Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (35 page)

The next six hours went in a
fashion that was kind of dreamlike for Eve. It involved daylight trips to both
Rome and Paris, as well as an interesting shop in South Africa. That was where
she got most of her fairly normal seeming clothing. It wasn’t perfectly
average, since the man that ran the shop used advanced materials in order to
create clothing that was about twenty times stronger than normal, as well as
being stain resistant.

Okay, so she’d look a bit boring
in some of it, tan being the most common color, but just having things that
wouldn’t be torn apart as easily made it worth going.

Bente tried, very hard, to
suggest that Eve dress in couture fashions
all
the time. Even after
hearing that Eve did regular duty as a glorified ice cream girl. It was both
cute, and a bit insane, though apparently not the kind of crazy that would have
her labeled that way by her fellows. In the end Eve put her foot down, and
insisted that she needed more practical outfits, with only a few being designed
to attract attention. Plus, that way she wouldn’t go broke, trying to dress for
Yoghurt World.

Darla pointed out to her, several
times, that it wasn’t very likely she could do that. Not even paying Bente’s
clothing prices, which were top end.

Lyn mainly stood back and made
jokes the whole time, not picking on Eve in particular, which was nice of her.
She was just a Vampire after all. No one even mentioned that though, the entire
time. That probably meant they were all really cool, or something like that. On
the good side, she paid for everything, and even got a gift for each of the
others while they were out, seeing things that might work for one of them, more
than it did her. Darla got a great belt, that was made out of specially treated
tree bark, for instance. It was strange, but once paired with anything dark
colored it just fit the look.

For her present Bente got a nice
bracelet, made of a fine web of interlaced rings, almost like chain mail, but
so tiny they seemed like glinting cloth. It was silver, but the woman acted
like it had been the finest thing she’d ever seen. That, Eve understood, was
how you were
supposed
to act when you got a present. Really, they all
did that part of things wonderfully, even though they most likely had
everything they’d ever need.

It left her feeling like she was
the one that had gotten something nice.

Lyn… Got a pair of pink running
shoes.

The fashion Demon made a face at
them, but the woman, who was wearing a killer red dress, put them on
immediately, and jogged around a bit, like a kid that believed their new shoes
would make them ten times faster than before. It was adorable, and kind of made
her feel a bit better about the life that Zack must have had, growing up. Eve
had never thought about it much, just assuming it was all horrible for him, all
the time. There would have been at least a bit of humor, and very possibly some
love though.

The fact that this Greater Demon
was probably a better mom than her own had been was baffling to her, but she
was happy for her buddy, so it worked out.

So, in all, by the time she got
home with enough loot to make it hard to carry alone, but doing it anyway, she
was set for another five or six years, as far as things to wear went. Or, given
how things had been going in her current reality, about a year. Provided she
didn’t mess up too much and have to burn half of it.

Not wanting to be one of those
messy people, Eve spent about twenty minutes hanging it all up, before looking
at the time, dashing to get a shower and then running, as fast as she could, to
Westfield. It was nearly six, after all. She was on to work all day, as far as
she knew. That was only fair, given she was begging for the evening off.

She was wearing one of her new
outfits, which was, she realized, a little plain. It was a long sleeve tan
shirt, that looked a bit heavy, and tan trousers, along with one of her new
pairs of sneakers. While it was different, it was, she knew, not going to raise
many eyebrows her way. That was fine, since her job was to keep the costumers
happy, and she got to wear a nifty Yoghurt World apron over it all, for color.
All she needed to finish the look was a pair of heavy framed glasses.

Then Maggie would see who the new
queen of the nerds was.

Smiling, when she finally got in,
still not really able to talk, after stressing herself on the run, she nearly
ran into two people at the door. Lenore, who was standing just outside of the
place, looking content at how it seemed, if not impressed, and Felicia.

Inside, still working away, stood
David, who waved when he saw the collection standing there, waiting to enter.

Eve didn’t speak, until she could
manage it without screaming. That was part of her plan, since it meant she
didn’t seem half as wimpy as she felt after running.

“Hi all. Lenore, have you met
Felicia before? She runs Sparks, Nevada, for the Council.” She gestured toward
the slightly orange eyed brown haired woman. “Felicia, this is Lenore Hawthorn.
She’s in charge of the western states region now.”

Lenore smiled, her face pleasant
enough.

“
Really
? Then we’ll be
working together. Wonderful. Why are you here?” The last bit came out sounding
demanding and blunt, but Felicia just answered, since this was, more or less,
her new boss.

It kind of made sense that she’d
want to know why the person in charge of a given area was several states away.
Apparently waiting for David to get off shift, if you didn’t know any better.

“Daylight training with The
Snowflake. The Mistress of Souls took over Sparks, and is insisting that I
learn to be up all day. So I get the best help available, and a veiled threat
of being taken as a slave, if I can’t manage it. I have to admit though, it’s
going better so far than I figured it would. This will be my fourth day
straight, being awake. As soon as I’m done here, I’m heading right back home.
My second is watching it for me right now. Doing a good job, too. Evan. I don’t
want to be gone too long, or he’ll realize that they don’t really need me.”

Lenore looked away, like she was
thinking, and then nodded.

“That’s a good plan then. Please
ask Keeley to clear any future Vampire related things with me first? Not that I
would have opposed you coming here, but there may be better ways of getting
things done in the future. For instance, Eve could go and train several people
at once, if she were on location there, without disrupting things there much at
all. This way is slower, though perhaps that isn’t a bad thing, for the moment.
I’ll call her later, to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Eve shook her head though.

“Probably not the best time for
that. Some things have come up for her, that might make it less than optimal to
ask anything of her right now. I can explain later.” She glanced at Felicia,
who was kind of Keeley’s pet Vampire, she thought, and gestured for them to
walk into the store. After all, all the
bad
guys knew about it, so why
shouldn’t the Vampires, Shifters, and Alede in the place? Then they could tell
everyone else all about it.

In the brighter lights of the
shop, Felicia’s hair looked its normal dyed red. She was younger looking too,
since that was a Vampire thing, at least for the women. Eve was actually the
oldest looking girl Vampire around the place, she realized.

Lenore didn’t seem put out by her
suggestion, so she led them into the back, but waited, since it made sense to
fill them all in at once and Edom was coming. Ginger, too.

That would leave Barb out, but Ed
could fill her in later.

That meant sitting Lenore in the
back, like a visiting dignitary, since she
was
now, and getting her some
of the good Human blood, since it was what you offered someone like her.

When the mug was in her hand, she
sipped it very slowly, savoring it. Felicia looked on, a bit hungrily, but Eve
felt nothing in particular, even when the scent hit her nose. She had enough
links. Or nearly. She had ten now, and needed to see if she could add more like
that, long term. It had been a bit of work, but having the extra energy was
worth it.

The new regional manager, or
whatever she was called, started speaking after a bit, not asking Eve to
explain, her voice conversational.

“I’m not technically taking over
yet. Vaughn is heading to his new location in a few weeks, but Edom has control
here, so I’m looking for things to do. I fear I’ve worked for so long, without
a break being a real idea, that now that I have time, I don’t know what to do
with myself. I suppose that means I should never try to retire, doesn’t it?”

Eve smiled, kind of getting the
basic feeling, if not what it really meant, on a personal level.

“You know, if you really want a
hard project, you should get with Cormack, and see about going with Ginger
later today. The plan is for her to help train the new store employees there,
as well as get the Yoghurt World side of things up to speed. It… We tried to do
it, and Cormack might have it up and going already, but it was about as bad as
you could imagine, when he took over. Well… No, really it was worse than that.
There had been a Manthori gang that was robbing our Vampires as they lined up
to buy their weekly blood. Right outside the shop. They even had the nerve to
come
in
and try to badmouth our people there. That should be over. I
should go and check on that, I guess.”

Felicia just stood there, and
finally sat when invited by Lenore. Still, when Edom came in, not long after,
Ginger following by about five minutes, both early, considering they weren’t
expected until seven or so that day, Eve just started on the whole explanation,
as far as she knew things.

Leaving out the part about The
Ferryman, just talking about how Darla had gone missing, and was found now.
Then how a whole lot of what had been happening around there for the whole
year, or a lot longer than that most likely, was all about Keeley.

“So, as you can imagine,
that’s
going over well, in her world. It isn’t really our problem, and we might be
able to smooth over some of the Vampire related things, now that it’s in the
open. That was all about distracting everyone though, so they wouldn’t get what
was going on as soon. By that I mean all the other Greater Demons. We are, as
always, pretty much just the ones that have to pay for their amusements.” She
also left off the shopping trip, not wanting Ed and Lenore to beat her for
being that stupid. It really had been, she knew. Being tied to Greater Demons
was about as stupid as you could get.

Ed seemed to think they’d be fine
though, regardless of what happened to Keeley.

“We’re pretty connected with The
Line Walker, here, but The Mistress of Souls isn’t part of our structure, even
loosely.”

Eve and Lenore both looked at
Felicia, though she just nodded.

“It will hurt in Sparks, if she
goes down like that. Half of the local economic recovery for the whole area is
due to her new businesses. Plus, if she gets pushed too hard, guess who’s going
to end up her slave, to fight in whatever war the Demons bring?” Thumbs pushed
toward her own chest, Felicia grimaced. “I should probably get back there, too.
I don’t know what to do. Is it better to stay here and learn to be a day
walker, or go back now, and make sure my people are all right?”

People were coming in the front,
though the scent hadn’t hit her yet. It wasn’t until Zack spoke that she
understood he was coming for a visit. His girlfriend was there, after all, so
it made sense. Technically she was one of those too, but they hadn’t exactly
been hanging out and fucking, had they? Like Darla had mentioned, she should
take advantage of his soft heart that way before he realized he was an evil
Demon.

It was nearly funny, though he
came in with Bey, and the tiny man looked almost
insanely
worried for
some reason. He walked into the space quickly, and found where she was
standing, then hugged her, hard.

“Miss Benson! You live! The
Council received a most distressing call early this morning, I was in Toronto,
and called on Zackary to bring me here immediately, after hearing the message.
You are well? Unharmed, and not much abused? The Greater Demon known as The
Ferryman said that something had happened, but only requested your banking
numbers, so that he could add funds to your account?” His eyes were a bit too
wide, and close, given that he was still holding her as he spoke.

She didn’t make him let go.

“Yeah. Right. I was sort of
glossing over that part. He was impersonating The Mind Taker, who as the story
went, was busy impersonating The Technician. I figured that out when I went to
check on Darla last night, because there had been reports that she was missing.
I found her, in a Demon trap, and The Ferryman helped me get her out.” All of
that was true, but Zack, being both brilliant, and even though she hadn’t
noticed it before, clearly a brat, moved in and touched her arm, then stood
back, laughing.

He did it until Bey dropped her,
and everyone else was looking. Slightly concerned.