Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (36 page)

"Tyler Gartner, this is Lyses
Holjess. Our High Ambassador. She asked to meet you, to discuss the Coalition
of Nations?" It was a question, but the woman gestured toward the sofa, so
that they could all sit. As soon as they were, Lyses started speaking fast.

"We're interested in joining
your organization, but don't really know what we, the Alede, can add
particularly. If we throw in with you, what would our expected duties be?"

Tyler smiled.

"Not that much yet. So far
we've only had to have people police their own groups really. There have been a
few calls going the other way, to get the Humans to deal with people that were
causing problems. That's about the role I think everyone should have. Though, I
am looking for people that don't mind working, if you know anyone? I
was
thinking of keeping it all Human, but really, that's stupid. I can see that
now. All we need are good people. Well that, and lots of cell phones." He
grinned.

The Alede woman did it back, and
then stood up. They all did, actually, so he followed suit.

Just before the door opened, and
the noise poured in.

There were, it seemed, more
people there than he'd expected. Before he could speak, Ginger popped her head
in.

"Come on! The party's
starting!"

The array of people outside the
door, mainly sitting and standing on the nicely mowed grass of the lawn, was as
strange and large as he could have ever asked for. True, he'd suggested that
most of the people come himself, but that wasn't true for all of them. In fact,
a lot of the beings there seemed to be strangers to him.

A good fifth of them were
Vampires though, he noticed. It was hard to tell at first, since a few of them
were just so different looking. A lot of them were just pale people, kind of
like he was, at the first glance, but some had bone white skin and lots of
pointed teeth. Two of them looked like old movie Nosferatu, with very long
fingers and pointed elf ears, along with being mainly bald.

Bey, being cool like he seemed to
be, walked over with almost all of them trailing behind him, spread out in a
line. It was kind of strange, but his words were kind, and even happy sounding.

"Friend Tyler! I know that
you invited all of the council to attend, but only these could be spared at the
moment. I hope you do not take that amiss?" He went instantly from pleased
to slightly concerned seeming, as if having failed to have the entire crew come
to his birthday party was going to be an issue worth mentioning.

"This is wonderful! Thank
you all for coming. Um, I'm Tyler Gartner." He waved a bit, doing all the
introductions at once. There were nearly fifty people, but everyone had gone
silent and stood there watching him. Over by the barbeque grill, a large and shining
silver thing that was being worked by Palma herself, stood several beings. The
ones from the pet store, who looked like dark green fish men, as well as a
bunch of Greater Demons.

Zack, Darla and Keeley. There was
no sign of The Rotted though, which made sense to him. A bunch of people had
suggested he ask her about his being dead, but there was no rational way for
him to have ever been involved with her, outside of doing some tasks that
involved finding things for her to buy. His mother was there though, next to
Zack, looking like her normal self.

Smiling, and a bit worn away at
the edges. Ty waved to her, as Palma made up a plate for her first.

The Vampires each made a point of
bowing to him and exchanging names, which had him scrambling to remember them
all. In the end he had to run inside and get his notebook, so he could make
sure he had contact information for each of them. If anyone thought it was
strange, they didn't mention it out loud to him. It was of course. Who stood
there taking your name and bits of data about you down like that in real life?
Still, they seemed to get the idea.

His memory wasn't perfect, and he
really wanted to make sure no one got forgotten. After they went, he had the
Shifter leader come up, a group of people in tow along behind him. A lot of
them of them. Two looked large and strong, like bodyguards, but the rest were
all tiny. There was a small nervous looking woman, and two children that seemed
a little timid, but were being very polite about the whole thing. They were all
very well dressed. The boys were in little blue gray suits that matched, even
though one of them was probably about fourteen years old, and the other twelve.

They seemed uncomfortable.

The older looking one walked over
first though, and stuck his right hand out.

"Timothy Samson. Pleased to
meet you, sir."

Taking the hand he nodded.

"Tyler. Nice to meet
you." Things were about to get awkward for him, since the kid was tiny,
cute and too young for him by enough years to make him a pervert if he flirted
with him, but thankfully Jahn introduced the others. That meant more note
taking.

It was interesting, since the
bodyguards shook his hands, and so did the other boy, but Magda, the wife,
stood back and twitched her nose at him as if he smelled bad. She didn't speak
to him directly either, even when he said hello. It was Tim who clued him in on
that one.

"Mother is a bit...
Prejudiced. It's stupid, but she thinks that two natured people are better than
one natured. That, unfortunately, is kind of a common thought amongst some
Shifters. It's a weakness that we should do away with." Then the slight
boy, who was being hit on the arm by his mother violently enough to leave
bruises, grinned and looked away.

"Are you trying to start a
war, Timothy?" This came from Jahn, who looked mortified at least.

Though part of that at least
seemed directed at his own wife, who was shouting a bit, shrilly, at her own
son.

Zack wandered over about then, a
plate of food balanced on his right hand.

"Jahn! Magda! So wonderful
you could make it. Did you fly in?" His voice was calm, but it did get
everyone except the tiny and rather twitchy little wife to hold still for a
bit. For her part she just turned on Zack and started berating him.

Because this person didn't seem
intimidated by Greater Demons in the slightest.

"You! If you weren't so
selfish and self-centered, we could have used the node to get here, but no, we
had to ride for two days in a van. A
van
! Oh, trust me, Line Walker, I
cursed your name the whole time. I have half a mind to hit you! The only reason
I'm not is that-" She kept going, but Tyler watched Zack's face, which was
oddly serene. Like he didn't even hear the woman at all. Then, very politely,
Zack turned and looked at the boys, addressing them by name. Tim and Gregory.

"Did you both come to get in
on the free cake, or are you making a power move finally? You really
should
get in on the Coalition now, while there are still jobs available. It doesn't
pay anything yet, but if you can't turn a gig like this into money... Well, the
fact is, you
can
. You should both make sure to get with Ty here, before
you go, if you're interested. Nice seeing you all."

Then he waved, affably, and left
with a nod for each of them, even though Magda was screeching by that point.
Being ignored seemed to upset her more than a little bit.

The others relaxed a lot though,
as soon as Zack moved away, munching on a sandwich that seemed to be chicken in
the main. It looked pretty good, actually, but there was a large salad bar too,
which was good enough for him. He was a little hungry too, so wanted to wander
over that way himself, but before he could, a warm hand took his arm.

Calley. Looking down into her
freckled face, the sun glinting a bit from the thick lenses she wore, he had to
smile.

"Hey love! I was told that I
needed to come and get you before everyone started eating. We have a place
saved for you over here? With your mother. The rest of you should follow along,
so you can get served first." She said it like she was being cute, and
didn't even jump when Gregory, the younger boy accidentally bumped into her,
feeling up her behind.

In fact, perv that she was, she
just bumped him back with her hip as they walked. A lot more obviously.

There was music thumping softly
in the background, which wasn't too much or anything. There were police there
already, since Robertson and Smith had arrived, still in uniform, for some
reason. He was headed toward the food tables though, so got himself a plate
before waving them over.

"Hey! You two should get
some food and introduce yourselves to everyone. I need to find a friend for
you..." That was easy though, since Balthias walked over and rumbled at
him.

Politely.

"Happy natal day, Tyler
Gartner. You are now a man of your society. I intended to bring you the gift of
a female slave, but all of the ones in that pool at my disposal for the moment
managed to retain their freedom for the time being. Perhaps tomorrow?"
Then he laughed, since that kind of thing was funny to giant Lesser Demons.

Which wasn't wrong really,
knowing the whole story.

He explained to the Samson's, who
had traveled along with him, and seemed to have quieted down a lot.

"I was shot the other day,
by feminists. Um, female supremacists?" It was a hard idea to get across
quickly, and they all seemed pretty baffled about it all, from the looks on
their faces. "The Line Walker, Zack, and I managed to get them out of too
much trouble, but they had to agree to fix the mess they made. Kaitlyn, the
Alede over there?" He waved to her, and got one back, since she could hear
what he was saying. "She got Balthias to come in and help us make sure the
attackers were entertained while they worked. I
was
going to play some
music for them, but you know, my keyboard is broken."

That got Calley to cuddle in next
to him a bit.

"You play an instrument? Are
you any good?"

That got him to shrug. The real
answer was that he
was
, actually, but you didn't say things like that in
public. It would make you look full of yourself.

"I do all right. Now, not to
be rude, but food would be good. Come on, everyone."

In the end he had a full plate of
food, about half of it being rice, since he needed the calories. Palma did
something to it that was
incredible
, but he didn't really know her
secret. Calley got him settled next to his mother, who reached out and patted
his arm.

"It looks like you've made
it, Tyler. Eighteen years old, and everything. I'm very proud of you. You know
that right? I would have been even if you were still living at home. The place
is lonely without you." She was whispering a bit, but almost everyone there
could probably hear her.

There was a strange dynamic at
the table after a moment. The thing could seat eight people, or perhaps ten if
they didn't mind trying to merge with the folks on either side of them. There
were only six though, at the moment. His mother, who was smiling and pleased to
be there, bumped into his side again.

Zack was across from her, and
spending most of his time looking around, as if ready for an attack to come.
Darla, The Technician was beside him, which meant that Keeley, The Mistress of
Souls, cuddled in on the other side of him, actually pressed to him as well.
Probably so she could gather all his information like her kind did.

It was a bit odd, but Eve sat at
the far end, and when he looked down at her, she shrugged.

"This group of losers were
actually my friends in high school, if you can believe it. Well, not your mom,
but the other three. Oh, I got some extra blood in. The good kind, which will
come to a little over a thousand dollars. I hadn't known that half the council
was coming to your party for
real
. I should have, but there you go, they
took us all by surprise. Except Zack, who
could
have mentioned it?"

Ty's cute boss looked over at her
and shook his head.

"And ruin the surprise?
Marissa would have cried at me if I'd done that. Besides, you all need to get
better at dealing with things like that. I'm planning on a price reduction for
any node travel dealing with the Coalition, and that means people will be in
and out a lot more often now."

There was chatter about that, and
when a lull came in the conversation, Darla looked at his notebook. The one
that she'd given him.

"Good. Keep using it. Has
everything been going well for you? Do you need anything to make your job
easier? Extra bodies or anything?"

Tyler ate some of the wonderful
rice, and then shook his head a little bit.

"Not yet. I am keeping an
eye out for some extra people to help out, so someone can take over if I get
killed. At first I was thinking an all Human group, but then I realized that
would be stupid. This isn't going to work if it's all about keeping people
separate. I should ask for volunteers. The fact that it doesn't pay anything
will help weed out the weak and lazy, I bet." He looked down the table at
Eve, who stuck her tongue out at him.

It was a childish move, but on
her it looked kind of hot. Which wasn't a thought he wanted with his own mother
being right next to him, her shoulder bumping into his arm occasionally.

The Vampire sighed a bit.

"I'd do it, of course, and
will help, but you should get people with more time in on it. Maybe Ginger and
David? Get Todd in, for the Mages..."

Names were listed off, but mainly
from people that worked at the mall, which was kind of location specific. Zack
just took his notebook and started writing down names and contact information.
A lot of it had nothing to do with anyone that was being mentioned. That lasted
while the food did. Just as everyone was finishing, which almost magically
happened all at once, the music changed from a slightly techno dance beat to a
musical version of happy birthday.

Then, very carefully, Palma
pulled the curtain back across the yard, showing a large three tiered cake,
covered with white and cream colored frosting. Okay, so it looked like a
wedding cake, but it was impressive. Also sort of on fire.

Lucy nudged him gently with her
shoulder again.

"Quick, go blow out the
candles before the Fire Department comes."

That got a laugh, but he did
hurry over. There were eighteen of the things after all, which made for a
decent fire hazard. He got them all with a single long puff of air, and none of
them came back to life. They were just candles, and once snuffed, they stayed
that way, no tricks being used to rekindle them.