Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (10 page)

It wasn't even a fight, getting
the man to go with her to one of the reading rooms off to the side. Not a
conversation either. She just walked up, said no more than ten words, and took
his hand. Tyler could see that one happening, so wasn't too shocked about it.
If she'd walked up to him in almost any situation and done the same thing, he'd
have gone with her too. Not having a lot to do, he headed toward the back, in
case the woman there, Palma, actually had something she needed.

He approached the back counter, his
face hesitant as he regarded the white clad and curly haired lady there. She
was a bit blocky, but didn't seem fat, just cut kind of square.

"How may I help you today,
sir?" Her voice was firm, and deferential at the same time. Her hands
though, were amazing. She was talking to him, but kept working the whole time,
never stopping or wasting any motion. Just flowing from one thing to the next,
perfectly. It wasn't super speed, but it was a thing that he tried to strive
for in his martial arts practice. So far he hadn't made it.

This lady had.

"I was wondering if
you
needed anything? I'm supposed to help you, if I can?" Zack had mentioned
something like that, he thought.

"Oh? Wonderful! I'm fine for
the moment, but this crowd will thin out in about twenty-three minutes. If you
could sweep and mop out here? That will leave me to simply get ready for the
lunch crowd." She gestured at the area that tables and chairs were set up
in. They were all white, and the tables were glass topped. Crumbs and messes
showed in a few places.

"I can wipe the tables down,
too. If I get a chance?"

The lady smiled at him like he'd
invented being polite.

"Perfect, love! The rags are
over here, behind the counter."

He took that as meaning he needed
to do that right then, so got to work, moving quickly and trying to copy the
flow that Palma had. Tyler thought that the trick was in making a point to pay
attention all the time. That and not letting himself stop to think, planning
out what came next while actually moving.

Really, it had two main effects,
the first was that he got more done, in a shorter time period. The second was
that, the woman behind the serving counter seemed to understand what he was
doing and smiled. Then loaded him with more work.

It was just running a full tray
of food over to Zack though, who was in his office in the owl room. The tray
was brown, plastic and had a cork like lining to it, and was filled with
pastries of a dozen different sorts. Heaped high enough that it was work not to
drop any. Still he managed it, settling the thing on the desk in the back. It
got a large smile from his cute boss.

"Hey Ty. I have a set of
things coming in starting at one-fifteen. You need to take off and see Ginger
and Calley at noon so I'll come out and handle the sales floor. Hiram has today
off, but Ben will be in to take over at six." Then he started eating
instantly. It was an almost frantic thing too, like he couldn't stuff enough
into his face.

"Thanks. I need to go clean
the cafe area right now. Unless someone comes in, I mean."

"Remember to put out the wet
floor signs when you mop. People are always looking for way to sue places like
this."

It was a point, and one that even
his mom had mentioned a few times. There was a whole group of people in the
world that just went around trying to find ways to get free money from people.
Not that he didn't understand the idea, but faking being injured to do it
seemed low.

He tried to move from where he
was over to the supply closet smoothly, and got the floor swept before anyone
came into the store. When that happened it was a woman, and while she waved at
Kait, she just glanced at books for a bit, rather than escaping to the side
room with her. At first he wondered if she were an Alede, since she had that
nearly unreal air about her, but the long haired woman, who
was
good
looking enough for that, didn't seem concerned with anything except what she
was doing. That meant he had time to mop, being that the area wasn't very
large, after getting the yellow folding caution signs out. There was no one in
the cafe area, just like Palma had said would happen. When too. Twenty-three
minutes almost exactly like she'd said.

Hustling to put the mop and
bucket in the back closet, he hurried over to the woman, and tried really hard
to forget that she was one. Tyler was at work, and blushing nervously wasn't
exactly going to help him in life. The golden blonde, who had a bit of curl to
her hair, looked up as he approached.

"Hi! Are you finding
everything all right today?" It was what clerks in stores
said
, so
he didn't need training for it.

The woman, who looked no more
than a year or two older than he was at most, smiled.

"I'm good for now. I'm
waiting for Zack to get out here, actually. I have some things for him to do
while he works." There was a brushing at her hair, which couldn't have
actually been in the way being held back like it was. So it was either
affectation, or habit.

It was a funny thing to say, too.
Things for him to do. Like she was his boss, or possibly wife. There had been
no mention of anything like that, but Tyler could see it. The lady in front of
him was easily good looking enough to get someone like Zack.

Rather than just guess, he asked.

"You have things for him to
do
while
he works? That's different, isn't it?"

"Oh, sure. It's just some
basic magical patterns I want him to hold while he's not Line Walking. I'm his
mentor. Also his Aunt, in case that comes up? Darla Gibson." She put her
hand out to shake, which he took instantly. Rather than smile again, the woman
tilted her head a little bit, as if she were suddenly curious.

Then she surprised him a lot.

"You know, we should get
together later. For now, I think you should start a notebook, and keep track of
everything you're learning. It might help you out, later. You have a unique
perspective. At least you
can
if you keep paying attention and apply
yourself. Not that you have to do what I say, but a good idea is a good idea,
don't you think?" Then she let go of him, and didn't wait for a reply.

That was because Zack was coming
out of the owl door, which Tyler realized, meant it was near his own lunch
time.

Without a word, he went to the
back and ate three pieces of fruit, two bananas and a pear, then washed up and
headed toward the front of the store at a quick march. He didn't know where he
was supposed to find the girls he needed really, even if he knew where they
both worked. It could be his job to collect them, and if they were leaving the
mall, it might take them a while. Zack had made a point of telling him that
he'd be needed at one-fifteen, if not slightly before that, so there wasn't a
lot of time to waste.

"Okay, so Calley first,
since she's closest. Then we can swing by and get Ginger, if we can. I really
should have called first." It was an oversight, actually. Then, neither of
them called him either, so it might be fair.

It turned out, as soon as he got
all the way out into the hallway of the place, that it wasn't that hard to find
the girls after all. They were both in front of Brand Village and walking
toward him quickly.

The adorable redhead with the
glasses waved at him like they were long lost friends.

"Ty! We should hurry, since
you need to be back in about an hour." They were both moving at a good
clip, and dressed as differently as you could get really.

Ginger looked ready to work at a
fast food place, more or less. No uniform, but she was in jeans and t-shirt. A
pink one with gray sleeves that left him feeling bad about how cute she was
until he recalled that she was actually older than he was by a few years.
Totally fair game, just young looking.

The other girl was dressed like a
professional woman, in a skirt, hose and dressy jacket that matched the rest of
the outfit. She also moved like she was on crack, flapping and twitching
constantly, even as she walked along.

"Come on. It isn't far. We
can jog over."

She meant it, even if she wasn't
dressed right for that kind of thing. Neither was he, but she wasn't kidding.
They hit a decent speed the whole way. The house they were going to was no more
than three blocks from the mall, on the back side, past the movie theater that
he hadn't known about until they went past it. Even better than that, most of
the trip was taken up with parking lots, which meant they were at the place not
seven minutes after they started. True, running, since the women with him
didn't seem to understand the idea of
jogging
in particular, but he was
only a bit out of breath when Calley unlocked the front door.

"Home sweet home!" It
wasn't a vast palace, but it was clean and looked well kept up inside.

Tyler followed the others in,
watching everything carefully the whole time. The front space had hard wooden
floors, and he caught a glimpse of a rather large kitchen through a set of
double doors. They were the swinging saloon kind, and done in dark stained
pine.

Calley went into a speech then,
one that sounded a little breathless and excited.

"I own the place outright,
so I won't have to charge a lot. I'm... You know, Bat Shifters are social
animals, so I kind of
need
to have people around. That's an actual thing
for me, so..."

Ty filed that one away. She was a
Shifter, which probably meant Brand Village was her embassy. A Bat too,
whatever that really meant. Changing into a bat, probably, which beat his super
power of infinite patience, as far as coolness went, by about ten thousand
times.

"We have two free rooms,
though if you need we can switch around. I'm not that picky. Here... The first
one is kind of small." She moved to it, and showed that the thing was
about the size of a walk in closet.

Not that it was too small for him
really, since all he'd need was some clothing and a place for a bed. Tyler
resigned himself to getting that tiny room then, since he wasn't a girl. They
always had more stuff, he thought. That was the rule, at least as far as
television had taught him.

The other room however, was a
decent ten by twelve thing.

Fluttering a bit, the Bat-girl
moved in and touched him on the back, then she did the same with Ginger.

"So, you don't sleep,
right?" That was for the Vampire, who nodded firmly.

"True. I could take the
smaller one? How much?"

Calley shrugged, her movements a
bit agitated. That seemed to just be part of how she rolled, so Ty didn't let
it bug him. "How about two hundred a month? Each? That covers electric,
and reasonable food too. Animal blood, not the expensive Human kind. You only
eat fruit and stuff, right Ty?"

That she knew that amazed him for
a second.

"Right. Some rice and stuff
on occasion." He was ready to explain the health benefits, when she just
smiled at him like he was brilliant.

"Good. I have family that
are fruit bats, so I'm used to the idea.
I
pretty much just stuff my
face when I can, but I can shop for that. The bathroom is decent, but we have
to share. Kitchen... There's a basement, but I just use it for storage. You can
too, if you need?" The whole thing was shown to them. Including her
bedroom. It was the big one, and had a private bathroom, but he could see that,
she owned the place, so it seemed fair.

Ginger looked at him, and then
nodded.

"I think we'll take
it?"

It was fast, and he didn't have
any money, but he should have some soon enough, he hoped.

"I won't get paid for a
while, but..."

"No problem. Like I said, I
need
people around. It's been weeks since my last roomie moved out. He got married,
the bastard. I offered to let them both move in here, but his wife is a Human,
and not open minded enough for that I guess? You two are good that way though,
right? I mean, if I have a friend over occasionally?"

It was her place, so he just
shrugged. Listening to her getting it on probably wouldn't be that wonderful,
but he'd live. Other people had roommates and did all right, so he could
probably do it too.

"Should be fine?"

"Awesome!" They were
both hugged then, which meant a tight and fairly hard body being pressed
against him. The girl was incredibly warm, he noticed. Probably due to an
accelerated metabolic rate. He didn't know if all Shifters had that, but it
would make some sense, he thought.

Then the woman danced a bit in
place. It was a slightly chaotic thing, but her words were clear enough, for
all that.

"You can both move in now?
Today? We'll need a truck. I can borrow one, I think. You get off at six, when
Ben gets in, right Ty?"

He didn't really know, but
nodded, since that sounded right. That the Bat-girl in front of him knew as
much as he did about his schedule didn't make much sense, but she wasn't wrong.

"I think so? It could be later.
Not that I have a lot of things that need to be moved. It would be good to have
a bed, but mine is being used right now. It won't be free until nightfall, I
don't think."