Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (29 page)

Not that Kaitlyn was always like
that. She did a really hot nerd girl routine that worked well for the book
store. It helped give the place an air of being something other than a strange
kind of brothel, really. That meant the outfit she was given was a loose pair
of tan slacks, some little footy socks, and a button up blouse. No underwear,
but the girl was a succubus, so that was probably to be expected. Underwear was
just a thing that would get in the way of having sex as fast as possible, for
someone like her.

Eve could let it pass, since the
outfit smelled faintly of spices, not whatever the hell hers did now. Or would
have, if they were still there, which she noticed they weren’t.

Her Greater Demon friend winced
and shook his head.

“I burned them, using a lot of
gasoline to cut the smell. I got the story already, from the others. That was
strange, wasn’t it?” He spoke the words like they were talking about having
seen a man riding a unicycle on the street.

“What was?” Her words were oddly
innocent sounding, so she grinned a bit. It was better than being the bitch
that everyone hated. “You mean how a Greater Demon
pretended
to let
Ginger kill them for some weird reason? Then, instead of just laughing it off
like they should have when I caught on, which might not have been on accident
as far as that went, sprayed me with the world’s stinkiest
prank
,
instead of actually fighting? Plus, they blamed The Vile for it, but the only
thing they did that wasn’t having their ass kicked was throwing raw lust at me.
That doesn’t sound like it’s going with the whole Vile theme, does it? I guess
that might be a little odd… No, wait, that’s pretty much every fourth day
around here. So, no, I don’t know what you mean, Zack. What was strange?”

He laughed.

“I know. On the good side I don’t
have to explain all of that to you. That’s a good analysis of what happened.
Better than most would have managed after something like that. The
fun
part here is that it could be any Greater Demon. Including The Vile, hamming
things up to make you think that someone else was setting him up. More to the
point, doing that to make
any
of us think that. For all I know this is
aimed at Finias, or Tarsus, not you or me at all. Well, I helped get the back
of the embassy cleaned up. Poor Ginger. I think she’s going to have nightmares
for months over this one. It’s like a horror movie, where you kill the monster,
only to have them, you know how it is, they keep coming back?” He stared at
her, as if looking for something in particular.

After a bit she realized he was
just looking at her nude body. Because he was a perv, having a sex drive and
all that sort of thing. She used the towel, but didn’t offer to take care of
him. If he wanted sex, he’d better let the scent of that rotting spray pass
from her nose first. At the rate things were going, that would be in about a
week or two. Hopefully not though. In fact, if she actually paid attention to
it, the worst was gone physically. It was the mental portion of things that was
getting to her.

Her shoes were gone, and Kait had
a different foot size than Eve did, so she ended up padding out into the store,
feeling slightly damp still, in pink socks. It felt odd, like she was doing it
naked, since shoes were a constant thing in her life anymore.

Ben saw her from across the room,
and practically ran at her, stopping about ten feet away.

“Are you okay? I heard there was
a fight…”

She nodded. After all, as far as
battles against Greater Demons went, it hadn’t been a bad one, had it? In fact,
it had gone a little too well for her to be real.

Unless she was secretly a bad-ass
on a level that she’d never suspected before, but if that was the case, then
she needed to know it for certain, because thinking that, and being wrong, was
suicide.

Ben touched her arm, gently. It
wasn’t romantic, but there was a softness to it that was nice. Like he actually
cared about her having kind of won a fight. After a bit she winked at him. It
was fake, and not what she was really feeling, but there was only so many ways
to respond to what had just happened. She wasn’t going to cry about it, since
it would take away from her victory in the eyes of others and make her seem
like a victim.

“It was
gross
. Survivable
though.”

“Yeah, I can get that. Who’d do
that? Spray you with reeking and rotting fluid like that? It’s sick. Is that
Demon insane? The Vile? Zack told me that’s who he said he was.”

Eve looked around, at the books,
and noticed that there was a cart across the way, made of wood and metal,
filled with things to go on the shelves. It might not be the busiest bookstore
on the planet, as far as real sales went, but there were people there. They
bought things, and waited for the various girls to be freed up, so they could
all go and get their groove on in the reading rooms. Looking over, she noticed
that Kait was coming out of one of the rooms just then with an older man. He
was thin, and looked to be about eighty, but had a smile on his lips. So did
she, for that matter.

Succubi were not picky, when it came
to things like that. They couldn’t afford to be, most of the time.

Ben looked over, but didn’t so
much as make a face about it.

“She is what she is. It was kind
of hard for me to get that at first. We’re friends though, so, I can’t judge
really. It’s not like I can blame the men and women is it? Who wouldn’t want to
have sex with her?”

That was a simple truth, but
probably hard for him to take.

Still, it worked out for her, or
could.

“Yep. That means you and I can go
out though, right? I was thinking we should. To, you know, see if we want to
really date, I mean? Nothing too major, to start with.” Then she paused, and
had to shake her head. Here she was assuming that the bearded guy wouldn’t
have
someone already. He might not be a ten, but who freaking was? That didn’t stop
most people from having real relationships, did it?

Ben smiled though.

“I’d like that. What does a
Vampire do on a date anyway?”

Like
she
was supposed to
know that? She’d never been on a date as one, had she?

“Um, movies or concerts?
Something like that. Low key, but not food oriented, since eating isn’t really
a thing for me. Plus, right now, I don’t think I could stand to eat for the
next month, even if I could. That was…
So
gross. I can’t even describe
how much so. I won’t, and
wouldn’t
even if I could, since it would
probably ruin eating for you, too.” She shuddered a bit. It was goofy and
playful seeming, she thought. That was her intent, though she wasn’t certain
she was wrong.

Whatever had been in that stream
of grossness and yuck, she didn’t really think she wanted to know. She actually
felt queasy, and the hunger that was constantly urging her to drink blood had
gone away totally, it was so bad.

The man in front of her, who was
wearing a dark blue shirt that seemed to be silk, tucked into black slacks,
with a black belt to hold it all in place, glanced down at her socks, but
didn’t ask where her shoes were. No matter what else he might be, Ben was a
bright enough guy to pick up on that one.

Instead he nodded a little bit.

“Um, we can go see the new Don
Lang movie? It’s a light comedy, I think. Something not too serious seems like
a good idea. Tomorrow? Or, whenever. I get off at nine each night I work, so I
can do things after that, each day.”

Eve tilted her head back and
forth, then realized that she was going to be busy, for a bit.

“I… Don’t think I can. Not until
next week. I have to kill a Greater Demon, if I can. Fram? The one that used to
be Marcus? Don’t worry, I have a plan to bring him back, so it isn’t half as
big of a deal as all that. You won’t be losing your buddy or anything. That
will be on Sunday, and I really need to make sure I have everything all lined
up for it. Then again, a few hours sitting in one place
might
not kill
me…” Eve thought about things, did some math, fretted a bit about being lazy,
and considered work-life balance, and then nodded. “Yeah. I’d
love
to. I
can meet you here, at nine?”

Ben beamed at her, like getting
to go out on a real date was special for him. That he probably got any kind of
sex he wanted from his coworkers, whenever he desired it, rules about working
for his pay aside, that was actually sweet of him. The Alede were all better
looking than she was. True, they were better looking than everyone, so it
wasn’t a huge insult to her self-worth to admit that, but it made the date seem
more real, rather than less.

Yes, she’d gone out with guys
before. A lot.

All of those times though, she’d
known, deep down, that the guy was really just trying to get into her pants.
With Ben, for the first time she could remember, someone seemed to just want to
spend
time
with her. The danger there was that he might learn how boring
she really was. All she did, practically, was work. No one wanted to hear about
that though, did they?

“Great! I just got a car last
month, so we can actually ride to the theater. It will be like we’re grownups
and everything. Unless… Are you allowed to do that yet? Ride in cars? You told
me once that you weren’t allowed to, for some reason.”

“I don’t really know. I can ask.
If not, I can meet you at the theater, after we meet up here, I mean. Either
way it will work. Thanks. I think we’ll have fun.” She honestly did, even if
she couldn’t tell anyone why that was.

Her stomach
wasn’t
doing
flip-flops, because that kind of thing had both never been a thing for her, and
wouldn’t fit who she was now, either, and she wasn’t getting soaked between her
thighs or anything nifty like that, so what was going on wouldn’t be a chemical
response, she didn’t think. She just honestly liked him, as a person. So how
strange was that?

Then, on her first meeting with
the man, when he’d found out that one of his friends, or at least a guy he’d
known, had sort of drugged Maggie Sims, and then made her do some sexual stuff,
he’d jumped the man and started to kick his ass. Poorly, since he wasn’t some
kind of hidden martial arts master, and was only a slightly overweight gamer,
but it was the thought that counted.

So he was possibly worth paying
attention, to, wasn’t he? Even if she wasn’t going to be sexually attracted to
him. That had never led her toward a great, or long term, relationship anyway,
had it? So maybe it was really time to take a step into something different.

Still, there were things she
needed to do, like smiling at him, and look back over her shoulder as she
walked away. That way he’d know that she was interested. There was a look that
she hoped came out as coy, and not slightly constipated seeming. It could be
hard to get that right. She really needed to spend more time practicing that stuff
in the mirror.

As she walked back to the yogurt
shop, she could still smell the scent of foul rot and stink. It wasn’t real
though, she didn’t think. The effect had simply been so severe and powerful
that it had overwhelmed her ability to block it out, even hours later. In fact,
for her, that part was a lot worse than the fight itself had been.

Because as far as that went,
she’d kind of kicked butt, hadn’t she?

Ginger though was quietly
freaking out, as she scrubbed the whole place again, even though whatever Zack
had done to it really had made it not smell any more. The Vampire girl’s pale
hands went into a bucket of water that was so hot it steamed, the blue plastic
looking softer than normal from the heat. It spilled in places, due to that and
the speed with which Ginger worked. Her face was totally blank, but her body
was stiff. She kept looking over her own shoulder too, like she expected the
Greater Demon to come back at any moment.

Without waiting to explain, she
glanced at Eve and shook her head.

“He could have killed us all.
What do we do? Why would he do that? I stabbed him with his own knife… What if
that made him mad?” She was conflicted and confused, which probably had to do
with the fact that it had really seemed like they’d sort of won, even though it
was against a Greater Demon. That pretty much
had
to be a trick.

Eve smiled.

“Welcome to the world of
confusing mental dilemmas. Really, for us, we don’t have to worry about it too
much, I don’t think. Not that that kind won’t kill us if they feel like it, but
my guess is, whoever that was, doesn’t actually
want
us dead, or even
hurt. Like I told Zack, spraying me like that, while really gross, and
annoying, is basically a prank, not an attack. It could have been fire, or
acid, or a stream of energy that would have ripped my head off, but instead it
was a river of rotting goop?”

Ginger stopped her scrubbing,
looked troubled, and then gave a slow nod.

“He said he was The Vile, didn’t
he?”

“Yeah, sure, but think about it
Ginger, when was the last time you were in a fight, and you yelled out your own
name like that? No one does that, outside of movies, do they? No, my guess is
that someone is setting The Vile there up, trying to get us to hunt him down,
or at least blame him for the things going on around here. It
could
be
him. Hell, this is Greater Demon bullshit, so it could be that it really was
him, and the whole thing is about casting doubt on that, by tricking me into
thinking that it probably wasn’t. We can’t know. I wouldn’t let it bother you
too much though. Whoever it was, whatever their plan, they
didn’t
fight
to the death. This is about something else. It probably means that they like us
too. On the really good side, it also means that we don’t really have to have
an investigation into you killing the patrons. See how well that worked out for
you? Plus, whatever the reason, please note that you totally kicked a Greater
Demon’s butt. Oh, they might not have been trying that hard, but it’s still great
for the street cred.”

It was all silly to say, most
likely, but Ginger used her arm, her hands being wet and soapy still, to brush
her shoulder length sandy blonde hair out of her blue eyes. She looked young,
but less like she was about to soil herself then, as she gave a week grin.

“So it’s all okay, because I’d be
dead, if they wanted me that way?”

Eve nearly growled at that one,
since it was really an annoying way of restating what she’d said, leaving out
all
the funny portions, but managed to shrug.

“That really
is
about the
size of it. What I want to know, really, is why they’re coming
here
? It
probably had to do with Zack, so wouldn’t getting in closer to the bookstore be
better? If they can pull off doing that kind of thing. I don’t know that all of
them are equal in all skills. Actually, I think that some of them aren’t,
really. What could be gained by doing this though?” She waved around the store,
and then, glancing at Edom, who was behind the counter, cleaning the machines
and restocking for the day with fresh supplies, she moved to grab a rag and
start scrubbing things herself.

It wasn’t like being too clean
was going to be a real problem, was it?

Ed finally cleared his throat.

“So, who’s working the front today?
Ginger did the night shift, but Eve had to fight a Greater Demon…”

Like either of those things
should get them out of doing their jobs? It wasn’t like they slept, or got
tired, besides the day was half over. It was almost noon, already.

Eve got that she was being
asked
though, as a courtesy, in case she was scared, or angry and couldn’t work with
the public. It was really nice, actually. Like she was being treated like a
real Vampire, and not just a baby to be ordered around. In fact, Ed didn’t do
that to her most of the time, did he? It got her to smile, and then shrug.

“I need to find Felicia, and let
her know that we aren’t all about to die here. Ginger is pretty much up to
speed, and other than some fighting lessons, doesn’t need me for anything now.”
Eve paused and looked at the girl, then winked. “Other than my awesome, and of
course,
very
valuable friendship. I mean, everyone sane needs that. But
you have this stuff down. You could use some sharpening on your treat making,
and store handling stuff, but really, for that… We should send you into the
Iowa Node, so you can help Cormack. For now, if you can hold here while I get
Felicia? Then I’ll cover the rest of the day, while you go and do something
fun. I kind of have a date tomorrow night, at nine? So, if I can get some time
off for that?”

Edom smiled, his face looking
like she’d told him they’d won a lotto drawing. That was one of the great
things about him, and why she’d picked him as her maker. Unlike almost everyone
else in the world, he actually cared about what happened to her. When something
good was going on, he always seemed happy about it. It was strange for her,
since she’d kind of assumed that she’d spend half of her time face down on a
bed, being fucked in whatever hole he felt like at the time.