Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (37 page)

That got a pause, but no denial.
It was the lust that gave the whole thing away. This was obviously The Lover
that The Vile had mentioned. True, she could have been being set up too, but it
was worth it, to just see what she’d do.

“I was just here to find out what
I could pick up. I pretended to let the girl defeat me, and lay in the back,
collecting data for hours. I even have all of you in my information collection,
Eve Benson. Not updated for the last day, but most of it. You’re an… Impressive
young woman. We could spend some time together some time. Those of your line
don’t have a sexual response, but it’s within my abilities to make anyone feel
that way, if I choose. That would be worth far more to you in the long run,
than mere money.” She tried to touch her again, and Eve floated back, stepping
quickly, but with what she hoped was a big smile.

“Not right now. After this is all
done, if you and I are both still alive? We can talk then?”

That got a look that smoldered,
but it really was with lust, and not anger or hatred for her being a pain in
the ass.

“We’ll see. Now, I think I can
bring in most of the others, at least to talk. They have the full,
buy in
,
as you’ve said? That would make my part twenty million. Provided I bring it
off.” She sounded confident.

Eve could understand how that one
might work out for her, given everything.

“Tell you what, if you can tell
me who has Finias, I’ll drop that last bit for you, too.”

It was probably wasted cash, but
the woman gave her a look that was
thrilled
. Like the information wasn’t
worth twenty times that much?

“I can do that. He’s with Tarsus,
at his home in the Mediterranean. Solving a rather fascinating puzzle maze, as
a game, I believe. It will probably take several more weeks, but when you live
long enough, such things can provide diversion. If you need him back early, I
suggest to call The Librarian, and see to that yourself. Snowflake.” She
grinned wickedly, probably knowing from their brief contact the day before how
much that name was starting to bug her.

“Lover. If that pans out, and you
bring the others to me, with good intent, then we’re set. Have them call here?
Now, that will be…” Eve eyed the cone in the other woman’s hand. It still
wasn’t melting in the slightest, but they hadn’t spoken long yet. They also
didn’t have a price for the things. “Twenty-five cents. For the materials used
to make it.” She’d heard both Darla and Keeley use that one before.

A single bill was pulled from
thin air, as the woman took a long, sensuous swipe at the thing with her
tongue, then she stopped, and stared at it.

“This is
really
good. I’m
impressed.” She took her seventy-five cents in change though, and waved a bit
on the way out.

“I’ll be seeing you soon,
Snowflake. Very soon indeed.”

Eve didn’t really doubt that.

Life had to go on, even if you
were dead.

Eve thought about that fact
several times over the course of the rest of the day. Then again, she was
probably going to end up dead for real, sooner rather than later, at the rate
things were going. Being in the middle of some kind of Demon hate feud was
about as stupid as anything she’d ever heard of. Really, Eve was almost certain
that one of them, if not more than a single individual, had
helped
her
make that poor decision to get involved.

That or she was an idiot all on
her own.

If
it wasn’t really about some
secret desire for some soft Keeley flesh, which if that was the real deal,
would have to be some kind of artifact from when she was Human. Vampire Eve
knew better than to let herself do things like that, and while Keels was a buddy,
she wasn’t an
I’d die for you
, one. More of a
hey, come to the party
,
kind of pal, at least as far as Eve knew.

Then again, here she was, getting
involved in Greater Demon political crap that was at least a thousand times
more dangerous than anything else she could have imagined. It had to backfire
on her, didn’t it? Even if they won this time, and made the bargains and
treaties they needed without any problems, sooner or later it was going to come
back and bite her on the neck. If not more delicate places.

Probably those, and not in a way
that would let her feel good about it.

Worse, she was being a moron, and
calling up Tarsus, their leader, like it wasn’t even a
thing
.

On the second ring a man picked
up. She’d gotten the number from Darla, since if she was going to be the most
stupid person on the planet that day, she might as well drag her other friends
into it, right? Besides, it was about seeing if she could get Finias back,
alive and well. Honestly, she should have tried to bargain with The Technician
for doing it, but it hadn’t occurred to her, since she pretty much figured she
was just going to die, anyway.

So, instead, she stood behind the
counter of Yoghurt World, wearing a plain tan outfit that looked geeky, if
efficient, and the requisite white apron with green writing on it. No one would
doubt her fashion sense at least. She fit the role she was playing perfectly,
after all.

The man on the phone didn’t sound
right for Kenneth, the boy Vampire that had claimed to be Tarsus the day
before. That meant nothing though, since Greater Demons didn’t play by rules,
as far as she could tell, other than the one that had them holding to most of
their agreements for some strange reason.

“Good morning.”

It was nearing evening in
Vancouver, but this was a long distance call, with an emphasis on long. She’d
need to drop some money in the office for it, she realized. It wasn’t really
work related.

“Hi! I’m calling for Tarsus? The
Librarian? This is Eve Benson.” She didn’t know what else to say about it,
since it was possible that the man on the phone was a butler or slave. Just
because Zack didn’t have that kind of thing didn’t mean the rest of his kind
wouldn’t. Keeley didn’t have servants, Eve didn’t think, but had so many slaves
it wasn’t even funny. Hundreds, at last count.

That was her super power.
Enslaving people.

There was a low grunt from the
handset, but it didn’t seem to be angry, just a tiny bit surprised.

“Miss Benson. This is Tarsus. To
what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

She made a face, one that was
half suppressed grin, half nose wrinkled in disgust.

“I don’t know that it could be
called a pleasure, really. A few things, actually. First, we’re going to need
you to get Finias out of whatever maze, or trick you have him in, for a meeting
tomorrow. I’m going to kill Fram, The Bold. Don’t freak out too much, I’ll
bring him back. I already have some things arranged for that. Then I need a
hundred million dollars from you, for my part in negotiating a treaty between
you and The Mistress of Souls. You’re
welcome
, in advance, by the way.
And yes, I
am
awesome, thank you. How long will it take you to have
Finias around? I think he’ll enjoy seeing Fram having his ass kicked, and I’d
hate to have him miss it, since I probably won’t be able to get The Bold to
hold still for that one twice.”

She felt her jaw spasm, the
tension there nearly ruining what she was saying, her voice managing not to
betray her however. She felt something approaching real fear then, which she
hadn’t, outside of a fight, for a long time.

There was snorting, and a bit of
something that might have been a long suffering sigh.

“You know, back when
I
was
a boy, the Vampires knew their place. They’d hide all day in their graves, and
creep out as rotting messes at night, to plague the living. Now they call you
up and demand you give over without any real reason at all. It’s hardly the
most courteous change I’ve seen over the ages, I assure you.” The sound after
that was far more like an honest to goodness primal growl than anything else.
She was used to those though, being who and what she was. She’d heard as good
off of Ginger.

When she didn’t say anything, and
only laughed a little, Tarsus spoke again.

“Now is the time you threaten me?
Rending and tearing, if I don’t buckle to your demands? You did a good enough
job with The Ferryman. It would be natural for you to wonder if all of us will
be taken that easily, all the time. Perhaps you intend to do things that way?
It might even work, with some of us. The element of surprise has been lost
however, which might make it a bit harder. No Greater Demon will ever think you
less than a threat, if they hear your tale now. Do you think your skills are a
match to seven Greater Demons, all at once, Miss Benson?”

That got a snort, from Eve, who hadn’t
even been thinking that in any way.

“I need
threats
? With my
good buddy Tarsus? I mean, we’ve bonded, haven’t we? Over all that tasty blood?
Unless that wasn’t you, in which case, we
should
be friends. Killing
Keeley for being The Mistress of Souls…” She froze for a second, then didn’t
lie at all. She felt like it still, but he’d
know
she was doing it, and
that would make her seem weak. “Well, it’s a great plan. I can see it, as an
idea. Now that she knows about it however, it could end up being a big mess.
She’s letting me set this up instead of going in for a fight for her life,
which is either her saying that I’m mind-blowingly cool, or that she thinks you
all won’t be too stupid when it comes down to it. So, what do you say? Some
actual common sense from the bad guys for once? It’s kind of what you’re known
for, other than eating gross things, and raping people for sport. So it would
be a good time to whip that out.” For some reason she imagined Kenneth standing
in front of her, as young looking as he was, unfastening his trousers to do
just that. It made her chuckle, which got a slightly darker version of the same
thing from the man on the phone.

“You’re a rather glib thing,
aren’t you? I could just kill you. From here, I mean. At this very moment. With
no chance of you fighting back whatsoever. It wouldn’t even take me long to set
up. I have everything I need, just down the hall. Can you tell me why I
shouldn’t do that?”

“Can you tell me why you’d be
that silly? I’m offering to save you a world of problems, and for only two
hundred million dollars, plus whatever is needed for the actual treaty itself.
It’s a huge bargain.” Eve wondered if it would hurt, dying like she was about
to, but didn’t back down from what she was saying. It was better to perish than
seem weak.

Tarsus, the leader of the Greater
Demons, if they could be said to have one, laughed at her. She thought that was
what he had in mind, from the tone. When he spoke though it was far more
reasonable than she’d figured on.

“One hundred million, but I
expect you to set up a long term, mutually beneficial truce, with Keeley, and
I’d like an option on one with you, The Snowflake. Basically saying that we
won’t knowingly work at cross purposes. Is that amenable?”

Eve winced.

“How would I know? I barely know
the meaning of amenable, and there’s no way I can track all the variations of
how this could be used against me in the future, is there? Even if I could get
you to sign it, I probably couldn’t map out all the ways that kind of thing
could be used against me, could I? Can
you
do that?”

“No. No one could, in truth. Not
even a Greater Demon. We’re far too intelligent to play with that way. My offer
to you though, is an honest one. I won’t kill, or harm you, or your direct
friends, or interfere in your business with intent to harm you. That doesn’t
mean I won’t steal your business from you, if I have things set up without
knowing about what you have planned, or that I might not kill someone you met
once in passing. I also won’t send anyone after you, or try to enslave you, or
your direct friends, or have others do it for me. It isn’t that large of an
issue, as I imagine that you and I wouldn’t be coming to conclusions any time
soon. It’s merely a precaution for the future.”

“Oh. Well, as long as it doesn’t
keep me from doing this thing with the treaty, and we’re both doing the same
thing, I guess we can do that. No tricks or anything, on either of our parts. I
know that you can outthink me, so if you want to do this, you have to agree not
to, to the, um, spirit of the
thing
here?” She nearly said deal, but
didn’t. Even over the phone, as a Vampire, doing that could make it too hard to
resist being taken over, at least in theory.

The man on the phone chuckled at
her again. Like he was amused, it seemed. She could work with that, since she
wasn’t falling down dead yet.

“Agreed, to those terms. I do
believe you might be underselling yourself however, Miss Benson. My
granddaughter, Darla, picks her friends well. You’re rather more than you think
you are. Truly, you should look inside yourself and figure that one out soon.
Now, I’ll send Finias to you directly? It will take a few hours. I have him… It
isn’t exactly a trap, since he and I are old friends, and I merely wanted him
out of the way, so that we wouldn’t have to argue over the death of Keeley.
Since that seems to be fading as an option for the time being, I suppose I
could interrupt his fun.”

“Thanks, Librarian. It’s
five-thirty here right now. I have a date at nine. Is that enough time? I’d
hate to cancel. I haven’t actually gone out, on anything real, for
years
.”

“A catch like you? I find that
difficult to believe. I’ll do what I can. If not in a timely enough fashion,
then I’ll request he wait for you, at the Vampire embassy there? He might not
do that, since I’ll have to share the situation with him, and he might fly
straight to his daughter, seeking to guard her from the rest of us. Not that it
seems needed, at present. May I call on you soon? I don’t want to leave all the
dating options to the lucky fellow you’re seeing tonight, after all.”

“Um, sure?”

“I’ll talk to you soon then. In
the next days. Good evening, Snowflake.” The phone clicked once then. It was a
normal sounding thing, like what anyone would have produced if they were using
a regular phone.

It was hard to credit, being too
mundane and normal for a being that had lived thousands of years or more, but
she did the same. It was a bit confusing, actually, since it felt like the Greater
Demon had just suggested they go out, at some point. That was weird, wasn’t it?
Then, a lot of them liked sex, and she was young enough to be flustered by that
kind of attention still, clearly. That might have been the point. Messing her
up, and distracting her, using his charm.

It was a
real
danger with
Greater Demons. Thinking that because she got the drop on one of them she’d
ever be able to do it again was insane, but so was assuming that just talking
to a being that old and intelligent wasn’t a fight, too. Even him agreeing not
to come after her, and being willing to claim there were not loopholes or
tricks in it had probably been a giant mistake. She couldn’t go after him
either, with intent to harm.

There was an awful lot that could
be done, to screw with her, that wouldn’t involve harm, after all.

It was turning to dusk, but
instead of David coming in, to relieve her and signal a good time for Felicia
to get out and do something other than make waffle cones, Barb showed up. She
seemed happy enough to be there, her dark clothing looking club worthy, in a
work capacity.

She jogged to the back, putting
her purse away in Edom’s office.

“Hey Snowflake. I hear you have a
big date tonight? So, is he going to get lucky? Hmm? Hmm?”

Eve didn’t wince at the nickname,
but she did glare a bit.

“Probably, if he wants to. Now,
as for you calling me ‘Snowflake’… Every freaking Greater Demon in the world
seems to be calling me that, too, now. I’m not a fan, so you know, I
will
be taking revenge. Fram, The Bold, has been going around the world for weeks,
telling everyone all about me. Probably not in a good way, either. So, when you
least expect it… Boom, your own silly nickname. Boo-ya!” She was serious, and
threw her hands up and out, pointing downward at the other Vampire.