Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  “You’re parked in the back? Felicia, do you want to come, too? The spot I use is beautiful. Worth the trip. It’s a bit of a drive though. We can sing songs, and talk about all the boys we used to have crushes on. We can bring some blood and make a picnic of it.”

  “Sounds good.” The orange eyed Vampire seemed pleased to be invited, even though knowing where a Vampire body was hidden probably wouldn’t help her in the slightest. After all, for the really good blackmail, you had to have information that wouldn’t be as easily used against you as the person you wanted to control.

  Knowing where the body was didn’t link anyone else to it. Just you.

  Eve ran to get the car, which was Ed’s new one, hers being in the two car garage at the house, since getting rid of things wasn’t the Vampire way, unless you’d wrung every last bit of use from its corpse. Which, when put that way, suddenly worked for her. It was kind of what they really were, wasn’t it?

  The premise of using things totally. Including their own dead bodies.

  She backed up to the mall door in the upper parking lot, and came around the front, since she didn’t have a key for that side of things. Not that she had one for any of it. This one was a large Sedan, compared to the little red sports car that her maker had used to have. It was directly down to hiding bodies in the trunk, too. He’d mentioned it when he was picking it out.

  There were tarps in the back, and she took one with her. It was part of body disposal, having a good way to keep blood off of everything. Fibers too, from hair and clothing. It would also help to hide what they were doing a bit. She wrapped the rather smelly body up, carefully, then stopped, and pulled the knife out of its throat. Something wasn’t exactly right, with the whole scene. The body wasn’t alive, strictly speaking, but when her hand brushed the flesh, she felt a tingle.

  A fucking familiar buzzing along her flesh, that indicated her information was being read.

  Grimacing, she stood back.

  “Fuuuck. This guy isn’t one of us. He’s a Greater Demon, and still alive.” The words got Edom and Ginger to come into the back running, but Felicia wisely stayed away. She knew a few of those kinds of people, or at least one. So did the people that came, but they both had hero complexes. Especially Ginger.

  Sighing, Eve nudged the corpse with her foot.

  “Seriously, you might as well get up now. I don’t get the game here, but…” Rather than just stand, like a normal dead body would have, the room exploded from the point she was looking at, in a gushing stream of liquid that smelled so bad it left her blind and gagging. The body didn’t vanish though, even if the stream of gunk, which felt like rotting flesh, and something worse, pummeled her upper chest and face without mercy. Some of it got in her mouth, making her want to vomit her soul out. Given that shouldn’t have really been possible, it meant the crap that had hit her was really bad.

  Eve doubled over, but kicked the fucker in the knee as he got up anyway. Tolerating discomfort was a thing she did every day, and a bit of vomiting wasn’t going to stop her from fighting when someone was about to kill her. Then she started to fight in earnest, moving into pain so great that she couldn’t tell if she was being hit or not as she moved in and struck the man in the head, as hard as she could. When she pulled back the brain melon was still mainly attached, so she did it again, several times, and then remembered that she had a knife in her other hand.

  The face, half off now, the jaw having melted away at some point, spoke to her then, the voice rough and growling.

  “Do not seek to dissuade The Vile! Die!”

  It was creepy as all get out, but the fight was still a bit one sided, with Eve fighting well, even as the man sped up. He wasn’t fast enough, however, to escape her pursuit of him. It lasted, right until she threw the now rotting being to the floor, and tried to kick the head the rest of the way off. She didn’t know if a Greater Demon could live without its head, but whoever this being happened to be was still freaking tough. She’d vaporized heads with blows nowhere near as powerful, or fast, as the first one she’d used… And it had connected like she was just good old Eve Benson, high school cheerleader. Not a Vampire at all.

  Still, when in doubt in a fight, keep going. Moving into a level of speed induced pain that she hadn’t been certain she could ever face, she stabbed at the neck and throat, until the head was about to come off all the way, under the fury of the attack.

  Then, without warning, she suddenly felt herself being incredibly attracted to the incredibly gross mess beneath her. Like she wanted to strip naked right there and fuck any part of him she could stuff inside her lady parts. It caught her off guard, for about an eighth of a second. That was just enough time for the mess of rot and stench to throw her away, and leave the place, using the Node in the center of the room, she suspected. It had happened in a huge blue flash, so it was hard to tell, but the man was gone, and had left an incredible mess for her to cleanup.

  She just stood there for a bit, trying not to gag again, while Zack ran in, coming from the front, carrying a knife of his own.

  “Is everyone all right?”

  Like he didn’t know?

  Eve felt a strong wave of annoyance as the slightly Asian looking guy stopped, and looked around, posing inadvertently. Like it was a freaking movie or comic book. Yeah, he looked great, but she was covered with reeking slime, because he couldn’t keep others of his kind from dicking with her. Not that it was really his job, but she wanted to be sick, and had to quit breathing to stop that from happening. Everyone else tried to leave the room, too. The only one that managed not to flee from the evil stench that covered everything was Zack.

  Using some kind of Greater Demon magic to make it so he had no sense of smell probably. Eve tried not to breathe, but the stuff was already in her mouth and nose. It was too late for her. The only saving grace was that, after Zack looked around for what seemed like a half year and was probably closer to fifteen seconds, he figured everything out, and waved his left hand. The one without the ten inch long, purple glowing, shining knife. The thing even hummed a bit, now that Eve had time to examine it.

  A hole opened in the air, from the Node in front of her, which he gestured at, carefully not smiling. It glowed too, so she could see where it was. He didn’t always do that, but he could, when he wanted to move a person without touching them.

  “Go. It’s just to the shower in the back of the bookstore. Directly into it.”

  She went, the room moving from the formerly clean and tidy back room of her shop, into a nicely tiled shower stall. Without waiting, or breathing at all, she turned the water on, as hot as she could, and started scrubbing, not even taking her clothing off at first. After ten minutes she removed them, and wrung them out, tossing them through the door. Hopefully they were clean enough that the jeans, panties and cotton shirt wouldn’t force people from the store out front.

  Then, because there was nothing else to do, she started washing, and kept doing it, over and again, until about three hours later, when Zack opened the glass shower door, slowly, and turned the water off.

  “That should do it. I have some clothes for you to wear. Kait is about your size, and had some things here.” What he handed her was a soft white towel though, not a trendy outfit that would probably be good for picking up guys at a club.

  Not that Kaitlyn was always like that. She did a really hot nerd girl routine that worked well for the book store. It helped give the place an air of being something other than a strange kind of brothel, really. That meant the outfit she was given was a loose pair of tan slacks, some little footy socks, and a button up blouse. No underwear, but the girl was a succubus, so that was probably to be expected. Underwear was just a thing that would get in the way of having sex as fast as possible, for someone like her.

  Eve could let it pass, since the outfit smelled faintly of spices, not whatever the hell hers did now. Or would have, if they were still there, which she noticed they weren’t.

  Her Greater Demon
friend winced and shook his head.

  “I burned them, using a lot of gasoline to cut the smell. I got the story already, from the others. That was strange, wasn’t it?” He spoke the words like they were talking about having seen a man riding a unicycle on the street.

  “What was?” Her words were oddly innocent sounding, so she grinned a bit. It was better than being the bitch that everyone hated. “You mean how a Greater Demon pretended to let Ginger kill them for some weird reason? Then, instead of just laughing it off like they should have when I caught on, which might not have been on accident as far as that went, sprayed me with the world’s stinkiest prank, instead of actually fighting? Plus, they blamed The Vile for it, but the only thing they did that wasn’t having their ass kicked was throwing raw lust at me. That doesn’t sound like it’s going with the whole Vile theme, does it? I guess that might be a little odd… No, wait, that’s pretty much every fourth day around here. So, no, I don’t know what you mean, Zack. What was strange?”

  He laughed.

  “I know. On the good side I don’t have to explain all of that to you. That’s a good analysis of what happened. Better than most would have managed after something like that. The fun part here is that it could be any Greater Demon. Including The Vile, hamming things up to make you think that someone else was setting him up. More to the point, doing that to make any of us think that. For all I know this is aimed at Finias, or Tarsus, not you or me at all. Well, I helped get the back of the embassy cleaned up. Poor Ginger. I think she’s going to have nightmares for months over this one. It’s like a horror movie, where you kill the monster, only to have them, you know how it is, they keep coming back?” He stared at her, as if looking for something in particular.

  After a bit she realized he was just looking at her nude body. Because he was a perv, having a sex drive and all that sort of thing. She used the towel, but didn’t offer to take care of him. If he wanted sex, he’d better let the scent of that rotting spray pass from her nose first. At the rate things were going, that would be in about a week or two. Hopefully not though. In fact, if she actually paid attention to it, the worst was gone physically. It was the mental portion of things that was getting to her.

  Her shoes were gone, and Kait had a different foot size than Eve did, so she ended up padding out into the store, feeling slightly damp still, in pink socks. It felt odd, like she was doing it naked, since shoes were a constant thing in her life anymore.

  Ben saw her from across the room, and practically ran at her, stopping about ten feet away.

  “Are you okay? I heard there was a fight…”

  She nodded. After all, as far as battles against Greater Demons went, it hadn’t been a bad one, had it? In fact, it had gone a little too well for her to be real.

  Unless she was secretly a bad-ass on a level that she’d never suspected before, but if that was the case, then she needed to know it for certain, because thinking that, and being wrong, was suicide.

  Chapter fifteen

  Ben touched her arm, gently. It wasn’t romantic, but there was a softness to it that was nice. Like he actually cared about her having kind of won a fight. After a bit she winked at him. It was fake, and not what she was really feeling, but there was only so many ways to respond to what had just happened. She wasn’t going to cry about it, since it would take away from her victory in the eyes of others and make her seem like a victim.

  “It was gross. Survivable though.”

  “Yeah, I can get that. Who’d do that? Spray you with reeking and rotting fluid like that? It’s sick. Is that Demon insane? The Vile? Zack told me that’s who he said he was.”

  Eve looked around, at the books, and noticed that there was a cart across the way, made of wood and metal, filled with things to go on the shelves. It might not be the busiest bookstore on the planet, as far as real sales went, but there were people there. They bought things, and waited for the various girls to be freed up, so they could all go and get their groove on in the reading rooms. Looking over, she noticed that Kait was coming out of one of the rooms just then with an older man. He was thin, and looked to be about eighty, but had a smile on his lips. So did she, for that matter.

  Succubi were not picky, when it came to things like that. They couldn’t afford to be, most of the time.

  Ben looked over, but didn’t so much as make a face about it.

  “She is what she is. It was kind of hard for me to get that at first. We’re friends though, so, I can’t judge really. It’s not like I can blame the men and women is it? Who wouldn’t want to have sex with her?”

  That was a simple truth, but probably hard for him to take.

  Still, it worked out for her, or could.

  “Yep. That means you and I can go out though, right? I was thinking we should. To, you know, see if we want to really date, I mean? Nothing too major, to start with.” Then she paused, and had to shake her head. Here she was assuming that the bearded guy wouldn’t have someone already. He might not be a ten, but who freaking was? That didn’t stop most people from having real relationships, did it?

  Ben smiled though.

  “I’d like that. What does a Vampire do on a date anyway?”

  Like she was supposed to know that? She’d never been on a date as one, had she?

  “Um, movies or concerts? Something like that. Low key, but not food oriented, since eating isn’t really a thing for me. Plus, right now, I don’t think I could stand to eat for the next month, even if I could. That was… So gross. I can’t even describe how much so. I won’t, and wouldn’t even if I could, since it would probably ruin eating for you, too.” She shuddered a bit. It was goofy and playful seeming, she thought. That was her intent, though she wasn’t certain she was wrong.

  Whatever had been in that stream of grossness and yuck, she didn’t really think she wanted to know. She actually felt queasy, and the hunger that was constantly urging her to drink blood had gone away totally, it was so bad.

  The man in front of her, who was wearing a dark blue shirt that seemed to be silk, tucked into black slacks, with a black belt to hold it all in place, glanced down at her socks, but didn’t ask where her shoes were. No matter what else he might be, Ben was a bright enough guy to pick up on that one.

  Instead he nodded a little bit.

  “Um, we can go see the new Don Lang movie? It’s a light comedy, I think. Something not too serious seems like a good idea. Tomorrow? Or, whenever. I get off at nine each night I work, so I can do things after that, each day.”

  Eve tilted her head back and forth, then realized that she was going to be busy, for a bit.

  “I… Don’t think I can. Not until next week. I have to kill a Greater Demon, if I can. Fram? The one that used to be Marcus? Don’t worry, I have a plan to bring him back, so it isn’t half as big of a deal as all that. You won’t be losing your buddy or anything. That will be on Sunday, and I really need to make sure I have everything all lined up for it. Then again, a few hours sitting in one place might not kill me…” Eve thought about things, did some math, fretted a bit about being lazy, and considered work-life balance, and then nodded. “Yeah. I’d love to. I can meet you here, at nine?”

  Ben beamed at her, like getting to go out on a real date was special for him. That he probably got any kind of sex he wanted from his coworkers, whenever he desired it, rules about working for his pay aside, that was actually sweet of him. The Alede were all better looking than she was. True, they were better looking than everyone, so it wasn’t a huge insult to her self-worth to admit that, but it made the date seem more real, rather than less.

  Yes, she’d gone out with guys before. A lot.

  All of those times though, she’d known, deep down, that the guy was really just trying to get into her pants. With Ben, for the first time she could remember, someone seemed to just want to spend time with her. The danger there was that he might learn how boring she really was. All she did, practically, was work. No one wanted to hear about that though, did th
ey?

  “Great! I just got a car last month, so we can actually ride to the theater. It will be like we’re grownups and everything. Unless… Are you allowed to do that yet? Ride in cars? You told me once that you weren’t allowed to, for some reason.”

  “I don’t really know. I can ask. If not, I can meet you at the theater, after we meet up here, I mean. Either way it will work. Thanks. I think we’ll have fun.” She honestly did, even if she couldn’t tell anyone why that was.

  Her stomach wasn’t doing flip-flops, because that kind of thing had both never been a thing for her, and wouldn’t fit who she was now, either, and she wasn’t getting soaked between her thighs or anything nifty like that, so what was going on wouldn’t be a chemical response, she didn’t think. She just honestly liked him, as a person. So how strange was that?

  Then, on her first meeting with the man, when he’d found out that one of his friends, or at least a guy he’d known, had sort of drugged Maggie Sims, and then made her do some sexual stuff, he’d jumped the man and started to kick his ass. Poorly, since he wasn’t some kind of hidden martial arts master, and was only a slightly overweight gamer, but it was the thought that counted.

  So he was possibly worth paying attention, to, wasn’t he? Even if she wasn’t going to be sexually attracted to him. That had never led her toward a great, or long term, relationship anyway, had it? So maybe it was really time to take a step into something different.

  Still, there were things she needed to do, like smiling at him, and look back over her shoulder as she walked away. That way he’d know that she was interested. There was a look that she hoped came out as coy, and not slightly constipated seeming. It could be hard to get that right. She really needed to spend more time practicing that stuff in the mirror.

  As she walked back to the yogurt shop, she could still smell the scent of foul rot and stink. It wasn’t real though, she didn’t think. The effect had simply been so severe and powerful that it had overwhelmed her ability to block it out, even hours later. In fact, for her, that part was a lot worse than the fight itself had been.