Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) (6 page)

Nikki started to speak, her voice
harsher in this language. It even changed the way she held her face and body,
which was interesting. She was more upright, and scowled a bit the whole time.
Holding her small, clear colored glass of vodka she seemed very at home, too.
Eve had skipped it, and was amazed that the other woman could even keep the
stuff down, after catching a whiff of it. It
had
to be magical powers,
since she wouldn’t have been able to manage it herself.

“There have been some problems,
and…” Eve didn’t reach out and hit her, not even playfully, because it might
start a real fight. She needed to do something to get the other woman to shut
up though, so she wouldn’t give away everything to a person that was, for all
they knew, a spy. Iryna had just told them that she’d worked in Moscow until
recently. That was where the problems were coming from, as far as Eve had been
told.

So she laughed out loud, and then
made a face at Iryna that she hoped would be funny, even in a different
language.

“Eh… Well, I guess I should let
the other shoe drop then?” She glanced over at the punker, and winked, then
spoke to their host directly. Lying her ass off, even if she didn’t know why at
the moment past a few tiny suspicions that were probably wrong. “Nikki is being
groomed for a new job, back home, and Bey wanted to make sure that she learned
to stay up all day for it. I don’t know all the…” She wanted to say
specifications, but didn’t know how to in Russian, so scrambled for a bit. “I
don’t know exactly what it is. It’s a big thing though. An important one. So he
sent us here, running on foot, in order to make certain she had to stay up the
entire time. He really is coming, but it’s just about that. It’s why he didn’t
come himself right away, since we had to go so slow, in order to keep Nik here
awake and moving. It can be hard during the day, at first, to run full speed.”
Now she just had to signal her traveling companion not to give the game away.
She really didn’t know how to do that, but as it turned out, she didn’t need
to.

The other woman took a sip of the
clear, but incredibly strong smelling, liquid and tilted her head.

“I’d
wondered
if it was
something like that. So, what are we supposed to do while we wait for him? Go
shopping?”

Eve thought that sounded good, except
that she had no money with her, and didn’t want to carry a lot of things around
on the trip back. She nodded anyway, and kept her face rather blank. Iryna was
doing the same. Bey had mentioned that it was a cultural thing for the entire
region, in case she needed to copy it. Russian Vampires yelled a lot, but
didn’t smile very often. Not even when they were happy to see you.

“Sightseeing? I need to work on
my language skills, too. So traveling around a bit wouldn’t be a bad idea,
while I practiced? I know I need the work.” She tried to seem upbeat about it
without using her face to sell the idea, and it didn’t really work.

Iryna seemed all right with the
idea though, since it meant she wasn’t going to have to show them around
herself, or pay for a car and driver, since Eve insisted they run everywhere.
Especially
during the day, and neither of them were going to be demanding blood. What they
really needed was a base for the night, which the woman was more than happy to
provide.

There was one very interesting
thing however, that Eve would have never guessed at, looking at the house they
were in. This place, while it really was where Iryna lived, was
also
the
local embassy. They found that out when a group of three leather clad Vampire
men came in, about an hour later. They wore long jackets, and one of them had a
ridiculous fur hat on, that
had
to be meant ironically.

They pushed their way in,
breaking the sturdy wooden door. Shoving their dress clad host backward, hard
enough that Iryna flew backward into one of the walls. It creaked under her,
but didn’t break. It was a sign of decent construction, probably. After all,
the asshole had propelled her hard enough to leave a hole in drywall.

“We have come for our tribute!
Give it to us, now, or we will beat you, and take turns riding you and these
whores you are keeping here. We will do that anyway, if it suits us.” This came
from a large man with a mustache that was almost a cartoon of what a real
person might have. Like something from an old cartoon about people from the
Soviet Union. Eve wondered if he was going to cross his arms then, and do a
funny hopping dance.

Iryna got up, only to be
backhanded back into the far wall again. The man in the middle moving
powerfully, but rather slowly. He was a Classic, like she was, but the smallest
of the men had long fingers, and a very large nose. She’d seen that kind of
Vampire before, but didn’t know anything about them.

Worse, she wasn’t absolutely
certain she was following the conversation correctly.

The other men seemed to think the
whole thing was serious, even though threatening to
ride
them was a bit
out of place. They wouldn’t have time for things like that. After all, these
guys were about to die, and that might just put a crimp into whatever sexy fun
times they had in mind.

Eve looked at Nikki, and made a
face.

She tried to speak in Russian
though, since it would be rude to leave the other people out of things. The
funny shaped small man with the black talons at the end of his fingers jumped
in to reach for the ambassador. There was not direct contact, just swipes with
his finger tips, touching only the cloth of the flowered dress. Moving with
better than average speed, the being started to strip her, with incredible
accuracy. That was kind of impressive, given he didn’t even scratch her skin.
As far as Eve could tell there wasn’t so much as a mark on the pale flesh that
was being exposed. So that was a potential threat to her in the coming fight.

The man wasn’t moving all
that
fast though, which could mean anything, really. The middle sized man with the
funny fur hat barked something that Eve totally didn’t know how to translate,
but suspected it was name calling, and then moved toward her, pulling a knife
from his waistband, as she waited for him to cross the room and stab, or try to
rape, her.

“Say, I’m missing part of this.
Who are these men again?”

Iryna
tried
to speak, and
seemed ready to explain, but was hit again. Whoever the large man with the
mustache was, he really seemed to be focusing on the familiar woman. His friend
wasn’t that bright though.

As she hit the floor their
hostess explained, like the impact had barely hurt her at all, her voice very
rough and angry.

“They are thieves, sent from
those that would take us into a most foolish war with the Council.” She
didn’t
seemed pleased to have them there, trying to collect their tribute. That was either
good acting and the whole thing was a set up to kill them, or she meant it, and
was on their side, like she’d indicated all evening. That would be good, since
she kind of liked the ambassador.

More than the twerps that had
come there to die, at any rate.

Eve nodded though. That explained
a lot about why the Council was going to have a problem with them, didn’t it?
These dip wads were cleaning out the embassies, and taking everything for
themselves.

“So, they want the taxes that the
good Vampires have paid in?”

“Yes. They come twice a month. I
did not know they would be here now, or I would have sent you away. I am sorry.
It is my duty to protect you.” She got to her feet again, ready to fight the
three men, even if it meant dying. It was pretty clear on her face. To Eve at
least. The attackers didn’t seem to understand that anything had changed in the
room in particular.

Nikki stood up, her red hair
getting a lot of attention from the three men, even if Eve was better looking.

“Well, I guess we better give
them what they need then?” There was no slyness to the words, and she really
seemed to mean giving them the tax money.

The one with the knife was still
moving in toward her, slowly, so Eve expelled all the air from her lungs. It
might not be the best plan in the world, fighting them, but she wasn’t going to
let herself be gang raped just to keep up her tourism cover.

As she did it, she smiled, and
spoke a phrase that she wasn’t certain she got right.

“Have you shovels?”

Iryna looked perplexed, but
nodded, as the three men died.

The smallest of them did manage
to spin in place, and make a swipe at her as Eve went for him, moving about
half as fast as she was. That was probably fast, compared to most people, but
not really enough to save him. Or hurt her, so that worked out pretty well,
really. Then using the force of her attack, she dashed to the right, to hit the
big and funny dressed man. He looked like a Cossack. That was what those people
had been called, she thought. Bey had described them to her, while they
practiced the new language. Then, being a Vampire, he might actually
have
been, at one time. A hundred years or more back in time, maybe?

If so, he’d really needed to
update his wardrobe. It was the twenty-first century, and fur was way out of
fashion. The coat was kind of cool though, but looked wrong, being floor length
and leather.

The last man bravely tried to run
for the door, screaming in fear, but he wasn’t that fast, and had only managed
to turn his back to her when she hit. At the very last second, she stopped,
grabbed his right arm, and pried it backward. It was hard to do, since he was
incredibly strong. The difference wasn’t a small one either.

She’d thought to keep him for
questioning, but gave that up as he spun in place, and hit her so hard she flew
away. It hurt, and things broke in her face where the knuckles impacted, but
she didn’t let that slow her down, moving in and just hitting him in the head,
using blinding speed, like she should have the first time.

That was what she got for trying
to be all fancy like she had. Bey had told her that if she had to fight, she
was just supposed to kill them, hadn’t he?

There was still mist in the air
when the room went quiet. It was a pleasant smell, filled with iron, and salt. Eve
just took a moment to enjoy that part of things, then waited for the others to
say something.

It was Iryna who went first. It
made sense, given it was her place.

“So… You come to see the sights
and learn our language?” It was addressed to Nikki, who the woman seemed to
like better, for some reason. It was probably the Vodka drinking thing. Eve
should have done that too, but just couldn’t have stomached the stuff.

“That’s right. Tourism is a hobby
of ours.”

Eve looked around, and then
shrugged.

“So, those shovels?”

She was worried, for a bit, that
they might have some problems getting rid of the bodies in secret. It was bad
enough that the Vampires would be missing, but if it was known that they’d just
killed them all, when they were trying to make their collections, it was going
to
kind
of be a big giveaway. Not that it wasn’t anyway.

As she’d been thinking though,
she
wasn’t
going to let them beat or rape her just for her cover. It
wasn’t like she had years invested in the thing. On the good side, Iryna just
smiled, made a single phone call, and then waited as a half dozen local
Vampires came.

Eve tried to be polite, even as
she got ready to execute them all, if they were on the wrong side. It was a
motley group, with a very old looking man leading them. He was like the long
fingered type of Vampire, but bowed to her and Nikki a tiny bit, his humped
shoulders making him seem mild and small. There were also two Manthori women,
both of whom were just a bit taller than she was, and three Classics. That was
a man and two women.

The interesting thing was that
all
of them were married. Including Iryna.

Nikki explained that part to her,
since the words had come in a bit too fast for her to get all of them. They
were there to help though, and would be taking the bodies out of town, to their
secret burial ground. The police didn’t check there, by agreement. They weren’t
bribed into doing that, as much as willing to let a lot of things go unnoticed,
as long as the family there was willing to throw in a few criminals every now
and then. The worst ones that the law had problems dealing with.

In all it seemed like a pretty
sensible arrangement. The cops got rid of people that were too powerful to
prosecute, and these people could just drive to the place they buried those
that got in their way, using an old gray truck, and not have to worry about
being hassled.

The two men in the group moved
then, to get tarps, and seemed surprised when Eve moved to help them load the
bodies on the tan things. The sheeting was made of plastic, and seemed pretty
much like the ones that she’d used in the states. It might have been a
different part of the world, but they all seemed to be living in the same
century. That was strange, since a part of her mind had been thinking of them
as a little backwards. Quaint, after a fashion. Having an embassy in a big old
house, and an ambassador that wore dowdy dresses. That was just her being a
moron though, and thankfully she’d figured that out before running her mouth
about it.