Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (3 page)

"Looks like these folks have
it right. The Chief put out a memo on it just as we pulled up. We're dumping it
on the Vamps, since this is all their own people. Except..." She looked
over at Tyler, her face worried suddenly.

Ginger waved his way though, and
lied
,
as if it wasn't a problem at all.

"Mr. Gartner is one of our
employees. That's why he was able to take on all those Vampires like that. He's
special. We'll handle that part of things. He's one of us. The one that made
sure we got here in time to clean up the mess." Then as if to accentuate
the point a bit of lead popped from a wound near her left hip. She glanced down
at it and let a small grin play on over her face. "So, unless you all want
to hang out? These people aren't going anywhere until the sun goes down. We
should have them off the street inside an hour. The top of this next one I
mean, so about five minutes. Before dogs come and pee on them or anything like
that."

That was enough to get the men
and women in blue to leave. It meant standing there, while the Vampire girl,
and that had to be what she was, given the powers she'd shown, healed up.
Enough so that when Eve popped back into existence, her first words were
predictable.

To Tyler at least.

"Good. You can run the last
woman back and wait there. We'll tuck Tara in the car with us. Make sure to jar
that bitch around a little bit as you run. Really dig a shoulder into her
middle. Freaking morons. Ruining my weekend like this. Come on, Batman."

He didn't correct her, but kind
of wished he'd said something else now. As the woman picked up the all white
form from the ground like a baby cradled in her arms, her double rows of teeth
showed through her gaping maw of death. Ty shook his head, but started walking
anyway, even though it would be a lot quicker for him to just go home. He didn't
know if the promised healing thing would do much, but he wasn't going to say no
to it either. After all, until that day he'd only ever met one Vampire that he
knew about for certain. The one that had spoken at the library. Linda, the tiny
and attractive one that he'd
forced
himself to chat with. No Mages or Shifters
at all. It also wasn't like he had to be at work or anything, having not
managed to get a job yet.

That... He was dragging his feet
there, he knew. The thing was, he
could
get on at someplace like
Burgerville, and knew it. They
were
hiring, according to the big sign
out front, and it was honest work, if fast food. It was mainly that he'd just
graduated, and while going to Europe for the summer was out, so was going to
college in the fall. His grades
had
been good enough, but he hadn't
managed a big full ride scholarship or anything. Since the other road in that
direction meant going into the job market with a vast debt hanging over his
head, he'd figured out that his best option was to skip that, and just start
working. The thing there was that, while he didn't look down on
anyone
that worked, he really didn't want to start out in the food industry. Not that
low down in it at any rate.

So, he'd been a bit selective
that way, which meant no call backs yet, as far as employment. Ty needed to
find something though, since making his mother keep supporting him after he
turned eighteen was just
wrong
. She'd
done
the single mom thing,
and now it was time for her to be free of him. Not that she'd ever say that. It
was just really clear to him.

With a nod, he waited for the
girls to get underway before speaking. It was important not to be rude, though,
on the good side, if he did that with Eve it would almost certainly be about
him not talking to her, rather than saying the wrong thing.

"Call me Ty?"

That got the woman to bob her
head a little, the light blonde hair of the very white Vampire on her shoulder
contrasting with hers nicely.

"Right. Though that Batman
thing...
Incredible
timing. It would have looked bad if it had been
later, unless they ran then too. Not that I blame them. Given everything, and
the time of day... Well, they were all so out of it by then that they probably
thought you were the real deal. Fresh off the movie screen just to kick their
asses. We should mock them with that later. You know, really rub it in?
If
we don't kill them, I mean."

Thinking about it, he let himself
smile. His nerves weren't totally settled yet, but it was hard to tell if that
was about the girl or not. It
could
have been the nearly dying part of the
morning's events, come to think about it.

The walk wasn't too far for him,
since he wasn't carrying anyone. About a block. Eve seemed not to mind, and had
them all loaded up into a tiny Japanese car that looked a bit the worse for
wear, about five minutes later. It occurred to him that she was going very
slowly, so that he wouldn't have to push himself too hard.

Really, that seemed pretty fair.

Tyler had heard about the place
that they ended up in. Not
all
of the once secret embassies were in
shopping malls, but in the ones that were, the Vampires all ran Yoghurt Worlds.
It was a tiny chain, with only twenty or thirty stores in it. If they were all
like this one, they were nice. The place was clean, when they walked in, on a
level that he'd never seen in a food place before. Not even the occasional nice
restaurant he'd been to.

Every surface that could shine
did. The stone countertop was immaculate, and the glass and chrome edging
gleamed. Even the gaudy orange and yellow topped tables and booths were
perfect. Eve walked in with Tara, the Manthori, over her shoulder again, and
waved with one hand at the black man behind the counter. He was a lot better
looking than Tyler, had more muscle,
and
a nice suit on. With a green
and white apron over that.

"Hello! Did you come for
breakfast? We have a new donut parfait that I hear isn't too bad." The
voice that came out was rich, mellow and relaxed. He was looking right at him
though, so Tyler shook his head.

"No thanks. I
kind
of
left the house without any money. Besides, I try to only eat fruits and
vegetables." Before he could add in that he didn't mean any offense, and
that it was just a fitness thing, the man smiled at him.

"I can make you a fruit salad?
You aren't allergic to anything, are you?"

"Shellfish? If you put that
on a fruit salad though, then no one should eat it."

It got a polite chuckle at least.

"Good point. Now, why not
take a seat. I notice you have a wound there? Do you need some help with
that?"

Eve and Ginger both popped out of
the back, and the younger girl explained it for him, which was nice of her. He
just wasn't great with new people. He liked them, he just didn't have an easy
time knowing what to say about it.

"Tara was attacked by a
group of Vampires near sunrise. Tyler saw it happening and fought them all. By
himself
.
One of them stabbed him in the arm. Then they tried to escape, once they
realized they couldn't win, but he caught them all. I was
going
to help,
but Eve and I got there just in time to see that he wasn't going to lose. We
didn't want to insult him by jumping in when he was doing so well. He might
have taken it the wrong way, and beaten us up too." It didn't make a lot
of sense, but Eve joined in, her fresh face happier now, for some reason.

"No shit, Edom. Then the
cops came and started giving us crap, even though the whole thing had already
been called in. It was a timing issue, I think. You know, instead of Althea
Sims
trying
to jerk us around? They shot Ginger, and then-"

The girl, the youthful looking
one, though who knew how old she really was, waved at Tyler.

"Then we told them that Ty
here works for us. I did. Just to stop the hassles."

That got a bowl of fruit salad
pushed across the counter. More to the point it was a really large wax paper
half cup thing. Filled to the brim with fresh things. No oysters or anything,
so using his good hand he took it, and then tried to find the forks. They
actually had them, on each table, next to the spoons and knives. All of them
were plastic, but it was kind of handy.

The man behind the counter seemed
impressed for some reason.

"That's not bad. There are
five back there, you fought them all?"

He nodded as he tucked a half
strawberry in his mouth. It let him stall for time for a few seconds while he
thought.

"If we can call that
fighting. I
should
have died, but I got lucky. The time of day,
mainly."

That got the man, Edom, to stare
at him for a bit, then look over at Eve. Something passed between them, but it
was hard to tell just what that might be.

The Vampire woman made a bit of a
face, then shook her head, ever so slightly.

"He's what he
seems
.
Understood? Delicious and sexy. We should see if he wants to go down to Zack's
for a bit. Having
him
look out for Tyler might keep these bozos off his
back. They aren't going to like the fact that he spanked them like little kids.
Not that he can't do it again. It was
skill
, not just luck. Still, day
after day of endless fights might wear him down. Or, possibly, annoy him enough
that he blames
all
of us for it. We should stop that train before it
starts."

That got the good looking man,
probably also a Vampire, though there was no way to tell from the outside, to
look away for a bit, like he was thinking.

"Not a horrible plan. You
mentioned that Zack needs help anyway? Especially on nights. Maybe you should
take our new friend over and see if that's a thing that can happen?" The
man shrugged. "Zack's a great guy. No one wants to mess with him. So if he
agrees, that might prevent you from becoming...
Annoyed
, as Eve
mentioned."

She watched him eat then, and no
one spoke for a long time, until the last bite, a piece of fresh banana, was in
his mouth. Then the long haired girl, who looked a bit like she had something
slightly darker than Norwegians in her ancestry, flowed to her feet, and took
his little paper bowl thing, along with the fork he'd been using, and tossed
them both. Then she wiped down the table quickly as he stood, and was at the
door when he got there. Ahead of him, even though that really shouldn't have
been physically possible.

Not for a Human.

"This way!" The girl
walked quickly, but didn't vanish, which meant something. That she didn't want
him to have time to think, but also wasn't trying to show off really, he guessed.
It was his first time there, at Westfield. His mom had never really had the
kind of money that going to a mall location for anything implied. She worked as
a waitress, and had his entire life, as far as he knew. It was kind of
miserable for her, but she
never
complained about it. She just worked,
six days a week. Long hours too, since rent wasn't cheap.

There were some strange places
there. A knife and sword shop, which he could kind of see being there, since
people liked shiny things. Also an herb shop. It
was
Washington State,
but that didn't mean they were allowed to sell weed openly. It was probably
simple remedies and that kind of thing then, since there were no grow lights
being displayed in the window.

They had a place called Brand
Village, which they stopped at, as they passed.

It didn't seem to be the
destination though, just because a rather dorky looking redheaded girl with
thick glasses came out. She was dressed too nicely to work at a place like
that, with a professional looking skirt on, as well as a jacket over a bright
white shirt. The thing was, she also looked adorable. It was enough that he
blushed a bit when Eve put her hand out to stop him from walking.

"Calley! This is Tyler. You
heard about the thing earlier?"

How that could have happened, he
didn't understand, but the friendly seeming woman, who looked to be about
twenty-something, in the small numbers, nodded violently.

"I sure did.
Great
story. We should all get together later. You eat food, right? You had that
fruit salad." This was addressed to him, and since she was cute, but not
going to be a model in the next few days, Ty was able to actually not feel too
bad, chatting with her.

"Mainly fruits and veggies.
I know it's a weird diet, but-" He was about to go into the health benefits,
and how he
did
eat eggs too, but the woman just reached out and took his
right arm, and held it, at the elbow.

Her hand was very warm.

"Great. So, let's do that?
We can meet for lunch, if you aren't busy?"

Eve waved at his other arm,
"healing then, I bet. Dinner? I won't be there, but you two should hook
up. It never hurts to have friends. Right now I'm trying to get him on over at
the bookstore. There are things, and reasons. Don't mention anything. Spread
the word?"

As if that was just the normal thing
to do with slightly sweaty people in running gear, she moved him along with a
hand on his back, leaving the adorable woman behind. He actually looked back,
and blushed when he noticed Calley was still there, watching them.

He whispered to Eve, forgetting
to feel awkward about it.

"Is she single?" It
was, he realized, the second time he'd ever asked that about anyone in his
life. The other time the girl had turned out to be the girlfriend of the guy he
was talking to, so
that
hadn't gone over too well at all.

He winced, doing it so clearly
that Eve got it. She glanced back and then looked at him as they kept moving.

"Seems so, since she's
nodding about it. You should totally get with her then. I mean, you're
both
incredible people, so it makes sense. Before you ask, no, she isn't my
girlfriend.
My
girlfriend works at the place I'm taking you. My
boyfriend too... But you know, if you can get them into bed, fair game.
Actually, if you can get Ben to go for it, I'll record the whole thing. That
sounds kind of hot."

He nodded, but couldn't make
himself speak. He wasn't
exactly
a homosexual or anything. He didn't
think so. If that was the case he wouldn't have that much trouble talking to
women in particular. Then, it
had
been hard to speak to Edom, and really,
if he was going to be honest about it, if the man had his dick out, he probably
would
suck it. That
was
kind of gay. On the great side, he didn't
have a problem with that.

Just as they got to the front of
the place, he managed to take a deep breath, and nod.

"All right. I'm not sure I'm
into that. Being online, I mean. If it comes up I'll let you know though? I
could use a tape like that in case I ever get famous. That's a thing now,
right? All the cool kids get one?" He meant it, even if it was a very strange
thing to be saying to someone he'd just met.

Without removing her hand, she
moved closer, and pressed her cool body against his. He thought it should be
cool. To be honest, it just felt right. About the same as him, really.

"Perfect. I'll set it up.
Don't worry. I..." She looked around the place, which was the size of
two
decent bookstores. It also had a full cafe, one with people in it, even though
it was still pretty early in the day, in the back on the left. There was a cute
guy sitting at one of the tables, leaning over a tray that was filled with more
food than seemed possible for a football team to eat at once. Still, skinny or
not, he seemed game to try.

He looked a bit Asian, around the
eyes, and seemed lean. Hard, from the way his muscle was playing under his
shirt. It was clear that he knew Eve at least, since he waved at her, and kept
a smile on his face as she came over.

"Zack? This is my new buddy,
Ty. I was wondering if-" Before she could finish, the man leaned over and
held his hand out to shake, taking in the blood spotted blue bandage as he half
stood. Then he searched his face for a bit. After a moment, one that seemed a
bit like the man was trying to come on to him, which produced much blushing, he
sank back down, very gracefully, and nodded.

"Nice to meet you! Are you
looking for work?" It was a simple enough thing to ask, and while a bookstore
wasn't his first pick to get a job at, it
also
wasn't fast food, or
waiting tables.

Unless, and he looked around at
the place they were in, it was. That
still
wasn't fast food. It was the
one thing he was really holding out for. Something
other
than that.

"I am. Not to sound goofy,
but I do like books. I read a lot. Mainly free ones from the library.
Um..." He glanced around and then shrugged. "I have no experience at
all, but if they go up alphabetically, I can learn how to do it." That put
him as being almost out of things to say, but the cute guy made a considering
face, and then ate a filled croissant thing. When he was done, he nodded.
"It isn't really that hard here, most of the time. Most of the people that
work here are different. You know about the embassies, but there are some
things that haven't made the news yet. Different groups that aren't out. We
need to keep it that way, until they're ready. Almost every place here
is
an embassy, so being diplomatic is part of the job."

Eve seemed pleased enough as she
settled into her chair.

"Yeah. This isn't one of
those. Zack, well..."

There was more eating and no
talking for a bit, until the good looking man finished that. Then he just
looked around, and pointed toward the front.

"The big draw here is that
we have several Alede. Succubi, and Incubi. They spend most of their time
entertaining people in the rooms to the right. It's safe. They only harvest
spent life energy, so you get the idea, they spend a lot of time getting people
to produce it. All of them are nice.
Horrible
workers. Or, to be more
fair, so-so workers, who get distracted really easily.
Try
not to do
that during working hours. Really, if you can muster the fortitude, try to ignore
them as far as sex goes. Our Manager, Hiram, is a Mage and will show you the
ropes here, as far as the store goes. Palma, back there?" He waved to a
slightly heavy looking woman with curly hair, who smiled at the use of her
name.