Peter had been in the monster-hunting game for years. His father, Grandfather, and countless other generations had been prolific monster hunters. And until several years ago, Peter had also fully intended to become one. Then Emergence happened, and the monsters of humanity saved humanity from invaders. Because of those events, and subsequent rules and regulations, Peter and the Vast majority of his family suddenly found themselves without a job.

Many in his family had taken up teaching self-defense, as a lifetime hunting supernatural beasts had either killed them or made them extremely prolific in combat. Peter's mother had been asked to serve as an ambassador to the Fey as she was known in several political circles.

Peter was still a monster hunter, but he only hunted monsters for two reasons now: if they had a bounty. And the second reason was a special case. One year ago, on a mission to collect a bounty on a Vampire, Peter had come across a young girl, who Peter could see was marked by several beings more powerful than they had any right to be. He also found a Vampire who reeked of eternity, holding Peter's bounty by the neck.

After dealing with the bounty, Peter received a smile from the Arch-Vamp, who wore a military uniform. The Arch-Vamp said he would give Peter an inside track on vamps who were awakening and going to be trouble unless they realized that humanity had advanced long past the point of being prey.

So now, Peter, at the behest of an Arch-Vamp, would occasionally go and retrieve a Vamp who had awakened from a multi-century sleep and make sure that they knew the new rules. Peter was paid handsomely by the Arch-Vamp and had many strange certificates and training certs to his name.

For example, Peter was one of seven people authorized to perform an exhumation on Vatican-owned land as he was now doing. The Vatican had laughed at first, and when Peter had told the Arch-Vamp this over the phone, he had placed Peter on hold for a moment and then returned to the line to chat. While chatting, Peter had seen the man who had laughed at him receive a phone call and then lose all the color to his face. Peter had hung up, and the man had called him 'your grace' for the duration of their contact.

Now though, it was just Peter. This was good because the chained-shut iron coffin, with Latin inscriptions, would not have sat well with the laughing man; Peter could already imagine what the man would have said. So he was glad he was alone as he used the crane on his truck to hoist the coffin into the bed and tossed a tarp over it. He got in his truck and waved goodbye to the laughing man.

Several hours later, Peter had the coffin tipped up in a building specially built for what he was about to do. Peter broke the chains and crossed out key lines in the Latin inscription, quickly stepping back across a purple line on the floor. The coffin's lid fell forward, revealing a tall, pale woman. Peter had to admit she was attractive, he had always liked redheads, but his job was to educate. His boss had made it abundantly clear that the only kind of education this pretty redheaded vamp understood was pain.

Peter sat in a chair, waiting. After about half an hour, the redhead's eyes opened, glowing like a cat's eyes in the dim light. She stepped from the coffin, stretching and letting the rotted cloth of her clothing fall away, leaving her standing in the nude. The first time this had happened, Peter had been quite shocked, now though it was par for the course simply as a matter of anything over two hundred years and not much by way of cloth survives in the ground. However, Peter did appreciate when the lady-vamps did this and could not help a small smile from playing on his lips.

"Like what you see, do you, boy?" The woman said, not flinching away from his gaze; if anything, she seemed to lean into it, popping her chest forward to accentuate her already perky breasts. Peter smiled and nodded, then closed his eyes, knowing what was coming next.

She spoke once more. "Then your sight will be the last thing I take." She rushed forwards, and a blinding flash of heat caused the vampire to scream and rush back into her coffin.

"Why don't we start with the rules," Peter said, pointing to the purple line on the floor. "You cross that line, and the whole area outside of the circle that line forms gets flooded with enough UV light to bake you in less than two seconds."

"Second rule, I am not food. However, I understand that right now you are starving; not having anything to eat for a few hundred years will do that." Peter tossed several pouches of blood collected from volunteers in his family and spelled to prevent any misuse. "Eat. And once you have had your fill, put the clothes next to the coffin on, then we can chat, and hopefully, I can let you go and get home early."

The naked vampire looked bemused but did as he asked, drinking the bags of blood with gusto before dressing in the simple sundress he had found at a thrift shop. She looked at Peter and spoke. "Who are you? And how are you so calm around me? And what is this place?"

"Alright, one question at a time," Peter said, "I am Peter. As to why I am so calm, I used to hunt monsters, and as to this place, well, it is my classroom."

"Your classroom?" She asked, walking around the circle and looking at everything in the room.

Peter quickly gave her a rundown of what had happened during the events of Emergence. "And now monster hunters are not really a thing, but I lucked out. Every now and then, a guy I know tells me where and when a Vamp is going to wake up and helps me get everything I need to greet them and teach them. Unfortunately, a lot of the older vampires, all you want to do is kill humans. So my job is to explain why this is a bad idea other than you would piss off some incredibly powerful people by doing so."

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"Well, you don't have to worry about me; I am not like those others; I just want you…." She said, her tone slipping from inquisitive to seductive in a fraction of a second. Peter only just managed to close his eyes as the flash of UV light sent the vampire screeching away.

"I do need to worry about you. Baroness Elaine Lilinata. I know you used to take particular joy in killing young men in front of their newlywed wives after hypnotizing them into saying you were what they had truly wanted all along." Peter said, walking around the circle. "I also know you would then eat the hearts of the young men and make the wives an offer; if they wished to become immortal, you would make them thralls, and if they did not, you would kill them by drinking as much blood as possible."

Baroness Elaine was watching Peter walk around the circle. "So what, are you going to steak me? Kill me? Try and hurt me?"

"Well," Peter smiled and looked a the Baroness, "I think I have been fairly successful in hurting you thus far. No, I actually don't want to hurt you; I have no desire to hurt anyone anymore. I am here to educate you specifically about why it would be a bad idea for you to go back to your old ways. As far as I can tell, the last time you were up and about and moving around of your own will, the only things that could hurt you were wooden steaks and the sun, correct?"

"And the cross." The Baroness said.

"During the cultural exchange with the vampires, they revealed that the cross does not harm your kind, and it was a common agreement enforced by the vampire lords to prevent humanity from dying out by overhunting, so please don't pretend to be hurt by the will of God," Peter said.

"Your a well-informed little brat. I will give you that. The way you talk, though," the Baroness sounded thoughtful, "makes it sound as if you can hurt my kind now, other than your little trick with whatever mirrors are reflecting the light when I leave the circle."

Peter smiled and opened a sunroof outside the circle, displaying a gorgeous moon view. "It's not mirrored, and I can assure you humanity has progressed farther than you know."

"I doubt that. I doubt that very much." The Baroness said. "Very well, I shall make you a deal, young Peter. Every time you make me call out in pain, I will submit to one night as your slave; you may use me as you want."

"And then, in the end, you kill me," Peter said with a chuckle. "Though it would be outside your normal schtick, as I do not have a newlywed wife for you to torment." Peter glanced at the Barroness's figure for a moment. "Though other than the death, I will admit, the thought is appealing. Regardless, I don't make deals; I am paid well enough for this."

"Then how about this," The Baroness said, walking right to the edge of the circle painted on the floor, "if you can make me cry out even once, I will grant you any one wish I am capable of, and will agree to whatever binding magics you require to make it okay in your eyes."

Peter had also heard this deal before, and he always took them up on it. "Are you sure that you want to do this? If you do, I will take you up on that deal." Peter asked.

"Oh, I am sure, sure that a little boy like you knows nothing of pain and would struggle to even make me cum, let alone scream." the facade of the Baroness fell away, leaving a snarling vampire in its wake.

Peter smiled and walked to lift the twelve gauge shotgun to his shoulder as he turned back to the Baroness. He smiled wickedly and pulled the trigger, watching her eyes widen in shock as her mouth seemed to open for a scream, and then it snapped shut.

This went on for several moments, Peter would rack the slide back and chamber another shell, and he would watch the fear mount in the Baroness's eyes. Despite being shot four times, her body did not bleed, and any punctures in her flesh healed almost instantly.

"That is a shotgun here in America where I have brought you; it is a safe bet that almost everyone has one. Next, we have a standard nine-millimeter handgun with hollowpoint rounds." Peter leveled the gun and quickly mag dumped all twelve rounds into the Barroness's chest, finally eliciting a scream from her.

"These particular weapons won't kill you, but these particular weapons are something found the world over, especially after the resurgence of weapon ownership after Emergence. Suppose you decide to go on a rampage and kill people. In that case, there will be any number of people who are more than happy to spend however long is needed shooting you repeatedly to ensure that you are held by the authorities."

Peter had locked eyes with the Baroness and continued to speak, watching understanding wash over her. "Now, fortunately, plenty of people like the idea of being portable blood for vampires, and that is any vampire. I am sure that a woman as beautiful as you would have no lack of offers. But there are some rules."

Peter brazenly crossed the line to hand her a booklet titled 'Rules and regulations governing vampires and other heliotropes.' Peter stepped back outside the line and then spoke once more. "The only other rule that I must push upon you is you are not to make any more vampires. Doing so will invoke a treaty we hold with the ancients of every race, and they will hunt you down and destroy you in a horrendous way. Do you understand these rules and the lessons that I have been trying to teach you?"

"Yes, I do." The Baroness said. "Now what?"

"Now I let you out of the circle, and I take you to the country of your choice, as we know that a lot of you vamps have hidden stashes of gold and silver, that way we don't have to worry about you ending up on welfare or something else," Peter said and walked over to a wall to enter a code into a keypad disabling the UV systems. When he turned around, The Baroness was nearly touching noses with him.

"And what is to stop me now from killing you?" The Baroness snarled.

Sighing, Peter pulled a needle from the table and pricked his finger, proffering the wound to the Baroness. "Go ahead. You will understand in a moment."

The Baroness, thinking it to be a bluff, made to take the wounded finger into her mouth, then she caught a whiff of Peter's blood and recoiled in fear. He smelled of one of the thirteen princes. The Baroness stepped back. "You smell of his highness Victor."

"Yeah, Vic is my employer; he said he had done something to ensure I would not be targeted by the vamps. He asked me to help." Peter said and then quickly bandaged his finger. "Vic wanted me to pass on that he expects you to follow the rules, and you are more than welcome to contact him in the usual way, whatever that means. You are free to go."

When he next turned around, Peter was alone in the room. He wasn't sure if he liked how Vic had wanted this lesson taught, but it worked. "I wonder if they question their immortality when they see how humans have advanced. Or at least wonder how close they come to death every time they interact with us."

Peter shrugged and set about cleaning the room before he went to sleep and prepared for the next day in his seemingly ever-interesting life.