Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (32 page)

Still, he tried to keep things
going, wanting to live.

"I... So, men are... Um,
driven to get sex, love and attention from women, and women... I don't know
what they want."

Laughing, a soft hand going over
her mouth, the Demon explained, like a mother might if she were talking to her
own child.

"Think. Use that brain in
your head, kiddo. Women are the ones that have the children. They're physically
weaker, and know that men want sex on a level that is baffling and hard for
them to understand, but which gives them control in many, many ways. Women want
security. More than anything else. Keep that in mind, and you'll have the key
to how they're going to react at any given point. Where men want the prettiest,
healthiest, woman, who will bear children well for them, women want to be
protected from the world."

"Um... So, the biggest, most
powerful guy?"

"Right! The aggressive bad
boy? The one that can stop the mastodon, or the other men in the tribe that
might try to harm her or her little ones. Or the rich man, who has a lot of
resources and can hire minions. Or, at times, even the high status male, who
may not have obvious wealth, but who can control the environment in some other
way that has benefits to them. If you learn to look for those things, you'll
know what women are going to do in almost every part of their lives."

Men too, given that.

He paused, and looked at the wall
of the hospital room. It was a bland and smooth thing, with no art on it, being
a white color that was nearly a soft blue under the lights above him. Lisa
didn't shift, just watching him closely for some reason, as if waiting for him
to make connections based on the tidbits that he'd been given.

"So, men will always try to
protect women? At least that's the set point? Women will always try to get the best
protective detail for themselves that they can?" It was just repeating
what was said, but that was part of good stalling tactics.

Tyler hoped.

Lisa the Demon gave him a shrug.

"There's more to it than
that, but if you can get that much, you should be able to get the rest. Think
about it. If you can see your part in all of this, you can have a choice as to
what you eventually do. After all, you can't have children anyway, so removing
that kind of thought from your worldview will only add to your ability to enjoy
yourself."

"I can't have kids?"
That was news to him.

Lisa stood up, her face twisting
a bit into a wicked seeming grin.

"Of course not. After all, Tyler
Gartner. Clerk. You aren't alive. Only the living can reproduce. Now, on that
cheery note, I'll make my leave. If you want to know
why
you aren't
alive, well, you might want to speak to The Rotted about that, don't you
think?"

She started to head for the door,
but he spoke anyway, since dumping that on him wasn't fair at all, was it?
Especially if it was true, which it wasn't. After all, if he were dead, he
couldn't have moved around. Except that Vampires did that all the time.

"Why are you fighting with
her anyway?" It probably wasn't going to be something anyone would tell
him, but it wouldn't hurt to have information, if he could get it.

Lisa turned, and looked at him
blankly for several seconds before responding. When it happened the words were
dark, and a bit sad.

"She stole something from me
once. A prize that had been mine, that she had no right to. So now I'm going to
take everything away from her. Piece by piece I will dismantle her entire
world, then destroy her so completely that no one will ever remember that she
existed at all."

"Oh." That was all he
got to say before she left, using the door like a regular person.

What he didn't know at all was
what he had to do with it.

She'd said several things to him
that he really needed to consider. It was hard. That part surprised him a
little bit. After all, he'd just been told that he wasn't alive, had no
heartbeat, and that a Greater Demon that he didn't really know had been around
in his life for years. That wasn't normal. The ideas just wouldn't stick in his
head for some reason however. It was like he was dreaming, and the information
just couldn't hold in place when he woke up.

Actually, after a bit, he decided
that was what had actually taken place. The Storm hadn't been there with him,
telling him those things. Not really. His confused mind had simply made it up
for some reason. Boredom, most likely. He didn't even have a television in his
room. That probably indicated he was in the ghetto section of the hospital, he
bet. A thing that was probably good, in the end. After that night he'd get to
go home, and paying an extra hundred dollars a day just for something to do
wasn't a good trade off for a poor guy like him.

The nurse came back in, a while
later, and made sure he had food. He didn't eat most of it, since they'd
brought him Jello and ice cream. Both were things that weren't in his diet.
There was applesauce too, so he had that, and tried not to whine about not
having enough. For some reason Tyler really didn't feel hungry anyway. Only he
did, at the same time. A constant gnawing that was always there, but couldn't
be fixed by having fruit.

The night was a bit restless, but
there were no more dreams of Greater Demons coming to tell him uncomfortable
truths, and in the morning they let him go. He hadn't really made any plans as
far as getting back home went, figuring that his mom might come to get him. She
hadn't been around the whole time, which made him wonder if anyone had even
told her about the shooting. If not... Well, the time to let her know about it
was
after
he was back home and mostly fine then. That didn't get him to
where he needed to go however.

To his surprise, Zack was at the
front desk when he was wheeled past. The hospital was insisting on his riding
in a chair, even though they weren't letting him borrow it. It really didn't
make sense to him, since, if he was ready to walk on his own, why not let him?
They claimed it was all about rules they had. Left over things from the last
century, that mainly had to do with liability insurance.

His boss, looking cute, pale
skinned and slightly Japanese, winked at him warmly.

"Hey Ty. I figured it would
be easier for you to get home with me than to call a cab. Cheaper, too. I hear
Judy Swan is coming in to take care of you? That's good. I was going to do it
myself, but she's a good person. You should try to make friends with her."
There was a pat to his shoulder, as the world shifted, ending them both in
Calley's living room. His now, too. There was no one else there however.

It was just him, Zack, and the
now stolen wheelchair.

"One sec." Zack moved a
bit, took him under the arms and lifted him like a small child, out of the
chair. The physics of it didn't work, but there he was almost floating over to
the the sofa. Then the thin Demon turned back, touched the chair and vanished.
A few seconds later he was back. "That way we won't be charged for it. You
don't really need it anyway. You're almost better already. You
would
be,
if they hadn't cut you up like they did."

That got him to look down at his
middle. The pain wasn't that bad, but he had to figure that was due to the
drugs. Not that he remembered getting any of those really. Some pills, but the
good kind came in shots, which didn't do anything to him, since his blood
wasn't moving much in his veins. As he did it, Zack shook his head a little.

"No. It's like The Storm
said. You aren't alive. You haven't been the whole time I've known you. I can
work out how it happened, but I think you'll be better off getting the story
from Anne. The Rotted? I haven't been able to get in touch with her for a few
days. That can happen however, so don't let it worry you." He smiled, like
telling people they were dead was a
normal
thing to do.

"I... I can't really be
dead. I mean, the heart thing, but..." His brain tried to shut down again
on the topic, even as Tyler desperately clung to the whole thing. In the end it
didn't really work.

"Look, you can't really do
this right now, which is why you need to talk to Anne about it. For now, just
know that you pretty much
aren't
going to need six weeks off work like a
regular lazy Human. Really, you should walk over later, and yell at some
feminist radicals with me and Kait. They're coming in for their first day of
work in a few hours. That was your idea, so it's only fair that you suffer for
it. Not that it's a horrible plan.
We
get free work, and you get Richard
Swerlin owing you a favor. Plus this way we can torture them a bit for annoying
us." He sighed and looked away, then back at the seated Tyler.

It was a telling thing, but what
it said was too hard for him to think of at the moment. Zack grinned though,
after a bit.

"Darla thinks that I should
have them all killed for harming one of my valuable employees like that. I did
mention to her that not all of them were really in on it, so I
should
be
killing them for harming my valuable books, but I think she likes you, in
particular. That part will be up to you though, since you're the head of the
Coalition of Nations, and it's your word and agreement that got them free from
Human custody. I do think that we should set
something
up. Otherwise
they'll think it's all right to annoy me, and I
really
can't have that.
Think of something good, will you?"

Then as if that were the closing
line, he left, just moving to the side, and not being there anymore. It was
cool as fuck. Really, it had to be awesome to have super powers like that. All
he could do was be hit by bullets and not die. Sort of. Still, it was very
early in the day, and he didn't need to sleep, so Tyler stood up, very slowly,
and hobbled over to the bathroom. A shower would be nice, since they hadn't
really done anything to keep him clean at the hospital in particular.

Not even a sponge bath from a hot
nurse or
anything
. True, he hadn't been in the mood for that kind of
thing, but still, they could have
offered
. What was he suppose to write
about now, when he retold the story? It took a while, but the wounds on his
middle, while puckered and sewn shut, really didn't seem bad. There was no
redness, and they really did seem almost healed over already. It still hurt a
bit, he figured, but it was pretty clear that he was, like Zack had claimed,
pretty much better already. Like they were just lines of stitching on his
flesh, not real wounds at all.

That was hard to think about, so
he walked through the house, naked, to get to his room. It wasn't a far trip,
but he'd forgotten to get clean clothing. It would have been too risky
normally, since he was flashing the world, but no one was there, so it wasn't
that big of an issue, he didn't think. Looking around in the short hallway
space, his slightly damp feet on the hardwood floor, Ty half expected someone
to come in and catch him. No one did though, since normal people worked during
the day.

What did happen though was his
cell phone ringing. It was in his pants pocket, which was held at the moment in
his hand. That was a horrible habit to get into, since he'd really forgot the
thing. If he'd done the wash, it would have been destroyed in there, he bet.
Standing there naked and still a bit moist from the shower, but feeling
springtime fresh, thanks to the soap he'd used, he answered the thing like
always.

"Coalition of Nations. This
is Tyler Gartner. How can I help you?"

There was a polite pause, and
then a male voice spoke, sounding a bit reticent.

"Ah... Yeah, hi. This is
Officer Mike Ledbetter. Canton Ohio PD? We, uh, found three, erm people?
Vampires. The tall white kind? They're outside though, just laying under a
bush. We were told that if we have anything we don't know how to handle to pass
the buck to you people. I have to admit, I'm lost here. Normally I'd just say
screw it and leave them, now that I know what they are, but it's right near a
school, and the parents are getting a bit worked up." From the sound of
it, those parents were right there. Being agitated, like he'd mentioned.

"Okay. You have the right
idea. They won't be awake for a good long while. Though, why are there parents
at a school? Don't you have summer vacation there?"

"Yeah. There's this special
program for genius kids or something. Math camp? So it would be best if we can
do something about this. We could just move them, but I don't want to end up
with some wild and flailing Vamp in the back of my car if I can help it. I just
cleaned it. It would be a shame to have the doors ripped off."

Which
was
a point, even if
the man was being funny.

"No problem. We'll call the
local embassy there and let
them
deal with it. It will be a bit. I need
to make some calls. Can I get a location for that? An address so we can send
people there directly?"

It took a bit, since he had to
run to the other room for a pen and some paper. Thankfully Calley had a pad on
the fridge. It had a partial food list on it already. Turning the page he
started writing the info down right under the red rooster in the left hand
corner of the otherwise white page.