Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  Smiling at that thought, she stood, and started to clean, talking to Barb and Becky the whole time. Vampires came in, but that night they were all well behaved and didn’t try to drink her friend. A few did try to get her number however, and one of them, a woman that looked about fifteen, but moved like she was older, got her autograph.

  When the teen Vamp left, Eve shook her head.

  “Am I the only Vampire that doesn’t mainline movies all the time?”

  Barb let her head move side to side, but didn’t answer out loud, but Becky grinned, and looked awfully humble. It was acting, but then, what wasn’t?

  “I’ve gotten lucky, a few times. The current project is different for me, being the first series that I’ll be in. HBO, so ten episodes, if it doesn’t fail horribly. I’ll be nude a lot, so I can’t have any of the ice cream here.”

  Eve nodded at that, and ended up speaking in unison with Barb.

  “Frozen yogurt.” They all chuckled, which was friendly sounding, and happy.

  After a few seconds of counter wiping, Eve asked a fairly normal sounding question. “It’s a series? That’s a pretty big deal, isn’t it? Maggie said it was a movie. Then, she’s so old that they might seem like the same thing to her. The really ancient Vampires tend to not be up on the new things like that all the time. She’s pretty good that way. So, I don’t know for certain.”

  Instead of really answering, her old pal stood and stretched, then sat back down.

  “Yep. I’ve got this, and a horror movie coming out in a few months. We already finished post on that one. Then I need to do a rom-com or drama, so I don’t end up being typecast. You know, I should totally get you two in for the show. Real Vampires have to have a place, right? We shoot during the day... Barb, you said that you can do that kind of thing? Stay up?”

  Eve was about to beg off herself, but the other Vampire actually seemed excited about the prospect.

  “I can. Eve can too, but she’s under orders not to be a camera whore. She’s… Um, kind of a cop now, I guess. For the Council? At least she’s working with The Bey. So no getting famous for her. I, on the other hand, can totally go, and be there for you. An on set advisor? Or even do the humiliating nude scenes you don’t want? One great thing about being undead, no sagging at all. I’m serious about that, too. I look better naked now than when I died.” She looked ready to back that up, by flashing someone, but Eve just agreed with her. It was pretty much just the truth.

  She was about to suggest they go and visit with Zack, so that Kaitlyn could get her surprise of being Kyle, Becky’s old flame, out of the way.

  “What we should do is…”

  There was something wrong, and it got her to shut up fast. A sense of presence, and darkness, that tried to smother the world. That’s what it felt like to her, at any rate. Holding things together, getting that no one else seemed to be feeling the same thing, she tried to act like a normal person. “We should get you out of here, both of you. Something’s coming.”

  Those words tried to run through her head for a while. Something is coming. Something is coming. It went on for a while like an echo. She stood up, her face moving from blank, to fierce. Probably scared too. For a moment she wondered if her old buddy Balthius was going to visit, since his power could feel a bit like that too, but fear Demon or not, he wouldn’t have made the far side of the mall explode. She didn’t think so, anyway.

  “Fuck. Barb, get Becky out. Run. I’ll go, and be an idiot, moving toward the danger instead of away.”

  She moved then, into white hot agony. It was so familiar and strong that she didn’t notice that she was on fire until she was halfway to the woman that stood in the open area that once held the nail shop.

  She wanted to hope that the Korean ladies had all gone home already, but they stayed open until nine each night and it was just at that moment hitting that number, she thought. Diving to the floor, she rolled, trying to smother the flames. They hurt, but Eve didn’t let herself slow much. They died instantly, so she hopped back up, only to catch fire again.

  The woman that was standing there pointed at her, but lost track when she made sudden changes in direction.

  It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, of course, if the person standing there wasn’t a friend of hers.

  Maggie.

  That just made sense though, didn’t it? The ancient Vampire had to have some kind of ability that would make her into a big deal. The Council wasn’t made up of wimps, after all and the rumor was that hundreds of years before, she’d been on it.

  It was tough, but Eve dodged, going one way, then the other, as fast as she could. She rolled at times, and pushed off the ground with one hand, propelling herself in a flip through the air. Before she could land she was on fire again. That required more rolling. It was hard to move forward at all then, and when she tried to stand, her left leg was gone below the knee. Seared off, smoke billowing away from where it was supposed to be.

  That meant the rest of her was burning before she even had her balance, effectively stopped in place, barely able to roll away once she fell. One by one, her limbs were taken, cremated away. She didn’t scream, not having any air in her lungs, but she truly wanted to.

  She was still using those things after all, and it was terrifying to have them be gone like that.

  As she lay there, a moment later, unable to do anything to protect herself at all, Eve glanced up. The nerdy looking Council mouthpiece moved on her, slowly.

  The ancient Vampire grinned, looking… Incredibly sane and normal, as she hovered over her.

  “There you are. I was looking all over for you, or someone. I hadn’t intended to be quite this dramatic about this part, but you’re rather quick. Sorry to be such a pain, since we’re so tight, but I need you to take a message for me. Please tell the Council that I’m taking over from them, and that their services will no longer be required? I had planned to be a bit more circumspect about the whole thing, I swear that, by the way, but my other messenger was killed earlier. Or, rather, I killed him, but you were doing too good of a job by far, holding him the way you were. A few moments longer and I think you might have even broken the compulsion I had on him. That’s hard to do, since it’s one of my skills. That would have messed with things too much, which is why I had to take him out. So, pass that along for me? Please?” The worst part of the whole thing was that the obviously insane woman, who’d just taken away her arms and legs, leaving only blackened stumps, sounded like she was actually asking.

  Politely.

  Controlling herself, and damping the pain as best she could, drawing on the energy from her links to get that done, Eve snorted. Softly. It got the other Vampire to move in. The one that she’d liked, and thought of as a friend.

  Then, she’d already had that lesson, trust no one. Ever.

  It was a thing that Maggie needed to remember, too, it seemed, because she actually moved closer. Within what would have been arms reach, if she had arms anymore. Fighting a sneer, Eve focused.

  Trying to grab at the woman with compulsion was going to be kind of expected, and she’d just kind of said she was particularly good at that kind of thing, so she didn’t bother with that one. Instead she nodded, and imagined trying to reach into the other lady’s brain, grabbing a little piece of the soft flesh there and pulling with her telekinesis, just as hard as she could. Nothing seemed to happen, so she bought some time while she tried again, by speaking.

  “Or, and this is just an idea for next time, the old fashioned, but still respected, art of letter writing? Bet you hadn’t thought of that one. See, if you would have just asked first, I could have saved you loads of trouble. Also, why in fucks sake would you want to take over for the Council? For that matter, if you went to them and suggested it, don’t you think they might let you onto the thing? Or even just take over if you want to do all the work for them?” The whole while, looking up in to the slightly pale, but well made up face, Eve used her mind to grab and pull, finally trying to
target the brainstem. It might grow back, sure, but even the dead needed that in order to move around.

  Not that it seemed like it was doing anything. She kind of wondered where the others were, when she realized that help wasn’t going to be coming any time soon. Zack was actually there, just watching her, and if Fram was around, she couldn’t tell where he was. No one else ran out to see what was going on, or to help fight either, probably because it was a Vampire thing.

  You didn’t get involved if you didn’t need to. It was pretty much a rule of the place. So, she was on her own.

  Maggie nodded, except that her head was kind of spasming, rather than doing it smoothly, like she was losing control of herself. It was about freaking time that something started to show.

  “A thought.” That was what she was trying to say, but it came out slurred and wrong. After a second, she got the idea though, and gave a wicked looking half grin. Only part of her normally friendly face was responding however.

  “I shee. Very good. Well, as you said, der ist more than one way to send a message.” She pointed again, and the whole world erupted into even more pain. Her middle was on fire, and she was, Eve thought, burning away altogether.

  There wasn’t a lot else to do, so she kept to her pattern, grabbing and plucking, pulling as hard as possible with her tiny mind powers. Finally, about to go out, probably for the last time, she targeted the other woman’s right eye. There was a gasp, one that wasn’t quite a scream, and the flames stopped.

  Then, laughing as if it were all a great game, and not a fight to the death, Maggie Sims, one of the two spokesmen for the Council, ran off.

  “Do deliver that message for me? It would be very helpful, if you would?” It was called out over her shoulder, Eve thought. She was still on fire, and managed to flop over, rolling, until the flames died then.

  The funny thing, if it could be called that, was different than she thought it would be. She didn’t feel like she was dying, or even about to. Not even a tiny bit. Once the blue and white flames died, she was left there, alive. Helpless, and charred, but still able to think, speak and move.

  No one came to help her, of course. Not at first. It was one of the Trolleikeine that came when it happened, a huge wooden paddle in his hands, looking ready to fight. She would have damned him for being that slow, but it hadn’t been his problem, had it?

  “Say, um, Lars? Could you get me back to the shop? I can’t really walk, at the moment.” The big being didn’t even hesitate, once he had a direction set up. She was cradled in his arms like a burnt baby, and carried at a rolling stroll back to her own place in the scheme of things.

  The next thing she needed to do was, she knew, to get in touch with the right people. Lenore, Edom, and Bey. Then… Well, if she had a message to deliver, then she did.

  Not telling them that Maggie had gone rogue wouldn’t help, would it? That part, well, she didn’t get it really, to be honest. That the woman was old enough to be strong and hard to beat wasn’t a mystery, of course, but why she was doing it was.

  It could be madness, of course. It might even be external control, say by a Greater Demon. None of that was a known thing to her at the moment, and while she liked the woman, or had, before the blasting off of her favorite limbs, it could be anything. Lust for power. Seeing something that the others didn’t, and seeking enough resources to fight it. Anything.

  It was a shame then, if that turned out to be the case. Since, after all, Eve was going to have to kill her, absolutely as soon as she possibly could. Some things couldn’t just be let go, could they?

  Chapter nineteen

  Lars, being a good bigfoot, dropped her in the back of Yoghurt World, and left her still slightly smoldering and ruined body on the nice leather sofa. She tried to get him to just drop her in the corner, where she’d no doubt be living for the next few years while her arms and legs re-grew, but he was too polite for that.

  He also had a power lifting gym, that as he explained it, was half ruined, from the explosion. It made sense once she thought about it, given how things were situated at that now open end of the mall. Princess Pretty Nail was gone, which probably meant the gym was ruined too. Hopefully the people there, not really being plain Humans, had all managed to survive. It was clear the big guy that had carried her was worried about it all.

  “I must go now, back to my place in the scheme of the world that surrounds us. Will you be all right here, alone? I could call for aid?” The man was over seven feet tall, muscular and hairy enough to remind her that his entire group there had to shave things that she, as a nearly naked Human, never had. Just to fit in.

  Looking up at the ceiling, she shook her head. Her face hurt, being burned pretty badly, and she could barely roll over, with her stumps being messed up like they were, but she’d live. For a raw second she wondered if she’d actually be able to heal though. The burns had, when she looked down, melted part of her flesh together in places. Her clothing was all but gone, and had stuck to her along the right side of her body, too. Her right breast had been protected by it, somehow, and was mainly intact, but the left was gone, totally.

  That wasn’t a problem though. Oh, it was, actually, since it might well really take her years to recover all the way, but she would. Her links were untouched, so she had energy coming in, for instance. Plus, no matter what kind of Vampire she was thinking about, she couldn’t recall any of them that looked less than healthy, could she? So either burns like this healed all the way, or killed them, all the time. She wasn’t fading though, so she was going with the idea that she’d get better.

  It had to happen, because otherwise she’d have to get someone to kill her. She wasn’t living like this forever. It just wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’m good. Thanks, Lars. Remind me to give you a handjob when I’m better?”

  The large being made a face, and shook his head a bit.

  “I’m not really into childlike naked people. A weakness, it is, without a doubt, but mine, it presents.”

  She winked, still having both eyelids by some strange chance. That was kind of handy. A silver lining, as it were. The world could be made dark, on command still.

  “Fine, but remember that I made the offer. Go, I’ll be fine here. I just have to work out how to kill some people… With my mind.”

  Rather than act shocked that she’d say something that bitter sounding, and it really did sound like that, the giant smiled, fang like teeth of his own suddenly showing. They were much heavier than her own, of course. Slightly yellow, too, like tusks, or things that might one day grow into them given enough milk, and some time.

  “Yes. I saw the battle, where you forced the evil one away from us, even as you were put to the fire. I saw how her eyes were being ripped from her skull under your regard. You will seek to finish this? We have lost much here today. Friends and comrades… Innocents that did not deserve death.”

  She didn’t know who all died, but someone had to have.

  Her people, that were, more or less, under her inept and clearly unsatisfactory protection. It was a stupid thought, so she nodded.

  “I’m not some hero, but I do need to fix some things. Starting with my body. How… Totally lame is this, anyway?” She waved the remains of a stump, that was a bit moist on the far end and felt like she was waving it under the bright light of the sun, even though it was night out. “Get going. You can come back and tell me what happened later? I’ll get Barb to give you something to eat. Actually… Well, we’ll fix this.” After all, it was, more or less, a Vampire problem.

  Except that she really doubted it would end there.

  She was left alone for a long time then. There were sounds, and people talking, even some yelling, but nothing that made her think anyone was fighting again, yet. Maggie had taken off, and the fire had all been put out. So she lay there, waiting for the next thing to happen, trying to figure out what she, the useless lump of a baby Vampire, was going to do about it all.

  In her head she
had a little check-list, that she shuffled around a bit. The first thing she needed to do, well, that one was obvious. She had to get better. Faster than the years it would normally take. Then she had to work out how she was going to kill Maggie Sims, and the Greater Demons behind her. That part probably wasn’t sane, but she’d been pushed far enough that in the moment that kind of thing wasn’t going to impact her all that much.

  Focusing, closing her eyes, she tried to remember what it felt like to have full health. Real arms and legs, that didn’t hurt, and weren’t on fire. She didn’t kill all the pain off, trying to use that, and energy she was pulling from her links, to make herself reform, back into what she was supposed to be.

  When she opened her eyes, a while later, she jumped a bit. More to the point, she tried to, and then smiled. Mark was standing over her, about five feet away, just watching her as she lie on the smooth brown sofa. No one else had even come back into the shop yet. She should probably have tried to get in touch with Lenore or Edom on the phone, but… No hands. It was going to be tough to manage that, wasn’t it? Still, she could move things with her mind, and if she were careful that might be possible to manage, without forcing too much life from the poor animals she was connected to.

  That was a real problem, she knew. Eve was, for a long time, going to need a lot more energy than she had access to. In that moment however, she had no idea how to get anything like that, so just looked up at Mark, and smiled.

  “So, Bold… It’s pretty clear that you’re behind this. The parts here, at least. So, how many of the Greater Demons are part of this?” She was blowing smoke, directly up his ass, but she didn’t let herself even think about that. She just made the accusation, and knew, on some level, that it had to be right.

  Mark actually giggled. Like a little girl. It was kind of feminine, but also drove right into insane sounding. Happy though, so she let it pass.

  “Damn, Eve. That’s a good guess, isn’t it? I did promise to share information with you, but really, you don’t need all of that yet. Besides, this way I can make you think I’m marginally interesting for a few days, if I play this right, don’t you think?” He gave her a hopeful look, and then gestured at her body. “Not bad. Both my slave’s destruction of your body, and your use of magic to rebuild already. If you can keep that up, you won’t be just sitting around in six weeks. Now, what do you really want to know about all this? Ask carefully, because I’ll tell you anything except who’s in this with me, but I think my welcome here is about to be rescinded. The Line Walker won’t be happy when he figures out what I’ve been up to. Really, by all rights he should have removed me from his territory when he discovered me, but he’s a bit too kind and gentle for his own good. Also, he’s just a kid still, which means that actually fighting me over it would be a bit over the top. So, what do you need to know?”