Scales (Avery Rome Book 1) Read online

  “Right. Pick up the hand piece, it has numbers on the other side. Then put the ones on the paper in, one at a time and hit send. When you’re done, tap the end button.” He spoke as if he knew she could read, which was true. For all she didn’t get a few things, like phones and computers, or even television though she’d seen that several times now, she did have an education of sorts. Mainly cooking, cleaning and military fighting skills, but in those areas she was well enough versed, in theory.

  She fumbled the button machine the first time, but got it on the second with only a little help. The device in her hand rang four times, then a voice spoke to her. It sounded polite, if professional. Also as if it weren’t a real person speaking.

  “You’ve reached Lynn Lewis’ phone. I’m busy right now, so please leave a message and contact information. I may be out of service range, so it could be a bit until I get back with you. Leave a message at the beep.”

  She didn’t understand that part, until a tone chimed in her ear. Then, scrambling a little, Avery spoke, trying to be clear.

  “Hello. This is Avery Rome. I need to report to you, with special orders. If you get this in the next hour or two, you can call for me at…” She knew a number was needed, but not what it would be at all.

  Hart spoke that part out for her, without adding anything else. Not even that it was his phone that would be called.

  “Thank you. I’ll… Try to get in touch otherwise. It’s my first posting anywhere, so I’m probably making too big of a matter of it.” Then she hung up. It felt rude, but Hart just smiled at her, his old face playful.

  “You aren’t. Making too large of a thing out of this? Especially given the short time frame you’re being given to put something together. Still, we have a Dragon Shifter that’s both trained for the job and willing to work with us at short notice, so of course we’re going to use you. Try not to let that go to your head too much? After all, I put you forward for this job. The President is trusting you on my say so. Not that he shouldn’t, but you’re young and untested, so what you do here, all of it, will be noted by more than one or two people. Keep that in mind.” The man paused, then shook his head. “So, that didn’t work yet. What are you going to do next?”

  That, after a moment’s reflection, was calling on Benson. They were working together, which meant that it would be rude not to at least contact her for pleasantries if she were available.

  Dialing the phone again, getting it right this time, she didn’t have to wait four rings. It picked up halfway through the first.

  “Eve here. What can I do for you?” The voice sounded slightly dry, but relaxed and even friendly enough, if that could be told from so few words.

  “Hello? I’m Avery Rome… I was calling to see about what is needed for the transport to Africa later today? I’ve been given orders to set up a field kitchen there, as well as take in the food provisions.” She didn’t have any clue how they were doing that part. By plane, most likely, but if she could get even a little bit of supplies in on the first day no one would have to starve or kill animals in the area for food.

  “Oh? I don’t suppose you can help me carry that in? Not that I can’t do my share of lifting and toting, but it’s kind of hard to balance things if they’re too large.” The voice was clearly joking with her, which didn’t make a lot of sense.

  “I can do that. I don’t know the weight on any of the shipping containers or their sizes, but I should be able to lift anything that would be used.” In her Human shape Avery could pick up the heavy end of large trucks and hold it. With one hand, if the balance was correct. That was hard to do, but meant she was probably strong enough to lift the whole thing on her own if it wasn’t so awkward to do. Which was kind of the Vampire’s point really.

  The woman on the phone laughed for about four seconds. It was friendly seeming. Polite even.

  “Really? I don’t suppose I can get you to come in early and help me move some things then? I have to transport some frozen yogurt machines. Again, not that heavy, but awkward as all heck to shift around.”

  Avery looked at Hart, who tilted his head a little bit.

  “She has about two hours. After that Rome will be needed to go over her supply lists. Is that enough time?” He sounded serious about it. Which made sense. If they were working together, for free it sounded like, then being helpful was the right theme for the day.

  “Yep! That’s so cool. I was worried I wouldn’t get that part done in time. I… You’re at the battle camp? I recognize the number. I can get Maddy to show me how to get there… Call it fifteen minutes? Then about half an hour to an hour for the moving portion of things. It will probably take less than that, but you’ll want to talk to people and see the sights for a bit. Be right there!” The device in her hand went dead suddenly, so Avery smiled at it and set it back on its holder. There were little metal bits that glowed with a faint blue electrical energy on the device.

  That traced to a larger glow that was hidden by the plastic body of the portion that you held in your hand. Avery didn’t take a long time to examine the thing, since there was company coming in a few minutes. She should have prepared a meal for the woman, but being one of the unclean undead meant she only drank blood, or possibly ate flesh from living beings. That was part of the lore anyway. Vampires were the blood drinking ones.

  That sounded correct to her anyway. Then, since it was suggested by her betters, Avery tried to school her thoughts on the matter. They, this woman coming and herself, were not unclean. Not tainted and forsaken by the Changing God. Just different types of people. At least she took what Calley had told her to mean that. It was nearly impossible to believe, but it wouldn’t exactly make her less of a good person to attempt to not make everyone uncomfortable.

  Even if they were one day going to die and not be allowed to ascend to the second plane as animals for the rest of sweet eternity. It was a thing that the Vampire and she would have in common, if nothing else. Looking around, she didn’t know what to do for a moment. If not greeting the woman with a gift of food or wealth, then her part would be in making certain everything went as smoothly as possible.

  “I should go and wait outside? Perhaps with a sign to let her know who the correct person is?” It felt foolish to her, but she’d seen a television show where a man had done such a thing at an airport.

  Instead of mocking her stupidity, Hart simply wrote the name out on a sheet of paper using a very smelly black pen. It was unpleasant, but worked well for its job of making the words easy to see, so she took the plain white sheet without comment.

  “Make sure you get back inside two hours. If you can’t for some reason, call this number. Just put it in your pocket.” It was written out on a small yellow piece of paper that was sticky on one side. A post-it note. She’d seen that kind of thing before, so understood its magic, more or less. They didn’t work that well in a pocket, but the small sheet didn’t take up much room, folded in half on itself like it was at the moment.

  Heading outside, since she had a job to do, Avery tried to be watchful. That meant, about ten minutes later, she noticed the attractive white woman step out of a shimmering spot in the air. She hadn’t really noticed it before, but as soon as she saw a person come through it, she realized that she’d seen that kind of thing before. Almost constantly, if in different places. It was about six feet across in this case and floated about a foot over the ground.

  The woman, who was very pale and had flawless skin, plus a nice sturdy looking tan outfit that really fit in at the camp, smiled at her. With her mouth closed so that her fang teeth wouldn’t show too much.

  “Hi! Avery?” Her brown eyes lit up, as if she hadn’t expected to find her as easily as she had.

  “Yes. Ms. Benson? Unless someone else is just going to step out of shimmers in the air… I didn’t even really know that was a thing until I just saw it working.” She waved at the dimensions of the space in front of them, which got a slightly funny look for a few seconds. Then the Va
mpire woman just grinned, happily.

  “Zack Hartley, the Human Line Walker from another world, not the Demon one from ours, he calls these shortcuts. Us cool kids call them rifts, as often as not. The trick is just in lining up on them correctly and only passing through the distortion. This one will take us directly to a node complex, though it’s just a rift, not anything more powerful than that. It takes actual skill to learn to open those up. Hundreds or even thousands of years of meditation, inside the void between worlds. It’s less of a bitch than it sounds like though. We can try that if you want? Just to see what it’s like? None of the Shifters here have managed it yet, but they can’t see the rifts either. If you can do that, you’re probably going to be a natural at this. Here, follow me? You don’t have to do anything, just hit the distortion correctly.” Her words were relaxed, but her movements were fast enough that Avery had to jog to the thing and shift her body slightly once there, to get the rippling energy blob to show up again, then, stepping high, she walked forward.

  Ending up in a very different place.

  It looked like a nicely appointed building of some kind. A hotel or fine residence. It was large, the ceilings very high, with crystal fixtures that held lights inside dangling down. The rest of the place was made of polished wood and metal. It didn’t seem new, but rather well cared for. As soon as she was there, Ms. Benson patted her on the shoulder.

  “Cool! Very much so. If it’s not a problem, may I ask what kind of Shifter you are?”

  That nearly got her to wince, feeling ashamed again for being what she was. Even as she fought the urge to speak about being unclean.

  “Death Serpent.” She spoke in a low tone as the energetic but oddly still woman pointed forward.

  “We need to go that way. Can you feel the energy from the nodes as well?” She waited, glancing at Avery as they walked, the Vampire doing it silently even to her ears. At least for the footfalls, they both made the air roar powerfully in the lower register, in their passing. Everyone did that.

  Thinking for a moment, Avery nodded.

  “I don’t know if it’s a feeling. More of a knowing? Ahead, over to the left, back and right, but that one seems to be above us…” She pointed over her shoulder, which got a nod.

  “Those are the ones! Neat. Well, let’s go inside one then? It won’t be scary, or anything. I’ll wrap you up at first, but then let you go on your own after a while. You’ll need to draw yourself inward constantly, of course. It isn’t hard, but takes some practice. Then, when you’re ready, I’ll point you to the correct node. Time doesn’t really pass there, even though it does, so we won’t be late.”

  The Vampire didn’t say much more, but a tingling wave of power flooded off of her, hitting Avery directly. that slid off but hadn’t felt like an attack. Just reassurance.

  Smiling, she nodded back, once they were in front of the swirling and surging disk of the node. This one was in a plain room that was carpeted, but held nothing else.

  “All right. That sounds interesting.” It really did.

  Right up until they stepped through and she had to do the actual work. Then it was kind of boring.

  Restful though.

  Chapter four

  When Avery finally worked out how to get out of the lightless void, which wasn’t black at all, but rather filled with nothing, which was very different as it turned out, she felt ancient. Not just a few years older or anything either. Hundreds, possibly thousands of years had passed. The whole thing had left her feeling a bit funny as she looked around the new space they were in. It was a shop of some kind. From the pictures on the walls they sold sweets. Ice cream, by the look of it. Avery had eaten that, many times. She’d even made it. She recalled her life, from so long before. It was still real to her, in a strange fashion that seemed almost an overlay on the nothingness that was most of her existence.

  Working with her mother and the other women of the clan for celebration days.

  That had been a long time before. Years, if they were only counting the world around them as real. Not that it was strictly true. Eve, the friend who she’d known for longer than anyone else in reality, patted her on the back, physically. The hand was chill, since she was dead to the outer world. Inside of her that wasn’t the case at all.

  Avery knew that now, after all that time they were together. There was no way that the woman with her was tainted. No one that fine, that good, would be set aside by the Changing God. It probably meant that what she’d been told about that, the nature of the world around her, had been wrong. If so, then what she’d been told about herself might well be incorrect as well.

  “How long were we gone?” The words sounded a bit hollow to her, but that was mainly the distraction of the world around her. It was glowing in a thousand, possibly a million, different colors. It was both hard to look at and understand and simply how the world had always been before. Now, with her new focus, she could merely see it more clearly. Notice what was there and always had been.

  Pink energy shifting inside her friend, allowing the corpse to move, her face assuming a gentle expression. It was a kind thing that spoke of compassion that few would have understood could exist in one of the undead.

  “Inside… We were there for about five hundred years. Give or take. That means you tied up with the best performer that way already. Not too shabby, to be honest. Out here…” Instead of guessing, she walked around the polished white and blue marble counter, which meant walking to the front of the space. Using her feet to perform the action, instead of mere will. Past a very large, painted black and green device on the floor. Avery followed to the other room, seeing a dead man behind the counter there. He was filled with pink as well, if not as much as Eve was.

  He was Hispanic, though the pale version of that. He probably had been even before he’d become what he was. The man was nice seeming, smiling at her in a charming fashion even.

  “Hello! I didn’t know we were having guests in. Are you from the Shifters?” He glanced at the tan fatigues that she was wearing, so that she could tell how he’d worked that part out. It was still clever of him to do it that way. Quick as well.

  Feeling a bit drifty still and distracted, Avery forced herself to answer him instantly. He was a man, after all. This was his place too, making him far more important than she was. Part of her knew that wasn’t the only truth now, but the rest of her was too well trained to resist the idea, at the moment.

  “That’s right. I’ve come to help Eve, Ms. Benson I mean, move some machinery? Then she’s going to help us get to Africa. We’re guarding some people from the CDC? Doctors, I think. I hear it’s a bad area. Troubled. I’m sure the people there are nice, once you get to know them.” Most were, really. Even the rare Humans that she’d met had been, at least to her.

  Then, no one had taught her that they were all evil. Just unclean. It was similar, but also different.

  The man nodded, then moved to the counter, his hand extended over it.

  “Troy Lopez. The Amazing Yogurt Boy. Someday I hope to graduate to Yoghurt Man.” There was a bit of a rueful grin, as if the job didn’t seem grand enough to him. It was woman’s work, so that might have been what the problem was. Avery smiled at him anyway. After all, it really was different to make food if it was your business and profession. Even The Gray allowed for that to be an honorable job, for outsiders.

  “Avery Rome. Head cook. All I have to do is make the kitchen, find a staff to do the work and not burn everything.”

  Instead of seeming put off by the idea, the Vampire man just stared for a bit.

  “Awesome! I didn’t know that Shifters did that. Calley mentioned something about lots of MREs to me once.” He didn’t explain that it was the same woman that Avery had met, but it made some sense.

  There probably weren’t two Shifters named that. No one else was Avery either. There just weren’t that many of them, truth be told.

  “This is the first modern attempt at doing it. So I have plenty of room to
fail. I’ve done similar things before though. The equipment will be different, but if I have to I can set things up to work over an open fire. Anyway, I should probably help Eve now. Nice meeting you, Troy. I hope we can meet again sometime?” She didn’t mean anything by it, since it was just the traditional way of saying goodbye for her people. Her old people. The ones that didn’t want her now.

  The friendly Vampire man grinned at her and winked.

  “I bet we can make that happen, if we try. Eve can go and get you from almost anywhere. We can see a movie or something?” He seemed to mean it, but Eve interrupted him near the end.

  “Or Avery can do that part herself? She’s a line walker. A new one, but clearly a natural at it. Not to rub that in Troy, but little girls can walk the lines and you can’t, yet. Given it’s almost certain that you can learn how if you put in the time, that’s just lazy. Half an hour, maybe two or three, tops.” She was being both serious and teasing, flares of pink and silver energy flowing from her. Unlike with Avery, they seemed to stick to Troy.”

  Instead of arguing that thousands of years was too great of an investment, the man sighed. It was a fake thing, foreshadowed in energy before it happened, but done to show how put upon he was. Being forced to do uncomfortable things merely because a girl child had done it first.

  It weighed upon him anyway, even if Avery didn’t really count in his world as anyone in particular.

  “I guess. After work? Not that I’m thrilled with the idea. You do know that I’m afraid of the dark, right?” There was a smile from him, as Eve nodded.

  Avery spoke, her voice soft.

  “It isn’t dark there. It’s different than that. Not scary at all. You’ll be too busy for fear.” It hadn’t been frightening for her anyway.