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

returned, and some bullies to, erm…
Chastise for being jerks? I need to know what you all want done though? Bohdan
here seems to be willing to play ball, but they’re having a blood problem. They want to follow the rules, at least to the level anyone does, in that
regard, but they don’t have access to any of the new products. I was thinking
that we could make Bohdan here run it, and not get any profits from it, paying
that directly to the Council instead? After I get my cut, I mean, of
course. I didn’t do anything wrong after all. Call that twenty years of him
seeing to that or so? For free I mean, to pay for what he’s been doing?” Not
that she knew what all of that was.
    Gene spoke then, which showed
that he was there, on the line, too. She got ready for him to be a giant pain
in the ass about it, since as far as she knew that was his place on the
council. The one that sat back and made things hard for her, personally. How
they’d known to put him in power just for that before she was even a Vampire
was hard to know, but it still was probably right. Some kind of psychic power,
no doubt.
    His voice was young and piping,
since he’d been about ten when he died. It was annoying to listen to, but his
words weren’t as bad as she feared they might be.
    “That seems reasonable enough.
We’ll trust in your judgment on this, Miss Benson. I suggest that you kill
enough of his people to make a point however. If this happens again, we won’t be able to be as merciful. As it stands we’re going to have to put it about
that this was a favor to Marissa, the saving of his existence. Which it is .
Will you need aid in doing this? I believe that The Bey stands ready to assist
you, if you wish to call on him?”
    It was nice to know, and she
probably could use the help, but it was a trap, she knew. Either way. If she
called for him, she’d look weak and Gene would use that against her somehow. If
she didn’t, and things were different on the ground than she’d come to believe,
then she was probably dead.
    She grinned though, since Keeley
had mentioned to her once that people could subconsciously hear that in another
person’s voice.
    “We’re good here. We’ll handle
this tonight, and head back in the morning. Obviously, if we aren’t heard from
in three days or so, send in the troops, and kill them all.”
    Gene, her enemy on the Council,
actually laughed then.
    “It will be done, Miss Benson.
Rest assured of that.”
    Then the line was passed back
over to Bey, since there was actually a lot left to be said.

Chapter five
     
    Overall things went a lot
differently than Eve would have guessed. Bohdan, wanting to live, and thinking,
for some strange reason that she was there to kill him, for instance. Even
after the Council had pretty much given him a nepotism pass to be a dickwad. So
other than trying to compel her almost all day long, after the call ended, he
was remarkably polite about the whole thing.
    Then he called in all the
essential people in his organization, to announce the good news. The ones from
in the city came at least, which wasn’t going to be all the ones she needed to
kill by a long shot. Though, honestly, she wasn’t there to punish people for
being bad. No, her job was to terrify them into being good little
Vampire boys and girls.
    That meant she had to act very
carefully once they were all assembled.
    Bohdan waved for silence, most of
the people sitting around the room at red covered tables, the establishment
being closed for the night, and probably longer than that, since it would be
needed for cleaning the next few days, she didn’t doubt.
    “We have special guests. From
America. Eve Benson, the owner of the animal blood preservation formula, and
her companion, Nicole Transmorguire. They have come to end our, mistake, here.
I have been on the phone all day with the Council, and it will be allowed for
us to have our own blood farms. Only animal blood, to start, but I’ve been
assured that