Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (9 page)

Of being
at work, even if it
was
about the coolest job around. Well, as long as
you didn’t have her part of it. The girl that cleaned the restrooms wasn’t
actually going to brag about that part of things, was she? Still, it paid the
bills.

Not that
it really did, because she worked for free, but that was just part of her life
now. It would be for a long time.

As they
were cleaning the tables and setting the chairs up for a final sweep and mop,
the topic of the day came up. It was Tammy, the short, cute, and perky breasted
waitress that brought it up.

“Can you
believe that stuff about Vampires in the news? If it’s real… I don’t know. Should
I get a cross, do you think? Wear garlic around all the time?”

She was
joking, but underneath that seemed just a bit scared. The funny thing there was
that she was talking to both Barb and Eve. No one else. The rest of them
cleaning up the bar area.

Barb
froze, at a loss for words, but Eve kept cleaning, then looked at the woman for
a half second.

“Why?
Are you planning to invite one to church with you? I hear
that
might
work. It seems that all the Vampires are really devout, and are into community
service? Working at soup kitchens and all that? Saving animals and whatever.
Who knew, right?”

That got
a laugh, even if it wasn’t funny, and a strange look from Barb. She didn’t add
anything though, letting them all get back to work.

“Oh, for
the exciting and heady days of being a
regular
working girl.”

Eve
forced a smile, and got back to her cleaning of the embassy. The Yoghurt World
gleamed, and
had
, for the two hours since she’d gotten there. To be fair
it also had when David, who’d had the night shift, along with Edom, had been
there before they’d left.

The lean
and flirty Vampire was a bit lazy, for Lenore’s program, but that wasn’t why
he’d been with someone else. Normally the night shift was a solo one, even if
it was the busy time of day. It wasn’t
that
big of a thing, normally,
and everyone knew that if you came into the embassy at night, you were there
for business, not to be a pain in the ass. Mostly. No more than people normally
were, really. It seemed like the new order was all about having an extra few
bodies on hand in case of emergency, or simply to entertain the press.

Technically
they already had the extra bodies for the day shift, since there was a handy
Eve that had started to hang out there all the time. By eleven in the morning
though, she was more than caught up. Not even a single person came in to get a
treat. Not even the Trollienkeine. They might be hungry all the time, and so large
that they needed the free food, but coming in right now might have them caught
on camera. If they wanted to not be out too, they had to be careful.

The
phones didn’t even ring, so eventually she ended up just standing there, the
sun burning her through the ceiling. It was better to keep moving, but she
wasn’t going to fall asleep anymore. Not to avoid the pain. Lenore came out,
not having anything to do either it seemed, shaking her head.

“Things
seem rather well put together for the day, so far. Now, why don’t we go over
some paperwork? I was instructed by Bey to teach you how to do my job. Not that
you’ll have it any time soon, but learning what to do might help anyway. First,
let’s review the forms?”

She
wrinkled her face up, and then smiled.

“I
didn’t really sign up to do homework. I was promised abuse and being locked in
a box… Not the endless joys of red tape.” It was a risk, since she didn’t want
to piss the Vampire off, but she got a smile in return, as the woman smoothed
her dress with her right hand.

“I
understand. However Bey has spoken, and
he
wishes you to learn. He will
have a reason for it. What that is… Well, I have a guess, but would rather not
share at the moment. Needless to say, you won’t lose out by doing your best in
anything he asks of you.”

Eve
walked to the back then, sighing.

“I know.
It’s probably just so that I won’t seem like an uneducated fool. So, we keep
them alphabetically? By last name if they have one?”

“Correct.
Now, let’s memorize the names, and purpose of each form? Then I’ll have you
fill in one of each, as we discuss what might be needed to do so.”

Lenore
was serious, and it was
exactly
as fun as it sounded. Still, by four,
when things were starting to get a bit easier to handle, pain wise, the sun not
being as big of a focus for her, the phone finally rang again. Her brain was
numb, with numbers and names floating behind her eyes, so she didn’t jump up to
get it nearly as fast as she should have.

That
meant Lenore did. Her voice was pleasant, and she became more so as she spoke,
not less. It was a good sign, given that they were both expecting the hate
calls to come in soon.

Her
daytime work boss was in the office space with her, and actually smiled after a
bit.

That got
Eve to start listening, which she should have been doing the whole time. What
was the use of having a super power if you just didn’t use it?

The
voice on the phone was very familiar to her.

Rebekah.

She was
a Manthori, and was actually one of the very first Vampires that Eve had
actually met. She worked for Keeley, as in they were partners in the Human
blood business. The Vampire actually ran the thing, which had made her pretty
wealthy.

Better
than that, or worse, depending on who was speaking and what day it was, Rebekah
was
also
a famous singer. The lead for the All Vampire Band. Apparently
it hadn’t taken people long to make the connection between the name, which had
been shared openly, and the recent news about Vampires being real. On the good
side, the whole band could just shrug at the world right now. They’d been “out”
the entire time. It wasn’t their fault that no one had really believed them,
was it?

The
voice on the phone was mellow, and had just a bit of mushiness around the
edges, since the speaker had a full face of fangs, like all Manthori did. As a
Human the distortion was barely noticeable, since Bekah had worked really hard
for a long time to make herself easily understood. Now Eve could hear a
difference, but it still wasn’t too bad.

“So,
we’re going on in about an hour, and Scotty miscalculated and needs to eat. We
sort of don’t want to point out the Human blood angle right now, given… Well,
the direct threats from the Council, actually. We were told to behave, being
public figures, but there were no actual guidelines as to what to do. Could we
get some of that animal blood? I was told that you might have some there?”

They
did, but they needed a new batch or two soon. Lenore stood upright, her face
calm, but she turned to look at Eve, and stared into her eyes directly. With no
expression at all, which was maddening.

She
spoke calmly however.

“We
can’t have it delivered through regular routes at this time, and sending The
Line Walker for this would be… Insane.”

There
was a sound of air being sucked in hard, through rows of teeth, but the words
that came were pretty polite. Rebekah always was. She was just a nice being. It
was one of the reasons that she was allowed to be a public figure.

The
woman was just sweet, and so exotic that most people couldn’t credit her as
being anything but a performer. Her whole band was kind of like that. At least
when well fed.

“Well… Crud.
I
was
kind of hoping that you’d ask Zack for us? This is kind of
pressing. I suppose we could try having him sneak off and do a live feeding,
but…”

They all
knew that one. A Vampire might get away with a live feeding on a Human, and
animals were legal, but it wouldn’t play nearly as well if Scotty, the drummer,
was caught doing it. If that happened, being as high profile as he was, then
the man would probably hurt all Vampires, everywhere, on the third day of them
being a thing in the mind of the public. So, yay.

It was
also
just the truth that having a Greater Demon do the work was out, too. The guy
was
just
a drummer. If asked, the Council probably would have just
suggested they lock the man in a box, rather than let a problem start. He’d be
missed if he didn’t show up though, wouldn’t he?

Eve
nodded.

“What’s
the address? I’ll get it there, if I can get a map…

Lenore
gave her a look that was cold, and then a smile that was freaking
insane
.

“Oh? Do
you truly believe you can do that? There is a large difference between moving
quickly between a few miles, and hundreds or thousands. Where are you,
Rebekah?”

“Um,
right now, at the studio, in Burbank? I can get the numbers for it.” She
started to scramble for that, which had people calling out rapidly. A lot of
them were Human, Eve could tell. There was a slightly wet tone that
non-Vampires had, that Eve had never heard of anyone discussing before she’d
become a Vampire herself. Actually no one had mentioned it since, but she could
tell the difference anyway.

It took
several minutes for the actual data to come in, and Lenore didn’t move the
whole time. So Eve did, getting a basket of blood ready, taking all the
remaining bottles of the stuff that she had there. All four of them.

Being
polite enough, at least to people she wasn’t beating or about to, Lenore wrote
the numbers down, and ended the call, after suggesting that Rebekah and her
people make sure Eve was met outside.
If
she could make it.

As soon
as the thing, an old model phone that had an actual cord on it, and a heavy
black handle, was settled in its cradle, the older Vampire laughed.

“This
is… Well, there’s a reason that no one tries to make such trips. It can’t be
done. No one can take the pain of it for that long. Still,
trying
will
be a good lesson for you.”

That…
Well, it wasn’t a great vote of confidence was it? Still, she was going to let
her try for some reason, which meant… What? That Eve was being that uppity new
kid that thought she could do anything and needed to be taken down a peg?
Maybe. If that was the case, then there would be another beating though, not
her getting a chance to try something that no one did.

“Bey
can’t do it?”

It was
an odd thought, and she probably wouldn’t be able to, if he couldn’t. The man
was the best, in using speed like that, wasn’t he?

The
other Vampire tilted her head.

“Yes.
He
can. No one
else
has ever managed it however. Not in the kind of time
frame you have before you. Here, I’ll mark the routes on the maps…” She did it
quickly, and passed both the large sheets of paper over, then ran out, coming
back a minute later with a backpack. It wasn’t an advanced thing, just like the
book bag that Eve had used for her school books in middle school.

That had
been one of the first things she’d ever shoplifted. It was a funny thing, but
her mother hadn’t really been that great about getting her school supplies for
some reason. When she’d had anything it had largely been taken from someone
else. At least until she was older, and
Darla
had taken her shopping for
clothes and things. At the time it had been humiliating, but also needed.

Now Eve
knew that Darla had more money than God, so it wasn’t a hardship for her at
all. At the time it had seemed that the slightly older girl had been using her
allowance for it. Her plush, heavy duty, weekly bit of cash from her father,
who was off in Japan, but still, the stuff that she was supposed to be spending
to live. She’d never told the others that she was doing it either, to keep Eve
from feeling too awful about it all.

Now… She
nodded, and went to the closet, where her magical demon shoes were. Up on a
shelf, above the cleaning products. No one else could wear them, she didn’t
think. Not and survive it. She took off her other shoes, the nice red ones that
had a lot of wear on them and slipped them in with the basket of blood after
Lenore got it all packed up. She stared at Eve, but didn’t ask what the new
shoes were all about.

Eve
didn’t tell her either.

“I
should be there in about… Ten minutes. Maybe twenty. Wish me luck?” She didn’t
expect it, since it was clear that the other woman expected her to simply fail.

To her
surprise, the strawberry blonde moved in and hugged her, then moved back.

“I do
wish you all the luck in the world. Stay strong, and do not fail in this. Call
when you get there?” She seemed sad though, but didn’t really let it show too
much.

“Sure
thing. Stay by the phone?” She smiled, not feeling it, and then walked outside,
in her stocking feet. She looked at the map first, since she didn’t want to
keep stopping to try and read it, a thousand times.

Then,
under the cover of the sloping roof thing on the main side of the mall, which
she picked just because it would be drier, she slipped her shoes on. The ones
that, as soon as she started running, wouldn’t let her slow down until the time
she mentally picked was done. The distance really. In short, she had to go the
whole way, at speed. Otherwise the things on her feet would probably kill her.

That
sounded fun, didn’t it? Part of her nearly chickened out and turned around to
go get Zack. Lenore had been right, and they couldn’t use him for it, and it
wasn’t an emergency really, just a PR thing, more or less. Still, she picked
the place in her mind, based on the map location, then looked at both maps to
make sure she had the route down as well as possible.

The
first step she took sent her into blistering pain. The second, which was just
walking to her vision, was even worse. It was all her though, doing the work,
so far. She just couldn’t slack off. That was all.

The
world around her nearly stopped. If it moved at all, she couldn’t tell being
too busy trying to move forward, throwing her very life into moving ahead. It
was the worst thing that she’d ever felt, and she kept having to go faster,
knowing that failing to do so would make it even worse. That was the magic of
the shoes on her feet. The pain of failure would always be worse than doing it
for real, no matter how rough things got.

There
was a problem though, that Eve hadn’t counted on. It wasn’t the drain on her
links, since that wasn’t too bad, as far as things like that went. It was strange,
but using her speed was pretty much always the same that way, really. It
was
a draw. The thing there was that running at fifty miles an hour took no more
actual power than going ten times that fast. Or more.