Dragon Queen (Avery Rome Book 3) Page 28

  “I know. It’s… There’s something a bit off, with the memories that Tarsus gave me. I know things that I think even other Greater Demons have hidden from them, for one thing. I doubt it was a mistake. Also, the Tarsus in my head is almost alive, instead of just being a set of memories. Worse, there really doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. I can’t even figure out his plan, if there is one.”

  She consoled herself with a maple bar. It was a bit sticky, but coating things in sugar tended to do that kind of thing.

  Eve made a face.

  “He’s scary. Even for a Greater Demon. Sane, which makes it worse, after a fashion. It means that if he’s doing anything with you, he really does have a plan worked out. You should probably talk to him about that. I mean… It won’t get you out of anything, but at least then you’ll know. If he tells you. His kind runs hot and cold that way. I wish I could tell you not to worry, but…”

  She had that one down. Still, Avery wasn’t going to worry over it, too much. It took focus. A thing she was very nearly a true master of. Thousands of years in the void could do that. Even hundreds could, most likely.

  She finished the food, thanked Eve several times for it, washed up and fixed her face well enough that she didn't think Bente would beat her too hard over how she looked. Then they both got to the mall in about four minutes. It would have taken less time, but the heels slowed her down.

  Everyone else was there, waiting for them, as they came through the door.

  It was still before seven, so no one glared at them or anything.

  Zack waved toward the far side, toward the owl door between shelves of books.

  “This is official line walker business, so we should use the facilities? We can lock ourselves in so we won’t be interrupted. No one will be here for travel for a few hours. This is the slow time of day, after all.” That was spoken toward Phillip.

  Which was correct. Avery and Kait knew when the slow times were and the Vampires would probably get that basic idea as well. They moved as a group, which probably made it seem like they were having an in-store meeting about books and new products. They were even all dressed almost correctly for it.

  At the wooden owl door, the carvings lightly polished, Avery touched her boyfriend on the back.

  “So, do we need to find you a new place to stay?”

  He laughed then, with a slight head shake.

  “Oddly enough, no. I just told them that it was me and that I’d gotten in on some magical plastic surgery in that other world, since it was free. My mom wants me to hook her up with some, by the way. I told her that I’d put some feelers out, the next time I get with anyone from there. I mentioned the line walking as well, but not the rest of it. I didn’t want to make it seem like too big of a deal. Being pretty makes sense to my family. Having extra-powers not so much. It’s like they can’t really grasp the concept. Not when it’s real.”

  Zack waved them all inside the open space. There were no chairs or anything, which wasn’t too large of a problem, for most of them. Avery was the only one in a skirt. That meant sitting on the floor was a bit harder, if she wasn’t trying to be unladylike and flash the room. The floor was clean, and smooth.

  Their Greater Demon boss looked at each of them, and then shrugged.

  “So, we’re going to be taking down the Alede Governing Body? What’s the plan for that?” He actually looked directly at Kaitlyn, as if he knew she wanted to speak. Which was correct, of course.

  Also, a bit eerie, since no one had talked to him about what was going on that she knew about.

  “It’s in layers. First, we’re sending in my mother, along with Avery. Word is that Val and her are a bit of an item. We can seal that one as real with a few public displays of affection. There are always parties going on in different places. They’ll go in and meet the correct people that way. Then Avery, and her Human boyfriend, Phil, will allow themselves to be seduced into helping out the pricks that tried to have me and my friends executed. Then we collect up where they live, their day to day routes and travel plans. After that… Well, then we get a real team ready to take over, who haven’t been rigging the elections for the last two hundred odd years and take the assholes out.”

  She gave off an air of being actually angry when she spoke about things. It was odd to see, on Kaitlyn’s face. It was meant to look pretty, or seductive. Possibly alarmed or fearful, if those things would keep her safe and protected. Lethality wasn’t a big option for her kind. At least, not by their nature.

  That didn’t seem to be something that was going to stop Kait Swanson. Not any longer.

  Zack snorted then.

  “Not bad. Here I was planning to work up to that idea over the course of several decades. I’m proud of you. All of you, by the way. Eve, you and Barb are in on the killing portion of things? That way we won’t have to actually let anyone not in the room know about what’s going on. They might guess, once we put Kaitlyn in power…” That was him being leading, which got an eyeroll from the girl. Then she pushed up her useless glasses.

  “Not happening. I don’t actually want the job, for one thing. Plus, no one under two hundred will be taken seriously. We have elections, after all. What we need to do is put up… Say five or six people to run for office, controlling who can get into the race early on. Then we let the people actually choose who they want in charge. It’s not going to be a thirty-year-old girl.”

  That she was even close to that old baffled Avery for a moment. Then, none of the Alede ever looked past their mid-twenties or so.

  Zack winked at the Alede then.

  “Good. We don’t even have to have that conversation yet. Let me know if I’m needed to help out with anything? It doesn’t sound like it, at the moment. Still, you’re my people, so if you need my aid, within reason, you have it.”

  There were a few nods. None of them half as untrusting as they probably should have been. Avery felt it for them. Zack had always been nice to her and probably the rest of them as well. The outlier for their group was, naturally enough, the new person. The one that had been added by her, in what had to seem like the last day or so, from Zack’s perspective.

  So his first course of action would be trying to gain control over him.

  Almost as if reading her mind, Zack spoke.

  “So, the new Human line walker… We need to get you onto the schedule. Not everyone loves Human beings, but most tend to think of you as pretty harmless. You can certainly make more money taking in line travel than I do. What days can you work? You don’t need to sleep, right? So… Call it four days a week? That’s a lot of time to fill, after all.”

  It was tempting to point out what was being done, the trouble with that was, simply, that he really was a line walker now. One who wasn’t affiliated with any other groups. Oh, he had a job with the Vampires, which showed a willingness to work with others, certainly. Using that location to set up contacts would be a good idea for him, since Phillip Hart didn’t have those built in, like she did.

  Avery made herself grin.

  “That’s a good plan, if he can get out of the house without being grounded. Maybe a shortcut into his bedroom? He has a lock on the door, and uses it at night already.” She’d been in there. With the door open, so his parents wouldn’t freak out.

  The other kids all had their own spaces as well. They were tiny, since there were six of them. The house was large, because his parents weren’t exactly poor. Upper-middle class, Avery thought. It didn’t matter to her, except that it should be possible to get that kind of thing done.

  Looking at her like she was being lazy, the demon cleared his throat.

  “Set that up? Maybe just outside the back entrance here? Don’t cheap out on us, either. I want it to be connected to at least three other places of use. Until then… Well, a little ninja action is in order? That or explain to your parents that you have a night job. They could just come in and visit, to make sure you aren’t out doing all the drugs by yourself, or turning
tricks on the side, with your new good looks. Though you could make some extra cash that way, I bet. Not as much as working here.”

  For some reason, everyone else laughed at the idea. It was the sex portion that they thought was funny, as well. As if he couldn’t have made a living doing that. Avery laughed as well, if gently. After all, doing anything else would stand out, which wasn’t her goal at all. She wanted, very desperately, to be part of the group. Which, honestly, she was.

  Her boyfriend shrugged, his muscular shoulders getting attention from three of the women in the space. Kait even made sense, though Barb and Eve did it as well.

  Zack didn’t, not caring about that, it seemed.

  “I’ll set up the work schedule then. Avery is going light on things for a while, so she can become famous. I expect you back by the school year though, at least two days a week. You better not let your grades slip either. That goes for both of you. Understood?”

  It was strange, mainly because he was so very serious seeming about it all.

  Avery stood up, getting she was being told to leave.

  “We’ll do that, sir. Now, I need to get to some other worlds. You should come with me, Phillip.” Then she looked around, and finally fixed her gaze on Kaitlyn.

  “Tell your mom, since we’re dating now, that she should take me to some parties? Just let me know a few days ahead of time, so I can make new outfits for us, first.”

  There was a conspiratorial nod, which was the wrong thing to do. Not when there was a real conspiracy going on.

  “How exciting. I’ll need to be a bit less heavy handed than that, of course. We might need to change that part up a bit. Let me… Just play along with things, all right?”

  Once that was agreed to, she walked to the pulsing and gently glowing node in the center of the room, then took Phil by the hand. Instead of pulling him along, since he was a grown-up line walker, she passed the information to him.

  “The node we’re going to is inside a red hut. Like the ones in Noram? Exactly, in fact. I think Dareg made this one, too.” Then she traveled. First into nothingness, then into a red glow.

  It took about five seconds for Phillip to find her, it seemed. It might have been longer or shorter than that, so she didn’t judge him for being slow. That some of them worked at different speeds was interesting, but not really important. Not for the time being.

  Rather than speak, she took a step forward, and pressed the blue star to the left of the door. Really, it was part of the wall that simply vanished, rather than swinging out or moving to the side.

  “This is the IPB base. The main one, I think. The command building is right here, around the corner.”

  The trip inside didn’t take long. It was only about a hundred feet away from where they came in. It looked to be early morning there, from the position of the sun. The bright light and blue sky seemed to be claiming it was either late spring or early summer, which was about the same as in her world. It was in Noram as well, but that had been coincidence, she thought. Things only matched up part of the time that way.

  Instead of Lydia being behind the desk, there was a tan woman with dark hair. She wasn’t familiar from the trip, though the name over her pocket was. Cooper. A friend of Brian and his girlfriend, Karen. They were both nice people, and had spoken highly of Penny.

  “Hello! I’m Avery Rome and this is Phillip Hart? Is Director Turner in?”

  Instead of the woman getting up, Ms. Turner yelled for them, clearly having heard who was there.

  “In here!”

  When they got to the doorway of the office, which was open, the woman smiled at Avery. Then frowned a bit at Phil.

  “I didn’t know that you were bringing people here yet. Is this for the meeting? We haven’t really set a date for that.”

  “No. Phillip is here to try and start a relationship with Georgia? We should also have Alan, another friend of ours coming, to see Bridget. Phil is a line walker, um, he also has the same powers that Will Baker does?”

  The lady behind the desk scowled then.

  “With the hair and the eyes? What can you do that way then? Will already claimed purple on purple, so something different than that?”

  It was a direct challenge, for some reason.

  “Right, let me…” He closed his eyes, then let his skin turn a deep walnut brown. His eyes and hair went toward a pumpkin orange however.

  It got Turner to smile. Even though it was clear she didn't mean it.

  “Okay, that will work. We have rules here. When on base you need to check in first, each time. Also get with me first, before bringing anyone new to visit? I want to keep the spying down a bit, if possible.”

  Avery winced, meaning it.

  “Sorry… I…”

  That got waved away.

  “I know, it’s a pain in the rear, but we need to keep on top of things. Now, let me see if I can find Georgia for you? Go wait out front, in the lobby, please? As for you, Rome…”

  Instead of screaming about having done the wrong thing, a stack of envelopes came out. There were at least twenty of the things.

  “Those messages to take around to people? These are a little generic. If you add anyone, let me know?”

  “I was hoping to get a spot for both the Vampires and the Shifters from my world? Three each, if that’s allowed?”

  It was, it seemed, pretty close to fine.

  Chapter nineteen

  The first half of the pile of letters wasn’t that hard to deliver. Most of them were either to her own world, Noram and the people there, or to Jake’s world. He’d been at the camp out, but they hadn’t really talked very much the whole time. Finding his place wasn’t too hard though, since she just needed to take him there.

  “It’s time for me to go home anyway. I faked my death back there, then stayed away for about twenty years. Maybe more than that. I have a wife though, so need to be getting back. I can probably deliver things for you, if you want?”

  “That sounds good, actually. Thanks.”

  “Not a problem. I look forward to seeing you again, soon.”

  It was strange for him to say, since they hadn’t left yet, but, as soon as they got into place, Avery holding the exit point open the whole time, the man just left. They were in the middle of an open field. One that seemed to be full of grass. Possibly wheat, though she wasn’t certain.

  That left her with more of an issue.

  The next set of letters were supposed to be taken to someone that she’d never met at all. Thankfully, Brian Yi had met her, and knew the way well enough for her to take that from his mind, then follow on to the correct location.

  The letter itself said it was for Gwen Harrison. There was also a numbered address, so she was able to take the thing right up to the front door. There was a gate, but it wasn’t locked. Avery hurried, in case there were pets that might be let out.

  The house was nicer than many she’d seen, but not a true palace. It was well cared for though and big enough to hold eight of the places she lived inside of it. Possibly nine. The steps were made of wood, which had been painted to a clean white. On either side, inside the black iron fence, was a really nice garden. It wasn’t a lawn so much, but there were flowers blooming, some fruit trees and a good variety of bushes.

  When she knocked on the door, she did it lightly, not wanting to ruin anyone’s day.

  There was a wait, and the sound of someone moving around inside. A deep rushing noise that meant whoever it was tried to hurry. They were just that far away from the front door. When it opened, Avery had to smile at her.

  After all, the woman was clearly, nearly identically, Marcia Turner. Just with a different name.

  “Gwen Harrison?”

  There was a pause, then a sudden, disarming smile.

  “Yes. Sorry, I’m just getting used to the new last name. We just got married a month ago. What can I do for you?”

  Holding up the white envelope, Avery passed it over.

  “It’s a mes
sage. From another reality? The one that Brian Yi comes from, though this is actually from the IPB Director.”

  “Oh? I’ve met her then. She seemed… Paranoid, actually. Nice, other than that. Let me…” It took a while for her to open and read the whole thing. “Okay. I think I can make it. I should send something back with you, if you have the time to wait?”

  “Sure?”

  That got her invited in, though it meant just sitting there while the woman worked at a desk along the far wall of the front room. It was nicely decorated, and held a lot of color. Avery approved, to be honest. A lot of her world tended toward dark or muted hues, at the moment.

  About ten minutes later the thing was written and delivered back to her, in an envelope, meant for Marcia Turner.

  “There we go. Now, I missed your name. That was probably rude of me. I’m Gwen…”

  “Avery Rome. Line walker. Dragon Shifter.”

  “Neat! This said that I should get with you if I need any help getting to the meeting? I can get there on my own, I think, but it never hurts to have friends. Now… Do you really turn into a dragon, or is that just a turn of phrase?”

  Tossing her hands out a bit, she went wide eyed.

  “A huge Dragon. I’ll try to be back every few days or so? Probably at random. Time seems to be a little different between each world, for some reason. I don’t have much of a sense of time passing, so…”

  “Yeah. I hear that. If everything that can exist does, then it makes sense that some places would be slower, or faster, than others. Some are probably even inconsistent, based on various factors. I have to admit, I haven’t gone a lot of places yet.” There was an awkward pause then, followed by the curly haired woman screwing half her face up almost comically. “I had a bad experience moving from one world to another, once. Um, I was kind of stolen from my original body and put in this one. It more or less worked out, but it’s left me feeling a little shy that way, you know?”