Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (23 page)

The hard
part wasn’t getting the orders, but the fondling. True, most of the men that
did it
tried
to be casual about it, just bumping into her by accident,
but a few just stuck a hand out and felt her up as if she were there just for
that. One of them, a guy that was probably too drunk to really know better, as
early as it was, actually rubbed over her left nipple several times with his
thumb, as his friends looked on. She responded, getting hard on that side. She
did manage not to backhand him into a wall though, and instead leaned in.

“Look,
you seem like a nice guy, but I have to warn you, don’t try that with any of
the other girls. The bouncers will
have
to toss you out for it. So play
nice. What can I get for you? Coffee for
you
, of course…” She winked at
the one that still had his hand out, but who slowly pulled it back. He didn’t
want coffee, but she knew that he wasn’t getting more booze there. Not coming
in that drunk already. She turned it into a joke though, and served his
friends, then got one of the bartenders to make an ice coffee, which she
planned to pay for herself, if she had to.

Christa
pulled her aside, before she went back, walking right next to her the whole
time.

“Not
bad! Half the girls freak the first time something like that happens. You’ve
done this before?”

“Nope. I
was just hugely abused as a child. I have boundary issues, so things like that
just don’t bother me as much as they do most people. What are we supposed to do
with drunk people though?”

“Pretty
much this. They get coffee on the house, if they’ll take it, and kicked out if
they pitch a fit about it. We should get with Brian on that. He’s in charge of
security on Sundays. Let me flag down someone with a headset…”

She took
care of that, while Eve went back to the table, and took the money for the
drinks. There was a bit of change needed, but the others all told her to keep
it. Ice coffee tried to grab her ass, but she took his hand gently and held it
instead.

“Hey!
Are you actually
trying
to get me fired on my second day?” She chuckled
about it, and moved back, letting him go. He didn’t try to follow her, but did
keep looking her way, for the rest of the evening.

There
were other men that tried things like that, but it really was mainly kept to
bumping into her. Two women did that too. Since one of them was Tammy, the
short and perky looking brunette, Eve decided to take it as a compliment.

They
kept giving her more tables as the night went on, and by the end had her doing
all of them by herself. That was harder than she thought it would have been,
but the tables weren’t all full, so she was willing to bet that it was about
like working the night before would have been for the rest of them. They kept
it up, sitting at the bar and sipping soft drinks as more people danced and
finally started pairing off to go home. They closed at two, when the bar had to
close. A few sad people, ones that had mainly just sat there the whole night
alone, left without anyone.

Without
waiting to be asked, she pulled out all the tips she’d gotten, and put the
wadded up bills on the bar in front of the trio of very lazy seeming ladies,
and made a face.

“
I
need to get to cleaning. You three can split up your filthy, filthy earnings
for the night while I do that. I’m changing out of
this
thing though.”
She gestured down at her shirt. It was straining across the front and if she
had to do anything athletic, it was probably going to tear in more than one
place.

She did
that in Troy’s office, with the door open, right in front of him. Brian the
bouncer was there, and stared at her while she did it, then sighed.

“All
right, I love you. So, are we getting married first, or is this just going to
be a dating thing?” The man was a bit beefy, but had good muscle under the
layer of fat. He wasn’t hot, but his face had character. Someone had broken his
nose, at least once, she noticed. It made him seem manlier. Not that he had big
problems there.

Troy
laughed.

“Yeah, I
wouldn’t, Brian. Eve is Edom’s step-sister. Their parents got married a few
years back? Though, seriously Eve, if you aren’t planning to put out, don’t go
flashing our guys here, yeah? It’s just mean. Unprofessional, too. So, how did
the night go?” He seemed really interested, so she answered, her face going
nearly blank.

“Not
bad? I don’t know how well I did, but I didn’t mess up too many orders, and
kept things together I think. Other than that? Well, I’m pretty sure that I
can’t tell if I’m doing well or not until I have more practice. It was kind of
slow. I’m up for security tomorrow? Or was that a joke?”

“Nope. I
want to try having some women on that all the time from now on. On the weekends
you’ll be doing that, too. Mainly watching and reporting, but if we need to
send someone in to handle naked women, you’re up. Ed said that you have a
couple of black belts?”

It was
true, so she nodded.

“Kajukenbo,
and Brazilian Jiujutsu.” She glanced at Brian, who probably weighed twice of
what she did, and wasn’t even close to being a tenth as strong. “That doesn’t
mean I’m secretly a gorilla though. I can pretty much keep myself from being
raped, and maybe knock out a big guy, if he isn’t ready for it, but other than
that I need to stick to smaller people. Wrestling huge men out the door doesn’t
work too well if you weigh a lot less than they do.” That was true too, but she
didn’t know what the bouncer would think about it. Rather than give her the
sneer she expected, there was just a nod.

“That’s
about right. It comes up though. We get women that won’t keep their clothes on,
which isn’t a bad thing, except that sometimes we have situations happening that
mean we can’t let that be a thing. It would be better if we had someone that
could take them out that won’t have a sexual assault charge put against them
when they do it. Be warned though, chicks like that
scratch
.”

“I bet.
Well, I can deal with it. So, seven tomorrow, or do I need to get here
earlier?”

Troy
looked at the other guy, who was still kind of staring at her chest, which was
covered with red now, and not as well defined.

“That
will work. After that, you get three days off. Unless you need the hours?” That
was a way of letting her have an out she knew. Or an in, if she was under
orders to be there.

“Yeah, a
whole day off! I’m working Wednesday and Thursday at Zack’s bookstore.
Stocking. So Janitorial here on Friday?”

“Yep.
So, we need to get things closed down. If we hurry we can get the flame dancers
repainted by four. I have the spray paint here.”

It was
behind the desk. He also had the tools they were going to need too.

The
whole thing didn’t take too long, but they
weren’t
out by four. They had
to take the pipes outside, and then put bits of wire in the holes on the tops,
so that the paint wouldn’t clog anything. That took a while. The painting
itself actually went faster, though it left gold stripes in the parking lot,
out behind the dumpsters. Then they had to wait nearly an hour for the long
things to be dry enough to handle, and paint the other side of them all, so
that the whole thing would be fresh.

That
left her there until nearly dawn, with a yawning Troy, who probably wasn’t that
tired yet. He normally didn’t go to bed until nearly nine, after all.

He
looked at her and shook his head as soon as they were done.

“Need a
ride?”

She
sighed, dreading the idea of being trapped out in the sun again.

“No… I
have to run it. I should go though, if I can. It’s nearly twenty miles from
here and the sun is already actually coming up. This will be fun.” She sounded
dire, but moved in, carefully and hugged him. He smelled delicious, she
noticed. Like blood and flesh.

Cologne
too.

“Sorry
about the hassle of having to work with me. Thanks for being so understanding?”

He
grinned.

“Well,
you know, free labor, so I can’t complain too much. Um, are you still actually
staying at my place?”

“That’s
the plan. I can get out if you want? Or if this is about sex… I actually can’t
yet. I’ll get Barb to blow you again though, if you want? That, or Tammy. I
think she might like girls though.
Really
friendly.”

“
Also
employees. Which you are too now, so no, I didn’t mean that. I just hadn’t seen
you much.”

She got
that one, and patted his arm.

“Yeah, I
have a bet with Zack, kind of. Anyway, I need to get out of here. In case you
ever become a Vampire, the sun freaking
hurts
. Not that you should be a
pussy about it, since a lot of things do, if you want to be any good at it, I
guess. We can go over that later? Right now I should scoot.”

“Later
then.”

She
didn’t wait to get outside, pushing directly into the heavy pain that she’d felt
before, leaving her work shirt and jacket there. It would be easier than
carrying them.

It was
interesting, because she managed to keep her speed up, and while it hurt worse
than before, and it was clear she wasn’t going any faster, the sun didn’t really
make her feel like she was half dead yet. Oh, it was still early, but the day
before it had at the same point. This was better.

She
didn’t make it there in two minutes though, since it was light enough that she
had to hide more as she moved, darting behind things and going over fences and
hedges in a few places, so that drivers wouldn’t notice her too easily on the
road. There wasn’t that much traffic yet, which really made it all a lot
easier. Otherwise she’d have been reduced to walking again, she didn’t doubt.

No, it
took about twenty minutes, even as she tried to push herself into blistering
pain the whole time. Part of that was thanks to the sun though, which was
getting more painful as she moved, adding to how hard it was to do anything.

She was
ready this time when she stopped though, right in front of the outer mall door.
The glass showed her there, looking pale, but still cute enough. A little
thinner than she’d thought, actually. She’d never been big, or even normal
really, but now she was one of those women that looked a bit like they could
use a sandwich or two.

Smiling,
to hide her reaction to the wave of pain, she headed in. It should have been
pretty normal, since it was so early that no one would be out yet, but inside
the shop there seemed to be several Vampires surrounding Cormack. He had a
container of blood out, but there was shouting.

“Fuck
you! If you assholes want us to eat that crap you can damn well give it to us!”
This came from a short man… Who held a knife.

Because,
it was clear, these people, the four that stood there menacingly, were planning
on trying to rob Yoghurt World.

She
stopped for a half second, and then, for the first time since she’d become a
Vampire, Eve actually lost it. Pushing into as much agony as she could take, then
doing even more than that in her rage, she blasted into the place, and started
punching some people in the head.

It
worked remarkably well, actually.

It was a
mixed group, but they all seemed to be Classic Vampires, like she and Cormack
were. Older ones, if she had it right, being that they were still up and moving
around. Not that old, because they weren’t fast at all. She was slowed down
too, but then Bey had mentioned that all the Vampires of his line had that
unusual speed that he did. These people didn’t. There were three women, and the
man that had threatened Cormack.
Her
embassy buddy.

The man
was the one that she hit first, and his head pulped under her right hand,
spraying blood outward onto the poor guy behind the counter. The next one hit
took the blow on the sternum and her body flew backward, but she was alive. She
had a gun, which fired. Once. The aim was good, but Eve made her whole world
turn white for a second, the pain becoming so intense that she gasped involuntarily.
The bullet missed though, punching into the large lady behind her. That rocked
her back, but didn’t take her down at all. So far her own efforts to punch
seemed to be working best. She took the weapon, using a ducking motion while
sweeping the gun away, then ripping it from the Vampire’s hand. It was a
delicate thing, and her trigger finger popped right off. She also tripped over
her long skirt, because
that
was the kind of thing to wear to a strong
arm robbery.

She
screamed, but not for long, since Eve kicked her in the head, ripping it all
the way off with a single move. The large woman, who was lumpy for one of their
kind, and not pretty at all, died next. That left a tiny woman that looked
disheveled and wild, who held a stake. As in a piece of sharpened wood. She
drove the thing at her, but her moves were so slow that Eve didn’t even bother
to dodge out of the way, just blocking the wood itself, grabbing it and putting
it into the woman’s chest. She made a horrible moaning sound, but died after a couple
of solid punches to her head.

Then Eve
came back to normal speed, trying not to show how much that hurt. Her hand had
been pretty much destroyed, from all the punching. The right one. The left was
broken too, she thought, but she could still move it. She’d heal.
That
part was awesome. Everything hurt still, but that was just the sun coming up
for the day.

“Hey
Cormack. Um, you weren’t about to just talk them down, were you? If so, lie to
me, because
that
would make me feel stupid.”

There
was a long look then, and a slow, friendly smile.

“Not at
all. They were about to die, regardless.
I
would have managed it without
destroying one of the tables, possibly, but that isn’t your fault. We can’t
blame you for the actions of fools. Still, we need to move the bodies and get
this cleaned up. The mall opens to the public in a few hours. Lenore will be
here soon. I need to be leaving. For that matter, how are you still standing?”

“You can
fight the daytime dying thing. If you don’t give into it, it’s supposed to get
easier pretty quick. I’ll let you know in a few weeks? So far so good. Today…
Well, honestly I can’t tell how much easier it is. I keep hurting myself doing
different things. I feel less like I’m totally dead though.”

“Oh?
Well, that’s something then! Good then, lass. Help me with the bodies. We’ll
need to call for them to be taken away. I’ll do that while you do the rest?
Being your mess, as it were.”

That got
her to stick her tongue out, but it was a considering thing, not her being a
brat. Then, carefully, she pulled the bodies to the back, and got a shovel and
a Hefty bag. One of the heavy contractor types. It meant working fast, but
working together they had the bodies wrapped up in two blue tarps, and the
broken booth table moved to the back before Lenore got there.

She
looked around, and then glared, at Eve.

“If
you’re going to redecorate, I’d appreciate you asking first. What do you have
planned? If it isn’t good, I
will
beat you for it.” There was no overt
anger at least. Eve had to admit that she felt a thrill of fear over the threat
though. The woman really would do it, if her answer wasn’t good enough.

“Bodies
in the back. Four Vampires tried to rob us. Of
blood
. I sort of killed
them. Cormack was about to, so they didn’t notice me sneaking up on them.
Unfortunately one of them broke a table as she shot one of her friends. It’s in
the back.” Eve tried to act calm about the whole thing, trying to apply some of
the meditation tricks that Keeley had taught her.

Lenore
looked at Cormack, as if to check her story. Like she’d lie about that? It
would be too easy to confirm. Then the Ambassador didn’t really know if she
were a good liar or not, did she? Eve was, more or less.

Thankfully,
Cormack backed her up.

“It was
well done, too. They came armed, and at the cusp of light, hoping to use that
to cover their escape, no doubt. We couldn’t have left them alive, not after
trying something like that. To attack an embassy… It speaks to desperation, but
you’d think that if things were that hard for them they’d simply feed anyway.
True, it’s a risk, but they had to know that coming here like that would be a
death sentence. No one would think they could do that and walk away…” He looked
at Eve, which got Lenore to nod.

“Indeed.
The word that we have a young Vampire working here has likely gotten out. That
they presumed to think that we’d have anyone here that couldn’t handle
themselves is insane, as you implied, however. We should let people know that
it was Eve that destroyed them all. Did you call for disposal?”

Cormack
nodded, and Lenore moved to the back of the room, pausing only to put her coat
and purse away in her office before carefully unwrapping the blue tarps, to
examine the mess that Eve had made.

“My. You
truly
did
destroy them. What weapon did you use?” She tilted her head as
Cormack cleared his throat.

“Her
bare hands. Moved like you and Edom can. The first one nearly exploded all over
me. Speaking of which, I need to get back to cleaning. You too, Eve? Unless we’re
needed for something else?”

Lenore
shook her head, then wrapped the bodies back up.

“No, you
have the right idea, we need to open to the public on time. You need to leave
soon, too. Eve, are you feeling well enough to stay for the time being?”

She
nodded.

“The
plan has me here all day. I can grab Marcus up for any extra cleaning help we
need, when he gets here. If you can stand having him around?”

It was
suddenly a lot to ask, or at least it felt that way to her.

Lenore
shook her head.

“No, we
need to keep this in house. So, if you’d be willing to help?”

It was
oddly nice of her to phrase it that way. Rather than trying to question the
sudden politeness, she just moved to grab supplies.

“Right.
I can get this done.” She hoped.

In the
end she had to push into the pain again, even as she felt the sun above trying
to punish her for being undead.
That
didn’t seem to be any better, but
Zack had been right. She felt heavy and moved slow, but it was about half of
what it had been two days prior. The hallucinations were down too. She saw
tracers around everything, but when she used her trick to try and feel more
alive and awake it seemed to do a lot more for her that day.

When she
finished, and the mall opened at nine, she had to grab a small container of
blood, since half of her links were gone.

Making a
face she mentioned it to Lenore. That got a nod.

“Yes,
it’s not uncommon for heavy exertion to shake such things when you’re as young
as you are. It was probably the fight that did it, rather than the cleaning,
but you moved well at the task, to get it finished in time. Are you having
Human blood?” There was no condemnation to the words, but she shook her head.

“Are you
kidding? At the prices
we
charge? I’m giving the animal blood a try. I
need to anyway. If I can’t make it on this stuff then…” Well, then so what?
Selling it was still a good plan, and if it was harder to make do, she needed
to know that.

Lenore
moved over and took the container from her, but just started to warm it in a
hot water bath, using one of the small silver pans.

“It
should work well enough. Here, I’ll get this for you. You might want to see
about cleaning up? Also, I think I see your friend, from across the way?”

That was
a problem. She could get a shower, in several places at the mall, she knew. The
Alede embassy would let her use theirs she bet. They were all pretty sweet,
after all. Zack’s store had one too, and so did the power lifting gym. The
clothing would be harder. She was covered in blood, so that needed to change,
and what she was wearing was probably ruined. There was only one place at the
mall that had clothing she could both wear and that wouldn’t cost an arm and a
leg. Brand Village. It was the store front for the Shifter Embassy. They were
pretty cool actually, but you had to be born one of them to get into their
group. It wasn’t just wolves either. They had dozens of different types of
animals that were in with them.

Looking
down, Eve sighed.

“One of
these days I’m going to have to get a paying job. Well, after I eat, I’ll head
down to Brand Village and see about getting something to replace this. At least
things aren’t too busy yet. If anyone asks, I guess I can just tell them that
this was… I don’t know, it’s after Halloween already.”

Lenore
didn’t bail her out with a story to tell people, just handing her a warm mug of
animal blood. It was, after a fashion, comforting. Hungry or not, and it was a
lot more intense now that half the links she had were gone, she sipped
carefully. Taking her time.

That
meant she was still there doing it when Marcus came in, looking more ready for
the day than he had before. Cleaned up and with his hair brushed. He needed new
clothing too though.

“Good.
Come with me. We’re going to get some clothing. I ruined
my
outfit.
Blender accident. Yours just looks like it was gotten for you by your mom when
you were high school.”

He
blushed, and looked away.

Eve
winced then.

“Wait,
it really was? How do you expect to get women… never mind. Come with me. Bring
your debit card.”

She
didn’t ask Lenore to do her dishes, moving behind the counter to clean up after
herself instantly. Then less than a minute later she led her chubby, geeky,
friend out into the mall. Not that they were all that close yet. In fact, to be
honest, she still wasn’t all that certain she shouldn’t just kill him out of
hand. They already had people coming to take away bodies, and…

She
smiled at him, and took his hand. It was warm and full of life, but she had
eight solid links already and didn’t need him for food.

“So,
Mark. When is that role playing game thing? I told Maggie that I’d bring some
treats to the next one. Cupcakes or something. Wine. What do people like that
want?”

There
was a slow shrug, but he didn’t make her let go of his hand, puffing up a
little when they turned into the Shifter Embassy and Calley Hale, the second in
command there, looked at them. She hurried over, her freckled face practically
shining. Her whole body practically vibrated with life. Lovely, tasty, energy.
She glanced at the hands, though there was no judgment in it.

“Eve!
You brought me a man? Good thinking. I was about to go crazy in here. No one
has been in all day, and I was
almost
about to have to straighten things
up. So, anyway, thanks. I’ll take it from here.” She giggled then, and froze
when her hand brushed Eve’s, her eyes going wide. “Right! I’d heard, but had
kind of forgotten. So, what was the noise about earlier?”

Calley
was a Bat Shifter, and among other things that meant she had really great
hearing. So much so that Eve didn’t doubt she already knew the whole story.

“Like
you heard. Some losers tried to rob us. They didn’t. I need some new clothes,
but you know, they don’t actually pay me, so be kind to my wallet? Mark here
just needs a full wardrobe update. Soak him for all he’s worth. He’s loaded. My
stuff first, since I need to go and scrub the blood off.”

Calley
shrugged, a quick and intense movement.

“We got
your back, don’t worry. You can use the shower here. Catherine won’t be in
until later, but she won’t pitch a fit over that. You’re what, a size zero?”
There was no envy in the words, because the little Bat was even smaller than
she was. Not a lot thinner, but short, too. She was probably just going by what
she’d be wearing.

“Two? It
varies. I don’t need anything too flashy though. Something I can work in at the
yogurt shop?” That got Calley to run and find her some slacks, a tight shirt
that was nearly see through it was so white and some new socks. Her underwear
was fine, after all.

Then she
signaled for Ang to come over. The thin Asian man was hard looking and lean,
but smiled when he saw them.

“Wait,
actual customers? This early in the day? It must be Christmas.”