by P. S. Power
The point wasn’t that she could kick ass. The man was already willing to trust that she could do that, since she had the needed fighting skills. No, it was that being big could get a lot of drunk people into line that might not do it otherwise. A small woman would get fights that a large man could avoid. That was all. It had nothing to do with who would be winning.
She nodded at the words.
“I hear you there. I’ll mainly keep an eye out, and handle the women?”
That was the standard plan, so he moved to let her in, touching her shoulder as she passed. It was friendly, and a bit flirtatious, but not exactly grabbing her butt.
It was too bad about Brian though. He was probably the security guy she was closest to there at the club. Not that she’d been around forever, having only been there for a little over a whole week already. So, still the new girl.
The rest of the night was remarkably calm for a Friday, actually. No one started freaking out and screaming about her or Barb being walking corpses, which was nice. No one seemed to really get that part of things, it seemed. There was a little talk about Vampires, but it was a casual thing that didn’t really take off as a topic for anyone there until the place was closing down, at a bit after four in the morning. Troy was back in the office, doing the paperwork. That left Barb, who was the assistant manager, to make sure the bar was being taken care of and that the rest of the place was cleaned up and straightened well enough. It wasn’t the hard part of the night but most of the people there were tired.
Of being at work, even if it was about the coolest job around. Well, as long as you didn’t have her part of it. The girl that cleaned the restrooms wasn’t actually going to brag about that part of things, was she? Still, it paid the bills.
Not that it really did, because she worked for free, but that was just part of her life now. It would be for a long time.
As they were cleaning the tables and setting the chairs up for a final sweep and mop, the topic of the day came up. It was Tammy, the short, cute, and perky breasted waitress that brought it up.
“Can you believe that stuff about Vampires in the news? If it’s real… I don’t know. Should I get a cross, do you think? Wear garlic around all the time?”
She was joking, but underneath that seemed just a bit scared. The funny thing there was that she was talking to both Barb and Eve. No one else. The rest of them cleaning up the bar area.
Barb froze, at a loss for words, but Eve kept cleaning, then looked at the woman for a half second.
“Why? Are you planning to invite one to church with you? I hear that might work. It seems that all the Vampires are really devout, and are into community service? Working at soup kitchens and all that? Saving animals and whatever. Who knew, right?”
That got a laugh, even if it wasn’t funny, and a strange look from Barb. She didn’t add anything though, letting them all get back to work.
Chapter five
“Oh, for the exciting and heady days of being a regular working girl.”
Eve forced a smile, and got back to her cleaning of the embassy. The Yoghurt World gleamed, and had, for the two hours since she’d gotten there. To be fair it also had when David, who’d had the night shift, along with Edom, had been there before they’d left.
The lean and flirty Vampire was a bit lazy, for Lenore’s program, but that wasn’t why he’d been with someone else. Normally the night shift was a solo one, even if it was the busy time of day. It wasn’t that big of a thing, normally, and everyone knew that if you came into the embassy at night, you were there for business, not to be a pain in the ass. Mostly. No more than people normally were, really. It seemed like the new order was all about having an extra few bodies on hand in case of emergency, or simply to entertain the press.
Technically they already had the extra bodies for the day shift, since there was a handy Eve that had started to hang out there all the time. By eleven in the morning though, she was more than caught up. Not even a single person came in to get a treat. Not even the Trollienkeine. They might be hungry all the time, and so large that they needed the free food, but coming in right now might have them caught on camera. If they wanted to not be out too, they had to be careful.
The phones didn’t even ring, so eventually she ended up just standing there, the sun burning her through the ceiling. It was better to keep moving, but she wasn’t going to fall asleep anymore. Not to avoid the pain. Lenore came out, not having anything to do either it seemed, shaking her head.
“Things seem rather well put together for the day, so far. Now, why don’t we go over some paperwork? I was instructed by Bey to teach you how to do my job. Not that you’ll have it any time soon, but learning what to do might help anyway. First, let’s review the forms?”
She wrinkled her face up, and then smiled.
“I didn’t really sign up to do homework. I was promised abuse and being locked in a box… Not the endless joys of red tape.” It was a risk, since she didn’t want to piss the Vampire off, but she got a smile in return, as the woman smoothed her dress with her right hand.
“I understand. However Bey has spoken, and he wishes you to learn. He will have a reason for it. What that is… Well, I have a guess, but would rather not share at the moment. Needless to say, you won’t lose out by doing your best in anything he asks of you.”
Eve walked to the back then, sighing.
“I know. It’s probably just so that I won’t seem like an uneducated fool. So, we keep them alphabetically? By last name if they have one?”
“Correct. Now, let’s memorize the names, and purpose of each form? Then I’ll have you fill in one of each, as we discuss what might be needed to do so.”
Lenore was serious, and it was exactly as fun as it sounded. Still, by four, when things were starting to get a bit easier to handle, pain wise, the sun not being as big of a focus for her, the phone finally rang again. Her brain was numb, with numbers and names floating behind her eyes, so she didn’t jump up to get it nearly as fast as she should have.
That meant Lenore did. Her voice was pleasant, and she became more so as she spoke, not less. It was a good sign, given that they were both expecting the hate calls to come in soon.
Her daytime work boss was in the office space with her, and actually smiled after a bit.
That got Eve to start listening, which she should have been doing the whole time. What was the use of having a super power if you just didn’t use it?
The voice on the phone was very familiar to her.
Rebekah.
She was a Manthori, and was actually one of the very first Vampires that Eve had actually met. She worked for Keeley, as in they were partners in the Human blood business. The Vampire actually ran the thing, which had made her pretty wealthy.
Better than that, or worse, depending on who was speaking and what day it was, Rebekah was also a famous singer. The lead for the All Vampire Band. Apparently it hadn’t taken people long to make the connection between the name, which had been shared openly, and the recent news about Vampires being real. On the good side, the whole band could just shrug at the world right now. They’d been “out” the entire time. It wasn’t their fault that no one had really believed them, was it?
The voice on the phone was mellow, and had just a bit of mushiness around the edges, since the speaker had a full face of fangs, like all Manthori did. As a Human the distortion was barely noticeable, since Bekah had worked really hard for a long time to make herself easily understood. Now Eve could hear a difference, but it still wasn’t too bad.
“So, we’re going on in about an hour, and Scotty miscalculated and needs to eat. We sort of don’t want to point out the Human blood angle right now, given… Well, the direct threats from the Council, actually. We were told to behave, being public figures, but there were no actual guidelines as to what to do. Could we get some of that animal blood? I was told that you might have some there?”
They did, but they needed a new batch or two soon. Lenore sto
od upright, her face calm, but she turned to look at Eve, and stared into her eyes directly. With no expression at all, which was maddening.
She spoke calmly however.
“We can’t have it delivered through regular routes at this time, and sending The Line Walker for this would be… Insane.”
There was a sound of air being sucked in hard, through rows of teeth, but the words that came were pretty polite. Rebekah always was. She was just a nice being. It was one of the reasons that she was allowed to be a public figure.
The woman was just sweet, and so exotic that most people couldn’t credit her as being anything but a performer. Her whole band was kind of like that. At least when well fed.
“Well… Crud. I was kind of hoping that you’d ask Zack for us? This is kind of pressing. I suppose we could try having him sneak off and do a live feeding, but…”
They all knew that one. A Vampire might get away with a live feeding on a Human, and animals were legal, but it wouldn’t play nearly as well if Scotty, the drummer, was caught doing it. If that happened, being as high profile as he was, then the man would probably hurt all Vampires, everywhere, on the third day of them being a thing in the mind of the public. So, yay.
It was also just the truth that having a Greater Demon do the work was out, too. The guy was just a drummer. If asked, the Council probably would have just suggested they lock the man in a box, rather than let a problem start. He’d be missed if he didn’t show up though, wouldn’t he?
Eve nodded.
“What’s the address? I’ll get it there, if I can get a map…
Lenore gave her a look that was cold, and then a smile that was freaking insane.
“Oh? Do you truly believe you can do that? There is a large difference between moving quickly between a few miles, and hundreds or thousands. Where are you, Rebekah?”
“Um, right now, at the studio, in Burbank? I can get the numbers for it.” She started to scramble for that, which had people calling out rapidly. A lot of them were Human, Eve could tell. There was a slightly wet tone that non-Vampires had, that Eve had never heard of anyone discussing before she’d become a Vampire herself. Actually no one had mentioned it since, but she could tell the difference anyway.
It took several minutes for the actual data to come in, and Lenore didn’t move the whole time. So Eve did, getting a basket of blood ready, taking all the remaining bottles of the stuff that she had there. All four of them.
Being polite enough, at least to people she wasn’t beating or about to, Lenore wrote the numbers down, and ended the call, after suggesting that Rebekah and her people make sure Eve was met outside. If she could make it.
As soon as the thing, an old model phone that had an actual cord on it, and a heavy black handle, was settled in its cradle, the older Vampire laughed.
“This is… Well, there’s a reason that no one tries to make such trips. It can’t be done. No one can take the pain of it for that long. Still, trying will be a good lesson for you.”
That… Well, it wasn’t a great vote of confidence was it? Still, she was going to let her try for some reason, which meant… What? That Eve was being that uppity new kid that thought she could do anything and needed to be taken down a peg? Maybe. If that was the case, then there would be another beating though, not her getting a chance to try something that no one did.
“Bey can’t do it?”
It was an odd thought, and she probably wouldn’t be able to, if he couldn’t. The man was the best, in using speed like that, wasn’t he?
The other Vampire tilted her head.
“Yes. He can. No one else has ever managed it however. Not in the kind of time frame you have before you. Here, I’ll mark the routes on the maps…” She did it quickly, and passed both the large sheets of paper over, then ran out, coming back a minute later with a backpack. It wasn’t an advanced thing, just like the book bag that Eve had used for her school books in middle school.
That had been one of the first things she’d ever shoplifted. It was a funny thing, but her mother hadn’t really been that great about getting her school supplies for some reason. When she’d had anything it had largely been taken from someone else. At least until she was older, and Darla had taken her shopping for clothes and things. At the time it had been humiliating, but also needed.
Now Eve knew that Darla had more money than God, so it wasn’t a hardship for her at all. At the time it had seemed that the slightly older girl had been using her allowance for it. Her plush, heavy duty, weekly bit of cash from her father, who was off in Japan, but still, the stuff that she was supposed to be spending to live. She’d never told the others that she was doing it either, to keep Eve from feeling too awful about it all.
Now… She nodded, and went to the closet, where her magical demon shoes were. Up on a shelf, above the cleaning products. No one else could wear them, she didn’t think. Not and survive it. She took off her other shoes, the nice red ones that had a lot of wear on them and slipped them in with the basket of blood after Lenore got it all packed up. She stared at Eve, but didn’t ask what the new shoes were all about.
Eve didn’t tell her either.
“I should be there in about… Ten minutes. Maybe twenty. Wish me luck?” She didn’t expect it, since it was clear that the other woman expected her to simply fail.
To her surprise, the strawberry blonde moved in and hugged her, then moved back.
“I do wish you all the luck in the world. Stay strong, and do not fail in this. Call when you get there?” She seemed sad though, but didn’t really let it show too much.
“Sure thing. Stay by the phone?” She smiled, not feeling it, and then walked outside, in her stocking feet. She looked at the map first, since she didn’t want to keep stopping to try and read it, a thousand times.
Then, under the cover of the sloping roof thing on the main side of the mall, which she picked just because it would be drier, she slipped her shoes on. The ones that, as soon as she started running, wouldn’t let her slow down until the time she mentally picked was done. The distance really. In short, she had to go the whole way, at speed. Otherwise the things on her feet would probably kill her.
That sounded fun, didn’t it? Part of her nearly chickened out and turned around to go get Zack. Lenore had been right, and they couldn’t use him for it, and it wasn’t an emergency really, just a PR thing, more or less. Still, she picked the place in her mind, based on the map location, then looked at both maps to make sure she had the route down as well as possible.
The first step she took sent her into blistering pain. The second, which was just walking to her vision, was even worse. It was all her though, doing the work, so far. She just couldn’t slack off. That was all.
The world around her nearly stopped. If it moved at all, she couldn’t tell being too busy trying to move forward, throwing her very life into moving ahead. It was the worst thing that she’d ever felt, and she kept having to go faster, knowing that failing to do so would make it even worse. That was the magic of the shoes on her feet. The pain of failure would always be worse than doing it for real, no matter how rough things got.
There was a problem though, that Eve hadn’t counted on. It wasn’t the drain on her links, since that wasn’t too bad, as far as things like that went. It was strange, but using her speed was pretty much always the same that way, really. It was a draw. The thing there was that running at fifty miles an hour took no more actual power than going ten times that fast. Or more.
No, the problem wasn’t one of energy, but of will. She couldn’t stop, and wouldn’t, but after the first days of walking, and it really did feel like full days had been passing, Eve was bored out of her mind. The pain was cloying and horrible, but at least it was a thing. She kept walking, not able to stop even for a moment. She pushed harder, and tried to focus on doing that the whole time. There was just nothing else worth doing. Yes, there were things to look at, but she couldn’t stop on the freeway to look at the people having sex i
n their cars as she passed. That would trigger the shoes and cause her to be in crippling pain.
So would slowing down, which happened a few times. Her will power was just kind of running out, as time wore on. She didn’t want it to, and tried every trick she knew to stop it from happening. Meditation, mainly. That, and setting goals for herself.
Blinding pain nearly took her down several times, but Eve kept on, not having a choice. She would have screamed, but she didn’t have any air. Crying was out, since her eyes wouldn’t form tears anymore. Not enough for moisture to leak down her face. After a while, she was just moving, and not really certain why she was doing it anymore. At one point she started to stop, just having lost the thread as to what she was trying for. That hurt, on a level that she hadn’t thought she could have taken.
So she ran again. Then walked at speeds that let her keep going, pushing off of cars as she went, focusing on her footfalls, trying to keep them light and silent. It was something to do, and while it was boring after a while too, she needed something to think about.
Eventually, without really understanding why it was happening, she stopped. Her body flared with pain, and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. It probably looked like she was vomiting, or trying to. Convulsing her throat tightened down and she refused to take a breath, even as the four people moved on her. Beings. Two Manthori, a Classical, and Scotty, the drummer. He was a Classical too, sort of, but had been a Bat Shifter in life.
That meant he had the powers of both types of beings now, but also that he burned through energy incredibly fast. His eyes were all red, like Rebekah and Carl, the bass player. They moved in, but slowly. Eve moved to get the blood out, her hands shaking a little. Vibrating in the air, from her exertion. The container of blood was in the tiny man’s hand faster than she meant it to be, and he took off the glass stopper and sucked the blood down nearly as fast.