Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (18 page)

She slid into place, across from
him, which got a smile to form on his lips.

“Miss Benson! You’ve been busy, I
hear? Things are going well with your other work, aiding young Ginger? David,
as well.” His tone was less warm for David, she noticed.

She could see that one too.

“Both are doing really well.
Ginger will be up on her own during the day in about a week or so now. David is
pretty much there. Nikki,
is
, by the way. She’s
still
a bit
whiney. Ginger is less so, though. Not very fast, but she doesn’t complain
about trying, so I’m giving her a gold star on that one. I just came to spy on
Maggie, since it seems like it’s within the rules. You?”

There was a warm nod.

“I too, am here to spy a bit.
It’s a pleasant place to catch up on things for the Council, as well. There is
a small difficulty that might be forming in Australia. I should have you go and
look into it for us? You have some time left, before you need to meet with the
Greater Demon, The Bold?”

She nodded, trying to work out
how to best get there. Just in case. It would take a boat, or swimming, she
thought. Unless she could work out a way to get Zack to take her? That would be
hard though, given that he didn’t really need her there for any of his own
projects, that she knew of.

It was the only thing that would
work though, unless she flew. There just wasn’t enough time otherwise.

“That might work, what’s the
situation, late taxes?” That was the most common thing, she knew. People would
get mad, or lazy, and decide not to pay. Normally that just got a few letters,
like with the IRS. If it got serious, then things were ramped up a bit though.

A bit angrily, Bey shook his
head.

“No, there is an effort, amongst
some of our kind, to infiltrate the Human government there. In
secret
.
This is counter to the current plans of the Council. The Vampires in question
are to be required to either go public with who they are, or drop from their
races. They’ve been told, but our missives have been ignored, thus far. It is a
sad thing, but some of our kind do need to be reminded why the Council rules,
from time to time. Normally with death.” He really didn’t seem all that happy
about it, which was nice to see.

Eve really didn’t want to be
around people that killed for fun, did she?

“Cool. Get me the names, and some
pictures, if possible? I’ll see if I can set something up.”

The people walking up to her got
her to go quiet. It took a few seconds for her to really get it though.

It was Maggie, who was smiling at
her, and seemed genuinely pleased to see her, and not like she figured there
was about to be an epic battle. One that would trash her shop, if it happened.
Behind her, looking nervous, were three men. For half a second, she wondered if
they were there to guard Maggie, even if they were just Humans and seemed a
little wrong for the job, if that were the case. One of them, who had tan skin,
was a bit big around the middle for instance, and the black guy was thin enough
to secretly be hard under his baggy clothing, but moved a bit awkwardly. Like
he’d recently been hurt.

The last one she looked at was
the key to bringing it all together for her though. He had clear skin now,
unlike the scars and pock marks that had been there the last time they’d met,
but she got who it was, and by extension who the others probably were, shortly
after that.

The Jerky Squad.

She grinned and waved to Maggie.

“A present? Just for
me
? I
can do so many things with them!”

Bey gave her a strange look, but
smiled up at Maggie, who was his wife, or had been once upon a time. They
seemed to get along pretty well, now, so there was that, if nothing else.

Maggie explained.

“When Eve was in the glass
prison, being unfairly humiliated in front of the whole world by the Council,
three men went to her and made a point of abusing themselves over her case, to
further compound the injury done. I made a point of finding them, and made sure
they all had jobs here, to keep tabs on them until such time as we could deal
with them. They were, and are, members of the role playing group I’m involved
in, which makes them my people. I didn’t order them to do that to you though, I
swear. Fram didn’t either. Though I understand that he did think it was funny,
when he saw the video. They were just being… I don’t know.
Adventuresome
?”
She glanced over at them, and then at Bey, who’d shifted only the tiniest bit
in his seat, his face suddenly very close to enraged, for him.

Eve cleared her throat, then
winked at the boys. Not that they were kids, but none of them was thirty
either.

“Well, I’ll take an apology, and
then, if you want, tell you what you need to do in order to have the curses
that were placed on you broken? I mean, if you really mean it.”

Maggie looked at her, slightly
aghast.

“Death curses?”

“Nope. Bad luck, problems with cars
and relationships, that kind of thing. They probably wouldn’t have jobs right
now if not for you. It will last for a few years. I didn’t do it though,
Ben
did. From your group? So you all get the idea, don’t screw with him,
or
any of his friends? It was a bit of an annoyance, plus and I mean this with
love, and trust me it isn’t a deal breaker for every woman in the world or even
me, but none of you are exactly porn star material, you know what I mean?” She
placed her index fingers about five inches apart. “Big enough for real life,
but that probably isn’t what you want to advertise on the web. If I hear of any
of you doing anything like this again however, you
will
be. Probably in
ways that are a lot more creative than you can imagine.” She could compel them
to do that.

The darkest skinned one glared at
her, the whites of his eyes showing.

“You made us lick that stuff up.”

She shook her head.

“
Nope
. I just told you all
to clean it up.
I
would have gotten sponges, if it were me, but you did
what you thought you had to. That came from inside you though, not from me,
directly. Now I could do that, if I wanted, so don’t think it isn’t an option,
later. For now though you need to go to the candle shop at Westfield mall and
talk to a man there, named Bob. Candles and More. Then tell him what you did,
and he’ll tell you what you need to do in order to break the curse. It won’t be
easy. It isn’t just about magic, you’ll have to prove you won’t do it again, or
anything like it. Probably do some charity work too. That kind of thing.”

None of them looked very pleased,
but Bey had gone neutral, which was nice to see. She’d been worried for a bit
there. Bloody boys all over the inside of the nice clean place would be tacky.

“Now, you should all get back to
work, before you get fired for being lazy.” Eve smiled at them, and waved them
away. She could have killed them, or had them beaten, or even humiliated, but
that wouldn’t really fix anything. She could see that now.

Once they were out of ear shot,
Maggie moved to sit next to Bey, across from her.

Eve winked.

“Bob probably won’t make things
too
hard on them. Curse breaking is one of the services that the Mages offer for
free. My guess is that they’re going to have to do some work though. To show
they mean it, and that they aren’t going to do that again. Because I’m going to
call Bob and let him know about that part.”

Bey sighed and shook his head.

“I do not know if it is enough,
to keep spirit and heart together for the wronged party, but we do not need
negative comments about us in the media at the moment. It is most wise, Eve,
that you handle it this way. Now, Jasmine, tell us, if you are allowed, what
plans do you have? There has been some question in the Council as to your
current disposition?”

Maggie moved a bit closer to Bey,
her shoulder touching his. They weren’t the same size, the woman being just
fractionally larger than the man was. About the same height, so not huge that
way by any means, but the lady had a bit of cushion to her form that wasn’t
there with the killer of the Council. Saying she was even normal however would
be a mistake, since in modern terms she was slightly thin for that, but her
face was round at the chin, and along the line of the face. Smooth and clean,
too.

Eve stared for a bit, and made
herself smile, so that she wouldn’t lurch over the table and start fighting
right then. It was hard to manage, since
everything
inside of her
screamed to do it. To struggle and survive, by removing the threat before the
Vampire across from her could set her on fire.

Instead she sat there, not moving
much, smiling like a creepy puppet from a movie, ready to strike down a person
that she’d once thought might be a friend. One she thought might actually still
be, as fucked up as that was.

Maggie smiled back, and did a
better job of it, her brown eyes warm and inviting.

“I don’t have much choice at the
moment. I rather sent them a message they couldn’t ignore, didn’t I? Telling
them that I was taking over from them. I
do
notice that they haven’t
stepped down yet? That’s rather disappointing. I’ll probably end up having to
fight them all, one by one. I have orders, and I can’t exactly go against them.
That was…
Incredibly
foolish of me. I simply hadn’t even considered that
Marcus was more than he seemed. Many of the others in the game seemed to be
roughly the same kind of being. I honestly thought he simply
liked
me.
Perhaps wanted to date? I was seeing Fred, back then, but it felt harmless
enough, when he awkwardly asked if I’d go to coffee with him. I agreed to a
deal though, a bet that I lost. Not one that should have held someone like me,
but he managed to grab me anyway.” It came out all at once, with a sense of
resignation underneath the words, rather than panic.

Like she knew that, no matter
what else took place, she was going to die.

Eve could see that. Even if she
got her out from under the Greater Demon that had taken her life, and will,
from her, the Council might not be so forgiving. It was so rare to break free from
that kind of being that they might not believe it had happened, for one thing.
Everything she knew about it came from people that had done it though, so there
was that. If you killed the Demon, even if they came back, the line would be
broken. That seemed like a pretty heavy thing to ask of Fram though, didn’t it?
Sitting there, looking at the slightly nerdy seeming fast food manager, in her
white shirt with her gold name tag, Eve didn’t feel as much like killing her as
she had before.

It would come back, that feeling.

The next time she saw a flame, or
felt something burning her. Probably for a long time, since having your limbs
singed off could do that to a girl. At this single moment in time though, Eve
really didn’t feel anything all that intense toward Maggie. A bit sorry for
her, being trapped like she was. That was it.

She didn’t make any offers to
help her this time though. She’d either pull that one off, or it wouldn’t be
happening. They had a plan in place, but Fram would most likely try to use that
to his personal benefit. Really, that was probably the only way it was going to
work out, in the end. She
couldn’t
just grab him, and snuff his life
out.

It was probably true that it
simply wouldn’t work, and if she tried it, the person dying would be her. He
was a Greater Demon, after all. Even if she managed it, and he was brought
back, either by some trick of his, or the others, she’d be dead, she didn’t
doubt. It might end up being the case, even if she did everything perfectly.
The thing there was that Eve simply didn’t
feel
like bowing down to him.

That was suicidal, but there it
was. If it meant not having the life she could have, but also not being a slave
to fear, then so be it. There were worse things than death. Living in constant
fear was one of them, at least to her mind.

Bey reached over and patted
Maggie’s arm, lovingly. It was a slow and gentle thing, that even on the
friendly being seemed different. Like an old and familiar move that had taken
place a million times, but so long ago the move had developed hitches and rust
along the edges. Still, it fit, even in that moment.

“Do not worry about the others,
love. I will discuss this with them, and they will not seek to harm you over
it.” The way he said it spoke of him thinking they were a group of reasonable
people or something, rather than the idea that he’d kill them all, one by one,
if they didn’t agree.

Eve snorted a bit, and shook her
head.

“That might be a hard sell with
some of them. Like Gene? That kid has
major
problems.” She didn’t guard
the words, just speaking then without much thought, and felt confused when both
of the others smiled at her.

Bey even covered his mouth with a
hand, so as to not offend her by flashing his teeth.

“Perhaps, if the discussion was
about you, dear. He does seem most negative in that regard. It is, as I have
mentioned, only that he
fears
you, not understanding that your true
power is that you seek to act in balance and wisdom, in all things. He, so far,
sees only the outer trappings, and knows that if you sought his removal, he
would fail. Not all of the Council has that issue, but it is his true ability,
to know when he is overmatched. Still, The Burning One will not be a problem in
this case. Jasmine is his maker. In many ways, he is the child of both of us.
We saved him from certain death, by transforming him, and then taught him for
the better part of a century.” Bey took the fast food manager’s hand, gently.