Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) (16 page)

Whoever
the man was he did gravitas better than anyone she’d ever heard of. The words
could have sounded phony, but even she kind of believed them.

Knowing
that she could really use that as an out, she walked toward the array of
microphones. Taking a deep breath she moved in behind the things, as the man
actually let her. She wasn’t dressed for it really, just being in jeans and a
red t-shirt, but she looked at the people standing there. On the left hand side
there were eight figures in black robes. Behind her stood Maggie and the suited
guy. None of her people were there at all, except Bey.

The men
and women with their cameras all stared at her, as if waiting for something
huge and worth some airtime.

She
sighed a bit.

“This is
a sign, not a punishment. An ordeal, not something to amuse others. I was
forced to kill last night, and to do so without Council or government sanction.
Even if the law allows it, and it
is
allowed by both sets of rules,
people need to understand that we, Vampire kind, won’t allow any death to come
without a cost. So, I’m going into a box, possibly to my death, to prove that
point. We should do that now. Six months. I’ll see you on the other side of
that.” If she lived.

That
part went without saying.

Then she
walked in, under her own power, to where the glass box sat. Like a coffin.
Bubbled glass thick, to prevent her from getting up. She climbed, in and lie
flat, like sleeping beauty, then as the lid closed on her and everyone left the
cavernous space, she waited.

“
Fuuuck
!”
Eve got the whole thing about six hours later. That it had taken her that long
was probably due to how subtle the work that had been done on her really was.
The magic, no doubt. It was, she guessed, but didn’t really know for certain,
Keeley’s work.

For some
reason, her friend, the Greater Demon, had suckered her, if not using outright
control, into the box she was in. The six inch thick glass was too much for her
to break out of, too. There was no fresh air in the box, but she didn’t need to
breathe, so that wouldn’t be a problem. Still, she wasn’t getting out, not on
her own. Not unless she learned to be a lot better with magic, or to increase
her strength a whole lot.

It made
her angry beyond reason, but she didn’t let herself show it. There was a camera
on her after all, watching her constantly. Streaming live, she’d been told. If
it had sound she was going to look bad already, so she stuck her tongue out and
crossed her eyes, then closed them. She had work to do, and didn’t really know
how much time she was going to get. The very first thing she needed to make
sure of was that her energy links were strong and stayed that way. They were,
so she focused on feeling each one, and causing them to feel strong. It might
not be enough, long term, but as far as she could tell, it was working.

Then,
well, she was going to be there for a long time. What she needed, if she had
enough energy to live on already, was some way to pass the time. Since
practicing her running was probably out, she decided to work on meditation and
magic.

The
first thing she needed to do then was…

Actually,
she was at a complete loss. Being that she didn’t have anything else to do, she
tried to make herself feel both calm and not hungry. Then she held it, until
she got so bored she kind of wanted to die, rather than go on.

She
didn’t know how much time was passing, but it did
not
go fast.

She
redoubled her efforts, then did it again. Over and over again. That lasted
until she felt the sun going down. For the first time.

Eve
realized something then. She really hadn’t gotten just how hard this was going
to be. Which, she knew, was down to what someone else had gotten her to do. Possibly
what they’d gotten the Council to do too. After all, what were the odds that
anyone would protest the club to start with? Anyone that knew it was linked to
Vampires would have kept that quiet. That, or put the info online flat out.
Instead they’d gotten them to the right place to meet up with truck loads of
Vampires? That had to be set up too, but why?

Edom was
important, but he hadn’t been there at the time. No, it was just her and Barb,
as far as people that could have fought. There was no reason to think that
they’d be able to win either. If she’d been what she was supposed to, a girl
that was newly undead and largely untrained… Well, in that case she wouldn’t
have been there at all. It would have just been Barb.

Alone,
the other woman would have been killed, or would have had to call in Bey.
Possibly Ed and Lenore. People would have died, and it would be an even bigger
mess at the moment. Instead, she’d been there and done something unexpected.
Unless it had all been the plan?

She set
that line of thought aside. If they were going up against Greater Demons, then
they wouldn’t know about it, most likely. No one outthought that kind of being.
It just wasn’t going to work, if that was the case. In that case, she’d have to
count on her Greater Demon friends helping her out.

A
horrible thought occurred to her then.

What if
being locked in a box for six months was the best possible thing for her at the
moment? She didn’t
really
need it just to learn how to keep a link open.
Oh, she might not have that down yet, but if she could make it for four weeks,
she’d probably have it down. Certainly by six. So why that long? Just to get
her out of the way? How important was she then?

Eve
smiled, and didn’t let her head shake. There was no reason to, and she was being
watched. Instead she tried to hold the feeling of not being hungry, deciding to
do that and nothing else, until the hunger went away.

That one
took a while. The better part of a week, she thought. Eve didn’t let her eyes
open the whole time, and while she had some rather spectacular hallucinations,
none of them were really worth much. When she opened her eyes, feeling a bit
disturbed for some reason she noticed something strange.

There
were three men, all fairly thin, filming themselves masturbating in front of
her box. One of them was sitting on top of it, like he was trying to ride her
face. They wore masks, but were really going to town, jerking it while
gesturing at her. One of them noticed her looking at them, and jumped back,
then, after the others all laughed, started doing his thing again.

It was a
mixed race group, each having different colored skin, but they were all kind of
small. Dick wise. Eve knew enough to get what normal was, and she
had
seen smaller, but they weren’t porn stars trying to fill some kind of kinky
Vampire masturbation niche. Besides, if they were going to do that, they should
probably consider getting some girls in. No one wanted to watch what was going
on outside her prison.

Worse,
when they finished, one at a time, they didn’t clean up, and smeared their man
juice on the front and top of the container, so that she’d have to look at it.
For months.

She
memorized the men’s faces, because she wanted to have a chat with them later,
if she could find them. It didn’t work very well, given the masks, but she got
what she could. They were all different. One was a kids Spider-Man Halloween
thing, another a stocking cap pulled down with eye slits sloppily cut in with a
razor.

The last
one, the lightest skinned guy, had on a really fabulous gold thing that
reminded her of masquerade balls in old movies, except there was a strap, not a
stick to hold it in place.

She
closed her eyes again, since there was no reason to watch anymore. They’d do
what they’d want, because there was no one there to stop them.

On the
good side, she realized something. For the first time since she’d become a
Vampire, she wasn’t hungry anymore. Smiling, she decided to work on her anger
next. It took longer, since that had been a part of her constantly for most of her
life. Then she had to scramble, since she noticed that her links to the cows
that were keeping her alive were starting to fade.

That
took days to make sure they wouldn’t again, and after that she made a point of
working to keep those strong. It
worked
, thankfully, but she couldn’t
afford to get sloppy with it.

Days
turned into weeks, and she got a good handle on a few things. Clearing her mind
for instance, worked pretty well. She even learned, after a fashion, to make
boredom go away. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better than screaming and
clawing at the inside of her cage. Since that was the other option, Eve tried
to go all in on the meditation thing.

About
halfway through though, she ran out of things to really
do
.

She
could beat hunger, the thirst for blood, which was a constant drag on her, and
took active work to defeat, but it was possible to do now. The horrible and
never ending anger was about the same. Pain, well, she could make it better,
but she still felt the sun above her when it was up. Agony cut by a quarter,
but it was still pretty bad.

So for a
few days she just lay there, staring at the cum stains that those twerps had
left on her window, wondering what she could manage to do while she had the
time. Finally, when her small pricked friends came back, the only people to
have visited, she had an idea.

They
wore different masks, but she actually recognized them as soon as their pants
came down. It was really in their individual styles of handling themselves that
gave them away.

What if,
and she didn’t know if it was even possible, but what if she could compel the
men, through the glass? It wasn’t a thing that she’d ever thought of trying
before, but was it possible? Could she first catch their minds and then get
them to do anything, without being able to speak to them? She looked at one of
them, the lighter skinned one, and focused with all her will, trying to catch
him. Nothing much happened, she didn’t think. At first.

Then his
eyes raked across hers, and instead of jumping away from her brown eyed gaze,
he froze. A slight buzz thrilled through her head then, which she was going to
assume was the man being caught by her. Entrapped by her mind.

Smiling,
she focused on the
feeling
, not letting herself blink, in case that made
any difference. Then she was a bit stuck, since she had no real way of giving
him instructions. She tried to think what she wanted him to do, which was step
toward the glass box, but it didn’t work. Finally, she dropped the effort, and
waited for one of the others to look into her eyes.

That
took a long while, since they were all busy again. She finally managed with
another of the men, the one with the camera. Then something occurred to her.
She could feel a buzzing, and focused on it, but what would happen if she tried
to focus on him feeling something? Like she did when she kept herself from
being hungry? That wouldn’t give her much of a sign, but there were a lot of
things that the fellow might feel too, wasn’t there? Pain came to mind, but
other than getting him to just hold still, nothing really took place.

In the
end they all came on the glass above her again, taking turns. Leaving deposits
right over her face. It made her angry, and this time she didn’t bother to hide
it. That got them all to laugh, but she shook her head, and made a much bigger
effort to catch not just one of them, but
all
of the men. That… Actually
worked, to her shock. They didn’t do anything, but they all stood there, frozen
in place, not able to move, other than to breathe.

Taking a
moment, she pointed at the mess that they’d made, willing them to clean it up.
She didn’t see any rags, but kept that one thought in her head. They didn’t
have a choice, they
had
to get the thing clean. Nothing happened for a
long time. It wasn’t until she remembered something that Keeley had told her
once, about energy and magic that she thought to pull against the links she
had, and push the power from that directly into what she wanted done.

That,
the idea, plus a trickle of energy, got an instant result. Almost in a panic,
the three jumped forward, all trying to rub the glass clean. One of them took
off his shirt, and used that to get the worst of the spunk off the glass. That
didn’t work for the dried scum, and she didn’t relax, since they weren’t done
yet. It was pretty gross, but they all started licking at the glass, finally,
instead of running off to get a bucket, like she would have herself.

Then she
focused on the idea that they needed to leave, and not come back. Ever.

She
didn’t know if it would work, but as soon as they were gone she felt a bit bad.
Not for what they’d done, since all she’d insisted on was the glass of the box
being cleaned. It probably showed both the power of what she could do that way,
and how sick some people’s minds were, all in one go. The problem was though,
that once they were gone, there was no way to get in touch with them for any
more fun. Now, if she’d had a blood link with them, that might work.

Blinking,
which she didn’t need to do, Eve imagined having eight cows come to the cave
and just stand there. It was funny, but she didn’t see any real reason for
that,
if
it would work.

Instead
she tried to move things out in the cave. Little rocks and stuff. It surprised
her when things actually shifted around a bit. The amount of power it took
wasn’t really worth it though. The poor cows were being drained for what
amounted to her moving things that weighed no more than a few ounces around.
Maybe as much as a pound? Still, it demonstrated something to her. She, as a
Vampire, could do real magic. Nothing all that cool maybe, but real stuff none
the less.

It was a
tiny thing, being able to make little rocks move, but it was a start. The real
trick would be to find a skill like that which wouldn’t kill her energy links.
Internal things seemed to take less energy, of course.

There
had to be a useful technique in there somewhere. It was frustrating, but Eve
really couldn’t find anything all that cool. She tried making fire appear,
outside of her cell, but nothing really happened. It didn’t even use up energy
that she could tell. It was just her laying there, as far as that went, no
matter how hard she tried.

In the
end, she gave that line of thought up, being too frustrated with it. Instead
she spent the rest of the time making sure her links stayed strong and trying
to make herself feel horny. That one… Also didn’t work. She just didn’t seem to
have that response anymore. What did work was making herself feel very
peaceful, and calm. Adding energy to it helped, which, she finally realized, after
several months of working on it, also helped with fighting off the pain of the
day.