Out of the Woods (The Coalescence Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  The attractive girl, who was clearly Queen Tiera, only shorter, smiled when he came through.

  “Delivery for Eve Benson? From Patricia Baker.”

  That got him looked at funny, which at first he thought might be his poor English, but it wasn’t. He’d tried to match her accent as well as he could from only hearing a few words. After a few moments, she winked at him.

  “All right. All the best looking guys are from your world. So, delivery? I don’t suppose you take tips in frosty and delicious frozen yogurt, do you?”

  He didn’t know what that was, but nodded. There were pictures on the wall, one of which showed a cute girl putting a spoon of something in her mouth.

  “That would be fine. After all, it’s hard to carry enough gold around all the time.”

  She made a noise. It was either a word that he’d never heard in English or an exclamation. Will honestly couldn’t tell which.

  “Duh, right? On the good side, lots of people eat food. This is kind of like frozen cream. Only different, naturally. One for you as well, Dare?”

  Will moved toward her, to hand her the floating box amulet. She took it, but seemed confused at first. Dareg, who was dressed in blue, that had a copper trim on it, unlike the stately blue and black suit that Will had on at the moment, waved at it.

  “The delivery is inside. Does she get to keep the magic box? Those are handy, if you can afford one. They can change size and shape, and will follow you wherever you go. That’s a good one, as well. One that Tim Baker made.”

  Shrugging, Will looked at the woman closely, then past her through the window behind her. There was writing on it and nice lights in places. People walked past. Three of them were men that looked to be about his own age. They all wore blue colored trousers, that were very similar, and tight shirts in different colors. The clothing on the women was more varied, but two of the younger ones wore similar trousers. None of the women had skirts or dresses on.

  Focusing for a bit, he matched one of the men that way, making his short sleeved shirt look pink. After a moment, the dead woman, who seemed pale but otherwise lively enough nodded at him.

  “That is so cool. Don’t wear pink though. It’s a girl’s color here. So is powder blue, more or less. Try… Black?”

  He didn’t wait, doing that instantly, since she was the native there. Then she pointed at his boots.

  “That’s workable, but try to copy these?” Coming around the counter he saw she had on strange foot coverings. Ones with complicated lacings and flat, flexible bottoms. That took him longer to master, being so strange. Finally, she took one of them off and let him hold it, which helped a lot. The ones on his feet were also made black, which got her to nod at him.

  “Now, one of these things fits and the other looks like someone came in from another world. That… Might not be the best thing for right now, Dare. We’ve been being hit here about once a week or so by the government. Thankfully they’ve focused on the shifters and vampires so far. Some of the other groups would have greater losses. We’re doing what we can to avoid war, but the regular peeps aren’t making it easy on us.”

  Then she looked back at Willum, her face going smooth and nearly expressionless.

  “Not that you need to be hit with that kind of thing. What would you like? Have anything on the menu. Free. I’ll write it off as practice. No one has been coming in lately, since we might be attacked at any moment. Not that I blame them.”

  “Oh? I can see the words, they look a bit like Standard, but… I can’t really read them, yet. I only had my first lesson today. That was a sign as well, but this looks a bit beyond me. Don’t worry however, I’m cool enough that by the next time I come to see you, I’ll have that down.” He hoped.

  She went still, much like a Ysidril.

  “You know, that… If I hadn’t seen you change your outfit, I wouldn’t even know you weren’t from here. As it is, I think you need to go and meet with Kaitlyn, before you leave. After all… Well, you’ll see.”

  Dareg shook his head.

  “No. After this, we need to go and seek out Zack Hartley, the human line walker. That, or Troy Lopez. Will is to be taught how to cross between worlds, if at all possible. His job… He’s being trained to do that, to locate The Adversaries.”

  That got a single nod then.

  “Well, fuck on a stick. We’ve got your back here, if you need us. No one has even been planning that kind of program, so far. Then, we haven’t been attacked that hard. Not like Tor’s world, or human Zack’s. Get with that Zack then. Nothing against Troy, since I love him like, well, like I want to keep him locked in my basement so he can’t escape, but other Zack is hard to beat at training other people. This sounds important. First, how about some peanut butter ripples? Half the people from your world love it, the other half seem mildly ill when they see it. Which camp will you two fall into?”

  Smiling, Will shrugged.

  “I’m sure it will be incredible. Thanks.”

  Chapter nine

  The frozen treat, which was made with a base of yogurt, a kind of bacterially infected cow’s milk, was actually very sweet. Peanuts, according to the dead woman behind the counter, were in the pea family. Their flavor was deeper, being nutty, instead of slightly sweet like the green things that his mother used to feed Will and the family at meals. Those were turned into a paste, with some others, being sweetened with honey, which were placed on top of the whole thing. There was a layer of beaten cream for decoration, with a candied cherry on the top.

  Except that every single part of it was strange and different. On the whole it was, he was almost certain, the sweetest single thing that had ever passed his lips. That wasn’t horrible, but it was very possible to see why some might find it a bit too much. Dareg ate it like he was starving, so Will tried to match that. If with slightly better manners. Halfway through, he nodded at Eve again.

  “This is lovely. I’ve never had anything like it.” Which was true, but Willum made certain his voice wasn’t damning it with faint praise. It was probably a bit overdone, since the pale woman lowered her eyes and looked at him like he was attempting to get her into a bed. That, or into marriage. Not that he had anything against either one of those ideas. The first one was even a thing that he might be allowed, in his new life.

  The second, while normal, simply didn’t seem to fit. Not unless it was required of him on some distant world, while he collected the needed bits and pieces of information. That something like that might happen, possibly even there with Eve Benson, vampire, was possible. He’d never checked, nor had a chance to find out if complimenting food was a declaration of love or intent to woo someone. Saying nothing might also be so rude that not being polite could force her to fight him.

  Or anything in between. Thankfully, so far, she’d kept to fairly normal seeming things. No one else there had bowed at all, from what he could see through the vast, very clear, windows. Those were a marvel, since as far as he could tell, they didn’t even have a single bubble in them. In any of the glass that was visible. The distortions were there, but very minimal. So much so that for a moment he wondered if they were made by, or out of, magic. Except that when he found the thing with his mind, it was just very clean glass. Nothing more.

  There were a half dozen hums in the air, but the only sense of anything being magic was coming off of Eve. She was staring at him, her eyes alluring, a bit of buzzing starting in his head.

  “If it’s not rude to ask, what are you doing? The magic is… Different than what I’ve felt before.”

  She looked away, her face still happy.

  “Ah. Well, trying to get you to do well on your void training. Most people fail. Those that succeed mainly have had someone trying to use magic to firm up their will power, first. I think it gives people a few years of head start in focusing. If you can get through that, while holding yourself together, you can probably hold out for a long time. Then… Well, no one knows why some make it and some don’t past that. There�
��s no shame in it. Either way. If it isn’t a known thing where you’re from, I’d make a point of lying and telling everyone that you failed. That, or let them know the truth, but claim you can’t take anyone with you.” She winked at him, then glanced at Dareg. “You said that this was the new messenger?”

  It had been Will who’d mentioned it, but that could just be a difference in how people addressed sensitive topics in this new and very strange world. They didn’t seem that hard to work with however. After all, Eve had given them food first thing, instead of fighting them, or asking for favors.

  In Noram, saying something like that would probably just be over looked. A person might forget a thing just spoken of, after all. Her brown eyes glinted a bit as she looked at Will’s attractive cousin. After a moment, she shook her head.

  Then she turned toward Willum.

  “Ah… My last boyfriend here, we were together for a year, but when he became a vamp, he changed. I mean the first day. It hit him really hard. Vampires like me, we aren’t common, but we’re all strong, quick and violent tempered. I know, you can’t tell with me, being so sweet all the time, but that really isn’t how most of us start out. So Ben kicked me to the curb.” She moved back, then pantomimed picking up a ball that appeared to be around, if imaginary, then kicking it away from the place they were sitting in. From the gesture, and her rueful smile, that wasn’t a literal thing. Either that, or it hadn’t harmed her at all.

  Willum grimaced then.

  “That’s horrible. Your betrothed tossed away your coming marriage? Do you need me to go and thrash him? I don’t know the custom here. I’d need more information about what his capabilities are first. I don’t know how to fight, really. For all I had to kill that man earlier.”

  Dare looked at him then, his eyes suddenly cold.

  “You did? Some kind of assignment? I’d heard, from more than one of the people involved, that you were to be pushed that way early. This is what, less than a week in to the training effort?”

  That was generous, by half a week, but close enough to count in public. He really wasn’t feeling that bad about the thing now. Which, naturally, wasn’t how he’d been raised at all. That indicated that Timon Baker had altered his emotions deeply in certain ways. Not at all in others.

  For instance, Will knew that he found Eve attractive and compelling. Even that his initial take on her was that he liked her, and so far enjoyed her company. There was nothing left from even a few days before that. The memories of events were there, but not the emotions at all.

  So he nodded.

  “I probably shouldn’t admit to it. It was an evil man, from what I was told. That might not be true. I had no way to verify anything. Still, if this Ben has wronged you, I can see to setting it right, in any way that this world allows.” That sounded right. He might end up fighting to the death, of course, or beating a nearly innocent man by his own way of thinking. Neither of those would stop him from courting Eve Benson as a friend, if he could manage it.

  Rather than draw a map to his location, she shrugged. It reminded him a bit of when Taman did it. For all the woman was clearly Queen Tiera writ smaller, she seemed closer in some ways to the other sister. His instructor in all things troubling and insane.

  “Nothing like that is needed here. For one thing, Ben can fight pretty well. I was only reacting now because Dareg is clearly him from a different place. I was just thinking I could make a grab there for some revenge sex. Except that my Ben here honestly won’t care about that. If he did, then he wouldn’t have dropped me for Linda. Who…” She looked away, then growled a bit. “Honestly isn’t the worst of our kind. The sire bond is just too powerful for some people. She turned him into a vamp. It was always a risk, no matter who he’d ended up with.”

  Will nodded then.

  “I think I see? Well, I can have that revenge sex with you, if you wish? Or not. I don’t wish to step past proper boundaries… Ahg. This is harder than it seems. I was kind of thinking that if I could eat the bugs and hit the right accents, match the clothing, that I’d be able to blend into other cultures more easily. I can’t even tell when I’m supposed to say things or not!”

  The pale lady nodded her head.

  “Yeah. This would have been really obvious if I knew that infiltration was possible. Even if I’d thought you were from here. I think the trick is to study in safe places first, that are really close to the places that you need to blend into, where learning and making mistakes won’t be that big of a deal. Which, interestingly, you can try out right now. This mall is pretty close to the one you need to go to next. Hold out here for a while, trying to get the hang of things. Then, when you’re ready, I can take you over to tasty Zack.” She grinned then, her teeth suddenly moving down on the sides, to look like those of a beast. Her eyes went blood red as well. That was a solid thing, which looked fierce. Also as if she must be blind, since there were no whites, colors or black in the middle, like most people had.

  Then she went back to normal, giggling. On purpose he thought. It was awkward and too slow in coming, by five seconds or so.

  “That’s a joke. I don’t eat, or drink, people. Now, this place isn’t exactly like human Zack’s world, some of the lore is different. For one thing, over there I’m not Eve Benson at all. I’m a mildly famous actress, who is also a vampire. Here things like that, being a vampire, or shape shifter or mage, those are open things. Not well known, but not hidden. Over there they aren’t even thought to be real. A big part of the trouble we’ve had lately is due to us coming out a few years ago. That, and some human officials not realizing that they keep attacking and we keep not doing it back.”

  The words were soft. Gentle and not even angry. Interestingly, he understood the true meaning behind them. Those who were afraid lashed out. Those who were weak had to run or fight instantly. Just standing and taking another’s blows, hoping that they might come to reason… That was a thing that truly powerful beings would do. Or could. For a while.

  Enough hits and even a strong person would be rendered unconscious, after all.

  Dareg didn’t say much, just finishing his frozen treat. Eve had referred to them that way several times. Almost as if she’d been exaggerating as a joke. It was hard to tell however. It could also be that he was supposed to revere the things more than seemed likely and that was his warning. So he took another bite, hoping that too many compliments wouldn’t be an insult to her people.

  “This is really good. Thank you, again, for giving them to us.”

  She winked at him, again.

  “Not a problem. Anyway, Dare, that was my subtle hint to abandon your boy here and get out of my way. Probably not for the nifty revenge sex, but I did claim that we had his back on the whole thing. I think I have a good idea, but it will probably be boring for a while. You don’t sleep, right Willum?”

  From her tone he got that she was making fun of him a bit.

  “Nope. I do have a class in… Well, given the time differences, now, most likely. In English? That… I can miss it, to sit here and speak English, I bet. I have some signs to set up at the Lairdgren node. The wizard Taman made them.” He pulled one of them, which Dareg took instantly. Then without having to be shown anything at all, he read what the magic did directly, and then set up a sign, in English. One that Will couldn’t read at all. That was sent toward the front of the shop.

  Eve glanced at it, then laughed.

  “Oh, we so can’t leave that there! Calling the human government cowards will be seen as provocation. Here, let me… How do I use this?”

  After a few moments there was a floating sign out front. It looked to be carved letters on wood, but they kept changing. Will could feel it happening on the far side. Then, looking at him, Eve read them out. They were names of different frozen treats. After not long at all, several of those walking by stopped to look at the thing, about one in four coming in the door. That was probably because the pictures on the sign looked wonderful. In full color and life shape. As
if they were hovering in front of the wood, waiting to be taken. More than one person tried it. Which they seemed to find thrilling, rather than to be a mean trick.

  Some of the people were very fat, as well. Not just a bit plump, but seeming like they might harm themselves with the effort of walking too far. They managed it however, as a small crowd started to arrive.

  Dare held his hand out, for another sign.

  “I can set it up. What does it need to say?”

  Will went over the tracking idea, so that anyone reading it in the correct language could use it to find either Doris during the day, or Diana at night. That meant Dareg needed to meet Diana again, since he wasn’t certain he knew her well enough to get the thing locked on to her yet. Then, before Willum could scold him for suggesting he meet with her alone, the younger man, just past boyhood still, at least in body, walked to the back and vanished.

  Leaving him to fend for himself. Eve had promised help in that, when it came time for transport, but the fact was, learning the lay of the land for practice needed to happen on his own. Not that he wouldn’t come back and ask her questions if he couldn’t figure things out. So, marking his location, he built a mental map of the space he was in, waved to Eve, and spoke as he left.

  “I’ll attempt to learn this place quickly. Regardless, I’ll be back in a few days.”

  Rather than call him on that, she just nodded.

  “Don’t leave the mall. See you when you feel ready.” Then she smiled and started selling her concoctions. The action got a woman in a soft pink top, who had blonde hair and only a few lines on her face to come out and look at the commotion. It took a few seconds for Will to get it, since she looked to be almost perfectly halfway between Doris’s youthful form and the one she wore most of the time. That meant this woman seemed different than either. Except that he’d seen her a few times as his English instructor had changed shape.