Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) Read online

  “No huge thing. We can go and see the sights, and then head back when it’s night again? I know that we should go during the day, but that still sucks enough that I kind of want to avoid it. I guess we can do it though, if you want?”

  She wasn’t trying to push things, having just gotten her freedom, but seeing the nation’s capitol was better than not doing it. The Vampire in front of her gave a tiny bow, that wasn’t even mocking, she didn’t think.

  “This seems like a thing to do. We can go to the Smithsonian? I can tell you where they made mistakes. It is a most impressive museum.”

  That sounded pretty boring to her, but she nodded. After all, how often was she going to be there? It made sense to see what was there. Besides, just because she hadn’t been all that studious in life that didn’t mean she couldn’t change now, did it?

  Thinking about it for a moment, still just standing there, she spoke again, changing the subject without warning.

  “I should learn some other languages. I only speak English and a little Spanish.” It made sense to her, but Bey actually hopped a little and clapped his hands. Like it was Christmas morning and he was the child about to get all the presents.

  “What a perfect idea, Miss Benson! That way, when we must travel the world to end the lives of wrong doers, we can explain to them first why they will die. I have a good base of such, already, but it does come up in our kind of work. We can work on this? I don’t wish to push you to do too much, too soon.”

  Eve shrugged, after all, it was her idea.

  “What should we do first?” She was thinking French, but Bey wrinkled his eyes, he was smiling so hard.

  “Russian? We have some work to do there soon, if a few there do not alter their current plans. Failure to pay taxes or heed to the Council. That may not be allowed. Shall we begin?”

  It turned out that he spoke that language fluently, and seemed to have infinite patience. She got caught up in the banter, with him showing her objects and actions, and then giving her the names of them in that particular language. It was what they were doing when a rather sheepish looking politician came back into his outer office.

  He forced a smile though.

  “We have an interview? It’s just a radio program. I’m sorry that you came all this way for it, I…” The man took a deep breath and then bowed a little, toward Bey. “It’s the nature of the business. Half a year ago people would have been offering to donate blood in order to get an interview with a real Vampire that wasn’t me. Now… It’s nearly common. That they should see,” there was a chirp, which got Swerlin to look over just before the phone rang. He furrowed his brow a bit, but moved over to it. He made a face about doing it though. “Sorry, Jonas has today off. I have a duty to handle things.”

  He seemed ready to panic, which Eve didn’t get. Bey wasn’t going to kill that man for doing his sworn duty. Even if he thought it was really rude to ignore them like he was suddenly doing. It didn’t really bug Eve at all, since everyone had phones now. Not her, but that was because…

  Honestly it was mainly about how little money she had at the moment and how she’d assumed that there wouldn’t be any reason to have one for at least a year or two. A foaming at the mouth baby Vamp wasn’t going to be good company for anyone. So it hadn’t happened. There was no real reason not to get one now though. It would mean people could get hold of her, for instance, and vice versa. Maybe she could even stay in touch with her friends.

  They’d all come to visit her before she went off to that box, and here she hadn’t even thought about calling them. Well, at least not to do more than needle Keeley a bit. It was sad, but that probably had to do with the fact that they were all growing apart. There was no need for it though. It was just happening.

  Everyone did it, sooner or later, didn’t they? They ended up getting busy with work, and becoming undead, then the next thing you knew, poof, ten years had passed and no one had sent as much as a birthday card for years.

  Richard smiled as he held the phone to the side of his head.

  “What may I do for you today, sir?” He sounded pleasant, and like the voice on the other side of the line was a being of true importance. It kind of made her feel bad, considering how he’d been acting around her the whole time she’d been there. Now that she saw what he normally did, it was pretty clear that he’d been certain that she had been about to kill him the whole time.

  More, he seemed to think that she could actually get the job done, which was weird. Yes, she was wicked fast, and fought pretty well, but he was a Vampire that had hundreds of years of experience. Really, he should be able to argue his way out of it, if nothing else. He was a freaking politician. Like she was ready for that kind of skill to be applied against her? Maybe with raw violence…

  Which was probably his point.

  The man on the phone sounded dark and grumpy, which she got, since they were on the east coast now and that meant that it was still really early, anywhere the guy could be calling from.

  “Swerlin. This is Bill Cremo, from Homeland? We have an issue. It isn’t strictly a Vampire thing… I can’t fucking believe that’s real… Hostage situation in Indiana. The locals have asked for help. It seems like… Some kind of giant… I can’t believe this crap. A horned demon? About ten feet tall. Freaking the locals out.”

  She made a considering face, but didn’t say anything, even though the description was familiar. It was surprising, since the men on the ground probably shouldn’t have been able to hold together well enough to even ask anyone for help, regardless of which Lesser Demon it was. It sounded like Balthias, with all the fear being cast out, but that wasn’t assured. There were something like a thousand of the things in the world, if what she’d been told was correct.

  The thing there was that she couldn’t imagine a single reason why one of that sort would take hostages. Kill, if it suited their mood, or rape if it was Wednesday and they were bored, but just to hold people? Only to play with them? Then, they probably wouldn’t care if there were loads of police outside the door while they did their thing, whatever it was.

  She shrugged.

  “Ask what the Lesser Demon is doing? It should be acting strange. Eating a lot, killing people already, openly sodomizing the cops. Is there anything at all?” She spoke loudly enough that there was an inhalation from the line, but the man didn’t bother to ask if the phone was secured or not, just answering.

  “Um, demanding money? A lot of it. A million for each of the people he has with him. Sixteen, we think. We’re about to go in, but…”

  That didn’t make sense. Energy beings didn’t need money, did they? That meant… She looked at Bey, who was simply watching her closely. His face was blank. That could be about anything though, she knew. From wanting her to handle things to thinking she was making a mistake even commenting. One thing was for certain, she wasn’t jogging over to help out. A Vampire wasn’t a match for even a weak Lesser Demon. The things were, by definition, impossible to kill. The best you could do was trap one, or use magic to control it.

  “Which is probably the answer, isn’t it? Someone, or something, is probably controlling it. The… Really, the best thing that can be done is pulling back and letting the people die. If you aren’t going to pay up, there isn’t a lot that anyone can do about it. Maybe some Mages, but if this is…” She stopped then shrugged. Not knowing that some things existed wasn’t exactly going to help this guy, was it? “If this is being done by any of the Greater Demons, then it doesn’t matter. It won’t be about the money at all. Probably about the exposure if that’s the case. A Human Mage… Well, if they’re powerful enough to trap and control something like that, then they wouldn’t need the cash, would they? Not like that. They could just get the Lesser Demon to take it from a vault or two directly. So… This is a publicity stunt. That, or terrorism, using a weapon that almost no one on the planet could beat.”

  Swerlin cleared his throat, and then nodded.

  “Got that Bill? That’
s from Eve Benson, who’s probably one of the best people we can get on that kind of topic right now. I have to agree, based on what I know. The only other thing that this could be is an illusion. If that’s the case, then the end result is probably going to be about the same. Anyone that could pull that kind of thing off wouldn’t need cash from it. They could just have a bank deliver it to them.” He didn’t go into the ins and outs of it, but it was probably right.

  Eve had never really considered the Mages to be all that dangerous before, and didn’t know if they could do things like control Lesser Demons, but if they could, then they were considerably more bad ass than she’d ever considered.

  She looked at Bey, and shook her head.

  “We need to stay out of this. We can’t do anything about it. Those poor people…” She looked at the far wall, then at Rich. “Well, this is your thing, Swerlin. You can try calling up Keeley or Zack and seeing if either of them will help out with it? Maybe they can get data anyway?”

  The man actually turned white, but tightened his lips and forced a breath through his nose. It wasn’t a pleasant looking face. In fact there was a glare in her direction, as if she were wronging him personally, by making such a suggestion.

  “I need the exact location, then. This… Bill, I have some possible contacts. I can’t tell you if they’ll help or not. Don’t expect much. These… They aren’t people. If we can get them to do anything… What do you have to offer them?”

  “What? We’re the Federal Government, tell them that if they don’t play ball we’ll extradite them to Cuba and have them force fed through their ass.”

  There was a grin from Bey then, and an audible grinding of teeth from Richard. Eve just waited. She was kind of good at that now, she thought. All that practice had really helped that way. Plus, this was nearly interesting, compared to… Almost the entire last six months. It even beat running cross country. That at least had let her see the sights, which was better than being in a tiny box.

  Rich actually let his voice go hard then.

  “No… Listen, if these beings decide to help, or even to talk with us, do not make a threat like that ever again. They won’t just kill you, they can do things like make this entire part of the world unlivable, or just sneak into your room at night, every night, and do what you threatened, to you. They can’t be stopped, and never, ever offer to make a deal or bargain with one. Just put out an offer to repay them for their time and effort. They may still tell us to take a flying leap, but… I’ll ask about it, if you want.”

  Bill, thinking he was a brilliant man, suggested that he be the one to contact the Greater Demons. Because…

  Eve smiled.

  “Sure? I’m nearly certain that neither of them will really enslave him as a matter of course. Zack doesn’t do that yet, and Keeley, well if she wanted the man, he’d already be hers, wouldn’t he? This way we can minimize our personal involvement, too.” She smiled and moved in to touch Rich on his suit jacketed arm. There was a chill from inside it, but the dead did that. Almost sucking the heat from things. “It’s up to you. Really, we should probably duck out of the whole thing, but giving some numbers over, with warnings, is about as far away as we can get and still be doing anything to help those people.”

  The real truth was, if whoever was doing it, either the Lesser Demon, or whoever was controlling him, wanted to kill people, then nothing they did would probably work. The people in the room all seemed to get that one. The man on the phone kind of did too, Eve thought. He took the numbers and names though and got off the line, leaving them alone again.

  As soon as it was done, she glanced over at Bey.

  “Am I being too much of a busy body? Or not enough of one? I could make those calls, but… We can’t really win this one. As it is, I’m shocked that anyone can even see what’s happening in front of them. Whoever is doing all this has really pulled out the stops to give people enough data to run with, haven’t they?” She was deflecting a bit, not wanting to know how much she was really screwing up, but her mentor didn’t correct her with a blow to the head, so it might be that she wasn’t doing that poorly.

  His voice was nearly sweet, at least for what he’d used around Swerlin, who he clearly didn’t like at all. She kept noticing that fact, which meant it had to be there pretty strongly.

  “You did as well as one might, in a case like this. We of the Council cannot truly ignore a call for help from our fellows in the Human government. There is also very little we can do in this kind of situation. I fear that your assessment is correct, young Eve. This is the work of a being that wished to strike terror into the hearts of men and women. Those innocents that it is our duty to protect.”

  There was nothing about how to do that though, she noticed. Probably because it was just too new of an idea. Supernatural terrorism on a national scale? No one was ready for that, were they?

  Chapter eleven

  The answer to the question of people being ready for that kind of terrorism or not wasn’t just no, but fuck no. As in, people were saying that on television. It was a bit annoying to Bey, since it meant that there were camera crews in Richard’s office within the hour, since no one else was going to know about that kind of thing. The very funny thing for her was that Eve ended up talking to a radio show host at noon, and it wasn’t even the man that had suggested he’d be willing, grudgingly no doubt, to chat with her to make Rich happy.

  It wasn’t even done on purpose, she’d just answered the phone, since it was Jonas’ day off, and the man didn’t really have other staff for some reason.

  “Representative Swerlin’s office. This is Eve Benson, how may I help you today?”

  There was a pause, and then a deep voice that wasn’t at all familiar came at her. “Eve Benson? The girl in the box?”

  “I got out a whole day ago, and came to visit my new buddy first thing. I’m super cool that way. Richard is on the other phone, may I take a message for you?”

  The voice sucked in air audibly, even for a Human listening to it, and then went on, as if he thought that entrapping her into doing his show was actually going to work out for him.

  “You’re on the air live right now, with the Jeff Smears Program. I don’t suppose you’d like to comment on this latest act of terror? We were just discussing how things like this never happened until the appearance of supernatural creatures a few months ago. Like you, I believe? You’re a Vampire are you not?” The guy sounded slimy when he said it. Not like a used car salesman or someone just trying to get anal on the first date either. Like it was a real thing with him. A part of his life that was engrained all the way down into the depths of his being.

  That, or she was being judgmental because he was an asshole, putting her on the spot like that.

  So she forced herself to snort, and then cleared her throat primly.

  “WTF?” She said each letter clearly, then chuckled a bit as Rich looked over at her from inside his office, his face worried. Then he probably had the idea that she was some kind of non-politically savvy newb that was about to start screaming profanities over the device in her hand. It was tempting, but she held the worst of it in. For the moment.

  Bey just watched her, clearly not getting the idea of what she was spelling out.

  “You can’t think that’s true, can you? This kind of thing has always gone on. Not every time something happens, or even close to it, but now we can actually step in and stop some innocent guy from being sent to prison for killing his family if he didn’t do it. The world isn’t more dangerous now, it’s a lot less so. Now, from what I’ve seen, the Indiana situation is someone controlling a Lesser Demon… That, well there are different kinds, but basically they’re beings created from the thoughts and fears of different groups of people.”

  She narrowed her eyes, about to get pissed off, since Richard was glaring at her. Like telling people that was some kind of forbidden magic? It was their fault, dreaming things like that up, so they could learn not to do shit like that, coul
dn’t they? At least once it was pointed out that it was real.

  “In this case it looks like some kind of Christian thing. So if you want to have power over this one, get all your buddies to pray for the thing to stop doing this and let the people go. Or, you know, really, pray to God to get it to cut it out. If enough people do it…” She didn’t know if it would work at all. The fact was though, that no one had stepped in to stop it and the people inside the dry cleaners where the whole thing was taking place were dying. One by one, slowly, and in pain.

  Praying as a group might do nothing, but it really couldn’t hurt.

  The problem there was that the Jeff Smears program was one of the few liberal ones, which meant atheist, at least on the surface. That got Eve to grimace. Like she was supposed to know that? The man had people calling in, to tell her off for being as stupid as that. There was no proof of God, after all. That might be the case, but after the third call she growled into the handset.

  “Like there’s no proof of Vampires? We didn’t just appear, you know. We’ve been around longer than Human civilization. Shifters, Mages, the other things that might be out there… You have no proof of them either. That isn’t the point. The idea of a Lesser Demon is that they’re created by people, to express their fears, and sometimes hopes and dreams. So if people do enough to stop this kind of thing, it could work.”

  The conversation went on until the break, and the man, who’d been practically yelling at her about how evil she was for suggesting that Christianity might be real, suddenly became very nice.

  “Hey, Eve. Great segment. Can you hold on past the top of the hour? It isn’t everyday that I get to have a chat with a dead girl. What do you say?”

  Swerlin actually came out and shook his head no, then spoke, his voice firm.

  “The idea isn’t a horrible one, the prayers you suggested, but we have better ways to get that done. Tell him that we need to see to that?” The politician tightened his mouth and looked away. “Please, I mean. I don’t have any right to order a Council functionary around.”