The ballroom of Tanner’s estate was lit up with golden glassed lanterns. The best of the worst were all in attendance. Enid leaned on the balcony overlooking the dancers below. She felt a hand on the small of her back and she glanced back to see Henry looking like the dashing rogue he was. She mused how much she had once disliked the man. She stood up and kissed him passionately. He looked her up and down.

“You are surely the most radiant woman in all of the ocean’s blue. Sarah O’Connor.”

She kissed him again as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her in.

“And you are a hopeless romantic.”

He stepped forward to look over the ballroom below his arm wrapped around her waist.

“I would have been lost without you this year. I would say you’ve topped anything my former wife has ever managed to do, and you did it without angering our staff.”

“Our staff?”

He smiled.

“You still will not relent to wed me will you?”

“No matter how many times you ask, my answer will always be no. Ask Rose.”

He chuckled.

“And how am I turn her eyes away from you?”

“You’re the father of her unborn child, that is enough in a lot of cases.”

He glanced in the direction of the woman they spoke of.

“She does look radiant tonight. What does her…master think of that?”

“He and I had a conversation. He understands his place now.”

He spun her around and pulled her close. His eyes were half-closed as he breathed in her scent.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what Henry?”

“Wrap people around your fingers. Its like people know you were born to lead them.”

“Many years of practice and therapy.”

“What is therapy?”

Enid smiled and kissed him.

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

Henry’s eyes drifted to the far end of the ball room and Enid saw fear in them.”

She followed his gaze and saw her younger self. She recalled these balls. She’d come to them to make sure the vampires behaved themselves. It was a rare occasion since her childhood she would wear a dress. She recalled this night as well. Her eyes had barely left Rosilend. What she didn’t recall was Fanny Tanner being absent, or Hazel and Helen being present. Henry glanced at her.

“You said she was your woman, is she here to do me harm?”

Enid shook her head.

“No, though I suspect she will want to speak to me. Our last…gathering did not go to plan. I should go see her.”

Enid leaned over and kissed Henry’s cheek. He grabbed her as she tried to leave pulling her close for a full kiss. She could feel firmness against her thigh.

“Must you?”

“Business before pleasure, my dear Henry. We have all night.”

He released her and watched her as she gracefully made her way down the half spiral staircase and as she made her way across the ballroom. As Enid approached her younger self their eyes met. Her younger self moved to meet her, she looked displeased. She spoke quietly

“You are bordering on breaking the covenants with your ever action. You are…fornicating with a human.”

The elder held up two fingers.

“Two humans, keep up Enid Aurelius.”

She watched as her younger self’s emerald, green eyes became laser focused on her.

“How do you know that name?”

“I know many things about you, child. Your name is the least of them.”

She felt her younger self grab her arm. Enid didn’t resist. Finally, her younger self stopped at the center of the estate’s gardens.

“You are wrong. All wrong. I can’t get a read on you. What are you?”

“Some might call me the Atlantean?”

Her younger self blinked at her.

“I’ve heard whispers…someone so old and powerful even my father’s will bends to hers. I thought they were legends… like Lilith.”

“I’m very real, but I’m not what you think I am.”

“You’re an ancient vampire. Even Isis hesitates to speak of your existence.”

“I’m not a vampire. I am a vampire when I wish to be.”

“You make no sense.”

“I am a primordial being, much like the Black Son. God. Your father. I am a facet of creation. The rules of this universe do not apply to me. I am what I wish to be.”

“Why do you waste time with mortals?”

Enid reached down and cupped a rose in her palm.

“There are many reasons, boredom, pleasure, procreation, in Henry’s case… necessity of the hunt.”

“And Roseilund?”

Enid released the rose she’d had cupped in her palm.

“Rose is purely pleasure and companionship. Why do you care?”

“She’s a mortal. She should be left to her own devices. Not manipulated by whatever you are.”

Enid looked at her younger self.

“Does Enid the Reaper of Souls actually care about a mortal?”

Her younger self crossed her arms and glared at her elder.

“No, I am simply concerned about ensuring the existence of vampires remains secret.”

“Oh, she already knows about us silly child. Francisco’s amateurish feeding and comical attempts at secrecy have ensured that.”

Her younger self looked pissed and started towards the ball. Enid grabbed her arm. Her younger self struggled against her but was no match for the strength of a vampire so many centuries older.

“What would that accomplish?”

“The law and order must be maintained.”

“I know that I’m the one who inspired your covenants. I was responsible for the Pogrom and telling your father I would not have had to do it if he had enforced laws instead of wallowing in despair.”

Her younger self relaxed.

“Then why did you stop me.”

“Because what would killing him accomplish? You know in Port Royal most laws are treated like guidelines. Why should yours be any different? You’ll create a power vacuum, for what? To enforce the letter of the law? You’ll kill the woman you’re crushing on?”

“You sound like my daughter.”

“Eyre is a very wise woman. Wiser than you in a lot of instances.”

Her younger self’s focus changed entirely to her now.

“I mean, barring some incredibly stupid choices, like getting captured by a fallen angel and his vampire horde.”

“What?”

“It’s alright, I rescued her and dealt with the vampires, child. Hmm some hundred or so years ago now I believe.”

“She never told me this.”

“Nor will she ever. I asked her not too. You’re just lucky your gift is failing you in my case, when she looked past my thin veil of mortality she was blinded for hours.”

“Why are you here?”

“The same reason I’m everywhere. There are demons in our midst or was the worm I obliterated with our sword not enough to prove that.”

“There hasn’t been a demon in the world since I closed the mouth of Orcus in Greece.”

“That is because I’ve been slaying them all, Enid.”

“Why have I never seen you before?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Oh, you have, but I erased your memories of me. It was for the best at least for the timeline.”

“You’re going to do it again aren’t you?”

“I’ll need too, I’m sorry. The future depends on it.”

“You keep saying timeline, future… are you from the future?”

Enid just smiled at her younger self.

“If I am?”

“Then you’re risking messing things up.”

“Oh, trust me the demons are doing more then enough of that for ten of me. Enid you are…pivotal to the future. That is why I am here. You see the demons aren’t just here to cause chaos, they’re hunting you. The problem they have is, they aren’t sure which…”

Enid let her shape fall to her natural one.

“Of us you are.”

Enid shifted back to her Sarah face. She silently pondered if even with all the memory erasure her face stuck with her younger self and that’s how Sarah, Superhero came to be… She waved the thought away realizing in that direction lay madness. Her younger self blinked at her in disbelief.

“How…did you do that?”

“I learned it from a Cursed in the far east. I know many secrets, but that one is what has kept you out of the demon’s clutches for centuries. Abadden was likely spying on you in particular. Why they are interested in Port Royal’s criminal element I have no clue but now I know it will make them easier to track down.”

“How? I couldn’t sense it… I usually…”

“Intense period cramps. I know. Trust me I know. Any other questions you want to ask before I erase your memories of me entirely?”

“Why are you doing this?”

Enid put her arm around her younger self shoulders.

“Because I must. For me these demons are cancers growing inside the fabric of space-time. You see Reality is teetering on the brink of obliteration. And the demons in their search for you, and possibly me are shoving it ever closer to a point of no return.”

Enid’s younger self’s green eyes looked up at her she saw the spark of good in them she knew existed even in this angry, sad and repressed version of herself.

“I can help, I can sense them, I have my sword.”

Enid pondered that. She felt very much like she was talking to her own daughters it was so strange. The need to protect her… versus the need to snuff out the demons of Port Royal.

“Fine, we meet at the Salty Teat to discuss our next steps every Sunday and sometimes more frequently. If you see anything, any odd behavior do not go off and try to fight it yourself. I know you’re a capable fighter but right now this isn’t about destroying them right away, this is about finding the extent of their control and the damage so we can cut them out surgically and then I can repair the damage that has been done. Do you understand?”

The younger Enid glanced up at her older self.

“You…seem like you care about me.”

“I care about everyone my dear. Except demons, those I stomp out of existence.”

“No, it’s more than that. Like you’re my parent… almost like… you remind me of Sextus.”

“Well, I don’t kill my own children on the word of a bunch of council-morons, but he has some redeeming qualities… I will admit.”

She saw her younger self’s face darken then she looked hopeful.

“If you can travel in time… you could stop that from happening… stop this rift between him and I ever forming. I’d have my sister back.”

Enid shook her head slowly.

“I am so sorry Enid, I can no more do that then go back and stop your father from abusing you. I have done everything I can for you in that regard.”

Her younger self seemed to have an epiphany.

“You… you’re the Night Sidhe Cela told me stories about. You…I… you nursed me as a baby. Protected me…”

Enid smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Because…I would have disrupted the timeline otherwise. I am sorry and you will understand one day all too well what I’m talking about, but tonight is not that night.”

“You know me in the future, don’t you.”

“I do, I know you like you know your own self.”

Her younger self blinked

‘You’re me!”

“Well…I guess I should have been more cryptic… We never quite got the hang of that.”

“Tell me everything? Do we win? Is Eyre still?”

The eldest of the pair put her hands on Enid’s arms.

“Don’t you’ll drive yourself mad. And thus, me mad. That’s how I know I’m going to erase your memories and how I know Eyre never tells you about Italy.”

“But we win.”

Enid nodded with a sigh.

“At a great cost. I’m not sure if it was too high or not. I’m still paying it.”

“So that girl, the blond one, the wolf-born that’s our daughter.”

Enid nodded.

“A product of Hazel and Rolf, we simply carried her to term.”

Her younger self rushed to the windows of the ballroom her face and hands pressed against the glass.

“She’s beautiful and I heard her speak… while I was spying on you… she seems so… smart and independent.”

“That’s because she is. She is our daughter.”

“She loves you so much. None of our children ever looked up to me that way.”

Enid put her arm over her younger self’s shoulders.

“That’s because you haven’t let them love you. You’ll learn, I learned. Your future is full of wonderous things, there is loss of course but she is one of the products of it.”

“She reminds me of me…she looks so uncomfortable in that dress. Can she fight?”

Enid laughed.

“Can she fight? She’s killed a fallen angel on her own. I bring her with me because I need her. And the other one there… that’s Helen. She’s only a few months old right now but we raised her since she as twelve. She’s a Seer.”

“But she has no sword.”

“She has an Atlantean sword. The Seer’s swords do us little good against demons.”

“What are we…what am I?”

“You’re a vampire. Me, I’m…something more now. Call it evolution. Once Sextus passed away… You knew it was coming.”

Her younger self nodded but still looked sad.

“It started a change in us. We are no longer bound by…mortal rules, or even laws of reality.”

“We’re an angel?”

“Something more… like God. He’s not our…ruler? It is hard to describe. He guides us but we’re the ones who… made all of this, Heaven, Hell, Limbo… we’re like his hands? Its hard to explain I hardly understand it. Right now the demons don’t quite realize you and I are the same person, they’re after you for something completely different. Which I’m not going to get into but its nothing you did. Trust me just… circumstances.”

“How old are you…we?”

“In physical form? Only about twenty-three hundred years old. Our existence? Just after Chronos… the Black Son.”

“So we survived the Black Son, and then a couple of centuries later… demons attack?”

Enid sighed and shook her head.

“It is really complicated we went missing for a thousand years…or so. Lets not get into that. Just know that Rolf and I were…we…us? We were reunited and we had so many children and Hazel had so many children with him. We have never wanted for love. I’ve been married… three more times. Rolf and Hazel, A wonderful man in the far east and we had a beautiful daughter…she’s somewhere safe right now and about five years old…And…”

“Who else?”

“Amee Morris, Myra Townsend… we had a son… its possible way in the future. Well…had a son Isis is carrying him for me…us.”

“Isis?”

“We never understood her, never. She was never our enemy. She wasn’t even neutral. She’s… so much… she’s, our friend. Our good friend. Hazel saved her daughter.”

“Wait…vampires besides us can get pregnant?”

“It’s complicated… Just let’s focus on the demons here because if we fail to deal with them, that beautiful wolf-born woman in there… our daughter. And Miko our other daughter… our twenty-six children with Rolf between Hazel and I…us. They will never be born. Eyre will turn into a power mad psychopath who I think is…was married to Lucifer? And then we will have to blow up half the earth.”

Her younger self blinked up at her.

“Trust me my… young… self? Time travel gets really messed up, really quickly. Its better not to think of it and just do what comes naturally which is killing things. We can both agree on the last part, right? I just wish we knew the source of the demonic infection so we could start at the roots. There has to be an overseer, or fallen angel around here.”

Her younger self nodded.

“Do they know you’re after them?”

“It’s a pretty fair bet they have a good idea. I’ve killed many fallen angels.”

Her younger self touched the glass again looking at Hazel as she danced with one of the dashing young pirates.

“If I knew a wolf-born was hunting me I would be on the water. Hard to leave a scent… Also drop a demon in a crew member get them to port and work their way through the population… Anyone could be infected, except us and your two children. Even…your…okay what the hell…why are you sleeping with Henry and Rose, that is disgusting and you’re using my body!”

Enid blinked at her younger self, who was making remarkably good sense before she got sidetracked. Henry might have been right… she was avoiding her mission.

“Go back to what you would do, the last part isn’t important.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“No! I don’t want to be. So I’m not. Fine, if you need an explanation. I had sex with Henry because, one I hadn’t had a man in a long time, and two I wanted everyone to think we were together so I could help his business while he helped me find demons.”

“And why are you still doing it?”

“Because it’s the best sex I’ve had with a man in a very long time… like Rolf good. And Rose…well I actually love her. Henry’s more lust. And hey if you weren’t so sexually repressed and hung up on traditions you’d totally sleep with Rose.”

Her younger self turned away and Enid knew she’d be blushing hard right now. The elder Enid continued.

“So, you’re saying Henry or Rose could be possessed?”

Her younger self nodded.

“God, I hope not, she’s pregnant.”

Her younger self looked at her elder self accusingly. Enid held up her hands.

“Wow, no. No and No. While I am fully capable of doing that with the power I learned in Japan, no, I do not ever want one of those. Thank you very much. It’s Henry’s…most likely. Excluding the possibility Francisco made her do something with another man or something but she didn’t tell me if he did… So probably Henry’s. I’m trying to get them together. I’m going to be gone and I want her to be taken care of. I cannot believe I’m having this conversation with my sixteen-hundred-year-old self. It’s like I’m talking to my kid.”

Enid shuddered. Her younger self was seeming to get over it now.

“Just be…less slutty with our body. It’s offensive.”

“No promises, unlike you I can be mortal and really enjoy it.”

“You… I… hope I turn out differently. Bodily fluids belong inside your own body.”

“What about blood little miss vampire?”

“You know you were right; We should set this conversation aside. What can I do to help you?”

“I think you should spy on Rose and Henry.”

“You are going to make me vomit and I don’t eat food.”

Enid held up her hands again.

“Look, I need to act like everything is fine. As disturbing as it is I’ve been… yep, you’re right threw up a bit in my mouth there. Been having relations with a demon and could still be doing it… if we act like that was a one off demon and I just start playing party girl…”

“Start? I’ve been watching you. You have not seemed like you’ve been hunting anything.”

“Point taken. But if I keep that up and Helen and Hazel continue to believe I’m just being a lech then… the demons will get content and might make a mistake. I’m fairly sure if we can find someone I can pull them out of them and there was a spell from Atlantis I can use to use any communication medium like spell to mark a target. Then I’ll know where to find them unerringly.”

Her younger self crossed her arms.

“That sounds an awful lot like blood magic.”

“Except you forget we…I your future self has access to another power source.”

“Oh. Alright that all makes sense… what do I even call you?”

“Lady Sarah.”

“Not very imaginative, are we?”

“We have never been very imaginative, have we?”

“At least one thing stays the same. What should I do here at the ball?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I want you to go inside, talk to at least three people, get their name their profession, if they’re married and oh dance with at least one person, gender matters not.”

Her younger self crossed her arms and blinked at her elder self.

“What is that going to do?”

“Well by this time we’re less of a bitch then you are. I could tell from my last meeting with Eyre. You need to get socialized again and we’re starting late so scoot go do it unless you want the future to implode.”

“But you’ll erase my memories.”

“Yes, but I’ll let you remember this because Eyre would have told you to do it…”

Her younger self frowned.

“She’s been kind of distant…”

“Just…tell her you love her more. Hug her more and pretend humans aren’t cattle. Look I just want you to be happy because if you get happy, I stay happy. Its important all of creation depends on it.”

“You really… have become like Sextus. That’s who I turn into, our father.”

“Better than our real father…hmm?”

Her younger self nodded. The elder Enid pulled herself in close and gave her a hug.

“Not hating yourself is alright. Now go meet some people and remember in vampire court you hate my guts now shoo go become a butterfly.”

Her younger self narrowed her eyes.

“You are…just baiting me aren’t you.”

The elder of the two smirked.

“You’re so easy.”

“Of course, we are…do you seriously want me to go talk to people?

Enid nodded.

“Please. For Hazel’s sake.”

The younger two walked back inside the ballroom. Enid folded her arms and watched with a smile. She’d have to erase all of her memories… and she obviously did because she only remembered talking to a bunch of people like Eyre told her too… The elder Enid’s eyes drifted to Rose who was craning her neck, likely seeking her. Enid used her altered time to appear beside Rose and pulled her into it with her and kissed her deeply. Rose looked at her.

“What are you doing?”

Enid winked at her and motioned to the ball room where everything else was moving so slow that they seemed frozen. She kissed her again her hands pulling Rose close. Then she vanished to where she had been and waved at her again. Rose was flush and fanning herself. Enid swept back into the ballroom and up the stairs to Henry and took up a position next to him. He glanced at her. She gave him a half smile and spoke.

“You can ask however many times you want by my answer is no I will not marry you. And I am sorry to disappoint you, my night is for Rose.”

He sighed wistfully.

“Lucky woman.”

“No, I’m the lucky one.”