Location: Mr. Raslin’s Mansion

Time: 1:42 AM, 11/17/2103

A slight sidebar, but vampires and werewolves are nothing more than works of fiction. Aberrations on the other hand, are very real. They’re just augmenteds whose augmentations altered their physical body.

That being said, when you end up with a bunch of aberrations with pointed teeth who drink human blood it’s pretty easy to draw a parallel.

Vampires might not be real, but when people like me match up so well, it’s hard to avoid the nomenclature.

So what’s the point of this discussion? I’m trying to build up the point that even though I’ve referred to quite a few aberrations as vampires, that doesn’t mean they’re related to me or Elodie in the slightest. That’s like assuming everyone who has an augmentation that involves fire is comparable.

It just so happens that the need to drink blood is a fairly common trait among aberrations. While from a simple standpoint that makes a lot of us vampires, we are hardly relatable.

Anyway, basically what I’m getting at, is that I’m strong. I don’t know anything about it, but Elodie’s genetics must have been top notch. If she would have been born as a normal augmented she would have been ridiculously strong, like, nationwide fame levels.

And her strength was forwarded to me as well. Despite being fellow aberrations, the six other dinner guests weren’t even comparable. Two of them surrendered outright, and the other four have been left in a state that no human would recover from. But hey, they’re aberrations. They should be fine. Probably. Hopefully. Well, I mean, as long as I never follow up on their condition we can all assume they made a perfect recovery.

I honestly didn’t intend to go that far, but after watching Elodie and Sara fight I’d assumed all aberrations were at least that strong.

They’re not.

Excluding myself, the only person left conscious was the fake Elodie. Well, he wasn’t exactly a fake Elodie anymore. After a few, admittedly empty, threats he dropped his disguise. He was an older man, probably in his late forties or early fifties. He didn’t resist as I tied him to a chair. For whatever reason, he seemed confident that he’d be fine.

“You just had to be a hero, huh? Trust me, you’ll regret getting involved in this.”

His provocation was more insulting than he intended it to be.

“I don’t want to be a hero. I only got involved because I want to live in a world where heroes aren’t needed.”

Was that so hard to understand? I’m not out there looking for troublemakers, just don’t do it in front of me!

“Just let me go. Things will be a lot easier if you never find out who I work for or what I was doing here.”

“Trust me, we’re in agreement on that.”

I was seriously considering his offer. I wasn’t willing to just kill him outright, and involving the police would only make things worse for myself. Would they seriously believe I had nothing to do with this?

No. They’d see this as fighting amongst aberrations and blame us all equally. I’m sure this would end with me working for the police as an undercover agent or something.

No thanks.

“You should really do what he said.”

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I turned around to face the voice coming from behind me. The person standing there was probably the only person capable of getting so close without being picked up by my heightened senses.

Elodie. The real one this time. And I guess she was reading the mood, because she hadn’t brought a table with her this time.

“I’m not sure what relationship you think we have, but I'm more likely to listen to him than I am to you.”

Her right eyebrow twitched as she held back a reaction. She was really trying to contain her real personality in front of the guy I had tied up.

“I was just trying to give some helpful advice.”

“No thanks, I don’t want the kind of help you’re offering.”

Her fist balled up as she considered resorting to violence.

“So it would seem.” It looked like it took everything she had to force that line out in a calm voice. “I felt like giving you a free warning anyway. That shape shifting man almost certainly works for my younger brother. He’s trying to sink my reputation even lower than it already is. Killing this augmented would be easy, but the repercussions would be, difficult. I'm not ready to deal with Eren yet. I need more time before I can start making any moves against him.”

I held up my hand to stop her from saying anything else.

“I wasn’t going to kill anyone, and I don’t want to hear it. The less I know, the better.” I wasn’t happy about seemingly doing what she wanted me to, but I really didn’t want to get wrapped up in whatever family drama she had going on. Admittedly, I was curious about her younger brother. I mean, Elodie already looked pretty young herself. “I’ll leave. You can do whatever you want to the people here. You won’t get any questions from me. Just don’t involve me in this any further.”

I walked past her before turning back around.

“Well, okay, one question. Why did you suddenly show up here with such perfect timing?” Because of how my life generally develops I was taking it for granted, but wasn’t her sudden appearance suspicious?

“Because I was on my way here anyway. I might not be ready to have an all out war with my brother, but that doesn’t mean I could just let a group of aberrations start killing humans in my name.”

“Then question two. What did you plan on doing about the girl?”

“The girl?”

“The servant they planned on draining.”

“Ah, her. I didn’t plan on doing anything with her. She smells like she’ll actualize an augmentation soon, but I don’t have any use for her. Keeping a human as a servant would only hurt my public image. And after the state you left him in, her current owner can’t exactly keep her either. I doubt he’ll ever recover.”

“Hey, I was trying to keep things like that vague! I’m trying to be family friendly here.”

“It’s a little late for that. Anyone who saw the horrible scene around us would never think that.”

“I was pretending not to notice. You do the same.”

Yeah, nothing to see here. Just a little altercation. I definitely didn’t punch holes through anyone or rip off any limbs.

Vampires really are stronger than I was expecting.

“Anyway, finding someone to take custody of the girl will be a problem. It wasn’t me, but she’s probably seen someone with my face planning on killing her. It’s a touchy subject.”

“I figured.”

My eyes once again moved back and forth between Elodie and the unconscious servant.

“Hey, Elodie, I’ll forgive you for the debt and all of the interest you’ve accrued for smashing my bike, but I want you to do me a favor.”

It was something I couldn’t do; I didn’t have the necessary connections or skills to pull it off. I was sure Elodie could manage it though. And even if I could, I wouldn’t want the credit.

“Set that girl free. Not as a servant or a third class citizen. Let her be Emily Evret Evans.”

“Is that someone I should know?”

“Just an old woman who died recently. Find a way to make someone lose some paperwork and delay her death from being recorded. Let this girl take her identity, and then send her to one of the Free Cities, or even the US or Canada. Foreigners won’t be able to access our records. They won’t see that this kid is supposed to be an old woman, they’ll just see that she has second class citizenship in the Pacific Empire.”

“Hmm. Why would I-”

I left without listening to whatever else she had to say. If I didn’t listen she wouldn’t be able to negotiate with me. She’d either do what I asked, or not. That’s it. And assuming she still wanted me on her good side she couldn’t outright ignore my request.

Fortunately, my gamble paid off. At the time being ignored was a bigger issue than negotiation for Elodie. She followed me all the way to my bike, voicing an endless stream of insults and complaints about being ignored.

And she’d never admit it, but for a while, she even clung to the tower of boxes I had strapped to the back of my bike like a koala to continue her complaints as I continued on with my deliveries.