Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (12 page)

They were mainly behind Lenore,
however, who smiled hugely at Cormack, when he got through the door.

“Ambassador Gillhall.” Then she
moved forward, not wearing her work apron over her nice blue dress, since this
was an official thing, and put her hand out to shake.

Cormack seemed to understand, and
took the hand instantly.

“What’s this now? I got a
promotion?”

Lenore nodded, and beamed at him.

“You
did
! You’re the new
ambassador for the Iowa Node. It’s set up is rather like our own, which is why
the Council decided to place you there, instead of one of the other places, I
believe.”

Bey was smiling too, and moved in
to shake the larger Vampire’s hand, his face nearly splitting in two he was so
pleased.

“Ah! This was indeed part of the
reason. It will take much effort, to put things to right there. They have not
had an ambassador in all their history, and only a sole, very youthful, young
lady to work the nights there. Sandra, I believe the name is? She has done her
best, but with you there, we can run a much more official station. The goal is
to turn that place into a major hub, given its central location. It may sound a
humble thing, but there is much room for growth, if you choose to see it as
such.”

David, who was standing next to a
young looking girl, who seemed to be about fourteen or so, and had a thin body,
but a round face that was nearly boxy, cleared his throat.

“See,
now
it looks like I
should have worked harder at staying awake, doesn’t it?”

Eve chuckled, and nodded.

“It does. Well, no big thing,
we’ll just start over. We can run out in a few days and help fix up the Yoghurt
World in Iowa. If Lenore and Edom are all right with that?” She looked at them,
and then glanced at Bey, who would let her know if she had other things to work
on.

Lenore shook her head.

“David will be working nights
here, and I don’t think he can make the trip back and forth each day. Perhaps
if you’d see to aiding Ginger? You could stay at Cormack’s new dwelling there?”

Eve shrugged, not knowing who
Ginger was, but seeing the girl next to David straighten, guessed that it might
just be her. She looked really young, barely a teen, but that didn’t mean
anything for a Vampire. That she hadn’t been working the embassy though
probably did. What that was, however, Eve needed to find out.

She shrugged though.

“Not likely. It will take at
least a month for everything to clear. Oh, here, it’s from all of us.” She
handed the envelope over, which looked a bit low rent, suddenly. It was just a
regular kind of thing, made of white paper, meant to hold checks to pay the
electric and cable bills. It was all Troy had on hand. Cormack however, didn’t
seem to mind.

He hugged her when the whole
thing hit him.

“You’ve gotten me a mansion?”

“Well, you don’t have to take
that one in particular, but it’s a nice place. I looked at it today, earlier.
It’s close to the mall there, and the neighbor is a Shifter. I don’t know who
he is, but I met the gardener, and he seemed nice.” She left off the stuff with
Sheila, since even if it was everyone in the area, Cormack was already going,
and couldn’t get out of it, she was willing to bet. Not unless he wanted to
piss off the Council.

“It’s incredible, girl! I’ll need
to see about getting some staff in, it sounds like. What say, Barbara? I could
use a second there.”

Lenore reached out, and took the
girl’s arm, then shook her head.

“No. She’ll be needed
here
,
as second. You’ll need to look elsewhere for someone to do that work for you.”

That got Edom to look at her, his
face curious, but not upset seeming. He was, it seemed out of a job, but Lenore
winked at him, as Bey moved in, to bow, a bit.

The ancient Vampire smiled, and
clapped him on the arm, after he stood up.

“Ambassador Freeman shall stand
for the Council here, as Miss Hawthorne moves to take the position of Vaughn,
as Regional Director for the Western States. It is, how do they say in these
modern days? A shake up. Vaughn is moving to Washington D.C. and will be the
official liaison to the governments of North America.”

It was a lot to take in, all at
once, but a bunch of people, some of them her people, were getting promotions.
That was exciting, if a little scary. After all, she’d kind of thought that
they’d all be there for her, unchanging, for a long time. Now it was different.
In a single moment, her world had shifted on her, and that left her feeling
uneasy. Not that she couldn’t handle it. This wasn’t her first time after all,
and she was used to things happening without her permission. That was, after
all, just life.

So she smiled, even though some
of the others seemed a bit uneasy too. It wasn’t just her, which was nice, in a
misery loves company kind of way.

The younger looking Vampire, who
was smaller than anyone else there, Ginger, wiped at her shoulder length blonde
hair, and made a face. It was fierce seeming. Covering a bit of fear.

“So, we’re moving? I don’t know
what this means for me… Which is selfish. Sorry.” She managed to look contrite
then, and Lenore winced, and looked away.

Everyone else looked away, too,
except for Barb, who moved in and touched the girl’s arm.

“I guess that makes sense. Still,
you can visit us here, and stay sometimes?” She looked at Lenore, who did nod
then, even if she was a bit uneasy about it all.

“I won’t leave you, Ginger. Don’t
worry about that. Not until you’re ready.”

It was actually really sweet to
hear, for Eve at least. The girl started to get mad though, the change being
too much for her. Her hand curled into a fist, and Lenore seemed to be getting
ready to strike out, to control her with a beating.

Eve cleared her throat, and waved
her hand in the air a bit. It worked, getting the red eyed and tiny girl to
look at her.

“Stop that. You’re with me for
the time being, to learn control, and how to stay up all day. You can travel
with Lenore then, and be her assistant, or move into another job, if you want,
after that. It’s like school, and a
pain
, but you’ll have David to boss
around, if you can.” She liked the turn of phrase, and smiled as the girl came
for her. Eve just moved out of the way, several times, as she was flailed at.

Finally she grimaced, and grabbed
the girl’s tiny fist out of the air, holding it still.

“So, this is the
last
time
you do this, understood?
Not
because you’ll be beaten if you don’t, but
because you’re in control of yourself now. Take it. Take control. You
own
this.” Then Eve let go, ready for more hitting.

It didn’t come. The girl just
froze, her face looking hard and her eyes a lovely blood red color. Everyone
else just stood there, watching the scene unfold.

Ginger
did
it though.
Slowly, and with a lot of effort, but she didn’t keep fighting, and after only
about five minutes, got her teeth put away. Eve nodded.

“Like that. Only all the time
now. You can help me put together the first class for the new Vampires? You can
manage being around Humans, right?”

There was a slow head shake then,
and a muttered word. “No.”

Lenore looked worried, but Bey
clapped, happily.

“Then you will be soon! These are
exciting times in which to exist, are they not? Eve, you will see to Ginger,
and that she has the skills needed to take over for Ambassador Gillhall, in his
duties here? How long do you think that will take?”

Eve had no clue, but looked at
the young seeming Vampire, and shrugged.

“Half a year? Staying up won’t
take her as long to learn as it did these others, I bet, and after the first
few days, she’ll be able to resist people, at least well enough to go crowd
surfing. It’s going to take me a while to teach her to fight though. That
flailing was slow, and kind of sad, Ginger. Cute, but not
everyone
will
always be stunned by your adorableness.”

Bey smiled and touched the tiny
girl on the arm. She was wearing a t-shirt too, like Eve.

“Very well, you will be ready
inside that time frame then. We cannot coddle our young as we once did, I fear.
I would not put you to such a hardship, otherwise, Ginger. You are ready for
this growth however. I have great faith in both you, and Miss Benson.” It
seemed so genuine that everyone there nodded, even the people she didn’t know.

Eve moved over and hugged Cormack
again.

“Right, so the rest of you can go
and celebrate with the new ambassadors. Ginger and I will hold down the fort
here. Dave, you’re coming in tomorrow morning?”

“Fuck.” It wasn’t much of an
agreement, but he nodded, so she did in return.

“Good. See you then? Now,
everyone, go on. Do something fun! We have this, and will call if anything
comes up that we can’t handle. Or, you know, if we get bored, or lonely.” She
let her eyes go wide, but everyone fake laughed and actually got their coats
and went out the front door.

Eve sighed and turned on Ginger,
who winced away, clearly expecting to be beaten, now that everyone else was
gone.

“I’ll go over how to run the place
here. For now, I want you to do that, and focus on your breathing. Make sure
you really do it,
constantly
. Have you eaten anything today?”

There was a nod, that seemed a
bit scared, like
she
was a meany or something? Eve let that go, and
simply waved for the other girl to follow, trying to make sure she kept up with
her own breathing. Otherwise she was going to look bad, if Ginger noticed any
gaps, wasn’t she?

“Good, first, we need to make
sure we always wear our aprons here. Day or night. It marks us as working here,
and to the Vampire part of the public, as officials of the Council. We’re going
to spend most of our time cleaning. When in doubt, start wiping things down.
All
the time. It’s boring, but that’s part of the point right now. Learning to cope
with boredom, hunger, and anger, are the real goals here. Then pain. If you’re
willing to do that, you can be special and strong. If not, well, then you
wouldn’t be here, would you? No one chooses to be a Vampire if they don’t want
to be strong.”

The girl shook her head.

“I didn’t get a choice. I was
attacked a few years ago, and turned by someone. I was dumped on Lenore because
it was clear that I’m of the Bey line. She took me in, but I’m an orphan.
Whoever made me didn’t stick around.” She seemed ashamed of that fact. It was
clear in the way she looked at the floor.

Eve nodded.

“Good, so you have the speed?”

“Yes? I’m not very good at it.
You saw, earlier? That was as fast as I get, and you just vanished over and
over again, when I tried to hit you.”

Thinking about that, Eve
shrugged.

“We can work on that. It’s
boring, running or walking places at those kinds of speed, but it really can be
handy. I was in Russia a few days ago, and didn’t have to get on a plane for
it. We won’t do that tomorrow though. Soon. Not to there, but someplace neat.
The beach, maybe? I haven’t been to the ocean much in my life. Also, do you
have parents? I mean, living people, not just Lenore?”

There was a brief pause, then the
girl took the green and white apron, and started to copy Eve as she got hers
into place.

“Sure. I haven’t been in touch
with them, because it’s been hard for me to adapt. Lenore thinks that it has to
do with how I was born. As a Vampire? I… Frenzied at first. I killed a bunch of
people. They almost didn’t keep me around, but the Proctor here put me in a
camp, and then found Lenore for me.”

That was pretty special then,
given how the two women felt about each other.

“Really? Well, we can fix most of
that. And by we, I mean
you
. And by
fix
, I mean toughen up and be
willing not to be a pussy, like David.” She grinned, and the girl did too, but
she also looked away then.

“He let me practice, you know,
having sex? It isn’t that hard. Well, I mean he is, but you know, doing it
isn’t. I didn’t really do anything, back when I was alive.”

It was an interesting admission,
but the girl stopped breathing after she said the words, and Eve had to remind
her to both do that and blink. Then she gently tossed a rag to her.

“Start at the front, and keep the
act going. If a Human walks in, move back away from them. If you have to, lock
yourself in the supply closet. You won’t need to though. Just remind yourself
that you’ve eaten in the last week, and have plenty of strong energy links.
Now, you were telling me what a pervert David has been being?” She grinned
about it, changing the subject trying to make certain the girl didn’t get too
hung up on the idea of being around people soon. They normally didn’t get
Humans in at night, but it could happen, and while Ginger needed a strategy to
cope with it, worry wasn’t going to help her.