Scales (Avery Rome Book 1) Read online

  Her mother would have shunned her as well, even if she’d been allowed to stay with the others after having an abomination.

  Avery picked at the logs and arranged a nice little nest, right where the fortification had been. Acting as if the blue flag were under her immense body. It was actually comfortable for her. Like a soft bed. Better than the fabric cots that she’d used for the last three years. Not that she had a problem with having a sore back in the morning. That just didn’t happen to her. Some of the Shifters had that however and even brought other things with them to sleep on. Soft foam things that looked nice to have. Any comfort seemed like a good thing to her.

  Not that she deserved that kind of thing. Even as a Dragon that was clear. She was unclean, so no one should worry about how she felt or the hardships she underwent. Except that these people did. Not all of them. Never all the time. Still, they didn’t punish her for being what she was.

  The Clan had tried to kill her instantly, for being evil. Her form showing that she was in league with the lowest and most vile of all things. A Death Serpent. The Shifter Nation, the regular people that lived in homes, instead of caravans, who had computers and television to poison their minds, those people kept acting like she was just…

  One of them.

  Normal and without fault or flaw for being what she was. When her family had thrown her out, these people had gone to the Human authorities who had her and got her free. Somehow. She was a murderer, but Avery had heard that the President himself had gone to the people that had her. No one had ever told her what argument had been used by the man, but her thought had always been that he’d pointed out that while strong in war, the Humans couldn’t be expected to hold her.

  Also that it might be a bit difficult to kill her.

  Then they’d driven her across the country, far away from where she’d been, to South Carolina. To the camp complex. After that, she’d been thrown into military training. All Shifters had to be able to fight. As a group they earned their way in the world as mercenaries. That meant any of them could be called on at any time to go to war. Normally someone else’s, that they didn’t care about at all.

  No one had wanted her, naturally, so instead of a single six-week class, she’d lived there for three years. Roughly being cared for by the base commander. Not that they were close. That was just proper though. The man was older, being near seventy, but unmarried, which could mean that people would think ill of him if he were to be too close to an unclean beast like herself.

  Otherwise he could have simply taken her as a wife. After all, she was well trained for things such as cooking and cleaning. Sewing and even caring for children. That had been one of her duties for years, before everyone found out about what she really was. Hopefully her being vile wouldn’t harm any of the kidlings. It was unclear to her. She’d lived among the Gray her whole life and knew the lore as well as anyone, but that had never been addressed. It was so unheard of that her mind couldn’t wrap around it now.

  As a mother or father you were supposed to keep your children away from the unclean. Humans for instance. They were close to the lowest that way. Only Dragons and Demons were further down on the list of things that could harm your inner nature forever. Your souls. Both of them.

  Clearly, she’d been herself before her first change. She’d always held an unclean serpent inside of herself. That tainted her and her mother, for giving birth to her. Her question was simple then. Had she harmed everyone that she’d been close to? Her actions had always been an attempt to help others. To make their lives better, as was the goal of all people with their fellow Chosen.

  Shaking her giant head a bit, she noticed that a man was trying to sneak up on her from behind. It was the same one from before. It was pitch black out and he was in Human form at the moment. That meant walking upright, which pushed a lot of air around, even as he moved slowly. His heart was pounding a bit as well.

  Moving carefully, she looked over her shoulder, her neck stretching as she did it. It meant that she was looking down at the tiny being coming for her. This time without a firearm at all. His hands were empty, even. She just watched, until he came to a stop, her head, larger than his entire body by several times, just resting there. Waiting to be noticed.

  He did, eventually.

  “Well, fuck. I don’t suppose I can trick you into moving, so I can get our flag back?” He sounded nearly kind. Gentle even. His face and body didn’t match that, being big and hairy. Men were like that, so she didn’t mind. The real ones had beards, at least if they were old enough.

  Still, she had to shake her head, doing it slowly, but for long enough that he got the idea.

  “Huh. Okay… Plan B then.”

  She figured that would be the rest of his team attacking her and wasn’t wrong about the idea. What was interesting though was that they didn’t just sit back and shoot her until she was forced to shift again. That could be done, inside the rules even. Instead they started firing into the air, acting like they were either going to frighten her into moving or were going to kill her.

  The real plan was trickier than building a log hut had been. Not that it was a bad idea, really.

  The trick would be to draw in the people without the flags, while the others came to the noise, hoping to grab one in the fight. The only drawback to that involved her being set on fire. The logs under her anyway. No one from Red Team was there, so they had eight people in all. One of them was the Rabbit guy, she thought. So that was a representative from Green Team. He, apparently wanting revenge, sharpened a stick and took to poking her with it. That wasn’t a problem, except when he managed to work it between her scale plates. Then it was pretty annoying, about like being stung by a bee as a Human but she didn’t strike at the boy. He wasn’t old seeming, though it was too dark to tell just what his age would be. He did have several interesting glowing colors on his skin at the moment. Really, everyone did.

  A million different colors, heat reflecting in the air, sounds showing the dimensions of the world around them. It was interesting, if not conducive to clear thinking on her part. She rolled onto the fire, to put it out, which left a smoldering pile after a while. Then she had to shift back quickly, to prevent the others from grabbing the flag she was guarding. To their credit, they kept trying, even as the sky turned lighter in color.

  By that time there were over half the people trying to get her to move from her spot. Like she was a stupid animal that didn’t know what she had to lose if she did. Finally, in desperation one of the men started to shoot her. Over and over again.

  “Whoa! Whoa! Cut that out!” It was, interestingly enough, the Rabbit boy that said it. He was short, thin and wiry, but older than she was, Avery thought. “Now. This is just a game.”

  Instead of turning on him for protecting a monster like her, the Bear man moved in, his voice pleasantly low for a Human form being.

  “Agreed. Cut that Roberts. For one thing, I don’t want to start a real fight here. A game is a game. If she stops playing nice… You did say that, right?” There was a glance over to the side, which showed a tiny woman who was dressed in rags. She had bristly three tone hair, with brown being the darker part of it, a coppery red and brilliant shimmering pink highlights. At least to a Dragon in the early morning light.

  Her skin was glistening, but the voice was that of the Bat from Green team.

  “Avery Rome. A woman, yeah. At least she looks like one. I didn’t get a chance to ask. A bit standoffish, but she kept me from suffocating in my clothes when most of you would have run off, so I think we can play fair with her now. I don’t suppose you’re sitting on my handgun? That thing was expensive. I should have just brought my old nine. Live and learn.” Then the woman walked right up to her, as if she had no fear at all and put her hand out. Touching her side. Not that Avery could feel it happening. That wasn’t the important part however.

  The real issue was that Avery was tainting one of the Chosen. Worse, she couldn’t just move at the moment
. Thankfully the Bat woman pulled away after a few seconds, looked up at the sun and shook her head. Then she looked around.

  “Hey, anyone have a watch?”

  Martin, whose name Avery knew because he was the first Otter Shifter that she’d met, pulled something from his pocket. It was silver, in a hundred shades thanks to the etching on it. Mesmerizing as it shone in the early morning light.

  “Almost five. Sunrise was officially at four-forty-six. So, it looks like the Dragon lady here has won.” The blond Otter, who looked fresh faced and kind sounded totally normal to her. Not like it was a trick or anything.

  That meant she could change shape. The only issue was that she didn’t have her clothing. Mason had that for her, unless she put it down so that she’d be able to find it at dawn. Looking around she locked onto it pretty easily. It was just inside the tree line. There were three rifles, three knives and a pistol, as well as her complete battle kit sitting there with her boots, fatigues and underthings.

  It was mortifying for her, but she let herself shrink down, which took about two minutes. It also left her in the middle of a slightly warm smoldering ash pile. As soon as she moved to climb out, totally nude though healed and clean thanks to her change, the Rabbit and the Nations Bear dove into the pile, looking for things.

  The Bat woman snorted at the scene, but followed her as she walked toward the tree line. They had until nearly seven to get themselves back. The woods were decent, but not that big. You’d have to be pretty inept to get lost in the greenery, even if it was lush.

  “So, you weren’t sitting on the flags?”

  Avery smiled, or tried to. She still felt it hard to manage most of the time. When she was younger there was rarely a moment that didn’t find a smile curling her lips. Then life had happened to her, leaving her less than she’d thought she was. Most of the time she didn’t even bother trying. It was too much work. Too hard to do when the dark thoughts came.

  For the moment though she managed.

  “No. I saw a chance to throw everyone off, so did it. The flags are probably back at base by now. As long as no one managed to take them. That would make me sad.”

  The Bat woman laughed then, smiling for real when Avery bent over and got her handgun.

  “Here you go. That is pretty nice. I have your rifle, too.” As well as her knife. The woman just stood there while she got into some clothing. It was all tan, with jagged and blocky patterns all over it. That was, frankly speaking, a horrible look for the things. It wasn’t even good camo, since they were in a bright green and brown forested area.

  The tan stood out, but was what they were given for the exercise, so people wore the things. It wasn’t even the uniform, since the Shifters worked in the gear suggested by their employers as often as not. The things were the same for everyone as well. The women all wore pants, instead of skirts or dresses as was proper. Even after several years that was a thing which always left Avery feeling poorly. Even if she were unclean and no man would have her as a wife, she was still a woman.

  It was situational though. She was, like it or not, in a military now. That meant putting on the airs of a man, fighting and even killing. It was a strange thing for her, or had been at the start. Most Shifters didn’t treat women differently than men. It was a bit against the will of the Changing God, but these people weren’t Gray, so it was probably allowable. Their rules might be different, but it was not her part to proclaim them incorrect. That would be left to an Elder. Of the people who had cast her out, rather firmly.

  After failing to kill her well enough.

  As soon as she was dressed like a man, the Bat woman, who was in cut and torn clothing, tied on in places, started to bobble around more.

  “I’m starved. We should get back and see if they’re letting us eat today. Oh… I’m Calley. Calley Hale. I got your name already, but couldn’t return the favor. My voice gets all high and squeaky in my cool shape.” She started walking, the clear idea being that Avery was going to be going with her. Why that was, she didn’t know.

  The woman had seen her beast. So had the others. When they got to the collection of people they didn’t scatter away from her. They should have, at least subtly. Instead the Rabbit man simply wrinkled his nose at her. She figured it was in his disgust of her nature, but his words were kinder than that.

  “Sorry about all the poking back there. I really thought that you were sitting on two of the flags. Anywho, let’s get back? No sleep and losing is bad enough for me. I don’t need to be starving at the same time. I hate that they always do this right after the end of survival week. I guess that’s why we call it hell night?”

  There were nods from almost everyone else there, as they headed back in. The Rabbit came over to her, his hand out like he wanted to take her hand. Avery handed over his rifle and knife instead. That got the boy, who was about eighteen or nineteen, to smile at her.

  “Gregory. Call me Greg. I’ve seen you around.”

  That was just the truth. She even kind of knew some of their names. Not Greg, but she’d noticed that he was in some of the combat refresher courses. Explosives, in this case. People did different things, each day. They all ran, in the mornings, then practiced fighting, but the rest of the day had training courses until the fifth week, when everyone had survival classes. She’d done that so often it wasn’t even hard for her anymore. It was just camping out. Then, she’d grown up cooking over an open fire about half the time. Any holy day, for instance. Birthdays and celebrations as well, most of the time.

  So doing that wasn’t hard for her, not even in the winter, since they were so far south. She needed a jacket then, but a small fire was about enough to get her and the others through that part of things.

  In the evenings, for three hours a day, three and a half weeks a month, she studied other things. Writing, reading, maths and science. How to build bombs from raw chemicals as well. It was interesting, though similar in a lot of ways to cooking, so she’d done well at it. She could even operate a truck and several other vehicles now. About six things, since they could come up. She had a license to drive on the roads as well, since the base commander, Hart, had taken her into the city to do that half a year before. That technically wasn’t legal, but they’d lied about her age using fake papers. Not that the state didn’t know who she was.

  Where she lived and all that. Humans didn’t just let murderers go. Not that she’d ever seen. Someday they’d probably come for her, to tear her down, being even more unclean than they were. Her face must have seemed sad, she realized, since Greg reached out to touch her arm.

  She pulled away, shocked. Horrified by what had nearly happened. There wasn’t even a play battle to protect him from her at the moment.

  “No. Please don’t touch me!” Her voice came out too innocent sounding, rather than scolding. Scared nearly, which had the others spinning in place to glare at the Rabbit. As if his innocent gesture had been the great wrong there. He went wide eyed, but Calley nudged him.

  “That’s different. Why don’t you want him to touch you, Avery? I mean, it wasn’t like he was coming on to you.” She was twitchy, moving in a strange dance as she walked, but her eyes locked on Avery the whole time.

  Taking a deep breath, Avery nearly shuddered at the idea of just having to talk about it. The Chosen had asked however, so it was her part as the lowest to answer.

  “I’m unclean. A serpent. Worse, a Death Serpent. A Dragon? If you touch me your inner beings will be left lowered… If that happens too much, then at the end of your days you’ll be forbidden the haven of the Chosen.” She didn’t know if these kind of people could understand her meaning.

  It hadn’t come up before, since she normally just did her day to day tasks with people. Not speaking when possible. Especially about herself. That just seemed like the right thing to do. They were good, kind much of the time and holy. The raw fact was that she shouldn’t be there with any of them. It was too great of a risk. There was no place else for her to go, or
she would have already.

  Away from the Chosen, so that they wouldn’t be harmed by her existence. Not for the first time, she wondered what would have happened if she simply walked away, to live off in a forest someplace. Alone, with no one to harm except for herself.

  Calley took a deep breath, but didn’t jump away from her in understanding like she should have. Instead there was simply an odd expression on her pale, freckled face. It spoke of pity as well as understanding.

  “Oh. I think I heard about this one, then. You were part of a supremacist cult? The Gray? You do realize that pretty much everything you were told growing up is wrong, don’t you? You aren’t bad, or tainted. Dragons are just a different kind of Shifter. Like Wolves or Cats. Bats even, for you, since you can fly, making you extra neat. Yes, you’re a little different too, sure, but that kind of thing just makes you unique, not worse than anyone else. Not better, either. Though for once that last part doesn’t seem like it’s the issue here, thank goodness.” The Bat seemed to be willing her to do something. At least she took the expression on her face to mean that. Avery didn’t know what that was supposed to be, however.

  Acceptance of the woman’s ruling, most likely. She was older than Avery, so that made sense. Worse, each of the others were nodding along, as if to let her know how great her error was. To resist them in their judgment would be shameful. So she nodded, even if her inner being of evil knew what it truly was. They, in their goodness, didn’t know what being like her meant.

  So she lied. Hating herself even as the words were spoken.

  “I understand, I think. I’ll correct my thoughts, ma’am.” That seemed to be a sufficient answer, though one that had people staring at her, as if it might not be.

  Calley Hale didn’t require penance from her, but that wasn’t what these people did. Really, if they wished to punish you they tended to take you aside and talked to you. Sometimes harshly, if the mistake was large, but without many threats involved. Death or shunning weren’t waiting for you here if you burned the morning toast at fire or stove.