Dragon's Eye (Avery Rome Book 2) Read online

  “Well, it looks like I’m going to get a big entrance, everyone else seems to be here already. Thanks again, Ave.” She hugged her then, but it was just a polite thing, as if they might be recorded if the woman tried to squeeze her behind. Again. It had happened before.

  That part was interesting. Avery thought that women being together was wrong, or at least not that smiled on, by The Gray and the Changing God… Not forbidden but kind of unwelcome, since a woman that only enjoyed other ladies couldn’t produce a new child to add to the fold. Instead of being left uneasy by it, she felt the warm body against her and noticed that there was almost no internal movement on her part at all.

  She truly just couldn’t care about that kind of thing, past the simple contact.

  Calley just didn’t want to be caught molesting some young girl on camera. Which, given everything was a brilliant plan, of course. Not that the Shifters wouldn’t mainly understand that Avery was really ancient by most of their standards. She looked young, but their kind didn’t judge as harshly based on appearance as Humans did all the time.

  Meaning the hug was only that, not Calley trying to get her to have sex that moment, like a few other embraces had been. The issue wasn’t that Avery only liked boys, not really. No, it was just that she didn’t actually respond to anything like that at all. It didn’t make her feel uneasy when her behind was grabbed. No more than if it had been her arm or hand. She wasn’t big on the contact, but it could be nice enough, at times. Like at the moment.

  “Call if you need me. We can work something out.” Avery meant that she could ask Zack for a few moments off, at need, but the small, highly energetic woman smiled at her, then, being intelligent, she didn't act like it was an offer for more than simple aid moving around.

  “Thanks Avery. You know, I should get that put on a t-shirt… Anyway…” She glanced at the door, which opened then, Wendell Little coming through it. He was in a dapper gray suit, had on a lustrous and well-made tie in metallic gold and a rich burgundy which looked both new and like it belonged on the man.

  “Ambassador Hale, Ms. Rome. So pleased to see you both. Are you staying, Avery?” It was hard to tell if the man meant she could, should or would be in the way. She kind of figured that one would be in the last camp, not knowing how to negotiate anything very well.

  Especially things like border disputes. There was a strange thing however, in that Wendell seemed to actually desire that to be the case.

  “I can’t. I have work in…Probably now, actually. At Zack’s, doing line transfers?”

  The older man stopped then, his face going a bit tense around the edges.

  “As a payment for…” He didn’t know what to say it seemed, so looked at Calley who just glanced back at Avery.

  She spoke for herself, trying to be an actual adult.

  “Nothing like that. Just working, part time. I have school in the morning. It’s my first day. That… I need to come up with a report for my battle group.” She stopped for a few seconds trying to think, as the others looked at her rather strangely. Which was the correct reaction. “I mean, home room?” That term was a new one for her. Interestingly Wendell nodded, his face relaxing a bit.

  “A Human school? That’s progressive of you! Do you need help forging your transcripts? We have some talented people that can do that, working for us. It comes up.”

  Calley shook her head then, smiling, even if there was a bit of fear in her words. The flavor of it. Sour, but not too bitter, so it wasn’t anything all that bad.

  “Wendell… Avery Rome is going to a Human school, as an announced Shifter. No one else has ever done that in our entire written history. I checked.”

  The man blinked then, his face going slightly more pale.

  “Oh? That… I wasn’t made aware of that. We should… Perhaps President Samson could… Speak with you? First? You’re our only line walker, so far.” He wound down a bit then, but Ambassador Hale shook her head at him, her glasses flashing a little under the lights of the room they were in. Not that it was all that bright.

  The Bat Shifter took a deep breath, then squared her shoulders.

  “Someone has to go first. Avery has three solid years of military training and experience behind her. Even the special classes. Everything. If anyone can do this, it’s her. Just, Avery…” She bopped in place for a bit, then made a face, pulling her lips to the left, at a funny seeming angle. “Just remember, you don’t actually have to do this. If you go for a day, then leave, that counts, too. All of us are backing you up here.”

  She nodded, then waved at them both, since it was kind of important for her to get to work, soon.

  “I have to go. I have my cell with me? If I’m in Vancouver it should work. Possibly other places, but I haven’t tried that a lot yet.”

  Calley hugged her again.

  “Go. We have this here. If you see Troy, have him give me a call?”

  That was a bit strange, but not impossible, since Avery had met the Vampire many times now. They weren’t close. Oddly enough that was because he was being respectful of her, not due to dislike. Eve had told her that, at any rate. They were both line walkers, so it made sense that they might chat, occasionally. Probably more than they did. That would be her part in things however, to arrange for meetings that would be pleasurable for all involved, but not entice him with promises of things she didn't plan to pay off on. Then, Barbara was his girlfriend, so the easy thing to do that way would be to include both of them in whatever she was doing. Now all she had to come up with was what to do. That would probably be the most difficult portion of things.

  Nothing came to mind, so she nodded to Wendell, then left, getting into the nice bookstore about two minutes late. She felt bad about it as she ran to clock in, but instead of mocking her, Zack just smiled when she saw him, walking back through the node in the shimmering room that had been built around it. There was multi-colored marble in the place, with specks of things that actually glowed as the rift in space pulsed and moved slowly.

  She could see it pretty clearly, but a big part of that was simply being a Dragon, she thought.

  “Sorry. I’m three minutes late. Calley Hale needed to go to the Shifter HQ. It was a last minute thing. Not paying, though.” She waited then, to be scolded by the kind seeming young man.

  He was dressed nicely, had slightly Asian features and shiny shoes. His face seemed to be telling the world he was in his mid-twenties. It was a thing that meant nothing however. He could be a hundred, or several thousands of years old and look the same.

  Zack nodded at her, his face bright, but not seeming angry or anything.

  “Stay three minutes late so it all balances? Today isn’t all that heavy, though I did send Kaitlyn down to the Powerlifting Gym so that the people there would know about the sweet deal you have for them. So far the reports are positive. You can take every other transfer, unless any of them come in for it?”

  She nodded, moving right in as soon as anyone came for that, which didn’t take all that long. It was a bus full of decently large, very pale tourists. They looked more or less like anyone else that would be in the mall, as to how they acted and were dressed. The only difference was that each of them was actually four people. They only looked like one, but when Avery took them through, to go to the Glaring Lands, she ended up on the floor, gasping for breath and feeling ill each time.

  As a prize though, she noticed that the place she took them, while harsh in name, was lovely. Shining constantly with a prismatic light that was barely warm on her skin.

  Apparently to Zack, trading off each time someone came in meant doing each location or group as a whole. Avery got fifteen people that made her gasp and wheeze in pain, after each one and Zack got… A young girl. A tiny person, in a black dress.

  To be fair to her, she was slender and not that tall, but probably about normal for the eleven she seemed to be. The only difference really was that the woman was sucking reality in toward her constantly. Most people didn'
t see that happening, but Avery could, and even had a rough idea as to what it meant. The girl, dressed in black and red with white stockings and cute brass buckle topped shoes, was a Greater Demon.

  Zack seemed to get that as well, his face lighting up more than a little.

  “Ann! I wasn’t expecting to see you for days yet. Is everything all right?” The words tasted of truth, as if he really was pleased and mildly concerned to see the tiny woman. Or girl. If she was either of those.

  The very first time that Avery had met Zack he’d been a rather attractive woman, even if he was a man. Demons were shape shifters as well. In many ways they were the best at it, not that Avery was going to tell anyone she thought that. That kind of being was even lower than Dragons on the list of things that people reviled, after all.

  On the actual list she’d been schooled in as a child they were just one minor step below Dragons.

  The smaller Demon smiled peacefully, looking around the room before speaking.

  “Honey, I’m hooo-oome.” There was a giggle that was just a bit sinister in flavor.

  Tasting things like that was new to Avery. It had started after she came back from the void. She understood what was happening there, however. The ability had always been there. A part of her, at least from the point of her first change at thirteen. After centuries of meditation and focus, she’d come back simply able to notice more about what was going on inside and around her.

  There was also a sense of death around the little girl. Seeing her looking, the kid nodded at Avery, seeming pleasant enough really.

  “Hello. You must be Avery Rome? I’ve heard good things about you.” There was a bit of mysterious air to the dress wearing, appropriate seeming, child.

  Zack turned then, his face looking slightly strange suddenly. As if he figured that Avery was going to accuse him of speaking about her behind her back. If so, he’d apparently been saying good things, which might be all right. It beat being called horrible names constantly.

  Suddenly, he grinned.

  “You should know that Ann here is Tyler’s mother. It gives her a huge in as for getting that kind of information from him.”

  That didn’t seem right, but the rules for a lot of people were different than what the world at large knew about. So if a man who looked like a teen boy had a child for a mother, that was possible really. Avery waved at her, even if that didn't really make sense. It had worked so far that day, so it might be good enough.

  “Hello! Nice to meet you.”

  Ann smiled, then took Zack’s hand, a bit roughly.

  “It is, isn’t it? Now, I need to go someplace and have to bring Zack, since he’s my husband. Don’t listen to him when he claims that isn’t real. He’s in deep denial over it. It’s part of his charm.”

  Instead of doing exactly that, Zack just snorted. It was playful, rather than angry or demonic. A lot of the things he did were a bit like that. Though, he’d assured her more than once that the only reason he seemed that way was because it suited him in the moment. That, when he wanted to, or needed to, he not only could turn against her instantly, but would.

  All of the Greater Demons could be like that. Some just killed, raped or tortured people for fun, which was why everyone was afraid of them all. Some didn’t do that kind of thing, but that was a choice, not a mandate.

  Rolling his eyes, Zack looked at Ann closely, then made a funny face at Avery.

  “I can trade you something for the extra work? Ten million dollars?”

  Avery shook her head, since that was both a lot of money and probably not even a fraction of what the extra work would entail for her. If it was a trick, then it might end up with her being dead or trapped someplace. That might be hard for anyone to do to her, but it could happen. Especially if Zack, or his friend, had decided it was time to go after her.

  It didn’t seem likely, but Zack had warned her about his kind for a reason. Not taking it seriously was a potential problem. The truth was however, that the man could simply outthink her, no matter what she did. She wasn’t foolish or slow, but if Humans had the super power of creativity, then Greater Demons were the masters of that sort of thing. No one took them lightly.

  Not even the very powerful. Not even other Greater Demons.

  Which meant there was nothing she could really do about it if they wanted to harm her.

  “All right, if this is what it seems, with nothing else involved? You clearly set up that first one for me. That was hard. Is the rest of the night filled with things like that? If so… Well, I can still do it, but that won’t be fun.”

  That got a smile for her, from the Demon himself.

  “Not that I know of. At times things might be odd for you, but I can’t foretell all of that kind of thing ahead of time. I can promise that, other than the first bit there, I don’t think anything is incoming that would be too much for you. I’ll be back by eight. If not, well, it won’t be the first time that people had to wait to get where they’re going.”

  She was about to say that she’d do it, as long as she was being paid, since that was the job. Before she could do that, the tiny girl took her hand, cast a bit of magic at her, then smiled as it ran off like water.

  “That’s interesting. Anyway, you need to ask for more… In your case you should at least ask for something. What do you need most, in all the world?”

  She blinked, then tried to focus for a bit, her mind coming up with one thing in particular. It sounded too small however. Like it wasn’t possibly important enough to care about. Not compared to ten million dollars.

  Still, it was something. More, it was her thing.

  “I have to give a report to my classmates, in the home room. I don’t know what to say, or how to do that kind of thing well.”

  She hadn’t asked for anything yet, but Zack smiled at her.

  “We can do that. I’ll have it for you by morning. Just read the speech first, before you go in to school. I’ll make it special. Now, we need to leave, before Avery realizes that giving a single speech isn’t going to be that important for her. This way Ann. Remember, just step through, don’t fight it. Just take the freaking step for once!” The voice was playful, Ann chuckled a bit, then the node started to glow purple. The energy getting that done came directly from Zack.

  Avery could see it happening. Power flowed from his center, teasing the edges of the thing until it made a color that he found pleasing. She could see it, and feel how it was happening, but knew that she didn’t have whatever it took to make that sort of thing take place.

  None of the other line walkers did that yet either, so she wasn’t alone at least.

  After that, things went pretty smoothly. It wasn’t her first time working there. Even alone. There were others that took care of the payments and things like that, so all she needed to do was find out where people were going. Then take them there, even if it was a different world or reality.

  Some of the pickups were in places that were really far away. Not that it took her any longer to find them, but a lot of the people she met that night weren’t strictly what she would have thought of as being people. Even if they clearly were. She mainly ran, moving rapidly from place to place the whole time, but at just after eight, about fifteen after, Zack showed up, his face seeming different.

  As in the shape had changed.

  The colors as well. It wasn’t from a beating, but seemed a bit like he was actively altering how he looked. Slowly.

  “It only takes me about four minutes to change into a giant Dragon, less than that, possibly. Can’t you, I don’t know, learn to do that, then use the trick of doing it fast to… The pattern…” She knew what she wanted to say, but the words didn’t come out.

  Zack gave her a strange look for a bit, then waved the five pieces of paper in his hand.

  “Read these before you go to sleep. It won’t mean anything to you, but you’ll say the right things in the morning, in front of the class. I’m kind of pleased with it so far. As for what you
were suggesting…” He shook his head, then, started breathing incredibly hard. Fighting for more oxygen than he’d been using. Then, a bit slowly, he started to melt, becoming taller, but also bigger around. His skin became pale as well, though with his mouth altering to show hundreds of very white, sharp seeming lustrous fang teeth.

  Avery smiled.

  “A… Manthori Vampire? Like Rebekah? Or Harland from the council?” That one made sense, given that he looked identical to the man.

  Perfectly so, except for the fact that his clothing didn’t fit now. Harland was decently tall, after all.

  She just nodded as the Greater Demon smiled at her. His eyes flowed into a solid blood red color, then he laughed deeply.

  “That worked. I had to use a shifter from memory for the template. Calley Hale, actually, just to bring the evening full circle for us. It’s interesting, speaking past all the teeth.” That was done clearly however. There was just a bit of sloppiness around the edges. Which all of the Manthori had, if you really listened. Actually, from what Rebekah had said, half of them were barely able to make themselves understood at the best of times. Only the old and talented learned to master speaking that well.

  Harland was one of that sort. Probably their high leader, more or less.

  Avery didn’t feel all that bright, but did take the papers from the Greater Demon, then looked at the first page. It was just filled with layers of arcane symbols, instead of words. All in a metallic copper ink. There was no magic in the pages either, just drawings.

  Zack shrugged. It looked wrong on the large pale Vampire.

  “It will work. I know, why don’t you read that, while I get some different clothing? Then you can take me to the Vampire Council? I have some things to do.”

  “I get it. Harland can’t use the nodes, unless he pays for it.” She didn’t really mean it, but wrinkled her nose, hoping it was cute and not just weird. “How much is he paying me for it?”

  For some reason, Zack just laughed, gestured at the paper and walked away.