by P. S. Power
She blinked, since she hadn’t actually asked about that. It was a personal choice on her part, not some kind of rule or new law.
“I… do not know. I’m pretty certain that you get to call him Zack, even to his face, so that one won’t be a problem. You should call him and ask on that one. I’d do it, but that doesn’t make connections for you at all, does it?”
The Vampire laughed again, then got her the number for the Iowa Embassy of her people, even if Keeley actually had it already. Both in her memories, since several people in the library knew it, and because it had been in the paperwork Fellows had sent over describing the event at Cormack’s house. The Shifters had done the footwork for them, and that meant doing it by the book. Will had to make up forms for them to get people to fill out, in fact. It worked though and they had all the needed contact information they could get from elder Vampires. Most of them didn't do e-mail or cell phones, yet. Cormack did both, since he was younger, having gained his position by simply being incredibly bad ass.
The next call was made quickly, with the phone picking up on the second ring.
“Yoghurt World, this is Ryan, how may I help you today?”
“Hi, Ryan. This is Keeley Thomson, from the Coalition of Nations. I was wondering if Ambassador Gillhall is around?”
She had to wait for half a moment, as something clicked on the phone.
“He sure is. Now, if I can transfer this properly, he should get it in the back. If not… Then… it will probably cut you off. If so, call right back? I’ll get this new system eventually. That or end up locked in a box for being too stupid. So, fingers crossed? I hate tight spaces.”
She nodded, then did it. Actually, twisting her fingers about, so that the magic would work for the Vampire on the other end of the phone. Probably a New Vamp, like her friend Jonas, since the man sounded young and was up during the day.
“They’re crossed. I’m ready.” She was being cute or thought she was. Underneath she felt edgy, though it wasn’t like it had been earlier at all.
Not propping herself up with magic was a risk. Dealing with Ryan, who was probably charming and not just incompetent, wasn’t really helping anything in the moment. Still, being a bitch wasn’t helpful in life, most days. Rather than let herself be distracted by her feelings, Keeley waited for the call to be dropped, or to end up in a holding limbo, where no one knew she was there and the phone refused to hang up.
A moment later there was a soft click.
“Cormack here. Miss Thomson?”
That meant a real message had been passed from the front of the shop. That or the Ambassador was close enough to his assistant to hear what had been said. Another reason not to start out being a pain in the behind. Vampires would hear it happening and that could color the conversation to come. She smiled and relaxed, even though her last nerve suddenly felt like it was being shredded.
For no reason that she could see.
“Call me Keeley. You had an event at your place last night? We have a report on that here. Dark flying beings that set down three young Humans from the area?”
The man on the other end might have been dead, but he clearly tried hard not to seem like it. If anything, he sounded almost exactly like she would have expected a witness to a crime like that to seem. A bit perplexed, without being too concerned.
“That’s right. I didn’t know anyone would be following up on it. There was a call from Sparks though, so that’s my mistake. Is there anything I can do to aid in this? I’d rather not have random people set in my garden like that, if possible. Not that it was a huge issue, just a bit of flower trampling.”
That sounded a lot better than it probably was.
“Really, you can help. I was wondering if we could use your house as a base to try and connect with the beings who did this? It’s happened in other locations, with improving results. The first time several of the gifts were nearly killed, however. If we can open some kind of dialog with them, perhaps they’ll be willing to deliver the presents in a different fashion, next time. Fed-Ex, maybe?”
“Ah! That makes sense then. They were presents. Okay. I’d wondered, to be truthful. There was no note or indication that it was truly that. As for working from here… Why not? I should be home all evening, if that won’t be too under foot. How many investigators will be here?”
She tilted her head, side to side.
“Three or four? That many people, in all. We have Harland from the Council coming, along with Ravi Pendar, the Human line walker that works for the Coalition. Possibly my boss, Will Dern. That’s two Humans in the mix. Is that all right with you?” She’d never heard of the man being prejudiced, but some Vampires had a hard time being around Humans, since they were so tasty.
Plus, they could smell, if their hygiene wasn’t top end.
“Of course. Though… You aren’t Human? Is it all right to ask?”
She nodded, and didn't let herself sigh.
“Former Greater Demon. We’re rebranding. To Wise Ones. We’re only half the jerks we were before! Maybe less than that, to be honest. Really, I think that without our old social rules, we’re actually most like Vampires, if you can believe that. You know, angry over nothing, moody, territorial and all that? Which could just be me, personally.”
The words, interestingly enough got a considering sound.
“Ah. I’ve heard that one then. Well, that sounds like a good thing, then. When should I expect you all?”
“About seven tonight. We’ll have cameras and things, in case we can get a meeting with the new beings. If they’re new at all. That’s pretty much the job of Division Six. We record and try to figure out the new things that might be going on, if possible. So far things are still slow, thankfully. I hear that we’re in for an interesting time, over the next few hundred years.”
They chatted for a bit, though only two minutes or so, since there were things to actually do in the world. For instance, she needed to make an appointment with Ravi, since she’d sort of promised his work already that evening. Cormack, for his part, needed to go and congratulate Ryan for figuring out the phone system.
Interestingly, her new man was in the agents’ shared office space, with Ruffo, both of whom were chatting easily enough, having set up desks already. There were ten in the room. All of them poor looking, as if they’d been bought second hand. Mainly made of Formica and steel, which could have looked good, but didn’t.
The Barta was decently large, his gray skin looking lumpy in places, since his internal armor did that. It left his head seeming pointed at the top, which was useful in deflecting blows from sticks, clubs and swords. He was also a teen boy, and even if his world was a long way off, that didn't mean he wasn’t interested in certain things. Like girls and food.
Since they didn't have any appropriately lumpy armored women for him to talk about, he was going on about the other topic, with Ravi nodding along.
Ruffo seemed pleased enough, smiling as he looked up at her.
“Thomson! Pendar was just telling me about the food item, burrito. I have not had that before. Have you tried that kind of thing? It sounds very spicy.”
She nodded.
“They can be, if you make them right. We should get some for lunch. I’ll buy.” She paused, as if she was thinking, trying to remember something. If you didn’t do that, regular people would be left feeling uneasy. “Oh… Ravi… We have a mission tonight. The Vampire Ambassador in Iowa had an event, people dropped off in his garden, last night. Peacefully, compared to what we saw the other day, which shows learning. Anyway, Harland from the Vampire Council needs to be picked up and then we’re staying at Ambassador Gillhall’s house for the night, trying to see if we can make contact with the new kids. Hopefully they’re willing to not kidnap people as tribute or whatever it is they’re doing. Have you called in to your old jobs, to quit, yet?”
It was obvious that he hadn’t. There was a subtle head shake.
“No? I didn't know I was going to get t
he job here for certain, so didn’t want to lose everything, if that fell through.”
Which made sense, really.
“Good plan. Still, as a line walker, you have options.” She stopped then, thinking. “We should get Ruffo in for that. Line Walker training. It might be a while before we can set that up. Really, Troy the Trickster got Ravi set up last night, the hard way. Are there any Barta line walkers yet?”
The boy smiled and shook his head, which was planned since his people didn’t signal no that way. It showed a certain willingness to adapt to the people he was around, actually.
“Not yet. We barely have any contact with the other worlds due to that. I don’t know, doesn’t it take thousands of years to learn that? I wouldn’t want to lose my whole life…”
Ravi tilted his head a little.
“There’s that. It’s not so bad though. Really. You experience time passing and it really is a lot of it. At the same time, only a few minutes pass here and you don’t lose that. I mean, I was gone for over a thousand years, but as soon as I came back, I started to remember everything, like it hadn’t happened, so it’s kind of both. There’s a sacrifice to it and it isn’t easy. You said you don’t have a girlfriend or a wife yet, right? No kids that are depending on you. So, who better to learn to do this kind of thing for your people?”
Keeley made a considering face and simply nodded along. Most people weren’t willing to even try. Ravi stopped talking, and Ruffo made an odd movement that showed he wasn’t from around there. It was almost a shrug, with his shoulders hunching forward, instead of upward.
“I… Would like to try, if my duties here won’t be harmed by it? How do we proceed in that, or am I…” There was a head shake from the rocky looking boy then. “It’s hard, dealing with people from other worlds! Being a line walker is a very important thing. You may be teasing me or… This could be a test, to see if I am foolishly greedy. That sort, the world spanners, are often among the wealthiest.”
Things that were important to consider, from a certain perspective. Especially that he might be missing something in the conversation.
They were different sorts of people than he was, after all. Even if he was clearly a Human being, underneath the internal armor he carried with him constantly. At least his people were related that way. Probably without the creative impulse being that strong at all. Still, he was bright enough and others that lacked that particular spark could use the nodes, so it wasn’t important, really.
“I’ll see if I can set that up, now that a slot has been opened up in the next class. A thing that I’ll do right now, before I go and get lunch. Let me pop in with Will and see what he wants.”
After all, there were only four of them there. If she left anyone out, it would be noticed. That was just life. You either made a point of including people and being there for them, or you weren’t. Even Darla had taught her that lesson early on. You treated everyone as if they were the most important person in the world to you, while you were with them.
That was a manipulation, of course. A thing meant to get people on your side, quickly and with a minimum cost to oneself. Kind of like her offering to buy lunch for the boys there, going and getting special foods for them. It would take her about ten minutes to do, if she called in an order first. That was if the lunch rush was busy where she went, of course. If she used someplace in a different time zone, that wouldn’t be an issue.
The thing there was that she had a lot of money and the extra work wasn’t a big thing, once you factored in the idea that she needed to eat like everyone else. More than they did, really. Walking down the hallway, to see if Will wanted in on the food, she got there just in time for him to pick up the phone after it rang.
“Will Dern, Division Six…” He looked up sharply, his face going hard. “Fuck! Okay… Let me… We’ll have people there as soon as possible.”
He hung up, his eyes wide.
“The… People are being dropped on the White House. Hundreds of them. It’s daylight…”
She understood the idea at least. It was probably the same beings as before, even if things had changed in their way of doing things. It spoke of interesting things as far as the President went, as well. If the trend followed, then there was some kind of death energy being used there, on a massive level.
Unless the new beings had looked things up online and figured that the Human President must be a Vampire. The trick would be going and asking, if they could.
“Crap.” Then she ran, yelling. “Ravi, Ruffo! We’re on mission! The White House is being bombed with living people, right this moment. In daylight. We need to get there and do something about it!” Which might be easier to say than to do.
Most things were, so she didn’t let that idea stop her.
Ruffo looked scared for a moment, then stood up.
“I can fight. I can’t fly though. Not very well. A little.” That he could do it at all had her searching his memories in her internal library. It was right there, as soon as she connected with the memories of even a single one of his people. Looking kind of like lumpy rock people or not, adult Barta could indeed fly. All of them. It was how they moved around on the ground, being too heavy for regular muscles to manage. They had an internal energy system that provided lift and locomotion. As they grew stronger with age, they all learned to rise into the air and eventually move around. Decently fast, for the best of them.
“I’ll take it. Who all do we have going with us, Will?” She yelled the words, since the man was still grabbing things in his office. Guns, mainly. That and a video camera. Seeing that got her to take more of the things, since each of them needed to have at least one for something like they were about to go into.
Dern simply yelled at her then.
“Meet out front! Emergency bridge in five minutes. Run!”
They did then. Ravi managed to keep up, though it was kind of clear the man was going to need to get on an exercise program. That kind of thing could pay off. It was for Will, who was in the lead, with Ruffo right behind him. When they burst outside, after a dash through the expansive lobby area, past the decorative marble water feature, Troy Lopez was already standing there, his right hand raised, as Tyler Gartner and Fellows both got ready to run through the hole in space that was forming. Alone, it looked like.
As they all closed, Troy called out.
“This isn’t what it seems. Keeley… You need to… Not be you. Be Tyler!”
That could mean a thousand different things, including that Troy, a Trickster, was getting information that was designed to get her to do something that she couldn’t understand in the time she had. It was probably about her emotional state, or looks. Rather than take a chance, she did it all. Everything she could in order to be Tyler.
Using magic, she changed her body, growing enough that her clothing was tight in all the wrong places. It was funny looking, she didn’t doubt. Then, trying to map out what he was truly like, inside, she copied his general emotional landscape. Which wasn’t the last thing she needed to do at all.
After all, Tyler was more than just a pretty face and hard, lean body of pale man flesh. Even more than a dead man. He was driven by the power of death itself. Moved and shifted, pushed and driven by a power that these beings clearly used a version of. Incarnated by a thing that wasn’t normally powerful that way. Except by the beings she’d seen the other night, flying around, using that very same power.
A thing she tried to collect around herself. The thick, rough, energy of dead things tried to drink her life away, even as she moved, pushing herself to follow the others, as Troy held a portal open in reality.
Again he spoke, this time his voice was more relaxed.
“Just the energy thing. Sorry. I should have said that the first time.”
Dying a bit, with every moment, she made her body change back, altering as she stepped through, onto the lawn of the of the people’s house. The work done on it wasn’t perfect, just so close that no one else would probably be a
ble to see it wasn’t. The green grass was slightly damp and soft under her shoes.
Once there she looked around, seeing dozens of black beings flying over, dropping people, not on the building itself, but rather, in the rose garden. They tried to swoop low to do it, only to find themselves shot at when they did.
After a moment, her clothing was fitting correctly again, she watched the dark beings in the sky and then copied what they did. Floating into the air, using death itself to change the instructions of gravity. A trick that she’d used before, she realized. When she met Ravi the first time. The only difference was that she’d used less power and more information that time. Now she was overwhelming gravity with the forces she brought to bear. It seemed to work, even as it drank life force from her, hungrily. For her it was a negative thing. If Tyler got the same basic idea down, it would work pretty well for him, she had to think.
When she got into the air, she collected darkness around her, spreading a black cloud of death that was so profound the sun dimmed in the sky overhead. At least to her perspective. Then she hovered there, doing no more than bobbing gently in the breeze, as her people on the ground tried to prevent the Secret Service from shooting at her. It didn’t work totally, bullets tapping at the energy around her occasionally regardless of the frantic efforts of Will and the others below her, though it was enough for her to catch the attention of the other airborne beings.
It only took a few moments, and once it did, the actions of the strange new beings changed incredibly fast.
Chapter fifteen
The effect of her being there, hovering about a hundred feet over the White House, was interesting to say the least. Normally she would have figured that the dark beings, on seeing a new potential threat amongst them, would either flee or attack. Most beings of any kind would, she knew. Really, for all it wasn’t her way, personally, the truth was that most living creatures would have fled, on seeing something they didn't recognize suddenly showing up.