Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (26 page)

“I know that. As for Ginger, I
can show her what to do, as far as paperwork goes, and handling things as they
come in. Can she do a shift with you tonight? Then she can try it alone
tomorrow.”

It was a day faster than Eve had
thought of doing it, but the fact was, running the place just wasn’t all that
hard. The only thing that was really needed was for Ginger to learn to fight,
in case anything happened while she was alone.

At least enough to protect
herself and the embassy. It wasn’t going to happen overnight, but at two, when
Ginger and Felicia both came in, seeming fresh and relatively alert, Eve took
them both to the back, and drilled them for hours on various fighting techniques,
while Edom ran the front. They weren’t
good
, even the seventy odd year
old Felicia, by the time evening came, but either one of them could probably
knock out a human black belt without thinking about it too hard. That was down
to having superpowers though, not skill level.

She didn’t know what to do with
Felicia for the night, but Edom did.

“I was going to go and look at
the clubs here. We have two that are fairly local. My second, Barbara, is
running them both right now, as general manager. Would you like to come and
review them? Perhaps you can give us tips, and we can share operations
secrets?”

The brown and orange eyed woman
seemed very pleased by that. Almost like Ed was asking her out on a date. Which
wouldn’t be a horrible idea, would it? There was no law saying that a Vampire
couldn’t have someone special. Even if they weren’t into sex, it never hurt to
have a friend that could wash your back in the shower.

Seeming a lot more flirtatious
suddenly they both started to leave, through the back, just after David got in.
He was kind of surprised by the change in things, because Edom smiled and sent
him back home, directly.

“You get tonight and tomorrow
off. Eve, you and Ginger have the new recruits coming for interviews? Do you
need anything for that? I’m sure Dave will stay and help, if you want?”

“Nope. I’ll handle those, and
Ginger will run the front, and handle any other business that comes in. Then,
after they go home, I’ll laze around and criticize her work as if
I
could do any better. I’m
all
over this being in charge thing now.”

Without commenting they all got
out of there, not saying anything else. It wasn’t exactly some big thing, after
all.

Starting at seven the Humans came
in, with a few Vampires arriving for their blood at the same time. None of them
were a problem though, even if they were clearly eavesdropping.

When the six people that seemed
to be coming got there, the seventh she’d really expected not showing at all,
Eve clapped a few times, and had them sit in two booths, side by side, while
she stood.

“All of you applied to the new
training program, which for the time being is the
only
legal way to
become a Vampire. Yes, you could do it the old fashioned way, and probably not
end up being killed for it. The purpose of this program is to give anyone
making the transition the skills to cope with the hardships, both mental and
physical, of being undead, before it happens. That’s the first thing you need
to know; if you become a Vampire, you
are
going to die. We’re animated
corpses, that feed off of life energy to keep going. We aren’t just people that
sleep odd hours, or have a strange coffin fetish.” She looked at the group in
front of her, made of three men and three women.

None of them seemed ready to run
off, having heard that part of her intro speech, so she went on, as the other
Vampires in the room stared, openly. At her.

“Being one of us means being
constantly
hungry, thirsty and very often aggravated. Angry all the time, basically. You
have to learn to control that now, before we add super strength, speed and
mental powers to the mix. The program as it stands right now will take about
three to five years for each of you to get through. You can live at home, work
a job, or even go to school at the same time, and really that’s encouraged. I
know that I don’t want any lazy people, in particular. Especially in this first
batch. This will probably be the hardest thing that any of you have ever done,
but it’s worth it, if you do it right. It will make your first decades as a
Vampire so much easier it would be insane to skip.”

She was about to ask if anyone
had a question, when one of the guys, who was dressed in stylish black, and who
had makeup on to make himself seem pale and serious, with poorly managed hair
that had to be on purpose, raised his hand. She nodded to him.

“Yes?”

“I heard that if you want to be a
Vampire, you have to, you know, be gay? I’m pretty straight.” He seemed nervous
about it, like he was going to have to do homosexual stuff right then, as
punishment for asking, so she shrugged.

“That’s not always going to be
wrong. More to the point, if you live long enough, you’re probably going to end
up doing almost everything, sooner or later, so getting over that idea now is a
good one, just to start with. If you think it’s a problem for you, let us know
and we’ll find some guys for you to practice on. That’s exactly the kind of
thing we’ll want to work on though. If it’s going to be hard for you later,
don’t wait, face it now. Fear of heights? Snakes? Bigotry? This is when you
should be moving past it.” As if it were open season to ask anything, one of
the girls, who was kind of chunky, made face.

“I’m not very good looking, is
that… I mean, you’re like a model.” A few of the others nodded. Like their
looks would be what kept them from being picked.

“That won’t be a problem for any
of you. For one thing, by the time you get through the program, you’ll all be
thin. Part of the training requires three to four days of fasting per week,
while being directly around food most of the time. That’s for a reason too, and
it isn’t about losing weight, but you will. It’s really hard not to, doing
that. The idea is to put you into the greatest state of hunger we possibly can,
over and over again. If you go past that your body will stop being hungry,
since you’ll go into a state of metabolic ketosis. We
want
you to be
uncomfortably hungry though, as much as possible, so that you can get used to
it. As for the rest, the best look for a Vampire isn’t really being too good
looking. You want to be above average, but only enough for it to help you blend
with the people around you. You’ll all be fit and toned by the time you cross
over, so that won’t be a problem. One or two of you will be better looking than
that, but not so much that you’ll be kicked from the program for it.” She
looked at one of the boys, who was a bit chubby, but had great cheekbones, and
the oldest of the women, who was in her late twenties. She was kind of hot
already, actually.

They had more questions, some of
which were better answered by other people.

For instance, when they got to
the question of why they had to be older than twenty to become a Vampire,
Ginger walked out from around the counter, wearing her apron, and gestured at
her body. She’d been thin enough, and cute, when she died, but really did look
like she should be getting ready for her first day of high school.

“
Forever
. I can’t go to a
bar, unless I know someone there, even with ID. Maybe with enough makeup, but
it’s still hard. People don’t take me seriously either. It doesn’t matter how
good my ideas are, they just get ignored, most of the time. I mean, look at all
of you? You didn’t even think I was a Vampire, did you? I look like a kid that
should be working in a place like this, and possibly too young even for that.
You don’t want that. The ideal age for a person is between twenty and forty,
right now. So waiting until you look at least that old makes sense. Most of
life works better if you aren’t going to be marginalized for the rest of
eternity.”

The gothy looking boy, who was
about seventeen, nodded, and didn’t raise his hand again.

“So, why become one, looking like
you do? Why not wait?”

The Vampire girl smiled, a bit
sadly, and looked at each of the Humans there.

“I didn’t get a choice. I was out
walking home from the library, in the dark, and woke up the next night,
starving and half out of my mind. I’d been shoved under a log, which hid me
well enough, but there was no one there to feed me, or help me at all. I ran, I
remember that, then found a family. There were five of them, two women and
three kids. I killed them all. I couldn’t even start to do anything else. I got
lucky then, and was found by the local Proctor. She took me in and found
someone willing to train me out of that kind of thing. I was beaten for years
after that. It’s how things are normally done, by the way. It, until Eve came
up with her method, was the only thing that worked at all. Once you frenzy once
though, it’s a lot harder not to do it again. Most of the time, if it happens,
you’ll just be killed. I got
so
lucky. Even with all the help and care I
got, they nearly had to kill me, a year ago. I couldn’t take it, and ran away,
and attacked a woman. She lived, but it wasn’t because of me being in control.
That isn’t allowed anymore. If you do that the Council will kill you.” The room
was silent for a bit, as Ginger rather nervously ran her hands down the front
of her apron. It was clean, even though she’d been working in it.

She locked eyes with the chubbier
boy. He was dressed in normal clothing, and reminded Eve a bit of Ben, her
friend.

Then Ginger went on,
embarrassingly enough.

“
Eve
though, when she woke
up dead for the first time… She’d been kidnapped, and was put in a room with a Human
girl, by other Vampires. They’d cut the young lady, with a knife, to set Eve
off into a blood frenzy, first thing. Do you know what she did?”

No one did. Not among the Humans.
One of the Vampires that was standing to the side, Linda, cleared her throat.

“She fought the four Vampires
that had taken her, and escaped with the girl. Leaving her
alive
. The
point here is, I believe, to point out the power of this kind of training.
There are Vampires that have been around for decades that would have been hard
pressed to do either of those things. Really, at first I thought it was all
lies, meant to promote this girl for some reason. Until I saw her, and watched
what she did. If you can make it into this program, any of you, I suggest you
hold on to the opportunity with both hands and never give up, no matter how
difficult it feels. To start out with that kind of control is…
Unheard
of. I wish that I could have had the same for my own daughter.”

It had an impact, which was a
good thing, even if it was embarrassing for Eve.

“So, now, one on one interviews.
The rest of you can stay out here, and chat. I’d like to start with Lawrence?”

He was the oldest man there, and
probably the homeliest of them. His face was too thin, and he looked a bit
stupid, but he had several higher degrees, and his résumé had been impressive.
If it were for a job, he’d have been hired already. Still, as she’d pointed out
to reassure them all, looks weren’t the main criteria, and really shouldn’t be.
Stupid Vampires that were pretty to look at weren’t worth the trouble, in the
long run.

So guys like Larry here had a
real shot.

One by one she ran through each
of them, looking for things that would make them not worth the time or effort.
Some of them were afraid they wouldn’t make it. That was normal though. They
probably wouldn’t, after all. A few of them thought that they could handle
things already, it was clear, which she marked down. Again, if you weren’t
fairly confident, at least internally, you probably weren’t going to even try
to be a Vampire. A lot of them were narcissist, or nearly so, she’d noticed.
Not as much for the ones that she knew, but even they tended toward pretty
decent self-esteem.

The heavy set girl was a bit
miserable, when it was her turn.

“I have to starve myself? Over
and over? If I could do
that
, I wouldn’t be fat.”

Eve could see that one, but
didn’t think this girl would actually have half the problems of some of the
others.

“You’ve been on a lot of diets,
right?”

That got a head nod, and a look
that seemed defeated.

“They don’t work for me very
well. I might be too weak, that way.”

“Or, and this is also very
possible, you might be the one person out of all of the applicants that knows
what fighting hunger is like. You aren’t any worse off that way than the rest
of them. It won’t be easy, I’m not saying that, but I wouldn’t let that be what
stopped you. Even if you feel hunger more than they do, or something like that,
it will just make you stronger when you become a Vampire. If you want to give
it a try, you’re in, by the way.” They all had been.

Then, none of them seemed
clinically insane, or stoned when they’d come in the door. That right there was
enough to get her on their side. The rest of it was all in the training, and in
how much they wanted it.

Now all she had to do was come up
with an actual program for them to follow.

As soon as the last of them was
out the door, she looked over at Ginger, and just watched her for a bit. The
other Vampire had come a long way in the last weeks, and it would stick. She
knew that as surely as she’d ever known anything.