Scales (Avery Rome Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  Lars had to hide the fact that his eyes were watering. He did it by looking away, his face going very still so that he wouldn’t insult anyone. That was down to being in the shop at all. The place held hundreds of powerful scents. Flowers, oils and even wood mixed with the chemicals of the perfume in the magazine on the desk.

  The woman, who had nearly platinum blonde hair looked up, her face shocked to see them for some reason. The front door was closed, but the sign next to it was turned to show that they were open for business. That meant they were allowed to be there. It wasn’t about her being a tainted Death Serpent however. It wasn’t even about a giant Trollienkeine standing there, looming over the average size lady.

  No, from the flavor of the energy coming off of the woman, she was shocked to see Steve. Who she both liked, if that’s what the soft pink tendril coming out meant and feared for some reason. At least there was a hint of yellow. It wasn’t strong, though. Given that he wasn’t exactly holding an ax or gun at the moment, Avery didn’t get that portion of things.

  He did look annoyed however.

  “Gemma. I see that you’re doing your normal high level of work? We don’t have time to talk about that, but stop being lazy, will you? Something big is going on right now. I know that keeping the shop up doesn’t seem like a major thing, but we could have high level players through here at any time.” He glanced around, waving at the rest of them. “Oh! Here they are now. Ambassador Hale needs some work done. Scrying. It has to be done well, though. Perfectly in fact. This is life and death and the people involved here are so high up that we will hear about it if things aren’t solid. Who can we contract for that?” The Human seemed like he was being bossy with the Mage woman. Oddly enough she set her magazine aside and didn’t start casting a curse or whatever they did when people displeased Mages.

  “I know. Sorry. No one has been in all day. Not even Mages. Everyone is afraid that this place will be the next Las Vegas. It’s… What do we do?”

  Avery could see that one. They needed to arm themselves, get ready to run away if they weren’t fighters or close the place and leave before anyone could come. Duty required something different, clearly. Otherwise they would have been hiding, not reading and sweeping. The other thing that came to her mind was doing what Steve had requested.

  Get the scrying done.

  Lars held out the samples, contained in small plastic bags that Calley had gotten for the purpose. They were the kind for sandwiches, but shouldn’t taint the magical links. Hopefully.

  “Find who we seek? That is a good place to start.”

  The woman, Gemma, kind of froze, but sweeping man, who was dressed in a suit, which made him look funny, since he was too young for that kind of thing, nodded. At least his face was too youthful. That didn’t speak to his age at all, she realized.

  “Come to the back? I can do that. It’s only scrying. That’s the second thing we all learn. I need some silk thread and a map. Anyone know about where the object of the search might be?” The kid moved quickly, handing the broom off to Avery as he hurried to the back. She didn’t know if she was supposed to finish his work or not, given that. It would make sense, if there were high powered people that might be through soon. There was a dust pan sitting on the floor next to a small display, with a pile of dirt, so she got that up and dumped it behind the counter, in the bin there.

  Gemma smiled at her, as if her doing that kind of thing was sensible.

  “Thanks. I should be doing that. Are you new here? Or… Dating Steve? Not that I’d blame you. He’s dreamy, isn’t he?” the Mage was acting strange, given what people were there for.

  Avery tilted her head then.

  “He’s a very nice man. Are you looking to get married to him?”

  “What?” There was a chuckle then. Followed by some blushing and head ducking. “I wasn’t… Why would you think that?”

  She didn’t know, but it was clearly there. The woman liked the red haired man. It wasn’t just a bit either. Steve, for his part, was taking his relationship with her very seriously. As in making it all about business.

  Avery didn’t answer, since it wasn’t her concern, walking toward the back, to witness the magic being done. That meant seeing a map of the United States being laid out on Lisa’s desk in the little office she used for that purpose. It was cleared totally, except for the large paper thing. The boy had a silver ring on a string, with one of the bits of cloth tied to it with more silk thread. Looking up he explained that part to her.

  Really, it was for all of them.

  “Silk is magically neutral. To start with at least. Once you do anything with it the magic will cling a bit. Silver is conductive. I’m going to place the concept of the map representing the Earth into the paper and hold it, then use a bit of energy to connect the sample to the Human being that once owned it. There’s a lot that can go wrong. Mainly if the sample isn’t to the right person.”

  Calley looked serious, but only took a deep breath.

  “Lars found it. So it will be good that way. Is it enough material though? Those bits of things are pretty small.”

  The Mage spread various lines of silver energy around, his focus adding bits of knowledge to the whole process. Turning the energy that suddenly appeared out of his body into a simple machine. Then he placed his left hand, leaking power down the silk string, over the map. After half a moment a line of silver energy moved to the flat surface, holding a single, rather tight, point.

  Avery gasped.

  “There!” She pointed, just as the ring swung toward that direction and held in place. The Mage smiled at her though, nodding.

  “Right. The energy will go to the point. Let me mark that in sharpie.” He had one in a desk drawer to the right, the dot being bright red. “I love these pens. I need to get some of my own. Now, I need to reset and do the other sample. This is the weaker one, so… Let’s get a regional map? Georgia. I’ll need the atlas.”

  Steve moved to get it, finding the right page. Then he carefully tore the thing out of the book, as Avery winced. Books were precious. Even growing up they had been. You protected them on the rare occasion you were allowed to read one. Now her teammate was just ripping a treasure apart.

  To find a killer.

  “This good, Todd?”

  The Mage doing the work, glanced over while he rewrapped the silver ring. The thread was all new, so that the reading would be clean.

  “Yep. We should be able to get closer now. Within a few miles. Other than that… Well, if I had a better map, that might work. We can get one online. We don’t have a printer here…” He glanced at the others, his eyes finally settling on Calley for some reason.

  She seemed to understand the basic idea just from that.

  “And you want me to go and find that kind of thing? Mainly because the only place here that has what we need will be the book store. Not that Zack is even here right now. That’s the rumor. Fine. I’ll go do that. Avery? You can come with me. We don’t need to have everyone standing around here just waiting. Besides, you can get some food from the café while I do the map stuff. It’s free there.”

  Steve cleared his throat, smiling a bit.

  “It’s free for mall employees. I guess we can count Avery, since she’s a line walker. Technically that means you can work out of there, I think?”

  Calley snorted then, as if the idea was ludicrous all the way around.

  “Sure. Zack is going to keep anyone from eating. I’ve seen him give hobos free food, if they come in. He’s let them use the showers, too. True, that’s so they’ll owe him later, but he won’t turn us away. Besides, Scotty doesn’t need to eat food. You and Lars are employed here. Todd? Do you need anything?”

  The Mage shook his head slightly, focusing on the map already.

  “I’m good. Thanks.”

  They left them, moving quickly. Avery waved to Gemma, detailing her part in things. She was on their team now too, after all. Especially since she was sweeping up already.<
br />
  “Food run. Do you need anything?”

  “Coffee? Black?”

  She nodded, Calley leaving her behind already. The Bat was good at moving quickly. Most of the time that meant twitching a lot, but at the moment the energy all moved forward. Toward her new goal. Jogging, Avery caught up, passing Brand Village and then an Herb Shop. Through the window there was a man, who smiled as he noticed her, bowing a tiny bit. She couldn’t answer that moving like she was, so waved back, hoping that was enough.

  In the book store, there were several things going on at once.

  Behind the main desk was Eva, the energy being from Mars. She was actually selling things, working efficiently as if she understood what was needed. Probably because she’d done that before. There were four people having sex in the rooms to the side and a loud, nearly constant, booming from the back of the open space. That was the café. The person working it was doing it in such a way as to express true power in what was going on.

  The woman and she seemed female from a distance, was all in white, with an interesting hat that reminded Avery a bit of a mushroom. The white glinted in several different shades. The scent of food was heavenly as well. Calley waved, opening the carved door to the right, on the other side of the room. She started to speak, her voice calm.

  “I need Zack’s office. He has a printer. This might take me a minute.”

  More than that, given how people stood up suddenly as the door opened, clamoring at the woman from within the room next to the book store. It was the space filled by Something Wonderful, the basket shop. At least at the Underwood mall, over in that specific reality.

  Avery wanted food, so kept moving that way, but couldn’t help but hear what people were saying. It was a bit of a hodgepodge of noise, but the theme kept going back to the idea that these people, camping on the marble floor of the room next door, were stuck there, having already paid for passage. Except, of course, that the Line Walker was suddenly away. Working on different things.

  Trying to find who was behind the current war that had started.

  Moving past the glass topped tables she made her way to where the stocky, curly haired woman was busily working in her small open faced shop. As soon as she got to the counter the woman rushed in, the noise coming at Avery like thunder. It was different than the way most people moved. Similar to Tyler from the Coalition, actually. There were no pause, until she intended to stop, then the room was silent for a moment.

  “Ah! Hello. What can I get for you today?” All of the woman’s attention was suddenly on Avery, their eyes locking for a moment, until she looked away.

  “Some food, if that’s all right? I heard that we can get it free if we work here. Um, a coffee for Gemma the Mage… Some food for Lars the Trollienkeine, Steve the Human, Calley Hale… She’s a Shifter. Me? A lot of it, if that’s…” It suddenly felt like too much to beg from the woman, but there was a beaming look from the lady behind the counter. It seemed real too, the energy coming from her suddenly hitting the rest of the room. Places where she was going to be in moments, it seemed.

  “Very good. I can have that in a few minutes? Would you like to sit? Or have some cookies while you wait?”

  Avery really wanted to do that, being tired, but shook her head. There were people stuck next door. It was an emergency and her skills allowed her to help them, if she tried.

  “I need to go and help get people shifted around, I guess. Shouldn’t Kaitlyn be doing that? I know that the Line Walker is out, along with Troy and Eve. Barbara is working as an Ambassador, so… I get that, I guess.”

  The efficient and quick woman nodded several times.

  “Kait was called away to move some of her own people around. The Alede can be easily frightened at times. You’d be the new lass then? Avery the Queen Dragon? That’s special. I’ve only ever met two others of your kind. Queens. That I know of. After all, it isn’t really ruling your kind, is it? Not from what I was told. It’s more about being born with specific skills. Anyway. I’ll have that food for you shortly. Go and help those next door? I can’t begrudge them being stuck here, but it’s annoying. They keep coming over here to complain to me, as if I should just whisk them through the lines?”

  Avery could see that.

  Walking to the other room, trying not to be bossy about it, she lined people up and started to carry them to wherever they needed to be. It took about fifteen minutes to get the nearly thirty people to the right places. Calley didn’t wait for her, taking the map out the door at a run, the instant she had the thing.

  Once the room was empty, she ran out herself. There was delicious food to get.

  Plus, standing there would mean working more, at the wrong task.

  Her job for the day was finding murderers, not acting as a transport for wealthy people that were more than a little bit entitled seeming.

  Chapter twenty

  Scrying might not have been some kind of special skill, but Todd the Mage pulled out the stops on the whole thing. That meant sending Calley back for an even better and more detailed map. Twice. It was a bit picky seeming, but an hour later, all of the food was gone and they knew that they needed to get to a very specific building.

  It was the Buford Forest Academy campus. A military school, from what Calley had found out about it online. More exactly they needed the Richard Mills dormitory. Todd assured them that he could find the specific room if they could get a building plan, but if that was available online, Hale couldn’t find it.

  She shrugged then, making a face as she stretched.

  “We… Probably shouldn’t wait for that. We need to raid the place, fast and hard, so that the boy we’re looking for doesn’t get away. Then we need to have his brain drained. Todd, can you set that up? You lot do truth spells. I’ve seen it done.”

  There was nodding then, the boy brushing at his black suit front.

  “I can do that. Am I going in with you, or are you bringing the person back here?”

  The answer to that, as it turned out, was neither.

  Scotty was the one to work that out.

  “If this kid is protected by the FBI here, we need to have him out of the country. I’m not certain where to do that yet. We should work that out. After we get him, though.”

  They moved fast enough for Avery to feel uncertain about things. She could get them there, using the node in Virginia, then shortcuts to the right location. The area wasn’t rich that way, from the sense of things, but by going first Avery worked out how to do all of that, then managed to take the others in one by one. Hiding in the woods near the school.

  They had guards out, but the kids doing the duty were clearly being punished. They complained about it as they walked around, barely paying attention to what they were doing. Even with invaders coming to kidnap one of their people. The boys and they were all male, walked slowly as darkness fell outside the Richard Mills dormitory building. Instead of sneaking like it was a military operation, Calley just waited for the four guards to pass, then had everyone walk right up to the building, going in by the simple opening of the door. There was a lock on it, but it wasn’t secured in any way.

  The room they wanted required Lars to find. His nose was so sharp that he didn’t even hesitate, until he was on the stairs, moving smoothly upward. He pointed at the door to the second floor then up to the next one.

  “Our quarry is up there, but two of the scents here at this level were at the murder scenes. There are two others up from above.”

  Rather than seem upset by the change in plans, Calley simply nodded, taking control of the whole thing again. She was good at doing that, Avery noticed. Not like her.

  “We start at the top then. We need to grab the killers and remove them fast. Ready everyone? Lars needs to be in front on this…”

  The operation was simple, fast and messier than it needed to be. Apparently the gray uniformed boys weren’t just going to allow people to rush in and steal some of their fellows without a fight. They weren’t partic
ularly good at it, over all, but a few of them managed to get in the way enough to need to be slapped down. Avery did that part for them. She had the strength needed and didn’t really want to hurt anyone, so no one died as they were rendered less annoying. That worked until they had to carry the five unconscious bodies with them. The people that had left their scents all over the place at the murder scenes.

  There was no alarm sounding as they darted to the woods. When they got to the shortcut though, they were met by three people, who were just standing in place. Waiting for them to get there as if it had been a long term plan. One of the pale forms had her arms crossed.

  “You have got to be shitting me. We did all that work, taking days to track down all that information and the freaking Scooby gang got here first?” Eve sounded amused, rather than upset.

  Zack laughed.

  “Let’s go then. Not bad, people. Not bad at all. Let me…” There was touching of each boy, all of whom couldn’t have been more than seventeen, as they were passed through the rift in space. That got them far enough away for going on with, according to the Greater Demon.

  That ended them in a field, standing in the dark about fifty miles away from the school. No one was finding them there quickly.

  Not even with the implanted trackers that two of the kids had inside of them.

  “This one is the ring leader of the little murder club. It…” Zack nudged the kid with his foot, then chuckled a bit. It was dark sounding. Not happy at all. “Mitchel Cremo. The head of the DHS is his father. That links to the cover up rather nicely. The other attacks have nothing to do with what the braindead squad here was getting up to. It was just happenstance that they found Bey as a target in that restaurant, as far as I can tell so far. So we still have things to look into. Now… We need to deal with this. What do you want done? I can’t recommend being kind about it. They murdered people for sport. Then didn’t even cover it up well enough to make it difficult to catch them. That needs to be punished.”