Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (25 page)

As something to do, since the
plan for the night seemed to be sitting there, talking like they were at
Denny’s, rather than going out, Eve winked at Ginger.

“Hey,
I
know, why don’t
you go and make one of everything on the menu? We don’t have waffle cones yet.
I keep trying for that, but the truth is I need to get on the interwebs and
look some shit up. Lenore has a machine for it, but she’s managed to get busy
somehow. I don’t really know what she’s doing. Taking a break, hopefully?” The
woman hadn’t had a real vacation in longer than Eve had been alive, she was
willing to bet.

Keeley nodded, her face looking a
bit wicked, for some reason.

“
I
heard that she’s in the
Swiss Alps right now. Zack bought a place for her, not too far from my father’s.
Speaking of which, he was talking about you the other day.”

The look was still a bit too
playful to be good, given the kind of being Keels was. It was hard to believe
this was the same girl that she’d known in high school. The first girl Eve had
kissed, even. At the time things had been a lot more innocent, but now, given
all she’d seen and knew, it was easier to see the frayed edges of her act.

This
wasn’t
a young girl
thrust into being a Greater Demon, which was how she’d always assumed the thing
went. No, Keels was a powerful being, one that often made her own rules, that
was playing the part of an attractive young woman because it suited her for the
time being. Next week she could be eighty and running a retirement home, or a
man, and trying to get all of them at the table into bed.

Almost as if she knew what Eve
was thinking, her face fell a bit, but there was a somber nod, not a denial.

“It’s taken me a while to really
adapt to everything myself.” It seemed to be coming out of the blue, but
Felicia just sat there, ignoring anything had been said, and Ginger,
understanding things or not, was busy on her own project. So really, only Eve
got what was being communicated. Keels went on, her face turning to a happy
expression, without smiling at all. It was subtle, and extremely clever.

Eve really needed to learn how to
fake that kind of thing soon. Everything she did was too forceful all the time.
It was either totally blank, in a resting bitch face that would make people
from New Jersey feel right at home, or a bright and cheery smile that would
probably be about right on a clown, or an actress in a McDonalds commercial.

Keeley actually laughed, clearly
getting the idea from Eve’s mind.

Winking, the woman in front of
her, who was less good looking than she used to be, even while looking the
same, moved a bit, like she was restless.

“This place needs music. You
should lobby Edom for it.
That’s
exciting, isn’t it? Him getting a
promotion like that? Your Cormack, too. There’s been a lot of talk about all of
you in the Council lately. Mainly about how to keep
you
in a lowly
position without making it seem like a direct punishment. It’s ageism, rather
than hatred for you though, so keep that in mind before you get
too
upset at them for it. I mean, you’re less than a year old, and already running
one of the biggest and most important industries in the Vampire world. Also
Bey’s apprentice, and are in charge of the new training program. They’d have
gotten together to kill you already, but Bey refused to help them do it, and
the rest of them are too afraid of how many of them you might take out when you
went.”

The first item on the list, was a
plain frozen yogurt cup, which was put down in front of Eve, so she could
examine it. The peak was good, but a little bit off center. Not enough that
anyone would ever care about it or send it back, but Lenore would notice, so
Eve pointed it out.

“Try holding the cup a little bit
closer to the nozzle at first. Check for air bubbles every third of the cup
first, too. Remember, we sell frozen yogurt, not air.” Eve pushed the thing
across to Keeley to eat, since it was that or dump it out, and then froze. “Oh.
My. God. I’ve turned into my own mother.”

That got a smile from everyone
else, if not a laugh.

“I mean Lenore, of course. Not
my
mom, since to make that happen I’d have to start pimping Ginger out for drug
money. David too, no doubt.” It took work, but she grinned about the line, and
went on, leaving it. “Well, in for half a dollar… Why don’t you try it again?
Eat faster Keeley. I always wanted to see how much food you could take before
you popped.”

The rest of the night was casual
conversation, tucked over and around Ginger working as fast as the machines
could go, and Keels stuffing her face. On the good side, with only a few minor
points, such as getting a tiny bit sloppy with some of the sauces trying to
keep up, the young looking girl in her store apron really seemed to have the
operations of the front section down pretty well.

Finally, at about four in the
morning, Zack came in, gave everyone a hug, except Ginger, who was busy
working, and settled in next to Keeley, practically sitting on her lap, since
there were three beings on the other side of a four person booth. It was cute,
and looked fun enough.

“Oooh, free food night? And I
missed
it? Damn. Well, I just came to see what you were all up to anyway. Believe it
or not, I don’t have any transfers scheduled for the next three hours. Whatever
should I do with myself?” There was a glance around the table, that actually
looked a bit hungry. Not for treats either.

Eve went still, and nearly
suggested that she have sex with him, since he was clearly hinting that
someone
should, but then stopped and glanced over at Ginger, who looked cute, if a
little young.

“If you don’t mind pretending to
be a Human, we should let Ginger practice having sex on you. Warning, you might
get bitten. Still, I think she can handle it. I know, she looks young, but
you’re a perverted Greater Demon, and she really
isn’t
. She’s nineteen.”

To her credit, even if she looked
a bit scared, Ginger didn’t freeze up. Really, she didn’t even seem all that
intimidated. It was exactly what Eve would have wanted her to be feeling, from
the look on her face. Calm, with just enough apprehension that she didn’t mess
up and attack anyone.

Zack hopped right up, and smiled.

“Great idea. We’ll be back at my
store? It has a better set up for that kind of thing. Come on, Ginger, it will
be fun. More for me than you, but I
promise
, we won’t do anything not in
the Kama Sutra.”

They left, almost directly, with
David looking troubled, and Keeley staring at her.

“
What
?”

The Greater Demon cleared her
throat, and then smiled a bit.

“No wonder so many day walkers
have been coming out of here. You’re using magic on them. Propping them up in
what they’re doing. It’s not a bad idea, but it explains why not just anyone
can get it done, doesn’t it? You’re throwing focused energy at the other
Vampires, programmed to keep them moving, and doing what they need to. I’d
thought it might be something like that, since I can see the hair growth, and
know what that has to mean, but…” She stopped and then dug into the tan handbag
she had with her. Finally she pulled a pair of silver scissors and a comb.
“Let’s give you a trim? Outside though, so we don’t end up with Eve hair in all
the food. Come on.”

Eve thought that it might just be
a way to get her out of the mall, but Keels really just wanted to cut her hair,
and went short with it. Not above her collar, but it had kept growing, if a bit
more slowly, for several days, and was below the middle of her back now.

It was probably a funny thing to
see two girls sitting on a sidewalk, cutting hair, but it was still dark out,
and the world was quiet outside.

Finally, as she finished, and
pulled a little brush from her bag, Keels leaned in.

“You have more energy now, and
can get more. You should try working with magic a bit more firmly. The more you
can add that way, the more things you’ll be able to do. Don’t tell the world
about it though. Keep it secret, for now.” Then, very carefully, as the sun
broke above the horizon, her friend removed every hair from Eve’s neck and
t-shirt. It was done with her hands, using careful, but very efficient brushing
motions.

“I know, you can start with Felicia.
See if you can’t make the first few weeks of her being up all day a lot easier?
That would be good, if you can pull it off?”

Then she got up, and pretended to
give Eve a hand in standing. Her cool skin contrasted nicely with Keeley’s,
which was hotter than normal by a good bit.

Then they both went back in, and
the Greater Demon said goodbye to everyone. Kissing David on the way out, if
only on the cheek. Since he’d nearly been left out of their activities, it
seemed to baffle him a bit, but that was probably on purpose. Thinking
otherwise would be to think that her friend didn’t know everything she was
doing fifteen steps ahead of what the rest of them could see.

The idea though, that she could
do magic, and better,
had
been, was worth investigating. To that end,
she focused on Felicity, and ran a single line of pink life energy from herself
to the other Vampire. She was well fed, but not brimming with energy in
particular. Without explaining what she was doing, Eve held the idea of the
other woman just not getting tired, or dying, at all, and held it as well as
she could, remembering what it felt like for her each day.

It didn’t work perfectly, but
when Ginger got back, clearly having had a shower, and looking a bit
embarrassed, but unharmed and
not
crying about how she’d failed utterly,
the new Vampire was able to get up, and go running with her. Not all that fast,
but she wasn’t of the Bey line, Eve didn’t think. It was clear that she was a
Classical, but there was something a bit different about her. No complaints though,
even as Ginger, who was kind of a slowpoke, pushed at her to keep going faster.
Eve could hear her, occasionally, as they came around the outer perimeter of
the mall, on the back side.

She manned the front, though Edom
came out to help, without a jacket on, a clean apron over his shirt.

“Eve! I noticed that we have a
new Vampire up and about? Is she going to be working here?” He was asking it as
if
she
had the right to hire someone like that?

“Nope. We
could
probably
get some free labor out of her though. She runs the T2LA in Sparks, Nevada.
They don’t have a node or embassy, so I guess the club is kind of a big deal
there. Where people buy their blood and all that? It’s Keeley’s territory, um,
The Mistress of Souls? She came in to visit last night, and asked if I could
help Felicia get up to speed. Oh, um, in other news, Ginger is pretty much up
to speed, as for working the front here. Also working with Humans. I got Zack
to pretend to be one, and set her loose on him. Since there was no horrible
screaming, I take it that worked pretty well. So, we should start her in on the
paperwork portion of things here. Have her take a night shift or something, in
a few days. That’s your call though, being in charge. I’m just making
suggestions, like a good lackey.”

She started cleaning again then
taking the front glass, as the dark chocolate colored man in the expensive suit
went over the machines, and then carefully started a new batch in the first
machine, which meant emptying it and cleaning the whole thing first. When he
was done, he turned to her, and shook his head a little.

“Councilor Memes called
yesterday, and we spoke about you at length. She said that you two have met?”

Eve didn’t know, as odd as that
sounded.

“I think that I met everyone on
the Council, when they came to lock me in a little box for doing what they
would have ordered me to, if they would have known it was coming first. Which
one is she?”

“Nosferatu? Long fingers and big
ears? Most often bald, especially the men. Lots of triangularly pointed teeth?”

“Oh, yeah. She seemed nice. Batty
as a loon, but not mean about it. What did she want? My instant death?” After
all she’d heard about things of late, that made a certain kind of sense.

“Not at all. She was just
interested in having you set up a program for Council employees, to teach them,
like you have the people here? It would be a full time thing, or at least take
up your days, most of the time. There are a few hundred that are on the list.
The real trick there is that I think they want to hold a monopoly on it. So, if
you could not just take everyone that shows up? Felicia should be all right, if
she runs one of our clubs. Probably not very high on the list, but what are you
going to do, tell The Mistress of Souls
no
?”

That one was a point that the
people in charge would be able to get well enough, she thought.

“I can do that. Do I get a place
for it, or are we working from here on it? Either way works for me. If we do it
from here though, you can make all those contacts, which might be a good idea.
Me too, of course, but I don’t think I’m going to be doing too much else, for a
while, from the sound of things. Then,
I
wouldn’t give me that much
power yet, so it’s not a huge problem for me. I’m all mellow and easy going
that way.” She kept wiping the counter, but there was no chuckling from her
maker.