Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (18 page)

"Hey. I hear that you're the
one putting together the new coalition for the different groups in regards to
Human interaction now that almost everyone is out?" It was spoken with a
playful tone at least.

Tyler shook his head.

"Does
everyone
here
have super hearing? I'm going to get a complex about passing gas, you know that
right? As it is I've already had to stop muttering under my breath. You're a
horrible mother fucker, by the way. Just in case you were wondering what I was
going
to say when you walked away." He grinned and shook his head. "I'm
kidding. You've actually been cool so far.
Still
..."

Zack just snorted a little bit.

"No shit, huh? Don't worry
too much. Most of them won't really be listening to you most of the time. Not
yet. Eve had a good idea. Get a schedule for me, and I can take you around to
different nodes. That's where we keep most of the embassies. First though, I
have phone numbers, which will be faster, and make it seem like you have
resources. Talk to Bey first, for the Vampires. He's smart enough to throw in
with you early, and
that
will make it seem like you have something going
on that's real. Besides, he was
really
impressed with what you did the
other day." Then the man, who was thin even if he ate a lot, turned back
to the computer and started entering lines of numbers off of books.

There was no more speaking, so he
took that as a sign that getting back to his paying job was the thing to do. That
meant trying to move fast, since otherwise Eve was going to finish two carts
for every one he did. It helped a
lot
to get rid of the pauses between
the movements when he could, but it wasn't the same as having super powers. It
took enough effort that he didn't really think about anything else for a while.

When he got a chance to come up
for air, because there were no more books left in the back room, it was only
ten o'clock. He still had hours left to work, being on the schedule until two
in the morning. Most of the others got to go home though, including Hiram, who
glaring earlier aside, seemed pretty happy suddenly.

"That was... Incredible. Who
knew, I should have yelled at the girls years ago. Sigh."

Tyler made a face and then shook
his head.

"I didn't
yell
. Maybe
I snapped a little, but that was
annoyance
, not anger. I know that I
shouldn't have anyway, but I'm only Human." Not that it was a good excuse.

People needed to try their best
to be responsible for their own actions. That was the way he'd been raised. You
were supposed to try and do the right thing, not just when it was easy, but
even when you didn't really feel like it.

"Besides, it was all about
Kait and Alexis, in the end. Robert, too. That is Robert, right?" He
hadn't asked, but the man himself, who was near the front desk talking to an
older lady with white hair and a skirt that was a bit too short for her years,
generally speaking, turned and nodded.

On the good side, that meant a
lot of people got to leave early. Palma was gone, though she'd left out food
for the others, including some fruit, which when he got a break Tyler ate
several pieces of. Zack had handed it to him, so he figured it would be all
right, even if he couldn't afford it.

"I didn't know we got free
food."

The man had a tray filled with
what seemed to be a variety of sandwiches. Big hoagie style things that had to
be hard to fit into his mouth. Oddly enough he stopped, and looked back at Ty,
who was sitting at one of the cafe tables.

"Everyone in the mall does,
if you eat here. So, you know, if you need to come in on your days off for a
while you can always get something. You'd think more of them would use it, but
you know, Greater Demon." He waved at himself, then settled at the table,
taking the chair across from Ty. "You can't blame them. Most people are
afraid of my people. Mainly because half of us are insane monsters. I know
I
don't go out of my way to hang out with them, if I can help it. Not that I
always get a choice."

Eating a pear, since that was his
favorite kind of fruit, Tyler didn't nod, or react at all. It just made sense
not to be an a-hole to his boss. That didn't mean he wasn't curious.

"I don't know much about
demons. Greater and Lesser, but nothing else. How come the cool looking ones
with the horns and red skin are the lesser ones?"

Zack smiled.

"I know, right? Not all of
them are like that. Djin can look like almost anything, for instance. The main
reason is because we're totally different beings. Greater Demons are a species.
One clearly related to Human. Lesser Demons are tulpas. Energy beings created
by people's thoughts? I have more in common with you than I do with one of them
that way. Demon basically means that we can walk the lines. That's a thing we
have in common. Mages can too, and most other groups of note can manage it a
bit, but being able to do it as an individual is the real point. I'm pretty
much the best at it. Out of everyone that we know about." He ate a
sandwich faster than seemed reasonable, and then wiped his mouth with a paper
napkin from the stack on his tray. "That probably makes me the biggest
Demon then. No one thinks of it that way. You know, it's about the evil and all
that, which is
also
real enough. When you can, you should try to avoid
people like me."

"I get a choice? Goody, free
will." Tyler glanced at his boss, but there was no frown. Nothing but
eating for a bit.

"I can't go into that with
you." It was a strange thing to say, but Ty didn't ask about it, since
there was a clatter from the front of the space. Zack got up and started
running, sandwich in hand, so Tyler did the same, trying to be careful as he moved
through the store, not wanting to make a mess.

Thankfully it wasn't that
anything was happening in their store, the yelling coming from the place across
the way. Pretty Plus.

A woman, one who wasn't all
that
pretty, but who managed to have a serviceable face, and hit the plus
requirement nicely stood in the front of the place. Holding a gun. Directly at
the head of a
very
good looking woman that he'd never met before. Zack
stopped at the front of his own place, going stock still. Everyone else did,
too. Probably so they wouldn't scare the lady with the weapon. She was a little
heavyset, in a muscular way, compared to the blonde that she was holding
hostage. Bigger too, as far as being tall went.

"You fucking bitch. You
stole
my girlfriend."

The other lady, seeming a bit
scared, tried to speak then.

"I'm not sure I know who you
mean?"

"Nellie! She told me all
about you, and your vixen ways!" Then, because just having a gun wasn't
good enough, she slapped it across the better looking one's face, making her bleed.
Hard.

No one else walked over, scared,
or more likely, not wanting to get involved when they didn't know what was
going on. He could see that. Still, being a fool, he could
also
see what
was needed. Thankfully the other lady helped, by speaking softly.

"I don't know anyone by that
name." It got her hit again. Hard enough that she went to the floor. It
should have stopped things, but the lady with the gun pointed it at her, not paying
any attention to anything else at all.

"Die you bitch!"

There was a gun shot, but it
missed, which meant there was enough time for him to get there. That started a
wrestling match for the weapon, that was a lot harder to win that it should
have been. Tyler noticed that as he pulled the gun away. It was a medium sized
thing, and went off as he took it, but he managed to carry it away with him,
when the lady picked him up bodily, and
threw
him about ten feet away.
The nifty thing there was that he managed to roll. Not well, but enough that
other than his pride, he wasn't really hurt. Then the aggressive lady, whatever
she was, turned on him.

"I won't let you save her!
She dies now!"

Sighing, he tossed the weapon
away. He didn't know how to use it, and trying to shoot the standing woman
would probably end up with him hitting some innocent person in the background.
They
could
have helped, now that there was no risk of being shot.

"Um, I don't think she's the
one that you're looking for. What's the name of the Alede that Nellie is
seeing?"

The big woman spun on him, her
foot raised to stomp the Alede, who was trying to scoot away on her behind, in
the head.

"What?" It seemed like
she was really baffled. As if the idea had never occurred to her before.

"The name of the Alede
you're going after? I mean, good looking, with big... Um," He held his
hands up, describing what he meant, and shrugged. The heavier woman was busty
too, so it seemed fair to point that part out. She glared at him, and growled.

"What the fuck does that
have to do with anything?"

Tyler froze, for about ten
seconds, his face feeling like it was warping without his ability to influence
it. It probably made it seem like he was being an asshole. He just couldn't
help it.

"Well, she said she doesn't
know Nellie. Not by that name anyway. Coming here and going after the first
good looking woman you see is
kind
of not going to work. There are like
ten of them around here that would make most models turn green. Hell, I was
just working with a
Vampire
that could do movies. What's the name of the
Alede that you're looking for?"

The lady, who wasn't Human, given
her slightly morphing features, which included a slightly protruding nose that
darkened as he watched, shook her head a little. She was, most likely, a
Shifter, given that.

"Alede? No. I'm here for the
Cat bitch. Catherine. She works at the clothing shop..."

"
Oooohhh
." Tyler
looked around then, to see about fifteen people get it all at once. Waving his
hand a bit, he closed with the woman, who had gotten taller over the last few
seconds. Changing into something else. Probably because she didn't have her
gun. Looking over he noticed that Calley had come out and collected it, holding
it by her side, carefully. Most of the places were closing for the night, so at
least there was that. There looked to be four or five patrons left, but most of
the people there were at least in on things. They weren't Human soccer moms
just looking for a bargain or trying to find the latest book written by some
heavy drinking guy who hadn't seen daylight for seven years.

There were no kids either, which
was good. Mainly due to the fact that the woman in front of him was still
getting bigger, and had grown hair all over her body. It was tempting to make
some kind of quip about needing to shave her legs, but the raw fear was
stopping that.

He kept talking anyway, not even
knowing if the woman, who was obviously a Bear of some kind, could understand
him anymore. That kind of thing was a question that he should have known, but
at the moment really couldn't remember. Hopefully it wasn't a waste of time.

"This is the
Alede
embassy. I think you're looking for a different place. Also, you came pretty
late. I don't know that any of their people would be here now. Maybe you
should, I don't know, um, do something else?" What that was, even what he
was suggesting, Tyler didn't know.

It did seem like she was paying
attention to him, so that was a good sign that he was either getting through to
her, or was about to be mauled. Since the woman could pretty clearly have
messed him up as a Human, it seemed like cheating to him. There was no way he
was taking on a bear in a fight.

Racking his brain, he tried to
come up with anything that would distract a bear. It did come to him that
Calley had mentioned the idea that shifters weren't really their animals in
some kind of true duality. That they were unique beings, that didn't share that
much with what the animals did at all.

Which was less helpful than if he
could distract this lady with some honey.

He tossed his hands up in the
air.

"So, can you change into a
form we can chat with? I don't know how to help you right now. Pretty much all
we can do is run around and yell a lot this way." It didn't seem that
likely, since, at least if she was fighting him, which seemed to be the most
likely outcome, given what everyone else was doing at the moment, being a bear
kind of meant she won.

As a Human, now that he knew she
was as powerful as she was, he might be able to do something. Then, talking
really did seem like the best option. Not that the downed Alede was going to be
happy with that one, he didn't think. She'd been pulled into the back of her
shop by Robert, who had wisely closed the heavy metal grating at the front of
the place. The lights were off too, like that was going to fool anyone. Then
again, they might have all fled out the back. That made sense to him.

It was a funny scene, actually.
Standing back, by about twenty feet or so, stood about ten people that could
have each ended this inside a few seconds. Eve was there, along with a
different dark haired Vampire woman, who was less attractive, but still nice
looking. She seemed concerned, but wasn't exactly wading in to help him. Zack
was looking at the whole thing carefully, and had actually held Kait back, so
that she didn't run forward to help him. More likely that had been to help the
other woman there. The blonde.