The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) (37 page)

From a distance, a place well
back from the curtains of death he had collected and still draped over the
attackers, there was a farmer. Mike.

He spoke, not raising his voice.
It was like thunder anyway. No one else responded however.

"You must destroy her, Tyler
Gartner. If you do not, the plan of life itself will be undone. That might
happen regardless, but at this moment, you, and you alone, must do this
thing." The words, powerful and mighty, also held sadness.

That was a thing he could see.
Michael was a being of light. Of love and energy that was so pure that he
couldn't move to where the others were at that moment. Because of what Tyler
was doing. Casting death about like a madman. Damaging the world with each
passing moment.

It would heal.

There Mike was however, ordering
the death of a being, when he should have called for life. That
had
to
hurt, on a level that Ty probably would never understand.

A cute girl that he didn't know
moved toward him. Probably Leslie, since he had a line of death connecting
them. With a single hand he waved her away.

"Thank you all for coming. I
appreciate the help. I have this next part." Then he looked at The Storm,
and shook his head, sadly. "You know, if you would have just been my
friend, we could have avoided this. Now one of us has to die, forever. It was
your choices that got us here. So, now, let's finish this."

Will, looking at him shook his
head then.

"Do you think that you can
beat me? I'm a Greater Demon. You're just a slave. That's all you can ever be.
A man, even if you do wear my symbol on your chest. That's a nice touch. It's
almost like you knew I was coming."

He didn't have to glance down to
get that one. He'd changed at work, since he was jogging home, or had planned
to. So he had on sweat pants and the purple shirt that he'd found in his drawer
a few days before. The one with the fist inside a circle, with a cross coming
out of the bottom.

Feeling stupid he got it then. It
was the same sign that the feminists used.

"Yup. I think on some level
I did." They were fighting already, even as they spoke, magic trying to
flare from The Storm, and being eliminated by him. All her slaves were freed in
the first half minute, which was a mistake on his part, since it reduced the
drain on her resources.

If he survived he'd have to keep
that in mind, just in case it ever happened again.

Then, almost as one, they ran at
each other. A skinny curly haired white man in jeans and a t-shirt with an open
front short sleeved shirt on top of that, going after a similar looking white
guy, with straight short hair, in exercise clothes. In a battle to the death.

It was, he had to guess, either
incredibly pitiful looking, or amazing, since they both managed to do some
impressive things. His part of that was mainly taking the knife that came out
away after a while, and the repair he was doing as they battled.

Blows rang like thunder, but
after five or so minutes, The Storm had to try to run again. Only to find
herself blocked by the other Demons there. She couldn't get onto the lines,
since after the first time she tried there was just no power left inside of her
for it. She even tried to burn up part of her physical body for it, using it as
food for a second attempt.

That caused visible weight loss.

Tyler, not being cut off from his
own power, walked over to The Storm, shaking his head.

"We could have been friends.
But that time is done. Goodbye."

Then, as if it was going to make
any difference at all, Will rasped out one last line at him.

"Goodbye, son."

Then Tyler, over the course of
several minutes, beat the Greater Demon to death, not stopping until the last
bit of life energy went out. Then, being careful, he flooded the corpse with
the energy of darkness, causing it to turn to a fine dust that was carried away
by the remnants of the breeze the storm had brought earlier. Well, part of it
did that. The rest turned into a muddy sludge on the ground.

He stood there for a bit, the sky
turning dark, not breathing. Doing that would suck Demon dust into his lungs
and he really didn't want to bother with that. It rose into the sky, in a cloud
that was fairly impressive, but it couldn't come back together.

In the end, everything died. That
was his real power. The ability to make sure that happened. No one was immune
from it, either. Not Greater Demons, not Angels, it was clear to him then as
Michael moved off, seeming sad, even from a distance. Not even God, most
likely.

Not that he'd be killing God.
That seemed like a douchy thing to do. Before he even let himself process that
he'd won, Fram pushed the other two attackers foreword.

"What are your plans for
these two? Death? I don't think they can stop you right now."

Tyler shook his head, and looked
at them both, one at a time. The Dark skinned man seemed amused by the whole
thing, and the store clerk looking woman, who seemed to be in her thirties or
so looked miserable.

"You heard what I said to
The Storm?
We
could be friends too, if you want? No hard feelings or
anything like that? Help each other out at times? Visit for Christmas? It's the
best bargain I can offer you for the moment. Or we can finish this. I don't
want to threaten you, but you did kind of try to kill me. I'll meet you
halfway, but no further than that."

For some reason the people from
the embassy all seemed shocked by that, and the Greater Demons all more or less
just smiled and nodded, like it made great sense to them.

Leslie, the current little girl
version of his mother, walked over then, smiling at him.

"Almoor, Cindy, this is my
adopted son, Tyler. He runs the Coalition of Nations, is in a band, and works
part time in a bookstore. He's a Human Necromancer. Some call him The Clerk,
which would make you one of his people, Cin. I can recommend him to you as a
person to know, without reservation." Then she moved back, not going over
who the defeated pair was.

Which was probably due to the
fact that they were vanquished.

The dark skinned man smiled, a
huge and happy thing that shone a bit more than was natural really.

"I would
love
to be
your friend, Tyler. What kind of settlement would you like for this? It was...
An unfortunate miscalculation on my part. Forgive me?"

Tyler looked around at the
parking lot, which was broken up in several places, most from where he'd hit
the ground, but not all of them.

"Could you see about fixing
this mess? Or paying to have it done. Whichever works for you? Both of you, if
you're in too, Cindy?"

The woman shook her head, and
then heaved a sigh that was done in a much better fashion than he could have
managed. It actually got him to look at her chest, which was bigger than he'd
thought, being hidden well under her clothing. Then, it was clear that whatever
she did, it wasn't all about manipulating people with sex.

"All right. Are we doing
Thanksgiving, too? I have a new cornbread stuffing recipe that I can make. Bits
of people really make the green peppers pop." There wasn't even a hint of
her being joking in the words.

"Oh, don't feed me people! I
don't think I could stop, if that happened. Sure though, we can do that."

Then, almost politely, Zack
helped them leave, taking them away through the lines, since neither of them
could get onto them alone at the moment. Tarsus moved over to him, at least he
assumed that was the one in the middle, along with the other men, and bowed, so
he did it back. He'd done it more than once that day, so it didn't seem that
strange.

The friendly looking old guy on
the far right smiled at him, tried to send a tendril of magic at him, and
looked baffled when it vanished. It wasn't an attempt at taking him over. That
would have held more power. So it was probably just mind reading.

"I normally host the
Christmas parties, would you like to come to mine? I do Halloween as well, and
I insist you come to that. Finias, by the way. I think you know some of my
family?"

That got Zack, Keeley and Allison
to walk over, Leslie taking her place by his side, and, oddly enough Fram
moving over on the other. He spoke first, explaining things.

"Most of us are related.
Don't let it concern you too much. I mean, Keeley and Darla are my cousins, and
Zack is pretty much one, too. For that matter, I'm pretty much your uncle. Our
bloodlines do tend to run a little bit close. Finias, The Mind Taker, is Keeley
and Darla's father. Allison here, I mean. I
do
like the new face. We
should get together and see about crashing an R rated movie or something."
The words were inappropriately flirty, but if either of them was under five
hundred, Ty would have been surprised.

Tarsus looked at Fram like he was
a waste of space, then turned a similar expression onto Keeley.

"I'm rather arranging a
bargain to have myself freed from enslavement if anyone ever manages that. I
take it that you won't wish to fight him, if he does so, Mistress of Souls? He
is no Demon, but I do think that in The Clerk we have your perfect foil. We can
discuss terms at this upcoming party? I left a roast in the oven, so should be
getting back to that now. I look forward to our next meeting." Then he
walked away, going around a two by three divot in the parking lot, which had
shattered his pelvic bone nicely, and stepped to the right, vanishing into the
lines.

Keeley turned and looked at the
three Greater Demon slaves, and shook her head.

"I don't suppose that any of
you would like to be free? You can't come for me, ever again, and have to play
nice with Tyler and the rest of us, but if you can really do that, we might be
able to arrange something?"

The plain man laughed then and
shook his head.

"I'll kill you, if I can.
I'd lie about it to get free, but that isn't allowed to me." Then he
stopped and shook his head once, seeming upset by his own words.

The large bull man looked at her
vapidly.

"Done, on those terms."
The voice was incredibly deep, guttural enough to cause things to shake inside
of Ty as he listened. Then they tightened a bit, in fear, as the giant turned
to look at him. "What cost?"

He was about to just do it, when
Lucy, looking like a little white girl, who was thinner and a bit prettier than
her friend Allison, touched his arm gently.

"Half of what he owns would
be a good start. That and several favors, to be used by you over time?"

The Minotaur didn't even
hesitate.

"Agreed. Six favors? I can
reject them, and they must not come at cost of life?"

That was interesting wording. It
was supposed to sound like he was just a bit unused to English, but he'd just
said
that those favors were a specific thing. Probably to try to trick Tyler.

"All right. Half of what you
own, or the monetary value of that, and six favors, which you can reject at the
time, but that will not cost anyone their life. If you decide not to do the
favor, then you must forfeit the rest of your wealth."

They worked out that half of that
amount was fair, which it wasn't really.

Then he broke the slave link in
about ten seconds. It took longer than it had with Steve, since it just took more
power to hold a Greater Demon. That was his guess on the matter.

The little doll looking fairy
smiled at him and agreed with Keeley's conditions and to have half her wealth
used. Then offered to come be his sex slave for ten years, instead of those favors.

He was supposed to get all
awkward about it, since she was really unique looking, and he did shake his
head, but explained.

"Only if you agree not to
spy on me. Also, do you do sex tapes? I'm trying to put one together. Minotaur
are you in on that? It will be fun, but it doesn't pay anything."

"Does count as favor?"

"Sure? Why not?"

In the end he had several new
friends from the whole thing, and while no one else volunteered for the tape
itself, Allison said that she could get the camera crews and lights in for it.
Plus the needed sound equipment. Since he'd just figured on borrowing Fram's
digital hand held for it he agreed to that readily enough.

It was a very odd thing to be
talking about, after the death of the day, but he understood what was going on,
too. Lucy explained it to him as they walked back to the mansion, along the
roadway.

"You fought three of us, and
not
the weakest, and could have killed them all. Then you established
that you weren't without the ability to be bribed and bought off. You didn't
even side with Keels too much. That marks you as being someone powerful enough
to tell her to fuck off if you have to. We were hit a few years ago with her,
and everyone has been in a tizzy over it since. She
could
have taken us
all. There is no way to describe how uncomfortable Greater Demons get when they
have to rely on the goodwill of our own kind. Now we have a way to fight her.
You. For only half of what we own, and some favors that look like they might be
pretty vanilla sex. A good bargain that any of us would be willing to pay for
the service at need." Then she grinned at him from the side as they
walked. "I take it you don't want
me
in your sex tape? It's a
shame, I can do some really interesting things with my tongue. Here, I can show
you." She pretended to grab at him, but he moved away laughing.