Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (20 page)

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."

"Hmmm. Well, we don't want
to make up special rules just because she annoyed
me
. Still, we need to
have a conversation with her. If this happens again, we, the combined nations,
will have to take action. I have your backing in that? So far it sounds like
she's impacted several groups, and if any Human's had been harmed here, this
would have ended up in their court system. This kind of thing can end up
impacting everyone, if we aren't careful."

"I think we can do that.
I'll set up a meeting. Can you come here for that? Our headquarters?"

He was about to say no, when Zack
waved at him, and nodded.

"Just give me a days notice."

"I think so. Or we can have
you come here? Is Nellie local?" That was for Viv, who made a hard face,
and nodded at him. "Okay, is that all right?"

Zack nodded again. "Same
rule if you need someone moved around."

"All right. So we have line
travel for you, with a days notice, for this."

That got silence for a bit.

"I don't think I can afford
that."

"Don't worry. I'll handle
that portion for this one. Let's set that up."

It sounded pretty official. That
didn't actually get the whole thing settled as far as Vivian went. After all,
while she was willing to be punished, and go off to that island, the wronged
party hadn't had a chance to have her say yet. How he was supposed to get that
done, he didn't know. If the Alede woman was smart, she would have taken off,
and hidden, just in case an angry bear was coming for her for real. Any sane
and intelligent person would have.

An adult bear was at least as
dangerous as a Vampire. That was just the real ones, too. If Viv kept her Human
mind when she changed, or even part of it, she might be even more dangerous
than that. Which kind of meant that his doing anything with her had been stupid
to the point of being suicidal.

Looking up, Tyler didn't let
himself consider that one.

"Okay. We need to get with
the Alede then. Should we let them set the time on the punishment?" That
was risky. It would be really easy for a person that was scared and upset to
say a really big number. The woman nodded anyway, looking down at the last
cookie. It was that, and a pile of crumbs on the white plate. If the woman
wasn't thinking about metaphors about then, she wasn't as bright as she seemed.

How the
fuck
he was
supposed to get that done he didn't know, for about the fourth time in the last
half hour, but again, just by sitting there, and talking in a friendly manner,
he got results. It was like magic. Since he didn't have any of that, he had to
figure that people were
actually
kind of trying to help him out.
Possibly it was all for Vivian, at least now that the real situation had come
out. For instance, in this case, he got the Alede that had been attacked, parts
of her face swollen, with a cut on her left cheek.

Behind her, Calley moved to stand
with a different blonde woman, who had Ang on one side of her, and a large,
brown bearded man on the other.

It was the man, who sounded a bit
sad, who spoke first.

"They're going to strand
you, Vivian. I... Can't help you." He seemed upset about it, but in that
kind of way that said he was truly helpless.

Calley shook her head, and moved
to pat him on the arm.

"I know Keeber, but I was
there, she nearly
killed
Valerie, here. The Alede
Ambassador
. If
it was anyone else, she'd either be dead already, or about to die. This is
really serious. By Human rules she'd be in prison for years. Probably one or
two. It would be more than that if she were a man."

That was true, as far as Ty knew.
Also not really at issue. They weren't a Human court.

"Um, excuse me, Ma'am?"
He gestured to the Alede lady, who moved forward, looking far too good for
having been struck by Viv. He was as sore from his landing as he had been from
being beaten by the Vampires a few days before, himself. At least he thought
so. This woman looked like a movie character that the makeup had been done
wrong on. It was tempting to downplay her beating because of that.

He didn't let himself do it. She
moved forward, looking scared.

"Vivian, would you like to
apologize?" It made sense to him, and she looked a lot like a little kid
being called on the carpet by the teacher for pulling someone's hair.

"I'm sorry. I... Fucked up.
I did the wrong thing. I can't even explain it."

Tyler could though, and did.
After all, if anyone in the world had a right to know about it, this lady did.

"Her ex-girlfriend tried to
set her up to go after the local Shifter Ambassador. She's done that kind of
thing before, and ended up with her girlfriend at the time dying. That part
is... Well, there isn't a lot we can do about it, but Jahn Samson is coming to
talk to her himself. It isn't totally over, but the person that set this up did
it in a way to get around the rules. On the good side, it wasn't about
you
,
so you won't have any fallout from this, other than the trauma of being held at
gunpoint and beaten."

The woman swallowed, and moved
in, then touched him on the arm. A sexual thrill played down it, so he glanced
at it and smiled.

"Sorry, but take a step
back? I need a clear head, thanks."

For some reason everyone looked
at him like he was being weird. It made sense to him. The woman was being very
distracting, and while it was pleasant, that wasn't what they were there for at
the moment. Everyone had warned him to watch out for the Alede that way. Tyler
could see why, too, now that he'd met some. They were dangerous in their
beauty.

It wouldn't be hard to lose
yourself in their gaze, and find yourself their tool.

"Thanks. Now, Vivian has
agreed to go onto an island, alone, with food and water. What we need to decide
then, is how long? As the person that was wronged, I think we should leave it
to you. This is really serious." He didn't want to have her say that fifty
or a hundred years would be fair, since that was too much in his mind, but was
that
unfair
? Maybe that was what she was going to need, in order to feel
safe again.

The woman looked at Vivian, her
face going hard. That didn't fit with her entire being though, and after a
second her gaze went to the side. There was a sexy fierceness to her bearing after
a moment. It was a thing that Ty hadn't thought possible outside of a movie. A
bad one that didn't have anything to do with reality at all.

Dramatically, she tightened a
bit, and then made her pronunciation. There was very little hesitation before
she spoke.

"Two weeks." After the
words were out, she seemed worried about it, but stood her ground. Bravely too,
or so it seemed.

The others didn't seem to get it
for a bit, and it was a bit light, but he stood up.

"All right. Can you see this
done?" He looked at Ang, so because he didn't want to dump it on his
girlfriend. The man gave him a single, somber nod.

"We can, and will.
Now?"

Turning, trying not to seem like
a kid, he looked at Viv.

"Do you need time to do
anything before you go?"

"Yes. I have a dog. I can't
just leave her."

Keeber, the large man who seemed
to be a Shifter, moved to her, and patted her on the back a bit awkwardly.