Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Read online

  Instead, for a long time no one moved.

  Then, as if it made any sense at all, the Bear woman changed back before her clothing burst at the seams totally, and amazingly, started to cry. Taking his life in his hands, he moved forward and put his arms out, to give her a hug.

  Rather than kill him, she did it, and leaned into him, sobbing against his neck.

  Chapter ten

  Being that it was nighttime it was hard to get a cup of tea for the lady, who turned out to have a name. That was Vivian. It fit her a lot better in her Human form, but Ty didn't mention that. Strangely, she clung to him the whole time, even as they walked into the bookstore. That made for some awkward shuffling, but no one else closed with them, staying about twenty feet back.

  Zack however, ran back to the cafe, in order to dig up a tea bag and some warm water. The idea that he was the only one willing to do it was funny. Except, that wasn't the real answer. It could have been that a lot of the others didn't want to bother getting involved for one reason or another. It was kind of sensible even. Several of them were hanging around though, and watching. Seeing what happened, or maybe even to make sure that if something did take place, they were there to back him up.

  Like the three giants from the power lifting gym. There was no reason for them to follow along into the bookstore like they had, much less hang back in the stacks, seeming very ready to move. Okay, they might have been there to help Vivian, or even just to watch the free show, but that didn't seem like their way as a group.

  A single mug with a tea bag in it came out a few seconds later, on a brown plastic and wood tray. It was placed in front of Viv, who looked a bit tattered now. She was wearing a skirt and a blouse that were both brown. The shirt was half toasted. It still covered all the possibly embarrassing bits though, so it was good enough for him.

  Zack didn't sit down, but smiled.

  "Do you need any sugar, or something to eat?" It sounded kind and gentle really. Sympathetic.

  "I could use something to eat? Changing always sets my blood sugar off. I only went a little, but it was a lot of work." That had a pile of cookies, all chocolate chip, being delivered so fast that it was kind of clear that Zack knew where they were off the top of his head.

  When that happened, the woman looked up, suddenly far more reasonable than before.

  "Thanks. I'm sorry I made a scene earlier. It's just... Nellie..."

  That started more tears, even while she ate, which meant more holding from Tyler, since he really didn't want this lady to feel all alone in the world for the time being. After that, Zack moved back, acting like he was working the Cafe.

  It was about five minutes before she spoke, her voice rough.

  "I... Don't know what to do now. I can't take being locked up. Bears don't do well with that. What do I do?"

  "Uh..." There was very little that he could think of that way, to tell the truth. Worse, even though it was kind of late, the police came in then, hands on guns, about ten strong. They didn't shout or anything, thank god. Vivian started to stiffen, ready to fight, to stay out of a cage.

  "I'll-" She was starting to change again, so he stuck his hand out, and touched her arm, hoping that wouldn't set her off.

  "Don't worry. These people aren't here to make any problems." Then, looking around, Ty, looking like an eighteen year old kid that no one would be taking all that seriously, decided to lie his ass off.

  "Hi! I'm the head of the Coalition of Nations." He glanced at the rest of the room, and shrugged. "That's pretty much the U.N. for Vampires, Shifters and so on. The government interaction body for Humans. This lady is a Shape Shifter, and as such has special needs, in regards to official interaction. I don't suppose you could call your Chief? Um, Sims? She asked to be informed in case of any actions like this. You've all had Shifter related training already, right?"

  One of the Police looked at him like Ty was about to be shot, but then glanced at the slowly altering Vivian. He was a stern looking fellow, with gray skin, gray hair and a mixed gray and white mustache. None of his wrinkles indicated that smiling was a hobby of his either. His hand was on his firearm, and he seemed pretty darned stressed.

  Still, he nodded once.

  "We'll take care of that. You have this here? I didn't get your name."

  "Tyler Gartner. Don't worry, this is something we can take care of. The Shifters have ways to deal with this. In fact, our job is going to have to be keeping them in line. Trust me, you do not want to break one of their laws if you're one of them. For now, if you and your men could get with Chief Sims? Maybe give us some space? This doesn't have to be a problem. Well, not a new one anyway."

  It was probably fear, but the man nodded, and waved at the men and women behind him.

  "Pull back. Gartner here has this. There's a system in place. We're just on backup here."

  It was a good idea, even if he had just made it up. Not that it had come out of a vacuum. Both Eve and Zack had suggested enough of it that he got the idea. He'd been steered toward it, pretty bluntly, now that he could see the whole picture. That was telling, or, possibly, coincidental. Maybe it was about the actual need for this kind of organization, too. Some kind of group thing that could talk to the Human authorities and handle things without a huge death toll.

  After all, the police didn't even know what to do with a Bear Shifter that was also a lot stronger than a regular Human and a trained mercenary. Really, outside of her own culture, no one probably did know that sort of thing. He didn't. Normally he would have probably gone to the Shifter Ambassador and asked her about it, but given everything that seemed like a pretty poor plan. Vivian had come to hurt or kill her after all. For girlfriend theft.

  That seemed a little over the top to him, but since he was standing next to a half-Bear lady at the moment, he wasn't planning to mention it. Instead he sat back down, and pushed the white plate filled with cookies toward her, and watched her closely until she saw what he was doing. It took a bit, since she stared at the police, who kept moving back until they were at least out of sight.

  Then she plunked down, her face kind of distorted.

  "Have something to eat. Low blood sugar isn't going to help anyone right now."

  He still had no clue what the fuck to do. Finally, he spoke out loud, his voice low.

  "Calley, can you get in touch with someone in charge on your side of things? That might be useful."

  He couldn't tell if that was going to do anything, but after a bit, the strange looking woman next to him sighed.

  "She said that she'll call National. I... Is that really needed? I just... Nellie said that she was with this Cat bitch now, and that she was pretty while I was just a fat, gross piece of shit." There was a darkness and anger to what was being said.

  "Wait." Ty put his right hand up and really looked at the woman next to him. Then he used his imagination, because she really wasn't his type at the moment. It was being covered with hair though, not the rest of the package. "She actually said that? She had to have been just angry and talking. You know how people do that. The mouth runs, and the brain lets it, to everyone's detriment? You aren't gross, or fat. Okay, a bit bigger than average, but that's all muscle." He rubbed his lower back, which was probably going to be all bruise, the next day. "I can swear to that one."

  He grinned, and went on.

  "Honestly, Viv? If she said that about you, then fuck her. I don't know her, but even if she was the best girlfriend ever last month, if she can't see how cool you are now, then you can do better. Still, use your words, not guns. That part was messed up. You almost killed an innocent woman."

  There was a pause, and a downcast look. It seemed shy suddenly.

  "I wasn't really going to. I just wanted to scare her, that's all. I didn't know that it was the wrong place. It made sense. Nellie is like me. A little big. It's a large woman's clothing store."

  That seemed right. It wasn't, but it had a ring of making sense. A blonde woman that steals your girlfriend at a
clothing store where she might meet a plus sized woman. He could see it. That probably wasn't going to help the Alede lady that had been pistol whipped. It would kind of be fair for her people to have a problem with her being hurt. He did, which was why he'd gone over in the first place.

  That one was almost certainly going to end up being an issue.

  "Okay then, in the future, and I need you to promise me this, don't try to scare people like that. Now, let's get this fixed, as best we can. Um, if we can't lock you up, how do you suggest you pay for what you did?" Not that she'd get a choice in the end, but it would be telling as to what she was really thinking. A lot of people would duck out on that, or try to take the least amount they could get away with. No one on the other side was ever going to be happy with that. Not that anyone that was a crime victim was ever made happy by seeing the other person suffer.

  You'd need to actually see it happen, and to be evil, for things to work that way.

  The large woman ate a cookie, and then sighed.

  "They, the Nation, normally puts us on an island. All alone. With food and water, but nothing else. Maybe some trees. That's it. It isn't fun. We can do it, because we handle isolation better than Humans, but that's what we do. I guess I'm going to have to, huh?" There was sadness, but no shifting out of fear or anger. In fact, she'd returned back to her normal self.

  That thought got him to pause for a second. Just because he saw Calley as a Human, and possibly Ang, the two other Shifters he knew, that didn't mean that Viv here wasn't in her other form most of the time. Not that he was going to ask, but making assumptions about a person that different wasn't going to work.

  Probably why that Demon, Zack's mentor, had suggested he write all this stuff down. To point out to him that he needed to really learn things, and not just think that what he was used to was enough to get by on now. Not if he was going to soak in other cultures like he was.

  Before he had to think of what to say next, Zack walked over, holding a cell phone.

  "Althea Sims." It wasn't a question, and he was supposed to figure out that was the Chief all on his own, it seemed. He did, so taking a deep breath, he took the high end device carefully. It was a lot nicer than anything he could afford.

  "Chief Sims? This is Tyler Gartner. Um, Coalition of Nations. We have a bit of an issue here. A Shifter woman brought a gun to Westfield, over a relationship dispute. No one was harmed." He looked over at the Bear and sighed. "At least no one was killed. An Alede was hit several times, with the weapon. Beaten, not shot. We have this taken care of on the ground here, but if your men try to take Vivian in, things might not go well. She doesn't seem to respond well to confinement. Bear Shifter, so it's a real issue that can't just be glossed over."

  There was a long pause, and a slow exhalation.

  "I see. I can't ask my men to throw their lives away on a situation like this. On the other hand, you just mentioned several possible felonies. We can't let people simply break the law of the land they're in. How do you suppose we deal with this?"

  It was a really good question. A surprising one, since he really would have figured that the woman was going to start by asking who the fuck he thought he was to interject himself into the situation. Since there was no possible good answer, it was good that she didn't go there. Really sweet of her, to be honest.

  "I have a call in to the leadership of the Shifter's. Vivian is taking full responsibility for her wrong doing and has volunteered to be stranded on a small island, alone, as punishment. It seems that walls and bars won't work, but that might. She's being pretty reasonable now that things have calmed down. It was a bad situation, and while there might need to be some things redressed, I don't think we need to pull out the stops yet. She won't do it again. I don't know how to get the Human laws addressed in this. We might not reasonably be able to. Trying to use Human methods will probably start a battle to the death, and knowing that in advance, we can't let that happen. Regardless, it might be best if you let us handle this. Is that doable?"

  There was a long, very drawn out sound that seemed frustrated. Not really angry, so at least there was that to work from. The fact was, he just didn't know what to do about it. Nothing was going to be good, but they had to try.

  "I don't know either. This is the second supernatural problem inside a week, in my jurisdiction. The last major event required a young Vampire woman to be entombed for six months, which should have been a death sentence. That didn't really impinge on my area however, being that by Human rules her only issue had been self-defense. This is a bit different. I don't even know the official disposition of the Vampires that attacked one of their own in public the other day. No one spoke to me about it."

  He took a deep breath. She'd been at the meeting, but he thought he understood. Chief Althea Sims, an ancient, day walking Vampire, wasn't out. So to the best of her knowledge they'd never met, and she was clueless as to what had transpired with Tara. Other than getting the police reports on it.

  "They were executed for their crimes. It was done legally by Vampire law. You should have been kept in the loop on that. I'll fire off a memo and ask them to send a report? Not that I can compel that sort of thing, but I can suggest. Eventually they're going to want your help on the other side of things, so it makes sense for them to play ball now." Because why not? He was pulling shit out of his ass, so it seemed like it would work as well as anything.

  Not that he was going to tell a cop that he, personally, murdered those people.

  That would be insane. Thinking about it he wondered for a moment what the real difference was between Vivian and himself. The only thing he could think of really was that he'd been smart enough not to get caught by anyone that wanted to punish him for it. Yet. That could catch up to him, eventually. It probably would in one way or another. True, he'd needed to do it, in order to prevent those Vampires from attacking him, but the fact that their boss was still free meant that the guy may well be coming for him.

  If he learned about it.

  It was another reason not to tell the police Chief about the whole thing. Secrets works so much better if fewer people knew about them. That was a fiction in this case, since Sims did actually know the real score. The cops didn't though, or so it seemed. No officially.

  The woman on the other end of the phone, a Vampire herself, just made another annoyed sound at him. A very Human sounding one.

  "The raw fact is that we can't handle this as an organization. No one in the Human system can. If this kind of situation comes up, do I send people to you?"

  That didn't sound good, but Zack was nodding away off in the distance. As if that made any sense at all in the world.

  "That's right. Give me a few weeks to make sure everything is at least set up. We need to have some things signed... You know how that is."

  "I understand. Do you need anything from us to contain this situation tonight?" It didn't sound friendly, but it also seemed like she was actually trying, which was important. Humans needed to be part of things too.

  "Uh, yeah. There's one of your men here, an old guy. I didn't get the name."

  "Yes?" She seemed ready to get pissed off at him over what he said next.

  "I'd like him to stay. He seems reasonable enough, and we need to get someone trained up as a liaison officer with the local supernatural community. Can that be worked out?"

  "I think so? That would be Robertson, I bet. Let me call that back to him. His partner too? That would be... Smith."

  "Robertson and Smith? That sounds made up, doesn't it? It seems like a good place to start however. Thanks for your help. I'll make sure everyone keeps in touch with you. I can send papers with your people?"

  "Why not? Get in touch if you need anything, or if the situation changes."

  "Got it. Thanks again."

  Then there was a click. Thankfully.

  Sticking out his tongue a little, he looked over at Viv and rolled his eyes. The Bear lady looked confused again, but he didn't blame her. It was far
from the way anyone would have figured things to be going. He certainly wouldn't have.

  The next person that came was Calley, who still had the handgun, and if she wasn't ready to use it, there was no way he could tell. It was held pointed at Vivian the whole time, and she kept the table between them the entire time. Her face didn't seem glaring or mean, but no one sane would have moved on her at that moment. She moved near him, put a phone in front of him, and then moved back and to the side.

  Ty looked at it, then back at her.

  "This is?"

  The Bat girl jerked her head at it.

  "Jahn Samson. The Shifter leader. Our President."

  It became clear why she was acting so paranoid then, as Vivian half stood, and yelped.

  "What? I... You can't be serious!"

  Picking it up, he took another big, about to talk on the phone, breath, and started in.

  "Mr. Samson? This is Tyler Gartner. Coalition of Nations? We have a bit of an issue here."

  Jahn, who had a soft and friendly voice, got the whole story, which he went over very carefully, giving full names for both Vivian and her girlfriend Nellie. The Shifters actually had files on everyone it sounded like.

  "I see. This isn't the first time that we've had a problem like this with Nellie Holver. Indeed, this story is rather similar to one of five years ago, in which she tried to steer a woman she was breaking up with at a local Vampire leader. It didn't end very well. In death, as it turned out."

  That got him to blink, and then nod.

  "You got that Viv? This doesn't seem to be about Catherine at all. So you're off to that island, I bet. Now, what about Nellie? How do your laws deal with things like that?" He was talking to the Bear lady, but the man on the phone answered without missing a beat.

  "It's a rather unusual situation. Our laws don't really cover it. I suppose it would count as disturbing the peace? In the main we don't let people set up others for death, but it also shouldn't happen in response to this kind of thing."