Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (33 page)

"I'll get back with you as
soon as possible. One minute here. Or more likely twenty, but I'll try to hurry
so that crowd doesn't lynch you. Stay strong, Officer Ledbetter. You're our
only hope."

That
got him called a wise-ass, but
in a friendly way.

The trick was finding the number
for the Ohio embassy. He had it though, written in the notebook that Darla, The
technician, had given him for that kind of thing. It
did
occur to him
that her advice was already paying off that way. Collecting information was
useful.

It didn't take long for him to
locate the thing, which had been placed on his bed, in his room. It had been at
work, but someone had clearly brought it back for him.

A few seconds later, on the first
ring, the phone picked up and a youthful sounding woman answered it.

"Yoghurt World, this is
Ginger speaking." That was all, but it was enough for him.

"Ginger! This is Tyler, your
loving boyfriend. So, how would you like to help me with some bodies?" He
was trying to be cute, but her tone was deadly serious on the reply.

"Hang on. I need to get
someone to cover me here. I'll be right there..."

"Nope. These are on
your
end, in Ohio. Three, um, Manthori, under a bush at an elementary school? It
really shouldn't be a big deal, but the police don't know what to do about it,
so asked me. I, in turn have cleverly called you. I have directions?"

That got a laugh, and after taking
the instructions down, she giggled.

"So, I need to hurry, if I'm
making your party tonight. That bitch Eve only scheduled in three hours for me
to run halfway across the country. No one is that fast. Well, her, and Bey. And
Zack... Damn, that makes me sound lazy doesn't it?"

"Kind of, but since it would
take me about two
years
to make the same trip that way, I don't think
I'll be judging you on it, this time. Thanks."

That got a chuckle, but
apparently she
really
needed to hurry, since she only made another two
minutes worth of small talk.

The trip to the mall took him
about twenty minutes to make. Ty had to go slow, even if he were feeling all
right over all. There was just no real energy for making the trip. That, or,
and he had to admit it was possible, he might have been dragging his feet a
bit, not wanting to go and deal with people that had helped nearly kill him. He
hated nearly being killed.

The only thing worse was, no
doubt, actually dying.

His middle wasn't comfortable, at
least if he thought about it, but he could walk, and there was no incredible
pain from it all. A dull ache, maybe.

He made a point of walking
smoothly however, measuring his steps, to prevent jostling or pounding the
blacktop under his running shoes. Still, after a while he ended up standing at
the front of the bookstore, which had been tidied a good bit, but was still messy
in places. There were piles of books on the floor, for instance. All the
shelves had been put back into place however.

There were two people working out
in the room, slowly fixing the mess that had been made.
One
of them was Alexis,
and the other was the guy that had wrestled for the gun to save her life. The
skinny one that had gotten him shot three times.
Will
. Not that Tyler
was holding a grudge. It had been a noble attempt, even if it hurt him
personally.

Looking around, he noticed that
there
were
other people there. Kaitlyn for instance, was working the
front desk, even though no one was coming in actively at the moment. It was
still pretty early in the day, and the store looked like they were moving in.
Possibly out. There was no one in the world that was going to walk into the
place and think that the succubi were going to be servicing people that day. Alexis
looked pretty edgy about that one already, too. She was working constantly, but
kept glancing over at the man she was near, her body slowly migrating toward
him the whole time.

For his part, the man, Will, did
his best to ignore the hot blonde girl next to him. She looked to be about
twenty or so, but was younger than that, Ty thought. Seventeen. Really, all of
her people looked to be about the same age. Fuckable.
Ideally
so. Still,
the man that had fought the crazed sexist gunman a few days before, if ineptly,
was
trying
not to show that he was about to burst the front of his pants
open. Even if it was kind of clear he really was.

Off to the side, near the owl
door, there was a group of about ten women. No men though, even if not all of
the ones that had been in on the vandalism had been part of the shooting plan.
The government hadn't wanted to let them go. After all, someone had to pay for
the wrong doing. It had been all they could do to get Will free in the bargain.
That was what Zack had told him anyway.

Tyler approached them, to a set
of glares and hostile looks, which got him to nod.

"For
once
you have
the right attitude. You all helped get me shot. Three times." He lifted
his shirt, to show them the bandages, which just got a few sneers. "True,
that may not matter to you, but if it
doesn't
, I highly suggest you
learn about empathy right now. Otherwise things will
not
be going well
for you today."

"You can't threaten
us!"

He blinked, then smiled at the
rather dumpy looking woman that had spoken. Part of it was unfair, he knew. She
wasn't wearing makeup, and while no Alede, she could have looked different if
she'd chosen that path in life. He was just pissed off at them for being what
they were.

Assholes.

Nodding, he made himself smile.

"You'd think that, but no,
you're
wrong
. You see, this bookstore, that you and your people so ably
dismantled the other day, is owned and operated by The Line Walker. As
Humans... You're all Human, right?" He looked at them, expecting glares,
but was shocked when one of the women near the back raised her hand. She had
dark skin, and a very ample middle, but managed a smile for him. It was fake as
all hell, but she'd
tried
, which he decided meant something. Like she
wasn't insane.

"I'm... Actually a
Naga." She glanced at the others, but none of them seemed to get what that
was. Ty only knew about it from his reading of fiction, as far as that went.

"You transform into a giant
snake with the head of a woman?" There was a nod, which did get the rest
of her friends to seem a bit odd at least. "
Cool
. So
you
may
get what a Greater Demon is. Explain it to the rest of the people here, as you
work. Right now, at this moment, the only thing that's keeping you alive is
him
.
Not the law. Not your good looks, or clever social philosophy. A
Demon
.
So get out here and start putting books on the shelf, and do it right, or
else..."

That got a most of the women to
act like they were being wronged, except the Naga, who just seemed ready to
soil herself.

"Excuse me, ma'am, what's
your name?" He gestured toward the dark skinned heavy lady that could
become a snake, which probably meant she was a Shifter of some kind.

"Sue... Sir." That one
word got the other women going nicely enough.

One of the women, who had very
short hair, which was kind of cute on her, even if she was sort of plump too,
glared at him.

"He's just some piece of
shit man. Not even that. You're what, sixteen? You probably live in your mother's
basement. Are you gay, too?" There was belittlement in her words, as if
that made any sense in the real world. It was bitchy of her, and nearly insane.

"Eighteen,
today
. I
just moved away from home last week, and already I've been shot by fanatical
fucktards
that can't find their sanity with both hands and a map. Bisexual, though trust
me, I'm not taking any dates from your group this week. Anyway, Sue, you're in
charge of this group. If they don't work, tell Kait, the woman running the
store up there, and she'll make sure they're put to death. I leave it to you to
explain how serious that really is." Then he waved toward them and didn't
speak.

Sue did get them to move though,
after a few minutes of whispering. None of them seemed worried in the
slightest. Then he waved to the skinny man, Will.

"
You
, need to learn
how to fight. Or at least control where a handgun is pointed better than that. Unless
you
meant
for me to be hit like that? In that case..." He grinned,
feeling amused. More than he should have been, given the wounds on his
mid-section. "Well, then you did a great job."

The man winced, and spoke in a
slightly high pitched voice. It was being held in his throat too, and made him
sound ridiculous. Not even like a woman. Just a man that thought that females
would like him better if he seemed weak and non-threatening enough. If that was
the case, he honestly could have just been himself and it would have been fine.

"Sorry. I... I didn't know
Jess was going to be doing that. I tried to stop him, but... Like you said. I
don't even know why we're here. The police just told us that we had to come, if
we didn't want to sit in jail. I figured it would be a bit like this. Repairing
the damage and all. I'm really sorry."

Tyler didn't have the heart to
treat him badly, since if there was a dupe in the group there, it was this man.
Worse, he was pretty certain that
all
of them had been misled. The very,
very last thing that anyone with their beliefs should have ever done was to go
after the Alede.
Everyone
liked them, after all.

He just stared at the man,
smiling, for a while.

"Lower the register of your
voice a bit. You sound too far off. Like this." He made his own voice go
lower, which
did
sound manly, if a bit fake. "Straighten your
shoulders too. No one is going to beat you up for trying to stop a gunman.
Right now..." Tyler was being a prick, and knew it, but the man was also
bugging him by acting like a victim just waiting for a crime to come along.
That kind of thing, how you addressed the world, was a choice. "Right now,
Alexis, why don't you and Will go and check the side rooms?"

The girl smiled, and sighed, her
chest, which was not tiny, straining a little under her shirt.

"That's a great idea. I
should have thought of that. Come on Will." She took him by the hand, and
started to lead him away, but the guy was slow to move.

"Shouldn't I stay and do
this? We didn't mess up any other rooms here, did we?"

It was pretty plain that the man
had no clue what an Alede was. Not even a tiny bit. Which made protesting them
a poor plan on his part.

"Um... No? You should go
with her and have sex. She'll explain it to you, if you want?" Those words
got a laugh from the young succubus, and had the other guy taken away. Pulled
more than a little bit.

It also left him alone in the
store, other than the ten rather useless women there, who were finally starting
to work, and Kait. He bent slowly, kneeling on the ground, and started to
shelve what he could find that was in reach. It should hurt too much to work at
his normal speed, but half an hour later he was able to shuffle to the other
side of the thing, the floor around him clean.

The work went on that way until Alexis
and her friend came back. Then, being lazy like he was, Ty got up, with some
help from Will, and moved over to the front, where the nerdy looking Alede girl
was speaking to a nice looking Human woman. That was what he thought at first anyway.
When the light skinned blonde lady, who seemed to be in her mid-twenties,
turned, he realized that it was Judy Swan. From the movies. Today she was in a
t-shirt, which was pink, tight, and had a unicorn on the front, and jeans that
looked good on her, but not like the other Alede really.

Still, she was movie ready, even
if dressed down, which really probably said something about how hot she
actually was.

Kait smiled at him, and waved.

"There he is! Judy, this is Tyler
Gartner. The head of the Coalition of Nations? Don't be confused by his looks.
He's Human. He's just that young."

It was a normal sort of thing to
say, so he started to say hello as the woman closed with him, and then, very
carefully, gave him a warm hug.

"Tyler! We spoke on the
phone yesterday. I went to your house, but you weren't there, so I came here to
ask after you. Kaitlyn was just telling me about what happened. It's
horrible." Then there was a slow head shake, and a twisted mouth as she
stared at him. "Shouldn't you be in bed, resting?"

He glanced at the room, but no
one was listening, not unless they had super hearing.

"I'm doing all right. Not
that I can tell you why that is. Not really up for a full day's work, but Zack
asked me to come in and intimidate some women." He waved, so that Judy
would get who he meant. "Something creative, but I couldn't think of
anything that was all that great. I'm just not scary enough. Any
suggestions?"

He was being silly, but Kaitlyn
made a face, and then nodded her head.

"I might have one? Um, can
you watch the front for me? I need to chat with someone. Zack had to leave, so,
you know, no node work is being set up for now. Not unless it's for after
tomorrow."

That kind of thing happened, and
while The Line Walker was actually pretty good about getting people where they
needed to be on time, if he
couldn't
do it, for whatever reason, he did
not
seem to give two fucks about it. Not even if it meant giving back millions of
dollars.

"Not a problem. I need to go
check on some things after a bit though, so..." Telling her to hurry her
hot little behind up wasn't going to help anything, but she did seem to get the
idea.

"I shouldn't be too long.
Maybe twenty minutes?"

Which in standard Alede time
meant two hours if not more. As a group they did tend to get side tracked a
lot. Still, Kait was probably the best of them that way, as far as he'd noticed
so far.

The girl didn't wait to head off,
going toward the owl door, so he tottled,
slowly
, behind the counter.

Then, looking at Judy, he smiled.

"So, you came to be my new
girlfriend for the week? I already have two of them, not that either came to
see me when I was in the hospital. My mom didn't either. The only visitors I had..."
He made a face, the actress going a bit wide eyed for him, like he was about to
say something massively funny. "Well they were all Greater Demons.
Seriously, that
isn't
a joke. Not all at the same time thankfully."

Judy furrowed her brows, in a funny
way, and tried to give him a questioning smile.

"The Line Walker, The
Technician and The Mistress of Souls?" It was clearly a guess, but really,
a pretty good one, given she'd just gotten there. It probably meant she had a
pretty good idea of what was going on with her daughter and Kait.

"Two of three? The Storm,
not The Mistress of Souls. I have to say I would have liked
that
one
better. Keeley brought me
gifts
the one time we met, and was helpful.
The Storm keeps hinting that I have some kind of dark past I don't know about
and that The Rotted is involved. How some little girl... Anne, The Rotted,
normally looks like a kid." He put a hand out, and held it palm down to
illustrate the approximate size he meant. "So I would have noticed her, if
she was around all the time, don't you think? Honest, I don't hang with fifth
graders, as a rule."