Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) Page 16

  Again he seemed scared. She waved it away.

  “That’s a point. Sorry Jeff. Some other time? I’ll leave a number and we can set something up? I was just told I have to go and play nice with someone else. You know, one that might actually get something done?” She was playing and it came out well enough she thought. The man didn’t hang up in anger, just asking if she had a number he could call. She didn’t really, so gave him the one for the Yoghurt World. She kind of worked there, after all.

  After she hung up she looked at Bey.

  “I really need to get a cell phone. I wonder if Edom will let me have one? It would make getting in touch with me a lot easier.”

  The man tilted his head a bit, but didn’t comment, just turning to look at Richard.

  “Perhaps you should see to the next portion of this? Eve has given you the knowledge you need to fix this, but it would be superior for all our needs if it was you who looked to be the hero now. My helper and I should be off to our other errands for the day.” It was very firm sounding. Almost angry, for all that it was pretty clear that Bey really thought that having enough people pray might actually work in this case. There was a very fleeting glance at her, and a concerned look, but she was fine with him doing that.

  After all, he was the one that wanted fame and all that, being the first openly Vampire House of Representatives member. She didn’t know if there had been others, but a lot of Vampires kind of thought that Lincoln had been one of them. Killed by the Council for not toeing the line, too. That there had been an actor handy to blame things on was just happenstance.

  Bey didn’t wait for pleasantries to be done, simply leaving with a nod, sneering a bit at Swerlin on the way out. He didn’t speak until they walked out into the gloomy and raining overcast day. The world there looked very gray, and formed of concrete. There were plants and trees, but they felt wrong. Planned, and like they weren’t all that healthy. They were getting some water though, so that was a good thing.

  They walked, slowly, for a time, the world hitting them with a smattering of damp drops from above. It was nearing one in the afternoon, she thought. She didn’t know that though, since she didn’t have a clock, and if she did it would have been three hours off. As they moved along she began to wonder if she’d really screwed something up. No beating came, or even yelling, but there was also no soft conversation about what to do next.

  Finally, on the steps of a big building, Bey stopped, touched her arm and grinned at her.

  “I do not wish to constantly remove your glory or adulation. It is simply, in this case, that Mr. Swerlin is a better foil for us than you would be. That, perhaps sounds unkind, but you should use him as a shield, so that you may strike from behind him if the need ever comes. Does this make any sense to you? I think I might not be explaining it properly.”

  Eve tilted her head, but nodded.

  “Yeah. I can see it. Not that I’m worried anyway. I don’t particularly want to be famous. Just strong enough to protect myself. I…” She stopped walking and turned to him, feeling like she wanted to give him a hug, but knowing that it would be out of place and weak for her to seek comfort like that. Not that she wasn’t allowed to have some petting now and then like everyone else, but right now wasn’t the time for it. “My goals are different than a lot of people think. I don’t want political power directly. I don’t care if I’m the richest person in the world, or even the toughest. I want to be safe. I know that there’s no way to be safe from everything, but if I can narrow the list of things that can hurt me easily, that’s close enough.” She felt miserable for a moment, since it was the worst part of her. She knew that. It was the part that had killed her mother. The men that had hurt her.

  Oh, they’d deserved it. Everyone that had ever heard her story including the priest in confession, had agreed with that. Sure, he’d made her pray for weeks over that, but the guy had gotten the idea. He’d even said that it didn’t mean she was beyond redemption.

  That didn’t mean she was happy to be that being though. It was just who, and what, she was.

  Bey shrugged, as if her confession didn’t matter at all.

  “All beings have something that drives them. All the ones of note at least. Normally it is madness. The thought that they, and only they, are fit to rule. The desire to hold command over all others. The idea that they are of divine blood that makes only them fit to guide others. Simply wishing for security, and learning to protect oneself, that is no great wrong. Knowing that is what drives you will allow you power over it as well.” He started walking again, and gestured at the place in front of them. “The Smithsonian, as promised. I think you will find it educational?”

  When they got inside he discussed everything with her, the whole time. In Russian. It made the words hard to follow, but she kept up with him, after a fashion. She had to keep asking him to repeat himself, of course. It was…

  Well, the displays were fascinating. She’d always thought of museums as being boring places where fun went to die. Often drab and showing how horrible the past had been. This one was interesting and varied though, with enough color around to keep things interesting. There were even displays of gems and stones, which she liked.

  “I should learn this.” She pointed at the things, having said the words, rather haltingly, in the language they were practicing. Bey spoke for a long time, but seemed happy at the idea.

  Like her having a hobby might just be a good thing.

  On the way out he stopped at a little store filled with crap, which wasn’t all that tiny, and got her a book. About geology. She smiled at it, and thanked him, since it was a present. She also knew that she was going to memorize the freaking thing, even if it was as dry as dust. She’d been thinking more along the lines of gemology when she’d pointed things out, but if her friend was going to get her a present, she’d darned well make it worth his having done it.

  Then they headed back to Swerlin’s office. The man was still there, doing damage control, but a television had been set up, and several other men and women were in the office with him. About fifteen. Enough so that no one particularly noticed Bey, but did get that a girl in a t-shirt and jeans carrying an oversized book was out of place.

  That, or incredibly hot, since an older man, who was chubby and a bit broad faced, like a bulldog, turned and spoke to her directly.

  “Why, hello! Are you here on one of the tours?” He was polite enough about it, so she didn’t snarl at him for being wrong. The fact was, she realized, that she didn’t have a reason for being there, to tell the truth. The press hadn’t been all that interested in her, had they? That was why she’d come, and once that had been taken away there hadn’t been a lot of point to the trip at all.

  She smiled and glanced at Bey, then listened to what everyone else was saying. They were, it seemed, trying to set up a rather massive prayer. A national one. Still, which was slow, since people were still in that shop dying the whole time.

  That wasn’t her job though, was it?

  She lied, her face going blank.

  “Consultants. Eve Benson and Bey Transmorguire.” Shifting the large and brightly colored book around, she held out her right hand to shake. The man stopped, after he touched her, his eyes going wide at how cold she was. Then, like a pro, managed to do the same thing with Bey.

  “In that case, we should get you set up. Do you need phones, or something to eat? Or… Drink? I don’t know what’s available that way. I hear that Rep Swerlin keeps some animal blood around here.” He started to act a bit intimidated, so she nodded, as if that was the polite thing to suggest.

  Honestly, it was pretty close.

  “Thanks. That won’t be needed right now. We were here earlier. Really, our part is done, but we need to wait for dark to get out of town. I think?” She didn’t know at all, to be honest. Bey smiled at her however and seemed to warm to the larger man, even if he did seem a bit smarmy. Then, was she really the type to think that being a political blood sucker was that b
ig of a sin?

  She decided not to.

  Besides, once Jim introduced himself it turned out that he was the Chief of Staff for a Senator, who’d been sent over to make sure their side of the aisle wasn’t left out if this thing actually worked. That was a good plan, actually.

  Eve winked at him, which was a bit forced, and probably promised a hand job in a coat closet later. She thought she might be able to manage it, now. Without even ripping anything off or drinking him dry. The man didn’t respond at all though. It either meant he was subtle, gay, or really focused on his job. All good things, as far as she was concerned.

  The man got them set up at a small space on Jonas’s desk, and then started to introduce them to people. That was helpful, since the moment that they did that, or shortly after, she got what was going on.

  The assholes had the airtime they needed, they were just arguing over who was going to be front and center, because that would be the person to get all the credit later, if it worked.

  It was a sudden thing, what happened next. She didn’t even feel angry really, though her teeth snapped down audibly, and she was willing to bet her eyes had gone red. She moved fast, grabbing the big solid oak desk that she was next to, and pushing on it so fast it became airborne. It slammed into the outer wall of the room, with a shattering thud.

  Bey, for his part, had simply reached out, casually, and made sure her new book didn’t go with it. She jerked her head his way and gave an almost spastic nod.

  Then she screamed.

  “I cannot believe that you mother fuckers are in here debating who’s going to get their dick stroked over this while people are dying. You have one minute to pick someone and get your asses in gear, or I swear there’s going to be a totally new massacre to talk about on the news later!” It was the wrong thing to say, and she knew it, so she walked over, pushing into pain on a level that would probably make it seem like she teleported to the room at large, and ended up with Rich’s throat in her hand. Then she forced him against a wall, too, making a hole that had his vague shape to it.

  “One minute! Do you understand Swerlin? This political crap ends now. I don’t know if this will do anything, but delaying is… I will kill you, if you don’t get it going, right now. Even if it means dying myself for it. Do you get that?”

  No one ran from the room at her fit, which probably meant they were all a bit too smug and self-certain for their own good. Even Bey didn’t, though Eve noticed that he’d set the book down and had moved over to the door, ready to make sure the people couldn’t escape if they did need to be murdered for being dumb-fucks.

  She dropped the man she had pinned, since short of making his head pop like a zit, she didn’t really think she could win a fight with him. Not one that didn’t end in death. He’d be at least as strong as she was, if not more. Slower, it seemed, but if they started spinning around the room and bouncing off walls, most of the non-Vampire people were going to end up dead.

  “Do it now, or I’ll pick who does the talking. You have fifty seconds.” She was hurrying things she thought, and the first half minute was spent with people just looking at her like she was insane. Finally,

  Richard, who was rubbing at his neck, looked around.

  “Kendra? Why don’t you and Lawrence take this one? I’m sure that the rest of us will support that?” He looked around anxiously, but several of the people had problems with that. At least most of them wanted to go themselves, instead of passing the buck.

  She slowly walked over to the big wooden desk, pulled a piece off the top, and started to shred it, pulling long splinters of the inch thick wood away. It wasn’t that loud, and most people in the room seemed to miss what she was doing.

  “Time.” She held the handful of long skinny spikes, and then looked at Swerlin. The moron. The politician. “So, Kendra and Lawrence? Good enough. Get on that. Now. We have five minutes. If things aren’t set by then, I…” She was willing to kill some people, and really planned to, but she closed her eyes, and forced herself to pull back from it. The feeling might not have been anger really, but it was close enough. With effort, as people started to make calls around her, and actually got things going, she pulled her fangs back and stood very still for a while.

  Then, only ten minutes later, the assholes actually got going, doing what they should have nearly three hours before. Worse, before the twenty minutes of prayer were up, the Lesser Demon, who was on a screen in the room across the hallway, froze in place, then vanished, allowing the injured people to scurry out.

  For some reason that didn’t make her happy, even as the people in the room cheered.

  “Fuck you. Every one. You took hours longer than was needed, trying to grab the credit. Each of you should be tortured like the people you failed to help were. Except Jim. The rest of you though…” She wanted to storm out, but it was still too light to run cross country, or wherever they were going. Besides, Bey actually got a call, since word had passed that they were there.

  That meant she just had to stand there, glaring at a room full of people. She kind of wanted to get started on that torture, but the phones were suddenly all in use, and people were sneaking off to make sure they, or their boss, got what portion of the credit they could. No one offered to have her locked up though, even if she was going to have to pay for the mess she’d made.

  She looked around, her mind trying to find a way so that she wasn’t going to be out thousands of dollars. That, she knew, wasn’t all that likely. The damage was done, and even if she’d had a good reason for it in her own mind at the time, she could have done it some other way. Not getting involved at all came to mind. It wasn’t like she cared about those people being killed and hurt, was it? Or, well, she did, but it was an abstract thing. She hadn’t even seen a glimpse of them until after the Lesser Demon was gone.

  That hadn’t been one she recognized either, thank goodness. There had been pictures taken of the whole thing through the window of the place. It wasn’t like the energy being could be killed, which the police had picked up on pretty quickly, for some reason. Probably because someone on their staff or in their power structure wasn’t strictly Human themselves.

  Bey spoke into the receiver gently for a while, clearly not letting her know who was on the other side. That meant it was probably Gene, since that little bastard was a pain in the ass all the time. Regardless, she was left alone by everyone in the room, until Jim the Congressional Chief of Staff came over. Not that he was actually that, but what did she know about political titles like that?

  “Ah. Well, you certainly got people moving! Now we can just stand back and watch this whole thing turn into the story about how they all heroically wrestled you to the ground as you tried to stop them from getting the word out. Prayer. Who would have thought?’

  She shrugged, her face a bit blank. That meant she needed to get a smile going, fast. It was taking more work than it should have, but she got one going, thankfully.

  “It won’t work for everything. Lesser Demons, at least that kind, are the product of Christian’s minds. By changing them, even a little, they were able to affect the being. You can pray at a Vampire all day long and it won’t make them anything other than slightly annoyed. Shifters and Mages are the same. Greater Demons… Yeah. If you meet one of them your best odds are to be really polite, while not agreeing to anything.”

  That got Jim to look at her, his broad face looking a bit strange for a moment.

  “There are things greater than that monster?” He pointed at the screen which was in the doorway of the room across the hall. There was no picture of a Lesser Demon on it, but she got the concept, being smart that way.

  “Oh yeah. So much so that… Well, on the good side, you’ll probably never meet one. They’re all rare. A few thousand Lesser Demons of note, and about five hundred Greater ones. In the main you want to avoid both kinds of things. Unlike Vampires. We’re just hard on the furniture.” She didn’t point at the desk she’d ruined or look at the wall
. Or Richard Swerlin, who was probably going to try and kill her now.

  She noticed a hint of movement, and Bey, speaking to her in Russian, said something that she thought might be him suggesting they leave. She nodded, then shook Jim’s hand. The man was polite about it, and professional, giving her a card with numbers on it, in case she needed to get in touch with him. She turned then, and walked over to Swerlin, who was one the phone again. Touching his arm lightly, she smiled, not meaning it.

  “Tell Jonas that I’ll be sending funds for a replacement desk, as soon as I can?”

  That got the man to nod, but he didn’t say much, since he had to talk to the news lady on the phone. Then, without waiting to explain her poor behavior, she managed to get out of there, alive and everything. Well, dead and everything. That part hadn’t changed, thankfully.

  She didn’t let Bey take her to task first, pointing out her own errors. They were many, and clear. When she finished her summary, the tiny man smiled at her, and patted her back. There was no lingering touch, but it was nice anyway.

  “It might have been done a bit more smoothly, I agree. You also saved lives and even aided those in that room to remember their job. In all, I think we can forgive your lapse this one time. Strive to improve, however. When possible we need to cultivate the idea of Vampires as ancient beings of logic and reason. The ones you seek to be your friend, not those you should fear.” Then he looked away, hiding a smile that seemed a lot more lively, for some reason. “Not that Richard Swerlin didn’t deserve to be taken to task. We’ve had no end of trouble with him of late. For years now his attachment to The Mistress of Souls has protected him from our wrath. His fellows dared not take him to task too strongly. I think perhaps, he realizes that you, out of us all, need not fear her as greatly. It would be good if he feared someone again.”

  Eve kind of did get that. Though it wasn’t really why Bey probably thought. Oh, Keeley was her friend, but her lack of fear there was for different reasons. If she were killed, well, the fact was that Keels would have to argue the point and reason for it with others of her kind. Even if they didn’t like the Greater Demon, it could be trouble.