Chapter 26: A New Beginning

  I awoke on Maggie’s couch. At least that was the name she introduced herself with when I awoke. She squatted down with her feet flat on the ground, so we could be roughly eye level. My head felt clear enough that I vaguely remembered being fooled by her shouts earlier in the day.

  A burning hunger lurked in my fangs as I stared into the cat woman's light green eyes. Her short cropped burnt umber hair looked a mess from having removed the helmet at some point. Maggie held her wrist out with a nervous smile.

  “I don't have any blood cans,” she said, nodding toward the wrist. “But I have me. Just don't take too much, okay?”

  I grabbed the mortal woman’s wrist and bit into it. She tensed awkwardly for a moment until I began to drink and the Kiss’s effects took hold in her mind. Her long fluffy tail swished from one side to the other as she watched, heartbeat thumping loudly in my ears.

  Maggie wanted to be alert, as she had a night operation in an hour or two. Something about infiltrating behind enemy lines to disrupt their supplies. So of course, I took as much as was required to placate the ache. Nothing more. This left the cat woman slightly dazed and fuzzy eyed as I cleaned the wound, making it disappear from sight.

  She giggled softly once more. “That felt weird… and everything is so bright now. See, chat? So shiny… Being bitten by a vampire isn't that bad! Even if she looks weird on stream.”

  My eyes fluttered in response. Glancing around the room, I found a camera pointed right at me with a light to illuminate the couch, which also had a few bright colored blankets set up to make the couch seem like a bedroom.

  “Are you recording us right now?” I asked.

  Maggie nodded firmly. “Mhm! I record four days a week from the time I get up to when I go to bed. By the way, chat calls you Officer Bubbles.”

  “Why?!” I narrowed my eyes at the camera.

  She stepped away from me, giggling once again like a drunken noble I just drained. The cat woman will be looking paler for about a week. “Ah, well… I couldn't drag you to your room, so I put you on the couch and chat was curious what vampires did in their sleep.”

  “We just lay there like a dead corpse,” I deadpanned.

  “I noticed. It was creepy.” She threw her arms out to her sides in a shrug and shook her head, tail swishing from side to side once again. One of her ears twitched toward the computer for a moment, then turned in my direction again. “Sorry.”

  I got up from the couch, checked over my pistol to make sure it was still there and loaded, and headed for the door. “It's fine.” No, it was not fine. Not in the slightest. The woman could have told me we were being recorded before I bit into her wrist. Perhaps I should have assumed we were. Now who knows how many people just saw me bite into my neighbor’s wrist! Oh sure, her blood was full of energy and flavorful, but that wasn't the point!

  I slowed to a stop at the kitchen counter and looked over my shoulder at her. “You know I could arrest you.”

  “For what, officer?” She cocked her head.

  “Making me feed from a living person. That is illegal.”

  “Outside of a domicile. This is my home, therefore it is considered private.” She shrugged again. “As the law states, which I looked up before you awoke, it is illegal to feed from a living person in a public setting. A home is not considered public as long as we are inside a room where people cannot just wander into. And that room is lived in full-time.”

  “And the stream? That is public.”

  “It’s still in my home.”

  I hissed and left the apartment, slamming the door hard enough it darn near cracked the frame. I had somewhere to be and Dinner was on their way to my old house to meet the druids. After grabbing my things from my apartment and heading downstairs, I found Carlisle waiting for me at the curb with his white four-door sedan. The man leaned on the fender, one foot on the tire as he smoked from a cigar. Almost as if he was trying to impress me. It only made me fold my arms across my chest and glare at him.

  “What?” he replied.

  “My neighbor is an uncouth woman who thinks it's funny to livestream me feeding from her arm. Go up there and arrest her.”

  He shrugged. “Okay, Karen.”

  “My name is Sandra, not Karen.”

  Carlisle put the cigar out and slid the remainder in a metal tube, capping it. He twirled it about in his hand, smirking at me. “You're not doing a very good job of blending in with the modern day. Look, Sandra, did you know you were being recorded?”

  I nodded. “She had a recording setup when I walked into her apartment, but I didn't know she was still recording after I fell asleep.”

  “Then I can't do anything.” He pushed away from the car and waved a hand toward the city. “If we arrested every vampire who fed on their friends or spouse in private we’d have an overflowing jail system.”

  I blinked as I approached the car, reaching for the door handle. “What? Why would I be arrested?!”

  “Because you drank her blood, not the poor defenseless mortal under your spell. It's stupid, but that's how Halifax set the law. We are supposed to control our fangs and fear the M.V.A.”

  “The what?”

  “Bad news cops well above my paygrade. Don't think I can protect you from them either, because Lady Isabella uses the Ministry of Vampire Affairs to watch everywhere.”

  “I want to speak with Halifax.” And get my throne back. I had to ignore her name as best I could. If my sire was running the vampire police, then that wasn’t good. She hated the law when I ruled Encinar, so it didn't really make sense to me, but two centuries is a long time and she could change her mind as she saw fit.

  His bellowing laugh echoed off the building as he slapped his hands together. “Good fucking luck with that one! Let's go, we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  I frowned at the man. Perhaps going into torpor again wasn't such a bad idea after all. I’d not have to deal with the nonsense that was going on and maybe. Just maybe, they would revert back to the old days. Or even better. Go back to before technology existed.

  Just how long will that take? A hundred years? A few thousand?

  *** ***

  I calmed down considerably by the time we arrived at my old home. Or rather, what was left of the building. The house and barn were completely flattened with nothing remaining. The construction company kept their strange machines on the property, because they hadn't fully picked up all the debris. Someone forgot to warn them about the false basement and one poor machine fell into it. I wondered what would happen had I been asleep in my coffin. Staked again probably or flattened. Maybe burned to ash.

  Dinner’s rusty car sat near the base of the hill Amelia’s tree towered over. Parked next to the modified Veren was a black SUV with slightly older styling, but well maintained. The car was as shiny as could be and had shiny off-road tires with gnarly lugs. It looked capable of going just about anywhere, as it had a lot more rubber than Caleb’s truck.

  Carlisle pulled up next to the group and stared at Dinner’s car. “That old car looks familiar…” he muttered to himself.

  Underneath the large oak tree, Dinner leaned on a cane with a pair of people that weren't Lyra. Amelia’s glowing form sat on a branch looking down at them while one person talked with Dinner, and a wild brightly haired woman set items on the ground.

  Dinner wore cozy baggy pants and a baggy sweater again. Their hair was styled off to the side in a way that looked just a bit cute, exposing one half of a shaved head where metal plating replaced some skin. I hadn't noticed it the other day, because their chin length hair kept it hidden in the club.

  I climbed out of Carlisle’s car and walked up the hill where my eyes fell upon the tired human woman with wild neon green hair. Her patchwork clothes fit her body nicely. The colors were fairly muted with scuffs and mud stains around the ankles. As for her long bright green hair, it was odd, because it was made of nothing but leaves! Vibrant green leaves protruded out from a dusty top hat and cascaded down from her scalp to her lower back where an Old World gun belt sat with a heavy looking revolver in it.

  The elf with her slowly reached into his jacket pocket with two fingers as he said, “I am reaching for the permit, officers. Do not fret. We are both armed, but not hostile. This can be a cordial encounter if you keep calm.”

  “No need.” Carlisle shook his head and flicked a hand in my direction. “I have the property owner right here.”

  Dinner waved, half-saluting, as did the others, so I waved back. Dinner motioned between me and the others as they introduced me to Anita and Kevin. An elf named Kevin was odd, but I assumed he had a fake name.

  However, as Carlisle bumped fists with Dinner, he frowned and pointed in their direction with his other hand. “Do I know you?” he asked.

  The lanky half-elf shook their head and pressed their lips together. “Nope.” They clicked their tongue as they tapped the cane into the ground. Then Dinner turned to me and smiled, causing me to smile in turn. “I’ll catch you later, yeah? My back’s killing me right now.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Their voice said otherwise, but I got the hint.

  I nodded. “I will let you know what we find.”

  “I can fix it,” Anita said, turning to look toward Dinner. I wanted to groan, but kept my mouth shut. The leaf-haired human smiled nervously when everyone looked at her. “I’m an arch druid healer,” she added with a wave to herself. “Able to mend bones, resurrect the dead, heal illnesses, you know. Ancient World magic. Little problems like broken bones take only a few minutes.”

  The following silence from the wide-eyed lanky half-elf could chop a ship in two. No one spoke for a good long while as we all looked from person to person while Anita appeared mildly confused at the silence.

  Finally, Dinner waved a hand about as they shook their head from side to side. “Oh no, it's fine! Thank you. I have surgery on Friday to get a cyberspine installed. Flesh is weak and all that.”

  Anita looked between us until she finally picked up that Dinner didn't want to be around Carlisle. She spun around and stared at the tree. “So this tree is with a wandering spirit?” she asked awkwardly.

  I nodded. “Yes. She is watching us.” I pointed up to where the glowing woman sat. Amelia waved, so I waved.

  “I can see her.” Anita nodded to my rose, then knelt before the large oak tree and arranged her items around a ritualistic symbol in the ground. “The Great Mother sometimes makes mistakes when it comes to creating dryads and they end up without a body. It's where forest spirits come from. Usually, they go unnoticed until a dryad like me comes along and sees ‘em. I don't know how a vampire was able to see this one.”

  “She is my partner,” I said.

  “Be that as it may, you shouldn't be able to see her. She is a life spirit, you are undead. These two things are not compatible. Not in love, not in sight.”

  “I communed with the Great Mother quite a bit before I took a two hundred year nap.” I flicked a hand toward the shattered moon for emphasis.

  Anita stopped what she was doing to glance up at me, fingers gently tapping the ground. “The Great Mother is the tree which supports the entire world, not a moon, and She does not speak to vampires.”

  “Well, I call the moon ‘Great Mother’, as that is what She told me Her name was. I thought perhaps you did the same. Because while you may be a creature of life, and I am undead. Life becomes death in the end and death brings new life with it. It is a cycle in which She allows our souls to move from one world to the next. When they give me their blood, they become closer to Her for just a moment.”

  The wild haired human shook her head. Anita gently set an acorn on top of a small bit of tree bark in the center of her strange symbol. She gently placed her hands together and closed her eyes.

  Kevin picked a branch-like staff up off the ground and began drawing his own symbol in the dirt around Anita.

  “What are they doing?” Carlisle whispered, leaning in.

  I shrugged. “I have no fucking clue.”

  “We normally don't work with, or for, vampires,” Anita began. Her fingertips glowed softly as they elongated into what looked like inhuman skeletal hands made of bark. Her hair took on a soft green glow as magic flowed down her shoulders in the shape of vines. Each leaf pulsed and shimmered with her breath. Anita’s heavily tanned skin hardened, resembling bark more than skin. The vine-like bracers around her wrists fused with her body and followed their way to her fingers until they formed drooping roots.

  “But my boss said to come help with a favor,” Anita added as she placed the roots on the ground and closed her eyes. “So I am here.”

  “You're with the Rocklin Mob, aren't you?” Carlisle replied. He flexed his hands and moved them closer to the fold in his jacket. “Most of you old druids are.”

  “I am employed by an independent entity whose concern is helping lost souls, nothing more. Nothing less. My personal concern is with an imbalanced tree. Now, corpse, allow me to work, or I will move your soul into the next life for you.”

  I motioned for silence from Carlisle.

  He sighed through his nose as he looked up at the tree branches in an attempt to find Amelia. The spirit waved down at me, but Carlisle didn't see her, eyes darting from limb to limb. “So this oak tree is a person?” he asked.

  “Last warning,” Anita replied. “The next time you open your mouth will be to scream as you leave your next mother’s womb.”

  I didn’t want any part of that, so I dragged Carlisle down the hill before I got to see life magic in action first hand. As much as I wanted to ask Dinner why they didn't want to be near Carlisle. I had a feeling that it was related to their work as a mercenary. Carlisle could have hidden his badge, but the man chose to wear it around his neck again and instructed me to follow suit. I didn't really want to play his game, but I had to for the rest of the night. The issue with playing Carlisle’s game was that it wasn't who I was and being a detective was, quite frankly, boring.

  I yearned for the sea as I looked out across the strange sky. To hold Amelia’s hand again as we sailed the Caribbean, sneaking cargo into ports right under the crown’s noses. But alas, that time has long passed and the world moved on while I slept through it all. Two hundred years gone in an instant for me. However, I have a small inkling that perhaps I may have been awake longer than I thought. At least, if the Internet and some people were to be believed. If not, well. I’ll never forgive my sire for robbing me of two centuries.

  Even if Amelia might’ve died from old age. There were other ways my sire could have dealt with the situation. Staking me only to kill me two centuries later seems far-fetched. Something must've changed her mind, but what?

  My sire had the answers, but so might Jean.

  I took my phone from my pocket as I reached the bottom of the hill where the cars were parked.

  “Yeah,” Dinner’s voice distracted me from the phone. They sat inside their rusty car with the windows down, their own phone to their ear. “She’s talking to them now.”

  They didn't see me approaching, because they were curled up in their seat with their feet splayed out the window and eyes shut. An unreasonable assumption would be that the lanky half-elf was talking to my sire about me. I could pull the pistol and put it to their head to find out, but they put their neck out to rescue me from her fledglings. The rational thing to do was simply knock on the car’s roof to get their attention.

  Upon hearing the noise, they glanced in my direction, eyes flicking toward Carlisle for a moment before returning to me. He stood off to the side with his arms folded across his chest and his own eyes closed. I don't know what he was doing, but it made Dinner go quiet. The half-elf looked up at me, whispering, “Why are you hanging out with a cop?”

  “I needed his help yesterday and now he won't leave.”

  “Want me to stake him and put him in a cryo coffin? I can make sure he isn't a problem.”

  “Cryo… coffin?” I whispered.

  “I have to go, Mike. Love you,” Dinner said before hanging up. They smiled with their turquoise eyes, patting my hand. “She’s my main partner.”

  “Main… partner?” That was an odd thought.

  “Mhm! You don't mind, do you? I, like, forgot to mention her when we were at the club. Well, she was supposed to meet me there if my other date didn’t show, but he didn’t and I met you!”

  I shook my head from side to side. “No. Why would I mind?” Dinner was their own person. I was a hideous hag. They were just following me around because I’m paying them, yet they haven’t really asked for money beyond the first night.

  They glanced toward Carlisle again and raised their voice to get his attention, but he probably heard us whispering anyway. “What are you doing?” Dinner asked.

  He opened his eyes, shrugging. “I was told to be quiet, so I’m being quiet.”

  “Have you spoken to Lyra recently?” I asked Dinner.

  Dinner nodded. “Mhm! She is busy though. Like, holy shit is she busy. She totally had me on hold for a solid hour and a half last night!”

  I held a finger to my lips, because that wasn't a topic for conversation. Just a yes or no. Again, Dinner nodded in acknowledgement, so I patted the car’s roof, causing the machine to echo in reply.

  “How does one become a Salvage Pilot?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “You, like, apply for a gene scan.” Dinner shrugged.

  “What is a gene scan?”

  “They look at your DNA.”

  All I could do was stare blankly at the half-elf as the words flew over my head like a dragon.

  “But you’re an…” Their eyes fluttered before they inhaled, nodding slowly. “Okay then… I’ll explain genes later. Now, if you have the gene, you can actually select the class. Otherwise you’ll get stuck as a regular Pilot. Which isn’t a bad gig. Why, thinking of flying?”

  I sighed through my nose and closed my eyes, hoping that there was some future out there for me. I was old, I was out of touch, the world didn't care enough about me to search for me when I was gone and that. That left a knot in my stomach that her presence only worsened. I couldn't stay in Encinar, not even South Encinar. There had to be another place for me, but anywhere beyond Encinar would mean I’d have to hide who I was and start over.

  Carlisle threw his hands out and said, “Alright. I’ve had enough. I’ll see you around.” The man waved as he opened his car door.

  Both Dinner and I watched the man drive off into the night before Dinner smiled and asked, “Wanna go see a movie?”

  “Sure, I need to think about if I want to be a Pilot or not.”

  *** ***

  Dinner dragged me to a theatre playing movies 24/7. The movie of choice was about a couple of thieves trying to win a card tournament on a riverboat. Now seeing media through a handheld device is one thing, but sitting in a dark room reminiscent of an old stage play only to have the entire wall taken up by a display screen was something else entirely. Just as the music and voices coming from everything was awe inspiring.

  I never expected technology to advance far enough to replace plays. But here Dinner and I sat sharing a massive bowl of popcorn, watching a comedy movie. By sharing, I mean I was drinking synthetic blood from a fountain cup while I had to expend blood to make myself ‘alive’ enough that I could eat the salty buttery treat, which still tasted like ash. It’ll come back up later, but I figured I could hold it down during the movie.

  We sat close to the projector so we had a full view of the screen and all the privacy I could imagine. On the drive over, Dinner mentioned that I looked quite parched and would need a ‘fresh’ meal. The only problem with that was if Dinner truly had surgery coming in the next couple days, then they would need all the blood they had.

  Roughly halfway into the film, Dinner took hold of my right hand and just held it. Their hand was fairly warm to the touch compared to mine. So I locked my fingers around theirs and allowed them to transfer the warmth. It felt a bit awkward, so I looked around first to make sure we were alone. Of course, we were in darkness, so no one would see us holding hands. But I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched and Carlisle’s words about my sire made me worry.

  I don’t know how she could ‘see everything’ from her office. If she did then that wasn’t a good thing. She could be leaning over my shoulder waiting for me to fuck up. Just to tell me how terrible of a fledgling I was.

  I think Dinner noticed my hesitation, because they whispered, “Everything alright?”

  “It is strange,” I whispered back as I leaned close so they could actually hear me. “I am not used to being affectionate in public with someone who is not a man.”

  Dinner shrugged. “It's just holding hands. Like, as I said when we first met; you can call me a dude or a lady or neither. I don’t care.”

  Just holding hands. After they said I was cute?

  I cocked an eyebrow at the half-elf before looking at the movie again. Dinner and I held hands for the rest of the movie while sharing popcorn. Though, I tried to eat very little, as the more food I ate the more would come up later, and the more blood I needed to use. The Blood Reserve bar was steadily depleting, but not at a fast enough rate to truly worry about. What with an 8.2L capacity and I was down to 4.1L. I had more important worries on my mind. I could feel my gut churning with the thought of even more mortal food being forced upon it. It didn't want mortal food and wasn’t liking it. It wanted vampire blood.

  After the movie was over, Dinner asked if I wanted to follow them to another screen. There was still quite a bit of starlight out and we hadn't been texted by Anita just yet, so I relieved myself of the popcorn in the restroom and followed Dinner to another screen.

  The next movie was a love story set on a doomed steamship sailing through the ice flows. A familiar tale told to me by a woman named Anna, but shipwrecks are fairly common from world to world. The movie started off great, but I had to get up and leave the theatre when the ship began sinking. I don't know why. Something about the movie rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I thought they would fix the ship and everything would be fine. Even though I knew it was all fake, as Dinner assured me, I couldn't help but feel a very real and primal fear of that same event happening to Amelia and I.

  It would have been worse for us, because there was no chance of a rescue. My sire and I would be doomed if my ship ever went down. We’d be burnt to a crisp unless we could hide under thick clothes for the day.

  Dinner followed me outside the theatre where I leaned on a tree with my eyes closed and head resting on the trunk, taking deep breaths to calm myself. I held a can of blood in my hand as I listened to my heart pretend to be alive. It was faster than it should be, which meant I was feeling a mortal emotion of some kind. One I hadn’t felt in a while.

  The lanky half-elf leaned on the opposite side of the tree, staring off into the parking lot. “Heard any news from the druids?” they asked.

  “No. Lyra said the ritual could take up to a full night to cast properly. It all depends on how Amelia handles it.”

  “I’m curious, what does she look like?”

  My eyes opened as I stared up at the partially cloudy night sky and smiled to myself. “A beautiful dark-haired woman from Boston filled with a heart of joy. I don't expect you to understand why. I don't even understand why, because we were enemies at one time. She stalked my sire and I through the night and could have killed us during the day, but chose not to.”

  Dinner nodded firmly. “And she's okay with… us?”

  I leaned around the tree to give Dinner a perplexed stare. “Us?”

  “Mhm.” They smiled. “I wasn't lying when I said I thought you were cute. You're adorable! Scary sometimes, like when you're looking at me as if I’m food, but adorable. I want to see you more.”

  “But I’m a monster, Dinner. I feed from the living and the undead. People want me turned to ash.”

  They shrugged half-heartedly, tossing their arms out a bit. “People want me dead, too, but, like, I mean that won't happen. If you're a monster, then so am I. Sandra, I would like… more than just friends. If y-you want it, too. What I’m saying is that I love you.”

  I don't know how I didn't see the signs from the museum trip to the movie trip. It was a date. All of it had been a date! Well, one that Lyra got dragged on.

  Slowly, I blinked at the half-elf. They weren't bad to be around. Fun even. I didn't mind their company and wanted to genuinely see them not in pain. If I could help them with that then all the better, but was that love? Is that what 'normal’ dating is like now? People just go places with each other and not fight?

  “I… I don't know what to say!” I rubbed the back of my neck. I hadn't even talked it over with Amelia yet. The nights have just been too hectic until now. It caused me to frown deeply.

  “You can call me Mabel if you’d like,” they said, nodding.

  “That's a nice name, Mabel.” I grinned.

  Their eyes widened in surprise. “But, like, not around other people! Please. I have a reputation to protect and Lieutenant Commander Ripper sounds much better than Lieutenant Commander Mabel.”

  I snapped my fingers and grinned at the half-elf. “I’ll probably forget in, like, five minutes. That's how you said it, yes?”

  Mabel buried their face in their hands and groaned. “Yeah… yeah, that's how I said it.” They shook their head and rubbed their face until the small smile disappeared. “I was drunk and high, alright? But like, do you wanna go somewhere else? There's still moonlight.”

  “Surprise me, dear.”