Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (11 page)

Eve looked at the kid, and
shrugged.

“Nothing is ever free, so what do
you get out of this, helping me? It’s some kind of set up, isn’t it? Putting me
in place to get something you want done.”

There was a solemn nod then.

“That, is
exactly
right.
You’re very clever for a Vampire. Now, run along. You don’t want to miss your
appointment.”

After that, with no small amount
of force, the little girl all but threw Eve outside, onto the busy street.

Taking a hint, she ran.

Buying a house was both a longer
process than Eve had thought,
and
the first time that she ran into
outright anti-Vampire bigotry that didn’t have signs and chanting to go along
with it. Sheila, the divorced mother of three, who had scrambled and fought to
find a career in a down market, met her with a big enough smile on her face.
She seemed to be a bit too made-up for the scene, making Eve feel a bit under
dressed for it. She’d gently applied a light layer of foundation, so that she’d
have a bit of color to her cheeks, and some lip stick. It was a nice crimson
red. That was just so no one would get confused and think she was a bull
lesbian. Her hair was so short still that she was a bit surprised that no one
had made fun of her over that yet.

Sheila though, looked ready to go
toe to toe with Batman.

Her hair was even poofy, and kind
of helmet like. Not green though, so she was failing on that part. Her smile
looked predatory enough that the very first thing Eve did was check to see what
she really was. Human, it turned out, but there was a scent that seemed primal,
under the perfume and deodorant. Really, the lady didn’t seem all that nice,
even though her voice fairly glowed with false cheer.

“Hello! Are you Eve?” There was a
pause, and a look that went all the way down her nose. True, she was wearing
running shoes, and slacks, but also a nice button up shirt. It was plain and
white, so it couldn’t be called fancy, but it was just a meeting to see if she
wanted the house or not.

“That’s me.” She tried to not
respond to the lady, and just let her take charge and point out all the good
things, while hiding the negatives that the place had hidden. Not too many of
those, but when you asked for nearly a million dollars you couldn’t get away
with that kind of fixer-upper stuff. Not if
she
were going to be buying
it anyway.

It was a fine looking house, and
even had an indoor pool. It was small, being long and very narrow, but big
enough for a person to swim laps in, which was the point, she guessed. Cormack
didn’t really need to exercise, but it came with the place. There was a great
three car garage, and the kitchen looked ready to cook for hundreds of people.
Each of the bedrooms had a bathroom too, which was a great feature.

The problem though was that
Sheila started almost directly into bigotry. Being that she didn’t know what
Eve was, that seemed a bit over the top. Like she just started all her
conversations with the fact that she was a moron.

“This is a nice place, but we
do
have some Vampire activity in the area. Shape Shifters, too. I keep telling
Mrs. Johansen to lower the asking price, because of that, but she wants a
return on her investment. I can’t blame her, but that kind of thing…” She
actually
shuddered
. The whole act was that of a woman about forty years
older than she actually was though. If the woman was thirty-five it didn’t
really show. Her cheeks were a little plump though, which might hide some of
the lines under the face paint.

Eve tilted her head a bit.

“Vampires and Shifters? Like, as
neighbors? Or do you just mean in the general area?”

There was a pause, and a deep
intake of breath, as the woman whispered at her, hissing a tiny bit in the
effort.

“Both! Right next door, the man
who lives there, he turns into a large cat. I can’t believe it, but I saw him
do it on the news. How am I supposed to sell anything in this market? I
wouldn’t even have taken this house, but we’re required not to discriminate, by
law. No one knows if that counts for the dead yet, but the word has come down,
from the higher ups. For now we have to act like Vampires are real people.
Still, they didn’t say that I couldn’t let people know about things like that
before they move in.” She sounded conspiratorial about it, so Eve nodded along
for a bit, and kept looking at the house.

It really was a great place, but
she didn’t really want to help this lady out too much. Just as the woman was
about to leave, she winked and leaned in though.

“What about darkies? Oh, and the
Irish? You don’t have any of
those
around here, do you?”

To her credit, perhaps, the woman
got the idea and stiffened. Her nose actually climbed upward in the air too. It
was kind of cute, in a piggy looking way.

“I didn’t know that you’d have a
problem with people being different.” She almost growled the words, trying to
take a step back, to physically distance herself from Eve.

To get away from the clearly
creepy asshole.

“Oh,
I
don’t. Just,
there’s no difference between a Vampire and a black family wanting to move in,
is there? Or some Shifters? I mean, as long as they vote and take care of their
lawn, then what’s the problem?”

Now
Sheila frowned, the idea of what
Eve was getting at sinking home.

“Well, I don’t know that any
African Americans would want to kill me and drink my blood. They wouldn’t be
turning into a wolf man on the full moon and try to sneak into my house though,
would they?”

“
Nooo
, they wouldn’t, even
if they were Shifters. Then, Vampires need to leave you alive, and it’s against
their own rules for them to feed on people directly now, so even that isn’t too
big of a threat. Cormack, the man that I’m thinking of buying this place for
is
Irish though, so you may want to keep that in mind. He’s good Irish though.
Hardly drinks at all, and doesn’t have a cooked cabbage fetish. That I know
of.” He might, come to think of it. That probably wasn’t the case though, since
it was just too bizarre to even figure out how it might work, as far as sexual
gratification went.

“Hmmm. You’re planning to buy
this as a present for someone else?”

She nodded, making it seem happy.

“Yeah. He’s the new Vampire
ambassador for this state. A good friend of mine, and no, he
doesn’t
eat
people or anything. In fact, he only eats cow, which is no worse than most of
the people you know, is it? Hence me getting a bit snooty with you.
Everything
you said about Vampires was wrong, and you were off about Shifters, too. For
one thing, both groups have people of all skin colors and religions.” She
stopped, since it was kind of clear that the woman was getting upset. As in
angry, rather than just confused, or unsettled.

The woman glared a bit, and
finally leaned in to hiss, keeping her voice down as it was clear that someone
was in the front lawn next door. There was a fence, but the man there was tall
enough to be seen over it. He was pretending to rake, she thought.

Sheila sounded well and truly
pissed though.

“This is a pretty normal area.
Maybe you should send your freak friend someplace else? We don’t need more of
that kind here. There should be a law against it.”

Eve shrugged, then looked over at
the man, who was forcing a smile on his broad, dusky face. Eve waved to him,
and spoke in a normal tone.

“Or you need even more of that
kind? It seems like it to me. This is a nice neighborhood, too. I take it you
don’t live near here?” She just meant it was pricy, but it sounded so catty
that she got glared at over it.

“No, I don’t. Thankfully.”

Then, rather hastily, the woman
got into her car without saying anything else, and drove off. It was
mid-afternoon still, so after watching her leave, Eve moved toward the stone
wall, which was about five feet high, that separated the two properties. It was
better than an acre for this one, which given how close to the Node complex it
was, had to be a lucky find. There was enough space to have some extra trees
put in, if Cormack wanted that kind of thing.

She waved at the man again,
getting close enough to tell that he didn’t smell strictly Human. Probably a
Shifter of some kind, then. Not a Cat though. Something different. More
reptilian.

“Hey. I was thinking about buying
this place. I don’t suppose that all the neighbors are like her?” She didn’t
have to wave after the car, since it was clear that the guy in front of her got
the general idea.

“No. Really most of the people
here are pretty nice. That’s the second clearest case of someone just hating on
Vampires I’ve seen yet. The worst one was a group of protestors that were
throwing things at the kids from the Yoghurt World, in the mall down the
street. That sucked, because the poor kids are just the daytime staff. All
Humans, you know?”

She nodded, since that was what
would have to happen, if you didn’t have someone around that was able to stay
up all day. It was kind of why Cormack was getting the job, really. That he was
also responsible and knew the work was just a bonus.

“Really? Well, that’s good to
hear. Maybe I’ll make an offer. Thanks, by the way. Do you live here?”

There was a head shake then, the
Latino guy smiling and glancing back at the house.

“I wish. No, I just do the yard
work. I don’t suppose your buddy would want a gardener? If you get him this
place. You really shouldn’t let that bitch make your mind up for you. It isn’t
like you’ll be living with her.” He looked down the road and glared, then
glanced back at her. “Anyway, I should get back to work, if I’m trying to get
you to suggest my services to your friend. Julio. I’ll drop a card off for him,
if you get the place.”

“Thanks. That’s probably a good
plan, at least to start with. I know nothing about lawns and all that.” She
waved again, and felt foolish for it, then took off as fast as she could, once
the man had gone back to work.

The real estate agent had left a
bad taste in her mouth, one that even the agony she threw herself into didn’t
fully erase. It was the twenty-first century, for goodness sake. Eve really
would have thought that things like bigotry would be gone by now. Apparently
that wasn’t true. They had Shifters, Vampires, and chubby people left to hate
on, after all.

Of course the world really needed
to watch out for those big people. They could be anyone, after all. Hiding
there, in secret. Eating all the sandwiches.

She tried to smile to herself
about it, but even playing at that kind of thing anymore just seemed like a lot
less fun. In her life Eve had been looked down on for several different things,
herself. For being a slut, and for being poor, mainly. For having a bad mother
and a father that had basically just walked away from her. This had been the
first time she’d ever met a person that wasn’t holding a sign that really just
seemed to hate her though. Just for being.

Hell, even the protestors had
mainly just seemed scared, not like they were just evil people looking for a
reason to dislike someone else. Sheila there, she hadn’t been like that, had
she? No, the closest to that kind of thing that Eve had ever been before had
been that man, months back, who’d tried to shoot Edom. Even that was more about
fear than hate though, or so it had seemed to her at the time.

This was different, and left her
feeling edgy as she pushed herself to get back faster than she really had to.
Then, as she got to the edge of the city, she realized something. It wasn’t her
problem. Oh, it was annoying to have to deal with bad people like that, but it
wasn’t anything that she should let ruin her day. So she fought for a smile,
and to forget the woman, as best she could.

It was still a good house, and a
nice neighborhood. One in which that creature didn’t live. Her friend, Cormack,
would be fine there. Maybe even happy? She hoped so.

Stopping by Troy’s again, since
he had actual computer equipment, and a real printer, Eve made up a card for
Cormack, congratulating him. Then she slipped in a picture of the house. It
didn’t do it justice, but she left in the address to the web site, so that he could
see more of it, if he didn’t want to pick something else.

Then she changed, into jeans and
a t-shirt, a nice purple one this time, and got back just in time to meet him
at the door as he came in. It was early, but he didn’t need sleep anymore, so
having him come in at six was fair enough.

It was a funny thing, but none of
the Vampires she’d met had a good concept of real work hours. Part of that, she
knew, had been about the fact that Lenore had worked nearly every day shift by
herself for years. Possibly decades. It was hard to whine about having to work
long hours when the boss was required to do even longer, and never got a break.

The other part was that some of
them were just so old that the idea of working a twelve hour shift was kind of
natural to them. It was the time from sun up to its setting. That was the
natural time that a person could work, right? The Humans, at least. Now they
could have pushed longer, but the point wasn’t what could be done, but the
habits that people had grown up with.

Not that the work was hard, but
things could be a little boring at times.

Not that day though.

Eve was literally right behind
Cormack at the door, and could see the ten people inside, waiting for them.
They were all Vampires, and from the stillness of several of them, they seemed
very young. Not as much so as she was, but like kids anyway.