Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (15 page)

That, and how to stay on topic.
Luckily she was working on the project with her, or Eve would have forgotten,
even as Cormack geared up to move to Iowa. Leaving him hanging on the other
end, not only without a place to stay, which they still needed to arrange for
him, as a temporary measure, but also with no house for several extra weeks or
months.

First though, the offer would
have to be accepted. That could be sped up, since she was doing it in cash up
front, and paying the asking price for it. Hearing that made Lenore wince,
since it was, she assured her, too high.

Eve understood the idea, but
shrugged.

“Also a gift. I don’t have a lot
of wiggle room, if it gets turned down. It might anyway, if the bigoted
anti-Vampire real estate agent has her way. Giving the seller what she wants
might get around that though.”

“I know. It just hurts my heart,
seeing you pay the full price like that. Well, we can go to the bank, you do
use a local one, don’t you?”

She did. In fact, it was the one
on the edge of the mall parking lot, so Lenore offered to go with her.

“Not that you need to have your
hand held, but I’m actually at loose ends, myself. Edom is more than a match
for the job here, and Vaughn won’t be leaving his spot for another few weeks.
It’s strange. I haven’t had time to myself like this for… I’d say years, but
the truth is closer to the better part of a century, really. Oh, a few days,
here and there, but nearly a month? I wonder if my sanity will hold?”

Eve didn’t know the answer, but
knew enough not to nod her head.

“Well, as soon as they open,
let’s go and see about getting it all done?”

That seemed to be a good enough
answer, thankfully.

It turned out that setting up a
wire transfer wasn’t all that simple. It wasn’t hard to do the actual thing,
but what Eve needed to get first, was just proof that she had the money in the
bank. The teller, a very sweet, slightly older, woman whose name plate said she
was Gloria, gasped softly when she pulled up the information, printed out a
receipt, and passed it over the counter to her.

At first Eve was afraid that the
amount of cash was too low or something, but there was no way the teller would
have known that. It wasn’t that though. It was just that she had five million
and change in her checking account. Glancing at it, Lenore rolled her eyes.

“You should at least get a
savings account, and put most of it in there. Otherwise a crafty person might
take it all, and then you’d be stuck with nothing.”

The teller nodded, and called for
the bank manager, to help her with that, without even asking if that was what
she wanted to do that day. She didn’t really see why she needed both, or
hadn’t, but now it kind of made some sense. The thing was, she didn’t know why
she had that much in there. It should be about three million, and that only
because Fram had tried to buy her love. Poorly. He should have sent some
flowers, and maybe, just maybe, not have let Maggie, his slave, burn her arms
and legs off.

Especially just to send a message
to the Council. Eve was going to send them both a book on calligraphy and some
nice paper, she decided. It was snarky of her, and not enough to actually get
them back for it, but there wasn’t a lot she could do otherwise.

When the manger, a rather portly
man in a suit, with a bald head, named Charles, showed her where the funds had
come from, it made more sense. It was from
A.B. Limited
. That meant
nothing to her, but Lenore got it.

“Ah, that’s the company that
Marissa set up with you. It looks like that’s two quarters’ worth. You’ll need
to do payments to the government, for taxes. I have a man for that, myself. I
can get you his card?”

She nodded, not having thought
about it before really. No doubt they’d want most of it, but as long as she
could pay for the house for Cormack, that would be fine.

The rest of the process wasn’t
hard, and she had the needed proof of funds when she left, which her former
boss took from her, as they walked back toward the mall. They’d left Nikki
inside, and Lenore pointed gently, as she watched Ginger and David trudging
around the outer section of the mall, on the sidewalk. Slowly.

“That’s impressive. We were very
worried for a long time that Ginger would have to be put down. Now she’s
fighting to master herself, instead of just letting the world push her like she
has been.” There was a pause, that became a total stillness with a sudden lurch
that forced Eve to walk back to the other woman. She’d taken several steps away
not noticing it at first.

Lenore was staring at her too.

“It’s dangerous, what you’ve been
doing. No one likes it when the boat is rocked too much. We, Vampire kind, need
to change, but they will come for you, if you keep doing too good of a job of
it. Worse, I fear that you have no option but to try now. Too many know that
you can do it, so will insist that you do. But they will also hate, and fear,
you for it. Be careful, Eve. At all times. If you are too powerful, show too
much success, the others will try to tear you down. They’ll have to in order to
assure their own place in things.” Then she walked again, as if they hadn’t
spoke at all.

Without acting like she’d said
anything weighty, she glanced up as Ginger and David came around again. It was
nearly a mile long circuit, but they were going slow, at only about sixty miles
per hour.

“What do you intend for her?
David has a place here, but Ginger, even if she can walk in the light, as she
is doing now, that won’t teach her the rest of what she needs.”

“She’s learning to be around
Humans, and how to focus, right now. By the time we’re done, she’ll be ready to
not give in to hunger too easily, as well. Anger, or at least learning to
control her actions will happen at the same time. The rest, well, I can teach
her to do a few things, but really, once she has all that, you might consider
keeping her with you. As an assistant?” It made a lot of sense to her, but the
other woman went blank.

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, she needs to be with
someone. I
could
keep her with me, but for the time being that might not
be a great place to be, long term. Like you said. Besides, you’re her mom. Even
if she’s your grandkid, it’s close enough. You’re the family she has, and
that’s
important
. It will be for a few more years. You know that though.
Last night you told her that you wouldn’t abandon her. It’s a thing for her,
and a bit of training won’t undo that. Which one did it? David or Barb?” She
said it like it was the only option. The Vampire next to her jogged ahead a few
steps, then looked behind her, to make sure the others wouldn’t be able to
hear.

“David. Not everyone knows that.
I’m not even certain he does, to tell the truth. How did you find out? Zack, or
one of your other friends?”

“Nope. It was just all there in
front of me. I’ll keep my trap shut though, don’t worry. He’d be a pretty bad
dad, at this point in his life. She’s better off with you.”

She was about to add a bit more,
trying to sell the idea of Ginger being a great personal assistant, in
potential anyway, but the man that screamed distracted her.

“
Die
!” It wasn’t very
clear, though it was far enough away that she didn’t think it was about her or
Lenore. Without thinking, which was a horrible habit, she knew, Eve pushed into
a brilliant pain that nearly left her blind, running as fast as she could to
find a man with a gun, shooting through the window of the yogurt shop, directly
at Nikki. He had files in his hand, the left one, and was aiming with his
right, which kept jumping around as he did it. “Die, you fucking Vampire slut!”

She stripped the things away from
him, taking the weapon first, very carefully. Then the files, which said they
were from the police on the outside. That would, she was willing to guess, make
the man one of them. There to kill Nikki, possibly on Althea Sims’ orders?

That was the kind of thinking
that could make her go mad, if she considered it for too long.

She had to slow way down, and
even then
tap
the man on the back of the head, with two fingers, just
where the brainstem connected with the neck.

“Ouch!” He very cleverly didn’t
fall down, like he should have. Instead he hopped away grabbing the back of his
head. “Why did you do that?”

“I was trying to knock you out,
without using too much force. I tend to, you know, destroy people’s heads, when
I hit them anymore, but you might be from the police. Even if you are acting
like a lunatic. Why are you trying to shoot up the shop? Are you an ice cream
fan?”

“Oh, I wasn’t. I was
trying
to hit that bitch, Nicole. She’s a Vampire. I figured that out before, but then
she did something to make me forget about it. When I heard the announcement,
all those months ago, I worked it out, but when I saw her just now I remembered
what she did to me. Getting some cadaver, and that skinny tweaker friend of
hers to brainwash me. The one from the candle store.” He pointed back, behind
him, to indicate the place, like she might not get the right one.

Moving in, her body barely
showing that it was happening, the older Vampire moved in alongside Eve, her
face calm.

“Zack. That was right, about five
or six years ago. He’s filled out a bit and changed his appearance since them.
The cadaver though…” Lenore looked at the policeman, who was plain clothed, or
at least off duty at the moment. “I don’t know that one.”

Nicole came out of the shop, and
then ducked as the man tried to punch her, because her stepping out of the way
of bullets wasn’t a sign that she could get out of the way of his punches?

“Detective Bacconni. How nice to
see you. Why are you trying to kill me again?”

“Kill you? How can I do that?
You’re already
dead
. Like you told me, but I didn’t believe you. Then I
forgot, and now…”

Eve recognized the story, having
heard about it from Zack, years before. She snapped her fingers several times.

“Oh, right. Bey and Zack used
compulsion on you, so that you’d stop stalking Nikki. I can’t see how that
would get you to shoot at her now. It isn’t illegal to be a Vampire,
or
compel people. Yet. Even if it was, that wouldn’t be a good excuse to shoot her
over it. You could just, I don’t know, file a complaint? Not that it would do
any good.”

“Well what the hell am I supposed
to do about it? It’s either shoot or…”

Eve looked at Nikki, and
shrugged.

“Talk? Have a frosty treat? Get
your checkbook out, so that you can pay for the window you just trashed?”

That one got a happy nod from
Edom, who was acting pretty relaxed about the whole thing. Then, no one was
hurt, so why not? It was just another day, really, except for the broken glass.
That was going to be a pain in the ass to pick up.

“Come on then, Detective. Let’s
get this taken care of, and then you can go home and just not bother with it
anymore. Vampires are real. Everyone knows that now. At least the ones that
care to believe it. No big whoop. Actually, you can start sweeping while
I
look at the secret file you brought me.” She nearly added a sinister laugh, but
didn’t, because the man actually followed her. There was no need to go all
silly if he was actually going to go along with her idea of what to do.

Eve opened the file, which was
very plain on the outside, having a sticker that said Vancouver City Police
Dept. on it, to find that there was only a single sheet inside. One that said
simply that there was no one by the name Brian Smith reported injured or
missing in the area in the last five years. It wasn’t in their files either,
under any variation that fit the right time frame.

“That’s hardly worth a visit in
person, is it?”

She put it aside, and ran to get
the brooms. It didn’t take that long to clean up, but they were left without
the right front window, as judged from the outside of the place. It was her
favorite one, being both the largest, and the side that the people inside the
mall came from. When they did.

This time, shots or not, there
was no more than casual interest in what was happening. Really, people had
barely even come out to look, even though six or seven bullets had been flying.
It probably meant they were all becoming incredibly jaded. She decided to blame
Zack, or possibly Fram. They’d had too many Greater Demons around the place for
too long, and now everyone just assumed they needed to not get involved when
trouble started. It was the smart thing to do, but really, Eve was starting to wonder
if it was really the best way to be. Yeah, minding her own business was the
thing that would keep her alive, but what about everyone else? If she stood
back and did nothing, if they all did…

Then who would save everyone?

In the end it was going to take
more than just her, she was certain. Then again, if Lenore was right, her odds
of living long enough to make a real difference were pretty small anyway. Given
that, she wondered for half a moment if she should revive her plans to be a
super-hero. She tried to remember the costume idea that she’d had, so long ago,
but nothing came to mind. It had probably been kind of slutty though. Hot, in
other words.

That was the way to do things, if
you got a choice. It was easy to get things done if you threw enough sexiness
at them.

Edom went to the back, half
pushing the Detective with him. She kept working, because there were things to
do now, and only half listened as Ed very politely explained that Althea’s
chosen delivery boy had gone insane and tried to kill the local Proctor. It was
half funny the way he said it. Hyper polite, and like he was discussing the
fact that the paperboy had tossed the darned thing in the bushes again, rather
than putting it in the box. Not that Eve had ever lived in a place that had papers
delivered. She’d seen a lot of television though, when she was little. Mainly
the kind that you got for free, with an old, half broken set.

Cable was too expensive for her
mother to have bothered with, since that money could better be spent on drugs
each month.

It was a sudden turn, but she
filled with rage at the thought. It was a hot and fierce thing. Lashing out at
the world wasn’t going to help her though, was it? Killing the Detective wasn’t
even going to get the window fixed, much less fix her broken childhood.

She had to take several deep
breaths to fight the feeling back, and standing there behind the counter, Nikki
noticed. The Proctor didn’t stop to ask her questions about it though. No, the
woman, who was hundreds of years old, pierced through the nose and lip, or not,
knew better. After a few minutes, there was a glance toward the back.

“Sorry. I thought that part of
things was done. I guess I’ll have to kill him now. I told him I would, before,
but tried to get around it. Now, after an attack on the embassy like this, I
doubt that will be allowed.” She seemed a bit sad about it.