Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (17 page)

Ginger had a slightly different
way of looking at things, and actually knew more about what Mages did than
Calley.

Some of the other groups were
mentioned too, which was interesting. For his part, he decided not to play that
way too much for the time being.

After all, he wasn't certain, but
he kind of thought he might already have a girlfriend for the first time in his
life. Better, or perhaps
worse
, he seemed to have two of them.

Because he was ready for that.
Absolutely.

At work the next day, a thing
that he'd shown up for two hours early, since Zack had scheduled him to be
there starting at four, he got to work directly. His idea had been that
everyone would be geared toward being there late, in order to see to the new
stock. It was right, but that meant the place was in near ruins when he walked
through the door.

By getting right to work, he was
able to straighten and clean the place before he was even supposed to be there.
Hiram was working the front desk, and tried to help, but there was enough
traffic to keep him busy for the most part, running the till. Even at four,
when he was supposed to be getting there, the books weren't coming in, since
they had a special deal in place making them the last stop on the delivery
person's route.

That meant, according to Hiram,
that things really wouldn't be coming in until about five-thirty.

"Kenny likes to come in and
spend some time with some of the girls about then. We've got Eve coming in too,
so it should go pretty well tonight. She's fast, and works hard. With the crew
we have we might actually be done by midnight for once." There was a grim
look then and a head shake. "Trust me, I've had more than one night where
it was just me and Kait trying to run the place and shove things on the shelves
until dawn. Not that I'm knocking her. She actually tries pretty hard for an
Alede. The rest... Well, when you have life handed to you, and can expect that
to continue forever, there's no need to develop a work ethic."

It was a bit of info that had him
writing in his book when he had the chance. It was a real sounding point.

Still, there were things left
out, as far as he could tell.

"So, Mages all have that?
They work hard all the time?"

The man, looking a bit rough,
having a day's worth of growth going, even if he also had on a button up
sweater and a nice shirt. It was a strange look. Like Mr. Rogers if he sold
drugs on the side.

"
Fuck
no. We're just
people. Hell, I was a thief for most of my life. That's
all
about not
doing the hard work, when you get down to it. Some of us Mages are better that
way. Hard work and all that. Humans are good that way, too. With the Alede,
well, when you love having sex, and look like they do, why would they do it?
That Kait does marks her as really special. Don't tell her I said that. I don't
want her to get lazy."

That was said as she walked up,
grinning. She was coming from the back left hand side, and a man, who looked to
be in his forties or so, was fixing his clothing as he came out. Tyler didn't
make eye contact with him, since that would probably leave him feeling bad.
Like he was being judged, as crazy as that sounded. Still, the space was free,
so he ran to clean it up. He hadn't been doing that, and, as it turned out,
that meant the place reeked.

Mainly of various bodily fluids.
It was gross on a level that made him want to hurl a bit. Worse, someone had
sprayed some lemon scented air freshener, in an attempt to fix the problem.
That wasn't going to work, since there were actual puddles of things in places,
as well as crusty white splotches on the leather chairs. In one place there was
a stain on the carpet that hadn't been there the last time he'd cleaned the
space. Clearly, no one had really tried since the last time he'd been in.

It took about twenty minutes of
scrubbing, while wearing some nice yellow rubber gloves. The half bucket of
water that he'd brought was a dingy gray when he finished, which said things
that he couldn't like at all. Yes, it was true that the girls were always kind
of busy, but was it really impossible for them to run a sponge over the space
they'd just used each time?

That seemed to be the case. It
kind of pissed him off. Which, of course, was stupid of him. After all, he was
just there to clean and put books on the shelf. Generally to be helpful, not to
tell anyone else how to do their own job. He was being paid for his work, but
that was all. Getting upset over things he couldn't control wasn't going to
help anything.

When he finished with the first
room, the one closest to the till, the other one opened up, so he slapped up a
sign in front of the other one, so it could dry, and did that one too. That got
a rather upset seeming Alexis standing at the door, about ten minutes in.

"You're using both rooms at
once? That's not fair!"

Tyler glared at her for a bit,
and then shook his head. Being an asshole wasn't a good plan, since he didn't
doubt that Zack would side with the very pretty non-Human over him, if it came
down to it.

"Just a minute. Let the
other one finish drying and you can have at it again. I'll check it as soon as
I'm done here."

The girl looked at him like he
was being lazy, and crossed her arms, in a bossy and annoying way.

"I have a friend coming
now
."

He just nodded, and didn't tell
her that he really didn't care. They could wait five minutes, and he really
doubted they were going to run off and leave her hanging due to him. The very
idea was a bit insane, but it was possible that the woman hadn't had enough
energy yet that day. He got a bit grumpy when he didn't eat for too long, so it
was fair to assume that she might feel that way too.

Still, standing in the doorway,
calling out that she had a friend coming, every ten seconds wasn't really
helping him get his work done. Finally, after five minutes of it, he snapped at
her a bit.

"Shut up, will you? I'm
working as fast as I can. If you hadn't been a pig for the last day I'd be done
right now, so go away and let me get this done so you can get back to whatever
it is you have planned?" It wasn't even that mean sounding, but for some
reason she started crying and ran off.

Tyler growled a little under his
breath.

"Well, fuck. I bet I'm fired
then. Stupid..." He finished up, and took the sign off of the other room,
figuring that he was probably going to end up having to move back home, not
having a job, with which to pay for rent or food. Worse, he was glared at by Hiram
as he walked up to the front counter, since there was a moist and upset Alexis
behind the counter, clinging to him.

Before anyone else could speak,
Kaitlyn walked over, looking angry. Tyler tried to get ready for her to yell at
him for making her friend cry, but her words were a bit different than he would
have expected from her. After all, she was, as Hiram had kind of pointed out,
part of a pampered and privileged class. There was no reason for her to
understand that reality couldn't just form around her needs all the time. That
was, really, why Alexis had gotten upset with him.

Reality wasn't doing what she
demanded, instantly. She was pretty after all, so to her mind, it was supposed
to do that, and sometimes probably did.

Kait wasn't having any of it.

"I agree with Ty. From now
on if you want to use the facilities here, then you have to do your fucking job,
too. Zack is paying us to be here, but
that's
to work at his store, not
just collect energy. That's an awesome perk, I won't lie, but it isn't unfair
to ask you to do your job, Alexis. It isn't just you either. We're all doing
that kind of thing. You heard what Hiram was saying about work ethic earlier? I
think we should
all
be trying to get one of those."

The words got Tyler to tilt his
head, thinking about what that really meant. First, it was clear that Kait
thought that her kind were sort of abusing things, and might even think they
did that as a rule. Second, she not only had heard the conversation going on,
but had expected that Alex had done the same. In closed rooms,
while
having sex.

Picking up his notebook from
behind the counter he made a note about how good their hearing must be.

Alexis looked scandalized.

"We don't have to work!
We're Alede. That isn't our way. People provide for us..." At least she
seemed a little troubled by that part of things. Not too much, but it was clear
she didn't totally think what she was saying was right.

The other Alede shook her head.

"No. That's
bullcrap
,
and you know it. People know about us now, and we can't just keep floating
around using people. Eventually things are going to come to light, and if we
can't at least seem to have some kind of value outside of being decent looking,
we
will
be attacked. We've seen that before, historically speaking.
Women will come after us again, for stealing their men. We have to at least
look like we have some kind of utility outside of that. I can see the others
not getting that, but you and I know different, don't we?" Why that was
wasn't spoken of, but the other girl nodded a bit sadly, and walked away, out
the front.

Hiram still kind of glared at
him, but again, didn't get to speak.

Kait held her right hand out.

"No. Don't. She was being a
brat, and got called on it like an adult. She has the skills now not to act like
that. She isn't even hungry. She was just being demanding and entitled. It's a
problem for all of us. Me too, I won't lie about that. I just have goals, so
need to improve." She glanced at Ty, and shrugged, her glasses shifting a
bit, and her curly brown hair showing a single wisp on the left hand side.
"I'm planning to take over the Alede Ruling Body. There are other reasons,
but the main one is that they tried to have me killed when I was younger. Alexis
too. If Zack hadn't stepped in for us, we'd probably both be dead. The Mistress
of Souls, too. I mean think about that one for a bit.
Demons
are better
people than we are... That can't be allowed to keep happening."

That was a good enough reason for
him. Hiram still looked pissed at him though, and the man was the manager. That
didn't bode well for him. Still, he didn't scream or anything, and there was a
distraction then, as the delivery man, Kenny, showed up, wearing cute little
brown shorts and a matching shirt. He was a bit plump, but not too much so. It
was more of a pleasant roundness, even though he worked hard enough for a
living that there was some muscle there too.

They were a person down, or he
thought they would be, but a few minutes later before the twenty or so boxes of
books came through the front doors, Alexis came back, with a good looking man
and an ultra hot woman in tow. The woman was Ivy, and Tyler was almost certain
that the guy was Robert.

He waited for the round robin
haranguing to come, over what he'd said to the younger Alede, but Robert just
nodded at him.

"Alexis told us to get our
butts over here and help. Ivy, if you'd make sure that Ken is taken care of?
I'll help get the books logged in." The man, while good looking, seemed to
be a lot more efficient than Roberta was normally. It
kept
going on too,
though it was kind of subtle after that.

Why that would happen Ty didn't
really know. Were Alede different in their different forms? Were Shifters? That
one kind of made sense, but it wasn't a thing that he would have ever thought
about before, to tell the truth.

That was what he thought about as
the first book cart came from the back twenty minutes later. It took time to
get things logged into the computer system, so he took the wooden cart, and
started right in, getting everything up as fast as he could go. Eve showed up
at about seven, and took the third one, as Kait and Hiram worked one together. Alexis
and Robert worked together too.

As he moved to the back, a while
later, Eve nodded to him.

"This is different. How did
we get this much help suddenly?"

Tyler thought about it, and then
waved at Kaitlyn, across the room. "It was her. Part of her new program to
make sure her people are taken care of in the, um, new environment. Being known
and all that?"

The Vampire girl, who was about
two or three full points under the Alede in looks, and still seemed ready to go
on television that way, glanced over and then nodded.

"Makes sense. Really, we
should all get together that way. A bit of support between other groups can't
hurt. So far we've all been going our own way. The Vampires are the only group
that has a system in place to handle the press and other media, so far. You
know... You should get on that one, Ty. Go around and see about getting a
meeting together. Not many people could do it, but you're a Human, or close enough
that no one will doubt that if you say you are. No one really thinks of you
having an agenda yet. Do that for me, will you?" There was a chuckle, but
then a shake of her head, which made her shoulder length hair move a bit.
"Tomorrow,
before
work, I mean. You have all that extra time each
day you waste on sleeping. You know, you should think about being one of us. A
Vampire? Then, as soon as you get up to speed, you'll have more time for
things."

It was kind of idle chatter, but
he nodded a little.

"That's a thing. For now
though, I need to get to the books."

In the back, most of the eight
book carts were filling up fast. That was because Zack was there now, and was
working both smoothly and faster than could easily be tracked. The man turned as
Ty grabbed one of the carts, which seemed to have a lot of popular fiction on
it, but before he could take it away, called out to him.