Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) by P. S. Power

though.
    “You… Killed Alexander, Ivan and
Misha? By yourself? What weapon allowed you to do this? Is that why you have
blood on your shirt?” He waved at the spots, which made her feel a bit
embarrassed.
    He’d probably thought she was
just a sloppy eater.
    “That’s right. If it was them, I
mean. It sounds right.”
    They moved on then, and after a
bit he started to nod.
    “I do not understand. Who are you
then? I have never heard of the Vampire Eve before. You must be most elder.
Perhaps you have a different name that I would know you by?”
    She winked, then shook her head.
    “No. I’m new, so you wouldn’t
know me yet. Anyway, if I could get you the formula for the…” She slipped into
English, but Nikki translated for her, using the same word that the man with
them had before. “Yes, if I can get you the anti-coagulant, can you and your
people here get the needed farms, transport trucks and all that? I want thirty
percent of the profits, annually. We should keep the price down though. That’s
only for animal blood, though. If you start doing Human you’ll need permission
from The Mistress of Souls, and the Vampire Rebekah. It might be worth doing.
Also, you need to stop robbing embassies and return all the money that was
stolen. Some of your people will still probably die. Maybe you, too, but we can
try to get around that. If they raped or abused Council people directly, that
will be a hard sell. We’ll have to kill anyone that did that, at the very
least.”
    The man stared at her, suddenly
scared, but he was, as Marissa had pointed out, an intellectual, not a fighter,
by nature.
    “We might be able to do that. You
have access to such knowledge?”
    Eve looked away, then nodded. It
was true that he might try to take her hostage to get the information from her,
but if he did that, she’d fight, which was going to happen anyway, if he wasn’t
careful about how he reacted.
    Hopefully he was smart enough to
work that one out.
    “Off the top of my head,
actually. I own the concern back home, along with Marissa. I don’t know why she
didn’t just ask me to let you have it here, too. There might be a reason I
don’t know about, and in that case I can’t promise anything. If the Council
wants you all dead, then, well, that’s just what will have to happen. Still, if
it isn’t something like that, or if we can talk them out of it, then it
might pay off to try.”
    For a very long time after that
they moved in silence, walking at normal Human speeds down the side of a road
that was busy, but not too much so for a major city. Finally they turned into a
seedy looking restaurant, that was beat up and poor looking. On the outside.
The interior was as nice as anything she’d ever seen though, with a lot of rich
reds and polished wood. The Human woman that met them at the door was waved
away, rather curtly.
    “We do not need you. Close the
doors, and allow no one to come in.” Then he turned to Eve, and knelt in front
of her, his head bowed low. “I beg you, do not kill the Humans here, even if
you must take my life. They are good people, and loyal, so may try to fight, if
they see me dying. They are innocent in this though, and simply run this place
for us, during the day.” He sounded pretty humble about it.
    Eve waved him up.
    “As long as that’s true, I can
try to do that. Can we use a phone? Also, are you willing to do more of that
begging? I don’t get off on that kind of thing, but I bet you that some
of the Council will. Half of them are a…” She looked at Nikki, then smiled and
asked for the translation. Bey hadn’t taught her the naughty words yet.
    Nicole smiled though, when she
asked, and spoke the words, as if it were a solemn prayer.
    “A bag of dicks.”
    Bohdan seemed to think that was
mildly funny, and gave a dismal sounding chuckle.
    “I agree. That will not save us
here, now, if the order for our deaths come. Let us do that now? If you must
kill me, it will be best to happen