Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) Page 2

  She’d caused more than a few car accidents just walking around when she was a regular girl, so it wouldn’t be fair to add in Vampire powers to the mix now. The poor guys wouldn’t stand a chance. She smiled about that line of thought, since she’d met a lot of women that made her feel like she should walk around with a bag over her head all the time. Some of them worked at the mall, too, so it wasn’t like she was never going to see them again. It was healthy, remembering that, since getting a big head at this point in her life would probably have her ending up dead. Baby Vamps that got full of themselves didn’t last long, and she wasn’t even a year old yet. Not from the time of her death, which was when Vampires started counting.

  Instead of going back to Edom’s place, where she actually lived, she stopped in at Troy’s house. She had some clothing there, and he would be home, she thought. She wasn’t totally certain what day of the week it was, but being that he worked nights, as the manager of a dance club, he’d be back. She knocked on the door though, since it was just possible that he’d have company over. The guy was nice enough looking, clean, and managed to hold steady employment in a down economy, so it was a thing that could happen. They used to date, or at least have sex occasionally, but Eve wasn’t going to let that ruin their friendship now. She’d still do him after all, and her lack of real interest in that kind of thing, physically being involved with someone, just meant she didn’t feel all that much like being jealous if he found someone else.

  He probably would, if he didn’t become a Vampire first himself.

  Troy was the slave of a Greater Demon though, even if he didn’t know it. If he died to become a Vamp, then that would be taken away, which might not be allowed.

  It was a point that she hadn’t considered before really. What if she killed Maggie and brought her back? Death broke the link, going either way. She thought that was the case, anyway. Killing Fram might be the more certain way of getting it done, since it would probably be easier to get him back, but she was nearly certain that killing him and surviving it would be beyond her. It probably always would be. Not that she wouldn’t be willing to die to get that done, if she had to.

  Still, it was a possible option, wasn’t it?

  How could she kill something that was undead, and bring it back?

  Blinking, she understood that one without even having to concentrate on it. It was one of her personal fears after all. If someone killed all of your energy sources, and prevented you from getting another, you’d eventually starve, even if no damage was done. If a Vampire got close enough to death, and was given some energy, just in time…

  Well, she didn’t know if she could do that one. Even if it were possible, it would be pretty hard to just trap Maggie Sims, and kill all her sources like that. Maybe if she kept blinding her? When they’d fought, Eve had, rather desperately, managed to pluck out the other woman’s left eye, which had gotten her to run off. The burning had stopped first, if she remembered correctly. Did that mean anything, like she needed to see in order to use her powers, or was it that even for a Vampire, your eye suddenly jumping out of your head was freaking insane and scary?

  If she needed her eyes to aim her flame power, or use it at all, then that might work.

  Then she’d just have to keep the other woman blind until she passed away.

  It sounded easy, and it just couldn’t be at all.

  On the other hand, running up on her from behind, really fast, and vaporizing her head might work too. That would end the link, and be a lot less work. It was probably more certain too. If she got fancy with things, and failed, she’d die this next time. There was simply no way she was going to set up a fair fight with either of the beings she wanted dead. Doing that would end up with her losing, if not being enslaved herself.

  Fram had told her, several times, that he wasn’t The Mistress of Souls, able to take anyone, even on the fly, and that was probably true. Keeley was kind of a bad ass when it came to taking over people against their will, from the sound of it. She’d never heard anyone claim that Fram was special that way. Or in any way, particularly. That just meant he kept his skills hidden though, most likely. Each of the Greater Demons seemed to be particularly good at one thing or another. True, some of those things would be music, or art, or even medicine, but not having heard what he was good at just meant he could surprise her. Any Greater Demon could do that though. Probably at any time they chose.

  Thinking otherwise was suicide.

  So, if she focused on Mags, took the source of her power away while keeping her own, made it too hard to fight her, then made sure she broke the link… That might work. It could also be her just masturbating into the air, not wanting to have to kill a woman that she’d kind of liked. They might not be best buddies or anything, now, but they’d gotten along pretty well. It was enough to cause Eve to do stupid things, she knew. Trying to protect a friend that could be ordered to kill her at any moment.

  The door opened slowly, and Troy’s head came into view. It was kind of clear that he was naked behind the door, and from the scent he was hiding an erection. Given that she couldn’t hear anyone else in the place, she got what that meant.

  That he was too lazy to toss on a robe when he came to the door.

  “Eve! My God! I was told you wouldn’t be around… For years. Come in…” He covered the nudity, and the muted porn on his wide screen television, with a hug, and blushed a bit when she glanced over at it.

  “Um… This is pretty much exactly what it looks like. In my defense, notice that the two ladies on the screen are easily of legal age and neither is wearing a mascot costume. Not this time. I reserve the option to get off to girls in squirrel costumes though. Otherwise, why have all this freedom?”

  She shrugged and glanced over at it. The two women were all right looking, but not so hot as to be worth getting bothered over.

  “Can I use your shower? Then we can do something, if you want? I don’t have long, but…”

  He actually winced, and then, rather sadly, shook his head.

  “I can’t. You work at the club.” He looked down, and seemed almost ready to cry then. It had to be a nightmare for him, she knew. Being presented with a hot and willing woman, already at full mast, and have to say no.

  Eve shrugged again, not feeling up to doing a lot more than that. It was funny, but regrowing limbs had left her feeling a bit tired. Drained, even though that wasn’t really true.

  “I haven’t in half a year now. I’m pretty sure that you’re my boyfriend anyway, which would get us around those rules. You don’t have to do anything with me, but I can hold up my end if you want to try? Call it practice for me. I’ve only been with one Human guy since the change. I didn’t bite him though, which was pretty good, considering I had him in my mouth.”

  “You didn’t try me first? I’m a little hurt.” The funny thing was, even under the small smile he gave her, it seemed like he really was.

  “Yeah, well, I wasn’t going to try it for the first time with some guy I actually liked. More than a bit, I mean. Ben is okay. He works with Zack at his store now? I don’t know if you’ve met?” It was possible, since the two were best friends.

  Troy nodded though, confirming that idea.

  “Right. The one that’s dating Kaitlyn now? Not that it would be a problem for you to have sex with him too. Succubi are good that way. Um… You know, I guess? I want to be good, but your wicked logic, and good looks, have worn me down, and it’s been months since I managed to have the time to do anything with another person. I probably shouldn’t say that, but you know, I need to warn you about the two minutes this is going to take. A fantastic two minutes, but I don’t want to oversell the whole thing.”

  She made a face that should have been considering, and nodded.

  “Fine I’ll get a shower, you get some lube? Meet me here in twenty minutes?” It would mean taking two showers, since going into work with Vampires meant they would be able to smell what you’d just been doing, but she had tim
e still, as long as they didn’t dawdle.

  That was a funny word, dawdle. She nearly remarked on it, but decided that going and getting clean finally, removing the stink of her own charred carbon from herself, was more important than being silly. Even for Troy. That was one of the fun things about him though. Outside of work, you could goof and play with him, and he’d understand it. He’d even join in on the fun. Not everyone did.

  She scrubbed fast and hard, going over her entire being six times before she didn’t smell like anything but soap. Then she brushed her teeth like she hated them, to get rid of the blood breath thing, and dried well, padding out to the living room with nothing on.

  The events that took place then were fun too, after a fashion. She didn’t get anything out of it, on a physical level, but she remembered what felt good, and focused everything she had on her friend. He really did manage to be quick, the first time, but they did it twice, and the second one took longer. That was all for him though, since she didn’t get any more out of that time than the first.

  Then after muttering a few sweet sounding words about how great he was, which objectively was true, she hurried back to the shower, and came out clothed about three minutes later. Using her speed hurt, but it was also really useful at times.

  “There! Thanks for that. The showers, and the sex. Next time you can take me out first, and we can spend some actual time on it.” That wasn’t very likely, given her schedule, but she moved in and kissed him anyway, which got a surprisingly ardent one back.

  “That sounds fun. If Edom doesn’t fire me for sleeping with you this time. I really shouldn’t have.”

  Eve nodded, but then grinned at him.

  “Well, if I start working at the club again, then we’ll have to do things differently, I suppose, but I really think it’s all right for now. Notice for instance that you have no holes in your body that you didn’t start with? That’s a pretty big deal, and if I drank from you it might have been a problem, but this kind of shows I can be trusted not to kill people too easily. Not that it’s been a huge fear for a while now. I’ll talk to Ed about it first though, in case he gets mad. It would be my fault anyway, not yours. He tends not to blame the Humans for things like that.” Thinking about it now, it seemed a bit more sketchy, and like she’d broken an actual rule too. Eve should have cleared it with him first, she knew.

  Hopefully there wouldn’t be too bad of a beating, or a Troy firing, over it.

  “Well, off I go, to another wonderful day in the salt mines!” She hugged him again, and tried to seem cheery. There was no use worrying him, after all. Things would either fall apart, or they wouldn’t.

  Either way, she had things to do.

  Chapter two

  It was clear, when she got back to the mall, that no one had really thought she was even half as good as she turned out to be. Eve nearly snorted at it, since it should have just been clear to everyone that knew she existed. Lenore stared at her, as if Eve hadn’t had legs and mostly finished hands the day before. Okay, her hair was really short now, having been singed off, but she’d made a point to get her eyebrows and lashes back before going outside. She could speed up the hair now that the rest was done, but Troy hadn’t seemed to mind too much. Then, if that boy wasn’t at least a bit bi, she’d eat… Well, really she wouldn’t, since anything would probably make her kind of sick and she didn’t want to risk it right now, but she’d been in bed with him before, while a Greater Demon that looked like a guy had sucked him off.

  A girl Greater Demon, true, and she’d looked like him at the time, but still, that was kind of gay. Not that she had a problem with it, but it did mean there had been no whining about her haircut that morning.

  So far. She was probably a bit butch looking, having gotten into a pair of black jeans, and a black button up blouse, along with a belt. She didn’t tuck them in though, and had worn a jacket, in case anyone saw her on the street. It was just the old work one from the club, which was shiny, blue and had the logo and name on the back. Her shoes were great though, being purple and pink. Made for running, or walking long distances, but that was a thing she did, so it had been part of her plan while shopping for them.

  In short, she looked like a lesbian that was actually reporting for her job as a yogurt girl.

  “Is David still here? I said he should stay up all day.”

  Lenore shook her head, her eyes flashing a bit. It was anger, but not too much of it.

  “I think he might have dodged out on you. Nicole is here though, in the back? I’d noticed you were gone, but you look… Good. Healed and strong. That… We were planning to move you in a few days. I suppose I should cancel the nurses we hired?”

  Eve couldn’t tell if she were kidding or not, so tried to seem pleased enough about the idea. It might be real, after all, but if so, then people had been ignoring her harder than she would have expected. That wasn’t a big deal. People got busy, and did their own things, didn’t they? She hadn’t really needed help, anyway.

  “That’s probably not going to be needed. Um, not to be that Vampire, but does anyone know where Maggie Sims has gotten to? Or Fram?”

  There was a tightening of the other woman’s face. It wasn’t a nice thing to see, since Lenore was actually pretty, in a slightly large nosed way. Her hair was a blonde mixed with red, and if you squinted and got really close to her, there was the barest hint of freckles left on her pale white face. She had makeup on, so they wouldn’t be visible that day, but contorting her face like she was, seeming upset about something, didn’t make her look her best.

  Eve waited, and the woman, upset or not, finally took a deep breath and spoke softly.

  “We know where they both are. They haven’t even left the area. It’s clearly a trap, meant for the Council, we think. What do you intend to do?” That was the source of the angst, if it could be called that.

  Eve made herself grin, and tilt her head from side to side, since she got the idea now. Maggie was in town, and she was supposed to be half insane with rage. That meant going, probably right at that moment, to kill the bitch that had hurt her. It might also be possible that she’d run away, in fear.

  She wasn’t going to do either of those things.

  “I was thinking we should restructure here, and get a glass topped cold case, and put in hard serve and some waffle cones. We can learn to make those, even for the soft serve stuff. I’m kind of surprised you don’t have one of those in the back. A machine for that?” She watched carefully, but Lenore took that one in stride, like it was a fairly normal thing to suggest.

  “It’s at home, actually. In storage. I keep meaning to add those, the cones, but it will take learning how, as well as getting some new techniques and recipes prepared. Hard serve would cost money to put in, but the waffle cones could be done in a few days time, if you want to help with it?”

  She nodded, and glanced toward the back.

  “I don’t hear pacing from back there Nikki! Don’t sit down, it makes it too hard to get back up. You know, since we kind of drove Mark out of hiding… Or I did, we should go and make sure that the candle shop is taken care of. I love Lisa, but she can’t keep a store straight to save her life.” Those words got some movement from the sofa, and a tired looking punk rock chick to come out. Her style was about twenty years out of date, with a barbell piercing through her nose and bright red hair. She had on a cool looking leather jacket though, and waved a bit when she got to the front space.

  “Hey. I’d heard you’d gone all stumpy on us. This is a better look for you. Symmetrical. It works for almost everyone.”

  It was clear, just from looking at her that the other woman hadn’t been keeping up with her training. Rather than snap at her over it, which wouldn’t help anything, Eve made a point of waving back. The sun might be starting to hurt, reminding her of the flames that had nearly killed her, but she wasn’t sleepy. Not even a tiny bit. That meant she didn’t have a good excuse to be a bitch.

  “Could you go and make
sure that everyone is taken care of for me? I need to make some phone calls. I got all lazy for a bit there, and let things go. It’s shameful. I feel so small now.” She followed it up with a happy expression, and to her surprise, Nicole, who was higher in the local power structure than she was by several steps, and who didn’t need to take orders from her, just started walking that way.

  Calling back over her shoulder, she glanced at Lenore. Her little sister, from back when they’d both been alive, centuries before. They both looked young still. More youthful than Eve, though it was actually kind of close. She’d been almost exactly twenty-one when she’d died. These two had been younger than that by a few years each.

  Nicole sounded polite though, when she spoke. That wasn’t always the case where her sister was involved, and tended to be worse, going the other way.

  “Sure. I should get things for everyone here? The workers at the other end, and all that?”

  The ambassador, Lenore, didn’t snarl for once, just glancing at Eve.

  “I’ll have work to do here, but if you two don’t mind picking items up as needed, or running errands, I think that might be most welcome. Things have been in disarray for the last weeks.”

  Nodding Eve tried to smile at Nikki.

  “Good plan. I’ll be along in a few minutes? This probably won’t take too much time.” Bad ideas seldom did, after all.

  The other two got going, Lenore into the back, leaving Eve behind the counter, and Nik to scramble and stumble out of the place. It seemed nearly like she was drunk, and probably would for the first two days or so, again. After a couple weeks that would be gone totally, even for an older Vampire that wasn’t used to it. It wasn’t certain, but she kind of thought that it would actually be easier for them if they started out staying up all day, and never learned to hide from the pain of the sun.