The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) (10 page)

In fact, the idea of the man in
the front doing that kind of thing, listening to any sort of entertainment,
felt off. Wrong.

It was that one that finally
spoke, his voice deep, booming and a little off.

"I am Goethe. Known as The
Wilding. I seek The Storm. Do you offer her your protection? If so, prepare for
battle!" He started to move in, but with a roughly Human speed, which
meant that it was a bluff. A threat, rather than a deadly attack.

Because Goethe was the name of a
Greater Demon. The one that was hunting The Storm. So, as far as he went, one
of the good guys. At least a weapon for his own side, which had to count.

"
Protect
her? No. I
don't know where she
is
, but I might be able to find out. Eventually.
She kidnapped me three weeks ago. I haven't seen her since then." Holding
his walking stick, ready to use it, even if that wasn't going to help him,
Tyler wondered what was going to happen.

It was different than he would
have figured.

"I see. Tell ya what. You
get me The Storm, and I'll trade with you."

Tyler looked at the wild man and
figured that it was probably better than being eviscerated, more or less. Not
that he'd feel it, but his leg wasn't totally healthy yet, so having it ripped
off would probably be a bit annoying.

"If I can do anything, and
I'm not saying that I can, what are you offering for it?" He was thinking
favors, since that was mainly what he'd dealt in so far with Greater Demons,
but got just from the look in his eyes that this man wasn't one to trust that
way. "Also, I can't take down a Greater Demon. I could find out where she
is, or at least recently was, maybe. Is that good?"

"What I meant. You stupid or
something? Get me The Storm, tell me where she is, and I'll... Fuck. I don't
know. You want this bitch here?" He waved at the woman with him, who
didn't really respond at first. Not until the man finished talking.
"You're dead. You eat her kind, right?"

That was a bit more astute than
he really liked. The wild eyed man with his bushy beard and funny leather
clothing stared directly. Looking for some kind of lapse on his part. For him
to demand the slaves, which was what they probably were, to be freed. That
wasn't happening. Ty couldn't even do that for himself.

Though he had heard that living
people could die to get away from their Demon masters. If it was done
correctly, it seemed like most of the ones he knew could pull it off. It cost
though, and was rare. Dangerous too, most likely. Most living people didn't
easily come back from death.

Glancing at the two people, the
broken seeming man and the still beaming woman, Ty shrugged.

"You want me to go up
against a Greater Demon, just for two Humans? Ones that are already
yours?" He didn't add the magical part, since he didn't know for certain.

Goethe laughed.

"I said the bitch, not the
man. They're mine, true. I ain't asking you to take out Stormy. That's my job.
That slut wants me dead. That won't be happnin." The Demon was working
really hard to play up his hillbilly trapper persona.

Ty did
not
let himself be
fooled by it. No Greater Demon, not even the insane ones, had been stupid yet.
They all used some kind of an act however, as far as he could see, to get
people to let their guard down. That's what he'd noticed with each of them so
far.

Keeley and Darla both went around
looking like hot young women. Lyn, Zack's grandmother, looked a bit older and a
little
less lovely, but still presented as a tiny Japanese woman, and
her looks could still turn heads as well as most actresses.

Even his own mother went around
looking like a little girl part of the time.

This guy just had a different way
of doing the same thing. Thankfully his way was
also
as scary as all get
out, so it would be far easier for Ty to keep it in mind.

"Right. So, both these,
and
a medium sized favor?" The other man had to know that messing with The
Storm was a big risk for him. Not that he'd admit it.

"These two, since I'm done
with them anyway. I don't want to bother with no favors."

"Fine. We can do that.
If
I get the work done, you can't call them back however. They have to be mine, as
much as the slave link allows."

That got a furrowed brow, and
then a single, firm nod.

"Hard bargaining. So not a
total idiot. Good. Agreed then."

"Agreed. Wait here for a
bit? I need to make some calls."

He needed his phone, and then had
to think. He really didn't have any way to find The Storm in particular, did
he? If Lucy knew, there would be a fight going on, or at least some kind of
hunting of the other Demon. They were on Keeley's personal ground, but she'd
kind of set up Goethe to go after The Storm in the first place, which the
trapper was going to have figured out, or soon would, so that was a poor idea
at the moment.

Zack... Well, he
might
help. He was pretty good at finding things, people and places. It was part of
his special power, Ty thought. It came up at work, a few times a week, so it
was a thing.

For some reason, probably due to
the fact that he secretly wanted to have sex with her, and was too easy to
manipulate that way, Ty called Darla, who answered after two rings.

"Hey." It sounded
informal, and younger than he remembered. A lot. Like a young girl. For a
second he thought that he might have gotten the wrong number, but the name
seemed right when he checked his phone screen.

"This is Tyler Gartner.
Technician?"

"Oh, hi, Ty! I'm with some
new friends of mine. I
told
them that I knew a guy in Rebekah the
Vampire's new band, but they didn't buy it. I should get you to come play for
us. Then they'll see who I really am."

It took him a bit to understand
that he was listening to the Greater Demon saying two things at once. It was
weird.

"I see. So you can't speak
right now? Unless they really want to see us play? We're pretty good, so they
should. You can come visit in a few days if you want? Let me know ahead of
time, so we can do it on a night everyone can be here."

"Yay! We can come to your
house? Next week? There are four of us. Maybe you can get your friend Zack, to
bring us there?" Which probably meant she hadn't told them she was an
ancient Greater Demon yet.

"I can ask. It might take
some doing. Say, do you want to trade for it? I need to know where The Storm
is, if you can help with that? I
kind
of have a Greater Demon on my
doorstep, and I'd love for him to go away without killing me. I offered to
trade for some of his slaves. Two of them. I think he means for me to eat them.
They do look tasty enough, but I'm sticking to rice and tofu this week. Still,
helping out Humans with problems like that
does
seem to fit my job
description."

There was a laugh, which again,
seemed like it was coming from a young teen, not a woman in her twenties.

"I can do that, if you want.
I have some... You know? What you want?"

He built a picture of her playing
with her hair twisting it around her finger, trying to flirt with him, even
though he wasn't there.

"Can you get that
soon?"

"Sure. I guess. Guys, I have
to head out now." A male voice said something in the background, and it
was also pretty young.

All he could make out was what
Darla said.

"Hmmm, so you, or
Tyler G
.
the singer... Let me think about it?"

There were fun sounds from the
phone, but a bit later the voice changed a bit. The words were more certain,
and a bit clipped.

"I'll have that for you
in... Call it twelve minutes?"

"Thanks. I'll get Zack to
take your friends here. Then back home. I have three trips with him. Though
really, you should all go someplace cool. Not that this place is bad, but there
are a
lot
of places to go."

"I know. These are my new
batch of friends. I'm trying something a bit more open this time. I don't
suppose you could arrange for Eve to be there too? Your Ginger and Calley too,
naturally."

"I can ask?"

"Talk soon."

Then he had to go back out to the
front. Not only hadn't the unwelcome people left, they were all standing
exactly where they had been. Two men and a woman, just waiting, like they
hadn't moved in the slightest. Because
that
was normal.

"I should have word in about
eleven minutes. I had to get that from The Technician." Hopefully Goethe
didn't hate her too much.

The bearded man did spit, but
then smiled.

"That's not bad. I wouldn't
have thought to bother there. Our kind costs dear for our own."

They did bargain hard, that was
true. They were even worse with each other from what Tyler had heard. He'd
gotten that one from his own mother. She'd made a point of telling
him
to not be too easy on them.

Not that way.

They all just stood there, and
waited together. He didn't have to sit, since he didn't feel anything. Even if
his leg hurt with the healing he wouldn't know about it, and it was nearly back
to normal now. Not quite, but when he went in, shoes and socks wouldn't be out
of the question.

When the phone rang, even though
he kind of expected it, he still had to fight not to jump.

"Hello?"

"I have the location. It...
Do you want me to talk to The Wilding directly? It will save a lot of time. I
don't know if your agreement will count that way."

"It will. Here."

He held the phone out, kind of
wondering if the big, leather clad guy was going to pretend not to know what to
do with it, but it was just taken from his hand. A bit roughly, but it didn't
do damage to him.

"Go."

Then the Greater Demon listened,
and after a minute hung up, and gave the cell phone back.

"These two belong to you
now. Go with this man and do whatever he tells you." There was a wave at
Ty, in case they didn't get the idea, and then the dangerous being in front of
him, turned and left.

The people looked at him,
nervously. Then, they thought they were dinner, most likely.

"Let's go in? I'm Tyler,
like I said. What are your names?"

It was the woman that spoke, her
voice incredibly strained sounding.

"I'm Tina, and this is
Darren. He doesn't really speak now. Not much. He can if you order it." What
the man
did
do well enough was follow them in.

Tyler had no clue what to do with
these two, now that he had them. All he knew for certain was that they weren't
going to be his supper. Not that night and hopefully never.

"Oh! Just so you know, I'm a
vegetarian
. I don't eat people. I know that Goethe there said that, and
he wasn't wrong about me, but I don't do that. Don't need to, so no need to
worry on that one."

If that made them happy, he
couldn't tell. Both of the people just seemed stressed, constantly. He was
limping still, but a big part of that was thanks to him missing a shoe on his
right foot. It was throwing him off. The leg, when he reached down to feel it,
was still stick thin, but the bones were about right and it was holding him up,
so it was good enough for now.

"Would you like something to
eat? I should have something. I was thinking tomato soup, with crackers?"
It just sounded really good for some reason.

Tina, who was the talkative one
it looked like, nodded somberly.

"Thank you, sir."

She looked like she was in her
mid-forties or so, at a guess. Those had been hard years too, no doubt. She was
nice looking, but had lines on her face. As deep as those of the man, Darren,
who followed her, not making eye contact.

"This way then. Off to the
kitchen. I know, it's kind of early for soup. Would you like something else? I
can make some waffles, if you don't mind the frozen kind?" Not that he
couldn't cook. Actually, he was decent at it, since his mother had taught him,
growing up. Before he'd gone really far into eating only fruit, and rice on
occasion. Steamed veggies too.

That was supposed to have been
for health, but the fact was, Tyler couldn't get fat. He hadn't known that
though, so had tried to take care of himself. It turned out he could have been
snarfing cake and donuts the whole time. Instead of letting himself feel sad
over it, he just started getting cans out, and making the soup. The people with
him were thin, but looked like they ate regularly enough. They weren't raw
bones or anything like that.

Both just stood there though,
while he worked. Waiting, he realized, for him to give them orders. It was what
they'd been told to do, and he knew how powerful that kind of thing could be
when it came from a Greater Demon.

"Hey... We have a T.V around
here, would you like to watch something? Or go sleep? Anything you want."
They weren't really free yet, but hopefully he could hook something like that
up for them. "I should have food in a few minutes?"