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

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 time 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.

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.

Not that it mattered in this case.
The woman had orders, from her creator, Bey, to do it. That should have been
enough to keep her going before, but it had also been Eve’s job to keep her on
task. Hopefully Cormack and Barb hadn’t gotten all lazy like that, too. Losing
one or two days like Nikki had was a shame, but they’d both been five or six
into the whole thing. If they’d stayed up the whole time then they were
probably set already. Not
there
, she noticed, but that might be fine, if
they’d hung on long enough.

She made that her first call,
trying to find Barb, who was conveniently enough with Cormack, both at the far
end of the mall, helping Zack and the mall manager do some work. Along with
David.

Eve held the phone with her chin,
and clapped her hands.

“Really? That’s
so
cool.
He must be half useless. Still he stayed, so how incredible is that? You and
Cormack are both doing well then? I kind of fell down on the job with you guys.
Sorry about that.”

Barb made a sound that might have
been sobbing, if she was capable of actually crying anymore.

“We’ll forgive you, this
once
.
Don’t let it happen again. You just sat there, stinking up my break room… For
weeks.”

It hadn’t been that long, but she
didn’t mention that part. It would seem like bragging.

“Glad to be out of the way for
you then. Anyway, I was just checking in, and being a good pain in the rump.
Tell everyone I’ll be down later? If we have breakfast orders or anything, get
them in writing? Coffees, and all that kind of stuff?”

“I’m on it. We should be done
later today. Everyone helped out with it, so it’s gone pretty fast.”

That was good. Not that she
shouldn’t have been helping, too. It hadn’t been in the cards though, and she
was willing to gamble on the idea that at least a tiny portion of the people
there would get the basic idea. That she would have helped, if it were
possible.

They worked out that Nikki would
take the orders, and that they’d both go and get anything that was needed. It
wasn’t going to be all that much, she didn’t think. In a way, she realized, she
was dragging her feet, not wanting to go back to the other end of the mall.
Being there would mean learning who’d died, and there were only seven ladies
that worked the nail place or so. She wasn’t close to any of them really, but
she’d known them all in passing. It was going to hurt, when she found out.

So she called Marcus’s home
number instead. Since that made perfect sense, right? He was a Greater Demon
and still in town, so why should he change it? To her surprise it picked up, on
the third ring.

The voice was still male, but was
different now. Deeper, but also more friendly.

“Good morning, how may I help you
this fine and rainy day?”

“It wasn’t raining when I was out,
earlier. Cloudy though, so I can see it. Anyway, it’s me, Eve.
Benson
,
in case you forgot about me? You know, the girl that you had your minion set on
fire? Left me all stumpy and smelling like extra-crispy bacon? I’m planning to
kill you soon, so I was wondering if you wanted to make an appointment for
that? Zack’s insisting that we let you come back to life after, for some
reason. Still, it’s worth it, just to break the link with Maggie that you have?
The
other
option is to kill her to break it, but I don’t know if I can
bring her back. I do have a plan for it, but it’s mainly speculation right
now.” She didn’t get a response, so started to run through it, expecting to be
interrupted at any moment. Instead the Greater Demon just let her keep on
chatting.

Like they were friends, or
something.

“There are a few minor holes in
that one, but it could work. You should make sure to research each portion of
it first. I’d rather not lose her right now, since she really is my favorite. I
have plans, too, you know. It’s part of why I got her in the first place… I
don’t suppose I could get you to wait a few weeks? I could send more cash to
your account, in exchange?”

It was a
very
strange
thing to say, given that she’d just told him that she planned to kill him.
Then, she’d also said that keeping him alive might be in the works, too. He
seemed to be taking that as a sign that they could negotiate the whole thing.
Which, given everything, was probably as close to the best she was really going
to be able to get from the being.

More than she really expected,
actually. She’d kind of expected threats and growling, with her dying later
that afternoon.

“Hmmm. Well, I don’t need a lot
more cash at the moment. I have ridiculously low overhead now, you know? I
don’t suppose you have anything else to trade? For some extra time, I mean.” To
her that wasn’t that valuable a commodity, since what was she really going to
do, go to his house and drag him out into the street for a spanking? Her odds
of getting that done, given how kinky he seemed, would be a lot better than
actually killing him. It might even have been funny, if she wasn’t quite so
ticked at him.

“I could give you an amulet that
will let you regrow your arms and legs inside six months? It’s worth several
billion dollars. Probably more than that, in the current market.”

She snorted at him, wondering if
he was just being a tease.

“I already grew those back,
thanks. You seem to have forgotten how cool I am. Got anything else?”

There was silence on the line,
for a longer time than she would have suspected from a Greater Demon. Finally,
there was a gentle chuckling sound. It actually didn’t sound too insane, all
things being considered.