The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) by P. S. Power

whole energy thing I have. You know, being connected to
The Rotted? Not that I don't love her, I just kind of want to not be a slave
forever. Can you help with that? Ideas or something?"
    That got a shrug and a wrinkled
brow.
    "Noooo. I don't think so.
What you'd need for that is one of the Greater Demons. I'd suggest you get with
Tarsus, or The Technician. You're on good terms with both of them, so that
should work. I'd try Darla first. Tarsus will charge you through the rear for
any help."
    Tyler nodded, then stopped.
    "He actually owes me a few
favors. Medium sized things. I don't know if that will be worth anything with
him."
    The girl smiled at him, and
touched his shoulder, letting her hand linger.
    "It might? Just for clues as
to where to look. I... Really, you probably can't do that. Getting free that
way doesn't seem possible. I mean, you might learn to change your energy draw
needs, or where you can get it from, but you can't die to break the
slave connection. It might be hard to get Anne to kill herself to free you.
Even at that, if you can't power yourself independently of her, it's not a real
point... Which is what you were asking about. Right. Good thinking."
    Then she moved into the front
room, and waved at Marissa.
    "Hey girl!" There was,
rather typically for Eve, but strange for Vampires in general, a warm hug for
the Council member. "I hear that you came to check up on me? Let's go do
that? I need to meet everyone anyway. Rebekah and her junior boy wonder are
down the street, hiding from you. Do you want to go get them first?"
    After a few moments of chatting,
they left, meaning that he was alone for a while.
    Finally.
    Limping still, though his
movements were much smoother, he got to the living room, and settled onto the
sofa. In his spot. The place where he normally settled, or had so far.
It was a great place, the mansion as a whole, but more than he needed, he
realized. The house was pretty, and a bit eccentric, with its odd furnishings,
and slightly skewed proportions.
    The thing there was that he
really would have been fine being back in Vancouver, in the little room that he
was renting from Calley. It hadn't been grand, but it was clean, and had his
stuff in it, which was, in the end, all he needed. That kind of thing, how
little he wanted, was different, when he stopped to think about it. For a
moment he considered that it might be due to the fact that he wasn't a normal,
real, man. Then he had to think about all the people that he knew, and realized
that wanting nice things around you was more of a Human woman thing than
anything else.
    Men had nice houses at times,
they just didn't really seek them for themselves. They got those things for the
women in their lives. That seemed strange to him on a level that he knew wasn't
normal. Men provided for their women, and this situation was being put together
for him. Okay, Ginger and Calley had gotten in because of him, but he didn't own it. Then, neither of them were a Human, which might change how they felt
about the whole thing. Or, and he knew that it was just as possible, he could
be wrong about what women wanted in life.
    Still, it was a nice place. He could
see that one.
    Picking up his keyboard, he
started to play. Making up new tunes, and writing them down for a long while.
Then he went to his room, sneaking in since there was a sleeping Calley in
there still, and got his notebook. The one he was filling out with all the info
he'd gathered on the Other groups. Taking an hour, he wrote down everything he
could think of, and tried to keep things organized.
    Then, almost on a whim, he picked
up the phone and considered who to call about his lifelong problems.
    At first he sort of wanted to get
in touch with Darla, The Technician, but that was probably just due to the fact
that she seemed less scary than The Liberian. At the moment, it was most likely
better to face his fears, and keep them in mind solidly. Zack had been right on
that one. He couldn't