Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (6 page)

She’d
gotten a really sweet deal, thanks to her friends and the work she’d put in
first, but a lot of them found out that Vampires were real when they woke up
dead one day, and killed a family of four for a snack, not knowing any better.
It wasn’t the same thing at all. The problem though was that Richard Swerlin
was much older than she was. Hundreds of years at the very least, and his
powers would reflect that. Just getting mad and rushing him wasn’t exactly a
great plan. Not if she wanted to survive the fight. Part of her started to work
out how to get it done then. She’d need to use all the speed she could, and
find out a lot more about any weaknesses he might have first. Eve knew how to
fight, but it would probably come down to powers, not skill, that way.

It did
when you were dealing at a certain level of raw strength or speed.

Did he
have any special psychic powers? For that matter, did
she
? The idea
wasn’t impossible, but other than trying a bit of compulsion on a drunk guy
once, on her very first day, she really hadn’t done anything like that yet. It
had all been about work, to tell the truth. That, and running fast. These
things needed to be known before she went for him.

Lenore
gave her a considering look, instead of telling her she was being stupid,
which, naturally, she really was. Making threats against someone that could
kill you and get away with it was really dumb. Especially in the press. Even if
it had been meant as hyperbole.

“I
honestly don’t think that Mr. Swerlin will survive long enough for you to
extract your pound of flesh. It would be interesting to see, however. You
should suggest the concept to him when you reach him?” There was a long look at
the phone, as if to explain it all.

She got
on the thing, and was redialing for the seventeenth time when the local
television news crew came. The reporter was a younger woman, who didn’t seem
experienced if her body carriage and the fact that Eve didn’t recognize her at
all counted. Probably the girl that the others at the station were willing to
throw away, if the whole thing turned out to be a massive joke or game. That,
or they believed it and sent in the nervous young brunette as a Human sacrifice
to placate them?

Yummy.

The
phone picked up right then, so Eve held up her hand, getting the news people
not to speak for a bit.

“Representative
Swerlin’s office, this is Jonas, may I help you?”

“Hi, Jonas.
I need to talk to Richard, if that’s doable? This is Eve Benson, from the
Vancouver local area?” She nearly said embassy, but no one else had yet,
including Jonas, that she knew of. Doing that would be announcing that there
were
other
things in the world, at least to the intelligent people out
there. That wasn’t needed yet. It was probably coming, but for the moment,
there was no need to risk anyone else, or their families.

 “Uh…
He’s in a meeting right now, may I take a message?”

“Interrupt
him. Otherwise I’m going to have to run from here to Maine. That would take a
while so, how about you help me out? Also, is Keeley there? I left a message
for her, but she hasn’t gotten back to me. That’s kind of rude, but what can we
do? She only jumps to my calls every other Thursday.” It was name dropping, but
it also worked.

After
all, even though she’d met Jonas a few times, at parties and with Rebekah, he
didn’t recognize her name, did he? There were probably more Eve’s in his world
than her, and she wasn’t a Human anymore. The few times they’d met in person,
she had been.

“She was
here. I think she’s left. Could… You hold? I’ll try to get the Representative.
I can’t promise anything. He’s… The Bey is
here
.”

“Oh?
Good. Tell him I said hi? Bey is my buddy.”

She was
on camera, so smiled, knowing that a lot of people might see it, eventually.
Lenore came out and spoke to the woman in the background, distracting the
camera crew.

It was,
again, the fault of Jonas. The snitch. Eve caught enough of the conversation
going on to get that part of things.

The
phone picked up, almost thirty seconds later.

“Hello?
I’m a bit busy at the moment, if this can wait?” It was a very stressed out
sounding Richard Swerlin, and it was pretty clear that Jonas hadn’t actually
told him that she was on the line. Otherwise he wouldn’t have answered at all,
most likely. She was just some regular Vampire girl, after all. He didn’t even
know that she was hot, and if he did, it might not make a big difference to
him.

He had
like four wives after all, and probably no sex drive, however that one worked
out. Unless he
did
have a sex drive? If so, that was a cool special
power, but not that useful in a fight, most likely. She didn’t know that for
certain, so asked, which got the man to go silent for a second.

“Sorry,
I
do
… Why do you ask?”

“Oh,
because I’m planning to come and kick your ass, and if that’s your special
ability, then I need to know that. This is Eve Benson? The animal blood
Vampire?”

There
was movement on the other side and a pleasant inhalation. Bey.

“Miss
Benson! Excellent. I was considering the end of Mr. Swerlin here, but if you
have plans for him? I’m sure I could hold my hand for a brief time while the
rest of my fellows decide what to do with him.”

She
smiled, as Lenore looked over at her.

“Sounds
good. For now though, I wanted to make sure that Rich knew to tell everyone
about how religious we all are? I’m having people look into this for other
reasons. There’s a news crew here, talking to Lenore, so I can’t say too much,
but we probably shouldn’t kill him yet. Anyway, Rich, what the fuck?
Not
a lot of warning here. Why did you do this?”

There
was a slow intake of air, and slower words.

“Well, I
simply thought it was time for us to enter the larger world. Your new product
was part of that decision. Vampires are part of the world, and we deserve to be
heard from, don’t you think? On top of that, some of our kind act like they’re
not beholden to the laws of the land we all live in. Yes, we have the Council,
but how many people, our kind, would actually stand to punishment for their
wrongdoing, if it were a civil matter?”

She
didn’t know, probably not a lot.

“I guess
what I want to know is; did you plan this out on your own, or did someone else
make you do it? Would you know the difference if that happened?”

Bey
spoke then, his voice a bit tight.

“Miss
Thompson says that she
does
think someone might have tampered with him.
It was
also
his own plan. I think we can see that there is more than one
thing needed to be addressed here.”

She
nodded, knowing that no one would get that except Lenore.

“Got it.
Okay, well, get on the line and tell everyone about how religious and God
fearing most of us are? I’ll try to get with Marissa, since we need to be able
to show that we can feed all our people without being a danger to people’s
livestock or pets. I
really
wish we had a few more years to get ready
for this.”

Bey made
a soft sound in the back of his throat, which was probably him stifling a
chuckle at her. She got that one. After all, here she was sixteen full days
into being undead and already acting like she was the queen bee of the whole
blood sucking hive. It was funny, and hopefully cute, to the right people.
Otherwise she was just going to seem like the yappy puppy. The one that would
hump your pant leg if you looked away too long.

He spoke
though, his voice calm.

“Very
well. If we need to chastise Mr. Swerlin officially, shall I send for you? It
was, clearly, a failure on his part not to bring you in, since you two are in
business together, if loosely. It seems that he has failed many of us here.
I’ll pass the word to the others on the Council about that, in case they need
your aid?”

She
didn’t get what he meant, but she was in on the idea of applying a spanking to
a certain politician.

“I’m in,
if you want me to be. Again, push the religious angle, and how we’re a lot like
everyone else. This is going to ruin Christmas for a lot of people this year.
Thanksgiving, too.” She was planning to have a big dinner there at the mall
with the other people orphaned by their jobs for the day. Now… Well, she’d
probably have to sit in the shop, with the door closed, ready to shoot people
trying to burn it down. What great fun.

Luckily,
Swerlin spoke then, his voice professional sounding.

“Good.
You see about the increase in low cost food stuffs and I’ll remember to push
the religious and family values portion of things. Nice to know that you’re in
this with us, Miss Benson.”

Then he
hung up, before she could work up to having Bey kill him for her. That he might
have actually done it, got her to smile. He did like her, and they really were
friendly enough. He was sweet, after all. When he wasn’t executing people
wholesale.

Lenore
was the one that had to handle the rest of the news people that came, including
the live coverage later in the day. Eve had to sneak out, and do the map run
she had planned, but that didn’t happen until hours later, when Linda brought
the thing back. That got her served with the bill for the counter, though it
was only an estimate.

“If you
can find someone to do the work cheaper, with good quality, we can do that too.
I just got three estimates, and this is the lowest.”

“Yes.”
She did not seem happy to be handed the piece of paper, but she took it, and
gave the other one over. There were people watching, so they did it carefully,
and in the back room. “Is there any news?”

Eve had
a lot, actually, which got the lady in front of her to go wide eyed.

“The Bey
is holding Richard Swerlin… for you?”

Eve
winked, “well, you know,
if
the Council wants anything done. I don’t
know how real that is, but it’s a good sign that they’re listening to us and
trying to get things done. I kind of expected a lot of things to be done behind
closed doors, you know?”

There
was a nod, and the woman waved a bit.

“Same
time tomorrow?”

“Should
be. Unless things change. If so, I’ll call first. Otherwise showing up for the
map is good. We may be adding things. I don’t know. We might even just get to
drop it in a day or two, if nothing happens.” As the day turned to night she
kind of expected there to be more problems, rather than less, but she wasn’t
certain that most Vamps would have any problems at all, since they were hidden
and Jonas had nicely pointed a big finger right at them.

That
meant they were going to need a lot more blood, didn’t it? Everyone that had
been trying to make do on the local fauna, and other people’s pets were going
to need something different suddenly. It was actually great for business,
unless people just ran away from their lives trying to get away from the news.

Eve
watched Linda leave, which was done at Human speeds, and avoiding the camera as
carefully as possible without actually pulling a mask into place first. They
were set up at the front, outside of the shop itself, so that they could use
the sign as a backdrop.

Eve
cleaned, since that’s what they did in their down time. That, and answer the
phone.

No one
called, so that distraction wasn’t available. Eve took the time to start a new
yogurt culture. No one noticed, or cared at least, if they did. Nothing
happened, until noon, when a rather grumpy looking Edom came in. The cameras
were gone, thankfully, so it was just the pain of being awake that did it. He
was more or less used to it though, so he’d probably make it all right.

Lenore
smiled at him as he walked in, which got her glared at.

“Why are
you so happy? This is the worst time of day.”

There
was a winsome smile, which Eve copied, getting her glared at too.

The boss
explained though, and did a good job of it.

“I’m
faking it, of course. I always do, at this hour.”

Eve
nodded, but didn’t add that she was doing the same thing. Ed
knew
that
already. She could tell, because his body language shifted and he did the same,
his teeth practically glowing in his dark face. It made them all look
unreasonably happy. Cheery and like they were ready for anything.

They
weren’t of course. Well, there was a bit that they were. For instance, people
in the mall avoided them like they were plague carriers for a bit. They didn’t
even look in as they walked by. Not even Zack came down, and Lenore was his
girlfriend
.
Of course there was the fact that most of them didn’t come to the shop most of
the time, but some of them would be hiding, she didn’t doubt.

The
Shifters could pass, but the Trollienkeine were essentially bigfoot. If they
were looked at too closely, people might make a connection there. It wouldn’t
be too hard if you were already looking for things like that.

The real
trouble though started at dusk though. The first group set up in the mall
itself, since it was cold outside, and started walking up and down the way,
holding signs and chanting.