Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (10 page)

Eve
shrugged, making herself do it, and took a deep breath.

“Well,
Lenore then? And Bey, if you need him. He’s kind of busy though, unless this is
related to the people that took me last night?”

The punk
looking Vampire winced, and shook her head.

“Not
Bey. The Ambassador… Well, she hates my guts, because I was always the pretty
one, but we can try that. Someone else want to do the honors? We’ll just start sniping
at each other if I call her.”

Edom,
being a prince, got out his phone, and promptly handed it off to Eve. Because,
she knew, that was her lot in life now. Sighing, making a show of it being a
huge and put upon thing, she dialed the number for Lenore’s cell from memory.
It came up before she finished, letting her just hit send.

“Yes?”
The voice wasn’t terse at least.

“Hey
Lenore. It’s Eve, your favorite newb. It looks like we have a situation
developing? Someone brought over a bunch of kids and then just
left
them. Six, I think. The local Proctor is putting a team together for it, and
I’m going to man the shop here. Would you be available for that, or at least
know a few people that would be? There seems to be a real time limit on this
one.”

There
was a low growl, but it was soft enough that Eve didn’t think it would carry
into the room.

“So much
for an evening off. I have a few people that I can bring in for this. Where do
we meet? I want to get this done as soon as possible.”

She
nodded at that. Daytime was coming and while Lenore was old enough she didn’t
have to sleep, her people probably
would
need to.

“Nicole?
We have a team, but where do you want them.”

She
spoke the directions and then hurried out, with the men, leaving Eve all alone.

“Mwa-ha-ha!
Eve’s in charge now,
bitches
!”

The
entire place was dead silent, except for the hum of the florescent lights. She
got to work and finished her cleaning, finishing just in time for the phone to
ring.

“Yoghurt
World, this is Eve, how may I help you?”

There
was a slow inhalation.

“Hello?
Is this… the Vampire Embassy?”

“That’s
right, how may I help you today?” The voice was a man’s, but there was a slow
quality to it. A damp tone that spoke of being a Human being. Not that she
could really put her finger on it.

“Uh… I
was told to call you? My friend, my girlfriend, Maggie, she’s been worried that
someone was following her. She told me that if she disappeared, that it wasn’t
on purpose, and that she
wasn’t
just leaving me or anything. That
could
be a set up, a way to vanish without having to actually say goodbye, but she gave
me a number to call, so it seems pretty serious. People don’t do things like
that as a joke, do they? Though, Vampires… So, it’s not real, right?”

Eve
nodded. It really did seem pretty real, didn’t it? If you were in the know
about things like that.

“Did she
give you any information to pass to us? About who she thought might be after
her?”

“Yeah?
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’m not really in on all that stuff.
Role-playing and all that? She said that it was about Mages though. There isn’t
a war on or anything, there was a name… eh… Marcus? Some guy from her club that
has the hots for her, I think.”

Eve
nodded to herself, making it happen, and took in what the man was saying. He
thought this was all about a game? That was a good cover, honestly. A lot of
younger Vampires, and even some other types of beings, were starting to use it.
Sure, people thought they were freaks… But
Human
weirdoes, which made
things a lot simpler. This was the first time she’d heard of a significant
other being told that, but if it worked, it shouldn’t be a real problem.

“Okay,
I’ll check on that, and make sure nothing is really going on. Hopefully she’s
just off banging some hot chick, in preparation for that threesome you’ve been
hinting after, yeah?”

There
was a weak laugh.

“Um,
sure. I guess. I don’t know. I think I might just be too boring for this kind
of stuff.”

Eve
didn’t know what to say, so ended the call, politely.

“Well,
keep an eye out and remember, if anyone starts coming for you, run. Most of the
time this stuff is harmless, so if you see a person that looks like they’re
really coming for
you
, it’s probably not a game. Oh, hey, sorry, I
should get your name? In case I run into Maggie?”

“Freddie.
Fred Wilkes. Thanks, I guess? I hope I’m doing all of this right?”

“Perfect!
Really, I think that you might be a bit less boring than you think, Fred. Call
back if you see Maggie first?” She scribbled everything down, as the phone hung
up from the other end. It was a cordless deal, and smaller than the one that
Troy had. White, but when she glanced at it, the thing had a slight iridescent
color that she’d never noticed before. Fingerprints too, so she wiped the thing
off, before calling Lisa Weise.

That
got her growled at.

“What
the fuck do you want? Do you know what time it is?”

Eve
looked at the clock behind the counter, which said it was just a bit before two
in the morning.

“Yeah.
Sorry. We might have a situation however. What can you tell me about a Mage
named Marcus? It seems that he’s been stalking a Vampire, Maggie Sims. Hard
enough that she told her Human boyfriend to call us if she vanished. He thinks
it’s all a game, but you generally don’t just hunt down the undead, right? Not
even mages would do that.” Not normally.

There
was a low and tired sound then.

“
Fuuu
…
K’ I’m on it. Marcus… Probably Marcus Aralias, and
no
, that
isn’t
his real name. Freaking pretentious piece of work. He’s into the dead though,
so it makes sense. Probably trying to grab her up as a slave. Is she pretty?
He’s a bit of a slug. Powerful enough, but instead of getting on a treadmill
and improving his looks, he’s prone to getting his dates in rather sketchier ways.
I’ll send a team over to look into it?”

“Thanks
Lisa. Keep me in the loop? I don’t know when I get off here.” Which was just
true. No one came back either, and the rest of the phone calls were all pretty
easy for her to handle.

One of
them was just from the Trollienkeine Embassy, where the girl that was working
nights wanted to know if she could still get free treats from there. As far as
Eve knew that was part of an actual deal that had been set up, so she said yes.
That had a stream of very large, strong looking and slightly brutish people
headed her way. They smelled really good too, she realized.

As if
they were clearly identifying themselves as food.

She
smiled, with her lips closed, and made treats for them all. A few of the large
beings she even knew, it turned out. Like the big guy, Robby. He was vast, and
smiled at her with all his teeth showing when he saw who it was.

“It is
the girl of the day! Have you come to visit me then, on my exile to the nights?
I have not seen you for weeks, due to the new duty.” He had an accent, but it
wasn’t too bad. A bit German sounding, was all.

She
winked with her left eye and kept working.

“You
know it. Actually, I’m not really working, just filling in while everyone else
is out doing fun things. I’m nice that way. So, how are the nights treating
you?”

He was
chatty enough, and it was pretty clear that she was at least a bit interesting
to him. Given what their ladies looked like, that probably meant he was a pedo
or something. Their kids were over six feet tall, as far as she could tell, and
this guy was close to eight something. For him to think she was hot, with her
thin looks… Yep, he was a perv at the very least. Not that she wouldn’t give
him a twirl, sometime.

She’d
never slept with a guy that big, after all.

It would
be an adventure.

The hard
part there was that she really just didn’t get turned on by the idea. It did
nothing for her.

Rather
than lament the loss of things she didn’t really need, she started cleaning
again. If she ever did anything with Robby, it would be several years later,
because at that moment she wasn’t too certain she
might
not just bite
him. On the good side he was big enough that if he didn’t like it, he could say
no and make it stick, even against someone like her.

No one
even called until nearly six, when she was starting to slow down, not able to
stop herself from doing it. That was Lenore, who at least sounded concerned.

“Eve?
Are you still among the living?”

“Yeeaaah.”
She made herself smile, and leaned on the counter. “I’m going down though. I
can hang for a while. I think. As long as we don’t get any emergencies. Oh...Um…
Maggie Sims. Note, on the counter?”

She had
to stop talking about then, but managed to hold herself up. It was mainly about
will power, she hoped. Her eyes started to close, but she fought it, even as
time crawled around her. Looking at the clock, she understood that time was
slowing for her, rather than her just shutting down. It was a chance for her to
run then, and get to a hidden space.

Looking
around, she noticed that there weren’t a lot of good places for a dead body in
the store, really. Finally, in desperation, she took things out of the little
closet where they kept the mops, buckets, shovels and tarps. All mall stores
had those things, right? She put them away in Lenore’s office, figuring she was
going to be bitched out about it, but as soon as someone got there, she was
planning to simply go down. Sitting in a dark room. No matter how small it was.
Hopefully she didn’t wake up with a crick in her neck.

Time
positively dragged on her, and reached a point, at about seven-thirty, where
she didn’t think she was going to make it anymore. The sun was up, and she
could feel it, burning above her.
Through
the roof, and the light tight
solid walls and everything. It was like she was standing in the Sahara. Without
the sweat dripping down her brow. Still no one came for her, so she tried not
to leave a corpse in the middle of the store.

The
world started to look funny, after that. Distorted and with tracers being left
after she moved. Not just for her, but anything in her field of vision. Eve
just stood, practicing her yawning, and blinking. It was dangerous to close her
eyes, since more than once she didn’t want to open them again.It was only her
will power that kept her going, and her desire not to let Edom down.

A bit
after nine, with no new news, Lisa came, opening the Mage embassy across the
way. Candles and More was the cover name. It was a real store too, but Lisa was
close to being just a political staffer, as far as things went. The third in
command there, her buddy Warren, did most of the real store stuff. After about
ten minutes she came over, a cup of store bought coffee in her right hand, and
some papers in the left.

“Hi Eve!
I thought Lenore would be here. Is something wrong?”

She
shook her head, and smiled, knowing she
had
to sound drugged.

“Nooo.
I’m good. I mean, I can’t move and the sun is trying to eat my soul, but that’s
the lot of my kind during the day. Any news on Maggie?” She was pleased that
she managed to get the words out. The look that Lisa gave her was one that let
her know she wasn’t sounding as good as she thought though.

“Yeah.
It’s a pretty clear case of kidnapping. Marcus had her in his basement, raping
her, when the team went in. Using magic to compel her, not force, obviously.
She wasn’t pleased, when we broke that for her, but she managed to take it out
on him, not our people. I basically just came to find out what you wanted done
with him? This isn’t a death penalty case for our people.”

Was it
for Vampires? Eve was willing to bet that she’d have killed the man if she was
able to. There were worse ways to be raped than being compelled to do it, true,
but she wasn’t all that big on rapists as a rule. In fact, of the ones that had
done her, all but one of them was dead now. Actually that last one was too, but
he’d started out that way, being a Manthori Vampire.

Then
again, that had been him just having sex with her, to his mind. Manthori
weren’t pretty, so if they wanted to get some, they
had
to use their
powers for it, if they weren’t going to just hit someone in the head and force
them. Honestly, she could nearly forgive him for it, though she probably would
have given him a twirl if he’d asked. It wasn’t like she wasn’t open minded that
way.

“I don’t
know? Can you hold him for the day? I’ll send this up the food chain. We should
at least make sure this Marcus guy doesn’t do it again. Any ideas there? Not
that anyone will listen to me…” She yawned again, because it was an excuse to
do something. Her eyes were about to close on their own, and her limbs felt
dead. Like the real kind.

She
could move them though, so did, wiping at the counter.