The only trouble was that, back then, Troy had figured his best friend as being a little bit off in the head. Possibly just a little too imaginative. As it turned out, Zack had been right and Troy was the delusional one. Not seeing reality correctly at all.
That was the way it had to be, back then, though. Otherwise Zack wouldn’t have trusted him. That part, being trusted by his friend, was really important. It always had been.
He led Avery inside. Naively she just followed him. As he closed the door, he sighed.
“You know, there was a time when I would have turned you being here into an excuse to get you into bed. If I could, I mean. Instead, I’ll probably need to run to the store. If you still feel up to cooking? I have a little food but…”
“I can write out a list.”
That meant he had to run to the store, literally. Ten minutes later he was back, with several sacks filled with food that he wasn’t going to eat. Avery turned that into several nice dishes to take away with them. That part was different, since she wasn’t obligated to ride with him to the mages’ house like that.
“Isn’t it a school night?”
“There were no snow days this year, so school got out early. I’m not graduating this year, even though I took the senior classes. Really, I don’t have everything I need to do that. I’m not planning to go back. Zack offered to get me a diploma, in case I want to go to college. My school record was just too different. I’d need to spend two more years in human school to catch up, even though I did well in my classes.” She looked away, carrying several warm pots in her bare hands.
Really, it was as if she figured that he was going to be upset with her. That wasn’t happening. After all, she hadn’t really needed to go to high school in the first place. She’d gone first, being out as a shifter to the public but that had been the point. Her education was different but real enough. She’d been trained first to be a mercenary, by her people. Then she had a mentor, who was working with her on other things.
“Neat. Grab up that diploma. No one checks on things like that in the real world but having one will make you feel better, I bet. Remember, you can always come stay here if you want. Not that Eve and Edom will kick you out for not being in school.”
She smiled then, seeming like a happy person, over all.
“I know. They mentioned that. I should have my own home, soon. It’s… I don’t know what to do. That’s funny, isn’t it? I’ve mentioned it to half a dozen people and all of them had said that I’m fine, where I am. I do the shows. I take up the slack on line walking, with Zack at the bookstore. I have money. Gems. Even a boyfriend. It… None of it is really me. Is that too insane sounding?”
He tilted his head, then actually thought about it for a bit, before speaking. After all, what she was saying sounded oddly familiar. From the inside of his own head. So, rather than just tell her to buckle down and do what everyone else wanted her to do, he mulled it all over. For long enough that they were driving before he spoke again.
“Those are good jobs. You should stick with the shows, until they’re done. That… It isn’t just about your coworkers or the money. You need to learn to do things even if they aren’t fun. Not that you don’t know it but there’s a big difference in doing them when you can’t leave and have no choice and when you can go and do anything in the world you want. Several worlds. As for the line walking… That does help people and pay well but if it’s not making you happy, then you can do other things. In the end… Well, work isn’t the part of life that makes most people happy.” He smiled then, feeling almost nothing at all. “Then, most people aren’t happy at all.”
The dragon shifter looked over at him for a long time.
“I know. Growing up… I was in a cult, basically. The Gray. You know about that?”
“Sure.” They’d spoken of it even but he’d found out more from other people.
On the surface, they were shifter supremacists. If you scratched a bit deeper, they were a controlling and abusive group that had enslaved all of their members. Even the leaders were held to strict rules that barely made sense, even to them. Avery had been with them until she was twelve or so. The single thing they hated more than demons were dragons. Avery turned into one of those, so they’d tried to kill her. It hadn’t worked very well.
“I was raised to be a wife and mother. There was no thought given to anything else. After… you know. After that, I was in battle camp for three years. All that time, I felt like I was just ruined for a good man. I couldn’t be a wife or mother, being tainted like I was. Then I learned to walk the lines, which gave me value but…”
He waited, driving carefully. Crashing wouldn’t help the conversation at all.
Finally, she went on.
“The thing is, I’m not a real person. I’ve never, ever, had a real life. I mean, television shows? I didn’t even know what that meant when I first took the job. I’d barely even seen that kind of thing before I started acting. How am I supposed to be… Real?”
“Well, first things first. You are real. You had a weird life but it was a real one. That doesn’t mean that you’ll understand everyone all the time, clearly. Trust me though, I grew up being a regular guy. It isn’t some magical state. If I were you… Well, I’d take some time to do what you feel is right for you. Whatever that is. Worse comes to worse, the shows can survive without you. Zack will be fine working the node business alone. He has Kaitlyn, after all. Then again, you can do either, or both and just have fun for a while. Take some vacations. Get a regular job if you want. If anything, the problem is that you have too many choices.”
He grinned. It was a bit wicked seeming, if he was doing it right.
“I know. We’ll find some nice guy and get you married. You have Phillip Hart, right?”
She nodded, her face fixing in a smile.
“That isn’t going to last much longer. He’s very nice, and good looking now but the truth is, we’re not right for each other. He loves sex, and I don’t even have a sex drive. I don’t mind sharing him with the Alede and even Calley Hale but that isn’t a good place to form a relationship. He has power enough to not need me. Even he’s been starting to realize that. I’ve known for over a year. When he first learned to walk the lines. It just… It sounds bad but I didn’t care enough to make him find someone else.”
“That does sound pretty bad. It would be better to pull the band aid off fast. Just don’t become a police officer. It’s a lot more boring that you might think. I can’t remember, who suggested that to me in the first place? Oh, right… You.”
Avery actually laughed then.
“Okay. In my own defense, I’d meant that you should work with Bey and Eve, doing that kind of thing. Not that you should be a human officer of the law. Still, much like with me and being a shifter at school, now that you’ve gone, others can see your kind as being more like they are. That’s the important part of things.”
He nodded, not knowing if it was really true or not.
“Well, we both get time. That’s not a tiny part of life. If it takes ten years to do this, well, I have hundreds, maybe thousands more. So do you. Neither of us needs to make a decision about what we’re doing in the next few days or anything.”
There was a small nod then.
“I know. Still. I need to do it. Break up with Phillip. On the good side, I shouldn’t have to flee from the city in order to survive.” She looked at him sidelong then. “Not that Barbara seems to wish you dead at all. If anything…”
He knew that one, so just nodded.
“Yeah. The problem there isn’t my death. Or hers. If I were around her for too long… I don’t think we could stay apart. I really miss her. It’s hard.”
So much so, that he wasn’t totally certain it was worth staying away from her. Not now.
Maybe it never had been.
Chapter six
Troy had figured that the two women, Leslie and Nevi Hampton would be at home, which was true. He’d also figured th
at they’d be alone. If not that, then they would have been at something approaching a wake. That wasn’t the mood. It wasn’t even a New Orleans style party for the dead. No, when they pulled up, the whole thing had more of a feeling of an armed camp.
No one pulled a gun on them at least, though four people popped their heads out from behind the curtains. There was no fence but where one might have been was a shimmering light. That was blue and white. It was faint enough that you had to be looking for it to see it. When they got out of the car, his little blue and white beater, which kind of matched the theme of the day.
Whatever the light did, which after a moment of clearing his mind, he realized he knew, the thing let them pass. What it was set for was just a warning. Anyone coming with bad intentions would make the whole thing glow like it was the Fourth of July. Sparks, sparklers and spangles. The whole shebang. The only issue with it was that it was maybe thirty feet from the front door. If he’d rushed it with bad thoughts in mind and horrors in his heart, he would have been inside, killing most of the people before it started to work.
It just danced off of Avery. A dragon.
Thank god they were carrying food, instead of lethal weapons.
Then, it wasn’t meant to keep them out. Not even dangerous people. Or anyone at all. It just warned the people inside if the wrong folks came calling. So they could get ready to fight in time for it to be worth doing. At first that didn't make sense. Then, as he and the girl next to him got to the porch, he understood. The issue here wasn’t that the people were stupid or weak. They just weren’t fighters. These were good people, so they knew the kinds of spells that right-thinking mages used most often.
If you needed help with a garden, or keeping bugs out of your house, they were ready to do their part. Even taking down compulsion had been something that Leslie was just learning that day. Like Troy himself. Nevi was a healer, by vocation or occupation.
They had a simple ward up, not because they just needed to be warned when a fight was about to happen, so they could kick ass. No, it was all they knew how to do as far as defenses went. That made almost no sense to him. If he were the one giving mage lessons, there would be something a bit harder to get through than that, at the very least. A shield of some kind. Maybe automated defenses. He would have been snarkier about that part, except he had no clue how to do those things, either.
The door opened before they got to it, and a rather nervous Leslie poked her head out.
“Officer Lopez? Um…” She froze then, looking at Avery. “Ms. Spires?”
That got some attention from inside. A murmur, which wasn’t about calling Avery the wrong thing. It was about the fuzz having shown up.
He raised his voice.
“This is Avery. Rome. Dragon shifter and line walker. We brought food. We didn’t know the mourning traditions. We’re very sorry about your loss.” Losses but he didn't say it that way. Some people refused to mourn for the evil. Even if they were family.
Leslie actually reached out and touched his arm.
“Thank you. This is very sweet. The community has gathered. Some of us. The Children… I don’t know that they’re coming for me but… I should send the others away. They won’t go. No one else should die for my failings.”
She moved back, letting them inside. The six people in the room, half of whom were women, stared for a bit. Troy tightened his face in a sympathetic expression.
“This has been hard on all of you. We wanted you to know that you aren’t alone.”
After all, Carlos had killed himself in order to save all of them. Avery had been out of the state but without the kid doing that, making it possible for Troy to get a rift open enough to stuff a lot of energy into the void, he wouldn’t have made it. Not standing his ground like he had been. All of these folks would be dead, if not for that. An explosion that size would have probably created a nuclear winter, as well. He hadn’t thought about that before, but it had been large enough to take out a big part of a state.
Marks, the man that had taught him how to take down mage compulsion, and from the feeling of it had done the warding outside, faced him. The man was a bit plump but was armed. In his right hand, he had a wire wrapped crystal array that looked like it might be able to double as a club, if a small one. On his waist he had a bowie knife. There was a shotgun leaning against the wall behind him. That glowed along the barrel in a way that had to mean something dangerous. One of the others, a woman with piercings, multi-colored hair and a familiar face, had several fire arms. One in a holster on her hip, with a rifle on the table in front of her.
None of her things had an energy charge to them.
“Jainy. Good. Not to put you folks down but your magical defenses here are a little weak. First of all, we need to hide everyone from detection spells. Then scatter. The Children of Baphomet won’t be coming for all of you, right? Just Leslie and Nevi?”
Glancing at the room, there were some nods. A few of them seemed to be saying that it seemed like a good idea that they not be in charge of the fighting, as well. Jainy just sat there. As if he couldn’t see her slowly trying to hide the silver in her aura. It was a good trick but kind of obvious, when it was being done in front of him like it was.
The man in charge, Marks, made a tight face then.
“I don’t know how to do that. Hide like that. It’s a rare skill. Really, only criminals would be able to.”
Stopping for a second, he started to nod. After all, he actually had tried that one before, if only on himself. The Technician was coming to test him, eventually. Supposedly he had a week to learn how to protect his mind from her. That seemed unlikely, though he had a few clues for it, dropped by various people. Greater demons… It probably hadn’t happened on accident.
Nothing that kind did ever really was. Even Zack, as hard as it was to keep in mind. He still seemed like his innocent friend, who couldn’t bring himself to lie and saw the world in funny ways. It was different than that, of course. It always had been.
“I think I can do it? I worked it out the other day, when it was used on me. Let me see if I can put that on someone else. Who’s going to volunteer first? Come my pretties, step up and be a Guinea pig. You know you want to…” It occurred to him, once the words were out, that he was being a prick. At least some of these people had lost a friend and here he was making jokes.
The first volunteer turned out to be a woman who was just standing there, empty handed, with no power reserve of note that he could see. She was overweight, if only a little, and seemed scared enough that she smelled delicious to him. Her hair was a boring brown color, and even her clothing was wrong for the scene. Everything about her screamed that she just didn’t belong.
“How about you? If it works, Marks, you can test that part? Scrying or something? If it works, I need you to get out of here. Then we do everyone else and hide you all away, while I look for our… Friends.
The older looking man, clearly the community leader, swallowed hard.
“That’s a better plan than I had. We don’t know who’s coming but if they’re even half of what that group from last week was, we can’t stop them. I won’t leave people to die.” The two ideas contradicted each other nicely.
The trick he had worked out, was not done quickly. It was in fact, kind of embarrassing. At least they had food to eat while they all waited. Leaving one by one, until only Jainy, Leslie, Nevi and Marks were left. He did Jainy first but instead of leaving, she picked up her rifle and sat down again.
Looking at him like he might tell her to go. Which wasn’t a bad plan. He could tell it wasn’t going to work though.
So, he did Marks next, and waved at him.
“Show her how to do what you did with the shotgun, if it will work on her weapons. Nevi, then Leslie. I’ll stay unhidden, in case they want to make the mistake of finding me. That will work.”
He was getting a bit faster but the truth was he needed to have more power available while he was working. As it was, Troy was
slightly stressing his links already. Even being slow and careful while doing the work. When he was finally done, Leslie touched his arm again.
“Thank you. We… Should run now, I guess. I hate to abandon the shop. It’s all the area has for our kind of people. Mages. It’s still hard to say that in front of strangers.”
Avery let her head come up then.
“I’ll get you to someplace safe. Then I can bring you back when you need. I…” She shrugged a bit. “Show me what to do, and I can keep the store opened at least part of the time. I have a few other jobs but if this doesn’t take too long, I can spare a week or so.” She normally sounded shy and retiring. Now she sounded like it just made sense.
So, he nodded.
“That should work. I need some supplies myself, so having that open would be great. You two can stay at my place, in Washington. I need to get the keys out, and you’ll need some food but it was fine the last I looked. Avery, do you know where that is?” She didn't have any reason to, he realized.
“I do not. Would Eve know?”
He smiled then, taken off guard. After all, the woman had lived there for years.
“She would. Good call. She might even have keys to it. Let me call and see? One bit here.”
The number he needed was for Yoghurt World, which he had memorized. That one anyway. He might get Barb, of course, given that she worked there too but the vampire also had keys to his place. So that would still work.
It was Eve who answered the phone though, her voice light and spritely sounding. Not like a hardened killer at all.
“Yoghurt World, the best frozen treats around, how may I help you this evening?”
“Hey, Eve! So, you still have keys to my place there?”
“Sure. I was planning to use it as my personal love shack, if I ever get a day off and a few friends to entertain me. Why?” She was clearly joking. Sure, she had a sex drive now but time off was nearly a fiction in her world.
Hell, In a Troy (Lopez Time Book 2) Page 8