Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (33 page)

It probably showed how immature
and foolish she was, but Eve was pretty darned shocked when Darla handled the
problem of her home being invaded, and being trapped in a magical medallion,
however that worked, by letting The Ferryman go, with no more than a dark
chuckle.

“Don’t forget to handle the funds
and favors. You might also start thinking of what to trade with Eve for the
work she plans to help you with… The Mistress of Souls. It would be… A bit
outside of reality’s bounds to think she cannot work out a treaty of
some
kind.” The good looking blonde girl smirked a little, her face nearly haughty,
as if she were in total control of the situation, and the being in front of her
hadn’t just told her that a group of incredibly powerful beings was trying to
kill her little sister.

Then again, she was a Greater
Demon. It was hard to remember that sometimes. Eve had been told, so many times
it was practically a drone in the back of her mind now, that that sort of being
didn’t have to feel anything they didn’t want to. Being afraid, or even caring
more than academically about Keels wouldn’t help things in the moment, so Darla
wasn’t going to waste her time on it. It was kind of like being a
super-psychopath, at a guess.

Why feel things that weren’t
going to work for you in the moment?

The Ferryman, or Cart Wright,
whatever the real name was, got up slowly, his neck looking better but still
greatly damaged. Someone had kind of ripped it off, and then repaired it with
the magical equivalent of superglue, and duct tape. Which, Eve had to admit,
was kind of neat, even if it had taken a long time and the Greater Demon should
have been totally dead for hours. How that had worked, she didn’t know exactly,
but it was probably all about whatever made them all so tough in the first
place. That, or some kind of trick that she just didn’t know about. Keeping
your heart in a jar at a different location, or whatever.

Slowly, and carefully, still
clearly feeling the effects of the damage she’d delivered, the Greater Demon
walked toward the outside door, and didn’t speak again. Darla didn’t try to
force the issue either, letting him go. If he was a male. He looked like a girl
at the moment and was called Ferryman, but did that really mean anything? More
to the point, given how easily they all switched genders and forms, did it
really matter ever?

There was a flare of magic from
outside the garage door, after the thing, the little one for people to go in
and out, swung shut. Eve felt it, but didn’t really know what it meant. Except,
she realized, she sort of did. It was like what Zack was always doing, going
into the Nodes. She’d been around enough for that for the idea to be familiar.
This was louder somehow. A lot more powerful seeming.

Given that Zack was the freaking
Line Walker, that probably meant there was wasted energy in the move here,
rather than him being weak at it.

Darla smiled at her, after that
happened.

“I need a snack. Come with me? We
might want to talk about some things.” There was no waiting, or hesitation in
the movement, the other girl just spinning on a heel and walking away quickly,
back up the three steps into the house. The whole thing was nicely decorated,
including the mat for them to wipe their feet on before going in. Not that
they’d have anything on their feet, coming from the clean garage like they
were. She made a shuffling motion anyway.

In case there was blood on her.

Darla turned to see the action,
then gestured for her to close the door behind her, and walked into the kitchen
so fast it was nearly a jog.

Then regardless of the promise
that had been given about talking, the thin and pretty girl grabbed cartons and
boxes of crap, snack cakes and ice cream, from various places, and sat down,
eating it all directly from the containers. About ten minutes in, with Eve just
sitting and waiting, she finally managed a few words, between bites.

“I was starving for… It seemed
like months to me, in that trap. How long was it really?”

“Um, I don’t know exactly. No
more than three or four days, if I was told correctly. Then, all my info on
that comes from the bad guys, I guess. We’re supposed to meet with Fram in
three days? It’s Friday now. Early though.” She didn’t count it all up on her
fingers, and the date was something she just didn’t know at the moment, but she
knew the day of the week. That would be enough for someone like Darla.

“Two days then. Good. The
perception was vastly distorted, but I haven’t lost that much time on any of my
other projects.” Then, with a bit more grace, she got up, and started preparing
real food for herself, eating it on actual plates this time, and not just
consuming whatever was at hand.

Eve felt a slight twinge of envy.
Not that she’d ever been the kind to love cakes and pies all that much, but the
sense of eating, of having that connection with humanity, was simply gone for
her now. Gone the way of the Dodo, and her sex drive. Letting that go, since
there was stuff to do, she thought, she waited, and tried not to be half as
clueless as she really felt.

“Should I… I don’t know, call up
Keeley and warn her or something?”

Darla had a bite of real mashed
potatoes, made with cream and butter, with just a hint of spices for flavor, up
to her mouth, but stopped, the fork hovering inches in front of her lips.

“That’s not a bad idea. You need
to deal with her. Carefully. Sell the information to her. I know that it seems
mean, but when you’re playing at this level, you can’t just be her friend, or
people, Greater Demons, will use that against you, and possibly her, later. It’s
less than optimal, you being tied up in these things already. Worse, Fram is
going around giving you a name. Snowflake. Well, at least it’s pretty.” She ate
then, as Eve got up, and sneered, a bit grumpily.

“It’s an insult. Short for
Special Snowflake. I don’t know where it comes from, but Barb, from work? She
called me that a lot. It pisses me off, which is no doubt why Fram has been
spreading it around for me. I can’t claim that it’s actually hurting me, can I?
It isn’t against our agreement. I never even thought about setting things up so
that he couldn’t call me names. He’s not even doing
that
too much, as
far as I know. I’d give him one too, in retaliation, but I doubt it would
bother him much.”

Unless it did, and then he came
at her for real, not acting all nice and polite like he had been so far. With
her. He’d killed people, or ordered them killed, and that wasn’t good, but the
odds were, Greater Demons were always just going to walk on that score, weren’t
they? He might have to pay a fine or something, but that wasn’t the same thing
as being punished for it. Worse, punishment probably wouldn’t work. You
couldn’t change his mind enough to make him good by doing bad things to him.
That barely worked with Humans. There was no way it would do anything of note
to him.

Thankfully, none of that was for
her to look into. It was all Zack, and the others’, job.

Darla took more than several
bites, quickly and politely, not slopping things around or cramming them into
her mouth, even as the food vanished from the table for a while. She was
breathing, but timing it between bites, it seemed. Like an athlete, or
competitive eater might. It was impressive, after a fashion.

When it was clear that Darla
wasn’t going to say anything on the topic at hand, probably agreeing that
getting petty revenge wouldn’t be a good idea, Eve got up to use the phone in
the other room. It was in a nice wooden cabinet. The same one that the blue and
green doomsday device was on, actually. Opening the little door, she pulled the
slim black hand piece out. It was very high tech, and not the same one that had
been there five years before, when they were all in high school.

Eve dialed the number from
memory, since she’d made a point of doing that for all the numbers she was
supposed to use regularly.

On the third ring, it picked up,
Keels sounding like her normal self. That could mean anything, from having just
come from a fight for her life, to sitting down for a snack herself.

“Hey, buddy. I have some news,
that you might want to trade for?” She didn’t announce who it was, even though
that might have been polite.

“Oh? What kind of information? Or
can’t you tell me without ruining its value?”

That was an interesting way to
put it, and would have told her friend a lot, right there, she knew. Eve was
silent for a moment, thinking, then shrugged.

“A hundred million and three
small favors to be named later big? Really, it’s bigger than
that
, I
think, but you might know part of it already. I can’t know what you do, so…
Right. You get the idea?”

“Hmm? That is big then. Fifty
million, and two small favors, to be judged by me? I don’t really want to pay
too much for something I probably already know, but you are
Eve
, so it
might be good.”

She nearly just gave in then,
since it was all monopoly money and wishes to her, so far. Even saying the word
million made it seem fake to her mind. The idea was to make it seem more
important to
Keeley
though, so she’d know it wasn’t fake, or a little
thing, even if it was. It
could
all be a setup, after all.

“Eighty million, and two favors,
but one of them has to be, um, more medium sized? You can decide to do it or
not. I don’t have anything in mind, right now.”

“All right. Will you be waiting
for the funds to clear first, or can you tell me now?” It was nearly like the
girl on the phone was suppressing a chuckle. Like they were playing a game.
Maybe they were, by her standards?

Darla poked her head into the
room and spoke softly, from the door.

“Tell her to come here. As soon
as she carefully can.”

Eve repeated the words, then
added some of her own.

“
Very
carefully. That’s
important.”

“Be right there then. Twenty
minutes? I need to do my hair first.”

“Sounds good. Later.”

Darla went back to the kitchen,
to get more food, and gestured for her to sit.

“She’ll have to go by some
alternate routes, so this could take a while.” Between bites of what seemed to
be roast beef, and smelled hot and fresh, even though there hadn’t been time to
make any, Darla beamed at her, for some reason. “I’m very proud of you, by the
way. Not just for rescuing me, or taking out The Ferryman like that, either.
You dealt with The Mistress of Souls like a grown up. Now if I could only get
Zack to do that. I swear, he has sex with a girl a few times and he suddenly
acts like they’re
people
or something. That’s a flaw for one of our
kind. Really, you should exploit that, while he works on fixing it. Keeley
still bargains like a hippy, too, so that can work to your benefit. Speaking of
such things, I kind of owe you as well, for coming to find me, like that.”

Eve nodded.

“I walked right into the trap here.
My guess is that they were going to kill me. To get me out of the way? That
thing with The Vile earlier,
if
it was him, I mean. Then calling me
here, it pretty much had to be a set up.” That being the case, she kind of
wondered how she’d won at all.

Darla took another bite, of well
buttered bread this time and nodded.

“Or not. My guess is that they
were buying time, while the rest of the trick was set up. Their mistake was not
taking you seriously enough. It’s a rare Vampire that can take down a Greater
Demon like that, but it can happen. We aren’t eternal, or indestructible. Hard
to kill, but most of the time we avoid that kind of thing, or destroy our
enemies first, from a distance. What you did though… Bringing him
back
like that, it was fantastic. I mean that, too. As far as I know, no Vampire has
ever bothered to even try it. I don’t know that any of them could have done it,
but it was the act, not the ability, that did the trick. I’ll bet that some
little Demons are going to be rethinking their plans for you, tonight. Once The
Ferryman tells them about this.”

Eve knew she was thinking a lot
more slowly than Darla was. The thing with her friend was that she ate for a
while longer, giving her that time to consider things. At first she was worried
that the Greater Demons would come for her, seeing her as a threat to them. It
was why they were coming for Keels.

It wasn’t true though, was it?
When she’d had a chance to end one of that sort, but had needed information,
and not wanting to piss off Darla, Zack and Keeley, she’d saved the Demon.
Because it made sense at the time.

Why would anyone feel threatened
by that?

All they had to do was treat her
like a sensible person, and not force her into taking actions that would harm
them, later.

Then, that was really all they
had to do with Keels, but there they were, trying to make a hash of things
already. That was because The Mistress of Souls was apparently a lot scarier
than The Snowflake.

That thought reminded her to have
a long talk with Barb, when she saw her next.