by P. S. Power
Everyone seemed at a loss really. They milled in place or sat at the tables. Most of them in various states of rage. She understood that one, but it was silly. They were there, and real. People might come for them, but the odds were that most wouldn’t. Not even if they believed they were real. The danger wasn’t even really to them, in the main, but to their Human neighbors and friends who might be hurt by accident. Even a weak Vampire could take out a few armed Humans. The trick there would be making sure no one was burned out of their home during the day. Most of their kind simply weren’t old enough, or powerful enough, to stay awake under the burning sun.
It was rough, but she could do it, and had for almost her entire un-life. So, fifteen days, as soon as daylight came.
Looking up, she saw that Lars was back, along with Zack.
He didn’t make them wait.
“I had nothing to do with this one. I’ll get with the others for you, so you don’t have to rile them up. Or at least Ann.” He looked at the room and shrugged. “The Rotted. She’s insane, so it’s best not to play in her front yard if you can help it. You can do Darla and Finias though.” Then, oddly, he smiled and waved to everyone. “Hey, all. Don’t let this one get to you. Eve is on it. I’m sure it will be all right. That, or it won’t, and then you can all just hide behind her. She’s good that way.”
It was overselling, but she understood that he was giving them some kind of hope. The funny thing there was that they didn’t turn away from it, even if it did come from a Greater Demon. To a lot of them though, he was their Greater Demon. Which was kind of like claiming a particular lion was your personal pet. The good one that helped the Vampires out and really didn’t ask for a lot in return. So far at any rate. Eventually it would come, but until then, it was worth treating him well. Actually it always would be, since doing anything else was probably suicide.
She was about to speak when he kept going.
“For instance, she just won a bet with me, which was for half of the debt that the Vampire Council owes me. She had to stay up for fifteen days straight to do it. Not bad, given that this is only her sixteenth day now.” He smiled and clapped, as if it were a happy thing, and a few of the others did it too, including Linda, who seemed to be impressed.
“You’re truly that young? I would have never known!”
There was a happy exclamation from the door then and some light clapping.
Bey. Both her personal buddy, and the killer of the Vampire Council.
“Most wondrous, Miss Benson! I fear it may be lost to most how incredible that truly is, given the current state of things, but that is both a sign of your own great power and will, and a boon to all Vampires. I have to agree with The Line Walker however, Miss Benson shall see to your protection for this area. We will have daytime patrols, for all those who sleep. If you do not need such, or wake early, please step forward now, to guard the others, if they request such. No time for dawdling.” He moved toward the counter, looked at the cracks in it and turned almost instantly to Linda. “You may wish to let Lenore know that you’ll pay for that? We can forgive the rage, given the situation, but it might be good not to push her too far.”
There was a rueful expression on the woman, but she sighed and moved forward, volunteering to take the first watch.
Eve made up a list, which had four people on it for their area. Not Bey, who was probably going to be pretty busy, being on the Council and all, but her, Lenore, Edom and Linda. It probably wouldn’t be a long term thing, thankfully. No one else there was able to be awake for enough of the day. Edom still tended to sleep for a few hours, but Bey decided that he was going to stop doing that now.
It really didn’t matter if he could or not. If Bey ordered it, then it would be done.
It took longer to set up the map than anything, since she had to dig one out of the things in Lenore’s desk, not knowing where it was. Then she had to work out where everyone lived, and the location of their important Humans. Most of them didn’t want to share any of that information with her, so it made it simpler. They had to offer some kind of protection, but that didn’t mean anyone had to take them up on it. Being marked on the map would be a problem if it fell into the wrong hands, so that was a serious consideration.
So at the top she wrote, for a good time call… No one else thought it was funny, but Bey smiled and nodded, as if it were a clever way to avoid using the word Vampire. It just made sense not to advertise just yet, especially since the fallout could be vast, if handled wrong.
Possibly if it went to plan, as well. To that end, Eve rolled her eyes, looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.
“Right. Darla first, since I actually know her.”
Helpfully, Zack, who was still there, smiled and explained to the room.
“The Technician.”
She muttered at him, but dialed the number from memory. It was late, being after midnight now, but Darla wouldn’t be asleep or anything. She didn’t bother with that either. Like, Zack, Keeley, and now apparently, her. Because they were all incredibly nifty that way.
It picked up on the third ring, and the voice on the other end sounded happy.
“Hello! I had nothing to do with it.” That was the very first thing out of her mouth, so Eve cleared her throat.
“Okay. Good to know. Any idea who did? Other than Richard Swerlin. Keels is on that part of things, so I guess we have to wait to find that one out?”
“Yep!” There was a low, and not at all snarky, laugh. “I have to say, this is ballsy. It could work you know. Fifty years ago, I would have said no, but right now? If there’s enough noise about it, for long enough, it might do the trick. Do you want me to help you all round up the Christians? They’re going to be a pain in the butt over this, and it’s about time someone did something about them.”
Darla, while a lovely person in a lot of ways, really had a hard-on for anyone that said they loved Jesus. Now, Eve didn’t think there was any such person, and God was clearly a myth, but she didn’t want all the people that thought Christ was their pal to be dead. Darla kind of did. At least she said that kind of thing a lot.
Eve shook her head, looking at the worried people in the room.
“Nah. We’ll just tell them that Demons exist and trot out Balthias and some of his buddies. That will distract them for a while. Probably give a huge power boost to Bal, too, so maybe I need to rethink that one. He’s kind of made up of their thoughts and fears, isn’t he?”
“He is. Well, it will make for an interesting few months, if nothing else. Did you get my present? I haven’t noticed a thank you note yet. That’s a bit rude, don’t you think? I’m almost certain I mentioned how to do that kind of thing to you before.” She sounded a bit upset about it all, to tell the truth.
“I’ve used them daily, actually. I wanted to make sure I had something to tell you about first. It’s horribly painful, but I’m not all that fast yet.” Not that she was going to admit to the people in front of her. She was probably the second fastest Vampire in the room, and the third fastest being. Zack won that one, hands down, and Bey could still vanish in front of her, moving so fast, but she really doubted that many of the other could keep up anymore.
All it had cost her was pain even worse than the torture of running full speed in the sun each day.
“I’ll fire off a note, just as soon as I remember how to write in cursive. That’s been a while. Grade school?” She was playing, a bit, but knew that Darla was right. The gift she’d given her, no matter how much it hurt to use, was probably worth billions of dollars. Shoes sized to her, that pushed her to move faster and faster each time she used them. It was clearly about training too, not just the sneakers causing her speed to go up. It was more useful than that by far, since she’d walk away with the increased speed in the end, as long as she used them enough.
Darla giggled, even if she didn’t mean it, not really.
“A loss to the world. Today’s youth can’t really do anything without a co
mputer, can they? All things change, however. Now, I’m busy for Thanksgiving, but I do want to make sure you’re coming to Christmas? I think we’re supposed to go to my father’s? We were speaking of it the other day. I believe he’s most interested in meeting with you?” There was no weight to the words.
That probably meant it was a trap, didn’t it? Fishy, without a doubt. No one suggested going off to a Greater Demons for fun, did they? Not even others of that kind would be that silly.
“Good? We can get together and talk about that in person, before that happens? Right now… Actually, I need to get with Finias, actually. Zack is taking Ann, so it seemed like a fair division of labor.” Not really, since the man was Zack’s family, but Eve got the idea. She hadn’t called her own dad or stepmother since her change, had she?
Sometimes being family wasn’t enough.
She liked her dad well enough, now, but he hadn’t been there for her as a child, when she needed the help, had he? Worse, he was the Police Chief of her home town, and had managed to ignore her well enough that he’d never known about all the sexual abuse she’d undergone. No, he’d been a drunk back then, but had managed to move up in the force with no real trouble even given that. There had just been no room for her in his life. He’d been all about nailing chicks, and probably having kids that he didn’t even know about. That he’d been married to her mother once was the only reason that Eve knew he existed. She had his last name. Not that he’d hidden from her really, but she hadn’t known him when she was little. Finias was Zack’s grandfather, but the same kind of thing applied really. A lot of evil shit had happened to him, and The Mind Taker hadn’t stepped in to help him, until it was too late.
Darla took a breath, a thing that Eve wouldn’t have heard as a Human. Super powers were so cool.
“I’ll let you get to that, then. Remember, don’t accept any deals or bargains. He isn’t Keels, but he’s also not a slouch that way. I’ll get with you in the next day or two? Tell Zack I said that he was being a coward.”
She would, but later, when they were alone.
“Love you. Talk later.” Then Eve hung up first. There were too many people listening, and all of them were too worked up for her to keep giving Darla a chance to mess her up by saying the wrong thing.
Everyone was staring at her already.
Probably because she’d just told a Greater Demon she loved her.
She grinned as she hung up the phone.
“It’s just a turn of phrase. Freaking homophobes.”
For some reason no one laughed.
Chapter two
She loaded Zack down with treats in a cardboard carrier, since he needed to eat a lot, and then made up some for Calley and her Shifter buddies. Then she looked up at Lars, who was still walking around looking like he normally did. White and chalky, with an impressive double row of fangs. His hair was a bit darker than most Manthori’s, which probably meant something.
Like he’d been black before his change, hundreds of years before?
Normally he used compulsion to pass though, looking like a rather tall, white, gamer geek. The role playing kind that met up with other people in the park to pretend to be things they weren’t. Lot of different types of beings did that in their area. Mainly because it let them pretend to be something other than they were. Human. That was probably going to end now. It was kind of obvious, wasn’t it?
Then again, they could just say fuck it and go on, couldn’t they? One guy, even a politician, showing that he was different, or even had powers, wasn’t going to make everyone suddenly believe.
She smiled a lot for the rest of the night, tried to call Finias, The Mind Stealer, and left a message, since he was both busy, and savvy enough to use voice mail, no matter how ancient he really was.
The lights inside the shop stayed the same, too bright, for the entire time, and neither Edom or Lenore came in. It wasn’t like they were asleep, so it probably meant they either hadn’t heard about the news, or they realized that fretting over it in the middle of the night wasn’t going to make any difference at all. Bey and Zack left, and while she ended up doing a lot of cleaning around people, most of the others eventually realized that they just didn’t know enough, and that at present there was no vast plan to hunker down and get ready to fight.
Finally, they all left, a few more asking to be placed on the watch map, just in case.
Eve marked things out carefully, but that was all. It honestly wasn’t going to come up, she didn’t think. Even if things happened, it would take time and going after the undead was a bigger risk than anyone would want to really take.
So, when morning came, Linda the well dressed, curly haired, and tiny Vampire came back, just about the time that Lenore came in. They both seemed pleased enough to see each other, or were at least willing to fake being nice to keep the peace. Either thing was going to work out well enough, as far as Eve was concerned.
Lenore seemed baffled though.
“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Her face held a polite expression, which got a slightly baffled one in return from the other Vampire.
Eve interrupted, having been there all night.
“Two things. The first is that Linda wants to get in on the animal blood production. We need to kick that up a bunch of notches now. Second… You heard about Richard Swerlin?”
That got a look that came with a glare. It was clear she hadn’t, but on the other hand, she was also well aware enough of the politician’s antics to know it wasn’t going to be a good thing. Luckily she was just now coming in through the door. That way Eve wasn’t reporting way too late.
There was a hint of red to her eyes, but no fangs yet, as she glared at her worker.
“No. I haven’t heard anything. What did you do? Is he dead? It’s been coming for some time, so I can hardly blame you, but he’s rather well connected in the Human world, and may be missed.”
Eve grinned and shook her head.
“Not that I know of. Yet. He went on a major news channel and submitted to a bunch of tests to prove his claim of being one of us. I haven’t seen it, but I guess it’s all over the news now. We had people in all night about it.”
Before she could react with more than a scowl, Linda nodded, almost primly. Her face looked younger than her clothing choices, Eve noticed. Almost like a child pretending to be an adult. The woman no matter how old she really was, could have passed for a teenager, with the right outfit on.
“This is true. I went home to see to my daughter, Bethany, and all the major news outlets seem to be running clips. Constantly, like they did during the terrorist attacks. This isn’t being taken as a joke either. The Bey, and Miss Benson, put together a watch for the more youthful Vampires in our area, so they may sleep and not be killed by the angry torch wielding villagers. There probably isn’t a lot of danger, since most are careful these days, but I’ve come to take the first rotation.” She waved to the map, which Eve passed over. There were only six places marked out on it, so it wouldn’t take that long.
About an hour if the woman was going to drive, which was fine, most likely. Running would be trickier, if people were actually going to be looking for people with powers now.
Lenore glared at Eve, but didn’t snap at her openly. It was, she knew about not getting a call about it all. Eve smiled at her however, not meaning it, knowing that she might well be in for a beating if she wasn’t careful. The woman had done it before, just to make a point.
Trust no one.
She got it, and really didn’t trust Lenore now. It was probably why she’d done it instead of Edom doing it, Eve realized. So that she could still trust her maker, without constantly worrying that he was going to betray her. The thing was, eventually, he would. Everything in her life had told her that one. Everyone turned on you, eventually. You just had to be willing to use them carefully, and forgive the stupid things, so that you could go on.
She waved a bit toward Lenore.
“You told me to handle th
ings, and only get in touch with you if something came up that I couldn’t manage. I’ve been checking the situation out. Bey is going to the Council, and Keeley is finding Richard, if she hasn’t already. Zack claims that he isn’t behind this either, and so do the rest of the Greater Demons so far. Not that they’d just fess up, if it really was their plan. We need to keep that in mind. I haven’t heard back from The Mind Taker yet. That probably doesn’t mean anything, however. He barely knows who I am. So, for now, what’s being done is about what can be. There was no reason to ruin your night, in particular. We don’t even really know what this is going to end up being, do we? I keep expecting all the regular people to just drop it, and forget it was even a thing.”
She still expected to be slapped down for it, because people loved to be kept in the loop, which she should have remembered, but she was either doing the job there, or she wasn’t. Did she need her hand held for everything, or not? If so, then Lenore was going to need to be there every day for a long time. If, on the other hand, Eve could be trusted not to be a complete moron, then she might even be allowed a day or two off.
It wasn’t lost on the older Vampire, it seemed, since she softened after a moment, her eyes returning to normal.
“We have a list of places to watch? Very good. Thank you Linda. I know that civic duty has not been your… Main focus for the last decades. It’s important for us to all stand together however, in these troubled times.”
That got a snort, which was fairly credible, and a gloved hand, which was a very fine gray colored thing that fit perfectly, set on the counter, aimed at the cracks in the stone there.
“The Bey wanted me to let you know that I’ll pay for the damage. I was worked up and rather lashed out. Miss Benson handled the situation very well. Out of any fifty Vampires I could name, an aggressive act like that right in front of them would set off forty-nine. She didn’t even flash at me. Is she to be your replacement?” It was a very strange thing to say, but the woman didn’t take it back, or even smile.