The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) (7 page)

She wasn't relaxed, but Calley
didn't try to spank her verbally yet either, so there was that. Instead the
Shifter Ambassador backed up what was being said.

"I... it really seems like
he wants to start something. I don't know why that is. Everyone was nice to
him, but that seemed to just make him feel
more
entitled to boss us all
around. Not everyone takes that very well here, so... It's an issue." She
seemed embarrassed about it.

Ty could get that one, but
nodded, seeing something in her words.

"I need to make a call. Then
we should go and see Ambassador Summerhold."

Tyler was a bit nervous inside,
as he banged on the door to the Elth offices. Their embassy complex, which was
on the second floor of the big building. He used his cane, thumping it with the
heavy silver round end.

"Summerhold! Get your butt
out here.
Now
!" He sounded pissed, but that was what he had to do,
he thought. The Elth Ambassador at Westfield had suggested it.

The Elth were very hierarchal it seemed,
and the first meeting would set the tone for how they applied their own place
in things. A timid person was always at a disadvantage, and a King wouldn't
stay in power if they let an Elth walk all over them.

"Now!"

The man that came to the door was
slight, youthful looking and attractive. A bit like Kent, the guy that made the
hamburgers at the mall. The hair was a real copper, and his eyes multicolored
green. He looked older than Tyler did, and looked at his leg, sneering.

"A crippled? How dare you
speak to me in that tone, you knave-"

"Shut up, moron. I'm Tyler
Gartner, from the Coalition of Nations. Tell me why you aren't packed
yet?"

That got the man to shut up for
real, looking worried now. It probably wasn't the name, given his reaction.

"Why would I be packed? I
just got here..."

"
Why
?" He roared
the word, seeming more than a little insane to him. "I'll tell you why.
You came in here and started barking at your betters, not even bothering to
learn your place first. You have the same status as most of the people here,
and
no
right to order their people around. The only one, the
only
being, that gets to order people around in this place is freaking
me
. Do
you understand that? Now, either tell me you know your place and will fix what
you've done, or
leave
. I don't
want
to hear anything else from
you. If I do, I guarantee you that you'll end up a lot more crippled than I am."

There were other people there,
standing down the hall where he'd told them to stand, though Evan was behind
him. Ready to fight for his honor no doubt. It wasn't needed, since Summerhold,
Elth prince or not, suddenly changed in front of their eyes.

Starting with a humble looking
low bow.

"Forgive me, Lord. I wasn't
aware of that. I meant no offense."

This was the tricky part. Leif
had told him that once the other man broke, if he did and there wasn't an
actual fight over the right of place, Ty would need to change suddenly,
accepting the new situation.

"Good. I trust that you'll
fix things? You worried the Shifter Assistant Ambassador earlier, to a level
that you nearly didn't survive. You should consider sending her a gift."

There was a nod, the bow being
held still.

"It will be done. I can't
think of what I did that might have given pause, however." He really
seemed baffled there, so Tyler explained.

"We don't have slavery here,
and some of her people had been held that way about two hundred years ago,
before winning their freedom. Calling her a slave was pretty much
asking
for her to kill you. Keep that in mind. No one here is your slave, Summerhold.
No
one
. If I hear of you claiming or acting like that again, then we'll have
to handle things in a slightly more... Active manner?" He looked down at
his leg and then shook his head. "Crippled today, but I won't be
tomorrow
.
Understand that?"

There was a strange look and a
nod.

"Of course. I should have
known that the one that ruled here would be powerful, Lord."

Then he walked away, Evan
following him. Hopefully his showing up and storming around would handle
things. Calley and Felicia climbed into the elevator with him, along with Evan,
no one saying anything about what had just happened. There was no smiling. Not
even a smirk came from his girlfriend.

They rode back to the fourth
floor, and moved slowly to the Shifter offices. The carpet caused his movements
to be muffled at least. When he got into the room Morisy had clothing on. Just
a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. It was a nice red color, though the
bottoms were black and stretchy looking.

Before he could speak, Calley
moved in, and shook her head at her second in command.

"I can't believe you called
in the Coalition on this. Do that again without my permission and you're fired.
I'll make sure you never work in our government again. Do you understand?"

The black woman looked upset by
the words, but after a bit crossed her arms over her chest and nodded.

"I do. Sorry."

"All right. I'll let it go
this time. Now, Tyler just went and screamed at the Elth Ambassador and
threatened to kick him out if he didn't shape up. You should be getting an
apology soon. Just because you were
right
doesn't mean you aren't in
trouble for other parts of this. You lost control, and while I
do
get
it, Summerhold being a pain, we can't have that here. You shifted, in public,
in
anger
. What, are you twelve?"

"Yeah. Sorry." It
seemed to be good enough for Calley, who nodded and looked at Tyler and then
Evan.

"Now, since you called the
Coalition in, I expect you to pay for their services." She seemed a bit
too smug about it, and the dark skinned lady swallowed, as if she thought they
actually charged for what they did. It was nearly funny, but also a bit too
mean.

Tyler winked at her then,
however.

"You can help out Eve Benson
when she gets here. She's coming in a few hours. Vampire, so make a connection
there. She's going places. Do you need to sleep?" It was possible that she
didn't, but the woman gave him a look that seemed to say that asking that was
insane.

"Of course. Don't you?"

"Nope! You might want to get
some rest then. Be back in the morning. I don't know what you'll be needed for.
Do you have a car?" That was a bit more of an acceptable question it
seemed.

"Sure. We're in the middle
of nowhere here. I kind of have to."

"Be ready for errands
then." Tyler turned and walked out. Hobbled quickly, before people could
realize that he was basically not saying anything real.

It wasn't, but he managed to
leave then, Calley grabbing her bag and moving to follow along with him.

"You're back! I'm so happy.
I thought you were dead. You just vanished, and then the Demons were all saying
that you'd been taken by one of them. We all kind of knew what that meant.
What's with the leg?" She looked down at it, being blunt about the
question, but then, she also wasn't seeing it the same way that the others had.
It wasn't a gnawed and bloody stump now, and there was stuff in his pant leg.

"Eaten by a little kid. We
were trapped in a cave, but there was water. So, I took my head off with a
sharp rock and told him that he'd need to eat me to survive. Zack made him
forget that, thankfully. Poor little guy."

Felicia who was on the other side
of him just stopped dead.

"You... Took your own head
off? Why?"

"Um, I'm dead. Right now,
and most of the time I get energy from The Rotted to keep going. The Storm put
me in a place where I couldn't get that energy, to force me to eat the living
in order to keep going. I took a different option. That's all." He didn't
go into how close it had been, even after only a few hours. He'd nearly killed
the kid.

It had been so close that it was
still hard to believe that he'd managed to do it in a
different
fashion,
even though he recalled having
tried
.

The Vampire woman started walking
again, looked at his leg and then took a large, fake seeming, breath.

"I see. That's... Impressive.
I don't think I could have done that. Either side. Not when I was a Human, I
mean. That kid had to be tough as nails."

Evan laughed.

"That sounds right. Anyway,
what's the plan now? I'm a bit surprised that Miss Harris didn't show up."
He winced, but Felicia didn't glower at him for having said it.

"I asked her not to. She
already knows Mr. Gartner. It made sense to spread the love around there."

Calley grinned.

"If I wasn't so tired right
now I'd call for an orgy so we could do that. I'm about to crash. We can plan
that out for a later date?"

Instead of asking if she was
serious, or laughing at the obvious joke, Felicia smiled warmly and gave a nod.

"That could be fun,
Ambassador Hale. Say next week? Wednesday night?"

Ty sighed and shook his head with
mock sadness.

"Damn. I have to work that
night. Are you sure you can't free up Friday?" He was kidding, but the
Vampire lady just nodded.

"Also a good one for me. I
look forward to it. Is Evan invited as well? Or..." She seemed nervous,
but Calley glanced over at the male Vamp, as if considering it.

"Naturally. We can have a
whole party, if you want? That's exciting. I should have thought of that
earlier, but I was worried, you know?" Moving to Tyler's left side, she
took his free hand.

It was a companionable thing.
Closer in many ways than what she was saying, which while inclusive of him, was
also about almost everyone else in the world, too. That was her way. The Bat
way, to be honest about it. They all seemed to love sex. On a level that even a
Human teenage boy would think of as advanced. Extra horny on a level that was
rare, and probably special in its own way, if not exactly perfect for making
any one person feel loved.

That one might have just been him
however.

That he was being internally
whiny about things was kind of clear to him. In part it was the leg thing, and
the cave. Another portion of it had a lot to do with the idea that he hadn't
really picked his life.

That revelation came as a shock
to him. Other people, mainly Greater Demons, had chosen it for him. Even ones
that he wasn't connected with and didn't know.
Zack
had set up the
Coalition, not him. Keeley had pushed him into moving, and even starting the
new embassy complex.

The only Greater Demon that hadn't
really tried to control him overtly was The Technician. She'd just suggested he
start a notebook. That reminded him that he probably needed to keep that one
up. It was a good idea. That wasn't a huge thing though, and she'd never shown
up to call him on it, or insist he do anything for her in return. Honestly, he
kind of wondered if it had just been advice.

Like what a person would give
some kid that was going off alone into the world like he had been. All those
weeks and months ago. If so, he should probably heed the idea. There was a lot
of data collected in that hand written book.

Right now though, there was a
warm and small hand in his, which was nicer than not having one there, even if
the woman was kind of friendly with everyone. The relationship seemed a bit
forced now, even though Ty couldn't see where it had really come from. Maybe
that was just how things like that worked? You woke up one day, met a person,
and started dating her and another girl all at once. That sounded pretty normal
to him.

The thing there was that he'd
been raised not to judge others that way, which meant that he was pretty
accepting of what anyone else wanted to do. Given that he'd had a Greater Demon
as a mother, that made more sense now. Growing up, he just hadn't thought about
it.
Of course
two men could marry,
or
six people could have sex
after smearing themselves with butter and sounded kind of fun. That was just
normal. That it really
wasn't
for most people suddenly hit him again.

Worse, he couldn't recall why he
felt that way. There was no memory of him sitting in front of the television
while his mom instructed him on right and wrong. It had just been a thing that
he'd always known. Searching his mind didn't bring anything up either, so Ty
let himself forget that for the moment. After all, there was other stuff to get
done. Like riding home.

For the first time in a while, he
actually felt a bit tired. That was probably due to his leg coming back in.
Except that hadn't been a problem for him yet. For a moment he wondered if
something were really wrong, but then he worked it out. He had some kind of
programming still, that kept him from thinking about things too hard. Certain
things.

Like how he'd been brought up.

Tyler thought for a moment and
really did remember it all. There seemed to be real, daily, thoughts, and
concerns that way. It was only on the topic of certain issues that things kind
of went away. Like how he thought about sex. Or where his work ethic had come
from. When he tried to think about those things, or his love of music, he got
really
sleepy.

Only, he didn't sleep, and knew
that now. He never had. He'd just laid there in bed all night, not even rolling
over.

Calley led him to her car, which
was a nice Sedan, being larger than seemed to fit her personality. It was nice
though, and new. A deep red color that was kind of loud, but the inside was
clean and smelled nice. Like spices.