Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (24 page)

True, they might not be beating
her, or anything like that, but they were willing to totally deny their kid an
incredibly long life, superpowers, and the right to decide for herself what she
wanted to do in the world, without even stopping to ask if they might be wrong.

Apparently due to their religion.
Since God was, if she had that right, real, then the douche-bag needed to fix
his people, and fast. Eve bet it was some kind of BS about free will, or
something like that though. They had to be allowed to be miserable excuses for
Human beings, so that…

That was the part that didn’t
make sense to her. It never had. So that
what
?

They could condemn others for
being different, when, if there was a God, he clearly made them that way? Then,
it was just possible that there could be a God, and that religion was a farce.
That could be it, too. She would have asked her friends, but getting advice on
that kind of thing from Greater Demons and Vampires was probably right out, if
she wanted anything close to a true answer. Maybe The Cleric could tell her
what the real situation was? If he were really an Angel, then he just might
know that kind of crap. Probably not though, since she was willing to bet that
there was no such thing as a benevolent deity.

It would be more hot air, and
promises of ponies, in a secret back room. All you had to do was trust them,
and not ask too many questions. Then when you got there, they’d do whatever
they wanted to you. Just like everyone else.

Half of the people in the first
pile weren’t available, reachable, or whatever else they had going on, so she
left messages to call her back when she could, and marked it on the papers she
had. In the end she got to talk to ten of them, and seven agreed to come by the
next day for interviews. Not that she knew how to do any of that, but faking
things wasn’t exactly new to her, so she didn’t doubt that it would be possible
to weed some bodies out. She wanted to start with a small group. Five sounded
about right, though she could go with a few more, or less, if the people coming
in didn’t fit, or were all perfect.

That would be at seven in the
evening the next day, so that she could let them all talk to a few real
Vampires. It had helped
her
a lot, being able to ask all the stupid
questions that no one ever really told you about otherwise. Like where you’d
sleep, and how they were expected to get blood. Even the bit about not really
having a sex drive, if they went Classical, was important. If you thought you
were going to become a Vampire and get
all
the poon or peen, then woke
up starving and not caring about that at all, it could really affect how a guy
might respond to the world. A woman too, for that matter.

If she hadn’t been warned, it
would have thrown her for a real loop. It kind of had anyway, now that she took
the time to think about it.

Before, when she was alive, Eve
had gotten most of her contact with men by having sex with them. True that had
started to change a bit as she got older, but it had still been her major
interaction with them. She could continue do that, of course, but it just
didn’t feel the same, if she wasn’t at least a bit into it, too. Ideally, the
new kids would get to have meetings with several different
kinds
of
Vampires, so they could see where they, personally, might be the best fit.

There would have to be classes,
too, and lessons. Things that were monitored, and all that. She’d done it for
herself, with guidance from a few others, but the point was to make sure these
people would have a chance to be the best, and most in control, Vampires they
could be.

Grabbing a pad from the back, she
started making notes for herself, about what would be needed for that. At seven,
when David came in, later than he had been, Ginger took off her apron, and sat
right next to her, taking the notebook like she had a right to it. Rather than
snap at the girl, Eve pointed at a few different points.

“So, do you want to take on a few
of the people, if we get anyone that wants to try it? The two of us can
probably handle them all, but I don’t know if traveling with Lenore will really
allow that all the time. Then, she probably doesn’t really need you yet. Vaughn
never had a secretary with him, for instance. Not that you shouldn’t learn that
job. Plus all the paperwork stuff here, and a few other things. I’ll handle
that part though, so anyway, what do you think? It’s all right to say no. This
is experimental, and for all we know, no one will want to even give it a shot,
once they learn what it’s going to really entail.”

She was proud of herself, having
used entail in a sentence that didn’t involve small furry animals. She’d known
what it meant for a long time, but it hadn’t really come up a lot in her life
before that. It wasn’t a huge word, but did sound professional, she though.

Ginger smiled at her.

“Well, now that I’m practically a
kick-butt day walking Vampire that doesn’t need sleep, it does kind of change
up what I can do, doesn’t it? Do you think I can really work that closely with
Humans though? I mean, is it safe, for them?” There was practicality to the
words, and no fear in the slightest. It was what Lenore would be asking, later,
without a doubt.

“Yes. I really do. I mean, don’t
cuddle one for hours at a time yet, but I’ve seen you with the public. You can
deal. Just hold to that, and remember that you have to be a good example for
the children. Not that all of the ones coming, if any of them do now that it’s
a real thing, are kids. A few are. I was thinking that we should get them all
to hold off until they’re at least twenty-one. What do you think?” That was the
age she’d been, and still was, actually, her birthday coming soonish.

It wasn’t lost on Ginger though,
what she meant. Looking fourteen made life a lot harder for you, even if you
were undead. Maybe less so now that they could all whip out I.D. and say they
were actually hundreds of years older than they looked, but even then, you were
treated differently, if you seemed too youthful. The girl across from her got
that already.

“
Hell
yeah. Maybe even a
bit older than that. That’s a good bottom age to start with though. I’m in. If
you really want me? I know that I might not be all that useful yet, but I’ll
try hard, and learn all I can.”

Just as she was about to answer,
Keeley walked over, coming from the front of the store, being followed by a
Vampire. The other woman looked nice, but not too hot really. Her best feature
was that she had slightly orange eyes, ones that were brown around the outer
rim. The rest of her looked regular though. She was thin, but in a normal way,
not really skinny, and had brown hair that was full enough, but kind of
straight. The look was of a twenty year old white woman, if not a few years
younger, but that didn’t mean anything much. It was dark out now, so she either
wasn’t alive during the day, or had been busy.

Eve stood up, and gave Keels a
big hug.

“There you are! This is my buddy,
Ginger. She’s been learning to stay up all day, and pretty much has that down
now. She’ll also be doing part of the new Vampire training for the Council. We
were just going over some notes for that. It hasn’t really started yet.” She
glanced at the other, brand new, Vampire, waiting for an introduction.

The woman nodded at Ginger, and
locked eyes.

“Amazing. That’s why I’m here,
too, to see if I can get some help with that. I tried on my own, but at about
nine in the morning I just go down,
hard
. I know that it’s going to
hurt, but I can take the pain, if I have to.”

Eve moved back to her seat, but
pushed over so that Keeley could sit next to her. She did, moving close enough
that Hally would have glared at her a bit, if she saw it.

Keeley waved at the other woman,
as she moved in, a bit more tentatively, next to Ginger.

“Yes. Zack mentioned the good
work you’ve been doing that way here, so we decided to come and see about
signing up for lessons. What will it cost me? Felicia is a great person.
Sparkly attitude, and only a
tiny
bit whiny in the face of discomfort.
Better than most, that way. I know that you might be busy soon, what with your
plan to kill the Greater Demon Fram, and all that. Is there anything I can do
to help with that?”

Eve nodded.

“Come hold my hand while we
hammer out the details and make sure I don’t end up too dead trying to get this
done? It’s really about stealing a slave from him, and so far he’s been
agreeable about the whole thing, but that can change, and probably will. As for
learning to day walk… Well, I can help with that. Ginger can, too. Don’t be
confused by her youthful good looks, she’s tough as nails. It really does hurt
though, so if you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. I think that a lot of this
has been about something more than just willpower so far. I don’t know what,
exactly, but so far every Vampire that’s tried here has made it happen. It’s
not fun, and being up all day never is, but it
can
be done.” She was
trying to be honest about it all.

Felicia flipped her hair out of
the way, and placed her right palm down flat on the yellow Formica table top.

“I’d like to try? I can pay, a
bit. A few thousand? More than that if you want to trade for something? I have
some bonds, and a few nice diamonds, if you like that kind of thing?”

Keeley nodded, but Ginger shook
her head.

“So far no one has had to pay. I
think the idea is that you have to be a pro-Council stooge, like the rest of
us, if you want in on the secret techniques. Or are we open to being paid for
this?” The girl looked a bit worried then, as if she were about to be hit for
losing them a few thousand dollars, which was probably about right for the work
being done.

“No, that sounds fine. You’ll
need someone with you all day, until you get used to not dying all the time.
That takes about half a month or a little more. Ginger is creeping up on that
right now, so she can help you with that part. There will be running, and work,
during the day, since you have to keep moving, if at all possible. Other than
that… Well, you know, be ready to grin and pretend to love life while you’re on
fire all day long? No one likes a miss grumpy pants, and it will come up. It
does for everyone, every day. If you’re good with that, then we can give it a
try?”

There was a hand on her arm,
which got Eve to look to her right, where The Mistress of Souls sat, smiling as
if she’d just been given a present.

“Wonderful. Thank you, both of
you. This means a lot to us. Now, I’d
love
to come and visit with Fram.
I hear he’s been in some minor trouble? Killing people in Zack’s territory without
permission like that is asking for problems. I know that Fram has to be
thinking that Zack is either too nice, or too young to protect his holdings,
but that isn’t really true. In a fight, even a magical one, Fram might very
well lose, and do it
much
faster than he thinks can happen. You have a
plan though?”

Keeley would already know it all,
but Eve told them about the whole thing, and even went into the why of it,
since Maggie Sims, arm and leg burning fiend or not, was sort of a friend of
hers, so had to be saved. Also how Fram had pretended to be a Mage called
Marcus, which got Keels to stare at her for a moment, then act like it hadn’t
been a sign that Eve was supposed to ask her a question about it.

“What do you think you know? You
reacted to the name, Marcus. Why?”

“Well, that name is the one used
by an insane, but rather nice, Greater Demon known as The Vile. We don’t tend
to repeat names a lot, since there aren’t that many of us. Fram would know
about that one too, which means that it was likely on purpose. The Vile
wouldn’t have a vast problem about it being used, but it’s strange. Fram
wouldn’t challenge him however, if he could help it. So, it’s a bit of a
mystery. Not one of vast importance though, I’m certain.”

The Vile? It was a new name to Eve,
but she had to wonder now if it were someone that she’d met? Possibly as Brian,
the bouncer at the club?

He hadn’t seemed all that crazy,
but most Greater Demons could pass for normal when they wanted to. It was
because, by their standards Human beings were all as crazy as anything could
be, most likely. They lied to themselves about reality all the time, unable to
even hold things they knew as fact in their heads, if it was too different from
what was normally around them.

Whoever had been Brian Smith
totally had pulled the act off, for instance. Which took some doing. So sane or
not, that had already happened. It could be this being then. Or not. For all
she knew,
he’d
been Marcus part of the time. There might even be another
Mark out there, waiting to spring on her at some point. She’d seen two of that
sort play the role of one person before, at different times. One of them had
been Fram, too, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t think of the idea now, was it?

It was also possible that it was
just a name, and had just been the best one for the part, for some reason that
she didn’t know.

Whichever it was, she put it on
the back burner of her mind.

After all, Keeley, her old
friend, was
there
, with her for some reason, and that was too much fun
to allow herself to get sidetracked like that.