Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (19 page)

Because, of course, it made
sense, didn’t it?

Then again, the older Vampires
got, the closer the lines would be, in the end. That Gene would have similar
powers to Maggie made some sense, if he was her child. That was the most common
thing to happen, wasn’t it? You got the powers of your line, the vast majority
of the time. Like how she had Bey’s speed. He was the weird one there, having
that power instead of the ability to make fire.

Changing the topic, she shook her
head, wrapped the salt shaker with lines of life energy and pulled it to her,
slowly. She could do a lot more than that now, but Maggie understood what she
was getting at, making leaps that Bey didn’t seem to get yet.

“Indeed, Eve. That power, once
you have mastered it, and made it into a thing that is unique, will likely pass
to your own progeny. The mother of your own line. As I am, and as my husband,
The Bey, is. I know that I was
most
surprised when my eye ripped out.
Not that I blame you, given my entrance before that. I… Had orders to do it
that way. Those poor Human women in the nail shop… I hear that all the
Trollienkeine survived, with only minor injury? I wouldn’t have war with them
over me, too, if I can help it.”

She nodded, the subject skipping
around too much for her to think she was going to collect a lot of useful
information.

“A few were injured, and I don’t
know how they’ll take to the idea that you couldn’t help yourself. They seem
pretty big on the idea of personal sacrifice, and might wonder how you managed
to let Fram control you in the first place, without ending your own life to
stop him.”

Maggie gave her a look then, that
was bleak and sad.

“I have orders not to. I can’t
even struggle against him. Worse, the Human authorities have been coming
around, investigating the damage. DHS, not just the local police. Fram hasn’t
allowed me to run, and short of killing the agents until they stop coming, I
fear I don’t know what to do. It
was
an act of terror. The Demon meant
it as such, to further his plans. I…” She went silent, like her mouth suddenly
wouldn’t produce any sound.

There was a quality to it that
told Eve a lot. She was trying to tell them something, about what Fram had
planned, but wasn’t allowed. It was what losing your soul, your entire being,
to a Greater Demon really meant. If you were a slave to one, and they wanted to
eat your arm, you’d hear the order, hold out your hand and wait. You just
didn’t have a choice, and had to do what they wanted.

It was why Keeley was considered
so dangerous, even by her own kind. She could take other Greater Demons as
slaves, and make them kill themselves,
or
walk into a trap and just sit
there, not struggling. She’d never done it, but it was possible that she could
take a group of them and use them as weapons against other people or groups,
too.

Really, that probably meant that
Fram was being an idiot, trying to go up against her, even at a distance. The
smart play would have been to turn her into a friend. Even if it meant sucking
up anger, and shame to do it.

Honestly, that he wasn’t making a
play with her, to get a relationship going, was insane. Even if he was just sleeping
with her occasionally, it would bind them together a bit, on Keeley’s side of
things. She was nice, to her friends. Not using that was insane. Then, so was
Fram, so it worked out.

She nodded, and stood, then moved
around the table to the open end of the little booth and leaned over to give
Maggie a hug.

She didn’t promise anything
though. In the end, Eve just didn’t know if the other woman could be
allowed
to survive. She wasn’t even sure if
she
could be.

Since the honest answer was
probably no, Eve didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.

Setting up a trip, through the
Node, to Australia, wasn’t all that hard.

She just asked Zack how she might
get something like that set up, without paying for it, or cheating anyone. That
he
told
her how, reminding Eve about the business deal they had in
regards to the animal blood products, and that they serviced that location
regularly was nice of him. Helpful even.

So, the next day Eve went in,
along with Ginger, to the main Node complex there, which wasn’t a mall at all,
being more like a giant business center. It had offices, and was so isolated
that she needed to get Alice, the assistant ambassador there, to help her find
the map locations for the three Vampire politicians that she needed to have a
chat with.

They were all old enough to fake
being Human, being up during the day. It was good, because they wouldn’t have
as many Vampire followers around to help them if things got interesting. They were
also well spread out over the entire land. She ended up running across the
whole continent
six
times, trying to find them all. They were all men,
and looked like what they were pretending to be.

Blood suckers. The political kind
though, so no one noticed too much.

On her third trip she found the
first man, who was actually walking outside, under the burning sun, his face
holding a fixed smile when she walked up. He had broad cheeks, and a manly look
to him, as well as a predatory gaze that would have marked him as a
psycho-killer in any decent movie, or novel. Along with him were a group of six
people, all regular and healthy, though two of them had direct blood links to
the man they walked with. Strands of pink energy flowed through the air between
them, when she focused on the air. That meant he was feeding on them, directly.

It was a bit of a gray area,
actually.

They weren’t supposed to feed on
Humans like that anymore, but lovers and close friends weren’t totally
forbidden that way. She decided not to ask about it.

“Mr. Lebeold? May I have a word
with you?” She was
trying
to be discreet about the whole thing, but the
man clearly wasn’t going to make it easy, just holding his hand out, like she
was a constituent.

Then he frowned.

“You’re American? I recognize the
accent. What may I do for you, young lady?” It wasn’t patronizing at least.

She nearly froze, but then
shrugged.

“We could speak in private? I
don’t have much time, and have a message for you, from the Council?”

That could mean almost anything,
she knew, but the man sneered at her. As if he were the one in charge at the
moment? As far as she knew he hadn’t won anything yet, and even if he had, that
wouldn’t have freed him up from following the freaking rules.

“I’m certain that you can say
whatever you like in front of my aides, I hide nothing from them.” The way he
said it made it clear that he hid a
lot
, and was trying to use the fact
that she wouldn’t want to admit that Vampires were real to them in order to
control what she could say.

Eve sighed. They were out. Oh,
not in Australia, but if these people watched the news they‘d probably worked
out that their country would have them too. She wasn’t going to be blackmailed
that easily. Even if it had worked, did this guy really think that baffling her
for a minute or two would keep the Council off his back? If so, he was too
stupid to be allowed into office.

“All right. They want you to
either pull out of the race here, whatever it is, or stay
in
, but run as
a Vampire. If you refuse to do either of those things, then you’ll be killed.
Alternatively, I could simply go to the press and tell them about you right now,
but the Council actually wants that
first
one, where you die? You have
one minute to make a choice, and set in motion. I have some other things to see
about, too, so standing here all day long isn’t going to work for me.” She
managed to sound pleasant about it, half expecting the man to simply attack
her, which he did.

Fast and hard, with a knife in
his right hand, slashing for her throat with speed that would have killed most
Vampires. She just stepped back, dodged a few times as he seemed to move in
slow motion compared to her, and when he stopped, his eyes blood red, and fangs
showing, Eve winked at him.

“In case you missed it, if you
pick the wrong thing,
I’m
supposed to see about making sure you die. I’d
really rather not, if it’s all the same. You have a little over half a minute
to make a choice.”

Instead he tried to attack again,
which still didn’t work, and finally, as she was about to end his life for him
very publically, stopped and put the blade away, spreading his hands and
smiling professionally. His fangs weren’t even out anymore, which she took as
being a good sign.

“Could I have a few moments to
discuss this with my people? Neither of those options is optimal for me at this
time.” He waited though, tense, and like he
expected
her to be
unreasonable about it all.

“Sure. Please don’t take long
though, you aren’t the only one on the list today.”

It was nearly funny, since four
of the people there practically freaked out, and one of them, a man that looked
to be in his thirties or so, wet himself in fear, while staring at the
politician. That had to be embarrassing.

“You’re a
monster
?”

Eve shook her head, as the other
people all looked at their boss, or whatever he was to them.

“Nah. Just being undead doesn’t
mean he’s a bad guy. Unless you meant that you just worked out he was a
politician? I doubt he can win an election here right now, given your reactions
though. Not if he’s out. It might be worth trying though? He’s still the same
person you knew, just a bit less subject to blackmail now. Think of it like him
being gay. Except that he likes to suck both men
and
women.”

Wet Pants the Scaredy-Cat got a
look on his face of pure disgust then, which probably meant he wasn’t going to
go along with
that
idea either. In fact, he turned and trotted off,
leaving a damp, and reeking, trail behind him. It actually didn’t smell that bad
to her, his urine mixing with fear in a way which told her, and the other
Vampire, that he was possibly lunch.

It wasn’t her problem though.
None of it was, as long as the politician came to a choice in the matter, and
soon.

That wasn’t in the cards though,
it seemed, and they ended up standing there for a long time, the man talking
into a pad like device to several people that refused to believe he was a
Vampire at all. It seemed that Australia hadn’t quite gotten up to speed on
that kind of thing yet. Since half of America was still having denial issues
with the same thing, and the television coverage hadn’t been nearly as heavy here,
she could kind of see it.

In the end the man, defeated
looking, simply announced that he was withdrawing from the race, for personal
issues.

“That will be fine, too. Next
time just answer the calls from the council, and it will save me a lot of
time.” It was true, but she really did have other things to do, so took off,
after finding the right direction, running as fast as she could under the
blistering heat of the sun.

She used to love being out under
the heat and light, back when she was a cheerleader for whom the worst thing
that could happen was skin cancer. Now she kind of hated it, she realized. It
hurt enough that she just didn’t want to be there.

The next man made things easier
for her, just attacking when she explained the ultimatum from the Council, and
doing it well enough that she had to kill him, and his compatriot. She was a
Manthori woman, who tried to take over Eve’s mind. It didn’t work, and she just
left both of the bodies, headless, lying on the ground.

The last man opted to tell
everyone about who, and what, he was.

“I’ll lose, as you know. Still,
there’s always the next election, and perhaps I’m reading the current climate
incorrectly? My platform is a minority one though, for the time being, so it
doesn’t bode well. I don’t suppose you could send a message to the Council for
me?” The man was wiry, and small, but held himself like he was older, and far
more powerful, than the other two had. In fact, there was something about him
that reminded her of Bey. It wasn’t a look, since this man was clearly white,
and Bey was different than that, being Middle Eastern, but it was
there
,
in the way he smiled and held himself.

This being was either very good
at faking things, or was thousands of years old.

She tilted her head, “as long as
it isn’t my head in a box? I might be able to. What do you want them to know?”

The man moved, fast and hard,
directly toward her, his right hand moving out toward her head. Eve slipped to
the side, the pain of reality, and the movement on her. They fought then, for
several minutes, or what felt like it. The man, who was wicked fast, finally
jumped back, and laughed, after she’d managed to land a few very solid blows.

“Oh, my! You
are
a strong
one, aren’t you? Perhaps I should have simply asked you to carry a letter for
me?” Standing back, the man, who seemed even older suddenly, started to glow, a
golden light coming from his entire body.

What it did, she didn’t know, but
she had tricks, too, other than being quick, didn’t she? Wrapping him up
carefully, focusing as hard as she could, Eve picked the man up, standing ten
feet away or so, and used the lines to flip him over and slam him bodily into
the ground. The Earth below them shook, as the golden light flowed into it.

The Vampire stood then, and
bowed.

“I understand. Well, perhaps it
is for the best then? Still, I do
not
like to be ordered about. Tell
them that Wallace is not amused by their antics?”

She nodded.

“All right. Just Wallace? No
title?”

The man gave her a look that
spoke of something dark, and a bit put out, probably because she didn’t know
the right thing to call him.

“Just that. They’ll know who I
am. Speaking of which, may I enquire as to your name?”

“Eve. Benson.”

“Very well, Eve Benson. I’ll
remember that. Perhaps if we meet again, it will be under happier
circumstances? One in which I’m not being taken to task so firmly perhaps? It
has been a long time since anyone has bested me like this.”

Then the man walked away, as if
they were done. Since he’d made his calls and told people to make the
announcement about what he was, they actually were, so Eve tried to find her
way back to the main Node for the continent. She got lost, twice, and ended up
wasting a lot of time getting there. Still, the whole thing, including making
sure that Australia and New Zealand had a good supply of animal blood coming in
regularly only took about six hours. It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the
world, but Ginger seemed to be having fun, which she explained when they got
back to Vancouver, and were away from Zack.

Walking down the hallway toward
their shop, the younger girl, who was only nineteen, if you counted up all the
years of her life, seemed pretty happy.

“I’ve never actually been
anywhere before. Not even Mexico or Canada. Not that I was needed for this,
today. I’m kind of useless, aren’t I? You’ve only been a Vampire for a year,
less than that even, and have an important business, a good position with the
Council and are helping people like me. What do I do? Sit around and watch late
night movies? I practically have a panic attack every time I realize that
Lenore isn’t right here to hold my hand still.” She seemed a bit disgusted with
herself, which was a good sign. It meant she was probably getting close to
ready for more responsibility.

“Have you considered the rewarding
field of training would-be Vampires? I can show you what to do. It means being
around Humans, a lot, and being in total control of your anger, but you haven’t
been doing badly that way. Being up during the day, well, you’ll have that now.
In fact, in a day or two, I think that will be fine. You know… Why don’t we
start on the actual shop stuff tomorrow? Learning to make the products, and run
the machines? You can spend your nights learning the paperwork stuff with me. I
need to go over all that again, and you should have that down too, even if you
do choose the great career of Human wrangling.” She grinned, since that wasn’t
even a thing yet.

They’d gotten applications
though, and someone should at least call the people
back
, if they were
going to be nice enough not to just go and find some Vampire to turn them into
half wild animals. It was, she guessed, her job, more or less.

After all, she was the one that
made that BS up in the first place. That someone higher up had thought it was
actually a good idea wasn’t her fault, but it actually
was
one. Which
she kind of had to take some of the credit for. Now she just had to turn Ginger
into her minion of baby Vampire training, and possibly get one or two others to
help her with it, and she’d be set to begin her plan of world domination!