Dragon Queen (Avery Rome Book 3) Page 34

  “That sounds fine? We don’t really have to make anything from it. Why don’t you handle all of that? Whatever works for them is fine with me. Now, L. J.-”

  She called Calley directly, using her cellphone. The woman answered herself, her voice chipper.

  “Avery? How may I help you today?”

  Everyone else was standing there, looking at her for some reason, even though people made phone calls all the time on the set.

  “Hi, Calley. I was wondering if you wanted to date one of my coworkers. He’s a Human, but cute. I know how you like that in people. He’s the male lead for the show?”

  “Oooh. That sounds fun. We should meet at least? I don’t get time off anymore, I don’t think… I don’t suppose he’s going to be near Sparks anytime soon? I’m working out of here for now.”

  “You know, we should be near there in about half an hour? At Tyler’s? He can stay the weekend? We need to get him outfitted first, for the mission. I don’t know how to get you both into the tabloids though. Or the regular news? That…” It was, more or less, beyond her, even if it was clearly the real point of the exercise.

  The words got Krista to raise a finger.

  “I can handle that part. I have people for it. Can you get them to La Circe in Reno at… Call it nine?”

  It turned out that they could do that. It was a drive from Tyler’s house, but the head of the Coalition of Nations could get them in. He had contacts there. Avery knew that, since Tyler called that out from the background.

  After a bit of scurrying around, Avery decided to move directly from the set to L. J.’s hotel room, to Tyler’s. That meant making two nodes in order to do it, and convincing the man that just closing his eyes and walking would work well enough, but almost exactly a half hour later the hunky actor and the new President of her people were driving away.

  Tyler watched them go, his face smiling pleasantly. Pushed into a grin by blackness from outside of himself.

  “You know, he’s better looking than I am. Well.” He gestured for them to go inside the mansion, but Avery had to shake her head.

  “That isn’t really true. You look different, but it’s about the same level, I think. I need to… Actually, I should find Judy Swan and take her some places. I was thinking of going to other worlds, but spending time with my friends is a thing, right?”

  That she didn’t really know that was a shame. Tyler nodded though.

  “Yep. We’re your friends too, so don’t forget us here. We’ll see you Monday? Early?”

  She had to pick up L. J., so that was just needed.

  “I’ll be here. Probably at about five or so? In case we have to drag a certain actor from bed?”

  “I’ll have breakfast waiting for you? See you then. Call if the plans change.”

  “Understood. Thanks, Tyler!”

  Moving from the front yard of his mansion, she moved to the void, then directly to where Judy Swan was. Half of her expected to find the woman having sex, so that part wasn’t a huge shock when she moved out of the void to find the actress in the hallway of her hotel. Behind the ice machine, kneeling in front of a man who wore a funny uniform. It was black and red, with a strange round hat. That had a tassel on it. It wasn’t a great fashion statement. Then, the man probably didn’t get to pick what he wore at work.

  Neither of them noticed her standing there, until after the man produced the needed energy for Judy to absorb. Then their reactions were rather different. The fellow was nearly panicked seeming, his eyes going very wide. Judy simply blinked once, then delicately wiped at her mouth.

  “Well, hello! I didn’t see you there. Is everything all right?”

  She nodded, as the poor Human man moved rapidly to snap and zip up his clothing.

  “I was just coming to see if you wanted to hang out? I have some time, as it turns out.”

  The famous actress stood up, her face coming to life.

  “That would be great. We need to let Mike here get back to work. This was fun. We should do it again?” All of her attention went back to her friend, Mike.

  The boy, and he couldn’t have been much older than Avery’s real world life, nodded.

  “If I don’t get fired for this? Getting caught… man…” There was real misery to his words, as he stared at Avery directly.

  She didn't know what the issue was, really. That she’d embarrassed him, well, that made sense, given it was an intimate moment. Tarsus had to feed her that he could be fired for having sex with Judy, if anyone complained about it. The correct thing to do, was, strangely enough, for her to put a finger in front of her mouth, then to wink.

  “I saw nothing. I wasn’t even here.”

  It was enough to get the man to smile at them.

  “Thanks. Let me know if you need anything? Either of you?”

  The words weren’t an offer to have sex, she didn’t think. Just the Human being grateful.

  After he hurried off, Judy just stood there for a moment, licking her lips. They were very red, but not made up, in particular. After they let the Human escape, they walked off toward the left. Which, it turned out was toward Judy’s room. They went inside, not speaking at all.

  Then she waved her hand.

  “Let me brush my teeth? Then we can go and do something? I heard that there’s a party, in New Zealand? I don’t know if you’d want to go to something like that… An Alede party. I normally can’t make things like this one, but the invitations tend to be pretty open. I just don’t have time to travel there all the time. It’s where the Governing Body works from?”

  Avery nodded.

  “I can get you there? I’m not…” She shrugged. The truth was, she wasn’t into sex like the Alede were. That was going to make it hard for her to get in with that sort of person though. She had to change, or at least not be resistant to that kind of thing for the time being. “Let’s do that? I should change first?”

  It took about two hours to get ready for the party, but getting in wasn’t a problem at all. Judy just had her go directly through the correct node, which was a nicely decorated space, with a lot of cushions, pillows and writhing bodies all over the place. The room smelled warm, and like ten kinds of perfume, as well as sex. A lot of that.

  She was in lingerie, which was a see-through outfit that had been her Halloween costume. Her Alede friend and coworker was in something similar, since that was the kind of party they were going to. One that was about sex, with a small eye toward making political connections.

  Taking her hand, Judy looked around, then moved over to where several people were sitting. There were three Alede there, in different chairs, with Human men and women kneeling in front of them, servicing them with their mouths as they spoke to one another. That got Judy to tense, which made sense. Half a dozen Alede inside her head came forward in disgust at what was going on. Responding powerfully to the scene. These monsters were being serviced, showing how decadent they were.

  It was a sign that they were broken, for Alede. They should have been the ones doing the work, gaining from it. Instead they were using their powers to enslave the minds and bodies of people to no real purpose. Except to show that they had power to spare.

  One of the women, who was dressed in a business skirt, a thing that had been pulled up to show she wasn’t wearing underwear, waved at them.

  “Judy Swan! I didn't know you were in the country. You’re working on some… Sex show, wasn’t it?”

  “Hello, Cherise. Nothing that fun, I’m certain. Just a television program. Red Rain? Avery here is one of the stars of it.” She sneered slightly as the Humans worked, one of the women being pushed onto the erection of the man who sat there. It didn’t look fun, to be honest.

  That fellow was dressed up as well. Marty Hagman, Avery knew. He had on a full suit, with trousers and a jacket. The cut was fine enough, she supposed. The thing was that he’d carefully freed his manly bits, but wasn’t showing anything else. That was meant to show how little he cared about his friend. So
did his pulling her head down, forcing her to choke on him.

  Judy looked nearly ready to start swinging her fists at them over it.

  Cherise, which was the name of the Alede ruler, locked eyes with Judy. It wasn’t a friendly thing. Not at all.

  “Oh? So, you’re bringing your pet Human for us to play with? That’s kind of you. Here, why not have her take Doland’s place? His tongue must be getting tired by now.” She managed to sound relaxed about the idea and not snotty. Somehow.

  Rather than push Avery to her knees, Judy faked a laugh. She was capable of doing better than that, it being her job, which meant it was designed to seem the way it did.

  “Cherise… This is Avery Rome? The Shifter line walker? I can’t believe that you’d insult her like that. Or Doland there, for that matter. I can’t…” She looked concerned, and turned away a bit, taking a deep breath. “I’d hoped to introduce her to you all. She and her boyfriend, the new Human line walker, Phillip Hart, they’re both willing to work with you. The other line walkers aren’t happy about that, but I didn’t know that you were going to do this… It’s sick. Avery, we should leave. I’m so sorry that you had to see that. I… Doland, you others, you should come as well. This is wrong.”

  Judy pulled her away then, over toward the node. They actually had a few people behind them, one of whom was Doland, the man who’d been servicing Cherise. That lasted until the woman pulled him back, having gotten up to follow them. Marty had as well.

  It was the ruler who spoke.

  “I’m certain no offense was meant, line walker. Perhaps you could come back and we could… Talk?” The woman licked her lips, her skirt still hanging up, near her mid-thigh.

  Judy shook her head then.

  “No, I don’t think so, Cherise. I didn't bring my friend here to be abused or made fun of. If you want to speak to us… fix yourselves first. We can talk about this later. Now, I think we should really be going, if that’s all right, dear?”

  The actress really seemed concerned about the whole situation, so Avery played along. Even if she didn't really understand what was happening, she was smart enough to get that things had changed, for some reason. Probably the way that the Alede in charge were behaving.

  “Of course. Let’s go?”

  They didn’t get to take any of the Humans there away, ending up in Judy’s hotel room, instead.

  The woman looked at her, actually scared.

  “That… I can’t believe they’d be that sick! We have to stop them, Avery. Alede use sex to feed. We don’t abuse our friends though. We cherish them and serve their needs to get what we want. That was… It was an illness. They’ve enslaved those poor Humans! We have to help them. I just… I know that you’re supposed to work in there, to find dirt on them, but we don’t have that kind of time. People are going to die soon, if they haven’t been already.”

  Avery tilted her head.

  “Okay. Well, we know where those three are right now. It would be better if we could follow them home… How do we do that?”

  The Alede, seeming perfectly lovely and more than a little angry, shook for a few moments.

  “I don’t know, Avery. I really don’t. All I can say is that we need to do something and fast. I hadn’t realized that things had gotten this bad.”

  “All right. I think we need to see about getting some help then, if we can.”

  Inside of her mind, Tarsus worked out a plan for her to follow. Interestingly, it didn’t require a Greater Demon to make work at all.

  Chapter twenty-three

  It was up to Avery to get the information they needed. Her intent had been to spy, like a normal person would have, but the new information about enslavement of Human beings meant that they needed to speed things up a bit. It didn't remove their need to have the data, though.

  Really, it made it more important. They needed for the top five people in the Alede Governing Body to die. Preferably all at once, in a freak accident. Yes, they could send in Eve, or even Avery, and remove them from the world in short order. That wasn’t in doubt. Even Kaitlyn could have probably gotten the job done, if she really tried. The girl was incredibly nice though, so it seemed mean to make her do that kind of thing.

  The trick was all about making certain they didn’t get caught in a way that prevented them from putting a new government in place.

  To that end, Avery moved to the IPB base. Ambassador Sin didn't have any real reason to help her, of course. That her powers would allow that however were equally clear. Three was no one in several worlds that would be of more use in removing the Alede leadership. Not that Avery knew about anyway.

  So, after checking in with Director Turner, she just laid the whole thing out.

  “I need data for the mission. I don’t know what to pay the ambassador for the work. I can do it in gold, though? Or line travel. She might not do it anyway. I won’t lie, the goal is to find a way to kill these people. She’s probably too kind to allow that. I shouldn’t ask, but I don’t know who else to turn to.”

  Ms. Turner cleared her throat then and fought a smile.

  “You know, you’ll need to ask her about that? It isn’t IPB business. We can’t officially become involved in things like that. Not even in other worlds. Not officially.” There was a dismissive wave toward the other woman’s office. Avery took it as a hint, and walked out.

  She didn’t know if that was the right idea, but Director Turner didn’t make any noise or call her back. That seemed to mean she was supposed to check in with Cindy Mableton on the issue for herself. A thrill of worry started to run through her middle as she approached the door to the correct office space. Inside sat the blonde woman, who was pale, dressed in a tan military uniform and about the same size as Avery herself. Actually, the woman was a bit taller, and a little thinner. That made her look a tiny bit too skinny, of course.

  Looking up the woman nodded, hit a button on her computer, then stood up.

  “It’s weird, working with you Avery, you know that? I can barely read you at all. I did get what Marcia was thinking though, so… Let’s go? You can cover what you need me to do while we walk?”

  “Um… Right.”

  That didn’t take long. Before they got to the red hut at the side of the building, Ambassador Sin was nodding at her. When they walked into her house, after she opened a node into Edom’s living room, the lady started to focus enough that she stopped in place.

  “Okay. I know you here, but that won’t help me at all. I… Who else do I know here?”

  Avery had to think for a moment, then smiled.

  “Did you meet Alan at the camp out?”

  “No? I didn’t really hit that one, remember? I get to go on the next one, in a week. Bridget hooked me up on that.”

  “Um… We should meet some people then? I can take you around. We need Alede, so… Judy Swan? She seems to know a lot of the people involved. I met them, but…”

  “Exactly. I can’t do anything starting from you, cipher girl. Let’s go?”

  There was a sense that she needed to hurry, though no indication as to why. Except that Cindy Mableton had literally left in the middle of her own work day. Just picking up and moving when Avery walked in. That could mean she was absent from her duty station at the moment. Hidden away in a different world. Director Turner hadn’t said that she could go anywhere. Just that Avery should talk to the woman.

  So she moved quickly. This time she located Judy Swan, sitting next to a swimming pool, talking to three men. Avery waved in the right direction, ready to walk from the point that they’d come into the space. It was, by the appearance of things, a private house. A very nice one at that. Not a palace, but the pool was clean and large. The place itself was white and surrounded by palm trees.

  There were about twenty people around the pool, with more walking and sitting inside the house, out of the sun. At a guess they were in California, instead of Vancouver B.C. It wasn’t where the lady had been left, but she had connections with peop
le who could move her around pretty easily.

  “Got it. I can work from Judy here. Or, really, back where we started? This place is a little warm, I think. Not that I can feel it. I used to love laying out, but… You know, I met Timon Baker. It saved my life, so I can’t whine that much, but I feel overdressed right now.” There was a look on her face that seemed pleased to be there, regardless of what she was saying.

  Then, her eyes were tracking the half-naked people pretty closely. Interestingly, most of them hadn’t even looked over at them, for some reason. It was as if they just hadn’t registered people appearing out of nothing in front of them. About forty feet away.

  It took a few minutes for Avery to warp space again, slipping both of them sideways, through the great nothingness into the slightly dark living room. A scent of dust filled the air, which was her fault. Edom and Eve were both so busy that she was responsible for keeping the space clean and tidy for them. They’d never asked her to do it, but to her mind that was just one of her responsibilities. One that she’d been falling down on, in the last weeks.

  The Ambassador walked over to the dining room table, which was set up near the living space. The front room was large, and while not the richest set up ever, there was a certain comfortable hominess to the whole arrangement. Then, the Vampires didn’t really eat food, so the space was most commonly used as a work station, if at all.

  Looking cute, if slightly abstracted, Mableton settled in the chair that Avery normally used.

  “Grab something to write with? I’ll call things out as I find them. You want… Cherise Langford first? Then… Marty Hagman… Sondra Far…”

  Avery wrote, making a listing for each of them. That part was simple enough, of course. The trick, Cindy assured her, would be in finding the point that they’d all be together.