“Relax. It will be more fun that way.” She whispered into her ear, knowing that all the Vampires would hear. That and not care, most likely. They’d all had her new plaything too. Lots of use still left though. One of the benefits of owning an immortal.
She let go of her new friend as soon as Eve cam running over.
“Keeley? I, I think someone ruffied me. I don’t know what happened, but I was just going to change for the party and then I was waking up with some guy… having sex with me, telling me I liked it? Then I was here… I don’t know…” She hugged Keeley hard.
“Sorry, confused. Can you get me home, or, maybe to Darla’s? I don’t want to go to my house right now. Too many bad memories there.”
“I can do that. Maybe, should we call the police?” That got a groan from Eve and a tilt of the head from Darla.
OK, it wasn’t a real idea, but they were in public and someone had to suggest it. None of the officers were in ear shot at least, or they’d have had to deal with them too.
Eve sounded more panicked about that option than about having been raped. Then, she’d been raped a lot, for years, so maybe that was almost normal to her now? So… she wanted to avoid the police? Well, lots of people did. Mainly those that thought they wouldn’t really help them, not just criminals. It was the kind of mental error a lot of people made, thinking that not trusting the state meant a person was up to something nefarious.
Whatever her personal reasons, it worked for them in the moment. Keeley had her memories and understood the dilemma. She was avoiding Roy. Her father. There were worse reasons to not hang out with the authorities though.
She got them headed toward, and then into, the rental car, Mrs. Gibson in the front, Eve and the Vampires in the back. Dan looked at the situation, held up his right hand to wave goodbye and called for a cab.
“Don’t worry Eve, we’ll just go. Oh, this is our new friend Rebekah and her… slave Elis. If you ever want to humiliate him or anything just ask, Rebekah seems more than willing to share. Don’t worry though, Elis is into that, aren’t you, you little freak?” She made her voice smarmy, which got a laugh from all the girls.
“Yes, Mistress.” The male Vampire sounded humiliated already. Good. He had some debts to work off in that department.
Rebekah hit him in the chest with a backhand. Hard. Creating a sound that didn’t make a slapping noise as much as a bone jarring boom. The guy just took it, not moving.
“I’m your Mistress. Pay attention… slave. Or you’ll have to be punished.”
“Yes, Mistress.” He didn’t sound meek this time, but he got the words right. Eve kind of chuckled again and shook her head.
“I don’t get some people. To each their own I guess. As long as it’s all consensual… God, what did I ever do to make these things keep happening to me? I…” Tears started flowing and Rebekah patted her on the back, seeming to really mean the implied comfort.
Then, they had that in common, didn’t they? People abusing them. It would stop now, at least as far as she went.
“You’re so cold. Freezing…” Eve was pawing at first Rebekah and then Elis, touching his arm, which was more than Keeley would have expected given what had happened. Unless she just couldn’t really remember it. That seemed to be the case, because she was recovering fast.
“Strange. Why are you both so cold? Like you’re dead or something.” She groan and then sighed after panting for a second.
“Crap. I died didn’t I? Some guy gave me too much magic juice and it poisoned me. Well, that’s just great, isn’t it? So much for my military career. I was planning on working on jets. So, what’s the plan now? Tunnel of light? Meet Jesus or St. Peter? Maybe Satan? I know I haven’t always been perfect or anything…”
Keeley shrugged, “first, the plan is for you to realize that you’re alive. Don’t freak out or anything, everything is OK now. They’re cold because…” She had nothing. There hadn’t been any water around or anything, so it wasn’t just that they’d been swimming. Plus the blood red eyes were going to be a dead giveaway as soon as they got into the light.
Crud.
Fine. Not a lot of other things to do as far as she could tell and it would be better to get the truth out now, in bits, rather than all at once later. A chunk of the truth. Not the whole thing. Just enough to soften the blow.
“They’re cold like that because they both have a rare condition that makes them that way. It also makes them pretty pale, messes with their teeth and gives them really red eyes. It doesn’t make them bad people though, so try not to get all judgy on them until they have a chance to show you who they really are. Not that you would, being as open minded as you are.” There, that was vague enough, right?
“You mean like Vampires?” Eve asked, her voice innocent.
Sigh.
“Yes, something exactly like that.”
Keeley didn’t roll her eyes. She was driving after all.
Chapter eleven
“That is…” Eve sounded meek for a second, soft and a little shaky, “so frigging cool!”
She turned and hugged the woman next to her, even though they’d just met, not having much of a sense of social boundaries at the best of times, and it seemed even fewer at the moment after having her will messed with. She cuddled close to the cold form next to her and then kissed her cheek.
“Can I be one too? Do you have cool super-powers? Do you sleep in coffins or, I don’t know, how does it all work? Where you born this way or what?” After a few seconds she stopped, then sighed, laughed and started talking again.
“Or is it all secret? I get the feeling a lot of this stuff really is. I can keep a secret though. I’m great at it in fact.” From all that time hiding being molested and raped got left unsaid.
Rebekah didn’t speak at all for a while as they moved along at exactly one half mile under the speed limit of thirty-five. Sure it was night, but that just meant visibility was down. Besides, while it may not be a crime, she really didn’t want to be pulled over with Vampires in the car.
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what you’re allowed to know, I mean. Mistress?” The Vampire woman sounded scared again, as if addressing Keeley directly would be a punishable offense. That was silly though, if she couldn’t ask questions, how would she know what to do.
“Go ahead and tell her what she wants to know, as long as it isn’t too difficult for you. Please either answer honestly or refuse to answer outright though, with me as well. Is that agreeable to you?” She needed to be careful she realized, even though Elis didn’t seem to be draining her at all for some reason. He was bound, she could feel that, he just wasn’t demanding much from her. Keeley didn’t want to trap Rebekah though.
She couldn’t find anything in the memory library to explain why that was. No one in all of the memories she been given had ever done it. It was supposed to be hard. Almost impossible, even for a greater Demon to make a deal with one of the undead. They always beat Vampires in fights though, even groups of them. Sometimes large collections even. It was constant enough that Keeley wondered what the heck Terry had been thinking.
Then, he hadn’t been, had he? No, he’d been following orders from far above him in the social structure. It was the only way they could protect themselves, since Keeley, or probably more likely to their thinking, Darla, couldn’t just grab his information and learn everything. Not if he didn’t know the specifics. Clever really.
Also annoying.
Rebekah was silent for a while, clearly trying to think before saying anything.
“OK, um, well, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. We’re stronger and faster than a regular human, get the cool teeth and sharper senses, some psychic abilities too, but those vary. I can tell the future a little, but it can also be wrong. Like earlier when I knew for a fact that I was going to die, but only if I didn’t go with the Mistress. Now I know that I get to live, but that’s all I know. I don’t know if I’ll be hurt, or raped, or even have my will stripped from me later by her, but under her protection I live.” She did not sound completely happy about that, Keeley realized.
“Normally I just slept with whoever wanted me. I didn’t get my own bed and had to sleep on the floor sometimes, even though beds are cheap and we could have afforded one. It’s a cultural thing, the one on the bottom has to be kept down. So I was beaten a lot and made to do most of the hard work, hunting and all that. It can take a long time to work out of it, being the lowest. Rich was younger than me, but his telepathy is really powerful, so it pushed him up the ranks faster.”
There was another silence then.
“So… daylight?” Eve asked, clearly fascinated.
“Sunscreen works. Actually, that’s a joke.” She took a gasping breath, staring at Keeley’s head hard enough she could feel it.
“Forgive me for breaking your rules Mistress, I didn’t mean to speak an untruth.” She sounded half freaked.
Keeley suppressed a sigh, this was going to be a problem, if she didn’t take steps to reassure the woman.
“No worries. You can joke, just make sure that people know it, if they don’t start laughing, just to cut down on the confusion. Please continue.” It was interesting, the new information, but as a Demon she was supposed to already know almost everything, right? Eve made a convenient way to get the information herself. It was probably in her memories, she knew it was in fact, from Terry, but this was easier to process while on the road.
“I’m sorry… Daylight doesn’t kill us, not instantly. About like a regular person in a desert, if we’re in any kind of direct sunlight. Then we need more water, blood and possibly some bits of food, in order to keep going, and if it lasts too long, we’ll get sick. Mainly we avoid the daylight because we’re distinctive looking. My kind of Vampire anyway. There are six types, though two are pretty rare. One kind just looks like regular people, no fangs even. The South American Vampires actually look like they’re half bat. I saw one once, about two hundred years ago. It was something to remember. Really kind and gentle, so they mainly hide and drink animal blood. We can do that too, drink animals. It doesn’t taste right, but it works. You just have to make sure they stay alive and it takes more feedings.”
Just as they pulled into the driveway of Darla’s house, hugging the left hand side so that Darla could get out later, if she needed, Darla spoke. Rather “Mrs. Gibson” did. She’d just been sitting, being quiet herself, listening to the whole thing without so much as looking funny at her little sister.
“We all need to talk, once inside.” She had a perfect blankness to all parts of her being, that Keeley had to assume meant she was in trouble.
It almost had to happen, she’d been pretty rude by Demon standards back there. Neither Darla or Dan had called her on it at the time, but she’d probably be in for it now. It had kind of fit with her plan, their plan, for her to pretend to be older, but it was probably too much, and might have ruined whatever plan her sister had with the Vampires. They’d stolen Eve though and then hurt her. That couldn’t be allowed, could it?
She killed off all her pain perception and started making herself heal as fast as possible, so that she might survive the beating to come, but got a hug as soon as they got in from the older looking lady, who still looked remarkably fresh. Keeley felt like a nice shower and maybe a few truck loads of food would be in order for her part.
“For a second I thought you were really just going to kill them all. Thank you for sparing them. They erred, but it shouldn’t be fatal to them. Not yet at least. I do need them for business reasons. You have two more now though. They can stay here for now, but you’ll want to get a new place, locally, if you plan to stay for a while. I don’t have room, and with your pet Lesser Demon taking up one of the rooms already, it’s about to get a little crowded.”
Eve gave her a very funny look.
“Um, I’m sorry, but, have we met? I, this is Darla’s house.” It was a protective sounding statement, which got her looked at by the older woman.
“I’m her grandmother. Or at least that’s what I tell people. If it’s not going to stress you too much, I’ll just tell you the whole of it?”
Keeley blinked. That was kind of new. She sort of planned to just pretend Rebekah and her slave Elis were just friends that were going to be around sometimes. Still, it was her sister’s call. Her person, her house, her rules.
“I can’t prove it right now, I need to eat first, and it will be a while after that for the change, but I’m Darla. I’m actually a Demon. I mentioned that before, when Balthias showed up about two weeks ago? Do you remember that?”
Eve didn’t move for a bit but finally nodded, looked at the wall to the right. It was a nice wall, with a china cabinet and some paintings on the wall.
“I… do. That huge demon thing in the living room? That was pretty intense. I would have bought the whole ergot mold hallucination story if I hadn’t seen it again. I mean, how do you explain that? There was no rye bread in Frieda that day, was there?” She crossed her arms and looked at everyone, but lingered on Elis, then Rebekah.
Keeley thought for a few seconds, “well, flashback of course. Rare that you convinced Gary of it too, but not impossible. Ergot mold is known for causing mass hallucinations like that.” She grinned and spread her hands as Darla moved everyone into seats, the nice cream colored furniture soft and comfortable after the hectic day. “Don’t get me wrong, it all actually happened, but that’s how I’d start explaining it, if I had to.”
“Oh, I can see that. Kind of makes sense. The Vampires are pretty good if they’re fake though.” She seemed suspicious suddenly, Like she wanted to poke and prod them for confirmations sake.
“Um, OK, so, not going insane? Wait, Darla went to church with me once, didn’t refuse to enter or anything, no bursting into flames either…”
That started a rather long discussion about religion and mind control, which Keeley escaped, heading into the kitchen. It wasn’t that Darla was wrong, it just seemed strange that she even cared. Yes, Religion was obviously about controlling people. Why beat the subject to death though? If she wanted to change it, she needed to go about it differently. It was like going into a storm to whine about the rain. You just got all wet and it didn’t stop the storm at all.