Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (4 page)

She
nodded.

“You
mean because I’m so hot? I hear that.”

Edom
chuckled.

“You’re
ready, Barb. So is Eve.” He just spoke, even though the small phone was to the
far side of her own head. They could all hear the conversation, after all. It
was one of their powers.

The voice
on the phone took an audible breath, and then spoke, calmly.

“Can we
meet here? Or, I guess we can meet up at Troy’s place? Make sure to let me know
if he tells you to take a hike. I can meet you someplace else, if needed.”

“Got it!
He won’t though. I don’t think he can see me as a threat. He
shouldn’t
either, but Edom did mention bringing you a baseball bat, just in case.”

“See you
when I get off work then?”

They
both said goodbye, and hung up, with the other girl going first. Then she
called the club, since Troy was the assistant manager there. That meant he
worked most nights, given that Ed had two jobs and the other one was as the
number two man at the local embassy for his people.

Their
people.

It took
a few minutes for Troy to get on the line.

“Troy Lopez,
how may I help you this evening?”

“Hey
Troy boy! It’s me, Eve. I was wondering, can I crash with you today? Barb, too?
I was kidnapped last night. I fought my way out, because I’m clearly
incredible, but I might need to hide for a bit, until we find the peeps that
took me.” She had to take another breath, and let a little laugh creep into her
voice. “Oh, also, I’m totally dead now. I have the fangs to prove it, and
everything.”

There
was a pause this time, but Troy answered her with a pleasant enough tone to his
words.

“My
house is yours, like always. You were kidnapped? What the fuck?”

“Yeah, I
know! On my first day too, so, talk about annoying. Thanks though. I’ll try not
to drink you. That’s why Barb is coming, in case she has to bash my head in to
get me to stop. So far I’m doing all right that way, so it looks like all that
practice I got, starving myself, is paying off. Just, you know, try not to hug
me, or wave your yummy blood filled self under my nose, for a bit.” She cleared
her throat, but smiled, looking at Ed out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, Edom
also said that I could get a job there, cleaning the floors and scrubbing out
the toilets, as long as I can show that I’m not a complete freak that will eat
the patrons. Isn’t that cool? I
know
how much you love clean restrooms.”

“Who
doesn’t? Sounds cool. I’ll get you a toothbrush, so you can hit the porcelain
just right.” There was a chuckle, and then a confirmation of when they should
be getting in.

Then she
just had to ride, for what felt like fifteen hours. It was six when they got
into Vancouver, but they didn’t head straight to Troy’s, stopping by Ed’s house
first. It was a big thing, meant to have both a lot of space, and be impressive
if anyone came to visit.

He went
straight to the fridge though, and pulled a small four ounce bottle of blood.

The
good
kind. It had at least six fresh links to it, and the glass was warmed in a
metal pot, the contents poured into a mug when it was body temperature. Then it
was placed in front of her. Slowly.

Eve
didn’t touch it, even as the scent, heady and full, reached her nose. It was a
trick, after all. Though not really. She’d been
told
what to expect. She
wasn’t allowed to feed until given permission. No matter how hungry she was. Most
of the younger vamps would have snagged the cup up and started straight in, but
if they tried it, they’d be hit, until they managed to sit for a while.

It was
hard, and she fidgeted, a bit. Then, taking a deep breath, the scent trying to
drive her wild, she forced herself to relax and wait. Edom was poised to
strike, but held himself still, like a master with a dog that was being trained
to stay. As if his
moving
could set her into motion? She had more
control than that. She thought.

Waiting
was hard, but needed.

Several
minutes passed, and he picked up the cup, taking a sip.

Then he
handed the mug to her.

“Go
ahead. Slowly though. Try to separate out the different links. Can you do
that?”

She
doubted it. There was a pink glow to the whole thing, meaning it had energy,
and tendrils coming off of it, but she couldn’t really track them all. She
focused, and took the smallest sip she could manage, then another, which got
her body to grab the blood, and scramble for the links. After that she kind of
felt most of them.

“I… Have
four links? One to the girl from earlier. There should be more than that. Here,
let me try again.” She took a third drink, this one a bit bigger, but didn’t
let herself slam the whole thing down. She had instructions after all, and
really wanted to look good.

It was
hard, but power was all about mastering herself, and that was all Edom was
trying to coach her into. Even if he beat her later, that was what he really
wanted for her. That was one of the reasons she’d picked
him
to make her
one of them. She’d had others to choose from, but Ed was one of the rare people
that wanted her to be successful, just because it was what
she
wanted. Lenore
had offered too, and was older, as well as more powerful than Ed, but her main
focus was in keeping Zack happy. That, and using Eve for her own ends.

That was
fine, and part of Vampire culture, but really, since her goal was power for
herself
,
Eve knew that Edom was the better choice. He’d nurture her more, and make sure
she had the opportunities she could handle, not just the ones that served him
best. It would be up to her to make certain the whole thing was rewarding and
paid off for the man.

She left
the cup half full, and set it down, even as everything inside of her screamed
that she needed to finish it. The rest of the links came into being, and she
took a moment to try and sense them all. She had seven full links, which would
last about ten days, if all went well. That meant, logically speaking that she
didn’t need to drink anymore blood for that time. It was so tempting to bolt
the rest of the drink in front of her, but she took a deep breath and pushed it
back to Ed.

“I have
the links.” She expected him to drink the rest, given that it cost over a
hundred dollars per serving, but he stood, looking back at her, his teeth
shining, and then walked to the stainless steel sink and dumped the rest,
watching her closely.

She
started crying. Though she did manage to make it halfway into a laugh, almost
instantly.

“Fuck…
That’s
hard
to do. I should distract myself. Do something useful,
maybe?” She felt like a junkie that had just decided to go cold turkey, and
actually shook a bit for a few moments. Standing she paced a bit, the scent of
the warm blood still fresh in the air.

Her
master smiled at her and winked.

“You can
do it. In fact, you already
have
. Keep it up.”

Then he
waved her back out to his car, which was red, pretty, and made her want to give
him a blowjob. That was interesting, since she didn’t want to have sex, really.
Just suck him off, because he had a great car. That was why men had things like
that, wasn’t it? To attract women?

She
didn’t mention it, since Edom wouldn’t get anything out of her doing that for
him particularly, she didn’t think. For Vampires sex was either a lure, used to
keep their Human blood donors happy, or a dominance thing. Basically, the idea
was that if another person could make you do something you didn’t want to, they
had to be more powerful than you were. She just had to admit that one though. A
lot of people were stronger than she was. Tougher.

Fewer
now though, than the day before.

The trip
to Troy’s didn’t take long, though she had to wait, because she didn’t have a
key for the place. Edom started to stay with her, but she waved him away,
smiling.

“I
should be fine here. I promise, if anyone comes to steal me away, I’ll run like
the wind. Though really, I think I’ll wait in the back, over the fence?” Troy
would come in through the back, after all, and be there well before Barb got
off work. For a moment she wondered if that was a poor idea.

It was
pretty clear that Edom thought it was, but he nodded at her.

“Enough
rope to hang yourself, if you aren’t as good as you think you are. Of course,
if Troy goes down, we both die, so keep that in mind.”

That was
probably true enough. After all, he was best friends with a Greater Demon, but
a slave to another one. Plus his sometimes girlfriend, Anne, was one too. Zack
might
let Eve off if she accidently killed his friend, and Finias
would
.

Anne on
the other hand would rape her to death, then bring her corpse back to torture
some more. That girl wasn’t well balanced, even for one of her kind, and that
was saying something.

“Incentive?
Plus… I like Troy. I’ll hang out here though, until Barb comes.”

Better
safe than sorry, wasn’t it?

Her
master nodded, then left without telling her to be good. She knew that one
though, didn’t she?

Hopping
over the wooden fence in the back was ridiculously easy. She placed one hand on
top, and vaulted over the thing, which was six feet tall. Her landing, on the
concrete of the other side, was gentle, and she bent her knees to absorb most
of the force, slowly. Then she parked herself, butt on the dry, but cool
walkway. It was hard under her, and she was lean enough that her tailbone was
pressing against it.

That
didn’t hurt, really, but was different feeling. Partially because she really
didn’t feel it as discomfort.

Blinking,
she analyzed that part of her new life.

There
was the sensation, but no pain? She punched her fist into the cement, hard
enough to make a sound, and noticed that it felt like it always had, only the
way she
thought
about it was subtly different.

“Cool! I
never loved pain anyway.”

She
waited, resisting the urge to jump into the air, because that was the kind of
thing that the neighbors might notice. Instead she just waited, which seemed to
take forever, even though she could feel morning coming. It was a bit away
still, and the sky wasn’t getting light yet, but she felt herself slowing a
bit. It wasn’t like getting tired at all. That was a shock too. Like the thing
with pain.

It was
different. Torpor, they called it. She understood why now.

Troy got
there about half an hour later, just as the sky was starting to lighten up a
bit. To her it was as bright as high noon, but the sun wasn’t even that close
to being up yet and wouldn’t be for about an hour. It hurt though, like a giant
point of pain coming into the sky. She stood as the cute guy walked toward her,
out of his garage.

“Hey!
I’m waiting back here so that no one will think my stalking skills are
lacking.”

It was a
joke, but Troy just nodded.

“Good to
know you aren’t slipping that much. Here, come on in.”

She
shook her head, and moved a bit away from him. He was glowing with energy, and
smelled like a combination of body spray and musk. It was
delicious
. She
could hear him moving through the air, and his heart thumped strongly enough
that it was hard to miss, pumping lovely, bright red blood through his miles of
arteries.

“No can
do. You smell
incredible
by the way, and not in a sexy way. So, you get
the idea? I’m going to stay out here until we have a proper chaperone. It
shouldn’t be too long.”

Though
she did move closer to the garage, away from the nifty snack treat that her
former boyfriend represented to her. On the good side, her mouth didn’t water
over it. On the bad, her fangs had popped out, getting ready to drain all the
life he had within him, even if that was a stupid thing to do.

He just
waved at her, and made a peace sign with two fingers, because he thought it was
cool. It probably meant he was a hipster though, since no one did that now.
They hadn’t for at least as long as she’d been alive.

Twenty-one
years, before she’d died the day before.

Honestly,
she’d have thought it would have been a bigger deal to her than it was. She was
dead. Her life hadn’t ended though. It had only gotten better.

Eve had
gone from being a strong, capable girl the day before, to a powerful, kickass,
Vampire. That didn’t mean no one could, or would, touch her again, but she was,
more or less, safe from the things that had haunted her dreams.

No
pedophiles were going to trade drugs to her mother for her ass again, were
they? Not that they could, or would have before, but now, if it came down to
it, she could take on all but the most powerful of beings to protect herself.

The
rest, handling those few that were still a threat, that would take more. She
needed to learn and make contacts. Start some kind of business that would let
her rise in the Vampire world, maybe? She kind of had an idea for that already,
too.