by P. S. Power
“Well, not really. Not unless you want to sit and listen to music with me, now? I’m going to be gone. For a few days, actually. Lenore asked me to make a tour of the Western States holdings for her. It looks like we’re going to be hosting Steve here for a few weeks, while he learns how to run a Yoghurt World properly. Lenore is insisting on that part. She loves Norret, but doesn’t really think highly of her shop holding skills.” That was a joke.
At least the man laughed at it.
Which part was supposed to be humorous, she didn’t know.
“That could be fun. I think that’s everything for now. Anything on your side?”
Interestingly, there was.
“We’ve had suspicious activities in several locations. Regular vampires being watched and followed. By Humans, it seems. The trouble there is that we can’t tell if they’re government or not. If that comes up again, we need to get someone in place to follow them. Troy or Eve, if possible. Barbara, if not. We’re also putting in some new flavors at the shop. You should go and test those out for us. Vampires can’t really eat them, so it’s an issue for us.”
She held up a single finger then.
“I can do that. In fact, I can bring others to help with that, if you want? I need to get with Vince, Alan and Terra soon. We talked in class yesterday, but only about regular things. Which is fine for school, but I was distracted. The thing with my mother. She… It’s in my head, like I told you? I have her memories, too. She didn’t hate me for what happened. She was scared, for herself and me, but there wasn’t hatred over me being unclean.”
The Vampire, her adopted father, stood up then and gave her a hug.
“Of course she didn’t. If you live long enough, you eventually start to understand that everything you were taught as a child is wrong. Especially if that required you to hate those who you know to be good. Now, off to bed with you. I want to meet this young man of yours, soon as well.”
She nodded, since that was only proper. They couldn’t get married unless her father approved. Not that they were doing that. The goal was to make him love her, if possible. If not, then at least he should think of her as important in his life. Then, introducing him to important and powerful people, when that was a goal of his own, might just work out for them both.
Sleep, like always, came easily. She didn’t wake until six, but did get up without needing to be woken. Luckily, since no one else was there. On the way to school she stopped at a small donut place and ate two dozen of the things, sitting inside the building. The man working there gave her a funny look, so she just answered what he was probably thinking.
“I’m a Dragon Shifter, so I need to eat a lot more than a regular girl. It’s either eat like this, or sleep half the day away. So, you know, donuts. I’ve been busy lately.” Even if they were too sweet. They had calories and that’s what she really needed.
The man, who was wearing a funny cloth hat, and a brown apron with orange trim was in his forties or so. His hair was professional and short. From what she could tell he was probably going bald on top.
“Yeah? Like that girl on T.V. last week?” Then he got it, and nodded. “Heh. Well, that’s different. Didn’t think that you strange types would like donuts.”
She nodded, not taking offense at his words. They were different and new, as far as regular Humans would understand.
“A lot of us enjoy things like that. Shifters, Greater Demons, I bet Trollienkeine would as well. Not Vampires so much, obviously. They just stick to blood, really.” She ate more as the man helped another customer get a dozen donuts.
“Well, nice meeting you, Dragon Girl. Come back. Bring your friends? We serve all kinds here.” He waved at a different display, which had cakes in it, since they did more than one thing. “Weddings, birthdays, other things I don’t know about where a cake might work… We don’t discriminate.”
He was, she understood, trying too hard to seem like he wasn’t a bigot. The thing was, he was bothering to try. After that she was left alone to eat, which happened fast, since she had to take her book bag and get directly to school. She waved to him on her way out, since being nice wouldn’t hurt anything at all. Neither would sending people to the man, if they needed baked goods.
Which had been his point, after all.
The early classes went well. At lunch she had to wave Phillip over, looking for him closely, which got her glared at by Allison. Worse, when the boy sat down, she actually frowned, hard.
“No way. I was hiding him at the back of the fridge, so no one would find him!”
Everyone stared at her, except Ann, who seemed to understand the idea.
“Serves you right. I mean, you totally helped Avery here into making that special deal for Leslie and Mark yesterday. You didn’t call him either. Besides, you think I didn’t have an eye on him? Well, Avery won this one.”
She nodded, the Tarsus memories coaching her again. Helpfully. Almost too much so, she realized. Probably because there was no reason for a Greater Demon to do that kind of thing, unless they were going to get something from it for themselves. Even the memories of one of them.
Still, in the moment it allowed her to keep up with what was going on around her. Which wasn’t the same as doing that for herself. Focusing, she tried that then, pushing her mind to perform at least a bit more than it normally did.
“We’re dating. He’s part of Eve’s training program for Vampires.”
Ann reached across the table and patted the boy’s arm, which got her to smile.
“Okay. So I can’t just steal him with sex? Clever use of resources. Bold of you as well. Too much so. Anyway, I’m going to be gone all weekend. Business overseas. Allison?”
She looked around then took a deep breath.
“I need to see to my business holdings. You’ll all be fine here, won’t you? It’s only for a few days. If you need anything, well, fend for yourselves. Too much hand holding isn’t healthy for people anyway.”
She was projecting a bit, as if trying to let the whole room understand what she was getting at. Avery didn’t really pick it up, herself. Not until she focused, agitated parts of her mind and tried to gather all the data she could.
It was, most likely, about the Greater Demon trying to push the regular kids into not being spoiled and soft. Not out of kindness, but due to the fact that it would make them better tools for her use, later. Looking around, Avery shook her head.
“Hey, we’re missing people. Link, Debbie and Tommi. Has anyone seen them today?” When she thought about it, they hadn’t been around for a while. Link was at the Halloween party and came back with her, but she couldn’t recall when she’d last seen the others. Focusing she called up that they were both present at school on Friday before the party, which wasn’t useful to her.
Ann waved at her, shaking her head.
“Not here. Not now. Later.”
Avery didn’t understand what was going on, but she nodded and looked away as Allison changed the topic smoothly.
“I hear that there haven’t been any attacks from the government in the last weeks. That’s ominous. I mean, I can’t for a moment think that they’ve given up on their plan. Amazing that the main body of the federal establishment hasn’t thrown in with the rebels on that one. Probably because their war gaming on it shows that when the fighting starts, they lose.”
Avery shook her head, switching to the new idea.
“That isn’t totally true. The Humans have the numbers. They’d die in the millions, but eventually use nuclear weapons, robots or something like that. The only way that we could win would be to take the battle to their leaders personally. Cut the head off. Only, most of us won’t fight that way. It’s too creative and lacking in honor.”
Ann rolled her eyes.
“Except that the Humans don’t know that. Think, Avery… You just worked that out in like… ten seconds. Which is pretty good, by the way. Someone has been practicing being creative.”
She had, but it was just
obvious, now that she thought about it. That did remind her to focus and push her brain to grow in the right area. Making it buzz until doing that hurt. It took more effort this time. It wasn’t as bad as before, and she had orders to practice thinking as well, so tried to organize the data she was getting.
Which caused something to jump to the front of her mind.
Allison had started talking about government attacks, directly after Ann had hushed her about the missing students. Those kids were all friends of two Greater Demons. A Dragon Shifter as well, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would have taken them to try and control her. She just didn’t know them that well, plus, doing that was going to get the Greater Demons involved first.
When she narrowed her eyes, looking at Allison, the round-faced girl looked back at her seriously, then gave a very tiny nod.
Which could mean anything. After all, the girl wasn’t even trying to read her mind. That wasn’t going to work, so it had to be something else. The Demon putting together what she was likely thinking, for instance. Avery could tell when Phillip went into a trance state, so it could well be that she was doing something similar, giving signals to the girl.
Interestingly enough, after she finished eating, Avery noticed her right hand being taken under the table. When she looked over, her new boyfriend smiled at her.
“See you in last period?” It was a question, but she was going to be there, which meant her friend was checking in, to reassure himself that the plans were the normal ones.
Probably because he’d picked up the idea from the conversation already.
“Yep! I have Art next. I work after school. Are you going to come and visit me?” She let her lips curl up, and tried to flirt with her eyes. It was a thing that normal girls did. She’d seen them.
Ann looked at both of the others and nodded.
“You’re going to try and walk through the natural rips to get there. That’s impressive. Just so you get the idea, don’t let anyone notice you doing that. It’s a handy trick, but not enough to save you if attacked. Things are… Getting a bit dangerous right now. In general.”
That part was more obvious than anything The Rotted had ever told them before. Allison didn’t even look mad about it. That probably meant that there was a real issue happening. Instead of acting secretive about it, Avery glanced at each of them, then looked at Phillip.
“That’s good advice. If there’s something going on, we have to make sure to keep to good protocol. You and I should be safe, but we need to watch Leslie and Mark.” She glanced at the door, since they were gone already, needing to be on time for their classes. It was part of doing their best, obviously.
The other girls stood up, almost as one. The Technician locked eyes with her solidly again.
“That’s probably correct. Phillip is a Human. Showing special abilities might have that changed in the minds of others, so be careful. Be unseen. Do it however. You need to practice. Besides, all the sex is on the other end of that trip, which is a powerful reason to try.” There was a bit of flirting from there as well, the Demon pushing her blonde hair out of the way of her green eyes.
All while staring directly at Avery’s new boyfriend. Licking her lips.
Being sexy and alluring. It was a thing that was going to be hard to match, if the Demon wanted to take him away. Which made sense. Later. After Avery and Eve got him trained up. Until then he wasn’t going to be worth as much to Allison. Not that batting her eyes a little actually meant she had that kind of goal in mind. Just that she either wanted Avery to think it was possible, so that she’d work harder, or that she was willing to set up a very long term game to recapture a potential asset.
They all left from there then, with Avery actually taking time to search through the windows in the hallway as she walked to the art class. There were three sweat shirt wearing security guards, who were walking their rounds both inside and out. That wouldn’t stop a real attack, being designed to prevent truancy. Even that was kind of ineffective. Avery could have walked out of the place, not even hurrying and never be seen doing it. Most of the kids could, if they bothered to plan it out at all.
The security at the school wasn’t really a thing. The idea, or so she’d heard, was to have someone there to fight, in case of an armed attack. That almost never happened however, so the guards there and she had to think, at other locations, became lax after the first six weeks or so. It was nearly impossible to stay alert and fresh much past that, with nothing going on. Not until after the first real battle.
The ones there seemed fit, with there being two men and a woman. Not inhumanly so or anything, but they were Human and not armed. As far as she could tell they didn’t even have body armor or powers that would allow them to repel anything of note, were it to happen. They just walked around, making sneaking out for lunch a slightly more difficult task. There was merit in that of course, teaching the kids to be a bit more independent and crafty, but she had to doubt that was the end goal.
Her art team was there, unlike half the lunch people. Alan was absently drawing something, his eyes a bit tired looking when Avery got there. Vince was getting his notebook out and Terra seemed oddly pleased. The very busty girl in black velvet, a top that had to be using the very best of physics to stay on, being strapless, waved excitedly when she saw Avery.
“There you are!” Then, instead of saying anything more, she smirked, then waited for Avery to sit down and get some paper. It was clear that she wanted to tell her something. Avery tried to think about what that might be. It could be a thing learned at her new job, with the Tricksters, but honestly, that didn't make much sense.
Not with the way that she was staring at Avery. She just wasn’t that interesting, she didn’t think. Except of course, she was. In that she had a new boyfriend and teenage girls apparently had a secret communications network.
“So… You and Phillip Hart? I didn’t see that one coming. He’s a bit… Strange, isn’t he? Kind of brooding and gloomy all the time.” Then she stopped and shook her head. “Sorry. I forgot, that fits you perfectly. Still. You could do better, looks wise.”
Interestingly, Vince nodded and Alan rolled his eyes toward Terra.
“She’s a Shifter, T. From a different culture than you are. Than any of us, really. That whole thing with her family was weird to start with, but she probably thinks of things like that differently than you do. Besides, he’s not that bad. I mean, I know that you think any guy that isn’t on television is ugly, but you do get that’s because real men aren’t allowed to walk around with makeup on, right? That boosts a person up, two or three steps past what nature would have for them, most of the time. Except with Alede.” He looked away then, smiled, then got back to work, making abstract lines that indicated nothing at all on his paper.
The words from her friend got a lot of memories to come into being then. The top ones, for some reason, were from Bente. They showed that Alan was both right and wrong. While the men on television were picked for their looks, as were the women, they often gained even more than that from the proper use of makeup. Terra herself hadn’t done that great of a job with her face that day. Avery had done better, she realized. Though both of them could have done much more, if they wanted.
The boys though really were stuck, by social convention. Manly was defined by certain things, and not wearing anything that made them look better was one of them. Even grooming too much, past being clean, was frowned upon. To make that part worse for them, most of the women in Human cultures, the Western parts of it, really didn’t pick up on the idea that they were cheating, as far as looks went.
A plain woman or girl would use tricks to look better, then look down on the men around her, since they didn’t do the same thing. Thinking that her actual value was raised above that of the common man in her area.
Avery hadn’t grown up with that at all. No one wore makeup at battle camp and The Gray actively frowned on such things. They thought it was lying to the world. The thing there was tha
t all of them, men and women, were Shifters. That meant they had clear skin and eyes, tending toward fit, for the most part. Not always, but even the heavy men and women tended to be muscular, rather than fat.
Rather than being insulted by the idea that her new boyfriend wasn’t as attractive as some, Avery glared at Terra a bit. After all, she was insulting one of Avery’s other people. That couldn’t be allowed.
“He’s really nice. Not brooding. He just meditates… You know, I never asked, who are all of you seeing? If anyone. There’s no shame in it, if you aren’t.” She was interested, but as lunch had told her solidly, she didn’t read minds. If she wanted to know things it would require paying attention and doing things like this.
Bothering to ask.
Alan waved at her.
“Well… Does half the staff at Pretty Plus count for that? Thanks, by the way. That is the best job ever. The work isn’t hard and I get to have sex at least once every time I go in. I mainly just run errands for Val and Roberta.” He stopped then, as Vince shook his head slowly.
“Alede don’t really count, no. Not for seeing someone. I mean, walking up to one and saying hi, awkwardly, is enough to get them to do things with you.”
Avery nodded, since that really did seem to be part of how they lived.
“Is that how you did it?” The words were meant to be playful, but interestingly got her glared at, by Terra.
“Vince wouldn’t do things like that. He’s a good boy.”
That got the very blond Mage to raise both eyebrows.
“I am? That’s news to me. Not that I’ve had time for things like that. Lisa, my boss at the embassy? She keeps me pretty busy. If it isn’t sweeping up and arranging the store neatly, then it’s handling minor disputes. As in real work? There’s been a shake up there, since Steve left right after I got there and Todd took over as the Assistant Ambassador. That means we’re two people down, since he’s being sent to other locations for the time being, most of the time. The war…”
Avery was kind of up on that part.
In fact, she winced a bit.
