The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) Read online

  His keyboard, a generic thing that had been purchased at Wal-Mart, was in the other room, which meant that Zack got it for him, and plugged it into the wall, then settled the thing behind him, on the back of the sofa, balanced precariously.

  "You should eat first. Don't forget to watch T.V. or do something for fun too. Working all the time is a good way to waste a life. Play too." Then, after a moment, the guy who was his boss, and as far as Tyler knew, only worked, all the time, glared at Ty's mom.

  She gave the other man, who she was sort of dating, even if he hadn't been told about it, a cute look.

  "I suppose that's a good idea, Tyler. You should take an hour or two a day for yourself, and not just work all the time. The rest should be filled with useful things. There needs to be a balance to that kind of thing, and you don't need sleep." It was all true, but also, no doubt, his new orders.

  There was no choice for him but to follow them. That meant... Actually, it meant that Zack was being very nice, making certain that he got some kind of time off. If he'd been told to be happy working all the time, he would have been. Now he got to do other things, too.

  Just for fun.

  A few minutes later he had a large bowl of soup, piles of saltines to go with it and a spoon. Digging in he savored the flavor. It did taste of a tin can, underneath the soup part, but that was fine. It was the sort of thing that he'd grown up eating. They'd been poor, after all, so knock off canned soup was a staple for him.

  "Wait... We weren't poor though, were we?"

  Lucy coughed a bit, and managed to look a tiny bit embarrassed.

  "I didn't want you to grow up to be spoiled, so I faked that part of things. Besides, pretending to work double shifts all the time let me get my real work done. I know, I lied. Sorry. Greater Demons weren't a known thing back then. For that matter we still aren't, really. Humans can barely keep in mind that Vampires are real. Even after all the years of being told that by their stories and shows. It's both annoying and useful at the same time. Now, scootch, oh son of mine. I'm going to stay with you for a while. I was very worried that you were being abused by that bitch. Especially when I found out that she'd been pretending to be that effeminate feminist fellow that shot you."

  A spoonful of soup and damp cracker went to his mouth as Tyler thought about that one. After he swallowed, the warm liquid moving down to his stomach a thing he could feel, he spoke.

  "That had to have been on purpose, didn't it? I mean Will, The Storm, had fought for the gun with that other man, but managed to get me shot three times in the middle while doing it? Before I'd just figured that it was just bad luck, but now..." There was more to eat, so he did.

  Lucy nodded at him, and then Zack.

  "Agreed. It was a set up. Probably meant to force me to tell you about your true nature. Little did she know that I was already planning to. What she was thinking however, I don't know. You weren't going to turn on me simply because you're special. How would being better than other people turn you against me anyway?" This was said to Zack, who shook his head.

  "I think that the matter there is more about The Storm being insane than anything else. She wants Tyler to be hers, but can't simply steal him, so is working to turn him against you. That won't really work. I mean, if he'd gone revenant in that cave, you would have simply ordered him to forget it when he got out anyway." There was a shrug then.

  Tyler winced.

  "Fuck. I didn't eat that kid, did I?" It made more sense than that he'd cut off his own head, in the end, didn't it? Before he could stew on the idea, Zack shook his head.

  "Nope. I can take you to see the boy if you need. I was just pointing out that no matter what, Glindlyth hadn't really set things up so that there was a clear win condition for herself. That could mean a lot of different things however. From her being so far gone that she hadn't realized she couldn't win, to her having a totally different plan altogether. It's probably that one. This is a little obvious otherwise, and even the insane Greater Demons aren't fools."

  "Oh. Well, thanks. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I ate the boy and six like him as snacks. I mean, you'd lie to me about it if I had, wouldn't you?"

  Rather than be helpful or nice, the man nodded at him. Firmly, and with a small smile.

  "Yep. It isn't the case, but from where you are at the moment you have no way of knowing that. Even if I brought a boy here, you wouldn't be able to be certain it was him. You could be made to think anything on the matter. All you have is my word on the issue."

  Tyler laughed a little then.

  "From the man who told me not to trust any Greater Demon?"

  "Bingo! Not that I want you to live in self-doubt. Now, on those words, and knowing that nothing anyone says will make you feel any better, short of ordering you not to think about it, I'm going to take off. See you in a few days, Ty? Wednesday night?" That was when he was supposed to be working.

  "Yeah. See you then. I'll try to call, if I can't make it." Ty looked at his leg, but no one mentioned the thing.

  Then he waved his spoon, not having a free hand, and Zack left the room. Ginger sat across from Lucy and himself, in an oversized and comfy looking chair. She perched, looking worried still, which was about a Greater Demon being in the room with them. It got worse after Zack left, but it had been there before too.

  When he finished his soup, she hopped up.

  "Would you like more? Or something else? Do you need something with more calories, or protein in it?"

  Tyler nearly said no, but next to him the glasses wearing schoolgirl nodded.

  "That would be good. I'll help. The more solid food he has while healing, the less energy it takes from me. One of us needs to eat. In fact, I think I'll order some things in. Chinese?" She said it to him, and sounded like Lucy used to, while he was growing up. About once every two months or so they'd ordered something like that or gone out to eat.

  That one was his favorite, which meant that she was trying to distract him. Probably from the idea that he'd been off eating people instead of heroically dead like he remembered. If that was the case... Well, then he still needed to act like it wasn't. There was no point in surviving if he was going to go around acting like a giant baby all the time.

  "Sounds good, actually." Ginger got up, to get a phone book. That they had one, an actual thing made of yellow paper and with a heavy, glossy cover, surprised him.

  Really, he hadn't seen one in long enough that he'd kind of thought that no one made them anymore. There wasn't just one, but six places that delivered available to them, however.

  Lucy explained, as she got up to dial.

  "Sparks is basically connected to Reno. That someone as young as Keeley managed to get it is... Well, my guess is that she slept with Gregor for it. That, or traded something better than her behind. Slaves most likely, that being the kind of thing she does. It means that there's a lot of good food around here however. They even have a few decent Mexican places." That was her favorite.

  His mother's, at least. Tyler didn't know if that was real or not however.

  How much of the Lucy that he'd known his entire life was real? The idea hadn't really hit him before, but suddenly, in the midst of everything else, it did. The woman that had raised him, to the best of his knowledge had just been a woman that was a friend of his dead parents, who'd taken him in and treated him like her own. Even though it had meant struggling, and hard hours of work, she'd done it without complaint.

  Making sure he had a decent life.

  Now it was almost certain that the whole thing had been an act. It might even be that the things he thought were real weren't. Had he really gone to school even? He recalled every day of the whole thing, but also that he'd cut his own head off and survived it. At least he'd come back from it.

  So could he count on anything he'd known as being right?

  Feeling confused, he tried to hide it, but after the very large order was called in, enough food for dozens of people probably, Lucy settled back along
side of him, and patted his arm.

  "Some of it was a lie. But know this, I always loved you. The whole time, son. Probably more than a Human mother would have her own flesh and blood. I used magic the whole time to make certain I would. You, perhaps more than any child in history, were loved."

  The thing there was that he didn't know if he could trust her or not.

  Then, that was part of being a person. You never knew who you could trust. Not until they failed you.

  So far Lucy hadn't. Not that he knew of.

  Then, if it had happened, would he?

  Chapter two

  The song he was playing on the keyboard was jazzy and a bit more "boogie-woogie" in a classic sense than he normally would have gone for. It wasn't meant to be for the band though, so Tyler didn't care that much. He was just using it as an exercise. It helped to think outside the box from time to time, after all. That meant pushing yourself into areas you might not go otherwise.

  That was what he was thinking about anyway as he started to sing.

  "Time to jitter. To hop about. Got one leg, so stomp and shout." It was kind of funny, and Lucy giggled at him, sitting a good bit away, taking up the other half of the sofa they were sharing. She was stretched out a bit, like it was her life mission to make sure that Ginger didn't climb in next to him. Not that the Vampire was even trying to do that. She just sat, waiting, in the chair across from them.

  Listening to the song he was working on.

  The thing morphed as it went on, becoming a series of jokes about having a poor position and only having one leg to stand on. Still, it was humorous enough that when Rebekah and Scotty came out of their upstairs rooms they were smiling, having heard it all.

  The bone white Vampire woman, her all red eyes gleaming smiled so genuinely that about forty fang teeth showed in her mouth. It was intimidating, but also a bit nice to see. She normally didn't let her guard down that much as far as Tyler knew.

  "Hey! You're alive. We were told not to expect that..." She glanced at his leg, and then nodded, a bit more somberly. "Hence the song? I haven't heard things like that in decades. About sixty years now. Boogie-woogie. I used to love that stuff. So, keeping the new stumpy look for a while?" It was, he knew, her way of asking just how seriously he was compromised. She didn't sound all that worried, but then, he was already showing that he could sing, play, and even wasn't so mentally damaged by the whole ordeal that he couldn't make up new work.

  So, from her perspective, he was fine. Just slower and easier to catch, probably.

  "A few days to grow it back? I know that Zack is expecting me in for work on Wednesday. Sorry about vanishing like that. Kidnapping me seems to be the personal hobby of a certain annoying Greater Demon." He didn't name names, but Scotty looked a bit panicked about it all.

  That got Lucy, who they all recognized to wave at him a bit, catching his eye as she grinned. It was sort of nerdy, but not unfriendly.

  "Don't worry too much. You're under the protection of The Mistress of Souls. The Storm won't harm you, because doing so means going to war with Keeley, and that would mean her destruction or enslavement. The bitch has three of the most insane as her servants right now, did you know that? Keels, I mean. Not that she's all that bad. My point is that you, whitey here, and Steve the cutie are all pretty safe. As it stands I need to take off soon. There are rules as far as acting in another's territory and I'm already calling on my friendship with Keeley to be here this long. I just wanted to spend some time with my son for a while." She waved at him, in case they didn't get who she meant by that.

  They did, naturally.

  There was a slow nod from Rebekah, who really was very white. Her skin was the color of chalk, and her hair was pure white as well, or, if Ty were going to be honest, there might have been a slight eggshell tone to it. Her teeth were about the same as her skin, but shone a bit, being damp like they were.

  "That does match up with what I've heard. So we need to focus on protecting Tyler? I... I can stay with him, but I doubt that will stop a Greater Demon. I mean, Eve was with him when he was taken last time, and I don't think I could take her, even with a small army, so..."

  Lucy stood up and stretched, which, young seeming or not, had Scotty glancing her way. Probably due to hunger and the fact that she looked Human, rather than him being a mother humping pervert.

  "Thanks. That would still help. Eve... She's kind of in her own category, protection wise. A friend of a lot of the goodie-goods. The Line Walker, The Technician and The Mistress of Souls. The Cleric too, I think. She isn't really owned by any of them however, so she's kind of fair game. That..." There was a look around the room, and a leaning in as she stood, as if she were about to share with the whole gang some kind of secret information or knowledge.

  Then she waited, building dramatic tension. No one spoke while she let the whole thing linger.

  "Eve Benson is more than she seems. Less than a Greater Demon. Perhaps. More than A Vampire now though. All through her own efforts. You should all court her, if you have a chance. I doubt that The Storm will confront her again, if she has a choice. Eight times out of ten, in a battle between them The Snowflake would lose." Then moving toward the door, she turned at the entrance, and smiled at them. "So do the math there. Two of those times she'd kill one of my people. A thing that even your Bey could not manage and he's the only other one of you worth his salt. I do think that you youngsters could learn to be the same however, if you really try? Especially you, young Miss Harris." It sounded nice and polite, but there was no mention of a goodbye.

  Lucy just left, using the front door.

  Leaving him to fend for himself. Except that the others stayed with him too.

  Scotty sighed, and then looked around, scared still. That was what it seemed like. He was moving more than normal, at any rate.

  Tyler shrugged.

  "You should all go get some food. I think we have some blood in the fridge?" He glanced at Rebekah. She owned the blood harvesting concern for the entire country. The Human one at least. Eve owned the animal blood one, which was a big deal as far as Vampires went. There were new laws for them that meant they weren't allowed to get their own from people anymore. So if you wanted the good stuff, you had to pay.

  Cow blood was more like living off of soda and protein drinks, if he had the idea right. It could work, but it was less fun.

  In charge or not, and she really was as far as the band went, Rebekah got up and looked at the other two.

  "Miss Harris, would you like some? I need to see to myself and my charge." It was a very funny way of putting things, since she meant Scotty. Plus Ginger had been staying there, so they should have been on a first name basis by that time.

  Regardless, Ginger shook her head.

  "No, thank you. The Rotted had a real point. I need to be more disciplined. I know, it didn't seem like she was saying that, but it's one of the things that Eve has worked with me on. We really only need to feed about once every nine or ten days. She can go for months that way. Half a year or more. I think there's a trick to it, but I haven't asked yet. It's probably hard."

  That got Scotty to sit down, his body shaking a little more.

  "But the hunger..."

  Ginger, looking younger than anyone else in the room, and no one seemed old, smiled then.

  "That part is always there. Always. But just because we hunger, that doesn't mean we need to drink. It's like going out in the sun and staying up all day. Anyone can do it, if you're willing to suffer the pain." It was spoken softly, like she was suggesting shoving your hand in a fire was just another thing, as long as you were willing not to pull it out.

  Rebekah grimaced, and shook her head. Her words though were a lot different.

  "We should do that then. Scotty? I won't make you. I think that I need to finally grow up though and become a master as well. I'm over two hundred. It's time."

  That got the squirrely and squirming Bat-Vamp to make a distressed noise.

  "Fuu
uuck. That's not fair. The other kids don't have to suffer like that." He looked at Tyler then, who had a raw looking stump sticking out, and a black and white keyboard over his lap.

  There was a gentle snorting sound from Rebekah, and some eye rolling from Ginger, but Ty nodded.

  "True. As far as I go anyway. My baggage is totally different than yours. My trials, too." He flashed back to the cave then, and shuddered a bit, recalling the hunger that he'd felt at the time, the life energy he needed not coming in from his mom. Cut off like that, he'd nearly gone insane with hunger.

  If what these three had to put up with was anything like that, then he could see how not having their daily blood would be a big deal. Even if they didn't need it. It was why he'd taken his own head off like he had at the time. There was no way he could have stopped himself from eating the little boy he'd been with, otherwise. Consumed alive, because that was what his body had really needed to keep going.

  If God hadn't sent that water for the boy, Tyler would have had to kill him first, so he wouldn't suffer. Then himself, to keep from eating the body. There were things that he just wasn't willing to do, if he could help it.

  Scotty shook his head then.

  "Aye. That's always the way of things. I guess. We should do as that evil creature said then, and entreat The Snowflake to aid us? I hear that her ministrations can indeed promote learning."

  Tyler didn't get it, but Ginger nodded.

  "Yeah. She's the best at getting people to be able to stay up all day. It isn't easy, or fun, but it works. I can ask her for you? She's a friend of mine. Really, she's pretty much my best friend." It wasn't a boast, just a simple statement of fact.

  Tyler nodded.

  "That sounds good. You should see if she can do up a class for them? Maybe some of the other local Vampires that want to try it? I mean, if that's allowed." He was speaking without meaning to again. Like someone else was using his lips. This time felt different. When God had done it, there had been a tingle. Now it was more subtle.