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

  The others were just standing there, wide eyed.

  Finally, Rebekah moved in, and gave her a hug.

  “Eve? Are you all right?”

  She didn’t breathe, but nodded, not wanting to bother the woman. She held up her right hand, then sank to the ground, her legs not holding her any longer.

  The large Manthori man, who wasn’t nearly as hot as the lead singer was, moved in and picked her up, like a baby.

  “Let’s get her inside. I… Did this really just happen?” He was looking around, but for what Eve didn’t know. It was Scotty who banged on the door though, calling out.

  “Let us back in? We need to get inside now.”

  That took forever, or so it seemed, and Eve still refused to take in a breath. Things unfolded slowly though, and eventually, what felt like half an hour later, she was set up on a sofa in a back room. There were other people in the space, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Not at first.

  After a while though, she relaxed, and the pain receded. Taking a breath, she cleared her throat, ready to cover her mouth if a scream was about to escape. Nothing came however. That was a good thing, meaning she was just about recovered. She sat up, and took a good look around the space she was in.

  “Well, that was less than fun. So, we have this one taken care of. I’m… going to take a break before heading back.” She faked a smile, and looked up at her buddy, Bekah. Then she glared a bit. “Say, do you know why the heck Jonas has been calling up the news networks and trying to make my life hell? Did I do something to him I don’t remember? I mean… I didn’t make out with him at a Christmas party, and then forget him, did I?” She knew that one was the case, since she wouldn’t have forgotten making out with Rebekah’s guy like that.

  The woman winced, but shook her head slowly.

  “I think he’s just trying to survive, right now. The more people that know about us, the less likely anyone will be to kill him and Swerlin in order to hush it all up. It’s too late for that now, but I think that was why.” She looked away, and then back, seeming scared suddenly. “You aren’t going to kill them, are you? Jonas and Richard?”

  The way it was said, along with the look from the others, was a bit strange. Eve was about to answer that she didn’t really know, but the door opened up, and a man, a regular Human who wasn’t very tall, stood there, flanked by several white people that had headphones on. Like really weak and soft looking body guards.

  Eve stood up, and heaved a large sigh. Then she pointed at the people, gesturing at their heads.

  “That reminds me, I have to get back in time for work tonight. Well, life ain’t easy for people that work for a living.” Eve waved at the man in the center. “Hey, Jimmy. Is there a phone I can use around here? I told my boss I’d call in when I got here.” She didn’t want to forget, and end up being beaten for it.

  The man she’d addressed, who was famous, if not someone she’d ever really watched, passed her a cell phone without even blinking or asking who the hell she was.

  She smiled at the man, since he was clearly cooler than she’d thought.

  “It’s long distance. I can keep it short?”

  There was a nod, so she did it, dialing from memory.

  The phone picked up on the second ring. Lenore sounded like she always did.

  “Yoghurt World, how may I help you?”

  “Hey, it’s me, Eve. I’m done here and will be heading back now. I don’t know how long it will be. It felt like it took forever to get here.”

  There was a slow inhalation, then a dry chuckle.

  “Well, you left about five minutes ago, will you be back in the same time frame? It nearly isn’t worth the call.”

  Eve agreed, but she’d had orders, hadn’t she?

  “Be right back. I need to give this phone back, and chat with some people, I think. Call it ten minutes?”

  “All right. I… will see you then.”

  Eve ended the call with only a little fumbling and passed the device back to the famous talk show host. He was working on a Saturday, which was a little odd, but after about ten seconds it became clear what was going on. It was a special, since, of course, Vampires were real. So why the heck wouldn’t someone want to capitalize on that one? She got it, and listened as the man laid out the plan.

  “We’ll go out, and instead of a monologue like normal, we’ll go right into the conversation portion of things. We have another Vampire that’s going on. He, uh, calls himself Vlad? Then we have Richard Swerlin in another location. You’ll come on, and play Remembrance, then come over to talk about the Vampire experience. We’ll cover things like how it’s different being a Vampire, compared to a Human, what kind of things you have planned now that this is a thing, being known like you are now, and a few other things. You know, are you all going to kill us, do you want to drink my blood, rude things like that.” He tried to rush through the last part, as if anyone would miss it at all.

  Eve looked at the others and shrugged. She would have left already, but Jimmy and his people were standing in front of the door, blocking it with their frail, but rather tasty seeming, bodies.

  “You should tell the truth on all of those. That you do want to drink a bit of his blood, to get a link to him, and how you need to keep anyone fed off of alive. Then shill your Human blood product, so that people know that we actually pay people for that now, instead of stealing from them. Also… cover my stuff?” She looked at Jimmy and his buddies, and grinned. “I’m running the new animal blood product line. It’s a Council project, so that everyone can have the food they need without spending as much money for each dose. Bekah’s stuff is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s pricey, since the Humans involved get paid a lot for their donations.”

  The bone white woman, her red eyes scared, blinked and shook her head a little.

  “We can talk about that?”

  “About how we have means to keep ourselves fed without doing anything wrong to anyone? Yep. Also, don’t forget to point out how conservative and religious our people often are. I mean, don’t lie about it, but the Council will back you sharing things like that. Not that I can talk for them, but we’ve been chatting and…” She stopped and spread her hands.

  A Human man dressed up like a movie Vampire moved in behind Jimmy and his people. He had fake fangs in, and pale makeup on his skin.

  A bit rudely, the man pushed his way into the room, and started to speak, in a very bad accent.

  “Bvla, I am Vlad, the Impaler. I am the most ancient of all my kind and insist on top billing! You, peons, attend me and prepare to worship at my side, as I communicate the splendor of our kind to the masses.” He sold the whole thing about as well as a man in a costume could manage.

  Rebekah laughed out loud, and so did her people. Eve snorted and looked away, as Jimmy blushed.

  “I… Know. The people at the top insisted. I guess he’s someone’s cousin or something. I don’t really know. It’s… Supposed to be funny. I told them…”

  Eve moved forward and patted Jimmy on the arm.

  “Hey, we all have bosses. You should lead with him. Just make sure that people know it’s all in good fun. It is a bit insulting, but as long as you take the rest of the thing seriously, no one will kill you for it. Probably. Vampires can laugh though. We have great senses of humor, as a group.” She turned to the others and growled. “Got that? We have freaking great senses of humor.” It sounded angry, and fierce, but Bekah got it and snorted loudly, getting the others going. Eve chuckled at her own joke. “See?”

  Then, without waiting she went outside and reprogrammed the shoes on her feet, and repeated the horrible, awful, incredibly sucky trip, in order to get back home. It took just as long on the far end of things for her to be able to breathe again, but this time she stood outside, and walked into the mall calmly, looking like she’d been strolling the whole time.

  Lenore looked at her the whole time, and then gestured for her to go into the back.

  “You s
hould sit.”

  She didn’t really need to, but looking at the clock she got the general idea. It felt like she hadn’t been there in weeks, but it had been about twenty minutes since she’d left. Because, clearly, she was freaking awesome. Also bored out of her gourd at the moment.

  They waited, with Lenore acting like Eve was going to drop at any moment. Nothing happened though, until Ed and Cormack came in, at about the same time that several Vampires and Humans did.

  Almost all of them were there to complain about the Vampires being outed, if for different reasons. Two of the regular people thought that their neighbors were undead, and were scared, and one, a guy that looked a bit familiar, was just trying to get a peanut butter parfait.

  Eve did that one herself, jumping up to help him. He never bothered to look over at her, his focus being behind him, on the Vampires.

  Smiling she made it for him and then handed it over, waving the five dollar bill that he tried to hand to Lenore away.

  “Everyone? This is Ben. From the role playing group? He’s…A friend of mine.”

  The man, who was bearded, but well cared for, being trimmed and recently washed, half turned to look at her, his eyes going wide.

  “Eve? What are you doing here?”

  He seemed pretty shocked by the change of events, which was either really good acting or cluelessness, but Eve just winked at him.

  “I work here. One of my jobs at least. Let’s chat, while you eat?”

  She pointed to the yellow seated booths along the far wall, and moved around the cracked counter, feeling fine again. That shocked her, since she’d figured it would be longer, after her last weeks of constant walking.

  Chapter six

  The man, who managed not to be a fat beard somehow she couldn’t exactly put her finger on, even though he was a bit overweight and had a beard, grinned at her as he took a spoonful of the frosty concoction that she’d made.

  “Oh, this is really good.” He took a second bite, looking at her covertly, pretending not to be wondering what was going on. After a bit, one hand on the cold paper cup, he glanced over at Edom, who wore a suit sans jacket under a green apron, and Cormack, who was sturdy looking. More like a soldier than someone that should be fixing treats, or in this case, cups of blood.

  That reminded her, so she hopped up and dashed to the back, grabbing the remaining blood in her pack. It was still cool to the touch, but closing in on room temperature. That meant its shelf life had gone down a lot. She reviewed her internal links, and decided that refreshing them wouldn’t hurt. After all, the ones that she had were getting weak suddenly. It wasn’t the animals, but her letting the links go, after using them so much, running like that. Without even thinking about it she poured one of the remaining bottles in into a ceramic mug, and put the remainder in the blood cooler. The silver box wasn’t that huge, since there just weren’t that many Vampires in the area.

  Ben spent his time watching the others, especially a cute looking woman in an old fashioned skirt, and no visible makeup, who was insisting that she be allowed to kill her neighbor.

  “The man is a menace! He killed my hydrangeas. I mean to say, he snuck over during the day while I slept and ripped them up. His scent was all over them. Simply because I asked, very politely, that if his dogs, plural, were going to use my yard as a latrine, if he might try to scoop up after them. I didn’t complain about the holes that they made, just the mess left behind. I won’t take it anymore!” She was so furious that her eyes turned blood red, and her teeth popped out.

  From what she said, it was clear that she was a day sleeper, so not ancient, but she wasn’t a kid either, and managed to get her teeth and eyes under control after half a minute. Ben saw it though, and suddenly seemed scared.

  Eve reached out and touched his sleeve as she slid back into place across from him.

  “Don’t worry, she isn’t pissed at you. So, what brings you to Yoghurt World, if it isn’t about getting a date with me? Maggie mentioned something about setting us up. She said you were lusting after my hot body and couldn’t wait to take a stab at it. I assumed she meant with your, um…” She glanced around and winked. “Right, this is a family place. So, did you come to see the sights?”

  She sort of expected more of a story than that. Something about coming to shop, perhaps, but he just nodded.

  “I heard some stuff on the web, that this place is, you know, a Vampire front operation. Like an embassy from Node Rulez? Not that that’s all real, but if Vampires can exist… Why not everything else? I was going to go around and see if I could see anything strange at the other places, if this one turned out to be real. Which… I guess it is. Vampires… Even if they really exist, I wouldn’t have thought that I’ve ever meet one, in real life. What are the odds of that happening anyway?”

  Eve shrugged.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty intense, isn’t it? But, just so you aren’t shocked later, you know like… Ten percent of the Vampires in the local area. From your club thing? Well, if you count me and Barb, too. Luckily for you we’re all incredibly cool. Drinking our bottled cow blood, and playing nice with almost everyone.” She hefted her cup and took a sip of it. The flavor wasn’t bad, and all the links were still active. Ten in this batch, but the bottle was unique, not sharing cows with any of the others. Kind of a premium blend. The Human blood mixed between different donors, so that each one of them could have links to as many as four Vamps at once.

  This was better, but harder to manage.

  Ben looked at her like she was insane and then took a bite of the dessert. When his mouth was empty he shook his head a little.

  “I… No. Who? You, and Barb, who wrote the guidebooks? I guess I can see that. Can you… Do you have teeth, or are you a New Vampire? Or do they not really call them that?”

  “The books are close that way. For now… Hold off on mentioning anything else? If all us Vampires are killed we don’t need to take down everyone else. Anyway, um…” She popped her fangs and smiled big, her finger almost in her mouth. “Shee? Fangsh?”

  Then she put them away and giggled.

  The man actually just nodded, his face going considering, instead of scared. Then, even with fangs out, she was kind of good looking. Possibly stuck on herself, too, but guys were going to notice her in the main. Ben was, and not just because of her nifty white teeth.

  “I can see that then, I suppose. I know others too? I… Not Marcus. I kind of kicked his ass last week, and that wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t Human.” She looked around and then nodded, since it was kind of true. It really wouldn’t have worked on most people, actually, since it hadn’t been much of a fight, mainly Ben kind of flailing at the other nerd, but if he had been undead, even a relatively weak new Vamp, then it wouldn’t have worked at all.

  Eve nodded.

  “Right. Not him. I’m not giving any names though as for the others. That’s up to them, if they want to do it. Just to set your mind at ease though, they haven’t been harvesting from the game for a long time. Well, not all of them. I think a few are sneaking a bite now and then, even if it’s against the Council rules, strictly speaking. So… For right now? I think you should go and see about getting a job at Hartley and Co. Where are you working now?” She assumed he had a job, since he was decently well collected.

  He seemed embarrassed though.

  “Um, Burgerville. I’m a shift manager. I know that it isn’t some huge thing, but it’s been hard to get anything for a while. I wouldn’t even have that if Maggie wasn’t a manager there. I also go to school, part time. Community College, you know?”

  She did know, and nodded at him, actually impressed. She’d never even seriously considered doing that. If she hadn’t had her career track as a Vampire laid out for her, she probably would have gone into the military. Something that would have taught her how to kill correctly.

  Eve nodded at him.

  “Cool. Well, I don’t know that a bookstore pays better, but I know the guys down there
need the help. We should go see if you can set something up? Not that you want to leave Maggie in a lurch.” She saw that he wasn’t done eating yet, since he was going slow to covertly watch the men running the embassy. He’d already worked out more than most people, and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out the rest, but she figured that bringing him into the whole thing would be safer than trying to drive him away. Besides, he smelled so freaking delicious. It was the real reason she hadn’t tried having sex yet. That, and the fact she wasn’t really interested herself anymore. She could perform, but there would be no joy from it, in particular. Still, it was a handy trick to have, as far as making connections with a lot of guys and some girls, so she really needed to get that part worked out if she could.

  Nothing interesting happened, but Ben was covertly eye fucking Cormack so hard that she finally covered her mouth and whispered at him.

  “Dude, if you don’t cut that out he’s going to think you want to date him…” It really was pretty close to that, and the Vampire behind the counter looked up to give them both a winsome smile just about then. On purpose. That got Ben to stand up, his treat finally finished. He knew enough to clean up his table first, and even asked for a damp rag, to wash the thing down. That got Edom to look over at the man and nod.

  “Thanks.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like two gold coins. Then slid them across the counter for Ben nodding at them. “Door tokens for Terran 2 LA. It will get you and a friend in with no questions.” Then he went back to work, like that was the kind of thing he always did. Laughing a bit, Eve took Ben by the arm, his brown shirt soft over his arm. Like flannel. She rubbed it a bit, enjoying the feeling, but realized that it was making her new buddy a little uneasy. She didn’t have her teeth out and he wasn’t sporting wood, so it wasn’t that.

  “What? Do I have blood on my face?”