Dragon Queen (Avery Rome Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  That got her to focus a bit, and realize that she actually did know an awful lot of them, if only in passing. Some of them only from the vast storehouse of memories in her head. Others from personal experience, though.

  Every Shifter past the age of thirteen was required to go to a six-week battle camp each year. For three years straight, Avery had lived at one of the facilities for that. Most of the Shifters from the U.S. had come through there at least once in that time. Over half had been there twice or more. She wasn’t a social butterfly, certainly, but had been there, and seen the faces. Most of the names were harder for her, but when she worked it out, she truly did have them, inside her head. Not all of them were in there, personally. The trick then was to find people who were that did have that kind of information. Tarsus didn’t bother getting a copy of every living being in existence after all. Not even all the ones who he met personally.

  What the criteria was, Avery hadn’t been able to determine, but the idea that there was one just made sense. She just wasn’t smart enough to be able to work out all the particulars. Especially if she wanted to do it while moving.

  While not looking like a freak, stumbling around, being unaware of her surroundings. It was, she decided, more important to be present, than to know people who she’d never met before. No one would think less of her for not having their life story on first meeting. She hoped that was the case, anyway.

  Calley gave her hand a nervous seeming squeeze, then waved at several people who were all sitting and chatting.

  “This is my team. You know Wendel Little, of course. He worked as my campaign manager for the whole mess. Merisy Fellows is my executive manager. That means she gets to come and yell at me when I don’t get up on time. Next to her is her father, John Fellows. He isn’t on the team. I’d take that as a personal affront, but he’s cute enough that I’m letting that slide until after I get him into the sack. You also know Lang?” She said it as a question, and no position was given as far as the vote went, but Lang Peterson was the head of the Shifter military, so of course Avery knew her.

  The woman also had two grandchildren running for the office. If she was smart, she hadn’t backed one over the other in particular. Otherwise the holiday gatherings were going to end up being more than a little tense.

  Avery nodded, feeling slightly annoyed by the scene. It made sense that Merisy would be there. She lived locally and worked with Calley every day. If Hale was elected, she was the one that would be moving up into her current job as Ambassador at Sparks. That was a big deal. The woman was darker skinned than she was, and a bit harder seeming through the face. It made her look a little tough, really. Almost like she was a man, wearing a dress. Except that she hadn’t bothered with anything like that. Her hair was tight dark curls, but kept short, in a military style. She had on makeup, but it was done poorly for her facial structure. Good enough for a regular woman, however.

  Not that she was one. The lady was a Dragon Shifter. So was her young-looking father. John Fellows. They both seemed to be about in their mid-twenties. Dragons really didn’t age much past a certain point. The man was very dark brown, and pleasant enough as far as his face went. Avery wasn’t that impressed. After all, before she was even born, he’d willfully set her up to kill people. That pretty much meant they weren’t going to be friends. Regardless of what he might think on the subject.

  Lang and then Wendel, both got hugs from her. Lang seemed surprised by that, as if they weren’t war buddies. They’d been in battle together, fighting for their lives, once. It counted for a lot.

  The older woman, who was a Wolf Shifter, had gray hair and a well-lined face, clearly showing she was an Elder. The lady smiled as she sat back, however.

  “Avery. I heard that you were volunteered to take whoever wins tonight to the central office? Jahn was a bit upset about that one. Though I suppose we can dump the fee for that on whoever takes over from him?” She seemed to think it was a real issue, which it just wasn’t.

  Avery nodded though.

  “This one is free. Part of my duty to the Nation. We have media coverage of the winners first speech set up, as long as we can have them in the right place for it. We need the positive press. I hear that the election is also being covered a little on one of the big twenty-four hour news stations? That’s different.”

  Calley put an arm around her back, as Merisy looked at her closely. John Fellows actually kept his gaze mainly on other people, as if saying he didn’t really notice her. Or possibly that he did, but hadn’t put the obvious together yet. It was possible, if he hadn’t talked to his youngest son Clyde, in a while. The other man had worked out who she was almost instantly on their first meeting. At least that she was his half-sister. Clyde had been pretty certain that he’d never had sex with her mother at least.

  Merisy clearly hadn’t been filled in that way. Then, the man, her half-brother, had also agreed not to tell their father about her. It could be that he’d decided that not messing with her that way was worth more than tattling on her would be.

  “Are you one of the Human line walkers? You don’t seem like a Vampire…” She didn’t seem to mean anything about that one, and was just asking. Even if it could sound a little bit rude.

  Little and Peterson both gave Merisy horribly funny looks, but didn’t mention why they were doing that. For her part, Avery just shook her head. She didn’t have to be evil to her sister. After all, Merisy hadn’t made her into a murderer.

  “I’m a Shifter. Also a line walker. Avery Rome. Pleased to meet you.” She held out her hand, which was taken by the woman, who actually stood up to shake with her. Then smiled.

  “Oh? Calley has been talking a lot about you then. Did you know that you’re the coolest person to have ever lived? Given what you’ve been doing for all of us in the last months, I can actually see that as valid, too. I’m Merisy Fellows, Miss Rome.”

  “Call me Avery? Everyone does. Nice to see you all. We should get together and talk later. Everyone? Now, unless I’m on tap to do something right now, we should all mingle and use this to make contacts, I think.” It was an excuse to get away from the big and probably violent, conversation about being set up to kill her own tribe that would be coming if she stayed at the moment. They were bigots, restrictive of their own people… and had also been the only family she’d ever known.

  As soon as she’d changed into a Death Serpent, they’d all been shooting her. Trying to kill her. Why they’d brought guns with them she didn’t know. Except that it had to be something fairly simple. They’d figured that something was wrong and had been waiting to ambush her. It had been a mistake.

  They should have killed her before her first change if they’d known. They would have. The Gray weren’t foolish when it came to the unclean, after all. That meant they’d been given a hint from someone, but whoever that was hadn’t held enough sway to have her murdered in her sleep. They’d wanted to check first and make certain they weren’t just slaughtering an innocent girl. One of their own.

  Six of them had died that night. She’d eaten several of them, and parts of the others. It wasn’t a good thing. Odds were that, at the very least, it had been started in the first place by John. On purpose. The man didn’t seem to be reacting at all to her being herself, which could mean almost anything. Including that he just didn’t get who she was for some reason.

  Not even that she was a Dragon. Which had to mean that he just didn’t watch much television. She’d been on the thing, changing shape, which had gone national.

  Ang, from the embassy in Vancouver, Washington, had seen it. He’d also shrugged it off, once he had. To him it was probably a risk, showing off like that, but Avery was the Shifter Nation’s face, so far. That day however, whoever won was also going to be out and open to the public. That was a first. It was a big enough thing that she didn’t want to ruin it for whoever took the prize. Of a new job that was probably one of the hardest anyone could have.

  It sounded less like a good thing
when put that way. The point was that she didn't want to have a hard conversation that day. She was there to be with her friend, win or lose. That was the mission, and what she had to focus on.

  Thankfully, Little had her back on that part of things.

  “You know, I think we should? Would you like to walk with me, Miss Rome? It certainly won’t harm my reputation, being seen with you today. Now the other way around… Ahem.” He smiled, since he was a bit older than she was. Probably about fifty years older, actually.

  He was a Shifter, but had never told her what he could turn into. A lot of them didn’t make a bit deal of that, outside of combat or training. It didn’t really make a huge difference most days. People could have different traits because of what they were, but for the most part those were just things that didn’t make a real difference to the world. A slightly grumpy person was just grumpy. Knowing why that was happening wasn’t going to help, if it was innate.

  “That sounds fun, shall we?”

  The man didn’t take her arm, but did touch her there, gently. He was bigger, being a little round and well fed seeming. He moved lightly though and with energy. That meant they were well away from the group she’d been introduced to rapidly, and instead of going over to anyone else in particular, they moved over to the television.

  Where there was a news station on, but the attractive woman who was speaking didn’t mention Shifters at all. Instead, she was talking about the new Human President, and something that he’d told the world on Twitter.

  Looking at Wendel, she shook her head.

  “As if letting his people know what he’s thinking is a bad thing. I don’t really get their point.”

  Wendel was many things, Avery knew. One of them was really plugged into the world around them. Even the Human one.

  “That’s simple. In the past, the words of the President were filtered through them. The press. This new man of theirs is going around that. They can’t use their powers to control what he’s saying, which is leaving them feeling disenfranchised.”

  Avery nodded, since that made sense.

  Then the scene changed, showing several large screens in a very big room. There was a man there, who seemed youthful. Not like a child or anything, but certainly a young person as far as being on the news as a reporter went. He had a microphone, and nodded, jumping right into things.

  “We were told that the first polls would be coming back starting at nine this morning. That should be Pacific time, Tiffany. We’re holding here until the big announcement at four today. The excitement here is palpable, I have to tell you. I think we have a speech by Jahn Samson at noon today?” Someone was speaking to him from the side of the room. It was hard to tell who it was, but the man smiled after a moment, then went blank faced.

  “We’ll be updating from here every fifteen minutes, starting at nine.”

  Then they were passed back to the the woman who’d been talking.

  “Today is the Shifter Nation Presidential election. In the running we have several people…”

  The news after that was taken directly from the information packets that every shifter had been sent, about three months before. There were pictures, names, and an outline of each person’s basic platform. After that was shown and read off, there was a small panel discussion about the whole thing. It wasn’t that interesting, but the men and women tried to seem engaged, even if they were Human. They didn’t really have a stake in things, due to that.

  Little turned to her after nearly twenty minutes of watching what was being said.

  “Well! That’s a bit more in depth than I would have thought of, coming from the Humans. I mean, they don’t have any reason to share our news in particular.” Then, without explaining what he was doing the man changed the channel. To another news station. That one was lingered on, but only for a few moments. On the one after that, there was discussion of their election going on however.

  She nodded at the screen, since it really did seem to be something big.

  There was a voice about then, from the other room.

  “We have food, for anyone that needs to eat? Blood, too. Animal and Human. Now serving in the dining room.” Tyler wasn’t in the space with them, but had pitched his voice to carry pretty well. Almost everyone understood what he’d said at least.

  Looking around, she understood that one. No one in the room was Human. There were Vampires, Alede, at least one Greater Demon, lots of Shifters. It was a bit different for her really. Not that she was never free of Human presence, but she attended school with regular kids in the U.S. Most of them were Human. It made for a nice contrast with the current situation.

  Her stomach informed Avery that eating would be a very good thing, not caring that it might stain her clothing or force her to redo her makeup. The thing never did. No, it was just demanding and constantly on her to get more food inside of it.

  “Avery! Over here. Come, sit by me.” It was Kaitlyn who had waved at her, to get her attention.

  She was dressed in slacks and a nice blouse, but looked stunning anyway. She always did. That was just part of being what she was. A succubus.

  “Hey! So, this is the kid’s portion of the table?” Avery moved in near Kait and actually touched her shoulder, gently. Then she whispered, as if that was going to keep anyone there from hearing things. “Can we talk later? After this stuff today. It isn’t pressing.”

  Her friend nodded, smiling a bit as Avery sat down next to her. The table was big, but there wasn’t room for everyone all at one time. That meant most of the thing was taken up by Shifters. Ann moved in to sit next to her however, which was interesting. She nearly commented on it, when the Greater Demon started speaking.

  Explaining her reasoning without being asked.

  “There are only four people here that can stand me being this close to them. The rest are a bit too scared. Which can be fun at times, but also a bit annoying.” It sounded funny, which got Kait to grin, as she took a few pancakes and some sausages. They were all fake meat, since Tyler had cooked. It was his house and he didn’t do flesh. That had seemed to be an important thing to him, but he’d never mentioned why.

  Interestingly, that was fine with most of the Shifters. While they all ate meat, more or less, they also found people that refused to consume animals to be charming on the whole, instead of annoying. If you, your family or friends were going to look like food part of the time, that just made sense.

  No one wanted to be lunch. No one normal and wholesome.

  Looking around, it seemed that there was some truth to that. Even the Vampires that were there had elected not to come into the room, even though there were chairs, if not space at the table. From the low sounds they were making, they’d all stayed to look at the television. Avoiding the possibly complicated meal in the other room. Even Ginger Harris, the Assistant Ambassador for their kind at Sparks was in there. Not making connections with possibly useful people sharing food.

  The Shifters looked over, or tried very hard not to do that, depending on who they were. The only one that actually glanced directly at them was John. He seemed… Smug. The look wasn’t about her at least, being aimed toward Ann. Which was a mistake.

  Even though she just smiled back at him, looking almost identical to the man himself in facial expression.

  So Avery decided to load up her plate. Not taking way too much, because it was going to be hard to keep the food off of her dress, if she wasn’t careful. The extra calories wouldn’t hurt her, later in the day. She looked at what was offered, then took plain foods that wouldn’t run. Even at that, if she were very careful and didn’t spill anything on herself, her makeup was going to need to be touched up. Just wiping her mouth would assure that.

  The meal was mainly a light conversation about the election. Oddly, it was kind of clear that no one really figured that Calley was going to win. She clearly had her defenders there, but even that sounded more like they were being good friends, rather than thinking that she was going to take
things in the end. The only person there who really seemed pretty certain of a win was Ann, of all people.

  “I don’t know. I rather think that wise people might look at what Ms. Hale is bringing to the table and find it enough to earn their attention. There are several good players on the field here, but I wouldn’t count her out just yet. For one thing, she’s gotten at least three times the publicity of her closest rival. Yes, much of that wasn’t in an official capacity, but that doesn’t really matter, as long as some of it was.” She stopped then, and ate a lot of food after that.

  Everyone was doing that part, but the demon really made a point of it. When she finished, not the last to do so by any means, she turned and touched Avery on the arm. There was a tingle to it, but it didn’t go inside of her skin. It just danced off, being magical in nature.

  That got Ann to roll her eyes as she glanced over.

  “I was speaking to Zack earlier. It seems that there’s a small transfer issue, over on the Human side of things? Someone left in the wrong world, while working. I think that Troy Lopez, the Human line walker did that. It was something along the lines of being attacked? That has to be most disconcerting. I do hear that he lived. So did the attacker, however. For a while. You might want to check in with that side of things, if you get a few hours? Or at least call our Zack and see if you wish to make the pickup? There’s no payment for it, which is why no one else can take it. Well, your Alede friend, Kaitlyn could do it, but it might be slightly dangerous, so you seem to be the better option.”

  That got a chuckle from Kait, who leaned forward to look down the table.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ann. Though, you should probably be the one to check it out. You wanted to talk to me, but later, right? We could… Go and do that now?”

  She said it with a sexy air to it. There was a time when Avery would have missed that part of the words. About three months before. She still probably didn’t get everything that way. Her upbringing had been sheltered, after a fashion. The last months of fear and quasi war had changed a lot about her. That and having a boyfriend.