Scales (Avery Rome Book 1) Read online

  Zack took a breath, then smiled.

  “Avery and I will stay here. We have some people in the area to see about, before they can be attacked. The embassies. Eve, will you see what can be done with my people? It will take a bit for them to be attacked, but I’d rather not let that happen. Edom…” He winked at the darker skinned Vampire. “You should go with Bey to Australia. Work out of there until we come get you. This might be nothing or end up needing total relocation. You can manage that. For all the groups?” It was a big thing to ask, but the Vampire just snorted a bit, then nodded.

  “I’ll see what I can do toward that end.”

  Avery waved her hand then, probably interrupting. It got Bey and Lang to come toward her anyway. She picked up the wolf first, taking her through the massive shortcut. Then she let Bey hop through, since he had skills that way. Before Edom could go, Zack held out a hand to prevent it from taking place.

  “The Council will want war over this. Not that I blame them, but we need to find out what’s going on first. I need you to hold them off. Eve, you’ll need to back him up on that. I’ll work the Demon side of this. Troy, you can handle the investigation? It’s the most dangerous part of this, since it will mean getting between the government and everyone else right now. If it comes down to it, kill until they stop fighting. You can always move to a different reality to avoid the charges later.”

  There was a darting glance at Avery, but the demon didn’t address her directly. Not until he smiled.

  “First, I’ll go and see to the node here. Ed… Go now?”

  The Vampire didn’t growl about being ordered around, just moving in the right direction for him to meet up with Avery as she took a step, hopping over the bottom of the rift, even if he couldn’t see it. Letting her go first, which worked really well, she noticed. Smoothly.

  Before she could turn Eve and then Troy stepped into the room, through the node behind her. The girl Vampire slapped Avery’s arm as she moved back toward the thing for the return trip.

  “Listen to Zack, but don’t trust him. He’s not bad. Yet. He’s a Greater Demon, though. What that means for you right now? Probably that he’ll keep you safe. You can’t count on that, however, so stay ready.” She didn’t seem worried, even as Eric Weise moved forward.

  “Should we send her back? I know that she’s powerful, but still, she’s barely a girl. At least in her life experience in the outer world.” The words showed that the Mage understood a bit of how line walkers were made at least.

  The Vampire Eve lit up a bit then, instead of acting angry at the words.

  “You aren’t wrong, Eric. The only thing is, I’m not totally certain that this location is all that much safer for her. Or us. So you need to get ready as well. If this isn’t just some idiots in our government… Well, we need to be prepared for that. In that case…” She stopped, her face dark seeming.

  Avery understood that, after a fashion.

  “In that case we’re going to have to move a lot of people to Mars, aren’t we?” It was going to be a lot of work, especially since there was nothing there yet, in their reality. Not that she knew about.

  Eve lit up again.

  “Exactly. Good plan. I’ll get with Dareg on that. Later though. You should get back. Keep your head down, Rome. Be careful.” The other woman turned away, so that Avery could do the same and leave without speaking again.

  As soon as they were alone, Zack glanced at the van. It was still clean, but all white and a bit official looking. Like something that the government would issue, without the right plates on it.

  “We need to get you into something else, clothing wise. Right now your look is screaming that you’re highly involved in the recent shooting. It’s dark still, which we can use, but we have to move, now. You have a second CDC shirt in your things? Or… A sports bra? That might work better.”

  She did have one. It was kind of ugly, being in tan like it was, but she had the abs to carry off wearing it for exercise. Not that she often had. None of the other Shifters cared about things like that, but to her it was almost the same as going naked.

  Once they got in, the Greater Demon had her start undressing while he got the thing out for her. It was a bit awkward doing that, but he didn’t leer at her or anything. Avery didn’t mention her discomfort, guessing that he’d already known it would be happening. He also didn’t insist that he was the right one to drive the van, letting her get into place, which made sense, given that she had the keys.

  Then she drove for about two hours, moving to different roads several times as Zack looked at the map on the GPS and rerouted them. After the fourth time he nodded, explaining why he’d been suggesting what he had.

  “The main roads and the primary offshoots will be where the different police agencies come in from. They rarely leave those routes, even in emergencies. So by timing things correctly, we should be almost invisible. Plus, there were a few cameras that we needed to avoid. You did great back there, by the way. Keeping those prisoners alive like that? We can use them to prove there was a set-up in the first place. Not that it will be enough. We have too many people that can influence thoughts for that to be trusted. Still, we can leak things into the news, if we’re careful about it. The nearly thirty dead bodies will look bad though, no matter what we claim.”

  From that point on she had to drive by instructions, since they wanted to be off the main roads for the most part. It meant taking four times longer to get back to the mall location in New Mexico than it should have. At least the trip to the hotel hadn’t taken anywhere near that long. Then, she’d been following the insane Agent Borden at the time, which had required reckless driving and speeding. Not that Avery was going to claim to know the exact time difference. She was horrible with the passage of time, in general.

  Yawning she kept her eyes on the road.

  “I haven’t slept since the Congo. I probably won’t get to for a while, either.” It wasn’t a complaint, as much as letting her temporary partner know what liabilities she had going on at the moment. She was fine for a day, or even a day and a half, but after that her capabilities would start to lower if she didn’t get twelve hours of solid rest or so. Not that she was going to fall asleep just then. Being in a fight had worked to keep her up and around pretty well, so far.

  It always did, when her life was in danger.

  The man next to her, who was searching from one window to the other as if he were expecting a sudden attack, smiled and glanced her way.

  “You’ll live. Especially if we can get you food. You’ve worked that one out, at least a bit, right? If you have to stay up, food will really help. If you can’t get anything for a while, then sleep will offset that for a long time. Right now the easier thing to replace will be edibles. Can you hold out for a bit? The mall will have a food court. My treat?”

  She nodded, her mind focused ahead of her as they drove. The sports bra was bugging her, but she knew that most people wore a lot less than she did in general. There were other women driving with as little on, in other cars as they passed, for instance. None of them had on camo-blouses. So it was being slightly embarrassed, or conspicuous to the extreme. No one even looked at her funny as they traveled. Probably due to the fact that it was too dark out for most people to see her clearly.

  Avery couldn’t really see in the dark, but the freeway was a screaming low frequency bonanza for her, so she got a lot of detail that way. That meant she noticed everything people were doing in their cars as they drove. It would have been distracting, if not for the fact that she needed to be searching for the police, not people doing questionable things as they drove or rode.

  There were very few cars in the parking lot when they got to Marketplace Mall. It was enough that Avery wondered if the entire place was empty until she parked near it. Then it became clear that there were people inside. Some of them moving around, which was useful for her.

  Zack got out carefully, pointing to the back door of the correct place for Avery. Thr
ee doors down to the left of the main door. Instead of doing something Demon-like or magical to gain entry, Zack jogged with her over to the door, then pounded on it a few times.

  Politely, considering he was making a lot of noise.

  When it opened, Chi the Bat stuck his head out through the crack, smiling.

  “Zack! Avery! Come on in. We’re in lockdown at the moment. There was an attack not far from here. You know about that?” He was dressed for mall work, not a fight, which meant he had comfortable tan loafers on, light colored slacks and a white shirt without a tie.

  Zack was dressed similarly, but did have a tie on. It was blue and green, but shimmered, the metal blade inside of it glowing faintly purple. He moved in, collecting a hug from the small man. Chi let go and did the same with her, almost immediately.

  The Greater Demon was the one who spoke for them.

  “We were both there. Avery was on guard duty outside, so noticed the attackers setting up. That meant we had a full team ready before they acted. It was stupid of them, but they ignored the girl in the van completely. It was a real hit though. As far as I can tell the idea was to murder Bey for certain. Anyone else they could along the way. The only reason for doing that is to start a war, so we need to clear this location. If they aren’t coming here to attack right now, they will be by morning. There’s no way this won’t be painted as the monsters attacking the good people of the FBI.”

  He stopped as Clyde and a tall thin woman walked in from the front. She was white, with soft silver hair. That probably meant she was a Swan Shifter, or something similar. The look really worked for her, leaving the lady seeming lovely in a way that most people seldom managed for real.

  Interestingly, she waved at Avery directly.

  “Rome! I haven’t seen you for a while. Last camp. Oh… Terry Lamp. I don’t know if you’d remember me? My hair was shorter then.” She waved at the back of her neck, which meant nothing. The name did bring back the person though, so she nodded.

  “I do remember you! We had combat driving together? Oh, speaking of driving, here are the keys to your van, Ambassador Fellows. I didn’t get a chance to put fuel in it.” That seemed like a huge oversight suddenly, but the older Dragon grinned at her.

  His voice was rich and full. In a way he kind of reminded her of Edom a bit. A shade or two more golden. A bit slimmer. Over all they probably could have convinced people that they were brothers if the need ever came up. As long as whoever was asking about it didn’t know much about Vampires or Shifters. Possibly even then.

  “I can take care of that. How many bullet holes?” He didn’t seem concerned that way, but Zack winked at him anyway.

  “Not even a tiny scratch. Avery did everything just about perfectly the whole time. Then, she’s had enough practice. Years of being kept at your battle camp without a break. Not that I don’t see it, but I would have figured that one of you Dragons would have stepped up. She’s going to need to know more about you. I know that hurrying isn’t generally your thing as a group, but letting her know the basics about herself isn’t exactly going to hurt anything. Not now.” Then, because the man was a Greater Demon, he turned to Chi, smiling. Pretending he wasn’t using that as an excuse to let Avery in on everything. “Dragons aren’t actually Shifters. The rest of you are one homogenous group, but they’re from a different reality, originally. Some of them, the Queens, can learn to travel between worlds when they get old enough. Avery is one of those. It just means she’s bigger than the rest, with a few extra abilities, not that she gets to boss anyone around. Dragons are actually pretty good about that kind of thing. Working together when it’s needed? Not that any of this should be a problem for anyone. The Shifter part, I mean? They change shape, it’s close enough if you aren’t going to be a bigot, right Chi?”

  The rust colored man, wrinkled his flat nose, making his glasses twitch.

  “Well, that isn’t exactly hidden, is it? Most don’t believe it, but…” He stopped, looking at Zack, then Avery. Then the small, fairly twitchy man shrugged. It was kind of clear that he really didn’t care about that kind of thing.

  She didn’t know what to think about it, to be honest.

  “What does that mean? I’m a Death Serpent because I was touched by the Darkness?” That was what she’d always figured had happened. Sometimes Shifter kids were things other than what their parents were. That was rare however. She should have been a Raccoon. One of the very best of all animals. Instead things had gone very wrong.

  Clyde made a face, then shook his head, smiling a bit.

  “It means that your father was a Dragon, given the story I heard. Also, given your looks, you’re clearly related to me in some way. I’ve never met your mother, however, which narrows that one a bit more. It pretty much means that either my older brother or father is the right man.” He glanced at Zack, who smiled, nodding a bit for him to go on.

  Avery held up her hand then.

  “We can do that later? Or not at all. I never expected to have a father. Literally. It just wasn’t part of how I was raised. Not that I’m not curious. We need to get people out of here, not talk about who my parents are.” She nearly had to simper then, since she realized that her voice had been firm and commanding, instead of like her normal shy self.

  Chi backed her up however, putting his hand on her back and leaving it there.

  “Right. Um… Avery and I can go store to store? Even moving people to the next node will be faster. I don’t know if everyone will leave. The Kobolds will probably stay and fight. A few others. The Trollienkeine… One of theirs was set up to be murdered. I don’t know how they’ll take that.”

  Avery had no clue either. What she did have was a desire to stare at Clyde, since he’d basically just confirmed that they were related. Not just on the Dragon part of life. That was big news. She’d been right though, a bit before. They needed to focus on mission, not how she felt at the moment. The mission came first. Always.

  They started to move, Chi letting his hand drop to the flesh at her lower back for a bit, then he took it away. Stroking her a bit in the process.

  She jogged on, then looked at him.

  “Um… I’m sixteen and have no sex drive.” She wasn’t really trying to tell him not to touch her. She didn’t mind or anything. It was just that she was more or less looking to get married, not just have a date or two with a cute man. So she explained and moved at the same time. “I don’t want to give you the wrong idea? I mean, we could get together, but… I’m thinking long term? It was how I was raised.”

  It was way over the top given that he’d just been being friendly, not trying to do anything with her. Again, for the second time in a few minutes, the man rescued her from embarrassment.

  “And I’m a Bat. We pretty much only do short term. Or, more exactly we can do long term with a person or two, but don’t expect us to be faithful at all. Good to know. Clyde isn’t into me, but I figured it was just a guy thing. Some men don’t do that, yeah? Is it a Dragon thing then?”

  She shook her head.

  “I have no idea. That would be tricky then, wouldn’t it? If Dragons just slept with anyone, then it would make more sense. There’s no way that a Death Serpent could be one of The Gray, though. They’re really bigoted against any kind of serpent, especially the large kinds. So something else had to have happened. I…” She waited at the door, since there was work that was needed to be done with a key. That raised a metal grate, but only about a foot, then they had to crawl under. Chi managed to put his hand firmly on her behind as they moved, pushing her. Trying to be helpful.

  She grinned, getting that wasn’t his point. They were simply different beings, which meant blaming him for being what he was wouldn’t aid anything. Rather than bother with that, she just started moving again. He knew that she wasn’t going to respond to him in certain ways already. Plus, he was at least ten years older than she was. That wasn’t creepy to her, but it should have been to him.

  Avery was also not t
hat great looking, so he didn’t keep it up constantly or anything like that.

  It took nearly two hours to get everyone who wanted to leave the mall to where they wanted to go. In the end several groups stayed. Not the Trollienkeine. They all asked for passage to Australia, where they could interview Lars, in case he needed their aid in the coming battle. The Kobolds stayed. They were very different, but had disguises on that made them seem less like blue furred two legged wolves and more like old German people.

  The rest could pass for Human and weren’t out to the government yet. Vanishing suddenly would make them seem more suspicious. The hope was that staying would be safe, for the time being.

  Yawning, feeling ready for sleep, even if it wasn’t time for it, she remembered what Zack had claimed. That enough food would make up for not resting for her kind. She looked around, then made a face. They’d already taken all the food making people away. Some of them were pretty distinctive, so they hadn’t wanted to get involved if they could help it.

  It was a sensible plan, but now there was nothing left to eat.

  Even the Vancouver Complex would be shut down, making it impossible to get anything there, at a guess.

  She made a face, then nodded. Avery had no cash on her. No way to beg food from anyone that would give her enough, either. But she had a way to find some frozen yoghurt, if she really wanted. It was on a different planet, in a different reality, but closer for her than say, the local shopping center was. Plus, the Martians didn’t seem to require payment for anything.

  Tilting her head, she glanced at Chi. He was nice, if a bit cuddly.

  “I need to eat. Would you like to come with me? I know a place, I think?”

  He winked at her.

  “So you’re actually fine with me sleeping with all your friends? That works. I’d love to go on a date with you! Am I dressed for it?”

  She looked at him, then nodded.