Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (16 page)

She
nodded, taking it all in, watching the writhing selection of food in front of
her. She was
glad
her job would be scooping up puke and making sure that
no one was being raped in the alley though. How Barb managed to work inside that
moving feast Eve didn’t know.

She’d
been impressed with herself when she managed not to bite Marcus, but this…
These people were practically screaming for her to drink them dry. It was, she
realized, another test of her resolve. She was going to win that one though.
Even if it killed her. She had all the energy links she needed and drinking
some club kid wouldn’t make her stronger.
Resisting
that would.

She
didn’t bother to answer, just listening as he went on.

“If
there’s a problem, use the headset and let Kevin know. He’s in charge of the
security staff. If you hear him say ‘code blue’ then stop whatever you’re doing
and go find him. That probably means that someone has a gun, so be careful.
Other than that, bag up the trash and put it in the dumpster out back. People
go back there to have sex and do drugs, so try not to spook them too much. Any
questions?”

They’d
moved back into his little office space, or the manager’s space at least, and
he dug through a box of things, until he found a blue jacket for her, that had
the club name, but didn’t say security on the back. Not that she’d get cold,
but the point was for her to seem like a real person. They wore jackets
outside.

Then a
black headset was tossed to her. It flew very slowly toward her, so she was able
to carefully pluck the thing out of the air, and examine it before putting it
on in a very slow, but fluid movement.

There
was a little black switch that had to be pushed into the on position, and a
button to press that would let her talk. Almost instantly there was a crackle
of static, as a male voice spoke.

“Looks
like we need a cleanup in bathroom three.”

Tapping
the side of her head, over her ear, she spoke.

“On it.”

Then she
released the button.

“Where’s
the supply closet? Clean up in bathroom three?”

Troy,
being a sweetheart, actually walked her over to those places, and helped her
put out the sign so that people would know that it was out of service for
cleaning. He even helped her get the supplies and then looked mildly ill when
he put his head into the room.

“
Fuff
.
Well this is a fine way to start your first day. I
swear
this is the
worst I’ve ever seen.” Moving out of the way, he showed her.

It was
pretty gross. She didn’t let herself feel pissed off about it, trying to hold a
meditative feeling of peace. Then she stopped breathing and waved him away.
There was puke, of course, which had blood in it. That was bad, but the person
had also apparently had explosive diarrhea at the same time, and their
pantyhose, underwear and what seemed to be a hand towel were all left in a
sodden pile just inside the door. The rag had the club name on it, but she
wasn’t going to send it to the wash.

It
didn’t take her long to get it all cleaned up though, since she closed the door
and made herself work so fast that she could feel the energy trying to burn her
system again. Going slow wouldn’t help anything and people might need to use
the place. She had to scrub the whole thing though, including the ceiling in
one place, where brown specks had splattered it.

How the
woman that had gotten sick had survived it, she didn’t know.

Then,
she also didn’t know it was a woman, did she? Just because there were panties
and hose, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a dude. Being narrow minded wasn’t a
thing she needed to be, was it?

There
was much scrubbing, done with a will, and then a lot of air freshener. She had
to breathe to take a sniff, finally. It was a mistake, but not anywhere near as
bad of one as doing it to start with would have been. Then she hurried to dump
the bag of waste and mopped up vomit, only to realize that the rest of the
rooms would need to be tidied soon too. None of them were even close to being
as bad, but it was hard to work her way in to get them cleaned up.

Two of
the rooms just didn’t open up for nearly half an hour each. It was clear that
in one there was a small orgy going on, and in the other a man was close to
dying, from a drug overdose.

“Geh.
Now, what do I do about
that
?”

She
really didn’t know, so decided to
ask
. That made sense, right?

“Hey, um,
Ed? Barb? Can anyone hear me?” She spoke in a normal tone, and didn’t use the
headset. Before she could do it twice, Barb answered her.

“Hey
sweetie! What’s up?” Her voice was nearly bubbly, and Eve could tell she was
near the dance floor.

“We have
a guy dying of an overdose in, um, I think it’s bathroom number one? I can hear
him through the door, but I don’t know how to report it.”

There
was a pause, and then a low chuckle.

“Tell
Kevin that you heard someone begging for help from in there. He’ll get the key
and check it out.”

That
made sense. So much so that she really should have figured it out on her own.

“Thanks.”

Tapping
her ear she did just that, which got the man and another security guard over to
her in about two minutes, and the door opened shortly after that. The guy on
the floor was still breathing, and had a needle in his arm. That meant they had
to secure the room and call an ambulance.

It was,
Kevin assured her, a pain in the ass.

“Can you
go watch the door? I know it isn’t your job, but we need someone on it, or else
people will just walk in. We have room for thirty more people right now. There
are fire codes. Really, just turn everyone away. I’ll have Brian come and take
over in a few minutes. People will start to freak when the lights are visible.”
That last part was mumbled, but she went to the front anyway, knowing that no
one would take her very seriously.

She was,
as it turned out, half right.

The
first person to the door was an already drunk guy that looked a bit like his
father’s money had paid for the plastic surgery to install his permanent ass
face. He tried to use some of that cash to bribe her.

Very
little of it, too.

Holding
three ones out he glanced at the boys with him.

“There’s
more where that came from if you’re any good at giving head.” It was supposed
to be funny, but she didn’t really think so, personally. It was also meant to
be insulting.

“
Next
.
Get out of the line.”

They all
tried to walk past her, which got her to move into the way.

“
Nope
.
You at least need to go to the back of the line, and think of a better bit of
patter, if you want in. Back now… Go…”

They
grumbled, but no one tried to hit her. She was thin, and cute. So that probably
wouldn’t happen.

She
didn’t even get the word sorry all the way out with the next group, three
women, who looked nice enough to get in, most likely, when the first one hit at
her. It was only a slap, and didn’t connect, since she blocked it easily
enough, but it was
all
she could do not to hit her back.

“Oh,
that’s
it. Because assault is going to get you in? We run a clean club here. Except
for all the good drugs and sex that you won’t be getting. Step off now, before
I shove you up your girlfriend’s ass.” That worked, for some reason.

The next
ten or so people were a bit sad not to get in, but they were late for the
evening, which she explained, and there was a fire code.

“So,
next time get here earlier? That might not get you in, but it’s
way
easier if you’re one of the first people in line. Right now though, let’s make
room for the ambulance?”

That did
get people to act suspicious, and start trying to hide things. A few dumped
them outright, at the edge of the parking lot. She got it soon enough, since
four cop cars followed the ambulance.

“Make
room. Get out of the way. Let them through.”

She
tapped the side of her head.

“Kevin?
The ambulance and police are here.”

“Hold
the door. I’ll come bring them through. Brian, are you done yet?”

There
was a pause, then a short no. It sounded strained, but pleasant.

 “Well
hurry up and nut. We have the new girl on the front door right now.” That told
her a lot about what Brian was likely doing. Probably in the other bathroom
that was locked.

Kevin
was good to his word though, and got there just in time to take the EMTs back
along with two of the cops. The other two stood right by the door, which got
about half the people that had been in line to simply leave. One of the men,
who was closest to her and looked to be pushing fifty or so, stroked his gray
mustache.

“You’re
a bit short for a bouncer, aren’t you?”

She
nodded.

“I make
up for it in groin kicks.” The man gave her a look that said he got it, so she
went on. “I’m actually janitorial. I’m just place holding for the security guy
that’s having sex in the bathroom right now. All I can say is that he
better
throw his condom away himself, or I’m making him eat it.”

The cop
gave her a dour look that barely held back a grin.

“I hear
that. Some people have no respect. I…” He made a face, and looked at a large,
and decently nice, American made car as it pulled up. “Crap on a cracker.
That’s weird. Chief Sims is here.”

The
woman, who was wearing a suit, complete with a skirt practically marched over.
She looked to be in her late forties, and by the dense energy coming off of
her, she was both a Vampire and well fed. That was a shock to Eve, since she
hadn’t known that Vampires could hold regular public offices like that. Richard
Swerlin did, of course, but everyone thought he was a nut job.
Including
most of the Vampires.

When the
woman got there she seemed at a loss though, and spoke to her officer, rather
than Eve. The strange thing there was that the woman was clearly watching
her
,
as if trying to communicate that she wasn’t trying to give offense. Just hold
her cover.

“Chief,
is there a problem?”

The
woman looked hard for a bit.

“No, I
was just coming to speak to…” Then she froze, as if not certain what kind of
lie to tell.

So Eve
moved forward and stuck her hand out.

“Thank
you for coming. Maggie told me you would be. We’re in the same role playing
group? You wanted to talk about setting something up with a regular patrol or
something? It wasn’t too clear.” She looked at the older cop, and shrugged.
“What can I say, I’m weird. We have a role playing group thing that meets up once
a week. I bring the cupcakes and dress up as an elf. It’s adorable.”

That got
the man to shake his head.

“And
here I thought you seemed like such a nice girl, too.”

Chief Sims
shook her hand though.

“That’s
right. They meet up in central park. We’ve had some reports of them being harassed,
and since my daughter goes regularly, she thought that a bit of nepotism might
be in order to make sure everyone is safe. I
did
tell her that we’d have
done it anyway, since it’s our job, but she keeps thinking that life is like a
movie. Kids, you know the problems there.” She was speaking to her officer, but
watching Eve closely.

The EMTs
and other cops came out about then, along with Kevin and Edom, who shook hands
with the older woman, too.

After
that, looking sheepish, a large, a slightly plump looking guy in a security
jacket came out and ducked his head.

“Sorry.
I, um, got busy.”
That
was pretty clear, since she could smell it on
him. Regular people would have been able to, if they tried.

She just
nodded, not wanting to make a scene about something that was probably pretty
common at a place like that.

“No big
thing. I need to cover some increased park patrols with Chief Sims here, since
she’s my friend’s mom. Then I need to actually do my real job, or I’m
so
getting fired.” She looked at the older woman, who had curly sandy blonde hair.
“I clean the bathrooms, and need to collect up all the trash that people have
been dumping. Can I get fifteen to chat with her, boss? I don’t know that I’m
actually due a break yet.” She looked at Edom, who nodded at her, his white
teeth shining in the neon of the purple sign out front.

“Certainly.
Please, come this way. You can use my office for that.”

Then
they made their way through the delicious dance floor.

Eve was
distracted from the obvious situation in front of her, right up until the door
closed. The scent was heady, and strong. There were undertones of perfume, and
cologne, as well as sweat and in a few cases BO. All of it seemed lovely to her.
That was a thing she really wouldn’t have been ready for, even if anyone would
have told her about it. That guy in the corner wearing the three day old shirt,
who’d forgotten to use the Ban roll-on earlier was
just
as tasty seeming
as anyone she’d ever met.

Really,
it was worse than the others, because he smelled like a combination of sweat
and animal musk that was purely distracting. She brought her focus around
anyway, since the Vampire Chief of Police might just be dangerous to her. She’d
come for a reason, and if she really was Maggie the Vampire’s mother, or even
just maker, then the woman would probably be pissed with her for not at least
castrating Mark earlier. That could mean a fight, and that would probably mean
her having her behind kicked, since the woman had to be old and tough to have
her job.

The
Chief of Police
had
to work days, after all.

That
meant old for the vast majority of their kind.

Still
she turned to Edom, and gave a little bow. It was a partial thing, and felt
nearly like something halfway formal.

“I hear
that The Bey has once again come to our fair city? Is that correct? I hadn’t
heard about it, so that means what, exactly?”

That she
was fishing for information, probably. Eve could see it. Bey was the one they
sent in to kill other Vampires. Every time he came for a visit, people probably
panicked and sat around wondering what they’d personally done. That they’d know
about it in advance made sense, but a lot of Vampires probably skirted the edge
of Council law. In this case it probably had to do with the new feeding rules.
If the Chief here was drinking off of a long term stable of blood buddies, then
she might
just
be wondering if Bey had come to make sure she stopped
doing that, for good.

That, or
to ensure everyone knew to pay their taxes in a timely fashion.

Who
didn’t cheat on their taxes though? It was as American as blood soaked apple
pie.

Ed let
his head come up, just a little, and locked eyes with the other woman as Eve
just stood there, trying to seem Human by breathing consistently.

It was
harder than it sounded like.

“Yes. My
new protégé was taken by a mixed group of Vampires the other day. She fought
her way out, bringing a Human girl with her, so the toll in lives is thankfully
low so far, but Bey came to see if there was a problem there. Then yesterday,
or the day before now really, Nicole the Proctor discovered a nest of young
that were set to awaken alone. Six of them. There were several strains of
Vampire represented, four of the known six types, which is unusual, as I’m sure
you can see. No one knows what it means, but that’s why Bey is here this time.
The kidnapping.”

She
nodded and glanced at Eve then.

“Forgive
me, I should have introduced myself. Althea Sims. Local Police Chief for the
city here. That’s a Human office, naturally. I don’t think we’ve met before.
You know Maggie though? I haven’t been in touch with her for a few weeks.”

That
wasn’t good then, Eve nodded though, and decided to soldier on. If it was a
problem they could still torture Marcus after all.

“Yes.
There was a situation involving her last night. Her Human boyfriend called the
embassy, to let us know that she’d been kidnapped. He doesn’t know about her,
and thought that he was just helping out with some kind of role playing game
scenario. It turns out that a Mage, named Marcus had put a spell on her, to
turn her into his love slave. I got the Mages to send in a team to break the
spell, and Maggie kicked his butt for him pretty well.” She stopped to take a
breath of air, and was ready for a huge outburst, but the woman simply looked
at her, waiting.

Eve
tilted her head a little, trying to convey that she didn’t understand the lack
of response, but went on, covering the whole thing, including her plans for the
man. Which she wouldn’t need if Althea was going to slaughter the man.

“That’s
less than ideal. Still, a war has been averted, which is
always
good to
see. Don’t go too easy on this Mage however. That sort can get very full of
themselves if they aren’t kept in line occasionally. I agree that not killing
him is perhaps the better path here however. Parading him in front of his own
kind as you suggest, and making him play servant will show that we are both
kind, and not willing to take such things. Of course, the next time this
happens we’ll have to simply kill the Mage involved. Otherwise they’ll forget
our true power.”

It made
sense really. She was probably being too nice, but her little fatbeard was just
so pitiful.

“Agreed.
We’ll try to avoid that if we can. I’ll have Marcus work up a plan for that, to
help other Mages learn from his mistake? I know that would embarrass me, if the
shoe was on the other hand.” She’d said it that way on purpose, trying to seem
a little quirky, but the woman didn’t even smile at it. Edom did though,
getting what she was going for.

They
chatted for a while, with the Chief clearly trying to see if Bey was going to
be around long and if so, figure out ways to totally avoid him. It was like the
man had the plague or something, except that Althea didn’t want to let anyone
know that she thought that. In fact, she was being really careful about what
she was saying in that regard. So much so that Ed smiled after they both walked
her out. Eve needed to go that way anyway, since she was supposed to clean up
outside too. The bathrooms needed to be looked into as well, she didn’t doubt.

When the
woman drove away, Ed touched her arm, and didn’t speak until the woman was well
out of sight.

“She was
being careful there. Which is a good lesson. Never speak of anyone negatively.
Not if they might be more powerful than you are. About five years ago she
suggested to Lenore and a few others that we might seek to kill Zack, while he
was still young enough that we could get that done. It wasn’t the worst idea to
bring up, and probably seemed reasonable to her at the time. I mean, Baby
Demons… That’s what you do when you find one, if you can pull it off.”

Eve
hadn’t heard that one, so tried to make her face seem interested.

Her
master let his own look sly.

“Zack
walked in, figured it all out, and back handed her into a wall. It nearly
killed her. Then he stripped her behind bare, and
spanked
her in front
of the rest of us. Like a tiny child.
Zack
did that. It can be easy to
forget how powerful some people are. Don’t. Make sure you learn from others’
mistakes, too. You wouldn’t survive the spanking she took. Not yet. She barely
did, and trust me, she’s old.”

Hearing
that wasn’t good, but she knew it might be true. She just wasn’t physically up
to the standards of someone like Althea Sims. Trying to pretend she was would
just get her into trouble. Then again,
she
knew enough not to plot to
kill Zack. That he’d handled things like that was different though. Most of the
time he tried to talk his way through things, or find some way to get around
having to hurt anyone.

That, or
just killing them if pushed to it.

Honestly,
it was probably something like that, then. He’d brutalized the woman, in order
to keep her from being hurt even worse later? To stop things before he had to
kill her? That, or he was just into kinky spanking and had felt like it. That
wasn’t the case though, or else she would have been paddled a time or two
herself already. She’d been around enough for that, after all. It wouldn’t be
the first time in her life that had happened either.

“I
understand. I’ll keep my mouth shut, whenever possible. I’m just glad that she
didn’t demand we all go to war over what happened to Maggie.”

“That…
I’d wondered for a moment when she pulled up if that would be the case, too. It
would be a bit rare, a child stepping in for their maker that way, but it can
happen. Maggie Sims is old however. Enough so that Bey was willing to slaughter
all
the Mages in the area over an attack on her. That you two handled it
without bloodshed… I don’t know if the Mages can understand how close they came
to all being dead. Rumor has it that she used to be on the Council, a few
hundred years ago. Still, you managed it well. So did she. As a reward I’ll let
you get back to work now?”

She
grinned at that, not feeling too put out. It was boring, but that was a big
part of why she’d volunteered for it. Cleaning up had to be done, and while it
wasn’t a non-stop party, this particular job would let her be close to people
without having to actually test her resolve too much. Working inside would have
driven her crazy, just then. Even being this far away, outside, was hard.

So she
distracted herself, making sure that every bit of paper, each used condom, of
which there were a half dozen, and all the coins and drugs she found were taken
care of. She kept the change, since that was hers now. The rest of it she
tossed, or started to. After all, you didn’t put drugs in the dumpster, did
you? That would have hobos climbing in to get high, and then they’d end up
being crushed to death. Most of the things she found weren’t actually useful to
her, or anyone she knew, so she just flushed them, when she worked her way back
in to check the restrooms again. Several of them were in use, which meant that
the ones not being used for sex had seen a lot more traffic than they should
have. Another person got sick, but it was delicately done, compared to the
first scene that she’d walked into.

It was
strange to think of nerdy, role playing, Maggie as being a very old and powerful
Vampire. One that had been on the Council so long ago that America hadn’t even
been a thing yet? Then, it kind of made sense, didn’t it? The woman had fooled
her perfectly. Not well enough to make her think she was a Human, but there was
little doubt that other people would think that. Really though, everything
about her was nearly perfect for the time they were in.

Eve
would have guessed she was perhaps a few decades old.
Maybe
fifty years
a Vampire. That she was so much older than that kind of blew her mind. Then
again, it probably wasn’t exactly hard to fool her, was it? She’d expected to
see something, so she
had
. It was a good thing to keep in mind. She
lived in a different world now and letting herself be tricked too easily would
lead to problems, sooner or later.

Like
thinking of Zack as a lost little innocent boy. Or Darla as being her cuddly
high school pal, instead of a feared and powerful being. Imagining those things
to be real could get her into a lot of hot water. That it hadn’t yet was probably
due to the fact that both of them really
had
been looking out for her.
That wasn’t a thing to count on though, was it? Not just from them either, but
anyone. Ever. Yes, she needed to be there for her pals, and it was good when
they were there for her, but counting on that kind of thing was stupid. Even
with Edom, who was supposed to be watching out for her.

Look at
those other young Vampires that had been turned and dumped just the day before.
Their
makers hadn’t been there for them, had they?

Ed was a
great guy, and superior, no doubt, but she knew better than to let her guard
down too much. People failed you, eventually. Vampires would probably just do
it with biting thrown in for good measure. It would be something though. If he
were Human, that would probably just have been sex, but she doubted that would
be the thing that would turn him on her in particular. Politics then, would be
the likely next best thing.

Still,
that could take a long time to happen, and for the moment she had things to
take care of. Like making sure her new club was clean. They stopped serving
alcohol at two and closed the doors at four. There were still people there then
too, trying to score at the last second she figured. A few were so drunk though
that even the date rapists were giving them a pass. No one thought it was all
that sexy to wake up with some questionable guy or gal throwing up all over
them.

Eve just
started sweeping and mopping. To her surprise she got help, mainly from the
wait staff, and the three bar tenders. It took about half an hour, but the
place was pretty clean. She hit the restrooms last, which took longer, but Troy
was still there, along with Ed, when she finished scrubbing a limerick off of
the tile in one of the little spaces. It was nice enough, but people got bored
when they sat around. Still, if you didn’t stay on top of that stuff, it would
breed.

She
wasn’t questioned about anything, until she had the last of the cleaning gear
put away, gave her headset back to Troy and tried to give the decently heavy
blue jacket back to him.

“Nope,
keep that. Everyone on staff here gets one, and until we get you some shirts,
you need something to identify you as one of us. We should go over things, to
make sure it all got done? It’s part of my nightly routine. I’m not saying you
suck
or anything. Even though, you know,
Vampire
.”