Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Read online

  "So... I'm dead? How does that work?"

  Lucy, his mother, sat on the other side of the dark thing, and turned her body so she was facing him.

  "My powers allow me to bring the dead back to life. Or at least to something that seems like it. I'd been about to kidnap your parents when they died. Just to mess with The Storm. It really was an accident. The road was icy, and your father was speeding like a fool. Thinking that being the slave of one of us would protect him and his family from harm. It didn't work out too well for him really. He was a bright enough man, in his way, but too trusting of his master by far. Not that he had a choice in that." She stopped, and then shrugged at him.

  After a moment, a pause meant to let his brain adjust to the data, he didn't doubt, she continued.

  "The whole thing was a mess. I was the first one there, so removed your body from the wreckage. There was no way to save your life. Trust me on that. I tried healing you. Even your head had been severed from your neck. You were so tiny back then. Covered in blood, the spark of life gone from you totally. So I did something very different, to try and give you something like a life."

  Tyler nodded. It explained a bit, if not enough to make him feel better yet.

  "I was dead. But I'm not now?"

  She took a deep breath and then nodded. It came with a very forced smile. A tight thing that wasn't happy at all.

  "Tyler... You haven't been alive in a very, very long time. I've animated babies before, of course. Over the millennia things come up. I've even taken beings from far more damaged than you were, and returned them to their normal shape. In a way, I'm the master of all things dead, after all. Hence being called The Rotted. But when I brought you back, I had a plan in mind. There was one thing that I'd never done. No one has, to the best of my knowledge. I wanted to see if I could raise a Human being to adulthood, who wasn't alive at all."

  She clapped once, as if getting ready to end the conversation.

  "It worked. There was... Oh, no end of effort involved. Every bit of energy that keeps you going comes from me, for instance. Not that I notice it much, most days. You really aren't a burden on me. I've wanted to let you know that for a long time now. It was hard, getting you to grow, since you aren't alive, but I worked out how to do it. So, slowly, over time, I took you from a dead baby, to a dead man."

  Then she stood, like that was all he needed to know, or could handle at the moment. The last one was true, but he wasn't finished. Not even fucking close.

  "So, I'm dead. Your experiment worked. Do I just die now? How does that work?" That kind of seemed correct to him. Why would she keep going on with a thing like that? There were plenty of living people in the world, after all. Real ones that weren't...

  "Wait, I'm a fucking zombie?"

  She paused, but after a bit there was a sigh.

  "Yes. A very well constructed and special one, but that's what you are, Tyler. A flesh eating, undead ghoul, walking the Earth in a never ending quest to repair the life you never had. A thing made of death more truly than anything that has ever existed to the best of my knowledge. Death incarnate, would not be too strong a term for what you are."

  He blinked then, and made a face.

  "I'm a vegetarian. I don't even eat hamburgers. I mean, sure, I occasionally do go running at night, but I almost never start calling for braaains. I mean, okay, once or twice, sure, but that was just a joke." Like what he was saying at the moment was.

  The Rotted, the only parent he'd even known, as it turned out, smiled at him.

  "I sort of put the whole vegetarian thing into play. Basically you're my slave, so have to do what I tell you that way. If not for those orders, you'd be trying to crack open a skull right now. There are some other things that I kept hidden from you, so you could have a normal life. For instance, you don't really feel pain. I just got you to imagine you did, all this time. Also, you functionally can't be killed. It's a side effect of not being alive like this."

  He looked at his own middle, smooth and perfect already under his old shirt.

  "Okay. So, what do we do now? I'm a monster, so... Kill me with fire?"

  She shook her head.

  "That won't work. If I die, you do. Or if I cut your energy off, naturally. Other than that, you're in this for the long haul. I won't lie, Tyler. There are things that are problems for you, that other Humans, the living ones, never have to deal with. You really will crave flesh, if your orders are ever changed or wiped out. You can't die, but you can be trapped forever, if you aren't careful. You won't age much now. Not unless you talk me into doing that for you, or learn some kind of power that way yourself. That's something to look into. I think you have great potential to learn new things. There has never really been anyone like you before." There was a glance back at him, as she moved toward the door again. "Other than that? You're pretty normal. Hard to hurt, and immune to pain, but not much faster or stronger than anyone else would be. A few times, perhaps? Your endurance is better by a lot. Oh, and you can't get fat, so eat all you want. Or not. It doesn't really make any difference for you. If you do however, I get part of the energy from it, so it helps, if you're worried over earning your keep with me?"

  He just sat there, in shock. Not because his mother was saying some strange and messed up shit, but because he could feel it all now. His heart didn't beat, and never had. There was a coldness to him that he'd always ignored before as well.

  Tyler Gartner wasn't just dead though, he had been, his entire life.

  "How messed up is that?"

  Lucy moved over to him, and patted his hand, gently.

  "Everyone is different, Ty. There's no shame in it. If you make this into a big thing, well, it will ruin your life for a long time. If you embrace it, and actually make a point to live, then you can have a lot more than most ever get a shot at. I was teasing you a bit, about being a zombie. I mean, yes, you are undead, and the flesh eating thing without my guidance is totally real, but other than that, you're as alive as anyone. You can't have children, but you can adopt and raise them, if you want. You can create, regardless. Music, and art, new technologies, or things like your new martial art. That was kind of inspired."

  That reminded him of a few things, which got his mother glared at.

  "You... Kind of ordered me to do that. Didn't you? That, and get good grades, and not getting a girl pregnant... But, if I can't..." He was feeling baffled, and confused, but got a pat on the back of his hand so he wouldn't lose it and start yelling at her for ruining his life.

  "That was so you'd avoid sex until you were older and knew about everything. Human girls would have said something about you being cold like you are. A warm bath will fix that, if you want to entertain, by the way. Vampires do that sometimes for their Human friends. In your case laying out in the sun will work as well. Now, you can keep all this in mind. Don't let it set you back too much. Everyone dies, eventually. Even Greater Demons do. Not everyone gets to come back, and have a second chance. Use it, Tyler. Use it, and live."

  Then she moved to the door, her face smiling.

  "We need to get in on that cake. In case you haven't noticed, Greater Demons are all pigs that eat constantly. On the good side, once you decide I'm not the mother of all evil, I won't have to hide that from you anymore. I really do love you, Ty. You're my son, as truly as if I gave birth to you myself. Maybe even more than that. I know you feel like I lied to you, which I did. I just hope that someday soon you'll come to understand that it wasn't a bad thing. That you aren't a bad thing..."

  Then, his mother, the only woman that had ever been called that by him that he recalled, walked out the front door of Calley's house. Tyler just sat there for a bit, wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do now. To say he was in shock was probably underselling the whole thing.

  A bit numbly he got up, hunger gnawing at him a bit.

  There was cake to be had, and apparently he didn't really need to worry about dieting. That was a plus. Also, if he couldn't afford food,
that wouldn't matter much either, it seemed. For some reason that sounded like a silver lining, if one hidden inside a shit sandwich.

  After all, Lucy had never claimed to be his real mom, so that wasn't some crushing shock. He could even see that her animating him was about as cool a thing as one person could do for another. The only real problem was that she'd told him he was a slave too, and didn't actually have free will. Part of that was working out pretty well, no doubt. He could go all day without eating a brain, truth be told. That was probably a joke. If he were going to eat anything it would be tasty and easy to get to thigh meat. That was a lot easier than trying to go through a skull, after all.

  So, thinking that, with his sense of humor still intact, Tyler got up, and went back to his party. Dead or alive, he was eighteen. Letting his party go to waste wasn't going to help anyone.

  Chapter twenty

  The whole thing pretty much was wrapped up and put away by midnight. That was a little bit late for a thing being held outdoors, but people were actually quiet enough that no one complained. No one even expected him to help clean up either, though he did his share, trying not to think about himself or the horrible news that he'd gotten.

  Oh, he understood part of what was likely happening. The Storm had used the knowledge to try and punish Lucy. From what had been said, if it was honest, and he had no reason to think it was or wasn't, it was really about The Rotted having stolen his parents, and possibly him, away from the other Greater Demon.

  It might even go back farther than that, with retaliation going back and forth for who knew how long. Telling him though, like she had, was just the other Demon's attempt to make him hate his mom. He really wasn't all that comfortable with her at the moment, that was true. He was dead. Not alive, not even a Vampire. Just a corpse that walked around, powered by some form of magic. A thing that he didn't understand and probably couldn't.

  A freaking zombie.

  It wasn't a thing that he wanted to dwell on, but oddly enough it was all that came to mind as he picked up bits of trash, of which there wasn't much, and helped load the equipment on the truck, so the driver could take it away. Palma cleaned it up first, and wouldn't even let him try to do anything that way.

  He smiled at her, and finally just asked why that was.

  "Is it because it's my birthday, or just that I'm too slow, and will get in your way."

  The woman beamed at him, working the whole time.

  "Yes. That's precisely correct! Now that you understand, why don't you see about helping with the tables?"

  It really didn't take long to fix it all, since they had superhumans on their side. Ginger worked with another girl who had stayed just to visit it seemed. Regardless, she was a good worker, and moved fast enough it was clear she wasn't actually Human. She was also pale. Cuter than Ginger, but it was a pretty close thing that way. Honestly, that was probably down to the fact that the new girl had makeup on, and Ginger didn't.

  Just as they finished, and Palma rode off in the truck, along with the driver, Eve moved over to him, and gave him a hug.

  "So, we all heard that shitstorm earlier. Do you want me to hold you while you cry?" It should have been sarcastic and demeaning sounding, saying that he was some kind of pussy that did things like that, but it really wasn't. It seemed perfectly reasonable, like that was a real option.

  "Hmmm. No? Not that I won't take a hug or two. Crying over it won't help. It's kind of a..." He went in, waving to the others, since Calley had already taken the big speakers away. The whole set up had vanished into her room, which was interesting. After all, why would she need that kind of set up?

  They all ended up in the living room, Ginger right next to him, pressed against his body, in one of the big chairs. Calley was in the other one, with Eve and the other girl on the sofa.

  Eve, brushing her shoulder length hair out of her face, winked and glanced sharply at the other woman. She actually looked about right for him to date. About eighteen or so. Maybe a little younger than that.

  "This is Lenore Hawthorn. Ginger's Vampire mom, as well as the less important thing here as far as you're concerned, which is that she's also the western states regional director for the Vampires. Oh, also Zack's girlfriend, before you hit on her." There was a bit of teasing to her words, so he smiled.

  "I'll try not to do that then. It isn't personal, just so you know. I just don't want to be that jerky guy that's always making women uncomfortable."

  The girl, who didn't look old enough to be taking care of Ginger as a mother, gave him a look that was rather bland.

  "I understand. There are worse things to be than polite. I... I don't know if this is a good time for you. My plan was to use my contacts here to see about building an alliance with your new Coalition in my section, but I understand if you'd rather not deal with that right now. That was shocking news."

  No one else chimed in, meaning he had to answer, after a bit. Finally he nodded.

  "Yeah. I'm... Dead. It's kind of a big thing to learn about yourself." His face felt numb. Really, everything about his being did. It had ever since Lucy had told him that he didn't really feel pain, and had only been made to imagine it.

  That kind of explained a lot.

  Lenore tilted her head and frowned.

  "I was rather speaking about the part where your mother is a Greater Demon. Half the people I know are dead. That's hardly a major issue, is it? I can't say that I would have thought that The Rotted would have invested the time into such a project, but it isn't a thing to feel poorly over. After all, if you weren't what you are now, you simply wouldn't be. Plus, it gives you powers after a fashion. Greater endurance, the ability to weather damage and repair at a rate that is very useful, without a need to drink the blood of the living. It could be worse."

  Ginger cuddled into him, "that's true. I wonder, do you need to sleep?"

  Tyler made a face, and looked away.

  "What? I always do. Why?"

  "Well, if you think about it, you shouldn't really need to. Do you dream or anything?"

  That was a good question. He'd always thought he had, but then forgotten about it. Only now that it was brought up, he realized a thing that had always escaped him before.

  "I... Just lay there all night. I don't know why I never noticed that before."

  Eve made a sound that was a bit like a snort, but seemed fake to him.

  "That would be down to the fact that you're the slave of a Greater Demon. When Anne, The Rotted, tells you to do something, you have to. That's what it means. She told you that you could understand now, so, you can. That's all. It isn't a great thing, but I doubt you can get a better deal. Normally, if that happens to a person they have to die to break it. You'd have to become alive first, and then die, I bet. So, it would probably be best to get used to it, and just hope she doesn't decide being a cannibal looks good on you. So far so good?"

  Taking a deep breath, he sighed.

  "I guess. Well, that means I have several hours of nothing to do. Anyone want to go and help straighten up a bookstore? I'm kind of trying to keep busy right now. I could also do without having the feminist hit gang at my store any longer than needed. Is it wrong that they piss me off? I swear I don't hate women. I don't even hate them. They're just difficult when they don't need to be, as far as I can see. I mean, if they wanted to tell me not to sleep with the Alede, then I'll listen, but trying to kill them, just because they're different..."

  It was Lenore, who smiled a little and covered her mouth very demurely, who commented on that.

  "Trust me, Tyler, life is far too short to blame any group for all your problems. The name of the group doesn't matter, in the end. You're either the commander of your own ship, or you slave to the will of your master. Those are the only choices. You, perhaps, have a harder path if you seek to go your own way, but it's still a choice. It didn't sound to me like Anne plans to prevent you from doing that, or deny you anything you can gain for yourself. Blaming feminism for your troubles wo
uld be wasted energy, however. They simply aren't that powerful, if you don't want them to be."

  Tyler could see that.

  "Because adults are responsible for their own actions?"

  "That. Impressive that you understood. Most take a long time to get that one. Also, when you get down to it as a group, feminists are rather vilified, aren't they? You should always keep in mind what others have told you to think of groups you might be prone to dislike. They do oppose you, being that you're a man. That doesn't mean they're as bad as all that. Even if they did help in an attack on your people." She grinned suddenly, her eyes suddenly turning blood red. "Not that they should have been allowed to survive. I hear you had a hand in that?"

  She was trying to be intimidating, but it was too hard to buy the girl, even with fangs and super powers, as a real threat. That was probably thanks to the old fashioned skirt she had on. It was nice, but made her look like she was from a different era completely. Hundreds of years before.

  "We don't kill people here. We jail them. The ones that got out are mainly free thanks to a Vampire. Richard Swerlin? He asked, and the local government worked with us. It isn't a bad thing. It's just... They're pains in the ass. I do get your point. All of them, but we have to hold to the law, and be willing to bend a little, while people learn the new rules. It will take a while. I mean, there's so much to learn, isn't there?"

  Instead of lunging for his throat, the girl smirked at him, as Ginger cuddled against him even more closely.

  "Spoken like a statesman, Mr. Gartner. Well, perhaps we should go and do what you suggested? Aiding The Line Walker does me no harm. Perhaps you could inform the Humans of our aid, in the morning? I'm sure they'll be pleased to learn of it."

  Tyler was certain that most of them would be too ungrateful to be pleased about anything, but Lenore had been right. Blaming them for being what they were was as insane as blaming Vampires, or Shifters, or even Greater Demons for being what they were.

  Sighing, he held up his right hand.