Scales (Avery Rome Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  While she could look inside, using deep sounds, there was no way for her to pick up the words being spoken as the meal progressed. That made the whole thing a bit boring for her. The scent of food was kind of maddening as well. Smiling, she shook her head, since she’d really called the thing correctly, from the look of the people that came in and left.

  Lars was badly underdressed for the space, his vast size being the only thing that allowed him entrance. The rest were more or less fine, but she would have been removed from the place if she’d tried to walk inside wearing her tan fatigues and tennis shoes. Being disallowed from two different places in one day would have been too much for her, so Avery was fine just staying with the vehicle.

  She was hungry, but not starving yet.

  After everyone else came back, she could go and find some food someplace, she decided. There had been several shortcuts around as she’d driven Lars to the restaurant. Some of them were large enough that they probably linked to a node, eventually. If she could find a way to one of those, then finding something to eat could be doable. Maybe not, she knew, since her funds weren’t a thing at the moment. If she could find a wild space, she might be able to hunt however. That would take longer than a store or restaurant, but she could eat the meat raw if she had to.

  Being bored, sitting there in the parking lot, her mind wandering around aimlessly, she noticed the three men setting up across the street. It was strange to see snipers getting ready like they were. Even more odd was the fact that each of them, all well-armed Humans, had the same slow heartbeat that Agent Mitchel did. Borden on the other hand was calmer than she had been earlier, but was just eating dinner, her heart rate seeming far more normal.

  Avery nodded for a bit, then looked around the parking lot. The vans full of bodies of people were hard for her to pick up, being about two blocks away, around the corner. They were just at the edge of what she could paint a mental picture of. The people inside weren’t moving a lot, making it harder. The heart beats were too faint at that distance to be helpful as far as getting a body count, either. There were lots. That was all she could tell without moving closer.

  She had to think for a moment, to work out what to do. It wasn’t exactly impossible to figure out, from what bits of things she’d picked up before. Lars had a great sense of smell and was brilliant, mentally. He looked a bit slow, but was probably several times smarter than she was. Which might throw the FBI, or whoever they were, off.

  Lang might well be able to hear her, when she spoke. Bey was in the same boat. The trick would be in getting their attention without setting them into action before it was time. From the positions, the armed men were waiting to ambush them on the way out. Avery couldn’t know it for a fact, but it seemed to her that Agent Mitchel and possibly Borden, would be in contact with the people setting up a kill box at the front of the building. Radios or listening devices being used just made sense in that case.

  Eric wouldn’t be able to understand her, she didn’t think. Given she was lacking some kind of magical device. Or a cell phone.

  On the good side, no one seemed to be aware that she was there at the moment, in the van. If they knew about that fact there wasn’t any indication that they had a sniper on her, or people watching her closely. Even if she was just sitting there, in the driver’s seat. Which meant that she could simply drive away. That might trigger an attack, but she had to hope it wouldn’t. The vehicle was borrowed, after all. Ambassador Fellows would need it back. Unharmed if possible.

  After thinking things through, the bodies on the roof across the way barely moving, she nodded slowly. Then she used a normal speaking voice, her face directed at the front of the building.

  “Lang? Bey? Don’t react if you can hear this. I can’t hear you speaking anyway. We have three snipers set up across the way, on the roof top of the four story building. The kill box is at the front of the restaurant. There are what seems like attack teams down the street to the west. Two panel vans. I think. They have weapons and body armor. I can feel the metal and ceramic plates. All of their heart beats are really slow. Like Agent Mitchel. Agent Borden seems normal. I don’t know what that means.” She paused, took a breath and then kept speaking out loud. “I’m going to go and see about getting some help. I… Don’t know from where. I’ll be back inside half an hour, regardless. Don’t leave before then?”

  She started the van. Driving very carefully, watching all around her, since that had been the way she’d been trained. No one shifted at all, or even tried to take out the tires on her vehicle. She would have, unless the orders weren’t about killing people. That was possible, of course. Which meant that handling the whole thing carefully was going to be needed.

  “Because they might just be there to protect Mitchel and Borden.” Except, if that was the case, taking drugs to mask racing hearts wasn’t needed. The only reason to do that would be sneaking up on people. Worse, even if it was some new protocol, attempting to hide from the supernatural beings for safety reasons, they’d left Borden out of the loop. That meant something different was going on.

  If that was really the case, then getting the wrong people in to help might end up with a war against the Humans starting. Doing nothing might end up with her team being killed. She hated complicated situations like that, now that she had one to think about. Backtracking toward the hotel, Avery noticed that no one had bothered to follow her. That meant she was able to park next to a rather healthy looking rift in space about three minutes later.

  She’d noticed it before, on the way there. The air rippled in a disk about eight feet high. It was showing a glimmering of thousands of colors, kind of like a node might, but it wasn’t one of those. What it did do however, when she approached it and stepped through was take her directly to a node space. It was a strange one, which looked like a very poorly planned out office building on the inside. The sound echoed around after two steps inside, giving her a sense of what was going on pretty well.

  For instance, she knew that three Human shaped beings without heart beats were coming at her, running quickly. Scurrying, really. It wasn’t the kind of speed that Bey used or anything, just people dashing at about thirty miles per hour on the carpeted floor. Vampires, of course.

  “I’m Avery Rome. The Shifter line walker. Bey Transmorguire, Lang Peterson, Lars of the Trollienkeine and Eric Weise the Mage are trapped inside a restaurant in New Mexico. There are also innocent Humans in there. At a guess the FBI are the ones doing it. They aren’t shooting or anything, but I don’t know if it’s an attack or not.” She felt horribly frustrated, but the three running forms stopped at the door. Two of them did completely.

  Then, slowly, or at least at a Human walking speed, a pale woman moved into the space.

  Her accent was thick. Probably Australian.

  “Right. We need the yanks in on this then. Not that The Bey can’t take out a few Humans. I get the plan… You want them taken alive? I can call in… We need Eve Benson on this. The Snowflake? She works with Bey more closely than any of us. His Protégé. You heard of her?”

  The words were conversational seeming. Slowly, looking her up and down, the Vampire pulled a cell phone and started tapping at the thing, calling up a menu, rather than inputting numbers. After a moment, the Vampire held the device away from her, so that Avery could hear the voice.

  “Eve Benson, what’s up?” Given everything, the casual way the phone was answered probably meant that Eve was at home, or at least on her personal cell.

  The other Vampire spoke quickly.

  “We have a line walker here? Ava Rome? She claims that The Bey is being targeted by the U.S. Government?”

  Avery didn’t wait for Eve to respond, making corrections instantly. Some of them. Her name wasn’t Ava, but no one cared about that. Even she didn’t.

  “Three snipers outside the restaurant that everyone was taken to by the FBI. Two vans filled with fighters down the street. All of them are on drugs to slow their heart beats down. I don’t
know why exactly. They haven’t shot anyone yet. Um… There was a problem earlier, with the FBI lady that had been put in charge. Zoe Borden. She’d kind of insulted everyone, so was nearly killed. We didn’t do that, but there could be worries there from the government people. So I don’t know what to do. We need to stop the snipers, but not hurt them, just in case the goal is just to be there for back-up.”

  Instead of asking questions, there was an almost instant answer.

  “I’ll get a team together from here. Tara, thanks for getting with me. I’ll meet you at Yoghurt World, Avery.” There was a click as the other phone was turned off.

  Tara, who seemed to be the Vampire in charge, winced. It was probably fake, being too big, but the feeling behind it seemed genuine enough.

  “I got your name wrong. Forgive me.” She bowed a bit, but didn’t seem scared or anything.

  Avery smiled.

  “Avery Rome. In case it comes up later? I need to go… Thanks. I didn’t know what to do. Not that I do now. I’m more of a follower than a leader.” It was probably a stupid thing to say, given who she was talking to, but the other woman simply smiled.

  “There’s no shame in knowing who and what you are. Only in denying it to the point it gets you into trouble. Go. We’ll stand ready here, in case we’re needed.” She turned then, as a man walked into the room, moving slowly enough not to startle anyone.

  Before there was any more talking, Avery moved through the void, selecting the correct node in Washington State. It took no longer than a moment or two, though the space was empty when she got there. Except for Troy, who was in the front when she moved in that direction. Working at cleaning the marble countertop. The stone was impressive seeming to her, having thousands of colors in it. A lot of them were mildly glowing at the moment. Responding to the energy given off by the unclean monster who lovingly cared for it. Bits of life energy moving from the man, into the stone and coming back into the world.

  “Avery! Come for something to eat? I can-” He stopped, since Eve was suddenly in the store. She didn’t speak for an instant, just standing there, looking around blankly. Then she moved behind the counter to the phone and took a single, deep breath.

  “Emergency. Government snipers going after Bey and the others in his current group. Or… You said that you didn’t see an attack yet? We need to confirm that. Except that if we do and it is a kill squad that might set them into motion.” She shook her head, then smiled. It was a gentle seeming thing which wasn’t exactly real.

  Honestly, it seemed more like she was ready to go and simply start by killing some FBI agents. If that’s who they were. There was no real way to ask about it or anything. Not in a reasonable fashion. Tapping the men on the shoulder and enquiring didn’t seem like the most practical plan.

  Eve started talking to people, calling for help from several different groups. It seemed almost like she expected people to hold back, instead of jump in with both feet. That didn’t happen, clearly. The real issue was that after ten minutes, they only had ten beings ready to go. Time was running out, or might be, which meant they had to go in the way they were at the moment, instead of as a strike team with an actual plan.

  Interestingly, just as Avery was about to go back and start changing shape, to kill them all, a man sauntered in carrying several bullet proof vests and holding a case with what turned out to be rifles. AK’s. They looked fairly new. The box had ammo in it, which was passed over to her, the attractive man winking.

  “Hey, Avery. I was thinking that the three of us can go in behind the snipers. I’ll open a node point for you. You can’t do that yet, right?” The man patted her on the arm then glanced over at Eve. “You should work that one with her. It won’t be easy, but she can work it out, given enough time and practice. For now, we need to get into place. I’ll take our friends from the gym down that way. Avery, could you handle the Vampires we have incoming, please? That will leave Eve with your people. It shows a bit more of a group effort that way.”

  Without waiting, Avery started to do what she was told, since the strange man seemed to have a plan. Besides, it didn’t take a genius to understand that she’d seen his type before. All the energy in the area tried to rush inward at him constantly. Like the Line Walker. It could be someone else, since he wasn’t an attractive woman for the time being, but people could and did, change shape in her world. Greater Demons were known for doing that kind of thing, according to the tales.

  So she just moved, not bothering to have a personal problem with the man. His type were scary, unclean and so on, but not really more so than a Death Serpent was. Besides that point, at the moment she needed to stay on the current mission, which meant stopping the attack first, then…

  “I don’t know what to do. After we stop the snipers. There’s a group set up down the street as well. Or… Well, they’re ready to move.” That had to be addressed as well, she knew. The set up was kind of clear after all. The snipers would soften up the targets, then, after the first few of their people were dead or incapacitated, the rest would swoop in, to finish the job.

  Unless she was just wrong, thinking like a military person, instead of a police officer. In that case, just shooting people in the back of the head to stop them was going to be the start of the problems, not just the end of them like it should be.

  The tension was incredible, but after a few moments several vampires were standing there. Having suddenly appeared, distorting space as they ran into the shop. Edom smiled at her, his dark face cheery seeming as he patted her shoulder.

  “Hey! I heard there was a small issue in New Mexico? This young lady is Barbara, the second in command for Washington State. Also a line walker and our second in command here. Assistant manager? I…” The man smiled bigger as several armed men and women wearing body armor jogged into the shop.

  Shifters. Two of the three being people that Avery recognized. Mr. Hobson the Bear shifter had taught classes at battle camp at least once a year. Heavy weapons and tactics. He’d also been at the last battle camp she had. The other was the local Ambassador. Peterson. Avery winced, realizing that she didn’t recall the woman’s first name at the moment. Not for certain. Then, she was distracted by the third person who came in. Not that she realized it at first. Not until the flavor of his being hit her tongue.

  The man was fit seeming, had dark hair and brown eyes. A lot like she did, except that there was no similarity other than that. He was Asian, for instance. Well, there was one obvious similarity after that bit of coloration. He was clearly a Dragon, like she was. The taste of scales hovered around him powerfully. There weren’t a lot of those in the world from what she’d heard, so it was kind of a big deal to meet two in the same day. Probably not that strange, given that both men were involved in government work. Of the twenty-seven or so Dragons that were on the books, about a quarter of them did that kind of thing for a living. It meant that they were over represented in government jobs by an incredible amount.

  She nearly froze, but was able to accept the nod that the hard looking man gave her as enough of a reason to keep moving. For the moment.

  “I’m supposed to take the Vampires that are going in, then take out one of the snipers. We should go to the van. The one I borrowed from Clyde. Then set up to stop the others.” She knew that her words had to be nearly nonsense to the others, but the new Dragon nodded.

  “He called earlier, trying to find out more about you. I’m Ang. We can talk later. In a few weeks? We should do that, but there’s no hurry. Catherine, should you be going in?” The look he gave his Ambassador was bland, though it got an eye roll from the sharp faced blonde woman.

  “Of course not. I’m far too important to waste on combat. I also can’t stay back here. Lang is family.”

  It was the reason that the Dragon fellow had asked in the first place, no doubt. Avery hadn’t thought about that part of things at all. The people in danger were her team for the time being, but none of them were close to her otherwise. If they died
it would be politically horrible and leave her feeling bad for failing, but it wouldn’t haunt her for the rest of her life or anything. Losing a family member might.

  Though, as Catherine, which seemed to be the right name for the woman she realized, had just said, Lang was also family. She both had to go and shouldn’t.

  Thankfully the new man that had come started ordering people around again, which was more or less listened to. It meant she was able to help carry people through to Clyde’s van, doing most of the work herself. Eve, Troy and Zack, which was the new man that had come, did that part for themselves. After that, the Greater Demon touched her arm again, holding it for a second. Then he nodded.

  “I’ll set up getting these folks to the attacking vans. Then we’ll go and see about the snipers. Troy, you’re the line walker for the battle group. Eve, Avery, take out one of the snipers each. Try to leave them alive? If you can’t, then we’ll deal. It would be best to have people to question.” The Demon didn’t seem angry or like he wanted anyone to die outright, which was interesting.

  Avery would have figured that being what he was, the man would have seemed upset all the time. Instead he seemed slightly too calm given what they were about to do.

  Once the bodies were in place on the attack vans, or whatever they were going to call them, Zack waved his hand a bit, creating three disks in the air. Each one was glowing a nice combination of purple and blues, swirling with life as space warped and bubbled behind it. The color didn’t exactly match with the rift, but it was close enough to just walk through, like a shortcut.

  He gestured at the things.

  “On three. You’ll come out right behind your new buddy. Be careful. One, two…” He nodded instead of speaking the last word, stepping rapidly toward the glowing disk in front of him.