by P. S. Power
When she came back to the book store, it was only four-thirty in the afternoon, on Friday. There was no school the next day, and she’d kept up with her course work, poorly, since she hadn’t been sleeping anyway.
As soon as she caught Kait’s eye, she waved, blearily.
“I’m going to be out for ten minutes? Then, can you work for ten hours or so?” She felt bad, asking for that, but the other girl just nodded, seeming a bit worried.
“Yeah. Um… What’s the plan?”
“Me, my sleeping bag and Zack’s office. That way I’ll be here.” She felt like it wasn’t the right idea suddenly, but the other woman smiled.
Then she nodded.
“Now I feel stupid. I should have recommended that a week ago. More to the point, Zack should have, or Eve. They’ve been busy. Still…”
Avery hurried, coming back with her big green sleeping bag and a nice soft pillow. Without speaking to anyone, since the other line walker was in and out, while others worked the book shop, she crashed behind Zack’s desk. With the door cracked open, so she could hear things happening. It was hard to tell how long she truly managed to rest, but after she got up to use the bathroom, many hours later, she brushed her teeth, hair and then showered in the back of the book store. Her clothing was clean, but her last outfit there, since everything she owned needed to be washed, except for a few pairs of duty clothing.
That meant, rested, clean and tidy, she was able to walk out to the store front just in time to see two things. The first was that Zack was back. She felt a solid wave of relief, just seeing him there. He looked normal, which was good to find. Part of her had worried, when he didn’t come back on time. Looking up at her, he smiled and waved.
“Hey! So, that took longer than I thought it would. The people that killed Maddy Morse are all dead. Humans, but they were taking steps to hide. It nearly worked. They’d masked themselves from magic by using giant electromagnets. It was decently clever, but I managed to follow other signs to them.”
Avery nodded.
“Good.” Zack was tackled from the side, by Kaitlyn, just as Luther, the New Vamp, came into the shop. Angrily. It was the other thing she became aware of. Her friend Luther was there to visit.
Looking at her watch for the first time since rising, she noticed that it was four-thirty in the morning.
The chubby white Human seeming Vampire tipped a book cart over. That was new inventory which needed to go onto the shelves, so that good people could pay for it and read then. Learning new things and being entertained. As they hit the floor, the man bellowed.
“You thought that Luther was finished? That calling in the Council against me would prevent me from taking revenge for the slight you gave?” He managed to be loud about it. Enough that people would have been annoyed by it, if they weren’t at home in bed. Only the bookstore stayed open all night there, as far as she knew.
She felt her face go serious, then shook her head.
“All right. Come this way, Luther. Don’t knock into anything, please. That would be rude to the others here.”
Interestingly the angry fat man stormed across the room after her, as she led him into node space. She had a plan, for once. It had come up in training that, when attacked, it was almost always best to guide it to a space where damage could be limited.
Zack, smiling pleasantly, moved in behind the larger being.
“A friend of yours, Avery?”
She nodded, even if it wasn’t true. Not strictly. Even if Luther should have made that happen.
“Yes. He’d attacked a book customer of ours, thinking the man shouldn’t be in line with him. One of your regular shoppers. I’d left him with broken bones and told him that if he didn’t fix his behavior, I’d cut off his entire people from line transport. Only with me, but that was the promise. That turned out to be the Vampires, who offered to have him killed, so that wouldn’t happen. I asked them to give him one chance to fix matters. I gather the answer is no?” She turned, just as Luther ran at her, his hands coming with a small knife in his fingers. It was a real blade, but had been pulled from his trousers pocket.
She went on, as she kicked him in the knee. Then, without much concern, she took his little blade and removed his head, while he was still alive. That meant there was screaming involved, which made her feel horrible, but it had to be done. He clearly wasn’t going to learn.
“So, I told them that, as long as they were willing to work with us on it, we wouldn’t have to do that part. With the cutting all of them off?”
Without getting an answer, she took the head first, and moved it to an island so far from her world that she’d only been there once. The being that had gone there had swum away. It didn’t look Human at all, more like an eel, so probably wouldn’t be upset by the head being there. She hid it in the sand, about a foot down.
When she came back, the body was already gone, with the blood being mopped up efficiently by Zack. Rather than scold her for being unprofessional, or killing a being she probably could have saved, the cute man winked at her. He was dressed for work, in a light blue button up shirt, with black slacks on that looked clean and tidy still.
“That was different. Any other problems? Sorry about just leaving like that. I do have to say, I’m impressed with your work. This part as well. We can’t look weak at any point. I’ll report this to the Vampire Council for you? It will be more dramatic that way. I can lie to them and make sure they realize how I had to beg you for their lives and so that you wouldn’t hate them all forever.” He made a face then, cleaning the marble floor the whole time. “I might do that one differently. After all, you’re the nice one. We don’t want to lose that reputation for you. It’s probably enough that you handled things so decisively.”
She nodded a bit, taking a deep breath.
Before she could speak, he nodded, interrupting her.
“So, I owe you. It’s kind of a thing, so… What do you want?”
She didn’t know. It had been hard work, and a bit annoying, not knowing where he was, or what her part in things was supposed to be really. That didn't lead directly to her having a list of what she needed in life. After all, she was getting paid, per trip, for the whole time. That was a lot of money right there, even for the half she’d earned for it.
Instead of helping her out, the Greater Demon who looked like a man, not anything else, waited. Just standing there, looking at her, like she was going to have something. Right there on the tip of her tongue.
Finally, three minutes later, she shrugged.
“I don’t know. Right now, I kind of need to see about getting some good candy and a costume for Living Proof’s Halloween party. That, and to not fail school, which I don’t think I am yet.”
Maddeningly, there was just a nod then. Except that Zack was looking at her the whole time. It was either him planning to hit on her, or attack her. She couldn’t tell which, however.
“On candy, I’d go and look at Winco. They normally have a good selection. There are rules for that you may not know. It needs to be pre-packaged, not anything you made at home. Nothing that can be opened too easily either. That’s to keep the kids from being poisoned. That never happens, by the way, but you know, that and clowns… The threats of the new age.”
Avery tried to get that down inside her head, listening carefully. It was good to know that she wasn’t going to be expected to kill little Human kids. No one had even suggested that portion of things before. Murdering the New Vamp, Luther, had been enough for her, for the time being. She didn’t really feel upset, but part of her thought that lack probably meant she was evil and unclean. Not that The Gray had ever showed being upset if they had to kill an outsider.
No, when the men had killed the unclean, they’d simply hidden the bodies and the entire troop had moved on, before the police could claim that they’d been involved in it at all. Not that it happened all the time, but when threats arose, they did it and didn’t show remorse.
Feeling almost
clever, she smiled at the Demon.
“You’re suggesting I don’t dress up as a clown?”
It wasn’t a very good joke. Avery knew that. Mainly because Zack didn’t even chuckle at it. Instead there was a grin. One that was charming and even cute seeming. Innocent, a thing which everyone in the world had told her that he wasn’t. Including The Line Walker himself. It was hard to believe that at the moment, given how he looked.
Adorable came to mind, if that was a thing allowed when a man was involved.
When he spoke, his words were smooth, however.
“Honestly? Do what you want. No one is going to think that Avery the Clown is a threat. Though Kaitlyn mentioned that she and Micha already had something worked out for you. It… Well, you’ll probably feel awkward wearing it. It’s more adult than you probably would have picked for yourself. Wear it anyway. I… Really, we need to get someone in to help you with things. You’re too powerful not to have that.” Then he winked at her again. “If you aren’t going to just die in the next few years. That isn’t likely. I think I know who to get with for you. I’ll do that now. I know, that can be how I repay you. That’s brilliant.” Then he wandered off, not giving her any chance to speak about anything at all.
It was very early in the morning still, so Avery went home, first. She hadn’t been back for more than half an hour in over a full week. So the very first thing she did was start cleaning up. Not that the place wasn’t tidy already. There was laundry to do, which Edom had machines for, even if his own clothing all had to be dry cleaned. Except for his few pair of t-shirts and blue jeans, and regular person socks. She’d never seen him in them. They were in the hamper however, so she sorted them for washing. Eve had shown her how to do that part. They had machines at battle camp, so she could use those, but their clothing had always been in the same colors, so didn’t have to be kept apart in the devices.
Eve had more clothing there, needing cleaning, some of it by hand, so that got done separately. It took a few hours, but that meant there was time to vacuum the whole place, and tidy the beds. The problem there wasn’t the unclean bodies that had been on them, or that they weren’t made up nicely. No, it was dust. Neither Eve nor Edom slept at all, so they didn’t really need that kind of thing in the first place. Except for adult relations, at a guess.
If either of them did that kind of thing, they’d managed not to bother her with that if it was the case. They hadn’t soiled their bedding or sheets with it either. Even as a child she’d known that kind of thing happened, it having been one of her jobs to clean up after. Except that was much harder back then, given that they normally had to find a stream or water source first. Then fill a big wash pan, and scrub for hours to make sure everything was good enough for the elders. Often with only cold water, which made it close to impossible to really get to the level of cleanly that things needed to be.
That was one of the good things about The Gray men. Most of the time if you failed to do what was required, you were at least ridiculed for it. If all they provided for washing up was cold water, they blamed the water, not you, for the state of clothing or bedding. From time to time they even blamed themselves, for failing to provide the needed tools.
Not that it was enough to repair or make up for the other problems they had, but on that one score they’d been almost normal. Like any reasonable person would be.
At ten, the house clean, Edom came in, sniffed the air and then smiled grandly, shaking his head at her.
“You know, you aren’t a servant here. You don’t have to work for ten days straight and come right here and work even more.”
Avery smiled back, even if it was meant to be a mild rebuke. She was starting to understand that Edom wasn’t going to beat her for being too hard of a worker. Or, so far at least, strike her at all. This, right here, was nearly the harshest he’d been toward her, for instance. It was still hard for her to be playful back, but she tried.
“I was thinking of going and purchasing candy for later? I won’t be here to hand it out to the children… Um… There’s a party. I didn’t ask you if I was allowed to go. It’s at Tyler Gartner’s house? Eve is going.” Looking down, she felt bad, having offered to take others before setting things up with Ed. He was in charge of her, so if he said it was forbidden, then it simply would be.
She waited for that, the man leaving the laundry area, only to come back a few moments later. Holding a large plastic bag.
“Candy. I bought ten pounds of assorted fun-sized bars. We normally only get about twenty trick-or-treaters past here. Starting at about five, for the littlest ones. I, using my powers as Ambassador, assigned Barbara to handle the Westfield part. We have candy for anyone coming by the shop as well. Believe it or not, that will probably be about ten times what we get here. Zack always does a huge thing at his store.”
That was new to her, but at least he was back for that part of things.
“Um… So I’m allowed to go to the party? I should have asked earlier. I… Forgive me.” Her eyes were fixed on the floor, so she didn’t notice the hand come out to touch her arm gently.
“Of course. I expect you to be adult about it, and not allow things to get too out of hand, as best you can, but I also trust you. More than I do Eve. That girl…” He sounded happy, though.
Avery didn’t get that, since Eve always did everything right, as far as she was aware. Then, it was clear that Edom, her maker, wasn’t upset with either of them. Not really. His words were a joke then.
So she looked up, to find him seeming almost content and pleased by the whole thing.
“Thank you. If it isn’t my part to provide candies, I should go and see about my costume. Kaitlyn and Micha, of the Alede? They’re putting one together for me. Zack said that I should wear what they provide, even if it’s going to make me uncomfortable. In fact, he kind of assured me that it would be like that.”
The words got an eye roll from the Vampire.
“There is probably truth to that, but you get time to learn new things. You don’t have to do it all in one day, or even a week. So, do you know anyone else who’s going to this party?”
“Um…” She had a list, in her head, but it took a second to recall them all. “Mainly some kids from school. Friends of mine. Past that, well, Eve? I don’t really know. Rebekah’s friends… Not a lot of Greater Demons, since they’re all going to The Mind Takers big party.”
Edom nodded, his face a bit stern suddenly.
“Some friends from school? Boys, I suppose?”
The tone was familiar, but she just nodded. If that was forbidden her, then it was.
“Vince, Alan, Mark and Link. I think that’s it for the guys. Vince is a Mage. Alan is, his people are Rubber Men? I think the rest are all Human. I didn’t really ask all of them. Terra from art class has a job at the Fun Zone. The rest are friends of The Technician and The Rotted. They all sit with me at lunch. Including the Demons.” Avery wasn’t all that certain Edom would know about that part. It had been mentioned, but only to Eve.
His face twisted a bit, but didn’t become upset seeming.
“I’ve heard about that one. Remember, you can always leave, if you find things getting too deep there. If it was anyone else, other than you or Eve, I’d have moved you already. Given your talents, I’d have you go and live in a different reality. For now… Just be careful?” He stopped, hefted the bag of candy a bit, then nodded.
“That’s… You should pick something up for the party. Alcohol is normal for that kind of thing. Just don’t let the kids drink it. Not the ones going with you. You’re going to get the blame for what they do, so try to keep the carnage to a minimum. Tyler will help with that, but you can’t count on other people doing that for you. Not for certain.”
She nodded, since that was kind of a factor in a lot of things. It was, in part, why Luther had died at her hands that day. She winced then, and shook her head, wondering if she were about to be in trouble. She spoke anyway. Not avoiding things was what r
eal adults did, she thought.
“Ah… I sort of killed a Vampire earlier. Luther, the New Vamp? There was trouble a bit over a week ago, and I told him to fix himself, but he came back and attacked me earlier. So… I cut his head off.” She didn’t go into how graphic it had been, but Edom nodded, waving at her shirt front.
“Which explains the blood there. I thought it smelled real. I have to agree though. Vampires… Most of us aren’t well behaved. If you don’t deal harshly with the first few that bother you, word will get around. Still, a New Vamp… That’s a bit easy. It shows willingness, both to fight and kill, which will help.” He seemed more or less satisfied with that part of things, smiling and patting her on the back.
“Now, I need to go and put some calls in. As the local Ambassador, it’s my job to keep the Council informed on such matters. Really, you should come with me, if you have time? Next time, call it in yourself, of course. That will show that you aren’t planning to simply take over from the ones in charge.”
That meant she was allowed to see to folding and hanging up some of the laundry, while the candy vanished and she worried about how to get alcohol for the party gift. At first it seemed impossible, since there were laws and rules in place to stop that from happening.
After a moment, an idea came to her. There were other worlds after all. In some of them, a person was considered an adult at a much younger age. On the other Mars, one of them, that she’d been to, that kind of thing had been in play. More to the point, the Moon in that reality was a place that had many shops of all kinds. Where everything was free.
Just after she finished folding Eve’s clothing for her, hanging a lot of it up, and had the sheets from all the beds in the machine, Edom started speaking in the front room. That got her to head that way, walking quickly, trying not to act like she was going to be punished for her actions earlier that day.
