Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (31 page)

Eve settled into working for the
day, ready to fight the whole time. If one Demon had come for her, there could
be a reprise, or even a different one coming to visit her, just to mess with
her head. Nothing like that happened though. The only person that came in for
hours was Kenneth.

He smiled at her, his face thin,
and young looking. Really, he was cute, in an average kind of way. Good skin,
toned, and about fourteen looking. Really, he could date Ginger in public, and
no one would ever think twice about it. That he was closer to four hundred, or
more, was kind of clear to her however.

“Miss Benson! I haven’t seen you
here for months. Then, I haven’t been in, so I guess the fault there lies with me.
I do hear good things about your work lately. I trust that all is well?” He
paused and then shook his head a little. “I heard, from a friend of mine, that
there might have been some trouble earlier? Is that right?”

She made up a bottle of blood for
him, the good Human kind, which was what he always got, and spoke slowly.

“There was. A Greater Demon,
claiming to be The Vile. Did your friend happen to mention which one it really
was?” She passed the ceramic mug of warmed blood to him, letting her cool
fingers touch his.

There was a tingle, as all her
information passed from her being to his. A copy of it, at least.

The boy, who wasn’t much smaller
than she was, smiled. It really was cute.

“I have some thoughts on the
matter, but no, I
wasn’t
told, outright. An oversight, I’m certain. I
doubt that it was The Vile however.
He’s
rather busy doing other things
at the moment. As for me, I actually came to see if you knew where The
Technician is. She’s missing.”

Eve nearly mentioned that she’d
just talked to her on the phone, but if the Greater Demon in front of her had
all her info, then he knew that already.

“So, who was that on the phone?”

Kenneth smiled at her, like she was
going to get a gold star, his voice shifted a little though, as he exhaled.

“Finias, her father, is filling
in for her, in case whoever took her comes back.
If
she was taken.” The
boy slugged the blood he didn’t need back, and pulled a hundred dollar bill,
sliding it across the counter toward her slowly.

She took it and rang the
transaction up, using her in store discount. That got a nod of appreciation,
but no comment. That was good, because now she was worried for real.

Darla was
missing
?

What was she supposed to do about
it? Other than hand this being’s change back to him. She did it smoothly, that
being part of her job, and waited for him to leave, or tell her something.

So he just stood there, forcing
her to think.

“I
see
. I’m going in
tonight. I don’t know that I can do anything you can’t but I’ll try to sniff
around.” Possibly in a literal fashion. Vampires did have good noses. Maybe it
would work.

“Very well. We should go on that
date, sometime. After this is resolved, I mean. I’m Tarsus, by the way. The
Librarian. It’s rare to meet one that has the potential that you do, so young,
Snowflake.”

“Don’t call me Snowflake.” It was
just a reaction to the word, which she kind of hated, and she wasn’t even
looking at him, worried for her friend.

Tarsus, who she decided to refer
to as Kenneth for the time being, took two very deliberate steps back.

“I fear the name has already
stuck. You are The Snowflake now. Sorry. I, personally would blame The Bold.
He’s been going around for three weeks, telling everyone that will listen about
you. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was
smitten
.”There was a long
look, and a slow head shake. “That’s a turn of phrase, by the way. He is quite
taken with you. That might be a thing you can use against him. Briefly.
Once
.”

Then, without explaining anything
more than that, the being left, just vanishing in the air.

Eve washed the mug.

Then worried for hours, about her
friend.

Eve ran home, to get her spare
pair of shoes, wearing the magical ones that Darla had made for her. The thing
with those wasn’t that they made her faster, though it was the point behind
them. No, they just hurt if you stop, always sliding the scale, so that it was
worse to quit moving through the horrid pain that speed required, than to keep
going.

So she got there fast, and kept
the things on, packing a knapsack with her regular, if secondary, pair of
running gear, and a change of clothing, since it could come up. Actually, even
with her friend missing like she was, Eve decided to get into something
different first, so she wouldn’t end up ruining the rest of Kait’s clothing. As
it was, she owed her new socks. The ones she had on weren’t fit for anything
now.

Then she ran, going to the city
she once called home, at speeds that would have boggled her own mind if she
could have thought clearly enough to appreciate that kind of thing. Trying to
get every bit of speed she could out of the process she pulled, pushed and hit
objects as she passed, hurling herself through the world in a way that she
never had before.

Not that there would be anything
that she, a mere Vampire, could do.

Unless…

She didn’t let herself think
about it, once the idea came into her mind. That was hard to do, since thoughts
were persistent that way. It was like not thinking about a pink elephant once
suggested you don’t do that. Except she could actually do that, by focusing on
the world, and what she was doing at the time. Right now that was running, or
at least moving faster than was physically possible, really.

On Darla’s doorstep, she stopped,
standing there for a while, waiting for the sense of white to fade a little
from the edges of her vision. It took longer than she liked, but when the fine
wooden door opened, showing an older woman, with only a passing resemblance to
Darla, Eve was able to speak, and not sound like she was going to cry.

She went in first, and thought at
the man, in case someone was listening to them. He was a telepath, and famous
for it. If it was really him. She didn’t have a single good way to check that
though, so was going to have to take it on faith. Not that doing that kind of
thing made total sense to her. She needed to act like it was him though, until
she knew for certain. That was all.

Finias. Mind Taker?

There was a tilt of the steel
gray colored head, and the woman’s blue eyes sparkled just a bit.

“Exactly. I wasn’t certain you’d
understand what the issue was. We should be safe to talk here however.” It was
eerie, because the man, who she knew mainly as either an older guy that seemed
ready to go sleep in a doorway, or a rather hunky guy in his early forties,
sounded
exactly
like Mrs. Gibson.

Not thinking all the words in her
head first, Eve explained.

“A Greater Demon came in to work,
and said Darla was missing. I didn’t know him. I mean I recognized the form he
was wearing, from having come in a few times before, but not that he was one of
you guys. Tarsus? The Librarian? There was also an attack, or I guess a fight,
earlier in the day. That one claimed to be The Vile, and was pretty gross, to
back the claim up. Also he threw lust at me, when he needed to escape. I don’t
know enough to say that’s normal or not, but… It wasn’t much of a fight.” She
explained it all, not knowing why, but quickly, since they needed to get to
Darla, and where she was if it was possible.

The thing there was that Finias
clearly had no more clue than she did.

“I was supposed to have a meeting
with her about Fram, two days ago. She didn’t make it, so I investigated. I
don’t know how aware you are of what’s been going on?”

She didn’t think about it,
waiting for him to tell her, since it had to be plain to the man that she
wouldn’t know that much at all. Finally he gave her a look that seemed to say
something. Like he was impressed.

“I don’t suppose I could touch
you?”

Eve held her hand out, and waited
for him to drain her life’s experience from her, which wouldn’t take too long,
given that she wasn’t all the old. It did tickle, and after a moment he seemed
satisfied and took the old woman’s hand off her arm.

“Good. I wasn’t sure for a
minute, that you weren’t one of us. You managed to suppress your thoughts very
well, for one so young. You might want to keep that in mind, if you’re going to
keep playing with my sort of being. We’re all giant jerks, by the way.
Definitely not worth spending time with. Not that I won’t take your help
finding my daughter. I’ve done everything I can think of. I checked for pocket
realities, hidden spaces, signs of attack, and a thousand other things. There
isn’t a lot. I tried to track her too. She seemed to be here, moved around the
room, starting from the stairs, and moving to the sofa.” Finias pointed as he
spoke, using the old woman’s mouth for it. Even standing like her.

The stairs were in the center of
the wall, and had an iron railing on the left hand side, as you faced it. The
whole room was covered in a very light colored carpet that she would have
called white once, but now saw as very different. It had a cream feel to it,
but was made with different fibers, some bright white, a few tan, or eggshell.
There were footprints in the fibers, but only one set. Eve could make out where
someone had sat on it too, a few days before. It was Darla’s normal spot
though, so that wouldn’t be a big stretch. The point was, no one else had been
there. Not physically, unless they were floating?

There had been a time when even
thinking something like that would have seemed stupid, but now, well, she could
do it. Could she truly write that one off for others, too?

The prints, a much lighter set,
moved from where they were, across the room, to where the strange blue and green
piece of art used to sit. Now there was just a dust ring. It was very, very
faint, since Darla wasn’t going to let a lot of that kind of stuff build up in
her house, was she? Following her eyes, Finias moved his finger.

“Right. She got up, suddenly it
seems, and moved over to here. It was some kind of magical object, but I don’t
know what it did. She never told me.”

Eve nearly didn’t either, but it
might be important. Of course, he might be some other Greater Demon fooling her
into giving that information, too. Or, just as possibly, actually be Finias,
Darla’s father, and still trying to use her for some reason.

As a wise man had told her once,
Greater Demon’s were
all
jerks.

Even her friends had to be
considered that. It had been meant as a warning, she didn’t doubt. Probably not
against himself, but could she write that off? If she did the wrong thing, it
might cost Darla her life. If she wasn’t just off hanging out and getting laid
somewhere.

“It’s a super-massive bomb.
Basically designed to take out about half the country if anyone ever gets the
upper hand on her. It being gone could mean thousands of things though, from
her taking it in for emergency servicing, to setting it up in Fram’s underwear
drawer, as a present. Probably not that one though, since I’m going to kill him
in a couple of days. How many presents does he need?” She said it like it was
big news, and Finias wouldn’t know it. Which he might, or might not.

From there she padded back toward
the side door, since that was the way the trail went, and entered the really
nice underground garage. If the declaration that Darla had a bomb that huge on
her was a big deal, the other Greater Demon didn’t let it show. Her face was
nearly as blank as Eve’s, actually.

The garage wasn’t empty. In fact
Darla’s little red convertible was right there, looking shiny and new. It
wasn’t, being at least ten years old, but it was perfect enough that Eve felt
jealous. Until she remembered that the reason she didn’t have one herself was
all about not being allowed to use a car, rather than being poor. She could get
one, it would just have to sit in a garage, like this one was.

Still, she checked the back seat,
in case there was a tied up Darla in it. The idea was pretty ridiculous, but
she did it anyway, then searched the whole room. As she got to the large tool
box Finias started to stiffen, just the tiniest bit. It was too small to hold a
Darla though, wasn’t it? Only three feet by two, by two.

Inside the shiny red metal box on
wheels was a lot of really normal looking stuff. Wrenches, hammers,
screwdrivers and the like. All with matching yellow handles. The
only
thing out of place was a medallion that had inlaid semi-precious gems in it.
There was writing too, in the copper that made up the disk. Symbols anyway.

Sumerian,
she was willing to bet. The thing didn’t hum with power or magic though. It was
less active that way then the surrounding tools, to be honest. That was weird,
so she didn’t touch the thing at all, not letting herself even think about it.

It seemed to be enough to hide
the information, which wasn’t right, was it? The Mind Taker wasn’t called that
because he was easily beaten by sophomoric mediation skills, was he? That
didn’t seem right at all. Meaning that either this being was so distracted by
having a missing daughter that he was falling down on the job, which no Greater
Demon would do, or it wasn’t him.

So, who was with her, looking
like Mrs. Gibson, and pretending to be Finias?

She kept looking around the room,
and using her other senses, but didn’t find anything. The trail stopped at the
box. Probably with that medallion, whatever it was. Finally she went back
toward it, and waved her hand in that direction.

“She’s in there. I don’t know
how, but… Yeah. That’s where she is.”

Then programming her shoes for a
bit of speed she’d never considered before, Eve moved in to fight, rushing the
older woman as hard and fast as she could, not able to see much, through the
agony. With a move that she felt decently proud of she wrapped the crook of her
left arm over the front of the old, but shockingly strong, neck. That was
turned into a leg toss with a sharp, but single, step. Then she tensed, and
made it happen. The old woman whipped through the air at speeds that whoever
this was couldn’t match. If it really was Finias, it was going to lead to some pretty
tense parties, later.

If she was invited that was.

As the feet hit the floor, the
sensible blue pumps slapping the green stained concrete, Eve pushed on the top
of the head, the forehead really, as it neared her own waist, falling in what
seemed to be super slow motion. Then she kneed up with her right leg, into the
back of the neck, several times.

It took all her strength, but she
twisted, pulled, and did it all so fast that the head finally came off. She
dropped it, realizing that even for a Greater Demon, that might mean being
dead.

A sense of panic came over her
then, because if she’d just killed Keeley and Darla’s dad, that wasn’t going to
be a good thing, was it? What calmed her was something very different though.
Her friend was trapped, in a box. A medallion, which was probably going to turn
out to be a Demon trap.

She had no way to get her out,
either, did she?

For a second, Eve wondered if
breaking it would work? Just ripping the metal in two? The thing there was that
she doubted the real strength or power would be in the
thing
itself. No,
it was going to be in the magic that made it.

She could do magic. Eve
could
,
she reminded herself, stab at things with a scalpel, too. That didn’t make her
a surgeon. To the best of her knowledge she didn’t even know any surgeons. The
closest thing she had to a Greater Demon though, was right there next to her.
Dead.

Making a face, she stared for a
moment, then took a deep breath.

“Fine, then, you know what I need
to, so… Why don’t you tell me?” It was whispered, being an insane thing to say
to a corpse. Still, as she’d just pointed out to herself, she had magic too,
right?

She got the head into place, and
then made a face. How could she fix this? Losing your head was a pretty serious
thing for most people. She could heal herself, and could see, after a fashion,
how she might use energy to heal another person, basically feeding them life
energy with a general instruction to do that, but that didn’t bring someone
back from the dead. Unless they weren’t really gone?

If anyone was going to pull
bullshit like that, it would be a Greater Demon, wouldn’t it?

Eve sat there, using all her
focus to try and do something useful. The being didn’t just heal, but she
managed to get the flesh to kind of pull back together in places. A lot of that
was actually done using direct telekinesis, not healing at all. There was a lot
of blood loss, but using her mind, and doing something she hadn’t known was
possible, she got the red liquid to leave the floor and trickle back into the
old looking woman. It happened slowly at first, but it was visible.

She kept going, well past the
time she figured it was a lost cause. After all, killing Finias was a death
sentence for her, she didn’t doubt. Probably any of the other ones, too. What
she really needed was Darla’s magical time machine thing. If she was in a trap
though, then this one here was going to be needed to help her get at that,
weren’t they?