by P. S. Power
Really, they probably still were thinking that, to be honest about the whole thing. She’d lived that part of things, and it really was hard to remember to take it all seriously, even when you saw and felt things that defied explanation daily. Actually, that was when it got hardest. It was easier to remember that Rebekah, the funny looking pale girl, was a Vampire, once you got used to her looks, than to understand that you really just went through a hole in space and time, for instance.
“Got it. Are the other groups doing the same thing?”
“I… Haven’t actually asked about that. I can run it by the Council, and see if they’d like that? Then you can call around and ask. I’d do it, but believe it or not, I’m actually busy, running around and doing things with the media. I have a meeting with Krista Hall later. About a movie roll that she’s doing in a few months, I think. She’ll be playing a Vampire, and the goal is to not offend everyone in the community for once. I think it’s darling of her to ask about it, don’t you? No one else has yet.”
Eve tried for noncommittal, and it came out sounding a bit bored.
“Meh. I don’t know who that is, so I can’t say much. It does sound pretty cool of her though. Smart, too. Before when they made a hash out of Vampire characters it was like the racists in the south going around in black face. Wrong, but you kind of knew that they didn’t really mean it all the time, they were just raised that way and didn’t know better. Now it would be like the neighbors doing it, just to spite you. On purpose.” That made sense in her head, and for some reason Maggie got it, or at least acted like she did.
“Exactly what I was thinking. Great then. I’ll send her to you, if she needs tips or help with her role? You’ll have more in common with her, being from the same era, and all that.”
Eve chuckled, but didn’t duck out. How often was she going to meet famous people, if this Krista chick was one of them? It seemed likely enough, or else Maggie wouldn’t have said the name like Eve was supposed to know who it would belong to.
“Sure, I can introduce her to the wonderful world of making treats, and doing paperwork! Soon she’ll be ready to tackle the real life of a Vampire public servant!”
That got a laugh, before the phone hung up.
Chapter fifteen
For three days, and two nights, Eve went from one task to the next, without a lot of waiting in between times. She had help, at least at night, since Barb and Cormack took turns working on the setup for the event with her. It was indoors, and to her utter shock, Marcus had actually given her the three million dollars he’d mentioned for some reason. Well, she got that it was all about buying her affection… But for the time being it was working.
Nothing said I love you like a butt load of money, did it?
That she knew better, on some level, was nearly as interesting as the fact that she only cared a tiny bit. It was impressive, and she knew that the trick was going to work no matter what she thought about it. Even if she gave it all back, the fact that it had taken place kind of already had impacted her. Now, when she thought of the Greater Demon Fram, it was the second thing that came to mind. The other one was that he was actually a girl, even though that wasn’t technically correct. He’d been pretending to be one when they’d known each other before, that was all.
Instead of Marcus the Mage he’d been a hot cheerleader called Barb.
That was fine really, though. This way they didn’t have to have a Barb one, and a Barb two. Her Barb, the Vampire, could stay who she was and Mark could be himself. That, or Fram. Not that she got a say in the matter.
The point was, that by the time of the evening presentation, her ad hoc team had things around, and in place, and the Mages and Shifters were also sending representatives for the affair. There were going to be cameras, and news crews, but the actual point of the thing was to show how well they could all get along. Also that they had, and could keep, Human friends, and that it was a real thing that they all wanted.
Eve didn’t know who all was going to be there, but it was decently cool seeming, when she saw the early portion of the turnout. Most of the gamer Vamps were there, which meant Lars and Tara, both looking Human, at least to start with. That was a disguise, and Eve broke the compulsion by changing the sense of buzzing in her head a bit, seeing them as they really looked, which was more interesting, being chalk white and filled with rows of fangs like they were. Also Lamont, the Human looking New Vampire, as well as his girlfriend, Leslie. She was a Classic, like Eve was, though not from the same line, most likely. Old enough to be up before true twilight though. Rounding that out, for their team, was Maggie Sims, who was there early, and actually helped get things set up.
Ancient or not, lazy wasn’t part of her deal.
Barb was there, since she was one of the co-authors of the game they’d all been playing. That, and Eve, though she was mainly there just to cater the whole thing.
It looked all right, she thought. A bit more official than she’d really planned for it to be, and they were serving a whole meal, along with a killer dessert cart set up, because she wanted to impress people. It was funny, because she could tell at a glance who knew what was going on and who didn’t. The Vampires were all dressed in very nice, but modern clothing, for instance.
The Shifters that were there were all people she’d seen, but didn’t know by name, except Calley Hale. She was dressed up nicely too, but was a new face to almost everyone else. The Mages, well, they were all in robes. Matching ones. It would mark them as being ready for ceremonial magic, which could have been taken as a threat. Except that Todd, the brother of the Mage boy that had tried to take over Lyn Hartley’s mind and had been executed for it, came over to stand by her right away, as soon as he got there. He was in his own all white robe, and looked kind of cute, in a slightly girly and young fashion. That was down to the dress like thing he had on though, and wasn’t really about him.
“Hey.” His voice was subdued, but given that he probably blamed her for his brother being killed, that probably made sense.
She nodded at him, and made her voice friendlier than he had.
“Hi, Todd.” She smiled, and tried to seem pleasant, but didn’t know if that was the right thing to do or not. The Mage boy looked away, then back, his face serious the whole time.
He wasn’t exactly good looking, but managed to be thin, and from the layers of silver coming off of him, he was either stronger than she’d thought before, or had been practicing enough that it showed, even to someone like her. Not all the others there had that going on, so it could have been some kind of protective thing, or even a spell designed to attack her.
Nothing happened though, so she just waited, smiling and trying to keep working, getting the silver carts filled for the servers. They were all working, too, which had been a brilliant idea, she realized now. She’d contacted a service and simply hired them for the night. It meant getting them all matching uniforms, but that was the kind of thing that made an event really special.
Stopping suddenly, she held up a hand, to get Todd to not speak, and called out past his shoulder.
“Sara? You’ll need the salad trays first.” People were going to be served what they wanted at the tables. There were only about a hundred and twenty people that could come, unless others worked their way in, trying to grab hold of some of the advertisement that being on television could hold for a body. Not that it was going to be that great, as far as things like that went. Some news coverage, but that wouldn’t get anyone noticed unless they did something incredibly stupid. Like start a fight.
Not that it was her problem. She was just there to serve food.
That reminded her to start warming the bottles of blood. They could be kept at the right temperature for a while. There were several different types, one for each course that was being put together.
Then, just before Todd could turn to leave, she turned back to him.
“Sorry. Now, what can I get for you? Something to drink? Or…” She leaned in, and w
inked. The kid was too young for her, being only about fifteen or so, but she didn’t really care about laws all that much and he was old enough. “I could get with you after this? Maybe we could do something fun?”
That got a soft smile, since average looking or not, he was bright enough to understand the tone of voice being used. He shook his head though.
“My parents wanted me to ask you over for dinner, if I saw you. They… You know.” He looked down, so didn’t see her wince.
“They… Want me dead, for not saving Tim? I… I know it isn’t a good excuse, but I couldn’t really stop Zack. I mean, physically. I’m fast, but that punch was…” She tried not to sound over awed by it, since she was probably closing in on being a good percentage of that fast herself. It wasn’t teleportation, but in a fight she was darned quick. It wasn’t enough, but it was a good start.
Todd tensed, and then sighed, loudly.
“Nah. They… They both know that. They want to thank you, for getting me out alive. Robert Millhouse told them what you did for me. Darryl, too.” He didn’t ask twice though, and she got that one.
It was awkward for the kid, since he knew he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Let’s not do that, if it’s all the same? I mean, it would be hard to look them in the eye if I’m giving you handjobs before I come over, right?”
That got a nod that was a lot more confident than she would have thought, coming from someone that young. “Not a bad reason. I’ll let them know you said that? They’ll probably think it’s funny, except for the part where they’ll also ground me for six months to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
That got her to grin, a toothy thing that came with a wink. She was going for saucy, but didn’t know if the move made it.
“All right. I won’t tease you about that anymore. I’m… That situation was messed up. If you need to talk about it or anything, you know where to reach me?”
It turned out that he did, since Mark had given him the number of the Yoghurt World, just in case he wanted to ask her about anything. That had been before he’d been outed as Fram, which still wasn’t common knowledge, for some reason. Probably thanks to the fact that a lot of people understood that Lisa would freak out, once she put the whole thing about Warren together, and might try to fight the Greater Demon over it. She couldn’t win, but that wouldn’t stop her from dying to take a good shot at it. No one wanted that though. Including Fram, it seemed. So no one was actually putting the story around, even though a lot of them probably knew about it. Calley for instance, heard everything. She was a Bat Shifter, so that just made sense. If she knew, then her people all did, to prevent trouble.
They parted then, a slightly older girl from the gaming collective waving to him, indicating that he should go and sit by her. The girl was old enough that it was a bit spotty, her wanting Todd to be right by her like that. Then again, Eve had only been half kidding about jerking him off, since how else was she going to apologize for letting his brother be killed? So it wasn’t like she could judge, was it?
It occurred to her, not for the first time in her life, that she might just be a bit broken, in matters involving sex and relationships. Just a tad.
The rest of the evening didn’t go perfectly, but it was pretty darn close, through the meal, and dessert, which was her part of things. The rest was up to Maggie and the others. It was interesting, after a fashion. Maggie waited until everyone was nicely fed and full, then headed to the front of the room, where there was a microphone set up.
“Hi everybody!” She waved and her slightly nerd girl persona showed through the nice wire rimmed glasses she was wearing at the moment. Even with the perfect makeup, it showed through. Her grin was slightly nervous looking.
After a moment, not knowing why exactly, Eve waved back.
“Hi, Maggie!” That got about half the room to do the same, and the rest to laugh, except for a few who looked at the cameras, questioning.
“By now, you all get the Node Rulez is a bit more than a game by this point, don’t you?” People were nodding at that, so she smiled. “Great! That will save a lot of time. So, most of the things in those books are actually real. The thing is, a few of the people here, ones that you’ve been playing with for the last two years, are a bit different. Mages, Shifters and of course, Vampires. So, this is really just about letting you all know how well connected, and cool, you actually are. And here your parents all thought you were wasting your time, didn’t they?”
The room was dead silent for a while, as she looked around, not bothered by anything, it seemed. After about thirty seconds, she worked into a much more official sounding speech, then finally waved at people in different places in the room.
“So, Vampires, Mages, and Shifters… You can see where each group is in the room? Why don’t we all mix and mingle for a while? Don’t be shy, just go and ask whatever horribly embarrassing questions you have for people?”
That one got a laugh, and no one moved for a while, since gamers weren’t all social butterflies, but eventually it did happen, with a few of the younger people moving toward the Mages, in their awesomely dorky robes. That got some of them to do small demonstrations, which was kind of neat to see, since they were being flashy on purpose for once. It meant a lot of bangs, some pretty lights, and a few objects moving across the room suddenly.
The Shifters went next, stripping down first, which made the whole thing a bit less family friendly, at least until they changed. There were no duplicates as to who was what kind of animal, and Ang wasn’t there, so they weren’t all crushed by a fantastic Dragon, which worked for her, even if she would kind of like to see that.
The Vampires went last, oddly enough, though as soon as Lars let his compulsion illusion go, a bunch of people went over to Tara. She was small, and always nice, if a little bossy. Now, looking like a miniature Manthori, which was darling to see, a bunch of people headed her way. Ben was one of them, which got Eve to feel slightly jealous. After all, the woman was so exotic that no one could really compete with her, wasn’t she?
Eve headed that way, just in time for a guy that she didn’t know to put two and two together and point at Tara.
“Hey! You’re like Rebekah, the singer? Do you know her?”
Tara made a face and then shook her head.
“No, I’ve not had the pleasure. You’re a Human though, so do you know Tina Gabrielle? I always wanted to meet her.”
The guy got the idea, so shook his head.
“Nope. The closest I am to anyone famous is Maggie Sims. I keep seeing her on TV. We should get her autograph or something. I don’t really know any other Vampires. Well, except for you guys, but that doesn’t count. You’re all boring, and hang out in a club that has me in it.”
Eve grinned, getting the idea.
The guy kept talking, his speech a little awkward, but still funny and almost charming enough.
“Yep. I know. I think that’s the point though. Showing that you all aren’t a particular threat to anyone. Just the same, clearly incredible, people that we always knew, more or less. In the important ways, if nothing else. I’d sign up to be one of you, but I hear that the standards are pretty high. I get that I might not make it in looks.” He stroked his face, which had some pock marks on it. Pits in his face and silver looking scars in places. His hair was greasy looking, too, but Eve figured that part would go away if he became a Vampire.
Lamont seemed pretty laid back on the idea though.
“Not really. You just have to find someone to bring you over.”
Eve cleared her throat, just as Maggie walked up, both of them shaking their heads.
She was the one that spoke first though. After all, it was her made up rules that they were going to be using.
“It isn’t about looks, but there are some new rules in place. Mainly to make sure you get the right training first, and that kind of thing. It really makes a big difference. As for the, you know the scars? You should get with the Mages on that. They
charge for the work, but if you get with Marcus over there, I bet he’ll do it for free. I mean, you may have to give him a hummer or two, but is that really too much to ask?”
She was betting the guy would say it was, given that he seemed pretty straight, but to her surprise he seemed to agree with her.
“Yeah? Well, I don’t have any money to trade for it, not enough, I bet. Still, I can just get you to suck him off for me, right?” He didn’t look at Eve, but Tara, who snorted at him.
“I could do that, yes, but you should do your own work, if you really want to be one of us. Odds are, if you opt for a very long life, you’re going to end up sucking more than one…” She stopped, and then realized that there was a camera on her.
Eve got the idea, so stopped talking for a second and reset.
“There’s a real point there, if you’re serious. Plus, Mark has contacts with the Vampires and might be able to get you a good deal. Let you find a good mentor, and all that. You should go ask about it. Seriously.”
The man started to turn, then almost as if the moment drew out for a very long time, he locked his brown eyes with her own. He was white, as far as skin color went, and there was a feeling of a buzzing that came then. At first she nearly killed him, thinking she was under attack, but it wasn’t that.
No, it was just that she’d compelled him before. Her mind had instantly started to do it again, as soon as they focused on each other.
Which, it seemed, she was doing right then, too, compelling him. Not on purpose, but it was very likely that the Greater Demon Fram was going to get a treat that night, if he wanted one.
That should stop him from saying that she never did anything for him, at least.
Not that it would mean anything. She let it go, already having figured that she’d never meet any of the masturbation guys, and not really caring about revenge. Not past what she’d already gotten. Ben had set that up pretty well, after all. Now she knew why, if they were part of his club like that. It would make it all a lot more personal for him.
