Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  “That works for me. I’ll be there. That gives me time, I want to grab a toothbrush and shower first.” Not that she needed to, bacteria not growing on her very well, if at all. That meant she didn’t stink, but she was still kind of used to doing certain things on a daily basis and if they didn’t happen she really felt it. A weakness no doubt, but there it was. If she was going out, she wanted to be clean first.

  It turned out that she didn’t have anything to do that night anyway, since there was no real work for her. The little incarceration thing had kind of taken her out of the normal rotation, not that she was ever in it. Even at the club she’d always just kind of showed up. With permission, but still, that had been a kind of low level thing. They hadn’t needed her, she just cleaned up the restrooms and then made sure that nothing happened to anyone by way of pretending to be security.

  During which she kind of killed eleven people. It might, she supposed, be enough to make her unwelcome at the club for a while. That was a shame, since it had been nice knowing what she was going to be doing each day. Well, she had that night covered, so there was that. Walking fast, she got back home to Ed’s, got ready and then forced herself to move as fast as possible to Arizona. It was weird, in more than one way.

  First, it was a bit uncomfortable, going back there after being gone for so long. She hadn’t really thought about it, but most of the bad things that had happened to her in life had taken place there. Even the pain that she’d had since she’d died had been better. Even going into the glass coffin had been.

  Those things had been her choice. Unless someone had mind controlled her into doing that. In that case, well, it would take whoever had done it coming out and telling her about it directly. She could ask, but what where the odds of that happening?

  She didn’t know, but it probably wasn’t all that great.

  The trip took about five minutes, because she dawdled on the last half, and felt like it had taken a lot longer than that. About a week, which wasn’t really right. Walking that distance would take a person a lot longer, wouldn’t it? That was probably a good thing, given how much of this kind of travel she’d been doing lately. It was boring, and slow. Except that it really wasn’t. It felt like it took forever, but in clock time? Not that much at all. It wasn’t as fast as Zack could go, using a Node, but it was better than what most could manage. Even in a plane. The big drawback was really that to her it seemed to take forever. It was drab and left her feeling like something was lacking in her world. Then, that was a lot of life.

  You lived through the hard things, the ones that made you want to quit for whatever reason, to get to the ones that made it all worth doing.

  Eve knocked, politely, even though the nice place had practically been her home, once upon a time. Those days had been bleak, when she thought back on them. Not because of Darla though. No, that had been down to her own mother and the fact that she loved her drugs more than her own child. That kind of thing, while less than good to think about now, did remind her not to be that kind of person. She wanted, even now, as a cool and strong Vampire, to be there for other people, too.

  That… The feeling took her a little by surprise, to be totally honest. After all, wasn’t her deal all about protecting herself? She thought about it as her hand came up to knock on the very clean white door, and realized that she could want both things at once. Being strong enough to really take care of herself wasn’t totally opposed to the idea that she could protect the small and weak.

  The rapping was gentler than what she would have used before, even here. Eve didn’t know it for a fact, but she had a strong suspicion that Darla Gibson had much better hearing than a Human would have. If not that, then some other way to know who was at her door.

  Still, not being a bitch, she called out as well.

  “Darla? It’s Eve. I’m alone.” It felt a little paranoid, or like she thought her friend was, but it was becoming kind of clear that something large was going on for a lot of people, and if that wasn’t going to set off some Greater Demons than she didn’t really know them at all. Which, most likely, she just didn’t.

  It was going to be better to be polite than not, anyway.

  The door moved open slowly enough to not be alarming, and the hot blonde girl standing there wasn’t armed. Not that Eve could see. There was no hesitation either, and a big hug came in, wrapping her in warmth. It was, she realized, a bit more than what a regular Human would have had going on. Greater Demons only looked like people.

  Only when they wanted to, she reminded herself. The idea that they were shape changers, and more, some of the best of that kind, was a thing that she needed to remind herself of more often. Just because she couldn’t do it, didn’t mean that it might not be a factor in her life later.

  Her friend kissed her cheek and then pulled her in, giggling a little.

  “Eve! There you are. Early by… Four minutes, too. Now, come on in. I have some blood for you? Though I notice that you haven’t been eating at all? Not anything fresh. You should get some new links occasionally. It will make it harder for anyone to take you out just by killing all of your energy sources at once.” The girl kept hold on her left hand, her nice blouse a light pink color that made her seem almost ridiculously girly. The sleeves were those little three quarter length ones. It was a popular fashion that time of year in Arizona. It was just too warm for most anything else, and too cool for dressing up in shorts.

  Giving her friend a long look she shook her head a bit, and brushed her own black hair back off her forehead a bit.

  “Seriously. I hadn’t really even thought about that one. It’s a good point. Well, that’s why you make the big bucks and I work as a low level lackey for the Council.”

  She was drawn into the light colored room, which had always seemed incredibly rich to Eve. It had cream colored furniture, eggshell colored carpets, and off white walls. It wasn’t a complete study in making a person’s eyes hurt though. There were lamps and sculptures around the edges, for instance. Several of which contained energies, she notice. Not all of them were life energy or magic, but she could both see and feel it now. A few of them hummed, audibly, too.

  Darla noticed her looking as she was guided to the nice sofa, the other girl sitting far enough away to make it seem like she wasn’t there to get busy with her, but close enough to tell anyone watching that it might not be totally impossible that something could happen when the lights went out. Not that her buddy really rolled that way.

  Oh, she’d do a girl if it was needed, but Eve didn’t think that she was really all that interested in things like that, and wouldn’t be unless it was project oriented.

  The Greater Demon pointed off to the sculpture that had always been on the nice wooden cabinet that held the phone, across the room. It wasn’t a huge thing, and looked like some kind of twisted modern thing. It was a deep blue, but now that she really looked at the thing, it was clear that not all of it was existing inside normal space at all. She’d seen the thing a thousand times, but this was the first time that she noticed that part of it. Consciously at least. Before she just hadn’t really liked it much, but now she started to understand why.

  Her buddy winked at her.

  “It’s a bomb. One that would take out this part of North America if anyone were to trigger it. One of my failsafe measures. If anyone attacks me here, they will lose. No matter how powerful they are, nothing in existence can survive it being activated. Except me, of course. Don’t worry though, if that ever happens you won’t feel anything.” She grinned, as if that news wasn’t incredibly sinister.

  Eve shrugged. It was either the truth, or a lie that Darla wanted her to believe for some reason. Either way there was nothing she could do about it except move away, and from what had just been said, going back to Vancouver might not be far enough away at all.

  So instead she just nodded.

  “That makes sense. Kind of a way to burn everything down, if anyone does too good of a job coming after you? I nee
d to get something like that eventually. Not yet. Too many people seem to be after me. I don’t know why though. Which, other than coming to drink your blood, the stuff in the fridge, is why I’m really here. Not exactly a good reason, but I don’t have a handy holiday to excuse me being here.”

  She waited, since it was a bit more blunt than she’d intended to be, but Darla rolled her eyes, and managed to look both dignified and playful at the same time.

  “Which makes sense. The thing there Eve, is that what you’re seeing, well, it isn’t something small, and it just isn’t all pointed at you either. Yes, some of it is, but I really can’t tell you about all of it. Most of the time that wouldn’t be a problem, since you wouldn’t ask. No one does, really. Even when they suspect that my kind is involved, they tend to stand back, and forget to just send a note. For good reason, but you rather have more resources that way than most.”

  That… Was not helpful at all. Worse, Eve was almost certain that for a Greater Demon it would have been enough to give away the whole plot. She just wasn’t smart enough to see into what was being said. It left her feeling frustrated for a moment, but then she shrugged.

  She was the one on the short bus, compared to a lot of her friends. Bright enough for a Human, or a Vampire even, but so far below Darla that she needed to accept that fact now, before it got her killed. Not because her friend would hurt her, but walking into something that was too big could do the same thing, in the end.

  “So, not being able to understand what you Greater Demons are getting up to, how can I protect myself? Run and hide? Except that I’m not allowed to do that yet, am I? I have promises to keep and all that. I owe Edom and the others too much to bail on them…”

  She was about to get a little frustrated, when Darla nodded and reached out to touch her arm gently. There was a tingle at the contact. There had been, at the door, too.

  It was a thing that she’d felt before, several times. She just couldn’t recall where it had been very clearly.

  Her oldest pal, the being who had saved her from what had probably been a horrible fate, if left unchecked, removed her hand slowly, and nodded.

  “That’s right. You have felt that before. You probably will again. I can’t tell you all of the plans, or even if they’re real or not, or just a ruse used to influence the others of my kind, but I can share that one, now that you noticed it. When a Greater Demon touches another being, anyone, they instantly grab a copy of everything that person has ever thought, and all they know. If you can pay attention to that, you may well understand more a lot more, quickly.”

  Eve got that it was a trick too, and not a good thing.

  If she knew who the Greater Demons were, and they didn’t like her knowing, they might just try to get rid of her.

  Darla smiled and touched her again. There was no tingling this time.

  “Exactly, Eve. The world is a far more dangerous and deadly place than you ever imagined. It always was, so I think you can survive this, if you’re careful enough. Now, how about that blood?” Almost as if she didn’t have bones, the other girl rose up, and headed toward the kitchen.

  Eve just sat there, wondering, for the first time, if she’d made a mistake trying to be anything other than what she always had been.

  It was too late to change up now. Which meant that she needed to get up to speed fast, didn’t she? Except that it was clear that no one was just going to tell her what she needed to know.

  Like they wanted her to think of it all on her own, or something.

  Chapter thirteen

  Darla was remarkably unhelpful after that, but did feed her some new links, which were all Human, from the feeling of them. Of course, since part of her new reality was that she couldn’t really trust anyone, the second that Eve got back to the yogurt shop she was going to have to drop them all and get new ones from even different sources. Thinking that was a bit mean, since she loved Darla, but her friend didn’t seem upset when she realized that Eve had been thinking that.

  In fact, it was pretty clear that she was impressed.

  “That’s the spirit! Once something like that is pointed out to you, not acting on it would be foolish. Not that I would have used that against you. After all, I don’t really have to, since if I want you to perform a task for me, I can just ask. Not everyone will be that kind though, and you have some enemies already. You know that however.”

  She did.

  “Gene, from the Council? Um… I don’t really know why, or who else. I’m sure that I’ve pissed off someone over the years. I bet there are twenty Mages that feel like the world would be better without me. I sort of let that kid get killed. His parents…” That was a real thing, she knew. They couldn’t touch Zack after all, or Darla, so that left Eve the baby Vampire to blame for the brat getting himself killed.

  Darla shook her head and then patted her arm gently.

  “Surprisingly, no. They were told about what you did to protect the others, and think of you as an ally of sorts. Many of the Mages are like that. The thing is…” Then, maddeningly, and clearly on purpose, she stopped talking.

  Which was a hint, but of what, Eve couldn’t tell.

  Finally, her head starting to hurt a bit, she simply asked.

  “I know that I’m not getting what you mean. Is this important, or can I just phone it in? Do I really need to know, and if so, what am I supposed to be doing? Thinking for myself, clearly, but what am I supposed to be going for?” She waited.

  Nothing came. In fact, Darla got up to get a drink for herself. A soda, it seemed, except that the scent of it was too strong. It was a glass of syrup, basically. Orange in color, and too dark to be something a Human would enjoy.

  Looking at the glass, the blonde nodded.

  “There are a thousand tricks to passing as Human. This is one of them. Soon, if all goes as it is, we won’t have to do that at all, unless it fits our current plans. That… It isn’t what the main body of my kind want. Some of the insane think it’s a great idea. Then, that’s rather what not being sane means for one of us. Thinking that things are one thing, when they are actually another.” Then she drank the whole thing down without stopping, not even making a face at the cloying sweetness when she was done.

  Eve sort of understood then.

  Something that was going on was really being pushed by some of the Greater Demons? She focused as well as she could, staring at the far wall, which was a nice and even white color. There was a hand painted picture there, of a barn, as seen over a field of wild flowers. It was pretty, she thought.

  Finally she started to nod, not knowing why she was doing it, since nothing was coming to her consciously. Nothing did, until she spoke.

  “So, all of the sane ones of your kind are holding back, and not breaking into what’s happening, which is… Everyone being outed to the Humans? Because…” She let her face screw up, a bit surprised that she was saying anything. “Because they stand to benefit from it too? There’s no real reason for Humans not to know about it all, Vampires and Mages, or even Greater Demons. In fact that has to be good for business. The normal people just have a problem remembering that things other than their day to day reality exists. I was always told that, but I didn’t get it until I was a Vampire for a while. So much of the world is different than I thought it was, and I’d known about it all. That… So, the, um, good guys of your kind are standing back and letting the crazy ones do all the work, so that…” She didn’t know. It was probably all wrong, but Darla let her face light up.

  “Keep going… You almost have it all.”

  She did? Eve thought for a long time, her friend getting up to get food for herself. It wasn’t rude, since Eve didn’t need to eat, and really couldn’t, unless it was an all protein and fat snack. She hadn’t even tried that yet.

  “Okay, so, the insane Greater Demons, they’ll want a return on investment. That, I guess it could be increased Human slaves. A lot of people are miserable enough that selling themselves for fame, fortune, sex o
r whatever probably seems like a good deal. I can understand that. I mean, it’s kind of what I did.” She waved at her body, meaning the whole Vampire thing, which got a single nod.

  It had been a move meant to get her power, after all.

  Plus, she was right, she thought. At least she wasn’t told that the others hadn’t done that, or for those reasons.

  She shook her head.

  “That doesn’t explain the rest of it though, does it? Someone trying to kill Troy Lopez for instance? Or whoever set me up to go into a box for six months. Was that Keels do you think? Or Zack?” Or, and she didn’t say that part, Darla? It would just be denied if it was the case, all of it would. That was really what the message for the day was, so she held up her right hand and wiggled her fingers.

  Then didn’t say anything for a long time.

  “I know, you won’t tell me that. Let’s see… Who would bother even messing with me in particular? If it wasn’t one of you… Well, or someone just acting at random, trying to get at Bey or Ed… Um, Finias? But really, he’s kind of like the rest of you, isn’t he? If he needed me to do something and it wasn’t going to get me killed or hurt too much to take, then wouldn’t he just ask? That, or offer to trade something that would be a big deal to me that he wouldn’t care about at all… So, not him?” She glanced at the stony, and totally bland face in front of her.

  That wasn’t a fair assessment though. She was smiling gently, as if pleased. That could be due to Eve getting things finally. At the same time it could be about a thousand other things, one of which was that she was bothering to try and use her head as more than a platform for giving a blowjob. Life had been easier in a way, when she could simply do things like that to make friends. Really, she probably could now, she knew. Her self control was good enough. She’d just been putting off trying, in case she messed up and bit someone.

  She wouldn’t. Not on accident.

  Eve thought for a few moments again, and then went on.

  “So who does that leave? I know Ann, kind of, but haven’t seen her for years. Xenses? I guess I always got along with Barb well enough, but he was a real piece of work. But… If I was being messed with by The Defiler, I’m sure that my ass would have been stretched out a few times already. That’s his thing, isn’t it?”