Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her being beaten, for daring to think she was more clever than a Greater
Demon, or for risking herself to save a friend that had probably been a Demon’s
slave the entire time they’d known each other.
    The woman stirred, but didn’t
come out, so if she was shocked or angered, it wasn’t going to come in a
rushing and insane attack at that moment.
    In fact, it was pretty clear that
the phone was being picked up then, in the back, and a few moments later a
female voice spoke.
    Maggie.
    Eve listened closely, and heard
the ancient Vampire sound very nearly friendly.
    “Burgerville, fourth plain, how
may I help you today?” That news got Eve to blink. It was the old job that
Maggie had been working, before she’d gone off to be the mouthpiece for the
Council.
    That she was working there again,
or possibly still , was fascinating. It probably wasn’t that she needed
the money, after all. Then, twenty-four hours a day was a lot of time to fill.
It could just be that she liked to keep busy.
    Lenore cleared her throat.
    “Maggie. Would you happen to know
where Bey is right now? We have some new information, on the difficulties in
Russia? Eve got it for us. From the Demon Fram? Amazingly, she isn’t plotting
your instant death. She’s also already fully healed from her little
adventure already. I knew that you’d want to hear about that, first thing.”
    Okay, so the ambassador was being
a bit catty sounding, but Maggie actually made a real happy sound, her voice
very nearly thrilled seeming. It was strange and annoying, since Eve kind of
still wanted to be pissed at her. Arms and legs, burnt to carbon, with not even
the bones left. That was worth being upset over, wasn’t it?
    “Oh, thank goodness ! I’m
surprised that she’s taking it so well, though I guess I shouldn’t be too taken
aback by the idea. If someone had done that to me, I’d be less than pleased,
myself. It’s good to know that I didn’t hurt her too much to bear. She just
kept coming at me so fast. I really didn’t have a lot of choice at the time,
since it was use fire, or die.”
    Eve snorted, but spoke from the
front space, knowing that the other woman would hear her.
    “Right. I’ve got a thing set up
with Fram, for the next three weeks. A truce. After that we’re going to kill
one of you. We have a meeting scheduled for it.” She stopped there, a bit of anger
in her tone. She got how it would sound, and looked toward the back, wondering
what the response would be.
    Maggie just coughed. It wasn’t
real, but it seemed like it. She was just so damned good at faking things like
that.
    “ That’s different. Only
one of us? Why not both? I don’t suppose that it’s going to be the other one in the collection that goes, will it? Well, I’ve had a long life. I can’t
complain about the measure I’ve been given that way, if it must come to the part
where it ends now.”
    Eve rolled her eyes.
    “I know, that does sound
pretty fair, doesn’t it? But nooo, I have to set it up so we just kill
one of you, and bring you back, so the slave link thing will be broken between
you. I’ll be calling some friends of mine in on that part, so that we can make
sure it works. You owe me though. Big time. Like huge, beyond anyone’s
ability to imagine. I’m not just talking helping me move, or clean the garage,
big either, so remember that when Christmas comes for the next few decades.”
    That got a laugh, at least, and a
promise to do that.
    “Thank you, Eve. I know that I
don’t deserve it. Things truly didn’t go as planned.”
    It didn’t have anything to do
with what was deserved though, did it? Eve was still pissed at the other
Vampire, but she held her tongue on the topic.
    Bey however, it turned out, was in the burger joint where Maggie worked as the manager. Just sitting there
listening to them natter on about silly things like life, and death. She heard
him say he was coming, a gentle whisper in the background of a sea of voices.
The