Finally Dead (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 1) (17 page)

She
nodded at that one, and patted him on the back as Edom moved ever so slightly
closer to her. In order to hit her in the head, if she started to go for Troy’s
neck, no doubt. She didn’t though, moving a step back.

“Sexy,
sexy Vampire, to you. Still, I’m sure I missed something. I wasn’t really given
an instruction book, so just cleaned things.”

It was,
as it turned out, pretty much what was needed. Neither of the men complained
about anything at least. Not until Edom pointed to the large flame tubes that
ran along the walls at about eight feet up. They were really cool and the
flames danced differently when the music changed. She hadn’t cleaned them at
all, since they’d been on fire all night. Now they were just sitting there
though. She got ready to run and do that, but he just pointed instead.

“See the
gold paint there? We should touch that up. The pipes get hot, but as long as we
do the work early enough, it will dry in time. Can you see about picking some
spray paint up for that?”

She
nodded, since she was going to be up anyway.

“Can I
get someone else to pay for it? I should get my I.D. too. I bet they card me,
to make sure I’m not going to huff it.”

Ed
nodded, “Troy, can you handle that part? I’m borrowing her car. Mine got
trashed last night. Totaled.”

“No! Oh
my god, your car… I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do? Do we need to go
and kill someone over it?” His eyes went very wide.

Eve
could see it, since it was a sweet ride. It had been before the little Vampires
had gone crazy on it. A real chick magnet. Or Troy magnet. Whichever Ed was
into, apparently.

After a
few minutes of commiseration, they worked out that she didn’t have to get that
herself, and that they’d stay late the next night, which would be Monday
morning, and do the actual work then.

It was a
bit strange, but she was still supposed to be crashing at Troy’s, and had some
clothes there, so got a ride with him. Or started to. Edom was watching her,
and saw her get into the car with Troy, and start to pull away.

“Oh,
stop.
Stop
.”

The car
did, and she climbed out.

“I’ll
meet you at home? I’m supposed to go everywhere on foot for a while. I nearly
messed it up. Oops?”

The
decent looking guy tossed off a retro peace sign with two fingers, and took
off, as if leaving a poor defenseless her out there alone was perfectly normal.
Worse,
Ed
was already gone himself. Not that it mattered. Her job was to
do what she was told. She’d agreed to it, including this kind of stupid thing
she wasn’t sure she understood. On the good side, it was still dark out. That
meant she could run over to Troy’s…

Then run
to the mall, before it got so light that her body tried to die on her.

There
was time for a shower first though, she thought. It turned out that wasn’t
exactly true though, which she noticed at about six as she jogged across town,
in the dark. The sky wasn’t light at all, but she clearly wasn’t moving as fast
as she had been before. She made herself go faster, holding what it had been
like in her mind, pushing into the pain that coursed through her as she did it.
Cars came occasionally, forcing her to hide, and at about seven she was forced
to walk like a normal person, still several miles from the mall. Slowly too,
because her body started to feel heavy as the sky lightened.

When the
first real light of dawn hit her, it felt like she was on fire. It had been
intense, the day before, when she’d been inside, but now… It was like sticking
her face in an oven and leaving it there. She made her hand reach up that high,
trying to see if her skin was falling off yet. It was fine, for all she felt
like there had to be real injury. Smooth and perfect, like always. As she
moved, her trudge got slower, until she managed to get to the door of the mall
itself.

In agony
she opened the door, and entered.

To find
that it was a lot nicer to be inside during the day. What she’d been feeling
had been enough to make her want to scream, but she’d emptied her lungs and
refused to take a breath for the last mile and a half. That meant no sound
could come out. Her mouth had still tried to open a few times to do it anyway.
Thankfully there weren’t a lot of people out and about, or she’d have felt
self-conscious about her funny mouth movements.

Inside
though, things pulled way back. She felt just as loopy and weighed down, and
the world was still a nice psychedelic pattern around her, complete with
movement tracers, but the burning was so much less intense it felt like she’d
been plunged into ice water. Lovely, shining, cool H20.

Trying
to focus on her surroundings, since acting like a drugged out loon all day
wouldn’t help at all, she tried to remember the plan. She needed to get the
supplies that Zack had ordered for her, and find a way to both make the anti-coagulant,
test it for flavor and then get to the address she had for it. She was supposed
to walk there, she knew, but that wasn’t going to work. It was at least twenty
miles away, and being on fire, if only in her mind, for the six hours it would
take for her to do that at the moment just wasn’t going to play.

Ed
wasn’t there though, so she couldn’t ask if he’d let her off of that for the
trip. She could ask Zack to take her, but Line Walking, while fast and direct,
wasn’t exactly a substitution for going under her own power.

Anger
tried to climb up into her mouth, but she choked it back and walked slowly into
work. At least that was what she thought she was doing. It occurred to her that
Lenore hadn’t actually suggested she needed to be there, or clearly had it
occurred to her that Eve would be.

“Hey.
Sorry about being late. Edom told me I had to walk, or run everywhere, but I
didn’t get out in time, so I had to walk the last bit. Like a regular girl. One
on fire. I
hate
being on fire, if it ever comes up.”

The
older Vampire looked at her, and nodded.

“As do
I. What plans do you have for the day?” It was a bit clipped sounding, but she
sort of understood the idea. If Lenore hadn’t planned to babysit, then having a
little her around might just be a pain in the ass. What with how demanding, and
whiny, she could be.

She
nearly said that, which reminded her that Marcus was due in across the way
soon.

“Um…
Well, I’ll do the cleaning here, if that’s good with you? Supposedly, if I can
make myself keep going, I’ll be able to be more useful in a few days. Right
now… I feel kind of dead. When the stuff gets delivered later, I’ll need to mix
some things up, and then… I don’t think I can go to the farm. I can’t walk it,
and riding in a car is a no go. I guess I can send Marcus? He’s a moron, but it
isn’t hard to put blood in a container with some stuff already at the bottom,
is it? I’ll set it all up for him, so it won’t be too hard.” Okay, sending him
out to play minion was probably pushing things, but it was a plan.

The
Ambassador looked at her, and for a moment it felt cold and hard. Then she let
a slow smile curl her lips.

“That’s
sensible. Keep busy and out of direct sunlight as much as possible for now.
Avoid sitting. I know, why don’t you do a walk through here, to make sure it’s
to specifications, then go and see about the candle store across the way? They
have help now, but none of them truly pay enough attention to the front
section. It’s a bit of a shame, don’t you think? That way you can show them
that the problem that we’ve dumped on them will be observed and managed. If you
don’t mind helping out over there? You won’t be paid for it.”

She understood
that it was supposed to be some kind of big issue for her. Now that she was a
badass Vampire, she didn’t have to play nice with the Mages, or anyone else. It
was a common enough thought, though clearly wrong. Sure those guys couldn’t
take the Vampires in a fist fight, but if someone like Marcus could trap
Maggie
,
then clearly it made sense not to spit in their faces. Really the same was
probably true of pretty much anyone then, wasn’t it?

“That’s
a good idea. I can run and get them coffee. Better yet, I’ll send Marcus. Or
would that be too weak of me? The sun
really
hurts. Yeah, I’ll send him.
That’s a good plan.” Her words were a bit thick, so she tried to remember what
Darla had told her about it. If she could remember what it was like to feel
awake and focus on it…

She
tried, and it did seem to help a bit. She only felt
half
drunk instead
of like she was going to wake up drowning on a pool of her own saliva. By the
time Marcus got there, twenty minutes late, she was nearly back to being her
normal loveable self. Her old Human self, but still, it was an improvement.

She
stomped over, her tennis shoes making noise as she moved. It was loud to her,
but her fatbeard didn’t turn around. She was supposed to give him a makeover,
wasn’t she? Eve nearly decided to shave his head and tattoo his face with
racial slurs to ensure a lifetime of beatings, but he was
only
twenty
minutes late. He looked rumpled and smelled a bit, like he’d over slept.

“Late!
What the fuck? This isn’t community college jackass. If you show up late again,
I’m breaking your masturbation hand. Since I don’t know which one that is,
guess what that means?” She sounded mean and a bit like a Vampire drill
instructor, but the man just made a face.

“Sorry.
My car didn’t want to start. I had to use magic on it. I think the alternator
is going out.”

She
glared, and then shook her head a bit.

“You
have the cash, so make sure that gets fixed. You have errands to run later, and
you’ll need something reliable. For now, come with me. In here.”

There was
a tall, thin man behind the counter when they came in. He was wearing a light
blue cardigan sweater with black buttons, and a pink shirt under that with a
tie. His hair was short and black and he was thin enough that she worried a bit
about anorexia when she thought about it. They were friends though, so she
waved at him.

“Hey
Warren. This is Marcus. He’s your new bitch. Mage, but he isn’t allowed to use
any magic without Bob or Lisa’s okay on it. You too, I guess. If he does, then
he dies, so make sure he keeps to that one. No joke there either. He nearly
started a war between the Mages and Vampires. Right now, we’re going to clean
this place up, then start on an inventory. He’ll be in here every day at nine
doing that. Well, the cleaning. When that’s done feel free to make up stuff for
him to do. He’s not much to look at, but if you need a blowjob or something,
have a turn? He’s into the idea of stripping people’s ability to turn down
unwanted sex, so don’t worry about that part. I’m sure he won’t mind. If he
does, who cares, right?”

Warren
made a face, which was both a bit prissy and incredibly gay at the same time.
He was as far from being a rapist as anyone though, so didn’t dignify that
comment with a reaction. Plus, he might just not want Mark to touch him that
way.

Marcus
however went tight faced.

“I
didn’t sign up for that kind of thing.” It was low and nearly deadly sounding,
so she turned and put her hand on his shoulder. Almost lovingly and with no
biting to his attractive, extra juicy looking neck. None at all.

“I know,
and I was kidding. Still, you get the idea? It’s important to leave people with
their ability to say no. Besides, right now you’re probably going to have to
work your way
up
to being worthy of sucking Warren off. He’s third in
command here for the Guild. You’re so far down the totem pole that you might be
that part under the ground. You have a workout at five, and need to be out at a
farm to pick something up for me at three, so get ready to run. For now, we
dust and straighten, then sweep and mop. In that order. Hurry. We don’t have
all day.” Well, they did really, but she wasn’t going to let him off that
easily.

Hopefully
Warren wouldn’t feel like he was obligated to let her chubby nerd buddy touch
him, if he wasn’t into that kind of thing. That would be awkward at the family
thanksgiving party, wouldn’t it? She grinned, and idea coming to her then.

“Ohhh.
Hey, Warren, do you have plans for Thanksgiving?”

He
nodded, his face a bit sad.

“I sure
do. I’m going to be right here, sitting and reading a book. No one will be
coming in, but we have to stay open. You?”

“Probably
the same, for the place across the way. I was thinking, we should have a party.
A real meal here. Like, out in the hallway? I can’t eat it, but you know, I’ll
bring in some of the good blood for it.”

That got
her stared at with a wrinkled brow.

“Eve?
Are you a Vampire now?”

She
nodded, then pointed to her mouth cutely and popped her teeth down. She still
needed to work on her control of those, but it worked well enough for the time
being.

“Shee?
Fahngs.” Then she pulled them back, so she could speak clearly.

“Still,
we should put that together. That way the people that have to be here working
won’t be alone.”

They’d
also be there with
her
. Which would be a good time to make connections
and network.