The way I discovered the horrible things I see when looking into the eyes of a vampire was in a bar, that’s the easiest place to find them in cities considering the whole nocturnal thing, I was feeling terrible about myself and vampires can pick up on that. I think. They claim to at least. Anyway, this guy came up to me as I got my drink, he wasn’t bad looking at all but I have pretty particular tastes with men and women, so I think he jumped to mesmerizing pretty quickly.

And if you recall, I am immune to that, but what’s important is that it requires eye contact. Given his reaction, I doubt he was expecting me to start screaming or to hit him with my glass, but that’s how it went down.

We both have lifetime bans from that bar.

I recounted that tale to Meritites, which she found hilarious, as she placed a celebratory drink in my hand, I had agreed to work for her. I wasn’t particularly invested in what the Vampiric Council wanted with the city, for or against, I just found it amusing that Meritites wanted to weaken them. Of course I asked why.

“Mainly business my dear.” She sipped her drink, I had watched her prepare them both but at some point hers got a noticeably more crimson colour to it than mine did. “The council stifles my actions, and from my years of experience, it’s nigh-impossible for a vampire to gather the other supernatural creatures loyalties. They all, somewhat rightly, don’t trust my kind, I need an advisor and negotiator. And as a gifted human, they will see less of a chance of being backstabbed. Which helps if they need to be.”

Vampires love to put themselves in charge, though I can’t help but chuckle a bit. “How altruistic of you.”

“I try.” Given her tone it was clear she realized my comment was sarcastic, and played along.

Meritites was fun to talk to, generally charming as most vampires tend to be, but her personality felt actually natural. She was an ancient so maybe it was just a well practiced act, but still, I enjoyed it.

“I’m not going to, like, have to be armed or anything right? Not that I’m against it, I just...I’ve never even held a gun, and-“

Meritites moved her hand in a reassuring movement. “If you would prefer to not then you don’t have to, though any of my men could teach you, plus I have enchanted blades if that’s better for you.”

“No, I’m good…” I couldn’t imagine killing anyone, my grandmother had given me a silver pocket knife for safety when I first came into my powers, I had never pulled it on something. Sure it was far from the safest choice, I just had to bank on the idea that if the council did make a move it’d be on the boss not her consigliere for lack of a better term. What? Sure seems like she wanted to run a supernatural mob to me.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Now one might think I’d be hesitant about being on the ground floor of something like that, but I’ll admit, I’m greedy as hell.

“Now, from my research, I know you have some connections already.” When she said that I had to squirm a bit, that wasn’t untrue, just not as good a deal as that sounded.

“That’s a generous assessment of the situation.” I knew a few of the creatures around, technically had the respect of a werewolf pack, but that respect only goes so far and they’re fond of retreating into the mountains for a good stretch of time whenever it’s least convenient for everyone else.

“I am sure you can make use of what you have.” It was mildly condescending, but clearly trying to be reassuring, guess even an ancient vampire can only keep up her act for so long. “Now then, I have a regular client coming in an hour, and I doubt you’re particularly interested in hearing an old rich man blather on as though I don’t know my own products.”

I didn’t make a comment about that, figuring it better, just thanked her and moved to head out. She stopped me. “You’re not actually planning to walk dear, far too late for that, I’ll have my driver take you home.”

“I really don’t need tha-“

“The council are always watching me, and I am not going to supply my newest employee as prey for them.”

I took the offer of a driver quite happily after she made her reasons clear. And it was a nice ride, some kind of Bentley, I don’t know cars I’ll admit it. Just know the logo and that it was nice looking.

The driver ushered me into the backseat, I figured that was probably the standard protocol when driving Meritites. For her it was probably flaunting her power, for me however, I really just didn’t care.

For a while there was silence, then the driver decided to start asking questions. “So, no offense, but are you like a T.V. psychic or what?”

“Do I look like I’ve ever been on T.V. to you?”

He chuckled at that, and responded with “Guess not, Cops maybe?”

I kind of hate to admit I found that funny, but he started up again soon after the choked laugh I made. “But for real though, the boss talked about some kind of supernatural dealings or whatever. She’s not that bad, for her profession you know? And look, she hires a lot of us with iffy pasts,” She’s a black market art dealer, no shit. “If you’re screwing her over, then it’s a pro-“

“If I was capable of screwing other people over I’d probably live somewhere a lot nicer than I do.” Cutting him off, he shrugged a bit, muttering something about it being a fair point.

“Not that I’m judging if you two are both true believers in that stuff, my mom is certain aliens visited her plenty.” I gave a light grunt of acknowledgement to that, I have no fucking clue if aliens are a thing. Vast expanse of the universe makes me think they have to, but that’s not my field of expertise.

The ride mercifully ended, and I stalked my way back to my apartment, my plan had been to just collapse on my couch and zone out to infomercials for a while but that wasn’t in the cards.

Instead what I found, placed dead centre on my table, was a gun. A revolver. Along with a note and small package. I shakily opened the package to find ammunition, and I had the feeling they weren’t factory standard. Next I check the note.

It read: ‘Hello Maria. Do not worry how I got in, I am a friend. You and I share a similar affliction. Consider these a gift or perhaps a peace offering in advance, a revolver and silver bullets. You walk a dangerous path. We are watching.’

So of course my next move was to close all my curtains and make sure every opening that could be locked was.