Dragon's Eye (Avery Rome Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  “Hello. Are you Avery?” Her lip actually curled up at first, sneering, but then she relaxed a bit after looking at her for a moment. That part was different, but was probably about the lady registering her looks. Those weren’t perfect, but she was doing well enough that way, she thought. Her makeup skills had gotten better over the last days.

  “I am. Hello.” Her hand went out, since that was what you did when meeting people in the Shifter world. The woman nearly fumbled it, her face going sour and confused.

  “I’m Carleen Hart. Phil’s mom. We should have you over for dinner soon. Say, tomorrow?”

  Her boyfriend looked embarrassed, but Avery smiled, since it was the kind of thing that she actually expected parents to do.

  “I can’t, since I have to work. Maybe… Next Monday?” Her schedule was stacked solid, she realized. Even offering that evening up was dangerous. Still, it had to be done. You either did the things needed to make your mission happen, or you failed. That one wasn’t part of her plan, so she’d make the time, if possible.

  Carleen nearly sneered at her then.

  “Do you work in fast food?” It sounded like a pretty normal thing to say, given her age.

  Also a lot like Philip hadn’t been sharing much about who, or what, she was. Rather than leave that one hanging, she just shook her head a bit.

  “I have a couple of jobs, actually. None of them are in food. Tomorrow I’m going to a script reading. I have a small part on a television program. Possibly at least. Red Rain? It’s a spin-off of Krista Hall’s Vampire show.” Avery didn’t know the name of that, but before she could get to it, from the library inside of her, Carleen looked shocked.

  “Blood Storm? I love that show. Really though? You’re an actress?” She seemed uncertain about that, but then looked at her again and nodded a little. “How did you get in on that?”

  Avery glanced at Phillip, then smiled hugely. It was a chance to use her new acting skills again, after all.

  “Krista and I met at Tyler Gartner’s party. I’m a line walker, which is one of my jobs. Um… using rips in space to teleport between worlds and different locations? Anyway, I’d taken some people there and we started talking. I’m also a Dragon Shifter.” She paused, then made a face. “Didn’t Phillip mention that part?”

  That got a sudden, very fast head shake.

  “Oh, sure! He also told us about him training to be a Vampire. I just didn’t think it was real. You know, when I was a kid that stuff was only in stories. It’s still hard to believe. Monday then? We’ll have meat loaf.” She seemed to be teasing her for some reason, but Avery didn’t get that part.

  She liked meat loaf.

  “That sounds wonderful. What time?”

  They made plans quickly, then she left, walking away, after they pulled back inside. It wasn’t until then and a good searching of the memories inside of her that she worked out what was really going on there.

  Carleen didn’t know what to make of her claims. She seemed to think that Avery was, in fact, good enough looking to be an actress, but didn’t think her own son was attractive enough to hold her attention. The thing about the meatloaf had been a nod to their humble living situation, since to her mind, anyone that worked in television would be very rich and live in a fine home. Probably in California.

  The thing there was that the house her boyfriend lived in was big, nice looking and well kept. His mother had been dressed in expensive seeming things. Not as nice as what Avery had on, but part of that was down to how much effort she’d personally put into the project, trying to practice some more difficult sewing tricks.

  It had been noticed, but the assumption was that Avery was from even more money, and would look down on them for merely being upper middle-class. It was so far from the truth as to be absurd, but that could all be corrected later.

  For the time being she got a whole night away from doing anything, really. Except that wasn’t the case. She had homework, and after that needed to do another few outfits up, and start on her gown for the Sunday meeting. At about eleven, after hours of solid and fairly efficient labor doing just that, her phone rang. Her personal one, which meant that it was in her pocket, making it all lumpy.

  “Avery Rome, how may I help you?”

  There was the sound of explosions from the other end of the thing. Loud ones, which indicated some kind of battle was going on.

  “Miss Rome? It is I, Bey.” He sounded nicely calm, given the noise behind him.

  “Bey? What’s going on? Do you need help?”

  “Ah, right to the heart of the matter. Yes. There was a meeting, to see about where our missing friends might be, held in Nebraska, well away from any nodes or normal meeting places. It appears that we were tracked, and our clever ruse uncovered by those who wish to do us harm. The situation is not good, in that all of those taken have been slaughtered. We would be faring better, but the Humans rather cleverly, are flying over and dropping bombs on us.”

  She could see that one working, now that it was mentioned. Most people couldn’t fly.

  “I’ll be right there I…” She could find them, possibly, from inside the void. It wouldn’t be simple for her however. Then she’d need to make an opening to them and hold it open while getting them all away. “Have you called Zack and the others?”

  “Indeed. We have aid coming, but we need cover, for the evacuation. It was thought that you may provide such a distraction? If you are willing. We all understand if you don’t wish to take such a risk. Most here are strangers to you.”

  She didn’t dignify that one with an answer.

  Instead she just started to run, heading toward the back yard.

  “I’ll be there in… Call it three minutes?” Then she hung up, since talking to the man wasn’t going to let her do it faster.

  The trip to the node complex took most of her time. Then she stopped and removed her clothing, tossing it into the corner, standing in the back of Yoghurt World. Barbara dashed back, her face fierce seeming. She stopped though, confronted by a mostly naked girl instead of an attack. The knife in her hand stopped even, before it rammed into soft flesh.

  “Avery? You’ve heard about the attack?”

  “Yes. I’m going in to be the distraction. I don’t know if anyone will be coming here, but both Troy and Eve work from here so that makes sense. Stand by, just in case. I need to…”

  Trying to recall how to speed that kind of thing up, she started to change, leaping into the slowly pulsing disk in the air. It felt strange, doing that, but inside the void she finished making the shift, information wise. It took her longer to find the right spot, in the correct world, but when she did, Avery opened a rift in the clouds, above the bombers and attack helicopters. It was difficult for her to breathe, but not impossible. The air was just thin, being up so high. Cool as well, but not enough to harm her.

  Luckily the machines all roared in deep, slow sounds, painting a picture of where they were, since the sky itself was black. Only the spots of burning on the ground allowed anything to be seen. She realized something, after a moment of watching the events play around her, slowly beating her wings.

  The jets were far too fast for her to engage with.

  She was larger than they were, but her top speed was about a hundred miles per hour. The helicopters could outfly her if they tried. Only if they knew to do that, however. After a moment, she realized what would be needed. Taking out their fire power was functionally impossible. Her goal was to distract the fighters attacking however, not engage directly.

  So she found one of the black whirling machines as it hovered, and flew over to it, her body being pushed away by the force of the blades. Until she recalled that she only weighed a few hundred pounds while flying. Instead of worrying about that, she simply stopped, letting herself fall. Plummeting with her wings tucked, diving and ripping the poor whirly bird to shreds with her talons. They broke and things inside her legs stung, but the machine went down, bursting into flame.

&nbs
p; Then she flew again. The second time she did it, one of the blades hit her face, leaving a bloody gash. Avery could taste the blood in the air as she flew. It didn’t slow her down.

  Over and over she did it. It hurt, but that would heal as she changed shape, just like always. When five of the craft were falling, no one coming for her pitch-black form at all, the other helicopters flew away, moving faster than she was going to be able to follow them. The jets moved out as well, several minutes later, probably figuring that her side had more tricks ready.

  If they did, she wasn’t aware of it.

  There was a roaring, from all the fires on the ground, the open field, with the remnants of cars and some dead bodies, most of them not Human, lit up for her to find. The sound guided her. On the ground she shifted to her second form. Humanoid, but with wings, scales and greater strength than a Human would have. She always held that, but this time Avery stood, ready to fight with her bare hands if she had to. The pain was gone at least, and the change only took about a minute this time.

  She walked, instead of flying, since there was no need to do that kind of thing. First she went to the large pile of bodies. Those were dead from the attack, most having had their throats slit. She picked through the thing, only to find Link there, near the top. He was dead, his head nearly cut off. Under him, alive, cradling a dead Tommi as a shield, was Debbie.

  “Devi? Iz Azery.” It was hard to talk in her current shape, but after a few tries the girl moved, wisely seeming ready to run. She didn’t though, still holding the smaller, totally dead, girl to her chest.

  “What do you want? Why… Why did they do this?”

  “Azery.” She slapped her own chest, but after a little while it was clear that the girl wasn’t going to get it. So she changed tactics. “Come. Come.”

  The single word worked, along with some waving, though it was hard to get her to leave the bodies of her friends. There were new vehicles coming. Ones with lights and sirens on them. That might have been fine, but also could have been a new attack. They were likely the Humans. Which ones, friend or foe, was unknown for the time being.

  There was frantic activity off to the right, so she moved in that direction, not touching Debbie. Waving for her to follow along, which was nearly invisible in the night, even lit by the fires around them. When they got there, Avery was able to make out what was going on first, before Debbie could even tell what was happening. There was a line of people, with others standing around them, some holding weapons. Ready to fight, to protect the others.

  Interestingly, the outer line was made up of Greater Demons. Standing there, ready to kill anyone that would harm their fellows. It wasn’t just Zack either. In fact, he was near the back, escorting most of the people through the node. Which, now that they weren’t actively being attacked, she needed to do as well. Stopping, not wanting to approach the line as a giant black Dragon woman if she could help it, she changed again, which left her starving. That wasn’t a shock, really. It was three changes in twenty minutes, all of them pushed to nearly super speeds, for her.

  Debbie looked at her naked form, noticing the change.

  “Avery? That’s you? The… They killed Link. He… He told me to hide under him and Tommi… After… It was men. Army guys.”

  Which it nearly had to be, given the armaments they’d been using.

  “I saw. Come on. We need to get people out of here. I have to help with that.” She jogged forward, dragging Debbie along with her, only for the girl to be tackled by a good looking blonde woman before they got there. It was a hug though, not a subduing tactic.

  “Deb! You’re alive!” She was kissed then, as Avery picked it up, having met this shape before.

  “Allison. I need to get to the node here. Zack opened one. People are coming.”

  “Go! We’ll hold them here. Take Debbie. Good work, driving them off. That one probably won’t work twice. Freaking… Of all the stupid… This is too clear. People will die for it.”

  She kind of understood, her brain pushing into overdrive by habit now. Even after only a few days of practice. This wasn’t the full might of the U.S. military, but a splinter group trying to make it seem like it was, in order to start a war. That wasn’t going to be happening. After all, they could see the trick of it already.

  People were going to be dying for this, regardless. Avery didn’t doubt that at all. Instead of talking about it, she pulled Debbie by the arm and ran toward the node. There were actually five of the things, she realized, when she got there. Zack, seeing her as he stepped back through, waved a hand, opening another.

  “Hold it open. Focus on it and partially enter the void constantly. Take people to the Shifter node.”

  She stood there and yelled, which had several of the remaining crowd coming toward her. Calley Hale got there first. She was naked too, her glasses gone. It made her hard to recognize.

  “Rome! We have wounded. Shifted people…” There were a few of them, though it was clear Calley had done it and come back already. That showed special talent. She also had a firearm in her hands. It was just a pistol, but it was clear she knew how to use it. Then, almost every Shifter would.

  Instead of going inside the purple glow in space, the Ambassador moved beside it and knelt, scanning the world for threats. Avery took Deb through first, then did anyone that got too close to her, tossing them through the line without mercy, pushing herself as hard as possible. Just as the Human police got there, she grabbed Calley, who was one of the last people left. The Greater Demons held out the longest, but went into the lines on their own, without help.

  They stepped through into a mess.

  The node room was filled, and people were out in the hallways, over half of them still in animal form. Interestingly, a rather shocky looking Debbie grabbed Calley, checked her for wounds and then pushed her toward the door.

  Yelling commandingly.

  “Clear the space. We don’t know how many others are coming.”

  The girl got a hug, rather than a slap for moving an Ambassador around by force.

  “This is the last. The field is clear. The field is clear. Key people, come with me. This way. Rome, with us. You…” She pointed at Debbie, who swallowed hard, as if she thought something bad was going to happen. It didn’t. “Good work. Can you organize things here? Get with the kitchens and see about arranging food. People will be starving. Then we need to get with pretty much everyone else. Just start shouting until things get done.” It was efficient enough, so Debbie, half freaking out or not, acted.

  “Who knows where the kitchen is? Kitchen. If you know where that is, get over here, now!”

  That got a rather delicate brown and white spotted rabbit to hop over. Avery nodded, and pointed at her. Avery could taste that she was familiar, which was interesting.

  “Deb, this is Rutha. She knows the way. They’ll need someone with hands to get that. Go!”

  Several of the others followed Calley to a meeting room, where, interestingly, Avery was handed a phone.

  “Call… Freaking hell. Anyone you know. All your contacts. Half our people are down for the next three hours. This was… Brilliant. It nearly took out a lot of us. Half the Mages there died. I think they got Lisa out. Her dad, too. I didn’t recognize all the others. The Vamps should be all right. They only had their masters here for this. That… They just drove up, dumped the dead bodies and started shelling.” She shook her head. “Sorry, it was air dropped ordinance. Not mortar or scuds. Zack said that you were taking out the helos?”

  She nodded, then started to dial the phone in her hand, taking things from memory. The first one she did was Edom. It made sense to her.

  “Hel-” The voice was calm and that meant he didn’t know what was going on.

  “Ed. Huge attack in Nebraska at a joint meeting. Humans did it. Military weapons and gear. Attack helicopters and jets. They killed a bunch of kidnap victims first, probably as a goad. Right now we don’t think it was the government, just a rogue group insid
e of it. We had most of the Council here, leaders from several different groups. Estimated… Twenty percent of those on the ground being dead. The line walkers and Greater Demons got everyone out. We need to spread the word… Include the Humans in this. The press. The good people in their government. This was an attack on all of us.”

  Instead of asking for ten million points of data, even if he needed it, the man answered, talking faster than normal by several times.

  “Understood. Are you hurt?”

  She wasn’t, of course. There had been wounds, but they’d healed already. Very few of the Shifters had died at all. It was their real power. They lived when others might die.

  “I’m fine. There were friends of mine there. Dead. From school. Debbie lived. Tommi and Link were murdered. Throats slit execution style… It was meant to enrage us. We can’t let that happen.” It made sense, but she didn't know if anyone else in the world would understand her point.

  Except that Edom, like almost always, did the right thing.

  “Understood. I’ll try to get things together on this side. Are there refugees at the shop?”

  She didn’t know at all.

  “My guess is yes, but I don’t know. Barb was standing by for that, so if it happened, I have to think it’s being handled.”

  The phone went dead then, with a click. She just moved on. Interestingly, when she considered things, the next person that needed to be called was Vince. Mainly because he had the numbers for the Vancouver Mages. They’d need people there to handle things. She knew that Lisa wasn’t going to be taking care of it all there yet. If she could at all. It sounded like it had been close, getting her out.

  That was an odd call, since he had to have the facts, including the idea that school kids, ones that went to school with them, that had been at the same parties, were fair game now. That had to include both of them and everyone that they knew. The big message for the night had to be that it was a set up. That meant getting with the U.S. government people as well.