Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (14 page)

Next to her, listening closely,
Ginger looked freaked suddenly. It was the protégée thing, but she hadn’t
responded like that with Bey in the room with her…

Because, Lenore had been right
there, to protect her? Then it might have been the crack she’d made about
picking the bossy one to be her minion. Some Vampires might have had an issue
with that kind of thing.

Winking at the other girl, she
cleared her throat a little.

“Nothing like that, just your
buddy, Eve. I was wondering, there was a death reported to us, a few months
ago. Brian Smith. He was a bouncer at the Terran 2 LA? I’m supposed to look
into it, but I hit a wall. It’s like he never existed. I was wondering if you
could check your files? The police ones, I mean, not personal ones, unless you
have that kind of thing? Any help would be great, because otherwise I’m kind of
stuck.”

“One of my people called you
about it?”

“I think they spoke to Edom, but
yeah.”

They had to exchange more
information, but the woman assured her that she’d get back to her with that
information, just as soon as possible.

“I can send that by in the
morning? I’d rather not come in, personally, if that’s all the same. I
understand you might have some hard feelings toward my maker, and given my
position here, I can’t afford to die right now.” There was a lot of tension in
the words, as if she was really afraid that she’d be targeted for retaliation.
By Eve.

Like she wasn’t the sweetest
fucking Vampire ever? It pissed her off, but she grinned, and let her heart
settle a bit, the rage dying a little with a bit of focus.

“That works. I’m not holding
too
big of a grudge. Not the kind where I’d go after innocent law enforcement over
it, anyway. That would be great though, thanks.”

There was a doubting tone, and a
grunt, then the phone went dead.

Ginger actually took a step back.

“I didn’t know that. You’re The
Bey’s second? What are you?”

“
I’m
your best friend,
didn’t you notice how I had your back all day? Now, I think that’s about what
we can do for now, and we’re supposed to leave David alone, and not do all his
work for him, so, what do you think we should do?” She was the one that wanted
to be the boss, after all.

“Um, we could, um, have something
to eat? I normally have something about now. Only once a day though. I used to
need more, but Lenore put me on a diet.”

Eve nodded, “Because she’s smart.
Vampires don’t really need to drink blood every day, it just feels like it. I
only need to eat every week or so. Even then it’s just to give the links a
rest. Why don’t we skip out today, and have something in a few? The hunger
won’t get any worse, not having anything, I promise.”

“Oh… That sounds like something I
don’t want to do. That’s kind of the thing here though, isn’t it? I have to be
your slave, or else everyone will leave me again.”

“Slave? Why say that? You’re in
charge, like you just pointed out.
I’m
just saying that you shouldn’t be
a wimp, that’s all. If you want to get some animal blood, we can do that. I
have my card with me.” She waited, and felt a sense of reward when the light
haired vampire glared at her.

“Thanks. If I do then I’m a
failing, but it’s all my choice, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yep. Good catch there. Great
actually. Learning through shame. I’m thinking of writing a book on the topic.
We could try running, if you want? Back to Ed’s? I don’t know what he has
planned for the night, but he tends to keep the orgies to a minimum, so it
shouldn’t be too big of a problem. I live there. He never said I couldn’t have
people over.” It had never come up, to be truthful. That probably showed how
horribly boring she’d gotten, since she’d stopped having sex all the time.

“I guess. Does he have cable?
Lenore let us get that, a few years ago. I have some shows that I DVR.”

“Um, no. That’s kind of shocking,
to hear about Lenore. I bet it was Zack’s idea.”

“Oh. Still, it will take hours to
get there, unless you have a car?’

“Edom is using mine. He needs to
get a new one soon. Still, we can get there in a few minutes, even if you’re
painfully slow. You’re a day walking hard ass now, Ginger. You can use your
super speed now. It will hurt, but no worse than jogging in daylight, under the
full sun. Come on, it will be fun. Or, what’s the opposite of fun?
That
,
but it will be good practice. Try to walk, and do what I do.”

It didn’t go well, and really did
take about half an hour to get there. Mainly because Ginger kept stopping,
trying to catch her breath. Eve just stood there, not doing anything at all,
waiting for her to realize that she didn’t need to do that anymore. It took a
few tries, but the last five miles were done in one trip, the girl screaming on
the doorstep.

At least she looked mortified
over it. Eve didn’t even have to wait before speaking, since it hadn’t been a
hard trip at all.

“Well… That wasn’t even close to
what you can really do. Here, let’s get a shower, and then we’ll head back.
When we do it right the whole trip should take about five minutes.” Even for
the Vampire next to her. It would take a while for her to realize that though.

When she grabbed her clothes,
Ginger came with her, which was a bit strange. Then, without asking if it was
all right, she climbed under the warm stream of water that Eve had going. She
just stood there though, with the mottled glass door open. Waiting for Eve to
join her. It was weird, since there was no way that the other girl was going to
get any more turned on by it than she was, but she did it. Then tried not to
jump as Ginger started to soap her back for her.

“I’ve never… Done anything with a
girl before.” The words were tentative, almost frightened, but the cool hands
were ranging all over her back. It felt nice enough, but again, held the sex
appeal of washing dishes for her.

“I have. Not a lot, but I wasn’t
suggesting anything, when I said we should take a shower. I meant
I
should, and figured I’d be alone. Not that it’s a big deal, but I wasn’t
thinking…”

The girl nodded, her hair getting
even wetter as she stood there, blocking most of the falling water. Taking the
good spot. The scamp.

“I know, but, I’m in charge, and
you have to do what I say. Unless, you know, I’m told I can’t by someone over
me. No one said that, so… Um, you should go down on me. Eh… Now?” She was
trying to act in charge, and it was pretty cute, really. Eve thought about it
for a bit, then washed the other girl, from head to toe, and did the same to
herself, before getting on her knees. Her senses were way too keen to bother
trying this, if the other Vampire wasn’t going to be morning fresh.

She was kept there, working for a
while, until Ginger wanted to try it on her, experimenting. It felt
interesting, but the thrill that would have made it worthwhile for her just
didn’t come. It was contact, but not pleasure inducing.

Over the course of an hour, the
other girl inserted fingers into each of her holes, and asked for Eve to do the
same, to do things with her tongue, and then she did them back. It was about
curiosity though, and she went along with it. They had the time, so why not?
Halfway through, Eve started suggesting things though.

“Moan a little. Make sure you
keep breathing, and a few of the inhalations should be sharp. Like this.” She
mimicked what she meant, which would be good enough for low rent porn, and fool
about ninety percent of guys. Women would be harder that way, since they both
needed to control their faces better for that to work. It ended up being a
lesson in faking orgasms and sex noises, while breathing and blinking
correctly.

Then they got dressed, and ran
back to the mall. Slowly again. They did the same trip several times after that,
pushing harder on each one, however, until it only took about ten minutes. The
other girl just couldn’t get herself to take more pain than that yet.

When they got back to the mall,
at about six-thirty in the morning, the sun starting to poke over the edge of
the world, feeling like cigarette on her face, Ginger looked scared.

“Um… Don’t tell anyone. About
what I made you do? I’ll be beaten for it. I shouldn’t have, but everyone else
has had power over me, for so long, I wanted to try, and…” She seemed to feel
miserable about it, but Eve shook her head.

“Nope. We don’t hide shit.
Powerful people don’t have to, not really. Besides, you did it right, and
didn’t force me, so no one will care. Go in and own it. You wanted to try it,
and so we did. I didn’t put you through the wall, you noticed that, right?
We’re both single and old enough,
and
you didn’t bite me, so, I think we
don’t have anything to worry about.” She walked in then, smiling, since there
were at least ten people in the place that would have heard her.

“But… Lenore never let David do
anything with me. We had to hide it.”

“Did you? If you’d asked her, she
wouldn’t have stopped you, I bet. She just didn’t want Dave to give you a bunch
of bad habits, most likely.” It might have been something else though. It was a
thing that she’d noticed. Ginger really seemed to like David a lot.

Too much for just some guy that
had kind of abused her sexually for a few years, and been a bit distant
otherwise.

Squinting, she tried to look at
the energy links, to see if there was one from David to the other girl, but if
that was a thing, she couldn’t tell. If the local Proctor had found her, that meant
that the girl had to be from the area. There were only about seventy or so
Vampires in southern Washington, and a
lot
fewer that were of the Bey
line.

True, Bey had been through over
the years, but
he
would have kept the girl with him, and done his duty
to her properly, no matter how hard it was. Edom was in the same boat. If he’d
turned the girl, well, it wouldn’t have been done by accident, or in a panic,
but he would have kept her, even if it meant leaving his entire world behind to
do it.

Lenore, Nikki, Bey, Edom, Barb,
and now her. It
could
be Barbara, but she would have stood up too, most
likely. It explained why Lenore had taken the girl though, didn’t it? It pretty
much had to be one of her own children that had done it. Edom only had her, so
if it wasn’t him…

On the good side, it meant that
Lenore thought highly enough of her sister to simply accept that she wouldn’t
have dumped her own problem on her like that, didn’t it?

So, really, Ginger had to be
David’s. Barb would have tried to be there for the girl, far more obviously, if
it had been her.

Part of her wanted to think of
David sticking his dick inside the girl he made a Vampire as sick, but that
wasn’t the way it worked. That Edom hadn’t done that with her really had to do
with the fact that neither of them really wanted to, she was willing to bet.
With Dave, it might be that he’d been using it as a way to draw closer to the
girl that he’d turned, and then realized he couldn’t take care of, being a fuck
up himself.

Not that he really was, he was
just young.

Not that brilliant either, though
not an idiot.

Still, it was daylight, and today
the dark haired Vampire behind the counter seemed very nearly fine, so she
waved to Ginger.

“Go running? None of that slow
stuff anymore, and
no
stopping. Come back at about one. Then Nikki will
spell one of you. Whoever is less of a little girl about it.” She smiled, and
stared at David, as if saying it would be the other one. It was meant to be
funny, and he did manage a grin, though his voice was a bit rough.

“You think I’m a woman?”

“Nope. I think that you’re
all
man, baby. A slow, kind of lazy, man. So run, and I’ll do the things here with
Nikki. Who
should
be in soon.” She’d better, since Edom was supposed to
be working in the back, not making frosty treats. He could, in a pinch, and
would do it well, having had the job for a long time, but he shouldn’t have to.

Oddly enough, when he came in, he
wasn’t alone. Lenore was with him, and had paperwork for Eve to arrange.

“For that house? You’ll need to
go to the bank, when it opens to start the process and get the wire transfer
information for the holding company. I spoke to a rather interesting woman on
the phone, Sheila? She seems rather… Convinced that Vampires are the new evil
in the world.” There was a sour look on her face, which oddly made Eve feel
better about the whole thing. “Was sure to remind her that we’ve been around
for quite a long time. It didn’t seem to make her feel any better.

“I noticed that, when we met the
other day. Still, what can we do about it, except for letting her know that it
isn’t true, and go on with our lives?”

“Cheat her out of most of her
commission?”

That sounded good to her, and
wasn’t too hard to manage, for someone like Lenore. She’d actually done that
before. They could start by hiring their own agent in the area, who would get half
of the percentage after they said the word. It was one of the things that being
old had taught her, over the years.