Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (10 page)

No, the
problem wasn’t one of energy, but of will. She couldn’t stop, and wouldn’t, but
after the first days of walking, and it really
did
feel like full days
had been passing, Eve was bored out of her mind. The pain was cloying and
horrible, but at least it was a thing. She kept walking, not able to stop even for
a moment. She pushed harder, and tried to focus on doing that the whole time.
There was just nothing else worth doing. Yes, there were things to look at, but
she couldn’t stop on the freeway to look at the people having sex in their cars
as she passed. That would trigger the shoes and cause her to be in crippling
pain.

So would
slowing down, which happened a few times. Her will power was just kind of
running out, as time wore on. She didn’t want it to, and tried every trick she
knew to stop it from happening. Meditation, mainly. That, and setting goals for
herself.

Blinding
pain nearly took her down several times, but Eve kept on, not having a choice.
She would have screamed, but she didn’t have any air. Crying was out, since her
eyes wouldn’t form tears anymore. Not enough for moisture to leak down her
face. After a while, she was just moving, and not really certain why she was
doing it anymore. At one point she started to stop, just having lost the thread
as to what she was trying for. That hurt, on a level that she hadn’t thought
she could have taken.

So she
ran again. Then walked at speeds that let her keep going, pushing off of cars
as she went, focusing on her footfalls, trying to keep them light and silent.
It was something to do, and while it was boring after a while too, she needed
something
to think about.

Eventually,
without really understanding why it was happening, she stopped. Her body flared
with pain, and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. It probably looked
like she was vomiting, or trying to. Convulsing her throat tightened down and
she refused to take a breath, even as the four people moved on her. Beings. Two
Manthori, a Classical, and Scotty, the drummer. He was a Classical too, sort
of, but had been a Bat Shifter in life.

That
meant he had the powers of both types of beings now, but also that he burned
through energy incredibly fast. His eyes were all red, like Rebekah and Carl,
the bass player. They moved in, but slowly. Eve moved to get the blood out, her
hands shaking a little. Vibrating in the air, from her exertion. The container
of blood was in the tiny man’s hand faster than she meant it to be, and he took
off the glass stopper and sucked the blood down nearly as fast.

The
others were just standing there, wide eyed.

Finally,
Rebekah moved in, and gave her a hug.

“Eve?
Are you all right?”

She
didn’t breathe, but nodded, not wanting to bother the woman. She held up her
right hand, then sank to the ground, her legs not holding her any longer.

The
large Manthori man, who wasn’t nearly as hot as the lead singer was, moved in
and picked her up, like a baby.

“Let’s
get her inside. I… Did this really just happen?” He was looking around, but for
what Eve didn’t know. It was Scotty who banged on the door though, calling out.

“Let us
back in? We need to get inside now.”

That
took forever, or so it seemed, and Eve still refused to take in a breath.
Things unfolded slowly though, and eventually, what felt like half an hour
later, she was set up on a sofa in a back room. There were other people in the
space, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Not at first.

After a
while though, she relaxed, and the pain receded. Taking a breath, she cleared
her throat, ready to cover her mouth if a scream was about to escape. Nothing
came however. That was a good thing, meaning she was just about recovered. She
sat up, and took a good look around the space she was in.

“Well,
that
was less than fun. So, we have this one taken care of. I’m… going to take a
break before heading back.” She faked a smile, and looked up at her buddy,
Bekah. Then she glared a bit. “Say, do you know why the heck Jonas has been
calling up the news networks and trying to make my life hell? Did I do
something to him I don’t remember? I mean… I didn’t make out with him at a
Christmas party, and then forget him, did I?” She
knew
that one was the
case, since she wouldn’t have forgotten making out with Rebekah’s guy like
that.

The
woman winced, but shook her head slowly.

“I think
he’s just trying to survive, right now. The more people that know about us, the
less likely anyone will be to kill him and Swerlin in order to hush it all up.
It’s too late for that now, but I think that was why.” She looked away, and
then back, seeming scared suddenly. “You aren’t going to kill them, are you?
Jonas and Richard?”

The way
it was said, along with the look from the others, was a bit strange. Eve was
about to answer that she didn’t really know, but the door opened up, and a man,
a regular Human who wasn’t very tall, stood there, flanked by several white
people that had headphones on. Like really weak and soft looking body guards.

Eve
stood up, and heaved a large sigh. Then she pointed at the people, gesturing at
their heads.

“That
reminds me, I have to get back in time for work tonight. Well, life ain’t easy
for people that work for a living.” Eve waved at the man in the center. “Hey,
Jimmy. Is there a phone I can use around here? I told my boss I’d call in when
I got here.” She didn’t want to forget, and end up being beaten for it.

The man
she’d addressed, who was famous, if not someone she’d ever really watched,
passed her a cell phone without even blinking or asking who the hell she was.

She
smiled at the man, since he was clearly cooler than she’d thought.

“It’s
long distance. I can keep it short?”

There
was a nod, so she did it, dialing from memory.

The
phone picked up on the second ring. Lenore sounded like she always did.

“Yoghurt
World, how may I help you?”

“Hey,
it’s me, Eve. I’m done here and will be heading back now. I don’t know how long
it will be. It felt like it took forever to get here.”

There
was a slow inhalation, then a dry chuckle.

“Well,
you left about five minutes ago, will you be back in the same time frame? It
nearly isn’t worth the call.”

Eve
agreed, but she’d had orders, hadn’t she?

“Be
right back. I need to give this phone back, and chat with some people, I think.
Call it ten minutes?”

“All
right. I… will see you then.”

Eve
ended the call with only a little fumbling and passed the device back to the
famous talk show host. He was working on a Saturday, which was a little odd,
but after about ten seconds it became clear what was going on. It was a
special, since, of course, Vampires were real. So why the heck wouldn’t someone
want to capitalize on that one? She got it, and listened as the man laid out
the plan.

“We’ll
go out, and instead of a monologue like normal, we’ll go right into the
conversation portion of things. We have another Vampire that’s going on. He,
uh, calls himself Vlad? Then we have Richard Swerlin in another location.
You’ll come on, and play Remembrance, then come over to talk about the Vampire
experience. We’ll cover things like how it’s different being a Vampire,
compared to a Human, what kind of things you have planned now that this is a
thing, being known like you are now, and a few other things. You know, are you
all going to kill us, do you want to drink my blood, rude things like that.” He
tried to rush through the last part, as if anyone would miss it at all.

Eve
looked at the others and shrugged. She would have left already, but Jimmy and
his people were standing in front of the door, blocking it with their frail,
but rather tasty seeming, bodies.

“You
should tell the truth on all of those. That you
do
want to drink a bit
of his blood, to get a link to him, and how you need to keep anyone fed off of
alive. Then shill your Human blood product, so that people know that we
actually pay people for that now, instead of stealing from them. Also… cover my
stuff?” She looked at Jimmy and his buddies, and grinned. “I’m running the new
animal blood product line. It’s a Council project, so that everyone can have
the food they need without spending as much money for each dose. Bekah’s stuff
is
good
, don’t get me wrong, but it’s pricey, since the Humans involved
get paid a lot for their donations.”

The bone
white woman, her red eyes scared, blinked and shook her head a little.

“We can
talk about that?”

“About
how we have means to keep ourselves fed without doing anything wrong to anyone?
Yep. Also, don’t forget to point out how conservative and religious our people
often are. I mean, don’t lie about it, but the Council will back you sharing
things like that. Not that I can talk for them, but we’ve been chatting and…”
She stopped and spread her hands.

A Human
man dressed up like a movie Vampire moved in behind Jimmy and his people. He had
fake fangs in, and pale makeup on his skin.

A bit
rudely, the man pushed his way into the room, and started to speak, in a very
bad accent.

“Bvla, I
am Vlad, the Impaler. I am the most ancient of all my kind and insist on top
billing! You, peons, attend me and prepare to worship at my side, as I
communicate the splendor of our kind to the masses.” He sold the whole thing
about as well as a man in a costume could manage.

Rebekah
laughed out loud, and so did her people. Eve snorted and looked away, as Jimmy
blushed.

“I…
Know. The people at the top insisted. I guess he’s someone’s cousin or
something. I don’t really know. It’s… Supposed to be funny. I told them…”

Eve
moved forward and patted Jimmy on the arm.

“Hey, we
all have bosses. You
should
lead with him. Just make sure that people
know it’s all in good fun. It
is
a bit insulting, but as long as you
take the rest of the thing seriously, no one will kill you for it.
Probably
.
Vampires can laugh though. We have great senses of humor, as a group.” She
turned to the others and growled. “Got that? We have freaking great senses of
humor.” It sounded angry, and fierce, but Bekah got it and snorted loudly,
getting the others going. Eve chuckled at her own joke. “See?”

Then,
without waiting she went outside and reprogrammed the shoes on her feet, and
repeated the horrible, awful,
incredibly
sucky trip, in order to get
back home. It took just as long on the far end of things for her to be able to
breathe again, but this time she stood outside, and walked into the mall
calmly, looking like she’d been strolling the whole time.

Lenore
looked at her the whole time, and then gestured for her to go into the back.

“You
should sit.”

She
didn’t really need to, but looking at the clock she got the general idea. It
felt
like she hadn’t been there in weeks, but it had been about twenty minutes since
she’d left. Because, clearly, she was freaking awesome. Also bored out of her
gourd
at the moment.

They
waited, with Lenore acting like Eve was going to drop at any moment. Nothing
happened though, until Ed and Cormack came in, at about the same time that
several Vampires and Humans did.

Almost
all of them were there to complain about the Vampires being outed, if for
different reasons. Two of the regular people thought that their neighbors were
undead, and were scared, and one, a guy that looked a bit familiar, was just
trying to get a peanut butter parfait.

Eve did
that one herself, jumping up to help him. He never bothered to look over at
her, his focus being behind him, on the Vampires.

Smiling
she made it for him and then handed it over, waving the five dollar bill that
he tried to hand to Lenore away.

“Everyone?
This is Ben. From the role playing group? He’s…A friend of mine.”

The man,
who was bearded, but well cared for, being trimmed and recently washed, half
turned to look at her, his eyes going wide.

“
Eve
?
What are you doing here?”

He
seemed pretty shocked by the change of events, which was either really good
acting or cluelessness, but Eve just winked at him.

“I
work
here. One of my jobs at least. Let’s chat, while you eat?”

She
pointed to the yellow seated booths along the far wall, and moved around the
cracked counter, feeling fine again. That shocked her, since she’d figured it
would be longer, after her last weeks of constant walking.

The man,
who managed not to be a fat beard somehow she couldn’t exactly put her finger
on, even though he was a bit overweight and had a beard, grinned at her as he
took a spoonful of the frosty concoction that she’d made.

“Oh,
this is really good.” He took a second bite, looking at her covertly,
pretending not to be wondering what was going on. After a bit, one hand on the
cold paper cup, he glanced over at Edom, who wore a suit sans jacket under a
green apron, and Cormack, who was sturdy looking. More like a soldier than
someone that should be fixing treats, or in this case, cups of blood.

That
reminded her, so she hopped up and dashed to the back, grabbing the remaining
blood in her pack. It was still cool to the touch, but closing in on room
temperature. That meant its shelf life had gone down a lot. She reviewed her
internal links, and decided that refreshing them wouldn’t hurt. After all, the
ones that she had were getting weak suddenly. It wasn’t the animals, but her
letting the links go, after using them so much, running like that. Without even
thinking about it she poured one of the remaining bottles in into a ceramic
mug, and put the remainder in the blood cooler. The silver box wasn’t that
huge, since there just weren’t that many Vampires in the area.

Ben
spent his time watching the others, especially a cute looking woman in an old
fashioned skirt, and no visible makeup, who was insisting that she be allowed
to kill her neighbor.

“The man
is a menace! He killed my hydrangeas. I mean to say, he snuck over during the
day while I slept and ripped them up. His scent was all over them. Simply
because I asked, very politely, that if his dogs, plural, were going to use my
yard as a latrine, if he might try to scoop up after them. I didn’t complain
about the holes that they made, just the mess left behind. I won’t take it
anymore!” She was so furious that her eyes turned blood red, and her teeth
popped out.

From
what she said, it was clear that she was a day sleeper, so not ancient, but she
wasn’t a kid either, and managed to get her teeth and eyes under control after
half a minute. Ben saw it though, and suddenly seemed scared.

Eve
reached out and touched his sleeve as she slid back into place across from him.

“Don’t
worry, she isn’t pissed at
you
. So, what brings you to Yoghurt World, if
it isn’t about getting a date with me? Maggie mentioned something about setting
us up. She said you were lusting after my hot body and couldn’t wait to take a
stab at it. I assumed she meant with your, um…” She glanced around and winked.
“Right, this is a family place. So, did you come to see the sights?”

She sort
of expected more of a story than that. Something about coming to shop, perhaps,
but he just nodded.

“I heard
some stuff on the web, that this place is, you know, a Vampire front operation.
Like an embassy from Node Rulez? Not that that’s all real, but if Vampires can
exist… Why not everything else? I was going to go around and see if I could see
anything strange at the other places, if this one turned out to be real. Which…
I guess it is. Vampires… Even if they really exist, I wouldn’t have thought
that I’ve ever meet one, in real life. What are the odds of that happening
anyway?”

Eve
shrugged.

“Yeah,
it’s pretty intense, isn’t it? But, just so you aren’t shocked later, you know
like… Ten percent of the Vampires in the local area. From your club thing?
Well,
if
you count me and Barb, too. Luckily for you we’re all
incredibly
cool. Drinking our bottled cow blood, and playing nice with almost everyone.”
She hefted her cup and took a sip of it. The flavor wasn’t bad, and all the
links were still active. Ten in this batch, but the bottle was unique, not
sharing cows with any of the others. Kind of a premium blend. The Human blood
mixed between different donors, so that each one of them could have links to as
many as four Vamps at once.

This was
better, but harder to manage.

Ben
looked at her like she was insane and then took a bite of the dessert. When his
mouth was empty he shook his head a little.

“I… No.
Who? You, and Barb, who wrote the guidebooks? I guess I can see that. Can you…
Do you have teeth, or are you a New Vampire? Or do they not really call them
that?”

“The
books are close that way. For now… Hold off on mentioning anything else? If all
us Vampires are killed we don’t need to take down everyone else. Anyway, um…”
She popped her fangs and smiled big, her finger almost in her mouth. “Shee?
Fangsh?”

Then she
put them away and giggled.

The man
actually just nodded, his face going considering, instead of scared. Then, even
with fangs out, she
was
kind of good looking. Possibly stuck on herself,
too, but guys were going to notice her in the main. Ben was, and not just
because of her nifty white teeth.

“I can
see that then, I suppose. I know others too? I… Not Marcus. I kind of kicked
his ass last week, and that wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t Human.” She
looked around and then nodded, since it was kind of true. It really wouldn’t
have worked on most people, actually, since it hadn’t been much of a fight,
mainly Ben kind of flailing at the other nerd, but if he had been undead, even
a relatively weak new Vamp, then it wouldn’t have worked at all.

Eve
nodded.

“Right.
Not him. I’m not giving any names though as for the others. That’s up to them,
if
they want to do it. Just to set your mind at ease though, they haven’t been
harvesting from the game for a long time. Well, not all of them. I think a few
are sneaking a bite now and then, even if it’s against the Council rules,
strictly speaking. So… For right now? I think you should go and see about
getting a job at Hartley and Co. Where are you working now?” She assumed he had
a job, since he was decently well collected.

He
seemed embarrassed though.

“Um,
Burgerville. I’m a shift manager. I know that it isn’t some huge thing, but
it’s been hard to get anything for a while. I wouldn’t even have that if Maggie
wasn’t a manager there. I also go to school, part time. Community College, you
know?”

She did
know, and nodded at him, actually impressed. She’d never even seriously
considered doing that. If she hadn’t had her career track as a Vampire laid out
for her, she probably would have gone into the military. Something that would
have taught her how to kill correctly.

Eve
nodded at him.

“Cool.
Well, I don’t know that a bookstore pays better, but I know the guys down there
need the help. We should go see if you can set something up? Not that you want
to leave Maggie in a lurch.” She saw that he wasn’t done eating yet, since he
was going slow to covertly watch the men running the embassy. He’d already
worked out more than most people, and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out
the rest, but she figured that bringing him into the whole thing would be safer
than trying to drive him away. Besides, he smelled
so
freaking
delicious. It was the real reason she hadn’t tried having sex yet. That, and
the fact she wasn’t really interested herself anymore. She could perform, but
there would be no joy from it, in particular. Still, it was a handy trick to
have, as far as making connections with a lot of guys and some girls, so she
really needed to get that part worked out if she could.

Nothing
interesting happened, but Ben was covertly eye fucking Cormack so hard that she
finally covered her mouth and whispered at him.

“Dude,
if you don’t cut that out he’s going to think you want to date him…” It really
was pretty close to that, and the Vampire behind the counter looked up to give
them both a winsome smile just about then. On purpose. That got Ben to stand
up, his treat finally finished. He knew enough to clean up his table first, and
even asked for a damp rag, to wash the thing down. That got Edom to look over
at the man and nod.

“Thanks.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like two gold coins. Then
slid them across the counter for Ben nodding at them. “Door tokens for Terran 2
LA. It will get you and a friend in with no questions.” Then he went back to
work, like that was the kind of thing he always did. Laughing a bit, Eve took
Ben by the arm, his brown shirt soft over his arm. Like flannel. She rubbed it
a bit, enjoying the feeling, but realized that it was making her new buddy a
little uneasy. She didn’t have her teeth out and he wasn’t sporting wood, so it
wasn’t that.

“What?
Do I have blood on my face?”

“No… I
was… Do you want to go with me? I don’t normally do things like that. I... Don’t
have a car. It makes dating oh so fun, you know?”

She
could see that, but shrugged.

“Cool.
I’m not allowed to ride in a car right now anyway. Part of my training, I
guess. I have to hoof it everywhere. I probably will for a long time. You
should ask someone else to go with you though.”

The man
made a face, and looked away, even as they walked arm in arm down the red brick
main hallway of the mall. His voice sounded a bit miserable.

“Yeah, I
get it. No problem.”

She
rolled her eyes and pulled him closer for a bit. Too close, actually, which got
him pushed away.

“It
isn’t any kind of stuck up girl bullshit, Benny. I’m just new to being a
Vampire, and you’re pretty much made of food, so… You get the idea? Besides, I
work
at T2LA. One of my four jobs. Just light security and cleaning. Mainly the
restrooms, because people can be disgusting when they’re drunk. So,
I
can get in to the club whenever I want. If you invite one of the others we can
all hang, that’s all. Plus, if you bring a girl in, you can probably get laid,
which is half the point of places like that, unless you want to score some
drugs? I can’t recommend that one, personally.” Drugs were a good way to wake
up with someone having done things to your ass. Literally, in a lot of cases.

Even for
Ben it would be a risk, though Eve doubted he knew that about life yet.

Her new
pal nodded at her though.

“I could
ask Tara? She’s nice. I know that she told you that she and Lars are kind of
together, but… I don’t think that’s true. Maybe she just likes him? It was
really weird that she would have said that. If she liked anyone there I would
have thought it was Mark…”

Then he
stopped, his face going shrewd.

“Because
she’s a
Vampire
, and was protecting Lars from you? Like he’s her
familiar or… something?”

Eve knew
the term, but had never heard any Vampires actually using it. It was more of an
East coast thing, she thought. She shook her head.

“Ask
them? It isn’t my business. Still, I agree, she seemed pretty nice. Maggie
would be good too. Oh, also, it turns out that Marcus was kind of… Um,
innocent
is wrong, since he did it, but he was kind of controlled into it, by a third
party? So, you may not need to kick his butt anymore.”

That got
her glared at a bit, but Ben kept walking, and didn’t stop until they got to
the bookstore.

“Wow,
okay, this is my new favorite place.” He leaned forward with mock wide eyes,
but a genuine smile on his face. “Do we just go in, or wait to be seated? This
place is…
Sweet
. It looks like a huge selection too, for a mall store.
I’m underdressed, aren’t I?” He was playing, since his button up shirt and dark
slacks with a belt practically marked him as royalty in a place like that.

She
walked in, taking him by the hand. He stiffened a bit, probably from how cold
she was, but hey, she was dead, what did he want?

Zack was
near the front, straightening books, but smiled when he saw them. He walked over
sedately, even though he was prone to very fast movements when he wanted to do
it.

“Eve!
Ben! Hey guys. Can I help you with anything?” He said it like they wanted
books. It was cute.

Clapping
her new friend on the arm, she nodded. It was a warm and happy thing.

“Ben
wants a job here. He’s up on the idea that there are other things in the world,
but I’ve told him nothing.
Nothing
, I say! He was going to go around and
try some Scooby style spying, but I didn’t really want to find him in a
dumpster in the morning, so I thought of you, and the fact that you need some
help that can um… Consistently help?” She didn’t want to insult him, but if Ben
was good for more than two turns of sex with the ladies that worked there each
day, then Eve was badly maligning him in her head. Really, if he did that on
his own time, it would pretty much just be incentive to work hard and a reason
not to quit.

Zack got
that, and nodded, then promptly started a tour, as if he were trying to entice
Ben, not grudgingly accept him as a new corporate slave.

“We have
problems, and benefits here. This is actually a cover operation. This is a real
node complex, and this bookstore is the cover for the node transport operation,
which is actually through that door. We can go over now… I don’t have an appointment
for a while unless a walk-in comes. Here…” He moved pretty well suddenly, and
they were through the nicely carved owl door about fifteen seconds later. A
light was hit, and the whole empty space, with its nice stone floor, shone a
bit.