keep an eye out for you? Not that I can do anything if you get attacked. What should we…”

  Troy pulled a Tran and faked a snort.

  “The new Supernatural Division will be handling it. The police are working on this kind of thing now. Which is my job. There. Now I’m not just the scary dead, but a freaking police officer too. You noticed that though, right? You’ve seen the uniform a few times at least.” He knew that one. It was probably why they hadn’t chatted before. The woman did seem to enjoy breaking the law on occasion.

  Which was fine with him. As long as she didn’t do anything bad enough for him to have to notice.

  “I did, now that you mention it. Do you think that your special cop privileges will mean they find someone?”

  He shrugged.

  “Honestly? If it was just this, then no. It’s hard to find people that do one thing and don’t get caught. If they do a lot of it, that might make a difference. Even if they’re bugging me personally, that doesn’t make them easier to find. Still, that’s the job, right?” He stopped then tilted his head a bit. “Troy Lopez, by the way. Vampire, cop, normally a snappy dresser. Let me get you one of my cards? I mean, you already know that you can trust me, so we might as well be friends, right?”

  “I know that? How?”

  “Well, I’ve ignored all those things that you’ve been doing, so we’re practically pals already. You didn’t out me as being dead either. At least no more than anyone would have done. No burning crosses on the lawn or anything. Unless this is related?” It wasn’t. He darted inside, taking the bucket, but not the bag, and came out with a card before she could escape. “It has my cell on it, in case you need anything personal.”

  He stopped, then rolled his eyes.

  “That one came out wrong. I just meant non-police things. You know, you want me to get the next round of dead chickens off my porch or whatever?” The last date he’d had hadn’t worked out to well. Enough so he wasn’t planning on doing it again for a bit.

  Not that Katherine was his type. For one thing, she was the kind who lived next to a cop she didn't know and still rather obviously smoked pot. That was a bit stupid, for his blood. Then, not everyone was Mensa material. He wasn’t, so couldn’t throw stones that way.

  Handing the slip of card over, he smiled.

  “Anyway, don’t be a stranger. Oh… We have a picnic in a few weeks. The force? I expect you to come. It’s to show support for the supernatural community. Since you’re clearly not a bigot that way, do your part and be there. I’ll bring you a flyer when we have the dates and all that?”

  “Right. Like I go outside. Sure, though. Why not? Maybe I can meet some cool people. Have a free burger.” She said it like that wouldn’t be part of the whole thing.

  “Tyler Gartner is going to be there. I’m asking Steve York and Rebekah as well. If they come, we should have Scott Laird, their drummer.”

  “No way! Living Proof is coming? Maybe at least? That’s wild. Are they playing? I have both their albums. Can you introduce me to Steve? He’s a dream, isn’t he?” She sighed, then giggled, playing her fan girl moment off. “Not that you know them like that. Why would you?”

  That was back to the discussion he’d had earlier with Denise. The supernatural world was big enough, but the important people numbered in a few thousand. If you knew one or two of them, you tended to meet a lot of the others.

  “I’m really cool, that’s why. Speaking of which, I need to go and call Steve about something totally unrelated to this. Work stuff. He should be around. He takes shifts at the New Mexico vampire embassy. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll mention that you were asking after him.” It couldn’t hurt. Katherine wasn’t exactly young or stunning, but she was nice enough seeming. Average in looks, but that was most people, more or less. Really, if she lost twenty pounds she’d probably be above that, once he adjusted for age.

  He was waved away, since to the woman standing there, he was clearly teasing.

  “I need to toss the bird bodies first. Talk to you soon.” That could have sounded foreboding, but he had just kind of announced that he was going to give her a pass on anything short of murder or bothering him too much. Which was true. She lived at his apartment complex, after all. That meant he owned her.

  It wasn’t sane by human rules but the feeling of it was there, burning at the back of his mind. For a moment, he felt a bit jealous that she was interested in Steve York, instead of him. That was set aside though, since it wasn’t real in any way. Not yet at least.

  Jogging down the sturdy concrete steps he headed to the dumpster. There was no sign of the neighbor when he got back, so he headed inside. Then he washed carefully and changed into another pair of jeans, his other running shoes and a clean shirt. Handling dead things left a scent, after all. Even if you were careful. Even being one, the odor could linger.

  At about ten, sitting on his sofa, he dialed Steve York.

  The phone at the New Mexico embassy picked up instantly.

  “Yoghurt World, this is Steven, how may I aid you this evening?” He sounded professional and attentive. Also, a bit like he was at a fast food place that made frosty treats. Which he was. The embassies had been hidden from humans for a long time. That meant they still had a real cover operation going there. Not all of them did that but the most common one for mall locations was as Yoghurt Worlds. The franchise was wholly owned by their people. Most of them were at travel node locations, which was potentially handy to Troy, since he could actually use the things.

  “Hey Steve. This is Troy Lopez? Bey gave me some information about the missing people you uncovered? I’m calling in my official capacity as law enforcement to check up on that. We’ve passed the data to the locals down there, but they might or might not follow up on it, so you get me. Yay! We did our part. At least to start with.”

  There was a moment where nothing happened.

  “Good. At least someone is on it. I’ve got a bit more, if you want to know about it? It involves some mages…”

  That sounded kind of interesting, actually.

  “Does it involve chickens by any chance?”

  There was a laugh then.

  “You know, oddly enough, it does. How did you know?”

  It wasn’t a long story, but neither of them laughed about it when it was done, so at least there was that.

  Chapter seven

  Steve was a state away and didn’t really need for Troy to run and hold his hand before sharing the information that he’d gotten. Thankfully. If he were using his line walking skills, that trip would have taken him about an hour. It would be five if he ran, with five coming back. Sure, he could sneak off and use clever tricks to prevent his abilities from being seen too easily, but not using them made the most sense, if hiding was the plan of the year.

  Steve knew that. He could have made a similar trip, on foot being about as quick that way. A little less, but using that kind of speed for a long time wasn’t much fun, so they both agreed that not doing that kind of annoying thing was the best option for the time being.

  Plus, the actual data was interesting but not that directly important.

  “Okay. I reported in with the info on the missing people from the area about three days ago. I figured that being an important lackey and yogurt slinger here at the embassy, I should follow up on that. I have some contacts with the mages… You know, I used to work at Candles and More? So, I called Lisa Weise, who had a lin
e on something from her father. His information mentioned that there was some blood magic being used in the area. Mainly with poultry. High level stuff, too.”

  Troy could see that, if it was similar.

  “Circles with six chickens and a hand print left over?”

  “I’m not sure on the print, but the first bit is right. Anyway, what no one knows yet is what the plan is with the energy. About one in four of the people that have gone missing have had those, that we’ve found.”

  Which didn’t sound that much like the government doing it to his way of thinking. Not even some side branch that was going rogue again.

  “Got it. Well, we’ve had two of those happen here. One was me, tonight, and earlier today someone did that on The Technician’s doorstep. It didn’t make a lot of sense. I was kind of set up, I think.” That led into the woeful tale of being stood up.

  Steve just made a low sound.

  “I don’t know. Let me run the description past the mages? They can hide what they look like, if they have enough time. People forget how powerful they really are, because they have to plan and tend to be a bit slow when it comes to a fight. That doesn’t stop them from being able to do almost anything. Especially if they’re good. From what Eric said, these people, whoever they are, are nearly top notch that way. Be careful. It would make me feel bad if you went missing.”

  There should have been more than that, since they weren’t exactly best friends or anything. They’d been in vampire training together for a while, but it wasn’t like they’d hung out a lot. They ran in different circles that way, really.

  “Oh, right… Tyler and the police here are holding a picnic in a few weeks. My neighbor wants to know if you’re going to be playing it? Also, clearly, you’re invited even if you don’t want to do that. On top of that, I’m nearly certain she’s willing to put out, if you show up. Just for you. At least the others weren’t mentioned as being dreamy.” There was a bit of teasing to the whole thing, but it was also the truth.

  The musician, who played guitar Troy thought, made a soft sound.

  “You know… sure? Let me get with everyone else. We aren’t touring for a bit, since it was thought that I’d be raving around like a goon for the next ten years, but we do have some new material and a record coming in the fall. That’s in the can already, so it would be good to do a bit of promotion. Tyler’s in on the event? What’s the theme? Or is it just a party?”

  Troy smiled, even if he didn’t really feel it, totally.

  “Coming together as a community. You know, supernatural peeps like us, the police, regular humans. The whole thing.”

  “Hence Tyler being involved. Got it. Let me get the time off for that. I take it that it will be at high noon, just so that it will suck for us more?”

  That got a laugh.

  “Well, it is a picnic. I should see about that though. Maybe have it go from five to two in the morning or something, so that everyone can come out? Good thinking. I’ll blame that idea on you, when the Chief is complaining about how much it’s going to cost to have security for it.”

  “That sounds like a plan, then. I don’t even know the guy.”

  Troy snickered a bit.

  “Eve’s dad. You know her.”

  That got a sigh.

  “I do. You know, for half a second I forgot that you’re working in Lincoln. My old home town. Well, I’m kind of stuck then, aren’t I? My parents will be there too, which really puts a crimp in picking up the groupies. Oh, well, that’s the life of the rich, famous and dead.”

  “Cool. Make sure you get everyone you can onboard with this. If we can mention that a few famous people are coming that will get the numbers up a bit. Maybe up to… I don’t know, if Living Proof comes, that gets Katherine, my neighbor, me, the Chief and his wife. Tran, my partner, maybe her daughter… A few local Shifters… Loads of people.”

  It sounded kind of weak and small really, but Steve forced a deep breath so it could be heard.

  “Right. Except that just advertising that we’re coming will get you a few thousand. Possibly even if you just offered free food and live music. People are getting over being so scared of us, I think. It’s been a few years after all.”

  That was just the truth. No one that he’d talked to in the last few days had even held up a cross at him or anything. It really had happened a few times, so it was a good sign.

  There was a noise from the phone then.

  “Heh, people coming. I need to get back to my real job. Thanks for the call. Keep up with me, if you get a chance? I just call you if I find anything new like this?”

  “Sounds good. Me or Denise Tran. Let me…” He had the number memorized, and gave it fast, knowing that Steve would be able to write it down if he wanted it.

  Then, after the phone clicked, he glanced at the clock, debating if it was too late to call anyone else. For the Vampires, the answer was just no. The same was true for The Technician. Greater demons didn’t sleep unless they wanted to. Most of the time they didn’t. Avery was possibly still up, but it was a school night for her.

  Not thinking about it, he dialed the number for Yoghurt World. The Westfield one. Ed wouldn’t be there given the time of day, but whoever was could tell him where he needed to call.

  Which was a mistake, of course.

  Without him being there, the staff was down to three people. Edom Freeman, the ambassador. Eve Benson, who worked the front and was the Bey’s protégé, and Barbara Fines. The Assistant Ambassador. Who, with Eve gone at the moment, answered the phone.

  “Yoghurt World Westfield, this is Barb, how can I help you?”

  He wanted to be silent and hang up, but that was a bit too juvenile for him. He was too old for that kind of thing, after all. He had been for, oh, months. At the very least.

  “Hi, Barb. This is Troy. I was calling to see if I could find Ed. We have a thing here in a few weeks. A public gathering, to show solidarity between the human community, the police and the other groups. I’m going to see if Avery wants to come but figured getting her adoptive father to soften her up on the idea wouldn’t hurt anything.”

  There was no sound for a bit, then instead of a growl, his ex-girlfriend, sighed.

  “That’s actually a good idea. I suppose you secretly want me to come as well? Except that if you ask Edom, then I’ll be needed here. Well, unless Eve gets back from stopping the latest war or whatever she’s doing.” It was getting a little awkward, but she kept speaking anyway. Probably not knowing what to do. “So, how are you doing? Bey said that you graduated top of your class and were doing well on the force? That’s different. Not that you wouldn’t do well at it, but that… You know, I think I used to be better at things like this. Then, maybe not. No one has ever become a police officer to get away from me before.”

  The words were blank. That was what vampires did right before they became really dangerous. Or what they did if they figured you were going to go off the rails at them and start something.

  Worse, that was pretty close to what actually happened.

  “Things are doing all right here. The new unit started. So far, we’re doing well. We’ve had two whole days to prove we’re worth having around. We’ve busted the heck out of the local graffiti artist and have an interesting new case that involves dead chickens and circles of blood. It could be worse.”

  “That’s something then. I’ll leave a message for Ed. He’s actually coming in here at midnight, so I can get over to the clubs before they close. The books won’t do themselves, after all. Which means I need to be around to make sure they get done correctly, or people will rip us off. Dance club managers aren’t always known for being… Um, savory.”

  There was that. Not that he hadn’t taken a turn doing that himself. Then, so had Barb, so if it was a backhanded slap, she was just as likely to be hit as he was.

  “Problems that way? I haven’t kept up with who was being put in place. I’m kind of shocked it wasn’t Eve, really.”

  “E
xcept that she’s gone half the time anymore. A certain someone hasn’t been doing his share of the line walking and I still suck at it, so The Snowflake has been in and out so much that Avery has taken to reporting in to me each day. As if I wouldn’t tell her to do all the fun stuff, instead of what a responsible adult would do?” There was dead air, after that.

  Because by all rights a real fight should have broken out then. She was clearly saying that his not being there was making problems. Except that, if it really was, then Bey would just tell him to sneak over at night and do his work. He had the time for it, after all.

  “Yeah. This current project is making some issues for other people. I might have to drop it, but I want to give it a fair shake, first. What we do here might actually affect things later. For other people.” That was true enough. It had always been part of what his plans were. If it didn’t work, he could just do the next thing. Whatever that was.

  Probably moving people around to other realities.

  “Sorry. I’m actually not trying to be bitchy. Believe it or not, my clever plan is to get you to see how not controlling and bossy I am. Then you’ll rush back to my arms and I won’t be alone all the time.”

  She sounded sad, which got him to snort.

  “Oh, right, like the hot brunette woman is going to have trouble finding the next guy? You probably get asked out twice a day. I bet they don’t even do it just to stand you up, either.”

  “Hmm? No, I really don’t. It’s the whole being a vampire thing. People know, so a lot of guys have stopped asking. Now, someone stood up the mighty Troy? That sounds lame.”

  “Worse, they seem to have done it so they could do some kind of magical ritual on my doorstep. With a circle of bloody, dead chickens. I would have thought it was a present, but no, apparently it’s an actual thing.”

  Instead of going into the wicked bird murderers, his ex seemed oddly happy.

  “Good. That you aren’t seeing anyone. It will make my clever plans easier. So, we’re meeting up at this picnic? I can be there…”

  She was teasing, but he really did miss her. They’d broken up for a reason but it wasn’t that she was bad, or even boring. Worse, he loved her. The thing was, they were both vampires and really, they were going to be in charge. Both of them. Constantly. Which in the end would have one of them killing the other, if they couldn’t prove they were so powerful that they were the one that needed to be in command.