Dragon's Eye (Avery Rome Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  That got him to make a rather desperate sound.

  “Oh, yeah. I hear that one. Eve can do that though, return feelings, and promised to get me fixed up that way, just as soon as I show that I can be halfway responsible. I have to earn that skill back, but it might take a while. I don’t know about Gemma. I’ll ask her though. After all, it would be a better memory of her than I’ll be holding otherwise.”

  He got up then, cleared his own tray off to the table for such things to the side, and left then, seeming a bit subdued. Avery thought she understood that part of things really. His life, one way or the other, was about to end. Either he became the Vampire he hoped, or he became a Vampire and struggled to exist. Even if he pulled out at the last moment, he could never really be the same after that.

  Which meant that the future was coming at him, probably in slow motion, days ticking by as he waited for it to arrive.

  Avery had a schedule to fill, which actually picked up a lot as the night progressed. At about midnight Steve came in, smelling of sex and looking bemused. He didn't tell on Gemma, but it was kind of clear that part had gone well for him. She didn’t make him share either, since it wasn’t her business, in particular.

  What she did do was get him back to his place, in Sparks, as soon as he walked into the node room. That space was becoming familiar to her, the cool, sparkling marble and moving node that floated in the air. It was lovely, in a strange way that she doubted most could see. Possibly not even Zack or the other line walkers.

  On the far side, in the front yard of the mansion that Living Proof shared, Steve York hugged her. It was a tight thing and possibly a bit more adult than she’d been expecting from him.

  “Thanks, Avery. I don’t suppose you want to get lucky with Human me before it’s too late?”

  She really didn’t. Not that it was anything against him.

  “I can’t. I’m working for the next days without a break, or so I hear. Let me know as soon as you get your sex drive back… I don’t have one, so at least one of us should if we’re doing anything.”

  It sounded bold to her, since she was, technically, finally, offering herself to a man. To be used at his pleasure. It wasn’t what Steve probably wanted from her, but it was really about all she could give. As Alan had spoken of earlier, he didn’t love doing the dishes, but did it, as a duty. It was, for her, about like that.

  Then, growing up Gray had always suggested that would be her part in the world.

  He went in then, smiling back at her, as if what she’d said was close to the right thing. Once the door closed behind him, she stepped back through the translucent but glowing disk in the air back to the mall.

  Where she got to spend the next six hours in about fifty different locations, moving people and at times large packages around. Crates, boxes and in a few cases, shipments of gold and jewels. One of her abilities was to be able to sense that kind of thing, after all, so she wasn’t fooled by the plain containers they were shipped in. Part of her wanted to keep the shiny things for herself, but she was more disciplined than that, and managed to leave them alone.

  Not even looking at them for hours instead of just taking the shipments where they needed to go.

  Just before six, she tucked the silver medallion that had been passed to her into her mouth and focused on it, trying to make it work. The magic flowed into her, not bouncing off of her skin for once. Interestingly, chain still attached to it, she managed not to swallow the thing. That was hard to do, to be honest. It was silver and tasted oddly good to her. Sweet nearly. Like delicious candy.

  Thinking of that reminded her that she needed to arrange such things for the Humans that would be coming to her, Eve and Edom’s home. How that would be accomplished she wasn’t certain. It was what she was thinking about when Troy Lopez, Vampire and line walker, came into the book store. It had stayed open all night long, but now there were two different women working the place.

  Kaitlyn and a rather exotic dark skinned woman. She was interesting to look at, though Avery didn’t really understand why until Troy pointed it out.

  “Hey all! Looking good, Kait. Micha… You know, you and Avery here could pass for sisters…”

  The interesting part then was that Kaitlyn stood back then nodded.

  “You know… That’s not too far off. I hadn’t been considering that, but… Well, Felicia called me late last night, to ask my advice as to how to keep the men off of you. I can see it now. If we dressed you in slightly more revealing clothing, possibly with a push up bra… You could pass.”

  That seemed unlikely, but Avery got the basic idea. Micha, the new Alede, had black curly hair, and similar facial features. She was much prettier, of course, but Troy had said they might pass as sisters, not twins.

  Which reminded her of some things.

  “Oh! Eve suggested that I go to Tyler and his friend’s Halloween party as one of you. An Alede. If that isn’t insulting to you. If so, then I can do something else.”

  Micha clapped a few times.

  “That works for me. Also, a party? You can get me in? I love that kind of thing.”

  She nodded, thinking about it.

  “I have ten invites for it, not including me. That leaves me with two, so, you can come? We’re leaving from here. It’s in Sparks, Nevada, but I’ll do the transport for it.” She didn’t ask either of the others, just shrugging then. “I should ask Barbara too, don’t you think, Troy?” It was her attempting to play with the fellow a bit, since he and the woman were dating.

  Oddly enough he smiled, hugely.

  “That would be great. Bey might have to go to the Mind Taker’s big to do, which means that I have to as well. I’m his kid, which means that I can’t leave him to face the Demons alone. That leaves Kaitlyn out though…” He seemed a bit worried about that part, but Avery shook her head.

  “Not really. I’m nearly certain that she was mentioned as being invited all on her own. People like her, from what I hear?” That had come up, actually. Several times. “Hally York put that forward. Also, she says hello to you both.”

  She waved a bit, since the York woman had done so at the time, that got everyone there to smile.

  Micha hugged her, in fact.

  “Wonderful! Kaitlyn and I will help you with your costume? You can sew. I know that because Valerie keeps going on about it. By the way, what can we bribe you with to get you to come on board with us as a tailor, part time? She knows that it’s a long shot, being that you’re a line walker, but we’re desperate and willing to deal.”

  Those words left her at a loss as to how to answer, so she shrugged.

  “Um… I can do the work, if I get some time. Maybe… A sewing machine and a selection of proper cloth and thread? Some tools for that sort of thing. I’ll need to work from home, most of the time. After I do my school work… Which I totally didn’t get to last night. I need to go and change, then see about that… Tell Valerie that I’ll be by to discuss things with her in a few days, please?”

  Then she scurried from the store, heading home directly, using the node to travel to the rift, the shortcut, in the back yard of Edom and Eve’s house. Once inside she found Eve there again, with a nicely large box of food. It was Chinese, but given how starving she was, again, Avery just smiled at it.

  “Thanks! I have to hurry. There wasn’t as much time to get my assignments, my homework, done as I’d hoped for. I’ll need to do that before school, I guess.”

  That got a nod from Eve.

  “Sounds like a plan. Oh, not that it’s an issue really, but a Vampire named Luther lodged a complaint with the Council about you last night. Apparently you kicked his ass and told him that if he didn’t fix himself you’d never work with us again?”

  That got her to feel bad for a bit, since she had a lot of close Vampire friends and acquaintances.

  “He’s a Vampire? I didn’t recognize that in him. He seemed… Weak. For one of you. Slow and kind of heavy set. Odd as well… Like he didn't know the
social rules of standing in line. He’d attacked a patron for being in the same line he was in the store. Ahead of him. It… I don’t know what else I could have done about it, other than kill him.”

  Eve made a noise then and nodded.

  “New Vamp. Weak, no nifty fangs, and, in general, not half the dickheads the rest of us are to start with. Anyway, Gene from the Council wanted me to ask if killing him would serve instead of having our fate attached to his, directly. Apparently no one thinks that he’s going to be able to actually behave himself for all that long.”

  She wanted to freeze, since that kind of thing, ordering a death, wasn’t what she would normally have gone for. After a moment, she shook her head.

  “I can’t tell the Vampire Council what to do. It would be best if he didn’t push any of the line walkers however, in the future. Our clients, either. I was hoping that he’d just not be a problem once he knew that the rules were different here, but if that can’t work… Then I guess that would be a workable answer. Killing him.” She felt a bit bad about that, but Eve seemed happy to hear the words for some reason.

  “Good. I can report back with that. Give him one chance to fix it, but if not, we ice the guy. If he comes back for any line walkers, his life is forfeit and we all cut off the Vampires as far as line travel?”

  Avery smiled then and shook her head.

  “Not if they’re willing to help see to the problem. That was just something I said to try and put some pressure on him. If his people are being proactive about fixing the issue then we don’t have to let one person reflect on them all. We could hold to that for anyone, I guess?” She hoped that sounded right. After all, if she were the problem, Avery wouldn’t have wanted all Shifters, everywhere, to be punished for her lack of skill or grace.

  Eve waved at the food.

  “Nifty. I’ll call that in then. You eat and study at the same time. Here, you get the books, I’ll set up real plates of food. Go.”

  She was, by operating in a very concentrated state, able to get the work done in time to shower very quickly, then jog to the shortcuts in order to get to school. It was close, but she managed to beat the first bell by a whole minute and arrive at her English class on time.

  The rest of the day was a bit tedious, but, in a way was also wonderful. One of the boys from her last class of the day, Phillip, came and spoke to her near the end. It was a running day, being Friday. The last class day of the week.

  “Good run today. I… You’re pretty strong, I noticed. How? Is it something I can copy?” He seemed curious about it, rather than upset.

  So she nodded.

  “Dragon Shifter. So, hard to do, unless born that way. I thought everyone would know about that by now. I haven’t hidden it.”

  He nodded, then smiled. It was a lopsided thing.

  “Ah. Okay, I have heard that someone had come out for that, but didn’t know it was you. Just some new girl. There are a thousand people here, so it might have been someone else. For one thing, you seem so normal. You know, lacking visible scales or wings like you are at the moment? Perfect camouflage.”

  She laughed a bit then.

  “True. I hope that doesn’t bother you. That I’m so strong? It’s just part of my nature. I could hide it, but I don’t want to lie to anyone. I noticed that you tend to work in a trance state to increase your own powers that way. Have you tried any magic? I don’t know if it would work for you, but it might. At least if you learn the right kind. I don’t know much about that sort of thing. Really… You should probably talk to Eve Benson about that. I think she might know more. At Yoghurt World, at Westfield mall? She should be working there… now, actually.”

  The boy, who was lean, but not hugely muscled, smiled then.

  “I’ll do that. It’s kind of my major interest, collecting power… I hope everything’s been going well for you here? If not at any point, come and find me. We’ll make sure things go smoothly.” He sounded pretty certain of that, but didn’t say much more, just moving to shower before going home.

  She did the same, but also headed back to Edom’s in order to change again. Soon she’d need to make time to do her laundry, and press it so that it wouldn’t look disheveled or poor. Her clothing had been provided for her by several different people. One of them was Rebekah, who’d made several nice dresses for her. Some pretty skirts as well. She put one of those on for her work day, since, for the first time in a while, Avery wanted to feel attractive.

  Like a woman and not a soldier or someone acting like she was born to be in trousers.

  The pattern on it was simple, being made of small golden flowers. The cloth itself was silk, and required wearing hose underneath. The thing was, when she put it on the skirt was almost risqué, for her, hitting just above her knees. The top she wore with it was also gold in color, though didn’t have a metallic sheen to it. That was a sweater, since she rarely felt too warm, day to day.

  With that she wore dark shoes that had a high shine to them. They were her only nice pair, but fit well and shouldn’t allow her feet to be injured, as long as she didn’t have to jog miles in them.

  Before she went, she sucked on the magic amulet again, activating it with a single thought this time. Again, she instantly felt awake. Nothing more than that, but alert enough to recall that she needed makeup, if she were going to leave the house. Eve hadn’t told her that was a rule, but if she were standing next to Alede all night, she either had to go without and dress very far down, or do her best to seem like she was in the same league as the other women. Even if she really wasn’t.

  The day, being a Friday, was busier than the one before. There was no battle needed thankfully, so while she mainly ran, did transfers and moved things around all night, with food being brought to her every few hours for her to eat when she could. It was interesting enough, though after a while it was still basically just work. Not mindless, since she had to be totally aware of what she was doing the whole time, but when things slowed down, at nearly four in the morning, she was ready for a change or two.

  That meant she moved to the book side of things, and helped Felicia shift some merchandise around for a while. It was heavy lifting, for the Alede. Not for her, so that went smoothly. Until a rather drunk fellow came in, asking after sex.

  “Sorry. Ish late. I could use a blowjob… Yous do that here?” He wasn’t good looking, and didn't smell nice, but Felicia beamed at him, like he was a wondrous being.

  “I can do that for you. Unless you want Avery to do it?” That was a bit off really, and she nearly started to protest that he wouldn’t want her that way, being too ugly.

  Instead he just smiled, loopily.

  “That would be nice. You’re pretty… We could do that now…”

  Felicia seemed more than willing to let her go and take care of that, not that she knew how. Also, the idea of washing dishes kind of came to mind. Still, the man was accepting her, over Felicia, who was incredible to look at. It was probably the alcohol, but was still flattering.

  So she lied, a bit.

  “Oh… I can’t, right now. I have to stay available to watch the node traffic.” Nothing was coming in for a while, but it was better than her forcing the poor man to suffer at her not doing what he’d asked for correctly.

  Felicia went wide eyed suddenly, her face strained.

  “Oh! Oopse. That’s right. Avery is a line walker… See, I forgot that you weren’t one of us, you look so pretty. Not that I can’t stand aside, if you want? We should be all right, for a bit, if you both hurry?”

  It was odd, since Avery could tell that they both meant what they were saying. Felicia was actually trying to be very kind to her, by her own way of thinking. Basically offering her a free meal, one that she could have been eating herself. The man, well, he was clearly interested in them both. That was visible, inside his trousers.

  So Avery smiled, deciding not to take any offense. Also, not wanting to give any.

  “Not this time? I don’t really know how
to do that kind of thing, and you know, Dragon, so I wouldn’t get anything out of it. Thanks though. That’s really sweet of you both to offer.”

  She knew that the drunk fellow wasn’t trying to be sweet, but he still smiled and nodded, allowing Felicia to draw him off toward the side rooms. Those needed to be scrubbed down, she noticed, so she did the other one, listening to what was going on in the other room. It wasn’t hard to hear, given that the Alede woman wasn’t working to be quiet, just make her new friend very happy.

  He left after that, coming by to give Avery a hug first. Her behind was grabbed at the same time.

  “Next time? You sheem nice.”

  Avery just smiled at him.

  “Maybe? Nice meeting you. Have a good day.”

  That got the man to squint.

  “Ist day already? Fuck. I need to go home. Got work in a few hours.” Then he stumbled out of the place, reeling as he did it.

  Felicia smiled, fixing her blonde hair as she walked out.

  “Sorry there. I don’t want to hog all the fun while you work the entire time. I can’t do the line walking though. You can stay after Troy gets here? We could do some things together. It will be fun.”

  She felt awkward for a moment, then buried that part deep. The succubus was, after all, what she was. Her kind lived off of sexual energy. They needed it to survive, day to day. Acting like that was wrong would be a bit like making faces at a Vampire for drinking blood.

  “I’ve never done that kind of thing. I should… Well, right now, I should try to sleep, if I can. I’ve been up for a few days. I have a magic thing to keep me alert, but that only lasts so long, I guess? As for, you know, I don’t actually have a sex drive. I mentioned that. That seems really hard for Alede to understand. The first time we met Kaitlyn spent half an hour trying to talk me into having one, as if it were a choice. I can do stuff, but…”

  Rather than do what Kait had, and mildly berate her for her lack, Felicia just seemed thoughtful.