Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (28 page)

These
people didn’t have that going on for them. Just hunting rifles.

Rather
than call her a liar, or suggest her imagination was too big, Ed just moved
toward the door.

“Show me?”

Nodding
she turned and started jogging away, not wanting to go full speed inside if she
didn’t need to. So far it had worked well enough, but hitting the front door,
or
Brian
, who was on it already in his blue club jacket, too hard would
be a poor plan. She kind of liked him, even if he was a bit bad at his job.
Letting snipers get set up like that… It would probably be a crushing blow to
his ego, wouldn’t it?

He gave
her a funny look when she jogged past him, with Edom directly on her heels.

“Get
inside. There are shooters around us.” She muttered the words, doing it slow
enough to make sense. The instant she turned to look at Edom, she moved, going
as hard into the pain as she could. It burned, and tried to make the night glow
white to her eyes. That was an illusion, a thing inside her head, but it was
hard to set aside.

Her
maker kept up with her, walking like she was doing. Still moving at speeds that
would nearly be too fast to see. If it wasn’t for the horrible suck of using
her power, she would have considered becoming a super hero. Vamp girl. She
could wear fishnet stockings and pasties on her nipples. It wouldn’t go with
the running shoes she had though, so Eve decided not to bother with the idea.
Maybe next Halloween? Slutty superhero? That sounded like a costume, didn’t it?
Empowering
and
demeaning at the same time. Who wouldn’t love that? She
pushed harder, since going slow wouldn’t help them at all.

The fun
part was getting up on the top of the buildings though. For once, she meant
that fun in an honest to god joyful fashion, which would have made her smile if
not for the rest of it. All she did there was move at the side of the things,
and
run
up them, She couldn’t go up forever, but with a bit of clever
climbing she got to the third story of the first one without any problem. She
knew she could do all of them, since she’d just done it a few minutes before.

There
was a man set up, looking ready to shoot Brian, who was
just
starting to
go inside. He barely moved though, and the finger was slowly tightening on the
trigger. Looking at it, she took a breath, schooling herself first, so she
wouldn’t scream in agony. It worked, though she didn’t sound conversational
like Bey had managed earlier. The day before now? She liked not needing to
sleep, or would when it got less horrible to bear, but she was seriously losing
track of time.

“I need
a calendar.” She glanced at Edom, who stared at her, but didn’t seem to think
she was being sane. “Can you stop this one? I’ll get the other two?” There was
a nod, and he moved in on the man’s back.

He was
thin, but kind of hot. Human though, like she’d thought. That, or a Mage,
pretending to be one, but if that was the case, he wouldn’t be using a gun,
most likely. This kind of thing could get you killed, where fighting with magic
at a distance was a lot safer. It was the way she would have done it, if it
were up to her, and she were the Mage.

Moving
faster than before she moved to the edge of the roof and then jumped the
hundred and twenty feet to the next one she wanted. It was a bit like flying,
since she felt like she was going slowly, regardless of what anyone else would
see. The wind pressed against her front, almost lifting her into the air. She
actually overshot a bit, and nearly went over the whole place, but managed to
set a foot down just in time to prevent that. This building was a brick five
story with a flat top to it. There was some kind to gritty paper tile on it,
which meant it had nice traction. The woman that was getting ready to shoot
wasn’t actively trying yet. That meant Eve could afford to slow down, so that
when she slapped the woman in the back of the head it wouldn’t kill her. It did
make her face meet with the metal of the weapons eyepiece. It had a wooden
handle on it. The stock, she thought it was called.

That was
kind of old fashioned, but a bullet could still kill people.

Especially
Humans that had dressed to dance, not get into a gun battle. A few patrons had
already started to arrive, too.

Grabbing
the weapon, she broke it, then hastily patted the shooter down, taking the
knife she had, which was about seven inches long and straight, and breaking
both the rifle, and it, before moving to the next attacker. That one didn’t go
as well, since he moved at the last second, and her fist crushed his skull,
rather than just knocking him out.

Talk
about
sloppy
. She’d wanted to question them all. Now there would only be
two of them.

They
also had to remove a body too.
Bodies
, since it turned out that Edom had
a choice of either killing his man or letting Brian die. It was better to not
have the shot go off, since that would attract attention and give their club a
bad reputation. Of course, Eve realized suddenly that she didn’t know how she
knew that to be the case. Ed didn’t call out or anything, she just understood
what had happened. Even better, she knew that she was supposed to use her speed
to carry the dead man she’d made to her car, which was parked on the far side
of the club. Ed would get there first, and then both bodies would be put in the
trunk. She winced at the idea, but didn’t have a better plan.

A
tarp
would have been nice though. Thinking about it, she wondered if they’d have one
inside the club? She didn’t have time to go looking for it. Especially not
trying to carry a body at the same time. If it was hard to avoid detection just
running, it was even more difficult to do it carrying a person that outweighed
you by at least fifty pounds. She knew the drill though now, and ran, moving
into as much pain as she could take, then striving for more. Edom did beat her
there. He’d also
clearly
gotten himself inside, and gotten a brown tarp
to line her car trunk with.

That, of
course, was why she loved him. He was the
best
Vampire master ever.
Clearly. It didn’t take long to get the trunk open and put both bodies in. The
hard part, she bet was doing it slowly enough that her trunk lid wasn’t ripped
off. That or body parts. These guys were still fresh enough to be messy, if
they weren’t careful.

As soon
as it was done, she looked at her dark friend and smiled.

“I have
a live one. On the roof. What should we do with her?” She was speaking very
fast, but her mentor was able to pick it all up.

“My
office. Don’t be seen.”

That was
harder than it sounded like, since she had to go in the front door, to the
alley in the back, where she took the trash out, then push the heavy metal door
open, and dash to get the woman from across the street where she’d been set up
and get her back before it closed.

Thank
God the woman wasn’t chubby. That would have slowed her down too much, Eve was
certain. No, she was more of a regular looking woman. Not all that old, as soon
as she got her inside where she could easily see her, under the lights of the
office. Troy was still there too, having never left.

Edom
closed the door, and helped to get the unconscious lady into one of the wooden
chairs.

“She’s
still breathing, and her pupils don’t look blown. My guess is that she’ll wake
up in a few seconds. Troy, do you have anything we can tie her up with?”

Even if
he didn’t really get what was going on, he knew enough not to ask questions
yet, and went to find something. What he came back with, less than fifteen
seconds later, was Barb, and a full silvery roll of duct tape. The ugly silver
kind. It was the other Vampire who did the honors though, using the stuff
liberally to hold the woman in place. A thin piece was placed over her mouth,
to prevent screaming.

Edom,
maddeningly, looked at her and then Barb.

“You two
can handle the club tonight? Troy and I will be busy. Barb, you’re in charge of
the club itself. I’ll pass the word on that. Eve… I want you on security. This
could be an opening move. If it is… Kill them. Don’t try to take prisoners.
Either we get the information we need, or we don’t.”

Barb
gave the man a strange look, one that seemed a little snotty to Eve, but Edom
winked at her.

“Troy
told me about how I hated my step-sister, so making her stand around outside
all night is in keeping. I actually
like
you, so you can claim that I’m
making you the assistant manager.” He glanced at the other man then, and
smiled, a large and toothy grin. “By the way, you got a promotion, Troy. You’re
going to be in charge of this place, and I’m moving to open the new T2LA in
Portland. If it works out you’ll be there sometimes, too. The goal is to have
five places up and down the coast in the next ten years. So impress me, and it
could lead to bigger things.”

Barb tilted
her head a bit, and gave a real seeming smile.

“Wait,
so I’m
really
the new Assistant Manager?”

“Yep.
You’re ready for it. You have been for a while now. I’d been planning to take
some time off, because of Eve, but frankly that just isn’t going to be needed.
It leaves my schedule suddenly very open. And here Lenore always acted like
dealing with young Vampires was hard.”

Barb
snorted at the words, her eyes lighting up.

“It
is
.
Just because you got the special snowflake girl doesn’t mean it will be that
easy when Troy tries it.”

The man
looked away, as if trying not to hear people talk about him, probably thinking
they were teasing, but Eve shrugged.

“Yeah,
it kind of does mean that. I’ll help you with training for it, if you want? I’m
sure the others will too. Zack and Keeley? Maybe not Darla, but we can ask. I
should go outside though, in case this one isn’t alone?” The woman, who had
badly dyed hair that looked wispy and lavender, opened her eyes and tried to
scream.

Duct
tape stopped that though, being a very useful product. Eve leaned in, and
patted her on the arm, not even taking a bit of her delicious smelling blood.
There was some weeping from her face, around the right eye, but she didn’t even
let her fangs drop. Barb did, but got them put away pretty fast, without the
woman noticing.

“Please
tell these two what you were doing? I have to get back to work. Barb?” It
wouldn’t take either of
them
to get the truth out of the woman.
Honestly, Eve wasn’t truly certain why Troy was being taken along. Not until
they all left in his car, then it made some sense.

She
grimaced and then sighed, going to get a headphone set, and running to check
the whole place first, using her full speed, to make sure it wasn’t dirty. She
did have to empty a few bags of trash already, meaning someone had been there
during the day. The restrooms were clean enough however, thankfully.

Then she
met Brian at the door. He was back outside, but she decided lying was in order,
just in case anything happened.

“Edom
got word that some rival club was going to be trying to mess up our business.
Graffiti, or by killing us. No one is really sure. I was put on outside patrol
all night, while he and Troy go off and… Honestly, I don’t know. Are they
dating? That Troy guy
is
kind of cute.” Edom wasn’t supposed to like
her, and that would translate to her not thinking all that highly of him, no
doubt.

Brian
grinned.

“Nah.
Not that anyone told me, and they would have, if those two were together. I
heard that Troy is the head honcho now?”

Eve shrugged,
making an effort to seem bored already. She didn’t feel that way.

“Yep.
Get this,
Barb
is second in command now, too. Ed mentioned something
about opening a second location in Portland, so I guess this is a good time to
impress him with how good we all are at this. Well, that might work for you,
anyway.
Me,
he just hates. Still, it can’t hurt to try and get in on
that.”

They
chatted about that idea for a minute, until she sighed and started slowly
trudging out into the night. She’d have to make a point of being seen, or else
the man would probably have to report how lazy she was to Troy. At the same
time she needed to really search too, and watch the crowd coming in.

If it
were her doing the attacking, she’d have made a point of setting it up in several
waves. First the guns from the rooftops, then shooters in the crowd too. Maybe
even ending the whole thing with a wave of bombs. That got her to groan,
because she didn’t know anything about that kind of device, did she?

Everything
had to be checked then, from the bottom of every car there, including the new
ones that came, to every single cubby and box inside.
While
people were
working, and she kept up regular rounds outside without leaving the back door
open. It was probably wasted time, except that, when she actually found a small
device in a box that was marked as being white wine, her idea on that part
changed suddenly. Clearly, she was secretly brilliant, and not just trying to
be a goody-two-shoes.

“Fuck.
Barb! I found a bomb in here. I’ll take it out the back. Then let me run a
sweep inside and out and get everyone away from here.”