Scales (Avery Rome Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  “I have no clue. No one lynched me the last time I went. Then I was wearing more than this, so…”

  Some of the men and women hadn’t been, meaning it probably wasn’t a huge problem. The hunger was annoying, but could be ignored, if she wanted. By sleeping through it.

  She did go back to Brand Village first, Chi helping her through the thing again, this time grabbing at her leg. It actually was helpful, she realized. If not strictly needed. It gave her something to help keep her momentum flowing.

  Zack, Clyde and Terry the Swan were all in the back, talking on the phone to different places.

  Chi smiled and waved, then spoke, his voice soft, so that no one talking would be interrupted.

  “Food run. Who needs to eat?”

  Every single person in the room looked at the Bat and waved or pointed at themselves, including the Swan lady.

  Avery nodded. That just made sense. Shifters ate when they could and there was no reason to think Greater Demons would need less. She could try to pick up a lot, if it was possible. Hopefully it was, or she was going to need to find a cow to kill soon.

  Walking to the shifting and glowing node point, she grabbed Chi by the hand, then pulled him through the void. Ending up in a different reality.

  On a totally different world.

  Chapter twelve

  Apparently the time on Mars, in that different reality, just did not track with Avery’s stomach at all. That was a bit annoying of them, but she couldn’t really complain that everyone else seemed to be asleep when she and Chi were walking down the yellow and green sparkling hallway. Almost totally alone. She didn’t have to get all the way to the Vampire embassy to see that here, in this place, it closed at times.

  Wincing she was about to suggest they just go back to their world and rob a grocery store, when Eve walked out of a side hall and waved at them. Except that, of course, the glowing energy being simply wasn’t her Vampire friend. To her it was very easy to see the difference, though. This version was almost totally see through, for instance.

  Chi seemed to think the situation was different than that.

  At least he didn’t seem shocked, waving, a big smile on his face.

  “Hello! We were just coming to see if we could find some food.”

  Blinking, Avery nodded. It made sense that Chi wouldn’t know Eve personally after all. The world was a big enough place for that kind of thing to happen. So to him it was just that a pretty woman had waved at them. A thing that was great for him, since he was a Bat Shifter. As far as Avery knew, that might even be the truth of the matter. Eva had been hard working in the Congo, but also friendly to the men and women who had come through the line for food.

  The woman, who clearly wasn’t one, walked over quickly, a large and happy expression on her face.

  “Hello! You must be from someplace else? You speak English instead of standard. Or are you just practicing? I need to do that more, myself.” There was an innocent air to the energy creature in front of them. A very polite thing that seemed almost like it was real, even if the woman wasn’t a Human.

  Not that having emotions was the strict purview of one kind of being. It occurred to Avery that she was being a bit bigoted already, just because the new person wasn’t exactly like she was. Letting that go, she smiled.

  “We’re from a different reality? We’ve met? I’m Avery Rome. Um… A line walker? This is Chi…” She nearly froze then, but the Bat picked up the line warmly.

  “Chi Hale. Bat Shifter. That means I turn into a Bat at times. Avery here is a Dragon.”

  Instead of acting scared or worried about the strange words, the energy lady nodded. She already knew that last part, even if she hadn’t seen it herself. Eva also knew that Avery was a line walker, though she didn’t let on to anything in particular at the moment. Probably due to the fact that she didn’t know who Chi was on sight. If so that was interesting and implied something that Avery only barely understood. Then, the world they were in had spies, so it probably payed to do things like that.

  “That’s interesting! My sister Samantha and I can change shape as well. So far we’ve only done different Human shapes. I think I could learn to do animals though. It just never occurred to me before, to be honest. Well! Something to work on. You need food? I can get you some. How much do you need?”

  Moving forward, Chi touched the woman on the arm. That, interestingly, got his hand taken, as the Eve looking lady lead them onward, toward a wall, not too far away. There were glowing bits and squiggles on it the surface, which were pretty enough to look at.

  The taste of energy off of the thing was very similar to what the woman was made of, but ran into the stone of the wall itself. There was a cut out piece, which looked to have been carved smoothly from the rock itself. There were more carvings all over the place, in the stone around them. It was just scroll work, but was pretty for all of that. Like something out of an old book about ancient civilizations.

  Avery thought for a bit, working out what they’d likely really need. It was a lot, even if only for five people. She felt a bit awkward asking for it, but did it, since her job of the moment was to make certain that everyone had enough calories to keep going for the night.

  “We need about three-day’s worth of food, for five people. Shifters eat a lot so it will really be about one meal’s worth. I don’t know about Greater Demons, but…” She was interrupted by Chi nodding.

  “More than we do, if you can believe that. They always eat. It’s one of the ways you can tell who they are. Zack will need about what all the rest of us combined do, at a guess. That’s a lot of food. Especially since we can’t pay for it.”

  The other woman just tilted her head briefly.

  “Food is free here. Magic too, though the shop for that is closed right now. Let me… We’re going to need some boxes. I can get that… Hmmm…” She nodded suddenly, as if something had been solved for her that the others didn’t know about.

  Which it seemed was a real thing. The woman started right into making a wide variety of dishes, all with containers made of ceramic or glass, instead of paper or plastic. Everything was settled on the floor, stacked up perfectly. Right until the same woman who was already helping them ran up carrying an armload of large wicker baskets. Four of them, each with a lid that would seal on the top.

  Those were the part that got Avery’s attention, though Chi stopped breathing.

  “All right. I need to move here full time. How many of you are there?”

  Avery tilted her head, looking at the energy flows between and around the women. It was still kind of plain to her what was going on there. The women both smiled.

  “There’s one of them, Chi. In two places, but… This is the same person. A friend of mine. She was on the Congo mission.” It was hard to explain, but both of them nodded instantly.

  “Exactly correct, Avery! I wasn’t certain that was the same you. Most have a problem getting that on their own. They all think we’re twins. I’m Eva. All of us are. Well, half of the people around here are my sister Samantha. She’s like me, but different. We should find her, but the little…” She paused for a bit, then said something in a strange language that reminded Avery of several different languages all at once.

  Putting it together she made a face.

  “Your sister is a behind kisser?” It wasn’t exactly what had been said, but close enough that Eva nodded, her face beaming. Only the one that was loading the dishes into the baskets on the floor however.

  “That’s pretty much what I was trying to say. Not that she isn’t kind. There are just so many of us that we’re kind of together all the time. Plus, she’s older than I am. By nearly three weeks. It doesn’t make much of a difference, but she brings it up constantly. ‘Oh, I’ll fly the space ship, since I’m older’ or ‘I should be the one to go, being more mature than you are.’ I mean, it’s true, but still, annoying.”

  Chi grinned then, but didn’t move to touch anyone again. Mainly because both
of the girls were busily getting them a large amount of food to take away with them. It wasn’t just buckets of ice cream either. There were at least twenty different styles of food being set up for them, with an eye toward both taste and caloric density. When the whole thing was done, three of the sturdy baskets were put on top of each other. The wicker held, which hadn’t been assured before that point.

  Avery picked up the bottom one, moving easily enough that Eva smiled. Chi moved to get the remining one himself.

  “Thanks! We should have you over to our place soon. I’d take you home with me now, but it seems like a war might be starting. Humans coming for anyone different? It’s been a fear ever since we told them about us. Still, if that blows over?”

  Avery got ready for the poor guy to be rejected, since he was kind of hitting on alien women that were made of energy. Interestingly Eva, both of them, who were standing there wearing similar black outfits, even if one of them had a green gem looking tattoo on her left cheek, nodded.

  “That would be fun! Let me know when? I’ve been to a few other worlds… Including yours…” She tilted her head, or at least the one on the right did. The other held still for a moment.

  Then after a bit she smiled.

  “Oh! I’m already there. You know Eve, right? We met all together that one time. I work part time at Zack’s book shop? She took me back to your world after the Congo adventure. Sam works there, too. Wonderful, then! We can hang out? Do something fun?” The look she gave Chi was rather different then.

  In that it was plain to see that she understood what the man was saying to her about getting together. Not that he’d been subtle, but it wasn’t an invitation to go for coffee. If Avery was able to see that, then so might anyone.

  Oddly enough she felt slightly jealous, thinking about it. Not that she wanted Chi for herself in particular, as nice as he was. It was just that he’d been flirting with her earlier. Now it seemed like he somehow belonged to her, even if he’d let her know first thing that Bats didn’t fly that way. She stopped internally, then shrugged lightly, not really being concerned about that kind of thing. It would be silly of her to worry about what he did, given that she wasn’t putting herself in the running to be his wife or anything.

  Instead she smiled, peeking out from behind the baskets by turning her body. Not that she couldn’t tell what was in front of her anyway. The large hall trapped low frequency sound perfectly, after all. Still, if you wanted to make friends you had to actually speak to them and not be a mean person toward them.

  “Thanks Eva! I’ll look you up, if I can get a chance? We should…” Honestly she didn’t know how to have friends like that. As a child she’d been with The Gray, which had been about religion and learning to be a good wife. Not being close to other women. The only time that came up was when they worked together. At the battle camp, she’d had people be nice to her, but there was always an assignment to get done. Things to learn and do, so going to movies or making small talk wasn’t a skill that she’d ever really picked up.

  The energy girl made it easy for her then, clapping a few times. Both of them did it, but not as one. There was a bit of a time delay, as if the one on the left was copying the other.

  “Let’s do that? We can go places and meet new people? That’s always fun.”

  They walked then, heading down the long sparkling hall toward the multicolored red hut. That was the way the nodes in the world they were in looked, for some reason. Eva opened the door for them, pressing her hand against a small star on the outside. Only one of them, since the other had pulled off about halfway to the box.

  It took a bit of skill to get inside holding the wicker baskets, since they had a good bit of heft to them. It wasn’t the lifting or moving around part that was difficult, just the stopping, which had to be done carefully, since spilling the ceramic filled containers would be a problem for her. Some of the things would slop over if jostled too much.

  There were no hugs being passed around, but Chi looked at Eva longingly enough that the girl chuckled at him, then touched his upper arm for a bit, gazing into his eyes the whole time. As she did it, the woman started to nod.

  “You should meet Prince Alphonse some time, Chi. I think you and he would have a lot in common.” There was a dramatic pause, then a playful wink. “Being that you’re both the same person, I think. It’s difficult to see, since he’s over eight feet tall, but it’s there.”

  The door of the little hut was closed on her suddenly, which Avery took as a sign that she needed to use the thing to get back to her real world. Eva had done it, which could also have been about having a sense of comedic timing. She’d dropped the info bomb, saying that Chi had a double in a different world, then boom, the conversation was over.

  That kind of worked.

  Really well, actually. Not that it made her laugh, but it was interesting and hit the right notes to keep her attention. Chi seemed fine when she maneuvered to rub against his shoulder with her own. Normally she took a person’s hand or arm, but the trick wasn’t about physical contact. It was wrapping the other person up in herself as the void tried to consume them. She had to do the food at the same time, but that wasn’t very difficult to manage for her. Chi wasn’t either. Two of him would be, but one Bat wasn’t all that hard at all.

  Meaning they stepped out into the back of Brand Village in New Mexico, with Zack moving into the room before anyone could even speak. As if he’d known they were going to be coming exactly when they were. Sniffing the air, the Greater Demon seemed suddenly pleased.

  “Hmm. That smells good. You have some to share?”

  It took her a moment to understand that he was trying to be polite and not tell a joke about how much he needed to eat.

  “We do! We didn’t get plates or silver. Nothing to drink either.” Avery was about to feel bad when Chi plopped his heavy, decently large basket down on the flat table that had been cleared of clothing while they were gone.

  Then the Bat winked at her.

  “I’ll go and steal some from the food court. Give me a few minutes?” He jogged out, moving faster than most would have managed at all.

  Avery got to settle her own three trunk sized baskets then. Before she could step back, the others there walked in, following the noise and possibly their noses, still talking on their phones. Clyde smiled at her happily, but didn’t speak for a moment. Listening to whoever he was on with.

  Then he did it with a considering look.

  “Got that. I’ll send her by later? We have food first. She’s been up long enough that we need to feed her or she’ll go down. You might want to arrange something that way, if you want work from her today.”

  That she was being talked about was kind of obvious. The man was staring at her, his eyes lit with interest. It wasn’t in her personally either, Avery didn’t think. No, this man was excited by the fact that things were happening at all. It made sense, but she could have done without the whole possible war thing coming.

  It could have been something other than that however, since after he said goodbye, the dark skinned Dragon man took a deep breath.

  “Calley Hale. She wants to know if you can go to Sparks later today. Something about her having sort of promised your efforts in moving some of the Ambassadors there back to their home areas? You can say no, but rumor has it she’s making a run for President, so making her look bad right now might be a poor political move.” There was a darkness behind his eyes as he spoke however, which Avery simply didn’t get.

  Unpacking the food, seeming happy about it all, Zack seemed to know more and was willing to share fairly plainly.

  “Calley should have gotten in touch with you directly, instead of going through others to put pressure on you. She also should have kept her lips closed about what you were willing to do until she knew for certain. It’s probably just the stress of the day, instead of her thinking you have to do what she wants like that.” There was a pause, then a happy exclamation. “Swedish meatballs? Yum
. The good kind, too.”

  That was, apparently, the end of the conversation about Calley Hale. What Avery was supposed to do about the whole thing she wasn’t clear about. Probably go and get the Ambassadors back to their own places, if they wanted. It would be nice if she could have been asked, but that others might not think that was important really made innate sense to her. The lowest were, ultimately, there to serve the highest. It was simply the natural order of the world.

  So people being polite to her most of the time meant a lot. Enough that she couldn’t complain about a bit of extra effort every now and then.

  When Chi came back, he had plates, trays, silver forks, spoons and knives as well as a tray filled with drinks. Those were the fizzy kind, but Avery could handle that, if she had to. Normally water was her favorite. It might be boring, but it felt like what an adult should be having with a meal. Not orange flavored sugar water that tried to bite your throat.

  “Thank you, Chi. It was very nice of you to think of all this.” She tried for polite, since the man tended to take everything as an excuse to flirt. Not that he was the one in the wrong, but leading him on would be. Her mother had told her that part often enough for it to sink in.

  Men, even the good ones of The Gray, or other Shifters, were slaves to their hormones. It was up to the women given that fact to make sure they weren’t telling them that they were going to get what they wanted when they weren’t. Some females did things that way, but it was lying. Using a part of someone’s nature to hurt or control them.

  Which she didn’t want to do with Chi. They clearly weren’t right for each other, but that didn’t mean he was bad or anything. No, that was her part in the whole thing. Technically that would have let her do bad things, she supposed. Excusing them. If you were born bad, there was no reason to take the blame for it. That just didn’t feel correct to her. Not when she stopped to think about it.

  So, instead of being an awful person, she tried to find a chair, dished up a plate of food, since everyone was doing that for themselves, then ate until almost everything was gone. The last bits were eaten by Zack, who winked at her as he filled his plate for the seventh time.