Then, in an entertaining fashion, he covered loading, aiming, where the safety was and all that. Things that Troy already knew. It never hurt to have a refresher, so he just listened and paid attention. It was harder to do that it seemed, since he was on fire, or felt like it.
Focusing, he used a bit of magic to try and make that fade. It was hard, but after a few minutes, he really had it. The agony was gone to a level that made him nearly let go of what he was doing. That got him to smile. It wasn’t simple or easy, but he was making the day much more pleasurable. All he had to ignore on his own was the hunger.
After ten minutes of instruction, ten more minutes, L.J. decided they could move into shooting. He waved to Troy, watching him the whole time.
“If you’d run over the course you want us to shoot first?”
He grinned, feeling good, given the time of day.
“The rumor is that most gun fights take place between zero and twenty-one feet. We need to work out to about fifty at least, since most doesn’t mean all, obviously. I was thinking we’d do ten rounds at three meters, to get used to it, then work out from there.” It was a bit expensive, burning rounds at that close of a distance, but it would let the new people get a feeling for things without missing a lot.
Krista and Judy weren’t great at it. As they went on and got further away, the best shooters turned out to be himself, Avery and interestingly enough Jainy. Tran and Santos did all right, but they needed to polish up a bit, in his estimation.
Then, he was hitting dime groups at twenty-five meters, which had Jainy glaring at him a bit. Her hair was red, but in a natural seeming color. Her face had several piercings and there was a blue streak on the right side of her head. Her hair was about collar length, but not butch seeming really. Her heavy glasses glinted in the sun, as she made a tight face.
“You’re good. That’s annoying. I normally get to be the one winning these things.”
He winked at her, hoping it was good natured seeming.
“It’s a hobby. The being dead part of things doesn’t hurt, either. You’re matching up with Avery though, which is good. She’s a pro.”
The dragon nodded.
“You beat my scores on the last two distances. How are you with rifles?”
That turned out to be interesting. Jainy was better with them than Troy, by a good bit. Not as good as Avery at the longer distances, but everyone else was really impressed with her. Tran grunted about it.
“I should practice a bit more. Things get in the way. Let’s go back and run the handgun section again?”
They had the ammo for it. Brought in by Avery, so it didn't even cost them anything. L.J. had been helping Judy and Krista. Jainy took over doing that on the second round of things, and got them both to improve a lot. Enough that Troy thought that Krista Hall might be able to pass the police qualification already. Judy wasn’t that far off. Sure, that wasn’t a hard test to beat, but a lot of police had to go over it more than once each time they had to shoot, in order to get a high enough score.
Tran actually nailed it, each time. She might not have been as good as Troy, but she hit the target, if not exactly where she wanted. Santos missed a few times. She didn’t even seem embarrassed about it. Jainy though was dead center, holding to tight groups, the entire time.
He wanted to ask why that was but it could be a private thing. She worked at the local college in admin, so it wasn’t that her day job was as a shooting instructor or anything like that. It could have been a family tradition, or it might have been that she’d had something happen in her life that required her to become a good fighter. A lot of vampires actually had that going on in their human lives.
Eve was like that, he knew.
Hearing the story of her early life had nearly caused him to drive to Arizona to kill some people. That had been when he’d been a regular guy, too. Only the fact that it had already been handled had gotten him to calm down. Not everyone had a supernatural protection option, though. So, if Jainy Santos was like that, it made sense for her to learn to use weapons well.
In all they spent about three hours shooting. Kait and Judy both seemed a bit too happy to be leaving at the end, but that was probably down to their hearing. They were Alede, which meant they could hear things he couldn’t. Gun shots were hard to block out for him, but possible. He wasn’t certain they could, even with ear plugs and muffs over that.
The thing there was that, after going back to the station, where they’d met, Judy and Kait hugged everyone and Avery started to take people away. Except Krista who waved at him a bit. It was dorky seeming. Not confident or smooth. It was very Becky like, from what he recalled. Even if she’d become kind of hot, somehow, over the years. She’d been cute but chunky, to start with. Now she was just… Perfect for Hollywood.
“Um… I was wondering if I could spend the night with you? My mom lives in the area. We aren’t that close but I should visit her, if I’m in town. Is that… I don’t really know you that well.” It was clear that asking a strange vampire for a bed was more comfortable than staying with her own mother, however. That was a bit strange. Troy was actually decently close to his parents, for all that he hadn’t seen them in... Honestly, he couldn’t remember when he’d even last talked to them. He knew they were close though. Even his little brother.
Troy needed to call him up and chat, soon. The idea just stopped, inside his mind. He had other things to do, after all.
“Sure? I don’t think that Ann is staying the night. Eve might… Do you know her?” It was strange, but he hadn’t really seen them together or anything.
“Eve Benson? She’s one of my best friends from high school. That could be fun. She’s a vampire now.”
Troy faked a blink then.
“I know… Um… I am too. You knew that right? I wasn’t the last time we met.”
“Oh, sure. I mean, I can kind of tell now. I have a bit of practice. I actually play one on television. Avery told us, too, just in case. It’s just that… You know, I don’t know everyone in the television industry or anything. It seems off to assume that all Vampires would know each other.”
“Which is true. I do know Eve, though. We used to date, back before we died. Actually, we lived together for a few years. So, sure, you can stay with me.”
That was a good thing to decide, it seemed like, since when Avery came back, she had a single travel bag, which was handed to the thirty-odd year-old woman.
He smiled.
“That’s confident, isn’t it? What if I’d said no?”
The actress shrugged.
“I can stay with my friend Darla? She lives in the area. It’s just that you’re here right now, to ask.”
He checked for a link then. It kind of made sense that Becky would be a slave, given her meteoric rise in the acting world. Sure enough, one ran from the woman, off into the distance. Just like it had with Karen and Chief Benson.
The woman was, without a doubt, a slave of The Technician.
Chapter fifteen
“You have got to be kidding me. You live here?” The doubt was palpable in the actress’s voice.
Troy hadn’t really thought about it before that moment. The place wasn’t high end but they were driving there in a twenty-year old car that was in ugly colors. That he might not live in a mansion seemed to fit with that.
“Yes. It works, on a cop’s salary. We could set you up someplace nicer?”
There was a moment where the actress rolled her eyes, then she made a tight sound that was a bit annoyed.
“Nope. I’m not going for that one. I try not to be a bitch like that, thanks. Most days. It’s that… This is the apartment complex my mother lives in. Where I grew up? What are the odds of that happening?”
Given all the greater demons around, it was better than average. That didn't mean it was important as a factor at all.
“Well, I have no clue. One in twenty or so? There are only so many places to live here if you aren’t going to be in a trail
er park or a house.” That was probably close. He didn’t know how many complexes there were in the city, but it was a finite number.
“Right. Well…” She started up the stairs, heading to his apartment, as if she knew where it was. When she was nearly there she overshot by one and knocked on Katherine’s door. Troy didn’t point at his, since the lady was moving around inside and actually came over. She looked about the same, being a bit plump and a little wrinkled around the edges. When she got there and the white thing opened, the woman stopped.
“Becky? Hi!” They hugged then, which was telling. Even Troy worked that one out. His drunken and drugged neighbor was Krista Hall’s mother.
“Mom. I was in town, so figured that I’d stop in and see if you were still alive. I’m staying with my pal, Troy.”
That got a grin from the older woman.
“Oh? He’s pretty sweet. A vampire though. You knew that, right?”
Troy nodded.
“Yeah. She plays one on television, so kind of nailed that one right down instantly. Anyway, I’ve lined up Steve York for the picnic. You asked after him, so I made a point of letting him know he was expected. For real, by the way. So, plan on meeting him.”
The woman didn’t seem embarrassed by that part of things at all.
She giggled instead.
“Come in? I was planning to go out tonight. You can come with me. We can pick up guys. You aren’t seeing anyone, are you?” She glanced at Troy for some reason. It wasn’t about him being the lucky guy, either.
No, it was more like she expected him to have a big issue over his new girl pal getting some on the side. How he could tell that, he didn’t know. Except he kind of did. The woman was projecting it at them both, really hard. It was more than a little bit obvious, really.
Krista looked bemused, rather than being dangerously tempted by the partying her mother wanted to get to. In fact, her face was a bit annoyed seeming. As if the idea of her mother not being more adult was a long-term issue for her.
“Nope. I’m good here. Zack got me hooked up with Troy. They used to be roommates.”
Katherine gave her girl a very funny look then.
“Zack? I don’t know him. Do I?”
That he’d had anything in particular to do with Krista talking to Troy was a bit strange. At first. Given that he lived directly next to her mother wasn’t the kind of thing that a greater demon would have missed. It wasn’t mentioned, either, so… Really, that meant Zack was likely involved in the whole thing, from the very start. It was the kind of things that happened around his kind. They often set things in motion that weren’t harmful, but that didn’t make a lot of direct sense to regular people.
Even vampires didn’t go in for the complex plotting and planning that demons played around with for fun.
“I’m one door over? I can take your bag, if you want?” He was just doing his best to be a good host. Sure, the actress was pretty enough to be interesting. She would have been, at one time at least. More than enough to catch his attention. At the moment she was, more or less, just a burden. One that Zack seemed to want him to have for some reason. That was a thing to question, directly.
In the meantime, he could just be polite and nice about it.
The bag was passed over. Krista’s look was a bit resigned.
“Thanks. I’ll be over in a bit? I really appreciate the help here.” That sounded right but the woman played make believe for a living.
Then, in a lot of ways, so did Troy. He decided to take her at her word for the time being. Though, after she vanished into the other apartment and he was back to his, he pulled his phone out. There were limits after all. It was one thing for his old buddy to send a cute woman at him. There could even be a hundred different reasons, for it. Like Zack thinking Troy was lonely, or really wanting to keep Katherine and Becky apart most of the time to prevent bloodshed.
It might even be about protecting her from harm. For that matter, it could be the other way around. Sure, he couldn’t imagine what Krista Hall would be able to handle that he couldn’t, but that might be the whole point. That she had abilities that he didn’t. Like being able to get in touch with news people, or be believed if she told a story.
That was harder for him.
Tapping the right name into being, he pressed send, actually expecting his friend to not answer. That or to be shy about the whole thing and pretend he didn’t get why a call was coming in.
Instead it was answered in a very different fashion.
“Hi, Troy. No, I didn’t set it up so that you’d be living right next to her mom. I did suggest she stay with you. You should get her into bed, even if it won’t do much for you. How often is she going to get a shot with someone like you, right? Anyway, Darla didn’t set that up either, but a greater demon did. You need to look into that. If it wasn’t me, or Darla…” The tone was leading.
That wasn’t being done on accident.
Troy knew that he was supposed to guess that it was Ann. She’d been around and taken enough interest in his life that it really might have been her. The most likely person was Darla, though. Her slave’s mother living next door was a sign of something. Except that if she cared that much, then Katherine would probably be linked to her as well. That the woman wasn’t just screamed out to the world. The lady didn’t have a steady job, doing just enough temp work to keep her fed and housed while she went out several nights a week to have fun.
If she were tied to The Technician, then her idea of fun would probably involve an actual career of some kind. Darla, or Alison, as the case may be, was all about the hard work. Most of the greater demons that he’d met really were. Zack, Darla… Keeley… Ann… Finias. The Mind Taker.
The being that used to own his soul, as more than just a turn of phrase.
“Does Finias know Krista or her mother at all?”
Zack laughed, instantly.
“You know, I think he used to work with Krista, back when she had a job with Cortechs. He’s met her mother as well. That’s an interesting place to jump to. Very much so. Much better than some other options.”
Rolling his eyes, Troy stopped doing anything for about ten seconds.
“You know, I could do without the demon games. You’re my friend, but act like it, will you?”
“Understood. Let me… I was kind of told not to be too direct about this. You worked it out with only a little hand holding, so that should count. That was Darla, by the way, who suggested that. Not Finias. Here, let me get you his number. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you. I mean that. He thinks of you as a second grandson, practically.”
“Well, I was the best slave ever. I didn’t even know it had happened, which had to have made it better for him.” Except that, he knew, on a very deep level that it wasn’t right.
Oh, he’d been a great slave. Perfect for the job, actually. There was just something else there, inside of him. He’d never been under the control of the demon. That… Everyone had told him he was, though. It was probably him being delusional, thinking that kind of thing.
There was a number passed then, which he forced himself to commit to memory. It was tempting to find a reason to chat with Zack but the greater demon pulled a fake out and pretended that someone wanted to talk to him. Except that there was no one there. Troy would have heard them breathing, or at least moving, even over the phone.
That left him standing there, in front of his sofa. Debating how much he needed to know about the situation at hand. Rather than do the sane, grown up, thing and put the phone away, he dialed it. Knowing that he was calling a being that had kept him totally enslaved for over a decade. At least he was supposed to act like that had been the case.
This time the device picked up, but nothing was said, forcing him to go first.
“Mind Taker?”
“Indeed. Troy. So nice to hear from you! Is all well there? Is there an emergency? I can come… Call it ten minutes? Sooner if you need help.”
The words really
were different than he would have figured. Probably because they were meant to cause him to feel good about the being. Like the guy was there for him, if anything came up. It wasn’t a bad manipulation, really. He filed it away, in case he needed to use that kind of thing himself, later.
“Nothing like that. I was wondering if you set things up for me to live here, to be next to Krista Hall’s mother, for some reason? Also, if so, why? Am I supposed to be doing something in particular? I can be of far more use to you if I’m clued into what’s going on.”
That was, he hoped, not too accusatory. He had to wait for a moment, but the feeling of someone coming toward him, from across town, started then. The sense of things ended on his doorstep, so he had that opened as the man stepped out of the lines. There was a flash of silver as it happened. Wasted power, that didn’t need to be thrown around like that.
Giving the man a dry look, he tried to seem bemused. The fellow looked young. About forty, if that old at all. His hair was dark and neatly combed. His face was a bit too good looking for a man in a business suit. Like he was a photographic model playing the role, instead of actually just having that kind of job.
Troy nodded.
“Ten minutes?”
For once the question actually seemed to work, taking the being off guard. For half a second. Then he rallied.
“Certainly. I’d need to gather some gear, if it was that important. Given that we’re in The Technician’s area, that would almost certainly mean she was in danger, or that we were fighting her. Either way, you prep for the fight or you lose. Now, if you just want to dress me down for meddling in your life… Well, that I can be around for faster. Should we go in? Dan Carmichael is avoiding Kathy Hoader. We used to date. Not for fun, either. Just to keep an eye out for Becky’s mother. A promising woman, Becky.”
The man was waved in. That he came along so quickly was interesting. Especially if he didn't want to be seen. He could have stepped out directly into the living room, given that. It was a bit messy, but the kind of thing that demons did to people. Just showing up without announcing themselves.
Troy Ounce (Lopez Time Book 1) Page 22
