Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (14 page)

It made
sense to her, but Marcus started to whine, almost immediately.

“That
isn’t fair! All I did was get her to like me… Urk.”

The fat
man stopped talking, since Eve was picking him up, across the table, by the
throat. With her left hand. The physics of it didn’t really work, so she let go
immediately, as if restraining herself.

“Fair?
No. Probably not.
Fair
would be having your will stripped from you. If
you want fair, I can set that up. Ever hear of The Mistress of Souls? I bet if
we call her up, she’ll be more than happy to take that from you.”

That
was, it turned out, the wrong thing to say. Marcus could barely speak, and
gasped, but grinned a little.

“A bit
over the top, getting a Greater Demon in on it, don’t you think? I doubt you’d
want to trade your soul just to make me…”

There
was a dark chuckle from the counter area, and Bey smiled when Marcus looked at
him.

“We will
not need that.
I
can compel you, to that end, if Miss Benson desires it
done. Or Miss Sims? You have foolishly come to the attention of beings you do
not
wish to know. I highly suggest you do as instructed and pray that Miss Benson
does not call in her friends. The Mistress of Souls is not the only such being
she can contact.”

It was
pretty clear that Marcus wasn’t going to buy what the funny looking man was
saying, but Bob Millhouse touched his arm. That got his attention in a more
real seeming fashion.

“Plus,
Eve has contacts in
our
ruling set. Perhaps you should accept her terms
for now and try your best? We can’t afford a war at this point. Plus, if you
don’t, I’m not certain you’re going to walk out of this room.”

Now he,
Eve had to allow, sounded threatening. There was a hard look on his face too,
as if he’d had about enough of the whining little fatbeard’s antics. It was
probably about trying to keep him alive though, not anything else.

Eve
waved her hand at the guilty man, and then gestured with her head toward the
door.

“Right
then. Go to the power lifting gym at the end of the mall, that way.” She
pointed for him, in case he didn’t know where everything was. After all, how
common would it really be to hang out at an embassy? “I’ll call that in and set
up payment for it… Or, you know, you’re rich,
you
cover it. Get on out
of here and come back as soon as you’re done and showered. Go!” The last bit
sounded angry, and she felt it, but there was no benefit to letting herself go
that way. Not now.

Still, she
fixed a pissy look onto her face, and didn’t relax until the man was gone.

“There.
That should fix nothing,
and
end up being a pain in the ass. Well,
Maggie, if you want we can beat him for you a bit? Or… I don’t know how to
really do this. My take in life so far when I’ve found rapists has been pretty
much to kill them. I get that he’s kind of your pal, and that you’re really
upset with what he did, not the sex part…” She shrugged, copying her friend,
Zack.

After a
bit, she just had to shake her head.

“I don’t
know. I just don’t. Did I do that well enough? Should I have…” She tried not to
sound like she was lost and alone, but that was the actual case, she knew.

Thankfully
Bey smiled at her, and moved over, to pat her on the shoulder. It was a
friendly thing. Almost fatherly. It had taken her a long time to learn that
one. Some men, not all, or even most, but a
few
, would actually touch
you and not expect you to put out. Not that sex was a bad thing, but it was strange
and wonderful, to find someone that could do that with her. Just hold her. In
this case it was less contact than that.

“You did
well, Miss Benson. Few would credit your restraint, if they knew that you were
brought over less than three days before the present. I note that you also
sought to prevent a war. One that might have very well been considered
unavoidable, if other people had been in charge of these negotiations. I wish
to praise you both for that.” There was a little bow toward Bob, and one for
her. Then a hand moved out and landed gently on Maggie’s slightly soft looking
arm.

“If you
need our aid, after your ordeal, please know that we of the Council are here
for you as well. Always. That you seek to hold this man as a friend after being
wronged so…” His eyes looked damp suddenly, even if that probably wasn’t really
possible. “It is a thing of
great
strength.”

The nerd
girl gamer looked over at Eve, and then made a disbelieving face.

“You’ve
only been a Vampire for
three days
?”

She
pretended to count on her fingers.

“Yep.
That’s about the size of it. Now, we should get to the paperwork, so that I
don’t get chewed out when Edom and Lenore get here?”

That got
her stared at, but Bob helped them with it, since he needed to fill out some
similar forms at the same time. It didn’t take that long, so by the time Mark
was back, Bob had left and so had Maggie. Bey however, stood there with her, as
she went back over the shop, after putting the filled out forms away. She’d
probably have to redo them or add information, but that was all right, she
thought. No one would expect her to have it perfect, would they?

The next
hours were filled with people coming in, for blood. They had a shipment in a
special cooler, but she had to warm the glass bottles in a small silver, copper
bottomed, pan. The trick was to get it just warm enough to mimic body
temperature, more or less. All of it smelled so good, too. The Vampires that
came in for it were all affluent looking though. They
all
had on suits
or nice dresses. None of them wore t-shirts or even regular coats. Instead they
seemed to be wealthy, to a man, woman, and excellently well behaved Vampire
child.

Those
last ones were creepy as all hell, too.

The
kids, or the beings that looked like they were young, being small, often thin
and too well dressed in the main for real children of the modern age, all stood
out. They’d walk to the counter and politely enquire as to the availability of
certain products, for instance. Very few of them came and asked for blood
outright, and none of them were demanding or even seemed all that concerned
about actually getting it or not. Then, all of them, every single one, was
clearly filled with a bright pink glow of energy, weren’t they?

It was
true that she was as well, Eve realized, looking down at her own body as a
young man, who looked to be Slavic in racial origin, asked if she were new to
the embassy.

He was,
she realized, both very old, and had a look about him that would put having sex
with him on the very edge of what would be awkward for most people. About
fourteen or so.

She
nodded however, and made sure to blink a little bit as she took a half breath
of air. Most people didn’t really suck in huge chest-fulls every single time
they spoke, did they?

“I’ve
worked here for a while, but I’m just now getting to run the place on my own.
This is my first full day.” It was literally true, and the man looked at her as
if he understood more than she was saying.

After
all, a Vampire being allowed to run the place all day had to be old. Probably
powerful as well.

“That
sounds fun. So, do you ever get time off?”

The
words were so common sounding to her that Eve nearly just assumed that the guy
was trying to hit on her. The thing there being that he might just have been.
Not
all
Vampires were without a sex drive, after all. It was possible
that this boy looking man was just different that way than she was.

“You
know, I’m not really certain what the schedule will be like for a while here.
Would you like to get together some time? If I get a chance, I mean? We can
chat about things.”

She
didn’t promise anything, but it was pretty clear that getting to know powerful
people, while a risk, was also part of the perks of the job at hand.

The man,
who smiled cutely enough, nodded. His nearly black hair had some kind of old
fashioned hair treatment in it, making it seem a bit too slick, but other than
that he looked nice enough. Pale, but who wasn’t?

“That
would be a fine thing. I’m… Kenneth Dial. Please, call me Ken.” He stuck a hand
out to shake, which she took without thinking.

It was
what you did. Though she did notice that it came at her slowly, not darting out
or anything too aggressive. She tried to match that speed, and smiled with her
mouth closed.

“Eve.
Benson.”

Then she
hurried to get her new potential buddy Ken his drink. Again, like always, the
stuff in the small ceramic mug smelled incredible. Like most of the Vampires
coming in, he drank it there, not even taking a seat in one of the brightly
colored booths, just finishing it in a few greedy swallows and then handing the
heavy brown vessel back to her.

He’d
paid in cash, but only about half of them did. A quarter of them had accounts
that she had to look up in a slender book that was kept under the counter. The
rest tended to use Visa bank cards. It was very specific too. For some strange
reason they
all
used the same company.

None of
them bought on credit, which was probably a sign that they were all rather
wealthy.

Marcus
came back, was sent off to sweep the mage embassy and then sent home at nine.
He had instructions to be there at nine the next morning from Bob. The fatbeard
actually complained about being sore from his work out, as if that should
excuse him from working the next day? She waved him over, smiling at him.

“Shut up,
Mark. Just be thankful that Maggie decided that you’re too pathetic to be a
real rapist. That isn’t going to last too long. The pathetic part.” She saw
that he looked baffled, and let her head shake a bit. Made it happen, trying to
be subtle. “Understand this. You hurt her, by taking away her right to tell you
no. You claim it was because you’re not good enough for women to love, which is
probably
fatbeard for thinking all women owe you a blowjob. That said,
you’re going to change now. Not just into someone that knows to not do crap
like that, but into a person that’s
good
enough. So, get ready, because
you’re changing no matter what. Bring cash tomorrow, because you’re getting a
makeover too. Clean workout clothes as well. Because that’s going to be a daily
thing from now on.”

He
actually sputtered. Like exercise was just far too much to ask of his lazy ass?

“That
won’t make any difference. Women hate me because I’m ugly. Why should I even
bother to try and change?”

Eve
rolled her eyes and had to avoid back handing the man. It was close and she
actually charged him, she was so annoyed. She covered though, by giving him a
hug. He smelled like fruity soap, which was better than she would have
expected, all things considered.

“Hate
you? Shut the fuck up, moron. Maggie flat out told me that she would have
screwed you if you’d just
asked
. You let your own low self-esteem get
you into trouble there. This has been a bad day for you, and things will be
hard for a long time, but if you can stop being a little bitch, remember to
show up on time, and make sure that I don’t have to rip your throat out, you
can be a lot more than you think. Now go. You smell too much like the lunch I
didn’t get.” She grinned at him and pushed the Mage away.

Honestly,
she was kind of proud of that. She’d hugged a Human, or a being so close to
being one that it didn’t matter, and hadn’t sunk her fangs in at all.

She
did
have to spend the next half hour trying to meditate while she puttered around
cleaning and trying to find things to do. Luckily a few people came in to
distract her.

Between
each of the blood transactions, which seemed to be picking up as the evening
went on, there were regular people coming in too. It wasn’t exactly
busy
,
so she restocked the yogurt machines, set up a new batch of starter culture,
and paid attention to the details of her job. It was true that she was being a
little overzealous about it, but when Lenore and Edom finally got in, at about
eleven, with Cormack in tow behind them looking concerned, she was just about
to dump a batch of powdered peanuts and make a fresh one.

That was
due to boredom though, not anything else.

“Peeps!
I was just about to get bored. How did things go with the new kids? Are they
all settled in their new country digs?” Zack owned an old, but refurbished,
summer camp. It was an actual one in the summer time, but in November there was
no real reason not to let Vampires live there. It was isolated enough that they
probably wouldn’t kill too many people.

Ed moved
around the counter, looking at her closely. In fact he stared, hard.

“Better
than I figured last night. We had to kill three of the six. They just couldn’t
get a hold on themselves, and there were too many to risk keeping them all, not
with troubled youth being involved at the same time. How did things go here?”

“Not too
bad. A bit boring, and of course torturously painful under the light of the
sun. I’m kind of blocking that part out.” Glancing up at the ceiling, she
shrugged. “I’ll get used to it. I hear that’s a real thing too? I kind of have
a bet with Zack about it.”