The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) (33 page)

Rather than shut him down, Keeley
gave her a considering look. She seemed like a girl who was barely twenty, and
was pretty enough that she could have been in movies, but somehow it still
worked for her. There was no sense of command however.

Jasmine shook her head.

"I don't know if I would be
good at that kind of thing. I'm not that smart. That was why I got into drugs
in the first place. It seemed better than fixing my problems. Easier. Until
Keeley made me do the right thing, I always took the easiest path." She
seemed pretty certain of that, too.

He shrugged.

"I wouldn't undersell
yourself, but if that's the case, then you know best. Still, if you change your
mind, let us know? If you try and fail... Well, then we'll get someone else,
but it won't hurt you." The truth was he didn't care that much. It was
nice to give her a chance, but the truth was, his part was done now. She was
free, and that was all he could do for her.

The rest was going to be her own
doing.

Keeley, not even bothering to
read him, steered him toward the door a bit forcefully, taking his arm and
pulling enough to actually make him move. It seemed cute and friendly though,
which it really shouldn't have. She was being bossy, and physically
domineering. It
should
have come across as hostile, and hard. There was
smiling though, and her body moved close to him, bumping him with her hip as
she walked. Everything about her contradicted what she was doing so totally it
made his mind stop working for a moment.

Like it would have if she were
flirting with him, which, after a fashion, to her own ends, she was.

After a bit, near the door, he
chuckled.

"
Or
just tell me to
leave? It seems easier."

"Oh, sure. But if I do that
and you take it the wrong way, then there are hard feelings. This way you
leave, but the worst you feel on the far end is that I might want to take you
to bed. I
don't
, but it isn't a personal thing. I'm just busy. For that
matter, I don't suppose you could free up a few people for me? I'll call in a
list later? There might be some travel involved. Unless you can do this at a
distance? In that case...
Hide
it. Always. Don't even try it, if you
don't have to. That would scare the others too much."

She let go of him and moved away
a bit. A slight twinge hit him, not being wanted that way, but he pulled up a
calm concept and let it go almost instantly. It wasn't magic, but it worked,
and that was enough. It did help that she wasn't Human either. That meant she
was going to have different likes, dislikes, and drives than most. Maybe.

Okay, he could tell when he was
rationalizing, and let that go, too.

"As long as it fits into my
schedule? I need to focus on the Coalition, and the band. On top of that I need
to go and check on some people. Lisa Weise and that gang. My mom. I've hardly
seen her in weeks, and there's been some major stuff going on. That kind of
thing. We need to plan out the holidays and all that. I'd say that I was going
to be spending them with Ginger and Calley, but I kind of think that Steve has
stolen them both away already. Probably because
he
actually gives them
the attention they want. I'm kind of a bad boyfriend that way."

Keeley gave him a look that was
nearly ridiculous seeming then.

"Then fix it? For one thing,
Steve isn't any better that way than you are, he's just less busy and a bit of
a pig. He has no problem walking up to a woman and just asking for sex. That
works with Calley, but
Ginger
is just making sure she isn't insulting
your friends. I wouldn't assume that means she's moving on yet. For one thing,
she's a Vampire, and that means her people would be at a certain level of risk,
if she took up with a regular Human. If any of the other Vamps come for
you
,
unwanted, or to harm you, they'll end up dead. She doesn't get that
consciously
yet, but it's what will happen. With Steve she'd have to be ready to lose him,
or fight. Not that it would come up that much, but it's a risk if she ever
crosses anyone. Eventually we all end up pissing someone off, don't we? So, for
her, you're nearly perfect. Kind, gentle, polite and so powerful that even Bey
wouldn't try for you now. A good enough person that he knows he doesn't have to,
which is pretty rare."

A thing that he was going to keep
quiet for a while, though it was pretty clear that was more than doable for
him.

Killing a living person that way
would take some work, but might happen if Ty applied himself well enough. He
could hit them with death until their body just gave up on them. They could and
did, generate life energy, but it could be overwhelmed with enough effort. It
would be a lot easier to just shoot them.

Vampires...

If he cut their lines of power,
which wouldn't be any harder than severing a slave line at all, he could hit
them with a wave of darkness and they would simply go down. They didn't have
the reservoir of energy that would make a living thing more immune to him. Ty's
rough guess was that they would not love to hear about that. Then, they didn't
need to.

Sure, he could take them out, but
he wouldn't. Not unless he was pushed into it by a specific one of them. He had
a weapon that was hard to beat by a certain kind of person, but if he had a gun
it wouldn't be that different, would it? There was no reason to go around
hurting
anyone
, if he could help it.

Even if he wanted to take the
whole "Being of Death" thing to heart. After all, everything living
would be dead in the end. There was no hurry as far as he could tell. No matter
who he'd met, so far at least, it seemed that they were finite beings. Maybe not
God, or possibly the Angels, but really, he didn't even know that for certain.

So it wasn't like he had some
death based goals or anything. Still, there was truth to the idea that Vampires
weren't going to be that big of a threat to him in particular.

"I'll talk to them? I mean,
Calley was
always
herself. She didn't claim that she was in anything for
the long haul. In fact, I remember her saying that wouldn't be the case. It
just isn't her way. Ginger... Honestly, she doesn't even like sex, you know?
What do I bring to the table that way?"

Keeley nodded and closed the
door. He decided to take that to mean he needed to go and figure that out on
his own, rather than bothering her with his whining.

Not that he had been, but when
men asked questions about life, most women weren't going to be able to
understand that they weren't complaining. Not all the time.

Lucy had mentioned that to him,
when he was younger, more than once. A lot of what he knew about ladies came
from her. It wasn't all nice, either. Tyler was willing to bet that a lot of it
was honest, however. She hadn't lied to him, and her tips had been kind of
useful. Like being certain he didn't get a girl pregnant too young. Oh, sure,
that had been about hiding what he really was, but it was a good things for
regular guys to keep in mind.

For a moment he felt a pang of
worry about Steve, of all people. Then he relaxed. As far as Ty knew, none of
the girls he'd been sleeping with could get pregnant by him. Well, except
Calley, which he'd never thought about before. She was alive, after all.

Using the raw concept of time
distortion, not adding magic to it, not wanting to waste Lucy's effort and
energy that way, he walked home. It was closer than he would have thought,
being only about five miles away. It was coming into being evening, so it
wasn't that hard to see everyone finally coming back home. That they'd stayed
all day to work showed how important they thought it was.

Then, that was the case.
Honestly, they needed to get with the government, and get a Human rep in too.
Maybe one from each country? That was too much. A team from around the world
of, maybe five people, to speak for Humanity? That seemed closer to the right
thing to try at first.

On the good side, he knew someone
that he could bother about things like that.

At the front door he called out.

"Hey everyone, I'm home.
Calley, can I talk to you for a bit? It's about sex."

 
Upstairs!
The concept hit
him like it had been projected on purpose. She was home at least. He could feel
her energy when he tried. Alive and powerful, but leaking more than a Human
would. That was probably why she had to eat more than a regular person would.

When he found her, she as naked,
and in the shower.

"In here!" It was
helpful of her, since it let him know where she was, in relation to the running
water. More to the point, that she wanted him to go in, which he wouldn't have
without knowing that.

"Hey honey!" He sighed,
faking it up a bit for effect, so she could hear him doing it. Her ears were
really good though, so he didn't oversell it. "What do you do for birth
control? I mean, I know that you can't get pregnant by
me
, but Steve is
a Human, and you have other friends, so..."

There was no immediate answer,
but when it came the voice wasn't upset.

"Aren't you coming in?"

He looked down and realized that
it probably wouldn't hurt. He had clean clothing in the other room even, in the
closet. Without speaking he got naked, and pulled the heavy glass door out. It
was metal framed, and solid, but the wavery glass was kind of hard to see
through.

With a few thoughts he used a bit
of energy to make himself erect, since that was no doubt what she wanted him
there for. That and washing her back. Both were good things though, so he
didn't mind.

She was really washing though,
and scrubbed pretty well, so he did the same.

"You know, I never asked,
how is your sense of smell?" It was a different topic, but she smiled at
him, looking funny without her glasses. Cute. Like she was sleepy, rather than
half blind.

"Pretty good. I mean, I
can't track a person just by scent, but I can tell what you ate for lunch, and
that you were with The Mistress of Souls not too long ago.
Not
having
sex either. Which is good. She's so hot I couldn't compete that way."

Tyler could have said a thousand
things, but just smiled and shook his head a bit. The warm steam in the shower
smelled like girl soap and shampoo at the moment. He didn't feel the heat, but
he got what was happening anyway. That air was slightly foggy even.

"No, she really isn't. Not
enough that you couldn't compete. I always feel nervous around her. Not in a
good way either. I think it's that Lucy told me not to be too interested in the
supernaturally good looking girls a while back. So I'm really not. You know the
Alede and all that? Keeley is on the edge there really. She nearly isn't Human
looking. Now, Eve is pretty hot, but even there she's not better than you are,
just a bit more..."

There was a small, miffed sound
then.

"A bit better looking?"

He grinned, not taking the bait.

"I was going to go with a
bit more standard looking.
Average
really. Yes, she had perfect skin,
and hair, but that's Vampire camouflage, nothing else. Not special like you. Or
Ginger, though she's a bit more in that average range too, really. Both of them
could model with the right makeup.
Your
freckles would show through.
Other than that you'd be in that same zone. No blemishes, lean, and with an
interesting nose. African looking, but on a white girl, which really works out
pretty well." Then he let that settle for a bit. It was all true, but he
could see six ways for it to explode on him.

Instead he got a hug.

"Not bad. A lot of people
think that Bats are ugly. Like troll dolls, really. With glasses, more often
than not. Then those sold pretty well when I was a kid, so I never took it as
an insult. Funny, but no man ever said I was too ugly to suck his cock, you
know?
Or
tried to slip a bag over my head. A few did turn the lights
off, but that was probably to hide their own body." She gave Ty a damp hug
then. And laid the side of her face against his chest.

That meant all the water was
hitting him either in the face, since she was just that short, or on her back.
Her right hand found him about then, and she encircled him, then started to
move a bit. It felt nice, even though he couldn't feel if she were warm or not.
The water was the same way.

"Anyway, the
question..." She didn't stop moving her hand, but pulled back a tiny bit
so she could speak properly. "I don't use any birth control. I pretty much
can't get any diseases, since they go away when I shift, so it isn't a problem.
If I get preggers, well, then
good
. It's hard for Shifters to have kids
in general, and even harder for some of us. Bats are rare, because of that. So
we have sex all the time, with nearly everyone we can, and if one of them
takes, we're pretty happy about it. Why?"

He groaned a bit, and thrust a
little, which got her to speed up slightly.

"Oh, it's just that I was
worrying about Steve earlier. Having all that sex, because of
course
he's going to. I don't know what kind of birth control he's been using. We need
to look into that before he starts doing all those groupies."