Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (19 page)

“No
huge thing. We can go and see the sights, and then head back when it’s night
again? I know that we should go during the day, but that still sucks enough
that I kind of want to avoid it. I guess we can do it though, if you want?”

She
wasn’t trying to push things, having just gotten her freedom, but seeing the
nation’s capitol was better than
not
doing it. The Vampire in front of
her gave a tiny bow, that wasn’t even mocking, she didn’t think.

“This
seems like a thing to do. We can go to the Smithsonian? I can tell you where
they made mistakes. It is a most impressive museum.”

That
sounded pretty boring to her, but she nodded. After all, how often was she
going to be there? It made sense to see what was there. Besides, just because
she hadn’t been all that studious in life that didn’t mean she couldn’t change
now, did it?

Thinking
about it for a moment, still just standing there, she spoke again, changing the
subject without warning.

“I
should learn some other languages. I only speak English and a little Spanish.”
It made sense to her, but Bey actually hopped a little and clapped his hands.
Like it was Christmas morning and he was the child about to get
all
the
presents.

“What
a perfect idea, Miss Benson! That way, when we must travel the world to end the
lives of wrong doers, we can explain to them first why they will die. I have a
good base of such, already, but it does come up in our kind of work. We can
work on this? I don’t wish to push you to do too much, too soon.”

Eve
shrugged, after all, it was her idea.

“What
should we do first?” She was thinking French, but Bey wrinkled his eyes, he was
smiling so hard.

“Russian?
We have some work to do there soon, if a few there do not alter their current
plans. Failure to pay taxes or heed to the Council. That may not be allowed.
Shall we begin?”

It
turned out that he spoke that language fluently, and seemed to have infinite patience.
She got caught up in the banter, with him showing her objects and actions, and
then giving her the names of them in that particular language. It was what they
were doing when a rather sheepish looking politician came back into his outer
office.

He
forced a smile though.

“We
have an interview? It’s just a radio program. I’m sorry that you came all this
way for it, I…” The man took a deep breath and then bowed a little, toward Bey.
“It’s the nature of the business. Half a year ago people would have been
offering to donate blood in order to get an interview with a real Vampire that
wasn’t me. Now… It’s nearly common. That they should see,” there was a chirp,
which got Swerlin to look over just before the phone rang. He furrowed his brow
a bit, but moved over to it. He made a face about doing it though. “Sorry,
Jonas has today off. I have a duty to handle things.”

He
seemed ready to panic, which Eve didn’t get. Bey wasn’t going to kill that man
for doing his sworn duty. Even if he thought it was really rude to ignore them
like he was suddenly doing. It didn’t really bug Eve at all, since everyone had
phones now. Not
her
, but that was because…

Honestly
it was mainly about how little money she had at the moment and how she’d
assumed that there wouldn’t be any reason to have one for at least a year or
two. A foaming at the mouth baby Vamp
wasn’t
going to be good company
for anyone. So it hadn’t happened. There was no real reason not to get one now
though. It would mean people could get hold of her, for instance, and vice
versa. Maybe she could even stay in touch with her friends.

They’d
all come to visit her before she went off to that box, and here she hadn’t even
thought about calling them. Well, at least not to do more than needle Keeley a
bit. It was sad, but that probably had to do with the fact that they were all
growing apart. There was no need for it though. It was just happening.

Everyone
did it, sooner or later, didn’t they? They ended up getting busy with work, and
becoming undead, then the next thing you knew, poof, ten years had passed and
no one had sent as much as a birthday card for years.

Richard
smiled as he held the phone to the side of his head.

“What
may I do for you today, sir?” He sounded pleasant, and like the voice on the
other side of the line was a being of true importance. It kind of made her feel
bad, considering how he’d been acting around her the whole time she’d been
there. Now that she saw what he
normally
did, it was pretty clear that
he’d been certain that she had been about to kill him the whole time.

More,
he seemed to think that she could actually get the job done, which was weird.
Yes, she was wicked fast, and fought pretty well, but he was a Vampire that had
hundreds of years of experience. Really, he should be able to
argue
his
way out of it, if nothing else. He was a freaking politician. Like she was
ready for that kind of skill to be applied against her? Maybe with raw violence…

Which
was probably his point.

The
man on the phone sounded dark and grumpy, which she got, since they were on the
east coast now and that meant that it was still really early, anywhere the guy
could be calling from.

“Swerlin.
This is Bill Cremo, from Homeland? We have an issue. It isn’t strictly a
Vampire thing… I can’t fucking believe that’s real… Hostage situation in
Indiana. The locals have asked for help. It seems like… Some kind of giant… I
can’t believe this crap. A horned demon? About ten feet tall. Freaking the
locals out.”

She
made a considering face, but didn’t say anything, even though the description
was familiar. It was surprising, since the men on the ground probably shouldn’t
have been able to hold together well enough to even ask anyone for help,
regardless of which Lesser Demon it was. It sounded like Balthias, with all the
fear being cast out, but that wasn’t assured. There were something like a
thousand of the things in the world, if what she’d been told was correct.

The
thing there was that she couldn’t imagine a single reason why one of that sort
would take hostages. Kill, if it suited their mood, or rape if it was Wednesday
and they were bored, but just to hold people? Only to play with them? Then,
they probably wouldn’t care if there were loads of police outside the door
while they did their thing, whatever it was.

She
shrugged.

“Ask
what the Lesser Demon is doing? It should be acting strange. Eating a lot,
killing people already, openly sodomizing the cops. Is there anything at all?” She
spoke loudly enough that there was an inhalation from the line, but the man
didn’t bother to ask if the phone was secured or not, just answering.

“Um,
demanding money? A lot of it. A million for each of the people he has with him.
Sixteen, we think. We’re about to go in, but…”

That
didn’t make sense. Energy beings didn’t
need
money, did they? That
meant… She looked at Bey, who was simply watching her closely. His face was
blank. That could be about anything though, she knew. From wanting her to
handle things to thinking she was making a mistake even commenting. One thing
was for certain, she wasn’t jogging over to help out. A Vampire wasn’t a match
for even a weak Lesser Demon. The things were, by definition, impossible to
kill. The best you could do was trap one, or use magic to control it.

“Which
is probably the answer, isn’t it? Someone, or something, is probably
controlling it. The… Really, the best thing that can be done is pulling back
and letting the people die. If you aren’t going to pay up, there isn’t a lot
that anyone can do about it. Maybe some Mages, but if this is…” She stopped
then shrugged. Not knowing that some things existed wasn’t exactly going to
help this guy, was it? “If this is being done by any of the Greater Demons,
then it doesn’t matter. It won’t be about the money at all. Probably about the
exposure if that’s the case. A Human Mage… Well, if they’re powerful enough to
trap and control something like that, then they wouldn’t need the cash, would
they? Not like that. They could just get the Lesser Demon to take it from a
vault or two directly. So… This is a publicity stunt. That, or terrorism, using
a weapon that almost no one on the planet could beat.”

Swerlin
cleared his throat, and then nodded.

“Got
that Bill? That’s from Eve Benson, who’s probably one of the best people we can
get on that kind of topic right now. I have to agree, based on what I know. The
only other thing that this could be is an illusion. If that’s the case, then
the end result is probably going to be about the same. Anyone that could pull
that kind of thing off wouldn’t need cash from it. They could just have a bank
deliver it to them.” He didn’t go into the ins and outs of it, but it was
probably right.

Eve
had never really considered the Mages to be all that dangerous before, and
didn’t know if they could do things like control Lesser Demons, but if they
could, then they were considerably more bad ass than she’d ever considered.

She
looked at Bey, and shook her head.

“We
need to stay out of this. We can’t do anything about it. Those poor people…”
She looked at the far wall, then at Rich. “Well, this is your thing, Swerlin.
You can try calling up Keeley or Zack and seeing if either of them will help
out with it? Maybe they can get data anyway?”

The
man actually turned white, but tightened his lips and forced a breath through
his nose. It wasn’t a pleasant looking face. In fact there was a glare in her
direction, as if she were wronging him personally, by making such a suggestion.

“I
need the exact location, then. This… Bill, I have some possible contacts. I
can’t tell you if they’ll help or not. Don’t expect much. These… They aren’t
people
.
If we can get them to do anything… What do you have to offer them?”

“What?
We’re the Federal Government, tell them that if they don’t play ball we’ll
extradite them to Cuba and have them force fed through their ass.”

There
was a grin from Bey then, and an audible grinding of teeth from Richard. Eve
just waited. She was kind of good at that now, she thought. All that practice
had really helped that way. Plus, this was nearly interesting, compared to…
Almost the entire last six months. It even beat running cross country. That at
least had let her see the sights, which
was
better than being in a tiny
box.

Rich
actually let his voice go hard then.

“No…
Listen, if these beings decide to help, or even to talk with us, do
not
make a threat like that ever again. They won’t just kill you, they can do
things like make this entire part of the world unlivable, or just sneak into
your room at night, every night, and do what you threatened, to you. They can’t
be stopped, and never, ever offer to make a deal or bargain with one. Just put
out an offer to repay them for their time and effort. They may still tell us to
take a flying leap, but… I’ll ask about it, if you want.”

Bill,
thinking he was a brilliant man, suggested that
he
be the one to contact
the Greater Demons. Because…

Eve
smiled.

“Sure?
I’m nearly certain that neither of them will really enslave him as a matter of
course. Zack doesn’t do that yet, and Keeley, well if she wanted the man, he’d
already be hers, wouldn’t he? This way we can minimize our personal involvement,
too.” She smiled and moved in to touch Rich on his suit jacketed arm. There was
a chill from inside it, but the dead did that. Almost sucking the heat from
things. “It’s up to you. Really, we should probably duck out of the whole
thing, but giving some numbers over, with warnings, is about as far away as we
can get and still be doing anything to help those people.”

The
real truth was, if whoever was doing it, either the Lesser Demon, or whoever
was controlling him, wanted to kill people, then nothing they did would
probably work. The people in the room all seemed to get that one. The man on
the phone kind of did too, Eve thought. He took the numbers and names though
and got off the line, leaving them alone again.

As
soon as it was done, she glanced over at Bey.

“Am
I being too much of a busy body? Or not enough of one? I could make those
calls, but… We
can’t
really win this one. As it is, I’m shocked that
anyone can even see what’s happening in front of them. Whoever is doing all
this has really pulled out the stops to give people enough data to run with,
haven’t they?” She was deflecting a bit, not wanting to know how much she was
really screwing up, but her mentor didn’t correct her with a blow to the head,
so it might be that she wasn’t doing that poorly.

His
voice was nearly sweet, at least for what he’d used around Swerlin, who he
clearly didn’t like at all. She kept noticing that fact, which meant it had to
be there pretty strongly.

“You
did as well as one might, in a case like this. We of the Council cannot truly
ignore a call for help from our fellows in the Human government. There is also
very little we can do in this kind of situation. I fear that your assessment is
correct, young Eve. This is the work of a being that wished to strike terror
into the hearts of men and women. Those innocents that it is our duty to
protect.”