Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Read online

  That meant digging out his work schedule, which he told the Vampire on the phone all about. Rather than make fun of him for working like he did, there was a pleased sound from the other end. From more than one person, too.

  "So you don't think this will be a full time position? You don't envision us paying tribute to you on a regular basis?"

  "No? Why would you do that? It's going to be bad enough having to ask people for things to solve problems, much less saying my pocket should be lined, too. Hopefully this will mainly be about me making calls a few times a week. You know, checking in, saying hi. Inviting people to my parties. Speaking of which, if any of you want to come I'm having a little thing for my birthday? It's just a barbeque, and seriously, I work at a bookstore and haven't gotten paid yet, so I mean paper plates and all that, but if anyone is in town you should come over." He gave the date and time, but no one said they'd be there, which was fine. They were kind of like Senators or something.

  They were probably invited to stupid parties three times a day. That was cool. Especially since he'd never thrown even a casual party, himself.

  That let him get off the phone though, and had Eve grinning at him when he went out front.

  "Oohhh. I get to go too, right? I love a good party."

  That got a nod, since of course she could come.

  "It will probably be a little lame, but I'd love to have you there. Everyone is invited. It will probably be about five people, I think. If you come. Oh! Hey, not to be a pain, but can we get together and work on fighting soon? I need the practice, if I'm going to be ambushed every time I meet someone." The bottom of his right fist ached still, from the Vampire he'd clocked.

  The girl smiled, like he'd invited her to get free money, instead of work with a slow and boring Human.

  "Fuck yeah. About time I met someone that wasn't a total pussy. Getting anyone else to work with me is like pulling teeth. Tomorrow, at about noon? Or, I guess the next day. You have the Shifter leader coming in. Do you want me to go along with you for that? As muscle?"

  That seemed off, for a talk, but he nodded. He wasn't going to turn down help at this point.

  "I don't know for certain, but can you stand by for that? We might want to take a group with us, to let the problem child know that no one is going to let her get away with her tricks anymore. Which means I need to get with people before that, somehow." What he needed was some way to do without sleep, but since that wasn't going to happen, and he still needed his job, that meant getting up early.

  To that end, he needed to leave.

  "Oh, if you see Ginger, tell her I said hi?" They were kind of dating, sure, but she might have sixteen boyfriends for all he knew.

  "Will do."

  The walk home, in the dark, wasn't exactly comfortable for him. Not that he didn't think anyone was going to come for him in particular, but if someone was going to make a point by jumping anyone from the mall, he'd be the smart one to go for. Not that he couldn't fight at all, which he'd kind of shown earlier with that Vampire guy, but that didn't mean a person with a baseball bat couldn't take him down a lot more easily than say, one of the gym people, or Eve.

  That thought got him to look around, since having a piece of wood to the back of his head sounded like it would suck big time. Nothing happened at all, because most people, or other beings, weren't like that. He knew that one for a fact, since if they were, they wouldn't have managed to stay invisible to most people for the last ten thousand years.

  The simple fact was that the world was no more dangerous now than it had been five years before. If anything it was a little bit less. If Vivian had come and shot up Westfield back then, or worse, someplace else, then she probably would have died. A lot of people would have. The cops couldn't have handled things, and even if they caught her, they'd probably have died in the bear attack to come later.

  That situation wasn't done yet, but there was a chance that it could work out in the end. He had hopes. The door was locked when he got there, but after a few seconds the door opened, Ginger standing there, dressed up in a funny outfit. It said Yoghurt World all over it, in white and green, but wasn't what Eve had been wearing a few minutes before. It was far more fast food like, with a green shirt and a little matching cap that was cute, but different.

  "Hey! I was just about to leave. Cormack needs me to cover a day shift for him. That's at the Iowa node, which means I have to start running soon if I'm going to be there by ten. He's the ambassador there." She said it in a relaxed fashion, as if trying to make it seem like that wasn't her secret boyfriend. Not that Tyler cared about that. She didn't have a sex drive, so that meant that if she was doing that kind of thing with other people, or even with him, there was some other reason for it. That wasn't nearly as threatening as it could be.

  "You can run there in eight hours? That's pretty fast."

  "Not that great. You should see Eve, or Bey. They're really quick. Like more than twice that. I do all right that way, but mainly due to a lot of practice. That's the big thing. Nothing worth doing is easy, or just handed to you. It was a lot better when I was Human that way. As a girl I didn't realize what actually having to pull your own weight meant."

  That got him to go in all the way, and give her a hug.

  "Well, I doubt anyone young does. I know that being in the working world is a lot different than I thought it would be. I mean, no one told me about all the demons, or that I had to put together public action groups." That got her to look at him funny, which meant explaining the Coalition for the fourth time that day.

  Honestly he needed to get some pamphlets printed out. It was going to get old, going over the same few catch phrases, a hundred times a day. Ginger, new woman in his life or not, seemed impressed.

  "That's incredible! I... Really need to get going. Um, you don't need me to do anything for you first do you? I could maybe..." She was looking bashful, which was his line normally, so he shook his head.

  "Thanks. I'm good right now. I mean, horny, but I'll live. It isn't more important than getting to work on time." He kissed her then, which took a minute, but after that she was simply gone. The door clicked, which sounded funny, since it didn't seem to move.

  After that he got to bed, and forced himself up five hours later. A quick run, some sit ups and a shower later he headed back toward the Mall.

  "I have an odd feeling I'm going to come to hate this place." Not that it mattered. It was his job, and that meant doing it, no matter what. Well, the paying parts anyway.

  A big part of things was simply that he didn't know what the heck he was really supposed to be doing. A big part of that, the hard portion, was handled for him though, when he walked into the bookstore, not knowing where else to go. A rather attractive woman he didn't know moved to him directly, and stuck her hand out toward him. She had long dark hair, smooth skin, and didn't seem like an Alede. She was in a sleeveless black sweater like thing over a pair of jeans. Her body was slender, but her bust line was a bit too large for the rest of the picture. Not huge, but enough that he kind of noticed it as being off.

  "Tyler Gartner? The Clerk?" The hand was there, so he took it, to find it warm and dry. The handshake was firm, without breaking any of the small bones in his hand. "Keeley Thomson. The Mistress of Souls."

  That meant she was a Greater Demon, like Zack was. Most likely. He'd heard the name before though, in that regard.

  "Hi! Did you come to get in early on the Coalition of Nations? Great plan. You should do that, of course. Or... Do you have an issue? Or need a book ordered? That could be a thing, right? Maybe to use my employee discount in the cafe? I think I get ten percent off..." Not that he knew that, since he actually got food for free there.

  The woman winked at him and smiled.

  "Some of those, actually. I'm in, not that it will help you much. What I can do is some basic PR work and a bit of help to get you started correctly. Can you be ready to go on the radio at ten-thirty? Also, there's a small issue setting up in Flori
da, with the De'geru. I think their people can take care of this, but they need to know about it. That's the people that have the pet store here. I can give you a data packet on that. Oh. Also, I got you a phone for business. If you make long distance personal calls, I expect you to cover that."

  She was speaking fast, and pulled out a bag that he hadn't noticed before. In fact he was nearly certain her hands had been empty before that. It was probably magic. There was a cell phone in the tan cloth thing, as well as a pile of tri-fold pamphlets that pretty much said what he'd told Eve the night before. Before he could make an accusation of spying, or possibly bugging his bathroom, she smiled at him.

  "Eve told me about it. I got a call earlier. I don't sleep, and figured it might help you out a bit. This, and some information will have to pretty much be my contribution, unless you want someone taken as a slave? That's my thing, so you know, I'm here for you, if you need me. To strip someone's will from them. More popularly, to use that as a threat."

  He nodded.

  "Thanks. This will help. I'll try not to do that. The enslavement stuff. If I have to threaten, I can just call you up?"

  "Well, don't actually bother me with it if you aren't serious. You're a big boy and can do that part for me. There is one more thing. You need to get in touch with Gregor, The Cleric. He's in charge of North America for the Greater Demons. He'll let you know what else he needs done. It's the fourth number in the phone. Mine is the third one. In case you need me? Now, I need to run. If I stand around too long here, the Alede will try to shoot me again."

  That didn't seem likely, because the woman was laughing, but then she waved toward their shop.

  "I mean it, too. Like I'm not an incredibly sweet and delicate flower to be cherished?"

  "Well, you seem like that now, but who knows what you were doing back then? My bet is that it involved a lot of leather and little horns, on a headband?" It probably wasn't that clever to say that, being a bad demon joke but she patted his hand and winked again.

  "You know, we should dress up like that for Halloween next year. Matching teddies and little horns like that. Talk to you later. Sooner if you need me. I sent some of those pamphlets to a few friends of mine, so don't be shocked if you hear something."

  Then, probably to show off, she stepped to the side and vanished.

  Before he could even decide to go to the back of the room, the phone rang. The one in his hand. It was a bit soon for him, so he nearly dropped it. Scrambling, trying not to dump everything he was holding he dug the phone out, and hit the right button, on the fourth buzz.

  "Coalition of Nations. Tyler Gartner, how may I help you?"

  There was a sound, that was kind of like a swarm of bees. It wasn't exactly right though, for static.

  "Mishter Ty?" Whoever was speaking had a very thick and unfamiliar accent. The whole thing was a bit damp sounding, but he could get the basic idea.

  "Close enough. What can I do for you?"

  "Dish be's Mog-tow. De'geru Head? I call, you tell Human warriors, no kill lake."

  "Ah." It took a bit but he worked out what was needed.

  The man, or woman, on the phone was one of the Creature From the Black Lagoon people. They lived in a lake, in Florida. It sounded pretty big, and like it was a nice place, at least for people that lived underwater. On the edge of the place though there was a camp ground, and some people had seen them a few weeks, or possibly months, back.

  Now the police in the area were trying to kill them.

  Because that was what you did with people that looked a little different. The big problem was that after being shot about seventeen times, the people that lived in the lake were starting to get a little ticked off, and were considering responding in kind the next time one of their kids was harassed. They clearly didn't take it as an attack though, which was useful. Shooting them was annoying, but they didn't really seem to understand that it would kill the Humans, if they did it back.

  "Okay. Don't do anything. I'll handle it. First, I need to find out who to get in touch with. Can I call you back?"

  "Dish ist payphone?" Which made sense. They all lived under water. It was probably hard to get a land line.

  "Understood. Call me back here later today?" That seemed doable, so Mog-tow agreed to do that when it started getting dark out, which would be at about six, his time, Ty thought. Maybe six-thirty. Clocks, it turned out also tended not to work under water.

  It didn't take too long for him to find the right police station, but it was a lot harder to convince the person answering the phones that he, some kid from a different state, needed to talk to whoever was in charge. A short hour later he was speaking to a gruff man that sounded like he was upset with life in general.

  "What's this about?"

  "Your men have been attacking some De'geru in the area? Near a lake? Just to make this easier, they kind of look like fish men."

  There was a cough.

  "Yeah. They don't go down. People in the area are freaking out. Saying that dogs have been vanishing. Puppies."

  Tyler had to bite his lips then, realizing where they must be going. In fact some of them were probably in the store down the way right at that moment.

  He ignored that part.

  "They're people. They live in the lake there. On the good side they consider what you're people have been doing as light harassment. By warriors, but still, not acts of war. On the bad side, they're getting annoyed that their kids have been being bullied when they go on shore, and are about to start pranking you back. Given that bullets aren't all that serious to them, I think you can see the issue here?"

  "Fuck. We didn't know. I'll put the word out. What are we going to do about the dogs? Are they eating them?"

  "On the good side, no. I don't know for certain, but I think they're selling them in pet shops. I'll let them know that isn't a good thing. Hopefully that will fix it. They run pet shops."

  That got dead silence for a while, then another cough.

  "Pet shops. Like with guppies and shit?"

  "That's it. I'll try to check back in a few days, but it would be best if this doesn't become an issue. I don't know who you think owns the lake officially for instance, but since people didn't really know they were there, is it really a big deal? It might be best to not let that become a thing. Um, basically think of it as diplomatic immunity? For now anyway."

  He explained the whole idea for a while, and had to give his numbers, but even though the man was clearly an asshole, he did seem to be willing not to go to war with beings that thought of bullets as being slightly itchy. Maybe.

  That meant he was able to get with Jahn Samson, who wasn't ready to be picked up yet, having an actual job to do for his own people. Plus, Nellie wouldn't be ready until nearly two. On the good side, she'd been called into the Shifter embassy there, so Tyler could get back in time for work at four. Hopefully.

  That left him with time, so he started cleaning. He wasn't certain, but it felt like he might not get a chance to really do his job right later, if things kept happening. There was time to stop for lunch though, at noon. The meal that Palma had for him was bulgur wheat with a cabbage salad. There were spices, but no dressing on it. There was also a nice mixed fruit salad with it. Somehow it was better than what he'd had before that way. When it was finished, he took his dishes back.

  "Hey, Palma?"

  "What can I get you? Do you need more food? It won't take but a moment."

  He smiled, and shook his head.

  "Nope that was really good, but I'm stuffed. I was just wondering if you wanted to come to my birthday party next week? It's not going to be a big thing, but I wanted to make sure you knew you were invited. After all, I'm as close to you as anyone here." That was pretty close to true, he realized.

  The woman, who had curly hair and was a bit blocky looking, smiled in a way that seemed entrancing.

  "Ah! Wonderful. Do I get with your girl Calley on that? I was hoping I'd be asked. Thank you, Mr. Tyler. It will be
so much fun!"

  He wasn't certain of that, but it was good that at least one person was looking forward to it as much as he was. If nothing else it would be an excuse to eat cake.

  Chapter twelve

  At ten-twenty or so there was a sudden change in Tyler's life that he wouldn't have expected. Personally he was going to blame Zack for it, if he could catch his breath enough. The man, or Greater Demon, as it turned out, had walked out onto the bookstore floor, where the books were being straightened and things tidied, just in case he was a bit late getting in for his real job. The cute guy took his hand, almost sweetly, and led him into the owl room.

  "We need to go now. I'll be back to get you in an hour."

  It took a second, or more like ten, to work out what was going on. There was no sign, they just walked, and with a bit of a bump, he was suddenly in a room, looking through a glass sheet at two men who were wearing big headsets with large cups on them, both in a soft silver color.

  Rather than jump, or do anything like that, one of the men, a rather dumpy looking fellow in a t-shirt that claimed he worked for WKZR absently waved toward him. That got a woman with a clipboard to walk toward him from the room he was in, over to the side.

  She had fluffy hair, nice dark skin, and was chewing gum, which detracted from her looks by nearly a full point on the scale of one to ten. She was dressed down too, which worked for him, since his brain was still filling in what was going on.

  The Mistress of Souls, Keeley, had mentioned doing a radio thing. For some reason, he'd figured it would be done over the phone. More to the point, he'd kind of forgotten about it.

  The lady smiled at him charmingly.

  "Hi honey! Are you the new sandwich guy? I have the orders right over here." She started to move away, but didn't seem to be looking down on him about his perceived job all that much. Then, she also didn't give him a chance to explain that he wasn't just a job. More to the point, the job she thought he was there for.