Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (23 page)

Bey
spoke firmly however.

“We,
Miss Benson and I, were sent into Georgia, to the city of Atlanta, on what
turned out to be a false trail. On purpose. That Ambassador there, the
Manthori, Donald Moorehand, was compelled by Eve, and forced to tell the truth
to us, which shortened our time there greatly. Now, we need to find out who set
this whole thing up, and more importantly, what they were attempting to keep us
from? If anything at all. I would like for the entire community to be brought
out for this one. Those old enough to care for themselves. Can that be
arranged? For tomorrow evening, perhaps?”

Eve
winced, but didn’t say anything. After all, that seemed incredibly slow to her,
but she was a girl of the modern world, and expected everything to be done
right that moment. The truth of the matter was that anyone might be behind it.
She just didn’t have any clue why.

Hence
Bey trying to get access to all the resources he could. She walked around the
counter, hugged Ed and then picked up the phone, taking a breath before she
dialed. There was no yelling about it, so it was all good that way.

Instead
of contacting Keeley, who she was pretty certain had at least set her up for
six months of boring laying around, she dialed the number for her oldest
Greater Demon friend.

Darla.
The Technician.

It
picked up on the first ring.

“Hello?”

“
Darla
!
I was wondering if you were busy tonight? I need to talk, and we could have a
slumber party, like we used to. Only with just two of us, which will be
cozier?”

There
was a faked up purr from the handset, “oooh? How cozy are we talking?”

Eve
chuckled, and shook her head.

“Probably
not
that
cozy. I mean, if you want we could see about doing some things,
but it does nothing for me anymore. It’s kind of sad, really. So, not to invite
myself over, but… Well, I don’t own my own place here, so, you get the picture.
It would be wrong to threaten to dress Edom up in a teddy. Hot, but
really
uncomfortable
for him.”

“A
real point… Let me see, I have some work to do, and it’s about what, just
before seven? I could be ready by eight?”

“That
works for me. I’ll be there. That gives me time, I want to grab a toothbrush
and shower first.” Not that she needed to, bacteria not growing on her very
well, if at all. That meant she didn’t stink, but she was still kind of used to
doing certain things on a daily basis and if they didn’t happen she really felt
it. A weakness no doubt, but there it was. If she was going out, she wanted to
be clean first.

It
turned out that she didn’t have anything to do that night anyway, since there
was no real work for her. The little incarceration thing had kind of taken her
out of the normal rotation, not that she was ever in it. Even at the club she’d
always just kind of showed up. With permission, but still, that had been a kind
of low level thing. They hadn’t needed her, she just cleaned up the restrooms
and then made sure that nothing happened to anyone by way of pretending to be
security.

During
which she kind of killed eleven people. It might, she supposed, be enough to
make her unwelcome at the club for a while. That was a shame, since it had been
nice knowing what she was going to be doing each day. Well, she had that night
covered, so there was that. Walking fast, she got back home to Ed’s, got ready
and then forced herself to move as fast as possible to Arizona. It was weird,
in more than one way.

First,
it was a bit uncomfortable, going back there after being gone for so long. She
hadn’t really thought about it, but most of the bad things that had happened to
her in life had taken place there. Even the pain that she’d had since she’d
died had been better. Even going into the glass
coffin
had been.

Those
things had been her choice. Unless someone had mind controlled her into doing
that. In that case, well, it would take whoever had done it coming out and telling
her about it directly. She could ask, but what where the odds of that
happening?

She
didn’t know, but it probably wasn’t all that great.

The
trip took about five minutes, because she dawdled on the last half, and felt
like it had taken a lot longer than that. About a week, which wasn’t really
right. Walking that distance would take a person a lot longer, wouldn’t it?
That was probably a good thing, given how much of this kind of travel she’d
been doing lately. It was boring, and slow. Except that it really
wasn’t
.
It felt like it took forever, but in clock time? Not that much at all. It
wasn’t as fast as Zack could go, using a Node, but it was better than what most
could manage. Even in a plane. The big drawback was really that to her it seemed
to take forever. It was drab and left her feeling like something was lacking in
her world. Then, that was a lot of life.

You
lived through the hard things, the ones that made you want to quit for whatever
reason, to get to the ones that made it all worth doing.

Eve
knocked, politely, even though the nice place had practically been her home,
once upon a time. Those days had been bleak, when she thought back on them. Not
because of Darla though. No, that had been down to her own mother and the fact
that she loved her drugs more than her own child. That kind of thing, while
less than good to think about now, did remind her not to be that kind of
person. She wanted, even now, as a cool and strong Vampire, to be there for
other people, too.

That…
The feeling took her a little by surprise, to be totally honest. After all,
wasn’t her deal all about protecting herself? She thought about it as her hand
came up to knock on the very clean white door, and realized that she could want
both things at once. Being strong enough to really take care of herself wasn’t
totally opposed to the idea that she could protect the small and weak.

The
rapping was gentler than what she would have used before, even here. Eve didn’t
know it for a fact, but she had a strong suspicion that Darla Gibson had much
better hearing than a Human would have. If not that, then some other way to
know who was at her door.

Still,
not being a bitch, she called out as well.

“Darla?
It’s Eve. I’m alone.” It felt a little paranoid, or like she thought her friend
was, but it was becoming kind of clear that something large was going on for a
lot of people, and if that wasn’t going to set off some Greater Demons than she
didn’t really know them at all. Which, most likely, she just didn’t.

It
was going to be better to be polite than not, anyway.

The
door moved open slowly enough to not be alarming, and the hot blonde girl
standing there wasn’t armed. Not that Eve could see. There was no hesitation
either, and a big hug came in, wrapping her in warmth. It was, she realized, a
bit more than what a regular Human would have had going on. Greater Demons only
looked like people.

Only
when they wanted to, she reminded herself. The idea that they were shape
changers, and more, some of the
best
of that kind, was a thing that she
needed to remind herself of more often. Just because she couldn’t do it, didn’t
mean that it might not be a factor in her life later.

Her
friend kissed her cheek and then pulled her in, giggling a little.

“Eve!
There you are. Early by… Four minutes, too. Now, come on in. I have some blood
for you? Though I notice that you haven’t been eating at all? Not anything
fresh. You should get some new links occasionally. It will make it harder for
anyone to take you out just by killing all of your energy sources at once.” The
girl kept hold on her left hand, her nice blouse a light pink color that made
her seem almost ridiculously girly. The sleeves were those little three quarter
length ones. It was a popular fashion that time of year in Arizona. It was just
too warm for most anything else, and too cool for dressing up in shorts.

Giving
her friend a long look she shook her head a bit, and brushed her own black hair
back off her forehead a bit.

“Seriously.
I hadn’t really even thought about that one. It’s a good point. Well, that’s
why you make the big bucks and I work as a low level lackey for the Council.”

She
was drawn into the light colored room, which had always seemed incredibly rich
to Eve. It had cream colored furniture, eggshell colored carpets, and off white
walls. It wasn’t a complete study in making a person’s eyes hurt though. There
were lamps and sculptures around the edges, for instance. Several of which
contained energies, she notice. Not all of them were life energy or magic, but
she could both see and feel it now. A few of them hummed, audibly, too.

Darla
noticed her looking as she was guided to the nice sofa, the other girl sitting
far enough away to make it seem like she wasn’t there to get busy with her, but
close enough to tell anyone watching that it might not be totally impossible
that something could happen when the lights went out. Not that her buddy really
rolled that way.

Oh,
she’d do a girl if it was needed, but Eve didn’t think that she was really all
that interested in things like that, and
wouldn’t
be unless it was
project oriented.

The
Greater Demon pointed off to the sculpture that had always been on the nice
wooden cabinet that held the phone, across the room. It wasn’t a huge thing,
and looked like some kind of twisted modern thing. It was a deep blue, but now
that she really looked at the thing, it was clear that not all of it was
existing inside normal space at all. She’d seen the thing a thousand times, but
this was the first time that she noticed that part of it. Consciously at least.
Before she just hadn’t really liked it much, but now she started to understand
why.

Her
buddy winked at her.

“It’s
a bomb. One that would take out this part of North America if anyone were to
trigger it. One of my failsafe measures. If anyone attacks me here, they will
lose. No matter how powerful they are, nothing in existence can survive it
being activated. Except me, of course. Don’t worry though, if that ever happens
you won’t feel anything.” She grinned, as if that news wasn’t incredibly
sinister.

Eve
shrugged. It was either the truth, or a lie that Darla wanted her to believe
for some reason. Either way there was nothing she could do about it except move
away, and from what had just been said, going back to Vancouver might not be
far enough away at all.

So
instead she just nodded.

“That
makes sense. Kind of a way to burn everything down, if anyone does too good of
a job coming after you? I need to get something like that eventually. Not yet.
Too many people seem to be after me. I don’t know why though. Which, other than
coming to drink your blood, the stuff in the fridge, is why I’m really here.
Not exactly a
good
reason, but I don’t have a handy holiday to excuse me
being here.”

She
waited, since it was a bit more blunt than she’d intended to be, but Darla
rolled her eyes, and managed to look both dignified and playful at the same
time.

“Which
makes sense. The thing there Eve, is that what you’re seeing, well, it isn’t
something small, and it just isn’t all pointed at you either. Yes, some of it
is, but I really can’t tell you about all of it. Most of the time that wouldn’t
be a problem, since you wouldn’t ask. No one does, really. Even when they
suspect that my kind is involved, they tend to stand back, and forget to just
send a note. For good reason, but you rather have more resources that way than
most.”

That…
Was not helpful at all. Worse, Eve was almost certain that for a Greater Demon
it would have been enough to give away the whole plot. She just wasn’t smart
enough to see into what was being said. It left her feeling frustrated for a
moment, but then she shrugged.

She
was the one on the short bus, compared to a lot of her friends. Bright enough
for a Human, or a Vampire even, but so far below Darla that she needed to
accept that fact now, before it got her killed. Not because her friend would
hurt her, but walking into something that was too big could do the same thing,
in the end.

“So,
not being able to understand what you Greater Demons are getting up to, how can
I protect myself? Run and hide? Except that I’m not allowed to do that yet, am
I? I have promises to keep and all that. I owe Edom and the others too much to
bail on them…”

She
was about to get a little frustrated, when Darla nodded and reached out to
touch her arm gently. There was a tingle at the contact. There had been, at the
door, too.

It
was a thing that she’d felt before, several times. She just couldn’t recall
where it had been very clearly.

Her
oldest pal, the being who had saved her from what had probably been a horrible
fate, if left unchecked, removed her hand slowly, and nodded.

“That’s
right. You
have
felt that before. You probably will again. I can’t tell
you all of the plans, or even if they’re real or not, or just a ruse used to
influence the others of my kind, but I can share that one, now that you noticed
it. When a Greater Demon touches another being, anyone, they instantly grab a
copy of everything that person has ever thought, and all they know. If you can
pay attention to that, you may well understand more a lot more, quickly.”