Dead and Everything (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 2) by P. S. Power Page A

it had been about twenty minutes since
she’d left. Because, clearly, she was freaking awesome. Also bored out of her gourd at the moment.
    They
waited, with Lenore acting like Eve was going to drop at any moment. Nothing
happened though, until Ed and Cormack came in, at about the same time that
several Vampires and Humans did.
    Almost
all of them were there to complain about the Vampires being outed, if for
different reasons. Two of the regular people thought that their neighbors were
undead, and were scared, and one, a guy that looked a bit familiar, was just
trying to get a peanut butter parfait.
    Eve did
that one herself, jumping up to help him. He never bothered to look over at
her, his focus being behind him, on the Vampires.
    Smiling
she made it for him and then handed it over, waving the five dollar bill that
he tried to hand to Lenore away.
    “Everyone?
This is Ben. From the role playing group? He’s…A friend of mine.”
    The man,
who was bearded, but well cared for, being trimmed and recently washed, half
turned to look at her, his eyes going wide.
    “ Eve ?
What are you doing here?”
    He
seemed pretty shocked by the change of events, which was either really good
acting or cluelessness, but Eve just winked at him.
    “I work here. One of my jobs at least. Let’s chat, while you eat?”
    She
pointed to the yellow seated booths along the far wall, and moved around the
cracked counter, feeling fine again. That shocked her, since she’d figured it
would be longer, after her last weeks of constant walking.

Chapter six
     
    The man,
who managed not to be a fat beard somehow she couldn’t exactly put her finger
on, even though he was a bit overweight and had a beard, grinned at her as he
took a spoonful of the frosty concoction that she’d made.
    “Oh,
this is really good.” He took a second bite, looking at her covertly,
pretending not to be wondering what was going on. After a bit, one hand on the
cold paper cup, he glanced over at Edom, who wore a suit sans jacket under a
green apron, and Cormack, who was sturdy looking. More like a soldier than
someone that should be fixing treats, or in this case, cups of blood.
    That
reminded her, so she hopped up and dashed to the back, grabbing the remaining
blood in her pack. It was still cool to the touch, but closing in on room
temperature. That meant its shelf life had gone down a lot. She reviewed her
internal links, and decided that refreshing them wouldn’t hurt. After all, the
ones that she had were getting weak suddenly. It wasn’t the animals, but her
letting the links go, after using them so much, running like that. Without even
thinking about it she poured one of the remaining bottles in into a ceramic
mug, and put the remainder in the blood cooler. The silver box wasn’t that
huge, since there just weren’t that many Vampires in the area.
    Ben
spent his time watching the others, especially a cute looking woman in an old
fashioned skirt, and no visible makeup, who was insisting that she be allowed
to kill her neighbor.
    “The man
is a menace! He killed my hydrangeas. I mean to say, he snuck over during the
day while I slept and ripped them up. His scent was all over them. Simply
because I asked, very politely, that if his dogs, plural, were going to use my
yard as a latrine, if he might try to scoop up after them. I didn’t complain
about the holes that they made, just the mess left behind. I won’t take it
anymore!” She was so furious that her eyes turned blood red, and her teeth
popped out.
    From
what she said, it was clear that she was a day sleeper, so not ancient, but she
wasn’t a kid either, and managed to get her teeth and eyes under control after
half a minute. Ben saw it though, and suddenly seemed scared.
    Eve
reached out and touched his sleeve as she slid back into place across from him.
    “Don’t
worry, she isn’t pissed at you . So, what brings you to Yoghurt World, if
it isn’t about getting a date with me? Maggie mentioned