The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  He glanced over at her, the good looking young woman that even downplaying her attractiveness was out of his league by so much that he couldn't even let himself find her alluring. That was a real point too. To most of the world, based on how she looked, she was the innocent and abused one.

  A rapist, but most of the world would say that coercing him using threats to have sex was fine. He was a man, and as such didn't count that way. Not enough for him to harm a woman. She wasn't one. The Mistress of Souls was a monster. One that, for some reason gave him a slightly wry smile when she caught him looking at her. For his part he was frowning, and wondering if he should just start fighting and keep going until one of them died.

  He made eye contact and shook his head a little.

  "I know, I know, I should have killed you. Now I have to sleep with one eye open." Only, he didn't sleep. Neither did she, which was no doubt going to make his life interesting.

  Keeley winked at him, her face already nearly perfect again, even though it had only been a few minutes. They'd moved into the living room, moved the furnishings to create a large space and put up the time machine already. It was basically just a set of eight large cylinders that Allison the teen Demon had put out. She was The Technician, so did that very quickly and efficiently. That seemed to be part of her reality, he noticed. When she worked with the tech things, or even the complicated magics that she used, the girl suddenly changed in demeanor and bearing.

  She became a very different person. This one was setting out heavy looking soup can things that had little bar like knobs on the top.

  Still she managed to look up from her work, her round face seeming interested in the discussion.

  Keeley for her part shrugged, and managed to make it seem very Human. Her thin shoulders were expressive and came up high enough that the move seemed just a tiny bit fake.

  "I think we can let this go now. There's no benefit to either of us to continue it. You threw your weight around, and I had to respond to teach you not to do that. You attacked to teach me the same thing. We both understand that, don't we? Lessons learned, and now we can move on?" She sounded considering and reasonable about the whole thing, to tell the truth.

  That almost had to be a trick. Or a trap.

  Sighing he gave a single nod.

  "All right. I agree not to attack you, or set you up for anything negative, if you do the same for me in return?" Greater Demons were all about the deal, after all. Mainly so they could take you as a slave.

  The Mistress of Souls froze for a bit, actually chewing her lip, and then swallowed hard. A soft wash of magic had come over him as she struggled with herself. If he had it right, the compelling feeling that he'd noticed was her trying to take him as a slave.

  Except of course that she really wasn't. There had been a struggle in the mix, with her trying to pull all the energy away from what she was doing. It still might have taken him, if he was weak, or hadn't been somewhat protected already. If she'd wanted to, she could have used that moment to take him, and then let him die.

  So that was a sign of something.

  Finally she managed a closed eye nod.

  "Agreed on those terms. Now, this looks about set up, Darla, are you doing the honors here, or is Zack?" There was no hint that she'd be doing it, for some reason.

  Probably because it wasn't her problem.

  Zack moved forward then, having stood back by the two slaves, and waved a hand gently.

  "This one is mine. First, why don't we ask the questions you have, Keeley? I'm sure that we're all interested in the answers. I know I am."

  That got a vulpine and slightly wicked smile, but the young women waved at her new slaves, who were the oldest looking people in the room, even if they weren't the most aged. That would probably be... Ty glanced around and shook his head.

  "Which of you is the oldest?" He felt stupid when he said it, but the words were already out.

  Allison smiled at him, her thirteen year old face giving him a flirty expression that was probably normally only used in bars. Not that he'd know about things like that. He'd never been to one, after all.

  "Me, by about six or seven hundred years. I know, it's hard to keep in mind at times like this, but you really shouldn't feel bad about Keeley having tricked you. It's like with your Ginger. She looks youthful, but is older than you are. So when Keeley looked like me to abuse you, she wasn't actually a child. She did manage to be a bitch. Luckily for her you're willing to let bygones be, isn't it? Otherwise a certain little Demon girl might have just found her ass kicked every two weeks for a long while." She spun to look at Keeley and shook her head a few times. "That was pretty sad, Keels. He isn't even one of us, and if he'd pressed things you would have gone down for good. Zack wouldn't have fallen for that."

  These words got the little girl, who was just standing back from her magic time device, flipped off.

  Keeley smiled while she did it.

  "I love you sis, but fuck you. Zack wouldn't have fallen for it, but you would have, at least half the time. That first move was fast. I can match it, but I don't walk around ready for that, I have to admit. I'll work on it."

  Instead of flipping her off in return, the little girl Demon wiped her hands on her jeans.

  "Do that. I will too. That really wasn't too shabby, Tyler. Now, enough praise for your violent ways, and enough needling Keels for being lame in a fight. She knows that. Question and answer time?" This was addressed to The Mistress of Souls, who waved at her new people.

  "Tina, Darren, why don't you step into the rectangle made there, by the device? Stay relaxed, and tell the whole truth, even if you were told to hide it before. Tina, why don't you go first? What were your orders here?"

  That woman moved first, in lock step with her husband, and they both ended up in the middle of the cream colored carpet. It was soft underfoot, and a bit spongy feeling. Hopefully when they died the two wouldn't get their blood all over it. That would be really hard to clean up.

  Tina settled, relaxed like she'd been ordered to be, and looked only at her new master. No one else mattered after all. Not her son. Not the other people in the space. Not even that the plan was for her to die in a few minutes.

  Skalla the Amazon was still there, standing near the door, her face stoic seeming. Scotty looked more worried. They were close to one another, and not touching. Rather bravely, and comically, they both kept shifting who was in front, trying to protect the other. The giant seven foot tall warrior woman and the small Shifter-Vampire man. They weren't easy about the whole thing, but neither left to protect themselves.

  Trying to hold the concept of being very alert, and able to understand things, he could see the connections there. What was going on. Skalla was different, but Scotty was a jaded old man. When he was a boy the idea of a scantily clad, but unshaved woman would have just been naughty, not slightly gross like it was for Ty. It was limited thinking on his part, he could tell, but he still had that feeling.

  Skalla for her part was responding to Scotty like she would a man from her own world, he was willing to bet. Her goal, her responsibility in life was to protect the weaker members of her tribe. The men were that, so she was trying to get in place to fight the dangerous beings in front of her. The woman had to know that Scotty could handle himself, on some level, but the man's own nervousness made it seem like he was weak. So her social programming took over.

  It was much harder to get the rest of the situation however, but now he could understand why that was. Greater Demons weren't people. Not strictly speaking. They were more like the idea of the worst beings possible. Not creatures that seemed angry and were easily seen and avoided, but stealthy creations designed to work into their surroundings and do damage in just the right places to allow the whole thing to keep going. That was, he thought, their point. Gregor and his brother Michael were, in a way the other side of that coin. They were as good as could be. Why that was the case he didn't know, but it hit him then that these three Greater Demons
were about the best of their kind really.

  Zack was probably a cannibal rapist for instance, who would have killed him without having even a twinge of guilt, but he didn't go around doing things like that for the most part. Ty could see that, though not why that was. Age was, no doubt, part of it. Even Keeley was kind after a fashion. She should have killed him, after all. True, he really was willing to let things go now, and she'd called the situation correctly, that they'd both learned from what the other had done, but he was a potential threat to her.

  Even if only a minor one.

  Allison, The Technician, was probably the worst of them. She did what she wanted, and hid it so well that everyone, even these others of her own kind, didn't really see her depravity. Almost as if pleased she looked up at him, smiled and nodded. Clearly having been reading his mind.

  "Exactly, Tyler. It's part of why these two aren't long for the world if they can't figure that out. Don't forget that The Rotted is even worse than I am that way. She's insane after all. For instance, did you know that she once raised a piece of dead meat and raised it as her own child? That isn't normal." She seemed pleased, but he didn't answer and no one else seemed to notice the byplay.

  Probably because her lips hadn't moved.

  Tina, in the rectangle described by the outline of gold family sized soup can things started then, her voice... Incredibly conversational.

  "Goethe, our old master, told us that we were to do our best to work our way to you, Mistress. Then we were to watch and tell him what your weaknesses were. He was most angry with you, for getting him to hunt The Storm. That cost him greatly, having to buy himself out of trouble there. He wishes to come for you, but knows that those that fight you directly tend to be taken as slaves. Even his kind do. So he works at a distance. We didn't get a lot of information about you." There was a shrug then, and a wince. "No one had ever told us that Zack was alive. That was a real shock, I have to admit. In fact, we'd been told, long ago by Xenses that he was dead. He knew because the slave bond had broken."

  The Line Walker nodded, his face blank.

  "My grandfather, The Mind Taker, Finias, offered to kill me, and I said yes. I was ten. It was better than being left alive, so I took the offer. Then he brought me back for some reason. It wasn't kindness. Even now I'm dealing with the fallout of what had been done to me." He didn't sound pissed off, but that had to be pretty bad, given everything.

  It got a hunched over move from both Darren and Tina. Shame seemed to crawl over them then. Even though it hadn't been in his orders, the man, who still seemed worn and broken spoke, his voice deeper and more filled with pits and gravel than it had been before.

  "You should kill us. We don't deserve to live, after what we did."

  That got nods from Keeley and Allison, who seemed ready to kill them herself, much as she had when the other Demon was playing the role. Apparently she'd hit just about how her sister was going to feel on the matter correctly, which was interesting.

  Funnily enough Zack shook his head.

  "You didn't know what was going to happen. I mean, you had to guess that I was going to be molested or even killed, but not what the real deal was for. Worse, you didn't even manage to get that power you were looking for, and ended up tortured yourselves for decades. Killing you now won't fix anything however. I... You know, if we have the information you need, Keeley, we should get this done. Then I can take you two where you want to go, and we can be done with this." His words went hard, but the other Greater Demon didn't hesitate.

  She also didn't make the two in the middle of the room suffer.

  "Die now. Stop your hearts from beating, and fall asleep peacefully. Do it." The whole thing was bland, and seemed almost like a game for a few seconds. Both of the people sat on the floor, then toppled over. There was no breathing or movement, but Keeley watched them, not moving in the slightest.

  Finally after several minutes, she nodded.

  "There we go. The line is broken. If you hurry we can have this done in time for dinner."

  It really didn't take long. Zack bent over, moved one of the gold bars on the top of a single can, and the people inside reversed themselves and stood up rapidly enough that it seemed like a digital effect. They were both alive again then. Just like that.

  Allison nodded at them.

  "No memory of what just happened, since for them the time unwound totally. No slave bonds though, since that was broken outside the field area. Now, if we aren't going to torture them, we should get rid of them. Zack, you have a plan in mind for that? Why don't you see to it now?"

  It held a bit of an order to it, but the guy nodded, and then looked at Tyler, of all people.

  "I'll be back in a bit. At this rate I might even have an evening left. Come on... Mom. Dad." He moved toward the front door, and didn't look back, even as the two older seeming people froze in place, just watching his back.

  So was Ty, but he was checking out his butt, which Skalla noticed. She smirked about it, but looked herself as the guy walked by, which was pretty obvious. Then, it probably was when he did it, too. Scotty didn't, since he was afraid of Greater Demons. Like a sane person.

  It was Keeley that spoke then, her voice hard for her. She didn't have glasses on now, hers having been broken in the fight. She pointed at where Zack went.

  "Go. He's your only hope of survival now. I don't know what he has in mind for you, but know this; if I ever see you again in this life, for any reason other than Zack doing it, you will have tortures brought upon you that no one Human can imagine, and you will never escape them. If you think your time as pampered and coddled toys was bad, then you truly don't want to know what I can do to you."

  They still froze, though it seemed to be in terror now. Right until Scotty waved at them, his voice anxious.

  "You don't remember it, but she just, not two minutes ago, ordered you to die, and you did. Then The Line Walker brought you back. You have to go with him, now. I don't know the rest of this, but..." He sounded scared, which, Ty knew, was because he was talking when a wise person would be silent by his own estimation.

  Another thing came to him then, which was that he needed to use a concept of increasing his ability to use concepts, if he wanted to stay among the living and the dead for a while. It was a function that he could do, but that had to be increased greatly, if he were to use magic without being a drain on his mother. It was a complex thing, but he managed it after a fashion, before Tina and Darren worked up the courage or abject terror, to get out of the room.

  Then Allison started to pack her time device up.

  "I make so much money off this thing. It's much easier than doing the same thing with magic." That was said to him, but her gaze lingered on his face, and she nodded as the work continued. The whole thing was packed up into its case again, which was the nice wooden thing it had come in. Polished and pretty on the outside. There was a light etching all over it too, which when he let himself pay attention to the concept was, most likely, a lock.

  The girl locked eyes with him and nodded.

  "So. And just so. If you keep that up, you'll be able to do a lot with very little. Anyway. I'm out of here. We're going on a date on Friday. Don't worry, I'll look older. Not too much. It will help you to have sex with me looking like this when it isn't being forced on you. Not that you have to let that bother you now." She smiled and shook her head. "If you were my mentee I'd tell you that when a baby Demon has his widdle feeling hurt he changes them. You aren't, so it isn't my place, but if you can't take that as a hint, you probably won't make it very long anyway. Friday at nine. Here. Dress nice."

  Then she picked up the case and walked out.

  That left him standing there with The Mistress of Souls, Skalla and Scotty. The Bat shifting Vampire finally took the tall woman by the hand and moved toward the kitchen.

  "You like food, don't you?" His accent was much thicker than Tyler had ever heard it before. Scottish, which was, no doubt, why he was called that. That, or
he was a huge Star Trek fan.

  Or, just possibly, both.

  The giantess went with him, and Tyler turned, trying to add the idea of a concept that made it easier to hold a concept to a total suppression of emotion. There was no magic to it, but it was still work. The effects were powerful though, and as Allison had told him, he could pick to feel as he chose, with only a little effort.

  Keeley sighed, and shook her head.

  "I should have handled things differently with you. I can see that now. You weren't wrong, by Human rules I've been stringing poor Steve along for years, without mercy. That isn't really the kind of thing that I have to worry about. Not with slaves. He has to do what I tell him, and it's best that way. Still all I did was tell him that we were dating and had sex. It will let him be happy, so there's that. I just can't let you give me orders. This is my territory, and you aren't even one of my kind. There are rules. You challenged me, and if I'd done nothing about it, that would have made me seem weak to the others."

  "Um, so, you're going to kill me now?"

  "What? No, we have an agreement. That isn't weakness on my part. You're clearly powerful enough to require me to back up my word. If you would have made a bargain in the first place it would have been fine. You broke the rules. Oh, sure, no one ever told them to you, but that isn't the problem. If I didn't do something, then I would have been open to being abused by a lot of beings. So I confused you a little. Let's not pretend you didn't like it. At least the first part, when you thought I was Darla. You were eager enough. That isn't... It isn't really wrong. I mean, sure, if she were a real little girl then you'd hold back and tell her to get the fuck off of you, but that's because you're a good person with self-control, not anything else." She shook her head then. "You know, Human morality is confusing at times, for people like you. Biology tells you that a cute girl is cute, and therefore a potential mate, but in order to get you to wait, society reinforces that very thought as being high evil. Can you see that?"